Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i Classic Rock

WELCOME My overwhelming memory of the Eagles is getting the chance, back in 2007, to witness them play a very intimate gig at the IndigO2 in London to celebrate the release of their last studio album, Long Road Out Of Eden. It was hard not to be struck by just how many of their songs you knew – even if you didn’t actually realise you knew them, so intrinsic is their music to classic rock. As you’ll read in our exclusive interview with Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit, they were one of the founding fathers of the genre of music that this magazine is named after. After Glenn Frey’s unexpected death two years ago, we didn’t think we’d see the Eagles play again. And, for a good…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Geoff Emerick December 5, 1945 – October 2, 2018 A hugely significant component in The Beatles’ success, as right-hand man to producer George Martin, Geoff Emerick was the studio engineer on the band’s early hits and later albums from 1966 to ’69. After the Beatles broke up, Emerick moved to America and collaborated with artists including Jeff Beck, Cheap Trick, Kate Bush, Elvis Costello, Art Garfunkel, Split Enz and Ultravox, winning four Grammys along the way. Emerick was 72 at the time of his death following a heart attack. Paul Curcio Died September 10, 2018 Paul Curcio was best known for having overseen Metallica’s 1983 debut album Kill ’Em All. The New Yorker was a musician who produced other acts and also…

NEWS Thunder release an album called Please Remain Seated on January 18 via BMG. Said to be a “collection of radically reworked versions of songs from throughout our extensive catalogue”, it will be promoted by dates in Cardiff on February 1, Ipswich 2, Manchester 4, York 5, Gateshead 6, Glasgow 8, Leicester 9, Bath 11 and Birmingham 12. Support comes from Dan Reed. Geddy Lee reveals that there are “zero plans” for Rush to tour again. However, the bassist/vocalist did tell Rolling Stone that seeing “one of us or two of us or three of us” – i.e. solo projects or him working with guitarist Alex Lifeson – remains “possible”. Lee’s book The Big Beautiful Book Of Bass is published on December 4 via Harper Collins. Read The Classic Rock…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS UFO Doctor Doctor Question: what do nurses, urinary infections and cardboard box drums all have in common? Answer: they were all intrinsic to the genesis of UFO’s signature and biggest hit. Words: Dave Ling First released in May 1974 on their album Phenomenon, Doctor Doctor would become UFO’s biggest worldwide hit. Forty-four years down the line, it still remains their calling card, although it took the success of their double-live album Strangers In The Night five years later to take the song belatedly into the UK charts. With the band newly signed to a major label, Chrysalis Records, Phenomenon – the band’s first album with Michael Schenker after they stole the 17-year-old guitar wunderkind from the Scorpions – offered a brand new start for vocalist…

FLIGHTS OF FANCY Ten Eagles deep cuts. TRYIN’ The Eagles seemed to arrive fully formed on their self-titled debut album. Take It Easy was the big pop hit, and Train Leaves Here This Morning showed they could do back-porch country, but it was this that proved the Eagles could rock out as well as anyone. CERTAIN KIND OF FOOL Henley and Frey locked in their songwriting partnership on second album, Desperado, but it wasn’t a closed shop. Certain Kind Of Fool, co-written and sung by Meisner, added a power-pop punch to the band’s dusty Wild West fantasising. MY MAN Guitarist Bernie Leadon had the best pre-Eagles pedigree: he’d played with country-rock visionary Gram Parsons in the Flying Burrito Brothers. My Man, from 1974’s On The Border, was his heartfelt tribute…

BAD MOON RISING Hugely successful by the late 60s, what Creedence Clearwater Revival surely saw ahead was more success on an even grander scale. What none of them could have seen coming up around the bend instead was inflated egos, brotherly hate, bitter feuds, financial ruin and tragic death. Words: Max Bell BARON WOLMAN/GETTY It’s half-past midnight when Creedence Clearwater Revival, by now huge in the US, take the stage at what will become to be regarded as the most significant festival event of the 20th century, 1969’s Woodstock. They kick off an 11-song set with Born On The Bayou, from Bayou Country, one of three albums they release that year, the others being Green River and Willy And The Poor Boys. Evidently the Avalon ballroom floor manager hired for…

CLASSIC ROCK ALBUM OF THE WEEK CLUB Every week we choose a classic album – some obscure, some well known – and share knowledge and opinion. Listen and debate with us at: http://bit.do/aotw. Have your say on the history of rock, one album at a time… And you might just see yourself in print. Budgie Budgie (1971) WHAT YOU SAID Geoff Ringrose: This is exactly why I joined this group. I know of Budgie peripherally… mostly covers like Metallica’s version of Breadfan. I just played this album front to back. What a bass groove and volume! They’re the Welsh Rush. Off to the record store now. Keep up the great work! John Davidson: File under ‘good but not great’. There are hints of Black Sabbath and Zep, and musically they…

Fleetwood Mac 50 Years: Don’t Stop Warner Bros Career-spanning but hits-heavy collection. From the Peter Green years to the recent arrival of Neil Finn, in their half-century career Fleetwood Mac have regenerated many times, like a increasingly successful rock Doctor Who. They began as a British blues-boom band, complete with obligatory back-alley album cover shot and a repertoire of amped-up R&B numbers, evolved into a proper early-70s rock band, moved towards a more melodic repertoire, and then turned into a multiplatinum rock-pop soap opera, which they remained as pretty much for three decades, before fading gracefully into stadium nostalgia. The 50 Years: Don’t Stop collection attempts, in strikingly truncated and biased form, to do justice to that career. It does so by devoting three CDs to the band’s 50 years…

STUFF BOOKS & DVDs Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin REAL ART PRESS Fifty years. Fifty notes. Is this finally the Led Zeppelin book we’ve been waiting for? You might think you know what you’re getting with this monstrously lavish coffee-table book. In case it’s escaped your attention – and really, if you’re reading Classic Rock, how could it? – it’s been half a century since Led Zeppelin’s formation, and finally all the surviving members have seen fit to be involved in a proper commemorative tome. Billed simply as the ‘Official 50th Anniversary Illustrated Book’, Led Zeppelin By Led Zeppelin is thankfully so very much more than a picture book hastily slapped together to cash in on a big convenient anniversary. The chronological run through Zeppelin’s active years (with a final chapter…

This month’s contributors DAVE EVERLEY This month we managed to keep Diamond Dave Everley living out of a suitcase. First we dispatched him to NYC to hang out with the Eagles for our cover story (p26). Then while he was out there we stuck him on a plane to the other coast for a forthcoming (top secret) feature on one of the most exciting bands of recent times. But you’ll have to wait for that one. ROBBY KLEIN Robby is an entertainment photographer from New Orleans and is currently based in Nashville. This month we snagged him to take our shots of Black Stone Cherry, The Cadillac Three and Monster Truck (p72). He can often be found surfing in LA or eating bagels in NYC. Robby travels the world with…

“See you in court, Lindsey” Mac snub Buckingham as they announce two summer dates. FLEETWOOD MAC ARE to introduce their new live line-up with two open-air summer shows in 2019. The band, now with Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell and Crowded House leader Neil Finn in place of Lindsey Buckingham, will perform at the RDS Arena in Dublin on June 13 and London’s Wembley Stadium on June 16. Buckingham recently sued the band for his dismissal earlier this year as a result of what has been called a ‘scheduling conflict’, and having lost up to $14 million as a consequence of their actions. He'd requested the tour be delayed in order to promote his solo box set. The guitarist claims to have been told five days after the group appeared at…

the DIRT ★ HIGH HOPES Northward Two metalheads with symphonic and prog roots join forces and make a rock album. “I’ve never followed one path. I always wanted to explore more in different genres.” IT ISN’T WHAT you’d expect from Floor Jansen. The Dutch powerhouse vocalist is typically seen howling operatically with symphonic metallers Nightwish. But in Northward, her new band with Jørn Viggo Lofstad (guitarist with Norwegian prog metal band Pagan’s Mind), it’s all about hard rock. Their self-titled debut is packed with monster tunes, mixing tastes of Alter Bridge, Halestorm and Foo Fighters with moody moments; plus shots of Satriani-meets-Wylde guitar heroics. “Nightwish is very known for opera and things like that,” Jansen says. “But since I started singing and studying music, I’ve never followed one path, I’ve…

the DIRT ★ HIGH HOPES Goodbye June Forgive these Nashville rockers, for they have sinned – they did the Devil’s music. Hallelujah! “We’re here to show the next generation what a rock band can do.” Jason Myers/press AS A YOUNG man, Landon Milbourn walked a righteous path. But there’s nothing like rock’n’roll to knock you off course. “It’s strict growing up in the church in the American south,” the Goodbye June singer recalls. “We didn’t have a TV until I was nine, because it was the ‘Devil’s box’. We knew about records like The Dark Side Of The Moon growing up, but it was the ‘Devil’s music’. When we finally came into our own, aged fifteen, me and Brandon [Qualkenbush, guitarist/cousin] started smoking weed and listening to rock’n’roll. We were…

Q&A Ronnie Wood With a new, Stones-curated blues compilation just out, Woody recalls the groundbreaking US guitarists who shook 60s London. Words: Henry Yates The blues is the spine that runs through the 56-year history of the Rolling Stones. In October 1961, it forged the band’s nucleus of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, as the future songwriting partnership compared Chess vinyl on the platform of Dartford railway station. The blues was the bedrock of the band’s breakout early sets, and drove their imperious turn-of-the-decade hot streak, when albums such as 1969’s Let It Bleed, 1971’s Sticky Fingers and 1972’s Exile On Main St paid open tribute to the big blues beasts of Chicago and Mississippi. Even in 1981, at the band’s commercial peak, the superstar lineup shrunk back to wide-eyed…

VINCE GILL One of the two new kids in town on going from fan to friend to member of the Eagles. Can you remember when you heard the Eagles for the first time? Oh sure. I was a young kid in Oklahoma, just trying to figure out how to play the guitar, and those were the guys who were doing exactly what I loved. That first record had a huge impact on me, because the songs were so good. To me, that’s what’s stood the test of time – their songs. There are very few people in life that accomplish that kind of body of work. Where were you when you got the call to join? I was home. I’ve crossed paths with those guys lots of times, so it…

ROSE TATTOO “I’LL DO IT IF BON DOES” Mark Evans won’t be going back to AC/DC. GETTY X1 In the 1970s, Rose Tattoo and AC/DC forged a strong mutual appreciation society, jamming at each other’s shows and hanging out on the Sydney rock scene. “The two bands were almost interrelated thanks to Harry [Vanda] and George [Young], who produced us both,” says Mark Evans, AC/DC’s bassist from 1975 to ’77 and now a full-blown member of Rose Tattoo. Links were so strong that an uncredited Evans played bass on a couple of tracks on Rose Tattoo’s self-titled debut, known in Europe as Rock ‘N’ Roll Outlaws. “That’s right, I was on Bad Boy For Love and one other track,” Evans confirms. “In fact there were moves to get me into…

What’s So Special About ROY BUCHANAN? Roy Buchanan inspired the likes of Jeff Beck, Gary Moore and Joe Bonamassa to take blues rock into new territory. Criminally unknown, the man who said no to the Stones, suffered a life of addiction and died a bluesman’s death became a cult icon. Words: Ed Mitchell Photo: Michael Putland If you can recall the final shot in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Irish mob movie The Departed, then you’ve experienced the genius of Roy Buchanan. Moments after Mark Wahlberg’s Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Dignam guns down Matt Damon’s mob mole Colin Sullivan, the camera pans round to capture a rat scurrying along the balcony rail of Sullivan’s apartment. As the gnawing rodent reaches centre frame, Roy Buchanan’s blues-fuelled instrumental version of the country standard Sweet…

BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. William Shatner Shatner Claus: The Christmas Album CLEOPATRA Characteristically dramatic readings of festive favourites as The Shat teams up with Iggy, Wakeman, Rollins et al. All this and a Trump in the White House. How did we get here? 4/10 Billy Idol Vital Idol/Revitalized CAPITOL/UME A new generation of remixers (CRAY, RAC, Tropkillaz) reimagine the same old Idol gold (Yell, Wedding etc). A respray of a retread. Aims at two demographics, pleases neither. 5/10 TV Smith Land Of The Overdose JKP/WARNER One of his generation’s sharpest songwriters, indomitable Adverts vocalist Smith has spent four decades honing a rare skill for crafting (criminally undervalued) zeitgeist-fuelled lyrics. 7/10 Hard Wax Diamond In The Rough CONTRA Part Giuda, part junk-shop glam, matching Slade…

BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. By Ian Fortnam Uriah Heep Demons & Wizards BMG Back where it belongs, on 180g vinyl, with an Andy Pearce remaster, a Roger Dean sleeve re-imagine, a proto-progging Traveller In Time and a riff-romping Easy Livin’. ‘Appy days! 8/10 Mike + The Mechanics Living Years 30th Anniversary Edition BMG With an airbrushed mid-Atlantic sound cripplingly redolent of its time, and a title track that’s almost 100 per cent wince, Rutherford’s Young/Carrack-voiced juggernaut is back, on double vinyl. 6/10 Buster Poindexter Buster Poindexter / Buster Goes Berserk FLOA TING WORLD The New York Dolls’ Bad Detective hinted at David Johansen’s proclivity for inhabiting a character. Here are his first two albums as lounge-singing, serial-imbibing, Latin jazzer Poindexter. 7/10 The Fall I…

LIVE! Killing Joke Set-list? Dunno. But you can be sure there won’t be a dull moment. “At this time in our lives, to realise that we are one of the world’s most inf luential bands makes me want to pinch myself.” Frontman Jaz Coleman and bassist Youth, co-founding members of the UK noise terrorists, preview a 12-show 40th-anniversary circuit of the UK. Today you’re in Argentina. How’s the tour going so far? Jaz Coleman: Mind blowing. Everywhere was sold out. Last night people were crying in the audience – the first time we’ve had that in Latin America. You’re not particularly fond of playing in America, though? JC: I was extremely apprehensive, I’ll be honest. The place has now become so divisive. But we had such a good time that…

LIVE! Bernie Tormé The guitarist plays Tormé, Gillan and “sometimes even an Ozzy track”. The former Gillan, Electric Gypsies, Ozzy Osbourne, Desperado and GMT guitarist plays eight British gigs, after which he’ll quit the road. Or maybe he won’t… This tour is called The Final Fling. What does that mean? I’ve always enjoyed playing but the travel and the organisation has become so gruelling and time-consuming. At my level it isn’t even profitable once everyone is paid. So I figured: “No, I’m sixty-six. With every tour for the past four years I’ve been ill as shit at the end.” I’m an old man, but I just can’t go on stage without jumping around and giving a hundred per cent. Will you continue to make records, though? I hope to, yeah.…

LIVE! Glenn Hughes Plays Classic Deep Purple Live/Laurence Jones London Camden Electric Ballroomn ‘Hughes is once again proving he is one of rock’s greatest singers.’ Laurence Jones just loves playing blues guitar – the sounds it makes, the expression it allows him. And he is very good at it. But unless you like your guitar heroes to resemble that nice young man who works in the bank, he isn’t going to change the world. His own songs, although delivered by an excellent band including two fine (if rarely singing) backing singers, are straitjacketed by conventions. So where Laurence Jones really shines is when he’s interpreting others’ material. He does Hendrix bold as brass, funkily rejuvenating All Along The Watchtower almost as significantly as Jimi himself reanimating the Dylan folk song.…

U2 Hamburg Barclaycard Arena U2 do not do anything by halves. The Irish supergroup’s third world tour in four years concludes their marathon two-part Songs Of Innocence/Experience saga, their most personal and theatrical live production ever. Much like its 2015 sister tour, this show is dominated by the monumental “barricage”, a free-floating catwalk stage spanning almost the full length of the arena. Sandwiching the band between two massive LED video walls that blaze with Pop Art graphics and political slogans, this is sense-blitzing spectacle on a blockbuster scale. Sequenced to tell a loose coming-of-age narrative, the set list draws on both the group’s post-punk Dublin youth and their sleazy-ironic 90s period, including the first ever live airing of Acrobat and a return of Bono’s Faustian MacPhisto character, enhanced by real-time…

Smashing Pumpkins London Wembley Arena Partially re-formed benign dictatorship totally in form. When Billy Corgan announced he would be reforming the classic Smashing Pumpkins lineup to tour an early albums-only set, he stirred a real buzz that now permeates the Wembley air. The problem is, Corgan’s always sucked at sharing his spotlight. Despite having co-founding guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin (original bassist D’arcy Wretzky is conspicuous by her absence) at his side for the first time since 2000, he initially leaves them in the wings, stepping onstage to bask in the crowd’s adoration alone. The ego has landed, but such hubris is forgiveable when it’s driving such a visually staggering and magically nostalgic experience. When the band finally join him and reach full throttle, they sound like something…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT Leppard On The Loose Def Leppard are Download bound (along with fellow headliners Slipknot and Tool), and are also up for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. ALL PHOTOGRAPHY: KEVIN NIXON IN A BUMPER month for the Sheffield-based band, Def Leppard have been nominated for induction to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame and are confirmed as one of the three headliners for next year’s Download Festival. For the 2019 HOF honours Leppard are shortlisted along with Todd Rundgren, Stevie Nicks, Radiohead, The Cure, Rage Against The Machine, Roxy Music, Devo, Kraftwerk, The Zombies, MC5, John Prine, Rufus Featuring Chaka Khan, LL Cool J and Janet Jackson. The winners will be announced next month, and the induction ceremony takes place at the…

Otis Rush April 29, 1935 – September 29, 2018 GETTY X3 A PIONEER OF the Chicago blues scene, guitarist/singer Otis Rush enjoyed a recording career that spanned more than six decades. Born near Philadelphia, he was a self-taught musician from the age of eight, and played his instrument lefthanded and upside down. He moved to Chicago in 1949 and found work in the local steel mills and stockyards and as a truck driver, and pursued music as a vocation after attending a Muddy Waters concert. He developed a style of guitar playing based on jazz foundations, which he embellished with an impassioned tenor voice. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Peter Green and Carlos Santana are among those who cited him as an influence on their own technique. His first single, a…

Stars warn Prime Minister over Brexit Nick Mason, Roger Taylor and Sting among signatories. GALVANISED BY THE ever-vocal Bob Geldof, a cross-section of home-grown talent has pooled forces in an open letter to Theresa May, warning the Prime Minister of the dangers of Brexit upon the music scene. Nick Mason, Brian Eno, Roger Taylor, Johnny Marr and Sting joined forces with Ed Sheeran, Jarvis Cocker of Pulp, Blur’s Damon Albarn, Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream, Neil Tennant and pop star Rita Ora, predicting that the “vast voice” of the music industry could become a “self-built cultural jail”. May was urged to consider that Brexit will “impact every aspect of the music industry, from touring to sales, to copyright legislation to royalty collation.” According to the British Phonographic Industry, the popularity…

Darius Riches from the rock underground Darius, Chartmaker, USA, 1969. £700. Cleveland-born Darius (real name Bobby Joe Ott) arrived in the mystical playground of psychedelic Hollywood during the hazy summer of 1967. Within a short space of time he had pieced together enough material to record this highly acclaimed cult album. Backed by (un-credited) labelmates Goldenrod (session players who’d also played alongside Elvis), Darius is a tantalizingly melodic album, with transcendental textures ranging from folk-rock, to blues (Dirty Funky Situation), pop, funky soul (I’m The Man) and groovy psychedelic rock. Opener Shades Of Blue is a prime example of the latter. Controlled upbeat verses are interspersed with fuzzy wah-wah guitars and chimes, as Darius weaves in and out of calm and tortured reflection. It’s fair to say that he had…

MY FIRST LOVE The Shadows THE SHADOWS Fairport Convention’s multi-instrumentalist reveals an early fondness for the choreographed guitar pioneers. By Dave Pegg DAVE PEGG: KEVIN NIXON “My first musical love was the debut album by The Shadows – in mono. It’s got a picture of them with all their lovely sweaters on and all their lovely Fender guitars. A teenage boy’s dream, those guitars. I bought it with my own money in a record shop in Acock’s Green in Birmingham, and I’ve still got it. Anyone who plays the guitar at my age – I’m 66 – will have had The Shadows as heroes. “It started for me with Bert Weedon when he used to be on the telly, doing The Five O’Clock Club. I bought his Play In A Day…

the DIRT Heavy Rotation What we’ve been listening to this month 1 Mission To Mars Ace Frehley The Kiss guitar slinger comes bearing fruit from his new solo album Spaceman. Mission To Mars is full of meaty, groovy fuzz, plus some nicely flashy lead licks. A more organic, earthly delight than the title might suggest, but in this case that’s no band thing. Check out our interview with him on page 122. 2 Let You Down Hollowstar Muscular modern hard rock from heaviest Cambridgeshire; all bold, chunky production, riffs the size of monster trucks and vibes of Slash, mid-era Black Stone Cherry and the like. Intrigued? Catch them live with the Dan Reed Network through November, before someone snaps them up for an arena support tour. 3 Shade Of Grey…

THE INTERVIEW GEDDY LEE For almost 50 years, all the world really was a stage for the bassist/vocalist with prog giants Rush. Away from the spotlight he’s a family man, a serious collector – wine, basses, baseballs – and, most recently, an author. He is, without doubt, one of rock’s greats. Words: Philip Wilding Portraits: Mick Hutson GETTY GETTY X2 Le Studio, in the Laurentian mountains in Quebec, Canada, where Rush recorded some of their biggest-selling albums – everything from 1980’s Permanent Waves through to Counterparts some 13 years later – has long gone. In some small part though, it lives on. Take the curve of metal stairs down to Geddy Lee’s basement studio (where he and Alex Lifeson wrote and demoed the bulk of the band’s final few albums),…

Move over, Rover, and let Jimi take over… The Real Deal and ‘a peacock from another planet’… no one rocked the blues like Jimi Hendrix. As his landmark album Electric Ladyland celebrates its 50th anniversary, we look at what made Hendrix the first true star of a very ‘white’ scene. Words: David Sinclair Jimi Hendrix struck the UK music scene like a bolt of lightning – illuminating and electrifying everything in his path. “It was a bombshell,” says Eddie Kramer, the man who engineered and became intimately involved in the recording and mixing of all Hendrix’s key albums. “You hear all the comments at the time from Clapton and Townshend. They were flabbergasted. They all thought that they were really brilliant players, and here comes this guy, and in one…

NOW HEAR THIS! Five tracks that testify to the genius of Roy Buchanan. Sweet Dreams Roy Buchanan (1972) This instrumental version of Don Gibson’s country ballad finds Buchanan unloading his entire trick bag of extreme bends, volume and tone control rolling, super-fast blues runs and harmonic squeals. Just mind-blowing. And this from a man who once said: “I never thought that much about my playing. I was adequate.” Roy’s Bluz Live Stock (1975) It’s not just a clever title. This is just yer classic slow blues thing, until Roy loses it with a solo that Joe Bonamassa describes as “coming at you like a dagger”. The album, recorded at New York City Town Hall in November ‘74, was a huge influence on Jeff Beck, who dedicated Cause We’ve Ended As…

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling Nordic Union Second Coming FRONTIERS An alliance between two cornerstones of Scandinavian melodic rock music – Ronnie Atkins, frontman of Danish veterans Pretty Maids, and one of the scene’s foremost yet comparatively newer names, Swedish songwriter and producer Erik Mårtensson of Eclipse, W.E.T. and Ammunition fame – Nordic Union released one of the finest debut albums of 2016. Though fêted for a more introverted style of music, Mårtensson’s roots lie in 80s metal. In tandem with the equally robust Atkins, there was a danger that Nordic Union could prove a little too vigorous for some potential fans. But with Mårtensson’s Eclipse and W.E.T. bandmate Magnus Ulfstedt laying down the beats with a mix of brute force and deftness, the duo cultivate a style that plunders…

REISSUES The Jimi Hendrix Experience Electric Ladyland 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition SONY Seminal masterpiece gets deserved bells, whistles and package. Electric Ladyland was the most complete manifestation of Hendrix’s stratospheric but beleaguered visions to be realised while he was still alive. Too expansive for a single disc after exploring 12-track recording, the album presented Jimi’s past (R&B title ballad, Come On), present (Crosstown Traffic, House Burning Down) and future (epic sound painting 1983), while the blues remained his timeless backbone on Gypsy Eyes, heaving delta jam Voodoo Chile and its searing Slight Return offspring. Throw in All Along The Watchtower and the album stands as a career peak and an era classic. The guardians of Jimi’s legacy knew they had to amp up previous reissues to mark its half century,…

INTERVIEWS Magnum New band members, but playing lots of old favourites. Vocalist Bob Catley sets the scene as the Brummie pomp-rockers close out their forty-sixth year with a handful of shows before recording a new album, their twenty-first, in 2019. Your current album Lost On The Road To Eternity reached number fifteen, the band’s highest placing since 1990’s Goodnight LA. We were incredibly thrilled. It was number eight in Germany. We celebrated with a couple of shandies. Tell us about your keyboard player, Rick Benton. Rick was a recommendation who stepped in when we needed somebody very quickly – mid-tour, in fact. It’s lovely to have him as he’s a great character. Drummer Lee Morris played with Marshall Law and Paradise Lost. What does he bring to the band? He’s…

The Magpie Salute Ex-Black Crowes man doesn’t fly too far from the nest. Guitarist Rich Robinson previews a 10-date visit from the US band that features three former members of The Black Crowes. Would it be wrong for someone to presuppose that The Magpie Salute are the successors to The Black Crowes? Look, people will always make assumptions. I see us as a great band that I was able to put together with some friends, and one that plays great music. With so many commonalities, is the band a continuation of the Crowes? We’re a continuation of all the music that the members have made together. It’s just a very organic and cool band of people that I admire as musicians. We’re having so much fun and it really feels…

LIVE! Steve Hackett London Palladium ‘It’s the timeless Supper’s Ready that’s raised to another level’ One orchestral manoeuvre that really works. WILL IRELAND Odd thing about this band-orchestra lark. Sometimes the former totally overpower the latter. Occasionally, the latter end up subsuming the former. Getting the balance right is so tough that few manage to do so. Thankfully, Steve Hackett has mastered the challenge. It helps, of course, that the Genesis material which makes up much of the evening lends itself to such an approach. Dance On A Volcano, Firth Of Fifth and the alliance of …In That Quiet Earth and Afterglow benefit from the extra texture and colour the 41-piece Heart Of England Philharmonic Orchestra add. You can tell all the musicians onstage are comfortable with one another. The…

Halestorm London Brixton 02 Academy Another sure step on the road to world domination. The only way you can move in an overstuffed Brixton Academy tonight is by vibrating on the spot every time Arejay Hale kicks his bass drum. The sound thunders across the enormous Academy floor until your fillings threaten to rattle right out of your mouth. You have to bear it though, because Halestorm are tonight’s hot ticket: you can barely turn around in the undulating throng. When he’s not kicking the living daylights out of his drums or spinning his sticks in a way that makes Tommy Lee look pedestrian, Arejay has to work hard; fail to lock eyes with him and it appears that every square foot of the expansive stage belongs to his sister,…

REVIEWS Jeff Lynne’s ELO London O2 Arena ‘It’s a 90-minute hitstorm, with no self-indulgent flab in sight.’ CARSTEN WINDHORST They promised a party all over the world, and delivered in style at this hit-stuffed extravaganza of sheer guilty pleasure. In Tokyo, the fireworks reach the stratosphere. Likewise London, Paris, Rome, New York. The whole planet erupts in pyrotechnics as though, by some crazy malfunction at Greenwich, midnight on New Year’s Eve has hit the entire globe simultaneously. And above these back screen visuals, orchestrating the celebrations, hovers that iconic image – half jukebox mural, half mothership from some faraway planet of orchestral disco rock. The song is All Over The World and its disco maximus message – the Andrew WK-pleasing promise that ‘there’s gonna be a party all over the…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Former Kiss guitarist ACE FREHLEY on the special records that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Paul Elliott When Ace Frehley laughs, he sounds like Batman’s great foe, The Penguin – and he laughs a lot as he talks to Classic Rock about some of the music that has shaped his eventful life. Born Paul Daniel Frehley in New York City on April 27, 1951, he became a world-famous rock star in the 70s as lead guitarist in Kiss, which he left in 1982 and embarked on a solo career. That was put on hold temporarily when he rejoined Kiss in 1992 for a reunion tour. His new solo album, Spaceman, has the streetwise rock’n’roll attitude and eccentricity that has always defined him. As…