Sommaire pour Summer 2018 de Classic Rock

WELCOME The Jean Genie, Suffragette City, Space Oddity, Rebel Rebel, Moonage Daydream… Honestly, how can you choose just one favourite David Bowie song? The man was responsible for one of the greatest songwriting canons in rock. Just think of the different styles and ch-ch-changes Bowie went through – from 60s singer-songwriter to glam-rock hero to austere Berlin artiste to metallic Tin Machine frontman to 80s soul popper to electro experimentalist… The list of his distinctive guises is almost as long as the list of his songs. But that evil question is exactly what we asked the great and good of rock this issue. Try to answer it yourself – it’s tough. I think if push came to shove, my choice would probably be “Heroes”. A popular answer, yes, but it’s…

RIP Thank you and good night. Glenn Snoddy May 4, 1922 – May 21, 2018 Glenn Snoddy, hailed as the unwitting inventor of guitar distortion, has died at his home in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. The studio engineer found a way of channelling a fuzzy tone heard during a recording session for country star Marty Robbins in 1960. His effect, the Maestro Fuzz-Tone, became a key part of the arsenal of guitarists across all genres. Snoddy was 96 years old. Ben Graves Died May 8, 2018 Nicknamed The Ghoul, the drummer for US shock-rockers Murderdolls, industrial metal band Dope, transatlantic rockers AntiProduct and, most recently, Pretty Boy Floyd, Ben Graves has lost an 11-month battle with cancer. He was 46 years old. Mikael Fässberg Died May 13, 2018 The former guitarist of…

NEWS David Gilmour, Van Morrison and Bill Nighy are among the guests set to appear when the The Pretty Things bring the curtain down on their 55-year career at London’s IndigO2 on December 13. Ginger Wildheart received a six-month suspended sentence and a £500 fine from a Belfast court in response to causing actual bodily harm to an audience member at a gig in County Antrim last year. Ginger later tweeted that he tried to take his own life following the altercation. “It was as good a verdict as I could have hoped for,” he comments. Former members of the bands Magnum and Grand Slam have assembled a new group called Kingdom Of Madness with a view to celebrating Magnum’s catalogue from 1978 to 1994. The line-up includes keyboard players…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground HAIRY CHAPTER Can’t Get Through, Bacillus Records, Germany, 1971. £450. Can’t Get Through is one of the wildest, most uncompromising and beautifully schizophrenic hard rock albums of its time. The underground German rock scene was really happening during the late 60s/early 70s, and by 1971 these guys were shaking and screaming from right at its core. Coming together in 1966 in Bonn, they started out as the Concrete Movement, before releasing their debut album in 1969 under the pseudonym Chaparall Electric Sound. Their first as Hairy Chapter was the bluesy, progressive and slightly psychedelic album Eyes. ‘One of the wildest hard rock albums of its time.’ Sharing the stage with Sabbath on several occasions obviously impacted their sound and aggression, although the complex/off-the-wall…

WELCOME BACK Sons Of Apollo Derek Sherinian talks supergroups, keeping egos in check and getting “back into the trenches” playing clubs. SONS OF APOLLO, the new band comprised of Derek Sherinian, Jeff Scott Soto, Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Billy Sheehan and Mike Portnoy, are putting in some serious miles in support of their debut album Psychotic Symphony. The record combines Portnoy and Sherinian’s prog chops alongside 80s rock riffing from former GN’R guitarist Bumblefoot. Ahead of their visit to the UK, which includes playing Ramblin’ Man Fair, we talk to keyboard player Sherinian about the virtuoso supergroup. “This is a new band and we have to grind it out.” Sons Of Apollo reunites you with your one-time Dream Theater bandmate Mike Portnoy. How did the band come about? I reunited in…

Q&A Paul Rodgers The singer’s singer on his influences, meeting his soul mates and honouring the spirit of his former bandmates. Words: Mick Wall PHOTOSHOT “I do believe in spirit. I believe in the power of spirit. I think it pervades music.” Paul Rodgers is a man of complementing tastes. Once a notorious hellraiser in the traditional rock-star manner, these days he meditates and emanates positive vibrations. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is that voice. Listening to him singing on his new CD/DVD release Free Spirit, a collection of Free classics recorded at the Albert Hall last year, is to be transported. Not back in time, but ahead to a place where the musical spirit really does move you. And it’s not just the hits such as All Right…

GHOST HIS DARK MATERIALS Schlock-horror clerics Ghost are back with a new line-up of ghouls. In a lawsuit filed by his former bandmates last year, frontman Papa Emeritus was revealed to be Tobias Forge. But, as he tells us in his new alias Cardinal Copia, he doesn’t intend to be defrocked just yet. Words: Nick Hasted “A lot of very sinister-looking bands had a very vibrant life inside me and my friends’ heads. I wanted Ghost to have that fanzine aura. I wanted it to trigger your imagination.” Swede walks into a bar. Tobias Forge is 37, with a shock of black, possibly dyed, slightly spiked hair. He has an open, blandly handsome face, and smiles easily as he calmly speaks in slightly Americanised English. He blows neither hot nor…

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling Gioeli-Castronovo Set The World On Fire FRONTIERS Frontman Johnny Gioeli and drummer Deen Castronovo first worked together in Hardline, along with Journey guitarist Neal Schon. Despite its outstanding quality their debut, Double Eclipse, was all but lost in a fashion parade of flannel shirts. Schon hightailed it out of Hardline after MCA dropped the band. Last year, a quarter-century later, Gioeli, still using the Hardline handle, was reunited with Castronovo (whose reputation was tarnished by the ugly domestic violence charges that saw Journey boot him out) for this fine collaborative release. With the ubiquitous Alessandro Del Vecchio on keyboards and writing its core songs, the sound is very much tilted towards Journey. Although undeniably familiar, the opening title track leaps out of the speakers. The…

Jethro Tull 50 For 50 PARLOPHONE Life’s a long song: definitive, Anderson-picked anniversary collection. While credible half-century anniversaries with a full-provenance band can be reasonably counted on the number of hands needed to pick up a flute, it’d be a churlish cove who denies Jethro Tull’s admission into this rarefied club. Singularly helmed, driven and shepherded by the idiosyncratic multi-instrumentalist Ian Anderson, the band’s furrow and trajectory is analogous to none. A boiled-down precis of this – British blues into folk-informed agrarian rock subsequently given a light synth polish – tells only a partial story, one that’s fully illustrated here. Though hardly underrepresented in terms of greatest hits releases (well into double figures), this three-disc collection immediately trumps and supersedes all before it with a coherence and scope that’s positively…

LIVE! America The US band play a one-off show in London, where they formed 48 years ago. “We were in our late teens, and things clicked so fast. Little did we know the amount of ups and downs that lay ahead.” Best known for their worldwide 1972 hit Horse With No Name, America have had an up-and-down career as middle-of-the-road stalwarts. Singer/guitarist Dewey Bunnell, one of two original members in the line-up (Dan Peek passed away in 2011) talks anniversaries, George Martin and his relationship with fellow mainstay, vocalist/keyboard player Gerry Beckley. 2018 marks the forty-eighth year the band have been going. How does that make you feel? It’s snuck up on us, that’s for sure. The last two decades have been a blur, not for any particular reason except…

LIVE! Supersonic Blues Machine The band head to London for their first ever headlining UK show. Currently touring their second album, Californisoul, Supersonic Blues Machine are a trio comprised of guitarist Lance Lopez, bassist/producer Fabrizio Grossi and drummer Kenny Aronoff. Grossi reveals all about their debut UK headline show, which features a cameo from ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons. What is Supersonic Blues Machine – a band, a vehicle for you or simply a concept? It’s all of the above, the evolution of an idea that Kenny Aronoff and I had while working with Steve Lukather [of Toto]. It’s slightly unusual for the rhythm section to choose the collaborators, but what SBM does is allow us to play music with a whole host of friends and fellow players. Warren Haynes, Walter…

LIVE! Download Festival Donington Park, Leicestershire The great, the good, the disappointing, the done-it-all and the wide-eyed aspirational strut their stuff at the UK’s biggest rock and metal gathering. ‘As glorious as it is predictable, the set-list is peerlessly strong.’ ‘GN’R deliver a proper headline show, built on a blockbuster scale.’ Friday Download: the field of dark dreams where metallers, Vikings, vampires, Sith and Harley Quinn’s toting inflatable AK47s roam free, overlooked by Beelzebub’s bulldog staring down from the hillside. And amid the Dastardly And Minions wander several longhairs in white jeans and T-shirts far too clean to truly honour their grimy godhead The Lord Of The Keg and all its Bud-chugging dominions. In a shirt that hasn’t seen a biological capsule since 2001, Andrew WK pulls demon faces and…

LIVE! DeWolff / The Dust Coda London The Black Heart Dutch masters echo the great hard rockers of the 70s. KEVIN NIXON X2 ‘DeWolff sound like Deep Purple by way of the American south.’ John Drake looks like he might punch your face off. For the leader of a band that’s only a couple of years old, The Dust Coda frontman possesses a striking mix of confidence and arrogance, which manifests itself in an intense, confrontational stare. He uses this to put the fear of God into any audience member who might not respond to his band, but tonight’s audience is on side, and as they swagger through a selection of songs from last year’s self-titled debut album, it seems The Dust Coda are bound for bigger rooms. Drake is…

This month’s contributors GRANT MOON Now slightly less hirsute than this photograph would suggest, music journalist and radio producer Grant has been a Classic Rock contributor for over 16 years. In this issue he talks to Mike Peters about The Alarm’s new album, Equals (p72), and genuinely hopes you’ll get behind Mike’s amazing cancer charity lovehopestrength.co.uk MAX BELL A cockney Leeds fan who grew up with The Beatles but is an American music fanatic, Max has been hanging round musicians and asking them cheeky questions since, cough, 1974. This issue he talked to Mott The Hoople (p54). Max is currently consulting and writing for a Grateful Dead In Egypt exhibition at the Haight Street Art Centre in San Francisco. TAVIS COBURN Designer/illustrator Tavis Coburn is the mastermind behind this month’s…

NEWS Def Leppard have put their name to their own beer. The Sheffield band collaborated with Seattle’s Elysian Brewing Company to launch Def Leppard Pale on May 23. Singer Joe Elliott says of the brew (6% alcohol by volume): “It tastes great. I would pass on doing an interview about [the product] if I didn’t like it.” System Of A Down guitarist Daron Malakian says it’s unlikely that the band will record a new album. He blames their failed attempts to record a follow-up to 2005’s Hypnotize on “creative differences”. The American-Armenian band will, however, continue to tour. Canadian band Monster Truck return with a third album on September 14. True Rockers, the follow-up to 2016’s Sittin’ Heavy, features a guest appearance from Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider on True…

NEWS Fans of the Swedish band Ghost have raised more than $6,700 (£5,000) for the family of Jeffrey Fortune, who passed away at a Ghost concert in Milwaukee. Fortune, 52, suffered a heart attack during the show’s interval. Ghost, touring a fourth album, Prequelle, cancelled the rest of the performance. Fast-rising US classic rockers Greta Van Fleet have completed their debut full-length studio album. It’s expected to be available by the end of the year. Jonathan Cain believes that his feud with Journey bandmate Neal Schon is over and done with. “We just finished five days of rehearsal and completely reset with each other,” Cain tells New York radio station Q103. “In 38 years there’s always going to be a bump in the road. I think we’re ready to move…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial standouts. &Sons Frontier jeans From their very first foray into the world with a Kickstarter campaign, &Sons have had their thing nailed on. Here are their new 12oz heavyweight selvedge denims, the Frontier Jeans, which are built to last. Tailored for a straight fit with additional chore pocket and stitched turn-ups – plus a denim bike strap to keep your trews out of the chain – over time these will just get better. A worthwhile investment in your style future. £140 @AndSonsUK AndSons.co.uk Slackjaw 5th Anniversary tee UK-based crew Slackjaw are going from strength to strength. They’ve really laid out what they’re about in the last year or so, giving you all you…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young Our House At a time when the USA was imploding under the stress of the Vietnam War, this vision of domestic bliss was just what America needed, says Graham Nash. Words: Ed Mitchell MAIN: JOEL BERNSTEIN/PRESS; ONLY FOOLS AND HORSES: GETTY In June 1970, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young released the protest anthem Ohio. Recorded on May 21 that year, the song documents Neil Young’s outrage at the killing of four students by National Guardsmen during a protest march at Kent State University on May 4. The students’ anger had been directed at president Richard Nixon and his decision to backtrack on his promise to wind down America’s war effort in Vietnam. In the States, it was now abundantly clear…

THE COVER: ZIG & TWIG THE WONDERKID The iconic Pin Ups photo was originally intended for a different cover – that of British Vogue. The magazine flew photographer Justin De Villeneuve to France to shoot his girlfriend Twiggy with David Bowie (to the model’s excitement, Bowie had name-checked her in Drive-In Saturday). How could a pic of two of the world’s most compelling faces possibly go wrong? “When Twigs and Bowie were together and lit up,” de Villeneuve said, “I looked through the viewfinder and realised that David was pure white, whereas Twiggy was tanned from a holiday in Bermuda. There was a moment of panic because I knew it would look bizarre, but the make-up artist, Pierre LaRoche, suggested drawing masks on them, and this worked out even better.…

DEE SNIDER STILL HUNGRY After having “completely crashed and burned”, former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider is now enjoying the kind of career no one – including him – could have dreamed of. Words: Mick Wall TIM TRONCKOE/PRESS Dee Snider speaks in exclamation marks. A lot of his words also come in italics. “I’m doing awesome,” he says. “Always!” Now 63, Snider’s public persona has hardly changed from the days when he fronted Twisted Sister – loud, proud, unbowed. Hey, he’s a native New Yorker. He leads with his mouth. He talked his way into a successful early-80s splurge with Twisted Sister, followed by the wilderness years after he talked himself out of a job. That’s been followed by a ‘no one could have predicted it’ career as a DJ,…

Essential Playlist Terrapin Syd Barrett THE MADCAP LAUGHS Octopus Syd Barrett THE MADCAP LAUGHS Baby Lemonade Syd Barrett BARRETT Against The Odds Rick Wright WET DREAM Until We Sleep David Gilmour ABOUT FACE All Lovers Are Deranged David Gilmour ABOUT FACE 5:01 (The Pros And Cons Of Hitch Hiking, Pt 10) Roger Waters THE PROS AND CONS OF HITCH HIKING Home Roger Waters RADIO K.A.O.S. What God Wants Pt 1 Roger Waters AMUSED TO DEATH The Bravery Of Being Out Of Range Roger Waters AMUSED TO DEATH The Blue David Gilmour ON AN ISLAND Take A Breath David Gilmour ON AN ISLAND A Boat Lies Waiting David Gilmour RATTLE THAT LOCK Picture That Roger Waters IS THIS THE LIFE WE REALLY WANT? Is This The Life We Really Want? Roger Waters…

No Hot Ashes The band tour a debut album 34 years in the making. During the 80s, melodic hard-rock hopefuls No Hot Ashes moved from Belfast to London, only to implode when their debut album was shelved by GWR Records. In March this year, 34 years after forming, they finally released a debut. Frontman Eamon Nancarrow fills in the gaps. No Hot Ashes took their name from an instruction on council dustbins – not the most salubrious of starts. Whenever people went to their bin, they saw our name. I don’t think that has negative connotations. It was good logic. Why did the original debut album fall by the wayside? GWR went into liquidation, but to be honest there were quality issues. It wasn’t recorded well. That it never saw…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT MAIN: KEVIN NIXON; INSET: GEORGE BODNAR ARCHIVE/ICONICPIX Lights Out – Mogg Calls Time On UFO Singer reveals “bittersweet” decision to retire. UFO LOOK SET to disband after they finish a 50th-anniversary tour next year. Frontman Phil Mogg, the band’s sole constant member since they formed in London in 1969 and who appears on all 22 of their studio records, has announced his intention to retire from studio and live performances once the half-century celebrations are completed. UFO will no longer release any new music, which means that A Conspiracy Of Stars in 2015 and last year’s covers collection The Salentino Cuts are set to become their swansong releases. “This decision has been a long time coming,” Mogg explains. “I’ve considered stepping down at…

WELCOME BACK Roger Manning The former Jellyfish man returns with an EP – but maybe not wearing his old psychedelic wardrobe. ROGER JOSEPH MANNING was glamping before long before that pastime got a name. “As a child, my parents took us into the outdoors regularly – we had a very nice tent, a camper van, a good stove,” says Manning, a former member of beloved early 90s power-poppers Jellyfish. “But I didn’t hear the phrase until about a year ago.” Manning has borrowed the word for Glamping, a new four-track EP released via Pledgemusic that mines a seam of timeless classic melodicism that nods to bands including ELO and Cheap Trick. “I’m a fan of old British glam rock,” he says with a laugh, “so I love the fact it’s…

RAW POWER Jet Packed A Gretsch guitar that’s a little bit country but a lot more rock’n’roll. WHILE MANY ROCK fans will be aware of Gretsch guitars, the models that will most probably come to mind will be the big, flash semi-acoustics sported by old-school players such as Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran and Duane Eddy. Equal parts country and rockabilly, the tone of those instruments is unmistakable, and even when used in a harder rock sphere they always sound as good as they look. It was never just about flashy hollow-bodies, though. By 1955 the company was producing a number of solids under the Jet banner, including the black Duo-Jet, the oriental red Jet Firebird and the beyond-cool Silver Jet. Malcolm Young, who went on to be the best-known out-and-out…

NEWS John Mayall has been forced to postpone a US tour in order to receive medical care due to having pneumonia. Heart’s Ann Wilson releases a new solo album, Immortal, on September 14 via BMG. It features covers of songs by some of her favourite singers, including George Michael’s A Different Corner, Back To Black by Amy Winehouse and the Eagles’ Life In The Fast Lane. Former Slade bassist/violinist Jim Lea releases a new six-song EP, Lost In Space, on June 22 via Weinerworld. Ex-Judas Priest guitarist KK Downing is selling his share of the rights to 136 songs recorded by Priest, including Breaking The Law and Living After Midnight, after his luxury golf resort fell into administration. Saxon have announced a third batch of dates as part of their…

A NICE LITTLE EARNER… While Our House was a reasonable US hit at the time of its release, it subsequently made its mark via TV shows and adverts. The song was quoted in an episode of The Simpsons, sung by Frasier Crane in Cheers, and used to sell sausages in the 80s and Halifax current accounts and mortgages in the 90s. The song is arguably best known to generations of Brits thanks to its use in a episode of Only Fools And Horses. In Time On Our Hands, Our House soundtracks Del Boy and Rodney’s sudden change in fortunes when they find and auction a rare timepiece. Del Boy’s boast of “this time next year we’ll be millionaires” finally comes true. The episode still holds the record for the highest…

DAVID BOWIE GOLDEN YEARS, GOLDEN GREATS BOWIE’S BEST SONGS, AS CHOSEN BY THE STARS. Words: Ian Fortnam Interviews: Dave Everley, Dave Ling, Henry Yates The London Boys B-side of Rubber Band, 1966 The most sophisticated of all Bowie’s early recordings, this frank portrait of a 17-year-old’s attraction – like a moth to a flame – to the capital’s burgeoning mod scene and its strutting peacock ‘faces’ was first recorded back in 1965. A live favourite with a compelling lyric, it was originally passed over for release after producer Tony Hatch raised concerns about its references to drugs (specifically pills). Redolent of The Kinks, but with the bite of kitchen-sink drama, The London Boys nearly saw its verses repurposed as linking passages between Pin Ups’ tracks in ’74, but was ultimately…

RSO GOOD MEDICINE Both were prodigies on the guitar from an early age, both have played with the biggest names in rock and both have survived tragedy. Richie Sambora and Orianthi – collectively known as RSO – tell Classic Rock how they overcame the odds to record their debut album. Words: Dave Everley Portraits: Ross Halfin There are three things Richie Sambora wants you to know. Firstly, he doesn’t regret leaving Bon Jovi. Secondly, he has no plans to rejoin Bon Jovi. And thirdly, there’s absolutely nothing weird about the fact that he’s recorded a version of Sonny & Cher’s cornball duet from 1968 I Got You Babe with his new musical partner and current paramour, Australian guitarist Orianthi – despite the fact that he and Cher had what is…

Saved By The Blues He survived gun-robbery, a near-fatal car crash and a stab at pop stardom to become Grammy-winning blues innovator Fantastic Negrito. And he’s never sounded better than on his new album. Words: Polly Glass Pictures: Johnny Galvan Xavier Dphrepaulezz has the calm but confident manner of someone with nothing to prove. An easy, personable 50-year-old, off stage he goes by ‘X’, although you sense he could pull off ‘Fantastic Negrito’ if he wanted. Sitting in a central London hotel today his tall, slim frame is wrapped in a long patterned jacket, his sizeable Afro under a blue hat. The overall look is part elegant dandy, part friendly hippie. He’s here to promote Please Don’t Be Dead, his second album as Fantastic Negrito. The first, Last Days Of…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Nine Inch Nails Bad Witch NULL CORPORATION The seditious sound of climate change. Metal rusts; technology corrodes. It consumes its source materials, poisons its environs, enslaves its creators. It’s the message of Ahead Of Ourselves, the distorted dubstep keystone of Nine Inch Nails’ ninth album, Bad Witch, which tackles humanity racing ahead into environmental and technological oblivion without a thought for the consequences. It’s also the crux of the album itself – a record of tech-rock rotted to the core. For more than a decade, Trent Reznor and his revolving cast of sidekicks (currently long-standing collaborator Atticus Ross) have been testing the possibilities of on-stage visuals, net-generation album releases (virtual reality games, BitTorrent giveaways, records designed for computer-savvy fans to remix) and just how foul electronica…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS The Darkness Live At Hammersmith COOKING VINYL Touching you, touching me: Lowestoft legends camp it up on raucous live album. Anyone who witnessed The Darkness’ 2017 Tour De Prance tour knows that the band’s live show isn’t just about the music. A rock’n’roll phantasia combining confetti cannons, pyrotechnics and Justin Hawkins performing handstands in a gold catsuit, it was a gloriously OTT reminder of how much fun a rock show can be in these cripplingly conservative times. But strip away the silliness, and what have we got, exactly? Recorded last December at the tail end of global touring for their Top 10 album Pinewood Smile, Live At Hammersmith provides the answers. Open Fire sets the tone. A brutalist sonic barrage topped with Hawkins’s spandex-splitting falsetto, it…

Megadeth Killing Is My Business… And Business Is Good – The Final Cut CENTURY MEDIA/LEGACY With-added-live-tracks reissue of their debut reminds how thrilling the band were. GETTY Hell hath no fury like a thrash metal musician scorned. When Dave Mustaine put together Megadeth in 1983, he was driven by one thing: revenge on his former band Metallica, who had unceremoniously dumped him a few weeks before they went in to the studio record what became their landmark debut album, Kill ’Em All. It took Megadeth two more years to get out of the traps with their own debut, by which time Mustaine had earned a reputation as The Demon Brat Of Thrash, a volatile motormouth with venom and smack running through his veins. If Metallica looked like The Band Most…

THE HARD STUFF BOOKS & DVDs Hammer Of The Gods Stephen Davis PAN Excess all areas: inside look at Led Zep on the road, updated for Zep’s 50th anniversary year. This is the textbook for rock mystique, a breathless yet controlled ride through America as Zeppelin transformed rock through sheer force of musical will, and raised its expectations of decadence. Stephen Davis saw enough first-hand as a journalist travelling in Zep’s Starship in 1975 to seek out the full story he published 10 years later. For better and worse, his key source is Richard Cole, the chief roadie who protected and effectively pimped for Zeppelin. This roadie’s-eye view makes rock mythology profane, revealing the often crude reality of stars’ downtime. Only an English rock band in the 70s would be…

Big Big Train The band go full steam ahead to Basingstoke in July. For multinational proggers Big Big Train, success has been more than a quarter-century in the making. Frontman David Longdon sets the scene for the release of a live album, Merchants Of Light, and a one-off UK show. Merchants Of Light documents last year’s run of shows at London’s Cadogan Hall. Yeah. We picked the best versions of each track performed over those three nights. That’s difficult, as opinions are subjective, but I think its sound has a very even flow. What’s behind the title? Merchants of light are men of enlightenment, dating back to when people stopped believing in the church, who use science and explore the world. We’re celebrating great thinkers like Charles Darwin and Isambard…

LIVE! Rolling Stones / Liam Gallagher London Stadium Time is no longer on their side, but the Stones keep on rolling gloriously. While it’s pretty preposterous to imagine that the Rolling Stones might actually be getting better as they march inexorably towards their 80s, on all available evidence presented here tonight it appears to be so, for this is a vintage show. Ironically, loyal long-time fans are becoming increasingly nervous of purchasing tickets for gigs that could potentially leave a bitter aftertaste. It’s widely reasoned that we’re nearing a time when The Greatest Rock ’N’ Roll Band In The World™ will simply cease to deliver to the standard expected of their rank; that fingers will seize up, synapses snap a little too slowly to keep perfect time and that all-important…

LIVE! Foreigner London Royal Albert Hall The veteran band play the hits in a fan-friendly show, but might it be one of the last from this line-up? GETTY ‘It’s a great show, with lasers, dry ice and a dozen US Top 30 hits.’ Their latest release is symphonically enhanced but Foreigner’s first time at the Albert Hall is presented au naturel. It’s a great show with lasers, dry ice and no less than a dozen US Top 30 hits. What it doesn’t have for the first 35 minutes is Mick Jones, who arrives six songs in. At the age of 73, Foreigner’s leader rarely completes concerts any more and, sadly, one can only wonder how many tours he has left in him. Bringing the band back out for an encore,…

Heavy Load ELP survivor Carl Palmer on liking his chocolate dark and his coffee strong and never having had a beer. Interview: Rob Hughes Heavy questions for heavy rockers “Whenever I’m alone in a church I feel empowered. Something is going on.” Drummers don’t come with much more pedigree than Carl Palmer. As one third of ELP, alongside Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, Palmer helped develop the fluid rhythms and ambitious time signatures of prog, stationed behind a two-ton drum kit designed by British Steel. Either side of ELP’s 70s pomp, he was a member of the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster and another all-star supergroup, Asia. The 68-year-old maintains a prodigious work rate. His latest release is Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy Live, a two-CD package with an in-concert DVD…