Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2024 i Classic Rock

IfI didn’t know any better, I’d call spacetime continuum shenanigans over the speed at which our End Of Year issues roll around! Surely it was only a few weeks ago that we put together the last one?! (Although I was probably moaning about the speed of the passage of time in that one too.) But yes, as you’ve probably realised by now, the issue you hold in your hand is our annual look at what happened in the world of rock over the past 12 months – the brilliant new albums and songs that got us excited, the reissues that highlighted old favourites, the epic gigs, and much more besides. So please put your feet up, grab your tipple of choice and join us in remembering and celebrating the Year…

EARLIER THIS YEAR, Sophie Lloyd found herself in a bar with Michael Starr. The Steel Panther frontman – one of ten guest singers on Lloyd’s hard rock debut, Imposter Syndrome – was in London to shoot a music video with her. It all started sensibly enough. Then, with the arrival of select fans and Lloyd’s rocker friends, it all got a bit Coyote Ugly. “We did shots with the water hose spraying the whole crowd,” she says, “the girls dancing on the bar with Michael, we had someone take body shots off Michael and everything. It all just suddenly went a bit out of control towards the last two hours. It was fun.” It’s a huge change of scene for the guitarist, who developed her chops in her bedroom and…

With much of the world back to some degree of normality, following the strangeness of the covid years, it's been a gratifyingly rock-stuffed 12 months. Across rock'n'roll's diverse sonic subtrates, we've had new artists, retiring artists, returning artists and reuniting artists – not to mention icons (from onstage and off) who have sadly moved on to the great gig in the sky. Between them they've given us brilliant albums, awesome songs, amazing shows and much more. So please join us as we celebrate the musical year in the company of some of those who made it such a good one. 2023: it came, it saw, it rocked.…

Three, it turns out, isn’t a crowd for The Cold Stares. After a decade as a duo, 2023 saw the release of the band's excellent sixth album Voices – the dynamic Indiana blues rockers’ first as a power trio. Guitarist/vocalist Chris Tapp reckons the addition of an official bass player has been a game-changer. Lyrically as well as musically, he dug deep for some of the most personal songs in band’s history. Speaking from Memphis – where the band are already tracking new songs – Classic Rock caught up with Tapp to look back on an important year for him and The Cold Stares. Do you think you learnt anything new about yourself this year? My grandad worked his ass off, my dad worked his ass off, but even playing…

Keith Richards once humorously quipped, “Guitar is easy – all it takes is five fingers, six strings and one asshole.” Yes, easy perhaps, but few have wielded the instrument with as much imagination, grit and panache as the legendary Rolling Stone. Over the past six decades, the guitarist has unleashed a torrent of timeless riffs, gracing hits like Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Satisfaction, Honky Tonk Women, Start Me Up, Can’t You Hear Me Knockin’ and Happy. And this year, at the venerable age of 79 (he turns 80 this month), Richards, accompanied by his eternally youthful crew, the Rolling Stones, put the final touches on their 24th studio album and released a dozen more hot rocks. Lord knows, it was a long time comin’. Nearly eight years passed since the release…

It’s still balmy in California – even in late October. The open-air amphitheater, under azure skies turning purple and pin-pricked with stars in the heart of Griffith Park (the nearby observatory on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood made infamous by James Dean in Rebel Without ACause), is the perfect Sunday night setting for Brothers Osborne’s cool country rock, playing out to a goodol’-boys-and-girls audience of SoCal stetsons and the occasional “Yee-haw”. The Brothers are a little more sublime than that, a mix of acoustic and electric, sad and sweet songs and on-point harmonies that put you in mind of one of the great Californian institutions, the Eagles, and you can see why what looks like a capacity crowd in LA might be drawn to that. TJ and John Osborne…

The Dirt INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK FOR MORE NEWS: WWW.CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM JIMMY PAGE MADE his first public appearance as a live performer in eight years via a surprise performance at the recent Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. The former Led Zeppelin guitarist delivered a prerecorded induction speech on behalf of late American guitar pioneer Link Wray, before taking to the stage at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, with his signature double-neck guitar to play Wray’s classic 1958 instrumental Rumble. Writing on social media, Page later explained: “I was asked to induct Link Wray into the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, a guitarist, instrumentalist and songwriter that I’d admired from the very first taste of the Rumble. I first heard it when I was 14, roaring…

IF IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE BEATLES… From recording the band in a room together to encouraging Slade’s two most promising writers to assume the role of principal composers, manager and producer Chas Chandler had a consistent vision. “Right from the beginning, Chas used The Beatles as our blueprint,” Holder says. “By the time we made CumOnFeel The Noizewe’d had three Number Ones, and Chas wanted the next one to go straight in at Number One because nobody since The Beatles had done that. We tried it with Mama which went in at Number Two, and then we rushed out Gudbuy T’Jane[which peaked at No.2]. So for Chas it became a challenge, and he and the gang at Polydor formulated a plan to make it happen with CumOn FeelTheNoize.” Any…

50 PAUL RODGERS Midnight Rose SUN It is an event when one of the greatest voices in rock releases his first solo album of new material in almost 25 years. Paul Rodgers sings of still living it up, having a little fun and loving the blues. But memories of Free and Bad Company are a distant echo on a collection that places his gilt-edged rock tone in a mellow musical zone. DS Killer track: Living It Up 49 GREEN LUNG This Heathen Land NUCLEAR BLAST Snapped up by Nuclear Blast Records after two acclaimed albums, Green Lung are bringing thunderous occult vibes to the mainstream. This Heathen Land is their most refined effort to date: a “journey into occult Albion” that takes in grandiose anthems like The Forest Church…

Extreme guitarist Nuno Bettencourt has got lots of good memories of 2023, including bagging a Top 30 album with Six, his band’s first new record in 15 years, and playing the Super Bowl with Rihanna. Then there’s the stuff he’d rather forget about. Namely the online spat with a Guns N’ Roses guitarist and blowing out his knee in a bizarre basketball accident. Given you haven’t put out an album for fifteen years, did it surprise you just how well Six did? The response was beyond belief, in the sense that things are not supposed to happen like this for a bunch of late 50-somethings. All I can say is that the hunger was there. People were maybe missing seeing somebody who gave a shit what they were doing, from…

Relentless, the 12th and latest studio album from The Pretenders, is aptly named. Since forming in 1978, the group has endured deaths – guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, in 1982, and bassist Pete Farndon, in 1983 – as well as line-up changes and the vagaries of popular culture. Through it all, frontwoman Chrissie Hynde has remained the sole constant force behind the group. But since 2008, she’s had an equally persistent partner in James Walbourne, who has served as her musical foil. Walbourne is not only a guitarist but also Hynde’s writing partner, co-writing the band’s last two albums with her. On Relentless, Hynde and Walbourne combine familiar elements of the band’s past work with some unexpected twists and turns, which makes for a different-sounding album from its predecessor, 2020’s Hate For…

For Ginger Wildheart, 2023 was a year of increasingly desperate lows, followed by a moment of intervention that probably saved his life. The 58-year-old has spoken many, many times of the depression and mental health issues that on more than one occasion caused him to consider suicide, and back in the summer, his inner demons were shouting again, louder than ever. “The mental health system in Britain is a very dangerous joke,” Ginger wrote ominously on X/Twitter. “I’ve been chucked about the system and shat out the other end. Again. And for the very last time.” On July 29, another dispatch stated: “Sectioned. Suicide watch. That might be me for a while.” Two days later, a follow-up confirmed that Ginger was “in a good, safe place receiving treatment. Finally, I’m…

At the end of the day, Mother Nature and Father Time get their comeuppance,” Gene Simmons offers philosophically. “They put their hand out and say: ‘Okay, time for you to pay us for this wonderful life you’ve led.’ You have to have the dignity, self-respect and pride to know when it’s time to get off that stage.” Making that move hasn’t been easy for Simmons. When Kiss wrap up their nearly four-year-long End of the Road tour this month, it will bring the group’s 50-year career to a rousing finale. Kiss have taken their sweet time crossing the finish line, but when it’s over, the 74-year-old bassist will be able to look back at a life and career of his own choosing and making. Let’s go back almost fifty years…

With a colossal all-star line-up featuring AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Tool and Metallica, there’s no way that PowerTrip could have been anything less than legendary. Spread across three days, PowerTrip was a festival unlike just about anything else on the planet – with an eye-watering price-tag to match. But that didn’t stop 80,000 fans making a pilgrimage out to the California desert for a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That in mind, here are ten reasons PowerTrip was truly worthy of legend… These bands will likely never share the same stage again Just to reiterate: Guns N’ Roses. Iron Maiden. AC/DC. Metallica. Judas Priest. Tool. Any one of these acts would be the tent-pole attraction of just about any other festival, but at PowerTrip they were pulled together in…

Nick Lowe Quality Street: ASeasonal Selection YEP ROC Ten-year expanded edition of St Nick’s Yuletide spectacular. Turkeydry wit (Christmas At The Airport), a Ry Cooder co-write (Dollar Short Of Happy) and a perked up Silent Night all pressed into poinsettia vinyl and garnished with a bonus 45 featuring Los Straitjackets. 7/10 Bobby Keys Lover’s Rockin (The Lost Album) LE CHANT DU MONDE Disappointingly, if not unexpectedly, this ‘great lost album’ from the late Stones sax player turns out to be the all-star (Ron Wood, Steve Cropper and Nicky Hopkins, but no Mick ’n’ Keith), instrumental cod reggae/cocktail jazz/blues jam that absolutely nobody ordered. 5/10 X-Ray Spex Conscious Consumer DYI/CARGO The first thing to strike you about 1995’s newly vinyled second LP from the first gen chart-bothering UK punks is that…

If we were to place any store in the distinctly shaky barometer that is internet comment, Arctic Monkeys’ Glastonbury set was a bit hit and miss. Most – if not all – of this opinion came from jury members sat in front of TV screens. Seeing the Monkeys in the flesh is a different kettle of fish altogether. The Dublin set-list wasn’t all that dissimilar but it kicked like a particularly perturbed mule. Brianstorm, Teddy Picker, and a ferocious The View From The Afternoon found Matt Helders attacking his drums like they’d just keyed his Merc, and the slippery groove of Don’t Sit Down Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair was no less of a gut punch. Most impressive of all was the material from their finest album (fact), 2022’s The…

The Black Heart is one of the capital’s treasured rock boltholes, where darkness prevails, the music is heavy, and torn black denim isn’t so much a fashion choice as a religious persuasion. Enter Brooklyn’s The Moon City Masters, in a rush of hella good hair, beachy sunshine and some of the zingiest, sparkliest new songs in music today. They couldn’t look more out of place, or more delighted to be here. For the last couple of years we’ve been entertained by the Masters’ (aka Talor and Jordan Steinberg) sparkling ‘neo-classic rock’ and matching day-glo music videos. But can they translate it to a live setting, with just a guitar, bass and drums at their disposal? Reader, they can. The crowd is sparse but they play like it’s a sold-out theatre,…

Europe, their London-based vocalist Joey Tempest in particular, seem genuinely thrilled to be treading these world-famous boards, on the first of a two-night stand. Celebrating the four decades that have elapsed since their self-titled debut as part of a tour they’re calling Time Capsule, the Swedes step up to unveil a whopping three-hour show, minus a 20-minute interval. Not too shabby for a band with just one song. The above accusation is ludicrous, of course. Though naturally the quintet send the Palladium bananas by signing off with their signature, parp-laden hit – let’s not even mention its name – the main set is chocka with standards from Europe’s days as hairmetal heroes (Carrie, Rock The Night, Cherokee, Superstitious, Open Your Heart, More Than Meets The Eye, Stormwind, Ready Or Not)…

As the Rolling Stones reminded us with this year’s longawaited new album Hackney Diamonds, the bigger the band, the slower it moves. With four years elapsed since Pearl Jam’s last studio release, Gigaton, they might be positively stately these days compared to the early-90s alt.rockers who spat out almost an album a year. But as guitarist Mike McCready tells us, with a North American tour in full swing and new music mooted for 2024, they’re still alive and kicking. It feels like a long time since the release of Pearl Jam’s 2020 album Gigaton. Are the band less prolific than they used to be, or is that just what happens to big bands? [Late Soundgarden frontman] Chris Cornell once said something to me. Before he passed, we did a Mad…

It’s a stormy night in North London. The venue is small, packed and hot. The young crowd gazes adoringly at four musicians who seem new, old and otherworldly all at once. There’s glam there but also gothic atmosphere, doomy weight and punk aggression. It’s Ritchie Blackmore with a pop heart. Siouxsie &The Banshees with bigger guitars. Kate Bush with a lascivious hint of Rocky Horror. At the centre stands singer/guitarist Kimi Shelter, wire-thin in black spandex, all spidery hand gestures and biting chops, a giant black cloud of hair on her head. Something becomes clear. Starbenders aren’t just a glam rock band: they’re much weirder than that. “We’re a rock’n’roll band with all these split-offs,” Shelter reasons, “there’s so much goth influence, metal, punk, glam, and we’ve pretty much been…

In February 2024, CJ Wildheart releases a new solo album, Split, that reflects the duality of DNA of the guitarist and singer – a co-founder of The Wildhearts – with a signature use of punk and melody. “It’s called Split for that [musical] reason, not because I’ve split from The Wildhearts,” he affirms. “I’m exorcising a lot of ghosts. I’m singing about love and disappointment and all the things that make me angry, like Andrew Tate on SDE, which was inspired by Greta Thunberg saying Tate had ‘small dick energy’, but also some things that I love.” Though aware that Ginger has a new line-up of The Wildhearts, CJ feels that after all this time his former bandmate should “just let the name go”. He adds: “We gave it our…

THE BEATLES 1962-1966 (The Red Album) & 1967-1970 (The Blue Album) APPLE CORPS/CAPITOL/UME What we said: “For the generation born a smidgen too late to experience The Beatles in real time, who hit their teens in the 70s, it was these two brilliantly curated double albums of the Fabs’ finest recordings that hit their collections first. So screw with them at your peril. “The sound is truly sensational, most evidently on the Red album. Ringo Starr’s newly enhanced drumming is a revelation, while Paul McCartney’s bass finally hits its sweet spot. Guitar subtleties astound and vocal harmonies soar in spacious mixes, leaving 2009’s stereo remasters sounding weedy, gutless and, quite literally, shocking. “You’ll have all heard the miraculously contrived, heartstring-strumming Now And Then by now, which appears on Blue, but…

Rock music has a thing for the theatrical. From the pioneering eccentricity of Arthur Brown to facepainted trailblazers like Kiss and Alice Cooper, all the way to the masked madness of Slipknot and the campy Devil worship of Ghost, it’s almost as coded into the genre’s DNA as the guitar. And if there’s one band across 2023 who made the strongest claim to be carrying rock’s history of theatricality and mystique forwards, it was Sleep Token. The mysterious, masked viral sensations are the biggest breakout band to emerge from the metal scene since Tobias Forge decided to throw on a robe and mix black-metal visuals with classic-rock hooks more than a decade ago. In the space of 12 months, Sleep Token have grown from hotly tipped underground favourites to one…

If ever there was a band that liked to get high, it was Black Sabbath in the 70s. That much was evident in songs such as Sweet Leaf, begun with a stoner’s hacking cough, and Snowblind, with its whisper of ‘cocaine’. And a fair percentage of their audience shared in those enthusiasms. Many a joint was rolled on the black-and-purple cover of Master Of Reality. But now, with this new box set, the hypnotic effect of vintage Sabbath can be enhanced without the use of illegal stimulants. Hand Of Doom includes all of the Sabs’ studio albums from the 70s on picture discs featuring the original cover artwork, so vinyl lovers can experience the slowly unfolding terror of the band’s defining song Black Sabbath while watching that spectral female figure…

On November 1, 2018, Creeper announced that their show at London’s Koko was to be their last. Actually a Bowie-style ruse for the band to reinvent themselves going into their second record Sex, Death And The Infinite Void, it signalled Creeper’s theatricality and ambition while delivering a sense of flair seldom seen in modern rock and metal. Five years on, they’re at it again: playing two shows at Lafayette to launch their vampirically-themed Sanguivore. Like a gothic David Bowie, frontman Will Gould cuts a striking silhouette as he stalks across the stage, the eighties style synths and slick grooves of Sanguivore songs Cry To Heaven and Teenage Sacrifice already feeling like well-worn anthems – not least because fans scream along fervently. Black Heaven and Lovers Led Astray see Gould croon…

It felt like a gathering of the tribe amid the ornate foyers of the Palladium. Even among the classic rock fraternity, jam band fans are a sub cult over here. There was the usual sprinkling of Grateful Dead t-shirts but they were generally in good nick, for the most part, nicely ironed. AString Cheese Incident t-shirt looked well battered in comparison. Among the young cognoscenti the Tedeschi Trucks Band is this year’s model. Gov’t Mule have attained venerable status – having been jamming for more than a quarter of a century now – and they gave us a valuable history lesson for their first set. They opened with Bad Little Doggie from 2000’s Life Before Insanity and it wasn’t until the fourth song that they got within touching distance of…

Opener Taylor McCall has six folky songs to impress, and that’s exactly what he does. Although his South Carolina drawl melts the lyrics, his voice enthralls even above an overdriven amp on the last two, delivered on electric. The Black Country’s Saving Grace – that’s Robert Plant and Suzi Dian on vocals; backed by the threeman orchestra of Tony Kelsey and Matt Worley on anything with strings, plus percussionist Oli Jefferson – are here for this moment only. Nothing to sell: no T-shirts, no albums, nada. They simply deliver a beautiful set of songs linked by quality. Ancient folk tunes Gospel Plow and The Cuckoo rub shoulders with Plant’s own Let The Four Winds Blow. Although he is the star – cool in all-black, but affable and self-effacing – the…

‘The sound system is so advanced, it could be mistaken for sorcery’ We can argue U2’s artistic merits all night, but what other rock act could have been seriously considered to open this arena of tomorrow, the technical marvel of Sphere which makes all other venues in the world look like the back room of your local pub? From the outside it resembles a UFO landed on The Strip. The largest spherical structure in the world has an all-enveloping screen – the size of several football pitches – which is the promise of a thousand ropey VR advertisements made real. It’s the TV that God’s couch is probably pointed at. The sound system is advanced to the point where it could be mistaken for sorcery. When Bono whispers into the…

The sight of Rick Astley busting out a cover of AC/DC’s Highway To Hell while singing and playing drums at this year’s Glastonbury festival was one of the most joyous things to happen this year. But the Never Gonna Give You Up singer has some serious rock cred, from his working knowledge of early-70s prog to his friendship with Dave Grohl. THE FIRST MUSIC IREMEMBER HEARING That would have been the soundtrack to [1967 animated Disney film] The Jungle Book. I’m the youngest of four, and my sister was a bit of a prog rocker, so I’d hear really early Genesis around the house. But the first record I remember wanting to constantly have on was The Jungle Book. THE FIRST SONG IPERFORMED LIVE When I was in infant school,…