RockArchive Music News

New Documentary Celebrates 'Icon and Icon Maker' Mick Rock

A new documentary celebrates renowned rock photographer, and Rockarchive fellow, Mick Rock. Directed by Barnaby Clay it’s called 'Shot! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock' and features a soundtrack by The Flaming Lips and Steven Drozd.

24th July 2017

Legendary New York Concert Venue Webster Hall To Close

Legendary New York rock music venue, the 131-year-old Webster Hall is set to close. The announcement came on Facebook from director of operations Gerard McNamee. The venue had already been sold by the Ballinger family, who have owned it since 1989, to AEG and Brooklyn Sports & Entertainment (BSE).

18th July 2017

Rolling Stones New Album Due in 2018

The Rolling Stones are reportedly working on a new studio album. According to the Mail Online both Mick Jagger and Keith Richards have been at recording studios in London and New York. And their label Universal has renewed a contract for a new LP. Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts will also be involved.

14th July 2017

Is the Age of the Rock Star Over?

Is the age of the great rock star over? It certainly seems that that way these days and it’s an idea explored by music writer David Hepworth in his book 'Uncommon People: The Rise and Fall of the Rock Stars'. In the book Hepworth looks at the lives of forty iconic rock stars from the years 1955 to 1995.

10th July 2017

Rockarchive Goes to Glastonbury

Celebrated photographer and Rockarchive founder, Jill Furmanovsky shares her images and thoughts from the latest Glastonbury festival

6th July 2017

Marvel Does Blondie, Nirvana, and The Clash as Comic Book Covers

Marvel Comics are set to release five covers created in the style of classic rock albums, inspired by Nirvana, The Clash, Guns N' Roses, and Blondie.

5th July 2017

New Johnny Cash Album To Feature Chris Cornell, T Bone Burnett, and Jamey Johnson

A new album will put Johnny Cash’s poetry to the music of Chris Cornell, country musician Jamey Johnson and more. Titled 'Johnny Cash Forever Words: The Music' the project is being led by Cash’s son, John Carter Cash.

1st July 2017

David Bowie Honoured with Three Blue Plaques

Bowie will always live on through his music and cultural influence, and he’ll also live on in the form of three new blue plaques which were recently unveiled in the UK. The plaques went up as part of BBC Music Day. The three honouring Bowie went up in Maidstone, Hull, and Trident Studios in St Anne’s Court in Soho.

29th June 2017

Glastonbury Festival 2017 - Rumours and Secret Gigs

Festival season kicks off this weekend with the mother of them all, the Glastonbury Festival at Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset which is five days of music, drinking, and hazy memories.

23rd June 2017

Rock Band Queen Are Getting Their Own Monopoly Game

You know you’ve made it as a rock group when you get your own Monopoly game. Although, no one would doubt that Queen are one of the biggest bands in the world. But now the surviving members have been honored with their own version of the classic board game.

20th June 2017

Jimi Hendrix's Legendary Monterey Pop Festival Performance Celebrates 50 Years

Even someone with just a passing interest in rock music knows that Jimi Hendrix is one of the most celebrated guitarists who ever lived. And in 1967 Hendrix gave a seminal performance at the legendary Monterey Pop Festival, which also saw performances by Janis Joplin, The Who, and the Grateful Dead.

16th June 2017

Bob Dylan Finally Delivers His 2016 Nobel Lecture in Literature

Bob Dylan is the first ever musician to get the Nobel Prize for Literature “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition." Now, finally, you can hear him deliver his fascinating 2016 Nobel Lecture in this video.

13th June 2017

Syd Barrett - Guiding Light and Music Legend

Syd Barrett is one of the founding members of Pink Floyd. And, in the first few years of the band’s existence, he was one of the defining features of their sound and vision. His idiosyncratic lyrics came to define their early albums, and the new Pink Floyd exhibition at London’s V&A Their Mortal Remains, notes his input and honours his memory.

8th June 2017

The Beatles’ 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band' Celebrates 50 Years

This year is the 50th anniversary of The Beatles album 'Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band', which was released on 1 June 1967. An iconic album both in its music and its front cover by Peter Blake.

1st June 2017

Golden Moments: The Mick Gold Collection

Mick Gold was seventeen when he heard 'Highway 61 Revisited' and was filled with a crazed ambition to photograph and write about rock music. Here Mick shares his recollections to accompany our fantastic collection of exclusive prints.

30th May 2017

Remembering Led Zeppelin's Legendary 1975 Earls Court Live Shows

As live experiences go, Led Zeppelin are renowned for putting on a rock and roll performance for the ages. And no more so were they on the top of their live game then at their legendary five night residency which took place at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre in May 1975.

25th May 2017

Noel Gallagher Turns 50 With 'Narcos' Themed Party

For anyone who grew up with the music of Oasis soundtracking their lives, it may come as a surprise to learn that Noel Gallagher is turning 50. Sure, time waits for no one not even rock stars, but still it seems way too soon.

23rd May 2017

Tangled Up in Bob Dylan's Never Ending Tour

Bob Dylan recently revisited the UK for some live shows, the latest UK leg (he was last over in 2015) of his so-called Never Ending Tour which began back in 1988 and has seemingly yet to stop.

21st May 2017

Pink Floyd Exhibition 'Their Mortal Remains' Celebrates their Sound, Visuals & The Influence Of Storm Thorgerson

Opening at London’s V&A Museum this weekend is 'Their Mortal Remains', a celebration of the music, visuals, and influence of Pink Floyd. They’re a band who have not only scorched their sounds into culture’s collective unconscious, but their iconic imagery is part of our visual vernacular too.

13th May 2017

The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead' - An Iconic Album Both Sonically and Visually

When it comes to iconic modern albums, they don’t come more celebrated than The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead'. Iconic both in its music and the gatefold album cover. Last year saw 30 years since its release on 16 June 1986, and it soon became an instant classic. The type of album that fans would listen to on repeat until, well, they still are listening to it.

10th May 2017

Lennon and McCartney's Friendship Was Turned into a Musical Composition

Lennon and McCartney is one of the most famous, and arguably productive, songwriting partnerships in popular music. And on 6th July this year it will be 60 years since a 15-year-old Paul McCartney met a 16-year-old John Lennon at a church fete in Liverpool, England back in 1957.

5th May 2017

Pink Floyd's Iconic First Photoshoot In Ruskin Park Took Place 50 Years Ago

In London 50 years ago photographer Colin Prime took Pink Floyd for their first official photoshoot. It took place in Ruskin Park in Denmark Hill and one image went on to be used in the band's debut album artwork, 'The Piper at the Gates of Dawn'.

28th April 2017

Record Store Day Celebrates its 10 Year Anniversary

Record Store Day turned 10 years old on April 22nd, that's ten years of celebrating independent record shops, record collectors, and LP culture. Along with the classic covers scene on albums from artists like Queen, Pink Floyd, Ian Dury, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, and more.

22nd April 2017

Born in the USA - America’s Musical Legacy

Without doubt the music that has come from the USA, especially in the 20th century, has gone on to shape and influence modern popular music as we know it. Of course, the history of American music is long and complex, but the foundation trio of blues, rock and roll, and country is a good place to start. And let’s not forget jazz too.

18th April 2017

Don Hunstein Remembered

All of us at Rockarchive have been deeply saddened to hear of the death of great music photographer and beloved friend, Don Hunstein, after a long illness. Despite his great humility and gentle approach, Don recorded some of the greatest moments in rock and jazz history and his iconic photographs have become symbols of an era.

25th March 2017

Pink Floyd: Displaying Their Mortal Remains

It's less than two months to go now until the first ever major international retrospective of 'The Pink Floyd Exhibition: Their Mortal Remains' opens at the V&A. This exhibition promises not only to chronicle the music of one the worlds biggest and most influential rock bands, but also their iconic imagery too.

24th March 2017

The Stamps That Fell To Earth

52 sets of the brand new David Bowie Royal Mail Stamps have been sent into space to mark their launch. This is a homage to Bowie's immortal film role in The Man Who Fell To Earth directed by Nicolas Roeg in 1976. The special First Day Covers, feature a full set of album cover stamps.

14th March 2017

Jill Furmanovsky onstage at The Photography Show, NEC this weekend

This weekend Jill Furmanovsky will be taking the Super Stage at The Photography Show at The NEC, Birmingham. Alongside some of the greatest minds in photography, renowned for their stunning, revolutionary and thought provoking images across the world.

13th March 2017

Robert Whitaker: Backstage with The Beatles

Photographing the driving forces and icons of the 1960s and 1970s, Robert Whitaker shot famous celebrities from Mick Jagger to Salvador Dalí, however his most celebrated and enduring work is of The Beatles who he visually captured from 1964 to 1966, in professional settings, candid moments and everyday situations.

10th March 2017

Duffy, Bowie & Aladdin Sane ...

Duffy took the most iconic Bowie picture, Aladdin Sane, in 1973. Here as we celebrate the launch of his great work on our website, we share images and anecdotes from his great legacy

3rd March 2017

Final Week: David Bowie Exhibition at Lucy Bell Gallery

Don't miss the final chance to see our David Bowie: Silhouettes & Shadows Exhibition at the Lucy Bell Gallery in Hastings - closing on March 4th

27th February 2017

Remembering Kurt Cobain: Spokesman of a Generation

This week would have been Kurt Cobain's 50th birthday. We share the story behind our favourite iconic image.

23rd February 2017

Chrissie Hynde: The Greatest Pretender

This week Jill Furmanovsky travelled to Manchester with long-term friend and muse Chrissie Hynde to visit her current Oasis DNA exhibition at Manchester Central Library. Here Jill shares anecdotes and photos of their extraordinary friendship

9th February 2017

Jimi Hendrix: Every Picture Tells A Story

When acclaimed music photographer, Colin N Purvor first came to us in 2014 with his collection of negatives, he believed they were heading for the bin as they were so heavily water damaged. But when we discovered this classic image of Jimi Hendrix amongst his archives, we were desperate to save it and offered to try to restore it to its former glory.

30th January 2017

Pink Floyd 'Animals' album turns 40 - Jill Furmanovsky

Pink Floyd's widely acclaimed concept album 'Animals' has just turned 40. We wanted to share Jill Furmanovsky's homage to the album created in 2006 for the BBC's 'Britain in Pictures' series

26th January 2017

Geoff MacCormack's Amazing Photographic Journey with David Bowie

During the years 1973-1976 writer/producer Geoff MacCormack toured with David Bowie on the Aladdin Sane and Ziggy Stardust, Diamond Dogs and Young Americans tours as backing vocalist, percussionist and support artist.

Throughout the touring years Bowie wouldn’t fly so the pair of old childhood school friends circumnavigated the world by ship, train and land. The extensive time spent travelling and the methods used meant Geoff had unique opportunities to collect photographic memories of the tours with Bowie, and this reflects in the simple, relaxed off guard moments David has been captured in. Enjoy his wonderful collection.

25th January 2017