Features archive
June 2026
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50 articles
- June 5
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- “They were defensive about keyboards. Everything I played, they had to have a band meeting about. Then they suddenly wanted wall-to-wall keys. It was quite silly”: Deep Purple’s Don Airey recalls the one album he regrets
- "In many ways that entire album feels like we were rebelling against ourselves." How Mastodon overcame moments of self-doubt and rebuilt themselves from the ground up on The Hunter
- "Freddie said, ‘Write me stuff, I know I don’t have very long. I will sing it. And then you do what you like with it afterwards." The tragedy and triumph of Queen’s final album and Freddie Mercury’s last goodbye
- The 10 best new metal songs you need to hear right now
- "Steve Harris was a road sweeper when I met him." What it was like following metal icons Iron Maiden from their very first gig
- "We smoked so much weed that we set off the fire alarms and almost killed everybody with the gas that was going to be released." The story of Machine Head’s Burn My Eyes, the debut album that revitalised 90s metal
- "He glared out into the audience like he wanted to kill each and every one of us, one at a time." The story behind the gig which inspired the birth of Joy Division
- Cool new proggy sounds from Gentle Giant, Voyage 35, Mastodon and more in Prog's brand new Tracks Of The Week
- "Are you a guitarist too?" The day that rock legends Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Brian May and Jeff Beck met Queen Elizabeth II
- “Metal needs a good f**king kick up the ass”: the story of Metallica’s Load
- "I was introverted and just wanted to hide in my bedroom." Laura Cox learned everything by copying others on YouTube - but now she's writing her own script
- "He had a cast of a human skull, because he was interested in the occult." The Life and legacy of At The Gates frontman Tomas Lindberg: the godfather of melodic death metal
- “If I’d been sacked, or left over musical differences, I’d have felt a right flunker”: Genesis ex Anthony Phillips on why he really quit – and why he’s not their version of The Beatles’ Pete Best
- "This man said, ‘I’ve brought my wife for a night out and you’re the worst band I’ve seen in my life. You’re crap.’” How the Moody Blues finally came good with Days Of Future Passed
- Bob Dylan introduced him to The Beatles, he married the girlfriend of a Rolling Stone, and he played with Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page and meditated with David Lynch. Donovan looks back...
- "I finished the melody in five minutes, but I was so jacked I couldn’t stop playing." The story of the Neil Young classic written on a piece of newspaper in the back of a car
- June 4
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- "Everyone agreed it was the perfect song." The story behind the Bruce Springsteen classic that's set to go viral thanks to the new Netflix show that Stranger Things fans will love
- "I knew something was wrong. I went to the bar and my girlfriend was there with another guy." The dagger-through-the-heart memory which inspired the biggest rock song of its generation
- "They commenced to destroy, slaughter and wipe the stage with our blood." How a hip hop powerhouse and a heavy metal institution united to create a whole new genre - and spark one of the rowdiest tours in history
- "I and everybody else were old farts in her opinion." Roger Waters on the night Sinéad O'Connor sang her spellbinding version of Pink Floyd's Mother
- "I don't always feel good at confronting people, especially people that I love. Sometimes, it takes songs to get the point across." This is the story of the vitriolic single that saved Paramore from splitting up
- "She’d be talking about a song with a really good guitar solo and demand we change it, make it heavier." The trailblazing metal singer who saved an influential band's career and inspired a generation of women in the process
- "A 42-piece orchestra, mellotron, and a string thing all playing this half-Turkish scale." The story of Ritchie Blackmore's most epic Rainbow song
- Hold up your phone, hang on to your tissues, we're going in: The 40 greatest power ballads of all time
- June 3
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- "I have this memory of killing myself, blasting my head off, and then throwing the guitar at the amp over and over." The story behind the most intense song on the most ambitious rock album of the '90s
- “We wanted this record to sound like it was from outer space.” How LA’s freakiest band Jane's Addiction kickstarted a rock revolution with the game-changing Nothing's Shocking
- “I laid that song down in four takes, but I was hammered when I recorded it”: How a deteriorating DevilDriver made immortal New Wave Of American Heavy Metal hit Clouds Over California
- “They expect you to fly about like a lunatic because they’re paying what they think is good money. What they get is heart and soul, and total dedication”: Why Kate Bush, David Sylvian, Tim Buckley and John Martyn all loved Danny Thompson
- “I was enthralled by the way they swapped instruments, and also the music they played. I was hooked”: The British thrash metal icon who adores prog eccentrics Gentle Giant (and he’s not the only one)
- "We were just tired, so we were like, 'Let's go live together in a cabin and take psychedelics', because that'll help." How The Beatles inspired one of emo's breakout bands to completely reinvent themselves
- 10 amazing covers by massive metal bands that you’ve (probably) never heard
- “I’m out here owning my weird because of Alice Cooper. He gave me the permission”: Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale reveals the 10 albums that shaped her career
- Two kids made their own Metallica video in 1989 and thinking about it, we're grateful we didn't have a camcorder then
- "You have to go and live in London for seven years. You'll be rejected 99 times out of a hundred." Watch Robert Fripp give a hopeful young musician some unflinching truth in 1985
- 10 bands who peaked with the first song on their first album
- June 2
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- “It was like a crazy film about what happens to serious musicians if they take a step to the left”: Fame and fortune called when prog stalwarts Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin released a pop cover. Did they sell out?
- “I was struck by the way he told the audience he wanted to die”: Al Stewart on a suicidal comedian, ignoring Robert Fripp, and the resulting hit single
- "People heard it and found it deeply offensive because they didn’t have the brain capacity to realise what it’s about." The story behind Ghost's most famous song - and what it really means
- 10 terrible metal albums with one classic song
- "Pat's Dogs! The cook is never tired! Pat's Dogs! The steam is always fired!" Celebrating that time Cinderella filmed a chili dog commercial before they were famous
- "It's the silliest, most oddball song in our entire catalogue, but it truly hit a nerve." How Toto used a synthesised flute riff and a drum loop to concoct a classic and a cultural phenomenon
- June 1
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- "When I see him in my dreams, he hasn't changed a bit. He is still my best friend." How Dave Grohl channelled his heartbreak over a devastating personal loss into one of Foo Fighters' most raw, emotional songs
- Classic Rock's Tracks Of The Week: June 1, 2026
- Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love spent New Year's Eve 1992 trying to save the life of an unconscious rock star who was turning blue on their hotel room floor
- “My wife is gonna die of it one day. They don’t know when. What do we want to do with our time here? Who do we want to throw out of our lives?”: Norwegian proggers Green Carnation’s second Dark Poem explores loved ones in crisis
- "We leaned into it when we realised it p***ed people off, because I was a little s***head." Black Veil Brides frontman Andi Biersack on being hated by metal fans, getting beaten up as Batman and chasing his dreams
- "She was looking at her pill bottles. I knew she was going to die so I was like, 'Put it down. Live right now.'" Mastodon’s Bill Kelliher wrote songs for Emperor Of Sand at his mum’s deathbed
- "We often felt like the strange duck on the festival bill because there was a woman in the band." How two modern metal icons united for a collaboration over a decade in the making
- "I walked through it all and felt like spitting on the lot of them". How Pete Townshend's disgust with the hippies inspired The Who's most epic song
- “People no longer wanted to see a band all dressed up with a big show. They wanted four blokes onstage with one light bulb”: When eccentric proggers Gryphon acquired Sex Pistols connections, they knew their time was up
