Rock's Backpages

E207: Val Mabbs on Record Mirror + Jimi Hendrix + Walker Bros. + Ozzy R.I.P.


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For this episode we're joined by the excellent Val Mabbs, who talks to us about writing for Record Mirror in the late '60s and early '70s.

We start with our guest's early life as a mod in Hertfordshire – and her memories of seeing the Who/the High Numbers in 1964/5. Val then explains how she got her foot in the door at the Mirror and recalls colleagues such as Norman Jopling, Charlie Gillett and Lon Goddard, not forgetting Peter Jones, the editor who first spotted her potential as an interviewer. 

Val talks us through her encounters with such legends as Jimi HendrixJohn Lennon and Marc Bolan (not to mention Status Quo, for whose double-denim "outfits" she can take indirect credit). En passant we hear clips from Chris Welch's 2005 audio interview with John Walker, surely the handsomest of the three Walker "Brothers" he first met in 1965.

After Barney gives a nod to the week's free feature about Bob Dylan "going electric" at 1965's Newport Folk Festival, Val resumes her story and brings us up to the present day. We also pay tribute to the late Ozzy Osbourne and discuss the real origins of heavy metal.

Finally, Mark and Jasper talk us out with remarks on newly-added library pieces about Graham Nash (1967), Lady Gaga (2012) and Billie Eilish (2019).

Many thanks to special guest Val Mabbs.

Pieces discussed: Jimi Hendrix: "Western Movie For Jimi" Says The Man HimselfT. Rex: Marc's science fiction filmJohn and Yoko: The Apple and the GrapefruitThe Walker Brothers' John Walker audioAl Kooper: The On the Tracks InterviewHow Bob Dylan And The Holy Trinity Changed Music ForeverScene of the Crime: Bob Dylan at NewportElijah Wald: Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the '60sBlack SabbathOzzy Osbourne: How Black Was My SabbathOzzy Osbourne: Lord of the WingsThe Hollies: The change in GrahamLady Gaga: The most extraordinary popstar Mark Ellen has ever met and Billie Eilish at Reading Festival.

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Rock's BackpagesBy Barney Hoskyns, Mark Pringle, Jasper Murison-Bowie

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