Home//Classic Rock/July 2024/In This Issue
Classic Rock|July 2024WELCOMEWhen you stop and think about it, it’s amazing how many line-up permutations Black Sabbath have been through in their illustrious, storied career. Of course, I’d wager that whenever Black Sabbath are mentioned, we all immediately think of the classic quartet of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. But what of the Dio era? And what about that time that Ian Gillan stepped up to the mic? Or Glenn Hughes? Or when Geezer left? Or Bill… Or, most pertinently this issue, the time(s) that vocalist Tony Martin took the vocal spot. The 1980s were a fractious, crazy time in the Sabbath story, and this issue we talked to Tonys Iommi and Martin all about it (p26). Elsewhere, Jon Bon Jovi opens up in the Classic Rock Interview…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024RIPCJ Snare December 14, 1959 – April 5, 2024 The melodic hard rock community mourns the shock passing of CJ Snare, frontman with American veterans FireHouse. Snare sang on all of the group’s five US Top 40 hits, including Don’t Treat Me Bad, Love Of A Lifetime and When I Look Into Your Eyes. The 64-yearold had undergone surgery for colon cancer and was planning to return for the band’s summer shows. “This is so sad,” said Kip Winger. “CJ was one of the most kind-hearted beautiful people I ever met.” Brian Bethell November 18, 1949 – April 3, 2024 Nine Below Zero guitarist/vocalist Dennis Greaves has led the tributes to Brian Bethell, bassist with UK blues-rockers. His death was announced by Greaves, who said: “Brian will be greatly missed…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024David Gilmour Gets LuckyDavid Gilmour is to release his first album of new material in nine years. The former Pink Floyd guitarist/vocalist’s Luck And Strange is released on September 6 via Sony Music. As well as the surprise inclusion of playing by the late Pink Floyd keyboard player Richard Wright, which dates back to a 2007 jam at Gilmour’s house, the album also has contributions from Gilmour’s daughter Romany and son Gabriel, long-time collaborator Guy Pratt on bass and legendary drummer Steve Gadd. Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson once again contributes lyrics. Meanwhile, The Great Gig In The Sky, a track on Floyd’s album The Dark Side Of The Moon, is central to a new immersive exhibition that takes place at in London’s Marble Arch on Friday and Saturday evenings in June. For details…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024NEWSFresh from its triumph in the UK, Black Sabbath – The Ballet will visit the Netherlands this year for four dates, followed by a pair of shows in Luxembourg and two in Germany, before heading to the USA for a run of seven performances over five days in 2025. Nightwish have announced a new studio album. The Finnish-Dutch symphonic metal band release Yesterwynde on September 20 via Nuclear Blast. Band leader Tuomas Holopainen says: “Three years in the making, we’re thrilled beyond words to soon share our tenth album with the world.” Vince Neil has taken a swipe at Generation Swine, the 1997 album that saw him return to fronting Mötley Crüe, and which the band had begun with singer John Corabi and producer Bob Rock. “I hated that record.…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024David Bowie Absolute BeginnersIT’S THE REAL THING Midway through their first meeting, David Bowie sat down on a studio sofa with Kevin Armstrong and asked: “Can you get me any co*ke?“. So Armstrong rang a friend, who duly sent a package to Abbey Road’s reception. Calling Armstrong to confirm this arrangement, the unnamed friend revealed: “You’ll never guess who it came from… Angie Bowie.” To which Armstrong, replied somewhat hastily: “And you’ll never guess who it’s for… David Bowie.” Delighted with this uncanny coincidence, Armstrong immediately told his new chum. Bowie “freaked out”. “Having known the guy for just an hour, I’d suddenly possibly divulged to his ex-wife that he was a co*ke customer.” Having crafted his enduring legend in the 70s, David Bowie had never been anywhere near as commercially successful as…5 min
Classic Rock|July 2024JON BON JOVINovember 7, 1979. The Atlantic City Expressway are on stage at the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, performing a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s The Promised Land, when an audience member jumps on stage, grabs the mic and begins singing the second verse. It takes Atlantic City Expressway’s vocalist John Bongiovi a beat to recognise the interloper as the man who wrote the song. “I’m a seventeen-year-old kid and suddenly I’m sharing a microphone on stage with the biggest rock star in New Jersey,” he – now Jon Bon Jovi – marvels, 45 years on, looking back on that night while seated on a sofa in an upmarket London hotel room. “I’ve got high school in the morning, and the teacher just sounds like ‘Wah wah wah, wah…24 min
Classic Rock|July 2024BAD BLOOD AND BURIED HATCHETSWhen Triumph re-formed briefly to play 2008’s Sweden Rock festival, there was just one problem: they’d barely spoken to each other in 20 years. Collecting gongs at an awards ceremony had brought the Canadian power trio back into each other’s orbit, but now Rik Emmett (guitar), Mike Levine (bass) and Gil Moore (drums) had to unpick a Gordian knot of bad blood and hurt. “Initially it was awkward as sh*t,” Emmett tells Classic Rock today, at home in Burlington, near Lake Ontario. “We met at a coffee shop, with a mediator, and he was like: ‘If you guys can bury the hatchet, I can get you into the [Canadian Music] Hall Of Fame.’ “But the big catalyst for me was that my younger brother Russell had died in 2007,” Emmett…10 min
Classic Rock|July 2024"Everything that could go wrong did go wrong"From the outset, Praying Mantis were more melodic and tune-conscious than their rivals in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. In an era when blood, studded wristbands, bullet belts and thunderous riffola were king, co-founding siblings Tino and Chris Troy understood – fittingly for a group formed at no less a place of learning than the London College Of Furniture – the value of luxurious upholstery. “We’re more like a chaise longue than a flatpack picked up at IKEA,” Chris Troy says today, grinning. “Melody has always been innate in us.” Born into a Spanish-Greek family with the surname Neophytou, Chris had started playing music on a Spanish guitar, so in the spirit of one-upmanship a jealous Tino came home from school one day with a self-made electric guitar.…9 min
Classic Rock|July 2024CollateralDuring a recent magazine interview, singer Angelo Tristan confided that each day while out jogging in his home town of Ramsgate, Kent, he reaches a point on his route when the sea comes into view and he says out loud: “Collateral will headline Wembley Stadium.” Whether or not this is something that should be confided to a journalist, especially with such a sense of relish, is debatable, although you have to admire the determination of Tristan and his band. Formed in 2018 as a Bon Jovi tribute act, the independent rockers have defied the odds, walking through one brick wall after another, including the one caused by the exit of guitarist Todd Winger in 2022, to continue their dream. There’s nothing wrong with being a tribute band, of course, and…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Paul WellerAgainst the odds, Paul Weller has entered a liberating new creative phase over the past decade or so. Once the unchanging man, obstinate brand leader for rootsy Real Ale Rock, the former Jam and Style Council frontman has broadened his sonic horizons significantly on recent albums, making some of the most adventurous and kaleidoscopic music of his long career. Embracing lavish orchestration, experimental soundscapes, left-field collaborators and electronic textures, Weller seems to have finally twigged that the great flowering of 60s pop gave him a set of tools, not rules. Titled to reflect his upcoming landmark birthday, 66 sports a striking Pop Art cover painting by 91-year-old legend Peter Blake, his first for Weller since 1995’s Stanley Road. Lyrical and musical guests include Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie, Suggs and Richard…8 min
Classic Rock|July 2024BEST OF THE RESTJohnny Moped Quonk! DAMAGED GOODS Croydon-via-Roxy legend Paul Halford returns (at 70) with longstanding guitarist Slimey Toad and their most satisfying release since 1977’s Cycledelic. An unprecedented musical sophistication fails to sharpen JM’s uniquely blunt, punk-savant bludgeoning. 7/10 Johnny Casino High Stone CHEERSQUAD Imbued with hectic ’n’ frenetic Iggy (living on the) edginess, nomadic, ex-Asteroid B-612, guitar-slinging Sydney rocker/tattoo artist Casino stokes up an obvious debt to Nuggets-era garage with blurts of Farfisa and (digital bonus) an epic assault on Eight Miles High. 7/10 Tommy Hale All At Sea HOLIDAY DISASTER From the doggedly riff-driven, thousand-yard staring, Swervedriver insistence of Hideaway to the eager-to-please, perk-pop My Sharonaings of World Won’t Wait, All At Sea’s hard to pin down, but Texan Hale’s Snakes-supported fourth casually satisfies at every turn. 7/10 Cuffed…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024VariousLet’s face it, this rock festival malarkey has gotten way out of hand. Too corporate, too ginormous, too many bands, too many stages, too many people in rainbow wellies practising goat yoga in air-conditioned yurts… This album is a reminder of simpler, more ramshackle times, when all you needed was a field (a meadow, for those of a prog inclination), an electricity generator, some scaffolding and Stack Waddy to make a happening happen. Forget tofu, let’s hear it for Snafu! This writer assumed initially that Incident At A Free Festival was a collection of live recordings resurrected from long-ago Lollapaloozas. We expected to hear ‘Jesus’ rattling his tambourine and cries of “Wally!” Fact is, it’s a straightforward (if determinedly eclectic) compilation of studio cuts from the era, a Now That’s…9 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Bryan AdamsTo the transient fans who jumped on his wagon for the paydirt of the early 90s, a Bryan Adams buyer’s guide is a short conversation: simply seek out Waking Up The Neighbours, stream Reckless highlights Heaven, Summer Of ’69 and Run To You, and your work is done. Seasoned Adams watchers, however, know better. Long before – and sporadically after – those chart-residing, till-ringing years, Adams turned in some of the best blue-collar rock out there, his mission statement always to produce hardy, hooky, no-nonsense music that was worth his audience’s time and money. “For me,” he reflected, “there was no message, no trying to be a man of the people. I was just trying to write great songs.” Adams once said that he “came from absolutely nothing”. That’s not…7 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Deap Vally“The last show is in Bristol. We wanted to wrap things up in the UK, the first place our career as a band really took off.” After a 13-year run during which the California-based duo released four albums, an EP and several singles, it’s time to say goodbye to guitarist and vocalist Lindsey Troy and drummer Julie Edwards, a duo once described as having the scuzz of The White Stripes and Led Zeppelin’s power. Why is this Deap Vally’s final UK tour? Lindsey Troy: We each have two small children, and it’s increasingly difficult to maintain trajectory as an indie band. So Julie is going back to school to become a forensic psychologist. It seemed weird to continue the band without her, so we are doing one last big farewell…3 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Roadburn Festival 2024★ In the 25 years since its inception, Roadburn has evolved from stoner/doom haven to an alt. music mecca, with specially commissioned sets and album-in-full play-throughs offering an entirely unique festival experience. That does come at a cost, however. While transgressive acts like Chelsea Wolfe thrive, her genre-blurring 16-song set met with a sense of reverence, more mainstream acts wither on the vine. Royal Thunder enjoy some success with their first set, a stoner-friendly blues jam, but a latenight rendition of latest album Rebuilding The Mountain pulls a sparse audience and the band’s performance comes off as listless. Thankfully there are triumphs over the weekend. Dutch doom progressives Dool deliver an emotional gut-punch tinged with beautiful fragility with The Shape Of Fluidity, and The Keening devastate and enthral as they…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024The Hives‘The Hives should open an academy to show other bands how it’s done.’ ★ Walking on stage to the strains of Chopin’s Funeral March and repeatedly claiming you are “the greatest in the world at whatever it is we do” requires balls the size of Elgin Marbles, but The Hives brook no doubt. Despite his dodgy references to leprechauns, Howlin’ Pete Almqvist is to frontmanism what Sir Walter Raleigh was to defeating Spaniards. His acumen is matched by the heroes around him on stage, especially brother Nicholaus Arson on guitar who battles for attention like a spoilt child. For both men the stage parameters are more suggestion than rule as they throw themselves repeatedly into the frenzied pit. Dressed in matching suits, adorned with lightning slashes that – of course…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024CALL OF THE WILDThis month The Dirt was compiled by Lee Dorrian, Jerry Ewing, Ian Fortnam, Polly Glass, Rich Hobson, Rob Hughes Jo Kendall, Fraser Lewry, Will Simpson, Paul Whitelaw Ever-present Wildhearts frontman Ginger, who co-founded the band back in 1989, recently recorded an as yet untitled eleventh Wildhearts studio album with bassist Jon Poole, guitarist Ben Marsden and drummer Pontus Snibb, and the four-piece are currently gearing up for a post-hiatus show at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on June 6, with soon-to-be-announced tour dates to follow this autumn and winter. When Classic Rock catches up with them – and Ginger’s friendly collie Maggieduring a break from rehearsals in the Glasgow studio owned by local guys Gun, they’re in very fine fettle. “It’s all great,” Ginger enthuses. “We’re all friends anyway, so it’s…4 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Mike PinderMike Pinder, the last surviving founding member of The Moody Blues, has died at the age of 82. The keyboard player had been suffering from dementia for several years. A statement from his family revealed that Pinder passed “peacefully” and that his final days were “filled with music, encircled by the love of his family. Michael lived his life with a childlike wonder, walking a deeply introspective path which fused the mind and the heart.” Pinder helped form British band The Moody Blues in 1964 and they had an initial hit with Go Now. But it wasn’t until 1967, by which time Justin Hayward and John Lodge had replaced guitarist Denny Laine and bassist Clint Warwick respectively, that the band began to rise in popularity, shifting their sound from…3 min
Classic Rock|July 2024NEWSJames Hetfield has anew tattoo on his middle finger, created using ink mixed with some of Lemmy’s ashes. According to the Metallica frontman, it means the late Motörhead frontman can “still fly the bird at the world”. The Smashing Pumpkins sifted through 10,000 applications before appointing Kiki Wong, as their new guitarist. Wong, previously with LA rockers Vigil Of War, will be with the Chicago alt.rock band on their UK tour in June. Sebastian Bach has once again voiced hope of a reunion with his former band Skid Row, who recently parted with singer Erik Grönwall. Dismissing the “whole narrative that we don’t get along”, Bach believes that all issues between both parties are “one hundred percent a business thing”. Aerosmith are set to return to the road in September,…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024BURIED TREASUREDSCHINN Dschinn, Bacillus Records, Germany, 1972. £300. German band The Dischas were active during the 60s, when they released three pop/rock 45s. As the 70s approached, they adopted a heavier, more progressive blues-rock sound, and changed their name to Dschinn. Dschinn’s self-titled 1972 album is a good, solid example of German hard rock of the time. Heavy, bluesy riffs and lively rhythms are topped off by the raspy vocal style of Peter Lorenz, which characterises the band’s signature sound, and the lyrics are sung in English. Unlike a lot of similar albums of the era, which tend to go off in many directions, Dschinn follows a pretty distinctive ‘no-frills’ hard rock approach from beginning to end. Some of the more successful moments include the dynamic, contrasting mellow/heavy atmospherics of Fortune,…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024New Deep Purple Album Due In JulyDeep Purple release their 23rd studio album on July 19 via EarMusic. The mysteriously titled =1 is the group’s first album with guitarist Simon McBride, who joined when Steve Morse left due to personal circ*mstances. The track Portable Door is available now on streaming platforms. “Deep Purple are more than just their members,” said an announcement of the album. “=1 embodies the essence and attitude of their 1970s incarnation possibly more than any other album in recent memory. With the legendary Bob Ezrin once again producing, the record evokes the pioneering band’s classic sound, without relying on nostalgia.” It will be available in numerous formats, including CD, multiple types of vinyl, limited CD+DVD digipak and digital. Track titles include Show Me, A Bit On The Side, Sharp Shooter, Old-Fangled…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Steve Dawson JailedS teve Dawson, Saxon’s bassist from 1975 to 1986, has been jailed for six years for historical child sex offences. In a trial at Sheffield Crown Court, Dawson, 72, was found guilty of repeatedly abusing a six-year-old girl during the 1990s. He had earlier been found guilty of four counts of indecent assault of a child under 14. His six-year jail term included one year out on license. Nicknamed ‘Dobby’, Dawson was a founder member of Saxon. After guitarist Graham Oliver left Saxon in 1995, he and Dawson reunited as Oliver/Dawson Saxon, and played together until Dawson retired from performing in 2021. Oliver said Dawson’s former bandmates were “shocked” and “disgusted” at his “predatory behaviour against a small child”, and hoped the verdict might provide “some closure on her terrible…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Chris SpeddingWho’s played with Elton John, Bryan Ferry, Paul McCartney and The Wombles? As one of the world’s most versatile guitar heroes, Chris Spedding has defied easy categorisation over his storied 60-year career. As he approaches his eightieth birthday, the Derbyshire-born virtuoso with the silver quiff still enjoys recording and touring, adding tasty, understated licks to whatever project comes his way. “I always try to inject some Spedding element, to make it different,” he says with a smile. You started playing violin when you were nine years old. What made you switch to guitar? I grew up in a household where opera was always on the radio. My mother sang in the local choir, my father played organ in church. That’s why I chose violin. I had an aptitude for it,…5 min
Classic Rock|July 2024REALITY BITESGinger Baker wasn’t an easy man to deal with, but Chris Goss learned early on how to put his head in the tiger’s mouth without getting it bitten clean off. “It depended on your approach,” Goss says of his relationship with the ex-Cream drummer. “Hit him at the wrong moment, and you’re gonna get an acrid reaction. I knew when the right moments were available for me, and we got along wonderfully.” Baker was a member of Goss’s band Masters Of Reality during the early 1990s, and played on their second album, 1992’s psychedelic desert-blues jewel Sunrise On The Sufferbus. In the end, Baker stayed with Masters longer than he was in Cream. “Oh yeah,” Goss says drily but fondly. “I heard that every day.” Baker isn’t the only notable…13 min
Classic Rock|July 2024AHEAD OF THE GAMEco*ck Sparrer, an East End London street-punk institution, with a core quartet of members who’ve been together since 1972, have never been more in demand than they are right now. According to their imposing, stentorian lead vocalist Colin McFaull, they have enjoyed a career in reverse. “Maybe bands in future will follow our model,” he says, “shun big record deals to follow their own path; leave big gaps every few years… Not make any money out of it.” In 1977, co*ck Sparrer’s faces (in the eyes of a music industry and press already blind-sided by a spike-topped, McLaren-marketed, hippie-averse new order) simply didn’t fit. They looked like they’d just walked off the terraces. They were actually working class. Their music a shade too brutal, their hair a couple of grades…7 min
Classic Rock|July 2024A LITTLE BIT OF ENGLANDWhen John Fannon thinks back to the heady days of 1979, when his band New England looked poised to become the next big thing in American rock, he remembers the precise moment when he believed that the dream would become a reality. It happened as the band were travelling from their home town of Boston, Massachusetts to a gig in Denver, Colorado. Their debut single, Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya, a melodic rock anthem with a sky-scraping chorus, had just been released. It was a track made for radio, and DJs in Boston were playing the sh*t out of it. But for them to hear their song ringing out on an FM station near Denver, so far from homethat was something else. “When those power chords came blasting through, it…9 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Lenny KravitzIt’s taken a long time for the world to come round to Lenny Kravitz’s way of thinking. Widely seen – at least in critical circles – as a 60s-obsessed anomaly at the time of his 1989 debut Let Love Rule, his classicist sound and vintage-themed aesthetic are now recognised as bywords for good taste, borne out by his lucrative side-hustle as design consultant for brands including Rolex watches and Dom Pérignon champagne. His global success, meanwhile – 40 million albums sold over a glittering, Grammy-filled 35-year career – has seen him back up his hippie-ish interest in eco-centric concerns with positive action. When he’s not touring, or pursuing projects as a respected actor (notably in The Hunger Games), he spends his time at his own artistic Eden, a 1,000-acre artistic…9 min
Classic Rock|July 2024ROUND-UP: SLEAZEMean Mistreater Razor Wire SELF-RELEASED Austin’s Mean Mistreater hark back to those halcyon days before every metal band had their own niche sub-genre, when they were basically all heavy rock’n’roll – see Priest, Riot, Rods, Rose Tatttoo etc. With serious belter Janiece Gonzalez up front and twin guitars that fire from every direction at once, this band could give any of those pioneers a run for their money. Befitting a band named after a Grand Funk Railroad song, Mean Mistreater bludgeon your brains with thick riffs, nasty rhythms and a party-till-we-die atmosphere – witness their sleazy charms with arena-wreckers like Bleeding The Night, Waiting To Dieand Let ’Em Roll. No ballads, no compromises,just maximum rock’n’roll. This is the record to take along if you wanna fight an entire biker gang…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Billy IdolIt would not be unreasonable to suggest that Billy Idol’s career has not panned out exactly as it might have done. When his Rebel Yell album was first released, in November 1983, the former Generation X frontman’s transformation into the ultimate MTV-generation rock star seemed complete. With what was then a state-of-the-art production job, the mercurial talents of guitarist Steve Stevens (still at Idol’s side today) and some genuinely terrific rock’n’roll songs, it could hardly fail. World domination beckoned. Unfortunately, Idol never quite matched that second solo album’s brash magic, and by the 90s his productivity and reputation were in decline. The peroxide hair, the sneer and the leather trousers have remained unerringly iconic, and later studio records like Devil’s Playground and Kings And Queens Of The Underground proved that…8 min
Classic Rock|July 2024BEST OF THE RESTDavid Bowie Diamond Dogs PARLOPHONE Released (again) to mark its 50th, on half-speed remastered black vinyl or pic disc, Dave’s first post-Ronson album (a post-Burroughs/ Orwell vision of street-wise canine dystopia) reliably shines, but another remaster? ‘This ain’t rock’n’roll. This is…’ milking it. 9/10 The Fall Live At The Witch Trials CHERRY RED The mighty Fall’s ’79 debut LP, back on black in its US-vinyl I.R.S. 10-track form, remains as acerbic and jarring as ever-ah. Though Mark E’s audible sneer predominates, Bramah and Riley’s wilful, itchy, Magic Band scratch ’n’ riff guitar and bass interplay never gets old. 7/10 UK Subs The Albums 1979-82 CAPTAIN OI! With all due respect to the sainted Charlie Harper, these five newly clamshelled albums, now fully equipped with all the band’s heyday hits (C.I.D.,…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Yes“This time we’ve reinvented Tales From Topographic Oceans into a twenty-minute visitation of its key moments.” Steve Howe, guitarist and Yes’s de facto leader of the moment, previews a nine-date British tour from the enduring progressive rockers. Billed as The Classic Tales Of Yes, it will see the group performing music from last year’s album Mirror To The Sky and, of course, a whole host of Yes’s catalogue standards, including some “rarely played” selections. Before his death, Alan White, Yes’s drummer for more than fifty years, gave his blessing to his successor Jay Schellen. How do you think Jay is bedding into the line-up? Those are difficult shoes to fill, but Jay has been in the background with us for a while. On tour, Alan would come out and do…4 min
Classic Rock|July 2024The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown★ Rock’s true originals rarely get the credit they deserve. Few, however, have lit up the pop firmament as spectacularly as Arthur Brown. A trailblazing influence on every ‘shock rock’ icon from Alice Cooper to Kiss to Marilyn Manson, even at a sprightly 81 his creative flame burns as brightly as ever. Tonight a Continental heaving with fans of all ages is treated to a master class in both set dynamics and vocal delivery. Ably supported by his band decked out as demonic Morris dancers, Brown is a mesmeric presence. A choral opening is the entry point into a set where material from his 1968 debut (Nightmare) and 1972’s Kingdom Come (Sunrise) is interspersed with choice cuts from 2022’s superlative comeback, his multi-octave range veering from booming baritone to horror-flick…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Lenny Kaye And Friends★ When musician, writer and producer Lenny Kaye assembled the Nuggets compilation album in 1972, not only was the genre of garage rock revived, but he also inadvertently kick-started the next generation of three-chord wonders, many of whom perform tonight. Revolving around Kaye’s core band of singer-guitarist Jim Jones (Jim Jones All Stars), drummers Rat Scabies (The Damned) and Marty Love (Johnny Moped), Sham 69 bassist Dave Tregunna and keyboard player Greg Rice, this gloriously chaotic set evokes a bygone era with some 30 songs delivered in just over two hours. With guest performers including Gang Of Four’s Jon King (Woolly Bully) and Doctor And The Medics’ Clive Jackson (Strychnine), rock’n’roll evangelist Jim Jones marshals the band to prevent the whole shebang from derailing. Right from the shimmering opener of…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Robert Plant Presents Saving GraceFor a bona fide rock legend, Robert Plant exudes a surprising amount of earthy bonhomie, greeting the cagoule-wearing front rows with a cheery “Good evening and welcome to Gardeners’ Question Time!” And what an evening it turns out to be. On this latest string of dates, Saving Grace have honed their Anglo-Americana repertoire to perfection. The five-piece fronted by Plant and Suzi Dian interpret folk and blues songs, traditional and contemporary. The effect of the whole shebang in an intimate setting is hypnotic. Throw in a quartet of Led Zeppelin numbers, including Four Sticks (believed to be its first airing since 1971) and it’s dynamite. Among the highlights are an exquisite Rain Song, Dian’s shimmering vocal on It Don’t Bother Me and Is That You, a majestic gospelly blues sung…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024DICKEY BETTSDickey Betts, a co-founder of the Allman Brothers Band and one of the most influential and colourful figures in the realm of music known loosely as southern rock, has died following a period of declining health. His passing at 80 years old leaves just co-drummer Jai Johanny Johanson, aka Jaimo, as the last surviving member of the original line-up of the group. A statement on behalf of the band recalled how Betts’s “extraordinary” guitar playing, alongside that of Duane Allman, “created a unique dual-guitar sound that became the signature sound”. Until that point it had been traditional for two-guitar bands to have defined roles for soloists and rhythm players. The statement remembers Betts as being “passionate in life, be it music, songwriting, fishing, hunting, boating, golf, karate or boxing”, adding:…7 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Foreigner Among Hall Of Fame InducteesForeigner, Ozzy Osbourne and Peter Frampton are among the names to be inducted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame later this year. “This is something I never expected,” Frampton responded. “I am overwhelmed. I can’t thank everyone enough for voting for me. You are the best.” Of Foreigner’s induction, band leader and guitarist Mick Jones said: “Membership in the home of my peers is a priceless highlight of my career.” He added that the awards ceremony, on October 19, would be “an emotional day” for him and the surviving members vocalist Lou Gramm, keyboard player Al Greenwood, bassist Rick Wills and drummer Dennis Elliott, and “a very special moment” for the families of former members Ian McDonald and Ed Gagliardi, who passed away in 2022 and 2014 respectively.…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Collective SoulAlthough they emerged during the grunge era, Atlanta’s Collective Soul have always been a hard band to pin down style-wise. Mixing big riffs and heart-on-sleeve vocals with sweet pop melodies, they’re probably the only band to have supported both Van Halen and The Cranberries. Huge in the States but still virtually unknown in Europe, they celebrate their 30th anniversary this year with a new album, Here To Eternity, that, as frontman Ed Roland explains, was touched by a ghostly (and regal) presence. What has enabled the band to stay together for more than thirty tears? We all grew up together in the same town, same street even. We know when to hug each other and when to pop each other in the face and nobody takes offence. Why did…3 min
Classic Rock|July 2024NEWSMike Peters has revealed that his cancer, which had been in remission, has returned. The terrible news forced the frontman with Welsh rockers The Alarm to cancel a US tour. “I’m hoping and praying with all that I have that this is just a pause in the story of my life, and that normal service will be able to resume soon,” he says. Orange Goblin return with their first album in six years. Recorded with Mike Exeter, of Tony Iommi and Judas Priest fame, Science, Not Fiction is released on July 19 via Peaceville Records. In a move that further backtracks on their so-called 2015 ‘retirement’, Mötley Crüe have signed anew deal with Big Machine Records to release a new single, Dogs Of War, nine years after their supposed farewell…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024The Karma Effect“The biggest compliment ever is when someone says: ‘I’ve just seen a stadium show in a club.’” Henry Gottelier’s “type-A personality” is easy to spot. It’s there in his vocals (like a young, slightly hyperactive Steven Tyler). It’s embedded in his band’s second record, Promised Land, a swaggeringly confident set packed with meaty grooves, suntanned melodies and Black Crowes-esque southern fringes. And it’s written into their performances, which have blossomed since their first gig, a sit-down affair at Leo’s Red Lion in Gravesend, mid-pandemic. “People are paying a lot of money, up and down the country, to come see us play now,” the frontman enthuses. “And you can get up there and wear whatever you want, as long as you own it. I mean, Tommy Lee wore a leopard print…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024THE RESURRECTION SUFFLETHE RESURRECTION SUFFLEIn the autumn of 1987, Tony Martin received a phone call from his manager, inviting him to take a drive around the pair’s native Birmingham. At the time, Martin was the frontman with a local band called The Alliance. They had recorded a session for BBC Radio’s The Friday Rock Show and, thanks to a development deal with Warner Brothers Records, recorded an impressive demo tape that was generating a little below-theradar attention. Martin’s manager, Albert Chapman, was the owner of The Elbow Room, a rough-and-tumble nightspot on the city’s Aston High Street. Chapman had been a schoolmate of some of the members of Black Sabbath, and took on the role as their tour manager during the band’s rise to international success during the mid-70s. Consequently, Chapman knew almost everybody…24 min
Classic Rock|July 2024POP JUNKIESIt’s 4pm on a Thursday. We’re sitting outside at The Starman, a Bowie-themed watering hole in central London, tucked away from the shopping bags and tourist streams of Regent Street. It’s a cool spot, for an ostensibly cool band. Across the table, Bobby Bird – shades off, shandy in hand – is expounding on a subject close to his heart. “Most people are afraid to be cheesy, you know?” the Bad Nerves frontman exclaims between swigs. “But cheesy melodies, if you package them right, they’re the best ones because you remember them. There’s loads of bands now that I really like, they have a nice vibe, but I don’t remember the songs. I like having something stuck in my head. It’s like, how catchy can you go, before it becomes…5 min
Classic Rock|July 2024CREATURES OF HABITSHe didn’t have to hear Smells Like Teen Spirit to know that he was fighting a losing battle. It was in 1990, a year before Nirvana’s game-changing hit shook the world, when Steve Overland, the singer with FM, realised that his band had missed the chance of becoming rock’s Next Big Thing. Epic Records, the powerhouse label that was home to the multimillion-selling likes of Michael Jackson and George Michael, had seen huge commercial potential in FM’s brand of slick melodic rock. “They were saying we were the British Bon Jovi, the next Foreigner,” Overland recalls. FM had the tunes. They had the look, with more than enough hair to compensate for their balding and daftly named keyboard player Didge Digital. And Steve had the voice, smooth and soulful like…10 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Bon JoviIt was difficult not to notice that something was amiss when Bon Jovi played at Wembley Stadium in 2019. That something was Jon Bon Jovi’s voice – top notes went awry, melody lines fell flat. Not always, but often enough to be unsettling. The girl next to mewho would have once forgiven Jon if he’d accidentally driven his motorbike into her as long as she’d got an autograph – suggested we leave before the end. Jon, who doesn’t talk much, and says even less when he does, has been surprisingly candid of late: Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, a four-part documentary airing on Disney +, charts his journey to combat his atrophied vocal cord and the major surgery to fix it. As he told The Sunday Times recently:…8 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Blue Öyster CultAt their peak, Blue Öyster Cult embodied the earthy and the enigmatic simultaneously. Their ability to switch between choogling bar-room boogie and weird, mystical heavy rock hymns was unmatched. The streak of strangeness that surrounded them was amplified by the coterie of journalists, authors and outside songwriters they enlisted to help realise their vision; everyone from sci-fi nabob Michael Moorco*ck to Patti Smith has been involved at one point or another. Conceptually, Ghost Stories, their fifteenth album, leans into their maverick side. It’s ‘new’ only in the sense that its 12 songs have never been heard before in this form. They’re mostly long-forgotten out-takes dating from recording sessions between 1978 and 1983, fished out from down the back of the sofa of history by charter members Eric Bloom and Donald…9 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Robin TrowerPossibly peaking too soon, Robin Trower’s career-defining second album, came out in 1974 and propelled him into the pantheon of the Second Wave Of British Blues Guitarists. Bridge Of Sighs never made the British chart, but spent over five months in the US chart, reaching No.7. The snobby British blues clique branded him a Hendrix copyist without bothering to listen beneath the surface. Sure, Trower sounded like Hendrix, but he certainly didn’t play like him, eschewing Hendrix’s fuzz and feedback, and focusing on the reverb from his own Stratocaster, his distinctive use of the whammy bar and his own melodic sense with its emphasis on single notes and tone. Bridge Of Sighs also added a new dimension to the concept of a power trio, broadening the boundaries from the opening…2 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Catching Fire: The Story Of Anita Pallenberg"I was bursting with love for Anita,” Keith Richards recalls wistfully on the audio track to Alexis Bloom and Svetlana Zill’s highly engaging documentary portrait of Anita Pallenberg, the fast-living German-Italian beauty who became the blueprint for every bohemian rock-star muse to follow. Full of previously unseen material, including extensive private video footage from the Richards family archive, Catching Fire is a rare insight behind the scenes of the Rolling Stones at their debauched peak. It paints Pallenberg as an integral member of the band’s creative chemistry, amplifying their aristocratic glamour and satanic majesty. But the filmmakers also want to reclaim and re-frame Pallenberg from male-dominated rock mythology – not just a background figure in a junkie soap opera, but a smart, charismatic, influential counterculture figure in her own right.…7 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Richie KotzenAs the much-travelled American guitarist, vocalist and songwriter prepares to play three British and Irish solo shows, he tells CR about his long career, which includes spells with Poison, Mr. Big and The Winery Dogs, plus a recent collaboration with Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith. Wasn’t it seeing a poster of Kiss’s Gene Simmons breathing fire that made you want to become a musician when you were seven? That’s completely true, it’s all Gene’s fault. I had been taking piano lessons, but I convinced my parents to buy me a guitar from a yard sale. Decades later, while playing on Gene’s solo record Asshole, did you tell him about that? We recorded that album at my studio, so there was a lot of down time, and I would definitely have…3 min
Classic Rock|July 2024New Model Army‘Still relevant, still angry, NMA remain at the top of their game.’ ★ Consummate road warriors to a man, you absolutely know what you are going to get with a New Model Army gig: intensity, power, and a sheer, visceral connection with the songs; you don’t just listen to NMA tunes, you feel them. And so it is with the already great-sounding songs from new album Unbroken, now fully road-tested across Europe and honed to thunderous perfection. Coming Or Going is a blazing opener, setting the scene for First Summer After, Language and If I Am Still Me, punctuated by older songs Long Goodbye and Winter, with main man Justin Sullivan in good form and quipping that the latter is probably the last thing we want to hear, given how…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Orange GoblinTucked down a side street, a short walk from the Bucket Fountain (one of the southern hemisphere’s premier tourist attractions, honest) lies Valhalla, Wellington’s equally premiere metal bar. A giant skeletal hand is suspended from the ceiling. A helmet from a suit of armour sits next to the DJ booth, its shining steel embellished with deer antlers. The toilet appears to have been hit by a tornado. And on stage are Orange Goblin. It’s taken Ben Ward and co. 30 years to get to this part of the world, although the stage is so low – and Ward so tall – that the other band members are visible only momentarily throughout the set. This means that Ward is the focus of attention throughout, and he revels in the spotlight, pumping…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024Sunn O)))Belief is all. There are no songs as such, just occasional modulations in tone or volume, the seismic vibration of the floor and fittings. There are no vocals or brass interludes or anything so trivial as structure to divert the audience’s attention away from the low rumblings emanating from the two hooded figures on stage – two figures mostly obscured from view for most of the 90 minutes of this untrammelled performance by clouds and clouds of billowing smoke, mega-lighting rigs creating basic yet hypnotic trance states. Oh, man. This is as far from commercial as ‘music’ gets, heavier in its own disturbed luminescence than Hawkwind, monstrous in its sweep and monolithic splendour. Primordial. Primitive. Bodies in the audience are rooted to the spot, arms extended, fists clenched, determined not…1 min
Classic Rock|July 2024The Soundtrack Of My Life“Tom Waits proved that you don’t need a great voice to be a good storyteller.” I turned sixty-five last year and decided to finally become a f*cking adult,” Al Jourgensen says, laughing. “So I took out all my dreads and my piercings, all that sh*t. Now it’s just my natural hair and whatever else I got left.” Jourgensen may have dialled down his distinctive look, but his music as leader of industrial-rock brutalists Ministry is just as uncompromising as ever. Their latest album is the socio-political HOPIUMFORTHEMASSES. THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING The first song I was cognisant of was the Rolling Stones’ 19th Nervous Breakdown. Compared to The Beatles or The Monkees, the Stones were rough around the edges. Then you’d read about their maniac lifestyle and drug…4 min
