Sommaire pour July 2018 de Classic Rock

WELCOME Two hundred and fifty issues. Seriously, how on earth did that happen? For the past almost 20 years, the editorial team of Classic Rock have decided what goes on its pages. This month, however, we thought it time to let someone else decide what we run. Yep, we asked some of the folks we usually write about to tell us what they’d like to read. The result is that we’ve got features on the early rock’n’rollers who built classic rock’s very foundation (thank you, Roger Daltrey), the tale of how Springsteen became The Boss (cheers, Richie Sambora), a look at the genius of both Ginger Baker and Mitch Mitchell (Nick Mason and Roger Taylor respectively) and much more. So relax, get reading, and here’s to the next 250! Siân…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Roy Young Died April 27, 2018 Londoner Roy Young was a rock’n’roll singer and keyboard player who released several albums with his own band and played with Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson and many more. Young was 81. Jabo Starks October 26, 1938 – May 1, 2018 Alabama-born Jabo Starks played drums on many of James Brown’s best-known tracks. Born John Henry Starks, he laid down the beat on Sex Machine, The Payback and Super Bad, among others. The 79-year-old was in hospice care for leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes when he died. Mick Fowler Died April 15, 2018 Described by those who knew him as a “gentle giant”, Hampshire-based Mick Fowler fronted the NWOBHM group Overkill (not to be…

Vampires Bite Again Cooper, Pitt, Perry and co. play UK shows in June. NO SNAKES, NO guillotines. As Alice Cooper reminds Classic Rock, ‘supergroup’ Hollywood Vampires’ upcoming shows are all about no-frills rock’n’roll. “My own show is so rehearsed,” he says, “and the Vampires is like when we first started in a bar band. It’s having fun with rock’n’roll, rather than making it a job.” Cooper confirms that guitarists Joe Perry and Johnny Depp will be part of the band, which he describes as “basically the world’s most expensive bar band. I mean, Joe’s been on the road as long as I have. Johnny was a guitar player long before he was an actor, so he’s as at home on stage as on a movie set.” “We’ll honour all the…

WELCOME BACK Arthur Buck “Focusing on music might be a lifesaver for both of us,” R.E.M. man Peter Buck says of his new old-pals project. ARTHUR BUCK: DEAN CARR/PRESS “I want rock’n’roll to be alive and dangerous and rebellious.” PETER BUCK AND Joseph Arthur have known one another for nearly 20 years, ever since meeting up at a tiny club gig in Seattle. Ohio singer-songwriter Arthur even opened for Buck’s band R.E.M. when they toured Europe in the early noughties, and Buck has guested on a number of Arthur’s projects. But it’s taken the two of them until now to collaborate in earnest as Arthur Buck, and in June release a self-titled album that fizzes with electronica and instinctive guitar riffs. We caught up with both of them to find…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Carlos by Carlos Santana Shoes for Men Since its 2001 inception, the Carlos Santana brand has been inspired by the guitarist’s artistry and passion. Which means they go all-out to use the best materials possible for both versatility and flair. A portion of the sale from each pair of shoes also goes to his Milagro Foundation, established by his family in 1998 to benefit underserved and vulnerable children, so you’ll do good by looking good. £117 @CarlosShoes4Men CarlosShoesForMen.com Off-White Quote flannel shirt Probably streetwear’s hottest label of the moment, Off-White can seemingly do no wrong. This check shirt is a great example of the label’s credentials, with an eye for detail that…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS David Bowie Fame & Golden Years Before his move to Berlin, Bowie got seriously funky on these two tracks, thanks to inspiration from Aretha Franklin, James Brown and his 17-year-old mistress… Words: Richard Purden MAIN: GETTY; INSET: ALAMY “Golden Years will always be my favourite Bowie song because he wrote it at my house. It’s such a beautiful piece.”Glenn Hughes When David Bowie arrived in New York to play Radio City Music Hall on Valentine’s Day 1973, Cupid’s slender arrow was already in motion. On the second of a two-night stint he met Ava Cherry – the 17-year-old from Chicago with short, peroxide hair who would soon become his backing singer. Her first gig was at Ziggy Stardust’s final appearance, The 1980 Floor Show, filmed at…

CHOSEN BY MIKE PETERS OF THE ALARM AS TOLD TO GRANT MOON “I’d heard The Who’s single 5:15 on the radio a few times, but then Fluff Freeman played Bell Boy on The Saturday Rock Show and that just leapt out of the speakers at me. “It was 1973, the history of rock was still young, and I was still finding my way into music. I went straight to the record shop in Prestatyn and bought this [brandishes his original vinyl copy of Quadrophenia]. It was the first time I had a sleeve this elaborate, and a booklet. I’d go to bed at night, put my headphones on and listen to it, and I’d look at the sleeve and read the lyrics. I’d disappear into that world. It was an…

CHOSEN BY DAVE MUSTAINE OF MEGADETH AS TOLD TO HENRY YATES; RUDOLF SCHENKER: MARC VILLALONGA/DALLE/ICONICPIX; DAVE MUSTAINE: JOSEPH BRANSTON “Rudy Schenker is one of my heroes. Not only is he a guitar god, but he’s a handsome, classy guy and an amazing example for people like me on how to carry the torch, when he does decide to retire the Scorpions. Because, y’know, the guys in Slayer are getting ready to retire. So, the field is thinning, and I’m disappointed by that, because if the Big Four go away, it’s a terrible thought. But then I look at bands like the Scorps, who have been successfully playing for decades…”…

CHOSEN BY MYLES KENNEDY AS TOLD TO HENRY YATES “I’ve read enough by way of books and discovered most of what I feel like I can discover about Jeff Buckley, but I’d love to hear more about how he left LA, moved to New York and basically started over. Y’know, how he felt like New York resonated with him more and he found his artistic home. He hooked up with Gary Lucas, and that was the genesis of the whole thing. “Jeff was so important to my evolution as an artist. To me he was like Robert Plant and Jimmy Page rolled into one. And even though he only had a brief period on this planet and what he left behind wasn’t to the degree of Led Zeppelin, Grace had…

AWOP BOP-A-LOO-BOP… …A BOP-BAM BOOM! The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead, AC/DC and all the rest wouldn’t have existed had it not been for the trails blazed by the barrier-breaking early rock’n’rollers in the 1950s. Words: Nick Hasted “Little Richard is directly responsible for Motörhead. I heard Good Golly Miss Molly and that was the end of it.”Lemmy ‘Awop-bop-a-loo-momp a lop-bomp-bomp!’ That’s the sound of the hard rock atom being split. Little Richard begins Tutti Frutti with just those unaccompanied words, like an abrupt explosion of A-bomb force in a bare field. The phrase is so bizarre, he won’t sing it the same way twice. Soon he’s stabbing his piano in rapid, heart-attack punctuation of his nakedly sexual state of mind. ‘Got a girl, named Sue,’ he hollers, ‘she knows just…

AND THEY’RE OFF! After A Night At The Opera, Queen had the world at their feet. But when it came to making the ‘more of the same’ or ‘something new’ follow-up, either way they risked falling on their arses. Words: Mick Wall GETTY “The thought of being in jail in tights didn’t appeal to Freddie at all.”Tour manager Gerry Stickles Summer 1976. Eight months after Bohemian Rhapsody tore up the rule book for hit singles, Queen have finally – finally – released a follow-up single, You’re My best Friend. It’s a lovely pop-rock ditty, infectious and in the groove and… what the fuck? That’s your follow-up to the most titanic rock song of all time? Well, no. It would have to do for now, though, while Queen struggled fitfully to…

CHOSEN BY LZZY HALE OF HALESTORM TOLD TO RICH CHAMBERLAIN; GETTY X2 “Heart is a group I don’t normally talk about, but they were a cornerstone in the way I approach songwriting, both vocally and on guitar. I talk a lot about the ‘dude’ bands – I’m heavily influenced by Alice Cooper and Ronnie James Dio and those eighties cats – but Heart were the first female-fronted band I heard and was influenced by. I was listening to a lot of my dad’s music, and I could sound like those bands even though I was a girl. And then I heard Heart and was like: ‘Oh, singing like that as a girl is actually a thing!’ “Back in 1995, Heart put out The Road Home, a live record, and that…

HE DIDN’T ONLY PLAY IN CREAM, YOU KNOW Driving across deserts, owning polo ponies, making and losing fortunes, influencing generations of musicians… Ginger Baker‘s story is far more than just being the world’s greatest drummer. Words: Mick Wall MAIN PIC: AVALON, MASON & INSET: GETTY “If someone said to me: ‘You sound a bit like Ginger Baker’, then I’d say: ‘Thank you.’”Nick Mason If you know Ginger Baker only as the then drummer in Cream, you really don’t know Ginger Baker at all. Yes, it was in Cream that Baker became the world’s first superstar rock drummer, was the first to play an extended rock drum solo (on Toad, from Cream’s debut Fresh Cream) and solidified the rock drummer archetype of the crazy bastard at the back. But that’s not…

BRENT SMITH’S ULTIMATE WORKOUT PLAYLIST Need to get fit but hate gym music? Then try the Shinedown frontman’s beefed-up selection to puff and sweat to instead. AS TOLD TO DAVE EVERLEY Brent Smith can remember exactly when he realised that he needed to start working out. “It was 2011. I was still drinking pretty heavily and I was really overweight,” he recalls. “I got out of the shower and saw myself in the mirror. I went: ‘This isn’t gonna work. You look awful.’ It was a light-bulb moment.” It’s stood him in good stead since. Shinedown’s taut new album, Attention Attention, is the work of a band still operating at peak fitness more than 15 years into their career. “I guarantee if you start working out, you’re gonna feel a…

TWITTER ROCK’N’ROLL GOINGS-ON IN THE TWITTERSPHERE JOE PERRY @JoePerry I am into bats. Consider a donation to @batworld in Texas @blingyourbrand is helping them #savebats PAUL McCARTNEY @PaulMcCartney Paul at Buckingham Palace earlier today where he was made a Companion of Honour by the Queen for services to music. “I see this as a huge honour for me and my family and I think of how proud my Liverpool mum and dad would have been to see this.” #CompanionOfHonour METALLICA @Metallica Night 1 setlist from Helsinki! #MetInHelsinki #Metallica #WorldWired TOMMY LEE @MrTommyLand Ok instead of an “I ♥ NY” shirt… can I get a “I don’t really dig NY that much” shirt? MIKE PORTNOY @MikePortnoy 101 Degrees here in Tempe, AZ and I Luv it!! Gotta catch some Vitamin D…

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling TNT XIII FRONTIERS Welcome to the madhouse, Baol Bardot Bulsara. Last November the Spaniard stepped up to become the fourth lead singer of these veteran Norwegians. Succeeding frontman Tony Harnell, Señor Bulsara will surely have been forewarned that TNT (the band) are as volatile as the explosive after which they were named. Having fallen short of deserved stardom during the 80s, TNT lost the plot in this current millennium. With former Shy frontman Tony Mills on board, they seemed to believe they’d morphed into Queen with the laughably inept The New Territory and Atlantis, rediscovering a little of their mojo with 2010’s A Farewell To Arms. Disappointingly, XIII sees a return to no-man’s land. Bulsara has a colourful voice that the album’s haphazard production…

REVIEWS Faces Post-break-up not actually ‘best-of’ best-of resurfaces on vinyl. Snakes And Ladders WARNER MUSIC GETTY Faces were long gone by the time their record company released this ‘best of’, Ronnie Wood having gone off with the Rolling Stones, and Rod Stewart working his way to frequently cheesy pop stardom, his breakout solo success being part of the reason the band split in the first place. As a single album and comprising just 12 tracks, it’s far from comprehensive, but as a snapshot of the band’s laddish charm it’s a lovable introduction to their world. Faces were a rabble, and the lager-soaked bravado of Pool Hall Richard, with its smashed glass and rough blues strut, was undoubtedly an influence on the laddier end of the Britpop spectrum set to arrive…

LIVE! REVIEWS Britrock Must Be Destroyed The toast of the late 20th century overcome lost limbs, technical hitches and visions of ‘God’ to thrill the former Hammy Odeon. London Hammersmith Eventim Apollo ‘These shows depend on a crowd refusing to act their age.’ Attention, rock promoters! Terrorvision’s Tony Wright has got an idea. He’s just negotiated his way through the metal fencing outside Hammersmith Apollo, which is channelling queues of fans into the venue for tonight’s triple-header 90s rock marathon, and observed, “It’s like a maze… in fact, that would be brilliant! You’d choose one of four entrances, then weave your way through this maze, and each path would lead to a different band playing in a different part of the venue. You wouldn’t know who you were seeing until you…

Tina Haystack-haired R&B legend gets the full-blooded bio-musical treatment. London Aldwych Theatre Tina Turner’s tumultuous life story is already familiar from her autobiography and biopic, yet this hit-packed bio-musical is still a classy spectacle and a welcome reminder that, long before the big-haired power ballads, Turner was a supercharged rock’n’soul pioneer who smashed down race and gender barriers with the sheer force of her mountain-flattening voice. Co-produced by the 78-year-old Turner herself, Tina follows Anna Mae Bullock (Adrienne Warren) from boisterous Tennessee teenager to stadium-rocking superstar. Key players in her career, including Phil Spector (Tom Godwin) and Martyn Ware (Jason Langley), are reduced to cartoon cameos. Inevitably, troubled genius Ike Turner (Kobna Holdbrook-Smith) is chiefly played as a two-dimensional villain. Perhaps deservedly, given his monstrous violence towards Tina, which is…

Heavy Load Foreigner’s Mick Jones on playing with Chuck Berry, a 60-foot waste of money and meeting the other Mick Jones. Interview: Dave Ling Heavy questions for heavy rockers BILL BERNSTEIN/PRESS “I’m very happy to have written something that will live on after I’m gone.” Since the early 1960s, Mick Jones has worn a variety of hats. Best known as the key songwriter and guitarist with the enduring giants Foreigner, the Englishman co-wrote Bad Love with Eric Clapton and has produced Van Halen, Bad Company, The Cult and Billy Joel. He also released a self-titled solo album in 1989. Jones is the only original member still with Foreigner, who during a career of more than 40 years have sold around 80 million records worldwide. How was your childhood? It was…

This month’s contributors CHARLES R CROSS Charles R Cross is the author of nine books, including three New York Times bestsellers. His 2012 biography of Heart, Kicking & Dreaming, is being developed for a TV series. From 1986 to 2000 Charles was Editor of The Rocket, the Seattle music magazine which helped launch grunge. This issue he’s written about Heart’s identity-changing The Road Home (p66). BILL DEMAIN Bill DeMain is a very busy chap. He’s a songwriter, journalist, BBC correspondent and owner/guide of the Walkin’ Nashville music history tour. His latest work includes a solo album Transatlantic Romantic and the acclaimed book Sgt. Pepper At 50. This month he takes a look at Jimi Hendrix’s first few months in London (p26). ED MITCHELL After 19 years flogging guitars in Scotland,…

NEWS Guitarist Joe Perry says that Aerosmith are planning a tour to celebrate next year’s 50th anniversary of the Boston band. Two summers ago they played a farewell tour, billed as Aero-Vederci Baby!, and they have performed since. Now the guitarist reveals: “We may do a couple more one-offs – maybe some festivals.” The Alarm release a new album, Equals, on June 29 via The Twenty First Century Recording Company. Featuring Billy Duffy of The Cult on the track Coming Backwards, it’s The Alarm’s first album of new material in eight years. JCM, the trio comprised of former Colosseum members Jon Hiseman, Clem Clempson and Mark Clarke, were forced to cancel all tour dates until further notice due to Hiseman having undergone life-saving surgery to remove a cancerous brain tumour.…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES The Amorettes The Scottish power trio have fans in high places, but they only have eyes for rock’n’roll. “Before we even came off stage, Ricky Warwick told his manager that he wanted to bring us on tour.” WITH THE WORLD seeming to get darker, stupider and more dangerous with each passing week, we need a ray of sunshine like The Amorettes in our lives. The power trio from “a little armpit” in Scotland (ie the small towns of Livingston and Linlithgow) – made up of singer/guitarist Gill Montgomery and sisters Hannah and Heather McKay on drums and bass respectively – are following in the footsteps of their musical heroes, including Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin, The Darkness and AC/DC, and evangelising about the simple pleasures of rock’n’roll. After…

the DIRT RAW POWER Collen Killer Feast your eyes on Jackson’s refined signature model of Def Leppard’s versatile and instantly recognisable guitarist. AS WE REITERATED a couple of issues ago, Def Leppard guitarist Phil Collen is an integral part of that great English rock band. Apart from a black, three-pickup Ibanez Destroyer he became associated with during the Pyromania cycle, he’s used Jackson guitars for the majority of his time with Leppard. Jackson remains a byword for high-end, hot-rodded instruments, and it confirms the size of Leppard’s standing in the US during the mid-80s that amiable Londoner Collen became one of the Californian company’s first European endorsees. The prototype Collen Signature, hand-built by Grover Jackson and unveiled on the Love Bites video, had 29 frets and a highly unusual body shape…

WELCOME BACK Sevendust The Hall Of Fame might not be banging on their door right now, but they’ll soon be banging on the HOF’s. “Playing to troops in Afghanistan was scary and exhilarating.” ATLANTA’S SEVENDUST ARE a year away from their 25th anniversary. “I only just realised that bands are eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame after twenty-five years,” says singer Lajon Witherspoon. “We’re gonna be standing outside next year, banging on the door and going: ‘Let us in!’” The modern-metal veterans show no sign of slowing down on their latest, twelfth album, All I See Is War, a record that tackles turmoil both global and personal head-on. Witherspoon tells Classic Rock that the band still have plenty of fight left in them. The album’s opening lines…

CHOSEN BY GLENN HUGHES & ROGER CHAPMAN FAME Roger Chapman: “Bowie’s Berlin period always fascinated me, especially as I was heavily ensconced in Germany myself at the time. I was never really much of a fan before that era, but the Fame album [Young Americans] gave me a feeling that I wasn’t on my own. It was cold and clinical, much like Germany itself, but I loved it. Fame is a smashing song and I never tire of hearing it.” GOLDEN YEARS Glenn Hughes: “Competition is fierce, but it will always be my favourite Bowie song because he wrote it at my house – on my couch, to be precise. Golden Years; it’s such a beautiful piece. I’ll never forget him sitting next to me and writing the melody. In…

HEAR MY TRAIN A COMIN’ When Jimi Hendrix landed in London for the first time, the rock world tilted on its axis and in a blinding psychedelic flash he shot from unknown to superstar and changed everything. Words: Bill DeMain “He just looked unusual – stunning, really.”Girlfriend Kathy Etchingham In September 1966, 23-year-old Jimi Hendrix hit London like a one-man invading army, going from unknown American sideman to guitar-slinging supernova in four months. Why did Hendrix have to move to England to find fame and fortune? Well, in the mid-60s America simply wasn’t swinging enough to get on his wavelength, or what he later described as the “free feeling – a mixture of rock, freak-out, blues and rave music”. If you need proof, who better to provide it than Les…

CHOSEN BY ROGER TAYLOR OF QUEEN Roger Taylor also wanted a feature on the Jimi Hendrix Experience, but he asked us to focus in particular on how underrated Mitch Mitchell was. “Mitch Mitchell was my role model,” he told the BBC. “And I still think listening to Mitch Mitchell, especially the early stuff with Hendrix, is just fantastic. This fusion of jazz technique and wonderful riffs, but with this rolling, ferocious attack on the whole kit, it had lots of jazz influences, I think. In fact for me he played the kit like a song. It was just wonderful. Total integration into the song, not just marking time.”…

THE ROAD TO GLORY DAYS Like many young teenagers in the 60s, Bruce Springsteen was obsessed with rock’n’roll. A decade and a lot of hard graft later, he was being hailed as its future. Words: Paul Rees GETTY REX “I didn’t want to meet The Beatles. I wanted to be The Beatles.” On the afternoon of November 18, 1975, Bruce Springsteen was being driven across West London. As he gazed out of the car window, his mood was as bleak and unsettled as the gun-grey sky shrouding the city. He was enduring an attack of nerves: that night, he was due to play his first ever show to an audience outside of America. Back home, his third album, Born To Run, released three months earlier, had been his breakthrough and…

CHOSEN BY ROGER DALTREY AS TOLD TO IAN FORTNAM; GETTY “I don’t think anybody’s written anywhere near enough for today’s readers about the greats of rock’n’roll’s early years like Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard. Those guys trod the boards like nobody’s business. Both of them were outrageous, wonderful. They’ve been around since Elvis, and although they’re both still with us, not enough is being done to celebrate their legacy and acknowledge what we owe them. And it would be great to honour them because they both had the fuzzy end of the lollipop in this business. “Eddie Cochran – what might he have become? With the songs he was writing, he had the potential to be another Townshend. He was a great guitarist too, a real player. And look…

CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE Told to get clean or he had two weeks to live, guitar great Stevie Ray Vaughan did, and recorded his greatest album, only for death to then strike from a different direction. Words: Ed Mitchell REX “Stevie didn’t reinvent the wheel, but added flair and polish to the blues.”Joanne Shaw Taylor There’s a heart-stopping moment in the film The Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresne crawls to freedom through what Morgan Freeman’s character Red narrates as “five-hundred yards of shit-smelling foulness I can’t even imagine”. Then redemption comes as he’s cleansed, arms outstretched, by the falling rain. The scene sums up neatly the final few years of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s life. The shit-smelling foulness of his drug and alcohol addiction, near-death experiences and the toxic relationships few…

CHOSEN BY RICK SAVAGE OF DEF LEPPARD AS TOLD TO HENRY YATES “Queen, any of the first six albums, up through News Of The World. In fact I’m a bit of an aficionado on those six albums – there’s not much I don’t know, or what I don’t know isn’t worth knowing. I know probably more than Brian does about that period. After that it was getting into 1978 and my band was taking off, and Queen started going in a different direction – the Euro-pop was starting to take hold – and then I started to feel a bit alienated. But nothing could ever take away the way they made me feel from 1973 to 1977. Without them I don’t think I’d even be in a band, and if…

HEY, MR PRODUCER! He’s a relentless, boundary-pushing visionary who today channels his energies into art installations. CR sat down with producer extraordinaire and former Roxy Music man, Brian Eno. Words: Marcel Anders From his early days as a founder member of Roxy Music, Brian Eno has never stopped pushing musical boundaries. Known for his pioneering work in production, his work at the vangard of experimental, ambient music and much more; at the moment his primary focus is on art installations and their attendant soundscapes. Needless to say, Brian Eno is a very busy man… Are you a restless person? And a difficult one? Well, I don’t get up so early. I used to get up very early. But I’ve come to believe that sleep is very, very important. And I’ve…

CHOSEN BY NICK MASON OF PINK FLOYD AS TOLD TO HENRY YATES “Ginger Baker was an enormous influence on me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for him. Just hearing him play with Cream back at the start. I remember when they played the Regent Street Polytechnic. The curtains went back and there was suddenly this drummer right in the front, right in the middle of the stage, with the double bass drums. And I just thought to myself: ‘Oh yes – now that could be good.’ That night transformed me from thinking that it was just a bit of fun to thinking: ‘I could really go for that.’ I’d see Cream whenever possible. I can remember seeing Ginger play Toad [drum solo]. I loved his playing – and…

SOCIAL CLUB Get social, debate and interact with Classic Rock 2,058,765 AND STILL GROWING! Join us via email (classicrock@futurenet.com), Facebook or Twitter DAMNED PURPLE! I really loved this issue, as I grew up with the Purple offshoots and discovered the mothership via them rather than the other way round. I also adore The Damned (the first three albums I bought were Rick Wakeman’s King Arthur, Damned Damned Damned and Peter Gabriel), and have long considered them massively underrated. So I was trying to think of a link between them, as your editorial suggested. I thought I’d cracked it with Paul & Barry Ryan’s Eloise as I think it was an Arthur Greenslade arrangement, and Jon Lord did sessions for him… But no, although Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones were…

THE HARD STUFF REVIEWS ALBUMS Svvamp Svvamp 2 RIDINGEASY Awesome swamp-rock sequel. Authentically analogue and totally unpretentious, Svvamp 2 sounds exactly like it’s been beamed in from some dusty Old Grey Whistle Test broadcast circa 1971 – all that’s missing is Whispering Bob Harris providing a wry word or two as an intro. As with their self-titled debut, what floats this Swedish trio’s heavy psych-blues boat is groove above all else. Whether it’s the gritty riff-driven Queen, the funkily strutting Out Of Line or Canned Heat-esque fluidity of How Sweet It Would Be, it’s about the swing and feel of the tune, all the while channelling the likes of early ZZ Top (circa First Album), Creedence and Cream. Throw in the soulful psych-pop of Sunshine Street and the flailing riff beast…

THE HARD STUFF REISSUES Various Contract In Blood: A History Of UK Thrash Metal Cherry Red Now That’s What I Call Thrash. The encyclopaedic sleeve notes accompanying the five-disc Contract In Blood examine the reasons why UK thrash metal has at times been unfairly “overlooked and underrated” compared with more lauded examples of the genre from strongholds such as Germany and America. Mosh your way through the 83 classic, contemporary and forgotten bands included here, and you’ll most likely agree that many of them certainly had (or have) the riffs and chops to go the distance internationally. The compilers have scoured the UK to gather tracks from albums, self-released EPs and demo tapes (some sounding lo-fi but never unlistenable) recorded over the past four decades. It begins, appropriately, with Sons…

REVIEWS Steve Miller Band Miller’s tale told through first nine albums, now remastered. Available separately too. Complete Albums Volume 1 (1968-1976) UMC/CAPITOL GETTY Steve Miller may be renowned as the multiplatinum mainstay of US classic rock radio thanks to his era-defining 70s hits but, as this handsome box attests, his entry into that world was with solid-gold psychedelic classics. After growing up in Texas and honing his prodigious guitar chops at Chicago blues clubs, Miller landed in exploding 1966 San Francisco and formed the band that signed to Capitol and wangled recording their first album at London’s fabled Olympic Studios with budding producer Glyn Johns. Coated in experimentation, 1968’s Children Of The Future (8/10) boasted Sgt. Pepper-style concept suites, mixing proto-prog Mellotron balladry, freak-beat blues, pre-CSN vocal harmonies and the…

LIVE! Manic Street Preachers Nicky Wire and co. refuse to go gentle into that good night. London Wembley Arena GETTY ‘The Manics remain wilfully, defiantly misunderstood.’ Middle age suits the Manic Street Preachers better than anyone could have ever imagined. The eyeliner and spray paint were swapped for unbuttoned suits a long time ago, and those death-or-glory proclamations have been sunk by the baggage of history, but 30 years after their debut single Suicide Alley they’re as confoundingly unique as they ever were. Tonight presents an incomplete cross-section of a career that has constantly resisted expectation. The fixtures and fittings are unchanging: leopard skin-clad anthems Motorcycle Emptiness and You Love Us still slot comfortably between the Spector-esque grandeur of If You Tolerate This… and A Design For Life. Slogans, quotes…

Idles Political party. London Heaven The ascension of Bristol post-punks Idles since they released their debut full-length album in March last year has been swift. Their blend of incendiary social commentary and anthemic singalong choruses has seen them win a dedicated fan base, land a support slot with Foo Fighters and tour US tour on their own. Tonight they’re performing their biggest headline show to date. Frontman Joe Talbot is a compelling focal point, spitting out his sharp lyrics with equal parts fury and subtle disquiet, while guitarists Mark Bowen and Lee Kiernan take turns to launch themselves and get carried out as far as their guitar leads will allow. Set opener Heel/Heal rallies furiously against the mundanity of suburban life, while new song Samaritans is an eye-wateringly honest account…

MY SOLID GROUND My Solid Ground, Baccilus Records, Germany, 1971. £1,250 My Solid Ground formed in Russelsheim, Germany in 1968, and included 14-year-old guitarist Bernhard Rendel. By 1970 they had become popular in the local scene, and later in the year recorded an epic 24-minute psychedelic/progressive track titled Flash which won them second place in a competition for SWF Radio and led to a record deal. In early 1971 the band recorded what has become one of the most sought-after LPs of the early Krautrock era, although to describe the album purely as Krautrock would be misleading, as a lot of it is simply great hard/heavy rock. Opening track Dirty Yellow Mist is a prime example of the strange sonic assault associated with the Krautrock genre. It’s a captivatingly dark…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES Brent Cobb The swampy country bluesman puts “a little more gas on the fire” for his latest album. CHOSEN BY JAREN JOHNSTON OF THE CADILLAC THREE “Right now my life is everything I dreamed it ever could be.” THE ANNALS OF country music are full of songs about escaping rural America for the bright lights of the city. But Brent Cobb isn’t having any of that. Instead, the Georgia native, brought up in the tiny enclave of Ellaville, has pined for the old place. “I was the opposite of most people,” he explains. “I loved the small-town life and I never consciously made the decision to leave. I’ve been working ever since to get back home. It’s a theme that shows up in a lot of my…

CHOSEN BY LUKE MORLEY OF THUNDER AS TOLD TO HENRY YATES; BARON WOLMAN/ATLASICONS.COM “I wasn’t aware of Hendrix until he died, bizarrely. It was 1970. I was about ten years old. I was watching the news item and there was a film of him playing with his teeth and smashing it up at Monterey. I said: ‘Dad, can I have a guitar, please?’ So it’s no exaggeration to say that the reason I picked up a guitar was because of Hendrix. “The next few years, I literally wore out my copy of Are You Experienced. I only ever had one guitar lesson at school, and when I told the teacher my favourite guitar player was Hendrix, he said: ‘I don’t think I can help you.’ So I played the records…

THE ENDLESS ROAD In 2012 the Scorpions said it was all over. They set off on a goodbye world tour – it hasn’t ended yet. Now, guitarist Rudolf Schenker says he has no plans to hang up his Flying V any time soon. Interview: Dave Everley “I can’t slow down now. There’s still too much to do!”Rudolf Schenker For someone who was supposed to be retiring several years ago, Rudolf Schenker is in lively form. Rather than tending his herbaceous borders or doing the Saga magazine sudoku, the 69-year-old guitarist with the Scorpions is leading the iconic German rockers on yet another round-the-world trek as part of their ongoing Crazy World tour, titled after their 1990 album of the same name, and which includes a show at London’s O2 Arena…

AMAZING GRACE Jeff Buckley’s move to New York in the early 90s was the flashpoint for the classic album that would outlive him. The late singer’s collaborator Gary Lucas remembers a “fucking star” who burned bright and fast. Words: Henry Yates “When Jeff started singing, my jaw literally dropped. I was staggered.”Gary Lucas GETTY X3 Gary Lucas still tingles at the memory. It was the spring of 1991, and at St Ann’s Church in New York, the former Captain Beefheart guitarist was packing up his gear when a stranger approached. “He was vibrating,” Lucas remembers. “He looked on fire. His eyes were flashing and he was jumping out of his skin. And I knew right away this was Jeff Buckley. He looked just like his dad.” Sixteen years after heroin…

CHOSEN BY RICHIE SAMBORA AS TOLD TO DAVE EVERLEY “Bruce Springsteen is a ridiculous, amazing songwriter and communicator who knows that the power of the song is the foundation of everything. And then he’s surrounded by a band of incredible musicians that have been together so long. You can’t help but be caught up in what they do up on stage. When I was in Australia last year he called me up on stage and I played with the E Street Band for forty minutes. That was style. “Little Steven [interviewed on page 110] has been my confidant for years. I met him when I was a young kid, when he was super-successful. He was always this approachable guy, he always took a liking to me. I’d give him a…

COUNTRY FILE The Cadillac Three’s Jaren Johnston gives us 10 country-rock recommendations. Interview: Rob Hughes HANNAH DASHER: JON MORGAN/PRESS A part from being the frontman, guitarist and primary songwriter with The Cadillac Three, Jaren Johnston has also written for Nashville big hitters including Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Rascal Flatts and Dierks Bentley. He grew up immersed in classic rock and grunge, before “going back to my roots and pulling from those early country artists I heard”. All of which means he’s perfectly primed to give Classic Rock his tips for the country-rock stars of the future, as well as paying tribute to a couple of overlooked artists of older vintage. KEITH WHITLEY Seeing Keith Whitley at the Grand Ole Opry, when I was about eight years old, was a huge…

CHOSEN BY JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR AS TOLD TO GRANT MOON “I started playing electric guitar in my early teens, and my dad tried to find players I’d like – Slash and Paul Kossoff, guys like that. Then one day he got me Stevie Ray Vaughan’s DVD Live From Austin, Texas, and he got to me straight away. “Stevie was the whole package. Of course he was an incredible guitar player, but he also had a great voice. Like Hendrix, I don’t think he always thought he did, but on slow blues songs like Ain’t Gonna Give Up On Love and The Sky Is Crying, he’s got this warm tone, and you really want to hear him. “I’d heard blues through my dad’s collection of old, scratchy Charley Patton and Big…

CHOSEN BY STEVEN WILSON GETTY “I love the way Eno challenges the traditional ideas of what music is and what makes a musician. He seems to approach sound more like a painter, in that it can be like a perfume that fills a space and changes the way you relate to it, you don’t necessarily need melody, rhythm or structure to engage the listener. Many people think of him as an ideas man / conceptualist and therefore not a musician at all, but I actually think that he’s the very definition of a brilliant musician in that he knows what to play, when to play and how to play it (and conversely what, when and how not to play). He always brings out the very best in others when he…

WHAT I’VE LEARNED FROM THE ROLLING STONES Quireboys frontman Spike talks about the elements of sound, style and more that he’s picked up from his biggest inspiration: the Greatest Rock’n’Roll Band In The World. Interview: Henry Yates If you hadn’t guessed from his gypsy-rock wardrobe and musical swagger that Spike is a Rolling Stones obsessive, then the Quireboys leader will gladly spell it out. “They’re the whole reason we started this band,” he says, as he prepares to share his Stones-spun wisdom. “I grew up with them from when I was a kid. Y’know, I’d sing along with the records. I’d sit there and write out all the lyrics. And they’re a band that I’ve stuck with for the rest of my life.” “The Stones are the whole reason we…

CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM OF THE WEEK CLUB Every week we choose a classic album – some obscure, some well known – and share knowledge and opinion. Listen and debate with us at: teamrock.com/aotw. Have your say on the history of rock, one album at a time… And you might just see yourself in print. Odessey & Oracle THE ZOMBIES (1968) WHAT YOU SAID Ed Brown: This is why I joined this club, to discover albums that I would have otherwise not have given the time of day. The only song that I was familiar with was Time Of The Season, and I just wrote it off as some boring ass hippy shit, but the rest of the album is surprisingly solid. Care Of Cell 44 is a new personal favourite.…

CHOSEN BY ALICE COOPER YARDBIRDS: REX; ALICE COOPER: ROB FENN/PRESS “We were kids, just discovering The Beatles and Rolling Stones, The Who and the Kinks. Then all of a sudden, I heard I’m A Man by the Yardbirds. And I went: ‘What was all that?’ That guitar had its own life. They were my favourite band. I think Rave Up might be one of my favourite five albums ever made. They weren’t just a blues-rock band. Every time they’d come up with a song – Evil Hearted You, Happenings Ten Years Time Ago, Shapes Of Things – I’d never heard anything like it. “How many bands can say they had Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page as guitar players? I’d like to read about the transitional period when they…

REVIEWS Def Leppard The first in a series of four boxed sets covering the band’s career to date: the Steve Clark years. Rock Of Ages Volume One BLUDGEON RIFFOLA/MERCURY/UME ROSS HALFIN/PRESS ‘Leppard’s career has been based on quality not quantity.’ Many of us were disappointed by Def Leppard’s debut album in 1980, On Through The Night, but then blown away as each of the next three proved stronger than the one before. Even now, only a fool would cheapen such gold-plated received wisdom with revisionist thinking. The assessment is underlined by sales figures that started in seven figures (!), doubled for High ’N’ Dry and rose to 10m for Pyromania and 25m for Hysteria. This boxed set is built around those first four albums, so covers the period from the…

THE HARD STUFF STUFF BOOKS & DVDs Alone With Chrissie Hynde EAGLE Doc on the great Pretender. ’No one to say: “You’re doing it wrong”,’ Chrissie Hynde sings gleefully over that trademark Pretenders sound at the beginning of this 90-minute Arena documentary. ‘I’m at my best. I’m where I belong. Alone… I like it!’ It’s all about the pose, the stance, the toughness. Chrissie Hynde is a rock chick through and through, always engaged, lively, questioning… talking about and shopping for clothes in Paris, eulogising Bob Dylan’s unaffected aesthetics. Obsession. Glamour. “None of the greats look like bums,” she points out, looking anything but. Chrissie Hynde. She’s been through it all (or most all) and back again. “I’m a lone, hungry, irritable wolf,” she tells Sandra Bernhand in New York.…

Monster Magnet Get ready for a real mindf**k of a live show. Frontman Dave Wyndorf looks ahead to the latest British tour from the New Jersey stoner rockers, which is preceded by a Sunday night headline set at London’s Desertfest weekender. A couple of years back you told Classic Rock you didn’t feel like writing new material, and that another Monster Magnet album would need to be “something special”. Eventually some shorter songs started to come along and they made me think: “The guys in the band are playing so well, I should write again.” And that’s what I did. Classic Rock called Mindfucker “the first MM album since Powertrip [in 1998] to truly deliver the goods”. Listen, I know we’re a strange band that makes very different types of…

Volbeat Rockabilly metallers get ready for the festival season. Named in praise of volume and beat, these Danes have had a slow but steady rise in popularity here in the UK. A jaunt around Europe’s summer festivals includes a prestigious Main Stage slot at Download. We caught up with their frontman, rhythm guitarist and leader Michael Poulsen. Back in 2010, you promised Classic Rock you’d “prove that the UK cannot live without Volbeat”. Within three years the band were headlining Brixton Academy. It’s not like we’ve toured much in the UK, but when we go there it’s always very good. To be third on the bill on the Main Stage at Download is pretty impressive. How did you achieve that? We have great followers and they travel to follow us.…

Peter Perrett Ultimate survivor’s serpentine genius shines again. London Islington Assembly Hall That Peter Perrett has survived decades of drug abuse and illness is one thing. That his comeback album and tour have been a master class in louche, languid rock and lyrical understatement is quite another. This isn’t just about cheering him for turning up; it’s a great, gritty and graceful show in itself. He’s sparing on material from his old band the Only Ones, confident that his new material radiates. So while we all sing along merrily with classic lines such as ‘I’m in love with extreme mental torture’, we also join in on recent zingers like ‘I’m still just about capable of one last defiant breath.’ Like a South London Leonard Cohen, Perrett was doing dryly ironic…