Classic Rock (January 2020)

EN D OF T H E YEAR S PECTACUL AR


































































































































GUNS N’ ROSES JEFF LYNNE THE WILDHEARTS THE STRUTS

STEVEN WILSON DEF LEPPARD THE DAMNED ALLMAN BETTS

ROLLING STONES MARILLION GLENN HUGHES KISS & More… ISSUE 270



JANUARY 2020 ISSUE 270
42 Features






The Wildhearts 19 That Was The Year

That Was 2019
It’s been quite a year for Ginger and co. Another year over (just about), and again it’s one in which
there have been fantastic new albums and lavish reissues. We
Renaissance men indeed. look back at the standout new releases (starting on page 20)
and the best reissues (page 66), and on page 80 we
remember those who have sadly left us during the past 12
months. We also talk to some of the artists for whom 2019
(and the last decade) has been one to remember, including…


42 The Wildhearts
Given a career in which they’ve constantly hit the self-destruct
button, it’s surprising that The Wildhearts are still here. Not
only that, they’ve also released one of the year’s best albums.

46 Jeff Lynne
The songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist looks back at
a long and hugely successful career, which has seen him lead
ELO, work with The Beatles, be in a band with Bob Dylan and
Tom Petty… All this and more in the Classic Rock Interview.

52 Rival Sons
We collar sharp-dressed Jay Buchanan and Scott Holiday to
talk about the past decade, fashion, latest album Feral Roots
and playing ballads at metal festivals.

56 Def Leppard
A Hall Of Fame induction, a Vegas residency, a new Down ‘N’
Outz album… It’s been a busy year for Joe Elliott.

58 Steven Wilson
Over the past decade he’s shifted through a range of musical
guises. Here he reflects on the genius of Bowie and Zappa,
married life, and why it’s good to talk bollocks.

62 Tedeschi Trucks
Band
Singer and guitarist Susan Tedeschi takes on the apocalypse,
laptops and her husband’s ever-changing facial hair.

64 The Struts

With the band, frontman Luke Spiller has gone from playing
tiny shows for crazy French fans to rubbing shoulders with
rock’s A-list – not wasting a single opportunity along the way.

68 Glenn Hughes
The Voice Of Rock on living in the moment, beating his
demons, the challenges of a vegan Christmas, and how he’ll be
“going global” in 2020.

70 Steve Hackett
One of prog rock’s most prolific mavericks talks about 10
fruitful years, and rubbing vinyl shoulders with Madonna.


72 Beth Hart
The rock’n’soul powerhouse reflects on a decade of surreal
highs, painful lows and finding peace with gardening.

74 Ronnie Wood
Recently he’s beaten cancer, recorded a Chuck Berry tribute,
fathered twins… The Rolling Stone just keep rolling.












WILL IRELAND

JANUARY 2020 ISSUE 270
Regulars






10 The Dirt
Guest-filled one-off show to celebrate the music of Peter
Green and early Fleetwood Mac; The Black Crowes and
Mötley Crüe set to re-form and return to action; Steve Harris
says he’s up for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest to tour
together… Welcome back Twin Atlantic, say hello to Wolf Jaw,
say goodbye to Terry O’Neill, Paul Barrere, Timi Hansen,
Conrad Isidore, Molly Duncan…

16 Q&A
Toby Jepson

The Wayward Sons frontman on broken Britain, protest
records, Little Angels and not having regrets.
83 Reviews
New albums from Yes, Leprous, Jaz Coleman, Marillion,
Voyager, The Pineapple Thief, Molly Hatchet, Burnt Out
Wreck, Of Allies… Reissues from Iron Maiden, Mick Ronson,
Prince, Frank Zappa, The Beatles, Dan Reed Network,
Nazareth, Gun… DVDs, films and books on Jimi Hendrix,
Metallica, King Crimson, Slayer, Manic Street Preachers,
Suzi Quatro, Don Powell… Live reviews of The Damned,
Kiss, Opeth, Marillion…

100 Live Previews
Must-see gigs from Gun/Dan Reed Network/FM, Clutch,
New Model Army, Cockney Rejects and Steeleye Span. Plus
full gig listings – find out who’s playing where and when.


122 The Soundtrack
Of My Life
Steve Hogarth
The Marillion frontman on the special records, artists and
gigs that are of lasting significance to him.















































74




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WELCOME















nd of the year. End of the second

decade of the latest millennium.
How on earth did that happen?

It seems like only yesterday that
I was writing my editorial for last

year’s End Of The Year issue (and,
if I remember correctly, I was

moaning about the incredible speed

of the passing of time then too). Ah well…
So, as you might have gathered, it’s time for our

annual look at what went down in rock over the past
12 months – the new albums and songs that got us

excited, the reissues that shed new light on old
favourites, and much more besides. We caught up

with some of rock’s movers and shakers – Ronnie
Wood, Jeff Lynne, Joe Elliott, Duff McKagan, Glenn

Hughes, to name but a handful – who have been
pivotal this year, and got them to take a look back

over their past 10 years too.

Please sit back, grab your drink of choice and
join us in remembering the Year In Rock 2019. And

from all of us here at Classic Rock, we hope you have Subscribe!
a brilliant Christmas break and a very happy 2020.

Cheers!








Siân Llewellyn,

Editor



PS: Make sure your new year starts off in the right
fashion by subscribing to Classic Rock (you’ll save Save money, get your issues early and
reap exclusive subscriber benefits.
money and never miss an issue!). Turn to pages Visit www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk
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VARIOUS (SEE PAGE 8) 63 and 90 to discover our best deals.



This month’s contributors


HENRY YATES WILL IRELAND SLEAZEGRINDER
Henry is a busy man who has This issue we dispatched …is our very own Evel
written for NME, Guitarist, Will to central London on Knievel of sleaze-rock
Total Guitar, Metal Hammer, Halloween to chronicle journalism. When he isn’t
Rhythm, Country Music, The Damned’s ambitious spelunking through
Shortlist and the Telegraph, Night Of The Vampires rock’n’roll’s deepest,
and wrote Walter Trout’s extravaganza at the darkest canyons for
official biography, Rescued Palladium (p106). We’re of Classic Rock, he hosts the
From Reality. This month he a mind that it’s like nothing Advanced Demonology
interviewed Glenn Hughes, he’d ever photographed podcast and the Heavy
Susan Tedeschi and more before – vampires, funeral Leather Topless Dance Party
about their past 12 months. corteges, the lot. Check out TV show. This month he
For more visit www.yates more of Will’s work at willireland spoke to the reactivated
creativecopywriting.com photography.co.uk Grand Slam (p22) for us.

Stereo

Can also be played
on mono
equipment
SIR K 66 087
(2SRK 1987)
Germany: Z
France: WE 666
LC 2112 5150



Es E E ta t t bli l l s i i h s s ed e e 19 1 98
9 9


Editor Art Editor Features Editor
Siân Llewellyn Darrell Mayhew Polly Glass
Now playing: The Glorious Sons, A War On Everything The Darkness, Easter Is Cancelled Dirty Honey, Dirty Honey (EP)
Production Editor Reviews Editor Online Editor News/Live Editor

Paul Henderson Ian Fortnam Fraser Lewry Dave Ling
Frank Zappa, The Hot Rats Sessions The Flaming Lips, The Soft Bulletin: Live At Red Rocks Lindemann, F&M Work Of Art, Exhibits


Contributing writers Contributing photographers
Marcel Anders, Geoff Barton, Tim Batcup, Mark Beaumont, Max Bell, Essi Berelian, Simon Bradley, Brian Aris, Ami Barwell, Adrian Boot, Dick Barnatt, Dave Brolan, Alison Clarke, Zach Cordner, Fin Costello, Henry Diltz,
«ǣƬǝ !ǝƏȅƫƺȸǼƏǣȇً ³Ɏƺȵǝƺȇ (ƏǼɎȒȇً «ǣƬǝ (ƏɮƺȇȵȒȸɎً hȒǝȇȇɵژ(ƺƺً xƏǼƬȒǼȅ (Ȓȅƺً nƺƺ (ȒȸȸǣƏȇً xƏȸǸ 0ǼǼƺȇً !ǼƏɖƳǣƏ 0ǼǼǣȒɎɎً kƺɮǣȇ 0ɀɎȸƏƳƏً hƏȅƺɀ IȒȸɎɖȇƺً hǣǼǼ IɖȸȅƏȇȒɮɀǸɵً Rƺȸƫ Jȸƺƺȇƺً Ȓƫ Jȸɖƺȇً xǣƬǝƏƺǼ RƏǼɀƫƏȇƳً «ȒɀɀژRƏǼˡȇً xǣƬǸ RɖɎɀȒȇً
Paul Elliott, Dave Everley, Jerry Ewing, Hugh Fielder, Eleanor Goodman, Gary Graff, Michael Hann, John Harris, áǣǼǼ XȸƺǼƏȇƳً «ȒƫƺȸɎ kȇǣǕǝɎً xƏȸǣƺ kȒȸȇƺȸً Əȸȸɵ nƺɮǣȇƺً hǣȅ xƏȸɀǝƏǼǼً hȒǝȇ xƬxɖȸɎȸǣƺً JƺȸƺƳژxƏȇǸȒɯǣɎɿً (ƏɮǣƳ
Nick Hasted, Barney Hoskyns, Jon Hotten, Rob Hughes, Neil Jeffries, Emma Johnston, Jo Kendall, Dom Lawson, Montgomery, Kevin Nixon, Denis O’Regan, Barry Plummer, Ron Pownall, Neal Preston, Michael Putland, Mick Rock,
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Lindemann by Jens Koch, Mötley Crüe by Ebet Roberts/Getty, Joe Elliott & Brian May by Kevin Nixon, Mick Jagger &
Ronnie Wood by Kevin Nixon, Luke Spiller by Kevin Nixon, Bruce Springsteen by Rob DeMartin, Justin Hawkins by Will
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10 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

That Was 2019





Great music, films, new arrivals, farewells, celebrations… We’ve got

all this and more in Classic Rock’s rundown of this year’s key goings-on.




The spread of veganism; the filmmaking. co-directing Western Stars (essentially a cinematic
messy spiral of Brexit, the even version of the album of the same name), which centres on
messier state of British politics as a fictional fading B-list western star looking back on his life
a whole; the arrival of the latest and the choices he’d made. The overall effect is part fictional
royal baby; Greta Thunberg sailing narrative, part live documentary, with gorgeous shots and
to the USA; the rise of Extinction philosophical musings to boot. All 13 songs from the album
Rebellion and numerous global are performed in it, with Bruce backed by band and orchestra. It
protest movements… A lot has premiered at this year’s Toronto Film Festival to critical acclaim,
happened in 2019. But what are and festival director Cameron Bailey commented: “I think he’s
some of the things that went on in got a big future ahead of him. It’s largely performance, but there is
the world of rock’n’roll? a framing to it. It’s very filmic, which is what attracted me.”

Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt We say goodbye to Ginger Baker, Keith Flint and more…
finally sees the light of day – and A full tribute to those who passed this year can be found on pages
it’s not the only rock’n’roll film to 80-81, but here we’re giving a shout-out to drumming legend
make headlines. Ginger Baker (who passed away on October 6) and Prodigy
The film had been in the making frontman Keith Flint (March 4).
for what seemed like an eternity
(talks actually began in 2006), and Rammstein set a new (very high) bar for stadium shows.
this year it was released through Short of literally burning the house down, the Germans took
Netflix. Based on the band’s 2001 their pyro-tastic live set to a new level on this year’s run of XXL
book of the same name, it was an bonfire-night-on-steroids stadium gigs. Rather than relying on
unflinching account of the Crüe at their high-flying best and screens showing run-of-the-mill on-stage action, these were
Some of those depraved worst. Unsurprisingly, this invoked a lot of critical all about the actual spectacle itself, tailored masterfully for
making a big
splash in 2019: sneers, although the film earned a lot of enormous spaces. And what a flaming,
(clockwise love for its slick, fast-paced execution and bonkers but brilliant thing it was to
from left) entertaining nostalgia. Machine Gun Kelly behold: jets of fire blasted overhead,
Mötley Crüe, in particular made an uncannily spot-on ‘2019 was a game- fireworks zoomed around the perimeter,
Rammstein,
Bruce Tommy Lee, while Game Of Thrones star raising year for a giant pram was set alight… We can only
Springsteen, Iwan Rheon as Mick Mars stole many of begin to imagine how many eyebrows in
Elton John. the best lines. numerous charismatic the front rows were singed.
More widely acclaimed was the musical, young faces.’
semi-fantastical Elton John biopic Bob Seger plays his last ever gigs.
Rocketman, starring Taron Egerton, while the rise of Norwegian Well, we say ‘final’; Seger has hinted that it’s only the North
MÖTLEY CRÜE: GETTY; RAMMSTEIN: JENS KOSH/PRESS Bohemian Rhapsody continued to take Queen from strength to in 1980). Still, officially the final show of his 50-year career took
American part of his tour that’s over, although he hasn’t played
black metal (and the shocking, bloody story of pioneers Mayhem)
outside the continent for nearly 40 years (his last UK show was
was compellingly depicted in Lords Of Chaos. And last year’s
place at the 20,000-capacity Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
strength when the biopic saw the light of day on DVD and Blu-ray
in the first quarter of 2019.
Tool finally release their first album in thirteen years.
Maynard James Keenan and co. had been teasing this for ages, and
Def Leppard are one of this year’s Rock And Roll Hall Of
Fame inductees.
Joe Elliott and co. were inducted into the Hall Of Fame by Brian
sounds like the kind of intense, layered, full-fat version of the alt.
rock/metal enigmas you’d expect after more than a decade of
May. Speaking at the ceremony in New in 2019 it finally arrived. Clocking in at 80 minutes, Fear Inoculum
York (during which Stevie Nicks, Roxy gestation. None of the tracks drop below the 10-minute mark
Music, The Cure, The Zombies, Radiohead (apart from the instrumental interludes). Keenan’s voice is at its
and Janet Jackson were also inducted), best. Everyone’s at their best. All of which was on display prior to
the Queen guitarist said: “The fact that the record’s release at their all-visuals-blazing Download slot.
they wrote real songs that people can sing
and carry in their heads is the reason that We watch the rise of the next generation of rock showpeople.
Def Leppard will be remembered in [the] If you thought rock stars didn’t exist any more, 2019 provided
hearts and minds long after all of us have serious evidence to the contrary. Since The Struts and Greta
left this earth.” Van Fleet gave 21st-century rock’n’roll a head-turning kick up
The nominees for 2020 include Judas the arse, a new wave of stand-out performers – with proper
Priest, Todd Rundgren, Thin Lizzy, tunes and killer shows – have followed in their footsteps. Many
Motörhead, MC5 and Soundgarden. of these bubbled to the surface over the past 12 months. This
was a game-raising year for numerous charismatic young faces
Bruce Springsteen goes to the movies. in bands such as Bishop Gunn, Starcrawler, Joyous Wolf, Bones
As well as turning 70 and releasing his UK, The Glorious Sons, Dirty Honey, White Reaper, Sweet Crisis,
chart-topping nineteenth album, this Goodbye June, Lovehoney and many more. We look forward to
year The Boss made his first foray into seeing what they do next. PG

This month The Dirt was compiled by Polly Glass, Dannii Leivers, Dave Ling, Henry Yates


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 11

“Extraordinary work”: Terry
O’Neill (inset David Bowie
on his Diamond Dogs shoot).






Robert Plant struggles
to get his head around
Stairway To Heaven
Thank you these days. “I look at
the song and I tip my
and good night. hat to it – there are
parts that are
incredible,” the singer
Timi Hansen told UCR’s Nights
October 28, 1958 – November 4, 2019 Radio Show. “It’s
a very beautiful piece,
Former Mercyful Fate and King but lyrically, now, and
Diamond bassist Timi Hansen lost even vocally, I go: ‘I’m
a long battle with cancer at the age of not sure about that.’”
61. “Timi was not just my roommate on
the early Mercyful Fate tours, he was Mick Fleetwood
also my favourite bass player of all (pictured) has
time,” stated Danish singer King organised a special
Diamond. Metallica drummer Lars one-off show at
Ulrich also paid tribute to Hansen on London’s Palladium to
social media, saying he was “incredibly celebrate the music of
saddened” at the news. Peter Green and the
early years of
Conrad Isidore Fleetwood Mac. The
July 18, 1943 – October 20, 2019 concert, which takes © ICONIC IMAGES LIMITED
place on February 25,
Osibisa member Gregg Kofu Brown sees Fleetwood joined
has led the tributes to the elder brother by a stellar cast
of the Isidore dynasty, referring to the including former Pink
drummer and songwriter as his Floyd guitarist David Terry O’Neill
“mentor”. Besides playing in the British Gilmour, ZZ Top’s Billy
rock band Hummingbird, the Gibbons, Steven Tyler July 30, 1938 – November 16, 2019
Dominican-born 76-year-old recorded from Aerosmith, John
with Jimi Hendrix, Stephen Stills, Joe Mayall, Bill Wyman, landscape, working with a Who’s Who of
Cocker and Vinegar Joe among others. Jonny Lang, Andy The photographer responsible for the worlds of music, film, fashion and
iconic images of the Rolling Stones, David
Fairweather Low, Zak Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Elton celebrity; Judy Garland, Winston Churchill,
Molly Duncan Starkey, and his Nelson Mandela, Eric Clapton, Muhammad
August 24, 1945 – October 8, 2019 Fleetwood Mac band- John has passed away, quietly at home Ali, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Audrey
after a battle with prostate cancer, at the
mate Christine McVie.
A co-founder of the Average White age of 81. The Londoner had intended to Hepburn, Elizabeth Taylor, Terence Stamp,
Band, Malcolm ‘Molly’ Duncan helped become a jazz drummer, but ended up Tom Jones, Brian Clough, Peter Sellers,
to form the Scottish band in 1972. The taking a job in the photographic unit of Raquel Welch, Frank Sinatra and Faye
tenor saxophonist left the AWB in Heathrow Airport. A cheeky snap of then Dunaway (who later became his wife).
1983, following ninth album, Cupid’s In Home Secretary Rab Butler dozing on The Queen sat for him twice and
Fashion. Duncan also performed with a bench brought him a payment of £25 back in October Terry was awarded a
the likes of Tom Petty, Eric Clapton, and, more importantly, an entry pass to Commander Of The British Empire (CBE)
Buddy Guy, Dire Straits, Marvin Gaye Fleet Street, where he was handed the job for services to photography.
and Chaka Khan. The 74-year-old had of photographing an up-and-coming new Elton John commented: “He was brilliant,
been diagnosed with terminal cancer. act – The Beatles, who were at Abbey Road funny and I absolutely loved his company.”
recording their first big hit, Please Please Me. Adds Peter Gabriel: “Terry knew how to
Steve Cash Steve Harris has Over the course of six decades O’Neill get the best out of his subjects and leaves

May 5, 1946 – October 14, 2019 went on to chronicle Britain’s cultural behind some extraordinary work.” DL
responded to
Missouri-born Cash, co-writer of the a suggestion by Rob
most enduring songs by the Southern- Halford that Judas
meets-country rock combo Ozark Priest and Iron Maiden Paul Barrere
Mountain Daredevils (If You Wanna should tour together
Get To Heaven and Jackie Blue), has died with the words: “Yeah, July 3, 1948 – October 26, 2019
after an extended illness aged 73. why not?” Harris told
A statement from the group called radio host Eddie Trunk
him: “Our poet laureate, an amazingly that the managements The members of Little Feat on the beach at the band’s
talented harp player, but more of the bands would are mourning the loss of their annual gathering in Jamaica in
importantly… our friend and brother.” have to “get their long-serving guitar player, January 2020.” Alas, it was not
heads together and vocalist and songwriter, who to be. “Paul, sail on to the next
Beverly ‘Guitar’ [make] something like joined the Californian group place in your journey with our
Watkins that [happen]”, back in 1972. Barrere had abiding love for a life always
April 6, 1939 – October 1, 2019 adding: “But we’ll see.” previously announced a fight dedicated to the muse and
with liver cancer. He was 71. the music,” said his colleagues
80-year-old Atlanta native Watkins Down, the southern A statement read: “Paul Bill Payne, Sam Clayton, Fred
was a veteran guitar player with sludge band featuring auditioned for Little Feat as a Tackett, Kenny Gradney and
a stomping, raucous style. Described in former Pantera bassist when [the band] was Gabe Ford. “We are grateful
The New York Times as “an unsung hero frontman Philip first being put together – in his words, “as a for the time that we have shared.”
of the blues”, she did not release her Anselmo will reunite bassist I make an excellent guitarist” – and Away from Little Feat, Barrere worked
first album until the age of 60, at next summer’s three years later joined us in his proper with Bob Dylan, Jack Bruce, Taj Mahal,
sometimes resorting to cleaning Graspop Metal role on guitar.” After sitting out their latest Carly Simon and Phil Lesh of The Grateful
houses to pay the bills when her music Meeting in Belgium. tour due to the side effects brought on by Dead among others. Bonnie Raitt Tweeted:
failed to do so. Cause of death was The band’s first the treatment, Barrere had, according to “Paul was a cornerstone of one of the PAUL BARRERE: ALAMY
a heart attack brought on by a stroke. concert in four years his bandmates, “promised to follow his greatest bands of all time. I’m glad he is free
marks the 25th doctor’s orders, get back in shape and rock of pain and may he rest in peace.” DL
anniversary of their
12 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM debut, NOLA.



Crüe And The

Crowes Are Back!
Joey Tempest wants
And Kiss extend their farewell. the Conservative Party

to cease using The
Mötley Crüe and The Black Crowes Final Countdown for
have both confirmed rumours of respective political gain. The
reunions. Despite famously signing 1986 smash has
a cessation of touring contract in 2014, the reportedly been
Crüe had been linked with a US stadium played at the Tory HQ
trek alongside Def Leppard and Poison – to motivate staff
something that singer Vince Neil emphatically during the current
denied, Tweeting: “People, these rumours general election
are false. I haven’t spoken to any band campaign, but Europe
members since the premiere of The Dirt.” wants them to “cease
And yet, on November 18 the band and desist”. “This was
revealed they had “blown up” the legal written as a good-time
document, effectively allowing them to tour hard rock song and
once again. A YouTube clip narrated by [should not be] used
Machine Gun Kelly, who played Tommy Lee in a political context,”
in the movie, commented: “I never thought says a statement.
I would see the day when this would
become a reality. But the fans spoke and Francis Rossi Twin Atlantic
Mötley Crüe listened.” (pictured) is to
It’s tough to quantify the scale of this auction the famous
U-turn. During Mötley’s farewell tour, bass green Fender Frontman Sam McTrusty on Glasgow's "sarcasm and
player Nikki Sixx boasted: “There is no Telecaster used on
amount of money that would ever make me many of Status Quo’s shite weather", and taking the power back…
[override the contract] because I have such most famous
pride in how we’re ending [things],” adding: recordings. Purchased
“And if we did agree [to do so], the way second-hand in The vocals still have that unmistakable I guess that’s why bands like Depeche
Glasgow in 1968 for Glaswegian twang – but on every other Mode always resonated with me: they had
£75, the instrument front, Twin Atlantic are a band fucking life-affirming choruses, but it’s
was also played at Live transformed since we first met them on sad subject matter. I don’t know if that’s
Aid. It’s expected to 2009’s alt.rock debut, Vivarium. Parting because I’m from Glasgow and it’s a hard-
fetch up to £150,000 ways with their label, building a studio on edged place. We’re world-famous for our
from bidders at home turf and embracing an electro-rock sarcasm and shite weather, but also for
Bonhams in sound for fifth album POWER, frontman our amazing parties and sense of humour.
Knightsbridge on Sam McTrusty is defiant when it comes to
December 17. the new era: “I don’t particularly care What was the appeal of putting down
what people’s opinion is, because rock roots in Glasgow?
music takes no prisoners.” If you’re from Glasgow, you’re kinda
Brothers in arms: injected with this insane loyalty, where you
Robinsons return. You’ve said you had know that a lot of it is
a “car crash moment” kind of a fucking
we’ve set it up we’d have so much egg on our before this album… shithole, but you grow
face.” You really couldn’t make it up… Yeah, we did. But it was “Nowhere else to love it and nowhere
Meanwhile, after weeks of speculation, only once we were else feels like home. But
the Robinson brothers buried the hatchet three weeks beyond it feels like home… the main reason is,
for long enough to go public with the that we were like, we've got creative we’ve got creative
news that the Crowes will celebrate next “Fucking hell, that was freedom here. We don’t
year’s 30th anniversary of their debut Bryan Ferry unveils mental”. Nothing freedom here.” have someone looking
album, Shake Your Money Maker, with a a recording from his soured or anything, over our shoulder, don’t
46-date run North American tour – the first ever solo tour on but our relationship have to schmooze with
group’s first concerts since 2013, save for February 7. Live At The with our label, we’d just reached the end. agents. Whenever it gets too businessy, we
appearances in New York and LA that tied Royal Albert Hall 1974 We went from having all these think the fun gets sucked out.
in with the announcement. will be available via connections to being on our own and
Vocalist Chris and guitar-playing sibling BMG. Ferry also plays self-funded. You don’t realise how much You sing in your native accent – why?
Rich insist that despite their legendary the following live something means to you until it’s teetering I grew up right in the sweet-spot of Blink-
feuding, genuine peace now exists. “No one dates: Glasgow on the edge of a cliff. 182, Green Day, Sum 41 – all these really
is here to be a dick,” Rich claims. “We love Armadillo March 3, Floridian or Californian pop-punk bands.
this music. We’re musicians. We’re brothers. Newcastle City Hall 5, What was your vision for this album? So I’d sing in that accent. Then I watched
We love each other. We love this opportunity.” Manchester Palace We wanted to reflect a part of our musical a video back of myself, and I was like,
The Robinsons have hired an all-new Theatre 7, Leicester taste that we’d never known how to “Who the fuck is that?” I was doing the
touring line-up featuring guitarist Isaiah De Montfort Hall 9 integrate. We started the band when we proper Tom DeLonge thing. I was like,
Mitchell of psych-rock band Earthless and and London Royal were eighteen, quickly got a deal, and “Fuck that, man, I’m just gonna sing in my
session bassist Tim Lefebvre of David Bowie Albert Hall Mar 11, 13. were given all these big supports with own voice ’cos that sounds really alien.”
fame, plus keyboardist Joel Robinow and American-influenced rock bands. We
drummer Raj Ojha. Dan Baird has kinda stuck to our lane. But with POWER, Is the Glasgow kiss a myth – or does
In related news, Kiss have extended their performed his final it was like, “I want to make an album that that actually happen?
farewell tour for another two years. The global British concerts. The gives me that weird, dark, euphoric No, it does happen. There’s guys in this band
trek, which includes a spot at Download on former Georgia feeling of a club night in Glasgow”. that I’ve seen give some excellent examples,
June 12, now wraps at an unspecified New Satellites frontman in our younger, more aggressive days. I’ve
York City venue on July 17, 2021. Band and founder, who has Do darkness and euphoria sit seen our bass player, Ross, land a couple. In
manager Doc McGhee recently revealed that said he wants to together well? self-defence, I need to add. So it happens,
discussions have taken place with the group’s spend more time at Yeah. Even when I started writing songs, yeah. You’re talking about the city that had
former members about potentially appearing home with his wife, I was trying to use the cinematic elements a terrorist attack at the airport and the baggage
at this hometown swansong. “They’ve all signed off his band that Springsteen would bring into his handler kicked the guy in the balls! HY THE BLACK CROWES: GETTY
been talked to about it,” stated McGhee. “It’s Homemade Sin at songs, and fuse that with the darkest,
just a matter of the balance.” DL Bannerman’s Bar in angsty, fuzzy Kurt Cobain punk-rock. POWER is out on Jan 24 on Virgin EMI
Edinburgh on
14 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM December 8.

“Everything we write is

based on the live shows. It’s
Wolf Jaw how we come across best.”










A change of name led to a heavier sound, out. Hear Me was one of the first songs we wrote, and it was that fast pace,
heavier riffs and vocals that dictated the direction of what we were going
and their new album shows that it’s paid off. to do next.”

Leighton and Tonks have been playing in bands together since they were
Change can feel uncomfortable, but it often signifies growth. After 15. Despite attending rival schools in their home town of Cannock, they
years of graft, last year Cannock trio Bad Flowers decided to change their hung around the same skate park, listening to Black Sabbath and Thin
name to Wolf Jaw. “It was absolutely horrible. It wasn’t a decision we took Lizzy. Since then they’ve spent decades honing their craft and transforming
lightly at all,” remembers vocalist/guitarist Tom Leighton. “We worked themselves into a monstrous live act. “Everything we write is based on the
really hard to get where we’d got to with Bad Flowers. “I don’t want live shows,” says Leighton. “It’s how we come across best. All the
to mention any names, [but] there were also a few bands knocking FOR FANS OF... passion comes out and everything gets left on the stage.”
about with a similar name. It was stuffing certain opportunities At this year’s Download Festival, the band played three sets
for us and causing a bit of confusion.” across the weekend, culminating in an early-morning slot on
As Bad Flowers, the Cannock trio (completed by bassist Dale the Dogtooth Stage, where they were tasked with winning over
Tonks and drummer Karl Selickis) had played Download Festival a weary Sunday crowd.
twice, bagged support slots with Crobot and Tyler Bryant And “It was literally the best set we’ve ever done,” enthuses Leighton.
The Shakedown, and earned themselves a loyal fan base. Wiping “The tent was absolutely jam-packed, and the atmosphere we were
the slate clean and effectively starting again from scratch was “Queens Of The Stone getting back from the crowd was just incredible.”
a daunting prospect, but the rebranding was a smart move. Under Age’s Lullabies To Now their new album, The Heart Won’t Listen, their first as Wolf
Paralyze has changed
the Wolf Jaw guise, the band’s blues-rock racket feels snappier the way I write music, Jaw, is set to boot them into a brand-new era.
and heftier, keeping the melody and the big choruses firmly in the especially Everybody “We wrote everything in two months,” says Leighton. “It just
forefront while exploring the fuzzier, sharper edges of bands like Knows That You’re kept coming out, riff after riff, then different types of choruses.
Insane. Its slow and
All Them Witches and early Queens Of The Stone Age. bluesy to start, then it I think the change in name gave us a kick-start. We felt free to do
“We’d come to the end of the cycle with the first record, and gets fast and furious. what we wanted.” DL
wanted to change up the sound,” Leighton continues about the I love the tempo
shift in gear. “We started jamming and a lot of different riffs came changes and the The Heart Won’t Listen is out now via Listenable Records.
heaviness of the guitar
tone. It showed me that
I can move tempos and
songs parts around.” CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 15

Toby Jepson











The Wayward Sons frontman on broken Britain, protest


records, Little Angels and not having regrets.


Words: Henry Yates Portrait: Paul Harries
D uring a three-decade career, the singer and Do you mind that you haven’t been defined by a single band?





Not at all. I’m a sort of journeyman in lots of ways. I’ve always
songwriter’s itchy feet have led him through
a number of bands – from 90s contenders Little
regarded myself as a songwriter first, and a singer and performer
Angels to Fastway, Gun and more. He also has
second. I’ve enjoyed my journey, I’ve had a great life, and achieved
a slew of production credits, and a sideline as an
actor in films including Gladiator. But in 2019 this
any of that nonsense. But I’ve got high hopes for Wayward Sons.
eternal journeyman says he’s sticking with Wayward Sons, the a lot more than most. I’m not concerned with being a superstar or
This is the last band I’ll ever be in.
British rockers whose second album, The Truth Ain’t What It Used To
Be, is a warts-and-all snapshot of where we are. Have you drawn a line under Little Angels, then?
I don’t know. I certainly would like to see the catalogue used again.
Do you think 2019 has been a good year for rock’n’roll? I think Little Angels’ music has been left dormant. Yes, it gets played
I do, actually. Because the one massively important thing about occasionally on various radio stations. But the reality is that there’s
times of strife and struggle is that it always generates good music. three studio albums full of songs that did really well, and in many
My favourite record this year was The Wildhearts’ Renaissance Men. ways they’re kind of forgotten. And I’d like to try to do something
There’s absolutely tons of music out there now. It’s almost white with that. Whether we’ll ever do shows again… I’ll never say never,
noise to a degree. But I do believe the cream still rises to the top. but there’d have to be a serious reason for it, because I don’t want to
short-change the fans. I’m not into just doing a bank-raid. And we’d
What’s the best gig you’ve seen this year? have to make new music, and I’m not into that.
Foreigner at Ramblin’ Man. I’ve never been a huge fan, but I stood at
the barrier and it was hit after hit. Bands like that are the masters. How would you do things differently if you were starting
And therein lies a massive lesson: it all comes down to longevity. Little Angels again tomorrow?
That’s what’s wrong with the modern business. You have to allow On one hand, I’d do everything differently. On the other hand,
bands to evolve. I wouldn’t change a thing. We were kids. I was twenty-one when
I signed my record deal. I think Jim Dickinson was about to turn
As a producer, what do you think of the sound of rock’n’roll seventeen. We didn’t have a fucking clue. But the only minor regret
in 2019? I have in my life is not being strong enough to turn around to the
It’s a double-edged sword, when you’re talking specifically about guys [in 1994] and say: “Why the fuck are we playing to seven
recording. The whole aspect of digital recording presents thousand people at the Royal Albert Hall and the band are splitting
a conundrum, because it can easily help you to cut corners, put up?” But it was all very blurred, and it all seemed to be over in a flash.
a band aid over a problem. So I think the sound of modern Next minute, I’m sat back in my house going: “What the fuck
rock’n’roll is suffering a bit because of the nature of the technology. actually happened there? Why are we no longer a band?”
I always urge my bands: “We have to make this about the
performance, we have to make this real, and the authenticity comes Do you ever wish you hadn’t lost all that time away from
from you actually playing and delivering it. But mainly it comes music after Little Angels?
from the stuff that’s coming out of your mouth” Well, we were having children, and I didn’t want to be away from
them. I came out of Little Angels in a bit of a cloud. It was a difficult
It’s not just the end of the year, it’s also the end of the decade. end. And I made a solo record quite quickly, and that bombed. I got
How do you think this era in rock’n’roll will be remembered? very poorly [with pneumonia], and all sorts of things happened. But
I think it remains to be seen whether the internet has been our what you’ve got to do in this business is pick yourself up and carry
friend. It’s great that we can all communicate, and there’s no doubt on. You can’t regret anything. Regrets are utterly pointless.
that it’s given a voice to everybody. But that’s good and bad. And that
absolutely resonates in the music business. Just because you can Fifty-two is a funny age. Do you think your best music is
record music and release something doesn’t mean you should. I think ahead of you, or behind you?
this explosion of digital technology has impacted massively on music I actually think it’s ahead of me. I’ve kind of got that ‘don’t give a fuck’
and how we consume and make it. So maybe that’s going to be the attitude now. I mean every single word of this new record. There’s
conversation about this decade: has it been a good experiment? a lot of anger and an awful lot of frustration there, but there’s also
a lot of hope. I’ve allowed my personality to spill out into this record,
Has 2019 been a good year for you personally? more so than I’ve ever done before. I’ve got a lot to say, still. I still feel
I think so. For all my gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands, completely ambitious. But who knows? People might hate this
actually I’ve always been an optimist. I believe in people. I’m record and it might be game over.
absolutely a humanist. Wayward Sons is my second bite at the
cherry, and I’m massively grateful for it. But I do believe it’s being Wayward Sons’ The Truth Ain’t What It Used To Be is out now
driven by a huge amount of positivity. via Frontiers Music.

16 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Toby Jepson: a songwriter
first, a singer and
performer second.














































































































“Times of strife and

struggle always


generate good music.”



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 19

As usual, the past 12 months have seen the release of excellent albums from both veterans and

newcomers, and also some surprises. Here are the 50 that Classic Rock writers deem the best.


Words: Fraser Lewry, Dave Everley, Ian Fortnam, Polly Glass, Henry Yates, Paul Elliott, Stephen
Dalton, Rob Hughes, Johnny Sharp, Tim Batcup, Rich Davenport, David Sinclair, Grant Moon




DREAM THEATER MICHAEL MICHAEL MONROE
50 Distance Over Time 48 SCHENKER FEST 46 One Man Gang SILVER LINING
INSIDEOUT MUSIC When nu prog’s poster Revelation NUCLEAR BLAST With only the main
Schenker told this writer
In 2012, Michael
man’s name on its
cover, it’s easy to not
boys convened in
upstate New York for
realise how much of
he’d entered a phase of
their fourteenth album,
his career centred on
a team effort One Man
Gang actually is.
celebrating his legacy
the keywords, according
e seeking “to make
to guitarist John
whil
guitarists Rich Jones and Steve Conte
Petrucci were ’heavy’ and ’proggy’, perhaps something more out of it”. Accordingly, That’s possibly because co-writers/
a tacit response to the mixed reviews for Revelation sees Schenker and bandmates are so perfectly attuned to Monroe’s
DT’s 2016 album The Astonishing. From the from MSG’s classic 80s line-ups (including characteristic modus operandi of high-
moment the curtain rose on the Gary Barden and Graham Bonnet) and energy, good-time party rock. Live
pummelling Untethered Angel, this was Doogie White progressing from 2018’s dynamo Monroe perpetually peaks,
Dream Theater returning to (relative) Resurrection amid an abundance of sharp mirroring Hanoi Rocks’ finest moments,
basics, walking a careful tightrope between riffing, anthemic choruses and while stamping on the record a solo
brain and brawn. HY characteristically eloquent guitar solos. RD personality that’s all his own. IF
Killer track: Untethered Angel Killer track: Behind The Smile Killer track: One Man Gang

TYGERS OF THE HU THE RACONTEURS
49 PAN TANG 47 The Gereg ELEVEN SEVEN MUSIC 45 Help Us Stranger THIRD MAN
Ritual MIGHTY MUSIC A 2019 story if there Jack White and Brendan
bent on making
Benson reconvened
ever was, Mongolian
One of the NWOBHM’s
most promising hopes,
rock/folk hybrids The
after much too long
the Tygers had the
Hu harnessed the
spent doing their own
potential to go the
thing, and seemed
power of the internet
(40 million+ YouTube
hell-
distance alongside Iron
Maiden and Saxon, only
rock’n’roll stops on this, The Raconteurs’
for bad breaks to derail them. With views and counting) to build an up for lost time by pulling out all the
international profile before they’d even
founding guitarist Robb Weir still at the left Central Asia, a testament to the power third album. On Help Us Stranger the
helm, Ritual dispels any notion of coasting of a well-made video. The band’s power raw attack of AC/DC and the Stooges
on nostalgia, mainly matching vicious riffs didn’t fade once the visuals were vied for prominence with Stonesy
with radio-friendly choruses, edging into vanquished, and The Gereg was released as rock’n’roll, bluegrass folk, raucous blues
heavier territory on the pummelling The a regular, old-fashioned – and extremely and even hints of southern rock on
Art Of Noise. RD Michael lively – album. FL a joyous comeback. JS
Killer track: Sail On Schenker Killer track: Wolf Totem Killer track: Bored And Razed

20 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

‘HU ARE





Neil Young


THE GLORIOUS SONS NEIL YOUNG
44 A War On Everything EARACHE 41 & CRAZY HORSE YOU?’
With their third album, Colorado REPRISE
Canada’s the Glorious Undaunted by ‘Poncho’
Sons reaffirmed their Sampedro’s absence,
status as the greatest Young merely brought Horse-head violins, throat-singing, Mongolian
rock band the world in former Horse warriors, biker gangs… Step inside the world of
cont
inues to ignore. guitarist Nils Lofgren to one of 2019’s most compelling bands.
plug
That situation is everyone else’s loss. the void for the first Words: Fraser Lewry
A War On Everything adds Springsteen-y Crazy Horse album for seven years.
blue-collar heft to modern rock Colorado bucked and roared like vintage ack in June, these rising stars of Mongolian
tunefulness and an unabashed pop Young, gloriously untamed on epic jam She music performed a short, one-song set at their
sensibility. Something that’s easy enough Showed Me Love and uncompromisingly nation’s embassy in West London. They’re the
to get down on paper, but much harder to direct on Shut It Down. Personal themes of kind of events diplomats specialise in, designed
perfect in real life. Glorious Sons have loss, love and regret were offset by wider B to introduce an aspect of a nation’s culture to
nailed it. Now it’s down to everyone else to preoccupations with ecological collapse the citizens of another country: invitees enjoy some local
do the right thing. DE and political dissent. RH delicacies, drink too much, exchange business cards, and go
Killer track: A War On Everything Killer track: She Showed Me Love home having learned a little about something new.
This was how Classic Rock was officially introduced to
BLACK FUTURES OPETH The Hu, although we’d had our eye on them for some
43 Never Not Nothing 40 n Cauda Venenum time. Back in 2018 they released two videos: first Yuve Yuve
I
MUSIC FOR NATIONS How to describe the MODERBOLAGET The Swedish metallers- Yu, a widescreen epic that looked like an advert for the
pre-apocalyptic epic, stunningly shot clip aligning Mongolian warriors
Mongolian tourist board, followed by Wolf Totem, an equally
turned-prog overlords’
racket created by this
with Western biker gangs. But beyond the spectacle – and
thirteenth album was
mysterious, hazmat-
both films are genuinely spectacular – what captured the
also their first to be sung
suited pair of studio
mavericks? Something
in their native tongue (it
attention of the millions of viewers who shared the videos
did also come with an
like:
synth-metal glam-punk that invites you to English version). Tender and intimate in was the music.
A beautifully choreographed mix of Central Asian folk
party like it’s 2099, preferably intoxicated places, heavy and bombastic in others, In and Western rock, The Hu’s songs covered subjects not
by the mind-altering effects of a communal Cauda Venenum was the sound of a band at normally associated with the bands covered in these pages:
rock’n’rave happening? But whichever way the height of their abilities doing exactly the power of nature, respecting one’s elders, the beauty
you spin it, this is one earth-shaking blast what they wanted – and thoroughly of a mother’s love. Rich in spirituality, it also celebrated
of a debut album. JS enjoying it. A rousing, luxurious affair, Mongolia’s history as a great warrior nation. And it struck
Killer track: Love brilliantly executed. PG a chord. Perhaps, in an age of fake news and Facebook and
Killer track: Svekets Prins deep, rabid division, we really do need music to be the thing
PHIL CAMPBELL that connects us to each other.
42 Old Lions Still Roar JEFF LYNNE’S ELO The Hu aren’t doing anything revolutionary. The great
NUCLEAR BLAST For those of us who 39 From Out Of Nowhere COLUMBIA Tuvan band Yat-Kha were ploughing a similar furrow two
uncertain the times, you years working on a similar hybrid. But The Hu are getting
decades ago, and Chinese metallers Tengger Cavalry spent
No matter how
believe Motörhead are
for life, not just for Ace
always know where you
it right. They haven’t moved too far from their folk roots,
Of Spades, it’s been
stand with ELO. The
and have avoided the temptation to switch local traditional
heartening to see long-
latest from Jeff Lynne’s
instruments for their modern equivalents. So the morin
serving guitarist Phil man operation
one-
Campbell thriving with the Bastard Sons (except for Steve Jay’s percussion and khuur (horse-head violin) is front and centre, the jaw harp
boings, the rhythms canter like wild horses, and the throat
since Lemmy’s passing. His debut solo a cameo from longtime pianist Richard singing and its mysterious harmonics give Western audiences
album channels his ferocious guitar tone Tandy) continued the stellar work of 2015 a taste of something that feels free, and wild, and deeply
into bluesy hard rockers, framed with comeback Alone In The Universe, delivering connected to something they might have lost. It’s also music
weightier, more intense tracks and acoustic a blend of heart-stopping chord changes that somehow paints a dramatic picture of the land from
interludes. Guests including Rob Halford and spacey concerto pop, perfectly which it came. And debut album The Gereg carries on where
and Alice Cooper bring their A-game. RD illustrated by the sublime title track. RH the videos left off. It feels heroic. And we all need heroes.
Killer track: Faith In Fire Killer track: From Out Of Nowhere



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 21

GRAND SLAM














Thirty-odd years after former Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott’s new band got on to the runway

but never really got off the ground, a new line-up returns with a new album, and they’re flying.

Words: Ken McIntyre


here are many lost futures in the ever-twisting history in the industry, that a record deal would be easy enough to
of rock’n’roll, and Grand Slam is perhaps one of the procure. But this was not the case.
most tantalizing. After the sudden and shocking “Unfortunately, in the UK there was a lot of press about Phil’s
dissolution of Thin Lizzy in 1983, Lizzy frontman and drug use,” says Acher. “They were running drug-related double-
T hero to us all Phil Lynott rebounded with a new page spreads in the newspapers about Phil’s drug use all the
band full of friends old and new, including then-current Lizzy time. So the record labels were really concerned because of
members Brian Downey and John Sykes, and Magnum all this coverage in the mainstream press. We just couldn’t get
keyboard player Mark Stanway. Grand Slam was a fresh start a deal made.”
after a decidedly rough patch for Lynott, who was deep in a drug Worse still, Archer found that all these negative press reports
haze that he desperately wanted to climb out of. Sykes famously weren’t exactly inaccurate. In 1984 Lynott was essentially
left to join the revamped, hair-tousling version of a phantom of his former self.
Whitesnake, and an old acquaintance of Phil’s, “I went to the States and had started recording
Stampede guitarist Laurence Archer, was brought in. “The newspapers some stuff with Huey Lewis,” explains Archer. “I did it
The band wrote new songs and played familiar under the premise that Phil was gonna come out and
venues, but nothing much ever came of it. A few live were running sing on it. But he couldn’t get to America because his
tapes made the rounds in the tape-trading circuits, visa had run out, and he wasn’t going to be getting
a demo or two, but that was it. There was no album. Phil double-page spreads another one because of the drug stuff. In the end
did a couple of solo things and then, in 1986, he passed about Phil’s drug he was able to find an old Irish passport and was
away. And that was that. Until it wasn’t. somehow able to get through.
In 2016, a reinstituted Grand Slam played the Sweden use… We just “The tracks sounded great, but when Phil got there…
Rock festival. Emboldened by the positive response, couldn’t get a deal.” he just wasn’t in a good state. He was coughing a lot. He
Archer decided to form a new, stable line-up, both to wasn’t really well, and he just wasn’t performing very
ensure the band’s legacy and to pave the way for a brave well at all. When I listened back, I realised that we just
Laurence Archer
new future. Both are on display in their debut album, Hit couldn’t release it as is. I didn’t bow out on Phil, but I did
The Ground, which comprises five revitalised ’84-era Grand Slam tell management that I didn’t think it was a good idea to release
songs and five brand-new tracks. Old and new mesh perfectly, and anything with Phil in this state. It just wouldn’t have come out well.”
in a rare best-case scenario the album manages to sound classic
and contemporary at the same time. eartbroken over the whole affair, Archer went on to
As we speak, his band are in an undisclosed film studio, record a solo album and then, eventually, left the music
working on their new music video. It involves lion cages and Hbusiness for a few years. Meanwhile, several of Grand
people jumping out of planes. “We’re going large on this one,” he Slam’s songs, including 19 and Military Man, were re-recorded and
says with a laugh. released as Lynott solo efforts, without any input from Archer.
“I met Phil when I was in the band Wild Horses,” Archer recalls. “I was still a kid at the time, and very naïve about the industry,”
“We had the same management. A few years later says Archer. One of his songs, Dedication, was even
I was in a band called Stampede, and he asked me passed off as a ‘lost’ Lizzy track on their 1991 ‘best of’
to come down to the studio to do some stuff with GRAND SLAM compilation. I actually wrote Dedication for Stampede,
him. He actually asked me to be in Lizzy, but I was 38 Hit The Ground MARSHALL and they used it as this lost 1976-era Thin Lizzy track
NWOBHM almost-weres Stampede were signed
too into the stuff I was doing at the time. It seems After Thin Lizzy, Phil for the music video,” he says incredulously. “I had no
a little ridiculous now, but at the time it seemed like Lynott forged ahead idea. A friend of mine called me up and said: ‘Your
Lizzy was waning a little, so I stuck with what I was with Grand Slam, song is on the radio.’ I said: ‘What song?’ So I turned
doing. But yeah, we knew each other for some time forming fruitful on the radio, and it’s Dedication. They lifted the vocals
before Grand Slam.” songwriting from a session Phil and I did of it. It was the only time
partnerships with
Thin Lizzy demo.”
to Polydor Records, but managed to release just Laurence Archer (UFO) and Mark Stanway he ever sang that song. They disguised it as an old
one EP, in 1982, before mismanagement cut them (Magnum), but lack of label interest In 2002, a collection of Grand Slam demos, The
off at the ankles. meant their music would only be Studio Sessions, was released. Poorly recorded and
“They didn’t have any A&R men in the company preserved in demos and live tapes. Here, shabbily presented, it did nothing to honour the
at the time,” Archer sighs, “so we were just waiting Archer and a fired-up new formation tear band’s legacy. Archer had already lived a lifetime in
around for something to happen. I had the option into five vintage Slam tracks and five rock’n’roll by then, having spent a few years in UFO
to jump ship, so when Phil called me I did.” vibrant new numbers offering a similar and forming various other bands along the way
Archer got to work on writing songs with Lynott. combination of grit and melody. RD before leaving music behind for a decade. But the
They assumed, given the Lizzy frontman’s stature Killer track: Hit The Ground. demo release stuck in his craw.



22 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Making a Grand return:
(l-r) Benjy Reid, David
Boyce, Mike Dyer,
Laurence Archer.

Phil Lynott (left) and
Laurence Archer with
Grand Slam in 1984/5.


























































“I was never happy with it,” he says. “I always thought when “He was in Phantom Of The Opera, all kinds of things,” says
I had the time and the money I would go back and record these Archer. “He had really developed his voice. And I didn’t want a Paul
songs properly. And I wanted to carry on. I wanted to write new Rodgers or a Bruce Dickinson for this. I mean, Phil didn’t sing like
Grand Slam songs. I wanted it to be a real band.” that. Phil had his own thing. He had a great voice, great phrasing,
His first opportunity came in 2016 when Grand Slam were and it was very melodic. That’s what I was looking for. I thought
asked to appear at the Sweden Rock festival. This version Mike was the right man for the job.”
included original keyboard player Stanway, but bears little “When I did theatre, people would go: ’This guy thinks he’s some
resemblance to the band it would become. kind of rock’n’roll madman,’” Dyer says, laughing. “And honestly,
“We did a couple of warm-up gigs and then we did the festival, it’s true. I’m a born rocker.”
but it was really just a project band,” he explains. “In fact we didn’t Just as well, as Dyer is, after all, replacing perhaps the greatest
even really play very many Grand Slam songs. So it was different.” frontman there’s ever been in rock’n’roll.
“My first run-in with Thin Lizzy was when I went
t that point, Archer’s retirement from music backstage at their show at Liverpool Empire as a chubby
was clearly over. He had recently played with fourteen-year-old kid to get Phil to sign my copy of Black
Aa revamped Stampede, and with Juicy Lucy, “I actually wrote Rose,” Dyer remembers. “They were all really kind to me.
and even with members of his era of UFO called, Dedication for But yeah, I have lost a lot of sleep just thinking about
sensibly enough, ex-UFO. how to fill this role. When Laurence first asked me to
“It wasn’t too much of a shock playing music again,” Stampede, and they do it, I said: ‘I can’t do this. I can’t fill his shoes.’ Then my
he says. "It’s not like I was coming out of a deep, dark used it as this ‘lost’ little boy said: ‘Dad, you’ve got loads of shoes, you’ve got
hole. I saw the opportunity to finally do Grand Slam the loads of boots. You can just wear your own’ [laughs].
right way.” 1976-era Thin Lizzy I thought about it, and I thought, you know, he’s right.”
A year later, he had solidified a new line-up of Grand “I didn’t wanna have a band that lasted for nine
Slam, including former Praying Mantis drummer Benjy track for the music months or one tour then it was over,” Archer explains.
Reid, former Quireboys bassist Dave Boyce, and vocalist video. I had no idea.” “I wanted it to be a proper band. I said from the start
Mike Dyer who had previously played with Archer in I wanted a four-way split, where everybody has equal
a band called Rhode Island Red. input. And I’m very happy with it. I think the band looks
Laurence Archer
“I first got the call from Laurence on Christmas great, I think the band sounds great, and I think the new
2017,” Dyer recalls. “He said: ‘We have some unfinished business.’ I songs are great. This is four guys that are really dedicated to being
figured he had lost the plot, maybe. I think he had heard my voice, in a band called Grand Slam. I’m bringing in the heritage with
but not seen me for awhile, because at that point I was twenty- the old songs, but we’ve also got new songs. In fact we’re halfway
one stone. And my little boy said: “Dad, you’ve gotta go do this, through writing the second album right now.”
but you’ve got to lose weight because you look like an Easter egg In the meantime, Grand Slam plan on touring far and wide.
[laughs]. So basically I’ve spent the past four hundred days going to “I feel deep in my heart that Phil would be proud of this band,”
the gym, getting in shape, because the set warrants that, the pace of says Dyer. And on the strength of Hit The Ground, he most surely
it. It’s so bloody powerful.” would be.
Dyer is best known at this point for theatre, not rock’n’roll, but
Archer was sure he was the man for the job. Hit The Ground is out now via Marshall Records. GETTY



24 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



DUFF




MCKAGAN









With an album of his own and climbing back
on board the Guns N’ Roses crazy train,

2019 has been a fulfilling and enjoyable year.

Interview: Paul Elliott

t has been a busy year for Duff McKagan, with the release
of his solo album Tenderness, a few low-key gigs to promote
Kris Barras Iit, and a return to being the bassist in Guns N’ Roses for the
completion of the Not In This Lifetime tour, a marathon global
KRIS BARRAS BAND that sweet spot between stoned boho cool trek, begun in 2016, in which McKagan and lead guitarist Slash
37 Light It Up MASCOT and snarly glam-punk attitude. SD were reunited with singer Axl Rose after two decades apart.
Former cage-fighter, Killer track: Hollywood Ending McKagan enjoys having his hands full. As he tells Classic Rock:
blues guitar-slinger… “You know the saying: ‘fortune shines on those who put in the
Legit rockstar? After IGGY POP work’.” And as he reflects on this year, his thoughts also turn
Light It Up it was easy to 34 Free LOMA VISTA/CAROLINE to the good old, bad old days of the 80s, when Guns N’ Roses
reply in the affirmative. Now that pretty much conquered the world with the biggest-selling debut album of all
Barr
as’s chops, tasty everyone finally time, Appetite For Destruction.
solos and Bon Jovi-rivalling vocals were recognises ‘the world’s
turbocharged by infectious choruses, forgotten boy’, What in 2019 has given you the most satisfaction?
southern crunch, fusion-y flourishes and following his ever- The Guns N’ Roses shows have been great – really long shows,
even
more. No bullshit, no fannying around, just tful half-century and it’s been a lot of fun. And with my solo record the GN’R
an album full of belting rock songs. PG seduction of the mainstream (from guys have really backed me in this thing.
Killer track: Counterfeit People Stooges infamy through Berlin-born
Bowie collaborations to universally Your album is mostly acoustic, with what you call a “socio-
TYLER BRYANT respected alt.rock elder statesman status), political” theme. It’s nothing like Guns N’ Roses. What kind of
36 & THE SHAKEDOWN he’s changed tack. Free is the album that reaction were you expecting?
Truth And Lies SNAKEFARM one suspects Iggy’s been quietly Of course I thought about what the reaction would be, but it
He’s the prodigious percolating across his last few decades of wasn’t the main concern. I’ve done these massive rock records in
blues kid from Texas crowd-pleasingly predictable self- the past, but I think it was an okay time for me to do something
who, in the company immolation. Trumpet-led, Miles-informed different. And this all happened during the Guns N’ Roses tour,
of the excellent atmospherics; stripped, confessional a couple of years back. The original idea was to write a book, but
Shakedown, grew into poetics; echoes of Post Pop Depression. Free’s I had my acoustic guitar on the road, and after I wrote the first
of rock’s biggest brink-dwelling lounge-jazz is Iggy’s song, It’s Not Too Late, I thought I’d make it a record.
one
contenders. Together they put themselves Blackstar: not epitaph, but fearless
on the map by opening for pretty much expression of ultimate liberation. IF Is there a key message in the album?
every touring A-lister alive (AC/DC, GN’R Killer track: James Bond I guess I was trying to bring a little peace, maybe. It’s
etc etc), and on second album Truth And Lies observation without comment – observation on what is a very
they proved their songwriting weight: DUFF MCKAGAN important time in our history.
brooding, grungy flavours of Soundgarden 33 Tenderness UNIVERSAL
mixed with rootsy rawness and seductive Shot through with You mean Trump’s America?
blues-rock grooves – plus enough swagger a deep humanity and I don’t even know if I’m reacting to the current situation so
to make Keith Richards blush, and their tattooed-sleeve-wearing much. Sometimes, if I dare turn on cable news or look on
tenderest moments yet. PG social conscience, Twitter, it’s like you open that door and there’s all this noise
Killer track: Out There McKagan’s foray into going on, and you just shut that door [laughs]. But going
real Americana around the world with GN’R, you see so much changing. We
ethe
STARCRAWLER and country-tinged ambience blindsided played a city in Poland where a couple of months earlier they
35 Devour You ROUGH TRADE many critics in both its genre positioning had a rally with a couple of hundred thousand Nazis, basically.
of plaintive melancholy is bolstered by end I noticed that the quality of my life got a lot better when
I read history, and we have seen things like this before. In the
and sheer accomplishment. A rich seam
Founded and fronted
by confrontational
provocateur Arrow de
I didn’t look at Twitter or the TV news. Just talking with people,
McKagan’s rusty falsetto which is as
Wilde, LA’s latest cult
one on one, the quality of my mind-set got better.
rootsy as much of the instrumentation,
and any polish on it is channelled directly
retro-rock revisionists
dig deep into their home
outlaw country guy, and son of Waylon.
city’s sleazy, scuzzy, hard-partying history into the songcraft: pinpoint-perfect in its You made the album with your friend Shooter Jennings, an
execution and restraint. Elevated further
on this deliciously decadent second album. by a crack team of backing musicians I’ve known Shooter since he moved to LA, around 2001. When
With nods to Joan Jett, Ozzy Osbourne, (assembled by collaborator Shooter I played him my songs he was super into it, he loved the whole ROB BLACKHAM/PRESS
Courtney Love, Iggy Pop and other Jennings), it’s a whole heap of maturity concept. We worked out the whole album in five or six sessions
legends, agreeably sloppy guitar-chuggers and class. TB at Shooter’s house, in his living room, me playing acoustic and
like Bet My Brains and No More Pennies find Killer track: Tenderness


26 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

him with his little keyboard, and we recorded in this cheap studio
in Echo Park, no frills, nothing fancy.


And Shooter and his band backed you for your solo shows this year.
That was a different experience for me. With Guns we rehearse
hard for a tour – four weeks, six days a week, six to eight hours
a day. With Shooter’s guys we had one rehearsal for four hours
– and that was like two hours too much! I guess you could say my
songs are kind of simple.

Back in 2016, when you and Slash began rehearsing for the Not
In This Lifetime tour, you were playing those old songs again, from
Appetite For Destruction and Use Your Illusion I and II,
and also some of the songs from Chinese Democracy, the Guns
album that Axl made without you guys. How did that feel?
For me it was very cool. With every record I’ve ever made, I never
listen to them after they’re done. So diving into Appetite and the
Illusions stuff, songs that I played as a young man, rediscovering it
all, it was really cool for me to go back and do that. With Chinese
Democracy, some of the stuff on that record is brilliant – really
brilliant. Axl asked Slash and I to do these certain things from that
record, and when we played them with Frank [Ferrer, drummer],
it was like: “Let’s make these songs the best we can make it.” It was
fun for Slash and I to tear those songs apart and play them with
aggression. We made them our own.


In 2014, two years before you officially rejoined Guns N’ Roses,
you played bass for the band on a South American tour, standing
in for Tommy Stinson, who was doing reunion shows with his old
band The Replacements. You told Classic Rock that you and Axl
got really close again on that tour.
Oh yeah. We had such a great time together. We played a show
in La Paz, Bolivia, at an altitude of twelve thousand feet. I’d done
mountain climbing. I said: “Ax, man, the air is
thin up there.” Seriously, people pass out
when they come off the plane. They have oxygen
at the airport. And we gotta play a rock show
there, in a soccer stadium where they don’t have
games any more because no other team will go But the tour did not get off to the best of starts.
and play because it’s not fair. So I was taking Yeah, right? Axl broke his fucking foot in our
Diamox, mountain climber shit, and I gave some first show [at the Troubadour in LA]. But he
to Axl. We go through this journey together, and said right away that he wanted to continue
to watch him sing up there… man, it was an the tour. As a singer, you stand up, put your
amazing experience. shoulders back and chest out and you sing.
But he figured it out. Sitting down, contracted,
What has the Not In This Lifetime tour meant to I don’t know how he did it. And not just got
you on a personal level? though it, he did it well. And at the same time
It’s been one of the most enlightening times of my life. All the way we had other things going on…
through, there’s been a lot of levity. You know, when we finally
communicated, hey, it’s a lot easier when you talk! And I found Specifically, Axl taking on another job during breaks in GN’R’s
myself remembering how these guys taught me so much in my schedule – singing for AC/DC after Brian Johnson had to
early days. I learned a lot from these guys about just how to be. withdraw from their Rock Or Bust tour.
That came out of nowhere, as we all know. But Axl had to do it.
You’ve always remained tight with one ex-member of Guns, rhythm It would have been like if Prince had asked me to play because
guitarist Izzy Stradlin. You’ve played on each other’s records over he’d lost a guy. I’d have said: ‘You know I have to do this, right?’
the years. But Izzy declined to rejoin the band for the tour. It was more of that than anything else.
He and I have done a lot together in all the years in between.
But this tour, I just don’t think he ever wanted to do it. We tried What, for you, was the best thing about this tour?
to make it work, but it just didn’t. And in a situation like this The size of the crowds that came, everywhere we went, was
you’re really in it, man. You either get on it or you don’t, because really something. And the way we did it, having each other’s
the train’s moving forward. The good thing is, Slash really backs after all these things we’ve been through in the past, for
likes playing with Richard Fortus [GN’R guitarist since 2002], me that was the coolest thing.
A contempative
and Slash is somewhat picky about that kind of stuff. They get studio, and (inset) And as you told us earlier this year, there’s a new Guns N’
McKagan in the
on great as far as a two-guitar player relationship goes. To be
SCOTT DUDELSON/PRESS x2 honest, I haven’t taken a lot of time to go back on the Izzy thing whom he recorded Roses album coming. If and when that happens, could you die
with Shooter
Jennings, with
a happy man?
because we just move forward, and things are so good. And as
Well, everything I’m doing now, I’m thinking this is part of my
I’ve found out many times in my life, things are supposed to
his album
happen as they happen.
legacy. But I’m planning on being around for a while.
Tenderness.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 27

STURGILL SIMPSON

30 Sound & Fury ELEKTRA

Nashville’s most eclectic
talent outdid himself on
this dazzling fourth
album, for which
Simpson cast off the
countryisms of 2016’s
Grammy-winning A Sailor’s Guide To Earth
in favour of heavy psychedelia and rip-
snorting jams. Issued in tandem with
Netflix’s dystopian anime film of the same
name, Sound & Fury revealed him to be
a post-Sabbath rocker of genuine might,
heading up a fearsome four-piece band. RH
Killer track: Fastest Horse In Town


JIM JONES AND THE
29 RIGHTEOUS MIND
CollectiV MASONIC
The second album from
Jones’s swamp-rocking
Righteous Mind found
the ever-reliable ex-Thee
Hypnotics, Black Moses
Jim Jones Revue
and
frontman cherry-picking from his past to
Volbeat deliver a firestorm of psyched-up, garage-
born, groove-driven, sexed-up, snake-
STEVE HACKETT handling, gospel-diabolique,
32 At The Edge Of Light TOP 5 rock’n’rollicking fuckabilly mayhem.
INSIDE OUT With JJATRM’s core quintet augmented by
The former Genesis COUNTRY occasional Primal Scream guitarist ‘Little’
guitarist capped a highly Barrie Cadogan, soul siren Sister Cookie,
productive decade in ALBUMS operatic Slovenian Vesna Potrasin and
dazzling style with this (on Attack Of The Killer Brainz) ex-Hypnotics
refined and esoteric Ray Hanson and Phil Smith, CollectiV’s
Words: Rob Hughes
reco
rd, which also seething cauldron of salacious mayhem
became a UK Top 30 hit. Following on HOUSE AND LAND rocks majestically. IF
from the equally eclectic The Night Siren 1 Across The Field THRILL JOCKEY Killer track: Sex Robot
and Beyond The Shrouded Horizon, his North Carolina
twenty-sixth solo album is a panoramic, duo Sarah Louise WHISKEY MYERS
proggy musical voyage, with the lush Henson and Sally 28 Whiskey Myers SNAKEFARM
symphonic rock he does so well (Beast Of Anne Morgan The gospel according
Our Time) but also twanging, harmony-rich perfected to Whiskey Myers is
60s pop (Hungry Years) and even blues/ ance of the
distilled to its finest
a bal
gospel (Underground Railroad). Hackett’s traditional and experimental on this proof yet on this Texas
coruscating guitar playing and inspired wondrous second album together. band’s fifth album,
vocals are central to the rich, orchestral Rooted in the drones and textures a magnificent
sound palette. His star has rarely shone of Appalachian folk and country, compendium of southern rock’n’roll
so brightly. GM a combination of spidery guitars, storytelling. ‘I was raised by wolves in the
Killer track: Those Golden Wings fiddle, killer harmonies and strange woods,’ Cody Cannon howls on one of
loops made for a thrilling experience. many kick-ass songs which articulate the
WHITESNAKE Killer track: Precious Jewels authentic cry of the rural American
31 Flesh and Blood FRONTIERS NORTH MISSISSIPPI heartland. ‘I need a bible, a gun and gasoline,’
2 ALLSTARS 27 Rewind, Replay, Rebound
he declares. Holy smoke! DS
Thirteen proved to be
a lucky number for
Killer track: Bury My Bones
David Coverdale’s
Up And Rolling NEW WEST
VOLBEAT
perennially priapic
KAIA KATER
gentleman rockers,
cracking the UK Top 10
for the first time in more than a decade 3 Grenades VERTIGO 2019 has been the year
SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS
with their thirteenth studio album. On of Peaky Blinders,
hard-riffing, trouser-bulging, guilty- TYLER CHILDERS something Volbeat
pleasure anthems like Shut Up & Kiss Me 4 Country Squire astutely plugged into
and Trouble Is Your Middle Name, Coverdale HICKMAN HOLLER/RCA with their seventh
albu
and new guitarist Joel Hoekstra pay self- m. From the kids
consciously retro homage to Whitesnake’s Whitesnake’s KELSEY WALDON in baker-boy caps on its cover to the VOLBEAT: ROSS HALFIN/PRESS
1980s glam-metal playboy heyday. SD David 5 White Noise / White Lines PB-referencing Cheapside Sloggers, Rewind,
Killer track: Hey You… You Make Me Rock Coverdale OH BOY/THIRTY TIGERS Replay, Rebound crackled with outlaw



28 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

swagger. But this was more than just razor-
wielding aggro; a sweet air of nostalgia
shrouded When We Were Kids, mainman
(and new father) Michael Poulsen’s
affecting view of lost childhood. With
Poulsen dialling back his divisive James
Hetfield-goes-rockabilly croon, it was
Volbeat’s finest collection of songs yet. DE
Killer track: When We Were Kids

NICK CAVE & THE
26 BAD SEEDS
Ghosteen GHOSTEEN Released with almost no


advance fanfare, Nick
Cave’s stunning new
double album proved
to be an ambitious,
hallucinatory,
mesmerising avant-rock symphony rooted
in grief for his late teenage son Arthur. SLIPKNOT
Shimmering ambient laments like Sun
Forest and Waiting For You combine spare,
radiant, chamber-orchestra arrangements
with stream-of-consciousness
monologues full of dreamlike imagery After two decades of chaos, catharsis and game-changing heavy music,
and recurring poetic motifs. The overall Iowa’s prodigal sons defied crushing odds to release their sixth album.
effect is achingly beautiful, an
unimaginably awful family tragedy Words: Stephen Hill
transformed into something magical,
cathartic and strangely uplifting. SD “ am amazed I can stand up most of the time,” nightmare, no one would have blamed Crahan for
Killer track: Ghosteen Speaks Slipknot guitarist Jim Root sighs. “Three of bailing, yet there Slipknot were, honouring their
Ius have had neck or back surgery now. One 2019 European festival dates, with Clown in tow.
SLIPKNOT day we will just be gone. That’s how I’d like it. No “There is a commitment to each other,” the
25 We Are Not Your Kind final tour, no announcement, no big drama. We’ll band’s Corey Taylor said of their decision to stay
ROADRUNNER “This album is just vanish and never come back, and you’ll forever silent on those issues. “It’s not something that
decades of catharsis, pain and destruction, it’s media] want the bullshit and the drama, but this is
anyone outside us wants to talk about. [The
be left wondering if Slipknot is even still a thing.”
a masterpiece,” stated
After 20 years of turning music into war, two
Slipknot’s Shawn
a brotherhood, don’t ever forget that.”
Taylor has spoken at length about the inspiration
only natural to wonder just how long metal’s most
‘Clown’ Crahan – and
dared the rock press to
combustible of bands can last. Many of us never
behind We Are Not Your Kind. It is, he says, the most
deny it. We couldn’t.
On standouts like Unsainted and the even expected to see a day when we’d hear a second personal album he has made with the band, written
or third Slipknot album. But on August 9 this year
in the direct aftermath of his marriage falling apart
climactic finale Solway Firth,the masked they released their sixth, We Are Not Your Kind. and his mental health deteriorating. When asked
Iowans’ fury was undimmed but It was the tail-end of 2018 when the excitement what gives him the greatest amount of pride in
their range was extended, and when We levels of Slipknot fans (affectionately named listening back to the record, he’s quick to shoot
Are Not Your Kind hit US and UK No.1 over Maggots) the world over was raised through the back: “The catharsis of going to a place that I’ve
the summer its unholy presence felt like roof as the band released the savage All Out Life, been living in, and a place that I’ve never been able
a glorious pustule on the airbrushed face a song so brutal that, from nowhere, the idea that to express before. Going to that in such a high
of modern pop. HY Slipknot were returning to their belligerent best volume and a pronounced volition, that left me
Killer track: Unsainted suddenly seemed like a genuine possibility. very, very spent but it was very freeing. I think the
But then, everything began to crumble. In fact that there is a little bit of everything that I went
ROYAL REPUBLIC March this year, details of a lawsuit regarding through on it is really cool. Not easy, but cool.”
We may think of them as the masked, psychotic
24 Club Majesty NUCLEAR BLAST compensation issues raised by percussionist Chris superheroes of metal, but Slipknot break, bleed
the band. In May the band released another new and hurt the same as all of us. With that fact comes
Upping the ante of
Fehn were leaked, leading to his departure from
2016’s Weekend Man, the
song, Unsainted, accompanied by a promo video,
Swedes’ fourth album
the realisation that one day, whether they care to
the reveal of a whole new set of masks (complete
admit it, they will have to stop. For what it’s worth,
was easily one of the
Taylor is only interested in staying true to what he
with new member) and the details of the new
sparkliest, most joyful
releases of 2019.
A glimmering glitter-ball of pitch-perfect album. Predictably, the internet lost its shit. The and his bandmates set out to create all that time ago.
“I think they’d be blown away that we’re still doing
song, video and, most feverishly of all, new masks
disco rock, Club Majesty experty blends were dissected at length, both praised to the hilt it,” he says when asked what the band that took
precision camp, irresistible riffs and good- and sneered at from behind the safety of keyboards everyone by shock in 1999 would think of today’s
enough-to-eat tunes. At Download festival by online commentators everywhere. incarnation. “They would look at us now and be
– in a field of muddy metalheads – they Less than a week later, everything would be gut- thrilled that we kept it alive. Vital, poignant, insane.
mixed all this with a cover of Metallica’s wrenchingly put into perspective. News broke that We never watered anything down, we never tried to
Battery, while dressed in matching sparkly percussionist and band architect Shawn ‘Clown’ do anything that didn’t feel right. That’s the whole
jackets and the shiniest of shoes. Now that Crahan’s daughter, Gabrielle, had passed away at point of Slipknot: to do whatever you want but to
takes balls. PG the age of 22. After suffering every parent’s worst do it at a hundred miles per hour.”
Killer track: Anna-Leigh



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 29

it were – and the result is, as Lennon says, “definite
creative chemistry”.
The outcome of that chemistry is the Claypool
Lennon Delirium, a project which serves as
a conduit for the two artists to explore the
outermost reaches of their shared musical
sensibilities. The duo released their debut album
Monolith Of Phobos in 2016, and followed it up in
2017 with the EP Lime And Limpid Green.
In 2019 they returned with a full-length follow-
up, the similarly exploratory South Of Reality, on
which they indulging their shared love of 60s and
70s prog, psych and garage rock and melding it to
jam-band-esque instrumental excursions, sweet-
and-sour vocal harmonies and a lyric approach
that is one part dark ruminations on the human
condition and one part word-salad whimsy.
Claypool and Lennon recently sat down to
talk about their artistic bond, their recording
arrangement, and what it is they like about
working with one another. Central to this last
point, Lennon says, is the fact that “we have
an easy flow together”. Which, Claypool adds,
is an important, if not essential, aspect of the
Delirium. “It has to be easy,” he says. “Because
I don’t like pushing things. If things aren’t coming
easy, then I’ll go do something else — like catch
a fish or something.”
CLAYPOOL You pull from a lot of different sounds and styles

in the Claypool Lennon Delirium, especially late-
sixties and early-seventies prog. What do you love
about that music?
LENNON open-ended, and you can kind of do anything with
Sean Lennon: I think we love prog because it’s

it. It’s expansive. So it suits us, because it doesn’t
seem strange to write a song in three sections
about a rocket scientist [the track Blood And Rockets,
DELIRIUM about American rocket engineer Jack Parsons]. It’s
the theatrical version of rock’n’roll. [laughs]
Les Claypool: I like it because it’s a rock that
I haven’t really turned over on my own yet. And
I tend to turn over a lot of rocks. I think Primus
has always been pretty progressive, but in
A state of delirium struck again as Les Claypool and Sean Lennon a different way. Primus is a heavier band. This to
me is more reminiscent of Syd-era Floyd stuff and
returned with their prog/psychedelic garage-rock album South Of Reality.
things that were going on around that time. And
Interview: Richard Bienstock we come at it from different angles. As a kid I was
a big fan of Rush and Yes and Utopia and Jethro
n 2015, Sean Lennon’s band the Ghost Of has odd approaches to what he does,” he says, Tull, whereas I think Sean was coming from
A Saber Tooth Tiger were the openers on laughing. “Because, as you may know from my a more psychedelic side of things. We like turning
Ia tour co-headlined by Primus and Dinosaur work, I’m a little off-centre, too.” each other on to different things.
Jr. Which is how Lennon ended up having an ‘Off-centre’, of course, doesn’t even begin
impromptu jam with Primus bassist and lead to describe the supreme oddness of Claypool What was the collaborative process like for South
vocalist Les Claypool one night before a show. and Lennon’s individual artistic output. As the Of Reality? Were you guys coming up with ideas
“We were playing on acoustics in the back frontman and main songwriter for Primus, the independent of one another, or were you working
of Les’s tour bus, ten or fifteen minutes before former has spent the past three decades or so on everything together?
one of us was supposed to go on stage,” Lennon crafting some of the knottiest, most dizzyingly SL: Both. Les has a really good work ethic in
recalls. “And we came up with a bunch of things complex and bizarre bass lines in modern music. a lot of ways. For example, he has this policy
really fast. I remember Les being like: ‘Yeah, As for Lennon, he’s a multi-instrumentalist that everyone show up for rehearsal the first day
I noticed that you were kind of writing a song as who as well as his solo and band pursuits has knowing all the songs for a tour. Every part! He
we jammed, as opposed to just noodling.’ I think collaborated with artists in pop, rock, metal, wants you to do your homework. It’s kind of like
he liked that.” avant-garde, hip-hop, psychedelia, folk and other that for him when making a record, too. He does
“He was playing things that I wasn’t expecting, genres – and that’s in addition to his work scoring his homework before he gets there, and he shows
and that always intrigues me when I play with films, producing records, acting and more. (He up with a lot of ideas. But then there are other
someone,” Claypool adds. “So I could tell right is also, of course, the son of John Lennon and things that we came up with just by jamming
away that we had an interesting dynamic together. Yoko Ono.) Put these two off-centre individuals together in the studio. Sometimes we would write
And I also liked the fact that Sean sometimes together in a room – or the back of a tour bus, as a song a day for several days in a row.”





26 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Kennedy and Tremonti might have had
solo projects on the go, but judging by Walk
The Sky we can’t see them abandoning their
day job any time soon. DS
Killer track: Dying Light

AIRBOURNE
21 Boneshaker SPINEFARM
The bludgeoning
sledgehammer of a PR
line for the Aussies’ fifth
album – “This is
a fucking rock’n’roll
reco
rd” – wasn’t
kidding. Recorded with Rival Sons
producer Dave Cobb, it’s a flaming,
stripped-to-the-bone blast of sweat, sex
and danger. Their love for AC/DC has long
been one of the most widely acknowledged
things in rock’n’roll, but here Airbourne tip
their hat to the Bon Scott days with more
guts and gall than ever. And it’s all over in
30 breakneck minutes. You’ll make up
your own mind, but it’s difficult to see how
any lover of balls-to-the-wall rock’n’roll
wouldn’t get a kick out of this. PG
Killer track: Sex To Go

DIAMOND HEAD

20 The Coffin Train
SILVER LINING MUSIC
Thirty-nine years since
Diamond Head’s debut
Alter Bridge album defined them as
one of the great
THE CLAYPOOL NWOBHM bands (and
23 LENNON DELIRIUM TOP 5 ided Lars Ulrich
prov
South Of Reality ATOS with much of the blueprint for the fledgling
It’s impossible to talk AOR Metallica), The Coffin Train delivered
about the Claypool heaviness and depth in equal measure.
Lennon Delirium ALBUMS With guitarist and founding member Brian
without bringing John Tatler still a genius of riffs, and singer
‘father of Sean’ Lennon Rasmus Bom Andersen’s range and tone
Words: Dave Ling
into
the equation, so evoking Chris Cornell, there is earth-
we’ll tackle the elephant in the room up WORK OF ART shaking power in The Messenger, and
front: this album is kinda Beatle-ish. It’s not 1 Exhibits FRONTIERS sombre beauty in Until We Burn. From first
moptop Beatles, and it’s not sappy stuff That The Defiants track to last, it’s epic stuff. PE
Beatles. It’s weird Beatles, it’s dark Beatles, made the best Killer track: The Messenger
it’s experimental Beatles, and Sean Lennon AOR album of
and Primus’s Les Claypool have come up 2019 with TOOL
with a minor psychedelic classic. FL Zokusho is 19 Fear Inoculum MUSIC FOR NATIONS
reco
Killer track: Blood And Rockets gnised by that Arriving almost 5,000
record’s presence in our mainstream days on from previous
ALTER BRIDGE end-of-year chart. Meanwhile, with album 10,000 Days,
22 Walk The Sky NAPALM some help from ex-Survivor man Tool’s fifth album
an album of pure AOR to thrill fans digest as it did to anticipate. Conspicuously
proper required nearly
Jim Peterik, Work Of Art produced
Majestic, melodic,
uch patience to
menacing, metallic.
as m
of Toto, Journey and Giant.
The sixth album by
the Florida quartet is
lacking any up-tempo punchy tracks
ECLIPSE
previously scattered through their records,
a monster in all
departments. With two 2 Paradigm FRONTIERS
formidable singer-songwriter-guitarists – its slow-burn, impossibly dense spider’s
web of mutating time signatures,
Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti – now DEGREED polyrhythms and staccato riffs rewarded
in their pomp, songs such as Wouldn’t You 3 Lost Generation GAIN concentration levels above your typical
Rather and Native Son combine hardcore ART NATION 21st-century base line. More spacious in
JOEL O'KEEFFE: KEVIN NIXON vocal harmonies and profound lyrics. ‘If 4 Transition GAIN Joel O'Keeffe, stuffed with A-grade hooks and melodies,
tone and delivery than usual, yet amply
metal guitar sounds and beats with soaring
I die tonight…will I have lived in vain?’ they ask
there’s enough to chew on for another few
CRAZY LIXX
on Clear Horizon. Not with an album like
thousand days at least. TB
Airbourne
this thy won’t.
Killer track: Descending
5 Forever Wild FRONTIERS
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 27

THE


ALLMAN







BETTS BAND













On their excellent new album there are similarities between their music and that of their
fathers' legendary band, but they're adamant that “we’re not the Allman Brothers Part Two”.

Words: Dave Ling





32 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

evon Allman is extremely proud of the Allman
Betts Band. Justifiably, given that the group’s
introductory statement, Down To The River, ranks
among the finest debut albums of 2019. What the
D 47-year-old guitarist doesn’t like too much is people
comparing the Allman Betts Band to the Allman Brothers Band,
the legendary southern blues-rock band formed 50 years ago by
Devon’s late keyboard-playing, honey-voiced father Gregg. His
frustration is understandable. Devon, who didn’t even meet his
father until he was 17, has spent two decades carving out a career
of his own, in a solo capacity and with the groups Royal Southern
Brotherhood and Honeytribe.
Eighteen months ago he reached out to another descendent of
the ABB dynasty, Duane Betts, son of their co-founding guitarist
Dickey, to form the Devon Allman Project Featuring Duane Betts,
which became the Allman Betts Band when the duo committed
to what Devon described to Classic Rock as “the goal of making
a classic record,” adding: “We know that’s a tall order but we’re up
for it, man.” The Allman Betts Band name was retained even after
the integration of yet more of the ABB’s ancestral roots: bass player
Berry Oakley Jr, whose father was also in ABB.
The conversation with Devon begins good-naturedly enough.
We share a laugh over the improbability of having called the
group the Devon Allman Project Featuring Duane Betts And
Berry Oakley Jr (“There’s only so much room on a marquee”), and
he talks with fondness of the Allman Betts Band’s triumphant
appearance at Ramblin’ Man Fan Fair this summer, and voices his
disappointment that the band had to cut short a further run of
dates after he was hospitalised to have his appendix removed.




“This is a brand-new band, but
we know we have a lot to prove.

The cool thing is that there are

so many places we can go”


Devon Allman

Allman talks animatedly of the instant chemistry he discovered
with Betts, and how the songs that appear on Down To The River
began to flow out of them almost immediately. “I think the first
thing we wrote for the record was Long Gone, and All Night and
Melodies Are Memories weren’t too far behind, so we ended up riding
the wave,” he explains. “Right from the start it felt natural and
authentic. Both of us know that there’s a million people in the world
that would like to hear an Allman and a Betts doing a project and
being on stage together, but if there’s no real spark then what would
have been the point? But luckily it felt organic and the material
THE ALLMAN came real quick, otherwise Duane would have been off making his
18 BETTS BAND second solo record and I’d have begun my fourth. And that would
Down To The River BMG also have been okay; our friendship would have carried on.”
The pre-eminent Allman expresses happiness that with Oakley in the band
southern rock dynasty Allman-Betts signed a worldwide deal with BMG Records. Oakley
does more than simply joined too late to make any meaningful contribution to the writing,
renew itself with the but, as Allman points out: “He’s such an incredible player. He holds
debut album by Devon down the bottom end and, unlike so many bass players, he knows
Duane, the sons of when to play and when lay back. He’s a consummate musician. The
and
Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts Oakley thing [the name] is great, but if he wasn’t such a wonderful
respectively, it grows vigorous new musician then we wouldn’t have invited him on board.
branches and bears sumptuous fresh fruit. “It all goes back to 1989, when I met Duane for the first time on
Both the bandleaders have fine singing the Allman Brothers reunion tour,” Allman continues. “That’s also
voices, and the title track is a stunningly where I met Berry too. So it feels like going back in time to come
soulful tune in a Robert Cray vein. But it’s forwards again. We’re the three amigos.”
the duo’s long, free-flowing guitar Nevertheless, a discernible coolness enters Allman’s voice when
exchanges, rising and falling like ocean mention is made of the presences of Peter Levin (his father Gregg’s
waves, that truly set band and album Hammond organ player) and Chuck Leavell (current keyboard
apart. Glorious. DS player with the Stones and a member of the Allman Brothers
Killer track: Autumn Breeze Band throughout the 70s) on the album, and how they could



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 33

thirty years. It just so happens three of the guys are related to the
Allman Brothers. We play two songs out of nineteen as a nod to
our fathers, and we do that because the Brothers are not a band any
more. If we went on stage for two and a half hours without playing
anything by the Allmans, that would be disrespectful – just as it
would be incredibly disrespectful to go up there and play a set of all
Allman Brothers material.
“We have a history of our own, and we have a work ethic that
exists outside of who we’re related to,” he continues. “It’s a fine line,
but we’re not the Allman Brothers Part Two. Some of the fans may
think that, and they can think whatever they want. For me, when
I look out at the crowd and a sixty-year-old guy is crying because
we’re playing [Allman Brothers songs] Blue Sky or Midnight Rider,
I think of that as a beautiful thing. But what I hope people will
take away is that, hey, this is a whole new chapter, not just for the
Allmans but in rock’n’roll. We’re proud of the fact that in 2019
somebody is still making organic rock’n’roll in not just the same
way that the Allmans did things, but also the Stones, The Band and
Santana did it – that’s where we’re coming from.”
Having got that off his chest, Allman relates that Dickey Betts
has attended an Allman-Betts show, and that when he did so
Allman received “chills” from having him at the side of the stage
and smiling, “because thirty years earlier we had been at the side
of the stage and smiling at him”. Later on, he say Betts Senior even
sat in during another Allman Betts Band concert, “which warmed
my heart and was an incredible moment. Once again, it was that
feeling of the wheel having turned full circle.”


couple of days afterwards, Classic Rock speaks individually
to Duane Betts and Berry Junior. Although equally
A sincere, neither is as outspoken as Allman, nor as prickly.
“Devon is very, very good at making things happen, and we
positively impact upon the way the group is marketed. More than just are lucky that we agree on just about everything, but first and
“It might be meaningful to a lot of people, but beyond that familiar names: foremost this is a band of equals,” states Betts, who it transpires has
aspect they’re both world-class players and that’s exactly what we Devon Allman known Oakley since the age of 11 when the elder boy sometimes
(left) and Duane
wanted,” he responds cautiously. “Chuck is such a sweetheart, and Betts with the effectively babysat for Betts and Devon’s half-brother Elijah Blue
he’s been so supportive of the careers of Duane and I.” Allman Betts band. when Cher left the house to run errands.
After a couple more questions about the album and the band’s “Berry and I have since played together in many bands, and
live performance, it becomes apparent that Devon is unhappy when the chance of having him in the Allman Betts Band came
about something. When I praise the Down To The River track Shining, along it was an easy decision,” Betts explains. “We’ve developed
suggesting that its brilliant, bubbly riff is straight out of an Allman such a great way of collaborating via our various strengths. Devon
Brothers song – a comparison intended as praise – he pauses for has the whole frontman thing going on; he’s more of a singer than
a second and replies: “You know… it definitely harkens back to the I am. I just do the same thing over and over, and hopefully I fool
past. When Duane and I do that song [live] it’s electric, and you see people into thinking that I know what I’m doing.”
the faces in the room light up. It’s special, for sure.” Just like Allman, Betts believes it’s healthy to “tip the
However, there’s a change of tone when Classic Rock hat” to his father’s continuing legacy, although he says
highlights the many commonalities between the two with a smile: “Just so long as they don’t assume we’re
bands, and how some might view them as cynical. “I’m “We didn’t start this some kind of tribute band. That would be very stupid.”
not real comfortable talking about that. We’re our own band to take the Besides expressing excitement at being a part of the
band, and not some spin-off of the Brothers,” Allman Allman Betts Band, Oakley offers some useful character
responds with a deep sigh, before becomingly mildly place of the f**king insight. “Duane is definitely country, and Devon is
angry. “I have ten records of my own; I’ve toured the Allman Brothers.” rock’n’roll,” he says with a laugh, “but they’ve found
world for seventeen years.” a nice way of meeting each other halfway.”
Some people don’t know that, though. To those Devon Allman Oakley has been known to use his father’s famous
people you are a ‘new’ name. original Tractor bass, a Fender Jazz equipped with
“Yeah, and that’s fine. But I’m not out here to prove anything, a Guild pickup, with the new group. It’s another of those little
except that I want to be the best musician I can be.” parallels with the Brothers that mean a lot.
Later on, when asked whether Duane’s father Dickey has “Sure, I understand why some people reach the wrong
attended any shows by the Allman Betts Band, he emits a further conclusions about this band,” Oakley remarks casually.
wearied sigh. “What I hope people will recognise in us is the same feeling of
“Look, you’re asking me a lot of questions about the Allman camaraderie and purpose that brought the original band together.”
Brothers, and I’m not real comfortable with that – not when the The final words go to Devon Allman, who reveals: “The band
focus is more on that band than my own.” is already two sessions deep into writing the second record, with
Slightly nonplussed, I explain that with so many commonalities over twenty ideas to be considered. We just want to go deeper into
existing between the two groups – notably that the Allman Betts everything – deeper lyrics, deeper grooves, and an even bigger
Band features three descendants of the Brothers’ co-founding helping of soul,” he concludes. “This is a brand-new band but we
members – we’re only trying understand what makes them tick. know that we have a lot to prove. The cool thing is that there are so
“Of course there are certain commonalities, but we didn’t start many places that we can go.” ERIK DE'SCATHEBURY/PRESS
this band to take the place of the fucking Allman Brothers, man,”
he thunders. “This band was formed because we’d been friends for Down To The River is out now via BMG.



34 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



THE DEFIANTS

17 Zokusho FRONTIERS

If ever a band was aptly
named, it’s this one. Led
by survivors from the
glory days of hair metal
– current and former
members of Danger
Danger – The Defiants roll like it’s 1989
on what is indisputably the best melodic
rock album of 2019 (see Dave Ling’s
AOR Top 5 for confirmation). Zokusho
(Japanese for ‘sequel’) is all about big
tunes, with Hollywood In Headlights a classic
all-American anthem. And the finale,
Drink Up!, takes ‘no brainer’ to a whole
new level. PE
Killer track: Hollywood In Headlights

THE MAGPIE SALUTE

16 High Water II PROVOGUE

If the rumours prove to
be true (Ed's note: they are,
see p14), and warring
brothers Chris and Rich
THE DEFIANTS the money going into Rich’s bank account
Robinson do reunite The
Black Crowes in 2020,


might be better, but it would be heavy
going for the guitarist after three bullshit-
free years leading The Magpie Salute. What
They came out of the shoulda-been-big-but-weren’t Danger Danger, and is also evident, in High Water II, is that this
this year released ‘one of the great melodic rock records of modern times’. band, featuring other ex-Crowes and
soulful singer John Hogg, are now reaching
Words: Paul Elliott a peak, as illustrated by the vintage-Stones
groove in Gimme Something. If hell freezes
egendary rock critic Nick Kent once with grunge,” he recalls, “but we never thought that over, much will be lost. PE
described Thin Lizzy’s Live And Dangerous as our genre was in trouble. We just thought we could Killer track: Gimme Something
L“an album made by heroes”. The same could all coexist.”
be said of The Defiants’ Zokusho, the feelgood album They were wrong, but Danger Danger kept going STATUS QUO
of the year, from guys whose dreams went up in in the 90s, with a new singer, AOR cult hero Paul 15 Backbone EARMUSIC/EDEL
smoke in the grunge explosion of the early 90s but Laine, replacing Ted Poley. In 2014, Laine left the Francis Rossi trailered
who never stopped believing in the life-affirming band and Poley rejoined. But since then they’ve Backbone with his
awareness that a new
power of rock’n’roll. made just one album, Revolve, released in 2009. “As
With The Defiants, every song is an anthem. of now,” Ravel says, “there are no plans for any new Quo album without the
“That is our default setting,” says bassist Bruno Danger Danger material. That’s not to say it could late Rick Parfitt “had to
Ravel. And if Zokusho sounds like their heads are still never happen, but it’d be a long shot at this point.” be seriously good”.
stuck in the 80s, Ravel takes that as a compliment. And so, as he puts it, “I moved on.” Rising to the occasion, Quo exceeded
“We try to blend that eighties feeling with some It was Serafino Perugino at Frontiers Records expectations with Backbone, a feelgood,
more current production elements,” he explains. who brokered a reunion between Ravel and Laine. hook-laden collection, with guitars set the
“And I think we succeeded with that.” “He reached out to Paul and myself separately,” right side of overdrive and contributions
The roots of The Defiants lie in Danger Danger, Ravel explains, “and through a series of discussions from Rossi’s vintage-era songwriting
the band that Ravel co-founded in New York City The Defiants were born.” The band also includes partner Bob Young. Setting aside nostalgia
in 1987 and in which he still plays. In those early current Danger Danger guitarist Rob Marcello. and sentiment, Backbone is more consistent
days, it seemed that Danger Danger could be the And after an acclaimed debut album in 2016, titled and characteristically Quo-like than the
next big thing in hair metal. Their self-titled debut simply The Defiants, with this year’s Zokusho they’ve majority of their 90s albums and the
album, released in 1989, had a couple of great tunes created one of the great melodic rock records of fag-end of the post-Frantic Four period.
in Naughty Naughty and Bang Bang, and on 1991’s modern times. Overall a disarmingly enjoyable addition
follow-up Screw It! the power ballad I Still Think About Paul Laine is a large-than-life character. As Ravel to their catalogue. RD
You could have been their Every Rose Has Its Thorn. says, laughing: “Don’t piss him off or else ‘The Bull’ Killer track: Liberty Lane
“We thought that too,” Ravel says. “We had many will come out!” He’s also phenomenal singer, who
songs that we felt could have been hits. We had all really lights up every one of this album’s anthems, BETH HART
the ingredients a band needed to break big.” from Hollywood In Headlights to Ravel’s favourite, 14 War In My Mind
But they didn’t, for a number of reasons. It Goes Fast, “the message of which”, he says, “is to MASCOT/PROVOGUE
According to Ravel: “Bad management, stupid enjoy life while you can. Which resonates very Beth Hart is the
decisions by our record company and some strongly with me these days.” songwriter who just
bad judgement by us.” There was also the issue And what next for The Defiants? keeps on giving. Her
of timing; Screw It! came out in the same year as “Hopefully we’ll do some shows next year,” womanly despatches
Nirvana’s Nevermind. “We saw what was happening Ravel says. “And one more record? Time will tell.” from the emotional
e zone just get
battl


36 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

TOP 5 Beth Hart


PROG

stronger and more soulful with every THE BLACK KEYS
album, and her latest, War In My Mind, ALBUMS Rich Robinson, 12 Let's Rock
The Magpie
drills deep into the core of her renegade Salute EASY EYE SOUND/NONESUCH
California spirit and art. ‘I’ll be the sugar It’s likely that Dan
Words: Jo Kendall
rush in your veins,’ she sings on Bad Woman Auerbach and Patrick
Carney’s commercial
Blues, and is as good as her word on MAGMA
a succession of baroque testimonials and 1 Zëss SEVENTH peak is behind them.
dark, sweeping piano ballads. The lyrics A 38-minute, But Let’s Rock spoke of
on I Need A Hero (‘Here comes another storm, seven-part piece a glorified garage band
built around
seems like it’s always raining/Mostly in my head gleefully returning to first principles, as the
under the sheets/It’s where I’m always hiding a propulsive Ohio duo broke with the wafty
from my best intentions’) explode like two-chord swing, soundscapes of 2014’s Turn Blue, and
landmines. Incredible. DS featuring Morgan instead threw their arms around the
Killer track: Bad Woman Blues Ågren (Kaipa, Devin Townsend) on old ways of fuzz-box blues and ragged-
drums, and the Prague arsed, harmony-stacked soul. It felt like
BEAUX GRIS GRIS Philharmonic. Bandleader Christian a thrilling fresh start – and the stadium
13 & THE APOCALYPSE Vander might only be vocalising league be damned. HY
Love & Murder GROW VISION MUSIC here (and in French, not Kobaïan Killer Track: Eagle Birds
elegant, euphoric piece of art the 11 BAND The southern roots-
– shock!), but, mon dieu, what an
Although they are
TEDESCHI TRUCKS
best-known for their
Parisian stars’ have recorded in their
partnership in Well
Hung Heart, Greta
fiftieth year.
Signs FANTASY
Valenti and Robin
GONG
Davey’s bluesy bit on
BETH HART: GREG WATERMANN/PRESS; RICH ROBINSON: LAURENT CHANEZ/PRESS
the side Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse 2 The Universe Also Collapses rock band led by Susan
Tedeschi and Derek
felt like the main event this year. The tug- KSCOPE Trucks responded to the
of-war between the American’s bad-girl current political turmoil
and
holler and the Brit’s scholarly guitar CHARLIE CAWOOD a string of personal
stylings rubbed up sparks, and you suspect 3 Blurring Into Motion losses with an album of rare brilliance.
that Jagger/Richards would be happy to BAD ELEPHANT ‘There’s poison in the well…’ Tedeschi sings in
claim Don’t Let The Bastards Drag You Down Shame, a threshing riff which echoes the
as their own. But Love & Murder got IAMTHEMORNING Allmans’ Whipping Post. TTB’s keyboard
pleasingly weird, too: try the twisted 4 The Bell KSCOPE player Kofi Burbridge died on the day Signs
gypsy-jazz of Cyclone, a song as apocalyptic was released, and tracks such as The Ending
as the times in which it was born. HY THE HARE and When Will I Begin are freighted with
Killer Track: Don’t Let The Bastards Drag 5 AND HOOFE a deep, elegiac resonance. DS
You Down The Terror Of Melton SELF-RELEASED Killer track: Shame



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 37

BIG BIG TRAIN
G
10 rand Tour ENGLISH ELECTRIC
Big Big Train are the
most unlikely band to
notch up a Top 40
album in 2019: a British
prog group whose roots
stret
ch back to the late
80s, playing a strain of literate, luxurious
music that was last in fashion when Peter
Gabriel was still a member of Genesis. But
their magisterial twelfth album proved that
there’s still a place in the modern world for
old-fashioned craft and intelligence.
Where their more recent albums were
enveloped in the mists and mythology
of England, Grand Tour looked further
afield: the title referred to the physical and
cultural trans-European journeys taken by
moneyed 19th-century youths, and a sense
of forward motion imbued such musically
rich tracks as Alive and Voyager, the latter
inspired by the endless journey of the
famed space probe of the same name. For
BIG BIG TRAIN belonged to Big Big Train themselves. DE
all that, though, the biggest journey of all

Killer track: Alive

BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN

9 Western Stars COLUMBIA
We caught up with one of the most unlikely – but also one of the Like a living Mount
Rushmore statue, Bruce
most deserving – Top 40-hitters of 2019.
Springsteen carves
Interview: Philip Wilding himself into the rugged
American landscape
n ‘overnight success’ more than 25 years the last album, which is great, that’s another side. on this cinematic
in the making, the seven-piece Big Big We’re finding out more about ourselves as a band, nineteenth album. Ambitiously expanding
ATrain are now not only critical darlings and we’ve been doing this for a long time. his musical vocabulary as he turns 70, The
– something they’ve got used to over the past Boss takes a detour from his native New
few years – but also a band capable of making Many would say that Grand Tour is the band’s best Jersey to the mythic American West of
a commercial splash too. For those who might have and most complete record yet. one-horse towns, rhinestone cowboys,
missed it, this year’s Grand Tour album showcased DL: It’s the best we could do at the time. We try high-plains drifters and lonesome desert
their sublime, pastoral prog rock at its whimsical and do the best with what we’ve got at the time, highways. The widescreen orchestral
best. Full of great songs, it was a showcase for and then it’s all hands on deck, as it will be on the roots-rock arrangements on elegiac tracks
traditional prog reimagined for the modern age. next record. like Tucson Train and There Goes My Miracle
We had a few words with Nick D’Virgilio (drums, pay knowing tribute to the classic
backing vocals, percussion, guitars, keyboards ) and 2019 was also the year in which Big Big Train sumptuous analogue country-pop masters
David Longdon (vocals, flute, keyboards, guitars). finally became a fully functioning live band that like Jimmy Webb, Glen Campbell and
actually tours. Harry Nilsson. A chart-topper in Britain
Chart success, winning awards… 2019 has been DL: We’ve always wanted to go out and do a proper and across the globe, Western Stars is vintage
a good one for you. What was the highlight for you? tour. Getting that together, the logistics of it, it’s autumnal Bruce. SD
Nick D’Virgilio: Winning the Album Of The been a good year for that as well, learning how to Killer track: There Goes My Miracle
Year at the Prog Awards, that was pretty darn cool. do it. Just things like moving the sound-check along
You’re with a lot of folks from the same genre, that for so many people. It’s not like we’re a trio. The STRAY CATS
you’re fans of, and you know that fans vote for that problem with BBT is that there are so many of us in 8 40 SURFDOG
particular award. That was pretty great. the band, and with the crew that’s a lot of mouths Having gone a quarter
David Longdon: Our genre is all about the to feed and people to move around, so if we make of a century without
album, that’s our art form, so to get that and to be mistakes they can be extremely costly. So it’s been
releasing a studio
recognised in that way is a great honour, especially exciting planning all this. album, the reunited
when you consider how much music is out there. NDV: I think what really put us over the top was New York rockabilly
playing NightOf The Prog festival in Loreley in 2018. trio hit middle-age
In a year full of surprises, is there one that stood After something like that, you have to give it a go. without a pinch of flab or even a cursory
out particularly for you? nod to fashion. In uncertain times, it felt
NDV: Having a record in the top forty was a good How do you top a year like 2019? What does 2020 reassuring to be led into Brian Setzer, Lee
surprise. It proved that there was momentum and hold for the band? Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom’s largely
that each record we’re making is getting us a little NDV: They’re coming to the States, headlining fictitious hinterland of jukeboxes and
bit of notoriety. That was a nice surprise. Rosfest in Florida in May, and Ramblin’ Man in July bobbysoxers, as 40’s full-pelt track-listing
DL: And that the music within the band is and then mainland Europe around that. There’ll be took off like a souped-up Ford T-Bird.
diversifying, in terms that Nick’s been writing on US and Canadian dates too. This was a young man’s music – from SIMON HOGG/PRESS
the skittering Gretsch guitar licks to the



38 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

TOP 5


BLUES Bruce Springsteen

ALBUMS

tales of blonde chicks throwing down a man busting open his horizons and
in the diner parking lot – and by rights leaving the old-school blues rock to the
Words: Henry Yates
it should have sounded ridiculous in the white guys in shiny suits. DE
hands of these old stagers. But such was WALTER TROUT Killer track: This Land
the Cats’ exuberance – and undimmed 1 Survivor Blues
virtuosity – that moments like the MASCOT/PROVOGUE RAMMSTEIN
screeching Cat Fight (Over A Dog Like Me) Tracked by the 6 Untitled
and Rock It Off spoke of quiffs, lips, fists reaper-cheating SPINFARM
and crotches, not enlarged prostates. Long bluesman and his 2019 was the year in
may they prowl. HY band, Survivor which Rammstein put
Killer track: Cat Fight (Over A Dog Blues bled with an
on perhaps the most
auth
Like Me) enticity that spectacular outdoor
elevated it above a workaday covers show the rock world
GARY CLARK JR album. On revved-up spins through has ever seen. But while
7 This Land Luther Johnson’s Woman Don’t Lie most bands carving such a fiery path
WARNER BROS and Sunnyland Slim’s horribly through Europe’s stadiums would be
The past few years relevant Be Careful How You Vote, this relying almost entirely on their back
haven’t been short of was the sound of an artist not just catalogue, Rammstein’s latest album was
Trump-centric protest surviving, but flourishing. front and centre. Nobody really seemed
songs, but few have to know if it was untitled or self-titled, but
sounded as incendiary KENNY WAYNE it didn’t seem to matter, because it was
e title track of Gary 2 SHEPHERD peak Rammstein.
as th
Clark Jr’s fifth album. The breathtaking The Traveler MASCOT/PROVOGUE A decade on from Liebe Ist Für Alle
blast of rage found the shapeshifting Texan Da, it was business as usual – and what
drawing inspiration from the fire and fury PP ARNOLD business. Deutschland hammered like
of modern hip-hop artists such as 3 The New Adventures Of… AC/DC on steroids, and was accompanied
Kendrick Lamar, and painting a seething EARMUSIC by a controversial video that brought
picture of what it’s like to be African- some of German history’s bleakest
American in the midst of an unspoken BIG DADDY WILSON moments to harrowing life, while Ausländer
cultural civil war: ‘Fuck you, I’m America’s son, 4 Deep In My Soul RUF thumped like a Eurovision banger and was
this is where I come from.’ The rest of This Land accompanied by a controversial video that
might not be as incendiary, but it was no HENRY’S featured plenty of tits. Never before was
less revolutionary – the Prince homage 5 FUNERAL SHOE such high-concept art presented with such
Pearl Cadillac and Got To Get Into Something’s Smart Phone Rabbit Hole Till Lindemann, glorious, juvenile glee. FL
whooping garage rock were the sound of SELF-RELEASED Rammstein Killer track: Was Ich Liebe



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 39

BLACK STAR RIDERS
The Who
3 Another State Of Grace
NUCLEAR BLAST
“We wanted to make
a big, anthemic-
sounding record,”
said frontman Ricky
Warwick. “High-energy
’n’roll.” Another
rock
State Of Grace has all of that and more.
For their fourth album, Black Star
Riders had two new members making
their debut with the band, guitarist
Christian Martucci and drummer
Chad Szeliga, and a new producer, Jay
Ruston, who had mixed two previous
BSR albums. While some songs, notably
Tonight The Moonlight Let Me Down, have
echoes of Thin Lizzy – the band from
which Black Star Riders were born,
and in which guitarist Scott Gorham
starred in their glory days – there are new
sounds and ideas on this album: a flavour
of Americana in What Will It Take?,
a powerful protest song in Why Do You
Love Your Guns?. As Warwick put it: “The
Lizzy connection will always be there,
but this band stands on its own.” PE
Killer track: Why Do You Love Your Guns?

THE DARKNESS
2 aster Is Cancelled
E
COOKING VINYL
The Darkness don’t
make bad albums,
but for most of the
noughties their releases
haven’t quite equalled
the s
um of their
THE WHO RIVAL SONS spandex-clad parts. Easter Is Cancelled is
F
5 Who 4 eral Roots different. It’s an album that starts off good
POLYDOR The Who’s first album ATLANTIC Moving quickly past and gets better, an album of such
the teeth-grindingly whole thing live on tour. Such an approach
consistency that the band are playing the
in 13 years gives every
indication that it marks
disturbing (if
is normally a recipe for disgruntlement,
captivating) artwork
the last time Pete
but this record is different. Nine months
in the making, it’s a many-headed beast
– the little creatures
Townshend will address
the band’s constituency.
of th
e forest, weaned
of rock’n’roll’s glorious past – Queen,
Despite the personal nature of his lyrics, on the lactations of an apparently rabid of a collection, consuming a vast swathe
Townshend soundtracks lives, and Who dog – Rival Sons’ sixth full-length album AC/DC, Boston, the rest – and spitting it
finds My Generation’s central protagonist ups the ante on previous out in a denim ’n’ leather, glitter-dusted
a half-century older, yet still raging. accomplishments with a widescreen smorgasbord of thumping riffs and
Opening statement All This Music Will Fade range of bluesy balladry and swinging whip-smart songwriting nous. From the
tempers righteous fury with reluctant riffs. Titled after the band’s literal effervescent glee of Heart Explodes to the
resignation. Roger Daltrey remains roots-ward move (straight out of the peculiar vaudeville of Deck Chair and
Townshend’s perfect mouthpiece, still Led Zep III Bron-Yr-Aur playbook) to the jubilant Live ’Til I Die, it’s funny,
bringing bullish pugnaciousness to pastoral Tennessee, this ruralism informs it’s exuberant and it’s brilliantly
existential angst. You approach Rockin’ In much of the album, not least the performed. Those who struggle
Rage expecting swagger, but find astonishing run of five tracks at its core. with Justin Hawkins’s voice aren’t
Townshend feeling ‘like a leper… too old to From Look Away through to Imperial Joy, going to be swayed by Easter Is
fight’. Who works as a two-way mirror, rarely has such a rich quintet nestled so Cancelled, but for those who
reflecting Townshend’s specific situation comfortably together: the open-tuned truly love the band it’s
(a spokesman for his generation facing acoustic start of the former a reminder of how buoyant
feelings of irrelevance and abandonment) culminating in the euphoric gospel rock’n’roll can be in The
and that of the ageing ‘kids’ (for whom he’s of the latter. And while it’s Darkness’s hands. And
always spoken), no longer simply ‘alright’, tempting to view the whole as it’s not far off being the
but ‘grey’ and ‘afraid’. Offering way more a marker to the new kids in best thing they’ve
than Who-by-numbers, Who is relevant, town (you know who), ever done. FL
honest and essential. IF resist, and savour. TB Justin Hawkins, Killer track:
Killer track: All This Music Will Fade Killer track: Feral Roots The Darkness Live ’Til I Die



40 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

THE

WILDHEARTS














he Wildhearts’ comeback album hadn’t burned this brightly since the mid-90s.
is not just impossibly good, They clearly felt it too. The theme-setting title
by rights it should have been track may be the third in sequence on this album,
impossible. In reviving a sound but there’s no doubt it sums up the mood in the
T that they first nailed nearly 30 band. ‘You can’t keep a good band down,’ they sing on
years ago, Ginger, CJ, Ritch and Danny managed Renaissance Men the title track. ‘We’re gonna make you sing if anyone
to defy nature’s laws, and certainly musical can, we’ll rock you like a boomerang.’
ones. The old rules of rock’n’roll – or at least GRAPHITE As that suggests, crucially, the mixture of
the vital, punk-infused variety The Wildhearts pithy humour and prickly lyrics we always loved
traded in – dictated that middle-aged men them for is really fizzing on this album, matched
couldn’t continue to make young persons’ by some breathless playing. The overwhelming
music without making embarrassing arses of energy assault of My Kinda Movie – particularly
themselves, and if they had any dignity they in Ritch’s relentlessly intense drumming and
should shuffle off into MOR irrelevance. a superb twanging guitar riff – offsets a lyric full
Gaps between albums of a decade don’t usually of great lines: ‘If this was on video I’d get my money
help, and nor, in theory, does rehiring your old back/Pirate this on VHS and spend the rest on crack,’
bass player despite the fact that he’s recently had Ginger sneers, in another telling reference to the
a leg amputated. Sentiment is all very well and history of this star-crossed foot-shooter of a band.
admirable, but it rarely makes for the kind of For the most part, though, it’s an unflinchingly
fired-up, splenetic, wasp-up-your-trouser-leg rock heartfelt set of songs, with not a single word
racket The Wildhearts are known for. And at their minced or muted. The musings on racism and
age they should know better. But as rock’n’roll homophobia firing My Side Of The Bed might be
itself becomes an art form old enough to claim older and wiser, but it’s full of uncompromising
its free bus pass, there are an increasing number lines such as ‘Don’t take the easy thoroughfare, you
of artists bucking the old trends and raging as know that it’s full of cunts down there.’ Meanwhile, the
hard as ever against the dying of the light. Indeed Pistols-y thunder of Diagnosis is a thrillingly life-
there’s a very seductive theory that the people The life-affirming qualities of this record must affirming riposte to the dose-now-ask-questions-
who manage to stay relevant into their dotage have something to do with restoring a line-up later approach to mental health Ginger targets
– your Dylans, Youngs, Wellers even – tend to that imbued this band with more confidence in the lyrics. One of the strongest songs of all is
be the curmudgeonly old fuckers who seem to and vitality than they’ve shown on record for the CJ-written Little Flower, a robustly romantic
still have some eternal itch to scratch. Ginger years. We can’t really call it a comeback, given singalong that could have graced any hard rock
Wildheart could fit into that mould pretty snugly, the amount of temporary re-formations and album of the past 40 years.
even if he’d doubtless rankle at any attempt to one-off gigs The Wildhearts have gone through, All of which made this a runaway winner of
rope him into a gang. but the reconvening of the nearest this band gets Clasic Rock’s 2019 Album Of The Year Poll. Vive
But there’s definitely something more than to a classic line-up – Ginger, CJ, Danny and Ritch la renaissance! JS
just one man’s demons firing up Renaissance Men. – seemed to rekindle a spark in the studio which Killer track: The Renaissance Men





CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 41

ALL HAIL THE






RENAISSANCE MEN!












Given a career in which they've constantly hit the self-destruct button, it’s surprising that
The Wildhearts are still here. Not only that, they've also released the best album of the year.

Words: Dave Everley Photo: Will Ireland





42 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

s the first decade of the current there’s a lot of people who haven’t been let down
Renaissance men: (l-r) millennium ended, so did The by the band. A lot of people consider it’s a career
Ginger, Danny McCormack, Wildhearts. This shouldn’t have worth following. Like, The Damned, Mötorhead,
CJ, Ritch Battersby. been a surprise to anyone who Ramones, I never gave up on those bands.”

A had followed the band for the first It’s half-one in the afternoon and the singer is
20 years of their career. A group for whom still in bed, drinking an Irish coffee. His daughter,
volatility was as natural as breathing, they had split the singer Jazmin Bean, has just put out a new
up many times before, sometimes for weeks, single, Saccharine. “It’s got over 400,000 views on
sometimes for years. YouTube,” he says with a father’s pride. “That’s
But this was different. It was final. Their most more than any single I’ve ever made. I’m glad I was
recent album at the time, the anaemic Chutzpah!, useful for something, even if it’s just my sperm.”
had come and gone with a whimper – a far cry I talk to CJ a few days earlier. The guitarist is
from the fuck-the-world roar of their audacious, in the basement of his flat in Harrogate, North
brilliant 1993 debut Earth Vs The Wildhearts and Yorkshire. The sump pump broke just before
its follow-up PHUQ. Their latest tour had ended The Wildhearts embarked on their most recent
three days before Christmas 2009 with an tour, and the flat was flooded, causing a couple of
undersold gig at London’s 800-capacity Islington thousand pounds’ worth of damage. “I was up all
Academy. They had reached the end of the road, night bailing out water,” he says, sounding more
broke, demoralised and ultimately kaput. “The chipper than a man who had to chuck out a load
Wildhearts was over,” frontman Ginger says now. of ruined carpets should.
“So I got on with loads of other things.” Irish coffee and soggy carpets is the story of
Guitarist CJ, who co-founded the band with The Wildhearts right there. Their whole career
Ginger in 1989, went even further. He didn’t just has been a patchwork of glorious hedonism and
quit The Wildhearts, he also quit music. He ended inglorious pathos. The Hollywood pitch would be
up “running a couple of cleaning crews”, clearing 24 Hour Party People-meets-Carry On Camping.
the houses of hoarders and taking care of the But the second half of this decade has brought
aftermath of suicides. “I earned some unlikely stability,
more doing that than I did something that has intensified
in The Wildhearts,” he with Renaissance Men. Their first
says wryly. “Our ability to studio album since the ill-fated
Ginger and CJ might hold a grudge Chutzpah! a decade ago, it's not
have been done with just the artistic high-water mark
The Wildhearts, but was f**king of this umpteenth act of their
The Wildhearts wasn’t career, but the commercial
done with Ginger and Olympic. But we one too. When it was released
CJ. Two years later they got together early this summer it reached
were back together. No.11 in the UK chart, their
Now, a full decade again and said, highest position since PHUQ.
on and several more ‘Why the f**k According to Ginger, it would
corkscrew turns along have gone higher, except the
the roller-coaster that did we fall out?’” label didn’t press enough
is their career, they physical copies.
have reclaimed their Ginger “We ran out of CDs,” he says.
crown as the greatest “We were doing signings all over
British rock’n’roll band of the modern the country in HMVs and there were no copies
era. Their new studio album, this year’s of the record. It would have gone a lot higher had
Renaissance Men, is the first to feature the anyone cared. I didn’t.”
classic Wildhearts line-up of Ginger, CJ, Ginger and CJ agree that they could never have
drummer Ritch Battersby and long-absent made this album earlier in the decade. They know
bassist Danny McCormack since 1995. More this because they tried, sometime around 2017.
importantly, it’s the most exhilarating and “We got around to booking studio time, we
brilliant album of 2019, and one that could go toe- had a producer, but we never turned up,” says
to-toe with their own early-90s peaks and come CJ. “Me and Ginger had a big falling out in Japan
out triumphant. and we didn’t talk to each other for four months.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised about all this, cos we never This happens a lot in The Wildhearts, obviously.
thought we’d still be alive,” says Ginger. “But put it “Oh yeah, we routinely fall out. It’s nothing new.
this way: I’m fucking delighted we are.” There’s always going to be drama with us.”
The spark that lit the touchpaper that fired
he resurrection of The Wildhearts is only Renaissance Men into life was the return of Danny
unexpected if you haven’t paid any McCormack in 2018. The bassist last played in
Tattention to the previous 29 years of their The Wildhearts in 2005; the interim years had
career. Still, it’s a cause for celebration, even though seen him battle heroin addiction and endure the
the wider world will do what it has always done amputation of his leg following a brain aneurysm.
and ignore them completely. But rock’n’roll needs McCormack’s first show back with the band
bands like them: crazy, passionate, mercurial, was at a 2018 benefit show for one his own
always a Rizla’s breath away from flying off the replacements, American bassist Scott Sorry, who
rails, punching each other out, or serving up the was undergoing treatment for a brain tumour.
greatest anthem you’ll ever hear. In rehearsal, Danny told CJ and drummer Ritch
“There’s always a few people always waiting Battersby he needed a quiet word.
for the car crash,“ Ginger says today. “But then CJ recalled: “He said: ‘I’ve been shitting



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 43

sabotage reached a pinnacle with 1997’s barely
listenable Endless Nameless, an album which was
essentially the sound of a band on every single
drug ever invented, shouting: “Fuck the world!”
over the noise made by a sheet-metal factory as
it gets sucked into a black hole. It was the first
of many tipping points for The Wildhearts.
Everything they’d built suddenly vanished, and
on the back of it they fell apart for the first, if not
final, time. Naturally, Endless Nameless is Ginger’s
favourite album.
“Fuck it,” he says in response to the question of
whether he would have done anything different at
any point to make life easier and maybe stack the
decks in The Wildhearts’ favour. “We are the way
we are. Getting us to change anything, you might
as well go and look at a fucking brick wall and wish
it wasn’t there.”
“If we’d have taken a different path we’d have
sounded like most other bands in their fifties
sound: dull, quiet, safe, tame,” says CJ. “Renaissance
Men would probably have been a blues album.
We’re still an aggressive band. And me and Ginge
can jump higher on stage than most of the kids
out there.”


o one would have ever put money on The
CJ and Ginger: never Wildhearts entering their fourth decade
far from a fall-out… Nin the disconcertingly healthy state they’re
then a make-up. in, especially not The Wildhearts themselves. But
here we are, on the verge of the 2020s, and this
this for weeks, so nervous. You guys are quite he Wildhearts’ resurgence was perfectly bunch of middle-aged malcontents, fuck-ups, and
intimidating, and I haven’t been in this room for timed. Renaissance Men came out on the ex-junkies aren’t just back in the ring, they’ve
fifteen years.’ I just went: ‘Man, don’t worry about T30th anniversary of the band’s formation. swung from rock’n’roll casualties to folk heroes.
it.’ And it was brilliant.” Back then, Ginger was newly fired from rock’n’roll There’s talk of a book at some point in the
The reunion with their wayward bassist soon barflies the Quireboys, while CJ was going future, recounting the litany of triumphs and
shifted from temporary to permanent. Without nowhere fast in London sleaze-metal makeweights transgressions. Ginger is excited by the prospect.
him, Renaissance Men would not have happened. the Tattooed Love Boys. Together the pair cooked “I’d read it,” he says. “Mainly cos I can’t remember
“It just didn’t feel right until Danny came back,” up a plan to form a band that existed in the middle most of what happened.”
says CJ. “It’s the sound he makes. No disrespect of an unlikely Venn diagram where Metallica, The Then there’s the follow-up to Renaissance Men.
to anyone else who’s been in this band, but he Beatles, Cheap Trick and The Clash all intersected. Ginger has already written three songs for it.
has a tone that nobody else does. It’s his fingers. They lived up to that promise, at least initially. “Heavy as fuck and pissed off,” is how he describes
They’re like sausages. A bit filthier, though. I The Wildhearts sounded like everything and them. This time around, he’s instructed the others
wouldn’t eat them, cos I know where they’ve been.” nothing that had come before them at the same to bring five songs each of their own to the table.
“We were worried about time, a gigantic detonation of “That’s never happened before, because they’re
him,” says Ginger. “The shape noise and attitude. Even now, historically lazy bastards,” he says. “But I want
he was in… he had no leg, Earth Vs The Wildhearts (reissued everyone singing on the next album, so there’s
barely any teeth. But he fucking “We’re still an this year on vinyl for the very going to be different lead vocals.”
shone. He did the charity gig aggressive band. first time) still sounds like Only time will tell if this transpires. Past
sitting down. But now he plays a work of mad genius. history suggests it could all go wrong in the most
standing up, with a prosthetic And me and The Wildhearts were spectacular fashion. But right now the members of
leg. He’s often in agony. I can Ginge can jump sonic warriors and chemical The Wildhearts are enjoying being The Wildhearts
tell it in his face, but the crowd dustbins, spiral-eyed devils more than they have in a long time.
can’t. I’m proud of him, how higher on stage stomping where angels feared “After thirty years, we’re still making albums
far he’s come. So proud.” to tread. They would drink, that some people really fucking give a shit about,”
For Ginger there was extra than most of the snort and inject everything that says CJ. “That’s the cherry on the top for me.”
poignancy to McCormack’s kids out there.” was put in front of them, while “If it all goes this well and we behave well to each
return. The relationship praising the gods of rock’n’roll; other, we’ll be doing this until we die,” says Ginger.
between the two was non- a living, breathing, brawling “Lemmy was playing bass up until he went, Willie
CJ
existent for all the time the myth in action. Sometimes the Nelson’s still out there doing it. I love the idea
bassist was absent. “Our ability to hold a grudge pendulum swung too far in the wrong direction. of being an old fuck on stage making a massive
was fucking Olympic,” says Ginger. “But we got Or maybe it was the right direction, depending on racket. And I love the idea of being an old fuck on
together again and said: ‘Why the fuck did we fall what you want from rock’n’roll. stage with these three guys. No one in this band
out?’ All I could remember was how much history “There was a time when the partying and the is going anywhere. Otherwise there’s no point in
I’ve got with the guy, the ridiculous things we’ve drinking and the drugs took over,” says CJ, who doing it.”
been through.” was fired during the sessions for PHUQ after one It’s tempting to say long may this continue. But
CJ suggests that the rekindled friendship is bust-up too many. “But most bands have the this is The Wildhearts we’re talking about. Only
indicative of a deeper shift. “I think Ginger realises same story.” a fool would take a guess at what the future holds
after all these years that he’s got some good They do, but few have The Wildhearts’ capacity for them. But whatever it does, it’ll be way crazier KEVIN NIXON
relationships within this band.” for hitting the self-destruct button. That self- than every other band’s future.



44 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



He never got a proper job, much to his mum’s chagrin. Instead the songwriter, singer and multi-

instrumentalist can look back at a long and hugely successful rock’n’roll career. One that has seen
him lead ELO, work with The Beatles, be in a band with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty and so much more.


Interview: Rob Hughes

“ was worried that there weren’t enough Out Of Nowhere, is essentially a one-man
operation. It’s a sumptuous addition to his
people who knew about us,” says Jeff
Lynne, explaining his anxiety over
reviving ELO to headline at an all-day extensive recorded catalogue, bursting with
semi-symphonic goodness and melodies to melt
I festival in London’s Hyde Park in the stoniest of hearts.
September 2014. “We took a big chance. The “Chords are my favourite thing, really,” Lynne
crowd could’ve gone home any time, they didn’t enthuses. “There aren’t many left, but I still keep
have to wait around for us at the end. But it was still stumbling across little strange quirky ones and big
full. I remember looking through a little gap in the fat juicy ones. Finding them is so much fun.”
curtain and going: ‘They’re still here!’”
Of course they were. The festival was a sell-out, What’s the story behind From Out Of Nowhere?
shifting its full quota of 50,000 tickets in just The title track just literally came from out of
a quarter of an hour. It seems ridiculous that one nowhere. It was the first tune I sat down to write,
of the most bankable stars of all-time ever doubted and nearly all the chords came to me at the first
he still had an audience. But then Jeff Lynne isn’t sitting. And that’s really how the whole album
your typical rock star. Modest and self-effacing, it’s came around. I wanted to put some kind of
difficult to equate the soft-spoken 71-year-old optimism in there too. It’s a reaction to the way
– his Brummie accent still intact despite living in things are in the world at the moment; it’s a very
Los Angeles for many years – with his status as the upside-down situation. At the same time, I didn’t
head of ELO, with record sales of well over 50 want to get into politics whatsoever.
million and counting. Indeed, from 1972 until
Jeff Lynne in the Idle
their original dissolution in 1986, ELO scored Race, circa 1968. One of the new songs, Time Of Our Life, is
more transatlantic Top 40 hits than any other about ELO’s Wembley Stadium show in 2017.
band on the planet. It’s like a diary of the Wembley show, which turned
There’s more to Lynne than just ELO, of course. out to be absolutely fantastic, because I was still
Since emerging with the Idle Race in the late 60s, projects and 1995’s Anthology, for which Lynne worried about trying to fill up these great big
the singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist oversaw a fresh version of John Lennon’s ‘lost’ places. But there they all were. I’d played there
has passed through The Move, co-founded demo Free As A Bird. with ELO once before, about thirty-odd years
supergroup the Traveling Wilburys (with Bob Although Lynne re-formed his old band for ago [in July 1986, supporting Rod Stewart], but
Dylan, George Harrison, Tom Petty and Roy that Hyde Park show and beyond, the studio I’d never done it as top of the bill. Everyone seemed
Orbison) and produced a host of A-listers, remains his preferred environment. Nowadays to be having a fabulous time. It was just
including the three remaining Beatles, both on solo billed as Jeff Lynne’s ELO, their latest album, From a marvellous experience. GETTY

46 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

JOSEPH CULTICE/PRESS







CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 47

JEFF LYNNE













































The Idle Race, circa 1968: (l-r) Bev Bevan, Roy Wood
Roger Spencer, Jeff Lynne, Dave ELO in 1975: (clockwise from left) and Jeff Lynne in
Pritchard, Greg Masters. Melvyn Gale, Bev Bevan, Jeff Lynne, The Move in 1970.
Mik Kaminsky, Colin Walker, Richard
Tandy, Kelly Groucutt.
Some of the songs on From Out at the age of eighteen. It wasn’t long
Of Nowhere have a wistful before we changed our name to the
quality to them, such as All My Idle Race.
Love and Down Came The Rain.
Do you find yourself looking How high were your ambitions
back more nowadays? in the Idle Race?
I think I always have done, actually, I probably would’ve been happy
even in the early days when I had enough just playing club gigs in
nothing to look back at. It was just Birmingham. There were so many
the old-fashioned music that I used of them that you could play
to hear my dad playing on his a month straight without repeating
record player or on the radio. I don’t yourself. You’d play every night of
really dwell on the past, but I try to the week and, for a couple of years,
make a certain type of music that every night of the year. It was
encompasses chord changes that feel a great experience and a great way
almost classical. Great songs by to learn. Then I started writing my
[musical theatre composer of the 1920s/30s/40s] Absolutely. There was nothing I wanted to do in own stuff, and it just developed from there.
Richard Rodgers, for example. I could never the work field, but I did work in a few offices. I had
understand them as a kid, because there was so about fourteen jobs in two and a half years. Some When did your Beatles’ fandom begin?
much going on in terms of arrangements, but of them lasted less than four hours. One job was as Right from the start. Please Please Me turned me on
I wanted to be able to play some of those changes. a window dresser in this big department store, to them and I became a really great fan. I’ve had
Hearing two chords joined together, ones that really which I got through the youth employment office. lots of luck when it comes to The Beatles. When
want to be there, is just a beautiful sensation. I was only fifteen or sixteen at the time. You had to I was recording with the Idle Race in London in
put these dusters on your feet and go into the 1968, a friend of our engineer phoned the studio to
Were you influenced by your dad’s taste window at C&A in Birmingham. I was thinking: say he was working on a Beatles session at Abbey
in music “What if one of my mates comes past?!” Road. He told us we could go down there to have
His favourite composers were I lasted until noon, then I snuck out a look if we wanted. Maybe it was only me who
classical. He couldn’t read or write the back way. I never went back. went in the end, but I saw Paul and Ringo in Studio
music, but he used to be able to There were lots of other silly 3, doing a piano and vocal. Then I got invited into
play Chopin on the piano with jobs as well, some of them very Studio 2, where John and George were in the
one finger. My dad didn’t nice and some were grim. But control room. Down below, in the actual studio,
encourage me that much, you have to go through it. George Martin was hurling himself around this
but he bought me my first Then I got a phone call pedestal, conducting the string section for Glass
guitar for two pounds, so from [singer/drummer] Onion. I was blown away. Nobody had heard it yet,
I had a good initiation, Roger Spencer of The but there I was in Abbey Road, actually listening to
until my fingers bled. Then Nightriders. I went for the it being made. I stayed for maybe half an hour, then
I got him to sign the papers audition, got the job, and I thought it would be polite to leave, because you
on an electric Burns Sonic I was a professional musician feel a bit of a dick in that company. So I went back
and a ten-watt amp.


Growing up in post-war TOP: GETTY x3; BOTTOM: JOSEPH CULTICE/PRESS
Birmingham, the job “ELO seemed like such a strange
prospects were group, with two cellos, a violin,
slim. Was music
an escape? Mellotron and a French horn.”

48 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

ELO on children’s TV
show Supersonic in 1975.







“My mum hated me

doing music. She’d go:

‘There’s a job going at
ATV for a cameraman.’

I’d already had about

three hits by that point!”



of French horn. It was just an odd sound. The first
tour was supporting Deep Purple, which you
wouldn’t think would be a good match, but we
went down great. So we started touring America
on our own and it just gradually built up from
there. I think the biggest one was in Cleveland, in
front of about sixty thousand people.


The following year’s Mr. Blue Sky is one of
Lynne with your most enduring songs. Among other
ELO circa 1979. things, it became Birmingham FC’s unofficial
anthem, and it’s been used as a wake-up call to
to where the Idle Race were recording and, of There’s a story about Beatles producer astronauts on NASA missions. Which of
course, it didn’t sound quite so good. George Martin popping in to listen to ELO those two are you most proud of?
recording Roll Over Beethoven at AIR Studios [Laughing] Being a Blues fan, it’s got to be
Was joining The Move a stepping stone to ELO in 1972. Birmingham. I’m just kidding. Obviously the idea
for you? He was doing Paul’s Live And Let Die in the studio that it’s been used to wake up spacemen is amazing,
The Move weren’t as famous as they used to be next door, so he came in and gave Roll just the fact that someone sent
when I joined. It was okay, but we didn’t really do Over Beethoven a thumbs-up. He actually my tune up there.
anything good or play anywhere other than little sat and listened intently to it all the way
clubs. We joined to make ELO. That’s what Roy through, because it was a bit of Does the idea of that kind of
[Wood] and I were attempting to do. But it didn’t a strange arrangement with all those extensive reach blow your
work out, and Roy left after less than a year after classical things in there. It was a great mind sometimes?
we’d started ELO. The gigs were a real mess; you experience, and I got to know him It makes me feel good about
couldn’t hear the cellos, because they only had a little bit then. the music I’ve made. I didn’t
microphones for the string instruments at that ever get a proper job, I just
time, rather than pick-ups. I don’t know what it ELO’s 1976 album A New carried on doing this. My mum
sounded like for people in the audience, but it World Record was a massive hated me doing music. She’d go:
didn’t sound particularly good from where I was international hit. Was that “You don’t want to do that all rubbish.
standing. I’m still friends with Roy and I see him the turning point for ELO? There’s a job going at ATV for
every now and again, every time we play I think it was. Just prior to that, a cameraman.” I’d already had about
Birmingham or wherever. we’d had two really big hits three hits by that point!
with Evil Woman and Strange
Many of those great early ELO songs, like Magic, both from Face The Music Presumably your mum changed
Showdown, were written in your parents’ [1975]. We’d got a different her mind after a while.
front room, right? line-up together and started Yeah – when I bought my parents
True. I had a studio in the front room at that point, doing these American tours, which a house. That’s when she changed
where I’d record those old ELO tunes. It was right turned out amazingly well. We a bit, but not that much. She wasn’t
by the bus route, so I used to get these giant buses seemed like such a strange group that kind about the music, and really
GETTY x2 rumbling through my demos. Then I’d send them for an American audience, with two disliked my falsetto, when I used to
do high screamy ones. It would
off to the record company.
cellos, a violin, Mellotron and a bit
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 49

Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne, with George’s son
Dhani Harrison, at the Rock And Roll Hall Of
Fame Induction Ceremony in 2017.
Top: Lynne and George Martin in 1995.
The Traveling Wilburys in
1988: (l-r) Roy Orbison,
Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, of humour. After a couple of weeks of recording,
George Harrison, Tom Petty. he turned to me and said: “Y’know what? Me and
you should have a group.” I thought it was a great
idea, and asked him who we should have in it. He
went: “Bob Dylan”. So I said: “Right, can we have
“The idea that Mr. Blue Sky has been used to Roy Orbison, then?” George said: “Of course. I love
Roy.” All we had to do was ask. And they all
wake up spacemen is amazing. Just the fact wanted to be in it, so suddenly we had the whole

that someone sent my tune up there.” Traveling Wilburys.

It sounds like your transition into the
drive her nuts: “Stop that ’orrible screeching!” That holiday? How about Australia?” This was in late Wilburys happened very smoothly.
was when I had the studio in the front room. 1986. We got to be good pals on that trip. I think he It was so easy it was unbelievable. Everybody said
just wanted to know that we were going to get yes immediately, without even questioning it. Roy
When you initially wound up ELO in 1986, along. He’d had enough animosity in the past. was thrilled to bits, and I then got to be pals with
did you think that was it for good? When we got back, the whole of England was him. He’d moved to Malibu, just a few miles up the
Kind of. I just wanted to start producing other frozen solid. George and I started to make these road from where I lived, and called me one day:
people. I started with George [Harrison], then tracks, and I co-wrote a few with him [including “Hi Jeff, it’s Roy. I’m ready to work!” We’d already
I ended up producing Paul [McCartney] and after When We Was Fab]. It was just fabulous fun. discussed me working on a few tracks with him
that the two Anthology Beatles tracks, which were [for 1989’s posthumously released Mystery Girl],
John’s two singles. Apart from the music, what was the secret of and the Wilburys came about during that.
your relationship with George?
How did you come to produce We just got on really well and had the same sense In the late eighties and early nineties you also
George Harrison? produced Duane Eddy, Brian
George was looking for me to work Wilson, Ringo Starr and
with him on Cloud Nine [1987]. another major influence from
Dave Edmunds relayed the your formative years, Del
message to me, and then actually Shannon. At that time did it
drove me round to George’s house. feel like everything was coming
It was like a giant palace, an full circle?
amazing place – and kind of scary I just couldn’t believe that these
when you’re going in to meet one people were now my mates. I’d
of The Beatles for the first time. looked up to people like Roy and
We went for a row around the Del Shannon, so to suddenly have TRAVELING WILBURYS: NEAL PRESTON/PRESS; TOP: GETTY x2; BOTTOM: CAMERA PRESS
tunnels underneath the gardens, them as friends, laughing and
these lovely little canals that you having a great time with them, was
could paddle down, then we just fantastic. And then to write
went into the studio and George songs with them. It was more than
played me some of the stuff he I could ever imagine. They were all
was working on. He said: “Before wonderful, it’s just a shame that
Lynne and George Harrison at
we start, do you fancy going on the Hollywood Palace in 1987 they had to go [Orbison died in
after a Dave Edmunds concert.
50 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM