The Best Things You'll Read This Week

TeamRock+ is the new way to read Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog magazines. For less than £1 a week, you can access all the latest issues of our magazines, wherever you are and on any device.

And if you’re a registered member of our websites - that is, if you login to read features – then you can read three stories from the magazines every 30 days, including articles from magazines that aren’t even in the shops yet, and exclusive stories only available in TeamRock+. To find out more about TeamRock+, go here. Meantime, here’s a selection of the some of the stories you can read right now:

Robert Plant: The Maverick Returns

1) INTERVIEW OF THE WEEK: ROBERT PLANT

In This Moment: On The Brink

2. The Moment When, um, In This Moment’s Maria Brink’s Lady-Gaga-of-Metal Mask Slips

…And the truth is oddly human and affecting. The current Metal Hammer profiles Brink and co’s return with new album Black Widow, and finds the Lady Gag of Metal in a relaxed and maternal mood. “I actually have to run some of the things I’m going to wear onstage past [my son] sometimes’” she says. “Just to give him a warning, because the hardest part for me being a mom is that I’m very provocative and in touch with my sexuality. I don’t want to put boundaries on my art but I don’t want to do anything to upset my son.”

1974: The Year of Living Dangerously

3) Ian Anderson’s 1974: the Year the Wheels Started To Fall Off Prog

Prog’s codpiece-wearing cover star looks back 40 years to remember his 1974 – and the gathering storm: “You can look back at 1974 and appreciate that it was the birth of punk rock. You had bands like the Ramones starting up, and a lot of this was due to the anger many people felt, the bitterness they had of being marginalised and powerless. The Ramones were true American rock’n’roll in a grungy, street-credible way. And that sort of music comes round in cycles. In 1969, it had been the MC5, whom Jethro Tull actually played with, and then in 1974 it was the turn of the Ramones.” The first golden era of progressive music was drawing to a close…

Krokodil: For Those About To Krok

4) “We’re not a supergroup, we’re a superb-group…”

Yeah, whatevs, big ‘ead. While the rest of the world was wondering who the new Slipknot bassist was, Metal Hammer was interviewing him and his other new band, Krokodil. Daniel P Carter – yeah, him off the radio – talks about weird new drugs and metalhead snobbery: “We’ve all driven around in postal vans and we’ve all slept on floors. That wasn’t just ‘back in the day’, that’s recently.”

Genesis: Turn It On Again

5) Genesis Aren’t Together Anymore But They’re Still Busy and They’re Still Arguing

The new issue of Prog catches Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford on top form: “Mike’s book is all lies – you know that,” says Banks, “particularly in relation to me. I thought he was a bit unkind to me, actually. Not in the way that Keith Richards wrote about Mick Jagger, but just generally quite dismissive. I told him so and he admitted a certain amount of it. He also changed a few stories so that he’d look better than I did…”

The Best Of 2014: David Coverdale vs The Bear

6) David Coverdale Struggles With A Hairy Beast. Innuendos ensue.

The entirely true story of what happened when a bear broke into David Coverdale’s Lake Tahoe home, caught on CCTV (well, cartoon).

Nirvana: From Zeroes To Heroes

You might have missed: The Story of Nirvana’s First UK Tour TeamRock.com is an aggregational site that collects all the stories from Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog. But it also adds its own to the mix. This week’s Nirvana story – the inside story of their first UK tour – is possibly the first ‘long read’ the site’s created. If they’re all as good as this, we can’t wait for the rest.

Graham Bonnet, live in Glasgow

Still Here? Then Have A Read Of This.

Graham Bonnet played Glasgow the other night. Our man Stef was there to capture the heckling, free knitwear and “unusually high levels of testosterone.” Brilliant. Find out more about TeamRock+ here.

Scott Rowley
Content Director, Music

Scott is the Content Director of Music at Future plc, responsible for the editorial strategy of online and print brands like Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer, Prog, Guitarist, Guitar World, Guitar Player, Total Guitar etc. He was Editor in Chief of Classic Rock magazine for 10 years and Editor of Total Guitar for 4 years and has contributed to The Big Issue, Esquire and more. Scott wrote chapters for two of legendary sleeve designer Storm Thorgerson's books (For The Love Of Vinyl, 2009, and Gathering Storm, 2015). He regularly appears on Classic Rock’s podcast, The 20 Million Club, and was the writer/researcher on 2017’s Mick Ronson documentary Beside Bowie