Classic Rock (January 2020)

JEFF LYNNE


























































ELO headlining BBC Radio 2 Live
In The Park in London’s Hyde
Park on September 14, 2014.





“I think I’m most proud of the fact that

I’m still out there doing it. I haven’t packed

it in yet, because I still love it.”



1988, Shannon in 1990]. But I’ve got so many actually got a recording of him
photos of us together, and the film footage of them saying that. He was a guest DJ on
with me, so it’s always nice to look back now and an American radio show in New
then, just to remind myself of what a lucky bugger York, and he said: “Nice little
I’ve been. group, these. I love this group.” He
got talking about Showdown, and
Was it inevitable that the remaining three said: “I thought this would be
Beatles would turn to you when they needed Number One, but [label] United
someone to co-produce the first two volumes Artists never got their fingers out.”
of the Anthology series in the mid-nineties? It was fantastic.
I’m not sure. Obviously George, Paul and Ringo
were the ones who had to make their minds up. What prompted you to revive ELO in the Maybe. With some of the songs it might just be
Because George and I had already worked together, early noughties? one little tiny thing – maybe the strings could’ve
I think Paul was a bit wary of me. He might have I suppose I was thinking along the lines of: “I’ve been a bit louder or maybe the snare’s too loud,
thought that I’d be in George’s camp and that done it all now. Where can I go from here? I’ve whatever. There’s always a bit of that on every
I would favour whatever he said. But it was never been in the Wilburys and I’ve produced The record I’ve ever made, except for the new one.
going to be like that. They’re all Beatles to me, and Beatles. I might as well do bleedin’ ELO again.” There’s nothing on there that I’ve heard – yet
I wanted to do my best to make it a record that they – that’s made me wince.
were all pleased with. I was staying in a cottage in Would you say you’re a perfectionist at heart?
Paul’s grounds during the recording of Free As A Bird In 2012 you re-recorded the old ELO hits at Looking back at it all, is there something
and Real Love, with George in another part of the home, because you didn’t think the originals you’re most proud of?
house. Every morning he’d shout up: “C’mon, ya were quite good enough. I think I’m most proud of the fact
lazy bugger! Your porridge is ready!” Then it was off I am really a perfectionist, but that I’m still out there doing it.
MAIN: GETTY; INSET: JOSEPH CULTICE/PRESS John Lennon once said that had The [laughs]. It’s never as perfect as I still love it. You can’t ask for more
maybe not a very good one
I haven’t packed it in yet, because
to work on the new Beatles record. It was surreal.
than that.
I would imagine. I try to be one, but
I can never quite get it right.
Beatles carried on, they would have
Jeff Lynne’s ELO’s new album
sounded like ELO. That must have felt like
From Out Of Nowhere is out
a huge compliment?
So you’re never satisfied with
now via Sony.
Oh yeah. I was shocked when he said it. I’ve
your finished product?
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 51

“WE SMELL



A LOT BETTER








THAN WE DID



TEN YEARS AGO”










We collar Rival Sons’ sharp-dressed Jay Buchanan and Scott Holiday to talk about the

last decade, fashion, latest album Feral Roots and playing ballads at metal festivals.

Interview: Polly Glass

ival Sons guitarist Scott Holiday’s Rival Sons have been a hard-touring band for just way we did it, where we got out and away from
handlebar moustache – part Poirot, over ten years now. How does this way of life sit everything, staying up late, really sharing ideas, it
part Captain Hook – is impressive. with you? felt like a really great reset. We talked about what
It’s fair to say it’s made him one of SH: We love this lifestyle. It’s what we’re made for. we had done, and not wanting to repeat ourselves.
R rock’s more recognisable figures. It’s what we do, and if we don’t do it we feel strange. JB: We were resetting, establishing whatever
The Ray Brown suits and striking Gibson Firebird It was ‘us’, I think, since we were teenagers, and it’s we were doing. This whole thing is a different
guitars also help. grown and grown, and we’re getting to focus our journey. So we went out there and we didn’t have
Jay Buchanan joins us looking similarly chic statement, and the whole thing is just becoming wifi, we didn’t have cellphone service. We’re
in a long coat and matching boots. The singer very friendly. It feels like your favourite coat. I can’t both very busy, we’re very bossy people, so for
delights in customising clothes from high-end have it any other way and I never want it to end. us to come together, just us, and sitting there
designers, although years of dues paying in rock’s JB: I was talking to my wife last night, and I said: philosophising about whatever. It’s not as if we
underworld mean he’s relaxed in today’s grungier “Y’know, I have to say this is probably the best job uncovered a bunch of answers, it was just setting
settings while the Record Company (Rival Sons’ I could ever think of.” Are the shows physically the tone for what the next six or seven months
support tonight at London’s Brixton Academy) taxing? Yes. I walk off stage completely exhausted would be.
sound-check downstairs. and I’m ready to lay down for a couple of hours.
To put it simply, Rival Sons put rock’n’roll back It’s extremely draining, but it’s so fun! I can’t At the start of the decade, Rival Sons were in the
on the map at the start of a decade that seemed complain about how hard it is, because people minority in terms of new classic rock-inspired
to have forgotten it. Since then they’ve rekindled pay to come and watch us dick around on stage bands. Since then things have changed considerably.
classic rock fans’ passion for new music, and raked and have fun. JB: When we first came over here we definitely felt
in fans from younger generations. the minority status. And signing
Most recently they were signed to Earache Records, when we
to Atlantic Records for this year’s came over here they were using
game-raising Feral Roots. “I can’t complain about how hard it is, all the assets that they could to
because people pay to come and watch try and break us, but all of those
How do your pre-show habits today assets were metal, because we
compare to those of ten years ago? us dick around on stage and have fun.” were their first non-metal signing.
Jay Buchanan: I’ve never really So they were trying to figure out
been one to warm up vocally, Jay Buchanan what to do with us.
except for maybe screaming SH: They put us on tour with Judas
a couple of times before I go on stage. Back in When it came to writing Feral Roots, you took Priest. That was our first UK and European tour!
those days we didn’t have any room, we didn’t your first proper pause from touring since the band JB: And we did a whole bunch of metal festivals
have much of a rider and we were in a van. Most began. What did you glean from that time? and we were thrust into the metal world and
of the time with the gruelling touring schedule SH: We were busy the whole time. We got some thinking: “How do we fit? I don’t know, but we’re in
we had, you’re just trying to stay alive and things in order, but we were writing, we were in front of people so let’s keep going…”
doing whatever you have to do to make sure the the studio recording. More than gleaning, we were SH: We were playing ballads at Hellfest… We
show didn’t suffer. A lot of long drives, a lot of preparing to come back out. realised that fans of extremely heavy metal music
unnecessary hangovers… JB: What Scott says is very true. And also just are the most loyal and the most wonderful fans,
Scott Holiday: And just focusing our heart and getting that time at home and not being on the they’re just really great people. Once they adopt
energy into the show. In a way it’s not that different road, because, believe me, we stayed very busy. It you, you’re in with them. And a lot of those people
now, but our pre-show rituals are different; we had was constant, every day. It was writing all night, who like heavy music are our fans.
a meet-and-greet earlier, we have a photoshoot every night, for months on end.
after this. It’s much more structured. For a generation of rock fans who thought they
JB: And we smell a lot better than we did ten years You went off to a cabin in the woods to work on the were ‘done’ with new music, you made them excited
ago. We’ve both had showers and our clothes aren’t record. What was that like? about it again.
dirty. So that’s a big difference. SH: I think that the lake and the setting and the SH: For us it was… I don’t want to say



52 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Fashion, turn to the left…
Jay Buchanan (left) and
Scott Holiday.


















































































































JIMMY FONTAINE/PRESS









CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 53

Buchanan and Holiday
enjoying “probably the best
job I could ever think of”.


‘disenchanting’, we were happy and proud that everything, but my mum tells me that I would get make a living at it, it also pays the bills. We don’t
anyone was coming and enjoying it. But it really in trouble all the time; she said that we’d finally be have our team built just because they’re wonderful
started out being middle-aged and older men. And going out to dinner or something – cos we never people, we have built a strong team because they
we were going: “When are young people gonna went out to eat – and I wanted the lobster, and the help us make money. We get to be artists and make
come?” But we also understood that these guys steak, and she’s like: “No!” But now I like to enjoy rock’n’roll, and they make sure we can survive on
were into it enough, that of course they’ve got the finer things in life for sure. it. So even if we felt this feeling of: “I don’t wanna
the strongest magnet for it; as soon as they heard SH: What I think about my childhood, I had do this any more”, it’d be like: “How are we gonna
it they went: “Oh yeah! I remember that! I know everything I wanted, to be honest. We weren’t pay the bills?” And then you’d go around full-circle
what that is and I can smell it, it’s not bullshit!” rich, but I never remember thinking: “Man, I wish and go: “I don’t wanna quit! I love these guys! I love
JB: Looking out at the audience: a lot of bald heads could get this.” And I certainly didn’t want anything making music!”
and white hair. That was what helped us survive, I have now at that young age! [laughs]. I dressed JB: We’ve definitely had issues. But I think we also
and they gave us the chance and take a lot of pride in what we do
the attention when we needed it and have a lot of respect for each
the most. That audience is the tap other. So whenever things get
root of rock’n’roll – people that “We’ve definitely had issues. But I think difficult, we don’t do that thing of
really care. we also take a lot of pride in what we do airing our dirty laundry or making
SH: One of my favourite things it a public issue. It undermines
about our audience is you’ll get and have a lot of respect for each other.” what we’re trying to do, which
a child and his father and his father, is support each other and work
or daughters and mothers, you’ll Jay Buchanan through our shit.
get three generations together. And
that’s cool, that’s rare. Of course, you’ll see that at flamboyant through high school, but this was the Having spent thirteen months touring with Black
the Stones. But for us, being technically ‘newer’, day you could hit thrift stores and they weren’t Sabbath, what can you tell us about them that
that’s great and it’s a cool thing to watch. picked over yet. So I was wearing three-piece suits people don’t know?
and they cost, like, three bucks. But I think a great JB: Boy, that opportunity they gave us is… I feel
You’re two of the most stylish people in rock. luxury now is we’ve got a lot of friends in fashion; like it’s something out of a story book. Now that it’s
What are your favourite luxuries on the personal we do a lot of collaborations. I’m working with our over and we’re back to headlining our own things,
grooming and fashion front? great friend Guy on vegan boots, because recently the opportunity that they gave us is paramount.
JH: All of them! I’m a very luxurious person I stopped wearing any leather. SH: One thing I never hear people talk about – and
[laughs]. I love fashion. That’s definitely an they should – is that they are utterly professional.
addiction of mine. I have a lot of clothes – a lot. Have you ever thought about calling it a day? Each one of them individually, their crew, the way
And shoes, boots, the whole thing. It’s ridiculous. SH: I think it’s normal with anything you do in they’re running their business and doing their
For me, from a young age, being a peacock that repetition to become worn down, so I think we’ve music, it’s just beautiful. It’s orchestrated perfectly.
way… Because where we grew up we didn’t all felt that. But the reality of bringing it to each Everyone’s happy, they’re on time, everything is
have bread, we didn’t have money. So I started other and saying: “I’m about to call it a day” as just really ship-shape and they’re super-focused
getting my own jobs so that I could afford the a serious thing? That’s not been a factor for this when they play. No one was getting fucked up on
things I wanted. My parents wanted to provide group. I mean, because besides loving it, we also the road, no one’s not wanting to be there.



54 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



“THE BAND IS ON FIRE.

THERE’S NO









STOPPING US”














He turned 60 this year, but Def Leppard singer Joe Elliott is showing no signs of slowing down

– certainly not when he’s talking. And with the year he’s had there’s plenty to talk about.

Interview: Paul Elliott Photos: Kevin Nixon

n 2019, Def Leppard were inducted into the the Hall Of Fame – and we weren’t one of them. Brian May inducting us, my speech went down
Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, headlined the They wanted R.E.M. and Lou Reed and U2 and really well, our performance went down great,
Download festival, played a residency in Springsteen; they didn’t want us and Mötley Crüe and we had a proper all-star jam at the end. We
Las Vegas and enjoyed the company of and Bon Jovi. They just didn’t. couldn’t imagine doing that with some of the other
I Brian May and Miley Cyrus. And to finish inductees – you know, [The Cure’s] Robert Smith
what frontman Joe Elliott describes as “a very good But in recent years the Hall Of Fame also and half of Radiohead. But we got Brian May and
year”, there was the release of a new album from introduced a Fan Vote, open to the public, which Ian Hunter up to do All The Young Dudes, which
his other band, Down ‘N’ Outz, featuring three is how Bon Jovi got inducted in 2018, and then was the perfect full-circle – doing that song, my
members of The Quireboys – guitarists Paul Leppard this year. favourite song, with Ian, who made it famous, and
Guerin and Guy Griffin and keyboard player Out of nowhere we were nominated. And we Brian who had just inducted us. And once that
Keith Weir – plus ex-Vixen bassist Share Ross and won with the highest ever fan vote. I thought, was happening, Susannah Hoffs from The Bangles
Wayward Sons drummer Phil Martini. This Is How okay, we’re about to get in now. And now it means wanted in, Phil Manzanera from Roxy Music
We Roll is the first Down ‘N’ Outz album something, because it’s the fans that have voted wanted in, Stevie Van Zandt from Springsteen’s
comprised of original material. “It’s a good record,” us in, not some committee that was reluctantly band, and we’d got the guys from Argent doing
Elliott says. As for Def Leppard, he says simply: accepting us. So all of a sudden we’re in. And when backing vocals. It was great.
“The band is on fire. There’s no stopping us. It’s we actually got in that room, we could feel the love,
fucking nuts.” because they sold tickets to punters, and there were What did you make of the rest of the event?
a lot of Leppard fans in that night. [One Direction’s] Harry Styles inducted Stevie
How will you remember 2019? Nicks and did a fantastic job. So much better than
The amazing thing is, I didn’t think it could get It felt like a victory? David Byrne, who inducted Radiohead and was
much better than 2018, when we had one of the Yeah. It was a fantastic evening. I didn’t think it embarrassing, really. I don’t have that in-built
top rock tours of the year, we sold a million tickets was going to be as much fun as it was. We had hatred of pop, so I watched Harry Styles and
in America, and we did the Teenage Cancer thought: good for him. It was brilliant
Trust gig at the Albert Hall, where we got watching Stevie Nicks perform. And
a beautiful introduction from Roger Daltrey watching Roxy Music was phenomenal.
and the reaction from the audience was The Americans didn’t really get into Roxy
incredible. We really felt on top of the world Music until [1982 album] Avalon, which
last year, but in some ways this year has to us [Britain] was the lounge version of
been just as great, if not better. Roxy. But there they were, in front of an
American audience, ten thousand people,
In March, Def Leppard were inducted into and they opened with a song from ’73 – In
the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame. What did Every Dream Home A Heartache, this mad
that mean to you? song about a blow-up doll, which is so very
I didn’t think it was going to be as big a deal English and European. All these people
as it turned out to be. For years I’d been in tuxedos in the posh seats were going:
saying I don’t give a fuck about the Hall “What the fuck is this?” And I was going:
Of Fame. “Oh yeah!”

Why is that? In June, Leppard headlined the Download
Because of the voting system they had. festival at Donington Park, the scene of one
We were always under the impression of the band’s greatest moments: playing
that it was this invisible committee that at Monsters Of Rock in 1986 – the big
would pick and choose who goes in, and comeback show after drummer Rick Allen
they were very stuck in their ways about lost his left arm in a car crash. Is it an
the kind of artists that they wanted in emotional experience for you to play there?
Let's get rocked: Joe Elliott
with Leppard during their Las
Vegas residency in 2019.
56 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

It brings back a lot of memories. What happened
in eighty-six was something we’ll never forget,
a big moment for Rick and for the whole band. “We felt on top of the world
And it was a great show this year, even though last year. In some ways this
it was cold and wet. That’s three times now that
we’ve headlined Download, and it’s been manky year has been just as great,
on two of them and beautiful on one. Oh well, it’s
England, it’s going to rain, that’s what it does here. if not better.”
But I loved it, and the crowd was great. It felt like
they were really there for us. They call it Sin City. How did you find it?
Vegas is a mad, mad town, and it’s totally rock’n’roll
Later in the summer, Leppard returned to Las these days. It’s not the elephants’ graveyard that it
Vegas for another residency – a twelve-night stand was in the fifties and sixties. We had Aerosmith
at Zappos Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & playing next door, and we had all sorts of people
Casino. Nice work if you can get it. coming through. Jackson Browne came to see
Talk about the cherry on top of the cake. We us. Criss Angel, the magician, came to see us
put on the biggest production we’ve ever twice. And on our days off we saw other
done, with five gigantic screens, and shows. I saw Criss Angel’s show, and Phil
the stage itself was almost the size of went to see Cher, because she had Joel
a football pitch. It was just bonkers. Hoekstra from Whitesnake playing guitar
We had a format, of course. We did for her. It was fun on stage and off.
a forty-minute blitz, then a twenty-
five minute sit-down acoustic bit, Leppard have a famous fan in Taylor
and then we did another blitz. But Swift, and you found another this year
we had a lot of fun changing up the in Miley Cyrus.
set every night. We met her at this huge festival
in Vegas, a few weeks after our
And you opened those shows with residency. It was a proper mix of all
a classic deep cut from Pyromania. types of music – us, Miley, Green
Well, when Phil [Collen, guitarist] Day, Chance the rapper, Heart. We
suggested that we open with Die played for twenty-five minutes, and
Hard The Hunter. I looked at him here’s commitment for you: Rick
like he had three snake heads, Savage [Leppard bassist] had gone
and went: “Are you fucking home to Sheffield after the residency,
nuts?” But then the more we did but he got in his car, drove down
it, I went: “Wow, this is genius. to Heathrow, flew ten hours, got to
Good idea, son!” the gig, did five songs, and then went
straight back home. I, on the other hand,
How does a residency compare stayed local. It was fun to hang out with
to a regular tour? different people, whether it was rockers
In one respect it’s easier. When or rappers or whatever, and when we
you do one load-in and one met Miley she told us she’s a huge Leppard
load-out and you’re there for fan. At that festival she sang Black Dog and
twenty-odd days, all your Comfortably Numb. This is the same woman
energy goes into the show, that did Nothing Else Matters and [Nine Inch
because you ain’t travelling. Nails’] Head Like A Hole at Glastonbury. She’s
You’re just getting into a car upped her rock game somewhat!
and driving back to your hotel,
or in some cases just getting in And after the final Leppard shows of the year – in
an elevator and going upstairs, Tennessee in October, headlining the Exit 111
because some of the guys stayed festival with Guns N’ Roses and Lynyrd Skynyrd,
in the hotel above the place where and in Sacramento in November – you celebrated
we played. By the end of the Vegas the release of the new album from your other band,
run, the last two nights, which we filmed, the Down ‘N’ Outz. How would you describe it?
we were playing twenty-four, twenty- It definitely doesn’t sound like Def Leppard, but it
five songs a night and playing for nearly does sound like me. You know how Ozzy’s Blizzard
two and a half hours. You really needed Of Ozz didn’t sound like Sabbath but it was still
stamina for that. But with the crowds that full-on rock? A fan would be able to distinguish
we had and the way we paced it out, it was between Sabbath and Ozzy’s solo stuff quite
a fantastic thing to do. easily, even though they’re quite close. Well, this
is very different, but it’s still rock. It’s more Elton
Is that the kind of thing that could only John, Queen, Bowie, a bit of Sparks, a bit of Leon
happen in Vegas? Russell. The songs are good, and Paul Guerin’s
Totally. Vegas is Vegas. I wish we could guitar playing is just brilliant. I said: “Be my Mick
do that kind of residency in other Ronson.” He said: “You don’t have to ask!”
places, but there is no equivalent in the
UK. You can’t do it in Blackpool or at So in Joe Elliott’s head it’s still the seventies?
Batley Variety Club. But we had maybe Put it this way: if you hear anything on this
a couple of hundred fans that came over album that sounds like it came after 1975, I’d
from the UK to see us in Vegas. be very, very disappointed.

“TO BE A

POP STAR









YOU HAVE TO BE A NARCISSIST.

I’M NOT REALLY”












Over the past decade, Steven Wilson has 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.

Interview: Polly Glass

n a large, sun-dappled living room in a leafy back from that and saying: “You know what, this I don’t know. That’s an interesting record. It’s one
outpost of North-West London, Steven could be really big now, but is it what I want to be of my most popular records, and I had fun doing
Wilson expounds the decade over really big?” and coming back with the answer: it. But in my mind it was always going to be a one-
peppermint tea and muffins. The latter “No.” Retrospectively I can see it took a lot of guts off. There are fans of that record who’ll tell you
I were made by his Israeli wife Rotem, who to do that, and a lot of people said I was stupid that’s my best and they wish I’d carried on doing
he married four weeks previously. Two weeks – managers, record companies. So stepping back that, but I can’t see myself ever making another
before that they moved here. The decor is minimal a few levels in terms of audience, ticket sales… In archetypically classic progressive rock album,
and stylish and looks out on to a spacious back that sense it was a very poor business decision, but because I’ve done it.
garden where they had their wedding reception. throughout all this I felt happier than I had been for
Rock’s dark, jazzy enigma; 21st-century prog a long time. I am by nature a bit of a control freak, In 2015 you released Hand. Cannot. Erase.,
god; master of melancholia; pop star inspired so I wanted to have that control again. inspired by the 2011 documentary Dreams Of
by the likes of Peter Gabriel, Prince, Kate Bush… A Life [about Joyce Carol Vincent, who lay dead,
Wilson has been all these things over the past 10 You quickly had your hand in a number of undiscovered, in her city apartment for three
years. Now there’s another side to him; pairs of projects: Grace For Drowning, Storm years]. What was it like to immerse yourself in
children’s shoes sit by the door, belonging to his Corrosion, Blackfield… a protagonist like that?
two stepdaughters. I saw myself ultimately withdrawing from a lot of I could completely relate to her. And that’s the
“I think I have this reputation of being this these. I thought: “I’d love to have one project to beauty of that story; I think everyone can see
incredibly melancholic person,” Wilson says. concentrate fully on, where I can bring any of these something of themselves, or the potential to end
“I understand that part of that is my own doing sounds, and I can change from album to album.” up like that. This is not a story about the little old
because of the music, but I’ve bag lady at the bus stop, this is
always been happy. And I think about a young, attractive woman
now I’m not only happy, I’m with lots of friends and family too,
content. It’s another thing, to be “When you have massive organisations who for whatever reason was not
content with your life and no like Spotify actively ignoring rock music, missed. If you live on your own it’s
longer striving all the time to be very easy to start asking yourself:
somewhere different.” as they admit they do, it is a problem.” “If I didn’t reach out to any of my
family, or my friends, or I didn’t
After years of keeping your personal life under The people I grew up really admiring were people update my status on social media, how long would
wraps, how did it feel to share news of your nuptials like David Bowie, Kate Bush and Frank Zappa, and it be before somebody got worried about me?”
on social media? when you bought the new record you didn’t know
To be honest, a lot of that was partly the choice what you were going to get. That was one of the You’ve become more comfortable being up front, to
of my previous partner, who was a very private frustrations I had towards the end of Porcupine the point of having your face on the cover of To The
person. Rotem is still very private, but not as much, Tree: we were painting ourselves into a corner. Bone, appearing on BBC breakfast TV… How
and I think we felt like it was a very special day for A very productive corner, but sometimes that’s have you found the pop-star experience?
both of us and wanted to share it. But I’m still not what the wider world doesn’t necessarily see. Your When I was thirteen or fourteen years old I wanted
the kind of person who’s going to post pictures of fan base, they’ve walked through the door into to be a pop star, even though I had none of the
myself doing the laundry or anything. your world, and whatever that album was when qualifications. Ultimately, to be a pop star you have
they discovered you, they want to recapture that to naturally be a narcissist. I’m not really, but I like
With Porcupine Tree put to bed by 2010, this was feeling, time and time again. to be the centre of attention on stage now. In the
the decade in which you really became a solo artist. early days of my solo career I would do anything
How would you describe your head-space at the Well, in terms of records that generated these to deflect attention away from me, which is partly
start of all that? kinds of expectations, The Raven That Refused why all the big visuals started to develop. And I’ve
That’s a good question. I think the transition To Sing (And Other Stories) was a landmark. learned to enjoy it, because I’ve understood that
from being in a band that was fairly well known, How does a love letter to classic prog tap in to such the people that come to my shows are on my side.
just beginning to play big venues, taking a step a zeitgeist in 2013? I began to realise that one of the things I could



58 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 59

not. I understand why kids are more drawn to
that. I got in a lot of trouble online because I was
very rude about Greta Van Fleet, but I stand by
everything I said. What are kids gonna listen to?
[Rapper] Tyler, The Creator doing this radical
urban music that speaks to them about modern
life, or this embarrassing sort of Take That-meets-
Led Zeppelin parody?


You’ve also released the first new No-Man album
in more than a decade, billed as ‘progressive
melancholy disco’. Being a fan of the likes of Donna
Summer and Daft Punk, you must enjoy a boogie
yourself from time to time?
I love it. I’ve always loved electronic music.

You’re at a wedding, everyone’s had a few. What
gets you throwing shapes?
Well [slightly dodging the question] I did the playlist
for when we had the wedding here – loads of
ABBA, loads of Prince. When I was a teenager,
Prince was the guy I had posters of on my wall.
That joyous approach to dance music, electronic
music, music that has a groove to it… that element
has pretty much always been there.


What’s your personal ‘cheese’ threshold in terms
of music?
I could quite happily pontificate about the genius
of The Rubettes – they were the real arse-end of
early-70s glam-pop – but some of the songs are
amazing. Long before it was fashionable to do
Steven Wilson on so, I was telling people ABBA were genius. I love
stage in Tel Aviv, incredibly over-sentimental music: Sinatra, The
February 2019. Carpenters are one of my favourites, and Prefab
Sprout, some of those lyrics are really syrupy but
do that people really liked was just talk to the album-orientated rock music. And were it not I love it. But no, I don’t have a cheese threshold
audience – talk bollocks, talk like me. You realise for people like yourself and Classic Rock and Prog – and I’m suspicious of anyone who says that
that the cult of personality is a big part of what magazine still providing a conduit to the people they do.
makes pop and rock music tick. who love that kind of music, it gets tougher every
time. When you have massive organisations like You’ve just announced a series of arena shows for
Why did it take you so long to figure that out? Spotify actively ignoring rock music – as they 2020. It’s a long way from Porcupine Tree’s debut
I think it’s because the first bands that really excited admit they do – it is a problem. Tarquin’s Seaweed Farm.
me were bands where the opposite was true, like Indeed. But it’s taken thirty years to get there, and
Pink Floyd, where it was almost about subsuming Plenty of people still pigeonhole you as the boy you know there are some bands that make that
the personalities into this conceptual, intellectual wonder of 21st-century prog, but your own tastes jump in three years. I haven’t got a chip on my
cool. I still love that, but as I’ve grown older I’ve are much more diverse. shoulder – well, maybe a little – but I’m massively
moved slightly away from that frame of mind. I think that when you’re talking about a particular happy to have finally got there.

What have you struggled with the most A couple of years ago you said you’d
in your first decade as a solo guy? sacrificed having a family for music.
As a solo artist I pay for everything, and “I love incredibly over-sentimental Now you have a wife and two stepkids,
sometimes the vision I have just isn’t music. Sinatra, The Carpenters, it seems there’s a balance in your life.
viable financially. I employ world-class Of course. But I still think it’s partly
musicians, a world-class crew, I have Prefab Sprout... some of those lyrics true that I wouldn’t have achieved
a lot of visual aspects, multiple screens, what I have now if I had had a family
quadraphonic sound… The phrase, are really syrupy but I love it.” all these years. I mean, for To The
I think, is ‘punching above your weight’. Bone I disappeared on tour for fifteen
Even on the last tour, I was playing quite big venues magazine like Prog or Classic Rock, your months. I’m not going to do that again. This is part
in some cities, but then I was doing a tiny club in demographic is… [thinks] I’m generalising here, of the reason why the arena shows are happening,
a place called Pensacola in Florida to about two but a lot of them, I suspect, have a set of parameters because I want to do fewer shows, bigger scale. Yes,
hundred people and still presenting this ridiculous within which the music they like sits. But there’s it does change the way I think about my career,
show. But it was that mentality that says: “Well if a larger world out there that now listens to music but I’m fifty-two, so I don’t necessarily think in
those two hundred people come to the show and in a less engaged way, but they don’t have those the same way I did when I was thirty. When I was
are blown away, they’ll tell their friends.” kinds of parameters. And in some respects it is an thirty, everything was focused on the music. And it
exciting time. Part of the problem with growing still is to an extent, but not to the exclusion of all
Is there anything that you regret? up in the shadow of classic rock and The Beatles else any more.
If I have a regret, it’s not something within my is that you’re very much aware of the rules. And
power to change, which is that the industry has what’s really exciting about urban music – which is The Future Bites arena tour takes place in
moved away from the thing that I do – conceptual, very dominant in the mainstream – is that they’re September 2020. GETTY



60 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



How will this past decade in rock’n’roll be
remembered?
Well, I hope people remember bands like The
Wood Brothers, and Doyle Bramhall II, and our
band, and Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings. But who
knows? Are they gonna think of Taylor Swift and
Lana Del Rey? It kinda baffles me what is popular.


The Tedeschi Trucks Band started out in 2010.
What was your mission?
Well, it was more Derek’s vision. He was the one
that was like, ‘Hey, I’m putting this band together,
and scrapping my band, and you should scrap
your band and come with me’. It was a big jump,
but I was like, ‘Well, I’m not gonna pass up this
opportunity, because he’s one of the best musicians
I’ve ever known’. And we could have done a smaller
band and made more money, but we thought it
would be cooler to say, ‘What is your dream?’ And it
was to play with a big band with horns and singers.

Derek started the decade clean-shaven – now he’s
“WE’RE ANTI-LAPTOP. got a huge beard. Which do you prefer?

I like the beard. I think the beard is great. He looks
I THINK IT’S IMPORTANT kinda like a professor.


There’s been lots of new music software released in
TO PLAY REAL MUSIC” 2019. Will we ever see a laptop on your stage?

No. We’re anti-laptop. I think it’s important to play
real music. People can feel the difference. I’ve seen
people with laptops, and they can’t really stretch
Tedeschi Trucks singer and guitarist Susan takes on the out and improv as long as they want, because then
apocalypse, laptops and her husband’s ever-changing facial hair. they run out of tracks. That actually happened
once, when Derek went to sit in with, like, The
Interview: Henry Yates Doobie Brothers, and they ran out of tracks and
they didn’t know what to do.
blivious to clock and calendar, of kids – like Greta Thunberg – that are really
immune to fashion and technology, on it and are trying to educate the adults, who Do you think the guitar will survive for another
the Tedeschi Trucks Band are are stubborn and greedy. It’s the kids leading the ten years?
blissfully adrift in their own era. anti-gun movement here. They have to. Can you Of course. Guitar has always been the weapon of
O Released in February, fourth album imagine going to school and having to worry choice. You can pick it up, carry it with you. You
Signs found vocalist/guitarist Susan Tedeschi, about a shooter? We didn’t grow up like that. We can’t do that with a laptop. You can’t always get
guitarist Derek Trucks and the couple’s virtuoso didn’t even grow up with cell phones. service. You can’t always have electricity. You can sit
11-piece band hopping aboard the soul-blues time round a campfire in the woods and play a guitar.
machine. But with the last year bringing political It’s about to get even weirder, with the US elections
upheaval – and a tragic loss within their lineup – next year… What are your hopes and fears for 2020?
Tedeschi can’t shut out the here-and-now entirely. It’s terrifying, honestly. I think I’m just baffled at The best thing would be that we would get a new
how you could show support for somebody who president that cares about the climate, gun safety,
How did you feel about the reaction to Signs? doesn’t even really care about our country. healthcare, and all these things that we’re trying to
People seemed to really enjoy it. And fix. And the worst thing is that the planet
it was extra-special, because Kofi is just gonna blow up and spit us out and
[Burbridge], who was in our band, we’re all gonna be extinct [laughs].
passed away the day it came out, but he “It’s a crazy time right now.
did such brilliant work on the strings It’s the kids leading the anti-gun As music connoisseurs, do you listen to
and everything. We were actually the usual corny Christmas songs – or are
playing a show, and we found out a few movement here. They have to.” they banned in your house?
hours ahead of time that he’d passed Oh yeah, we play ’em at home. I mean,
away, but we had to go on. It was really intense. What are the best bands and records you’ve it’s more like Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown
Because Kofi had made it through the hard part heard this year? Christmas, that kind of stuff. And there’s some great
of the surgery, and we thought he was gonna be Well, we recently saw The Wood Brothers, Christmas records by people like Mahalia Jackson,
on the up and up. So it was a big shock, and extra- and they were incredible. Our kids are both Donny Hathaway, Freddie King. And who’s the
hard for Derek, because they were so close. He’d pretty hip and turn me and Derek on to other girl I’m thinking of, who you always hear,
been playing with Kofi for basically twenty years. a lot of stuff. My daughter likes Greta Van who’s got that classic Christmas song…?
Fleet a lot, so I end up listening to them in
Did you find yourself writing about the world the car, because she’s usually the one I’m guessing you don’t mean Mariah Carey’s All
around you on Signs? taking over the controls. She’s turned me onto I Want For Christmas Is You?
Well, if you look at a song like Shame – there’s a lot The Jacks, and Billie Eilish, who I actually No, we don’t listen to that [laughs]!
of that going on in the world, particularly amongst really like. She recently discovered Ozzy
political leaders, and not just in our country. It’s Osbourne and Led Zeppelin, and she’s quite The Tedeschi Trucks Band play SSE Wembley
a crazy time right now. It seems like there’s a lot a fan of Jim Morrison. Arena on February 1.



62 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

I«…x گחِחחٜڟאזٜڡא׏ِאד I«…x گ׏׏ِאדٜڟאהٜڡ׏ח I«…x گ׏אِד׎ٜڟאוٜڡא׏ِד׎
EVERY 3 MONTHS EVERY 3 MONTHS EVERY 3 MONTHS


THE PERFECT GIFT







FROM JUST £7.50 *















































I«…x گוِד׎ ٜ ڟ׏ח ٜ ڡ׏ח I«…x گ׏׏ِאדٜڟאחٜڡאאِד׎ I«…x گחِד׎ ٜ ڟ׏דِד׎ ٜ ڡ׏ח
EVERY 3 MONTHS EVERY 3 MONTHS EVERY 3 MONTHS


















ORDER ONLINE AT

www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/xmas197





*TERMS AND CONDITIONS: Savings calculated against the full RRP (single issue price x frequency). You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment in
non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory rights are not affected. All gift subscriptions will start in January 2020. Prices correct at
point of print and subject to change. Full details of the Direct Debit guarantee are available upon request. For full terms and conditions, please visit bit.ly/magtandc. Offer ends 31st December 2019.

“AS LONG AS THE LABEL


KEEP WRITING CHEQUES,

WE’LL JUMP OFF








BUILDINGS”












With The Struts, 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.

Interview: Polly Glass Photos: Kevin Nixon

uke Spiller doesn’t ‘do’ understated. Probably a bit more egotistical than I am now, if One of the first countries to really embrace The
When we meet The Struts’ frontman that’s even possible. But ‘naïve’ is probably the Struts was France. What were those first tours
pre-gig, in their dressing room at operative word. there like?
London’s Forum, he’s wearing Fantastic. We started touring France pretty much
L a sheepskin jacket, leather trousers Before The Stuts you went to university briefly. after the line-up change was made [original bassist
and huge pink-and-black platforms, his black Noel What did you study? and drummer Jamie Binns and Rafe Thomas were
Fielding crop shaggy from the tour bus. Like so I took media studies and… something else. I’d replaced by Jed Elliott and Gethin Davies in 2012],
many rock stars, he looks in proportion on been working as a cleaner on my gap year in because Kiss This and Could Have Been Me were
enormous stages, but larger than life off them. Clevedon for just over a year. My band at the time done in the transitional phase between the old
It’s curious to think that The Struts have been all took a gap year just to see how far we could take members and the new, and those were the songs
going for nearly a decade. Having dived into our the band. That started to fizzle out as September that would then go on to get us a load of airplay.
line of vision in 2016 with the album Everybody was looming. I wanted to stay in the Bristol area, But the tours were great. It was a true rock’n’roll
Wants (which they followed up with last year’s pop- and I kind of just rushed into UWE [University Of rite of passage that everyone has to experience as
tastic Young & Dangerous), they’re a young band. We would go into
one of the best things to happen the shows, drink a shedload, jump
to rock’n’roll in years. All glam “It’s cool that we seem to be associated up on stage, make loads of friends
threads and supersized tunes, they with these crazy French people.
manage to seem lovably old-school with this resurgence of rock music.”
and à la mode at the same time. What are the best things to have
West England]. I was thrown into this environment happened in music in the past decade?
How has 2019 been for you? where everyone was in lectures, taking notes, and It’s been interesting how all these biopics have
Well, we’ve pretty much done two laps all over the I was like: “What the hell is this?” So I grabbed the been coming out, and people seem to have a thirst
world. This has definitely been our most successful loan, the first instalment. Then I quit university for that era of music and the iconic people that
year to date in terms of attendance. We did Pier 17 and moved back to my parents’ house and tried to come with it. I think that goes hand in hand with
in New York, riding a Harley-Davidson on to the figure out what I was going to do. I was going to a lot of the bands that have been coming up in the
stage and having pyrotechnics, and a helicopter audition for drama schools in London, and that’s last two or three years. We’ve noticed it in America
filming us. Our videographer had a team of, like, when I got a message on MySpace from my soon- with bands like Greta Van Fleet, White Reaper,
eight other camera people running around like to-be manager at the time. Glorious Sons… All of them have come out on
his minions! tour with us. I think it’s cool that
we seem to be associated with this
Have you been able to have resurgence of rock music, people
a holiday? just doing it and having that old-
We literally just had seven days school flavour.
off, which was really nice before
the start of this tour. When I’m at Since the band signed to Interscope
home and it’s quiet all the ideas Records, what have been your
start to come. biggest extravagances?
The way that we travel. It’s nice
Back in 2010 you were twenty-one to know that we can stay in
and had met Struts guitarist Adam a gorgeous hotel and float down
Slack, both of you having been in a lazy river with a couple of
bands since your teens. What were cocktails, or go and have a nice boat
you like back then? day and things like that, which years
I was definitely hungry. Very naïve, ago we wouldn’t have conceived
bit of a reckless idiot at times. of being able to do. And I think

Spiller giving it his all on
stage with The Struts.
64 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

creatively as well it's broadened our horizons.
I mean, I earn a little bit more money now, which
I’m consciously spending on upgrading my tickets
when we fly. I enjoy that. Any more than a seven-
or eight-hour flight, I’ll do Business.

Going and playing in the US for the first time must
have been exciting.
It’s hard to describe what four guys in their mid-
twenties will do with a tour bus and good shows.
Like the back lounge, you’d be riding along and
you’d hear this ‘sshsshsshssh…’ – every single
drawer was just filled with those empty nos
[laughing gas] canisters you get. It was like a giant
fucking maraca going off on the bus every night.
And some of the guys were newly single, so there
was a lot of mischief to be had. American girls…
I don’t know what it is.


Were you with Laura Cartier Millon (his model
girlfriend) at this point?
I was, yes. But I witnessed a lot. I’m no longer
with her, so I’ve been kind of… making up for lost
time [laughs].

The band work and tour constantly. The last time
we spoke, you said: “If our label asked us to jump
off a bridge, we would seriously consider it.”
As long as [the label] keep writing cheques, we’ll
jump off buildings. I mean, we need them to be
the vehicle for our dreams. And to be honest, for
the most part they’ve given us nothing but love
and freedom to go out there and push ourselves
and do what we want. Obviously you take into
consideration our work as well, and our effort
that we put in on stage every night is obviously
going to play dividends. But I’m proud to be on
Interscope. I think we’ve got so much more to
go. I hope and pray that they keep us until we can
really bring in something.


Thinking about other bands for a minute, as
a serious Queen fan yourself what do you think
of the Queen + Adam Lambert partnership?
For me it’s… I don’t want this to sound insulting,
but I think they present a lot of the music now
in a sort of Disney aspect. Adam Lambert has
a fucking fantastic voice, his pronounciation
is en pointe, it’s borderline musical theatre,
and he’s hitting every single note – notes, for
example, which Freddie would never have hit.
I think they’re preserving that legacy in a super-
digestible way, which I think is what they want.
And that’s great.


What advice would you give your twenty-one-year-
old self?
You’ve got to be in it for the long haul, and I would
say be patient. The most important things are
the music and your live performance… [pauses]
and speak your mind more. I think I was pushed
around a bit more in the early days.

How are you spending Christmas?
With my mum and dad in Devon. I’ll be travelling
to Heathrow on Boxing Day and flying out to the
East Coast, where we’re doing a couple of sold-
out shows in Philadelphia, and then finishing off
with another fantastic show for New Year’s Eve
in Nashville.

TOM PETTY & THE
HEARTBREAKERS

The Best Of Everything UMC/ISLAND
What we said:
“Curated by the singer’s
THE family and closest
REISSUES with a few tracks recorded during his
musical associates, it
combines Heartbreakers
classics and solo hits


sentimental reunion with first band
Mudcrutch. For those who always
wanted Petty’s best songs all in one place,


OF THE YEAR this collection – remastered from the
original stereo tapes – ticks all the boxes.”
THE BAND
The Band: 50th Anniversary Edition. UMC
What we said:
“This lovingly crafted
remastered version
includes a slew of
hitherto unreleased
In another year packed with anniversaries, we were spoilt for choice takes. There’s also the
set they played at Woodstock a few weeks
when it came to quality reissues. Here are some of our favourites.
before The Band’s release. And while they
didn’t actually play anything from it, their
Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever was rock-soul
he reissue market continued THE ROLLING STONES in excelsis. For all their studio subtleties,
its lucrative surge this Let It Bleed: 50th Anniversary they could rock with the best of them.”
year. Great for the record Limited Edition ABKCO
companies and bands, What we said: “Fifty STRAY CATS
T not always so great for years on, Let It Bleed has Runaway Boys Deluxe Vinyl Box Set BMG
our wallets! In 2019, with many bands lost none of its power What we said: “What
celebrating landmark anniversaries, this to thrill and shock in you have here is lashings
trend continued, bringing with it a wave of equal measure. And it of sleaze, walking bass
thoughtful remixes, lost classics, celebrated all adds up to a filler- and minimal guitar
classics and other goodies from artists free classic. Containing mono and stereo solos, best shown off on
across the rock spectrum. vinyl versions as well as SACD counterparts, the provocative US hit
this anniversary edition is bolstered with single (She’s) Sexy + 17 and tear-jerker I Won’t
JIMI HENDRIX a mono seven-inch of Honky Tonk Women Stand In Your Way. The four-vinyl set includes
Songs For Groovy Children: The Fillmore and an 80-page book illustrated with their first three albums, an LP of rare tracks,
East Concerts EXPERIENCE HENDRIX/LEGACY previously unseen photos.” a 40-page booklet, and a board game where
What we said: “This you race to have a rumble in Brighton.”
five-CD package gives DAVID BOWIE
us everything: one disc Conversation Piece PARLOPHONE THE DOORS
for each of the four What we said: “Box The Soft Parade: 50thAnniversary RHINO
shows, the fifth sets have been coming What we said:
containing encores, all thick and fast since “Previously remastered
newly mixed by Eddie Kramer, who was Bowie’s death, but by Bruce Botnick for
working with Jimi at the time. Releasing so there’s a charming 1999 and 2007 reissues,
much loose and under-rehearsed material warmth to the rarities his brightest spruce-up
might seem like madness. Yet time and and outliers from this early phase. Across yet highlights The
again Hendrix conjures sounds from his five discs there are a dozen unreleased Doors’ virtuosity, although the album
guitar that make perfect sense of the treasures alongside the new, lovingly and remains contentious in original form. The
decision. Even an under-rehearsed Jimi knowingly handled Tony Visconti mix of main draw will be disc two’s orchestrally
Hendrix remains a treasure.” the Space Oddity album, the 1968 BBC denuded band versions of Tell All The
radio session and a 1969 DLT session, People, Touch Me and more; powerfully
THE CULT plus sundry mixes and rough takes.” intimate now they’re allowed to breathe.”
Sonic Temple: 30th Anniversary Edition
BEGGARS ARKIVE THE DAMNED RONNIE LANE
What we said: “This Black Is The Night BMG Just For A Moment 1973-1997 UNIVERSAL
30th anniversary edition What we said: “Why What we said: “A six-
comes in a variety of not celebrate with CD box set of all Lane’s
formats, from a five-CD a 39-track greatest hits? albums, complete with
set to standard double Unbound from strict hardback book and
vinyl, dependent on chronology, Black Is poster, does him justice,
both your budget and your appetite for The Night’s tracklist has with stacks of
demos, unreleased tracks, alternative been chosen by the band and just keeps on previously unreleased material, BBC live
mixes and a live recording from Wembley giving. It’s easy to underrate the Damned, sessions, a Rockpalast concert and tracks
Stadium. Sonic Temple is an event.” Xxxx but impossible to overrate them.” recorded when he moved to America.”



66 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

WHITESNAKE blurb for this record repeats that hoary RORY GALLAGHER
Slip Of The Tongue: 30th myth that the songs on Country Blues came Blues CHESS/UMC
Anniversary Edition RHINO from travels that never happened, their What we said:
What we said: quality replication in the original sleeve “Following the release of
“Fittingly for such an makes a fine, genre-defining artefact.” five albums of material
overwrought piece of from the vaults, a cynic
work, a new Super CREEDENCE might expect to hear
Deluxe edition box set CLEARWATER REVIVAL barrel-scraping on
is a seven-disc bonanza Live At Woodstock CRAFT a new 36-track, three-CD Gallagher set. But
of epic proportions. The box set has the What we said: “Three no. The famously fussy Rory might have
real bounty – out-takes, jams, extended classic albums in passed on most of this, but his nephew
interviews and, in the naughtily titled a 12-month stretch, and Daniel and brother/manager Donal
Liquor And Poker, Coverdale crooning: ‘Who Woodstock should have (Daniel’s father) can be satisfied that they
gives a fucking shit?’ his tongue firmly in his been the crowning have again done the Cork man proud.”
cheek, as it’s always been.” glory. But John Fogerty
wasn’t happy with CCR’s performance and THE BEATLES
GONG pulled it from both the soundtrack album The Beatles: 50th Anniversary
Love From The Planet Gong: The Vigin and film. Fifty years on, it’s difficult to Super Deluxe Edition APPLE
Years 1973-75 UMC fathom what his problem might have been.” What we said: “The
What we said: original album,
“Seventy per cent of the VARIOUS remastered by a team
box set consists of Optimism/Reject Punk & Post-Punk co-headed by George
previously unreleased Meets D-I-Y Aesthetic CHERRY RED Martin’s son Giles, is
out-takes, alternative What we said: “The presented with
mixes, BBC radio cumulative effect of these a freshness and immediacy that makes
sessions and complete live shows, 105 songs is like an a mockery of the passage of half a century.
enhanced by lyric book and another extraordinary jukebox, each The two CDs of sessions and demos are
containing previously unseen artwork single a telegram from tiny a revealing trove.”
from Daevid Allen’s archive.” islands which linked up to
become an archipelago of musical JOHNNY THUNDERS
THE KINKS innovation. A brilliant collection that’s Que Sera, Sera Resurrected JUNGLE
Arthur Or The Decline And Fall Of The more like a box of grenades than an archive.” What we said: “Johnny
British Empire: 50th Anniversary Ed BMG Thunders was one of
What we said: “Along DEF LEPPARD the special ones, a pirate
with a remastered Volume Two (Vinyl Box) UMC/PARLOPHONE pocket dynamo sizzling
Xxxx
version of the original What we said: with rock’s primal
album, there are 28 “Encyclopaedic boxed essence, rare charisma
previously unreleased vinyl round-up of and ferocious chops. The second disc
mixes as well as Dave a turbulent decade for presents out-takes, alternative versions
Davies’s quite brilliant ‘lost’ solo album from Leppard. Volume Two is and five live tracks. The scorching guitar
1968. Even more intriguing is a previously the sound of a band salvo on Blame It On Mom shows how
unreleased medley of Ray’s home demos. emerging through tragedy and from under dazzling Thunders could be on his night.”
Throw in two new recordings of Ray with the weight of expectations hanging over
the Doo Wop Choir, and a memorabilia- them at the end of the 80s to thrive, adapt BE-BOP DELUXE
packed 68-page book, and the result and ultimately emerge victorious.” Futurama: Expanded & Remastered
will have Kink-o-holics weeping with joy.” ESOTERIC
VARIOUS What we said: “This
MOTÖRHEAD Woodstock 50: Back To The Garden RHINO expanded edition,
Deluxe Reissues + 1979 Box Set BMG What we said: “The compiled with some
What we said: “The behemoth 38-disc version care, adds some new
new deluxe editions of comes in a plywood- stereo mixes, and also
both Overkill and Bomber and-canvas box, is limited a disc of BBC sessions
come in hardbound to 1,969 copies, and and live material which will give the
book format each with includes every complete listener not only a great deal of ear fun
a previously unreleased set from the festival, the movie on Blu-ray, but also a real sense of the world in which
concert recording from the relevant tour. Michael Lang’s book, replica memorabilia bands in 1975 operated.”
The box set has all of this and more, and more; 433 tracks lasting 36 hours.”
notably a bonus disc of rare tracks and KEITH RICHARDS
out-takes, repro memorabilia and IAN DURY Talk Is Cheap: 30th Anniversary BMG
a 40-page music mag revisiting the heady Do It Yourself 40th Anniversary EDSEL What we said: “The
days of ’79. The box itself is designed like What we said: “Forty reissue gets the works.
a black biker jacket – so very Motörhead.” years on, these more Seven hundred bucks
meditative songs have snarfs the signed version
JOHN LEE HOOKER weathered well, while in a box crafted by
The Country Blues Of… CRAFT/UMC a raft of extras, including Fender from the same
What we said: “Hooker live footage from a BBC wood as Keith’s trusty Tele (unsigned is
had never sounded like Rock Goes To College appearance from 1979 less). The deluxe presents the album on vinyl
he does on Country Blues, and a booklet where Phill Jupitus recounts and CD, unreleased extras, two 45s, 80-page
guitar unplugged for his efforts to own a copy of all 34 wallpaper hardback book, posters, laminate, lyric
pin-drop punctuation. themed vinyl editions are reasons to make sheets and guitar pick. The bonus tracks are
Even if Craft Records’ any diehard Blockheads fan cheerful.” a worthy addendum to a scorching set.”



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 67

“THERE’S



NO WIZARD OF OZ







BEHIND THE CURTAIN



WITH ME”











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.

Interview: Henry Yates Portrait: Joby Sessions

sk Glenn Hughes if he’s clinically and still, for me, the best new rock band in the Did Black Country go as you expected?
hyperactive, and the veteran last ten years. Years ago, I was hosting a party in When I started working with Joe, he said to me,
foghorn gives a chuckle of Hollywood, and these two fellas come up to me, very calmly: “My career is built around my solo
admission. In the past 12 months and it was Scott [Holiday] and Jay [Buchanan] career.” So we all knew going in that we had to
A alone, the 68-year-old has put in with their Pressure & Time CD. I didn’t know who keep ourselves busy while Joe was doing his
another shift that would give lesser road warriors they were, but I didn’t even have to hear the wonderful solo work. I just think – as a lot of
cold sweats, with his Classic Deep Purple Live music before I played it on my radio show. I just people think – that if Black Country Communion
itinerary taking him deep into Europe and across the looked at their faces and I’m thinking: “These had been a band that was always working for at
States. The tour ties a bow on a triumphant – and dudes look serious.” So I put it on, and I went: least six months of the year, it would have been
occasionally tumultuous – decade in which Hughes “Wfft. I was right!” different. But it was never meant to be that way.
has chalked California Breed, Black Country All I can say is that there’s only love in that camp.
Communion and more on to his chaotic résumé. What are the best and worst things about living We are dear and best friends, and I wouldn’t have
in this moment in time? it any other way.
How has 2019 been for you? Well, I live in a country where I don’t think the
I’ve never been so busy. I’ve had another long president is the right guy, but… It’s a dark time What are your hopes and fears for 2020?
year with the Classic Deep Purple Live shows, on our planet right now. And I choose to be happy. I have zero fear of 2020. I’ve joined forces with
performed by yours truly. Come Taste The Band, I bring something into that room that needs to the Dead Daisies, and we’re going to the South of
Stormbringer, Burn – those are three magical pieces be brought. That’s the love factor. People can talk France in the next few weeks to start the album.
of music. If you go on to YouTube, you can check about me all they want, but if you know me and We’ve already done a couple of songs. So I’m
any era you like, and I’ve never going to put that at the top of the
‘phoned in’ these songs. But lately list next year. I think we’re on to
I think I’ve honoured the legacy something special. The new music
more than ever. “Before I started speaking to you, I was is something special to hear, and
a different Glenn. I believe I’m growing what we have planned is the next
You still seem happiest when you’re level. We’re gonna be going global,
on stage. every hour, becoming somebody else.” literally. This band is pulling out all
I love to make records. I write the stops. It’s another opportunity
literally five days a week. But if you’ve seen me sing you’ve met me, all I care about is bringing love into for me to shed another layer of skin, show people
live, that’s who I am. I was born to sing. What you every venue I go to. You won’t see any loud, Jack who I am, again. Because every year, I become this
see with Glenn Hughes live is very honest. There’s Daniel’s-drinking, swearing dude up there. That’s other Glenn.
no Wizard Of Oz behind the curtain with me. not who I am, never was. Before I started speaking
I have no fear up there. When I come off the stage, to you, I was a different Glenn. I believe I’m Honestly, were there times when you thought you
I’m liable to trip on the first step. But when I’m up growing every hour, becoming somebody else. wouldn’t make it to 2019?
there on the deck, it’s where I’m supposed to be. When I got sober, all those years ago, I changed
Myself and my manager thought this summer was Most people will remember this last decade of your my life completely. And the last few decades, I’ve
the best series of Glenn shows I’ve done in decades. career for Black Country Communion. Are you been crazily honouring my health. I’ve taken
Something happened to me this year, and it’s all proud of that band? some time this decade to take care of myself. I’ve
‘inner’ stuff, not ‘outer’. I wasn’t thinking about the Joe [Bonamassa] and I put Black Country together got everything I need, if I just live in the present.
past or future. If people were there at those shows, overnight, and it was a beautiful experience. Getting older, what you have to realise is that,
they saw someone who was in the moment. What I’d like people to do for me, before the end look, we’re all gonna die. Life is too short, so live
of the year, if they wouldn’t mind, is play each each day.
Which is your rock album of the year? song in order from those four Black Country
My friends Rival Sons have always delivered, and records. Because when you play all those songs What’s Christmas like at Glenn Hughes’s house?
I think the last one [Feral Roots] is a magnificent back-to-back, it’s all right there in front of you. It’s My wife and I are vegan. It’s difficult. But there’s
piece of music. They’re neighbours of mine, a beautiful thing. a lot of great faux-meats here in LA now.



68 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 69

the audience and the recording output too. On
the American leg of this tour I played the Beacon
Theatre in New York to 2,000 people, twice as many
people as last time, and that’s been the case in many
US cities. It’s been going well with my band and my
team, and it shows no signs of abating.


How much of that is down to you revisiting the
Genesis material?
Well, there are those who’d prefer me to do an
entire evening of solo stuff, but I divide it between
me and Genesis, not that you can separate out the
two. I’m very proud of the Genesis stuff, glad to
bring attention to it, and happy that the present-
day stuff does so well. It’s the best of a number of
worlds and I think it’s unique in that, if I may say so.


Genesis Revisited II, The Night Siren and At
The Edge Of Light all hit the UK Top 30. Which
album are you proudest of?
At The Edge Of Light has been in the charts in twelve
different territories. Sometimes I’ve found myself
rubbing vinyl shoulders with Madonna – if she’d
only listened to me her career would’ve risen
meteorically! I still wonder how we managed to
pull off the Live At The Royal Festival Hall show we
did with The Heart Of England Orchestra [out
now in a 2CD + Blu-Ray digipak]. It was a real
“I GO ON THE challenge to play the material. When [orchestra

leader] Helen Fitzgerald first saw the score she
said, ‘How are we going to play this? There are so
ROAD FOR A REST. many notes it looks like fly shit on the page!’


CIVILIAN LIFE IS FAR Do any other shows stick in your mind as
highlights?
I was thrilled to do the Royal Albert Hall [in
MORE CHALLENGING” 2013], and the Royal Festival Hall and the London

Palladium on the same tour. Such lovely venues.

You won the Chris Squire Virtuoso Award at the
One of prog rock's most prolific mavericks Steve Hackett on ten 2017 Progressive Music Awards. Are you still
fruitful years, and rubbing vinyl shoulders with Madonna. evolving as a musician? Can you still surprise
yourself?
Interview: Grant Moon Yes. In music you inch your way forward. If
I looked back over my lifetime rather than the
he 2010s saw a remarkable surge in band like us could get in then Yes should too. There decade I’d be gobsmacked at what I can do now.
the popularity and work rate of guitar was resistance at first, but eventually the walls of I’d probably think, ‘You’re really showing off’. But
great Steve Hackett. He made five Jericho came down. when you’ve amassed technique, it’s important
acclaimed studio albums, not to show it, to restrain yourself and do the right
T bookending the decade with 2011’s Squire died in 2015. You must be glad you made thing for the song.
Beyond The Shrouded Horizon and the current At The the Squackett album with him?
Edge Of Light, and also teamed up with Yes bassist I loved working on that, it was great fun. The last Which artists have you picked up on over the past
Chris Squire to record the one-off Squackett thing he ever recorded was Love Song To A Vampire few years as a listener?
album, A Life Within A Day. His five successful live on [Hackett’s 2015 album] Wolflight. Chris was an From one guitarist to another, I think Joe
releases document an intensive period of Bonamassa is very good. It’s been
touring that has assured his place as the fascinating to watch the rise of Muse, one
keeper of the flame for the ‘classic-era’ minute doing a piece of Chopin, the next
Genesis catalogue, to which he was such “When you’ve amassed technique, something inspired by Prince. They’re
a vital contributor. With Hackett’s 70th very much in the progressive spirit.
birthday hoving into view, Classic Rock it’s important not to show it.”
nabbed him during his Genesis Revisited You’ll be 70 in February. How would you
2019 Tour to look back on his fruitful decade. extraordinary, multi-faceted character – a great sum up your seventh decade?
bass player and band leader, a visionary. I loved It’s been a very good decade, in fact it has been
Genesis were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall him then and I love him now. the best. I’ve been free to make my maverick
Of Fame in 2010. That was a good start. way through, and I like to think the band I’m
It was interesting. It’s a huge deal for the You married your third wife, Jo Lehmann, in 2011. currently fronting is second-to-none. Not to be
Americans; we British tend to watch it from Did that put a new gloss on things? glib, but I go on the road for a rest. Civilian life is
afar. Yes were inducted after us in 2017, sadly That was hugely important. Things started going far more challenging. All I’ve got to do is get on
posthumously for Chris Squire. I campaigned for right from then on, and so far haven’t stopped. stage and do what I do best, and it’s a privilege to
that myself – it was only fair that if one progressive We’ve been increasing the amount of shows and still be doing what I love.



70 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



I got to tap into Joe’s audience. Before that I wrote
a song with Slash [Mother Maria from the iTunes
verions of the album Slash, 2010].


You performed with Jeff Beck in front of President
Obama at the Kennedy Center Opera House in
a tribute to Buddy Guy. What was that like?
It was something special. There were senators,
movie stars. Aretha Franklin was there. Meryl
Streep. And after this special dinner you stand
in line and Hillary Clinton was there to greet
you. I was blown away, but instead of calling her
“Madame Senator” or whatever the hell you’re
supposed to say, I just said “Oh, wow!” And she
just looked disgusted like I was this white trash
girl. And she’s like “OK, right, move along.” My
husband and my manager [David Wolff] were
really worried about the show, but I didn’t feel
nervous at all. I said to them “Dude, the win
has already happened. We’ve had this amazing
experience. Even if I go out and suck balls it
doesn’t matter.”


“MY MIND KICKED You’ve done some huge, emotionally charged
shows. Is there a favourite that you remember
from the decade?
Every single show, tiny or large, if my mind is
UP A BIT THIS YEAR” good, it’s my favourite show that I’ve ever done.

If I’m not good in my head, then I’m terrified –
which is how it was when I did the Royal Albert
Hall show that went out on DVD. My mother
Rock'n’soul powerhouse Beth Hart reflects on a decade of was there, and I thought I blew that show. I was
surreal highs, painful lows and finding peace with gardening. so ashamed I couldn’t look at the edit without
crying. I was so upset and disappointed with it.
Interview: David Sinclair
Who have been your favourite acts to listen to
t was a decade that encompassed the best of movement and Harvey Weinstein and all that trip, over this decade?
times and the worst of times, which is how brought up some old, old stuff that I never really I love Florence And The Machine. Her
it has always been for Beth Hart. At the start addressed before. I was doing a lot of sit-down songwriting is really special. Unique. And she’s
of it she was playing the Borderline, London interviews and it freaked me out. I got suicidal. It such a captivating vocalist as well. Totally her
I (capacity 300) and by the end of it she had was bad. And I was scared. And I guess that's good own sound. My favourite singer is Melody
played the Royal Albert Hall and the Ziggo Dome, I was scared. They say when you stop being scared Gardot, an American who lives in France. She’s
Amsterdam (capacity 17,000). Maintaining an and you start being happy about it that's when a gorgeous, sexy, songwriter, singer, jazz artist.
incredible work rate, she released 11 albums – five you're going to do it. But thankfully I've got good And Lana Del Rey. Her songwriting blows my
studio and two live albums of her own, plus doctors and I've got a great husband and people mind.
another three studio and one live album with Joe around me that help me get through it. So I upped
Bonamassa – and topped the US Blues album chart my meds and I got off the road and came home Did you get any new tattoos in the last decade?
five times. She met President Obama and Hillary and got in the garden and I started feeling better. No. I'm not allowed to get any more tattoos. I got
Clinton. She bought her first house and my last one when I was 35 [in 2007].
took up gardening. She stayed sober and My husband won't let me. He is a very
remained happily married to Scott strong personality. He's very kind
Guetzkow, the whole decade. And she “Every single show, tiny or large, and very fair. I really got so blessed to
renewed contact with her father who if my mind is good, it’s my favourite have that man. I know what it's like to
had been absent from her life since she have cruel men. And I also know what
was six years old. On the downside, she show. If I’m not good in my head, it's like to be a cruel woman. So he is
was devastated by the death of Amy teaching me a lot about unconditional
Winehouse in 2011: “It reminded me of then I’m terrified.” love and compassion and patience and
my sister Sharon dying [of AIDS] all tenderness. He didn't have much to
over again.” And a five-week promo run of TV, What have been the musical high points for you work with when he met me.
radio and press in support of her 2019 album War over the last ten years?
In My Mind left her teetering close to the edge. Working with Rob Cavallo [producer of War In My Do you have faith in the future?
Mind] has been a high point. And working with Some days no. But then I have days where I'm
How has 2019 worked out for you? Kevin Shirley, who produced the albums I did just overwhelmed by the magic of everything
It's been an intense year. My mind kicked up a bit with Joe Bonamassa and my Bang Bang Boom Boom and everyone: animals, nature, music, cooking,
this year. And I think it had to do with some of album [2012]. Up until I worked with Kevin and fishing, gardening, jumping off cliffs [into the
the subject matter I've been addressing on War In Joe, I’d only really done my own songs. I was so sea], forgiveness, understanding, surviving, fully
My Mind, which I hadn't really addressed before. excited to be figuring out a lot of old jazz and blues living, I mean the list goes on and on and on. And
One song in particular, Woman Down, which came records for the first time. I was in my mid-thirties it's great. It's worth getting through that funk
from watching that Michael Jackson documentary and I felt like I was five years old. It really changed because I know on the other side of the funk I'm
and then all the talk about the whole women's my life as a performer and ultimately my career. gonna appreciate that light so much.



72 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM



“LIFE’S FULL OF




CURVES











AND SWERVES”











After early days as a signwriter, Ronnie Wood joined the Jeff Beck Group, the Faces and the

Stones. More recently he's beaten cancer, recorded a Chuck Berry tribute and fathered twins.

Interview: Ian Fortnam

onest Ron – Rolling Stone, ace decision to choose between art and music, but I get You immediately recognised the Stones as being
Face, patron saint of smokers, the impression you never did. your people.
artist, broadcaster, Jack the lad, I tried to make my money as an artist when I was When I first saw them I said: “I’m going to be
all-round diamond geezer – young, tried to get into scenic design at the film in that band.” I never doubted it, and that was
H bounces into the Presidential Suite studios, but it was a closed shop, you had to be it. I reckon if you have a big enough belief in
of the hotel like a bright-eyed endless party in skin- a member of a union. There was a lot of red tape something, it’ll happen. It was the same with
tight black strides. Ebony thatch tilted skyward, to get through for commercial art jobs. And the my art. People would say you’ve got to be up
open black shirt over Chuck Berry T-shirt, bright interviews? I don’t know how anybody ended up to such a high standard, you’ll never make it.
red sweater draped over his shoulders, Ronnie getting a job in the graphic field I was trying for. I was like: “Yes I can. I can be an impressionist,
Wood, addiction-free, cancer-free, is as close to the That’s why I took the signwriting route, a looser a draughtsman, I can be whatever I want.”
living, breathing embodiment of rock’n’roll as one way in but still some form of draughtsmanship.
might expect. He did it all so you wouldn’t have to. I’d develop my freestyle of painting, while getting Obviously the Jeff Beck Group were a fearsome
my letter shapes dead right. But the struggle I had unit, but you were on bass. Although it was Jeff
What’s the strongest memory you who ultimately split the band, were
have of your childhood? you getting a bit itchy to move on
Up in my bedroom with my Dansette yourself by then?
player, learning Chuck Berry licks. “The Stones never make an album Yeah, because The Birds, The
overnight, but we’re just fitting studio Creation and the Jeff Beck Group
Where did you get your first guitar? were my stepping stones towards the
During my colourful childhood my visits in and it’s shaping up nicely.” Stones, and then the Small Faces split
brothers, Art and Ted, got me my up right before my eyes, which wasn’t
first guitar. It was lent from a guy called Davey with art was eclipsed by my musical freedom long after the split-up of the Beck Group. [JBG
Hayes. But when he got called up for the army he within my garage band, rehearsing in the garage drummer] Tony Newman put the cat among the
said: “I’ve got to take my guitar with me.” So I only with my mates. We’d get a fiver a gig, and before pigeons, saying: “Unless we get more money we’re
had a guitar for a few months before it was taken you know it I could make five quid a week and going on strike.” Suddenly Jeff’s not there. We
away. I was only about seven, and it was really give my mum two-pound-ten, which was weren’t really surprised. We were used to him not
heart-rending to have to do without a guitar. So unbelievable. I was the main breadwinner in my turning up for the odd show. But when he went
my brothers saved up the deposit and got me one family in my teens. back to England, we thought: “Oh.”
on hire-purchase. That was the first
one I owned, which I swapped-up for The Jeff Beck Group, ’67: (l-r) There’s been a lot of speculation
my Rogers guitar when I was doing Aynsley Dunbar, Jeff Beck, Rod since that had the Beck Group played
my signwriting job. Stewart, Ronnie Wood. Woodstock (which they turned down),
been in the film and reached a wider
You seem to have always put yourself audience, they wouldn’t have left the
in the way of opportunity, and never vacuum later filled by Led Zeppelin,
just stood back and waited for good and would have gone on to attain the
luck to happen. Were you always enormity latterly enjoyed by Zeppelin.
naturally confident? But could you have stood being the bass
Yeah, I suppose I was, in a very player in the Jeff Beck Group for the rest
humble way. I’d always go in through of eternity?
the back door, always make sure I was Would we have been more famous if
in the right place at the right time, I’d we’d played Woodstock? We’d have
feel the situation. certainly carved our notch in history
for being part of Woodstock, but
You’re often asked if it was a difficult I think as fate had it, it was what was GETTY



74 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

GARETH CATTERMOLE / GETTY / CONTOUR

“Give it to 'em, Ron!”
Mick Jagger and Ronnie
with the Stones.


meant to be. We were very disappointed, because creative side of Rod’s solo albums. But I knew it before my body shut down. It was purely a selfish
we knew Woodstock was looming, but at the time couldn’t last forever. Tetsu [Yamauchi] was a real decision to save my life. I cleaned up merely to
it was just a rumour that it was going to be that wild card after Ronnie Lane left the band, too stay alive [laughs].
big. Festivals were still quite a new thing. We did crazy, and I was bumping into the Stones more
a few gigs with Hendrix that were open-air. He was and more often. Is life within the Stones’ bubble akin to living a life
always good to me. He’d always say to Jeff: “Let the in suspended animation, where no one need ever
bass player have a solo.” Was there anything you heard from Mick Jagger get old?
or Charlie Watts in Mike Figgis’s Somebody Up My brain stopped telling me : “You’re getting older”
A big part of the Faces’ appeal was that from the There Likes Me documentary that surprised you? around thirty. I remember my fortieth birthday,
outside you looked like a tight-knit gang that It was nice to hear Charlie say that Mick never gave my fiftieth, milestones, but even then I was like:
everybody wanted to join, a band of brothers. up on me. I thought: “That’s lovely”, and it made “I’m not forty”… Seventy-two? Forget about it!
What went wrong? me look back, and Mick has supported me through
We were a band of brothers, and we Your lung cancer diagnosis must have
did love going on the road. Didn’t like turned your world upside down; you’d
the recording studio much. Everybody only just become a father again, to your
was jangling their keys as soon as they “As a live rabble the Faces had great twins. The outcome was ultimately
walked in, and that was our downfall. camaraderie, but we knew it positive but it must have been
We should have spent more time a terrifying period.
on the creative side. I learned that wasn’t going on forever.” Yeah, in the few days of not knowing,
from the Stones. That’s how they’ve I thought: “Oh dear. Well, I’ve had
maintained their high standard, all the time spent lots of times when I was trying to straighten up. He a good innings.” When I got the news it could be
songwriting and in the studio. As a live rabble was very supportive of my rehab stuff. removed and that there’s no cancer in the rest of
the Faces had great camaraderie between us, but my body, I was like: “Somebody up there likes me
we knew it wasn’t going on forever because the Admitting you’re an addict is one thing, but even more!” After all the years I smoked so heavily,
management structure favoured Rod’s solo career. cleaning up? to just get off with cancer in the left lung that they
Which we can’t blame him for. Rod was always It’s a very individual thing. It’s a realisation that: were able to remove was just fantastic, a blessing.
very good to me, taking me with him, giving me “Oh God, this is going to kill me if I carry on.”
the freedom to play the guitars and bass on his It’s basically common sense. Some people didn’t You’ve given up the fags now, but quitting any
solo albums. I had the best of both worlds there. have that cut-off valve, and they just carried on addiction is especially hard if you don’t find new KEVIN NIXON
I was enjoying being in the Faces and on the until their body shut down. I wanted to stop challenges to fill the void.



76 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Yeah, I’ve got twin headaches now. I need eyes in
the back of my head looking after Alice and Gracie.
They’re three and a half, which shows you just
how quickly time flies. So apart from the renewed
vigour and zest for life the kids give me, the music
and the art are still blossoming and spiralling up.
As a new challenge I’ve been revisiting childhood
influences like Chuck Berry. Playing it live. I’ve
found Ben Waters, who’s like Chuck’s piano player
Johnnie Johnson. It’s so great to play with him,
because he just inspires me.


Will we ever see another Faces live performance?
Me, Kenney [Jones] and Rod just did a show at
Wentworth for Prostate Cancer, and we got on so
well. Everyone loved it, and the vibe afterwards…
Rod was blown away, Kenney was lovely. I know
we’ll do some more, yeah.


Watching the Stones most recent live performances
I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say the band
are playing better than ever.
We are better than ever.

Today’s Stones seem to be making every
performance count. After Mick’s heart scare
and your cancer scare, it’s maybe as if everybody
involved is beginning to see the Stones as a finite
entity; not simply carrying on as if it’s an endless
party, but treating every performance as something
to be truly appreciated.
Yeah. It’s brilliant. There’s a great feeling within the
band and with the crowd nowadays, I think we’ve
definitely got the bug again, we just wanna keep
touring. “Let’s go and do some more gigs.” Even
Charlie, who was always like: “I don’t know if
I wanna go on the road any more.” He’s like: “I’m up
for it, whenever you want, let’s go.” Which is great.

And you can absolutely see it in the performances. Honest Ron: Faces days
Keith’s firing on all cylinders as well. (good hair from the get-go).
That’s what he does.

There was a point in time where there’d be
occasional stumbles, but now you can see he’s fully “I'm playing the best I've ever played, for some
on top of his game, back to being the best Keith he magic reason, and I love it.”
can possibly be.
That’s it, another step up to the bar. I’m playing
the best I’ve ever played, for some magic reason, [laughs]. Poor Joyce [Smyth], our manager, is like Of course, [title track of the 1973 Faces album]
and I love it, and I think we’re all raising the bar “Oh, no! More insurance for the next tour”. Ooh La La tells us that a man has to make his own
every time we play now. Not that we didn’t before, mistakes. But if you could go back, what advice
but now we’re, like you say, more conscious of… You’re very fortunate to have that safety net, would you give your younger self?
surviving, how lucky we are. With my recent scare because things could have been missed in the I’d say [sings] ‘Please don’t ever change a thing’. Life’s
and Mick’s scare, Charlie not so long ago, Keith not normal run of things, so it must be reassuring to be full of curves and swerves, and ups and downs.
so long ago, there was a lot of shit going down. able to go for the full MOT every year or so? You just have to go with it. Follow your heart.
Yeah, it is. And without these MOTs a lot of these
Watching Mick’s first gig after heart surgery, he things wouldn’t have been found. We would have Looking back, I suppose your darkest time would
wasn’t exactly taking it easy. been carrying on merrily while ploughing into have been on the pipe, free-basing cocaine.
In the hospital they said they’d never done a wall, basically. Yeah. It’s a terrible millstone around your neck
that kind of surgery on a seventy-five-year old. because it just grabs you and it’s a hard one to kick.
There’s no precedent. And nobody goes back to Where are we as regards a new Stones album?
the office when they’re that old, they normally That’s ongoing. We are very happy with the way Harder than the fags?
just go back to gardening. They don’t go back to studio work’s coming on, but, as you know, the Good old Champix, little tablets that cut off the
running ten miles around a stage. Stones never make an album overnight. But aside part of the brain that craves cigarettes. One day you
from our busy schedule touring, we’re just fitting wake up and go: “I’m not doing that any more.”
The Rolling Stones is a very healthy place to be little studio visits in and it’s shaping up nicely. And that’s it. It’s like I never smoked. When I see
these days. Not only is the level of fitness high due somebody smoking I think: “Are you sure?”
to all of your bounding about the stage, but every It won’t be another [Stones’ 2016 covers album]
time you go tour you need to pass medicals. Blue & Lonesome? Ronnie Wood’s album Mad Lad: A Live
GETTY Which are getting harder and harder to pass now Oh no, a proper new studio album. Tribute To Chuck Berry is out now via BMG.




CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 77

CANNIBALISM,





DEATH,





RUBBER FETISHES...









These are just some of the topics covered on Lindemann’s compelling new record. But from the
men who are the main brains behind Rammstein and Hypocrisy, you shouldn't be surprised.


Words: Dannii Leivers

n December 4, 2018, Rammstein’s “For digestion,” Till says seriously, nodding. two halves. In 2016 the duo were approached by
Till Lindemann strode into “I’m like: ‘No, vodka maybe?’” Peter continues. the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, who asked them
a Moscow book signing “And he’s like: ‘No, it’s too much. Let’s do a couple to score the soundtrack for their modern adaption
accompanied by a gimp on a leash. of Jägermeister.’ It took a few hours, and then the of Hansel And Gretel. The five tracks they wrote and
O As he sat down to sign copies of his war was on.” recorded for the production (Blut, Knebel, Allesfresser,
poetry collection, Messer, his companion knelt “We puked, and then the same night we decided: Schlaf Ein and Wer weiß Das Schon) add much needed
dutifully on the floor beside him. let’s do music together,” Till says with a chuckle. depth to F&M, touching on cannibalism, death and
It takes him a little while to recall the incident child abandonment – all topics Till has explored
when we bring it up. “Ah, the bondage woman!” he ue to Till’s Rammstein commitments and with Rammstein.
finally remembers. “Book signings are so boring. It Peter’s numerous band and production “My whole history inspires me, good and bad
takes forever, standing in the cold and rain… so we Dcommittments, it took them 15 years to times,” he explains. “I take a lot from television,
brought something to entertain the people.” record their first track together. Once they started actually – from news, of course. Take cannibalism
Bringing a gimp to a bookshop is actually recording, though, the project snowballed, leading [talking about Rammstein track Mein Teil]. People
one of the meeker stunts Lindemann has pulled to smutty debut Skills In Pills in 2015. While Peter were like: ‘You crazy motherfucker.’ This is not
over the years. As a trained pyrotechnician, handled the music, Till’s perverse, ludicrous a story, it happened! There was a case in Germany –
his flame-throwing antics with German metal tendencies ran amok on tracks with titles like Fat, somebody ate the dick from another guy! You don’t
behemoths Rammstein have made him one Ladyboy and Praise Abort. New album F&M is no less have to be sick and crazy in your mind all the time.”
of rock’s most controversial characters. So on outrageous, with multiple songs about oral sex, as As fun as it was, at times the sheer silliness of
deciding that Russia was a long way to go just to well as Gummi, a track about a rubber fetish. Have Skills In Pills made Lindemann seem like a novel
sign some books, he used it as an opportunity to they received any complaints? concept, rather than something to properly plug
take Lindemann – Till and his bandmate, multi- “Of course,” Till shrugs. “The Christian groups, the gaps between Till and Peter’s day jobs.
instrumentalist, producer and “You set a standard with the first
Hypocrisy and Pain frontman Peter album, and then people think: ‘Oh,
Tägtgren – an equally provocative, this is how the rest of the career
pumping amalgamation of Euro- “We want to prove to ourselves that we is going to be,’” Peter, says clearly
synth and industrial crunch, on the can write different kinds of music. It’s aware of the questions surrounding
road for the first time. Lindemann’s longevity. “We want
“It was a new start, an important for us to develop.” Peter Tägtgren to prove to ourselves that we can
experiment,” he tells us today. write different kinds of music. It’s
“We needed to find out if it worked, if we had the they come of course. But kids these days, they’ve important for us to develop.”
right chemistry on stage. It was very crazy, small seen everything.” Accordingly, F&M feels like a more serious
clubs, small venues.” Dressed all in black and towering over his artistic endeavour, a far more varied record than its
Today Lindemann are back in Russia, shooting bandmate, Till has an imposing presence. Yet as predecessor – which, bar two ballads, was about
videos and conducting press for their second he repeatedly, perhaps nervously, removes and as musically subtle as Rammstein’s penis-shaped
album, F&M. We meet them in St Petersburg, replaces his dark sunglasses, he’s a contemplative canon. Ach So Gern is a folky waltz, Peter describes
in the glass-walled roof restaurant of the plush and quiet interviewee. And while Till procrastinates Platz Einz as “Pet Shop Boys on amphetamine”,
Kempinski Hotel. Just one block away, the brightly over our questions, Peter fills in conversational gaps while Mathematik – written by his son Sebastian,
coloured onion domes of the Church Of The with quick, sharp answers. Despite their differences, Lindemann’s drummer – features German
Savior On Spilled Blood rise into the air. It’s the though, the pair have an easy rapport that comes rapper Haftbefehl. Tapping into the unpredictable
perfect place for an interview with two of rock’s from decades of close friendship. personalities of its creators, it feels like Lindemann
most unique characters. As we drink it all in, the Peter, what was your reaction when Till brought have progressed beyond tongue-in-cheek laughs to
duo, tucking into plates of fruit and cold cuts, recall you a track like Gummi? something deeper and darker.
how they met at the MTV Awards ceremony in “Normal life at work,” he replies, unfazed. “I think a lot of people might have a hard time
Stockholm almost 20 years ago. Till starts laughing. “In the beginning, the first accepting it because it doesn’t go the way you think
“You were still fresh in the game. [Rammstein] song [we recorded] was Ladyboy, and he was: ‘Are it’s going when you listen to it the first time,” Peter
only had the second album out,” Peter remembers. you serious? Are you for real?’ He gave up on me says firmly. “But we don’t write for anybody. We
“You opened Pandora’s Box. You were like: ‘Do you a long time ago.” write for ourselves.”
have any schnapps in Sweden?’ Because Germans While six of F&M’s 11 tracks are right out of
always have apple Schnapps…” Till’s mental gutter, it is undoubtedly an album of F&M is out now via Universal.



78 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

JENS KOCH/PRESS Peter Tägtgren (left) and



Till Lindemann: no songs
about cars and girls.

IN MEMORIAM













Here’s to the rock’n’rollers, among them musicians, producers, writers and more, who sadly left
us in 2019. Thank you for the music…




BRUCE CORBITT MARK HOLLIS Drummer of The Wrecking Crew
December 22, 1962 – January 25, 2019 January 4, 1955 – February 25, 2019
Singer for Rigor Mortis Singer and driving force of Talk Talk JOHN KILZER
and Warbeast January 7, 1957 – March 12, 2019
KENNETH PITT Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter
JACQUELINE STEINER November 10, 1922 – February 25,
September 11, 1924 – January 25, 2019 2019 BARRY PAUL
American folk singer and activist Early publicist for David Bowie February 17, 1948 – March 13, 2019
Guitarist of the Heavy Metal Kids
PAUL WHALEY ANDY ANDERSON
January 14, 1946 - January 28, 2019 January 30, 1951 – February 26, DICK DALE
The drummer of Blue Cheer 2019 May 4, 1937 – March 16, 2019
Drummer for The Cure and The Boston-born godfather of
GEORGE KWIATKIEWICZ Steve Hillage surf guitar
November 24, 1954 – February 4, 2019
Employee of Repertoire Records DOUG SANDOM ANDRE WILLIAMS
KEITH FLINT February 26, 1930 – February 27, 2019 November 1, 1936 – March 17, 2019
JIM DUNLOP SNR Original drummer of Noted R&B musician originally
September 17, 1969 – March 4, 2019
Died February 6, 2019 The Who from Alabama
Frontman of the Prodigy Manufacturer of guitar pics, strings
and effects
PEGI YOUNG MICKEY RAMONE COYLE
December 1, 1952 – January 1, 2019 October 9, 1963 – January 10, 2019 RANDY NAUERT
Activist and musician Stand-in bass player for January 1, 1945 – February 7, 2019
UK punks GBH American surf-rock musician
DARYL DRAGON
August 27, 1942 – January 2, 2019 ROSS LOWELL JOE HARDY
The Captain of Captain And Tennille July 10, 1926 – January 10, 2019 Died February 12, 2019
Inventor of Gaffer tape Record producer and musician
STEVE RIPLEY
January 1, 1950 – January 3, 2019 LORNA DOOM KOFI BURBRIDGE
Singer and guitarist of US country- January 4, 1958 – January 16, 2019 September 22, 1961 – February 15, 2019
rockers the Tractors Bass player of the Los Angeles Keyboard player and flautist of the
punks Germs Tedeschi Trucks Band
ERIC HAYDOCK
February 3, 1943 – January 5, 2019 REGGIE YOUNG MARY ANN FELDMAN
Co-founding bassist of The Hollies December 12, 1936 – January 17, 2019 April 20, 1933 - February 18, 2019 LARRY WALLIS
Renowned session guitarist with Veteran US music critic May 19, 1949 – September 19, 2019
ALAN R PEARLMAN a seven-decade career Guitarist of Pink Fairies, UFO and Motörhead
Died January 6, 2019 SKIP GROFF
Designer of amplifiers TED McKENNA November 20, 1948 – February
March 10, 1950 – January 19, 2019 18, 2019
CLYDIE KING Drummer for The Sensational Alex American record producer STEPHAN ELLIS SCOTT WALKER
August 21, 1943 – January 7, 2019 Harvey Band, Rory Gallagher and Died February 28, 2019 January 9, 1943 – March 22, 2019
Celebrated backing vocalist Michael Schenker FRED FOSTER Former bass player of Survivor Enigmatic singer/songwriter,
July 26, 1931 – February 20, 2019 composer and producer
US record producer, songwriter and PAUL WILLIAMS
business executive Died March 1, 2019 JOE HARVARD
English blues singer and musician Died March 24, 2019
PETER RÜCHEL American musician, producer, writer
March 9, 1937 – February 20, 2019 GERRY STICKELLS and studio owner
Founder of TV concert Died March 6, 2019
series Rockpalast Tour manager for Queen and JOE FLANNERY
Paul McCartney Died March 27, 2019
PETER TORK Backroom team plotter and
February 13, 1942 – February 21, 2019 MIKE GROSE ‘secret Beatle’
Member of The Monkees Died March 8, 2019
Queen’s first bass player SHAWN SMITH
DENNIS EYRE October 28, 1965 – April 5, 2019 KEITH FLINT: ALAMY; BERNIE TORMÉ: CAMERA PRESS; LARRY WALLIS: GETTY
May 27, 1962 – February 21, 2019 DANNY KUSTOW Singer-songwriter and voice of
Manager and booking agent May 10, 1955 – March 11, 2019 Satchel, Brad and Pigeonhed
Guitarist of the Tom Robinson Band
BERNIE TORMÉ MAC WISEMAN EARL THOMAS CONLEY
March 18, 1952 – March 17, 2019 May 23, 1925 – February 24, 2019 HAL BLAINE October 17, 1941 – April 10, 2019
US bluegrass musician February 5, 1929 – March 11, 2019 Country music singer-songwriter
Guitarist of Gillan, Electric Gypsies, Ozzy Osbourne & more



80 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

MICHIEL EIKENAAR JULES BLATTNER JOHNNY CLEGG
June 12, 1976 – April 12, 2019 February 8, 1941 – June 7, 2019 June 7, 1953 – July 16, 2019
Frontman of the Dutch black metal American rock’n’roll singer London-born South African muso
acts Nihil and Dodecahedron and guitarist and political activist

PAUL RAYMOND ANDRÉ MATOS BILL VITT
November 16, 1945 – April 13, 2019 September 14, 1971 – June 8, 2019 Died July 16, 2019
Guitarist/keyboard player of UFO, the Singer of Angra, Viper, Shaman Drumming sidekick of Jerry Garcia
Michael Schenker Group and Waysted and Symphonia and more

STEVE FORSTER PETER WHITEHEAD ART NEVILLE
June 18, 1964 – April 19, 2019 January 8, 1937 – June 10, 2019 December 17, 1937 – July 22, 2019
British concert promoter Celebrated British filmmaker Member of The Neville Brothers

PHIL MCCORMACK PHILOMENA LYNOTT NIGEL BENJAMIN
July 31, 1960 – 26 April, 2019 October 22, 1930 – June 12, 2019 September 12, 1954 – July 31, 2019
Singer of Molly Hatchet Beloved mother of Frontman of Mott (the band) DR JOHN
Thin Lizzy’s Philip and London November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019
SUSAN SPRINGFIELD
April 21, 1952 – May 2, 2019 ALEX RUFFINI LOL MASON Iconic US singer-songwriter
Lead singer of US punk band Erasers Died June 18, 2019 Died July 31, 2019
Popular music photographer Frontman the UK pop-pomp- NEAL CASAL RIC OCASEK
JR COBB rockers City Boy November 2, 1968 – August 26, March 23, 1944 – September 15,
February 5, 1944 – May 4, 2019 ELLIOT ROBERTS 2019 2019
Rhythm guitarist of Southern February 25, 1943 – June 21, 2019 IAN GIBBONS Well respected US singer-songwriter Vocalist and guitarist of The Cars and
rockers Atlanta Rhythm Section Manager of Neil Young and more July 18, 1952 – August 1, 2019 and country-rock guitarist producer for bands including Weezer
Keyboardist of The Kinks, Ian and Bad Brains
MIKE WILHELM JERRY CARRIGAN Hunter, Sweet, Quatro and more DONNIE FRITTS
March 18, 1942 – May 14, 2019 September 13, 1943 – June 22, 2019 November 8, 1942 – August 27, TONY MILLS
Co-founder of US band Drummer of the Muscle Shoals DA PENNEBAKER 2019 July 7, 1962 – September 18, 2019
The Charlatans Rhythm Section July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019 Alabama-born keyboardist for Lead singer of Shy, TNT, Siam
Celebrated filmmaker and Kris Kristofferson and more
ERIC MOORE DAVE BARTHOLOMEW documentary pioneer
Died May 17, 2019 December 24, 1918 – June 23, 2019 JIMMY JOHNSON YONRICO SCOTT
The frontman of The Godz American musician and songwriter DAMIAN LOVELOCK February 4, 1943 – September 5, 2019 October 6, 1955 – September 20,
May 21, 1954 – August 3, 2019 Member of the Muscle Shoals 2019
LARRY CARROLL TONY HALL Frontman of Aussie punks Rhythm Section Long-serving drummer of The Derek
Died May 21, 2019 April 1, 1928 – June 26, 2019 Celibate Rifles Trucks Band
Designer of four Slayer Music executive, producer JEFF FENHOLT
album sleeves and deejay BERNIE FROST September 15, 1950 – September 10, ROBERT HUNTER
Died August 4, 2019 2019 June 23, 1941 – September 23, 2019
Songwriter associated with Singer of Joshua, Driver and Tony California-born lyricist for the
Status Quo Iommi’s Seventh Star Grateful Dead
LIZZIE GREY HOSSAM RAMZY RICHARD BRUNELLE
August 13, 1958 – August 5, 2019 December 15, 1953 – September 10, September 6, 1964 – September 23,
Singer of the LA bands London, Ultra 2019 2019
Pop and Spiders & Snakes Percussionist for Jimmy Page And Former guitarist of American death
Robert Plant and Peter Gabriel metallers Morbid Angel, who played
FRANCESCA SUNDSTEN on their first two albums
Died August 7, 2019 DANIEL JOHNSTON
Supplied artwork for King Crimson January 22, 1961 – September 11, BARRIE MASTERS
2109 Died October 2, 2019
DAVID BERMAN Lo-fi American singer-songwriter, Frontman and co-founder of pub
January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019 subject of the documentary film The rock legends Eddie And The
Singer of New York indie rock band Devil And Daniel Johnston Hot Rods
Silver Jews
ROKY ERICKSON EDDIE MONEY MORTEN STÜTZER
July 15, 1947 – May 31, 2019 NICKY WONDER March 21, 1949 – September 13, 2019 Died October 2, 2019
Died August 8, 2019 New York cop turned Guitarist of the Danish heavy
Frontman of the 13th Floor Elevators
Guitarist of LA-based power- singer-songwriter metallers Artillery
poppers the Wondermints
JULIAN PIPER KIM SHATTUCK
ROSŁAW SZAYBO GARY DUNCAN FREDDIE BANNISTER August 10, 1947 – September 14, July 17, 1963 – October 2, 2019
August 13 1933 – May 21, 2019 September 4, 1946 – June 29, 2019 December 3, 1934 – August 11, 2019 2019 Singer, guitarist and songwriter with
Designer of several album sleeves Guitarist/vocalist of the Quicksilver Noted British concert promoter British blues-rock guitarist the Muffs and the Pandoras
for Judas Priest Messenger Service
PETER FONDA
JAKE BLACK ALAN ROGAN February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019
Died May 21, 2019 February 15, 1951 – July 3, 2019 American actor, influential upon the
Lead singer of Alabama 3 The Who’s super-roadie and guitar Byrds and The Beatles
tech to Pete Townshend
TONY GLOVER GEORGE ‘GG’ GUIDOTTI
October 7, 1939 – May 29, 2019 JOÃO GILBERTO Died August 18, 2019
The man who taught Mick Jagger June 10, 1931 – July 6, 2019 Bassist of the US melodic hard rock
group Heaven’s Edge
how to play the harmonica The father of bossa nova LARRY ‘THE MOLE’ TAYLOR
ROKY ERICKSON + DR JOHN + GINGER BAKER: GETTY August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019 Former lead singer of US soft-rockers drummer with Lords Of Distortion August 19, 1939 – October 6, 2019
LEON REDBONE
JAMES HENKE
Died July 8, 2019
June 26, 1942 – August 19, 2019
Bass player of the original
Journalist for Rolling Stone from
Singer-songwriter and guitarist
Canned Heat
1977 to 1993
of jazz and blues standards
NATE WINGER
RUSSELL SMITH
BRIAN DOHERTY
GINGER BAKER
June 17, 1949 – July 12, 2019
Died August 22, 2019
April 2, 1968 – June 5, 2019
Guitarist for Canadian/American
Musician brother of Kip and
hard rockers Big Wreck
The Amazing Rhythm Aces
Pioneering drummer and percussionist
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 81

THE LEGENDS THAT BUILT ROCK!







From the pages of Classic Rock magazine comes this collection of incredible encounters


with rock’n’roll’s most iconic figures. From Jimmy Page and Slash to Freddie Mercury

and Keith Richards, join us in this 148-page celebration of music’s greatest stars.

Classic Rock Ratings Ingredients:
QQQQQQQQQQ A Classic
QQQQQQQQQQ Excellent
QQQQQQQQQQ Very Good p84 Albums
QQQQQQQQQQ Good
QQQQQQQQQQ Above Average p92 Reissues
QQQQQQQQQQ Average
QQQQQQQQQQ Below Par p96 DVDs & Books
QQQQQQQQQQ A Disappointment
QQQQQQQQQQ Pants
QQQQQQQQQQ Pish

12 PAGES 100% ROCK

Edited By Ian Fortnam [email protected]











































































p92






Iron Maiden



Final batch of reissues charts the

metal giants’ latter-day purple patch.



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 83

ALBUMS Various Charm


City Devils
If You’re Going To The
City – A Tribute To
Business as usual with studio
Mose Allison FAT POSSUM 1904 BROKEN WORLD
Iggy, Costello et al join charity album number four.
comp romp. Missing in (or
When jazz great maybe out of)
Mose Allison action since
passed away 2014’s Battles,
aged 89 in Charm City
2016, he left Devils return with five tracks
behind the kind of back showcasing their modern take
catalogue that cries out to be on 80s hard rock. Inspired by
covered. His brand of jazz- and dedicated to their home city
inflected blues piano was of Baltimore (the cover depicts
trademarked by the kind of pithy, the aftermath of the city-wide
sardonic lyrics that were fire of 1904), the aim is to
irreverently ahead of their time. showcase the band’s resilience,
So when a collection of lead single Skipping Stone
contrasting voices tackle his boasting an uplifting radio-ready
songs for charity here, it’s that chorus which brings to mind
character of songwriting which a tougher, heavier Bon Jovi.
shines through a diverse range Bookending the EP with an
of new styles laid upon it. Robbie acoustic version lets the song
Fulks’s lively bluegrass treatment breathe and serves to emphasise
of My Brain works brilliantly, CCD’s obvious versatility, a fact
while the synth backing and reflected in the remaining songs:
swirling brass decoration on Iggy Tides Are Changin’ and Broken
Pop’s If You’re Going To The City Hearts Broken Bones both come
offsets his mischievous drawl with solid-gold hooks, but the
Leprous perfectly. Finally, the kittenish snake-hipped Dollar Sign$ is
voice of Allison’s daughter Amy
the best, built around a slinky,
alongside Elvis Costello on funky rhythm track and an
Pitfalls SONY/INSIDE OUT
Monsters Of The Id make for Aerosmith-esque riff.
Stronger without metal. a memorable last hurrah. Five tracks is a bit of a water-
QQQQQQQQQQ testing exercise, but the quality
Johnny Sharp of 1904 bodes well for the future.
QQQQQQQQQQ
Lacuna Coil Essi Berelian

ighteen years into their career, hectic, regressive By My Throne with its Black Anima CENTURY MEDIA
although only 10 since they barrage of interconnected vocals and Italian goth metallers reach The Pineapple
Ereleased their first album, for their guitar outbursts from Tor Oddmund towering new heights. Thief
sixth studio album Norwegian prog- Suhrke, as if Solberg has just woken from This feels like Hold Our Fire KSCOPE
metallers Leprous have loosened the a vivid dream and is trying to make sense the album Band showcase Dissolution
metallic ties that bind, and instead focused of it all. Lacuna Coil album in full live show.
It’s been
have been
on progression. Anchoring the mood swings is threatening to something of
It’s a bold switch of style but one that a common structure underlying the songs make for their whole career. a banner few
the band foreshadowed on 2017’s Malina, which invariably start with synthesised While the Italian goth-metallers’ years for Bruce
which was notably less harsh-sounding, beats and keyboards to set the scene early material was ethereal and Soord and his
particularly when it came to Einar before the guitar and drums make their sumptuous, and they played it The Pineapple Thief. After years
Solberg’s vocals; he certainly sounds more moves. They’ve also added a violinist and safe with radio-friendly of acclaimed cult status on the
convincing as a fragile human being than cellist who come with their own anthemia during their mid- peripheries of prog’s
as a guttural beast. arrangements to enhance the band’s career run, with 2016’s Delirium mainstream, their twelfth studio
Like their previous albums, Pitfalls takes already crowded soundscapes. they went heavier than ever album, 2018’s Dissolution, broke
a thematic approach, except this time it’s The first half of Pitfalls is surprisingly before. Now, on their ninth into the Top 40, and that was
more personal as Solberg confronts his accessible – almost poppy at times – album, the band have finally followed by a hugely successful
own depression and anxieties. And an which might not please their hard-core nailed the balance between the tour culminating in a headline
angry roar is insufficient when it comes to fans although it could bring them disparate elements of their show at Shepherd’s Bush Empire
accepting and then tackling the demons a broader audience. The songs further into decadent sound. in London.
that conspire to bring him down. the album get more experimental, Black Anima is raw yet “We had a joke that we’d
polished triumph, packed with always play the Empire,” says
Obviously there is anger, particularly climaxing with the ambitious The Sky Is
on the opening slow and portentous Below Red which features a classical choir and addictive hooks and memorable, Soord, “and years later we found
where he seeks to bury his problems (‘And dense layers of sound to make its point. meaty riffs. Vocalists Cristina ourselves in the dressing room
Scabbia and Andrea Ferro are as headliners. It was like: ‘Shit,
I will lie, lie, keep it all together’), but that’s just Just don’t expect a happy ending. on fine form, and amid we did it!’ We started in 1999.
the first of many mood swings that Pitfalls is best listened to the way Solberg
a cobwebbed atmosphere on How many bands do you know
Solberg describes with deft lyrical and and Leprous intended: from beginning to Reckless and Apocalypse their that have a real creative launch
musical control. Like the almost reflective end, and probably on headphones to keep contrasting vocals stir so late in their career?”
stance on his feelings of despair on I Lose the outside world at bay. It will still take a bewitching danse macabre To celebrate Dissolution and its
Hope, which is carried along by what feels a few plays before you get it, but isn’t that against velvet shadows. Overall success, the band played it in its
like a dance groove, his acceptance of what prog is supposed to be about? the album is a satisfying apex to entirety on tour, and that, with
those feelings on the dreamy, atmospheric QQQQQQQQQQ a steady 25-year evolution. the addition of the excellent
Observe The Train, which is followed by the Hugh Fielder QQQQQQQQQQ 3000 Days (from arguably their WILL IRELAND/PRESS
Dannii Leivers best album, 2010’s Someone

84 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Here Is Missing), is what you get high-school dramas. sophisticated and convincing. tuning an already potent rock Burnt Out Wreck
on this record. Ultimately White Reaper just Unlike both Darkthrone and sound the band have taken an This Is Hell
Drummer Gavin Harrison says don’t have the instinct to rip your Emperor, who have used the assured step forward. BURNT OUT WRECKORDS/CHERRY RED
it “really captures the energy and head off – and head-ripping is past as a springboard to broader QQQQQQQQQQ Scot-rocker turns in
spirit of the band”, and it’s hard a requirement of rock stardom. horizons, Mayhem are restrained Johnny Sharp a convincing Antipodean
to argue with that. They’re It’s a pleasant enough album, by an obsession with their past. impersonation.
especially good on the ambitious but not a crucial one. QQQQQQQQQQ Saint Asonia What does
White Mist and the brooding QQQQQQQQQQ Malcolm Dome Flawed Design SPINEFARM former Heavy
Threatening War, fully fleshed Sleazegrinder When you’ve loved and lost Pettin’ drummer
out, live in the flesh. Wolf Jaw like St Asonia… and songwriter
QQQQQQQQQQ Mayhem The Heart Won’t Listen More popular Gary Moat have
Philip Wilding Daemon CENTURY MEDIA LISTENABLE than dessert in common with Phil Collins and
A band unable to escape Black Country trio change their in their native Dave Grohl? Not a whole lot,
White Reaper their past. name and sharpen their teeth USA, Saint really, other than the fact that
You Deserve Love ELEKTRA The most for album number two. Asonia are just like his vastly more famous
You probably deserve better. controversial of Even after the overwrought brainchild of counterparts he’s opted to trade
There’s a lot all black metal the Bad Three Days Grace singer Adam in his sticks for a microphone.
riding on White bands, Mayhem Flowers’ debut Gontier and Staind guitarist Moat formed Burnt Out Wreck
Reaper’s made their album Starting Mike Mushok. The results are five years ago, and their debut,
shoulders at musical reputation with vicious Gun brought about as earnest as you might Swallow, followed in 2017.
this moment in performances which were as them a fair bit of attention last imagine. Each and every song Although a degree of cynicism
time. These constantly-gigging comfortable as bathing in year, they clearly felt that – Sirens, The Hunted, The Fallen traditionally surrounds
Kentucky rockers have made sulphuric acid. A quarter of a rebranding was in order. So for (you get the picture) – sounds drummers-turned-vocalists,
a cottage industry of their feel- a century on from its release, De this follow-up they’re now Wolf like Gontier has climbed a lofty Swallow was a very pleasant
good, poppy, arena-bound Mysteriis Dom Santhanas not only Jaw. And maybe it’s had a peak bare-chested to deliver his surprise, its groove-laden, good-
rock’n’roll – think Weezer without remains the Norwegians’ psychological effect, because vocal, one fist raised, a lonely time, hard-rockin’ boogie sound
the 90s ennui – and You Deserve defining album, it also this is a tightier, hookier set tear rolling slowly down his following in the footsteps of
Love finds the band jumping on to disconcertingly haunts Daemon. which seems to befit the fang- magnificent cheek. AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Airbourne,
a major label, presumably to take Maybe it’s because Mayhem baring new monicker, with That said, you can see why Rhino Bucket and Krokus. But
over the world. have just toured celebrating the Choke and Lose My Mind typifing rock radio in the States can’t get disregard your suspicion for
There are moments here 25th anniversary of that a riff-driven style that marries enough of them; they sound like a moment, because Burnt Out
where that seems entirely aforementioned debut, but you loose bass-line grooves to Evanescence if Evanescence Wreck have the songs to
possible, particularly on obvious hear its influence all over snapping percussion, as always has a headache. Lusty validate what they do. This
singles like Hard Luck and Real Daemon, the band’s sixth album. frontman Tom Leighton’s blues- and melodic and with just the hugely enjoyable follow-up
Long Time, both of which bring to Now that of itself is no bad thing. rock howl goes on the attack. right amount of angst for those charts a notable maturing and
mind past world shakers such as But Mayhem simply cannot Our old friend the devil appears nights when your Tinder date elevation of the songwriting with
Cheap Trick and Thin Lizzy. hope to recapture the violent as a recurring lyrical image, just didn’t go the way you’d have no loss of balls, attitude or
Elsewhere, though, it just sounds force and dirty energy of those whether upsetting the romantic liked. Little wonder that their wallop – check out supercharged
like gooey indie-rock, with piping early days, and this holds back apple cart on I Lose My Mind or debut took them into opener Dead Or Alive, Paddywack
synthesisers, chocking Warped tracks like Aeon Daemonium and stoking the fires of Leighton’s amphitheatres. And if that or the innuendo-charged Rock
Tour drums and pop-punky Worthless Abominations rage on the thunderous Beast. formula ain’t broke, why fix it? Hard Sticky Sweet for proof.
hooks which sound like the Destroyed, which have the No musical wheels are QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ
soundtrack for bad free-cable potential to be more reinvented here, but in fine- Philip Wilding Dave Ling




ROUND-UP: SLEAZE By Sleazegrinder

Big Stick Mean Jeans

LP ECHOES AND DUST Gigantic Sike FAT
Big Stick slithered out Giving you an idea of
of the New York what this band sound
underground in the mid- like is easy: they sound
80s, sounding like like an eternally teenage
a staticky FM radio stuck Ramones with eternally
halfway between a Shangri-Las song and dumb teenage problems –I Fell Into A Bog,
a loop of a revving chainsaw. After morphing Just A Trim (Don’t Buzz Me, Alright) – and
into the pre-eminent drag racing electro- the whole thing is a gasser from start to
punk band in the 90s, they’ve returned with finish. The minute-and-a-half-long What
this collection of crunchy, throbbing The Fuck Is Up Tonight might be the
rock’n’roll insanity that’s as sexy and greatest rock’n’roll song written
destructive as a flaming stock car pile-up. this decade.
QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ

Schizophonics Zodiac Panthers
Suicide Bombers: hard-
core rock’n’roll for hard- People In The Sky PIG BABY Hexray Vision SELF-RELEASED
core rock’n’rollers. Schizophonics are Zodiac Panthers are
a power trio from four furious, leather-
Suicide Bombers San Diego who bound rockers who
another band in operation that manages I’ve gotta go with the frankly amazing We ostensibly play garage sound like Apocalypse
Murder Couture SELF-RELEASED
to capture the sticky sweet glamour, Don’t Negotiate With Terrorists, both for rock. But just imagine Dudes-era Turbonegro
After an amusingly streetwise grit, pinballing teenage sexual its glistening Shotgun Messianic riffs and that the garage is engulfed in flames and stripped down to nothing but sneers,
over-the-top Sigue energy and gloomy suburban nihilism of its majestic climactic ode to Johnny nobody cares. This is party rock if every howls and fist-fights. This is back-to-
Sigue Sputnik-esque Hanoi Rocks better than the Bombers. Thunders (‘Down to kill! Like party ended in multiple homicides. I’m basics, bloodsport rock’n’roll like we
intro, Oslo’s suicide You can pick your own faves – the a motherfucker!’). This is not a drill, not sure if there’s a more exciting made it in the good ol’ days, with spit
bombers launch into infectious title track is particularly easy man. This is what you came here for. rock’n’roll band in operation right now and and cigarette smoke. So primitive you
one of the most consistently rocking on the ear, and Madman is an 80s Euro- This is hard-core rock’n’roll for hard-core if there is then I’m sure my heart couldn’t may regress into a caveman before the
albums of the year. With the obvious spandex chug-fest that rivals Oz for rock’n’rollers. take it. record’s over.
exception of Mike Monroe, there isn’t cheap headbanging thrills – but for me, QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 85

ALBUMS
Jaz Coleman hypnotic feel, as if they’re
Magna Invocatio: being played by androids on
A Gnostic Mass For Choir methadone, while the likes of
And Orchestra Inspired Die Waiting and Saw Lightning,
By The Sublime Music Of with its cheeky throwback to
Killing Joke SPINEFARM the slide guitar of Loser, hide
Joke gain beautiful classical their miseries beneath
punchline. crunching beats, pulsating
While Killing whoomps and chartable
Joke’s elemental melodies. Their talents
intensity is cited merge best on lovelorn finale
as a major Everlasting Nothing, a blade
influence by runner’s idea of country gospel,
Metallica, and their original line- and proof that, when visionaries
up support Tool in US arenas, collide, sparks can both fly
singer Jaz Coleman continues his and drift.
pursuit of ultimate catharsis by QQQQQQQQQQ
exploring the “panoramic beauty” Mark Beaumont
in their songs through a Gnostic
mass using Russia’s venerable St Hazemaze
Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Hymns Of The Damned
and choir. RIPPLE MUSIC/CURSED TONGUE
On a mission to inflame spirits Beyond the realms of death
above harsh modern life, Developing from
Coleman uses mystic author the more 70s
Alice Bailey’s The Great Invocation stoner approach
as a launch pad for “thirteen of their self-
digestible epics” which include titled 2018
reworkings of later Joke tracks debut album, Hazemaze might
such as The Raven King, well have found their ideal sound
Yes Intravenous and Honour The Fire in Hymns Of The Damned. Heavy
like Everest falling on your head,
into euphoric orchestral flights,
or Adorations transformed into these eight monster tracks grind
From A Page BURNING SHED
a gorgeously becalmed pastoral. and groove ominously through a
Unreleased 2010 material sees Oliver Several tracks from 2015’s Pylon, variety of contortions which,
notably a darkly pulsing Into basically, take Sabbath’s Hand Of
Wakeman doing his dad proud.
The Unknown, bolster the Joke’s Doom, turn the doom bit up to 11
latent menace on to an evocative and let rip.
new plane. Shadow In The Night, Lobotomy,
he ongoing Yes saga is one the epic band collaboration The Gift This remarkable set really can Thrill Seeker – the entire album,
confusing, labyrinthine tale, which Of Love. soothe or ignite a troubled soul in really – display an impressive
Tmakes David Lynch’s film Mulholland They sound in great nick throughout, harsh modern times. command of doomy rifferama,
Drive look simplistic. This partially new finding a likeable halfway line between the QQQQQQQQQQ peppered with some very nice
release comes not from the current line- more strictly disciplined Horn-honed Kris Needs cowbell action throughout.
up, or line-ups – and we’d need a material and their earlier exploratory Beck Guitarist Ludvig delivers his
vocals from the bottom of
lengthy sidebar to explain that – but from urges. Howe in particular seems in the
Hyperspace CAPITOL a rather deep and watery well,
a 2010 incarnation. With some 2009 zone, having one of those intermittent Odd musical couple make his bleak tales of horror,
attached. Before we get bogged down in spells where his every solo flies, and you
beautiful intergalactic music. murder and mayhem perfectly
a “previously… on Yes” recap, the happy can sense the love that Wakeman has put Plonk a mid- complementing the oppressive
news is the record is really rather good. into it, not wanting to let the family tree divorce Beck sense of gloom and dread.
So: with Jon Anderson at that time flake. As archive raids go, From A Page is (a man with The lyrics do eventually trigger
recently ill and displaced, the personnel revealing in terms of the team-list’s form in making evil-fatigue, but there’s no
consisted of new Canadian vocalist Benoit dynamics and respectable on its own supremely denying just how fantastically
David, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan musical merits. Its release is, counter- devastated break-up albums raw and huge Hymns Of The
White and Oliver Wakeman, the latter intuitively, just enough of a good thing. – see 2002’s Sea Change) in Damned sounds.
recommended by his dad. They started Glued on to make a mini box-set is the a studio with Pharrell ‘room Impressively unsavoury stuff.
recording, until some ran off with Trevor 2009 two-disc live album from the same without a roof’ Williams, and QQQQQQQQQQ
Horn and Geoff Downes. Yep, again. quintet, In The Present: Live From Lyon, you’re never going to get an Essi Berelian
Oliver was benched, and the 2011 Horn- previously released but now with a bonus album that sounds of this earth.
produced album Fly From Here emerged. Howe acoustic solo track, Second Initial. Sure enough, Hyperspace, Beck’s Molly Hatchet
fourteenth, following the pop- Battleground STEAMHAMMER/SPV
However, the stuff they’d begun with This two-hour set starts off timidly but
Wakeman Junior as chief writer and locates its confidence and blossoms into heavy Colors, is the sound of the Another new line-up, another
otherworldly sci-fi R&B that’s live album.
producer is now deemed release-worthy. gripping performances of such Yes
released when a psych country It was way back
And correctly so. All parties speak highly stalwarts as And You And I, South Side Of singer-songwriter and a future- in 1985 that
of it and suggest it made no sense for The Sky and Starship Trooper.
pop production legend bond at southern
music featuring the late Squire to sit on For completists, this amounts to molecular level. rockers Molly
a shelf. Wakeman has polished it up and a compelling compendium of the Benoit Beck’s bleaker themes (post- Hatchet, friends
written useful explanatory notes. The David-Oliver Wakeman period. split desolation on Uneventful and spiritual heirs of Lynyrd
four tracks amount to around 26 minutes, A multiple choice test on Yes’s history will Days and Dark Places; the OD Skynyrd, made a defining
with simple Wakeman-and-David piano now be passed around the room. death of a childhood friend on statement with their concert
ballad From The Turn Of A Card a comma QQQQQQQQQQ Stratosphere, featuring recording Double Trouble Live. All
between two six-minute smoothies and Chris Roberts Coldplay’s Chris Martin) are these years later, keyboard
given a hazy, synthetically player John Galvin is the only

86 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

survivor from Hatchet’s glory atmospheric musings about colours to studio reworkings of explosions of sound and wonder pop polymath his most
days, the others all having police brutality (Trouble In Town) songs spanning the Steve happening everywhere. The rapturous reviews since his
passed away, guitarist and and Dylan-esque ditties about Hogarth years. orchestrated, choir-fed opening prime-time Talking Heads days,
founder Dave Hlubek the last to arms control (Guns). But for all With the band rarely cutting 150 seconds of Race For The Prize blasting him into the arena-rock
go, in 2017. But the modern these attempts at topicality, loose, Hogarth’s work is carefully alone justifies life itself. premiere league and extending
version of the band, led by long- essentially it’s the sound of the framed to bring out its best This is a re-recording of their into a Broadway residency.
serving guitarist Bobby Ingram, band letting off creative steam qualities. This Strange Engine 1999 album The Soft Bulletin Performing on an artfully bare
remains faithful to tradition. after the ruthlessly commercial especially is composed with – perhaps The Flaming Lips’ stage with a dynamic troupe of
Battleground, the latest of pop bromides of 2015’s Head sensual precision, the wax smell crowning achievement before singer-dancer-musicians, the
Hatchet’s many live albums, Full Of Dreams. Accordingly, the of abandoned school corridors the R.E.M. trap took hold – 67-year-old avant-pop legend
marks the debut of singer Jimmy rest of the 53-minute running recalling the start of its subject’s recorded live with the Colorado clothes new tracks and old
Elkins, whose raspy voice is time is filled with lo-fi gospel rebellion against authority. The Symphony at Red Rocks classics alike in explosively funky
reminiscent of the great Danny vamps (Cry Cry Cry, BrokEn), Hollow Man’s profound alienation Amphitheatre in Morrison, marching-band arrangements
Joe Brown. While there’s plenty utterly bonkers choral lullabies also benefits from melancholy Colorado in front of an ecstasy and superbly wonky
of gusto in the performance, (When I Need A Friend) and cellos. Both songs have been of believers making insect choreography. It is an
with a few late-period songs enough saccharine balladry (Old rescued from Marillion’s noises and losing all abandon. exhilarating audio-visual
mixed in with early landmark Friends, Daddy) to have the Chris wilderness decades, to perhaps The album is played through spectacular, but it inevitably
tracks such as Whiskey Man, Fall Martin-phobic reaching for the get a fairer hearing now. in its entirely, Wayne Coyne has loses something when shrunk
Of The Peacemakers and Flirtin’ nearest receptacle. The relentless restraint can rarely sounded this engaged and to a conventional live album
With Disaster, what was There is the occasional flash of be self-defeating, making this poignant, the rhythms do what format. Divorced from their
captured on Double Trouble Live pop brilliance – notably desert- more a genuine chamber- the rhythms must. This version theatrical staging and Byrne’s
– the classic line-up at its hard- rock nugget Arabesque – but for piece than a rock album. But of Waitin’ For A Superman is, right droll banter, folksy surrealist
boogieing, hard-drinking peak non-fans of Coldplay this dose of it’s an interesting angle on now, my definition of beauty. ballads like Every Day Is A
– could never be equalled. Everyday Life will be one they can a dogged career. Music so spiritually uplifting Miracle and I Dance Like This
QQQQQQQQQQ easily do without. QQQQQQQQQQ and healing that it should come lose much of their charm, while
Paul Elliott QQQQQQQQQQ Nick Hasted with a health warning. What even the vintage Heads classic
Paul Moody the hell are we going to do when Once In A Lifetime and Burning
Coldplay The Flaming it finishes? Down The House feel slightly
Marillion Lips
Everyday Life PARLOPHONE QQQQQQQQQQ underpowered. That said, the
Sprawling double album from With Friends From The Soft Bulletin: Live Everett True brass-heavy polyrhythmic Afro-
gazillion-selling soft rock The Orchestra EARMUSIC At Red Rocks BELLA UNION funk versions of I Zimbra,
behemoths. Strings and things reimagine This is the purest acid magic, David Byrne Slippery People and Blind still
Announced via post-Fish highs. the hairs on your arms lit American Utopia On pack a mighty kinetic kick.
a worldwide Rock bands tend up like Sunderland Bridge Broadway – Original Cast Byrne and his multiracial crew
poster to employ at Christmas. Recording Live NONESUCH also invest Janelle Monáe’s
campaign, orchestras for This album is Bryne’s career-topping, jaw- blistering anti-racist protest
Coldplay’s their massed Disneyland for dropping stage spectacular anthem Hell You Talmbout with
eighth album - divided into two thunder, but Generation X, feels diminished on record. righteous gospel-fired passion.
halves: Sunrise and Sunset – Marillion settle here for an every note and David Byrne’s A decent live album, but the
comes with an over-arching augmented version of the string sound teased 2018 American inevitable film or DVD version
sense of its own importance. quartet used on 2016’s resurgent out and engorged, pinch-me-I- Utopia tour will make much more sense.
We get Afro-beat-inspired F.E.A.R album. Rather than raw cannot-believe-I-am-hearing- rightly earned QQQQQQQQQQ
calls for global unity (Orphans), power, they add subtle classical this minor epiphanies and the silver-haired Stephen Dalton




ROUND-UP: BLUES By Henry Yates

Jack Broadbent Imperial Jade Malone Sibun

Moonshine Blue CROWS FEET On The Rise LISTENABLE Come Together REDLINE/CARGO
Barefoot, shirtless, In a recent High Hopes The partnership of one-
sprawled on an old interview with this time Robert Plant
sofa, blowing a plume writer, Imperial Jade sideman Innes Sibun
of cigarette smoke guitarist Hugo Nubiola along with Detroit
– the Jack Broadbent was at pains to point out vocalist Marcus Malone
of the Moonshine Blue album sleeve is that his Barcelona band aren’t just another proves to be one which is as good as the
enough to give any A&R man the horn. pound-shop Zeppelin. He’s right: The Call arithmetic suggests. Let Me Love You has
Scratch this Lincolnshire singer- manages to mash a Page-worthy riff with a brilliant climbing chorus lick that could
songwriter’s immaculate surface, though, a psych-swirl breakdown (without listeners have fallen off Zep II, and best of all is the
and there’s a depth that explains why seeing the stitches), while album closer moment when the medieval-folksy Taste Of
Ronnie Wood pulled him along for Struck By Lightning is a howl-at-the-moon Your Love casts off its tabard to become
recent gigs. Floydian space-rock epic. a meaty man-rocker.
Out of the blocks, the glib comparison is QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ
Nick Drake, but as a supple slide lick rises
from the autumn fingerstyle of the title Giles Robson Laurence Jones Band
track, Broadbent announces himself as
a bluesier beast with more about him (he Don’t Give Up On The Blues Laurence Jones Band
cites Joni Mitchell, Radiohead, Robert AMERICAN SHOWCASE MUSIC TOP STOP MUSIC
Johnson and Davey Graham). The blues harp remains Despite the new ‘Band’
His slide guitar playing is as phenomenal in safe lungs with Giles moniker, Jones still writes
as they say – “the real thang” according to Robson. For all the everything, and his voice
Bootsy Collins – but the songs come first. British blower’s and guitar are the main
If is a piano-clanger that has a touch of virtuosity and scholarly event. But perhaps the
The Doors; The Lucky Ones is rockabilly knowledge of his genre (see Show A Little re-brand has given him the sense of a blank
played in a haunted roadhouse; This Mercy), there’s a punkiness to Robson’s page, which he scrawls with more than just
Town is a left-behind lament like Bruce take: he gives his tin sandwich hell on Land blues: The Love is a great country-rock
Springsteen at his most intimate, To Land and That Ol’ Heartbreak Sound, slowie, and the soulful Everything’s Gonna
Jack Broadbent: Broadbent singing like a ghost left out while the roistering Giles Theme should Be Alright is a fantastic half-steal of the
a phenomenal slide guitarist, in the rain. Beautiful. make the walls sweat live. Dandy Warhols’ Bohemian Like You.
but the songs come first. QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 87

ALBUMS
Of Allies which nods to the inky grunge of
Are We Better Off? Soundgarden. For all the band’s

SELF-RELEASED clear influences, though, Soul On
Yorkshire foursome push their Fire is very much its own
own boundaries. untamed beast, and one worth
While Hull setting loose into your life.
quartet Of QQQQQQQQQQ
Allies’ second Emma Johnston
album begins
with a futuristic Walrus
robot voice talking about tarot Cool To Who OUTSIDE MUSIC
cards, ‘hierophants’ and other Goo goo g’joob.
such semi-mystic portent, the It’s a thin line
band haven’t suddenly gone between
prog rock on our asses. As the sounding
album proper kicks into gear, it wistful and
becomes clear that their bedrock sounding
sonic elements – alternative aimless, and at times on their
metal with emo-infused melody second album Nova Scotia band
always clawing anxiously at Walrus have trouble keeping
the edges – are still functioning their balance. Their calling card
very effectively. is an abiding love of 60s
While the anthemic, psychedelia and 90s Britpop,
melancholic hooks on Still embossed with fluid melodies
Memory are impressively incisive and an instrumental sound fresh
and polished, the metallic riff from the garage.
volleys of Blossoms and An Echo At its best – on the title track
deliver satisfyingly visceral heft. and the Kinks-reminiscent Mr
There’s also more going on here Insecure – they luxuriate in the
beyond the expected. Off The reflected glow of nostalgia, and
Leonard Cohen Map veers into techno-rock at on Ballad Of Love (Or Something)
times, while intricately
they manage to emulate Oasis
constructed tracks such as the without resorting to The Beatles.
Thanks For The Dance SONY
dreamier, soft-sung title song What’s missing from these
Famous friends flesh out final curtain call. and The Hierophant, with an pastiches is a sense of Walrus’s
opening that echoes Radiohead’s own identity, which isn’t helped
Climbing Up The Walls, suggest by the way their vocals have
this is a band whose potential is been ‘treated’. True, they sing
still being explored. about their own adventures,
hen Leonard Cohen’s last is adapted from his 2006 poetry collection QQQQQQQQQQ such as getting robbed on the
album, You Want It Darker, was Book Of Longing, the closing Listen To The Johnny Sharp road and the joys of their home
Wreleased in October 2016, Hummingbird was first recited at The Last town Halifax, but it doesn’t bring
a month before his death, preparations a promotional event for You Want It Darker, Internationale them into focus. It also begs
were already under way for what the while the title track first appeared on Blue the question: where do they go
Soul On Fire SELF-RELEASED from here?
singer-songwriter knew would be the Alert, a 2006 album by Cohen’s girlfriend QQQQQQQQQQ
posthumous part of his career. Diagnosed and backing singer Anjani Thomas. Wild blues-rock fury from New Hugh Fielder
York firebrands.
with leukaemia, the 82-year-old entrusted It all makes for an intriguing but brief Imagine Grace
his producer-arranger son Adam to add album (the nine songs clock in at just over Slick extolling Lauren Tate
instrumentation and melody to a series of 30 minutes), but throughout there’s the politics of Songs For Sad Girls
isolated recordings of him reciting new or a nagging sense of Cohen’s spoken-word Rage Against TRASH QUEEN
less celebrated lyrics. skeletons fleshed out with arguably too The Machine A fist in a velvet glove hits the
“Maybe I’ll get a second wind, I don’t little musicality. Each song’s lyric tends to and setting it to a howling blues- right targets.
know,” he told New Yorker magazine follow a rigid metre, a noticeably even rock template, and you’re 2019 has turned
during his last days. “But I don’t dare number of syllables in every line, which somewhere close to the essence out to be a busy
attach myself to a spiritual strategy. I’ve ultimately makes it easier for Adam to of The Last Internationale. year for Lauren
got some work to do.” Prior to assembling embellish in the studio. Kicking off with a roar of Tate. Best
Thanks For The Dance, however, Cohen The result is a soundscape that feedback before powering into known as the
junior curated The Flame, a collection of occasionally comes across as formulaic, the White Stripes stomp of frontwoman with the grunge-
lyrics and poetry published in 2018 adhering to chord sequences and Hard Times, with its steely inspired Hands Off Gretel,
which, it now transpires, served as structures that had served Cohen well in revolutionary demands, Soul On whose second album I Want The
Fire punches determinedly World was released in the spring,
a prelude to this last long player. the past, yet performed with pristine
Both open with Happens To The Heart, clarity by the younger man and musician upwards while retaining an she returns with a career
impeccable groove. highlight in the shape of this, her
a suitably wry summation of a man fans including Beck, Arcade Fire’s Richard
The core duo of Delia Paz – third solo album.
nearing the end of a journey, peppered Reed Parry, Damien Rice and Leslie Feist, whose molten vocals have soul Songs For Sad Girls pulls
with the wit that often goes unnoticed not to mention long-serving collaborators and attitude in abundance – and absolutely no punches as it more
among casual Cohen observers: ‘I’ve such as Jennifer Warnes. While there’s guitarist Edgey Pires time-travel than lives up to its title. Fuelled
broken every window, but the house, the house nothing radically off-blueprint in the back to the birth of the blues and by a righteous anger, this album
is dark/I care, but very little, what happens to finished article, it’s obvious that every drag it kicking and screaming hits back at abusive relationships
the heart.’ note has been pored over with love into the 21st century, pilfering (Can’t Keep My Hands Off You),
Elsewhere there is other material that and respect. from Jimi Hendrix and Janis underage exploitation (Rock
will be familiar to Cohen fans. The Hills, QQQQQQQQQQ Joplin (both name-checked in N Roll Radio) and body shaming
another sombre reflection on mortality, Terry Staunton the title track) along the way and (Miss American Perfect Body). It’s
mixing in a darkness and ire a tough pill to swallow, but

88 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

sugaring the justified bitterness North Londoners have never spectacle, however, their basic
is Tate’s melodic flair, and the made any pretentions to musical ethos – pounding, bass- BEST OF THE REST
production doffs its hat to the reinventing the wheel. Instead driven punk brutalism delivered
West Coast sheen of late- they elect to re-tread the tyre beneath a banner of love, Other new releases out this month.
period Hole. to hit the open road for more compassion and unity – comes
This is uneasy listening, but all open-top fun. Frenetic originals into its own, particularly when Deux Furieuses
credit to Tate for smashing the Oofty Goofty and Bayou Fever are recorded in Le Bataclan, a venue My War Is Your War XTRA MILE
patriarchy one song at a time. teeth-grinding joys designed to with its own powerful stamp of With a widescreen political vision and vast, spacious sound, vocalist/
QQQQQQQQQQ keep the party going until the solidarity. So Talbot’s cries of guitarist Ros Cairney and drummer Vas Antonaidou’s edgier, antsier
Julian Marszalek neighbours complain, while ‘I am a feminist’, ‘Love yourself’ second album boasts the direct ferocity of Dry-era PJ Harvey.
Exceptional. 8/10
cracking covers of Cecil Moore and ‘This snowflake is an
Voyager And The Diamond Backs’ avalanche!’ pierce the dark
Colours In The Sun Stormy and Bud Mathis And thunder of Mother, Television Wives
So Removed CITY SLANG
SEASON OF MIST The Fairviews’ surf obscurity and poverty-power anthem
Like a heavy-lidded Velvet Underground or a heavily sedated Jon
The final abbreviated Discumboober tell you exactly I’m Scum with added punch and Spencer Blues Explosion, Wives ooze malignant NYC cool from every
countdown where King Salami And The clarity, and the deconstructions pore. Spiky Sonic Youth metallics, grooves that only slouch. Attitude
For their Cumberland Three are of societal machismo laid out on ice. 8/10
seventh album, coming from. in Colossus, Samaritans (‘I’m

Australian QQQQQQQQQQ a real boy, boy, and I cry’) and Birdeatsbaby
prog rockers Julian Marszalek ballroom blitz Cry To Me gain The World Conspires EDEL
Voyager have significance in a room still Produced by John Fryer (NIN, Mode) , this fifth from the increasingly
pressed the 80s rewind button Denner’s Inferno thrumming with grief. metallic, Brighton-based dark proggers comfortably inhabits fresh
and then doubled down on the In Amber MIGHTY MUSIC Playing virtually their entire soundscapes. Expansive ambitions, string-driven psychodramas and
(in Painkiller) a stone-cold classic. 8/10
reverb. The result is banks of Denner shows off his 70s recorded catalogue might
intensely echoed tingling album collection. highlight the repetitive pace, Warmduscher
synthesisers welling up as if For a guitarist and that immigration fist-raiser
Tainted Lunch LEAF
from the bottom of an empty to dub his new Danny Nedelko and Well Done
Blood-Sugared pervoid disco-funk-metal, haunted by the spectre of Jon
swimming pool, and familiar- band an are their only world-beating
Spencer. Stately subterraneans Iggy Pop and Kool Keith guest, deviant
sounding, generic power-pop ‘inferno’ implies bangers thus far, but in the
grooves cut deep, raw tales blaze. You’ll feel dirty. In a good way. 8/10
anthems shimmering in the heroic levels of furious righteousness stakes
audio haze and sung with shredding. But that isn’t what this is unbeatable. Lesbian Bed Death
swaggering retro panache by we’ve got here. Best known for QQQQQQQQQQ Born To Die On VHS PSYCHOPHONIC
Danny Estrin. If you can conjure his time with Mercyful Fate and Mark Beaumont LBD’s sixth features returning original singer Luci4 and various horror
up visions of a garish light show King Diamond, Denner’s metallic flick covers (Ramones’ Pet Sematary, 45 Grave’s Partytime). Which
piercing billowing clouds of dry prowess is legendary, although Mike Zito probably seemed like a pretty good idea in the pub. 5/10
ice, so much the better. In Amber is focused largely on & Friends
It all works well for the first his love of 70s hard rock, with Rock’n’Roll: A Tribute Anthony Phillips
half of the album – up to and a bit of progginess thrown in too. To Chuck Berry RUF Strings Of Light ESOTERIC ANTENNA
including a duet with Einar Loser, Matriarch and Sometimes Bonamassa and Trout help This first album in seven years from the founding Genesis guitarist
Solberg from Leprous on bring to mind bands such as honour the original guitar god. delivers 24 instrumental compositions in stereo and 5.1. Clever,
Entropy. After that the well of UFO – tight and melodic with an Fellow St. Louis- dextrous stuff, but significantly more Tales Of The Riverbank than Trick
Of The Tail. 6/10
anthemic melodies dries up ace six-stringer at the front born blues star
and the band resort to alongside a punchy vocalist, in Zito chose 20 Deaf Rat
thunderous electro beats this case Chandler Mogel guitarists to
Ban The Light AFM
instead as a distraction. But that (Punky Meadows, Outloud). The duet with on
Carrying off the difficult beards-‘n’-eyeliner look, Swedish hard rockers
only works for a couple of tracks, stand-out track is surely Fountain this exemplary selection of Berry
Deaf Rat (gotta love a language barrier) walk/swagger/stagger a fine
and the album limps to a loud Of Grace, mostly because it hits and deep cuts, and the riffs line between 80s W.A.S.P. and 90s Alice. Big-ass tunes? Check. 7/10
but empty ending. sounds like Candlemass, while remain mighty. But what really
QQQQQQQQQQ the rest of the album doesn’t. registers are rock’s first great Revival Black
Hugh Fielder Defintely scorching, then, but lyrics, which combine piquant Step In Line CARGO
not an inferno. southern blues details with their Liverpool’s RB, formerly Black Cat Bones, boast a tidy take on
King Salami And QQQQQQQQQQ reconfiguring for white teenage 70s-informed classic rock. An Alan Rimmer/Adam Kerbache dual
The Cumberland Essi Berelian consumption (see No Particular guitar front line soar in support of Dan Byrne’s emotive, power-
Three Place To Go’s cars and girls). incarnate lead vocals. 7/10
IDLES
Kiss My Ring DAMAGED GOODS Zito’s raw Missouri voice and Tainted Lady
Primal rock’n’roll served from A Beautiful Thing: IDLES rowdily direct playing are just Sounds Like Freedom // Feels Like War
the primordial soup. Live At Le Bataclan PARTISAN right, as Walter Trout helps
PRIME COLLECTIVE
Although they Rampaging Bristolian serenade the mythic guitar Displaying enough testicular fortitude and technical chops to rock out
mighty lack the righteousness in the home hero Johnny B Goode, a country with their cock out all the way to the bank, TL (five male Danes)
surprise of of solidarity. boy who keeps his instrument demonstrate genre-transcending sophistication inexplicable in a band
a firecracker IDLES gigs are ‘in a gunny sack’. From the uncle so atrociously named. 7/10
going off a visceral visual scrawling Chuck’s lost love’s
under your chair – this is their experience: number ‘on the wall’ in Memphis, Wolfbrigade
fourth album, after all – the lupine frontman to the guitars that roar him The Enemy: Reality SOUTHERN LORD
cranked-up ramalama of Joe Talbot ‘right across Mississippi clear’ Wolfbrigade deal in ‘Lycanthro Punk’. Which, we’re told, combines
unreconstructed rhythm’n’blues bawling and barking out his during Promised Land’s rapid Swedish hardcore and death metal, but which combines Killing Joke
rockers King Salami And The social injustices and below-the- American odyssey, this is the and Motörhead if Geordie and Lemmy had only been a guitar player
and bassist. 6/10
Cumberland Three creates breadline portraits, while brilliant blueprint for everything
pretty much the same effect. guitarist Mark Bowen strips to from Springsteen’s more Pamela Sue Mann
Theirs is a world where The his grundies and freaks out like questioning but otherwise
Break MANIAC SQUAT
Beatles are still bottom of the bill a deranged Dalston tramp – slavishly borrowed Americana
Deliciously uncomfortable intimacy, keyed dreamscapes, warm
at the Indra Club in Hamburg, that’ll be him ranting through to Wilko Johnson’s provincially
synthetic rhythms. There’s a seductive hypnotic quality to Mann’s
and prellies and beer are the two minutes of feedback at the precise Canvey blues. diaphonous signature vocal and otherworldly sound palette. Arty,
breakfast of champions. end of anti-fascist finale QQQQQQQQQQ avant, ambient. An alt.pop joy. 8/10
But then again, the rip-roaring Rottweiler. Without the Nick Hasted

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 89

The perfect gift,









for just £19.99 *















FREE BOOK







AND FUNKO POP














2 GIFTS


WORTH


£19.98



















































FREDDIE MERCURY
DISCOVER THE STORIES BEHIND

THE BAND AND THE MUSIC WITH IÈzk…ٳ¨…¨ ( ññnXzJ Xz RX³

QUEEN: THE COMPLETE STORY J…n( h !k0Áِ ¨0«I0!Á I…«
ANY QUEEN FAN

Your special




Christmas offer







א I«00 ǕǣǔɎɀ ɯȒȸɎǝ گ׏חِחז

Enjoy six months of Classic Rock for


just گ׏חِחח ٫ ɎǝƏɎټɀ ǴɖɀɎ گבِבב Əȇ ǣɀɀɖƺٍ


Receive every issue delivered
direct to your door


A thoughtful gift that keeps

delivering throughout the year










Upgrade to





include digital






ǔȒȸ ȒȇǼɵ گאِד׎





Instant access any time, anywhere


Never miss an issue of Classic Rock


Available on iOS or Android
























www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/crk/xmas192


or call 0344 848 2852



*Terms and conditions: Savings calculated against the full RRP (single issue price x frequency). Gift is only available for new UK subscribers and is subject to availability. Please
allow up to 60 days for the delivery of your gift. In the event of stocks being exhausted, we reserve the right to replace with items of similar value. You can write to us or call us to
cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment in non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. Your statutory rights
are not affected. All gift subscriptions will start in January 2020. Prices correct at point of print and subject to change. Full details of the Direct Debit guarantee are available upon
request. For full terms and conditions, please visit bit.ly/magtandc. Offer ends December 31, 2020.

The Beatles Variations, Zappa’s still brilliant
The Singles Collection arrangement of Peaches En

APPLE/CAPITOL/UME Regalia… It was rock-meets-jazz
Why we’re all here. in a head-spinning, often
So what more breathtaking fashion, as exciting
do you need to as it was groundbreaking.
know? Here This 50th-anniversary issue
again are the comes loaded with works-in-
tools with progress pieces, feet-finding
which four Liverpudlian lads takes, tracks of isolated
conquered the world and gave instruments and more, which
us all something to both live for offer a fascinating fly-on-the-
and spend our money on. wall view of the finished album
Obviously, whether you like it taking shape: Natasha is effectively
or not, over the past five decades Little Umbrellas with just rhythm
you’ve been force-fed these 46 section and piano; Prototype,
newly remastered (what, really? Section 1, Jam and others show
Again?) singles tracks – the laying of the groundwork for
re-pressed on 23 180-gram Peaches; there’s a greasy
seven-inch vinyl discs, presented unedited Willie The Pimp and a
in rare picture sleeves from couple of guitar overdubs for it,
around the globe – to a point and a rollicking unedited master
where you know them like of Big Legs, later edited and
members of your own family. re-titled The Gumbo Variations.
Some (Strawberry Fields Forever), There are also tracks from the
you may have grown to love like sessions which didn’t make the
a first-born son, others (Yellow cut. Basically, everything
Submarine) like a fly-blown son- recorded at the July ’69 sessions
in-law, but they’re constants. In is here. And it’s fantastic.
a world gone decidedly online- Scoring is difficult. While this
Mick Ronson Brexit-social-media-bugshit- box set is a must-have for Hot
nuts, life on Penny Lane will
Rats fans, its appeal to the
Only After Dark: The Complete always remain the same: uninitiated (apart from carrying
familiar, reliable, timeless, it under their arm) is minimal.
MainMan Recordings CHERRY RED brilliant and, ultimately, fringe- QQQQQQQQQQ
shakingly fab. They’re all here Paul Henderson
Roger C Reale (Love Me Do, She Loves You, Help!,
Rain, Rigby, even Real Love), and Iron Maiden
And Rue Morgue all ridiculously fit for purpose. Reissues PARLOPHONE
And in a box. And who, at this Final batch of reissues charts

The Collection RAVE ON stage of the game, doesn’t like latter-day purple patch.
a box? If only it were big enough With the Ed
Bowie’s star man’s 70s solo work collected, and for you to actually hide in, while Hunter tour

a new wave album that Ronno guested on. reading its 40-page booklet on and Brave New
December 25th, it’d be the ideal World, Iron
Brexmas gift. Maiden allayed
QQQQQQQQQQ any fears that their 1999 reunion
t’s hard to believe that Only After Dark – shows that Ronson’s brilliance lay in his Ian Fortnam with Bruce Dickinson and
(9/10) is the first truly definitive diversity. An astonishing guitarist, Adrian Smith would disappoint,
Icollection of Mick Ronson’s classic brilliant arranger and fine singer, he Frank Zappa establishing a pattern of
1970s solo work, and it’s to Cherry Red’s brought the same passion and The Hot Rats Sessions celebrating their legacy and
credit that this is a comprehensive commitment to covers like The Girl Can’t ZAPPA/UMC pushing ahead with new material
collection with both MainMan albums, Help It as he did to underrated songs of his Pioneering jazz-rock classic that has characterised their
live material, demos and even a flexidisc own like Billy Porter. Over three discs, you expanded. subsequent career.
interview from Teen magazine. And can’t help but admire his many abilities. In the late 60s/ Dance Of Death (2003, 8/10)
having all this music in one place for the However, it’s no surprise that Ronson early 70s, proved the reunion had legs,
first time enables the listener to discern decided to carry on his career first as when carrying with convincing headbangers
the thread that links the often overly a (temporary) member of Mott The a bunch of vinyl (Rainmaker, No More Lies) and
diverse strands of Ronson’s music. Here Hoople, and then partner with Mott’s Ian albums under a deeper, three-guitar exploration
are Bowie collaborations (Growing Up And Hunter in the Hunter Ronson Band, as their arm the ‘I’m hip and I want of their progressive side
I’m Fine, Hey Ma Get Papa) and Bowiesque well as producer and collaborator for you to know it’ rock fan always (Paschendale). Refusing to coast,
made sure Hot Rats was the one the band ramped up this latter
numbers (Ronson’s superb Only After younger acts such as Rich Kids, Slaughter
Dark, the Pin-Ups-slated White Light White And The Dogs and The Wildhearts. on the outside (that or aspect and intensified the
Heat), and also dramatic ballads (Music Is It is in his capacity as collaborator that Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica). aggression, edging their
Many of them didn’t actually like trademark sound forwards with
Lethal, This Is For You) and unlikely covers he appears on the second album by the music. Those who did A Matter Of Life And Death
(Love Me Tender,). Ronson himself admitted Massachusetts new-wavey rockers Roger
thrilled to a record bursting with (2006, 9/10), a bold move
his records were “a bit of a mixture”, and C Real And The Rue Morgue (7/10), inventive songwriting and which paid off with a formidable
this, combined with the fact that he apparently after hearing the band’s debut virtuoso musicianship: the collection of songs (Different
seemed more comfortable as a sideman and being blown away by it. In truth it’s acute-angled melody of It Must World, Brighter Than A Thousand
than as a lead singer, meant that his solo a lesser work, and is outclassed by the rest Be A Camel, the complex but Suns) to rival those revered early-
career never really took off as expected. of the material here: energetic rock’n’roll warm instrumental harmonies of 80s albums. Dickinson’s claim
That said, this collection – remastered, chug of the superior kind. Little Umbrellas, the jaunty Son Of that The Final Frontier (2010,
annotated and excellently compiled David Quantick Mr Green Genes, the expansive 8/10) was “probably the greatest
and evolving The Gumbo departure from our sound” was GETTY

92 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

borne out in darker moods All the same, two decades half-finished sketches have a raw thunderstruck Bring Back The labelmates), what ensued was
(Mother Of Mercy) and inventive later it holds up pretty well on charm, notably a grungy Spark or the Modern Music Suite extraordinary, with Randy
arrangements (Starblind, The this deluxe five-disc anniversary blueprint of Everything Will Flow centrepiece – stands up rather California, Ed Cassidy and Larry
Talisman). Book Of Souls (2015, reissue. Even if Osborne’s with the working title Repugnant well. The absorbing sleeve notes Knight blitzing much of Twelve
9/10, not remastered), found polished funk-pop production and a handful of acoustic fan- include an essay by Nelson Dreams Of Dr. Sardonicus and
Dickinson surviving throat cancer lacks the fissile glam-punk club show tracks. There are which details how, worn down assorted acid jams while
to deliver a bravura performance energy that Ed Buller gave some interesting relics here for by America, he’d spend his sidestepping the excellent Spirit
on a remarkably consistent Suede’s early albums, hardcore Suede-ologists, but no down time on tour sipping Of ’76 and Future Games mash-
double set featuring their most swashbuckling anthems like lost treasures. cocktails in jazz clubs. The extra ups. Some who were there
adventurous epic to date in Electricity and Can’t Get Enough QQQQQQQQQQ tracks, spread leisurely across thought that a shame, meaning
Empire Of The Clouds. still crackle with vintage cock- Stephen Dalton three more CDs and a DVD, the show was a mixed triumph.
Rich Davenport rocking, arse-slapping attitude. include a new mix, a 5.1 mix, plus This reissue of a reissue comes
Brett Anderson’s infantile Bolan- Be Bop Deluxe 1976 concerts in Chicago (much from a rescued sound-board mix
Suede esque lyrics on Savoir Faire Modern Music ESOTERIC of the album concerned Nelson’s and adds the US release Live

Head Music 20th might raise a snigger, but Four-CD expanded version of homesickness while touring the Spirit for sonic contrast. Even
Anniversary Deluxe Edition sumptuous Ballardian ballads fourth album. US) and Hammersmith. There’s though the power trio lacked the
EDSEL like Everything Will Flow and When Modern nothing startling and there’s too avant-garde edge of the original
Suede hit their post-Britpop even the lightweight She’s In Music reached much song repetition, but it band, California and company
peak with this troubled Fashion still ooze voluptuous, No.12 in Britain does give further credence to carried it off thanks to the
semi-classic. opiated elegance. in 1976 it the notion that Nelson is a great enduring qualities of Mr Skin,
When Suede If Osborne was surprised at seemed as lost maverick. Nature’s Way and their (one and
began work how druggy Suede had become though Bill Nelson’s whipsmart QQQQQQQQQQ only) hit I Got A Line On You, and
on their drug- by 1999, weak B-side tracks with mix of guitar heroics, wry lyrics John Aizlewood a bunch of encores including
heavy fourth titles like Heroin and Crackhead and arty invention would be the Stone Free, Downer and All Along
album, they offered subtle clues. It is these beginning of something big for Spirit The Watchtower. An emotionally
welcomed new studio producer extra discs of non-album his band. Alas it was the Two Sides Of A Rainbow draining experience, especially if
Steve Osborne by offering him material which most nakedly beginning of the end. They had ESOTERIC you’d seen them the night before
a pipe to smoke. Mistaking it for expose the band’s flagging chosen the wrong time to California dreaming from the at University of Essex, the
hashish, Osborne unwittingly creative powers, with rare gems bloom: punk swept them aside, vaults. Rainbow concert reunited the
took a deep hit of crack cocaine. like Neil Codling’s Weight Of The and Nelson would go on to the On March 11, West Coast oddballs with their
In May 1999 Head Music became World outnumbered by too marvellous Red Noise, a fairly 1978, Spirit British fan base and proved to
Suede’s third consecutive chart- many flaccid space fillers. successful solo career and played the be a watershed moment. This
topper, but it was born in Among the previously decades of guitar ambience. Rainbow album is a pertinent reminder
a chaotic period of friction and unreleased demos, alternative The John Leckie-produced, theatre in of California’s experimental
addiction, hastening the band’s mixes, instrumentals and live light-of-touch album itself – be it London supported by Alternative guitar prowess.
critical and commercial decline versions here, quality inevitably the elegiac The Gold At The End TV and The Police. If the bill QQQQQQQQQQ
soon afterwards. varies. Even so, several of these Of My Rainbow, the wasn’t weird enough (they were Max Bell




Ozzy Osbourne


See You On The Other Side SONY LEGACY

The Prince Of Darkness flashes the plastic
– all of it.





hile the sensible money is on Ozzy of the studio albums are all eminently
Osbourne making a wholesale worth revisiting too, with 2001’s
Wreturn to action, following bolshy and tune-heavy Down To Earth
a cancelled tour or two, there is definitely a sense being particularly worthy of
of completion and finality to this preposterously reassessment. Three of his live albums
desirable, career-spanning vinyl box set. With 16 are also included, with the immortal
multi-coloured splatter vinyl LPs, plus a bonus Tribute standing out as the obvious
collection of B-sides and non-album tracks, this pick of the bunch, but both Live And
plainly is the full Ozzy Monty. Several of the Loud and Live At The Budokan are
albums have never been released on vinyl in the comparably riotous. The absence of
US before, while No More Tears has been 1981’s Speak Of The Devil is slightly
remastered specifically for this release, and annoying, but 1980’s Mr. Crowley Live
comes as a two-disc set for the first time. The EP makes up for it.
whole thing looks utterly gorgeous and, unlike Bonus extras have become
many Ozzy reissue campaigns in the past, seems mandatory with such lavish affairs,
to have been conceived and executed with and See You On The Other Side boasts a smattering the hell of it, although what that actually means
utmost care for the material within. of bonus goodies, including 10 huge posters, is anyone’s guess, and you might well argue that
Because, despite what some cynics may tell one for each of the studio albums and with the Ozzy has augmented his own reality more than
you, Ozzy’s solo catalogue is pretty damn promise of never-before-seen images (of, we can enough already, without encouraging everyone
consistent. Few would argue with the seminal, only assume, Ozzy gurning furiously), plus an else to join in. But still, a bonus is a bonus, and
decade-defining likes of his 1980 solo debut exclusive flexi-disc of an unreleased demo of this See You On The Other Side does seem to indicate
Blizzard Of Ozz or its superior follow-up, 1981’s box set’s title song. Those taking the financial that Mr. Osbourne has spoilt us enough already.
Diary Of A Madman. But a few wince-inducing plunge can also look forward to “ten AR QQQQQQQQQQ
clunkers aside (Zombie Dance, anyone?), the rest (Augmented Reality) experiences” thrown in for Dom Lawson
GETTY


CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 93

REISSUES
The Flys and growing scene disaffection,
Today Belongs To Me: their sole classic single Going
The Complete Recordings Through The Motions. Eleventh
1977-1980 CHERRY RED and final track White Riot Tour
What a buzz! (Live) offers a brief snippet of
Led by the often a multi-band encore jam on
rivalrous David Sister Ray. You really, really had
Freeman and to be there.
Neil O’Connor, QQQQQQQQQQ
The Flys often Ian Fortnam
trounced their guitar-faced
competition with shiny wit, Dan Reed
jaundiced excitement and Network
brilliant songs that John Peel Reissues UNIVERSAL
played but not enough people They rocked. They funked.
bought. Their singles alone They should have been huge.
– Namedropping, What Will In every era,
Mother Say? and the starter there are great
punk classic Love And A Molotov bands that
Cocktail, to name but three never make it
– combined the rush of punk big. In the late
with a strong suggestion that 80s, one such band was the Dan
someone had been at the Bowie Reed Network. With a sound
(although there’s also a rich hint likened to two of the superstar
of Cockney Rebel in songs like acts of that time – Bon Jovi-
We Don’t Mind The Rave, and meets-Prince! – and with Reed
a bit of Numan on the later a charismatic singer almost as
Fascinate Me). Bowing out pretty as Jon Bon Jovi himself,
hitless, O’Connor would work the Network’s first two albums
with sister Hazel, while Freeman, were brilliant. But for all the
Prince as one of The Lover Speaks, great songs they had, they just
would give Annie Lennox a hit
couldn’t get that one
song with No More I Love Yous. breakthrough hit that would
1999 Super Deluxe Edition WARNER
A great, underrated band have changed everything.
Prince’s estate opens the vaults for this hugely finally gets a proper On 1988 debut Dan Reed
acknowledgment with this Network (8/10), made with Bon
expanded reissue of his synth-funk masterpiece. two-CD collection. Jovi and Aerosmith producer

QQQQQQQQQQ Bruce Fairbairn, their funk rock
David Quantick manifesto was laid out in Get
multi-platinum career are enough counterfactual detours and To You, with mighty anthems
breakthrough back in 1982, half-realised experiments here to excite The Prefects in Resurrect and Ritual, and
A nce’s fifth album was his first even casual fans. One of the most striking Going Through a deft power ballad in Tamin’
Pri
The Motions CALL OF THE VOID The Wild Nights. Second album
US Top 10 hit, the first to feature his cuts from the vaults is Vagina, a growly
definitive backing band The Revolution, queer-funk rocker about an ambisexual Brum’s early punk adopters’ Slam (9/10), was even better.
and the first major milestone in his new fantasy figure who is ‘half boy, half girl’. It slim legacy anthologised. Produced by Chic’s Nile
Rodgers, who’d cut hits for
Neither Jam nor
wave electro-funk imperial phase. was reportedly written for Prince’s lover Buzzcocks Bowie, Diana Ross and others,
Almost four decades later, 1999 still feels Denise Matthews and her raunchy sex- made it to the it had more of that funky stuff
like an avant-pop masterpiece, finding pop trio Vanity 6, but was shelved when Chelmsford in Tiger In A Dress, beautiful
a fertile balance between sexually Matthews rejected his suggested stage date of The ballads in Stronger Than Steel
supercharged disco-glam swagger and name of Vagina in favour of Vanity. Clash’s White Riot tour, but The and Rainbow Child, and
post-punk pre-millennial future-shock Another stand-out is Rearrange, Prefects did. Their bill-opening a streetwise edge in the title
weirdness. While even huge singles such a propulsive funk-rocker which erupts set commenced with: “This track and Cruise Together.
as Little Red Corvette seethe with gloriously into glorious avant-metal guitar one’s called Birmingham’s These new reissues come
wonky noises, blaring synth fanfares and shredding, and Do Yourself a Favor, a soulful A Shithole”. And indeed it was. without bonus material, but no
cutting-edge drum-machine beats, reworking of If You See Me, a bittersweet Shithole sounded exactly how matter, because the original
Something In The Water (Does Not Compute) break-up ballad previously recorded by you’d think, but The Prefects albums are pretty much perfect.
sounds like Kraftwerk having a squelchy Minneapolis band 94East. You’re All I Want weren’t to remain identipunk Paul Elliott
robot orgy, International Lover takes Carry and No Call U both feature Prince in bill-bottomers for long. Not that
On-style salacious innuendo to Mile High plastic rockabilly mode, channelling Elvis the quartet ever attained any The Babys
Club levels, and All The Critics Love U In via Freddie Mercury, fun but lightweight. modicum of fame, they just tired Silver Dreams: Complete
of the Ramones ramalam that Albums 1975-1980
New York invents LCD Soundsystem’s Alternative versions of 1999 tracks
archly self-aware hipster-funk shtick two include a less robotic Something In The inspired them into being (when HNE/CHERRY RED
head Prefect Robert Lloyd Britain has melodic rock talent.
decades earlier. Water (Does Not Compute) and an agreeably
realised he “enjoyed Faust and America approves.
None of this is news, of course. Serious unpolished take of International Lover on
Prince-heads will be more enticed by the which Prince pitches his histrionic falsetto Beefheart more”) and moved on. All six albums
During their brief tenure (they (including
mountain of previously unreleased vocal an octave lower. Even if the odd split in early ‘79 to form The a planned but
archive material in this mammoth multi- track grates and drags today, notably Lady Nightingales) they recorded little scrapped/
disc package: 35 tracks spanning a broad Cab Driver, Prince’s apocalyptic soft-porn – a pair of Peel sessions, which much-
spectrum from throwaway studio future-funk party album mostly still hits sound a lot like those of the bootlegged false start), B-sides,
sketches to fully realised anthems, B-sides, the digital G-spot. Banshees but with Lloyd’s tetchy two live promo sets… That’s 87
demos and live concert recordings. QQQQQQQQQQ any-punk bray out front and, tracks (11 more than needed,
Quality levels inevitably vary, but there Stephen Dalton using lessons learned from the given the ‘bonus’ mono remixes)
Velvets’ All Tomorrow’s Parties across six CDs.

94 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Originally an English quartet, Gun ‘em, after all – which range from friendly rockers (Love Leads To declining northern industrial
The Babys’ trump card was the R3loaded SILVER LINING the sensible (Rock The Casbah) Madness) alongside giant Sheffield had a roster of
voice of future solo star John Glasgow arena rockers revisit to the weird (Fight For Your Right experimental material (Games). bands near the equal of
Waite, backed by guitarist their glory days. And some To Party) to the really, really The experimentation Manchester, Edinburgh, Detroit.
Wally Stocker, drummer Tony other people’s glory days too. weird (Rihanna’s Diamonds) but undermines Sound Elixir (1983, Led by press stars Cabaret
Brock and multi-instrumentalist If this was 1989, it’s all done with plenty of 6/10), Rags’ To Riches’ knockout Voltaire, Martin Fry’s shiny new
Mike Corby. The band signed to you’d probably energy, and they put their own punch and rootsy ballad Where ABC and the unstoppable
Chrysalis and enjoyed most of be fully aware signature spin on each track. All Are You Now saving the day. Human League, the musical
the label’s support and success of Scottish hard in all, a fun ride. Cinema (1986, 8/10) retooled wake was fertile and febrile,
in the USA (inspiring Phil Mogg rockers Gun, QQQQQQQQQQ their sound with a slick ZZ Top- from the dance electronic visions
of labelmates UFO to write Ain’t whose debut album Taking On Sleazegrinder style 80s makeover, Manny of B.E.F., early Pulp and smart-
No Baby in sulky protest). They The World spawned the Top 40 Charlton’s guitars and Dan funny They Must Be Russians, to
began like a more soulful version hit Better Days and landed them Nazareth McCafferty’s sandpaper rasp the early gothic esoterica of the
of Bad Company, then got better a support slot on the Rolling Reissues BMG still resounding on One From Danse Society and In The
as their songs became less Stones’ 1990 tour. But it’s not, An underappreciated era The Heart and Just Another Nursery, to the post-Beefheart
derivative. This roughly so hopefully this best-of will jog revisited. Heartache. Billy Rankin returned churnings of Kilgore Trout and
coincided with the departure of a few happy memories. By the time to replace Charlton as Nazareth A.C. Temple and beyond.
founder Corby (who followed his Enigmatic and difficult to pin Classic Rock lustily re-embraced their roots Flangers at the ready!
business partner, also the band’s down, Gun’s sound was part launched in the on No Jive (1991, 7/10) with Look, there! One Thousand
manager, out the door in 1978) Cars and part Guns N’ Roses, late 90s, the bruisers like Do You Wanna Play Violins’ drum machine-led flexi-
ahead of third album Head First. a smart man’s arena-rock band, term ‘classic House, this line-up hitting an disc piss-take of Ike & Tina, and
Produced, like its predecessor, and one that liked taking rock’ denoted a genre. In the especially fiery good-time The Smiths You Ungrateful
by Ron Nevison it was their chances. R3loaded is a two-disc 80s, it was a different story; groove throughout Move Me Bastard. Some early Thompson
biggest seller. collection that includes all their bands like Nazareth, now (1994, 7/10). Twins! Post-industrialist jazz-
Union Jacks (their fourth, 1980) hits (and near misses), from the revered as epitomising the Rich Davenport heads The Box, and Clock DVA’s
was arguably stronger, featuring aforementioned Better Days to style, were unfairly dismissed sublime, brooding 4 Hours. I’m
American recruits Jonathan Cain their funkier, poppier mid-90s as dinosaurs in certain countries, Various So Hollow, Artery, The Prams,
on keybords and bassist Ricky AOR chart chasers like Steal with some of the albums in this Dreams To Fill The U.V. Pop, Stunt Kites and
Phillips (both later with Waite in Your Fire and Favourite Pleasures. third batch of coloured-vinyl Vacuum: The Sound Of a dizzying miasma of jagged,
Bad English). With Cain aboard, If you missed them the first remasters not released in the UK Sheffield 1978-1988 CHERRY RED scuttling bands who didn’t even
The Babys became more radio- time, this is a fantastic place to or US. As the decade began, There is so much here! make it to a Peel Session.
friendly, and in hindsight it’s easy catch up. they could still crack the US Once called “the A bewildering array of DIY
to see why Journey did the same The second disc is a whole Billboard chart, first with ‘Snaz ugliest city in the delights – four CDs, 20,000
after recruiting him in time to different kettle of fish and should (1981, 8/10), a ferocious, hit- Old World” by words and 84 tracks. Dreams to
co-write all of Escape. amuse, enthrall and enrage in heavy double live set, and George Orwell, by fill the vacuum indeed.
QQQQQQQQQQ equal measure. It’s an album full again with 2XS (1982, 7/10), the time post-punk QQQQQQQQQQ
Neil Jeffries of covers – they are known for featuring beguiling radio- rolled along in the late 70s, Everett True




Girl


Sheer Greed/Live In Osaka ’82 HNE/CHERRY RED

First and last by a band that lived fast, died
young and left a half-decent looking corpse.





irl’s 1980 debut Sheer Greed had as Phil Collen told me, matter-of-
everything: great songs, Phil Collen on factly, in 2015: “That band was
Gguitar and, on vocals, the cocksure, interesting – we had so many girls
shouty-pouty Phil Lewis. The record rocked around us. When the success
hard, but took in punk (Lovely Lorraine), pop started to happen with Def
(Strawberries), sneering new wave (My Number), Leppard, I expected things to go
a Kiss cover (Do You Love Me), reggae (Passing crazy in that department. But the
Clouds)… It even got away with the lyric ‘Hey I’m calibre of women we saw in Girl
sarcastic, I’ll treat you like a spastic/Ignore every word was way higher! There was
that you said’ (Hollywood Tease). Well, almost. something about guys in make-
But for every one of us who loved Girl there up, apparently, that attracted
was a coachload who hated them (they met women more than multi-
a hail of beer cans at the 1980 Reading Festival): platinum success, haha.”
because Lewis was dating actress Britt Ekland, As Sheer Greed (8/10) was
Rod Stewart’s ex; because the whole band wore re-mastered three years ago by
eyeliner; or both. The middle of the NWOBHM Rock Candy, this new ‘expanded’
was no time to look like Girl did… and then edition’s selling point is the 70-minute set six from Sheer Greed, six from its star-crossed
declare a love of Japan, The Cars and Tom Petty (originally released in 2001 as Live At The follow-up, that year’s Wasted Youth, Tush and
& The Heartbreakers. Exposition Hall, Osaka, Japan) (6/10) recorded in four then-new songs. Sadly the mixing-desk
Right band, wrong time, then. Shame. They May 1982, marking the very opposite end of tapes lack ambient input, so we’ll never know
could have become London’s glamtastic answer their short career. By then, Collen was gone and if Girl generated a Cheap Trick-at-Budokan
to the New York Dolls. Instead (supporting Girl had only weeks to live. But even so, with the atmosphere. But if you ask Lewis, he’ll tell you
UFO, Pat Travers and ZZ Top aside) they were indefatigable Lewis droppin’ aitches and playin’ it was better.
doomed. Although there were compensations, the star, this is no death rattle. Girl crash through Neil Jeffries



CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 95

In The Court Of with full-body immersion by the
King Crimson orchestra’s bassist Scott Pingel.
(Revised Edition) It encapsulates everything about
Sid Smith PANEGYRIC SM&2, and about Metallica:
Crimson king. bold, ambitious, fearless.
For those with an QQQQQQQQQQ
insatiable appetite Dave Everley
for all things King
Crimson-related, Suzi Q
Sid Smith’s meaty CADIZ
and detailed tome Glam girl icon on film.
has long been the definitive work Chronicling Suzi
on the subject. First published in Quatro’s half-
2001, it’s a beautifully written century journey
and endlessly engaging dive into from wild-haired
one of rock’s most consistently teenage Detroit
inexplicable, bewildering and garage rocker to
brilliant bands. groundbreaking glam-era pop-
Pleasingly, this revised edition metal pin-up and beyond,
more than justifies a repeat director Liam Firmager’s
purchase, not least because of reverential documentary is an
all the frenzied Crimson activity unchallenging but enjoyable
that has unfolded since the birth watch. Besides Quatro herself,
of the band’s most recent, Firmager includes interviews
‘double duo’ reincarnation in with an impressive guest list
2014. It’s these additional including Deborah Harry, Alice
chapters that will have the Cooper, Donita Sparks, Sir Tim
diehards scuttling back to Rice, Tina Weymouth and Chris
Smith’s printed door. It’s all Frantz. Perhaps the most crucial
delivered in the same snappy, inclusion is Joan Jett, who admits
The Jimi Hendrix smart and nimble prose which copping much of her bad-ass
leather-clad tomboy style from
made the original so easy to
Experience read in one sore-eyed sitting, Quatro. Some of these cameos
are also unwittingly hilarious.
and with fresh and telling
observations from current After hearing Quatro’s Can The
The Royal Albert Hall EXPERIENCE HENDRIX alumni Gavin Harrison, Tony Can, Kathy Valentine of the
Levin and Mel Collins, In The Go-Go’s recalls: “My brain
Definitive audiovisual gig experience finally Court remains the closest thing literally exploded.”
surfaces – premiered where it was filmed. to a real rummage around in Equally at home in pantomime
Robert Fripp’s head. and stage musicals nowadays,
QQQQQQQQQQ Quatro was always more
Dom Lawson wholesome family entertainer
onsidering it will soon be an ’69, Goldstein floodlit the hall with house
incredible half-century since lights on, but that makes it possible to Metallica & The than hard rocker, which
CJimi left the planet, this ‘holy witness every grin, grimace or groin- San Francisco inevitably lends a certain
grail’ of Hendrix movies couldn’t be thrust as Hendrix powers through Foxy Symphony blandness to the film; there’s
scant backstage drama or sleazy
better timed after almost taking that Lady, Red House and Voodoo Chile, between Orchestra gossip here. Even so, she
long to come to fruition. Shot around off-stage footage that starts with Mitch
S&M2 BLACKENED emerges as warm and likeable,
February 1969’s second Royal Albert Mitchell en route in Rolls-Royce, and
Roll over Beethoven: Hetfield with a pretty grounded grasp of
Hall show, the film (then called Hendrix playing Hound Dog to fawning and the orchestra are back. her modest but still-crucial place
Experience) got bogged down for decades females at his Brook Street abode, or If Metallica’s in rock history.
in legal tangles, although a shoddy relaxing post-show at the Speakeasy. original S&M QQQQQQQQQQ
preview appeared on video in the 80s. Although little betrays the simmering concert was Deep Stephen Dalton
Vividly restored by original producer inter-band tensions, Jimi has rarely been Purple fanboy Lars
Jerry Goldstein, with sound remastered caught in such loose intimacy. Ulrich living out Look Wot I Dun:
by Eddie Kramer, this is now as close as Adding to tonight’s gig atmosphere, an his Concerto For My Life In Slade
it can ever get to experiencing Hendrix’s enthusiastic crowd of Hendrix veterans Group And Orchestra fantasy, this Lyse Lyng Falkenberg
still-unchallenged live impact and extra- and younger fans applaud every flash of 20th-anniversary follow-up goes & Don Powell OMNIBUS
terrestrial charisma. guitar genius, and guffaw at strangely full Last Night At The Proms. Paperback version of troubled
Unveiling a rough cut in the venerable gesticulating idiot dancers or the Everything that was great Slade drummer’s life story.
building where the show took place is uniformed on-stage jobsworth staring about the original – which was Given that Don
pretty much everything – is Powell has
a fabulous touch (poignant for this rigidly at Jimi from behind his military
writer, who attended the first 1969 gig, moustache. After the set ends with blown up to IMAX scale here, suffered from
from the set-up (band amnesia since
sitting over 50 years later with Mr Pike, Hendrix smashing his guitar after a stage
positioned in the centre of the a near-fatal car
the school teacher who organised its invasion, the most memorable shot is an orchestra) to the sheer volume crash in 1973, you
coach trip and attended the second gig). exhausted Jimi slumped alone in the
of noise that crests and rolls for could forgive him for not writing
After words from Janie Hendrix and dressing room, sadly shaking his head. its two-hour-plus duration. his own life story. Instead, his
Goldstein, it’s into a jaw-dropping Stone Although billed as “One Night Only”, A handful of songs from the friend, Danish writer Lise Lyng
Free, Hendrix’s molten solo sending this stunning historic work will past 20 years slot in neatly amid Falkenberg, painstakingly
spine-tingles familiar from 50 years inevitably be seen again. As it should. ones from the original, but the ploughed through the daily
before; on fire for what would be his It’s the best Hendrix film yet. highlight is an electrifying diaries he kept for many years
final indoor UK concert. QQQQQQQQQQ version of former bassist Cliff afterwards, adding extended
Maybe robbing some atmosphere in Kris Needs Burton’s instrumental showcase quotes from Powell as well as
Anesthesia (Pulling Teeth), played input from former bandmates

96 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

and friends (but notably not succeeds in digging her own
Noddy Holder who, Falkenberg grave), to Dunaway’s AC-esque
notes pointedly “refrained from soundtrack. The results call to
contributing to this book”). mind the classic Universal horror
Having the diaries at her pictures of the 1930s: the
disposal bogs the story down in studio’s man-made monsters
humdrum detail sometimes, but and walking dead have inspired
it still offers its fair share of tall the work of both Dunaway and
tales, particularly from Slade’s Cooper, together and apart,
penniless early days, along with since the pair first formed the
some unflinching reflections band that would ultimately
from Powell. And while conceive the enduring Alice
Falkenberg’s writing is brand, way back in Phoenix’s
somewhat cliche-prone, she Cortez High School.
does a fair job of allowing her Tish and Snooky Bellomo
subject to tell his story, even if (original Blondie backing
it’s not entirely in his own words. vocalists, NYC scene legends)
QQQQQQQQQQ cameo as wedding guests,
Johnny Sharp original AC stylist Cindy Smith
Dunaway captures the perfect
Slayer look, and Dunaway exudes

The Repentless Killogy glacial reanimated cool.
NUCLEAR BLAST QQQQQQQQQQ
Farewell tour show, plus grisly Ian Fortnam
short film.
Slayer’s career Manic Street
ends as it began, Preachers
as one of the Be Pure – Be Vigilant
heaviest bands on – Behave
earth, and dogged, to the very The Manics revisit The Holy
last, by comparison to the biggest Bible live; justice is done.
of thrash metal’s Big Four. Released within days of
The Repentless Killogy comes Oasis’s Definitely Maybe, The
in two parts: a concert filmed at Holy Bible, Manic Street
the LA Forum in 2017 during the Preachers’ third album, was
band’s final tour, and a fictional a spoonful of battery acid in
mini-movie based around three Britpop’s sugary tea. Brutal,
exceptionally gruesome videos metallic and embedded deep in
for their last album, Repentless. In main lyricist Richey Edwards’s
the latter, fantasy and reality are battles with depression, political
blurred, with scenes from the LA disillusion and anorexia (he’d go
show and a brief and badly acted missing within six months of the
cameo from the four members album’s release), it was the
of the band, all of which has Manics’ most bleak and
echoes of Metallica’s so-called disturbing work and, 25 years on,
‘thriller concert film’ Through The still widely considered their best.
Never, albeit with a high body Despite some stylish military
count in keeping with the garb on the part of bassist Nicky
brutality of Slayer’s music. Wire, the Manics, who toured
But the regulation concert the album in its entirety on its
footage tells its own story, of 20th anniversary in 2014, clearly
a legendary band bowing out in weren’t the balaclava-wearing
all their satanic majesty, evil pop terrorists of 1994, but the
genius defined in Angel Of Death. album itself had lost little of its
QQQQQQQQQQ confrontational impact, from
Paul Elliott the relatively breezy opening
Yes to menacing industrial
Cold Cold Coffin slaughterhouse rock like Archives
Dir: Brian Cichocki Of Pain, 4st 7lb and The Intense
HARD FOUR PRODUCTIONS Humming Of Evil. In a film that
No-budget indie clip punches reportedly gave Wire
above its weight. a headache, director Keiran
Working and Evans lurks behind on-stage
wowing the netting, often shooting out-of-
world’s film focus, exaggerating the nihilistic
festival circuit and voyeuristic feel of the record
alongside Steven and allowing the euphoric
Gaddis’s Live From moments of Of Walking Abortion,
The Astroturf, Alice Cooper, this She Is Suffering, Revol and
beautifully realised, coal-black- Mausoleum to burst forth like
humoured, monochrome noir glory from gristle.
short features the band’s original A staggering testament to the
bassist Dennis Dunaway. Calico dark power of open-heart rock.
Cooper also stars (as an QQQQQQQQQQ
avaricious gold digger who only Mark Beaumont



The High-Voltage

What’s On Guide


Edited By Ian Fortnam (Reviews) and Dave Ling (Tours)











p106






The Damned



‘There’s a horse-drawn funeral

cortege slowly processing towards

the London Palladium. It’s being

followed by a veritable horde

of vampires…’

































p100 Interviews


p103 Tour Dates

p106 Live Reviews

WILL IRELAND

Gun

Gun / Dan Reed Network / FM




Three bands who each released a classic album 30 years ago head out on the road
together, sharing headline status as well as stages.




As the bands prepare to celebrate joint 30th affected me deeply. I knew that I wanted to play with which Thatcher introduced the Poll Tax,
anniversaries – of DRN’s Slam, Tough It Out by FM both of these bands. the Hillsbrough disaster took place, and the
and Gun’s debut Taking On The World – with a bunch world’s first commercial dial-up internet
of UK dates, we set up a pow wow between the Will each band play sets of equal length, and became available.
frontmen of each group. take turns to headline? SO: Thanks, you’ve just made me feel really, really
DG: That’s it exactly. And which band goes on last old. But it’s interesting to revisit material you wrote
Whose idea was this tour? won’t be revealed until the day of the show. three decades ago. There are four songs on Tough It
Dante Gizzi (Gun): The proposal was put to us DR: We are taking it in turns for one of the bands to Out that I only ever sang once in my life – when they
by the agent of all three bands, Martin Jarvis, and perform naked – and you don’t know which one it is were recorded.
everybody considered it a stroke of genius. [everybody laughs]. DR: For me, the toughest part is relating to lyrics
Dan Reed (Dan Reed Network): For me it feels SO: Really? that I wrote when I was twenty-six. I would not
like being part of a travelling mini-festival. The DR: Did you not get that memo? I’ve been at the write a song like Tiger In A Dress now.
timing, which allows us to celebrate these three gym for six months getting ready for this. DG: For me it’s harder still because I was the bassist
great records, is very fortuitous. SO: Oh dear, I haven’t. in Gun back then, not the singer.


Given that FM have covered Dan Reed You are mates, but what In 1989 did you expect to
Network’s Long Way To Go, will there be some about the good old spirit be still making a living from
mutual appreciation going on? of competition? music three decades later?
Steve Overland (FM): Without a doubt. When DG: Gun and the Network will be DR: For sure, but I thought I’d be
I went to New York for a meeting with Neil Kernon, sharing a bus, so no, I don’t expect dead by the age of thirty-two.
who produced Tough It Out, Neil took me to the Cat one-upmanship. DG: It’s getting harder and harder
Dan Reed Network
Club, where the Network happened to be playing. SO: We’re a bit long in the tooth now, but that’s why these [multi-
They were just incredible, I was blown away. for that shit. It’s all about putting BACK IN 1989… band] shows are so great. You sell
DG: I believe that the fans will definitely see a link on a great night for the fans. GN’R’s Appetite For Destruction was more tickets, and continue doing
the year’s biggest rock album in the UK.
between all three bands. DR: The other guys will know Whitesnake’s David Coverdale married something that you love.
DR: For each of us, melody is so important. And we what it’s like to have any amazing Tawny Kitaen. SO: Even from a young age I was
stand for positivity, which is cool. support act you’ve never heard of. FM’s current guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick always going to sing, whether
was 10 years old.
It makes you step up to raise your or not I could make a living.
Have you all met socially? game. All three of us are top live I hope to keep on doing this
DG: We bump into each other everywhere. The last bands, so the energy will just get until I keel over; there are no
time with FM was at the Barcelona Rock Festival, higher and higher. plans for retirement. DL
and I’ve met Dan many, many times. GUN: JOHN MCMURTRIE/PRESS
DR: I shared a stage with the current line-up of Gun It’s amazing to consider The first of the trio’s 10 British
in Lisbon around eighteen months ago and they that 1989 was the year in dates is in Bristol on December 9.

100 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM FM