Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 241 i Classic Rock

Welcome It sounds like it could be the start of a very odd joke: what do you get when the world’s hottest contemporary blues guitar slinger, The Voice Of Rock(TM), the son of Led Zep’s drummer and the former keyboard player with one of progressive metal’s biggest bands get together? But it’s no joke. That exact scenario played out in 2009 when Joe Bonamassa, Glenn Hughes, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian formed Black Country Communion – and a new, bona fide classic rock supergroup was born. Everything was great – killer riffs, big songs, three great albums, fantastic live shows, the Breakthrough Award at the 2011 Classic Rock Roll Of Honour. But then, as these things often do, everything fell apart, seemingly in a whole load of acrimony. Until now.…

The Stars pay Tribute I’m very broken up to hear about my friend Glen Campbell. He was an incredible musician and an even better person. I’m at a loss. Love & Mercy. Brian Wilson God bless and peace and love to Glen Campbell. Thanks for the music. The real rhinestone cowboy and love to all his family. Ringo Starr As well as your incredible musical abilities you were one of the most down to earth people I have ever known. RIP. Peter Frampton So sad to hear of Glen Campbell passing. A stellar session player, singer and performer. I loved his Jimmy Webb songs. Paul Stanley Huge loss in the world of music today. Rest In Peace. Sheryl Crow Glen was one of the premier guitar players in rock and…

NEWS Brad Whitford has revealed that Aerosmith are recording a “very rock‘n’roll” new track and expects the band, who this summer undertook a European farewell tour, to be around for at least another five years and release new material during that time. “We’re going to keep on playing until we can’t play any more,” says the guitarist. Robbie Williams has issued an apology to former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page after comparing his alleged behaviour in a home row to a “mental illness”. “I understand why Jimmy will have found my words offensive and I apologise for any hurt that they have caused him and his family,” said the former Take That star. David Coverdale (pictured) says 2018 will see an all-new Whitesnake studio album and a world tour. “The…

Ginger shows postponed Troubled singer hospitalised. GINGER WILDHEART + CHRIS CORNELL: KEVIN NIXON GINGER WILDHEART HAS been forced to postpone shows in Manchester and London after being hospitalised for “serious ongoing issues” with his mental health. His management later revealed that he was “receiving around-the-clock care and is in the safest possible place”. A report in Hot Press claimed that Ginger had spent a night in police custody following an altercation with an audience member at an acoustic show in Ireland. Ginger later tweeted that he had attempted suicide. Last year Ginger recorded a track called Fuck You Brain with his friend Ryan Hamilton to highlight suicide prevention and raise mental health awareness, with proceeds going directly to the Samaritans. The 52-year-old promised that a tour with his extreme band…

Motörhead Ace Of Spades It’s one of the instantly recognisable all-time classic tracks of heavy rock and Motörhead’s signature tune. But how did it come about? Words: Dave Everley MAIN: GETTY; INSET: REX M otörhead had speed in their veins and wind in their sails when they entered the studio to record their fourth album, Ace Of Spades, in the summer of 1980. Their previous release, the live Golden Years EP, had turned this gnarliest of bands into unlikely Top 10 stars. But it would be Ace Of Spades – particularly its unforgettable title track – that sealed their immortality. From its overdriven bass intro to its squealing, hit-the-brakes ending two minutes and 48 seconds later, this gamblers’ psalm would become not just Motörhead’s signature song, but also one of…

“PEOPLE STILL WANT TO HEAR THESE SONGS” Why Stone Temple Pilots could still rise from the ashes of tragedy once more. On July 20, news broke that Chester Bennington had been found dead in his Los Angeles home. Although he was best known for fronting Linkin Park, Bennington had also stood in for Scott Weiland in Stone Temple Pilots between 2013 and 2015, and he sang on their acclaimed High Rise EP. “I remember we were rehearsing for one of the last couple of shows we were doing with Chester in 2015,” says STP’s Robert DeLeo. “We were in a rehearsal room, and Chris Cornell walked in – he was rehearsing next door. We all said hi and hugged. I look back at that moment now and think: “I would…

CHECKOUT WITH £50 OF CLASSIC ROCK’S MONEY TO HAND OVER AT THE TILL, HERE’S HOW THE DARKNESS SPENT SOME OF IT. Justin left without a Dread Zeppelin LP, and Dan had to put the Scott Walker CD he wanted back in the rack, but they each found something to brighten their day. Justin Hawkins (VOCALS/GUITAR) Billy Green – Stone: Original Soundtrack Recording “Basically, I don’t know what it is. I just love the artwork because it’s got a great big skull and some men on motorbikes on it. [Reads the info sticker] ‘Untravelled electronic swamp rock… Biker cult classic… Ozploitation movie…’ Ozploitation? What, like Australian exploitation? Oh, this is cool even if I don’t know what the fuck it is.” Frankie Poullain (BASS) Neil Young – On The Beach “It’s…

Superior Reputation cementing Wired EPIC, 1976 A year after Blow By Blow, Beck was back, enthused by the new possibilities and bringing in former Mahavishnu Orchestra members Jan Hammer and Narada Michael Walden who offer a more potent challenge as well as writing most of the tracks. The result is a tougher, more straight-ahead jazz rock album as Beck deploys his increasing variety of tones and styles to create a greater emotional depth, from the explosive Led Boots to the tender acoustic Love Is Green. But once again it’s a cool cover that lingers longest as Beck’s yearning vibrato tugs at the emotions on Charles Mingus’s Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. There And Back EPIC , 980 Returning from a four-year break after Wired, Beck sticks to the same format with…

Essential Playlist Beck’s Bolero Truth Shapes Of Things Truth Spanish Boots Beck-Ola Black Cat Moan Beck Bogert Appice Scatterbrain Blow By Blow Cause We’ve Ended As Lovers Blow By Blow Led Boots Wired Goodbye Pork Pie Hat Wired The Pump There And Back El Becko There And Back Big Block Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop Where Were You Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop Hi Heel Sneakers Frankie’s House Race With The Devil Crazy Legs Brush With The Blues Who Else! Earthquake You Had It Coming Plan B Jeff A Day In The Life Performing This Week… Live At Ronnie Scotts…

INTERVIEWS The Pineapple Thief The band play more dates to promote Your Wilderness. Formed as a ‘bedroom band’ by vocalist/guitarist Bruce Soord in 1999, the Pineapple Thief now have 11 albums to their name. Soord checks in ahead of the upcoming tour. In 2012 you spoke to Classic Rock about getting used to TPT belatedly becoming a touring band. Since then progress has been good – on the last tour you headlined venues such as Islington’s Assembly Hall. Yeah. Our first gig was in a skittle alley, so it’s pretty amazing that we’re still taking those leaps forward. An early notable catalyst arrived when you noticed a queue gathering for non-existent merch when the band opened for Caravan in 1999. [Laughing] Yeah. Luckily I had some CDs in the car.…

Focus The prog veterans round off 2017 at Hard Rock Hell Prog. Singer, Hammond organist, flautist and yodeller Thijs van Leer sets the scene for the Dutch band’s latest UK tour. Focus recently appeared at the Ramblin’ Man Fair. Was it a good experience for you? Yes, it was great. What a reaction! It was just beautiful. We also had good weather. A double album called The Focus Family Album that combines band material and two solo tracks by each current member is about to be released. How was it compiled? We had full direction over it, we chose the tracks ourselves and we are happy that it’s coming out. It has some old and new tracks, so it’s a nice mixture. Udo Pannekeet recently became the newest Focus bassist.…

LIVE! Lionize London Black Heart Nuclear soul from the Maryland mavericks. WILL IRELAND ‘Lionize are a soul band in rock band clothes – gold lamé ones at that.’ With his tight-fitting gold lamé T-shirt and matching trousers, Lionize frontman Nathan Bergman looks like a superstar schlub. He’s not a big guy, stocky maybe, but the tiny stage at the Black Heart pub barely contains him. It certainly can’t hold his voice – one part warthog bellow, one part raging croon. American band Lionize share plenty of similarities with Clutch, their big-brother band from back home in Maryland. It’s there in the taut grooves, the sandpaperand- honey sonics, their propensity to throw in the odd funky drum break. But they dig deeper and go further back too: the warm growl of…

Heavy Load Orange Goblin’s Ben Ward on being a pro footballer, a boozy past and being “a horrible bastard” at times. Interview: Ian Fortnam Heavy questions for heavy rockers Since forming Orange Goblin in 1995, Ben Ward – all six feet five inches of him – has steadily built a reputation as one of rock’s most exuberant frontmen. Fresh from a hectic weekend spent bellowing more than 700,000 punters into abject submission at Germany’s Wacken and Poland’s gigantic free Woodstock festivals, the surprisingly ‘shy and retiring’ leviathan reveals that, pierced arse or not, football’s loss was metal’s gain. What’s the biggest public misconception about you? People think I am how I appear on stage: a large, overbearing, confident frontman type. But when off stage I can be quite shy, retiring…

This month’s contributors JOE BOSSO Joe (who talked to BCC for us this month) grew up idolising rock stars, and over the years he’s interviewed most of his heroes – not too shabby for a guy whose eighth-grade English teacher once said to him: “I hope you don’t plan on writing for a living.” Joe lives in New Jersey with his wife and family and an adorable Bichon Frise called Harry. CHRIS ROBERTS This issue Chris Roberts talks to Tony Visconti about the T.Rex albums Tanx and The Slider, which he first bought off a lad in his school playground (Roberts, that is, not Visconti). Since then he’s jammed on a cover of The Slider with members of Pixies and published 14 books, the latest of which, a Beyonce biography,…

RIP Thank you and good night. Felix Flanagan December 8, 1947 – August 4, 2017 Walter Trout has paid tribute to veteran harmonica player Felix Flanagan, calling him “a crazy, brilliant man”. Iowa-born Flanagan played with blues greats such as Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, JD Nicholson, Deacon Jones and Southside Slim. “You were one of a kind. I love you,” Trout added of the 69-year-old. Sonny Burgess May 28, 1929 – August 18, 2017 Born in Newport, Arkansas, Albert Austin ‘Sonny’ Burgess was a rockabilly guitarist and singer. His vinyl debut came on the song We Wanna Boogie with The Pacers in 1956. Burgess died in a hospital in Arkansas having suffered a fall at his home. He was 88 years old. Kenny Kanowski Died August 6, 2017 Guitarist, singer and…

Lemmy gets crocked! Natural History Museum names ancient sea monster after the Motörhead legend. LEMMY’S NAME HAS been given to “one of the nastiest sea creatures to have ever inhabited the Earth”. Scientists have honoured the late Motörhead frontman, who died in late 2015, by naming an ancient crocodile after him. At almost 20-foot long and armed with gigantic blunt teeth to crush bones and turtle shells, the extinct creature now known as Lemmysuchus – it translates as ‘Lemmy’s crocodile’ – was among the planet’s biggest coastal predators more than 145 million years ago. A fossil was discovered in the early 20th century in a clay pit near Peterborough by Michela Johnson, but it was Natural History Museum curator Lorna Steel who revealed that the specimen had been incorrectly classified…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground Jeronimo Jeronimo, 1971, Bellaphon, Germany. £600. Jeronimo were a hairy power trio from Germany. Formed in 1969, they achieved success with their first two singles: Heya and Na Na Hey Hey (originally a hit for Steam, and later others, including Bananarama). Jeronimo, their second album, is considered to be their creative pinnacle. Considering the band’s popularity, it’s strange why it’s so rare and was pressed in such small numbers. Within a short period of time the group had transformed from pop-rock to the full-blown progressive hard rock on display here. Excellent playing, a heavy sound, psychedelic passages, raw, melodic vocals and interesting arrangements are the key ingredients. Starting off with two weighty tracks, Sunday’s Child and Shades, the heaviness simmers down for the…

HIGH HOPES Wayward Sons Toby Jepson’s rockers emerge with a forthright album – and a message for Gene Simmons. TONY MOTTRAM/PRESS “Rock is dead? Absolute load of balls. Total toss. All that stuff is bollocks.” HE HAS ENJOYED an impressive 30-plus year career with Little Angels, Gun, Fastway and many more, but as he entered 2017 Toby Jepson was busying himself as an in-demand producer rather than a vocal-powerhouse frontman. It all changed when he was approached by record label Frontiers about putting together a new project. The first thought was a new solo album (his last was 2013’s Raising My Own Hell), but Jepson quickly decided otherwise. “We thought about doing a solo thing, but I had tried those acoustic solo tours and I always felt naked without a…

Motörhead meet the Phantom Flan Flinger Motörhead made two appearances on Top Of The Pops to promote Ace Of Spades, but it was their stint on anarchic kids’ TV show Tiswas that was most memorable. “Tiswas was really fucking funny,” says Eddie. “All the bands used to love doing that show. We were doing an interview with Sally James and she says, ‘Oh look, there’s somebody over there knows you.’ Me and Lemmy turn around like c**ts, and of course [black-masked, custard-pie-toting character] the Phantom Flan Flinger fucking does us both.” That wasn’t the end of the chaos, as the band joined the show’s regulars to tell jokes to the camera while being drenched with buckets of water. “That was such a fucking laugh,” says Clarke. “Even though we’d normally…

TAKING ON THE WORLD. AGAIN Right from the off, in ’89, Gun were thrust into the big time: appearing on Top Of The Pops, supporting the Stones… Now, with a new album out, they’re hoping to get back there. Words: Michael Hann Gun’s singer Dante Gizzi is recalling his childhood experiences that inspired Boy Who Fooled The World, the ballad that closes Favourite Pleasures, the Glaswegian band’s third full-length album since they reunited nearly a decade ago. “Friday nights, I used to plan out this sort of ‘religious’ evening. Go for my bath, then wait up until my mum came home – she’d be at my aunt’s house having a few drinks, and be back late. It gave me the opportunity to sit up listening to the radio, with the…

“Rock 'n' roll is my religion. It’s what I believe in” Guitarist with Springsteen’s E Street band, leader of his own band, label owner, actor (Silvio Dante in The Sopranos), radio host… And there’s a lot more to Steven Van Zandt than that. Words: Paul Rees CHRIS WALTER/PHOTOFEATURES In every sense, the man born Steven Lento has led a gloriously colourful life. At one time or other – and often all at once – these last forty-plus years, he has been a rock’n’roll musician, activist, actor, broadcaster and educator. Along the way he co-piloted two great bands out of his adopted New Jersey – the E Street Band and the Asbury Jukes – and fronted his own band the Disciples Of Soul. He has founded a record company, Wicked Cool,…

Good Worth exploring Who Else! EPI, 1999 Beck’s first venture into electronic music got mixed reviews at the time, but it has grown in stature since the novelty of the experiment faded, leaving just the music. On Who Else! Beck pits his wits against the techno sounds and rhythms of his longtime keyboard player Tony Hymas and is driven on by the ferocious twohanded tapping of fellow fusion guitarist Jennifer Batten. The diet of beats takes on a hypnotic quality at times regardless of the variety of tempos, but the same cannot be said of Beck’s playing, which blazes away regardless, pausing only to indulge in the live Brush With The Blues and the dreamy Irish folk song Declan. Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop EPIC, 1989 Following a lacklustre excursion into…

Bad Religion Bristol Academy Popcore stalwarts persist in preaching SoCal’s punk gospel Bundle it into a sack, weigh it down with stones and lob it into the canal, but the indestructible zombie corpse of punk rock stubbornly refuses to die. Seeing Bad Religion in 2017, almost 40 years since they formed at high school, is a reminder of how exhilarating that two-minute, three-chord, four-letter formula can still be – but also how limiting. While abrasive, politically charged rock genres have evolved and multiplied, these melodic West Coast punk-pop pioneers remain metaphorically stuck in their garage, ranting against parents and politicians and authority figures in an increasingly ironic suburban-dad manner. Bad Religion may sound more like The Monkees than the Pistols nowadays, but one key saving grace is Greg Graffin’s wry…

Glen Campbell April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017 GETTY FOR MORE NEWS: WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK In 1964, Capitol Records released The Astounding 12-String Guitar Of Glen Campbell, an album of slick instrumental folk featuring covers of Bob Dylan’s Blowin’ In The Wind and Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land. In the sleeve notes, disc jockey Hugh Cherry – the man who later introduced Johnny Cash on stage at his legendary Folsom Prison shows – makes a prediction: “Glen Campbell has recently gained great fame as an instrumentalist,” he says, “but it is the opinion of this writer that Glen will ultimately gain equal fame and acceptance as a vocalist of rare interpretive ability. He can provide a lyric with humour or pathos, warmth and sincerity.”…

Hysteria live next year! Phil Collen reveals Def Leppard’s plans for 2018. DEF LEPPARD GUITARIST Phil Collen has let slip that the band are planning a series of shows to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of their classic album. Collen revealed the news while appearing as a guest on Jonesy’s Jukebox, the radio show of former Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones. Asked whether Leppard were considering the possibility of performing Hysteria in its entirety, he said: “We are. I know it’ll be next year we’re gonna go on tour. We’re getting some offers to play the whole album all the way through. So we’ll be doing that.” A few days earlier, at a fan gathering, singer Joe Elliott was more circumspect when the same question came up. “Watch this space,” he…

Journey meltdown gets uglier “No more toxic shit. Done,” says Neal Schon. THE SCHISM WITHIN Journey took another upturn last month when Neal Schon voiced anger that three of his bandmates visited the White House under the group name, and suggested that they have plotted about touring without him. “How would you feel [about that]?” the guitarist asked on Twitter. “They will not tour with the Journey name. Trust me. I’ve spent way too long building to give up the brand.” Claiming that Journey have always committed to remain neutral when it comes to politics and religion, founding member Schon was furious that vocalist Arnel Pineda, keyboard player/ rhythm guitarist Jonathan Cain and bassist Ross Valory were photographed in the Oval Office with President Trump, claiming that the trio were…

Sharp Dressed Man Rock ’n’ Roll accessories This month, @jamiehibbard is elegantly wasted in these three sartorial stand-outs. Sideburn Beast T-shirt The Sideburn crew primarily make a cult indie magazine about speedway, a relatively niche motorsport in the UK, but they also know a thing or two about super-cool T-shirts. The Beast homage to Motörhead is our favourite, but be quick – every time it appears in the online store it sells out fast! 18 @SideburnMag Sideburn.BigCartel.com Vans Thrasher Sk8-Hi Pro shoes Okay, we’ll admit it, we always find it exciting when two brands we love decide to collaborate, and this is one of those: massive skate shoe company Vans meets ultra-cool skate magazine Thrasher. They look and ride great. £70 @Vans_66 Vans.co.uk Spy Cyrus sunglasses ‘Summer’s almost gone,’ Jim…

Heavy Rotation What we’ve been listening to this month KEVIN NIXON 1 Megalomania Black Sabbath You’d have to search long and hard to find a more unapologetically malevolent piece of music than this. Ozzy Osbourne manages to schizophrenically channel soul in torment and Satan’s own imp in a single vocal performance. Now crisply remastered, exemplifying an effortless, riff-driven complexity perfected on Sabotage, here’s metal’s zenith. 2 American Slang The Cadillac Three One of the more Springsteen-y blue-collar tracks on the Nashville trio’s upcoming album Legacy, American Slang offers catchy, southern goodness for the 21st century. 3 The Cove Black Country Communion It’s finally here: the album that many thought would never be made. From IV, The Cove captures Messrs Hughes, Bonamassa, Sherinian and Bonham in melancholic although slightly groovy mood,…

Q&A: Josh Homme The Queens Of The Stone Age mainman on working with Iggy, not being a natural frontman and loving to dance. Words: Marcel Anders Over the past couple of years, California’s desert rock darling Josh Homme has become almost as widely known for his production work (Iggy’s 2016 album Post Pop Depression owed much of its sound to Homme’s input) as for his day job fronting Queens Of The Stone Age. Still, for a man who’s spent much of his 30-odd-year career moving from project to project (Kyuss, Them Crooked Vultures, Eagles Of Death Metal…), the propensity for new adventures is hardly surprising. He even guested on a Lady Gaga single, Perfect Illusion, last year. Most recently he’s made a new QOTSA album, Villains, produced by Mark Ronson…

SOLID GOLD EASY ACTION Put a rock star under enough pressure and they’ll crumble or create diamonds. Producer Tony Visconti recalls his time in the studio with Marc Bolan and T.Rex, recording The Slider and Tanx. Words: Chris Roberts GETTY “Whatever the pressure on Marc was, it created one of the best T.Rex albums of all.” Producer Tony Visconti It’s spring 1972 and Marc Bolan, the rest of T.Rex and producer Tony Visconti – who tells this story – are in a limo travelling from Orly airport to the 18th-century Château d’Hérouville (recently kitted out as a residential studio facility) close to Paris for a crucial recording session. Bolan is swigging liberally from a bottle of Courvoisier and waywardly improvising a blues song. ‘I’m an old bulldog,’ he repeats, not…

BLOND AMBITION He’s dealt with homelessness and anorexia, survived Hanoi Rocks’ hellraising, and found solo success. Michael Monroe looks back at a roller-coaster career. Words: Ian Fortnam Portraits: Kevin Nixon Exploding through the door in a jangle of bangles, Michael Monroe is every inch the rock star. Whippet lean, stunningly statuesque, bombshell-blond and carrying off a look mere mortals wouldn’t dare attempt – black waistcoat over bejewelled bare torso, black trousers adorned with more superfluous buckles ’n’ straps than an S&M bondage convention – he collapses into a sofa, crosses a significant yardage of leg and widens his Kohl-smudged, doe eyes to embark upon a revealing journey into an incident-packed past. So how has the former Hanoi Rocks frontman endured multiple setbacks to enjoy a solo career that only improves…

WHIPPING BOYS Right from when Stone Temple Pilots released their debut album, they were pilloried like no other band before or since. Even though they became one of the great groups of the 90s, the wounds from those attacks never fully healed. Words: Dave Everley NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLASICONS.COM In an episode of one of the most popular TV shows of the early 90s, there’s an exchange that sums up the prevailing critical view of Stone Temple Pilots when they first came along. In it, those two unlikely arbiters of cool, Beavis and Butt-head stare blank-eyed out of the screen as the video to STP’s hit single Plush plays. “Is this Pearl Jam?” cackles Beavis. “Yeah, Eddie Vedder dyed his hair red,” snorts Butt-head. Beavis: “Wait a minute. This isn’t Pearl Jam.” Butt-head:…

ROUND-UP: ALT.ROCK By Emma Johnston Nadine Shah Holiday Destination 1965 If any year in recent memory was likely to inspire a political record, it’s 2016, a horror show of rising nationalism, civil wars and an ever-worsening refugee crisis. Nadine Shah has deftly channelled her fury and disbelief at it all into a record that’s both fiercely intelligent and, with its tense Krautrock rhythms, deliciously dark, gothic melodies and gorgeous, strident vocals, moreishly listenable. Her anger is laser-focused, the title track railing against the lack of compassion for desperate refugees arriving on the shores of Kos, while the simultaneously twitchy and soaring Mother Fighter deftly humanises the Syrian crisis. The political is personal, too, lead single Out The Way slapping down anyone who suggests that Shah, as a second-generation immigrant, should go…

Essential Classics Truth EMI, 1968 There’s no better way of launching your own career than by loudly eviscerating your past. Jeff Beck’s first solo album opens by grinding his Yardbirds hit Shapes Of Things into the dirt with a metallic stomp. Rod Stewart’s rasping vocals finish the job. Jeff ‘n’ Rod were never going to be the Glimmer Twins, but they make excellent sparring partners as they trample all over Morning Dew, I Ain’t Superstitious, Ol’ Man River (really) and You Shook Me, the Willie Dixon/JB Lenoir blues standard which Led Zeppelin also recorded for their debut album, released five months later. Beck’s Bolero is the icing on the cake. The perfect start to what would become a prestigious solo career. Blow By Blow EPIC, 1975 Beck’s pivotal fifth album –…

Avoid Emotion And Commotion ATCO, 2010 There are Jeff Beck fans who claim that he has never made an avoidable album, but this return from a seven-year break could be described as superfluous. The lush production by Trevor Horn wreaks of an ulterior motive – the dinner-jazz audience maybe? And you have to question the wisdom of a 64-piece orchestra on a Jeff Beck album. It starts well with a poignant Corpus Christi (based on Jeff Buckley’s version) followed by a rousing Hammerhead. But it soon sinks into a strange ambivalence, and it’s hard to believe Beck chose to cover Over The Rainbow, Lilac Wine or Nessun Dorma of his own free will.…

Radio Moscow / Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs London The Borderline Meanwhile, in Soho, 1970 refuses to die. “Thank Christ For The Bomb is a great album,” says Chris D’avoine, frontman of this version of The Groundhogs. “Which I can say because I’m not on it.” With three-quarters of the line-up having no connection with the band’s glory years, and none of them being Tony McPhee – only drummer Ken Pustelnik, who looks like a miniature version of Christopher Lee, played on their best records – you’d be forgiven for not expecting much from this support slot. And you’d be wrong. D’avoine is a manic presence, bass player Latch Manghat a whirl of swirling dreads and blurred fingers, and crushing versions of Soldier, Eccentric Man and Spilt, Part One rattle the venue’s…

Fairport Convention Cropredy Convention, Oxfordshire Come all ye rollin’ minstrels – Fairport hit a half-century. It must be a bit special if Robert Plant’s here. Joe Brown, Danny Thompson and some other famous faces are also in attendance this weekend, celebrating 50 years of folk rock’s first family at their own 20,000-strong festival in a field near Banbury. The current Convention (Simon Nicol, Dave Pegg, Gerry Conway, Ric Sanders and Chris Leslie) bookend a three-hour Saturday night headline slot with interludes that start with a rip-snorting set from the ‘Fairport Toddlers’. Nicol lines up beside Richard Thompson, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Ian Matthews and Judy Dyble, and the teen-era band fire up Time Will Show The Wiser and a jamtastic Reno, Nevada complete with traditional dishcloth knitting by Dyble. Eccentric…