Smart-ass musical magpies with an encyclopaedic knowledge of jazz, funk, metal, hardcore and classic rock, Michael ‘Mike D’ Diamond, Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch and Adam ‘Ad-Rock’ Horovitz were initially attracted to New York's hip-hop scene for the genre’s irreverent, anything-goes attitude, becoming the scene’s great white hopes in the mid-‘80s as much by accident as design.

Ironically, it was via their immersion in '80s rap that the Beastie Boys, who started out as a hardcore punk band, rediscovered their shared love of hard rock and metal.

"I used to hate bands like Led Zeppelin," Adam Horovitz admitted to me in 1995. "But when hip hop DJs started using those chunky riffs, we started checking out old metal shit again. '70s metal was definitely the coolest. AC/DC had some fly records, Sabbath had some cool shit. So had Kiss and Krokus."

"And Venom and Motorhead," Mike D added.

Here are ten songs on which the trio’s fondness for re-purposing classic rock riffs and beats paid rich dividends.

10. The Sounds Of Science

If you’re going to steal, you might as well steal from the best. For their ground-breaking second album Paul’s Boutique, the Beasties collaborated with inventive LA producers The Dust Brothers to piece together a complex sonic patchwork, spending around $250,000 on licensing samples. The Sounds Of Science grew out of a two chord riff ‘borrowed’ from The Beatles’ The End set against Ringo Starr’s drumbeat from the reprise of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, before The Dust Brothers slowing down the beat from When I’m 64 for the song’s main theme.

9. I’m Down

Not everyone appreciated the trio’s freewheeling approach to sampling. For their debut album, 1986’s Licensed To Ill, the Beastie Boys used The Beatles’ I’m Down as the template for a radically re-worked version of the song, but were refused permission to use the track by Michael Jackson, who had acquired The Beatles’ Northern Songs publishing company. Jackson couldn’t stop bootleg versions of the song appearing however.

8. Shadrach

Cult Southern rockers Black Oak Arkansas are arguably best known in classic rock circles for the debt Van Halen frontman David Lee Roth owed to singer Jim Dandy, but (alongside samples from James Brown, the Sugarhill Gang and Trouble Funk) Hot And Nasty from their self-titled 1971 debut album provided the bass and drums pattern underpinning this deep cut from Paul’s Boutique. Listen out too for the lyrical nod to an AC/DC classic.

7. High Plains Drifter

It’s not often that the Eagles and Ramones sit cheek-to-jowl, but it’s a measure of the Beastie Boys’ imagination and eclecticism that they were able to set a sample from the Californian band’s Those Shoes (from 1979’s The Long Run album) alongside a snatch of Da Bruddas’ Suzy Is A Headbanger in this cut from Paul’s Boutique.

6. What Comes Around

Rick Rubin can take much of the credit for introducing the Beastie Boys to Led Zeppelin, but the New Yorkers continued to draw inspiration from John Bonham’s beats and Jimmy Page’s riffs long after parting ways with their former mentor. What Comes Around is introduced by Bonham’s instantly recognisably break from Moby Dick, and also features a snatch of guitar from Alice Cooper’s It’s Hot Tonight from 1977’s Lace And Whiskey.

5. She’s Crafty

The second track on the Beasties’ debut album Licensed To Ill found Mike D bragging "If I played guitar I’d be Jimmy Page", and the band’s love of Led Zeppelin was made even more explicit on the following track, She’s Crafty, which is centred around a transparent steal of Page’s riff from The Ocean.

4. Jimmy James

Originally denied permission by Jimi Hendrix’s estate to use a variety of samples from the guitarist’s catalogue, including snippets of Foxy Lady, Still Raining, Still Dreaming and EXP, on this tribute track on Check Your Head, the Beasties’ improvised by crafting sound-a-like riffs in the studio. Once the samples were officially cleared, they were restored in the version of the song released as a single in 1992. Incidentally, the album version of the song is prefaced with Cheap Trick’s live intro to Surrender from …at Budokan.

3. Looking Down The Barrel Of A Gun

One of the heaviest tracks in the Beastie Boys’ catalogue, referencing both A Clockwork Orange and serial killer Son of Sam, this hard-riffing fan favourite incorporates both a guitar sample from Mountain classic Mississippi Queen and a single, repeating piano chord from Pink Floyd’s masterful Time.

2. Rock Hard

Nothing subtle about this one. The Beastie Boys’ 1984 Def Jam single featured the unmistakeable riff from Back In Black, used without the band’s permission. Despite Mike D personally phoning Malcolm Young to ask for clearance for the sample, AC/DC refused to sanction it, forcing the band to drop it from their The Sounds Of Science anthology, though it later emerged as a Def Jam single in Europe.

1. Rhymin’ & Stealin’

Ever wonder Black Sabbath might have sounded like with John Bonham on drums? Here the Beastie Boys have done the work for you, with this single from Licensed To Ill, featuring not only Bonham’s iconic and widely-sampled drum beat from When The Levee Breaks and Tony Iommi’s guitar riff from Sweat Leaf, but also a snatch of The Clash’s cover of I Fought The Law for good measure.

Motörhead had speed in their veins and wind in their sails when they entered the studio to record their fourth album, Ace Of Spades, in the summer of 1980. Their previous release, the live Golden Years EP, had turned this gnarliest of bands into unlikely Top 10 stars. But it would be Ace Of Spades – particularly its unforgettable title track – that sealed their immortality.

From its overdriven bass intro to its squealing, hit-the-brakes ending two minutes and 48 seconds later, this gamblers’ psalm would become not just Motörhead’s signature song, but also one of the all-time great rock’n’roll anthems.

Naturally, the band themselves had no such ambitions when they holed up in Rockfield Studios, South Wales in early 1980 to begin rehearsing for the follow-up to the white-hot one-two of Overkill and Bomber, two brilliant albums released within seven months of each other in 1979.

“We went down to Rockfield for a couple of weeks, got in the vodka and everything else,” guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke told Classic Rock in 2017. “Unfortunately, Lemmy wasn’t too up for rehearsing in those days – he had a nice bird up there with him, so he was distracted. But Phil [drummer ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor] and I used to like playing, so after we’d finished fishing and fucking about and God knows what, me and Phil would have a little bash. It gave us an opportunity to work out some riffs.”

Ace Of Spades was one of them. The band recognised its potential and worked it up into a rough song and recorded an instrumental version at Rockfield. Back in London, they added vocals and overdubs. This early incarnation first appeared on the 1989 odds-and-sods album Dirty Love. While not dissimilar from the finished version, it lacked two key components: that steel-plated central riff, and the breakdown that Lemmy memorably described as “the tap-dancing section”.

Producer Vic Maile, who had previously worked with Lemmy’s former band Hawkwind and who Clarke affectionately described as “a nice bloke, very soft, big hooter, short hair”, played a big part in fixing both.

“Vic kind of questioned what we were doing with the song,” Clarke told us. “He made us look at that riff, so Lemmy and I started fucking around with it a bit. It was one of the only times we’d written in the studio.”

Maile also had what Clarke called “his box of tricks” – a cardboard box full of items used to provide sound effects. Amid the maracas and rattlesnake tails was a set of woodblocks which would provide the clacking sound during the breakdown.

“He said: ‘This is what we’ll do’,” Clarke explained. “We were pissed or speeding and we were totally against it. ‘Well, we’ll do it cos it’s you, Vic, but we ain’t gonna fucking use it.’ He set up a nice Neumann mic, and the three of us stood there with the blocks. Of course, at first we’re all doing it at different fucking times: ‘Come on, Phil, for fuck’s sake!’ ‘No, man, it’s you!’ But when we heard it, we thought: ‘Oh, it’s not bad.’”

With its turbo-charged new riff and memorable breakdown, the track was beginning to sound special. The final piece in the jigsaw was Lemmy’s lyrics – an attempt, he said, to cram as many gambling references in as possible: the high one, snake eyes, dead man’s hand (and don’t forget the joker…). In typical myth-making fashion, he claimed to have written the lyrics in the back of a Transit van while speeding down the motorway at 90mph.

“He might have written it in the fucking shitter for all I know,” Clarke said with a laugh. “He used to do that. We’d say: ‘Man, we need some fucking lyrics for this.’ So he used to go for a shit and write the lyrics. But if he said he wrote it in a Transit van, then you’ve got to believe him.”

Ace Of Spades reached No.15 in the UK when it was released in November 1980. It swiftly became a highlight of their live set.

The last time Clarke saw Lemmy was at the Classic Rock Awards in November 2015, two months before the singer’s death. Motörhead were due to play UK dates the following January, including two dates at Hammersmith Apollo, and the two of them talked about the guitarist joining them on both nights.

“He looked so frail at the Classic Rock Awards,” Clarke said. “I was a bit shocked. I did think that he wouldn’t make the gigs because he was so frail. I never thought he was going to die, though.”

After Lemmy’s death, an online campaign to get Ace Of Spades back in the charts pushed it to No.13, two spots higher than its original peak more than 35 years before. In 2016, Clarke joined old sparring partners Saxon and Girlschool on tour. Each show would culminate with a mass rendition of Ace Of Spades.

“It went down a fucking storm,” he said. “It didn’t bring tears to my eyes, but it was very emotional. What can I say?”

In his later years, Lemmy had mixed feelings about the song he played every night on stage with Motörhead. While he recognised its enduring quality, familiarity definitely bred contempt.

“I’m sick to death of it now,” he wrote in his 2002 autobiography, White Line Fever. “We didn’t become fossilised after that record, you know, we’ve had quite a few good releases since then. But the fans want to hear it so we still play it every night. For myself, I’ve had enough of that song.”

Eddie Clarke had no such issues: “It’s a fantastic track. It’s got a natural speed, a velocity of its own, it’s got a great arrangement and it rocks like a bastard. And Lemmy’s lyrics are fantastic.

"I sometimes say to people: ‘I used to be in a band years ago’, and they say: ‘Oh, which one?’ When I say Motörhead, they look bemused. So I say: ‘Ace Of Spades’ and the penny drops. They might not know Motörhead, but they definitely know Ace Of Spades.”

The original version of this feature appeared in Classic Rock 241, published in September 2017. Eddie Clarke died in January 2018.

Singer, songwriter, producer and dancer, Kate Bush is a woman of many talents, and remains wholly unparalleled as one of the finest and most boundary-pushing British artists in music history.

In recent years, she found a renewed popularity among younger generations following the inclusion of her 1985 mega hit Running Up That Hill in Netflix's smash horror/sci-fi series Stranger Things in 2022. Songs such as Babooshka, Wuthering Heights, and Army Dreamers also amassed a whole new audience of listeners thanks to Gen Z fans on TikTok adopting the tracks to accompany countless videos.

Though they're undoubtedly some of the best examples of Kate's brilliant and marvellously eccentric songwriting, these songs are only the tip of the iceberg; her catalog is widely diverse, and home to so much more magic. As we step out from under the overshadowing height of her greatest hits, we celebrate ten of her best deep-cuts, and enter a world full of snowman romances, ghostly magicians and childhood fantasy.

Under The Ivy (1985)

In 1985, Under The Ivy was released as the B-side to Bush’s beloved anthem Running Up That Hill. Though she would perform it on television a year later for Channel 4’s cult music programme The Tube - originally hosted by Jools Holland and Paula Yates, the latter bestowing a heartfelt introduction for the rendition - the release would remain overshadowed by the career-defining popularity of its reverse side, despite being one of Bush’s prettiest songs. A bare-boned, piano-led ballad, Under The Ivy is a gorgeous daydream that ponders the innocence of forgotten childhood romances through the scenario of two lovers meeting secretly in a rose garden, hidden by the foliage.

Houdini (The Dreaming, 1982)

While the song’s backstory might be staged on its cover - a recreation of the moment Harry Houdini was supposedly passed a key via his wife through a kiss during one of his many daring escape acts - Bush’s penultimate track on her 1982 album The Dreaming is undoubtedly one of her more obscure offerings.

Following the magician’s death in 1926, his widow Bess tried to contact him through mediumship - a practice Houdini spent much of his life trying to expose as fraudulent and exploitative. Believing she had been cruelly deceived by a psychic who correctly guessed the code word Houdini had suggested to his wife to use as proof of communication between worlds, her pain can be heard through Bush’s mournful, manic bellows, showcasing her vocals at their most unconventional. Prior to this emotional outpouring, the song sparkles with a beautiful, chiming melody, capturing Bess’ momentary belief in a world perhaps harbouring real magic, rather than purely make-believe tricks.

Misty (50 Words For Snow, 2011)

Bush’s 2011 frost-themed album 50 Words For Snow features two of her lengthiest songs: Lake Tahoe and Misty, both weighing in at over 10 minutes. As if recorded within the wind-chilled expanse of a snowy landscape, the tracks are spacious, bleak, and perfectly encapsulate the cold yet quiet beauty of a long winter. Backed by slack, wandering jazz, Bush softly hums through Misty in her rarely utilised lower register, musing over the process of carefully building a snowman before making love to him, leading to his eventual death the next morning (he melts, surprise!). Distinctively Bush, Misty is both charming and somewhat unnerving, as she describes the creature as having "ice-cream lips" and a “crooked mouth” that “is full of dead leaves".

The Song Of Solomon (The Red Shoes, 1993)

Though it might feature the uncharacteristically heavy-handed lyrics ‘Don’t want your bullshit / Just want your sexuality’, The Song Of Solomon is enchantingly erotic, its gentle pitter-patter of drums lightly dancing around a candle-lit melody and Bush’s impassioned declarations on the chorus, transforming the pert few lines into something deeply sensual and addictive. Though the 2011 Director’s Cut version is a worthy, marginally more tender listen, it lacks the same tantric spirit of the original, as featured on her seventh studio album, 1993’s The Red Shoes.

Heads We’re Dancing (The Sensual World, 1989)

Inspired by her friend’s horror of having spent a night unknowingly flirting with Robert Oppenheimer - aka the man instrumental in the creation of the atomic bomb - Bush wrote possibly the most controversial song of her career. Fascinated with the idea of being bewitched by mysterious - albeit dangerous - men, Bush focused her sights on the most abhorrent figure of them all, Adolf Hitler. Though later understanding that the track might be considered offensive, the singer was adamant in squashing any idea of romance. Instead, Heads We’re Dancing follows a woman who spends a night dancing with an alluring figure before developing vengeful hindsight on discovering his true identity (the Führer). “To have been so close to the man…”, Bush imagines during a Radio 1 interview. “She could have tried to kill him…”

The Morning Fog (Hounds Of Love, 1985)

Closing Hounds Of Love, the song acts as an intentional finale, putting to bed the heavy atmosphere produced from the chart-topping album’s previous songs that explore life, death, hardship and heartbreak. The record’s second side, subtitled as The Ninth Wave, takes the listener on a cinematic seven-song journey, detailing the imagined story of a woman lost at sea at night. The Morning Fog motions the protagonist’s rescue, before she’s rebirthed into a new life, one defined by her gratitude and love for the people around her. The song itself shimmers with a sunshine-filled, reassuring melody befitting of its title; a step into a new dawn, comforted by the clarity it brings.

The Big Sky (Meteorological Mix - 1986)

Carefree, earthy and full of childlike wonder, on The Big Sky, Bush attempts to view the world with the eyes of her former childhood self. Though the original is superbly playful, one of the song’s remixes - known as the Meteorological Mix and only featured on the single’s 12 inch release - is effectively as buoyant as a child frolicking through the wild. Revisiting The Dreaming’s Aboriginal influence, the track begins with her brother Paddy on the didgeridoo, before tribal, pounding drums and a filthy slap bass line spins into something truly gleeful - and even a little bit disorientating.

James And The Cold Gun (The Kick Inside, 1978)

Probably considered Bush’s most conventional and radio-friendly creation in terms of traditional structure, James And The Cold Gun is a highly underrated, glam rock-leaning head-rocker, featured on her very first album, The Kick Inside. Originally planned as her debut single by EMI (until the singer traded in Wuthering Heights), the track is compellingly joyous, shaped by jaunty piano plonking, Queen-esque guitar posturing, a rip-rolling riff in the post-chorus and plenty of oh-so-fun ‘woo-hoos’ from Kate. Though the lyrics warn of a western hero dying alone, the melody fizzes with irresistible delight, making it hard to separate from the repeat button.

In Search Of Peter Pan (Lionheart, 1978)

Childhood is often a theme within Kate’s writing, though in In Search Of Peter Pan, it's navigated in a way that's more personal than nostalgic - she was still a teenager at the time it was written. Heartbreakingly vulnerable lyrics about conflict between children and parents take centre stage, while delicate, twinkling piano keys caress each word, slowly flowering into a whimsical melody that feels belonging to the world of fairytale. Comparable to birdsong or some kind of forest sprite, Kate’s voice here is particularly ethereal, matching the song's sense of youthful innocence, before closing on lines from Disney’s Pinocchio. A truly magical release.

Egypt (Never For Ever, 1980)

In Egypt, Kate grapples with Western colonialism and an over-romanticised depiction of the title’s namesake, as she muses over pyramids, sphinxes, red sand and other tropes affiliated with the region. Self-described as 'an attempted audial animation of the romantic and realistic visions of a country’, Kate attempts to dismantle Egypt's glamorised sense of mystery through a vast soundscape, littered with disembodied screams, hypnotic synth and a beautifully strange, unsettling melody. It also features possibly her most brilliantly audacious lyric, ‘My pussy queen knows all my secrets’.

“I'm actually dead,” says Kirk Brandon. “I’m speaking to you from inside my coffin.”

In May 2023, Brandon was in Nottingham fronting one of his two ground-breaking bands – in this case, Spear Of Destiny, not Theatre Of Hate – when, he says, “I just had a little heart attack.”

He ended up in Northampton General Hospital for three and a half weeks. “But that's easy,” he says. “I've done a four-month stretch before. That was hard.”

The ‘four-month stretch’ was the result of endocarditis (defined by the NHS as “a rare and potentially fatal infection of the inner lining of the heart”). While he was in, he says, they replaced his aortic valve with a titanium one.

He smiles: “It was a lotta laughs, y’know.”

And how is he now? “Honestly,” he says, “I’m fine. I'll live forever.”

Kirk Brandon was – and still is – the beating titanium heart of post-punk bands Theatre Of Hate and Spear Of Destiny: singer, guitarist and chief songwriter. Inspired by punk, but looking for something more than “three chords and sloganeering”, he came up with something completely unique – although people didn’t always notice.

“When we first started,” he says, “people said, ‘Look at these young pretty boys. Aren't they lovely? Let's take them home’ and they pushed that aspect of it – or the media did. ‘Oh, look, they’re fluffy and harmless – wonderful!’ But that wasn't really what we were doing.”

No shit. A stew of tribal beats, twanging Morricone guitars and searing saxophone, topped by Brandon’s withering, dramatic singing, Theatre Of Hate sounded like a band playing a dive bar on the Eastern Front in a Brecht play.

They did not sound fluffy, they sounded terrifying.

“I looked fluffy,” he says. “I didn't always look like this. This is after the car crash.”

He was a good-looking guy, Kirk, still is. Big-eyed, blonde-haired, with cheekbones and a pout that could’ve put him on a million teenage walls, he could have been a pop star – and he was, briefly – if it wasn’t for the racket he made.

“Compared to the music of today,” he admits, “Theatre Of Hate is definitely avant garde.”

In June, Theatre Of Hate play the Forever Now festival at Milton Keynes Bowl, alongside Kraftwerk, Death Cult, PiL, The Damned, Johnny Marr, The The, Psychedelic Furs, Peter Murphy and a load more unique, eccentric and visionary musical weirdos borne out of that same period – an extraordinary explosion of music that becomes almost harder to explain the further away from it we get.

In 2025, it’s almost completely impossible to imagine any teenager or 20-something making music like Theatre Of Hate or Spear Of Destiny.

Where did that music come from?

In some ways, Kirk Brandon had a traditional introduction to music. At the age of 12, he saw John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers – the 1968 line-up, with future Rolling Stone Mick Taylor on guitar. A lot of people who saw the Bluesbreakers went on to play blues – to this day, a legion of boring white guys with Strats are playing homage to that kind of music. Not Kirk Brandon.

Maybe it was the influence of the stuff teenage Kirk was exposed to, like Van der Graaff Generator (“strange stuff, absolutely incredible, but weird as hell”), another band with a high-pitched and theatrical singer.

And then there was his dad. A working-class bloke from Westminster who’d fought in World War II, Brandon Sr. was in love with opera and would sing around the house. (Could he have been a performer? “I don’t think so,” says Kirk. “He was never going to be an Enrico Caruso, you know, discovered on the streets of Naples, and turned into a superstar. Instead, they put a uniform on him and sent him out there to kill people.”)

Did opera influence his own singing style? “I don't really think so. It must be in there but I just made it up as I went along. No one told me what to do, I just did it. It's self-exploration.”

Brandon taught himself to play guitar, “making up chords” until it sounded like music. “Clueless, really, but it kind of worked in a funny, weird, kind of way,” he says. “Again, self-exploratory. I used to think that's what music was – that it was meant to be exploratory. It wasn’t about learning somebody’s back catalogue and writing your own songs based around that. Then along came punk rock.”

Like many of his generation, he thought punk was exciting and inspirational, but it quickly seemed formulaic: “Three chords, four chords, and grown men shouting slogans, based around V-C [verse-chorus], V-C, V-C or V-C, V-C, C-out.

“To me, that's boring,” he says. “I don't want to do that. There's a ton of minor chords and discord in Theatre Of Hate. Which is interesting, I think. Even today, it's interesting.”

Theatre Of Hate toured with The Clash in 1981. The Clash themselves had just released the sprawling triple album Sandinista!, an album full of dub, funk, jazz and the occasional bit of rock’n’roll. It was a time for experimentation.

“People expected you to do something different,” says Kirk. “I think people were just curious. ‘What is this?’ Y’know, we had a saxophone, but it wasn't used in the traditional way – it wasn’t playing hokey old jazz riffs and scales, y’know? It was strange. But at the time, there was room for self-exploration. It hadn't become completely and utterly corporate.”

When Theatre Of Hate burned out prematurely, after one Mick Jones-produced album, Brandon and bassist Stan Stammers went straight into Spear Of Destiny. Agumented again by sax and keyboards, SoD developed into something slightly more commercial. With soulful backing vocals, elegiac pianos, and barn-burning sax, they were intense, politically-minded and anthemic – like the E-Street Band fronted by John Lydon.

It was a peak time for alternative music, just as it was Peak Monoculture. Now That’s What I Call Music, Top Of The Pops, Radio 1, the charts – that was how most people got their music. And then there was the underground – several of them, really – backed by independent record labels, the music press, DJ John Peel, left-field music shows like The Tube: post-punk, goth, psychobilly, thrash metal, skate punk, indie and a million other scenes bubbled away.

“You always felt you were at odds with the mainstream,” he says, “and in the background was always the shadow of George Orwell [“The papers talk about Orwell, almost every day,” goes Spear song World Service] and the wartime function of the Ministry of Propaganda.

“I felt that we were outsiders, to be honest. Ultimately, there was never going to be room in the mainstream for someone like us. So if you got a brief window of going on The Tube or even Top of the Pops, as we did, you took it because it wasn’t going to come again.”

Around that same time, in Soho, a scene was developing around the Blitz club, where DJ Rusty Egan was anticipating a Krautrock-and-Bowie-inspired future of frictionless beats and synthetic bass, and a load of artists – Visage, Ultravox, Gary Numan et al – were in a technological arms-race to get the latest keyboard sounds and beats into the charts.

Brandon was around that scene but not of it. In fact, he went in exactly the opposite direction: Something much more organic and analogue, with saxophones, pianos, and guitars and live drummers. He wanted friction.

“That's the either the beauty – or the ugliness – of me,” he says. “I went in the opposite direction to whatever would help.

“I went to the Blitz club quite a lot, and Hell, and all them other ones. It was interesting. It was genuinely funny and fun and silly. Some people inside it took themselves incredibly seriously. Incredibly.

“I was there the night David Bowie turned up,” he says. “He went straight to see Rusty Egan. Bowie was wearing a suit with flares, a 1970s suit that he probably bought in the 70s. It was like an anti-Blitz fashion statement, this awful flared suit.”

If anything, Spear Of Destiny felt like an alternative E-Street Band: the drama, the social commentary, the musicality, the pianos and the sax. “I love Nebraska,” he says. “To me, that's his greatest album. I would say that, wouldn't I? It's like [Tom Waits’] Swordfishtrombones: it's all sort of ‘left side of the pitch’. More obscure, uncommercialised.

“But I was very aware of that Phil Spector-type way of doing things, that Springsteen used a lot. I was aware of that – and the Roy Orbison way – and I suppose sometimes in the arrangements, you would flip through ways of doing things and think, ‘That's not a million miles from the E-Street band.’

“Somewhere in all of this, there's rock’n’roll,” he says. “And that's hard to divest yourself of. Eddie, Elvis, Gene, Fats – rock’n’roll is there, y’know?

I’m not gonna say it's religion but it's a religion, and we kind of buy into it, don't we? We buy into the myth, the mythos.

“A lot of that stuff is like Italian operetta. And like a lot of opera, everybody dies and loses. Women get raped. That's Italian opera. They sing beautifully, but it all goes wrong. So that’s in there too. It doesn't all come wrapped in cellophane with ribbons.”

His greatest album, 1984’s One Eyed Jacks, leaned into that drama. Full of ghostly pianos, crisp guitars and soaring sax, Jacks wore its musicality on its sleeve, but still sounded powerful and authentic.

From the opening seconds of Rainmaker to closer These Days Are Gone, Kirk’s voice – a savage howl one minute, ridiculously soft and tender the next – provides a raw counterpoint to the band’s slick musicianship, piccolos and all. Lyrics like Playground Of The Rich, meanwhile, are more relevant now than they’ve ever been.

The money shots were Prisoner Of Love, a funky attempt at a crossover hit which grated at the time but makes more sense now, and Liberator – a raucous indie disco floor filler.

(What's Liberator about? I ask him. Who's being liberated? “You know,” he says. “I’ve forgotten. I used to have a conscience, but I’m better now. I can't even remember.” Is it about freeing yourself from the tyranny of the mainstream? “Yeah,” he says. “That’ll do.”)

While the Blitz Kids ruled the charts, Spear of Destiny had more in common with another scene at the time. By 1984, the ‘Big Music’ was everywhere: Big Country’s The Crossing took Lizzy’s Róisín Dubh deep into the Scottish glens, Under A Blood Red Sky turned U2 into post-punk Springsteens, and – while The Clash were being overpowered by funk – The Alarm grasped the rebel rock baton and ran with it on their debut, Declaration

Spear Of Destiny were London’s answer to all this Celtic chestbeating. “The Barra boys from London, is that it?” says Kirk. “I don't know. They were doing their own thing. I love Big Country. They had it right from day one. Stuart Adamson was a fantastic songwriter.”

Big Country’s career was sabotaged by record company politics and unsympathetic producers – Spear of Destiny had similar woes. Brandon says he didn't like any of the band’s producers (“apart from Alan Shacklock and Zeus B. Held”), while “record companies just want the flagship hit single,” he says. “They want pretty-looking stars and they want hit singles.” In 1987, he gave them one: Never Take Me Alive went to no.14 in the UK singles charts.

Their manager Terry Razor (“a Scottish gangster,” says Kirk) and the record company couldn't agree on what the single should be, so they turned to Kirk. “I said, Never Take Me Alive. They all looked at me like, ‘That's suicide.’ I thought, ‘I'd rather it was suicide and a good song’. Luckily for everybody, it was a hit.”

Did his audience see this success as selling-out? “I don't think Never Take Me Alive is a ‘sell out song,’” he says. “I tried selling out, failed miserably – but I’m open to offers.

“Never Take Me Alive was a good song. I nicked all this stuff from Beethoven's Mass For The Dead and [Ants guitarist] Marco Pirroni came and played guitar on it.” Marco added one chord to it, he says, but it made all the difference.

Adam and The Ants and Theatre Of Hate had come up around the same time and had a similar MO: the outlaw chic, the twanging guitars, the tribal drums. The Blitz kids were trying to get people dancing and Theatre Of Hate…

“We were making dance music for people in asylums,” he says. “And we succeeded.”

Spear Of Destiny are on tour and have a new album, Janus, onsale now. Theatre Of Hate are on tour from June and appear at the Forever Now festival at Milton Keynes Bowl on 22 June. For more info and tickets visit Kirk Brandon's website or Forever Now.

There's a little over a month to go until Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath take their final bow. Returning to their hometown of Birmingham and playing at Villa Park just a short walk from where they grew up in Aston, on July 5 they'll bow out with possibly the biggest metal gig of all-time.

They've assembled an almighty bill for the occasion, including massive bands like Guns N' Roses, Metallica and Slayer, as well as an impressive list of guest performers including members of Smashing Pumpkins, Halestorm, Ghost, Sleep Token and more.

But with this being a final celebration for the band that brought the world heavy metal - if not invented it outright - there's plenty of speculation about what the setlist is going to look like. We know at least a couple of songs that are going to be performed - and can probably guess at a few more [a Sabbath gig without Paranoid? No chance], but these 10 songs represent a chance to celebrate Sabbath and Ozzy in their fullness.

Black Sabbath - Changes (Black Sabbath, 1970)

We reckon it's an easy guess that there'll be plenty of Black Sabbath songs popping up on the day of Back To The Beginning. Paranoid, War Pigs and Black Sabbath are almost givens (it'll be criminal if the latter in particular is missed off, considering it kicked this whole thing off), but spare a moment for Sabbath's gentler side. The band have some belting ballads in their arsenal, but as much as we'd love to hear Solitude or Planet Caravan, we reckon if any softer tune gets its time in the spotlight on July 5, it's got to be Changes.

A gorgeous piano ballad, it's only been played a handful of times by both Sabbath and Ozzy, even though it gave The Prince Of Darkness his only number 1 in the UK back in 2003 when he re-recorded it with daughter Kelly. Given how emotional the day is likely to be regardless, we reckon this one could bring the house down.

Ozzy Osbourne - I Don't Wanna Stop (Black Rain, 2007)

Ballads are nice and all, but you need some stompers to get the crowd roaring. How better then, than by digging out a tune all about living life to its full and not dialling back? Black Rain was a triumphant return for Ozzy when it was released in 2007, but this track hasn't been played since the end of the tour promoting the album release. While it might have a tinge of bittersweetness now, there's no denying just how much of a belter it is.

Ozzy Osbourne - Ordinary Man (Ordinary Man, 2020)

Erm, we know what we just said about ballads, but, well, how great is this one? Back To The Beginning already has a stunningly packed guestlist, but just imagine the scenes if Ozz is able to rope in his old mate Elton to play this wonderfully reflective composition from 2020's Ordinary Man. Two legends teaming up one last time? Sign us up.

Ozzy Osbourne - Hellraiser (No More Tears, 1991)

Speaking of legends, let's give another his due. This year doesn't just mark 10 years since Lemmy passed away, but 50 years since the formation of Motorhead. We suspect Ozz will give Lem his dues by kicking out Mama I'm Coming Home at some point (in Birmingham, no less), but we'd also be very open to a rendition of Hellraiser - especially considering Ozz put out a version featuring a combination of his and Lemmy's vocals to celebrate the song's 30th anniversary.

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, 1973)

When you've got such an illustrious discography, it becomes increasingly impossible to balance out setlists and inevitably some bangers get left by the wayside. But Sabbath Bloody Sabbath hasn't been played (in full, at least) in over 20 years by either Ozzy or Sabbath themselves, so it feels like a perfect opportunity to dust it off and get the crowd roaring along. "You bastards!"

Ozzy Osbourne - Let Me Hear You Scream (Scream, 2010)

Sticking to some latter-day Ozzy Osbourne anthems, we wouldn't say no to hearing the colossal Let Me Hear You Scream pop up again. Recorded for 2010's Scream and featuring the guitar skills of Gus G, it was Ozzy's last release for a decade until Ordinary Man but captures some of the hale energy you desperately need at an Ozz gig. Even if the main man himself isn't singing it, this feels like a no-brainer to get the crowd going.

Ozzy Osbourne - Diary Of A Madman (Diary Of A Madman, 1981)

One of the more surprising omissions from Ozzy's setlists over the years, the title-track of 1981's Diary Of A Madman has only been played a select few times. Given just how iconic the track is though, and with an army of musicians around to potentially pick it up, we'd hope this one finally sees its return after a 25 year absence.

Black Sabbath - Hole In The Sky (Sabotage, 1975)

When it comes to all-time great performances on record, Hole In The Sky is one of the absolute best. A rollicking rocker from 1975's Sabotage, it finds the band going hell for leather from start to finish. It's also been absent from their sets for almost five decades, although Metallica did cover it when they inducted the band into the Hall Of Fame in 2006. Repeat performance? Never say die...

Ozzy Osbourne - Degradation Rules (Patient Number 9, 2022)

Unable to tour this decade, Ozzy hasn't been able to play any of the tunes from his last two solo albums aside from the title-track of Patient Number 9, which was performed at the NFL kick-off in 2022. If we were to pick one track from that album to get its outing, we'd have to go for Degradation Rules, one of two tracks that saw him reunite with Tony Iommi. It's a great, old school style track that bridges Ozzy's work in Sabs with his solo work - making it a perfect pick for the Back To The Beginning setlist.

Ozzy Osbourne/Lita Ford - Close My Eyes Forever (Lita, 1988)

Lighters up folks, we've got a power ballad. A duet between Ozzy and Lita Ford, Close My Eyes landed Ozzy one of his highest solo chart positions ever, cracking the top 10 in the US. It's also an absolute classic, and one that's never featured in the main man's solo shows before. Whether he comes out to sing it (with Lzzy Hale, perhaps?) or it just gets an airing from one of the other artists on the bill, it'll be a rare treat to hear this one live.

A few years back, Korn frontman Jonathan Davis launched his own pet brand - and there's no prizes for guessing what it's called. But while Freak On A Leash might seem like a fun, throwaway side gig, it touches on something very close to Jonathan's heart: his love for animals.

"Freak On A Leash actually came from a conversation I was having with my girlfriend; we're huge animal lovers!" he enthuses. "I was thinking, ‘What if we could dress our dogs in shit that we would like?’ Like, we go in the pet store and it’s just generic dog collars, leashes and stuff like that, so we were wondering where the cool stuff was. It was a no-brainer calling it Freak On A Leash! We thought it’d be fun and cool to do something for dogs. We wanted to share our love for animals with the world and dress them in alternative clothes.”

It's a pretty out there idea, but the brand has expanded since it was first launched in 2022 and they've now teamed up with LA fashion designer Ashton Michael - who has worked with celebrities including Beyoncé, Lizzo and Davis himself - to create unique pet accessories and toys and raise money for a good cause.

Raising money for Pup Culture Rescue, a non-profit dog rescue based in Pasadena, California, the new line includes collars, bandanas, plush toys and leashes, among other products. Knowing how much metal stars love their pets - including Rob Halford's adoration of cats, Hammer caught up with Jonathan to find out more about his love for our furry friends.

So we guess you’re more of a dog guy than a cat guy?

“I’ve had cats. You know what the fuckin’ kicker is? I’m deathly allergic to dogs. We have this moyen poodle and he’s hypoallergenic, his name’s Dante and I love that dog more than anything in the world. This is the first time I’ve actually had a hypoallergenic dog; with [my old dog] Chaos, he’d make me wheeze so bad, I’d get asthma attacks… all this shit. But it was worth it, because I loved him.

But yeah, I had cats too and they could be just as bad. They were a little more tolerable because they’d be outside more, but if I touched my eyes I was fucked. All that said, we need ‘em – they make us live longer.”

What does it mean to be working with Ashton Michael?

“I love him to death, he’s my dear, dear friend. He started dressing me back in 2018. We met and I just loved his aesthetic, I loved what he does and thought it’d be really cool to collab with him. He’s added some touches of what he does to what we’re doing and that’s just so cool.

He’s done stuff like with my three eyebrow piercings, there’s three rings on all the collars… It was really fun to collaborate with him and see what he came up with. Plus he dresses everybody now – I see loads of people wearing his stuff, which is wonderful.”

It's a pretty big boast – ‘Oh, my dog is dressed by Ashton Michael’.

“They fuckin’ deserve it! More than anything, man. I honestly love and respect them more than humans – I think every pet owner can relate to that.”

And proceeds from the products will go to Pup Culture Rescue, right?

“I love rescues. There’s so many dogs that don’t have homes and it breaks my fucking heart. Even in my hometown, Bakersfield, there’s thousands of dogs in rescues there. It killed me, dude. There’s lots of these dogs having puppies, sick dogs and stuff like cats and even pigs too. Tonnes of animals that need homes and it’s so depressing to see them all sitting in cages, waiting to find a home. So if I can do anything to help these facilities take care of these dogs and not kill them, find them homes… I’ll do whatever I can.”

What pets do you have these days?

“In the house, we’ve got my dog, Dante, a bearded dragon called Lady and a fish called Mermaid. But we’ve had all kinds. I’ve raised three boys, so I’ve had every kind of animal that wouldn’t drive me too crazy or put me in a hospital bed. But yeah Dante is my boy, he’s black and brown, and he brings me so much joy. I wake up and he’s attached to me until I go to bed. He’ll come with me to go get coffee, we do everything together when I’m home."

There’s nothing like the love of a pet, right?

“Oh it’s a different kind of affection, bro. True, unconditional love. Every time I walk in the door, that little fucker is there to greet me and it’s exciting. You see the love in his eyes and he loves to just sit down on my chair or lie by my feet while I play videogames. You don’t get that kind of love from anything else like you do from a dog or cat. Cats are different; I had them when I was little and I loved them to death, they were outside cats but they’d come and hang out with me.”

It's a real badge of privilege if a cat comes to you without being bribed.

“They’re an integral part of life. You might have all this metal work, lots of doom and gloom, this heaviness and all this shit, but I also need some good-hearted, wholesome loving stuff too. It’s a break from all that shit and makes me forget about my problems. I look in that little dude’s eyes and shit doesn’t matter, ‘Let’s go for a walk buddy’.”

What was your favourite pet growing up?

“Pete the parakeet. I couldn’t really have many animals – the only things I wasn’t allergic to were the fish or bird. My earliest childhood memories are of spending time with my parakeet – we had him for years and y ars until he passed. I loved that bird. Other times, we’d try to get dogs but I’d get too allergic. I’d go see my grandparents and they’d have dogs, so I loved playing with them but could only do it so long before I’d get sick.”

What’s the next stage for Freak On A Leash?

“We’re looking to get into more pet stores and do more collaborations. Good, fun things! We’re letting it go and seeing how things turn out. I’d really like to see this thing blow up, we’ve got some of the products and dogs just look so, so good in them. It’s something we started to dress up dogs and cats, but I’m happy man.”

The Freak On A Leash x Ashton Michael collection is on-sale now. Visit the official website for more details.

The Sweet (or simply Sweet) enjoyed a varied career during the 1970s – from their perspective, maybe it was a little too varied. Following a run of disposable pop hits, they sought but never quite achieved credibility as long-haired, leather-clad rockers.

As albums such as Sweet Fanny Adams, Desolation Boulevard, Give Us A Wink (with its cocky declaration: ‘Queen are a bunch of winkers’) and Off The Record would prove, the four-piece could hold more than their own amid the Deep Purples, Led Zeppelins, Uriah Heeps, Bowies and, yes, even Queens of this world.

Since the dismissal of frontman Brian Connolly in 1979, Sweet have continued to make great music with various lineups, although the title of last year's Full Circle album suggests that the band's fifty-plus-year career might finally be drawing to a close.

"I’m not saying that we’ll do another album, but the success of this one changes my outlook," founding guitarist Andy Scott told us last year. "If we were to release new songs individually, then why not scoop them all together into an album? So there could be another one."

10) Love Is Like Oxygen, 1978

The band’s last top 10 hit was pulled from Level Headed, an adventurous final album to be made with Brian Connolly whose larynx would never quite recover from a vicious attack outside an Uxbridge nightclub. With the usual high-pitched vocals toned down through necessity, the song’s highly contagious chorus was rammed home via a delicious melange of luxuriant keys and thrusting guitar.

9) Need A Lot Of Lovin’, 1973

In the background resentment began to build as The Sweet’s run of Chinn and Chapman-originated hits grew ever longer. Eventually they would cut those strings, but in the meantime the band took solace with a succession of tough, punchy self-originated B-sides. This one was the flip of Blockbuster!, but the likes of Burning, Rock & Roll Disgrace, Someone Else Will and Own Up (Take A Look At Yourself) could all have made this list.

8) Windy City, 1977

The daylight between Sweet’s earlier MOR hits such as Funny Funny and Co Co and this beast from Off The Record couldn’t be any more marked. Andy Scott turns his amp up to 11 for its centrepiece, a riff so large it has its own postcode, while Connolly snarls: ‘Your dad’s in the slam/Your mama’s a whore/No one understands you couldn’t help being poor’. This is primal stuff.

7) The Six Teens, 1974

For all of the stick they took, Chinn and Chapman did their best to accommodate the band’s growth, and Sweet were well suited to this superbly arranged hit. Retaining bassist Steve Priest’s camp vocal interjections, it told the tale of six teenagers – Julie and Johnny, Suzie and Davey and, teasingly, Bobby and Billie – to a more mature instrumental backdrop. It really came to life onstage.

6) Sweet FA, 1974

It’s amusing to wonder how many spotty teenagers brought home their copy of the Sweet Fanny Adams album, dropped the needle and were almost thrown across the room by the full force of its contents (your correspondent figures among this total). A cornucopia of hard rock riffs, pounding drums, aggressive lyrics (‘Well, it’s Friday night/And I need a fight/If she don’t spread/I’m gonna bust her head’), Little Willy this was not.

5) Fox On The Run, 1975

The roots of Sweet’s independence can be traced back to this chest-beating yet deeply melodic ode to groupies, their first self-penned and self-produced hit (the song’s original version was recorded in more base form by ChinniChap for the domestic edition of the album Desolation Boulevard). Here it’s more accessible and polished, its use of multi-part vocals – ‘You looked alright before, Or, OR, ORRRRRR!’ particularly impressive.

4) Action, 1975

It’s a self-contained nugget of pop-rock superiority that you seek? Then look no further than Action, a song that Def Leppard realised they couldn’t improve, and simply covered. From its sneering lyrics – a venomous put-down to the critics that still refused to take them seriously – to the riff, chorus, harmonies and the all-important injected sound of a cash register, this is just about flawless.

3) Burn On The Flame, 1974

The undisputed greatest self-penned B-side in the entire Sweet catalogue, Burn On The Flame was every bit as good as its reverse, The Six Teens. Once again it’s possible to imagine innocent fans flipping the A-side over and spitting their Sugar Puffs across the table, though for all the immense power of its guitar riff, the song is quite magnificently put together.

2) Set Me Free, 1974

Later covered by Saxon, Vince Neil and thrash metallers Heathen – and by Sweet themselves, who revisited it in 2020 – Andy Scott’s masterpiece got Sweet Fanny Adams, an album that the band had seriously wanted to call Sweet Fuck All, off to a blitzkrieg, take-no-prisoners start. The guitarist, who continues to lead Sweet onwards, once told Classic Rock that he’d “love” to undertake a full-blown hard rock tour. We can only pray.

1) The Ballroom Blitz, 1973

Mike Chapman was inspired to write The Ballroom Blitz after seeing Connolly and Scott dragged offstage at the Glasgow Apollo by scissor-wielding female fans in 1973 during the height of the group’s transition from pop star cuties to bugglegum rockers. Though it didn’t quite didn’t reach Number One the song achieved immortality via Wayne’s World and Suicide Squad thanks to its über-famous intro of: “Are you ready, Steve?” “Uh-Huh”…

Skunk Anansie have announced their long-awaited new album The Painful Truth, and you can get it on white splatter vinyl exclusively through Classic Rock.

The British rock icons will put out their first LP in nine years on May 23 via Frontier Records. You can pre-order your exclusive vinyl to ship on that date now through the Louder webstore – and there are only 300 copies in stock, so act fast!

Skunk Anansie formed in London back in 1994 and quickly became figureheads of the UK rock scene. Their debut album, 1995’s Paranoid & Sunburnt, mixed alt-rock melodies with the urgent messaging of punk and reached number eight on the British charts. It also cracked the top 20 in four other countries.

The even more in-your-face Stoosh doubled down on that success, spawning the band’s three highest-charting singles: All I Want, Hedonism (Just Because You Feel Good) and Brazen (Weep).

Since then, led as always by uber-charismatic frontwoman Skin, Skunk Anasie have retained their status as one of their country’s most successful rock acts. In 2004, they were recognised in The Guinness Book Of British Hit Singles & Albums for spending an overall 142 weeks in the charts, and they continue to tour.

The band will precede The Painful Truth’s release with a tour of the UK and Europe that starts at the Coliseu Porto Ageas in Porto, Portugal, on February 28. They’ll then hit the British and European festival circuit from May through to August. See all dates and details via their website.

Earlier this month, Classic Rock’s sister mag Metal Hammer interviewed Skin, and she offered a very unfiltered take on social media hate, which the band address in The Painful Truth single An Artist Is An Artist.

“We are the creators, and sometimes you guys need to [shut the] fuck up and enjoy or not enjoy,” the singer stated. “But you don’t also need to comment and destroy the artist and take something away from the artist. And you don’t need to put out your first ignorant thought and write that down as a comment.”

One of the UK's finest rock exports of the 21st century gear up to release their brand new album next month, as The Darkness unveil eighth studio full-length Dreams On Toast to an unsuspecting world. To celebrate, Classic Rock have teamed up with Lowestoft's finest for two exclusive bundles featuring a limited edition Classic Rock cover variant and special versions of the new album that you won't find anywhere else.

Bundle 1 includes a special Darkness edition of Classic Rock magazine issue #339, on sale March 28, alongside a hand-signed copy of Dreams On Toast on lovely splatter vinyl. Look! It's lovely! Pre-order yours here.

Bundle 2 includes the same edition of Classic Rock magazine, which also features an interview with the band, but with a glow-in-the-dark cassette edition of the album. You may OOOH and AHHH now. Pre-order yours here .

You cannot pick these bundles up anywhere else other than the official Classic Rock store, so jump in and get yours while you can. PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE ARE PRE-ORDERS AND WILL SHIP IN MARCH

With precisely 50% of our new Tracks Of The Week contenders named after animals, it's perhaps fitting that last week's winner also fits the bill, with Samantha Fish collecting 34% of the overall vote with her Sweet Southern Sounds.

Trailing in Fish's wake were Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown and glam rock legends Sweet, but they all deserve our congratulations.

Below are this week's contenders. Vote for your favourite, or don't. It's up to you. We'd prefer the former, obviously.

Battlesnake - The Fathers Of Iron Flesh

Back with a gloriously hooky bang – and proof of what can be done with total commitment to a ridiculous storyline and no budget whatsoever – Aussie rifflords Battlesnake come bearing the sort of industrial-grade-weirdo concept that, in lesser hands, would get old very quickly. But with such a thick, juicy groove, glittering twin-lead lines and the sort of chorus you can’t *not* roar along to, it just made us all smile a lot at Classic Rock HQ. Altogether now… “IRON JAW FIRE BREATH!”

Those Damn Crows - Dreaming

On 2023’s Inhale/Exhale the Welsh rockers raised their song game, equipping themselves for the bigger stages they’d soon be playing (on tour with Hollywood Vampires, Goo Goo Dolls, and as headliners). Now they’ve raised it again with Dreaming. Our latest taste of their next album, God-Shaped Hole, it’s a warm, classic-sounding rush of moody 90s textures (think Pearl Jam or Stone Temple Pilots, with a beefy touch of Creed) imbued with a brightness that’s very much theirs. We can’t stop playing it – always a good sign.

Brass Camel - Borrowed Time

Ultra-funky classic rock with a kind of proggy twist now, courtesy of Vancouver’s Brass Camel. Hinged on a big, squelchy rib-eye of a riff, Borrowed Time struts, swaggers and dips into concise, freaky little tangents with a smoothness that’s cool and cocky but ever so slightly weird – like a jacked-up high school jock with a secret fantasy cosplay club. Like the sound of that? Keep your ears peeled for their next album, which is due out in March.

Blues Pills - What Has This Life Done To You

Rather hidden away at the back end of Blues Pills' 2024 album Birthday, What Has This Life Done To You finds the band in soulful, reflective form, but the chorus lifts affairs well above the ordinary. It's the kind of song you can imagine Adele covering, with Zack Anderson's standout guitar solo matching the ambition of Elle Larsson's vocal, and while some fans might prefer the hard rock and psychedelia of the band's earlier work, this is strong game indeed.

Black Eyed Sons - Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits

A heartfelt, unexpectedly tender tribute to the glitter-booted forefathers of yore, Cowboys In Pinstriped Suits finds the Black Eyed Sons in harmonious cahoots with Joe Elliott – glam rock’s proudest advocate if ever there was one. “This video features the cover star of our album (I call him the Ziggy Kid ),” Guy Griffin says. “He could be any of us, the ones who grew up dreaming of rock'n’roll in a golden era for music. The video’s a surreal glam rock dystopian space-age adventure condensed into four and a half minutes. We hope you enjoy it’’

Brian D’Addario - Till The Morning

The oldest Lemon Twigs brother, and probably their most natural balladeer, Brian D’Addario creates a beautifully Beatles-y, bittersweet mood on the title track of his upcoming solo record. "It's a love song having to do with those fleeting moments when you grasp something real, amidst all the noise and propaganda,” Brian says. “‘The night is pitch black until the morning.’ Maybe things need to completely collapse before they get better."

Gorilla Riot - Wait On

"Wait On is an honest love song about longing for something that you know is bad for you,” says frontman Arjun Bhishma, these Manchester rockers’ dulcet, rootsy new release (taken from their latest album Salvation) with Alice In Chains in its veins and a slow, hypnotic, dirty-blues sway. In one sense you’re kind of waiting for it to explode, but actually that restraint might also be its superpower, keeping you engrossed until the last chord.

Jimmy Barnes - New Day 

With successful heart surgery and a hip replacement in his recent past, it's little wonder Aussie legend Jimmy Barnes is in a battling mood, and New Day finds him looking back but ready to move on, with a spirited song that shares musical DNA with Tom Petty's Learning To Fly. "Now that the album is finished, I can see there’s a recurring theme about the satisfaction you can get from fighting back," says the former Cold Chisel man. "That’s why it’s called DEFIANT!” The album is out on June 6.

It’s 1974, and the members of Sweet are fed up. On paper their string of hits, including the previous year’s UK chart-topper Block Buster! and a run of No.2s (Hell Raiser, The Ballroom Blitz and Teenage Rampage) appears enviable, but the band are increasingly walled-in by a perception of them as just puppets of their songwriters Mike Chapman and Nicky Chin and producer Phil Wainman; indeed until Wig Wam Bam a couple of years earlier they’d had to battle to play on their own singles.

Having written the B-sides of those singles, Sweet were enjoying success as credible hard rockers in Germany, where their 1974 album Sweet Fanny Adams had briefly outsold Deep Purple’s Burn, but at home they remained viewed, as drummer Mick Tucker once put it so memorably, as “four dissipated old whores, mincing about on Top Of The Pops and churning out computerised pop”.

Tired of being fed inferior songs and tumbling down the pecking order on Chin and Chapman’s roster (which included Suzi Quatro and Mud), dissatisfaction boiled over as the songwriting pair, who were also Sweet’s managers, spent more and more time in California.

“They’d tried to pass us off with a couple of [sub-par] offerings, including Dyna-mite,” guitarist Andy Scott, remembers, referring to a song that Mud took into the top five, “but we needed something more in the vein of what we used to call ‘German marching songs’.”

The ditty that enabled Sweet to break free from ChinniChap (as the writers were known collectively) and also elude Wainman’s clutches already languished as an album track on Desolation Boulevard, the follow-up to Sweet Fanny Adams. Their record label, RCA, had recognised the potential of Fox On The Run, which, as Scott observes, “had been recorded [by Wainman] in the style of a live band”.

Although Sounds magazine later hailed Sweet Fanny Adams as “perhaps the finest collection of glam-metal mayhem ever laid down on vinyl”, the album – written mostly by the band – did not add to their tally of hits, so pressure was building.

“Just before Christmas [1974],” Scott recalls, “everybody just happened to be at my house when the managing director of RCA called to say: ‘We’re not getting the right answers from Mike and Nicky, but we really believe that Fox On The Run could be a hit’. And a week later we were in Ian Gillan’s studio, where nobody knew us; keeping things cloak and dagger was vital.”

Although the song is credited to the entire group, really it was Scott’s baby. The subject matter was an unspecified groupie, hence the couplet: ‘You talk about just every band/But the names you drop are second-hand’.

“Those lyrics were hastily written in the pub before recording the song for the album, hence the fact that it lacked a final verse,” Scott says, laughing. “We vowed that when we re-recorded it we would re-write the words, but never did.”

As a “budding producer”, Scott oversaw the session (but again the label said: ‘Produced by Sweet’). His primary goal was to sex up the track for radio. In the end, however, the guitarist actually added an element that would prove crucial: “The rest of the band had gone to the pub when I incorporated that pulse-type synthesiser sound at the start and stuck it onto the end as well,” he remembers. “Everyone loved it.”

RCA rush-released the reboot of Fox On The Run without bothering to notify Chinn and Chapman, who promptly jumped onto a plane back to England.

“Mike’s words: ‘Well, you’ve finally done it, haven’t you?’ were the best compliment anyone could have paid me,” a smiling Scott says now.

Subsequent albums would see Sweet relish their independence, and despite upping the hard rock quota the flow of hits continued for quite a while, although singer Brian Connolly’s growing alcoholism led to him being fired in 1979.

Fox On The Run has been covered by, among others, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Girlschool, Sweet Savage and the Scorpions (in German). Thanks also to exposure in films, Sweet’s singles are now enjoying a dramatic upturn in popularity. In 2016 The Ballroom Blitz featured in the film Suicide Squad, and Fox being even in just a trailer for Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 2 generated such a surge in online sales that it topped the iTunes Top 40 US Rock Song chart.

The original version of this feature appeared in Classic Rock in 2017.

Last week fans of The Zac Schulze Gang unleashed a torrent of voting so powerful that the rest of the field were completely engulfed, leading to an inevitable and eventual triumph in our Tracks Of The Week contest. So congratulations to them, and to Luke Spiller and Sparks, who didn't stand a chance, really.

Here's Zac again. And then it's full steam ahead with this week's battle.

Don't forget to vote for your new favourite below, via the handy form at the foot of the page.

Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown - Bloodshot Baby

Fresh from co-producing his wife’s band’s new album (Larkin Poe’s excellent Bloom) and gearing up for more Shakedown activity, Tyler Bryant and his merry men hit an utterly joyful home-run with this beefed up take on 50s rock’n’roll – like Aerosmith ripping through Lucille. Now who wouldn’t enjoy that? Nothing faintly new, but they make it sound exciting. “Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee…” Tyler says, of the song’s inspirations. “Those guys sounded like they were having the most fun, and we wanted in. We aren’t tryin’ to reinvent the wheel, but we figured we’d at least give it a good spin!”

The Rattlebacks - How Calm The Silence

A small band with big sonic ambitions, The Rattlebacks turned the whole CR magazine team’s heads with this commanding single (from debut album Sidewinder) that’s part American college rock, part GN’R and full of cool little touches – pace and tone shifts, interesting guitar solo, blissed-out strains, an absolute beast of a riff… Too bad they released it with such a gratingly boneheaded music video, which won't do them any favours. Do yourself a favour, then, and listen without watching, and give the song the platform in your brain it deserves.

Joanne Shaw Taylor - Hell Of A Good Time

The good times keep rolling with the Black Country-turned-Nashville guitar star with the Bonnie Raitt purr. Joanne Shaw Taylor’s long been billed as a big fish in the blues rock world (emphasis on the 'blues' part), which she absolutely is. On Hell Of A Good Time, though, she just rocks. Grooving and riffing with a rich, classic swing and a warmly rootsy kick, it’s live-in-the-moment stuff that showcases her sizeable vocal and guitar chops in spadefuls.

Creeping Jean - Spice Rack

Wasting zero time following last year’s first-rate Business Is Dead record (and having picked up a few more fans on the road with Rival Sons last year) Brighton rock’n’roll beatniks Creeping Jean hit a White Stripes-y analogue tone on this fuzzy, psychedelic headbanger. Sumptuous yet cool, and videoed here in their vintage clothing store, Mammoth, in Brighton’s North Laine bazaar. Catch them doing their thing on tour across the UK in April.

Black Spiders - Never Enough

According to their press release Pete Spiby and his fellow eight-legged sons of the north “tip their beanie hats” to the Beastie Boys’s iconic So What’cha Want video (but, like, in the woods somewhere in England) in this latest single. The beanie hats are pretty much where those Beasties comparisons end, but no matter because Never Enough finds the Spiders rocking, rolling and raging in the way they do so well. “Whatever you do, shit happens,” says Spiby. “Luckily being cursed we expect it, so we’re ready for it!” All together now: ‘FUCK! YOU! BLACK! SPIDERRRRRS!’

Sweet - Circus

A new video if not a new song (Sweet have been playing it live since 2023's Full Circle tour, and it's the opening track on last year's album of the same name), but Circus is still a minor miracle to behold, not least because it sounds so feisty. More than half a century on from their glam heyday, the lyrics find Paul Manzi angrily pleading, "Life is a circus surrounded by clowns / Life is a circus let's tear the big top down" with all the righteous fury of youth. Rock, and indeed, roll.

The Dead Daisies - Love That'll Never Be

Sometimes it's hard to keep up with all the comings and goings of the Dead Daisies, who change lineups with the bewildering regularity of a sports franchise, but they inevitably get things right on the field of play and Love That'll Never Be is no exception. The words "power" and "ballad" spring to mind, with the epic sweep of the arrangement allowing John Corabi's vocals to truly soar. "[It's] a bluesy 70’s Rock ballad reminiscent of The Allman Brothers," advises Corabi, "about a girl who thought the grass was greener until she realises that what she wanted…. she already had! Now, it’s too late to get it back.”

Samantha Fish - Sweet Southern Sounds 

The title Sweet Southern Sounds is pretty apt here, as Samatha Fish drops a blues that conjures up a sultry New Orleans vibe. The first single to emerge from Fish's new album Paper Doll, which will arrive in April, it starts in a relaxed mood before the tempo and urgency pick up at the climax. “It’s an anthem about being on the road and feeling guilty about not prioritizing the people in your life,” says Fish. “It’s hard to find that balance between taking care of your relationships and dedicating yourself to your music, and there’s definitely a tinge of heartache to that song.”

Lady Gaga used to front a classic rock band who covered U2.

The pop megastar talks about her high school band Mackin’ Pulsifer on the new episode of Youtube series Hot Ones.

After initially being shocked that host Sean Evans knew about the band, she says that she “learned so much” about performing and artistry during her time with them.

“I used to always say that you have to put music in the room to figure out how to be an artist,” she explains. “You need an audience.”

Gaga adds that she used to cover U2 with her band, and that years later she talked about it with U2 singer Bono. “It was so funny when I met Bono for the first time and I was like, ‘I used to sing Pride [(In The Name Of Love)] in my rock band growing up!’ You learn everything that came before you and you’re just a student of music.”

Gaga’s not revealed much about Mackin’ Pulsifer, but spilled some details and expressed her love for Led Zeppelin during a 2014 Reddit AMA.

“I was in a classic rock cover band at the same time I was in jazz band in high school and doing jazz state competitions,” she wrote. “We were called Mackin' Pulsifer.

“I have a real passion for Robert Plant’s vocals, Led Zeppelin was a huge inspiration for me. I’m certain that side of my musicianship will seep through the pores of music in the future.”

From covering U2 during her schooldays, Gaga has gone on to collaborate with and publicly champion several rock and metal artists. In 2017, she famously performed Metallica’s song Moth Into Flame with the San Francisco thrashers at the Grammy Awards.

In a 2011 Rolling Stone interview, the singer gushed about an Iron Maiden show she attended earlier that week.

“We were dancing and singing and everyone was just so into it,” she recalled. “Jumping and dancing… I mean, it was like absolute no judgment, no prejudice, [just] freedom and love for music. It doesn’t matter who you are; you don’t need to know anything about music to love it. Everybody was hugging me, high-fiving, fist-pumps in the air.”

Gaga will release Mayhem, her first non-soundtrack solo album since 2020’s Chromatica, on March 7 via Streamline and Interscope. The singles Disease and Abracadabra are now streaming.

This week, we congratulate the Philadelphia Eagles, who won the Super Bowl, and we congratulate The Wildhearts, who won rock'n'roll's equivalent, our Tracks Of The Week contest. And while Ginger & Co.'s victory might not have been as comprehensive as that achieved by Nick Sirianni and his team of 53, it was no less deserved.

This week's beaten foe included Fortune Teller Blues by Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar and Master by The Last Internationale, as well as five other songs we're not going to mention because we don't like to dwell on such ignominy.

So here are the magnificent Wildhearts once more, and then it's on with a new battle.

Don't forget to vote for your contest VIP, via the handy form at the foot of the page.

Mother Vulture - Slow Down

Imploring these fiery Bristol rockers to ‘slow down’ is a bit like telling AC/DC to write a prog epic: it just won’t happen. And yet there is a sonorous, almost stoner weight to this new single, which finds them marrying white-hot rage with thunderous, bass-heavy beats and hypnotic guitar judders. “I wanted to use the lyrics to shine a light on the darker side of emotion,” singer Georgi says, “the way we sometimes want to flirt with self-destruction and that temptation to fall from grace. Because the world gets too much sometimes, and you think something has to break.”

Bob Mould - Neanderthal

A short but sweet ripper from Mould’s excellent new solo album, Here We Go Crazy – smart, spikily lustful and set to a barrelling blast of punkoid rock’n’roll fizz. Over in about two minutes and not wasting a second of it, Neanderthal packs the sort of moody, fast-paced intensity and eloquence that plenty of other songs don’t manage in twice (or even thrice) the airtime. One veteran clearly not content to rest on his laurels, and all the more compelling for it.

The Zac Schulze Gang - I Won’t Do This Anymore

Armed with upbeat, 70s-ified blues rock with a few enticing twists and a roughened Rory Gallagher-esque edge – inspired by days of menial, nocturnal graft in supermarket aisles – Zac Schulze and chums stick it to The Man with a spring in their step on I Won't Do This Anymore. “I Won’t Do This Anymore is a song of rebellion against the big bad bosses of today’s world,” explains Zac. “The lyrics relate back to our old lives where we used to mop McDonald’s kitchens and stack shelves during the night shift at Iceland.”

Sparks - Gonna Do Things My Own Way

Perennially young and excitable at heart, the Mael brothers press on with their roaring latter-day renaissance (oldest brother Ron will be 80 this year, lest we forget) on this brilliantly head-swirling, singular maelstrom (sorry…) of acerbic art rock. By way of sombre commentary on the wittily surreal video, they had this to say: “We hope this video, even in a very small way, finally starts a meaningful dialogue about the dangers of pianos falling out of tall buildings.” Well, don’t we all?

Luke Spiller - Love Will Probably Kill Me Before Cigarettes And Wine

The Struts’ debonair frontman marks the start of a new, deeply personal chapter with this grandiose but emotionally intimate debut solo statement – all lush theatre and old Hollywood vibes with a cabaret twist. If Jim Steinman and Lana Del Rey clubbed together to write a Bond theme, this would have been it. “I’ve never been this honest in my music before, and it’s definitely been a rollercoaster of emotions,” Spiller says. “I hope people will find their own stories they have experienced within my songs, and in some cases, even find peace in doing so.” More to come…

Sludge Mother - Pig

Marrying thick, gnarly grunge swagger with a generous dash of contemporary hard rock/metal glamour (think The Pretty Reckless, if Taylor Momsen and co spent more time trading tones, smoking joints and growing beards with Zakk Wylde), Sludge Mother’s latest single is a plaid-shirted, black-eyelinered groover. Yes it’s all verrry familiar territory for anyone with anything even vaguely Chris Cornell-adjacent in their music collection, but slick, spirited and catchy enough to press a lot of the right buttons here.

Robert Jon & The Wreck - Sittin' Pretty

The Dave Cobb-produced Sittin' Pretty is one of those songs inevitably described using the words "high" and "octane", and it's little wonder, for this taste of Robert Jon & The Wreck's upcoming album rattles along like a jet-powered armadillo, with a riff like a striking sidewinder and a solo that whips like a scorpion's tail. And if you're where we're going with all this talk of desert critters, it's prompted by the video, which finds RJ&TC performing a solar-powered show in California's High Desert. Lovely.

Bobbie Dazzle - Lady On Fire

Lady On Fire is the third single to be plucked from Fandabidozi, the debut album by Siân Greenway, a.k.a. excellent West Midlands glam-prog siren Bobbie Dazzle. The glam bit covers the first two minutes and twenty seconds or thereabouts, with a thumping riff and a chorus that soars into the ziggy-o-sphere, before the prog bit arrives as the tempo slows and a fluttering flute whisks the unwary listener off towards transcendence. And then it goes glam again.

How often is it that a heavy metal band have an absolutely iconic mascot? The list isn’t all that long in terms of figures who've withstood the test of time. Of the big hitters, Motörhead had Snaggletooth, Megadeth had Vic Rattlehead, Dio had Murray. All iconic. But I don’t think I’m speaking out of turn when I say that the fella on our cover this issue is probably the biggest and baddest of them all. I’m talking about Iron Maiden’s Eddie, of course.

This issue we’re celebrating 50 monstrous years of Iron Maiden with an exclusive Eddie cover and exclusive interviews with Steve, Bruce, Adrian, Dave, Janick and Nicko. It really has been quite the journey. And, as you’ll find out, it’s far from over yet.

Until next month…

Get the new issue of Classic Rock

Features

Iron Maiden At 50
With the band celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, all the members tell us about the music and career of the longest-running and arguably greatest heavy metal band of them all.

Larkin Poe
Taking care of business in all aspects of their career, Rebecca and Megan Lovell really are sisters doing it for themselves.

Gillan
Outside Deep Purple he led two of his own bands. He looks back at Gillan, and how internal friction tore that group apart.

Manic Street Preachers
Moving to a new studio, and with band members taking on new roles, with their new album they continue to innovate and experiment.

Thin Lizzy
With the release of Thin Lizzy’s new Acoustic Sessions, with Phil Lynott’s 70s-era vocals, guitarist Eric Bell and producer Richard Whittaker tell us about grass-addled sessions, unfinished business and why this project definitely isn’t AI.

The Pogues
While they might have looked like a chaotically ramshackle and dysfunctional unit in the mid-80s, in reality they were a resolutely determined hard-working band.

King Crimson
On its 50th anniversary, King Crimson alumni discuss the continued allure of an album that has reduced some adults to tears: Red.

Regulars

The Dirt
Tony Iommi and Glenn Hughes appear on a new Robbie Williams track; fans slate “bloody awful” Rory Gallagher statue. Welcome back Thundermother and The Lumineers. Say hello to Last Train and The New Roses. Say goodbye to Johnnie Walker, Jon Camp, Richard Perry, Alex Dmochowski.

The Stories Behind The Songs: The Knack
The LA band’s stuttering rocker with the dirty m-m-mind, about someone who – for co-writer Doug Fieger – was “love at fist sight”, was one of the biggest hits of 1979.

Q&A: Ricky Warwick
The Almighty frontman on his new solo album, digging northern soul, his good work ethic and quitting drinking.

Six Things You Need To Know About… Shaman’s Harvest
They’ve come through life-changing adversity. They know how to party. And they're finally making it to the UK.

Reviews: New albums from Thin Lizzy, Larkin Poe, Dream Theater, Hawkwind, Iggy Pop, Black Eyed Sons, Thundermother, G3, Night Flight Orchestra, Hellacopters and more. Reissues from Gillan, Sharks, Bill Nelson, Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, The Creation, The Fall and more. DVDs, films and books on Kate Bush, Sparks, Phil Lynott, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and more. Live reviews of Paul McCartney, The Damned, Massive Waggons, Myles Kennedy/Devin Townsend, Idles, Southern River Band.

Buyer’s Guide: Brian Fallon
With The Gaslight Anthem and solo he’s made some marvellous records, but industry pressures extracted a heavy toll.

Lives
We preview tours by Uriah Heep, Papa Roach and Romeo’s Daughter. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Mikko Von Hertzen
The Von Hertzen Brothers frontman picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

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On a day that The Beatles and the Rolling Stones both won Grammy Awards, proving once again event organisers have their heads firmly wedged into the distant past where rock music is concerned, we're delighted to bring you music from bands who haven't been around for more than six decades. They make up our Tracks Of The Week selection, and they're below.

But first, last week's triumphant trio. Ricky Warwick's horse broke the tape first, a length ahead of Dorthy feat. Slash, with Larkin Poe coming in third. So here's Ricky again. Well done to him.

Does that 25% tariff apply to Rush albums? Fans need to know.

Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar - Fortune Teller Blues

In which Joe Bonamassa and Sammy Hagar combine their considerable musical might on a song that lurches slowly into gear, with a malevolent JoBo riff providing the underlay for a SaHa vocal that roars and soars and suggests his talents remain entirely undiminished. The sound has moved on a few months from the late 60s British blues explosion sound that's proved such fertile ground for Bonamassa of late, and is instead rich in early 70s blues-rock vibes. Someone pass the patchouli.

Saxon - 1066

Only Saxon could write about the year in which the Anglo-Saxon rule of England came to an end and make it sound like a celebration, but that's Biff and the boys for ya. 1066, which is powered by a riff Rudolf Schenker would be proud of, is also something of a history lesson, in which the listener is advised that "Harold had beaten the Vikings at Stamford / Routing Hardrada the end of an age" and "The arrows came flying and pierced Harold's eye / The Normans were victors, the end of the Saxons." Terrific stuff.

Kelsy Karter & The Heroines - Daughter Of The Night

The geographically extravagant Kelsy Karter (born in New Zealand, raised in Australia, Los Angeles-based) and her band The Heroines (from Derby, UK), are back with a thoroughly slick performance video, offering yet more evidence that Karter and her krazy krew are ones to watch. It's essentially a pop song dressed up in rock star clothing, but we love a good chorus so we're not complaining. New album Love Made Me Do It came out on Friday.

The Last Internationale - Master

New York's The Last Internationale are always worth a listen, and new song Master is no exception. Singer Delila Paz delivers a typically tour-de-force performance above a musical backing that's so epic and thoroughly modern we can see it soundtracking the end credits of a movie about a giant space battle where the universe almost ends but is saved at the last minute. "We've played this song live on acoustic once, but we updated the lyrics and recorded a full-band studio version for you," say the band. "Who's ready?" Well, we are, clearly.

Manic Street Preachers - Brushstrokes Of Reunion

The Manics compare the sound of Brushstrokes Of Reunion to The Waterboys and early R.E.M., but we're also hearing The Cure, as if Robert Smith had temporarily stepped out of the sessions that produced In Between Days and James Dean Bradfield stepped in to rattle off some guide vocals. Despite the fact that the Manics of 2025 don't sound much like the Manics of 1994, some of their trademarks – the epic sweep of their writing, the jubilant choruses – are still very much in place.

The Wildhearts - Troubador Moon

According to The Wildhearts' label, new album Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts harks back to the sound of their classic debut Earth vs The Wildhearts, and so we're obviously all in a tizz. "It’s a hard rock album for people who love hard rock!” says Ginger Wildheart, in a statement that makes our tiny hearts flutter with anticipation. The proof of the pudding will be in the eating, of course, and Troubador Moon finds frontman Ginger in reliably reliable form – the song is great – but does the sound match the clattering intensity of The Wildhearts' best material? You be the judge.

Motorpsycho - Stanley (Tonight's The Night)

Adventurous Norwegians Motopyscho have now been with us for more than 30 years (still well short of The Beatles' total), and continue to travel to unexpected musical destinations. The band's latest journey "owes quite a lot to Slade and Kiss and other 70s power pop merchants", they say, and we can hear that throughout Stanley (Tonight's The Night), which bumbles along like it's riding a Raleigh Chopper home to watch Ed Stewart and Noel Edmonds present Top Of The Pops during an energy crisis.

Stereophonics - There's Always Gonna Be Something

Make 'em Laugh, Make 'em Cry, Make 'em Wait is the title of the Stereophonics upcoming 13th album, and they remain unwavering in their determination to never travel outside their Stereophonics-shaped box. No excursions into polka or drill'n'bass for Kelly Jones and the other fellas, but then again, why would they? There's Always Gonna Be Something is immediately familiar, like pulling on a lovely warm cardigan and settling down in front of an open fire with a dram of GlenDronach Allardice 18 Single Malt. Slippers optional.

In a week when it was announced that Aerosmith would be returning to the stage, bassist Tom Hamilton clearly had bigger things on his mind: the debut release from his new band, Close Enemies.

It would seem the week went well, for Sound Of A Train (the song in question), soared to victory in our Tracks Of The Week contest, casting asunder Those Damn Crows' No Surrender and Skunk Anansie' An Artist Is An Artist as it did so. So well done to him. And to them.

This week, another eight runners and riders are in the stalls, bucking and whinnying as they prepare for the race to start.

And they're off!

Larkin Poe - Easy Love Pt. 1

Oh hell yeah, this is a good ‘un. Possibly our favourite song on Larkin Poe’s game-raising new record, Bloom, Easy Love Pt. 1 (and yes there’s also a Pt. 2) packs the sort of toe-tapping, southern sun-soaked Americana that evokes the Lovell sisters’ rural roots and their blues rocking years in Nashville. Plus they shot the video in a magnificently kitsch, all-pink abode – it's like stepping into Liberace's holiday house. A total winner on all fronts, in other words.

Split Dogs - Lafayette

If you managed to bottle the sound of a particularly good night out at your favourite rock pub, Lafayette might be the result. A love letter to the northern soul nights of 70s and 80s Wolverhampton (frequented by Harry’s mum and passed on, through music and stories, to her child) and the musical influences of the band’s families in general, it’s a boot-stomping, head-banging, arse-shaking boogie to see you through this last grey stretch of January. Find more boozy yet sharp goodness like this on their album, Here To Destroy, out next month.

Tuk Smith - Little Renegade (ballad version)

Little Renegade is perhaps our favourite track on Tuk’s latest album, Rogue To Redemption, so we were pleased to find that this searing, stripped-back reworking lends an additional tenderness to the original version. "This is the first song I’ve ever done without a single guitar track on it. I used my old 70s upright piano and an analogue synth from the early 80s for this. Then I took some real drums from another recording session and built loops and ended up having a lot of fun with this one. It’s got elements of a 70s piano ballad, an 80s pop banger, with a little more modern production with an orchestral feel."

Ricky Warwick - The Crickets Stayed In Clovis

We don’t know if Ricky and Tuk have met, but it’s not hard to imagine them getting on like a house on fire – maybe jamming some glam-booted, rough-throated Thin Lizzy-style romps like this one, hot off Ricky’s excellent new solo album Blood Ties (out in March). Expect rich twin-lead guitar muscle and meditations on life’s unpredictable course. “Life’s a game of chance,” Ricky says, “sometimes it’s better to play the long game and not be envious of others, as you never know what tomorrow brings.”

Nova Twins - Monsters

Alt rock’s hottest rising duo return with this ribcage-rattling beast of a single. Bassist Georgia South gives Royal Blood’s Mike Kerr a proper run for his money – conjuring pulsating layers of deep, distorted magic with four strings and a mysterious cocktail of pedals – while singer/guitarist Amy Love drives the melody with a fiery voice that oozes rage, sass and sincerity. If Rage Against The Machine and Destiny’s Child had babies, they might have put out something like this.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Stitches

Opening the case for their brilliantly titled next album, Death Hilarious, Pigs x 7 land somewhere woozily groovy between a smoke-filled stoner gig and a primal scream session on Stitches. Think Monster Magnet meets IDLES, and you’re in the right club. “I’m aware our band sits in a world largely commandeered by bravado, confidence and macho-ism,” frontman Matt Baty says, not inaccurately, “but Stitches is an expression of vulnerability, paradoxical emotions and those so familiar pangs of anxiety I wrestle with while butting heads with societal expectations and personal struggles.”

Dorothy feat. Slash - Tombstone Town

This is the fourth song to emerge from Dorothy's upcoming album The Way (out March 14), and our old friend Slash has clambered on board to add a stinging guitar solo to something that sounds like a hoedown at the world's most metal barn dance, or a heavy metal disco where everyone's dressed in plaid, depending on which angle you're coming from. "Tombstone Town is a sexy rock'n'roll grind featuring Dorothy’s inimitable swagger and great guitar hook," says Slash, adjusting his stetson.

The Doobie Brothers feat. Mavis Staples - Walk This Road

Michael McDonald has had several stints with The Doobie Brothers over the years, but he hasn't been an official member of the lineup for nearly three decades, so his return to the fold in time for the upcoming album Walk This Road (out June 6) will be celebrated by Doobie lovers the world over. Joining them on the title track is the great Mavis Staples, and the results are typically soulful, with horns that tastefully parp and vocals from McDonald and Staples that ooze experience and class. Smooth times indeed.

It's been another ferocious week in the Tracks Of The Week trenches, with battles being fought hither and thither and casualties falling by the wayside until a victor finally emerged. That victor? The Cold Stares, and their newly presidential song Automobile.

Staring ruefully at the podium were the vanquished: The Hellacopters, whose Do You Feel Normal fell fractionally short, and Sons Of Silver, whose Running Out Of Words ran out of steam and fell slightly shorter still.

Our latest eight contenders are lined up below, like the suspects in some sort of rock-related crime. Please don't hesitate to vote for your favourite.

The Wanton Bishops - Gonna Be Fine

Kicking off a European tour (concluding with one UK show at London’s Camden Assembly) Beirut maverick Nader Mansour combines the delta blues of TWB’s debut with the heady mystique of his motherland. Expect expansive beats, harmonica streaks and eloquently livid lyrics, creating something dreamy and clever that’s also hooky in a brilliantly primal way. “Gonna Be Fine is the sarcastic realisation that contrary to popular belief: it is the world that’s fucked up, and we’re genuinely doing the best we can!” Mansour says. “What’s a bloody mantra gonna do to someone living in a war torn country? Zilch, nothing.”

Thundermother - Can’t Put Out The Fire

There’s really one word to sum up the energy of this classic-est of classic rockers: triumphant. Charging forth in a barrage of denim-jacketed camaraderie and fat, juicy riffage (with a whisper of Georgia Satellites’ Keep Your Hands To Yourself in the chorus guitars), "Can’t Put Out The Fire is Thundermother's love letter to rock n' roll and more specifically - KISS!” says singer Linnea Vikström Egg. “It's a trip down nostalgia lane to the time where our childhood rock n' roll dreams were made.” If you’re going to do something this brazenly old-school, you need to do it well – and Thundermother do it well.

Nite - Crow (Fear The Night)

These Bay Area dudes turned our heads with this culty yet toe-tapping banger. Charged with ultra-riffy guitar oomph that says ‘dance party’ almost as much as ‘mosh pit’, its smoky industrial mystique comes with a generous sense of heavy metal theatre. Kind of like hearing Meliora-era Ghost, with a touch of Rammstein at their most melodic. Like the sound of that? Their new album, Cult of the Serpent Sun, is out in March.

Dirty Blonde - Polly

Manchester alt.rock duo Dirty Blonde dive into 2025 with this raw, heartbroken yet surprisingly sweet fuzzbomb – all L7-meets-Nirvana angst and swagger, facing the messy dark sides of love with confidence *and* vulnerability. “We wrote Polly about that messy, crying on your bathroom floor, unpredictable side of falling in love that no one talks about,” they explain. “Someone can give you all the reassurance in the world but how do you know that it won’t all come crashing down?”

Those Damn Crows - No Surrender

After two years of festivals, chart success, big-shot support slots and mahoosive stages on career-topping headline shows, these Bridgend boys continue that upward-shooting energy on this big, moody hard rocker. Leaning further into the American-heavy-hitter end of their arsenal, No Surrender has the sort of heart-on-sleeve grit that would sit comfortably on a Black Stone Cherry record – or on any rock radio playlist. Watch out for the new album God Shaped Hole, from which this one’s taken…

Skunk Anansie - An Artist Is An Artist

Okay, this is probably what we all need today, if you buy into the whole Blue Monday thing – and even if you don’t, An Artist Is An Artist is a bloody good musical arse-kick for this grey, skint time of year. Riding on a spiky, dancey wave of 90s hedonism, gunfire lyrics and even an avant-garde sax solo (yes a sax solo, and it sounds totally natural here), Skunk Anansie’s opening taste of their next album is rock’n’roll with ravers' energy, whipsmart humour and sharp set of teeth. A biting and joyful celebration of all life’s artists, seen and unseen.

Close Enemies - Sound Of A Train

Determined to keep busy after being retired from his dayjob in the Aerosmith mothership, bassist Tom Hamilton is back with a new band, Close Enemies, who probably aren't named after the identically titled 2018 Belgian-French crime drama. The lineup is completed by drummer Tony Brock (The Babys, Rod Stewart), guitarists Peter Stroud (Sheryl Crow, Don Henley) and Trace Foster, and singer Chasen Hampton. Debut single Sound Of A Train sounds equal parts Tuk Smith and Aerosmith, with a pleasingly gritty rock'n'roll sheen, and Hampton can squeal like Hamilton's old boss. Solid.

Billy F Gibbons - Living It Up Down In Texas

In which Billy F Gibbons dives into his box of electronic gizmos and returns with a typically tweaked slice of modern blues, where the sounds are both other-worldly (his voice, and on highly processed drums) and typically Texan (on the guitar parts, which sound like the edited highlights of a ZZ Top supercut). Taken from the Paramount+ series Landman, Living It Up Down In Texas is allegedly the first track from what will be Billy F's fourth solo album, and his first since 2021's Hardware. Have mercy!

What a start to 2025! Can you believe we're almost a quarter of the way through the 21st century already?

No one has had a better start to the new year than Welsh legend Bonnie Tyler, who's walked off with the trophy in our first Tracks Of The Week contest of 2025. So we're sending the heartiest of congratulations in her direction, as we are to the runner-up, Dixie Dragster, and to the runner-up to the runner-up, Thundermother.

Below you'll find our latest eight contenders. Aren't they lovely?

Amplifier - Invader

Amplifier have been down a few sonic rabbit holes over the years, embracing alt, prog, conceptual and psychedelic brainwaves in the process. Now, on this first taste of the Brit mavericks’ next album Gargantuan, they’re sounding decidedly…well, gargantuan, in the smartest, most brooding sense. Mixing minor-key intensity with a bright, catchy melody, Invader is a heavy, epic rocker ripe for considerably bigger stages than those they’ll actually be playing on their next tour. We can't wait to hear the rest.

Gyasi - Cheap High

We can think of worse ways to shake off the January blues than by plugging into this newbie from West Virginia’s platform-booted 21st century glamster-in-chief. Rough and ready blues’n’roll with glitter in its eyes, fire in its belly and no time to fuck around, Cheap High gets straight to the point in hooky, 70s-hued fashion and doesn’t let up for two and a half minutes. After that you’ll want more, and you can get it with his next album, Here Comes The Good Part, coming soon…

Bob Mould - Here We Go Crazy

Here We Go Crazy is the title track of the former Hüsker Dü/Sugar mastermind’s new solo album, and it’s a beauty: heart-rending guitar pop with a sweet surface and layers of emotional complexity beneath. "I've been spending time in the Southern California desert over the past few years, and the video was shot there. Chilly wilderness atop a mountain, expansive vistas below the hills, distant places to escape life's routines. Going crazy can be many different things. The joy of reckless abandon, the uncertainty of the world's future, the silence of solitude."

The Cold Stares - Automobile

Dirty blues rock with an outlaw country kick, in which Indiana’s The Cold Stares do what rock’n’rollers have been doing since the dawn of time: sing about cars and girls, bringing forth all the loosely veiled innuendo that occurs when straight dudes with guitars put those two things together in song form (and yes there is a breath of the Beatles’ Drive My Car in that juicy, major-minor shift in the verses). A straight-ahead but effective appetiser for their next album, The Southern Part II. Vroom.

The Hellacopters - Do You Feel Normal

One of the chirpiest songs we’ve heard about alienation and solitude lately, but full of irresistible little twists, turns and tone changes, Do You Feel Normal is a cool yet warm-hearted banger that builds to a darkly spacey fade-out. As old-school as they come, but with a poppy kick that gives the sense of a band who still love doing this, commercial fortunes and mahoosive stages or not. Great bridge harmonies and twin-lead flourish too. It’s all in the details, innit.

Venamoris - Animal Magnetism

Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and his singer wife Paula have teamed up with current Slayer-ite Gary Holt for this woozy, atmospheric cover of the Scorpions classic. If immersive, industrial-laced darkness and blackened grooves (spiced up with a nicely screamy guitar solo) feels about right for the post-holiday fog of January, you’d do well to check this out. Like what you hear? You’ll find new, original tuneage on their album, To Cross Or To Burn, which comes out next month.

Lady Beast - Inner Alchemist

From the none-more-metal Steel City of Pittsburgh, Lady Beast claim to be influenced by Motörhead, Dio, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Mercyful Fate, and you can hear it in every fibre of the resolutely old-school Inner Alchemist, which trundles along like Priest playing footsie with Maiden at some kind of debauched medieval gathering. It's the title track from the band's upcoming fifth album, which, it says here, "struts and gallops with equal aplomb, buttressed by instantly-hummable riffs and a palpable atmosphere of swords and sorcery."

Sons Of Silver - Running Out Of Words

After a couple of well-received EPs, Los Angeles rockers Sons Of Silver released their debut album Runaway Emotions on Friday. New single Running Out Of Words finds mainman Pete Argyropoulos conjuring up the spirit of Bruce Springsteen at his most mournful before the chorus arrives to lift the spirits skywards. Backed by members of bands like Candlebox and Skillet, it's fully-formed 'big' music, purpose-designed for large crowds and larger arenas. Nice.

With a soundtrack which featured classic songs by AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Motörhead, The Clash, Killing Joke and more, the first series of BBC World War II drama SAS Rogue Heroes - written by Peaky Blinders creator Stephen Knight - was quite possibly the loudest TV series ever aired on British television.

Season two picks up where season one ended, following the heroic, if borderline insane, adventures of maverick SAS co-founder Paddy Mayne, played by Jack O'Connell in a manner which recalls The Almighty's Ricky Warwick circa Just Add Life, Warwick hailing, like Mayne, from Newtownards, County Down. Gwilym Lee, who received rave reviews for his portrayal of Queen guitarist Brian May in the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic, stars as Lieutenant Colonel Bill Stirling, the man tasked with giving orders to Mayne, who has a deep-rooted aversion to toeing the line.

Fans of the first series of the show can rest assured that the new season, in which the battleground switches from Cairo to Italy, is every bit as explosive, with an equally loud and lairy soundtrack.

Here are the 10 best songs you'll hear.

Warning: contains plot spoilers.

Adolescents - Rip It Up (1981)

The opening minutes of episode 1, season 2, finds Paddy Mayne "somewhat aggrieved" after being denied compassionate leave to attend his father's funeral. Soon enough, he's channelling this understandable frustration into reducing tables and chairs in the tea room of Cairo's fancy Palm Court Hotel to matchwood.

"Apologies ladies and gentlemen," he explains to shocked fellow guests, "but GHQ Cairo has got my fucking goat."

When a military policeman makes the ill-advised decision to tell Mayne to calm down, the Irishman opts not to obey this directive. As the opening riff of Rip It Up kicks in and - irony alert! - Adolescents frontman Tony Cadena starts decrying senseless violence in the SoCal punk scene ("We're not the background for your stupid fights"), heads are cracked, bones are broken and blood is spilled.

The Saints - No Time (1977)

The opening scene of episode 2 finds Mayne, disguised as a fisherman, on a boat bobbing gently in Augusta Harbour, Sicily, regaling his colleague Reggie Seekings with an old Irish folk tale concerning The Salmon of Knowledge as suspicious German soldiers on the harbour wall make increasingly agitated threats to open fire on their vessel. With the anxious Seekings itching to shoulder one of the rocker launchers concealed on the craft, viewers are gifted a blast of Australia's finest punk rock band The Saints, with No Time, the b-side of their superb debut single (I'm) Stranded. It may not surprise you to learn that this stand-off is not resolved amicably.

Sham 69 - If The Kids Are United (1978)

Bored, restless and frustrated in the Mafia-controlled, abandoned Sicilian town Augusta, following orders to delay his unit's advance, Mayne insists that his men scale a nearby mountain to keep active. Knowing better than to challenge the volatile Ulsterman, his troop comply, and Sham 69's evergreen paean to brotherhood, solidarity and community soundtracks their descent to a beautiful, seemingly deserted beach. A restorative bout of skinny-dipping duly elevates morale, but not before the local Cosa Nostra chapter make their introductions.

The Fall - Theme from Sparta F.C. (2004)

One of two songs by the singular Mancunian post-punks to grace episode 3, Theme from Sparta F.C. has appeared on British TV many times, having been used as the theme music to Final Score, the BBC's round-up of football score, from 2005 to 2009. In its new setting, the song is used to accompany scenes of the SAS soldiers playing football and sparring in Augusta while awaiting new orders.

Stiff Little Fingers - Gotta Gettaway

A rather literal deployment of Belfast punk heroes Stiff Little Fingers' ode to breaking free of suffocating surroundings in search of new experiences ("I feel life passing me by"), used to accentuate SAS founder David Stirling's yearning to escape the Prisoner of War camp in which he's being held in Italy.

Originally released as a single on Rough Trade in 1979, the song resurfaced on the quartet's second album, Nobody's Heroes. And with all due respect to Jack O'Connell's commendable North of Ireland accent, it's nice to hear the real thing here, not least because, unlike the Derby-born actor, Jake Burns doesn't. feel. the. need. to. leave. enough. space. to. say. a. Hail. Mary. between. every. fucking. syllable.

The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary (1985)

The lead single from The Cult's excellent second album, 1985's Love, plays out at the end of episode 4, after Paddy Mayne offers his traumatised pal Reggie Seekings either sodium amytal (a barbiturate used in WW II to treat soldiers with shell shock) or the collected poems of William Blake to help him cope with a devastating and deadly German assault on the SAS troops. "I recommend the latter," the erudite Mayne advises.

MC5 - Kick Out The Jams

The first song heard in the season's penultimate episode, Kick Out The Jams is one of the all-time rock classics, a rallying call from legendary, and hugely influential, Detroit punks MC5. The song is used as the background to a stramash in the SAS 'mess' room, as jealousy spills over into violence while Field Marshall Montgomery is en route to see the British Army's most-feared fighters.

Deep Purple - Highway Star

Also employed in Episode 5, the fabulous opening track on Deep Purple's sixth album, 1972's Machine Head, makes for a suitably exhilarating accompaniment to images of the SAS blowing up Italian railway tracks, bridges and trains.

The Damned - Neat Neat Neat

Used in the season's concluding episode, The Damned's thrillingly urgent second single soundtracks yet another fistfight, as the SAS gatecrash a high-powered meeting at the Ritz hotel in London, and proceed to knock seven shades of shit out of a group of mouthy, arrogant US Marines. It could be The 100 Club in 1977, if you squint hard enough.

AC/DC - Walk All Over You (1979)

The first series of SAS Rogue Heroes opened and closed with the same song: AC/DC's If You Want Blood (You've Got It), and Season 2 climaxes with another classic Young/Young/Scott anthem from Highway To Hell, the menacingWalk All Over You. The song is used, following an unlikely airborne singalong of the Irish folk classic Whisky in The Jar, as the SAS prepare to parachute into France for D-Day in June 1944.

Series two of SAS Rogue Heroes is showing now on BBC1 in the UK, and on the BBC iPlayer.

Happy New Year! This is our first Tracks Of The Week contest since before Christmas, which is so long ago that we can't even remember who took part.

Well, we've just looked up the results, and it looks like Tremendous beat Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse who beat Ally Venable, which is all very nice, but it's so 2024. And we've already moved on.

Below you'll find our first eight contenders of 2025. Aren't they beautiful?

Thundermother - Bright Eyes

Kick off the new year with a driving, chest-thumping bang and an abundance of ‘can do’ joie de vivre, in the company of these Swedish rock’n’rollers. "This song is THE Thundermother sound and vibe that people relate to us,” the band say, seemingly in a confident headspace post-lineup overhaul. “We're super proud of the recording and the outcome of the song that we really worked on hard in the studio!” Like what you hear? There’s a full album coming in February.

Bonnie Tyler - Yes I Can

More motivational oomph, this time from the full-throated, legend-of-the-power-ballad Welsh Wonder that is Bonnie Tyler. Today she’s here to party like it’s 1983, with a side of glossy 2025-era pop production on sweet, hooky new single Yes I Can. Is it as good as Total Eclipse Of The Heart? No, but it’s much better than we have any right to expect at this autumnal stage of her career. Expect big feelings, sleek grandiosity, a searing guitar solo and, crucially, a cracking performance from Bonnie herself – parts husk, heartache and hope.

Dixie Dragster - Show And Tell

If you like Tuk Smith, The Bites and others in that sleazy yet biting, ‘young old soul’ vein, check out these new Nashville longhairs. Show And Tell is a live single and it makes a swinging, sassy introductory statement – sort of like if New York Dolls and Guns N’ Roses had a baby, all loose yet thick-set swagger, but with their own sheen of dishevelled glam roguery. Little surprise that the aforementioned Tuk is their producer.

Mary Spender - You Can Have Chicago 

Nocturnal urban soundscapes and crystalline Knopfler-esque guitar flourishes abound in this slice of the Youtube megastar’s debut solo album, Super Sexy Heartbreak. On the smooth side for Classic Rock, admittedly, but with enough emotional grey areas to keep things interesting and avoid excess beigeness. And from someone in such regular, public conversation with her online followers (all 758K and counting, on Youtube alone), it’s a pleasingly pensive reflection of music’s power to tease out different sides of its creators.

Howzat - Revolution

Comin' straight atcha from the mean streets of Forest City, London, Ontario Canada, Howzat's Revolution encroaches on Ghost territory with its spooky keyboards, celestial backing vocals and church-based video, but there's a nice urgency to the song and the guitar solo rips. Canadians may already have caught them on tour with the likes of Uriah Heep, Nazareth, Anvil, The Killer Dwarfs, Honeymoon Suite and Sloan, and with a mission statement to "bring back big guitars and anthem rock", we can only assume that wild times lie ahead.

Sinner Rage - Fire's On

With a name like 'Sinner Rage' you might expect this Spanish band to sound a little bit like Judas Priest, and you'd be right. They're an unashamed throwback to the glory days of old-school metal, taking inspiration from the likes of Priest, Saxon, Queensrÿche and Crimson Glory, and smooshing it together into something that – while not the slickest of performances – climaxes with a chorus purpose-built for punching the air. It comes from the band's upcoming debut album Powerstrike, which, they say, "will send shivers of déjà vu through every soul who’s ever bled for metal."

Kelsi Mayne - All Or Nothing

Former nationally ranked Canadian sprint hurdler turned country music singer Kelsi Mayne has roots in Detroit, which might account for All Or Nothing rockin' a little harder than many Nashville types, and we're blaming the guitarist with the Love Gun t-shirt and long hair. You'll spot him in the video, which was clearly filmed by someone with an affinity for motion sickness, but hey, the song is high in spirit and energy and the chorus is bigger than a barn, so we shouldn't complain.

The Jellybricks - Devil's A Day Away

Devil's A Day Away starts off in fairly unassuming fashion but gathers momentum swiftly, and by the time the chorus rolls around we're in full Replacements' territory, and there's nothing wrong with that. Little Steven has bestowed his "Coolest Song in the World" honour upon this Harrisburg, PA. crew on multiple occasions, and you can hear why. It's power-pop with its roots in the 60s, filtered through a 90s, college-rock-shaped prism, and while it might not be as frayed as Paul Westerberg & Co., it's definitely cut from the same cloth.

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first issue of 2025. (I can’t believe I’m typing that!) And to kick off what we’re hoping will be a very good year – and seriously, there’s a shedload of excellent stuff to look forward to, just check out our preview over the next few pages – we collared Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson to look back over the last 50 years of their band, and find out just what they have planned to celebrate the occasion.

This issue we also revisit Metallica’s S&M as it celebrates its silver jubilee, take a deep dive into the post-Jim Morrison albums of The Doors, sit down with Sweet’s Andy Scott, hang out with Mark Tremonti, Andy Fairweather Low, Joe Satriani, DeWolff and so much more.

Until next month…

Get the new issue of Classic Rock

Features

Rush
Celebrating half a century since their debut, in a Classic Rock exclusive, we sat down with Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson at the end of 2024 to talk about their 50-year journey from there to here – and whether the Canadian prog rock legends will ever return to the studio or stage.

The Doors
The death of Jim Morrison in 1971 looked like it marked the end of the road for the band. But his bandmates had other ideas.

DeWolff
It was sweet home Alabama when the retro-rock flag bearers recorded their new album at two legendary studios there.

Sweet
Guitarist Andy Scott looks back at good times and bad, and hints that it’s not over for the Ballroom Blitzers yet.

Mark Tremonti
Take care of business. Quit your comfort zone. Don’t listen to rock journalists. Never forget you could still be washing cars. These are among the things that shape his world view.

Metallica
How did the world’s leading metal band come to team up with – shock, horror – an orchestra to make an album?

For more exclusive Scott Gorham artwork, make sure you check out his website at scottgorhamworld.com, where prints, premium posters and T-shirts are available.

Regulars

The Dirt
Jeff Beck’s guitars up for auction; Metallica and Judas Priest among Grammy nominees, Sammy Hagar “wants to be friends” with Alex Van Halen; Welcome back Night Flight Orchestra and Benjamin Booker; Say hello to Lions In The Street and Stephen Wilson Jr; Say goodbye to Shel Talmy, Pete Sinfield.

The Stories Behind The Songs: Styx
A song about being picked up and taken away by aliens, Come Sail Away gave the band a career boost and eventually took on a life of its own.

Q&A: Joe Satriani
The virtuoso’s virtuoso on G3 pranking, handling Yngwie Malmsteen, and the Halloween costume he’d rather forget.

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include The Struts, Orianthi, Himalayas, Dirty Blonde and more.

Reviews
New albums from Manic Street Preachers, DeWolff, Tremonti, Pete Townshend & Rachel Fuller, White Denim, Lambrini Girls, Julian Cope, Franz Ferdinand, FaithNYC, Cosmic Room 99. Reissues from Twisted Sister, Bush, King Crimson, Rival Sons, Sparks, Band Of Skulls, John Wetton, T.Rex, Pitchshifter, War. DVDs, films and books on or by Rush, Slade, Paul McCartney, Placebo, Dave Barbarossa and more. Live reviews of Deep Purple, Wildhearts, Big Country, Von Hertzen Brothers, Michael Monroe, Anthrax and more.

Buyers Guide: Tom Morello
He’s best known as the guitarist with Rage Against The Machine, but there’s much more of his playing to marvel at than that.

Lives
We preview tours by Brothers Osborne, Bullet For My Valentine and Cutting Crew. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: The Struts
The Struts frontman Luke Spiller on his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

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Christmas is almost upon us, and they'll be celebrating early in the streets of Bridgend as news breaks that Those Damn Crows have triumphed in the almost-Xmas edition of our Tracks Of The Week competition. So congratulations to them. Festive plaudits are also due to Caleb Johnson and The Darkness, who didn't win, but came close enough.

Another eight acts have been lined up to compete in this week's joust, and we'll reveal the results as 2024 comes to a giddy climax. In the meantime, have a great Christmas.

Here are our latest eight candidates. Please vote for the one you'd like to invite over for Christmas dinner.

Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse - I Told My Baby

Now for some festive cheer of a spicy but still suitably party-friendly nature for the holiday season. Dynamite New Orleans-meets-LA-via-Blighty duo Greta Valenti and Robin Davey are joined by burlesque star Kitten de Ville, creating a whirlwind of feathers, sequins and sass on this turbo-blues’n’roll groove machine (originally released on this year’s excellent Hot Nostalgia Radio), lighting up like the world’s sexiest Christmas tree. “Two minutes of pure eye and ear candy for your rock & roll souls,” the band declare. “We hope you love it!”

Black Spiders - Out Of Order

Black Spiders are in such a good place creatively that their raucous new single isn’t even from their upcoming record – but it absolutely feels like something you'd expect to have been a 'keeper' in the tracklisting process. “We wanted to give people a vibe of where the new album may be heading and have some fun with the video,” explains frontman Pete Spiby. “The song itself is a rant against God. For when things go wrong or not the way you planned and giving us such a shitty life.” Expect dirty, fast-paced rock’n’roll of the cheerfully raging tone we know and love ‘em for. And sock puppets. Nice.

Tremendous - Slipping Away

"There's a bit of self-destruction in there on both parts,” singer Mark explains, of these Birmingham glam rockers’ mournful, stirringly harmonised ode to waning romance. “Loveless relationship that's gone way past its shelf life/sell by date. It's quite a melancholic song. I also wanted to keep it simple lyrically. Very little guitar work or flashy production." Adding a yearning, early 90s whisper of almost Jellyfish pop rock to their 70s-glittered foundations, it captures that strange mess of despair, nostalgia and uncertainty that we’ve all experienced at some point.

Gleb Kolyadin - Glimmer

Not such a rocky affair (you’ll recognise this Russian pianist from enigmatic ‘chamber prog’ duo Iamthemorning), but it could be the cooling tonic you need at this time of year. Like an icy, delicate alternative to Howard Blake’s Snowman-accompanying Walking In The Air, Kolyadin’s immersive, emotionally nuanced modern classical piano drives a steady, shimmering build of earthy beats, taut high notes and folky woodwind strains. We’d suggest closing your eyes for ultimate immersion, but then you’d miss the stunning handcrafted animation from Natalia Ryss – a kaleidoscope of dancing blue hues, oceanic creatures and abstract lines. Listen out for his new solo album, Mobula, in the new year.

Himalayas - Nothing Higher

Rising Welsh rockers Himalayas channel Muse and Royal Blood at their gnarliest and grooviest – with a few dashes of heady psychedelia – on new single Nothing Higher. Riddled with existential angst, shadowy atmospherics and heavy, woozy guitars that resonate in your chest, the song “discusses the personal struggle to find meaning against the backdrop of a chaotic and unsympathetic world,” the band explain, “however it also offers some respite to this through love and hope.”

Nate Bergman - Hallelujah

Before you cry ‘OH JESUS NO NOT ANOTHER FUCKING HALLELUJAH COVER!’, we’d implore you to give this a spin, because it’s one of the good ‘uns. With a voice as big and soulful as his, the former Lionize frontman could’ve easily wailed his way through a diva-sized interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s most enduringly famous ballad. But he doesn’t. Armed with an acoustic guitar, Bergman creates a sparse, darkly atmospheric rendition with nods to Jeff Buckley’s immortal, from-the-gut take and restrained but heartfelt gospel backing in the final stretch – all tension and tenderness, free of cliches.

Ally Venable - Do You Cry

Texan blues sensation Ally Venable released Do You Cry as a single last month, and now she's released an in-the-studio video that captures not just the ferocity of her playing but the power of her voice, as both soar and sail somewhere off into the upper reaches of the blues-o-sphere. "The song explores the raw, vulnerable experience of heartbreak and the complex emotions that come with it," she says. "I wrote Do You Cry about the bittersweet reality of lost love. I hope this song can connect with listeners on a deeply personal level."

Robot Monster - Night Terrors

Rowdy New Haven duo Robot Monster got their start uploading videos to TikTok and Instagram, and have since toured with the likes of Stone Temple Pilots, The Bronx and Drug Church. Many of their videos feature the pair surrounded by huge pieces of abandoned machinery, and the stuttering rhythms and clanking riffs of Night Terrors fit the industrial vibe quite nicely. It's the kind of thing you might get if you asked a rivet factory to write a song, but in a good way.

If failure is the mother of success – as the title of the recent single by The Wildhearts proclaimed – then success is surely the mother of further success. For The Wildhearts triumphed in our most recent Tracks Of The Week fandango, which augers well for their upcoming album Satanic Rites Of The Wildhearts, which will be out next year.

Second place went to The Damn Truth's single The Willow, while Spiders completed the podium with the excellently titled What’s Your Game (Miss Insane). But hey, the week belonged to Ginger & Co. So here, once again, is Failure Is The Mother Of Success.

Here are our latest eight candidates. Please vote for the one you'd like to invite over for Christmas dinner.

The Darkness - I Hate Myself 

If you thought that title would signal a solemn work of inward-looking anguish…erm, it really doesn't – it’s way more fun than that. Part fizzling Status Quo boogie, part sax-parping glam rocker with Christmas-friendly whiffs of Slade and Wizzard, I Hate Myself is the happiest song about self-loathing you’re ever likely to hear. “I think without regrets we stand to learn less from our experiences,” says Justin Hawkins, “to deny them and compartmentalise them is to deny ourselves an opportunity to grow. So, it's time for us to sing this uplifting ode to remorse in the hope that we don't make the same mistakes again and history does not repeat itself.”

The Hellacopters - (I Don't Wanna Be) Just A Memory 

Swedish troublemakers The Hellacopters have a new single that couldn't be any more Cheap Trick if it was played on a five-neck guitar, and there's nothing wrong with that. (I Don't Wanna Be) Just A Memory is prime power pop, with a chorus so bouncy it may have been written on an actual trampoline. New album Overdriver will arrive on January 31 via Nuclear Blast Records.

Toby And The Whole Truth - Alone With You

Now for a big old boot-stomper with which to fill your…well, your boots with as the festive hibernation period approaches, courtesy of Toby Jepson and chums. Built on a real chest-thumper of a riff – heartier and more bullshit-free than a boxful of jacked up early AC/DC riffs set to ‘party’ mode – Alone With You is so chunky on the surface that its gentler, subtler streaks come as a pleasant surprise (think pretty backing vocal textures, thoughtful melody twists and penetrative sense of yearning… plus a juicy little guitar moment that sounds a bit like Alice Cooper’s School’s Out).

Carol Hodge - Small Crumbs

Fresh off tour with Ginger Wildheart’s band, singer/songwriter/’seven-fingered pianist’ (she was born with cleft type symbrachydactyly, so she only has two fingers on her left hand) Carol Hodge combines fat, fuzzy guitar grooves with splashes of synths and a bright-eyed melody that shapeshifts through proggy turns, clever pop rock bursts and almost Alice In Chains-y shadows in the verses. It’s eccentric and unpredictable, in a way that feels totally natural. Her new album EffortLess Insecurity, from which this is taken, promises to be her heaviest and darkest yet. Check it out on January 31.

Black Eyed Sons - Don’t Throw Me In The Corner

With Spike and his Quireboys enjoying a post-split renaissance with Thunder’s Luke Morley, the other QBs cohort/breakaways now present their own brand of Stones-y, piano-pounding rock’n’roll merriment. “This song covers a range of situations from growing up in the avenues of Blyth to break ups and may just reference certain people in a cryptic fashion!” guitarist Paul Guerin says. “When it came to the music, I’ve always wanted to write something where I modulate the chords a semitone both up and down without anyone noticing, haha! I think I pulled it off. At the end of the day, it’s a rock’n’roll song.”

Those Damn Crows - Still

Frontman Shane Greenhall draws from the depths of his own experience on Still – a delicate, quietly rousing soundtrack to coming back from the brink, steadily built up with strings. "Still is an exact time and place where in my mind the thought of ‘the end’ was more comforting than actually being here,” Greenhall explains. “I don’t reflect with any negativity at all, in fact quite the opposite. Thankfully… through music I’m constantly reminded that all thoughts pass, and all forms are temporary, reinforced when I visit my ‘go to' place on the coast of Southerndown, where I had those thoughts and wrote this song.”

Caleb Johnson - Blind ft. Joe Bonamassa

Caleb Johnson was most recently spotted fronting the Trans Siberian Orchestra, and last year he led Meat Loaf's old band on the terrific Paradise Found: Bat Out Of Hell Reignited, a cover of the whole Bat Out Of Hell album. Now he's back with the extremely tender solo single Blind, which will help raise money for Hurricane Helene relief in Western North Carolina and Eastern Tennessee. It's a perfect showcase for the American Idol winner's extraordinary voice and features some equally soulful guitar from Joe Bonamassa. Available now via the excellently named Big Johnson Records.

The Dollheads - Teenage Runaway 

The Dollheads are a sibling pop-punk band outta Las Vegas, comprised of Angela (Guitar/Vocals), Samantha (Bass/Backing Vocals) and Austin (Drums), and we're much too old to guess their ages accurately. We do know, however, that they've been going for around eight years, and they formed when Austin was five, so you do the math. While you're doing that you can listen to Teenage Runaway, a tribute to Joan Jett that's so well formed it sounds like an instant classic, with lyrics like "With a bad reputation as a label / And no label that would have her back / She told the music industry to fuck off / And went directly to the pressing plant" telling the story of Jett's career. NOFX's Fat Mike cameos in the video.

Making a double album is easy – you just write more songs. But making an album that lasts less time than your average sitcom is much harder. We’re not talking about throwing together a few half-baked tunes – we’re talking about those records that rush breathlessly past and exit leaving you wanting more, something that takes real craft.

Let’s face it, size isn’t everything, as these gems prove.

Our most recent Tracks Of The Week contest was a one-sided affair, with Crossbone Skully's Mutt Lange-produced The Last Night On Earth dominating in the way that Mutt Lange productions usually do, i.e. by receiving more public support than any of the other acts combined.

It's kinda like when American Made by The Oak Ridge Boys and The Law Of Devil's Land by Loudness went up against Def Leppard's Pyromania in January 1983. They may have all started at the same place, but there was only one winner in the end.

So congratulations to them, and then it's on with another show.

Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote for the one you like more than the others.

Eureka Machines - Back In The Back Of Beyond

Fuck yeah! Criminally underrated but very much loved by those who know better, Leeds's songmeisters de resistance Eureka Machines are back, and they come bearing the good stuff – a searing dose of tearaway yet exquisitely crafted pop rock that manages to be dreamy, zingy, kind of heartbreaking and utterly joyous all at once. Accompanied by snippets from videos and gigs past (remember the banana costume from Pop Star?), it’s got us excited for their sixth album, tentatively titled Everything, which is due out in April 2025.

Dorothy - I Come Alive

Setting the tone with pensive, high-drama synth notes and one heck of an opening wail – think Clare Torry’s Great Gig In The Sky scream with the fiery guts of Halestorm or In This Moment – Dorothy’s latest tune has a meaty, regal depth to it, spicing up contemporary hard rock/metal weight with a theatrical sensibility. A full-throttle, from-the-depths anthem, in other words. Stay tuned for news of her anticipated next album, from which this one’s taken…

Larkin Poe - Little Bit

There are soulful, pensive notes of Susan Tedeschi and Bonnie Raitt in the Lovell sisters’ voices (Rebecca’s lead vocals, Megan’s slide guitar, duel harmonies honed together since they could talk) in this softer piece of their upcoming album Bloom, which is coming out in January, followed by a full UK tour later in 2025. Sweet but not sickly, with just the right touch of smoky mystique, Little Bit is a beautifully nuanced aural cross-section of the American south – proof, again, of what thoughtful songwriters these guys have become.

The Wildhearts - Failure Is The Mother Of Success

Kicking off with a brilliantly gnarly, heavy hook that wastes no time in punching you squarely in the jaw (in a good, metaphorical way), the Wildhearts single veers down a spread of surprising side-streets – from spaced-out passages to chirpy pop rock, tender melancholia and a hopeful conclusion. It runs to almost eight minutes, and earns every beat of it. “Failure Is The Mother Of Success is about getting back on your feet after things have gone wrong,” Ginger explains. “There's an old saying, 'fall down three times, get up four’. It's about feeling like you're worth getting back up for, and that making mistakes is just an essential part of life, everyone does it.”

Powder Chutes - Scalpel

Kiwi youngsters Powder Chutes have had quite the week, receiving a last-minute invite to support US rockers Highly Suspect at an arena show in Auckland, then being brought onstage with the headliners to augment their hit Lydia. All of this activity is serendipitously timed to coincide with the band's new single, Scalpel, which is powered by the kind of filthy riff Josh Homme comes up with on his good days, before finding an adrenaline-fuelled way to a climax that burns so hot we're obliged to check that we're not actually on fire. An album is on the way, they tell us.

The Damn Truth - The Willow

The title track from the nostalgic Canadian rockers’ next album is a hypnotic affair – ultra classic but with a level of intent that stops it feeling like a museum piece. By turns delicate and commanding, The Willow finds them stirring brooding, hippiefied swirls of Robert Plant and Janis Joplin with big lead guitar strokes, smooth tempo shifts and heady 60s and 70s vibes galore. “When we started the process of selecting songs for our new album The Willow always stood alone,” the band have said. “It was fragile and different.” Keep your ears peeled for more in 2025…

The Wild Things - Make Our Own Way There

These rising Brit rockers The Wild Things mix a rootsy storyteller sensibility with the starry-eyed romance of Don Henley’s Boys Of Summer on this catchy pop rock gem. The sort of dreamy, widescreen sound that reflects the mega-stages they’ve played (Madison Square Garden among them) and songwriting royalty they’ve worked with (its parent album, Afterglow, was co-produced by Pete Townshend).

Spiders - What’s Your Game (Miss Insane)

Swedish old souls Spiders make a strong, sassy opening case for their next album, Sharp Objects, with the driving What’s Your Game (Miss Insane). The sort of dirty, danceable garage rock’n’roll that feels raw and biting but super fun – fans of MC5, Iggy and Alice Cooper will feel right at home here – it’s the sound of cigarettes, cool boots and long, messy hair at the best kind of party in under three minutes.

The Black Crowes' Happiness Bastards album has been voted the best of 2024 in Classic Rock magazine's annual end-of-year writers poll. The full countdown, featuring the 50 best albums of the year, is featured in the new issue of Classic Rock, which hits UK stores today.

Classic Rock writer Pat Carty's review of Happiness Bastards describes the album as "a rock’n’roll record that’s funkier than a tramp’s kacks, more soulful than a gospel convention, warmer than a mother’s love and groovier than the Grand Canyon", while the new issue of Classic Rock calls it "a genuine return to form in an age when many releases described as such are nothing of the sort."

"As you grow older, you change with how you see the world in general," Rich Robinson told us earlier this year. "And we’ve been on a pretty long journey. Forty years since I got my guitar, and we started playing in our basement, seems crazy to me. To think of the arc and the scope of the thing is pretty far out, but it’s really all I know.

"Chris sings like Chris. He doesn’t sound like anyone else. I play like me, and I don’t sound like anyone else. We’re both of us still curious and in love with music."

Classic Rock's Top 10 albums of 2024 are listed below.

You can read the full 2022 Top 50 in the latest issue of Classic Rock. It's our traditional end-of-year review, featuring interviews with many of the musicians behind our Albums Of The Year, and also comes with a 2025 calendar featuring your favourite rock icons, some high-voltage rock’n’roll-themed wrapping paper for all your festive wrapping needs, and a set of some very tidy drink coasters featuring official Scott Gorham and Thin Lizzy artwork.

The end-of-year special edition of Classic Rock is available to buy online.

Classic Rock's Top 10 albums of 2024

1. The Black Crowes - Happiness Bastards
2. Judas Priest - Invincible Shield
3. David Gilmour - Luck And Strange
4. Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project
5. Black Country Communion - V
6. Pearl Jam - Dark Matter
7. Ian Hunter - Defiance, Part II: Fiction
8. The Black Keys - Ohio Players
9. Deep Purple - =1
10. Gary Clarke Jr - JPEG Raw

Every single year I lament that I can’t believe it’s been 12 months since our previous End Of Year review. And no, I’m not gonna break the habit of a lifetime!

It’s been another momentous year in rock. We’ve seen the return of some greats – brand new albums from David Gilmour, The Black Crowes, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam, The Cure and more. We witnessed the incredible live return of the one and only AC/DC in the year they celebrated their 50th anniversary. We bade a fond farewell to Aerosmith, who sadly had to bow out after 50 years due to Steven Tyler’s vocal cord troubles. Ozzy, MC5 and Foreigner took their rightful place in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. At last.

As is tradition, this issue we look back at the year – the highs, the lows and all things in between, and talk to some of the artists who made it happen. So sit back, relax and join us in celebrating the Year In Rock 2024. And from all of us at Classic Rock, we hope you have an excellent Christmas break and a happy and healthy 2025.

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Features

Best Albums Of 2024
As with every year, we saw some belters released from all points of the musical compass. It’s a dirty job, but we’ve chosen what we reckon are the best. Starring David Gilmour, Hawkwind, Bruce Dickinson, Slash and more. Did your favourite make the cut?

Foreigner
Finally inducted into the Hall Of Fame this year, Mick Jones steered Foreigner to instant and huge success. But with this self-confessed “bit of a control freak” at the helm it was far from plain sailing.

AC/DC
Despite stiff competition, they played the best gigs of 2024.

Playlist
From the smorgasbord of top tracks that came out in the past 12 months, here are the ones you need to listen to.

Jane’s Addiction
One of the great bands of their era, they were floored not by musical differences, but by a punch thrown by their singer.

Sex Pistols
They made an unexpected return. Steve Jones tells all.

Best Reissues Of 2024
Some albums are just so good that they deserve to come at us again. Here are the ones that thrilled us the most.

Mötley Crüe
Nikki Sixx takes us back to the heady days of a cleaned-up Cruë and the making of their greatest album: Dr. Feelgood.

Jesse Malin
After suffering a stroke, his life fell apart. Still recovering, the singer-songwriter is fighting his way back to music.

Ghost
Their new concert-film-and-much-more helped to elevate the band to arguably the greatest theatrical rockers around today..

Three Exclusive Gifts
If you get your issue on the UK newsstand, are a subscriber or get your copy directly from us online, you'll also get three exclusive gifts.

• A 2025 calendar featuring your favourite rock icons
• A selection of high-voltage rock’n’roll themed wrapping paper for all your festive wrapping needs
• A set of some very tidy drink coasters featuring official Scott Gorham and Thin Lizzy artwork
  

For more exclusive Scott Gorham artwork, make sure you check out his website at scottgorhamworld.com, where prints, premium posters and T-shirts are available.

Regulars

The Dirt
Ozzy Osbourne finaly induced into the Hall Of Fame; former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno dies aged 66; Roger Taylor says Queen “might” release new music; Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to reunite as The Who in 2025; Say hello to Grace Bowers; Say goodbye to Phil Lesh, Quincy Jones.

Q&A: Ice T
The Body Count frontman on rap, acting, WWIII, and getting David Gilmour to play on his cover of Comfortably Numb.

Reviews
New albums from Linkin Park, Koyo, Crobot, SKAM, They Might Be Giants, Rosalie Cunningham, Eddie 9V, Sendelica, Fight The Fade, Marcus Trummer, Willie Dowling and more. Reissues from UFO, Porcupine Tree, Sweet, Trapeze, Tom Waits, Sarks, Simple Minds, Neil Young, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and more. DVDs, films and books on MC5, Hawkwind, John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Elton John, Christine McVie, George Harrison and more. Live reviews of Alice Cooper, Pretenders, Dream Theater, Blues Pills, Goat, Bob Dylan, Royal Republic, Paul Weller and more.

Lives
We preview tours by Cats In Space & Willie Dowling, Joe Bonamassa and Those Damn Crows. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Devin Townsend
Canadian maverick Devin Townsend on his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

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* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

In a week where Leicester power trio SKAM will fight a battle against the compilers of the Official UK Chart (their well-reviewed From The Depths album came out on Friday), it's clear that they've already been in practice, ferrying recent single Selfish Friend into the upper reaches of our most recent Tracks Of The Week contest. Sadly for them, it wasn't enough to dislodge Chris "that fella from the Cold Stares" Tapp from his position at the top of the pile, but hey, second is almost as good as first. Almost.

Having said that, a quick examination of the votes for Chris Tapp shows that many of his came from the unlikeliest of sources: Guam, Nepal, Bangladesh, Lebanon and so on, so we suspect an over-zealous fan may have voted multiple times. But because we're nice (and we've got no proof of any actual nefarious goings-on) we'll declare both acts winners.

Here's Chris Tapp's Old Lady Blues once more, and SKAM's Selfish Friend once again, and then it's on with another fight.

Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote for the one who's best.

Crossbone Skully - The Last Night On Earth

Alice Cooper six-stringer Tommy Henriksen and chums rock the shit out of this brooding yet strident, Def Leppardian beast, packed with the sort of 80s-ified sincerity and chutzpah you didn’t think existed anymore (little surprise that they lured Mutt Lange back into the studio to executive-produce its parent album, Evil World Machine). If it was the last night on Earth, you could have much worse soundtracks.

Kip Moore - Flowers In December

There’s a pleasingly cosy, holiday season-friendly quality to Kip’s new single. It’s partly the mention of December, trees losing their leaves and suchlike – and the fact that Christmas is getting alarmingly close – but really it’s the song's warm cross-section between gentle acoustic guitar, soulful heartland vocals and rousing melody tempered with southern grit. Ingredients that conjure the generosity and quiet introspection of this time of year.

Sludge Mother - No Temple

The rock brainchild of pop Youtuber Cami Petyn, Sludge Mother have only released two singles but if No Temple is anything to go by it might be interesting to see what they do next. Slamming straight into your face like a hungry tiger spotting fresh meat, it summons the 90s grunge greats Petyn clearly adores. If Alice In Chains cut their teeth on the Sunset Strip, and were fronted by a Gen-Z firebrand singer (think Courtney Love with a moody hint of Billie Eilish), they could have sounded like this.

Stone Angels - Ghosts Of New York

Silky layers of orchestration and juicy little melody shifts elevate this moody, slickly executed rocker. It could have benefited from more imaginative, dynamic drums (the steady but basic beat here feels slightly at odds with the sense of scale on the rest of the track), but even so Ghosts Of New York confidently mixes grunge introspection with classic rock richness and a touch of Zakk Wylde-y grit. “This is the tale of the death of a relationship set against the backdrop of the iconic New York skyline,” says singer James Innes. “It is about being haunted by the memories of who you once were and seeing the ghosts of your life in the places that you visit.”

Three Days Grace - Mayday

Oomphy, uber-catchy all-American (well, they’re Canadian, but y’know what we mean…) hard rock is the order of the day on these alt rock stalwarts’ new single – the first with original singer Adam Gontier back in the fold, seemingly sharing lead duties very harmoniously with his former replacement Matt Walst. “We feel this song is a reflection of the current state of the world,” Walst says, “the sense that we’re all on the brink, emotionally, socially and environmentally, yet we refuse to admit defeat.”

Dim Gray - Peril

Norwegian art rockers Dim Gray (you may recognise singer/keyboardist Oskar Holdorff from Big Big Train) showcase their lighter, brighter side on this smooth, transportive first taste of upcoming album Shards. Think A Rush Of Blood To The Head-era Coldplay but with a smokier palette and at least one foot in a dark forest somewhere. “The guitar part has always been a key element,” says guitarist/singer Håkon Høiberg, “but I must admit that it started as a mandolin song and even a piano song before slowly retreating back to the guitar again. Peril is about breaking norms, and sometimes a bit of naivety is an important recipe for succeeding in that journey.”

The Midnight Cowgirls - Leaving Texas

Last seen on tour with the Stray Cats, Los Angeles country/new wave/post-punk/surf/rockabilly quintet The Midnight Cowgirls include Eagles Of Death Metal bassist Jennie Vee and drummer Leah Bluestein in their ranks, and are led by the brilliantly-named Kandle Osborne. Leaving Texas is gloriously upbeat, containing over 100% fun and more sass and swagger than a sold-out sass convention in downtown Swaggersville. The band's self-titled debut album is available now from Licorice Pizza Records (yes, that Licorice Pizza Records).

Eisbrecher - Everything Is Wunderbar 

Neue Deutsche Härte stalwarts Eisbrecher are back with a new single, and it thumps. Everything Is Wunderbar comes from the band's ninth studio album Kaltfront – scheduled to arrive on Earth in March – and its epic magnificence is only amplified by the fact that the chorus sounds a bit like Rock Me Amadeus. They'll be on tour next year, with dates lined up in Manchester and London, and we should all go. It'll be a fun night out.

If you ever wanted to know what goes on in the rich and varied life of the average rock star, check out guitar whizz Orianthi. In the last month or so she's launched a new amp (her signature Orange Crush R20), appeared with Sebastian Bach in a video (for his Future Of Youth single) and performed on the catwalk (alongside Kate Moss at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show). And now, to top it all, she's won our Tracks Of The Week competition. Like, literally, wow.

Following in her sonic footsteps were Little Strange and Thundermother, but in our eyes, they're all winners. Although, to be honest, Orianthi is definitely the winningest of all the winners.

Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote for the one who's best.

Smith/Kotzen - White Noise

Adrian Smith and Richie Kotzen have joined forces again, and if White Noise is anything to go by we’re in for a treat with their second album – titled Black Light/White Noise. Hinging on a deliciously low, thick-set groove and a mega-hooky chorus, it swaggers like a lion in lead boots… or something similarly heavy and growly yet majestic. “It was actually a riff Adrian brought in,” says Kotzen. “I then immediately started improvising the melody and the lyric that became the chorus. It had another working title, completely different to what it ended up being and we kind of came up on the spot with that call and answer in the chorus that turned into ‘White Noise’.”

SKAM - Selfish Friend

"Selfish Friend is about that one friend everyone has,” the Leicester power-trio say, of this total banger from their first full-length album in seven years – From The Depths. “You keep this person around even though they repeatedly let you down and only think about themselves. Yet you still keep them around!" Meaty, moody guitars gallop and chop down hard, propelled by singer/guitarist Steve Hill’s soaring melody. Straight-ahead but rich, emphatic and smartly executed in a way that makes them feel like a much bigger band.

Chris Tapp - Old Lady Blues

There’s something of the late, great Louisiana blueser Brother Dege in this first sample of the Cold Stares’ frontman’s new solo album Green – so-called because all the songs were played on an old National Resonator that belonged to another late great bluesman, Peter Green. Imbued with the sort of sparse, haunting atmosphere and hypnotic delta blues that come out so beautifully from a guitar like this (in the right hands, of course) it’s piqued our curiosity for the rest.

Those Damn Crows - Glass Heart

Those Damn Crows have long worn their hearts on their sleeves, in the form of punchy, searing hard rock songs. The first sample of their next album, God Shaped Hole (coming out in April), finds the Bridgend band of brothers leaning into their pop rock side, as they continue to artfully bottle unvarnished human feelings. “The whole premise of that song is, ‘I’m going to tell it like it is, flaws and all,’” frontman Shane Greenhall says. “I can be anxious, I can be unstable when sometimes It looks like I got my shit together, and have all the answers. I’ve been hurt and broken – who hasn’t got a glass heart? But it’s OK, because we’re still here, we’re still fighting.”

Body Count - Merciless

At 66 Ice-T remains invigoratingly committed to big, zero-compromise statements, and this one packs several serious punches. The title track from his new album with Body Count is a massive razor-stab of deliciously crushing metallic riffs with a chilling, Hostel-nodding horror narrative and images of segregation, KKK cross burnings and police aggression. Still pushing the envelope with fusions of rap and heavy music more successfully than just about anyone.

The Sheepdogs - Santa Man

And now for something different (like, completely different). These Canadian canines put the ‘roll’ in ‘rock’n’roll’ on this heartwarming 60s-bluesy festive toe-tapper, with a funky R&B spring in its step and streaks of latter-day Beatles vibes. Plus it has lyrics about reindeer, jingle bells and chimneys and good old cheesy holiday shit like that. And it’s called Santa Man. Frankly, what more do you want from a Christmas single? "There’s a lot of Christmas music out there, but not nearly enough Christmas Rock N Roll,” frontman Ewan Currie says. “So we’re making like Santa and delivering the December goods: a Xmas-party banger for your next holiday shindig."

Fantastic Negrito - Runaway From You 

One of the highlights of Fantastic Negrito's recent Son Of A Broken Man album, Runaway From You features a beseeching vocal from the man himself, an unexpected but undeniably epic string part, and a guitar so distorted you'll be checking your speakers to confirm they're not blown. It's the kind of thing you might play to someone to show them what Negrito does best: a thoroughly modern overall of the blues, but with those delta roots kept respectfully intact.

The Yagas - The Crying Room

You might be familiar with Vera Farmiga from her roles in shows like Up In The Air, The Conjuring and Five Days At Memorial, but she's popped up on YouTube singing songs by Slipknot, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath at music school events in the past, and now she's fronting her own band, The Yagas. The Crying Room was written to "honour the struggles of the Ukrainian people", and is something of a prog metal beast, big on atmosphere, epic of scale and stout of heart. From the album Midnight Minuet, which is due to land next year.

We've said it before and we'll say it again. In fact, we'll say it again right now: Our Tracks Of The Week feature is a truly international affair, a beacon of hope and reconciliation in "these troubled times".

Want proof? Of course, you don't. But we'll provide it anyway, with the news that Chilean-born, Belgium-residing siren Dani Hart has secured victory in this week's contest with 36.38% of the vote, keeping a step or two ahead of Will Wilde (Brighton) and Ricky Warwick (Northern Ireland/Los Angeles) in a competition that was a good-natured as it was without borders. Sometimes it's exactly like Camp David in here, honest.

This week, we go again. The details are below, after a reprise for Dani Hart's winning entry.

Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote as hard as you can.

Hannah Wicklund - Mama Said

An early tune of singer/guitarist Hannah Wicklund’s (she wrote it as a teenager with Hannah Wicklund & The Stepping Stones), Mama Said gets a mature, psychedelic makeover on this new live version – Zeppelin/Stairway-esque moodiness, commanding guitar and talkbox solos included. “The pain of being a young girl trying to feel loved at the hands of man twice her age is where Mama Said was born,” Hannah says, adding: “The level of expression you can reach by adding the talk box to your guitar playing is fascinating to me, especially layered then by delay, recreating the echoes that ruminate in your mind when you’re young and figuring the world out.”

Blackberry Smoke - Come Go With Us

At a time when our inbox is starting to heave with Christmas singles, it sure is peachy to hear a really good one. Last week we had Ricky Warwick, this week it’s Blackberry Smoke, and they’ve got a beautifully evocative, witty, bittersweet piece of homespun holiday feeling. Frontman Charlie Starr strikes a lower, more velvety tone than usual – less Rolling Stones rollicker, more Willie Nelson-style troubadour – and the accompanying image of a trailer covered in fairy lights perfectly encapsulates this intimate shot of smalltown southern life, with a festive spin.

Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs - Detroit

A hulking, hypnotic slab of menacing doom-laden noise, with a creepy concept to match, from Newcastle’s porcine metallers. Darkly angular and nasty, yes, but sufficiently groove-driven to keep you hooked. "Detroit reflects on the worst manifestations of male jealousy and resentment,” says singer Matt Baty, “and the ways in which a lack of accountability can lead to deflecting responsibility in exchange for blaming external forces like fate or God for perceived injustice".

Orianthi - Some Kind Of Feeling

She’s been cultivating a solo catalogue since her teens – by turns bluesy, gnarly, poppy… – and played with Alice Cooper, Steve Vai, Prince, Richie Sambora and many more while she was at it. Now Greek/Aussie-turned-L.A. guitar star Orianthi strikes a soulful bounce with Some Kind Of Feeling. Produced by Kevin Shirley, and the first of more to come with her new album (coming out in the new year) it finds her hitting a sweetly breezy yet biting blues rock guitar stride, teamed with rich, sunkissed vocals.

Girish & The Chronicles - Kaal

Big, bruising and choppy, Girish and his Bangalore-based Chronicles’ new one steps away from the 80s gloss of much of their earlier work, and into a gnarlier, grungier shade of metallic hard rock – though they still squeeze in a fast and furious bout of soloing, with a noodly, prog-metally slant (less Slash, more John Petrucci). Big-haired sounds with a menacing underbelly and a trippy-then-crunchy bridge breakdown that made us think of Porcupine Tree circa Fear Of A Blank Planet. Also ‘Kaal’ is a Sanskrit term for ‘time’ or ‘death’, so maybe that explains the darkened heart here.

Little Strange - You Said

Part catchy, stompy 60s rock’n’roller, part Black Keys-esque garage blues fest, the DIY Manchester rockers’ new single is a cool, louche affair with a satisfying layer of dirt under its fingernails. It’s short and sweet – drawing audible inspiration from the wells of the Beatles and the Sonics – keeping just the right level of snap and urgency under the debonair vibes. They’ve got more planned for 2025, including touring, so watch this space.

Thundermother - Dead Or Alive

There's an atmospheric, almost Billy Idol-esque pallor to the opening notes of the Swedes' latest. It does grow into a proper uptempo rocker, but laced with a moody, contemplative quality that quietly separates it from their earlier work (not to mention earlier lineups: guitarist Filippa is the sole original member standing). As the band say: "With Dead or Alive we're exploring the feeling of emptiness that sometimes come after a warm summer and into the fall. We're asking the question of "what do I do with my life, now that the darkness is upon me for eight months?". We don't have any answers, but we hope that our fans can connect with that feeling and that Dead or Alive can be a song for those who is asking that same question."

Bruce Springsteen - She Don't Love Me Now 

Bruce Springsteen's lovely cover of Jesse Malin's She Don't Love Me Now was released as a single back in September, but what it didn't have then was a video starring Sheer Terror frontman and New York hardcore legend Paul Bearer, who dances his way through a performance that's all the more poignant because Malin – paralysed from the waist down after suffering a spinal stroke – cannot. It's from the all-star album Silver Patron Saints : The Songs Of Jesse Malin, which was released a couple of months back and also features contributions from Billie Joe Armstrong, Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello, The Hold Steady, Tommy Stinson, Tom Morello, Rancid and many more.

We like it when the United Nations Of Rock comes together, and that's exactly what happened last week, as the UK's Virginmarys beat out Australia's Sisters Doll who beat out Sweden's Night Flight Orchestra in a Tracks Of The Week battle that was thrilling as it was international. So well done to all of them. Or 'bra gjort', as they possibly might say in Stockholm.

Here are our our latest eight candidates. Please vote as hard as you can.

The Sheepdogs - Hell Together

The Eagles-esque title track of the Canadians’ just-released EP, Hell Together feels like audio tonic for the soul. A lilting, sunny swirl of honeyed Americana tones, its sweet harmonies, Carole King-infused piano and guitar solos flowing in heart-lifting waves. Lyrically full of contemplation on mortality and life’s steep, unexpected curves, its sugar comes with layers of warming, introspective spice. Very nice indeed. Catch ‘em live in the UK in December.

KOYO - Stoneman

They’re smart, those KOYO guys. This latest slice of the Leeds rockers’ comeback record Onism opens on a dark, slinky note before veering into a noisier (but still super melodic) alt rock chorus – and then back into softer territory, slightly spacey existential ramblings and dreamy textures broken up with buzzsaw guitars. Catchy in a pleasingly offbeat sort of way. A cool, commanding ride of a track that keeps you hooked through all seven of its minutes. Clever stuff.

Kelsy Karter & The Heroines - Hotel Flamingo

Hinging on a huge, heartfelt pop chorus – plus an artfully trashy-sexy, Tarantino-inspired music video, starring Kelsy as a drag king with Black Honey singer Izzy Bee Philips – Hotel Flamingo bursts with shimmering 80s synths, guitars and hairspray. It’s sort of like hearing John Waite’s Missing You being reimagined by Heart (at their most flamboyant) as an American radio smash. Coming soon to a power ballads night near you (or it sure as hell should be…).

Will Wilde - Blues Is Still Alive (feat Walter Trout)

British blues singer/harpist Will Wilde makes a striking pairing with Walter Trout on his new album’s title track – a classy, bright-eyed take on old school 12-bar blues. Admittedly lyrics-wise it’s on the pedestrian side (the sort of laboured rhyme and social observation that says ‘school poetry competition’ if you dwell on it), but in any case it’s the music that does the real talking, with fiery harp flourishes from Wilde, beautifully emotive lead lines from Trout (one of those blues guitarists who really makes the instrument ‘talk’ and ‘cry’ as required) and a slick band around them.

Ricky Warwick - All I Want For Christmas… Is Christmas!

Oh god, it’s happening: Christmas singles are officially in our lives again, ready to raise grins and/or have us all reaching for the brandy as early as we can get away with. First up to the 2024 plate is Ricky Warwick, here with a song title that’s so crap it’s kind of brilliant. Think Bill Nighy circa Love Actually, with dirty chugging guitars from Billy Duffy and proper leather-jacketed rockstar vocals courtesy of Warwick and his buddy Joe Elliott. Gleefully corny – but then again, who the fuck wants a ‘cool’ Christmas song anyway? As Ricky puts it: "Christmas for me is a time when the world stops for a day and we can all get off to see the festive lights, take a breath and reset ourselves before getting back on the ride again.”

Split Dogs - Precious Stones

And now for something completely different: loud, punchy, fuck-right-off punk’n’roll from rising Bristol noiseniks Split Dogs, lead with shark-eyed intensity by singer Harry Atkins. “The song shines a spotlight on the people that imply false authority in society based on their job title or financial position,” says guitarist Mil Martinez. “From the obvious traffic wardens all the way up to entitled yoga instructors, nothing burns worse than being falsely reprimanded by another adult so they can attempt to assume dominance over you.”

Dani Hart - No More

Featuring bass parts from Billy "Mr Big/Winery Dogs etc etc etc" Sheehan, the lively No More comes from Chilean/Belgian singer Dani Hart, who was inspired to sing by Axl Rose, and inspired to write the song by the state of the world. "I wrote this song for everyone who's fed up watching bullies lie, manipulate, and call the shots," says Dani. "I'm pissed and disturbed by it all. But I choose to love, to create, to unite, and move forward. I hope this song offers strength to anyone who's been impacted by bullies or unsettled by the state of the world." The song also features a wolf-whistle guitar part, which is always nice.

The Band Feel - In The Garden

We didn't have space for The Band Feel's In The Garden when it was released a couple of weeks back, but they've just filmed a live version and it shows why we might be justified in getting excited about them. The St Louis quartet have shared stages with Cheap Trick, Blackberry Smoke, 38 Special and Rival Sons, and they've just got off the road with Dirty Honey, so they're clearly in good company. In The Garden gives off some classic Black Crowes vibes but with a grating of endearingly youthful zest. File under "The Band Feel? I was into them before they became famous."

Eddie Van Halen. Truly a man who changed the way we think of guitar playing. And yet, back in 1984, it was a song driven by an iconic keyboard riff that would go on to become Van Halen’s biggest single. It also had a fantastic EVH solo as well, so that helped… I’m talking about Jump, of course, taken from Van Halen’s 1984 album. And in its fortieth anniversary year, it’s that record we’re revisiting with a deep dive this month, including an exclusive extract from drummer Alex Van Halen’s new book Brothers.

We also chat to Sir Brian May as he looks back at the very early days of Queen; revisit the Rolling Stones’ It’s Only Rock’N’Roll (But I Like It) album as it reaches its 50th birthday; we hang out with Opeth and the Von Hertzen Brothers (not at the same time, mind) as they prepare to unleash new albums on the world; chat with Joan Armatrading and so much more. Until next month…

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Features

Van Halen's 1984
We investigate the full story surrounding the creation of VH’s legendary career peak and Alex Van Halen offers personal insight with an exclusive extract from his new autobiography.

The Rolling Stones
It’s Only Rock’N’Roll (But I Like It) and the Stones in 1974: how Ronnie made his mark as the new boy and brought his genial ramshackle brilliance with him.

Opeth
With new concept album The Last Will & Testament imminent, Opeth talk about hanging out with ABBA and much more.

George Murray
The man who brought the funk to Bowie by playing bass on Station To Station, the Berlin albums trilogy and on the road as part of Bowie’s D.A.M. Trio seventies rhythm section.

Queen
Some stunning previously unseen photos are included in the Queen I boxset landmark release. Sir Brian May talks us through the life and times of the band’s early years.

The Von Hertzen Brothers
Leaving prog epics behind, the Finnish lads have grown their sound to reflect their lives and outlook.

Regulars

The Dirt
Fantastic news that Thunder’s Danny Bowes is back and on the road to recovery; Pink Floyd cash out; Arnel Piñeda keeps his deposit; Thin Lizzy unplug. Welcome Back Gary Marx and Fantastic Negrito. Say hello to Sacri Monti and Crossbone Skully. Say goodbye to Kris Kristofferson; Robin Guy; JD Souther; Tito Jackson; Matt Long; Freddie Salem; Nick Gravenites.

The Stories Behind The Song: Meat Loaf
I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the ‘it’ is that the singer wouldn’t do.

Q&A: Joan Armatrading
The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a ‘band’, what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela and more.

Ever Met Lemmy?
He’s heard Lemmy’s unreleased solo album, had dinner with Chris Holmes, told Paul McCartney to get a round in, and been told gangster Reggie Kray wanted to have a word with him. He is Dogs D’Amour frontman Tyla J Pallas, and these are some of his stories.

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Rosalie Cunningham, The Sheepdogs, KOYO, The Darkness, The Retrograde, Amyl & The Sniffers, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Robert Jon & The Wreck, Starbenders, and more.

Reviews
New albums from Fantastic Negrito, Beth Hart, Austin Gold, Def Leppard, The Cure, Joan Armatrading, Atreyu, Eric Clapton, Neal Morse, The Virginmarys, Terrorvision, Tears For Fears, Paul Di’Anno, Bryan Adams and more. Reissues from Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, Motörhead, Hawkwind, Talking Heads and more. DVDs, films and books on Van Halen, Ian Dury, Thunderclap Newman, Paul McCartney, Carter USM, Bruce Springsteen, Manic Street Preachers and more. Live reviews of Fish, Rock In Rio, David Gilmour, The Courteeners, Terrorvision, Boys Wonder, Monster Magnet, Terry Reid, and more.

Lives
We preview tours by Sepultura, Balaam And The Angel and Cherie Currie. Plus gig listings of who’s playing this month.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Michael Monroe
Ex-Hanoi Rocks frontman, now solo Michael Monroe picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents.

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK.

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

Last week we described Beth Hart's Savior With A Razor (featuring Guns N' Roses man Slash) as "the most epic blues song of the year". It looks like many of you agreed with us, as it collected 31.27% of the votes cast and duly triumphed over the other seven contenders. So congratulations to Beth. And to Slash.

And congratulations to The Von Hertzen Brothers and to Larkin Poe, who received a lower percentage of the overall votes cast, a share of the tally reflected in their respective second and third- place finishes. If only there were another election this week – we could do it all again.

But wait! There is! Our new Tracks Of The Week contest is underway, and the contenders are below.

Here are our the candidates. Please vote as hard as you can.

Gyasi – Sweet Thing

On Sweet Thing (taken from his upcoming album Here Comes The Good Part) West Virginia’s androgynous prodigal son embraces the 70s flavours that drove him out of the woods, onto the stage and, ultimately, to Nashville. But there’s a pang of his early life, too. From the old-school production to the glam-booted guitars (think Rebel Rebel, but with a more minor-key heart) hippie-fied acoustic strums and Bowie-meets-Bolan vocals, it finds Gyasi channelling his formative influences through a story about embracing your true self, regardless of how it’s received by those around you. He’s been there, he gets it.

The Virginmarys - When The Lights Go Down

When there’s only two of you in a band, it sure helps if you’re both absolutely on fire in your respective roles. It’s a truth that comes blazing out of The Virginmarys’ latest single, a three-and-a-half-minute tornado of explosive feeling (its parent album, The House Beyond The Fires, is a tribute to drummer Danny Dolan’s father, who died last year). Galloping, dextrous beats, guitars that punch and soar, Ally Dickaty’s ferocious yet personal, compassionate way with words… A class act.

The Night Flight Orchestra – Shooting Velvet

I mean, the song title alone pretty much nails it. It’s all there: the 80s-grade theatre, the synths, the guitars, the full-hearted, jazz-handed melody… Seemingly their next album, Give Us The Moon, isn’t going to be a lo-fi indie record. "Let yourself be mesmerised by the pulsating foundation and grandiose chorus of this glittery effort,” the band declare. “This song is about keeping the highs, fighting the lows and never skipping a beat. We shall be watching you from the moon as you lace your shiny shoes. Enjoy 'Shooting Velvet'!"

CJ Wildheart - The Baddest Girl In The World

Now for some gloriously dirty, fast n’ furious punk’n’roll with a heart of pop gold – I mean, what else would you expect of a Wildheart? Bristling with nervous energy, infectious melody and buzzy, chaotic late night vibes that bode extremely well for CJ’s upcoming album Slots. “To say I’ve had quite an emotional year is an understatement,” says the singer/guitarist. “I was thrown off course a little, but I found my mojo again and just got stuck in, and this is the result. I like this album a lot and for me that is half the battle. Catch him opening for Michael Monroe in London and Wolverhampton at the end of the month.

Ghost Hounds - You’ll Never Find Me

A heavy, heady blend of country, blues rock and outlaw feeling – laced with soaring guitar lines and strings – Ghost Hounds’ new track comes with a video charting the crash, and return to the saddle, of a rodeo rider somewhere in cowboy country. A familiar, all-American affair in some respects, quietly fresh in others. “This song is dedicated to anyone who has lost themself in a person or to a situation,” frontman SAVNT says. “Know that you can always reclaim your power and remember to stand strong in who you are. We needed the video to show that when you’re down grit and perseverance are all you need to make it.”

Black Stone Cherry - American Horse (feat. John Cooper and Ayron Jones)

Ahead of their November UK tour with Skillet and Ayron Jones, Kentucky’s finest present their beefcake, bruiser take of The Cult’s head-swirling Sonic Temple-era monster – with Ayron and Skillet’s John Cooper joining on guitar and vocals. “We are extremely excited to be coming back to the UK and bringing Ayron Jones and Skillet with us,” BSC enthuse. “Talk about a badass package of riff rock! We are pumped to have a single out featuring all three bands, something we have never done before, and we hope it gets people as excited as we are!"

Sisters Doll - United

We all know that Australians like to rock. Indeed, their rock-band-to-population-ratio might be higher than anywhere else. So it's not surprising that we've found more Oz-rock, as we're calling it. Sisters Doll (no apostrophe, for some reason) are made up of four brothers from Melbourne, and, having conquered their home country, they're now looking for new worlds to explore with their thrusting glam/aor/hard rock/metal mish-mash. Next year they'll be making their UK debut at Call Of The Wild Festival, if the world is still around by then, and we suspect it'll be lively.

Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge - Madame President

Taken from this year's Wine On Venus album, Grace Bowers & The Hodge Podge's Madam President is so stuffed with sass and soul you'd swear it could only be recorded at FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and guess what? It was. "Madame President is a song that discusses many issues of our times I’d like to see changed," says the terrifyingly youthful but prodigiously talented Bowers. “I thought it was important to show everyday people in our community and how they come together.” Wise words from the Nashville-based 18-year-old, who, we presume, will be voting for the first time this week as America goes to the polls.

What a month it's been for new London band Leadfeather. A few weeks ago they played their first live show, a debut single followed, and now that very same song has topped our Tracks Of The Week poll. If they carry on with this extraordinary trajectory they'll be headlining Download by March, and the festival doesn't even take place until June. Literally wow.

So congratulations to them, and to The Struts and Devin Townsend, who managed to grimly hold on to Leadfeather's tailfeathers before falling away at the death. What a battle it was.

Here are our latest candidates. Look at them. Magnificent.

Larkin Poe - Mockingbird

The omens for the Lovell sisters’ next album, Bloom (due out in January 2025) continue to look seriously strong as they release this honeyed yet rollicking latest taste. Sumptuous, slide-tastic and lyrically commanding, the charismatic Mockingbird grabs you by the gut in a way that feels warm, rocking and introspective all at once. One of the best things they’ve done so far, for our money. Roll on, January.

The Von Hertzen Brothers - Relapse

The opening track from the proggy Finnish brothers’ poppier, punchier new album In Murmuration is a driving whirlwind of big-stage rock, brooding but upbeat sentiments and 80s sax flourishes. “To us, it’s a mix of AC/DC, Queens of the Stone Age, Phil Collins, and maybe a bit of U2,” says guitarist/’rockiest’ sibling Kie Von Hertzen. “All of this is of course served to you with familiar von Hertzen-ian seasoning and a bit of Krautrock sprinkled on top.” If life was fair, they’d be headlining arenas with this stuff.

The Sheepdogs - Handle My Biz

Presenting their second EP in about five minutes (ok, a couple of months) The Sheepdogs’ hot independent streak continues with this gorgeously sweet, ruminative highlight from Hell Together, which is out in November. Sprinkled with moody-cowboy guitar twangs and a beautiful keyboard backbone, it finds frontman Ewan Currie looking honestly at the strange, intense, heightened yet often testing life of a full-time rocker in 2024 – the business of handling his “biz”, in other words. They never fail to deliver.

Massive Wagons - Sleep Forever

“Aggressive, hard, fast... it’s like Motörhead meets Rainbow,” says singer Baz Mills, not unreasonably, of the fired-up, full-tilt opening track from the Lancashire heroes’ next album Earth To Grace. “It has everything to me: huge riffs, gnarly guitars, and Alex's drums are just blistering! Then you throw in the solos from Steve and Adam... it’s got it all I think - a proper headbanger! It was always going to be the album opener, a 100% kick in the face!" Well, who doesn't want that?

DeWolff - Natural Woman

The Cuban-heeled, moustachioed young Dutch dudes find a funky, 70s-rootsy space between The Black Keys and the soulful heritage of Muscle Shoals (where they recorded their upcoming album, also called Muscle Shoals) on this riffed up, organ-whirling new earworm. Cool animated video, too. “Natural Woman is another one of these songs that basically wrote itself,” the band say, “the big guitar riff, the verse and the chorus melodies came to us all at once, as if tapped from some kind of ancient rock ‘n roll well.” Nice.

Mark Morton feat Neil Fallon - The Needle And The Spoon

Lamb Of God guitarist Mark Morton makes a dreamy pairing with Clutch mouthpiece Neil Fallon on this deliciously grungy yet swaggering, soulful take on the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic. Like stepping into a smoke-filled saloon and being handed a tasty bourbon at once. “As a small kid in the ‘70s and ‘80s, southern rock bands were the soundtrack of my youth,” says Morton, whose solo in this is predictably top-notch. “None of them resonated any deeper with me than Lynyrd Skynyrd. Their signature guitar driven blues-rock has had a profound influence on my playing.”

Beth Hart (featuring Slash) - Savior With A Razor

Possibly the most epic blues song of the year, Savior With A Razor kicks like a mule and punches like a heavyweight, with Slash going wild on the wah-wah and Beth Hart wailing as if she's teetering on the edge of the world, about to topple off into the darkness. “Beth Hart is one of my favourite artists to work with,” says Slash. “She is an incredible singer/lyricist on so many levels. But Beth is also as sincere and genuine a friend as they come. She’s amazing." "He’s just a badass with zero ego and knows a lot about the razor’s edge," Beth adds. "I got really lucky."

Jesse Malin - Argentina

In May 2023, singer-songwriter Jesse Malin collapsed after suffering a spinal stroke that left him paralysed from the waist down. Friends rallied around and organised a fundraiser to help pay for his care and rehabilitation, and last month a benefit album was released, featuring contributions from admirers like Bruce Springsteen, Billie Joe Armstrong, Lucinda Williams and Elvis Costello. He returns to the stage in December, but first there's Argentina, written during a six-month stay at a clinic in Buenos Aires and Malin's first new song since the stroke. It's simple, heartfelt, and rather beautiful. "I'm going to South America for reasons of repair" he sings, forlornly. "I'd be lying if I told you that I wasn't scared."

Another Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame has come and gone, and still no induction for Ricky Warwick. Still, we hope he'll find some consolation in his triumph in the latest round of our Tracks Of The Week contest, in which he hooked up with Lita Ford (also no RARHOF recognition) to such great effect that their song, Don't Leave Me in the Dark, triumphed with aplomb.

So congratulations to them. And to Sonny Jim and Radioactive, for finishing second and third.

Here are our latest candidates. Aren't they lovely?

Devin Townsend - Gratitude

One of the most stirring moments on his rocked-up new album PowerNerd, Gratitude embodies that swooping depth of feeling and nuance that, at his best, Devin does better than almost anyone in heavy music. “I wrote this song during a very difficult time, yet the idea of gratitude is not meant to be ironic in any way,” he says. “I’m grateful for the lessons, I’m grateful for the swings and roundabouts of life, I’m here for it.”

The Struts - Can’t Stop Talking

The Struts had a lot of fun making Can’t Stop Talking, and you can tell. Luke Spiller, here at his most Jagger-esque, sings and regales like he’s still mid-flow at one of the many parties that apparently informed this toe-tapping, arse-shaking new ‘choon. Think old-school bluesy rock’n’roll sass, slicked up with pulsating 2024 pop beats and production finishes, like a new-gen Rolling Stones on a particularly fruitful caffeine kick.

Fantastic Negrito - I Hope Somebody’s Loving You

From raconteur-come-chatterbox energy, we now move onto something slow and soulful – in a gorgeously 60s, Stax-ified sort of way – in the hands of Fantastic Negrito, as he releases his brilliant new record Son Of A Broken Man. Talking with compassion to the father who abandoned him, and tapping into the complex emotions that come with parenting, being parented and relationships in general, it’s a gentle, introspective moment in an album full of funky floor-fillers.

Lions In The Street - Lady Blue

The bluesy Canadian rock’n’rollers unleash their inner Neil Young on Lady Blue, with sun-dappled harmonies that had us thinking a little of their nostalgic countrymen The Sheepdogs. “It’s a classic northern take on southern rock, a la Neil Young or the Band,” says singer/guitarist Chris Kinnon. “It’s a song about regret, with organ swirls, languid vintage guitar tones, and a James Burton-inspired guitar solo setting the tone.”

Dead Posey - Darkside

The LA duo strike a darkly atmospheric note on Darkside, all gothic post-punk vibes, industrial-edged guitars and synths. Driven by sumptuous vocals from Danyell Souza, the overall feel lands somewhere between Dorothy and latter-day Siouxsie & The Banshees. “We’ve always felt a bit outside the conventional,” guitarist Tony Nova says, “this song came from the place of feeling like outsiders but making up our own world as we go, and finding strength in our own existence.”

Benjamin Booker - LWA In The Trailer Park

We first came across the husky-voiced Benjamin Booker back in 2014, when he released his self-titled debut – a garage-y, blues punky affair, beneath which lay lyrics about gay marriage, post-9/11 life, erotic asphyxiation and more. A couple more albums, a near-death experience (he was almost killed in a shooting in New Orleans) and support slots with Neil Young and Jack White followed. Then came silence, for seven years. Now he’s back in a grittier, more experimental place, mixing fuzzy guitars with lo-fi hip hop and dreampop haze.

Powder Chutes - Straights

New Zealand's terrifyingly youthful Powder Chutes are back with a third song from their upcoming debut album, and it's frantic. With a riff straight from the Ron Asheton school of Detroit Rock Action, but with a glossy grunge overcoat, Straights races along like a runaway mine cart, careering and careening and threatening to lurch off the rails, then pauses for breath – a moment marked by the audience briefly retiring to the bar to down shots in the equally frenetic one-shot live video – before jerking wildly back into gear. According to the band, the song is "both a full-on party song, and an insightful social commentary on binge drinking, depending on your mood." So there you go.

Leadfeather - Roll The Dice

We don't know anything about Leadfeather apart from 1) They're from London, and 2) They played their first-ever show less than two weeks ago. And yet here they are, an excellent, bluesy ballast in our latest Tracks Of The Week contest. Debut single Roll The Dice is rock with its feet planted firmly in the 1970s, operating comfortably in Led Zeppelin/Whitesnake territory, with the kind of lyrics ("I've got a woman and paid my dues / But still you know baby I've got the blues") that suggest the band are unaware of intervening decades altogether. Another one for the Watch This Space file, perhaps.

We’ve teamed up with Myles Kennedy as he celebrates his latest album, The Art Of Letting Go, to offer this very special bundle indeed. 

This bundle includes a unique piece of backdrop, taken from one of the shows from Myles’ ‘Ides Of March’ solo tour (2021-22), as well as a certificate of authenticity, signed by Myles himself – and there’s an art card for good measure.

There are only 200 bundles available worldwide, and you can only order yours here. Get your copy before they’re gone forever!

Elsewhere in the issue, Kris Needs looks back at the making of Motörhead’s game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour, in an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography.

Bill Wyman speaks about his time in the Rolling Stones, childhood, metal-detecting, his new solo album Drive My Car and much more in The Classic Rock Interview.

Plus, Tuk Smith shows us the old adage that if you want something done properly, do it yourself; and we look back at the blues legend Howlin’ Wolf’s London sessions in 1970, a linchpin moment in the history of the blues. And we look at how Wayne Kramer was the guardian of the MC5’s legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.

Other features include Nikki Sixx, The Offspring, The Damned, Steve Howe and more… Not forgetting the biggest and loudest rock reviews section on the planet.

Order your exclusive Myles Kennedy bundle here and have it delivered straight to your door.

It's been a big week for our new favourite Germans, Velvet Rush, whose debut single Euphonia topped the most recent edition of our Tracks Of The Week contest, collecting an alarming number of votes as it did so. At this rate, they'll be headlining stadiums by April. Don't forget that you read about them first here, yeah?

The minor medals were shared by SKAM and The Quireboys, so well done to them. And well done to those who've made our new shortlist. They're below, eagerly awaiting some ear love.

Please don't forget to vote, down there, toward the bottom.

The New Roses - Hold Me Up 

German hard rock troupe The New Roses join forces with Hot Damn! singer/guitarist Gill Montgomery on this heartfelt new ballad – all countrified yearning, warm guitars and massive, arm-swaying chorus, with just the right amount of cheese. "We tried to show the whole spectrum of rock & roll emotions,” the band say of the song’s parent album, Attracted To Danger. “Good times, hard times, the traditional road vibe, a ballad and some harder riffs. So If you wanna have a rock'n'roll party this record is the soundtrack for it."

Starcrawler - Learn To Say Goodbye

Teenage schlock-rockers turned cool, grungy alt noiseniks, Starcrawler spent their last tour cycle (for 2022’s Roadkill) in a world of major labels and A-listers – opening for Jack White and My Chemical Romance along the way. Now they’re back with their first independently released single, and it’s rather good. Tender yet propulsive, its fuzzy guitars and driving, caffeine-laced beat come with one of their most earwormy melodies yet.

Myles Kennedy - Saving Face

Another riffy banger from Myles’ rocked up new solo album, The Art Of Letting Go – the most arse-kicking ode to anxiety (seeing it, dealing with it and letting go of it) we’ve heard all year. Saving Face finds him in ruminative yet oomphy territory that wouldn’t feel out of place on an Alter Bridge record, albeit with more of a bluesy heart than you’d typically find with Tremonti and co. Catch him on tour in the UK in November, with Devin Townsend opening (two of rock’s nicest, most anxious blokes and biggest voices, on one bill? We’re in!).

Sonny Jim - Wrong Side Of Hell

Independent Welsh rockers Sonny Jim are back with the title track of their latest EP, and it’s a bit of a banger. Once again they sound like a much bigger band than they are, all deep-grooving, thick-set guitar crunch with a soaring, emotive performance from singer Jay Donagh – if Dave Grohl and AC/DC were lamenting the need to put rock’n’roll dreams on the backburner, in favour of paying the bills, they might have sounded like this. As they told us “we're not re-inventing the wheel, just trying to write killer no-nonsense rock tunes.” Mission accomplished.

Beth Hart - Wonderful World

Few singer-songwriters capture vulnerability like Beth Hart. On Wonderful World she celebrates the women in her family, showing ripples of her own, deep-set struggles in the process: the repeated lyric ‘I’m just living for you’ manages to be both hopeful and quietly heart-stopping. "Wonderful World was written for and about my beautiful niece," she says. "As time has gone by, I see that it's really written about the lineage of the women in my family. All of the generations; my great grandma, my grandma, my mom, my sisters, my niece and her daughter. So it's the lineage and how imperative it is for me to see that, and what a gift to finally see that."

Jerry Cantrell - I Want Blood

Flanked by one heck of a rhythm section – Duff McKagan on bass, Mike Bordin on drums – the Alice In Chains guitarist has a deliciously woozy, menacing rocker on his hands with the title track of his new solo album. “There’s a confidence to this album,” Cantrell says. “I think it’s some of my best writing and playing and certainly some of my best singing. There are large chunks of this record where I felt like my face was pressed to the ceiling of my abilities, operating at the top of my capacity.”

Ricky Warwick - Don't Leave Me in the Dark (feat. Lita Ford)

Thin Lizzy/Black Star Riders man Ricky Warwick kicks off the campaign for his upcoming solo album Blood Ties with an uplifting chunk of heartland rock featuring the legendary Lita Ford. "When I wrote the lyrics for Don’t Leave Me In The Dark I knew right away the song needed to be performed as a duet," says Ricky. "Lita instantly sprang to mind. I’m honoured that she agreed to be a part of it. She absolutely nailed it sonically and visually as I knew she would.” Bonus fact: that Hamer guitar in the video is the one Lita used to play in the Runaways.

Radioactive - Reset

The great producer "Mutt" Lange came out of retirement this year to work on the excellent Crossbone Skully album (out November 22), and look, here he is again, adding backing vocals to Reset, the new single from Swedish guitarist/songwriter/producer Tommy Denander a.k.a. Radioactive. Lange also co-wrote the song, which features a vocal from former MSG/Survivor frontman Robin McCaulery, while King Crimson/Peter Gabriel/Chapman Stick legend Tony Levin handles the bottom end. Reset is as slick as you'd expect considering the calibre of those involved, the kind of gleaming, atmospheric track that might've soundtracked a poignant, end-of-episode montage on Miami Vice had it been released in 1985.

Eddie Clarke. Or ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, I should say. It’s easy to immediately think of Lemmy whenever Motörhead’s name is mentioned, but let us not forget that Motörhead at their absolute peak was the work of the three amigos – Lemmy, ‘Fast’ Eddie and ‘Philthy’ Phil Taylor.

This issue we venture back in time to 1979 and take a look at exactly what was going on in the Motörworld at the time of Overkill, an album that definitely made good on its opening lyric: ‘Only way to feel the noise is when it’s good and loud’. Feel the noise we did. And still do…

Sadly, I often have to use this space to speak about those we have lost. And this month it’s one that hits close to home among the Classic Rock team and the wider rock and metal industry. While you may not know her name, earlier this month we lost Michelle Kerr, press officer extraordinaire, and someone without whom so many of the features and interviews that end up in our pages, and those of Metal Hammer, Prog and myriad other publications, would never have seen the light of day.

Thank you, Michelle. We’re gonna miss you.

Get the new issue of Classic Rock

Features

Motörhead
In an exclusive extract from his Fast Eddie biography, Kris Needs looks back at the making of their game-changing Overkill album and the subsequent killing-it UK tour.

Jack Russell, RIP
Alan Niven, the former manager, co-songwriter and producer of Great White, talks about the Jack he knew.

Q&A: Nikki Sixx
The Mötley Crüe bassist on making new music, replacing Mick Mars, life-work balance, learning when to say no.

Myles Kennedy
With his brand new solo album The Art Of Letting Go, the lifelong worrier is learning to do what his record title suggests.

Bill Wyman
WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer… and there’s been much, much more to his life than that.

Tuk Smith
With his latest album he’s followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.

Howlin’ Wolf
We look back at the blues legend’s London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England’s rock royalty, a linchpin moment in the history of the blues.

MC5
Wayne Kramer was the guardian of the Detroit band’s legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.

Regulars

The Dirt
Iron Maiden announce 50th-anniversary world tour for 2025/26; new album, single and UK tour coming from The Darkness; Jane’s Addiction cancel US tour and announce hiatus. Welcome back Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Finger Eleven. Say hello to The Southern River Band and Bobbie Dazzle. Say goodbye to Herbie Flowers, Zoot Money.

The Stories Behind The Song: The Offspring
Inspired by a baseball-capped server at a dive-thru, Pretty Fly (For A White Guy) brought the band a UK No.1 single, lifted them out of the doldrums they were in and set them up for the next period of huge success.

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include The Damn Truth, Crobot, The Heavy Heavy, Cats In Space, Sam Millar, Larkin Poe, SKAM and more.

Reviews
New albums from MC5, Jerry Cantrell, Quireboys, Primal Scream, The Offspring, Moggs Hotel, Massive Wagons, Big Big Train, Von Hertzen Brothers, Devin Townsend and more. Reissues from Queen, Thin Lizzy, Tony Iommi & Glenn Hughes, Mountain, The Yardbirds, Whitesnake, Ian Hunter, Foreigner, Tom Petty and more. DVDs, films and books on Small Faces, UFO, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, Blur, Roxy Music. Live reviews of Blackberry Smoke, Biffy Clyro, Saxon, Pixies, Terrorvision, The Cold Stares, KK’s Priest, The Lemon Twigs, Ugly Kid Joe and more.

Buyer’s Guide: The Damned
After releasing the first-ever punk single and first punk album, they went on to make records with a wide range of musical styles.

Lives
We preview tours by Royal Republic, Dream Theater and Creeper. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Steve Howe
Yes guitarist Steve Howe picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents.

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK.

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

They'll be dancing in the streets of Sunderland as news breaks of Thieves Of Liberty's triumph in the most recent edition of our Tracks Of The Week skirmish. Their recent single, Sick Pup, beat out the stiffest of competition from both Rosalie Cunningham and The Hot Damn! to take home the biggest prize in rock outside the Grammys, so congratulations to them. And, indeed, the others.

This week it's another eight entries, and eight fresh reminders of rock'n'roll's unique ability to keep things interesting.

Don't forget to vote. Because that's why we're here, brothers and sisters.

Quireboys - I Think I Got It Wrong Again

After so much infighting in the QBs camp, it was something of a relief to find that the new music – Spike’s line-up, with Luke Morley from Thunder on guitar – was pretty fucking good. I Think I Got It Wrong Again showcases the vital rock'n'roll ingredients you can expect on their incoming album Wardour Street. The rhythm is louche and swingin’. The guitars are beautifully Stones-y. Spike sounds like Rod Stewart after about fifty fags. Throw in some bright, barroom piano flourishes and a cracking solo from Mr Morley, and you can practically taste the late-night smoke and last orders from Soho all-nighters of yore. Good times, in other words.

Bywater Call -  Now And Never

Billed as a fun take on dysfunctional romantic relationships, the Canadian rock’n’soul collective’s latest is a horn-parping barrel of New Orleans-ified bourbon and honey. “It’s quirky and sexy and celebratory all at once,” says singer Meghan Parnell, not unreasonably. Propelled by some unctuous brass and sax, and Parnell’s standout Susan Tedeschi-inflected vocals, Now And Never shimmies and bounces with old-school warmth and the sort of from-the-heart quality that feels timeless.

SKAM - Rising Fever

Inflamed by some keyboard warrior responses to his band’s last single, singer/guitarist Steve Hill does what any self-respecting rocker would do: grabs a guitar, walks out into a field (mics, amp stacks and drums ready all set up) and rocks out. Thus begins the video and moody, emphatic new hard rocker from the Leicester three-piece. “The lyrics are about all of the so-called 'industry experts' we have come across over the years who have told us to write songs a certain way, or look a certain way,” says drummer Neal Hill. “We aren't built that way, and never will be, so this is for them!"

Marjana Semkina - Anything But Sleep

The Iamthemorning singer’s high, glassy soprano pairs brilliantly with Caligula’s Horse frontman Jim Grey on this darkly ethereal new single. Part dark folk fairytale, part sumptuous, Tori Amos-voiced prog ballad, it comes with one of Semkina’s most stylish, enveloping videos yet, shot in sun-dappled fields and coastlines. “Jim has one of the most beautiful voices and hearing him on my song and singing with him was such a special experience,” says Semkina, an active campaigner against the Russian occupation in Ukraine (the darkness of which feeds into her new album Sirin). "The song in my true fashion is about a dead girl haunting her abusive former lover and gradually driving him insane, something I definitely will do when I die.”

Koyo - Electric Eel

Another visceral, hard-grooving ripper from the Leeds alt/progressive rockers’ upcoming comeback record Onism. Moving between bouncing riffs, heavy textures and delicate, atmospheric passages, the overall effect is like a dream with some jarring twists – the good kind. Like previous single Hooked, it finds them deploying their technical prowess in a smart way, serving the song and not smothering it. “You have to know fear,” the band say of the song’s themes. “If you’re too nice and too naive you’ll get stomped on. The electric eel is the all-knowing god of experience and fear. He’s seen it all! ”

Last Train - Home

So this one’s a little bit of a wildcard, but it’s such a daring, interesting one we had to include it. The clever, suspenseful brainchild of French rockers Last Train, Home is a dark and twisty audio-visual ride, but it’s worth sticking with til the end. We picked up flavours of punk, metal, industrial and alt-rock but couldn’t confidently lump it in any of those camps. The internet has compared them to Muse but this is weirder than that, with its sparse, menacing intro to the insistent beat, startling metallic blasts, the silence in the middle, the slow-burn intensity… A rare breed.

Joanne Shaw Taylor - All The Things I Said

Comfortably more than ‘just’ a blues-rock guitar whizz for a while now, the Black Country-born, US-based singer/axe-slinger brings a contemporary soul-pop lightness with a side of longing to the Telecaster-tastic All The Things I Said – deep feelings, worn lightly. “This is the first song I wrote for the new album,” Joanne says. “It’s about reflecting on a past relationship and accepting your part in its failure as well as asking your ex-partner to do the same. It’s also about how you can reflect on a love relationship and with the benefit of time you can see how you could have done things differently.” We can all relate to that, can’t we?

Velvet Rush - Euphonia

Euphonia is the debut single from Hamburg rockers Velvet Rush (presumably not named in tribute to American power-poppers Velvet Crush), whose mission statement is to "revive the energy and passion of 70s hard rock." They succeed from the very first note as singer Sandra Lian unleashes an unaccompanied, banshee wail before the rest of the band kickstart the song proper, powering it in the direction of AC/DC and an extremely lively chorus. Produced by Eike Freese – who's previously worked with the likes of Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Helloween and Alice Cooper – it's very much "watch this space" territory.

It's always a pleasure to hear new music from The Darkness, and recent single The Longest Kiss was pleasurable indeed, mixing The Beatles, Queen and ELO in an effervescent orgy of technicolour whimsy. So much, so, in fact, that it triumphed in the latest round of our Tracks Of The Week contest in an epic battle with the Virginmarys. Huge congratulations to both of them, and also to the Von Hertzen Brothers, who finished a distant third.

This week? Who knows. Let's meet back here in seven days sand find out. 

Don't forget to vote - do so at the foot of the page. 

Starbenders - Tokyo

Back with a bang and a new drummer, Chinese virtuoso Qi Wei, in their ranks (following the departure of original stickswoman Emily Moon earlier this year), the Atlanta-based glamsters are on deliciously smoky, post-punky form on Tokyo – the first taste of their next album, due in early 2025. All nocturnal smoke, dark space and tension, like the rogue offspring of David Bowie and Siouxsie Sioux, it’s a pleasingly promising introduction to this next chapter in their story.

Austin Gold - Not Enough

One of our favourite tracks from the Peterborough foursome’s forthcoming album, Ain’t No Saint, this mid-tempo rocker has a beautiful melody and a sweet, searing sadness – tempered with hope as it climaxes – that lingers in the mind. The sort of pensive but catchy songwriting they do very well, in other words. "This song is all about the inability to see what you truly have,” says singer/guitarist David James Smith. “When you feel like what you have is just not enough, despite someone, everyone, telling you exactly what is great about your life but you still don’t see it and it’s still ‘Not Enough’."

The Hot Damn! - Fizz Buzz Crash

One of those ‘happy-go-lucky’ rock songs with smart, nuanced layers woven into it (bittersweet melody shifts, a dreamy bridge section, lyrics like ‘I’m a bit of a mess but I’ll be alright’ which are simple but leave a deceptively moving aftertaste) the opening track from the British rockers’ debut is pop rock with a heart of gold, balls (ovaries?) of steel and rainbow-coloured nails. Catch them when you can – album release shenanigans and gigs are underway as we speak…

Massive Wagons - The Good Die Young (feat Colin Doran)

Lancashire's finest are joined by Hundred Reasons singer Colin Doran on this piece of their new album, Earth To Grace, which comes out in November. Doran’s attractively weathered pipes pair well with Baz Mills’ own distinctive timbre, and the whole thing adds a soaring, early 00s, almost Biffy Clyro-esque ‘bigness’ to the Wagons’ signature roll. “My dad always said to me when I was younger ‘I might be 50 on the outside son but I’ll always be 10 upstairs!’” Mills says. “And that always got me, hard to understand until you start to get some miles under your belt yourself, but when you do you start to know exactly what he’s on about.” 

Amyl & The Sniffers - Big Dreams

The Aussie punks turn down a softer, moodier path, mixing sparse, outlaw atmosphere with 90s rock flavours to create something simple but poignant. An effective vehicle for tales of time passing, unfulfilled hopes and, ultimately, a grain of hope. “It’s about the fact that our generation is spoon-fed information,” says singer Amy Taylor of Big Dreams’ parent album, Cartoon Darkness. “We look like adults, but we’re children forever cocooned in a shell. We’re all passively gulping up distractions that don’t even cause pleasure, sensation or joy, they just cause numbness.”

Thieves Of Liberty - Sick Pup

Straight-shooting hard rock from Sunderland now, with whispers of RATM’s Killing In The Name in the central groove and In Absentia-era Porcupine Tree in some gnarly, crunchy guitar moments. “We really wanted to encapsulate the hectic side of our live performances when recording Sick Pup,” singer James Boak says. “It’s always a song that demands a kind of raw aggression that we love to produce live and we thought it would be the ideal single to release to contrast our previous feel-good single - Sweet As Today.” Like what you hear? Keep an ear out for new album, Shangri-La.

Fantastic Negrito - Crooked Road

Another track from Fantastic Negrito's upcoming album Son Of A Broken Man, out October 18 on Xavier Dphrepaulezz's own label Storefront Records. It's part delta and part disco, a funky blues wrapped built upon a distorted guitar featuring some lovely shifts of gear and vibe. "I wrote Crooked Road about determination, never giving up, deep breath, reset, refresh." says Negrito. "This has been the theme of my life and it continues to be. I thrive off inspiration and this song embodied it for me. We might think that our life has serious challenges, but trust me, someone else out there has even more than you."

Rosalie Cunningham - In The Shade Of The Shadows

Proving that psychedelic queens can sing the blues, Rosalie Cunningham's spooky In The Shade Of The Shadows takes its cues from New Orleans and Vaudeville, with tinkling piano, a dramatic vocal playing out over the most restrained of rhythms, and horns that provide ultimate liftoff. The equally spooky video might be a budget affair, but it suits the music perfectly. "It's amazing what you can do with a phone, a torch, some free child labour, a tree surgeon and some sass," says Rosalie. 

A quarter of a million people have viewed The Damn Truth's riotous Love Outta Luck video since it was released a couple of weeks back, which suggests that the Montreal rockers are very much worth keeping an eye on, and their triumph in our most recent Tracks Of The Week joust suggests that we're not the only ones paying attention. 

So congratulations to them, and to DeWolff and Cardinal Black, for keeping the competition lively. Our latest combatants are below, broadswords at the ready.

But who will it be? Only you can decide. Yes, you. So please vote. 

The Darkness - The Longest Kiss

Back with a spring in their step, love in their hearts, the Taylor Swift seal of approval and the sort of gleefully, fearlessly silly album title that only they could really pull off, The Darkness make a bright-eyed opening statement for the forthcoming LP Dreams On Toast. Said opening statement, The Longest Kiss, is cooked up with ingredients that totally befit its name: a winning melody, sweet guitarmonies, rivers of ELO-tastic piano. It’s like hearing Mr Blue Sky revisited by Freddie Mercury, with Jellyfish pouring the drinks.

The Virginmarys - There Ain’t No Future

From sweetness and light to the heavy, guttural depths of despair (in a good way), Macclesfield’s mighty Virginmarys are on prizefighter form on this second taste of their next album, The House Beyond The Fires. A roiling, fire-spitting cry to the heavens, it blends pummelling grooviness with raw, on-the-nose fury in a way that calls to mind their breakthrough 2013 debut, while drawing from all the life experience they’ve gathered since. Blistering stuff.

Larkin Poe – If God Is A Woman

Larkin Poe’s bluesy cocktail takes a cool, atmospheric turn on If God Is A Woman – think haunting hill country blues with a thoughtful, 21st-century slant – without sacrificing the hooky rock backbone that’s made their latest releases so moreish. “If God Is A Woman was written as a reminder to resist the typecasting of women,” says singer/guitarist Rebecca Lovell, “both conscious and unconscious. There are many shades of existence, and we had fun painting abstract with this sardonic blues.”

Devin Townsend - Jainism

The Canadian maverick’s new song references his time in the Wildhearts, and makes a brilliant showpiece for his next record PowerNerd (a satisfyingly 'straight-ahead' affair – don't let that self-consciously wacky title tell you otherwise).  Jainism embodies that mix of new-age dreaminess, riffasaurus oomph and stirring, singalong chorus that’s synonymous with Devin's most commanding work (we found ourselves thinking of Devin Townsend Project records like 2012’s Epicloud and 2016 single Stormbending), laced with the shadows that come with age and life experience, not to mention a strange few years on a global scale. Devin at his weird, wonderful but hard-hitting best.

Von Hertzen Brothers - Ascension Day

Finland’s sibling trio spare no expense on the music video for Ascension Day (the latest sample of brighter, punchier but still clever new album, In Murmuration) – by which we mean they spare all expense, save that of some cardboard and a sharpie (it's a spoof of a clip from Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, as seen in 1967 documentary Don't Look Back). Which is kind of funny because Ascension Day doesn’t have a cheapskate bone in its body. A big, stadium pop-rock singalong, spiced up with twists and dark shades that the Von Hertzens do so well, it's as warm as a bear-hug even as it arches the occasional eyebrow.

Split Dogs - Monster Truck

Two things you should know about the new single from Bristol punk rock’n’rollers Split Dogs. First: it’s an arse-kicking blend of hooky, good-time guitar boogies and ragged noise (think Status Quo at a houseparty with The Damned circa New Rose). Second: there are monster trucks in this video and, whatever your feelings for these needlessly supersized, car-crushing gas-guzzlers, they look pretty fucking cool. “Monster Truck Is about lessons learnt, seeing it coming but you keep on trucking,” says guitarist Mil Martinez. “Focus on yourself and the good stuff around you. Be strong, lead with an open heart. Don’t take kindness for weakness…. You better not tread on me!”

The Wild Things - My Heart Is In New York (feat. Pete Townshend)

Described as the world's first "choose your own adventure" album, Afterglow by the Wild Things was produced by none other than The Who's Pete Townshend. My Heart Is In New York is an obvious highlight, an atmospheric piece of heartland rock buoyed by a couple of clever shifts in key and a lovely vocal from Sydney Rae White. “I loved working with the Wild Things on the music that became Afterglow," says Townshend. "The songs are rocking, but also full of nuances and witty cleverness. They are a fireball of energy and creativity and having supported The Who a few times I know they are spectacular live. Every one of them is so talented."

Säilä - Uudelleensyntymä

To be quite frank, we've got no real idea what the hell is going on with this, but two Finnish prog bands in one week must be some sort of record. Uudelleensyntymä  – which means 'rebirth', we think – tells a story of the middle of the forest, bubbling rapids, phoenix birds, endless search and betrayal. Or at least that's what Google Translate tells us. Either way, it's an eight-and-a-half-minute, multi-part Finnish-language epic that starts off all Stairway To Heaven and takes in folk, Latin music, psychedelia and classic 70s prog on its way to boggling in our minds in precisely the way our minds like to be boggled. Lovely, unexpected stuff from Säilä, our new favourite band in the world ever.  

Every time I hear Thin Lizzy’s Jailbreak, I always have a chuckle to myself over the opening lyrics: ‘Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town.’ Somewhere? Um, well, yeah, Phil, I’d wager it’s gonna happen at the jail… 

All that said, it doesn’t detract for a second from what an absolute banger of a song it is. In fact it’s an album stuffed with ’em – The Boys Are Back In Town, Emerald, Cowboy Song, Warriors, to name just a few. 

It was the make-or-break album for Lizzy too. They needed a hit record, or it was likely going to be the end of the road for them. This issue their manager Chris O’Donnell writes about the high stakes of that album and the challenges that awaited them when they tried to take on America. 

On a more sombre note, just as we went to press, we heard the very sad news of the passing of Great White’s singer Jack Russell. We’ll pay tribute to him next issue. Until next month…

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Features

Thin Lizzy
In 1976, Thin Lizzy were touring Jailbreak in the US and were breaking big. Then disaster struck. Band manager Chris O’Donnell details the roller-coaster year in which they were cruelly robbed of their American dream.

Scott Gorham
1976 was a pivotal year for Thin Lizzy. Guitarist Scott Gorham, one half of the band’s classic twin-guitar sound, takes a trip down memory lane to the year that was.

Jon Anderson
Fronting Yes he was one of the architects of prog rock, and now he fronts his own band. But that’s only part of his wondrous story. He was a decent footballer as a kid, believes in elves and fairies… Let him tell the rest. It really has been, he’ll tell you, a wonderful life.

The Cold Stares
Embracing their roots on record for the first time, “Don’t call us southern” band The Cold Stares’ seventh album is both a love letter to Kentucky and a call for unity in volatile times.

Fleetwood Mac
In this exclusive extract from his new Fleetwood Mac book, Mark Blake tells the tale of late guitarist/songwriter Bob Welch, the man Mick Fleetwood credits as having played a crucial role in keeping the Mac together.

Terrorvision
In the 90s they were high flyers, then the fall hit them hard. Having picked themselves up, Terrorvision are back with their first new album in more than a decade, and it’s full of top tunes.

Scarlet Page
A well-known and respected name as a music photographer, Scarlet Page is celebrating 30 years in the business with a new exhibition of her work, fittingly titled ‘30’. Our gallery includes iconic portraits of Lemmy, David Bowie, Dave Grohl, The Darkness, Jimmy Page and more.

Idles
Dialling back on the aggressive approach that has helped bring Idles this far, and putting swing to the stomp, their new album is intended to make you shake a leg rather than a fist.

Michael Schenker
With guests including Axl and Slash, for his new album maverick guitarist Michael Schenker has re-recorded songs he first did with his former band UFO.

The Hot Damn!
Undertakers, band managers and museum workers by day, pop-charged rockers by night, The Hot Damn! are a gang you’d want to join.

Regulars

The Dirt
Journey cancel UK tour; Aerosmith Call It A Day; Lemmy Returns To Rock City; Nick Mason encourages AI Pink Floyd ‘reunion’; Welcome back Lone Justice and The Jesus Lizard; Say hello to Forgotten Pharaohs and Louise Patricia Crane; Say goodbye to Mick Underwood, Charles R Cross, Greg Kihn, Pat Collier, Dick Asher, Shaun Martin, Carl Weathersby.

The Stories Behind The Songs: Motörhead
“Once we’d cracked the formula of how to work together on Overkill,” said Eddie Clarke, “that’s when we really started to take off.” And it was all thanks to Phil Taylor’s new drum kit.

Q&A: Jerry Cantrell
The Alice In Chains guitarist on his forthcoming album and its guests, songwriting, AI, algorithm bots, AIC’s legacy and more. 

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Massive Wagons, Bones UK, Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts, The Virginmarys, Southern River Band and more.

Reviews
New albums from Opeth, Smashing Pumpkins, Goat, Sweet, The Damned, Mr. Big, Michael Schenker, The Hot Damn!, King Crimson, Skid Row and more. Reissues from AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, Helloween, Dio, Rory Gallagher, Bon Jovi, Geordie, Suede, Dinosaur Jr and more. DVDs, films and books on ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, Wishbone Ash, Redd Kross and more. Live reviews of Garbage, Scorpions, KK’s Priest, Clutch, Opeth, Sebastian Bach, Korn and more. 

Buyers' Guide
With 17 albums in 44 years, here’s how to approach the band who wrote the book of SoCal melodic punk.

Lives
We preview tours by Steve Hackett, Monster Magnet and Elles Bailey. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life
Mr. Big guitarist and solo artist Paul Gilbert picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents. 

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK. 

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

As I type this, it seems that the summer has finally arrived in the UK. The rain has stopped, the sun is shining… Well, for a day or two at least. All that being said, the dismal British weather hasn’t dampened the joie de vivre of the festival and summer gig season as our rock heroes roll in and out of town and into Europe and beyond. 

And it shows – our live reviews section this month is an absolute monster, proving that high-voltage rock’n’roll is in a hale and hearty state. There was the triumphant return of AC/DC, Stevie Nicks back in Hyde Park, ZZ Top, Foo Fighters, Pearl Jam and more besides… We caught Metallica delivering the goods in Norway, Smashing Pumpkins smashing it in Portugal. It’s been quite the month. 

This issue we also celebrate some big album anniversaries: 50 years of Aerosmith’s mighty Get Your Wings, 25 years of the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ monster hit Californication, and more. And we pay tribute to John Mayall, the ‘Godfather Of British Blues’ who sadly passed away in July.  

Until next month…

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Features

Aerosmith
With their label ready to drop them after a so-so first album, they clung on, dreamed on, dug in and recorded a second, Get Your Wings, that gave them lift-off. 

John Mayall
We look back at the life and music of the Godfather of British blues, who passed away in July aged 90.

Q&A: Joe Elliott
The Def Leppard frontman on the upcoming US tour, not selling out, guest appearances, retirement, the next album and more.

Creed
Twenty-five years ago, with the Human Clay album they were on top of the world. But it was the calm before the storm.

Phil Mogg
Having permanently grounded UFO, he looks back at the band he’s led and fronted for more than 50 years, and forward to his new project Moggs Hotel.

The Cadillac Three
Their first UK gig was at small pub, now they headline London’s Royal Albert Hall. It’s been an eventful few years.

Red Hot Chili Peppers
By the mid-90s there were signs that they were unravelling. Then they recorded their masterpiece album: Californication.

Redd Kross
Eight albums in, and with a book and documentary about them in the works, shape-shifting rock’n’roll brothers Redd Kross are gearing up to take the next step up the ladder.

Regulars

The Dirt
Rory Gallagher’s iconic Strat to go on sale; The Record Plant studio to close after 55 years; AC/DC’s Back In Black album sets new sales record. Welcome back Fastball and X. Say hello to Bywater Call and Bones Owens. Say goodbye to John Mayall, Peter Collins, Joe Egan, Jerry Miller. 

The Stories Behind The Songs: Pink Floyd
Written by Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett, See Emily Play gave the then feet-finding band their first UK Top 10 single. 

Six Things You Need To Know About… L.A. Edwards
They’re a family affair, successful entrepreneurs… Music might be their first love, but it won’t be their last.

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Massive Wagons, Bones UK, Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts, The Virginmarys, Southern River Band and more.

Reviews
New albums from David Gilmour, Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds, The Jesus Lizard, The Quireboys, Nick Lowe, The Dead Daisies, Geese, Fastball and more. Reissues from Thunder, Hawkwind, Dio, Creed, Ten Years After, David Bowie, Fish, Ian Anderson, Fanny, Pete Townshend and more. DVDs, films and books on AC/DC, Foo Fighters, ZZ Top, Stevie Nicks, Manic Street Preachers, Judas Priest, Pearl Jam, Metallica and more.

Lives
We preview tours by Blackberry Smoke, Armored Saint and Brave Rival. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Joanne Shaw Taylor
British blues-rock guitar-slinger Joanne Shaw Taylor picks her records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents. 

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK. 

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

November 7, 1979. The Atlantic City Expressway are on stage at the Stone Pony club in Asbury Park, New Jersey, performing a cover of Bruce Springsteen’s The Promised Land, when an audience member jumps on stage, grabs the mic and begins singing the second verse. It takes Atlantic City Expressway’s vocalist John Bongiovi a beat to recognise the interloper as the man who wrote the song. 

“I’m a seventeen-year-old kid and suddenly I’m sharing a microphone on stage with the biggest rock star in New Jersey,” he – now Jon Bon Jovi – marvels, 45 years on, looking back on that night while seated on a sofa in an upmarket London hotel room. “I’ve got high school in the morning, and the teacher just sounds like ‘Wah wah wah, wah wah wah’, because I’m thinking Bruce will probably want me to come over to his house tomorrow, now that we’re friends. I had rainbows and unicorns in my head, like an acid trip, because now I had seen the world in colour.” 

An astute, driven polymath, a music industry lifer with 130 million album sales to his name, it’s a long time since Jon Bon Jovi had his head in the clouds. The singer/guitarist/band leader is in London to talk up two new projects: his band Bon Jovi’s sixteenth album, Forever, released last month, and Thank You, Goodnight: The Bon Jovi Story, an insightful four-part Hulu documentary, directed by Gotham Chopra, who has previously made films about American sporting icons Serena Williams, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady and others, which aims to shine a light on “a 40-year odyssey of rock’n’roll idolatry”. 

It’s a measure of how hard Bon Jovi has been working during his four-day stay in London that this afternoon, mid-sentence, he’ll cast a glance across the River Thames, spot an iconic landmark on the South Bank, and exclaim excitedly: “Wait, is that the London Eye?” as if he’s only just now had a moment to take in his surroundings. But then as Thank You, Goodnight makes abundantly clear, JBJ has always had his eyes fixed on the prize. “There was no Plan B in my life, ever,” he states emphatically at one point. “It was all or nothing.” 

With that said, the 62-year-old hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to be a rock’n’roll dreamer, hoping for a break. At the end of our hour together, I ask him if he’ll record a video message for a friend, an aspiring singer-songwriter who’s ploughed thousands of pounds of his own money into recording two albums, encouraging him to keep the faith. 

Graciously, after quickly checking that his hair is looking good - it is - he does as requested, ending a genuinely touching inspirational speech with the words: “As you know, writing a song is the most euphoria one can ever feel, so keep writing ’em, bud, one of them is gonna click. And as long as they move you, fuck everybody else, right?” 

As he passes my phone back, I ask him what advice he’d give to his teenage self, that New Jersey kid dreaming of following in his hero Bruce Springsteen’s footsteps, and his reply comes instantly: “I’d say: ‘Take the time to enjoy it a little more.’”

Do you remember who John Bongiovi was before music entered your life? 

The earliest recollections I have of the twelve-year-old me are very similar to the me I grew up to be, with maybe more of an athletic focus, because I liked to play baseball and football. I had a very typical middle-class upbringing in New Jersey, and initially it was uneventful.

Your mum was a florist and your dad was a barber, and they’d both served in the Marines. 

They did. That’s how they met. So was yours quite a disciplined household? I didn’t think so. And probably nowhere near the upbringing that they had as children. It was a different generation by then. I was born into the era where John Kennedy was the President of the United States, and so The Dream in America was alive and well. 

What was the first music that felt authentically yours? 

I remember buying the first Aerosmith record, and by the mid-seventies it was Thin Lizzy, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Queen, Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Elton… mainstream, heavily English-influenced rock’n’roll. 

Did punk rock impinge on your life? 

For the big brothers of my buddies, yes. We were very aware of The Dictators, The Dead Boys, Ramones, the Pistols, obviously, but it wasn’t my personal calling. I didn’t dislike it, but it was music for our big brothers. 

Do you remember your first time on stage? 

It was a talent show in Sayreville, New Jersey. I sang Strutter by Kiss, Johnny B. Goode, and Taking Care Of Business by Bachman Turner Overdrive. I did not win. 

But you gave it a shot. 

I gave it a shot.

The standard potted history of Jon Bon Jovi is: kid wants to be a rock star, kid works in his cousin’s recording studio, kid gets a break with the song Runaway, kid becomes a rock star. But watching the Thank You, Goodnight documentary, it’s obvious that you put in the hard yards, first with Raze, then the Atlantic City Expressway, a covers band that I guess was doing good business, and then The Rest who did original songs. 

Atlantic City Expressway weren’t doing great business, really, but we were performing. I was still in high school, and we were playing in nightclubs where the other bands were ten years older than us, so being that young we stood out. But I knew that to get off that circuit I needed to write my own music. 

What did The Rest sound like?

Power-pop/new wave, like New Romantic music, Elvis Costello, whatever. Not great.

You started to properly take control of your own destiny with Jon Bongiovi & The Wild Ones, a band who were heavily influenced by the Jersey Shore scene. 

Yeah, and that scene was inspiring. Because remember there were ten Asbury Jukes and seven members of the E Street Band, so that’s seventeen iterations of Santa Claus who would be in one of the local bars on any given night. You could literally tap them on the shoulder, buy them a beer and ask them anything. And those guys were so kind and generous with their time. Like, Southside Johnny produced the second set of demos that The Rest ever did, and Roy Bittan, from the E Street Band, first played that keyboard riff you know today in Runaway. 

And then you went to work at The Power Station studio in New York with your cousin Tony. 

He’s a distant cousin, I’d never met him, but my dad asked him to come and see me perform with The Rest, and he told him: “The band’s not very good, but your kid’s got something going.” So after high school, in September 1980, I called him up, and he allowed me to run errands at the studio. 

In the documentary, you say that sometimes you had to bring drugs to the studio, and sometimes you had to bring girls. Could you elaborate on that? 

No, I’m gonna leave that there. But that was the era. 

You were there when Queen and David Bowie recorded Under Pressure. That must have been kinda mind-blowing. 

That’s my recollection. I’ve asked my cousin Barry to verify this, saying: “Am I crazy, or is that true?” And he said: “You’re right.” I’m putting this in a big parenthesis for fear that my memory has slipped, but I do believe that I watched in Studio A as the two of those guys sang.

Runaway was a radio hit before Bon Jovi, the band, existed. But initially, when you sent it to record labels, no one was interested. 

I didn’t get any answers from anyone, no. But, in retrospect, did it ever actually land on anyone’s desk? Did it ever make it out of the mail room? I’ll never know. I’d sent it out to all the labels with a handwritten note, because that was the only way I knew to approach them. It wasn’t like anyone I knew in Jersey knew the president of a record label. 

How did it feel to hear your song, your voice, on the radio for the first time? 

I was overjoyed. I remember hearing it on the radio in the car, and it made me want to roll the windows down and drive faster. I wanted the police to pull me over so that that I could say: “That’s me on the radio!” 

So now you just needed a new band. 

Yes. At the time, I was playing a club called the Fast Lane at least two nights a week, and I was capable of drawing – if I’m generous to myself here – maybe a hundred and twenty-five people to come and see me play with various iterations of the Wild Ones. So I get this song on the radio, and the quality of my band members I thought could be better, so I started seeking out guys that I’d seen around. 

I thought that when I got this new iteration together – which did not include Richie [Sambora] – that it would last for three weeks, because I figured that after three weeks this song will have run its course, but maybe a hundred and fifty people would come to see me now, and I could build from there. That was the mind-set. 

With Richie, what was it that you recognised in him that made you think: “This is the guy”? 

He came to see us play when Snake Sabo [Skid Row] was filling in on guitar. Dave [Bryan] was playing keyboards because he had been in the Expressway, Alec [John Such, bass] I’d recruited from a cover band, and Tico [Torres] was the best drummer I’ve ever fucking seen. Alec got Richie over to see us. So when Richie shows up, he comes in the dressing room, and we make small talk and I like his presence. 

So I say: “Well, what are you into?” And he says: “I like Bad Company, and Zeppelin, and I’ve got my own band, and we’re putting out an EP.” So we got together once, we started to dabble in writing, and it worked. Then Runaway exploded, I got a record deal, and Richie said: “Okay, I’d rather come with you, with a record deal, than keep slogging it out with my band.” I liked him, he was a talented guy, and he could sing. So that was it – Bon Jovi.

What do you remember about the first time you played in England? 

It was the Kiss tour, in 1984. I remember we started in Brighton, and Kiss were out with their spray cans of paint, fixing up their set in the afternoon, so that blew away your childhood memories of watching them at the [Madison Square] Garden! One of our roadies had worked with Phil Lynott in Grand Slam, and I was so excited about that. So fuck yeah, I remember being here. I remember Malcolm Dome giving us a good review in Kerrang! We thought we’d made it. 

The old cliché is that you’ve got your whole life to make your first album, and then, like, get six weeks to make your second one. Did your second, 7800° Fahrenheit, feel rushed? 

It didn’t set the world on fire. It didn’t, but we did the best we could with our limited knowledge of any aspect of record making, and no great guidance from either the record company or management. Let’s not be too harsh, it did okay – 750,000 record sales in America – so the curve was still going upwards.

Did you have to set your ego aside when you brought in songwriter Desmond Child for the next album, Slippery When Wet? 

[Sighs deeply] Okay, let me clarify this again, which I’ve probably done about one hundred times already. I saw from afar Bryan Adams, who I considered a peer, break to a different level when he did a song [It’s Only Love on 1984’s Reckless album] with Tina Turner. I’d had four songs that had made the charts, none had the world on fire, but we were doing okay. 

So I was like: “Wait a minute, let’s write a song for someone else.” I asked our A&R guy Derek Shulman, who was formerly the singer with Gentle Giant: “How do you go about this?” He says: “Adams is writing with a guy named Jim Vallance.” I say: “Well, do you know people that do this?” He says: “I know a guy”, and mentioned Desmond Child. 

Now remember, Desmond Child’s only song at that time was [Kiss’s ‘disco’ single] I Was Made For Loving You. He had two records of his own, which didn’t do anything, but I knew his picture, because right outside the door of The Fast Lane dressing room there was a photo of a guy who looked like David Bryan, with curly blond hair, and three chicks. So we write [You Give Love A] Bad Name. All of us go: “This is too good to give to Loverboy.” And a relationship began, and it changed all of our lives.

Is it true that Desmond Child and Richie literally begged you on their knees to record Living On A Prayer, because you didn’t think it was all that special? 

That’s a bit exaggerated. I was like: “Oh, it’s good, but…” To me, Bad Name had more of the anthemic, radio-friendly sound of the time, like Joan Jett’s cover of I Love Rock ’N’ Roll, or Robert Palmer’s Addicted To Love, or Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It. And I was like: “We need that.” And you couldn’t have heard that in the first demo we did. 

The master stroke, it seemed to me, with Slippery When Wet, was those faked ‘concert’ videos for You Give Love A Bad Name and Living On A Prayer, because: a) the band looked fucking huge, and b) every single teenage boy in the world, this one included, was like: “Look at all those girls at that gig!” 

[JBJ gives a thumbs up] Right? Look, if you were lucky enough to learn how to make a record, let alone write a hit song, that was amazing. But now they want to thrust you into this film business? Fuck that. We didn’t know how to make a good video, but by the time we got to that third album we were smart enough to know that: a) we were very good live band, and b) we had to capture that on film. If you go back and look for the Silent Night promo twelve-inch, we’ve all got our fingers up to our lips, and it says: “The best-kept secret in rock and roll.” Now it was time to let everyone in on that secret.

It worked. Slippery When Wet turned Bon Jovi into the biggest band in the world. Can you remember how that felt? 

I remember my parents saying to me: “Now everybody knows your name.” Until then, our parents would tell their friends: “My kid’s in a band, and they have a record deal, and they’re opening for Ratt at the Meadowlands Arena. Would you like to come?” Slippery comes, and that’s the end of supporting anyone ever again in our lives. So that changed everything. 

Did you feel like a rock star then?

I felt like a rock star in Raze! [laughs]

Then with New Jersey you did it all over again, and became even bigger. In the documentary, you mention that at that point you could just click your fingers and get anything that you wanted. So, if you’ll excuse my French, what stopped you turning into a bit of a c*nt?

Each other… and New Jersey. And by New Jersey I mean more than just our neighbours, but our upbringing. I realised, touring with those West Coast bands and those arena-rock acts, and being on the same management roster as Mötley Crüe, that that wasn’t what I aspired to be, as a behavioural pattern. We got lumped into that because we looked like the rest of them, as did all the kids in the malls at that time. But that’s when I was very aware of: ‘don’t aspire to that, aspire for more, aspire to be different.’

In Thank You, Goodnight you mention that you were never into rock-star ‘over-indulgence’, because you’d had some bad experiences when you were younger. 

Yeah, really naive stuff. 

Like what?

Something as innocent as something that was laced into the pot. Because I didn’t have the constitution for it. Which was wonderful, because I wasn’t indulging the way others were. Everyone was doing cocaine at that time. And everything else. 

Wasn’t it difficult for you to sit on the sidelines?

No. I could have a few drinks and be happy. And I didn’t feel the need to follow anybody. If that was what was going to endear me to a group of people, I just wasn’t interested. 

By the end of the New Jersey tour, in early 1990, everybody in the band was pretty frazzled, and things were fractious. Then you went on to your solo career. Did that feel liberating?

Yes. To get back to the joy of making music, to try to figure out why we were confused, because… [in Bon Jovi] we never had a fight, it wasn’t about money, it wasn’t about girlfriends, it wasn’t about drugs. We were exhausted, physically and mentally. So I go off and do [the soundtrack for Young Guns II [aka Blaze Of Glory], and it was liberating on a number of fronts, because: a) I proved that I knew how to do it, and b) I proved that I knew how to do it again – and not only again, but alone. It also introduced me to acting, which was hugely important to the next chapter of the band’s success.

Did you think, even for a minute or two: “You know what, I’ll stick with going it alone”?

No, I did not. I only ever wanted to be with these guys. But after what is now six-to-seven years of being together twenty-four-seven, it was the same jokes, it was the same stories, it was the same meal, it was the same vacations together. You had every right to be exhausted and burned out and tired of each other. And Doc [McGhee, Bon Jovi’s manager at the time] did us no favours. In retrospect I don’t blame him, but he did us no favours if he was supposed to be the grown-up in the room. He should have said: “You guys are fucking exhausted.” But they didn’t, the collective agents, lawyers, managers.

The band’s next album, in 1992, is Keep The Faith. Grunge has happened by then, even bands like U2 are changing their sound, and you’ve decided to part ways with management and be a DIY band, in a sense. Was that album title a note to self as much as anything else?

Yes, to the collective ‘we’. The audacity of us to tell the grunge world that we’re just going to be independent, that we didn’t want to be a part of the new fashionable thing, that we were going to just evolve, and do our own thing. And for me to convince those four guys that we didn’t need not only Doc, but anyone else, was audacious. 

You mentioned your acting career earlier. With that did you enjoy being a novice again, because you’ve walked into this other world where you’re the new kid and you don’t have the chops that other experienced actors do. 

Well, I privately studied acting several days a week for two years before I even went to an audition. I didn’t just walk in and have the audacity to say: “I know how to do this.” But what it offered me, and what I brought back to the band… had we not had that, when I jumped off that cliff to self-management and cutting my hair off, was the humility of starting over again, at something else in the arts, with all the experience of super rock stardom. 

So those two things made for a very strong thirty-year-old version of me. I could go back to the band and say don’t believe the hype from Slippery, don’t believe the hype of New Jersey, don’t believe that I’m doing anything different because of the success of Blaze of Glory. If we come back, humble and hungry, and all put our fucking hands in and say: “Okay, I get it”, nobody’s gonna believe in us more than we believe in us, and let’s give this a shot.

By the time you started work on What About Now though, in 2012, Richie says he thought the band were getting stale. 

I didn’t think so, and the collective we didn’t think so. I personally thought that everything was going incredibly fucking well. And it was never brought up in the room, or in the writing, or in the recording, or during the first twenty shows of that tour. 

Obviously on a professional level, his exit mid-tour, on the day of a show in Calgary, threw you a curve ball. On a personal level did it hurt a bit too?

It was a shock. Nobody anticipated it, no one saw it coming. I talked to him the day before, I remember it so well. It was Easter Sunday, 2013, and I was driving through the Lincoln Tunnel as I was talking to him, because I was living in New York, and I was like: “Yeah, I’m feeling great, the album is gonna come in at Number One, see you up there.” He said: “Can I stay home one more day?” “Of course. You want to fly private tomorrow? Sure. Do it. I don’t care. See you up there.” And then the next day the phone rings at three in the afternoon, and, you know… “I can’t go on.” 

In the documentary, there’s a moment where the interviewer asks you: “How long did it take you to get over it?” And you say: “I’m still not over it, ten years later.” 

Sure. I’m heartbroken.

So what’s to stop you bringing him back now?

How many times have you seen him in the last eleven years?

Well, none. But I was never expecting to run into him, to be fair. 

I’ve talked to him twice. 

Wow. Why? 

[Slowly, as if explaining to a child] He. Quit. The. Band. I swear to Christ there was never a fight, nothing. David and Tico have talked to him once, at the [Rock And Roll] Hall Of Fame induction. He wasn’t kicked out, he quit. And he hasn’t made any great overtures about coming back. 

Okay. Because I feel like that’s not the public perception. The public perception is that he’s willing to go back, but… 

But what? Life goes on. You have to get your reader to understand just one thing, because I’m as confused as anyone else was. If you or I commit to a job, and you don’t show up for the job, people are going to be let down. The band were let down, that’s something you can assume. Oh, and by the way, there’s also a hundred and twenty guys waiting on a pay cheque on Friday. Oh, and then there’s the fans that travelled to see this band, and bought tickets, hotels, flights. And there’s the promoter that paid us the money to do a hundred shows… You’ve got responsibilities. So we went on. It was that simple.

You mentioned the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame induction. Your speech there had one of the all-time great intro lines, where you said something like: “I’ve written this speech in my head many times, and sometimes it’s the ‘Thank you’ speech, and sometimes it’s the ‘Fuck you’ speech.” Did it sting that you were overlooked for so long by that institution, or by the Grammys committee?

Getting overlooked for Grammys is almost a badge of honour. The Beatles or Zeppelin or the Stones weren’t getting any, but Beyonce has twenty-seven? They’re not naturally drawn to rock bands. Whatever. And the Hall Of Fame is like an old white man’s club, with a secret ballot. It was a little fiefdom. So no, it didn’t sting that we were overlooked. We’ve had some of the biggest albums of all time, we can live without trophies.

Would you swap the sales of Slippery or New Jersey for the critical acclaim of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska?

No, no, no, no, no, no. Anything that’s happened to us - the good, the bad and the indifferent - all the information that got me here today, I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

In the documentary, you’re very honest about the issues you’ve had with your voice. I saw you at Wembley Stadium in 2019, and, respectfully - you’re Jon Bon Jovi and what do I know? - it didn’t sound good. But later I went back and watched a video from that show on YouTube, with you singing Always, and what struck me was that you were really giving it everything. Everything. You’re quite self-critical, and you know when something’s not as good as it could be. So to do that night after night, going on stage knowing you’re not killing it, isn’t that difficult? 

It’s so fucking hard. It’s hardest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. Imagine knowing it’s not working right, and you can’t figure out why. It was tough. 

How do you cope with that mentally? 

It was fucking tough. 

Did you have to do something like see a therapist to talk you through it? 

One? [Laughs dryly]. You just have to hold on, and give it your all. So, Wembley 2019. Yes, it wasn’t like it was in 2000 or 1995. Or any of the other times I played in that building. I knew that. I won’t argue with you. 

On a more positive note, 2020 was a very brave album, because lyrically it’s the most politicised, or at least the most socially conscious, Bon Jovi album. Tackling subjects such as the murder of George Floyd, or immigration to the US, you must have known you were going to alienate a huge chunk of your fan base. 

My job is not to pander. My job was simply to narrate. Artistically, that album was very fulfilling. I’m really proud of it.

To circle back to where we started, some of your lyrics on that album were like lyrics Springsteen might have written. 

I take that as a compliment. It’s good songwriting and it’s good storytelling. At that time the world was shut down, and you and I are both home watching television and reading the papers, because that’s all we’ve got, right? And so now I take on the role of narrator. As a songwriter, that’s my job. So I write about George Floyd and I write about covid, and I write about guns, and I write about Trump… 

How do you feel about the prospect of that man coming back to power?

You know, my job now is to stay out of the way and pray. It will be up to the electorate. I can only pray for the future of the world. 

On the new Bon Jovi album Forever, there’s a really good line on the song Seeds, where you sing: ‘You don’t have to fix what is broken, you only get better at coping’, which is a very mature kind of reflection. 

Yeah. We’ve talked today about the various obstacles I’ve faced, but all these punches in the face that you take are what gets you to where you are.

And where you are now? Are you as happy now as you’ve ever been?

Am I happy? I’m very content with where I am in my life. It’s all part of the journey. I’m definitely not the guy I was at twenty or thirty or forty, or even fifty. It all changes. I’m here as the Ghost Of Christmas Future to tell you that it all changes. So am I happy? Yeah, I’m really happy. In Legendary I sing: ‘I got what I want, because I got what I need.’ Which sounds simple, but it resonates. I’m talking about your family, your friends, God willing, your health, and that’s a full-circle moment that I couldn’t have said when I was twenty or thirty or forty. Where am I now? I found joy. 

Speaking of statements, and of full circles, God forbid that a music journalist would read something into something that doesn’t exist, but the combination of an album called Forever, and a career-spanning documentary titled Thank You, Goodnight, would seem to be the things one might write before writing The End.

I hope that’s not the case. And it’s not my intention.

If it was to be the case, it’s not a bad way to exit. Forever is a really strong album, and it’s full of energy and joy and love from start to finish. 

Still got it, right? Still got it.

Forever is out now via EMI. Thank You, Goodnight is available now on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK.

When news broke in early February that AC/DC were returning to the road, there were scenes of great joy in the Classic Rock office. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned in this space before that of all the bands that the editorial team love, it’s quite possibly only AC/DC that unites us all! 

Ahead of their imminent arrival in the UK, we sent Dave Everley to Germany to catch the fervour of the opening night of their tour, and Paul Elliott spoke with rock luminaries Joe Perry, Gene Simmons and Francis Rossi to try to get to the heart of what makes Angus and co. tick and how AC/DC manage to keep their rock’n’roll train rolling. And it all comes (subscribers, online purchases and UK newsstand only) with an AC/DC @ 50 badge set with two exclusive pin badges.

Also in this issue, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart sit down with us for the Classic Rock Interview, we look back at the making of classic Allman Brothers live album At Fillmore East, catch up with Joe Bonamassa and Glenn Hughes as they reunite Black Country Communion, chat with Ian Hunter about his celebrity encounters, and so much more. 

We've also got a limited edition Black Country Communion bundle containing the magazine with a unique, bespoke cover plus an exclusive lyric sheet, hand-signed by Glenn Hughes, a limited-edition Black Country Communion drinks coaster and two Black Country Communion guitar picks. 

Until next month...

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Features

AC/DC
Fellow rock’n’roll lifers Gene Simmons, Francis Rossi and Joe Perry uncover how AC/DC have survived changes in musical fashion (with tragedy striking more than once), and yet continue to thrive. Plus: Classic Rock gets thunderstruck at their first show in eight years. 

Black Country Communion
They say new album V is the best one they’ve made. Whether it will be their last is more difficult to answer, even for them.

Marcus King
The guitarist, singer, songwriter and bandleader on his new album, love and loss, mental health and having a ‘real job’.

The Lemon Twigs
They’ve spent most of their lives in search of perfect pop. And unlike most who try, they get very close. 

The Allman Brothers
The story of the southern rockers’ landmark album At Fillmore East, Duane Allman’s last and greatest musical statement.

Digital Album
Classic Rock and Mascot Records bring you an exclusive 12-track compilation, including Black Country Communion, Beth Hart, Masters Of Reality, Black Stone Cherry and more.

Exclusive: Black Country Communion bundle

Regulars

The Dirt
Led Zep documentary imminent; Black Sabbath to play one more show? GN’R working on new album. Welcome back Anvil and Mitch Ryder. Say hello to Freedom and Battlesnake. Say goodbye to Robin George, Richard Tandy, Steve Albini.

The Stories Behind The Songs: Lindisfarne
A song about death might not sound like hit-single material, but it struck a chord with the British public and helped transform the Geordie band’s fortunes, and remains a classic of the period.

The Classic Rock Interview: Heart
The Wilson sisters’ long career has taken them collectively and individually to thin-air highs and crushing lows, in a 50-year roller-coaster rock’n’roll saga that continues.

Ever Meet Lemmy?: Ian Hunter
He’s mates with Queen, he’s worked with Bowie, listened politely to lengthy jams at Frank Zappa’s house, had bass legend Jaco Pastorius stay at his house, found out things he didn’t know about his career from Joe Elliott, got a song idea from Bob Dylan complaining about the Stones. He’s Ian Hunter, solo artist and former Mott The Hoople frontman, and these are some of his stories. 

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Louise Patricia Crane, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, The Moon City Masters, LowLives, The Hot Damn! and more.

Reviews
New albums from Deep Purple, Halestorm, Duff McKagan, Redd Kross, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Status Quo, Focus, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Anvil and more. Reissues from AC/DC, David Bowie, Rival Sons, John Lennon, Kiss, Joni Mitchell, Nick Mason and more. DVDs, films and books on Dexys Midnight Runners, Kate Bush, Robyn Hitchcock, Mama Cass and more. Live reviews of The Black Crowes, Eric Clapton, The Black Keys and more. 

Buyer’s Guide: ELP
One of the great British prog bands, a power trio and a supergroup, they left a legacy that includes some classic prog-rock albums.

Lives
We preview tours by Manic Street Preachers, The Pretty Reckless and Love Featuring Johnny Echols. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: ‘Whispering’ Bob Harris
The broadcasting legend picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

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When you stop and think about it, it’s amazing how many line-up permutations Black Sabbath have been through in their illustrious, storied career. Of course, I’d wager that whenever Black Sabbath are mentioned, we all immediately think of the classic quartet of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward. But what of the Dio era? And what about that time that Ian Gillan stepped up to the mic? Or Glenn Hughes? Or when Geezer left? Or Bill… 

Or, most pertinently this issue, the time(s) that vocalist Tony Martin took the vocal spot. The 1980s were a fractious, crazy time in the Sabbath story, and this issue we talked to Tonys Iommi and Martin all about it. Elsewhere, Jon Bon Jovi opens up in the Classic Rock Interview, we remember Allman Brother Dickey Betts, celebrate 50 years of Praying Mantis and 40 years of FM, and so much more. Until next month...

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Features

Black Sabbath
Dio was out, Gillan was gone, Geezer had given up. And Ozzy? Ozzy had declared war. Into the blackness surrounding Black Sabbath came light in the shape of singer Tony Martin, and the next chapter in the band’s ever-eventful story began.

Masters Of Reality
Chris Goss lit the fuse on the 90s stoner revolution and worked with bands including Kyuss and QOTSA. Meanwhile, his band Masters Of Reality remain hardly known despite having made some truly great records.

Bad Nerves
Delivering catchy punky power-pop, and having put an end to booze-and-drug-fuelled days-after-the-night-before, Bad Nerves are heading for more than just big-name support slots.

Triumph
After a slow start, by the end of the 70s Canadian trio Triumph were living up to their name. Then came the falling-out, the split, and 20 years of toxicity before they shared a stage again.

Cock Sparrer
Too punk for punk in the late 70s, Oi! elder statesmen in the early 80s, living-legend role models in the early 90s, Cock Sparrer never got credit for what they started. Today, after all these years, they’re as strong as they’ve ever been.

FM
In the late 80s, FM seemed poised for huge success. By the mid-90s the dream, and the band, was effectively over. Then almost 20 years later a one-off gig offer changed everything.

Praying Mantis
They ran alongside Iron Maiden in the early days of the NWOBHM race. But while Maiden shot to fame, Praying Mantis stalled due to a catalogue of setbacks and bad decisions.

New England
With some top-drawer tunes, Paul Stanley producing and Kiss’s management behind them, New England seemed, and felt, poised for stardom. Cue bad luck and trouble.

Regulars

The Dirt
Foreigner and Ozzy among Hall Of Fame inductees. New Deep Purple album in July, new David Gilmour solo album in September. Welcome back Collective Soul, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats and P.O.D. Say hello to The Karma Effect and Shane Smith & The Saints. Say goodbye to Dickey Betts, Mike Pinder, CJ Snare, Brian Bethell.

The Stories Behind The Songs: David Bowie
Taken from an idea through to a finished song in time left over after David Bowie recorded a clandestine demo, Absolute Beginners led to a “functional” guitarist working with Bowie for the next 10 years.

Q&A: Chris Spedding
The legendary sideman and session guitarist on a “naughty” 70s, discovering the Sex Pistols and being an honorary Beatle.

The Classic Rock Interview: Jon Bon Jovi
“There was no Plan B in my life, ever,” he says. Luckily he didn’t need one. He started in covers bands, got the breaks, went on to mastermind one of the biggest and biggest-selling bands of his era, and became one of its biggest rock stars. And there’s more – much more.

Buyers' Guide: Bryan Adams
There are infinitely more highlights in the Canadian singer-songwriter’s bulging catalogue than just ‘that song’. 

Reviews
New albums from Bon Jovi, Lenny Kravitz, Blue Öyster Cult, Paul Weller, Black Country Communion, Accept, Richard Thompson, Joe Bonamassa. Reissues from Robin Trower, Pink Floyd, Billy Idol, Yes, UFO, David Bowie, Lindisfarne, Danko Jones. DVDs, films and books on Anita Pallenberg, Gary Moore, Nickelback, Lee Kerslake, Mama Cass. Live reviews of Bruce Springsteen, The Hives, Robert Plant’s Saving Grace, Orange Goblin and more.

Lives
We preview tours by Yes, Ritchie Kotzen and Deap Valley. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Al Jourgensen
The Mionistry mainman picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents. 

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK. 

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

Had I compiled a bingo card of things that might happen in 2024 at the beginning of the year, I really don’t think I’d have included Slash releasing a new album. I mean, the fella’s got a lot on his plate – a seemingly endless Guns N’ Roses tour (and possibly a much-rumoured new album from them), and another extensive ‘rest of the world’ tour with his other day job with Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators. 

I mean, when would he have had the time for anything else? What I certainly wouldn’t have put on the list would have been a brand new album of (mostly) blues covers, packed with rock A-listers at the mic. Nostrodamus I am not… Slash tells us all about it, and how he coerced some of his famous pals into helping him.

I did mention this last month, but I’m going to do so again, as it’s a pretty cool thing. Don’t forget that if you’re a subscriber you not only get the mag in your hand, but also now have access to our digital edition – and more than 100 back issues! Until next month…

Get the new issue of Classic Rock

Features

Slash
The Guns  guitarist is back with a brand new blues album, and this time he’s brought the likes of Steven Tyler, Brian Johnson, Billy Gibbons and more A-list rock friends to help him. 

Kerry King
The Slayer guitarist on his old band, his new band, his new solo album, humanity’s failure, and the pressure of going solo.

Steve Harley
We look back at the life and music of the Cockney Rebel. 

The Black Keys
The pack leaders of the post-millennial alt.blues scene  have reignited their mojo on their twelfth album, Ohio Players. 

Lenny Kravitz
The multi-faceted superstar has worked with some of rock’s greatest. On his new album, he’s revisiting his youth. 

Pink Floyd
Ten years on, how David Gilmour and co. pulled The Endless River album out of the hat.

Nazareth
With the band’s glory days behind them, last surviving original member Pete Agnew is keeping the veteran band’s flag flying.

Regulars

The Dirt
Scott Gorham reveals he’s handy with a paintbrush and a pencil. Erik Grönwall quits Skid Row, Lzzy Hale steps in to help out. Lars Ulrich and Chad Smith sign up for This Is Spinal Tap II. Welcome back Robin Trower and The Dandy Warhols. Say hello to Silveroller and The Warning. Say goodbye to John Sinclair, Eric Carmen, Karl Wallinger.

The Stories Behind The Songs: Eagles
Life In The Fast Lane was a song built on a riff that guitarist Joe Walsh came up with,
its title was what it was like being in the Eagles at that time.

Six Things You Need To Know About… Troy Redfern
He was raised on a farm; he finds the blues “super-limiting”; he’s a big Frank Zappa fan; you can dance to his new album.

The Classic Rock Interview: Sebastian Bach
He played clubs and guzzled beer at 14, fronted Skid Row and got hit records, toured with musical theatre, has a solo career. “I’ve had a pretty fucking extraordinary life,” he says.

The Hot List
We look at some of the essential new tracks you need to hear and the artists to have on your radar. This month they include Wytch Hazel, Marisa & The Moths, Collatoral and more. 

Reviews
New albums from Slash, Ian Hunter, Kings Of Leon, Sebastian Bach, Chris Shiflett, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats, Lee Aaron, TSOL, My Dying Bride, FM. Reissues from AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Def Leppard, Bruce Springsteen, Thunder, Sparks, Alice Cooper, Linkin Park, Rain Parade. DVDs, films and books on The Beach Boys, David Bowie, Leonard Cohen, The Clash, Shane MacGowan. Live reviews of Judas Priest, The Who, Saxon, Simple Minds, Uriah Heep, Pixies.

Lives
We preview tours by Anthrax, Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse and Toby Jepson. Plus gig listings – who’s playing where and when.

The Soundtrack Of My Life: Walter Trout 
Bluesman Walter Trout picks his records, artists and gigs of lasting significance.

* Copies of the new issue of Classic Rock can be purchased online from Magazines Direct

* Classic Rock is on sale in the UK in shops such as supermarkets and newsagents. 

* In North America, Classic Rock is available is branches of Barnes & Noble and Books-A-Million, although new issues do not go on sale until a couple of weeks after they're published in The UK. 

* An easy option is to go digital. You can subscribe digitally from just £45.49 per year. Individual issues and subscriptions are also from the Apple Store, Zinio, Readly, Press Reader and Pocketmags.

* Save money by buying a physical subscription. UK and overseas subscriptions are available.

Guitar hero or not, Carlos Santana readily admitted to finding his 2010 project something of a challenge. Guitar Heaven: Greatest Guitar Classics Of All Time consisted of a dozen covers of some of the most revered rock songs ever, from Led Zeppelin and the Stones to Deep
Purple, Cream, AC/DC and beyond. It was the brainchild of record mogul Clive Davis, CCO at Sony and co-producer of Santana’s last three studio albums.

“Clive went out of his way to convince me to do it,” the 10-times Grammy winner told us, relaxing at his home in LA. “Three times he called me before I deferred to him. I was like: ‘Man, I don’t wanna touch them ten songs. Those songs are scary; they’re already done. I don’t wanna touch any Jimi Hendrix or Eric Clapton thing.’ But Clive said: ‘Yeah, but only you can do it, man. C’mon, you can do it. You can do it!’”

We spoke to him about the album in Classic Rock 151, published in November 2010.

How did you go about stamping the songs on Guitar Heaven
with your own personality?

These songs are all Mona Lisas, and I wasn’t afraid to go on a date with all of them. The question that most people ask me is: “Did you use the same pedals and amplifiers?” And my response is: “No!” If I’m gonna date this Mona Lisa, I don’t wanna wear the same cologne and clothes as the other guys wore. It’s all about honouring and complementing, not about competing or comparing. It takes a lot of courage to take on something like this, because these songs are perfect in their own way. That’s why I call them Mona Lisas.

Was the record something you laboured over in the studio?

Actually, it all happened really quickly. Everything was one or two takes. What I go for during the first hour with a song is to make the bed, so that when the lady gets in she really likes it. For me and these songs, the only thing I invest with laser-beam concentration is the fact that I like to make women happy. I don’t play for guys.

How did you start the ball rolling?

The first day in the studio we cut Sunshine Of Your Love, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Back In Black. And that set the tone for the whole thing. When we were first trying Back In Black, I stopped the band halfway through. I said: “No, no, no. We can’t play it like this.” I went: “Y’know, at the risk of being rude or crude or raw, we can’t do it this way. We sound like Los Angeles studio musicians, and that’s not what I want. This isn’t how these songs are played. I want you to play like real mean motherfuckers.”

It was a motivational thing. I didn’t mean to disrespect Los Angeles musicians, but at the same time this isn’t bathtub jazz, it’s not background music. This is music you listen to on any level and it’s like, ‘Damn!’

Your great friend Eric Clapton played on the originals of two of the songs covered on Guitar Heaven: Cream’s Sunshine Of Your Love, and The Beatles’ While My Guitar Gently Weeps on which he played the guitar solo. What does he think of them?

Well, I sent it to him, but I haven’t heard back from him yet. So I’m hoping he’s still my brother and my friend. I’d worked with Rob Thomas [Matchbox 20 singer] before, on Supernatural, but this track is really powerful. I decided inwardly to open it right up, leaving some open spaces [sings his own Sunshine Of Your Love rhythm]. That gives it a feeling of ‘You eat, then you swallow.’ Know what I mean?

And it really works, because you don’t ever get tired of that riff. With the Beatles song, we had an intro to this, which I’d learned by listening to the way Wes Montgomery interpreted a few Beatles songs on an album with arranger Don Sebesky [1967’s A Day In the Life]. I feel grateful that we sent [George Harrison’s widow] Olivia this song to see how it felt to her. She sent me an email saying that while she was listening to it she jumped with joy and was crying at the same time. She told me that George knew about me and was aware that I had a deep capacity for compassion.

When you get a validation like that, your heart takes off like an eagle. I had to try and put aside any trepidation about doing a song like this. I mean, the original is a Beatles song with Eric Clapton playing guitar! But Eric’s my brother, and I do my best complement, rather than compete with, him. That’s why I didn’t feel any nervousness or conflict.

There are some less obvious choices on Guitar Heaven, too: the Def Leppard and Van Halen songs, for example.

No, Photograph and Dance The Night Away aren’t the most obvious choices, but they’re live’s song choices. Both of those were a little more challenging to bring to the Santana camp. For me, I needed to make Photograph dance like Puerto Rican women – it wasn’t just a normal dance. So I had to mess with it a lot more, while also respecting where it came from. But, like I say, I like to please the women, so we had to change the bed.

You proposed marriage to your drummer, Cindy Blackman, four songs into a Santana show in Illinois this summer. That’s a brave thing in front of an audience of many thousands.

It felt very natural and normal for me. I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her and, the way she looks at me, I knew she felt the same way. So I just asked her: “Cindy, come over here.” She came over and I said: “Will you be my wife? Will you marry me?” And she said yes. It was as simple as that. The crowd went crazy. It was like we’d all just won the World Cup, scoring in the last minute of extra time: Goooaaaal!

Until last spring, trio The Gems – vocalist Guernica Mancini, drummer Emlee Johansson and bassist Mona Lindgren – were close to a breakthrough with Swedish classic rockers Thundermother, having toured with Scorpions and Whitesnake and built up a solid fan base. But in an act of extraordinary solidarity, when Mancini was fired, Johansson and Lindgren followed her out of the door. Now the three of them are back as The Gems, brandishing their debut album Phoenix, a defiant, riff-stuffed stomper that acknowledges the hard times and celebrates true friendship and determination. 

“Filippa [Nässil, Thundermother guitarist and founder member] decided that she wanted to fire me, from out of the blue,” Mancini explains. “We’ve had issues for many, many years. It’s been tough when it felt like we were this close to really doing big things with the band. I’m forever grateful that Mona and Emlee decided to leave that amazing career opportunity and take a chance on us doing something that we feel good about. 

"I would have never taken myself out of the situation – and it was never a good one, it was always toxic. But now we’re in something where we’re finding happiness in music again, and we have a true friendship, loyalty and a sisterhood that only a traumatising experience like this can give you. We’ll have that bond for ever."

This strong feeling of having each others’ back provides the foundation of songs like barnstorming single P.S.Y.C.H.O, along with a sheer joy in performing them. 

“Our shows are a good time, with fun, positive energy,” says Mancini. “It is a high-energy rock show. We have a lot of fun on stage.” A recent cruise with Sabaton saw them reconnecting with old fans and building a new fan base, something they’re set to build on this summer. 

“People have been super-happy and supportive,” Mancini says of their rise from the ashes. “People seeing us not giving up, it seems like a very powerful message and something very beautiful.” 

Classic rock is audibly close to their hearts, but they say they’re not content with covering old ground – they’re looking to move it on. 

“It’s our mission to keep the rock alive,” says Lindgren. “It’s important to keep the torch burning."

“Classic rock has been very stagnant, everyone just keeps repeating what everyone has already done,” Mancini adds. “It gets so old. So part of keeping that legacy alive is also refreshing it and daring to mix it up, like all our favourite artists did. We did a show this weekend and there were a lot of females in the audience, which we really appreciate. Mixing it up the way we’re doing, I think it’s more approachable for a lot of women. We want to get more women into rock, we want to get a younger audience. Maybe through us they could find all these legends that we all love."

Phoenix is out now via Napalm Records.