Innehållsförteckning för January 2023 från Classic Rock

THE GUITARIST WHO was a founding member of both The Clash and Public Image Ltd has died from complications of liver cancer at the age of 65. The news was broken by the author Adam Hammond. In a statement, Hammond described Keith Levene as “among the most innovative, audacious and influential guitarists of all time. He sought to create a new paradigm in music and with willing collaborators John Lydon and Jah Wobble, succeeded in doing just that. His guitar work over the nine minutes of Theme, the first track on the first PiL album, defined what alternative music should be. “As well as helping to make PiL the most important band of the age, Keith also founded The Clash with Mick Jones and had a major influence on their…

IT WAS something that fans of Judas Priest thought they would never see again – guitarist KK Downing back on stage with the band. But it happened at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. Since walking away from Priest in 2011, Downing had engaged in a war of words with the group he’d co-founded at the tail end of the 60s. Inducted by Alice Cooper at a ceremony in Los Angeles, Downing was part of a line-up that included three guitarists (current man Richie Faulkner, Downing, and Glenn Tipton who retired from touring in 2018) and two drummers (Les Binks, a member from 1977 to 1979, playing in tandem with the current man on the drum stool, Scott Travis). The expanded line-up performed a three-song medley consisting of You’ve…

Hot off of the meteoric success of their 1984 album Ride The Lightning, Metallica found themselves in a curious position. Bursting with fiery ambition and lofty compositional ideas, by the summer of 1985 they had effectively outgrown thrash, just as that very scene had begun to explode. That third album would be a crucible in which they would forge all of the speed and aggression of their first two releases with vibrant new melodies and incisive lyrics. Today the Master Of Puppets album is viewed as the unqualified high point for a band whose career plays out as a series of high points. And nothing exemplifies its brilliance as perfectly as its anthemic title track. It was the summer of 1985, and on July 14 the band got together in…

Matt Bellamy loves a heavy riff. Now more than ever. “I definitely think a bit more metal has crept in this time,” he says of Muse’s 2022 album Will Of The People. He’s always had it in him, as evidenced by early Muse bangers like New Born and Stockholm Syndrome, which helped make Muse one of the most successful alternative rock acts of the modern age. But with this new album the singer/guitarist is really going for it in terms of sheer sonic weight. Will Of The People is a head-twisting celebration of heaviness. It’s the sound of a group finding new ways to catch lightning in the bottle, and hard-wire galactic riffs into stadium-conquering anthems. Tracks such as Kill Or Be Killed and Won’t Stand Down live up to…

Armed with a gleefully luxurious new rock record – and a flame-spurting, cathedral-decked stage show to match – Ghost were one of 2022’s juiciest, sparkliest prospects. Impera was built for the arenas they headlined, conveying Tobias Forge’s internal web of doomy metal, enormous riffs and bombastic singalongs to delighted audiences. On top of that, they became TikTok stars (after a user posted a Stranger Things-themed video accompanied by live Ghost favourite Mary On A Cross). Next year they go back on tour, including an appearance at Download Festival in June. What stands out in your memories of 2022? Going back to touring was a fantastic feeling. In the beginning it felt almost unreal; still with a bit of restriction, which was kind of unintuitive, but the last tour we did,…

Since forming in 1999, Gogol Bordello have become synonymous with the term ‘gypsy punk’. Led by Eugene Hütz – who left Kyiv as a youth with his family, ending up in New York – the multinational collective became known for riotous good times set to Romani beats, riddled with sweat and boozy subversion. Named after Nikolai Gogol, a writer of Ukrainian origin but widely claimed by history as Russian, Gogol Bordello hid their Ukrainian-ness in plain sight. Following Putin’s invasion, it’s come into the spotlight. “It was all the time a ‘fuck you’ to Moscow,” the wiry, generously moustached frontman tells us. “Now it’s only getting louder.” It must be a bittersweet feeling to have people who previously knew very little about Ukraine paying closer attention to it now, but…

It’s undeniable that the Beatles’ Revolver is a psychedelic rock landmark, a sonic marvel that marked a sea change in music production and culture. And in 2022 it was revisited for the full deluxe reissue treatment. In 1966, joined by their new recording engineer Geoff Emerick, The Beatles and producer George Martin set about using the recording studio as their sonic workshop, creating sounds never heard before and introducing classical Indian music into Western pop rock. But, like most pre-1968 Beatles albums, Revolver was recorded to four-track tape, with the result that the main rhythm instruments – usually guitar, bass and drums – were placed together on one track, making it impossible to separate them for stereo mixes. Using ground-breaking de-mixing technology, Giles Martin – George Martin’s son, and the…

THE VETERANS Choons from the A-list. DEF LEPPARD Take What You Want Leppard threw everything at Diamond Star Halos, and nowhere is that more apparent than on this scorching opening track. A resounding banger with substance and swishiness. SLASH FT MYLES KENNEDY & THE CONSPIRATORS The River Is Rising Four albums into a blissful marriage with Myles and co, Slash seemingly dug into his Appetite-era box of tricks for this beauty. Heavy and dirty and recorded hot off the studio floor, it’s one of their rawest and most effective moments yet. ZZ TOP Blue Jean Blues There are plenty of rip-roaring knees-ups on Raw, but it’s on this smooth, supremely cool 12-bar ballad that Billy Gibbons unlocks a fresh reservoir of soul – the sort he’s always had inside, now…

BURKE SHELLEY April 10, 1950 – January 10 Bassist/vocalist with Budgie. BOBBY HARRISON June 22, 1939 – January 7 Member of the bands Procol Harum, SNAFU and Freedom. MICHAEL LANG December 11, 1944 – January 8 Co-creator of the original Woodstock festival. GREG WEBSTER January 4, 1938 – January 14, 1938 Original drummer with the Ohio Players. RACHEL NAGY December 15, 1984 – January 16 Singer with American garagerockers Detroit Cobras. DON WILSON February 10, 1933 – January 22 Co-founder of surf-rockers The Ventures. ANDY ROSS January 31, 1956 – January 25 Boss of indie label Food Records. KIT WOOLVEN December 21, 1950 – January 26 Popular-music producer. DIXIE LEE Died January 27 Former drummer with Lone Star. SAM LAY March 20, 1935 – January 29 Drummer with the Butterfield…

Communication Killer Dirty Rock ExplosionSELF-RELEASED Austrian dead-enders with a Stooges fixation and a blistering garagepunk attack, this is the kinda band you always hope to discover when you stumble into somesketchy dive-bar on the darkest side of town. They claim to play the “dirtiest rock since 2013”. And while I don’t remember what happened back then, I will tell you they’re contenders for Kings Of Sleaze right now. Knock, Knock On My Coffin (Coffin Rock) sounds like Iggy fronting The Fluid, for Chrissakes, At The Flix is a sweatsoaked assault of pummelling distortion, Just A Game is six solid minutes of teenage-rampage actionrock, and Queen Of The Tomb 2020 sounds exactly like a song with that title should. Communication Killer cover a lot of ground on this record, from Sabbathy…

“I let [the audience] closer. I offer them more, I’m telling them more. The fear of the pandemic has helped me to relax.” Steve Harley, the co-founding vocalist and now only remaining original member of the band whose hits include Mr Soft and the timeless Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me), checks in as Cockney Rebel celebrate their 50th anniversary with a short UK tour. Congratulations on reaching fifty years of Cockney Rebel. How does that make you feel? It’s astonishing. The question I’m perpetually asked is whether, when the band first started out, I could imagine it lasting this long. Of course not, we were just young lads. Our hopes were to play some gigs, make records and maybe get shagged a bit [laughs]. It was as…

BRYAN ADAMS London O2 Arena Dec 14 AIRBOURNE, CROBOT, BLUES BILLS Manchester Victoria Warehouse Dec 21 London Brixton Academy Dec 22 ALKATRAZZ, GIRLSCHOOL, TYTAN Buckley Tivoli Feb 3 Blackpool Waterloo Music Bar Feb 4 Edinburgh Bannerman’s Bar Feb 5 Bradford Nightrain Feb 7 Newcastle Trillians Feb 8 Stoke-on-Trent Eleven Feb 9 Bilston Robin 2 Feb 10 London Camden Underworld Feb 11 ALTER BRIDGE, HALESTORM, MAMMOTH WVH Birmingham Resorts World Arena Dec 11 London O2 Arena Dec 12 ANIMALS AS LEADERS Birmingham The Mill Jan 10 Glasgow Garage Jan 11 Manchester The Ritz Jan 12 London Shepherd’s Bush Empire Jan 13 THE ANSWER Blackpool Waterloo Bar Mar 16 Birmingham Institute Mar 17 Bristol Thekla Mar 19 London 100 Club Mar 20 Leeds Key Club Mar 21 Belfast Limelight 2 Mar 23…

Love Iron Maiden? Love puzzles? Ever wondered how – indeed if – you could somehow combine these two passions? Well, a forthcoming book Where Is Eddie? might just be the answer. Essentially it’s a Where’s Wally-style book, where you search detailed illustrations for Maiden’s ever-changing mascot. Published by Fantoons, the people who brought the world Motorhead: The Rise Of The Loudest Band In The World, and Iron Maiden: The Official Coloring Book, the 36-page Where Is Eddie? arrives on May 23 next year, and is available to pre-order now. Throughout their illustrious career, which began in East London way back in 1975, the music from the band named after a rather gruesome torture device first used in the 19th century has captured the hearts of fans around the world. The…

CLASSIC ROCK CONTRIBUTOR and former Editor of The Blues magazine Ed Mitchell has died aged 52. He had been suffering from cancer. Ed grew up in Gourock, west Scotland. As a schoolboy he was obsessed by guitar playing and his favourite band at the time was Madness. In adulthood his tastes expanded into country, blues and rock’n’roll. He loved The Who, The Beatles, The Jam, Bruce Springsteen and Mötley Crüe, and had encyclopaedic knowledge of guitar players such as Roy Buchanan, Danny Gatton and Duane Allman. But when Madness originally split the same week that he started his first job in October 1986, he joked that it marked the point where his childhood ended. The job was at McCormack’s, a famous Glaswegian guitar shop, where he installed a full-length mirror.…

BLUDGEON RIFFOLA The best rock album of 2022 is also the best Def Leppard album since 1992. They’ve made other strong records in the 30 years since Adrenalize, but with Diamond Star Halos they’re thinking big, and also thinking outside the box. Their career is built on rock anthems, and this one is front-loaded with three bangers: Take What You Want, Kick and Fire it Up. But there’s a more experimental approach evident in three other standout tracks: This Guitar, a beautiful country-flavoured song, co-starring singer Alison Krauss; Goodbye For Good This Time, a 70s-style, strings-laden epic featuring former Bowie pianist Mike Garson; and the dramatic finale From Here To Eternity, described by singer Joe Elliott as “our murder ballad”. Diamond Star Halos is a truly great Def Leppard album.…

In the spring of 2021, during the last lurches of that never-ending lockdown, rock bands across the planet were getting ready to come out of hibernation. Meanwhile, Italian quartet Måneskin were winning the Eurovision Song Contest and becoming an overnight sensation. Their spicy, riff-driven track Zitti E Buoni took the top prize at Eurovision. It also peaked at No.17 in the UK singles chart – the highest for an Italian-language song in three decades. Of course, it isn’t unheard of for us lot to grumble at X Factor, the Eurovision Song Contest and the like, but Måneskin’s rise started years prior. Frustrated by a lack of opportunities for unsigned bands in Italy, they played restaurants, parties and even on the streets of Rome. Now they’ve all but sold-out London’s O2…

For years, Monster Truck practically lived in arenas. The support band of choice for heavyweights including Deep Purple, Nickelback, ZZ Top and Alice In Chains. Their hearty yet soulful take on classic heaviness resonated powerfully – at a time when bands of their ilk hadn’t proliferated in the way they have since. It was a long way from the DIY world that bred them. “Whatever we’re doing struck a real chord with a lot of different older musicians that are successful,” says guitarist Jeremy Widerman. “They all picked us. They listened to it, and they were like, ‘fuck yeah’.” You suspect it also had something to do with Monster Truck as people. Down-to-earth Canadians with chops full of AC/DC, Deep Purple and Grand Funk Railroad, they exude the working-class ethic…

Back in March there was disbelief among fans when it was announced that the Quireboys had sacked their frontman Spike and were continuing as a five-piece. How was that even possible, fans wondered. In some ways Spike was the Quireboys. He had co-founded the group in the mid-80s, and his sandpaper howl was an ever-present focal point of their gritty sound. But now, guitarist Guy Griffin had become also their lead vocalist. The group explained that the decision to drop Spike was “the culmination of not just months, but years of persistent problems” with the singer. A response from Spike – who described himself as “the Quireboys founder, only original member and singer” – insisted that the name of the band belonged to him. That was disputed by the Griffin-fronted…

Trouble Is… 25 PROVOGUE Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s second album Trouble Is, released in 1998, set up his career as a blues guitarist. His first, Ledbetter Heights, three years earlier, had laid out the territory – Texas blues, Louisiana blues, acoustic blues, electric blues – with a high-voltage performance and sold half a million copies. Not bad going for a style that was generally considered to be worn out by the mid-90s. Trouble Is took the energy of Ledbetter Heights and ran with it, learning as it did so, earning a Grammy nomination and going platinum. Shepherd’s guitar sound was cleaner. His solos, while still in thrall to the likes of Stevie Ray Vaughan, Hendrix, Clapton, the three Kings (Albert, BB and Freddie), and Duane Allman, were more nuanced. The songs…

Janie Hendrix and John McDermott CHROMA While there are countless books that tell Jimi Hendrix’s story in far more forensic detail than this weighty, sumptuously illustrated 300-page celebration of the iconic guitarist’s life and work, none offer quite the same one-stop, broad-focused, cinematic experience as Jimi. A significant expansion of Experience Hendrix catalogue director John McDermott’s previously published An Illustrated Experience (retooled and retold from today’s perspective, with a short introduction from Experience Hendrix’s Janie Hendrix, Jimi’s stepsister) to mark the occasion of its subject’s 80th birthday, Jimi is a thing of beauty. Perfectly pitched to hard-core fans and newbies alike, its brisk mix of historical concision and eye-witness accounts, including testimony from Hendrix himself (sourced from personal correspondence and pertinent interviews with contemporary media), cannily captures the meteoric forward…

The Midlands-born, US-based singer, guitarist and songwriter previews a tour for her latest, eighth studio album, the Joe Bonamassa-produced Nobody’s Fool. The covid-affected Allman Family Revival tour in the States began your escape from lockdown. Yeah. It was a multiple-artist package. I was only on stage for two numbers and then everyone came back out for a big jam as the finale, so it was a nice way to ease back into touring. All I did was show up with my guitar. Until then we had tried to book tour after tour hoping the virus would go away, but of course it just didn’t. When you returned to live performances, what was the first gig back in front of a live audience? I went back out in February of this…

ROGER WATERS Peel Centenary Hall Feb 25 Leicester The Musician Feb 28 Bath Chapel Arts Centre Mar 1 Cardiff Acapela Studio Mar 2 Ilfracombe Landmark Theatre Mar 3 Mylor Tremayne Hall Mar 4 Torrington Plough Arts Centre Mar 5 ALFORD ROCK & BLUES FESTIVAL FOCUS, BAND OF FRIENDS, JACKIE LYNTON, MORE Alford Springbok Estate Jun 30-Jul 2 ARCTANGENT FESTIVAL CAVE IN, SCALPING, CONJURER, IGORRR, MORE Somerset Fernhill Farm Aug 16-19 BLOODSTOCK FESTIVAL MEGADETH, ANTHRAX, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, MORE Derbyshire Catton Park Aug 10-13 CALL OF THE WILD THOSE DAMN CROWES, SHIRAZ LANE, TROY REDFERN, MORE Lincolnshire Showground May 26-28 CHELSEA BLUES, RHYTHM & ROCK FESTIVAL TEN YEARS AFTER, CATFISH, BRAVE RIVAL, MORE London Shepherd’s Bush Bush Hall May 21 CORNWALL ROCKS FM, MORE Looe Tencreek Holiday Park Oct 6-8 DESERTFEST UNCLE…

WHEN IT COMES to Blue October’s singer Justin Furstenfeld, it’s difficult to square the man with the music. Spinning The Truth Around Part 1, the eleventh album from the Texan band who formed in 1995, is resolutely straight-faced, its yearning electro-rock coming on like Springsteen discovering a modular synth. Yet by Furstenfeld’s own admission, while he takes the music seriously, he reserves the right to be extremely silly in interviews. What are your favourite memories from recording the latest album? It was hilarious, because the songs are so serious that we would make jokes out of them. So every single song has some X-rated version too. When it comes to the material, we’re professional. But when it comes to attitude, we have mouths like a sailor. “It didn’t matter if…

Given that he wrote Saxon’s latest album in a hospital bed following his heart attack of 2019, Biff Byford would surely agree with Keith Richards’s old chestnut that ‘it’s good to be anywhere’. But to find Carpe Diem sitting pretty at No.22 in Classic Rock’s best albums of 2022, the 71-year-old singer considers, is further evidence of a band flourishing in their fifth decade. Carpe Diem is Saxon’s twenty-fourth album. It seems that you, and as a band, hold yourselves to high standards? Yeah, we do. I don’t want to put anything out that means people can say: “Oh, they’ve lost it.” I like to keep everybody on their toes. I’m pushing all the time. I read a few reviews and they were all brilliant, actually. For an older band…

W henPorcupine Tree withdrew back in 2010, the mood was low. Today, as they tour Closure/Continuation – one of 2022’s most successful comebacks (No.2 in the UK album chart) – it couldn’t be more different. “It’s been a lot of fun,” Steven Wilson says sitting in his hotel in Paris, reflecting on a year in which he has also published a book and completed his next solo album. “It’s such a different feeling to the way it ended. We get on really well. There isn’t that same pressure, because we have no commitment to doing anything beyond this. There’s a lightness that comes with just doing something for fun. Every show feels special.” Question marks still hover over Porcupine Tree’s future – although they have just confirmed a show for…

Following Skid Row’s lighter-waving version of their power ballad I Remember You, their new frontman Erik Grönwall soaks up the adulation, lets the applause fade, and then gestures to the balcony of London’s Forum. Grönwall – who first found fame singing Skid Row’s 18 And Life on Swedish Idol – informs the packed audience how three years ago, after performing there with his previous band, H.e.a.t, he was sitting up in the gallery of this venue watching headliners Skid Row and fantasising over some day joining the New Jersey hard rockers. “I just want to say, dreams do come true, man!” he announces with a massive grin. What an unlikely journey it’s been. The day after that Forum show, during Classic Rock’s meeting with Erik and his new bandmates, Grönwall…

RUSH Moving Pictures 40th Anniversary UME What we said: “Fourth record 2112 will always be the cult favourite, but Moving Pictures is Rush’s masterwork – and their biggest seller. The £270 Super Deluxe Edition includes three CDs, one Blu-ray audio disc and five 180g black vinyl LPs – featuring the 2015 Abbey Road remasters (the first time on CD) – plus a 44-page book. The irresistible bonus is Live In YYZ 1981 (included in more affordable ‘basic’ editions). This reissue is a real treasure.” VENOM In Nomine Satanas BMG What we said: “In Nomine Satanas, now available in six-CD/ single-DVD format, includes Venom’s original recordings for legendary Geordie NWOBHM label Neat Records, ranging from Welcome To Hell, via seminal second album Black Metal (1982), to live album Eine…

In typical Kiss fashion, rumours of their imminent demise may have been a tad exaggerated. With plans afoot for a 50 Years Of Kiss world tour in 2023, Gene Simmons clearly has his eye on the future. As the band wind down, Simmons, a self-described serial entrepreneur, has already proactively launched shopgenesimmons.com, a venture centred on merchandise sporting logo permutations of his money-bag trademark; genesimmonsauctions.com; and Gene Simmons’ Kiss World in Las Vegas, showing The Demon’s vast personal collection of memorabilia and oneof a-kind personal items. At the show I saw on Kiss’s ‘End Of The Road’ tour, I don’t think I’ve ever seen Paul Stanley smile so much. Is there a sense within the band that now the end is coming let’s enjoy every moment on that stage? Yeah.…

Well in hindsight, of course they weren’t going to let him go quietly. Such was the shock of Taylor Hawkins’s tragic death at the end of March that everyone’s immediate reaction was on the same disbelieving page: hushed reverence at the passing of one of rock’s much-loved characters, stunned words of admiration for someone no one could get used to talking about in the past tense. But Foo Fighters knew that’s not how they could leave it and, after a period of mourning, they rallied to stage two of the most glorious send-offs ever witnessed in music. First at Wembley Stadium in early September, then at LA’s Kia Forum a few weeks later, Dave Grohl and co. were joined by star guests to give their dynamo drummer the farewell he…

Which Neil Young will grace us today? The 2022 version recasts him as The Fast Show’s Dave Angel: Eco Warrior. Focusing on climate change, war and a broken relationship with his once beloved cars, World Record is Young reminding us that the planet is in trouble. It’s less trite than that sounds, although he’ll probably regret hollering ‘no more war; only love’ on Walkin’ On The Road (To The Future). Never unafraid to unleash chaos, Young has been muddying his own waters of late with Noise & Flowers, Toast and Homegrown – previously unreleased albums from the past – but in simple terms World Record is the successor to last year’s Crazy Horse collaboration Barn. A certain striving for ‘authenticity’ remains. As a result, Young, Nils Lofgren, Billy Talbot and…

EISSUES Reissues MATADOR Josh Homme’s real genius doesn’t lie in the down-tuned riffing that’s been fashioned through closely guarded technical secrets, nor is it what he leaves out of his playing or his increasingly controlled falsetto, although these are contributing factors. His brilliance is embedded in those gloriously relentless and metronomic rhythms delivered by a variety of drummers over the years. This is music to dance to. This is rock’n’roll for the 21st century (yes, we know the debut was released in 1998, but let’s call that forward planning). This is why Queens Of The Stone Age draw mixed audiences like so few other bands can. Emerging from the break-up of Kyuss, QOTSA’s self-titled debut (8/10) was made by just Homme and drummer Alfredo Hernández. And while there was no…

THE BLACK KEYS Dropout Boogie ‘Exhilarating. Rock‘n’roll in 2022 doesn’t get any better than this.’ – Classic Rock, 9/10 HURRAY FOR THE RIFF RAFF Life on Earth ‘A major step forward for one of today’s most vital artists. The first great album of 2022.’ – Uncut, Albums of the Year TAJ MAHAL & RY COODER Get on Board ‘There’s a straight-forward brilliance to this set.’ – Classic Rock, 8/10 BRAD MEHLDAU Jacob’s Ladder ‘A kaleidoscopic affair, where baroque prog-rock edifices are juxtaposed with clouds of ethereal choirs, dreamy piano interludes, and squalls of free jazz-style clarinet. Mehldau takes the listener on a memorable musical journey.’ – Mojo MOLLY TUTTLE & GOLDEN HIGHWAY Crooked Tree ‘The new album from one of the world’s premier flatpickers is a richly rewarding listen. A…

“Being back on tour after two years away, the crowds are the wildest I’ve ever them.” As the hard-rocking Aussie quartet return to playing live, frontman/guitarist Joel O’Keefe says: “Let’s get into a room, crank it up and let everything go.” Which sounds good to us. Last night Airbourne played in Newcastle, Australia. It was the band’s first gig on home soil in how long? Shit, it must be about eight years or something – a long fucking time. You’re supporting Steel Panther, which seems a bit odd. Our bands have played a lot of festivals, and we get along well. Yesterday we even went fishing with Stix [Zadinia, drummer]. Steel Panther are the big ticket out here in our own country, but we were so desperate to play again.…