Classic Rock February 2020

WELCOME Welcome to the first issue of 2020! I hope you’re not still nursing hangovers from your New Year’s celebrations, but if you are, then I hope this issue will help to ease the pain. As 2020 rolls by, so do a lot of important anniversaries in the rock world. So this month we’re taking you back to the first weeks of 1970, when The Doors were about to unleash Morrison Hotel on to an unsuspecting public. Frontman Jim Morrison was navigating a run-in with the law, the band were blacklisted by radio and were in a bit of trouble. Nevertheless, they rose to the challenge and delivered what would be their most successful album in the UK. Read more from page 26. Elsewhere we take a walk on the…

This month’s contributors BILL DEMAIN Bill DeMain is a songwriter, BBC correspondent and the owner/guide of the Walkin’ Nashville music history tour. His songs appear on upcoming releases by A Girl Called Eddy and Curtis Stigers. This month he delved into Band Of Gypsys for us. Read about his investigations into Jimi Hendrix from page 52. DAVE LING News and Lives Editor Dave Ling is a member of the team that founded Classic Rock back in 1998. As ever, he’s been very busy this issue. In addition to his regular duties, he spoke with Magnum, Girlschool, Five Finger Death Punch, Keb’ Mo’, Adam Wakeman and Damian Wilson for the lives section, and managed to find time to speak with Corky Laing and chronicle his unbelievable life (page 44). IAN FORTNAM…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT “They turned up at the Nashville as a pub-rock band” New photo-book documents AC/DC’s early years COPYRIGHT FUTURE 2019 © DICK BARNATT & RUFUS PUBLICATIONS © DICK BARNATT & RUFUS PUBLICATIONS A NEW LIMITED-edition coffee-table book showcases AC/DC’s years of 1976 to 1981, a period in the band’s history that most fans consider peerless. Big Balls is a 272-page, largely pictorial tome that pulls together photos from the photographers Dick Barnatt, Michael Putland, Fin Costello, George Bodnar and Martyn Goddard, covering AC/DC from their first visit to the UK up to their headlining spot at the second Monsters Of Rock festival a half-decade later. At Castle Donington, with Brian Johnson having replaced the late, great Bon Scott on vocals, and part of a…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Martin Hooker February 4, 1953 – November 18, 2019 Members of Metallica, Twisted Sister and Paradise Lost have paid tribute to the founder of their former record label, Music For Nations, who has died at the age of 66 following a long illness. “Martin was the first guy with the sack to sign Twisted Sister,” commented the American band. “Also, he caught a piece of fruit thrown at us at the Reading Festival… and ate it!” Iain Sutherland November 17, 1948 – November 25, 2019 Brothers born in Aberdeen, Gavin and Iain Sutherland were a folk- and softrock duo known as the Sutherland Brothers, who performed with the band Quiver. The biggest hit of this alliance was Arms Of Mary in 1976,…

NEWS The Who have become the first act to be celebrated on London’s new Music Walk Of Fame in Camden. Frontman Roger Daltrey and guitarist Pete Townshend accepted the accolade from Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. The Boomtown Rats, whose current line-up features vintage-era members Bob Geldof on vocals, guitarist Garry Roberts, bassist Pete Briquette and drummer Simon Crowe, are soon to release their first new studio album since 1984’s In The Long Grass. Citizens Of Boomtown features 10 original songs. The band will also be on the road in the UK throughout March, April and May. Wishbone Ash release Coat Of Arms, their first studio album in six years, on February 28 via SPV Records. Still led by co-founding guitarist Andy Powell, their current line-up is completed by bassist Bob…

Michael Putland May 27, 1947 - November 18, 2019 IT HAS OFTEN BEEN suggested that Michael Putland did not have a single day off during the 1970s. As one of the decade’s most successful, popular and ubiquitous music photographers, with an archive that runs from ABBA to Zappa and just about everything in between, it’s easy to see why such an opinion could be true. Born in Harrow, just outside of London, Putland picked up his first camera at the age of nine. After leaving school he began work at a photographic studio, and eventually became a regular contributor to Disc & Music Echo. After being hired as the official photographer for the Rolling Stones’ 1973 tour, he never looked back, and went on to take iconic photos of Led…