Table of contents for May 2026 in Classic Rock

Well, here’s another one that wasn’t on my bingo card for 2026. Granted, I kinda hoped it might be, given the announcement of North American dates late last year. But as we all know, there are no guarantees in life. What am I boshing on about? The news that Rush will be returning to the UK next year to play here for the first time since their Clockwork Angels tour of 2013. And for the first time with Anika Nilles occupying the drum stool in place of the late, great Neil Peart, of course. In our exclusive interview we sit down with Geddy, Alex and Anika to discuss how Rush (and what is turning into a monster tour) was brought back to life. This issue we also do a spot…

Bryan Adams, Tough Town – first time on vinyl. Alcatrazz, No Parole From Rock ‘N’ Roll – double LP on red/black splatter vinyl. Bad Brains, Live – with bonus track. Black Sabbath, Seventh Star – first time on vinyl since original release. David Bowie, Excerpts From Outside – clear vinyl version features the remastered audio. James Dean Bradfield, The Great Western – orange marbled vinyl. Bill Bruford, Feels Good To Me – clear blue vinyl. Cream, Wheels Of Fire: Live At The Fillmore & Winterland – three LPs, newly remastered. Crosby Stills & Nash, The Solo Albums – includes an LP of rarities. The Cult, Weapon Of Choice – first time on vinyl. The Darkness, One Way Ticket To Birmingham (Live at The NEC, Birmingham, February 19, 2006) – red…

Few musicians get to play in one important and influential band. Fred Smith got to do it with two. He was the original bassist with Angel And The Snake, who eventually changed their name to Blondie. Later he replaced Richard Hell in proto-punks Television. Smith was 77 years old at the time of his death, which his wife, Paula Cereghino, says was due to cancer. Fredrick Edward Lefkowitz was born in New York City. His spell with Blondie was short, from 1974 to ’75, but he experienced exciting times. The call from Television, however, was one he couldn’t turn down. Later he commented: “Blondie was like a boat that was sinking, and Television was my favourite band.” He remained with Television as a core member for three years, playing on…

Joe Bonamassa has led the tributes to the 83-year-old US bluesman, describing him as “a musical troubadour, an ambassador of the blues, a brilliant musician, a documentarian, a legend and the son of a legend.” Sometimes referred to as John P Hammond or John Hammond Jr, John Paul Hammond was the son of John Henry Hammond, the celebrated producer who worked with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and Stevie Ray Vaughan. For Hammond Junior, living in the considerable shadow of a popular father figure (who was also a talent scout and an activist) was never going to be easy, but he carved a considerable niche of his own within the world of blues as an acclaimed singer, guitarist, harmonica player and songwriter, dedicating his life to the preservation and performance of…

Iron Maiden have again been nominated for induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, on a list that also includes The Black Crowes, Jeff Buckley, Phil Collins, Billy Idol, INXS, Joy Division/New Order and Oasis. But the band are famously averse to the HOF – singer Bruce Dickinson once called the institution a “complete load of bollocks” – so don’t expect them to turn up at the ceremony should they make the final cut. Despite having been eligible for induction since 2005, this is only Maiden’s third nomination. It has been revealed that not only would the group’s current line-up would be honoured, but also former members guitarist Dennis Stratton, frontman Paul Di’Anno and drummer Clive Burr, although there’s no place for Blaze Bayley, their singer in the…

“Well, the thing is, Spike’s great-grandfather used to be a lion tamer…” With their steampunk-esque image of bowler hats and flying goggles, Soho Dukes love a good old-fashioned yarn, claiming to have started life as a nineteenth-century drinking club. “The real truth is that my great-grandad and the great-grandad of Bomber [the band’s bassist] used to have a Vaudevillian act in Whitechapel,” teases frontman Johnny Barracuda. “Mine was a trick cyclist and Bomber’s was a sword swallower.” In fact, the pair first met at 10 years old and have spent a lifetime in rock’n’roll. Back in 1987, with the now long-defunct Monterrez, Barracuda and Bomber opened on two nights of Guns N’ Roses’ three-show residency at London’s Marquee club. The Dukes’ music is as colourful as the patter. Each of…

Ozzfest will “absolutely” return in 2027, according to its founder Sharon Osbourne. “Ozzy and I would talk about it,” Sharon explains. “He’d say: ‘Do you think Ozzfest would work without me?’ And I’m like: ‘Yeah, it’s a brand. It will work without you.’ And he said: ‘We should do it.’” For the UK, two nights at Aston Villa FC’s stadium Villa Park have been pencilled in. Ritchie Blackmore has received the National Guitar Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award, recognising more than six decades of influence on the evolution of the electric guitar. The co-founder of Deep Purple and founder of Rainbow and Blackmore’s Night is the sixteenth recipient, joining a list that includes BB King, Jeff Beck and Bonnie Raitt. Marillion guitarist Steve Rothery says the band are on target with…

When it was announced last year that German drummer Anika Nilles was chosen to take the place of (not replace) the late, great Neil Peart in one of the biggest and most musically technical bands in the world, many rock fans may have wondered: “Anika who?” But don’t let her relatively low profile in the rock world lead you to underestimate her. Soon that profile will skyrocket, and deservedly so. Drummer, composer, bandleader, musical educator, she is more than qualified and more than capable. That she has toured with Jeff Beck – whose other drummers include such giants as Simon Phillips and Vinnie Colaiuta – should be enough in itself. Pressure? What pressure? Many will think she’s fortunate to have hooked up with Rush; others will reckon Rush are fortunate…

Rambow Bastardized Rock’N’Roll SELF-RELEASED When was the last time you heard anything from Austria? Well, here’s Rambow to put Viennaonthe rock’n’roll map. Given its title, you’d have to be pretty dim not to know what this album sounds like. But if you were born yesterday I will FAFO you AC/DC, Venom, Motörhead, Turbonegro, Bokassa, Johnny Thunders etc. All the highs and lows of the past 50 years of rock’n’roll, really. Guns N’ Roses starting riots, Chuck Berry’s pee tapes, Altamont, Wacken, that time Ace Frehley flipped his car and found God for three months, Ronnie James Dio’s hologram, Keith Richards stealing the blood of teenagers, all of it. This album luxuriates in denim and leather, swanning around with the kind of effortless bravado you’d expect from some long-toothed tattooed millionaire, not…

Crippling Alcoholism Camgirl THE FLENSER Both band name and album title conjure inarguably bleak visions, but united in a rock context? Let’s say I harboured expectations of a whole hoot more ass-kicking. A grim, turgid, cryptful of stern reverb. Imagine the Leather Nun, buried alive. But in a good way. 7/10 Devil’s Cigarette Meet Me On The Floor Tonight WILD KINGDOM Massive swaggering hooks characterise this second from a Stockholm quintet whose bullish rock’n’roll excellence benefits from a mix/master job from Robert Pehrsson of Imperial State Electric/Hellacopters fame. Key track: This Is A Hippie Killing Device. 8/10 Jah Wobble & Jon Klein Automated Paradise DIMPLE DISCS Wob and Klein (ex-Specimen, Banshees guitarist ‘87-94) first hooked up on the PiL bassist/post-punk architect’s Rebuilt In Dub Metal Box revisit, and here’s their…

Small Faces Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake NICE All-time era classic, re-rolled with combustible extras. Far from post-Summer Of Love comedown, 1968 saw rock expanding its horizons in all directions, including Small Faces steering their evolving psychedelic R&B-music hall into one of the UK’s first significant concept albums. Released that May in its ground-breaking five-panel fold-out sleeve, Ogdens’ Nut Gone Flake spent six weeks at No.1 in the UK, and remains the classic peak in Small Faces’ catalogue. After side one’s hit singles Lazy Sunday and Afterglow Of Your Love are joined by cockney singalong Rene and the bombastic Song Of A Baker, the flip’s Happiness Stan suite follows its likable hero’s quest for the missing half of the Moon over a joyful gamut of musical styles. Closing track Happydaystoytown, beautifully…

Good Evening, Boys And Girls! MADFISH Twenty-one CDs, a book and reproduced memorabilia tell the story of the live SAHB. Despite their obvious influence on the likes of Bon Scott, Nick Cave and John Lydon, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band still remain a mystery for many. Which is strange, because for those who climbed on board for the ride, SAHB weren’t merely a band, more a travelling collision between glam, heavy rock, music hall, street theatre and just enough prog to keep you guessing. One of Scotland’s most wilfully perverse exports, they rampaged across Britain like a vaudevillian gang with amplifiers – “decadent rock theatre”, as Slade’s Noddy Holder neatly puts it in Martin Kielty’s engrossing 144-page hardback book that accompanies this exhaustive live box set. By the time Alex…

Scott Rowley NEW MODERN A uniquely skilled guitarist, felled by alcohol and trauma. Stuart Adamson impacted on popular music twice. As a teenager he formed The Skids, hurtling out of Dunfermline with fresh riffola and singer Richard Jobson’s outlandish words. Like many of the after-punk generation, Adamson was reaching for novel guitar sounds. He shunned blues progressions and string-bending in favour of crystalline tones, sustained notes and new harmoniser effects. The Skids were great, particularly on 1980’s The Absolute Game. In 1982 Adamson returned with Big Country and an expansive, lyrical deal. The Celtic influences were manifest and the chorus lines were mountain-sized. Their 1983 album The Crossing excited on both sides of the Atlantic. Later came unlucky events, messy planning and worsening health. Adamson died by suicide in 2001…

ALEX BURROWS Despite his penchant for anarcho punk and the noisier side of life, Classic Rock’s former managing ed and current contributor Alex has something of an unlikely soft spot for Jeff Wayne’s The War Of The Worlds album. This issue he spoke with Jeff to discuss the genesis and the making of that album’s massive hit single Forever Autumn (p22). PHILIP WILDING Broadcaster, novelist and radio/TV producer Philip was left weeping on the Forum floor as he watched Rush play what he thought was their last show in 2015. When not interviewing his favourite Canadians (p26), he makes music TV alongside A’s Jason Perry in the shape of Song Cake (www.songcake.net), whose guests so far include Wolfgang Van Halen, Coheed And Cambria and Big Big Train. He’s still getting…

The celebrated American singer, songwriter and pianist, whose hits included Breaking Up Is Hard To Do, Oh! Carol, Laughter In The Rain, Calendar Girl and Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen, has died without warning at the age of 86. In a six-decade career, Neil Sedaka sold millions of records worldwide was nominated for five Grammy awards. Sedaka was born in Brooklyn, New York, and as a child he earned a scholarship to the Juilliard School’s preparatory division, where he was classically trained. Along with lyricist Howard Greenfield, Sedaka went on to write music that defined the late 1950s and early 1960s (Phil Cody was a later collaborator). The emergence of The Beatles, the Stones and The Who served to torpedo Sedaka’s wholesome image, but after relocating to England and meeting Elton…

Andrew Ranken November 13, 1953 – February 10, 2026 Known as “the heartbeat of The Pogues”, drummer Andrew Ranken was a co-founder of the band and a central figure during their formative years. Born in London, Ranken joined the group in 1983. “Thank you for your friendship, your wit and your generosity of spirit,” the band said to ‘The Clobberer’, “and of course for the music. Forever a true friend and brother.” He was 72. Len Garry January 6, 1942 – March 2, 2026 Len Garry was a member of The Quarrymen, who were forerunners of The Beatles. He joined the group when their previous tea-chest bassist stopped coming to rehearsal. Garry played with the band at their first show at The Cavern in the summer of 1957, but left…

The frontman with 3 Doors Down has lost a battle with kidney cancer. Brad Arnold, who has died at the age of 47, was a founding member of the massively successful rock band from Escatawpa, Mississippi, best known for their 2000 song Kryptonite, which Arnold wrote during a school mathematics class when he was just 15. Its parent album The Better Life, released the same year, was the group’s debut – it went on to sell seven million copies and receive two Grammy nominations. A statement from 3 Doors Down said: “Brad’s music reverberated far beyond the stage, creating moments of connection, joy, faith, and shared experiences that will live on. Those closest to him will remember not only his talent, but his warmth, humility, faith, and deep love for…

Classic Rock sends its best wishes to Ross ‘The Boss’ Friedman, who has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the progressive neurodegenerative condition commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. “It crushes me not to be able to play guitar in the future,” says the founding guitarist with Manowar and The Dictators. “But the outpouring of love has been so, so strong.” The music of Black Sabbath is to be celebrated with a series of shows performed in a classical music style by a local orchestra, says Sharon Osbourne. It’s the brainchild of Ozzy Osbourne’s keyboard player Adam Wakeman. There are plans to launch the show at the Royal Albert Hall in London, before announcing dates around the UK. Steven Wilson has launched Headphone Dust, an online platform for his…

Twisted Sister, who cancelled a series of reunion shows after frontman Dee Snider quit the band on doctor’s orders, have brought in former Skid Row frontman Sebastian Bach to stand in for “a handful of select dates” in the autumn, details of which are soon. Bach joins Twisted Sister with the blessing of Snider, who refers to him as SMF (Sick Mother Fucker) #2. Snider (SMF #1, obviously) explains: “I am not on my deathbed. I just can’t do those things that I did in my twenties, thirties, forties, fifties and even sixties. Otherwise, I’m alive and well. I’m enjoying life.” Due to scheduling issues, drummer Joe Franco has been replaced by Joey Cassata, a personal recommendation of Franco. The line-up is completed by veteran guitarists Jay Jay French and…

Corrosion Of Conformity have finally released a new album. With 2017’s No Cross No Crown they reclaimed the stoner-metal crown, with Pepper Keenan firmly reinstated as vocalist, but since then they’ve endured some hammer blows. There was the death in 2020 of drummer Reed Mullin, and the surprise departure of founding bassist Mike Dean in 2025. But the band have kept on going, and Keenan says their sprawling new double album Good God/Baad Man sounds “like all the COC albums rolled into one”. It’s not often that a band does two big comeback records. It’s twenty years since Hurricane Katrina basically killed COC. I had to call Lemmy from a fuckin’ pay phone in rural Louisiana to tell him we were fucked. He understood – he was watching it on…

As a veteran rock star, part of the deal is to be constantly confronted by your younger self. Even so, at 71 Squeeze’s Chris Difford was stopped in his tracks by the cassette he exhumed from his loft last year. Labelled ‘Trixies’, it captures the first bloom of Difford’s partnership with Glenn Tilbrook, recorded back in 1974 (when the pair were respectively 19 and 16), but packed with jazzy art-pop with a sophistication light years beyond their peers. “It’s very emotional,” Difford says of re-recording these youthful songs as an elder statesman. “It’s been an incredible journey to get to this place.” Lyrically, Trixies is a concept album set at a fictional nightclub, isn’t it? Yeah. There was a club on Deptford Broadway. You had to go downstairs to get…

Zakk Wylde has been on this planet for 59 years, and he’s been famous for nearly 40 of them. He rose to prominence in the late 80s as the fresh-faced teenage guitarist in Ozzy Osbourne’s band, and stood at the Double O’s side, on and off, until the former Black Sabbath frontman’s death last year. Along the way, the man born Jeffrey Wielandt in New Jersey has launched the one-and-done southern rock band Pride And Glory and the more durable Black Label Society, whose new album, Engines Of Demolition, is their first in five years. In the past couple of years he’s taken the place of the late Dimebag Darrell in the current version of Pantera, which he’s at pains to call a “Pantera celebration” rather than a full-blown reunion.…

Freedom CHRYSALIS Chelmsford represent. At 75, Suzi Quatro is still shaking her ass – and, crucially, there is no silence. There is instead the same devil-gate drive that propelled 14-year-old Susan Kay Quatro to join allfemale garage rock band the Pleasure Seekers with her sister before most of us had worked out how to tune a transistor radio. Precursor to The Runaways, to Pat Benatar, to Courtney Love. Bass slung low, chin set high. Suzi didn’t so much kick down the door of rock’s boys’ club as remove the hinges and pawn them for (17 bottles of) Schlitz. Freedom, her third album in collaboration with her son LR Tuckey, knows all this. How could it not? This is a record about identity, legacy, survival. About Suzi being Suzi. ‘I remember…

Bongo Fury (50th Anniversary Addition) ZAPPA/UME Six-disc, 57-track edition of 1975 collaboration, featuring live recordings and outtakes. Frank Zappa and Don Van Vliet, aka Captain Beefheart, had been friends since their teens, when they bonded over a mutual love of black music and outsider art. Their relationship over the years had its ups and downs, perhaps because both were similar characters - martinets, control freaks. However, in 1975 they toured together as a means to help Beefheart during a period of contractual woes, and from those shows was drawn most of the material on Bongo Fury. The third artistic component was the version of Zappa’s band the Mothers Of Invention, which included George Duke on keyboards and Napoleon Murphy Brock on sax and vocals. While Beefheart is on raging, hollering…

5150 RHINO Exit Dave, enter Sammy, and their first No.1. Coming after Dave Lee Roth’s acrimonious departure and heralding the arrival of their new singer Sammy Hagar, 1986’s 5150 was always going to be pivotal for Van Halen. It turned out to be more than that. The band had spent the late 70s and early 80s building up an irrepressible head of steam, but Roth’s egomaniacal behavior on and off stage and guitarist Eddie Van Halen’s desire for respect alongside his fame were increasingly incompatible. Hagar was not a familiar figure to Van Halen fans who did not know or care about his Montrose past or his solo hit singles, but his singing style – more straightforward than Roth – fitted in well, and 5150 gave them their first No.1…

Joni Mitchell, Chords Of Inquiry: Her Life & Music Yamily Habib WHITE OWL Her life, looked at, now. In her embarrassingly hagiographic introduction (“this is my humble attempt to honour Joni Mitchell’s legacy” etc), Yamily Habib threatens a gushfest of simpering. Instead, she is a shark-eyed chronicler of Mitchell, a woman of many parts, not all of them attractive. Brisk but thorough, Chords Of Inquiry explains that Mitchell giving up her daughter for adoption was the pivotal moment in her life and the focus of much of her music. Yet their eventual reunion solved nothing: despite Joni being a victim of domestic violence, shortly after meeting Kilauren Gibb the police were called when mother hit (adult) daughter. Similarly, Mitchell appearing in blackface on the sleeve of Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter…

“At one gig, I said that for every mistake I made I would put a fiver in the charity jar. I won’t be doing that again.” A much loved staple of the UK rock circuit since 1984, Quireboys singer Spike is currently playing unplugged shows under the banner Off The Record: Stories From A Life In Rock ’N’ Roll. You might be surprised that he also plays some guitar, although readily he admits that he’s “shit”. You began doing these storyteller gigs after the first covid lockdown, in early 2020. Yeah. I played on the Thursday that we went into lockdown, when there was waitress service. I really enjoy them. I don’t know whether anyone knew I play the guitar – even though I’m shit. When we started the Quireboys…

‘Matt is a twitching dynamo of coiled vitriol and youth rebellion.’ The Molotovs London 100 Club Nu-punk glory beckons for this year’s model. “Apparently we’re up against some band called Lily Allen,” Matt Molotov sneers with all the establishment-baiting attitude of a punk boat passing the Palace of Westminster. “Never heard of them.” And no wonder. Why would the vengeful queen of divorce pop – The Molotovs’ main chart rival as their debut album Wasted On Youth tears from the kennels with the blood of the mainstream in its nostrils – have ever floated into the listening orbit of these rabid nu-punk teens? That they gather their beloved mod scene in the 100 Club for their release-week hometown party is no accident – they’re disciples and touring mates of the…

Charles Negron II, a founder of the US pop-rock-soul band Three Dog Night, has died of a heart attack. He was 83. Formed in 1967, Three Dog Night resonated by featuring a trio of lead singers – Negron, Danny Hutton and Cory Wells. During the group’s first six years they had 21 US Top 20 hits, including three N0.1s (Mama Told Me Not To Come, Joy To The World and Black And White). For a period in the 70s they were one of the biggest concert attractions in the US, where they sold 60 million records. New Yorker Negron had two spells with the group, from 1967 to 1976 and from 1981 to 1985. During that time he sang lead on many of the group’s standards. During the 90s, after…

Billy Steinberg, the prolific and successful songwriter who co-wrote five US chart-topping singles, including Heart’s 1987 hit Alone and The Bangles’ Eternal Flame two years later, has died of cancer. He was 75 years old. Together with writing partner Tom Kelly, the soft-rock maestro also wrote Madonna’s Like A Virgin, True Colors by Cyndi Lauper and Divinyls’ I Touch Myself, and songs recorded by Cheap Trick (Kiss Me Red), REO Speedwagon (I Don’t Want To Lose You), Pat Benatar (Sex As A Weapon), Chicago (You Come To My Senses), Tina Turner (Look Me In The Heart), Rick Springfield (Just One Kiss), Air Supply (Black And Blue), Celine Dion, Belinda Carlisle and more. California-born Steinberg began as a musician in the band Billy Thermal, but his path to the top gathered…

Exodus are no strangers to upheaval, even 45-plus years into their career. After splitting with three-time frontman Steve ‘Zetro’ Souza in 2025, the thrash veterans re-enlisted vocalist Rob Dukes – who replaced Zetro and was with the band from 2005 to 2015. “I know, it’s incestuous, right?” says guitarist Gary Holt. But they’ve crawled from the chaos with the seething Goliath, an album that is as fearsome as anything they’ve made. “We’re not getting any younger but we’re rolling right now,” says Holt. “So we keep going.” What happened with the singer situation? Being in a band is like being married, except in the case of Exodus you have four wives – and that’s not even counting our real ones. With Zetro, I’ve got nothing but love for the guy,…

“There’s something about playing live; I have to do it, otherwise I do go crazy.” From rock’n’roll to football, the northwest of England has never been shy of celebrating its working-class heroes. Wirral-born Ty Freeman is ready to join them, his tough upbringing now blossoming into a bright future thanks to his bluesy, soulful take on classic rock. He’s also a master of manifestation. On his new EP One Way Love, Ian Skelly and Paul Duffy of The Coral stepped in as drummer and bassist, putting him on a level with his local childhood heroes, who he met at open-mic nights when he was a teenager. “It just clicked straight away,” he says. “As soon as I showed them the tunes in the studio, we just hit it off.” Things…

The idea of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band as a progressive, socially aware activist group will come as a surprise to many who heard only their biggest hit, their 1975 cover of Tom Jones’s hit Delilah. Taken from their Live album of the same year, it was released without the band members’ knowledge, but on hitting the Top 10 it brought them a new level of publicity. It wasn’t all for the good, though, since it was regarded as a novelty single in some quarters – especially because of the light-hearted dance performed by Harvey, Cleminson and Glen during the solo. “People thought we were one-hit wonders,” late drummer Ted McKenna once said. “They thought we were a comedy act. Out of context, you couldn’t tell how subversive it was.…

Arya Goggin (drums) A Kind Of Magic, Queen “Have you seen what Freddie looks like here?!” Queen fan Arya points incredulously at the hench, cartoon figures on the cover (he also buys an Altered Images record for his wife back home in London). “I mean, Brian May does not look like that… But it’s cool, isn’t it? This was the Highlander era, it was a huge record for them. I mean, there are shockers on it, to be honest, but Prince Of The Universe is a banger. Gimme The Prize, big old riff. Kind Of Magic, One Vision… massive songs.” Mikey Demus (guitar) Electric Ladyland, The Jimi Hendrix Experience “It’s actually a really weird niche, Hendrix,” Mikey muses in the pub, the immortal record resting in a Kriminal tote bag…

Aerosmith (Legendary Edition) CAPITOL/UMR American rock giants’ debut album, with added Harmonica Jam Bass Jelly. It’s hard to imagine a world without Aerosmith albums, but when their self-titled debut emerged in 1973 it was even harder to imagine they’d still be around half a century later. Ignored in the UK, it almost made the US Top 20, and as the Creem reviewer noted, it was “a full LP of screaming, metallic, creative, rock and roll”. Itstillis, ofcourse, despiteAdrian Barber - fresh from the Bee Gees and Aretha Franklin – stymieing them on the production front, and a ludicrous blue skies and clouds cover that Poco would have found insufficiently manly. Written mostly by Steven Tyler because the others weren’t bothered about writing, Aerosmith was a statement of intent. It’s still…

Blackwater Park 25th Anniversary Edition MUSIC FOR NATIONS Mesmerisingly brilliant prog-metal album’s quarter-century celebration. In 2001, their album Blackwater Park, confirmed Opeth as one of the most inventive, indefinable bands in metal. And it’s still visionary 25 years later. Opener (and closer, as a live bonus track) The Leper Affinity encapsulates much of what this album can do. A two-minute chunk in the middle of the track drifts seamlessly from a moment of dark, crystalline folk into a cinematic instrumental filled with twisting rhythms that offer tribute to their prog forefathers, before emerging into an elongated section of polished brutality. The verses of Bleak eschew almost every death metal trope, yet still create an atmosphere more terrifying than most heavy bands ever could. The electric guitar opts for held-high notes…

“We kick off three songs from the very first Jethro Tull album and we work methodically, but not accurately, through the years.” As Jethro Tull gear up for a 19-date UK tour in support of last year’s album Curious Ruminant, band leader and driving force Ian Anderson joins Classic Rock in a 9am breakfast-time call to discuss such heavyweight issues as religion, health, retirement and legacy. Your annual Christmas With Jethro Tull shows took place last December at Bath Abbey, Peterborough Cathedral and Southwark Cathedral. As a self-professed non-believer in religion, how do you square that? Well, I’m no atheist. I do believe in the likelihood of a single godhead. I’d more accurately describe myself as a pantheist or a panentheist. I do those fundraisers because, basically, they are about…

Bob Mould co-founded cult punk band Hüsker Dü in 1979, breaking new ground in the 80s US hardcore scene. He went solo following their split in 1988, and released two introspective albums: Workbook and Black Sheets Of Rain. In 1992 he formed the power trio Sugar. Their album was the landmark alt. rock classic Copper Blue, and that was followed in ’94 by File Under: Easy Listening. In ’96 he returned to his solo career and has released 12 albums in the past 30 years. Last year, Bob Mould reunited with his Sugar bandmates to record new material for the first time since 1994. Both new tracks House Of Dead Memories and Long Live Love are out now. While a new Sugar album isn’t planned, he tells us “there’s a…