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DUSTY HILL – A TRIBUTE 1949 – 2021

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JANIP MAN S JOPLIN PREAIC STREET CHER STRA THE S NG & mo LERS r e!

ISSUE 292

METALLICA “We wanted more. That’s always been our attitude”

HOW THE BLACK ALBUM CHANGED THE WORLD 30

TH

ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL

SEPTEMBER 2021 ISSUE 292

Features 26 Metallica By 1991, Metallica were a big fish in a relatively small pond.

Then that summer they released the album Metallica. It became a multimillion-selling game changer. Within months the band were catapulted into the super-league. Thirty years on, this is its story.

38 Crown Lands With plenty of current and historical events in their native Canada to fuel their fire and ire, their music wraps punk spirit in a luxury prog package that “draws a lot from Genesis and Yes and Rush”.

42 Janis Joplin In our exclusive extract and images from her fascinating scrapbook, bandmates, friends and family talk about that voice, her band Big Brother & The Holding Company, and the largely unseen Janis behind the public persona.

48 Danko Jones Plunged into anxiety hell by covid-19, their dreams of rock stardom never seemed more impossible. Fortunately, new album Power Trio brings the band roaring back to life.

52 The Byson Family After quitting The Temperance Movement under a cloud, their former vocalist Phil Campbell says his new band is his rebirth.

54 David Crosby Drugs can be dangerous. Don’t believe the hype. Global warming is real. America might be doomed. Life is short.

Love works. Racists are stupid. These are just some of the things that shape his world view.

58 Manic Street Preachers With covid still taking lives, and the band having undergone their fair share of emotional upheaval recently, it’s little wonder their new album has its melancholic side.

62 KK Downing After more than 40 years with Judas Priest, guitarist KK Downing is loving life with his own band, but he still harbours grudges about his departure, and is still disappointed that he wasn’t asked back.

66 The Stranglers Forty-four years on from their first hit and almost 10 since their last album, they’ve weathered storms and return with a new record dedicated to their late keyboard player.

26 ROSS HALFIN

Metallica

The making of a monster: the Black Album, 30 years on.

Regulars

SEPTEMBER 2021 ISSUE 292

12 The Dirt

New albums from Iron Maiden and Yes; Ronnie Wood, Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones recording first new material as Faces since 1973; How Maiden’s Adrian Smith nearly joined Def Leppard… Welcome back Medecine Head… Say hello to The Dead Deads and Cardinal Black… Say goodbye to Dusty Hill, Robby Steinhardt, John Lawton, Joey Jordison…

22 Q&A Brian Setzer The Stray Cats guitarist and big-band leader on “sexy” rockabilly, quiffs, moving to the UK, and being a heartthrob.

24 Six Things You Need To Know About…

Lukas Nelson & Promise Of The Real The country-rockers on close encounters with marine life, backing Neil Young and continuing a family tradition.

70 The Hot List

We look at some essential new rock tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Samantha Fish, The Record Company, The Wildhearts, The Hot Damn!, Mother Vulture, Gorilla Riot and more…

75 Reviews

New albums from The Widhearts, KK’s Priest, Manic Street Preachers, Ronnie Wood, Steve Hackett, The Stranglers, Bernie Marsden, Alabama 3, Danko Jones, Neal Morse Band, Robben Ford… Reissues from Metallica, Rory Gallagher, Leslie West, Be-Bop Deluxe, Van Der Graaf Generator, Black Francis, Nightwish, Eric Clapton… DVDs, films and books on Led Zeppelin, Ronnie Dio, Genesis, Rainbow, Bob Dylan, Marianne Faithfull… Live reviews of Robert Plant, The Lovely Eggs and Jamie Lenman, in addition to The Darkness, Wildhearts, Kris Barras Band, Those Damn Crowes, Uriah Heep at Steelhouse. Livestreams from Ronnie Dio Benefit Concert, Within Temptation, Mastodon, Anthrax, Bob Dylan…

92 Buyer’s Guide Mutt Lange His production technique might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he has overseen classic albums by AC/DC, Def Leppard, Foreigner, The Cars and more.

95 Back To Live

With gigs and festivals taking place again, we talk to Saxon frontman Biff Byford, promoter and events co-ordinator Brett Hall and music events transport company Vans For Bands’ Tarrant Anderson. Plus full gig listings – find out who’s playing where and when.

106 The Soundtrack Of My Life Bernie Marsden

Well-travelled guitarist/vocalist on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him

Dusty Hill

May 19, 1949 – July 27, 2021

KEVIN NIXON

12

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WELCOME

ll things going to plan, I had intended to use this space to wax lyrical about Metallica’s Black Album, and how this issue we’ve gone all out to celebrate its 30th anniversary this issue – which we have (p26). But, as we know by now, things rarely go to plan.

Just a few days before we were due to send the magazine to press, we learned the very sad news about the passing of ZZ Top legend Dusty Hill, and thus things changed. We pay tribute to the great guy from Texas (from p12), and if you’re a subscriber you’ll now be holding a special Dusty commemorative cover in your hands.

This month I would also like to ask your help. If you’re one of the aforementioned subscribers to Classic Rock, you might have noticed me soliciting you to get in touch via our exclusive newsletter to give us your thoughts on the mag. The reason for this is that I’d really like to bring back Communication Breakdown – aka the Classic Rock letters page. We dropped it a couple of years ago, quite honestly because the debate seemed to have moved online and we just weren’t receiving many missives, angry, constructive, glowing or otherwise!

That said, over the past couple of months I’ve had a few emails asking to bring it back. And, as I’m in the habit of saying, Classic Rock is your mag as much as it is ours. So whaddya reckon?

Drop us an email and have your say at classicrock@ futurenet.com, and let’s see if we can get the party started. Until next month…

Siân Llewellyn, Editor

COVER PHOTO: ROSS HALFIN

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This month’s contributors ROB HUGHES

When he’s not scribbling for Classic Rock, Prog or other music mags, Rob can be heard twice weekly on Marc Riley’s BBC 6Music show, where he digs through vintage copies of NME, Sounds and Melody Maker in ‘The Parallel Universe’.

This issue he gets up close and personal with the Manics (p58) and rifles through the record collection of guitar hero Bernie Marsden (p106).

DAVID SINCLAIR

David Sinclair is a singer, songwriter and bandleader at davidsinclairfour.com. He was a journalist for Kerrang! when he first met Dusty Hill backstage at Victoria Hall, Hanley in 1983, and he was at ZZ Top’s last UK show at Wembley Arena on July 12, 2019. This month we invited him to celebrate the life and times of big, bad, bearded bassman Dusty Hill (p12).

ROSS HALFIN

There really was only one photographer we could turn to for this issue celebrating 30 years of Metallica’s Black Album, and that’s none other than Ross ‘The Master’ Halfin. His iconic Metalli-pix not only accompany our feature (p26), but also these and hundreds more can be seen in his forthcoming book Metallica: The Black Album In Black And White. More info on that at reelartpress.com

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Editor

Art Editor

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Siân Llewellyn

Darrell Mayhew

Polly Glass

Now playing: The Wildhearts, 21st Century Love Songs

Sepultura, Sepulquarta

The Dead Deads, Tell Your Girls It’s Alright

Production Editor

Reviews Editor

Online Editor

News/Lives Editor Iron Maiden, Senjutsu

Paul Henderson

Ian Fortnam

Fraser Lewry

John McLaughlin, Liberation Time

The Dead Deads, Tell Your Girls It’s Alright

Alien Weaponry, Tangaroa

Contributing writers xƏȸƬƺǼ ȇƳƺȸɀً JƺȒǔǔ ƏȸɎȒȇً Áǣȅ ƏɎƬɖȵً xƏȸǸ ƺƏɖȅȒȇɎً xƏɴ ƺǼǼً 0ɀɀǣ ƺȸƺǼǣƏȇً ³ǣȅȒȇ ȸƏƳǼƺɵً «ǣƬǝ !ǝƏȅƫƺȸǼƏǣȇً ³Ɏƺȵǝƺȇ (ƏǼɎȒȇً «ǣƬǝ (ƏɮƺȇȵȒȸɎً hȒǝȇȇɵ‫(ژ‬ƺƺً ǣǼǼ (ƺxƏǣȇً xƏǼƬȒǼȅ (Ȓȅƺً nƺƺ (ȒȸȸǣƏȇً xƏȸǸ 0ǼǼƺȇً !ǼƏɖƳǣƏ 0ǼǼǣȒɎɎً ¨ƏɖǼ 0ǼǼǣȒɎɎً (Əɮƺ 0ɮƺȸǼƺɵً hƺȸȸɵ 0ɯǣȇǕً RɖǕǝ IǣƺǼƳƺȸً 0ǼƺƏȇȒȸ JȒȒƳȅƏȇً JƏȸɵ JȸƏǔǔً xǣƬǝƏƺǼ RƏȇȇً hȒǝȇ RƏȸȸǣɀً zǣƬǸ RƏɀɎƺƳً Əȸȇƺɵ RȒɀǸɵȇɀً hȒȇ RȒɎɎƺȇً «Ȓƫ RɖǕǝƺɀً zƺǣǼ hƺǔǔȸǣƺɀً 0ȅȅƏ hȒǝȇɀɎȒȇً hȒ kƺȇƳƏǼǼً RƏȇȇƏǝ xƏɵ kǣǼȸȒɵً (Ȓȅ nƏɯɀȒȇً (Əȇȇǣǣ nƺǣɮƺȸɀً kƺȇ xƬXȇɎɵȸƺً nƺƺ xƏȸǼȒɯً JƏɮǣȇ xƏȸɎǣȇً ǼƺɴƏȇƳƺȸ xǣǼƏɀً ¨ƏɖǼ xȒȒƳɵً JȸƏȇɎ xȒȒȇً nɖǸƺ xȒȸɎȒȇً kȸǣɀ zƺƺƳɀً ǣǼǼ zƺǼɀȒȇً ¨ƏɖǼ «ƺƺɀً !ǝȸǣɀ «ȒƫƺȸɎɀً (ƏɮǣƳ ªɖƏȇɎǣƬǸً áǣǼǼ ³ǣȅȵɀȒȇً hȒǝȇȇɵ ³ǝƏȸȵً (ƏɮǣƳ ³ǣȇƬǼƏǣȸً ³ǼƺƏɿƺǕȸǣȇƳƺȸً Áƺȸȸɵ ³ɎƏɖȇɎȒȇً (ƏɮǣƳ ³Ɏɖƫƫɀً 0ɮƺȸƺɎɎ Áȸɖƺً hƏƏȇ‫ژ‬ÈǝƺǼɀɿǸǣً xǣƬǸ áƏǼǼً ¨ƏƳƳɵ áƺǼǼɀً ¨ǝǣǼǣȵ áǣǼƳǣȇǕً Rƺȇȸɵ çƏɎƺɀً çȒɖɎǝ

Dave Ling

Contributing photographers ȸǣƏȇ ȸǣɀً ȅǣ ƏȸɯƺǼǼً ƳȸǣƏȇ ȒȒɎً (ǣƬǸ ƏȸȇƏɎɎً (Əɮƺ ȸȒǼƏȇً ǼǣɀȒȇ !ǼƏȸǸƺً ñƏƬǝ !ȒȸƳȇƺȸً Iǣȇ !ȒɀɎƺǼǼȒً Rƺȇȸɵ (ǣǼɎɿً kƺɮǣȇ 0ɀɎȸƏƳƏً hƏȅƺɀ IȒȸɎɖȇƺً hǣǼǼ IɖȸȅƏȇȒɮɀǸɵً Rƺȸƫ Jȸƺƺȇƺً Ȓƫ Jȸɖƺȇً xǣƬǝƏƺǼ RƏǼɀƫƏȇƳً «Ȓɀɀ‫ژ‬RƏǼˡȇً xǣƬǸ RɖɎɀȒȇً áǣǼǼ XȸƺǼƏȇƳً «ȒƫƺȸɎ kȇǣǕǝɎً xƏȸǣƺ kȒȸȇƺȸً Əȸȸɵ nƺɮǣȇƺً hǣȅ xƏȸɀǝƏǼǼً hȒǝȇ xƬxɖȸɎȸǣƺً JƺȸƺƳ‫ژ‬xƏȇǸȒɯǣɎɿً (ƏɮǣƳ xȒȇɎǕȒȅƺȸɵً kƺɮǣȇ zǣɴȒȇً (ƺȇǣɀ ‫«ټ‬ƺǕƏȇً Əȸȸɵ ¨Ǽɖȅȅƺȸً «Ȓȇ ¨ȒɯȇƏǼǼً zƺƏǼ ¨ȸƺɀɎȒȇً xǣƬǝƏƺǼ ¨ɖɎǼƏȇƳً xǣƬǸ «ȒƬǸً ¨ƺȇȇǣƺ ³ȅǣɎǝً ³Ɏƺȵǝƺȇ ³ɎǣƬǸǼƺȸً nƺǣǕǝ ɮƏȇ Ƴƺȸ ɵǼً !ǝȸǣɀ áƏǼɎƺȸً xƏȸǸ áƺǣɀɀً Əȸȸǣƺ áƺȇɎɿƺǼǼً ƏȸȒȇ áȒǼȅƏȇً xǣƬǝƏƺǼ‫ژ‬ñƏǕƏȸǣɀً zƺǣǼ ñǼȒɿȒɯƺȸ

ǼǼ ƬȒȵɵȸǣǕǝɎɀ ƏȇƳ ɎȸƏƳƺȅƏȸǸɀ Əȸƺ ȸƺƬȒǕȇǣɀƺƳ ƏȇƳ ȸƺɀȵƺƬɎƺƳ ! hƏȇɖƏȸɵ‫(ٮ‬ƺƬƺȅƫƺȸ ‫׏א׎ًזב يח׏׎א‬ Thanks this issue to ³Ɏƺɮƺ zƺɯȅƏȇ ٢ƳƺɀǣǕȇ٣

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Editorial 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Siân Llewellyn ȸɎ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Darrell Mayhew IƺƏɎɖȸƺɀ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Polly Glass ¨ȸȒƳɖƬɎǣȒȇ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Paul Henderson «ƺɮǣƺɯɀ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Ian Fortnam zƺɯɀٖnǣɮƺɀ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Dave Ling ȇǼǣȇƺ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Fraser Lewry ȇǼǣȇƺ zƺɯɀ 0ƳǣɎȒȸ Scott Munro !ȒȇɎƺȇɎ (ǣȸƺƬɎȒȸ ٢xɖɀǣƬ٣ Scott Rowley RƺƏƳ ǔ (ƺɀǣǕȇ ٢xɖɀǣƬ٣ Brad Merrett Advertising Media packs are available on request !ȒȅȅƺȸƬǣƏǼ (ǣȸƺƬɎȒȸ Clare Dove ƬǼƏȸƺِƳȒɮƺ۬ǔɖɎɖȸƺȇƺɎِƬȒȅ ƳɮƺȸɎǣɀǣȇǕ xƏȇƏǕƺȸ Helen Hughes ǝƺǼƺȇِǝɖǕǝƺɀ۬ǔɖɎɖȸƺȇƺɎِƬȒȅ ƬƬȒɖȇɎ (ǣȸƺƬɎȒȸ Olly Papierowski ȒǼǼɵِȵƏȵǣƺȸȒɯɀǸǣ۬ǔɖɎɖȸƺȇƺɎِƬȒȅ ƬƬȒɖȇɎ (ǣȸƺƬɎȒȸ Steven Pyatt ɀɎƺɮƺȇِȵɵƏɎɎ۬ǔɖɎɖȸƺȇƺɎِƬȒȅ

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May 19, 1949 – July 27, 2021 David Sinclair looks back at the life, times and music of ZZ Top’s enigmatic bassist and vocalist.

T

he sudden death of bass player, singer, songwriter and keyboard player Dusty Hill at the age of 72 is especially devastating given the man’s robust, yet understated, presence on the rock star A-list over such a long period of time.

With his long, flowing beard, black shades and inevitable cowboy hats, Hill and his mirror-image bandmate, guitarist Billy Gibbons, along with drummer Frank Beard, created a sound, an image and a mythology that defined ZZ Top, the selfdescribed little ol’ band from Texas, and turned them into one of the wonders of the rock’n’roll world. Like the heads carved out of stone on Mount Rushmore, these larger-than-life Methuselahs seemed destined to last forever.

Indeed the band were touring right up to the day Hill died in his sleep at home in Houston, having gone to the city to seek treatment for an injury to his hip, with the band’s guitar tech Elwood Francis taking his place on stage. Gibbons has since stated that it is the band’s intention to play out the remaining shows on their current tour. “As Dusty said upon his departure: ‘Let the show go on!’

And… with respect, we’ll do well to get beyond this and honour his wishes,” Gibbons said.

From humble beginnings in 1969 in Houston, ZZ Top initially toured their way to greatness in

America and, by the time they mounted their Worldwide Texas Tour of 1976, had become one of the biggest stadium acts in the land. The trio’s ambition continued to grow, along with their beards, and with the release of their eighth album, Eliminator, in 1983 they became global stars of the MTV era. With the help of a string of strikingly memorable promo videos accompanying the hits Gimme All Your Lovin’, Sharp Dressed Man and Legs, ZZ Top sealed a unique and indelible image in the popular imagination and earned themselves a rare diamond certification for sales in excess of 10 million copies of Eliminator in the USA alone. In 2004 the band were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame by Keith Richards at a ceremony which they closed with a rousing rendition of Tush (their first US Top 20 single, released in 1975) sung with a typically boisterous swagger by Hill.

While their commercial fortunes and recorded output declined somewhat in the new millennium, ZZ Top never stopped touring. “We’ll talk about splitting headaches and splitting hairs, but not splitting up,” Gibbons declared.

Their legacy is an astonishing body of work – as deep and down and dirty as any of the great southern rock/blues bands, as progressive and even avant garde as many of the ‘serious’ album bands, and as commercial and dancefloor-friendly as most of the soft-rock goliaths of the 1980s. ³ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 13

Dusty Hill (left) and Billy Gibbons with ZZ Top at 2017’s Ramblin’ Man festival, and (inset) in Macon, Georgia in 1974.

Yet strip away the showbiz glitz and glamour – the cars, the girls, the exquisitely embroidered stage wear, the twirling, matching guitars, the telepathically synchronised two-steps – and you had a trio of dedicated musicians who simply loved doing what they did, and enjoyed each other’s company and sense of humour right up to the final curtain. The same three guys playing the same three chords for 50 years and beyond, as they liked to call it.

J

‘Dusty Hill was a rock of stability in ZZ Top, providing a centre of gravity for the band both musically and emotionally.’

a repertoire of free-flowing boogie rhythms and sturdy, heavy-rock riffs. From the chunky, martial stomp of Waitin’ For The Bus to the speedy stride of Thunderbird and the frantic bass-bomb finale of I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide, Hill had it all covered. Plus he was a great singer, whose high, raucous shout contrasted perfectly with Gibbons’s low, bluesman’s drawl. On songs like Beer Drinkers And Hell Raisers the pair would trade alternate vocal lines, or they would harmonise like blues brothers as on their epic version of Sam & Dave’s soul song I Thank You. Hill was, of course, one third of the incredibly prolific songwriting partnership that the band maintained from the outset. And later when ZZ Top entered their era of mainstream chart success in the 1980s, it was Hill who added distinctive keyboard parts to hits such as Velcro Fly and TV Dinners, a role that he carried through into their stage performances.

On stage, while Beard performed at the back with apparently stoic indifference, Hill and Gibbons fronted the band with a glorious, synchronised choreography that at times verged on the surreal. The routines they developed over years of roadwork – sloping round the stage in shadow formation, whipping the necks of their guitars back together in perfect time, the comical ‘crossed-knee’ manoeuvre in the middle of Sharp Dressed Man – made their live show a visual delight as much as a musical tour de force, and ultimately led to their unlikely success as a video act. Hill was certainly key to all that.

The early years of ZZ Top was one long treadmill of playing second-string gigs in secondstring towns all across Texas. In a town called Alvin, they played an entire show, including encore, to an audience of just one man. Their manager, Bill Ham, was an old-school Houston impresario whose faith in the band was matched by a steely determination not to cut corners in developing either their craft or their career. He

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oseph Michael Hill was born in Dallas, Texas in 1949. His mother, a gifted singer, worked as a waitress, and one of Dusty’s earliest musical memories was of her bringing home a copy of an Elvis Presley record from the jukebox in the diner where she worked, which he sang along to. When he was eight, Dusty was given a guitar for Christmas, but it was his elder brother, Rocky, who learned to play it. When the two of them began playing in bands together, Rocky made it clear to him that Dusty’s role would be as the bass player.

In 1964 the teenaged brothers were gigging together in a band called Lady Wilde And The Warlocks, featuring a female singer from Liverpool. On the circuit they met a drummer called Frank Beard, who they quickly brought into 14 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

the band, after which they recorded three locally released singles.

Rocky, Dusty and Frank then formed a new band called the American Blues, who released a self-titled debut album in 1968.

When Rocky left the line-up, Frank and Dusty were on the lookout for a singer/ guitarist at the same time that Gibbons was looking for a new rhythm section for his fledgling project, a Houston-based trio called ZZ Top. The first time the three of them got together, Dusty suggested they play a shuffle in C. According to Gibbons, the song lasted for three uninterrupted hours. “We will forever be connected to that blues shuffle in C,” he said, more than 50 years later, on hearing the news of his bandmate’s death.

The incredible musical chemistry that the three musicians had discovered on their first meeting together was no small thing. All three were steeped in the blues. They knew the discipline and the conventions of that most traditional of popular music forms. But they were open to experimentation and extending the boundaries of how far that music could travel.

With his big, powerful hands and fingers, Hill developed a bass playing style that was thick and full, holding down the bottom end of ZZ Top with

‘Hill had it all covered – he was a great singer, whose high, raucous shout contrasted perfectly with Gibbons’s low, bluesman’s drawl.’ kept them working on the road incessantly, convinced that this was the surest method of honing their licks and building a lifelong audience.

“He gave me direction, not only as part of the band, but as a person,” Hill later said of Ham, who died in 2016. “He was a very wise man. And I loved him.”

The band’s appropriately titled debut, ZZ Top’s First Album, was released in 1970, but it was not until their third album, Tres Hombres, in 1973, that they truly blossomed. That album was a work of outstanding genius. It became their first million seller and set the standard for everything that followed. It included their first hit – and still the band’s signature song – La Grange, a high-tensile boogie about the notorious Chicken Farm brothel, later to become the subject of the film The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (1982) starring Dolly Parton.

The embodiment of Texan folklore in their music and outlook was a key part of the ZZ Top narrative, and Hill’s enduring allegiance to the Lone Star State was almost as consuming as his commitment to the band.

When I first met him, backstage at a gig in Hanley in the north of England in 1983, he was agreeable company with a cheerful roughness of manner. But his mood darkened when the discussion turned to the band’s decision to remain based in Texas rather than relocate to one of the traditional showbusiness Meccas of Los Angeles or New York. He reserved particular scorn for Texan-born stars such as Johnny Winter and Janis Joplin who had moved away at the earliest opportunity. “People told us we had to move,” he said. “Fuck ’em. It’s not necessary.”

Hill was a rock of stability in ZZ Top, providing a centre of gravity for the band both musically and emotionally. He said little in public about the inner workings of the group, and even less about himself. “There have been any number of low points in my life, but I never discuss them in public,” he said. “They’re not for others to pick over and dissect. All I will say is that you have to have the right attitude to these downturns. You have to go through the low points to appreciate the highs in life.”

When the band went on hiatus for three years from the start of 1977 after the Worldwide Texas Tour, Gibbons went gallivanting around Europe and India, while Beard went on a heroin and cocaine bender that ended in a stretch in rehab.

Hill, by contrast, took a job, incognito, as a baggage handler at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport.

“For me, success is a great thing,” he said. “It

can also really screw with you. You don’t know if people around you treat you well or badly according to who they think you are or who you really are. I just wanted to feel normal. So I got me a job at the airport. I got me a work shirt that said ‘Joe’ on it, cut my hair and I worked there for a couple of months. I was really happy. Friday night, I’d go to the beer joint and dance and drink and flirt with the girls. And everybody knew me as Joe. It gave me a sense of being grounded, I guess.”

Hill’s wild days of beer drinking and hellraising never quite deserted him. In December 1984 he was admitted to Memorial City Medical Center in Houston with a bullet lodged in his abdomen. He was accompanied by “a woman” who told police that she was helping Hill take off his boots at home when a .38-calibre Derringer fell from one of them and went off. Hill was unsure at first whether the bullet had hit him. But he was persuaded to go to hospital, where a “standard” operation to remove the bullet was completed successfully.

In 2000 a ZZ Top tour was cancelled when Hill contracted hepatitis C. After he had recovered and the band resumed touring, he declared that he was “living proof that hepatitis C can be contained and ZZ Top cannot”.

Sadly, no one can beat the odds for ever.

Hill is survived by his wife of almost 20 years, the actress Charleen McCrory, and their children Corey and Lindsey, and by Charity, his daughter from a previous relationship.

Asked a few years ago what he would like to have written on his tombstone, Hill said he was unable to come up with a suitable answer.

Maybe a line from ZZ’s Jesus Just Left Chicago would fit the bill: ‘You don’t have to worry… cos Taking Care Of Business is his name.’ Adios, amigo.

+ STOP PRESS + ZZ Top played their first concert without Dusty Hill on Friday, July 30. During a show in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, guitarist Billy Gibbons introduced a musician called Elwood Francis, as “my friend, your pal”, before adding that Hill had given his consent for the group to continue without him.

“Got a new guy up here, as you know. Dusty gave me the directive,” Gibbons announced. A few days earlier, he had informed Variety of Hill’s wish that: “The show must go on.”

Whether or not Elwood Francis, the band’s long-serving guitar tech, who wore a fake beard during the performance, becomes a permanent fixture in ZZ Top is something only time will tell.

THE STARS PAY TRIBUTE TONY IOMMI “Sorry to hear about Dusty Hill, greatly missed, a crucial part of the unique ZZ Top sound.”

ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND “The Allman Brothers Band Family is saddened to learn of the recent passing of fellow musical traveller Dusty Hill, bassist extraordinaire of our friends ZZ Top. Our love and support go out to Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, the Hill family and all the Top fans in the world, we share your loss.”

DAVID COVERDALE “So Very Sad To Hear Dusty Has Passed…

Beautiful Soul…”

SCORPIONS “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his Compadres and the Family…”

FLEA “A true rocker, Dusty Hill, who laid it down deep and real. I will always listen to you, as will anyone who ever wanted to rock out, and we will all be moved. I heard it on the X, beer drinkers and hell raisers. Rest In Peace my bass brother, you jam infinity.”

JOHN FOGERTY “We are devastated to hear about Dusty’s passing. We were so blessed to share the stage with the great Dusty and ZZ Top many times, and if that wasn’t Rock and Roll heaven, I don’t know what is. The show we did together just last week would be his last.

So heartbreaking.”

VERNON REID, LIVING COLOUR “Dusty Hill was the kind of musician that could be in a world famous band, and be satisfied with making it work. Like Rick Laird, who also passed on recently, nobody seeming to notice. Getting it done with humility is the opposite of the narcissism that fuels modern music culture.”

JOE BONAMASSA “Rest In Peace Dusty. You were a one of a kind legend and a kind and gentle soul.”

OZZY OSBOURNE “Rest In Peace #DustyHill of ZZ Top. My thoughts go out to Billy F Gibbons, Frank Beard and all the #ZZTop fans around the world.”

PAUL STANLEY “Wow! Dusty Hill. What an icon. ZZ Top’s bassist forever. So unique. Always a gentleman from the days of us opening for them through the recent days of them opening for us. I don’t know what to say but thank you, and rest however you damn well choose.”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 15

Joey Jordison April 26, 1975 – July 26, 2021

Thank you and good night.

Al Collins July 24, 1960 – July 6, 2021

Al Collins, bassist with Jason & The Scorchers, has died following a heart attack at the age of 60. Nashvillebased Collins, devoted husband of the performer Stacie, joined the US alt. country band in 2008. Scorchers vocalist Jason Ringenberg said his bandmate was “cheerful and ready to help, whether it was four a.m. getting in the van or eight p.m. going on stage.”

The metal community has reacted with sadness and shock to news of the death of former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison at the age of 46. Cause of death has not been announced. Jordison had suffered from transverse myelitis, a neurological condition that restricted his movement.

“I lost my legs. I couldn’t play any more. It was a form of multiple sclerosis,” he told the audience at the Metal Hammer Awards in 2016.

“I got myself back up, I got in the gym and I got back in therapy to beat this fucking shit. If I can do it, you can do it. To people with multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis or anything like that, I’m living proof that you can beat that shit.”

Born in Des Moines, Iowa, Jordison appeared on all of Slipknot’s albums up to and including 2008’s All Hope Is Gone, before being sensationally fired as the band geared up to record 2014’s .5: The Gray Chapter.

During the noughties he formed the horror-punk band Murderdolls with frontman Wednesday 13, and played a range of instruments on their two albums.

Famously he also played with Metallica at 2004’s Download Festival after Lars Ulrich was unable to play.

“Joey was better [playing] upside-down than any other metal drummer sitting normally,” said Ginger Wildheart. DL

Vic Briggs February 14, 1945 – June 30, 2021

Twickenham-born Vic Briggs is best remembered as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon And The Animals between 1966 and ’68. He also played with Rod Stewart, Steampacket and Brian Auger’s Trinity, among many others, before converting to Sikhism and switching to classical Indian and Hawaiian music. Briggs was 68 when he lost his battle with cancer.

John ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson January 2, 1944 – July 24, 2021

An important yet little-known part of David Bowie’s musical history, Scarborough-born John Hutchinson played with Bowie between 1966 and 1973, first as part of David Bowie And The Buzz, then in an acoustic group called Feathers, before augmenting the Spiders From Mars playing 12-string guitar on tours of the USA, Japan and the UK. The 77-year-old had endured a long illness.

Gary Corbett July 15, 1968 – July 15, 2021

Kiss were “shocked and saddened” to learn of the passing of their keyboard player for the Crazy Nights, Hot In The Shade and Revenge tours in the 80s and 90s. Corbett also worked with Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson, Lou Gramm and Cinderella, whose Tom Keifer described him as “a talented musician and good-hearted friend”. He also wrote She Bop for Cyndi Lauper.

Corbett, 58, died of lung cancer.

Martin Kahan April 17, 1947 – July 18, 2021

The celebrated music video director who worked with Kiss, Bon Jovi, Rush, Mötley Crüe, Loverboy and many more has passed away following a battle with cancer. Due to a series of health implications rendering him no longer able to work, his final creation was in 16 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

John Lawton July 11, 1946 – June 29, 2021 Uriah Heep band leader and guitarist Mick Box has said the passing of their former singer came as “a complete shock”, adding: “This has left me numb.”

Halifax-born Lawton joined Heep in 1976 as the replacement for co-founder David Byron. It was a tough gig made even harder by the newcomer’s bluesier voice, although conventional wisdom now recognises the quality of Heep’s three studio albums – Firefly, Innocent Victim and Fallen Angel – made with Lawton at the microphone.

After Heep, Lawton returned to German band Lucifer’s Friend. He remained a great friend of Box and company, and filled in for current

singer Bernie Shaw in 1995 when he was forced to miss a run of shows.

Perhaps unexpectedly, given now deceased keyboard player Ken Hensley had opposed his joining Heep, Lawton worked again with him in the Hensley Lawton Band.

A statement from Uriah Heep said: “Contrary to reports, there was no illness involved, which makes John’s passing incomprehensible.

He went peacefully with his wife Iris at his side.”

“I have no regrets,” Lawton said in 2002. “Music has given wholeness to me. Everything that’s happened is a wholeness to me, because I’ve done all the things I wanted to.”

Lawton was 74 years old. DL

Jeff LaBar March 18, 1963 – July 14, 2021 Cinderella frontman Tom Keifer was understandably consumed with grief over the news of two members of Cinderella passing away within 24 hours of one another: guitarist Jeff LaBar at the age of 58, and keyboard player Gary Corbett (see panel, left) also aged 58.

“Just while we were in the process of losing Jeff, we got word that our long-time keyboard player Gary Corbett lost his battle with cancer,” wrote Keifer.

A band-issued statement said: “Heavy hearts cannot begin to describe the feeling of losing our brother Jeff. The bond between us over decades of creating music and touring the world is something that we as a band uniquely shared. Those

memories with Jeff will be forever alive in our hearts. It’s unimaginable that one of our band brothers has left us.”

Although Cinderella hadn’t released a studio album since 1994’s Still Climbing, they returned from hiatus in 2010 to play a series of live shows, and a 25th-anniversary tour the following year. In 2013 they were on the bill for the Monsters Of Rock Cruise.

Problems with Keifer’s voice prevented further recording, and in 2017 the singer dashed hopes of any further activity, citing irreconcilable differences with the other members of the band.

LaBar released a solo record, One For The Road, in 2014. DL

Robby Steinhardt May 25, 1950 – July 17, 2021 A founding member of Kansas, violinist, organist and singer Robby Steinhardt was pivotal to many of the group’s best-loved hits, including Dust In The Wind and Carry On Wayward Son. As well as playing, Steinhardt was a co-vocalist and unofficial MC during two spells with the band, from 1973 to 1982 and 1997 to 2006.

In a statement his family announced that the 71-yearold died of complications from acute pancreatitis. Following the completion of a new all-star album, Steinhardt had begun rehearsals for a national tour when he became ill.

Following news of his death, his former bandmates in Kansas paid tribute, saying: “The members of

the band Kansas, past and present, wish to express our deepest sorrow over the death of our bandmate and friend, Robby Steinhardt.

“Robby will always be in our souls, in our minds, and in our music. What he brought to us as bandmates, to the fans who attended our concerts, and to the sound of Kansas, will always be heartfelt. We love him and will miss him always.”

Right from the start of their career in 1970, Kansas had set out to break the mould. Drummer Phil Ehart told Classic Rock in 2007: “Three things made us unique: the songs that Kerry [Livgren, guitarist] wrote, the vocals of Steve Walsh and Robby’s violin.” DL

Rick Laird February 5, 1941 – July 4, 2021 The bassist and founding member of jazz-fusion pioneers Mahavishnu Orchestra has died at the age of 80. No cause of death has been announced, although it was reported that he had been in hospice care since January.

Born in Dublin, Laird was raised in New Zealand and earned a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in Boston. He was asked by guitarist John McLaughlin to join the first Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971, after being the house bassist at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London.

At first Laird had resisted the change from stand-up bass to electric, but after he did so and worked with McLaughlin in the Brian Auger

Trinity, chemistry between the pair was instant.

Away from playing music, Laird worked as a photographer and received praise for his images of jazz greats Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Elvin Jones, Keith Jarrett and others.

“RIP brother Rick Laird,” wrote McLaughlin on Twitter. “What great memories we have. Miss you!!!”

Mahavishnu Orchestra rhythm section partner Billy Cobham added: “Rick played what was necessary to keep the rest of us from going off our musical rails. He was my rock and allowed me to play and explore musical regions that I would not have been able to navigate without him having my back.” DL

Mike Howe

GETTY x3; COUNT M’BUTU: ALAMY

August 21, 1965 – July 26, 2021 Metal Blade Records boss Brian Slagel has led the tributes to Metal Church frontman Mike Howe, who died of as yet unannounced cause at the age of 56 at his home in Eureka, California, as this issue went to press.

“We signed his first band, Heretic, to Metal Blade, and then of course Mike went on to a great career with Metal Church,” wrote Slagel. “He was a really good guy and gone way too soon.”

In fact Howe was a member of Detroit band Hellion before Heretic.

He eventually replaced original Metal Church singer David Wayne in 1988, and recorded three wellreceived studio albums with them – Blessing In Disguise, The Human

Factor and Hanging In The Balance – until they split in 1996. In 2015 he rejoined the band and appeared on 2016’s XI, and 2018’s Damned If You Do. Howe was with Metal Church on the now legendary night that Metallica supported them at London’s Marquee club in May 1990 when they played an unannounced warm-up for a European tour.

He is the second singer of Metal Church to have passed away, following 47-year-old David Wayne in 2005.

“We are devastated and at a loss for words,” said a statement from Metal Church. “Mike was our brother, our friend and true legend of heavy metal music.” DL

August 2000 for country star Kenny Chesney’s song I Lost It. Kahan was 74 years old.

Count M’Butu Died July 25, 2021

Better known as percussionist Count M’Butu (pictured), Harold M Jones was born in Georgia, and went on to play with Aquarium Rescue Unit (where he was awarded his nickname

by Colonel Bruce Hampton), the Derek Trucks band and later the Tedeschi Trucks Band. A statement from the latter said: “The Count’s brilliant percussion and inimitable style won him respect and admiration from his musical peers and audiences around the world.”

Chuck E Weiss March 18, 1945 – July 20, 2021

Chuck E Weiss, the songwriter, vocalist and beat poet name-checked in Rickie Lee Jones’s 1979 hit Chuck E’s In Love, has died from cancer at the age of 76.

Jones was living with Tom Waits when their friend Weiss, a disc jockey from Denver, rang from Denver. Waits took the call, and after hanging up told her: “Chuck E’s in love”. The rest is history.

Chris ‘The Bear’ Hutka Died July 10, 2021

Along with Matthew Tybor, known as ‘The Bunny’, Chris ‘The Bear’ Hutka, was a co-frontman with enigmatic American post-hardcore outfit the Bunny The Bear, supplying clean vocals to their music – a melting pot of rock, electronica, synth-pop, metalcore, experimental rock and alt. rock. Hutka appeared on the group’s first five albums. Cause of death is yet to be announced.

Andy Williams May 13, 1972 – July 9, 2021

The former drummer with Grammywinning contemporary Christian rockers Casting Crowns, Andy Williams has died of injuries suffered in a motorcycle accident in Tennessee on June 27. A GoFundMe appeal had been created to raise $250,000 to cover Williams’s medical bills. He was 49 years old. Casting Crowns won the Grammy for the Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel record of 2005 for Lifesong, their second album.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 17

Yes release a new studio album, The Quest, on October 1.

It was produced by guitarist Steve Howe.

Riches from the rock underground

LOVE SCULPTURE

Forms And Feeling, 1969, Parlophone, UK. £300 (first pressing).

Despite the band being popular at the time, first pressings (with classic yellowand-black labels) of Forms And Feelings are particularly hard to find.

Love Sculpture formed in Cardiff in the late 60s, and released their debut album Blues Helping in 1968. A solid blues-rock affair, it rarely deviates from the style. Forms And Feelings, however, has more to offer to fans of psychedelic rock.

Opener In The Land Of The Few has an instantly uplifting vibe, with fantastic power-pop vocal melodies and great acid-guitar flourishes. Nobody’s Talking follows a similar path but has a heavier, monotonous and powerful blues-metal approach. Seven-minute mini-epic Why is chock-full of mantras, spacey vocal effects, droning feedback, heavy chords, lysergic solos and repetitive rhythms.

The band are best known for their highoctane metallic rendition of Sabre Dance (a top-five hit in ’68), and the album

Ronnie Wood reveals that he, Rod Stewart and Kenney Jones have been recording the first new material as Faces since 1973.

Wood was also part of a session that produced nine bonus songs for a 40thanniversary of the Rolling Stones’ Tattoo You album. “I’ve had a front-row seat on some amazing rock‘n’roll projects this past fortnight,” he said.

Iron Maiden issue their seventeenth studio album, Senjutsu, on September 3.

Recorded in Paris with producer Kevin Shirley and co-produced by bassist Steve Harris, its title loosely translates from Japanese as ‘tactics and strategy’.

Def Leppard drummer Rick Allen reveals that Adrian Smith was a serious contender to have replaced Steve Clark in Def Leppard following the guitarist’s death in 1991. Smith had quit Iron Maiden the year before. “I actually really loved the idea,” Allen says of the possibility. In the end, of course, the job went to Vivian Campbell.

‘Speed-king guitarist Dave Edmunds was in a class of his own.’

18 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Covid sceptic Eric Clapton (pictured) will not perform at shows “where there is a discriminated audience present” and entry depends on two covid vaccinations.

Responding to the news, David Crosby tweeted: “Eric is a fine musician, singer and writer… and in my opinion politically a bit dim in the bulb.”

John Fiddler, one half of the original duo, looks back on early fame and forward to a possible re-formation.

Singer-guitarist John Fiddler and harmonica player Peter Hope-Evans founded Medicine Head in 1968. Their singular folk-blues found early cheerleaders in John Lennon and John Peel, the latter signing him to his Dandelion label. They scored four hit singles in the UK, the biggest being One & One Is One, before disbanding in 1977.

Fiddler has revived the name in recent times, and the new Warriors Of Love is the first Medicine Head album in a decade.

It’s been ten years since the last album.

What brought on Warriors Of Love?

I’ve been through a very difficult, extremely disruptive time, and it’s put me in a different place.

I returned to the UK from the States five years ago and put together a little environment to record in, and the songs just started to pop out.

Radio Luxembourg one day and it just froze me to the spot. It went straight to the heart. The blues is a joyful experience for me. It’s not sad. It’s almost like therapy.

It’s about expressing feelings.

Why do you think John Peel was drawn to Medicine Head?

We were different and brought a certain feeling to the early Dandelion stuff. It was very lo-fi, but very high spiritually.

That’s what John Lennon liked about us.

He insisted that John [Peel] sign us, because he loved the raw feel of our early home recordings.

Peter Hope-Evans was such a massive presence. He was a tiny guy, but when he blew that harmonica on stage it was like a hurricane coming through. It was a great combination.

“I’ve been through a very difficult, extremely disruptive time.”

The songs’ lyrics often address that idea of working through something very negative.

That’s part of how Warriors Of Love came about, because I was on the front line. The important thing was I had a lot of help from the men’s domestic abuse line. Being a man who’s being abused is sort of difficult. I didn’t feel like my masculinity was threatened, but I’m a sensitive human being. I think the positive part of all this is that there is help; you’re not alone.

Did writing these songs help too?

Probably. I’ve always tried not to think too much. Somehow I receive these ideas and transmit them, rather than going through an analytical process.

Is the blues still your guiding light?

Everything I do is from there. As a kid I remember hearing Muddy Waters on

How did the pair of you deal with fame when the hits started?

We weren’t trying to become pop stars.

All we wanted to do was create something. I don’t think Peter enjoyed being on Top Of The Pops with Tony Blackburn, who hated us and didn’t speak very kindly of us. We did eventually get an apology from the BBC. But Pete left after Pictures In The Sky [their first hit, in 1971] and was away for about a year.

Do you still get offers for Medicine Head to re-form?

Yeah, that never stops. Peter’s never taken it up so far, though he did once say that he’d like to do a gig and play the whole of the first album. I’d definitely be up for that. I may have to get somebody else to play drums, though, because the old bones aren’t what they used to be. RH Warriors Of Love is out on September 24 via Living Room Records.

ERIC CLAPTON: KEVIN NIXON

version is almost three times as long and utterly mind-boggling, showing speedking guitarist Dave Edmunds to be in a class of his own at the time. Their takes on Bizet’s Farandole (From L’Arlesienne) and Chuck Berry’s You Can’t Catch Me are equally entertaining, yet fall into the category of novelty cover versions.

The original material here was very strong, making Forms And Feelings a somewhat underrated album. More reflective numbers such as People’s People and Seagull had commercial potential, and it would have been interesting to see where Love Sculpture would have gone next had they not split following a US tour in 1970, after which Dave Edmunds went on to have major success on his own. LD

Medicine Head

“We’re professional women in our thirties and forties playing badass rock!”

The Dead Deads Meet the trio taking from Kiss’s book on how to make it, and Queen’s on how to play it.

“I always want to come across as being not a victim or a martyr, but being on a righteous mission taking us to a better place,” Meta says. “Sitting around bitching about boys and their toys wasn’t really interesting to us.

We want to talk about what’s possible for us.”

For the three women at the heart of The Dead Deads, this is more Based in Nashville, they started as a five-piece but have now settled than just a band. It’s an army. Over the past few years, singer/guitarist Meta, into a groove all of their own. And their unique world is finding fans bassist Daisy and drummer McQueen have surrounded themselves with in high places. A stint on the Kiss Kruise led to their heroes watching the Dead Corps, an ever-growing number of dedicated fans, each given their on appreciatively side-stage every night, while one of their most vocal own unique Dead name and, depending on their level of devotion, supporters, Corey Taylor, duets with Meta on the new album’s FOR FANS OF... perks that can culminate in free gigs for life.

Murder Ballad II, after years of talking the band up in interviews.

“It was a Kiss Army thing,” explains Meta. “We gave ourselves There are big plans for the future too. Writing music is stage names, like Kiss did, and we thought we’d have a corps. constant, and the excitement of getting back out into the world They just kind of blossomed. One kid started a Facebook group to tour is palpable. And The Dead Deads, with their stylised called the Dead Deads Dead Corps Fan Page, and that just grew. make-up and obsession with sci-fi, are well placed to make the “People often say that like attracts like, and because we had this leap from real-life on stage heroes to the stars of their very own message of equality and love and kindness, of taking care of comic – a contact in the graphic novel industry has been working people when they need it, those are the kind of people that came. “Queen is a band that on a 10-book storyline about them. With the album coming out, did what they wanted, We had some people in the Kiss Army that joined the Dead Corps tried what everyone that’s not their main focus at the moment, but if and when it does that were like: ‘This is what I’ve been looking for, it’s not just happen it’ll be a match made in ink-line heaven. said wouldn’t work,” says Meta. “We don’t about the band, it’s also about each other.’”

“I think it definitely works for what we do,” Meta says. “We’re sound just like Queen, This sense of strength, support and optimism shines through fans of sci-fi, plus we are superheroes! We’re professional women but if Queen were their new album, Tell Your Girls It’s Alright, an overwhelmingly in our thirties and forties playing badass rock! That’s as superhero a grunge band I think their record may have positive call to arms for all their fans – especially the women – as it is. I own that.” EJ sounded like ours. backed by impeccable melodies that run the gamut from grunge Both albums expect to classic hard rock, Pixies-style alt.rock to indie and beyond.

Tell Your Girls It’s Alright is out on August 20 via Rumble. a lot of the listener, and shamelessly pay homage to their diverse influences.”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 19

“It’s songs that people remember.

And you don’t have to be a pastiche of stuff that’s gone by.”

Cardinal Black

ELEANOR JANE/PRESS

They’ve had iTunes hits, but promise that with their debut album “the best is yet to come”.

In the ensuing years, Hollister pursued a solo career, and Buck’s reputation evolved worldwide through his growing YouTube presence and his work with Buck And Evans, the group he co-founded with singer/ pianist Sally Ann Evans. That band were coming off a set of dates in early “This band’s been going four months,” says Cardinal Black’s Chris 2020 when the pandemic put the hand brake on the world.

Buck, “or ten years, depending how you look at it.” Indeed, this hot Welsh With lockdown to fill, Buck, Hollister and Roberts reconnected over the quartet seemed to appear out of the blue and fully formed back in May material still in their locker and, with the crucial addition of talented bassist with the single Tell Me How It Feels. Featuring the rich, powerful voice of Sam Williams Cardinal Black was born. “We got back together to rehash Tom Hollister and a kick-ass, all-the-feels solo from modern-day the old stuff,” Buck says, “but inevitably the creative juices flowed, FOR FANS OF... guitar hero Buck, this cool, soul-soaked slice of mid-tempo rock and before we knew it we’d written six new songs.” reached the top of the iTunes rock chart.

They kept the project low-key, so when that first single came But, as Buck says, this ‘overnight success’ was a decade in the out it was an out-of-nothing surprise. Buck knew that if Cardinal making. He, Hollister and drummer Adam Roberts were once Black could interest even a fraction of his 137,000 YouTube the Tom Hollister Trio – a hotly tipped band looked after by Guns subscribers, then they’d cut through. On its first day of release N’ Roses’ former manager Alan Niven – with label deals on the their self-titled EP hit No.1 on the iTunes rock chart and No.8 in table back when that meant something. But singer and reluctant the albums chart. Their debut album proper is pencilled for the “It’s songs that people bassist Hollister felt stifled by the trio format, the bass hanging end of 2021/early ’22. remember,” says Buck heavy on him, compromising his vocal performance. Buck, then (he also mentions Paul “We had a meeting over a pint,” says Buck, “and decided to 19, was the breakout star, a guitarist in the SRV/Clapton mould establish ourselves with an EP then release something more fully Rodgers, Rival Sons and Clapton in passing). “If whose individual acclaim overshadowed that of the band. They fledged later. As things stand it would be folly for a new band to there’s a great guitar split in 2011, acrimoniously at first, but stayed mates, and have release a new album. It’d be a massive shame if a record ten years solo, well done, but jammed together regularly ever since. “We were young,” says in the making got lost. We’ve released a couple of tunes people it’s not the be all and end all. And you don’t Buck (he’s 30 now), “and we’ve all been around the sun a few have enjoyed, but the best is yet to come.” GM more times since then. The trio didn’t ramp down or come to any have to be a pastiche of stuff that’s gone by; The Cardinal Black EP is out now. More at thecardinalblack.com natural conclusion, so it always felt like unfinished business.” for the people who do rock music well these days, it’s very much the twenty-first century.”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 21

Brian Setzer The Stray Cats guitarist and big-band leader on “sexy” rockabilly, quiffs, moving to the UK, and being a heartthrob.

S

Interview: Ian Fortnam

ince reigniting mainstream interest in rockabilly as generously bequiffed, Gretsch guitar-toting frontman with the Stray Cats, Brian Setzer has played alongside Bob Dylan and Robert Plant (in The Honeydrippers), made a cameo appearance as Eddie Cochran in La Bamba, been the first guitarist (with his 17-piece Brian Setzer Orchestra) to give his name to a full-on swing and jump-blues big band while racking up multiple Grammys along the way. Prior to arriving on the late-70s NYC scene – first with new-wave art-rockers the Bloodless Pharoahs, then the (soon to be Stray) Tom Cats – Setzer had cut his musical teeth on an instrument not generally associated with rock’n’roll.

Did you choose the euphonium, or did the euphonium choose you?

I was the skinny little kid in the class, and I got stuck with this big euphonium because my parents couldn’t afford to rent an instrument of my choice. It turned out to be one of the best things I could’ve played, because I learned all about the bass clef notes.

And enjoyed it. So it turned out to be a good deal in the end.

What first attracted you to rockabilly?

My first exposure to it was on a couple of records my dad discovered in the service when he was overseas and he brought them back, so they were laying around the house. I played them and thought: “Wow, this is really good.”

Why did you pick up the guitar?

I loved all music, but the guitar was something I had to have. I come from a pretty humble blue-collar background, so my dad said: “I can’t be wasting money on guitar lessons, so you’d better play it.”

But it was always the guitar.

As you were discovering the seventies NYC club scene you would have found kindred spirits in Robert Gordon, early Cramps, even Suicide had an element of Elvis.

I was unaware of Robert Gordon, but I’d heard The Cramps. I played the heck out of their EP. I loved its simplicity and darkness. And Suicide, when I heard Jukebox Baby I was like: “Wow!” But what really got me was when I heard [Gene Vincent’s] Be Bop A Lula. It matched the simplicity of punk, but the guys could play. And that sound…

Rockabilly music is sexy, it’s got that style and swagger.

Legend has it that upon reading about the popularity of rockabilly in the UK, you sold your instruments to pay for plane tickets to London.

That’s correct. I saw a young guy on the cover of the NME. He had a quiff and an earring. I saw that picture and thought: “Someone else knows what this music is.” Because nobody here knew what it was.

It had disappeared a long time ago.

Arriving into London in summer 1980, you found your feet and audience incredibly quickly. By Christmas that year the

22 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Stray Cats single Runaway Boys had gone Top Ten. How did you celebrate?

That was a bittersweet thing, man. There was a knock on my door: “I’ve got good news and bad news.” “Give me the good news.”

“Runaway Boys is number nine.” The bad news was that John Lennon had been shot. I’ll never forget it. I was in Liverpool, of all places.

The UK pop scene of the early-eighties was all about flamboyance so the Stray Cats’ look was a perfect fit. How did you enjoy your life as a Smash Hits cover star heartthrob?

[Laughs] I never expected people would look like me. I always thought the stage was the stage: that’s where you look like a star.

I never realised people would actually walk around with quiffs, flamboyant clothes and rocking suits on. There were people on the King’s Road in full-on rockabilly kit. It was overwhelming.

The Knife Feels Like Justice, your first post-Stray Cats solo album, was a distinct change of direction.

I was trying something different, but not straying too far from what I really am. Any time I put down the Gretsch guitar and abandon my sound it never really works for me, but if I stick to what I am and what I do I can play whatever I want.

Fronting the Brian Setzer Orchestra in the nineties dipped even deeper into your roots.

It was a labour of love, because I’ve always liked the complexity of that big band sound. It wasn’t far from what I do: it’s me and my Gretsch guitar, still rockin’, I just had a big band behind me. I don’t know how the heck that took off, because it was a big, expensive, crazy project, but it was good and people liked it.

Gotta Have The Rumble almost brings us full circle; you’re fronting a three-piece, it’s grounded in rockabilly, and its opening track was co-written with Stray Cats drummer Slim Jim Phantom.

When I write songs I don’t have any boundaries and never worry about being constricted by the genre. The blues doesn’t have to be one defined thing, and neither does rockabilly. And it’s sexy! The way people dress, the cars, the clothes, the style. It’s vital. And a threepiece band is the best platform for playing guitar, you can do anything.

While the three of you are still standing will the Stray Cats ever be entirely over?

Oh no. I wanna play with the boys again as soon as possible. The three of us have great chemistry. And the fans. We had twenty thousand die-hards in Paris on the last tour, singing every word.

So what’s next?

For now I’m just enjoying summer: my motorcycles, my hot rods, my family. Every day’s pretty darn good. Thank you, euphonium!

Gotta Have The Rumble is released on August 27 via Surfdog Records.

RUSS HARRINGTON/PRESS

Brian Setzer: rockabilly to the core.

“The blues do one defined thesn’t have to be does rockabil ing and neither ly. And it’s sex y!”

Lukas Nelson

& Promise Of The Real The country-rockers on close encounters with marine life, backing Neil Young and continuing a family tradition.

Words: Bill DeMain

Bandmates Lukas Nelson and Tony LoGerfo both made their professional debuts aged 13. Drummer LoGerfo’s was at The Roxy. Singer-guitarist Nelson’s was on stage with his superstar dad Willie. Their love of performing eventually drew them together in Promise Of The Real.

Since 2008, the five-piece have recorded six albums. In 2018, they were the onscreen band in A Star Is Born, and Nelson co-wrote most of the Grammy-winning soundtrack.

Promise Of The Real’s latest release, A Few Stars Apart, mixes California country with singer-songwriter smarts and was recorded with producer Dave Cobb at Nashville’s legendary RCA Studio B. “It was analogue, live in the room, just how we like it,” says Nelson. “And seeing all the pictures on the wall of everyone who’s recorded there was cool – Elvis, Dolly, and of course my dad.”

Nelson and LoGerfo both learned valuable lessons during the pandemic.

“I discovered that love is all we really have to ground us in a chaotic world,” Nelson says.

“I felt lucky I could be with my parents in lockdown for six months. It was a good time to write from a place that was almost womblike in its comfort level.”

“I learned that nothing is guaranteed in life,” LoGerfo says. “We know that instinctively, but for it to happen to the world how it did was like losing someone you love.

It taught me to enjoy every minute.”

For Nelson, being on the road was a way of life from an early age.

Nelson grew up “like a gypsy” on the road with his dad. “And if I wanted to be close to him,” he says, “I knew I better learn how to play guitar. It didn’t really feel like I was sharing him with the world, it was more that I enjoyed watching him make people happy.

When he toured with The Highwaymen they were like my uncles, looking out for me.

I remember Jessi Colter, Waylon’s wife, when she saw me biting my nails all the time, she’d grab my hands and say: ‘Stop biting your nails or I’m gonna paint them!’”

Promise Of The Real was born from a mix of weed, surfing and stingrays.

24 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

LoGerfo and Nelson met at a Neil Young concert, bonding over a shared love of the inimitable artist.

“Later that night, we went surfing and I got stung by a stingray,” Nelson recalls.

“I had my foot in hot water, because that’s what you’re supposed to do. We were sitting on the couch, smoking joints, and listening to On The Beach, and Walk On came on. It goes: ‘Some get stoned, some get strange, sooner or later it all gets real…’ And I thought: ‘I want to start a band called Promise Of The Real.’”

Neil Young became their captain.

POTR were Young’s backing group on two of his albums: Earth and The Visitor.

“I call him Captain Destroyer,” Nelson says, laughing. “That’s how I have him on my phone. He’s the greatest band leader. Just fearless. I feel like we’re shipmates, travelling through the stars, and he’s our captain.”

“Neil’s our mentor,” adds LoGerfo. “When we played with him, he’d travel with us and hang out with us. It felt like he was in the band.”

An adventure at sea led to a ‘connection’ that changed Nelson’s life.

“In Hawaii, we took a boat out and came upon a pod of dolphins. We jumped in the water, and they seemed to really accept us as one of their own. There was such an energy of wisdom and playfulness. A connection.

I actually became a pescatarian after that.

I figured you are what you eat, so if I want to be a dolphin, I have to eat what dolphins eat [laughs]. But that experience really caused me to look at what energy was and how I was projecting it.”

In years of non-stop touring, Promise Of The Real have had some weird gigs.

“We played one in Fort Worth years ago,” LoGerfo recalls, “and the club owner had a wooden leg, like a pirate. And there was a horse at the bar; you could ride your horse in from the street. The only other audience member was a guy in the front row filming us [laughs].”

A Few Stars Apart is out now via Fantasy Records.

ALYSSE GAFKJEN

Promise Of The Real: valuable lessons learned during the pandemic.

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By 1991, Metallica were a big fish in a relatively small pond. Then that summer they released the album Metallica. A multimillion-selling, game-changing monster, it sold far wider than to just the metal masses, and within months the band were catapulted into the super-league. Thirty years on, this is its story.

Words: Dave Everley Photos: Ross Halfin

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 27

METALLICA

“SOLOS AND MUSIC AND SONGS FELT LIKE THEY JUST APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE.” Kirk Hammett

L

ars Ulrich once neatly encapsulated Metallica’s ambitions for their self-titled fifth album. “The idea,” the drummer said of the record that would come to be known as the Black Album, “was to cram Metallica down everybody’s fucking throat all over the fucking world.”

That mission was accomplished a long time ago. Thirty years and thirty million sales after its release, this 12-track juggernaut stands not just as Metallica’s most famous album, but also as a massive cultural landmark – one that forced the mainstream to take metal seriously while helping keep its flickering flame alight during the grunge onslaught of the early 90s.

So huge and immediate was its impact at the time, that it began to exert its own gravitational pull, instantly warping the entire metal scene around it. The Black Album did as much to kill off the hair-metal movement as Nirvana or Pearl Jam

Up against the wall! Ulrich, Newsted, Hammett and Hetfield get shot in ’91.

did; next to its tracks Enter Sandman and Sad But True, dudes in tight leather pants flicking their hair around suddenly looked as ridiculous as we’d known they were all along. Even the thrash scene that Metallica themselves helped create was sucked into its black hole, their contemporaries aware that the artistic and commercial bar had been set too high for them to ever match.

The effect the album had on Metallica themselves was no less game-changing. Beyond elevating them to music’s A-list, with all the financial rewards that entailed, the Black Album’s inescapable presence forced mainstream culture to take the band that made it seriously – even if it never truly understood them.

More importantly, it set Metallica on the path to where they are today – a band equally comfortable collaborating with Lady Gaga, Lemmy or the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; one just as at home headlining Glastonbury as

BRUCE DICKINSON Iron Maiden

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urselves, Judas Priest and Pantera all reached a crossroads where we had the chance to really step up to the next level. But none of us had the balls to do it.

Metallica did, though. You have to give them huge credit for grabbing the opportunity when it came up, taking the risk and deservedly reaping the enormous rewards. You cannot underestimate their achievement with this album.

“It’s one of those seminal albums that just gets it right. It’s extremely well-produced, and every note

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on that album is totally under control. I admire how they did it, and what they did with the songs, and it was very effective: it undoubtedly did help push metal into the mainstream. I know it wasn’t Mutt Lange who produced it, but Bob Rock had that similar thing where the producer was very much in control. We could never do an album like that, because we’re not that under control, and we don’t want to be. With us, the wheels would fall off the bus and we’d end up firing the producer!”

Download. Without the Black Album, they would have remained just another metal band. Instead it gave Metallica permission to be bigger than themselves. “It gave us carte blanche to be whatever we wanted to be, and to go wherever we wanted to go,” James Hetfield says today.

The Black Album’s legacy is brought home by an exhaustive new reissue. As well collecting together the countless early demos and rehearsal tapes, it’s accompanied by The Metallica Blacklist, a 53-track all-star covers album comprising versions of Black Album songs by everyone from Ghost, Volbeat and Biffy Clyro to Miley Cyrus, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan and modern country icon Chris Stapleton.

“It’s a cultural force in itself,” guitarist Kirk Hammett says of the Black Album. “As much as modern culture changes and morphs, there’s something within that album that continues to resonate around the world. And I mean the world, because it’s big everywhere.”

The Black Album didn’t appear out of nowhere.

It was a product of hard graft and epic tension, nine months in the making and deeply ingrained in the memories of the people involved. What follows is the story of how Metallica created the album that changed metal forever.

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etallica were one of the surprise success stories of the 1980s.

Few took them seriously when they released their debut album Kill ’Em All, but their profile and credibility jumped significantly with each successive release.

1988’s …And Justice For All sold two million copies, but the band knew its knotty, progmetal-adjacent sound was a barrier to the proper crossover success they craved.

Their fifth album would be a reaction to

“A LOT OF PEOPLE THINK THAT I CHANGED THE BAND. I DIDN’T. IN THEIR HEADS THEY WERE ALREADY CHANGED WHEN I MET THEM.” Black Album producer Bob Rock many things, but mostly it was a reaction to Metallica themselves.

when we play stuff like Seek And Destroy or For Whom The Bell Tolls and it has a great fucking vibe?’

Lars Ulrich: We spent a lot of years trying to prove to ourselves and to everyone out there that we can play our instruments. You know: “Listen to this big drum fill I’m doing, and Kirk’s playing all these wild things that are really difficult…”

Hammett: When we played the song …And Justice For All live on that tour, I saw people literally yawning, checking their watches. They were just, like: [bored shrug] “Oh, okay.”

Kirk Hammett: …And Justice For All really opened our eyes to how progressive we could be and how much we demanded from our audience.

Ulrich: About halfway through the Justice tour, I was sitting there playing these nine-minute songs, thinking: “Why am I worrying about how perfect these nine-minute songs have to be,

MICHAEL POULSEN Volbeat

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remember the first time I heard Enter Sandman on MTV. When I heard it the first time I was not really into it – I just couldn’t figure it out, even though I was a huge Metallica fan. Maybe it was cos I was mostly listening to a lot of extreme metal at the time.

“So I forgot about it, until I borrowed the record from a sweet girl who had it. I picked it up and forgot all about it until she asked to get it back.

I was, like: ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll listen to it now.’ I was blown away: “Wow. Why didn’t I put this record on earlier?”

“First of all the production was insanely good – it was so heavy and everything sounded amazing. On top of that they’re great songwriters

- the melodies were up-front, and I’m a sucker for melodies.

“At the time, people were so divided about it. Some metal dudes didn’t like it because it wasn’t thrashy enough; the kind of thing where you think: ‘Oh, shut the fuck up.’ But then other people started listening to Metallica who wouldn’t normally have listened to them.

“I don’t know if I actually learned anything from it as a musician, until I was trying to rewrite Don’t Tread On Me as a Volbeat song for The Metallica Blacklist covers album. That’s when you really get a lot of inspiration. But then I’ve been inspired by Metallica throughout my whole career.”

Hetfield: With Justice we had gone as far as we could with the complexity and the showmanship.

Hammett: When it came to the next album, we didn’t want to go down the same progressive, demanding route. We had our sights set on bigger things. You have to remember that there had been some mega albums around that time – Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen… eight million, nine million copies sold. And we wanted that. It’s obvious. We wanted a Back In Black.

I

n the summer of 1990, Metallica began writing the follow-up to …And Justice For All. Hammett and Hetfield had a bunch of sketches and ideas spread across a dozen C60 and C90 cassettes they called ‘The Riff Tapes’. They gave themselves one overriding instruction: keep things simple.

Ulrich: I used to be really concerned with the timing and lengths of a song when we were writing them. But this time I didn’t even want to think about it.

Hetfield: A lot of the songs that I enjoyed

³

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BIFF BYFORD Saxon

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he first song I heard was Enter Sandman. We were on tour in America at the time, I think. There was a string of singles, wasn’t there? Even a country-and-Western-type thing [Nothing Else Matters]. I thought that was great.

“To me it was the first album that connected thrash metal and grunge in that powerful, dark way. It was a very powerful album, but it wasn’t like Seek And Destroy [from previous album Kill ’Em All]. This was simpler and more direct. It was more grungey. More Sabbath-y than what they’d done before. It was a good link between the 1990s and the 1980s. The sound was brilliant. It was probably Bob Rock’s best production.

“I think Metallica influenced us down the line, that particular album. We started to use the dark notes a bit more, but probably not for a couple of years afterwards.

“It was a game-changer of an album.”

covering or writing on, like, Kill ’Em All, they were a lot shorter, a little more simplistic.

was like the universe handed it to us on a platter.

Not like the first four albums.

Hammett: We had a lot of those riffs even before we started recording. The Sad But True riff, that had been hanging out for a while. Of Wolf And Man riff, Through The Never – that main riff was hanging out.

he universe might have been dishing out inspiration, but Metallica needed help getting it on to tape. Their previous three albums had been produced

by Flemming Rasmussen alongside Hetfield and Ulrich, but the band were aware that

Ulrich: There was something about this record, even from the days that we started writing Enter Sandman – that sounded like a motherfucker.

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although not before a trial of endurance on both sides.

Hetfield: After listening to the Justice album, it was pretty apparent that we needed some guidance. I’m not knocking it. It was right at the time. But the drums are really loud and the guitars are really loud. That’ll be me and Lars, then.

“[AFTER JUSTICE] WE HAD OUR SIGHTS SET ON BIGGER THINGS. WE WANTED A BACK IN BLACK.”

Hammett: The Enter Sandman riff was a riff that just fucking appeared.

It was three o’clock in the morning, I was sitting in my bedroom. People say: “What were you doing up at three o’clock in the morning?” Well, I was still in tour mode. I was playing my guitar, I had nothing else to do. I’d been listening to Soundgarden all day. They were a band that me and James loved. I was just trying to capture that feel. That riff came out of nowhere.

The best parts of that album kind of just wrote themselves. Solos and music and songs felt like they just appeared out of nowhere. It

Kirk Hammett for the next one they needed someone to come in and shake things up. Two albums released in 1989 had impressed them: Sonic Temple by The Cult, and Mötley Crüe’s beefy yet polished 1989 album Dr. Feelgood.

Both were produced by Canadian hotshot Bob Rock, a man who would ultimately be inducted into Metallica’s inner circle –

Ulrich: We felt it was time to make a record with a huge, big, fat low end.

And the best-sounding record like that in the last couple of years was [Mötley Crüe’s] Dr. Feelgood. So we told our manager: “Call this guy and see if he wants to mix the record.”

Bob Rock (Black Album producer): I hear they want me to mix their new album. I said: “I don’t want to mix your album, but I’ll produce it.” Somebody told me they were put off by that. Evidently not.

Ulrich: Peter [Mensch, Metallica manager] called up and said: “He wants to produce you, too.”

I’m like: “Yeah, sure. We’re Metallica, nobody produces us, nobody tells us what to do.” And then after a while we kinda got the guard down a little bit and said: “Well, maybe we should go hang with this guy.”

Rock: They had broken through to one level, but they still weren’t on mainstream radio. When they came to me they were ready to make that leap to the big, big leagues.

Ulrich: He was brutally honest with us. He said he’d seen us play a bunch of times and: “You guys have not captured what’s live on record yet.”

We’re like: “Excuse me? Who the fuck are you?”

Rock: A lot of people think that I changed the band. I didn’t. In their heads they were already changed when I met them.

M

etallica’s collaboration with Rock nearly fell apart before it had even started. The producer had never made a record outside of his home town

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METALLICA

Ulrich, Rock and Hetfield share a joke.

But there were times during recording that relations were strained, to say the least.

BOXOUT INTERVIEWS: MALCOLM DOME, DAVE LING, PAUL BRANNIGAN, DAVE EVERLEY, POLLY GLASS, ROB HUGHES

of Vancouver, but Metallica wanted to stay in California. There was only going to be one winner in that battle of wills, and Rock eventually agreed to head south to LA. In October 1990 the band entered Burbank’s One On One Studios. The working title for the album was ‘Married To Metal’.

Hetfield: I hear Bob talking about that a lot, and I hear about it from the other guys. But no, I don’t remember it that way.

Ulrich: We’d wind Bob up by putting porno pictures all over the studio wall – and most of them were male. Nothing winds up Americans more than the sight of a twelve-inch erect penis.

Ulrich: We had a great time getting to know each other, then all of a sudden we were stuck in this studio in LA and he started kicking our balls. We were like: “Who the fuck is this guy?”

Hammett: It was a very passive-aggressive sort of relationship with him. It took a long time for us to really start trusting Bob.

Rock: The first three months of pre-production were very difficult. They were suspicious.

Hetfield: It might’ve been difficult to work with us at that time. I do not deny

TOBIAS FORGE Ghost

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y brother was thirteen years older than I was, and he was a metal fan, so Metallica were always present when I was growing up.

“The first album I clearly remember anticipating was the Black Album. Like most people, Enter Sandman was the first thing I heard. As soon it came on MTV or the radio, I would just stop. It was unique and powerful and just very rocking.

“Ghost covered Enter Sandman a couple of years ago at the Polar Music Awards in Sweden, and we were asked to record it for The Blacklist.

It’s hard to cover a song that famous, but I heard a little bit more melody in the chord sequence. So I thought I’d see if I could flip it

into something different – not better, just different.

“I saw them a few times on the Black Album tour. There was always something really special about that stage [the Snakepit] “It was the ballads that made that album so successful outside of the metal scene. It was a time when the dominance of rock bands was aided by ballads – Nothing Else Matters, November Rain by Guns N’ Roses. If you went to the school disco, Nothing Else Matters was the slow dance.

You associate it with your first kiss or your first romance, especially if you were a teenager.

That’s the difference between selling two million records and selling twenty million.”

that whatsoever. We were very close-minded, very fearful. Very insecure about giving up any control. Very insecure about our actual talent playing-wise and singing-wise. And that usually sends me into a place of fear, of anger, of posturing, all those things.

Ulrich: In the past, certain things were sacred. We had the almighty Metallica guitar riff, and nothing could mess with it. Bob would say: “You’ve already played that riff ninety-two times. I think people have it in their heads now.”

Hammett: When we were tracking, it was always: “Fuck yes!” Like, this giddy excitement. Every time there was a playback, and there was something new on the song, we’d be looking at each other with big-ass grins, pupils dilating. And then someone would say something: “Don’t do this”, or “Fuck, we can’t do that with this.” And then we’d go into guarded mode and it would be us against Bob again.

Hetfield: Bob did have to fight through a lot of those walls we kept putting up out of sheer fear, really.

Hammett: The legend has it that I didn’t do my homework for The Unforgiven and Bob Rock yelled at me. The fact of the matter is that I did do my homework, but what I came up with just was not happening. I literally had no other ideas. ³ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 31

METALLICA Rock: I challenged him because that was where my head was at. Kirk was kind of pissed, but in the end it was a blessing.

Hammett: I thought: “I’m a pretty good improviser”, and Bob said: “Improvise something.”

And he tweaked the sound a little bit, put a bit of delay on it, and all of a sudden I was: “Wow! This reminds me of Led Zeppelin or something.” And then all of a sudden I felt inspired and I played that solo. The solo on the album – I played that in two takes.

Ulrich: The main idea was to keep an open mind when ideas were presented to us. Sure, we’re very set in our ways. Sometimes the ideas would work and sometimes they wouldn’t, and we’d try something else. But a lot of great things on the record came from not saying no.

Hammett: It took a long time for us to really start trusting Bob. We had to rely on him to be objective, cos if it was just the four of us it inevitably became a pissing contest between us.

Hetfield: We fashioned ourselves as producers, Lars and I. But it’s just because we knew what we wanted and that was it. There was not any openness. There wasn’t any depth or knowledge, sonically. So Bob taught us a lot about that.

I was so excited to open his toy box of different sounds, different gear, different pedals, different percussive aspects.

Hammett: There’s a shaker and an egg [small shaker] on every single track on that album. It’s real subtle, but if you listen for it you can hear it. There’s a French horn in the beginning of The Unforgiven.

I mean, I didn’t know what a fucking French horn was. But we were like: “Okay!” And these were ideas that were brought to us by Bob Rock.

JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD Manic Street Preachers

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have really good memories of it. I was listening to Appetite For Destruction alongside It Takes A Nation Of Millions by Public Enemy. I didn’t see the tension between them. But when the Black Album came out, it was that thing where there hadn’t been a riff song out for a while. There’d been Sweet Child O’ Mine – which is one of the ultimate riff songs, but is kind of a ballad – and Welcome To The Jungle, but that just starts with the riff. But when Enter Sandman came out I thought, ‘Fuck me, the riff never stops.’ It’s always present in the song.

That really turned me on: ‘Does that mean the riff is back?’

“Sad But True was the one that really turned me on to Metallica. I fucking love that song. There were some songs on the album that sounded a bit too American, like the gun lobby could co-opt them, like Don’t Tread On Me. I remember Richey [Edwards] going: ‘We’re sailing a bit close to the wind here. I’m not sure about this’ – two leftist boys singing along to Don’t Tread On Me! “I’m fine with a metal band just being a metal band, but sometimes within a genre you get bands that transcend. And the Black Album is where Metallica transcend. There’s a bit of pathos in Sad But True. It’s a tragi-comic hero and there’s something else there; some kind of heaviness

Hetfield: The song was about a girl, a girlfriend at the time. Just starting to be able to get some other feelings out. I certainly did not think it was a Metallica song.

Rock: He wanted to go deeper with his writing.

He wanted his songs to really matter.

that’s not just about being wilfully macho, there’s something deeper going on. It might be something to do with James Hetfield’s background with Christian Scientists, but you know there’s something deeper there, you know there’s a tension between the rock‘n’roll world he’s in and the way he was brought up. You know that he was probably around a lot of people that, for want of a better world, were very politically correct, and that sometimes he might have felt out of step with it because of his upbringing. And let’s face it, tension always makes for good stuff, doesn’t it? Nobody would think James Hetfield doubted himself, by looking at him, but obviously he did doubt himself. We can see that now, can’t we? So you can sense it all in the background.

“And that’s what was great about the Black Album. It was a straight, hard-edged album. It was an album that was designed and built to sell millions. But there’s still something in there that’s really interesting, lyrically. There’s stuff there that I’m still not quite comfortable with at times, but it’s still interesting. There is a tension about being attracted to the dark side of life but also knowing that it’s dangerous to get too close to it. There’s something about that where James Hetfield knows he’s still fighting for his own soul.”

whatever it is, as long as it wasn’t about chicks and fast cars, even though that’s what we liked.

Rock: James said: “Bob, I’ve never really sang before, I’ve just kind of yelled.” He played me a Chris Isaak record, and said: “I want to sing.

How do you sing like this?”

“WE STARTED TO BE RECOGNISED AS A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH IN THE ROCK WORLD.”

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he Black Album wasn‘t just a significant shift for Metallica musically, it also marked a change in James Hetfield’s approach to lyrics. His comfort zone was realworld subjects: war, religion and politics. But now he delved inwards for the first time – a huge leap for a man not necessarily at ease with sharing his innermost feelings. And no track summed up this new approach like the album’s centrepiece ballad Nothing Else Matters.

James Hetfield Hammett: All I could think of at the time was: “James wrote a fucking love song to his girlfriend?”

Hetfield: At first I didn’t even want to play Nothing Else Matters for the guys. It was so heartfelt, so personal to me. I thought that Metallica could only be these songs about destroying things, headbanging, bleeding for the crowd,

RODRIGO SANCHEZ Rodrigo Y Gabriella

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was a Metallica fan since Kill ‘Em All. When I was a kid I learned how to play the guitar just to be able to play Metallica tunes. So I’m not one of those metal fans that hated the Black Album. That album was one of my favourites, because that was the album when Metallica played in Mexico for the first time, in 1991. It was incredible.

“Metallica had the right people behind them: the right marketing team, the right label, the right catalogue. They had built it and they were playing arenas already when …And Justice For All came.

But the reason I think they kind of crossed over was a combination of those things. Of course, it’s

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less… It’s not as fast as the other albums, but it’s still pretty heavy.

And Bob Rock gave them that tone, making it more accessible for people that weren’t already aware of these sounds. It opened the door for bands and songs like Nothing Else Matters. Having that as a single, on the radio, even non-metal radio stations, was huge for them. And MTV and all those outlets, they were supporting this kind of music in a mass kind of fashion.

“I knew that I was gonna like the album, because I was one of those blind fans. Now, I think it’s one of their best albums – it’s super original in terms of the sound, the speed, the riffs…”

Hetfield: Nothing Else Matters was a song you couldn’t put borders around. So when Bob suggested the orchestra, I was open to it. I was kind of embarrassed. I didn’t know how you did it. I didn’t even know how to write music. I don’t even know the notes on the guitar.

Michael Kamen (composer behind the orchestral arrangement on Nothing Else Matters, speaking in 2001): When my manager phoned, I went: “Wow, that’s pretty odd.” I didn’t know what to expect. I wasn’t a devotee of Metallica’s work; I knew of them. When they sent me the song I was truly surprised.

Rock: Michael was a genius. I got his eighty-piece orchestra work back, and I’m playing it in the studio and I’m in tears it is so beautiful, and they fucking hated it. They made me pull it down so low on the mix that it’s almost a sin.

Hetfield: Songs like Nothing Else Matters and The God That Failed and The Struggle Within and The Unforgiven… I mean, most of them on the Black Album are the beginnings of me uncovering my struggles as a human on this planet, and dealing with stresses, with fame, with addiction, with family, with travel, with all that stuff. It became a lot more of an outlet. I felt like I belonged a lot more by doing that.

Rock: At first, based on the music and the riff, the band and their management thought Enter ³

“IT WAS A PERFECT STORM OF EVENTS, CIRCUMSTANCES, SITUATIONS, WHERE WE WERE MUSICALLY…” Kirk Hammett CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 33

Automobiles, trains and…

Sandman could be the first single. Then they heard James’s lyrics and realised the song was about crib death. That didn’t go over so well.

Hetfield: That pissed me off so much. I was like: “Fuck you! I’m the writer here!” But that was the first challenge from someone else and it made me work harder.

Rock: I sat down with James and talked to him about his words. I told him: “What you have is great, but it can be better. Does it have to be so literal?” Not that I was thinking about the single, I just wanted him to make the song great. It was a process, him learning to say what he wanted but in a more poetic and open sort of way. He rewrote some lyrics and it was all there… the first single.

Rock: It wasn’t a fun, easy record to make. Sure, we had some laughs, but things were difficult.

I told the guys when we were done that I’d never work with them again. They felt the same way about me.

Hammett: It was tough, but there was never any hesitation or doubt about going down the wrong road. When we looked at everything, we fucking knew we had fucking great material.

Ulrich: We had gotten word that Enter Sandman was being played everywhere, all over the fucking radio in the United States and it was climbing with a vengeance.

“A LOT OF GREAT THINGS ON THE RECORD CAME FROM NOT SAYING NO.”

Hammett: We played our first shows for the Black Album in Petaluma [California, on August 1 ork on the and 2, 1991]. They were Lars Ulrich Black Album kind of warm-up shows. finally wrapped Our first song was Enter up in June 1991. The recording process had Sandman. The first five or six notes, the entire taken nine long months and cost a reported fucking place just woke up like nothing else. The $1.2 million. The band and Rock marked whole fucking place was with us in lockstep. the occasion by hitting a local bar, although Every fucking beat, every fucking note, every everyone was too exhausted to celebrate. The fucking melody. And when we got to the chorus working title ‘Married To Metal’ turned out you could hear the whole fucking place singing it. to be bitterly ironic – Ulrich, Hammett and It was incredible. bassist Jason Newsted had all got divorced during the making of the record.

Ulrich: Enter Sandman just connected straight away.

W

Ulrich: In retrospect, the nine months we spent in there were pure hell.

Hammett: We did a listening party at [New York’s] Madison Square Garden for the

BRIAN TATLER Diamond Head

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“

n September 1990 I went over to stay at Lars’s house in California. The band were doing demos for the album with Bob Rock, who I met at the time. Every day, Lars would go off to do these demos, and drop me off on the way and I’d just get on with doing what I needed to.

“Each evening when he got back, Lars would play me what the band had been recording that day. I kept thinking how rough it was all sounding.

During this period there were no lyrics, James would just sing: ‘Wah, wah, wah’ over the music.

They were working on the arrangements, and the actual lyrics weren’t needed as yet. They came further down the line.

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“I got a copy of the finished album just before it was released. As soon as I heard it, I thought the production was absolutely brilliant. This has to be one of the best-produced rock/metal albums of all time. It was such a leap forward from …And Justice For All. This brought Metallica to the attention of the mainstream. And the album has been so influential. It had a massive impact on so many bands: Korn. Machine Head, Trivium, Gojira… the list goes on and on.

“The first song I heard was Enter Sandman. The opening track. It hooked right you in, and what a way to start your album off!”

…planes. Metallica’s mode of transport moved up-market after the Black Album.

album, for free – 10,000 people there. We played the album for them. People were going fucking nuts. The excitement that night was just not what I expected.

Hetfield: I was just waiting for Nothing Else Matters to come on. You know, to see if these people just look at each other and throw up. People were pretty into it, which was pretty amazing.

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etallica’s fifth album, titled simply Metallica, was released on August 12, 1991. It was an out-of-the-box success, debuting at No.1 in the US, the UK and Germany. All the signs were pointing to it being a monster, even though no one could have predicted just how huge that monster would be.

Hammett: We liked it, people around us liked it.

But as confident and assured as we were during the recording, we weren’t really sure how people

METALLICA

PAUL STANLEY Kiss

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“

were going to take it. Y’know, for whatever dumb reason, it might not sell for shit. And then we heard it went to number one.

Ulrich: You think one day some fucker’s gonna tell you: “You have a number one record in America” and the whole world will ejaculate.

I stood there in my hotel room with this fax: “You’re number one.” And it was like: “Well, okay.” It was just another fucking fax from the office.

Hammett: We got a backlash: “Oh, they’re not as heavy as they were, they’re fucking radio-friendly, little kids are listening to Metallica. What’s going on? Where’s my thrash metal band?” To us we made a fucking great album of great songs, why don’t you like it?

Ulrich: We’d been called sell-outs since we did Fade To Black on Ride The Lightning [1984]. We were used to it.

Hammett: Did we give a fuck? We gave a fuck for maybe five minutes.

Hetfield: There are some songs on there I don’t like. Through The Never was a little wacky. Don’t Tread On Me probably not one of my favourite songs musically. Holier Than Thou was one of the sillier songs, more the old style of writing.

Dave Mustaine (ex-Metallica guitarist, now Megadeth frontman): I liked [The Unforgiven] because I thought this was really the first time I’ve ever really heard James sing. He had sung before, and he was a great singer. But that was the first time I ever heard him really, really sing.

Ulrich: That album was the point where Metallica turned into this massive touring juggernaut. We toured and toured and toured, everywhere, and then when we finished we toured again.

Hammett: We had the ‘snake pit’ [a section in ³

ow could you not be a Metallica fan? Eric Carr [former Kiss drummer, who died in 1991] was the one that brought Metallica into our realm, and he did that quite a bit earlier, in the early, early days of Metallica. But in terms of becoming a worldwide phenomenon, I would have to say the Black Album was what did that.

“Enter Sandman – that song really flicked a switch, it changed something. It retained the grit, the passion and the rawness of what they had done until that point, but it managed to package it in a way that had a more widespread appeal. It wasn’t a coincidence that Bob Rock produced that album. He became the go-to guy for bringing out the most commercial aspect of a band’s sound, whether we are talking Metallica or The Cult.

“But the most important thing when you are a band or a creative person is to do what you want. Kudos to Metallica for that. Where they’ve gone since the Black Album, and factoring in their beginnings, is nothing less than amazing. Their appeal became massive, in capital letters, because it crossed boundaries. That’s always a great plus.”

METALLICA

The Black Album catapulted Metallica into the big-stadium big league.

the middle of the stage where fans were able to watch the band perform around them]. It was like one big playground, but instead of monkey bars we had stairs. It was insane.

Hetfield: The tour shirts, we were running out of room on them for all the dates – there were concert dates going down the sleeves.

Hammett: Kurt Cobain came to one of our shows in Seattle, on the Black Album tour. I knew Kurt kind of well, and I hung out with him quite a bit. He was a pretty big Metallica fan. I was surprised at how much of a Metallica fan he was.

H

30 million copies worldwide – a figure that no metal band has come close to since.

Hammett: For us to take a hundred per cent of the credit for the success of that album would

“I LIKE TO THINK WE HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH THE ACCEPTANCE OF NIRVANA.”

e wasn’t the only one. The album flew out of the traps and hasn’t stopped since. To date it has sold more than

Kirk Hammett be impossible, because it was a perfect storm of events, circumstances, situations, where we were musically…

Hetfield: The Black Album really

BEN JOHNSTON Biffy Clyro

I

“

’d heard the thrash iteration of the band, but the Black Album was just a completely different direction – there was more nuance, more melody, a slower pace. And the drums on that album are so loud. If you want to know why people bang their heads to it, it’s because of those drums.

“For me, it was better than any metal album I’d ever heard. I don’t know if it even is metal. It’s got loud guitars and drums and it sounds like a metal album, of course, but if you take those away the songs on there are almost pure pop. It’s got an amazing production, which paved the way for a more accessible version of metal. It gave so

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was the master key to everything. We started to be recognised and talked about as a force to be reckoned with in the heavy metal world – and going beyond that, in the rock world, with bands like AC/DC and U2.

many bands from that genre the confidence to go big. But it was influential on rock in general - it made some softer bands heavier and some heavier bands softer.

“We’ve been lucky enough to share stages with them, but when we got asked to be on The Blacklist we couldn’t believe it. We decided to do Holier Than Thou, which isn’t one of the bigger songs.

We love Enter Sandman, Sad But True and Nothing Else Matters, but they feel almost untouchable. I’m not saying Holier Than Thou isn’t a classic, but we felt we had a bit more wriggle room with that song – we felt we could make it more Biffy.”

Rock: There was a musical transition when the album came out, and it changed radio, because that heavy sound was now on the radio.

Hammett: Rock radio embracing our sound – our heaviness – helped the whole grunge thing take hold. Not long after the Black Album came out, Nirvana put out Nevermind. I like to think we had something to do with the acceptance of Nirvana Rock: It actually changed something culturally.

Everybody owned that album.

Hammett: In some ways it changed us.

Subsequent albums, we’ve made decisions knowing full well that it will piss people off. And there have been doubts: “This is where we’re at, take it or leave it.” But there wasn’t a fucking drop of that with the Black Album.

Metallica Remastered and The Metallica Blacklist are out on September 10 via Blackened Recordings.

Additional sources: Rolling Stone, Village Voice, Uncut, Q, Classic Albums One On One, Enter Night by Mick Wall, Birth School Metallica Death by Paul Brannigan & Ian Winwood, Metallica’s Metallica (33 1/3) by David Masciotra

With plenty of current and historical events in their native Canada to fuel their fire and ire, Crown Lands’ music wraps punk spirit in a luxury prog package that “draws a lot from Genesis and Yes and Rush”.

Words: Polly Glass

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t seems like people are afraid to… say something these days,” muses Cody Bowles. “It’s interesting. Rage Against The Machine had a lot to say, System Of A Down had a lot to say, but there’s a lot of bands these days who like to play it safe.”

Shy and softly spoken over the phone from their small home town just outside Oshawa, Canada, Bowles has a sweetness that obscures multiple steely sides. The prog fan who grew up listening to their father play drums to the whole of Rush’s 2112. The dextrous singer/drummer who studied Afro-Cuban and West-Ghanaian beats.

A member of Canada’s vast indigenous community, with roots in Nova Scotia’s Mi’kmaq tribe. The LGBTQ+ representative who identifies as Two-Spirit (an umbrella term, specific to indigenous people, that covers all gender and sexual diversities outside binary genders).

Bowles and Kevin Comeau, a punkloving Jewish bassist who fell hard for Rush as a teenager and never looked back, formed Crown Lands in 2016, playing noisy blues rock, and rapidly became rock’s rising stars to watch.

Now, in the shadow of horrific revelations regarding Canada’s residential school system (more than 130 institutions where indigenous children were isolated from their native cultures, rife with abuse and death, the last still in place until 1996) they’ve taken on current themes and expansive proggy sounds that have long been close to them. All of which comes together on their new EP White Buffalo.

“I don’t think our music is challenging, because it’s still pretty accessible, but I think we’re starting to push the limits,” Comeau tells us. “It’s exciting,

I think, that people are coming along for the ride with us.”

With songs that speak to Canada’s muchmistreated indigenous population, Bowles and Comeau are counter-culturalists for our times, with one eye on the legacies of Rush, Yes and Genesis, and another firmly on the present, raising awareness of injustices that have too often gone unseen by the wider world.

“Cody and I actually bonded joking about the fact that we’re here despite everyone else’s best efforts,” Comeau says, grinning. “The fact that my family made it through the Holocaust, and the fact that Cody’s family has made it through residential

whipping stage presence) he has a leaderly, shamanic quality as he outlines the Crown Lands mission in clear, rapid-fire monologues. He seems to know exactly what he wants to say, and appears keen to get it all out.

Still, after an unplanned year and a half at home – and an unexpected wealth of time to craft new songs – you can hardly blame him. Having spent the last few years on tour, Comeau was in a position to really hone his chops, while Bowles took singing lessons to elevate their Geddy Leemeets-Robert Plant pipes. It pushed them several steps ahead. All the while harrowing stories of unmarked mass graves, unearthed at residential school sites, peppered their news feeds. The seeds for White Buffalo were sown.

“This year we’ve been able to focus on writing some really good music,” Comeau enthuses, “and we’re a lot further along musically and technically than we were last year, and we’re a lot closer to where we wanna be. That feels really good. I think we want to be a really special band to kids, or any fans of music that want really technical music that is kind of a lost art form right now. We draw a lot from Genesis and Yes and Rush, and we were kind of afraid to embrace that on our first record.”

Indeed the duo first caught the world’s attention with energetic blues rock (compiled on 2020’s self-titled debut). Now, though, any fears of branching out seem obsolete. Ties with their prog heroes have grown. White Buffalo was recorded with Rush producer David Bottrill. Following Rush drummer Neil Peart’s death they also worked with another Rush collaborator, Nick Rasculinecz, with Bowles playing Peart’s old kit on the single Context: Fearless Pt. 1.

It’s all built up to this point. Following last ³

“It’s sometimes easier to write a ten-minute epic song than a three-minute hit.”

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Kevin Comeau schools, it’s a miracle that we are here together, making music together. So we joke that we have shared intergenerational trauma, so that’s how we bonded. Obviously that’s not [really] how we bonded, but it’s a fun thing to joke about.”

He laughs, then pauses. “Is it a fun thing to joke about? I don’t know.”

S

peaking from the green, pastoral surrounds of the new home he’s just moved into, guitarist/bassist/keyboard player Comeau is a likeable guy with a brisk streak. He talks a lot.

With Chewbacca-rivalling locks and a beard that’s somewhat untamed (compared to his sleek, hair-

LANE DORSEY/PRESS

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CROWN LANDS

year’s singles Mountain and End Of The Road – the latter a spine-tingling ode to the many indigenous women, girls, and two-spirits who’ve gone missing or been murdered on the Highway Of Tears in British Columbia – White Buffalo’s title track represents the completion of a trilogy, drawing parallels between indigenous peoples and the hunted buffalo of their homeland. Along with the three other tracks on the EP, it’s more refined than their early work but rocks more urgently. Punk spirit in a luxury prog package.

“It feels like people are finally starting to listen to indigenous people and take them seriously,” Bowles says. “All this stuff that’s in the news, it was known to everybody in our communities but nobody listened. It wasn’t until somebody dug up this site that people were like: ‘Oh, shit, I think they’re right.

Let’s go back and listen to see if there’s anything else they’re right about…’”

This is not the Canada most of us know, contrasting sharply with popular stereotypes.

“Every time a serial killer gets arrested the neighbours are like: ‘Oh, he seemed like a really nice guy to me, he always held the door open for me!’” Comeau says, chuckling wryly. “And that’s Canada. Canadians are polite, but we’re not nice.

There’s this weird, cold thing about Canadian politeness. It’s been weaponised, and that’s how so much of this shit has happened.”

of Rush epics like 2112, The Fountain Of Lamneth and Cygnus X-1, Book II: Hemispheres. Outside of Crown Lands, Bowles has a sciencefantasy novel in the works, with its own language. “I’m just a big nerd,” they reason, with a laugh.

The family spent a lot of time at a cottage just outside the Alderville First Nation reserve in Ontario, where the young Bowles (half Mi’kmaw) connected with their indigenous roots and culture – for which they had been bullied in school.

“I have some wonderful memories of getting taken out to the wild rice fields in the rivers and on the lake in a canoe with one of the Elders, learning what it means to be indigenous,” says Bowles.“It’s kind of an existential thing. It’s a feeling; a deep knowing and Giving old-style prog a new twist: Kevin Comeau and understanding that you are one (inset) Cody Bowles. with all of existence. Your connection with nature is inextricably linked to everything else.”

“There are more indigenous kids Meanwhile in Whitby, Ontario, Comeau wasn’t in foster care than any other kids athletic but did well in classes. He and his sister in Canada,” Bowles continues. were the only Jews in their school.

“There’s a system here that is “I think a lot of kids turn to music because they fundamentally broken, and it’s not get ‘othered’ in school,” he reasons. “It was until people see the whole truth definitely one of those things you don’t tell people that we’ll understand what’s going unless you knew you could trust them. Cody kind on. There’s a lot of insidious things of passes for white as well, so learned early on to that happened in the past, but not necessarily tell people about their indigenous even still to the present.” heritage until it was safe to do so. And this is The scale of Crown Lands’ Canada. This is a beautiful country, but still a lot sound matches that of the themes; of people don’t feel comfortable being different.” from commanding instrumental At home he listened to narrative masters like Inner Light, through huge, John Prine, Paul Simon and Bob Dylan. “That, nodding-to-Gilmour guitars in combined with Zeppelin and Queen, formulated The Witching Hour and 13-minute epic The Oracle. a lot of my early sensibilities.’’ As a Clash-loving But it’s the complex, catchy title track that steals teen he wore his hair in blue spikes, before diving the show, bringing to mind the immediacy and deep into Rush. deceptive intricacy of Genesis’ hit Turn It On Again.

It was their shared love for Canada’s prog “I’m really proud of that song,” Comeau says. godfathers, and for storytelling, that drew him and “It’s sometimes easier to write a ten-minute epic Bowles together at a band audition in 2015. They song than a three-minute hit. I don’t mean to say haven’t stopped since. it’s going to be a hit, but we hope it’s going to be.

Singles and EPs (or “capsules”, as they call them) It’s got a big, long, stupid three-part harmony, so it have tapped into a younger market, offering the still is over the top, but it’s more accessible.” album experience in smaller packages.

Recently they finished an instrumental meditation record, combining Comeau’s love of Brian Eno and British ambient music with giant wood flutes sent to Bowles by an indigenous company. It’s a lot for anyone, never mind a duo.

And yet the key to their success is very Cody Bowles simple. Two best friends. Long conversations about life that weave into “Music tells a story,” Bowles says, “and we want songs. Agreeing. Disagreeing. Being. to be able to tell a series of stories that get “It’s dawned on us over the last year and a half progressively more expansive.” how important that really is,” Bowles says, “to “Hopefully it gets played really loudly at rallies be friends with your bandmate and actually where statues get taken down, too,” Comeau adds. meet them wherever they’re at every day, and “That’d be sick.” just talk and be human with each other. So many people forget that. They treat the band like rowing up in Willowdale, Toronto, a machine.”

Bowles was obsessed with the books of White Buffalo (EP) is released on September 16 JRR Tolkien and writer of the Dune series via Spinefarm/ UMG Canada.

Frank Herbert, as well as the sprawling narratives

“It seems like people are afraid to say something these days.

A lot of bands like to play it safe.”

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DAYS & SUMMERS In our exclusive extract and images from Janis Joplin’s fascinating scrapbook, bandmates, friends and family talk about that voice, her band Big Brother & The Holding Company, their classic Cheap Thrills album, and the largely unseen Janis behind the public persona.

JANIS JOPLIN: “Oh, wait ’til you see the album cover, it’s so groovy. It’s a cartoon done by this freak, man. It’s just insane. It’s beautiful. It’s got all of our names on the cover.

Plus, the name of the group, the name of all the tunes and all these little silly people. It’s a fine album cover.”

Interview with Dick Cavett on ABC’s This Morning show, recorded 30 July 1968, aired 31 July 1968

where there’s a guy in a turban with his finger held up. Originally, the speech balloon said ‘Harry Kirshner’, a pun on Hare Krishna.

What they decided to do was overwrite ‘Art: R. Crumb’ in the balloon using Crumb-style lettering. Crumb didn’t know anything about this until the album came out. And he was so infuriated that he swore he’d never do another album cover and he refused to take the $600 fee. I’ve talked to him about this a couple of times. The way he saw it, it was as if Bob Dylan had put a song on an album and the record company had changed a lyric. We’re on good terms now, but for a while he was really upset, because no one had ever changed his artwork before.

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RUSS GIGUERE (guitar/vocals, The Association): Janis’s voice just kicked ass. It wasn’t that deep – she was probably an alto – but it had this thick timbre. I still haven’t heard anybody like that.

I only very recently heard the Erma Franklin version of Piece Of My Heart for the first time. It sounds like it was written for Janis.

CHRISSIE HYNDE (vocals/guitar, The Pretenders): I’ll always have a soft spot for Piece Of My Heart. It was the one that really rocked the nation.

I remember exactly where I was standing when I first held that Cheap Thrills album in my hands and marvelled at the Robert Crumb artwork.

Janis and Robert: voices of a generation. Nobody had ever sounded like her and nobody ever will again. ³

Janis’s copy of Big Brother And The Holding Company’s Cheap Thrills album.

Columbia Records, recorded March – May 1968, released 12 August 1968

S BY BIG BROTHER AND THE HOLDING COMPANY, COLUMBIA RECORDS

DAVE GETZ (drums, Big Brother & The Holding Company): There were a couple of initial ideas for the Cheap Thrills cover that didn’t work out. Then we were sitting around in our loft one day and I said, ‘What do you think about asking R. Crumb to do it?’ Everybody said, ‘Yeah, that would be far out.’ We were all reading his Zap comics and thought he was a genius. I had a way to get in touch with him through a friend and Janis wanted to be the one to call him.

So Janis spoke to Crumb and he came and sat on the floor in a corner of our dressing room at the Carousel Ballroom [later the Fillmore West], where we were playing. He just watched what was going on and never spoke to anybody.

He took Polaroid pictures of everyone in the band and then he went home.

Just a couple of days later he called Janis to say that he’d finished. She picked up the artwork boards from him and we all met at our rehearsal place to take a look. For the front cover he had drawn and painted what looked like a school auditorium stage, and on the stage were these stick figure musicians onto which he’d cut out and pasted the heads from the Polaroid pictures. And it had the backs of the heads of the people in the audience. It was kind of funny, it was OK. But when Janis showed us the back cover, no one wanted to look at the front cover any more. We all said, ‘Are you kidding? This is the back cover? This is incredible.’

Immediately, we knew it had to go on the front. I don’t even know if we told Crumb that. We just shipped it off to Bob Kato in the art department at Columbia. They didn’t want to use the stick figures at all; they put a picture of Janis on the back and used a big Elliott Landy photograph of the band on stage for the gatefold. We were OK with that as long we got the front cover we wanted.

The other thing to mention is that the artwork was based on the track listing intended at the time. Side two was going to open with a track called Harry, which was this goofy, abstract, almost Zappa-esque instrumental which I had written. [It’s on the 50th-anniversary reissue, Sex, Dope And Cheap Thrills.] But Clive Davis didn’t want it on the album, and we acquiesced. That left us with the problem of what to do with the box on the cover for that track,

JACK CASADY (bass, Jefferson Airplane/Hot Tuna): Erma Franklin had put out a song that I loved called Piece Of My Heart. The chills went up and down my spine whenever I heard it. I thought it was as good as anything her sister Aretha had ever done, and I love Aretha Franklin.

Peter Albin [bassist, Big Brother] was over at the North Panhandle flat I shared with Marty Balin [vocals/rhythm guitar, Jefferson Airplane] and I said, ‘Listen to this record. I think it would be great for Janis.’ So I put on Piece Of My Heart and then lent it to him. He kept it for a few weeks while they learned the song, and I’m proud to say it became part of the repertoire.

It was interesting to see what Janis did with it – how she made the song work for her tonal range, which was much higher than Erma’s. It helped also that the song was obscure enough at the time that hardly anybody knew it was a cover.

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COPYRIGHT © JOHN BYRNE COOKE ESTATE/GETTY IMAGES

JANIS JOPLIN

DICK CAVETT (American talk show host/comedian): I remember sitting there in my studio while Janis was performing Piece Of My Heart with her group on stage, and her power disarmed me. I remember thinking, ‘Am I going to be able to speak clearly after this?’ And, ‘How I wish I could keep it going.’ Seeing her in person, that instant thing that came when there was nothing between you and Janis but air, it was unforgettable.

MICHAEL JOPLIN (brother): I thought every aspect of Janis becoming famous was the coolest thing ever. I was both terrified and excited for her. There was a big void because she wasn’t at home, but suddenly it was cool being her brother. Up until Piece Of My Heart everybody thought I was totally weird. I wanted to be a hippie so bad, but where I came from hippies were like hell on earth.

Then when people kept hearing Piece Of My Heart on the radio and it got into the Top 10, they started thinking that maybe I wasn’t crazy after all. And, believe me, I took advantage of it. I thought, ‘Shit, at least they’re talking about me.’ That was Janis’s attitude too: ‘At least they’re talking about me. Bad press is better than no press.’

DAVE GETZ: In early August 1968, a few days after the Newport Folk Festival, Janis called a meeting in one of the roadies’ rooms at the Chelsea Hotel. Everybody already knew what was going to happen.

We all sat down and she said, ‘I just want to tell you guys I’m going to leave the band. I’ll do one more tour.’ And that was it.

Afterwards, the band had a meeting and everybody agreed that we would carry on with another singer. Then a couple of nights after that, I saw Sam [Andrew, guitar/vocals, Big Brother/Kosmik Blues Band] in the elevator and he told me he was going to leave with Janis to be in her new band [the Kozmic Blues Band]. I couldn’t get upset, because if she had asked me I probably would’ve done the same thing.

But it felt like a betrayal because James [Gurley, guitar, Big Brother] really wasn’t well at the time. He was strung out. Peter [Albin, bass, Big Brother] and I knew that we couldn’t play with him any more. We needed to have Sam and maybe another guitarist and another singer.

So once we found out that Sam was leaving, there was no way that Big Brother could continue. Very fortunately, Country Joe asked Peter and me to join Country Joe And The Fish, so we were able to jump from one top band to another.

Having known for a while that this day was coming, when it finally hit I felt a certain kind of relief. I knew I had to get a new life.

PETER ALBIN [bass, Big Brother]: We were so busy touring that we never sat down together to talk about the direction we were going in. We just lent our skills to each song and did them as best we could.

I was really upset when Janis told us she was leaving. She said she had got to a point where she wanted to move on to something different. We had to accept that. It bugged me that she didn’t suggest doing something different within the band. She never did that.

Later she said to Sam that she just wanted to add some horns.

Sam asked her why she didn’t tell us that and she said that she didn’t think we’d have wanted to bring in any more people. To be honest, we probably would have been happy to hire some horn players for recordings.

This spread and previous page: Houston Music Hall, Houston, Texas, 23 November 1968; letter dated 28 September 1968: Janis talks about her plans after leaving Big Brother

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PETER ALBIN: Some nights were stressful, but we played many of our best shows on that last tour. ‘The Lame Duck Tour’, I call it.

COPYRIGHT © JOHN BYRNE COOKE ESTATE/GETTY IMAGES x5

DAVE GETZ: Janis’s announcement that she was going to leave came right before Cheap Thrills was released. That was a tough time – there were lots of fights. Our last big tour together took up most of October and November 1968, but it was public knowledge that she was leaving. The sad thing was that from recording Cheap Thrills and from all of the touring we’d done we had become really tight as a band. We had it down to this show of nine or 10 songs and it was killer. We could go out there and blow an audience away, but backstage everybody was at each other’s throats.

DAVE GETZ: The argument about Big Brother is always whether we were really good or really terrible musicians, but I think that’s missing the point. Each of us was capable of being very good, and we were also capable of being really awful – out of tune, out of time, a complete train wreck on stage. But what we did more than anything was personify the time – we were a quintessentially Sixties band.

There are old Big Brother recordings I can’t listen to, because I’ve become a better musician since then. But listening to that music takes me right back to places like the Avalon and the Matrix. There has been nothing like that vibe since – it was incredible. In the first year that Janis was in the band, especially when we lived together, she understood what Big Brother was about. Then she outgrew us and had to leave. I’m never one to argue that she should have stayed. She couldn’t. There’s no way that James Gurley and Janis were going to go in the same direction. She had to play with musicians who really understood blues and rhythm and blues. That was her direction.

DAVID FREIBERG [vocals/bass/rhythm guitar, Quicksilver Messenger Service/Jefferson Airplane]: Big Brother had just the right amount of weird to them, and their power was a great foil for Janis’s power. I could also understand why Janis thought she could achieve a lot more with more accomplished musicians. Looking back, it was probably inevitable that she would leave at some point, but I always thought there was something special about the music she did with Big Brother. They weren’t quite like any other band.

PETER ALBIN: When Janis left, Dave [Getz] and I started trying to put a basic group together. We weren’t necessarily looking for female vocalists, but female vocalists came to us when they found out that Janis had left. I started playing guitar again, Dave Torbert came in on bass, and my old friend Dave Nelson played guitar. That was the basic format of the group, but it didn’t last long because we got a call in March or April from Country Joe saying that he needed a rhythm section for a two-month European tour. So we had to tell Dave Torbert and Dave Nelson that we were going on the road, and they got their own band together called New Riders of the Purple Sage. ³ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 45

MARK NAFTALIN [organ, Paul Butterfield Blues Band]: In 1968, when I was settled in the Bay Area and working with Tracy Nelson and Powell St John on a Mother Earth album, for some reason Janis and I were walking from the Fillmore to a neighbouring building.

As we were walking, she told me that she was putting together a new band and asked me if I would be willing to join it as its leader. I was really flattered, but I declined because I had my sights on other things.

JACK CASADY: I knew Janis wanted to gain bona fide recognition out there in the wider world and among her peers as someone who truly worked hard on her craft. When she left Big Brother, I think her aim was to move into a tighter, more disciplined musical environment, which would take her singing closer to where she wanted it to go. She was chasing that bigger band horn sound, and I remember how excited she was about the arrangements she was able to come up with in her new band [the Kozmic Blues Band].

DAVE GETZ: I think if Janis had lived, she would have probably become more versatile. She would have sung a lot of different kinds of music: folk and maybe even country. Some of the songs that she had written before joining Big Brother were just beautiful – very mystical and almost Eastern in style. She used to play them for me, but I’ve never been able to find recordings of them. They got put on the back burner when she became the Kozmic Blues and Full Tilt Boogie Janis.

PETER ALBIN: We did a show with Janis and the Kozmic Blues Band in a huge hall in Cleveland. It was fun to catch up with Sam, and I got on well with some of the other guys in the band like Snooky Flowers.

She performed at the Stax/Volt Christmas party in Memphis, but from what I understand it was kind of a disaster.

MICHAEL JOPLIN: To be on The Ed Sullivan Show at that time meant you were a god. My parents were so proud and in awe of Janis. We all were. It was huge. Everybody in the neighbourhood came over to watch.

Above: Janis with Carla Thomas (front row, centre), Booker T. And The M.G.’s and others at the Stax Records Christmas party, Memphis, Tennessee, 20 December 1968.

46 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Left: Janis Joplin and the Kozmic Blues Band, The Ed Sullivan Show, New York, 16 March 1969.

COPYRIGHT © MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES X2 COPYRIGHT © DON PAULSEN/MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES/GETTY IMAGES x1 COPYRIGHT © FANTALITY CORP. X1

Above: guitarist Mike Bloomfield rehearses with Janis and the Kozmic Blues Band, Stax Records Studio, Memphis, Tennessee, 20 December 1968.

JANIS JOPLIN

DAVE GETZ: After Janis left Big Brother, I stayed in touch with her and we remained on friendly terms. We didn’t hang out much any more, but I would see her. I went to her house in Larkspur a couple of times. When she was putting together the Kozmic Blues Band, she asked me to come over and show Roy Markowitz how I played Summertime, and I’m embarrassed to say that I did. I used to drop the drums out in the seventh or eighth bar in each verse, but he couldn’t get that. He was a very good drummer, but for some reason he just couldn’t get it.

Janis fired Sam from the Kozmic Blues Band in late 1969 or early 1970, which was around the time that Peter and I were trying to get Big Brother back together. With Sam back in the band, everything clicked. James moved over to bass, which was great as it meant we could get another guitar player. We found a guy named David Schallock, and then we had Nick Gravenites and Kathi McDonald singing with us. We were going in the studio to record Be A Brother, our first album after Janis, and we wanted to do this song written by Sam called Mr Natural: This Is the City, which hadn’t made it on to Cheap Thrills. Janis had sung backup on it originally when we performed it live. She came over to my house to rehearse it and then she did the backup vocals on the recording for Be A Brother.

So, Janis was in our world. We went to her parties, and people who were friends of hers were friends of ours. My wife, Nancy, when we split up went to live in her house while she was on the road. In fact Nancy was living in her house when Janis died.

COPYRIGHT © ESTATE OF KEITH MORRIS/REDFERNS/GETTY IMAGES x1 COPYRIGHT © JOHN BYRNE COOKE ESTATE/GETTY IMAGES x2 COPYRIGHT © FANTALITY CORP. X5

Top: Kozmic Blues Band, Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt, 12 April 1969.

Above: Royal Albert Hall, London, 21 April 1969.

STANLEY MOUSE (artist): I had moved to London in 1968, and Janis visited me the following year when she played at the Royal Albert Hall. I sat in a box with the photographer Bob Seidemann and Eric Clapton. When Janis came on, I let out a good San Francisco hoot. Eric complimented me on my hoot. Afterwards, that night was a debacle at the hotel in Mayfair where she was staying.

I never saw Janis again.

Left: rehearsing with Sam Andrew on a California motel patio before a Kozmic Blues Band concert, 1969.

This exclusive extract is taken from Janis Joplin: Days & Summers – Scrapbook 1966-68, published by Genesis Publications and available from: JanisJoplinBook.com Printed with kind permission.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 47

48 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Plunged into anxiety hell by covid-19, Danko Jones’ dreams of rock stardom never seemed more impossible. Fortunately, new album Power Trio brings the band roaring back to life, with their sights set on conquering the world one riff at a time.

Words: Rich Hobson

D

anko Jones is, by his own admission, a rock’n’roll lifer.

Hooked on Kiss when he was six years old, and having expanded his musical repertoire ever since, he’s spent the better part of a quarter-century touring the world with the band that bears his name, playing alongside Beck, Guns N’ Roses, Motörhead, Nickelback and others.

But like just about every other musician, Jones’s plans for the future were derailed when covid-19 hit in March 2020. With no live work on the horizon and no plans to make a new record (at first, anyway), he found himself with an abundance of time to devote to his successful podcast series, or maybe flexing his love for rock in columns for publications such as The Huffington Post or the Toronto Star. At least that was the plan.

“I have to be honest, I haven’t done shit!” he admits frankly. “I’ve been living in anxiety hell.”

It’s difficult to imagine the man behind records like We Sweat Blood and Sleep Is The Enemy doing absolutely nothing for the better part of a year.

Like many of us, however, Jones spent much of the pandemic in a doom-overloaded fugue state.

Podcast on pause, unable to muster the energy to check out new releases and actively downsizing his record collection, there was a pervasive sense of defeat while Jones waited for life to return to some kind of ‘normal’.

Thankfully, Danko Jones isn’t just a one-man proposition; Danko Jones is also a band.

“JC [bassist John Calabrese] gets all the credit for this album,” Jones says of Power Trio. “He was the one who said: ‘We need to just do something.’ I was in the mode of curling up in bed and didn’t want to come out until this thing was over.”

In June 2021, with hospitalisation numbers dropping and vaccination levels rising, things finally began to look brighter – for both Danko Jones and the planet. Fittingly, Power Trio, the band’s tenth record feels like a triumphant comeback, with opening track I Want Out bringing the band roaring back to life, every bit as vital as

The Oblivians, The Makers and The Gories inspired his decision to drop out of film school just a few credits short of graduating, to pursue an entirely different education. “I realised if I didn’t at least try to do this music thing I’d end up kicking myself,” he says. “Even if I did it for a year and a half and had to give it up, at least I tried.”

Jones’s first foray into music was as one half of garage-rock duo the Violent Brothers. It was in this group that he developed the larger-than-life persona that later became his trademark. All it took was a baptism by fire at their first ever show.

“We were playing in the back of this tiny club called the Cameron House,” Jones recalls. “It was so small there were people on chairs – this effete poet vibe while this garage band played in the corner. Our friend Bernie [Pleskach] was in the crowd. He’s an incredible musician who was in these bands The Stinkies and Satan’s Arch-Enemy G.O.D, this real character with loads of energy.

“Well, Bernie was drunk and took a seat in front of the stage and just kept shouting; you could call it heckling. But I was getting pissed because he was being so loud, so I started biting back. He loved it – and it turns out so did I! We started going back and forth and that was it – each set I’d be screaming at people, and the reaction I got was different to any of the noise rock bands I was in at the time, or any rock’n’roll I’d done… I found I could surf it easily, no matter what people threw at me.”

Jones combined roguish charm, humour and theatricality in a mix that was equal parts Big ³

GETTY

“I just want… can we not be racist?

Don’t be sexist, homophobic…

Let’s all just rock out.” they were before the pandemic hit. But while Jones seems entirely unabated, in conversation he still puts weighted consideration behind every response, which suggests he’s still coming to after a rough year. But then, that’s exactly why Power Trio feels so magic – it speaks to rock’n’roll’s power of reinvention.

L

ong before he gave his name to a riproaring rock’n’roll band, Danko Jones was a music-loving kid from Toronto. A love for hard rock in his childhood gave way to fascination with the raft of garage rock bands making their way north of the border in the mid-90s. Bands like

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 49

DANKO JONES John ‘JC’ Calabrese with Danko Jones at the Festidalen festival in Norway in 2017.

statement false, but there were still some misgivings about writing separately. Fortunately they had plenty of time to iron out the kinks, and soon not even aging technology could stand in the way of progress as they wrote and completed their first song from scratch in the pandemic, Blue Jean Denim Jumpsuit. Not so much Bambi-steps into the new world as a joyous leap into urgent classicrock riffing, the song set the tone for an entirely new mode of operation going forward.

“Once it had been put together properly I was floored,” Jones beams.

“I think it sounds more organic than songs we’ve done in the past where we were all in a room together! It’s given us some relief – during the pandemic, Rich moved to PEI [Prince Edward Island], a different province on the other side of the country. If he’d done that a year before I’d have had a nervous breakdown. But now it’s all good.”

Even when it came to rehearsing ahead of going into the studio, the band weren’t able to fall back into old modes of operation. Once again, though, JC swooped in with a solution that let them forge ahead.

“JC set up a rehearsal space so he was in one room, and then Rich and I were in another room, with a partition down the middle,” Jones explains. “We never even saw each other! We’d practise and practise, shouting to each other if there were any problems. I finally saw them in the recording studio. Even then, there were only five of us in the studio. It’s insane and I can’t believe we did it.”

Despite being written under strenuous circumstances, the 11 songs of Power Trio roar

“I don’t wanna be in a band where there’s one person who doles out the roles.”

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with the sort of freedom that can only be found after experiencing the alternative. I Want Out, Get To You and Let’s Rock Together evoke the essential spirits of rebellion and community that engender rock’n’roll as a whole. Elsewhere the staccato frenetic riffs of Flaunt It evoke Scandi-bop rockers like The Hives or Royal Republic; anachronistic hard rock that could have been released anywhere between 1950 to today.

Perhaps the biggest surprise (thematically, at least) is Raise Some Hell, a fist-pumping anthem that originated from Jones’s feelings about the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests. Make no mistake, the man who sang Legs and Success In Bed hasn’t suddenly decided to trade in political manifestos, but after the past 12 months he also felt that he couldn’t just stay silent either.

“When the BLM demonstrations were happening, I wasn’t comfortable gathering in crowds – there just wasn’t enough data to support

GETTY x2

Bopper, Bon Scott and Phil Lynott. More shows with the Violent Brothers enabled him to hone his craft, but his reinvention wasn’t complete until the formation of his next group. Working alongside musicians John ‘JC’ Calabrese and drummer Michael Caricari, the group were initially named Danko Jones And The Impossible Dream, which eventually was shortened to just Danko Jones.

This wasn’t an ego trip on Jones’s part – the name change was actually suggested by Caricari.

“People think it’s a solo act, but it’s not,” Jones explains. “JC and I have been together from the start, and behind the scenes everything is equal.

Sometimes I wish it weren’t such a democracy, as that means things take longer as you wait to get everyone’s opinions, but ultimately I’m glad it is.

I don’t wanna be in a band where there’s one person who doles out the roles.”

The person on the drum stool might have changed over the years, but at its heart Danko Jones [the band] has always been a trio. Which brings us back to the pandemic. While his frontman was flagging creatively, JC was laying plans to help the band return to active duty. The first step was setting up ways for the trio to write and demo material separately from home. All of their previous records had been written in a room as they jammed together, a throwback to their garage roots and staunch early stance that they would never even release a record.

Twenty-five years and nine records had proved that

Rich Knox with Danko Jones opening for Volbeat in Milan in 2019.

Danko Jones picks some rising bands that rev his engine.

MOUNT CYANIDE

“Mount Cyanide are a Toronto band made up of ex-members of [stoner-inspired rockers] Biblical.

They put out an eight-song LP last year in the middle of the pandemic. It’s almost black metalmeets-an indie aesthetic.”

Radkey

RADKEY

DUSTIN RABIN/PRESS

“They’re all brothers. I had one of the Radkey guys on my podcast, and he said he only heard about the Danzig connection in their vocals after they wrote those songs. Which is amazing! If their new record is as good as the first… wow.”

it being safe,” he admits, pausing even longer as he considers his words very carefully. “In a way, Raise Some Hell was a way for me to participate. At the same time, I didn’t want it parading down main street that the song was inspired by George Floyd or BLM. But I’m not backing away from it. It gets to a point where if you’re quiet then you’re almost complicit to what’s going on around you.”

While that song itself isn’t any more overtly political than your average Motörhead song (and they had more than a few political ones in their day), it calls for unity across all divides.

“I just want… can we not be racist? That’s it!”

Jones says. “Don’t be sexist, homophobic… Let’s all just rock out. Songs like Let’s Rock Together are inspired by that as well – for all sides of the political spectrum to come together.”

A

s with all other things Danko Jones, this plea for unity comes wrapped in a package of rock’n’roll worship that ultimately triumphs over all.

This is demonstrated most notably on the record’s final track, Start The Show, a thumping rocker that shares some DNA with AC/DC, right down to the stomping riff and ‘Ain’t rock glorious?’ lyrics. So naturally they brought in ex-Motörhead guitarist Phil Campbell to play the breakout solo on the track.

“JC said: ‘If the album

is going to be called Power Trio, why shouldn’t we get the guitarist from arguably the greatest power trio there ever was?’” Jones says.

“Luckily he agreed!”

It works perfectly as the final flourish on a record that harkens back to the glories of over sixty years’ riffing and rocking. As it turns out, it’s also an urging for the world itself to bounce back.

“Songs like I Want Out and Let’s Rock Together could only have been birthed from the pandemic situation,” Jones offers. “The album ends with Start The Show, the wish of starting everything back to normal.”

Right now, nobody knows what ‘normal’ will look like when it returns, but Danko Jones paints an alluring picture. It might have started out as an impossible dream, but the band have spent 25 years turning such dreams into reality.

“I met Axl Rose on stage, on his stage, in Saskatoon to sing the chorus of Night Train with him,” Jones marvels. “Singing Killed By Death with Motörhead was a huge moment – I was on cloud nine the first time we did it. It’s one of my favourite Motörhead songs.”

Any regrets?

“It’s a tightrope to walk, but I go by a compass that allows me to look at myself in the mirror,” he says, smiling. “In our twenty-five years there’s no time where it’s so bad it’s like, ‘I don’t want to be reminded of that’, except maybe times where a joke hasn’t landed with an audience. Hell, I even finally got my film degree last year!”

Twenty-five years into their career, Danko Jones serve as both a glorious throwback to rock’n’roll’s history and a reminder of its enduring legacy; as long as there are bands willing to preach the gospel, and disciples like Danko Jones to make it sound good, the dream will never die.

Power Trio is released on August 27 via Made In Germany.

Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts

TUK SMITH & THE RESTLESS HEARTS “Tuk was the singer of The Biters, and I love The Biters. We took them out on tour in 2012, they opened for us all over Europe. Biters was Cheap Trick-meets-Kiss or The Sweet, that whole sound, and Tuk continues that with the Restless Hearts.”

ZIG ZAGS

“Two years ago Zig Zags put out the album They’ll Never Take Us Alive. It was like really noisy Kill ’Em All-era Metallica-meets-garage rock, which is music to my ears. Even their visuals have this stoner ‘we don’t care’ vibe and I dig that a lot.”

The OGBMs

THE OBGMS

“The OBGMs are band from Toronto, and I’m pretty sure it stands for ‘The Ooh Baby Gimme Mores’. I just love them. They almost sound like a no-wave band. These guys have their own unique mishmash of stuff, like James White And The Blacks mixed with The Strokes.”

ROMANO NERVOSO

“Romano Nervoso are this Italian-Belgian band that opened for us right before the pandemic.

Their singer Giacomo [Panarisi] is a really great showman, while the band play this catchy, showy but also melodic garage rock type stuff. I’m a sucker for that kind of music – like an updated Buzzcocks with heavy guitars!”

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 51

After quitting The Temperance Movement under a cloud, their former vocalist Phil Campbell says his new band The Byson Family is his rebirth.

Words: Henry Yates

F

or (‘the other’) Phil Campbell, the Campbell’s exit from The Temperance analogy that works best is a failed Movement was widely reported as ‘unexpected’. It marriage. “I was dreaming about The wasn’t to him, though. Across the band’s decadeByson Family at exactly the same time long run, he reflects, their growing heaviosity had I was recording the third and last started to grate. record with The Temperance Movement,” the “I got fed up singing at that level,” he says. “An singer says of his old and new bands. “It’s like I’d hour and a half of singing at the very max, top of completely and utterly fallen in love with someone my range. I love my voice, but live I was starting to else, who I couldn’t have, but I was making an hate the sound of it coming back. All I can hear is album with my ex.” my noisy-as-fuck, Glasgow bastard, shouty voice.

Perhaps nobody ever really gets a fresh start in And these people here can’t be enjoying it, can rock’n’roll. Since quitting The Temperance they? All they can hear is the snare drum and my Movement in January fucking voice. Then 2020, the singer might there was always: have come home to ‘You’re like Bon Glasgow for the first Scott… You’re like time in two decades, Bon Scott…’” reinvented his sound and It wasn’t just that, cast himself as Philip though. When Louder Seth Campbell. “The guy spoke to Campbell from the Pixies always back in February, he changes his name,” he said his “wayward” shrugs, “so I thought I’d attitude was a factor.

Phil Campbell start over, be this guy.”

Was there a clash of But his past repeatedly lifestyles in TTM? crashes the conversation, often at his behest. “I’ll “There always was. Y’know, it’s rock’n’roll. So talk about all that,” he says. “I’m desperate to talk a guy in a band smoked a joint. Who cares? And the about it. It’s all I think about. Especially in Temp – and this is the reason it got as far as it did – it lockdown. Like, what the fuck just happened?” had guys that were very sensible and wouldn’t fuck To lead with The Temperance Movement is no about. So me fucking about was a big deal. It was snub to The Byson Family, whose debut album like: ‘Nobody fucks about in this thing. This is The Kick The Traces is melodic, blissed-out and utterly Temperance Movement. Do everything right.’” brilliant. But to understand what excites Campbell Weed was the extent of it, then? about this latest project, you have to know what “I’d smoke weed pretty much all the time. I did suffocated him in the last days of the blues-rock that on its own without booze for a long, long band crowned Best New Band at the 2013 Classic time. With weed some people fall asleep, but it Rock Awards. wakes me up. And I take things too far.”

“I want this band to be a celebration of Glasgow and friends and music.

You can hear Glasgow on this record.”

52 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

A Family affair: (l-r) Christian Fleetwood, Allan James, Phil Campbell, Mike McDaid, Chris Russell.

Did you get the impression the rest of band were getting frustrated?

“Yeah, definitely. Folk were leaving the band.

And I think probably because I was making them feel uncomfortable.”

Founding guitarist Luke Potashnick and drummer Damon Wilson were long gone by the time Campbell played his final show with The Temperance Movement, headlining Planet Rockstock in December 2019.

“That last gig, I’m so fucking ashamed of it,” he says. “It was terrible. I couldn’t even remember the words. It came from not playing with them for a while, and relying on my muscle memory, which had gone. The gig before, at Steelhouse, that should have been the last one. I remember the feeling of: ‘This has been amazing!’”

Like he said, Campbell already had The Byson Family up his sleeve. As old faces from the Glasgow scene, he’d known Christian Fleetwood (guitar), Allan James (drums), Chris ‘Rusty’ Russell (keyboards) and Mike McDaid (bass) for years when they knocked out an impromptu Christmas gig in 2018. And the singer felt the stirring of a chemistry between them.

“I don’t want to be on my own,” he says.

“I genuinely want to know what I will do with these four other guys. I want this band to be a celebration of Glasgow and friends and music.”

Campbell will admit to the influence of Fleetwood Mac, Neil Young and The War On Drugs, among others. But mostly, he says, when you cut The Byson Family’s album Kick The Traces, it bleeds tartan.

“You can hear Glasgow on this record. There’s Teenage Fanclub. They were smart bastards, right?

The melodies, the words, the vocal harmonies, we wanted to snatch some of that. Snatch a bit of Travis. Put some Fratellis on there. Their song Chelsea Dagger, that’s the fucking Glasgow war cry.

I loved Ricky Ross and James Prime in Deacon Blue. This record is a bit of everything that’s come from this city and fired us up.”

Perhaps some of Kick The Traces’ songs will join the pantheon. Opener Riches is unquestionably a song of the year, so pure and beautiful that you shiver in its presence. If You See The Emptiness is a steel-and-fiddle swoon, country ’n’ western by way of the River Clyde.

“Riches is about how we never take the time to see what we’ve got,” says Campbell. “I didn’t write

If You See The Emptiness, but it’s about being out touring and saying to a lassie: ‘I fucking loved you the minute I met you and I still do’. If you feel something, say it. Act on the feelings you’ve got.

Why not?”

Campbell knows a thing or two about acting on impulse. And while he admits his divorce from The Temperance Movement could have been handled better, with The Byson Family his heart is full.

“You can’t be in something that was so brilliant, fuck it up as much as I did, go through lockdown and not grow up a bit,” he considers. “I wouldn’t be here without the Temp. And with The Byson Family I’m still trying to be the best I can be.”

Kick The Traces is released on September 10 via Seshlehem/Townsend Music.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 53

Drugs can be dangerous. Don’t believe the hype. Global warming is real. America might be doomed.

Life is short. Love works. Racists are stupid. These are just some of the things that shape his world view.

Interview: Ian Fortnam

D

avid Crosby’s name is woven through the very fabric of rock’n’roll and its attendant counterculture. After low-key beginnings on the Chicago and Greenwich Village coffee house scene Crosby was a founder member of The Byrds in 1964.

With The Byrds having introduced both Bob Dylan and psychedelia into the mainstream via the global hit singles Mr Tambourine Man and Eight Miles High, Crosby departed from the group to form Crosby, Stills & Nash in ’69. The following year Neil Young joined the trio, just in time to record their timeless masterpiece album Deja Vu. Crosby’s solo career found its genesis in 1971’s If I Could Only Remember My Name and continues to astound, most especially since a 2014 re-emergence with Croz, a return-to-form album recorded with his son James Raymond in the role of co-producer, co-writer and stalwart sideman. Still active as he approaches his 80th birthday, as both solo entity and focal point of the Lighthouse Band (with Michael League, Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis), Crosby clearly has absolutely no intention whatsoever of resting on his laurels.

“Deja Vu? That’s old stuff. History. I’m proud of it, I’m glad we did it, but I don’t keep my head there. I keep my head in next week… Next year.”

BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER

FATHER DOESN’T NECESSARILY KNOW BEST “Looking back, I’m not really sure that my father actually had any intrinsic beliefs. Mine are similar to those of my mother, who was a very liberal person, very anti-racist, very strongly in favour of the arts and a wonderful human being. So my beliefs are probably very similar to hers. I wish she were still around so that I could talk to her about them.

“I didn’t just rebel against my parents’ values, I rebelled against the whole society’s values. Come on, man, it was a square society, it was the fifties. Did I want to be a part of that Pat Boone, white bucks, [American sitcom] Father Knows Best society? Not only no, but hell no! And then along came The Beatles and Bob Dylan, opened my head with a can opener. And I liked our set of values better, that love is better than hatred and peace is better than war. And the hippies, forming their own support groups, I still agree that that’s important.”

“A great vocal performance has a lot more to do with art than it has to do with technique.”

“I’ve never enjoyed a more fulfilling working relationship with anyone other than my son, James, but I’ve come close. The relationship I have with Michael League is very good. When he produces my other band, the Lighthouse Band, the chemistry’s really excellent. And I’ve obviously had good chemistry with other people in the past: Roger [McGuinn], Chris [Hillman], Gene [Clark] and Michael [Clarke] in The Byrds; CSN and CSNY, great chemistry, really good. [Graham] Nash and I don’t get along now, but credit where it’s due, man, he’s a great harmony singer and we did a lot of really good work.

Some of the four-part things I’ve done recently with Becca [Stevens], Michelle [Willis] and Michael League in the Lighthouse Band are really incredible, but I don’t think I’ve ever had better chemistry than with James, and frankly, man, he’s matured. I thought he was terrific when I met him, but on this record [For Free], I think he’s as good a writer as I am, if not better.”

HARMONY BREEDS HARMONY “When James and I harmonise there is a certain amount of familial magic there, a kind of genetic symbiosis. The notes that he chooses to put into the harmonies and the stacks are affected by the same people I am. He’s a jazzer too, he loves jazz, so he likes big, complex chords, not just simple triads, and he’s a great musician. There’s no way for you to know it if you haven’t played with him, but he’s a stunning musician.

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“Having a good personal relationship outside of the studio does affect how voices work together when sharing a microphone, but a great vocal performance has a lot more to do with art than it has to do with technique.

It has to do with what kind of singer you are, and it has to do – very definitely, man – with what kind of person you are. I don’t sing with people I don’t like, period. You can’t pay me enough money. I just won’t do it.”

GENIUS CANNOT BE CONTRIVED, IT JUST HAPPENS

“When I took Ravi Shankar and John Coltrane tapes on to The Byrds’ tour bus, it wasn’t my intention to expand the band’s horizons or in the hope we’d incorporate elements of ragas or jazz into future compositions. I wasn’t anything like as organised as that, man. I was just playing that stuff because I loved it. I’ve never had a plan, and I didn’t plan for Eight Miles High to happen or any of that, the music was just so good that you couldn’t deny it.”

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS FREE LOVE “What the expression ‘free love’ meant was a love free of the constraints that society had placed upon it. Love and sex in the fifties were cardboard cutouts, and we wanted a more Dionysian, pleasurable and much more fun, guilt-free and joyous sex and love life, and for a while there I think we were headed towards it.”

THE DRUGS DO WORK, BUT BE CAREFUL OUT THERE “There’s absolutely no question that taking drugs enhanced my creative process. Taking hallucinogens probably helped, in part, but obviously drugs are all different, and cocaine and heroin took me right down. I ended up ³

ANNA WEBBER/PRESS

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 55

DAVID CROSBY

Crosby Stills Nash & Young at Wembley Stadium, 1974: (l-r) Stephen Stills, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Neil Young.

racially prejudiced it just means that you are too dumb to understand how the human race actually works.

“Things aren’t getting any better here, because there’s a whole lot of people who are being indoctrinated into race hatred, and it’s very bad, man. This country is in deep and serious problems. I don’t know if it is going to continue as one country. The two coasts are just not on the same plane as Texas. I’m sorry, but that’s just the way it is.”

FACING MORTALITY FOCUSES THE MIND The Byrds in ’65: (l-r) David Crosby, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Roger McGuinn.

in a Texas prison. There’s no way around it, it nearly killed me, destroyed my career, fucked me up bad.”

DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE “The Trump presidency left a legacy of smouldering unrest, and I’m not even sure we’re going to have a country for much longer because there are so many groups in the United States that don’t even understand what a democracy is. And there’s a ton of people in the United States who don’t understand global warming and are being fed bullshit. One thing I do know is that global warming is a real thing, that the United States is a key offender, and that we can’t deal with it until we get this country behaving like a grown-up, and right now it’s a struggle.”

“Close encounters with death do have a tendency to focus your attention.

They get you paying attention to what’s actually going on. In my case, I came very close [suffering with hepatitis-C, Crosby underwent a liver transplant in 1994]. They told me I was a week away from dying when they transplanted me. After such an experience you treasure this life, you try to live more in the moment you’re in and treasure it, taste it fully, chew every bite, read every word, listen to every heartfelt note, really pay attention, don’t let it slip by, because you can’t get it back and there isn’t anywhere near as much as you think there is going to be.

“I’m not wasting any time. I’ve probably worked just as hard in the last five years as I have at any other time in my life. I’m not getting paid for it, so I’m doing it for the right reasons. What can I tell you? I wish the streamers had a conscience, but they don’t, they’re thieves.

But I’m enjoying the art of it. And it’s what we leave behind, and I’m about to leave, so I’m really working on leaving behind my best.”

“Close encounters with death do have a tendency to focus your attention.”

TIME FLIES

RACISM EQUALS STUPIDITY

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LIFE’S MOST VALUABLE LESSON? “Love works.”

David Crosby’s For Free is out now via BMG.

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“The murder of George Floyd and the consequent need for the Black Lives Matter movement shows we haven’t come very far since the desegregation of the sixties. You have a large proportion of the population who know that racism is dumb, but… Look, man, here’s how it works. The human race is like snowflakes, no two human beings are alike, so any group of human beings above, say, a thousand, has got representatives of all types of people. It’s got saints and sinners, it’s got angels and axe murderers, everybody. So there’s no ‘black people are bad’.

Black people are all different, just like white people are all different.

There are black people who are angels, there are black people who are murderers, just as there are Mexicans who are wonderful and there are Mexicans who are terrible. That’s how it works. Every ethnicity of human being is spread across all the groups. So racial prejudice is a fucking joke. It’s just stupid beyond belief. If you’re

“As the years go by, time does seem to move on faster. You’ll find that as you get older each year seems shorter and you seem to have less and less time. And I can tell you that from my vantage point of being almost eighty. When you reach this point in life you don’t know if you’ve got two weeks or ten years.

What you do know is that it’s not the amount of time that remains that’s significant, it’s what you do with that time. I’ve been trying to fill it with joyful stuff, to have fun as long as I can before something breaks and I can’t, and so I’m trying to make a contribution.

“I’ve always been trying to make Crosby and his band at Red a contribution and I’m still trying Rocks amphitheatre, Colorado, to do it. The world is in a shitty USA, September 2019. shape, and music is a lifting force, man. It makes things better. So my job is to create more music, and that’s what I’ve been trying to do.”

With covid still taking lives, and the Manic Street Preachers having have undergone their fair share of emotional upheaval recently, it’s little wonder their new album has its melancholic side.

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“If I’m writing words that feel not up to standard, I can hear Richey’s voice, scribbling out a line like he used to.

It’s a tough one to live up to.”

Nicky Wire “We’re just going through a bit of a pop thing at the moment,” affirms drummer and percussionist Sean Moore. “We might go back to something a bit heavier afterwards, but I don’t know.

Even at the age of fifty-two or fifty-three, I wouldn’t want to be like Deep Purple, just keeping on going and going until there’s hardly anyone left.”

Given its ageless feel, it’s instructive to note that the sound of The Ultra Vivid Lament is rooted in a distinct stretch of time, one that harks back to the Manics’ youth.

“We weren’t listening to much modern stuff,” says Wire. “It was definitely musically framed between ABBA’s Waterloo, from 1974, and Echo & The Bunnymen’s Bring On The Dancing Horses in 1985. We were really trying to get that seventies/early-eighties production value, with a more modern sheen. Some people don’t associate us with that, even though most of the time we’ve been really commercial. I think there’s a grace to this album as well, trying to restrain ourselves, letting the melody shine through without forcing it. We sometimes overdo it, but this one is pretty measured. The louder you play it, the better it sounds.”

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argaret entered James Dean Bradfield’s life just before lockdown. Named after its previous owner, the hundredyear-old piano arrived on his doorstep one day and was quickly installed in the music room. “I’d inherited it from this lovely old lady in Llandaff in Cardiff,” explains the Manic Street Preachers frontman. “She was a hundred and three at that point and had left to go into a care home, so she bequeathed it to us. I suppose I started to feel slightly over-romantic about it, thinking, ‘This has come here for a reason’.”

Bradfield duly set about putting it to good use. Forgoing his usual practice of composing on guitar, he instead began sketching some new ideas on the piano. This in turn gave them a different flavour.

“James stretched himself, as great musicians do,” says Manics lyricist/bassist Nicky Wire. “A lot of the initial songs were done as demos on piano. We were like: ‘This is something different.’ And it did lead to a kind of musicality when it came to lyrics as well. The words became really easy to digest and had a real flow.”

The upshot was The Ultra Vivid Lament, the Manics’ fourteenth studio album.

It’s a record that doesn’t so much reinvent their sound as remind us that, beneath the din and roar, they’ve always been a classic pop band at heart. The album is warm, spacious and melodic, a bold and sophisticated work that nods to the past while pointing squarely into an undetermined future, made by three men negotiating the trials of middle age.

or all the talk of early influences, The Ultra Vivid Lament is also a product of our times. It’s certainly not a covid album, but the effects of the pandemic have inevitably informed its gestation. The sleeve depicts a lone figure on a deserted beach, standing in the wash of a glistening sea, a coastal idyll beckoning in the distance.

“Nick managed to escape at certain points to West Wales, which I think he’s probably more spiritually aligned to than people would guess,” says Bradfield. “And when he was down there he spent a lot of time on the beach. The album cover is one of his pictures, and it’s that sense of looking at something beautiful, but not being able to go any further. It’s the ultra-vivid lament; you might be thinking you’ve escaped what’s going on around you – lockdown, ostensibly – but you’ve still got to go straight back. You’re confronted by beauty, but you’re still not allowed to be a part of it.”

The Manics are only too aware that they were more fortunate than most during the pandemic. The luxury of having their own studio, Door To The River, in Newport (used for the first time on their previous album, 2018’s Resistance Is Futile) meant that they could record as and when they liked while still maintaining a social bubble. The gear was fully prepped too, including a vintage desk from Rockfield Studios in Monmouth, where many a great album was made. Then it was off to Rockfield itself, a regular haunt over the decades, to bunker down in earnest.

“Going there was the icing on the cake,” recalls Wire. “There’s something about it that brings out the best in us. Rockfield is such a special place, it is like the Abbey Road of residential studios. There’s so much history. It actually snowed while we were there and it felt kind of magical. In some really dark times it just lifted our spirits.”

Wire isn’t being overly dramatic here. Pandemic or not, the band have undergone their fair share of emotional upheaval since Resistance Is Futile.

“Nick’s had a difficult time with the passing of both his parents in a relatively quick period,” explains Moore. “So it’s been tough for him, coming to terms with that. James hasn’t been feeling too well either, he’s been going through the wringer a little bit himself. He’s got younger children, too, so he’s had a lot of scares in terms of having to isolate and all that. And I went through a divorce in the January before lockdown, having been married for seventeen or eighteen years. So all of those things happened together in a short space of time, then before we know it we’re into covid and lockdown. It’s been a strange two years, to be honest.” ³ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 59

striking illustration is the lucid Still Snowing In Sapporo, its title referencing the band’s visit to Japan in October 1993. The tour is partly documented on last year’s Pieces Of Sleep, put together by longtime ally Kieran Evans using raw footage from Wire’s archive, but Still Snowing In Sapporo feels more directly personal.

It’s a song that works on a number of levels. It’s Bradfield worked on the piano (right) on many of the songs for to do with youthful optimism and the new album, rather than guitar. being in a band, but it’s also about Rising in the East: (l-r) friendship and identity and James Dean Bradfield, Nicky Wire, Richey Edwards, Sean Given the context, it’s easy to togetherness. And loss, of course, 1993.

Tokyo, , Moore imagine the Manics finding some given that songwriter-guitarist degree of solace, of even refuge, Richey Edwards was such an in the sounds they grew up with. integral part of the Manics back The new album is littered with then. ‘How could four become so musical references, some veiled strong, yet break and leave too soon,’ and some less so, from ABBA, Bradfield sings, alluding to ELO, Roxy Music and Lodger-era Edwards’s sudden disappearance Bowie to the Go-Betweens, 16 months later. The song reaches R.E.M., The Clash and turn-ofits most poignant moment with: the-80s Genesis.

‘It couldn’t last without the hurt.’

A prime example is Complicated “My memory of the past is so Illusions, a lustrously elegant piece crystal clear,” Wire reflects. “That that sounds like something from trip to Sapporo was so Roxy’s Avalon, albeit viewed spectacular, whether it was the through a post-millennial prism. hairspray me and Richey used or “Writing a lot of the songs on the clothes we were wearing or piano made me fall back in love with simple chords,” Bradfield says. “The the eyeliner. Sapporo’s up in the North Island, which is really cold, and we’d piano makes them all beautiful. And I didn’t really know that until I started come from Tokyo, which was hot and humid. There was a blizzard – we flew learning it properly. So it opened up a space in the songs. It’s the least amount through a snowstorm. And the gig itself was brilliant. I was thinking about the of power chords I’ve ever played on any record, which meant that I could start amazing strength we had then, and really not giving a shit what anybody weaving in and out with guitar, a bit like Carlos Alomar used to do on Bowie’s thought. Here’s these four people from Blackwood, and all of a sudden our stuff, or Phil Manzanera did in early-eighties Roxy Music. Phil Manzanera plans were coming together. And that only comes through a deep love of became my touchstone, because I love the way he’s so ego-less when he plays. what we were doing. But that intensity does sometimes have its dark side, shall “Perhaps you aggrandise it, or perhaps you make it up in your head,” he we say. People were shocked by what happened – journalists, and certainly continues, “but everything started feeling like a kind of shiny, empty, hollow, other bands. They just didn’t want to touch us.” gilded cage. Which is what lockdown was for Edwards’s loss is still keenly felt, and, in a lot of the middle classes – me included. You terms of creativity at least, seems to act as feel ashamed of feeling so desperately lonely, some kind of spur. “It’s certainly always on you feel ashamed of feeling so existential and your shoulder,” offers Wire. “As a good fearful, but you’re in this gilded cage of your touchstone and obviously as someone who sat house and your family and possessions. And down and wrote lyrics with Richey. All those those [Roxy] songs – Oh Yeah, More Than This special things definitely never leave you.

– definitely impacted on me, that kind of shiny Sometimes if I’m writing words that feel not hollowness, which I think Bryan Ferry was up to standard, I can hear his voice, sort of a bit obsessed with.” scribbling out a line like he used to. It’s a tough Sean Moore one to live up to. But there’s no greater joy than rom a lyrical standpoint, the songs on The Ultra Vivid Lament touch on being sat with someone you know, writing Motorcycle Emptiness lyrics together. a wealth of human experience and emotion. Grief resides in the soft That can never be taken away.” velvet grooves of Diapause; powerlessness and entrapment shadow n true Manics tradition, The Ultra Vivid Lament also includes a couple of Blank Diary Entry and Afterending; Happy Bored Alone – one of the great Manics guest appearances. The Secret He Had Missed, a twin narrative centred on song titles – extols the simple pleasures of solitude; Orwellian takes a stand celebrated Welsh siblings and painters Augustus and Gwen John, features against double-speak and self-serving narcissists. But hope and resilience Julia Cumming from New York rockers Sunflower Bean. It’s a wondrous duet, flood Don’t Let The Night Divide Us, which draws a line through the cultural one to file alongside previous highs like Your Love Alone Is Not Enough and Little and political divide: ‘Don’t let those boys from Eton suggest that we are beaten.’

Baby Nothing.

There are also meditative hymns to time, place and memory. The most

“I wouldn’t want to be like Deep Purple, just keeping on going and going until there’s hardly anyone left.”

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MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Preaching to the converted: Bradfield and Wire at Brixton Academy, London, April 2014.

“I’m a massive fan of Julia’s,” Wire enthuses. “So we asked her to go for the and a 20th-anniversary reissue of the Manics’ Know Your Enemy album. As the full Scandinavian noir, glacial pop control, which she got straight away. The band’s archivist, the latter is very much Wire’s domain. “I’ve found three tracks song started off with thinking about how siblings can be so close and yet so that have never been released – Rosebud, Studies In Paralysis, which is a bit grim, different. I know just from me and my own brother [poet and playwright and James’s version of Let Robeson Sing that bears no relation to the official one.

Patrick Jones]. Believe it or not, he’s the mad one. But we get on really well It’s just him on a really primitive synth in his house. I have to admit the reissue and we’re united by loads of the same things.” is winning at the moment.”

The album’s other stray voice is that of Mark Lanegan, whose sunken tones There’s also the pressing matter of the Manics returning to the road later are ideally suited to the toxic depths of Blank Diary Entry. It wasn’t intended as this year, following the enforced break. “Come the tour in September/October, a song for someone else, but after Bradfield had completed the music and it will have been close to two years since we last played,” Moore points out. begun singing the low parts, he was reminded of Lanegan’s One Way Street.

“That’s the longest stretch we’ve ever had of not playing live, so we are quite “I first met Mark with Screaming Trees on apprehensive about it.” the Oasis tour of the States [1996],” Bradfield Bradfield is refreshingly honest when it recalls. “I’d liked Screaming Trees – there was comes to the prospect of getting back out something ill at ease with itself about them and there. “The band was founded on Richey and that’s why they were good sometimes, because Nick’s brains, to a certain degree, but we love you could sense this tension. The second time matching that up with pure physicality as well,” we met was at a Nico retrospective that John he says. “There’s a massive sporting element to Cale was curating at the Festival Hall [2008]. when we play live. And when you haven’t We shared a dressing room, and there was this played a gig for nearly two years you start to Danny DeVito/Arnold Schwarzenegger in realise that your body misses it. But covid is Twins vibe, because I’m nearly five-foot-six and beyond science fiction now, it’s hollowed James Dean Bradfield he’s nearly six-three. We just started talking everything out. I’ve never had this feeling about music and it was fucking great. We spent before when we’ve put an album out. I don’t about half an hour talking about Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who he knew very well, know what it means to me and I don’t know what it means to other people. then we got on to John Cale stuff. We found we had such different “This thing has accelerated that sense of uncertainty, that sense of mortality,” backgrounds, but similar tastes in music. So when I called and asked him to Bradfield continues. “So going back on the road is not as simple as me just do Blank Diary Entry, it was one of those lovely moments where I just heard his going: ‘Yeah, I’m fuckin’ up for it!’ Because I’m a bit fearful, if truth be told. I’m voice in my head. He came straight back and did it within two days. He didn’t fifty-two now. Can we still summon up that old brute force that we can bring ask for any money or anything. In fact we’re still trying to pay him!” to a gig? And, let’s face it, a good gig is based on the crowd being very up for it and a complete disregard for other people’s personal space. But I don’t know if he new album aside, the Manics have other business afoot. Wire that mind-set still exists. This band has always had a predilection to over-think reveals that he’s recorded a solo album, but “I don’t know what the everything, and this isn’t going to be the exception.” fuck to do with it. I’ve found a way to make my voice sound a little The Ultra Vivid Lament is out on September 3 via Columbia/Sony. better, just thinner and sweeter.” His attention is currently split between that

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“A good gig is based on the crowd being up for it and a complete disregard for personal space. I don’t know if that mind-set still exists.”

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After more than 40 years with Judas Priest, guitarist KK Downing is loving life with his own band, but he still harbours grudges about his departure, and is still disappointed that he wasn’t asked back.

Words: Dave Ling

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co-founder of the second Did you seriously consider yourself retired configuration of Judas Priest, when you quit Priest in 2011? from 1970 onwards KK Downing No, not at all. was with the Midlands-based band for 41 years, making 17 There was always a chance you’d return? albums with them that wrote the template for Absolutely. By 2010 things reached a boiling point heavy metal as we know it. However, behind the and I had a bit of a breakdown, I think. I just scenes tension brewed within the creative nucleus couldn’t do it any more. Too many elements were of Downing, guitarist Glenn Tipton and lead singer Rob Halford, and the latter opted to leave following a world tour supporting their 1990 album Painkiller.

To replace Halford, Downing, Tipton, bassist Ian Hill and drummer Scott Travis brought in Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens, the American frontman no longer right. Rob had done two studio albums with Judas Priest tribute act British Steel. Despite within about a year, and done a tour with his own re-establishing Priest as a live act, the band’s two band playing Priest songs. We did the Ozzfest and albums with Owens – Jugulator and Demolition went to Peru, and that wasn’t very good. Then they – flopped, and in 2003 Priest bowed to fan asked me to do a five-track EP to support the pressure and reunited with Halford. farewell tour, which we had all agreed would be Downing’s explosive memoir Heavy Duty: Days the end of the band, and I said no. I told them fuck And Nights In Judas Priest later lifted the lid on it all, basically, and I sent my so-called retirement tensions that had festered within the band and their backroom team, and in 2010 he announced his retirement from the group.

In 2019 a pre-planned Special Guest spot with former Manowar guitarist Ross The Boss at the Bloodstock Festival served as the catalyst to the launch his band KK’s Priest, with a line-up that was intended to include two of his former Priest bandmates: Owens and drummer Les Binks. Later in 2019 the trio, augmented by Megadeth bassist David Ellefson and Hostile guitarist AJ Mills, Defenders of the faith: played a set of Priest songs at the KK Downing, Rob Halford Steel Mill, the Wolverhampton and Glenn Tipton with Judas Priest in 1979. venue owned by Downing.

letter. I tried to keep things amicable, but I was relying on those guys to make sure I received what I was entitled to [financially].

And then, three months later, I started to change my mind. I spoke to Ian [Hill] about doing the tour and asked to see the set-list, which I really liked. I had expected Glenn [Tipton] to have his own way, but it was a great set-list. The next morning they released the press release [saying he was retiring]. That was deflating.

So I sat in the wings, expecting an opportunity [to rejoin]. Then when Glenn retired [due to contracting Parkinson’s disease, in 2018 Tipton ceased touring] I totally thought they’d call me. When they didn’t I was despondent, completely gutted. Since then I’ve written a couple of times, but come to the conclusion the door is closed. So I’ve moved on.

“When Glenn [Tipton] retired I totally thought they [Priest] would call me.

When they didn’t I was despondent.”

You were unhappy with the way your side of the story was presented?

That’s why the second letter said: “Ignore everything – these are the real reasons.” I told them I was planning to sell the golf course, but they didn’t reveal that. It suited them to tell the world I had retired.

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When the golf course you owned went into administration, you sold your royalties to 136 Judas Priest songs.

Lots of things happen in life. I’d had the golf course five years before I quit the band. It was managed by a professional company. It’s just what the guys were telling the world – that’d I’d retired. I submitted my retirement letter in December 2010, and they put out the press release.

I had to carry that cross with the fans who thought I was neglecting them for rubbish reasons.

You’ve still got the music venue in Wolverhampton, KK’s Steel Mill.

I’m so proud of that. Cheap Trick are coming up.

So is Michael Schenker. It’s even bigger now, the new capacity is three and a half thousand.

What happened to former Judas Priest drummer Les Binks, who is no longer part of KK’s Priest?

I sent the demos, and when Les didn’t get straight back to me I thought something was afoot. He had a wrist injury – and this stuff is very demanding to play. So, graciously, he backed out and we got Sean [Elg], who had played in Ripper’s band [the Three Tremors]. He can play Painkiller fantastically, but with Les it just wasn’t to be.

Les Binks would like to make guest appearances on tour. Are you open to that?

That was my suggestion, actually. This is KK’s Priest, and we’re all of an age now where we need to enjoy everything.

There has been speculation that now bassist David Ellefson is no longer with Megadeth he might join KK’s Priest.

No. Because we’ve been together for a year and a half and Tony [Newton, of Voodoo Six] has done such a great job, not only as a band member but also handling the production and engineering.

He also gets involved in the videos. He’s a great all-rounder.

Did you consider any singers other than Ripper Owens?

No, no. I was really hopeful that Ripper would want the gig. I don’t know what we’d have done had he said no.

With him having been ‘let go’ to bring Rob Halford back, was it a difficult conversation?

No. We had remained in touch. What happened [to end his spell with Priest] was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. He’s such a great vocalist, and fans know that there’s usually one voice associated with one band: Klaus [Meine] is the voice of Scorpions, just as Bruce [Dickinson] is the voice of Maiden, and Dave [Lee Roth] will always be the voice of Van Halen because I saw them with him first. That [association] is what happened with Priest. We did a couple of albums with Ripper, and maybe if we had written a different type of material things might not have turned out the way they did.

WILL IRELAND

KK’s Priest’s debut album, Sermons Of The Sinner, is a screaming dizbuster of a heavy metal album, no apologies offered nor required. It’s almost a caricature of the genre.

That’s what comes out of me. And what I liked about making it is that there was no need to confer with other people.

You’re the sole writer of it.

Completely, yeah. If the ideas hadn’t come I’d have looked bloody stupid, but I’m extremely happy with it, though going forward from here everyone will be getting stuck in. ³

KK DOWNING Downing with Judas Priest at a charity show at London’s Royal Albert Hall in 2006.

I understood that, because after he left Rob said a few things about the band – a lot more than I ever did. Given a choice, I think Rob would have had me back in the band. We had fought so many battles together and travelled so many miles.

Did you ever really forgive Halford for leaving Priest? Around the time of Demolition, you told me: “Everybody in this band categorically believes that Rob Halford should never sing with us again [because] he doesn’t deserve it.”

Well, it all got proper ugly – Rob’s first album [with Fight] was called War Of Words. It was an ugly affair. Look, artists have difficult temperaments. There’s good, bad and ugly within us all and we get fired up about things. How many times have you broken up with a girlfriend and said never again, and a year later she’s back?

Shit happens in life. Rob is a great performer, everybody knows that. But he’s sensitive. I can’t guarantee to say all of the right things in an interview, because everybody’s human.

What does Sermons Of The Sinner have that the Jugulator and Demolition albums didn’t?

It has elements of classic Judas Priest. When we brought in Ripper, the writing took a different turn.

Those albums were different to anything before or after. Sermons is me going back to what Judas Priest does best.

Return Of The Sentinel is a nineminute sequel to the track from Priest’s 1984 album Defenders Of The Faith.

Like I say, I can’t change who I am. I mean that musically, emotionally or as a person. I’m devoted to Judas Priest. I was never the guy that went away and played with other bands or had my own website and sold my own T-shirt. This album presents a statement: This is KK Downing. I won’t be around forever, and I want younger bands to hear it and think: “This is great.” Wouldn’t it be great if we had a young version of Deep Purple or the Scorpions? Are Greta Van Fleet another Led Zeppelin? The answer is probably yes.

The album’s press release claims that KK’s Priest are inspired by those we have lost – people like Lemmy and Ronnie James Dio – and says fans should savour the music while we are all on the right side of the turf.

That’s it exactly. Enjoy and appreciate it all. It [this genre] is coming to an end unless we can get some new blood. Otherwise it just becomes a page in a history book.

One of the main reasons people like you is that you say what’s on your mind. For example, in your Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens performing own autobiography you at Download Festival, 2009. revealed that you told Tipton and Priest manager Jayne Andrews that you had “hated” them both “since 1985”. When I read the book, I had to read that paragraph again.

[Laughs darkly] Like I said, I had been on the phone to Ian about doing the farewell tour and [after he was snubbed by the band] I was angry. Glenn had formed a relationship with Jayne from day one, and it felt a bit like a John and Yoko situation.

I didn’t like that. album I wanted to try every element that could work. I am metal through and through and the You have already spoken of your fans are metal through and through. When we astonishment that Priest didn’t ask you to play live we can rejoice in the fact that we’re all rejoin when Tipton opted to stop touring. metal through and through, unashamedly.

Given those comments in the book, were you really surprised?

Obviously, Judas Priest still exists. Some [After some moments of silence] Yes, I was. Isn’t detractors have labelled KK’s Priest as everyone allowed a moment when they throw a tribute band. their toys out of the pram? Back then my head was As a twenty-five-per-cent director of the Judas all over the place, and I really considered it the Priest company, and a shareholder, why wouldn’t logical move.

Finally, how much of this is about revenge?

No. That’s completely the wrong word.

Now I know that I can do this without Glenn, Rob, or Ian, it’s an absolute pleasure and a treat. I wasn’t sure about doing the book. The fans know me, but only as part of a team. And I am a team player. But one of the reasons for doing the book and making this album is that I wanted the fans to get to know me, as me. That’s what KK’s Priest is about.

I would say three things to the fans: enjoy it, let me know what you think, and let’s rock out.

“Given a choice, I think Rob would have had me back in the band.”

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Rob Halford’s autobiography, Confess, is a great read, but he handled your Priest exit in a lightweight manner.

When all is said and done, Rob knows I was the guy that brought him back into Priest [in 2003].

Glenn [Tipton] wasn’t happy about it, and

Sermons Of The Sinner is released on August 20 via Explorer1 Music Group.

MAIN: GETTY; RIPPER: KEVIN NIXON

Amid the maelstrom on the album, Metal Through And Through is an epic, eight-minute ballad – with keyboards.

Yeah, there are keys in the melodic part. With this

they allow me to come back out of retirement?

I believe that I, justifiably, have an entitlement [to continue the name].

“The Stranglers isn’t really about personalities any more.

It’s just about a certain musical imprint that has been around for quite a while now.”

JJ Burnel

Forty-four years on from their first hit and almost 10 since their last album, The Stranglers have weathered storms and return with a new record dedicated to their late keyboard player.

Words: Johnny Sharp

T

here have been times recently when it’s seemed as if the whole world of music had gone into slow motion – if not suspended animation. Shows and festivals cancelled en masse, albums and tours postponed and then postponed again… But the gestation of The Stranglers’ new album, Dark Matters, has made those timelines look like mere blips by comparison. If we point out that opening track Water was written as

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a contemporary response to the 2011 Arab Spring (when anti-government protests and uprisings took place in much of the Arab world) that gives you an idea of when the songs began to take shape.

Some other ideas have even earlier origins. “We’ve got a hard and fast rule,” frontman Baz Warne says, “whereby nothing ever gets thrown away.”

Hence ideas that first emerged even before The Stranglers’ last studio album, 2012’s Giants, have slowly been firmed up into a spiky, eclectic set

that shows how the grouchy rumble of the classic Stranglers sound has long-since diversified.

Maybe that was inevitable, given that two cornerstones of that sound are now no longer in place. The elder statesman of the group, drummer Jet Black took a dignified bow out of the band as an active member in 2015, and the declining health of the now 82-year-old prevents him from having an active working role in the band. He’s still part of the set-up “in a consultancy role”, to

COLIN HAWKINS/PRESS

use Warne’s words, but his robust playing is absent from Dark Matters, the band’s eighteenth and latest studio album. Thankfully, keyboard player Dave Greenfield did contribute, putting his distinctive sound on eight of the album’s 11 tracks.

Then the band were dealt another, more heartbreaking blow when Greenfield passed away in April 2020, after he caught covid-19 while in hospital with heart problems. With the band’s Final Full UK Tour already postponed due to the pandemic, the question inevitably arose: is this the end for The Stranglers?

When Classic Rock talks to bassist and founder member Jean-Jacques Burnel in southern France,

where he now lives, he pauses for thought before addressing this understandably emotional subject.

“Well it was the same as when Hugh [Cornwell, guitarist/singer] left the band over thirty years ago,” says Burnel, his gentle Home Counties tones reflecting the fact that while he has French parentage he was born and bred in London and Surrey. “I thought: ‘Well, that’s it,’ you know? The others talked me into keeping it going. But then you can’t replace a guy like Dave. I mean, there are people who play just as well as Dave, because he’s got disciples. But my first thought was: ‘Well, okay, let’s finish what we started [the album] and that’s it, really.’

“But I spoke to various people, and we had all these shows on sale, and they were still selling.

I’m thinking: ‘What the fuck? Don’t they know that Dave has gone?’ And they do know that Dave is gone. I said to our agent: ‘So what the fuck is this all about?’ He said: ‘I think they want to hear the music.’

“The Stranglers isn’t really about personalities any more, I don’t think. It’s just about a certain musical imprint that has been around for quite a while now.”

Nonetheless, there’s no doubt as to which Stranglers personality their recent single was about. And If You Should See Dave… is one ³ CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 67

THE STRANGLERS

And then there were three… Jim Macaulay, JJ Burnel and Baz Warne.

“When Hugh [Cornwell] left the band over thirty years ago, I thought: ‘Well, that’s it.’ The others talked me into keeping it going.”

JJ Burnel

A

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TOP: COLIN HAWKINS/PRESS; BOTTOM: GETTY

of several songs on the new album to touch on latter being the scene of their last US performance issues of ageing, relationships and mortality. But, with Greenfield. unsurprisingly, given the context, it’s the most “I honestly think he would have loved the song,” moving. It’s a faintly ghostly meditation, built Warne says of Greenfield. “Because he loved that around shards of sun-dappled surf guitar, West Coast American sound, which is kind of the chiming bells and Burnel’s whispering vocal, vibe it has. His wife also loved it. When we saw the which admits the powerful feelings that so many video it was lump-in-the-throat time.” of us experience when we lose someone close: nd so the surviving Stranglers consists ‘How does it feel to be left in mid-conversation, no less / of Burnel, the sole remaining founder And things that should have been said, now left as member, and Warne, the guitarist who eternal regrets?’ And yet at the same time there are took over as vocalist in 2006 but who has been touches of affectionate humour there as he sings: with the band since 2000, along with drummer ‘No one told him I was waiting with a glass at the bar… see you at the bar?’ Towards the end he then admits: ‘It would be nice to say hello, this is where your solo would go.’ Hence the “conscious decision” not to have keyboards on the track (which topped the iTunes download chart briefly in May).

The video for And If You Should See Dave… pays further visual tribute to the song’s subject: a girl, with a keyboard propped in the back seat of her car, roams around Los Angeles, crossing paths with such curiosities as a rat (norvegicus, we presume) crawling across the pavement, and signs referring to ‘The Men In Black’, passing venues such as the Whisky A Go Go and the Regent The Stranglers 1977: (l-r) Hugh Theatre, where The Stranglers Cornwell, Jet Black, Jean-Jacques Burnel, Dave Greenfield. played several notable shows, the

Jim Macaulay, who co-wrote several songs on the new album.

Anyone concerned that Burnel’s days as a thrusting bass monster might also be numbered can at least be reassured by the fact that he’s a famously fit individual, who as well as being a keen motorbike fan teaches karate, and achieved his Seventh Dan in Japan six years ago.

“This vehicle I inhabit, it’s taken me round the block a few times,” he says. “So I have to keep it serviced much more often than it used to. And I mustn’t abuse it as much as I used to! But I’m pretty fit for a bloke my age, yeah. I can do fifty to seventy push-ups at one go, I’ll do a few hundred crunches on a daily basis. And I’ll try and lift my motorcycle up if it drops.”

Even people in peak condition aren’t immune to the coronavirus, though. Back in May, when trying to meet up with his bandmates for the first time in 16 months, while en route to Calais Burnel was told that his PCR covid test had come back positive. He had to return home. Given that Burnel is 69, well inside the generations that are more at risk from the virus, he was perhaps fortunate not to suffer any symptoms, and talks of the episode with a faint air of puzzlement.

“I had no symptoms, but then you think, shit, maybe I’ve still been spreading it about. But then everyone I had been in contact with in the week before, they all had to test and they were all negative. So maybe mine was a false positive?”

He finally made it across the Channel to the UK in June, and plans to be involved in promotional activities for the album here this summer, as well as touring with the band from January.

These days, of course, The Stranglers have reached a stage of their career where they don’t need to prove a great deal, but there’s a broad range of songs on Dark Matters that manage to retain trademark elements of their sound, not least Greenfield’s keyboard runs on songs such as Water, with its pounding tribute to the Arab Spring protesters, and Payday, which echoes the band’s 1977 hit No More Heroes in its gutsy combination of Burnel’s inimitable bass churn, freewheeling organ and Warne’s malevolent vocal attack. Elsewhere, the beautifully poignant Lines has just an acoustic guitar accompanying Burnel tracing his own ageing process as he whispers: ‘There’s triumph and disgrace in the lines on my face’, while the piano lament Down is laced by Warne’s Spanish guitar.

While there are mellow moments on the record, though, they’re offset by its fair share of gnarly rage. The staccato jerkpunk of No-Man’s Land, for example, takes dead-eyed aim at a selfie-obsessed culture, sneering: ‘Stop thinking of yourselves for a minute,’ (in a lyric written by drummer Macaulay), and Payday accuses society of becoming ‘bisted and Twitter’.

Burnel endorses these sentiments. “It’s slightly pointed towards people who seem to want to believe any conspiracy theory going,” he says. “And a lot of that is

Pre-lockdown Stranglers Dave Greenfield, Baz Warne, Jim Macaulay, JJ Burnel.

The last original Strangler: Jean-Jacques Burnel in 2019.

MAIN: DEREK D’SOUZA/PRESS; TOP INSET: DAVID BONI/PRESS; DAVE GREENFIELD INSET: KEVIN NIXON

Dave Greenfield played on several tracks on the new album before he passed away in April 2020.

spread by social media. Such as refusing to be vaccinated because you believe the government is trying to plant a chip in you or something. It’s quite a selfish thing. We’ve become so selfimportant that we have to share the minutiae of our lives with the fucking world. Why? I’m not on any of these [social media channels]. I’ve had too many years of being criticised, and it’s just toxic.

And I think we’ve collectively created a monster.

I don’t see too many positives in it.

You can call me an old c**t to my face, and I really don’t care, but I find it’s a distraction from real life.”

These sorts of lyrics reflect a band who, while having voiced some pretty boorish sentiments, have always been unafraid to experiment and to make social comment.

“I think the British press, especially music press, always really wanted the rockers to be either rock and roll animals, or arty and intelligent,” says Burnel. “But you can never combine the two. But I always thought we did.”

Although Jet Black is still an honorary band member, Macaulay has been drumming with the band for nine years, while Baz Warne has been a Strangler for 21, first as guitarist, now as singer – a considerably longer tenure than original Stranglers frontman Hugh Cornwell. But that doesn’t stop some people from considering that anything but the classic line-up is an inferior facsimile. Including Cornwell, who in 2018 said

that since he left the band in 1990 their songs “have been sequestered by a bogus version of the group with only two original members”.

Burnel laughs when he is reminded of this.

“We’re more successful than ever now, and he isn’t, so I think it’s a bit of sour grapes on his part.

I mean, after all, it’s a bit hypocritical for a bloke who, if he does two sets, will play one set of Stranglers stuff.

almost every year for so long, and although it’s enjoyable it really does tire you out.”

“It was all publicised and all arranged before Dave passed away,” says Warne. “And once the dust settled and we were even able to speak about it – because we didn’t want to talk about it for months, you know – we decided, well, we should honour the dates. And once we announced we would do that, the response, the love and respect we received, was quite overwhelming.

I do recall sitting with moist eyes, reading some of the things people had said: ‘You’ve got to do it.’ ‘You must do it.’”

As for what comes next, Burnel isn’t looking too far ahead.

“I’ve always said we think of every album as if it’s our last,” he says. “So you invest yourselves entirely in it.

If we started thinking about the next thing, we wouldn’t give ourselves a hundred per cent to this. But I’m writing. I don’t have creative diarrhoea, but I do write regularly.”

One thing in no doubt, though, is that The Stranglers’ next live show is going to be an emotional occasion. “When these shows do happen, they’re going to be highly charged,” Warne says. “I can’t even begin to tell you how it’ll feel. And then after that, who knows?”

I’m not on any [social media channels].

I’ve had too many years of being criticised, and it’s just toxic.”

JJ Burnel “I think he’s quite bitter,” Burnel continues.

“We did this movie, for instance, a few years ago, and he won’t give permission for it to be released.

That’s a shame, because the only person slagged off in it is me – by Hugh!”

The current Stranglers line-up has sounded pretty formidable in recent years, and Baz Warne for one, insists that this is now a band “champing at the bit” to get back out and play, and he hints strongly that The Final Full Tour won’t mean the end of The Stranglers as a live act.

“We didn’t want to do another twenty-, thirtydate tour of the UK,” says Burnel. “We’ve done it

Dark Matters is released on September 10 via Coursegood.

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KEVIN BURNSTEIN & DIANA KING/PRESS

A

s we step, blinking, out of our homes and into a strange new world (as we went to press the vast majority of covid-related restrictions were set to be lifted), it’s all bound to feel a bit… well, weird sometimes. Maybe it’ll be euphoric for some, but stressful for others. Chances are a lot of us will hover somewhere in between.

Whatever your hopes and fears for the coming weeks, it’s always good to have a soundtrack that rocks – and rocks hard – up your sleeve. The sort of eclectic spread you can turn to for party vibes (check out The Hot Damn!, 45ACIDBABIES or The Record Company), BBQ choonage to make you feel like you’re at a cookout in Texas (how about the new Christopher Shayne single?), or just a big ol’ dose of catharsis when you need a good cry (try Gorilla Riot’s stunning new ballad).

Check out more of the best new music every week at Classic Rock’s Tracks Of The Week (and vote for your favourite) at classicrockmagazine.com

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Samantha Fish Twisted Ambition Twisted Ambition is slinky and funky and features a chorus that will work its way into your skull like a trepanning drill. Throw into the mix a video in which Samantha smashes up some breeze blocks with a sledgehammer, and we’re sure you’ll agree there’s much here to love.

“It’s about flipping the power structure, the power dynamic, in your life,” says Fish. “The world or a personal figure might be putting you down. It’s about taking control and owning your life and owning the situation.” samanthafish.com

The Record Company How High

45ACIDBABIES: RICHARD BEUKELAAR/PRESS; THE RECORD COMPANY: TRAVIS SHINN/PRESS; CHRISTOPHER SHAYNE: DANIEL MILLER/PRESS

If you thought The Record Company were all about John Lee Hooker riffs and old-school R&B, then think again. This blistering first taste of their new album – titled, appropriately enough, Play It Loud – is accompanied on YouTube by an MTV-style pool party video, shot at some whacking great house up in the green hills of Topanga Canyon.

It’s precisely the antidote we all needed to combat them covid blues.

Kinda like The Black Keys’ Gold On The Ceiling but with extra layers of 90s bling and California sunshine.

It’s a bright, zingy change of gear for them, which paves the way for what’s to come with Play It Loud. therecordcompany.net

45ACIDBABIES

Christopher Shayne

Only Class6 From Now On

NiceRide

The all-caps band name and song title might scream ‘hipster indie kids’ more so than ‘proper rock’ (whatever that really means), but don’t be fooled.

This jutting, garage-primed glitter-bomb of pop-rock from the Netherlands is catchier than herpes and sweeter than candyfloss. If Pond and Royal Republic teamed up with Alison Mosshart on vocals, this is the sort of vibe you’d expect.

45acidbabies.com

Here in the UK, no one ever knows what the hell the weather’s going to do.

Over in Christopher Shayne’s little piece of Arizona, however, it’s apparently always sunny. Which means we get singalong, Skynyrd-fried ditties like this to warm our cold, cold hearts. Like your favourite cuppa, chocolate bar or Friday-night takeaway, NiceRide doesn’t rewrite any rule books but it makes the world feel like a far safer place, if only for a moment. facebook.com/christophershaynemusic CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 71

Mother Vulture The Wave It seems fitting that Mother Vulture’s new single was produced by a man called Josh Gallop. The Wave, it must be said, is all about the galloping, which snowballs into ferocious strides of beefcake hard rock. That in turn escalates into feral hardcore screams for a deliciously fierce, slightly surprising final impact. It all serves to create the impression of a band that could be Wolfmother’s slightly mad, metalhead little brother. mothervulture.uk

The Wildhearts Sort Your Fucking Shit Out

Ginger, CJ, Danny and Ritchie set the bar very high with Renaissance Men (their first album in a decade at that point, and Classic Rock’s No.1 album of 2019), so we’re delighted to report that they’ve sustained the momentum with this firedup first taste of new record 21st Century Love Songs – out in September.

“We all have habits or irritating behavioural patterns that we know we ought to quit,” Ginger says of the song’s subject matter. “Whether it’s smoking, drinking/eating too much or simply having a shit temper, at some point we point the finger at ourselves. This song is about that moment – giving yourself a bollocking.”

We can all relate to that, can’t we? thewildhearts.com 72 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

This Or That?

The Hot Damn! singer/guitarist Gill Montgomery takes on the most intimidating quiz known to man.

Beatles or Stones?

The Stones. I think they just have the cool edge.

AC/DC or Zeppelin?

Led Zeppelin. III is my favourite.

Vinyl or streaming?

Vinyl, all the way.

Hendrix or Page?

Page, even though it was Jimi that got me into rock in the first place.

Stevie Nicks or Joan Jett?

These are hard! I’m gonna go with Joan, she’s got the punk edge.

Seventies or eighties music?

Seventies.

Van Halen or Guns N’ Roses?

Van Halen. I love Diver Down, but I love Panama too.

Heart or Pat Benatar?

Ooh… Pat Benatar.

Stadium or sweaty club?

Sweaty club. It’s more intimate.

Cigarettes or alcohol?

Alcohol.

Fine wine or cold beer?

Beer. Yeah, I’m not that classy!

Piercings or tattoos?

Tattoos. I have a back piece, a set of wings, like the Zeppelin Swan Song logo.

Cardio or weights?

I just got into weights, actually.

I joined a gym a couple of weeks ago and I’m big on that.

The Hot Damn! Dance Around You may recognise frontwoman Gill from the Amorettes, and drummer Josie from Tequila Mockingbyrd. Those two newly assembled with guitarist Laurie Buchanan and bassist Lzi Hayes are shitkicking four-piece The Hot Damn!, and they’re on a mission to create that happiest of things: rock music you can dance to. This first single made us think of Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark mixed with the bright, riffy punch of Massive Wagons and glossy harmonies.

Catch them on tour with The Dust Coda later this year, and they have “at least an EP, hopefully an album” due in 2022. facebook.com/TheHotDamnUK

Book or movie?

Book. I got the new Nick Cave one Boy On Fire by Mark Mordue, it’s really good.

Prog or punk?

Punk. My punk hero? Patti Smith, but I’d have to say Kathleen Hanna from Bikini Kill as well.

Early bird or night owl?

Early bird. That’s not very cool, but I like to get stuff done! I’m usually up at five a.m. I know, it’s ridiculous.

Home cooking or takeaway?

I love both, but… home-cooking.

I make a mean piece of toast.

Schwarzenegger or Stallone?

Oh, Schwarzenegger. I end up quoting Arnie all the time. I love Total Recall, but Last Action Hero was pretty good – it’s so bizarre.

King Kong or Godzilla?

Godzilla. I have a little Godzilla statue with a top hat.

Gorilla Riot Drowned

Cats or dogs?

Dogs.

These Manchester rockers have been relatively quiet since covid took over our lives, but now they’re back with this gorgeous slice of Alice In Chains-meets-early Pearl Jam balladry – all heady, slightly discordant layers of vocal gravel and delicate acoustic guitars. “Drowned is a song about suicide and depression,” frontman Arjun says. “There are specific references to my own life and personal situations, but in general it’s a song that has no silver lining, and I felt that in order to be true and representative of my feelings, that’s how it needed to be.” gorillariotband.com

Vikings or ninjas?

Vikings. More beards. I do like a good beard.

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 73

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Ronnie Wood Feeling blue: Ronnie, band and guests pay tribute to Jimmy Reed, live.

Classic Rock Ratings QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ QQQQQQQQQQ

Ingredients:

A Classic Excellent Very Good Good Above Average Average Below Par A Disappointment Pants Pish

76 Albums p84 Reissues p90 DVDs & Books p92 Buyer’s Guide p

16 PAGES MARK SELIGER/PRESS

Edited By Ian Fortnam

100% ROCK ian.fortnam@futurenet.com

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S M U B AL

Robert Jon & The Wreck Shine A Light On Me Brother ROBERTJONANDTHEWRECK.COM

The Wildhearts 21st Century Love Songs GRAPHITE Revitalised genre agnostics take the kitchen sink and run with it.

G

inger Wildheart has suggested that he saw this follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Renaissance Men as an opportunity for his band to “flex our creative muscle”. That appears to be quite some understatement.

On the face of it, there are 10 21st Century Love Songs here. But within those tracks are roughly 121 hooks, 68 choruses, 27 gags, 40 swearwords, 99 riffs, 14 daft samples, and probably a partridge in a pear tree somewhere. That said, it’s probably been scared to death by the splenetic intensity of these songs, constructed via a turbo-charged supermarket sweep of styles: snatches of hardcore here, grunge there, a swipe or six from the power-pop aisle, a couple of lurches into thrash, and a crafty pocketing of some rockabilly while the checkout lady wasn’t looking. Even if its endlessly restless feel sometimes resembles particularly hyperactive prog-metal, for the most part it makes every other record released this year sound like hopelessly anodyne easy listening in comparison.

Selected highlights are the way Sleepaway pinballs between a lovelorn stadium rock anthem, a Motörhead-esque metal rant, an air-punching blast of power-pop positivity, a rockabilly boogie and a pummelling hardcore chant-along assault, before ending with the stoned, wistful, crooned

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conclusion: ‘As the dog looked up at the aeroplane, and I laughed at his obvious confusion/ He turned to me and said…fish don’t know they’re in water.’ Those six words, spoken in Ginger’s South Shields brogue are an introduction to another potential live staple, You Do You, a stomping, pottymouthed punk hymn to the times that sneers: ‘Everybody is an expert these days.’

A positive reception will also hopefully provide solace for the subject of Sort Your Fucking Shit Out, which addresses ‘David’ (our sometimes struggling frontman’s birth name), before the whole band shout: ‘Oi! Sort it out! If you don’t, you’re a twat!’

Just as much rage is directed outwards, and in equally original fashion, from the opening title track’s tilt at heteronormative modern rock radio to observations like: ‘We are force-fed filth from infancy,’ as he rages on Institutional Submission before introducing the memorable insult ‘c**t by association’. Soon after, on Directions, he notes that ‘the right wing keep dreaming of an autocratic dystopia’.

And that’s just skimming the surface of a record so full of energy, anger, humour and artistic invention that it’s clearly in quite a bit of pain.

ADHD rock, anyone? A genre The Wildhearts can surely call their own.

QQQQQQQQQQ Johnny Sharp

Soulful rock’n’roll, the oldfashioned way.

From Southern California, but with a sound evoking the Deep South, Robert Jon & The Wreck had flown under the radar for a decade until their 2020 album Last Light On The Highway connected with a wider audience. That album was compared to Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Black Crowes, with its beautifully crafted songs – Oh Miss Carolina in particular – lit up by singer Robert Jon Burrison, a bear of a man with a voice full of soul.

In this follow-up there’s a subtle difference. As the title suggests, Shine A Light On Me Brother leans more towards soul music. There’s a gospelinfluenced euphoria in the title track, and in Chicago a slow groove recalling the Memphis soul sound of Al Green. And while there’s nothing as ambitious as Last Light On The Highway’s title track, a rock epic in two parts, it’s a fine album.

Simple stuff, but it goes deep.

QQQQQQQQQQ Paul Elliott

Steve Hackett Surrender Of Silence INSIDE OUT

Trick of the trail.

To the casual observer, former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett is simply keeping the flame of 70s Genesis alive and well. In reality, however, his studio albums have roamed much further.

Surrender Of Silence is something of a musical travelogue with Hackett acting more as a tour guide than as a band leader. His excursions with his band take him across Russia, Africa, Asia and Latin America, with an undersea detour for good measure.

Most of the destinations are recognisable, although refreshingly he seldom resorts to clichés, preferring to take a more nuanced approach to his chosen location and add occasional slices of social commentary along the way.

He’s also relaxed enough to place himself in a band context rather than hogging the limelight, and he ventures into styles and sounds that go beyond his trademark guitar.

Keyboard player Roger King’s arrangements give the band an orchestral dimension. The result is an album that nudges boundaries, including Hackett’s.

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Desperate Journalist Maximum Sorrow!

FIERCE PANDA

Ambitious fourth album from London goth-noirists. ’Those teenage hang-ups are hard to beat!’ Jo Bevan hollers on Fault, this record’s propulsive standout, and a youthful intensity permeates every second of this goth-rock four-piece’s remarkable fourth album.

Embellishing the expansive blueprint of 2019’s In Search Of The Miraculous, it finds the band straddling genres with a gymnast’s ease, delivering breezy punk-pop, crepuscular shoegaze and soaring indie-pop.

But it’s Bevan’s lyrics that elevate Maximum Sorrow! above the indie rock pack. Named after a work by net artist Kevin Bewersdorf, it finds her wrestling with millennial concerns of authenticity and meaning, and occasionally delivering curveballs such as ‘You are oh so tall and sesquipedalian!’.

An urgent reminder of guitar rock’s ability to excite and intrigue.

QQQQQQQQQQ Paul Moody

Sweet Crisis Tricks On My Mind HEADLINE

Free-spirited debut hits the spot big-time.

Nothing to do with running out of Haribos or accidentally scratching your vintage copy of Desolation Boulevard, Sweet Crisis are one of those bands so wonderfully steeped in classic rock tradition it’s enough to bring a little tear of joy to your eye.

Sounding completely fresh and modern yet shot through with the spirit of Free and Bad Company, Tricks On My Mind features spanking upbeat rockers like Loosen Up, One Way Traffic and the cracking title track, but deftly changes gears and pace with sumptuously bluesy tunes like Black Magic, Misty Haze and the majestic Love Me Like Sugar, and on immense closer Living Life On The Edge guitarist Piers Mortimer really lets go. ‘If it ain’t got soul,

I don’t want to know,’ Leo Robarts sings on Ain’t Got Soul (natch).

And there’s absolutely no shortage of that on this record, fuelling a stylishly accomplished debut of great depth and quality.

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Bragg at his most romantic, to the doo-wop melody of I Hate The Radio, the moments of beauty make the explosions of rage all the more powerful.

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Chubby And The Gang

Ronnie Wood & The Ronnie Wood Band

The Mutt’s Nuts PARTISAN London punks power down their own path for album two.

You think you know what ground you’re on with The Mutt’s Nutts.

The first half of the album is a collection of unfiltered, no-frills hardcore, Charley Manning Walker’s cockney rasp harking back to UK punk’s earliest days when it collided head-on with pub rock. They rail against gentrification and police brutality, highlight the plight of young lives spent rotting in prison, and paint a surprisingly furious picture of a day in the life of a cabbie (On The Meter).

A pitch shift in the middle demonstrates just how much more there is going on here, though, with a love of vintage pop gleaming through the noise.

From the tender Take Me Home To London, with its ripples of tambourine echoing the Jesus And Mary Chain at their gentlest, to Life’s Lemons, which picks up the baton from Billy

Mr Luck: A Tribute To Jimmy Reed: Live At the Royal Albert Hall BMG Second of Ronnie’s three tributes to his musical heroes.

Many first heard about Jimmy Reed when in 1963 interviews the Stones named him as a prime influence. Fifty years later, Ronnie Wood reinforced the enduring admiration for the Chicagobased electric blues pioneer by staging a concert at the Royal Albert Hall that saw his regular band joined by guests including Mick Taylor (whose scathing guitar tone remains one of rock’s immortal heart-starters), Bobby Womack and Paul Weller.

The 18-song set-list revisits the Stones’ earliest days on Honest I Do, Bright Lights, Big City, Ain’t That Loving You Baby and Baby What’s Wrong, surrounded by blues songbook stalwarts including Let’s Get Together, High And Lonesone, Baby What You Want Me To Do and the title track.

The spell-binding crystal-clear guitar interplay and the band’s telepathic roll elevate this second part of Woody’s tribute trilogy to his musical heroes, following Chuck Berry with another magical one-off. Roll on the third.

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on Ride The Night Away making especially powerful impressions.

Barnes also joins The Boss and other guest vocalists for a raucous Sun City.

A celebratory refresher for fans, and an ideal introduction for the curious.

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Little Steven And The Disciples Of Soul

NMB (The Neal Morse Band)

Summer Of Sorcery Live At The Beacon Theatre

INSIDE OUT

WICKED COOL/UME

Party at Silvio’s.

During the first 16 years of this century, Steven Van Zandt occupied himself with a dizzying variety of projects, serving as right-hand man to Tony Soprano and Bruce Springsteen, presenting a radio show, and co-writing and starring in Lilyhammer.

Eventually, in 2016, he found time to reconvene the Disciples Of Soul. Summer Of Sorcery (2019) had the spirited vibe of a live show, and makes the grade presented as such in its entirety here. The 15-piece Disciples, with horns and lusty backing vocals, tear into Communion, and maintain the pace through a marathon, career-spanning set.

Highlights are frequent, with Los Desaparecidos, Trapped Again and a duet with Jimmy Barnes

Innocence And Danger Chops, tunes and chemistry.

As prog watchers know, Neal Morse (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Mike Portnoy (drums) are prolific collaborators, often accompanied by bassist Randy George. Since 2012 the trio’s chemistry has been enhanced by NMB bandmates Bill Hubauer (vocals, keyboards) and Eric Gillette (vocals, guitar), resulting in a contemporary prog sound.

Tapping into the genre’s early sense of musical adventure, without the stale indulgence of the mid-70s, latest album Innocence And Danger contrasts epics and concise tracks.

Beyond The Years holds the attention through 30 minutes of mood and tempo changes, balancing memorable melodies with dazzling musical interplay.

The band are equally effective stripped down to Not Afraid

ROUND-UP: BLUES

Does Hound Dog Taylor COLEMINE/ALLIGATOR

Many contemporary blues acts have sought to harness the rebel spirit of Theodore Roosevelt ‘Hound Dog’ Taylor, the six-fingered Chicagoan who, by his own description, “couldn’t play shit” but “made it sound

good”. Yet most only end up highlighting their relative lack of hair and teeth.

The opening notes of She’s Gone announce GA-20 as more credible custodians of this music, with a guitar sound that sounds like it’s been mauled by wild dogs, and authentic too, with Matt Stubbs and Pat Faherty both playing six strings, no bass (in tribute to Taylor’s double-guitar dynamic with Brewer Phillips).

Inglorious Heroine FRONTIERS Rocking their lady parts With four albums cementing their retro hard-rocking reputation, for their fifth Inglorious have decided to lighten up our summer of freedom with an album of covers.

Not just any old covers, but covers of hits by female artists that have sustained the band on long journeys in the van.

Some of them are made to measure: Heart’s Barracuda, Tina Turner’s Nutbush City Limits, Evanescence’s Bring Me To Life, Joan Jett’s I Hate Myself For Loving You and Halestorm’s I Am The Fire are all pretty obvious.

Others are perhaps less likely to rouse a rocker’s loins: Whitney Houston’s Queen Of The Night, Miley Cyrus’s Midnight Sky (okay, maybe), Christina Aguilera’s Fighter, Avril Lavigne’s I’m With You, Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time and Alanis Morissette’s Uninvited. No matter, they all get the same Inglorious treatment.

They don’t add anything and they’re not meant to. Just rock.

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By Henry Yates

GA-20: walking the Dog with style.

GA-20

Part 1’s acoustic guitar and vocal harmonies, and Your Place In The Sun’s snappy, pop-tinged groove.

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More than merely aping the shit-andsawdust sonics, though, the 10 tracks here prove that the trio truly feel the Dog under their fingernails, whether catching the benevolent anarchy of Give Me Back My Wig, rattle‘n’rolling through Sadie, or serving up the world’s untidiest 12-bar with Sitting At Home Alone.

While the music plays, the house rocks once more.

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Eddie 9V

Blues Traveler

Little Black Flies RUF While his peers were pinging audio files across oceans, the Georgia guitarist fell into Atlanta’s Echo Deco Studios with a bunch of fellow outof-workers and rolled tape. The resulting album catches the hiss of beer bottles and some progressively loose performances. It’s like having all your best mates in the speakers, playing the most instinctive blues you’ll hear all year.

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Traveler’s Blues Three decades on, Blues Traveler have come full circle, recording the standards they might have played on the New York shitbox circuit of the late 80s – You Got Me Runnin’, Sittin’ On Top Of The World, Need Your Love So Bad – while doing their best to submerge the chops they’ve picked up along the road.

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Dust Radio

Troy Redfern

Shotgun Shack LUNARIA The joke about rock journalists making bad musicians recedes with Dust Radio. Led by the drawled vocals and pugnacious harp of writer Paddy Wells, with dirty, adroit guitar from Tom Jackson, the pair have the scholarly knowledge to flow from the title track’s hill-country trance to the Nashvilletouched Fault Line. Most impressive is their feel for the push and pull.

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The Fire Cosmic RED7 With his poncho, Stetson and scuffed resonator guitar, Redfern is every inch the dust-blown Wild West gunslinger (the ‘West’ in this case being Herefordshire). The first half of The Fire Cosmic is jaw-breakingly heavy, with One Way Ticket kicking like a branded mule and Scorpio coming on like the Peter Gunn theme gone feral.

A talent to watch closely.

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ROUND HILL RECORDS

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ALBUMS

Various Artists Das Wasteland Vol 1 & 2 DAS WASTELAND

Manic Street Preachers The Ultra Vivid Lament COLUMBIA Anthemic legends turn super-ambient rock troupers.

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Illusions and The Secret He Had Missed respectively. From a band well-versed in giving populism dark twists, it’s unsurprisingly enthralling.

A global health crisis during which socialism became demonised and fascist white supremacists literally tried to overthrow democracy should provide rich political pickings for the Manics. And sure enough there are rebel entreaties not to ‘let those boys from Eton suggest that we are beaten’ on Don’t Let The Night Divide Us, and, in Afterending, the insightful observation that ‘progress is a comfortable disease that brought us down to our knees’. But they often seem as confused, hopeless and despondent about 2021 as the rest of us. Diapause finds James Dean Bradfield lost in grief; on the Eltonesque Quest For Ancient Colour he’s caught in corona stress dreams. Blank Diary Entry and Happy Bored Alone reflect the emotional mood swings and toxic online environments of 2020 and, in the spirit of lockdown reflection, Snowing In Sapporo throws back to a tour of Japan in 1993, musing regretfully: ‘How could four become so strong, yet break and leave too soon?’

Covid fog has infected even our sharpest minds. Thank heaven so much of Ultra Vivid Lament sounds like the mirror ball at the end of the tunnel.

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Brian Setzer Gotta Have The Rumble SURFDOG

The rockabilly rebel still walks the Stray Cat strut.

A genuine keeper of the faith, Brian Setzer has been burning the rock’n’roll flame for around 10 times longer than the original burst shone for. Indeed his is a world where The Beatles are still travelling across Liverpool to meet a fella who can show them a B7 chord, and he’s all the better for it.

What makes Gotta Have The Rumble – his first solo album in seven years – such an unmitigated joy is how effortless it all sounds. Still in thrall to juvenile delinquency, fast cars and even faster women, Setzer shoots straight from the hip with deadly and infectious precision.

The tremolo’d twang of

Danko Jones Power Trio MATE IN GERMANY More rippers from Canada’s greatest living rock’n’roll band.

We are still knee-deep in a glut of gloomy recordedduring-lockdown albums, with grumpy millionaire rock stars moaning about either wearing masks or not wearing them.

Danko and co. recorded an album in these circumstances too, but the affable Canadian rock powerhouse took the opportunity to simply fine-tune their attack and give us all something to celebrate.

Pummeling opener I Want Out might have some metaphorical nods to the pandemic, but that’s where the bad times stop rolling. This album is primo Danko, a relentless surge of high-energy, thoroughly positive, all-hands-on-deck rock’n’roll savagery. There are several odes to dangerous women, but the best track here has gotta be Blue Jean Denim Jumpsuit, a sleazy, slithery headbanger that sounds like some wild Thin Lizzy/GN’R mash-up. And there’s plenty more where that came from.

Twenty-five years on, Danko Jones still deliver the goods.

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Tropical Fuck Storm Deep States JOYFUL NOISE More filthy, hilarious, freeform ramblings from Australian avant-punks.

On winding up their former band The Drones five years ago, Melbourne-based Gareth Liddiard and his partner Fiona Kitschin decided rock was “a load of fucking wank”, vowing to “de-wank” their sound with a gloriously sloppy mash-up of vintage electronics, mangled guitar effects, surreal streamof-consciousness lyrics and relentlessly wonky grooves.

Sounding in places like Sleaford

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heir terrorist generation have longsince given up hope on Manic Street Preachers growing old disgracefully, but at least they’re growing old imaginatively. Recognising MOR arena rock as a (lucrative) creative dead end, since 2007’s glam-punk Send Away The Tigers they’ve been approaching each new album as a self-imposed stylistic challenge.

The Holy Bible successfully completes therapy? 2009’s Journal For Plague Lovers.

Pomp-metal Motown? 2010’s Postcards From A Young Man. Cinematic horizon-gazing?

2013’s Rewind The Film. Arena (kraut) rock?

The following year’s Futurology.

If 2018’s Resistance Is Futile acted as a centring exercise, revisiting a variety of styles from the band’s 30 years, this album spins the wheel again. This time, ‘ambient stadium-ABBA’. Dancing Queen pianos and synths made primarily of glitter merge with airy modernist atmospherics and traditional Manics bombast rock, even when tackling such imposing topics as the savage, truth-skewing entrenchments of the online culture war or pandemic apocalypse. Had Sweden’s pop titans ever sung a synth-pop power ballad about the pros and cons of Marxist structuralism or biographed early 20th-century sibling artists Gwen and Augustus John in the form of superbly catchy boy/girl disco rock, they would have been Complicated

Compelling snapshot of Berlin’s scuzz-rock underground. ”On so many nights, it felt like the twilight of a jaded civilisation,” intones author Rob Doyle on atmospheric spoken-word opener History’s Children (with music by Saint Leonard), and an eerie nocturnal ennui seeps through each of the 17 tracks on this audio trawl through Europe’s most dissolute city.

It’s as agreeably sleazy as you’d imagine from a line-up that includes Fat White Family’s Nathan Saoudi (Brian Destiny’s Nothing’s Going To Come And Save Us) and Swiss-German reprobates Hello Pity (Kiss The Death). While there are attention-grabbing contributions from The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess – a sublime Doors Of Then, remixed by Berlin resident Anton Newcombe – and Art Brut with Good Morning Berlin, it’s the overall spirit that beguiles. Drab City’s Troubled Girl twinkles with a Mazzy Starish spookiness, while Otto von Bismarck’s dreamy electro-pop closer Leichtes Spiel provides a dawn-like chink of daylight after all the sonic squalor.

A fitting update of the rocknoir blueprint laid down by Lou Reed, Bowie and Iggy Pop back in the day.

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Checkered Flag drips with the salacious menace that would meet with the Cramps’ full approval, while Turn You On, Turn Me On builds on Bo Diddley’s rhythmic foundations, and Off Your Rocker’s slap-backed groove is Brian Setzer at his best.

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Mods jamming with Flaming Lips, this third Tropical Fuck Storm album is a hot mess of lo-fi noises, ragged vocals and weapons-grade sarcasm, from the dishevelled funk-punk shuffle of G.A.F.F. to the howling free-jazz meltdown that engulfs The Donkey, and the storytelling sprawl of Legal Ghost. Even if their calculated brand of mullet-haired kitchen-sink amateurism occasionally feels like unshaven drunken shambling, TFS are consistently inventive, thrillingly unpredictable and steeped in deadpan Australian humour.

Fully de-wanked, in other words.

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Gerry Rafferty Rest In Blue RHINO Career-spanning collection from the singer-songwriter.

Gerry Rafferty began this new album in 2006, but at the time of his death in 2011 it was still uncompleted.

Rest In Blue isn’t quite that album, being comprised of material from various stages of Rafferty’s career, some songs apparently dating back to 1970.

Compiled by his daughter Martha (who is to be commended for the stylistic unity she has imposed on this album), it’s nevertheless a decent final chapter in the

Gerry Rafferty story. It’s a wideranging final chapter two, containing both remakes (a reasonable reworking of Stealer’s Wheel’s Stuck In The Middle With You), traditional numbers (Dirty Old Town, Wild Mountain Thyme) and a cover – Richard and Linda Thompson’s It’s Just The Motion (originally recorded by the Thompsons with Rafferty as producer).

Despite the variety and the timescale, there’s a unity to this set, held together by an eraunspecific production (many synths were erased from the tapes), Rafferty’s unique voice, and contributions from, among others, frequent Rafferty sideman Hugh Burns.

A suitable memorial to a much-missed talent.

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Sendelica And Man Created God FRUITS DE MER

Old-school space rock with new-school spirit.

There’s a parallel universe where instrumental psychedelia reigns supreme and Sendelica are kings of all they survey. The prolific Welsh band’s 25th(ish) album in 15 years – the actual figure is suitably blurry – keeps up both their remarkable hitrate and their extremely high standard of quality.

Guitarist and mastermind Pete Bingham is at the centre of it all,

channelling their waves of pulsing noise down strange canals and weird waterways.

The thumbprints of the gods – Hawkwind, Neu!, Gong – are all over the album, but elsewhere Sendelica take unexpected detours: The Seekers’ electronictinged undulations wouldn’t have sounded out of place at an early-90s travellers’ festival, while Deuterosophia comes on like Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir if it was blitzed off its turnip on ayahuasca. But And Man Created God is no period piece. Its sheer life force wrenches it out of 1971 and places it in 2021.

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The Dead Deads Tell Your Girls It’s Alright RUMBLE/ONERPM

Nashville genre-blenders deliver storming statement of intent.

It’s all very well retreading the tired white-wall tyres and reboring the coke-contamined engine blocks of various vintage models of ye olde rock jalopies. But how refreshing to test drive a brandnew model fresh off the lot, firing on all cylinders and performing like a gym-toned tiger on Vaseline.

The Dead Deads are a rock‘n’roll band, of that there is no doubt, but they’re clearly

a product of their times. They look just right. Not in a ‘92 Black Crowes-based, OCD English Civil War re-enactment, purist-targeting, backwardglancing stylist’s idea of how they ought to look, but in a post-GaGa, EDM-literate, third millennium-atuned way that’s clearly as instinctive as breathing. They look, and thankfully sound, exactly how a 21st-century rock‘n’roll band – equally equipped to not only survive but thrive in today’s trad rock averse musical mainstream - ought to look and sound: like contenders.

In For Blood channels grunge without apologising for itself, it shocks as it awes, spirals in unexpected directions while delivering familiar sparks of total satisfaction. Deal With Me bumps, grinds, challenges, swaggers, preens and ultimately triumphs on its own terms.

Blurring lines between rock and pop, The Dead Deads deal in Chinnichap for millennials.

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Alabama 3 Step 13 SUBMARINE CAT Big issues, big beats and a tribute to a lost comrade from the Brixton blues ravers.

There’s dedication to your art, and then there’s creating with

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK

By Dave Ling

Newman: earworms aplenty.

Spektra

Doug Brons

Overload FRONTIERS Spektra’s debut was conceived with aid from long-time collaborator and champion Jeff Scott Soto and Frontiers Records staffer Alessandro Del Vecchio, both of whom wrote the songs and produced. The fingerprints of JSS are especially evident on this set of punchy, sturdy hard rock anthems pitched in the ballpark of Foreigner, Winger and Journey.

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Pull ESCAPE MUSIC During the mid-80s gifted Californian keyboard player, singer and songwriter Brons dropped off the music radar for family reasons, then made a shock return with 2017’s Soulscripted. Now solidly back in the groove, spiritually charged album number three (Brons is a Christian) is a stress-reducing slither of West Coast easy listening.

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Circus Of Rock

The LRW Project

Come One, Come All

Fight & Climb LRW MUSIC Two years after the positively received debut To Love, Repeat & Wonder comes this second album from York-based singer/multi-instrumentalist Leon Robert. In spite of an indie budget the production is modern and classy, without sacrificing a cool vibe of pureAOR richness. Highlights include the two singles Round Two and Who Did She Marry? and the breezy Just For Nothing.

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FRONTIERS

Newman Into The Monsters’ Playground AOR HEAVEN Reviewing a new album from Steve Newman is problematic. This one is the thirteenth studio record in 24 years by his group Newman, and with each one it gets harder to say something fresh without

sounding sycophantic. Yes, of course by now Newman should be far better known. And although signed to AOR Heaven they’re effectively an independent group, within a genre that its detractors view as an irrelevance.

Newman writes and sings the songs and also handles the production in his own studio, with minimal external input.

There is a ‘live’ band but, thanks to lockdown, on this record he did

your dying breath. When Alabama 3 co-vocalist Jake Black, aka the Very Reverend D Wayne Love, died in 2019, his creative partner and the band’s frontman Rob Spragg, aka Larry Love, was with him.

Spragg recorded the bleeps of the life support machines as they shut down, and they’ve been transformed into Night Tripper In The Trap House, a loose and bluesy drug nightmare. It’s a moment that would seem distasteful in almost any other hands, but because of Alabama 3’s outlaw spirit and Brixton grit it’s oddly moving and beautiful, and almost certainly what he would have wanted. In fact despite the grubby disco of opener Whacked setting the scene, there are moments of tenderness to be found throughout, from Somebody Somewhere’s hymn to NHS workers to the touching piano ballad Everytime I See A River.

Anchored by Spragg’s ravaged vocals, the rest of Step 13 runs the lyrical gamut from the Black Lives Matter movement, Brexit, class and drugs, all with that baffling mix of blues, country and techno that had them written off as a joke by some in the early days, but which has stood the test of time remarkably well.

Because sometimes weirdness just works.

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everything except play the drums.

Newman doesn’t have an exceptional voice, and he certainly isn’t a show-off in the style of an arena-conquering Steve Perry. But he writes songs that suit his delivery. Like the delicately balanced guitars and keyboards, each song is tailored for his range.

You want earworms? You got ’em.

Fuck being fashionable.

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A vehicle for Mirka Rantanen, drummer with Finnish hard rockers King Company, Circus Of Rock’s debut taps a different guest vocalist for each of its 13 tracks, including Danny Vaughn and Johnny Gioeli. Sheriff Of Ghost Town, featuring Marco Hietala, reminds us why Nightwish are gonna miss their recently departed ex-bassist.

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ALBUMS

Blacktop Mojo

KK’s Priest Sermons Of The Sinner EX1 Ex-Priest guitarist returns, embraces Afrobeat. Only joking.

W

hen KK Downing quit Judas Priest a decade ago, he at least appeared to be a bit fed up with, and frustrated by, the whole business of playing in a heavy metal band. As co-founder and lead guitarist of the Brummie legends and with 40 years of active service on his resumé, his place in the genre’s official pantheon of giants was already secured. And so KK slipped into the shadows, much to the annoyance of diehard metalheads everywhere.

Retirement was never really on the cards, though. When he cheerily deigned to bash out a few Priest tunes with Ross The Boss at festivals during the summer of 2019, something plainly clicked in the Downing subconscious, because Sermons Of The Sinner is a balls-out heavy metal record, not unlike the ones he used to make with that band he used to be in.

Whether or not it was strictly necessary to name this project KK’s Priest is open to debate, but a slight air of petulance permeates this whole thing, as if the sixstring legend is purposefully doing Priesty things in the Priestest way possible, right down to bringing in former Priest vocalist Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens and ending the record with a nine-minute epic titled Return Of The Sentinel. But there is also a sense of great pride in heavy metal’s ageless power and unsung malleability, with everything

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from rabble-rousing singalongs like Hellfire Thunderbolt and Raise Your Fists through to more ominous, exploratory material like the eight-minute Metal Through And Through, the subtly progressive, rumbling squall of Sacerdote Y Diablo and the grandiloquent (if grammatically dubious) Hail For The Priest.

The sum of all those parts amounts to a truly exuberant celebration of classic, heads-down 80s metal tropes – which, of course, Downing was primarily responsible for coining – blended seamlessly with some of the grittier, darker and more pointedly contemporary vibes of Owens’s two actually quite good albums with the Priest mothership, Jugulator and Domination. In particular, Sermons Of The Sinner’s title track packs a truly murderous punch, with the singer hitting the kind of notes that make dogs go cross-eyed and Downing peeling off great riffs and even greater solos like a man (re)possessed by metal itself. That endearing sense of urgency prevails throughout, as if Downing is making up for lost time, or perhaps just thrilled to have some thunderous new songs to play alongside the classics. Think of it as a bonus Priest record, and a hugely enjoyable one at that.

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Blacktop Mojo SELF-RELEASED Texans’ fourth album of ‘southern grunge’ While this quintet from Palestine, Texas intertwine sonic strands of vintage southern sounds, anxious grunge, gutsy blues and Purple-hued, Rainbowlaced 70s rock, they never underestimate the power of classic FM rock tropes. Album opener Wicked Woman evokes likeable notions of Soundgarden covering Dio with its mystic mentions of ‘sacrifice’ and a ‘spirit in the sky’, but elsewhere they prick up your ears with the more conventional power balladry of Latex and the organcoated arena heartbreak of Tail Lights. While in those moments their style might feel unadventurous, it’s just as often a strength for a band feeling no need to reinvent the vintage songwriting wheels they rode in on. Song titles such as Darlin’ I Won’t Tell, Jealousy and Make Believe reflect the work of bruised romantics, and they rely less on punchy riffs than on stirring choruses designed to get you throwing your arms up to the skies, when yearning anthems like Rewind push powerful melodic buttons.

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The Flatlanders Treasure Of Love RACK ‘EM Sheiking all over.

You know what’s coming from these wizened Texas Americana cults – Jimmie Dale Gilmour, Joe Ely and Butch Hancock, aka The Flatlanders – and they don’t disappoint. Just be thankful for the pandemic that forced them off their individual touring roads and drove them back into the studio together to deliver more of what ruffled traditional country feathers some 50 years ago.

Most of the songs are nearly as old as the guys are – Johnny Cash’s Give My Love To Rose, the Everly Brothers’ Long Time Gone, Leon Russell’s She Smiles Like A River, Townes Van Zandt’s Snowin’ On Raton, Bob Dylan’s She Belongs To Me – and each of them is picked apart and then picked back together with love and exuberance. They bring their own contributions too, but Butch Hancock’s Moanin’ Of The

Midnight Train is nearly 30 years old. Pick of the bunch is their rollicking take on the Mississippi Sheiks’ Sittin’ On Top Of The World.

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Bernie Marsden Kings LITTLE HOUSE/CONQUEST Ex-Whitesnake legend pays his dues, impeccably.

Roused into action after a late-night conversation with Billy Gibbons about formative heroes, Bernie Marsden set about compiling a list of artists and songs that have shaped him over his 50-year career as a songwriter-guitarist. The resulting Kings album (the first of his ‘Inspirations’ series; the next volume, Chess, is due in November) sees Marsden and his band pay homage to tunes he first heard via blues greats Freddie, BB and Albert King.

Tone and feel are paramount here. Freddie King’s You’ve Got To Love Her With Feeling is a master class in cryin’ blues, with Marsden fashioning an emotive solo – and vocal – over a pillowy organ line. The slower, more soulful cuts tend to work best, be it Charles Singleton’s Help The Poor or the pained sweetness of Leon Russell’s Help Me Through The Day, a latter-day analogue to the Whitesnake version Marsden first recorded for 1979’s Lovehunter.

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Robben Ford Pure EARMUSIC Ford reminds us of his place high atop guitar’s world rankings – as if he needs to.

A career fusing jazz, rock and blues means Robben Ford was never going to disappoint in producing another perfect overlap of the three. White Rock Beer… 8 Cents and Blues For Lonnie Johnson are the clearest of crossovers, then Balafon wafts in, melding whistle-clean tones with a synth injection, making for an unexpected yet sophisticated contrast in textures that is repeated through the title track, although the latter has an Eastern feel not quite blending with the rest. A melodic top line flows through Milam Palmo and Go, although the latter draws one more to the groove shuffle

hidden beneath the brass.

A Dragon’s Tail opens with a Hank Marvin guitar twang followed by an exquisitely dramatic solo, and If You Want Me To saves the best bass line until last.

As always, Robben Ford treads perfectly between the land mines of self-indulgence.

He has nothing left to prove, but that isn’t stopping him.

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Tim Finn & Phil Manzanera Caught By The Heart EXPRESSION

Multi-genre album by Roxy Music/Spit Enz duo.

Recorded during lockdown, Caught By The Heart began when Finn asked Manzanera, whom he first met in 1975 with Splitz Enz, if he had any Latinbased grooves going begging.

The exchange of files led to a creative project that is more than mere self-indulgence on the part of musicians with time on their hands, and is an album of real emotional heft.

There’s a sense of the duo, locked down in New Zealand and the UK respectively, spinning round the globe, spanning continents in the sound they weave here, with the help of guest musicians from Europe, South America, Israel.

Highlights include the eco-plea of The Cry Of The Earth (‘It’s not something you have been given, it’s only borrowed from the children’, Finn observes).

Mambo! Salsa!, meanwhile, is infectious but not touristic, drawing on Manzanera’s Latin roots for its knowledge and feel, and La Musica Del Tiempo is a salutary closer to a soberly joyful album.

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Sepultura

Hawklords Time HAWKLORDS Tenth album from indefatigable acid-rock legends.

For a band always more interested in internal exploration than in physical experience, lockdown has clearly been a blessing. Described as “observations of life, seen through the prism of time”, this latest bulletin from the cosmic fringe is an intoxicating trip.

Lighthouse At The Edge Of Time, with Traffic-like flute from Chris ‘Beebe’ Aldridge, will have any self-respecting head reaching for the rolling papers, while Take Off Your Mask is a perceptive examination of the nature of identity in a post-covid climate.

Speed Of Sound is a blistering, sax-assisted tribute to the pioneering aeronauts of the late 1940s, Turn You On a throbbing new-wave gem suggestive of The Ruts rehearsing in the Tardis.

Brimming with pop smarts, punk spirit and counter-cultural rebelliousness, this album is underground rock’n’roll at its finest.

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The Stranglers Dark Matters COURSEGOOD First for nine years honours, and features, keyboard player Dave Greenfield.

Forty-four years after looking at the peaches, The Stranglers’ eighteenth

album is a tribute to Dave Greenfield, who sadly died of covid last year, and his distinctive keyboards are on eight of the tracks. With drummer Jet Black having stood down too, it’s a perhaps surprisingly lovely soft-rock record, replete with understated musings on melancholy and mortality. And If You Should See Dave… is a perfectly judged farewell to Jean-Jacques Burnel’s close ally, coasting across a European Female-style tempo before exiting on the bone-dry line, ‘This is where your solo would go.’

Elsewhere there are mature, considered treatises on life and love (and a little geopolitics), with If Something’s Gonna Kill Me (It Might As Well Be Love), for all its talk of Martian invasions, finding the precise point where tough and tender meet. The Lines is poetic. No Man’s Land recalls the angular attack of the new wave era, but White Stallion, after an unapologetic proggy opening, gallops like a good ’un. Regardless of personnel on it, this album does sound like The Stranglers: both nice and sleazy.

QQQQQQQQQQ Chris Roberts

The Bronx The Bronx VI COOKING VINYL Reliable-as-clockwork punk’n’roll lifers deliver the goods once more.

The only problem with bands who make consistently great albums is that it’s easy to take them for granted. The Bronx are a case in point. The ironically named LA band have been blasting out rocket-fuelled punk’n’roll for 19 years and six albums, with no discernible dip in quality but also no sense that the wider world will wake up to what’s right under its nose.

The Bronx VI is business as usual in every respect. Super Bloom and Curb Feelers aren’t so much songs as a couple of massive terrace anthems looking for a fist fight, gifted with brains to match their brawn. Singer Matt Caughthran is still yelling himself hoarse while keeping such basics as holding on to a tune in a tight headlock, while guitarist Joby Ford sounds like he’s permanently playing with his guitar held up and away from his body.

Shit-kicking stuff, even if the world won’t listen.

QQQQQQQQQQ Dave Everley

BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month.

Jim Bob Who Do We Hate Today CHERRY RED Echoes of Carter USM (kitchen-sink traumas, deft wordplay) proliferate across this latest instalment in a surprisingly prolific solo career from the electro-indie-pop-punk duo’s former front-fringe.

Good, but not great. 7/10

The Poppermost Hits To Spare TLAK The finest faux Fabs since the pre-Fab Four, The Poppermost (actually one man: Joe Kane who sings – very Lennon – writes, plays and produces) replicate the classic mop-top-era Mersey sound to perfection. Recommended. 8/10

John McLaughlin Liberation Time PROPER Lockdown contemplation clearly spirited improvisational genius McLaughlin in a more jazz inflected direction than of late, solo piano pieces drag, but with a floating line-up in intuitive complementary support his trademark guitar tones soar. 8/10

The Blinders The Lounge Lizard Session MODERN SKY Stimulated into action by the enforced inaction of lockdown, The Blinders rearranged existing material for a more stripped-back modus operandi, finding depth, intimacy and a brooding emotive Bad Seeds gravitas that they wear exceedingly well. 8/10

Hookers & Blow Hookers & Blow GOLDEN ROBOT An adept if unremarkable Sunset Strip covers band (Zep, Stones etc) that features Dizzy Reed (GN’R) on keyboards and Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi, H&B are probably a hoot live, but no one swings Rocks Off like Charlie Watts. 7/10

Wizzerd/Merlin Turn To Stone Chapter III RIPPLE As this two-track (one 19 minutes, the other 22) split album from the Montana/Kansas City stoner-doom labelmates played out, my mind drifted and I didn’t even notice it finish. This doesn’t happen often, but it’s not a good sign, is it? 5/10

Langan, Frost & Wane Langan, Frost & Wane GOLDSTAR Progressive 60s-skewed Anglophile psych-folk as experimental as it’s rooted in tradition. A clearing house for the fertile imagination of three songwriters that calls to mind Donovan, Incredible String Band and even CSN. 8/10

Paul-Ronney Angel London Texas Lockdown GYPSY HOTEL Kicking off with 2020 (You Been A Pain In The A$$), a fabulous honkytonkin’ duet with Linda Gail Lewis that surely speaks for us all, this 100% proof solo set from the Urban Voodoo Machine broken-voiced prime mover is utterly unedifying fun incarnate. 8/10

Candi Scissors Candi Scissors EP TREPANATION Boasting no-wave attitude, Geordie Walker raunch and trashed-up John Waters divinity, this super-sleazed sonic snapshot of full-tilt filtherama finds Alabama trio Candi Scissors grinding in the gutter while riffing at the stars. 7/10

The DeRellas Something’s Got To Give ROCKAWAY Infused with the spirit of Dead Boys, Heartbreakers and MC5, with leathers, spikes and bad attitudes as standard, London’s DeRellas boast a young, loud, LAMF snottiness so totally NYC you’d swear it was Swedish. Blazing. 8/10

Daniel Wylie’s Cosmic Rough Riders Atoms And Energy LAST NIGHT FROM GLASGOW Echoes of Byrds, CSNY, Beach Boys and Teenage Fanclub from Glasgow’s best-kept secret on this assured selection of bittersweet sunshine psych-pop. Mature, reflective, brooding and dark, the Lightning Seeds that fell on stony ground. 8/10

BEST OF THE REST REVIEWS BY IAN FORTNAM

Sepulquarta NUCLEAR BLAST Brazil’s metal kings reveal the spoils of lockdown.

A joyous rarity amid the steady torrent of enervating all-star online musical collaborations during the past 18 months, Sepultura’s weekly team-ups with a diverse array of friends and peers, under the banner of Sepulquarta, looked like a shitload of fun to be involved with.

The resultant album is a bonerattling blast too. Fifteen tracks and an hour deep, it works both as a raw and eclectic sprint through the Brazilians’ imperious catalogue and as a tribute to the band’s endlessly open-minded approach to heavy music. Highlights are numerous, ranging from soupedup versions of deep cuts Mask and Vandals Nest, featuring Devin Townsend and Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick respectively, to a wild take on early anthem Inner Self with Sacred Reich’s Phil Rind.

Elsewhere Danko Jones shouts himself into a state of bug-eyed euphoria on a vicious Sepulnation, and Phil Campbell adds his unmistakable bluesy squall to a truly crushing cover of Orgasmatron.

QQQQQQQQQQ Dom Lawson

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S E U S REIS

Metallica Metallica – Remastered Deluxe Box Set BLACKENED RECORDINGS The Metallica Blacklist – Various Artists BLACKENED RECORDINGS Metallica celebrate the 30th anniversary of their none-more-black classic with an army of famous friends.

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t was the blockbuster breakthrough album that transformed Metallica into the Mount Rushmore of heavy rock, a monumental career peak that the black-clad post-thrash overlords would arguably never reach again.

Much like Nirvana’s Nevermind, released just a few weeks later in 1991, Metallica’s self-titled fifth album (8/10) scored huge crossover success and became a major cultural milestone. Both albums went on to sell more than 30 million copies, reshaping the post-grunge and alt.rock landscape of the dawning decade ahead.

Whether as maximalist showmen or hardnosed businessmen, Metallica have little interest in half-measures. Which might explain why this costly, bloated, deluxe 30th-anniversary box set includes 14 CDs, six slabs of vinyl, six DVDs, a 120-page photo-book and tons of souvenir gubbins. Blistering barnacles, there’s more than 24 hours of music to plough through here before we even get to the accompanying all-star tribute album. Has any rock masterpiece in history ever merited this kind of explosively incontinent Wikileaks information dump? Of course not.

But does Metallica – aka the Black Album – still sound like a sky-punching, riff-crunching, firebreathing, game-changing landmark in heavy music? Fuck yeah!

Kicking off the band’s long, fractious but fruitful collaboration with Canadian producer Bob Rock, the Black Album was always an immersive, senseswamping audio feast. It now sounds positively palatial in this boomy, dynamic, state-of-the-art remaster. James Hetfield’s percussive grunts, guttural growls and grainy baritone roars have a cavernous hugeness on stadiumblues monsters Sad But True and Holier Than Thou, like a giant fairy-tale ogre about to swallow an entire kindergarten. Meanwhile, drummer Lars Ulrich and lead guitarist Kirk Hammett prove they can still whip up an exhilarating speedthrash frenzy on pummelling metalstorm stompers like The Struggle Within, Through The Never and Don’t Tread On Me. But the album’s boldest stylistic innovations were its melodic, majestic power ballads. Enter Sandman, a superlative exercise in creeping dread and lingering childhood trauma, remains an evergreen horror-movie classic that transcends hard-rock categories. The Unforgiven, a widescreen western vista carved from sonic granite, borrows its title from Clint Eastwood and its epic melodrama from composer Ennio Morricone. Best of all is Nothing Else Matters, a waltz-time weepie of intricate acoustic fingerpicking and sombre crooning that builds into a stormy orchestral epic. For fans of Metallica’s introspective side, this symphonic psychodrama is still the band’s peak achievement: their Hotel California, their Stairway To Heaven, their Lick My Love Pump.

Among the gargantuan haul of previously unreleased off-cuts, band interviews, B-sides and concert recordings here are almost 100 basic ‘riff

tape’ snippets and rough work-in-progress demos of Black Album tracks. A handful have an agreeable garage-punk rawness, but most are dull rehearsal-room sketches. That said, a few appealing needles are buried in this vast musical haystack, including a sloppy stab at Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Free Bird, and the lush, all-acoustic ‘elevator version’ of Nothing Else Matters. Spanning the years 1991 to 1993, the live sets from Wembley, Moscow, Oakland, Sacramento and Mannheim inevitably become repetitive too. But they work as high-energy time capsules of Metallica in their all-conquering prime, especially the thrilling, supercharged versions of older classics like Seek And Destroy, Creeping Death and Master Of Puppets.

A companion release to the box set, The Metallica Blacklist (8/10) is a new 53-track tribute compilation of Black Album cover versions.

Featuring an international guest list of famous fans and fellow artists, this marathon four-disc anthology spans the musical spectrum from metal to country, jazz to hip-hop, folk to electronica. All profits go to charities chosen by the performers themselves. Inevitably, the big hits attract the most takers, hence no less than 12 reworkings of Nothing Else Matters. Much media noise has already been generated by Miley Cyrus and her razzle-dazzle orchestral supergroup version featuring Elton John, Yo-Yo Ma, Chad Smith and Metallica’s own Rob Trujullo. But others take a more subtle and elliptical approach, from Phoebe Bridgers with her sublime piano-ballad interpretation, to Chilean singer Mon Laferte’s sizzling Spanish-language translation, and Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan in shimmering electro-crooner mode.

Predictable guests like Royal Blood, Biffy Clyro and Slipknot’s Corey Tayor deliver disappointingly straight, dutifully respectful covers. Fortunately, artists less bound by metal convention fare better, from St Vincent’s glam-funk disco-rock version of Sad But True to Moses Sumney’s airy soul-pop take on The Unforgiven. The album’s less celebrated deep cuts also encourage adventurous reworkings, as Bristol emo-punks Idles demonstrate with their clobbering, clamouring, kinetic reboot of The God That Failed. Meanwhile, My Friend Of Misery is salvaged from forgettable second-division status by some fresh takes, including a sassy glam-pop makeover by French chanteuse Izïa and a luscious, head-spinning jazz rearrangement by tenor sax supremo Kamasi Washington. Magnificent collisions and unexpected connections abound.

Although the Black Album remains a rock masterpiece for the ages, only the most deranged Metallica obsessive will want to hear the vast bulk of extra material in this box set more than once. For casual fans with broader tastes, The Metallica Blacklist is a much richer testament to the longevity and versatility of these songs, and certainly a better use of your money.

ROSS HALFIN

‘A sky-punching, riff-crunching, firebreathing, gamechanging landmark in heavy music.’

Stephen Dalton

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REISSUES

Eric Clapton

Rory Gallagher Rory Gallagher 50th Anniversary Edition Deluxe Box Set UMC Revered guitarist’s engaging, eclectic solo debut revisited and expanded.

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Sinnerboy’s searing slide guitars, and the percussive riffing of Hands Up and Laundromat, the trio are more nuanced in interpreting subtler tracks that weave in elements of jazz and folk. I Fall Apart, For The Last Time and Can’t Believe It’s True blur the lines between genres, the rhythm section reacting intuitively to Gallagher’s melancholic vocal melodies and singular lead guitar phrasing. Establishing a careerlong pattern, the album also showcases his deft acoustic picking with bare-bones blues (Wave Myself Goodbye) and Just The Smile’s hypnotic folk feel. Gallagher was just 23 years old at the time of recording, but his guitar playing and writing were striking in their maturity.

Gallagher’s desire to keep the recordings predominantly live pays dividends in alternative versions of each track, his guitar improvisations and suggestions between takes giving insight into the creative process. Buried gems include faster early takes of Against The Grain’s At The Bottom, and a vibrant BBC concert previewing Deuce’s In Your Town. The unreleased DVD footage captures the band with clear sound and picture.

A powerful and welcome reminder of Gallagher’s unique range and flair.

QQQQQQQQQQ Rich Davenport

Aztec Camera Backwards And Forwards: The WEA Recordings 1984-1995 CHERRY RED How much wide-eyed naïve beauty do you need?

Backwards And Forwards is nine CDs encompassing Aztec Camera’s 11 years with WEA Records: 112 tracks, five albums, numerous live recordings and remixes including the entire Live At Ronnie Scott’s set from 1991, and eight versions of the rollicking Mick Jones collaboration Good Morning Britain, originally released on 1990’s Stray. It’s ironic, really, that the band who so helped to define the ‘indie’ sound spent most of their career

Bryan Ferry Reissues UMC Roxy Music singer’s extracurricular recordings.

With the possible earlydoors exception of Rod Stewart with the Faces, nobody else has ever flipped between group and solo work like Bryan Ferry, who sometimes put out solo records when Roxy Music weren’t the flavour du jour, and sometimes when he had something different to say.

His first six albums under his own name are both immensely varied and, largely, excellent, from the camp covers glory of 1973’s These Foolish Things (9/10) to the almost ambient urban funk of 1985’s Boys And Girls (8/10). In between those two very different bookends, Ferry worked with Roxy Music (whose members also feature on the solo stuff), and also recorded the rocky and edgy Another Time, Another Place (8/10), the slightly flat In Your Mind (5/10), and the astonishingly bleak and beautiful break-up album The Bride

BARRIE WENTZELL/PRESS

ory Gallagher’s unmistakable identity as both a guitarist and a songwriter is reflected in the diverse range of artists who cite him as an influence, from rock and blues players including Brian May, Slash and Joe Bonamassa, to unconventional stylists like Johnny Marr (ex-Smiths) and U2’s The Edge. In his youth, Gallagher idolised Bob Dylan, who in turn expressed his own admiration for Gallagher’s songwriting.

Despite such accolades, and album sales in excess of 30 million, Gallagher remains relatively underappreciated.

This five-disc box set marks the start of his post-Taste solo career with a fresh perspective on his debut album via a new mix, and unearths lots of previously unreleased material. Although short lived (1971-1972), Gallagher’s first solo band, including Wilgar Campbell (drums) and Gerry McAvoy (bass), shared a solid rapport. Their output is supplemented here with unreleased studio and live tracks and a previously unissued DVD of their debut Paris concert, on France’s Pop Deux TV show. Crucially, these are worthy of repeat listening/viewing, not cast-off curios.

The new mix retains the original’s intimate atmosphere, adding greater fullness and clarity. Although capable of whipping up a blues rock storm with

Eric Clapton UMC/POLYDOR Massively expanded version of his 1970 solo debut.

With Cream and Blind Faith finished and Derek & The Dominos not quite ready for take-off, in July 1970 Eric Clapton released his self-titled first solo album.

Unassuming, blues-tinged and produced by Delaney Bramlett, it made the Top 20 on both sides of the Atlantic and established the template for Clapton’s next half-century. All the same, he was so unsure of his direction that he had it mixed three times. All three versions are here. The original Tom Dowd mix had a certain brassy boldness, but Bramlett’s version – which first appeared as part of a 2005 reissue – is more subtle, especially on the quieter Easy Now, which almost breaks into Renaissance’s Northern Lights at one welcome point, and the sweet Lovin’ You Lovin’ Me. Clapton’s own, previously unreleased, mix toughens up the turbo-charged instrumental Slunky and After Midnight.

If that wasn’t enough, a fourth disc comprises eight out-takes and oddities featuring Clapton, including Delaney & Bonnie’s unsettling Groupie (Superstar) and King Curtis’s blistering Teasin’. The mixes aren’t sufficiently different to add more than nuance, but they do provide signposts as to where Clapton was and where he could have gone.

A worthwhile exercise, although not an essential one.

QQQQQQQQQQ John Aizlewood

on a major label. There is the matchless doomed optimism of Somewhere In My Heart (‘A vision of love, wearing boxing gloves and singing “hearts and flowers”’) from 1987’s Love album,which also features a version of The Red Flag from the band’s fervently socialist Scots singer Roddy Frame.

It serves as a contrast to the AM radio-friendly production on much of this set: the acoustic reading of Van Halen’s Jump (originally a B-side), the plaintive jangle of All I Need Is Everything; the melodic and melancholy Knife; 1993’s slumbering Dreamland, and 1995’s more upbeat and searching Frestonia.

Drums are racked up high in the mix, and everything is bright and shimmering. Over the course of nine albums this production can feel a bit unrelenting, so the three CDs of live acoustic sets, filled with early favourites (The Bugle Sounds Again, Mattress Of Wire) come as sweet relief, calming gentle rain after storms of emotion.

Aztec Camera was always Frame’s project, and there were no constant members other than him. After the final WEA (Reprise) album, he shed the name and turned solo, leaving behind a proud legacy.

QQQQQQQQQQ Everett True

Stripped Bare (9/10). Let’s Stick Together (7/10) is a compilation of singles, notable for its title track and its solo reworkings of several Roxy Music songs – this man has no boundaries.

Listeners might speculate that Ferry’s real authentic soul lies in these albums, even if several of them do lean very heavily on much-loved cover versions, or just decide that here was where he came to have fun. All of them, whatever the reason, have many virtues, and some (These Foolish Things, The Bride Stripped Bare) are essential.

David Quantick

Trouble Reissues HAMMERHEART Standard-setting doom metal.

Some bands are born whole.

Even though Trouble’s sound would change during their career, their fundamental approach to metal was established with their debut album Psalm 9 (1984, 9/10).

Bruce Franklin and Rick Wartell’s concrete-mixer guitars mine the gold of Sabbath and Metallica while finding room for melody, and Eric Wagner’s voice infuses everything with a rich and

sepulchral atmosphere.

Highlights such as The Tempter, Assassin and Bastards Will Pay are rightly considered classics.

Follow-up The Skull (1985, 8/10) was a little less focused, but still full of righteous fury and mighty guitar playing. These first two albums laid a new cornerstone for the church of doom metal, proving that the genre didn’t need to exclusively operate at snail-slow tempos.

These first four reissues skip 1987’s excellent Run To The Light, which ended the band’s time with Metal Blade Records and paved the way for their Def American debut Trouble (1990, 10/10). One of the truly great but relatively unsung metal records, it saw producer Rick Rubin help the band hone their sound to perfection. Those sledgehammer guitars are gloriously crisp, and the songwriting takes a quantum leap forward on the likes of R.I.P., The Wolf and the MTV videotrack Psychotic Reaction. Every track is a thing of wonder, right up to the oddly affecting closer All Is Forgiven.

While Trouble also saw the band introduce a dash of retro psychedelia, Manic Frustration (1992, 7/10) went the full Sgt

Pepper, and the result, also produced by Rubin, might alienate fans hooked on Trouble’s darker, more metallic side. While the songs pack less punch, there are several memorable moments, including Come Touch The Sky, ‘Scuse Me and Memory’s Garden.

Jason Arnopp

Be Bop Deluxe Live! In The Air Age ESOTERIC

Career-encapsulating live album gets super-sized.

The 1977 original version of this album comprised 10 songs on an LP, plus a 33rpm EP to be played between the two longer sides of vinyl. Effectively, Live! In The Air Age showcased the best of Be-Bop Deluxe’s first three albums – but excluded the 38-minute mini-set from the fourth that they were touring to promote (before the band dissolved a year later after one last so-so studio album in 1978).

This 16-disc box exhumes all seven complete-show source recordings, spreading each over two discs. Book-ending those are Disc 1, the original album in its

intended sequence plus a superb John Peel Session, and Disc 16, a DVD of Star Rider, a live TV broadcast. A more affordable three-CD version pairs Disc 1 with the tour’s second night at Hammersmith Odeon.

Each full-show set plays close to two hours, drips with Bill Nelson’s stunningly fluid guitar breaks and captures his shapeshifting art/prog-rock quartet at their futuristic apogee.

QQQQQQQQQQ Neil Jeffries

Leslie West Reissues VOICE PRINT A reminder of the great guitarist’s brilliance.

Leslie West’s impact and influence is undeniable.

But sometimes there’s a need to be reminded of this guitarist/vocalist’s brilliance and how much the rock world lost when he passed away last year.

These two multi-disc releases are stuffed with excellent music.

Five Originals (7/10) features five of his studio albums. The earliest is 1975’s The Great Fatsby, a combination of original songs and covers (with Mick

Jagger on rhythm guitar), on which versions of the Stones’ Honky Tonk Women and Free’s Little Bit Of Love are special. The Leslie West Band from ’76 (with guitarist Mick Jones just before he started Foreigner) is equally impressive with a stunning rendition of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place.

Both 1988’s Theme, which has the magical combination of West and Jack Bruce, and Alligator (with Stanley Clarke playing bass on two tracks) from the following year offer a lot of West-style shine, while 2005’s Guitarded proves that he was still a potent force later in his career.

Got Live (7/10) has three live performances. Two of these, New York State Of Mind and Live At Brierley Hill, are from the 1994 and 98 respectively.

While these are certainly entertaining, the one recorded in 1975 at Electric Lady studios is the gem, and includes a selection of songs from The Great Fatsby. The atmosphere is electrifying, as West and the band constantly raise the stakes, finishing with a sensational rendition of his old band Mountain’s Mississippi Queen.

Malcolm Dome

Van Der Graaf Generator The Charisma Years 1970-1978 VIRGIN/UNIVERSAL

Carry on, follow that Hammill.

HERMAN PERMENTIER/PRESS

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s a young lad in the early 1970s, I purchased a budget compilation titled Van Der Graaf Generator 68-71 on the assumption that, given their exotic name, VDGG must be a heavy metal combo. I was wrong (or was I? Discuss), but nevertheless became a fan for life, enraptured – or perhaps incarcerated – by the band’s tortured music and leader Peter Hammill’s mad poetry.

Fast-forward to the present and here we have VDGG, super-sized. Dwarfing the single-vinyl 68-71, the CD- and DVD-tastic The Charisma Years is a monster. It comprises 20 discs and covers the band’s entire recorded works for Charisma Records, including previously unreleased tracks and rare live footage that brims with gauche intensity. Plus there are brand new stereo and surround-sound remixes, along with a 68-page book containing exhaustive notes not seen since yours truly waxed lyrical about Witchfynde, and is more comprehensive than a Grange Hill box set.

But one wonders, with some online sharks demanding in excess of £150 for a copy, who is

going to buy the thing. Back in the day a typical VDGG fan lived in a squat, surviving on a diet of spaghetti hoops and discarded fag-ends. These days they might be right-hand-men to Elon Musk or intergalactic space pioneers, who knows?

Anyway, to the music. Must admit I’m not too keen on the remixes of the albums H To He Who Am The Only One, Pawn Hearts, Godbluff and Still Life.

Their pristineness jars; one cannot help but yearn for the dense nonproduction of the originals. Maybe this will change over time. VDGG also made a rare misstep with The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome in 1977, replacing talismanic saxophonist David Jackson with gnome-like String Driven Thing violinist Grahame Smith. In place of Twirlywoo parps we now had chalk-on-the-blackboard caterwauling. Not a good fit.

Even now, the big draw remains concept piece A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers (from Pawn

Hearts), an insane work so overwhelming in scope it makes Pink Floyd’s The Wall look like a plasterboard partition. It’s also lovely to hear the semi-obscure W again, a morbid love song about a houseplant. Or an anteater. With Peter Hammill, one never really knows.

QQQQQQQQQQ Geoff Barton

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REISSUES

Donnie Iris

Caravan Who Do You Think We Are? MADFISH Massive, career-wide box set lays down Caravan’s enchanting legacy.

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here was a warmth and whimsy to the music of Caravan in their heyday that remains uniquely charming and not at all influential. They did not rage hard, they did not kick ass; they sang sotto voce, with a shy English diffidence, enacting their curious hairpin bends and deft dovetails as if they didn’t like being looked at. Yet while they forsook ego, they brimmed with character.

Part Lewis Carroll, part 1940s/50s filmmakers Powell and Pressburger, they whispered stories of magic found within the mundane, flashes of sensuous joy spotted within the familiar. Their in places beautiful body of work is now gathered in this agreeable retrospective. Being enormous and expensive it probably won’t spark mass conversions to the cult of Caravan, but their 70s albums in particular are treasures, a balmy treat for any newcomers.

No fewer than 37 discs form a careercovering box set, along with a book and off-centre memorabilia. So their appealingly quaint, capricious blends of prog, psychedelia, folk, jazz and pop lilt across their 14 studio and four live albums.

Added to those are 11 previously unreleased live sets, a DVD of live footage, plus a BluRay of Steven Wilson’s remix of In The Land Of Grey And Pink. That 1971 album is their masterpiece, sprawling into

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the 23-minute odyssey Nine Feet Underground. Any debate as to the greatest prog suite ever is invalid without Grey And Pink’s inclusion. It never jars or lurches.

Every decision, every genre-switch within it feels sweetly inevitable. In their modest way, they broke rules and let miracles flood through the resulting fissures.

If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You and For Girls Who Grow Plump In The Night are similarly inventive and insouciant (despite spurts of Carry On humour). And while later albums lapsed into anxious restraint, playing safe as fashions changed, they returned from hiatus to gradually rediscover their form, with 2003’s The Unauthorised Breakfast Item a source of relish.

As for all those new/old live albums, they vary in strength across decades, as would any band’s, but in recent years they’ve been in fine fettle, glowing sumptuous in the night.

Sometimes not granted the kudos their peers receive, Caravan are somehow both taken for granted and an enigma. If Soft Machine were the Enos of the Canterbury scene, then Caravan were the Ferrys, exploring a kind of textured, otherworldly romanticism until it yielded the essence of desire.

QQQQQQQQQQ Chris Roberts

Reissues ROCK CANDY Geeky cult hero’s best work.

If he’d looked like Rick Springfield, and not Buddy Holly, he could have been a huge star. Instead, Donnie Iris was the classic nearly man, first as a member of 70s one-hit wonders The Jaggerz, then as a solo artist making some of the smartest pop-rock records of the early 80s, but rewarded only with a couple of minor hits.

He was pushing 40 when his debut Back On the Streets (8/10) was released in 1980, and with that album he and writer/producer Mark Avsec (keyboard player in his backing band The Cruisers) defined an idiosyncratic style of new-wave power-pop, similar to The Cars, but infused with the sounds of his youth, early rock’n’roll and doo-wop. Standout track Ah! Leah! made the Top 30, and its stacked-vocals chorus made Journey’s Steve Perry a fan.

Also now reissued are the three albums that followed: King Cool (8/10), featuring the two magical songs Sweet Merilee and Pretender; The High And The Mighty (6/10), harder-edged but short on great material and Fortune 410 (7/10), with a hi-tech sheen and a perfect 80s anthem in Do You Compute?.

Donnie didn’t get the breaks, but he sure as hell had the tunes.

Paul Elliott

Nightwish Once NUCLEAR BLAST Finnish giants’ symphonicmetal landmark wears its age well.

Once did more than just give Finland’s most successful band their biggest album, it also forced the rest of the world to take symphonic metal seriously.

Originally released in 2004, it didn’t so much re-imagine Nightwish’s constituent parts – spiralling drama, great swathes of orchestration, singer Tarja Turunen’s Sarah Brightmanesque soprano – as amplify them tenfold, transforming its creators from cult curios into a heavyweight proposition.

The record stands as a symphonic metal benchmark.

The visceral bass whump of I Wish I Had An Angel was custom-built to shake rock club dance floors, while Ghost Love

Score and the show-stopping Higher Than Hope owe as much to grand opera as they do to heavy metal.

The bonus disc featuring an instrumental version of the album might be over-egging an already rich pudding, but Nightwish’s desire to make everything bigger, louder and ambitious remains incontestable.

QQQQQQQQQQ Dave Everley

George Harrison All Things Must Pass (50th Anniversary reissues) CAPITOL/UME When the former Beatle really hit his creative stride.

If all that All Things Must Pass contained was the epochdefining My Sweet Lord and yearning, plaintive Isn’t It A Pity, it would still mark out the album as one of the finest solo records from any ex-Beatle. But of course it doesn’t. Alongside a typically drenched Phil Spector co-production, the album – originally released as a triple set in November 1970, shortly after The Beatles’ break-up – is a majestic statement, the moment Harrison stepped out from the shadow of McCartney and Lennon and became a commercial and creative mega-force in his own right. The album topped charts worldwide, Harrison’s signature slide guitar sound and spiritual symbolism becoming cultural currency.

In many ways, All Things Must Pass picks up where The Beatles’ White Album leaves off, with songs such as Apple Scruffs and Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp capturing the former’s delicious lightness of spirit, and second single What Is Life ebullient and exultant. Who cares whether My Sweet Lord sounds like something else? It’s a glorious song, inspirational and lifeaffirming in its devotional sincerity and monster chorus.

The original triple set contained an Apple Jam disc, featuring the notorious It’s Johnny’s Birthday sung to the tune of Cliff Richard’s Congratulations. Whether you need this is up for debate, but the jamming with pals such as Derek And The Dominos and Badfinger feels cleansing, exciting.

Rolling Stone called All Things “the War And Peace of rock and roll”. That might be going a little far, but there’s no denying its pull and charm 50 years down the line.

The new super-deluxe edition features 70 songs over five CDs/eight LPs, including 42 previously unreleased demos, out-takes and studio jams, plus an exclusive scrapbook.

QQQQQQQQQQ Everett True

.38 Special Reissues SNAKEFARM Represses from southern rock’s pop masters.

Fronted by Donnie Van Zant, younger brother of Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant, .38 Special were the southern rock band for people who didn’t like southern rock. They created a magical cocktail of deep-fried thunder-boogie, streetwise rock’n’roll and melodic AOR, and they delivered it in threeminute chunks of pure rockradio bliss.

These two welcome reissues capture the band at their absolute peak. Wild Eyed Southern Boys (8/10), originally released in 1981, was their fourth album, and their first attempt to escape Skynyrd’s looming shadow. Dropping their twangier moments, this was their shot at pop majesty, and they nailed it with the crossover smash Hold On Loosely, an irresistible clutch of perfect riffs and pop hooks. Fantasy Girl is equally infectious. The title track and Back Alley Sally slip a little country flavour into the mix, but mostly this album is a dynamite slice of hooky pop-rock.

They followed it up a year later with the hard-rocking Special Forces (7/10), another hit-heavy collection that includes the timeless single Caught Up In You as well as rough-’n’-ready rockers like Chain Lightning and Breakin’ Loose.

These remastered versions sound sharper than ever, and are the perfect opportunity to revisit this criminally underrated band.

Sleazegrinder

Supergrass

Queensrÿche Reissues UNIVERSAL Their two biggest albums in big box sets.

For Seattle’s greatest heavy metal band, the best of times came between 1988 and 1990, with two landmark albums: Operation: Mindcrime, Queensrÿche’s artistic peak, and Empire, their commercial peak. Both are now repackaged in deluxe CD-plusDVD box sets, each with a wealth of extra material.

What they created with Operation: Mindcrime (9/10) was one of the all-time classic concept albums, its dark narrative played out in a series of dramatic songs. The extras include live performances of the full album, with the band full of power and conviction.

What followed with Empire (7/10), was Queensrÿche’s biggest success. It sold three million copies in the US. The

remit was simpler: no concept, just 11 finely honed songs.

While it lacked the intensity of Mindcrime, there was one flash of genius that gave the band its only US Top 10 hit – the beautiful, Pink Floyd-inspired Silent Lucidity.

And it’s this song that shines brightest on the box set’s live disc, recorded at Hammersmith Odeon, a defining moment before internal politics, and a new Seattle sound, put an end to Queensrÿche’s glory years.

Paul Elliott

Black Francis 07-11 DEMON/EDSEL Mammoth nine-CD haul of late-period solo goodies.

The Pixies’ welcome return to live work in 2004 marked the end of Frank Black And The Catholics.

As the reunion became permanent, the band’s commander-in-chief reverted to his Black Francis moniker for a run of compelling solo albums whose only common factor was sheer diversity.

Bluefinger (2007, 7/10) is a lean, minimalist tribute to the late Dutch artist and musician Herman Brood, crowned by a corrosive cover of his You Can’t Break A Heart And Have It. The following year’s Svn Fngrs (7/10), rooted in folklore and myth, sees Francis leading a trio through a 20-minute charge of joyfully weird post-punk. By contrast, 2010’s NonStopErotik (6/10) plays lover-boy on the falsetto-led title track, and channels solo Bryan Ferry on O My Tidy Sum, but the keeper is the speedy Lake Of Sin. The Golem (6/10), a condensed version of Francis’s soundtrack to the titular pre-war German Expressionist film, came out a year later and is successful in patches, veering from wired pop to balladry to pastoral prog, with help from Tom Waits’s horn player Ralph Carney. Later in 2011, a hook-up with left-field songwriter Reid Paley resulted in Paley & Francis (7/10), an engaging exercise in low-slung Americana, with shades of Cash, Waits and Lou Reed. B-sides and rarities comp Abbabubba (5/10) is a curio at best. This hefty collection is rounded off with two worthy in-concert sets, Live At The Hotel Utah Saloon (7/10) and Live In Nijmegen (7/10), the former packing a number of Pixies treasures.

QQQQQQQQQQ Rob Hughes

BEST OF THE REST Other reissues out this month.

Super Furry Animals Rings Around The World BMG This fifth album (a Welsh Pet Sounds, now generously expanded to 50 tracks) from one of the UK’s most consistently undervalued bands walks a tightrope between experimentation and accessibility with similar assurance and style to vintage Bowie. 8/10

Heavy Stereo Deja Voodoo: 25th Anniversary DEMON With a sound based in 70s glam but fed through a 90s Creation filter, Britpop also-rans Heavy Stereo’s newly expanded sole album irresistibly recalls Oasis. Hardly essential, but worth a spin. 6/10

Brian Setzer Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy SURFDOG Stepping away from the caricature ‘rockabilly rebels don’t got to school’ pink peg-slacked escapism of the Stray Cats, 2003’s NBFD found 44-year old virtuoso guitarist Setzer jumping genres (blues, doo-wop, bluegrass banjo) while tackling affairs of the heart and soul. 7/10

Orange Goblin Healing Through Fire DISSONANCE Inspired by the Great Fire Of London, the Goblin’s ‘07 sixth pretty much defines good old-fashioned, honest-to-bollocks heavy metal.

Vagrant Stomp is undeniable, as is Ben Ward as he urges his audience to “chaos” on the bonus live disc. A national treasure. 8/10

Aretha Franklin Aretha RHINO Rodgers, Rod, Plant, Hughes and any other ‘Voice of Rock’ you might mention got far more of their phrasing, passion and sheer power from Aretha than they ever did from Elvis. And her absolute best cuts – alongside equally essential deeper ones – are here. 9/10

Thin Lizzy Greatest Hits UMC Clearly, singles-driven Greatest Hits albums are great, and Lizzy’s is better than most, but seven-inch edits are not always our friends. The Rocker loses its entre guitar solo. So there’s that… But it’s splitting hairs. Essential. 9/10

Fire Father’s Name Is Dad: The Complete Fire GRAPEFRUIT Occupying The Who end of late-60s UK psych whimsy, Hounslow’s Fire (featuring a pre-Strawbs Dave Lambert as their focal point) have seen their legend outlast that of many contemporaries who actually charted. Three discs? Not bad for a one-miss wonder. 6/10

The Dark The Beginning & The Living End FALL OUT/JUNGLE Hanoi Rocks fans may be attracted to this unremarkable ‘82 live show

by Islington punks The Dark for the fact that it features Razzle directly prior to him taking to the HR drum stool. It also features two demo tracks from a pre-Raz ‘79 line-up. Form an orderly queue. 4/10

Spiritualized Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space FAT POSSUM

It’s got Dr John on it, the Balanescu Quartet, the London Community Gospel Choir. It’s where Jason Pierce finally had the means to realise his widescreen, if fundamentally minimalist, masterpiece, and he duly obliged. Come Together’s huge. Get in. 8/10

Miles Davis Merci Miles! Live At Vienne RHINO One of Miles Davis’s final performances, Merci Miles! finds the jazz great on inspired improvisational form, if diminished in visceral power by ill health, and features a pair of funk-propelled Prince compositions. One for fans, but hardly a career peak. 6/10

Various Taking Some Time On: Underground Sounds Of 1970 ESOTERIC

The latest four-CD catalogue ram-raid from Cherry Red’s progressive imprint spotlights a key era, as 60s innocence begat 70s heaviness.

Purps, Tull, Mac, Quo, ELP, Traffic, Yes… Possibly of equal interest to the Monopolies Commission as to curious proggers. 7/10

BEST OF THE REST REVIEWS BY IAN FORTNAM

In It For The Money (Remastered Expanded Edition) BMG Britpop’s dark horses’ commanding second album.

After the sugar rush of I Should Coco had worn off, a slightly older, wiser Supergrass donned their producer hats and regrouped for the album that showed what

they were really made of.

Darker and smarter than its predecessor but still punchier than a round with Mike Tyson – monster hits such as Richard III prove that – In It For The Money benefits greatly from its expanded treatment.

Comprising the original record (remastered), plus ample outtakes, B-sides, early demos and rarely heard off-cuts (three-CD and two-LP packages are available in black, white and turquoise), this stuffed-to-thebrim collection showcases joyous moments (Sun Hits The Sky), enigmas (Hollow Little Reign) and ingenious heartbreakers (Late In The Day) alongside works in progress and moments of dicking about.

It’s not all gold, but there’s much to enjoy in the rough edges around the pearls – the thrill of the ride, as well as the destination. And if you still crave some of their early weaponsgrade caffeine, or just wanna lose your shit to Caught By The Fuzz, you can do that with 20 live tracks circa ‘95-98.

Much of the ‘mainstream’ (to their detriment) began to turn away from the band after In It For The Money came out in ‘97 (the same masses who lapped up the fizzy pop of Alright). But this black sheep of the Britpop generation deserves as big a space in our hearts as anything else from that period.

QQQQQQQQQQ Polly Glass

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F F U T S

The Quiet One Dir: Oliver Murray

DVDs BOOKS &

CADIZ/BACKBEAT

Rainbow In The Dark Ronnie James Dio with Mick Wall & Wendy Dio CONSTABLE A story, rather than the story, about the late, great singer leaves a lot still to be told.

R

onnie James Dio wasn’t just the guy who popularised the ‘devil’s horns’ sign. As the singer with Rainbow and Black Sabbath he dealt with some of rock’s trickier band leaders. As a band leader himself he captained his own ship with pragmatic ruthlessness.

Yet today, 11 years after his death from stomach cancer, doubts linger. He was dismissed from Rainbow for not writing love songs. His departure from Sabbath was so muddy a hippopotamus could have wallowed in it. And did he and wife (and band manager) Wendy underpay their on-stage employees, as former Dio guitarist Vivian Campbell claims? In response, they offer precise, albeit unverified, details of remuneration.

Understandably, Rainbow In The Dark is unashamedly the couple’s side of the story.

It stops in June 1986, with Dio (the band) about to headline Madison Square Garden, so there’s nothing on his band’s demise, the reunion with Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler in Heaven & Hell, or his ultimately fatal illness. And since the singer was too ill to complete a proper manuscript, the Sabbath and Dio years have been expertly assembled by Mick Wall from rough notes.

It’s immensely readable, if partisan.

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rack, whacked on Mandrax; he liked a drink, but not in excess; he took no drugs stronger than pot; he never looked at another woman once he met thenwaitress Wendy, whose first response was: “He’s a bit short for me.” The tales of his Italian-American upbringing in New York State (such as the grandfather who owned a car, but only to impress his friends, since he couldn’t drive) rattle along, but for all his beguiling detail vis-a-vis professional relationships, beyond Wendy the personal is avoided. Indeed it’s a surprise when he announces after 105 pages that “I was married to my first wife Loretta”. That’s her only mention, but it’s one more than his son gets.

Dio emerges as an Anglophile with a liking for real ale, British guitarists and Fawlty Towers, who lived in a London flat above Jon Lord and below Ian Paice while making the third Elf album. Ritchie Blackmore begins as “a great guy to hang with” and ends as “the most frustrating person I worked with”, but Dio couldn’t grasp that signing a solo deal while a member of Black Sabbath might have upset Iommi.

There’s surely more of Dio’s saga to be told, but this will certainly do for starters.

QQQQQQQQQQ John Aizlewood

Disappointing biopic of former Rolling Stones bassist.

Almost unbelievably, Bill Wyman emerges from this ultimately unsatisfying documentary portrait, from music promo/Ronnie’s director Murray, as something of a tragic figure. Set aside the fact that Wyman very probably qualifies as one of the luckiest men alive, having been accepted into the nascent Rolling Stones primarily by virtue of the size of his amp, and he comes across as a man who quite literally (if double negatively), can’t get no satisfaction.

Having suffered a fractious relationship with an educationaverse, know-your-place father, and a two-year spell of National Service, Wyman took up the bass, was a married man by the time he joined the Stones, and a good five years older than his nearest bandmate.

A moderate social drinker with no use for drugs, the apparently emotionless ‘Stone-faced’ Wyman became hopelessly addicted to sex. He was Brian’s mate, Mick and Keith had no time for his songs, and the zipless shagging didn’t help. Copious quantities, no satisfaction.

Wyman tells his tale in voiceover, is pictured from behind, hunched, poring Gollum-like over the countless personal artefacts painstakingly catalogued in his obsessively curated archive. He’s trying to make sense of an extraordinary, fated life. He’s clearly not over his time in the Stones. In many ways the band he left in ‘93 still defines him.

And then there’s what’s not so much left out as skimmed over.

Wyman’s controversial ‘89 marriage to Mandy Smith, with whom he’d been involved since she was just 13, is duly dismissed as yet another unfortunate incident: “It was from the heart, it wasn’t lust, which people were seeing it as.

I was really stupid to ever think it could possibly work. She was too young.” The red-top tabloids were mildly disapproving at the time. Today, post-#metoo, they’d be rightly incandescent.

Bill Wyman, 84 years old, a man who in his only to-camera scene is repeatedly moved to tears recalling a meeting with Ray Charles, cuts a sorrowful

figure, a relic of a bygone era of indulged libertine excess, who has – whichever way you carve it – deftly dodged a potentially career-ending bullet.

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Led Zeppelin Vinyl: The Essential Collection Ross Halfin REEL ART A book for Led Zep obsessives.

Given Ross Halfin’s reputation as one of the world’s top rock photographers, you’d be forgiven for thinking that this book, which he annotated, must be a Led Zeppelin photo extravaganza.

But no, it comes from his passion for collecting vinyl.

Every album photographed here is from Halfin’s personal collection. Not only does it include official releases from around the world, but also an extensive array of bootlegs. It’s a visual feast that will keep Zeppelin nerds immersed and fascinated for days/weeks on end. Halfin is at pains to point out that it’s far from a complete catalogue of Zeppelin records, but it’s still impressive and will doubtless inspire others to add to what is included here.

Unless you’re a Zeppelin nut the book will bore you. It is aimed firmly at those who are as in love with vinyl as Halfin is, and it does the job well.

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God Is In The Radio: Unbridled Enthusiasms 1980-2020 Barney Hoskyns OMNIBUS PRESS Panoramic compendium of top-notch writing.

Coming from a time when extraordinary writers set the bar for modern rock journalism and could make or break an act, Barney Hoskyns’s illustrious career started with a 1979 Gladys Knight review for Melody Maker. Soon his eloquently passionate words were gracing NME, Mojo, national newspapers and more, along with definitive tomes, and the Rock’s Backpages online archive he founded in 2000.

Taking its title from Josh Homme (avoiding artists covered in his books), its 50

career-straddling pieces cover a wildly diverse selection including Bowie, Keith Richards, Sandy Denny, the Beach Boys, Nirvana, Joy Division, Sly Stone, Dr John, Willie Nelson, Laura Nyro, Steely Dan, Spiritualized, PJ Harvey, Jack White and Amy Winehouse, all linked by somehow touching the author to his soul. Hoskyns’s talent lies in being able to explain why with compelling authority, mixing meticulous research and unashamed celebration of the music he loves.

QQQQQQQQQQ Kris Needs

Genesis 19752021: The Phil Collins Years Mario Giammetti KINGMAKER Reverent, well-researched book on the prog-pop kings.

Italian Mario Giammetti has authored no less than 15 books regarding the Genesis world, but this is only the second published in English. With a foreword by Mike Rutherford and interviews with all the protagonists, it’s clear the band approve of his diligent documenting across the decades.

His functional prose may have lost something in translation, and there’s an assumption that everybody thinks the Gabriel era was “golden” and the Collins era “trash”, which isn’t true in these enlightened days. Even Genesis fans aren’t that nerdy. Correct awe is issued to A Trick Of The Tail and Wind And Wuthering, with the band talking us through their creation track by track.

There’s little here that cluedup fans won’t already know, but a surprise twist comes when the writer lays into Invisible Touch, which he really, really hates.

Bejewelled with photos and souvenirs, this encomium will be hard for any believer to resist.

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Bob Dylan Odds And Ends SONY PICTURES Bob throws the bums a dime.

The latest documentary in the mission to recreate a visual equivalent of Dylan’s Bootleg Series offers a whistle-stop tour of his career: from Greenwich Village folk ‘messiah’ to electric ‘Judas’; side trips to the New York countryside with The

Hawks (their Basement Tapes collaboration provides the title); the cataclysmic ’66 world tour; and swift analysis of Blood On The Tracks.

Frenetic and often hilarious – especially when original manager Roy Silver and publisher Artie Mogull are on screen (think Groucho Marx-meetsSpinal Tap), the film is episodic.

A sequence of time spent at West Saugerties where Bob and his Canadian chums chilled to bang out some demo recordings, most famously The Mighty Quinn, catches him relaxing, almost off-guard.

Columbia legend John Hammond has the best aside, recalling how he told Dylan there’d been a change of the guard at the company: “Same temple, different rabbi.”

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Why Marianne Faithfull Matters Tanya Pearson FABER Provocatively insightful love letter finally presents the woman’s angle.

It’s refreshing to encounter an account of Marianne Faithfull’s extraordinary life that isn’t written from an ageing male perspective or dwells overly on her inevitably life-altering years close to the Stones before finishing with Jagger.

US-based recovering alcoholic lesbian feminist Tanya Pearson’s deep admiration for Faithfull started when she witnessed her “enigmatic” performance of The Memory Remains with Metallica on Saturday Night Live in 1997.

Commendably, the author gives later albums Before The Poison and late-life masterpiece Negative Capability much deserved prominence as examples of Faithfull’s fearless drive in overcoming addictions, medical onslaughts and personal obstacles to continue her artistic journey.

Recounting her own battles alongside Faithfull’s, Pearson’s woman’s perspective and psychological insights delve deeper into the story that “shaped the course of female sexuality, pop stardom and the British Invasion” than anything previously written about her idol.

Love letter, personal exorcism or fresh analysis, Pearson has awarded Faithfull the mature, career-appraising account she’s long deserved and no man could give her.

QQQQQQQQQQ Kris Needs

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S ’ R E Y BUGUIDE

AC/DC and Def Leppard (inset) are just two of the bands to have benefitted from Mutt Lange’s production magic.

Mutt Lange

Essential Classics

His production technique might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange has overseen many classic albums.

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credits him with improving his playing when he joined during the recording of Pyromania. “When I met Mutt, my playing changed – as a producer he makes you play a lot better,” said Collen. “He does that to everyone he works with.”

During the recording of AC/DC’s Back In Black, Brian Johnson was encouraged by Mutt to sing even higher than he thought attainable, pushing him to the very height of his ability and insisting on precision – as evidenced on opener Hells Bells. “I knew I could never sustain notes like that,” Johnno said of his ’DC debut.

A tee-totaller known for putting in long hours – a work ethic not to every musician’s taste – Lange’s approach to producing is to cultivate, improve and polish a piece of music over and over until it’s faultless. It’s a meticulous and painstaking approach, and undoubtedly the hallmark of a perfectionist.

Notoriously private, Lange has done only one interview in his entire career, for the BBC’s 1989 Def Leppard documentary Rock Of Ages. “We would just take each song and try to raise it to the standard of a rock classic,” he said of working with them on Hysteria. “We would just hone and hone and hone until the music itself was right.”

Alex Burrows

AC/DC

Def Leppard

Back In Black (ALBERT, 1980) Having proved himself on Highway To Hell, Lange was the safe pair of hands AC/DC needed after the trauma of Bon Scott’s death and the need to establish new lead singer Brian Johnson.

As the muted guitar count-in to the title track suggests, AC/DC recorded Back In Black live. With focus and bloodyminded determination in spades, they didn’t even use a click track thanks to metronomic drummer Phil Rudd.

The third-best-selling album in history, it’s Lange’s greatest accomplishment. The beauty of Back In Black is that it sounds dirty and ragged while at the same time delivering a perfectly polished audio capture.

Hysteria (PHONOGRAM/MERCURY, 1987)

Waiting for drummer Rick Allen to recover and re-learn the drums following his horrific car accident meant Leppard’s followup to Pyromania came a full four years later. Lange supported Allen even as the drummer lay in hospital thinking his career was over, and his encouragement helped drive Allen’s determination to help develop a custom-built semi-acoustic kit.

The band’s concerns that too much time had passed and their fan base had moved on since Pyromania were unfounded: Hysteria was an absolute monster that put Def Leppard on top of the world and has shifted over 20 million copies to date.

GETTY x2

ynonymous with the high polish of Def Leppard and the filthy boogie of AC/DC during their 80s career peaks, Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange (the nickname comes from his childhood) has been described, appropriately, as the James Cameron of rock producers. But delve deeper into his CV and you might be surprised to find that the reclusive South African-born producer began his career with R&B pub rockers Graham Parker, The Motors and The Rumour, prog-pop group City Boy, country bands Clover and Outlaws, and blues rockers Savoy Brown.

Apart from having technical prowess, what separates a good producer from a great one is the same as what makes a great manager: one that encourages, inspires and develops those around them to perform even better. A talented bass player and a trained singer, Lange is an accomplished musician, and therefore well-placed to understand and respect the mind-set of his protégés. As such, Def Leppard and AC/DC took him to their hearts. For both bands, Lange produced the best-selling albums of their careers, both following their respective tragedies.

Leppard bassist Rick Savage considers Lange a genius, while guitarist Phil Collen

Superior Reputation cementing

Essential Playlist Heat Treatment Graham Parker

Pourin’ It All Out Graham Parker

Touch Too Much Foreigner

AC/DC

Def Leppard

The Cars

4 (ATLANTIC, 1981) As documented by Classic Rock’s Neil Jeffries, the recording of 4 was an intense affair during which even the usually placid Lange lost his cool. Recording it took a staggering 10 months – one of the longest times ever for a single album, especially one that’s under 45 minutes duration.

Even though best-selling single Waiting For A Girl Like You was in the can after just two takes, the budgets were smashed, with recording costs spiralling over $1m. Guitarist Mick Jones took a production credit on the album, finishing up due to Lange being advance booked for Pyromania.

Lange helped with songs, but he didn’t receive any writing credits.

Highway To Hell (ALBERT, 1979) The first of Lange’s legendary AC/DC production triptych, the heavy blues of ’DC was the perfect bridge for Lange after his previous work with the likes of Graham Parker and Savoy Brown.

Persuaded by their label to drop long-time producer George Young (older brother of Malcolm and Angus) for a ’name’, they hired Lange after a mutual dislike of Hendrix engineer Eddie Kramer.

Lange coached Bon Scott on co-ordinating his breathing technique – as demonstrated on the lung-busting Touch Too Much, with Lange providing melodic backing vocals. Even more controversially, he even coached Angus on his guitar solos.

Pyromania (VERTIGO, 1983) Leppard’s third album was their second with Lange following his work on High ‘N’ Dry. He saw the band’s potential when he saw them live, and described them as rough diamonds he could shape and polish. By smoothing off the more angular edges of the band’s Judas Priest and Thin Lizzy influences into radio-friendly rock, he did exactly that.

With accusations that the band had sold out, their new sound had its heavy metal detractors, but thanks to solid rocker Photograph and the anthemic Rock Of Ages (with Lange’s comedy Germanlanguage intro), Pyromania reached No.2 on the US Billboard chart and the UK Top 20.

Heartbeat City (ELEKTRA, 1984) The Cars’ fifth album (their first four were with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker) marked the band’s commercial peak – but at an expense. Recording took six months, much longer than the band liked; their debut took one week. Used to spontaneity, The Cars were demoralised by Lange’s meticulous approach, with days spent getting just one sound perfect.

Frontman Ric Ocasek vowed never to make an album in the same way again. He selfproduced follow-up Door To Door.

But worn down by the fame and fallout of Heartbeat City’s quadruple-platinum sales, he quit the band, who then split.

AC/DC

If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) AC/DC

I Don’t Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats

Diamond Smiles The Boomtown Rats

Hell’s Bells AC/DC

Back In Black AC/DC

You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC

Avoid

Good Worth exploring

Urgent Foreigner

Waiting For A Girl Like You Foreigner

Photograph Def Leppard

Rock Of Ages Graham Parker Heat Treatment (VERTIGO, 1976) One of Lange’s earliest jobs after working with the likes of City Boys and Kevin Coyne, Heat Treatment capitalised on R&B/ new wave rocker Graham Parker’s scorching debut Howlin’ Wind (produced by Nick Lowe).

By comparison, Heat Treatment was a more mature, slicker and less raucous affair, but it emphasises Parker’s rapid singersongwriter growth – comparable to Elvis Costello but maintaining a swagger like Dr Feelgood.

With the benefit of hindsight, Parker has said Heat Treatment is one of his least favourite own albums, describing Lange’s production as “stiff”. But for a 27-year-old producer it still shows much potential.

The Boomtown Rats The Fine Art Of Surfacing (ENSIGN, 1979)

Bob Geldof and co. hired Lange to produce their first three albums before moving on to Tony Visconti. Surfacing was their third and most diverse-sounding one.

The grimly prophetic subject matter of lead single I Don’t Like Mondays scored them their second No.1 single, following Rat Trap, with Geldof inspired by Lange’s professionalism.

“Because of Mutt, I’d already begun writing with structure and melody,” he said of TFTT. “I wrote She’s So Modern and Mutt said: ‘That’s a pop song.’” Surfacing built on that success by widening their sound but remaining resolutely Irish.

Muse

Michael Bolton

Drones (HELIUM-3, 2015) Prior to recording the Drones album, lead vocalist Matt Bellamy worried that Lange would engender Muse with an inappropriately commercial sound. But the stripped-down conceptualism of Drones brought plaudits from the mainstream as well as from the heavy metal and prog press. It won the 2016 Grammy award for best rock album, proving that Lange has still got what it takes in the 21st century. “He has the air of a person who hasn’t lived in the constraints of normal society or life for a very long time,” Bellamy said of the producer.

“You feel like you’re in the presence of some sort of guru, or spiritual outsider.”

The One Thing (COLUMBIA, 1993) Even if you’re a hard-core Michael Bolton fan, it’s unlikely that The One Thing will be one of your faves. Mutt Lange is at his best when afforded auteur status and given the freedom to own a project himself. Is there any truly classic album that was produced by committee?

With two other pop producers (plus Bolton himself) getting involved in the production, it was clear from the start that its lack of a cohesive overarching sound meant it wouldn’t match the soft-rocker’s previous albums’ sales. But in purely commercial terms, Lange hasn’t produced a bad album; The One Thing still reached No.3 in the US with triple-platinum sales.

Def Leppard

You Might Think The Cars

Rocket Def Leppard

Animal Def Leppard

Pour Some Sugar On Me Def Leppard

Dead Inside Muse

Psycho Muse

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Steelhouse

The Darkness, Quireboys, Uriah Heep and more bring back the festival spirit. ’Appy days indeed.

The High-Voltage What’s On Guide DARREN GRIFFITHS

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

96 Interviews

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99 Tour Dates

102 Live Reviews

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CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 95

“We’ll still be doing a fortiethanniversary set. That won’t change; we haven’t put out any new material.”

Saxon Frontman Biff Byford hopes it’ll be fourth time lucky for the band’s ‘40th-anniversary’ tour.

None of the band got it, no, though my daughter did.

She’s okay now, though.

You and Seb performed a couple of ticketed streaming shows, titled Stay In, Rock Out. That was quite good fun. I found it exhilarating. An hour before going live the adrenaline started to flow.

So Saxon’s Fortieth Anniversary Tour, Castles & Eagles, has now become the Forty-Second Anniversary Tour.

The posters now have the zero [from the year 2020] hanging off. But we’ll still be doing a fortiethanniversary set. That won’t change; we haven’t put out any albums of new material.

Working with Seb must have been rewarding.

It was fun. Seb is not Yngwie Malmsteen but he’s a really good riff guitarist and the album [Red Brick City] came out very well.

All the same, as a frontman who thrives on your relationship with an audience it must have felt a bit strange?

It’s just different. You just have to bring a bit of humour into it, to draw people in and get them involved. It felt a bit like the old days.

The tour was postponed what, three times?

That must be demoralising.

Well, the first postponement was because I had a heart attack [in September 2019]. I was in hospital for two weeks. I didn’t feel too bad, and I had wanted to do the three UK shows, but the doctors

Did any of the members of Saxon catch covid?

96 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

GETTY

How was lockdown for you?

Well, I made some albums. Right at the beginning I did my solo album [School Of Hard Knocks], and then we [Saxon] did our covers album Inspirations. I also did one with my son Seb [under the name Heavy Water] that’s just about to come out. I wasn’t just going to sit around on my arse, I used it to inspire me.

told me I would die. We did three in Germany in 2020, and those were the last before everything closed down.

Regrettably Krokus are unavailable for the re-re-scheduled dates, now due in January.

They had been due to call it a day, and we offered them the same deal for the new shows, but they told us: ‘Sorry, we’ve retired’.

You must be looking forward to playing at Bloodstock in a couple of weeks?

I can’t wait. But the travel restrictions are a nightmare.

Some of our crew are from Germany, and Nibbs [Tim ‘Nibbs’ Carter, bassist] is in America at the moment and we don’t even know if he can get back into the country. What really annoys me is the lack of guidance. It’s all well and good [looking after] ballet and theatre, I’m all for that, but somebody should make some fucking decisions about touring bands. We are not earning anything, and haven’t done for two years now. That’s a long, long time. I’m keeping fit, writing songs and looking after myself, but it’s a massive blow.

Can you be more specific about the way the music industry has been treated?

Touring, and rock music specifically, is being ignored.

In lobbying terms we just don’t have a big enough voice compared to the arts. The government forgets how much money music generates for this country.

A lot of bands tour at our level – we pay lighting engineers, road crew and managers. Saxon are not a multi-platinum band, we have to work hard for our money. So we wait, and when it comes round we must be ready to go.

On top of that there was Brexit to deal with.

Brexit makes things so much harder for a band like us. A lot of people voted with their hearts, and maybe now think they made a bad decision. If only the government had negotiated a better deal.

We’ve lost grass-roots venues, road crew members, booking agents and even bands, all irreplaceable cogs in the infrastructure.

Oh, things will be a lot leaner, put it that way. What’s happening to the venues is really sad. I suspect they didn’t get too much of the government’s grant.

Manchester, for instance, lost loads of small places.

We would be happy to do some shows to support these places.

Are face masks here to stay?

When I’m on stage looking out I expect to see a mix of masks and non-masks. Maybe they should put those happy to wear masks up in the balcony? I really don’t know what the solution will be. Feelings are running high, and there’s a danger of flashpoints.

Could we be coming to the end the golden age of rock music? Might all this all be a tipping point?

It’s certainly not tipping me over the edge. Without a doubt things are going to be hard, but where there’s a will there’s a way, and there are plenty of young, talented bands around.

Finally, what’s happening with the new Saxon album, completed before everything shut down?

It comes out on February 4, 2022. A massive tour is being booked to begin that same month. So fingers crossed on that. DL

The Robin 2 Promoter and events co-ordinator Brett Hall on the Midlands music venue.

O

riginally in Brierley Hill as the Robin, and located in nearby Bilston since 2003, the Robin 2 has been a favourite music venue on the Midlands music scene for almost a quarter of a century.

When was the last concert staged at the Robin 2?

Pre-covid we put on at least five shows per week. But apart from a socially distanced memorial charity event to honour a lady from our organisation that sadly died, our last concert at full capacity – which is seven hundred people – was back in March 2020.

The venue reopens on August 18. Will that be with a socially distanced audience?

It’ll be as close to normality as possible. We will still have Track And Trace in place and there will be hand sanitiser. Although it’s no longer a legal requirement, we will ask people to wear masks.

And of course if you have symptoms of any kind then please stay at home.

So-called Freedom Day has been and gone. Why is it taking so long to reactivate the Robin?

That’s largely due to the ‘pingdemic’. As we started to consider reopening our doors, three members of staff were ordered to self-isolate for ten days.

Delaying the decision allows more people to get double-jabbed.

Did you receive a grant from the government?

We received a standard Arts Council grant at the beginning of August, which of course was extremely welcome. But the Live Music Venue Trust have worked tirelessly to help so many venues to survive. If it wasn’t for them, along with the Arts Council, a lot of places to hear live music would have gone under.

Were you forced to furlough staff?

Like so many other venues, that’s what happened, unfortunately.

How did having to close the venue for such a long time affect your own mental health?

It was definitely a shock to the system. My partner and I got Netflix, but after two or three weeks we realised you can only binge-watch so much telly.

I just wanted to get back to what I do best. So it was certainly a very challenging experience.

The latest from the government is that from the end of September everyone wanting to be allowed into a venue must provide proof of

having had two vaccinations. How do you feel about that?

It’s difficult, because there are people that cannot have the jab for medical reasons; it could harm them more than the virus. The government needs to take a long, hard think about that. There should be some exceptions to the rule.

More generally, what’s your view on how they have handled the pandemic?

The only way I can answer that one is by referring to my previous comment. I am so, so thankful for the Live Music Venue Trust. If it wasn’t for their hard work, the night-time economy would have been in a far, far worse position than it is now.

As a semblance of normality returns, are there going to be too many bands on the road?

Everyone is now dying to get out there, so my worry is whether there will be too much too soon.

After sixteen months of nothing, it’s like a blockage suddenly being removed.

Yeah. It’s going to be so busy, with artists big and small playing. Fans of live music – and I include myself in that – might find it hard to decide what they want to see. These performers have craved getting back to doing what they love, and who can blame them, but there are going to be all sorts of annoying date clashes.

Are you having to turn bands down for the Robin?

Yeah, sadly I am. When they ask about slots in December or a particular month, I’m having to reply: “I’m really sorry, we’ve got nothing.”

Will the confidence of older rock fans take a while longer to return than that of younger ones?

Consumer confidence is a bit of a grey area, and I completely understand that. The government has done a very, very good job of telling us of the dangers of covid-19, but now we’re back open there will be a bit of apprehension. Some just want to get back immediately to how it was, but others will take their time. We want you guys to feel safe, but if it isn’t the case then I totally get that.

How optimistic are you for the live music industry’s long-term future?

I’ve got to believe that the support for live music, the arts and our venues will always be there.

They’re an integral part of our society, and I hope that support never goes away. However, given what we have gone through I think we should take things one step at a time, until full confidence returns. DL

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 97

Seeing “a light at the end of the tunnel”: Vans For Bands director Tarrant Anderson.

Vans For Bands The transport company’s Tarrant Anderson talks about how lockdown hit business, but how they were able to help the NHS.

I

t’s a similar story for countless companies and individuals whose livelihood relies on live music. Until covid-19 came along, Vans For Bands supplied vehicles for 100 tours per month, transporting up to 10,000 artists and crew each year on 50 splitter vans and 12 sleeper coaches. Now they’re looking forward to getting the vehicles out of the garage and getting back down to business.

When did Vans For Bands have to shut down?

In March 2020 our vehicles were booked solidly until the end of the summer. We lost millions of pounds.

Did you receive assistance from any of the government bodies set up to help?

We did. We’ve been extremely lucky to have been supported by the Arts Council Recovery Fund, probably because we do so much work with emerging and grass-roots artists.

Were you forced to furlough employees?

Yes. Throughout lockdown the company was run by a skeleton crew. We also unfortunately had to trigger a redundancy process, and lost some staff that way.

We now employ seventeen people, down a bit from before the pandemic.

98 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Were you able to do anything else with your vehicles during lockdown?

Funnily enough, lots. We donated our sleeper coaches to NHS hospitals during the first wave, for frontline staff to use as rest and decompression areas.

They provided a space that doctors and nurses could use to get out of their PPE for a break, a cup of tea, even a sleep. It was a really great thing to be a part of, and it gave us something to focus on when everything else was very bleak. Also, a number of vans became mobile covid19 testing vehicles, a fantastic initiative spearheaded by a company called REM Events who transferred their skill set from the events industry to part of the solution to this mess.

We also converted one of our coach workshops into a live streaming facility for emerging and grass-roots artists, enabling them to put on streams for no up-front cost. The expense of staging the streams was crowd-funded. It ended costing us quite a bit, but it felt like a positive thing to do for our live music community.

How well do you think the government coped with the pandemic?

In general they did the best they could in a very difficult situation, but our industry has been hung out to dry latterly. It’s been clear for months that live events could have reopened safely with testing in place. Our sector is very, very good at working with regulations to deliver safe events. We could have opened far earlier. That they chose to axe all restrictions on July 19 was nonsensical, and to employ a narrative explicitly linking the opening of live events with a surge in case numbers was downright deceitful. Any fool could see the spike came from the Euros. The cat was already out of the bag before July 19 and the government had no choice but to throw the doors wide open at that point.

But if rising case numbers require restrictions to be reimposed, and the live events industry once again bears the brunt, there will a lot of very, very angry people in our sector.

“We donated our sleeper coaches to NHS hospitals during the first wave, for frontline staff.”

Now that we are seeing the return of a semblance of normality, are you booked up to anything like the level you were before the pandemic?

We’re a long way off normality, but we’re also a long way from where we were a month ago. Thankfully the wheels are now turning and there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. DL

Tour Dates IAN ANDERSON: JETHRO TULL’S THE PROG YEARS

Bath Reading Aylesbury Leicester Brighton London Poole Perth Glasgow Stoke-on-Trent Blackburn

ARENA

London Sheffield Bilston Kinross Southampton Liverpool

Forum Hexagon Waterside De Montfort Hall Dome Shepherd’s Bush Empire Lighthouse Concert Hall Pavilion Theatre Victoria Hall King George’s Hall

Camden Powerhaus Corporation Robin 2 Backstage At The Green Hotel 1865 Academy

BAD TOUCH, PISTON

Norwich Newcastle Glasgow Dundee Manchester Nottingham Wolverhampton Leeds Buckley Newport Cardiff Exeter Southampton London Gravesend

Waterfront Studio The Cluny King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Beat Generator Bread Shed Bodega KK’s Steel Mill Key Club Tivoli The Patriot Clwb Ifor Bach The Cavern Joiners Arms Islington Academy 2 Red Lion

BLAZE BAYLEY

Ballymena Bridgwater Plymouth Gloucester Blackpool Stoke-on-Trent Norwich Sheffield Winchester London Glasgow Newcastle Grimsby Manchester Wolverhampton

Diamond Rock Club Cobblestones The Junction Dick Whittington Waterloo Music Bar Eleven Waterfront Corporation Railway Camden Underworld Ivory Blacks Trillians Yardbirds Club Club Academy KK’s Steel Mill

THE BLACK CROWES

London Manchester

Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 27 Sep 28 Sep 29 Sep 30

Brixton Academy Apollo

Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 3 Oct 4 Oct 5 Oct 6 Nov 17 Nov 19 Nov 20 Nov 21 Nov 22 Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Nov 19 Nov 30 Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3 Sep 4 Sep 10 Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 24 Sep 25 Oct 15 Oct 16 Nov 24 Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 27 Dec 11

Oct 23, 24 Oct 26

BLACK STONE CHERRY, KRIS BARRAS BAND

Bristol Birmingham Lincoln Nottingham Leeds Manchester Glasgow Edinburgh Newcastle Liverpool Folkestone Cardiff Exeter Southampton Cambridge London

Academy Academy Engine Shed Rock City Academy Apollo Barrowland Usher Hall Academy Academy Leas Cliff Hall St David’s Hall Great Hall Guildhall Corn Exchange Royal Albert Hall

Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 11 Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 27 Sep 28 Sep 29

BLACKWATER CONSPIRACY,

THESE WICKED RIVERS

Liverpool Edinburgh Glasgow Carlisle Newcastle Stoke-on-Trent Leeds Oxford Blackpool Newport Sheffield Leicester Birmingham Gravesend Swansea London Belfast Dublin

Arts Club Bannerman’s Bar Hard Rock Café Brickyard Trillians Eleven Warehouse Academy 2 Waterloo Music Bar The Patriot Corporation The Musician Academy 3 Red Lion Patti Pavilion Islington Academy 2 Empire Whelans

Sep 8 Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 14 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 21 Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 26 Oct 22 Oct 24

BLUE ÖYSTER CULT (2022)

Leicester Newcastle

De Montfort Hall City Hall

RECO MME …

NDS

DEEP PURPLE

Oct 18 Oct 19

BLUES CARAVAN

JEREMIAH JOHNSON, WHITNEY SHAY, RYAN PERRY

Southampton Chislehurst Nottingham Grimsby Doncaster Hartlepool Edinburgh Bilston London

1965 Beaverwood Club Bodega Yardbirds Club The Leopard United FC Bannerman’s Bar Robin 2 Oxford Street 100 Club

BROKEN WITT REBELS

Leicester Liverpool Leeds Cambridge Nottingham London Guildford Southampton Brighton Tunbridge Wells Norwich Exeter Cardiff Buckley Wolverhampton Edinburgh Aberdeen Glasgow

Academy 2 Jimmy’s Lending Room Portland Arms Bodega Oxford Street 100 Club Boileroom Joiners Arms Green Door Store Forum Waterfront Cavern Clwb Ifor Bach Tivoli KK’s Steel Mill Mash House Tunnels Garage

Sep 13 Sep 14 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 21

Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 27 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Jan 6 Jan 7 Jan 8 Jan 12 Jan 13 Jan 14 Jan 15 Jan 20 Jan 21 Jan 22

BUCKCHERRY, DAMON JOHNSON & THE GET READY, SCARLET REBELS

Milton Keynes Leeds Blackpool London Nuneaton Newcastle Manchester Chester Wolverhampton Southampton Cardiff

Craufurd Arms Warehouse Waterloo Music Bar Islington Academy Queen’s Hall Riverside Academy 2 Live Rooms KK’s Steel Mill Engine Rooms Tramshed

Nov 29 Nov 30 Dec 1 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 7 Dec 8 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 12

THE CADILLAC THREE,

BRENT COBB

Manchester Leeds Birmingham Nottingham Newcastle Glasgow London Cardiff Dublin Belfast

CARAVAN

Basingstoke London Gloucester Brighton Chester Leeds Bury Bilston Bury St Edmunds Newcastle Glasgow Bristol Exeter Dover

Academy Academy Institute Rock City Academy Academy Chalk Farm Roundhouse Great Hall Whelans Limelight Haymarket Highbury Union Chapel Guild Hall Old Market Live Rooms Brudenell Social Club The Met Robin 2 Apex The Cluny Oran Mor The Fleece Phoenix Arts Centre Booking Hall

Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 9 Dec 11 Dec 12 Dec 13 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 21 Oct 22 Oct 23 Oct 27 Oct 28 Oct 29

ELIANA CARGNELUTTI

Southampton Stamford Newcastle Bilston Edinburgh Liverpool Sedgefield Lincoln

1865 Nov 11 Mama Liz’s Nov 14 Cluny 2 Nov 15 Robin 2 Nov 16 Bannerman’s Bar Nov 17 Phase 1 Nov 18 Rock & Blues Club Nov 19 Blues, Rhythm & Rock Festival Nov 20

CATS IN SPACE, VAMBO

Lancaster Nottingham Bilston Wavendon Hexham Sheffield Norwich Southampton

Grand Theatre Stonedead Festival Robin 2 The Stables Queens Hall Rockin’ The Bowl Festival Epic Studios Engine Rooms

Aug 26 Aug 27 Sep 2 Sep 3 Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 15 Sep 16

Still going strong after more than 50 years, and their belterstuffed catalogue and live performances are two reasons why.

See below for dates. Currently October 20 to 26, 2022 Brighton London Nottingham Dover

Concorde 2 Highbury Garage Rescue Rooms Booking Hall

Sep 23 Oct 2 Dec 15 Dec 16

ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM,

TUPPENNY BUNTERS

Manchester Southend-on-Sea Cambridge Leicester Manchester Co Durham Edinburgh Glasgow Newcastle York Bedford Bilston Winchester London Chelmsford

Psych Festival Moonraker Portland Arms The Musician Night People Northern Kin Festival Sneaky Pete’s Nice & Sleazy Trillians Fulford Arms Esquires Robin 2 The Railway Islington The Lexington Hot Box

Sep 4 Sep 14 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 20 Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 24 Oct 27 Oct 28 Oct 29 Oct 30

Bristol Newcastle Glasgow Nottingham Manchester London

Thekla Cluny King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Bodega Social Club Rebellion Camden Underworld

Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 8 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 11

Arena

Oct 26

EAGLES OF DEATH METAL

Brighton Cardiff Newcastle Birmingham Dublin Belfast Glasgow Leeds London Nottingham Manchester Bristol

ESOTERICA

Birmingham Manchester London London Bournemouth

GENESIS

Recommended

DANKO JONES

Manchester

Dublin Belfast Birmingham Manchester Leeds Newcastle Liverpool Glasgow London

Chalk Tramshed University Institute Academy Limelight SWG3 Beckett University Chalk Farm Roundhouse Rock City The Ritz Academy

Nov 22 Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Nov 29 Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 5 Dec 6

Actress & Bishop Deaf Institute Camden Black Heart Camden Underworld The Anvil

Sep 1 Sep 2 Sep 3 Sep 9 Sep 10

3 Arena SSE Arena Utilita Arena Arena First Direct Arena Utilita Arena M&S Bank Arena The Hydro O2 Arena

Sep 15, 16 Sep 18 Sep 20, 21 Sep 24, 25 Sep 27, 28 Sep 30, Oct 1 Oct 3, 4 Oct 7, 8 Apr 11-13

GIRLSCHOOL, ALKATRAZZ FEATURING

DOOGIE WHITE

THE DARKNESS, BRITISH LION Brighton Margate Bournemouth Southend-on-Sea Norwich Cambridge Reading Cardiff Exeter Guilford Liverpool Manchester Hull Stoke-on-Trent Bristol Glasgow Newcastle Leeds Nottingham Birmingham London

Dome Winter Gardens Academy Cliffs Pavilion UEA Corn Exchange Hexagon Great Hall Great Hall G Live Academy Academy Bonus Arena Victoria Hall Academy Barrowland Academy Academy Rock City Academy Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Nov 17 Nov 19 Nov 20 Nov 21 Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 29 Nov 30 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 6 Dec 7 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 13 Dec 14 Dec 16, 17

DAY OF THE DEMON

DEMON, TYTAN, NEURONSPOILER, RAMPANT

London

Camden Unicorn

Sep 18

O2 Arena The Hydro First Direct Arena Arena

Oct 20 Oct 22 Oct 23 Oct 25

Eleven Waterloo Music Bar Hangar 18 Yardbirds Club Bannerman’s Bar Night Train Trillians Camden Underworld KK’s Steel Mill Voodoo Lounge Limelight

GRAND SLAM, STARSEED

Bilston Bradford Grimsby Edinburgh Glasgow Newcastle Milton Keynes Stoke-on-Trent Swansea London

GUN

DEEP PURPLE, BLUE ÖYSTER CULT (2022)

London Glasgow Leeds Birmingham

Stoke-on-Trent Blackpool Swansea Grimsby Edinburgh Bradford Newcastle London Wolverhampton Dublin Belfast

Bath Buckley Swansea Wolverhampton Bury St Edmonds Manchester London Glasgow Aberdeen

Nov 18 Nov 19 Nov 20 Nov 21 Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 28 Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4

Robin 2 Night Train Yardbirds Club Bannerman’s Bar Cathouse Trillians Craufurd Arms Eleven Hangar 18 Tufnell Park Dome

Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 20 Oct 21 Oct 22 Oct 23

Komedia Tivoli Hanger 18 KK’s Steel Mill The Apex Night People Islington Assembly Rooms Barrowland Ballroom Lemon Tree

Dec 1 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 7 Dec 8 Dec 9 Dec 11 Dec 12

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 99

RECO MME Southampton Newcastle Stoke-on-Trent Bradford Wavendon Brighton

Engine Rooms The Cluny Eleven Night Train The Stables Mid-Sussex Music Hall

Dec 14 Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19

STEVE HARLEY ACOUSTIC BAND

Isle Of Man Northwich Swindon Bognor Haslemere St Ives Great Torrington Ely Northampton

Tower House Memorial Court Wyvern Theatre South Downs Folk Festival Hall Cornwall Acoustic Festival Plough Arts Centre The Maltings Spinney Theatre

Aug 20 Aug 21 Sep 10 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 19 Nov 12 Nov 14

STEVE HARLEY & COCKNEY REBEL

Birmingham Bridlington Edinburgh Yarm Lancaster Lytham St Anne’s London Port Talbot Holmfirth Harrogate Leamington Spa Bury St Edmunds Cheltenham Bath Bexhill-on-Sea Glasgow

BETH HART

Bournemouth Warrington Cambridge York Bath London Newcastle Birmingham Bexhill

Town Hall Oct 21 Spa Oct 22 Queen’s Hall Oct 23 Princess Alexandra Auditorium Oct 24 Grand Theatre Nov 3 Lowther Pavilion Nov 5, 6 Shepherd’s Bush Empire Dec 5 Princess Royal Theatre Dec 8 Picturedrome Dec 9 Royal Hall Dec 10 The Assembly Dec 11 Apex Dec 15 Town Hall Dec 16 Forum Buildings Dec 17 De La Warr Pavilion Dec 18 Armadillo Mar 5

BIC Parr Hall Corn Exchange Barbican Forum Palladium City Hall Symphony Hall De La Warr Pavilion

Oct 25 Oct 27 Oct 29 Oct 31 Nov 3 Nov 5, 6 Nov 10 Nov 11 Nov 14

Recommended HAWKWIND East Devon Cambridge Leamington Spa Brighton York Liverpool Manchester London

Hawkfest Corn Exchange The Assembly Dome Barbican Grand Central Hall The Ritz Palladium

INGLORIOUS, MERCUTIO Nottingham Gloucester Exeter Plymouth Southampton Brighton Bristol London Milton Keynes Swansea Birmingham Norwich Liverpool Stoke-on-Trent Buckley Manchester Newcastle Glasgow Bradford Holmfirth

Rock City Guildhall Phoenix Arts Centre The Junction Engine Rooms Chalk Thekla Islington Assembly Hall Craufurd Arms Sin City Asylum Waterfront Phase One Sugarmill Tivoli Academy 3 Riverside Cathouse Night Train Picturedrome

Aug 27-29 Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 14 Sep 16 Sep 26 Sep 27 Oct 28

Sep 10 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 26 Sep 27 Sep 30 Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 3 Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8

Cardiff Sittingbourne Chester Leeds Newcastle Manchester Nottingham London Edinburgh Aberdeen Hartlepool

Globe Bourne Music Club Live Rooms Brudenell Social Club The Cluny Night & Day Café Bodega Oxford Street 100 Club Voodoo Rooms Drummonds Durham Steel Works Club

ARYON JONES

London

Hoxton Colours

Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 26 Dec 7

Great Yarmouth Edinburgh

HRH Blues Festival Bannerman’s Bar

100 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Nov 11 Nov 13

Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 16

Engine Rooms SWX Shepherd’s Bush Empire SWG3 Galvanizers Vicar Street The Ritz Chalk Academy Institute Night People The Exchange Brudenell Social Club Stereo Hare & Hounds Oxford Street 100 Club

JOHN LEES’ BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST

Manchester London Leeds

LEPROUS

London

RNCM Islington Assembly Hall City Varieties Camden Electric Ballroom

Oct 23 Oct 24 Oct 25 Oct 26 Oct 27 Oct 28

Nov 20 May 10 May 12 Dec 4

LINDISFARNE

Bury St Edmunds Shrewsbury All Cannings Wavendon London Bradford Stanhope Lowdham Shoreham-by-Sea Bilston Porthcawl Skegness Kinross Carlisle Morecambe Newcastle Nottingham Sheffield Norwich London Southampton Cardiff Manchester Holmfirth Birmingham Cambridge Glasgow Dublin Belfast

Apex Aug 27 Folk Festival Aug 29 Rock Against Cancer Sep 5 The Stables Sep 10 Kensington Nells Jazz & Blues Sep 17 Cathedral Sep 18 Northern Kin Festival Sep 19 Warthogs Sep 24 Ropetackle Arts Sep 25 Robin 2 Sep 26 Grand Pavilion Oct 16 Butlins Folk Festival Nov 28 Green Hotel Dec 3, 4 Old Fire Station Dec 5 The Platform Dec 10 City Hall Dec 18 Rock City Leadmill Waterfront Islington Assembly Hall Engine Rooms Tramshed Academy 2 Picturedrome Symphony Hall Junction Garage Voodoo Lounge Limelight 1

MANIC STREET PREACHERS

Cardiff Newcastle Edinburgh Dundee Stoke-on-Trent Manchester York Glasgow Leeds Portsmouth Bournemouth Cambridge Bath Brighton London

MARILLION

Hull Edinburgh Cardiff Manchester Cambridge Birmingham Liverpool Bath London

Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 19 Sep 20 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 27 Sep 29 Sep 30 Oct 2 Oct 3

Motorpoint Arena City Hall Usher Hall Caird Hall Victoria Hall Apollo Barbican Barrowland Academy Guildhall Academy Corn Exchange Forum Dome Wembley Arena

Sep 19, 20 Sep 26 Sep 28 Sep 29 Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 4 Oct 5 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 10 Oct 11 Oct 13 Oct 14 Dec 3

City Hall Usher Hall St David’s Hall Bridgewater Hall Corn Exchange Symphony Hall Philharmonic Hall Forum Hammersmith Apollo

Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 17 Nov 18 Nov 20 Nov 21 Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 26, 27

MASON HILL, HOLLOWSTAR

Aberdeen Glasgow Galashiels Dublin Belfast Cambridge Sheffield Bristol Brighton Southend-on-Sea Cardiff Southampton

Tunnels Garage Macarts Grand Social Voodoo Lounge Junction 2 Corporation The Fleece Patterns Leos The Globe Joiners

THE DARKNESS

Nov 19 Nov 20 Nov 21 Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Nov 30

THE LAST INTERNATIONALE

Manchester Bristol Leeds Glasgow Birmingham London

NDS

Sep 2 Sep 3 Sep 4 Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 14 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 20 Sep 21

Grab a return ticket to fun and back, and blow away your covid blues with a band who put some levity into their shows.

See previous page for dates. Currently November 17 to December 17.

Bradford Blackpool London Manchester Wolverhampton Leeds Nottingham Norwich Newcastle Liverpool Dover Oxford

Nightrain Waterloo Music Bar Camden Underworld Rebellion KK’s Steel Mill Key Club Rescue Rooms Waterfront Studio Cluny 2 Arts Club Booking Hall Academy 2

Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 26 Oct 3 Oct 4 Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9

MASSIVE WAGONS

London Sheffield Nottingham Southampton Exeter Birmingham Manchester Southend-on-Sea Cardiff Newcastle Liverpool Glasgow

Islington Academy Rockin’ The Bowl Rescue Rooms Engine Rooms Cavern Club Academy 2 Club Academy Chinnerys The Globe Riverside Hangar 34 Garage

Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 13 Sep 15 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 25 Sep 26

CHANTEL McGREGOR

London Oxford Street 100 Club Sheffield Greystones Morcambe The Platform Hull Adelphi EdinburghBannerman’s Bar Kinross Green Hotel Aberdeen Café Drummond Glasgow Hard Rock Café Bristol Thunderbolt Looe Blues Festival Tavistock The Wharf Derby Flowerpot Grimsby Yardbirds Club

Aug 27 Oct 15 Oct 22 Nov 13 Nov 24 Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 27 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 9 Dec 16

MOGWAI

Glasgow London

Brickyard Academy Witton Albion Club

Aug 21 Aug 28 Aug 29

Royal Concert Hall Alexandra Palace

Nov 7 Feb 25

MOLLY HATCHET

Leeds Cardiff Wolverhampton Southampton London

Warehouse The Globe KK’s Steel Mill Engine Rooms Oxford Street 100 Club

Nov 28 Nov 29 Nov 30 Dec 1 Dec 2

ALANIS MORISSETTE, GARBAGE

Birmingham Leeds Glasgow Manchester London Dublin London

Utilita Arena First Direct Arena The Hydro AO Arena O2 Arena 3 Arena Wembley Arena

Nov 15 Nov 16 Nov 18 Nov 21 Nov 23, 24 Nov 25 Dec 13

ORANGE GOBLIN, SPIRIT ADRIFT, KING CREATURE

Buckley

Tivoli

Dec 9

Limelight 2 Grand Social King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Gorilla Asylum Globe Camden Underworld

Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 13 Dec 14 Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17, 18

OZZY OSBOURNE, JUDAS PRIEST

Nottingham Dublin Birmingham London Manchester Newcastle Glasgow

Motorpoint Arena 3 Arena Resorts World Arena O2 Arena AO Arena Utilita Arena The Hydro

THE PINEAPPLE THIEF WITH GAVIN HARRISON

Dublin Glasgow Manchester Bristol London

Button Factory St Luke’s Church The Ritz SWX Shepherd’s Bush Empire

PRAYING MANTIS, VAMBO

Southampton Newbury Gravesend London Crumlin Norwich Milton Keynes Blackpool Looe Cannock Bradford Newcastle

The Brook Arlington Arts Centre Red Lion Raynes Park Cavern The Patriot Brickmakers Craufurd Arms Waterloo Music Bar Cornwall Rocks Festival The Station Nightrain The Cluny

Feb 27 Mar 1 Mar 4 Mar 7 Mar 9 Mar 12 Mar 14

Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 30 Oct 6 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 12 Oct 13 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16 Oct 17 Oct 18

PURE REASON REVOLUTION,

GAZPACHO

London

MIDNITE CITY

Carlisle Sheffield Northwich

Belfast Dublin Glasgow Manchester Birmingham Cardiff London

Islington Assembly Hall

QUIREBOYS, MASSIVE

Belfast Glasgow Aberdeen Leeds Gateshead Stoke-on-Trent Manchester Gloucester Brighton Birmingham Oxford Southend-on-Sea Bristol Nottingham

Empire Garage Lemon Tree Brudenell Social Club The Sage Sugarmill Academy Guildhall Concorde 2 Institute Bullingdon Chinnerys Thekla Rescue Rooms

Oct 17 Oct 12 Oct 14 Oct 15 Nov 18 Nov 19 Nov 20 Nov 26 Nov 27 Jan 21 Jan 22 Jun 11 Jun 12 Jun 17 Jun 18

MICHAEL SCHENKER GROUP, DORO

Glasgow Leeds Newcastle Wolverhampton London

QMU Academy City Hall KK’s Steel Mill Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Oct 27 Oct 28 Oct 29 Oct 30 Oct 31

SEPULTURA, SACRED REICH, CROWBAR

Wolverhampton Dublin Manchester

KK’s Steelmill Academy The Ritz

Nov 23 Nov 24 Nov 25

WILL IRELAND

CORKY LAING PLAYS MOUNTAIN

Green Hotel Brudenell Social Club Oxford Street 100 Club

LARKIN POE

Southampton Bristol London Glasgow Dublin Manchester Brighton Oxford Birmingham

MAGNUM

ROBERT JON & THE WRECK,

TROY REDFERN

Kinross Leeds London

…

RECO MME Glasgow London

Garage Brixton Electric

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR

Glasgow Edinburgh Newcastle Kendal Manchester Liverpool Leeds Oxford London Bristol Nottingham Swansea Birmingham

St Luke’s Liquid Rooms Riverside Brewery Arts Centre Academy 3 Arts Club Warehouse Academy King’s Cross Lafayette The Fleece Glee Club Sin City The Mill

Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 2 Nov 3 Nov 5 Nov 6 Nov 7 Nov 9 Nov 10 Nov 12 Nov 14 Nov 16 Nov 17 Nov 19 Nov 18

Recommended

SKINDRED, ROYAL REPUBLIC Cambridge Oxford Northampton Leeds Birmingham London Cardiff Bristol Nottingham Glasgow Southampton Sheffield Newcastle Bexhill-on-Sea Manchester Norwich

Junction Academy Roadmender Academy Institute Chalk Farm Roundhouse Tramshed Academy Rock City SWG3 Guildhall Corporation University De La Warr Pavilion Academy UEA

Aberdare Sheffield Milton Keynes Manchester London Stoke-on-Trent Bradford Nottingham Bilston Chester Glasgow Newcastle Blackpool Ballymena

STRAY

Wavendon

SWEET

Brighton Southampton Frome London Birmingham Shrewsbury Bexhill-on-Sea Norwich Newcastle Glasgow Edinburgh Holmfirth Cardiff Manchester Nottingham Bury St Edmunds

Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 30 Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 15 Oct 22 Oct 23 Oct 29 Oct 30 Oct 31

Newcastle Manchester York Cardiff Liverpool Norwich Bath Bournemouth Plymouth Nottingham Bexhill-On-Sea Guilford Coventry London

Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Sat 29 Nov 30 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 7 Dec 8 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 11

The Stables

Nov 21

Chalk 1865 Cheese & Grain Islington Assembly Hall Town Hall Buttermarket De La Warr Pavilion Waterfront Boiler Shop Garage Queen’s Hall Picturedrome University Academy Rock City Apex

Nov 25 Nov 26 Nov 27 Nov 28 Dec 2 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 8 Dec 9 Dec 10 Dec 11 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 19 Dec 20

Academy Academy Barbican St David’s Hall Academy UEA Forum Academy Pavilions Rock City De La Warr Pavilion G Live Empire Shepherd’s Bush Empire

TERRORVISION

Holmfirth Wolverhampton Sheffield

ROB MONK

THERAPY?

Cambridge Norwich Nottingham Brighton

Picturedrome KK’s Steelmill The Foundry Junction Waterfront Rock City Concorde 2

Oct 24 Oct 26 Oct 27 Oct 29 Oct 30 Oct 31 Nov 2 Nov 3 Nov 4 Nov 5 Feb 4 Feb 5

KK’s Steel Mill Clyde Auditorium First Direct Arena Motorpoint Arena Resorts World Arena Wembley Arena

Dec 17 May 21 May 22 May 26 May 27 May 28

& THE BEAUTIFUL DISASTERS, HÄXAN

Edinburgh Carlisle Bradford Blackpool Newcastle London Wolverhampton Buckley Newport Plymouth

Bannerman’s Bar Brickyard Nightrain Waterloo Music Bar Trillians Camden Underworld KK’s Steel Mill Tivoli Patriot Junction

ROCKIN’ THE BOWL

Oct 2 Oct 3 Oct 5 Oct 6 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 11 Oct 12 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 17 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct 22 Sep 11 Sep 17 Nov 5 Oct 19 Oct 20 Oct 22 Oct 23

Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 24 Sep 25 Sep 27 Sep 28 Sep 30 Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 3

Dublin

Olympia

The Brook Islington Assembly Hall Picturedrome

London Camden Underworld Belfast Voodoo Lounge Stoke-on-Trent Eleven Blackpool Waterloo Music Bar Aberdare Jac’s Newcastle Riverside Nov 1 Bradford Nightrain Buckley Tivoli Inverness Monsterfest Bilston Robin 2

VIRGINMARYS

Southampton Bridgwater Swindon Sheffield Bristol Stoke-on-Trent Sunderland Edinburgh Huddersfield Chester Hull Birmingham Manchester

The Joiners Cobblestones Level 3 Corporation The Exchange Eleven Independent Opium The Parish Live Rooms New Adelphi Dead Wax Academy 3

Nov 3 Nov 4 Nov 5 Oct 9 Oct 16 Oct 28 Oct 29 Oct 30 Nov 5 Nov 12 Nov 13 Dec 17 Sep 30 Oct 1 Oct 2 Oct 3 Oct 5 Oct 7 Oct 8 Oct 9 Oct 10 Oct 13 Oct 14 Oct 15 Oct 16

RICK WAKEMAN’S EVEN GRUMPIER CHRISTMAS SHOW

Basingstoke Leicester Bexhill High Wycombe Dorking Cambridge Birmingham Southampton Salisbury Southend-on-Sea Manchester Gateshead Middlesbrough Edinburgh Bradford Hull

The Anvil De Montfort Hall De La Warr Pavilion The Swan Dorking Halls Corn Exchange Town Hall Central Hall City Hall Palace Theatre Bridgewater Hall The Sage Town Hall Queen’s Hall St George’s Hall City Hall

WAYWARD SONS

Dublin Belfast Manchester Glasgow Newcastle Leeds Nottingham Bristol London Wolverhampton

Opium Limelight 2 Academy 3 Cathouse Riverside Wardrobe Rescue Rooms Thekla Islington Academy KK’s Steel Mill

Nov 28 Dec 1 Dec 3 Dec 4 Dec 5 Dec 6 Dec 9 Dec 11 Dec 12 Dec 14 Dec 15 Dec 16 Dec 17 Dec 18 Dec 20 Dec 21 Nov 6 Nov 7 Nov 9 Nov 10 Nov 11 Nov 13 Nov 14 Nov 15 Nov 17 Nov 18

WHITESNAKE, FOREIGNER, EUROPE

(2022)

Dublin Glasgow Newcastle London

3 Arena SEC (SSE Hydro Arena) Utilita Arena O2 Arena

Don Valley Bowl

Apr 13

ROBIN TROWER

Southampton London Holmfirth

Get back into the summer festival swing with Doro (pictured), Massive Wagons, Cats In Space and more.

Sheffield

DEVIN TOWNSEND

VEGA

Jacs Corporation Craufurd Arms Night People Putney Half Moon Eleven Nightrain Billy Bootleggers Robin 2 Live Rooms Cottiers Theatre The Cluny Waterloo Music Bar Diamond Rock Bar

ROGER TAYLOR

THUNDER

Wolverhampton Glasgow Leeds Cardiff Birmingham London

Camden Electric Ballroom Wedgewood Rooms Tramshed Phoenix Arts Centre SWX KK’s Steel Mill The Ritz Warehouse Riverside Garage Olympia Limelight

NDS

THUNDERMOTHER, BETH BLADE

SNAKE OIL AND HARMONY, NATE BERGMAN

London Portsmouth Cardiff Exeter Bristol Wolverhampton Manchester Leeds Newcastle Glasgow Dublin Belfast

…

May10 May 12 May 14 May 16

Manchester Nottingham Birmingham Cardiff

AO Arena Motorpoint Arena Utilita Arena Motorpoint Arena

May 18 May 20 May 22 May 25

THE WILDHEARTS

Cardiff Bristol Exeter Frome Manchester London Norwich Brighton Bournemouth Wolverhampton Looe Newcastle Leeds Galashiels Stirling Aberdeen Sheffield Southampton Birmingham South Shields Inverness

Tramshed SWX Phoenix Arts Centre Cheese & Grain Academy 2 Camden Electric Ballroom Waterfront Chalk Madding Crowd KK’s Steel Mill Cornwall Rocks Boiler House Stylus Mac Arts TolboothSep 21 Lemon Tree Foundry Engine Rooms MMH Radio Birthday Bash Hedworth Hall Monsterfest

Sep 3 Sep 4 Sep 5 Sep 6 Sep 8 Sep 9 Sep 10 Sep 11 Sep 12 Sep 15 Sep 16 Sep 17 Sep 18 Sep 20 Sep 22 Sep 24 Sep 25 Nov 5 Nov 11 Nov 12

Festivals

Sep 10-12

HARD ROCK HELL

SKID ROW, WILDHEARTS, NAZARETH, WOLFSBANE, MORE

Great Yarmouth

Vauxhall Holiday Park

HARD ROCK HELL SLEAZE MICHAEL MONROE, TIGERTAILZ, QUIREBOYS, MORE

SheffieldAcadedemy

ENISFERIUM, WARKINGS, THYRFING, MORE

Sheffield

Academy

FÉLIX RABIN, THE CINELLI BROTHERS, ZOE SCHWARZ, MORE

Lincoln

Alive

AYNSLEY LISTER, MARTIN TURNER, MORE

Looe

Tencreek Holiday Park

Devon

Escot Park

Aug 20-22

BUDE BLUES, RHYTHM & ROCK FESTIVAL

FM, THE WILDHEARTS, MARCO MENDOZA, MORE

Inverness

Ironworks

Penstowe Manor

Nov 5-7

CHELSEA BLUES FESTIVAL

NORTHERN KIN FESTIVAL

BIG COUNTRY, WILKO JOHNSON, NAZARETH, MORE

Co Durham

Castle Park

Chelsea Under The Bridge

Aug 21

CLEETHORPES BLUES, RHYTHM & ROCK FESTIVAL

Don Valley Bowl

BLACK STAR RIDERS, GUN, TERRORVISION, MORE

Newark

Showground

Witton Castle

DIAMOND HEAD, HEART OF A COWARD, INGESTED, MORE Academy

MASON HILL, XANDER & THE PEACE PIRATES, ELLES BAILEY, MORE

Rural Life Living Museum Aug 20-22

CORNWALL ROCKS

THE WILDHEARTS, PRAYING MANTIS, TYGERS OF PAN TANG, MORE

Oct 15-17

GRAVITY FESTIVAL

THE TREATMENT, PRAYING MANTIS, HELL’S ADDICTION, MORE

Cannock

The Station

Sep 10-12

WEYFEST

Whitby

Oct 24

Sep 3-5

UPRISING FESTIVAL

Farnham

Beachcomber

Tencreek Holiday Park

Aug 28

BIG COUNTRY, INGLORIOUS, MORE

Country Durham

WHITBY BLUES RHYTHM AND ROCK FESTIVAL

Looe

Sep 10-12

STONEDEAD FESTIVAL

THE BLOCKHEADS, CINELLI BROTHERS, SOUTHBOUND, MORE

Cleethorpes

Sep 17-19

DORO, MASSIVE WAGONS, CATS IN SPACE, MORE

Leicester

JO HARMAN, MALCOLM BRUCE, SOUTHBOUND, MORE

London

Nov 12-15

STORMIN’ THE CASTLE FESTIVAL

KEN PUSTELNIK’S GROUNDHOGS, STEPHEN DALE PETIT, XANDER & THE PEACE PIRATES, MORE

Bude

Dec 3-5

MONSTER FEST

Sheffield

HAWKWIND, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, GARY NUMAN, MORE

Nov 20

LOOE BLUES FESTIVAL

Faversham

BEAUTIFUL DAYS FESTIVAL

Dec 4, 5

LINCOLN BLUES FESTIVAL

ROCKIN’ THE BOWL

Mount Ephraim Gardens Aug 20-22

Aug 28, 29

HARD ROCK HELL VIKINGS

A NEW DAY FESTIVAL

JOHN LEES’ BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST, THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN, MORE

Nov 4-7

DANA GILLESPIE, KAYLA BROX, MORE Pavilion

Oct 9

WHITBY ROCKS

SARI SCHORR, PISTON, JOANOVARC, MORE

Whitby

Pavilion

Oct 9

WINTERSTORM FESTIVAL Oct 15-17

HARDLINE, VANDENBERG, GLASS TIGER, MORE

Troon

Concert Hall

Nov 26, 27

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 101

The Quireboys

‘Against th e odds, live music is ba ck – and it feels so goo d.’

Mason Hill Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons

The Wildhearts

Hands Off Gretel

Those Damn Crows

102 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

REVIEWS Uriah Heep

Steelhouse Festival Hafod-y-Dafal Farm, Ebbw Vale, Wales Rising stars and longstanding veterans alike lay waste to a mountain full of delighted, gig-hungry rock fans.

Therapy?

Kris Barras

Even in ordinary times, a field in a farm on a Welsh mountain is an unlikely place for a small, world-class rock festival. In these extraordinary ones, however, there’s a whole book to be written on the stress and logistical hoops organisers Max Rhead and Mikey Evans endured to make the tenth-anniversary Steelhouse Festival finally happen.

Negative lateral flow (LFT) tests in hand, 4,000 fans from all over the UK have made the trek up here for the three-day event and the atmosphere is a potent cocktail of joy and relief, with a small shot of PTSD. We’re in an outside space and beneath (thankfully) clear skies, but there’s a mental adjustment to be made when first walking through a throng of unmasked strangers. Maybe it’s the familiar smell of sizzling meat and chemical bogs, or maybe it’s the Motörhead ‘Road Crew’ beer they’re serving (6.2% ABV), but by the end of the warm Friday, this all feels comfortingly normal again.

Gratitude and pent-up artistic energy radiate from every act to hit Steelhouse’s single stage, as they play to probably the most receptive audience they’ll ever have.

The Howling Tides, Matt Mitchell & The Coldhearts, King Creature and RavenEye are all feeling it, and bring their A-game to Friday. The Quireboys headlined the first Steelhouse back in 2011, and Spike and band are back with their retro swagger and can’t-fail pleasers like 7 O’Clock, Hey You and Sweet Mary Ann. And with Buffalo Summer’s Andrew Hunt ably temping as lead vocalist, Friday headliners Phil Campbell And The Bastard Sons serve up a headbanging slab of old-school hard rock. Amid the Bastards’ own tunes are a killer take on Hawkwind’s Silver Machine and Motörhead’s R.A.M.O.N.E.S., Ace Of Spades and Killed By Death. We are back.

Saturday starts with NWOCR hopefuls Revival Black, punk band Hands Off Gretel and hard-rocking local boys Florence Black, on uncompromisingly strong form.

Kris Barras regularly peppers his band’s Bon Jovi-catchy blues-rock set with reminders of just how good it feels to be back on stage, while Toby Jepson offers a chatty, singalong acoustic set of Little Angels hits that’s bang-on for this mainly middle-aged demographic.

There’s an undeniably emotional, cathartic charge to all this. Bridgend’s arenaready Those Damn Crows are Steelhouse favourites, and during their hugely entertaining show singer Shane Greenhall gets visibly misty at the piano during ballad Blink Of An Eye. Numerous onlookers are also overcome; by the band, the music, the occasion. During Therapy?’s own hit-heavy

hour singer Andy Cairns issues an apology: “I’m sorry for talking so much, but it’s been 650 days [since the last gig] and I’m so fucking happy!”

Rooted in top musicianship and Permission To Land-grade tunes, The Darkness’s fun, funny headline performance delights the young and old alike. For opener Black Shuck Justin Hawkins comes onstage in tassled chaps and a diamante-studded black onesie; by encore Love On The Rocks With No Ice he’s down to denim cutoffs and a leather police hat that even Rob Halford might find a bit much.

Surprise of the weekend comes from Sunday’s openers, Empyre. Their thinky, minor-key anthems and Henrik Steenholdt’s deep, soulful voice make for an intense and moving start to the day, with a sizeable crowd paying close attention through their hangover.

More quality NWOCR action comes from Collateral and UK Top 20 act Mason Hill, whose singer Scott Taylor keeps covering his heart with his palmed hand. “We’ve missed you so much,” he tells their appreciative audience, with genuine feeling. Jepson returns with his excellent heavy quintet, Wayward Sons, and NWOCR frontrunners Stone Broken get a notably massive reception, with frontman Rich Moss creating a classic festival moment by conducting the whole field in an intimate singalong to ballad Wait For You. Festival regular Bernie Marsden is greeted warmly by everybody present. His group serves up a sure-fire Whitesnake set including Ready An’ Willing, Fool For Your Lovin’ and Here I Go Again, with Hand Of Dimes’ Nev MacDonald making a compelling Coverdale analogue. During The Wildhearts’ crowd-winning show, Ginger invites us to chime in on Mazel Tov Cocktail and we oblige. “You’re fucking beautiful,” he tells us. That’s nice to hear, as it is to be once again commanded to ‘make some fucking noise’ and ‘put your fucking hands in the air’, as we are at regular intervals this weekend.

Returning as Sunday headliners after a triumphant slot here in 2019, the reinvigorated Uriah Heep are on imperious form and play to a packed field, until fireworks fill the night sky and, all too soon, it’s all over. With Easy Livin’ still ringing in their ears, happy, drunk people are hugging, some even seeking out Rhead and Evans to thank them for, against the odds, making this all happen. Up here on a Welsh mountain live music is back – and it feels so good.

Words: Grant Moon Photos: Darren Griffiths

CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 103

‘Solid-gold set-list, wa llto-wall dev il horns…

Long live r ock’n’roll.’

Stand Up And Shout For Ronnie James Dio’s Birthday Dio Cancer Fund livestream Star-studded fund raiser celebrating RJD’s birthday and musical legacy.

It’s weird to think that it’s been over a decade since one of the most iconic vocalists in metal succumbed to cancer, yet Ronnie James Dio’s influence lives on, not only in the charity set up in his name but in the impressive back catalogue of tunes bearing his unmistakable vocals.

As far as celebrations go this two-hour fund-raising livestream is hard to beat. We’re treated to interviews with various big names, not least Alice Cooper, Tony Iommi, Wendy Dio, Rob Halford, Glenn Hughes and Geezer Butler among others, and classic songs drawn from Dio’s 70s and early-80s career.

With the Dio Disciples in the driving seat – an array of talent including guitarist Rowan Robertson – we get a solid gold set list belted out by vocalists including Tim ’Ripper’ Owens, Lzzy Hale and Joey Belladona. Cue much shape throwing and wall-to-wall devil’s horns for Children Of The Sea, Heaven & Hell, Straight Through The Heart, Holy Diver, Rainbow In The Dark, Neon Knights and so on. Youngsters Liliac impress with their version of Last In Line, Tenacious D are spot on with their Heaven & Hell/Holy Diver medley, there’s an old school drum battle between Carmine and Vinnie Appice and Rob Halford looks amazingly like a heavy metal Captain Birds Eye singing Man On The Silver Mountain.

Long live rock’n’roll, indeed.

Essi Berelian

Tony Iommi, Alice Cooper and Rob Halford are among those who paid tribute to Ronnie Dio.

Mastodon

Within Temptation

Anthrax

Georgia Aquarium, Atlanta, USA

The Aftermath: A Show In A Virtual Reality

40th Anniversary Celebration

For an audience of fish, the ‘don dial down a few megatons.

If any band should be performing 20,000 leagues under the sea it’s Mastodon; the sludge rock Ahabs behind 2004’s Moby Dick-themed Leviathan album, and a band who encase their diving bell-heavy music in inches of pressurised metal.

The closest they can come for this livestream, though, is the Georgia Aquarium, where a huge tank teeming with whale sharks, tropical fish and a “jerk” of a sea turtle forms the backdrop to a stripped-down set of rarely played tracks and less squid-scaring material. A full run through Leviathan, they tell us during interviews, “might have ruined the ecosystem”.

Even an ‘acoustic’ Mastodon makes waves. Naked Burn is still electric and imposing, gliding along on Brent Hinds’ eastern riffs and Troy Sanders’ doomy intonations. Rasputin possession epic The Czar – “our pinnacle achievement” according to Sanders – remains rich and atmospheric, and still able to startle with its shift from subaqueous groove to intense rock.

Other moments sink into the surroundings: Pendulous Skin (one of two Joseph Merrick – i.e. the Elephant Man – tribute deep-dives rolled out for the occasion) is swamped with giant jellyfish vibes and Brent’s gargle-effect vocals while, like an ocean predator, the menacing pulse of Thickening glides through schools of darting guitar lines before switching to attack mode. For an hour, the Kraken awakes.

To call this a livestream is to massively underplay the reality of this presentation. Or rather the virtual reality of the spectacle.

What Within Temptation do is use bleeding-edge technology to create four post apocalyptic dimensions in which they’re immersed. Each of these 3D representations of a city in ruins envelopes the band in a cocoon of imagination and ambition. And yet it says much for the way this hour-long visual extravaganza is filmed that the band members – who are located on a seemingly floating platform, serving as the stage – are never dwarfed by the surroundings.

The set-up means that Within Temptation are at the core of it all, with the outré dreamscape used to enhance the 12 songs. Opening with Forsaken, the symphonic metal atmosphere starts it off in thrilling fashion and neither the quality nor the intensity ever drop right up to the concluding Stairway To The Skies.

Various guests are parachuted into these dystopian visions, with Tarja Turunen adding her inimitable vocal presence to Paradise (What About Us?), while two members of German metalcore band Annisokay join for new song Shed My Skin and rapper Xzibit features on And We Run. It’s a surprisingly human and warm experience.

A triumphant representation of the way technology and art should complement one another.

Prevented from touring by ongoing pandemic restrictions, the Ramones of thrash metal instead elected to mark their 40th anniversary with this marathon two-hour livestream show. Shot in an anonymous LA soundstage by director Jack Bennett, the overall package is a pretty straight no-frills performance capturing the black-clad metalpunk New Yorkers on high-energy form as they hurtle from meatgrinder guitar-scorchers like Caught In A Mosh to the clobbering psychodrama of Be All, End All. Anthrax never quite transcended the vocabulary of thrash like their more feted “Big Four” peers, so this career-spanning set becomes a little samey in places, but they arguably remain closer to their gritty garage rock roots as a result. Their piledriver 1991 reboot of Public Enemy’s Bring the Noise, here performed with Chuck D himself, still feels like an exhilarating rapmetal milestone.

Between songs, the band pay homage to fallen comrades Ronnie James Dio, Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul with cheap-looking video graphics. In turn, they are bombarded with celebrity birthday wishes: Slash, Tom Morello, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Rob Zombie, Sammy Hagar, Mike Patton, Vernon Reid, Keanu Reeves and more pop up here, most phoning in self-filmed video clips like slightly bewildered elderly relatives trapped in socially isolated basements.

Mark Beaumont

Malcolm Dome

Stephen Dalton

104 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

ALYSSA LOPEZ/PRESS x2

Technology and symphonic metal unite.

Founding fathers of thrash bring the noise to mark four decades together.

‘The sound reaches out and gra bs you from the in side.’

Saving Grace Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion The real roots of Led Zeppelin.

“It’s taken a long time to do twenty gigs,” Robert Plant quips, about a band that debuted shortly before the pandemic. Soon after, his enchantingly voiced singing partner Suzi Dian exclaims: “Wow, I can’t believe it has gone so fast. I mean, I’m having such a fantastic time!” The two comments from opposite ends of the telescope perfectly encapsulate an evening that reminds the half-masked sell-out audience how live music can bend time.

Saving Grace is the latest manifestation of Plant’s enduring passion for American roots music – and male/female harmonies. Seated behind him and Dian are three brilliant players: Tony Kelsey, mainly electric guitar; Matt Worley, plucking strings attached to banjo, guitar and mandolin (and frequently adding a soulful voice to the ensemble); and Oli Jefferson, behind a drum kit that is really just a convenient collection of items to explain his understated introduction as “percussionist”.

Only one among the 15 extraordinary songs played tonight bears a Plant credit (Please Read The Letter).

Four others he recorded alongside Patti Griffin in the 2010 Band Of Joy revival. The rest are covers that – as Plant’s witty intros reveal – range from the last century (Ralph Stanley, Moby Grape) to this one (Low, Sam Amidon). And at every turn the quintet make a sound that reaches out and grabs you from the inside.

Achingly beautiful.

Robert Plant: continuing to display his enduring passion for American roots music.

SARA BOWREY

Neil Jeffries

Bob Dylan

Jamie Lenman

The Lovely Eggs

Marseille Shadow Kingdom, Bon Bon Club

Birmingham The Castle & Falcon

London Highbury The Garage

Restless illusionist’s ‘early songs’ intensified.

Third time lucky for Britrock maverick’s socially distanced solo acoustic tour.

The psych-punk duo triumph with their long-awaited live return.

Habitually enigmatic, Bob Dylan was never going to serve up anything as flatly orthodox as a straightforward livestream. Presenting humdrum reality is no longer what he does (if indeed he ever did). Guarded, ingenious, witty and self-aware, Dylan has long been in the business of meticulously preserving his legend by presenting various simulcra of the truth to accentuate his enigma. From his ‘novelistic’ memoir (Chronicles Volume One) to Rolling Thunder Revue: A Bob Dylan Story (Scorsese’s fanciful ‘documentary’ remix of reality), the instinctive improviser cannily airbrushes the truth as habitually as he regularly rearranges the flawless jewels in his back catalogue’s crown.

There is no Bon Bon Club in Marseille. Shadow Kingdom, an ‘exclusive broadcast event’ beautifully directed by Alma Har’el in evocative monochrome, finds Dylan and his five-piece band on a tiny stage in the corner of a 1940s film-noir roadside diner playing to a handful of blasé chain smokers in apposite costume. Guitarists’ fingers give lie to any claim to live performance, while differing set-ups for each song accentuate a cinematic unreality, but Dylan is in fine voice, and the latest incarnations of such classics as When I Paint My Masterpiece, Tombstone Blues and Forever Young hypnotic in their enhanced intensity.

Reliably remarkable.

When the accounting comes up for the brightest creative stars in Britrock, there needs to be a reckoning for whoever keeps missing Jamie Lenman off the list. Embarking on his solo acoustic tour, Lenman is in his element as he carries shows purely with charm, hook-abundant songs and dry wit. “So where are we, Ballbag Heath?” he deadpans, a tongue-in-cheek jab at the show’s relocation from Birmingham city centre to Balsall Heath.

All is taken in good humour, however, and the audience quickly gets sucked into his idiosyncratic sense of off-the-cuff humour and unpredictable sonic adventurism, with the expanse of his songwriting on full display as he mixes solo material, covers and the odd cut from his old band Reuben. Even acoustic, the power of Summer Of Discontent (The Future Is Dead) is self-evident, while the likes of I Ain’t Your Boy showcase his capacity for encasing witheringly worldweary lyrical content inside alluring melodies.

In a set filled with potent moments – one of which is a duet of It’s Hard To Be A Gentleman with wife Katie – ultimately it’s the connection between artist and audience that wins out. An early singalong of All Of England Is A City later turns into to the whole audience singing a verse and chorus of Reuben’s Good Luck, evoking a sense of magic that no livestream, studio performance or record could ever replicate.

One positive by-product of the ongoing pandemic is that people no longer talk throughout gigs. Quite how long this will last is a moot point, but right now, at this first show at the Garage since the pre-covid age, the lack of the incessant audience jibber-jabber that marred so many gigs is working out just fine. Which is just as well, given how much the Lovely Eggs love their chat between songs.

And who can blame them? With this tour being cancelled and rescheduled with a regularity you can set your watch by, the married Lancastrian duo of singer-guitarist Holly Ross and drummer David Blackwell are as excited to be on stage as the audience are to be in front of it. Their hilarious stories of surviving lockdown by selling effects pedals to retired tour managers cement the band’s humanity and earthy sense of humour.

But for all that, it’s the music that hits home. Their blend of fuzzed-up punk rock, lysergic emanations and innate melodic sensibility works its magic as, slowly but surely, bodies begin to move and jump in response. Wiggy Giggy sees Ross with one leg on her monitor, waving her guitar around her head, while Boris Johnson’s name is added to the cultural flotsam and jetsam of You Can Go Now. Gloriously celebratory, this union of band and audience is cracking stuff.

Ian Fortnam

Rich Hobson

Julian Marszalek CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 105

B

ernie Marsden has seen a lot over the past half-century, be it as one of Britain’s most lauded singer-guitarists or as member of bands such as UFO, Cozy Powell’s Hammer, Paice Ashton Lord and, most memorably, Whitesnake. His latest solo album, Kings, revisits the music that shaped him, as first recorded by blues greats Albert, BB and Freddie King. “I could’ve recorded all of these songs thirty-odd years ago,” he explains, “but I think you have to have been around life. Now just feels like the right time to do them.”

THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING

The Soundtrack Of My Life Well-travelled guitarist Bernie Marsden on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him.

Interview: Rob Hughes

My mother used to play Nat King Cole and Shirley Bassey around the house, but it was hearing Buddy Holly on the radio – That’ll Be The Day and Rave On – that really started me off. Then it was Little Richard and The Shadows.

THE GREATEST ROCK ALBUM

I loved the energy of the first Led Zeppelin album, but Led Zeppelin II is just incredible. Robert’s voice is what really grabbed me, hearing him alongside Jimmy’s power guitar. I still never fail to get star-struck. Even today, if I get together with Robert I’m thinking: “Robert Plant! Robert Plant!”

THE LIVE ALBUM

When it comes to BB King, everybody always says Live At The Regal, but when I met him I was feisty enough to say I prefer Blues Is King. And he said: “So do I!” He was gracious enough to say nice things about me as a musician. He told me: “Playing the blues is one thing, feeling the blues is another.”

THE GUITAR HERO

Initially, for anybody my age Hank Marvin was the man. But then Eric Clapton came in through John Mayall’s band, which was the standard path in those days. The Bluesbreakers album [1966] is seminal for everybody, really. If I had to save one album from the proverbial fire, I would hate to choose between that and the Peter Green one [Mayall’s A Hard Road]. Those guys were so influential.

THE SONGWRITER

A little left-field, but Don Nix always impressed me.

He started off in the Mar-Keys, the house band at Stax. Then I kept hearing great blues songs and realised they were all written by the same guy.

THE SINGER

My favourite British singer is Joe Cocker. From day one I thought he stood out. I saw him a couple of times with the Grease Band, probably just before Woodstock, and it was like: “Wow!” There’s Robert Plant too. Paul Rodgers has still got it in spades.

And Coverdale in his prime. When we were making

records together there weren’t many people who came that close.

THE BAND I WISH I’D SEEN

The Allman Brothers. Although I did actually play with them a few years ago at the Beacon [in New York]. Steely Dan as well, but I probably would never have been proficient enough on the jazz side. As a kid I always thought that maybe I’d play with John Lennon one day. I remember being about twentyfour or twenty-five and thinking: “Yeah, if John Lennon’s putting a band together, I could be in there.”

THE SONG I WISH I’D WRITTEN

I’m very close to some of the Bobby Bland material. I took Ain’t No Love In The Heart Of The City into the Whitesnake sessions and the stuff before that is pretty sensational. But I would’ve loved to have written Ain’t No Sunshine. Bill Withers wasn’t a bad songwriter, was he?

THE BEST RECORD I’VE MADE

I’ve got great affection for all the Whitesnake stuff, but one of the best things I’ve been involved in was the Paice Ashton Lord album, Malice In Wonderland. Tony Ashton was a one-off.

[Producer] Martin Birch made me double-track him, so if you listen to the album you’ll hear this other voice underneath Tony’s, enhancing his delivery. He’d say: “I’m not a lead singer!” And Jon Lord would go: “Well you are in this band, dear boy.”

THE WORST RECORD I’VE MADE

I used to do a lot of sessions for Mickie Most in the early seventies. I’d be given sheet music that I couldn’t read and would usually bluff my way through it.

I won’t name names – because the album did come out – but I got involved in a session where I was terrified, because I just didn’t feel I belonged.

I was ten years younger than everybody else and I could feel twenty pairs of eyes burning into me. It wasn’t a bad record, but it was a bad afternoon.

THE SONG THAT MAKES ME CRY

James Taylor’s Shower The People will get me every time.

He’s such a great, earthy singer and also a spectacular guitar player. I first met him at Apple Records when I was seventeen or eighteen, when I took my demo tape over there. Years later I met him backstage at the NEC in Birmingham and he got me a cup of tea from catering. He signed a copy of his book for me: “To Bernie, lies, all lies.” Really sweet guy.

MY SATURDAY NIGHT/PARTY SONG

Elton John’s Take Me To The Pilot is a big favourite.

That’ll get me going. Benny And The Jets is another one that’ll embarrass the kids when I dance in the kitchen.

THE SONG I WANT PLAYED AT MY FUNERAL

106 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM

Kings is out now via Conquest Music.

JOE COCKER: GETTY

“My favourite British singer is Joe Cocker.

From day one I thought he stood out.”

I haven’t really thought about one. I wouldn’t want anything maudlin. Maybe Dance To The Music [Sly And The Family Stone].

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