Innehållsförteckning för February 2024 från Classic Rock

As Kiss’s official website countdown approached the zero hour, Paul Stanley, Gene Simmons, Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer took to the stage for the final time, fittingly, in the band’s home town, at New York City’s fabled Madison Square Garden. And Classic Rock was there to witness it all happen. Was this really going to be the end? We dispatched intrepid reporter Paul Brannigan to take in the sights and sounds of Kiss’s longrumoured (threatened?) last stand, and he talked to Gene and Paul about finally hanging up their stackheeled boots – at least, it turns out, in the physical realm. What we didn’t anticipate is what occurred at the end of the show, hinting at their next chapter. But that, as they say, will be a story for another…

Tributes have been paid to Geordie Walker, guitarist and founding member of the seminal post-punk band Killing Joke, after he died at his home in Prague, Czech Republic, following a massive stroke. He was 64 years old. Walker’s bandmates voiced sadness and disbelief at the news. “No man was cooler than Geordie, one of the very best and most influential guitarists ever,” wrote bassist Martin ‘Youth’ Glover in a touching, epic statement. “He was like Lee Van Cleef-meets-Terry Thomas via Noel Coward. Very charming, inscrutable and gracious. “He was my teacher, partner and at times a terrifying foe,” Youth continued. “Geordie is now flying high with The Valkyries, on his way to the halls of Valhalla, where his seat at the table of legends is most certainly assured.” Frontman Jaz…

Lawyers for Axl Rose are “confident” of overturning allegations of sexual assault by former Penthouse model Sheila Kennedy. The incident is alleged to have taken place in 1989, after Kennedy met the Guns N’ Roses frontman Rose in aNew York nightclub. Sammy Hagar and David Lee Roth have exchanged barbs again after Diamond Dave believed that his successor had invited him to join Best Of All Worlds, next summer’s tour of North America, a tribute to Edward Van Halen. After DLR replied: “I’m ready to go. Let’s do this”, Hagar responded: “He can come out and sing a song on a show or two, if he can remember the words.” Alex Lifeson made a guest appearance with prog-metallers Tool recently when they played in Toronto. The Rush guitarist was welcomed…

GRANNIE Grannie, SRT/private release, UK, 1971. £4,000. Grannie is one of the rarest, most soughtafter LPs from the golden days of underground British rock. It was manufactured in an edition of just 99 copies, hence the high price. Privately released records were a perfect promotional tool for bands without a recording contract. Production companies such as SRT and Deroy offered artists recording and pressing packages that they would front themselves, then sell their releases independently at gigs, with some being sent to radio etc. Formed in London’s East End during 1969, Grannie initially started out as a covers band, slogging it out in the local pubs. By 1971 they had gathered a decent following, and enough self-written material to record an album. Their sound was very of the time: melodic…

“I want to make big, singalong choruses that stick in your head.” ONE PERSON’S CRISIS is another’s opportunity. Or so it proved for the Bournemouth musician known to his friends as Andy Smooth, when he found his regular gigs in local cover bands drying up as the pandemic shut down the live entertainment scene in the spring of 2020. While many bands and others in the music industry were forced to press the pause button on their career, Smooth (aka Andy Leslie-Smith) realised the time was right for him to fulfil a long-held ambition to make a self-written record. “I was bored,” he says. “So I wrote an album, and kind of made it on my own.” The result was the debut album by Skinny Knowledge, Don’t Turn Out The…

“Nice shirt!” Andy Taylor greets Classic Rock with a cheery grin and a nod at this writer’s AC/DC t-shirt. He’s not just an avid AC/DC fan, he’s been friends with Brian Johnson for more than 40 years. Taylor might have aCV that reads like a Hollywood A-lister, but as a young kid from the windswept North Eastern coastal town of Cullercoats, playing the Working Men’s Clubs of Newcastle, their paths crossed frequently. Not only was Taylor in the room when Johnson broke the news to Geordie, the band he fronted, that he was leaving to join AC/DC, but it seems Johnson was also indirectly responsible for Taylor joining Duran Duran. “He and I left Newcastle around the same time,” Taylor recalls. “Within weeks. And one of the last gigs he…

Yes The Yes Album (Super Deluxe) RHINO Prog cornerstone’s breakthrough album, now effectively re-repackaged. In 2014, a ‘Definitive’ edition of Yes’s third and breakthrough record The Yes Album was released. It was jampacked with as many bells as there were whistles: the original album, freshly remastered; some unreleased material; recordings from two live shows; and the obligatory Steven Wilson 5.1 Surround Sound mix. Cut to the next scene: it’s 2023, and now we have a Super Deluxe version of the album. It’s been remastered. There’s some unreleased material. There are recordings from two live shows. There’s a Dolby Atmos remix from Steven Wilson. Quite where all this repackaging and repurposing is headed is anyone’s guess, but we’re surely beyond the point of diminishing returns –and there are a couple of…

The Long Ryders Native Sons CHERRY RED File under: The One True Crucible of Americana (Pt. 809). LA’s muchcritically lauded garage/country/Paisley Underground pioneers’ Gene Clark-favoured debut now expanded to three CDs with alts, demos and a shit-kicking Dingwalls live set. So much to answer for. 7/10 Lene Lovich Toy Box: The Stiff Years 1978-1983 CHERRY RED That there are six versions of Lucky Number here says much about the career of wackily pigtailed Detroit-born, Hull-raised ‘First Lady of Stiff’ Lili-Marlene Premilovich. Three punk-era albums, and a single gimmick stretched beyond their limits. Ah!-Oh! Ah!-Oh! No. 5/10 Various Les Cousins: The Soundtrack Of Soho’s Legendary Folk &Blues Club STRAWBERRY Inspired by the Greek Street cellar club/venue extant from ’64 to ’72, this well-annotated, hey-nonny-nonsense-free, three-CD box keeps on giving. From club…

“It’s fantastic to see the whites of people’s eyes again. With Maiden we build catwalks out in the audience but we’re still so far away.” As Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris’s ‘other’ band British Lion prepare for a lengthy UK tour throughout January, with support from Iron Maiden’s short-lived keyboard player Tony Moore and his praised ‘one-man show’, Classic Rock talked to Harris and his former bandmate. Are the two of you in regular contact? Steve Harris: Yeah. We drifted apart for a while, but Tony and I have been friends again for a few years now. It’s been nice. Tony Moore: Steve hasn’t changed at all during that time. Harris [Chuckling] Except I’ve got three chins now. Moore: But seriously, ours is a rare friendship. Steve, presumably you have…

Dripping with rock’n’roll attitude, smouldering in haphazardly contrived hand-me-down satin ’n’ tat, London-based quintet Hot Stamp – built around the central hub of sisters Poppy (guitar) and Jasmin (vocals) – have clearly studied their chosen specialist subject forensically. Their seamless zero-fucks-given blend of New York Dolls, MC5, Raw Power Stooges, hellzapoppin’ Hypnotics and Bowery Blondie is simply irresitible. The first song the siblings ever wrote together’s called Starfucker because, well… of course it is, and as Poppy casually nails Wayne Kramer’s searing signature Looking At You solo she can’t even be arsed to look pleased. Textbook ’tude. Rockstar 101. Hot Stamp? Love you so. And so to His Lordship. Is there a more exciting experience available to afficionadoes of the heroically struck guitar than witnessing a suited ’n’ booted James…

Skam have been ‘up-and-coming’ for over a decade. They’ve churned out a neat arsenal of bangers, written an admirably reckless concept album, and generally shot for the Moon in a manner rivalled by few of their NWOCR peers. What they lack in stats and sales, they make up for in songs and affably down-to-earth showmanship – two things that, on the strength of tonight, they’re not short on. It’s their first London gig post-covid, and they’re making it count. Singer/guitarist Steve Hill rolls between chops, tunes and banter like a crossbreed of Steve Harris, Dave Grohl and a popular pub landlord. Bassist Matt Gilmore lurches across the stage in spidery strides, face-pulling like Gene Simmons having an ‘experimental’ night, while Neil ‘The Hammer’ Hill is way flashier behind the drums…

One of the best and most-loved comedians in the UK, Bill Bailey has pedigree when it comes to music. His live shows are centred on hilarious musical skits, whether he’s turning the BBC News theme tune into a rave banger or playing classical music on car horns. As you’ll see below, his music listening is just as wideranging as his stand-up routines; a Talking Heads diehard who is also a Nordic metal fanatic, the punk who wells up when he hears the Cocteau Twins. For Bailey, music is a way of tapping back into your past. “Music plugs you into a whole bunch of emotions that you’re suddenly experiencing again,” he says. THE FIRST MUSIC IREMEMBER HEARING I suppose it was the radio, because my mum used to like having…

Shane MacGowan of iconic punk group The Pogues has died at the age of 65. The singer had been admitted to hospital in December 2022 with viral encephalitis, where he remained, battling the condition, for much of 2023. He was discharged from hospital on November 22. Born in Pembury, Kent on Christmas Day 1957, he is best known for his beloved and omnipresent 1987 Christmas single The Fairytale Of New York, recorded with Kirsty MacColl, which allegedly was the result of a bet with Elvis Costello, who had believed that MacGowan would never be able to write a Christmas hit. Costello roundly lost; Fairytale is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century in the UK, where it has now racked up combined sales of more than 2.4 million. But…

Nine years after the death of Lemmy, plans are afoot for a statue of Motörhead’s leader to be erected in his birthplace of Stoke-on-Trent suburb Burslem. The BBC reports that should the memorial be approved by Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Lemmy will ‘return’ to a location in Burslem’s Market Place. Phil Campbell, Motörhead’s guitarist from 1984 until the band’s final dissolution, has called the honour “well deserved”, adding: “People would love it.” Local sculptor Andy Edwards will depict Lemmy as he looked during the seminal early days of Motörhead, playing bass in front of a microphone. The bronze statue would stand on an eightfoot (2.5m) plinth, accompanied by the Motörhead mascot, Snaggletooth, with the inscriptions ‘Lemmy’ and ‘Born to lose, live to win’. Ian ‘Lemmy’ Kilmister was born in Burslem on…

Ozzy Osbourne took a swipe at his former Black Sabbath bandmate Geezer Butler, calling the bassist a “fucking arsehole” for not checking in on him throughout his numerous health issues. Butler insists that he did try to contact Ozzy by email. “Having made two attempts to wish Ozzy well without a reply, I figured it best to privately keep him in my thoughts,” he says. London mayor Sadiq Khan has blocked plans for a new music venue, The Sphere, saying East London is not a suitable place to replicate the entertainment complex, intended as a sister to the one opened recently in Las Vegas. Skid Row and Status Quo are the two latest bands to make a move into the booze world. Skid Row Spirits features Skid Row 18 And…

COVER UPS There have been dozens of covers of LightMyFire, starting with Jose Feliciano’s MOR classic that also went to No.1 in the US in 1968. More recent was PopIdolwinner Will Young’s vanillanice version, which gave Doors fans the ick but hit No.1 in the UK in 2002. In between, who could possibly forget disco-diva Ami Stewart’s great-todance-to-whenshitfaced version from 1979? If that sounds weird, wait until you hear Stevie Wonder’s sleek 1969 superfly version. Or, crazier still, Shirley Bassey’s bad-ass funk-fest iced with 007-orchestration version from 1999. Those are just a few. Then there was Eddie Vedder solemnly intoning with The Doors at the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 1993. Similarly earnest, Creed’s Scott Stapp in 2000, for ‘The Doors’ episode of VH-1’s Storytellers, and Cult singer…

With 100,000 fans packed into the grand Estádio Cícero Pompeu de Toledo in Sao Paulo, Brazil on the evening of January 16, 1993, the biggest show of Nirvana’s career should have been a cause for celebration, an affirmation of the band’s status as the pre-eminent act at the vanguard of a new rock revolution. In reality, depending upon your perspective, the Seattle trio’s performance at the Hollywood Rock festival was either one of the greatest punk rock shows ever, or a pitiful display of petulance from a band whose view of their audience often skirted perilously close to contempt. On stage, bassist Krist Novoselic and drummer Dave Grohl knew that something was amiss from the moment Kurt Cobain stumbled through the opening riff of School, the set’s opening number, at…

Welcome, rock fans, to our first Hot List of 2024! And it’s a good ’un, which pleases us greatly. With much of the population still extracting themselves from the booze/food/sleep/festive-TV-induced fog of the holidays, this time of year has a tendency to be on the quiet side when it comes to new releases. So this year we’ve been pleasantly surprised to find rock’n’roll’s waters to be full of fresh, juicy catches, literally all the way from Britain to New Zealand. Who knows what the coming 12 months will bring? Who knows what bands and artists we’ll all be raving about by next Christmas? Maybe the algorithm overlords will have rewritten the rules of releasable music, and the guitar will have been phased out altogether? (It won’t.) Either way, we’re off…

Magnum Here Comes The Rain SPV/STEAMHAMMER Pomp rock’s old stagers refuse to slow down. The core Magnum duo of songwriter/guitarist Tony Clarkin and singer Bob Catley have a combined age of 153. Each is well beyond the point where the rest of the population have settled for slippers and Sanatogen, but the pair have actually ramped up the activity over the years, releasing 12 albums of reliably melodic rock since the turn of the century, troubling neither Father Time nor the compilers of the pop charts. Indeed, since the Goodnight L.A. album sneaked into the UK Top 10 more than three decades ago they haven’t been back, or anywhere close. And yet here we are on album number 23. Here Comes The Rain is not an album that’s full of…

War Child II CHRYSALIS War and piecemeal. PRESS Ian Anderson had an album’s worth of material left over from Tull’s 1974 album War Child, and it was splattered across various compilations It’s hard to overstate just how big Jethro Tull were in America in ’74. Having just come off the back of two No.1 albums – Thick As ABrick and APassion Play – and a stage show that milked their English eccentricity for all it was worth put them alongside The Who, ELP, Yes and The Moody Blues, behind the twin behemoths of the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. So nobody batted an eyelid when Anderson announced that their next album would accompany a film. Aproducer and director were already in place and the album was shaping up as a…

Director: Simon Emmett Career-spanning documentary, with unavoidable Spinal Tap overtones. Marking 20 years since The Darkness enjoyed their brief but explosive commercial peak as million-selling, chart-topping, glamrocking panto-metal sensations, Simon Emmett’s career-spanning documentary plots a familiar soap-opera arc of riffs and rifts, break-ups and breakdowns, huge hits and fragile egos, arena-filling stardom and pitifully small reunion tours. Along the way there’s a two-year estrangement between singer Justin Hawkins and his guitarist brother Dan, a spell in rehab, a scary brush with testicular cancer, and a gloriously naff parade of eye-watering outfits. Crucially, The Darkness had songwriting skills, charisma and wit that elevated them far above most short-lived novelty pop acts. Justin remains a gold-plated English eccentric in the classic mode, half Jarvis Cocker and half Kenneth Williams, a natural livewire…

“We come on all kicking and screaming and for three songs we’ll punch you in the face… and then we let go. It’s totally rock-friendly.” She’s a little bit country, a little bit rock’n’roll. She’s Grammy-nominated Ashley McBryde from Waldron, Arkansas, and she’s on the crest of a wave. You cut your teeth playing country music in biker bars. That sounds kinda dangerous. There were probably some times when it was, but I don’t think I picked up anything heavy equipmentwise in the entire time I played those places. There are some bad examples, of course, but for the most part bikers are the first to offer assistance when it’s needed. The rock’n’roll is certainly turned up on your third album, The Devil I Know. Since Shania Twain crossed over,…

Now resembling maths teachers politely celebrating the end of the working week with a pint or two, Teenage Fanclub are a band that have grown up with their followers. Returning every few years or so, their subsequent albums are akin to hooking up with an old friend as they sum up life’s current chapter. Crucially, they still deliver with that beautiful combination of sweet melodies and soaring harmonies, chiming guitars and lyrical insights. If it ain’t broke… What could do with fixing is the appalling sound the band have to battle against tonight. When they launch into Tired Of Being Alone, the mush pumping through the PA is devoid of any dynamics, and the guitar interplay between Norman Blake and Raymond McGinley is totally lost. Not even the familiarity of…

Twelve months after The Prodigy made a live return following the tragic death of Keith Flint in 2019, the group are following a packed summer of festival appearances with their first arena tour without their talismanic frontman. Air-raid sirens signal the group’s arrival, they hit the ground running with Breathe and Omen, and some 10,000 fans roar the chorus with aplomb. Remaining vocalist Maxim sits somewhere between an MC and hype man, punctuating each song with commands and excitable outbursts, while a stunning visual display combines kaleidoscopic flashing lights and enough lasers for a Star Wars sequel. Songs are retooled for the performance: Voodoo People mixes excruciating build-ups with liberating breakouts, while the guitars of Their Law add a heft not unlike Slayer’s in Public Enemy’s She Watch Channel Zero.…

Charlie Dominici June 16, 1951 – November 2023 Charlie Dominici joined Dream Theater in 1987, sang on their debut album When Dream And Day Unite and was a member of the prog-metallers for two years. “Charlie was not only a great singer but an incredibly talented songwriter, a well-rounded musician on both guitar and keyboards,” said a statement. Dominici was 72. Scott ‘Top Ten’ Kempner February 6, 1954 – November 29, 2023 Bronx-born guitarist and songwriter Scott Kempner was a co-founder of both The Dictators and the Del-Lords. The former’s debut album, Go Girl Crazy, released in 1974, is often cited as important in the transition from hard rock to punk. Aged 69 when he died, he had been living in a nursing home after developing early-onset dementia. Pete Solley…

“I can’t keep up with Greta Van Fleet’s drinking. Those boys know how to party.” Greta Van Fleet’s alcohol intake on their Starcatcher world tour, support act Hannah Wicklund was delighted when the bus pulled up in the city that caters to her own flavour of hedonism. “I can’t keep up with Greta’s drinking. Those boys know how to party,” admits the singer-songwriter, sitting in her dressing room at Amsterdam’s Ziggo Dome. “But they hold down the drinking fort, and I hold down the ‘smoking a fuckton of pot’ fort.” Don’t bet against Wicklund returning as headliner soon. Not only a mischievous interviewee, the South Carolina native is also a traffic-stopping musician, whose thundering new album The Prize is an early contender for the year-end polls of 2024. Wicklund plays…

Fans alarmed over Saxon’s future, following the decision last year of co-founding guitarist Paul Quinn to step away from touring, can rest easy. With guitarist Brian Tatler of Diamond Head now on board (he was originally expected to just be playing with Saxon live), new album Hell, Fire And Damnation is a continuation of a proud recorded legacy that now spans four and a half decades. Frontman Biff Byford gives us the lowdown on that and more. Hell, Fire And Damnation is a screaming dizbuster of a heavy metal record. Glad you like it. I think of this one as quite a magical album, actually. I should tell you the story of how it came together. Please do. We weren’t planning on releasing it until November 2024, but Judas Priest…

Bruce Dickinson has a didgeridoo. He’s owned the indigenous Australian wind instrument for years, but has yet to master it. “I’ve passed out a few times, trying to do the circular breathing,” he reveals. “I get as far as semi-circular breathing and then it’s all over.” Dickinson hopes to pick up some tips when he visits Australia soon. His psychologist friend Kevin has also brokered a deal for them to attend a ceremony, access to which is usually denied to non-aboriginal people. “I’m looking forward to experiencing more of the culture,” he says, breezily. The eternally curious Dickinson is in a breezy mood. He’s releasing a new solo album, The Mandrake Project (which reunites him with long-time collaborator guitarist/producer Roy Z) on March 1, which will have an accompanying tour…

Jim Peterik: ceaselessly creative. Jim Peterik & World Stage Roots & Shoots Volume One FRONTIERS Having written and performed hit records since 1970 with his bands the Ides Of March and Survivor, written material for other artists, Jim Peterik knows all about building a legacy. Ceaselessly creative, he blends old and new on this, the first of two volumes of Roots & Shoots. In the former category he teams up with REO Speedwagon, .38 Special singer Don Barnes, Night Ranger’s Kelly Keagy and Mark Farner from Grand Funk, and also turns the spotlight on a bunch of newcomers that includes Ashton Brooke Gill, Paul Childers and his own son Colin. Dangerous Combination, a stirring anthem featuring twin vocals from Peterik and Kevin Cronin, is an obvious focal point, but the…

All The Young Dudes MADFISH “Hey you! You with the glasses! I want you!” Hard to believe that it’s 50 years since Mott The Hoople, tired of slogging around the circuit for no reward, decided to split up. Of course, it’s also 50 years since David Bowie stepped in at the last minute and offered the band a new song, All The Young Dudes (after they’d famously turned down Suffragette City), which changed the band’s fortunes for ever. Dudes is one of the great rock anthems, the glam-rock Like ARolling Stone, and the perfect song for Mott, who may have been a bit old for the sentiments (they were more like the brother back at home with his Beatles and his Stones than the glittered-up kids in the song), but…

An autumn night in London, and it’s all kicking off. Apro-Palestine march has been hijacked by right-wing meatheads. The city is on edge. Which is oddly perfect for fiercely liberal Teeside punks Benefits. Frontman Kingsley Hall is a man so earnest in his fury at the state of the nation that he makes Ian MacKaye look like Timmy Mallet, backed by a barrage of industrial noise. Empire State Bastard are an entirely more abstract kettle of fish. There’s more variety in opening gambit Tired, Naw? than many extreme bands manage in a lifetime, veering from thrash bombardment to sick sludge. This is a band having the time of their lives, unshackled from the responsibilities of their main projects. Drumming titan Dave Lombardo is in his element, beaming as he attacks…

The choice of The Virginmarys as support to The Sisters Of Mercy might come as a surprise to anyone who saw them supporting good-time rock’n’rollers Massive Wagons back in March, but their no-frills riffy rock, with its tight grooves and strutting rhythms, earns them a warm reception. Mechanised drum beats add an non-human sensibility that pitches the Sisters somewhere on the evolutionary scale between New Order and Nine Inch Nails, the sleek, rhythmic bounce of Doctor Jeep and Temple Of Love filtering out the optimism of the 80s to find its dark yet vampirically alluring underbelly. Bright, brittle guitar tones cut through brooding low end, while frontman Andrew Eldritch stalks the stage with malevolent presence, silent between songs except for a singular utterance of what sounds like “Thatcher”; iconoclastic if…