Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2025 i Classic Rock

Funny how things pop into your mind at the most random of moments. Earlier this week I was in M&S picking up something for lunch. When the self-service till showed me my total to pay, it made me chuckle, as the amount was £6.66. And yes, the very first thing that popped into my head were the lyrics to Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast. I’m taking it as a sign, as this issue we have an exclusive extract from Iron Maiden’s Infinite Dreams book about the beginning of their imperial era when Bruce joined the band and they became the world-dominating group that we know and love. We also spoke to both Steve Harris and Bruce Dickinson about the early days of the band and how their partnership…

Sonny Curtis May 9, 1937 – September 19, 2025 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame inductee Curtis was a member of rock’n’roll trailblazer Buddy Holly’s band the Crickets and continued to perform lead vocals and guitar with the band after singer Holly’s death in 1959. Texas-born Curtis also wrote the song I Fought The Law, which was covered by The Clash, Status Quo and the Ramones, among many others. The Crickets played their farewell show in Iowa in 2016, at the same venue as Holly’s own last performance. The 88-year-old Curtis died of complications from pneumonia. Tomas Lindberg October 16, 1972 – September 16, 2025 Noted principally for his work with death-metal veterans At The Gates, Gothenburg-born Tomas Lindberg was also a member of the Great Deceiver, the Crown, Disfear…

Described as a “drummer’s drummer” by those who knew him and played alongside him, Thommy Price has died at the age of 68. The New Yorker played with Joan Jett & The Blackhearts and as a member of Billy Idol’s band. As a sought-after session musician he worked with Blue Öyster Cult, Steve Lukather, Ronnie Wood, Roger Daltrey, The Psychedelic Furs, Deborah Harry, John Waite and Mink DeVille. In a statement, Joan Jett’s backroom team said: “We lost a member of the Blackheart family – the one of a kind Thommy Price, a legendary drummer who was a Blackheart for four decades.” Billy Idol wrote: “Thommy was a fantastic musician and drummer who, in 1983, came in at the last minute and put his definitive stamp on my Rebel Yell…

The bass player and a vocalist with British group The Moody Blues for more than 50 years has died at the age of 82. The family of John Lodge say that he “peacefully slipped away surrounded by his loved ones and the sounds of the Everly Brothers and Buddy Holly”. Cause of death has not been disclosed. The family’s statement continued: “As anyone who knew this massive-hearted man knows, it was his enduring love of his wife, Kirsten, and his family, that was the most important thing to him, followed by his passion for music, and his faith. “He was never happier than being on stage – he was ‘just a singer in a rock’n’roll band’ and he adored performing with his band and son-in-law, Jon [Davison, vocalist with Yes],…

Holly Golightly has been a survivor on the British garage-band circuit since the 90s, releasing 13 solo albums and more than 20 collaborative records. Long associated with Billy Childish and the Medway scene in Kent, she came to prominence with the riot-grrrl-spirited Thee Headcoatees before striking out on her own and later with roots-rock duo The Brokeoffs. Her new album, Look Like Trouble, is a collection of new alt.Americana songs with a distinctive English sensibility. You recorded the new album in London with your longtime British band. How did it come together? We did it at Gizzard [studio]. I’ve worked there for many years. I brought over songs I’d been sketching for six or seven years. We don’t rehearse, I just show the band my notes, and once we’re in…

“Blues is life experience. Blues is pain and anger. But it’s also good times.” When you’re born and raised near the site of Robert Johnson’s mythical crossroads, it only follows that you’d pick up a guitar and play the blues. “There’s not much to do in Clarksdale – it’s either music, sports or illegal stuff,” says Christone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram of his Mississippi hometown. “I chose music because it was around me 24/7. I lived right next to guys who were in a blues band.” Born in 1999, Ingram was three when he started singing gospel in church. Age five, his dad showed him a documentary about Muddy Waters, and BB King’s musical cameo on sitcom Sanford & Son. But at a time when kids his age were listening to Rihanna…

“One of more enduring also-rans from the NWOBHM boom,” as Kerrang! magazine put it, Samson were spawned in 1977. They built a loyal live following and cracked the UK Top 40 in 1980 with Head On. Yet their existence was chaotic. Singer ‘Bruce Bruce’ Dickinson admitted the band “made every mistake in the business”, and, despite an impressive showing at the 1981 Reading Festival, he was ready to quit in frustration. When tensions with Paul Di’Anno hit crisis point, Steve and Rod knew that a backup plan was essential and thought Bruce might well be one. They went to Reading for a proper look. Steve was impressed, so later that evening Rod talked to Bruce about potentially joining Maiden. Within days of his performance at Reading, Dickinson was formally offered…

Cassidy Paris Bittersweet FRONTIERS At just eleven years old, aspiring singer, songwriter and musician Cassidy Paris was taken under the nurturing wing of Paul Laine, singer of Danger Danger and The Defiants. More than a decade later, her early promise also recognised by Frontiers Records, Melbourne native Paris has toured the world several times, gathering a cult following along the way. Though that impetus suffered a small but unexpected setback in May when two members of Cassidy’s backing band quit mere days before a British and Irish tour, she channelled its negativity in an anthem of defiance entitled Stronger that as a bonus track now wraps this successor to 2023’s well-received debut album New Sensation. With material supplied by (or co-written with) Laine, Trixter’s Steve Brown, Dragan Stanic from Melbourne’s Roxus…

Nebraska ’82: Expanded Edition SONY Stark acoustic masterpiece now available in full-bodied form. The story behind the making of Bruce Springsteen’s 1982 album Nebraska is so compelling, and such a significant chapter in his career, it’s now the subject of a dramatised feature film, Bruce Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere. And while there’s no getting around the fact that this five disc set has been released to promote said film - even the Boss isn’t above cross-platform media marketing - it still succeeds as the last revealing word on the album’s gestation. That legendary story in short: Springsteen recorded the demos for Nebraska at home on a four-track tape machine with the intention of remaking them with the E Street Band. After five days in the studio, during which they…

The Bootleg Series Volume 18: Through The Open Window 1956-1963 COLUMBIA A legend ascends in the latest forensic deep dive into Dylan’s back pages. The Bootleg Series, which began back in 1991, has always been a rich and often revelatory treasure trove of Dylan rarities, but the latest edition is particularly fascinating. It’s a time capsule, a vast piece of audio verite, in which we follow Robert Zimmerman from his Minnesota origins as a teenage rock ’n’ roller all the way to the Greenwich Village folk scene, the March on Washington and eventually a watershed concert at Carnegie Hall. A vivid chronicle of his rapid ascent and growth as an artist, it captures the thrill of a young man finding his voice while making an indelible mark on history. Beginning…

HENRY YATES Henry Yates has been a freelance journalist since 2002 and has written for Classic Rock for nearly two decades now. He is also is the author of Walter Trout’s official biography, Rescued From Reality. For this issue, Henry sat down with bluesman Stephen Dale Petit for a heart-to-heart as they discussed what sadly might very well be Petit’s final album (p42). PAUL ELLIOTT ThefirstgigthatPaulever saw was Iron Maiden at the Guildford Civic Hall on February 26, 1981. It wasthe Killers tour, with Paul Di’Annoonvocals. Six months later, Di’Annowouldbe gone and in his place would be former Samson singer Bruce Dickinson. This month Paul spoke to Maiden mastermind Steve Harris and Bruce about those early days, the origin story of the IronMaidenwe knowtoday(p30). SYLVIE SIMMONS Sylvie has been a…

Once hailed as “the high priest of lunacy”, drummer Viv Prince was among the great eccentric characters of the 1960s rock scene in Britain. He was a member of The Pretty Things, and appeared on both of their albums from 1965: The Pretty Things and Get The Picture?. His zany and unpredictable behaviour, on stage and off, which garnered a lot of publicity for the group, was a big influence on The Who’s drummer Keith Moon. Loughborough-born Prince reportedly declined an invite to join The Kinks before becoming a Pretty Thing. Jimmy Page once claimed that Moon attended gigs by The Pretty Things to study Prince’s chaotic technique. Some say Prince was responsible for coining Moon’s nickname Moon The Loon. Later on, Prince was also reportedly a part of the…

After receiving complaints about the fireworks at the end of AC/DC’s Murrayfield Stadium show in August, which are said to have broken “permitted noise levels”, Edinburgh City Council are considering banning fireworks at the stadium completely. On December 31 MTV will cease as a music video channel in the UK after 38 years. The world’s first 24-hour music broadcaster launched in the US on August 1, 1981, with Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles its first song. Bruce Dickinson will record his next solo album in January. The Iron Maiden frontman plans to track the follow-up to his 2024 set The Mandrake Project live in the studio. “We’re doing it old-school,” Dickinson told pro-wrestler and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho in his podcast. “[We’ll be] recording everything live, on…

Despite the passing of Magnum guitarist, songwriter and producer Tony Clarkin in January 2024, the band – still fronted by their co-founding singer Bob Catley – are to release a new album, and have been confirmed as ‘special guests’ to Europe at next year’s Stonedead Festival. Comprising songs written by Clarkin and hand-picked by his daughter Dionne from an archive of material, the group’s twenty-fourth album will also feature his guitar playing, alongside Catley, bassist Dennis Ward and drummer Lee Morris (the current line-up is completed by Clarkin’s long-term guitar tech Brendon Riley on guitar). More details when we get them. Meanwhile, Mark Stanway’s Kingdom Of Madness, formed by ex-Magnum keyboard player Stanway and also including former members Micky Barker and Richard Bailey, have announced that due to difficulties with…

I an Gillan has lost count of how many times he’s been asked to sing on other people’s songs. “Thousands,” says the Deep Purple singer, speaking from his home in Portugal at the impressively early time of 8am on a Tuesday morning. “I don’t normally say yes, but this seemed right at the time. I loved the song and they’re a lovely bunch of guys.” The bunch of guys in question are Italian rockers Urock, led by singer Umberto Urock. Gillan appears on the title track of the Rome-based band’s second album, The Line, trading lines and harmonies with Urock. He’s not the only recognisable name to have been enlisted for the album – prog wizard Alan Parsons and, more bizarrely, former Nirvana producer Jack Endino are both involved in…

In 1981, Bruce Dickinson became the fourth singer to front Iron Maiden, after Paul Mario Day, Dennis Wilcock and Paul Di’Anno. Prior to joining Maiden, Dickinson spent two years as lead vocalist with Samson, another band that rose from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. What were you doing before you joined Samson? I was singing in college bands. It was semi-pro, gigging in pubs. We did a gig at the Prince Of Wales in Gravesend, and that’s when the guys from Samson came along to check me out. When they offered me the job, sometime in 1979, I was doing my last few months in college. I was still doing exams then, my history finals. Do you have fond memories of those early days you spent in Samson?…

Stephen Dale Petit Be The Love 333 Stephen Dale Petit has never been more entitled to sing the blues. Be The Love began, after all, with an eight-year relationship turned to ashes, before the shadow of an inoperable tumour raised the real possibility this sixth album could be his swansong. On these seven songs, though, the Anglo-American guitarist plays his life in all its shades, nodding to his roots with the echochamber stabs of Gift Horse and Low And Tight’s bludgeoning rave-up, but elsewhere deploying such sonic invention and effervescent melody that blues dogma suddenly feels very far away. The shimmering, stomping Diamond is a must-hear, Petit seemingly bidding farewell to his London haunts; likewise the rueful sweep of A Better Man, iced by the best Clapton guest solo in years.…

Anthology 4 APPLE The bottom of the Abbey Road barrel approaches. The Beatles long ago ceased to be just a band: they have now passed into the realms of legend. And like most legends, a lot of the original reality has been distorted and turned into mythology. Even the music, once the cornerstone of the Beatles’ existence, has started to change. Once upon a time, there was an official canon of Beatle music: it started with Love Me Do and ended with Let It Be, and that – a few oddities apart – was it. But in the nineties, reality began to warp. The three remaining Beatles got back together to rework some old John Lennon demos, including Free As A Bird and Real Love, released them as Beatles singles,…

The Zombies Odessey And Oracle BEECHWOOD PARK Remastered for vinyl in its original mono form, this baroque/chamber pop masterpiece is finally able to deliver every single aspect of its singular sonic majesty (brass parts excised from its hastily-remixed-for-stereo ’67 debut are reinstated) and the sound? Pin-sharp. 9/10 Sex Pistols Never Mind The Bollocks vinyl RHINO HI-FI A limited (individually numbered 5,000 copies) edition of the Pistols’ sole ’77 album promises a High Fidelity mix (and new liner notes from producer Chris Thomas). Did anyone, when listening to this flawless punk catalyst, ever think “I wish its Fi-was Hi-er?” Did they balls. 10/10 Circle Jerks Golden Shower Of Hits TRUST Keith Morris is 70. Imagine that. Anyway, here’s the ’83 third album from what-the-former-Black-Flag-singer-did-next combo, Circle Jerks, all buffed up and…

Iron Maiden THAMES & HUDSON Images and words that define half a century’s worth of ’eavy metal. From earliest pub gigs enhanced by DIY props (who can forget that the first Eddie The ’Ead mascot spat blood thanks to a repurposed fish tank pump?!) and a plucky self-financed demo-turned debut EP (The Soundhouse Tapes) to the indescribably detailed art that wrapped itself around the Somewhere In Time and Powerslave albums, also stubborn insistence upon playing their then-latest record (A Matter Of Life And Death) in its entirety, Iron Maiden have always thought big. Commemorating the group’s fiftieth anniversary, these 352 pages are largely pictorially based, revealing many unseen images from the band’s personal archives. Frankly, they are magnificent. Dog-eared shots of early lineups rescued from scrapbooks are juxtaposed with latter-day…

Thee Most Exalted Potentate Of Love Smell Of Female Garbageman Songs The Lord Taught Us Human Fly …Off The Bone Surfin’ Bird …Off The Bone The Natives Are Restless Psychedelic Jungle Can Your Pussy Do The Dog? A Date With Elvis Bop Pills Stay Sick! Sado County Auto Show Flame Job The Crusher Psychedelic Jungle Sunglasses After Dark Songs The Lord Taught Us Chicken A Date With Elvis I Ain’t Nuthin’ But A Gorehound Smell Of Female Goo Goo Muck Psychedelic Jungle New Kind Of Kick …Off The Bone You Got Good Taste Smell Of Female What’s Inside A Girl? A Date With Elvis Bikini Girls… Stay Sick!…

“There isn’t anything I would change. We brought pleasure to millions. I’m an entertainer and I never want to give that up.” You don’t so much interview Dave Hill as set the recording device and let him talk. Here, in a lively Zoom call, Slade’s guitarist previews a ten-date farewell tour that isn’t a farewell tour after all. This December run marks the end of long bouts of touring for you –but it isn’t a full-blown farewell, apparently? [Incredulously]: I can’t even spell ‘retirement’. I will still play individual shows, but no more tours. With my Christmas shows, which I’ve done since I reunited the band 33 years ago, I will use larger venues – just fewer of them. I still have a joy of discovering venues I’ve never played…

Feeder London Brixton Academy Emotional return to shared sonic catharsis. What’s the saying, time heals all wounds? Maybe not all, given the range of emotions washing around in Brixton Academy tonight. Twenty-three years of Comfort In Sound hasn’t diminished its unnerving power or the starkness ofarecord written in response to the death of Feeder drummer Jon Lee by suicide. Tonight those wounds feel as fresh as that fateful year when the news of his passing in Florida crept slowly around the world. His original replacement, Skunk Anansie drummer Mark Richardson, makes a surprise appearance, to an uproarious response, for an elongated encore/second half to play on Feeling A Moment and Pushing The Senses, but it’s the opening half with the original Comfort album played in full that really galvanises and…

“As a young kid hearing Jeff Beck play I Ain’t Superstitious – every phrase was golden.” It’s remarkable that Steve Morse’s 28 years with Deep Purple only scratch the surface of his career. Their longest-serving guitarist, Morse stepped away from the hard-rock legends in 2022 to support his wife Janine Morse’s battle with cancer. Sadly she passed away in 2024. It makes sense that Morse’s new solo album, Triangulation, is a recalibration in more ways than one. Musically it exhibits the uncompromising, genre-fluid brand of rock he’s mastered over decades – be it with the Dixie Dregs, Kansas, Flying Colors or by himself. For Morse personally, you could say that this is him figuring things out via the fretboard, traversing everything from jazz to funk to metal, doing what he…

Best known as a co-founder of Pentangle and also as a foil for singer-songwriter and guitarist John Martyn, bass player Danny Thompson has died at the age of 86. Highly popular within the world of rock, Thompson also worked with Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Talk Talk, Donovan, Nick Drake, Richard Thompson, Marianne Faithful, Richard Barbieri and many more. Thompson was born in Teignmouth, Devon, and the family moved to London when he was six years old. After learning guitar, mandolin, trombone and trumpet at school, he eventually settled on the upright bass. Replacing Jack Bruce in Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated in 1964 enhanced Thompson’s reputation, and he even featured on the session for the theme for the popular animated sci-fi TV series Thunderbirds. In 1967, Thompson, guitarists Bert Jansch and…

Former Tigertailz drummer Ace Finchum has died of unannounced cause at the age of 62. Tall, blond and likeable, he had two spells with the Welsh glam-metal titans, from 1984 until 1991 and again from 2011 to 2013, and appeared on their albums Young & Crazy, Bezerk and Banzai!. He also undertook session work with various bands including Marseille and Angel Witch. Born in Ipswich and eventually residing in the US, Stephen Finchum, nicknamed Ace, was persuaded to relocate to Cardiff and join Tigertailz by singer Steevi Jaimz after they met in California. The band’s 1987 debut album Young And Crazy brought them cult success, but the group’s management and label, Music For Nations, lobbied for them to change their singer. The rebooted line-up, fronted by Kim Hooker, made the…

This month’s cover stars have added more dates to the 2026 leg of their epic Run For Your Lives world tour - including a return to one of the UK’s most iconic outdoor live music venues. Iron Maiden will play a special one-off date at Knebworth Park on Saturday, July 11. “We will be taking over the whole of the grounds ourselves and turning it into as much of a ‘Maiden World’ as we can for all our fans to enjoy!” says manager Rod Smallwood. The supporting line-up features The Darkness, The Hu, Airbourne and The Almighty. The band have also revealed that a new, limited edition collectors’ 2-LP colour vinyl of their classic live album Live After Death is on the way to mark its 40th anniversary. Featuring the…

“I don’t know why people think young people don’t listen to rock or metal. Everybody we know listens to Black Sabbath.” Die Spitz’s music is a whirlwind of kinetic teenage energy. Mixing elements of grunge, psychedelia, post-punk, epic metal and hooky indie rock, they’re a youthful smack in the teeth with zero pretence and even less filter. But being born in 2002-2003, what do they think of when we say ‘classic rock’? “I feel nothing,” says guitarist Chloe Andrews, while in the background drummer Ellie Livingston wails the chorus of Aerosmith’s Dream On. “I feel nothing when I hear ‘classic rock’. I never listened to it,” adds guitarist/vocalist Ava Schrobilgen. “I was not allowed to listen to AC/DC or any kind of hair metal growing up, because my dad thought…

Formed in Nova Scotia back in 1997, The Trews became one of Canada’s Top-40 best-selling acts. As they release their first studio album in four years – and following last month’s one-off UK show in London – siblings Colin (vocals, rhythm guitar) and John-Angus MacDonald (lead guitar, backing vocals) talk to CR about the band’s past, present and future. What does The Bloody Light add to The Trews’ catalogue that its seven predecessors did not? John-Angus MacDonald: For many different reasons the older one gets, the harder it can be to make new music. Unearthing that batch of tunes that does it for everybody is a steep hill to climb. It took us a few years to get this material together, but I truly believe the album adds twelve very…

Iron Maiden’s leader, bassist and chief songwriter Steve Harris recalls the band’s formative years, from the creation of their unique sound to the making of their classic debut album, and the high-stakes gamble of firing singer Paul Di’Anno. You formed Iron Maiden in 1975, but not on Christmas Day, as has been stated many times over the years. It was a few months before Christmas. But there’s been all kinds of other rumours about the early days. One bloke claimed he was in the band, and was on Antiques Roadshow saying he was the first drummer in Maiden. Absolute rubbish! Then he said we were going to be called Mountain Ash, or something like that. Once you had decided on the name Iron Maiden, you designed the logo, which would…

Cody Cannon sits outside his workshop in Palestine, Texas, talking down the line from a phone propped on his porch. Behind him lies the flat expanse of East Texas, where hunting, fishing and small-town family life have shaped his every move. He holds a jug at his side. He is polite, measured, even friendly, but sparing with his words. You sense he would much rather be working on his Toad Thumper fishing lure business or tackling a job around the house than explaining himself to the music press. We hooked up to talk about the new Whiskey Myers album, Whomp Whack Thunder, on which all 11 songs bear a single songwriting credit – in Cannon’s name. The singer is quick to insist that this is not some new grand strategy.…

Pinkshift Earthkeeper HOPELESS Enraged and matured since 2022’s Love Me Forever, the Ashrita Kumarfronted Maryland trio have bolstered their debut’s muscular punkpop with hardcore/nu metal elements and a tangible fury born of 21st century existential dread. Huge vocals, massive riffs, job done. 8/10 Sunflowers You Have Fallen… Congratulations FUZZ CLUB Porto, Portugal three-piece’s brand of noise-punk wraps a playful, stentrorian vocal in thick gloopy layers of intricate experimental distortion. Stops, starts, intense eye-popping blurts of goth-literate ear-bleed scuzz and even the odd Fripp/Eno interval to spice up the cauldron. 7/10 The Lancasters The Word Of The Mistral RETRO VOX/LIFE ON SATURN Italian ‘psych’ quartet Lancasters have more than one string to an engaging bow. Rules Of The Road duly echoes ’68-ish psych-pop, but there are broader prog ambitions afoot…

Rattle, Ramble & Roll: The Best Of Volume One 3 LEGGED Southern rock flagbearers serve up overstuffed career-spanning comp. Southern rock will never die. As long as humanity clings to this scorched, dying rock spinning hopelessly in space, there’ll be a bunch of dudes in cowboy hats choogling away like its 1972. Blackberry Smoke are proof of its unswerving durability. These Atlanta, Georgia gentlemen have been upholding southern rock’s bellbottomed traditions since 2001 – as far away from today as that was from the plane crash that did for Ronnie Van Zant. Over that time, trends have come and gone several times over, none of which have registered in the slightest on them. Rattle, Ramble & Roll is an old-school ‘best of’ album stretched out over a new school 22…

Ozzy Osbourne LITTLE, BROWN The final words of John Michael Osbourne. The outpouring of love that faced Ozzy Osbourne, and Black Sabbath, as they took to the stage for the very last time at Villa Park in July was unprecedented. It was like the Freddie Mercury Memorial Concert if Freddie Mercury had lived to offer a final valedictory We Are The Champions. Ozzy had effectively attended his own wake. And who’d really begrudge him one last communion with, and farewell to, his beloved fans? For while Ozzy Osbourne was everybody’s favourite Prince Of Darkness – not just heavy metal’s godfather, but also its loveable dear old dad – he was once vilified with similar enthusiasm to the Grundy-era Pistols. The rock ‘intelligentsia’ hated Sabbath in the early seventies. They were…

“Rod Price and I were determined Foghat would play in England again. But it never happened until now. That makes me very happy.” John Payne was the lead singer and bassist of Asia from 1991 until the keyboard wizard who hired him, Geoffrey Downes, quit abruptly and without warning for a reunion of the original line-up. Among other projects, Payne went on to lead his own incarnation of Asia. Drummer Roger Earl is the last original member of the blues-based English rockers Foghat. Payne and Earl both live in the US, but with both acts co-headlining a bill in London as part of their own respective tours, we put the pair together on a Zoom call. Roger, Foghat’s last appearance in the UK was at the Rainbow Theatre in London…

London Palladium Hats off to Rusholme’s folk-poet extraordinaire. “How the fuck did you get to be eighty-four?” shouts a punter. “That’s a very good question…” Roy Harper replies, twinkling with cheek and charm, seated solo with his guitar in this sold out grand theatre. Tonight’s gig has all the informality of playing in front of mates at Les Cousins or at myriad rowdy shows and festivals, theboisterous audience participation as much a trademark as Harper’s own addresses. How Does It Feel is a fiery start, and a deep cut from 1970’s Flat Baroque And Beserk. His fingerstyle is deft and assertive, his vocal strong, with just the merest senior wobble. Mildly irritated by a rogue eighth fret and a misbehaving echo pedal, his two hour set tackles truth-to-power gems such…

London Palladium Art punk pioneer triumphantly turns back time. When Patti Smith is on her A-game, she makes other rock’n’roll performers look like pottery teachers. At 78, celebrating the 50th anniversary of incomparable beatnik pre-punk album Horses, tonight she somehow morphs into the 29-year-old she was when making that life-affirming landmark. The white hair matches her group’s white heat; she often gobs on the floor like it’s 1975. A show that begins with the feverish adrenaline of Gloria never loses momentum from there. The audience, a pleasing mix of ages with a large contingent of women who weren’t born when Dream Of Life came out, never mind Horses, leave feeling 25 floors tall. Smith’s also in fantastic voice, rasping through Free Money or handling Break It Up with remarkable poise.…