How Peter Green kick-started Fleetwood Mac and recorded a classic By Johnny Black Among the many stars of London’s mid-60s blues scene, one guy outshone and outplayed them all – Peter Green. Here, we tell the story of how Fleetwood Mac were born
How Uriah Heep helped end the Cold War By Johnny Black Moscow at the height of East-West tensions was a grim, alien city. What better place for fading British rockers Uriah Heep to raise their profile? Cue stony-faced KGB, guns, girls and gallons of vodka
What happened at Jimi Hendrix's chaotic jam with Jim Morrison By Johnny Black When some of the most talented stars of the era met in a small New York club, the on-stage jamming soon turned into a full-on, bottle-breaking brawl between Jimi, Jim and Janis
What happened when Killing Joke recorded inside the Great Pyramid at Giza By Johnny Black Bribery. Levitation. Exorcisms. Demons. It's all in a days work for Killing Joke as they record inside the Great Pyramid
The chaotic story of The Rolling Stones' star-studded Rock And Roll Circus By Johnny Black With Brian Jones falling apart on set, the Rock And Roll Circus went so badly for the Rolling Stones that the film wasn’t released until 28 years later
Jimi Hendrix: the life and times of a genius By Max Bell, Johnny Black, Rob Hughes, Hugh Fielder, Ken Sharp, Mick Wall, Henry Yates Classic Rock talks to Jimi Hendrix's friends, admirers and other musicians about his life and importance
The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert: Behind The Scenes By Johnny Black As big as Live Aid, with an unfeasibly broad bill of rock, pop and showbiz stars, the Wembley fest commemorated Queen’s late flamboyant frontman and made a little history of its own
What happened at the Heavy Metal Band Aid By Johnny Black Hear ’n Aid saw the hard-rock community muscling in on the charity single bandwagon. Cue a heavyweight cast, guitar battles and big hair contests
The night The Who’s Keith Moon drove his car into a swimming pool By Johnny Black The Who drummer Keith Moon celebrated his 21st birthday by taking a Rolls Royce for a swim – or did he? Eyewitnesses explain what they saw...
Killers: The irresistible rise Of NWOBHM and Iron Maiden By Johnny Black From London's east end to some of the biggest stages in the world, Iron Maiden's story started with a three track demo and a sweaty pub gig decked out like an old Western movie...
Jimi Hendrix and the birth of heavy – by the people who were there By Johnny Black When Jimi Hendrix arrived in London in 1966 he blew the minds of Clapton, Beck and Page. They'd soon follow his lead and develop an explosive new form of electric blues
How I Stole Gram Parsons’ Body By Johnny Black The strange theft of Gram Parson’s corpse – told by the people who were there.
What happened the night Brian Robertson got glassed at The Speakeasy By Johnny Black “The glass went straight through my fingers then sliced down and cut the tendons and nerves. It cut an artery as well...”
The story of Hear 'n Aid, the heavy metal Band Aid By Johnny Black Eat your heart out, Bob Geldof – Hear ’n Aid saw the hard-rock community muscling in on the charity single bandwagon. Cue a heavyweight cast, guitar battles and big hair contests
Brinsley Schwarz and the press trip from hell By Johnny Black It was supposed to be the New York adventure that would make the Tunbridge Wells pub rockers worldwide superstars. But what seemed like a great idea turned into a PR disaster
The story of Axl Rose and Kurt Cobain's MTV bust-up, by the people who were there By Johnny Black In the blue corner, grunge’s brand new poster boy and his motormouthed wife. In the red corner, Gn’R’s short-tempered frontman and six huge bodyguards. Gentleman, handbags at the ready…
What happened the day The Fugs attempted to levitate the Pentagon By Johnny Black Film-maker Kenneth Anger was “hissing like a snake”, hipster Abbie Hoffman was threatening troops with a water pistol filled with LSD, and the freaks were chanting: “Out, demons, out!”
What happened the night Jethro Tull beat Metallica to a Grammy Award By Johnny Black When prog rockers Jethro Tull pipped Metallica to win Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Recording award in 1989, most in the audience started laughing. Some of them haven’t stopped
The Day Twisted Sister Went To War With The PMRC By Johnny Black It was the biggest music battle of the 80s. In the blue corner: Dee Snider, Frank Zappa and John Denver. In the red corner: the US government. Seconds out…
Black Sabbath: the madness behind Master Of Reality By Johnny Black In 1971, Black Sabbath released the monumental Master Of Reality album, inventing heavy metal’s future… and opening the door on an era of cocaine, Quaaludes and dagger-wielding Satanists
Tape decks, drugs and Abbey Road: how The Beatles’ Revolver revolutionised rock By Johnny Black Revolver is a feat of The Beatles' sonic experimentation and songwriting genius – we bring you the story behind how the album was made
Johnny Cash: the unplugged album that saved a country legend’s life By Johnny Black Johnny Cash had given up on life by the early 90s. Then he met Rick Rubin – the producer who would reawaken his career with the acoustic American Recordings
50 Years Of Pink Floyd: A Most Unlikely Reunion By Johnny Black Pink Floyd’s classic line-up reunited only once, to play the historic Live 8 charity concert in 2005. Just don’t ask them to do it again
Whatever Happened To The Stars Of The Decline Of Western Civilization Pt 2? By Johnny Black We track down the stars of classic car crash metal documentary The Decline Of Western Civilization Pt 2: The Metal Years. But where are they now?
When BB King came to London… By Johnny Black As the 70s kicked in BB King was playing to a whole new audience of white kids. Then he decided to leap across the Atlantic to cut the classic In London with the British rock elite...
