Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2021 i Classic Rock

WELCOME COVER PHOTO: ROSS HALFIN All things going to plan, I had intended to use this space to wax lyrical about Metallica’s Black Album, and how this issue we’ve gone all out to celebrate its 30th anniversary this issue – which we have (p26). But, as we know by now, things rarely go to plan. Just a few days before we were due to send the magazine to press, we learned the very sad news about the passing of ZZ Top legend Dusty Hill, and thus things changed. We pay tribute to the great guy from Texas (from p12), and if you’re a subscriber you’ll now be holding a special Dusty commemorative cover in your hands. This month I would also like to ask your help. If you’re one of…

THE STARS PAY TRIBUTE TONY IOMMI “Sorry to hear about Dusty Hill, greatly missed, a crucial part of the unique ZZ Top sound.” ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND “The Allman Brothers Band Family is saddened to learn of the recent passing of fellow musical traveller Dusty Hill, bassist extraordinaire of our friends ZZ Top. Our love and support go out to Billy Gibbons, Frank Beard, the Hill family and all the Top fans in the world, we share your loss.” DAVID COVERDALE “So Very Sad To Hear Dusty Has Passed… Beautiful Soul…” SCORPIONS “Our thoughts and prayers go out to his Compadres and the Family…” FLEA “A true rocker, Dusty Hill, who laid it down deep and real. I will always listen to you, as will anyone who ever wanted to rock…

John Lawton July 11, 1946 – June 29, 2021 JOHN LAWTON: GEORGE BODNAR ARCHIVE/ICONICPIX URIAH HEEP BAND LEADER and guitarist Mick Box has said the passing of their former singer came as “a complete shock”, adding: “This has left me numb.” Halifax-born Lawton joined Heep in 1976 as the replacement for co-founder David Byron. It was a tough gig made even harder by the newcomer’s bluesier voice, although conventional wisdom now recognises the quality of Heep’s three studio albums – Firefly, Innocent Victim and Fallen Angel – made with Lawton at the microphone. After Heep, Lawton returned to German band Lucifer’s Friend. He remained a great friend of Box and company, and filled in for current singer Bernie Shaw in 1995 when he was forced to miss a run of…

Rick Laird February 5, 1941 – July 4, 2021 THE BASSIST AND founding member of jazz-fusion pioneers Mahavishnu Orchestra has died at the age of 80. No cause of death has been announced, although it was reported that he had been in hospice care since January. Born in Dublin, Laird was raised in New Zealand and earned a scholarship to Berklee College Of Music in Boston. He was asked by guitarist John McLaughlin to join the first Mahavishnu Orchestra in 1971, after being the house bassist at Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in London. At first Laird had resisted the change from stand-up bass to electric, but after he did so and worked with McLaughlin in the Brian Auger Trinity, chemistry between the pair was instant. Away from playing music, Laird…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES Cardinal Black They’ve had iTunes hits, but promise that with their debut album “the best is yet to come”. ELEANOR JANE/PRESS “It’s songs that people remember. And you don’t have to be a pastiche of stuff that’s gone by.” “THIS BAND’S BEEN going four months,” says Cardinal Black’s Chris Buck, “or ten years, depending how you look at it.” Indeed, this hot Welsh quartet seemed to appear out of the blue and fully formed back in May with the single Tell Me How It Feels. Featuring the rich, powerful voice of Tom Hollister and a kick-ass, all-the-feels solo from modern-day guitar hero Buck, this cool, soul-soaked slice of mid-tempo rock reached the top of the iTunes rock chart. But, as Buck says, this ‘overnight success’ was…

BLACK GOLD BIFF BYFORD Saxon “The first song I heard was Enter Sandman. We were on tour in America at the time, I think. There was a string of singles, wasn’t there? Even a country-and-Western-type thing [Nothing Else Matters]. I thought that was great. “To me it was the first album that connected thrash metal and grunge in that powerful, dark way. It was a very powerful album, but it wasn’t like Seek And Destroy [from previous album Kill ’Em All]. This was simpler and more direct. It was more grungey. More Sabbath-y than what they’d done before. It was a good link between the 1990s and the 1980s. The sound was brilliant. It was probably Bob Rock’s best production. “I think Metallica influenced us down the line, that particular…

BLACK GOLD JAMES DEAN BRADFIELD Manic Street Preachers “I have really good memories of it. I was listening to Appetite For Destruction alongside It Takes A Nation Of Millions by Public Enemy. I didn’t see the tension between them. But when the Black Album came out, it was that thing where there hadn’t been a riff song out for a while. There’d been Sweet Child O’ Mine – which is one of the ultimate riff songs, but is kind of a ballad – and Welcome To The Jungle, but that just starts with the riff. But when Enter Sandman came out I thought, ‘Fuck me, the riff never stops.’ It’s always present in the song. That really turned me on: ‘Does that mean the riff is back?’ “Sad But True…

BLACK GOLD BEN JOHNSTON Biffy Clyro “I’d heard the thrash iteration of the band, but the Black Album was just a completely different direction – there was more nuance, more melody, a slower pace. And the drums on that album are so loud. If you want to know why people bang their heads to it, it’s because of those drums. “For me, it was better than any metal album I’d ever heard. I don’t know if it even is metal. It’s got loud guitars and drums and it sounds like a metal album, of course, but if you take those away the songs on there are almost pure pop. It’s got an amazing production, which paved the way for a more accessible version of metal. It gave so many bands…

DANKO JONES POWER GAMES Plunged into anxiety hell by covid-19, Danko Jones’ dreams of rock stardom never seemed more impossible. Fortunately, new album Power Trio brings the band roaring back to life, with their sights set on conquering the world one riff at a time. Words: Rich Hobson GETTY Danko Jones is, by his own admission, a rock’n’roll lifer. Hooked on Kiss when he was six years old, and having expanded his musical repertoire ever since, he’s spent the better part of a quarter-century touring the world with the band that bears his name, playing alongside Beck, Guns N’ Roses, Motörhead, Nickelback and others. But like just about every other musician, Jones’s plans for the future were derailed when covid-19 hit in March 2020. With no live work on the…

DAVID CROSBY THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO DAVID CROSBY Drugs can be dangerous. Don’t believe the hype. Global warming is real. America might be doomed. Life is short. Love works. Racists are stupid. These are just some of the things that shape his world view. Interview: Ian Fortnam David Crosby’s name is woven through the very fabric of rock’n’roll and its attendant counterculture. After low-key beginnings on the Chicago and Greenwich Village coffee house scene Crosby was a founder member of The Byrds in 1964. With The Byrds having introduced both Bob Dylan and psychedelia into the mainstream via the global hit singles Mr Tambourine Man and Eight Miles High, Crosby departed from the group to form Crosby, Stills & Nash in ’69. The following year Neil Young joined the trio,…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Jim Bob Who Do We Hate Today CHERRY RED Echoes of Carter USM (kitchen-sink traumas, deft wordplay) proliferate across this latest instalment in a surprisingly prolific solo career from the electro-indie-pop-punk duo’s former front-fringe. Good, but not great. 7/10 The Poppermost Hits To Spare TLAK The finest faux Fabs since the pre-Fab Four, The Poppermost (actually one man: Joe Kane who sings – very Lennon – writes, plays and produces) replicate the classic mop-top-era Mersey sound to perfection. Recommended. 8/10 John McLaughlin Liberation Time PROPER Lockdown contemplation clearly spirited improvisational genius McLaughlin in a more jazz inflected direction than of late, solo piano pieces drag, but with a floating line-up in intuitive complementary support his trademark guitar tones soar.…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other reissues out this month. Super Furry Animals Rings Around The World BMG This fifth album (a Welsh Pet Sounds, now generously expanded to 50 tracks) from one of the UK’s most consistently undervalued bands walks a tightrope between experimentation and accessibility with similar assurance and style to vintage Bowie. 8/10 Heavy Stereo Deja Voodoo: 25th Anniversary DEMON With a sound based in 70s glam but fed through a 90s Creation filter, Britpop also-rans Heavy Stereo’s newly expanded sole album irresistibly recalls Oasis. Hardly essential, but worth a spin. 6/10 Brian Setzer Nitro Burnin’ Funny Daddy SURFDOG Stepping away from the caricature ‘rockabilly rebels don’t got to school’ pink peg-slacked escapism of the Stray Cats, 2003’s NBFD found 44-year old virtuoso guitarist Setzer jumping genres…

REVIEWS BACK TO LIVE Words: Grant Moon Photos: Darren Griffiths Steelhouse Festival Hafod-y-Dafal Farm, Ebbw Vale, Wales Rising stars and longstanding veterans alike lay waste to a mountain full of delighted, gig-hungry rock fans. Even in ordinary times, a field in a farm on a Welsh mountain is an unlikely place for a small, world-class rock festival. In these extraordinary ones, however, there’s a whole book to be written on the stress and logistical hoops organisers Max Rhead and Mikey Evans endured to make the tenth-anniversary Steelhouse Festival finally happen. Negative lateral flow (LFT) tests in hand, 4,000 fans from all over the UK have made the trek up here for the three-day event and the atmosphere is a potent cocktail of joy and relief, with a small shot of…

This month’s contributors ROB HUGHES When he’s not scribbling for Classic Rock, Prog or other music mags, Rob can be heard twice weekly on Marc Riley’s BBC 6Music show, where he digs through vintage copies of NME, Sounds and Melody Maker in ‘The Parallel Universe’. This issue he gets up close and personal with the Manics (p58) and rifles through the record collection of guitar hero Bernie Marsden (p106). DAVID SINCLAIR David Sinclair is a singer, songwriter and bandleader at davidsinclairfour.com. He was a journalist for Kerrang! when he first met Dusty Hill backstage at Victoria Hall, Hanley in 1983, and he was at ZZ Top’s last UK show at Wembley Arena on July 12, 2019. This month we invited him to celebrate the life and times of big, bad,…

RIP Thank you and good night. Al Collins July 24, 1960 – July 6, 2021 Al Collins, bassist with Jason & The Scorchers, has died following a heart attack at the age of 60. Nashville-based Collins, devoted husband of the performer Stacie, joined the US alt. country band in 2008. Scorchers vocalist Jason Ringenberg said his bandmate was “cheerful and ready to help, whether it was four a.m. getting in the van or eight p.m. going on stage.” Vic Briggs February 14, 1945 – June 30, 2021 Twickenham-born Vic Briggs is best remembered as the lead guitarist with Eric Burdon And The Animals between 1966 and ’68. He also played with Rod Stewart, Steampacket and Brian Auger’s Trinity, among many others, before converting to Sikhism and switching to classical Indian…

Jeff LaBar March 18, 1963 – July 14, 2021 JEFF LABAR: GEORGE CHIN/ICONICPIX CINDERELLA FRONTMAN TOM Keifer was understandably consumed with grief over the news of two members of Cinderella passing away within 24 hours of one another: guitarist Jeff LaBar at the age of 58, and keyboard player Gary Corbett (see panel, left) also aged 58. “Just while we were in the process of losing Jeff, we got word that our long-time keyboard player Gary Corbett lost his battle with cancer,” wrote Keifer. A band-issued statement said: “Heavy hearts cannot begin to describe the feeling of losing our brother Jeff. The bond between us over decades of creating music and touring the world is something that we as a band uniquely shared. Those memories with Jeff will be forever…

Mike Howe August 21, 1965 – July 26, 2021 GETTY x3; COUNT M’BUTU: ALAMY METAL BLADE RECORDS boss Brian Slagel has led the tributes to Metal Church frontman Mike Howe, who died of as yet unannounced cause at the age of 56 at his home in Eureka, California, as this issue went to press. “We signed his first band, Heretic, to Metal Blade, and then of course Mike went on to a great career with Metal Church,” wrote Slagel. “He was a really good guy and gone way too soon.” In fact Howe was a member of Detroit band Hellion before Heretic. He eventually replaced original Metal Church singer David Wayne in 1988, and recorded three well-received studio albums with them – Blessing In Disguise, The Human Factor and Hanging In…

WELCOME BACK Medicine Head John Fiddler, one half of the original duo, looks back on early fame and forward to a possible re-formation. ERIC CLAPTON: KEVIN NIXON SINGER-GUITARIST JOHN Fiddler and harmonica player Peter Hope-Evans founded Medicine Head in 1968. Their singular folk-blues found early cheerleaders in John Lennon and John Peel, the latter signing him to his Dandelion label. They scored four hit singles in the UK, the biggest being One & One Is One, before disbanding in 1977. Fiddler has revived the name in recent times, and the new Warriors Of Love is the first Medicine Head album in a decade. It’s been ten years since the last album. What brought on Warriors Of Love? I’ve been through a very difficult, extremely disruptive time, and it’s put me…

BLACK GOLD BRUCE DICKINSON Iron Maiden “Ourselves, Judas Priest and Pantera all reached a crossroads where we had the chance to really step up to the next level. But none of us had the balls to do it. Metallica did, though. You have to give them huge credit for grabbing the opportunity when it came up, taking the risk and deservedly reaping the enormous rewards. You cannot underestimate their achievement with this album. “It’s one of those seminal albums that just gets it right. It’s extremely well-produced, and every note on that album is totally under control. I admire how they did it, and what they did with the songs, and it was very effective: it undoubtedly did help push metal into the mainstream. I know it wasn’t Mutt Lange…

BLACK GOLD TOBIAS FORGE Ghost “My brother was thirteen years older than I was, and he was a metal fan, so Metallica were always present when I was growing up. “The first album I clearly remember anticipating was the Black Album. Like most people, Enter Sandman was the first thing I heard. As soon it came on MTV or the radio, I would just stop. It was unique and powerful and just very rocking. “Ghost covered Enter Sandman a couple of years ago at the Polar Music Awards in Sweden, and we were asked to record it for The Blacklist. It’s hard to cover a song that famous, but I heard a little bit more melody in the chord sequence. So I thought I’d see if I could flip it…

BLACK GOLD BRIAN TATLER Diamond Head “In September 1990 I went over to stay at Lars’s house in California. The band were doing demos for the album with Bob Rock, who I met at the time. Every day, Lars would go off to do these demos, and drop me off on the way and I’d just get on with doing what I needed to. “Each evening when he got back, Lars would play me what the band had been recording that day. I kept thinking how rough it was all sounding. During this period there were no lyrics, James would just sing: ‘Wah, wah, wah’ over the music. They were working on the arrangements, and the actual lyrics weren’t needed as yet. They came further down the line. “I got…

CROWN LANDS CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION With plenty of current and historical events in their native Canada to fuel their fire and ire, Crown Lands’ music wraps punk spirit in a luxury prog package that “draws a lot from Genesis and Yes and Rush”. Words: Polly Glass “It seems like people are afraid to… say something these days,” muses Cody Bowles. “It’s interesting. Rage Against The Machine had a lot to say, System Of A Down had a lot to say, but there’s a lot of bands these days who like to play it safe.” Shy and softly spoken over the phone from their small home town just outside Oshawa, Canada, Bowles has a sweetness that obscures multiple steely sides. The prog fan who grew up listening to their father…

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Essential Playlist Heat Treatment Graham Parker Pourin’ It All Out Graham Parker Touch Too Much AC/DC If You Want Blood (You’ve Got It) AC/DC I Don’t Like Mondays The Boomtown Rats Diamond Smiles The Boomtown Rats Hell’s Bells AC/DC Back In Black AC/DC You Shook Me All Night Long AC/DC Urgent Foreigner Waiting For A Girl Like You Foreigner Photograph Def Leppard Rock Of Ages Def Leppard You Might Think The Cars Rocket Def Leppard Animal Def Leppard Pour Some Sugar On Me Def Leppard Dead Inside Muse Psycho Muse…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Well-travelled guitarist Bernie Marsden on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Rob Hughes Bernie Marsden has seen a lot over the past half-century, be it as one of Britain’s most lauded singer-guitarists or as member of bands such as UFO, Cozy Powell’s Hammer, Paice Ashton Lord and, most memorably, Whitesnake. His latest solo album, Kings, revisits the music that shaped him, as first recorded by blues greats Albert, BB and Freddie King. “I could’ve recorded all of these songs thirty-odd years ago,” he explains, “but I think you have to have been around life. Now just feels like the right time to do them.” THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING My mother used to play Nat King Cole…

Joey Jordison April 26, 1975 – July 26, 2021 JOEY JORDISON: GETTY THE METAL COMMUNITY has reacted with sadness and shock to news of the death of former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison at the age of 46. Cause of death has not been announced. Jordison had suffered from transverse myelitis, a neurological condition that restricted his movement. “I lost my legs. I couldn’t play any more. It was a form of multiple sclerosis,” he told the audience at the Metal Hammer Awards in 2016. “I got myself back up, I got in the gym and I got back in therapy to beat this fucking shit. If I can do it, you can do it. To people with multiple sclerosis, transverse myelitis or anything like that, I’m living proof that you…

Robby Steinhardt May 25, 1950 – July 17, 2021 A FOUNDING MEMBER of Kansas, violinist, organist and singer Robby Steinhardt was pivotal to many of the group’s best-loved hits, including Dust In The Wind and Carry On Wayward Son. As well as playing, Steinhardt was a co-vocalist and unofficial MC during two spells with the band, from 1973 to 1982 and 1997 to 2006. In a statement his family announced that the 71-year-old died of complications from acute pancreatitis. Following the completion of a new all-star album, Steinhardt had begun rehearsals for a national tour when he became ill. Following news of his death, his former bandmates in Kansas paid tribute, saying: “The members of the band Kansas, past and present, wish to express our deepest sorrow over the death…

LOVE SCULPTURE Forms And Feeling, 1969, Parlophone, UK. £300 (first pressing). Riches from the rock underground Despite the band being popular at the time, first pressings (with classic yellow-and-black labels) of Forms And Feelings are particularly hard to find. Love Sculpture formed in Cardiff in the late 60s, and released their debut album Blues Helping in 1968. A solid blues-rock affair, it rarely deviates from the style. Forms And Feelings, however, has more to offer to fans of psychedelic rock. Opener In The Land Of The Few has an instantly uplifting vibe, with fantastic power-pop vocal melodies and great acid-guitar flourishes. Nobody’s Talking follows a similar path but has a heavier, monotonous and powerful blues-metal approach. Seven-minute mini-epic Why is chock-full of mantras, spacey vocal effects, droning feedback, heavy chords,…

the DIRT HIGH HOPES The Dead Deads Meet the trio taking from Kiss’s book on how to make it, and Queen’s on how to play it. “We’re professional women in our thirties and forties playing badass rock!” FOR THE THREE women at the heart of The Dead Deads, this is more than just a band. It’s an army. Over the past few years, singer/guitarist Meta, bassist Daisy and drummer McQueen have surrounded themselves with the Dead Corps, an ever-growing number of dedicated fans, each given their own unique Dead name and, depending on their level of devotion, perks that can culminate in free gigs for life. “It was a Kiss Army thing,” explains Meta. “We gave ourselves stage names, like Kiss did, and we thought we’d have a corps. They…

BLACK GOLD MICHAEL POULSEN Volbeat “I remember the first time I heard Enter Sandman on MTV. When I heard it the first time I was not really into it – I just couldn’t figure it out, even though I was a huge Metallica fan. Maybe it was cos I was mostly listening to a lot of extreme metal at the time. “So I forgot about it, until I borrowed the record from a sweet girl who had it. I picked it up and forgot all about it until she asked to get it back. I was, like: ‘Oh, yeah, I’ll listen to it now.’ I was blown away: “Wow. Why didn’t I put this record on earlier?” “First of all the production was insanely good – it was so heavy…

BLACK GOLD RODRIGO SANCHEZ Rodrigo Y Gabriella “I was a Metallica fan since Kill ‘Em All. When I was a kid I learned how to play the guitar just to be able to play Metallica tunes. So I’m not one of those metal fans that hated the Black Album. That album was one of my favourites, because that was the album when Metallica played in Mexico for the first time, in 1991. It was incredible. “Metallica had the right people behind them: the right marketing team, the right label, the right catalogue. They had built it and they were playing arenas already when …And Justice For All came. But the reason I think they kind of crossed over was a combination of those things. Of course, it’s less… It’s not…

BLACK GOLD PAUL STANLEY Kiss “How could you not be a Metallica fan? Eric Carr [former Kiss drummer, who died in 1991] was the one that brought Metallica into our realm, and he did that quite a bit earlier, in the early, early days of Metallica. But in terms of becoming a worldwide phenomenon, I would have to say the Black Album was what did that. “Enter Sandman – that song really flicked a switch, it changed something. It retained the grit, the passion and the rawness of what they had done until that point, but it managed to package it in a way that had a more widespread appeal. It wasn’t a coincidence that Bob Rock produced that album. He became the go-to guy for bringing out the most…

This Or That? The Hot Damn! singer/guitarist Gill Montgomery takes on the most intimidating quiz known to man. Beatles or Stones? The Stones. I think they just have the cool edge. AC/DC or Zeppelin? Led Zeppelin. III is my favourite. Vinyl or streaming? Vinyl, all the way. Hendrix or Page? Page, even though it was Jimi that got me into rock in the first place. Stevie Nicks or Joan Jett? These are hard! I’m gonna go with Joan, she’s got the punk edge. Seventies or eighties music? Seventies. Van Halen or Guns N’ Roses? Van Halen. I love Diver Down, but I love Panama too. Heart or Pat Benatar? Ooh… Pat Benatar. Stadium or sweaty club? Sweaty club. It’s more intimate. Cigarettes or alcohol? Alcohol. Fine wine or cold beer?…

Vans For Bands The transport company’s Tarrant Anderson talks about how lockdown hit business, but how they were able to help the NHS. It’s a similar story for countless companies and individuals whose livelihood relies on live music. Until covid-19 came along, Vans For Bands supplied vehicles for 100 tours per month, transporting up to 10,000 artists and crew each year on 50 splitter vans and 12 sleeper coaches. Now they’re looking forward to getting the vehicles out of the garage and getting back down to business. When did Vans For Bands have to shut down? In March 2020 our vehicles were booked solidly until the end of the summer. We lost millions of pounds. Did you receive assistance from any of the government bodies set up to help? We…