Innehållsförteckning för October 2021 från Classic Rock

WELCOME This isn’t the editorial I had planned to write. Right before we sent the final pages to press on this issue, the very sad news about the passing of Charlie Watts broke. The wallet and cover (if you’re a UK reader) had already been printed, but there was absolutely no way we were going to lose our chance to honour the Rolling Stone in print in as timely fashion as we could manage. Reviews Editor Ian Fortnam pays tribute to the gentleman drummer from the Greatest Rock And Roll Band In The World from page 10. In brighter news, this month we celebrate the return of Iron Maiden as they release their first album in six years; have some deep talk with Ginger Wildheart in the Classic Rock Interview;…

THE STARS PAY TRIBUTE “I love you my fellow Gemini. I will dearly miss you, you are the best.” Ronnie Wood “I knew he was ill, but I didn’t know he was this ill, so lots of love to his family and condolences to the Stones. It’ll be a huge blow to them because Charlie was a rock, and a fantastic drummer.” Paul McCartney “Sad news about Charlie Watts. He’s been on the throne for the Rolling Stones the whole time. He will be greatly missed.” John Mayall “Charlie was not a rock drummer, more of a jazz drummer, and that’s why the Stones swung like the Basie band!! Such a lovely man.” Pete Townshend “Charlie Watts was the ultimate drummer. The most stylish of men, and such brilliant company.”…

Don Everly February 1, 1937 – August 21, 2021 Don Everly, half of pioneering rock’n’rollers the Everly Brothers, has died of yet-to-be-confirmed cause at the age of 84. The other half, his brother Phil passed away in 2014. Don Everly was born in Brownie, Kentucky, and formed the Everly Brothers with Phil in 1956. Famous for their close-harmony singing, they scored a raft of hits from 1957’s Bye Bye Love onwards, other massively popular songs including Wake Up Little Susie, All I Have To Do Is Dream and Cathy’s Clown. Along the way the Everlys influenced Bon Dylan, Neil Young, the Bee Gees, Simon & Garfunkel, the Beach Boys, Graham Nash and The Beatles. Former Beatle Paul McCartney name-checked them in Let ’Em In the 1976 hit with his band…

the DiRT HIGH HOPES Troy Redfern Hats off to the Herefordshire slide guitar player risking it all for rock‘n’roll. “Bumblefoot just handed me a double-neck fretless guitar…” As a man who looks to be dressed for an Old West card game, it follows that Troy Redfern has never been afraid to try his luck. There was the time the Herefordshire slide guitarist stepped on stage unrehearsed for an allstar jam at Poland’s Satyr Blues Festival – “Bumblefoot from Guns N’ Roses just handed me a double-neck fretless guitar, which I’d never played before in my life”. Or how about the time Redfern risked abject humiliation by following a golden god – but emphatically held his own. “Deborah Bonham was on the bill before us at a festival, and Robert Plant…

GUITAR’S GREATEST LIVE MOMENTS! A huge amount of rock’n’roll is built on great live guitar work. All the players featured here – and many more besides – have laid down enough killer solos, licks and riffs to fill more magazines than we’ll ever have the time or manpower to make. Then there are those instances, captured on record or on camera, that truly stand out; those iconic moments in rock’s history when the guitar (and, crucially, the person playing it) transcends boundaries, forges new paths for subsequent generations or just really freaks out everyone fortunate enough to be watching. Whether through one-off collaborations, reunions, genuinely magical playing (Clapton’s finest Crossroads solo, Prince’s George Harrison homage), envelope-pushing instrumentation (Jimmy Page’s bow, Rick Nielsen’s five-necked axe) or shocking stage antics (Jimi’s flaming…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Mac McGaughan The Sound Of Yourself MERGE Ex-Superchunk frontman abandons grunge-punk concision for a schizophrenic sub-Berlin Bowie-esque blend of instrumental moods, torpid 80s indie and self-regarding songs that never entirely clear their launchpad. 6/10 Sweet Teeth Acid Lain LÖVELY A brutal, scintillating mush of frill-free Scandinavian power-pop aggression that calls to mind Hüsker Dü at their most angst-driven and impatient. The Teeth, four Swedish journeymen, invariably offset sweet hooks with sour swagger. 6/10 Hamish Hawk Heavy Elevator ASSAI RECORDINGS Cavernous guitar-heavy production applied to a dark-brown voice has a tendency to mask a central lyric, and while Heavy Elevator sounds suitably epic, Neil Hannon-esque Hawk’s exquisite storytelling should have been allowed to shine brighter. 6/10 Gloo How Not To…

BACK TO LIVE Empyre Playing festivals and tours, they’re out to rebuild lost momentum. “We kept the band alive in people’s minds with releases, videos and live streams.” Empyre were busier than most musicians during lockdown. Vocalist/guitarist Henrik Steenholdt explains how in 2020 the Northampton band released an album and six singles, performed livestreams and even managed to play three proper, physical gigs. How did Empyre come to play physical concerts at a time when they were mostly off limits? We got lucky with socially distanced, sit-down outdoor gigs and pilot events, but basically we were seeking opportunities as early as we could. Returning to the road in April, how did it feel to be back? An early indoor gig at the Waterloo in Blackpool was surreal – do you…

This month’s contributors HENRY YATES Henry Yates is a longtime Classic Rock contributor who has written about music for the Guardian, Telegraph, NME, Guitarist, Total Guitar and Metal Hammer. This issue he sat down with Mark Tremonti to discuss his solo endeavours and more (p64). For more from Henry, visit yatescreativecopywriting.com and follow him @henryyates3 on Twitter. MICK WALL Former CR Editor In Chief Mick needs no introduction to longtime Classic Rock readers. This month he sat down with his old friend Ginger Wildheart for an insightful Classic Rock Interview (p40). Mick’s latest book, Rainbow In The Dark: The Autobiography, the official Ronnie James Dio autobiography, which the singer had begun before his tragic death in 2010, is out now. PAUL BRANNIGAN Paul Brannigan has been chatting with rock stars…

The Dirt RIP Thank you and good night. Eric Wagner April 24, 1959 – August 22, 2021 Eric Wagner, the co-founder of US doom-metal pioneers Trouble, has died at the age of 62 after being hospitalised for covid-19. Wagner left and rejoined the band several times before forming The Skull. “I still remember asking the guy behind the counter at Revolver Records in Coventry to play Psalm 9, their debut album,” said Cathedral’s Lee Dorrian. “It literally felt like the building was about to collapse.” Charles Connor January 14, 1935 – July 31, 2021 Having played with Little Richard, Sam Cooke and James Brown in the 1950s, Charles Connor helped to write the rulebook of rock‘n’roll drumming. John Bonham recreated Connor’s parts on Little Richard’s Keep-A-Knockin’ for Led Zeppelin’s Rock…

Walter Yetnikoff August 11, 1933 – August 9, 2021 Walter Yetnikoff was a music business executive from the era when flamboyant boardroom characters were every bit as influential as the artists whose records they sold. Having risen through the ranks from a lawyer to becoming president of CBS Records in 1975, through a fog of drink, drugs and sex the Brooklyn-ite pulled the strings to make megastars of Bruce Springsteen, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson and Barbra Streisand, among others, before entering rehab in 1989. He was axed by the company the following year. Yetnikoff’s feuds with rival Svengalis were a thing of legend, and at times the bad blood drove the decisions he made, such as poaching artists from other labels. His 2004 memoir Howling At The Moon: The Odyssey…

Bo-Rap 2 Film A Possibility? Brian May reveals that Queen are “looking at ideas”. Brian May says that despite having earlier pooh-poohed the idea, Queen are considering a sequel to their hugely successful 2018 film Bohemian Rhapsody. In May 2020 the guitarist told Rolling Stone that while the idea of continuing the band’s story on celluloid – the film effectively concluded with the group’s triumph at Live Aid in 1985 – had been “looked at pretty seriously”, they had reached the conclusion that a film focused on Freddie Mercury’s final years and his battle with HIV was not “the story we want to tell at the moment”. Now, speaking on an Instagram Live, May says Queen are “looking at ideas” to that end, adding that “it’s going to be hard…

TREMONTI Making Their Mark The essential Tremonti playlist. YOU WASTE YOUR TIME The debut single that vindicated Mark Tremonti as a viable artist in his own right, and pays a rampaging salute to the speed-metal influences that had flipped his teenage switch. As the guitarist told MusicRadar, he couldn’t have done anything more to make his new project fly: “I put everything I had into it.” From All I Was (2012) LEAVE IT ALONE The riff is brutal, but the feel-led solo, melodic smarts and emotional intelligence announced that Tremonti was here to do more than bludgeon us. “The lyrical content is pretty much about growing up and becoming jaded,” he explained, “and putting your walls up after you’ve seen people take you for granted or turn on you.” From…

BACK TO LIVE Siren Artist Management Even with gigs returning, band manager Adam Parsons sees a difficult future still ahead for the whole live music industry. “My view is that this [covid] is here for the rest of our days, like Sars, Aids and everything else.” What is it like to guide a band or artist through a pandemic? We ask California-based Englishman Adam Parsons, a former musician who co-founded Siren Artist Management with business partner Ace Trump in 2003. Almost 20 years later their roster includes Saxon, Uriah Heep, Europe, Stiff Little Fingers, Diamond Head, Black Star Riders, Thin Lizzy and Tax The Heat. When live music shut down in March 2020, how soon did you realise there would be a long term problem? America]. And although people were…

REVIEWS BACK TO LIVE Bloodstock Catton Park, Derbyshire With music from a wide-ranging roster of artists glad to be on a stage again, this year’s model was never going to be less than triumphant. FRIDAY Any concerns that the live music scene wouldn’t be able to recover from the negative impact of the past 18 months are soon dispelled as the Bloodstock experience serves to emphasise the sheer joy of simply standing in a field while watching live musics. Well, technically EVILE are playing in a tent that houses the Sophie Lancaster Stage, but the joy is still unabated as the veteran British thrashers power through to a respectable audience. The same goes for RAGING SPEEDHORN, with their ferocity and drive unconfined. When Ginger is in the mood, THE WILDHEARTS…

CHARLIE WATTS June 2, 1941 – August 24, 2021 Ian Fortnam looks back at the life, times and music of the man who not only laid down his unique beat with the Rolling Stones for almost 60 years, but was also one of rock’s nicest guys. He was the most stylish man in rock’n’roll, with his easy, laconic, manner, bone-dry sense of humour, matchless wardrobe of bespoke Savile Row suits and deadpan, Buster Keaton stone face. He’d far rather talk about the cricket than about his illustrious 58-year career as the ever-reliable driving force behind the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world. Charlie Watts was the Rolling Stone that even people who had no time for the Rolling Stones couldn’t help but like. There was never any old flannel with…

Nanci Griffith July 6, 1953 – August 13, 2021 Singer, guitarist and songwriter Nanci Griffith has died at the age of 68. No cause has yet been announced, although Griffith survived battles with breast cancer in 1996 and thyroid cancer two years later. Born just outside of Austin, Texas, she was one of the great country-rock storytellers. She once said of her style: “You take a whole lot of Woody Guthrie and a whole lot of Loretta Lynn, swoosh it around and it comes out as Nanci Griffith.” Griffith found success with the songs Late Night Grand Hotel, Trouble In The Fields and Anyone Can Be Somebody’s Fool. Emmylou Harris and Willie Nelson sang on Gulf Coast Highway on her 1990 album Duets. After receiving a Lifetime Achievement Trailblazer Award from…

WELCOME BACK The Barenaked Ladies They're back with a new album – and the frontman’s secret project with Geddy Lee “that I can’t talk about”. PLANT & KRAUSS: FRANK MELFI “We’ve never been easy to explain,” says Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson. “But that’s made it very free for us to do whatever we do.” Detour De Force, the band’s latest album, continues their category-defying blend of goofy humour, catchy tunes and deft musicianship, with singles like Flip and New Disaster commenting playfully on contemporary issues. We caught up with Robertson at his home outside Toronto, surrounded by guitars and his collection of vintage pinball machines. What does the Detour De Force record mean to you? We made a record we felt strongly about, a tour de force. But Detour…

WELCOME BACK Herman Rarebell As well as touring his new art project, he’s itching to set the record straight on his contribution to the Scorpions. HERMAN RAREBELL: NICO MASS/PRESS; JOHN LYDON: ALAMY Herman Rarebell will always be best known as the drummer with the Scorpions, who he was with from 1977 for 18 years, during their most successful period. He also wrote lyrics for some of the band’s best-known songs, including Blackout, Dynamite and Rock You Like A Hurricane. Since his Scorpions days he’s recorded a number of solo albums, and worked with Michael Schenker, John Parr and Ginger Baker, among others, pursuing a varied career that currently includes him being a member of art ensemble the Seeing Tree. His 1981 debut solo album, Nip In The Bud, is now…

Q&A Samantha Fish The Kansas City gunslinger on smashing up guitars, shooting down sexists and shaking off the covid blues. Words: Henry Yates Had you pulled up a bar stool at Kansas City’s Knuckleheads club in the noughties, you couldn’t have missed Samantha Fish. Patently underage, but with an old-soul guitar touch steeped in the Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt and Stevie Ray Vaughan, the loitering blonde quickly segued from chancer to crowd favourite, then from local legend to the pride of Ruf Records’ blues roster. At the age of 32, Fish is just about to release her seventh album, Faster, which still bears the thumbprint of those first influences, while also throwing pop, electronica and even a guest rapper at the wall. “The trick for me,” she says, “is making…

THE SIZE OF IT At the dawn of the 90s Mr. Big were just another LA hard rock band who could barely get arrested. Then along came monster hit To Be With You, which turned them into accidental pop stars. Words: Dave Ling Photos: Neil Zlozower “Every record we made came with pressure from the record company, and it always felt like we were chasing our tails to deliver a hit single. Then from out of nowhere we did that with To Be With You… and things only got worse. The success of that song came as a gigantic blessing, but it was also a curse, because each time they said: ‘We want that next To Be With You, and we just couldn’t do it.” Talking to Classic Rock, Mr.…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Bob Marley & The Wailers The Capitol Session ’73 TUFF GONG/MERCURY STUDIOS Directly following their debut UK and US tours, a newly post-Bunny, Burnin’-era Wailers (with Joe Higgs deputising) performed before an invited audience at Hollywood’s Capitol Records Tower, and here it is on red ‘n’ green (or black) vinyl. 8/10 Nick Lowe The Convincer (20th Anniversary Ed) YEP ROC As the climactic third instalment of a trilogy of releases that found the former Brinsley at his most consistent, 2001’s The Convincer is Home Counties country rock at its very best: honest, casual, assured… convincing. An evergreen treat. 8/10 Violent Femmes Why Do Birds Sing? CRAFT 1991’s newly expanded fifth from Milwaukee’s quietly influential Gordon Gano-led folk-punk pioneers finds…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Singer, guitarist, songwriter Melissa Etheridge on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to her. Interview: Polly Glass “Joan Armatrading had a way of crafting a song that surprised you. She broke the rules.” “I think good music is good music,” Melissa Etheridge says with a shrug, reflecting on the mixture that makes up her ‘Soundtrack…’ spread. “So I don’t cut myself off from anything.” Having cut her teeth performing in places including prisons and retirement homes as a youngster in Leavenworth, Kansas, Etheridge made her name in the 80s in LA’s women’s bars. A unique blend of heartland rock, roots, folk and gay rights activism cemented her reputation. Now she’s gearing up to release her latest album, One Way Out, a…