Classic Rock

welcome

Welcome to the first issue of 2020! I hope you’re not still nursing hangovers from your New Year’s celebrations, but if you are, then I hope this issue will help to ease the pain. As 2020 rolls by, so do a lot of important anniversaries in the rock world. So this month we’re taking you back to the first weeks of 1970, when The Doors were about to unleash Morrison Hotel on to an unsuspecting public. Frontman Jim Morrison was navigating a run-in with the law, the band were blacklisted by radio and were in a bit of trouble. Nevertheless, they rose to the challenge and delivered what would be their most successful album in the UK. Read more from page 26. Elsewhere we take a walk on the dark side of…

this month’s contributors

BILL DEMAIN Bill DeMain is a songwriter, BBC correspondent and the owner/guide of the Walkin’ Nashville music history tour. His songs appear on upcoming releases by A Girl Called Eddy and Curtis Stigers. This month he delved into Band Of Gypsys for us. Read about his investigations into Jimi Hendrix from page 52. DAVE LING News and Lives Editor Dave Ling is a member of the team that founded Classic Rock back in 1998. As ever, he’s been very busy this issue. In addition to his regular duties, he spoke with Magnum, Girlschool, Five Finger Death Punch, Keb’ Mo’, Adam Wakeman and Damian Wilson for the lives section, and managed to find time to speak with Corky Laing and chronicle his unbelievable life (page 44). IAN FORTNAM Classic Rock’s Reviews Editor Ian Fortnam was initially…

classic rock

Editor Siân Llewellyn Now playing: Marcus King, El Dorado Production Editor Paul Henderson Cream, Goodbye Tour Live 1968 Reviews Editor Ian Fortnam Mott The Hoople, The Golden Age Of Rock ‘N’ Roll Art Editor Darrell Mayhew The Wildhearts, Renaissance Men Online Editor Fraser Lewry Black Smoke Trigger, Set It Off Features Editor Polly Glass H.e.a.t., II News/Lives Editor Dave Ling Vambo, Vambo Contributing writers Marcel Anders, Geoff Barton, Tim Batcup, Mark Beaumont, Max Bell, Essi Berelian, Simon Bradley, Rich Chamberlain, Stephen Dalton, Rich Davenport, Johnny Dee, Malcolm Dome, Lee Dorrian, Mark Ellen, Claudia Elliott, Paul Elliott, Dave Everley, Jerry Ewing, Hugh Fielder, Eleanor Goodman, Gary Graff, Michael Hann, John Harris, Nick Hasted, Barney Hoskyns, Jon Hotten, Rob Hughes, Neil Jeffries, Emma Johnston, Jo Kendall, Dom Lawson, Dannii Leivers, Ken McIntyre, Lee Marlow, Gavin Martin, Alexander Milas, Paul Moody, Grant Moon, Luke Morton, Kris Needs,…

“they turned up at the nashville as a pub-rock band”

COPYRIGHT FUTURE 2019 A NEW LIMITED-edition coffee-table book showcases AC/DC’s years of 1976 to 1981, a period in the band’s history that most fans consider peerless. Big Balls is a 272-page, largely pictorial tome that pulls together photos from the photographers Dick Barnatt, Michael Putland, Fin Costello, George Bodnar and Martyn Goddard, covering AC/DC from their first visit to the UK up to their headlining spot at the second Monsters Of Rock festival a half-decade later. At Castle Donington, with Brian Johnson having replaced the late, great Bon Scott on vocals, and part of a bill that also included Whitesnake, Blue Öyster Cult, Blackfoot, Slade and More, they were watched by 85,000 fans. As an in-house photographer for Atlantic Records, Dick Barnatt got to work closely with the band after he’d watched…

rip

Martin Hooker February 4, 1953 – November 18, 2019 Members of Metallica, Twisted Sister and Paradise Lost have paid tribute to the founder of their former record label, Music For Nations, who has died at the age of 66 following a long illness. “Martin was the first guy with the sack to sign Twisted Sister,” commented the American band. “Also, he caught a piece of fruit thrown at us at the Reading Festival… and ate it!” Iain Sutherland November 17, 1948 – November 25, 2019 Brothers born in Aberdeen, Gavin and Iain Sutherland were a folk- and softrock duo known as the Sutherland Brothers, who performed with the band Quiver. The biggest hit of this alliance was Arms Of Mary in 1976, and a cover of the Sutherland brothers’ song Sailing was a big hit…

michael putland

IT HAS OFTEN BEEN suggested that Michael Putland did not have a single day off during the 1970s. As one of the decade’s most successful, popular and ubiquitous music photographers, with an archive that runs from ABBA to Zappa and just about everything in between, it’s easy to see why such an opinion could be true. Born in Harrow, just outside of London, Putland picked up his first camera at the age of nine. After leaving school he began work at a photographic studio, and eventually became a regular contributor to Disc & Music Echo. After being hired as the official photographer for the Rolling Stones’ 1973 tour, he never looked back, and went on to take iconic photos of Led Zeppelin, David Bowie, Jimi Hendrix, Elton John, The Beatles, Marc…