L7 bassist Jennifer Finch has died at the age of 59 after being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer.

The US band announced the news on Saturday July 18 via a statement on Instagram: “With a very heavy heart we announce that our beloved bandmate, friend, and fellow troublemaker Jennifer Finch has passed away today.

“She had a long courageous fight with brain cancer and was loved by many wonderful friends, musical peers and fans worldwide. We love you Jennifer.”

In a subsequent statement, the band said: “We are shattered by the loss of our beloved bandmate, sister and friend Jennifer Finch, whose fierce spirit, humor and boundless creativity helped shape L7 and changed all of our lives forever.

“Jennifer was a true original who lived entirely on her own terms, and the impact she made on music, art and everyone lucky enough to know her cannot be measured. We love her beyond words and will carry her with us always. Rest in power our dear friend.”

Finch’s illness was publicly revealed last week, when the band launched a GoFundMe campaign to help raise money for care and rehabilitation following “multiple surgeries and serious complications”. The campaign raised almost $400,000.

Finch was born in Los Angeles in 1966. Her first notable band was Sugar Babydoll, playing alongside of future Hole singer/guitarist Courtney Love and Kat Bjelland, who would go on to form Babes In Toyland.

She joined L7 in 1986, and played on their first four albums, including 1992’s Bricks Are Heavy, which produced the hit single Pretend We’re Dead.

After quitting L7 in 1995, she went on to front OtherStarPeople in the late 1990s before forming The Shocker in 2002 and, later, Sex In Progress.

She also worked as a photographer, having originally started out shooting the early 80s LA punk scene as a teenager.

L7 reunited in 2014 after a lengthy hiatus, with Finch rejoining her old bandmates. In 2026, she was forced to sit out the band’s farewell The Last Hurrah Tour due to her illness.

Evan Rachel Wood has given an in-depth interview about what she has learned about narcissism following her high-profile relationship with Marilyn Manson.

Actor and singer Wood alleged in 2021 that she was “groomed” as a teenager by Manson, before he “horrifically abused’ and “brainwashed” her.

Manson – real name Brian Warner – has always denied the allegations and in 2022 he sued Wood for defamation in the wake of her documentary Phoenix Rising in which she described the alleged abuse.

Manson's lawsuit alleged that Wood and associate Illma Gore hacked into Manson's computers and social media accounts, manufactured evidence that he was emailing illicit pornography, impersonated an FBI agent, provided checklists of alleged crimes to prospective accusers, and knowingly made false statements and defamatory claims.

He later dropped that suit and agreed to pay Wood's legal fees.

In January of this year, a Los Angeles judge reinstated a lawsuit filed against Manson by his former assistant Ashley Walters. It had previously been dismissed as it exceeded the maximum time period for legal proceedings to be initiated, but a change in the law allowed the case to be revived and it is ongoing.

In a new interview with Andrew Gold, which can be viewed in full below, Wood is asked about her previous assertion that she believed Manson had "studied" manipulation.

Asked what led her to believe this, Wood says: "If you take a wander in his library ... he had a lot of books on cults and a lot of books on mind control and manipulation. He also studied Scientology and things like that as well.

"Cults have different names and different styles but ultimately they're the same tactics. I think he was very, very well-versed in these tactics.

"He also made it very clear that he would retaliate against anybody that went against him or, in his words 'betrayed' him in any way. And a betrayal would be to expose him. I think he was also very well-versed on what to do if that ever happened and how he would retaliate.

Asked if she believed Manson to be a "psychopathic narcissist, she adds: "I think so, yeah. I think there was a time when I wanted to believe that there were maybe still good times and that we had just had a few bad times. But the more I started to read the stories that were popping up online, the more people that contacted me and told me their stories, there was just no way to think otherwise."

In the wake of the alleged ordeal, Wood has sought trauma therapy and has learned a lot about how to recognise narcissistic traits in people, including the slipping of the mask.

On Manson, she says: "Really the thing that scared me the most was when I saw the mask go on. That's when I really knew.

"He was about to go do an interview and he was just on a tirade. One of, I call them his narcissistic rants, of just berating everybody. Whenever he had to get ready for some sort of event or interview when he had to put his persona, makeup and everything on – it was guaranteed that it was going to be a bad night for everybody.

"I locked myself in the bathroom. He was going off and he would wreck things. He would wreck the house and he would yell at people. I came out right before he was about to go on and he was just ... this darkness, these dark eyes. And you saw him slip into the Marilyn Manson persona and then he went out and he was doing that calm, well-spoken Marilyn Manson thing.

"And that's when I realised. That's when you go back and you think about every interview that he's done in that persona. You think 'Oh my God'. What was going on behind the scenes? Was it ever real? Because I just saw you put that face on and I know that's not you. I know that face only goes on when the cameras are rolling or when you're manipulating somebody.

"It blew my mind and I didn't know what to call that until I was learning about narcissism and psychopathy and they talk about the mask and when you see the mask slip. That's exactly what it felt like."

Elsewhere in the interview, Wood discusses The Phoenix Act which she co-authored with California Senator Susan Rubio to extend the statute of limitations for domestic violence crimes.

If any video sums up Van Halen's 1980s, it's Hot For Teacher. Carefree and ribald, it features a socially awkward schoolboy (Waldo) and underdressed two models: Miss Canada runner-up Donna Rupert and former Playboy Playmate of the Year Lillian Müller. It's not the kind of video anyone would commission today, but as a time capsule it's alive with the spirit of the age.

Starring along side Waldo, the models and the band were four young actors employed to play the members of Van Halen as children. Amongst them was Van Halen nut Yano Anaya.

How did you end up playing a junior version of Michael Anthony in the Hot For Teacher video?

Yano Anaya: I was thirteen years old, and Van Halen was one of my favourite bands at the time. I’d done some commercials and a movie, A Christmas Story, before that, so when I got a message from my manager on the answering machine that I had an audition to play the part for Michael Anthony Jr in an upcoming Van Halen video, I swear to god I was so excited. In my mind I was thinking: “Holy crap, I look just like Michael Anthony – this is my job.”

Did you know any of the other kids before you met them on the shoot?

No. I went to an audition in Hollywood, then I got a callback two days later, then two days after that I got the call that I actually got the job. I didn’t meet anybody else until I got to the location, which was at a high school [John Marshall High School] in Los Feliz. The school wasn’t operating, because they used it so much in movies and commercials.

What do you remember about the day of the shoot?

The shoot took four days. I got there on the first day at nine-thirty in the morning, and I told my mom: “I need to go meet the band, that is my priority.” So I found their trailer and knocked on the door. Alex Van Halen answered, and he looked at me and went: 'What's up, kid?' And I went: “I'm part of the cast, I'm playing Michael Anthony Jr. I just wanted to see if I could hang out with you guys.” And he went: “Come on in.” I was like: “Yeeeeahhhh!”

You were a thirteen-year-old kid. Were they on their best behaviour when you were with them?

Well, their best behaviour for Van Halen. Cos there was no filter. Alex was like: “Hey, man, why don’t you go to the back and grab us a couple of beers?” So I walked back there, and Dave Lee Roth was there. He looked at me and went: “Who the fuck are you? Why is there a kid in our trailer?” And Alex was like: “Don’t worry about it, man, he’s part of the cast, he’s hanging out with us.”

They had an ice chest in the back with nothing but Coke and Schlitz Malt Liquor beer. So I grabbed two of them and went up the front, and Alex challenged me to a shotgun. I’m like: “I’m thirteen years old, it’s ten-twenty in the morning, and I'm a drinking a Schlitz beer with Alex Van Halen.” I drank that one beer, and I was so drunk.

What was the real Michael Anthony like?

He was very cool. He was just chilled. Eddie was kind of quiet as well. And I don’t think Dave was into hanging out with some kid. But Alex was the one. He wanted to know who I was, where I was from.

What's your favourite memory of actually shooting the video?

The thing that stuck with me the most was the part where the teacher was dancing on the table and all the kids were looking at her legs. The director was shouting: “Grab her legs!” I looked at my mom: “Should I actually do that? Is that okay?” And my mom was like: “Do your job, son.” I was so embarrassed to do that.

Did you get to spend much time with Eddie?

Yeah. I grew the balls to ask him to play the intro to Running With The Devil, which was my favourite song. He took me to the back of the trailer, pulled out a tiny little amp, pulled out his guitar, and literally played the whole thing for me, in person, by myself, just for me. That experience was epic.

Jonathan Davis was a surprise guest at X Japan star Yoshiki's performance in Los Angeles this week – where the pair performed a soaring orchestra-backed version of Korn's nu metal classic Freak On A Leash.

Yoshiki was performing the first of a two-night stand at LA's Walt Disney Concert Hall when Davis joined him for the performance in which they reimagined the track with the help of a full orchestra.

Yoshiki accompanied Davis on piano before switching to the drums for the rousing climax of the track.

Watch the performance below.

Freak On A Leash was the second single to be released from Korn's third album, 1998’s Follow The Leader.

The song was one of the first ideas to come from the album's writing sessions.

Davis previously told Metal Hammer: "Oh, we loved that song from day one. I remember coming up with all these lines. It came a lot easier than other songs."

On the track's memorable 'scat' breakdown, Davis adds: "We were jamming and I started mixing beatboxing and this scat thing I do.

"I loved vocal percussion – dudes like Doug E. Fresh and his beatboxing from back in the day. I listened to a lot of old school hip hop and New York freestyle – that’s what I listened to with all the 80s new wave stuff."

Korn kick of a UK and European tour in October.

Korn UK and Europe tour dates 2026

Oct 18 Stuttgart Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
Oct 19 Munich, DE, Olympiahalle
Oct 21 Cologne, DE, Lanxess Arena
Oct 23 Paris, FR, Accor Arena
Oct 26 Leeds, UK, First Direct Arena
Oct 28 Birmingham, UK, Utilita Arena Birmingham
Oct 30 Newcastle, UK, Utilita Arena Newcastle
Oct 31 Manchester, UK, AO Arena
Nov 2 Dublin, IE, 3Arena
Nov 4 London, UK, The O2
Nov 8 Amsterdam, NL, Ziggo Dome
Nov 9 Antwerp, BE, AFAS Dome
Nov 11 Hamburg, DE, Barclays Arena
Nov 13 Hanover, DE, ZAG Arena
Nov 14 Berlin, DE, Uber Arena
Nov 16 Prague, CZ, O2 Arena Prague
Nov 17 Krakow, PL, Tauron Arena
Nov 19 Vienna, AT, Wiener Stadhalle
Nov 21 Milan, IT, Unipol Forum

Think of his Bach-influenced Vox Continental organ hook on Light My Fire. Try to imagine Riders On The Storm without his ghostly electric piano. Witness his funked-up organ motifs on Peace Frog and The Changeling, or his delicate, modulating piano on Waiting For The Sun’s Yes, The River Knows. Ray Manzarek was one of rock’s most distinctive and innovative keyboardists, a true renaissance man drawing from a vast pool of diverse influences.

Jim Morrison’s lyrics aside, the palpable dread and foreboding of The Doors’ music (is there a creepier summer song than Summer’s Almost Gone?) was in the main evoked by Manzarek’s keys. Robby Krieger and John Densmore were no slouches in the chops department either, but it was Ray who had the sounds and imaginative gravitas to carry that weight.

“The beauty of the LA scene in late 1965-1966 was that every band was totally unique”, Jac Holzman, the man who signed The Doors to Elektra, told this writer in 2007. “Morrison hadn’t ignited in the first three Doors performances I witnessed. It was the musicians in the band that kept me coming back. I was fascinated by the substitution of the bass guitar with piano bass, and the clean architectural line of the music was very striking.” Contentious, perhaps, but you could argue it was primarily Manzarek who got The Doors signed.

Born in Chicago, Illinois on February 12th, 1939, he shared a birthday with Abraham Lincoln and was christened Raymond Daniel Manczarek (sic) Jr. His grandparents had emigrated from Poland in the 1890’s; his father, Ray Sr, was a tool and die maker while mum Helena kept house, looking after him and his three brothers. His parents were crate-diggers, seeking out old 78 rpms of blues singers such as Bessie Smith. Mom sang well and dad played guitar and ukulele.

Ray was six foot tall by the time he was 14, loved basketball, and soon achieved a first-rate IQ score of 135. He was schooled in the ways of Bach and Chopin by his first piano teacher, but in his 1998 memoir, Light My Fire: My Life With The Doors, Manzarek recalled it was his second piano tutor Bruno Michelotti – “a dance band leader and a real cool cat” – who taught him “virtually everything I know about music”.

Michelotti helped Manzarek unlock the mysteries of boogie-woogie piano, empowering Ray’s left hand to become The Doors’ bass player, too. Boogie-woogie also seemed synonymous with Manzarek’s sexual awakening: “It was the rhythm of the act of love. The sway of a woman’s hips. The thrust of a man’s haunches.”

In 1958, Manzarek saw Muddy Waters up close and personal at Chicago’s Pepper’s Lounge; he and his two pals the only white kids present. Watching Fritz Reiner conduct Debussy’s La Mer was another epiphany. While studying economics at Chicago’s De Paul University, Manzarek became a culture vulture, soaking-up the best of musical theatre (Bernstein’s West Side Story) and world cinema (Truffaut; Bergman; Kurosawa). He’d barely smoked a joint, far less dropped acid, yet, but, artistically speaking, the doors of perception were already wide open. No wonder he and Jim Morrison had such a meeting of minds.

Manzarek’s parents wanted him to become an attorney, but their son had other ideas. Enrolling in the University Of California’s Department Of Cinematography in 1962, Ray met future wife Dorothy Fujikawa there and had her act in his student films, but it was Manzarek’s meeting with fellow UCLA student and aspiring auteur Jim Morrison that made history. Exchanging dreams and ideas, Morrison and Manzarek would spark the full-flowering of each other’s artistry.

At UCLA they studied under resident tutor Josef von Steinberg, German Expressionist director of Marlene Dietrich in films such as The Blue Angel. Steinberg’s influence upon Manzarek and Morrison was profound, his darkly adult films and philosophical lectures firing their youthful imaginations.

“I thought Steinberg was an amazing intellectual and his movies’ existential ominousness had a direct impact upon The Doors’ music”, Manzarek told this writer at his tasteful, Bauhaus art-appointed Beverley Hills home in 2003. “In the early days I always felt that I was Joseph Von Steinberg to Jim’s male Dietrich, kind of helping to direct him.”

Graduating by May 1965, aspiring poet Jim and classically-trained jazz/blues buff Ray were faces on the emerging ‘heads’ scene, hanging out at Jim’s bohemian apartment in Goshen, West LA. They devoured Huxley’s The Doors Of Perception and Kerouac’s Beat classic On The Road, Manzarek citing the latter as “a book that instilled a sense of search and freeing myself.” Fuelled by marijuana and Tecate beer, Ray and Jim’s discussions also took in the on-going war in Vietnam, Sonny Rollins versus John Coltrane, Debussy versus Stravinsky and many other hot topics.

Fittingly, The Doors formed that same year after Manzarek met Robby Krieger and John Densmore at an LA transcendental meditation class led by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the same guru who would later instruct he Beatles in India.

“The leader guy at the class, Jerry Jarvis, asked if there were any problems”, Krieger recalled in 2007. “Ray stuck his hand up and said, ‘Yes. No bliss yet!’”

The group’s breakthrough single Light My Fire was a brilliant Krieger composition, but it was Manzarek’s calling card organ motif which made it irresistible, one of the most distinctive things on the airwaves. “I said, ‘You guys take a walk to the ocean and I’ll have something by the time you come back”, Manzarek told me in 2007, recalling being tasked with the song’s intro. “The muse jumped into my fingers and made my JS Bach studies come out. I did a [harmonic] circle of fifths and stumbled a bit with the filigrees, but it all resolved itself in 10-15 minutes.”

Elsewhere on The Doors self-titled 1967 debut, Manzarek responded to John Densmore’s bossa nova intro to Break On Through (To The Other Side) with an in-the-pocket organ groove inspired by Brazilian master of the form João Gilberto. He also played the Marxophone (a kind of zither) on The Doors’ theatrical cover of Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill’s Alabama Song (Whiskey Bar) . In 1967, such sparks of inspiration and informed plundering made The Doors sound very fresh. They were not one thing, but many things. A dazzling hybrid with a dark, bluesy underbelly.

Manzarek’s playing subtly changed across the six Morrison-fronted Doors albums. It became more refined; broader in scope. The “little Chopin polonaise” he brought to L.A. Woman’s Hyacinth House sounds like the prototype for Dave Greenfield’s organ runs with The Stranglers. Long freed from in the-studio bass-line responsibility by that point, Manzarek also let his imagination run-free on L.A. Woman’s title track while Densmore, Krieger and sometime Elvis Presley bassist Jerry Scheff laid down the groove.

It was mainly Morrison and Krieger who wrote the Doors songs credited to all four of them, but Manzarek was their ideas man. Not the only one, obviously, but Ray tended to ice - and spice - the cake. His intro to Unhappy Girl from Strange Days is all-important, and he added backwards piano to the song after what he described as “a great visitation of energy” in the studio. He also played percussive tack piano – a tinny, altered instrument with drawing-pins or nails placed on its felt-padded hammers – on People Are Strange, giving it edge and character.

Manzarek may have pushed the envelope musically, but he was less of a libertine than Morrison personality wise. Still, he certainly partook of mind-altering substances. “Acid is
a spiritual thing, a sacred sacrament”, he said. “For me, you took LSD when you went to the forest or the beach to attune yourself to the vibrations of the planet.”

As for sex, it was certainly something Manzarek talked about enthusiastically - and sometimes in a slightly icky way. His memoir has some rather graphic details about the carnal misadventures of the passionate part of himself he refers to as ‘Little Ray’, and nor was Manzarek more prudish in interviews or in public. Introducing People Are Strange at a 2004 Wembley Arena concert by The Doors Of The 21st Century, he invited the crowd to “play with each other’s genitals ever so gently.”

While Morrison became the wild man, Manzarek like to retain control. The singer had the looks, the voice, the way with words, but he needed direction, a vote of confidence. The oldest member of The Doors by four years (and older than Krieger, the youngest, by seven), he was best-placed to provide these things, his seniority granting a certain authority even if Jim got the girls and the adulation and the headlines.

In later interviews, Manzarek spoke articulately and performatively, that IQ of 135 on display. There was a sense of him not suffering fools gladly and he could seem a tad pretentious as he waxed lyrical about “the 12 astrological archetypes”, explaining how Morrison was “Dionysian” (excessive, addictive, charismatic), while he, by contrast, was a balancing “Apollonian” sort (driven, ordered, favours thinking over feeling).

Perhaps Manzarek was just trying to breathe life into a story that had been told and re-told. He portrayed Riders On The Storm as a portent of Jim’s death: “That whispered voice you hear was the last vocal Jim recorded on planet earth. It was the voice of the spirits, calling the shaman out of his physical form and into the next realm of existence. Had I known that Jim was so close to death, I would have seen it as a sign, maybe even a cry for help. But he was only 27 years old and it was impossible for anyone to believe that Jim was about to die.”

After Morrison’s death in Paris in 1971, Manzarek - and sometimes Robby Krieger - led The Doors from the front on 1971’s Other Voices and 1972’s Full Circle. Alas, there was no getting over the charisma-deficit in Jim’s absence, and Ray and Robby’s vocals aren’t great. They did notch up one final hit in mainland Europe and Latin America with Manzarek’s The Mosquito, a hooky novelty song that found him rhyming ‘mosquito’ with ‘my burrito’ as he sang about a pest-compromised snack.

In 1978 came the final ‘new’ album to bear The Doors name, An American Prayer. It grafted recordings of documentary dialogue, live concert talk and Morrison’s poetry to music old and new. Some deemed it a travesty. Former Doors producer Paul A. Rothschild went further, calling it “a rape of Jim Morrison.” Here were the seeds of the controversies and internal feuds that would dog the surviving members’ handling of The Doors’ legacy from there on in.

A few years earlier, Manzarek’s 1974 solo debut The Golden Scarab had already cemented the sense that, musically speaking, he could be something of a loose cannon. Packing esoteric spoken-word and riotous percussion, it was ridiculed and praised in fairly equal measure, but its new-age Afro-funk is ripe for reappraisal, even if song titles such as Oh Thou Precious Nectar (A Little Fart) are off-putting.

The same year found Manzarek teaming with Iggy Pop, whom he’d long thought of as the ideal successor to Jim Morrison in The Doors. Having just left The Stooges, Iggy was being managed by Doors overseer Danny Sugerman. He and Manzarek rehearsed for months and even played live together (no tapes or footage have surfaced), but it wasn’t to be, perhaps because Iggy’s drug addiction was raging, and he’d need to follow David Bowie to Berlin to dry-out.

Instead, 1975 brought Manzarek’s second solo LP, the jazzier, bluesier The Whole Thing Started With Rock & Roll Now It’s Out Of Control. It featured Joe Walsh and Patti Smith, but not even they could save it from obscurity and poor sales.

Re-booting again in 1977, Ray formed Nite City, whose members included future Blondie bassist Nigel Harrison and drive-time radio friendly singer Noah James. But despite chart-friendly AOR leanings, the group failed to make an impact. That their second and final LP, 1978’s Golden Days Diamond Nights, was only released in West Germany spoke volumes.

Manzarek would soon busy himself producing LA punk band X’s debut album Los Angeles (which included a cover of The Doors’ Soul Kitchen), and their next three records. His 1983 solo album Carmina Burana occasionally brought a hitherto unimagined Chas’n’Dave vibe to Carl Orff’s demonic-sounding 1935 cantata, but with famed composer Phillip Glass co-producing it was also further proof of his pedigree.

As the 80s rolled on and appreciation for his former’s band’s legacy grew, Manzarek’s work with The Doors was a passport to all kinds of collaborations. In 1987, when Echo & the Bunnymen recorded a cover of People Are Strange for vampire flick The Lost Boys, Manzarek was invited to recreate his parts and subsequently brought his organ prowess to the Bunnymen’s Bedbugs And Ballyhoo, a song from the British band’s self-titled 1987 album.

More than a decade would pass before his the surprise resurrection of The Doors. The catalyst was a 2000 episode of VH-1’s Storytellers series dedicated to the band. An ecstatic Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction and Scott Weiland of Stone Temple Pilots were among the stars booked to sing live backed by Manzarek, Krieger and Densmore, but it was another guest - The Cult’s Morrison-esque singer Ian Astbury - who got the gig fronting an incarnation of The Doors which began touring again in 2002.

Densmore was supposed to be involved in the reunions, but he pulled out, claiming tinnitus issues, and eventually ended up gaining an injunction which forced Manzarek, Krieger and Astbury to perform as ‘The Doors Of The 21st Century.’ A Morrison-less Doors wasn’t worthy of the name, Densmore now griped. But Manzarek was quick to defend himself via CNN news: “The guy who put the band together is performing with the guy who wrote Light My Fire. If we’re not The Doors, who is?”

Densmore and Manzarek had often feuded and had long-standing differences about how the Doors’ music and estate should be managed (the part in Manzarek’s memoir where he recalled telling Jim to regard John as “his dumb kid brother” probably didn’t help). But the pair made their peace prior to Manzarek dying of bile duct cancer in Rosenheim, Germany on May 20, 2013. “I called him and thank God he picked up and we talked about his illness”, Densmore recalled in 2023. “I felt so much better.”

“If you’re going to become a legend - one of the immortals, a god,” Manzarek himself said in 2011, “then you have to die. That’s the tragedy.”

He was talking about Jim Morrison, of course, but his own passing aged 74 brought a kind of immortality too. Ray Manzarek is alive again every time we hear Light My Fire.

Originally published in Classic Rock Presents: The Doors

Jethro Tull have attracted some unlikely fans over the years, from Stephen King to Nick Cave. But among the most surprising are a pair of punk singers whose own music sits worlds away from the prog giants.

The brand new issue of Prog magazine sees Tull frontman Ian Anderson answering questions from a range of famous friends and fans, including members of Yes, ELP, Opeth and more.

One of the questions comes from ex-Stranglers vocalist Hugh Cornwell, who asks Anderson whether he felt like the rise of punk was “a seismic moment in rock music or just another phase in its history”, leading to an amusing story about an iconic punk singer who sheepishly asked Anderson for an autograph.

“I saw the whole thing as being somewhat inevitable,’ says Anderson in response to Cornwell’s question. “The MC5 was punk to me, then along came the Ramones. And then it crept into the world of British music in the mid-70s.

“I do remember Joey Ramone coming up to me at one point to ask for an autograph. He was a bit bashful: “It’s not for me, it’s for my mother.”

Ramone wasn’t the only punk musician who expressed a sneaking admiration for Jethro Tull. Answering a question from ex-Gentle Giant singer Derek Shulman about the most unexpected Tull fans he’s ever met, Anderson responds: “There have been a few unlikely musicians, none more so than [ex-Sex Pistols singer] John Lydon.

“He once came over to me at an event. He had obviously had a few beers, but he was being completely over the top, saying how much he loved the Aqualung album and that particular song.”

Read the full interview with Ian Anderson in the brand new issue of Prog. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.

In 1975, young illustrator Colin Elgie was approached with a brief he couldn’t resist: to design the cover for Genesis’ first post-Peter Gabriel album A Trick Of The Tail. The catch – there were no songs, no lyrics and he hadn’t even met the band. Marking the record’s 50th anniversay, Elgie looked back on the commission that helped establish his career.

Colin Elgie is, as he cheerfully admits, “a lucky bugger.” As a young man he studied at East Ham Technical College under the tutorship of George Hardie, the graphic designer and Hipgnosis affiliate behind covers for the first Led Zeppelin album, Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side Of The Moon and Wish You Were Here, and 10cc’s Sheet Music.

Elgie recalls that “prospects for getting work were not very good” as he neared the end of his course – but some helpful advice from his teacher provided a handy shortcut to employment.

“When I left the college after three years, Hardie said, ‘Go and see the guys at Hipgnosis,’ so I did, and that was about it! Over the course of 10 years I worked freelance. I was never part of the inner circle, but I was often there or thereabouts!”

In 1975 a particularly appealing assignment dropped into Elgie’s lap – Genesis were looking for someone to provide artwork for A Trick Of The Tail, their first album after Peter Gabriel’s departure. “They had always had illustrated covers,” says Elgie. “They had the Betty Swanwick one [Selling England By The Pound], which I loved. Before that they had the trilogy of Paul Whitehead designs, and those were really nice.

“But Hipgnosis were photographers, so it wasn’t something they could really do. I remember Storm Thorgerson saying, ‘The album’s got all these different characters, so make it a theatrical thing, like they’re all in a row, taking a bow.’ That’s what I went with.”

While Genesis were beavering away in Trident Studios on their new material, Elgie had virtually no contact with the band. Instead he was given a few song titles and the rest was left to his imagination.

“I’d worked out the characters I wanted to draw, but really they have nothing to do with the characters in the songs. I got a tracklisting – because there was nothing to listen to yet – and maybe some brief notes about what each track was about. I don’t even think there were lyrics; it was really vague!

“I now realise that their squonk looks nothing like my squonk! But I put together scenes with two or three characters interacting, and the band liked it. I did a rough version of the cover and they said, ‘Fine – go with it!’”

In contrast to previous outing The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway’s modernist imagery, A Trick Of The Tail’s rabble of eccentric characters was purposefully designed with an quasi-Victorian feel. “I always loved those kinds of engraved cartoons and illustrations,” says Elgie. “I’ve got loads of books about old Punch magazines with lovely engravings in them and the satirical prints you used to get. I love the texture of it. It was a perfect fit for the music, I think.

“It was all done with a pen, and the background was done separately. The characters were done in black and white, and then toned into sepia or whatever it was.”

Elgie did finally get to meet Genesis at the Hipgnosis office in London’s Denmark Street, sometime after A Trick Of The Tail was released. “They were in for a photoshoot, I believe. They were very nice; very charming. Subsequently I did some work for Mike Rutherford on his solo album, Smallcreep’s Day – which he rejected!

“The only time I ever saw Genesis play was when they gave me a freebie ticket. They weren’t my favourite type of music at the time; I was into more bluesy stuff. But I was knocked out by their show.”

Genesis would employ Elgie again for their next album, Wind & Wuthering. He also found himself in demand with other artists, notably Al Stewart for his big-selling Year Of The Cat album, and Renaissance’s Scheherazade And Other Stories.

“Wind & Wuthering was completely different,” he says. “It’s a watercolour with a tree – very wild and very free. Then I did Year Of The Cat in another style I was into at the time; this very airbrushed look. If you saw all three of them, you wouldn’t think the same guy had done them at all. I like that.

“With the Renaissance album, the miniatures were so detailed, so beautiful, and I could’ve spent a lot more time doing it. But in all the time I was doing albums, no one ever wanted me to change anything. The bands were always far more concerned with the music!”

Still busy with an assortment of projects, Elgie quit the album cover game over 40 years ago, but has subsequently contributed to occasional reissues and box sets, Wishbone Ash’s Live Dates included. Meanwhile, he admits to being thrilled to be talking about A Trick Of The Tail 50 years on.

“I’ve realised lately that 1976 was an amazing year for me! The music and the artwork was a perfect marriage. That’s why those things have lived on. At the time I probably wouldn’t have expected them to last the way they have. If I’d known, I would have tried to do it all better than I did! The bands might say that about the music too; it’s all easy with hindsight!”

Metallica will launch their extended Life Burns Faster residency at the Sphere Las Vegas on October 1, and drummer Lars Ulrich is already excited about the challenge of staging the ultimate Metallica live experience at the "intimidating" high-tech Nevada venue.

With the San Francisco quartet's massive M72 World Tour, now officially certified as the 10th highest-grossing tour of all time, finally complete, the band are turning their attention to their upcoming stay at Sphere, where they have shows lined up in October and November, plus January, February and March 2027.

In playing at Sphere, Metallica will follow in the footsteps of U2, Eagles, Phish, Dead and Company and more, and Ulrich is aware that past residencies at the venue have raised the bar for live concert experiences.

"I was there opening night [of the U2 residency]," the drummer tells U2 guitarist The Edge on his Close To The Edge show on SiriusXM, "and was so just fucking awestruck, inspired, energized, all of it. And it was just, like, Holy shit, this is somehow another frontier.

"Obviously, you guys were the first ones in," Ulrich continues, "and it was just so incredible to see that night. And so in that spirit, three years later, when we start here in a few months, we're so excited and definitely have heard from a few folks about the filming and all of it.

"It's gonna be challenging... it's overwhelming and fucking intimidating. But hopefully when we step out on stage that first night, we'll have it somewhat together. And as you know, that's a place maybe we don't end up in often enough, because we have a tendency to put ourselves in environments that we completely control and know. And so I think it's really good to be able to throw yourself for a loop like that."

Metallica Life Burns Faster at Sphere Las Vegas

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The Rolling Stones may not have announced any live dates in support of their recently released Foreign Tongues album, but guitarist Keith Richards has hinted that the band are considering options for future live shows.

In the week that the rock 'n' roll legends notched up their 15th UK number one album with Foreign Tongues, Richards revealed that the Stones are looking at "a different way of taking the thing on the road."

"I know that this is all being kicked around," Richards said in a cover story interview with US music industry bible Billboard. "This year, we just decided, ‘Look, let’s get the record out, and let’s not rush things.’ So I see no reason why next year - I don’t see anything this year, I can’t rush it that much - but I see no reason why next year, good Lord willing, we shouldn’t be able to, as you say, maybe a residency, something. Maybe you find a different way of taking the thing on the road. Bring the road to us. That’s my suggestion."

Taken at face value, Richards' comments seem to suggest that The Rolling Stones are weighing up the possibility of undertaking some live residencies in selected cities worldwide, perhaps taking inspiration from artists such as the Eagles, U2, Phish and Metallica, who locked multiple dates at the state-of-the-art Sphere Las Vegas venue in recent years as an alternative to multi-city tours, or pop star Harry Styles who recently announced plans to promote his new record Kiss All the Time. Disco, Occasionally with a 30-night residency at New York's Madison Square Garden, beginning on August 26.

"I don’t know if tours are possible," Richards admitted in an interview with UK music magazine Uncut earlier this summer. "It’s the traveling that takes it out of you. But I do see the possibility of us doing a residency somewhere. Wherever it is, London, New York, Paris, anywhere. I’ll play Rome! But I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to throw some shows together in a new format."

Last year, Brian May said that he and Roger Taylor were "having conversations" about staging a series of shows at Sphere under the Queen + Adam Lambert banner.

He told Rolling Stone: " I’m very keen on the Sphere. It’s got my mind working. I sat there watching the Eagles, thinking, We should do this. The stuff that we could bring to this would be stupendous."

Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne has revealed one of his favourite methods of trolling and upsetting his friend and Fantômas bandmate Mike Patton: he simply 'credits' Patton for inspiring the birth of nu metal via his ground-breaking work with Faith No More.

Faith No More - and specifically their breakthrough album The Real Thing (1989), Patton's debut with the San Francisco band, plus it's bold and brilliant follow-up Angel Dust (1992) - have long been cited as a major influence by members of Slipknot, Deftones, System of a Down, Korn and Limp Bizkit. But Patton has never been shy about expressing his disdain for nu metal, refusing to accept any responsibility whatsoever for the music made by artists who cite him as an inspiration.

"Faith No More spawned an awful lot of shitty bands," the singer joked to Kerrang! in 1999. "Most of those bands I don't like at all, and I'd hate to take credit for what they're doing. I think you have to have a very vivid imagination to link them and Faith No More."

"Do you think I listen to any of that stuff at all?" he once asked Metal Hammer. "No, it's for 13-year-old morons!"

Nevertheless, the association is never going to go away, which is why Buzz Osborne, a musician forever identified as a pivotal influence upon Seattle's grunge scene, delights in using the link to wind up Patton.

Speaking with Patton's Tomahawk bandmate Duane Denison (also the guitarist with The Jesus Lizard) in an interview hosted by Consequence, Osborne said, "I used to have a joke with Patton, ’cause he’s called influential as well. And I would go, I’ll take Nirvana and Soundgarden and you can have Limp Bizkit and Korn. He’s like, ‘Fuck you.’ [laughter] That was always funny. But I mean the whole nü-metal thing to me it all sounded like Helmet ultimately."

"I think that the word influence is misused," Denison says. "I think maybe we inspire them to play, but I don’t think we influence their music. I think that, you know, people, they tend to name-drop when they use the word influence. And they, ‘Oh I’m influenced by Stockhausen and Miles Davis.’ And then you go to their house and it’s all Mott The Hoople and Bob Seger."

Tomahawk and Melvins are touring North America this summer on their amusingly-titled A Huge Waste of Your Time and Money tour, which kicks off in Nashville on July 18.

"In the spirit of the Olympics, Team Tomahawk has decided to rise up and go for the gold once again," Denison said when the tour was announced.

Evanescence’s Amy Lee says it was “so fun” supporting Metallica on the Australia and New Zealand leg of the San Francisco titans’ three-year-long M72 world tour.

Lee’s Arkansas band played their six shows stadium with Metallica and openers Suicidal Tendencies in November 2025. The singer calls the headliners “so gracious”, even letting her bring her grand piano onstage for the entirety of her five-piece’s hour-long sets.

“You never know how it’s going to be coming into somebody else’s world,” Lee tells Loudwire. “It’s their show and [you give] full-on respect: OK, it’s Metallica, we’ll back off. But also, can we have some good production? What exactly can we get away with?”

She continues: “And they ended up being so cool. They let me put our grand piano out on the snake pit thing, so it could just live there and I could go for the couple of moments that I spend at the piano, just surrounded by the crowd.”

The singer also reflects on bringing her then-11-year-old son onto the tour, and watching Metallica with him at the end of each night.

“[He was] the perfect age to fall in love with metal,” she says. “So, him getting to experience that in the stadium, rain gently starts falling during Nothing Else Matters, just watching his mind go like, ‘I’m in!’ It was such a good, good thing for my heart, and just took me back to being that age and falling in love with music.”

The 2025 shows marked Evanescence’s first time supporting Metallica, as well as their first time playing in stadiums. Talking to Minnesota radio station 93X last August, Lee said that she wasn’t “scared at all” ahead of the tour.

“It’s a lot of bands, so we’re not responsible for carrying more than like our portion of the weight and [these will be] Metallica shows, so fans are gonna be stoked,” she explained (via Arrow Lords Of Metal).

“But at the same time, I know how those fans can be. I’ve been in this game for a while. I know what it is. I know what I’ve gotta bring. I know what not to play. So, we’re just gonna bring it and have a blast.”

Metallica have a reputation for going above and beyond to make their support acts feel welcome. Ahead of the November 1 show on the Australian tour, the band presented Lee with a M72-inspired cake.

Similarly, talking to Hammer last year, Mammoth singer/multi-instrumentalist Wolfgang Van Halen revealed that he was given a ‘Perfect Attendance Award’ for supporting them at every venue on the M72 tour’s 2023 and ’24 legs.

“Opening for Metallica was unlike anything I’ve ever been a part of,” Van Halen said. “It was really, really crazy.”

Metallica recently ended the M72 run with a summer European leg, supported by Gojira, Knocked Loose, Pantera and Avatar. The band posted tributes to each of the four openers via social media earlier this week. Avatar responded in a statement to Loudwire, calling the shows “something we will always be grateful for”.

The M72 tour may have ended, but Metallica won’t be away from the stage for long. In October, they’ll return for a residency at Las Vegas multimedia venue The Sphere. They’ll be the first metal band to play the space, which has previously hosted U2, the Eagles, the Backstreet Boys and more.

Meanwhile, Evanescence released their new album, Sanctuary, last month. Their breakthrough hit, 2003 single Bring Me To Life, has just been certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Birmingham will celebrate its most metal son, late Black Sabbath singer Ozzy Osbourne, with a day of festivities, music and film screenings on the one-year anniversary of his death.

On July 22, the city will host ‘Ozzy Day’ to commemorate the Prince Of Darkness, who died at his Buckinghamshire home following a heart attack aged 76, 17 days after retiring from the stage at Villa Park near his birthplace in Aston.

According to a press release from the Birmingham City Council, the day will feature “a free programme of live music, public art, special performances and shared moments celebrating the life, legacy and Birmingham roots of the Prince Of Darkness”.

The Bostin Brass band, who performed brass arrangements of classic Ozzy and Sabbath songs as the singer’s funeral procession passed through Birmingham on July 30 last year, will return to various locations around town to put on multiple free shows.

One stop will be at the iconic Black Sabbath Bench on Broad Street, which features tributes the band’s four founding members: Ozzy, guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.

See the band’s full live schedule for the day below.

Another musical performance will be put on by the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) at the Bullring shopping centre in the centre of town at 12:15pm.

The branch of Selfridges at the Bullring will sell an exclusive Ozzy Day t-shirt during the day. The shirt will feature a graphic of Ozzy at his retirement show, Back To The Beginning, and a list of the 52 gigs he played in his hometown, both as a solo act and with Sabbath.

Nearby, at Birmingham New Street station, fans will be able to have free Polaroid pictures taken with the moving statue Ozzy The Bull, which was named after the Prince Of Darkness following a 2022 poll. The 10m (33ft) sculpture will be made up to resemble his namesake singer.

In addition, local arts and events producers Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS) will screen a number of short films about Ozzy and Ozzy Day around town. The Ozzy Osbourne: Working Class Hero exhibition at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery will remain open and have the singer’s throne from Back To The Beginning on display.

A free map of the city and its festivities will be available across town, including at New Street station.

Sam Watson, Chair of co-organisers Central BID, comments: “Ozzy Day is a fantastic example of Birmingham working together to celebrate the legendary Ozzy Osbourne. By bringing together businesses, cultural organisations and public spaces, we’re creating a city centre wide experience that encourages people to celebrate the legacy of a truly global, Birmingham-born icon.”

Councillor Deborah Harries, Cabinet Member for Culture, Birmingham City Council, adds: “Ozzy Osbourne is one of Birmingham’s foremost cultural figures, and we continue to honour his legacy here in the city, where his journey began. I am glad to see the city partners coming together to celebrate Ozzy’s influence on music and his pride in his hometown.

“Black Sabbath’s contribution to Birmingham was recognised when they were awarded Freedom of the City on 30 June 2025. All of these anniversary events are an opportunity for residents and visitors to celebrate this legacy, while showcasing the creativity, culture and character that make Birmingham so special.”

Widely recognised as one of the most successful rock singers of all time, Ozzy Osbourne enjoyed a lengthy recording and touring career which spanned seven decades. After his original stint in Sabbath from 1968 to ’79, he launched a solo career with 1980’s multi-Platinum-selling album Blizzard Of Ozz. He rejoined Sabbath for multiple reunions, starting in 1999.

Between Sabbath and his solo output, Ozzy sold more than 100 million albums worldwide. He won five Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 2006 and became a television star following the launch of his family’s Emmy-winning reality series The Osbournes.

Back To The Beginning was Ozzy’s first time onstage after announcing his retirement from touring in 2023, due to health issues stemming from Parkinson’s disease and a fall he suffered at home in 2018. He performed a set with his solo band and another with his fellow Sabbath co-founders, marking the first time the four men played together onstage since 2005. The all-day show was livestreamed and viewed by more than five million people worldwide.

Ozzy Day: Bostin Brass band live schedule

• 08:30: Birmingham New Street
• 10:00: Outside Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
• 11:30: Selfridges
• 12:45: Black Sabbath Bench
• 15:00: Martineau Place

It’s a summer evening in 1976, and this writer is sitting in a BBC studio watching his teenage hero John Peel stoke the coming punk revolution by playing several tracks from the Ramones’ recently released debut album. On meeting the DJ who soundtracked the previous decade’s counterculture uprising for the first time, the humble legend confesses he was initially as frightened by the Ramones’ intensity as the first time he heard Little Richard.

“The songs are all the same but they’re all different, if you know what I mean?” he says. He is already anticipating the negative abuse he will receive from old-guard listeners, he says, with a mischievous gleam.

Peel’s support crystallised and consolidated the huge impact Ramones had on British rock – more than anything since David Bowie’s The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust four years earlier.

Although much has since been written about Ramones, which arrived in April 1976 like a cluster-bomb blueprint for the burgeoning UK punk movement, it’s still hard to convey the scale of the album’s arrival to those who didn’t experience it first-hand.

Notwithstanding Patti Smith’s Horses, Ramones was setting punk’s templates, tempos and attitude, along with its eternal uniform, before any of their CBGB contemporaries started making their presence felt on vinyl. The album’s initial impact in the UK was like a joyful earthquake, thrusting a red-hot poker up rock’s tired arse and igniting a revolution.

I still remember the May morning 50 years ago when my copy of Ramones arrived from Sire Records in New York. Opening the package revealed Roberta Bayley’s striking monochrome cover shot of Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee, skulking like a street gang against a wall (in the community garden on Second Street between Bowery and Second Avenue, now rechristened Joey Ramone Place). No sleeve or band had looked so brazenly different since the first Rolling Stones album. It set the tone perfectly for the thrills to come.

The opening triple header of Blitzkrieg Bop, Beat On The Brat and Judy Is A Punk have been part of punk’s DNA for half a century, but hearing the Ramones hurtling out of the speakers for the first time hit like an express train, every stop an epiphany.

Startlingly direct, stripped of excess flab and even guitar solos; Joey’s mutant NY street-jive vocals rode the band’s blazing block-chord powerriffing, continuing through Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, Loudmouth and I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement (its longest track at 2:38).

Yearning slowie I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend and a breakneck cover of the Chris Montez 60s hit Let’s Dance affirmed the band’s incisive referencing of classic pop, from 50s doo-wop to Herman’s Hermits – stripped down and sped up in a cartoon world of psycho killers, glue sniffers and endangered rent boys on 53rd & 3rd. The glorious home stretch of I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You and Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World put the cap on one of the landmark rock’n’roll debuts.

Even on that first day blasting the album, it was obvious nothing was going to be the same again. The approaching long, hot summer of ’76 already had its scorching soundtrack.

At a time when the music papers could ignite cultural movements, Nick Kent’s lengthy NME review proclaiming: “If you love hard-ass retard-rock you’ll bathe in every groove” set the Ramones ball rolling. Reviewing for Zigzag, I wrote: “From the opening call to action of Blitzkrieg Bop to the last strung-out power chord of Today Your Love, Tomorrow Your World, this is a high-energy sizzler with enough power to light up New York City for a week! It only lasts 29 minutes – but if you travel at double the speed you get there in half the time.”

Ramones sent shock waves through the UK’s burgeoning punk community, notably in its London epicentre. In October 1976, Joe Strummer told me Ramones made him decide to accept Mick Jones and Paul Simonon’s invitation to join the band they were forming. “It can’t be stressed enough how great the Ramones’ first album was to the scene in London,” he reflected later. “It was simple enough to be able to play. Me and Paul would spend hours, days and weeks playing along to the record.”

That same October, I sat up all night with Sid Vicious at his Shepherd’s Bush squat while he attempted to teach himself bass playing along to Blitzkrieg Bop on repeat. Ramones also had a profound effect on Lemmy, vindicating and further revving up the early Motörhead.

“When that album came out, all the English bands tripled speed overnight,” said Generation X bassist Tony James. “Before the Ramones, bands might sound like the MC5, but punk rock is totally down to the Ramones.” Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue also gave Mark Perry the name for his original punk fanzine, Sniffin’ Glue.

The album’s inestimably influential effect was compounded by the Ramones making their UK debut, at London’s Roundhouse then Dingwall’s, over July’s American Independence weekend. Finally, these mysterious black leather aliens were here in the flesh, like cartoons come to life.

In the 50 years since, the Ramones’ unbelievably dysfunctional back story has been told many times, including Joey’s crippling OCD, Johnny’s military-style operational regime, Dee Dee’s drug-guzzling battles with mental health problems, and original leader Tommy’s vision of the band as a conceptual art piece with him as producer.

All that would emerge later. But when Ramones appeared in 1976, followed closely by the band amping it up on stage, there was an almost innocent charm about the four disparate misfits from Forest Hills, Queens, who came together in the wake of the glam-punk uprising sparked earlier that decade by the New York Dolls.

Ramones made their live debut in March 1974 at the Performance Studio on 20th Street, which Tommy ran with future Ramones tour manager Monte Melnik. Dee Dee found it impossible to sing and play guitar at the same time, Joey made a flailing cacophony on drums, and the three stopped during songs to argue. At Tommy’s suggestion, Joey took over vocals. He ended up playing drums himself, after showing the beats to auditioning hopefuls.

Joey told me his songs were inspired by horror movies (such as Chainsaw’s Texas Chainsaw Massacre tribute), trash culture and “our frustrations and feelings of alienation and isolation”, along with The Dictators’ locker-room anthems and the Bay City Rollers’ terrace-pop formula, Saturday Night influencing his chorus on Blitzkrieg Bop and its release as the Ramones’ first UK single. Having said that, Beat On The Brat was written after witnessing an obnoxiously noisy kid in a local playground.

For Tommy, Joey’s Judy Is A Punk clinched the Ramones’ potential to become the band he envisioned. “Once I heard that, I saw this was totally different and unique,” he said. “They were so original – we had something incredible. These guys didn’t know what they were doing. They weren’t just doing a song, but inventing a whole new genre together.”

The leather jacket, ripped jeans and sneakers image came from Marlon Brando’s The Wild One, Henry Winkler’s Fonz in Happy Days, and The Dictators; puddingbowl haircuts courtesy of Brian Jones and garage bands like The Seeds. “We concocted a unique sound and style, all our own trademark,” Joey told me, with great pride.

Needing their own Cavern-like club to develop and hone their sound, on the recommendation of scene dynamo Wayne (later Jayne) County, the band tried out at Hells Angel and homeless-favoured Bowery bar CBGB, opened by Hilly Kristal the previous year. According to Joey, Kristal said: “Nobody’s gonna like you guys, so I’ll have you back.” He booked them 24 more times that year.

Making their official debut that August supporting the pre-Blondie Angel & The Snake, their 15-minute set dissolved into chaos as they crashed through I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You, Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue, I Don’t Wanna Go Down To The Basement, Judy Is A Punk and I Don’t Care. Suicide’s Alan Vega told me: “I caught their first gig and I laughed my ass off. I thought it was great. It was the best thing I’d seen since The Stooges. The intensity was astonishing.”

“At first we played to five people,” said Johnny. “Six months later we were playing to thirty people. It was really slow. It didn’t seem like the writers were going out to discover new talent. Finally, [Hit Parader editor] Lisa Robinson came to see us. She went and told other people, and everybody came for the second set. In between sets we got more people. After that, everything started building.”

After loving the CBGB debut, local artist Arturo Vega became Ramones’ artistic director and lighting man for the rest of their career, and designed their famous logo around the US presidential seal. Tommy approached former Dolls manager Marty Thau, who had produced the band’s first demo in February 1975. He declined doing that again, but organised the recording of Judy Is A Punk and I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend at an upstate studio.

The Ramones continued playing CBGB, Arturo’s loft, Performance Studio and Max’s promoter Peter Crowley’s Mother’s with Blondie through 1975. Every gig tightened their sound into the fullpelt onslaught that would be unveiled on the album.

“Guitar solos slow us up and bog us down,” Johnny told me in 1976. “The chords are doing everything. I’m driving away where the guitar breaks would be. The way that came about was we would write a song and it would end up being two minutes. The songs end up being short. We don’t do any stopping. If we stopped and talked to the audience that would add another ten minutes to the set. We really feel that what we are doing should be done in half an hour.”

“They were jaw-dropping,” says Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz. “Joey was a true original outsider artist who never failed to deliver his all. Even in the early days when he couldn’t hear himself, Joey’s singing was pitch-perfect. He performed with complete conviction and with a seriousness that defined the Ramones’ on-stage presence. He rocked the crowd without moving around at all, and he did this with the power of his voice.”

Feeling their way into regular gigging and honing their sound, igniting punk revolutions was never on the Ramones’ agenda. Internally, they weren’t together enough for that anyway.

“CBGB wasn’t punk in the way it got heavily defined,” says Patti Smith guitarist Lenny Kaye. “In the little soupçon cauldron that was CBGB there was what you would call a punk sensibility, but the bands were so different from each other. When the Ramones came, this idea of punk provided a template for what would be British punk with very simple hard songs and kind of nihilistic lyrics. To me they were just one of the seven or eight characteristic bands out of CBGB. When punk became Punk with a capitol ‘P’, Ramones would be the template. A Ramones song is remarkably easy to play.”

Sire Records A&R man Craig Leon first saw the Ramones in the summer of ’75. He had to convince label boss Seymour Stein to sign them, until Stein’s wife Linda loved them so much that she became their co-manager along with a similarly smitten Danny Fields, the former Elektra A&R man who signed the MC5 and the Stooges.

With the band eventually signing in January 1976, Leon and Tommy produced Ramones in one February week at New York’s Plaza Sound studio on the top floor of Radio City Music Hall for an incredible $6,400 (about $36,000 now). The 1930s Art-Deco spread with huge rehearsal space, originally used by Arturo Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra, also boasted a pipe organ, which the Ramones used on Let’s Dance. Leon would produce Blondie’s first album here too.

In his notes to Ramones’ 40th-anniversary box set, the producer recalls: “We agreed that the group had to make a defiant, vibrant, edgy, radical statement with their first effort.”

He recorded the band playing live in the studio, with their equipment in different rooms to enable stereo separation like early Beatles records; drums in the middle, bass left, guitars right, Joey’s vocals double-tracked.

“I credited Tommy with associate producer because it was basically his concept on that album,” said Leon. “He didn’t execute anything, but the whole thing about the band was him. It wasn’t a particularly live record, like everybody tries to say it was. Tommy was very regimented, but Joey was coolly professional; unlike Dee Dee, who was almost impossible. Joey did a lot of punching in and double-tracking really well.

"There’s not a lot you can do with the Ramones, just a lot of layering and texturing, but it’s all purposefully subtle. I did a lot of arranging, rearranging and restructuring of material – plus getting them to end and begin at the same time!”

According to Leon, Joey genuinely hoped the album would make the Ramones pop stars. “He was very into sixties British pop, like Herman’s Hermits. We were talking about it at their apartment one day and he was seriously wondering if the Ramones would ever make it as big as the Bay City Rollers, rather than anything to do with going into the studio.

"It was this innocence that was an integral part of the band; the poppiest element was his persona. He was such a fan that you got that kind of bubblegum-pop mentality, and he really believed in that. He was the most disappointed when they didn’t go to number one with Blitzkrieg Bop.”

After that Ramones’ London Dingwall’s gig in July ’76, I sat on a low brick wall outside talking with Joey, Tommy, Dee Dee and Johnny about the record.

“We’re really happy with it, we tried to combine as much of the live sound without losing the studio quality,” said Tommy.

“There’s fourteen singles on our album,” declared Johnny. “We write singles, but the album’s a concept. It’s good party music. It’s a good pickup in the morning too.”

“You have to wake up, smoke a joint and put it on,” Joey added with a dreamy smile.

Although the album was raved about by American critics including Lester Bangs and Robert Christgau, it reached only No.111 on the Billboard chart, selling around 6,000 copies. Although the Ramones would go on to release 13 more studio albums and tour the world for another 20 years, that debut stands as a benchmark for rock to this day.

Sitting in an East Village bar with Joey in 1987, he reflected: “Doing the album in a week and bringing it in for $6,400 was unheard of, especially since it was an album that really changed the world. It kicked off punk rock and started the whole thing – as well as us.”

Singer John Bush turned down Metallica in the early 80s when they sought him as their singer, and was with Anthrax from 1992 to 2005. These days he fronts, walks and talks Armored Saint, whose latest album is Emotion Factory Reset.

The press release/biography for Emotion Factory Reset says it’s a “resurrection of sorts, a tearing down and a rebuilding”. That’s quite a dramatic statement.

That comment came from the biography writer Katherine Turman [laughs]. But I’m very proud that Armored Saint is a band that keeps on expanding. We’re inspired by those great bands from the seventies that wrote such great songs – UFO, Queen, Judas Priest – but we’re always willing to try something different.

Maybe we should have expected that, given that a year ago the band covered One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison), a 1974 hit for Motown vocal group The Four Tops.

Yeah. I’ve always loved old-school soul and R&B. I wish I was some Black dude from 1972, but I’m not. I’m a small white guy, but a lot of that music has shaped the way that I sing.

What do you think the casual fan’s perception of Armored Saint might be? Do some still consider you to be a thrash metal band from the eighties?

Some might even think we’re a hair band. We also get called power metal. Throughout our whole career, the biggest problem has been where do we fit in.

Longevity and success bring artistic freedom. What can Armored Saint do now, on album number nine, that would have been out of the question on the debut March Of The Saint, released forty-three years ago?

That album had some cool songs, but by the time of [1985 follow-up] Delirious Nomad we knew we had to diversify. The record label [Chrysalis] didn’t understand, and they dropped us after a third album. It wasn’t until Symbol Of Salvation that we caught our groove.

And then I left the band [laughs]. But it was 1991 and the beginning of grunge. When we reunited [in 1999] we just got back into that mindset of doing our own thing. The records we’ve made since then have been really solid.

The new album has a song called Hit A Moonshot. Is that a baseball reference?

Slightly. It’s a mildly sarcastic response to the people that are way too full of bravado. Y’know: “Look at all these moonshots that I keep hitting.” I don’t like to write in a way that’s too obvious.

The song Buckeye is an emotional tribute to your daughter.

Yeah. It’s my most personal statement on the record, obviously. I think of it as a very cool and emotional song – I hope so.

Armored Saint play at this summer’s Stonedead Festival. It’s a one-stage, multi-band event modelled on the simplicity of the old Monsters Of Rock.

We were never big enough to play Monsters Of Rock, and at this point we can’t get onto Download, so this will be our Donington moment. Bring it on.

Any plans for a UK tour?

Last September we played some British shows with W.A.S.P., so realistically it probably won’t happen till 2027.

Emotion Factory Reset is available via Metal Blade.

Ratt were there at the birth of the Sunset Strip glam metal scene, notching up a string of platinum albums throughout the 80s. But grunge nearly sank their career – though it was hardly as damaging as the ongoing bickering between the former band members. In 2005, singer Stephen Pearcy, drummer Bobby Blotzer, guitarist Warren DeMartini and bassist Juan Croucier looked back over the epic highs, tragic lows and ongoing soap opera that was their career.

Ratt’s world is a turbulent one – in 2005 it’s unclear who exactly is entitled to the ‘Ratt’ name. Is it singer Stephen Pearcy (who tours as Stephen Pearcy & The Rat Bastards), or guitarist Warren DeMartini and drummer Bobby Blotzer (who tour as Ratt, with replacement, non-original members)? Add to that the fact that one of their most identifiable members, guitarist Robbin Crosby, died in 2002, while bassist Juan Croucier is out of the picture entirely, and it’s a miniseries waiting to happen.

But in the heady days of the 1980s, it was a different story. Hollywood’s Sunset Strip had been a punk rock haven, but by the time 1982 rolled around, one-time Strip regulars Van Halen had inspired a legion of bands. “It was crazy, anything went,” remembers Pearcy today. “People were fucking and pissing and partying and drinking. It was like that Doors movie, but it was in the early 80s.”

The soundtrack to this hedonism was supplied by bands that would go on to spearhead the glam/pop metal scene: Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot, WASP, Stryper and Great White. And one called Mickey Ratt.

San Diego native Pearcy recalls stumbling upon a then-unknown band, which changed his life. “I used to travel up [to LA], and got to meet Van Halen before they got signed. I used to sit on the stage at the Whiskey A Go‑Go when Van Halen played in front of 18 people. I’d be shitting my pants, thinking: ‘This is crazy, I have to tell my friends.’ But nobody believed me that there was a new thing. I said: ‘I’m going to LA.’” Soon after, Mickey Ratt were born.

But Mickey Ratt’s initial members failed to match Pearcy’s desire to – as Kiss would have it – rock’n’roll all nite and party every day, as bandmates came and went, including guitarist Jake E Lee. “Jake was in the band for nearly a year; he was getting noticed as we were getting noticed. Dio auditioned him, then Ozzy auditioned him.”

Knowing that he needed a six-string hero to launch the group, Pearcy tracked down another San Diego musician, Warren DeMartini. Soon after, mutual friend Robbin Crosby joined as second guitarist, and through the local musicians’ grapevine the line-up was completed with bassist Juan Croucier and drummer Bobby Blotzer. Mickey Ratt were now simply known as Ratt.

Blotzer recalls “hunger, lack of food, fire in our veins – a lot of fun and good times” and “a lot of camaraderie going on” with other bands. But one particular group stuck out among all the party animals: Metallica. Blotzer not-so-fondly remembers sharing a stage with Lars Ulrich and friends.

“I remember Metallica opening for us in some church in Pasadena,” he says. “It wasn’t an active church any more; they were using it for shows. Metallica always had an attitude like they were better than everybody else. I didn’t get their trip then. We were trying to write catchy ‘airplay’ songs that still had a rough edge. They were playing the shit that we wouldn’t want to play – over-riffing and not catchy. But who’s got the last laugh?”

With their peers getting signed, Ratt felt left out in the cold. Quickly, they devised a plan – record an indie EP in hopes of attracting the labels. But friction was never far away. DeMartini: “When you rehearse all week, you get up on stage and someone is wasted on Jack Daniel’s, it’s easy to blame ‘that guy’.” DeMartini exited briefly, before Crosby convinced him to reconsider.

This also proved to be a tricky time for Croucier, who was under contract with Q Prime Management to play bass in Dokken. “[Q Prime] had me on small salary – I was a starving musician. It came down to deep soul-searching. I’d rather be happy and be in Ratt than be miserable and have a deal with Dokken. I chose Ratt.”

Recorded in two days, Ratt’s self-titled EP created a buzz when a local LA radio station picked it up. “KLOS had a show called Local Licks and they played You Think You’re Tough,” says DeMartini. “That led to Atlantic coming down.”

With a showcase set for July 27, 1983 at the Beverly Theater, Ratt delivered. Blotzer: “It was like one of those stories that you hear about where all these labels are backstage, and they’re all jockeying to get into the dressing room. Doug Morris, the president of Atlantic, made it in. We got the deal that night.”

With a label now in place, Ratt got to work on their full-length debut album with producer Beau Hill. Pearcy: “All I remember is having a great time – fucking chicks in the lobby.” While the resulting record, 1984’s Out Of The Cellar, contained several subsequent Ratt staples – Wanted Man, Back For More – there was one song in particular that would break the band.

“When Beau heard Round & Round he said: ‘What’s this?’ We’re like: ‘I don’t know, it’s not really tight.’ Beau’s like: ‘We’re going to make it tight.’ The next thing you know, it’s the single,” recalls Pearcy.

DeMartini: “We did all the things to assemble [the album], then there was this calm before the storm. For six or eight months… nothing. Out of the blue, we got a call that we were going to make a video. It just exploded. We were doing our own club tour, and then we got on a national tour.”

Pop metal was all the rage during the summer of 1984, as Van Halen, Mötley Crüe, Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister were all over MTV. Ratt thrived under this rock-friendly climate, as the Don Letts-directed Round & Round video and a tour supporting Ozzy Osbourne catapulted Out Of The Cellar into the US Top 10.

In addition to all the attention they were getting at home, Ratt were massive in Japan. “It was just like the films you see of The Beatles,” says Blotzer. “We couldn’t get out of the hotel. It was true rock stardom.”

While the others were enjoying the wave of success, Pearcy looked beyond. “We wanted big parties, big money, big everything.” As a result, the singer developed his own philosophy. “The Three Ps – pussy, party, paycheck. I live by that motto to this day.”

After the tour ended, Ratt regrouped in Maui to write their second album. But the good vibes quickly turned sour for Robbin Crosby. Music writer Mitch Lafon spoke to Crosby in the early 2000s. “Everybody got their own little room, or condo, but that was the beginning of the end,” Crosby said. “Everybody took their girlfriends, wives and kids, but in my opinion it was a time to work.

“Everybody was doing their own thing. We were supposed to write together but Warren had his wife and a new baby that he hadn’t seen in months. It was the same for Juan. Stephen had his own place. I just remember feeling really alone. Nobody ever came over to my place. We all wanted to get some time off but if we went surfing or fucked around, the manager was saying: ‘When are you guys going to get together and write?’”

Released in 1985, Ratt’s second album Invasion Of Your Privacy was another American Top 10 hit on the strength of tracks such as Lay It Down and You’re In Love. But the group’s musical approach was changing, and they were beginning to favour pop gloss over their early raw-and-rocking approach.

Invasion Of Your Privacy established Ratt as a major US concert draw (especially when teamed with a pre-Slippery When Wet Bon Jovi). Blotzer, for one, enjoyed the lifestyle: “Sold out, a lot of money, hot chicks. Young and fucking rich was a good way to be. After Out Of The Cellar, I bought a new car and house. After Invasion Of Your Privacy, I bought everybody in my family cars and my mom a house.” Like most successful 80s groups, Ratt weren’t immune to the trappings of stardom. “You had big everything. Big drugs, big money, big parties. And it’s all free, the more the merrier. Heroin, booze, blow – it was everywhere,” recalls Pearcy. “Me, I always went towards the pussy and the paycheck.”

Blotzer remembers that drugs weren’t really a problem. “The problem was getting them, like when were in places like Montana!” he laughs. “We snorted blow and drank, smoked weed. But then, everybody snorted blow – you’d snort blow so you could drink longer.”

DeMartini admits not learning from others’ mistakes: “Everybody ignored what happened to our heroes in the 60s. It was a free-for-all.”

While the other Ratt members appeared to be able to handle their vices, Robbin Crosby went off the rails. “I met my wife [Playboy model Laurie Carr] at the very end of the Invasion Of Your Privacy tour,” he said. “When I got home I was really burned out, so I started smoking heroin. That became a ritual. I was doing a couple of hundred bucks a day. I just liked the way it made me feel better and I didn’t get all drunk and hungover. I thought it was great. I went through the whole ‘it’s not going to happen to me’ and ‘I can handle it’ thing.”

Ratt were rapidly becoming part of the pop metal elite but the band blundered while preparing 1986’s Dancing Undercover. “We weren’t even ready,” remembers Blotzer. “Our manager supposedly put down some deposit on a studio that we’d lose if we didn’t go ahead. We were in rehearsal with just a handful of ideas – Pearcy never showed up. It ended up being okay and it sold well, but for me, side two I can’t even hear because of Stephen’s lyrics.”

Still, MTV backed Dancing Undercover – especially Dance, Body Talk and Slip Of The Lip. And the resulting tour was pretty successful, as power pop veterans Cheap Trick and a fast-rising Poison opened for Ratt, resulting in strong ticket sales.

On Ratt’s next release, 1988’s Reach For The Sky, a union with ex-Queen producer Mike Stone seemed promising. However, Stone was fired before the sessions wrapped and Beau Hill was reinstated.

“It fell short again,” shrugs DeMartini. “I liked working with Mike Stone but that record started out one way and finished another.” Pearcy agrees that the album marked “a weird time – everybody was into their own worlds”.

Crosby recalled that even the tour rehearsals were stressful. “For live shows, [Stephen] rarely sang in rehearsals. He’d show up a week before and maybe make it through a set and then that was that.” And it didn’t get any better for Crosby once the tour began. “I’d never use on tour. I’d just go cold turkey and the first weeks were kind of a drag, but the Reach For The Sky tour was difficult for me ’cause I got strung out from all that time off.”

Despite the album not being up to scratch, the Aerosmith-esque Way Cool Jr enjoyed significant radio airplay, and a career highpoint occurred – a gig at Japan’s Tokyo Dome. “We played New Year’s Eve with Bon Jovi,” remembers Pearcy. “It was the craziest show ever – like 80,000 people indoors. You’re looking at dots and the stage is like 50-feet high.” Blotzer remembers it for other reasons: “We did five dates, and got paid like a million dollars.”

For 1990’s Detonator, Ratt had some songwriting help from Desmond Child and Diane Warren. However, changing musical tastes couldn’t be ignored. DeMartini: “If we had done [Detonator] when Dancing Undercover or Reach For The Sky came out, it would have fared better. The genre had changed so much – as good as Detonator was, it was kind of an anachronism.”

Croucier had other ideas for the album. “I wanted to go back to the spirit of the indie EP we did at the beginning of our career. Lose the big production, and get right back in your face. Someone said to our manager: ‘How about if we get someone like… Desmond Child?’ Which was the last thing I wanted to do.”

Blotzer remains unimpressed with the genre that caused Ratt’s career to stutter to a halt. “By and large, I didn’t really like grunge,” he admits. “I thought Nirvana had a handful of good songs, but to this day, I hear Nevermind, and after four or five songs, I’ve had enough. I didn’t think grunge had anywhere near the staying power that our genre – hard rock/metal – had. But it definitely put us all out of business.”

As if changing musical tastes weren’t detrimental enough to Ratt, Crosby’s addiction was getting worse. “I didn’t know Robbin was taking heroin,” claims Blotzer. “He went to rehab, came out, we toured Japan, then he relapsed. He was really out of it. Going on tour was not going to help his plight. He couldn’t be around that atmosphere and stay clean.”

It was obvious to Croucier that his friend was quickly becoming a drug casualty. “What was affected the most was his creativity,” Croucier recalls. “He started withdrawing from the band and isolating himself. There became an issue between Warren and Robbin about the guitar work – Warren wanted to play more lead. Robbin’s feelings were really hurt by that. It launched him into a depression and more drug abuse.”

With Michael Schenker taking Crosby’s spot, the tension increased. “We weren’t selling tickets like normal,” states Blotzer. “We’d be at a 12,000-seater with 5,000 people there – it was wearing on everybody’s nerves. We were fighting within the band – it was a shitty tour.” Shortly after the 1991 collection, Ratt & Roll 81-91, Pearcy exited, spelling Ratt’s first break-up.

From a business standpoint, it was the worst time to split. “It put us in a world of shit, because we had already taken an advance from Atlantic on a record that never got made,” Blotzer fumes. “We owed a lot of money from a merchandise advance we took for the Detonator tour. Only a quarter of that was paid back, and we took a million bucks. We were all on the hook for about $150,000 we had to pay back. Typical Pearcy move – doesn’t care about anybody but himself.” Soon, lawsuits were flying.

While the others were able to fend for themselves, Crosby was the worst off. Croucier: “He got the old ‘one-two rock’n’roll punch’. He loses the band, and out the door goes the old wife. She files for divorce, and they held his feet over the fire. His bankruptcy had to do with his personal thing following his divorce. I’m sure the Ratt problems didn’t help.”

Later in the 90s, reunion talk began. But the others soon realised Crosby was in no shape to tour, as he had contracted AIDS from intravenous drug use, gained weight from a thyroid condition and was bedridden for extended periods. Crosby broke his silence shortly before his death. “I have fullblown AIDS. Basically, it’s killing me,” he revealed. “I’ve got a terminal disease. Recently, I went in for surgery ’cause my back hurt so bad, and they got all this infectious fluid out. Then they found that my bones were not getting oxygen under the infectious fluid [a condition known as osteomyelitis]. I’ve been in the hospital for eight straight months and in and out for over seven years.”

Without Crosby present and with Croucier opting out (“Nothing had changed with Stephen – he was still drinking heavily, very stubborn, just a tense situation”), Pearcy, DeMartini and Blotzer relaunched Ratt. The trio compiled an album of unused tunes, 1997’s Collage, and hit the road – eventually releasing a 1999 selftitled album on the Portrait label. “Bobby, Stephen and Warren decided [Robbin] wasn’t going to be in the band,” recalls Croucier. “But they didn’t so much as call him to tell him. So Robbin was really upset about that. His disease became worse – eventually they put him in a hospice.”

On June 6, 2002, Crosby died at the age of 41. “All of his friends abandoned him,” says Croucier. “The truth is that he was furious with the guys from Ratt, because they hadn’t shown any interest until the last maybe six months of his life. That’s what he told me. Which is really sad because he loved those guys.”

But before Crosby died, Pearcy was no longer seeing eye to eye with the others. “I told the other guys: ‘Stop. We have to take a step back. People aren’t showing up. There’s no single, no video, no development – it’s a brick wall.’ They wanted to go to Japan. I said: ‘I ain’t payin’ for my own trip. I’m going to take a break.’ They said: ‘We’re going to grab a new singer.’ I went: ‘Well, don’t forget that I have major interests in both entities.’ Long story short – went to court, they sued, I tried to get them back, and they got away with making the courts believe [otherwise].”

DeMartini’s account of what happened differs. “The final leg of the tour was booked. Then we had a falling-out and Stephen decided to leave the band, start a solo band and go on the road with that. We learned through the testimony in this trial he was already working on the solo thing when he assembled the tour. We could have just taken a break. I never understood why he insisted that we book a Ratt tour, and then at the same time start working on a solo thing. Anyway, he quit the band and the tour had to be cancelled. He went on the road with a solo band, so we got a new singer and continued.”

Continue they did. DeMartini and Blotzer toured in the summer of 2005 with ex-Love/ Hate singer Jizzy Pearl on the Rock Never Stops tour alongside Cinderella, Quiet Riot and Firehouse. Pearcy was also busy this summer, touring as part of American Metal Blast 2005 with WASP, LA Guns and Metal Church. Additionally, Pearcy recently released several albums, including Fueler and Rat (sic) Attack, and Croucier, at the time of writing, was readying Demos From The Ratt Years.

Despite all the lawsuits, there was an attempt to unite Pearcy, DeMartini, Blotzer and Croucier. “[Pearcy] tried to get this thing back together, but his terms were asinine beyond belief,” says Blotzer. “He sent some nutty email stating he wants half the merchandise, he wants to manage, produce, call all the shots. It was a joke. Stephen badly needs counselling in my opinion.”

Pearcy offers a different take. “I made a proposal to them. ‘These are mostly my songs, it’s my band down to the logo. I propose an album and a tour.’ DeMartini shot it down, and I said: ‘Okay, I can see you’re staying true to your destruction of this band.’ It would have given the fans a 20-year anniversary record and a tour, like Mötley Crüe, actually before the Mötley thing was exposed. So they dropped the ball on that, and actually put an end to Ratt.”

Croucier, on the other hand, doesn’t agree with either side. “I’m embarrassed by Bobby and Warren calling themselves Ratt. It’s not Ratt. Three-fifths of the guys are gone; the guys who did most of the writing are no longer in the band. I can understand they need to make money, but to take the name and abuse it doesn’t seem like a respectful and intelligent thing to do. Ironically, I know if Stephen had the chance, he’d be out there doing it too. The damage is done at this point.”

Looking back before his death, Crosby offered an honest assessment. “I ate, slept and drank rock’n’roll since I was 10 years old, and my dreams have all come true. And then some have been dashed against the rocks, by some people that I didn’t even really respect at times.”

Originally published in Classic Rock issue 83 (summer 1985). Since then, the surviving members of Ratt reunited in 2007 (initially minus Juan Croucier), split in 2014, only to re-emerge as two different versions of the band in 2015, featuring Blotzer and Croucier, respectively but not Pearcy or DeMartini. In 2016, Pearcy, DeMartini and Croucier reunited to tour as Ratt. Pearcy has sporadically reformed Ratt with different line-ups since then. We think that covers it.

It seems that mysterious microtonal math rock performed in papier-mâché masks isn't for everyone .

Devin Townsend has revealed that he's been irritated by the hype surrounding Angine de Poitrine.

In an interview with Jorge Botas' Metal Global podcast, Townsend says that although he's not listened to the Québécois duo enough to give an "accurate musical assessment", he admits that he has a slight problem with the band's image and the hype surrounding them.

The monochrome duo – guitarist Khn and drummer Klek – went viral in February this year after their Seattle radio KEXP session garnered millions of views.

"It just makes me crazy because it's the mask thing," says Townsend. "It's like he's got a big polka dot nose and so everybody really likes it.

"OK, first off, I haven't listened to it enough to give an accurate musical assessment of it," he adds for clarity. "It's not to say that they're not cool, but would they have that same attention if they weren't wearing big clown noses?"

Townsend says that he was overwhelmed by people recommending that he check the band out following the KEXP session.

"I just refused to listen to it," he continues. "My perspective on it is only that I've been irritated by it so far. But there are people in my life who are close to me who say it's very good. So please take my assessment of it with a grain of salt."

Townsend recently announced details of a solo tour in support of his new album The Moth. Full dates below.

Devin Townsend ‘Metamorphosis’ Solo UK & European Tour 2026

Sep 01: Birmingham Glee Club, UK
Sep 02: Bath Komedia, UK
Sep 03: Southampton The 1865, UK
Sep 04: Exeter Phoenix, UK
Sep 06: London Union Chapel, UK
Sep 07: Oslo Sentrum Scene, Norway
Sep 09: Gothenburg Pustervik, Sweden
Sep 10: Stockholm Nya Cirkus, Sweden
Sep 12: Helsinki Finlandia-talo, Finland
Sep 15: Hamburg Markethalle, Germany
Sep 16: Warsaw Klub Stodoła, Poland
Sep 18: Vienna Simm City, Austria
Sep 20: Zurich Volkshaus, Switzerland
Sep 22: Paris Le Bataclan, France
Sep 23: Marseille Le Silo, France
Sep 26: Munich Werk 7 Theatre, Germany
Sep 28: Cologne Stadthalle, Germany
Sep 29: Utrecht Tivoli Vredenburg (Grote Zaal), Netherlands
Oct 01: Brighton The Old Market, UK
Oct 02: Cardiff The Gate, UK
Oct 03: Glasgow Òran Mór, UK
Oct 04: Manchester RNCM, UK
Oct 06: Leeds Howard Assembly Room, UK

Jason Newsted has revealed that Metallica once had darts thrown at them during an arena show in Canada in the late '80s.

The Chophouse Band frontman traded tour stories with Blackberry Smoke's Charlie Starr as part of Rolling Stone's Nashville Podcast, as the pair are currently on the road together with their respective bands in North America.

During the 30-minute conversation, he said that he witnessed a dart just miss James Hetfield's feet during their show and had to halt the performance so the attacker could be reprimanded.

"As we played across Canada, we wouldn't always sell those arenas out in the middle of wherever it might be, somewhere out in the woods a little bit," said Newsted. "[It was a] 6,000 seat hockey arena, and they put the big rubber curtain up in the middle because we only sold 3,000. So, partly for sound and partly for vibe. So that pushed your stage all the way up close to the seats.

"So kids are about like this up above you," he continued. "We're playing a few songs, and all of a sudden, it's a dart, right? I look over at James and then there's another one. I go, 'Dude'."

"The next one on James singing, shoot, it was this far from his tennis shoe," he added. "We always wore tennis shoes, soft tops and stuff, right? There were darts. And so he stops it. It was maybe the fourth time I remember that we ever stopped a show and it was usually for something like this. When we saw too much blood or too much of this or somebody's arm getting pulled out or whatever, that kind of thing, we'd stop the show for a second."

The former bassist goes on to say that once the show was stopped, fans were quick to point out the culprit to the band and security.

"The security guys and the kids and whoever had the laser pointers at the moment, all [had them] on the kid that threw them, just like that," he laughs. "They all jumped on him."

Watch the whole interview below.

In May, Newsted revealed that he had been given the all-clear after undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

"They went in with lasers and took a bunch of shit out," he said on the Let There Be Talk podcast. "So the cavern inside my head is different than it was, but we got it early. And I got my 'free and clear' about three weeks ago. So I beat it."

Newsted is currently working on his memoir and already has "130 chapters." No date for its publication has been set as yet.

Echo & The Bunnymen have announced the forthcoming release of Apples For Isaac, their first new album in 12 years.

The Liverpool indie veterans will release what will be their thirteenth studio album via BMG on September 18.

The album, the follow-up to 2014's Meteorites, features late Blondie drummer Clem Burke - who passed away, aged 70, in April 2025 - on 10 of its 11 tracks.

In a statement accompanying the album news, the band say, "The mighty, legendary Clem Burke – longtime friend of Mac [frontman Ian McCulloch] – was integral to the making of the album, and heartbreakingly passed away during its completion… love you Clem X"

The tracklist for Apples For Isaac is:

1. Take Me By The Hand
2. Can’t Be Sold
3. Brussels Is Haunted
4. I’ll Be Your Sunshine
5. Hijacked
6. The Honey
7. Unstoppable Force
8. The Light That Surrounds You
9. Lab Rats Ran
10. Asimov
11. We Prayed In The Dark

As a preview, the release of the record is preceded today, July 16, by the release of its first single, Brussels Is Haunted.

The lyrics to the first verse of the single run:

"Here comes Plastique and Bert Bertrand
We danced at The Classic all night long
Enchanté Belgique et Le Place Grande
We drank Rum and cassis and beer blonde"

Watch the video below:

The band have a brace of shows in London and Glasgow later this year.

They will play:

Sep. 22: London Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre
Sep. 23: London Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Dec 20: Glasgow Barrowland
Dec 22: Glasgow Barrowland

The quintet were recently hand-picked to support My Chemical Romance at Liverpool's Anfield Stadium, with MCR frontman Gerard Way hailing Ian McCulloch's band as "one of the great bands of all time."

Bob Dylan has announced a run of UK shows for later this year. The 85-year-old will kick off a run of ten dates at the BIC Windsor Hall in Bournemouth on November 25, before heading to Birmingham, Sheffield and Blackpool. The schedule will climax with five nights at the Royal Festival Hall on London's South Bank on December 3-8.

Promoter and venue presales begin on Monday (July 20) at 10am local time, with the general sale kicking off two days later at the same time.

The tour's announcement follows some disruption in Dylan's touring camp, with two established sidemen quitting. Guitarist Doug Lancio, who joined the band in 2021, left last month, and was followed a fortnight later by fellow axeman Bob Britt, who joined in 2019. They've been replaced by jazz virtuoso Julian Lage, Memphis-based R&B guitarist/vocalist Jad Tariq, and Chicago-based roots, jazz, and blues guitarist Joel Patterson.

Like the 2024 leg of the Rough and Rowdy Ways tour, the new run of shows is being promoted in partnership with tech firm Yondr, whose technology is designed to prevent fans from documenting live performances on their devices. Ticket holders will be required to insert smartphones and cameras into protective pouches that remain locked while the concert is in progress. Fans needing to use their devices during the shows will need to step outside the phone-free area to unlock their pouches.

The technology, which was launched in 2020, was famously adopted by Ghost on their 2025 world tour, and has also been used by Jack White, Guns N' Roses and Alicia Keys.

Dylan is currently on tour in North America. His next show is this evening (July 16) at the Leader Bank Pavilion in Boston, MA. Full dates below.

Bob Dylan: 2026 tour dates

Jul 16: Boston Leader Bank Pavilion, MA
Jul 18: Gilford New Hampshire Bank Pavilion, NH
Jul 19: Bridgeport Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater, CT
Jul 21: New York Queens Forest Hills Stadium, NY
Jul 23: Richmond Allianz Amphitheater at Riverfront, VA
Jul 24: Vienna Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA
Jul 25: Vienna Filene Center at Wolf Trap, VA
Jul 28: Raleigh Red Hat Amphitheater, NC
Jul 29: Wilmington Live Oak Bank Pavilion at Riverfront Park, NC
Jul 31: Atlanta Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park, GA
Aug 01: Nashville Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater, TN

Nov 25: Bournemouth BIC Windsor Hall, UK
Nov 26: Birmingham BP Pulse Live, UK
Nov 27: Sheffield Utilita Arena, UK
Nov 30: Blackpool Opera House, UK
Dec 01: Blackpool Opera House, UK
Dec 03: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 04: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 05: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 07: London Royal Festival Hall, UK
Dec 08: London Royal Festival Hall, UK

Find Bob Dylan tickets.

Ghost are set to release a full-length concert film in cinemas and IMAX theatres worldwide from August 26 for a limited run.

Directed by Amir Chamdin, 2 Big to Rig captures the band on 16mm film over the course of their two sold-out shows at Mexico City’s Palacio de los Deportes in September last year.

“[It] creates a nostalgic experience and a fitting farewell to an era for fans," says Kymberli Frueh of Trafalgar Releasing, who worked with the band on their previous concert film Rite Here Right Now in 2024. "We’re proud to share it with cinema audiences worldwide before Ghost takes a well-publicised break. It’s the perfect way to close such a significant chapter in the band’s history and give fans a chance to relive this moment together.”

Tickets for 2 Big to Rig on sale from July 23 via the movie's official website.

Shortly after the end of the tour in support of the Skeletá album in February, frontman Tobias Forge announced that he was taking a break from touring.

In an interview with Full Metal Jackie, he explained that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and children and “get some new inspiration” for other musical projects.

“I’ve had two kids waiting at home with my wife for 15 years,” says the singer, who performs onstage as Ghost’s masked leader Papa V Perpetua. “And maybe that says something about me that it wasn’t a pushing enough factor during those years. Believe me, I felt bad, but I’ve definitely come to a point where I feel, physically and mentally, I need to be home. [My kids are] 17; they’re not gonna be around for an eon.”

Members of Tool, Pearl Jam, Korn, Garbage, Fugazi and Bikini Kill are among the musicians who have made donations to the GoFundMe campaign set up to help L7 bassist Jennifer Finch with medical treatment expenses following her recent brain cancer diagnosis.

As the 59-year-old Californian musician is undergoing treatment, she will no longer be able to participate in the Los Angeles punk band's Last Hurrah Tour scheduled to take place in North America later this year, but she has urged her bandmates to continue in her absence while she receives medical care.

At the time of writing, the GoFundMe campaign set up on July 13, had received donations totalling $365,382, surpassing its $350K goal.

The fund will assist:

Professional in-home nursing care, physical and speech therapy, medical equipment, and other essential care for Finch.

Covering home-care expenses that will allow the bassist to remain safely and comfortably at home.

Recouping significant out-of-pocket medical expenses and legal fees

Preserving Jennifer’s legacy by creating an archive of her artistic and creative work and the completion of a significant creative project that was scheduled for release next year.

Among the contributions, Garbage have donated $8,000, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament has donated $4,500, Bikini Kill vocalist Kathleen Hanna has given $5,000, Tool's Maynard James Keenan has donated £2,500 and Korn guitarist Brian 'Head' Welch has pledged $1000. Together with his wife Gina, Brett Gurewitz, the former Bad Religion guitarist and owner of Epitaph Records, has made a $10,000 donation.

In an update posted on July 14, the organisers of the campaign wrote, "We are absolutely BLOWN AWAY by the support, love and how far this campaign went yesterday. We are all so grateful for the community showing up far and wide to support Jennifer.

"One comment we received said, 'you have an army behind you', and with the support we are receiving we truly feel that. When that comment came in I immediately read it to Jennifer and it touched her so much."

To make a donation towards Jennifer's GoFundMe campaign, go here.

On October 14, 2006, My Chemical Romance scored their first (and, to date, only) UK number one single with Welcome To The Black Parade, the striking centre-piece of their soon-to-be-released third album third album, The Black Parade. This was a genuinely remarkable achievement for a band who, just five years earlier, were playing basement shows in their native New Jersey and giving away their songs for free on MySpace. But while their commercial break-through was celebrated loudly by MCRmy loyalists in the UK, not everyone was on board with emo's new superstars.

In the same week that Gerard Way's band stormed to the top of the British charts, another fast-rising rock band, homegrown indie darlings Kasabian, hit out at the band for their "weird and dark" music, labelling the quintet "sad" and claiming that they "don’t have anything positive to say."

"It's like ventriloquists’ music," fumed frontman Tom Meighan. "It’s weird and dark...The only good news is that it won’t last. These clowns won’t be around for much longer.Their make-up will flake off and the scene will die out. And it can’t happen soon enough."

“I just can’t relate to it," added guitarist Serge Pizzorno. "We are about decadence, having a good time and getting off your head. We champion youthful rebellion. We’re into peace and love, spreading harmony and having respect for people. But these people are the absolute opposite. It’s sad. These emo kids should get out more and try and have a good time instead."

While this small-minded and inaccurate critique of the band revealed much more about Kasabian's vanilla outlook than My Chemical Romance's music or worldview, the Oasis-worshipping Leicester band's comments were reported all all over the world, and soon reached the MCR camp, who found the English band's ignorance hugely amusing.

"This band has never had a bullshit war ever," Gerard Way responded. "I haven’t found an opponent worthy enough yet. If you’re gonna take me on, you’d better have the balls for it! If you’re gonna talk shit about us, you’d better have the juice. And we haven’t found anybody with the juice yet."

As it turned out, there was room on planet earth for both bands.

Kasabian have since racked up seven UK number one albums, the most recent two featuring Pizzorno on lead vocals following the band's July 2020 dismissal of Tom Meighan, while, 20 years on from the ex-Kasabian man's prediction that they "wouldn't be around for much longer", My Chemical Romance have just played three sold-out shows at London's 90,000-capacity Wembey Stadium to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their defining album.

Not bad for a bunch of "clowns".

In a heart-warming post-script, the 'feud' was settled amicably almost as soon as it started.

"Just after that came out I got on the plane and who was sitting next to us for about eight hours? My Chemical Romance!" Tom Meighan later told Q magazine. "I’m face to face with the singer. We’re looking at each other, so I said ‘Look man, let’s have peace here!’ And he just laughed. He bought me a bottle of champagne and we got pissed. What a sweet man. He’s fucking cool!"

Imagine being a rock fan in October 1969. You've got 30 shillings in your pocket, and your local record emporium has several new releases in stock. Albums out that month included Led Zeppelin's second, Frank Zappa's Hot Rats, Willy And The Poor Boys by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and the debut album by Free.

Then, in the 'K' section, you spot something terrifying. There's no band name on the cover, just a haunted, screaming face.

It is, of course, the debut album by the relatively unknown King Crimson, In The Court Of The Crimson King. And it's an album that changed music.

It really did. Robert Fripp’s meticulous, fleet-fingered guitar. Greg Lake’s baritone vocals, as powerful as they were mournful. Ian McDonald’s sweeping Mellotron. Michael Giles’s jazz-inflected drumming. Peter Sinfield’s surrealist lyrics. It all coalesced into a collection of songs so far from the summer of love it may as well have been packaged with shards of shattered glass.

From the proto-metal fury of 21st Century Schizoid Man to the symphonic majesty of the title track, the album offered a dystopian, beautifully complex alternative to traditional rock. It was heavy, intelligent, entirely unprecedented and, the best part of six decades later, still King Crimson's best-selling album.

Whether you're a casual listener marvelling at the eerie serenity of I Talk To The Wind, a muso obsessed with the shifting time signatures of Epitaph, or a vinyl collector who knows every detail of Barry Godber's iconic cover art, this quiz is designed to test your knowledge of In The Court Of The Crimson King.

Let us know how you get on in the comments.

System Of A Down have added another chapter to their long-running beef with Oasis.

At the first of their two headline shows at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, guitarist Daron Malakian led the crowd in a scatologically inspired Oasis chant, comparing the Mancunians to a tapeworm requiring urgent removal.

"London, do you have an ass?" asks Malakian. "Everybody say ass!"

"We have a little song about a tapeworm," he continues. "Just for fun, today I'm going to name the tapeworm. Today, I'm gonna name the tapeworm Oasis. Pull Oasis out of your ass, Hey!"

The 50,000-strong crowd responds in kind, happily bellowing the refrain "Pull Oasis out of your ass!" before being led through further iterations of the chant.

The bad blood between Oasis and System Of A Down goes back to an interview Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher gave to US radio station KROQ in 2001.

“Do you ever look at the sky and think, I’m glad I’m alive?" asked Gallagher. "After I heard System of a Down, I thought, I’m actually alive to hear the shittiest band of all time, which is quite something when you think about it.

"Of all the bands that have gone before and all the bands that’ll be in the future, I was around when the worst was around.”

In the years since, SOAD frontman Serj Tankian has generally taken the high ground in interviews, focusing on political activism, while Malakian has kept the beef simmering.

Last year, as both bands toured the US, Malakian posted an Instagram photo of himself at Chicago's Wrigley Field, with the stadium sign behind him altered to read "Fuck Oasis".

We look forward to the next instalment of the to-and-fro, wherever it may occur.

Mastodon have spoken about the moment that they discovered that their former guitarist Brent Hinds was dead.

Bill Kelliher, Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor were awaiting the arrival of their bags in the baggage claim area of Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport when Kelliher's mobile phone rang, displaying an incoming call from Hinds' ex wife Raisa Moreno. The three musicians instinctively knew that this was no mere social call.

"I was like, He's either fucking really gone off the rails and he's in jail, or he's killed somebody… Or he's dead'," vocalist/guitarist Kelliher admits in a new interview with Kerrang! "And it was the latter."

A founding member of the Atlanta, Georgia band, who played on every release from their 2001 debut EP Slick Leg through to 2021's Hushed And Grim album, their eighth studio collection, Hinds died on August 20, 2025 when his Harley-Davidson motorcycle collided with an SUV in Atlanta. The guitarist had parted company with Mastodon five months earlier, the split initially conveyed as an amicable parting, a notion subsequently shot down by Hinds in a succession of angry, accusatory social media posts.

"He was going through very, very difficult times," Troy Sanders acknowledges in the Kerrang! interview. "I don’t mean to cheapen it, but with his unhinged love of life and free spirit, he was one of two people in my life where I always felt I would get ‘the phone call’ and be very saddened, but not surprised. I hope that doesn’t sound cold."

Mastodon recently shared a powerful and emotional 35-minute film titled The Mastodon in the Room, detailing the circumstances which led to Hinds' exit.

Brann Dailor describes the day Hinds left the band as "horrible" but says that the decision to cut him loose came from "a place of love."

"It was really depressing and sad and fucked up," says the drummer. "And we just wanted that beautiful, amazing creature, Brent Hinds, to be out there serving up the honey-baked ham and screaming his head off and playing, ripping amazing, incredible, beautiful solos. We desperately wanted that guy, but he showed us time and time and time and time and time again that that person wasn't coming back without some kind of dramatic change.

"We really were coming from a place of love," he adds. "It's like, maybe this will be like some kind of bottom for him. You know what I mean? You never know. We had to set some boundaries and we had to take care of our own sort of mental health."

Watch the film below.

Slipknot are recording new material for consideration for their eighth studio album, and guitarist Jim Root says that the Iowa band have already stockpiled "at least 50" song ideas to work upon.

In a two hour plus interview conducted for the RIDE BYND podcast, Root revealed that the band are working with long-time Faith No More producer Matt Wallace, and are jamming ideas together in the studio, then refining the arrangements.

"We’ll jam for like an hour and a half, two hours," he says, "and we might get four song ideas out of that and then we just spend time arranging, and it’s so organic and it’s so real. It’s almost frightening."

"This is the closest I’ve heard to the music that I can hear in my head that I can’t get out that I’ve ever been," Root continues. "And it’s exciting. And it’s like breathing a new life into wanting to create.

"There’s times where we just kind of sit back and we’re listening to what I just worked on and, I’m just like, Wow this is wild. This sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard before. Yet there’s a familiarity to it that feels like I’ve been listening to it my whole life and it’s just so organic. It's just Slipknot music."

In terms of the direction that the new songs are taking, Root says, "I couldn’t tell you... I know I’m writing some of the fastest like grindpicking riffs, some of the most melodic, like heavy, like doomy kind of riffs. A lot of like really pretty, you know just beautiful like clean interludes and things like that that are finding their way into these songs. A lot of just experimental - I don’t want to say Pink Floyd - but maybe somewhere in that in that wheelhouse."

Slipknot closed out their record deal with Roadrunner with 2022's The End, So Far, and are now free agents. Earlier this year, on Record Store Day, the long-awaited Look Outside Your Window album recorded by Root, Corey Taylor, Shawn Crahan and Sid Wilson during studio sessions for 2008's All Hope Is Gone album finally saw the light of day.

Watch the full RIDE BYND podcast interview with Root below.

Following the break-up of The Stooges in early 1974, Iggy Pop seemed hell-bent on self-destruction. The singer's addiction to heroin and cocaine was out-of-control, he had nowhere to live, and his behaviour was becoming ever more erratic, and increasingly alarming to his friends in Los Angeles.

In 1975, after a number of run-ins with the LAPD for assorted misdemeanours, Pop was given a choice: he could be locked up in a prison cell, or he could 'voluntarily' check himself in to a psychiatric ward to seek professional help. He opted for option two, and was committed to UCLA's Neuropsychiatric Institute under the care of Doctor Murray Zucker. Here he was diagnosed with hypomania, a condition which his biographer Paul Trynka described as a "bipolar disorder characterised by episodes of euphoric or overexcited and irrational behaviour, succeeded by depression."

"Hypomanics are often described as euphoric, charismatic, energetic, prone to grandiosity, hypersexual, and unrealistic in their ambitions," Trynka noted in his excellent 2008 biography, Open Up And Bleed, adding "all of which sounded like a checklist of Iggy’s character traits."

Pleased that Pop was getting the help he so obviously needed, friends - including David Bowie - rallied around the singer, and visited him regularly at the facility.

"Iggy was in a mental hospital when I first met him and so my mum (Bowie's costumier and fashion designer Ola Hudson) and I and David went to visit," Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash recalled in a 1991 interview with Q magazine. "He's such a fragile, sweet, soulful, honest and sincere guy."

At the time, Bowie was facing his own addiction issues, and wasn't always given to making the best decisions. One example of this being the day that he and actor Dennis Hopper decided to pay Iggy a visit in hospital to share a selection of hard drugs with the singer. For reasons never explained, the pair chose to undertake this well-intentioned but ill-advised mission while dressed in astronaut suits.

"We trooped into the hospital with a load of drugs for him," Bowie later recalled. "This was very much a leave-your-drugs-at-the-door hospital. We were out of our minds, all of us. He wasn’t well; that’s all we knew. We thought we should bring him some drugs because he probably hadn’t had any for days!"

As foolish as this this plan was, Pop would later credit Bowie for his help in getting through what was clearly a traumatic and challenging period of his life.

"By 1975, I was totally into drugs, and my willpower had been vastly depleted," he recaled. "But still, I had the brains to commit myself to a hospital, and I survived with willpower and a lot of help from David Bowie. I survived because I wanted to."

David Hakopyan has one very vivid memory from the single gig his band, Soil, played. The exact date has been lost to time, but it was sometime during 1994. He’s sure of the venue, though: a New Orleans-style blues club called Fais Do-Do, located on West Adams Boulevard in Mid City, Los Angeles, 10 or 12 miles south of the North Hollywood rehearsal studio that served as Soil’s unofficial HQ.

“We used to invite people to come hang out at the studio,” says David now. “All the bros and homies would come to listen to us play and get stoned, which generated this word-of-mouth buzz that we were doing something cool. So here we were, in this inner-city blues club, surrounded by Armenian kids from Glendale and white kids from the Valley who had travelled down to see this unknown Armenian metal band.”

Most of the gig was a hot, sweaty blur, aside from that one vivid memory. “Right as we started, I’m holding this big bass chord and I realise, ‘Shit, there’s no guitar,’” says David. “I look over, and Daron has fallen off the stage and was on the ground. He had completely lost himself in the intensity of the performance, and hadn’t realised the stage rug ended where it did. He finally climbed back up, and we went straight back in it.”

What the audience at that gig didn’t realise was that they were witnessing an early flicker in the history of one of modern metal’s most successful and acclaimed bands. The Daron who ended up face-first on the floor that night was Daron Malakian, and the singer he was onstage with was a gesticulating, wild-eyed dervish named Serj Tankian. Within a few months, Soil were over, and Daron and Serj had built a new band from the ashes of their former group: System Of A Down.

“We were a good band,” says Domingo Laranio, Soil’s drummer during their short lifetime and the fourth man onstage that night. “I thought those guys would become big, but never as big as they are.”

David Hakopyan was 15 when he met Serj Tankian. Both men were part of the Armenian diaspora spread across East Hollywood and nearby Glendale, though they didn’t know each other. David was auditioning to play bass in a local new wave-inspired band named Forever Young. Serj was Forever Young’s keyboard player. He was eight years older and a university graduate who had abandoned plans to become a lawyer to play music after an early midlife crisis.

“I was unloading my truck and Serj came up with a big cigar in his mouth and said, ‘Hey kid, do you need some help?’” recalls David, who got the job as Forever Young’s bassist. “I was the young, punk kid they took in. They showed me how to smoke cigarettes and be an idiot.”

Forever Young wrote their own songs and had gigs lined up. Just as important to David was the fact that they had a rehearsal space. He had put together another band on the side, Snowblind, featuring his brother Jack and another Armenian friend, drummer Andy Khachaturian.

“On the weekends, the guys from Forever Young would never show up to this rehearsal space, so I started sneaking my guys in,” he says. “It was a hustle.”

Within the small Armenian community was an even smaller group of kids who liked rock and metal. David was one, as was his schoolfriend, a lanky guy named Shavo Odadjian. Another was Daron Malakian, an aspiring singer and guitarist David had met at a party and soon recruited for Snowblind.

“I told him Daron needed a guitarist and a singer, and invited him to come by,” he says. “He came in the following Tuesday. He was a shredder at the time, but he had a very high singing voice that almost sounded like Geddy Lee from Rush.”

David wasn’t the only one who wasn’t focussed on Forever Young. Serj was getting restless: he wanted to sing and write his own songs rather than just play keyboards. He’d recently written his very first song, titled Waco Jesus, a reference to the 1993 siege at a religious compound in Waco, Texas, in which 76 members of the Branch Davidian cult died.

David and Serj began playing together outside of Forever Young, along with Daron Malakian. They found a garage to rehearse in and soon named their new project Soil.

“I remember a cousin of mine attended one of our first jams and said, ‘Man, this guy is a terrible singer, but he has so much heart that I think something is going to happen,’” says David. “And he was right. Serj truly meant what he sang. He was incredibly passionate.”

Domingo Laranio was the odd man out in Soil, at least culturally. He was originally from Hawaii, and had already played in a string of bands both in Honolulu and LA. Like Serj, he was nearly a decade older than the teenage David and Daron. His entry into Soil came via a ‘band needs drummer’ ad in local LA newspaper Music Connection.

“I got to their rehearsal garage and set up my drums, but we didn’t start playing right away,” Domingo says. “Serj insisted on playing me a cassette of this song he had written about Waco – it wasn’t the usual stuff about girls and cars. I could see that Daron and Dave were really young and pretty green, but they had that excitement to them.”

Finally, the talk stopped and the four of them started playing. Domingo was closer in age to Serj, but he recalls feeling an instant musical connection with Daron.

“It was like this lightbulb went on: ‘I can really get a connection with this guy and feed off him,’” says Domingo. “We were just bouncing ideas of each other really fast. It was just the riffs and the energy of the guitar.”

That first jam seemed to be a success. Domingo began taking down his kit, expecting he’d get a call in a few days letting him know their decision.

“I’m packing up my stuff and Daron looked at me and said, ‘What are you doing?’ I said, ‘I’m leaving because I’m done, right?'’’ And they went, ‘No, no, no, you’re in the band. Stay. Leave everything here.’ That’s not how an audition normally works – you usually get a callback.”

Soil were prolific from the start. Daron shouldered much of the songwriting burden. “He’d sit at home all day watching the soap opera As the World Turns and just write riffs,” says David. “Because Daron was also a singer, he tended to bring in more structurally complete songs. Serj spent every day writing poetry to channel his frustrations.”

The songs Soil were coming up with were a wild clash of unlikely influences. But even at that early stage, the roots of System Of A Down’s music were audible.

“Daron was heavily into Slayer, whereas I was into Frank Zappa,” says David. “It was riff after riff, with Serj shouting. We loved it. I remember one specific song that had 11 distinct parts. It was self-indulgent and a bit goofy, but the lyrics were incredibly strong.”

The job of shaping this mad sound fell in part to Domingo, the most musically experienced member of Soil. “He would construct beats against our parts and push us to write riffs in that style,” says David of the drummer. “To this day, Daron cites him as one of his biggest influences.”

The LA music scene at the time was in a period of transformation. Hair metal’s imperious reign over the Sunset Strip was long over, replaced by an emerging strain of alternative metal – Rage Against The Machine were the new kings of the scene, while Tool were making waves.

Soil themselves were creating their own mini-scene, centred around their North Hollywood rehearsal space. “We’d smoke weed, get wasted, and write music every single day for months on end,” says David. “We would just invite people to come hang out at the studio.”

One of those people was David’s old school friend, Shavo Odadjian. “Shavo was there the very first time we jammed,” says David. “He watched us play and said, ‘Dude, this is dope. What you guys are doing is great. I want to be a part of it and help push it.’”

Shavo played rhythm guitar at the time, but he was never a member of the band. Instead, he took on the role of de facto manager and hype man. It was a role he took seriously. “Shavo was like our cheerleader,” says Domingo.

It wasn’t just Soil’s buddies who recognised they had something going on. “We had this roll-up door at the rehearsal garage, which we kept up while we played,” says Domingo. “One day we were jamming and this older white guy stopped outside and just stood there. We all stared at him, and he went, ‘Wow, that sounds really good.’”

They never found out who the passer-by was. But his instincts were on the money.

No one involved in Soil can remember exactly how long the band lasted. Serj Tankian has put it in previous interviews at eight months. David Hakopyan says it could be a year or even a little longer. The only thing people agree on is that they played just one show, that gig at Fais Do-Do where Daron fell offstage.

Soil ended when both Domingo and David left. The drummer’s departure was precipitated by a massive 6.7 earthquake that hit the San Fernando Valley in early 1994 that left 60 people dead.

“My wife was pregnant and it scared the shit out of her,” says the drummer. “She wanted out of LA. I had to prioritise my family. Serj was, like, ‘What do I need to do to keep you here? Find you a place to live?’ It wasn’t a matter of not wanting to stay. It was either leave the band or get divorced.” Domingo and his wife eventually moved back to Hawaii.

David had little choice in the matter of leaving Soil either, though for different reasons. “I was asked to leave,” he says. “I remember them telling me, ‘You aren’t angry enough, you don’t play angry.’ I was, like, ‘I’m sorry, I'm not that angry a person.”’

“I was sad,” he continues. “It was like being a kid and your friends ask you to stop coming to the clubhouse. But I called Shavo and said, ‘I think you could step in as bass player, you’re incredibly excited about the project as well as just managing it,” he says. “He thought it was a cool idea.”

David quickly landed in a new group, Middle Earth, whose line-up included another Armenian kid, a drummer named John Dolmayan. Daron, Serj and Shavo, meanwhile, recruited Andy Khachaturian, who had played with David and Daron in Snowblind, to replace the departed Domingo.

The newly christened System Of A Down – a name taken from a poem Daron had written titled Victims Of A Down – played their debut gig on May 28, 1995, at Sunset Strip club The Roxy. That show featured several tracks that would eventually appear on System’s self-titled 1998 debut album, including Sugar, Suite-Pee, P.L.U.C.K and the song named after their previous band, Soil.

“It was a Sunday night, and we had just finished recording a demo for Middle Earth,” says David, who was at that first show. “I told John that we needed to go support my friends' new project. John just did not like their performance at all. He had this look on his face like he was constipated.”

As with Soil, System would throw open the doors of the rehearsal space they shared with Middle Earth to friends and fans. “Word-of-mouth spread among local kids that you could grab some beers and spend the entire night hanging out at the System or Middle Earth studio while we jammed,” says David.

System began playing gigs in Hollywood and beyond. The buzz was turbocharged by Shavo, who hustled their name around town, helping secure gigs at venues such as the Whisky A Go-Go and the Coconut Teazer as well as passing out flyers and copies of their first two demos tapes to fans to circulate. “Those kids were incredibly prominent in that early scene, handing out flyers everywhere,” says David.

By 1996, Shavo had handed over the reins to hotshot young manager David ‘Beno’ Benveniste, becoming his first clients. Labels began circling, among them American Recordings. The latter’s boss saw them play at the Viper Room.

“I laughed the whole show,” American Records boss Rick Rubin told YouTuber Rick Beato. “It was ridiculous! But I loved it. But any thoughts of, ‘This could be big,’ you can’t have that thought. It would be insane.”

Word had filtered through to Domingo Laranio in Hawaii that his old bandmates were on the verge of getting a deal.

“The first inkling I got was when people back then started telling me, ‘Somebody from a record company is taking them out to steak and lobster dinners and pitching to them.’ I was thinking, ‘All right!’ I was happy for them.”

There was one problem, namely issues with drummer Andy Khachaturian. “I immediately told John that he needed to step in because they were preparing to showcase for Rick Rubin,” says David. “John was reluctant, but I insisted he do it because they needed his calibre of drumming.”

John Dolmayan took the job, System Of A Down signed to American Recordings soon after, and their self-titled debut album came out in 1998 to widespread acclaim in the metal press. These weird Armenian kids who sounded like Slayer colliding with Frank Zappa had made it.

David Hakopyan, who went on to form a new band, The Apex Theory with Andy Khachaturian and currently fronts Antenna The End, is still friends with his with his old bandmates. He’s sitting on a tape of what turned out to be Soil’s final rehearsal. “About two or three years ago, Serj asked me to digitise it, though I don’t know if it will ever be released,” says.

His former Soil bandmate Domingo Laranio, the man who chose family over potential fame, looks back on his part in System Of A Down’s early history with a similar lack of regret. “You think about how much your life could have changed. But would you change what you have now, if it meant you never met your wife and your kids? It would mean a whole different timeline. These people were my friends. I’m just happy for them."

On March 19, 2025, Guns N' Roses announced the "amicable exit" of drummer Frank Ferrer, who had played with the band for 19 years.

"The band thanks Frank for his friendship, creativity and sturdy presence over the past 19 years," a spokesperson for the LA hard rock giants posted on social media, "and wish him success in the next chapter of his musical journey."

One year on, the 60-year-old New York drummer has given his first interview about his time in Gn'R, and he only has positive things to say about his former boss Axl Rose, and his experiences with the band.

"Everything just comes to an end," Ferrer tells Rolling Stone. "And I’ve said this before, I knew this thing wasn’t gonna be forever. I was just so happy I got to do it when I got to do it, and now I’m doing other stuff. It’s really that simple... We didn’t get into a fight or anything."

Originally, Ferrer was hired to play with Guns N' Roses for just two weeks, deputising for Bryan 'Brain' Mantia on a European tour while the former Primus drummer returned to the US to be with his wife for the birth of their daughter. But after Mantia decided to sit out the group's next North American tour, Ferrer's services were retained, right through to November 5, 2023 when he played his last show with the band in Mexico. He has since been replaced by Isaac Carpenter, formerly the drummer for Awolnation.

In his interview with Rolling Stone, Ferrer expresses nothing but gratitude for the opportunity to play in Axl Rose's band, and has only good things to say about his former boss.

"I think the world thinks that he’s a scary, mean guy," he reflects. "And he’s the complete opposite. He doesn’t suffer fools, so that might piss people off. But he’s generous and super funny, and worried about us all the time, worried about, 'Hey, you guys, how you guys doing? Hey, is Frank OK? Hey, Frank, are you OK?' I’m doing fine. He’s, 'Oh, OK, cool.' It’s that kind of stuff constantly. I wish they could know him the way I know him. That’s the only way I could say it. He’s a great musician, great singer, all that stuff that goes in the pot, but he’s a good man... He’s out there busting his ass, trying to make everything sound great, be great every night. He’s under immense pressure, and he delivers. He would lead the way."

Ferrer is now playing in two bands, One Night Only, with Hanoi Rocks and Electric Boys guitarist Conny Bloom) and the Slax.

In 2023, accompanying our analysis of how Pink Floyd changed dramatically between their first two shows at Earls Court in 1973 and their five-night return in 1981, Prog presented a rundown of 10 key live performances from the band’s early days to their final reunion.

1. 14 Hour Technicolor Dream – Alexandra Palace, London, April 1967

At which the first tranche of Floyd fans felt they’d sold out, moving from the confines of All Saints Hall in Powis Gardens and the UFO in Tottenham Court Road to be part of the multi-artist happening in Muswell Hill. Captured on film by Peter Whitehead as part of Tonite, Let’s All Make Love In London, Floyd appeared at the end of the show,as the Sunday sun rose across the capital – and with it, their role as underground house band of choice was secure.

2. Games For May – Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, May 1967

Probably the group’s most famous early concert, Games For May was immortalised in song by Syd Barrett on the Floyd’s first Top 10 single, See Emily Play. Described as a “space age relaxation for the climax of spring – electronic composition, colour and image projection, girls, and the Pink Floyd,” frankly, what was there not to like?

Playing more or less what was to become The Piper At The Gates Of Dawn, and premiering Emily, someone dressed as an admiral gave out daffodils to the audience while a bubble machine stained the seats, allegedly resulting in a lifelong ban at the venue for the group.

3. More Furious Madness From The Massed Gadgets Of Auximenes – Royal Festival Hall, London, April 1969

Realising that trying to replace the tragic whimsy of Syd Barrett was a road to nowhere, Floyd favoured the high concept with a generous dollop of their brand of space rock. The show the group premiered at this RFH event was The Man And The Journey, following Everyman as he goes through the day, incorporating released and unreleased material. Thumbs up for ambition, thumbs down for abundance of melody.

4. Roman Amphitheatre, Pompeii, Italy, October 1971

Arguably Pink Floyd’s most famous live performance was captured without a single paying member of the public amid the lava-saturated relics of Pompeii. Filmed by Adrian Maben for his oft-released and well-loved movie Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii (reissued in 2025) the tracking shot behind the band’s amplifiers, bearing the legend ‘Pink Floyd. London.’ is one of the greatest moments in pop, ever.

5. Winter Tour ’74 – Trentham Gardens, Stoke on Trent, November 1974

After the desultory performances at the Empire Pool the nights before, Pink Floyd found their mojo and played a show strong enough that the bootleg of the three non-Dark Side songs of that tour allegedly sold 150,000 copies, in one shop outselling Led Zeppelin’s Physical Graffiti. What the recordings do underline is that by playing an hour of unheard material, Floyd demanded a great deal from their audience.

6. In The Flesh – Stade du Parc Olympique, Montreal, Canada, July 1977

Included solely for its notoriety, the most infamous Pink Floyd show of all time saw Waters beckoning a rowdy fan toward him, then spitting at him. It resulted in Roger Waters hating himself and his audience, setting his creative course for a considerable time going forward. How had it come to this?

7. The Wall – Earls Court, London, August 1980

The excitement of The Wall shows is difficult to put into writing. The shock of this band, associated with hippies and the profound, playing confrontational, difficult, theatrical rock was palpable. Once the taste was acquired, to see it in this enormous venue with its inflatable mothers, schoolteachers and wives, crashing planes, pop-up rooms, explosions and a lot of cardboard is still somewhat mind-bending.

8. A Concert For Europe – Venice, Italy, July 1989

A free concert that was intended to be played off the island of Giudecca in the Venetian Lagoon; instead, because of logistics, it actually ended up being staged on large rafts in the middle of the San Marco Basin, directly opposite the Doge’s Palace and smack-dab in the middle of Venice.

A great deal of local, national and eco politics surrounded the show, but it also acted as a metaphor for the very opulence of the 80s – not to mention the apogee of slick, David Gilmour-led commercial Floyd. The show was eventually watched globally by 100 million people.

9. Pulse – Earls Court, London, October 1994

By the time of The Division Bell, and what was to become the live album Pulse, Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason had learned how to be Pink Floyd without Waters or, indeed, Barrett. No one now had to ask “Which one was Pink?” as Pink was the unity, the spectacle, the togetherness of the band, playing The Dark Side Of The Moon in full for the first time since 1975, but importantly, having, in The Division Bell, an album that could stand upright in its shadow.

10. Live 8 – Hyde Park, London, July 2005

They never thought it would happen, Gilmour and the boy from Great Bookham, out on that crepuscular common, that night many haven’t forgotten… Pink Floyd’s temporary reunion, engineered by Bob Geldof for Live 8, overshadowed the rest of the global concert. Although the awkwardness onstage can be analysed to the nth degree afterwards, in its moment, it felt like the best thing ever.

Grindcore innovators, extreme metal influencers and Midlands heroes Napalm Death have played what must surely be the most brutally heavy Tiny Desk Concert in history. The latest artists to take part in National Public Radio's ongoing and hugely popular series, which invites established acts to play in the company's office in Washington, D.C., the band follow in the footsteps of pop icons like Dua Lipa and Sabrina Carpenter, as well as hardcore graduates Turnstile, who made history with their Tiny Desk Concert last year after singer Brendan Yates produced the series' first ever stage dive.

"We are Napalm Death, for the uninitiated, just in case you were wondering," smiles frontman Barney Greenway after a bludgeoning Strong-Arm in a video of the set since uploaded to NPR's Youtube. "Nice to see ya! Let me say we are here to heartily support public access broadcasting," he adds to cheers, continuing: "unfortunately, it is under attack from all sides, in the UK as well as over here, and we have to take care of it. It's precious. It has to be preserved."

Napalm Death then continue to batter the NPR office with another six cuts, including their iconic 1.3-second track You Suffer, which isn't only the shortest song to ever get played at a Tiny Desk Concert, but is recognised by the Guinness World Book Of Records as the shortest song in history.

Watch the performance below.

Napalm Death are by no means the only truly heavy band to play a Tiny Desk Concert. In 2023, monster alien thrash veterans GWAR played the series, while in 2019, sludge metallers Thou appeared courtesy of a more stripped-back performance. We think this one is going to take some topping, though.

Phil Collins opens up about his past battles with alcohol addiction in a new interview with British music magazine MOJO, revealing that fellow rock star Eric Clapton once talked him into a not-wholly-successful stay at his Crossroads Centre rehab facility in Antigua.

Collins has previously written about his battle with alcoholism in his revealing 2016 autobiography Not Dead Yet. The former Genesis man turned successful solo artist spoke of turning to alcohol to fill the "gaping void" in his life following the breakdown of his third marriage and subsequent divorce in 2006.

"Night after night I find myself lying on the bed, staring out of a skylight at grey Swiss skies, rueing my life," Collins wrote in his memoir. "I'm all alone, save for my good friends Johnnie Walker and Grey Goose."

"It took me until the age of 55 to become an alcoholic," he added. "I got through the heady 1960s, the trippy 1970s, the imperial 1980s, the busy 1990s. I was retired, content, and then I fell. Because I suddenly had too much time on my hands."

"But it was something I lived through, and I was lucky to live through it and get through it. I was very close to dying."

In his interview with MOJO's Mark Blake, Collins reveals that, in the 2010s, he was encouraged to check into rehab by his longtime friend Clapton. Collins was supposed to stay at the Crossroads Centre for six weeks, but checked himself out after a month as he had a tour booked.

"The nurse who took me to the airport gave me a note and told me to read it on the plane,” he remembers. "It said, 'If you have a drink, you will die. And it’s terrible to say, but I had a glass of wine."

Collins will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his solo career in November. Earlier this year he revealed that he had turned down the opportunity to perform at the ceremony, which will be held at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles on November 14.

"They asked me if I would perform," he told BBC Breakfast. "I said no. You’ve gotta be match fit to do something like that. You can’t just go onstage. You’re going to have to rehearse. And by that point, if you haven’t been singing, your voice is going to be shot, and that’s not going to be good. I’d rather not do it."

For over 40 years, Top of the Pops was judged as the pinnacle of TV success for any artist playing the UK. Appearing on the BBC’s flagship music programme immediately put you in music’s big leagues; New Order's Peter Hook told Mojo in 2005: “Being on Top of the Pops was one of the highlights of my life, it was the only time when people like my mother, and relatives that didn’t have anything to do with us, thought that we had made it.”

Understandably, most people who got booked for the show knew it was a hell of a career opportunity, took it very seriously and acted as professionally as possible. But we’re glad to report that not everyone was so overawed by TOTP’s Lustre. Some rock bands deliberately set out to mock, fuck with the formula of and, in some cases, full on sabotage the show. They might have had Auntie Beeb’s producers pulling their hair out, but here are 10 times we loved seeing rock bands totally ruin Top of the Pops.

Rod Stewart and The Faces – Maggie May (1971) 

Top of the Pops' insistence that all artists were to mime to a backing track of their song has been a source of endless shenanigans over the years. But the big bang for not taking miming seriously was Rod Stewart’s performance of his number one hit Maggie May in 1971. Before it all goes pear-shaped, the first clue we get that this might not be entirely serious is BBC Radio DJ John Peel sitting on a stool playing the mandolin. He’s not in the band! How curious. Then guitarist Ronnie Wood can be seen having to peg it over from the back of the studio and jump back onstage when his solo comes in. Why was Wood wandering about, you ask? Well, he seemed to be distracted by a rogue football, which he retrieves, kicks on the stage and the entire band just give up on the whole charade and decide to have a kick about instead. It’s a funny old game.

The Stranglers – No More Heroes (1977) 

When punk broke big in the late 1970s, it wasn’t a genre that was really compatible with primetime BBC television. The two biggest names in the scene completely gave Top of the Pops a swerve; The Clash never played the show, and it wasn’t until their 1996 reunion that Sex Pistols appeared. Those punk bands that did show up massively jarred with TOTP’s usual aesthetic. When The Stranglers came on to play their 1977 top-ten hit No More Heroes, you could clearly see vocalist and guitarist Hugh Cornwell and bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel more concerned with wafting the dry ice off the stage than making any suggestion that they were playing the song. Even when Cornwell starts singing, with his vocals legitimately being performed live, Burnel trots off to find a newspaper, aggressively waving it about to clear the smoke. They do eventually settle into it, but when the song's solo comes along, Corwell sarcastically performs it no-handed right into the camera. Ever feel like you’ve been cheated?

Killing Joke – Empire Song (1982) 

When the first single from the post-punk legends' Revelations album reached number 43 on the UK singles chart, Killing Joke were invited onto TOTP to perform it. Too good a chance to turn down, but slightly awkward for the band at that time, as vocalist Jaz Coleman had recently fled Britain to go live in Iceland, believing that we were on the verge of the apocalypse. Still, not a problem: rather than turn down the biggest music show in the country, why not just hire a man in a big hazmat suit to stand by the keyboards and pretend to be Coleman, and then get drummer Paul Ferguson to mime the words as if he were the singer? That’ll work, right? No shade on the song or the performance of those who did turn up but lads, you’re fooling no one here!

New Order – Blue Monday (1983) 

Obviously, there were a lot of bands that really weren’t keen on this whole lip-synching malarky that TOTP forced upon them. But a look at this performance from dance-rock legends New Order may lead you to concede that they had a point when it came to their insistence on miming. “Playing live, singing live,” presenter Richard Skinner explicitly discloses by way of introduction, and, there’s no doubt about it: New Order are definitely playing Blue Monday live. But when you couple the difficulty of performing what was then an entirely new genre of music and a studio not used to the demands of live acoustics, you get something of a car crash. The synths are overpowering and often out of step with the rest of the band, the mix is flat and vocalist Bernard Sumner, not a man known for his charisma at the best of times, looks and sounds like he’s been forced onstage and told to sing as part of a hostage situation. Even though today the whole thing feels oddly charming, Sumner’s awkward little laugh toward the end feels like an acknowledgement that he knows it’s all going tits-up. Still, despite the urban legend to the contrary, Blue Monday actually climbed the charts the next week, so it all worked out fine in the end.

Faith No More – From Out Of Nowhere (1990) 

From Out Of Nowhere was re-released after the success of Faith No More’s breakthrough hit Epic and peaked at number 23 on the UK singles chart in 1990. The band were invited on to play the song and were asked to mime and lip-synch the entire thing. Now, unlike most artists who wanted to protest the policy, FNM’s Mike Patton decided that he would absolutely adhere to the request. Patton gurns, grimaces and contorts his face around the words, hilariously chewing up the scenery and leaving you in no doubt whatsoever that he is not singing the song, even though he technically hits every word. Now, was it a sharp piece of satire, mocking the absurdity of forcing artists to “play live” without actually playing anything live, or was Patton just mucking about? Look, the guy shat in a hairdryer, we have no idea what goes on in his head. But whatever the reason, it was certainly entertaining.

Nirvana – Smells Like Teen Spirit (1991) 

The most infamous troll in Top of the Pops' entire history? It surely must be. Nirvana turned up to the BBC studios armed with a generation-defining anthem in tow, only to be shocked when they were informed that they wouldn’t be able to play the song live. TOTP’s producers thought they had sated the grunge trio with a compromise that allowed vocalist Kurt Cobain to perform his vocals live. Nope. You know the result: bassist Kris Novoselic aimlessly throwing his bass up and down and rolling on the floor, Dave Grohl hitting either every drum or no drums at all like a toddler who has just sat behind a kit for the first time, and Kurt Cobain, barely touching his guitar, pulling a Jesus Christ-pose, singing like a stoned Morrissey, deliberately annunciating the “Load up on guns, kill your friends” line in the song and deep-throating his mic before a few members of the crowd rush the stage at the climax. Over 30 years later, it’s still an iconic and utterly glorious middle finger.

Manic Street Preachers – Faster (1994) 

After the release of their thematically brutal 1994 masterpiece The Holy Bible, Manic Street Preachers were in visceral, harsh and untamable form. They could still pen a hit, though, and despite Faster being a song about self-abuse with the hook “so damn easy to cave in, man kills everything”, it still reached number 16 on the UK singles chart. Still, with the band in such nihilistic form, probably don’t invite them onto prime-time BBC to sing in-between The Brand New Heavies and Wet Wet Wet? MSP turned up to career through the song in full military regalia, with vocalist James Dean Bradfield wearing a balaclava that was perceived by many as a move to show support to the IRA. Incorrect though that assumption may have been, their performance still racked up an impressive record number of complaints to the show (over 25,000), as middle England soiled its collective pants. Excellent work.

The Eels – Novocaine For the Soul (1997) 

One of the most ingenious ways ever to mock the show's miming policy, when LA band The Eels' breakthrough single saw them invited onto Top of the Pops, they decided to treat themselves to a whole new set of equipment to use for the performance. Hilariously, though, they decided to purchase a bunch of miniature, child toy versions of their setup. Fair play to the band for playing it completely straight, even though their tiny guitars and drumkit look comedically absurd on fully grown men, until drummer Butch decides to pick his kit up one-handed and smash it to smithereens towards the song's end. His bandmates then join in, stomping their plastic replicas into pieces, in the process making us laugh, and upsetting every budding guitarist aged 5-7 who never got their toy six-string for Christmas.

Faith No More – Ashes to Ashes (1997) 

Another entry for the funk metal superstars, except this time it’s them having their performance ruined by a member of another band. When Ashes To Ashes charted in 1997, Faith No More were asked to come play the song on TOTP. Unfortunately, drummer Mike Bordin wasn’t available due to his touring commitments with Ozzy Osbourne. FNM recruited Robin Guy, drummer with UK glam rock revivalists Rachel Stamp, to fill in, giving him a mask of Bordin’s face and instructing him to wear it on the show. Guy, aware that this was a chance to be seen on telly by millions, defied the band’s orders and can be clearly seen whipping the mask off seconds into the performance, revealing his mug to everyone - including FNM vocalist Mike Patton, who was clearly furious that Guy had ignored his orders, and promptly spent most of the performance giving the stand-in drummer his middle finger in increasingly unsubtle ways.

Symposium – Fairweather Friend (1997) 

There was obviously something in the water in 1997, because here’s yet another entry from that year. They may have only enjoyed a brief moment of mainstream notoriety, but youthful Brit-rock band Symposium certainly earned their reputation as something of an uncontrollable live outfit. When their fourth single Fairweather Friend peaked at number 25 on the UK singles chart, the band came on to play it fully live on Top of the Pops, bringing what appears to be their entire fanbase along with them. Like any Symposium show, the performance is raucous, and a full-blown mosh pit opens up in front of the stage, which vocalist Ross Cummins promptly dives into. It inspires what may well be the largest stage invasion in TOTP’s history, as Ross is followed back on stage by most of the audience. Obviously, we’re used to seeing this sort of thing at gigs all the time but spare a thought for the poor Top of the Pops floor manager.

I honestly can’t remember having met Lemmy, though I may have "done when he was a roadie for Hendrix,” Russ Ballard says with a laugh, sounding embarrassed. “Wasn’t he also the guy that Jimi sent out for his drugs?”

So the story goes. Allegedly, part of Lemmy’s job description was trying out Jimi’s narcotics before passing them over to his boss.

He laughs again, beaming. “A bit like a food tester. I like that.”

Born in Hertfordshire in 1945, Ballard has spent many decades writing and playing music, first as the guitarist and lead vocalist with the band Argent, known principally for their 1971 top-five hit Hold Your Head Up, and then as a solo artist. However, the songs Ballard wrote – including Since You Been Gone and I Surrender (covered by Rainbow), God Gave Rock And Roll To You (reworked by Kiss on Revenge) and Hot Chocolate’s So You Win Again – were often much more successful in the hands of other artists, some of whom he got to meet, others he didn’t.

“It’s funny,” Ballard ponders, “I played gigs with Kiss, but we’ve never actually sat down and chatted. One was at the Academy Of Music in New York. At soundcheck, the band members were walking around without make-up. I was in the wings when they came down to perform, and suddenly they were all seven feet tall and unrecognisable. It was an amazing sight. We [Argent] played with them again in St Louis, but they had broken big by then.

“But the closest I came to meeting Kiss was in Los Angeles many years later,” he continues. “I was in a hotel, and Michael Bolton, who was Number One with How Am I Supposed To Live Without You [in 1989], was there by the swimming pool, having breakfast with Gene Simmons.

"As they left, Michael stopped at my table and asked whether I wrote [songs] with other writers. I told him that I was writing with John Waite at that time. Michael said: ‘There’s no other English writer I’d like to write with than you.’ Which was nice, but unfortunately, I was flying home the following day. We do still email each other, though.”

Way too polite a guy to have interrupted the God Of Thunder’s morning repast, it will come as no surprise that Ballard never placed too much importance on hanging out with celebs and fellow musicians. For him it was always about the songs. So, no, he probably didn’t drink Jack Daniel’s with Lemmy, but he did get to spend a few hours drinking tea and eating biscuits with all four members of The Beatles – and Ringo Starr once acted as his valet.

Ringo Starr

I met Ringo back in 1978 in a London nightclub. Flash place, I don’t remember the name. As we arrived, somebody said in a loud voice: “Hey Russ, got any songs?” It was Ringo. So I sat down with him and replied: “Of course. What are you looking for?” His reply was instant: “Hits!” His next question was: “Would you like to produce them?” Of course I would! With a huge smile, Ringo said: “The last person that tried to produce me was Marc Bolan – he’s dead now.”

A few days later, Ringo came to my house, and chose five songs including As Far As We Can Go [which would appear on Starr’s 1983 album Old Wave].

We spend some nice amounts of time together. Once we were in [London restaurant] Trader Vic’s, drinking and telling stories. I asked Ringo how John Lennon was, and he replied [adopts strong Starr accent]: “I speak to him, y’know, but the problem is that nobody is looking after business. Me, I’m baking bread.” That was Ringo’s phrase of the moment, ‘baking bread’. It meant he was paying attention.

My dad died as I started recording with Ringo, and he knew I was suffering. He asked if I was “Valium-ed out”. When we checked in to the Plaza Hotel, Ringo actually carried my cases to my room for me, remarking that my suite was bigger than his. He was smashing company.

The Beatles

We [Argent] would always see The Beatles at gigs, in hotels. They were such a great bunch of people. While I was playing with [late50s/early-60s pop star] Adam Faith I spent three hours with them in a room in Yarmouth. They were playing at the ABC, but because the venue was so surrounded with kids it was impossible to get into the place, so a helicopter dropped them on the roof.

I had just played my gig on the pier with Adam Faith, and they burst in as we were having tea and biscuits. John Lennon sat on the floor at the other end of the room with George [Harrison]. [Pop singer] Helen Shapiro was with them, and Paul McCartney and Ringo – or Richie as they called him – told stories about the Hamburg days; how because they were expected to do such long hours, they made the songs last much longer.

Billy J Kramer had just topped the chart with [the Lennon and McCartney-written] Do You Want To Know A Secret, and Paul told me: “We’ve written another one for him.” It was Bad To Me. At the time, nobody knew that. The following week it was Number One.

Noël Coward

That’s a strange one. I was seventeen when I joined Adam Faith. In Singapore, after breakfast, we sat by the pool. A man of around sixty was swimming lengths on his back. He introduced himself to Adam, saying: “You must come up to the suite.” I didn’t have a clue who he was.

Had I known that this was Noël Coward [the playwright, composer and singer celebrated for his flamboyance and wit] I’d have hung on his every word, but instead I fell asleep in the corner. He came to the show and sat right in the front row. Noël even mentioned us in his diaries: “Adam Faith was a fine young man who rocked and rolled with the utmost authority with his band The Roulettes. It was horrendously loud.” Fantastic.

Roger Daltrey

Roger became a mate of mine after I worked with Leo Sayer on the Daltrey album [1973]. I played on one of its tracks. That album came out so well that Roger wanted to do another and he asked me to write him some songs. Ride A Rock Horse [1975] was quite successful. Roger and I became really good friends, and I wrote more songs for the soundtrack to his film McVicar [1980]. One of those, Free Me, felt like a good idea for a convicted criminal.

On Under A Raging Moon [1985] I had the song Breaking Down Paradise. We became such good friends that Roger phoned and asked me to be a part of a solo tour of America, saying if I was unavailable then he wouldn’t do it. That felt like a big compliment. It was quite a big tour that included Madison Square Garden in New York. I really like Roger. He can change moods, as everybody knows, but he’s a really nice man. I think a lot of him.

Ritchie Blackmore

When Ritchie put Rainbow back together, his manager invited me to play with them at a gig at the O2 Arena [in 2017]. We did [Ballard song] Since You Been Gone together. Because we had similar backgrounds we got along really well; like him, I used to be in The Outlaws. Ritchie said he did these big gigs to make money, but what he enjoyed best was playing in churches and castles with his missus [Candice Night]. He asked if I’d write him another song. I replied: “Sure. What do you want, rock?” But he preferred minstrel music. In the end, though, I never heard from Ritchie again.

Ozzy Osbourne

This happened after Ozzy had his hit with Lita Ford [Close My Eyes Forever], so it would have been at the end of the 1980s. Ozzy’s record company called me to say that he had done an album but it needed a single, and would I like to write with him? So Ozzy came to my house. He arrived walking with a stick and it looked like he’d been having a bit of a rough time.

He was really, really funny. We sat in my sitting room, which looked out on a huge garden. Ozzy asked whether I had night-sight goggles. And of course I didn’t. He told me you could pick up an ex-military pair for ten thousand dollars. He had a pair. He was saying all of this really funny stuff, though I’m not sure it was meant to be. We were having such a fun time we didn’t do any writing. Boy, he was a very, very funny guy.

Robert Plant

I knew Robert Plant in the early days because we shared a booking agency in Wolverhampton. I met him again at a Teenage Cancer Trust show and we had a lovely chat. He told me about the time that Led Zeppelin met Elvis in Las Vegas [in 1969]. Robert reckoned Elvis didn’t have a clue who they were.

Apparently, Robert went up to Elvis, put his arm around his shoulder and swung his hips [à la Presley], which Elvis thought hilarious. They ended up having a real laugh together. When it was time for Elvis to leave, as he reached the swing doors he turned back into the room, pointed into the air in that famous pose of his and sang at them: ‘Well, my baby left me.’ Now that’s what you call an exit.

Mort Schuman

[Songwriters] Goffin and King, Lieber and Stoller, Neil Sedaka, Mort Schuman and Doc Pomus were among my earliest heroes. So later on it was an incredible thrill to write with Mort, who wrote a lot of the great Elvis songs, including Viva Las Vegas, Little Sister and A Mess Of Blues. He also wrote Sha-La-La-La-Lee [a hit for Small Faces in 1966].

He was a New Yorker, but Mort was living in England when I got the phone call: “Russ, I’m still a star in France. Do you fancy doing something together?” We co-wrote four songs [for Schuman’s final album, 1991’s Distant Drum]. I asked him lots of questions about Elvis. I wanted to know how many songs Morty wrote for him. Apparently there were around thirty, but he admitted: “A lot of them were crap because they were for those [terrible] films he made”.

Morty was a great guy to hang out with. I wish I had known him for longer, but unfortunately he died that same year.

Russ Ballard’s current album Songs From The Warehouse/The Hits Rewired is available via Frontiers Records.

Peter Sinfield, whose dream was to make an artistic contribution that would “enlighten, provoke or stir,” was the lyrical mastermind behind some of King Crimson’s best-loved works. The poet had a significant influence on the world of progressive music, applying his skills to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Roxy Music and PFM before branching out into the world of pop. Although he had retired due to ill health, his death on November 2024, at the age of 80, came as a shock to those who knew him.

What image comes into your mind when you think about King Crimson? Chances are it’ll be the screaming face gazing out from the cover of the group’s 1969 debut album. That it’s there at all comes down to Peter Sinfield, who, when the group were casting about for cover ideas, said he knew someone who might be able to do something.

“I used to hang around with all these painters and artists from Chelsea Art School,” Sinfield told me in one of the many long telephone calls we exchanged as I was writing the band’s biography. “I’d known Barry Godber for a couple of years; he’d been to a few rehearsals and spent a bit of time with us.I told him to see what he could come up with. I probably said that the one thing the cover had to do was stand out in record shops.”

Godber managed to achieve that and more. When printed on the LP’s gatefold sleeve, his inspired work channelled the raw paranoia and Cold War dread of the times; and in doing so, stuck a doom-laden chord in the consciousness of the public. As a result, Sinfield – who had also come up with the band’s name, and was at that point the group’s roadie, live sound engineer, light show operator and lyricist – became the group’s de facto art director.

“Peter had a lovely saying he referred to throughout his life,” recalls Stephanie Ruben, who was his girlfriend in 1969, married him a few years later and, despite their eventual divorce, remained a lifelong friend who saw him on the day he passed away. “He’d say, ‘There are kings and makers of kings. And I’m a maker of kings.’ That’s actually a lovely place to be. He didn’t mind not being a face, not being upfront but more in the background.”

He used to self-deprecatingly describe himself as Crimson’s pet hippie, by which he meant someone who was profoundly more connected to the esoteric milieu of London’s underground scene – certainly more so than West Country lads,Michael Giles, Robert Fripp, Greg Lake and Ian McDonald, the latter only just a year out of buying himself out of the army.

Sinfield had a nose for what was hip and knew lots of groovy people at groovy parties. Evidence can be glimpsed in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment in Ken Russell’s 1965 BBC documentary movie The Debussy Film, where Sinfield dances to pop music while Claude Debussy (played by Oliver Reed) searches among the revellers for his muse.

At that point, Sinfield fancied himself as a bit of a singer-songwriter. Admiring Donovan’s Catch The Wind, which was riding high in the singles chart, he thought: how hard can it be? Where Donovan would catch the wind, Sinfield figured he would talk to the wind instead. Recognising his guitar playing was a bit iffy and his singing wasn’t great, he agreed with McDonald when they met in 1968 that Peter should concentrate on writing the words and leave writing the tunes to him.

In an early press interview, Sinfield admitted to being something of a hustler. Perhaps it was meant tongue-in-cheek, but there was some element of truth in it. When King Crimson imploded at the end of 1969 and, he lost his natural writing partner McDonald, Sinfield decided to throw in his lot with Fripp, and went from riding in the back of the van with the roadies to co-ownership of the group. To many fans, the Fripp and Sinfield partnership felt like some progressive rock equivalent of Lennon and McCartney; and while it undoubtedly produced some remarkable material, it was in essence a collaboration born out of necessity.

By 1970 and the recording of King Crimson’s Lizard, Fripp noted Sinfield’s increasing hostility toward him. For his part, Sinfield thought Fripp wasn’t taking his work seriously enough. Stephanie Ruben says Sinfield would sometimes work through the night on a particular lyric, only for Fripp to give the words a perfunctory examination. After the recording of 1971’s Islands, Fripp telephoned Sinfield to say it was over.

“I don’t think Peter ever got over being fired from King Crimson,” says Jakko Jakszyk, who cites Sinfield as responsible for launching him on a trajectory that would see him join the band in 2014. “I think Robert was increasingly uncomfortable with some of the lyrical material and he was uncomfortable with Pete’s attempts to influence or direct the music. But after Crimson, Peter went on to bigger, more financially successful things. He may not have gone there had he not been fired.”

One such opportunity came when he was asked to produce Roxy Music’s 1972 self-titled debut. Some in the group would later express their dissatisfaction at his work – but whatever it might have lacked in the way of audio finesse, Sinfield intuitively zeroed in on capturing Roxy’s raw, experimental edge. This aspect would be lost as their career took off. Sinfield would often say his proudest achievement with Roxy Music was their single Virginia Plain, frequently claiming the credit for spotting its hit single potential.

Urged to do so by Greg Lake, whose ELP-owned Manticore label also bankrolled the venture, in 1973 he began recording a solo album, Still. While bands might come and go, the fact that he was still Peter Sinfield seemed to have been one of the subtexts of the project. Released in May of that year, there was definitely a part of him wanting to prove that the ineffable qualities people admired about King Crimson didn’t just reside with Robert Fripp.

Boasting guest appearances from Crimson alumni including Boz Burrell, Ian Wallace, John Wetton, Robin Miller, Keith Tippett, Lake and Mel Collins (the record’s musical director), Still is consistently underrated. Underpinned by pastoral, heartfelt high points such as The Song Of The Sea Goat, Under The Sky, his account of life in Crimson via Envelopes Of Yesterday and Greg Lake’s anthemic vocal on the title track, the album took a lot out of him.

“Working on Still was probably the hardest I’ve ever worked in my life,” he once said. “I can’t stress how difficult recording the album was. And although there was some joy in it, overwhelmingly everything was hard work. There comes a point where you think, ‘Thank God that’s finished!’ Afterwards, it wasn’t too hard to step away from being the solo artist.”

He could be dangerously capricious. Still’s original cover was salmon pink. One day, he gleefully told this writer that he decided that he’d like it to be blue. That impulsive decision required the withdrawal of the pink edition and the issuing of another version, just as expensively embossed as the first. He would later lament the fact that Still didn’t sell enough to recoup the cost.

While his production work with Manticore continued with Italians PFM and singer-songwriter Keith Christmas, his time became increasingly occupied with ELP. The early Crimson connection with Lake paid off handsomely in the huge solo hit I Believe In Father Christmas, which he co-wrote. It reached No.2 in the UK charts at Christmas 1975 and has become a staple of every seasonal radio playlist ever since.

Sinfield fully embraced the possibilities of writing for a broader audience when he partnered with Andy Hill in the 1980s. With artists such as Cher, Céline Dion, Bucks Fizz, Cliff Richard and other mainstream acts covering their material, Sinfield’s words – once derided as pretentious by his critics in the rock press of the 1970s – had entered the mass market.

In 1993, his solo album was reissued as Stillusion, in a different running order and featuring two tracks from an abandoned 70s follow-up album. (For many years, when asked what he was up to, he’d say he was working on another solo release with help from Family’s Poli Palmer, although it never materialised.)

Recalling Sinfield’s role as a kingmaker, Jakszyk says: “It was Peter’s idea to put together a band of ex-Crimson members. Talking to Mike Giles and Ian McDonald, he suggested me as someone who could play the guitar parts. I remember the first rehearsal was meant to be with John Wetton, but he didn’t make it and Peter Giles turned up instead. So that became The 21st Century Schizoid Band. It was all at Pete Sinfield’s inception. That’s how I got involved in the whole thing – and ultimately from there into King Crimson.”

When Crimson did reconfigure in 2014, Fripp asked Sinfield to update the lyrics for 21st Century Schizoid Man. “We laughed,” Ruben recalls, “saying, ‘What a cheek!’ You know, like asking Beethoven to change part of a symphony. But, of course, he did it happily. He wouldn’t have done that for anybody else, not Céline or Cher or anybody. But he did it for Robert.”

Crimson revisiting some of the pieces that Sinfield co-wrote gave him an enormous boost. “They played and sang his songs and that was like a gift,” says Ruben. “They could spit and crack out those words out of their mouths and they did it gloriously. That’s all he ever wanted.”

Sinfield could be confrontational and a contrarian, says Ruben, but it was his way of keeping others at bay. “Peter didn’t always make it easy for people. A wordsmith can be quite spiky. There’s always a part of the artist who doesn’t believe in their work. Peter didn’t really understand how loved his work had become over the years.

“He would have been utterly moved by all this outpouring of love and respect for it after he died. He might have hoped for it, but he never expected that so many took his work to heart; that these people heard something, learned something or just liked something of his.”

Dogged by various serious medical conditions in his later years, he tried to avoid being defined by them. “He was so brave. good-humoured and sharp-witted throughout the last 10 years of the most appalling illnesses,” Ruben says. “He always used to say that one should leave something behind – not necessarily with your name on it, but a contribution to the planet, however tiny that might be. A contribution that might enlighten, provoke or stir.”

Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1976. Farewell gigs are often celebratory affairs, but no one has ever bowed out with as much style as The Band. The Last Waltz was a finale like no other, with 5000 guests sitting down for turkey dinner before enjoying a star-studded set from an extraordinary lineup of musicians, from Bob Dylan to Paul Butterfield, Neil Diamond to Neil Young, Joni Mitchell to Van Morrison, Ronnie Wood to Ringo Starr.

Highlights? There are plenty. Mavis Staples caught on tape whispering, "Beautiful!" as final notes of The Weight ring out, clearly entranced by the performance. Van Morrison's fiery version of Caravan. And, perhaps best of all, the unplanned guitar duel between The Band's late Robbie Robertson and Eric Clapton.

The two joined forces on a cover of Bobby Bland's Further On Up The Road, with Clapton in relaxed form, soloing with energetic, elegant precision. But then it got interesting.

"We had just kicked off the song, and Eric was playing his opening solo on it," Robertson told Total Guitar. "When you look at the movie now you can see his strap is kind of folded over and it looks like it could come off at any time – and it does. It just slips off, so the guitar just falls down, and when that happened – just like you do when you're playing music in a group - you just cover their back.

"I just jumped in and tried to make so that it wasn't an issue. So then he got his strap back on and came back in and the whole song turned into kind of a guitar dialogue back and forth. People refer to it as a 'duel' but it was more of a guitar conversation with a lot of passion."

The pair's conversation also featured on Clapton's 1975 album No Reason To Cry, which starred every member of The Band, and they would reconvene several times over the years. In 1986 they co-wrote It's In The Way That You Use It, from the soundtrack to The Color Of Money. In 2011, Clapton played on seven songs on Robertson's How to Become Clairvoyant album.

And in 2000, when Clapton was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame for his solo work, Robertson inducted him (when The Band had been inducted six years earlier, Clapton had done the job). Of course, the pair revisited Further On Up The Road during the show's live section, and while the performance may not have been as fierce as the 1976 version, it was another worthy addition to the conversation.

Canadian arena rockers Nickelback have announced a new album. Everything Under The Sun, the follow-up to 2022's Get Rollin', will arrive on Planet Earth on October 30, and is preceded by the first single from the album, the typically bombastic Rattle The Cage, which features a cameo from Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5.

"This album has every side of the band on it,” says frontman Chad Kroeger. There are songs that hit as hard as anything we've ever done, songs that take chances, and songs that remind us why we've been doing this together for so long. Rattle The Cage felt like the perfect way to kick the door open - it has the energy we've been feeding off every night on stage, and we can’t wait for people to hear it."

Everything Under The Sun is the first album Nickelback have released since leaving previous label BMG – with whom they recorded Get Rollin' and its predecessor, 2017's Feed The Machine – for a new home at the Virgin Music Group.

"Nickelback have built one of the most remarkable careers in music, and it's a huge honour for everyone at Virgin Music Group to work alongside a band with such an enduring legacy and global impact," says Jacqueline Saturn, the label's North American President. "We're thrilled to partner with them as they begin this exciting new chapter and can't wait for fans to experience Everything Under The Sun."

Album pre-orders are available now. Full tracklist below.

Nickelback: Everything Under The Sun tracklist

Rattle The Cage (feat. John 5)
Bones For The Crows
I Already Know
Leave Me Behind
If I Don't Go
Make Me Love You
Chasin' Famous
Simple Song
Technicolor Steamboat
Lift Somebody Up
Bottled Dreams
Last Night Was Fun

Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger says that he feels "really stupid" for listening to and heeding a piece of advice given to him by John Lennon.

In an appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, Jagger reveals that he still has regrets about the fact that he never got to meet Elvis Presley, but confesses that he never sought out a meeting with 'The King' because Lennon had advised against it.

Lennon, along with Beatles bandmates Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr famously met Elvis at the mansion he was renting in Los Angeles in August 1965. Following the meeting, Lennon stated, "To us, Elvis was a god", adding, "We went up to his house and we were terrified. I can't remember the first moment I saw him, but Elvis looked great."

The advice that Lennon subsequently passed on to Jagger, however, implies that perhaps he wasn't quite as impressed by the encounter as he had expected.

"I remember John telling me, 'You should never meet your heroes. I would never meet Elvis, Mick, if I were you'," Jagger said during the interview. "And so I didn’t. I took John’s advice.

"It was really stupid of me, really." Jagger continued. "I’d love to have met Elvis. Maybe my Elvis version would have been different."

That said, on the Elvis website elvis.com.au there's a quote from Lennon about Jagger and Elvis which perhaps the late Beatle neglected to say to Jagger's face.

"It always hurts and infuriates me when Mick Jagger puts Elvis down," Lennon is quoted is saying. "Maybe he's jealous because Elvis was the original body man in rock and it's too near to Mick's game for him to admit that Elvis' movements were at least as good as his and that maybe Elvis could sing a damn sight better than he could."

Ouch.

Watch the full episode below.

Queens of the Stone Age have released a new single, Easy Street, their first new music since since their 2023 album In Times New Roman...

The song features vocals from South Carolina country singer/songwriter Nikki Lane, who duets with frontman Josh Homme on lyrics such as "The sound of your voice and the things that you say / Just shut up & fuck me or shut up and go away."

“It’s kind of a funny song." Homme says."It’s like hitting your funny bone, where it’s funny because it hurts and it hurts because it’s funny. You’re serious, but it’s funny. We made it the way you’d make a demo. No click track, mistakes left in. It speeds up, it slows down, the claps aren’t great, but they’re not bad, and a bad clap adds this human thing you can’t fake.

"It’s not just about silliness," he insists. "It’s about understanding the imperfection of your life. The song, like your life, is in the mistakes. Its imperfections are unbeatable."

Watch the video, directed by Tony Wolski and Christopher Gruse, below.

Josh Homme's band are currently on tour in Europe supporting System Of A Down.

They will begin a North American tour supporting Foo Fighters on August 4 in Toronto, and end the year touring Australia and New Zealand. Full dates below.

Queens Of The Stone Age 2026 tour dates

Jul 15: London Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, UK*
Jul 18: Warsaw PLPGE Narodowy, Poland*
Jul 19: Warsaw PLPGE Narodowy, Poland*

Aug 04: Toronto Rogers Stadium, ON
Aug 06: Detroit Ford Field, MI
Aug 08: Chicago Soldier Field Stadium, IL
Aug 10: Cleveland Huntington Bank Field, OH
Aug 13: Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field, PA
Aug 15: Nashville Nissan Stadium, TN
Aug 17: Washington Nationals Park, DC
Aug 15: Regina Mosaic Stadium, SK
Sep. 17: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, AB
Sep. 20: Vancouver BC Place, BC
Sep. 26: Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, NV
Oct 04: Sacramento Aftershock Festival, CA

Oct 24: Reykjavík Laugardalshöll, Iceland

Dec 08: Adelaide The Drive, Australia^
Dec 11: Hobart MyState Bank Arena, Australia^
Dec 13: Melbourne Rod Laver Arena, Australia^
Dec 15: Sydney Afterpay Arena, Australia^
Dec 16: Newcastle Entertainment Centre, Australia^
Dec 18: Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Australia^
Dec 20: Auckland Spark Arena, New Zealand^

* Supporting System Of A Down
^ With Primus and Tropical Fuck Storm

Find Queens Of The Stone Age tickets.

Heart vocalist Ann Wilson says that the Canadian rockers had to accept "devil's bargains" from the music industry in order to survive the 1980s.

The Vancouver band parted company with their long-time label Epic Records following the release of their 1983 album Passionworks, which peaked at number 39 on the Billboard 200 chart. Passionworks and its predecessor Private Audition (1982) failed to sell more than 500,000 copies in the US, and within much of the music industry, it was believed that the band had long since peaked commercially. But, as Wilson reveals in conversation with Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan on his The Magnificent Others podcast, the group were picked up by Capitol Records thanks to the support of A&R man Don Grierson, but with conditions attached.

"He said, 'Well, I really believe in you guys, so come to Capitol and I'll help you find the right songs," Wilson recalls. "It was sort of presented like, You can do this or you can just say bye-bye. At that point we were we were using big-time corporate LA management, which is scary enough on its own. But yeah, it was a complete devil's bargain. The songs that we were presented with, you just kind of had to swallow real hard and and go, Well, there's something about the song I like, but it hasn't got any substance. That was the problem I had with most of the songs that we got in the 80s that we did. Even the hits."

On the band's first album for Capitol, the self-titled Heart, proven hit songwriters such as Jim Vallance (Run To You, Summer of 69), Holly Knight (Love Is A Battlefield), Martin Page (We Built This City) and Bernie Taupin (Elton John's songwriting partner) were drafted in to complement the band's own songwriting. The strategy worked - the Berrnie Taupin / Martin Page co-write These Dreams gave the band their first US number one single, while What About Love, Never and Nothin' At All all reached the top 10 of the Billboard 100 singles chart.

"the songs that I was writing, we were writing together, were... somewhere else," Wilson concludes. "They weren't artificial, they weren't glossy, all those things that that the '8s music was."

When Corgan asks, If you had to do over again, would you have come at it differently, Wilson replies, "I would have spent more time listening to the radio for instance, and understanding what it was that was turning everyone on so much. Not to copy other records, but to get a feeling about the soul of what's there."

Watch the interview in full below:

Wilson recently announced the second album from her collaborative project with her band Tripsitter.

The follow-up to 2023's Another Door, Consecrated Ground will be released on August 14. The nine-track album is described as "a fearless collection of songs that blends heavy rock, psychedelia, blues, and raw emotional storytelling."

Satan-loving doo-wop duo Twin Temple have announced the forthcoming release of their third album, Doomed Lovers, and shared its title track.

The Los Angeles-based husband-and-wife, Zachary and Alexandra James, will release the album, produced by Shooter Jennings at LA's legendary Sunset Sound studio, on October 9 on their own label, Pentagrammaton Records.

"We poured everything into this new record," the duo say. "We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes and The Shangri-Las and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could - of course with our dark spin on things.

"The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives," the pair reveal. "We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life."

As a taste of what to expect from the record, Twin Temple have shared its title track.

"This is the philosophical centerpiece of the album," they say, "a theatrical and confessional take on all or nothing love, the dark side of devotion and centuries old mythic literary Romantic themes. It longs for a love so enduring and eternal that it ultimately consumes, obliterates, and drives one to madness and death. At its core, it asks the question, 'What happens when your lover dies?' But what makes the song unique is that it rejects the conventional and culturally accepted answer - 'I know I should tell you to find someone new/ - in favor of raw, unfiltered and selfish desire, things that would be shameful to speak in mundane reality."

Last week, Twin Temple made headlines when they were kicked off two shows with country musician Charley Crockett, due to the headline act's opposition to their Satanic presentation.

They then made further headlines when Jack White got in contact via social media to invite them to open for him at an upcoming LA show.

White wrote: “Twin Temple, would you like to open my show in L.A. on September 29th at the Hollywood Palladium? Let me know. Get in front of me Satan!” he added, a nod to The White Stripes’ 2005 album Get Behind Me Satan.

Twin Temple responded to the offer on White’s Instagram, writing: “Unholy hell…. Sir Jack, you have no idea what this means to us. Lifelong fans- dead leaves on the dirty ground was one of the first songs I (Alex) ever learned on guitar. We were actually planning on coming to this show. It would be a most infernal pleasure to play the devils music with you.”

Asked by Rolling Stone if they are genuine Satanist, Alexandra James replies, "Hell yeah! To us, Satan is a metaphor for exploring all of these things in our art. It’s the images that have always resonated with us. For me, growing up a mixed-race woman [of Korean and British descent], first generation in America, I’ve always felt a little bit like an outsider. And Satan’s the original outlaw, right? He’s a rebel angel. He’s the one who questioned authority, fought for himself, refused to bow down or conform, and was like non serviam. That was a metaphor that resonated very strongly with me."

KnuckleBonz, the company which creates officially licensed statues of musical icons, has announced details of a "first-of-its-kind immersive 3D digital platform" celebrating the life of the late Metallica bassist Cliff Burton.

The Cliff Burton Museum was created and developed in collaboration with Cliff's surviving family members and will feature virtual artefacts which illustrate his rise to become one of metal's most iconic musicians, as well as a digital space to connect with fans, play games and shop for exclusive items.

“Cliff Burton redefined the role of the bass guitar in thrash, and his influence is stronger than ever," says Tony Simerman, CEO and Creative Director of KnuckleBonz, Inc. "Building the Cliff Burton Museum inside KnuckleBonz360 is our way to pay tribute to the brilliance of Cliff, and to give fans everywhere a place where his legacy lives on 24/7, 365 days a year."

A statement from Cliff Burton's family reads: “Cliff’s music and spirit continue to inspire fans around the world, and our family is proud to celebrate his legacy in this way. Working with KnuckleBonz to bring Cliff’s story to life inside the Cliff Burton Museum means so much to us, and we know fans everywhere will feel his presence in this space."

The collaboration continues KnuckleBonz's close work with the Burton family. In 2022, the company launched a limited edition statue, with a portion of the proceeds going towards the Cliff Burton Music Scholarship Fund.

Fans are advised to join the KnuckleBonz360 Backstage Experience waiting list at knucklebonz360.com. Watch the video below for a taster of this virtual museum space.

Best known as the voice behind Vienna and his subsequent successful solo career, Ultravox frontman Midge Ure has developed a varied CV. He’s currently touring his new solo double album, which includes a full side of instrumentals. Prog takes a deep-dive into his life to uncover the influences behind A Man Of Two Worlds and his prog connections.

When do you remember first being moved by music?

The first thing I remember hearing on the radio was a guitar instrumental – Santo & Johnny playing Sleepwalk [1959]. The haunting sound of this lap steel guitar was just so exciting.

Then when I started playing, I went through that phase of listening to the Yardbirds, Bluesbreakers and the rest – the guitar heroes – and you learned by copying them. Even to this day, my basic guitar skills are based around that kind of blues scale.

All those things stick. You fall in love with the Small Faces, then your mate’s got a King Crimson album. So you fall in love with The Crimson King. And all those little elements stick to you.

So you did have your prog moments! Did you ever see Crimson live?

Yes, but to be honest, I don’t remember too much about it!

You ended up working with Robert Fripp later, though, when he played on your 1996 album Breathe.

I was in Los Angeles making that album and I saw Robert was recording there. I thought his Frippertronics thing was fantastic – but I wasn’t going to try and emulate it, because it’s a very specific thing that he does. But if I could get him to do it on my record…

So I asked if he would play on Guns And Arrows and he said, “Well, I’ve got 40 Japanese students with me.” I was working in a tiny little studio. But opposite us was Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics, who had a big studio in his house, so we booked that. Robert turned up with all this equipment and 40 Japanese guitar students, and he kind of educated them as he was playing.

He said, “This is Midge, and this is in D-minor, so what I’m going to do is this…” and he started doing drones and all these Frippertronics things. It was just incredible; they all had their hands and faces pressed up against the window watching Robert, and I was just as fascinated as them.

Were you interested in music technology back in your early days?

I was fascinated, but I didn’t have much access to it. I remember seeing someone on [BBC tech show] Tomorrow’s World with a guitar that made the sound of a keyboard. It was way beyond anything I could imagine. They also had a keyboard that made the sound of an orchestra, or, you know, whatever.

Didn’t Yes also play an incidental role in you gaining the courage to be a singer?

Yeah – I was in my teens, and I still had a fairly high, boyish voice. My older brother pointed out: “That Jon Anderson, he’s done all right, and he’s got a really high voice!” So that gave me a bit more confidence.

Another prog connection: you covered Jethro Tull’s Living In The Past on your debut solo album in 1985. Were you a fan in your youth?

I was a fan of that song, certainly. I remember when I was 16, riding my motorcycle up to technical college, hearing that song and it stuck with me. Later on, I went to see Tull [in November 1974] at the Apollo in Glasgow. As an aspiring guitar player, watching the band perform, you were blown away by the musicianship. And you couldn’t take your eyes off Ian, this crazy guy swinging his flute around.

On your new album there’s a really ambient feel to many of the instrumental tracks. That seems to hark back to your early interest in Krautrock and Berlin-era Bowie.

Yeah, that’s definitely in there. I remember back in the Slik days, I was in London listening to John Peel, and they played some tracks from Low. It just completely blew my head off. I’d never heard anything like that – the production, that bizarre, detuned snare with a big ambient sound. It was a revelation.

And of course, Music For Films – all that stuff going on before it was cool to make instrumental music. And they were doing it on tape with very limited equipment. Rusty [Egan, Visage and Rich Kids bandmate] used to say, “I can’t stand it – sounds like somebody’s banging bones together!” But it always captivated me, as did modern classical stuff like the Penguin Cafe Orchestra.

Was there a DIY element to playing electronic music in the 1970s?

When I joined The Rich Kids, Rusty was putting a little club together [which would become New Romantic HQ The Blitz], and he’d find these tracks coming out of Europe, which we never heard on the radio – we were so UK- and America-centric. You’d hear these Kraftwerk things, or [Belgian synthpoppers] Telex, or these guys who were using electronics. That’s what drove me, in 1978, to go out and buy a synthesiser.

Although I didn’t know how to play it, it was as punk as picking up a guitar and learning three chords had been two years before – “I can do this! I don’t have to be Rick Wakeman. And there’s this box that makes infinite noises you can’t even begin to imagine.!” And they were just becoming affordable.

Yet at the same time, you were playing stadiums with Thin Lizzy.

Yeah; within 24 hours of Philip asking me [to step in when Gary Moore left in the middle of a 1978 US tour], I was in New Orleans, learning all these harmony guitar parts. My heart was with Ultravox – I’d already joined the band – and I was also finishing production of the first Visage album. So it was like a busman’s holiday to me, opening for Journey in front of 30,000 people. Because I knew I wasn’t staying with them.

When you joined Ultravox, did it feel like you’d found your home?

We had no money, no management, and the band had been dropped by the record label. But the moment we plugged in and played, it was the most magnificent thing I’d ever heard. It was unbelievably powerful, this combination of the synth, bass and drums. And, you know, it was heavy – Ultravox was a rock band. It was incredibly powerful onstage. So that was my band; I’d found my little Midge space, after kissing a few frogs!

Among your fans was a young Steven Wilson, who, many years later, remixed four Ultravox albums from your era.

I’ve never met Steven. We keep saying we’re going to try and hook up. But he seems to be the man of the moment: he’s touring his own stuff, he’s still doing Porcupine Tree – how does he find the time? It seems he can just throw digitised multitracks into his computer and remix things incredibly well. He’s doing Atmos mixes too, which is a different animal again.

It’s not so much of a surprise that he’s a fan, because of course he works with Richard Barbieri, and I would put Japan and Ultravox in the same kind of category, because they didn’t just do standard three-minute singles – they explored, and they stuck their neck in the noose a lot of the time. I suppose back in the 80s you could call that electronic prog.

In America, weirdly, they used to compare Ultravox to The Moody Blues. To me it’s so far removed, but I guess they heard similarities because it had Mellotron-like string effects.

Another prog-adjacent person you’ve worked with is Kate Bush, who duetted with you on Sister And Brother ftom 1988’s Answers To Nothing.

At a Prince’s Trust do we got chatting and she asked me what I was up to. I said, “I’m recording – and by the way, I’ve got a duet I’d love you to do.” She said, “Well, I’m right in the middle of my own album right now, but send me over the multitracks, and if I get a chance I’ll sing it.”

Then she called up a few days later and asked me to come over to hear what she’d done. And, of course, she had Kate Bushed it! She’d done this Kate choir at the end of it, all this multitrack stuff. She’d obviously spent a lot of time. I was completely agog – they use the term ‘genius’ but it barely covers what she does. I was just unfortunate that I wasn’t there to see her in action, doing it.

Your CV doesn’t have many gaps, but have you ever been offered soundtrack work?

I always thought Ultravox could have done soundtrack stuff, had we been able to agree on things. You know, the way Tangerine Dream moved into that area. But it never really happened. The only things we’d be offered were these bizarre, ooh-missus-where’s-my-trousers sex romps – so wrong for us, so we didn’t do it!

But when you write instrumental music, in a way you’re writing a soundtrack for a movie that doesn’t exist yet. It’ll exist in people’s heads, and everyone’s heads will have a different movie. That’s why, with no lyrics, the music has to stand up on its own two feet.

Ure’s doulbe album,A Man Of Two Worlds is out now.

Fresh from their first-ever festival, Eddfest, which took place at Knebworth this past weekend, Iron Maiden have revealed details of a huge business partnership with Pophouse Entertainment.

The band have sold a stake in their publishing rights and master music rights, as well as their name, image, and likeness rights, to the Swedish company – they are the founding investors and brains behind the ABBA Voyage virtual show in London.

This means that Iron Maiden can "pursue new creative ventures that connect with existing fans as well as bringing their extensive catalogue to new audiences" over the next decade.

“I am very excited about our relationship with Pophouse and the ability we now have to pursue, facilitate, and finance our many plans and dreams quicker than we ever hoped," said manager Rod Smallwood. "The interest in the band has never been bigger, and this strategic partnership, which we’ve been quietly working together on now for over a year, has already had results with the progress on the 'Infinite Dreams Museum' and the filming of the current show.”

"Rod and Andy [Taylor, joint CEOs of Phantom Music] have always encouraged and inspired us to take chances in developing Eddie and the worlds he inhabits, such as horror, gaming, or comic books," adds Dave Shack, Managing Director of Phantom Music and Iron Maiden co-manager. "The band provides the cornerstone of what Maiden is – superlative music and incredible live shows, and the Phantom team have focused on developing parts of Maiden lore that we think our fans will embrace and enjoy. Such Maiden-related initiatives include an award-winning mobile game, a global fan club offering, a vibrant drinks business, books and comics, and, of course, merchandising in all its forms. It’s absolutely one of the greatest sandpits for a creative to play in – and Pophouse have already shown they belong in it.”

For our review of Eddfest, go here.

"I love you, man," Serj Tankian beams, hugging Daron Malakian tightly to a sea of cheers from over 60,000 delirious, onlooking System Of A Down fans. The last time this writer saw the Armenian-American metal heavyweights share a stage - at Download festival 2017 - they looked like they all wanted to be anywhere else, shoulders slumped, static poses and practically ignoring each other. It was a depressing visual for one of millennial metal's most creative and idiosyncratic bands.

Today, the vibes couldn't be more different: singer Serj can barely stop smiling; guitarist Daron's stage banter is playfully eccentric rather than grumpily off-kilter; bassist Shavo Odadjian looks like he's having the time of his life. Even powerhouse drummer John Dolmayan's trademark intensity is broken by the occasional grin. One 40-something fan sat near us remarks in disbelief as he takes in the spectacle: "Are System Of A Down back?!"

System are indeed back - back in the UK for the first time in almost a decade, a long ol' absence by any standards in music. There are kids here who wouldn't have been born when they last played, enjoying their first rock show, hoisted up on the shoulders of parents in matching Toxicity t-shirts. There are teens milling around sporting Serj's iconic 90s tribal face paint (why didn't we ever think of that?!) and, of course, a large portion of elder millennials ready to relive their nu metal heydays. Oh, and lots of people in banana costumes. That definitely wasn't a thing nine years ago.

Long before System hit the stage, cult sludge heroes Acid Bath get us started in style. Their grimy psychedelic heft fits a stadium stage surprisingly well, even if the echoey thud of Shane Wesley's bass bouncing off the empty seats at the back creates a head-spinning racket that's even more of a trip than the far-out visuals splattered across the screens around them.

Queens Of The Stone Age are masters of their craft at this point, Josh Homme's casual saunter out on stage suggesting he's well versed to owning crowds this size. They get a big response from a rapidly growing audience, though a muddy mix sees some of their swaggering riffs lost in the ether. Still, they earn the first pits and crowdsurfers of the day, so it's very much job done.

The response that greets Daron Malakian's arrival on stage around 40 minutes later is deafening, but surpassed almost immediately by the singalongs that accompany Soldier Side; fans are already on shoulders and venue-wide circle pits are already beginning to open up before a proper riff has even dropped.

Then, the rest of System appear, launch into the dizzy opening crush of B.Y.O.B. and Tottenham's home ground explodes into joyous, chaotic abandon. What follows is a relentless dishing out of anthemic alt metal ragers - thirty of them, in fact, unleashed at such a pace there's barely time to remark "How good was that?!" after each song before they've already kicked into the next one.

"These three guys are the best fucking musicians in the world!" Serj remarks warmly at one point, noting that his bandmates "saved my ass" after a slight miscue. Tottenham definitely didn't notice; the entire floor is a bubbling sea of movement from the first notes of B.Y.O.B. to the final bouncing riff of Sugar, the stands full of people off their seats dancing, jumping and singing their bums off.

Every song is greeted like a classic but there are undoubtedly highlights. Chop Suey! getting dropped two thirds of the way in sparks bedlam; Radio/Video's folky breakdown prompts all manners of shapes thrown; Daron's now-trademark "I wanna see you spinnin' around! Round, round, round and round!" command elicits at least 10 massive circle pits across the floor during an electric Toxicity.

That would all be enough to make this a hell of a gig, but the fact that the band themselves seem genuinely, wholeheartedly pleased to be here is what really puts it over the top. Whatever healing these four lads have done over the past few years has made all the difference: even if we're resigned to never getting that new album, metal is just a better place for having a happy, healthy System Of A Down in it. Tonight was an absolute treat and one of the best rock stadium shows in recent memory.

System Of A Down Tottenham Stadium night one setlist

Soldier Side - Intro

B.Y.O.B.

Suite-Pee

Chic 'N' Stu

Prison Song

Aerials

I-E-A-I-A-I-O

Innervision

Darts

Genocidal Humanoidz

Needles

Deer Dance

Radio/Video

Dreaming

Hypnotize

ATWA

Bounce

Suggestions

Psycho

Chop Suey!

Lonely Day

Lost in Hollywood

Streamline

Spiders

Forest

DAM

War?

Roulette

Toxicity

Sugar

It’s more than two decades since Tarja Turunen was dramatically kicked out of Finnish metal giants Nightwish. Undeterred, she forged an impressive – and diverse – solo career incorporating her love for classical music, Christmas songs, folk and even electronic experimentation across 10 albums. Her latest, Frisson Noir, sees her return to the symphonic metal sound she helped turn into a global movement.

The first music I remember hearing

My parents had beautiful singing voices, and my brother is seven years older and used to play drums and some guitar at home, so there was always music around. But the first thing I really remember was Bonnie Tyler. I really paid attention to her because she was so different from everything else. I was about six years old and had just started playing piano, but hearing Bonnie Tyler’s voice on Total Eclipse Of The Heart had me singing along.

The first song I performed live

As a kid I’d perform at every little party there was in my village. I performed as a piano player and did Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata. I remember being terrified going up to play that.

The music that terrified me

I’m not a dark person, but I’m aware there is a darkness within me that I create from. As a kid I was the youngest singer in the opera. When the men were singing Wagner’s Tannhauser, there’s a scene for the male choir only and it’s super-dark and bombastic. Metal came to my life later on and brought me a beautiful darkness that reminds me of that.

The best song ever

The best song ever written is Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, from A Night At The Opera. There are other songs – great songs – on that album, but that one takes your attention. That song is amazing because it takes you in.

The guitar hero

I’ve been very lucky to work with amazing guitar players. Joe Satriani’s sound is very particular and he’s amazing. I’ve seen him live a few times. I remember being in LA many years ago working on my third album [What Lies Beneath], and I was looking for a solo. Doug [Wimbish], my bassist, suggested getting Joe, and I was like: “Come on, he’s not going to want to play on my record.” But he called him up, and he did Falling Awake in a matter of two days.

The singer

Whitney Houston is, for me, the voice. After Bonnie, I discovered Whitney, and my teacher at school insisted I do things like Greatest Love Of All. I could never do it! Her voice was insanely gorgeous and powerful. I’ve got all her albums, live recordings, everything. The album Whitney is incredible. What an emotional voice.

The songwriter

I’d probably pick a composer. Hans Zimmer has written songs too, but he’s more of a film composer. His music has been a huge inspiration for me for many years. I even ended up working in his studio on my first album because I loved the score to Gladiator. That’s still one of my favourite soundtracks of all time. I couldn’t move because I was crying so much in the theatre, all because of the music!

The best record I made

The new one. No, really! I’ve never said that out loud. To be honest with you, I can say that Frisson Noir is my best record. My last album was seven years ago, but I’ve kept myself very busy with live shows, and covid all between. With this album, it represents who I am and where I am at this moment. It’s very personal to me and I’m proud of it.

The worst record I've made

Nightwish’s ‘first record’, Angels Fall First, was actually just our second demo. It takes a lot of courage to listen to it; I sound like I had a potato in my mouth! At that time I was studying in the music university and had started taking professional opera training. So I go into the studio for this, and it all took different takes and a completely different voice. I just couldn’t do it at the time. It wasn’t until the last couple of years in Nightwish I actually felt comfortable with my singing. There was nobody out there to teach me. But it did go gold, I suppose.

The most underrated band ever

I lived in Argentina for almost ten years. I discovered a lot of great local artists who were huge in their country, but totally unknown abroad. I love Alejandro Lerner. His melodies were just beautiful.

The song that makes me cry

My daughter is thirteen years old, and she showed me this band Falling In Reverse, who I knew existed but had never heard. They did an acoustic version of the [Papa Roach] song Last Resort, and I was driving when I heard it for the first time, and I just started crying. The singer’s interpretation of this in-your-face message about how everybody is afraid of something had a huge impact. It really affected me.

The song I want played at my funeral

If there’s going to be a funeral, I want it to be ABBA. Seriously, that’s my guilty pleasure, ABBA. On the tour bus, after a couple of glasses of wine, I’ll be blasting it out with my dudes. I went to see the ABBA Voyage twice in London, crying and singing along.

Frisson Noir is out now via earMUSIC.

Rock legend Alice Cooper has announced another run of dates on his ongoing Alice's Attic tour. Just two days after the European leg of the tour ended in Italy, the indefatigable 78-year-old has announced a new run of shows in the US.

The new dates – which are in addition to Cooper's upcoming European tour with Hollywood Vampires, his UK book tour, and another four Welcome To My Nightmare dates in Las Vegas with magician and illusionist Criss Angel – kick off at the Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY, on September 17, and conclude on November 21 at the Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort + Casino in Reno, NV.

The new dates will presumably give American fans another chance to witness new guitarist Anna Cara in action. The 22-year-old Brit joined Cooper's band in April to cover for Nita Strauss, who gave birth in May and has not yet announced her return to the band.

Full dates below.

Hollywood Vampires: European Tour 2026

Aug 12: London O2 Arena, UK *
Aug 14: Cardiff Castle, UK $
Aug 15: Scarborough Open Air Theatre, UK $
Aug 17: Glasgow OVO Hydro, UK
Aug 18: Manchester AO Arena, UK *
Aug 19: Birmingham Utilita Arena Birmingham, UK *
Aug 21: Colchester Castle Park, UK $
Aug 22: Halifax The Piece Hall, UK $
Aug 25: Nürnberg PSD Bank Nürnberg Arena, Germany
Aug 26: Paris Adidas Arena, France
Aug 28: Cologne Lanxess Arena, Germany
Aug 30: Hamburg Barclays Arena, Germany
Sep 01: Novegro-Tregarezzo Parco della Musica di Milano, Italy
Sep 02: Este Castello Carrarese, Italy
Sep 03: Arena Zagreb, Croatia
Sep 05: St. Pölten VAZ, Austria
Sep 06: Praha Sportovní hala Fortuna, Czechia

* with The Jesus and Mary Chain
$ with The Damned

Find Hollywood Vampires tickets.

Alice Cooper: Alice's Attic tour 2026

Sep 17: Louisville Louder Than Life, KY
Sep 19: West Springfield The Big E Fair, MS
Sep 20: Ottawa CityFolk Festival, ON
Sep 22: Niagara Falls OLG Stage at Fallsview Casino, ON

Oct 27: Clearwater Ruth Eckerd Hall, FL
Oct 30: Richmond Altria Theater, VA
Oct 31: Atlantic City Tropicana Casino & Resort, NJ
Nov 01: Bethlehem Wind Creek Bethlehem, PA
Nov 04: Hershey Theatre, PA
Nov 06: Windsor Caesars Windsor – The Colosseum, ON
Nov 07: Kalamazoo Wings Event Center, MI
Nov 08: Waukegan Genesee Theatre, IL
Nov 10: St. Louis Stifel Theatre, MO
Nov 11: Park City Hartman Arena, KS
Nov 14: Indio Fantasy Springs Casino, CA
Nov 15: Prescott Valley Findlay Toyota Center, AZ
Nov 17: San Diego Cal Coast Credit Union Open Air Theatre, CA
Nov 18: San Jose San Jose Civic, CA
Nov 20: Wheatland Hard Rock Live at Hard Rock Hotel + Casino, CA
Nov 21: Reno Grand Theatre at Grand Sierra Resort + Casino, NV

Find Alice Cooper tickets.

Alice Cooper: Devil On My Shoulder UK book tour 2026

Oct 11: Cardiff New Theatre
Oct 12: Cambridge Corn Exchange
Oct 13: London Palladium
Oct 14: Brighton Dome
Oct 16: Manchester Opera House
Oct 17: Stockton Globe
Oct 19: Glasgow Pavilion Theatre
Oct 20: Wolverhampton Civic Hall

Find Alice Cooper Devil On My Shoulder UK book tour tickets.

Alice Cooper and Criss Angel: Welcome To My Nightmare residency

Nov 27: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Nov 28: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 03: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV
Dec 04: Las Vegas Criss Angel Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, NV

Find Alice Cooper and Criss Angel tickets.

Guns N' Roses have partnered with Fandiem, a fundraising platform that allows music fans to win experiences with their favourite artists, to raise money for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Fans who donate money at Guns N' Roses' upcoming North American tour shows will be eligible for a draw to win a pair of premium reserved ticket upgrades for that show, while donors will also be in with a chance to win a trip for two to Pasadena, CA, to attend the band's Rose Bowl concert in September.

This grand prize includes flights and accommodation, access to the VIP riser and Pit (both areas that offer up-close viewing of the stage, a tour of the stage production, VIP lounge access, and several items of exclusive VIP merch. Fans who donate $150 or more will also receive a Guns N' Roses hoodie.

"We are grateful to Guns N’ Roses and Fandiem for their extraordinary support and for using their platform to champion the mission of our organisation,” says AFSP Chief Executive Officer Bob Gebbia. "Music has a unique ability to reduce stigma and start conversations that save lives, and by bringing a message of hope directly to fans during their 2026 World Tour, the band is helping us reach more people with vital resources and the knowledge that they are not alone."

Fans worldwide can donate and enter the prize draw now.

The North American leg of Guns N' Roses' 2026 tour kicks off at the Carter-Finley Stadium in Raleigh, NC, on July 23. Dates in India, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia follow, before the tour ends at Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, on December 17. Full dates below.

Guns N' Roses 2026 Tour

Jul 23: Raleigh Carter-Finley Stadium , NC *
Jul 26: Saratoga Springs Saratoga Performing Arts Center, NY *
Jul 29: Tinley Park Credit Union 1 Amphitheatre , IL *
Aug 01: Hershey Hersheypark Stadium , PA *
Aug 05: Toronto Rogers Stadium, ON *
Aug 08: Shakopee Mystic Lake Amphitheater, MN *
Aug 12: East Rutherford MetLife Stadium, NJ *
Aug 16: St. Louis Busch Stadium, MO *
Aug 19: Kansas City Morton Amphitheater, MO #
Aug 22: Las Vegas Allegiant Stadium, NV >
Aug 26: Edmonton Commonwealth Stadium, AB >
Aug 29: Vancouver BC Place, BC >
Sep 02: San Diego Snapdragon Stadium, CA >
Sep 05: Pasadena Rose Bowl, CA <
Sep 09: Arlington Globe Life Field, TX +
Sep 12: Ridgedale Thunder Ridge Nature Arena, MO #
Sep 16: San Antonio Alamodome, TX +
Sep 19: Atlanta Truist Park, GA

Nov 14: Bengaluru, Nice Grounds, India
Nov 17: Guwahati Khanapara Vetinary Ground, India
Nov 21: Jakarta Madya Stadium GBK, Indonesia
Nov 25: Singapore SG National Stadium, Singapore
Nov 29: Adelaide Grand Final, Australia ≠
Dec 02: Townsville Queensland Country Bank Stadium, Australia ≠
Dec 05: Brisbane Suncorp Stadium, Australia ≠
Dec 08: Newcastle McDonald Jones Stadium, Australia ≠
Dec 11: Melbourne Marvel Stadium, Australia ≠
Dec 14: Sydney Engie Stadium, Australia ≠
Dec 17: Auckland Eden Park Stadium, New Zealand ≠

* with Public Enemy
# with The Barbarians of California
> with The Black Crowes
< with Ice Cube
+ with Pierce The Veil
≠ with Airbourne
∞ festival date

Find Guns N' Roses tickets.

The Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger has acknowledged that life in a successful rock and roll band is "obviously not normal", and admitted that "psychologically your actual state of mind is permanently damaged".

In a new interview with the New York Times, Jagger suggests that the adulation that comes with being part of a superstar band can alter one personality.

"Obviously, it’s not normal," he says. "It is not like most people’s lives. It does affect you. You can become disassociated. From other people. A lot of people in show business only hang around with people in show business, because they’ve got something in common, they can relate to each other, and you get disassociated from what people might call 'real life'."

When asked how he fights against this, the 82-year-old rock legend replies, "It’s quite easy, really. You go out and walk on the street on your own and do normal things, go and buy The New York Times.

"But, nevertheless, that’s only temporary because psychologically your actual state of mind is permanently damaged," he adds. "Your late 20s and early 30s is a very tough time for people in this business because it’s a big ego trip, and you have to have a huge ego to do this. People that do this that don’t have huge egos have huge problems because they have to manufacture a completely different [personality]. I have a friend whose standing joke is that I behave at a dinner party like I behave onstage.

"Of course I’m not really like my stage persona... it’s such an exaggerated version of me. This overbearing, shouting, ego-tripping person — you’re not really like that. But when you’re in your late 20s and early 30s, you can be like that all the time. And there are people in show business that never switch off.

"You’ve heard all these stories about method actors," he continues. "They take it to the absolute extreme, so they’re like the character all the time, and then after the movie’s over, they’re still in character. It takes a long time to slough off the character. So which character do you go back to? Is he always going to carry some of that character in his “true” character, whatever that is? This is the show business dichotomy and it’s something you learn to live with, and you always hope that you’re a so-called normal person underneath."

The Rolling Stones released their latest album, Foreign Tongues, last week, on July 10.

L7 bassist Jennifer Finch has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer and is undergoing treatment.

Finch will no longer take part in the Los Angeles punk band's Last Hurrah Tour scheduled to take place in North America later this year, but she has urged her bandmates to continue in her absence while she receives medical care.

A statement from her bandmates reads: "Following multiple surgeries and serious complications, Jennifer now requires extensive medical care, rehabilitation and professional in-home support.

"Friends, family and L7 have launched a GoFundMe to help cover these urgent expenses and allow her to remain safely at home with the care, dignity and support she needs.

"The Last Hurrah Tour was planned along with Jennifer when all four of us were in good health and spirits. Although she will not be able to join us for the upcoming U.S. dates, Jennifer has asked us to continue with the tour as planned. We will honor her request while making her care and well-being our immediate priority.

"Please donate if you are able – and, just as importantly, please share the campaign as widely as possible. Every contribution, share and message of support matters.

"Jennifer is part of our family. We love her, and we want her to feel the full strength of the community that has loved and supported her for so many years."

To make a donation towards Jennifer's GoFundMe campaign, go here.