Articles/Reviews
Most of Chris Ingham's feature articles and longer music reviews, written largely during the 1990s for Mojo (as Chris Ingham) and Uncut (as Kit Aiken), can be found at ROCKSBACKPAGES (articles listed below).
Links to selected online, free-to-read articles
List of articles collected in ROCKSBACKPAGES
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1997
All the single hits (1970-1986) and ‘Une Nuit A Paris’ from Manchester's art-pop maestros, famously named after the average volume of the male ejaculation. Plus ...
​
Mose Allison: A Chat with Mose Allison
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, September 1996
Where do you think your vocal style come from? ...
​
The Beach Boys: The Pet Sounds Sessions
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 1997
The stereo mix, outtakes, session excerpts, stack o' tracks, stack o'vocals: more Pet Sounds you couldn't hope for, on 4 CDs. ...
​
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 1996
"WHAT DO YOU THINK OF ALL THAT?" ENQUIRES PAUL McCartney after half a dozen silly-voice choruses of ‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’. ...
​
Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorised Biography Of Reinhold Messner
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, May 1999
Piano-led trio’s third album proper. ...
​
Ben Folds Five: Whatever and Ever Amen (Sony)
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, March 1997
Piano/bass/drums trio whose 'Underground' was a summer Top 40 hit. This is their second album, their first for Sony. They are, wouldn’t you know, big ...
​
Ben Folds Five: Steinway to Heaven: The Ben Folds Five
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1999
On a three-man mission to revive the grand piano’s sex appeal ...
​
Ben Folds Five: The Ben Folds Five: Steinway to Heaven
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1999
IT'S TEMPTING TO IMAGINE that in eschewing guitars and positioning the grand piano as the centrepiece sound of their three maverick alt-pop albums, the Ben ...
​
Björk: Bjork: Homogenic (One Little Indian)
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, October 1997
JUST HOW good is Bjork? Artists appearing fully-formed, uncompromisingly individual, interesting but often disturbingly idiosyncratic – think of Thelonious Monk or even Kate Bush – ...
​
The Carpenters: Interview with Richard Carpenter
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1996
For the grisly details of pill addiction, anorexia nervosa and blue velvet jackets, try Ray Coleman's book. Today, Richard Carpenter talks to Chris Ingham about ...
​
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, 2001
I WAS IN the Lionel Hampton band in ’49. Betty joined months after me, we picked her up in Detroit. We never sang together, everybody ...
​
The Kinks, Ray Davies: Ten Questions for Ray Davies
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1997
What's happening in Kink land? ...
​
Miles Davis Quintet 1965-68: Complete Columbia Studio Recordings (Sony/Columbia)
Review by Chris Ingham, Uncut, July 1998
6 CD set of innovative, hugely influential jazz group covering ESP, Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Water Babies, Miles In The Sky and Filles De Kilimanjaro ...
​
Duke Ellington: Black, Brown, Beige and Sacred: A Journey through Duke Ellington
Guide by Chris Ingham, MOJO, July 1999
IT'S HARD to overstate Duke Ellington's stature as a 20th century musician. Honoured by world leaders, respected by legit' cats and revered by jazz musicians ...
​
Macy Gray: Lady Sings The Blues: Macy Gray’s On How Life Is
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, August 1999
Striking debut album from LA singer-songwriter. ...
​
The High Llamas: High Llamas: Cold And Bouncy (Alpaca Park)
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, February 1998
IF YOU LOVE The Beach Boys and other purveyors of the pocket symphony as much as the highest Llama Sean O'Hagan obviously does, then Hawaii ...
​
Mark Hollis, Talk Talk: Mark Hollis on Mark Hollis
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, February 1998
Why all-acoustic this time? ...
​
Alan Hull, Lindisfarne: Alan Hull 1945-1995
Obituary by Chris Ingham, MOJO, January 1996
WHEN I WAS 15 – AND FIVE YEARS AN EX-PAT GEORDIE – MY contemporaries idolised Strummer and Weller. I wanted to be like Alan Hull. ...
​
Norah Jones: Right On Time: Norah Jones: Not Too Late (Blue Note) ****
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, February 2007
The bar has been raised with Norah's triumphant homemade third album, declares Chris Ingham ...
​
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, 1999
SO EFFICIENT, SO all-pervasive has been Canadian pianist-singer Diana Krall's rise in the jazz world (and beyond, in sales terms), an American jazz magazine offered ...
​
Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis: April In Paris With Branford And Ellis
Report and Interview by Chris Ingham, unpublished, April 1997
NOTE: Commissioned by Nick Coleman at The Independent, this interview remained unpublished due to Branford and Ellis canceling their live appearances. ...
​
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1997
According to the man himself, Paul can bash out a song in the time it takes Linda to whip up a soyasome supper. But is ...
​
Randy Newman: Guilty: 30 Years of Randy Newman
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, March 1999
NEWMAN FANS have been baying for this kind of set for a while, especially as the songwriter's back catalogue has been unavailable on CD for ...
​
Prefab Sprout: Catching Up with Paddy Mac
Interview by Chris Ingham, unpublished, November 1999
This is an unpublished interview with Paddy McAloon on the release of 38 Carat Gold: The Best Of Prefab Sprout. ...
​
Prefab Sprout: Andromeda Heights
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, May 1997
ONCE, WHILE LISTENING To Prefab Sprout's Protest Songs, wide-eyed in admiration at the musical facility, the poetic imagination, the sheer individuality of it all, my ...
​
Pulp: No Success Please, We're British: Pulp: This Is Hardcore (Island)
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, May 1998
At it since 1983, missus! Can they keep it up now the camera's on them? ...
​
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, July 2001
THOUGH CONFUSING at least as many as it impressed at the time, seven months and several listens on, the litany of anguish that is Kid ...
​
Eddi Reader: Angels And Electricity (Blanco Y Negro)
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1998
EVEN ALLOWING for our response to singing being largely subjective, some voices just do the job, don't they? For me, Eddi Reader is up there ...
​
Red Snapper: Mojo Rising: Red Snapper
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, January 1997
IT COULD HAVE gone so wrong. A trio of thirtysomething musos with jazz/hip-hop tendencies and chops to spare, take to jamming in Hammersmith and decide ...
​
Charlie Watts, The Rolling Stones: Ten Questions for Charlie Watts
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, July 1996
Long Ago And Far Away, standards performed by jazz quintet, string orchestra and vocalist, sounds like a continuation of your last album, Warm And Tender. ...
​
Pharaoh Sanders: Pharoah Sanders
Interview by Chris Ingham, unpublished, 2000
THERE IS THE aura of legend surrounding the business of Pharoah Sanders. The fez, the dashiki, the Egyptian Prince goatee and the very name conjures ...
​
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 2000
PAUL SIMON and I are alone in a large, dim, empty room in a Manhattan rehearsal complex and he’s zippered up to his throat, ever-present ...
​
Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel: Paul Simon: Life After The Capeman
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 2000
PAUL SIMON AND I are alone in a large, dim, empty room in a Manhattan rehearsal complex and he’s zippered up to his throat, ever-present ...
​
Simon & Garfunkel: Simon And Garfunkel: Live From New York City, 1967
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, September 2002
NEITHER AS gritty as Dylan or as political as Ochs or Baez, Simon And Garfunkel's folk-rock style had a cool, preppy awareness and an alluring ...
​
Guide by Chris Ingham, MOJO, October 1998
BORN 15 December 1915, died 14 May 1998 ...
​
Frank Sinatra: Stan Britt: Sinatra – A Celebration
Book Review by Chris Ingham, Jazz on CD, February 1996
ON FINISHING Kitty Kelley's depressing, unrelentingly seamy His Way, you were so stuffed full of (alleged) details concerning the less admirable aspects of Sinatra's remarkable ...
​
Frank Sinatra: The Best of Frank Sinatra: A Home Taping Special
Guide by Chris Ingham, MOJO, 1999
BECAUSE OF THE near-flawless nature of a handful of albums (Wee Small Hours, Songs For Swingin' Lovers, A Swingin' Affair, Only The Lonely), it would ...
​
Interview by Chris Ingham, Jazzwise, December 2000
WAITING FOR Walter Becker and Donald Fagen AKA Steely Dan in their publicist’s New York office, I spot two mouth-wateringly opulent 24 CD sets of ...
​
Review and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, January 2000
IT'S BEEN 20 YEARS, A HIATUS ALMOST unheard of in rock. In the 1970s. Walter Becker and Donald Fagen – studio auteurs infused with the ...
​
Steely Dan: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, November 1996
THEY QUIT TOURING IN '74; broke up in '80. Now the arch hipster auteurs of literate, cynical, smart-ass rock jazz – the creators of some ...
Paul Weller: The Don: Paul Weller
Profile and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 2000
He’s been assailed by business bosses, punk rivals and ex-bandmates. Now, with a landmark fifth album in the can. Paul Weller shows Chris ...
​
Cassandra Wilson: Fellow Traveller
Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1999
Chris Ingham: What was the selection process for your Miles Davis tribute album Travelling Miles? ...
​
Wings: Paul McCartney And Wings: Band On The Run
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1999
25th anniversary 2-CD edition of 1973 classic, featuring US-related album (including 'Helen Wheels') plus audio documentary CD. ...
​
Review by Chris Ingham, MOJO, April 1999
IN THE immediate post-Beatles period, Paul McCartney was a critic's whipping boy. Compared to the lustrous pop of Abbey Road, the open-hearted panoply of All ...
​
Retrospective and Interview by Chris Ingham, MOJO, March 1999
Like the set of a James Bond finale, the cavernous, converted power station of Metropolis Studios is all walkways, bridges and industrial lifts. At the ...
​
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, October 2001
All the studio albums 1973-1981, digitally remastered with statistic-stuffed notes and bonus tracks previously only heard on 1994's Thank You For The Music box ...
​
Tori Amos: From The Choirgirl Hotel (East West)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 1998
Fourth album from singer/songwriter with a fan base of two million. ...
​
Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame: Aztec Camera: The Best Of (Warners)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, September 1999
Roddy Frame’s hits and misses 1983-98 For a while, in the early ‘80s, there were emerging young songwriters — among them Messrs. Frame, ...
​
Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame: Roddy Frame
Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, September 1999
You were such a formed writer so young. Do you rate that stuff now? ...
​
Beck: Midnite Vultures (Geffen)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, December 1999
Beck out-hips himself with his fourth album for Geffen, his sixth in all ...
​
Belle And Sebastian: Belle and Sebastian: Tigermilk (Jeepster)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, August 1999
Legendary debut by elusive Glasgow eight-piece pop co-operative, remastered, first time on CD; an original vinyl copy will part you with £250. ...
​
Ben Folds Five: Interview with Ben Folds (December 1997)
Interview by Kit Aiken, extracted in Uncut (July 1999), 1997
KA: What's on this new compilation (Naked Baby Photos) on Caroline? ...
​
Ben Folds, Ben Folds Five: Ben Folds: Rockin' The Suburbs** (Epic)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, October 2001
FOR ALL the kick-ass live excitement and increasingly refined recorded achievements of his piano-led power trio, it was inevitable that the most musically literate pop ...
​
Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, December 1999
BERNARD Butler’s had a bad back. According to his osteopath, he has songs hidden in his shoulders, "He’s really lovely, a natural healer. Guitar posture, ...
​
Bernard Butler: People Move On
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, May 1998
Ex-Suede/McAlmont & Butler guitarist's solo debut ...
​
Review and Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, September 1999
THE SNAZZIEST, JAZZIEST dance crew of the period. Their ‘one world’ spirituality, sunny mysticism and conspicuous musicality makes them a real genre one-off. Never as ...
​
Bryan Ferry: As Time Goes By (Virgin)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, November 1999
Standard time for legendary art-rocker and model ...
​
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, July 2001
13 of the 30-odd albums released in the his lifetime: five twofers from the Sixties, an expanded 30th anniversary edition of his 1971 classic and ...
Genesis: Archive 1967-75 (Virgin)
Review and Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, September 1998
4CD box mainly featuring the Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, Mike Rutherford incarnation of seminal progressive band with live cuts, a rare ...
​
Godley & Creme: Godley And Creme: Consequences (Mercury)
Retrospective and Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, March 1998
KEVIN Godley and Lol Creme were the edgier, brighter half of the astoundingly fertile smart-pop quartet that was 10cc, 1973-1976. They were film-obsessed hipster pasticheurs, ...
​
Godley & Creme: Kevin Godley on Consequences
Interview by Kit Aiken, unpublished, December 1997
NOTE: Unedited text of an interview for the piece that appeared in the March 1988 issue of Uncut. * ...
​
The Jam, Ocean Colour Scene: Steve Cradock on Jam tribute album Fire and Skill
Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, October 1999
KA: What did The Jam mean to you? ...
​
Alexis Korner: Bootleg Him (1973)
Sleevenotes by Kit Aiken, Castle, 1999
It’s hard to overstate Alexis Korner’s contribution to the development of British popular music. His position as a tirelessly driven champion of The Blues in ...
​
Sleevenotes by Kit Aiken, Castle, 1999
THE Körners were an Austrian Jewish family who escaped war-torn Europe to settle in London. Youngest son Alexis, having spent much time away from his ...
​
Julian Lennon, Sean Lennon: Julian Lennon: Photograph Smile; Sean Lennon: Into The Sun
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 1998
IT'S HARD ENOUGH for musicians to get out from under the shadows of the giants, but if your father was one of the most loved, ...
​
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, April 1998
SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL movies (La Passione) and life threatening illnesses (collapsed colon and peritonitis) out of the way, Chris Rea is back making music like nothing has ...
​
Frank Sinatra: The Capitol Years (Capitol)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, January 1999
Box set featuring all twenty Capitol albums 1953-61 plus rarities disc ...
​
Supergrass: Supergrass (Parlophone)
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, October 1999
Third album from the scampish Oxford trio ...
​
XTC: Transistor Blast: The Best Of The BBC Sessions
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, December 1998
FOUR-CD set of BBC sessions 1977-89 and In Concert 1978/9 ...
​
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 2001
Their Virgin albums 1978-1991, digitally remastered and available either as limited edition Japanese-import miniatures or full-artwork, extra-tracks British releases ...
​
XTC: Wasp Star: Apple Venus Volume 2
Review by Kit Aiken, Uncut, June 2000
Magnificent guitar-centric follow-on set to the orch-pop of Volume 1 ...
​
Review and Interview by Kit Aiken, Uncut, February 1999
TO ANYONE growing up through the punk era, Yes were the ultimate enemy. In those primitive cool days, laser shows, flowing locks, portentous mysticism, flamboyant ...
​
​