Innehållsförteckning för August 2022 från Classic Rock

The former Queensrÿche vocalist pays homage to the Sabs’ first with RJD. “I’m a huge fan of the three studio albums that Black Sabbath made with Ronnie James Dio on vocals. I suppose I like Heaven And Hell the best of the three because it was the trilogy’s first. I still remember buying my original copy on vinyl. The five members of what became Queensrÿche sat around and listened to that album, talked about it and really digested it. It was a great springboard to push our own creativity. “As a well-respected guy who’d been working with bands like Iron Maiden, Martin Birch did a great job with the production. He really helped to bring the songs to life. “One thing that’s sometimes forgotten is that Black Sabbath were on…

WHEN BB KING SUPPORTED THE MTB When The Marshall Tucker Band took off for the first time, during the early 1970s, promoters began inviting them to pick their support act. “Suddenly we were in 20,000 seaters,” Doug Gray recalls. “We had played with all of those southern bands like the Allman Brothers and the rest. At the time, BB King was not so popular. We had him and his entire band come out with us; our two bands did maybe forty shows together. Some people still talk about that incredible tour, and they always will because it was a tribute to the humanity of music.” Although it’s almost exactly 50 years ago, Doug Gray still recalls the day that his Marshall Tucker Band bandmate guitarist Toy Caldwell, introduced the group…

."[After Dusty Hill died] we felt it would be more suitable to try to carry on, rather than just throw in the towel." The revival – and indeed the very survival – of ZZ Top in 2022 is something of a miracle. The longestlasting trio in the history of rock were still touring America to celebrate (belatedly) their 50th anniversary when bass player and singer Dusty Hill died in his sleep at the age of 72 last August. He was replaced apparently seamlessly by Billy Gibbons’s guitar tech, Elwood Francis, and the show just kept on rolling. Less than a year later, the band have recently wrapped up a tour of Canada and are currently on their Raw Whisky Tour of the USA, a full-throttle, 50-plus-dates excursion in support of…

It’s 30 March, 1985. A single low organ note rumbles in the cavernous, lighter-lit dark of the Carrier Dome, as a voice says: “Hello Syracuse and the world… my name is Prince, and I’ve come to play with you!” Thousands of purple flower petals tumble from the ceiling, laser-sharp beams sweep through plumes of smoke, and the curtain rises to reveal Prince And The Revolution in comic-book-hero silhouette, kicking into the opening bars of Let’s Go Crazy. And the fans are doing just that. Not just the 38,000 in the venue, but millions more around the world who have tuned in to one of the first ever pay-per-view concerts. Released recently as a live album and Blu-ray, Prince And The Revolution: Live can still plug the members of the Revolution…

After decades spent hustling in the melodic rock trenches, it might be unkind to refer to Cats In Space mainman Greg Hart as a journeyman musician, but his CV does rather bear this out. It’s 30 years since he co-wrote Lay Down Your Arms and A Far Cry on Asia’s Aqua album, and the intervening years have been dotted with occasional albeit insubstantial flurries of activity. So when he launched Cats In Space in 2015 it felt like a Hail Mary. A final throw of the dice in AOR’s last-chance saloon. In the seven years since, Hart has worked with all the steely determination of a man who has finally figured out where he’s headed and how he’s going to get there, and desperately wants to make up for lost…

David Leaf OMNIBUS PRESS The life of Brian. You can’t fault author David Leaf for fan-boy tenacity. God Only Knows is his third attempt to nail this subject matter, and it’s hard to argue with his talent for assembling information since he began his odyssey in the mid-70s. You may know that Leaf is the driving force behind various Beach Boys box sets, notably the magnificent Pet Sounds one, and the inspiration that drove Brian Wilson to address his problematic project, the so-called Smile album. If not, Leaf will tell you anyway. On first meeting Dennis Wilson, drummer and poster boy for the golden surfing generation, Leaf explains his desire to write a book about Brian. “Good luck” is the response. But write he did, and generations of rock stars…

From the south-east suburbs, the so-called Bromley contingent of London’s 70s punks – including the eventual songwriting partnership of vocalist Susan ‘Siouxsie Sioux’ Ballion and bassist Steven ‘Severin’ Bailey (along with friends Simon ‘Six’ Barker and Simone Thomas) – were standing behind the Sex Pistols during their notorious teatime TV incident of December 1976. In fact it was a 19-year-old Siouxsie – with her blatantly sarcastic flirting at Bill Grundy eliciting the 53-year-old’s creepy response: “We’ll meet afterwards, shall we?” – that led Pistols guitarist Steve Jones to unleash his volley of fruity language. Things deteriorated rapidly for the Pistols’ public profile, but Sioux left an imperious and indelible mark. Two months earlier, Siouxsie and Severin threw together a band – with guitarist Marco Pirroni, who would later play with…

‘The hottest band in the world are going out with a hell of a bang.’ FRIDAY Three years since Download Festival last hosted its (usually) annual full-scale rock’n’roll blow-out and there’s no small sense of triumph seeing 80,000-plus fans return to Donington Park. The sun is shining, and Wayward Sons’ riffs blow on the wind as bodies press through the gates, adding an extra strut to the step that will surely be reduced to a hobble by the end of three days’ celebration. Under baking sun, the Kris Barras Band – frontman Barras must be at least 85 per cent tattoo – secure a raft of new fans, with the likes of blues-rock stomper Hail Mary hitting with conviction. Myles Kennedy might have one of rock’s finest voices, but it…

“I’d probably be a better lead singer of a rock band if I could stop smiling so much on stage,” jokes Taylor Goldsmith. This summer, you can’t blame the affable Dawes frontman for smiling. He and his wife Mandy Moore are expecting their second child, and he’ll be touring behind Dawes’s eighth album, Misadventures Of Doomscroller. While more adventurously proggy than their previous records, it still carries what Goldsmith calls the “Dawes DNA” – aguitar-driven California breeze threaded through philosophical lyrics. We caught up with him to chat about everything from progressive jazz “I got immersed in to fatherhood. jazzier things. Records What was your vision for the new record? On our last album take their time.” the songs were three minutes long. Tight, clear and concise – all the…

Terence ‘Snowy’ White has always seemed like an accidental guitar hero. Raised on the Isle of Wight in the 1950s, the modest now 74-year-old was a British blues-boom disciple who tells us today that “the limit of my ambition was to play simple blues phrases over simple chord progressions – and it still is”. White has done plenty of that across his four-decade solo career, which includes the ’83 hit single Bird Of Paradise, and continues with this year’s Driving On The 44 album. But fame also came calling whether he liked it or not, thanks to playing with peakperiod Pink Floyd and an unravelling Thin Lizzy. “The lim it of my ambition was to play simple The new album’s lyrics often sound like you’re pining for the road. How…

It might not have been a ‘hold the front page’ announcement, but when The Gaslight Anthem frontman Brian Fallon revealed that the band were “returning to full-time status” in late March, not to mention beginning the process of writing songs for what will be their sixth studio album, it felt like a good-news day. The New Jersey quartet – Fallon, guitarist Alex Rosamilia, bassist Alex Levine and drummer Benny Horowitz – had announced in July 2015 that they’d be taking an “indefinite hiatus” upon completion of touring commitments for their fifth album, 2014’s Get Hurt. And although the four musicians had regrouped in the summer of 2018 and played a series of triumphant, victory-lap shows celebrating the tenth anniversary of The ’59 Sound, their breakthrough album, there were no hints…

You’d have to be living under a planet-sized mountain of Jubilee bunting not to have heard that Kate Bush’s 1985 single Running Up That Hill has made an extraordinary comeback in recent weeks, topping the Spotify and iTunes charts and winning the approval of a new generation. This resurgent popularity has been chiefly – okay, totally – initiated by the track’s key placement in Season Four of the Netflix sci-fihorror hybrid and teen favourite Stranger Things, set in the 80s and frequently giving fresh legs to cult-ish hits of the era. The same season dusts off and delivers new oxygen to Talking Heads’ Psycho Killer, Dead Or Alive’s You Spin Me Round and The Cramps’ I Was A Teenage Werewolf. Yet 37 years after Running Up That Hill initially reached…

The prospect of the band turning 40 in the middle of the pandemic must have caused more than a little consternation at Anthrax Towers. After all, the only way to do a momentous anniversary justice is to embark on a world tour. However, with gigs off the menu Scott Ian and co. had to think up other ways of marking their four decades of delivering the metal thrashing goods. The celebrations began in May last year, culminating in a global livestream on July 16/17 during which the band pummelled their way through two hours-plus of fanpleasing songs from the soundstage at The Den in Los Angeles, the recording of which very much lives up to its concise title. Everything about XL is huge. Here we have three discs: two CDs…

Generation Radio Generation Radio FRONTIERS When the Grammywinning Rascal Flatts wrapped a 20-year career in 2021, many wondered what their bassist/keyboard player/vocalist/ songwriter and producer Jay DeMarcus might do next. Little did they know, this was pretty much a done deal. By the time the trio were officially over, Generation Radio had already debuted live in Nashville. The line between country music and AOR is increasingly blurred, and joining DeMarcus in this promising unit are two icons of melodic hard rock: Jason Scheff, a vocalist and bassist with Chicago for three decades-plus, and drummer/vocal powerhouse Deen Castronovo (Journey, Revolution Saints), plus guitarists Chris Rodriguez and Tom Yankton. Even at 60, Scheff remains a superlative singer, and with support from Castronovo, from the swoon-inducing Why Are You Calling Me Now to…

It’s December 2008. We are in freezingcold North Wales. Prestatyn Sands, to be precise, the Pontins calamity zone that provided the backdrop for the 1973 film Holiday On The Buses and is currently staging the second Hard Rock Hell festival, during which the band Waysted will – God willing – be performing. This writer is standing outside the resort’s fish and chip shop with Waysted’s bassist, former UFO/Fastway stalwart Pete Way who is bemoaning the fact that he cannot find his chalet. “I can’t find my chalet,” he repeats for the umpteenth time, while fans gather round bemusedly. The only solution is to retreat to the bar, where upon arrival we discover that Way has no cash and his credit cards don’t work. And he can’t put drinks on his…

“This isn’t Kiss, it isn’t Lordi. It’s not merely a theatrical band… We tell a story. It’s a complete entertainment experience.” Blöthar The Berserker previews a new invasion of planet Earth by the interplanetary Barbarian warriors, with some heavyweight music sountracking their battle cry. You took the place of previous frontman Oderus Urungus in GWAR almost a decade ago. There were tales of a ‘battle to the death’. [Laughs] It wasn’t a battle to the death. Oderus simply went on a long vacation, owing me a lot of yams, which is the currency that we use. He signed off. There was a Viking funeral. Whenever GWAR needs a new scum dog we just go to GWAR HQ in Antarctica where we store them, and we thaw one out. I woke…

‘This jaw-dropping mega-show is pretty near perfect.’ The band’s infamous penis cannon is the show’s, erm, climax. “It ain’t half hot, mum…” Till Lindemann turns up the hea Coventry Building Society Arena With an eye-popping stage show the band hit a new career peak. PAUL HARRIES + MAX HARRYS Back in the UK after a covid-enforced two-year delay, Rammstein complete the unfinished business of their biggest tour to date with this rescheduled stadium show, this time with emotionally charged material from their new lockdown-inspired album Zeit swelling an updated set-list. Dark times may produce serious music, but these bombastic Berliners do sombre introspection in their own uniquely maximalist way. They arrive in Coventry wearing Wagnerian superhero costumes – ghostly monk, disco sex robot, Viking warlord etc – like a magnificent…

Twice delayed due to covid-19 and two years later than planned, The Stadium Tour – featuring co-headliners Def Leppard and Mötley Crüe, plus Poison and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – finally got under way at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia on June 16. It didn’t take long for the tour, which comes to Europe next summer, to produce the drama that had always seemed inevitable. The opening night made instant headlines around the world when Crüe drummer Tommy Lee left the stage in agony after just five songs, handing his sticks to Tommy Clufetos for the rest of the set Former Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper and Ted Nugent man Clufetos had been waiting in the wings after Lee, on the tour against medical advice, broke four ribs before it…

John Paul Jones, Nile Rodgers, former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic and Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson are among the latest additions to the bill of the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert in London, which takes place at Wembley Stadium on September 3. They join the already announced Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen, ex-Rush pair Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Liam Gallagher, Stewart Copeland, Supergrass and headliners the Foo Fighters. A sister event in Los Angeles is set to include John Paul Jones, Nancy Wilson, Krist Novoselic, P!NK and LeAnn Rimes in addition to the previously announced Gene Simmons, Nikki Sixx, Miley Cyrus, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith, RATM drummer Brad Wilk, Joan Jett, Alanis Morissette and The Struts frontman Luke Spiller. Proceeds from the ticket sales from both…

Acclaimed uk artist Tim Bowness formed the influential No-Man in 1987 with Steven Wilson (the pair’s podcast The Album Years is a must-hear), and over his 40-year career his classy, moody music has made his name in rock’s progressive circles. Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson, Van der Graaf Generator’s Peter Hammill and Magazine’s Dave Formula are among the guests on Butterfly Mind, his seventh solo album. So much has changed since you started out. Are we in a better place now than we were in 1982? I started off in bands as a teenager during the Falklands War, and politically and in terms of global threat we’re probably in as bad a position today, “Butterf ly Mind is one of the most experimental albums I’ve made.” if not worse. Certainly it’s…

Imbued with the unquiet spirit of raw, unhinged rock’n’roll, His Lordship have stripped 21st-century post-rock sophistication back to a rip-snorting, souped-up skeletal chassis that’s part hot rod, part brutal assault. There’s just the two of them – James Walborne covers guitar and vocals, Kristoffer Sonne supplies the beat – and they’re never more comfortable than when they’re bouncing in the red. They’ve got Jerry Lee snake oil in their veins, channelling The Cramps and backwoods rockabilly psychosis and oozing an aura of bourbon-soaked sonic delinquency. But, says James: “We don’t want to be a fucking retro thing. We don’t wanna write about being in a Cadillac. We want to write about now.” His Lordship, sonics set to ‘stun’, all cranked up and as edgy as an amphetamine breakfast, lean in…

Dave Mustaine is alive and well. Two years after doctors gave him the all-clear following treatment for throat cancer, he’s looking good for his 60 years as he sits in his home office in Tennessee talking to Classic Rock about his life and career as the leader of Megadeth. His face has a few creases, his long hair, once flame-red, is now a shade of grey. But after 20 years of sobriety he looks a whole better than he did the first time I interviewed him, back in 1988, when Megadeth were touring the US as the opening act for Dio. In those days Mustaine had the ghostly pallor that comes with an addiction to hard drugs. As he says now, with a thin smile: “That was a long time…

If Bruce Dickinson had raised a child with Animal from The Muppets, and fed it the Top Gun soundtrack, it would have been Kenny Leckremo. Bare chested and gesticulating, in bright red shorts and leather jacket, Leckremo drove this point home at Alice Cooper’s Monsters Of Rock cruise back in February. Surrounded by bandmates who have been “like brothers” since their teens (they’re now in their thirties), it was an intense experience. “It was completely crazy,” the H.e.a.t singer enthuses, a megawatt smile spreading across his face. “It was incredible in every way, full of emotions, chaotic, just pure happiness and joy to be back on stage with the guys. Maybe I was a little overwhelmed. I remember that feeling from when I started, you know? When I was really…

Long-lost space surfers touch back down in the nick of time. Between Top Gun’s eternally irritating hero Maverick ruling the big screen once more, Kate Bush topping the charts, Russia going mad and threatening nuclear war, the possibility of recession hanging over our heads, and acid-wash jeans regaining popularity among the young and the fashionable, it seems that the 80s are back with a vengeance. This is excellent news for old-school Swedish crew H.e.a.t., because they wear their allegiance to the decade proudly on their denim, patch-adorned sleeve. Force Majeure, their seventh album, marks the return of their original frontman, Kenny Leckremo, following the departure of Swedish Idol-winner Erik Grönwall, and the intervening years have clearly been kind to him, as he hits those Dio-inspired high notes like a baseball…

“ His worst yet”, one Record Mirror reader (cited here) wailed of T. Rex’s 1974 hit Teenage Dream. “It sounded like someone on DRUGS.” The bittersweet joke here is that Bolan’s undervalued anthem, an anguished eulogy to the golden era of the UK’s glam-rock explosion, was less indicative of someone on drugs than pretty much every record and band that had graced (or cashed in on) the purple patch. Briefly, blazingly, everything went crazee. In the early 70s, pop and rock reacted to the extendedsolo, earnest-guitar-hero late 60s with a blast of energy and swagger every bit as iconoclastic as its less well-dressed offspring punk. Glam fired a jolt of adrenalin up music’s rear end, and it vomited forth peacocks. Some were visionaries with the talent to use it as…

“We’ve got forty-five songs, so we vary the setlist because some fans will attend several shows.” Drummer Albert and guitarist and bassist Joe Bouchard were members of Blue Öyster Cult during the New York band’s golden era in the 70s and 80s. This month they’re playing eight unplugged dates across the UK, featuring BÖC and solo material plus some storytelling. Albert, you were a member of BÖC precursors Soft White Underbelly, and Joe, you joined the band for their debut album in January 1972. You must have some amazing memories of the meteoric rise that followed? Albert [laughing] It was about as meteoric a turtle. Joe: It took a number of years to become a platinumselling band. We pounded the pavement; there were a lot of tours. Everyone from Spirit…