Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Classic Rock

Dave Sherman Died September 6, 2022 Doom-metal veteran Dave Sherman was a member of Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed, Earthride, Wretched and several other bands. No cause of death of the 55-year-old has been announced. Mike Pela January 13, 1950 – July 23, 2022 London-born record producer and mixer Mike Pela started out as backroom staff before working with ELO, Alice Cooper, Hawkwind and Stephen Stills, among others. He was 72 at the time of his passing. Ramsey Lewis May 27, 1935 – September 12, 2022 A triple-Grammy winner, jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis had a 60-year career that included hit versions of Hang On Sloopy and The In Crowd. The 87-year-old died in his sleep at his home in Chicago, according to his son. Drummie Zeb September 24, 1959 – September…

For the rest of his life, Lemmy would look back on the aftermath of Motörhead’s crowning glory with their 1981 album No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith and protest that it wasn’t his fault they could never follow it up. “The trouble is, you can’t follow a live album that went straight in at Number One,” he said. “I mean, what do you do? You can’t put out another live album. And you can’t follow it with a studio album because that’s been the live album people have been waiting for for five years, right? So we were fucked whatever we did. We could have done the best studio album in the world and we would have been fucked. Except we didn’t, we did Iron Fist.” In reality, no one wanted or…

Lemmy named his band Bastard before he decided on Motörhead. Lars Ulrich thought Thunderfuck was the way to go, before taking the name of his friend’s fanzine titled Metallica. And as Joyce ‘Baby Jean’ Kennedy recalls, the greatest of all funk rock bands once considered calling themselves The Motherfuckers. “We wanted to say that,” she says, laughing, “but we couldn’t have gotten away with it. So we just took the ‘MF’ and became Mother’s Finest.” With a multi-racial line-up and a sound described as ‘Sly And The Family Stone-meets-Led Zeppelin’ – acombustible mix of soul power and hard-rock muscle – Mother’s Finest emerged in the early 70s as a band on a mission. As Kennedy puts it: “We wanted to make music that anybody could enjoy. We wanted to entertain…

If ever a band seemed determined to keep one foot in the pub and the other on the monitors of an enormodome (spiritually if not physically), it’s this Lancaster mob. Not an easy balance to maintain, but in the process they’re slowly carving themselves a niche in British rock that sounds unique to them. On this sixth album Massive Wagons show that they’re also fine-tuning their formula. And for a band who pride themselves on providing a supremely fun night out, they’re not scared to be topical or make a point or two about the turbulent popular culture swirling around them. ‘I try not to swear in our songs… fuck the haters,’ goes the deathless chorus of the opener and recent single, punctuating marginally more subtle verses taking aim at…

“Our audience is community based, so it helps to see all those smiling faces night after night. Their warmth is very, very welcome.” As afixture on the global rock scene since 1969, Wishbone Ash became pioneers of a now-ubiquitous twin-guitar sound. Guitarist/vocalist Andy Powell, their last remaining original member, previews their lengthy tour that keeps them in the UK until November 19. Wishbone’s exit path from the Covid crisis was rockier than most, with the band’s return involving stand-in members and cancellations. We flew by the seat of our pants through a British tour but our regular drummer Joe Crabtree was unavailable so we brought in Mike Truscott, a former bandmate of our guitarist Mark Abrahams, who himself couldn’t make a few of the shows. So we used Michael Sturgis,…

He’s shared stages with Jeff Beck, Johnny Winter and Joe Bonamassa, and has a clutch of awards to his name. Meet the British guitar hero that Buddy Guy once likened to “a young Eric Clapton”. In February you reached the big three-zero. Did this cause you to reassess your life? It did. I’m not in the ‘young’ category any more, even though I still look like a baby… albeit with a beard [laughs]. You can only be the future of anything for so long. Y eah, exactly, and with my new album I wanted to put my own stamp on what I’m doing. I’m digging into the experience of fifteen years of touring. Destination Unknown is your seventh studio album. Rather than the straightforward bluesrock which some might expect, you…

“There have always been hurdles for us and there will always be more. We just find ways around them.” Frontman Claudio Sanchez previews six UK dates by the genre-defying New Yorkers. After taking an unusual turn on their last album, they’re ready to flaunt all they have. Feathers were ruffled by the dance and R&Bf lavoured moments such as A Disappearing Act on the latest album, Vaxis II: A Window Of The Waking Mind. Does the blinkered nature of some listeners disappoint you? We had expected some pushback, but now that it’s out the response has been unbelievably positive. Fans have really embraced that song and when we play it live they really go crazy. Classic Rock described A Disappearing Act as “prog-emo-disco”. Congratulations, you’ve invented a new genre. Well,…

Seven minutes of footage from Led Zeppelin’s celebrated show at the Inglewood Forum in Los Angeles on September 4, 1970, during the band’s sixth American tour, has been discovered after lying unattended in a drawer for 50 years. The footage has been matched to audio from the band’s famous On Blueberry Hill audio bootleg, which was recorded the same night by the pirates also responsible for Bob Dylan’s famous Great White Wonder and the Stones’ Live’r Than You’ll Ever Be. The footage was shot by Led Zeppelin fan Eddie Vincent, who borrowed his parents’ home movie camera – a wind-up 8mm Kodak Brownie capable of recording in 30-second bursts – and took it and two reels of film to the show, smuggling it all into the venue under the armpits…

AS THE PROG-METAL band release Digital Noise Alliance, their fourth album since the very ugly break-up with original lead singer Geoff Tate, guitarist Michael Wilton, a fellow co-founder of the Seattlebased group, insists that getting back together with Tate is the last thing on Queensrÿche’s mind. Digital Noise Alliance is Queensrÿche’s fourth album with singer Todd La Torre. A decade after the exit of Geoff Tate, how well do you think the slump of those last few Tatefronted records has been reversed? The whole rebuilding process is progressing well. For the most part it’s about giving the fans what they want: the [signature] Queensrÿche sound. That’s something we’ve done over countless tours and several albums. It’s a work in progress, but right now everything feels very strong. “We’re on a…

GUN’S CO-FOUNDING siblings, guitarist Jools and frontman Dante Gizzi, conceived the idea of an unplugged album, The Carlton Songs, while the nation was in lockdown. Released as a single, an electric track called Backstreet Brothers is an ode to their childhood neighbourhood, the titular Carlton, in the suburbs of Glasgow. Presumably, being stuck indoors provided a lightbulb moment for The Carlton Songs? Jools: Aye, we were ready to go into the studio for a new album when everything changed. But we still felt creative, despite the havoc that was being caused to the industry and the effect on venues. “It’s hard to describe the buzz of relief and ecstasy.” Most unplugged albums are an easy option; this one is really good. Dante: Thanks, that’s great to hear. Not being the…

TUK SMITH HAS spent much of the last few years picking himself up, dusting himself down and starting over again. First there was the dissolution of his old band, Atlanta rock’n’roll outlaws Biters, ground down by tensions with their label Earache. Then there was the debut solo album he recorded for new label, Better Noise, only for the record to be shelved and the deal dissolved. Then there was the pandemic-related double cancellation of the Mötley Crüe/Def Leppard tour, which Smith was due to open (he wasn’t on the bill when it finally got going this year). But he’s bounced back with a brand-new album, Ballad Of A Misspent Youth, credited to Tuk Smith And The Restless Hearts. “It hasn’t been easy at times,” he says. “But ‘not easy’ is…

The Freilichtbühne Loreley is one of the world’s great venues. Perched high on the Loreley, a 400-foot rock overlooking the Rhine Gorge in Western Germany, this open-air amphitheatre was originally built by the Nazis as a thingplatz – ashowcase venue for the Third Reich to stage displays of propaganda thinly disguised as drama. Other, older myths surround the Loreley. According to local folklore, it was once the home of a siren, who would draw passing ships on to the rocks more than 400 feet below. This macabre legend has been referenced in music by everyone from German composer Felix Mendelssohn to Wishbone Ash. On July 18, 1987, Marillion arrived at the Loreley to play one of the biggest headlining shows of their career yet. It was two years since the…

Never underestimate The Mars Volta’s ability to surprise even their most ardent fans. Going back to the earliest days of their first band, At The Drive-In, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López have been musical chameleons, shapeshifting from artful, furious hardcore punk to make way for the explosion of prog rock, jazz, alt.rock and Latin beats of The Mars Volta. And now, coming a decade and a short-lived split after their last album, Noctourniquet, they have boldly and unexpectedly gone pop, with their self-titled new collection landing neatly between smooth, espradille-clad yacht rock and slinky R&B. There’s a darkness at the heart of it all. The band came to a halt in 2013 after Bixler-Zavala joined the Church of Scientology, ostensibly to try to deal with a crippling weed habit. He…

Troy Redfern The Wings Of Salvation RED7 On his sixth album in two years, Herefordshire’s workaholic bandito still has his calling cards: Navajo is a Wild West bone shaker and the most prominent use of Redfern’s trademark 1935 Dobro resonator. But if Redfern is prolific then he’s not repetitive, tempering the cowboy stylings with other stories, other shades, even other time signatures. A splice of chain gang, sea shanty and funeral parlour organ, Dark Religion finds a female runaway bound for promised lands but finding only darkness and despair. Profane feels like America at night, on the wrong side of the tracks, its psychobilly scuttle evoking hot rod headlights slicing through the gloom of Gotham City. Sweet Carolina, thankfully, is more Bolan-Stones stomp than Neil Diamond syrup, while recent Louder…

For all of their longevity, Motörhead’s reputation as the loudest, fastest and most exhilarating band of their ilk was forged back in the late 70s and early 80s by the classic line-up of singer/bassist Lemmy Kilminster, guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke and drummer Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor. Forget the high-street T-shirts that reduced the band to a brand, this was the trio that elevated heavy metal to an entirely new level of excitement, thanks to a run of utterly demented albums that included Overkill, Bomber (both 1979), 1980’s Ace Of Spades and the chart-topping live album No Sleep ‘Till Hammersmith from the following year. And that’s before we consider their ram-raiding of the UK Top 10 singles chart in the shape of The Golden Years and the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre…

Not to nitpick, but surely the title should be Greatezt Hitz? Attention to detail is important, as this writer discovered while on the road with Sweet in Germany in the mid-70s. Frontman Brian Connolly’s white satin bell bottoms arrived back from the drycleaner draped over a crude metal clothes hanger, creating impossible-to-remove creases in the kneecap area. Connolly was apoplectic with rage, and rightly so. It was a proper rock’n’roll disgrace. Attention to detail is also important while researching Sweet’s back catalogue in order to put together this compilation of past glitter-cheeked glories. But first things first. Greatest Hitz is available in two formats: three-CD digisleeve, and two-LP transparent coloured vinyl with, bizarrely, one disc being violet and one pink. The CD package is the one you want because it…

Michael Monroe 60th Birthday Bash Helsinki Ice Hall Perennial teenager turns sexagenarian in style. ★ Reaching 60, legendary Finnish singer/ frontman Michael Monroe decided to reward long-time local fans at Helsinki’s Ice Hall with an allegedly unique reunification of Hanoi Rocks in their original line-up. The night kicks off with a five-song set from Demolition 23. (Monroe’s 90s band with fellow ex-Hanoi members Sami Yaffa and Nasty Suicide), and a career-encompassing solo band performance featuring a guitar front line of Steve Conte, Dregen and Ginger Wildheart, but the night’s main attraction is the reanimated Rocks. Even arriving on stage to their old intro music of Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana raises pulses in the audience, and then, for the first time in 40 years, we have the original Hanoi (Monroe, McCoy,…

STARS FROM THE world of rock music paid tribute to Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, after she died at the age of 96. “For my whole life Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II has always been there,” said Mick Jagger. “I can recall watching her wedding highlights on TV. I remember her as a beautiful young lady, to the much beloved grandmother of the nation. My deepest sympathies are with the Royal family.” Paul McCartney commented: “God bless Queen Elizabeth II, may she rest in peace. Long live the King.” Ozzy Osbourne said: “With a heavy heart I say that it is devastating [to think] of England without Queen Elizabeth II.” Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford added: “My second mom has gone. Her Majesty felt like that to so many…

For Eric Bachmann, anger has always made the best fuel. The frontman’s righteous fury made Archers Of Loaf one of the spikiest – albeit most unsung – prospects of early-90s American indierock, Bachmann howling over a dissonant jangle. And although 1998’s split seemed permanent, Bachmann tells us the Trump era topped up his bile tanks, paving the way to the jagged anthemics of Reason In Decline, the band’s fifth album. How would you describe the vibe of Reason In Decline? Well, I’ll leave that to the journalists. I think it’s angry rock music. “I understand that anger makes good rock’n’roll, and I had a lot of it.” The band seemed utterly fed up after the split. Twentyfour years later, are you surprised there’s another Archers album? Yeah, no doubt. As…

HEROIC VISION Total Eclipse was a worldwide hit in 1983, but Tyler and Steinman’s follow-ups didn’t quite hit the same sweet spot with the public – until a film called Footloose came along the following year. The film’s score and screenplay were written by Dean Pitchford, a songwriter and screenwriter who’d contributed to Fame. Pitchford looked to snare Steinman to co-write the musical accompaniment to the film’s dramatic tractorrace scene, so he pitched him part of the the lyric.’ Steinman couldn’t resist, and the pair brought Tyler back on board for another barnstorming performance with the song Holding Out For A Hero, which hit No.2 in the UK. If you thought Total Eclipse had an OTT video, Hero ramped things up by 1,000 per cent, with bigger hair, a bigger…

Whatever you might say about Ginger Wildheart, he’s not one to dwell too long on past glories. Less than six months since the band with whom he is eternally associated parted company once more, he is now preparing to tour with a new band with a new Southern rock, boogie and country-influenced style, with a debut album about to drop and a follow-up nearly complete. Yet it turns out, on closer investigation, that Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners is the result not of a sudden step into new territory, but a longplanned project that he finally has time to devote his full attention to. The Sinners formed out of Ginger’s desire for a new project back in the hazy pre-pandemic days of 2019 when, despite the vibrant vitality emitting from…

By Noddy Holder’s own admission, Slade were “a bunch of show-offs”. But boy could they write a hit tune. Between 1971 and ’76 alone, the fourpiece from the Black Country notched 17 consecutive UK Top 20 smashes, including six Number Ones. Just as importantly, they knew that live performance is what separates the men from the boys, and the women from the girls. Now, a newly compiled boxed set, All The World Is A Stage, which adds three never officially released performances – including a now-legendary rebirth at the 1980 Reading Festival – to a pair of existing live albums – reminds us of Slade’s peerless capacity to excite a live audience. “Fans have been badgering us for years for things they hadn’t heard, and I’m really thrilled by the…

Dead Furies Ready When You Are DRAGSTRIP RIOT Estonia’s finest sons return with another mega-dose of what they do best: sleazy, sinister, glammy hard rock. You know the drill: leather pants, mirror shades, 69 Eyes, Backyard Babies, stacks of amps, grease, grit, good times. There’s a dash of 90s alt.rock in there too, maybe even a synth or two. Definitely some rolling R’s. It’s arena rock for cool kids. So, here’s what I need you to do. Find a mountain. Can’t be that hard to do, they’re easy to spot. Strap an oversized 80s boombox to your back. Make sure you have this record on it somehow. I’m sure Dead Furies will sell you a cassette. Climb to the top of the mountain. Play Bringer Of The Night as loud…

Veteran frontman Joe Lynn Turner has oft been called a journeyman – adescription that, we’d argue, is completely misleading. Because out of the numerous bands and artists JLT has sung with – from Malmsteen to Mother Earth, from Rainbow to Rated X – Journey has never been one of them. …We must admit, we wrote that intro before actually listening to Belly Of The Beast, and must now apologise for its jokiness. Nay, facetiousness. Because this is a very serious album indeed, and not only on a musical and lyrical level. To coincide with its release Turner decided at long last to embrace the fact that he suffers from the hair-loss condition known as alopecia. He consigned his wigs to the waste-bin; his toupées to the trashcan. And, my God,…

By the beginning of the 80s, Eric Clapton had become an indolent rock star. Cocooned in alcohol, his career was drifting along, with increasing disinterest on all sides. His life was basically catered for – right down to having somebody else take his driving test for him. On stage, however, he could still play guitar, even when he couldn’t stand up, something he proved occasionally. But even that was preferable to the drunken on-stage racist rant that helped the foundation of Rock Against Racism. In 1983, Clapton got sober and switched labels to Reprise. That year’s Money And Cigarettes (5/10) reunited him with producer Tom Dowd, who brought in heavyweight American musicians including Ry Cooder to help Clapton raise his game. He even scored a moderate hit with the gentle,…

The news that Porcupine Tree were returning with a new album (released back in June) was greeted with a lot of hysterical shrieking from the band’s huge fan base. Supposedly defunct since 2010, Steven Wilson’s pioneering modern prog crew had an album on the way and live shows on the horizon, too. The sneaky devils. The new album had a lot to live up to, because Porcupine Tree have long been regarded as a benchmark for a new, highly evolved take on the progressive rock of decades past. Conceived as a bedroom-bound studio project by a then-20-year-old Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree outgrew its naïve origins as its creator’s musicality began to blossom. Debuting with the psych-pastiche experiments of 1992’s On The Sunday Of Life… the project gathered steam, passing through…