Table of contents for Issue 238 in Classic Rock

WELCOME In an old episode of The West Wing, President Bartlet’s Chief Of Staff Leo McGarry states: “There’s two things in the world you never want to let people see how you make ’em: laws and sausages.” Well, I’d like to add magazines to that shortlist. But this month I think it’s only right that I let you into our process. Our original intention was to celebrate the 30th anniversary of 1987 – one of the finest years in rock, the 12 months that gave us Appetite For Destruction, Hysteria, Permanent Vacation and a huge stack more. And then about a week into our production cycle the shocking and tragic news broke about the death of Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell. And then it only seemed right that we rethink our plans…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Bruce ‘The Colonel’ Hampton April 30, 1947 – May 2, 2017 Gov’t Mule’s Warren Haynes has led the tributes to the US jam band stalwart who died on stage during a concert for his 70th birthday. Born Gustav Berglund, guitarist/singer Hampton played in numerous improvisational groups and helped start the H.O.R.D.E. tours. Barry ‘Frosty’ Smith March 20, 1946 – April 12, 2017 Smith, the drummer of Sweathog, who had the hit Hallelujah in 1971, toured and recorded with Sly & The Family Stone, Funkadelic and more. He died at home in Texas, aged 71, following a long illness after $25,000 had been raised for his medical care via Crowdfunding. Jimmy Copley Dec 29, 1953 – May 13, 2017 London-born Copley has lost…

Jonno returns to the stage AC/DC man joins Rodgers and Plant in all-star jam. PIC FROM TWITTER.COM/@_PAULRODGERS. USED WITH PERMISSION. Brian Johnson made a surprise return to the stage last month as part of a jam with Robert Plant and Paul Rodgers on the latter’s Free-themed tour of the UK. Fans at the New Theatre in Oxford could not believe their eyes when Johnson, forced to blow out of AC/DC in March 2016 for health reasons, and Plant appeared from the wings to join Rodgers in a cover of Barrett Strong’s 1959 hit song Money (That’s What I Want). The three singers shared the vocal parts, with Plant providing harmonica accompaniment. Plant was recently a guest on Johnson’s A Life On The Road travelogue TV series, broadcast on the Sky…

HIGH HOPES Blackwater Conspiracy Northern Ireland’s new rock hotshots on changing styles and conspiracy theories. “We don’t overanalyse things. If a song works in the first five minutes then it’s good enough.” Many bands are said to have risen from the ashes of previous groups; fewer are publicly unveiled at their wake. But that’s what happened in 2015 when Northern Irish hard rock band Million Dollar Reload metamorphosed, mid-gig, into Blackwater Conspiracy – a looser, loucher outfit that mixes Aerosmith swagger with Bon Jovi soul. “We though: ‘Why drag out the whole process?’” explains frontman Phil Conalane. “Let’s just do it bang in the middle of a show.” And so, mid-set, the Million Dollar backdrop was replaced by Blackwater Conspiracy’s and the band switched to their new laid?back, bluesy material.…

RAW POWER Heavenly Body The Moon 888 from Simaudio might just have grasped the holy grail for hi-fi amplifiers. Many people have pondered over what might be achievable when technical excellence, uninhibited imagination and unlimited funds come together. Opportunities for that to happen are rare, results that justify it even more so. Tipped hats, a bubbly toast, a 21-gun salute and a mighty “Wow!” then, to highly respected Canadian hi-fi ninjas Simaudio for having had the wherewithall – and the balls – to put their money where their vision was and produce the Moon 888: an object of desire that stakes a loud claim to be, in Carlsberg parlance, probably the best hi-fi amplifier in the world. “Get the best components on the planet, spend whatever it takes” said the…

HIGH HOPES Blacktop Mojo Gators. Guns. Whiskey. Sounds like the next little ol’ band from Texas. “Converting an audience that wants to hear country, that’ll help any band cut their teeth.” You can tell a lot about a band by their leisure pursuits. In a world of gamers and bookworms, it’s refreshing to note that Texas heavy mob Blacktop Mojo cite their hobbies as “wrestling gators, whiskey, fire and shooting guns”. Really? “Yeah, we’re a whiskey band,” says frontman Matt James. “We like to go clay shooting, fire off some shotguns, blow stuff up. It’s like going for a round of golf, but with firearms. Gators? That was something we put in our biog – and I forgot about it. But I wouldn’t turn down the chance to wrestle an…

Q&A Jake Burns The Stiff Little Fingers frontman on punk, politics, SLF’s re-formation and how he’d happily go to a Kiss show. Words: Ian Fortnam ALAMY “We’ve become like a slightly groovier version of Marks & Spencer.” Exploding out of Belfast and breathing new life into a flagging punk scene, Stiff Little Fingers – fronted by raw-throated firebrand Jake Burns – saw their debut album Inflammable Material album reach the UK Top 20 in 1979. After four years of unflinching ferocity, drafting a politicised street-punk blueprint and Top Of The Pops bans, SLF split into acrimony. Since re-forming in ’87 the band have thrived, and celebrate their 40th anniversary with imminent back-toback tours of Europe, America, Australasia and Japan. We caught up with Jake Burns at his home in Oregon…

Fish looks back at his swansong album with Marillion: clutching AT STRAWS JUNE GO TO CLASSICROCK MAGAZINE.COM FOR MORE FROM 1987 Marillion were never supposed to be pop stars. But that was the unlikely situation they found themselves in when they started recording their fourth album, Clutching At Straws. “Kayleigh had been a huge hit,” their former singer Fish says of the band’s massive 1985 single. “But that put unforeseen pressure on us all. We were out on the road all the time – and I mean all the time. Drugs were coming into the picture. We weren’t getting on. And that’s what drove us apart.” Where 1985’s Misplaced Childhood album had been Marillion’s commercial breakthrough album, Clutching At Straws was the sound of a band trying to deal with…

The Lonesome Jubilee John Mellencamp AUGUST More than a decade into a sometimes schizophrenic career, the artist first known as John Cougar, and then John Cougar Mellencamp, had hit paydirt with his eighth album Scarecrow in 1985. That had established him and his band as America’s heartland rockers of choice. “When we walked out on stage,” Mellencamp said some 30 years later, “there wasn’t a better band in the world. I don’t care who you NAME – U2, the Rolling Stones – we were better. And we knew it.” For his next album, Mellencamp wanted to make a record that expanded his sound to take in trad- American folk and country colours, and that also summed up the bluecollar mood of his country at the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency.…

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO TODD RUNDGREN The man who had a public spat with Lennon and made Bowie cry says he’s a hard-worker more than a genius, and that music has been devalued. These things and more shape his world view. Interview: Paul Lester A multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, performer, producer, engineer and all-round studio technologist, Todd Rundgren is a music polymath if ever there was one. Over the past 50 years he been wholly or partly responsible for an eclectic range of albums that together have sold millions. From early beginnings with The Nazz to solo records, Utopia and production/engineeing work including the New York Dolls, Grand Funk Railroad, XTC and Meat Loaf’s monumental Bat Out Of Hell, Rundgren has established himself as a true rock great. BEWARE OF POLITICIANS…

David Bowie Cracked Actor: Live Los Angeles ’74 PARLOPHONE Forget David Live, this is the real 70s deal. getty Looking back, David Live was Bowie’s first stumble. Recorded at Philadephia’s Tower Theatre in haste, essentially to conjure up cash to support Tony DeFries’ mismanaged Mainman Organisation, Bowie’s initial officially released performance sounded stilted, halfcocked and lumpen. Unsurprising, when you consider Bowie’s conversion to soul was in its infancy, he was obsessively rearranging much of his material in a blizzard of coke and directly prior to taking to the stage a musician’s strike was narrowly averted. As the band arrived they noticed extra microphones, the first indicator that they were to be recorded for, apparently, no extra fee. Cheques were hastily drawn but awkward performances, stiffened by fury, duly ensued. If…

LIVE! Starcrawler Los Angeles disgorges yet another star-in-waiting. London The Old Blue Last Carla Salvatore ★ It’s towards the end of Starcrawler’s debut UK gig that Arrow de Wilde starts dripping blood from her mouth. The hospital gown-clad 18-year-old has already spent roughly 73 per cent of her band’s set hunched, sprawled or writhing on the floor like a feral child, so this expulsion is a welcome diversion. De Wilde puts the ‘star’ in Starcrawler, a school-age Los Angeles band who combine brittle, punky garage rock with old-school heavy metal theatrics. Impossibly tall, improbably skinny and with a full range of eyepopping facial gurns, she’s what would have happened if Ozzy Osbourne and Patti Smith had got together sometime in 1975 and had a kid. As a band, Starcrawler have…

Tax The Heat West Country rockers bring sharp suits and even sharper tunes to London. London The Lexington ★ “I want your jacket!” one punter bellows enthusiastically. Okay, so it’s not quite “I want your babies!” but it’s in the right direction. Having cleaned up a little initial sound imbalance, it’s all fierce, fist-punching action at this Saturday headline show. They’ve spent much of the last couple of years (surrounding the release of 2016’s excellent Fed To The Lions album) hitting big stages via support slots. Accordingly, they’re not short of well‑oiled bangers. From the riotous Animals (think QOTSA with a 70s makeover) to a deliciously beefy yet sassy Lost Our Way and new track Money In The Bank, the quality is consistently, confidently high. Tax The Heat might look…

Gregg Allman December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017 Classic Rock looks back on the life and legacy of a southern rock legend. Words: Michael Hann INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK FOR MORE NEWS: WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM the DIRT ‘His playing was unfussy, economical and exactly what the Allman Brothers Band needed. He sought clarity and emotion of tone.’ Gregg Allman’s life was shaped by death. On Boxing Day 1949, his father, Willis Allman, was murdered near Norfolk, Virginia, where he was stationed with the US Army. The details are unclear; perhaps he was shot by a hitchhiker, perhaps by a drinking buddy (it was the former, Gregg, who had just turned two at the time, said later). And although most accounts say Willis was a captain in the US Aarmy, his…

NEWS As this issue went to press, the coroner responsible for carrying out the autopsy and toxicology report on Chris Cornell revealed that “drugs did not contribute to the cause of death” of the late Soundgarden/ Audioslave frontman who committed suicide in a Detroit hotel room early on May 18. The Rolling Stones have ruled out the possibility of playing in the UK this year because of a lack of available venues due to sporting fixtures. Performances across mainland Europe take place in September and October. “We hope to be here in 2018,” they say. Meanwhile, guitarist Ronnie Wood (pictured) is expected to make a full recovery after undergoing keyhole surgery to remove a lesion from his lung. Voodoo Six release their fourth studio album, Make Way For The King,…

Vince Gill joins Eagles Country rock star to help fill Glenn Frey's shoes. Following the news that Glenn Frey’s son Deacon, 24, is to take the place of his late father in the group, the Eagles have announced that Vince Gill, a stalwart of the country-rock scene, will also join the band for the summer. A member of the Country Music Hall Of Fame, Gill was the lead singer with the Pure Prairie League and has been a solo artist since 1985. “In my mind I always thought I’d have made a good Eagle, but in a million years I never saw this coming,” said Gill. “I turned sixty recently, and to get to be a part of this amazing legacy of songs, that’s the greatest part of all this…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground N.S.U. Turn On, Or Turn Me Down, Stable Records, 1969. £280+ Glasgow-based N.S.U. took their name from the Cream song of the same name, which gives you a good indication of how they sound. Turn On, Or Turn Me Down is a very bluesy, often heavy, slightly psychedelic hard rock album that may be patchy but contains moments of greatness. Although a four-piece, they have all the hallmarks of a classic power trio, though occasionally the guitars are doubled up in the studio to nice effect. There are also prominent female backing vocals throughout, giving the album a wider scope. Things get off to a promising start, with three hard hitters in succession, namely the aforementioned title track, followed by the upbeat His…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Comme Des Garçons Play Double Heart tee This has always been a fun label, but the Play diffusion line is even more so – designed as ‘a sign, a symbol, a feeling’. This tee instantly makes you part of the cult club with its iconic heart. £75 @CommeGarcons Comme-Des-Garcons.com Cooper Collection Norris Slim selvedge jeans Lee Cooper have released a limited– edition line of selvedge denim jeans, in either a slim, straight or tapered leg cut. This particular pair are the Norris slims, inspired by music icons of the 70s. Made with a raw, unwashed selvedge denim with neat details throughout, these are the perfect place to start to make them you’re…

the DIRT Heavy Rotation What we’ve been listening to this month GETTY 1 Colossus Triggerfinger Belgium’s prize hidden gems are back (‘hidden’ in the UK that is; they’re big news in Europe), and Triggerfinger, the opening track on their new album, is a moreish slice of garage-laced rock. Sexy without being sleazy, cool without being jaded, it’s a class track. 2 Permanating Steven Wilson Holy moley! It’s Lord of the Prog Steven Wilson, doing a dancey pop track! But this is no fluffy bubblegum fest. Taken from upcoming ‘modernist pop’ record To The Bone, it’s at once joyous and sophisticated, nodding to 70s/80s prime cuts such as Tears For Fears, Peter Gabriel, and even a bit of ELO in the lead guitar flourishes. 3 Stone Cold Rage Gov’t Mule A…

1987 A Year In Review Words: Henry Yates & Malcolm Dome Over a turbulent-as-every-year 12 months, there were births, deaths, lawsuits, brawls, strippers… and, in there among all such shenanigans, some of the greatest rock‘n’roll albums ever made. Welcome to the jungle indeed… For a year that many will tell you was rock’s greatest on record, 1987 got off to a shaky start. In January, Bruce Dickinson had his collar felt by Texas police, the charge relating to an incident two years previously when the Iron Maiden foghorn allegedly hit and strangled a fan with the mic. Elton John wasn’t faring much better, the singer undergoing throat surgery in Sydney that threatened to scrub his live itinerary for the year, while creeping insidiously up the charts was Bruce Willis’s smirking…

Girls Girls Girls Mötley Crüe MAY For the first five years of their inelegantly wasted career, Mötley Crüe fooled most of the people only some of the time, putting cliché nasty-but-nice MTV metal over real-deal sweet-spot rock-fucking-out every time. But then suddenly, in May 1987, Mötley Crüe did something truly cock-joggling and unexpected and released Girls Girls Girls, a genuinely outstanding hookers-and-blow rock record. There’d always been the hookers and the blow, of course, only now it came wrapped in some of the greatest rock anthems of the 80s. Gone were the stiff metal godz poses of their earlier albums. The war paint on their over-rouged faces finally given way to guitarround- the-knees, hand up the skirt, arctic cool grooves. It was the ‘outrageous’ video for the single Girls Girls…

Pleased To Meet Me The replacements APRIL By 1987, Minneapolis band The Replacements had recorded a clutch of excellent records for their home-town indie label Twin/ Tone, the best of which was 1984’s raggedly wondrous Let It Be, one of the all-time great American alt. rock albums. In ’86 they had signed to Seymour Stein’s Sire label (home also to the Ramones and Blondie) and made Tim, on which the songs of Paul Westerberg, their iconic, maverick frontman, became more well-honed and approachable. Afterwards, doomed co-guitarist Bob Stinson got his marching orders for regularly being too drunk to play them. Their next record, Pleased To Meet Me, was the most comfortable marriage of The Replacements’ trailblazing but slipshod beginnings, and marked a new-found, fragile maturity. Recorded as a trio and…

Vega singer Nick Workman on Def Leppard’s “pure killer” Hysteria AUGUST GO TO CLASSICROCK MAGAZINE.COM FOR MORE FROM 1987 “It’s fair to say I should have a T-shirt that says ‘Def Leppard ruined my life’. Up until I heard Hysteria, I was full-on set on being a footballer. In the school summer holiday in 1987, I heard Hysteria. It was a ‘stop me in my tracks’ moment. I loved music before then, but nothing had made my jaw drop. Then I heard Women and thought: ‘What the fuck is that?!’ “From that moment onwards I was hooked. It was the whole vibe of the album. It was like a soundtrack, it was so cinematic. Even now when I put Hysteria on, I can close my eyes and it takes me…

ESSENTIAL OILS A Midnight Oil Playlist. Cold Cold Change Head Injuries, 1979 The band’s punky beginnings are still evident on this minor classic of paranoia and disgust. Stand In Line Head Injuries, 1979 An early rallying cry against apathy, inequality and complacency, the Oil ramming home their point with barely disguised rage. Armistice Day Place Without A Postcard, 1981 Spare and ominous, ruptured by the squalling guitars of Jim Moginie and Martin Rotsey, with Peter Garrett intoning like prime-time Joe Strummer. Power And The Passion 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1982 Borrowing Zapata’s credo “It’s better to die on your feet than to live on your knees”, the band offer a clarion call for the 80s. Read About It 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5,…

Kick INXS OCTOBER Kick propelled INXS from the college circuit to stadiums by ticking all the right boxes at the right time. The Australian group, formed in the late 70s, had risen through the bar band scene playing Stonesy rock, but they’d always paid more attention to the beat than their generally sloppier rivals. But they were looking for something more strident, more individual, and they found it at the end of sessions for 1985’s Listen Like Thieves, when they needed another song. They exhumed a funky demo and set to work on it with producer Chris Thomas (Sex Pistols, Pretenders), toughening up the beat and layering rock rhythms on top. “It had this balls-to-the-wall chorus and a funk-rock beat that worked so well together,” recalls keyboard player and songwriter…

A LIFE IN SONGS Performed with Soundgarden, Temple Of The Dog, Audioslave and solo, these are some of the standout tracks for which the late, great singer will be best remembered. All Your Lies Soundgarden Soundgarden weren’t the first grunge band, but they did more than most to define the genre’s sound and look. The band’s earliest recorded appearance came via three tracks on the 1986 C/Z Records compilation Deep Six, including this galvanising burst of punk-metal intensity. Even at such an early stage, all the pieces were in place – not least Cornell’s Robert Plant?esque wail. From Deep Six (1986) Beyond The Wheel Soundgarden Guitarist Kim Thayil once described Soundgarden’s music as “Black Sabbath without the parts that suck”. He might have added “…and Led Zeppelin too”. Certainly the…

THE HARD STUFF ROCK REVIEW Steve Earle So You Wanna Be An Outlaw WARNERS Hard-core singer-songwriter pays tender tribute to old friends and fallen heroes. Steve Earle reconnects with the Texas and Nashville roots of his early career on this, his latest country-folk album. Willie Nelson delivers a reliably croaky guest vocal on the title track, a cautionary tale about the perils of living by your own rules, but he is outshone by his fellow Texan old-timer and sometime collaborator Johnny Bush, whose polished croon adds a touch of old-school class to the jaunty duet Walkin’ In LA. Earle also pays fond homage to one of his Nashville musical mentors, the late Guy Clark, on the elegiac Goodbye Michelangelo. The gravel-voiced 62-year-old coasts along on foot-stomping jukebox cliché at times,…

Sweet Glam stalwarts’ golden era chronicled on seven vinyl LPs and an exhaustive biography. Are You Ready? RCA germany The inclusion of The Ballroom Blitz and Fox On The Run in film soundtracks has bestowed upon Sweet an unexpected popularity surge in their twilight years. Indeed by the time you read this the incarnation led by guitarist Andy Scott will have stepped off the glam-rock package tour circuit to support Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow at London’s O2 Arena. Are You Ready? The RCA Era (9/10), assembled by RCA Germany (a territory in which 1974’s Sweet Fanny Adams album briefly outsold Deep Purple’s Burn), is a lovingly packaged, sevendisc vinyl box that collates Sweet’s output from 1971 to ’77 and the beginnings of the alcoholrelated troubles that would force singer Brian Connolly’s…

Inglorious London Islington Assembly Hall Indomitable trad rockers keep the faith. ★ On record, Nathan James sounds like he’s about to burst. With every scream, you fear for his health, and hope that someone is standing by with defibrillators. Yet live, he appears to do this without much effort at all. He’s a remarkable singer, a miraculous Gillan/Coverdale hybrid who could safely parachute into Whitesnake should Elsie ever decide to retire and continue his band as a franchise. The rest of the package has some catching up to do. The audience is ready – the show is sold out, a significant number sing along, and some actually scream – but Inglorious don’t yet possess Deep Purple’s live-wire effervescence, nor Whitesnake’s louche charm: only on Faraway, Holy Water and the closing…

Desertfest NW1’s arid landscape plays host to a psychedelic stoner-rock party. London Camden Over three days across various Camden venues, Desertfest hosts rowdy rock to swill beer and shakes beards to. From extreme doom to stoner rock and party rock’n’roll, it’s a Mecca for anyone who worships at the altar of the riff. Taking to the Underworld splattered in dayglo paint, London trio Vodun evoke the magic of voodoo in their psychedelic, soul-doused heavy rock. It’s akin to watching a ritual: frontwoman Oya shimmies across the stage like a woman possessed and, towards the end, the cymbals are set on fire. Her multi-octave vocal range is the centrepiece, but the songs are solid too. The Picturebooks’ psych-driven rock’n’roll evokes choppers cruising down California highways, even if the pair hail from…

Heavy Load Heavy questions for heavy rockers Singer-songwriter Steve Earle on school daze, lost years, Nashville, politics, survival and supporting Arsenal. Interview: Rob Hughes “Now I’m just addicted to baseball, theatre and Premiership football.” Singer, songwriter, producer, playwright, novelist, actor, radio host and activist, Steve Earle is as close to the ultimate renaissance man as it gets. He also happens to be a great survivor, having kept body and soul together through jail time, broken marriages, and drug and alcohol addiction. The 62-year-old has released 16 studio albums over the past 30-odd years, creating a canonical body of work that spans bluegrass, folk-roots, country and blazing twang’n’roll. Backed by his trusty Dukes, his latest is the majestic So You Wannabe An Outlaw, which features collaborations with Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush and…

“We’re just too dumb to quit” Cheap Trick’s purple patch set to continue. RICK NIELSEN: KEVIN NIXON; RONNIE WOOD: ROSS HALFIN/PRESS As Cheap Trick prepare to fly in for three-date visit to the UK this month, guitarist Rick Nielsen reveals to Classic Rock that the Chicago band are already preparing what will be their third album in the space of a little over a year and a half. The quartet’s previous two records, Bang, Zoom, Crazy… Hello and the just-issued We’re All Alright!, came 14 months apart, although before those, fans had waited the better part of a decade since the band’s last release, 2009’s The Latest. Nielsen attributes this new flurry of activity not to some twilight years creative spurt, but to the influence of a record label –…

The Joshua Tree U2 MARCH Moments before U2 took to the stage for the second night of their Joshua Tree 30 tour in the US (May 14, 2017), Bono sat down to talk about his band’s 1987 album. You should be touring the new album, Songs Of Experience, but instead you’re about to perform songs from The Joshua Tree which are thirty years old. Bono: The world changed! Songs that we wrote in the first half of 2016 suddenly didn’t seem relevant in the light of the political upheaval last year. But these songs from 1987 took on a new relevance. So we’re doing this Joshua Tree 30 tour while we get ready to finish the new album. “These [Joshua Tree] songs now sound like they were written for this…

Bad Animals Heart MAY G ood things come to those who wait. Or so the old saying goes. And it took Seattle quintet Heart well over a decade to become an overnight sensation in the UK. “With the original 70s band, over in the UK we were known as a heavy metal band,” remembers Howard Leese, Heart’s guitarist from 1975 to 1997. “The only thing they had really heard over in England and Europe was Barracuda.” Heart had been a substantial draw in the US since their debut album in 1976, yet despite a couple of forays to the UK and Europe this side of the pond had yet to be won over with their Led Zeppelin-esque fusion of folk and hard rock. But things – and Heart – had…

“We’re not as big as Iron Maiden, but I think we’re way bigger than Spinal Tap” In 1987 they were metal’s Next Big Things, but Helloween split acrimoniously, with a bitterness that lasted for decades. So why the hell are they re-forming now as Pumpkins United? Words: Dave Everley A few weeks ago, Kai Hansen listened to Helloween’s Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I and II albums for the first time in a while. He thought they were awesome. “No, fucking awesome,” says the man who co-founded the most successful heavy metal band that Germany has ever produced (who aren’t called the Scorpions). It’s slightly surprising that he speaks so proudly of the twin pinnacles of his former group’s career, released within 15 months of each other in 1987…

Document R.E.M. OCTOBER Speaking to Rolling Stone on the eve of the release of Document, R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck said: “We wanted to make a tougheredged, loose, weird, semi live-inthe studio album. I don’t see this as the record that’s going to blast apart the chart, although you never know. Weirder things have happened.” Buck got it one part right. His band’s fifth album was more musically strident and direct than any of its predecessors, yet it also gave R.E.M. a Top 10 single in America with the brooding The One I Love, and went on to become their first platinum-seller. Up until Document, R.E.M. had established a reputation as the American indie-rock band most likely to succeed, founded on a series of evocative-sounding records wrapped up in Buck’s ringing…

Permanent Vacation Aerosmith AUGUST Although Permanent Vacation was a pivotal release for the band and generally accepted as the record that brought Aerosmith back to the top of their game and into the mainstream, its phenomenal success came as a direct consequence of Run DMC’s Toxic Twinsenhanced 1986 cover of Walk This Way. Orchestrated by Def Jam Records maestro Rick Rubin, who recognised the rap-presaging lilt of Aerosmith’s original version (the second single from their 1975 album Toys In The Attic), the success of Run DMC’s Walk This Way’s was immediate, universal and seismically influential on both rock and rap. It also revitalised Aerosmith’s stalled career in a way that their official 1985 ‘comeback’ Done With Mirrors simply hadn’t. ‘Lascivious, licentious, loose-lipped, snake-hipped, funkfuelled chutzpah.’ Prior to the collaboration, Run…

You’re Living All Over Me Dinosaur Jr. december Dinosaur Jr’s self-titled first album, released in 1985 and made for just $500, was noisy, unrefined and barely made an impression. The Amherst, Massachusetts trio’s followup was an altogether different beast. By 1987, singer/ guitarist J Mascis had imposed his iron will on the band, ceding bassist Lou Barlow and drummer Murph into subordinate roles, which allowed his more classic rock-minded tendencies a freer reign. ‘Little Furry Things had an instant and profound impact on American alt. rock.’ Recorded largely in New York with Sonic Youth’s regular engineer Wharton Tiers, You’re Living All Over Me sounded rather like an incarnation of Black Sabbath in which both Ozzy Osbourne and Tony Iommi had somehow been replaced by a somnambulant Neil Young. All but…

‘SPENT ALL MY MONEY AND WASTED ALL MY TIME...’ He’s the guitar world’s best-kept secret, praised by A-listers, who lost decades to drugs and trouble with the law. Now Eric Gales is back on the right side of the tracks, ready to again be the player Joe Bonamassa has called “the best”. Words: Paul Lester ‘I’ve been sick for so long/Now I’m finally starting to heal,’ Eric Gales sings on his latest album, Middle Of The Road. He chose that title not because he identifies with bland, compromised music, but because the titular position offers the best possible view of where he’s headed. “When I’m in the middle of the road I can see everything clearly,” the Memphis-born musician explains, at his home in Greensboro, North Carolina. He chose that…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Royal Blood Brighton bruisers return to reboot contemporary rock. How Did We Get So Dark? WarnerS Perou/Press Royal Blood’s new album has a title which chimes with the times, and music which hones and turbocharges rock’s vocabulary for the unforgiving modern era. Royal Blood have never claimed to reinvent the wheel, but in recent years they have reinvigorated the popular face of the hell-raising riffs genre. Now they surmount the challenge of the ‘difficult’ second album with ease, turning down their power not a jot but improving their deceptively adept knack for songs and melodies. The thrust and muscle here is direct and demonic, and the duo also display why they offer more than head-banging hedonism. Yes, duo. It still seems implausible that this wall of…