Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2021 i Classic Rock

WELCOME The saying goes: build it and they will come! Or something like that. Well, I’m delighted to say that after a couple of months of soliciting here and in the Classic Rock special subscribers’ newsletter (why not subscribe and see what you’re missing out on), this issue sees the return of Communication Breakdown, aka the Classic Rock letters page, on p64. I hope it’ll kick off some interesting discourse as the issues go by. Please do get involved by dropping us an email at classicrock@futurenet.com. Use it or lose it… It’s not just the return of the letters page that we’re excited about this month, though. We’re also celebrating a brand new record from Deep Purple. Back in 2017, when the band released their Infinite album, rumours abounded that…

John Rossall November 26, 1945 – October 2, 2021 GETTY x2 BEST KNOWN AS the saxophonist and trombone player with the Glitter Band, John Rossall has lost his battle with cancer at the age of 75. Rossall was born and raised in Blackpool, and his musical education came from the ballrooms and dances of the 50s. The Glitter Band first found fame as the backing band of the now disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter, before scoring the first UK Top 10 hit of their own with Angel Face in 1974, outselling Glitter’s Remember Me This Way in the process. While the band were working with Glitter, it was Rossall who approached producer Mike Leander about the idea of releasing music of the Glitter Band’s own. Sure enough, they went to…

Steve Strange April 17, 1968 – September 24, 2021 GETTY x3 TRIBUTES HAVE BEEN paid to one of the most popular figures in music entertainment. Having started out as a musician, Steve Strange climbed the industry ladder and became a booking agent for Thunder, Saxon, Queens Of The Stone Age, Coldplay, Stiff Little Fingers, Jimmy Eat World, L7 and Ash. He was also a manager for FM, Wayward Sons and Last In Line. The 53-year-old passed away unexpectedly after a short illness. Strange grew up just outside of Belfast, and moved to London in the mid-1980s with his band, hard rockers No Hot Ashes. After they broke up he remained in the city. Warm, funny, caring, generous and possessing a laugh so loud that it could almost be heard in neighbouring…

UNCHAINED Alice In Chains guitarist Jerry Cantrell’s first solo album in almost 20 years highlights his acoustic side. A lockdown project, he says it turned into “a pretty cool record”. Interview: Niall Doherty Portrait: Justin Borucki Jerry Cantrell thinks of records as time capsules. Whether as the leader and chief songwriter of Alice In Chains or as a solo artist, he says each of his releases represents a period of time “etched in wax”. From AIC’s game-changing early-90s releases – albums that reshaped the rock landscape – to the acoustic-tinged EPs that punctuated their heavier moments, to the sonic exploration of his solo work, for Cantrell every one of them occupies a different head-space and era. It’s the same with his new solo album Brighten, the first record under his…

Redemption Songs Having sunk into a dark hole of depression, Alexisonfire guitarist/Gallows frontman Wade MacNeil found the light with his psychedelic, Grateful Dead-inspired new project, Dooms Children. Words: Emma Johnston There comes a point in any punk’s life when it’s time to try something different. For Wade MacNeil, known to the world’s moshpits as guitarist with Toronto hardcore band Alexisonfire and as frontman with UK punks Gallows, that time is now. Far from the screams of the bands that made him, his new project, Dooms Children, is a deeply beautiful meditation on depression, addiction and hopeful redemption. Written partly during his darkest hours and partly in rehab, it’s set against a swooning psych-rock background and seasoned with touches of lush Americana. Over the past two years, while he struggled with…

Who Are… The Courettes? Martin and Flavia Couri answer a few CR questions. Describe your sound in a sentence? FC: The Ronettes meet the Ramones for a wild party at the Gold Star Studios’ echo chamber. You met in [Flavia’s homeland] Brazil when you were in different bands. What were your first impressions of one another? MC: Flavia was a sunshine of beauty. Even at five in the morning in a smelly tour van. FC: I didn’t know Martin’s old band Columbian Neckties at all. Then this guy came and sat by my side, in the only seat left available of the van. I was upset at the start, but then we realised we had very similar music taste, and we stuck together for the whole tour – and ever…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK By Dave Ling Groundbreaker Soul To Soul FRONTIERS Over almost four decades, Steve Overland has deservedly accumulated much respect as the singer with British rockers FM. Regrettably, his work outside of FM, via the likes of The Ladder, Shadowman, Ozone and his own project Overland, is rather less celebrated. Soul To Soul is the second record from another of these extracurricular adventures, Groundbreaker, and Mr Consistency has done it again. While a critically lauded debut was crafted with Robert Säll (Work Of Art, W.E.T) and producer Alessandro Del Vecchio, Overland and Del Vecchio have worked alongside Lionville’s Stefano Lionetti, Pete Alpenborg of Arctic Rain, Infinite & Divine’s Jan Åkesson and Seventh Crystal vocalist Kristian Fyhr on a dozen songs that shimmer, seduce and satisfy. Comparisons to…

AVAILABLE NOW ON NONESUCH RECORDS THE BLACK KEYS Delta Kream ‘Ohio’s finest doff the cap to the great Mississippi hill country bluesmen. Crowns Auerbach and Carney as both grand scholars and natural conduits of the genre. This joyous tribute is the perfect way to send a whole new generation scurrying back to discover the source.’ – Classic Rock, 8/10 RHIANNON GIDDENS They’re Calling Me Home (with Francesco Turrisi) ‘Sublime. Giddens’ extraordinary voice hits new levels of resolute power.’ – Uncut, 9/10 RANDY NEWMAN Roll with the Punches: The Studio Albums (1979-2017) ‘The last four decades of America’s great storyteller. Taken as a whole, these albums hold a mirror up to the ongoing, evolving state of a nation; an endlessly vivid chronicle, often uncomfortable but with intermittent glimmers of hope.’ –…

BACK TO LIVE REVIEWS Genesis Manchester AO Arena Still turning it on, again. He might hobble on stage with a walking stick and perform his vocals while sitting down nowadays, but Phil Collins has lost none of his populist skills as a crowd-pleasing showman. Just a few numbers into the latest – and almost certainly last – Genesis reunion tour, the unsettling oddness of watching a rock frontman performing seated is soon forgotten as Collins has the Manchester Arena audience in the palm of his hand like a seasoned music-hall comedian. Despite no longer being able to drum, due to spinal injury and other health problems, the 70-year-old is in genial mood, hamming up his physical limitations as farce rather than tragedy. Behind the drum kit, his 20-year-old son Nicholas…

This month’s contributors EMMA JOHNSTON You’ll find Emma’s words across our pages every month. This issue she critiques The Darkness’s new album, among others, as well as interviewing Alexisonfire man Wade MacNeil about his new psych-rock project Dooms Children (p50). She’s also written for Melody Maker, Select, Metal Hammer and Prog. When not writing about music she can often be found on a horse. ALEX BURROWS Former Classic Rock managing editor and longtime contributor/friend of the Louder team Alex dived into Blondie’s back catalogue (tough job, but someone’s gotta do it…) for this month’s Buyer’s Guide (p86). By day he’s Operations Manager at Twin V – the creators of Space Rocks, Iron Maiden’s brand new fan club mag, the World Metal Congress and much more. NIALL DOHERTY Niall Doherty is…

Darrell Bath December 24, 1966 - September 27, 2021 OFTEN SPOKEN OF as the missing link between glam and punk rock, guitarist Darrell Bath has died at the age of 54. One of the most modest artists on the British scene, Bath played with Ian Hunter, the Dogs D’Amour, The Vibrators, UK Subs, the Heavy Metal Kids, The Godfathers, The Crybabys, Nikki Sudden, Die Toten Hosen and others. Just before he passed away due to as-yet unannounced cause, he was preparing to launch Ventriloquism, a new project with Eddie Edwards of The Vibrators. Bath became an associate of former Mott The Hoople frontman Ian Hunter following the death of Mick Ronson in 1993. They met at the sessions for Hunter’s 1994 album Dirty Laundry and worked together on and off for…

Barry Ryan October 24, 1948 – September 28, 2021 CAT STEVENS HAS reminisced about his friend, the musician, singer and photographer Barry Ryan, who at 72 has died after complications from a lung disorder. “It was Paul’s brother Barry who gave me my first book on Buddhism and meditation, The Secret Path,” said Stevens (also known as Yusuf). “When I spoke with Barry recently, he told me he was fully at peace knowing he only had a short time left on this earth. His trust in God was solid. We’ll miss him.” Leeds-born Barry became successful singer during the 1960s as part of a duo with his twin brother Paul. The pair, sons of pop singer Marion Ryan, shot to fame with eight UK Top-50 singles between ’65 and ’67, including…

WELCOME BACK dUg Pinnick With King's X and solo albums due, and two another band projects, it's a busy time for the bassist/vocalist. DAVID LEE ROTH: GETTY; GEDDY LEE: KEVIN NIXON DUG PINNICK IS a busy guy. In the past few years the King’s X bassist/vocalist has released albums with two of his other bands: the hard rock supergroup KXM and the more blues-oriented trio Grinder Blues. There’s also a new King’s X album due for release in 2022. And he just dropped a bomb: Joybomb, his fifth solo record (and first since 2013). The album rocks like hell and proves that, at 71, Pinnick has no intention of slowing down. What was it like making a record during a pandemic? I did the whole record in my house, in my…

ALAN LANCASTER Dave Ling looks back at the life, music and times of the late Status Quo bassist/vocalist, who co-founded a British hard-rocking band that became one of the greats, with a broad appeal that made them a household name. February 7, 1949 – September 26, 2021 It’s November 13, 2012, the morning of the eighth annual Classic Rock Awards, and the Status Quo ‘Frantic Four’ – Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan – are gathered in a cafeteria inside London’s Roundhouse where the event is being held. Later in the evening they will accept an award for their 1977 concert release Status Quo Live! As a band, Status Quo rocked hard and partied even harder throughout the 1960s and 70s. But by the start of the…

Communication Breakdown Send your letters to Communication Breakdown, Classic Rock, Future, 1-10 Praed Mews, Paddington, London W2 1QY or email them to classicrock@futurenet.com. For more comment visit www.classicrockmagazine.com or find us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. LET(TER) THERE BE ROCK! Really love the magazine. I pay for a subscription for my brother-in-law for years now and he loves it as well. Keeps us in touch with all things rock both new and old. Communication Breakdown was a good segment and I would like to see its return. James Gillespie, via email DISAPPEARING ACT Hello! I’ve been a purchaser of/subscriber to Classic Rock magazine for over a decade now, and I really appreciate the dedication and insight you put into the magazine, and I look forward to every issue. However, of…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Ewan MacFarlane Always Everlong ROYALE STAG Sparking with triumphant Wah! exuberance, the former Apollo 440/Grim Northern Social frontman channels his inner Tom Petty to excellent effect. The Scottish Neil Diamond that no one knew we needed. 8/10 Scattered Hamlet Stereo Overthrow BAD MOON Like a backwoods Zodiac Mindwarp force-fed through a surly Licensed To Ill brat filter, Appalachian quartet Scattered Hamlet boast greasy-baseball-capped swagger in their party-hard punk rock stagger. Righteous. 8/10 JuJu La Que Sabe WEIRD BEARD JuJu mastermind, Sicilian multi-instrumentalist Gioele Valenti, merges his driving motorik loops with bleary shoegaze psych and crisp industrial synth-pop in an irresistibly hypnotic miasma of danceable darkwave. 7/10 Bad Waitress No Taste ROYAL MOUNTAIN Self-identifying as DIY-punks, Toronto’s Bad Waitress sell…

REVIEWS BEST OF THE REST Other new releases out this month. Motörhead Everything Louder Forever BMG Surely promising “Motörhead’s loudest” is a bit like pledging “water’s wettest”. Whatever, this 42-track ‘best of’ offers an excellent opportunity to rediscover some deeper ‘Head cuts, not least Burner and Sucker. 1916 clearly didn’t read the dress code. 8/10 Come Don’t Ask Don’t Tell FIRE Impressively expanded two-disc version of the ’94 second album from Boston’s Come, an ex-Live Skull/Codeine grunge-literate alt.blues quartet largely overlooked in an era spoilt for choice. Well worth a second coming. 7/10 Broken Social Scene Old Dead Young: B-sides & Rarities ARTS & CRAFTS A loose confederation of players revolving around Toronto’s Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, BSS specialise in a form of fearfully intelligent Canadian post-rock where everyone…

Fish The big Scotsman on live streams and delaying his farewell tour. WOJTEK KUTYLA/PRESS Separate from your farewell tour, you have UK dates lined up for November. Will they go ahead? I hope so, obviously. But the whole thing feels like pushing a boulder up a hill. And if we do get through them it will be a slog. You must have been ecstatic at the response to your final album, Weltschmerz? I’m very proud of it, and it did exactly what I hoped it would. It’s the perfect album for me to call it a day with. Other than that, how was your lockdown? The first one was okay, but the one in the winter was difficult. And then coming out into Brexit made things a hundred times worse.…

Ron Tutt March 12, 1938 – October 16, 2021 RON TUTT IS best known as the drummer with Elvis Presley’s band, although in an illustrious six-decade career he also worked as a session musician with Roy Orbison, Jerry Garcia, Billy Joel, Neil Diamond, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello and more. The Texas-born drummer was 83 years old when he passed away, reportedly of natural causes. Tutt joined Presley’s group, The TCB Band (Takin’ Care Of Business) in 1969 and remained with him until the singer’s death eight years later. Of working with Elvis he once said: “We immediately had a great rapport. Visually, our eyes were constantly watching each other.” For a while, Tutt chose to split his time between Presley and Grateful Dead leader Garcia, joking: “One…

Richard H Kirk March 21, 1956 – September 21, 2021 ELECTRONIC AND INDUSTRIAL music lost a pioneering figure when Cabaret Voltaire’s Richard H Kirk died at the age of 65. The Sheffield-based band played a crucial role in the development of synthesisers and experimental tape loops. Along with Chris Watson and Stephen Mallinder, Kirk formed the group in 1973, naming it after the Zurich nightclub at which the Dada art movement was born. Their early motto was: “No sound shall go untreated.” Using provocative and revolutionary cut-and-paste techniques, Cabaret Voltaire (along with the likes of Depeche Mode and New Order) turned the staid and traditional world of music on its head. Many bands are viewed as being before their time, but Cabaret Voltaire are a genuine example. Kirk put Cabaret Voltaire…

Priest Guitarist Cheats Death Richie Faulkner survives on-stage aneurysm. JUDAS PRIEST WERE forced to cancel the 25 remaining dates of a US tour when guitarist Richie Faulkner suffered an aortic aneurysm on stage at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, Kentucky. In an explanatory statement the 41-year-old said: “As I watch footage from the show, I can see in my face the confusion and anguish I was feeling whilst playing Painkiller as my aorta ruptured and started to spill blood into my chest cavity. My surgeon tells me people with this don’t usually make it to the hospital alive. Incredibly, Faulkner completed the song before being rushed to hospital, where he underwent almost 11-hours of emergency surgery in which five parts of his chest were replaced with mechanical components. Faulkner,…

BURIED TREASURE Riches from the rock underground QUELLA VECCHA LOCANDA Quella Veccha Locanda, Help Records, Italy, 1972. £600. Italian prog is an entire genre within progressive rock. Along with some of its better-known bands (PFM, Le Orme, Goblin), there’s a wealth of underground bands from the classic period still very much unknown outside of hardcore collectors’ circles. It’s mind-boggling to think that, suddenly out of nowhere, a host of highly accomplished musicians exploded on to the scene. Quella Vecchia Locanda (translation: That Old Inn) are certainly one of the better lesser-known bands from the era. Formed in Rome in 1970, they worked tirelessly on orchestrating their sound. On their self-titled 1972 album, each song is an adventure, taking the listener through a kaleidoscope of textures and unpredictable passages. Their blend…

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JUSTIN HAWKINS Lowestoft and Glasgow are special places. Clothes maketh the rock star. You’ve got to have life goals. Success has its downsides. These are among the things that shape The Darkness man’s world view. Interview: Dave Everley Portrait: Will Ireland Justin Hawkins has experienced all the highs and lows that rock’n’roll has to offer. His band, The Darkness, were a Brit Award-winning early 00s phenomenon, unexpectedly selling more than three million copies of their debut album Permission To Land before imploding after follow-up One Way Ticket To Hell… And Back. Their second act has been significantly less combustible; exuberant new album Motorheart is their sixth since reuniting in 2011. The Norfolk-born Hawkins currently lives in rural Switzerland, from where he joins us via Zoom to…

The HOT LiST THE ESSENTIAL NEW ROCK TRACKS YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS MONTH AND THE BANDS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR MIKAEL ERIKSSON/PRESS One of the profound upsides of this century’s technological advances has been the ability to share music – across the world – at the drop of a hat. That might sound a little obvious (and it creates challenges as well), but in the absence of much actual travel this past year or so we’ve appreciated it more than ever. To paraphrase Status Quo, people really are rocking out all over the world. If that’s not music to a rock fan’s ears, we don’t know what is. Apart from, well, actual music. This month our rocking-all-over-the-world Hot List transports you to Sweden with Ghost, Los Angeles with…

Reviews FRANK W. OCKENFELS 3/PRESS CLASSIC ROCK RATINGS EDITED BY IAN FORTNAM The Professionals SNAFU JTP Ex-Pistol soldiers on with relatively raw recruits. Formed from the still-smouldering ashes of the Sex Pistols by Steve Jones and Paul Cook (with various vocalists), The Professionals were everything that John Lydon’s Public Image Ltd were not: thrashy, punky, anthemic, with a penchant for big choruses and power chords. Musical styles move quickly, though, and their sound dated quickly and Cook and Jones moved on to other things. And now the band are back, with vocalist Tom Spencer and guitarist Toshi JC Ogawa (plus guests including Billy Duffy and Marco Pirroni and, allegedly, Steve Jones). In the wake of pop-punk bands like Green Day and their like, SNAFU sounds relatively contemporary, with air-punching songs…

REVIEWS ROUND-UP: BLUES By Henry Yates Man Made Hills Lostboy SELF-RELEASED Let us be thankful that James Carrancio has returned from his midcareer crisis, quitting the New York stand-up comedy circuit and resuming the scuffed-up Americana that was his first calling. Latest album Lostboy suggests a dormant world-class songwriter finally cracked wide open, summoning material that feels bigger than him. Early standouts like Haunted House Blues, Sleepwalking and Sunshine set the pace for Carrancio’s modus operandi as Man Made Hills. Typically opening with the click-clack of plectrum on muted strings and a handful of tough-jangle chords, his sound might at first seem rudimentary. But then, from those base-metal ingredients, the melodies come flooding in, often decorated with harmonies and horns, lifting the songs to memorable places that blues ballast cannot…

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Essential Playlist X-Offender Blondie Rip Her To Shreds Blondie (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence, Dear Plastic Letters Kidnapper Plastic Letters Hanging On The Telephone Parallel Lines One Way Or Another Parallel Lines Fade Away And Radiate Parallel Lines Union City Blue Eat To The Beat Atomic Eat To The Beat The Hardest Part Eat To The Beat Rapture Autoamerican Call Me Autoamerican (reissue) For Your Eyes Only The Hunter Maria No Exit Nothing Is Real But The Girl No Exit Good Boys The Curse Of Blondie Mother Panic Of Girls Doom Or Destiny Pollinator…

BACK TO LIVE Tour Dates JAKE OWENS WILL IRELAND, ALAMY…

The Soundtrack Of My Life Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him. Interview: Ian Fortnam “If you don’t dig the MC5, you don’t dig rock’n’roll.” Having just finished writing his autobiography, Tenement Kid, Bobby Gillespie has spent the past few months considering the formative musical moments that shaped the man and the musician that he became. “As a kid, stuff’s always going in,” says the Primal Scream vocalist. “It may not seem to have any significance, but you’re always hearing it: when you’re out on your bike, playing football with your pals, climbing walls or pretending you’re in World War II. Music was a huge part of the ambience of life, and I guess that some of it sunk…