Not a new interview, but new to me. Simon Frith interviewed at DRYRIB. Part 1 and Part 2.
I don’t regret any of my critical assessments—mostly because I can’t remember most of them. One of the salutary lessons an academic learns writing for a paper like Melody Maker is that readers’ interest in what you say barely survives the day of publication so I often regretted my assessments on the day they came out but then they ceased to matter. I did dismiss the Smiths as non-starters when I saw them as a local support act early in their career and I can remember thinking (though not sure if I wrote) that Madonna was foolishly overrated when her career began. I was wrong often enough but have no regrets about going public — part of the fun of being a critic.