Features archive
March 2026
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33 articles
- March 5
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- “In three years we went from folk clubs to the LA Forum. I mean, we fought and got drunk and all that, but it was still a great time”: Approaching six decades in music, these prog heroes never operated as a democracy
- "You are not what you own." Why you still can't buy an official T-shirt from one of the greatest American rock bands ever
- “I was like, ‘I think it’d be cool if I die and spit up blood but I need to play another show the next night.’” How Black Sabbath and ‘major death anxiety’ inspired metal’s new fantasy sensation, Castle Rat
- "I remember listening to it and freaking out – I couldn't believe how authentic it sounded." How The Darkness created the ultimate modern power ballad
- “It’s fortuitous that Viv Stanshall was there – and what a good idea to put the tubular bells in”: 19-year-old Mike Oldfield was planning to defect to Russia before fate intervened
- "He wanted my shotgun – he'd just have these total freakouts. There were so many wonderful moments and terrible mayhem with him." Fuelled by bipolar disorder, the 70s' most outlandish concept album predicted a political meltdown
- March 4
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- "I was angry at them for writing that song. I thought, You don’t know. You weren’t there." The tragic and horrifying true story behind one of the biggest rock anthems of the 90s
- “I said, ‘Just start again. It would be good for you.’ He persuaded me to stay. I never felt good about it”: Martin Barre tried to quit Jethro Tull in 1980, but Ian Anderson wouldn’t have it
- “Armour-plated anthems about guns, battles and dudes shooting other dudes”: Every Sabaton album ranked from worst to best
- "I made my bed by leaving the band in 2010." The prog metal master who links Dream Theater, Avenged Sevenfold and The Beatles (but not Rush)
- "I'm on a pyre, a monk sentences me to death, and I will burn. Burn, burn, burn." Why you should probably go and see Powerwolf this week
- "There were a lot of 'folk musicians' who'd seen A Hard Day's Night and wanted to be pop stars, but they couldn't earn twenty-five dollars in Texas." Nine Steve Miller albums you should listen to and one to avoid
- “Of course, none of us agreed on any of it. Not one idea was liked by us all. So then it was, ‘Which idea do four of us like, which idea do three of us like?’” The story of Marillion’s upbeat lockdown album An Hour Before It's Dark
- "If we were legendary for anything, it was for bringing Jello to a show and getting it all over the monitors." The story of the hate song that kick-started the entire grunge movement
- March 3
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- "We saw the end coming." How the 90s' last big rock band reinvented after their frontman went off the rails - courtesy of one of the best singers in the game
- “I was always sure we were going to come back. My friends said, ‘You’re still waiting? Are you stupid?’” With Mike Portnoy’s help, Bigelf battled back from tragedy to make Into The Maelstrom
- "I remember finishing the lyrics and literally feeling sick to my stomach." How Alter Bridge regrouped, faced the dark side, put their foot on the gas and recorded a brilliant album
- "Nothing Is What It Seems was written about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They're the liar and the thief in the song": Brinsley Schwarz on his state-of-the-world album Shouting At The Moon
- “I interviewed him and he denied ever hearing the album. I find that somewhat hard to believe”: Did Jethro Tull inspire a character in Spinal Tap? The actor says no. Ian Anderson’s not so sure
- "It's not something I'd like us to be remembered for. It was a thorn in our side but I'm stuck with it." After lacing their neighbour's water supply with LSD, the Small Faces wrote the hit that ended their career
- March 2
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- "The jams that turned into songs on the album began with us playing out in the woods at night. Crazy spirit." Meet Ever Age: The 21st-century power trio whose debut album might just be a once-in-a-generation record
- "Alanis Morrisette inspired me to express how I was feeling." One of 2000s metal's early stars on being a teenage rockstar, breaking up nu metal's boys club and the art of failure
- “It’s inherent in the fanbase. You’re always measured against this yardstick. People comment, ‘This isn’t Yes!’ Where did we say this was Yes?”: Arc Of Life’s struggle to self-identify
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: March 2, 2026
- "I said, 'This is our last show.' He said OK. We never, ever talked about why it was so easy to break up the band." The curious story of the thinking man's hair metal band, and where it all went wrong
- "Future generations will consider it one of the most important recordings of all time." Rising Southern rock star Marcus King picks the soundtrack of his life
- "Those teenage kids could be kind of wild. It could be downright frightening at times." The story of the tongue-in-cheek classic that slammed manufactured pop music, aided by a pair of South African legends
- March 1
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- “I woke up in a panic – a door in my mind had opened which I couldn’t close”: How a psychotic reaction triggered the cult 70s album that fused progressive rock and the blues – and influenced Queens Of The Stone Age, The Damned and Nirvana’s producer
- “We couldn’t have really fitted in with grunge, because we were a different type of a band. We were Irish and from Limerick, and we had our own ideas”: The tragedy that inspired an iconic grunge-era anti-war anthem – and reinvented the band that wrote it
- “Everyone goes, ‘We pour our hearts into these things.’ But this genuinely was us, tears down our cheeks, trying to be manly”: How Big Big Train survived the death of David Longdon
- “What Keith Moon did on drums, he did on keyboards. Without him the genre would be much poorer”: When Geoff Downes saw Keith Emerson live, he found immediate inspiration
- “He was seeing the devil in everything. To him, his whole life had been in service to Satan...” This LA band had the world at their feet. Then their guitarist joined a religious cult while their bassist faced 11 years in jail for trying to rescue him
- "Tyler The Creator made me realise that I don’t need to scream for a song to be heavy.” Freedom-fighting hardcore punk, Victorian doom metal and 'angry dance music': the best new metal bands you need to hear this month
