Classic Rock August 2020

WELCOME No, I can’t say that when I wrote my editorial four issues ago, in which I said we’d put together the finishing touches of the magazine from the ‘comfort’ of home, I imagined for one moment that we’d still be doing the same this far into the summer. As I write this, lockdown is taking its first tentative steps into easing. Although how that pans out is anybody’s guess! But let’s keep our fingers crossed for a positive outcome. Something else we can be positive about, though, is the wealth of new music that is coming our way. This month sees the triumphant return of Deep Purple – something made all the more sweet considering that when they released their last album, in 2017, it looked like that might…

This month’s contributors ROB HUGHES Rob’s been writing for CR for well over a decade now. This month he gets to grips with reformed hellraiser Mark Lanegan (p40) and rising roots collective the Texas Gentlemen (p26). Despite the lockdown, Rob can still be heard on weeknights as guest of BBC 6Music’s Marc Riley, with whom he also presents The A-Z Of David Bowie podcast. MARIO GIAMMETTI Naples-based Mario has been a music critic since 1988, and his articles have been published in numerous Italian national newspapers and magazines. He has also written more than a dozen books revolving around Genesis. Genesis: 1967 to 1975 – The Peter Gabriel Years is his first book published in English. For an extract documenting the making of Selling England By The Pound, turn to…

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK The Dirt Live Music And The Road Ahead Are drive-in gigs and pay-per-view concerts the post-pandemic future? This month The Dirt was compiled by Stephen Dalton, Lee Dorrian, Polly Glass, Dave Ling, Philip Wilding FOR MORE NEWS: WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM cat no:#278 COPYRIGHT FUTURE 2020 COVID-19 STILL HAD the music world in its infectious tight grip as this issue went to press. With Britain’s government declaring that pubs in England can reopen on July 4, but live entertainment remaining off limits, musicians, many struggling financially, continue to look for ways of presenting their art and also ways to generate an income. An American company called Cadenza TV has begun streaming pay-per-view multi-camera live electric concerts. The White Buffalo (aka Jake Smith) recently presented a pair of shows via…

The Dirt RIP Thank you and good night. Rupert Hine September 21, 1947 – June 4, 2020 Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have led the tributes to the producer of the Rush albums Presto and Roll The Bones, saying the Englishman was “an upbeat, unflappable and all-around lovely ‘chap’ to work with and to be around”. The 72-year-old was also a member of the band Quantum Jump. His other studio credits include Stevie Nicks, Camel, Kevin Ayers and Saga. Cause of death is yet to be annouced. Keith Tippett August 25, 1947 – June 14, 2020 Jazz pianist Keith Tippett is best known in rock circles for having played on King Crimson’s albums In The Wake Of Poseidon, Lizard and Islands, and leading the jazz-rock ensemble Centipede which he formed…

Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman June 9, 1954 – June 9, 2020 GEORGE BODNAR ARCHIVE/ICONICPIX FORMER UFO AND Lone Star guitarist Paul ‘Tonka’ Chapman has died at the age of 66. No cause of death has yet been made public. Nobody from UFO remembers for sure who was responsible for coining Chapman’s nickname ‘Tonka’, although the band’s vocalist Phil Mogg suspects that bassist Pete Way is to blame. Regardless of who it was, it was an inspired choice. During the 1970s, Tonka toys were advertised as being indestructible. When Chapman became part of the UFO madhouse for a second time, in 1978, this was a necessary quality. “Paul fitted in perfectly,” Mogg tells Classic Rock now. “He was in charge of procurement. Those days were extremely colourful, and we made some really…

Steve Priest February 23, 1948 – June 4, 2020 GETTY THE SWEET’S LAST surviving co-founding member has died of an as-yet unrevealed cause. Steve Priest – once warned by David Bowie: “You know you really are putting much too much make-up on?” – was the band’s king of pantomime high camp. The Middlesex-born bassist, who once appeared on Top Of The Pops wearing a sequinned jumpsuit featuring the words ‘fuck you’ on its reverse, was always on the lookout for an opportunity to offend. When the show’s producer tried to make Priest remove said garment, he flatly refused. On the Christmas 1973 edition of TOTP Priest dressed as “a gay Nazi”, daubed in layers of make-up and sporting an SS tunic, complete with swastika armband and a Hitler moustache. Every…