Interviews

My favourite interviews

During my journalistic career, I’ve met and interviewed hundreds of famous people but three interviews I did for Melody Maker in 1982 and 83 stand out for me – the very first interviews with Pulp, Morrissey and New Order. I’ve also included links to two of my favourite pieces I did for The Sunday Times. Click on the pictures below to read them in full...

"Modesty is a word that just doesn't figure in Morrissey's vocabulary. But then he does have a fair bit to shout about and his arrogance isn't as misplaced as it might initially appear."

"Pulp proved to be a most bizarre visual proposition. Fronted by Jarvis, the tallest teenager I've ever shook hands with, they flocked round me like curious vultures eyeing up a prey. I'm haunted by splashes of wild colour, off-beat clothes and hair and an underlying purity which just doesn't seem to fit."

"In contrast to the crazy days of Joy Division, Peter Hook now appears refreshingly lucid and coherent. When he talks, he tugs his chin pensively, keen to set the record straight. Hook has become New Order's eloquent leader."

"Alan Mullery spends a large chunk of his book raging. He was an angry young man and a bitter middle-aged man. To his credit, he tells it as it was, without looking back and trying to revise his grudges from a Christian viewpoint, saying how he wouldn't act or think in that way now."

"Tommy Docherty was the first man to skipper and manage the national side. But it is as a manager that Docherty will be remembered. He was the last in a long line of old-fashioned bosses that included Shankly, Busby, Clough and Stein."

Frank Worrall

My favourite interviews

"Modesty is a word that just doesn't figure in Morrissey's vocabulary. But then he does have a fair bit to shout about and his arrogance isn't as misplaced as it might initially appear."

"In contrast to the crazy days of Joy Division, Peter Hook now appears refreshingly lucid and coherent. When he talks, he tugs his chin pensively, keen to set the record straight. Hook has become New Order's eloquent leader."

"Alan Mullery spends a large chunk of his book raging. He was an angry young man and a bitter middle-aged man. To his credit, he tells it as it was, without looking back and trying to revise his grudges from a Christian viewpoint, saying how he wouldn't act or think in that way now."

"Tommy Docherty was the first man to skipper and manage the national side. But it is as a manager that Docherty will be remembered. He was the last in a long line of old-fashioned bosses that included Shankly, Busby, Clough and Stein."