Table of contents for February 2020 in Classic Rock

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

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

Duncan ‘Sandy’ Sanderson December 31, 1948 - November 20, 2019 ANOTHER CORNERSTONE OF the psychedelic rock scene, Duncan ‘Sandy’ Sanderson, bass player with The Deviants and Pink Fairies, passed away as this issue went to press. His death comes two months after that of bandmate and friend Larry Wallis. Originally known as the Social Deviants, The Deviants were formed by singer/songwriter Mick Farren in London’s Notting Hill in 1967. Carlisle-born Sanderson joined them that summer. After a break-up with Farren, in early 1970 Sanderson formed the Pink Fairies along with fellow ex-Deviants members Paul Rudolph (guitar/vocals) and Russell Hunter (drums). GETTY x3 Infamous for their enthusiastic consumption of mind-altering chemicals, Pink Fairies released three albums for Polydor – Never Never Land (1971), What A Bunch Of Sweeties (’72) and Kings…

Modern Warfar Blue-collar poets and shitkicking rockers for the new age, Canada’s the Glorious Sons are on anthemic form with their brilliant new album. Words: Grant Moon MAIN: AVALON INSET: JONATHAN WEINER/PRESS Five years ago, the Glorious Sons made the decision to not sound like a band from the 1970s. From their beloved home town of Kingston on the north shore of Lake Ontario, they’d watched as countless young bands got their retro, Deep Purple groove on, and so resolved to give their own music a 21st century heartbeat. “For me the rock genre needs to talk about now,” singer Brett Emmons tells Classic Rock, “and exploit some of the stuff they didn’t have in the seventies. Modern tech can really break a song wide open, you can let your…

THE ODD COUPLE They’re the masters of ambient, melancholic alt.rock, with roots in disco records and NWOBHM pub gigs. Tim Bowness takes us inside the surprising world of No-Man. Words: Polly Glass Tim Bowness used to sing so loudly he’d cough up blood after shows. Long-haired and aggressive of voice, the no-man singer’s formative live experiences – as a performer and punter – were fuelled by much heavier, shoutier material than he’s known for now. Sneaking into gigs as a teenager in the north of England, the similarly underaged Diamond Head would smuggle him backstage to chat about… prog classics. “They were very nice. They loved [Yes’s] Tales From Topographic Oceans,” he enthuses brightly. “Where I lived in the North-West the only music we really got was NWOBHM, so all…

InMe Jumpstart Hope KILLING MOON Essex rock crew harness the power of their own fears. There’s something wonderfully plucky about InMe. Emerging from the UK’s post-hardcore boom of the early 2000s, the Essex band have remained steadfast, returning now with a seventh album of their metallic, emotional take on the genre. Frontman Dave McPherson has always been open about his struggles with mental health, and here he touches on everything from love and friendship to depression and self-doubt, his voice capable of switching from ursine growl to choirboy croon to panicky, proggy warble in an instant. In The Next Song, the changes come so rapidly that it screams of a soul freefalling in chaos, the riffy core bolstered by strings and fluttering piano to add to the sense of claustrophobia.…

Kamchatka Hoodoo Lightning KAMCHATKA MUSIC Fuzzy blues fury from Sweden’s earthiest power trio. This Swedish trio’s rambunctious brand of bluesy stoner rock will never struggle to find an audience. Their seventh studio album certainly doesn’t waste time trying to reinvent Kamchatka’s ever-turning wheel, but there are precious few bands playing this stuff with anything like the same degree of ingenuity and verve. Opener Blues Science Part 1: Thunder Rise is a rollicking dose of pure stoner psych, replete with spiralling acid-rock solos and a skittering rhythmic undertow, while the title track proclaims ‘the power of the mojo hand’ before erupting into some of the cockiest-sounding protometal riffs you’ll hear this millennium. The rest follows a similarly exhilarating path: balls-out and traditional, but peppered with smart, quirky ideas, from Rainbow Ridge’s snotty,…

Djabe & Steve Hackett Back To Sardinia ESOTERIC Hungarian jazz reunion for ex-Genesis globetrotter. Steve Hackett has matched Peter Gabriel for musical curiosity, taking his guitar to intriguing places, and lacing global sounds into his own albums. 2016’s Life Is A Journey – The Sardinia Tapes was a productive summit with jazz-world fusion veterans Djabe, recorded in a Sardinian priest’s house. Relentless touring forced Hackett to forego the island sun for this sequel, adding his improvisations in Budapest. This is very much a Djabe jazzrock album, all languid grooves and atmospheres, with Hackett as the featured, contrasting rock player. Lonely Castle is more about Aron Koos-Hutas’ Milesian trumpet, until Hackett intervenes with electric trills and a sudden saurian roar. Girl In The Palau Wood, too, is transformed by dramatic rock…

Fitted First Fits ORG MUSIC Fit for purpose. Originally assembled for a largely spontaneous performance at Wire’s 2017 DRILL Festival in Los Angeles by Wire members Graham Lewis and Matthew Sims and Minuteman’s Mike Watts with drummer Bob Lee, Fitted have taken the next logical step and made an album. Typically, each track starts with a bass groove (not surprising given that both Lewis and Watts are bassists), the drums chase them down and the semi-spoken vocals weave their way in and out of the atmospherics. It sounds like it was recorded in an empty swimming pool with the mics and mixer set up at the shallow end and the instruments piled up at the deep end while the singers walk up and down between them. It gets murky at…

Handsome Dick Manitoba Born In The Bronx LIBERATION HALL Noo Yawk Noo Yawk. L’Chaim. Richard Blum, aka HDM, was the legendary lead singer with The Dictators, one of the few true NYC punk rock groups. Now a sprightly 65, he’s still sifting through the sidewalk detritus. Working with lyricist Jon Tiven, Dick wanders over a bunch of tunes about daytime TV, Chuck Taylor’s Converse, Yankee Stadium, the lure of the warm California sun, crack cocaine and entertaining if unreciprocated glances at the local talent, all delivered with his customarily lecherous crash-’n’-burn like he’s Larry David’s even less woke younger brother. The weird stuff arrives on Big Army Brass and a demented take on Eve Of Destruction that features the songwriter PF Sloan. Santana drummer Michael Shrieve and Free man Simon…

DeWolff Tascam Tapes MASCOT An album really recorded on a shoestring. Going even more lo-fi than usual, DeWolff have pulled off the kind of album that sounds more like a dare than anything else. Using nothing more than guitar, drum sampler and synth, the band recorded album number seven on an ancient Tascam four-track tape machine, mostly at the back of their bus while on tour. The result is supremely groovy, the band’s typically psychedelic take on classic 70s rock stripped down to the essence of an off-kilter lounge band with top tracks It Ain’t Easy and Blood Meridian I leading the charge, followed closely by Rain, Let It Fly and Blood Meridian II, the minimal set-up enabling the quality of the tunes to shine. Essi Berelian…

Geordie Reissues DEMON Newcastle noisemakers who included one of rock’s most recognisable voices. ALBERT WATSON/PRESS There were many early-70s hard rockers who in their hearts wanted to be Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple but in their heads knew the way to getting on the TV was to be Slade or Sweet. Geordie, like Nazareth, briefly pulled it off, expectorating gravelly hits like All Because Of You and Can You Do It all over the nation’s pop kids. Nazareth’s USP was of course the unholy shriek of Brian Johnson, which made Noddy Holder sound like Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant. You probably know what became of Brian after Geordie floundered as the 70s came to an end. Geordie’s first four albums are now excavated on quirkily coloured vinyl, and emphasise that…

Jimmy Page & Friends Tribute To Alexis Korner STORE FOR MUSIC 1984 tribute to late bluesman and broadcaster, now available on CD, 25 years on. Intended not as a wake but a “celebration of the fact that Alexis was here in the first place”, this concert, live at the Club Palais Ballroom in Nottingham, featured Jimmy Page joined by Charlie Watts, Jack Bruce, Paul Jones, Ian Stewart and Ruby Turner. It’s generally old-school stuff – representatives of a generation of rock stars who were made by the blues, taking a dip in the primordial source of their sound and success – although swing gets a nod in the cover of Neal Hefti’s Splanky. And so we get the familiar trucking-down-the-dirt-track of When It All Comes Down, the revelling, raucous Got…

Dickies The A&M Years CAROLINE San Fernando Valley bubblegum punks’ first flush. You only need witness the vox-pop audience member interviews captured in D.O.A. (Lech Kowalski’s chronicle of the Sex Pistols’ American tour) to understand how long it took the majority of punk-curious Californians to truly get to grips with what the actual fuck was going on. LA’s Dickies, meanwhile, were early adopters (they caught the Damned’s pioneering ‘77 US shows and clearly studied Ramones as if it were a holy text) who got it more than most. So while X, The Nuns and Avengers were still doing whatever the hell it was that they were doing in local clubs, the Dickies were busy having actual hits in the UK. Granted, they were only ironic punk-paced adenoidal covers of Paranoid,…

Mercury Rev All Is Dream CHERRY RED Oh, man. This is some treat for the holidays. GETTY A lavishly packaged – four CDs plus limited-edition (500 copies) seven-inch single, poster, signed lyric sheet and more – reissue of NY swoon-psychedelic Mercury Rev’s 2001 fifth studio album All Is Dream – the album that should have pushed these masters of delirium into the same stratospheric reaches as their brothers in arms the Flaming Lips… but still did very nicely, thank you. Built around the twin wonders of Jonathan Donahue (vocals, guitar) and Sean ‘Grasshopper’ Mackowiak (guitar, keyboards, clarinet, tettix wave accumulator), All Is Dream is more capacious, sprawling and lush than its equally wonderful predecessor Deserter’s Songs, mostly thanks to the caprices of in-demand producer Dave Fridmann. Think of songs such…

Phil Collins …But Seriously RHINO A big hit, now on snazzy turquoise vinyl. Phil Collins was the unlikely superstar of the 1980s. With receding hair and ‘Man At C&A’ tailoring, he had none of the glamour that Michael Jackson, Madonna or Prince had. But throughout that decade, as both a solo artist and the drummer and lead singer with Genesis, he was a hit-making machine. And from MTV to Live Aid, that round face was everywhere. …But Seriously, his fourth solo album, released in 1989, was a No.1 in 15 countries and went on to become the UK’s biggest-selling album of 1990, shifting close to three million copies. But it wasn’t his best solo record, with nothing of the art-rock sensibility that was in evidence on his 1981 solo debut…

Morning Glory On The Vine: Early Songs & Drawings Joni Mitchell CANONGATE A private gem for belated public consumption. Riding high on rave reviews for her fourth album Blue in 1971, Joni Mitchell decided upon a very special Christmas present for the friends who had contributed to her burgeoning success. She self-published this compendium of handwritten lyrics, poems and pictures, limited to a run of just 100 copies; an almost mythical artefact among fans. Now everyone can get their hands on one (sturdily bound, as opposed to the dossier-like original held together with clip rings). It’s a beautifully packaged item in which, intriguingly, the lyrics to such classics as A Case Of You and Both Sides Now seem to take on an extra intimacy when presented in her own delicate…

Outside View: The Secret Life Of A Teenage Punk Rocker Andy Blade DAYS LIKE TOMORROW Eye-witness account of punk’s early days from Eater frontman. “It most definitely wasn’t supposed to be like this,” laments Andy Blade, recalling the day Eater walked out of their own (nightmarish) record deal in 1978, and this sense of punk losing its way is mirrored by his own band’s premature demise. Having formed Eater at 15, Blade was there from the very start, hanging out at punk mecca The Roxy as a wide-eyed convert while his peers were either scheming a pathway to the top (The Clash) or lying about their ages (The Stranglers). While bad management and teenage naivete put paid to his rock star ambitions, Blade’s acid wit makes him a captivating narrator,…

REVIEWS Ronnie Wood & His Wild Five London Shepherd’s Bush Empire Honest Ron and Chuck Berry? What could possibly go wrong? Young Ronnie Wood was captivated by the seductive cars-’n’-girls-based Americana of vintage Chuck way back in the 50s, and the first example of Berry’s rock‘n’roll Dead Sea scrolls this writer encountered was the Faces’ Memphis. Then there’s the Stones. Wood and most of those packed into the Empire have probably been getting their Ya-Ya’s out for Keef’s Carol and Queenie for the fat end of 50 years. Tonight’s a foregone conclusion. Ronnie wants us to love it. We want to love it. And we do. Up to a point. The material’s faultless; it’s Chuck’s greatest hits, what’s not to like? Woody’s a charming ringmaster, gifted in guitar and gab…

Airbourne/Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown London Kentish Town Forum Blistering night with Aussie hellraisers and southern young guns. There are kids – actual kids, in braces – beaming in delight as TB&TSD remind us that old-school blues rock, with virtuosic guitar showboating, can be huge fun. It helps that the young Nashville foursome are playing like it’s a headline stadium show, and clearly having the best time. And with the likes of On To The Next and Aftershock adding grungy dirt and decadence, the bar is set high. Anyone else would seriously struggle to follow such an opener. But Airbourne are headlining, and as the galloping attack of Raise The Flag incites ear-to-ear grins throughout the Forum, it’s clear that they’re not about to be dwarfed by anyone. Yes the…

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

‘You can check out, but you can never leave…’ Eagles confirm London Hotel California shows. THE EAGLES HAVE announced two summer gigs at Wembley Stadium, their only European concerts of 2020. The band, still featuring mainstays Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit, and accompanied by Deacon Frey (son of late co-founder Glenn) and Vince Gill, will perform their landmark 1976 album Hotel California in its entirety, followed by a second set of ‘greatest hits’. The shows take place on August 29 and 30 and will feature an orchestra and choir. Meanwhile, the band were the highest-placed from the rock genre in an annual list of music’s biggest earners of 2019 published by Forbes magazine, at number four, pulling in $100m (£79m) during the past year. Others in the…

Wolf Parade Thin Mind SUB POP Canadian trio up for a fight. The fifth studio album from Montreal’s Wolf Parade comes fully-polished and listener-friendly with production courtesy of seasoned US rabble-rouser John Goodmanson (Bikini Kill, Sleater-Kinney, Unwound). Synths, ricocheting drums and wired claustrophobic vocals from Spencer Krug and Dan Boeckner all sound like they could’ve been lifted from a slice of Bowie vinyl circa ’73. Neu romantic almost, except neu romanticism rarely sounds this ugly, this anxious. Songs like Out Of Control and Under Glass feel tempestuous, embedded with pathos and broad sweeps of emotion. Think Roxy Music, The National. Think of the disconnect between physicality and social networks. Think of everyday life, a constant striving for escape from the grey, the mundane. Dreams bordering on the nightmarish, the state…

Electric Black The Calm Before SELF-RELEASED Determined and dynamic debut. Solid, no-frills hard rock from start to finish, Electric Black’s debut is a showcase for economical to-the-point songwriting. And it’s been a long old slog this far if the lyrics to Homecoming are anything to go by; almost every band has some sort of lonesome tales-of-the-road tune and Electric Black have turned the trials and tribulations of being a hard-working band into one of their best tracks with a distinctly southern rock feel. It’s all about being true to your goals with Eagle, Build It And They Will Come and Shoot For The Sun all fuelled by endless self-belief and wide-eyed defiance. Clearly driven to succeed, Electric Black’s first effort holds plenty of promise for the future. Essi Berelian…

Stone Sour Hello You Bastards: Live In Reno COOKING VINYL Full on Sour mania. It seems a while ago that people regarded Stone Sour as nothing more than Corey Taylor’s distraction from Slipknot duty. Now, after six albums, the band have long since thrown off ‘Knot’s shadow, establishing their own style. This is their first live release, and it’s packed with fury, passion and venom. And it’s all delivered with a measured hard rock stance that brings to mind AC/DC, Motörhead and early Metallica. Taylor is in full cry on a set that spans their career to date, while Josh Rand and Christian Martucci’s guitars kick up a storm. They roar through 16 songs, offering little respite and plenty of manic action. Stone Sour understand how to get their fans…

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead X: The Godless Void And Other Stories INSIDEOUT The prog-hardcore interface reaches new highs on its silver jubilee It’s strange to think that Texan rockers …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have reached their 25th year, a period of time that usually finds bands looking over their shoulder. And although their six-year absence from the studio found them doing just that with the live revisitation of their second album, Madonna, the experience has evidently served to reinvigorate this singular outfit as they now adjust their gaze on the road ahead to have a steely and determined focus. X: The Godless Void And Other Stories doesn’t sound like the work of a band finding their way back;…

Apocalyptica Cell-0 SILVER LINING MUSIC Back to their best baroque and roll. Infamous for their inspired reworking of portions of the classic metal catalogue and for breathing new life into Metallica’s better songs, Apocalyptica have staked their own, peculiarly unique, plot in music’s knotty landscape. Frustratingly, they’ve often been overlooked as the most refined of cover bands or as the outfit you hire to add a veneer of respectability to your music; strings make almost anything sound elegant. Which is to undersell these Finnish musicians somewhat. The experiment of recording with different singers has passed, covers are passé, and Cell-0 is the dizzying work of four classically trained musicians at the top of their game. Nods are given to Mozart as much as they might be to Metallica, infusing songs…

Anti-Flag 20/20 Vision SPINEFARM Pennsylvania punks take aim at the system once more. Pittsburgh punks Anti-Flag have been around in one form or another since 1988, yet it feels that their time is very much now. With activism central to their existence as a band, their return at a time when people are marching against a racist, misogynist, homophobic US president, against climate catastrophe and against division suggests that much of the population is joining them in speaking out. Naturally, 20/20 Vision is a deeply political album, beginning with a clip of Donald Trump looking back on the “good old days” when protesters were “treated very, very rough”. But despite a very real anger and an assertion that “we are the disease”, there’s a positivity underlying it all. Punchy, poppy…

Various Live At The Roxy London WC2 (Jan – Apr ’77) RHINO Legendary punk compendium revisited. The urgency, speed and immediacy of 1977’s UK punk scene was head-spinning. The rock media, both mainstream (four weekly inkies) and Xeroxed (countless fanzines, from the Glue on down) were all over it, but the major labels were too cumbersome to react to its ever-changing landscape of bands and to supply actual recorded evidence of its rapid progress. Consequently, during its most fertile period, punk happened live. More specifically, it happened live at The Roxy. Situated in a run-down, pre-redevelopment Covent Garden, The Roxy was a snug, squalid breeding ground for countless neophytes bound for greater things, where the capital’s kids would gather to exercise their inner Sid while pogoing (and, latterly, posing) to…

Mott The Hoople The Golden Age Of Rock ‘N’ Roll MADFISH The glam Clash at their very best. Perpetuating the grand tradition of ignoring the band’s first four Guy Stevens-produced albums for Island Records, this inarguably brilliant double vinyl collection of Mott’s finest CBSera recordings is the ideal entry point for any young dude of a curious disposition. After a grim five-year grind of much work for little reward, Mott were all for kicking their less-than-burgeoning career into touch after 1971’s Brain Capers album ‘peaked’ at No.208 in the US chart. Enter superfan (and soon to be superstar) David Bowie, who wrote All The Young Dudes for them while producing their breakthrough fifth album of the same name. While it’s probably even less likely that there’s a new generation of…

Muse Origin Of Muse – Super Deluxe Edition WARNERS Space-rocking maximalists revisit their roots with mammoth multi-disc archive set. Remember the innocent time at the turn of the millennium when Muse were a baby-faced power trio who specialised in heartbroken post-grunge confessionals rather than planet-sized future-metal prog-punk operas about genocidal alien overlords? This mammoth box sex, featuring four coloured vinyl albums and nine CDs, is a handsomely packaged and mostly excellent excavation of this period. But with a price tag north of £100, Origin Of Muse will blow a super-massive black hole in your savings, so it really needs to be a majestic musical banquet. Thankfully, there is plenty to savour here, including expanded versions of Muse’s first two albums: Showbiz and Origin of Symmetry. It’s hard to argue with…

Fast Buck Night Games – The Complete Recordings LEMON/CHERRY RED The buck stops before this. Eking out four CDs from a one-album career might be regarded as a bit of an extravagance, particularly when the album in question caused barely a ripple when it was originally released in 1976. Classic rockers Fast Buck had built up a reputation on the London circuit, but their self-titled album on Jet Records failed to capitalise on it. They were clearly musically competent, but couldn’t seem to nail their style or a clear identity in the studio. The lacklustre production doesn’t help. So that’s half the first CD taken care of, and there’s nothing on the next two and a half CDs of unreleased material to make you change your mind, although there are…

Heavy Pettin Rock Ain’t Dead BURNT OUT WRECKORDS Nearly-men of 80s British rock. For a short while in the mid-80s, a lot was expected of Scottish band Heavy Pettin. They’d made an impact in 1983 with debut album Lettin Loose, and Rock Ain’t Dead released two years later was presumed to be the album that would prove the band could compete with the likes of Ratt and Dokken. But things didn’t quite work out that way. Now, 35 years later, it’s clear why Heavy Pettin fell short. Yes, there’s a lot of dynamism and power on the album, and guitarists Punky Mendoza and Gordon Bonnar have a distinctive flair. But none of the songs reach the heights that might have broken the band into the million-selling elite. Having said that,…

The Dukes Of Stratosphear Psurroundabout Ride: The Complete Recordings APEHOUSE Surround-sound splendour from psychedelic XTC. At the back end of 1984, three members of XTC – Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory – hooked up to make an album that sounded like it was made as the original summer of love reached its paisley-patterned zenith. The foursome were rounded out by Gregory’s brother Ian on drums, and the resulting mini-album, 25 O’Clock, paid tribute to the music of early Pink Floyd, Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles, The Move, The Nice and the Small Faces, and one-hit wonders like The Electric Prunes and Tomorrow. Two years later they followed that with the album Psonic Psunspot, and both were repackaged almost immediately as the single collection Chips From The Chocolate Fireball. The…

Elton John Terry O’Neill OCTOPUS New book from great, recently deceased photographer focuses on Elton. Terry O’Neill’s death in November at least reminded us of the range, insight and humour of his photography. From helping to present The Beatles’ personalities to that image of Faye Dunaway the morning after winning an Oscar, he glorified showbiz while slyly hinting at its underbelly. He shot Elton on and off for over 45 years, reckoning he’d taken over 5,000 photos of him. His captures at the massive LA Dodgers Stadium in 1975 fuelled the imagery of the Rocketman movie and constitute the heart of this celebratory book. His intro is a eulogy to the singer, but then the pictures take over as he catches both candid and charismatic scenes. Elton plays camp dress-up,…

The Rolling Stones Bridges To Buenos Aires EAGLE VISION Uneven set list in Argentina, redeemed by megawatt energy. River Plate Stadium ’98 is perhaps not the most mouth-watering entry in Eagle Vision’s historic Stones concert series. The band were touring the so-so Bridges To Babylon album (released in 1997), and the setlist has its frustrations: room for Flip The Switch, Out Of Control, Thief In The Night and Saint Of Me, but not Street Fighting Man? Yet the lineup power on through, with Keith Richards on tight-but-loose form in a floor-length coat evoking a mangy tiger, and Jagger a blur of bark, twirl and passable Spanish. The same can’t be said, however, for a guesting Bob Dylan, who flubs the first line of Like A Rolling Stone and gets worse…

Essential Playlist Oh My Fucking God City (Strapping Young Lad) Seventh Wave Ocean Machine: Biomech Truth Infinity Earth Day Terria Tiny Tears Terria Deadhead Accelerated Evolution Almost Again The New Black (Strapping Young Lad) Solar Winds Ziltoid The Omniscient Terminal Ki Bend It Like Bender! Addicted Hyperdrive! Addicted Planet Of The Apes Deconstruction Ghost Ghost Grace Epicloud True North Epicloud Mountaintop Casualties Of Cool Universal Flame Z2 – Sky Blue Stormbending Transcendence Spirits Will Collide Empath…

LIVE! Tour Dates See below for dates. Currently October 2-8. See previous page for dates. Currently June 10-16. See below for dates. May 31 to June 8.…

Amyl And The Sniffers Cardiff Clwb Ifor Bach Antipodean charmers unleash hand-me-down beast. Rock fashions come and go, but Australia’s Amyl And The Sniffers have grasped the universal truth that the gloriously dumb thrill of hollering, headbanging gutter-punk primitivism will never die. Fronted by kick-ass singer Amy Taylor, this mullet-haired Melbourne quartet make a knowingly retro racket that is both a parody and celebration of garage rock’s golden age, especially the Australian “pub punk” scene of the late seventies. Punchy sing-along chants like GFY (Go Fuck Yourself) and Shake Ya are hardly subtle, but two-minute shotgun blasts of sweaty, shouty, sweary excitement is the band’s forte. Taylor radiates a kind of hilarious loose-cannon charisma, channelling prime-time Joan Jett and Debbie Harry at times, but with some of the high-wire mania…

Idles London Alexandra Palace This generation’s Clash, or this season’s Blaggers ITA. Time will tell. Against the backdrop of a bitterly divided UK, it feels especially significant that a band like Idles, who were playing pubs just two years ago, are now headlining a venue like the cavernous 10,000-capacity Alexandra Palace. The Bristol-based band have made it here because their deeply political, yet compassionate punk has struck a chord with a fanbase who need something to believe in during these turbulent times. And as pink-haired frontman Joe Talbot smashes his way across the stage during the climax of Samaritans – a song that tackles toxic masculinity – every stomp of his boot feels like a scuzzy bear hug. Danny Nedelko and Rottweiler are scorching attacks on the right-wing press, the…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT “They turned up at the Nashville as a pub-rock band” New photo-book documents AC/DC’s early years COPYRIGHT FUTURE 2019 © DICK BARNATT & RUFUS PUBLICATIONS © DICK BARNATT & RUFUS PUBLICATIONS A NEW LIMITED-edition coffee-table book showcases AC/DC’s years of 1976 to 1981, a period in the band’s history that most fans consider peerless. Big Balls is a 272-page, largely pictorial tome that pulls together photos from the photographers Dick Barnatt, Michael Putland, Fin Costello, George Bodnar and Martyn Goddard, covering AC/DC from their first visit to the UK up to their headlining spot at the second Monsters Of Rock festival a half-decade later. At Castle Donington, with Brian Johnson having replaced the late, great Bon Scott on vocals, and part of a…

FLAX One. 1976 Vertigo, Norway. £600+ Flax were an eccentric hard prog band from Oslo, who began in 1971. A gem of an album, One was recorded in 1975, but wasn’t released until ’76, by which time the band had temporarily split. Commercially it was a strange year for an album of this nature to be released (hence poor sales), as it doesn’t really sit with what else was happening, although vocalist extraordinaire, Hermod Falch, had a sometimes sinister snarl, which was often very punk rock in execution. Having said that, it was largely contrasted with almost Queen-like operatic harmonies. Opener Demon In Your Heart, is a freakish, theatrical heavy prog masterpiece. It alone makes One worthy of investigation. Full of heavy riffs, psychotic time changes, spacey synthesisers and evil…

Q&A Steve Harris The Iron Maiden and British Lion bassist on having too many ideas, being a tongue-tied fanboy and retirement… Words: Dave Everley Portrait: John McMurtrie Steve Harris is in philosophical mood when he calls from his home in the Bahamas. “You’ve got to cram things in and live life while you can,” says the Iron Maiden bassist and linchpin. “My candle’s burning down towards the end in my life, so I’ve just got to do what I want to do.” He’s referring to The Burning, the new album from his side-band, British Lion – their first in nearly eight years. “It’s evolved into a really solid unit,” he says of the band. “It feels very different now to when we first did it.” Your first album away from…

THE CLASSIC ROCK INTERVIEW SUZI QUATRO She could have ended up a classical pianist, but then one day Suzi picked up a bass guitar, and found herself on the road that would lead to her becoming a glam-rock icon. Along the way she’s appeared in a smash TV show, been a published poet, a DJ, a West End star and much more… Interview: Ian Fortnam Portrait: Kevin Nixon Arriving into an early-70s landscape of clearly defined gender roles, where rocking was the exclusive preserve of the male of the species (all then caked in catastrophic glam-rock slap), and music’s pop-confined women were invariably reduced to simpering Stepford encouragements while trussed up in pinafore dresses of quite astonishing ugliness, Suzi Quatro was impossible to ignore. Bursting on to the UK scene,…

The Flower Kings Waiting For Miracles INSIDEOUT Fêted Swedish proggers return to comfortingly familiar form. Who knows quite how Roine Stolt sees the band with which he is synonymous. He seemingly put The Flower Kings on hiatus after 2013’s Desolation Rose, released 2018’s Manifesto Of An Alchemist as ‘Roine Stolt’s Flower King’, then played shows as ‘Roine Stolt And Friends Play The Flower Kings’, while expressing ambitions to be more of a free agent, all bets seemed off. But now all is as it was, and fans of Yes-fixated harmonies (Wicked Old Symphony, Steampunk), obstacle courses-worth of gnarly, stop-start riffs (The Rebel Circus, Miracles For America) and plenty of sweet melodies (although non-fans of loudly farting fretless bass may wish to tread carefully) can rejoice: Waiting For Miracles is an…

Paul Vickers And The Leg Jump TENEMENT Surrealist, genre-twisting antics from indie hero with comic sideline. “Gorilla, gorilla, gorilla!” Ten years performing as surrealist Edinburgh Fringe stalwart Mr Twonkey has rubbed off on the solo projects of cackle-voiced ex-Dawn Of The Replicants frontman Paul Vickers. His fourth album with his Edinburgh cohorts The Leg makes pretty random references to great apes, the joys of mixing sherbet and chilli and sleeping in a fridge. Unhinged stuff matched by the music, a courtly clatter which veers between cranky, corroded Beefheart rock’n’roll (Hearing My Voice, Chicken Church), wonky country rock (Xmas In The Jungle), glam jig, hellish music hall, reggae noir and bits where the deranged violas sound like early ELO on Motörhead’s worst amphetamines. It’s never less than attention-grabbing, and contains real…

Marcus King El Dorado SNAKEFARM Southern jukebox delights. The 23-year-old guitar slinger Marcus King puts his band aside here for a solo album produced by Black Keys-man Dan Auerbach in Nashville and it’s mostly a soul-drenched country cracker with pedal steel and fiddles to spare, underpinning a set of songs that sound like someone’s favourite record collection. The title track is a hefty borrow from Neil Young’s Harvest Moon while elsewhere King tips his Stetson to Willie Nelson (Too Much Whiskey), Bobby Bland and Amazing Rhythm Aces. The kid really is that old school but he carries it off without too many clichés, wearing his heart and influences on his sleeve until the formula gets a tad flimsy on Beautiful Stranger. The MKB sound surfaces on the full-tilt boogie The…

The Courteeners More. Again. Forever. IGNITION Electro-rock charges, with some poppier stumbles. Nothing has evinced indie rock’s capitulation to pop more than The Courteeners’ gradual inching away from their electric guitars like they’re ticking credibility time bombs. Having built a weighty fan base as a surrogate Oasis in the 00s, they rightly recognised that Kasabian were the future of lagered rock, but have tended to slip into cheesier pop territory as they scrambled to stay electro-relevant. This sixth album redresses the balance a little. The stormtrooping Heart Attack, the gnarled electro-rock of Take it On The Chin and a takedown of social media called The Joy Of Missing Out reflect the future-rock fire of Kasabian, Muse, the Black Keys or recent Johnny Marr, but the poppier moments are far more…

Revolution Saints Rise FRONTIERS The AOR supergroup with a familiar sound. There’s serious pedigree to Revolution Saints, with drummer and lead singer Deen Castronovo formerly of Journey, guitarist Doug Aldrich ex-Whitesnake, and bassist/vocalist Jack Blades the co-founder of Night Ranger. Castronovo and Aldrich also play together in the Dead Daisies. But in this band the focus is on pure AOR. And while these guys are masters of the art, there are times on Rise, their third album, when they sound like nothing more than a Journey tribute act. With Castronovo singing exactly like the young Steve Perry, some fine songs, notably When The Heartache Has Gone, feel second-hand. It’s when Blades sings, solo or with Castronovo, that Revolution Saints hit on something truly their own. With more of that, the…

Miles Nielsen & The Rusted Hearts Ohbahoy MILES NIELSEN INC. Cheap Trick guitarist’s son steps out. Doesn’t sound like Rick Nielsen. Miles Nielsen is a busy boy. Unlike his brother Daxx, he hasn’t joined Cheap Trick, preferring instead to raise a family, lecture in creative writing and be half of Willow & Weep with wife Kelly Steward. There’s also the Rusted Hearts, the closest he gets to a day job. They’ve been at it for six years now, crafting a post-Americana blend of celestial Jellyfish-style harmonies, Tom Petty-esque twang and, as grumpily showcased on Life Is (Hard Enough) and I Don’t Care For You, a bleak lyrical world view. While Old Enough takes the Petty appreciation too close to its source, they’re at their best on the languid Howl At…

Ken Hensley The Bronze Years 1973-1981 CHERRY RED/HEAR NO EVIL A heep of solo Ken. Ken Hensley’s songwriting, keyboards, slide guitar and occasional lead vocals were an integral element of Uriah Heep’s classic sound during his 10-year tenure with the band. In addition to playing on 13 Heep albums, Hensley made two solo records before his departure in 1980, and another soon after, each presented in this set with bonus tracks and a DVD of interviews conducted by Classic Rock’s Malcolm Dome. Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf (1973) is a must-have for fans of vintage Heep. The acoustic Go Down and From Time To Time show a more reflective side of Hensley’s writing, but the brash title song (check out the searing slide guitars) and the slowburning blues of…

Michael Moorcock & The Deep Fix Live At The Terminal Cafe PURPLE Sci-fi novelist/Hawkwind collaborator goes New Orleans. Michael Moorcock has been around the block so many times, he pretty much is the block. He started out writing Sexton Blake stories, and went on to write some of the most inventive and influential sci-fi of the 20th century, as well as the astonishing Mother London and other non-SF, and has been a long-time collaborator with Hawkwind. The next logical departure for the author, then, was surely to record a cajun album in Paris. Which is what he’s done, with musical collaborator Martin Stone (Mighty Baby, Savoy Brown) and a host of other musicians. The album doesn’t quite stick to the New Orleans blueprint – although there is a fine version…

Jack Bruce & Friends The Bottom Line Archive THE STORE FOR MUSIC Jack gets jazzed up. New York’s Bottom Line hosted everyone from Ravi Shankar to Bruce Springsteen before closing in 2004. The Bottom Line Archive series is performances captured there, from club owner Allan Pepper’s extensive collection. Jack Bruce blended a diverse range of styles throughout his career, and this 1980 show finds him in jazz-rock fusion mode, alongside drummer Billy Cobham (Mahavishnu Orchestra), David Sancious on keyboards and guitar, and former Humble Pie/Colosseum guitarist Clem Clempson. The quartet shared a tight, fluid chemistry, reinterpreting Cream favourites such as Politician, Born Under A Bad Sign and Sunshine Of Your Love with clipped, funky rhythms and jammed-out instrumental sections. Post-Cream Bruce songs including Post War and Theme From An Imaginary…

Junkyard Old Habits Die Hard ACETATE Previously unreleased 1992 album finally comes out. Back in the mists of time, a band had only to so much as tie a bandana around their noggin and affect a rasp and, it seemed, Geffen Records would swoop down from the sunny Californian skies and sign them up there and then. But for every band like Warrior Soul there was a Roxy Blue. Junkyard were one of the bands who fell through the cracks, although alcohol and drugs didn’t help. That said, their 1989 self-titled debut was a gem, all swaggering rootsy rock’n’oll with hints of country and blues. They even made it on to MTV. Cut to 1992, and labels were looking to Seattle for their musical fix, Junkyard dropped out of sight…

The Treasures Of Queen Harry Doherty CARLTON BOOKS Standard-fare bio, lifted by fantastic visuals. DICK BARNATT/RUFUS PUBLICATIONS Although Brian May tells us in his foreword that journalist Harry Doherty was free to “tell the truth as he sees it” in this coffee table-ready tome, you sense that – as with the Bohemian Rhapsody film before it – nobody wants to dig too much dirt. Doherty is a fine writer, and the text does the job, but you’ve heard this slightly sanitised timeline – and the potted bandmember bios – many times, many ways. Where Treasures does score is the visuals – these 160 pages are sprinkled with old ticket stubs, rare posters, headshots, fan club ephemera, charmingly quaint record label mailouts, even a map of the band’s 1974 European tour…

Where’s My Guitar?: An Inside Story Of British Rock And Roll Bernie Marsden FOURTH ESTATE PUBLISHING Scandal-free tale from one of rock’s survivors (good with guitars, not so good with money). An amiable soul who’s stayed married to the same woman since 1980; a man who willingly admits that “Rory Gallagher was always going to be a sartorial role model” and who mostly avoided the siren calls of drugs and drink, Bernie Marsden is a rock survivor. His scandal-free tale is undermined by misspelling Marianne Faithfull and Hollies singer Allan Clarke, but it centres on Whitesnake – to whom Marsden brought blues authenticity as well as Here I Go Again. Yet, for all that relations remain cordial, even after his financial naivety led to a successful court case, he’s never…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Blues-rock guitarist/singer Kenny Wayne Shepherd on the special records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Paul Elliott “Muddy Waters had such character in his vocal delivery.” Kenny Wayne Shepherd is not only a blues player, he’s also a blues scholar. “I’ve really dug deep,” he says. “Thoroughly researching the blues, tracing the lineage back to the early origins.” This obsession started early. Born on June 12, 1977 in Shreveport, Louisiana, he fell in love with this music when he was just a toddler. And in a 25-year recording career begun at 18, he has remained faithful to what he calls “my brand of blues rock”. But the soundtrack to his life is not one-dimensional. It also features Nirvana, Ozzy, Johnny…