Articles by Johnny Sharp

Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.

Articles by: Johnny Sharp

"A five-year spell that did a fine job of revitalising one of rock's finest frontmen": The albums that found Ian Gillan riding NWOBHM's slipstream into the charts, together at last

By Johnny Sharp published 28 February 25

Deep Purple survivor Ian Gillan’s career-reviving vehicle rides again across seven discs on 1978-1982

"I said, “We’re a band, we want to make a record.” He said, “Oi dunno much about records… If you wanted a cowshed, I could probably ’elp yer!” Pendragon's Nick Barrett looks back on their 40-plus year career...

By Johnny Sharp published 8 February 25

In 2020, when Pendragon released their eleventh studio album Love Over Fear, we grilled mainman Nick Barrett in The Prog Interview

“At my level Spotify would be like a turkey voting for Christmas”: Billy Sherwood, Big Big Train,and other artists who pay it forward helped John Holden return to prog after he’d abandoned his ambitions

By Johnny Sharp published 19 January 25

Launching his career in middle-age, he found a huge range of kindred spirits like John Hackett, Sally Minnear and Oliver Wakeman – who understand he doesn’t need to make money, but doesn’t want to lose it either

“You’re 17, it’s a normal dumb night, then someone’s screaming, ‘Get on the floor!’ I’m gonna die. This is the end of my life”: The armed hold-up that set the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne on the road to music

By Johnny Sharp published 13 January 25

Sold on their older brothers’ counterculture dream of living in outer space listening to the Beatles, Coyne and bandmate Steven Drozd very nearly became full-time drug dealers instead of musicians

"A tidy primer for the uninitiated": Mountain's 1995 collection Over The Top captures the band at their most creative

By Johnny Sharp published 10 November 24

US blues-rock heavyweights’ best-of, reissued

“They turn on the switch marked ‘metal’ and summon the essence of Satan’s own belch… a new career high”: Vola mix additional textures into Friend Of A Phantom

By Johnny Sharp published 1 November 24

Scandinavians expand their horizons yet again, but remain in sight of their ethereal, stargazing base

Warren Haynes: Million Voices Whisper cover art

"Irresistibly seductive": Warren Haynes craft some songs of deep-pile quality on Million Voices Whisper

By Johnny Sharp published 1 November 24

Allmans/Gov’t Mule man Warren Haynes goes it alone again

"If you died in your house, within hours most dogs would start eating your face": An interview with Idles about music, politics, dancing and dogs

By Johnny Sharp published 24 October 24

Dialling back on the aggressive approach that has helped bring Idles this far, and putting swing to the stomp, Idles' latest album is intended to make you shake a leg rather than a fist

"Wind-in-the-hair heavy metal thrust that keeps the pulses racing": Grand Magus serve up a chest-beating triumph on Sunraven

By Johnny Sharp published 18 October 24

The tenth album from Swedish metal standard bearers Grand Magus mines some legendary themes

"These performances retain the essential raging-rebel attitude that fired the Detroit firebrands' original incarnation": The MC5's final album Heavy Lifting is a vibrant joint epitaph

By Johnny Sharp published 18 October 24

The MC5's final album Heavy Lifting is a vibrant joint epitaph

“The creative tension helped here and there. At other times it did not help… it’s difficult to define”: Thijs van Leer reveals his only real regret as Focus roll on in their 55th year

By Johnny Sharp published 3 October 24

He recalls breaking out of the Netherlands, his relationship with former guitarist Jan Akkerman, and the one album he’d like to remake

“After 2022’s step into traditional prog territory, they aim much more squarely for the arena rock jugular from the outset”: Lesoir’s Push Back The Horizon

By Johnny Sharp published 23 September 24

Dutch pomp-proggers’ work with storied studio team brings them close to symphonic metal at times, with each song brought to a powerful finish

"Chunky, boogie-infused glam-rock tunes are in vanishingly short supply": Glam survivors Sweet bow out in a blaze of AOR

By Johnny Sharp published 20 September 24

Full Circle is Sweet's first set of original songs since 2002's Sweetlife

“So wasteful… such a futile and pointless gesture”: Ian Anderson sent a flute into space, and William Shatner followed later. The Jethro Tull leader wishes neither of those things had happened

By Johnny Sharp published 29 August 24

His desire to be associated with the space race, first shared on 1970 album Benefit, resulted in disappointment

Scarlet Rebels: Where The Colours Meet cover art

"Scarlet Rebels make no bones about going straight for the FM-rock jugular": Trad rock tropes abound on Where The Colours Meet

By Johnny Sharp published 16 August 24

Welsh retro-leaning rockers Scarlet Rebels keep delivering the traditional goods

"A laid-back collection of gentle boogies and carefree shuffles": Bill Wyman ages in easy-going fashion on Drive My Car

By Johnny Sharp published 8 August 24

Bill Wyman's Drive My Car is a covers-heavy stroll that conveys gentle, unpretentious senior joy

A montage of sections of cover art from albums that should be shorter

10 classic albums that would be better if they were shorter, and how they should be shortened

By Johnny Sharp published 6 August 24

Making great records greater, one edit at a time

“Their love of Yes shines through once more… but their simpler arrangements are just as striking”: IZZ’s Collapse The Wave

By Johnny Sharp published 5 August 24

Songs shorten and moods swing wildly on New Yorkers’ 10th album

“When the mood took them, the prog legends of the 70s could write simple but catchy music with aplomb”: The 40 greatest Yes songs ever

By Jerry Ewing, Grant Moon, Chris Roberts, Johnny Sharp, David West published 25 July 24

When 50,000 Prog magazine readers voted on the band’s catalogue, the resulting chart contained a few surprises

“These renditions will get pulses racing faster than the studio versions, even if not every note is perfectly in place”: Nightingale’s Nightfall Overture, remastered and extended

By Johnny Sharp published 25 June 24

Updated version of Swedish prog metallers’ 2005 re-recordings comes with live extras that add significant value

“Here was fresh music, well-presented in high quality, and I didn’t have to sit around in a rehearsal room for months deciding on the sandwich order”: The joy and pain of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe’s only album

By Johnny Sharp published 20 June 24

United under Jon Anderson’s vision, four ex Yes members regrouped to make the 1989 record that looked both forward and backward

“A richly atmospheric affair… songs that barely need recognisable word shapes to grip the heartstrings”: Eivør’s Enn

By Johnny Sharp published 14 June 24

Pop tricks abound among the soaring vocals and elegant orchestrations of her heaviest album yet

“We were both big ELP fans, and I’m sure if you look at our record collections back then you’d have seen Yes, Greenslade, King Crimson…” How electronic music duo Underworld grew up with a world of prog

By Johnny Sharp published 12 May 24

No one would call dance outfit Underworld a prog band. But they grew up influenced by the whole genre, it appears

The Karma Effect: Promised Land cover art

Party rockers The Karma Effect get a powerful second wind on Promised Land

By Johnny Sharp published 7 May 24

The Karma Effect might not be reinventing the hard rock wheel, but there's plenty of rabble-rousing to be found on their second album

“Substantial pleasures… even if they arguably venture too far into prog indulgence”: Renaissance’s 2024 reissue of Tuscany, featuring live Japan set

By Johnny Sharp published 27 April 24

Classic line-up’s 2001 reunion album is enhanced with the inclusion of In The Land Of The Rising Sun

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