Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Classic Rock

WELCOME A few days ago I was flicking through an issue of Classic Rock from April of last year. It was the first issue we had started completely from scratch and sent to press from our homes, all while the world was tail-spinning into total covid-19 lockdown. Bands playing live, from pub gigs to arena shows, were on hold, and at the time I’m sure we were thinking that it would all blow over soon enough and by late summer we’d back screaming our lungs out at festivals and club and pub gigs. I even said so, pontificating that “we’ll get through this stronger, and this too shall pass”. Well, we all know how that turned out! And it will pass, although it’s just taking a little longer than we…

the DIRT RIP Thank you and good night. Alan Lewis Died June 23, 2021 Tributes have been paid to the publishing executive responsible for launching Kerrang! Lewis, then the editor of Sounds, conceived the magazine along with Geoff Barton 40 years ago. During his career he also edited NME and Record Mirror, and helped to launch Loaded and Uncut. The 76-year-old had been battling Parkinson’s disease and cancer. Johnny Solinger August 7, 1965 – June 26, 2021 The former Skid Row singer has died at the age of 55, a month after announcing that he was suffering from liver failure. Texan-born Solinger joined the band when they reunited without Sebastian Bach in 1999, and appeared on the studio albums Thickskin and Revolutions Per Minute. Jon Hassell March 22, 1937 –…

Metallica’s Black Album Gets Reboot And the stars come out for a companion set. METALLICA WILL CELEBRATE the 30th anniversary of their self-titled fifth studio album – commonly known as the Black Album – in the autumn. The band release a newly remastered edition via their Blackened Recordings imprint on September 10, and on the same date release The Metallica Blacklist, a collection of more than 50 artists from all spheres of music covering the record’s 12 songs. That list includes Elton John, Miley Cyrus, Royal Blood, Ghost, Biffy Clyro, Volbeat, Idles, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan, Weezer, Corey Taylor, Cage The Elephant, Imelda May, The Hu and Darius Rucker of Hootie & The Blowfish. No less than six acts elected to cover the band’s biggest hit, Enter Sandman, including Ghost,…

WELCOME BACK Night Ranger The hard rockers on lockdown recording, longevity and appearing in a cocaine-filled house in Boogie Nights. NIGHT RANGER: KEVIN BALDES/PRESS SINCE 1981, CALIFORNIA’S Night Ranger have reliably delivered catchy melodies that have a vice-like grip, with the power ballad Sister Christian reaching the US top five in 1984. Previewing their new album ATBPO – shorthand for And The Band Played On – bassist/vocalist Jack Blades (also a member of Damn Yankees with Ted Nugent and Styx’s Tommy Shaw) bemoans the difficulties of recording during lockdown. The new’s title, And The Band Played On is both defiant and apt. Yeah. Besides all the problems going on with the world we had other issues; Brad [Gillis, guitarist] tore the rotator cuff of his shoulder, but stopping wasn’t an…

WELCOME BACK The Wallflowers Jakob Dylan on “noisy guitars”, transitioning from Trump, and why songwriting brings out his Mr Hyde. JAKOB DYLAN: YASMIN THAN/PRESS THE SURNAME PRECEDES him, of course, but over his three-decade career Jakob Dylan has slipped the shadow of his celebrated father and forged a towering reputation as a songwriter on his own terms. The 51-year-old has worked in different contexts, but he tells us that with Exit Wounds, The Wallflowers’ seventh album, this band is still his best vehicle for rowdy and rootsy rock’n’roll. Exit Wounds is the first Wallflowers album for a decade. Why was it time? I honestly didn’t realise how much time had gone by. When you’re younger you feel the need to make records as often as you possibly can, but down…

Q&A Imelda May The singer-songwriter on spirituality, the number 11:11, her new album, activism and sticking it to music industry ageism. Words: Jo Kendall On her sixth studio album, 11 Past The Hour (released in April this year), Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May has found a new path that’s very different from her jazz-club roots and her first flurry of success as a rockabilly performer. Creating music that’s “built to last”, despite record company execs trying to write her off because – heaven forfend! – she’s over 40, May has just enjoyed her fourth No.1 album in Ireland. 11 Past The Hour is an eclectic and spirited mix of rock, pop and country soul, put together with a guest list that includes Miles Kane, Noel Gallagher and Charlotte Hatherley, plus recent…

JUDAS PRIEST GLENN TIPTON It hasn’t all been a joyride, but the guitarist wouldn’t want to have done anything other than “travelling the world, doing what I love most – playing guitar”. ROSS HALFIN You joined Judas Priest in 1974. Had you seen them play before you joined? Yes. I had been to see them on a couple of occasions at small clubs around the Midlands. Can you still remember playing your first gig with Priest? I’ll never forget it. It was at Birmingham Town Hall. We had a self-made PA system which blew up halfway through the show. We had no sound expect for the back line, but we carried on regardless. The audience thought it was all part of the show and we went down a storm. What…

A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT Over 50 years they’ve cruised through heavenly highs and weathered hellish lows. Now, with their latest album, Styx continue to enjoy their latest creative and popular high. Words: Jerry Ewing GETTY x2 “We showed up yesterday and we haven’t played any of these songs all together in the same room at the same time,” Tommy Shaw tells us. “So yesterday we worked up one in the dressing room. Everybody knew their parts and was ready to play it, and it sounds great. Weird, but it’s so nice to be able to play these songs and listen to each other for the first time in the last two years [the first time they’d played them together since latest album Crash Of The Crown was made].” Understandably,…

THE ROAD TO UTOPIAN He’s collaborated with Crazy Horse, Ringo Starr and even auditioned for Brookside, but now Icicle Works founder and current solo artist Ian McNabb is ready to conclude his latest trilogy. Words: Rob Hughes KEVIN CUMMINS/GETTY Ian McNabb has been revisiting his past of late. Namely the first flush of The Icicle Works, the dashing alt.rock trio he co-founded in Liverpool in 1980. “When I listen back, I’m impressed by how musical and how technical it sounds,” he marvels. “There weren’t too many bands from that era who were as proficient; they couldn’t play Won’t Get Fooled Again from beginning to end, but we could. We’d often play the whole of The Who’s Live At Leeds note-perfect. I always thought we were more prog than new wave.”…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Iggy And The Stooges Born In A Trailer: The Session & Rehearsal Tapes ’72-’73 CHERRY RED The most thorough (four-CD) autopsy so far of the Raw Power-era Stooges speeding their unhinged proto-punk nuts off in increasingly sweaty rooms. A rare treat for all those who can never hear too many savage assaults on I Got A Right. 8/10 Various Wild Sounds From An Overheated Jukebox: Lux & Ivy Dig Those 45s RIGHTEOUS The latest instalment in an incomparable series: 50 further examples (on two discs) of the kind of glorious left-field 50s rock’n’roll’n’R&B’n’hillbilly 45s The Cramps assiduously collected, played prior to live sets and occasionally covered. 7/10 Deep Purple Live At Montreux 2011 MERCURY STUDIO) Back by the Lake…

BACK TO LIVE The Flaming Lips Wayne Coyne on how TFL navigated their way through C-19. “Can you imagine being at Glastonbury with all of the audience in space bubbles?” MAIN: ALEXA ACE; INSET: SCOTT BOOKER Were you able to draw any positives from lockdown? I feel slightly bad talking about it, because for so many people it was horrible. I was scared that the virus might affect my little boy, who had just been born. At first I was glad to be home for a couple of weeks; nobody knew it would be more than a year. It felt amazing. I accomplished a lot of things, like gardening that I’d never do. Back in January The Flaming Lips played two gigs in Oklahoma with band and its audience encased…

This month’s contributors PAUL SEXTON Paul has written for all of what he still calls the broadsheet UK press and countless magazines in decades as a journalist/broadcaster. He’s also made scores of documentaries and hosted shows for BBC Radio 2. This month, he writes about Traffic’s late, great Jim Capaldi (p38). His book Prince: A Portrait Of The Artist In Memories And Memorabilia is published by Welbeck on September 2. JERRY EWING Classic Rock’s launch editor, Jerry now presides over our sister title Prog as editor-in-chief/wizard of all things in a 9/8 time signature. This month we managed to lure him back to the fold (and out of his cape, sort of…) to speak to Styx, as they tap into their deceptively proggy roots on their acclaimed new album. Read…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES Tigercub After the album session from hell, these Brighton alt.rockers have earned their stripes. “In my head we’re Meshuggah-heavy, but you could hear it on Radio 1.” IT’S MARCH 2020. A grave-faced Boris Johnson announces the first national lockdown. Meanwhile, in Brighton’s Electric Studios, the members of Tigercub wonder what they have to do to catch a break. “We’d just got a drum sound when Bo-Jo made his announcement,” recalls frontman Jamie Hall. “It felt like the band was crumbling, right on the brink of collapse. This album was sink or swim.” It’s eight years since Tigercub broke cover as the best band on the English riviera, with the BBC declaring early release Centrefold “the start of something”. So it proved. The three-piece ascended with 2016’s…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES The Moon City Masters These harmonising brothers are putting fun, sunshine and colour back into rock’n’roll. “We like to have funk- and soul-inspired rock music.” MEETING JORDAN AND Talor Steinberg is a little like meeting Bill and Ted. All megawatt smiles, lovable enthusiasm and glossy heads of hair, the 29-year-old twins from NYC exude the same Labrador-esque energy as the 80s film duo. The big difference is that while Bill and Ted’s band (Wyld Stallyns) were notoriously poor, the Moon City Masters are quite the opposite. Not that this was always the case. “Yeah, there’ve been a lot of bad gigs,” says Talor (guitar/vocals), “and we played in a lot of bad bands. You’ve got to write a lot of bad songs before you write some…

SCOTT TRAVIS The former Racer X drummer was already a Priest fan before he joined them in 1989, and he was also in Rob Halford’s side project Fight. GEORGE CHIN/ICONICPIX Were you a big Judas Priest fan growing up? Absolutely. A friend of mine had Unleashed In The East on cassette, and one time we were riding around in my car and he ended up leaving it. So I borrowed it and I loved it. Then, like most fans, I went backwards and started. The first time I saw them was on [1981’s] the Point Of Entry tour. Iron Maiden with Paul Di’Anno were opening up for them. Did you see them and think: “One day that’ll be me up there on the drums?” Ha! Here’s the deal. I grew…

JIM CAPALDI DEAR MR FANTASY With the band Traffic Jim Capaldi made some wonderful and classic music of the 60s and 70s, and his solo records reflected his talents as a songwriter as well as a musician. Words: Paul Sexton He is perhaps most widely known as the drummer with Traffic, the band he co-founded in 1967, and thus for his crucial role in one of experimental rock’s prime exponents. But the switchback muse of the late Jim Capaldi took him to so many addresses and incarnations, that the recent digital release of one of his solo landmarks is the perfect time for an identity check. Earlier this year, Island Records gave a long-awaited online debut to one of the landmarks of Capaldi’s catalogue of a dozen-plus albums in his…

David Bowie Changed My Life Plucked from obscurity at 22 to replace Mick Ronson as Bowie’s sideman guitarist, Earl Slick’s life was never going to be quite the same again. Nor was his lifestyle. Words: Ian Fortnam CHUCK LANZA/PRESS When David Bowie hired Earl Slick as guitarist for 1974’s Diamond Dogs tour, expectations were high. While Bowie’s star was cresting, Slick cut an enigmatic figure and, although virtually unknown outside of the clubs of New York City, was to replace Mick Ronson, the ultimate exemplification of the glam guitarist. Most UK fans became aware of Slick’s existence only after carefully scrutinising the cover of David Live. So who was this Earl Slick, and how did he become ennobled with such a charismatic title? “I was about nineteen years old,” recalls…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Blondie Vivir En La Habana Inexplicably truncated (to a six-track EP) OST to the soon-come film of the iconic CBGBers’ 2019 live Cuban debut. Spiced with local horns, vocalists and percussionists, it’s pop-rock so bright you’d best slap on the factor 30. 7/10 Eden James All The Good Blank Are Taken DANDY RAM In places the most clearly Lou Reed-influenced record since Mink DeVille’s Spanish Stroll, Australian journeyman James’s fourth album oozes urban cool and Springsteen swagger. A concise collision of catchiness and class. 7/10 Greg Antista & The Lonely Streets Under The Neon Heat PRIMAL BEAT Boasting new recruit Adolescents guitarist Frank Agnew, Antista’s Lonely Streets sound as identi-SoCal popcore as you’d expect. There’s obvious maturity here, but its overridden…

REVIEWS The Psychedelic Furs The Best Of DEMON Collected musical highs of an enduring great British band. With reunion tours and recent, excellent, albums, it’s a good time to be a Psychedelic Fur. Perhaps nobody could have predicted, 40 or so years ago, that they would still be around in the 21st century. By no means a characterless band, the Psychedelic Furs nevertheless seemed to lack the stadium greed or occasional blandness that was so useful to near-contemporaries such as U2 and Simple Minds. Certainly their early work managed to retain the punk sneer while adding a strangeness all their own: songs like India and Sister Europe seemed to allude to Bowie and the Velvet Underground while fitting snarkily into a post-punk England of Only Ones-style charity-shop drag and John…

BACK TO LIVE REVIEWS Orange Goblin London, The Dome Ben Ward and co. return – in front of a real, live audience – with yet another new “Make some fucking noise” normal. We’re going to a gig – a real one. With a real, beer-drinking, fist-pumping audience. After multiple postponements, 15-plus months and a ton of Zoom calls, Orange Goblin’s 25th-anniversary fiesta – and bassist Martyn Millard’s swansong with the band – is finally going ahead. It’s exciting. It’s surreal. “I think I felt pretty much every emotion possible,” singer Ben Ward chuckles over the phone post-gig. “We’ve done this for twenty-six years now, and I don’t think I’ve felt quite as nervous as I did for these shows.” The whole business of returning to live music after such a…

Rick Wakeman “Gobsmacked” By CBE Award Modest keyboard maestro thought news of his Queen's honour was “a hoax!” A “GOBSMACKED” RICK Wakeman has been awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours for services to music and broadcasting. “I genuinely thought it had been sent in error and had to read it twice before believing it was for real and not a hoax,” the 72-year-old wrote on his website. “I then had a cup of tea and read the email again!” “My first thought was: ‘Gosh, I wish my mum and dad were here to witness this’,” Wakeman added. “But then I realised that my dad would be 105 and mum would be 103, so the odds were heavily stacked against that.” Skunk Anansie’s Skin was also honoured (under her…

JUDAS PRIEST IAN HILL The bassist has been with Priest from the beginning, through thick and thin. And while he’s enjoyed spending time at home with his family recently, he’s missing being out on the road. ROSS HALFIN You were there at the beginning. Can you remember the very first Judas Priest gig? I remember it well. It was Essington Working Men’s Club, just outside of Walsall There were only about twelve people there. What did you make of Rob Halford the first time you met him? The first thing I heard was his voice. I was going out with his sister, Sue, and he was still living with their mum and dad. He’s always been an easygoing guy, a pragmatist, a bit like myself. What was it like being…

RICHIE FAULKNER Priest’s ‘new boy’, who replaced KK Downing, has been with the band since 2011 and has so far played on 2014’s Redeemer Of Souls and their latest album, 2018’s Firepower. ADAM GASSON How did you get the job as Priest guitarist? In true musician form, it was two p.m. and I was in bed – I’d taken someone to the airport early that morning and I was catching up on sleep – when the phone rang. I picked it up and said: “Who the bloody hell is that?” It was Priest’s management. They said they’d been trying to get hold of me for a while via email. I looked in my deleted folder there were a load of emails from them that I’d deleted. Did you already know…

THE WHO SELL OUT ADVERTISING STANDARDS AUTHORITY A Pop Art album of great music interspersed with radio-style ads and jingles and released in an iconic sleeve, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey spill the beans about The Who Sell Out. Words: Neil Griffith Additional reporting: Ken Sharp Inspiration can take many forms, but nothing stirs the creative juices quite like a looming deadline. Just ask The Who. In mid-September 1967 the band returned from an exhaustive tour of the US, a slog prefaced by an incendiary appearance at the inaugural Monterey Pop Festival, at which their gear-trashing performance left audience members open-mouthed. Rather than being allowed a breather back home, they were swiftly informed that new Who music was expected in the shops by Christmas. “It was a surprise, and there…

STRANGER THAN FICTION Chris Tapp’s life has had plenty of ups, but the downs were way down there. And while he could have happily done without them, they’ve fuelled the incendiary blues of The Cold Stares. Words: Polly Glass ALEX MORGAN/PRESS St. Augustine, Florida is the oldest continuously occupied city in the USA. A sixteenth century-founded beach town with old brick roads, coquina stone walls and Spanish colonial architecture, it’s long been claimed to be haunted. Paranormal enthusiasts visit for its ghost tours. Some say the first ever Thanksgiving took place here, 50-odd years before the pilgrims broke bread with the Wampanoags in Plymouth, Massachusetts, when Spanish colonists feasted on shellfish, alligator, tortoise and wild turkey with members of Florida’s Timucua tribe. It was here that Chris Tapp – singer/guitarist…

SUMMER SALE 6 ISSUES for just £9.99 SEE THE FULL RANGE www.magazinesdirect.com/summer21 Terms & Conditions Offer closes 31/07/2021. Offer open to new UK subscribers only. Savings are based on the UK shop price. After your first 6 issues, standard subscription pricing will apply. Please allow up to six weeks for delivery of your first subscription issue. Payment is non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period unless exceptional circumstances apply. For full terms and conditions, visit www.magazinesdirect.com/terms. For enquiries please email help@magazinesdirect.com or call 0330 333 1113. Lines are open Monday-Friday 9am-5pm UK time. Calls to 0330 numbers will be charged at no more than a national landline call, and may be included in your phone provider’s call bundle.…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling Nitrate Renegade AOR HEAVEN Formed in 2015, three years later Nitrate released their debut album, Real World, followed quickly by Openwide, to generous praise. With former Tigertailz frontman Rob Wylde opting to press on with Midnite City, Alexander Strandell from Art Nation and Crowne steps up to the mic for Renegade, and his power is a huge asset. Throw in the songwriting talent of the Martin twins from Vega – Tom on rhythm guitar and James on keyboards (Vega vocalist Nick Workman also notches a co-credit on the song Renegade) – and the new Nitrate is every bit as explosive as any past ones. Citing Journey, Skid Row, Starship, Roxette and above all Def Leppard among their prime inspirations, the band’s adulation of the…

FREE BOOKAZINE BUNDLE WHEN YOU SUBSCRIBE TO CLASSIC ROCK AC/DC – The Complete Story tells you everything you need to know about one of rock’s greatest ever bands. Jimi Hendrix – his life and times, charting his career from birth to death and beyond. Led Zeppelin – from their first album to the reunion gig, everything you need to know about the greatest rock band of them all. Order online at www.magazinesdirect.com/CRK/BD29 magazinesdirect.com/CRK/BD29 Office Magazine Subscription Store…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros main man Perry Farrell on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Emma Johnston PERRY: WALID AZAMI/PRESS; SLY STONE: GETTY “I have Sly & The Family Stone to thank for girls wanting to come to my house.” With Jane’s Addiction and Porno For Pyros, Perry Farrell lit up the 90s with a dazzling combination of unique, artful alternative rock, a bright, flamboyant stage presence and a sense of danger lurking beneath the surface. Today, aged 62 but looking much younger, the founder of the Lollapalooza festival is fizzing with energy. “We’re writing more tracks than ever,” he says. “Lots of collaborations, and getting back with old band members. It’s been fun. Every month…