Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2021 i Classic Rock

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. John Drake January 1, 1947 – August 29, 2021 Reacting to the news that his former band-mate in the Amboy Dukes, also that group’s forerunner the Lourds, lead singer John Brake (also known as Drake), had succumbed to cancer at the age of 74, Ted Nugent wrote on Facebook: “John had the Motown mojo! God rest his soul!” The Amboy Dukes released seven albums before Nugent went solo in 1975. Ron Cornelius February 14, 1945 – August 18, 2021 The veteran session guitarist Ron Cornelius was born in Richmond, California. He toured with or played on albums by Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Charlie Daniels, Glen Campbell, Aretha Franklin, Ella Fitzgerald and more. Cornelius, who also worked as a…

NEWS Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood were unable to attend the funeral of their Rolling Stones bandmate Charlie Watts due to covid restrictions. The trio were in New York preparing for upcoming Rolling Stones dates, and thus forbidden from attending for the service in Devon. Steve Jordan, a drummer with Richards’s solo group, is deputising for the tour. UFO, who next summer play farewell shows in mainland Europe, have announced that their last ever show will take place in Athens on October 29, 2022. “It will be a worthy finale to say goodbye to your fans in person,” says singer Phil Mogg. “There are bound to be some very emotional moments on both sides.” Dave Mustaine has hit out at the wearing of face coverings, branding them a…

MY FIRST LOVE The Clash LONDON CALLING The American musician, singer, songwriter, actor and political activist on a British punk classic. By Tom Morello “The Clash are my favourite rock’n’roll band of all time. London Calling was the launching point for my love of the band. Until I discovered punk I was a heavy metal fan. It was the cover of London Calling that first piqued my interest and made me think: ‘Who is this great new heavy metal band?’ “I devoured that record. The conviction with which the band played and with which Joe Strummer sang were indescribable. It was at a time that I was becoming politically aware, and here was a band who made me feel that I wasn’t alone. It was a band that told the…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS Start Me Up The Rolling Stones As Keith Richards and producer Chris Kimsey recall, the band’s final Top 10 UK single was originally an entirely different beast – and Keef may still hold a grudge about that. Words: Ian Fortnam With its short, sharp, instantly recognisable opening riff, insistent chorus, characteristically lascivious lyric, upfront handclaps and irresistibly pounding backbeat, Start Me Up is about as iconic a composition as the Rolling Stones have ever produced. Its undeniable assault on the nation’s collective consciousness gave them their highest-ranking UK single since the global phenomenon that was Miss You (though, perhaps incredibly, it also marked the final occasion upon which the Greatest Rock’N’Roll Band In The World found themselves going Top 10 in the UK singles chart).…

AC/DC THE POWER AND THE GLORY On April 30, 1978, AC/DC took to the stage of Glasgow Apollo and played one of the best shows of their career, resulting in If You Want Blood You Got It, one of rock’s greatest live albums. It was further proof that AC/DC had built their reputation as an unstoppable force on the road. Words: Paul Elliott CAMERA PRESS / STEVE EMBERTON It was, as Angus Young recalled it, “the magic show”, and what came out of it was one of the greatest live albums of all time. When AC/DC played at Glasgow Apollo on April 30, 1978, they were flying. The album they had just recorded, Powerage, was their best yet, hard rock’n’roll so gritty and ballsy that it would make Keith Richards…

THE RECORD COMPANY NEW HORZONS They made their name as a blues-rock trio, scooping up chart positions and playing to thousands along the way. Now The Record Company are throwing out the rule book and showing all their colours. Words: Polly Glass TRAVIS SHINN/PRESS It was the gamble that paid dividends. Back in 2011, three despondent musicians in their thirties – an angry metalhead from the sticks in Wisconsin, a shy, Clapton-loving guitarist from Pennsylvania and a gig-hungry keyboard player from upstate New York – met in Los Angeles and decided to start a blues-rock band. The angry metalhead (Chris Vos) became the frontman, the guitarist (Alex Stiff) became the bassist, and the keyboard player (Marc Cazorla) became the drummer. Together they were The Record Company, and they played rock’n’roll,…

The HOT List THE ESSENTIAL NEW ROCK TRACKS YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS MONTH AND THE BANDS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR Festivals have taken place. Indoor gigs are happening. There’s a sense of in-the-flesh rock making a comeback. And while some tours continue to be postponed until 2022, a lot of us are tasting music as we haven’t been able to do in more than 18 months. Even if you’re not ready to dive back into live shows just yet, it’s good to know that you can count on the burgeoning new waves of rock’n’roll – happening locally and far afield – to enjoy from the comfort of your home, in the car, on the train, at your desk… wherever you like to get your highvoltage kicks. So whether…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Biffy Clyro The Myth Of The Happily Ever After WARNER Lockdown experimentation from the everinventive Scottish trio takes on a life of its own. When Biffy Clyro released their eighth album, A Celebration Of Endings, in August 2020 it was a bittersweet experience. On the one hand, it revealed itself to be a creative high point of their career, an adrenalised and moving collision of their punk roots and pop nous, seasoned with the glorious, instantly recognisable weirdness they’ve somehow smuggled onto mainstream radio playlists. On the other hand, it arrived during the stillest of summers, when playing the songs live – this band’s entire reason for existing – was out of the question. Rather than falling into the comforting arms of Netflix marathons, the band…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling TAO Prophecy TAROT LABEL MEDIA/CARGO In AOR’s golden era, North America offered a rich seam of femalefronted acts. Britain’s track record was, with rare exceptions, laughable. However, small shards of hope are appearing. Despite being flawed by one or two filler songs, the debut from Welsh singer Chez Kane, released earlier this year, found an enthusiastic audience. Now comes TAO (Together As One), voiced by Scottish vocalist Karen Fell, backed by members of Serpentine and Ten among others. With songs from Ten leader Gary Hughes, who also manned the faders, it’s an estimable piece of work. Fell has a welcoming, strong and crystalline voice that’s perfect for the record’s blueprint of Heart meets Pat Benatar. Hughes’ writing style may be recognisable on Rock Brigade,…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Jerry Cantrell Brighten JERRY CANTRELL Alice In Chains guitarist lights up our lives with a dazzling third album. The third solo album by Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell is his best yet: the work of a songwriter who is happy in his life. The music within Brighten is full of AIC archetypes, not least Cantrell’s distinctive vocals, but spans a broad arc of styles… making it all the more remarkable that he appears comfortable in all of them. Like his two previous solo ventures – Boggy Depot in 1998, and 2002’s Degradation Trip Volumes 1 & 2 – this has been made with AIC on hiatus. But whereas on the predecessors Cantrell seemed content, or even determined, to plough the same heavy/doomy furrow as the…

THE HARD STUFF REISSUES The Rolling Stones Tattoo You (40th Anniversary Deluxe) POLYDOR/INTERSCOPE/UME Their first release since Charlie’s departure spectacularly reboots 1981 out-takes classic. “Iknow there’s an album in there,” understated Keith Richards to this writer in October 1980. Ostensibly (and less-than-enthusiastically) promoting Emotional Rescue, he preferred to talk about the six C90 cassettes sent to him and Mick Jagger brimming with demos, instrumentals, unfinished tracks and even complete songs that would manifest as Tattoo You the following August. After the record company required the next album to coincide with 1981-1982’s world tour, the Stones had taken up Chris Kimsey’s time-saving suggestion of trawling through hundreds of tape reels stretching back to 1973’s Goats Head Soup. The producer spent three months turning up forgotten gems including Start Me Up (its…

“I did not have Lindsey fired!” Stevie Nicks reveals her take on Buckingham’s sacking. STEVIE NICKS HAS responded to a provocative new interview in which her former Fleetwood Mac bandmate Lindsey Buckingham tells his side of being sacked by the band. Talking to the LA Times, guitarist/vocalist Buckingham claimed that Nicks had issued a ‘him or me’ ultimatum to the group, looking to assert additional control. He also made comments about her personal life, disparaging the singer’s creativity and energy levels on stage. Nicks said Buckingham’s claims were “factually inaccurate” and “revisionist”. Having preferred “to not air dirty laundry”, she said it felt like time “to shine a light on the truth”. “I did not have Lindsey fired,” she insisted of her former lover. “Frankly, I fired myself. I proactively…

WELCOME BACK My Morning Jacket Back after burn-out and health issues, their first album in six years extols love, tolerance and compassion. MY MORNING JACKET: AUSTIN NELSON/PRESS; STEVIE NICKS & LINDSEY BUCKINGHAM: GETTY SIX YEARS HAVE passed since My Morning Jacket served up fresh studio product, with various members choosing to embark on solo projects and live work with the likes of Roger Waters and Ray LaMontagne. But the Kentucky-rooted quintet have finally returned with their ninth album My Morning Jacket, a rich, rewarding, soulful psych-rock experience that addresses some of the bigger questions that modern life tends to throw up. Singer, guitarist and chief songwriter Jim James explains more… Self-titled albums often feel like statements of intent. Is that the case here? Definitely. We weren’t sure if we were…

AC/DC THE ROAD TO RUN Relentless touring had paid off and AC/DC were finally at the top of their game, but their singer was heading down a dangerous path. His last show was on January 27, 1980. Three weeks later he was dead. This is the story of Bon Scott’s final tour. Words: Mick Wall ROSS HALFIN From the outside looking in, Bon Scott’s final tour with AC/DC looked like a victory lap. After years of slogging around the globe, propping up a band that had once been big in Australia but weren’t any more, had got biggish in the UK – two Top 20 albums, but nowhere chart-wise in America, where their label had been urging them to ditch their raucous singer – AC/DC were finally breaking through, against…

The HOT LIST Who Are… Cruel Hearts Club Edie (vocals/guitar), Gita (guitar/vocals/bass/synths) and Gabi (drums), fill us in. Describe Cruel Hearts Club’s sound in one sentence? Edie: Trashy grunge pop. What was the first music you really fell in love with? Edie: I was obsessed with ABBA when I was about five, and I remember holding ABBA parties at my house. Gita: We had a pretty cool vinyl collection when I was growing up. I fell in love with the harmonies of the Mamas & The Papas, and played Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd on repeat. Gabi: It was Queen for me. My dad was obsessed. I remember car journeys singing my heart out to Bicycle Race and Flash, and of course the headbanging in Bohemian Rhapsody.…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: SLEAZE By Sleazegrinder Chuck Norris Experiment This Will Leave A Mark TRANSUBSTANS TRANSUBSTANSRECORDS.BANDCAMP.COM It’s been nearly 20 years since Swedish speedrockers Rickshaw took a dirtnap and resurrected as the Chuck Norris Experiment. Taking their cues from the strutting sleaze of Powerage-era AC/DC and everything good that came out of Detroit in 1973, the band have become standard-bearers for down‘n’dirty, street-level rock’n’roll. This Will Leave A Mark is their tenth album and it’s a doozy. There’s a satisfying undercurrent of 80s Sunset Strip sleaze to a lot of tracks here, especially on slinky rockers like opener DirtShot and the shamelessly cock-rocking Benefit Of The Doubt. It’s like Jizzy Pearl and Stephen Pearcy are in the room with ’em, winking lasciviously and tapping their fairy boots to the beat. Elsewhere underground…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Joe Bonamassa Time Clocks PROVOGUE/MASCOT Joe ponders the passing of time but doesn’t let getting older slow him down for a second. Joe Bonamassa has spent the last few studio albums “being Joe Bonamassa” – consolidating and redefining his own style. And doing it very well, it must be said. But now something seems to have snapped: he has gone rogue. It’s hard to say what could have caused this – the pandemic that curtailed his relentless gigging schedule; the speedy, claustrophobic atmosphere of New York, where the album was recorded; having to hook up with long-time producer Kevin Shirley, who was trapped in Australia. Or maybe a feeling that his previous studio album, Royal Tea, was bringing him full circle and that he needed to…

Stonedead Chris Sumby on how his festival is surviving, despite the odds. Stonedead began as Stonedeaf three years ago in a bid to “recapture the spirit of the original Monsters Of Rock festival”. Director Chris Sumby explains how the show carried on in 2021 when its headline act, Black Star Riders, was struck down by Covid. What’s it like to start a festival as an independent promoter with – no disrespect intended – little or no expertise? Our team all had transferable skills that helped massively at the start. Neil Meynell is a former sergeant major who now works for his local authority; he handles the logistics and operations side. Louise Bayley deals with the admin and event hospitality, and I had experience of booking, promoting and running smaller gigs,…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT Springsteen In The Frame New photobook covers 1974 to 2016. FOR MORE NEWS: WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM cat no:#294 COPYRIGHT FUTURE 2021 JANET MACOSKA x4 A NEW BRUCE Springsteen book has been published by ACC Art Books. Featuring the photography of Janet Macoska, Live In The Heartland covers almost five decades of touring from The Boss, and also includes set-lists and corresponding editorial content. The majority of the photos are previously unseen. “My very first live shoot was of Bruce in 1974 as an opening act for Wishbone Ash,” Macoska tells Classic Rock, whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone, People, Vogue, Creem and the New York Times. At the time, Springsteen was two albums into his career and still a virtual unknown, but she recalls: “He…

the DIRT ★ HIGH HOPES Ghost Hounds These Pittsburgh blues rockers specialise in sounds both timeless and priceless. MAYBE IT HELPS, but you don’t have to be a penniless sharecropper in the Mississippi Delta to play the blues. Living proof of that is Thomas Tull, songwriter and guitarist with blues-rock six-piece Ghost Hounds, who is as well-known in the band’s Pennsylvania home base as part-owner of NFL team the Pittsburgh Steelers – and his successful film production career – as he is for his music. Yet his band’s new album, A Little Calamity, blends blues, soul, hard rock and country with the effortless swagger of southern rock masters. Full of nagging hooks, lithe riffs and pithy lyrics, it exudes the passion of road-toned outlaws injecting vintage rock fumes into their…

the DIRT ★ HIGH HOPES The Velveteers The Colorado trio get their glam-punk-garage stomp on for a Dan Auerbach-produced debut. “The crowd were expecting Wolf Van Halen – there were some confused faces!” THE DAY THE Velveteers met Black Keys man Dan Auerbach is haunting them. “It was our first time in Nashville, at his request,” explains guitaristvocalist Demi Demitro, “and we walk into his studio [Easy Eye], and have to keep walking, past all the equipment, right up to the back…” “And he’s sitting at a table in the dark, smoking a cigar, with a lamp shining over his head,” adds drummer Baby Pottersmith. “We were like, ‘What are we doing here?’” Demitro says. “It was too scary.” “But then we saw his jumper had clouds and things on…

6 THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUNT… Wayward Sons The Britrock lifers are back with a political chip on their shoulder, and a headstart on the Zoom era. Interview: Will Simpson “I GENUINELY BELIEVE this is the finest album I’ve ever made,” Toby Jepson says of Wayward Sons’ third album Even Up The Score. No small boast, as the singer has spent over three decades at Britrock’s coalface – first in Little Angels, then as the frontman in Gun and Eddie Clarke’s Fastway, and as a producer for Saxon, Chrome Molly and many others. In 2011 he became involved in the Dio’s Disciples project at the behest of Ronnie’s widow Wendy – “A fantastic experience, but it left me wanting to create my own thing again.” Which is why he…

THE HARD STUFF the Ultimate ROCK REVIEWS Section EDITED BY IAN FORTNAM ian.fortnam@futurenet.com DIMO SAFARI / PINK FLOYD LTD They Might Be Giants BOOK IDLEWILD RECORDINGS Deluxe lyric and photography tome with a marvellous pop twist. A driver in a gold mask. Doors painted on a wall. Cellophane people shells. A couple with huge eyeballs where their heads should be. Simply describing the Brian Karlsson photographs accompanying the They Might Be Giants lyrics in the deluxe book housing their latest album BOOK seems to write even more TMBG lyrics, which may be the boffin pop duo’s post-modern intent. The album itself is as fine a collection of infectious, genrehopping melodic vignettes about random stuff as they’ve produced in recent years: punk pop songs biographing a dinosaur (Brontosaurus), go-go power rock…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Santana Blessings & Miracles BMG He’s back and he’s brought some new friends with him. And Rob Thomas. It’s curious how much of Carlos Santana’s near 60-year career has been quietly devoted to accommodating his inability to sing. Permanent Santana vocalists came and went, but by 1992’s disastrous Milagro, the game seemed to be up for a guitarist without any clear plan to move forwards. Enter mogul Clive Davis, who hit upon the notion that Santana’s majestic, distinctive guitar – there really is nobody quite like him – could underpin albums featuring a smorgasbord of singers, some well-known, some not, and rebuild his career. The result was 1999’s Supernatural. It went platinum in the US… 15 times. The new approach was not conducive to touring and…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: BLUES By Henry Yates Buffalo Nichols Buffalo Nichols FAT POSSUM Once the none-morehip label that brought Junior Kimbrough, RL Burnside and T-Model Ford down from the hills to cough up red-raw gobbets of rattle’n’roll, Mississippi’s Fat Possum has gone two decades without signing a solo blues artist. The acquisition of Buffalo Nichols, however, should put it back in the game, like a dormant football team discovering Pelé in the youth side. Unlike the boneshaker approach of his long-dead labelmates, the Houston-born, Milwaukee-raised singer-songwriter is, on a scan of this debut, a more polished and less primal prospect. Don’t be fooled. Nichols’ dusty acoustic fingerstyle and burnished voice shares a little of Eric Bibb’s barbed eloquence, and the album grows angrier as it unfolds: witness the old timer’s memories of…

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THE HARD STUFF REISSUES The Beatles Let It Be – Special Edition PARLOPHONE The final Beatles album, peered at from yet another angle, reveals a new perspective. Most records find their reputation improving with the passage of time, but Let It Be – the last album released by The Beatles but recorded before Abbey Road – has had a longer wait than most. The NME’s original review called it “a cardboard tombstone, a sad and tatty end to a musical fusion which wiped clean and drew again the face of pop music” and while its best songs – the title track, Get Back, The Long And Winding Road – have become staples of late-era Beatle playlists, as an album it’s long been considered something of a mess, ranging from Phil…

BACK TO LIVE Praying Mantis Tino Troy ponders the band’s new tour and the time that has passed since Time Tells No Lies. BLACK STAR RIDERS: KEVIN NIXON “The band is almost five decades old… It seems there’s always another album left in us. We will rock till we drop.” Formed in 1974 by London-based siblings Tino (guitar, vocals) and Chris Troy (bass), Praying Mantis broke through during the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and continue to perform powerful, melodic hard rock. Tino previews a 40th anniversary outing for their debut, Time Tell No Lies. How was your pandemic experience? I quite liked it for the first few weeks, but it went on for way too long. I did build a studio at the bottom of the garden and…

BACK TO LIVE The Dead Daisies Touring during a pandemic is tough, but someone’s gotta do it. “Our show is tight, it has a good set-list and I am super-happy to be coming back to my homeland!” A head of a first UK tour in three years, guitarist Doug Aldrich and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes are in Chicago when Classic Rock places a Zoom call. Your fifth album, Holy Ground, was two months old in March 2020. How were you affected? Aldrich: We thought that maybe we’ll be off work until June, but it kept going. We went online to retain that connection with our fans, but it was tough. Hughes: We did use that time productively; Doug and I got together to write new material that will be recorded at…