Joe Taysom

Joe Taysom connects classic rock history, contemporary music news and artist interviews into a single, narrative-led entertainment beat. He is news editor at Far Out Magazine, covering music and screen culture across news, features and interviews. His work stands out for the way it ties specific songs, bans, myths and creative influences to broader questions about legacy, power and cultural memory.

Classic rock bans, myths and legacies

A large share of Taysom’s output centres on classic rock and the stories that still hang around its biggest names. He writes historical features such as the piece on the 1973 banning order that hurt The Rolling Stones for 17 years, treating the episode as both a political constraint and a test of the band’s resilience.

In a detailed explainer on Michael Hutchence, he sets out to debunk the myth around the INXS frontman’s death, foregrounding the difference between rumour and documented fact. He revisits Fleetwood Mac through the “dysfunctional” album that nonetheless sold 15 million copies in 1987, using sales, internal strife and enduring fandom to show how friction can coexist with commercial success.

Alongside these histories, he drills into the influence networks behind towering figures such as Jimmy Page, Brian May and Thom Yorke. One feature tracks how Jimmy Page was crowned the greatest guitarist of all time, framing the verdict through testimony from peers and contextualising it within rock’s canon.

Another focuses on the one guitarist who shaped Brian May’s entire career, hinging the narrative on May’s own description of that influence as being “in my life always”. A related piece examines the “genius” musician who became Thom Yorke’s mentor, positioning Radiohead’s frontman as an innovator whose work grew out of close creative guidance.

These stories use specific anecdotes and quotes to map how individual relationships and inspirations ripple through decades of music.

Taysom also gravitates to creative conflict inside rock’s inner circle.

He writes about the classic rock band that Jimi Hendrix “ripped off”, treating the allegation as a lens on borrowing, competition and evolution in the late-1960s scene. In his coverage of David Gilmour’s desire to join The Beatles, he shows how formative listening shaped the Pink Floyd guitarist’s technique and career, and how Gilmour still speaks about the band with the humility of a lifelong fan. Another piece explores why The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend hates Led Zeppelin, framing Townshend’s outspoken criticism as part of a long-running creative dispute rather than a throwaway quote.

Across these articles, Taysom uses conflict, admiration and myth as organising themes, turning archival material and interview excerpts into tightly focused narratives.

Music news with cultural and political stakes

As news editor, Taysom handles fast-turn stories where entertainment collides with politics and public ethics. His coverage of Arundhati Roy’s decision to pull out of the Berlin Film Festival in solidarity with Gaza centres the author’s reasoning and the jury’s comments, framing the withdrawal as a serious political statement made through a cultural platform.

The report explains that Roy stepped back even though a film she wrote, the 1989 work In Which Annie Give It Those Ones, was due to be screened in the Berlinale Classics strand, underscoring the weight of her choice.

In music, he has reported on Boards of Canada condemning the White House for using one of their songs, treating the episode as a dispute over consent and messaging rather than routine licensing friction. Taken together, these stories show a preference for moments where artists push back against institutions and use cultural events to register protest.

Even his historical pieces often turn on decisions made by governments, broadcasters or gatekeepers that shape what audiences can hear and see.

The Rolling Stones banning-order feature deals directly with state power and its long tail, showing how a single measure affected the band’s touring and revenue for 17 years. The Fleetwood Mac album piece touches on commercial realities and pressures inside a major act, illustrating how group dysfunction can be packaged and sold at scale. Through these angles, Taysom’s news and features land less as trivia and more as stories about control, visibility and the conditions under which music reaches the public.

Documentaries, festivals and screen stories

Although music is the centre of his beat, Taysom also writes about film, television and streaming projects that orbit around artists and scenes. His article on the Disney+ documentary Camden goes inside the making of the series, drawing extensively on an exclusive interview with director Asif Kapadia’s collaborator Ben Trackman. The piece explains that Trackman directed the first and final episodes and spent around 18 months on the project, describing it as a “passion project” rooted in his own years playing in bands and DJing in Camden.

By emphasising process, timeframes and personal history, Taysom frames the documentary not just as content but as the product of a specific local culture and creative investment.

Festival coverage, such as the Berlinale story involving Arundhati Roy, adopts a similar approach. He sets the scene around programming decisions, invited guests and the symbolic weight of withdrawals, rather than treating the festival purely as a red-carpet event. His social posts reference a Far Out cover story interview with Stath Lets Flats creator Jamie Demetriou, indicating a willingness to invest in long-form conversations about television comedy and the path from domestic success to Hollywood attention.

This mix of documentary reporting, festival news and TV cover stories shows Taysom extending his music sensibility into screen work, looking for projects where place, politics and performance intersect.

Interviews with legacy acts and scene voices

Interviews are a recurring format, and Taysom tends to reserve them for figures with long careers or deep roots in specific music scenes.

In “Far Out Meets: Sir Tom Jones, the king of the crooners”, he sits down with the singer for a wide-ranging conversation that covers new work and past milestones, capturing Jones at a reflective stage while still treating him as an active recording artist. His Camden documentary piece doubles as a profile of Trackman, focusing on how years immersed in the local music ecosystem feed into his directorial choices. Features built around Brian May’s recollections or Thom Yorke’s mentor similarly hinge on extended quotes and narrative framing drawn from direct dialogue.

Outside the magazine, Taysom’s public posts point to further interviews with musicians such as Jez from Doves, suggesting ongoing interest in artists tied to particular scenes and eras. Across these conversations, the emphasis falls on memory, influence and the craft of making records, rather than celebrity gossip. Taken together with his news and history features, this interview work completes a profile of a journalist who uses access to artists to test and enrich the stories he tells about their music, scenes and the institutions around them.