Table of contents for Issue 240 in Classic Rock

WELCOME Siân Llewellyn, Editor Time for a confession. I think every rock fan has a band or two that they know they ought to know more about, or ought to listen to, or ought to explore further, but somehow have just never quite managed to get around to it. For me, I’m afraid it’s the Grateful Dead. I know the name, obviously. I could list many of their line-up. I know their logo. I know the names and sleeves of several of their albums. But their music and their myth? Well, I’m afraid I didn’t know all that much. Until this month’s issue, that is, when we decided to put that right once and for all. And in the UK, at least, I’d wager that I’m not alone. Although they’re…

RIP Thank you and good night Melvin ‘Deacon’ Jones December 12, 1943 – July 6, 2017 Walter Trout has led the tributes to the blues-rock organist, 73, calling him a “mentor, teacher and dear friend”. Besides being a member of Chicago’s Baby Huey & the Babysitters, Jones played with Curtis Mayfield, Freddie King and John Lee Hooker, among many others. “Had Deacon not put me in his band back in the mid-1970s, my life would have been very different,” wrote Trout. Kenny Shields Died July 21, 2017 The lead singer of veteran Canadian rockers Streetheart has succumbed to heart failure in Winnipeg. He was 69. Formed in 1977, the group amassed six gold and four platinum records in their homeland. The nation’s own ‘metal queen’, Lee Aaron, tweeted: “There’s great…

Bruce Dickinson gets booked Maiden man’s autobiography out in October! Bruce Dickinson publishes his autobiography, his first, via Harper Collins on October 19. The Iron Maiden frontman wrote the contents of What Does This Button Do? by hand over the last couple of years and throughout the band’s recently completed world tour for The Book Of Souls, which covered 39 countries and 117 shows since February 2016. Dickinson filled seven A4 notebooks with the tales of his life, including thirty years with Maiden, his childhood within the eccentric British school system, his early days as a performer, going solo, carving a parallel career via the flying of jumbo jets and, more recently, a triumph over tongue cancer. The singer, who turned 59 on August 7, wrote two books of comedy…

NEWS Status Quo have announced that their November tour, previously announced as unplugged, will be a ‘plugged in’ electric one instead. Since Rick Parfitt’s death last Christmas, Quo say that “the band is not the same – it can’t be and shouldn’t be – and the plan has changed too. We’re still listening to the fans, we always have, and we’re hearing that this is what they still want. We’re going to give it to them.” Mollie Marriott, daughter of former Small Faces and Humble Pie singer/guitarist Steve Marriott, releases a new album, Truth Is A Wolf, on November 3 via Amadeus Music. The End Of The End, a chronicle of Black Sabbath’s final tour, can be seen for one night only in cinemas worldwide on September 28. For details…

SHOP TO THE BEAT Rock-branded anything is big business. GETTY It doesn’t seem too long ago that the only place you saw band names and logos was on their records and concert posters, and in magazines. The idea of proper ‘merchandising’ – slapping an artist’s image or album artwork on anything and everything – only really started to get into gear in the 70s. Nowadays, everybody’s cashing in with T-shirts, hats, scarves, jackets and just about every item of clothing – very often making more money from the merch than from record sales. Major artists, with huge fan bases, have also branched out into branded beer, spirits, condoms and almost anything else that has space for a logo, a name or an image to be slapped on it. And unless…

LOST GOTHS TWIN PIQUES From goth glory with Gene Loves Jezebel to a bitter split and long-lasting bad blood, twins Michael and Jay Aston look back on their time in the band – and at each other’s throats. Words: Dave Everley LISA HAUN/GETTY “We wanted to be different. We were looking for our own sound, our own look. There was no word for it yet.” Jay Aston Jay Aston can remember when Gene Loves Jezebel started to fall apart. It was around the time of their 1987 album The House Of Dolls, and his band had changed from spider-haired postpunks into goth-pop pin-ups. “I’d been planning to leave Gene Loves Jezebel for a while and form a band with our bassist. I was getting frustrated with how things were and…

Shoot to Thrill Triggerfinger might be “crazy old men in suits” who can’t get arrested in Britain, but the Belgian group's brand of wide-ranging alt.blues rock has seen them sword-fight with the Stones, soundtrack a heavyweight boxing match and fill the Foo Fighters’ shoes. Words: Henry Yates DIEGO FRANSSENS/PRESS “It’s a cool challenge to play for an audience that doesn’t know you, and win them over.” Ruben Block I magine yourself at a rock festival and news circulates that the Foo Fighters won’t be playing tonight because Dave Grohl has taken a swan dive off the stage in Gothenburg. But not to worry, because their slot will filled by a bunch of greying Belgians called Triggerfinger. If that happened in the UK there would likely be a riot, or at…

ROUND-UP: BLUES ROCK By Henry Yates WALTER TROUT: AUSTIN HARGRAVE Walter Trout We’re All In This Together MASCOT/PROVOGUE Historically, the ‘all-star’ album is a turd dusted in glitter, more a triumph of synchronised diaries than songcraft. On We’re All In This Together, Walter Trout has a bolder plan. The bluesman might roll out the big guns – Mayall, Bonamassa, Shepherd, Landreth – but by writing an original song for each, he has created an album with personality and soul, that you’ll still be listening to when that Hollywood Vampires CD is being used as a budgie mirror. On the album’s 14 tracks, Trout identifies each guest’s comfort zone then nudges them a little beyond. Kenny Wayne Shepherd is at his red line on the stinging stone-blues Gonna Hurt Like Hell.…

Widowmaker A nice pair from short-lived, pop star-fronted British supergroup. Running Free: The Jet Recordings 1976-1977 ESOTERIC So-called supergroups are by their very nature dysfunctional affairs. None more so than Widowmaker, who were actually named after the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter which had the unfortunate habit of crashing and killing its male pilots. Featuring in the band’s line-up former Love Affair man and charttopping scream idol Steve Ellis on vocals, ex-Spooky Tooth/Mott The Hoople guitarist Luther ‘Ariel Bender’ Grosvenor, one-time Hawkwind axe-man Huw Lloyd-Langton and future Rainbow/Ozzy Osbourne bassist Bob Daisley, this curious combo were quite simply an accident waiting to happen. Everlasting love was emphatically not on the agenda. Widowmaker were a pound-shop supergroup but a supergroup nevertheless. Indeed Ellis once told this writer of an incident when they stormed…

The Temperance Movement Guitarist Paul Sayer explains why they’ve decided to return to the clubs. As the British band begin the countdown to the release of their third album, guitarist Paul Sayer explains why, after six years of steady ascent, they’re returning to the clubs. This tour is called ‘Small rooms, new tunes’. What’s the smallest of those rooms? They’re all in the ballpark of four or five hundred people, I think some even less. Few bands of TTM’s status would willingly undertake a club tour. Why go back to clubs? Over the last couple of years we’ve spent quite a lot of time in America, and we felt it was important to reconnect with our audience, especially the fans that saw the band develop in those same small rooms.…

Danger Danger Bruno Ravel gets ready for a heavenly night of hair-metal excess. “I doubt we’ll record another album. There is no motivation.” New Jersey hard rockers Danger Danger are on the bill for the inaugural Hair Metal Heaven Festival which takes place in Hull. Bassist Bruno Ravel sets the scene. The last time Danger Danger played in the UK was as the final band at the last Firefest, in 2012. That was an emotional night. It was pretty emotional for me as well. It was the final show of our twenty-fifth-anniversary reunion run, as well as the final Firefest, so I was very aware of what was going on and was taking it all in. It was a great night. Hair Metal Heaven takes place in the Hull. What…

Ramblin’ Man Fair Mote Park, Maidstone, Kent. ‘Biff Byford eats festival crowds like this one for breakfast.’ The weather may not have been fair for Ramblin’ Man, but the rock’n’roll won out over the rain FRIDAY “Where is everybody?” asks Graham Bonnet, resplendent in a fluorescent pink jacket. With existing ticket holders expected to pay for a lastminute additional day in 2017 and the rain tipping it down at 4.20 on a Friday afternoon, it’s no wonder the attendance is somewhat thin. However, there’s no doubt that the ex-Rainbow/MSG/Alcatrazz singer is in fine voice. No Ronnie James Dio holograms are necessary as Last In Line dust down a set of Dio standards, plus a smattering of self-penned songs you feel like you know but aren’t entirely sure. With rhythm guitarist…

Lee Aaron London Camden Underworld Triumphant return to rock. Last year, having diversified via jazz and opera, Lee Aaron returned to rock music after two decades away from it, releasing her Fire And Gasoline album and playing a well-received spot at the Rockingham Festival. Tonight, Canada’s self-styled metal queen (the recipient of three Toronto Music Awards for Best Female Vocalist, and 10 Juno nominations), is back in London for the first time since the 1980s, belting out a set of vintage tunes, material from Gasoline and, perhaps unexpectedly, previewing a follow-up that’s due in the autumn. I’m A Woman fits her description of said album being “a little bit blues rock”, and she’s daring enough to have taken a stab at Deep Purple’s Burn, one of two covers (the other…

The Shelters London Soho Borderline Tom Petty-approved rockers play their debut British headline gig. Three days ago The Shelters played their very first UK show, in front of tens of thousands of people in the sun at London’s Hyde Park. They were opening up for Tom Petty, the LA band’s mentor and co-producer of their self-tiltled debut album. As far as intros go, that’s hell of a gig to grab. The Borderline wouldn’t even hold the queue for the Hyde Park toilets, but The Shelters still attack it like it’s the biggest thing they’ll ever do. There’s a fearlessness to them that’s missing in so many other new bands these days. It might be a Californian thing. Or it might just be the confidence that comes with having an A-list…

NEWS Although some have dismissed the move as a publicity stunt, Kid Rock is serious about running for the US Senate in his native Michigan. A Republican, the 46-year-old singer, real name Robert James Ritchie, has now emerged as the favourite in a new poll. “[This is] not a hoax, it’s a strategy and marketing 101! No plans for an album or anything else that has been the usual norm in the music business or politics,” he says. Orange Goblin have begun writing a new album, which they hope to release next spring. It will be the London band’s debut for their new label Candlelight Records. Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Cathedral, Paradise Lost) is set to produce, with former Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell making a guest appearance. Under Cover, an…

Carl Palmer to receive Prog God award ELP drummer rewarded for nearly 50 years of service to progressive rock. Carl Palmer is to be named Prog God at the Progressive Music Awards 2017, in association with Orange Amplification, at a ceremony in London on September 14. “This is a fantastic award to have, and I feel very honoured,” Palmer says, “but I also feel a little bit sad that Keith Emerson and Greg Lake, who both died last year, aren’t here as well. They played such a big part in the progressive movement, and in helping me to get where I am, so I’m accepting it in honour of them as well.” Meanwhile, the drummer has lined up some shows with his band ELP Legacy. They can be seen at:…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Can’t Quit Cartel Daggers hoody Back in 2014, Steve Aitchison was left paralysed after a 20-foot fall. Following 10 months in hospital, his friends pulled together a day’s worth of events to help motivate him for the future, and Can’t Quit Cartel was born. Founded around the idea of rising from adversity, Steve’s label does good things, like this limitededition hoodie – a collaboration with tattooist Richard Lazenby, raising money for spinal cord research. £38 @CantQuitCartel CantQuitCartel.com Edwin ED-80 slim tapered jean Developed for Edwin’s iconic Kuroki Mill in Japan, the ED-80 is a modern slim-fit jean with a slightly tapered leg. With exclusive fabrics and hand-washing processes, this is one of…

BUTTHOLE SURFERS WEIRD REVOLUTIONS A Butthole Surfers playlist. Lady Sniff Psychic... Powerless... Another Man’s Sac, 1984 Post-Beefheart blues with a twisted grin, complete with heavy guitar, snapping bass and Haynes indulging his fondness for tape manipulation. Cue a coarse volley of bizarro sounds (phlegm, farts, burps, vomit) and absurd lyrical utterances. Altogether now: “Bernie, bring me my bacon!” Creep In The Cellar Rembrandt Pussyhorse, 1986 Taken from perhaps their most experimental record, this disquieting exercise in crawling dread features sombre piano and backwards violin (the result of the Surfers recording over an old country & western tape and accidentally leaving it in). They reprised the song, in heavily distorted form, on album closer In The Cellar. Sweat Loaf Locust Abortion Technician, 1987 Leary borrows the riff from Black Sabbath’s Sweet…

REVIEWS Dead Heavens Whatever Witch You Are DINE ALONE Where’s Walter? He’s in the garage… Some bands form with the focus on fame and fortune; others come together purely because they’re having a brilliant time, and don’t really care how they’re received. From the sound of Whatever Witch You Are, Dead Heavens fall firmly into the latter category. Fronted by Walter Schreifels of NY punks Gorilla Biscuits, posthardcore shining stars Quicksand and mega-melodic rockers Rival Schools, Dead Heavens sound genuinely unlike any of his previous projects, focusing instead on a 60s garage-rock vibe with a big old dollop of scuzz-blues on the side. The spirit of the Stooges runs rampant in the loose, gritty Away From The Speed, wisps of psychedelia float on the breeze at regular intervals, the sprawling…

REVIEWS Alien Sex Fiend Fiendology CHERRY RED A rewarding retrospective: that’s what fiends are for. Subterraneanly subtitled A 35-Year Trip Through Fiendish History 1982- 2017 A.D. And Beyond, this three- CD set gambols with gothic glee through the career of an undervalued British institution. As early birds on London’s Batcave scene Alien Sex Fiend are forever portrayed as semicomic over-the-top goths, tied to the early 80s. It’s partly their own, sporting sense of humour that has allowed others to belittle them, but outside this country’s fashion trends they’ve developed a degree of respect in territories as far-flung as Japan and the US, moving into the industrial and electronica scenes with music which is – in case you haven’t bothered to listen to them since goth’s golden age – surprisingly nimble,…

Essential Playlist Winter Wine In The Land Of Grey And Pink Nine Feet Underground In The Land Of Grey And Pink Driving To Amsterdam Space Shanty Stranded (Effervescent Psychonovelty No. 5) Space Shanty Slightly All The Time Third Didn’t Matter Anyway The Rotters’ Club Mumps The Rotters’ Club L’Auberge du Sanglier / A Hunting We Shall Go / Pengola / Backwards / A Hunting We Shall Go (Reprise) For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night A Visit To Newport Hospital The Polite Force Tenemos Roads National Health Song For Insane Times Joy Of A Toy Girl On A Swing Joy Of A Toy The Salmon Song Fish Rising Master Builder You…

Eric Bell The guitarist previews his charity show appearance. Maggie Butler/press A co-founding member of Thin Lizzy, guitarist Eric Bell is set to join the cast of a sponsored charity gig in London that also features former Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden and the band Gypsy Heart. You’re tracking a new album right now. How is it going? It’s going really well, and the tracks are pretty varied. The one I’m doing today is sort of an Irish thing, about the roaddigging or labouring guys that come to London thinking the streets are paved with gold. They’re supposed to send money home but end up drinking it instead. The show will raise money for Drums And Disabilities. Is that a cause close to your heart? Absolutely. I love playing charity gigs.…

Korn The metal heavyweights look forward to three UK shows. DEAN KARR/pREss A long way removed from their nu-metal roots, Korn are among the most important bands of the past three decades. Guitarist James ‘Munky’ Shaffer tells us what to expect as they prepare for the Reading and Leeds Festivals and headlining a London show. What appeals to Korn about doing Reading and Leeds? We went to see Rage Against The Machine play at the Reading Festival in 1997 and they were incredible. Not only that, but the crowd’s energy was overpowering. So we’ve always wanted to play there. And finally it’s happening. On your recent US tour your set included a cover of Queen’s We Will Rock You. Why choose that one? We put that in the middle of…

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers / Stevie Nicks London Hyde Park. ‘Free Fallin’ is simply a marvellous pop epic with a mystic bite.’ For two veterans with oodles of classic songs between them, both dripping professionalism, this show should be a walk in the Park. July 9. A full moon in Capricorn, aka the Buck Moon: a time for rutting, magic and midsummer madness. Or, as they call it in Hyde Park, Barclaycard Presents British Summer Time. A suitable venue, then, for the return of the Mac queen Stevie Nicks, who takes to the Great Oak Stage in Mafioso widow’s weeds, throwing Mata Hari shapes. Her well-crafted band – led by veteran guitarist Waddy Wachtel, Nicks’s long-time confidante and accomplice – lock in on opener Gold And Braid. It’s just…

CHESTER RIP The stars pay tribute “I am in tears. Chester had just told me how happy he was. He was such a sweet and talented man. Feel so sad for his family, band-mates and fans.” Nikki Sixx “Gracious, kind & humble – a rare combination in Rock & Roll. Deeply saddened.” Lars Ulrich, Metallica “We can never know someone’s pain. Prayers to Chester’s family in this tragedy. If you need help REACH OUT.” Paul Stanley, Kiss “Literally the most impressive talent I’ve ever seen live! Vocal beast!” Pop singer Rihanna “RIP, far too young.” David Coverdale “Jesus, no…’ Corey Taylor, Slipknot/Stone Sour “RIP, Chester B” Duff McKagan “RIP Chester Bennington. I still remember the 1st day I went in the basement at Warner Bros Records Burbank to hear you.”…

You Can Be Heroes Bowie/T.Rex producer Tony Visconti fronts new TV music talent show. September sees the arrival of a new music talent show on our TV screens, Tony Visconti’s Unsigned Heroes, to be broadcast on the Sky Arts channel. Visconti tells Classic Rock: “The whole thing started when I was a judge on two of the Guitar Star series on Sky Arts. In the second series I was chief judge, and after the great mutual experience we had, Sky wanted to do another series.” The format for the new series is based on a live show that Visconti has been doing in New York, called The TV Show (geddit?), where the legendary producer invites unknown musicians to perform a set of songs “that have something to do with me”.…

NEWS Black Country Communion will play two UK shows to promote their fourth album, BCCIV, which is released on September 22. They play Wolverhampton Civic Hall January 2 and London Hammersmith Apollo 4. The first single from the album will be Collide. The 50th anniversary of the Rolling Stones album Their Satanic Majesties Request is celebrated with a limited-edition deluxe double vinyl/ double hybrid Super Audio CD edition on September 22. It contains both the stereo and mono versions of every track, all newly remastered by Bob Ludwig. Futher to last month's In The Studio report with Tax The Heat, the band have confirmed that their as-yet-untitled second full-length album will be produced by Evansson. New supergroup Sons Of Apollo will see former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy and Derek…

GRAIL Grail, Metronome, Germany, 1971. £350+ Grail is one of the most enigmatic underground UK rock albums of its era. It’s ambitious in its use of many different instruments, and it also features a multitude of ethnic influences, such as the Egyptian-tinged flute melodies on Camel Dung, manic Cossack-style riffing on Czechers, and the psychedelic sitar of the excellent title track. Such experimentation in rock would be almost unthinkable these days. Grail were formed in 1968 by Terry Spencer, lead guitarist of London freakbeat legends The Game. However, by the time this, their sole album was recorded, Spencer had already departed, although he is credited as a co-writer. The album is notable due to the mysterious involvement of Rod Stewart as producer. Apparently Rod was close friends with Grail manager…

RAW POWER Rock And Flipping Roll Forget computer games – get some proper bells, whistles, flippers and balls in your living room. Even in the age of sophisticated computer games, virtual reality and other ways to waste your time, there’s still something deeply satisfying about pinball machines. It’s all to do with the flashing lights, the clunks, clangs and bells, the clickety-click noise of the score barrels rapidly rotating in a blur of numerals and, ultimately, if you’ve nailed it, the ‘clunk’ that tells you you’ve racked up enough points to get a free game. On the other hand, you’ll also experience the horror and helplessness of seeing that silver ball heading right between the flippers, so you give it a calculated nudge… and get the deflating sight of the…

NEWS As this issue went to press, Black Star Riders announced a winter tour of the UK. The play Wolverhampton Wulfrun Hall November 8, Edinburgh Queens Hall 9, Warrington Parr Hall 10, Hull University 12, Middlesbrough Empire 14, Sheffield Academy 15, Leicester Academy 16, Cambridge Junction 18 and Portsmouth Pyramid Centre 19. Support comes from London-based band Dirty Thrills. A covers album by UFO is set for release in late September. The Salentino Cuts includes covers of songs by The Yardbirds, The Doors, Montrose, Mountain, Tom Petty and Robin Trower. A new Suzi Quatro collection, The Best Of: Legend, is released on September 22 via Chrysalis Records. The 20-track set was personally curated by Quatro and will be available in goldcoloured double-vinyl format and CD as well as digitally. UK…

The Moody Blues Nights In White Satin Dumped by a girlfriend, Justin Hayward remembered a gift she had given him and started writing a song that became a multimillion-selling, era-defining classic – and earned him not a penny. Words: Rob Hughes TONY GALE/ PICTORIAL PRESS LTD / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO LONNIE’S BLUES Prior to joining the Moody Blues in 1966, the teenage Justin Hayward signed a publishing deal with Tyler Music, owned by skiffle king Lonnie Donegan. “It was a lousy deal,” Hayward rues today. “It meant that none of the songs I wrote in my first eight years belonged to me.” The upshot of what Hayward calls his “biggest professional mistake” is that he has never received royalties for anything he wrote before 1973, including Nights In White Satin.…

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ARTHUR BROWN The future looks bleak. Money isn’t everything. Embrace getting older. Simple pleasures are the best. There is no god of hellfire. These things and more shape the real God Of Hellfire’s world view. Interview: Dave Ling ALAMY “Jimi’s idea was to combine my keyboard player and myself with the Experience.” K nown as the God Of Hellfire, he’s the yurt-dwelling nudist singer whose 1968 classic Fire – memorably performed on Top Of The Pops with a face-painted and robed Brown wearing a flaming helmet on his head (no Health & Safety killjoys spoiling the fun in those days) – topped the UK singles chart and compelled Jimi Hendrix to try to form a band with him. THINK WITH YOUR HEART, NOT YOUR HEAD Too…

CHECKOUT WITH £50 OF CLASSIC ROCK’S MONEY BURNING A HOLE IN HIS POCKET, HERE’S HOW STEVEN WILSON SPENT IT. “Did you honestly think I wouldn’t go over budget?” Wilson deadpans as we approach the checkout laden down with vinyl (whittled down from a long list). He ends up buying an extra record out of his own pocket. “I’ve tried not to be too predictable, though, and to try new things.” Sister by Sonic Youth “I have this reputation as someone that values very high production standards, very cinematicsounding records. And I do love that, but at the same time I love lo-fi. Sonic Youth are amazing because they’re a rock band who also manage to sound like avant-garde experimental musicians.” Only The Lonely by Frank Sinatra “Many people claim that…

The Lurkers A proper five-CD, 86-track collection for a proper punk band. 40th Anniversary Boxed Set BEGGARS ARKIVE The second wave of proper punk – the bands who formed in the wake of the Pistols and The Clash – was understandably accused on occasion of being derivative of the first wave. London’s Lurkers were often dismissed as British Ramones copyists, but there was a lot more to them than that. From their debut single Shadow (included here as a seven-inch), which was rougher and more basic than anything the Ramones did, to the magnificent New Guitar In Town (a single the New York Dolls might have released had they been from Texas), The Lurkers understood both rock and pop (they were for a while regulars on Top Of The Pops,…

Metallica Festival d’Ete Quebec, Quebec City, Canada enaud Philippe Sébastien Dion Seek and destroy: the metal titans bring their fan-pleasing thrashcountry?metal mix to the masses in a kick-ass show. ‘Trujillo’s bass delivers lines so heavy he can barely lift it.’ ”It comes to life!” reads the legend emblazoned across Kirk Hammett’s guitar, a rendering of the 1932 movie poster for Boris Karloff’s The Mummy. He’s not wrong. For 11 days every July, the quaint/modern streets of Quebec City are reanimated. This year the sports bars, Irish theme pubs and chic brasseries of the walled old town, a place that ‘borrows’ history from 17th-century France, fill with the relieved parents of the pop kids dropped off at P!NK for the night. Even several hours’ drive out of town, the day-trippers going…

U2 Berlin Olympic Stadium A slick set of undisputed anthems. ‘U2 are the greatest grand-spectacle band of their generation.’ Playing their 1987 blockbuster best-seller The Joshua Tree in full for the first time ever, U2 insist this latest mega-tour is not a nostalgic indulgence but a re-examination of the album’s America-themed anthems in a Trump-era context. Such spurious distinctions are arguable, but the enduring power of these songs is not. Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, With Or Without You and more sound thrillingly crisp, percussive, radiant and vital, even in a rain-soaked Berlin stadium. By the high-tech blockbuster standards of U2’s recent tours, this production is strikingly agile and lean. Blazing from a huge high-resolution screen, Anton Corbijn’s newly shot footage…

Prong London Camden Underworld Full-on relentless joy. Tommy Victor is a whirling, hirsute mass of mania, riffs and sweat. In that respect nothing changes with Prong. The US trio, who have been guided by Victor since their formation in 1986, never stop. While other bands of similar vintage might blow out the fumes for a few songs then take a welcome breather, that’s not the Prong way and it’s certainly not the case tonight. From the opening crescendo of Disbelief, Ultimate Authority and Beg To Differ, Prong are simply mesmerising. Victor marks out his territory with some vehement guitar playing, complemented by raging vocals. Not only does it get everyone’s attention, it also has the whole audience moving and shaking. Fans and musicians are of one accord, powered by the…

Heavy Load Heavy questions for heavy rockers Former Girl and L.A. Guns singer Philip Lewis on not being posh, not holding a grudge and dating a Bond girl. Interview: Dave Ling “Don gave us the ‘rich and famous’ contract: if you get famous, I get rich.” Philip Lewis was playing a rock star called Snake Hips in a Rotterdam fringe theatre group when he met future Girl bandmate Gerry Laffy and decided to pursue the same role in real life. After spells with the New Torpedoes and Bernie Tormé’s Electric Gypsies, in 1987 singer Lewis relocated to America to join L.A. Guns. Now, after 14 years of acrimony, Lewis and Guns guitarist Tracii Guns are reunited on a new L.A. Guns album, aptly titled The Missing Peace. Where abouts in…