Classic Rock
February 2022Every month Classic Rock is packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features on rock’s biggest names, from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, from Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, from the Sex Pistols to AC/DC and beyond. Each issue plays host to the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you’ll find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock - whether it’s hard rock or heavy metal, prog or punk, goth rock or southern rock, we’ve got it covered.
in this issue
welcome
And so it begins… Welcome to 2022. Let’s hope it’s a year in which things start to settle down into something a little more ‘normal’. What better way to kick off the year than by talking to none other than Slash. He’s kicking of 2022 with a brand new album made in the company of Myles Kennedy And The Conspirators, and this issue he sits down with our Paul Elliott for the Classic Rock Interview. Paul was one of the first UK journalists to interview Slash back in the day, so he was perfectly placed to talk to the guitarist to run through his life story – and what a life story – to date. This month I’d also like to use this space for a spot of shameless promotion. We…
this month’s contributors
RICH DAVENPORT Rich Davenport is a music journalist, stand-up comedian and musician, and has been a regular contributor to Classic Rock since 2016. For this issue he caught up with Magnum vocalist Bob Catley to get a memories-filled tour of highlights from the band’s back catalogue (starting on page 56) as they celebrate their 50th anniversary. DAVE EVERLEY We managed to keep ‘Diamond’ Dave Everley out of trouble this month by getting him to watch about a million and seven promotional music video clips as he put together our feature on rock’s greatest music videos (page 37). Dave also managed to find the time to shoot the breeze with Zakk Wylde. Read that conversation from page 22. MARK BEAUMONT Mark Beaumont is a music journalist whose work has appeared in publications including NME, The Guardian,…
22 things to look forward to in ’22
THE DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL RETURNS AS WE KNEW IT (Touch wood.) Following last summer’s reduced capacity, covid-friendly pilot event – one of the first moments when we began to see daylight at the end of the tunnel – Iron Maiden, Kiss and Biffy Clyro lead an international line-up at Download’s spiritual home, Donington Park, over the weekend of June 10 to 12. A NEW OZZY OSBOURNE ALBUM The Double-O might have delayed his long-awaited UK tour (with special guests Judas Priest) by another year, but the follow-up to 2020’s Ordinary Man is due by the end of this year. And it features a guest guitar solo from Ozzy’s former Black Sabbath bandmate Tony Iommi. “It’s good. It’s really good. And I like what Ozzy sang on it,” Iommi teases HANKIES AT THE READY FOR THOSE…
john miles
TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid to vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter John Miles, best known for his 1976 top-three single Music. He was 72 years old when he passed away peacefully after a very short illness. A statement from his family said: “We will all miss John more than words could ever express. He will live on forever in our hearts and with the wonderful musical legacy he has left behind. You were our first love and will be our last. Our husband, father, grandfather and hero.” Miles was born John Errington in Jarrow, County Durham, and grew up in nearby Hebburn. After learning his trade with The Influence, who also featured Roxy Music drummer Paul Thompson and Georgie guitarist Vic Malcolm, he launched a solo career in 1975. The multi-tempoed, classically enhanced strains of…
mick rock
MICK ROCK, THE photographer whose iconic images of David Bowie, Queen, Lou Reed and many more lit up the 70s, has died aged 72 of as-yet unknown cause. Rock was born in West London in 1948, and took up photography as a hobby while studying Medieval and Modern Languages at Cambridge University. Among his iconic portraits were the covers of Syd Barrett’s The Madcap Laughs, Iggy And The Stooges’ Raw Power, Bowie’s Pin-Ups and Lou Reed’s Transformer. “I had a degree in modern languages, and I had an obsession with crazy poets – Shelley, Byron – and also the beats,” Rock told Classic Rock in 2004. “I aspired to that life – sex and abusive chemicals. I didn’t necessarily want to be a photographer, more a writer or a lyricist. But all…
rip
Greg Mayne November 28, 1953 - November 13, 2021 Greg Mayne, the original bassist with doom-metal pioneers Pentagram, has died from lung cancer. He was 68 years old. Mayne was a member of the US group – who inspired many bands that followed, among them Trouble, Candlemass and Cathedral and others – for two spells, from 1971 to ’76 and then from ’88 to ’89. After leaving Pentagram he played with a number of acts, including Mayne-Lyon and Medicine Man. Stephen Sondheim March 22, 1930 – November 26, 2021 New Yorker Stephen Sondheim was among the most important people in the world of musical theatre. He was mentored by Hollywood musicals great Oscar Hammerstein, and his compositions included music for West Side Story, Gypsy and Sweeney Todd. Upon hearing the news of his death, Paul…
