Innehållsförteckning för March 2018 från Classic Rock

WELCOME MARK WEISS/GETTY; KATE BUSH: BRIAN ARIS; CHRISSIE HYNDE: DEAN CHALKLEY/CAMERA PRESS; GIRLSCHOOL: GABO SCOTT/GETTY; SKIN: PRESS If you’re a long-time CR reader, you may well recall me confessing that sometimes a great idea for a feature or an issue is born from a top-level, intense editorial meeting – aka an argument down the pub. This month’s issue is not one of those. Rather, the idea for this issue – a celebration of some of rock’s finest female artists – came about after we ran an online poll asking people to vote for the greatest rock albums. Only one band with women in its line-up made the Top 100. Which is nuts. After all, women invented rock’n’roll. Don’t believe me? Turn to page 24 immediately. While female artists rule the…

NEWS Uriah Heep are recording their 25th studio album, Living The Dream, with Jay Ruston (Winery Dogs, Black Star Riders Stone Sour) producing. A web campaign has been launched to assist Cardiacs singer Tim Smith with healthcare costs and fund the possible relaunch of his music career. For details go to www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ timsmith. Following a heart attack in 2008, Smith suffers from dystonia, which restricts movement and speech. Veteran US-Canadian prog-metal band Dream Theater have announced a new deal with the Sony Music imprint Inside Out Music for their fourteenth studio album, due in 2019. Their most recent studio set was The Astonishing, released two years ago. Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones are collaborating on a book to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin. Page (pictured)…

‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke October 5, 1950 – January 10, 2018 ANDREW PHILLIPS ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, the final survivor of Motörhead’s celebrated Three Amigos line-up, has passed away at the age of 67. A few years ago the guitarist joked about being on so many pills he “rattled like a tin of Smarties” when walking down the street, but few outside of family and friends knew that he had been hospitalised for pneumonia. Although it hadn’t been his intention to do so, in 1982 Clarke departed his beloved Motörhead following a bone of contention: Lemmy had decided to hook up with Plasmatics singer Wendy O Williams for a remake of Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man as a solo single. Recounting the tale almost 20 years later, Clarke was still livid.…

THE FOUNDING MOTHERS OF ROCK'N'ROLL Step back Chuck Berry, Elvis and the rest, these mothers of invention were first, mixing blues, gospel, R&B and ferocious attitude to create rock’n’roll as we know it. Words: Bill DeMain BIG MAMA THORNTON: GETTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD MA RAINEY: GETTY; MEMPHIS MINNIE: GETTY “Memphis Minnie can pick and sing as good as any man I’ve ever heard.” Big Bill Broonzy ‘Papa likes his bourbon, mama likes her gin/ Papa likes his outside women, mama likes her outside men…’ Ma Rainey, Barrel House Blues, 1923 As James Brown sang: ‘This is a man’s world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without a woman…’ Those wise words hold true for the male-dominated world of rock’n’roll. But when the familiar musical history gets…

Stevie Nicks After going from small fry to big Mac, now she balances the band and a solo career. Interview: Gary Graff Stevie Nicks may appear to have a complicated and ambivalent relationship with Fleetwood Mac, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a greater public proponent for the band. Since 1981 the writer and singer of Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and many more has juggled a successful solo career alongside being in the group and has sometimes frustrated her bandmates with her priorities. But Nicks still swears allegiance to the Mac and is always ready to add a new chapter to the saga – when it fits. You maintain an active and successful solo career, as well as membership in Fleetwood Mac. What’s the allure of doing both? Solo work and…

Shirley Manson BREAK ON THROUGH The Garbage frontwoman with the ‘fuck you’ attitude and an undying belief in the power of rock’n’roll. Interview: Dave Everley CAMERA PRESS/MARK C. O’FLAHERTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD Shirley Manson has spent three decades kicking down the doors of rock’n’roll’s boys’ club. She joined her first band, Scottish alt.poppers Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, in the 80s, but it was with Garbage that she made her name. In the macho bull pen that was mid-90s alt.rock, Manson stood apart – funny, combustible, allergic to bullshit, she was one of the era’s most charismatic stars. Today she’s older and wiser but no less opinionated. Garbage co-headlined a tour with Blondie last summer. What was that like? It was fantastic. It was sort of like…

GIRLSCHOOL'S TOP 10 SONGS Take It All Away (Single, 1989) Not as heavy as the album version a year later, but this indie release – essentially a cheap demo – already shows all the razor-edged musical charisma that was to become a Girlschool signature Demolition Boys (Demolition, 1980) From its eerie police siren intro to that badmotherfucker guitar riff, it was r-e-a-l. Catchy as VD. No cure sought. Emergency (Demolition, 1980) Identical riff (almost) to Demolition Boys, but no one was complaining. This was in the band’s Kelly-in-leatherjacket heyday. C’Mon Let’s Go (Hit And Run, 1981) All the ingredients of a rock classic: colossal riff, bones-into-dust drums, fuck-you chorus. Kelly on lead vocals and geetar, Kim her permanent shadow. Come on! Hit And Run (Hit And Run, 1981) Kim and…

Jody Tumer The Rock Goddess guitarist on influences and becoming an influence Interview: Philip Wilding JODY TURNER: ICONICPIX Along with the rest of the band Rock Goddess, guitarist/vocalist Jody Turner helped soften the unequivocally masculine NWOBHM scene, thought not musically – they could be as heavy as a wall falling on you. With their first two albums for A&M Records – Rock Goddess and Hell Hath No Fury – and the fist-punching, foot-stomping Heavy Metal Rock’N’Roll, they won over an audience clamouring for bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon – not an easy ask in 1983. The original Rock Goddess re-formed in 2013, and late last year released an EP of new material, It’s More Than Rock And Roll. Your dad was guiding your career in the early years, but…

PUNKS AND POLITICS NEW YORKFOLK,RIOT GRRRL AND BEYOND From New York folk through 60s psych, soul, punk, riot grrrl and beyond, women have had an insurrectionary impact on rock’n’roll. Words: Paul Lester GETTY JANIS: BARON WOLMAN/ATLASICONS.COM; GETTY x2 “Before punk, women in rock music were virtually invisible.” Music historian Caroline Coon “Joan is a kind of folk-singing vicar. A singing politician,” British folk artist Dana Gillespie said of Joan Baez in 1965. “She’s trying to change the world. We Shall Overcome is typical of the effort she is making to get her ideas across to people in songs. She is not interested in singing for singing’s sake.” It could reasonably be argued that, historically, for female musicians, “singing for singing’s sake” has been a luxury they could not afford; there…

Grace Slick Jefferson Airplane’s golden-voiced, Alice-loving pioneer. Words: Rob Hughes GRACE SLICK: ALAMY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD “A startling presence, both vocally and visually,” Paul Kantner once remarked of his ex-bandmate and sometime lover Grace Slick. “An Oscar Wilde in drag, who combined insight and sarcasm that was sometimes light, sometimes dark. A provocateur.” As one of the first female superstars to emerge from the 60s, Slick did more than most to further the remit of women in rock’n’roll. She was the original acid queen, out-partying her male counterparts while remaining an indomitable presence as vocalist with Jefferson Airplane. The ravenhaired Slick adorned the cover of Life and Rolling Stone, was invited to tea at the White House (taking with her some LSD) and became the…

Ludia Loveless “I don’t think I’ve had high hopes since I was a small child.” Interview: Henry Yates Five-foot-nothing with a quick-fire mouth, Lydia Loveless could have been the subject of Shakespeare’s line: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” Born Lydia Ankrom in 1990, and raised on her family’s Ohio farm, she was a rebel kid who grew into a loosecannon artist. Her four-album catalogue frankly addresses her problems – alcohol, divorce, stalkers – over music that takes in alt.country, punk rock and power-pop. But it’s the recent documentary Who Is Lydia Loveless?, which tracks the singer as she records her 2016 troubled album Real, that really gets under her skin. Are you pleased with how you come across in the documentary? Sorta. It’s always awkward to see…

Skin EMOTIONAL RESCUE The ‘Black Bisexual Six-Foot Angry Skunk Anansie Singer’ talks about her Brixton roots, 90s lad culture and why she’ll never settle for a safe life. Interview: Ian Fortnam SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD Upon exploding on to the rock scene as instantly recognisable, invariably outspoken lead vocalist with Skunk Anansie in 1994, Skin swiftly gained a reputation as one of the most visceral and compelling live performers in any genre. Following a trio of hit albums and a dozen chart singles over the next five years, the quartet took a decadelong hiatus. Skin (real name Deborah Dyer), meanwhile, pursued a solo career, modelled, DJ’ed and, since the band’s re-formation in 2009, joined the judging panel of the Italian X Factor. What kind of upbringing…

Sheryl Crow The Missouri-born singer was inspired by the “tough chicks”. Interview: Siân Llewellyn SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD “I don’t have anyone that I answer to,” says the straight-talking, ninetime Grammy winning, cancer surviving mother-of-two, rock’n’roll badass Sheryl Crow. “There are so many things to write about and there’s no risk in my writing about them.” Those things on last year’s Be Myself include politics, our addictions to our digital devices, mindless celebrity, sexism and more… In 2013 you released Feels Like Home, your first ‘country’ album. Your most recent sees you returning to rock. It’s a follow-up to the last record in a couple of different ways. I’d moved to Nashville and I felt like I had so many country influences, and most of the…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK the DIRT New album of unheard Hendrix studio tracks And Jimi’s producer Eddie Kramer tells us there are live tracks to come. GETTY IMAGES “Some performances brought up the hairs on the back of my neck.”Eddie Kramer A new Jimi Hendrix album is released on March 9 via Experience Hendrix, the imprint of the late guitarist’s estate. Titled Both Sides Of The Sky, along with its two predecessors Valleys Of Neptune and People, Hell And Angels (released in 2010 and 2013 respectively) it forms a trilogy that aims to present the best and most significant previously unreleased studio recordings from the Hendrix archive. Eddie Kramer, who worked on the four albums Hendrix made before his death in 1970, is a co-producer of the series, and believes…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground LINDA HOYLE Pieces Of Me, Vertigo, UK, 1971, £1,100 Perhaps best known for her work with jazz-rock/pop greats Affinity, singer Linda Hoyle is a largely unsung British artist. After her departure from Affinity in early 1971, manager Ronnie Scott instigated a collaboration with Karl Jenkins (then of Nucleus, later of Soft Machine), which led to Pieces Of Me. The album – now one of the rarest Vertigo releases – is a reflective album of twists and turns, seemingly documenting a turning point in Hoyle’s life. Unfortunately it would prove to be her swan song as a recording artist, at least until 2015’s excellent comeback album The Fetch. The album begins with a strong rendition of Backlash Blues, previously recorded and co-written by Nina…

HIGH HOPES Mollie Marriott Her debut album began with a breakdown. Now this chip-off-the-old-block is on the up. ROB BLACKHAM/PRESS “I’m a massive grunge kid. Pearl Jam, Temple Of The Dog, anything by Soundgarden.” THE FUNNY THING about hitting rock bottom, Mollie Marriott reflects, is that there’s often inspiration down there in the dark. “It was what’s known in my family as the epic crash of 2012,” the singer sighs. “I lost friends to suicide. I lost my relationship. I became incredibly ill, had a major operation. It got to the point where I needed to write as an escape. Then a friend said: ‘You’ve got to release this. Let everybody hear your voice.’” The beautiful, bruised vocals that Marriott unveils on her debut album Truth Is A Wolf sound…

Suzi Quatro IMPERIAL LEATHER The only Penthouse centrefold ever to be allowed to keep her clothes on, she was “a pin-up for the guys and a hero to the women”. Interview: Ian Fortnam GETTY x2 SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD It’s one of the defining images of the glam era: Suzi Quatro resplendent in a black leather catsuit, as provocative as it’s androgynous, locked into a pounding, groin-located groove, manhandling a vintage Fender bass of almost identical height; out front, sassy, assertive, with a burly Detroit street gang at her back. Before Suzi, rock’n’roll women were expected to be submissive, subordinate, subservient. After Suzi, all the girls wanted to be her and all the boys wanted her to be their boss. A succession of perfect Chinnichap hoodlum…

Floor Jansen The Nightwish vocalist on finding her voice, finding herself and motherhood. Interview: Eleanor Goodman STEVIE NICKS: GETTY; FLOOR JANSEN: KEVIN NIXON Dutch singer Floor Jansen joined symphonic metal band After Forever in 1997 when she was just 16. She went on to form ReVamp, before fronting genre titans Nightwish from 2013. Her first album with them was their most recent, 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful. The band are currently on a year out, and Floor is focusing on motherhood following the birth of her daughter, Freya. March sees the release of a two-disc Nightwish compilation, Decades. When did you realise that you could sing? I was about fourteen years old and I joined the school musical, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I started to work on one…

Lzzy Hale KICKING UP A STORM From rural backwater gigging to being the go-to female rock guest, her journey – and that of her band, Halestorm – is still evolving. Interview: Polly Glass GETTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD “It feels like it’s been about six different lifetimes,” Lzzy Hale says, laughing warmly, chatting shortly after the 20th anniversary of Halestorm, the band she co-founded – when she was just 13 – with her drummer brother Arejay. “I haven’t matured much, I’ll say that, but I’ve learned more.” All leather, terrifying heels and huge beaming mouth, Hale, now 33, is striking yet unfailingly sweet – and arguably the most archetypal female rock star working today (in the classic, Joan Jett-rivalling sense). We caught up with her on…

Laura Jane Grace AGAINST THE ODDS She may be Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, but the Against Me! singer’s public transsexual transformation gives her a unique view of sexuality in today’s music industry. Words: Stephen Dalton CAMERA PRESS/CLARE HEWITT SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD If we can judge a band by their famous friends, then Against Me! are clearly doing something right. Butch Vig is a long-time collaborator and supporter. Bruce Springsteen, Joan Jett and Foo Fighters are also champions of these punky, politically charged, emotionally raw rockers. Punk rock, claims the band’s founder, singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace, taught her to question everything. Including her own gender. Grace founded Against Me! as a teenager in 1997, initially as a high-school solo project, and expanded…

Chrissie Hynde THE GREAT PRETENDER With her punk-rock attitude intact, the Pretenders and solo star shares her thoughts – and doesn’t give a fuck what you think of her. Interview: Dave Everley GETTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD Chrissie Hynde doesn’t like talking about herself. It’s not that she doesn’t like talking per se – she’s got a range of voluble and unadulterated opinions on everything from animal rights to the state of rock’n’roll – but the woman who has led The Pretenders for the past 40 years isn’t big on self-promotion. “I don’t read anything about myself ever,” she says. “Why the fuck would I want to?” The Ohio-born singer is friendly but forthright, favouring a no-nonsense approach that has marked her out as one of…

Ellen Foley She found Paradise with Meat Loaf – and an unlikely Clash collaboration. Interview: Dave Everley Ellen Foley is the unlikely link between Bat Out Of Hell and The Clash. Her appearance as Meat Loaf’s love interest/foil on Paradise By The Dashboard Light opened the doors for a solo career that kicked off with 1979’s Night Out album and took a left-turn with the defiantly arty Spirit Of St Louis, produced by her then-boyfriend Mick Jones and with The Clash as her backing band. For the past 35 years she has worked more in theatre and TV than in rock’n’roll, but her voice remains as strident and soulful as ever. What was your first paid gig as a singer? I grew up in St Louis, and I went to…

Inger Lorre DRIVEN TO THE EDGE Music industry machinations, drugs, depression, attempted suicide: The Nymphs frontwoman is one of rock’n’roll’s great survivors. Words: Emma Johnston YUKO ISHII/PRESS If life was in any way fair, The Nymphs would be remembered with the same kind of respect shown to the big breakthrough art-rock bands such as Jane’s Addiction. Predating grunge and creating a mesmerising combination of gothic punk rock, glam guitars, edgy style and performance art, they were led fearlessly by fiery frontwoman Inger Lorre, a striking prototype riot grrl who was every bit as wild as Axl Rose, and yet emotionally open and eloquent to the point of discomfort. There was a gorgeous, poetic sadness to the songs on the band’s only album, which paved the way for the soul-baring that…

Orianthi Playing with Michael Jackson and Alice? This Aussie rules! Interview: Henry Yates ORIANTHI: KEVIN NIXON Twelve years ago, Orianthi Panagaris took a huge leap of faith, leaving her native Australia for the glittering viper’s nest that is Los Angeles. It’s fair to say it’s paid off, with the guitarist not only enjoying a successful solo career, but also hooking up with the scene’s biggest beasts, from Michael Jackson to Alice Cooper. Next up is her long-delayed debut release as RSO, a collaboration with former Bon Jovi guitarist – and her real-life beau – Richie Sambora. What can we expect from the RSO album? We’ve been working on it for three years. I want to say sorry to everybody for saying it was gonna be out last year, but we’re…

Lita Ford DEADLY WEAPON Fight for your right to party? Lita certainly did, and lived life to the full during her time as guitarist in The Runaways in the 70s then as a solo artist in the 80s. Interview: Emma Johnston NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLASICONS.COM SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD “Being a rock star is a state of mind. You can either be a rock star or just be a musician.” Lita Ford was one of the great shredders of the 80s, an era she still sees as a golden age. Having started her career precociously young as a guitarist in The Runaways in the 70s, and then finding solo fame with hits including Kiss Me Deadly, she embraced the rock’n’roll lifestyle with gusto. Last year you published Living…

THE HARD STUFF ALBUMS Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Wrong Creatures VAGRANT San Fran gloomsters’ “conversation with death” sounds more alive than ever. Death. Religion. Ghosts. General bleakness. Bits that sound like The Jesus & Mary Ch… did someone shout “Black Rebel bingo!”? You’d be forgiven for at first glance thinking Wrong Creatures is a by-rote offering from San Francisco’s most monochrome sons. But delve deeper and it appears that the five-year break brought on by drummer Leah Shapiro’s brain surgery has somehow revved them on to greater things. Initially described by guitarist Peter Hayes as “a conversation with death”, it opens in suitably sombre mood, the ancient sacrificial drum’n’hum of DFF giving way to Acorah-rock chuggers Spook, King Of Bones and Haunt. Then, just as you’re tagging Wrong Creatures as…

Michael Schenker The guitar genius shines strongly. A Decade Of The Mad Axeman CHERRY RED There will be few people who would rank guitarist Michael Schenker’s output in the 10 years from 2006 as even coming close to matching what he achieved with UFO and MSG in the 70s and 80s. However, as this two-CD compilation proves, the music he has made in the 21st-century is far from disastrous. The first CD is taken from a period that saw him release the undervalued MSG album The Midst Of Beauty, for which he reunited with vocalist Gary Barden, with whom he recorded much of the most celebrated MSG material. And the combination worked very well on songs like I Want You and Night To Remember. Less impressive, though, are the Temple…

LIVE! Anvil The Toronto metallers head out to promote seventeenth (!) LP Pounding The Pavement. “I’m very proud that we introduced a lot of moviegoers to metal. It’s kept us working for the past ten years.” Until 2008’s real-life rockumentary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, the career of these Torontobased metalheads had been firmly on the skids. The movie’s unexpected worldwide popularity would change their lives forever. Almost a decade later, guitarist/vocalist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow gives thanks for its continued powers of rejuvenation. The new album, Pounding The Pavement, is your band’s seventeenth. That title is a statement on how hard it is for a group like Anvil to maintain what’s now been a forty-year career. Yeah, it can be tough. We’re like door-to-door salesmen, driving from one place to…

Gun Home town heroes rise to the occasion. Glasgow Barrowland ★ There’s an electric atmosphere as Gun stride on stage and launch into She Knows. The venue is packed, and there’s definitely a celebratory feeling at this show on home turf. Moreover, the band are back at the top of their game, delivering a powerful performance that balances songs from acclaimed current album Favourite Pleasures with the best from their back catalogue. Former Gun bassist Dante Gizzi has now settled into his role as the band’s frontman, while brother Jools and Tommy Gentry deliver some impressive dual-guitar moments. Unusually, Word Up, their biggest hit, is rolled out early on, but this allows for a better flow of music, with new songs such as Tragic Heroes and Favourite Pleasures more than…

Mike Garson Plays Aladdin Sane Pianist on Bowie classic plays it again. Liverpool 02 Academy ★ Two years after David Bowie’s death, the mass musical celebration of his legacy shows no sign of fading. The latest in a parade of long-time Bowie sideman to tour with the focus on a single classic album is piano maestro Mike Garson, who has assembled a pan-generational collective and various starry guests to play Aladdin Sane. Orchestrating proceedings from his grand piano perch, the shiny-domed Garson has the louche air of a Bond villain on his day off. His florid avant-jazz style can feel excessive, especially when he inserts Beatles and Gershwin melodies into a marathon expanded reworking of Aladdin Sane itself, but such baroque maximalism suits the album’s undertow of velvet-lined glam-cabaret decadence,…

RIP Thank you and good night. Ray Thomas December 29, 1941 – January 4, 2018 Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Ray Thomas was a member of the Moody Blues from their foundation in 1964 until 2002, and also enjoyed a solo career. Although he played flute on their best-known track, Nights In White Satin, he once said: “I never thought of myself as being very gifted. I was happy, though, to have played a part in bringing out the talents of those around me.” Thomas, 76, died from prostate cancer. Rick Hall January 31, 1932 – January 2, 2018 The Grammy-winning producer from FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama has lost his battle with prostate cancer. Mississippi-born Hall made records for R&B stars such as Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and…

Hall Of Fame Latest Bon Jovi and the Moodies are in, but Priest miss out. Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, The Cars, Dire Straits and Nina Simone are to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 14. Judas Priest will not be present at the televised event in Cleveland, having failed to register enough votes to win a fan-voted poll. Despite having voiced indifference to the Hall Of Fame and claimed that “there are guys on [the deciding committee] that have made it their personal mission to fuck with me”, Jon Bon Jovi described being welcomed into the HOF’s bosom as “that last great item on the bucket list”, adding: “It gives me a sense of closure.” Former Bon Jovi members guitarist Richie Sambora, who…

NEWS Steve Howe has cautiously hinted to Billboard that Yes are contemplating recording new material in this, their 50th anniversary year. “Maybe we’re building up repertoire for a future project,” the guitarist suggested. “We’ve got ideas, but I can’t say more right now.” Andi Deris, current lead vocalist with Helloween, says it would be “a dream come true” for the band to make a studio record with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen, the band’s former singer and guitarist. This expanded line-up have been attracting rave reviews for a tour billed as Pumpkins United, the US leg of which wraps in New York on September 15. Rising prog-rockers Big Big Train have parted amicably with bassist Andy Poole, who has been in every incarnation of the band since their formation in…

THE STORIES BEHIND THE SONGS Tina Turner Nutbush City Limits Suffering mentally and physically at the hands of an abusive husband, the singer looked back to her childhood days for the lyrics to the song that was her declaration of artistic independence. Words: Nick Hasted ‘For all his manifold personal faults, on Nutbush City Limits Ike was the perfect musical foil for Tina’s lyrics.’ Tina Turner came home to a pimp’s paradise: the new sofa was blue velvet with octopus arms, the coffee table guitar-shaped, the kitchen all bilious green. There was a waterfall, and the bedroom now had a mirrored ceiling so her husband and brutal Svengali Ike Turner could better admire the countless mistresses and one-night stands he brought back to his and Tina’s marital pad in LA’s…

Arrow de wilde Wilde by name, not nature. But when the Starcrawler singer gets on stage, look out! Interview: Dave Everley Anyone who thinks they don’t make rock stars like they used to has never witnessed Arrow De Wilde in full flight. On stage the singer with rising LA four-piece Starcrawler is a pipe-cleaner-thin lunatic in a hospital gown, spitting fake blood like Iggy, Alice, Ozzy and Patti Smith reincarnated all at once in the body of an 18-year-old teenager from Los Angeles. Offstage it’s a different matter. De Wilde is sweetly shy and weirdly unsure of herself; her sentences often finish with “I dunno. I can’t really answer that properly” or trail off completely. She spoke to Classic Rock during a break from recording their debut album, with Ryan…

Joan jett REBEL WITH A CAUSE How a teenage Runaway turned into a grown-up luminary for music with attitude, humanist politics and gender equality. Words: Jaan Uhelszki NEIL ZLOZOWER/ATLASICONS.COM SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD “The only reason I have a bad reputation is because I’m a girl and dare to do these things that boys do.” “There’s nothing more threatening than a girl with a guitar,” Joan Jett famously said back in 1999. Nearly 20 years later she hasn’t changed her stance. She has never been afraid to speak her mind or show the world exactly how she earned that bad reputation she sings about. “The only reason I have a bad reputation is because I’m a girl and dare to do these things that boys do,”…

Kate Bush RUNNING UP THAT HILL In 1978, a 19-year-old Catholic girl from South London reconfigured the rock landscape. Forty years on, her strange phenomenon endures. Words: Chris Roberts GEMA IMAGES/ICONICPIX SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD ‘In an era when punk was on the rise, Bush was – at least technically – its very antithesis.’ It’s three months after the release of Never Mind The Bollocks, and a 19-yearold Catholic girl from a south-east London suburb who shares a birthday with author Emily Brontë is singing about Heathcliff and Cathy as she wafts about on Top Of The Pops, the embodiment of gothic romance, generally giving it plenty of interpretive dance and jazz hands. Wuthering Heights, her debut single in January 1978, had its release date pushed…

Wendy & lisa The two muses of Prince who graduated to rock royalty in their own right. Words: Bill DeMain SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD According to Revolution drummer Bobby Z, Prince’s dream band was “a mixture of Fleetwood Mac and Sly & The Family Stone.” And in the early 1980s, when he brought in Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, they made his dream come true, delivering the mystique of Stevie Nicks, the songwriting depth of Christine McVie and the musical chops of Sister Rose and Cynthia Robinson. On stage and in the studio, the duo were not just extensions of Prince, but also creative foils who inspired him to the heights of his most fertile and commercially successful period, including classic albums Purple Rain, Around The…

Chantal Brown The Vôdûn frontwoman has an affinity for spirits – but not the ones you drink. Interview: Rob Hughes Under the alias of West African goddess Oya, powerhouse singer Chantal Brown has been fronting Vôdûn since 2012. The trio mash elements of Afrobeat, stoner rock, raw soul and psych-metal with the cosmological voodoo from which they take their name, heard to devastating effect on last year’s full-length debut Possession. Born into a successful musical family, Brown is a graduate of Croydon’s famous BRIT school and was previously a member of Do Me Bad Things, Invasion and Chrome Hoof. What’s the latest on Vôdûn? We’ve just recorded some new songs with [producer] Tom Dalgety and we’re going for the second album, which we’re planning to release soon. Your music plays…

Nancy wilson HEART BEAT Half of the sister act at the heart of Heart, the guitarist looks back on a fearless forty-year-plus career in rock. Interview: Henry Yates GETTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD Strange to think of it now, but when Ann and Nancy Wilson broke out as Heart in the mid 70s, the sight of two sisters playing hard rock was enough to prompt a double-take. Thankfully the catcalls were silenced by the band’s early classics such as Magic Man and Barracuda, and while MTV did its damnedest to nip and tuck them in the 80s, the Wilsons toughed it out and came to mobilise spiritual successors including Sheryl Crow and Lzzy Hale. With Heart currently on hiatus, we found Nancy keeping busy with Roadcase…

Mlny Parsonz The story of a narrow escape from Christian cult to fronting Royal Thunder… Interview: Dave Everley Royal Thunder’s Mlny Parsonz has a Force 12 voice and a personality to match. But that wasn’t always the case. Several years ago the singer and bassist was a member of a Christian cult with Royal Thunder guitarist (and ex-husband) Josh Weaver, where she had her natural spark extinguished. She addressed this turbulent period on the song Floor, from RT’s 2015 second album Crooked Doors. These days Parsonz pours her fervour into the Atlanta band’s righteous approach to rock, grunge, psychedelia and underground metal. Which band was it that made you want to be in a band yourself? Oh, hands-down Nirvana and bands like Faith No More, Megadeth and Metallica. People like…

Debbie Harry BLONDE AMBITION “It was a very punk thing to be a woman in rock music,” says the Blondie vocalist. After more than 40 years in the industry she’s still a rock role model – and champion of young female talent. Interview: Paul Lester GETTY SHE ROCKS! THE WOMEN WHO ROCK OUR WORLD Debbie Harry might have started as a peer of The Slits, Raincoats and X-Ray Spex, but today she’s working with new stars Sia and Charli XCX on Pollinator, Blondie’s eleventh album. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 72 years old, she discusses her past and present. Did punk feel like a liberating time to be a woman in rock music? I didn’t really have time to think about it all that much. I had to be content with…

Beth Hart Battling addiction and childhood trauma, the singersongwriter found succour in just one place: music. Interview: Nick Hasted Beth Hart’s blues draws on a life damaged for decades by childhood traumas including an armed home invasion. Her rip-saw vocals, open-hearted gigs and songwriting which sees her staring her past straight in the eye have led to work with high-profile fans including Joe Bonamassa, and assured solo albums which range across blues, rock and jazz. You’ve had a lot of great collaborators. Is Joe Bonamassa the most important in helping you along your path? So many incredible people have helped me. I’m one of the rare people that, having been in the music business so long, I don’t have anyone I could say anything bad about. I’ve never experienced chauvinism…

Curved Air Reissues of early albums, with bonus disc included with 1970 debut. Reissues CHERRY RED PHOTOSHOT Formed in 1970 and taking their name from a Terry Riley album title, Curved Air were one of the foundational groups of UK prog. Co-founded by violinist Darryl Way and guitarist/keyboard player Francis Monkman, they quickly signed up folk singer Sonja Kristina, who would go on to be a constant in the group as they underwent numerous line-up changes. Their use of violin as a lead instrument would have made them quite startling in 1970. On It Happened Today, the opener of Air Conditioning (8/10), it announces itself mid-song, creating a fresh opening. This, coupled with Kristina’s eerie vibrato, especially on the chorus, established Curved Air as a group venturing into forest areas…

Stone Broken The Walsall four-piece find themselves moving up. Fresh from signing to Spinefarm Records for their second album, Ain’t Always Easy, guitarist/vocalist Rich Moss previews the biggest headline tour so far for the four-piece from Walsall. 2017 was quite a year for Stone Broken. You toured with some big-name bands and, at Ramblin’ Man Fair, stepped up from the newcomers’ platform to open the main stage. The tour with Glenn Hughes was our first big one and it led to a whole load of festival offers. These are things that you can only dream about when you start a band. Did Glenn, Cheap Trick or Living Colour offer any fatherly advice? All of them did, actually. Glenn often gave us pearls of wisdom. We were watching him from the…

LIVE! Fish The former Marillion singer revisits one of their classic albums as his retirement looms. London Islington Assembly Hall WILL IRELAND ‘The mood should perhaps be sombre, but that really isn’t the case.’ ★ The big Scotsman has threatened retirement before, but now it really does seem as though his musical career has reached its twilight stages, with this year’s Weltschmerz album set to be his final studiorecorded statement. Although the mood at Islington Assembly Hall tonight should perhaps be sombre, especially with the singer revisiting the edgy bleakness of Clutching At Straws, his swan song record with Marillion many moons ago, as the show’s focus, that really isn’t the case. Even Fish being forced to perform seated on a stool due to suffering fierce back pain fails to…

The Lemon Twigs / Flyte Two brothers, one band to look out for. London The Forum ★ The Forum is packed for a band that might still exist beneath the radar of many Classic Rock readers. The Lemon Twigs are Brian and Michael D’Addario, multi-instrumentalist/vocalising siblings from Long Island, New York, whose debut album Do Hollywood is among the cult releases of 2016. Mike Portnoy was among those to fall under the duo’s spell, describing their DayGlo sound as “The Beatles-meet- Jellyfish-meet-Redd Kross-meet-Badfinger, [coming] straight out of a Wes Anderson film”. Another impudently young pop-rock band, London’s Flyte, kick off tonight’s show in impressive fashion, despite favouring a more vocal-led approach. Could a power-pop renaissance be a possibility? Watch this space. The headliners deliver what is, in sporting parlance, the…

Heavy Load Heavy questions for heavy rockers BellRays frontwoman Lisa Kekaula on pain relief, her shoe obsession and making grown men cry. Interview: Paul Lester Powerhouse vocalist Lisa Kekaula has fronted The BellRays for almost 30 years. Their latest album, Punk Funk Rock Soul Volume Two, which follows 2017’s Volume One EP, is a superb blend of raw R&B vocals, pop smarts and high-octane rock’n’roll. “I feel great, and relieved,” she says of finishing their first album in eight years and ninth overall. “The fact that we’re still doing it is amazing.” Do you believe in God? Yes. I don’t believe in religion, I just believe there’s a greater force out there. What’s the meaning of life? Finding and following your own path and being brave enough to do it. Could…