This month, the cover star is Paul McCartney. Looking wacky and fun. Holding a pair of green eyes, removed from their sockets. Photographed sometime in the 60s when he was in a band you may have heard of called The Beatles. It captures him in a mischievous mood, even an experimental one, which suits the gist of the article: namely, that Paul was th…
This month the cover stars are Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr of U2. Inside, over 14 pages, there is a veritable U2-fest, with specific reference to the band’s 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: Bono writes RC a letter about that 2004 LP and offers his “unreliable recollections” of the se…
This month the Record Collector cover star is Bryan Ferry. The focus is not on his Roxy Music output but on his solo career, from 1973’s These Foolish Things to his brand-new 81-track box set, Retrospective: Selective Recordings 1973-2023. Here,the original lounge lizard invites RC’s Chris Roberts to his London recording studio (“The thrill o…
This month the cover stars are Genesis – the prog legends as they were circa summer 1974, captured at Headley Grange, the rundown manor house in Hampshire where they convened to write much of their sixth album, The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, their final LP with Peter Gabriel. We speak to band members and associates about this crucial period in t…
It’s a privilege and an honour to be here, telling you about our latest issue. Because this month I am presiding over the edition that sees Record Collector turn 45. RC launched in September 1979, the first issue hitting the shops that month. This means that, of all the many monthly music magazines on the shelves, RC is now, officially, the one t…
This month we feature on the front cover the world’s biggest pop star, Taylor Swift. Make that two covers: one captures the moodier, more mournful aspect of Swift’s oeuvre, the other the more infectious, upbeat side. So, when you go into your favourite local newspaper/magazine outlet this month, you’ll have a choice of front covers. The cover…
This month the cover story takes us back to the early to mid-90s, when Britpop held sway. We speak to some of the stars of the Britpop era, name the best albums and singles, consider the concurrent Britrock and Britdance scenes, relive the Blur vs Oasis wars and meet the new, 2024 wave of Britpoppers. Plus! There’s a hefty Oasis discography, to c…
This month the cover stars are Pink Floyd, and the story takes place during 1974-5: welcome to The Making Of Wish You Were Here. It’s a gripping yarn, told beautifully by RC writer Stevie Chick. The recording sessions were fraught, the atmosphere charged as the band dealt with a visitation at their studio from their past. But the results were arg…
This month the cover stars are Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe of Pet Shop Boys, who talk to RC about their past, present and future: their 40 years (they released their first ever single, West End Girls, in April 1984) as Britain’s foremost pop duo, about their brand-new album, Nonetheless, and about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on the pair…
The cover story this month takes us back to the West London of the late 60s/early 70s, when the air was thick with incense and the soundtrack was heavy: our article, From The Westway To The Underworld, marks music’s shift from psychedelic to progressive and the emergence of bands such as Hawkwind, The Deviants, Pink Fairies and The Edgar Broughto…
