Innehållsförteckning för Summer 2019 från Classic Rock

Welcome The heavens have just opened as I type this, which can only mean one thing–it’s the beginning of the Great British Summer and festival time is upon us. To celebrate, this issue is something of a summer special. We asked musicians and readers to ‘edit’ the mag and decide which features we should run this month. Some choices may surprise you – Venom’s Cronos waxing lyrical about Jethro Tull was an eye-opener for me, Perry Farrell extolling the virtues of Lou Reed perhaps less so… And if you find yourself sunning yourself on a beach (or perhaps more realistically, sheltering from the rain in the pub) and you need something more to read, we recommend the best books about rock (page 64). But first you’ve got plenty to keep…

RIP Thank you and good night. Leon Redbone August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019 Born Dickran Gobalian in Cyprus, Leon Redbone was a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, guitarist and actor who traded in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics. The 69-year-old passed away following complications from dementia, leaving a catalogue of 16 full-length albums. Jake Black Died May 21, 2019 Jake Black, aka the Very Reverend D Wayne Love, was a co-founder of the London-based Alabama 3, whose song Woke Up This Morning was used for the opening credits of the TV series The Sopranos. He had pneumonia earlier in the year, and had been suffering from Addison’s disease. He was 59. Eric Moore Died May 17, 2019 Eric Moore, the frontman with Ohiobased cult band The Godz, has lost…

Guitarist Of The Year Is Back Help us find the Class Of 2019. CLASSIC ROCK IS joining MusicRadar, Guitarist, Total Guitar, Guitar Techniques, Guitar World, Guitar Player and Bass Magazine in the search to find 2019’s Guitarist Of The Year, Young Guitarist Of The Year, Acoustic Guitarist Of The Year and, for the first time, Bassist Of The Year. Past winners of this long-running series of awards include Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, Steven Wilson, Hans Zimmer) and Dave Kilminster (David Gilmour, Steven Wilson). The finalists will be selected by a panel of star judges and industry experts including Robert Trujillo of Metallica, Dream Theater’s John Petrucci, Steve Lukather of Toto and Nita Strauss from the Alice Cooper band. The winner will be announced at the UK Guitar Show held in…

HIGH HOPES The Rising Souls Edinburgh doesn’t have a rep for producing rock bands. These guys hope to change that. THERE WAS A time when the worlds of rock and soul were eager bedfellows rather than estranged partners. Edinburgh’s Rising Souls (the clue’s in the name) aim to reconcile them, and by mixing grinding riffs with lusty, passionate vocals they place themselves in the lineage of such names as Free, Humble Pie and The Black Crowes. “You don’t hear bands like that these days,” laments vocalist Dave Archibald. “I suppose there are people like Rival Sons – who we love – but in many ways we are out on a limb. Although that’s probably a good thing for us, it makes us stand out.” Archibald was raised on a diet of…

Q&A Zal Cleminson Back in the 70s there was no other gang quite like the aptly named Sensational Alex Harvey Band. Words: Ian Fortnam With a unique combination of blurred music genres, eye-catching theatricality, psychodrama, progressive rock, Brel chanson, linear narrative, teen idolatry, traditional rock’n’roll and Caledonian bar-room blitzing, the Sensational Alex Harvey Band bedazzled viewers of Top Of The Pops and The Old Grey Whistle Test alike As Harvey menaced mockingly, capering at his side was guitarist Zal Cleminson, a rictus-grinning, mutely sinister, half-Pierrot, half-clown character you always suspected wasn’t quite right. Having worked with Nazareth, Fish and others since his SAHB pomp, Cleminson currently fronts metallic rockers/sin’dogs/yet is never averse to recalling his sensational SAHB 70s. You started out with The Bo-Weavles, ‘the best-looking beat group in Scotland’.…

OUT OF THE ORDINARY When it came to recording what became their sprawling eighth album, Jethro Tull swapped their West London studio for glamorous Monaco. But it was Ian Anderson’s ‘loner’ status and outsider observations that really shaped Minstrel In The Gallery. Words: Chris Roberts GETTY The first thing Ian Anderson did when he woke up this morning was stand in the window completely naked – “there’s no one around at that time to see me” – and look out across the fields. “I saw the sheep gently moving a few hundred metres away, and got that wonderful feeling of, y’know, thanks for all the good fortune.” He’s thinking like this because he’s remembering Grace, the simple snippet which closes the far-from-simple album Minstrel In The Gallery, Jethro Tull’s 1975…

POWER OF TWO We sat in on a chat between the frontmen with Magnum and Avantasia while they talked about childhood idols, touring with Ozzy Osbourne, conceptual rock operas and living the dream. Words: Dave Ling Photos: Kevin Nixon On paper at least, Tobias Sammet and Bob Catley appear to have very little in common. Born in Fulda, Germany, 41-year-old Sammet is the leader of Avantasia (the name is a combination of ‘avalon’ and ‘fantasia’), a metal-opera project he founded at the end of the 1990s. Avantasia have grown steadily over the course of eight special-guest-strewn albums, to the point where demand for tours outstrips the logistical nightmare of doing them. In the past, Klaus Meine, Alice Cooper, Dee Snider, Biff Byford and Joe Lynn Turner are among the many…

PARLIAMENT & FUNKADELIC “S**T, GODDAMN, GET OFF YOUR ASS AND JAM!” They might not get the credit, but they’re as pivotal to rock as Pink Floyd or The Beatles. This is the story of George Clinton’s Parliament-Funkadelic and their out-of-this-world Mothership. Words: Kris Needs It’s late 1976, and George Clinton’s small army of singers and players, sporting a dazzling array of exotic space costumes and outsize nappies, are on stage thundering through the scorching funkrock hybrid that recently reached an artistic peak on Parliament’s albums Mothership Connection and The Clones Of Dr Funkenstein. Leading the action in a long blond wig, Clinton the cosmic pimp is gesticulating and testifying like a street corner preacher-turned-intergalactic ringmaster, dirtying up nursery rhymes and leading chants of “Shit, goddamn, get off your ass and…

WHEN GINGER MET HERMAN One of them is a drumming great and a true legend, the other learned from him and became a great too. Ginger Baker and Herman Rarebell discuss early days, pain, playing and marijuana. Words: Nick Hasted Portraits: Marie Korner Ginger Baker stands framed in the doorway, as if facing down a hostile saloon. But it’s only bar staff and Classic Rock who await him in this Brighton pub on a slow Friday morning. And any menace quickly evaporates when, seconds later, his left leg gives way, and he’s grabbed before he hits the floor. Director Jay Bulger’s Beware Of Mr. Baker was the 2012 documentary which revived his terrible legend for a new generation, who watched agog as he ploughed cars off cliffs, assaulted bandmates and…

DANNY GATTON SIX OF DG’S BEST ELMIRA ST. BOOGIE For his debut release on Elektra, Gatton played a restored Gibson ES-295 once owned by Scotty Moore – and tipped a hat to the former Elvis sideman on the title track’s skittering rockabilly vamp. Listen to the picking section at 2.46 – and hang up your guitar. Hear it on: 88 Elmira St. (1991) HARLEM NOCTURNE Gatton could skedaddle across a fretboard, but this slower cut showed his soul. While lesser players might have sleepwalked over the familiar blues changes, Gatton went off-grid, with haunting bends creating a film-noir atmosphere, hypnotic Bond theme-esque pull-offs and the jazz-fusion moves of the final straight. Hear it on: Cruisin’ Deuces (1993) MELANCHOLY SERENADE This highlight from Unfinished Business has dynamics to die for and a touch worthy of…

GET DOWN (AND ACROSS) WITH OUR MASSIVE ROCK CROSSWORD! CROSSWORD COMPILED AT PUZZLE-MAKER.COM ACROSS 1 Sabbath, Flag or Stone Cherry (5) 3 Your ___, opening track on Elton John’s second album (4) 9 According to Poison every one has a thorn (4) 10 Joplin’s Thrills and Zander and Nielsen’s Trick are this (5) 11 ___ Berg, The Pursuit Of Happiness’s main man (3) 12 Morello, De La Rocha, Commerford and Wilk raged against it (3,7) 13 Marc, lead singer with Krokus (7) 16 1985 Rick Springfield album (3) 17 Ice-T’s rock band (4,5) 20 Manchester record label started by Tony Wilson or the place Warhol worked in NYC (7) 23 The only Top 10 hit for proggers Renaissance. Thirty Seconds To Mars have a song with the same name (8,6) 26…

ACTION MAN Leading his own band, being a member of the E Street Band, having a radio show, acting (The Sopranos, Lilyhammer) and writing TV scripts and film treatments are just some of the things ‘Little’ Steven Van Zandt does to stave off the boredom of “regular life”. Words: Paul Rees Like buses, you wait an age for a new record from ‘Little’ Steven Van Zandt’s Disciples Of Soul, and then two come along within a couple of years. The Disciples’ comeback album, 2017’s Soulfire, was made up of covers and new versions of songs that Van Zandt had written for other artists. Relatively hot on its heels, the imminent Summer Of Sorcery is his first collection of original songs since Born Again Savage way back in 1999. And very…

THE HARD STUFF Hollywood Vampires Rise earMusic California’s starriest hobby band pull back the covers for their second album. Separating the artist from the art is never the easiest trick to master. So while the presence of Johnny Depp in the band would have been the ultimate cool injection a decade ago, the allegations of domestic abuse made against him by his ex-wife Amber Heard make Hollywood Vampires a rather more problematic listen. It all leaves a distinctly sour taste, although Depp’s bandmate Alice Cooper was quick to defend him when speaking to Billboard: “All the stuff you heard last year about Johnny, ninetynine percent was just bull. I’ve never seen him look better in my life. I’ve never seen him happier. I’ve never heard him play better. And the…

BEST OF REST Other new releases out this month. Heather Findlay Wild White Horses BLACK SAND Mostly Autumn singer swaps folky prog for dulcet, Fleetwood Macnodding rock’n’roll (with hints of Zeppelin), co-written with Thunder guitarist Luke Morley. It becomes her well. 7/10 Gorilla Treecreeper HEAVY SYCO SOUNDS Pioneering stoner trio Gorilla return with an album that’s reliably brutal, bludgeons with a self-consciously haphazard swagger but never offers any indication of escaping its tired genre. 6/10 LEFT LANE CRUISER Shake And Bake ALIVE NATURALSOUND Raw, scorching yet hooky blues rock fresh from a rusty tin can in some desert. No faux-hillbilly posturing or overly polished edges, this Midwest two-piece are the real deal. 8/10 Pearl Handed Resolver Fantasy Reigns S/R Dark, bluesy psychedelia with twists of prog, electronica and weird shit.…

Essential Playlist A Whiter Shade Of Pale Single Homburg Single Shine On Brightly Shine On Brightly Rambling On Shine On Brightly A Salty Dog A Salty Dog Wreck Of The Hesperus A Salty Dog All This & More A Salty Dog Whaling Stories Home Simple Sister Broken Barricades Conquistador Live With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra In Held’Twas In I Live With The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra Grand Hotel Grand Hotel TV Caesar Grand Hotel As Strong As Samson Exotic Birds And Fruit Nothing But The Truth Exotic Birds And Fruit Pandora’s Box Procol’s Ninth An Old English Dream The Well’s On Fire…

LIVE! Camden Rocks London, Camden various venues This multi-venue festival has now become a weekend event, welcoming the old and highlighting the new. With clear, blue skies bathing this corner of north London, it feels impossible not to stop and savour the irony of enjoying the best possible festival weather for an event hosting 400 bands in 20 indoor venues. As an added bonus, one can only marvel at those misguided souls who insist on defining their musical identity in the face of sweltering temperatures by wearing leather jackets. Ten years since its inauguration, 2019’s edition sees its debut as a weekend event, and the first day begins with a phrase no one wants to hear at a festival with ‘rocks’ in its name: “So today, we’re gonna do an…

Primal Scream London King’s Cross Scala Tiny show, huge performance. Bobby Gillespie, every inch the rag doll Mick Jagger, shaken this way and that by Andrew Innes’s undeniable riff, shimmies backward towards Darrin Mooney’s stridently pounding kit for a moment to regard the sardine-tight, air-punching throng. Martin Duffy’s Jerry Lee keys break down briefly to allow the crowd extra breathing space, and as they redouble their efforts on the ‘Get your rocks off! Get your rocks off, honey!’ front, Gillespie’s hitherto inscrutable face involuntarily collapses into a molar-to-molar grin. Rocks’ utter ebullience and Bobby G’s unguarded beam are an antidote to troubled times. The climax to a show that – by dragging us arse-backwards through a dizzying array of prime, genre-vaulting Primal hits – offers a timely reminder that the…

Gong London Hackney Oslo Eternal prog-psych oddballs open up a new chapter. Gong in 2019 are the ultimate anti-legacy band. Bequeathed by late mastermind Daevid Allen to the current line-up, the only rule they abide by is: do whatever the hell you want, however the hell you want. In that spirit, this incarnation, led by Knifeworld’s Kavus Torabi, have just made the year’s finest psychedelic album in The Universe Also Collapses, their second since Allen’s death in 2015 and the first to feature no trace of his presence. Tonight’s set leans heavily on that record in the shape of its twin centrepieces, My Sawtooth Wake (14-plus minutes) and the fractalising, karmic-wheel epic Forever Reoccuring (20 minutes plus change). Both are undiluted nods to a different era, one that even the…

Manic Street Preachers London Shepherd’s Bush Empire A hit-heavy celebration of the Welsh rockers’ fifth LP shines a spotlight on hidden treasures elsewhere. Irony has always surrounded This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours, the fifth album by Manic Street Preachers and 20 years old last year, which the Manics are playing in its entirety on this tour. Their biggestselling album, it lost a number of the band’s early fans as it crossed into the mainstream. Lacking their earlier sonic bite, it contains their most barbed political observations, yet despite its length it runs out of steam before reaching the finishing line. And so it proves tonight, while inadvertently highlighting just what an undervalued album 1993’s Gold Against The Soul is. So while the hit-heavy first half of This Is…

Motorpsycho London 229 Noise-Vikings lay waste. Norwegian flags flutter in this Marylebone club, as these Norse prog-jazz-improv legends make another underappreciated UK visit. New album The Crucible continues their committed journey to the far side of the 70s rock sun, excavating new possibilities in the twin mother lodes of Zep heaviness and CSNY harmonies – and finding pockets of pastoral idealism in songs set in a timeless zone between After The Gold Rush and Lord Of The Rings. The Promise is typical of the way their music often combines a sunny, lilting groove with an apocalyptic undertow. The Cuckoo is a still more elemental Middle Earth folk-dance, with Odin-bearded Hans Magnus Ryan’s guitar giving a serrated edge to communal, chemical tranciness which even the bar’s bitter enhances. Reine Fiske’s guest-presence…

Mark Knopfler London Royal Albert Hall Dire Straits’ headband gets intimately traditional. If the stage wasn’t full of fiddles, flutes, trumpets, Uelleann pipes and bouzoukis, we could be sat in the snug of a Geordie pub listening to the gentlest barfly in town reminisce about the city he once knew. In a voice beaten by the ages, he tells tales of hitch-hiking on snow-smothered Christmas Days, references pie and mash and Tyne bridges and sings Celtic country and bar-room rock’n’roll songs called Why Aye Man, Corned Beef City and My Bacon Roll like he gets his money for nothing and his chips for free. Then he lets a silky, cumulonimbus guitar solo fly free and we remember that we’re here to worship at the silvery resonator pick-ups of Mark Knopfler,…

Swervedriver London Islington Academy Swervies steer a steady course. Oxford rockers Swervedriver are celebrating three decades of inaccurate genre classification 30 years into a career that’s seen them on hiatus almost as much as they’ve been a going concern, and their 2019 set gives almost as much space to their two recent albums as it does to songs recorded during their Creation Records heyday. It’s a confident approach, but one which bears fruit, as openers Mary Winter and Drone Lover share the same sonic landscape as their predecessors, all compelling textures, vast ambition and volume. Elsewhere there’s a first London outing this century for 99th Dream, a fuel-injected take on Last Train To Satansville that rattles along at least 20mph faster than the original, and an absolutely monstrous version of…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Kiss’s Starchild Paul Stanley on the special records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Paul Elliott THIS YEAR IS A MOMENTOUS YEAR FOR KISS FRONTMAN PAUL STANLEY, AS THE BAND BEGIN THEIR LONG GOODBYE WITH THE END OF THE ROAD TOUR. Born Stanley Bert Eisen in New York City on January 20, 1952, he has dedicated 46 of his 67 years to the self-proclaimed Hottest Band In The World. As he reflects on the music that has inspired him, he speaks with reverence of Led Zeppelin, Steve Marriott and the great soul artists of a bygone age. But when it comes to rock anthems, he says that nobody does it better than Kiss. THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING I…

This month’s contributors CHRIS ROBERTS This issue Chris enjoyed listening to Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson talk about watching sheep while naked first thing in the morning (page 28), and was glad it wasn’t a Skype interview. His book on Talk Talk is reissued in July as a tribute to the late Mark Hollis, and his new book on Elton John is published worldwide in September. ED MITCHELL Freelance writer and GuitarKult blogger Ed fulfilled a lifelong ambition when he rounded up all three Stray Cats for us this month (page 60). In addition to Classic Rock he contributes to Guitarist and Total Guitar magazines. In his spare time he runs errands for a chihuahua called Elvis. Guitar nuts can follow him on Twitter @GuitarKult STEVE MITCHELL Regular readers of Classic…

NEWS Queen are yet to receive any money earned by their film Bohemian Rhapsody. Although it has taken more than $900 million at the box office, Brian May recently revealed that after 12 years of development, and with outsiders taking their percentages, the band haven’t earned a single penny. “Isn’t that funny?” he asked. “How successful does a movie have to be before you make money?” Alter Bridge have completed work on their sixth studio album. So far untitled, it’s due to be unveiled in the autumn. The Allman Betts Band have added a date at London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire on August 3 to their UK shows. Their debut album Down To The River is released on June 28. Former Manowar guitarist Karl Logan, who is currently out on bail,…

I DRIVE I Drive, Metronome Records, Germany, 1972. £400. I Drive started out as Some Other Guys, from the Greater Manchester area. They headed to Sweden in 1966, touring as a replacement for British pop artist Neil Landon. This was followed by a stint in Germany which, due to their van breaking down, was to become their new stomping ground in the coming years. Originally featuring revered vocalist Geoff Harrison, Some Other Guys worked hard ploughing their way through the underground club scene in Germany. They were residents at the famous Star Club in Hamburg, where they became a popular draw. It was during this time that they became I Drive and recorded the 45 Classic Rigby, a semi-classical reworking of The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby. Its low-key release was followed…

CHOSEN BY CRONOS OF VENOM “Minstrel In The Gallery is such an amazing album, I love it to bits. They were at that point in their career when they were so musically proficient. Ian Anderson said he thought they were pushing the boundaries to the point where it was getting too much. They were so good at what they did that they were in danger of over-producing themselves. When you hear that album, there’s one song, Wings Of Valhalla, where the time signatures and the changes were unbelievable. It’s so complex, but for me it’s probably their best album. Minstrel In The Gallery for me epitomises Tull. It’s got everything you could expect from an amazing English folk-rock group. Some of those riffs are heavier than most heavy metal songs.…

THE GOLD RUSH They burst on to our radar with a brilliant debut, following years of paying their dues in hard rock and metal bands. Now Austin Gold are ready for the next step. Words: Polly Glass PAUL ENGLAND “I think in order to be creative you’ve got to be slightly unhinged.”David James Smith Austin Gold are celebrities – well, local ones at least. Upon forming in 2013, their home town of Peterborough got behind them in a way that no one expected. People started wearing their T-shirts on the high street. Keyboard player Russell Hill still gets recognised in Aldi “all the time”. Today, singer/guitarist David James Smith passed a couple of fans on his way to the Brewery Tap – the pub where we’re meeting, and the venue…

PERRY FARRELL THE CLASSIC ROCK INTERVIEW PERRY FARRELL The founder of art-rock darlings Jane’s Addiction in 1985 and the groundbreaking Lollapalooza festival in ’91, who turned 60 this year, looks back at a difficult upbringing and living on the edge, and forward to lighting up a new age with his new project Kind Heaven. Interview: Paul Elliott MEENO/PRESS There is a funny moment, while Perry Farrell talks about his extraordinary life, when he breaks into a song. Not one of the classics he performed with Jane’s Addiction, the band in which he became a star in the late 80s, but something he wrote as a child. ‘Tickle my bellybutton,’ he trills. ‘Tickle my underarm…’ This is followed by a long, high-pitched laugh. “I remember making up all these songs when…

22 ULTIMATE ROCK READS In search of some quality summer reading material? Look no further than our guide to the best ever rock’n’roll books out there. Summer’s approaching, you’re heading off on holiday and you want something to read that will absorb and entertain you. You love your rock, but don’t want to read some shit that a pissed idiot in an AC/DC T-shirt (who was mates with one of the band’s ex-girlfriend’s uncles) could’ve written. So what do you turn to? Here’s the thing: a lot of good books about rock have been written, from autobiographies to era studies, lyrics compendiums and beyond. We’ve crunched the best of them into this prize selection, including popular classics and newer and/or lesser-known gems. GETTY THE DIRT Mötley Crüe with Neil Strauss…

ENTER THE DRAGON Jimmy Page talks about his new guitar (a comprehensive recreation of his fabled 1959 ‘Dragon’ Telecaster), and the road that led him to it. Interview: Jeff Slate IN THE BEGINNING … I was part of a whole generation of people who were seduced by the sounds of rock’n’roll through their radios. We heard this wild music – whether it was Little Richard or Elvis Presley, or even big band stuff, but certainly [a] more rockabilly side of it. And I heard this guy called Lonnie Donegan, who was doing Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie-type music, but he had a sort of beat to it – and that was skiffle. Everybody seemed to really be enamoured by his performances because he was so passionate with the songs that…

Muse / Tom Morello ‘There is something for everyone in this magnificent show.’ London Stadium Big songs and an even bigger stage production put Muse’s latest extravaganza up there with the biggest and best. During their 25 years, Muse have followed one crucial golden rule: subtlety is for wankers. Even when they were still playing cramped basement clubs, the West Country trio’s epic melodrama and theatrical bombast felt huge enough to fill a stadium or three. Nowadays the stadium is their natural live home, and yet it still feels too small for them. Their latest touring spectacular is a sense-blitzing Las Vegas-sized carnival of neo-glam, future-metal and totalitarian space-disco. It is inevitably preposterous at times, but consistently dazzling, and probably their most exciting mega-show to date. Muse’s classy choice of…

Peter Perrett London King’s Cross Scala The seemingly unquenchable post-punk legend shines on in the capital. “You get to an age in life where all that’s left is dreams and memories”, Peter Perrett says, midway through a set which disproves his theory by thriving in the present. The 67-year-old post-punk poet of fatalism and futility returned from limbo to front-line action last year with an impressive comeback album and invigorating shows. This month’s “difficult second” album Humanworld – for all the Only Ones’ proud history he’s essentially a new artist, reborn – is just as strong, and tonight taps into a rich reserve of Velvet Underground vibes and punchy, acidic songs. His presence ensures atmosphere; his material brings insight. The gig is both loose and tight: you’ve got to be…

NEWS David Gilmour and Robert Plant have each launched a new official podcast. Plant’s is a regular one titled Digging Deep, in which he looks back at the moments, people and places that have inspired him throughout his career, both with Led Zeppelin and as a solo artist. Gilmour’s comes in three parts, all of which are available now. The first official illustrated history of Jethro Tull is to be published by Rocket 88 Books in November. Ian Anderson, who is overseeing the project, which is titled The Ballad Of Jethro Tull, has contributed previously unseen images and materials from his personal archive. Riding the wave of their film The Dirt, Mötley Crüe currently lead a vote for who fans want to see inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall…

NEWS The Rolling Stones have rescheduled the North American leg of their No Filter Tour, which was delayed due to Mick Jagger’s heart surgery. It now opens in Chicago on June 21 and ends in Miami in late August. Scorpions have begun work on a new studio album, the band’s second since announcing their ‘retirement’ with Sting In The Tail in 2010. Vocalist Klaus Meine says there’s a “good chance” it will be released next year. Two more of the country’s important music venues are closing their doors for good. London’s Borderline, which has a 30-year history, closes on August 31 due to “ever increasing rents, rising business rates and ongoing redevelopment plans for Soho.” And the Assembly in Leamington Spa has shut down largely for the same reasons. The…

THE JOY OF SAX How Ian Anderson produced a Bowie sax solo. There’s a flash of dialogue at the end of Baker St. Muse where Anderson the minstrel, having finished the song, finds he’s locked in the studio and shouts: “I can’t get out!” Are we daft to read profundity into that? “It did seem to have some implication. The embarrassing thing is I did more than one take of it, added a bit of echo. I’d done a similar thing with David Bowie on a Steeleye Span track I produced for them on the 1974 album Now We Are Six. They wanted me to procure him as a saxophone player for a remake of some awful fifties rock’n’roll thing they absurdly wanted to do… To Know Him Is To…

PARLIAMENT & FUNKADELIC THE BIRTH OF FUNKADELIC Fifty years ago, during a turbulent 1969, came the first singles from a new crew on the block called Funkadelic; feet-finding independent releases that can now be seen as George Clinton sticking his funky toe in the water (then probably gleefully spiking it with potent LSD). Clinton’s R&B vocal group the Parliaments had already tried cracking Motown, ended up on Detroit independent Revilot and in ’67 scored a Top 20 hit with Testify. But things were different now. He’d discovered LSD and acidrock, partly through his old chitlin circuit mucker Jimi Hendrix. Along with The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper and Hendrix’s Are You Experienced, Clinton loved the amped-up blues-rock pyrotechnics of Cream, the vicious power-trio action of Blue Cheer and the heaving drama of…

GEORGE HARRISON & ME Lifelong Beatles fan Randy Bachman looks at the impact of the Fab Four – and the music of their quietly pivotal, influential youngest guitarist in particular. As told to: Michael Hann I heard The Beatles before anyone else in Winnipeg. I subscribed to Melody Maker and New Musical Express – they’d take a week to arrive – and so I was reading about them before anyone had heard them. I was enamoured seeing the early pictures of them with the black leather and the Elvis hair, then suddenly they had suits and the Beatles haircuts, and I think that was because they were being sold to the parents as much as the kids, because there was still rebellion in their music. When I got my first…

GIVE’EM ALL YOUR LOVIN To celebrate that little ol’ band from Texas ZZ Top’s 50 years in rock’n’roll, during which they’ve given the world some classic tunes, we asked some top guitarists to pick their top track. “Can’t pick one. Impossible!” That was Toto’s Steve Lukather’s response when we asked him to pick his all-time favourite ZZ Top track. “Simply, it’s just the real thing,” he continued. “You can’t learn what Billy does. You have to have lived it – just like the whole band has!” And, to be fair, he does have a point. It’s a damn difficult decision to make. But to celebrate ZZ’s half-century, we did manage to coerce some other outstanding players into making their choice. BLUE JEAN BLUES “Aside from being a really cool song,…

RAINBOW THE MEN WHO FELL TO EARTH In 1979, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow began making their fourth album, Down To Earth. Cue pranks, tantrums, line-up changes, bad vibes and really bad hair days. Words: Paul Rees PHOTOSHOT/AVALON + GETTY In February 1979, Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow gathered together at Chateau Pelly de Cornfeld, a 13th-century castle in the foothills of the French Alps. Picture-postcard Geneva was a short drive over the border, the snow-capped Alps ranged across the horizon. It was to this storied, idyllic spot that the band had come to make their fourth album. Down To Earth would end up being a very different-sounding record to its three predecessors. But then this version of the band was nothing like even the one that had made Rainbow’s previous album, Long Live…

Alice In Chains / Black Rebel Motorcycle Club Wembley Arena Grunge-haunted Seattle quartet pump up the gloom. Less than a year ago, Alice In Chains were in London playing the 2,000-capacity Shepherd’s Bush Empire. This time, they’re headlining the cavernous Wembley Arena; a venue six times the size, and their biggest headline UK show to date. It’s quite the jump, even for the most seasoned of grunge legends. The place isn’t sold out, but a reasonable audience arrive early to see San Fran’s Black Rebel Motorcycle Club kick things off. Brooding numbers, Spread Your Love and Berlin, cast long shadows – the trio’s leather silhouettes framed cinematically against strobe lights. It sets the tone for the evening, and the atmosphere seems to thicken as Alice In Chains arrive on stage…