Ben Forrest
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Music journalist for @FarOutMag and long-suffering Bradford City fan
Articles by Ben Forrest
In 1956, a forgotten doo-wop group threw away a single. In 1964, it helped introduced ska and reggae to British audiences
Credit: Far Out / Holger Eklund / Lehtikuva Even if you have never donned a chequerboard pork pie hat or contemplated buying a trombone, you almost certainly know Millie Small and her 1964 smash hit ‘My Boy Lollipop’. It was, after all, the track that introduced mainstream audiences in the UK to the enduring sounds of Jamaican ska and reggae. Yet it began life in Harlem, New York City.
From ‘War’ to Warwickshire: How Edwin Starr revitalised his post-Motown career by moving to the Midlands
Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still If only for a short while, when ‘War’ was riding high at the top of the singles charts, Edwin Starr was among the defining stars of Motown Records’ roster, but when those glory days came to an end, he found himself facing a future of obscurity. Starr came into the Motown fold in 1968, almost by accident.
The 1980s hit Grace Slick thought she was too old to sing: “Damn near 50”
Grace Slick – Musician – 1987 – Far Out Magazine c Attempting to dose Richard Nixon with LSD, belting the standout set for Woodstock, and rubbing shoulders with the likes of Janis Joplin, back in her 1960s heyday, Grace Slick was a veritable icon of counterculture hippiedom but, by the time the 1980s rolled around, the ‘Acid Queen’ had become a reluctant stalwart of mainstream soft rock.
Various Artists – ‘20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan’ album review: an unflattering assortment
Credit: Far Out / Album Cover Various Artists - ‘20th Century Paddy - The Songs of Shane MacGowan’ Three years on from the death of The Pogues’ fearless frontman, and one of the most important songwriters of the 20th century, Shane MacGowan, his expansive influence still looms large over the musical map. It was only a matter of time, therefore, before an album like the extensive 20th Century Paddy – The Songs of Shane MacGowan hit the airwaves, for better or worse.
Before the Traveling Wilburys, Bob Dylan wrote some classic songs with his future bandmates
Credit: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys The Traveling Wilburys formed an essential outlet for Bob Dylan when the supergroup first came together back in 1988, allowing the legendary lyricist to go from working largely in isolation to bouncing ideas off of some fellow musical icons.
In 1966, The Beatles recorded a song Lennon and McCartney could agree on. Both ranked it among their best
You can tell a lot about a person based on their favourite Beatles track, and the Fab Four managed to generate such a breadth of material during their relatively short ten-year lifespan to conjure up a wealth of different possibilities. Yet, even the often-divided John Lennon and Paul McCartney partnership could agree on one specific track.
Collecting for the sake of it: Who the fuck is buying all these box sets?
There was once a time, not too far back in memory, when the amount of music being pressed onto vinyl each year was growing incredibly slim. Now, though, in the post-vinyl-revival landscape, perhaps it is time to admit that the music industry has, if anything, over-corrected on that front. More and more new releases, reissues, and compilations are being pressed annually, and although that means back-ups at pressing plants, it does reflect a welcomed resurgence in physical media.
Five debut albums that aged like fine wine
Credit: Far Out / Gang of Four / Album Cover Readers who are knowledgeable about the world of fine wines will be all too aware that while some are ready to go, straight from the bottle to your mouth with the aid of only a brown paper bag and a tenuous grasp of the concept of shame, others take time to evolve and age into something far superior, and the same is true of the artist and the album.
In 1984, Tina Turner took a chance on a song nobody else wanted. It sold 2,000,000 copies
Credit: Far Out / Spotify If anybody could take a failing, middle-ground track and turn it into a timeless anthem, it was Tina Turner. Her performing prowess and sheer, unfiltered energy made the R&B performer into a bona fide rockstar when she began a solo career in the mid-1970s, but one of her all-time biggest hits arrived at her doorstep as something of a last resort.
For Neil Young, there is one guitarist who ranks above everybody else: “The hero of all guitar players”
Credit: Far Out / Raph Pour-Hashemi Neil Young might today enjoy a well-deserved reputation for being one of the greatest songwriters to ever grace the North American airwaves, but it wasn’t his knack for crafting incredible lyrics that first spurred the young Young into the musical world. Like many boys growing up in the 1950s, he was hooked by the allure of the electric guitar. Few instruments are as synonymous with a style and scene as electric guitars are with rock and roll.
55 years of David Bowie’s ‘Ziggy Stardust’, and the real-life figures who inspired him
Few fictional beings have been able to boast the same command over the airwaves as Ziggy Stardust; the glam rock extraterrestrial brought to life by David Bowie at the beginning of his soon-to-be extensive career as a shapeshifting songwriter. Even a mind as expansive as Bowie’s couldn’t pluck such a character entirely from thin air, however.
The song The Rolling Stones shied away from performing after Altamont in 1969: “It became so involved”
You don’t become one of the biggest rock bands of all time, with a discography spanning over half a century, without attracting a certain degree of controversy, and The Rolling Stones certainly had their fair share. Still, the Altamont Free Concert back in 1969 remains the darkest hour in their history.
In 1988, George Harrison wrote a song that was “too good”. It sparked the creation of the Traveling Wilburys
Credit: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys George Harrison might have been the only person to rejoice in the breakup of The Beatles in 1970; at long last, he was free to explore every desired avenue of his own songwriting, without the cloud of the Fab Four hanging over him. Then, in 1988, he penned a song so good that it demanded the formation of an entirely new band.
The London SS: How a band that never was started the UK’s punk revolution
Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Press A band doesn’t need hit records to have an influence over the culture. In fact, back in 1975, a band didn’t need to have records of any kind to boast an influence over the blossoming, explosive, and anarchic world of punk rock, as the ill-fated London SS soon found out. Inevitably, the beginnings of British punk can never be tied wholly to one band.
New York, prank calls, and ice cream: How Beastie Boys switched their hardcore punk beginnings for hip-hop stardom
Credit: Far Out / Reddit / Record Sleeve From the abrasive underbelly of early 1980s New York, where CBGBs punk gave way to the far more immediate attack of hardcore, a teenage band started messing around with prank calls and the emerging sounds of their East Coast surroundings, unaware that they would soon become titans of American hip-hop.
Who are the real-life musicians that inspired The Muppets’ Electric Mayhem?
Credit: Far Out / Disney+ Jim Henson didn’t just create a few puppets or a few films; he constructed an entire world which – as has sadly since been proven – would long outlast his own time on Earth. From the wistful strumming of Kermit the Frog’s banjo to Nina Simone appearing on Sesame Street, music has always been an utterly essential aspect of The Muppets.
‘Bottle Rocket’: how The Go! Team brought northern soul into the indie sleaze era
Credit: Far Out / The Go! Team For a music scene built upon the obscure and forgotten, northern soul has certainly woven its way into the popular culture of Britain since its first emergence towards the tail end of the Swinging Sixties. Over the decades, the scene has even had the odd flirtation with the indie realm. Whichever way you look at it, the northern soul movement has always been rather miraculous.
In 1968, Gram Parsons invented country rock. Five years later, he offered a brutal review of the bands that followed in his footsteps
Credit: Far Out / Tom Wilkes / Anthony Foutz archive Robert Oppenheimer, Dr Frankenstein, and Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ – creators often grow to regret their creations, no matter how important, life-changing, or beloved they might be. Back in the 1960s, for instance, Gram Parsons led the charge of the country-rock revolution, but he quickly came to resent the label.
In 2007, Bruce Springsteen was growing disillusioned. Four words from a folk icon set him back on track
Credit: Far Out / Bruce Springsteen Disillusionment is commonplace at both ends of the music industry spectrum: there are, for instance, thousands of hopeful young musicians who give up after months of getting nowhere. Equally, though, even a musician of Bruce Springsteen’s stature can grow disillusioned after so long in the same field. Springsteen has, after all, spent the vast majority of his waking life immersed in the dizzying heights of the music industry.
In 1964, The Kinks encountered an opening act they knew would go far. 110,000,000 records later, they were proven right
Credit: Far Out / KRLA Beat / Beat Publications, Inc. A healthy sense of competition is no rarity within the music industry, but even during the peak of their mod-rock revolution back in the 1960s, The Kinks preferred giving a leg-up to their contemporaries, rather than knocking them down a peg or two. In the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take overly long for Ray Davies and The Kinks to exercise their command over the British rock airwaves with their third-ever single, ‘You Really Got Me’.
‘Look What You’ve Done to Me’: Does Boz Scaggs’s 1980 hit feature the most talented American backing band ever assembled?
Credit: Far Out / Album Covers Backing bands and background singers have always been the unsung heroes of pop music. Everybody knows, for instance, names like Aretha Franklin or Van Morrison, but comparatively few are aware of The Sweet Inspirations, who performed backing for both of those artists along with countless others. Then again, it would be impossible to suggest that the backing personnel for Boz Scaggs and his 1980 soft rock smash ‘Look What You’ve Done to Me’ were in any way obscure.
The Isley Brothers, Lulu, and a forgotten glam-rock icon: How Alex Harvey introduced British airwaves to ‘Shout’
Credit: Far Out / Alex Harvey When Rudolph Isley, at the age of just 19, began ad-libbing a call-and-response performance with an audience in Philadelphia, he couldn’t have known that he was constructing one of the most enduring, unavoidable R&B songs of the 20th century: ‘Shout’.
In 2000, Mike Myers was “beyond honoured” to be offered a role played by his idol. He still turned it down
Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still Looking across the length and breadth of Mike Myers’ filmography doesn’t give the impression of somebody who regularly turns roles down. During the early 2000s, though, his schedule was so packed that he had to turn down a veritable dream role. As you will know if you have ever spoken to somebody from Manchester, the 1990s were a wild time.
The “dicey” 1982 role Michael Caine was warned against playing: “Do you really want to do it?”
Credit: Far Out / Nathan Congleton From Jaws: The Revenge to the far more recent Twist, Michael Caine has made a lot of godawful films over the course of his career, particularly for an actor as beloved as he rightly is. However, there have been times when his seeming inability to turn down scripts has worked entirely in his favour. When Caine started out in the classist acting industry of the 1950s, there weren’t many mainstream roles for a proudly Cockney actor.
In 1967, Ray Davies was asked to review The Beatles album ‘Sgt Pepper’. There was just one problem
The album that changed music forevermore, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, is an undeniable and arguably unrivalled masterpiece, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that The Beatles’ magnum opus was met with unreserved, universal praise upon its release in 1967. Sgt Pepper’s, like every Beatles album before and after it, was a colossal success.
Amy Taylor has one particular reason for loving Sleaford Mods: “Mad lyrics”
Credit: Georgina Hurdsfield From their Aussie pub-rock beginnings, Amyl and the Sniffers have become one of the most unavoidable outfits of recent memory, particularly within the realm of punk and alternative rock. A key part of that is down to the powerful presence of frontwoman Amy Taylor and the lyrics she writes.
In 1968, Pete Shelley heard a Beatles classic, and it set him on the path to punk greatness
Credit: Far Out / Phil Rees / Alamy A core part of the punk manifesto that exploded onto the airwaves of Britain circa 1976 was a rejection of the ‘rock establishment’ and all the 1960s nostalgia that came with it. Bands like Manchester’s Buzzcocks were rooted in the here and now – the cutting-edge of adolescent angst and rebellion – but, according to Pete Shelley, it was The Beatles who started it all.
In 1978, Blondie almost bailed out on a “disco” track, unaware it would become their biggest hit
Credit: Far Out / CBGB / Private Stock Records If you were young and in New York during the mid-1970s, you were either bedazzled by the newly emerging realm of disco, or riled up by the abrasive explosion of punk rock. Both of those scenes were revolutionary in their own respective ways, but never the twain shall meet, at least not until Blondie came along.
The song Jeff Lynne and Lemmy both agreed was one of “the greatest English rock ‘n’ roll songs”
Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Goran Beg It is fair to say that the architect of the Electric Light Orchestra, Jeff Lynne, and the harbinger of gruff, Jack Daniels-infused heavy metal, Lemmy Kilmister, represent two very opposed ends of the musical spectrum. However, if anything could unite these two musical icons, it is a shared adoration for rock ‘n’ roll. Once you remove the context of their own music careers, after all, Lynne and Kilmister aren’t quite so different.
Who sang the lead vocals on the Traveling Wilburys songs?
Credit: Far Out / The Traveling Wilburys When The Traveling Wilburys first came together back in 1988, they were certainly not the first supergroup ever to hit the airwaves. However, it is difficult to think of any other supergroup, before or after 1988, to have the same songwriting power within its ranks. A former Beatle, a folk hero, and even a rockabilly pioneer, the Wilburys definitely weren’t short of talent.
American blues, goth-rock, and heroin: 40 years of Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds’ ‘Your Funeral… My Trial’
If the 1980s truly was the neon-hued age of pop optimism, awash with white jeans and enough hairspray to permanently impact the ozone layer, then the mere existence of Nick Cave certainly counteracts that image, particularly in the case of 1986’s magnum opus Your Funeral… My Trial.
Ranking the 10 best songs from October 2026
Credit: Far Out / Press / Shervin Lainez / Subpop Records There is no escaping it, folks: the days are growing shorter, the rain has returned, and sales of de-icer are on the rise once again. Now, there is nothing left to do but bundle yourself up in a fittingly autumnal jumper and tune in to the deluge of incredible singles that have been released in October 2026.
In 1975, CBGB became the home of punk rock. 10 years later, grunge arrived
Credit: Far Out / The Nails Every movement needs its icons, and when punk rock exploded onto the airwaves during the mid-1970s, the vast majority of those icons could be found within the rat-infested, sweat-stained, and crumbling walls of New York City’s CBGB club.
John Fogerty made rock’s greatest records. But he believed another band’s grooves were impossible to top
Credit: Far Out / ceedub13 If the landscape of supergroups has taught us anything, it is that a band full of individually exceptional musicians doesn’t always result in exceptional output. In fact, some of the greatest bands of all time have been far greater than the sum of their parts, at least according to Creedence Clearwater Revival’s John Fogerty.
How Dick Clark robbed Simon and Garfunkel of their first $221 pay packet
Credit: Far Out / Columbia Records / ABC Television Unless you happen to be a Rolling Stone, the idea of becoming a musician for the riches is like joining the army to ‘see the world’; in other words, you’re probably going to have a rather miserable time. Still, you probably wouldn’t expect to be cheated out of your first big payday by beloved TV personality Dick Clark.
In 1975, the Eagles recorded a song nobody else wanted. It was supposed to keep the band together
Credit: Far Out / Asylum Records When the world was first introduced to the soft rock stylings of the Eagles back in 1972, with the debut single ‘Take It Easy’, they immediately found an audience for their distinctive Los Angeles sound. It would become a key asset for their ascent to the top. The band didn’t just offer great new music; they offered a slice of West Coast living, which managed to appeal to the entire world.
The 1976 Bob Dylan anthem Jeff Tweedy says only comes along “once every 10 years”
Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Tristan Loper It is difficult to oversell the songwriting power of Bob Dylan. You could claim, for instance, that a song like ‘Desolation Row’, ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, or ‘It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’ only comes along once in a generation, but each of those examples came out in the same year. Two were on the same album.
In 1993, John Candy bet everything he had on one movie. It ended up making $155,000,000
Credit: Far Out / YouTube Still An unavoidable figure in the realm of silver screen comedy from the 1970s until his tragic passing in 1994, John Candy lent his talents to a wealth of different roles over the years. But in 1993, he was determined to make one role particularly memorable. Although Candy showed up in various projects during the early 1970s, it was during his time on Second City Television that the comedian truly got his start.
In 1964 The Beatles visited the USA for the first time. Charles Mingus was not impressed
Credit: Far Out / Apple Corps LTD / Tom Marcello Such was the universality of The Beatles‘ 1960s stardom, musical innovation, and enduring influence that even those select few who boldly declare to hate the Beatles typically do so out of an inherent need to attract attention by being contrarian. Charles Mingus, on the other hand, had a genuine gripe against the Fab Four.
In 1965, Bob Dylan played a daring anthem at Newport Folk Festival. Pete Seeger wanted to pull the plug on it
Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Library of Congress If there is any one musician who captured the spirit of the countercultural 1960s in their entirety, it is Bob Dylan, and if there is any one performance that defined those years for the legendary songwriter, it was his landmark set at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, the moment in which he ‘went electric’.
The 10 greatest backing singers of all time
Credit: Far Out / Alamy / Album Cover It takes a lot of people to make a great song, and many of those people are far too often forgotten; such is the thankless realm of the backing singer. Even as an ardent music fan, you could go all your listening life without paying much attention to backing singers. They are, after all, intended to be confined to the ‘back’, supporting whomever the primary artist or group might be with occasional vocal contributions.
The pop star who sold 77,000,000, but was banned from the USSR simply for being too sexy
Pop music is powerful, not just in an artistic or cultural sense, but also in a political sense. Don’t believe me? Just ask the endlessly paranoid government of the Soviet Union throughout the entirety of the Cold War.
In the 1960s, The Who sold millions of albums, but Keith Moon would have still abandoned them for one band
For much of his existence, it seemed as though Keith Moon was quite literally living the dream. After a chance encounter with the future members of The Who at a low-key gig in London Town, the percussionist quickly found himself at the epicentre of a British rock institution, and he certainly made the most of his time. There was always, however, one group that could sway him away from all of that.
In 1966, The Beach Boys began recording the follow-up to ‘Pet Sounds’. It took 45 years to release it
Credit: Far Out / Album Cover / Capitol Records Exceedingly few albums can claim to have had the same impact as The Beach Boys’ immortal 1966 masterpiece Pet Sounds. It was the album that changed pop forever and transformed Brian Wilson from a pop-surf star to one of America’s most important songwriters. Yet, in spite of it all, it took until nearly 50 years before audiences heard its planned follow-up.
Journey’s power ballad sold 29 million copies. But is ‘Don’t Stop Believin” trash or a triumph?
Credit: Far Out / Journey There are few rock songs as unavoidable and utterly ubiquitous as Journey’s 1981 arena rock anthem ‘Don’t Stop Believin’’. From film and television soundtracks to every single karaoke night in the world, if you aren’t intimately familiar with the song, we can safely assume you are either an infant child or an extra-terrestrial.
The 1972 Led Zeppelin song that would cure John Bonham’s stage fright every night
Credit: Far Out / John Bonham Led Zeppelin might as well have been on a different plane of existence back in the 1970s. With their seemingly endless repertoire of earth-shattering hard rock riffs and constant tailwind of wild antics, it is difficult to envision those rock and roll valkyries as ordinary people. Behind all of it, though, Zeppelin weren’t all that different from you and I.
In 1984, David Gilmour wrote a song that attacked Roger Waters. Years later, he regretted the whole thing
The line-up of Pink Floyd was rarely, if ever, harmonious. From the very start, the band was storied by arguments, musical differences, and ego battles. Not only did these arguments result in the harsh sacking of the band’s main source of creativity, Syd Barrett, but they also stifled a lot of the band’s later output. David Gilmour and Roger Waters, in particular, never saw eye-to-eye. Even today, decades after Waters left the band, the pair are still consistently at each other’s throats.
In 1961, Johnny and Jackey endured a failed single, unaware it would soon launch a Motown institution
Credit: Far Out / Motown / Tri-Phi Records Publicity Photo Good things come to those who wait, but Motown Records wasn’t in the business of dragging its heels. Emulating the production lines of Detroit’s automotive industry, Berry Gordy’s label was always a fast-moving, rather stressful environment, in which second chances didn’t come around too often.
Quincy Jones once claimed a Microsoft billionaire could play “just like” Jimi Hendrix. He wasn’t even joking
Credit: Los Angeles Times Quincy Jones built up more experience in his lifetime than virtually anyone else in the music industry. Over the course of his seven-decade career, Jones worked with the all-time greats, including the likes of Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, Ray Charles and countless others. A gifted songwriter, producer, composer and visionary, the music world of the 20th century would have looked very different without the pioneering influence of Jones.
In 1959, Vince Taylor recorded a rockabilly B-side. In 1979, The Clash made it into a punk masterpiece
B-sides are, by their very nature, easy to ignore. However, if you can resist the urge to stick exclusively with the safety of the A-side, there are some gems to be found on the flip, as Joe Strummer discovered when he bought a copy of an old English rockabilly flop during the early days of The Clash. Although The Clash were rooted in the barre chords and sneering attitude of London’s mid-1970s punk scene, Strummer and the gang were always willing to embrace other styles and genres.
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