Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2022 i Classic Rock

Ozzy Osbourne. What an absolute legend. And on September 9 he releases a brand-new solo album. His timing is impeccable, as that month also marks the 50th anniversary of Black Sabbath’s stone-cold classic Vol 4 album – the very record that we were already planning to celebrate this issue. When our writer spoke to Ozzy about his star-studded new record, I asked him to ask the Prince Of Darkness what he remembers about the making of Vol 4 from the distance of half a century. “A lot of cocaine!” Ozzy said, laughing. “We lived together in a house in Los Angeles, rehearsed there, did loads of drugs and made an album: simple. Those were good times.” More like crazy, chaotic, utterly unbelievable, snowblind times. Mick Wall tells the frankly bonkers…

July 27, 1944 – July 9, 2022 JAZZ-ROCK SAXOPHONIST Barbara Thompson has died at the age of 77. The wife and bandmate of Colosseum drummer and founder Jon Hiseman (who passed away in 2018), she had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for the past 25 years. Thompson was awarded the MBE in 1996 for services to music. In a statement, their daughter, singer-songwriter Ana Gracey, commented: “My mum had the most extraordinary spirit – she never gave up, however her body finally let her down after a valiant battle. We dearly hope that she and our father have found each other once again.” Oxford-born Thompson married Hiseman in 1967, and played on Colosseum’s third UK-released album, Daughter Of Time, in 1970. Aside from her work with Colosseum, Thompson also played…

“Van Halen has always been an obsession – the sound, the guitar playing, the feel and the groove.” THE FIRST TIME Jacob Deraps and Josh Gallagher shared a stage was with Toto. After the pair met through YouTube and collaborated remotely, Australian drummer Gallagher flew to guitarist/singer Deraps’s Canadian home town in the summer of 2017. Local bar shows, festivals and private parties beckoned. First, though, they had tickets to see Steve Lukather and co. – preceded by a meet-and-greet that surpassed their wildest dreams. “That was really insane,” 25-year-old Deraps enthuses. “We asked if we could come up and do a song with them, on their sound-check, and they agreed and we played Rosanna. It was the first time me and Josh played together, but it didn’t feel like…

Backstageat Shepherds Bush Empire, Luke Spiller is practically bouncing off the walls with anticipation for his band’s imminent return to the London stage. The Struts’ 33-year-old vocalist is all charm and grace as he apologises for an over-running band meeting that has made him literally seconds late for his rendezvous with Classic Rock. He exhibits the effervescent energy of a man chomping at the bit to get down to the business of reminding the capital who this country’s most flamboyant rock star is. “Last year I was taken on tour kicking and screaming,” he confides, “because I’d really got used to my quintessential English country gentleman life in lockdown, but it only took a couple of performances before I realised that I missed being loved and adored on stage every…

“I thought they’d all tell me to fuck off, to be honest.” Ozzy Osbourne’s joyous cackle suggests that he still can’t quite believe that the names Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton will be printed beneath his own in the credits for Patient Number 9, his new, thirteenth, solo album. Rather sweetly, the 73-year singer, one of the most instantly identifiable and influential rock stars on the planet, is transformed into a gushing fan-boy when the subject of the two English guitar legends’ surprise cameos on his forthcoming record is raised. Even more sweetly, he puts forward his belief that his invitation to Jimmy Page to participate in the album sessions may have gone unanswered due to Page having upgraded to a new phone. “It wasn’t that he didn’t want to…

Every month, in this portion of the magazine we bring you some of the finest new rock tracks and artists to have reached our ears in recent weeks. Some of the artists we put in the spotlight have been going for a while, some are total unknowns, and this issue we have one group featured here who are returning after a 30-year hiatus. All of them are up to good things. Without meaning to, we’ve taken a bit of a walk on the weird side this month, with psych-twisted bluegrassy music (step forward, Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears), curious poprock (take a bow, Zach Tabori), and a surreal prog song about a vegan army with guns shooting bullets made of jalapeños (thank you Kitten Pyramid) adding some eccentric colour to our…

“I can’t wait for people to see us with Erik. This is a whole different machine to the one from the past.” Guitarist Dave ‘Snake’ Sabo previews an autumn tour from the New Jersey band, and new album The Gang’s All Here, the first with their new singer, former H.e.a.t man Erik Grönwall. From the outside, the dismissal of ZP Theart, who was with the band for eight years, and the hiring of Erik Grönwall seemed unusually quick. What was the actual time frame? [Laughs] Erik met the band four days before his first gig with us, on the opening night of our Las Vegas residency with the Scorpions in February. We gave him the job three and a half weeks before it began. I know that sounds crazy, but…

“We will preview a few tracks from the new album, but the set will lean towards the older material.” The New Orleans hard rockers formed almost 40 years ago and have released ten studio albums, the latest being this year’s just-out From Womb To Tomb. Guitarist and founder member Steve Blaze looks back, and previews a rare UK tour. It’s hard to believe that this is the first UK tour from Lillian Axe in twenty-nine years. The last time you played here Bill Clinton was being sworn in as US President. [Laughs] Oh my god, absolutely. We did the Firefest in Nottingham [in 2012], but an actual tour… I’m thrilled to come back at last. It’s been way too long. The band broke up in 1995, two years after that…

Riches from the rock underground Eloy were a prolific German progressive rock band from Hannover, born out of the Krautrock era. They formed in 1969 and, through many incarnations, have continued to record up to the present day, with guitarist/vocalist Frank Bornemann being the only consistent member of the group. Their sound progressed from the hard prog of their very early days, becoming more cosmic and symphonic as the years passed by. Their lyrics were generally based on epic sci-fi stories, and they took their name from a fictional post-human race in HG Wells’s 1895 novella, The Time Machine. ‘A solid hard rock album with heavy progressive leanings.’ Although later dismissed by Bornemann as being an amateur effort (or words to that effect), their self-titled debut album from 1971 is…

IN HIS POSITION as lead singer/bassist with Australian slacker-punks The Chats, Eamon Sandwith admits that their gigs can sometimes get a little… wild. “Recently there was this fucking weapon who did a back flip off the balcony, like two storeys up while we were playing,” he says. “Then we saw him laid out, he had his leg in a cast and we were like: ‘Oh, is that from the flip?!’ And he was like: ‘Nah, I had that on before.’” The almost comically nonchalant frontman considers the scene for a moment. “I kind of admired it though.” The Queensland band, completed by drummer Matt Boggis and new-ish guitarist Josh Hardy (who replaced founding member Josh Price last year) have been presiding over the riot since they broke through in 2017…

Ozzy Osbourne Patient Number 9 EPIC The Prince Of Darkness finds fresh light with a little help from his friends. When Ozzy Osbourne released his album Ordinary Man in 2020, it seemed like the perfect swan song – emotive, reflective, and almost elegiac in parts, it was a surprisingly vulnerable examination of mortality from the original heavy metal icon. But Ozzy has a terrible track record when it comes to retirement, and work on Patient Number 9 seemingly began as soon as Ordinary Man hit the shelves, with producer Andrew Watt once again overseeing the project. Bolstered by an all-star cast of guest musicians including Jeff Beck, Duff McKagan, Eric Clapton and Tony Iommi, Patient Number 9 reintroduces some of the bombast largely missing on its predecessor. As it turns…

Col Harkness September 20, 1959 – July 22, 2022 The co-founder, former singer and rhythm guitarist of the Liverpudlian boogie-rockers Spider has died at the age of 62. Colin Harkness had been in and out of hospital in recent times. Between 1977 and 1986, Spider released three albums and played more than 2,000 concerts. A group statement said: “Please remember Col with love and affection – dig out those albums and singles and play them loud!” Michael Henderson July 7, 1951 – July 19, 2022 Mississippi-born Michael Henderson began as a session musician before touring with Steve Wonder, the Four Tops and Gladys Knight & The Pips. In 1970, after seeing Henderson at a Wonder show, Miles Davis told Stevie: “I’m taking your fucking bassist.” They played together for seven…

The news that the two surviving members of Pantera – vocalist Phil Anselmo and bassist Rex Brown – have teamed up with guitarist Zakk Wylde and Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante for a ‘tribute’ tour of North America next year has elicited strong reactions – for and against. “I’m beyond honoured to be a part of it,” insists Wylde, adding: “[but] obviously it’s not Pantera.” Taipei Houston, a ‘power duo’ featuring the sons of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich, drummer/ guitarist Myles and bassist/vocalist Layne, have released their debut single, As The Sun Sets, via C3 Records. The band will be appearing at this month’s Reading and Leeds Festivals. Having passed seven million domestic sales, that figure is equivalent to one in four homes in the UK now possessing a copy of Queen’s…

Metallica enjoy their own Stranger Things moment. THIRTY-SIX YEARS after it was first released, thanks to inclusion in the hugely popular Netflix series Stranger Things the title track of Metallica’s 1986 album Master Of Puppets has become a shock hit single in the US and Britain. It comes less than a month after Kate Bush’s 37-year-old single Running Up That Hill, embraced by a new generation of fans after it appeared in the series, raced to No.1 in the UK. Metallica enjoyed their moment of good fortune, creating an animated video for the song, its first ever promo clip. In the climax to Series 4 of Stranger Things, metalhead character Eddie Munson (played by Joseph Quinn) shreds his way through it to help defeat a particularly nasty demon named Vecna.…

Former Judas Priest frontman Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens believes that he has been “erased” from the band’s history. Owens, who sang on the Priest albums Jugulator and Demolition (released in 1997 and 2001), considers the fact that he won’t be inducted to the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame the latest in a series of snubs. “The only emails I ever get [from them] are threats,” he tells Rolling Stone. A new Beatles-related film project is in the works, according to director Peter Jackson. “I’m talking to The Beatles about something very, very different than Get Back,” he comments, referring to last year’s Emmy-nominated docu-series. “We’re seeing what the possibilities are, but it’s another project with them. It’s not really a documentary… that’s all I can really say.” Nita Strauss (pictured)…

Joni Mitchell played a surprise set at the recent Newport Jazz Festival. It was the first full concert by the 78-year-old singersongwriter since 2002. A new boxed set, The Asylum Albums (1972-1975), pulls together remastered versions of Mitchell’s albums For The Roses, Court And Spark, Miles Of Aisles and The Hissing Of Summer Lawns. It’s released on September 23 via Rhino. Robert Fripp publishes his first book, The Guitar Circle, on September 1 via Panegyric Publishing. Its 554 pages cover the King Crimson leader’s views on guitar playing, collaborating and personal development. In a protest over America’s lack of gun control, Pat Benatar will no longer perform Hit Me With Your Best Shot, her hit from 1980, at her concerts. “I’m not going to sing it,” she told USA Today.…

In the summer of 1991, Al Jourgensen was convinced he had a killer new song. But something was amiss. Jesus Built My Hotrod, co-written with other members of Chicago’s industrial-metal band Ministry, wasn’t going anywhere. “We had the song recorded and I tried singing a couple of times, but I never liked my vocals,” he explains. “I kept trying to do these kind of esoteric and intelligent lyrics on it. So I couldn’t quite nail the song, but I knew it was powerful in a strange way. It felt like rockabilly from the future.” The solution was to be found by chance, at Lollapalooza. Then in its inaugural year, and featuring Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, Living Colour and more, the festival swung into Chicago in early August. One of…

For Jay Buchanan – born into a musical family, and a solo artist before joining Rival Sons in 2009 – singing isn’t just a thing he does. The pandemic, he tells us, has confirmed that. “Being able to sing and scream on a primal level, and that emotional bloodletting that comes with being able to create these different frequencies with my body, having that taken away was a big wake-up call. I realised that I do need to sing. I do need to do this. It’s part of who I am.” Since we last heard from Rival Sons he’s had another child, moved from Nashville back to California, and worked on the band’s next album. THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING My mother singing Joni Mitchell in the house, probably…