Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Classic Rock

Dunno about anyone else, but I have zero clue where this year has gone. I’m pretty sure I say words to that effect in this space every year, but I genuinely think that 2025 has whizzed by at the speed of light! But pass it has, and here we are with our End Of Year bonanza. As you’ve no doubt realised by now, the issue you hold in your hand is our annual look back at what happened in the world of rock over the past 12 months – the amazing new albums and songs that got us endangering (what’s left of) our hearing, the reissues that reminded us and upgraded old favourites, Black Sabbath’s epic Back To The Beginning show (and subsequent devastating loss of Ozzy), and much more…

Anthony Jackson June 23, 1952 – October 19, 2025 NYC-born Anthony Jackson was a pioneer of the six-string bass. His career began as a session musician,, and he has credits on more than five hundred albums. “Jackson’s tone, touchand spirit reshaped the language of the bass,” said Nathan East, bassist with Eric Clapton’s band. The 74-year-old Jackson was reportedly suffering with Parkinson’s disease. Sam Rivers September 2, 1977 – October 18, 2025 Limp Bizkit are mourning the loss of their “heartbeat” after Sam Rivers passed away aged 48. “Sam Rivers wasn’t just our bass player – he was pure magic. The pulse beneath every song, the calm in the chaos, the soul in the sound,” said a statement from the nu-metal giants. No cause of death was announced. Jack DeJohnette…

Scott Sorry, the American singer-songwriter who played bass with UK rockers The Wildhearts for five years, lost a long-running battle with brain cancer on his 47th birthday. “After being diagnosed with glioblastoma back in 2018, Scott refused to let it define him,” said a statement from his family. “He outlived every doctor’s expectation, turning months into years, and even made it back to the UK in 2022 for a tour [alongside Grand Theft Auto and CJ Wildheart] – something that meant the world to him.” Sorry was born Gerard Engelter in Philadelphia. After playing with a series of punk bands, he replaced Nikki Sixx in the supergroup Brides Of Destruction. Later he also played with Sorry And The Sinatras, and released a solo album, When We Were Kings, in 2016.…

AC/DC have extended their Power Up world tour until the autumn of 2026. The band, whose critically praised performance at Murrayfield Stadium back in August was their first date in Scotland in a decade, have added more than 20 shows in South America, the US and Canada. Megadeth have included a version of Metallica’s Ride The Lightning, a track Dave Mustaine contributed to before the band sacked him, as a bonus song on their self-titled farewell set, due to be released on January 23. “I think it was the right time to record it and close the circle,” says Mustaine. Francis Rossi releases his third solo album, The Accidental, on January 30 via Ear Music. Rossi claims that it comes from a heavier place than previous records he’s made outside…

It’s been quite the year for The Darkness, with Dreams On Toast, their eighth album, reaching No.2 in the UK and putting the band back into arenas. With an Iron Maiden support slot and one of their biggest tours yet in the diary, their 2026 is shaping up to be monumental. Frontman Justin Hawkins looks back on a triumphant 2025 – including that skirmish with Yungblud – and tells us what to expect next. The Darkness have released a version of Mistletoe & Wine for Christmas. Has Cliff Richard given you his seal of approval on your take on it? Ha ha, no, but I would hope that he recognises how faithful we’ve tried to be in the important ways; I’ve tried to Cliff-ify the way I sing on the…

1 WALTER TROUT Sign Of The Times MASCOT/PROVOGUE The New Jersey bluesman is always at his best when there’s a little socio-political grit in the oyster. Sure enough, as Trump’s second term got up and running, Sign Of The Times hummed with polemics and protest songs, with Trout strafing everything from AI to far-right bigotry with that battle-scarred Strat. Killer track: Artificial 2 EARLY JAMES Medium Raw EASY EYE SOUND 3 LARRY MCCRAY Heartbreak City KTBA 4 ROBIN TROWER Come And Find Me MASCOT/PROVOGUE 5 TEXAS HEADHUNTERS Texas Headhunters BLU ELAN RECORDS…

December 13, 1984. In a packed Hammersmith Odeon, awaiting their heroes, Marillion fans are growing increasingly impatient with support act Cardiacs, a bunch of outliers led by the charismatic Tim Smith. Wearing terrible make-up and customised bandsmen uniforms, neither they nor their deliriously unclassifiable music is going down well with the Marillion hard-core, who’ve begun to hurl insults – and objects. Cardiacs are used to hostility, having been on the road with the neo-prog giants since early November, but tonight is particularly vicious. Marillion frontman Fish, appalled at what he’s seeing, feels compelled to intervene. He marches onto the stage and reprimands his own followers with: “If you don’t like it, fuck off to the bar and let them get on with their set!” “The people at the front really…

While a fair number of rock musicians of a certain vintage seem to ease into a mellow kind of semi-acoustic middle-age, Pretenders sidemen James Walbourne and Kris Sonne have felt the need to scratch a raw, bleeding rock’n’roll itch with their new band His Lordship, and this year’s second album from them, Bored Animal, is a supremely refreshing blast of high-octane, garage-rooted R&B. Titles like that and stand-out numbers such as I Fly Planes Into Hurricanes and The Sadness Of King Kong hint that this is anything but mid-tempo, ponderous stuff, although idiosyncratic psych diversions add further intrigue. We caught up with Walbourne in October while His Lordship were taking their splenetic live show to the US. What have been the highlights of your year? Well obviously releasing the album,…

In their 30 years as a band, there are unlikely to have been too many years that passed without making much of an impact in Orange Goblin’s universe. The British heavy metal quartet have blazed a trail for homegrown music across 10 studio albums, the most recent of which, Science, Not Fiction, is one of their best. And yet they have decided to call it a day. Their upcoming tour will be their last, their headline show at London’s Kentish Town Forum will undoubtedly be as memorable a night as any in their colourful career, made even more so by the fact it will be the band’s very last gig. “The idea started floating around, probably around this time last year,” frontman Ben Ward explains. “I already had one eye…

Saul ‘Slash’ Hudson is one of the most fortunate men in rock. Having quit Guns N’ Roses in 1996 when they were on top of the world, he returned in 2016 for the ultimate victory lap, making peace with frontman Axl Rose, playing guitar at the peak of his powers. From the outside, of course, Slash’s return to GN’R seemed inevitable. Behind the scenes, though, he and Axl barely spoke after the guitarist left the band, let alone thought about teaming up to take on the world again. And even when he did agree to cozy up alongside Axl again, he didn’t exactly have the long haul in mind. “It sounds crazy, but when I first got involved again it was just to do a couple of shows, one of…

Horses 50th Anniversary LEGACY NYC stalwart’s game-changing debut, now expanded significantly. It’s in the voice. The energy. The passion. The sharp edge cutting through wave after wave of indifference. The music’s primal urgency. The intricate way Patti Smith weaves punk dissonance and simplicity with classic rock power; how she draws inspiration from the tortured poets of the French avant-garde, blurs gender lines with seemingly effortless ease, straddles autobiography and dream so it no longer matters what might be real and what might not. But mostly it’s in her voice – defiant, compassionate, trembling with belief. Released in November 1975, Horses was recorded two months earlier under the direction of the Velvet Underground’s John Cale, his more structured approach occasionally clashing with Patti Smith and her band’s rawer, improvised take on…

“One of the things that Clutch fans like is our lack of production and special effects. It’ll be a cool show, but not like the ABBA experience.” Maryland quartet Clutch have been around since 1991, releasing 13 albums along the way. Favouring a no-frills, riff-heavy approach, they meld funk, blues, alt. rock, hardcore punk and metal to create a sound that is recognisable as all their own. Live they are reliably hard-hitting and always compelling, putting substance before style. Frontman Neil Fallon previews five British shows before the end of the year, revolving around their 1995 second album, Clutch. On this tour the band will be celebrating the thirtieth anniversary of their 1995 album Clutch. Actually, there’s been some confusion around that. It’s been reported that we are doing Clutch…

“When [original Kansas singer] Steve Walsh was in his prime there wasn’t anyone better.” Kenny Leckremo never intended to be a singer. “I started out as a drummer and did that for the longest time,” he says. “It was basically the guys in my band who pushed me into singing.” He’s made a decent fist of it since, hoisting the melodic rock flag high across four albums with the Swedish band, albeit with a 10-year hiatus in between. THE FIRST MUSIC I REMEMBER HEARING The first music I remember was Michael Jackson. The Thriller CD was all around me growing up, and I had Dangerous on cassette. It was pop music, but it had elements of everything in there – you had soul and R&B and a bit of rock…

STEVE MITCHELL Designer and illustrator Steve Mitchell is responsible for the slick badge typography on this month’s cover. He’s been a regular contributor to Classic Rock and its sister titles for many years, and it’s a rare issue that doesn’t feature his work somewhere among our pages. Check out Steve’s latest art adventures at his Insta @fiftysevendesign PAUL REES Paul has been writing about music for a long time. He was Editor-in-Chief of Q and Kerrang! and during that time interviewed everyone from Sir Paul McCartney, Madonna and Bruce Springsteen to Adele and Take That. This issue he takes a look back at the eventful 2025 that The Boss has had (p66). Paul’s new book Raised On Radio, an oral history of the glory days of AOR, will be published…

Tributes have been paid to Marcie Free, the lead singer T with melodic rock bands King Kobra, Signal and Unruly Child, after she died of undisclosed cause at the age of 71. The first transgender star within her genre, Free transitioned to Marcie Michelle Free in 1993, insisting that had she not done so she “would have died for sure”. “What a great person, with the greatest voice,” King Kobra leader and drummer Carmine Appice wrote on social media. “I’m really sorry about her passing. The work she did as Mark Free with King Kobra was amazing.” “[This is] a very sad day,” Bruce Gowdy, her Unruly Child bandmate, said online. “RIP, Marcie Free.” Free was born in South Bend, Indiana, and relocated to LA in 1979. Free recorded two…

Melodic hard rock icons Journey have announced details of the 60-date first leg of a farewell tour. Billed as Final Frontier, it begins in Pennsylvania on February 28, 2026 and ends in Texas on July 2. At present no UK or European shows have been confirmed. “This tour is our heartfelt thank you to the fans who’ve been with us every step of the way – through every song, every era, every high and low,” Journey guitarist Neal Schon said in a statement, promising to “pull out all the stops with a brand-new production – the hits, the deep cuts, the energy, the spectacle. It’s a full-circle celebration of the music that’s brought us all together.” Despite the confusion surrounding Schon’s claims that keyboard player Jonathan Cain had quit the…

Coroner were in the progressive wing of the old-school European thrash scene. Between 1987 and their split in 1996, the Swiss trio released five albums that incorporated increasingly unorthodox, prog and jazz-inspired textures into their music. Fourteen years after reuniting, they’ve released their belated sixth album, Dissonance Theory, which brings their titanium-edged technicality into the 2020s. “They used to describe us as the Rush of thrash metal,” says guitarist Tommy Vetterli. “There are worse things to be called.” Coroner reunited in 2011. Why wait this long to release a new album? We originally got back together just to play a few shows. Marky [Edelmann, original drummer] left in 2014. We got offers from record labels to do a new album, but he didn’t want to do it – he thought…

50 NEIL YOUNG Talkin To The Trees WARNERS By turns homely and politically fired up, Talkin To The Trees finds Neil Young delivering incisive commentary on Donald Trump’s America just as comfortably as the complex nuances of his own family life. It’s not his best work (49 albums in, that would be asking a lot), but it is an oddly soothing, dulcet snapshot of the world in 2025, in all its complexities. Both widescreen and deeply personal. PG Killer track: Big Change 49 CHRISSIE HYNDE AND PALS Duets Special PARLOPHONE In addition to writing a bunch of classics for The Pretenders, Chrissie Hynde has also had hits with reinterpretations of songs by artists as diverse as Ray Davies, Jon And Vangelis, and Sonny And Cher. Duets Special expands that approach, with Hynde and…

1 MOTORPSYCHO Motorpsycho DET NORDENFJELDSKE GRAMMOFONSELSKAB Steeped in ballsy Zep/Yes/Kraut blow-outs, the Norwegian hairy-prog masters’ magnificent double LP has psychedelic folk, joyous alt.rock, even classical piano. Brace yourself for the epic 21-minute suite Neotzar, featuring experimental siren Thea Grant. Killer track: Stanley (Tonight’s The Night) 2 CUSTARD FLUX Enter Xenon SELF RELEASED 3 NAD SYLVAN Monumentata INSIDEOUT 4 SCARDUST Souls FRONTIERS 5 HAT’S OFF GENTLEMEN IT’S ADEQUATE The Uncertainty Principle GLASS…

After 24 studio albums and almost 60 years with Jethro Tull, Ian Anderson’s legacy looks safe even before you factor in his not inconsiderable solo output. Tull’s latest album, Curious Ruminant, fulfils the contractual stipulations of their three-album deal with German prog label InsideOutMusic. But, unlike 2022’s The Zealot Gene and 2023’s RökFlöte, it’s not a concept album, and feels weightier, closer to home. “This is a record where you’ll see the words ‘I’ and ‘me’ more often than is usual in Jethro Tull lyrics,” Anderson confirms. “It’s not entirely introspective, but it is a more personal set of views, observations and feelings about various topics. I wanted to be a little more heart-on-sleeve.” Those “various topics” include songs about audience and performer, about bereavement and avarice and betrayal. Curious…

LED ZEPPELIN Physical Graffiti 50th Anniversary Deluxe Edition/Live EP RHINO What we said: “This new edition includes early mixes of the tracks, plus 1975 and 1979 live recordings. Released 50 years ago, Physical Graffiti isn’t part of the rock continuum. It didn’t especially pave the way for anything, but it isn’t a mere marker of its era. It hasn’t dated. It’s outside of the rock timeline, a gigantic, impermeable, orbital black achievement, which has intensified with age.” FOREIGNER 4 RHINO What we said: “One of the mega releases of the 80s, 4 is absolutely deserving of the super-deluxe treatment, not having been reissued in a properly expanded format up until now. Produced by ‘Mutt’ Lange, this now remixed hit-studded classic is available in multiple formats, boasting a plethora of extras. Depending on…

74-75: Night Life / Fighting UMR Seven-CD box set that is effectively Lizzy’s countdown to their lift-off. After the blockbuster, the prequel. Thin Lizzy’s 2024 box set, titled simply 1976, celebrated the band’s breakthrough year, in which they released two classic albums: Jailbreak and Johnny The Fox, the former so pivotal for the band due to its era-defining hit single The Boys Are Back In Town. Now, with 74-75: Night Life / Fighting, the focus is on the period leading up to that success, bringing together the first two albums recorded by what became the definitive Lizzy line-up after guitarists Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson joined bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott and drummer Brian Downey. Gorham has dismissed 1974’s Night Life as the band’s “cocktail party album”, such is its laid-back vibe.…

Motörhead Motörhead ACE/CHISWICK If you’ve had this a while, are a remaster or so behind, didn’t fancy earlier bells/whistles expansions and just want a clean replica of the original (albeit on ‘fine silver’ vinyl), now’s the time. The sound’s very crisp, especially Philthy’s drums. And it’s Motörhead… Alright. 8/10 New York Dolls Cause I Sez So RHINO Despite Todd Rundgren’s production reprise, the Dolls’ second reunion set (now on red vinyl) doesn’t quite match up to its celebratory predecessor. Aside from a swaggering title opener nothing entirely gels, especially an enormously ill-advised reggae revisit of Trash. 6/10 Ian Hunter And The Rant Band All The Young Dudes Live SECRET Previously available on DVD as Just Another Night, this double CD captures a Rant Band line-up (augmented by ex-Mott Mick Ralphs)…

Layne Staley WELDON OWEN PUBLISHING A family’s memory box of Alice In Chains’ ex-frontman. Sometimes, the reason for something’s creation is just as important as the end result. This collection of the remaining diaries, hand-scrawled lyrics, art and photos belonging to Layne Staley was overseen by the former Alice In Chains frontman’s mother, Nancy McCallum, in an attempt to reclaim the bright, kind, gentle son she knew from the doomed rock-star cliché that became inevitable after his lonely death from an overdose of cocaine and heroin in 2002. It also stands to raise awareness and money for the Layne Staley Memorial Fund, which supports a mobile unit taking healthcare to people in villages around Seattle who are struggling with addiction. There’s a sweet, family-album feel to the book, in which…

‘An unaccompanied Coast To Coast brings up goosebumps.’ Glenn Hughes / Sophie Lloyd London Shepherd’s Bush Empire Another age-defying performance from The Voice Of Rock. We mean this in the nicest way possible, but Glenn Hughes is a freak of nature. Given all the self-destructive things he did to himself back in the 70s and 80s, at 74 years old he shouldn’t even be alive, let alone gunning through almost two hours of hi-octane, funk-charged hard rock. But tonight that’s what he does. Working in his favoured power-trio format, Hughes is backed by a couple of familiar musicians. Danish guitarist Søren Andersen and British drummer Ash Sheehan were both a part of Hughes’s long-running tribute to his time with Deep Purple. Each deserves far more kudos than they receive, as…

David Ball, one half of dark electronic hitmakers Soft Cell, has died in his sleep at the age of 66 following years of ill health. Ball’s passing came two months after Soft Cell performed to 20,000 fans at the Rewind Festival in Henley-on-Thames, although an ever-multiplying list of ailments – which included broken bones, sepsis, pneumonia and being placed in an induced coma – had left him wheelchair-bound. However, it was reported that Ball remained “in a great place emotionally”. Soft Cell singer Marc Almond, who thanked his Chester-born bandmate for “being an immense part of my life and for the music you gave me”, also said: “I wouldn’t be where I am without you.” After they met as students at Leeds Polytechnic, the pair formed Soft Cell in 1978.…

“We’re faking it until we make it, and that seems to be working for us so far!” Even some of the darkest clouds are lined with silver. For Spanish guitarist/vocalist Maria Rico, two of modern history’s most challenging moments have come to lay the foundation for Luna Marble. Manchester-based Luna Marble is the manifestation of Rico’s lifelong love of creating and performing. The band’s sound blends Fleetwood Mac’s bluesy etherealness with Zeppelin’s grit, a grungy undercurrent and psychedelic shimmers aplenty iced with Rico’s Grace Slick-meets-Stevie Nicks vocals. “My dad is a big music lover. My earliest memories were going to his office and picking a CD for the car journey to school,” Rico reminisces. “If you asked a five-year-old Maria what I wanted to be, my answer was: ‘Rock star.’”…

1 W.E.T. Apex FRONTIERS Back after four years away, this Scandinavian-American supergroup of alumni from Work Of Art, Eclipse and Talisman (hence the name) finally has a permanent rhythm section. Thankfully, however, they don’t come close to diluting a long established formula of soaring, Velcro hooks, first-class musicianship, and commanding vocals from Jeff Scott Soto. Killer track: This House Is One Fire 2 YOUNG GUN SILVER FOX Pleasure MONTY MUSIC 3 PERFECT PLAN Heart Of A Lion FRONTIERS 4 CRAZY LIXX Thrill Of The Bite FRONTIERS 5 RAY OF LIGHT Salute BAYSIS MEDIA…

1 JAMES MCMURTRY The Black Dog And The Wandering Boy NEW WEST The literate folk-blues Texan delivers a set of richly enthralling narratives peopled by various dissolute characters, duly aided by a guest list that features Sarah Jarosz, Bonnie Whitmore, Bukka Allen and ace guitarist Charlie Sexton. The title track alludes to a series of hallucinations experienced by his late father, celebrated novelist Larry McMurtry. Killer track: South Texas Lawman 2 TOBACCO CITY Horses SCISSOR TRAIL 3 RODNEY CROWELL Airline Highway NEW WEST 4 MARGO PRICE Hard Headed Woman LOMA VISTA 5 MURRY HAMMOND Trail Songs Of The Deep FLUFF AND GRAVY…

Rat City Rockers TEE PEE The sound of crazy motorcyles ripping through your living room at 3am. Full disclosure: I am also from Rat City, and have puked in alleys with various members of the Casket Rats over the years. But I’m pretty sure I would a loved this record even if they were from the Okekanofee swamp. Casket Rats are four long-in-the-tooth and bloody-in-the-claw reprobates from Boston, betting on the world being hungry for a band delivering gritty midnight/street-fight rock’n’roll in the vein of Rose Tattoo, Thin Lizzy, Circus Of Power and the sleazier side of the Sunset Strip. That’s really all you need to know. Keith Bennett, their bass player (ex Wrecking Crew), might’ve thrown you out of a Boston club once or twice. For a bouncer he’s…

Jim Peterik & World Stage River Of Music: The Power Of Duets, Vol 1 FRONTIERS Now in his m id-70s, Jim Peterik has reached a point in his life where, after more than half a century of writing hits for himself and others (his own debut was as guitarist/vocalist with the Ides Of March way back in 1970), it’s time to give back. For the past several years the co-founder of Survivor and Pride Of Lions has turned the focus on emerging names via his Roots & Shoots albums, in addition to collating 2021’s Tigress – Women Who Rock The World. Now comes this 10-song set, the first volume in a series of duets. Make no mistake, it’s saccharine in the extreme. Should the world’s sugar supply dry up overnight, Peterik…

Theatre Of Pain BMG Dipshit sandwich. When Mötley Crüe arrived in the UK in early 1986 for their first tour here, they seemed genuinely dangerous. Bassist Nikki Sixx was apparently on a heroin-assisted path to an early grave, drummer Tommy Lee was engaged in a tumultuous marriage to Hollywood star Heather Locklear, and guitarist Mick Mars was at the beginning of a decades-long battle to stay in the band. Singer Vince Neil, meanwhile, had been lucky to avoid prison after driving Hanoi Rocks drummer Razzle to a tragic and violent death. What they didn’t have was a very good record to promote. 1983’s Shout At The Devil was inspired, with Mars’s sleazy riffs and Lee’s thumping rhythms augmenting Sixx’s undoubted ear for the kind of tune that made the blood…