Table of contents for September 2018 in Classic Rock

WELCOME Like it or not, reunions (both big and small) have been an important part of the rock’n’roll firmament in recent years. Whether it was the Eagles freezing Hell over and getting back on stage together, Status Quo’s Frantic Four taking things out for another spin around the block, the original Alice Cooper band returning for a couple of songs and some shows, Ozzy rejoining Sabbath, The Smashing Pumpkins playing anniversary dates right now, the list goes on and on… In Classic Rock’s world, the one reunion we probably all hoped for but didn’t really think would ever materialise was Guns N’ Roses. Would we ever see Axl, Slash and Duff together again on stage in our lifetime? Well, it turns out, yes we would. And it’s been one of…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Eddy Clearwater January 10, 1935 – June 1, 2018 Born Edward Harrington and sometimes known as The Chief, Eddy Clearwater began to play the guitar at 13 and went on to specialise in Chicago blues. His 2003 album Rock ‘N’ Roll City was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Traditional Blues Release. He was 83 years old. Steve Soto August 23, 1963 – June 27, 2018 A staple of the southern California punk and hardcore scene, Steve Soto has died peacefully in his sleep aged 54. The bassist was a founding member of Agent Orange, among the first acts to fuse punk with surf music, in 1979, and of The Adolescents the following year. Richard Swift March 16, 1977…

Macca Gets Back Sir Paul performs at old haunts – and blasts cameras. TOM PETTY: GETTY; SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY: CAMERA PRESS SIR PAUL MCCARTNEY, who’s new album Egypt Station is released on September 7 via Capitol Records, played a couple of not-so-secret homecoming gigs last month. On July 23 the 76-year-old visited London’s Abbey Road Studios, where The Beatles famously recorded, to perform four songs (Come To Me, Confidante, Who Cares and from his upcoming album Egypt Station as part of a ‘greatest hits’-based set. The audience of around 60 comprised family members, fans, competition winners and a few celebrities including Johnny Depp, Kylie Minogue, Nile Rodgers, Liv Tyler and Orlando Bloom. McCartney also took time to pose for photos outside the studio on the pedestrian crossing made famous by…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Bounty Hunter 138 X Skull tee We do love a bit of Japanese brand Bounty Hunter. They fuse American punk with rockabilly and motorcycle culture to create their aesthetic, and this skull tee is a great representation of all they’re about. £75 @BxH_Official BountyHunter.stores.jp Levi’s Vintage Clothing 1947 501 jeans Rather surprisingly, we’ve never featured Levi in SDM, so we’re righting that injustice with this pair of 501s from the vintage collection. Made from Cone Mills selvedge denim, these are based on the classic pattern. After the end of WWII, raw materials were available again, so Levi got back to making jeans. By the late 1940s their jeans looked just like this!…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS The Beatles Helter Skelter Rock’s most epic battle was always The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones. Yet it was an imagined square-off with The Who that inspired the Fab Four’s thunderous masterpiece. Words: Bill DeMain MAIN: CAMERA PRESS/TOM MURRAY; INSET: GETTY In the summer of 1968, Paul McCartney was reading Melody Maker when he stopped on a quote from Pete Townshend. “Pete said: ‘We’ve just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock’n’roll record you’ve ever heard,” McCartney recalled. “I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going, just hearing him talk about it. I was always trying to write something different, trying to not write in character, and that one little paragraph was enough to…

IN THIS LIFETIME Rejoining Guns N’ Roses; Lemmy’s last days; the #MeToo minefield; the difficulty of being Slash; talking to your kids about drugs… For someone who is “not a good speaker in general”, he has a lot to say – and he talks exclusively to Classic Rock. Words: Scott Rowley Portraits: Ross Halfin You know where you are? You’re in Bordeaux, baby – and it’s fuck-all like the jungle. “These have got to be the happiest, most chilled-out French people I’ve ever met,” says Slash, looking out of the window of the hotel. “There were people out drinking in the streets until four in the morning. It’s like no one’s got work to go to.” It’s midweek in the wine capital of the world, and in the bars of…

ON THIS MONTH’S FREE ALBUM DOWNLOAD… READY, AIM… FIRE! 11 scorching new tracks from the Mascot Label Group for your downloading delectation, including hot-off-the-press tunes from Joe Bonamassa, Black Stone Cherry and more besides… 1 Joe Bonamassa Evil Mama Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it the intro to Rock And Roll by Led Zeppelin?? No, even if those opening drums are more than a little familiar. In a good way, mind you. Joe started rocking things up more on 2016’s Blues Of Desperation, and here he combines that pulsating groovy aggression with super-slick brass and gospel-charged backing vocals – before swerving into a wah-tastic solo. ‘Evil’? Hmm not quite, but tasty nonetheless. From Redemption https://jbonamassa.com/ 2 Monster Truck Thundertruck We can’t help thinking that support stint with Deep…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Joe Bonamassa Redemption PROVOGUE/J&R ADVENTURES Woke up this mornin’… the break-up blues drag Joe low. The “other stuff” that Bonamassa says weighed him down as he wrote this thirteenth studio album sounds heavy enough to be grief, but from his lyrics seems to be a messy, guilty break-up. Even after sifting through the pronouns on songs such as the title track for clues, it’s tough to say who was to blame, or for what. But as he blinked away the pain, Bonamassa the blues and rock student and ambitious songwriter must have known he could use it. Want it or not, a breakup album is his next rite of passage to join the greats. But Bonamassa and regular producer Kevin Shirley haven’t laid down his electric…

THE HARD STUFF REISSUES The Doors Waiting For The Sun 50th Anniversary Edition RHINO The Doors’ dog day afternoon. Released on July 3, 1968, exactly three years before the death of Jim Morrison in 1971, Waiting For The Sun became The Doors’ biggest-selling album, largely thanks to the No.1 hit Hello, I Love You rather than for the introductory single The Unknown Soldier, often overlooked as being their biggest commercial flop. Hello, I Love You, a throwaway line addressed to a passing beauty on Venice Beach, dated to their 1965 Aura demos, as did the wistful Summer’s Almost Gone, though both were re-recorded. We Could Be So Good Together, a Strange Days outtake, remained intact. Completing the confusion the title track didn’t appear until Morrison Hotel – they couldn’t reconcile…

Nick Mason GETTY Unattended Luggage PARLOPHONE Pink Floyd drummer’s saucerful of secrets. The only member of Pink Floyd to appear on every single one of their albums, Nick Mason was an unobtrusive presence. By his own admission he was some way from being one of the Great British Drummers in an era that specialised in them, but he provided a solid reliability between the grandiose visions of Roger Waters and the finely wrought guitar of David Gilmour. He also kept a watching brief over the band and came up with a steady supply of inspired ideas that enhanced their keening edge, such as the tuned Rototoms that add to the suspense at the beginning of Time on Dark Side Of The Moon. Mason’s solo career has been even less obtrusive.…

Rose Tattoo Angry and co. hit the UK for what will be “a pilgrimage”. Back in the UK for the first time in a decade, frontman Angry Anderson explains why, with Dallas ‘Digger’ Royal, Pete Wells, Ian Rilen, Lobby Loyde and Mick Cocks all gone, he now leads Rose Tattoo alone. The ‘new’ Rose Tattoo have just returned home to Australia from a festival tour of continental Europe. We did something like twenty-one gigs in twenty-six days but simply couldn’t fit in the UK. Coming back as headliners will be a spiritual experience for me. Those gigs at the Marquee club, the tour with Rainbow and the Reading Festival were the greatest, most sacred moments of our lives. This almost feels like a pilgrimage. How did former AC/DC bassist Mark…

REVIEWS An Evening With Graham Nash ALAMY ‘Nash sounds as sprightly as ever, especially when things get political.’ London The Bridge Theatre A magical night of beloved classics and the stories behind them. The stage is draped in bohemian furnishings, dotted with candles, and features a Persian rug that Graham Nash pads across barefoot. This charmingly nostalgic setting, together with stories behind the songs, gives the night a delightfully intimate feel. From Nash revealing that Just A Song Before I Go was written in response to his “low level drug dealer” friend challenging him to write a song on the spot, to remembering “smoking big ones” while sailing with David Crosby, and the blue whale he saw that inspired Wind On The Water, it’s a true treat for fans. The…

This month’s contributors LARSÅKE THURESSON His name might not be familiar to you, but the people he has photographed over the years certainly will be. Swedish photographer Larsåke has unearthed a veritable treasure trove of images capturing the great and good of rock both on and off stage. You can see some of his recently discovered gems from p58. SCOTT ROWLEY We’re still not entirely sure how we managed to pull it off, but this month we were able to sneak Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog and Louder’s Head Honcho Scott out of the many, many meetings he seems to find himself in these days in order to dispatch him to Bordeaux to go hang out with cover star Slash. Read what happened on p26… STUART BAILIE Stuart is the…

NEWS The video for Guns N’ Roses’ November Rain – released in 1992 and featured on Volume One of their album Use Your Illusion – has now attracted one billion viewers on YouTube, making it the first video from the 1990s to reach that landmark. The nine-minute epic portrays frontman Axl Rose marrying his then girlfriend Stephanie Seymour. Neal Schon would love Steve Perry to sing again with Journey. “I’ve heard that he’s been showing up in the same coffee joint that I go to all the time,” says the guitarist. “Hopefully I’ll run into him soon. We had a great meeting at the Hall Of Fame. I realised there was still a very deep connection there.” Gene Simmons (pictured) has settled a lawsuit accusing him of sexual battery during…

Bowie’s first demo tape found in bread bin And Bowie Is exhibition to be released as VR experience. DAVID BOWIE’S FIRST ever demo has been discovered in a bread basket. Bowie (then David Jones) and his band The Konrads recorded the song I Never Dreamed in 1963 in an unsuccessful bid to be signed by Decca Records. The 55-year-old tape was found by The Konrads’ manager and drummer David Hadfield. It is expected to fetch £10,000 at auction in September. Meanwhile, a digital recreation of the David Bowie Is exhibition, which first opened at London’s Victoria And Albert Museum five years ago, is to be made available to mobile devices in the autumn via all major virtual reality platforms. A statement on Bowie’s official website reads: “The digital experience, a…

HIGH HOPES Gorilla Riot Thirsty Mancunians blend blues, grunge and country – while trying not to fall over too often. “You might hear bits of early Stones, Black Crowes and country stuff in our sound.” For a young man keen to play the blues but also rock hard into the bargain, there are plenty of spiritual homes to be found: Memphis to Eel Pie Island, Newcastle to New York City. But Manchester? No shortage of musical heritage there, of course, but it’s more often associated with dance music and indie rock. So when a few years ago Arjun Bhishma wanted a place to play the kind of rocking, rootsy music he loved, he had his work cut out. “There were no blues nights in Manchester at the time,” he says,…

Q & A Rick Wakeman The keyboard whizz on his solo and ARW albums, Yes, covering Bo Rhap… and the state of his bowels. Words: Fraser Lewry Portrait: Kevin Nixon “Perhaps when you get to our age we’re all tribute bands.” Rick Wakeman is a very busy man. In July he jetted off to South America for shows in Santiago and Buenos Aires, a full orchestra in tow. He’s just released his album Piano Odyssey, featuring reworkings of material from his solo career along with Yes songs and covers of songs by The Beatles, David Bowie and Queen. In September there’s a live album from Yes featuring ARW and available in a variety of formats. And then he starts a tour of his own, traversing the nation to play tracks…

2,053,679 AND STILL GROWING! SOCIAL CLUB Get social, debate and interact with Classic Rock ALL HAIL ROCK’N’ROLL! My summer has just begun here in the states and I had the pleasure of your July issue [issue #250] being the first thing I read. For starters, I loved the accolades given to the underrated Mitch Mitchell. The jazz chops he bought at times got my attention far more then Jimi’s playing and that says a lot. Other than Ian Paice, in my opinion, Mitchell is probably the best of the period. Bozo is great with his boom bash style but the jazz flair that both Mitch and Paice brought get my vote. Second, the early rock’n’roll article had me, as Little Richard would say, “screaming like a white lady in church”.…

THE HARD STUFF Rock Reviews Edited By Ian Fortnam © ELLIOTT LANDY/WWW.ELLIOTTLANDY.COM The Blinders Columbia MODERN SKY UK Guitars with attitude bite back. Cast your mind back to the distant past. To a time when there was a weekly music press. Every season or so these newsprint publications would adorn their front page (to everyone’s increasing disgust, curiously) with a picture of a sullen band – a petulant facial expression used to indicate a once valued commodity called ‘cool’, apparently – under the rhetorical cover line: ‘Is this the best new band in Britain?’. Well, if we were back in that particular day, this is exactly the 36-point-type question that would be posed with regard to The Blinders. A Doncaster three-piece who sound as thoroughly post-everything as any band should…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators Living The Dream SNAKEPIT/ROADRUNNER The dream takes flight. Okay, let’s forget all about Guns N’ Roses. At least for now. While GN’R offers Slash a nice way to bolster his bank balance and play to huge audiences, on the creative front Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators is where he belongs. Living The Dream is the band’s third, and best, album. It brings purpose and focus to the vision he and vocalist Myles Kennedy have for what they want to achieve. It has arena-rock attitude, but contained within songs and performances that are a lot more intimate and highly charged than you might expect. Slash’s punchy guitar style complements Kennedy’s passionate vocals, and in doing so brings to…

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling Modern Art Featuring Ted Poley Modern Art Ft. Ted Poley TED-POLEY.COM Best known for his work with Danger Danger, Ted Poley began as a singing drummer with the New Jersey pomprockers Prophet and has spent the past three decades fronting bands such as Melodica, Bonemachine and, most recently, Tokyo Motor Fist. Danger Danger gig sporadically but are now seemingly out to pasture as a recording entity. But mental cogs whirred at the Rockweekend Festival in Stockholm when Poley crossed paths with Degreed, one of a handful of younger acts doing exciting new things within melodic hard rock. The results of their partnership are little short of staggering. Although the voice remains instantly recognisable, Poley has never sounded like this before. New World is built upon…

The Psychedelic Furs REX Vinyl Reissues SONY LEGACY Dreamy post-punkers return on vinyl. If there was ever a band who managed to be popular without ever entirely fitting in, it was The Psychedelic Furs. From their earliest days – when ‘psychedelic’ was a distinctly uncool word to put in a New Wavey band’s name – to their MTV pomp, with an actual John Hughes movie named after one of their songs, the Furs seemed to make great records and have big hits in a way that ought to have given them a much bigger profile, but never quite did. Not that they didn’t deserve their success: they consistently put out excellent albums and produced a string of hits. But there was always something about the Furs that was hard to…

LIVE! Devon Allman/Duane Betts Sons of southern rock royalty Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts head to the UK. “We play some Allman Brothers stuff and other things too. It’s a good show, it has a real nice arc.” Devon Allman and Duane Betts, 46 and 41 years old respectively, are the sons of southern rock royalty – the late Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts, both co-founders of the Allman Brothers Band. The pair spoke to Classic Rock about their six upcoming UK dates. Do you recall the first time you met? Devon: It was in 1989 and we were on tour with our dads. Duane had a Walkman on [laughs] and he was listening to Testament. I was into thrash metal too, so I knew this guy was cool. It…

LIVE! Walking Papers With Duff back with Axl and co., it’s a whole new line-up live. Duff McKagan’s long-rumoured return to Guns N’ Roses spelled an enforced hiatus for his ‘other’ band, Seattle’s Walking Papers. But, far from being frustrated, lead singer/guitarist Jefferson Angell couldn’t be happier for his former bassist. On a scale of one to ten, how nervous did you feel when Walking Papers played at the Classic Rock Awards at the Roundhouse back in 2012? Oh, I guess I was around an eight; there were just so many famous faces. Lemmy and Nikki Sixx were there and we were sat at a table with Jaz Coleman from Killing Joke. But the biggest one for me was Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top, who has been such an influence…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT “They came on stage and killed it!” New Queen photobook focuses on 1973-1985, their epic live years. Photographs: Robert Ellis/The Rock Library ALL PHOTOS © ROBERT ELLIS/THE ROCK LIBRARY “They were flamboyant, they were showmen.Robert Ellis QUEEN ARE THE subject of a new photobook published in September. Covering 12 years of their history, Queen – Performances 1973-1985 brings together more than 400 photos of the band taken by veteran music photographer Robert Ellis, who first saw them as a support act to Mott The Hoople on their first major tour in 1973. From such humble origins it ends with Freddie Mercury and company headlining the Rock In Rio Festival in Brazil in 1985 in front of a quarter of a million fans. As…

Courtney and Corgan reunited Love joins Pumpkins’ 30th-anniversary show. BILLY CORGAN GATHERED an impressive list of co-stars for Smashing Pumpkins’ 30th-anniversary show, which took place as part of a massive world tour that includes a UK date at London’s Wembley Arena on October 16. For their August 2 show at the PNC Bank Arena in Holmdel, New Jersey the group were joined by Deftones frontman Chino Moreno, New Order bassist Peter Hook, Mark McGrath of Sugar Ray and The Killers pair of Mark Stoemer and Dave Keuning, and there was also a surprise appearance from Corgan’s nemesis and ex-girfriend Courtney Love, with whom he had a romantic relationship before Love’s marriage to Kurt Cobain. Corgan and Love exchanged vicious barbs via the press until a tentative burying of the hatchet,…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground SILBERBART 4 Times Sound Razing, Philips, Germany, 1971. £750 with rare insert, £400 without. Silberbart were an unconventional-sounding heavy progressive power trio from the German town of Varel, whose sole album has become an in-demand artifact among collectors. Guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Hajo Teschner had been a member of Hamburg beat group The Tonics. Frustrated with their increasingly commercial sound, he quit and formed Silberbart with future Trio drummer Peter Behrens and bassist Werner Klug. ‘It can be a challenge, but when it clicks it hits all the right spots.’ Comprising just four lengthy tracks, 4 Times Sound Razing is uncompromising, and it can be a challenge to sit through, but when it clicks it hits all the right spots. While there may be obvious references…

THE FINAL TRIBUTE The story of Eddie Van Halen’s ultimate gift. GETTY In 1979, and with Halen ready to record their second album, Eddie Van Halen approached guitar maker Wayne Charvel for ‘something new’. The result was the Bumblebee, (pictured), so nicknamed due to its eye-popping black-and-yellow finish, and Ed brandishes it on VHII’s sleeve. Twenty-five years later another guitar icon, Pantera/Damageplan’s ‘Dimebag’ Darrel Abbot, who was utterly entranced by Van Halen’s style, asked Eddie to put together a black-and-yellow guitar for him as it was, he considered, his ‘toughest guitar’. Ed was happy to comply, but Dime’s senseless murder mere months later brought plans to a screeching halt. So, in a gesture of true respect, Ed took the original ’79 Charvel to Dime’s funeral, where it was placed alongside…

HIGH HOPES Blind River Former Godsized, Pig Irön and Earls Of Mars guys say forget the posing, just deliver the rock. “THERE’S A TIME and a place for miserable bands, and it can be great to wallow in despair, but sometimes all you wanna do is have a few beers and a party. Not in a Steel Panther way,” Blind River frontman Harry Armstrong says, laughing, “more a Motörhead, AC/DC rock’n’roll way.” Armstrong has summed up Blind River perfectly. The five-piece (whose members have played in bands including Godsized, Pig Irön and Earls Of Mars) formed in 2017. They create straight-up classic bluesy rock with a gritty groove that’s made for boogieing and cracking open cold ones. Imagine a slightly less heavy Orange Goblin, or if the Black Crowes had…

COMBAT ROCK Staged by their record company as a trip to a war zone, for the first date of their autumn 1977 UK tour The Clash flew to Northern Ireland. In an exclusive extract from brand new book Trouble Songs, this is the story of the band’s cancelled gig, rioting and fights, and the reality of life on Belfast’s mean streets. Words: Stuart Bailie Photos: Adrian Boot On 20 October 1977, the Clash took the 8.30am flight from London to Aldergrove Airport, County Antrim. The Ulster Hall in Belfast was the first date of their ‘Out Of Control’ tour. By now, the band had been toughened by events. They had taken part in the Anarchy Tour with the Sex Pistols and others in December 1976. The tabloid media had affected…

CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM OF THE WEEK CLUB Every week we choose a classic album – some obscure, some well known – and share knowledge and opinion. Listen and debate with us at: http://bit.do/aotw. Have your say on the history of rock, one album at a time… And you might just see yourself in print. The Kick Inside Kate Bush (1978) WHAT YOU SAID Mike Knoop: An inspired choice that adds credence to the “broad church of rock ‘n’ roll”. Although I have to snicker when wondering what the folks who thought Geddy Lee’s voice was too shrill thought about this one. It has grown on me over repeated listens, but I generally start to lose interest after the stellar James And The Cold Gun. Ultimately, a striking debut by an…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Uriah Heep Living The Dream FRONTIERS Mick Box and co. notch up album number 25 in fine and furious style. Tucked mischievously away at the back end of Uriah Heep’s 25th studio album, Falling Under Your Spell could well be the best song the British legends have written since the early 70s. Admittedly, it’s a dead spit for the immortal Easy Livin’, and that may be why the band opted to keep it as a belated treat, rather than placing it front and centre. But what a song it is, all propelled along by that unmistakable turbocharged shuffle, as Phil Lanzon’s rampaging, fiery keys fill up the foreground and the increasingly irresistible Bernie Shaw bellows his veteran head off. The chorus is huge, the energy levels…

The Band © ELLIOTT LANDY/WWW.ELLIOTTLANDY.COM Music From Big Pink CAPITOL/UMG Five go woodshedding. Often cited as year zero for what became Americana, The Band’s debut album, produced by John Simon, remains a thing of beauty, created (as the original note had it) in “BIG PINK, a house seated in the sun of Overlook Mountain in West Saugerties, New York”. In other words the perfect rural retreat for four Ontarians and an Arkansas man. They weren’t the first to swap concrete for clay; Traffic had already done that, although it’s fair to assume that Danko and co. were probably handier with a chainsaw. This newly mixed and mastered 50th Anniversary Edition doesn’t differ greatly from the 2004 Japanese issue, which included all the bonus tracks except the a-cappella I Shall Be…

THE HARD STUFF REISSUES Sunn O))) The WHITE albums SOUTHERN LORD Experimental metallers’ mid-00s pair, now with even more bowel-loosening bottom end. In 2007, Q magazine ranked WHITEBox, the 2006 reissue of Sunn O)))’s third and fourth albums, the 18th loudest album of all time, just ahead of AC/DC’s Back In Black. Whether the editors were referring to the terrifying phantasmagorical avant-metal spoken-word sludge and bell-like resonance of 2003’s doom-drone classic WHITE1 or the raging tinnitus caused by Stephen O’Malley and Greg Anderson’s full-out sonic deconstruction on the (mostly) instrumental follow-up, 2004’s drone-metal masterwork WHITE2, is a moot point. Crank the volume past halfway on either and you won’t be experiencing much in the way of critical faculties for weeks. Sunn O))) were formed in Seattle by O’Malley and Anderson…

Essential Playlist Deadly Inner Sense Lost Paradise Gothic Gothic Eternal Gothic Mortals Watch The Day Shades Of God As I Die Shades Of God Embers Fire Icon Forging Sympathy Icon Enchantment Draconian Times Elusive Cure Draconian Times One Second One Second Say Just Words One Second It’s Too Late Host Symbol Of Life Symbol Of Life Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us I Remain Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us Worth Fighting For Tragic Idol Beneath Broken Earth The Plague Within Medusa Medusa…

Demon Celebrating The Unexpected Guest 36 years on. Frontman Dave Hill (no relation) checks in as the veteran British hard rockers prepare for six extremely rare British appearances. When did Demon last undertake a UK tour of this size? We still do a lot of work in Europe, but it would have to be about thirty years ago [laughs]. Incredibly, this will be my first Scottish gig. An appearance at Firefest in 2007 was billed as “the last British show ever”. It was meant to be part of a last tour, though now of course we’re touring again. It got out of hand. What can I say? We’re not alone. Were Demon unfairly written off for their earliest occult and horror-based shows? We’ve been quite misrepresented pretty much every step…

LIVE! The Gaslight Anthem PHOTOSHOT ‘The songs exude warmth, regret and shared pasts’ London Eventim Apollo They don’t move around, but they do move hearts. Ten years ago, when their second album, The ’59 Sound, failed to breach the British or American Top 50, The Gaslight Anthem were just another New Jersey punk-rock-soul band with a Springsteenian bent. They seemed set for Social Distortion-style cultdom. Instead, the glorious, impassioned songs of The ’59 Sound took on a life of their own, the band hauled themselves onto another level and, here we are, a decade on, with two Hammersmith sell-outs, the album played in order, in full, and a rabid audience hollering along with such abandon that singer Brian Fallon sometimes seems like their backing singer. The sound, however, isn’t great…

Heavy Load Clutch frontman Neil Fallon on stalkers, problem drinking, coming back as a dinosaur and losing his head – literally. Interview: Henry Yates Heavy questions for heavy rockers Clutch have made a career of defying expectations. Since 1991 the Maryland rockers have constantly shifted gears, fuelling their 11-album catalogue with punk, funk, sludge and stoner rock, and they’ve been equally fearless on this year’s Book Of Bad Decisions. Likewise, while Neil Fallon’s woodsman beard and rumbling drawl might suggest a deadly serious alt.rock frontman, it’s a revelation to hear he’d rather be a dinosaur. If reincarnation exists, what do you want to come back as? I think being a pterodactyl would be pretty badass. I would probably make roost on some human monument, like the Empire State Building, just…