ARTICLES FOR THE GUARDIAN
‘Elvis kept following me!’ Country singer Mimi Roman
She went from rodeo queen to right-hand girl of the King – but a confrontation with the Ku Klux Klan made her shy from the spotlight. Now she’s finally ready to take her bow ‘Oh good, they didn’t send me the photograph of me and Elvis to sign.” Mimi Roman is opening mail in the…
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‘He has this brilliant ability to inspire’: John Otway
Fans of ‘Rock and Roll’s Biggest Failure’ have taken him from Top of the Pops to Cannes, and keep him touring constantly in his 70s. We head to a fan convention to find out why It’s Sunday evening at the All’s Well bar in Gibraltar and the jukebox is playing non-stop John Otway songs. The…
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‘Wild Thing still gives me the chills!’ Chip Taylor
Aretha Franklin, Frank Sinatra, Janis Joplin and dozens more sang his songs, which spanned country, rock, R&B and beyond. Now 83 and having treatment for cancer, Taylor explains why he’s still reaching for his guitar hip Taylor is best known for a song of restless raunchiness – the three-chord groin-thrust of the Troggs’ Wild Thing…
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‘Our government sees it as cute but unimportant’
Post-revolutionary France tried to stamp it out, but working class communities kept speaking it. Now Occitan powers a vivacious and political European music scene Gianluca Tramontana It’s May Day in Marseille, and beyond the celebrations – and the ongoing protests against President Macron raising the retirement age – another smaller but just as potent group…
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Keeping France’s Occitan language alive
Post-revolutionary France tried to stamp it out, but working class communities kept speaking it. Now Occitan powers a vivacious and political European music scene It’s May Day in Marseille, and beyond the celebrations – and the ongoing protests against President Macron raising the retirement age – another smaller but just as potent group are taking…
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