ROCK’S ROCK’S FIRST LADIE S – A CELEBRATION CELEBRATION
The Women Who Rock R ock Our World World
ISSUE 246
MARCH 2017 ISSUE 246
Fea Featu tur res 23 She 23 She Rocks! Rock’n’roll used to be considered a man’s world. Not any more. Across a gender-busting 62 pages we look at the pioneers, the provocateurs, the personalities and the politics that led to women claiming their rightful place in rock history – equal billing alongside the guys. Including…
24 The Founding Mothers Of Rock’N’Roll Step back Chuck Berry, Elvis and the rest, these mothers of invention were first, mixing blues, gospel, R&B a nd ferocious attitude to create rock’n’roll as we know it.
32 Joan Jett How a teenage Runaway turned into a grown-up luminary for music with attitude, humanist politics and gender equality.
40 Shirley Manson The Garbage frontwoman with the ‘fuck you’ at titude and an undying belief in the power of rock’n’roll.
42 Lzzy Hale From rural backwater gigging to being the go-to female ro ck guest, the Halestorm singer’s journey is still evolving.
44 Kate Bush In 1978, this 19-year-old Catholic girl from South London reconfigured the rock landscape.
54 Girlschool They rocked hard on record, caused mayhem with Motörhead on the road and cared about only one thing: the music.
32 3 2 Joan Jett “I’d like like to be remembered as one of the first women to really play hard rock’n’roll and mean it.”
58 Chrissie Hynde With her punk-rock attitude intact, the Pretenders and solo star doesn’t give a fuck what you think of her.
64 Punks And Politics From New York folk through 60s psych, soul, punk, riot grrrl and beyond, women have had an insurrectionary impact on rock’n’roll.
70 Inger Lorre Industry predators, drugs, depression, attempted suicide… The Nymphs frontwoman is one of rock’s great survivors.
78 Skin The ‘Black Bisexual Six-Foot Angry Skunk Anansie Singer’ talks about her Brixton roots, 90s lad culture and why she’ll never settle for a safe life.
84 Debbie Harry After more than 40 years in the industr y she’s still a rock role model – and a champion of young female talent.
88 Sex As A Weapon? The Rise Of The Provocateurs Male rock stars have always capitalised on their sex appeal, so why shouldn’t women? And are things improving? We talk to some present-day provocateurs to find out.
Plus interviews with Nancy Wilson, Lita Ford, Suzi Quatro, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Taylor, Beth Hart, Floor Jansen, Laura Jane Grace, Jennifer Batten, Sonja Kristina, Doro and more…
T F O R C H S A E U S
Regulars
MARCH 2017 ISSUE 246
12 The Dirt
New album of previously unheard JimiHendrix studio tracks coming in March… Page, Plant and Jones collaborating on new LedZeppelin book…Bon Joviand Moody Blues among those making it into the Hall Of Fame, whileJudas Priest miss out… RitchieBlackmore linked with Deep Purple shows – again… Welcome backSharon den Adel. Say hello to Mollie Mariott, say goodbye to‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, Chris Tsangarides, Ray Thomas…
20 The Stories Behind The Songs Tina Turner The singer looked back to her childhood for the lyrics to the song that became an evergreen favourite: Nutbush City Limits .
95 Reviews
New albums from Saxon, The Temperance Movement, Machine Head, Walking Papers, Dan Patlansky, Magnum, Black Moth, Rick Springfield… Reissues from ZZ Top, Fleetwood Mac, Gene Simmons, Procol Harum, Uriah Heep, The Byrds, Testament, Michael Schenker… DVDs, films and books on Robert Plant, Eric Clapton, Steve Hackett, Gary Holton, Porcupine Tree, John Mellencamp… Live reviews of Black Country Communion, Fish, Gun…
108 Buyer’s Guide Joni Mitchell On her journey from coffee-house folkie to experimentalist, she has recorded some of the finest albums of her era.
114 Live Previews
Must-see gigs from Anvil, Arch Enemy and Stone Broken. Plus full gig listings – find out who’s playing where and when.
130 Heavy Load Lisa Kekaula The BellRays frontwoman on pain relief, her shoe obsession and making grown men cry.
54
SU BS C RI BE ! AN D SAV E M ON E Y
Girlschool “It was all about the music. If you couldn’t relate to us on that level, you could f**k off, basically.”
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f you’re a long-time CR reader, you may well recall me confessing that sometimes a great idea for a feature or an issue is born from a top-level, intense editorial meeting – aka an argument down the pub. This month’s issue is not one of those. Rather, the idea for this issue – a celebration of some of rock’s finest female artists – came about after we ran an online poll asking people to vote for the greatest rock albums. Only one band with women in its line-up made the Top 100. Which is nuts. After all, women invented rock’n’roll. Don’t believe me? Turn to page 24 immediately. While female artists rule the worlds of pop and country, like it or not they just aren’t as prominent or successful in rock music. And because they’re not as big, magazines (and we’re guilty as charged here) tend to cover those artists less. So we decided to take this as an opportunity to talk about, and to, loads of women from all over the vast rock spectrum, from the early pioneers to household names, to those just starting out. We have more than we could fit into these pages ( Metal Hammer and Prog magazines are involved too), so please make sure you head to classicrockmagazine.com and teamrock.com this month to read much more about the women who rock our world, both on stage and behind the scenes.
Siân Llewellyn, Editor
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THE COVERS: JOAN JETT: MARK WEISS/GETTY; KATE BUSH: BRIAN ARIS; CHRISSIE HYNDE: DEAN CHALKLE Y/CAMERA PRESS; GIRLSCHOOL: GABO SCOTT/GETTY; SKIN: PRESS
This month’s contributors POLLY GLASS
ELEANOR GOODMAN
EMMA JOHNSTON
Our features editor went a bit mad on the commissioning front this month, so as well as the features in these pages there’s a load more great stuff at classicrockmagazine. com that we couldn’t quite cram in. She also interviewed Lzzy Hale (p.42) and Jennifer Batten (p.74), and delved into the thought-provoking subject of rock’s provocateurs (p88).
Eleanor Goodman is the deputy editor of Classic Rock ’s sister title, Metal Hammer, and has been writing about heavy music for 15 years. This month she talks to Within Temptation’s Sharon den Adel and Nightwish’s Floor Jansen for us as part of our joint effort across both magazines to celebrate women in rock and metal.
Emma has been working at the coal face of rock’n’roll journalism for the past 20 years – her fate was sealed when she fell in love with the Manic Street Preachers as an impressionable teenager in the early 90s. When she’s not interviewing bands, she can usually be found hanging out with horses (the four-legged kind, not the Patti Smith album, although that’s been known too).
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Hendrix in New York City, January 1970. Both Sides Of The Sky is “pretty much the last of the studio material,” says producer Eddie Kramer. 12 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
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New album of unheard Hendrix studio tracks And Jimi’s producer Eddie Kramer tells us there are live tracks to come. A new Jimi Hendrix album is released on March 9 via
“Stills was a good friend of Jimi’s and the two of them Experience Hendrix, the imprint of the late guitarist’s estate. loved to jam,” Kramer says. “Back then he was the kind TitledBoth Sides Of The Sky, along with its two predecessors of character who’d jump into the studio and go: ‘Hey, Valleys Of Neptune and People, Hell And Angels (released in 2010 I’ve got this song.’ The coolest thing about that version of and 2013 respectively) it forms a trilogy that aims to present [Joni Mitchell’s song] Woodstock is that Jimi, when he played the best and most significant previously unreleased studio on someone else’s song, became the ultimate session guy. recordings from the Hendrix archive. He played precisely what the song needed. It sounds like Eddie Kramer, who worked on the four albums Hendrix Crosby, Stills, Nash & Hendrix. Jimi played bass!” made before his death in 1970, is a co-producer of the series, The third and final cameo on the new record comes from and believes Both Sides Of The Sky is a valuable addition to the Lonnie Youngblood, a former bandmate of Jimi’s in Curtis legacy of his former friend and associate. What’s more, he Knight & The Squires, who sings and plays sax on a slow, tells Classic Rock that further posthumous Hendrix releases sumptuousGeorgia Blues. are on the way. “Isn’t that beautiful?” marvels the producer. “That was “Some of those performances brought up the hairs on the Jimi’s genius; to sublimate himself somewhat andrespect back of my neck,” says Kramer.“Cherokee Mist, for instance, the artist he was playing with. But then Jimi used to do is scarily good. The way it was set up [in the studio] is session work before he – quote unquote – became Jimi incredible. The guitar provides the thrust, but what’s going Hendrix. It taught him to play pretty much anything.” on underneath – the sitar, also played by Jimi, which adds With the trilogy of albums done and dusted, what the melody – is what’s really interesting. And the sound of everyone now wants to know is how much more the drums is so mysterious. Jimi was a Cherokee, and you previously unheard material from Jimi there is in the vaults. can almost hear his heritage coming back at you.” “That’s pretty much the last of the studio material,” Another of the highlights is a fruity, fulsome rendition of Kramer says. “What we do have is a bunch of live Muddy Waters’s Mannish Boy that opens the record. “That recordings that we are planning to bring to the fore. was a singlelive track in thestudio, and it’s so,so strong,” So stay tuned to this station, don’t touch that dial.” Kramer enthuses. One wonders whether, like many of the record-buying The 13 tracks on Both Sides Of The Sky were recorded public, Kramer raises an eyebrow when the subject of between 1968 and 1970,by which timeHendrix was another new posthumous Hendrix album comes up? self-producing his music. “No,” he fires back instantly Almost 50 years later, Kramer and emphatically. “The admits that some spit and principle behind these polish was required to make records is very honest and them presentable by modern true. I believe that people love audio standards. these songs for what they are “The mixing was quite – compositions in transition. a challenge,” he reveals. “Jimi Why deprive ourselves of Eddie Kramer was using hundred-watt some really cool songs?” Marshall stacks, which All the same, wouldn’t he inevitably bled into his vocal mic. But technology allows agree that, even for the biggest fan of an artist, there are you to take the best of the digital and analogue worlds and only so many extended versions, unheard takes etcetera fuse them together. What’s on the tape can be very much that people can be expected to buy? fine-tuned. But the real magic is what happened in the “I can’t be so cynical when it comes to Jimi,” Kramer studio, which was of course due to Jimi. responds. “Alternative versions can be wonderful. Which “In 1969 Jimi was pretty much on his own,” Kramer Hendrix fan couldn’t be interested in the first ever recording continues. “Electric Lady [Hendrix’s New York recording session by the Band Of Gypsys? It’s always great to hear studio] was being built, and for him that year was very how musicians put these iconic songs together.” much about jamming. He was at a crossroads in his life, and Does Eddie think that Jimi would have approved of all these songs are indicative of where that path would take the posthumous releases? him on Cry Of Love [which was completed after his death].” “I’d have to call him up, wouldn’t I?” he laughs. “It’s Both Sides Of The Sky also features some special guests, one impossible to say.” of whom is guitar great Johnny Winter, who appears on But you knew him well and played a huge role in Things I Used To Do. his career – before and after his death. You must have “That came following a jam session at the Scene Club, a suspicion of what his view would be? which was two blocksaway [from the Record Plant studios “It’s such a strange question, and there’s no way of in New York],” Kramer explains. “You can imagine Jimi in knowing,” Kramer says. “I can tell you that when we his colourful clothes and with that hair, leading everyone worked together he would do so many different takes of down Eighth Avenue, in all his flamboyance, with about his solos, because Jimi was such a perfectionist. ‘No, no, twenty people following him [to the session].” no. I can do it better,’ he’d say. A lot of those [out-takes] Stephen Stills sings and plays organ on two tracks: $20 got left on the table. I believe that that material should Fine and Woodstock, the latter having been recorded several be heard. A live take can be a glorious thing because it months before Stills took it to his bandmates in Crosby, reveals even more about the artist concerned. So yeah, Stills, Nash & Young. I don’t think he’d object to us hearing those.” DL
“Some performances brought up the hairs on the back of my neck.”
G E T T Y I M A G E S
This month The Dirt was compiled by Lee Dorrian, Eleanor Goodman, Nick Hasted, Dave Ling, Henry Yates CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 13
Thank you and good night. Ray Thomas December 29, 1941 – January 4, 2018
Multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Ray Thomas was a member of the Moody Blues from their foundation in 1964 until 2002, and also enjoyed a solo career. Although he played flute on their best-known track, Nights In White Satin, he once said: “I never thought of myself as being very gifted. I was happy, though, to have played a part in bringing out the talents of those around me.” Thomas, 76, died from prostate cancer.
Rick Hall January 31, 1932 – January 2, 2018
The Grammy-winning producer from FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama has lost his battle with prostate cancer. Mississippi-born Hall made records for R&B stars such as Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding and Etta James. The 85-yearold was often associated with The Swampers, a FAME house band namechecked by Lynyrd Skynyrd in Sweet Home Alabama.
Uriah Heep are recording their 25th studio album, Living The Dream, with Jay Ruston (Winery Dogs, Black Star Riders Stone Sour) producing. A web campaign has been launched to assist Cardiacs singer Tim Smith with healthcare costs and fund the possible relaunch of his music career. For details go to www.justgiving. com/crowdfunding/ timsmith. Following a heart attack in 2008, Smith suffers from dystonia, which restricts movement and speech. Veteran US-Canadian prog-metal band Dream Theater have announced a new deal with the Sony Music imprint Inside Out Music for their fourteenth studio album, due in 2019. Their most recent studio set was The Astonishing, released two years ago.
Warrel Dane March 7, 1961 – December 13, 2017
Born Warrel G Baker, Dane was the lead singer with US metal bands Nevermore and Sanctuary. The 56-year-old, who had a history of addiction-related health issues, suffered a fatal heart attack in Brazil while working on his second solo album.
Pat DiNizio October 12, 1955 – December 12, 2017
Farewell to the vocalist, guitarist and songwriter for the New Jerseybased alternative power poppers The Smithereens. No cause of death was available at press time, but DiNizio had been beset by health problems in recent years. Formed in 1980, The Smithereens never made the big time but attained cult fame thanks to songs such as A Girl Like You, Too Much Passion and Only A Memory .
Gregg Analla Died January 4, 2018
The former vocalist with Los Angelesbased Latin rockers Tribe Of Gypsies has perished in a motorcycle accident in his home town of Albuquerque. A Native American, 52-year-old Analla also sang with Shadow Train (featuring Dokken guitarist George Lynch), 9.0, Seventhsign and Slaviour, among others. 14 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Chris Tsangarides August 17, 1956 – January 6, 2018 Grammy-nominated record
producer Chris Tsangarides has passed away due to pneumonia and heart failur e, aged 61. He is best known for his work with heavy bands and artists, including Judas Priest, Anvil, Magnum, Black Sabbath, Y&T, Bruce Dick inson, Gary Moore, UFO, Thin Lizzy and Helloween. He also made records with Tom Jones, Depeche Mode, the Sisters Of Mercy, Strawbs and more. Having studied tr umpet at London’s Royal Academy Of Music, Tsangarides became an apprentice at Morgan Studios, working as a tape operator on Judas Priest’s 1976 album Sad Wings Of Destiny. Almost two decades later, after his reputation had grown hugely – during the 1980s he joined a team of in-house producers at London’s Battery Studios that included Robert John ‘Mutt’ Lange, Martin Birch, Tony Platt and Nigel Green – he co-produced Priest’s Painkiller album.
Last year Tsangarides reflected on t hose boom times of the 1980s. “We [record producers] really did disappear up our own jacksies at that point,” he laughed. “It was all, ‘Oh, we’ll go to Barbados to record the bass dr um.’ It got silly.” When music became more about the bottom line, Tsangarides opened his own facility, Ecology Room Studios in Kent, to produce newcomers and established acts on lower budgets than in corporate studios. He also played guitar and was a member of the More tribute band Exmore, using downtime to run a record label, Dark Lord Records, with Strawbs frontman Dave Cousins. Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi led the many tributes, remembering Tsangarides as “a part of my life since seventy-five when he worked as tape operator on the Sabbath album Sabotage”, adding: “What a lovely bloke Chris was – we always got on really well and had a great laugh too.” DL
Hall Of Fame Latest Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones are collaborating on a book to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Led Zeppelin. Page (pictured) also recently confirmed that “there will be a Led Zeppelin product coming out” – presumably tracks from the band’s archive – that “people will not have heard”. Shinedown have completed their sixth album. The as-yet untitled record was produced and mixed by bassist Eric Bass and is the US group’s first conceptual piece. “It’s about the fight between a person and his or her depression,” singer Brent Smith told Classic Rock last year.
Bon Jovi and the Moodies are in, but Priest miss out. Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, The Cars,
Dire Straits and Nina Simone are to be inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on April 14. Judas Priest will not be present at the televised event in Cleveland, having failed to register enough votes to win a fan-voted poll. Despite having voiced indifference to the Hall Of Fame and claimed that “there are guys on [the deciding committee] that have made it their personal mission to fuck with me”, Jon Bon Jovi described being welcomed into the HOF’s bosom as “that last gre at item on the bucket list”, adding: “It gives me a sense of closure.” Former Bon Jovi members guitarist Richie Sambora, who left the band in 2013, and bassist Alec John Such, who left in 1994, are likely to be involved. “I haven’t had the opportunity to hear from either of them, but they both will be asked to not only come and share the experience but to perform,” Jon told USA Today. The Moody Blues line-up to be inducted is Graeme Edge, Justin Hayward, John Lodge and Mike Pinder. Sadly, Ray
Thomas died as this issue went to press. Hayward admitted that until he had received the nod, indifference was his overriding emotion. “On Fr iday, I couldn’t have cared less,” the si nger told Rolling Stone. “On Saturday, when I found out we were in, I was thinking : ‘Wow, this is amazing!’” Rob Halford still hopes that Priest will be successful in the future. “We were thrilled and honoured to be nominated, so it’s bittersweet,” he said. “ We got the nomination, which is something of a recognition for the work you’ve done, but we didn’t quite get in this time. But I’m hopeful that eventually we’ll get some more metal in the Hall Of Fame.” Meanwhile, by the time you read this, Queen – who were inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2001 – wil l have received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammys ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Incredibly, although the band have received multiple Grammy nominations, they are yet to win an award. DL
R O B M O N K
‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke: one of rock’s most gifted musicians and colourful characters. 16 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
A N D R E W P H I L L I P S
‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke October 5, 1950 – January 10, 2018 ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke, the final survivor of Motörhead’s
Clarke formed Fastway with bassist Pete Way, and brought celebrated Three Amigos line-up, has passed away at the age in singer Dave King and former Humble Pie drummer Jerry of 67. A few years ago the guitarist joked about being on so Shirley. The intention was to make a record that sounded many pills he “rattled like a tin of Smarties” when walking like it came from the 1970s, but Way disappeared without down the street, but few outside of family and friends knew warning before a note could be recorded in earnest. that he had been hospitalised for pneumonia. Fastway signed to Epic Records, and hired Eddie Kramer Although it hadn’t been his intention to do so, in 1982 (Hendrix, Humble Pie, Zeppelin) to produce their first two Clarke departed his beloved Motörhead following a bone of albums, the first of which took off in America in a big way. contention: Lemmy had decided to hook up with Plasmatics “Eddie was a great guitar player with wonderful feel, and that singer Wendy O Williams for a remake of Tammy Wynette’s first Fastway album just rocked,” Kramer tells Classic Rock. “The Stand By Your Man as a solo single. Recounting the Midwest of America dug the shit out of it, largely tale almost 20 years later, Clarke was still livid. because of Eddie’s riffs. He could play them fast or “That Wendy O Williams thing was a piece of MUSICIANS slow and they were instantaneously memorable.” shit and we shouldn’t have done it, because the Iron When Dave King quit after a third album, Waiting PAY TRIBUTE Fist album hadn’t gone down well and the tour had For The Roar , Clarke replaced him with Lea Hart, but Eddie will be been a disaster,” he told Classic Rock. “We needed had less and less to do with the group’s albums. He remembered for his credibility, not another fucking joke. Lemmy even was undergoing a successful spell in rehab – after iconic riffs and was suggested crediting it to Motörhead and Wendy having woken up one morning to find he’d been a true rock’n’roller. Phil Campbell O Williams, with a disclaimer that it had nothing to coughing up blood. He never touched a drop again do with ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke – well, that really fucking – when they made Bad Bad Girls in 1990. ‘Fast’ Eddie… keep did me. It wasn’t about me, it was about Motör“In a lot of ways my drinking wrecked my career,” roaring, rockin’ and rollin’ up there. fucking-head.” Clarke volunteered when he relaunched Fastway Goddamit man, your The bottom line was that despite offering to finish in 2007 with former Little Angels frontman Toby Motörfamily would the band’s US tour in the hope that the wounds Jepson. By then he had released a solo album, It Ain’t expect nothing less! Mikkey Dee would heal, Clarke walked away from the band he’d Over Till It’s Over , in 1993, and made several guest put the best six and a half years of his life into. Clarke appearances at Motörhead gigs. Eddie will be greatly had hoped to be a member of Motörhead till the end Four years later, Clarke and Jepson made missed, but he’s gone to join Phil and Lemmy. of his days, but it wasn’t to be. a Fastway album, Eat Dog Eat, but the guitarist was We have great “I don’t think Philthy ever got over being ‘let infuriated when Jepson opted to reunite Little memories of our go’ by Motörhead,” Clarke told me at the time of Angels instead of touring the oddly titled record. times with him. drummer Phil ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor’s passing. “I saw a few songs of theirs [Little Angels] at Saxon “It left him very bitter and twisted. I know because Donington – what a joke,” Clarke fumed in Classic I wonder if Eddie ever I experienced something very similar.” Rock. “They’re a fucking pop band. Get a grip, mate. really knew just how Clarke was born in Twickenham, and by the There’s men and there’s boys.” great he was? Love and respect. age of 15 had been through several local groups, Asked whether that comment was off the record, Enid Williams, including the Bitter End. He turned professional in Clarke fired back: “No, fucking print it. He needs to Girlschool 1973 by working with former Hendrix associate be fucking told. We could’ve toured the world.” Of Eddie was a giant of Curtis Knight in the group Zeus, before joining course, other factors had contributed to Jepson’s a man, an old-school a bunch of musos in Blue Goose. He quit before the decision not to continue with Fastway, but that was player who literally release of that band’s self-titled album in ’74. Clarke to a tee – confrontational, outspoken and changed the musical landscape with his After his next project, Continuous Performance, fiery, and bollocks to the consequences. incendiary riffs. failed to take off, Clarke had almost given up on the In the summer of 2014, just as Clarke was about Not many can truly music business, when the chance to earn a few quid to turn 65, he gave a raw-to-the-bone and darkly say that. Toby Jepson by painting a houseboat in Battersea came along. humorous interview about the process of growing There he met Taylor, who offered him the chance older, admitting: “I’ve wasted a lot of my life not I bought my first to audition for his band, the fledgling Motörhead. playing. I look back and think: ‘Fuck me, what was Marshall amp from It went well, although their guitarist Larry Wallis Fast Eddie. It was I doing in the 1990s?’ That’s why I’ve made this fucked. I never had wasn’t keen on adding a second guitarist. album [Eat Dog Eat].” another Marshall that “Then one Saturday afternoon there was a knock Clarke and Jepson reconnected at the Classic sounded as good. on the door and Lemmy was standing there,” Clarke Ginger Wildheart Rock Awards on November 10 the following year, recalled years later. “He gave me this fucking bullet which was an emotional. ‘Fast’ Eddie and Lemmy belt and leather jacket and said: ‘You’re in.’ Larry had engaged in a long, concerned discussion about the quit and I had my uniform!” ailing Philthy, who would die the following day. Six weeks Times were sometimes tough but Lemmy, ‘Philthy later Lemmy himself was gone. Animal’ and ‘Fast’ Eddie (the guitarist’s alter ego was coined Jepson was back at the mic when Fastway toured as guests by Lemmy. Clarke hated it at first but soon grew to love of Saxon in late 2016, and the audience each night went mad it) soon undertook all manner of speed and Special Brew when Clarke joined the headliners to perform Ace Of Spades. fuelled adventures with Motörhead. These included drug “Eddie was already suffering with his lung complaint, but busts, record-breakingly loud gigs, fist fights, a broken neck it was incredible to watch those audiences react,” Jepson says. (suffered by Taylor) and even a chart-topping UK album in “It was especially poignant as Lemmy hadn’t long passed 1981 with the live No Sleep ’Til Hammersmith. Lemmy himself away, and I’m certain he was doing the tour partly for his old would later declare No Sleep a blessing and a curse, admitting: mate and above all the fans.” “You can never follow a live album that goes straight in at Rock music is all the poorer for the loss of ‘Fast’ Eddie number one. What are you gonna do, put out another one?” Clarke, one its most gifted musicians and colourful After Clarke left, Lemmy and Philthy brought in former characters. If the Three Amigos really are now reunited Thin Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson. somewhere, God help the neighbours. DL
Steve Howe has cautiously hinted to Billboard that Yes are contemplating recording new material in this, their 50th anniversary year. “Maybe we’re building up repertoire for a future project,” the guitarist suggested. “We’ve got ideas, but I can’t say more right now.”
Riches from the rock underground LINDA HOYLE Pieces Of Me, Vertigo, UK, 1971, £1,100 Perhaps best known for her work with jazz-rock/pop greats Affinity, singer Linda Hoyle is a largely unsung British artist. After her departure from Affinity in early 1971, manager Ronnie Scott instigated a collaboration with Karl Jenkins (then of Nucleus, later of Soft Machine), which led to Pieces Of Me. The album – now one of the rarest Vertigo releases – is a reflective album of twists and turns, seemingly documenting a turning point in Hoyle’s life. Unfortunately it would prove to be her swan song as a recording artist, at least until 2015’s excellent comeback album The Fetch. The album begins with a strong rendition of Backlash Blues, previously recorded and co-written by Nina Simone, which is followed by the beautifully crafted love ballad Paper Tulips.
‘The rip-roaring title track seems to blast out of nowhere.’ While the performances are striking and the quality of compositions outstanding throughout, there’s perhaps too much variation. Black Crow is a fantastic pop-rocker, but it’s the riproaring title track that will be of most interest to hard rock fans. It seems to blast out of nowhere with manic wah-wah guitar (by Chris Spedding), fuzz bass, distorted organ, pounding drums and energetic vocals. One can only wonder how great an entire album of such mayhem would have been. Elsewhere there are melancholic piano and vocal tracks alongside orchestral moments, best exemplified by the beautiful Journey’s End. LD 18
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Andi Deris, current lead vocalist with Helloween, says it would be “a dream come true” for the band to make a studio record with Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen, the band’s former singer and guitarist. This expanded line-up have been attracting rave reviews for a tour billed as Pumpkins United, the US leg of which wraps in New York on September 15. Rising prog-rockers Big Big Train have parted amicably with bassist Andy Poole, who has been in every incarnation of the band since their formation in 1990. BBT will continue as a seven-piece.
Within Temptation They’re among the biggest symphonic metallers around, but that style wasn’t singer Sharon den Adel’s first love. Sharon Den Adel formed Within
Temptation with her par tner Robert Westerholt in the Netherlands dur ing the early 90s while still in high school. Taking inspiration from Paradise Lost and Dead Can Dance, they helped pioneer the symphonic metal genre alongside bands such as Nightwish, mixing big, bombastic riffs with operatic vocals and grand orchestration. In 2011, Westerholt ceased touring with the band to spend more time at home with their three children. Within Temptation have released six albums and Den Adel has just launched her solo project, My Indigo.
At that time it wasn’t normal to ask a female to sing, and I wasn’t an obvious choice. But by doing that you stood out, and it became a di fferent sound that became a genre by itself.
Do you think you helped pave the way for other female vocalists? I think if something becomes a success, and people like a certain kind of music, you get a spin-off from that again from a new generation every time, so yes. But it was not a conscious goal. When you like something, you wanna have more of it.
“My biggest ambition is still to write the best song that I can.”
Despite Ian Gillan and Ian Paice opposing the idea, Candice Night has repeated the claim that Ritchie Blackmore (pictured), her husband, “would be willing to perform a couple of concerts” with Deep Purple before the band call it quits. The Man In Black, who returned to the rock stage with Rainbow in 2016, has not played with Purple since leaving in 1993. Congratulations to Ringo Starr and Bee Gees singer Barry Gibb who received knighthoods in last month’s New Year’s honours list for their services to music.
What was it like being a pioneer of symphonic metal? You don’t realise when you’re doing it, you just follow your instinct. There were some other bands doing the same thi ng, and I think they had the same feeling that was in the air. It’s also very interesting that it was at different places – Nightwish was in Finland, and we were in the Netherlands. It developed so far from each other, and yet you had more or less the same kind of inspiration. But it was an exciting period.
What is it about symphonic metal that enables so many strong female figures to shine through? I think it was a natural development, in a way. I think also t hat sometimes things come together by coincidence. I was more into alternative and grunge before I started Within Temptation. But when I got introduced to the music that Robert was making at the time with [his former band] The Circle, I totally fell in love with it. It was just by coincidence that I became his girlfr iend and that I got introduced to it, and he wanted me to be a lead singer. If that hadn’t have happened it might have been a guy who sang.
What has been your career high point? The shows we’ve done in the big arenas, like Elements [2012] and Black Symphony [2008]. We were celebrating each time a highlight of our career, and making a new highlight for ourselves by introducing theatre, like people on stilts, special effects and an orchestra. That’s the best show you could get from Within Temptation.
You have a fashion degre e, and help shape the band’s visuals. Do you feel transformed by your stage outfits ? I do. I don’t really need them, but they make me feel more confident, as i f you were going to a big party and you put your most beautiful dress on. What’s your biggest ambition? It’s still to write the best song ever that I could. Because that’s the drive, of course, thinking: “I can do better.” The song I love most so far is Faster , because it has a certain kind of sexiness to it. Does it make me feel sexy when I sing it? Of course! It ’s a very sensual song. EG My Indigo’s self-titled debut is released on April 20 via BMG/MVKA. Within Temptation play U K dates in November.
R I T C H I E B L A C K M O R E : K E V I N N I X O N ; W I T H I N T E M P T A T I O N : P T R I C U L L A E S
“I’m a massive grunge kid. Pearl Jam, Temple Of The Dog, anything by Soundgarden.”
Mollie Marriott Her debut album began with a breakdown. Now this chip-off-the-old-block is on the up.
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down, as a backing singer sharing stages with Oasis, The Who, Robert Plant, Paul Weller. “All the great rock stars, I’ve never seen an ego,” she says. “Then someone’s been on fucking The X Factor for fifteen minutes and all of a sudden they think they’re the hottest shit in the world.” Few would dispute that Marriott deserves to make her debut album. The funny thing about hitting rock bottom, Mollie Marriott reflects, is that there’s often inspiration down there in the dark. “It was what’s If you’re expecting Small Faces-lite, Truth Is A Wolf sets you straight, it’s known in my family as the epic crash of 2012,” the singer sighs. “I lost slinking, string-bolstered alt.rock more in thrall to the 90s. “I had rock and friends to suicide. I lost my relationship. I became incredibly ill, had a major blues from my dad, country and gospel from my stepdad, opera from my operation. It got to the point where I needed to write as an escape. mum,” she says, “but I’m a massive grunge kid. Pearl Jam, Temple FOR FANS OF... Then a friend said: ‘You’ve got to release this. Let everybody hear Of The Dog, anything by Soundgarden.” your voice.’” As well as that head-turning singing voice, there’s an honesty The beautiful, bruised vocals that Marriott unveils on her debut to Marriott’s lyric writing that marks her out. “ Transformer is about album Truth Is A Wolf sound like a much-needed release valve. how I’d transform myself to fit what I thought a partner would But she spent some years swallowing it down. She was just six want,” she explains. “Run With The Hounds is about the music when her father, Small Faces icon Steve Marriott, died in 1991. industry. I’ve already had to legally remove myself from a record And though her upbringing with adored stepfather Joe Brown company. It’s been a bloody nightmare! Fortunate Fate and Give Me “My favourite album was glamorous, she saw the price of fame. “Waking up, coming A Reason, I really cried as I was recording them. By the eighth time, of all time – and a huge downstairs and seeing Alvin Lee, George Harrison, Jon Lord sat our drummer Alex, says: ‘Y’know, Molls, this is all very sweet, but inspiration – has to be there in the kitchen, that wouldn’t phase me. But some of the it’s really starting to piss me off now – can we just get on with it?’” Jagged Little Pill by Alanis Morissette. It things they went through, I saw it all and it frightened me – for She cackles uproariously, and somehow you know she’s going always will be. That a long time. I saw all the bad sides of fame.” to be just fine. “To write the kind of stuff I wanted to write,” she album will carry me Marriott got a record deal when she was just 12, but when that considers, “I needed to live a little and experience life. And Lord through my entire career. I loved how wrapped up when she was 17 she resisted the inevitable (“I tried knows I did that.” HY raw she was with her hairdressing, make-up, being a chef, dental nursing for three writing, the frustration Truth Is A Wolf is out now via Amadeus Music. years…”). Even when she embraced music she kept her head and aggression. She wasn’t afraid to tell it like it was. That’s what I took from that album.”
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T H E S TO R I ES B EH I N D T H E S O N G S
Tina Turner Nutbush City Limits Suffering mentally and physically at the hands of an abusive husband, the singer looked back to her childhood days for the lyrics to the song that was her declaration of artistic independence. Words: Nick Hasted
NUTBUSH ROCK CITY
The lead guitar on Nutbush City Limits was such a glamfriendly sound in 1973’s charts that rumours quickly spread that it was Marc Bolan. Current consensus is that the pair’s band member James ‘Bino’ Lewis played it. The song’s obvious rock credentials were more definitively acknowledged when Bob Seger covered it on his 1975 album Beautiful Loser . It is also on his 1976 live double-album Live Bullet . Brian Johnson also knew what a tough, strutting rock showstopper Nutbush could be, and sang it when he auditioned (successfully) for AC/DC. Tina re-recorded the song several times in the 80s and 90s, when her manager admitted that she’d never really liked the AOR hits he picked for her. Tina longed instead to make a real rock album, in the style of early AC/DC.
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ina Turner came home to a pimp’s paradise: the new sofa was blue velvet with octopus arms, the coffee table guitar-shaped, the kitchen all bilious green. There was a waterfall, and the bedroom now had a mirrored ceiling so her husband and brutal Svengali Ike Turner could better admire the countless mistresses and one-night stands he brought back to his and Tina’s marital pad in LA’s Inglewood suburb. Tina hadn’t been around to question Ike’s interior decoration ideas – even if she’d dared – because the ruthless workrate her husband demanded of the Ike And Tina Turner Revue in order to pay for his excesses had finally hospitalised her. Due to her being forced on stage each night despite clearly deteriorating health, bronchitis had become pneumonia, which led to tuberculosis, a collapsed right lung and infected legs. The 70s had also seen Ike’s always violently abusive behaviour get worse rapidly, and extend to the Bolic Sound Studio and live-in apartment he bought. Tina recalled Ike consuming “cocaine like wine, and all of a sudden there were guns under the control board. It was like living in hell’s domain”. And all this was in addition to the violence which had begun when the shy, charismatic man who had become 17-year-old Anna Mae Bullock’s musical partner in 1956 decided they would be lovers, and married the woman he renamed Tina in 1962. By the 70s, she recalled her jaw being permanently bruised and her inner lip cut up from his punches. She was “brainwashed”, she later believed. Her nightmare parody of suburban domestic bliss required her to treat Ike like a “king” while looking after their four children, and the musical life which once so inspired her wasn’t much better. On stage, the once blisteringly exciting Ike And Tina Turner Revue could now be a sad, exhausted spectacle. With her domestic life a waking nightmare in 1973, it’s perhaps no surprise that Tina’s thoughts turned to her childhood home in Nutbush,
Tennessee. Calling it a ‘city’ in the lyrics he railed to Blues & Soul magazine’s John she sat down to write was ironic. Nutbush Abbey in 1971. “I find it really disgusting was an insignificant flyspeck, too small to when I hear that… I’m trying to make appear on most state maps. Anna Mae’s a blend between my horns and the rock 1940s childhood there had been spent sound of a small group.” hearing country and blues on the radio, For all his manifold personal faults, singing in church, and picking cotton on Nutbush City Limits Ike was the perfect with her father. Although they weren’t musical foil for Tina’s lyrics (although dirt-poor like their neighbours, Nutbush she got sole songwriting credit). It was anything but a nostalgic memory for begins with a dirty, fuzzed-up, catTina. “Cotton. I hated it,” she spat in an scratch rhythm guitar riff. The Revue’s 80s documentary. “That’s the one thing brass add urban swagger as Tina makes that made me change my life. I knew her delayed entrance, singing at her I couldn’t do that.” most grittily incisive as she lists her Nutbush City Limits, the first self-written home town’s minimal charms. “I used song Tina ever recorded, is steeped in a G tuning on Nutbush City Limits that this ambiguous sentiment. ‘Limits’ is I learned from Keith Richards when the key word, as she artfully sketches Tina and I opened for the Rolling a circumscribed life: ‘ A church house, gin Stones in 1969,” Ike recalled of his first house, a school house, outhouse/On highway instrumental contribution. His other was number nineteen, the people keep the city a wild, bucking Moog synthesiser solo clean…/Twenty-one was the speed limit, motorcycles not allowed ‘For all his manifold personal in it/You go to the store on Friday, you go to faults, on Nutbush City Limits church on Sunday…’ Ike was the perfect musical This ‘little ol’ town’ sounds more like foil for Tina’s lyrics.’ somewhere to escape than like a rural idyll. More to the point, having sunk back into only slightly less memorable than the her deepest memories to write it, Tina’s Osmonds’ Crazy Horses the previous year first lyric was perfect. (Ike had already experimented with the She had already begun to assert her synth on his 1972 LP Strange Fruit). tastes in the 70s, suggesting what became Nutbush City Limits was Ike & Tina hit covers of The Beatles’ Come Together and Turner’s final smash hit, reaching No.4 in Creedence’sProud Mary. “I just find R&B the UK and No.22 in the US. Tina wrote so depressing,” she told Charles Shaar four other lyrics on the less successful Murray in the 80s. “I wanna be up!… album of the same name, including Club I always knew I wanted to be rock’n’roll.” Manhattan, which looked back to her first, Mick Jagger, who’d copped his moves fateful meeting with Ike at that late-night from her when Ike and Tina supported the St. Louis joint. Stones in 1966, always knew it. Compared By 1976 the cracks between the pair to her static female vocal peers, he said were becoming too obvious to miss. “she was like a female Little Richard and After a final explosion of violence in would respond to the audience… really go which she fought back physically for out and grab them”. the first time, Tina quit Ike that year, Ike, who after all arguably invented divorcing in 1978. Her subsequent battle rock’n’roll with the 1951 single Rocket back from financial and career ruin to 88, was mostly on board with this new, 80s megastardom showed her steel. But lucrative direction. “You know, I read in Nutbush City Limits was Tina Turner’s some paper that we are an R&B show,” declaration of artistic independence.”
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No limits: Tina at full throttle in 1973.
THE FACTS RELEASE DATE
June 1973 HIGHEST CHART POSITION
UK No.4 PERSONNEL
Tina Turner, Ike Turner, other unlisted session musicians WRITTEN BY
Tina Turner PRODUCER
Ike Turner LABEL
United Artists
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Rock’n’roll used to be very much a man’s world. Not any more. Over the next 62 pages we look at the pioneers, the provocateurs, the personalities and the politics that led to women finally claiming their rightful place in rock – equal billing alongside the guys.
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Step back Chuck Berry, Elvis and the rest, these mothers of invention were first, mixing blues, gospel, R&B and ferocious attitude to create rock’n’roll as we know it. Words: Bill DeMain
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B I G M A M A T H O R N T O N : G E T T Y
Big Mama Thornton, circa 1970: “I don’t sing like nobody but myself.”
‘Papa likes his bourbon, mama likes her gin/ Papa likes his outside women, mama likes her outside men…’ Ma Rainey, Barrel House Blues, 1923
migrated to metropolitan areas such as Chicago and St. Louis, these singers, most of whom came from the rural south, were living symbols of that move and its possibilities. As James Brown sang: ‘This is a man’s One woman who played that circuit world, but it wouldn’t be nothing without stands out as almost a prototype for what a woman…’ we now think of as a rock star. The great Those wise words hold true for the bluesman Big Bill Broonzy once said of male-dominated world of rock’n’roll. But Memphis Minnie that she “can pick and when the familiar musical history gets sing as good as any man I’ve ever heard; trotted out, names such as Bessie Smith, she can make a guitar cry, moan, talk and Cleo Gibson, Ida Cox, Sister Rosetta whistle the blues”. Broonzy would know. Tharpe, Memphis He’d been bested by Minnie, the Harlem Minnie in two picking Playgirls, Sippie contests in Chicago, “Memphis Minnie can Wallace, Big Mama one in 1933, the other pick and sing as good as Thornton, Ruth Brown in 1949. The latter was and Wanda Jackson judged by no less than any man I’ve ever heard.” are usually absent from Muddy Waters. the conversation, or Big Bill Broonzy at best relegated to orn Elizabeth passing mentions. Douglas in But long before Chuck Berry, Elvis and 1897 in Algiers, Louisiana, Minnie rolled the contrasts of Rock Around The Clock made ‘rock’n’roll’ a household word, there was a strong, a woman and a man into a charismatic, steady, matriarchal line of blues, gospel, larger-than-life package. Beautiful in chiffon ball gowns and fancy hairdos, she jump and R&B singers who contributed took snuff and spit tobacco (she could just as much to its stylistic core as the guys. The first ever blues record was by spit mid-song and not miss a beat). She a woman. Mamie Smith’s Crazy Blues (1920) drank, gambled, told filthy jokes and on stage often sat in a provocative way to was a hit, selling 75,000 copies in its first month alone, and starting a brief but vital show off her panties. period when female blues singers were In lean times, Minnie is said to Guitar legend prized more than their male counterparts have supplemented her income with Memphis Minnie, circa 1970. prostitution, which was not uncommon (Smith’s record was produced by Ralph Peer, who also discovered the Carter for some early female blues singers. Family and Jimmie Rodgers). She didn’t suffer fools, and was even rumoured to have sliced off the arm of Columbia Records, one of the early a dude who tried to mess with her. major labels, paid stars such as Smith, Ma Rainey and Victoria Spivey a flat rate All of that vivid living funnelled straight of $100 to $130 per song, while the men into her music, from the acoustic blues of the late 1920s to the electric usually got $20 to $30 (there were no artist royalties then). On stage the girls records she made for Chess were singing the blues to big spin-off label Checker in audiences from Los Angeles the 1950s. She started playing banjo and guitar at to St. Louis to New York, booked on what was called the age of seven, and by her the TOBA (Theatre Owners teenage years was performing as Kid Douglas anywhere there was Booking Association), a black an audience – riverboats, store vaudeville circuit that covered 67 American cities. For postopenings, even with Ringling WWI black listeners who had Brothers Circus for a spell. She Mother of the blues: Ma Rainey And Her Georgia Jazz Band, circa 1924/25.
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there’s the voice. It’s a voice of the human spirit, a voice that, no matter where or who you are, will reach across decades to rivet you in place. Sister Rosetta Tharpe died from a stroke in 1973, aged 58. Her epitaph reads: “She would sing until you cried and then she would sing until you danced for joy. She helped to keep the church alive and the saints rejoicing.”
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eventually settled in Memphis, where she acquired her stage name. In 1929, she and her first husband, guitarist Joe McCoy, recorded When The Levee Breaks, a song they co-wrote about the Great Mississippi Flood. Minnie’s finger-picking guitar playing on the record is miraculous: almost like the stride piano of Fats Waller channelled through six steel strings. Forty years later the song was introduced to a new generation by Led Zeppelin. Minnie and Joe had other hits with Hoodoo Lady, Bumble Bee Blues and Can I Do It For You? , all of which now sound like templates for early Rolling Stones and Kinks records. In the 1940s, Minnie and her second husband, Ernest ‘Little Son Joe’ Lawlars, had their biggest hit, with the suggestive Me And My Chauffeur (‘He drives so easy, I can’t turn him down’). Minnie went electric, amping up her style. In 1942, the poet Langston Hughes described her guitar sound as “a musical version of electric welders plus a rolling mill… with a rhythm so contagious it makes the crowd holler out loud”. In 1957, Minnie suffered a heart attack, then two years later a stroke, which ended her performing career. She died in 1973. In 1980 she was inducted into the Blues Foundation Hall Of Fame. She has influenced scores of female artists, including LaVern Baker (Minnie’s niece), Maria Muldaur (who made a tribute record to Minnie in 2012) and, most prominently, Bonnie Raitt (who paid for Minnie’s headstone).
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uddy Waters was only partially right when he sang, ‘ The blues had a baby and named it rock’n’roll,’ for it surely wasn’t a virgin birth. The other parent was black southern gospel music. The whoops, hollers and vocal flourishes that were connected to the unbridled union with the holy spirit made their way into rock’n’roll, where they expressed a more earthbound union. And no one embodied that sacredprofane hand-off from church to juke joint better than Sister Rosetta Tharpe. At the age of four, billed as ‘Little Rosetta 26 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
y the early 1950s, all of this music that both African-American women and men were playing (radio dubbed it ‘race records’) – blues, gospel, jumpin’ jive (a special nod here to the amazing 40s-era all-female big band International Sweethearts Of Rhythm) and their pre-rock offspring, rhythm & blues – was the crossroads where white America Soul sister: Nubin, the pint-sized singing and guitar started to discover black culture. And in Sister Rosetta playing miracle’, she tore through the rock’n’roll’s case, discover and appropriate Tharpe live at Cafe southern touring circuit known as the it to make it ‘safe’ for white audiences. Society Downtown, Gospel Highway. By her early twenties In some instances, R&B hits were New York City, December 11, 1940. she was thrilling audiences at Carnegie neutered beyond recognition – the Hall and the Cotton Club. When she got sensuality of Ruth Brown’s Oh What married in 1951, 25,000 people paid to A Dream got smothered by Patti Page’s watch her wedding. version; Etta James’s steamyRoll With Me On stage, in her Sunday best and Henry was rendered saccharine by Georgia wielding a Gibson SG, she peeled off wild, Gibbs (James later said: “She got a spot on Ed Sullivan while primal guitar licks, and raised the roof with I was singing in some her soul-deep voice. “Big Mama Thornton was funky dive in Watts”). Little Richard, Chuck But there’s no better the biggest, baddest, saltiest – and more conflictBerry and Johnny Cash all acknowledged her ridden – example than chick we’d ever seen, as a major influence. Big Mama Thornton’s She was born and she had these razor Hound Dog. in Cotton Plant, I once interviewed scars all over her face.” Arkansas, in 1915. Jerry Leiber, the lyricHer father’s identity writing half of the Lyricist Jerry Leiber legendary rock’n’roll is unknown; her mother was a musician songwriting team and evangelist preacher in the Church Leiber & Stoller, and he recalled the day of God in Christ. It was one of the few in 1952 that they brought Hound Dog to churches that allowed women to preach, blues shouter Thornton. “She was the and also encouraged musical expression biggest, baddest, saltiest chick we’d ever beyond the hymn book. It was an ideal seen. She must’ve been three hundred environment for a child prodigy, and and fifty pounds, and she had these Queen of R&B: Rosetta’s course was set early. razor scars all over her face. Like a lady American singer After becoming a star in her mum’s bear. I handed her the words to the song, and actress Ruth Brown, circa 1952. church in Chicago, she moved to New which were scribbled on a brown paper bag. When she started to sing, man, it York, where the legendary talent scout John Hammond introduced her to big just knocked us cold.” city audiences. Signed to Decca Records, The woman born Willie Mae and singing with Lucky Millinder’s Thornton in 1926 acquired that orchestra, Rosetta shocked her gospel formidable presence and fans by recording saucy material like attitude at a young age – by and necessity. She was 14 when Four Or Five Times I Want A Tall Skinny her mother died, leaving Papa. Her 1945 record of Strange Things Are Willie Mae to fend for herself. Happening is one of a handful of candidates for the first-ever rock’n’roll record. She ran away from home in But it was really on stage Montgomery, Alabama to join the Hot Harlem Review, where Rosetta most embodied the rock’n’roll spirit. There isn’t a travelling vaudeville much existing footage of her, troupe. Even as a teenager, but one clip, from 1964, shot Thornton had a way of on a train station platform wrestling songs to the in Manchester, England, is ground, making them beg revelatory. The confidence, for mercy under her sheer the sexuality… it’s pure force. For early examples, rock’n’roll. But most of all check out Mischievous Boogie and I Smell
I S T E R R O S E T T A T H A R P E : G E T T Y / R U T H B R O W N : A L A M Y
Singersongwriter Wanda Jackson, the First Lady of Rockabilly.
A Rat. She would later boast that her voice covered Big Mama’s self-written Ball And Cordell Jackson on TV show Funny was “louder than any microphone”. Chain in 1967, Thornton said: “That girl Business With Of her early days on the road, Thornton feels like I do.” Charlie Chase in told NME in 1972: “I learned to sing, Sadly, Thornton’s record label had sold 1992 with Marty blow harmonica, even play the drums, the publishing rights to the song without Brown and Charlie Chase. just by watching other people. I don’t her knowing, so she never saw a penny read music but I know where I’m singing. from Joplin’s record. If I hear a blues I like, then I try to sing it my own way. It’s always best to have he influence of these black female something of your own. I don’t sing like artists and more on the rock’n’roll nobody but myself.” boys’ club is undeniable. You A stint with Johnny Otis led to her debut hear Memphis Minnie’s guitar in Chuck Berry and Eric Clapton; Sister Rosetta’s appearance at New York’s prestigious Apollo Theater. “That’s where they made unbridled spirit in Jerry Lee Lewis and their mistake,” Thornton said, with Robert Plant; Big Mama Thornton’s growl characteristic brass. “They put me on first. in Elvis, of course. But less acknowledged is how their music led directly to the I was out there to make my name, and I did. I stopped the show. The manager first two white guitar-slinging rock’n’roll told Johnny he was women – both of putting me to the them, coincidentally, top of the bill.” named Jackson. ‘Sister Rosetta Tharpe Thornton’s Hound Cordell Jackson peeled off wild, primal guitar recorded a lot of demos Dog, her most famous at Sun Studios in the song – which sold more licks, and raised the roof than half a million early 1950s, but Sam copies and went to Phillips, Sun’s founder with her soul-deep voice.’ No.3 on the R&B chart and a producer, never signed her. That – would be similarly upstaged a year later by Elvis Presley’s didn’t deter Jackson. She learned how to version. Through the next few decades, engineer and produce, then started her Thornton continued to perform in juke own rockabilly label in 1956, cheekily joints and clubs, scraping out a living while called Moon. It took 30 years before she battling a love for the bottle. got her due, appearing on David Letterman, A volcanic set at the 1964 Monterey Jazz and in a TV commercial where she traded raucous licks with Stray Cat Brian Setzer. Festival apart, Thornton then followed the course of many American blues artists: The other Jackson made a bigger splash. Y M touring through Europe, making albums Born in Maud, Oklahoma in 1937, Wanda A L A : N that were mostly ignored back home. The Jackson grew up in a musical family, S K A soaking up the western swing of Bob Wills best of her latter work is Big Mama The J A D N Queen At Monterey, featuring an all-star and Spade Cooley. By the time she was 12 A W / Y she was winning local talent contests and M backing band of Muddy Waters, Otis A L A : Spann and James Cotton. singing on the radio. At 17 she hit the road, N S K Thornton died in 1984, aged 57. Her opening for Elvis Presley. Before long, the A J L L powerhouse singing was one of the major two of them were dating. Jackson credits E D R influences on Janis Joplin. After Joplin Elvis with encouraging her to branch out
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from her country roots and “try this new style”. Within two years – after outraging the Grand Ole Opry with her daring outfits and suggestive hits like Fujiyama Mama and Mean Mean Man – Jackson was being hailed as the Queen of Rockabilly. “I wasn’t being sexy with my songs,” Jackson told me in an interview in 2011, “I was being feisty. And there’s a difference. I was cute and young, saying whatever was on my mind, but it was always clean. The public liked me fine. The problem was that the radio wouldn’t play my records. They didn’t want to accept us kids and rock’n’roll into the adult world.” By the time The Beatles came along, most of the major rock’n’rollers were dead or sidelined. Wanda soon went back to her roots, recording straight-up country albums from the 1960s onwards. In 2010, Jack White produced a record of the 73-year-old singer, stoking the rockabilly fire that she’d started 50 years earlier. Despite helping to provide the foundation of rock’n’roll, almost all of these blues, gospel and R&B singers were left at the crossroads when the new music exploded commercially in the mid-1950s. But they brought decades of sexuality, swagger, self-determination and strong female consciousness to the borderline, where they relayed it, consciously or not, to the next generation. So before we plunge into the world of contemporary female rockers, from Janis Joplin to Joan Jett to Stevie Nicks and others, take a moment for these great ladies who provided the inspiring shoulders for others to stand on. Wanda Jackson’s clear-eyed assessment of a woman’s place in music in the 20th century rings as a summary for all of those pioneers: “In the 1950s, a woman was either a secretary, a nurse or a housewife. But to tell you the truth, I never even prepared for any other kind of career. So I guess I had to make it, because I wasn’t qualified for anything else. My only passion was music and singing and entertaining, and I always kept my main goal in front of me.” CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 27
delivering a stunning album alongside The Sweet’s Andy Scott and Slade’s Don Powell as QSP, no one defines rock’n’roll quite like Suzi Q.
Legend has it that you discovered and became captivated by Elvis when you were just seven. It seems you identified your calling at an early age and never wavered. It’s completely true. I remember it happening. And it’s crazy for that to happen to somebody at the age of six, going into my seventh birthday. The whole family were watching The Ed Sullivan Show, and Elvis came out and he started to do Don’t Be Cruel. Now, my one elder sister was nine years older than me, so she was just the right age and she started to scream. And I looked at her like: “What are you doing?” Because I’m only six. Why are you screaming? Then I looked at the TV and I went into the set, really into it, connected with him, and in my brain it said: “I’m going to do that.” Just, bang! It never occurred to me that he was a guy and I was a girl.
The only Penthouse centrefold ever to be allowed to keep her clothes on, she was “a pin-up for the guys and a hero to the women”. Interview: Ian Fortnam
t’s one of the defining images of the glam era: Suzi Quatro resplendent in a black leather catsuit, as provocative as it’s androgynous, locked into a pounding, groin-located groove, manhandling a vintage Fender bass of almost identical height; out front, sassy, assertive, with a burly Detroit street gang at her back. Before Suzi, rock’n’roll women were expected to be submissive, subordinate,
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subservient. After Suzi, all the girls wanted to be her and all the boys wanted her to be their boss. A succession of perfect Chinnichap hoodlum hit singles – Can The Can, 48 Crash, Daytona Demon, Devil Gate Drive – sealed the Quatro legend, while her feral snarl and uncompromising stance saw a succession of future legends (Jett, Hynde et al) first relate, then emulate. Still gigging, still inspiring, and recently
You were at an age where gender wasn’t an issue. Yeah, probably. But because that happened so young, I never did gender at all. I was more of a tomboy. Your father’s support was clearly a key factor in your dream becoming a reality. Not only did you take piano lessons, but he gave you a Fender Precision bass when you were just fourteen, an instrument wholly synonymous with rock’n’roll. When I talk to other musicians and they start telling me the fights they had, the struggles, I guess I didn’t have that. My dad really pushed all of his four daughters to be just who they are, and he had the two waves of kids – he called them the two generations. There was the nine-year-old and the seven-year-old, sister and brother,
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then there was a gap, then there was my younger sister and my baby sister, so it was like two different things. And he certainly brought up the last three girls gender-free. He gave me my first bass to start with, my Fender Precision 1957. I mean, what a guitar to get for your first one. And I didn’t even know it was a big bass. I had no conception of what a big bass or a small bass was. That’s what he gave me and that’s what I learned. So I learnt the hardest bass with my small hands, not knowing that there was another alternative – “So this is the bass, I’ll play this.”
It was an instrument that until then was very male, an instrument that – not to put too fine a point on it – hits you in the groin. It does. I have been quoted as saying that. I said hits you between the legs but, same thing. It’s a very organic instrument. How easy was it to get gigs as an all-girl band [The Pleasure Seekers] in the mid-sixties? It was easy to get gigs. We were different. There weren’t that many all-girl bands back then, and there definitely aren’t even that many now. You get the odd girls in bands now that you never used to have; it seems to be a real big thing to get a female bass player now. They didn’t hire me back then, I had to play in my own band. We were working more than the male bands because we were girls. So they hired us quicker. The guys used to be mad at us: “God, you guys are always working.” Well, sure, we’re different. So we had a lot of experience on the road, which stood me in good stead later on. Was there ever any discussion that you might possibly front an all-female band when you moved to the UK? I wasn’t against that. In fact when I put out the call in Melody Maker that I was holding auditions it didn’t say male or female, it just said please come down if you’re interested. Not one female showed up. I wouldn’t have been against it, but none showed up.
L P N I H S I L B U P E R U T U F / N X I N N I V E K
The leather catsuit was a genius move. Catwoman and Emma Peel had already brought similar imagery into the broader media, but in female pop star terms, when Cilla, Lulu and their ilk were at the peak of their exaggerated pinafore dress femininity, this was a revolutionary, taboo-busting decision. So how did that come about? Can The Can was recorded, and Mickie [Most] heard it and he called me into the office for a big meeting – just me – and he said to me: “Suzi, after all this time you’ve got a number one. I can feel it.” Mickie knew his hits, nobody better than him. This was a very serious discussion, and another pivotal moment in my life. He said: “Now we need a real photo session. What are your thoughts?’ And I said: “Leather.” I’ll always remember it. And he said: “No.” I said: “Leather, Mickie.” He said: “Suzi, it’s so old fashioned.” I said: “No.” He said: “It’s been done.” “Not by
me.” So then he said okay. I said great. And then he stopped a minute, and this wonderful moment in history. He said: “What about a jump-suit?” And I said great idea. I honestly didn’t know until I saw the photos that it was sexy. I thought: “Sensible, logical, I’m a real energetic performer, I don’t have to worry about anything.” And then when I saw those pictures I went: “Oh.” I get red in the face now because maybe that’s why it worked, because it was so sexy. There was an innocence about it. It wasn’t like I was trying to be sexual, it was just there, wasn’t it?
Yes. It wasn’t contrived, and because of that you could get away with it. I got away with it. It wasn’t a threat to the women. I became a pin-up for the guys and a hero to the women, so I kind of cornered the whole market just by being me. Isn’t that great? God, if you’re going to do anything, be who you are.
Left: Suzi on stage at Hammersmith Odeon, November 2, 1978. Below: at home in 2017, shot exclusively for Classic Rock .
Well, it’s an image based on submission, and Suzi Quatro was never seen to be submissive. You were never the victim in any given situation, and in the band you were always the dominant force. Absolutely. And I have to swear now, because it’s the only words that can describe what I call my inner character, where I am strong: don’t fuck with me. That’s all, you know? Always treat me as a lady. Which is a funny thing to say directly afterwards. I can be a tomboy and I can take your dirty jokes to a degree, but there’s the line and don’t cross it. But I don’t suffer fools gladly. I’m a pretty tough character there, and I don’t like bullshit. It’s a measure of your success that back in 1973 you enjoyed the rare accolade of being a Penthouse centrefold so sought after that you were allowed to keep your clothes on. Isn’t that a Suzi thing to do? Sure, I’ll be in Penthouse… clothed. I said years ago, when I did that, I don’t have to take my clothes off to be sexy. And neither does anybody. If you’re sexy you’re sexy. You can be sexy in a potato sack. It’s something inside.
How did you feel when in 2013 you received the Woman of Valor Award from Musicians for Equal Opportunities for Women, in recognition of your influence on generations of “I haven’t seen female musicians? It’s nice. When you do those a lot of people awards they are humbling. You’ve walk my path, gotta be honest. When I went to Detroit and got the Rock And Roll even after all Hall Of Fame and the lifetime achievement in my home town, these years.” I’m like, “Woah.” And they give you these big speeches and everything. I try not to dwell on it, because I am a very grounded girl, but I do have my moments of being very proud. You can’t take it too serious, and then you get all blown up with yourself. I try not to do that.
Toughness can be sexy, being in control can be sexy, but to take that attitude with Penthouse in 1973, we’re talking about a time and place where feminism was just a word. What did I think I was like? [laughs] What a fiesty little bitch I was, eh? I had a very strong sense of self, I guess, always.
You undoubtedly paved the way for independent women in rock. Do you think anything has changed fundamentally, and is it any easier for women now? It’s a two-edged answer. It’s not so much of an oddity now when you see a girl musician, so that way it’s easier. But to be quite honest I haven’t seen a lot of people walk my path, even after all these years, which can only make me say it’s not an easy path to walk. That’s the female musician element, but then you have the other element, the purely female element. I am a little bit disheartened at the level of soft porn that it’s gotten to. I put my neck on the line a long time ago, and all I can say is if you think that because you’ve chosen as a female to dress in virtually nothing that you’re in control of it, you’re not. Because all it is is using the male attitude of what they see you as, and by putting it out of your own mouth you’re just playing the game. You’re not in control of that. It goes beyond you and it takes away from your talent. I say: “Woman, get dressed!” Really, how far can you go? CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 29
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nyone who thinks they don’t make rock stars like they used to has never witnessed Arrow De Wilde in full flight. On stage the singer with rising LA four-piece Starcrawler is a pipe-cleaner-thin lunatic in a hospital gown, spitting fake blood like Iggy, Alice, Ozzy and Patti Smith reincarnated all at once in the body of an 18-year-old teenager from Los Angeles. Offstage it’s a different matter. De Wilde is sweetly shy and weirdly unsure of herself; her sentences often finish with “I dunno. I can’t really answer that properly” or trail off completely. She spoke to Classic Rock during a break from recording their debut album, with Ryan Adams in the production chair.
Wilde by name, not nature. But when the Starcrawler singer gets on stage, look out! Interview: Dave Everley
What did you set out to achieve with Starcrawler when the band formed a couple of years ago? I just wanted to make rock cool again. It used to be what the majority of people were into, and I wanted to make it what people were into again. I had another band before, with my friends, trying to start something, but it didn’t really work out. I was so frustrated with that. I really wanted to do music properly, not just as a hobby. It was really hard at first to find people, but it finally ended up falling into place and started rolling.
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sk Janet Gardner to choose the best decade to be a rock star and she doesn’t miss a beat: “Oh, the eighties, for sure”. Her choice makes sense: she spent that era prowling LA’s Sunset Strip with Vixen, who could stake a claim as the only all-female band of the 80s to have platinum record sales. Vixen played melodic soft-rock hits like Cryin’ ; on Gardner’s self-titled debut solo album she sounds positively feral – in a really good way.
Do you think your new solo album will surprise longstanding Vixen fans? Yeah. We knew it would. Because it’s not Vixen. A lot of it is heavier. More attitude. A little less ‘sweet victim’-y and more assertive. So that’s a departure. But I still have that Vixen side to me, I still love really beautiful melodic rock too.
For the former Vixen guitarist, hearing Heart “was the turning point for me”. Interview: Henry Yates 30 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
What themes did you write about on your solo album? There’s anger in there. There’s sadness. You name it, it came out on this record. Best Friend is a very tender love song. Candle is about being with my dad when he passed away, and just those feelings of deep regret and remorse. Y’know, thinking back to my relationship with my parents, when you’re a rotten teenager and you treat ’em terrible.
Why was it hard to find people? Are LA teenagers just not into rock these days? Yeah, pretty much. I think now there are more people who are into it, but a couple of years ago no one wanted to make the music I wanted to make. You said Ozzy Osbourne is a big hero of yours. Why? I respect him as a musician and as a person. I discovered him when I was really young. He seemed cool then and he’s still is. You’ve talked about being a shy person, but you’re definitely not shy when you play live. What happens when you step on stage? I dunno. I’m still a shy person, but I guess there’s already enough people just standing on stage doing nothing that I forced myself to do the extreme opposite. The more and more I do it, the more and more exciting and natural it feels. It’s weird, but once I get up there I don’t have to think about anything else. It’s an in-your-face performance – hospital gowns, straitjackets, blood pouring out of your mouth. Are you up there to shock people or provoke a reaction, or are you getting your emotions out? It’s kind of both. I like shocking people. That’s the majority of why I do it. Cos it’s fun. But it’s also that I just want people to
Did your parents approve of you becoming a rock’n’roller? No, they were very concerned. My dad was a very conservative guy. Y’know, you get a job with good benefits, save your money. My mom was the same way. Which women in rock did you admire? The first time I heard Dreamboat Annie, the first Heart record, that was it, right there. Previous to that I was mostly into male bands: Aerosmith and Zeppelin. Then all of a sudden there were two women doing it as good. That was a turning point for me. Do you think Vixen had to fight harder to reach the top? Absolutely we did. Because people were inspecting us. They were looking for flaws. They were looking for some reason why we weren’t as good as a male band. Or we weren’t as legitimate somehow. Y’know, there’s gotta be a weakness. So we worked our butts off. Vixen supported a lot of major bands, including Ozzy, Kiss, Bon Jovi… The most exciting for me was Deep Purple, but that crowd was tough. The lights came on and they’d look at us like: “What is this?” You could just see it: “Pfft. I think I’ll go get a beer.” So it always took a good three or four songs, but by the end they came around.
take in the music properly, and I feel like if I was just standing there not doing much, people wouldn’t pay attention.
Have you ever taken it too far? Not really. But one time we played a show in Joshua Tree [California] and I spit water at this table of people. It was kind of dark, so I couldn’t see who it was, and I wasn’t really aiming for them. But they were very macho, tough chicks, and one of them got really upset and started to come at me. Our guitarist, Henry, was playing guitar with a knife, so she backed off and walked outside. Afterwards he was like: “Don’t go out the door. They’re waiting for you.” I ended up running out of the club and telling the security guards. They were super-nice and they handled the situation. You’ve talked about not wanting Starcrawler to be seen as a ‘female-fronted band’. Why not? I find it misogynistic when people are like: “They’re a woman-powered band” or “a female-powered band” or whatever. I just feel like why does it have to be labelled differently? Why do I have to labelled a woman frontperson? Why can’t I just be a frontperson, like any other. Why can’t we just be a band? Starcrawler is out now via Rough Trade.
People always say the eighties hard rock scene was sexist. Do you agree? I don’t think it was any worse than any other time period. Things are just as sexist now. You see videos all the time objectifying women. It’s a hard thing to be a woman in such a visual industry. You still have to be conscientious about the way you look. I wish you didn’t, cos it’d make my life a lot easier. But you didn’t want people to brush it aside because you’re not appealing. Sad but true. So you go with it. You seem to have come through without too many demons on your tail. Yeah. I’ve never been to rehab. I’ve never had to be resuscitated. Luckily I have great people who kept me grounded through it all, the ups and the big downers. As a musician, you go through some really dark moments. But you have to put it in perspective and say: “I’m the same person today that I was yesterday,” y’know, when people loved what you were doing. Do younger bands tell you that Vixen inspired them? Yeah, they do. When somebody comes up and says: “When I saw your video on MTV, we formed a band and now we’re out playing,” that’s incredibly satisfying. Gardner’s album Janet Gardner is out now via Pavement Music.
Hair , Playboy Bunny ears, Curved Air and much more. Interview: Jo Kendall
n the 60s, musician, songwriter, poet and actress Sonja Kristina went from teenage folk singer to star of West End rock musical Hair to fronting prog rockers Curved Air. Always rooted in the counterculture, she’s no dizzy hippie; there’s always some sort of plan.
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Tell us about your background? My father was a criminologist and my mother the daughter of one of Sweden’s top tragedians and a film star, Gerda Lundequist. He became a headmaster at Ardale, an ‘approved school’ in Essex for boys who had been in trouble – later called borstals – and my mother became the matron. I was born there. At convent school, aged eleven, you learned guitar. By the time you were thirteen you were performing at local folk clubs. I’d seen Donovan on TV and was hugely influenced by Buffy Sainte-Marie. The folk clubs were trad but you could do floor spots. It was nerve-racking but I’ve always been an adrenalin junkie. When you were fifteen you looked for a manager. You were already taking charge of your destiny. I was beginning my hippiefication, but also reading Dale Carnegie books about positivity, focus and planning. I’m still very goal-orientated. You say: “Where am I going?” then “What’s the first step?” You might end up somewhere different but the important thing is to keep going. When the next bus comes along you hop on it. And then the first-ever rock musical, Hair , came along. My manager showed me an ad. It said:
“Hippies wanted, must be good movers, Equity members only.” So I went along, had eight recalls then I got a part.
When was your hardest time for money? When Curved Air first broke up, in 1972. I’d been on a wage since Hair , and I had an eighteen-month-old baby, Sven. I needed an income so I joined a temp agency, adding up figures for ledgers. I wasn’t very good. Then I saw an ad to be a Playboy croupier in Park Lane. I wore the bunny ears and tail for nine months – the money was good enough. Then Hair called me to come back for its final run. Apart from music and drama, what else has fired you up? I’ve studied sound healing, all the magic and mystery of that. When I split up from Stewart [Copeland, in 1991] I noticed that punk and hippie culture were mixing, and I was interested in exploring what had become of hippiedom. Me and my little boys [Jordan and Scott] would travel for miles following the convoys to see what traveller lives are like. They tend to be people who didn’t fit into normal society rather than doing it out of choice. What are you doing now? My cat is my significant other. I’m a trained drama teacher, I’ve got grandchildren. I move house every few years, when I get the opportunity of a new space to live in. I’m also playing music, with the Norman Beaker Band, and soon I’ll tour small venues with my keyboard player, doing everything from Hair to my solo stuff. Sonja Kristina: Anthology is out now via Cherry Red. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 31
How a teenage Runaway turned into a grown-up luminary for music with attitude, humanist politics and gender equality. Words: Jaan Uhelszki
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here’s nothing more threatening than a girl with a guitar,” Joan Jett famously said back in 1999. Nearly 20 years later she hasn’t changed her stance. She has never been afraid to speak her mind or show the world exactly how she earned that bad reputation she sings about. “The only reason I have a bad reputation is because I’m a girl and dare to do these things that boys do,” Jett huffs. In fact, if she had a motto it would probably be ‘Make me’. From the off, Joan Jett has been full of bold impudence and rock action, provocatively straddling her guitar between her legs while channelling her beloved rock gods of yore, Marc Bolan or Keith Richards, and has spent the past four decades showing the world that she can rock as hard as the guys, if not harder. But Jett’s aim wasn’t to even the score in the war between the sexes. She had bigger goals. “Well, I do,” she says, stretching out the last word. “But if anyone ever said anything against girls playing rock’n’roll, I was ready to go to war.” And she did. “One time, The Runaways opened for Rush, I think in Detroit,” she recalls. “I remember those guys standing at the side of the stage laughing at us. And, you know, if I was Rush I wouldn’t be laughing at me. Then there was Molly Hatchet. The guys said: ‘I can’t believe we’re opening for a bitch.’ And then Scorpions were mad because they were a German band and we were bigger in Germany than they were. People just don’t want to see girls doing things they don’t think girls should do.” But that has never stopped her. Over the years she’s written songs full of piss and bravado, such as the Bad Reputation and the tongue-in-cheek Black Leather , a song that doesn’t extol the virtues of her favorite stagewear so much as emphasise that she’s going to do what she wants to: ‘Black leather, I wear it on stage/Black leather, I’m gonna wear it to my grave/Black leather, I will wear it anywhere/Because my name is Joan Jett and I don’t care.’ But the thing is, she does care. “I think what’s always kept me going is the belief that rock’n’roll could change your life. Not making it more than it is, but a song can just hit you at a certain time. Something that gives you the courage and energy to continue following your dream.” Just as David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust album did for her: “The whole record was about someone trying to aspire to be a star, and I could relate to a lot of the lyrics.” By now, Jett has reached near-messianic status. Former US president Bill Clinton wrote her a fan letter, gushing that he had all her albums and confiding that she’d been one of his favourite recording artists since he heard Fake Friends, from 1983’s Album. Former world heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson considered her his lucky charm, and ritualistically phoned her before his bouts. Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong considers her a role model, and covered Jett’s Don’t Abuse Me. Celebrated
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punk artist Shepard Fairey released a limited-edition print of Jett reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s canvases. Jett is about to launch a clothing line with Todd Oldham, and is producing an album for rockabilly icon Wanda Jackson. A documentary about Jett, directed by Kevin Kerslake, lauded for the tragic As I AM: The Life And Times Of DJ AM, is nearing release. If anything, the Joan Jett myth has grown. Over the past few years she has written songs with Dave Grohl and Against Me!’s Laura Jane Grace, while Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready posted a snapshot of him and Jett posing backstage in Seattle with goofy grins on their faces. Smashing Pumpkins’ Billy Corgan is slavish in his devotion to her. Jett is not just a female role model and style influence (although she certainly is that, complete with her own Barbie doll, and Pinterest pages devoted to her eyeliner, shoes and humanistic politics), but also a signifier. She exemplifies what it means to be single-minded about what you’re put on this earth to do, and then do it without compromise but with decency and grace. In 2008, Norwegian all-girl pop band The Launderettes released a song called What Would Joan Jett Do? . The slogan turned up on T-shirts, famously worn by, for one, Top: with Green Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna, and on rock’n’roll means more than music, Day’s Billie Joe bumper stickers as the acronym WWJJD more than fashion, more than a good pose. Armstrong in 2014. with Jett’s face, indicating that the former It’s the language of a subculture that’s Above: Jett delivers Runaway had become a touchstone for made eternal teenagers out of all who her missive at her Rock And Roll a kind of integrity that a new generation follow it. It’s a subculture of integrity, Hall Of Fame could measure up to. rebellion, frustration, alienation – and induction, 2015. Over the years, Jett has acted as spiritual the glue that set generations free of advisor to Ian MacKaye, Paul unnatural suppression. Westerberg and Peaches. She’s Rock’n’roll is political. It’s “The only reason I a meaningful way to express been called the Godmother Of Punk, the original Riot Grrrl stir up revolution and have a bad reputation dissent, and the Queen Of Noise (after fight for human rights.” the second Runaways album, The politics didn’t come is because I’m a girl until later. At first, she was just Queens Of Noise). “It’s nice that and dare to do these a teenager pursuing a dream. people have that sort of impression of me. But I simplify things that boys do.” t’s easy to say that if Joan it so much more: I say I’m just Jett didn’t exist we’d have to a rock’n’roller. I can’t say I was invent her. But no one had the first woman to do it. But I’d like to be to. She invented herself. remembered as one of the first women to Below: with Dave By the age of 13 she’d already seen Black really play hard rock’n’roll and mean it.” Grohl, Kenny Sabbath live. But if you needed a place to In her 2015 acceptance speech for the Laguna and start, you could blame the New York Dolls Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, she said that Pat Smear at the Hall Of Fame. for Jett’s career. Barely a teen, she witnessed rock’n’roll is “an idea and an ideal… the trashy, in-your-face art provocateurs at a club near her suburban Maryland home. Never mind that she was underage. History would prove that she wasn’t going to let a little thing like age stop her – then or now. “I was in the front row and stole David Johansen’s empty beer bottle after the show,” she recalls. “It was my first rock’n’roll souvenir.” It’s safe to say she took more than just the beer bottle from the Dolls. Their raw, untutored musical approach showed her that anything was possible if you just had the right (bad) attitude. Less than a year after that Dolls show, the serious, intense teenager was deposited without ceremony into the suburbs of
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not approaching Quatro, just staring when the singer walked by. “What’s with the girl who keeps looking at me and looks just like me?” Quatro asked her then-publicist/ tour manager, Toby Mamis. Mamis finally approached Jett at 11pm and explained that Suzi had gone to bed. “I can’t go home,” Jett said. “The last bus back already left, and I told my mom I was staying with a friend. I’ll be okay here.” Touched, Mamis let the teen and her friend sleep on the floor of his hotel room. Jett didn’t get to meet her idol until years later. But Mamis was to play a pivotal role in her life.
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Southern California just before her fourteenth birthday. Other, less well-adjusted teenagers might have felt a sense of dislocation moving west, but not Jett. It nudged her one step closer to her dreams. She was only 25 miles and a couple of bus rides from the nightclub Rodney Bingenheimer’s English Disco on Sunset Boulevard. It was ground zero for the glam movement in the US, and Jett knew it held a mysterious key. “Once I got to LA I had an idea that I wanted to be in a rock’n’roll band,” she explains. “An all-girl band, serious about playing. I read about this place in Hollywood that catered to teenagers, playing British music that never made its way over here.” It turned out that Rodney’s was the perfect laboratory for Jett. It had danger, 34 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Clockwise from main: The Runaways, 1976 – Lita Ford, Jett, Sandy West, Cherie Currie and Jackie Fox; Jett with svengali Kim Fowley; rubbing shoulders with idol Suzi Quatro and English Disco host Rodney Bingenheimer.
the whiff of rock-star decadence, but most of all there was a group identification through music, in that razor-thin chasm that existed between glam and punk. “A defining moment for any teen misfit is finding others like yourself, even if the only thing you share is the feeling of not belonging anywhere else,” Jett reminisces. She put on her own version of glam finery, stood in line for (and got) Keith Moon’s autograph, and once encountered a dead body on her way to the club. She knew she was where she needed to be – corpses notwithstanding. “Everyone was dressed up with huge platform shoes and glitter. The boys wore make-up. Everyone was flamboyant and everything was androgynous. That’s where I was turned on to a lot of Bowie, T.Rex, Sweet, Slade and Gary Glitter.” It was also the first place she heard Suzi Quatro. “When I heard 48 Crash I thought to myself: ‘Well, here’s a girl playing rock’n’roll.’ If Suzi Quatro could do it, I could, and there had to be other girls too.” Which had everything to do with why Jett parked herself in the lobby of West Hollywood’s Continental Hyatt House to catch a glimpse of Quatro in March 1975. She sat there the entire day, with a friend,
fter that nervy vigil, things seemed to speed up for Jett. Within the month she met Hollywood impresario Kim Fowley through Kari Krome, a girl about her age from Rodney’s. Krome wrote songs, which Fowley was publishing. “I told Kari I thought we should form an all-girl band,” Jett recalls. “She said she didn’t play, just wrote, and maybe I should talk to Kim about it.” She contacted Fowley, telling him she played rhythm guitar and wanted to form a female band – not a novelty act, bona fide players. Soon after, while Fowley was standing in the parking lot of the Rainbow club, a girl called Sandy West recognised the ghoulish six-foot-five songwriter, and told him she was a drummer, played in bands in Huntington Beach and wanted to form an all-girl band. He gave West Jett’s number and the drummer called her. Jett took four buses to Huntington Beach, and she and Sandy jammed. Almost immediately the two new compatriots (plus Krome) started auditioning girls, and hired bassist Micki Steele [replaced by Jackie Fox], guitarist Lita Ford and singer Cherie Currie, creating the seminal Runaways line-up. Fowley would conduct “heckler drills,” in which he and others would yell and throw things to “toughen up” the girls for the stage. “As far as assaulting the citadel of rock’n’roll, I never dreamed I couldn’t. I thought people would freak out over an all-girl rock’n’roll band.” Jett said in 2000. “And they did.” The Runaways released four studio albums and one live set, toured Europe and were adopted by Motörhead. They partied
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Above: in 2002 with Robert Plant, toured with the with Joey Ramone. Ramones and opened for Tom Petty. But Right: on the they were noticed more for the novelty of Warped Tour, five kittenish teenagers than as musicians. 2006. Below: Robert Plant Album sales were low in the US, but were infiltrates akin to The Beatles in Japan, where girls The Runaways’ would chase them down the street with dressing room hairbrushes, hoping to collect strands of at the Starwood their lacquered hair. Club, 1976. The Runaways broke up on New Year’s Eve 1978. “We were into different kinds of music, and it wasn’t fun any more,” Jett explains. “I was hanging out with Sid Vicious in London – we were supposed to be doing an album, but it never happened – and the other girls hung out with Thin Lizzy. Our interests were diametrically opposite; it was so clear I was into punk rock and the other girls weren’t.” Jett refused to allow herself to be derailed by the demise of The Runaways – although herself pause for thought: “Joan Jett made me look like Marie Osmond,” she said. she began partying and drinking to excess. “She was such a hard-ass.” “I was in bad shape,” she told interviewer Jett relocated to Laguna’s home in Long Nic Harcourt in 2013. Pulling herself out of Beach moving into the couple’s spare room. Six months later, a potential tailspin, she plotted “If anyone ever said Laguna had signed on as her her next step. She hired early manager, and moved his adjunct benefactor Toby Mamis – anything against family to London, where Jett’s co-manager of the last first album was recorded. incarnation of The Runaways girls playing The self-titled solo debut was – as her de-facto manager, and rock’n’roll, I was the pair brought in former Sex made before Jett put together Blackhearts, and was Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones ready to go to war.” The released by the Ariola label in to produce and play on a demo. Europe in May 1980. No US label One of the recordings was songs was by British glam also-rans The Arrows, was interested – a whopping 23 of them passed. Undaunted, Laguna and Jett a B-side called I Love Rock ’N Roll that Jett decided to release it on their own and had heard on British TV. formed Blackheart Records, making Jett Jett returned home to finish songs for one of the first women to own her own a film based on The Runaways. But when she stalled trying to come up with eight songs in six days, Mamis asked Kenny Laguna, a songwriter/producer/musician, to collaborate with her. Laguna was reluctant, but his wife, Meryl, was intrigued by Jett’s potential. Laguna signed up, and found himself promising to get Jett a record deal. “I had no idea how hard it was to get a deal for a woman with a guitar,” Laguna recalls. “An Atlantic Records exec said: ‘Joan should stop hiding behind the guitar and get out there and rock like [Pat] Benatar.’” But that was not on the cards. If anything, Jett subsequently made Benatar
label. Most of their sales were from the boot of Laguna’s Cadillac after shows. The demand for the LP grew, overwhelming Blackheart Records’ ability to keep up with the orders. In a twist of long association and kind fate, Neil Bogart, architect of Kiss’s success at Casablanca Records during the previous decade, took a chance on Jett, re-releasing her album on his newly formed Boardwalk Records label in 1981. But first he insisted she rename it Bad Reputation, after what would become Jett’s second-most famous song, thanks to a second life as the theme for the TV series Freaks And Geeks. Now she needed a band. Her ad in the LA Weekly stated: “Joan Jett wants three good men. Show-offs need not apply.” With the help of X’s John Doe, playing bass and acting as arbiter on hiring decisions, they found bassist Gary Ryan, a recent guest on Doe’s couch, guitarist Eric Ambel and drummer Lee Crystal. Jett and The Blackhearts toured relentlessly, recording the tracks for I Love Rock ’N Roll between dates. Once back in London, Laguna re-recorded the title track at The Who’s Ramport Studios. Released as a single, it reached No.4 in Britain in April ’82 and the top of the US Billboard chart, where it stayed for seven weeks. It became a jukebox/bar-band/karaoke classic – something Jett attributes to the intervention of Elvis Presley. “The week after I Love Rock ’N Roll came out, we were on tour and had stopped in CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 35
relentless touring – sometimes as many as Memphis. Of course, we decided to visit 250 dates a year – that really honed her Graceland and pay homage to Elvis. We drove to Elvis’s grave, and since I always craft. Finding her comfort zone early on in carry guitar picks with me I laid one on his that border land between glitter and punk, Jett never worried when rock tastes shifted gravestone. When we got back into the from punk to hair-metal to grunge to van, it wouldn’t start. Elvis’s aunt came out, took pity on us and Britpop to EDM and back. brought me back up to She has kept on playing “I’d like to be remembered her stripped-down the house. She kept commenting how much with its as one of the first women rock’n’roll, I looked like Elvis – at the combustible choruses, to really play hard trashy glam flourishes and time it felt really rhythms. important. The next week, rock’n’roll and mean it.” hard-driving we started getting the calls What she writes about that I Love Rock ’N Roll was now in her fifth decade is different. “I know I’m not a Runaway any going to be a hit. I always thought maybe more. I don’t write songs like a twentyElvis had something to do with that.” one-year old any more, and I don’t want to. Main pic: “I’m not ollowing her signature hit up the I have much more to say.” a Runaway any charts was Crimson And Clover , Her latest album, 2013’s Unvarnished, more.” Right: with a psychedelic take on the Tommy exposed vulnerability and an emotional the Blackhearts James And The Shondells classic, but it was in 1985. fragility she had never shown on record
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before. “I think I had to express what I was feeling inside, which is what I guess we always try to do as songwriters. I called that time period the decade of death, when people I know, close to me, started dying. No matter how old you are, you think you’re twenty, and then something happens in your life. For me it was my parents dying, and I had to deal with the repercussions. It was jolting to realise that it’s time to be responsible. I’m not saying that you lose all your playfulness, but it’s definitely a wake-up call.” During recent years she’s been taking new risks, personally and professionally, executive-producing the biopic The Runaway, producing a film called Unbeatable John (in which she also had a role) and starring in a film adaptation of Stephen King’s novel Big Driver with Maria Bello and Olympia Dukakis. She has appeared on Criminal Intent, The Muppets and Walker, Texas Ranger , and went skydiving after visiting an army base to entertain US troops overseas. She travelled to India on her own spiritual quest after reading Conversations With God, works tirelessly for animal rights organisation PETA and supports prochoice causes. Although she has never made an issue of gender, over the years she has inspired countless girls to form bands, and every day people will come up to her while she’s riding her bike on the boardwalk, or wandering through the small beach town she calls home, to tell her she has changed their lives. “That’s what makes it all worth it, to know that people get it,” says Jett. “I’ve had many people tell me that my music has saved their life. That’s the ultimate compliment. I owe those fans to give it all I’ve got. I yearn for connection with the audience, to let them know we are the same, with desires, fears, trials, pain, lessons to learn. It’s just the path that’s different. But not that different.”
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tevie Nicks may appear to have a complicated and ambivalent relationship with Fleetwood Mac, but you’d be hard-pressed to find a greater public proponent for the band. Since 1981 the writer and singer of Rhiannon, Dreams, Sara and many more has juggled a successful solo career alongside being in the group and has sometimes frustrated her bandmates with her priorities. But Nicks still swears allegiance to the Mac and is always ready to add a new chapter to the saga – when it fits.
You maintain an active and successful solo career, as well as membership in Fleetwood Mac. What’s the allure of doing both? Solo work and Fleetwood Mac is a really great thing to be able to go back and forth to. You can do your own thing until you get bored and then you can go to the other thing and do that until you start to get bored, and then you can go back to the other thing. It helps you stay more excited and uplifted for what you do so you’re not just doing one thing year after year.
It keeps it fresh, in other words.
After going from small fry to big Mac, now she balances the band and a solo career. Interview: Gary Graff
Basically, what we are is entertainers. When we go on stage we’re performers. That’s what we do. Even if this band had never made it big, we’d be playing all the clubs. So it isn’t a question of keeping it fresh, it’s that we’re doing what we love and we don’t have anything else, basically, to do.
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utch singer Floor Jansen joined symphonic metal band After Forever in 1997 when she was just 16. She went on to form ReVamp, before fronting genre titans Nightwish from 2013. Her first album with them was their most recent, 2015’s Endless Forms Most Beautiful . The band are currently on a year out, and Floor is focusing on motherhood following the birth of her daughter, Freya. March sees the release of a two-disc Nightwish compilation, Decades.
When did you realise that you could sing? I was about fourteen years old and I joined the school musical, Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat . I started to work on one of the main characters and I could just sing it all!
Why did you decide to continue singing?
The Nightwish vocalist on finding her voice, finding herself and motherhood. Interview: Eleanor Goodman 38 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
I was the teased child, the very insecure one, so I didn’t want to put myself on a stage in front of everybody,but the musical brought me out and gave me a social network. So it was the start of a different chapter in my life. Looking back, I can really say I found myself while I was singing. It gave me a confidence I never had before. I was born with a natural gift, and I love doing it.
How did you come to join Nightwish? Back in 2002, After Forever did a tour with Nightwish, so the contacts were there.
What’s the most difficult adjustment when you move between the two? From the very beginning, when I was seventeen, I wanted to be in a band. When you’re in a band you’re a team. When I’m in solo work, I’m the boss. I have gone back and forth about it in my head. I’ve decided I do like being the boss, but I’ve been in Fleetwood Mac for so long I understand how to not be the boss and be part of a team and a team player and it’s okay. Part of it knocks your ego down, makes you humble. So there’s a lot of good things about being in a band.
Your solo commitments often seem to go on longer than they were initially expected to, which frustrates a lot of the band’s fans -- and maybe your bandmates? A big band like Fleetwood Mac needs to get out of the spotlight, so that’s what we’ve done. We should always be off the road for three years, because when we come back it’s an event. I think that’s very important. There’s a lot of famous bands and a lot of important people out, and you’re going to make a choice of which ticket to buy, and if you haven’t seen one of them for three years or more then that’s going to be at the top of the list. It feels more special. And being away from each other for three years is good. It really sets you up for a good time because everything’s new and everybody’s got new stories and everybody’s been doing crazy, different things, so when you
When things went really south with Anette [Olzon, singer from 2007 to 2012], they called me and said: “Could you come and finish this North American tour, could you come today, and do you know the songs? And by the way, it’s a ninety-minute set.” They called me on Saturday, I travelled on Sunday, and Monday was our first show.
What was going through your mind when you got the call? It was a vast range of emotions. There’s not much time to think when the biggest band in the genre calls you and for real says: “Would you like to join?” The immediate answer is yes, and then comes the consequences of an answer like that. And it happened right after I had a burnout. I was out of business for over a year and a half at that point, so I was slightly out of practice. So it was really jumping back into the deep end. I think that was the best thing that could have happened to me.
Have you spoken to Anette or Tarja [Turunen, original vocalist] about how Nightwish was for them? No, we never really went there. I know Tarja better than Anette. She sent me a very nice email when I joined the band to wish me all the best of luck, but I didn’t pick her brain on anything else because things weren’t particularly warm. The same goes for Tarja.
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walk into rehearsal that first day everyone’s really happy to see each other. If we toured every other year it wouldn’t be like that.
With all the available material, how does the band put together a set-list? Everyone comes in with their big list of songs that they think we should try. We sit around a table with acoustic guitars and a little keyboard and we just start playing all the songs we might not always do, and some of the songs we maybe haven’t done for fifteen years. There’s about ten songs, the hit songs, that we have to do, and that leaves us ten more. So you start going through Tusk, going through Rumours, going through Fleetwood Mac and Mirage and Tango In The Night and you find a few songs everybody’s wanted to do but never actually suggested, and you play them and pretty soon you start to see the right twenty songs somewhere on the horizon.
You’re back to a three-writer collaboration in Fleetwood Mac. How has that process worked historically in the band? Christine [McVie] wrote most of the singles. She was the pop writer. And then Lindsey would get into the production, which is what he does, and he would try to pull that pop out of her, so what would be left was a great pop song with a real great, [sings] ‘Say that you love me…’ Lindsey and I do what we do, and when you put the three together you have Fleetwood Mac.
You’re currently on a year out from Nightwish, focusing on family life. Does the idea of motherhood seem at odds with the idea of being a rock star? I don’t know what a rock star is, but I don’t think I am one. It’s the life of being out on the road. It’s the life of being busy with yourself, basically, just like everybody with a career. And the more you chase your career, the more selfish in a sense you actually are. It doesn’t need to be negative per se. But when you become a parent, a big part of you becomes a part of your child. And that is a very interesting transition.
How have you coped with the transition? I wrote a song a few years ago with my Dutch band, ReVamp, called Wolf And Dog . It’s about this life, the life you have at home, with family and friends. It usually comes with a routine, it’s warm and comfortable. That’s where the dog is lying on the couch and liking its routine. Then there’s the wolf, the hunter, the one that goes out and chases shows. The wolf and the dog are both a part of me, and they both need their share. And if there’s a balance between the two of them, then I have a balance. When you become a parent, it becomes even more important. Decades is out on March 9 via Nuclear Blast. Nightwish tour Europe and the U K from May 18.
Blues hotshots used to be all guys. Not any more. Interview: Henry Yates
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ne day 18 years ago, Joanne Shaw Taylor finished her day at school in Birmingham, then travelled to London to play at the famous Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club. It was the first rung of a dizzying ascent for the young singer/ guitarist. Taken under the wing of former Eurythmics man Dave Stewart, then signing to German blues-cub specialists Ruf Records, Shaw Taylor has since turned in five albums of smoky-voiced, soul-onsleeve blues rock – and almost shaken off the stigma of being young and blonde in an older man’s genre.
If you were editing this issue, who would you put on the cover? Joan Jett would be up there. I’ve always liked her, since I was a kid. For me it’s because there weren’t many female players that played like boys, and managed to be sexy, but without trying to advertise the fact they were female. Joan was kind of androgynous – well, she was punk, I suppose – and more masculine and ballsy. What advice would you give your twentytwo-year-old self? Stop being so anxious. I was always a worrier. I look back and think: “Most of your friends are pissed-up at university, drinking away their student fund, so I wouldn’t worry about it, love.” Your rise seems fantastical. Presumably there have been harder moments too? Yeah. Early on it went great with the Dave Stewart thing. But then I was left without a deal and had to move back in with my parents. I’d have to take bar work to subsidise myself. It wasn’t really until Diamonds In The Dirt, the second
album, where I could stop. I never minded working for a living, but around then it got a bit soul-destroying.
Have you ever caught yourself acting like a rock star? No. I’ve caught myself acting like a grump – when it’s six in the morning, you’ve had two hours’ sleep and your drummer won’t shut up. You’re close friends with Joe Bonamassa. How did that come about? I did a festival with him in Norway about ten years ago. He was trying to show me some Les Pauls. I just stood there quietly, and eventually just went: “I don’t like Les Pauls, I play Telecasters.” Apparently he was quite impressed with my crankiness. Living in Detroit, what do you miss about Britain – rain, pubs, Pot Noodle…? I don’t need Pot Noodles because my tour manager carries them in bulk wherever we go in the world. You can take the boy out of Redditch… I do miss the pubs. Walking to the pub on a Sunday and having a drink and a Sunday roast. They have a great bar culture in America, but they don’t have a pub culture. What’s the most annoying question you get asked in interviews? I suppose it’s the token: “What’s it like to be a female guitar player?” Well, I’ve never been a male one, so I have nothing to compare it to and, shockingly, my ovaries don’t dictate my guitar tone. So I should imagine it’s pretty similar, really . Shaw Taylor is currently working on the follow-up to her 2016 album Wild. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 39
money and profit and corporate interests – it’s more important than the comfort of people and the well-being of human beings, and I really object to that. I wanted to say something about it. When I looked at these horses I did feel a legitimate panic; if we continue to go down this road, and only value things that make a lot of money, we’re gonna lose everything that’s of any importance to our culture whatsoever.
Are people capable of thinking differently? Oh God, of course. Human beings are capable of anything, good and bad. And I do believe that human beings will figure out how to survive. Because they have to. How much of the blame do you put on the rise of social media? I’m talking more about political attitudes and the men in power – and I use the word ‘men’ deliberately. Power is always going to exist, but let’s at least make it multicultural or multi-gender. It’s all old white men, at least in America right now. There’s a smattering of colour and women, but that’s about it. I don’t think we can blame the internet for all our ills. Great things have come with the internet and horrific things have come with the internet. We have to learn how to negotiate it. When Garbage started in the nineties it was the freaks and outcasts leading things. Is that how you remember it? I can’t answer that. When you’ve lived through an era, it’s impossible to look back and know for sure whether you’re being objective. But the last couple of decades have all felt so conservative. I’ve had the honour of reading an advance copy of [former Hole drummer] Patty Schemel’s autobiography, and reading all these incredible stories from that period, I thought: “God, when did it all get so vanilla and safe and uninteresting?” Cos that’s what it feels like, at least in mainstream culture.
The Garbage frontwoman with the ‘fuck you’ attitude and an undying belief in the power of rock’n’roll. Interview: Dave Everley
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hirley Manson has spent three decades kicking down the doors of rock’n’roll’s boys’ club. She joined her first band, Scottish alt.poppers Goodbye Mr Mackenzie, in the 80s, but it was with Garbage that she made her name. In the macho bull pen that was mid-90s alt.rock, Manson stood apart – funny, combustible, allergic to bullshit, she was one of the era’s most charismatic stars. Today she’s older and wiser but no less opinionated.
Garbage co-headlined a tour with Blondie last summer. What was that like? It was fantastic. It was sort of like the best summer camp you can imagine – to get to go on tour with someone I very much 40 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
What do the two bands have in common? I think it’s an attitude more than anything. A ‘fuck you’ attitude.
What about you? Were you self-conscious when you started out? I wasn’t remotely confident. I just powered through, because that’s how I was raised. I grew up in Scotland in the seventies, and there was no place for self-doubt or self-examination in that place.
Garbage released a new song, No Horses , last year, which was inspired by you driving past a field and wondering what the world would be like if there were no more horses. It painted an apocalyptic view of the future. Obviously it’s an allegory – it’s not specifically about the eradication of all horses [laughs]. But there is a world order currently that focuses purely on making
Are you still self-conscious? Generally speaking, I’ve stopped giving a fuck. But I’d be a monster if I didn’t have a streak of self-doubt. I think it’s important that human beings question their actions. It’s good to question yourself as long as it’s not paralysing you. And I think I was paralysed back then. I’m not paralysed now.
respect and admire, and is something of a beacon for any woman, let alone a woman like me. It was really inspiring.
Shirley Manson: singer, musician, actor, rock cheerleader.
Why do you think that is? I’ve been bleating on about this. I think everybody’s quite self-conscious because of social media, and self-consciousness has never been great for good art.
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Well you put on a good act. That’s the whole artifice of humanity, right? Nothing is ever what it seems. Did the music industry try to turn you into something you weren’t? Oh yes.
Garbage: (clockwise from top left) Steve Marker, Duke Erikson, Shirley Manson, Butch Vig.
How did you resist it? I’m very lucky. My father is an intellectual, an academic. He was – and still is – a really dominant character. Wonderful, but dominant. And I grew up railing against that. I was the middle child, I was the rebel in the family. I honed all my skills across the dinner table, conversing with my father when I was young. So I’m used to navigating record companies and lawyers. Garbage went on hiatus in the mid-00s, and you started working on a solo album. Why was it never released? The band got dropped, but the label held on to me because they wanted to keep me. They thought I could be – quote unquote – an international pop star. They said I could be the Annie Lennox of my generation. No disrespect to Annie at all, but I’m myself. That offended me deeply.
struggling, now she will do our bidding.” They picked the wrong huckleberry, because I was even more adamant that I wouldn’t be shaped by them.
Were you on the ropes? You worked with Greg Kurstin, “When people say Of course. It was heartbreaking. I think I was maybe thirty-nine, who has since become a hugely rock is dead I just forty, and I was thinking: “I’m successful producer. fucked. I’m a woman in the music He put this incredible band want to laugh industry, I can’t fix this.” I was together, and we were going to very negative about it. As it turns record an album in five days for, in their face.” out, I was really wrong. I allowed like, ten thousand dollars. But conventional ideas about women the label refused point blank to and their age to affect my thinking – it was do it. They didn’t want me going in with a really destructive and damaging. Luckily producer they didn’t feel was famous. It’s enough I’m a truculent enough asshole to so stupid. They don’t have a clue. They only eventually go: “Fuck this, I’m going to do value what makes money. And that shifts it at whatever level I can, and I don’t care if and changes and morphs. I’m not famous.” I genuinely meant it. I didn’t care. But of It’s ridiculous that they thought they could Colourful Garbage: course, when you’ve been really successful mould you into something you’re not. Shirley Manson on and that success starts to slide, it is painful. I think it’s because they thought: “Aha, stage in Belgium in 1995. Yes, it’s frightening. But you adjust. we have her on the ropes, her band are Garbage reconvened in 2010. How have the past few years been different from the way it was before? It’s complicated. You’re talking about four people with four egos who have grown at different rates, in different directions, have gone to different places, literally. It’s very different, and yet not. And also I feel like I’ve changed enormously since I began working with Garbage. I was a kid when they met me.
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How have you changed? I’ve definitely become a more dedicated creative. I had very little self-belief, and I gave away all my power to the older men I worked with who were famous and had been given the crown by the culture. I have more of that self-belief. Has the music industry changed? It depends on how you look at it. Of course, the main focus is on making
money, and I get that. But what makes money always changes. Over the last two decades we’ve been inundated with massmarketed mainstream pop. But I feel it’s changing. Everyone’s a little bored with all the pop stars that look the same and dress the same and sound the same and say the same things. I see a rise again in the subculture of alternative rock and pop – the ‘alt’ world seems to be rising again. It’s probably the only upside to having Donald Trump in power – it means the subcultures have work to do. And that’s great for art.
Have things changed for women in the music industry? It depends on what day you and I speak. If I’m feeling optimistic, I’d say: “Yes, things have vastly changed.” I’ve just come off a tour where we were co-headlining with a seventy-two-year-old woman who’s playing in a band with loud guitars and is still coming from a rock’n’roll perspective. Is that new? I’d say so. At the same time, if you and I spoke on a day where I was feeling a little down, I would probably say nothing has changed and nothing will change until we change the way we fundamentally look at our culture. Nothing will change until we start truly fighting for equality – racial equality, gender equality. Music is ultimately a reflection of culture. Do you think music still has the power to change things? I think music still has the power to affect people, and therefore will always have an influence, no matter what. Certainly alternative rock doesn’t wield the power it once did, but that’s not to say it won’t change again. When people say to me: “Rock is dead,” I just want to laugh in their face. Fuck you, you ignorant arsehole. Fuck off. You’re boring the shit out of me. Garbage play two dates at Brixton Academy in September. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 41
in for some criticism for its poppier side. Is there a temptation to go the other way with the next record? We pride ourselves on wearing our emotions on our sleeve, and we follow whatever gets us excited at the time. With the last record we weren’t really sure what it was going to sound like at the time, because we decided not to have a plan. But this next record, will probably be our most rock’n’roll to date. We’re getting not overthinking it. It’s basically the four of us in a room, like it was in the very beginning of Halestorm in my parents’ basement. You’ve become something of a go-to guest singer for rock and metal heavyweights (Corey Taylor, Slash, Black Stone Cherry…). Is there anyone else you’d like to collaborate with? There’s always a running list. I’ve never done anything with the Heart sisters and I definitely would love to do that. Amy Lee [Evanescence] and I have been talking about it for about five years. One of these days we’ll get that going on together. Having started piano lessons when you were five, you picked up the guitar at sixteen. What inspired that? When we started the band, I started watching these old VHS tapes that my parents’ friends would give me, so I had Scorpions and Cinderella’s Night Songs, a collection of their videos. I would watch these and be like: “Man, I have, like, a keytar right now; it is not cool. I wanna be a badass” [laughs]. Shortly after that, one of our first guitar players, who was in the band for about six months, had to leave. My sixteen-year-old self was like: “Alright, we’re probably not going to find another guitar player, I might as well learn.” I wanted to do that anyway.
From rural backwater gigging to being the go-to female rock guest, her journey – and that of her band, Halestorm – is still evolving. Interview: Polly Glass
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t feels like it’s been about six different lifetimes,” Lzzy Hale says, laughing warmly, chatting shortly after the 20th anniversary of Halestorm, the band she co-founded – when she was just 13 – with her drummer brother Arejay. “I haven’t matured much, I’ll say that, but I’ve learned more.” All leather, terrifying heels and huge beaming mouth, Hale, now 33, is striking
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yet unfailingly sweet – and arguably the most archetypal female rock star working today (in the classic, Joan Jett-rivalling sense). We caught up with her on a break from recording Halestorm’s fourth, currently untitled, album, working with Foo Fighters producer Nick Raskulinecz.
Halestorm’s previous album, Into The Wildlife , was well-received but also came
One of the band’s first gigs was at a local show in which you came second to a tapdancing cowgirl. Is that as rock’n’roll as things got in Red Lion, Pennsylvania? We were definitely more unusual. There were a couple of things that you could do in that town: you could work at the local pizza shop, or you could work on the surrounding farms. So I spent most of my young adult life growing up on a twentyacre farm and we baled hay, and Dad had chickens and sheep and all that stuff. Then the band started, and we were literally selling off some of our animals to buy gear. Our first trailer to carry our equipment in to the gigs was the donkey trailer. Because of the band members’ ages, a lot of your early gigs were in places like ice cream parlours and coffee shops. Oh, absolutely. Our first bar that we ever performed at was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, called the Rusty Nail. I was fifteen, and the rule was that I couldn’t be anywhere near the bar, but I could be in the corner for happy hour. So we would play the lunch hour. I recently heard back from
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one of the promoters and he said: “A lot of these club owners chose you over another local band that could bring in a [bigger] crowd because you were really nice people.” So that was a big blessing with us; we’re not going to trash the dressing room, we just want to rock. And we’ve carried that mentality through.
Apparently your dad made a contraption to lift your brother and his drum kit up in the air? [Laughs] When we were starting out as a band we were trying to figure out some way to stand out from everyone else. So we started looking at old music tapes, and a lot of them were from the seventies and eighties. My little brother said to me: “What about a rotating upside-down drum kit?” My dad is a mechanic, so he was like: “Hmm… let me see if I can figure this out.” One of his friends got these donated old steel beams from a junkyard, and we ended up making a platform, putting it on to two steel pipes, and used an old tractor axle to rotate it round, and then we bolted an old drum kit of Arejay’s on there. They added a seat and old Ford seat-belts and literally buckled him in. It was all manual. Arejay was “I about ninety pounds at that point, so he didn’t weigh much.
maybe there’s a couple of people that will be like: “Oh, well, he’s living his life out on the road, eating more tacos than everybody else,” and then kind of move on. Whereas the view with girls, whether they end up losing or gaining weight, is that there must be a problem. So in that sense it hasn’t really changed much over the years, and I think it’s more of a personal decision as to how to ignore it. I just had a conversation really wanted online [about this] with a couple people. I like opening things up. to be like Freddie of People are going to criticise you, Mercury and just you know they are. If you put something out on the internet get out there and there’s always going to be two sides to it, and it’s important for people kick ass.” to see that.
Did he ever fall out? He never fell out, but we always made sure everything was taken care of before every show. But I will say that over one summer Arejay got really tall and his head did get a little close to the floor now and then. We still have pieces of it in our warehouse, for nostalgia purposes.
Your dad was your bassist at the start when you needed bass for your first studio recordings. What are the best and worst things about having your dad in your band? It’s a typical teenage story. You start out and you’re like: “Yeah, dad is so cool. He’s, like, in our band.” Then you get a year or two older and you’re like: “You know, it’s kind of lame being in a band with your dad.” No offence to my dad, he’s a sweet guy, but as a teenager I was like: “I’m hanging out way too much with my dad” [laughs]. I had both of my parents working for me for a long time, though, even after we got signed and throughout the first record cycle. I’m really glad I did, because it let them in a little bit, like: “Hey, you know what, you enabled this to happen.”
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Rock stars have long been admired for their sex appeal. But when a woman in rock uses her sexuality it tends to create controversy. What are your thoughts? It’s interesting, because the majority of time I’m hanging out with a bunch of boys, so I see how it affects us on both sides. If a guy fluctuates in his weight,
Above: Halestorm with brother and drummer Arejay (second left). Below: a lean, mean, Joan Jettrivalling rock machine in 2017.
You don’t sensationalise things. For example, your bisexuality came to light almost in passing on Twitter, rather than via a big ‘coming out’ statement. In the past six years or so I’ve got really comfortable with myself. I’ve learned that the things I thought were really important aren’t, and things that I didn’t think were important that now are. So yeah, there’s just no real need for me to make a grandiose gesture about it. But if somebody’s going to ask, I’m not going to lie. Because they’re so exposed through social media, are today’s rock stars ‘role models’ more than before? I would hope so. Personally I don’t set out to be, you know, a ‘role model’, but I’m not blind and I’m aware that I’m in a position where I have a choice: I can put out debauchery and negativity, or I can promote positivity and empowerment and encouragement. So I choose the positivity. Is the public-facing Lzzy very different to the off-stage one? I think that the Lzzy that I am on stage is an extension of some of who I am, but in all honesty it’s taken being in this band to get to
that point. I wasn’t a very outgoing child, I was kind of shy. So I keep referring to myself as a reformed introvert, but it took band therapy to get there. I mean, even early on I really wanted to be like Freddie Mercury and just get out there and kick ass. Inside I felt like I could do it, but then I’d get up on stage and I would have a really hard time looking at people. That just took playing out a lot, and conquering some internal battles. I’m not a very controversial person in my normal day-to-day life. I like my quiet days, as well as the times when we all are hanging and partying, so there’s a balance to it now.
Since you’ve become successful, what has been your biggest waste of money? I live in Nashville, near a lake now, and we go fishing a lot. I justify it because it’s a very calming situation; when you’re fishing you’re not thinking about anything but trying to catch a fish. When we were growing up I was quite outdoorsy, so I loved camping and fishing and stuff with my dad. Then I got my first house last year and thought: “You know what I have to get back into.” We could open up a bait and tackle shop, I think. The pace of success in rock’n’roll for bands has changed completely since the seventies, when it was far more commonplace for a band to rise from nothing to stardom in a minute, and now it takes years of ‘paying your dues’ for just about everyone. Has that frustrated you along the way, or have you enjoyed every moment? I remember [in the early days] we were touring in a seven-seater conversion van, eating tortilla chips and peanut butter for lunch, because that’s what we had. And I remember discussing that with the guys, and we’d say: “Yeah, but we’re going to do a gig, and there’s a glory in the action of doing it.” It’s always been a slow ride for us. But in hindsight, even if it was a ‘one step forward two step back’ kind of situation, at least we would always continue to move forward. If I could go back and do it again I probably would do it the same way. It’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 43
In 1978, a 19-year-old Catholic girl from South London reconfigured the rock landscape. Forty years on, her strange phenomenon endures. Words: Chris Roberts
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t’s three months after the release of Never Mind The Bollocks, and a 19-yearold Catholic girl from a south-east London suburb who shares a birthday with author Emily Brontë is singing about Heathcliff and Cathy as she wafts about on Top Of The Pops, the embodiment of gothic romance, generally giving it plenty of interpretive dance and jazz hands. Wuthering Heights, her debut single in January 1978, had its release date pushed back because the singer was unhappy with the photograph on the sleeve. Fortunately this means it avoids being smothered by Wings’ all-conquering Christmas singalong Mull Of Kintyre. Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights also sees off competition from another female singer’s UK chart debut – Denis by Blondie – to reach No.1, displacing ABBA, in March. It stays there for a month. We have let her in at our window. Kate Bush has defied the laws of logic, gravity and punk. And she would continue to do so. A huge chunk of time later it’s March 2014, and Kate Bush announces an epic 22-night, August-October residency at Hammersmith Apollo in London, the venue of her last gig, 35 years previously. Tickets sell out in 15 minutes, and that autumn she becomes the first female ever to have eight albums in the UK Top 40 simultaneously. Only The Beatles and Elvis have ever topped that tally; Bowie’s death later adds him to the list. The shows are the buzz event of the year, even before they’ve Kate on the Tour taken place. When they do, she owns every followed a few weeks later. She had written Of Life, January 1, most of the songs on it in her mid-teens. front page, even though she barely plays 1979: a most They were rich with pretentious references any of her hits. All this despite a reclusive, egg-straordinary (in this case a good thing), mentioning off-camera relationship with publicity that rock show. could best be described as ‘sparing’. Brontë and Gurdjieff with that manner of unselfconscious earnestness exhibited Kate Bush is now established as both by young people who haven’t read many a national treasure and an enduring books but have therefore reacted really enigma. In a career in which she has usually done the opposite of the rational intensely to the ones that they have. Which is how most of us reacted to Bush’s music. thing, she has maintained stellar status There was, at the time, a striking as a much-loved musical pioneer, transcending her initial pigeonhole as novelty to her upfront expressions of lust and eroticism through the a kooky hippie girl with a highfemale gaze. You can sweat the pitched voice. An imperishable ‘In an era when details, cite Bessie Smith and influence on subsequent female artists, sure, and then some, Joni Mitchell, but it wasn’t yet punk was on the the norm. And in an era when yet Bush has primarily been significant beyond gender, her rise, Bush was – at punk was on the rise, she was – at least technically – its very art and attitude a nudge to all least technically – antithesis. Her moods, chords idiosyncratic creative types theatricality (mentored by who don’t follow formulae. its very antithesis.’ and Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour) had She remains her own entity, and we grant her the awe – and more in common with prog. Her songs swooned and sighed with romance occasionally forgiveness – afforded to and yearning – not a current hot ticket. the truly unique. She has even survived What she did share with punk was a free describing Theresa May as “wonderful”. The rules, and common sense, go out of spirit, a doing-her-own-thing drive – the same young generation who queued to get the window in Kate Bush World. How did gobbed on at Damned gigs embraced her. she pull this off? Gilmour was thrilled by his young ate Bush was always something protégé’s success. “Kate is a complete oneof a prodigy. Forty years ago this off,” he said. “I can’t think of anyone like January, Wuthering Heights, the first her. Joni Mitchell was also a one-off, an ever British No.1 self-written by a female original, but Kate is nothing like that.” singer, brought a fresh and candid voice That debut was averse to self-editing; it to music. Her debut album The Kick Inside was both unfettered and rhapsodic. Urges,
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fevers, visions, unfiltered. She somehow transcended the mundane categories of the here and now. She was atypical, not topical. Pansexual. We all know what an impressive musical career she’s gone on to have, keeping that differentness, that individualism. Along the way she’s evolved from TV light-entertainment regular and accidental sex symbol to arguably the most enigmatic recluse in the business, one who marches to her own eccentric drum beat. “Every female you see at a piano is either Lynsey de Paul or Carole King,” Bush told Melody Maker in 1977. “And most male music – not all of it, but the good stuff – really lays it on you. It really puts you against the wall. And that’s what I like to do. I’d like my music to intrude. Not many females succeed with that.” Her ‘intrusions’ are often Trojan horses, dark themes hosted by sweet melodies, a charm of charisma. She has become one of the most invaluable figures in British music, and has done so chiefly by being herself. Or, in earlier years, by being herself while inhabiting various characters. Then hiding herself away and letting us project on to the indelible impression she had made already. Bowie, to name the most blatant example, used a similar sleight of image, but it’s a tightrope act, this blend of striking personae and blank canvas. As motherhood induced a 12-year gap between Bush albums, maybe this happened, in part, without a plan. Even after revealing her hand at those 2014 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 45
Hammersmith concerts after being for so long a myth, a fable, she remains a mystery, an evergreen enchantment. We raise our hats to the strange phenomenon. Back in April 1979, her six-week firstever tour drew reviews remarking upon her “unabashed obsession with sex” and complaints that “you’re distracted by Katy [sic] being wheeled around in a giant, satin-lined chocolate box”. Others praised “the best welding of rock and theatrical presentation that we’re ever likely to see”. Bush’s opinion was: “It was lovely.” Tour programmes cost £1.50; there was “magic, mime and illusion”. Incorporating dancers, props, magic and 17 costume changes, the show, while radical for its era, was perhaps primitive compared to her 21st-century comeback. Yet even on a purely technical level, it broke new ground. As Bush was often being lifted up and carried around by her dancers, she didn’t always have hands free to hold a microphone. “So my sound guy basically invented the radio mics you see nowadays,” she said. “He made it out of an old coat-hanger, which he bent out of shape.” At the 2014 shows the calm reserve of most critics was bent out of shape, the most hardened observers gasping as 46 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
fell through a cavity and died of his injuries days later. This had a big impact on Bush. She mentions him in two later songs: 1980’s Blow Away and 1993’s unbearably poignant Moments Of Pleasure. Also, she had become increasingly uncomfortable with the emphasis on her sexuality and the necessary promotional rigmarole. So she and her close-knit family took greater control of her management and business affairs and she stepped back to move forward, evolving into more of a studio animal. The more she retreated and played hard to get outside her luxuriant videos, the further her legend stretched. “Artists shouldn’t be made famous,” she mused in 1980. “Y’know, they’re just as important as, um, doctors, priests… or maybe not as important. And yet they have this huge aura of almost a god-like quality about them, just because their craft makes a lot of money. And… it’s a forced importance, like football stars or theatre stars. It’s man-made so the press can feed off it.” The irony is that as this Garbo talked less, the aura grew.
Magic, mime, progress in the world of tech meant we illusion and got a stage resembling a sea bed on which leg warmers in strange creatures roamed, and a spooky Amsterdam in living room with a sofa, lampshade and 1979; sharpshooting for James telly which materialised in the ocean. And The Cold Tour programmes may have cost a lot Gun in Paris; more than £1.50, but we saw a blindingly The Dreaming bright lighting rig swoop in and out ach of her albums offered up recording sessions a filmic fantasy world, a riddle, of the audience, making rotator-blade begin in 1982. a conjuration. Lionheart, recorded noises, which was half terrifying and half thrilling. Later, there was a pastoral scene as a rushed follow-up to The Kick Inside, may wallow in fairy-story camp at times, with painters, wild birds, mannequins, a and even suggest a peculiarly dated moon and, as a grand finale, Kate patriotism (hmm, her politics), sprouting wings and flying. It was “Kate is a a magical mash-up of The Glass but it still captures the sound of sunlight streaming Spider and The Wall, except that complete one-off. afternoon through your window. It’s a world it was like nothing else on earth. There were reasons why Kate I can’t think of of wide-eyed wow with just a didn’t tour for so long in her youth, streak of Hammer horror. Never anyone like her.” For Ever released swans, cats and why it took so long for her to retake whales from beneath her skirt (at the live stage. Part of her motivation David Gilmour now was wanting to involve her son least on the cover art) and dropped references to François Truffaut and Bertie, to launch his musical career Henry James, brewing left-field hits in (she hoped) and, being a proud mum, showcase his vocal talent. (In truth, most Army Dreamers and Babooshka and, in the of the audience found him an irritation.) eerie womb-like microcosm of Breathing, indicating how much deeper and heavier But she’d stepped away for more than three into the psyche she was prepared to probe. decades for other causes than parenthood. The Tour Of Life had been marred by After self-producing 1982’s experimental tragedy. Her lighting engineer, Bill Duffield, The Dreaming, which visited topics such
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still she’s cool. There was that dozen-year motherhood gap, then in 2005 the surprise comebacks began. “For the last twelve years I’ve felt really privileged to be living such a normal life,” she said at the time. “It’s so important to me to do the washing, the hoovering. Friends of mine in the business don’t know how dishwashers work. For me that’s frightening. I want to be in a position where I can function as a human being.” She is commendably grounded, the opposite of our image of her, but we still willed Bush to take flight. This she did in Above: the ‘kooky as Vietnam, Houdini and indigenous spells on Aerial. It presented effectively hippie girl’ grows Australians (Peter Gabriel was by now two albums – A Sea Of Honey and A Sky Of up with 1980’s a friend and collaborator), she built Honey – which were rich with birdsong, Babooshka. Above a lyric about a washing machine and, in the a studio in her farmhouse barn. We right: a live return in 2014 with owe this barn some of the period’s stunning Nocturn/Aerial , an addictive neoBefore The Dawn. most elevated musical moments. 1985’s techno-rave construction which suggested she had a radio in that barn of hers. million-selling Hounds Of Love yields her She seemed to have the feel for recording best-loved yet most innovative uphill run of cloudbusting singles, and still finds again, rushing out 2011’s Director’s Cut (a muddled reworking of earlier time for an unabashed full-on songs, inferring the versions conceptual prog suite. As the video age peaked, we’d loved for years were wonky “I’d like my music her releases became events. and we were daft to adore them) to intrude. Not and 50 Words For Snow. These 1989’s The Sensual World – erotic, later albums had barren patches delirious and gauging its level many females of Joycean abandon perfectly and longueurs, but the universe – included a ‘Yes’ as physical and succeed with that.” was so pleased to have her back that reviewers said they were tactile as anything Marvin Gaye, brilliant anyway. The myth was Millie Jackson or the young Robert Plant had emitted. The Red Shoes, maintained. So when the live return was He’s here again: Kate with mentor announced… well, you recall the furore. which brought her into the 90s, is one of David Gilmour “For me to get into the creative process, her artistic peaks, from the bouncing-like– and Bob Geldof a-trampoline white funk of Rubberband I have to have a sort of quiet place that – at The Secret I work from,” she told Mark Radcliffe in Girl to Bush’s loftiest tearjerkers: Top Of Policeman’s Third Ball, 1987. 2005. “And if I was living the life of… a pop The City and Moments Of Pleasure. This pair are as brittle and fluid as you can get without actually collapsing, hence their huge emotional heft. Whenever Bush misfires – which happens – it’s worth remembering she can pull off miracles like these. Rather an erratic genius who might belly flop but might also leap over tall buildings in a single bound than a competent, uninspired jobsmith. We indulge all our favourites similarly, because we want the out-of-the-ordinary, the inimitable. Oh to be in love. Guest stars ranging from Prince, Elton John and Eric Clapton to Stephen Fry, Lenny Henry and (oh dear) Rolf Harris have made cameos on her records, yet
star or whatever, it’s too distracting. It’s too much to do with other people’s perceptions of who you are. What’s important to me is a human being who has a soul, and has a sense of who they are, not who everybody else thinks you are. And I think that’s something that’s very difficult for people who become extremely famous.” She added that she found the contemporary obsession with celebrities “ridiculous. It’s absolute crap… so shallow”. Perhaps in 2014 it felt to faithful fans like the return of a wizard, a true star. To non-converts it didn’t make sense that everyone was going nuts to get a ticket to see a 70s/80s icon in her mid-50s who had barely appeared in public for decades. And those spectacular Before The Dawn shows focused on her most intricate, lengthy album tracks, in the main ignoring crowd-pleasing hits. But almost everything about Kate Bush defies conventional reason. Those who routinely ridicule artiness and pretension make an exception for her. She’s very British, yet the British tick of sneering at the ‘different’ and their hifalutin ideas is set aside for her. People who profess to hate prog clasp their hands to their ears in denial if you point out how closely related her music and ideas, even her imagery, are to significant phases of Genesis and Floyd. Her influence on other singers, musicians and performers who have surfed her slipstream during four decades is immense. Again, it’s not just the overt – Tori Amos, PJ Harvey, avowed fan St Vincent. It’s foolishly reductive to list just female artists as her legacy, her debtors, when there are as many men who, emboldened by her footprints, desire and require autonomy to function best. Kate Bush’s genre is, essentially, Kate Bush. Among those who owe her are all those who like to stride or hide at their own pace, to make shapes that might seem awkward at first but will outlast cookie-cutter convention; those who are, you know, a bit ‘out there’. She spoke once of sometimes feeling like she was trying to open a door with the wrong key. “So I changed the key and the door began to open.” It has stayed ajar since, and those smart enough and bold enough will always push on through and go running up that hill. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 47
Advancement through hard work, in other words. Which is how in the 80s German singer Doro, whose work ethic helped her progress from roadie to singer, became the Queen Of Metal. Interview: Malcolm Dome
oro (born Dorothee Pesch in Düsseldorf) has long been regarded as the Queen of Metal. Ever since she first came to prominence in 1984, as the frontwoman with German band Warlock when their debut album, Burning The Witches, was released, she has proven herself to be a powerful and individual vocalist. Her dedication to metal has never wavered, whether with Warlock or, more recently, as a solo performer. No wonder she has a reputation as an inspiration for the next generation of female singers and musicians.
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When did you first realise you could sing? I would have been two or three years old. My father was a truck driver, and I spent a lot of time with him as he drove around. He would always play the radio very loudly, and I sang along. People soon got to know that I had a very loud voice. I just fell in love with music, and for me the turning point was hearing Lucille by Little Richard. I was three, and it took me over the edge. What made you want to be in a band? That came from the fact that I was an only child, and wanted to interact with others. At school during our music lessons I was the one person who was happy to stand in front of everyone and sing – very loudly. Other than singing, have you ever done anything else in a band? I was a roadie for a while before becoming a vocalist. I used to carry around the bassist’s equipment, which was really hard work. Then in my first band, Snakebite, I had to drive the tour bus. Well, it wasn’t strictly a bus, more a van. But I did all the driving. What all this taught me was to have a sense of responsibility, which I still have. Do you find it easy to be the boss? I would never describe myself as the boss. But I am the one who always oversees everything, and I am willing to do whatever it takes to get things done properly. But it does not mean I see myself as more important than anyone else. Because I take on the responsibility of ensuring things run smoothly, the guys in the band can relax and have a drink. But that’s fine.
How do you keep your voice in shape? I have an oil I use to lubricate my throat when on tour, but that’s it. I never warm up before a gig. That’s something I took from Ronnie James Dio, who never felt the need to warm up his voice prior to performing.
the bar was full of rednecks, with no sign of any true fans. There was also no stage and no PA. He was really worried for our safety. Reluctantly I agreed. Then I got a message that the promoter and twenty of his ‘friends’ were coming to the motel with baseball bats, keen to see the singer who’d What’s the worst gig you’ve ever done? cancelled the gig because she was sick! We The first one with Snakebite. It was – band, crew – were all so worried at a place called the Rose & Crown that we climbed out of our motel “I am willing to room windows and fled to the tour in Düsseldorf. This was in an era when punks and metalheads did bus; I had to leave behind all of my do whatever it not get on. There were a load of stage clothes and make-up, takes to get things grabbing just my jacket and punks there, and they did not like our music, so they invaded the We got on the bus just as done properly.” passport. stage, destroyed a lot of our gear the promoter’s gang turned up, and tried to break up our and they followed us for five hours instruments. It was awful. There was even before giving up. That was very scary. one very drunk punk who threatened us with a gun. Thankfully he passed out, and Do you still have any ambitions? that’s when we discovered the gun was Oh, yes. I’d love to compose music for loaded, so it could have been worse. movies. I’ve just done that for Anuk 3, and I really enjoyed the experience. It’s coming What’s the craziest thing that’s happened out on my own label, Rare Diamonds. to you on the road? I’ve just started this to put out special That was on an American tour, in Nevada. editions of my music. The first will be We were due to play a club when the tour a compilation of my German-language We are the manager called my motel room and said songs, featuring a new recording of David metalheads: Doro and fans. we had to cancel the performance because Bowie’s Heroes, in German. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 49
f we can judge a band by their famous friends, then Against Me! are clearly doing something right. Butch Vig is a long-time collaborator and supporter. Bruce Springsteen, Joan Jett and Foo Fighters are also champions of these punky, politically charged, emotionally raw rockers. Punk rock, claims the band’s founder, singer and guitarist Laura Jane Grace, taught her to question everything. Including her own gender. Grace founded Against Me! as a teenager in 1997, initially as a high-school solo project, and expanded it into a full band after moving to Gainesville in northern Florida when she was 18. Back then she was called Thomas James Gabel, an army brat who’d grown up on US military bases all over the world until his parents divorced acrimoniously when he was 11. Gabel was an angry kid drawn to the politicised rage of punk rock. But privately he also felt a queasy detachment from his male body, idolising Madonna as a role model more than any macho rock stars. As Against Me! began to make waves, he initially kept this gender dysphoria quiet, but began dropping heavy hints in song lyrics, which he sometimes wrote in secret while wearing women’s clothes. “The things that attracted me to punk rock were the anarchist politics,” explains the 36-year-old Grace, in Canada on the latest stop on Against Me!’s long North American tour. “Anti-racism, anti-homophobia, anti-patriarchy, antisexism. Maybe part of that was knowing that, okay, I’m a closeted transsexual. But regardless of whether that was a factor in my life, I hope I would have found those politics anyway.” Against Me! enjoyed their first surge of commercial success a decade ago with their major-label debut album New Wave in 2007, followed by White Crosses in 2010, the latter hitting No.34 on the Billboard chart. Both were produced by alt.rock legend and Garbage founder Butch Vig. “I consider Butch a dear friend, I respect the hell out of Butch,” Grace says. “I have a closer relationship with my producer than with my dad.” As Grace recalls in her archly titled 2016 memoir Tranny: Confessions Of Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout , the band were roundly criticised for signing to a major label. In 2007 she was even arrested following an altercation with a scornful ex-fan in a Florida coffee shop. By this point, Bruce Springsteen, with his son Evan, was a regular at Against Me! shows. Following the coffee shop confrontation, The Boss sent Grace a letter advising her to ignore the haters and keep dreaming big for the sake of the fans. “It blew my mind,” Grace recalls. “I talked about that in my book, and then his book came out at the same time, where he talks about meeting us and coming to our shows. Holy shit! We’re in Springsteen’s memoir! We’re written into rock’n’roll history!”
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She may be Punk Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout, but the Against Me! singer’s public transsexual transformation gives her a unique view of sexuality in today’s music industry. Words: Stephen Dalton
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In 2010, Grace moved to the small Florida backwater town of Saint Augustine with wife Heather and their newborn daughter Evelyn. On the surface, all was sunny in both her career and private life. But inside, the singer’s long-suppressed gender dysphoria had returned with a vengeance. She self-medicated with drugs and sex, both of which became unhealthy addictions. Something had to give. Grace finally came out as trans with a series of highly public interviews in 2012. She owed it to herself. “That was always the funny dichotomy I could never share with anyone,” she says. “People calling you a sell-out because your band signs to a major label, regardless of the fact that it was the same label the Ramones were on, and The Replacements, Echo And The Bunnymen, all these amazing bands. But at the same time feeling like a sell-out on your own, not being true to who you are because you’re afraid.” Interviewing transgender musicians is a delicate business. For example, it’s hard to discuss Against Me!’s past without ‘deadnaming’ Grace by referring to her previous male identity, which is deemed insulting in trans circles. She laughs at my fumbling, bumbling caution. “I hope people realise that trans people do that too,” she says. “Learning the etiquette is not something instilled in you as soon as you come out as trans. I’m still sometimes fucking up with that shit.” As one of a rare but growing community of musicians who has Y M experienced band life from both a male A L A : E and female perspective, Grace has become V I L ; S I increasingly attuned to the ingrained L L I W E misogyny that runs through the rock V A D / S scene, just as it does everywhere else in S E R P society, notably the pressure to “visually A R E M A prove” herself as a transgender woman. : M “For sure I feel pressure,” she says. T T B “The pressure of maybe having to measure
Against Me! (left) up in the same way, like any women True Trans, named after an Against Me! and Laura Jane would, with unrealistic beauty standards.” song, and on the band’s most recent Grace (above). Touring also throws up some specific albums Transgender Dysphoria Blues and daily niggles for Grace, including gendered Shape Shift With Me. toilets at festivals. “But I’ve been trying to But Grace doesn’t set herself up as really focus on the positive and see the a positive role model for all transgender good in how many awesome female artists people: there’s no painted smile, no there are working now, and saccharine showbiz spin. Is how many trans artists too. she still a teenage punk rocker I just think it’s really important “I want diversity – I at heart? to staging an awesome show. “I like to think I’m a little don’t want to see the smarter now,” she says. “I’m I want diversity – I don’t want to see the same fucking parent, and that really same f**king bands achanges bands on stage every night.” things when it’s not She also stresses the on stage every night.” just about you. It’s easy to be importance of gender nihilistic about yourself: ‘I’ll diversity in backstage roles, ride the whirlwind down to among tech crew and studio staff. She the apocalypse, let the world burn,’ and cites the example of Janet (formerly everything. But when you have a kid you James) Furman Bowman, a pioneer want them to have a chance, you know?” in recording technology who worked Grace admits that outing herself as with the Grateful Dead, among others. transgender has had both positive and “I don’t think people realise just how negative effects. Although indebted rock music is to transgender technically still married to people,” she says. “Every single studio Heather, their relationship has has a piece of equipment made by collapsed in ways she politely a transgender musician.” declines to discuss. Slumping Hard rock legend and queer after the triumphant media blitz icon Joan Jett is another famous of coming out, she also suffered friend who has supported Grace a minor nervous breakdown. during her ongoing transition. “I’m a real person,” she shrugs. “I’m forever thankful for “There are some areas of my life everything Joan has done for where I’m doing good and others me,” Grace says. “We first toured not so good. But everyone’s like together in 2006 on the Warped that, right? I talk a lot about it in my tour. I expected a secluded rock book, struggling with addictions star, but she hung and she was really and substances over the years. All cool. And years later, after I came out, your problems don’t disappear just she reached out and said: ‘Hey, if you because you come out as trans. I still need a friend, I’m here.’ have my issues, I’m still a fuck-up in I love Joan.” some ways, but I’m a lot better. I’m Since coming out, Grace has a work in progress. Ha!” addressed her trans experiences with Tranny: Confessions Of Punk refreshing directness, not just in her Rock’s Most Infamous Anarchist memoir but also on the Emmy Sellout is out now via Hachette. nominated 2014 internet TV show CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 51
ccording to Revolution drummer Bobby Z, Prince’s dream band was “a mixture of Fleetwood Mac and Sly & The Family Stone.” And in the early 1980s, when he brought in Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman, they made his dream come true, delivering the mystique of Stevie Nicks, the songwriting depth of Christine McVie and the musical chops of Sister Rose and Cynthia Robinson. On stage and in the studio, the duo were not just extensions of Prince, but also creative foils who inspired him to the heights of his most fertile and commercially successful period, including classic albums Purple Rain, Around The World In A Day and Parade. Both California girls, Wendy and Lisa came from music royalty parentage. Their dads were top LA session cats and members of the famed Wrecking Crew, who recorded with Frank Sinatra, the Beach Boys, John Lennon, Sonny & Cher and countless others. From them, the girls inherited their chameleonlike ability to provide the perfect parts for any song, regardless of groove or style. “We were absolute musical equals in the sense that Prince respected us, and
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The two muses of Prince who graduated to rock royalty in their own right. Words: Bill DeMain
Thrills, (Blues) Pills and literal bellyaches before striking Gold. Interview: Rob Hughes
hen it comes to female lead singers of the modern era, there are few more spectacular than Elin Larsson. She’s been fronting Blues Pills since 2011, leading the Sweden based quartet through a hail of heavy psychedelia, classic acid blues and strident soul. Last year’s revelatory Lady In Gold, their second album, was followed by a year of hard touring that established them as one of Europe’s most breathtaking live acts.
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Is it too early to ask about a follow-up to Lady In Gold? No. We’ve been doing demos and we’re almost finished setting up our own studio in Örebro, which we’ve been working on for a few years. The goal is to get it done, head out on the road again, then try to record the next album. Having the studio is definitely going to help Blues Pills a lot. We’ll have way more freedom – freedom to do whatever the fuck we want. 52 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
allowed us to contribute to the music without any interference,” Wendy told Mojo in 1997. “I think the secret to our working relationship was that we were very non-possessive about our ideas, as opposed to some other people that have worked with him. We didn’t hoard stuff, and were more than willing to give him what he needed. Men are very competitive, so if somebody came up with a melody line, they would want credit for it.” The duo broadened Prince’s horizons by introducing him to modern classical composers such as Stravinsky, Vaughan Williams and Ravel (“Prince played Bolero all the time,” Wendy said). And those nouveau sounds found their way into several songs: the jabbing string section that threads itself through the driving riff of Take Me With U was arranged by Lisa and her brother David, who plays cello on the track, and the startling baroque keyboard climax to When Doves Cry was Lisa’s influence. “I think I influenced When Doves Cry to the extent that Prince was engaged in a healthy competition with us,” Lisa later said. “He was always thinking: ‘How can I kick their ass?’”
Six years down the line, have you become more accustomed to the spotlight? Yeah, I feel way more comfortable. When Blues Pills first took off, I wasn’t prepared for it at all. It was a complete shock to me and I stopped eating. We’d play at these massive festivals and I’d be like: “Are we even worth this?” I couldn’t cope with it, really. But now I feel way better mentally. I’m stronger and I know what I’m doing. Going back to the formation of the band, after you lost your waitressing job, you went to California where you met bassist Zack Anderson. Was there a grand plan? Not really. If I hadn’t been that young and naïve, it wouldn’t have happened. But if you really want to become a musician, you have to throw yourself out there – there are no half measures. It can end up like shit or, thankfully, it can end up like us. Was there always music in your house when you were growing up? There was a lot of creativity. My mum had a small theatre and she wanted us to do stuff like that. We weren’t allowed to watch TV – we were supposed to paint or sing. It was way more creative than the typical Swedishupbringing. What might you have done if music hadn’t been a career option?
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The love affair came to an end in 1987. Although reasons are vague even now, it was undoubtedly Prince’s voracious need for change that split up the Revolution. At the time, Wendy told the LA Times: “If Prince hadn’t decided to break up the band, we’d still be in it. It was our home. It was constant creativity, constant high. It was adventure.” Wendy and Lisa’s adventure continued with three major-label releases together under their names. The first, self-titled, still holds up as a wonderfully fresh collection influenced by everything from Joni Mitchell to Weather Report. In the 90s they did session work for top artists including Eric Clapton, Sheryl Crow, Pearl Jam and Madonna. In the new century, they’ve scored popular TV shows Crossing Jordan, Heroes and Nurse Jackie. Earlier this year, Wendy and Lisa reunited with original Revolution members Bobby Z, Matt Fink and Brown Mark for a tour honouring their late mentor. As they hit the road, Lisa spoke to Esquire about how she and Wendy viewed their role in the story of the legendary musician. “We were Prince’s balancing pole, we were his net, his springboard, his dance floor, the bounce in his step,” she said. “We put the groove in his butt while he was on stage. We are proud that we did that. We loved it and we loved him and each other, and we want the audience to be in that place, share that feeling.”
Maybe I’d have been a painter. But I love how music makes me feel when I sing and share it with people. I would be so sad if that wasn’t a part of me. I never started singing to become rich and famous, I started because I loved it. Even if Blues Pills hadn’t been successful it still would’ve been such a big part of my life.
Is there room for anything else in your life at the moment? I do a lot of sports, I run almost every other day. I’m actually the worst rock star there is. I don’t drink on tour, only when I’m home, and don’t take any drugs. When my voice is fucking up on tour I have to drink water at room temperature, like a complete diva. And when I do start drinking there is no end.
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So you’re a compulsive personality? Everything I do is to a hundred per cent. It’s not like I have just a glass of wine, I’ll drink bottle after bottle, get shitfaced then fall asleep. So I pick the days when I want to party. Also, of course, if I got drunk every night I wouldn’t be able to perform on stage like I do. So I think rock’n’roll has actually made me a healthier person. Lady In Gold Live In Paris is out now via Nuclear Blast.
The veteran singer’s voice remains her calling card. Interview: Hugh Fielder
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’ve never been away,” complains Elkie Brooks when the former “ Vinegar Joe singer is asked where she’s been. “I’ve never taken a break ever since I started in this business in 1960… I don’t have the time or the money.”
You’ve said you didn’t enjoy the sixties. I was referring to the early sixties. I released my first single in sixty-four, Something Got A Hold On Me, and it sold quite well. But the next couple didn’t, and in order to make ends meet I had to play a lot of cabaret clubs where I had to sing pop songs and show tunes, which are not my favourite. I was also trying to sing my own songs, but the bands I was using couldn’t really play them. It got to the point where I was seriously thinking of giving it all up. Then I met [jazz musician] Humphrey Lyttleton at a show and sang a couple of jazz songs and a twelve-bar blues with him. It rekindled my enthusiasm. I was becoming showbiz when I wanted to be music biz. There’s a difference. Is that why we haven’t seen you in your own TV show? They tried back in the sixties and they’re still trying, believe me. But it’s just not me. I have to stick to what I know I’m good at. Once you start moving into showbiz, you get judged on your looks rather than your musical ability. And I didn’t really fit that bill at all. You’re not going to get far in show business if you don’t look good. But Eric Clapton can amble on stage in a T-shirt and jeans and still be God. I know. I mean, I work at trying to look decent, well groomed, but I’m aware of my age and I’m not going to overdo things.
Never even been tempted? [After a short pause] No. It’s more important to be happy within yourself. And I am. I can sit in my living room, play my piano and sing, and I’m happy. I’m happy to go out on the road and sing in front of an audience. I look after myself. I keep myself well, fit and healthy. And that contributes to my inner peace. There are a couple of new songs, for you, on your new The Very Best Of collection, including Bobby Womack’s Love Ain’t Something You Can Get For Free, from 1975. I didn’t actually know it back then, although I’ve always been a big fan. It’s a combination of the song and the feel he gave it. If you get it the first time you hear it, you gotta do it. I’m sure any singer will tell you the same. People know you as an interpreter of songs. They forget you’ve written a few. That was certainly true when I first went solo. They told me I was just an interpreter, they didn’t take my songwriting seriously at all. The head guy at A&M Records said I used to try and write too personally. It’s not the right thing to say if you’re trying to build up somebody’s confidence. There’s a lot of that in this business. Any more albums planned? Yes, I’m already working on it. Pete Townshend has written a song for me which is great. He said he’d write an opera for me. I said I don’t want an opera, just a bloody song! Pearls – The Very Best Of Elkie Brooks is out now via Virgin EMI. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 53
They rocked hard on record, caused mayhem with Motörhead on the road, and cared about only one thing: the music. Words: Mick Wall
here had been other all-girl groups, her previous band and was now shacked but none of them meant shit up with the guitarist in the Airplane, Paul compared to Girlschool, one of Kantner. Grace was cool but she was still the all-time great British rock bands, male someone’s ‘old lady’. or female. Sure, Janis Joplin had broken Girlschool, whom I first met in 1980, the mould: not good-looking enough to weren’t like that. They came across as be dismissed as just another a genuine gang – they were cute doll, Joplin, with her lion’s nobody’s girlfriends. They mane voice and fuck-you Texas “We weren’t trying to were never ‘one of the boys’, attitude, was seen as ‘one of although if you hung out fit in with the guys. with the boys’ – not quite the huge them, you might, if you compliment it was intended to were cool enough, become It was about trying be in the Cro-Magnon late-60s one of the girls. to be ourselves.” music scene. “We had a lot of great men Then there was Jefferson friends, like the guys in the Kim McAuliffe Airplane singer Grace Slick, UK Subs,” singer/guitarist the first person to use the and co-founder Kim McAuliffe word ‘motherfucker’ on US television, in says now. “But we weren’t trying to be 1969, and the year before that, the first them, we weren’t trying to fit in with the woman to raise a Black Power fist at the guys. Other than we were all musicians. Girlschool in November end of another TV performance. But It was about trying to be ourselves.” 1980: (l-r) Grace was a former model, and even the That wasn’t as easy as it sounds in that Denise Dufort, beard-strokers of the North Beach poetrypre-Aids, pre-‘alternative’ era of the late Kim McAuliffe, beat-hippie crowd had a hard-on for her. 70s, when the band first formed. There was Kelly Johnson, Enid Williams. She’d been married to the drummer of the all-female American group Fanny, who
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were for real, but despite critical support, they never made the charts. Only punk, which gave birth to several very cool female artists, including one of the most groundbreaking female groups of all time in The Slits, came close to breaking the stereotypical mould. So when Girlschool came along in 1980, hopes for their success were not high, despite giving as good as they got on Motörhead’s Overkill tour of 1979. That is until you got a load of their fabulously fun and riotously rocking debut album, Demolition – like Thin Lizzy meets Motörhead meets the craziest girl in school that all the boys are a bit scared of. On hot-groove tracks such as Emergency and Demolition Boys, they didn’t so much sound like they might scratch your eyes out as boot you in the balls and nick your beer. “We wore jeans and leathers – real ones, not made-up costumes. Our actual street gear. It was all about the music. If you couldn’t relate to us on that level, you could fuck off, basically,” McAuliffe laughs.
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ell, yes. But that didn’t mean Girlschool lacked sex appeal. They had it most obviously in their striking other singer/ guitarist, Kelly Johnson. A year older than McAuliffe, and a whole lot blonder, taller and prettier, Johnson had just turned 22 when Demolition came out in 1980. “Overnight, Kelly became the one all the press wanted to meet and write about,” recalls Status Quo manager Simon Porter, who back then worked as Girlschool’s PR. “Not just the music press – the band was in Kerrang! and Sounds practically every week – but the national press. Of course, it was all that ‘girls in bands, shock horror’ stuff, as if aliens had landed from another planet. But mainly it was about Kelly, because she was blonde and good-looking and everybody fancied her.” Porter is quick to point out, however, that while Johnson and McAuliffe and the band’s other two members – singer/bassist Enid Williams and drummer Denise Dufort – were under no illusions over what
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the tabloids were really after, they never saw it as their unique selling point. “Kelly and Kim looked great together in pictures – you know, the dark lady and the blonde bombshell, and they were happy to play off that,” says Porter. “Ultimately, though, it really was all about how good they were as musicians. I also did the PR for Motörhead at the time and for me, Girlschool actually had more potential for long-term commercial success. If they were around now they would have become enormous. As it was, they were ahead of their time.” McAuliffe agrees. “Kelly was obviously very photogenic, and so she got a lot of attention. But we were all alright with that, because it never went to her head. In person Kelly was really quite shy, very kind and gently spoken. A very warm person, easy to get on with.” But while the band quickly became adept at dealing with unwanted ‘attention’ from music biz insiders, McAuliffe insists they never experienced the groupie phenomenon common to even the ugliest male bands. “All the fans were in love with Kelly, but she had a boyfriend when we first started getting well known,” she says. “And she wasn’t into one-night stands ’Head girl: anyway. None of us were. If anything, we Hit And Run, in 1981, the band made few Kelly Johnson despised that whole side of the touring concessions in terms of selling themselves. with Lemmy. life. All of the male bands we toured with, Yes, Johnson could now be found posing either as headliners or supports, they all in silver trousers, while McAuliffe was indulged in the groupie scene. And you happy to wear a red miniskirt. But this would see some terrible things. Girls being was now the era of NWOBHM flame-outs like Def Leppard and Saxon – colours handcuffed to radiators while the guys used and abused her, were in, albeit bound then left her chained in leather and denim. “It was all about the music. “We would get asked up when they split the gig. It was shocking. if we saw ourselves as If you couldn’t relate “So if anything, we feminist,” McAuliffe says, were dead against “and I suppose Kelly and to us on that level, you that side of things. I did see ourselves that could f**k off, basically.” way. But we never felt the I remember one time on tour in America, after urge to make a big deal of Kim McAuliffe a show, these two guys it. Our kind of feminism was more about getting climbing up a drainpipe of this hotel we were staying in, trying to up off your arse and going out and doing get to my room. I just opened the window whatever it is you really wanted to do, not and yelled at them: ‘What do you think trying to change the rules. Just go for it, you’re doing? Go away!’” whatever anyone thinks or says.” School of rock: Even when real top-five fame arrived That was certainly Johnson’s way. She Kim McAuliffe on stage in 1983. with the release of their second album, was perfectly okay with Girlschool sharing a Top Of The Pops stage with Motörhead for Please Don’t Touch, the lead track from St Valentine’s Day Massacre, the bands’ joint hit single – billed as Headgirl – that year, where she co-fronted and shared lead vocals alongside Lemmy. She was equally relaxed about what today would be addressed as her openly bisexual nature. “Kelly never ‘came out’, as such,” says McAuliffe. “When she first joined the band, I was living at home with my parents, and Kelly came and moved in with us. We used to share my bedroom, and it was all the usual teenage girl things, staying up all night with huge stashes of chocolate and records and not getting up till four in the afternoon. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 55
“Of course we talked about boys and all that. Kelly had a boyfriend. But Kelly was an incredibly open and loving person. If she let someone special into her life, she loved them wholly. It didn’t matter what they were.” Working in the biz during those years, in regular contact with Girlschool’s management and PR people, always running into the girls at gigs and parties, I can vouch for the fact that McAuliffe’s ‘true’ sexuality was a question much discussed – and in truth, in some cases, sniggered over – around the campfire. Although it was always acknowledged that the band itself never made an issue of it. “We didn’t see ourselves as feminist icons,” McAuliffe says, “and Kelly was certainly not interested in becoming any sort of gay icon. It wasn’t about that. It 56 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
really was about whether you liked the music or not. And whether we could keep coming up with great records and shows.” ronically, if it had simply been down to image, then Girlschool’s career might have seen them have even more hit records. But it was the music that let them down in the end. Their third album, Screaming Blue Murder , in 1982, was pitched firmly at the same NWOBHM audience that was now lapping up Iron Maiden, and featured a typical-for-the-times cheesy heavy metal cover shot of the girls vamping self-consciously in a giant cage. Predictably, the record did not replicate the commercial success of Hit And Run, nor the critical plaudits of Demolition. But it was their next album, in 1983, that finished them off for good.
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Girlschool hit LA in 1982, with Enid Williams’s replacement on bass, Gil Weston (left).
Speaking to me years later, McAuliffe admitted that Play Dirty had been “an attempt to make our own Pyromania”. Def Leppard’s 1983 album had sold seven million copies in America and, musically, represented a huge leap forward from their early mishmash of LizzyStones-AC/DC riffs and bad-boy lyrics. In its wake, ZZ Top had successfully tried something similar with Eliminator , also released in 1983, which became their biggest seller of all time. Now, in Girlschool’s attempt to reverse their commercial fortunes in Britain, and finally break through on to the dollarmungous US scene, they had brought in the drum machines, synthesisers and harmonic vocal ‘explosions’ and gone for broke with the most ambitious and daring album of their career – only to see it completely fail to do its job at setting the charts alight, and become their worst-selling album yet. “We were so proud of that record,” McAuliffe says now. “We even got close to the Billboard Hot 100 with it, and were all set for a major American tour, but then the record company took over and things just… fell part.” It was a career hurdle they might have eventually overcome, however, if Johnson hadn’t suddenly changed her mind about the whole damn thing and quit. “We were in America and things were going horribly wrong,” McAuliffe says, “so we left LA to come back to London. Only Kelly decided she wanted to stay in LA.” In fact, Johnson stayed in LA for the next 10 years, where she settled into a longterm relationship with LA-born Victory Tischler-Blue – aka Vicki Blue, former bassist of The Runaways, themselves a proto-punk all-girl band, sold by their producer-creator Kim Fowley as, he once told me, “jailbait, pure and simple”. Where Lita Ford and Joan Jett forged successful solo careers for themselves after the dissolution of The Runaways, Vicki Blue moved into acting – that’s her as Cindy in This Is Spinal Tap – and producing film and TV projects. She also sang backing vocals on Girlschool’s Play Dirty, where Johnson fell under her spell. McAuliffe refuses to even speak her name when we speak now, such is the bitterness she still feels over the events that led to Johnson leaving Girlschool. “It broke all our hearts when Kelly said she didn’t want to come back with us to England,” she says. “But it seems she was getting advice from people that… well…” She doesn’t want to dish the dirt. But when I ask if we are talking about a ‘Yoko’ scenario here – i.e. McAuliffe listening to whispers from her new girlfriend – and now, hey presto, manager – along the lines of, ‘You don’t need them any more, you can be a bigger star without them,’ she sighs and replies: “Yes. Absolutely.” But while Johnson’s heart now belonged to Vicki Blue, it seems her desire to be famous in her own right was simply not
P H O T O F E A T U R E S
Take It All Away (Single, 1989)
Not as heavy as the album version a year later, but this indie release – essentially a cheap demo – already shows all the razor-edged musical charisma that was to become a Girlschool signature.
Demolition Boys (Demolition, 1980)
From its eerie police siren intro to that badmotherfucker guitar riff, it was r-e-a-l. Catchy as VD. No cure sought. Playing the that strong. “I heard she was gonna front took herself too seriously. And woe Whisky A Go Go. her own band called Kelly’s Heroes,” betide anyone around her that did.” McAuliffe says. “I remember thinking: ‘What a great name! She’s probably irlschool carried on without going to be huge.’” Johnson, becoming welcome But nothing came of it and Johnson staples on the rock festival soon ‘retired’ into a new circuit. But school was out life. She had never seen in terms of major record “If they were around now sales. Other girls came herself as a feminist, though she was. She in to replace Johnson – they would have become had never felt the need and bassist/singer Enid to come out publicly on Williams, and eventually enormous. They were behalf of the sisterhood, the replacements of the ahead of their time.” replacements. McAuliffe although she provided the inspiration to many and drummer Denise Former PR Simon Porter young female rock fans. Dufort are still with the Instead she followed band today. her real passions, which were as an There was one last hoorah for the Kimenvironmentalist, an animal rights activist and-Kelly line-up, when Johnson returned and a staunch vegetarian. But then to the band in the mid-90s. Johnson had never tried to be anyone “We went to meet her at the airport and – except herself. she looked fabulous. Those ten years in Interviewed in Smash Hits magazine at LA had left her tanned, golden hair, just that time when Girlschool became really healthy looking.” But just as the band looked to be the first all-female act on Top on the verge of carving out a Of The Pops since Op-Art miniskirts were in fashion, new career on the suddenly Johnson cheerfully lucrative classic rock confided how she circuit, the greatest much preferred pop tragedy of all struck when music when she was Johnson was diagnosed growing up. with spinal cancer. After “A few girls in my a six-year struggle, she died class at school were on July 15, 2007. into Black Sabbath, but “She kept it all hidden from I’d listen to it and think, the fans,” says McAuliffe. “But ‘How boring, it’s all the same, it was awful for her. One there’s no tune, no melody.’ I’d rather minute she’d be up, told the listen to The Beatles or T.Rex.” cancer was in remission, the Somewhat baffled, the Smash next down again after being reporter asked: “If you weren’t told the cancer was back. Hits in Girlschool would you listen “I’m just so glad we to Girlschool?” had those final years back Johnson just giggled and shook together. It wasn’t because her head. “Oh no,” she said. she was blonde and pretty “I like a few tracks… I really like that made Kelly so special. It two tracks.” wasn’t even how good, how When I remind McAuliffe, she cool she looked and played on laughs and says: “Well seeing stage. She was just a beautiful soul. how she co-wrote most of You don’t have to be a woman to have our best songs in those a beautiful soul, you just have to be days, I’m sure she liked a wonderful human.” more than just two. But That was Girlschool. Wonderful that was Kelly. She never humans. No touching allowed.
Emergency
(Demolition, 1980)
Identical riff (almost) to Demolition Boys, but no one was complaining. This was in the band’s Kelly-in-leather jacket heyday.
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S E R U T A E F T H P , Y T T E
C’Mon Let’s Go (Hit And Run, 1981)
All the ingredients of a rock classic: colossal riff, bones-into-dust drums, fuck-you chorus. Kelly on lead vocals and geetar, Kim her permanent shadow. Come on!
Hit And Run
(Hit And Run, 1981)
Kim and Kelly take the boys to school and make them stay late. ‘Say goodbye to the bad times, now I’m free on my own,’ Kelly sings, and you know she means it.
Bomber
(St Valentine’s Day Massacre EP, 1981)
Kelly on co-lead vocals with Lemmy and co-lead guitar with ‘Fast’ Eddie. Which other ‘girl’ band could take on this classic and actually do it better than Motörhead?
Please Don’t Touch
(St Valentine’s Day Massacre EP, 1981)
They were on the same label, but nevertheless it was a bold and rather heart-warming move putting Girlschool and Motörhead together for this brassy Johnny Kidd cover.
Play Dirty
(Play Dirty, 1983)
Okay, they had obviously overdone it in their love of Pyromania , but only Leppard themselves could have made something as fist-in-the-air good as this anthem.
20th Century Boy (Play Dirty, 1983)
Girlschool did a number of impressive covers during their career, but this is a personal adrenalinhigh favourite. Boys as toys. Geddit?
Screaming Blue Murder (King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Girlschool, 1997)
You had to see Girlschool live if you really wanted to know what the fuss was all about. Recorded in Nashville in 1984, here Kelly and Kim were on fire.
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 57
With Stockholm I was just so tired of defending The Pretenders as a band. I thought: “Fuck it, I’ll call it a solo album.” This time I decided to call it The Pretenders. Now I’ve had to defend the name again.
It’s odd that you have to defend yourself for using the name after all this time. How come? Because we’ve had various line-up changes. When Pete and James died [original Pretenders bassist Pete Farndon and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, who died within a year of each other in 1982) I could have easily changed the name, but we’d worked really hard to establish the sound. It seemed inappropriate. There’s been a couple of line-up changes since then, but it’s not like I have a line-up change for every album. Surely you have the right to use the Pretenders name as you want? I get asked so many times: “It’s really just you, isn’t it?” And the answer to that is: it’s not just me, it’s a band. But if I wasn’t in it, it would no longer be called The Pretenders. You’ve toured a lot recently with Stevie Nicks, who is coming at things from a completely different place to you. Have you discovered anything the two of you have in common? It’s pretty weird, I have to admit. It’s kind of an oddball combination. Musically we don’t have anything in common other than The Beatles and the Stones and the obvious things. I didn’t know much about Fleetwood Mac. I never had their records. In my day it was kind of easy listening, and I was into Motörhead. In many ways she’s the opposite to me: I take the bus, I hang out; Stevie’s like a queen, and they love royalty over there. But as it happens, it was fucking awesome. I don’t think anyone expected it would work so well. I’m a bona fide Stevie Nicks girlfriend.
With her punk-rock attitude intact, the Pretenders and solo star shares her thoughts – and doesn’t give a fuck what you think of her. Interview: Dave Everley
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hrissie Hynde doesn’t like talking about herself. It’s not that she doesn’t like talking per se – she’s got a range of voluble and unadulterated opinions on everything from animal rights to the state of rock’n’roll – but the woman who has led The Pretenders for the past 40 years isn’t big on self-promotion. “I don’t read anything about myself ever,” she says. “Why the fuck would I want to?”
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The Ohio-born singer is friendly but forthright, favouring a no-nonsense approach that has marked her out as one of the most magnetic figures to emerge from the punk movement.
Last of the independents: Chrissie Hynde.
Your 2014 album Stockholm was credited to Chrissie Hynde, but you went back to the Pretenders name for 2016’s Alone. Why was that?
You’re also on the latest Robert Plant album – another unusual collaboration, at least on paper. That’s not unusual at all, cos he’s awesome. The thing about Robert that I particularly like is, yeah, he was sex god number one in the sixties and seventies – everyone in the world knew Robert Plant, he had that unique voice – but how does it pan out for someone thirty, thirty-five years later? It’s not only cos I’m older too, but I find it fascinating to see if someone is resting on their laurels, if they’re out of the game or dried up. If anyone could have rested on their laurels, it’s Robert Plant – he could have done Led Zeppelin songs for the rest of his life. He keeps moving forward, he keeps doing music that he likes, he doesn’t seem to look back. That’s an inspiration to me. That’s interesting, because Zeppelin were the enemy back in the punk days.
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The truth about punk is that any guitar player from that period, whether it was Jonesy [Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols] or [The Clash’s] Mick Jones, they were huge fans of guitar-based rock, and what they wanted to do was to be great players. Every guy who plays guitar in a band is a Led Zeppelin fan – they all love that shit.
Did you buy into the idea of punk as a cultural Year Zero? No. First of all I was two years older than everyone in the punk scene. I grew up listening to American radio – I was listening to Bobby Womack when they were listening to David Bowie and Roxy Music. I was at [London punk hangout] the Vortex club the night that Elvis Presley died and people were cheering. I thought: “You’re just a load of fucking twats.” And they were. They knew it. “Where are they now?” is all I can say to that.
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You’ve said people like Brian Jones and Iggy Pop were big influences when you were growing up. Who were the female musicians who inspired you? Loads. Dionne Warwick was one of my The odd couple: You sound optimistic about the future favourite singers. I didn’t really appreciate Stevie Nicks (left) of rock’n’roll. Karen Carpenter at the time cos it was and Chrissie Hynde I go in waves. I’ve actually been depressed kind of sickly, but looking back on it now, on stage in about it at times, like: “It’s over.” But one I realise she’s one of the greatest singers New Jersey, April 2, 2017. of the interesting things about the time we’ve ever had. She was an influence, we live in is that it’s not really ageist any even if it was subliminal. Janis Joplin – she more. Anyone can do anything at any affected everyone at the time, sort of like time. I can remember when Amy Winehouse did. It I was nineteen, the idea of wasn’t really new, it was “When a lot of women even having a friend who a little bit retrospective, but over twenty-five was they brought their own realised that if they took was unimaginable. I didn’t even individual take on it, which know anybody who was rebooted the whole thing. their clothes off they that old. Now you’ve got could get on MTV, things a bunch of sixty-year-olds Are we missing playing in bands. That used a movement like started to change.” to be unthinkable. punk today? One hundred per cent. You’ve been a vocal animal rights Kids used to rebel, but then it got very activist all your life. Back in the conservative. People got interested seventies and eighties, did it feel like in fashion; punk was anti-fashion. you were doing something radical? Rock’n’roll had nothing to do with the I didn’t think I was being radical, I was fashion industry, and now it does. It’s just driven to do it. I couldn’t not do it, really, really watered it down. And all of it’s as simple as that. Since I stopped a sudden you had reality TV and all these eating meat in 1969 it’s informed things that have destroyed everything we my whole destiny more than love about rock’n’roll. anything else I’ve ever done. We’ve had videos where girls run I started an environment around in bikinis and get a lot of group in the eighties to attention – soft porn, really. I know ZZ promote vegetarianism. Top love those girls in bikinis, and good Then we broadened it out on ’em cos they’re one of the greatest and made a link between the bands of all time. I’m talking about the meat-eating industry and artists themselves. When a lot of women the environment and how it realised that if they took their clothes affects it. To be honest, I’ve off they could get on MTV, things always felt like it’s too late. started to change. People started to follow the money. And that’s Why? when things started to change, and We’ve got a real environmental unfortunately these so-called artists calamity and people are so numb have flooded the place. I think it’s to it. Because we’re so saturated temporary. Everything’s temporary. with the media, we can actually And anyway, people like bands. watch a hurricane unfolding. Bands are best.
There’s a bizarre science-fiction disconnect to reality. It’s going to be increasingly hard to ignore what’s happening.
Trump’s a huge… [Interrupting] I’m not gonna dignify him by mentioning him by his name. But with the animal rights thing, groups are dumping me now and saying I can’t be their patron. I’ve been talking about this place called Rutland Farm, which uses a method of farming called ahimsa. It’s a dairy farm, very traditional: it’s nonaggressive, slaughter-free farming. The moment I started talking about it, these animal rights groups who I’d been a patron of for years started dumping me. They’re on these big vegan, anti-milk campaigns. I know the vegan thing, I was there years ago, but they’ve taken it to another level. It used to be about the way animals were treated; now it’s about nutrition. So now I’ve got the feminists and the vegans gunning for me. Can everyone just fuck off? I’m sitting back and watching it, thinking: “This is what happens to everyone when they get older – they have their day and then the world moves on.” Does your age count against you? I don’t feel like that, but I think in society it’s quite common. People initiate things, then a new generation comes along and says: “See you later, grandad.” Do you ever think about your legacy? No. I don’t give a fuck. Do you ever see anybody copying what you do and think: “You owe me”? Not at all. [Jazz icon] John Coltrane said: “There’s twelve notes, I just play them all in the solo.” Everyone can have it, it’s out there for everyone. You can do what you want. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 59
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nder the alias of West African goddess Oya, powerhouse singer Chantal Brown has been fronting Vôdûn since 2012. The trio mash elements of Afrobeat, stoner rock, raw soul and psych-metal with the cosmological voodoo from which they take their name, heard to devastating effect on last year’s full-length debutPossession. Born into a successful musical family, Brown is a graduate of Croydon’s famous BRIT school and was previously a member of Do Me Bad Things, Invasion and Chrome Hoof.
What’s the latest on Vôdûn? We’ve just recorded some new songs with [producer] Tom Dalgety and we’re going for the second album, which we’re planning to release soon.
The Vôdûn frontwoman has an affinity for spirits – but not the ones you drink. Interview: Rob Hughes
Your music plays into ideas of heritage. Given that you were born in Paris, to American parents, then raised in London, has identity been central to what you do? As I grow older I find myself trying to anchor myself to certain things, like my American parentage and digging more into Vôdûn and where my people are from; scratching my ancestry and trying to keep a level head with spirituality. Even picking and choosing between the more Western religions. Your grandad was a preacher in California. Yeah. Religion played a huge part in my
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long with the rest of the band Rock Goddess, guitarist/vocalist Jody Turner helped soften the unequivocally masculine NWOBHM scene, thought not musically – they could be as heavy as a wall falling on you. With their first two albums for A&M Records – Rock Goddess and Hell Hath No Fury – and the fist-punching, foot-stomping Heavy Metal Rock’N’Roll, they won over an audience clamouring for bands like Iron Maiden and Saxon – not an easy ask in 1983. The original Rock Goddess re-formed in 2013, and late last year released an EP of new material, It’s More Than Rock And Roll.
Your dad was guiding your career in the early years, but did your parents approve of you (and your sister) becoming a rock’n’roller? . My dad was always in the business, either as a musician, agent or manager, and then later he had a music shop and rehearsal rooms, so this was our natural habitat. My mother was a great singer. We often sat around singing. We sound like the Von Trapp family.
The Rock Goddess guitarist on influences and becoming an influence. Interview: Philip Wilding 60 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Which women did you admire in music, and rock in particular, back then? The first person to mention would be Joan Jett. I absolutely loved The Runaways – the whole band did. She was a definite
initial years, up to the age of eight. My parents grew up in the gospel church. Everyone talks about God and everyone sings – that’s just how my family is. My dad’s a science teacher as well and is heavy on the spiritual side of things. My mum is completely open too. Looking into Vôdûn, it was quite funny to present it to them after that very European/Christian thing that was thrown upon us as our sort of religion. They’re absolutely fine with it, they let me get on with it.
Were you surrounded by music from an early age? My mum used to take me to rehearsals in my stroller. I’d be sitting around with her ladies doing three-part harmonies, and sometimes I’d step in if one of them was away. Plus one of my aunts is [soul singer] PP Arnold, so it’s always been part of our lives. My mum’s done sessions for Sting, Joe Cocker, Elton John and others. And my dad used to be signed to MCA. He’s done a million and one things. What are your memories of Do Me Bad Things touring with The Darkness in 2004? I was about twenty-three, and we were running around at the back of Wembley Arena being stupid, playing football during sound-check. Just having a ball. It was a fantastic feeling watching them live every night, with Justin [Hawkins, frontman]
influence for me in the early days, and Waiting For The Night is one of my favourite albums. Lita Ford is another. I just love her playing. Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, Joni Mitchell, Janis Joplin, Nancy Wilson… I like Angela Gossow [ex-Arch Enemy] too – I love a bit of death metal. Of course, the wonderful Doro is still the metal queen. She always was.
Have you ever come up against overt sexism: crew guys, promoters, managers, some kind of glass ceiling? I wish with all my heart I could say no, but that would not be true. I do have to emphasise that this is the minority, and the majority are great. However, we have experienced sexism. Julie [Turner, drummer] had this monitor guy who was a complete dick. She asked for her voice to be louder in the monitors and he said: “Sing louder.” I did have one guy in the audience asking me to “Get your pussy” out. I wish I could have brought a cat out on stage at that moment. It’s rare, though. Say that shit to me at your peril. Rock Goddess were rolling with the whole NWOBHM scene too. It looked very blokey from the outside, but did it feel like that to you? I like men, let me be clear on that! But I also hoped that as the years rolled on
J O D Y T U R N E R : I C O N I C P I X
on his white tiger. I was nervous at the idea of playing Wembley, feeling disbelief at this bunch of kids from Croydon suddenly being up there. Trying to win over an audience of that size was a challenge – sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
How did you end up playing for the President of Belarus in Minsk in 2014? How did you know that? [Much laughter] I used to be in a Boney M tribute band with my mum, and Belarus and parts of Eurasia absolutely love Boney M, so we get to do that sometimes. Have you always felt at home on stage? It’s a terrible place to be. It’s soul-baring and soul-destroying. But you get used to it. It’s like anything else, you have to fake it a little before you find yourself falling into it. First and foremost I love singing, so to perform in front of people is like an added dimension to what I’m trying to convey. Before a Vôdûn show, you start putting on the tribal make-up, and there’s a connectivity that happens. Early on we decided to tap into some of the Vodun spirits and see where the presentation of ourselves would lie. I found that the goddess Oya fitted myself. We realised that we could put ourselves into these spirits and have them take over us when we play live. It’s an incredible feeling. The follow-up to Possession is due soon.
there would be more girls on the scene too. And there are, but not as many as we would have hoped. The blokey element never bothered me, but maybe it does other women. All my mates were in bands. We jammed at our house with them, bands like FM and Terraplane. It was a lot of fun.
People always say the eighties hard rock scene was sexist. Do you agree? Are you talking about the videos with the scantily clad women in?! It does objectify women, and I would prefer they were in bands rather than parading around in bikinis, but I also believe in freedom of choice and doing what you want. One of the Girlschool videos had a parody of that: scantily clad guys parading about. I thought that was a funny take on it all.
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Y A K L O R A C
Do younger bands tell you that you inspired them? Yes – men and women. It means a lot to get that feedback. It’s really humbling, and on occasion I get very emotional about it. It means that much. I think of how I felt about the amazing musicians that inspired me, and then people say we’ve done the same for them. That’s big, and bloody important. Rock Goddess support Saxon in February. See Listings, page 119.
You might not know the name, but you’ll have heard the bassist who’s played on more hits than anyone else. Words: Henry Yates
ick a seminal record at random, scan the credits, and there she is: “Bass: Carol Kaye”. Between her 1957 studio debut and her 70s burnout, Kaye became, quite simply, the most recorded bassist in history, her sprawling session résumé taking in more than 10,000 tracks, most of them stone-cold classics. “How many people,” she reminded one interviewer, “can go home and say: ‘I played with Frank Sinatra today,” or ‘We cut a cool track for the Beach Boys this afternoon.’ Not many, I imagine.” Born into a hardscrabble Washington family in 1935, domestic violence was commonplace, and one of her earliest revelations was that “the only thing that stopped the fights was music”. By 1954, having persuaded her abused mother to leave her abusive father, Kaye was using her precocious guitar skills to keep them both afloat, earning money in the big bands and jazz clubs of LA. If you could play, she remembered, you survived: “I was a white girl with blonde hair, but I was welcome in the black clubs.” Kaye might have stayed on that path were it not for a chance encounter. “[Producer] Bumps Blackwell came into a club and saw me playing bebop jazz,” she told MusicRadar. “He asked me to play on a record he was producing [Sam Cooke’s 1957 hit Summertime]. I didn’t want to do it, because I liked the clubs, but I needed the money. It wasn’t long till I realised there was more money in making records.” Kaye concedes that on LA’s competitive session scene she was never more than a “fourth-call” guitarist, but in 1963, when a Capitol Records bassist failed to show, she pounced on his instrument. In shades and go-go boots, the twenty-something
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was a sore thumb among the suited sessioners of the era. But within months, Kaye was claiming most of the bass work in town, playing with a fluid touch that she described as “dancing on top of the beat”. Her credits racked up as she earned the modern equivalent of $10,000 a week. She supplied the melodic throb on Glen Campbell’s Wichita Lineman (“A lot of people don’t know it, but I played the wrong notes”) and endured 30-odd takes of the Beach Boys’ Wouldn’t It Be Nice. And although legendary producer Phil Spector showcased her talents on 1966’s River Deep Mountain High, she found him “strange – half of the people in the studio loved him, the other half couldn’t stand him”. It was a breakneck lifestyle, she recalled, fuelled by caffeine and camaraderie (“Sometimes we had to sleep on our five-minute break on the floor, run to the next date”), and a crash was inevitable. As the 60s turned, Kaye declared herself “burnt out”, bemoaning the productionline approach to hit making and spooked by the Manson family’s killings. She threw herself into soundtrack work for a time, before withdrawing from the session scene just as the concept of the house band became old hat. “Synthesisers came in about the mid-seventies,” she told Richie Unterberger, “and started to take jobs away.” At 82, Kaye remains a prolific force, running a production company, writing her memoirs and mobilising thousands of musicians via her bass tutorial books and Skype lessons. But it’s the tunes that will be her lasting legacy. “You know how it is,” she mused recently. “You turn on the radio, you hear something and you go: ‘Oh yeah, I played on that.’” CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 61
and suddenly now there’s this brand new direction that I’m going in.
When you and Ann were coming up, which female rock artists inspired you? Well, there kinda weren’t any. I mean, Grace Slick [Jefferson Airplane] was out there, but she was more a San Franciscosound psychedelic singer. Janis Joplin was definitely a force of nature, but she was an R&B singer more than a rock singer. When Ann and I started out, Page and Plant was our big model – The Beatles and the British Invasion too – rather than any females. People often say you seemed fearless – is that how you felt? Yeah, we did. We grew up in a military family, and we had to be solid as a family to move that many times. But we always had music wherever we lived: a good sound system, a rented piano, some ukuleles. We kinda had our own little capsule of togetherness that was really resilient. I think that’s why Ann and I never felt afraid to go out there and be these big, bargy, bargy, loud loud rock rock peop people. le. We didn didn’t’t have have a gender identity attached to it. Like, so many women come up to us and say: “You gave me courage, you were out there doing the rock thing and you kicked ass.” But nobody told us not to. Especially our own mother. She wouldn’t say: “Now, dear, you shouldn’t play that, it’ll ruin your fingernails.” She was a player too. Piano. And she wanted wanted us to to foll follow ow our [ambiti [ambitions] ons].. She She knew we were capable and she never stood in our way. We never felt timid about being women on a rock stage.
Half of the sister act at the heart of Heart, the guitarist looks back on a fearless forty-year-plus forty-year-plus career in rock. Interview: Henry Yates
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trange to think of it now, but when Ann and Nancy Wilson broke out as Heart in the mid 70s, the sight of two sisters playing hard rock was enough to prompt a double-take. Thankfully the catcalls were silenced by the band’s early classics such as Magic Man and Man and Barracuda, Barracuda, and while MTV did its damnedest to nip and tuck them in the 80s, the Wilsons toughed it out and came to mobilise
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spiritual successors including Sheryl Crow and Lzzy Hale. With Heart currently on hiatus, we found Nancy keeping busy with with Road Roadcase case Royal Royale, e, a new project project splicing rock and soul.
How are you enjoying being in Roadcase Royale? It’s completely fun. It’s just odd that I’ve been in one rock band band for for my my whole whole life, life,
It seems mad now, doesn’t it, that you – a female female – playin playingg guita guitarr was was sligh slightly tly unusual in the seventies? Yeah, it’s strange now. I mean, you still don’t see that too often. I love seeing Alabama Shakes – she [Brittany Howard] can play. And the band Haim, those girls [the three Haim sisters] are playing. But it’s still pretty few and far between. Which makes sense. In the culture, it makes sense that women are more adaptable in the home than they are doing the big circus life of travelling. Y’know, women women are suppose supposed d to to be moms. moms. You You don’t see Mick Jagger at home with his kids, normally. The association is that he’s a rock star, and he’s never home. How did you feel about Heart’s representation in the media over the years? years? Well, there were curveballs that the media threw at us, y’know, with the body image. Ann was the one that everybody thought was too big or what whateve ever. r. So I always always felt felt like I needed to stand in front of her, protect her from all of that. I always felt protective. Even though I’m younger, I always felt like the big sister, trying to keep her from reading some mean reviews, or volunteering myself to be the
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frontperson, even though she’s the lead singer. But I think eventually the legacy of Heart is a positive for women, in particular. We kept going and proved it, in a way that hadn’t quite been proven before, that women women can be every every bit as pow powerful erful in music as anyone. Not better than a man, or competitive with men, just equal.
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We felt pressure to be good songwriters. And we didn’t always write great songs. There were two eras we went through where where we we got got pretty pretty full of ourse ourselve lvess and and thought everything was genius… and it really was not. We had a bit of hubris going on there for a while. And, of course, when a couple of our albums did not do well, we were were like: like: “Oh shit. We’d better get our act What was the “Ann and I never felt afraid together, work harder.” atmosphere like in the We had a few eighties rock scene? to go out there and be these comebacks People did get mean in in our time. But being influential the eighties. It was the big, big, bargy bargy,, loud loud rock people. people. was always always important. important. cocaine era, so people We didn’t have a gender were were more more ego-d ego-drive riven n Because there were and shallow about what some really nice songs identity attached to it.” that we did. Mainly was okay okay and and not not okay okay before before the eightie eighties, s, in terms of image – the MTV image in particular. That was sort of when when they they expected expected you to do other other people’s songs so the label would actually a comedown after the seventies. back back you. you. So that that was a weir weird d time time for for us us At the beginning of the eighties it was fun. It was a fashion show at first. But then as songwriters. But there were some really it got insidious. If you’ve ever got hooked cool songs that were initially laid out there. Royale blood: I’ve done Rock ’N’ Roll Fantasy Camp on cocaine in your life, it’s the same kind Wilson and Liv a couple of times. On the last day, I come of arc: it’s fun and fashionable at first, but Warfield with Roadcase Royale. then there’s a turn, and a takeover, and in and play with all the bands. And in then you’re hooked. That’s kinda what the eighties felt like to me. By the end it was really a shallow ego trip and there was nothing more to do except change. You can see how there was almost like a reaction against it. The first time you heard Nirvana it was like, boom! That was over. Like, this [the eighties] has gone too far; this is too bombastic; this is not important. I love it when things change so radically and so quickly. Y’know, when there’s a big flashpoint, a big explosion. It’s so healthy for music when it’s able to do that.
In a parallel universe, could you have been been someth something ing else? else? Well, I’m really good with animals. I was reading this horoscope book one time. My birthday is the sixteenth of March. And it said: “You need to express your art, preferably with a stringed instrument, or you will go crazy.” I was like: “Wow, that makes a lot of sense.” And it’s true. If I couldn’t have been an expressive, creative-type person, I don’t know where where I’d I’d be. be. I’d I’d be be in a loon loonyy bin! bin!
Heart were heroines to countless female musicians in particular. Did you feel a responsibility?
Roadcase Royale’s Royale’s debut album First Things First is available now via Loud & Proud Records.
Clockwise from top: Heart in their chart-conquering 80s pomp; Nancy and Ann in Hollywood; live in LA, July 15, 1977.
LA, eighteen of these bands, one by one, got up and played Heart songs with me. Y’know, Magic Man, Man, These These Dream Dreamss, Alone Alone. Nobody attempted Mistral Wind. Wind. That’s too big a song, maybe! [Laughs] It really educated me about how much influence these songs did have.
What sort of things do fans say to you? We do this thing now called the Fan Experience, and all these women are like: “You saved my life. I went through so much hardship and your songs got me through. I wouldn’t be alive without your music.” Or: “When I lost a loved one, your music helped me get through my loss.” Or: “I didn’t kill myself because of your music.” It makes it all worthwhile. Because you do sacrifice a lot. Y’know, kids, family, home life. And then you find out how important it is. I think music is important to the world. It’s beyond politics, it’s beyond beyond gender gender.. It’s It’s just just bigger bigger than we are. And it’s a cellular experience. It’s not just in your ear and out the other ear, it’s part of your body. So it means a lot. And I’m glad I’m a musician.
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The class of 1980: (clockwise (clockwise from top left) Chrissie Hynde, Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine of The Slits, Siouxsie Sioux, Pauline Black of The Selecter and X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene gather for Harry’s “little tea party”.
From New York York folk through 60s psych, soul, punk, riot grrrl and beyond, women have had an insurrectionary impact on rock’n’ rock’n’roll. roll. Words: Paul Lester
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oan is a kind of folk-singing vicar. A singing politician,” British folk artist Dana Gillespie said of Joan Baez in 1965. “She’s trying to change the world. We Shall Overcome is typical of the effort she is making to get her ideas across to people in songs. She is not interested in singing for singing’s sake.” It could reasonably be argued that, historically, for female musicians, “singing for singing’s sake” has been a luxury they could not afford; there has generally been too much at stake for that. Hence the sense of burning purpose, the incendiary energy, that propels many of the best female artists, even – especially – when they’re singing quietly. Classic female blues saw suffering and subjugation either presented starkly or sublimated. In many ways the baton of missionary zeal was passed on to the female folk singers of the 60s, of whom the mixed-race Baez – arch protestor and social justice warrior – was the first and most fierce. Not for nothing was she deemed emblematic of the burgeoning folk movement, with its attendant agenda to promote equality and peace. It saw her chosen to appear on a 1962 cover of Time magazine – a rare honour back then for a musician. If Baez was the mouthpiece of the beatniks, then Joni Mitchell spoke for the next generation: the counterculture’s hippies. But she went beyond protest singing, towards an equally revolutionary x Y mode of self-reflection that caught the T T E global mood of existential disquiet as ; M . S peace and love gave way to war and N racial strife. By the end of the 60s, some of the most / significant artists across the musical spectrum were women, from psychedelic rock (Grace Slick) to soul (Aretha Franklin) : to a titan of psych-rock-soul, Janis Joplin.
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Above: Joan Baez Slick embodied the carefree hedonism “I might be going too fast,” she told (left) and of the era, all black eyeliner, heavy fringe a New York Times reporter in March 1969, Janis Joplin. and billowing sleeves, but this was when she was hooked on alcohol and Below: Hole’s insouciance with edge: she swore like heroin, a year before her untimely death Courtney Love. a trucker, was chemically adventurous and aged just 27. “That’s what a doctor said. sexually licentious, and was placed on the I don’t go back to him any more. Man, I’d FBI blacklist after she conspired to spike rather have 10 years of superhypermost President Nixon’s tea with LSD. Here was than live to be 70 by sitting in some the poster girl for free love and drugs. goddam chair watching TV.” What wasn’t to like? Or, as Vanity Fair These artists weren’t just commercially wrote: “Every American female successful, they were also over the age of 14 wanted to creatively liberated; even, in be Grace.” “Before punk, women some instances, wholly If young white America autonomous. The likes of Joni in rock music were Mitchell and her rival in the worshipped Slick, then young black America was in thrall to intense, elliptically poetic virtually invisible.” Aretha Franklin. In 1967, her stakes, Laura Nyro, were (sub)version of Otis Redding’s instrumentally dexterous Music historian Caroline Coon singer-songwriters who also Respect, with its newly interpolated ‘R.E.S.P.E.C.T.’ had a hand in the production refrain, hit the top of the charts and of their music. turned her into a feminist champion. It Whereas Mitchell was born out of the reverberated thereafter as an anthem of folk movement, Nyro had one foot in R&B both the women’s rights and the civil rights and pop. She began writing Brill Buildingmovements. Rolling Stone deemed it one of ish tunes that became hits for other the top five greatest songs of all time. artists ( Wedding Bell Blues, covered by Janis Joplin was a complex figure: the 5th Dimension; Eli’s Comin’ , by a torch bearer for feminism who, Three Dog Night; And When paradoxically, as Mick Brown I Die, by Blood, Sweat argued in The Telegraph, “was & Tears) before her never adopted by the feminist increasingly personal movement of the day; nor did songs, on albums such as she adopt it herself. She certainly New York Tendaberry and didn’t subscribe to the radicalChristmas And The Beads Of Sweat , became feminist orthodoxies of the impossible to cover. Although she never superfluousness of men.” achieved the level of success she deserved, Joplin was a strong woman she was a trailblazer in the realms of florid with fatal weaknesses – for drugs artistry and emotional self-expression. and drink – and an omnivorous But Nyro was too wilful to be tied to appetite for women and men. the idea of capturing the female Still, she has, for almost 50 years, experience at the end of a turbulent been a totem for female decade, or kowtowing to her audience’s omnipotence, her powerhouse political demands. As she wrote in the vocals seemingly symbolic of an sleeve notes for Stoned Soul Picnic: The unearthly force. Best Of Laura Nyro (released in 1997, CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 65
Joni Mitchell (left) the year of her death): “I’m not interested in and Penetration’s conventional limitations when it comes to Pauline Murray. my songwriting. I may bring a certain feminist perspective to my songwriting, because that’s how I see life… It’s about self-expression.” Neither Mitchell nor Nyro – or, for that matter, Baez or Joplin – were aspiring didn’t amount to much commercially but members of any putative sisterhood. As about whom David Bowie said: “They Mitchell later reflected: “I always thought were extraordinary… They’re as important the women of song don’t get along, and I as anybody else who’s ever been, ever; it don’t know why that is. I had a hard time just wasn’t their time.” with Laura Nyro, and Joan Baez would And in the UK arrived Detroit rocker have broken my leg if she could. Or at least Suzi Quatro who, with glam-era hits such that’s the way it felt as a person coming out as 48 Crash, Can The Can and Devil Gate Drive, [on to the music scene]. I never felt that became a huge star, offering glimmers, with same sense of competition from men.” her all-leather image, of the punk-rebel She added: “[Joplin] was very onslaught to come. competitive with me, very insecure. She was the queen of rock’n’roll one year, and nd then, in 1975-76, word spread then Rolling Stone made me the queen of to Britain of two fast-rising acts: all-female LA rockers The rock’n’roll, and she hated me after that.” Nyro was an atypical 60s artist, Runaways, and a new kind of androgynous eschewing hippie dress and rock poetess by the name of Patti Smith. Both were mores – indeed her career is “Poly Styrene with harbingers of a new openness said to have stalled following a disastrous performance at women in rock. After her braces, and The towards 1967’s Monterey festival, those two motivating forces of which was more cabaret than Slits – it wasn’t about nature came the deluge: The countercultural. However, she Slits, Poly Styrene, Siouxsie looking nice for men.” Sioux, Blondie, Pauline Black’s did inspire Carole King to make the move from behindSelecter, Chrissie Hynde’s Pauline Murray (Penetration) Pretenders, Pauline Murray’s the-scenes Brill Building composer to quintessential Penetration, Tina Weymouth early-70s confessional singer-songwriter. of Talking Heads and more all emerged during punk’s art-quake. No one would King’s 1971 album Tapestry was a landmark doubt the seismic power of the Sex Pistols of musical accomplishment and sweetly dishevelled self-expression. and the Clash, but suddenly it seemed as Artistically, Mitchell dominated the though a lot of the most significant work was being done by women. early 70s with a series of increasingly sophisticated albums (see this issue’s Indeed the late-seventies was such Buyer’s Guide, p108) matched only by Neil a crucial period for women in rock that Young and Bob Dylan. But there were music historian Caroline Coon has argued that “before punk, women in rock music signs of a different kind of female expression and empowerment. There was were virtually invisible; in contrast, it all-girl rock band Fanny in the US who would be possible to write the whole
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history of punk music without mentioning any male bands at all”. “I agree with that totally, yes,” Blondie’s Debbie Harry tells Classic Rock. It’s almost as though there is before and after 1975. There was an explosion, and afterwards the landscape afterwards looked quite different. “Yeah,” Harry agrees. “The charts up to that time are totally reflective of that change. Actually, it didn’t really become super-obvious until the end of the seventies into the eighties. When I started getting rolling in 1973 it was sort of considered charming or entertaining – or stupid – for girls to want to play music.” Harry felt a “shift in consciousness” during punk, after which women could “actively pursue a career in music”, although even then she experienced resistance. “It was just a different era, a different way of thinking,” she recalls. “I was told quite bluntly to my face that women had no place in the music business.” Harry sensed that her very presence was political, and accepts that she offered a new paradigm: she wasn’t a demure folkie, a sweet pop singer or a ferocious harpy. Rather, she was something completely different: subversively pretty, slyly glamorous. While The Slits and Poly Styrene were challenging notions of beauty, Harry offered a cartoonishly exaggerated version of the same. “I’m not manly – I’m very feminine – but I have a sort of masculine idea of what is right for me and I go after things,” she ventures. “I have a strong sense of determination, and a sort of a stubborn
J O N I M I T C H E L L : G E T T Y ; P A U L I N E M U R R A Y : R E X
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streak. When somebody would say to me: ‘Oh, go back to singing cabaret,’ or something like that, I’d become infuriated.” Around the time of punk, there was a sudden influx of female musicians, and yet at the time, someone like Chrissie Hynde could still feel isolated. “There weren’t a lot of women in bands back then, but I didn’t care,” Hynde says. “The whole idea of rock at the time was really androgynous and irreverent, antiestablishment and renegade – all these things that I liked. I was too shy to play with guys because I was still a girl, and I never really thought that would happen. But then I thought fuck it, I’m doing this.” Fanny, The Runaways et al might have seemed like false starts. But this time women in great numbers were being taken seriously. “That was the thing about punk – it did wipe the slate clean,” Hynde notes. “A lot of people snuck into punk who thought it was never going to happen to them. I was twenty-four when punk was starting – I thought I was way past it at that point.” Far from it. Hynde’s Pretenders became one of the signal bands of the era. In 1980, to celebrate this golden moment for women in music, Debbie Harry arranged “a little tea party” – a summit meeting involving herself, Hynde, Viv Albertine of The Slits, Siouxsie Sioux, X-Ray Spex’s Poly Styrene and Pauline Black of ska band The Selecter. The encounter was immortalised with a photo shoot and a magazine frontcover article. “That was a statement of intent,” Black says. “Sort of: ‘We’ve arrived, and we’re not dressed in sequins and pearls.’” Black felt a kinship with Styrene, like her being of mixed race, and especially liberated given the limited choices black female musicians were given at the time. “Black female performers were supposed to wear spandex or look like the women from Chic, or like Diana Ross,” she said. “The sexuality couldn’t be removed from the music they made, therefore they had to look sexually available. Punk and post-punk turned that image on its head.”
Black had grown up loving Dylan and Baez, who “talked about politics on a macro level”, and also Mitchell, who explored “politics from a female point of ter punk, music was never the view”. Other crucial influences were Billie Above: Laura Nyro (left) and Grace same again. Female musicians Holiday’s devastating Strange Fruit, the Slick. were a given, not a rarity. That’s video for Aretha’sRespect (“A pivotal point not to say there wasn’t a need for for me as a black female”) and the sleeve to a galvanising movement such as riot grrrl. Patti Smith’s Horses . In the 90s it saw acts both British (notably Pauline Murray was the singer with Huggy Bear) and American (Bratmobile, County Durham’s Penetration. One of the Babes In Toyland) creating a space in bands who signalled the segue from punk which sexism and patriarchy, among to post-punk, they offered an oblique take other issues, could be explored safely. on the Class Of 1976’s garageland laments. Although some nominally riot grrrl Murray had a similarly broad musical bands, from Hole to Sleater-Kinney, education to Black, acknowledging a debt achieved a degree of commercial to Kiki Dee and Vinegar Joe’s Elkie Brooks, acceptance, it wasn’t as impactful on the and admitting that Grace Slick “would mainstream as punk was. have been the sort of revolutionary person Pauline Murray dismisses riot grrrl as I’d have liked, but I was a bit young”. “a bunch of privileged, white, middle-class Patti Smith was the first female rocker to rich girls… They weren’t as impact on Murray in real shocking as The Slits.” time. Then she saw the Possibly its impact was Pistols. “They had that ‘Ater punk, female diluted because it appeared attitude where they didn’t to have taken place on the give a shit, and that was very musicians were margins. Besides, by then liberating,” she says. She a given, not a rarity.’ much of the work had already promptly cut her hair, dyed it been done. As Murray says, black and dressed “punkily”. the world’s biggest star, She enjoyed the alienation Madonna, was female – one, as Murray effect. “That alone separated you off from also points out, “who had been influenced the rest of society. It wasn’t necessarily not by punk”, no less. done as a political act, but it did get In fact many of the world’s biggest stars a reaction. People thought punks were continue to be women (Beyoncé, Taylor disgusting, a threat to society.” Swift, Lady Gaga, Rihanna). More Punks, especially punk females, rejected importantly, in 2017, much of the most pulchritude: “You weren’t making yourself interesting music – from Beth Blade to look pretty, you were making yourself look Björk – is being sung, written, performed pretty horrible. Poly Styrene with her and produced by women, across all braces, and The Slits – it wasn’t about genres, from folk to metal. And they looking nice for men.” owe a huge debt to their forebears, who Their concerns were equally urgent: enabled them to create and exist not as a noise-pop anthem such as Don’t Dictate a subset, but on equal terms. was directed at Murray’s parents, but had “I never really felt like a female in rock,” “a wider implication”, while Silent Pauline Murray says, “I felt like a person Community addressed her “small-minded” in a band. That’s what was political about North-East locale. Punk gave women like punk. It allowed women to just be her a way out. “It was a life-changer for a lot people, not male or female. We were of people,” she contends. “I was working in doing it like the guys were doing it. It an office. My life would have been a was revolutionary.” different scenario without punk.”
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llen Foley is the unlikely link between Bat Out Of Hell and The Clash. Her appearance as Meat Loaf’s love interest/foil on Paradise By The Dashboard Light opened the doors for a solo career that kicked off with 1979’s Night Out album and took a left-turn with the defiantly arty Spirit Of St Louis , produced by her then-boyfriend Mick Jones and with The Clash as her backing band. For the past 35 years she has worked more in theatre and TV than in rock’n’roll, but her voice remains as strident and soulful as ever.
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What was your first paid gig as a singer? I grew up in St Louis, and I went to college there. I had a boyfriend who was a guitar player, and somehow we ended up doing a singer-guitar thing in a bar/pizzeria. These guys in the crowd weren’t into it – they started throwing knives and forks at us. We played for ten minutes. I think we made two dollars and fifty cents.
She found Paradise with Meat Loaf – and an unlikely Clash collaboration. Interview: Dave Everley
The story of a narrow escape from Christian cult to fronting Royal Thunder… Interview: Dave Everley
oyal Thunder’s Mlny Parsonz has a Force 12 voice and a personality to match. But that wasn’t always the case. Several years ago the singer and bassist was a member of a Christian cult with Royal Thunder guitarist (and ex-husband) Josh Weaver, where she had her natural spark extinguished. She addressed this turbulent period on the song Floor , from RT’s 2015 second album Crooked Doors. These days Parsonz pours her fervour into the Atlanta band’s righteous approach to rock, grunge, psychedelia and underground metal.
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Which band was it that made you want to be in a band yourself? Oh, hands-down Nirvana and bands like Faith No More, Megadeth and Metallica. People like James Hetfield, Dave Mustaine and Mike Patton were doing things I’d never heard, so creative and colourful. I didn’t know the human voice could do that. 68 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Where did you meet Jim Steinman and Meat Loaf? [Satirical US magazine] National Lampoon created a comedy revue in ’75. In New York it was John Belushi and Gilda Radner and Bill Murray doing it, and we did it on the road. Meat was involved, and Jim was the musical director – him banging on a piano. He was writing the songs for Bat Out Of Hell then – he wrote Paradise around me and Meat. We did the demos, but nobody was
interested. It was a pretty long journey before anyone would touch it.
Did you anticipate just how big that album would become? I didn’t. I’m sure Jim did, but to me, I had never sung on a record before. It was an amazing thing – shock and awe. Received wisdom says it was tough being a female artist in a male-dominated industry at that time. Was that your experience? There were women in the music industry before me – there was Blondie, there was the Phil Spector stuff I loved. I travelled the world, I had hits in Europe, [the label] spent money on me. It never felt like some big dramatic thing to be a woman. Ian Hunter and Mick Ronson produced your first solo album, Night Out. What was it like working with them? As much as I love Ian, he was slightly: “Oh, here’s a chick singer.” He wouldn’t let me in to do the mixes. It was a little bit like a boys’ club. But then I didn’t know my ass from my elbow when it came to mixing, so he was probably right. Ronson wasn’t like that, he was an ethereal character. It must have been different working with The Clash on your next album. It was. All of a sudden I was in this punk world. I didn’t exactly fit in. I told them I had to sing these songs in a different key,
But originally you didn’t want to sing for Royal Thunder, right? [Laughs] Oh, I definitely didn’t want to sing for Royal Thunder. Growing up, I was always singing around the house, or to my dolls. And then I ended up in this cult. That’s where I learned how to sing and play guitar. But they actually trained me to hold back. They said: “If you do a good job at this, then you take away from the glory of God. So you can never be your best.” You weren’t allowed to go to those places in your heart. And I think that plays into a lot of who I am today. Cos I have a hard time not holding back. I feel unleashed, I can do whatever the fuck I want. Can you remember the point where you rediscovered your voice? Not necessarily a moment, but an era. It was when we were playing basements, around 2005, and we were wearing these old army suits and covering ourselves in powder to look like old Civil War ghosts or something. We were dressing up and having fun and playing these underground shows, saying: “We started this band…” And all our friends used to come and check it out. But there were some nights where it was so bad – I would forget words, and I would do black-metal vocals. We had so much fun though. We didn’t know where we were going or what we were doing.
and they were, like: “Whaddya mean ‘key’?” They were so anti-American, the Steinman thing was rubbish and shit. I think it was a wrong turn for me.
Mick Jones was rumoured to have written Should I Stay Or Should I Go about your relationship. What did you think when you first heard it? I don’t think I heard it [back then]. I don’t even know if it’s about me to this day… I sing it as my last encore in my solo set, though. I never say anything, I just sing it. There was a thirty-year gap between your third solo album, Another Breath and 2013’s About Time. Why so long? I think I was really soured on the music industry. The record company was turned off by the second album, and the third one they just kind of ignored altogether. I was like: “I’ll just do something else” – TV and theatre and film. I would have done more albums if I felt more connected. You worked with Jim Steinman again on the Pandora’s Box album in 1989. When was the last time you spoke to him? The Pandora’s Box album was great. It was all women, which was a blast to do. I’m not sure why nobody paid attention to it. It was crazy. The last time I saw [Jim] was last year in New York. I feel like I’ve never lost touch with him. He always said I sang Heaven Can Wait better than Meat Loaf.
What’s your relationship with organised religion today? I don’t really get into religion or politics as far as connecting it to our music, cos I don’t want it to represent us. But I find it very hard to imagine myself walking into a church again, unless it’s a funeral or a wedding. To each his own, but I won’t go down that path again. Do you recognise that person now? I was always myself, I was just kind of a zombie. I was told that I was happy. The truth is that I was a shell. Inside I was screaming, wanting to come out. Since I left I feel free. Life’s not perfect but I’m comfortable. I think I’m okay now. You’re still in Royal Thunder with your ex-husband, Josh. How does that relationship work? We’ve never been able to explain it. It’s the strangest thing. We should be completely ripped apart, we should be done and over with. He’s someone who came into my life when I was a teenager and we had our connection. In a lot of ways he saved me. And I gained an amazing family – I have my family and I have his family. It’s just a bond we have. Everybody has soulmates. We’re musical soulmates. We were meant to do this together. That’s why we’re still here.
Jefferson Airplane’s golden-voiced, Alice-loving pioneer. Words: Rob Hughes
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startling presence, both vocally and visually,” Paul Kantner once remarked of his ex-bandmate and sometime lover Grace Slick. “An Oscar Wilde in drag, who combined insight and sarcasm that was sometimes light, sometimes dark. A provocateur.” As one of the first female superstars to emerge from the 60s, Slick did more than most to further the remit of women in rock’n’roll. She was the original acid queen, out-partying her male counterparts while remaining an indomitable presence as vocalist with Jefferson Airplane. The ravenhaired Slick adorned the cover of Life and Rolling Stone, was invited to tea at the White House (taking with her some LSD) and became the poster girl of the West Coast counterculture. “I shaved my legs,” she said, “but I talked like a truck driver.” Slick was working as a model at a San Francisco department store when she first saw Jefferson Airplane in 1965. It proved a profound experience. “I thought: ‘They’re making more than me, they only work two hours a night and they get to drink and smoke dope,’” Slick told Classic Rock in 2005. Soon afterwards, she and her husband Jerry, brother-in-law Darby and bassist David Miner formed the Great Society. The band began gigging around the Bay Area in October that year. On stage, Slick’s strident voice cut through proto-psych classics like Someone To Love and White Rabbit, the latter an hallucinatory mind-fuck she’d been inspired to write after digesting Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland and Miles Davis’s album Sketches Of Spain. When frontwoman Signe Anderson quit Jefferson Airplane in October 1966, Slick moved in. Her arrival coincided with the band’s commercial breakthrough.
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Having brought both White Rabbit and Someone To Love (renamed Somebody To Love) with her, Airplane started having hits. Their success also translated to the album market, with 1967’s stunning Surrealistic Pillow and the subsequent After Bathing At Baxter’s and Crown Of Creation. Over a breathless three years, the band enjoyed no less than five gold-selling albums. As the psychedelic movement grew, Slick found herself at the centre of a cultural revolution. “I was appalled that the San Francisco ethic didn’t mushroom and envelop the whole world into this loving community of acid freaks,” she lamented later. “I was very naïve.” In the 70s she pressed on with Kantner at the head of Jefferson Starship, although her heavy consumption of booze and drugs finally took a toll. “Everybody knew I was a big drunk,” she said. “Plus, booze and cocaine is an ugly combination. I loved it… Coke was so cheap and we were rock’n’rollers.” Her alcoholism was revealed by People magazine, who broke her anonymity about attending AA. Slick was the only former Airplane member in the line-up of Starship during the 80s. The group enjoyed several hugeselling singles, but she later confessed that she hated her time there. “Our big hit single, We Built This City, was awful,” she told Classic Rock in 2002. Salvation arrived in the form of a brief Airplane reunion in 1989. The resulting studio album was modestly successful, but Slick retired later that year, aged 50, spending her time painting, and exhibiting at art galleries across the US. Looking back on her Airplane days, she’s observed: “I was just so tired of all the damn love songs. I was just trying to up the possibilities.” CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 69
f life was in any way fair, The Nymphs would be remembered with the same kind of respect shown to the big breakthrough art-rock bands such as Jane’s Addiction. Predating grunge and creating a mesmerising combination of gothic punk rock, glam guitars, edgy style and performance art, they were led fearlessly by fiery frontwoman Inger Lorre, a striking prototype riot grrl who was every bit as wild as Axl Rose, and yet emotionally open and eloquent to the point of discomfort. There was a gorgeous, poetic sadness to the songs on the band’s only album, which paved the way for the soul-baring that became the calling card of the 1990s rock scene. The Nymphs should have been huge. Indeed, they were well on their way to being huge. Having formed in the mid-80s and relocated from New Jersey to LA with dreams of signing to an indie label, their uninhibited live shows saw the major labels sniffing around, and they were quickly signed to Geffen Records for $1million, with promises to make them stars. Before long they were darlings of MTV and well on their way to becoming a household name. “The Nymphs were sung with my chin in the air and a little attitude: ‘I’m going to be harder than the boys to show how tough I am,’” Lorre says today, at home in LA, as she looks back at her hard-edged, untamed onstage persona. It’s one that’s completely at odds with the thoughtful but intense woman we speak to today, whose mind flits from subject to subject, memory to memory, without pause. But despite the surface illusion of success The Nymphs were having, behind the scenes, the demands of controlling executives were weighing heavy on the frontwoman, who says she was also being coerced to split from the band and go solo. And so, in 1991, having finally had enough of the pressure put on her, Lorre staged a protest that marked the beginning of the end for The Nymphs. She climbed up on the desk of A&R man Tom Zutaut (the man who signed Guns N’ Roses), hitched up her skirt and pissed on the paperwork and personal effects laid out on it. At the time, this was dismissed as the action of a drunk and drug-addled crazy woman, despite rock’n’roll history being packed with men who were never silenced despite exactly this kind of behaviour (we’re looking at you, Ozzy), and the band were quickly consigned to history, viewed as one of rock’s great self-sabotaging fuck-ups, the ultimate could-have beens. But the truth is, these were the actions of a woman at the end of her tether. “People thought I must be crazy,” Lorre says. “But that’s just a woman sticking up for herself. I quit
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Music industry machinations, drugs, depression, attempted suicide: The Nymphs frontwoman is one of rock’n’roll’s great survivors. Words: Emma Johnston
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[The Nymphs] and I pissed on the desk because I was just done with it. I’d been shown a side of music that was so ugly. The sound men are creepy and managers are creepy, everyone at the label’s creepy.” usic was supposed to be Inger Lorre’s big escape from her difficult background. She grew up in New Jersey and had, she says, “a very tumultuous childhood” in which she felt unloved and alienated, and her relationship with her parents was tense and argumentative. She talks about lying on the ground in her back yard at the age of 11 or 12, hating her parents and gazing up into the sky, wishing for a UFO to come and whisk her away from it all. The ETs never showed up, though, so instead she threw herself into painting and music, expressing herself through art and losing herself in creativity – an obsession that never left her. By 1985 she had formed The Nymphs, and they took the place of her longed-for escape to outer space. But it soon turned out to be one of those ‘be careful what you wish for’ situations. Today Inger Lorre is newly clean and sober, although she nearly didn’t make it, and she’s pulled together a new version of The Nymphs to take back out for occasional live shows. In conversation she’s vibrant but fragile, full of nervous energy, with a rasping voice that holds a lifetime of tough experiences in its timbre. She’s warm, friendly and eager to share Sad and damned: her memories, her anger, her experiences I was so scared. They had so much power. Lorre on stage with and her last-chance redemption. These And they were right, I was just a stupid little The Nymphs, girl from New Jersey, and they intimidated days she’s embracing domesticity, taking circa 1991. the fuck out of me.” pleasure in her pets (when we speak, she has just brought home a pair of kittens, After her experience with Geffen, she got herself back on track, collaborating Thor and Freddie – as in Mercury – to join with her close friend Jeff Buckley, whom her and the dog). she met in a bar in Manhattan, having But getting to this point literally nearly killed her, and at the height of the band’s moved back in with her parents. The platonic adoration was mutual, but the fame, she, like so many others in her happiness was short-lived. Lorre had position, blocked out all the unpleasant sides of the music industry with heroin, been staying in Buckley’s New York which she’d first tried with apartment with her then-boyfriend while the a member of her family. “I sang with my chin singer-songwriter was on In fact, after the Harvey Weinstein revelations tour when PJ Harvey called in the air and a little to tell her Buckley had and the outpouring of accusations that followed attitude, and ‘I’m going to drowned while swimming in the Mississippi River. them throughout 2017, be harder than the boys The news came the day her #MeToo stories are Lorre’s father passed depressingly familiar. to show how tough I am.’” after away. That was when she “I was an addict because I couldn’t deal with being was hospitalised for her in the same room with these people unless first nervous breakdown. Years in the wilderness followed. She I was completely numb,” she says. went into rehab 20 times and it never “My A&R guy would look me right in the eye and say: ‘Well you’re just a little worked for her, which left her feeling ashamed and like a failure. She was also in girl from New Jersey, and I can kick you group therapy for her ongoing depression, out of your own band and I will hire which is where she got to know an equally a supermodel to stand right there on stage and to sing better than you do, and she’s troubled soul, singer-songwriter Elliott Smith. “He was such a dear, dear soul,” going to look better than you do doing it.’ Got her wings she says. “His talent was so monumental.” “And I believed him. I got really again: Inger Lorre intimidated and I just shut up. Now, in my She put out some solo albums, which (left) is back, and late forties, I’d like to see a supermodel try showcased her more delicate side, but she making music on her own terms. was getting by working in an art gallery to sing like I do, or write songs like I do. But
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(alongside Kurt Cobain’s daughter Frances Bean, coincidentally). She taught young children ceramics. Mainly, though, she was dealing with crippling depression, and in early 2017, defeated, she very nearly succeeded in taking her own life, attempting to gas herself with a barbecue in her home. “I made myself this really beautiful mixtape with Bauhaus and the Cocteau Twins, music you would want to float away to,” she remembers, struggling to hold back the tears. “And I just took a pillow and went into my bathtub and fell asleep.” She survived only because she’d tied her dog up at her mailbox to avoid him coming to any harm. Her friend and old bass player happened to be passing and noticed it barking frantically, and immediately realised something was seriously wrong inside. “I was in a coma for about a week,” Lorre says. “And when I woke up there were guards at the door, and I had fucked myself up really bad physically. My heart was leaking enzymes and my lungs were completely damaged. It was six months before I could even walk upstairs. I was like an old person. I was walking with a cane. “When you do something like that, you lose all your rights as a human. I was lucky that I could still talk, because they thought I was going to have brain damage. “I was so pissed that it didn’t work. I scared all the nurses. I ripped up a bible. A priest came to visit and gave me CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 71
she says. “But you have to believe in it, greatly. I found the minute I made that decision, all kinds of crazy doors opened up. I met the right people, people that really cared about me, who introduced me experience of her life – “She looked like to people that they knew were safe. I had a fairy godmother,” Lorre recalls – and learned how to ask for help.” Valium on hand in case she had an Today, she’s taking life as it comes. adverse reaction, she was given a pipe She has released a new live album, containing the DMT to smoke. The recorded at the Viper Room in LA, so substance, she says, is made from the she’s back on stage doing what she does venom of a toad and is illegal outside best – ripping it up with no boundaries. Mexico. In a trip she says felt like two She’s learned to protect herself from the hours but in fact only lasted 10 minutes, music industry. So while there’ll be no she recalls leaving her body at an million-dollar deals, no MTV, no fame, impossible speed, flying out through there’s also no pressure, and she can her chest and up into the sky, then out concentrate on making music and painting into space, then so far that she’d left the for the sheer joy of it. planets behind and was floating in the She has also surrounded herself with ultimate blackness. And that’s when she positive influences, people who want the met the godhead. best for her and are out to protect her. “I saw this big, round, “I’m putting a new chapter throbbing sun that was to my life and I’m stepping ‘She climbed up on back into what I love,” she dripping flames and molten metal and lava,” she explains. “Being a survivor, and the A&R man’s desk, says. “It was orange and red-hot. absolutely losing everything It had a personality, and hitched up her skirt and complete hope and belief the personality was all love. in myself, and then to have and pissed on I wasn’t really used to love, gone on this huge journey, and I remember thinking I was I realise: ‘Hey, you love music the paperwork.’ gonna OD on it, and thinking and it’s what you’re supposed it was too much and I was to do.’ But I knew, at the highest going to die. I felt so ashamed because level, at the majors, what it was like, and I had tried to kill myself. But I was a part I don’t want to be in that business. I want of it, and so I tried to kill a part of this to make a living, but I can’t deal with those beautiful thing. I woke up completely pigs. But if you know what you want to fresh and new, and I felt like my soul was do, nothing should stand in your way, no a newborn baby’s.” matter how ugly it is. It’s not about them, The experience left her with a new it’s about you.” sense of spirituality, and one of relief that’d Hopefully, after everything the universe she’d failed to kill herself. But more than has thrown at Inger Lorre, this new era that, it gave her a sense of purpose. As she of positivity will last a long and healthy returned to LA, she knew her reason for lifetime. God knows she’s earned it. existing was to make music, and to do so Inger Lorre – Live At The Viper Room is on her own terms. out now via Cargo Records. The N ymphs “If you follow what your heart wants album is available via Rock Candy. you to do, there’s no way you can fail,” Lorre in the greenroom (left) and on stage at the Marquee, London, April 1992.
a paperback version, and I just tore it to a million pieces. It was like: ‘Oh my God, she’s satanic!’ I definitely caused a lot of drama there. They wouldn’t let me go. They kept me for four fucking months in there. I did a lot of writing, and I thought, ‘You know what, I’m sick of being sick, and I’m going to do what I love to do because I hate my fucking life.’” he worst thing about being an addict, she says, is the loss of time, the fact that music and art take a back seat when all you can think about is scoring your next fix. She lost days, then months, years and decades in a chemical haze, more frustrated and disheartened with every stint in rehab that failed. Then last year, after her suicide attempt and having read a booked called DMT: The Spirit Molecule by Dr Rick Strassman, she turned a rather controversial corner. She says, in all seriousness, that she, a woman who had believed in nothing, actually met God. Not in a metaphysical, vaguely spiritual way, but literally. And in what seemed like a last chance, it involved taking a trip deep into the jungles of Mexico with a doctor who extolled the virtues of DMT (dimethyltryptamine), a hallucinogenic used in shamanic practices by indigenous people in Central and South America. “DMT is the strongest entheogen known to man,” she explains. “An entheogen is a drug that makes you have a connection with God. And that was a huge reason for who does get better and who does not get better in rehab – those who believe in something spiritual will get better.” With a dreadlocked facilitator there to hold her hand through the most intense
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The trailblazing guitarist has shared stages with Michael Jackson and played with rock royalty including Jeff Beck, provoking plenty of jealousy from her male counterparts along the way. Interview: Polly Glass
of songs. In a day and a half I ended up recording four songs and writing the song Battlefield with [original Survivor guitarist/ singer] Jim Peterik.
S&M airbrush art book, and my costume had a ball gag in the mouth. I looked at it and said: “I really don’t want to be putting this message out to young girls.”
In 1978 you were at GIT, two-handed tapping was ‘a thing’, Van Halen’s Eruption came out… What was it like learning in the midst of all that flashiness? It was a really exciting time. During the year I was at GIT, a fellow student, Steve Lynch [Autograph] ,started tapping. That was before Van Halen hit in any big way, so his approach was completely separate. We used to get monthly seminars, and Emmett Chapman, who invented the Chapman Stick, came, and he doesn’t use a pick at all… So Steve had a seed planted from that and started experimenting. I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.
So what kind of message do you want to put out to young girls? ‘Skill way over looks.’ There’s such an emphasis in Hollywood on wearing next to nothing, and it feels like so many girls think they have to be really scantily clad. There’s an amazing amount of young girls coming up who are phenomenal musicians, so I think we’re getting past that a little, but men control the industry so there is pressure to wear less and less.
You played guitar for the world’s biggest pop star, but came from a jazzy background at GIT. How did you find the contrast? I didn’t really give it much thought. he shredded her way into rock I mean, the idea the founder of GIT [jazz Jennifer Batten: history as Michael Jackson’s lead guitarist Howard Roberts] had was that it conscious of guitarist, and as one of the first was basically a technical school, so once putting out the women to fill such a position. Before you graduated you could make a living right message to then, however, Jennifer Batten was as a player. So we studied different styles, young girls. unaccustomed to the spotlight. from classical to country, jazz and rock. So After a sheltered upbringing I was interested in a lot but I didn’t – engrossed in Beatles records in really know what I wanted to do. “I asked a friend I just wanted to play music. When upstate New York, where she was forbidden from joining bands by the Jackson thing came along, how guys see her protective mother – she headed I was a fan of his music anyway me and he said: and had been playing Beat It in to California to study at the Guitar Institute Of Technology (GIT, now a covers band, so it was a thrilling ‘They hate you!’” the Musicians Institute), and landed experience all around. the Jackson gig after graduating. She has since moved between solo You had some very ‘out there’ stage outfits. Thriller: Jennifer projects, instructional DVDs, guitar clinics Was there anything you refused to wear? Batten with and collaborations, including a lauded There was, and fortunately I did have a say. Michael Jackson on the History tour. stint with Jeff Beck, and most recently My look for the History tour came out of an with vocalist Marc Scherer on the pair’s 80s-tastic album BattleZone. Batten lives in Portland, Oregon with two dogs and two cats, and in her spare time dabbles in other creative pursuits such as stained glass and steampunk art.
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You’ve embraced electronica, world music and multimedia performance over the years, but on BattleZone you sound like a classic swashbuckling guitar hero. I like to keep things interesting. I was kind of at the eleventh hour asked to come in and give the sessions for this, so I flew to Chicago thinking we’d maybe do a couple 74 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
You joined Jeff Beck’s band in 1999. Did you experience much envy from your peers? Absolutely. There wasn’t a lot that was said directly to me, but you can pick up somebody’s vibe, that jealousy’s in the air. I remember especially after I got the Jeff Beck gig, I was talking to a friend about this and I said: “I wonder how guys perceive me?” and he said: “Are you kidding me? They hate you!” Needless to say I don’t hang out with too many guitar players. Presumably you didn’t get the same reception from Jeff himself? No. Jeff is a creative soul and so he’s open to everything, and it’s amazing how many different kinds of music he’s interested in. He’ll listen to stuff that’s really out there. Is the guitar an inherently ‘masculine’ instrument, or is there another reason why fewer women have gravitated towards it? There was a time in history where women were the guitar players, playing parlour guitars, and that was the deal. But definitely as far as electric guitar’s concerned it’s a male-dominated thing. Especially in rock’n’roll, because it tends to be aggressive, and historically it hasn’t been thought to be ‘ladylike’ for women to be aggressive. But times are changing. Because of the internet, women from all corners of the world are able to see other women playing. I’m seeing kids that are seven years old playing amazingly. When I first started, most bands wouldn’t even consider having a woman in the band. But now you see guys wanting females in the band, which you wouldn’t have seen thirty years ago. BattleZone by Scherer/Batten is out now via Melodic Rock Records.
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ive-foot-nothing with a quick-fire mouth, Lydia Loveless could have been the subject of Shakespeare’s line: “Though she be but little, she is fierce.” Born Lydia Ankrom in 1990, and raised on her family’s Ohio farm, she was a rebel kid who grew into a loosecannon artist. Her four-album catalogue frankly addresses her problems – alcohol, divorce, stalkers – over music that takes in alt.country, punk rock and power-pop. But it’s the recent documentary Who Is Lydia Loveless?, which tracks the singer as she records her 2016 troubled album Real, that really gets under her skin.
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Are you pleased with how you come across in the documentary? Sorta. It’s always awkward to see yourself on film, and that was filmed during not the greatest time in my life. Real was pretty bad for me. I mean, my marriage was definitely over… it’s kind of the pre-divorce record. I was kinda messy, sloppy, drinking a lot, not being my best self. It’s interesting to be on the other side of that.
“I don’t think I’ve had high hopes since I was a small child.” Interview: Henry Yates
You’ve described your home town as “religious” and “redneck”. Did the community approve of you trying to become a musician? Within my family it wasn’t frowned on. My family is pretty rebellious. Everyone else probably thought it was pretty stupid. But I guess, looking back, it was pretty easy
to think you were special in that town, because there weren’t a lot of interesting or artistic people there. I kinda believe your mindset is most of getting things done, and I’m probably too stupid to realise that things are too hard to accomplish [laughs].
Hollywood has been disgraced. Do you think the music industry is any better? No. I mean, even in the small indie world, it’s really not that much better. If you’re a hot white guy with a guitar, you can get away with most things. I guess I was raised by iconoclastic people who taught me that the world was bullshit, so I think that’s helped me barrel through all the hurdles that society throws at you, mainly in the entertainment business. You say you get asked a lot of stupid questions. Which are the worst ones? Any question that refers to your gender as far as what subject matter you might be ‘allowed’ to sing about. Definitely the dumbest one was: did I think it was odd for a woman to sing about darker subject matter or sad emotions? I was just flabbergasted and couldn’t answer the question. So hopefully this guy had a sort of epiphany that it was a terrible question. Or maybe not. It’s difficult to pigeonhole your music. Is that intentional? Not really, because I don’t think it
It’s easy to imagine that, as a couple, the two of you constantly talk about guitars. No, it’s mostly about cats these days.
Playing with Michael Jackson and Alice? This Aussie rules! Interview: Henry Yates
welve years ago, Orianthi Panagaris took a huge leap of faith, leaving her native Australia for the glittering viper’s nest that is Los Angeles. It’s fair to say it’s paid off, with the guitarist not only enjoying a successful solo career, but also hooking up with the scene’s biggest beasts, from Michael Jackson to Alice Cooper. Next up is her long-delayed debut release as RSO, a collaboration with former Bon Jovi guitarist – and her real-life beau – Richie Sambora.
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What can we expect from the RSO album? We’ve been working on it for three years. I want to say sorry to everybody for saying it was gonna be out last year, but we’re trying so hard to do something great. I think we’ve really found a new sound. Richie and I share a similar groove; we love blues, country, rock, all the old records. His songwriting is just amazing. He’s killing it. 76 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Growing up, was playing guitar a vocation for you? Well, I’ve played since I was six, and I had my goals set when I was seven or eight – like: “I’m gonna move to America, get a record deal, tour the world, write songs, do what I love for the rest of my life, be an artist.” I was set on it. But it was never easy at school. I was actually bullied – because I played guitar – from a lot of the guys. And the teachers. And the girls too. But then you played your home town with Santana. That must have shut them up. It’s funny, now I get messages from some of the kids at my school and they’re like: “Hey, I’m in LA, let’s hang out.” And I’m like: “Why?” Did you play for some tough audiences in LA? Absolutely. The first support I did out here was Steve Vai. That was a predominantly male audience, with their arms folded, going: “Who’s this chick?” It’s hard not to feel that energy sometimes, but you just have to let it go. I just love playing guitar. I don’t care if it’s seen as a guy’s thing.
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necessarily benefits me to be that way. But the music I listen to is all over the map, so the music I make is the same way. There’s definitely a lot of weirdness in my record collection. I think that has to do with being easily depressed and affected by music. So I kinda have to balance out a lot of the sad-bastard stuff with electro-pop.
People sometimes tag you as ‘country’, but you’re very different from the female singers you hear on country radio, aren’t you? I guess it’s hard for me to pinpoint exactly, but I think a lot of that is production – I don’t always go for standard country sounds. But maybe it’s just an attitude thing, lyrically. It’s not like I’m breaking new ground, exactly, but it’s maybe just a little more snarly than people want to hear on the radio. Has anyone ever tried to polish me up? There’s certainly people who have suggested it. Maybe I’m just stupid, in the business sense, for not listening. But I guess I like where I’m at musically. Do you have high hopes for 2018 – or do you think it’ll be another dark year? Every year of my life has been slightly dark. I try to be a little more positive these days, but I don’t think I’ve had high hopes since I was a small child. Who Is Lydia Loveless? is out now via MV D. Real is out via Bloodshot Records
What was it really like playing with Michael Jackson? I got a phone call the night before [the audition]. He’s like: “Can you play the Beat It solo?” It was daunting. I wasn’t a shredder; I loved the blues. So what I played in the Beat It solo was more blues-based than the record. Some people were like: “Well, you didn’t play it exactly.” And I’m like: “I’m not gonna try to fill Eddie Van Halen or Jennifer Batten’s shoes. Because I’m not that.” What are your favourite memories of working with Alice Cooper? I remember one morning on the bus, I got up to get some coffee, and one of his boas was out, and it was staring at me. I was freaked out. Why do you think the guitar world is still so dominated by men? I’m not sure. It’s drums as well. I guess it’s just always been a guy’s thing. Maybe that originated with male blues musicians. But it doesn’t matter. If you have a passion for something, just go with it.
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Do you reckon AC/DC are an Australian band or a British one? They’re just frickin’ great, wherever they’re from. But I’ll claim them as Australian. RSO’s Rise EP is out now via BMG.
The in, out, in songwriting heart of Fleetwood Mac. Interview: Gary Graff
ive years ago in September, Christine McVie stepped on stage with Fleetwood Mac for the first time since 1997 and has been touring with them since. More importantly, she went into the studio with the guys in the band for sessions that resulted in last year’s lauded Buckingham McVie duo album with Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham. At 74, the former Christine Perfect is fully in, and it doesn’t sound like she has any plans to go her own way ever again.
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Are you still glad that you rejoined Fleetwood Mac almost five years ago? Oh yes. It’s fantastic. I love it. In hindsight, do you regret the hiatus? I quit the band only because I developed this horrendous fear of flying and was run down and tired of touring. I bought a home in England that was being restored. I wanted to move back closer to my family. It was not out of any lack of love for these guys. They’re my musical family. What brought you back? I realised that I made a huge mistake, that’s all. I started missing them and playing with them and the interaction, the chemistry of it all. I started to really, really desire to start doing something again, and the only people that I would have any desire to do anything with would be Fleetwood Mac. Your first step back was writing and recording again with Lindsey. You two clearly have a unique connection. What is it that you draw out of each other? It’s a hard thing to analyse, really. I suppose it’s just a musical rapport. It’s very easy to work with him. Although I know
people say he can be a difficult bugger, I’ve always found him to be a terrific fellow to work with. I enjoy it.
There are some who would say, with all deference to Stevie Nicks, that it’s the product of your collaboration that is the real sound of Fleetwood Mac . Lindsey just loves producing other people’s songs. He always has. I think with me he tends to lean slightly towards a romantic side of him – musically, I’m speaking – because he describes himself as the brains and me as the heart. Was there any disappointment that the Buckingham McVie songs didn’t end up leading to a full Fleetwood Mac album? No, I don’t think there was ever any particular agenda at that point. In the very opening days we didn’t know what we were doing. We didn’t know where it was going to go. Anything could happen. I suppose it would’ve had to cross my mind at some point. It seems bizarre that Stevie [Nicks] is not on it, because the rest of the band are. But we decided that we wanted to pursue a duet project when we listened to everything back. And I’m really happy that we did because I like what it is. It’s clean-cut and defined very much as the two of us. Which I do like. Fleetwood Mac will be touring in 2018. What are prospects for some new material from the band? I certainly think it’s a good idea. I think it would be quite nice to cut a couple of new ones. We’ll have to wait and see. We’re planning to start rehearsing sometime in the spring. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 77
pon exploding on to the rock scene as instantly recognisable, invariably outspoken lead vocalist with Skunk Anansie in 1994, Skin swiftly gained a reputation as one of the most visceral and compelling live performers in any genre. Following a trio of hit albums and a dozen chart singles over the next five years, the quartet took a decadelong hiatus. Skin (real name Deborah Dyer), meanwhile, pursued a solo career, modelled, DJ’ed and, since the band’s re-formation in 2009, joined the judging panel of the Italian X Factor .
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What kind of upbringing did you have, and how did Deborah Dyer grow up to be Skin? I had a very religious Afro-Caribbean upbringing. My mother was a church warden, so Sundays were all about church. The rest of the week we did what we wanted. My dad was in the Air Force, so until I was six I was living on bases up and down the country, able to run free because there were no cars. My grandad had a nightclub in Brixton, a shebeen, and my first musical memory was sitting at the top of the stairs, when I was very small, watching everybody dancing to reggae and ska. “Why’s everybody moving like that?” “It’s dancing.” I thought it was cool, and it shaped my musical being. My desire to perform started with Blondie. I was a kid who always watched Top Of The Pops from right underneath the TV, because it was the only music television I was allowed to watch. When I was ten, Blondie came on and I was like: “I wanna do that.” Before that it was all just reggae, ska, calypso… and country and western. Jamaicans love country and western – Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton. When they’re chilling, it’s country and western, but when they wanna dance, it’s all about the reggae.
The ‘Black Bisexual Six-Foot Angry Skunk Anansie Singer’ talks about her Brixton roots, 90s lad culture and why she’ll never settle for a safe life. Interview: Ian Fortnam
You once told me the first record you bought was Nina Simone’s My Baby Just Cares For Me . Yeah, on ten-inch. I’d never heard of her but my friend, who was only about fourteen, stole a bunch of records and was selling them in Brixton Market. I bought it because I liked the cover. I thought, ‘Oh, a black woman, I wonder what she’s doing.’ I didn’t have anything to play it on, but eventually managed to hear it because I sneaked into the front room
Much Too Young and thought, “I like that. It’s ska, but different, reinvented,” and from that I discovered guitars. Then I discovered The Cure and became a bit of a goth. The guitar thing really entranced me and I started learning to play. From there I discovered distortion and blues, so the guitars I liked started getting heavier and bluesier. At the beginning of the nineties, Nirvana changed everything, overnight, and we were all wearing army clothes and ripped-up trousers. That’s when I really “Women in bands went got into rock music: Hendrix, Mother’s Finest, black rock forward and made and experimental bands; a difference by being George Clinton, Parliament, Funkadelic. I’d identify with ourselves, not by being the soulful voices, but the guitars were what excited me. overtly political.”
– Jamaican houses have a front room no one’s allowed to go in, everything’s covered in plastic and you can’t touch anything – where the record player was. My mum, who was a nurse, forgot to lock the front room one day so I sneaked in while she was out, played Nina Simone and absolutely loved it. She had a weird voice, not your typical Ella Fitzgerald; a squally, scratchy, dirty, ugly voice, full of emotion with a weird vibrato. I loved her. I’ve still got that record and love it.
Shaving your head in your early twenties was clearly a pivotal moment. Was finding rock, or possibly more importantly, the rock community, similarly pivotal? Yeah. When I was brought up, we’d mix with white people at church and Sunday school and that was it. It wasn’t until I got to about fourteen, when Brixton was being gentrified and all different kinds of people started moving in and hanging out, Portuguese and Australians, that I started to hear other conversations about music. I loved ska, and all these white boy bands started playing it. I heard The Specials’ Too
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Above left: Skunk Anansie on stage at London King’s Cross Water Rats, 1994. Above right: Skin with SA’s Cass, Mark Richardson and Ace.
Surf’s up: Skin hits the pit at Gurten Open Air festival, Bern, 2010.
Skunk Anansie appeared to arrive out of nowhere, fully formed, in 1994, but you’d already built a reputation as the best frontperson on the King’s Cross scene. Where did you find that persona? I was very shy and quiet as a child, then a couple of horrible things happened. I had a very abusive boyfriend at seventeen. He was fifteen years older than me, and the
whole thing should never have happened. I realised that if I didn’t snap out if it and get stronger, I was gonna be a weak female that people would walk over, abuse and treat as insignificant, because I made myself very small and quiet. So I went to study interior design at Middlesbrough, and started to meet other people. I had a really good friend, who sadly just died of cancer, and we’d go clubbing. Guys would pull me over to dance and I’d dance with them. She was like: “You can’t just let these guys pull you to dance. You’ve got to tell them no.” And I didn’t know how to tell guys no. Then I realised that unless I became stronger and more aggressive, I was just going to be walked upon. So at eighteen I went in the opposite direction, immersed myself in aggressive rock music and became how I imagine I am on stage, stomping around, really getting into the music, being like all the white boys who were doing that. Just being myself. It was a very political time. I was political at college and Skunk Anansie’s songs were political because we were angry young kids making rock music.
Was shaving your head part of changing who you were? Deborah becoming Skin? I’d always been Skinny and when I got into the band I took the end off to make it Skin because it sounded cooler. When I shaved my head, I got my friend’s boyfriend to do it. I’d gone from having long, curly perm, wavy, black-girl hair to headscarf, Afro and not putting product in my hair, because I was just tired of the mess. Then one day I just said, “Can you shave my head, please?” He said okay, but wouldn’t go as short as I wanted, so I went to a barber who completely shaved it. I looked in the mirror and thought: “Ah, there I am.” Then I was super-comfortable with my looks and with myself, because I’d found myself. It gave me strength. I looked different to everybody else and I liked it. So instead of trying to be like everybody else and not feeling comfortable with my difference, I was finally happy with who I was. I used to get horrible CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 79
nerves before walking on stage because I’m naturally shy, but shaving my head gave me confidence.
Back in the nineties you told me: “Look at what’s being promoted by the media – lad culture. People act like shit and treat women like shit.” Are we still living with that legacy, or have things improved? Yes and no. Women in bands went forward and made a difference by being ourselves, not by being overtly political. Then lad culture turned that around into ladette culture. Then by the noughties, and probably influenced by rap music, women in bands were being very sexual. So sexual that if you weren’t flinging your tits out, you weren’t going to get signed. We’re all sexual, and I wouldn’t want women to stop doing that altogether, but it’s not the only way to skin a cat. I think a lot of women coming up now see that sort of thing as naff and embarrassing. Feminism and politics in general change with the generations, and it’s not up to us to tell the girls coming up now what to do. It’s up to them to redefine feminism and sexuality and make their own way, because it’s a completely different time. There’ve been significant revelations in Hollywood and Westminster lately. Would you say that, even in the 21st century, the outwardly liberal worlds of music and fashion are similarly riddled with abusive misogyny? Oh God, yeah. Absolutely. I’ve been speaking with my friends about this and this is not shocking to us. It’s normality in the music business, in the fashion industry, the film industry, corporations, white- and blue-collar jobs. It’s what we’ve been dealing with 80 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Still ruffling and fighting against for a very long time. Angry Skunk Anansie Singer’. Even now, feathers: live in What’s good now is that the media are people meet me and go, ‘You’re not as Warsaw, 2011. taking it seriously, and although they’re tall as I expected’ or, ‘You’re actually quite still making bitches-by-the-swimmingnice’, because the image people have been pool music videos, women can now say, sold is that I’m six foot, really aggressive, “That’s not okay,” and men’ll go, batter everybody with political “I’d better tuck my neck in because slogans, wear unfeminine clothes “When I was ten, and look like a boy. now that’s a viable complaint, I could lose my livelihood.” Blondie came on Last year you suffered the breakTV and I was like: up of your marriage to Christiana Do you ever regret being so open about your sexuality in the early Are you still the marrying ‘I wanna do that.’” Wyly. days of Skunk Anansie? Pretty kind? Ever the romantic optimist? Absolutely [laughs]. You have soon it became the headline. I never regretted it. I never lied about my to be. The alternative is to never have sexuality, was always open about it, and so relationships and never fall in love, never every headline was ‘Black Bisexual Six-Foot shake your emotions. And if I don’t put my emotions under the hammer and have them shaken about, how am I going to stay connected with myself, my emotions and my personal voice? Being a musician, we’re really in touch with ourselves and in tune with what we want to say, because we’ve got to write it all out and expose it to people. So as a group of people, we’ve got to have our relationships so we can write good songs. Also, if I’m going to pat myself on the back for anything, I’d say I’m very brave. I’d rather just go for it than try to live a safe life. I’ve just learned to ride motorbikes and it was terrifying. I tried skydiving the other day and was petrified. I’m not a thrill-seeker, but we’re all getting older, and how else are we going to keep ourselves relevant and on top of our emotions than by continually challenging what we are? The day we just sit there writing safe songs, that’ll be the day we get really boring.
Skunk Anansie will be releasing a live album later this year.
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Fight for your right to party? Lita certainly did, and lived life to the full during her time as guitarist in The Runaways in the 70s then as a solo artist in the 80s. Interview: Emma Johnston
ita Ford was one of the great shredders of the 80s, an era she still sees as a golden age. Having started her career precociously young as a guitarist in The Runaways in the 70s, and then finding solo fame with hits including Kiss Me Deadly, she embraced the rock’n’roll lifestyle with gusto.
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When you were first learning to play guitar, who were your big inspirations? I loved Ritchie Blackmore. His playing was phenomenal. The double-picking guitar parts that he used to do, nobody did that, it was so unique. I also loved Tony Iommi for his riffs, those dark and heavy riffs. They were so badass.
Last year you published Living Like A Runaway: A Memoir. What was it like going over all those memories? It was interesting. There were times where I had to walk away, clear my head and just think: “I’ve got to get away from this,” and then there were times where it was hysterical, where I was crying laughing.
You’re well-respected as a guitarist. How did you develop your onstage persona? It’s just a matter of practice a rock star or just and developing your own style. I remember Cherie [Currie, Did you enjoy being a rock star? be a musician.” Runaways singer] came in one Being a rock star is a state of day and she was dressed up like mind. You can either be a rock David Bowie. Cos we all wanted to be our star or just be a musician. I liked to dress superheroes, and you can’t. You learn from up, and because I was who I was, I could them, steal from them, but create your wear anything and get away with it. You own style and become yourself. could wear little tiny bra tops and walk the streets, and people would look twice What was the eighties rock scene like for and then they’d go: “Oh, it’s Lita Ford, no you when you became a solo artist? wonder.” So yeah, it was a lot of fun. It was the best decade for rock’n’roll, for me. The people You had a long break – fifteen years – in that came out of it, all the the nineties. Did you miss all of that? different musicians and When the grunge scene kicked in I was different things you learnt. really sick of it. I didn’t like what had The money was great. You happened to music. I met this got paid big-time for what guy and had two children, and you did. Now everything’s I wanted to be a great mom, just microscopic. Like: “You and all of a sudden being get ninety-nine cents if you a mother was more important download this.” Fuck you. to me than being a rock star. It was a decade that can never be beat. Bands like How was it coming back after Van Halen, Mötley Crüe. that fifteen-year break? Music was in its prime. I had to study myself. I had to remember: how did I move on stage? How did I play What memories do you that certain guitar run? None of it was have of being on the road easy. But the first thing I did was make the with those bands? record [ Wicked Wonderland], and that There are a lot of good helped me a lot. Then we started a fourstories in the book, with month tour with Def Leppard. I was just rock stars and people in like: “Wow, is God watching over me, or the industry. You know, if what? This is bad to the bone.” I felt at you work in a bank then home. All my aches, pains and hurts went chances are you’re away. It was where I was supposed to be. going to date somebody that You’re working on new music. What can works at the bank. we expect from it? It’s the same with It’s very dark. Since my divorce rock music. If you’re I have fallen into a very dark side. on tour and you run And a lot of people relate to it. It into bands that you’re gives them a place to let loose opening for, you’re their anger and their hatred. gonna end up They have a place to go. having a drink with They understand.
How did you go about putting it together? Things would pop into my mind and I would write the story, and then put it in chronological order. For instance when I was thirteen I went to the Black Sabbath concert, and then I would move on to The Runaways days. When it got to the part where I spoke about my children, that was difficult. I haven’t seen them in eight years. [After the split with her husband, their children went with him.] What did you think of the film The Runaways (released in 2010)? They tried to make me out to be a bitch, bossy, and really I wasn’t. I was just more interested in what was going on in the music industry, and our lives, and why were these men taking all our money. Were you being exploited? Well, you want to know things. Or I did. And every time I’d ask, I expected the girls to back me. At least tell us how much we made! And they wouldn’t, they would look at me as if I was the bad guy. So I’d just get a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and go and sit in the hallway of the hotel. But there were a lot of parties. I met a lot really great people. When you started out with The Runaways did you have any idea of the impact the band would have? I did, actually. I had a vision. When [manager] Kim Fowley first called me he M wanted me to audition. He gave me the rap . S N of a lifetime: “You’re going to play the I S A L T biggest arenas, you’re going to fuck the A / R E W best rock stars…” I was like: “Wow! Z L Really?” And he was right. It all came true. Z L I E N I held on to that vision and I never let it go.
Dancin’ on the edge: Ford’s not for holding back.
them at the bar, and next thing you know they’re your best friend!
And those are people who understand the touring lifestyle. It is difficult, though. You get a lot of: “Oh, you slut!” When the book came out, the New York Times “Being a rock star made a list of everybody I slept But I didn’t hold back, is a state of mind. with. I told everything in terms of sex You can either be and drugs. Why would I not talk about it?
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 81
ebbie Harry might have started as a peer of The Slits, Raincoats and X-Ray Spex, but today she’s working with new stars Sia and Charli XCX on Pollinator , Blondie’s eleventh album. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 72 years old, she discusses her past and present.
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Did punk feel like a liberating time to be a woman in rock music? I didn’t really have time to think about it all that much. I had to be content with being discriminated against, because it wasn’t fully accepted that girls were in rock bands to this degree. But in a way it was very rock’n’roll and very punk at the same time that girls should do this. It was totally a punk thing to do. Before punk, was there anybody who you admired that encouraged you to get involved? Joan Baez, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Joan Jett… All of them. I listened to everybody and everything. I think as far as being a real babe and a real iconoclast, Janis Joplin probably did a lot for me. But then also on the musical side I was influenced by a lot of the R&B girl groups. It was a combination of things, not one particular element. I would hate to be that paper-thin. You have been similarly influential on pop girls including Madonna and Lady Gaga, and on female rockers such as Courtney Love and Hayley Paramore. [Modestly] There wasn’t a lot to choose from. I guess I lucked out in that respect. Did you feel powerful at the height of Blondiemania? We had a very good – dramatic – very fastpaced, reckless trajectory. We were just shot out of a canon, basically, and once we hooked up with [label] Chrysalis it was album-tour-album-tour-single-singlesingle-single; it was non-stop for seven years. Part of the reason why Blondie exploded – or imploded – in 1981 was because of that. We worked like demons for that seven-year period. It was very stressful, and there was a lot of push behind us. It’s so funny, because nowadays you don’t put out an album with less than two or three years between.
“It was a very punk thing to be a woman in rock music,” says the Blondie vocalist. After more than 40 years in the industry she’s still a rock role model – and champion of young female talent. Interview: Paul Lester
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Blondie are one of the few bands from your era to still be having top-five albums after four decades. What do you put that longevity down to? I hate to say it was luck, because it was more than luck. Who knows why it all fell into place. But it did, and we were canny enough to take the opportunities. Sometimes these come along and you look away. Then in hindsight you go: “Gee, that could have worked.” We were fortunate to have been ready for it. We had tremendous problems – legal problems, contractual obligations – that really got in the way, but we were very fortunate to find the right people at the right time.
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Blondie brought brought the arty American – New York York avant-garde into British homes. It was like an alien visitation. Ha! Well, that’s good. Bring on the aliens! [Composing herself, addressing idea of Blondie’s longevity] I don’t know. Taste has expanded, in a way. Audiences are much more well-informed and sophisticated these days, there is so much music we can get our hands on, and I just think a lot of those old definitions about ageing and age groups and what kind of music people are listening to… a lot of that has diminished. How different is life on the road now compared to Blondie’s heyday in the seventies and eighties? Ha! Well I don’t think I’ll be hopping around as much as I used to. However, there are moments when I become truly inspired. It’s a lot of fun for me. I think about how fortunate I am very often. As frustratin fr ustratingg as it sometimes becomes, ultimately when we walk out on stage and we play play it’s, it’s, you you kno know, w, magic. magic. I’ve I’ve got got to to always be thankful for that.
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Above: Blondie in 1976. Below: Debbie Harry today.
homogenous in a way, because all of those radically different bands came out of that little scene and little time period. It’s really quite outstanding when you think about it.
Is it true that you once heard voices, recounting complex mathematical formulae, coming from the fireplace in your childhood home in New Jersey? Chrissie Hynde once said: “Guys in Ha! I shouldn’t have ever told anybody that bands bands are are pussie pussies.” s.” Do Do you you agree? agree? story, cos it happened to me when I was [Laughing] Well… I don’t know how she quite young – four or means that. That could five years old. But who be a good good thin thing. g. “I had to be content with knows what the hell I was thinking. I don’t Do you have as much being being discrim discrimina inated ted ag agains ainst, t, know why it happened. in common with Sia and Charli XCX as you because because it it wasn’ wasn’tt fully fully Were you always do with Patti Smith? accepted that girls were in different, even You seem to navigate at school? the eras with with aplom aplomb. b. rock bands to this degree.” [Surprised at the A piece of music is a enquiry] I think I was piece of music to me. It quiet about my eccentricities, as it were. stands by itself. It doesn’t imply a lot of things. If I like it, all the rest falls away. So What did people make of you? when I get get a piece piece of of music music from Charli Charli I don’t know. I mean, I had friends, I wasn’t XCX or Sia, it’s like: “Wow. That’s great.” a complete moper hanging out in a dark I only find out who did it later. corner. I sort of felt like I was normal. But I had a very big imaginary life, and I was Are younger musicians nervous a bit of a daydreamer, I think. I was always with you? curious – I had a great curiosity and It depends on the person. I’m the same fascination with the world. It wasn’t like way. way. When When I meet people people I admir admiree and and I wanted to stay in my little home town have been a fan of, sometimes I’m lost for [Hawthorne] in New Jersey and live my words. words. I think think that that happen happenss to all of us. us. life there, I wanted to see the world. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but Who’s made you tongue-tied? I definitely had big eyes. I guess David Bowie [on Iggy Pop’s The Pop’s The Idiot tour Idiot tour in 1977, with Blondie as To have sustained a career in the music support] made me a little tongue business business for forty-fiv forty-fivee years. years. There tied. Actors make me more tonguemust be something very tied than musicians. determined about you? Yes. Well, I think the hard part is In 1977 Blondie toured with over! Except for the fact that it’s Television, while Talking a hard job to do – it takes a lot Heads went on a doubleof effort, thought and actual header with the Ramones. physicality. I think I’ve earned Shouldn’t it have been my reputation. If I have the other other way way roun round? d? an audience and I guess in a way you’re a following, it’s really up right. But that was one to me to entertain these of the things about the people and give them New York [CBGB] the best that I’ve got. scene. It was sort of
You’re still making great records – good good ones ones at that. that. Last year’s year’s Pollinator was very well received. I’m very happy with it. I think we all are. We even did a show where we mainly played new material, and I swear the whole audience sang along. It was a lot of the real diehard fans that were there. It made me so happy, it really made my day. What is a typical t ypical Blondie fan like? We get all different types. We’ve always been told told this this from the business business people, people, that we have a wide demographic. Do you ever see any fans from way back and you’re you’re like: “Hey, “Hey, didn’t didn’t you you mob me in 1978?” Ha ha! A lot of fans have been with us, for all that time and I have spoken with them over the years. But once in a while someone will will come come up and refresh refresh my my memory memory – and and it does take some refreshi refreshing ng.. Presumably you get fans who tell you they they got got married married or had kids or whatever to your music? Yes, there’s been that. People write to me or tell me that a certain part of their lives [has improved] because of Blondie’s music. Something that I find really heartbreaking – and heart-warming at the same time – is when people say: “You stopped me from killing myself.” That’s like: “Holy shit.” I’m glad that happened, but it’s terribl terriblee to hear, hear, you you kno know? w? It’s It’s high high praise, basically. Music takes you away from your problems and gives you a bit of space to feel something different, and that’s why you love it. Do you ever listen to your old albums? No! Sometimes we might decide to pull a song from the deep, dark past and put it into rotation in our shows, then I will have to give it a listen. Actually, the other day Matt [Katz-Bohen], our keyboard player, was playin playingg this this riff and I said: said: “What’s “What’s that? It’s really pretty.” And he said: “Oh, that’sFade that’s Fade Away And Radiate!” Radiate!” [from Blondie’s 1978 album Parallel Lines]. Lines]. Pollinator Pollinator is out now via BMG. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 85
“I
don’t have anyone that I answer to,” says the straight-talking, ninetime Grammy winning, cancer surviving mother-of-two, rock’n’roll badass badass Sheryl Sheryl Crow. Crow. “There “There are are so so many many things to write about and there’s no risk in my writing about them.” Those things on last year’s Be Myself include politics, our addictions to our digital devices, mindless celebrity, sexism and more…
The Missouri-born singer was inspired by the “tough chicks”. Interview: Siân Llewellyn
In 2013 you released Feels Like Home , your your first first ‘cou ‘country’ ntry’ album. album. Your most most recent sees you returning to rock. It’s a follow-up to the last record in a couple of different ways. I’d moved to Nashville and I felt like I had so many country influences, and most of the songs people know from me were definitely influenced by country country.. So when when I was approa approached ched about doing a record for the country format, I thought, well that’s very logical, I live here… And then when I got there I realised: “Oh, this is not my home.” Making the record was a good experience, I worked with a lot of great songwriters in Nashville, but the country format itself… I mean, they don’t play women, women, the music music is very misogyni misogynistic, stic, it’s just good ol’ boys party music, which was not what what I loved loved about about count country. ry. I loved Gram Parsons and Emmylou [Harris], and the Rolling Stones doing Exile and Let It Bleed. The kind of country that was more more about about swagge swagger. r.
I LA’s dirt-blues duo are all about “fucking attitude”. Heckle them at your peril. Interview: Henry Yates
f you’ve ever wondered what happened to all the warrior princess female rockers, then Deap Vally are the cavalry. Seven years ago the garage blues blues duo duo clatte clattered red out of Calif Californi orniaa like like a bulldozer in cut-offs, their lean, brutal racket built entirely on Lindsey Troy’s scything guitar/vocal and Julie Edwards’s flayed drums. Debut album Sistrionix pricked up our ears in 2013, but it was their latest record, Femejism, that grabbed our lapels, jabbing chauvinism in the eye on tracks like Smile More and Two Two Seat Seat Bike Bike. A bleary-eyed Troy rolled out of bed to tell us more.
Are Are peopl peoplee still still surprised surprised by the powe powerr that that just just two two musicia musicians ns can muster? muster? Yeah, we get that all the time, like: “You guys make so much noise for two people.” We think it’s kinda funny, because, y’know, it’s amplification [laughs]. If Deap Vally hadn’t happened, what else could you have been? I’m a lifer. My dad is a big Dead-head and he was at Woodstock, so
Country has had so many iconic women, though, like Emmylou, Dolly Parton … But it’s really changed right now. And I’m hoping it comes out of its growing pains. It’s become very commercial. And because they’ve had success with this one genre of ‘bro’ music, they’re not willing to step away because because there’s there’s too too much much money money in in it. it. And And that’s the nature of the beast where commerce is succeeding. So this record was really really my my knee-j knee-jerk erk response response to that. that. A retu return rn to your your root rootss was was in order order?? It wasn’t really a conscious decision stylistically, but it was in terms of making the album. I called my buddy Jeff Trott [who has collaborated with Crow since 1996] and said: “Hey, come over, and let’s write write some some song songs,” s,” and within within three three weeks weeks we had a whol wholee record record.. Is it different being back in the rock world? Actually it’s kinda great. I think that’s part of why it feels fun right now. And the other thing that’s been great has been my age. It’s been wholly wholly liberati liberating ng to write write music music for grown-ups; to not be trying to write for a demographic, because I already know I’m not going to get played at radio. Who were the women who inspired you? I was lucky. The females when I was growing up were the tough chicks. They were were like like Pat Benetar Benetar,, and and Stev Stevie ie Nicks Nicks who, who, while while not tough, tough, in her own own way way held held
I went to Grateful Dead shows as a kid, and our parents were really into us doing music. I do think about my life sometimes, and maybe if I’d gotten more degrees in school. But I try to read on the road and keep my brain stimulated, y’know?
Did Deep Vally play some tough shows on the way up? On the first tour we ever did on the West Coast, this guy was like: “Get a bass player!” I think he was a bass player, so he was a little salty. And I told him to get a vagina [laughs]. [laughs]. He didn’t know what to say to that. What was it like being on tour with Blondie and Garbage last summer? You can’t ask for a cooler tour to be on. It was, like, three generations of bands, all very differe different. nt. But it was a total total lovelove-fest fest too. Shirley Manson is super-cool, an absolute sweetheart. And Debbie Harry, she’s a total fucking icon. A total bad-ass. Untouchably cool, for sure. We’d be in her dressing room, and I would pick her brain. I was so curious to know who her idols were, were, becau because se she she reall reallyy predat predates es a lot of female icons. I mean, she’s one of the first. In your adolescence, was it rare to see women women with such attitude? attitude? I mean, I was from California, and I grew
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her own. She was gorgeous without using her sexuality, she was more mystical. Chrissie Hynde was tough and could wield a guitar. And Bonnie Raitt and Heart’s Wilson sisters. I had a large group of women women I could could look look at at and and go: go: “That’s “That’s what what I wanna do.” I don’t know who girls look at now and go: “I wanna do that.”
Of those you’ve mentioned, they’re more realistic humans, somehow. They’re not a cartoon. Celebrity is such a weird thing now. It’s infiltrated all aspects of kids’ lives. For instance, our Disney TV shows, all these girls, even they’re supposed to be teenagers, they seem like adults and they’re sarcastic and every kid can sing like Mariah Carey… But more than that, the girls who proclaim to be role models and want equality for women are peddling sex. And while that may be a powerful tool, what kind of equality are you asking for? It’s very confusing. It’s confusing to girls and confusing to boys. And now I sound like an old lady. Nothin Nothingg wro wrong ng with with that. that. But can you you see see how things might change? I wanna say give your daughters a guitar. Take ’em out of dance class and give them a guitar and see what can happen. Give ’em a Joni Mitchell album or give ’em Rumours and a guitar and see what they become. s. Be Myself is out out now via Warner s.
up on a lot of classic rock and also nineties grunge, so for me that was quite normal. I grew up listening up to Janis Joplin and stuff like Hole and No Doubt. Even as a young girl listening to, like, Alanis Morissette’s first record, y’know, she was full of attitude, even as a pop-rock star. I was always very drawn to a frontwoman with with tons tons of attitu attitude. de. I alw always ays thought thought that that was just the most bad-ass. bad-ass.
Did you find Trump’s comments about women women as disap disappoi pointi nting ng as we we did? did? Of course. That whole election was really heartbreaking for me. Now I’ve just kinda accepted it and detached myself a bit from politics. I personally was really looking forward to the idea of having a woman in office. But it is what it is.
Battling addiction and childhood trauma, the singersingersongwriter found succour in just one place: music. Interview: Nick Hasted
eth Hart’s blues draws on a life damaged for decades by childhood traumas including an armed home invasion. Her rip-saw vocals, open-hearted gigs and songwriting which sees her staring her past straight in the eye have led to work with high-profile fans including Joe Bon Bonamas amassa, sa, and assur assured ed solo solo alb albums ums which whi ch rang rangee across across blu blues, es, rock rock and jaz jazz. z.
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You’ve had a lot of great collaborators. Is Joe Bonamassa the most important in helping you along your path? So many incredible people have helped me. I’m one of the rare people that, having been in the music business so long, I don’t have anyone I could say anything bad about. I’ve never experienced chauvinism in the busine bus iness. ss. In term termss of of the the big bo boys, ys, the firs firstt one I worked with was Jeff [Beck], and he was so respe respectfu ctfull and and swe sweet et and hum humble ble.. ItIt was the sam samee with with Sla Slash. sh. And then wit with h Joe,, neve Joe neverr once once did he tell tell me wha whatt to to sing sing,, or how to sing, or do this. And we’ve just made our third studio record together. I’m really thankful because I heard so many warnin wa rnings gs whe when n I was start starting ing out out:: “Be “Be careful, because they’ll try to literally screw you, or screw you financially.” financially.”
Femejism – is that title your own modern
interpretation of feminism? Well, Julie actually came up with that word. word. It’s one of her her fav favourit ouritee thing things, s, to to invent new words. Femejism is a lot of things. It’s a response to us having to constantly be asked about what it’s like to be women and are we feminists – which which is is frankly frankly quite quite anno annoyin ying. g. But it also has humour, and it’s a fresh take on the ‘F’-word, sure. It always tickles us to see people’s reaction or interpretation to the title.
A lot lot of of the the female female sin singer gerss you you admi admire re – Billie Holiday, Janis Joplin – sang from a lot of pain and flamed out early. What do you think of that tradition, and are you in it? There’s something to be said for someone in life, whether it’s an artist or not, having that willingness to really be open about whatt scares wha scares them them or hurts hurts them. Beca Because use if I’m feeling down and someone walks in and says, ‘My heart’s broken and I just want to die,’ I’m not happy that you wanna die, but I’m hap happy py that I’m not the onl onlyy one. one.
What has affected you that way? I remember the first broken-hearted musician I ever heard. It’s what drove me to the piano. I heard Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata on Sonata on the television. And [starting to cry] you can really hear his longing. What ran through my head was: “You know whatt it is to wha to lov love.” e.” And tha that’s t’s why why I want wanted ed to make music, because I guess I felt like I could find God again if I did. I remember at that time my dad was really sick, and cheating on mum. He gambled away away our house, went to prison, and almost overnight it went from this beauti bea utiful ful hom homee to to every everyone one’s ’s hearts hearts bei being ng broken bro ken.. I rem rememb ember er tha thatt hap happen pening ing as a little girl, and hearing that song, and then I went to the piano in the middle of the night. So it’s not that I don’t write songs that are joyous and from the hip sometimes. But the main reason I go to music is when I’m suffering or afraid or in doubt. I go back to it because it was always there for me. You had a number of addictions when you were youn were younger ger.. Do yo you u find find that yo you u bing bingee on songwriting now? I don’t know if I’d call c all it addiction now. One of the beautiful things about getting older is that life starts to teach you how to live it a little bit. I’m forty-five. Right around forty, things started to shift [against alcoholism and Hart’s bipolar illness]. And my career has gotten more successful as I’ve gotten older. A lot of things have come that have whittl whi ttled ed do down wn tha thatt mons monster ter ins inside ide tha thatt always needs to fill up a void. That monster willl alw wil always ays be wit with h me, me, but it’s very tin tinyy now.. I don’t feel it can take me over. now Black Coffee Black Coffee is out out now now via via Provo Provogue/ gue/ Mascot. Masc ot. Hart tour tourss from from Apri Aprill 10. 10. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 87
Male rock stars have always capitalised on their sex appeal, so why the shock when women do the same? And are things improving? We talk to some present-day provocateurs to find out. Words: Polly Glass
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s times and tastes have changed, the female body has been held to different standards. Up until the 1800s it was fashionable for women to show a lot of cleavage. Come the Victorian era, though, and showing an ankle was enough for society to declare a woman ‘easy’. Obviously we’ve moved on since then, but that attention paid to the appearance of women in the public eye has never gone completely. In the post-Weinstein climate, more men have been held to account over inappropriate behaviour towards women, but questions regarding universal attitudes are still hanging. Should women be taken less seriously if they dress provocatively? And does it matter whether they’re doing it to allure, challenge or anything else? For all the involvement of women in rock’n’roll’s evolution, history tends 88 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Above: In This Moment’s Maria Brink, The Runaways’ Cherie Currie, Wendy O Williams.
to paint it as a male-dominated world, fuelled by honed torsos and testosterone. So the women who have joined in, and stridently used their ‘assets’ in doing so, have stuck out. Cherie Currie fronted The Runaways wearing a basque, stockings and suspenders. Wendy O Williams, embracing near-nudity and a mohawk with US punks Plasmatics, was dubbed the Queen Of Shock Rock back in the 80s. Boss Hog singer Cristina Martinez appeared nude on album covers and on stage. The Slits posed topless for the cover of their debut album, and made it their mission to show that women aren’t solely made to please men – that sexuality could serve other purposes. More recently, the likes of Maria Brink from In This Moment and Butcher Babies vocalists Carla Harvey and Heidi Shepherd
have come forward with hard rock and metal teamed with provocative stage gear, challenging the Y-chromosome veneer of heavy music. In South Africa, punk-charged ‘revolt rock’ sister duo The SoapGirls play shows in skimpy outfits of colourful fabric, feathers and nipple tape, without a sexual agenda – both sisters don’t believe in sex before marriage. “We’re proud to be virgins,” guitarist/ singer Mie Debray tells us. “I love the fact that I dress how I want, and when people call me a whore or a slut I just look at them like: ‘My God, you’re so far off!’” “It’s like the human body, especially the female body, is reserved exclusively for sex and pornography,” says bassist/singer Millie Debray. “When you, as a female, are dressing how you want, and not trying to be one of the guys, and you’re actually
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being sexy and you’re still playing an instrument and rocking harder than any other guy… this is something people often can’t grasp. It’s a shock to the system.” One idea that crops up repeatedly, and not just in rock, is that of ‘using sex as a weapon’ – except it’s often said in such a way as to imply that being female and using one’s sex appeal is A Bad Thing. But isn’t this basically what male rock stars have been doing for years now? As a magazine, we don’t decide to not feature Slash or Axl Rose or Freddie Mercury because they’ve got their top off or are wearing very tight trousers. There’s an understanding that it’s all entertainment, and that we don’t necessarily expect conservative or ‘tasteful’ dressing. They’re rock stars, not politicians, and if we can feel moved, intrigued or turned on by their looks as well as their music, then why fight it? And yet female entertainers have been consistently held to more rigid standards – more acutely observed for their sartorial choices than their male counterparts. “Most articles about women artists, in any field, are about their physicality – it’s the first thing that strikes you about
The SoapGirls: anybody,” Boss Hogg singer Cristina dancing barefoot, and I was watching Tina Mie (left) and Martinez told AV Music. “[But] it is, I find, Turner with her high heels completely Millie Debray. more often an issue with women than rocking out on the stage. She was a really Below: Slash with men. There are many good-looking, powerful performer. It was my first gets his kit off. yummy-looking men, and nobody seems thoughts of: ‘I wish I could be doing this.’” to be… Well, that’s not true, sometimes This early desire for release is they’ll harp on [Boss Hog guitarist] Jon’s understandable. As a young child, Brink good looks, and so what? Yeah, that’s was sexually abused by her father, who there, but get past it.” then left. At 15 she had a son, and her “I’m comfortable with my sexuality,” mother – while supportive and loving says Maria Brink. “I think if – struggled with drug you have respect for yourself issues. Brink ended up it’s a part of who you are, so “We love taking away putting her through rehab, I can use that to empower and moved to LA with body shaming. We love myself sometimes. So yeah, her son to pursue music. sex can be used as a weapon, in her trademark celebrating big women, Singing because it’s part of who I am. aggressive style became an big men, skinny It’s just a matter of how you outlet for everything she’d hold yourself when you do been through, although women, skinny men.” these days she says there’s these things.” “less aggression”. Millie Debray o understand Brink’s “At home there’s always stage persona, you incense and wood burning have to go back to her early and crystals,” she says. “I’m a manic, I have years. Raised by a “hippie” single mum OCD, I have ADD… I’m diagnosed with in Schenectady, New York, Brink so much crap and I don’t take normal was watching rock icons right medication that doctors prescribe me, from childhood. but by setting a really peaceful “My mum would have her eyes environment it keeps me calm.” closed, her hands in the air and be When it comes to making dancing, just completely lost,” she videos with In This Moment remembers of her first gigs. “I got to (which she co-designs and does see Stevie Nicks with her, and Elton storyboards for), the impact she John, and all kinds of people. She seeks is one of empowerment. loved Black Sabbath and Queen The likes of Whore, from the gameand AC/DC. Some of the album raising Blood album, are stylish covers were so terrifying to me and compellingly harsh spectacles, when I was little! But basically while latest album Ritual is infused my mum taught me the love of with religious themes and shows rock’n’roll, and of losing it, and Brink’s “more vulnerable side”. All I fell in love with that.” of which is fine in Brink’s book. Aged six, seeing Tina Turner “As long as people are being true was pivotal. “My mum was to who they are. As a performer
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you can’t just be sexy and not be talented. That doesn’t work. It has to be the person being who they happen to be naturally. The crowd will be able to tell either way.”
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ndeed, as Shepherd and bandmate/ best friend Carla Harvey tell us, Butcher Babies deliberately avoided sexual lyrics with their previous records. They got enough commentary for their n the world of pop, meanwhile, being looks as it was. This has changed, however, a provocatively dressed woman can with latest album Lilith. appear ‘part of the deal’ – expected, “Lilith was very popular in Jewish even. Women have ruled mythology, but different the roost in pop for years mythologies have her “Sex can be used as a anyway, so there’s just as listed as a demon or much space for scantily goddess,” Harvey weapon. It’s just a matter aexplains. clad provocateurs (Miley “Basically Cyrus, MIA, Rihanna) as of how you hold yourself she represents female there is for stylistically power, and going when you do these things.” against repression. Being quieter pop songstresses (Adele, Lorde, Birdie) and beautiful, being strong, Maria Brink everything in between having a voice, being (Florence Welch, Taylor sexual; things that people Swift, Ellie Goulding). And the women at feared back in the day.” the very top outdo their male counterparts Like Maria Brink, they come from easily: hello Beyoncé, Lady Gaga… tumultuous backgrounds. Harvey grew A woman flaunting her sexuality in up in working-class Detroit, and her father rock often sits less comfortably. Perhaps left when she was very young. Shepherd, it’s because rock was such a boys’ club for meanwhile, was the eldest of six children so long, but there’s an underlying fear that in a strict Mormon household in Utah. She a woman using her looks invites some sort was severely abused as a child, and married of disrespectful sub-text – it makes her at 19. While Harvey sought solace in less serious, and open to exploitation. This rock’n’roll, having fallen in love with Guns means that the women who are typically N’ Roses, Shepherd escaped to friends at considered ‘serious’ in rock tend to be the local skate park, who lent her CDs and more reserved in their attire, such as Patti introduced her to metal music. Smith, Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell. Not “After getting a lashing I would that women in pop always get an easy ride. sit there with my headphones “I watched the MTV Awards a couple on and listen to that music,” of weeks ago and I saw Pink talking Shepherdrecalls. about how she was different when she “It spoke to my started,” Butcher Babies’ Heidi Shepherd anger, it spoke remembers. “She was more like a rock to the emotion star than a pop star, she didn’t I felt throughout dress like a girl and she that time.” was hated for it. People The pair found each other in were like: ‘Oh, she looks LA, initially in a covers band – Harvey like a boy, she’s ugly,’ is also a comic artist and qualified because she wasn’t mortician, and had a stint hosting a classic pop star. for the Playboy channel – before But she stayed true forming Butcher Babies in 2010. to who she is and Having released a lot of personal she’s an icon now.” demons with their first two
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Above: Carla Harvey (left) and Heidi Shepherd of Butcher Babies. Below: Lady Gaga.
albums, especially 2015’s Take It Like A Man, they’re embracing sexuality in their songs as well as their style with Lilith. “We’ve really steered away from writing anything sexual before,” Shepherd says. “People always like to sexualise us because of what we wore from the very beginning of our career. We just decided to say ‘screw that’ with this album: ‘We’ll write about sexual things. We’re going to use that as a weapon rather than be fearful of it.’”
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ver in 90s-00s Cape Town, South Africa The SoapGirls were laying foundations for their own weaponry. Sisters Millie and Mie, now in their mid-20s, began performing on the street aged nine and eight, playing songs, befriending the homeless and selling home-made soap (hence the name). “Back then we always wore pink, and cowboy hats, shorts and fluffy, crazy jackets,” Millie remembers. “We would meet people from any country you could think of and we’d make sure we could say a few words in their language. We could sing Happy Birthday in sixty-six languages. It was a crazy little show.” Producers started approaching them for studio time, and one song made it onto a Japanese compilation disc. It caught the attention of Universal, who signed them in 2011 and released their South African debut album, which topped the domestic chart. Aged “about fourteen and fifteen” they were excited, but it turned out that the label had plans they didn’t agree with. “We weren’t impressed when we were put into magazines like FHM,” says Mie. “We were underage and we’ve never been into sexualising music.” This comes as a shock to many who see them in photos or in music videos. Both can be seen wearing not much but nipple tape, headdresses and bikini-type costumes. Mie, a nudist, often performs topless, and encourages punters who come on stage to do the same. All this from two women saving themselves for
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marriage, and one of whom – Mie – is teetotal. So what are they all about? “Freedom, non-judgement and being true to yourself,” they chorus. “And anti-sexism.” “Our lyrics, music and stage show aren’t sexual,” says Millie. “We love taking away body shaming. We love celebrating big women, big men, skinny women, skinny men, making everyone comfortable in their skin.” For all the friends they made, their life in Cape Town had a sinister side. Two white girls performing was frowned upon, and both were badly bullied in school, branded “sluts and whores” and harassed by “men with business cards” when they were as young as 12. In 2016 they made British headlines after being pelted with fake blood, Carrie-style, at a gig in Hastings. All of this has given them a very thick skin. “Even the one time I was conservative on stage and wore a long dress, I was harassed and molested by men,” Mie recalls. “From that day on I was like, fuck this, I’m gonna dress how I want.”
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o to what extent are the styles of such musicians a response to pain? An almighty ‘fuck you’ to limitations and darker times experienced? Brink, the Butcher Babies and The SoapGirls all agree that they’d present themselves and their
music differently were it not for their past. “I probably wouldn’t be doing rock and metal,” Brink laughs. “I’d probably be doing happy pop songs or something. I’m sure what we experience definitely shapes who we are. I survived, and now somebody else could be in that same position, going through something traumatic, and they can hear about my experience and feel the light at the end of the darkness.” “I do believe that music like that [metal], even though it was angry, really calmed me,” Shepherd says. “And now I feel so lucky to hopefully give other people a voice in that sense, because that’s what it was for me. Growing up I was told what to believe, how to look, how to live… If I hadn’t gone through that, I don’t know if I would be as grateful for the individuality I have today. Knowing how much I didn’t have it, and how much I do have it now, that’s huge for me.” “The music that we do, you couldn’t have written that if you’d had a normal, happy life,” offers Millie. “We’ve had a very fucked-up life and it’s reflected in the music. ” In theory, time should see rock’s provocateurs being more readily accepted as older, prejudiced values die off – literally – and the idea of women in heavy bands becomes less novel. Because if the music is good, doesn’t it seem fair that the look
Boss Hog’s Cristina Martinez on stage in 2000.
is embraced as part of the deal, rather than frowned upon? People like The SoapGirls remind us that this can be more challenging than we may realise, testing boundaries. And if rock’n’roll isn’t the place for boundary testing, then where is? “There’s a lot of leading ladies now,” says Brink. “Lzzy Hale, Arch Enemy… there’s a lot of powerful women. We just can’t focus on anybody who doesn’t think we should be a certain way, with how we dress or how we express ourselves. As an artist, male or female, you need to be free and express yourself the way you have to. And if someone doesn’t like it, who cares?”
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Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
The Temperance Movement A Deeper Cut EARACHE British hotshots reconnect with themselves on album three.
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or a band whose original mission statement was to be the new Black Crowes, The Temperance Movement did a good job of not sticking to their own plan. Their second album, 2016’s stellar White Bear, gave their revivalist rock’n’soul a glinting contemporary edge. It was hardly the sound of a band going glitch techno, granted, but still a bold move from five men who looked like refugees from Ronnie Wood’s wardrobe. On those terms, new album A Deeper Cut is a retreat to safer ground. Rather than the anthemic, indie-tinged leanings of its predecessor, it serves up a familiar mix of blues-rock swagger and soulful sensitivity. This reversion to type can be put down partly to the departure of original guitarist Luke Potashnick, the man largely responsible for pushing the band out of their comfort zone, shortly after the release of White Bear . It appears that Potashnick’s departure didn’t so much precipitate a crisis as force the band to simply double down on what they do best. Opener Caught In The Middle struts in on the back of a tightly coiled guitar groove, a tactic which the band deploy throughout the record. There’s little of the wilful sloppiness or selfindulgence of so many blues rock bands here – this is tight and precise but never dry or airless. 96 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
It helps that The Temperance Movement know the value of a good tune. Built-In Forgetter might have the worst title in recent memory, but it salvages itself from titular ignominy by erupting into a chorus of truly joyous proportions. Conversely, Another Spiral is a slow-burner that perfectly balances poise and emotional charge (the band definitely give good ballad – Children is the kind of weepie that Ryan Adams would give Gram Parsons’s right arm to write these days). What helps even more is singer Phil Campbell. If there’s a better blue-eyed soul vocalist around right now, they’re keeping quiet. Campbell is alternately sandpaperrough and honey-smooth, slipping effortlessly from the lung-busting testifyin’ of Love And Devotion to the restrained emoting of the plaintive title track. It’s an approach that Paul Rodgers perfected 50 years ago and few people have managed to pull off since. Campbell is a notable exception. A Deeper Cut sounds too urgent to be a period piece – timeless rather than timestamped, distinctly 2018 as opposed to 1968. The Temperance Movement seem to be comfortable with their place in the scheme of things. That original plan is back on track.
Dave Everley
Wrong Creatures VAGRANT San Fran gloomsters’ “conversation with death” sounds more alive than ever. Death. Religion. Ghosts. General bleakness. Bits that sound like The Jesus & Mary Ch… did someone shout “Black Rebel bingo!”? You’d be forgiven for at first glance thinking Wrong Creatures is a by-rote offering from San Francisco’s most monochrome sons. But delve deeper and it appears that the five-year break brought on by drummer Leah Shapiro’s brain surgery has somehow revved them on to greater things. Initially described by guitarist Peter Hayes as “a conversation with death”, it opens in suitably sombre mood, the ancient sacrificial drum’n’hum of DFF giving way to Acorah-rock chuggers Spook, King Of Bones and Haunt. Then, just as you’re tagging Wrong Creatures as a playable ouija board in firm contact with J&MC’s Darklands, it takes a turn for the psychodelic. Echo is a lustrous cosmic echo of Walk On The Wild Side, while the Doorsy atmospherics and celestial hooks of Ninth Configuration and Question Of Faith shroud personal and religious soul-searching that suggest Wrong Creatures is actually a conversation with their younger, wronger selves. Certainly the dark carnival of Circus Bazooko and stirring postrock finale All Rise prove they’re tackling their crippling Psychocandy addiction, making Wrong Creatures something of a colourful rebirth. It’s amazing what’s happened to their rock’n’roll.
Mark Beaumont
Glen Hansard Between Two Shores ANTIDeft Dubliner rides waves of emotion again. The winner of an Oscar and a Grammy via the film and musical Once, former busker Glen Hansard seems to have the knack of circumventing cynicism. His folk rock and acoustic soul mannerisms owe a huge, admitted, debt to Van Morrison and Bob Dylan, but he delivers his plaintive songs of love and doubt with such sincerity and negation of ego that you’d need a heart of granite not to get
swept up in the feel. He isn’t doing anything here that he hasn’t done with The Frames or the Swell Season, yet from embarkation to journey’s end this third solo record floats and cruises on a blend of commitment and composure akin to Side 2 of Springsteen’s The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle. Unfeigned and irresistible.
Chris Roberts
Simple Minds Walk Between Worlds BMG And still they twinkle. It’s taken Simple Minds almost 40 years to journey from almost-avant Krautrockers through their hobnailed pop hits phase and subsequent wilderness period to today where Jim Kerr and Charlie Burchill are elder statesmen who’ve come to terms with their past, while making their best music of the century. In fact they’re so at ease with themselves that Walk Between Worlds’ impossibly catchy opener Magic nods cheekily to their Someone Somewhere In Summertime, and chiming closer Sense Of Discovery borrows liberally from Alive & Kicking. Between the impish fun of the bookends there’s a treasure trove of tightly woven, densely layered anthems anchored by Ged Grimes’s bass, Burchill’s twinkling guitar and the inevitable keyboard swirl. There’s real hunger as well as craft on these eight stately, sprawling tracks, where Barrowland Star thumps harder than The Waterfront but still carries an emotional pull, and Summer is that rarest of things: a scarf-waver that carries a threat. The synth-heavy The Signal & The Noise shows they can still quest when the mood takes them, but overall the album plays to Simple Minds’ many strengths.
John Aizlewood
Rick Springfield The Snake King FRONTIERS A curve-ball record laced with acoustic twang and chestvibrating beats. Little Demon’s Wild West acoustics are thrown against an onslaught of Rival Sons-esque riffage, swooping into a squealing guitar solo; Voodoo House is the crowd pleaser with its singalong outro and
unshakable groove; the title track is reminiscent of Back Door Man – ‘I’m coming for you, babe/ Gonna find my way back in .’ Lyrically The Snake King is a mixed bag, flitting between tongue-in-cheek and extremely poignant; Suicide Manifesto displays graphic cynicism (‘It’s another black dog morning, I can’t take many more’), whereas Santa Is An Anagram is a rock n’roll depiction of Hell (‘Ghandi’s in the corner, beating up a flower child .’) The soliloquies of Blues For The Disillusioned and Orpheus In The Underworld have melancholy and melody in equal measure. Springfield’s blues-rock digression strikes a great balance within the genre and doesn’t dent his credentials as an excellent guitarist and an insightful lyricist.
Phoebe Flys
Dan Patlansky Perfection Kills DAN PATLANSKY South African blues rocker’s ninth album. Every newly emerging guitar hotshot needs a USP. Dan Patlansky’s is that he comes from South Africa, a place not renowned as a nursery for modern-vintage bluesman. But you wouldn’t know it from his transatlantic rasp, or the warm Midwestern take on the genre that
constitutes this follow-up to 2016’s Introvertigo. Patlansky’s supple guitar wraps itself around warmbodied electric piano on Never Long Enough, and Eyes jerks and grinds over a bass line that will have Stevie Wonder on the phone asking if he can have it back. The odd dime-a-dozen blues plodder ( Judge A Man) is offset by the all-axes-blazing high point Dog Day . The net result is undeniably good, but falls short of greatness.
Dave Everley
Franz Ferdinand Always Ascending DOMINO Fifth album is a clever, polished pop gem. It’s good. It’s clean. It’s proper. In other words, Always Ascending is full of proper (1970s) tunes and (1980s) hooks and proper (1990s) beautiful repetition and affectionate little steals from fellow Scots Altered Images (‘You could be happy ’ on the livewire Lois Lane). And, as ever, the songs are full of proper nervy little couplets from Alex Kapranos (I enjoy being a lazy boy lying in your bed/Thinking how the lazy boy loves you’ – the whipsmart Lazy Boy ). Always Ascending, FF’s fifth studio album, was recorded in Paris, and has a sound that
ROUND-UP: MELODIC
Kapranos describes as being “futuristic and naturalistic”. Throw in ‘smouldering’ and you’re nearly there. Songs like the immediately loveable Paper Cages and Finally are equal parts LCD Soundsystem, Sparks and cheeky early 80s pop stars Orange Juice. A little bit sleazy and slick, of course, but the accusations of ‘workmanlike’ don’t hold here. Always Ascending is a class act, polished, honed, several cuts above the mewling herd. New guitarist or not, Franz Ferdinand abide. Everett True
Awolnation Here Come The Runts RED BULL
Aaron Bruno’s third rip-roaring roller-coaster ride. Having shed most of their members since 2015’s Run, Awolnation are, now more than ever, Aaron Bruno’s solo vehicle. On this album he has refined the idiosyncratic but alwayswelcoming vision that spawned the global hit Sail and its less successful (although equally heroic) successors. There’s something for everyone, from the fearsome, brassy title track’s hysterical angst to the sweet whistling and Beach Boys-style harmonies of My Molasses, via the rampaging guitar which underpins the anthemic Cannonball. As is his way, Bruno loads
Ammunition FRONTIERS
Ammunition are a sixpiece band formed in 2014 by the multiinstrumentalist Erik Mårtensson (Eclipse, W.E.T. and Nordic Union) and the former singer of The Poodles, Åge Sten Nilsen. The gifted Mårtensson seems almost incapable of making a bad move, and the
John Aizlewood
Neal Morse Life And Times RADIANT A day in the life. Some people keep a diary. Neal Morse writes songs. And Life And Times is just what it says: a series of snapshots from Morse’s life as it is playing out right now. Some of it is domestic stuff – helping his son going through a break-up ( JoAnna). Some of it cuts deeper, including the issue of soldier suicides (He Died At Home). There are postcards from his travels on tour (Selfie In The Square, Manchester ), and the thoughts that can pop up at any time (Lay Low, Wave On The Ocean, If I Only Had A Day ). Musically, Life And Times is at the other end of the spectrum from last year’s double-album
ROCK
following year’s debut, Shanghaied , was a strong introductory statement. Unsurprisingly, this self-titled second picks up right where the band left off with Shanghaied . The guitars of Mårtensson and Jon Pettersen sit high and proud in the mix, jostling for space with a variety of punch-the-air hook-lines, although Ammunition are also capable of lower key, more subtle moments such as An Eye For An Eye . However, when Nilsen sings
prog epic The Similitude Of A Dream, best summed up by the title of the opening track, Livin’ Lightly . The songs are acoustically driven, close-up and intricate. The lyrics are, not surprisingly, faith driven but seldom obtrusively so.
Hugh Fielder
Magnum Lost On The Road To Eternity STEAMHAMMER/SPV Soft-rock troopers show no signs of flagging on album number 20. You have to admire the relentless perseverance of Tony Clarkin and Bob Catlin, the creative core of Magnum who, as they strut proudly into their seventies, are still keeping their Tolkienesque sleeve designer busy at a rate of more than one album every other year, and touring with a tenacity that would exhaust many men half their age. The quantity isn’t watering down the quality, either. Yes, these 11 songs could have been released in 1987 as easily as in 2017, but who cares, when Peaches And Cream has a chorus so instant it’s an ear worm before it’s even finished, and the Smoke On The Water style riff of Storm Baby is impossible to resist.
Johnny Sharp
By Dave Ling Blood Red Saints
The Poodles
Love Hate Conspiracies
Prisma GAIN/SONY
AOR HEAVEN
Frontman Pete Godfrey and his new-look Saints have heavied things up a little since their wellreceived debut, Speedway , back in 2015. That’s often a recipe for disaster, but the tracks on this highly enjoyable follow-up pack a pleasingly accessible punch. Contributions from Paul Laine of the Defiants and Trixter’s Steve Brown certainly don’t hurt.
Here the Swedish glamsters cover songs from different genres, including ones by Elton John, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple and Depeche Mode. On paper that might sound dodgy, but the results are actually pretty good. A sleek, punchy reimagining of Michael Sembello’s Maniac is among the highlights, although overall the arrangements are perhaps a little too cautious.
Tony Mills
Prayer
Streets Of Chance
Silent Soldiers ESCAPE MUSIC
BATTLEGOD PRODUCTIONS
about tearing your city down in the song of the same name, then evacuation or an apocalyptic party in the streets are the only sensible options. The similarity between Freedom Finder and Billy Squier’s The Stroke is so glaring that one hopes it was intended as an affectionate parody, but that’s a minor quibble. The first great album of 2018 has arrived.
Unlike so many contemporaries from those days, Tony Mills can still sing as though it’s the 1980s. The former Shy/TNT frontman is in a cheerier emotional head-space here than on 2015’s Over My Dead Body, and with players of the calibre of Joel Hoekstra, Tommy Denander and Eric Ragno, SOC is an exquisite slice of melodic hard rock.
Inspired by Thin Lizzy, Saga, Treat and Royal Hunt, among others, on Silent Soldiers Finnish band Prayer attempt to weld a colourful, pompous edge to what is otherwise a fairly robust strand of AOR. However, the band work best by taking the direct route, and Rock And A Hard Place , the least clutteredsounding track on the album, is the most effective one on it.
Ammunition: the first great album of 2018.
Ammunition
every song with everything he can muster (he’s so overwrought on Table For One, you fear he might have some kind of seizure), and his confession that ‘I’m just a jealous buffoon’ on Jealous Buffoon is a reminder that beneath the kitchen-sinkery, Bruno’s self-doubt still nags. Since nothing has come close to emulating Sail’s sales, it’s easy to dismiss Awolnation as one-hit wonders; Here Come The Runts shows what a mistake that would be.
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ALBUMS
Walking Papers
Saxon Thunderbolt MILITIA GUARD Heavy metal veterans with the power of youth return to top form.
T
here have been times in the past decade when Saxon have threatened to burst out with music worthy of being compared favourably to their early-80s glory albums such as Wheels Of Steel. And now they’ve gone and done that with new album Thunderbolt. After skirting round the edges with their previous two albums under the watchful eye of producer Andy Sneap, this time the partnership truly blossoms. It’s not that there’s a feeling of both parties being comfortable with one another here, it’s actually more the opposite. Sneap, renowned for being no respecter of reputations and for pushing his charges harder than most, does precisely this, and is met with a band clearly in tune with his ambitions on their behalf. While Olympus Rising serves as a portentous instrumental intro, the title track serves up a storming serenade of stark riffage, coupled to Biff Byford’s unshakable vocal prowess. And there’s little respite, with Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt trading guitar blows on The Secret Of Flight, and Nosferatu (The Vampires Waltz) has a dark menace. They Played Rock And Roll is Saxon’s tribute to their old pals Motörhead, and Lemmy in particular. Appropriately, it has the feel for the type of groove that Motörhead used to deliver in spades. And 98 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
keeping things a little personal, Roadie’s Song has Saxon paying respect to their own crew, reflecting what Motörhead did with (We Are) The Road Crew. Elsewhere, drawing on past triumphs, Speed Merchants has the smell of petrol and burning rubber and comes across like a successor to Stallions Of The Highway. What Biff and co. do throughout is display a diversity when it comes to inspiration. While some songs are clearly enveloped in personal experiences, mythology and history are to the fore on Sons Of Odin and A Wizard’s Tale, and there’s a definite atmosphere of modernday warfare that runs through the scarred rhythms of Sniper . Saxon have long had their own sound, and this flows confidently throughout the album. However, there’s also an edge here born from a sense of purpose and desire within the band. You can sense the fires being stoked from the opening chords of this album right through to its chugging finale. On recent albums, the band have been searching keenly for the songs and the performances which would demonstrate that they are still capable of completely kicking away any signs of Saxon being weighed down by their history. On this album it has happened.
Malcolm Dome
WP2 LOUD AND PROUD Finely honed second album from Seattle supergroup takes on all of life’s emotions. With no disrespect intended to Guns N’Roses or Velvet Revolver, it was a joy to discover how little Walking Papers had in common with Duff McKagan’s other bands when they released their first album in 2013. Instead, theirs is a heady and timeless cocktail of dusty blues, atmospheric grunge and classic rock’n’roll that has the history of their home town Seattle and decades of road-worn experience woven deep into its fibres. On WP2, bassist McKagan, golden-voiced, hugely expressive singer/guitarist Jefferson Angell, keyboard player Benjamin Martin of the Missionary Position and Screaming Trees drummer Barrett Martin have taken things up a notch, outswaggering QOTSA on the wry My Luck Pushed Back , slipping on Ryan Adams’s existential, darknight-of-the-soul shoes (and borrowing from his songbook for its ‘strung out forever like Christmas lights’ lyric) on the woozy Red & White, and even updating the lusty charm of INXS on belters like Hard To Look Away and Death On The Lips. Mainly, though, Walking Papers’ style is their own, flitting from cocky to introverted, carefree to philosophical, nuanced to thrilling, and it’s very, very good indeed.
Emma Johnston
Beth Hart And Joe Bonamassa Black Coffee PROVOGUE Third time together for rock’s Ike and Tina. Bonamassa’s tireless work rate is at its most admirable on his duo albums with Beth Hart, which find him happy to sit back and showcase her vocal range. Seesaw (2013) coaxed Hart towards jazz standards. This return engagement focuses on soul. Give It Everything You Got is an opening statement of intent. The screaming Sly Stonestyle funk original by Edgar Winter’s White Trash actually gets dialled down a bit, but it still lets Hart come over like Tina Turner, with Bonamassa her benign Ike. Black Coffee – an
actual Ike and Tina song, popularised by Humble Pie – is even better, its truck-stop rock dripping with innuendo and crossing racial and gender wires as Hart gets worked up into a mighty, majestic sweat. Etta James’ Damn Your Eyes pays straight blues tribute to a Hart hero, as she fails to escape a bad man’s allure, just like so many of her own, autobiographical songs. Jazz standard Lullaby Of The Leaves begins in husky torchsong mode, but gains interest with a brassy Bonamassa guitar solo, like a Bond theme played past midnight in a Chicago dive. When these rockers go reggae for Addicted, though, it is, as usual, a step too far.
Nick Hasted
Ezra Furman Transangelic Exodus BELLA UNION
Provocative soundtrack to a yet to be made movie. Get film director Terry Gilliam on the blower – this one’s a doozy. Transangelic Exodus is a “queer outlaw saga” in which our hero, Chicagoan art punk Ezra Furman, is chased across country by Nazi gangs and government agents for the crime of falling in love with someone who has had wings surgically stitched on to become a ‘transangel’. Oh, and it’s a “halftrue memoir”, apparently. The trans persecution and emancipation metaphors of this, Furman’s seventh album, might be fairly upfront, but the album itself is a trickier beast than his previous cranky-but-oddlydigestible retro-modern records. The frenzied Modern Lovers getaway of Suck The Blood From My Wounds gives way to a series of dislocated sonic vignettes veering from junk-shop chamber ballads to PJ Harvey trash-can voodoo, digitally brutalised Roy Orbison and on into the experimental retro ether until, frankly, your head spins. Unpick it all, though, this is one of the most probing and pioneering avant-retro-pop albums of the age. And when Furman swerves from his Seraphiel & Louise narrative to discuss his issues with religion, coming out and the rise of the Far Right on the album’s jauntier ditties, it’s one of the most provocative too. It’s got ‘Depp’ written all over it.
Mark Beaumont
Machine Head Catharsis NUCLEAR BLAST Robb Flynn’s groove metal mavericks hit the jackpot. Machine Head have walked their own path for so long that no one should be alarmed that their ninth album has a few surprises. In truth, a 74-minute album without curve balls would be exhausting. Fortunately, Catharsis still provides plenty of the expected skull-flattening heaviness. More importantly, nearly every last song here is among Machine Head’s best, starting with ferocious state-of-thenation opener Volatile and the almost indecently stirring title track, which could well be the metal anthem of 2018. Kaleidoscope blends steroidal swagger and a massive chorus amid a haze of psychedelic wooziness, Heavy Lies The Crown is an insanely thrilling nine-minute metal symphony, and the snotty Razorblade Smile pays tribute to Lemmy by actually sounding like a runaway freight train. And then there are the curve balls: Triple Beam is a fiery burst of rap-metal fury, Behind A Mask is an elegiac acoustic ballad with shades of Opeth. Best of all, thematic centrepiece Bastards marries frontman Robb Flynn’s heartfelt dismay at Trump’s America to frenzied, irresistible
folk rock, with spine-tingling (if potentially polarising) results. Frankly, no other modern metal band have the balls or the brains to pull off an album like this. Catharsis is a brave, lifeaffirming masterpiece.
better known, and by the end of the gig everyone in the joint is dancing on the tables to England Rocks and Good Times.
melodies (King Of Catastrophe), this showcases his soulful, vulnerable voice, which never fails to catch every colour in a song. Locating the sweet spot where spontaneity and polish meet, Widdershins swings in all the right directions.
Dom Lawson
Standing At A Bus Stop
Chris Roberts
CARGO
Grant-Lee Phillips Widdershins YEP ROC A taken-for-granted talent hits rich form. ’Widdershins’ is an arcane word meaning counterclockwise or against the sun’s course. It’s considered unlucky. Grant-Lee Phillips revives it to question our path in turbulent times. Although in his own career he has made unexpected lurches from country to 80s covers, this ninth album since he parked the Grant-Lee Buffalo band name sees a return to what he’s best at: emotional rock songs that marry grandeur and raw punch. Working again as a trio (with bassist Lex Price and drummer Jerry Roe) and recording mostly live over four days in Nashville, he’s activated his strongest instincts of urgency and intensity. Whether it’s sideways social comment blazing with guitars (Unruly Mobs), or poignant selfreflection with undulating
Down ‘N’ Outz The Further Live Adventures Of… FRONTIERS Joe Elliott takes his Mott homage out onto the stage. In his own words, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott was “dying of pneumonia” when the Down ‘N’ Outz, his ‘other’ band, rolled into Sheffield to play a gig there in 2014. Consequently, some patchwork was necessary in the making of this audio-visual package. Although the DVD comes from that show, much of its two-CD counterpart was recorded at other venues on the same tour. But, frankly, that doesn’t matter a damn. As Elliott and his Quireboys/Vixen-lent cohorts barrel through a set of songs by Mott The Hoople and associated offshoots (British Lions, Mott and of course Ian Hunter) the good-time vibe is paramount. One More Chance To Run, Shouting And Pointing and Overnight Angels should be far
Dave Ling
Eric Bell Lizzy guitarist writes again. Eric Bell left Thin Lizzy in 1973, a year after their first hit, Whiskey In The Jar , and before the life could do him in. Forty-odd years of low-key, jobbing blues guitar later, Exile (2016) belatedly announced him as a songwriter. It seems he’s got a taste for it. Bell’s amiable Elvis imitation on Mystery Train highlights his limitations. His own songs, though, are unusually direct and unvarnished. Changing Room uses Dylan’s Tangled Up In Blue rhythm and itchy country-funk guitar, as he finds himself dumped and selling secondhand clothes when the Lizzy money runs out. Reality is among several songs rooted in Irish folk, remembering a lover slashing her wrists before they ‘call it a day ’. The ghosts of his old band’s great days are recalled repeatedly in prosaic yet evocative detail. The passage of time then haunts the title track, as Bell hopelessly feels ‘like going home’.
Nick Hasted
Briony Edwards
By Sleazegrinder
R.I.P: a beautifully unsavoury album.
Street Reaper RIDING EASY It’s almost indescribable how relentlessly obnoxious R.I.P.’s guitar tone is. It sounds diseased, leprous, like rotting fingers are falling off mid-solo; like the tape it was recorded on was covered in some unearthly, slimy
green mould and the spores are now glued to the insides of your ears forever and will probably kill you within the decade. The tracks on Street Reaper drag along like the knuckles of a Sasquatch digging for lunch in a giant pile of garbage, dazed and confused but feral and dangerous, every riff a late rent check, every crashing cymbal another STD to get checked for,
Sleepwalkers VIRGIN EMI Former Gaslight frontman returns to the roots. Comparisons to Bruce Springsteen have flown thick and fast towards Brian Fallon’s musical output since he split from the Gaslight Anthem and embarked upon a solo career in 2016. It’s fair to say that Sleepwalkers, his second album, will do little to temper those comparisons; Fallon’s preoccupation with emotive storytelling and heartland rock remains, occasionally flying a little too close to a musical rehashing than being the modern reinvention he’s aiming for. Fallon has stated he wanted to create a “less serious” album with Sleepwalkers, and for the most part he succeeds. If Your Prayers Don’t Get To Heaven is a toe-tapping blend of soul, gospel and good, old-fashioned rock’n’roll, while Come Wander With Me dabbles in upbeat, electro-tinged Americana. But the treacly ballads, such as Proof Of Life, also persist. Their lyrics are slick with indulgent introspection, propped up by sickly sweet yet frustratingly infectious hooks and melodies. Proof, perhaps, that humans always crave a little bit of sugar.
ROUND-UP: SLEAZE
R.I.P.
Brian Fallon
every song a ‘Gas, Grass or A ss’ bumper sticker come to screaming life. If R.I.P. weren’t such drug-abusing creeps they would probably get lumped in with latterday doom rockers like Windhand, Uncle Acid or Bloody Hammers, but there is something so beautifully unsavoury about this album that it’s really in a (low) class of its own.
Black Mambas
Wyldlife
Moderation DISCONNECTED
Out On Your Block WICKED COOL
Here’s the weird thing: I used to live in a world where basically every band sounded like this, like some hornball teenage delinquents copping the riffs Johnny Thunders copped from Chuck Berry. Now almost no one sounds like this. Which makes Black Mambas maybe the most crucial band on the fucking planet right now. Buy this record, save rock’n’roll. Pretty simple.
Holy smokes, what a record! The third fulllength album from NYC band Wyldlife finds them mining Sweet-era glam and Dead Boys-era punk for maximum snarl and hooks that go on for days. Give this album a spin and you’ll be clapping along like some kinda maniac almost immediately. If you’re looking for the heart of Saturday night, this is most definitely it.
Night Squad Shaken SELF-RELEASED
Beauty School Massacre
NIGHTSQUAD.BANDCAMPCOM
A Zozo We Will Gogo
Night Squad are probably the only band on the planet writing songs about the 1950s comedy Auntie Mame and the 70s sitcom The Mary Tyler Moore Show . If you’re under 50 you’ll probably have to do some Googling to get the references, but the music you’ll get right away. It’s sleazy, nasty, bar-fighting punk rock. Superb!
SELF-RELEASED
Sleaze metal from Texas. Which means it’s harder and uglier and sweatier than usual. Basically it’s like a satanic Warrior Soul with none of the political conspiracy theories but exactly the same amount of sex, mayhem and alcohol abuse. I dig it. It’s like getting smacked in the skull with a hammer for 40 straight minutes.
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S E U S S I R E
Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac WARNERS
In which Fleetwood Mac Mk 2 rises from two separate dumpers.
S
ome tacos are destined to change the world. world. Take the ones ones over over which which the remnants of Fleetwood Mac ‘auditioned’ Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks in a Mexican restaurant in LA in 1974. Mac were smarting from five years of slumping record record sales and the departure of guitarist and songwriter Bob Welch; Buckingham and Nicks, 102 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
who had a flop flop album album themselv themselves es with with 1973’s 1973’s Buckingham Nicks, Nicks, were on the verge of quitting their part-time LA jobs, ending their floundering floundering relationship and going their separate ways. The Mac needed only a new guitarist, but Buckingham Buckingham refused to join unless they took Nicks as well. Mick Fleetwood gave his remaining core songwriter, songwriter, Christine Chr istine McVie,
a veto over Nicks, but the pair got on famously. By the time the margaritas were drained, softrock history was shaken on. The Mac album (the band’s tenth) that this fresh new line-up began recording just three weeks weeks later later – with Bucking Buckingham ham so pushy pushy in teaching the veteran rhythm section their parts that John McVie chided him: “The band you’re in is Fleetwood Mac. I’m the Mac. I play the bass” – would would become become their their second second self-t self-title itled d release, release, to mark their final transition from Peter Green’s blues-rock blues-rock version version to to a new new coun country-ro try-rooted oted pop rock sound. The title heralded a new Fleetwood Mac, and their second era would become one of the most successful rebirths in rock. Inevitably, Inevitably, one returns retur ns to 1975’s Fleetwood Mac with radar attuned attuned to to the first whispers whispers of of
G E T T Y
Mayhem international hit album away from any such thing. Later he plays the invigorated Nashville cowboy rocker with aplomb on and World Blue Letter and World Turning urning – an early attempt at electrifying spit’n’sawdust C&W in the vein of The Chain Chain – but at this stage, as he lilts a little blandly over ponderous album closer I’m So Afraid and a reworked version version of of Crystal Crystal from Buckingham Nicks, he feels something of a bit-player in the new Mac order. It’s Nicks who lands with the impact of a superhero from space. Rhiannon’s sly-eyed dance of the seven veils was the first stonecold classic of Mac 2.0, instigating instigating the strain s train of guttural gypsy queen allure that would give this new incarnation its sliver of exoticism, and her other major contribution, contribution, future live staple Landslide, set a benchmark for Fleetwood Mac’s folk balladry balladry that that they would, would, somewhat somewhat miraculously, go on to top. Here, Nicks is slumped disheartened in an Aspen sitting room, gazing out at the Rocky Mountains, considering giving up everything to go back to schoo schooll and and wond wondering ering how her life life had become such emotional scree. The autobiographical autobiographical honesty of the track would would seep into into the bedrock bedrock of of Rumours. Elsewhere, Christine McVie was demonstrably coming into her own. Languid, mildly jazzy tracks such as Warm Warm Ways Ways and Over My Head perhaps throw back too heavily to the Bob Welch era or even Albatro Albatross ss, albeit with Buckingham’s country licks hovering overhead, but with the wonderfu wonderfully lly upbeat upbeat Say You Love Me and Sugar Daddy she dovetailed perfectly with Nicks and Buckingham’s brand of honeyed hippie honky-tonk. Of the live tracks, instrumentals and studio out-takes making up the additional 35 tracks of the deluxe package, package, it’s the unpolished, unpolished, formative early takes of the original album’s tracks that will most fascinate the dedicated Mac-heads Mac-heads – this was, after all, where Fleetwoo Fleetwood d Mac’s Mac’s most most celebrated celebrated incarnation clicked or clashed. Here, the urgent quiver to Buckingham’s ragged rough takes of Monday Morning and smack of a desperate young Blue Letter smack songwriter grasping grasping his last chance hard. In circulating Rumours, and there are plenty circulating contrast, Nicks’ ssultry assurance has her within within these these semi-m semi-magi agical cal 42 42 minutes. minutes. adding adding to the ghostly charms of Rhiannon The simmering with an openi opening ng emotional friction speech: “Sometimes that gave the you wake up and ‘This was the sound Rhiannon’s 40-million-selling right 1977 follow-up its there.” When the of a blessed invigorated snarl is in-band soap opera second chance.’ absent, but the kicked off in earnest, buildin buildingg block blockss are exaggerating exaggerating these stacked high. Buckingham Buckingham sets out his very traits traits in Nicks Nicks and and Buckin Buckingham, gham, the stall from the off, with the country rock world world would would lov lovee to love love them them both; both; for rattle of Monday Morning acting as a practice now, Fleetwood Mac was the sound of run at Second Hand News and a minor hint of a blessed second chance gradually realising the unsettled bitterness to come. ‘Got to get just how blessed blessed itit was. was. some peace in my mind ,’ he whines, little Mark Beaumont knowing he was at least one monster
De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive MAYHEM Extreme-metal benchmark gets the live treatment. Even black metal isn’t impervious to nostalgia. In 2015, occult overlords Mayhem joined the likes of Metallica, Bruce Springsteen, Roger Waters and Alien Ant Farm in opting to play a landmark album from start to finish, theirs at a show marking the 21st anniversary of the band’s 1994 masterpiece De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas. Of the people involved with the original studio album, one was murdered (guitarist/leader Euronymous), Euronymous), one killed himself (lyricist and former vocalist Dead) and one subsequently diversified into a virulent form of white supremacy via multiple stints in jail (bassist Varg ‘Count Gishnackh’ Vikernes), although that seemingly provides no obstacle to the current line-up The lure of posterity clearly proved too much for these Norwegian Satanists, and the show was captured on this live album. Given the original’s original’s inhospitable beginnings, this retooling works surprisingly well. Where their contemporaries contemporaries focused on velocity and noise, Mayhem were stranger and subtler, cloaking their anti-social screeds in stark gothic atmospheres. Vocalist Attila Csihar delivers much more than a one-dimensional shriek, alternating between hoarse croaks and operatic wails on the closing title track – you can hear their more esoteric influences, among them avant garde metal pioneers Celtic Frost and artgoth icon Diamanda Galas. De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive clearly isn’t going to challenge Live And Dangerous or Made In Japan for the title of Greatest Live Album Of All Time, and don’t come to it expecting zinging banter (or banter of any kind, for that matter). But if nothing else its mere existence marks black metal’s inexorable creep towards respectability.
Dave Everley
ZZ Top Antenna FLOATING WORLD ZZ try to return to their roots. Kind of. Released back in early 1994 as the band’s debut on RCA, Antenna Antenna was meant to be some kind of renaissance for this little
ol’ band from Texas, in that it supposedly upped the raw blues rock feel that had been increasingly increasingly missing from their preceding albums and dialled back the synths and electronic production trickery. While the former is fairly accurate, it’s a shame the latter isn’t truer. Stripping the sound back, guitarist Billy Gibbons does indeed pile on the dirty blues riffs, but there is still an overbearing tendency towards unnecessary cyber-meddling cyber-meddling with Dusty Hill’s bass and Frank Antenna Head Head Beard’s drums – Antenna sounds like he’s hitting the proverbial proverbial biscuit tins with knitting needles, if indeed he’s playing at all. Ultimately, however, what really hampers this album is a simple lack of outstanding tunes.
Essi Berelian
The McCoys Hang On Sloopy: The Best Of The McCoys FLOAT/RETROWORLD
When The Dave Clark Five postponed recording a surefire hit, The McCoys got real. If you’re going to be a one-hit wonder, you might as well do it with a song that’s as hard to dislike – and as woven into rock’s DNA – as Hang On Sloopy . Its co-writer Bert Berns also half-wrote Twist And Shout Shout, so he couldn’t have done more to pinpoint rock’n’roll’s primitive shapes unless he’d written Louie Louie too. Sloopy ’s ’s other co-author, Wes Farrell, went on to mastermind the music for the Partridge Family. The McCoys, for their part, may have had moptops and Beatle suits, but they didn’t have a David Cassidy (or a Davy Jones), and their follow-ups to the runaway success of Sloopy soon soon ran out of steam. One listen here to their lacklustre, insipid versions of such can’t-go-wrong standards as and Sorrow shows shows you why. Fever and Still, they’ll always have Sloopy , the 1965 chart-topper which offers a pop textbook in how to build and tease the excitement excitement of release. Later, as this patchy but intriguing collection shows, The McCoys went a little bit garagepsych. By the end of the 60s their singer-guitarist was playing with Johnny and Edgar Winter. In the new decade he started his next life as Rick Derringer.
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REISSUES
Nebula Reissues
Stealers Wheel The A&M Years CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL More spokes to this Wheel than just that Reservoir Dogs moment.
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n an era that produced a wealth of British country folk rockers, such as Gallagher & Lyle, McGuiness Flint and Ronnie Lane’s Slim Chance, the Scottish duo of Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan more than held their own. Blessed with great songwriting flair, stacks of durable melodies and a neat ability to skewer pretention without acting smug, the two old schoolmates hit the big time thanks to Stuck In The Middle With You (mind your ears), which was a Top 10 hit single in the UK and USA in 1973. A gloriously deadpan account of a tedious record company party at which they both arrived overly refreshed, Stuck In The Middle proved to be their defining moment, but its clever Bob Dylan pastiche was never quite replicated. Stealers Wheel made three albums for A&M Records. Their self-titled debut, overseen by the legendary pair of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, was one of those 1972 marvels, early-summer songs that could be heard everywhere from pavement cafes to seafront penny arcades. The hit single aside, their laconic style was in full effect on the dreamy Outside Looking In, one of those displaced moments that has universal appeal in the right hands. Three live bonus tracks come from a 1971 Radio 104 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
1 In Concert, and include the memorably fresh-air Steamboat Row. The Brill Building veterans kept Egan and Rafferty honest again on Ferguslie Park (1974), but cracks were widening between the two hard-headed Scots from the tough area of Paisley that lent the album its title. They got weird on your ass on this one. Good Businessman is deliciously sour in fusing a dash of Everly Brothers, a shot of Paperback Writer and an off-kilter Yakety Yak sax part that almost derails the mood but ends up concentrating the vitriol. The more commercialStar was a minor hit, and stands up well now thanks to a nod to John Lennon and those trademark harmonies flavoured by odd instrumentation – who uses a kazoo these days? Third album Right Or Wrong (1975), with country legend Mentor Williams at the console, was released in a period of disillusionment. Stealers Wheel’s idiosyncratic vein of sophisticated folk bar rock was out of fashion, and Rafferty was on his way to Baker Street. You can hear that their hearts aren’t quite in it; Don’t Get Me Wrong is an open break-up song, and Go As You Please lapses into jaundice.
Max Bell
HEAVY PSYCH SOUNDS
Spaced 1999 stoner landmarks. Formed in 1999 by Fu Manchu refugees Eddie Glass and Ruben Romaro, Nebula may have ignited under stoner rock but their amphetamine energy and acidpsych onslaughts plant their early records somewhere between Blue Cheer’s Vincebus Eruptum, Lemmy-era Hawkwind and ’72 Sabbath with granite riffs heaving, drums pounding and vocals squalling in the higher register, bombarded with electronic space flatulence. These reissues are Nebula’s first four releases, starting with 1999’s Let It Burn EP (7/10) extended to album length, with the self-explanatory Sonic Titan and the thunderous Devil’s Liquid balancing the sitar-garnished Raga In The Bloodshot Pyramid . To The Center (8/10), their first full-length studio album (recorded in Seattle for Sub Pop), is Nebula’s most fully realised work, its sonorous cauldron of bollock-blasting mega-riffs and stoner churn peppered with Clearlight’s Hawkwind space-sailing, Fields Of Psilocybin’s acid-rock and MC5 attack on Come Down, the Detroit fixation manifesting in a snarling take on the Stooges’ I Need Somebody . 2002’s Dos EPs (7/10) combines two more EPs, including the mind-blowing Sun Creature upping the interstellar overdrive and clearing Nebula’s flight path until they went on extended hiatus 10 years later. In 2018, appreciate the stillactive scorch-marks glowing in the dust. Kris Needs
W.A.S.P. Reidolized
NAPALM
The songs remain the same, but not the performances. In celebration of the 25th anniversary of W.A.S.P.’s concept album The Crimson Idol, mainman Blackie Lawless and the current line-up of the band have re-recorded it, adding four ‘lost’ songs that didn’t make the cut first time around. It also includes a film that was intended to accompany the originally album. If that leads you to expect a f ull-blown glam-rock movie musical, with a proper
script and fleshed-out characters, you’ll be disappointed. Reidolized indeed illustrates The Crimson Idol’s concept of fictional rock star Jonathan Steele’s difficult childhood, rise to fame and spectacular fall, but essentially it’s a 50-minute music video, and it’s difficult to envision anyone other than hard-core W.A.S.P./Idol fans finding much enjoyment in it. The album, however, is another story. The production is polished, Blackie’s voice is in top form, and the four ‘lost’ songs, which include the rousing The Lost Boy and power ballad The Peace, slot in perfectly. Blackie must have thought that either The Crimson Idol was worth resurrecting or that it didn’t get enough attention the first time around. Either way, he’s right. This is the perfect chance for new fans to discover it and old fans to revisit a great piece of classic heavy metal.
Hannah May Kilroy
Testament Reissues
NUCLEAR BLAST
Victories snatched from the jaws of defeat. Testament’s post-2005 career upswing appears all the sweeter when cast against the blows they suffered during the previous decade, label and line-up woes almost insignificant compared to Chuck Billy (vocals) and thenguitarist James Murphy (Death, Obituary) battling cancer. These five albums, largely overlooked at the time, merit their reissue second shot. Live At The Fillmore (7/10), from 2005, is a rare document of the Low (1994) era, with the new line-up proving their worth with choice songs from that record and highlights from the original band’s catalogue, and Murphy rising to the onerous task of replacing Alex Skolnick. 1977’s Demonic (7/10) is not for the faint-hearted. Pushing the death-metal dabbling of Low to the fore, it’s characterised by brutal riffs and Billy’s bowelloosening vocals, a large proportion of which are in rabid cookie monster style, although cleaner tones prevail on John Doe and Hatred’s Rise, both of which could grace a band ‘best of’. The Gathering (1999, 8/10), featuring guest drummer Dave Lombardo (Slayer), stands tall alongside Testament’s more
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lauded records, the strength of material underlined by the inclusion of three songs from it on the 2014 live set The Dark Roots Of Thrash. 2001’s First Strike Still Deadly 8/10) wraps re-recorded early faves (two with original vocalist Steve Souza, all with Alex Skolnick) in a heavier Andy Sneap production to powerful effect, and Live At Eindhoven ’87 (2009, 7/10) expands their popular 80s EP to full album length, capturing the band on the very cusp of their breakthrough. Rich Davenport
The Fall Singles 1978-2016 CHERRY RED A remarkable consistency across almost four decades. On this seven-CD set (smaller boxes are available) there are 117 covering more than 40 years – a feat that only someone like the Rolling Stones or a very dedicated reggae artist could match. Unlike the Rolling Stones, however, The Fall have maintained a consistency of tone shipped entire from label to label. Line-ups may have changed like a fop’s underwear, record labels came and went like
cabinet members, and The Fall veered from flavour of the month to are-they-still-going of the year, but you can draw a line – a thick one, drenched in tar and beer and sulphate – between Bingo Master’s Breakout from 1977 to this year’s All Leave Cancelled. Certainly, production styles changed, and Smith’s voice resembles cracked concrete more and more each year, but, regardless of who’s in the band, it’s always, audibly and recognisably The Fall. Repetition, mysticism, Nazis, everyday life, repetition, rockabilly and Mark E Smith are the musical and lyrical themes of the band. I listened to this collection on shuffle, and at no point – even lurching from the warehouse bootleg sound of Kicker Conspiracy to the slick techno of Free Range – did anything sound inconsistent. Listening to this extraordinary set, from covers such as Victoria and Mister Pharmacist to beloved obscurities like Shoulder Pads and Various Times – also reminds the listener what a great singles band The Fall are. Hooks, lines and no stinkers; there’s a reason this band were nearly signed to Motown Records. It’s an incredible collection that
doesn’t feel like seven CDs, or 40 years, it feels like one long, glorious present. At the time of writing, The Fall are (once again) in a precarious state. We can only wish their genius lodestone good luck, better health and the desire to make more records.
David Quantick
Stray Fire & Glass: The Pye Recordings 1975-76 CHERRY RED Compilation of post-vocalist Steve Gadd material. Formed in 1966, Stray hadn’t even reached their 20s by the time they released their self-titled debut album in 1970. They never quite lived up to their early billing, however. Despite their direct, melodic rock style, they always felt one hit shy of being one-hit wonders. Despite singer Steve Gadd departing on a separate wavelength in 1975, they doggedly persisted with Pete Dyer on vocals and guitarist Del Bromham doing the songwriting. The three albums in this collection – Stand Up And Be Counted, Houdini and Hearts Of Fire – are full of unpretentious,
unambitious, unabashed hedonistic rock sentiments; As Long As You Feel Good and Gonna Have A Party are typical of their less than agonised lyrical approach. They do turn a riff quite nicely, as on Take It Easy , and are capable of the odd musical adventure, as on Wait Another Day , its trumpet offering a porthole to Miles Davis. They were luckless, however; having London gangster Charlie Kray as their manager scared bookers away rather than into submission, and come 1976 Stray were among legions of low-level, long-haired hard rockers who punk would do for.
David Stubbs
Skids Scared To Dance (Expanded) CAROLINE Scottish art-punks 1979 debut, now as a three-disc box set. Heading south from Scotland to London just as punk became new wave, singer Richard Jobson was still in his teens and guitarist Stuart Adamson just 20 when Skids crashed the Top 20 with their 1979 debut Scared To Dance.
Once derided by critics, Jobson’s more pretentious artpunk leanings have aged rather well, especially the yelping Brechtian waltz-rocker Dossier (Of Fallibility) and discordant, Kraut-ish ear-bashers like Zit. Adamson’s jagged post-punk guitar style, raw yet disciplined, still resonates almost 40 years later, from U2 to the Manics; indeed U2 later covered one of the finest tracks here, the impassioned Celtic war cry The Saints Are Coming. The nine bonus tracks on the main disc have all been released before, and they include minor classics such as the dystopian sci-fi oddity Charles and the staccato yob-punk rant Test Tube Babies. A second disc of demo recordings and a third featuring a live show from London’s Marquee in late 1978 (tickets priced at 85 pence) are more interesting historically than musically. Even if the boogiewoogie pub-rock demolition of Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side is abysmal, Jobson’s live ramblings about Vic Godard, Albert Tatlock, Annie Walker and Kenny Dalglish are strangely evocative snapshots of a lost era.
Stephen Dalton
Curved Air Reissues CHERRY RED Reissues of early albums, with bonus disc included with 1970 debut.
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ormed in 1970 and taking their name from a Terry Riley album title, Curved Air were one of the foundational groups of UK prog. Co-founded by violinist Darryl Way and guitarist/keyboard player Francis Monkman, they quickly signed up folk singer Sonja Kr istina, who would go on to be a constant in the group as they underwent numerous line-up changes. Their use of violin as a lead instrument would have made them quite startling in 1970. On It Happened Today, the opener of Air Conditioning (8/10), it announces itself mid-song, creating a fresh opening. This, coupled with Kristina’s eerie vibrato, especially on the chorus, established Curved Air as a group venturing into forest areas British rock had not explored before. Alternative versions ofIt Happened Today and others on Air Conditioning’s bonus disc, taken from BBC sessions, show why the group were considered to be a hot property. The dappled Blind Man and apocalyptic Hide And Seek are arresting, as is Proposition, an attempt to emulate the minimalist, static-but-shifting, layered intensity of their inspiration Riley. It’s a potentially exciting new
direction for 70s rock that you wish they had explored a little more. Only Vivaldi, reprised with cannons, is a little silly, with its misconceived measurement of rock against classical music and aspirations to graduate to the same status – the great category error of the early 70s. By 1973, Monkman and Way had left and versatile teenage prodigy Eddie Jobson had been brought in on keyboards and violin. Air Cut (6/10) vacillates between heavy rock like The Purple Speed Queen and U.H.F which seem to militate against Kristina’s vocal style, and more contemplative pieces such as the lengthyMetamorphosis, which from its grand piano opening onwards feels like a prog vehicle for Jobson to demonstrate his keyboard skills, ranging up hill and down dale on a Mellotron odyssey. He also plays violin on World, which is a touch Remember You’re A Womble. The Air Cut album was not a success, except as
a launch pad for Jobson, whose virtuosity both enhances and overwhelms the album. The group were dropped, and disbanded in the mid-70s, but have returned again and again in various permutations, forever hinting at what they might have achieved had they been able to maintain more stability and continuity. David Stubbs
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 105
REISSUES
Various Artists
Procol Harum There’ll Still Be More: An Anthology 1967-2017 CHERRY RED Glorious collection from orchestral prog prime movers.
J
ust to get it out of the way: it’s widely believed Procol Harum were named after a cat. Whose cat is open to much conjecture, although it’s thought to have been a Burmese. It was ace instigator Guy Stevens who originally put lyricist Keith Reid together with vocalist Gary Brooker in 1966, and, almost inevitably, it was also Stevens (who would latterly name Mott The Hoople, Spooky Tooth and Heavy Metal Kids) who inspiringly ventured to suggest: “Well, my mate’s got this cat…” The rest, as they rarely say, is baroque-pop, prog rock genius with a side order of classic pomp. And an occasional orchestra. There’s no other band quite like Procol Harum, they’ve a darkly eccentric, quintessentially English cut to their jib. And while, yes, they came from Southend, had roots based firmly in Thames Delta R&B and, from ’67 to ’71, Robin Trower attempting to emulate Hendrix primarily by means of facial contortion, they didn’t quite fit into anyone’s blue-collar rock stereotype. First of all there was non-performing lyricist Keith Reid who, when not spinning cartwheels across the floor, was never happier than when spinning gothic yarns of whaling fleets and lovelorn seafarers melancholically rounding the Horn. And then there was Gary Brooker.
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There’s always been something of the sophisticate about Brooker; he was always a bit velvet jacket and moustache; an adult adrift on a rock’n’roll sea of arrested development. While his dark brown voice rasped with blue-eyed soul, he would also employ an ecclesiastical clarity that engendered hushed tones in an audience. Obviously, Procol’s eradefining soundtrack staple A Whiter Shade Of Pale, all Bach-flaunting conceits and conundrum lyrics, shines brightest from this career-encapsulating, five-disc collection (three of compiled ‘hits’, two full live performances – Hollywood ’73, with orchestra; Bournemouth ’76, without). But delve deeper into the emotive majesty of A Salty Dog, the Iberian immensity of Conquistador or the wistful faded glamour of Grand Hotel and you soon realise that no one else could sell these compositions quite like Brooker. While always too honest to be called pompous, there was a dignified gravitas about Procol Harum that no other artist working in the rock arena ever quite managed to pull off. Packed with delights from ’67 stem to ’17 stern, this is a glorious collection.
Ian Fortnam
Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound Of Liverpool 1976-1988 CHERRY RED Great music coming out of Liverpool didn’t stop after The Beatles. A companion set to the Manchester North Of England indie collection, Revolutionary Spirit: The Sound Of Liverpool 1976-1988 – as the name hints softly – collects 12 years of Liverpudlian indie variety. It’s astonishing sometimes to realise that all this music from both cities was so varied, so bizarre and, often, so defined by location. Both cities rejected the shouty punk of the South, but where Manchester (to generalise hugely) went industrial-dark then warehousefunky, Liverpool – with its own too-hefty musical past to avoid – fell in love with 1960s psychedelia and a brilliant sense of wilful obtuseness. With a scene revolving around club Eric’s that was so incestuous it would have repelled the Hapbsurgs, Liverpool was a sweaty cauldron of bands with 1960s-sounding names, absurd claims and brilliant singles. And even when the first wave of post-punk acts became stars, new bands such as Benny Profane, the Lotus Eaters and the as-influenced-asinfluential La’s came along to keep the madness going. This collection of tracks from bands with one, or two, great singles includes successful acts, no-hit wonders, future talent generators and glorious one-offs such as 194 Radio City by Jacqui And Jeanette. Almost everything is linked by insane song titles, sharp wit, deranged band names and, if we’re honest, the Northern surrealism that first informed The Beatles way back when. A brilliantly put-together collection from one of popular music’s most important cities.
David Quantick
The Byrds Byrdmaniax FLOATING WORLD Turbulent penultimate flight revisited. Soon after the runaway success of their 1970 (Untitled) album and the single Chestnut Mare, the classic late Byrds line-up of Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Skip Battin and Gene Parsons found
themselves faced with making another album. McGuinn revisited his aborted Broadway musical Gene Tryp, Battin co-wrote three songs with seedy LA mucker Kim Fowley, and Parsons and White contributed lightning bluegrass romp Green Apple Quick Step. With gospel enjoying a revival, the band covered Arthur Reid Reynolds’ Glory, Glory , Helen Carter’s My Destiny and Jackson Browne’s Jamaica Say You Will. Job seemingly done, The Byrds went back on tour. On returning, they were mortified to find that producer Terry Melcher had doused their tracks in orchestration and gospel choirs, mixed into a softfocus mush. Presciently donning death masks for the cover, the band publicly disowned Byrdmaniax and responded with the under-produced Farther Along – apart from ill-fated reunions, The Byrds’ final flight. After years as a catalogue folly, Byrdmaniax returns. And it isn’t as bad as usually painted, now sounding like an overblown LA curio harbouring decent songs, notably McGuinn’s lovely Pale Blue, and those Battin-Fowley collaborations are delightfully weird. Maybe it’s time for a reappraisal of the album, certainly by Byrds fans who had previously steered clear.
Kris Needs
The Doors Absolutely Live ELEKTRA Flawed but electrifying classic trip back to 1970. Apart from being reissued on limitededition midnightblue vinyl, Absolutely Live remains the “organic documentary” that The Doors and their producer Paul A. Rothchild envisaged. Recorded at various East Coast venues and two Monday night shows at the Aquarius Theatre in Los Angeles between August 1969 and June 1970, Absolutely Live captured The Doors on the rebound from frontman Jim Morrison’s Miami bust right before they recorded their fifth studio album, Morrison Hotel. It remains captivating, with the band’s technical excellence highlighted by a rough R&B approach in places as they ditch psychedelia and give Morrison his head on spectacular versions of When The Music’s Over and the Alabama Songmedley, climaxing in a crunching Five To One.
The real draws here are the otherwise unreleased material. Bo Diddley’s Who Do You Love sets that scene, but Love Hides and the moody Universal Mind, in which Morrison confronts his public image, are key songs. Best of all, however, is the Dead Cats, Dead Rats rap, which addresses the Days Of Rage riots that ripped through Chicago. And when The Celebration Of The Lizard finally comes along it proves to be a transcendent performance-art marvel. The only downside is keyboard player Ray Manzarek’s boisterous take on Willie Dixon’s Close To You. The rest is peachy, though. Give the singer some.
Max Bell
Sultans Of Ping F.C. Casual Sex In The Cineplex CHERRY RED
Jumper, rediscovered. Queer fish, Johnny 1992. Baggy had twisted its melon dry and was taking the eternal comedown disco nap, and the puzzle that was shoegaze was comprehensively solved by My
Bloody Valentine’s Loveless, so the 12 months before Suede summoned Britpop with a flick of their fringes was an indie Wild West. Fragglers, crusties, bedsit poets and bands called things like New Fast Automatic Daffodils flourished, the Wedding Present equaled Elvis’s record of 12 hits in a year, and the success of the Wonder Stuff allowed all manner of semi-comic oddities to get taken semi-seriously. The Frank & Walters, Ned’s Atomic Dustbin and Sultans Of Ping F.C. The latter were bunch of nasal Cork pop-punks who shot to fame on the back of Where’s Me Jumper?, a song juxtaposing discussions of Marxist philosophy and the horror of mislaying a pullover that was of franklydisproportionate importance to their entire family. Their 1993 debut album Casual Sex In The Cineplex was barely more sombre. Merging Buzzcocks punk, Weddoes thrash, Stuffies knees-up hooks and Carter USM alt.rants, it’s a fun assortment of indie pop novelties about football, karaoke, S&M and knitwear that is well worth a revisit for its strumbling odes to punching below your weight (2 Pints Of Rasa, Veronica ), the JD Sports drone rock of Back
In The Tracksuit and invigorating indie janglers like Stupid Kid and You Talk Too Much, but most of all to drift back to the days when we didn’t have to take everything so damn seriously.
Mark Beaumont
Uriah Heep Raging Through The Silence URIAH HEEP Finally, the missing link. The perfect birthday present for the Uriah Heep fan in your life. Watch their eyes well up as they tear open the wrapping paper and find the missing link in their voluminous collection: a CD/ DVD package of the band’s 1989 London Astoria show, previously available only on VHS. It’s special because it marks the end of Heep’s wilderness years and the start of their renaissance with singer Bernie Shaw that has continued ever since. Not that it felt like anything momentous at the time. The 1989 tour might have marked their 20th anniversary, but having been through 15 lineup changes before Shaw’s arrival in 1986 there wasn’t
much to celebrate. All semblance of continuity had gone. Shaw was their fifth vocalist in the 10 years since David Byron had been fired, but crucially he had both the voice and the frontman persona to stop the rot. The Raging Silence album that preceded the tour (four songs from which are included here) was a cautious affair that the Heep fan seldom plays, but Raging Through The Silence demonstrates that playing live Heep were already in recovery and Shaw had mastered their 70s greatest hits. Indeed it would be another 18 years before the line-up changed again.
Hugh Fielder
Hot Snakes Reissues SUB POP Much-loved San Deigo posthardcore crew rifle through their back pages. It always seems an odd decision to remaster albums when their charm lies in the raw, rough-and-ready nature of the music, and yet it’s something we see time and again when a record comes
around for a second time. Thankfully, both Sub Pop and Hot Snakes – formed by Rocket From The Crypt frontman John Reis and Rick Froberg after they’d been in the equally excellent Pitchfork and Drive Like Jehu together – know to leave things alone, and these reissues are presented in all their original spit-and-sawdust glory. Debut Automatic Midnight (7/10) picks up the thread where their previous bands left off, a post-hardcore thrill-ride, Froberg’s incandescent yelp galloping to keep up with the speed-demon guitars, a breathless, unadulterated punk-rock rush with a heart of pure soul. Follow-up Suicide Invoice (8/10) takes its foot off the pedal a little, and in the process showcases Hot Snakes’ wonderfully snarky side (any album that starts with a song called I Hate The Kids is alright by us), but the beast was only collecting itself, and that old aggression rears its head again on the fiery, furious Audit In Progress (8/10). Revisiting these records is a cathartic privilege. But the best news is that there’s a new album on the way in 2018. Bring it on. Emma Johnston
Michael Schenker A Decade Of The Mad Axeman CHERRY RED
The guitar genius shines strongly.
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here will be few people who would rank guitarist Michael Schenker’s output in the 10 years from 2006 as even coming close to matching what he achieved with UFO and MSG in the 70s and 80s. However, as this two-CD compilation proves, the music he has made in the 21st-century is far from disastrous. The first CD is taken from a period that saw him release the undervalued MSG album The Midst Of Beauty, for which he reunited with vocalist Gary Barden, with whom he recorded much of the most celebrated MSG material. And the combination worked very well on songs like I Want You and Night To Remember. Less impressive, though, are the Temple Of Rock tracks, taken from the three albums released between 2011 and 2015. Although they don’t really live up to expectations, Doogie White’s singing is confident and competent, and the onetime Scorpions rhythm section of drummer Herman Rarebell and bassist Francis Buchholz adds a certain lustre. Even when the overall quality of the songs is a little below par, Schenker still proves himself to be spellbindingly creative
on guitar, adding his own unique flavours to the sound. The second CD is live, and comes from five shows between 2010 and 2016, including performances in Tokyo, London and Madrid. This is where things really take off, because they have energy, power and passion. Although different line-ups are involved, everyone is clearly committed to the songs and delivers at the top of their game. The spread of songs runs the gamut of Schenker’s illustrious career to date, and includes classics from UFO (Doctor Doctor, Lights Out, Rock Bottom) and MSG ( Armed And Ready, Attack Of The Mad Axeman, Desert Song). There’s even a nod to the Scorpions with the inclusion of Rock You Like A Hurricane , although this is more about Rarebell and Buchholz, as Michael had nothing to do with the recording of the Scorpions’ mega hit. There’s bite and delight to these live recordings, and the main man himself is inspired throughout. The
tracks from London (2011’s High Voltage Festival) and Tokyo (2010 and 2016) are the high points here. Overall this collection is not vintage Schenker, but there’s still a lot to commend, and it’s a good reminder of his enduring brilliance.
Malcolm Dome
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’ S R E Y U B I D E G U
Joni Mitchell
Essential Classics
On her journey from coffee-house folkie to genre-juggling experimentalist, she recorded some of the finest albums of her era.
“I
t’s a man’s world,” Joni Mitchell told interviewer Elio Iannacci in 2014. “Men wrote most of the songs for women and they were mostly tales of seduction. I wrote my own songs. That ended that.” Arguably the most inf luential female singer-songwriter of our time, Joni Mitchell not only redefined women’s roles in rock and pop, but she also set the standard for others to follow. Her poetic lyrics are the equal of Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen in their prime. On a musical level, she blossomed from a coffee-house folkie into a roving experimentalist, weaving sophisticated song cycles from jazz, blues, pop and world music. And then there’s her voice, a soprano supple enough to trace the agonies and rhapsodies of human emotion, and most everything in between. Mitchell’s interest in the art s developed during her teenage years in Saskatoon, Canada, where she began to paint and write poetry. A Pete Seeger songbook introduced her to the possibilities of guitar, leading to an open-tuning style. Having married, given birth, divorced and moved to the US, her reputation as a gif ted songwriter grew apace. She 108 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
signed to Reprise Records and cut her 1968 debut album, Song To A Seagull. The real lift-off moment came two years later when third album Ladies Of The Canyon – which included the e pochal Woodstock and her first hit single, Big Yellow Taxi – became an international success . Mitchell’s golden years spanned the 70s. In a r un of impeccable studio albums, she brought a candour and complexity to her work that ranged from the stark autobiography of Blue and the funky exoticism of The Hissing Of Summer Lawns to the spacious Hejira and the free-f lowing jazz textures of Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter . Such high standards took a dip during the following decade, as Mitchell grappled with electronica a nd the demands of new technology. The 90s saw a resurgence, and she released a handful of well-received albums before announcing her retirement in 2002. She returned to the studio for 2007’s Shine, after which she disappeared again. Sadly, in 2015 she suffered a brain aneurysm. Her rehabilitation has been steady. And while it’s unlikely that we’l l ever hear new music from Joni Mitchell again, there’s already so much to savour. Rob Hughes
Blue REPRISE, 1971
Sudden fame and celebrity didn’t sit well with Mitchell, who chose to escape by taking a year off and mooching around Europe. Her sojourn on the island of Crete helped restore her creative appetite, and she discovered the Appalachian dulcimer and wrote the first batch of intensely personal, emotionally transparent songs that would make up Blue. The writing is raw and direct, the spare arrangements heightening the lyrical content. My Old Man details her failed relationship with Graham Nash, while All I Want is one of three tunes aimed at another recent partner, James Taylor. Faultless and revelatory, Blue is the ultimate break-up album.
The Hissing Of Summer Lawns ASYLUM, 1975
Anyone who still thought of Mitchell as a boho folkie will have had their preconceptions dashed by this, her seventh album. Experimental and semi-symphonic, it finds her digging deep into jazz, borrowing elements from musique concrète and pre-empting the explosion of world music. This is best illustrated on the stunning The Jungle Line, which is an exotic mini masterpiece. At the album’s heart lies Mitchell’s withering contempt for the superficiality of ‘respectable’ society, as documented on The Boho Dance and the title track, which features James Taylor on acoustic guitar.
G E T T Y
Superior Reputation cementing
Essential Playlist Both Sides Now Clouds
Woodstock Ladies Of The Canyon
The Circle Game Ladies Of The Canyon
For The Roses
Court And Spark
Hejira
ASYLUM, 1972
ASYLUM, 1974
ASYLUM, 1976
Tasked with following up the extended confessional of Blue, Mitchell responded with the more impressionistic For The Roses, which saw her shift towards more narrative song structures. The arrangements are subtle and deceptively intricate, fleshed out by strings. Asylum Records boss David Geffen set Mitchell the challenge of writing a hit single, setting in motion the unashamedly commercial You Turn Me On, I’m A Radio. The song did indeed do the business on the charts, bringing Mitchell her first US Top 30 placing. Elsewhere, the title track lays bare her discomfort with her new-found fame.
Mitchell’s sixth album reflected her burgeoning fascination with jazz, roping in Tom Scott and LA Express as her backing band and, in the process, broadening her musical palette. Cue woodwinds, reeds and trumpets as she and a raft of other helpers create an intoxicating blend of sun-blushed sophisti-pop. The relatively carefree music belies the nature of her often troubled lyrics, which range from rigorous selfexamination to deep meditations on celebrity, romantic love and what it means to be free. Help Me gave Mitchell her first (and only) US Top 10 hit, and she truly excels on Free Man In Paris and Down To You.
Named after the prophet Muhammad’s journey of exile from Mecca to Medina, Hejira references Mitchell’s own crosscountry road trip that followed the end of her relationship with drummer John Guerin. The songs find her caught between a thirst for independence and a desire for companionship, by turns philosophical, resigned and hopeful. This sense of restlessness informs the songs on the record, which fold jazz, folk, poetry and almost-pop into a graceful whole. Jaco Pastorius’s fretless bass runs are a perfect fit for Mitchell’s pared-back arrangements and swooping soprano, heard to stirring effect on Coyote and Amelia.
Good Worth exploring
Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
A Case Of You
ASYLUM, 1977
Blue
Generally dismissed by critics on release, this sprawling double album of fusionist jazz continues to polarise fans. Detractors claim that’s it’s overlong and unfocused, but it’s actually a joyous survey of music’s transportive powers, Mitchell untethering herself from expectations and flying far and free. Some of it is deliciously abstract, while bongos, cowbell and coffee cans add to the invigorating sense of release. On a lyrical level, fun-time Joni hits a peak on the title track and the irrepressible Talk To Me: ‘I didn’t know I drank such a lot, till I pissed a tequila anaconda the full length of the parking lot.’
Avoid
The Last Time I Saw Richard Blue
Little Green Blue
For The Roses For The Roses
Cold Blue Steel And Sweet Fire For The Roses
Free Man In Paris Court And Spark
Help Me Court And Spark
The Jungle Line The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
In France They Kiss On Main Street The Hissing Of Summer Lawns
Ladies Of The Canyon REPRISE, 1970
Mitchell didn’t appear at Woodstock, but her distanced vantage point, watching it on TV, didn’t prevent her from writing the definitive song about the festival and, by extension, the 60s counterculture movement. Woodstock ’s parent album finds her chronicling other matters too, from the contradictions of fame (For Free) to environmental havoc (Big Yellow Taxi) to the loss of innocence in the transition to adulthood (The Circle Game, written in response to Neil Young’s Sugar Mountain). Horns and strings add fresh texture to her favoured acoustic guitar and piano, but it’s her nuanced, fluting voice that most impresses.
Night Ride Home
Both Sides Now
GEFFEN, 1991
REPRISE, 2000
The less than enthusiastic response to Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm seemed to sting Mitchell into a new phase of creativity with its follow-up, the intimate feel of which drew a direct line to the early-70s albums that had made her reputation. Exuding a satisfied warmth, Night Ride Home is nevertheless pitted with vitriol. The Windfall (Everything For Nothing) is a scathing rebuke to a former housemaid, while Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a commentary on American involvement in the Middle East. The exquisite Come In From The Cold, meanwhile, reflects on the rapturous joys of young love as seen from middle age.
Described by co-producer Larry Klein as “a programmatic suite documenting a relationship from initial flirtation through optimistic consummation…”, this jazz-rooted covers album shifted attention from Mitchell’s songwriting to the expressive majesty of her voice. There’s a lived-in huskiness to her singing that lends her choices the full weight of emotional experience. The London Symphony Orchestra ramp up the drama, on pre-war standards such as Stormy Weather to torch songs made famous by Lena Horne, Etta James, Nat King Cole and Ella Fitzgerald. Mitchell even breathes new meaning into 1971’s A Case Of You and the evergreen title track.
Chalk Mark In A Rain Storm GEFFEN, 1988
Even avid Joniphiles would admit that the 80s was a patchy decade for her, be it the synth-laden Dog Eat Dog or the concession to mainstream pop that was Wild Things Run Fast. But her artistic nadir came at the very end of the decade. Chalk Mark feels like the bland yuppification of all that Mitchell holds dear, her usual creative instincts quashed by starry collaborations with Peter Gabriel, Tom Petty and, as unlikely as it may seem, Billy Idol. The Reoccurring Dream bolts together samples from TV commercials in a way that feels redundant rather than topical, while the protest songs – Lakota, Cool Water – suffer a similar fate.
Coyote Hejira
Amelia Hejira
Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
Talk To Me Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter
Come In From The Cold Night Ride Home
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S T U F F
Robert Plant And The Sensational Space Shifters
s & D V D B O O K S
Live At David Lynch’s Festival Of Disruption EAGLE ROCK
Eric Clapton: Life In 12 Bars Lili Fini Zanuck
ZANUCK CO. AND PASSION PICTURES/ALTITUDE FILM SALES
In-depth look at Slowhand’s life and career, but with few new insights.
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his two-hours-plus documentary starts with Clapton whispering directly to camera, extolling the virtues of BB King, one of many black blues legends that fired his enthusiasm for the guitar. It’s hardly a revelation. And there’s the rub for director Lili Fini Zanuck, whose previous film Rush (1991) was scored by EC. All the source material is so well known that Life In 12 Bars feels like Clapton’s The Autobiography (Century, 2007), with intriguing archival footage of the Swinging Sixties and home movies shot at his Hurt wood Edge Surrey spread for colour. The first half is the most compelling as we’re reminded how his mother deserted him, leaving him in the care of grandparents. Understandable bitterness and an inferiority complex ensued but eventually made Clapton stronger. He saw himself as “one man with his guitar against the world”. There’s a whistle-stop tour through his early groups: The Yardbirds, John Mayall, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek And The Dominos, but not Delaney & Bonnie. One gets the impression of a restless spirit who doesn’t hang around. Clapton admits he struggled to forge relationships with women – one girlfriend recalls how he conducted conversations by answering questions 110 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
with guitar licks. He was happier in the company of male musicians and counted Jimi Hendrix and Duane Allman as peers. It’s a credit to the fil m that it doesn’t shy away from his messy dr ug and drink disintegration with the Dominos’ willing accomplices. During the making of George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass, one acquaintance recalls the band surrounded by vast bags of cocaine, with LSD, mescaline, Mandrax and heroin on tap. Clapton fell in love with the Persian powder – like “pink cotton wool” was how he felt – and harboured suicidal thoughts: “Except that if I die, I won’t be able to take any more.” Eventually he faced his own crossroads, but his solo career is quickly dismissed, partly because “I can hear how drunk I was on those records”. Yet this idol with feet of clay faced real tragedy when hi s young son Conor fell to his death in New York. That awful episode and the catharsis of Tears In Heaven are the film’s most poignant moment, almost making one forgive the howling error of attributing a Harrison sound bite to Paul McCartney and misspelling Ahmet Ertegun’s surname. Altogether it’s a bit of a strange brew.
Max Bell
Roots-rocking lion king shares his appetite for disruption. As headline guests at David Lynch’s inaugural Festival Of Disruption in LA in October 2016, Robert Plant and his globalised roots-rock collective played a muscular set that’s captured in this no-frills concert video in agreeably crisp, crunchy sound. The Space Shifters make scant concessions to the Lynchian setting, aside from dressing all in black. But the band are on blazing form, couching Plant’s ragged roar in sinewy Afrobeat, finger-picked avant-bluegrass, torrid flamenco guitar and burblingbluestronica. Highlights include Whole Lotta Love stripped down into a kind of shamanic choral chant, and the widescreen, U2-ish shimmer-rock of recent composition Rainbow . However, the original set has been edited to an hour, cutting tracks like Dazed And Confused and Bukka White’s Fixin’ To Die, which feels pointlessly stingy. Lynch himself appears in the bonus features, talking gnomically about music, creativity and meditation.
Stephen Dalton
Steve Hackett Wuthering Nights: Live In Birmingham INSIDEOUT MUSIC High-class Windy conditions. This is a celebration of Steve Hackett’s legacy, both with Genesis and also as an accomplished solo musician. Filmed at the Birmingham Symphony Hall, it captures the aura of the occasion. The first part of the performance concentrates on his post-Genesis career, with material that includes songs from current album The Night Siren, as well as earlier material. The second half is centred around Wind & Wuthering, his final album with Genesis, marking its 40th anniversary. In all, there are five tracks from that often undervalued record, plus noteworthy classics such as The Musical Box and Los Endos.
The whole presentation is brilliant, and gives you an insight into how special that tour was for everyone. And the doubledisc DVD also features behindthe-scenes footage, plus three promo videos filmed for songs on The Night Siren. Essential for all Hackett/ Genesis fans.
Malcolm Dome
Vinyl: Owners’ Workshop Manual Matt Anniss And Patrick Fuller HAYNES PUBLISHING Pretty but pointless book of tips for vinyl aficionados. Famous for repair manuals for vintage motors, the boffins at Haynes have moved sideways in recent years, gleefully attaching their iconic brand to the latest fads in popular culture with abandon. The latest guide to appear on the shelves is an Owners’ Workshop Guide for vinyl owners. Alongside useful information about setting up turntables and digitising record collections, you’ll find frankly ludicrous advice about recreating the Royal Albert Hall atmosphere at home (“Invite your richest friends to attend wearing full evening dress”) and the usual nonsense about the benefits of expensive speaker cables. Too often the book resembles a series of clickbaity web articles cobbled together for print, but it hangs together nicely, and the pictures are decent. It’s probably destined to sit unread on the nation’s shelves, alongside records that are never played.
Fraser Lewry
Gary Holton The Rock And Roll Man SACK OF POTATOES PRODUCTIONS
Portrait of the man who paid the price for living too fast. This unofficial cinematic biography of the long-deceased Heavy Metal Kids frontman and star of TV’s Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was produced by Richard Smith, who runs the Garyholtontribute.co.uk website. Holton’s early life in South London is covered by interviews with his wife, Donna, and father, Ernie. Entertaining rock’n’roll stories come from co-founding bassist
Ronnie Thomas and drummer Keith Boyce, interspersed with mini-clips from The Old Grey Whistle Test and TOTP, plus some great footage of The Cops Are Coming, aired on Panorama . The picture painted is of a loveable, flamboyant, raving hedonist that relished life but refused to take it even remotely seriously, which is why, 40 years on, the Kids are revered as punks before punk music even existed, though some potential fans remain unaware of their (continued) existence. It’s all a bit DIY, but with the proceeds going to charity, The Rock And Roll Man is worth a look.
Dave Ling
Hansa Studios: By The Wall 1976-1990 SKY ARTS
TV documentary study of Heroic Berlin studio. Place your bets: which secondtier 90s pop band’s drummer gets to dramatically say: “You can feel the history in the room!” Okay, it’s Supergrass. But in fairness, the history of Berlin’s Hansa Tonstudio, celebrated in Mike Christie’s stirring documentary, is rich in cultural significance. Bowie’s Low and Heroes, and Iggy’s The Idiot and Lust For Life started the counterintuitive trend of recording in a (then) West Berlin wasteland “overlooking the barbed wire and the guards” (Martin Gore). Depeche Mode, Siouxsie, David Sylvian, Marillion, Pixies, Nick Cave, U2 and REM were just some of those who thereafter tried to channel its qualities as a muse. Bono, Michael Stipe, Tony Visconti, Fish and Gore speak reverentially here – Stipe so softly that you need subtitles – of Hansa’s mix of damn good acoustics and hauntology. Blixa Bargeld nearly broke it, but Hansa – now looking rather shiny and clean – is made of strong, inspiring stuff.
Chris Roberts
John Mellencamp Plain Spoken: From The Chicago Theater REPUBLIC Mellencamp live and in his own words. This is a live DVD with a difference, because what you get throughout is Mellencamp himself talking about his life and philosophy as a running commentary overlaying the
performance. It’s an unusual approach, and one that adds an extra dimension. However, it does begin to get irritating, because what Mellencamp has to say inevitably distracts from the music onstage. So every time you get hooked on the live set, suddenly you’re being distracted by the man and his commentary. That’s a pity, because Mellencamp and his band are clearly in prime form, and he also has Carlene Carter guesting impressively with him. Both elements work well separately. But the idea of putting them together detracts from each, thereby meaning this experiment isn’t quite a triumph. Still, it’s not a disaster, either.
Malcolm Dome
Time Flies: The Story Of Porcupine Tree Rich Wilson ROCKET 88 Unauthorised bio of Steven Wilson-led prog heroes. Before Steven Wilson became a big solo fish, the king of thinking man’s rock channelled his ambitions through Porcupine Tree, the group that, as Rich Wilson’s considered account implies, might have “done a Radiohead” if they’d had a single like Creep. And if they’d been younger when they started making proper headway. And if they looked different. And if the industry was wired differently. A tale of rock star debauchery this is not. But nor is it a po-faced, worthier-than-thou tale of tortured geniuses who were just too good for things like drugs, fun or album sales. It’s elevated by anecdotes and interviews from behind-thescenes mainstays like former manager/Delerium Records founder Richard Allen, as well as band members. It thoughtfully charts the evolution from Wilson’s first home recording experiments to his early bands, and the slow, often unglamorous rise of Porcupine Tree, from pub gigs to the Royal Albert Hall. It ends slightly bittersweetly, with Wilson going solo – a conclusion that, for all the important input of Barbieri, Edwin, Maitland and Harrison, you sense was inevitable. Overall, this is a quietly absorbing tale of one of Britain’s most enigmatic groups.
Polly Glass
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Was their Wolverhampton show as ‘Oooh!’ as Glenn Hughes seems to think?
114 Interviews p117 Tour Dates p120 Live Reviews p
N I W D O O G E I T S I R H C
LIVE!
e r y “ I ’ m v a t w e t h p r o u d d u c e d i n t r o o f a l o t s t o g o e r p t e i v o m t ’ s k e r I . l a t m e n g f o i k r o u s w p a s t t h e r s .” a e y n t e
Anvil The Toronto metallers head out to promote seventeenth (!) LP Pounding The Pavement.
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ntil 2008’s real-life rockumentary Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, the career of these Toronto based metalheads had been firmly on the skids. The movie’s unexpected worldwide popularity would change their lives forever. Almost a decade later, guitarist/vocalist Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow gives thanks for its continued powers of rejuvenation.
The new album, Pounding The Pavement , is your band’s seventeenth. That title is a sta tement on how hard it is for a group like Anvil to maintain what’s now been a forty-year career. Yeah, it can be tough. We’re like door-to-door salesmen, driving from one place to another, loading it in, trying to sell our merchandise and then packing it all and moving on again. Musically speaking, the album offers some curveballs. With its treated vocals and unusual rhythms, Doing What I Want is a different kind of track for Anvil… That one was its final song. Robb [Reiner, drums] and I discussed how we had covered most of Anvil’s trademarks, including the double bass drum thing, and a full-on, slow, pounding song. We had to repeat something or tr y something we’d not done before. Why paint yourself into a corner when it’s better to jump? Fail to keep things fresh and you’re dead in the water. Is the subject of Bitch In The Box as it appears – the female nar rator of a satnav – or is it a simile for something else entirely? [Laughs] It’s a true story. Our GPS unit has a female 114
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voice and my wife calls her the Bitch In The Box. I thought that was complete genius, so we wrote a song around it.
You had no concerns about possible misogynistic interpretation? No. To me, it’s really obvious what it’s about. The GPS actually talk s in the song – I don’t think there can be any confusion. Will you be playing many of these new songs on the upcoming UK dates? So far we do three of them, but I don’t know whether more will be added. When you’ve got seventeen records, it’s really hard to compile a set-list. Do you ever wonder how your life might have changed had The Story Of Anvil not been made? Musically speaking, t hings would have gone the same way, but of course it elevated the bar for us. The stakes were raised i n just about every way. It’s on Netflix so presumably you must be famous all over the world. What’s the strangest place you’ve been recognised? Oh jeez, it can happen anywhere, man, often in ridiculous circumstances. We pulled into a tiny gas station in the middle of the Las Vegas desert and some guy gets out of his car and goes [adopts a strong Texan accent]: “Well, hot damn ! That’s the Anvil guys !” He’s got a cowboy hat, and he knows of Anvil – are you kidding me? In Chicago, a guy drivi ng a garbage truck saw Robb and I and reversed back to us. As we were getting a picture taken with
him, a limousine pulled over and some lawyer-type guy got out: “I want a picture with you Anvil guys!” What the fuck – a garbage man and a millionaire? The demographic is off the chart. It’s not anything to do with metal.
ANVIL: POUND FOR POUND
Anvil were formed in Toronto in 1981. The Times called The Story Of Anvil “possibly the greatest film yet made about rock and roll”. The trio’s current line-up is completed by bassist Chris Robertson.
As a serious musician, does it bother you to be known for being in a band that perhaps played it for laughs on the silver screen than as a guita rist? What’s great is that I’m no different to the guy in the movie, so there’s no façade to maintain. I’m happy to be recognised, whether my fame came through music or the movie. It ’s a blessing, and you can trust me – many people are jealous as hell.
The wheel has turned again and once more, Anvil’s followers are almost exclusively rock and metal fans. Did it piss you off that for a while people came to see the Anvil because of the silver screen ? No, I’m very proud that we intro duced a lot of moviegoers to metal. T here wasn’t much of our music in the movie. The director [Sacha Gervasi] said: “It’s like the movie Jaws – you never really see the shark till the end.” I love that people come to see the band [off the back of the movie] – it ’s what’s kept us working for the past ten year s. DL Anvil’s 15-date tour begins in London on February 6.
R U D Y D E O N C K E R / P R E S S
INTERVIEWS
Stone Broken The Walsall four-piece find themselves moving up.
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resh from signing to Spinefarm Records for their second album, Ain’t Always Easy, guitarist/vocalist Rich Moss previews the biggest headline tour so far for the four-piece from Walsall. 2017 was quite a year for Stone Broken. You toured with some big-name bands and, at Ramblin’ Man Fair, stepped up from the newcomers’ platform to open the main stage. The tour with Glenn Hughes was our first big one and it led to a whole load of festival offers. These are things that you can only dream about when you start a band. Did Glenn, Cheap Trick or Living Colour offer any fatherly advice? All of them did, actually. Glenn often gave us pearls of wisdom. We were watching him from the side of the stage in Scotland. Before the encore, he said: “Kids, keep on doing what you’re doing because you sound great – and keep off the drugs.” And then he went out and played Burn. How does the second album, Ain’t Always Easy , improve upon the band’s self-funded debut, All In Time ? It needed to be a lot more dynamic – the highs a lot higher and the lows more understated. But besides adding more light and shade, it also has some songs about meaningful issues that are important to us. One of those is the single Heartbeat Away , which tackles domestic abuse. Yeah. That’s very personal to me. It still goes on and might even be happening to the person living next door to you. Special guests on these dates are Jared James Nichols and the Bad Flowers. That makes for a strong bill. It’s also pretty diverse. Jared is a monster on the guitar and the Bad Flowers are quite bluesy, but we’re a bit harder and heavier.
/ I R R A H L A P : N E K R B E N T S
People say the home-grown rock scene is dead or dying. If other young, British bands observe Stone Broken’s progress and wonder how you managed it, could you offer any tips? Besides putting a good, like-minded support team in place around you, the most important thing is just to work damned hard. It’s a twenty-four-hour job for every member of the band. DL
The tour ends in Bristol on March 7.
Arch Enemy Clean vocals? Jeff Loomis? A chart album? It’s all change for AE.
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he Swedish melodic death metallers have undergone some significant changes. Guitarist and leader Michael Amott fills in the gaps.
Are you happy with Arch Enemy’s progress since Al issa White-Gluz replaced Angela Gossow on vocals four years ago? Yeah, we’ve become vintage rock [laughs]. Losing an iconic lead singer is difficult. But since Angela decided to leave, we’ve done close to three hundred concerts around the world. These days I think fans are more accepting of change. White-Gluz seems quite fiery. Does she keep you on your toes? No, it’s a friendly atmosphere and a very good working collaboration. Put it this way: Angela was worse! Gossow remains Arch Enemy’s manager and the t wo of you were engaged – can that situation ever get awkward? We’ve remained good friends since parting on that level, so no. And the arrangement still works well. You won’t find anyone more in tune with the band and how it works on a daily basis than Angela.
Ten albums into Arch Enemy’s career, Will To Power is the first release from the band to feature clean vocals as well as growls. How are the fans reacting? They’ve been very enthusiastic. We were Top Three i n Germany’s national chart, and it was a Number One in Japan. A European arena tour with Nightwish really helped. Back in 2003, in your first Classic Rock intervi ew, you said: “Crossing over into the mainstream is not a swear
“We have stability now, something we lacked for a long time.” word – I’d like to think it ’s a possibility,” so this has been slow but steady process. It really has. I very much respect bands like Judas Priest, who have that edgy, heavy sound but can still attract a wider audience, because it’s not an easy thing to do.
Will To Power is also the debut
album with ex-Sanctuary/ Nevermore shredder Jeff Loomis. Do you see it lasting? I hope so, I’m very happy with how things are working out. Arch Enemy now has stability, which is something we’ve lacked for quite a long time. Having played live with them for two years following their hiatus, why did you quit the Carcass reunion in 2012? It was nothing more than my loyalty to Arch Enemy. I’m still friends with Bill [Steer] and Jeff [Walker], but I just couldn’t commit to doing it full-time. If you made a solo record, what would it sound like? I make Arch Enemy and Spiritual Beggars records, so probably a cross between those two. I’m not anxious to make a solo record as there’s so much of me in those two bands. Will the Beggars reactivate? There are no immediate plans. Arch Enemy is my baby. DL The tour ends at Bristol O2 Academy on February 14. CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 115
Tour Dates ACCEPT, NIGHT DEMON London
Camden Koko Arena Genting Arena The Hydro First Direct Arena Metro Radio Arena Wembley Arena O2 Arena
May 24 May 25 May 26 May 27 May 29 May 30 May 31
THE ALARM Glasgow Holmfirth London
ABC Picturedrome Kentish Town Forum
May 4 May 5 May 26
ALIEN ANT FARM Bristol London Manchester Norwich Leeds Birmingham Dublin Belfast Glasgow Newcastle Nottingham
Academy Kentish Town Forum The Ritz Waterfront Academy Institute Academy Limelight 2 Garage Academy Rock City
Feb 6 Feb 7 Feb 8 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 12 Feb 14 Feb 15 Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18
IAN ANDERSON & JETHRO TULL Manchester Newcastle Edinburgh Liverpool Bristol Birmingham Cambridge London
Apollo City Hall Usher Hall Auditorium Colston Hall Symphony Hall Corn Exchange Royal Albert Hall
Apr 3 Apr 5 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 9 Apr 10 Apr 11 Apr 17
Camden Underworld Eleven Trillians Yardbirds Club Cathouse Pure Limelight Academy Tivoli Hobos Green Door Store Robin 2 Fibbers Iron Road The Bear
Feb 6 Feb 7 Feb 8 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 23
ANVIL London Stoke-on-Trent Newcastle Grimsby Glasgow Wigan Belfast Dublin Buckley Bridgend Brighton Bilston York Evesham Weston
A PERFECT CIRCLE Manchester London
Apollo Brixton Academy
Jun 12 Jun 13
ARCH ENEMY , WINTERSUN, TRIBULATION Glasgow Nottingham London Manchester Bristol
ABC Rock City Camden Koko The Ritz Academy
Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 13 Feb 14
AT THE DRIVE IN, DEATH FROM ABOVE, LE BUTCHERETTES London Brixton Academy Newcastle Academy Birmingham Academy 2 Manchester Apollo Glasgow Academy
Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 12 Mar 13 Mar 15
AUSTIN GOLD Leeds Leeds Harrogate
Duck & Drake The Grove Inn Blues Bar Asylum 2
Feb 17
Music Hall The Lantern Westgarth Social Club Opium Broadcast The Cluny Brudenell Social Club Soup Kitchen Le Pub Talking Heads Lantern The Albert NAC Camden Assembly Royal Albert Hall Tivoli Limelight Hope & Ruin Tufnell Park Boston Music Rooms Rebellion Garage Attic The Cluny 2 Mama Roux’s Fuel Waterfront Studios Brudenell Social Club
Apr 5 Apr 7 Apr 8 Feb 7 Feb 8 Feb 9 Feb 11 Feb 12 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 15 Feb 16
BLOODSTOCK FESTIVAL JUDAS PRIEST, NIGHTWISH, MR. BIG, DORO, MORE Derbyshire Catton Park Aug 9-12
JOE BONAMASSA Cardiff Manchester Carlisle Aberdeen Gateshead Birmingham Brighton London
Motorpoint Arena Arena Sands Centre GE Oil & Gas Centre The Sage Genting Arena Centre Hampton Court Palace
Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 16 Mar 17 Jun 12
Haven Club Warehouse 23 Nice ’N’ Sleazy Banne rmans Bodega Slade Rooms
Feb 1 Feb 2 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 16 Feb 17
THE BREW Oxford Wakefield Glasgow Edinburgh Nottingham Wolverhampton
BRITROCK MUST BE DESTROYED! REEF, THE WILDHEARTS, TERRORVISION Manchester Academy May 4 Birmingham Digbeth Arena May 5 London Hammersmith Apollo May 6 Glasgow Academy May 19 Newcastle Academy May 20 Leeds Academy May 24 Bristol Motion May 25 Portsmouth Guildhall May 26
BROTHERS OSBORNE Bristol Brighton Birmingham London Manchester Glasgow
Academy Concorde 2 Academy 2 Camden Koko The Ritz Garage
May 7 May 8 May 9 May 11 May 12 May 13
BULLETBOYS , ENUFF Z’NUFF London
Camden Underworld
PATTI SMITH, MO RE London Victoria Park All Points East Festival
Mar 18
NIGHT DEMON, AMULET, MORE London Camden Black Heart STEVE WINWOOD, MORE London Hyde Park BST Festival Cleethorpes Moon On The Water
Jun 3
Reading Cardiff London Morecambe Wavendon Stoke-on-Trent Marlborough Hook Norton
Sub 89 The Globe Putney Half Moon The Platform The Stables Eleven Manton Fest Music At The Crossroads
See left for dates, currently April 3-17.
CROPREDY FESTIVAL FISH, AL STEWART, FAIRPORT CONVENTION, LEVELLERS, MORE Banbury Cropredy Village Aug 9-11
CURVED AIR London Farncombe Bilston Havant Deal Sheffield Scarborough Kinross Gateshead New Brighton
Manette St Borderline St John’s Church Robin 2 The Spring Astor Theatre The Greystones Market Hall Green Hotel The Sage Floral Pavilion
Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4
THE DAMNED, SLIM JIM PHANTOM Birmingham Leicester Nottingham Folkestone Southend-on-Sea Cardiff Bristol Bournemouth Southampton Bexhill London London
Academy Academy Rock City Leas Cliff Hall Cliffs Pavilion Great Hall Academy Academy Guildhall De La Warr Pavilion Camden Koko Kentish Town Forum
Feb 1 Feb 3 Feb 4 Feb 6 Feb 7 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 16 Feb 17
Jul 8 Jun 16 Feb 9 Apr 7 Apr 20 May 25 Jun 9 Jun 23 Jun 30 Jul 7
Nottingham Birmingham Cardiff Portsmouth London Brighton
Rock City Institute St David’s Hall Pyramids Centre Royal Albert Hall Dome
Sep 18 Sep 19 Sep 21 Sep 22 Sep 23 Sep 24
EVANESCENCE London Manchester Nottingham Glasgow Sheffield
Royal Festival Hall Apollo Arena Armadillo City Hall
Mar 30, 31 Apr 2 Apr 3 Apr 5 Apr 6
ecommended BRIAN FALLON & THE HOWLING WEATHER Birmingham Manchester Glasgow London Nottingham Bristol Newcastle Leeds Dublin Belfast
Institute The Ritz ABC Camden Koko Rock City SWX Boiler Shop Beckett Olympia Theatre Limelight
Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 11
Academy UEA Academy Barrowland Academy Academy Rock City Brixton Academy
Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 16 Mar 17
THE DEAD BOYS Birmingham Newcastle Glasgow Manchester Nottingham London
I nstitute 2 Riverside ABC 2 Gorilla Rescue Rooms Islington Academy
Feb 2 Feb 3 Feb 4 Feb 6 Feb 7 Feb 8
THE DEAD DAISIES, THE TRE ATMENT, THE AMORETTES Glasgow Garage Bilston Robin 2 London Camden Koko Manchester Academy 2 Nottingham Rock City Bristol Academy
Apr 8 Apr 9 Apr 10 Apr 12 Apr 14 Apr 14
MONSTER MAGNET, NAPALM DEATH, GRAVEYARD, MORE London Various venues May 4-6
DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL May 12
JOHN COGHLAN’S QUO Feb 28 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 May 8 Mar 9 Mar 16
Flutes, face pulling, eye rolling and standing on one leg a bit. Maybe a lot. All to a soundtrack of top Tull tunes.
DESERTFEST
CIRITH UNGOL, ANGEL WITCH, ERIC CLAPTON, SANTANA,
Ivory Blacks Trillians Yardbirds Club Camden Underworld Robin 2 Embers Club Academy Hammerfest
Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17
BLACK MOTH Brighton London Manchester Glasgow Newcastle Birmingham Cardiff Norwich Leeds
ROBERT PLANT AND THE SENSATIONAL SHAPE SHIFTERS, TEARS FOR FEARS, MORE Bath Recreational Showground May 26, 27 Glasgow Newcastle Grimsby London Bilston Carlisle Manchester Pwllheli
IAN ANDERSON & JETHRO TULL
BLACK LABEL SOCIETY London Dublin Belfast
BATH FESTIVAL
BLAZE BAYLEY
N L E I L L I W
Ramsgate Halifax Middlesbrough Edinburgh Glasgow Newcastle Leeds Manchester Newport Southampton Bristol Brighton Norwich London
NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS,
Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18
THE BAD FLOWERS Birmingham
…
THE BELLRAYS Feb 8
BRYAN ADAMS Manchester Birmingham Glasgow Leeds Newcastle London London
R EC O M M E ND S
OZZY OSBOURNE, GUNS N’ ROSES, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, MORE Leicestershire Donington Park
Jun 8-10
EPICA Nottingham Glasgow Bristol Dublin Manchester London
Rock City ABC Academy Tivoli The Ritz Kentish Town Forum
Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8 Apr 10 Apr 12 Apr 13
EUROPE, KING KING Manchester Glasgow Newcastle
Academy Barrowland Academy
Sep 14 Sep 15 Sep 17
FEEDER Bristol Norwich Manchester Glasgow Leeds Birmingham Nottingham London
BRYAN FERRY Cardiff Liverpool Manchester Newcastle Glasgow Edinburgh Bristol Oxford Birmingham London London
St David’s Hall Philharmonic Hall Apollo City Hall Royal Concert Hall Usher Hall Colston Hall New Theatre Symphony Hall Palladium Hammersmith Apollo
Apr 9 Apr 11 Apr 13 Apr 15 Apr 17 Apr 19 Apr 25 Apr 27 Apr 29 May 1 May 3
FM Pontypridd Muni Arts Centre Sutton-in-Ashfield The Diamond Stourbridge River Rooms
Apr 20 Apr 21 Apr 22
FOREIGNER, JOANNE S HAW TAYLOR, JOHN PARR Manchester Glasgow Birmingham London
Apollo Clyde Auditorium Symphony Hall Royal Albert Hall
May 12 May 13 May 15 May 16
FREEDOM CALL Glasgow
Cathouse
Feb 22
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 117
LIVE! Sheffield Cannock London
Corporation The Station Camden Underworld
Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25
R EC O M M E ND S
BRITROCK MUST BE DESTROYED
G3
Apr 24 Apr 25 Apr 26 Apr 27 Apr 29 Apr 30
Talking Heads Voodoo Rooms Audio Beat Generator Ruby Lounge Oxford Street 100 Club Fleece & Firkin Hare & Hounds Victoria Vaults Westgarth Social Club
Feb 2 Feb 8 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25
GROUNDHOGS London
Oxford Street 100 Club
Apr 24
RYAN HAMILTON & THE TRAITORS Huddersfield Liverpool Newcastle Glasgow Nottingham Cardiff Southampton London
Parish Shipping Forecast Think Tank Stereo Bodega Fuel Joiners Arms King’s Cross Surya
Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 20 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23
PETER HAMMILL London Glasgow Manchester Brighton Bristol Cambridge
Queen Elizabeth Hall Oran Mor Stoller Hall St Luke’s Church The Lantern Junction
Apr 20 Apr 24 Apr 25 Apr 27, 28 Apr 29 Apr 30
HARPENDEN BLUES F ESTIVAL THE PRETTY THINGS, AYNSLEY LISTER, SIMON McBRIDE, MORE Harpenden Public Halls May 13
BETH HART Dublin Ipswich Bexhill Nottingham Oxford Folkestone Cardiff Cambridge Blackpool Hull Reading Portsmouth Coventry London Cheltenham
Vicar Street Regent Theatre De La Warr Pavilion Royal Concert Hall New Theatre Leas Hall St David Hall Corn Exchange Opera House City Hall Hexagon Guildhall Cathedral Royal Albert Hall Jazz Festival
Apr 10 Apr 12 Apr 14 Apr 15 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 21 Apr 24 Apr 26 Apr 27 Apr 30 May 1 Nov 3 May 4 May 5
JON HISEMAN/CLEM CLEMPSON/ MARK CLARKE Fletching Wavendon Bilston
Trading Boundaries The Stables Robin 2
Apr 7 Apr 9 Apr 10
ROBYN HITCHCOCK Manchester London Witney Bristol Cambridge St Leonards Hull Liverpool Glasgow Sheffield Morecambe Newton Abbot Ramsgate Dublin
Academy Malet Street ULU Fat Li’s Louisiana Unitarian Church Kino-Teatr Fruit Philharmonic Music Room Oran Mor Hubs More Music Kingskerswell Church Music Hall Workman’s Club
BILLY IDOL Manchester Birmingham London
Apollo Academy Brixton Academy
Jun 20 Jun 21 Jun 23
IRON MAIDEN, KILLSWITCH ENGAGE Newcastle Belfast Aberdeen
Metro Radio Arena Jul 31 SSE Arena Aug 2 Exhibition & Conference Centre Aug 4
118 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Brickyard Warehouse 23 Rebellion Sin City The Maze Think Tank Joiner s Arms The Station Manette Street Borderline Snooty Fox Cathouse
Feb 9 Feb 23 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8
Camden Desertfest Gorilla Garage Limelight Tivoli
May 6 May 31 Jun 1 Jun 2 Jun 3
NICKELBACK, SEETHER
How many great songs do Reef (pictured), The Wildhearts and Terrorvision have between them? Take a calculator. See previous page for dates, currently May 4-26. Manchester Birmingham London
Arena Genting Arena O2 Arena
Aug 6 Aug 7 Aug 10, 11
JADIS Southampton St Helens London
Talking Heads Citadel Tufnell Park Dome
May 3 May 4 May 5
WILKO JOHNSON Bath Oxford Norwich Leeds Glasgow Manchester
The Forum Academy UEA Stylus ABC Academy
May 3 May 4 May 5 May 10 May 11 May 12
RICKIE LEE JONES Dublin Edinburgh London
Vicar Street Queen’s Hall Barbican Centre
Feb 25 Feb 28 Mar 2
JUICY LUCY London
Oxford Street 100 Club
Feb 27
SONNY LANDRETH London
Great Portland Street 229 Club Apr 15
LEVELLERS, GINGER WILDHEART Wrexham Preston London Buxton Cheltenham Yeovil York Wavendon Liverpool Basingstoke Cambridge Leicester Bexhill Winchester
William Aston Hall Charter Theatre Chalk Farm Roundhouse Opera House Town Hall Westlands Barbican The Stables Philharmonic The Anvil Corn Exchange De Montfort Hall De La Warr Pavilion Cathedral
Feb 2 Feb 3 Feb 4 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 20 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23 Mar 24
Winter’s End Festival Resonate Festival
Apr 29 Sep 8
Sheffield Newcastle Bilston Keighley Evesham Grimsby Glasgow Edinburgh Manchester Chester Pwllheli
Corporation The Cluny Robin 2 Octagon Iron Road Yardbirds Club Cathouse Bannermans Academy 3 Live Rooms Hard Rock Hell AOR
ERJA LYYTINEN Whitby Pavilion Theatre Coventry Albany Theatre London Chelsea Under The Bridge Lincoln Alive! Durham Gala Theatre Bury St Edmunds The Apex Bristol Tunnels Keighley The Octagon Southport The Atkinson
May 13 May 14 May 15 May 17 May 18, 19 May 21 May 22 May 23 May 25
Trinity Tramshed Picturedrome Academy 2 Welly Garage Garage Limelight Town Hall Guildhall Rock City The Assembly Junction Islington Assembly Hall Engine Rooms Old Market
Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Feb 26 Feb 27 Mar 1 Mar 2 Feb 4 Mar 5 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 11 Mar 12
MAGNUM
The Atkinson The Forum Epic Studios Church Arts Centre Spinney Theatre St Mary In The Castle Robin 2 Victoria Hall Haymarket The Capitol Westgate Hall
Feb 10 Mar 3 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 25 Mar 31 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8
LITTLE CAESAR London Milton Keynes
Camden Underworld Craufurd Arms
Feb 21 Feb 22
Newcastle Glasgow Birmingham Manchester Llandudno Leeds London Cardiff
Metro Radio Arena Hydro Arena Arena Arena Venue Cymru Arena First Direct Arena Wembley Arena Motorpoint Arena
Apr 23 Apr 25 Apr 27 Apr 28 May 1 May 2 May 4 May 5
The Sage Corn Exchange Symphony Hall Dome Colston Hall
Apr 11 Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 16 Apr 17
MARILLION Gateshead Cambridge Birmingham Brighton Bristol
The Hydro First Direct Arena Echo Arena Arena Genting Arena O2 Arena Motorpoint Arena
May 3 May 5 May 7 May 8 May 10 May 11 May 13
Rescue Rooms Classic Grand Club Academy Institute 2 Malet Street ULU
Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 10
OBITUARY Nottingham Glasgow Manchester Birmingham London
ORPHANED LAND, IN VAIN, SUBTERRANEAN MASQUERADE, AEVUM London Camden Underworld Feb 26
PARADISE LOST Colchester Portsmouth Bristol Nottingham Belfast Dublin Glasgow Manchester
Arts Centre Wedgewood Rooms Thekla Rescue Rooms Limelight 2 Ti voli Classic Grand Gorilla
Feb 15 Feb 16 Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 23
DAN PATLANSKY , MOLLIE MARRIOTT Manchester Newcastle Leek Bristol Sheffield London
Deaf Institute The Cluny Foxlowe Arts Centre The Tunnel The Greystones Manette Street Borderline
Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 20 Mar 21
London
O2 Arena
Jun 18, 19
MIKE PETERS & THE ALARM Glasgow Holmfirth London
ABC Picturedrome Kentish Town Forum
May 4 May 5 May 26
PREMIATA FORNERIA MARCONI London
Islington Academy
May 17
PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING
MANIC STREET PREACHERS
Southport Billingham Norwich Bishop’s Stortford Northampton Hastings Bilston Settle Basingstoke Horsham Canterbury
Glasgow Leeds Liverpool Manchester Birmingham London Nottingham
PEARL JAM
Guildhall University Academy Academy Chalk Farm Roundhouse Rock City Academy Academy Academy
LINDISFARNE
LINCOLN BLUES FESTIVAL
Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 25 Mar 27 Mar 28 Mar 29 Mar 30
MACHINE HEAD Southampton Cardiff Bristol Birmingham London Nottingham Newcastle Glasgow Manchester
THE PRETTY THINGS, AYNSLEY LISTER, SIMON MCBRIDE, MORE Lincoln Drill Hall May 12
Chepstow London
Feb 24 Feb 23 Feb 27 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 10
CONNIE LUSH, KYLA BROX,
Bristol Cardiff Holmfirth Manchester Hull Aberdeen Glasgow Belfast Birmingham Preston Nottingham Leamington Spa Cambridge London Southampton Brighton
LIFESIGNS May 11 May 12 May 15 May 16 May 18 May 19 May 22 May 23 May 24 May 25 May 26 May 29 May 31 Jun 1
Apr 19 Apr 20
MONSTER MAGNET London Manchester Glasgow Belfast Dublin
THE GODFATHERS Southampton Edinburgh Glasgow Dundee Manchester London Bristol Birmingham York Middlesbrough
Hexagon Philharmonic Hall
MASSIVE WAGONS Carlisle Wakefield Manchester Swansea Nottingham Newcastle Southampton Cannock London Wakefield Glasgow
R ecommended JOE SATRIANI, JOHN PETRUCCI, ULI JON ROTH Southend-on-Sea Cliffs Pavilion London Hammersmith Apollo Bristol Colston Hall Manchester Apollo Portsmouth Guildhall Birmingham Symphony Hall
Reading Liverpool
Oxford Bournemouth Brighton Margate Cambridge Swansea Liverpool Leicester Edinburgh Middlesbrough Sheffield
New Theatre Academy Dome Winter Gardens Corn Exchange Brangwyn Hall Olympia De Montford Hall Usher Hall Empire Academy
Apr 5 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8 Apr 10 Apr 11 Apr 12 Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 16 Apr 17
QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, IGGY POP, THE HIVES, MORE London Finsbury Park
Jun 30
RAMBLIN’ MAN FAIR HALESTORM, STEVE EARLE, BLACKBERRY SMOKE, SONS OF APOLLO, FISH, MORE Maidstone Mote Park Jun 30, Jul 1
ALAN REED & THE DAUGHTERS OF EXPEDIENCY Southampton Stoke-on-Trent Glasgow Chepstow
Talking Heads Eleven Ivory Blacks Winter’s End Festival
Feb 27 Feb 28 Mar 1 Apr 28
DAN REED & DANNY VAUGHN Glasgow Edinburgh Newcastle Manchester
Cottiers Theatre Voodoo Rooms The Cluny Ruby Lounge
Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 23
K E V I N N I X O N
TOUR DATES Bilston Chester Sheffield Nottingham Bedford London Evesham Cardiff Agohill (N. Ireland)
Robin 2 Live Rooms Local Authority Bodega Esquires Manette Street Borderline Iron Road Fuel The Diamond
Feb 25 Feb 27 Feb 28 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 28 Mar 30 Mar 31
R EC O M M E ND S
ROCKIN’ THE BLUES
Islington Academy
Sudbury Twickenham Kidlington Nuneaton York Derby Bromsgrove Swindon Bishop’s Cleeve Glasgow Kinross Hartlepool Sheffield Barnet
Feb 26
CHRIS ROBINSON BROTHERHOOD London
Malet Street ULU
Mar 16
ROCKIN’ THE BLUES ERIC GALES, QUINN SULLIVAN, GARY HOEY, LANCE LOPEZ London Highbury Garage Mar 17
SAXON, MAGNUM, DIAMOND HEAD, ROCK GODDESS Cardiff University Cambridge Corn Exchange Hull City Hall SWX SWG3 The Tivoli Hammerfest Foundry Camden Koko
Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18
Glasgow Liverpool Manchester London Birmingham
Barrowland Albert Hall Chalk Farm Roundhouse
Feb 13 Feb 14 Feb 15
ecommended
London Bournemouth Cardiff Manchester Leeds Newcastle
Highbury Garage Wembley Arena BIC Motorpoint Arena Arena First Direct Arena Metro Radio Arena
Mar 2 Mar 5 Mar 6, 7 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 12
SKID ROW, TOSELAND, BAD TOUCH
STIFF LITTLE FINGERS, RUTS DC
Dublin Belfast Glasgow Inverness Newcastle Sheffield Pwllheli London Hull Manchester Cardiff Liverpool Coventry Norwich Bristol Brighton Nottingham
Cardiff Bristol Norwich Manchester Nottingham Newcastle Glasgow Inverness Aberdeen Reading Brighton London Leeds Hatfield Birmingham
Academy Limelight ABC Iron Works Academy Corporation Hard Rock Hell Festival Shepherd’s Bush Empire Welly Academy 2 University Hanger 34 Kasbah Waterfront Academy Concorde 2 Rock City
Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 5 Mar 6 Mar 7 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 12 Mar 14 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 19 Mar 20 Mar 21 Mar 22
SKID ROW, NIGHT RANGER London
Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Mar 11
SKINDRED, CKY Norwich Southampton Nottingham Manchester Glasgow Bristol Leeds London Birmingham
UEA Guildhall Rock City Academy ABC Academy Academy Brixton Academy Institute
Apr 19 Apr 20 Apr 21 Apr 22 Apr 24 Apr 25 Apr 27 Apr 28 Apr 29
SPACE ELEVATOR South Shields Bathgate Wigan Stoke-on-Trent High Wycombe London Oxford
Unionist May 17 Dreadnought May 18 Old Courts Theatre May 19 Eleven May 20 Buckinghamshire University May 24 The Hammersmith Club May 25 Bullingdon May 31
STAMFORD BLUES, RHYTHM AND ROCK F ESTIVAL
GROUNDHOGS, PAUL LAMB & THE KING SNAKES, MORE Stamford Corn Exchange Jun 16
STEELHOUSE FESTIVAL BLACK STAR RIDERS, DAN REED NETWORK, THE QUIREBOYS, THE WILDHEARTS, KING KING, MORE Ebbw Vale Hafod-Y-Dafal Farm Jul 27-29
STEREOPHONICS
Y T T E
Blues stars Eric Gales (pictured), Quinn Sullivan, Gary Hoey and Lance Lopez team up to give the genre a shot in the arm. London
SIMPLE MINDS Glasgow Manchester London
Aberdeen Glasgow Nottingham Brighton Birmingham
AECC Arena The Hydro Motorpoint Arena Centre Genting Arena
Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 26 Feb 27 Mar 1
Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 15
Quay Theatre Eel Pie Club Football Club Queens Hall Fibbers Flowerpot Artrix Victoria Tithe Barn The Ferry Green Hotel Belle Vue Club The Greystones Bull Theatre
Mar 16 Mar 22 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 30 Mar 31 Apr 6 Apr 7 Apr 8 Apr 12 Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 15 Apr 21
ROGER WATERS
Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25
SEPULTURA Bristol Glasgow Dublin Pwllheli Sheffield London
Stereo Academy 2 Rescue Rooms King’s Cross Scala Bierkeller
MARTIN TURNER EX-WISHBONE ASH
RHAPSODY London
Glasgow Newcastle Nottingham London Bristol
Tramshed Academy Waterfront Ritz Rock City Academy Barrowland Ironworks Lemon Tree Sub 89 Concorde 2 Kentish Town Forum Millennium Square Forum NEC Lakeside
Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 11 Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 19 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 23 May 25 May 26 May 27
STONE BROKEN, JARED JAMES NICHOLS, THE BAD FLOWERS Brighton The Haunt London Islington Assembly Hall Manchester Club Academy Glasgow G2 Newcastle Riverside Nottingham Rescue Rooms Pontypridd Muni Arts Centre Birmingham Institute 2 Sheffield Corporation Chester Live Rooms Bristol Fleece & Firkin
Feb 22 Feb 24 Feb 25 Feb 26 Feb 28 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 Mar 6 Mar 7
STONE FREE FE STIVAL SCORPIONS, YES: ANDERSON RABIN & WAKEMAN, MEGADETH, ROGER HODGSON, JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR, MORE London O2 Arena Jun 16, 17
STONE SOUR Manchester London Nottingham
Apollo Chalk Farm Roundhouse Rock City Academy Academy Ironworks Grand Hall Rock City Guildhall Academy Tramshed Academy Nick Rayns LCR Cliffs Pavilion Academy Engine Shed Brixton Academy G Live Hexagon Academy Corn Exchange Apollo
THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT Leeds Cambridge Birmingham Bristol Poole Manchester Dublin Belfast Aberdeen Glasgow Newcastle Sheffield Portsmouth Nottingham London
Academy Junction Institute Academy Winter’s End Festival The Ritz Grand Social Empire Music Hall Garage Barrowland Northumbria University Academy Pyramid Centre Rock City Kentish Town Forum
Feb 18 Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 22 Feb 24 Feb 25 Feb 27 Feb 28 Mar 2 Mar 3 Mar 4 Mar 5 Mar 7 Mar 8 Mar 9
TESTAMENT , ANNIHILATOR VADER Bristol Manchester Birmingham Dublin Glasgow London
Motion The Ritz Institute Vicar Street QMU Camden Koko
Mar 29 Mar 30 Mar 31 Apr 1 Apr 2 Apr 4
THERION London Manchester Aberdeen Glasgow Sheffield Belfast Dublin Bristol Birmingham
Islington Assembly Hall Rebellion The Assembly Audio Corporation Limelight Tivoli Bierkeller Institute
Feb 3 Feb 4 Feb 7 Feb 8 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 13 Feb 14
THIRTY SECONDS TO MARS Cardiff Manchester Glasgow London Birmingham
Motorpoint Arena Arena The Hydro O2 Arena Arena
Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 25 Mar 27 Mar 29
TOTO Jun 17 Jun 18 Jun 19
THE STRANGLERS, THERAPY? Liverpool Glasgow Inverness Kilmarnock Nottingham Portsmouth Bristol Cardiff Birmingham Norwich Southend-on-Sea Leeds Lincoln London Guildford Reading Newcastle Cambridge Manchester
Mar 17
Mar 6 Mar 8 Mar 9 Mar 10 Mar 12 Mar 13 Mar 15 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 19 Mar 20 Mar 22 Mar 23 Mar 24 Mar 26 Mar 27 Mar 29 Mar 30 Mar 31
London Manchester Dublin Belfast Glasgow
Royal Albert Hall Bridgewater Hall Vicar Street Waterfront Auditorium SEC Armadillo
Apr 1 Apr 2 Apr 4 Apr 7 Apr 8
TRINITY LIVE STEVE ROTHERY, TOUCHSTONE, GHOST COMMUNITY, MORE London Islington Assembly Hall
May 12
TRIVIUM, CODE ORANGE, POWER TRIP, VENOM PRISON Bristol Academy Birmingham Academy Glasgow Academy Manchester Academy London Brixton Academy
Apr 16 Apr 17 Apr 17 Apr 20 Apr 21
TURBONEGRO London
Camden Koko
Mar 2
TURBOWOLF Manchester
Academy 3
Mar 9
The Hydro Echo Arena Arena Hyde Park BST Festival Arena
Jun 29 Jul 2 Jul 3 Jul 6 Jul 7
PAUL WELLER Brighton Bournemouth Plymouth Cardiff Leeds Newcastle Glasgow Nottingham Manchester Birmingham London
Centre BIC Pavilions Motorpoint Arena First Direct Arena Metro Radio Arena The Hydro Motorpoint Arena Arena Genting Arena O2 Arena
Feb 17 Feb 18 Feb 20 Feb 21 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Feb 27 Mar 1 Feb 2 Feb 3
THE WHITE BUFFALO Manchester Glasgow Birmingham Oxford Bristol London
The Ritz ABC Institute Academy Academy Kentish Town Forum
Apr 15 Apr 16 Apr 17 Apr 19 Apr 20 Apr 21
WILDFIRE F ESTIVAL
LIONHEART, MASSIVE WAGONS Lanarkshire Biggar
Jun 22-24
DAMIAN WILSON & ADAM WAKEMAN Washington Kinross Kirton In Lindsey Wavendon Falmouth Penzance Tavistock London Sandwich Cardiff Solihull Lowdham Fletching Norwich Worcester Bath York Dumfries
Arts Centre Green Hotel Town Hall The Stables The Poly The Acorn The Wharf St Pancras Old Church St Mary’s Arts Centre Acapela Core Theatre St Mary’s Church Trading Boundaries Arts Centre Huntingdon Hall Chapel Arts Centre The Basement Theatre Royal
Feb 1 Feb 2 Feb 3 Feb 4 Feb 9 Feb 10 Feb 11 Feb 15 Feb 16 Feb 18 Feb 22 Feb 23 Feb 24 Feb 25 Mar 1 Mar 2 Mar 4 Mar 5
STEVEN WILSON Coventry Belfast Dublin Cardiff Birmingham Glasgow Gateshead London Manchester
Warwick Arts Centre Mandela Hall Olympia Theatre St David’s Hall Symphony Hall Clyde Auditorium The Sage Royal Albert Hall Bridgewater Hall
Mar 15 Mar 17 Mar 19 Mar 21 Mar 22 Mar 24 Mar 25 Mar 27-29 Mar 31, Apr 1
ANDREW WK Cardiff London Birmingham Norwich Portsmouth Manchester Glasgow
Great Hall Kentish Town Forum Academy 2 Waterfront Wedgewood Rooms The Ritz Garage
Apr 13 Apr 14 Apr 15 Apr 18 Apr 19 Apr 20 Apr 21
YES Bristol Sheffield Glasgow Manchester Gateshead Birmingham Brighton Liverpool London
Colston Hall City Hall SEC Armadillo Bridgewater Hall The Sage Symphony Hall Centre Philharmonic Hall Palladium
Mar 13 Mar 14 Mar 16 Mar 17 Mar 18 Mar 20 Mar 21 Mar 23 Mar 24, 25
CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM 119
LIVE!
‘ T h e ma t e r ia l is e s t e l la r b u t i t ’s t h r i l ls .’ d e l i v e r y t ha t t h
Derek Sherinian: “How come I alw ay s g et the small photo?”
S tonT, Jan 2 Imp Tol -L SHaE ha ver ll, W
Ci vic
O TRAIN - IN TR AIR RAID.BIG Y S WA UL ONE LAS T SO SA VE ME T WANDERLUS S TERDA Y SONG OF YE ER THE OU TSID TIME THIS IS YOUR COLD N’S FOR HADRIA THE BA T TLE WALL THE CRO W AD O VER M Y HE FOR M Y NG SO T S LA THE E RES TING PLAC MIDDLE E TH IN N MA TR Y BL ACK COUN ENCORE:
COLLIDE FAI THLESS MIS TREA TED
Black Country Communion Wolverhampton Civic Hall After seven years, it’s a homecoming for the Glenn Hughes-led supergroup. Cock an ear to the night air here tonight and you can hear the roars from nearby Molineux Stadium, announcing that a resurgent Wolverhampton Wanderers are stuffing Brentford three-nil. Inside the Civic Hall, meanwhile, another local hero is enjoying an equally rousing reception from his own long-suffering fans. As Glenn Hughes reminds us, it’s seven years since Black Country Communion last graced a stage in the heartland that birthed them: “We named our band after the people of the Black Country. It all started for me fifty years ago in this town…” Understandably, Hughes skims over the fact that it’s five years, almost to the day, since the Anglo-American supergroup were due to play a one-off gig at this very
120 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
venue; a date cancelled when the bassist and guitarist Joe Bonamassa’s relationship unravelled in an unseemly tit-for-tat. For Hughes – born 10 miles away in Cannock – it is evidently good to be back, not just on home turf, but at the controls of a top-flight band whose 2013 split left the one-time Deep Purple man flailing for purpose, and fans maddened by a sense of wasted potential. Tonight, the fiery phoenix sleeve art from last year’s comeback album, BCCIV , appears on Jason Bonham’s kick drum, and it’s a fitting metaphor for a reunion that Bonamassa once sniffed was about as likely as Buddy Holly And The Crickets. But we didn’t come here tonight to rake over the past. As BCC tear into a two-hour set, we are
reminded that these four musicians – the line-up completed by Derek Sherinian, manning a phalanx of keyboards – were born to play thunderous hard-rock together, a duty that should be enforced at gunpoint, if necessary. For a band whose first run lasted barely four years, they command a broad back catalogue of rare quality, and it’s a measure of the unit’s confidence that they’re not afraid to deploy some of the classics early. Rip-roaring debut single One Last Soul, the haunted Save Me and muscular The Outsider are all spat out in short order, during a first half that hits most of the peaks from their four studio albums (but bafflingly leaves out the rabble-rousing fan favourite, Beggarman). The material is frequently stellar, but it’s the delivery that thrills. In his regulation black suit and Terminator shades, Bonamassa can be an inscrutable stage presence, but as the set unfolds, he’s clearly revelling in the sideman role, whether firing off snakecharmer licks that make even this roomful of hardened gigsters gape, or going nose-to-nose with Hughes in a series of
K E V I N N I X O N
The reunion tha t was “as unlikel y as Budd y Holl y And The Cricke ts”.
Joe Bonamassa demonstrates his accomplished tilt.
Glenn Hughes: simply a tour de force.
N I W D E I T S I R H
bristling call-and-response sections. No mere plankspanker, we’re reminded of the scope of the 40-yearold’s talent as he steps up on lead vocals for The Battle For Hadrian’s Wall, a Zep III-esque folk-cruncher performed with bright-eyed soul. As for Hughes himself, the 66-year-old’s performance is simply a tour de force. Pipe-cleaner-thin and clad in a faintly ridiculous tuxedo jacket with Union Jack sleeves, his patter can sail close to spirituality-lite at times (“I’m a love machine,” he tells us, earnestly. “I don’t know what hate means. I’ve had enough of that…”). But there’s nothing airy-fairy about the veteran’s powerful, propulsive bass playing, nor his somersaulting vocals that pin us to the back wall, the instrumentation often dropping out to give his operatics free reign. Following the slow-burn set fulcrum of Cold – a reflection on Hughes’ troubled past with a glowering Bonamassa guitar hook – the show’s home-straight breaks into a swagger. The Last Song For My Resting
Place is all Celtic mysticism with muscle, Gerry O’Connor of The Dubliners providing a change of flavour on fiddle and mandolin, while Bonamassa takes another accomplished tilt at the mic. Man In The Middle is a crackling return to a more familiar blues-rock crunch – and achieves lift-off with its jackhammer double-time outro – but the night’s undoubted highlight is Black Country , kicked off with a breakneck rat-a-tat lick whose Motörhead velocity raises the venue’s pulse, and sprinkled with octavebusting a-cappella shrieks that confirm Hughes as one of the few old-school belters who can still blow the house down. As he delivers the howled pay-off – ‘I am a messenger/This is my prophecy/I’m going back to the Black Country’ – the audience’s response suggests they’re ready to carry this prodigal son shoulder-high and anoint him in the Queen Square fountain. With that, the four sidle off stage. But nobody’s fooled, and moments later they fire the machinery back up with the only track that could hope to compete with Black Country . Collide, you’ll remember, was the song whose classical sweep and seismic riffing opened BCCIV , confirming there was still gas in the tank of this fractious behemoth. In this setting, with Sherinian’s atmospheric keys work butting against Bonamassa’s route-one riff, it’s truly immense, like Heartbreaker on steroids, shitting out a symphony orchestra. F aithless can’t hope to match those heights, but Hughes has one last ace up his garish sleeve. Introduced as the first song that the bassist and guitarist played together upon their 2009 formation, Mistreated – from Deep Purple’s 1974 classic Burn – opens with a dynamic slow-blues preamble, Bonamassa tickling his volume dials to create whalesong wails worthy of Jeff Beck, before revving up the
Jason Bonham: the real Black Country boy.
dynamics to create a fire-breathing solo spot, encouraged by Hughes: “Talk to me, Joe!” It’s an epic finale, and the perfect full stop, but even as the house lights go up on a sated audience, the bassist seems reluctant to leave the stage, taking a deep bow with his comrades before embarking on more Midlands pillow-talk. “There was no mistake that we had to play here,” he gushes. “This is the home of Black Country Communion. We want to see you again. We’ll be back, you’ve got to believe me.” We don’t doubt his sincerity, but if past form is any indication then we shouldn’t hold our breath. From here the band roll on to a second date at Hammersmith, then home to the States, where Bonamassa’s prolific solo career will be calling. But wherever Black Country Communion’s road leads them, Hughes has patently left his heart in Wolverhampton. Henry Yates
‘The night’s undoubted highlight is Black Country, whose velocity raises the pulse.’
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LIVE!
‘ Th e mo od s ho ul d p er h a p s b e s om b re , b ut t ha t r ea l l y i sn ’ t t he c a se . ’
Fish London Islington Assembly Hall The former Marillion singer revisits one of their classic albums as his retirement looms. The big Scotsman has threatened retirement before, but now it really does seem as though his musical career has reached its twilight stages, with this year’s Weltschmerz album set to be his final studiorecorded statement. Although the mood at Islington Assembly Hall tonight should perhaps be sombre, especially with the singer revisiting the edgy bleakness of Clutching At Straws, his swan song record with Marillion many moons ago, as the show’s focus, that really isn’t the case. Even Fish being forced to perform seated on a stool due to suffering fierce back pain fails to puncture a celebratory ambiance. “I’m the Val Doonican of prog,” he quips. Backed by a tight band that includes the faithful Robin Boult on guitar and It Bites keyboard player John Beck, Fish also does plenty of talking, much of which is wonderfully self-mocking. Explaining a lack of promised new material, he shrugs: “Sorry, but as you can see, for the last year and a half I’ve done fuck-all except eat pies,” to roars of laughter. Placed alongside its rather more upbeat predecessor Misplaced Childhood, Straws has tended to suffer, although Warm Wet Circles, Incommunicado, Slàinte Mhath, White Russian and a goosebump-inducingSugar Mice are all reminders of its strength in depth. After two encores, Fish leaves the stage, clearly in pain yet looking as happy as his followers. The countdown starts here, regrettably. Dave Ling
Fish: the selfproclaimed “Val Doonican of prog”.
Gun
The Lemon Twigs / Flyte
Glasgow Barrowland
London The Forum
Mike Garson Plays Aladdin Sane
Home town heroes rise to the occasion.
Two brothers, one band to look out for.
Liverpool 02 Academy
There’s an electric atmosphere as Gun stride on stage and launch into She Knows. The venue is packed, and there’s definitely a celebratory feeling at this show on home turf. Moreover, the band are back at the top of their game, delivering a powerful performance that balances songs from acclaimed current album Favourite Pleasures with the best from their back catalogue. Former Gun bassist Dante Gizzi has now settled into his role as the band’s frontman, while brother Jools and Tommy Gentry deliver some impressive dual-guitar moments. Unusually, Word Up, their biggest hit, is rolled out early on, but this allows for a better flow of music, with new songs such as Tragic Heroes and Favourite Pleasures more than holding their own when up against old faves such as Taking On The World and Better Days. There’s even a visual whiff of nostalgic on Steal Your Fire, with the screen behind the band showing vintage footage of the original line-up in action. And The Boy Who Fooled The World is surely destined to become a Gun classic. Just when we all think they’ve climaxed with Shame On You, the band deliver a final surprise, and their cover of the Beastie Boys’ wonderfully upbeat (You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party) gets everyone fist-pumping the air and hollering. Gun live: as good as they’ve ever been.
The Forum is packed for a band that might still exist beneath the radar of many Classic Rock readers. The Lemon Twigs are Brian and Michael D’Addario, multi-instrumentalist/vocalising siblings from Long Island, New York, whose debut album Do Hollywood is among the cult releases of 2016. Mike Portnoy was among those to fall under the duo’s spell, describing their DayGlo sound as “The Beatles-meetJellyfish-meet-Redd Kross-meet-Badfinger, [coming] straight out of a Wes Anderson film”. Another impudently young pop-rock band, London’s Flyte, kick off tonight’s show in impressive fashion, despite favouring a more vocal-led approach. Could a power-pop renaissance be a possibility? Watch this space. The headliners deliver what is, in sporting parlance, the proverbial game of two halves. Choirboy-voiced Brian fronts the show’s first half, before swapping mic and guitar for sticks with elder brother Michael, whose comedic Ministry Of Silly Walks-style high kicks are dangerous to those around him. The more ferocious approach of the younger D’Addario galvanises proceedings, and final song of the set proper, As Long As We’re Together , with its Bee Gees-on-crack harmonies, is a minor masterpiece. They sign off with an equally rowdy brand new composition called The Queen Of My School that suggests a second album will hasten the Lemon Twigs’ rise.
Pianist on Bowie classic plays it again.
Malcolm Dome
Dave Ling
Stephen Dalton
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Two years after David Bowie’s death, the mass musical celebration of his legacy shows no sign of fading. The latest in a parade of long-time Bowie sideman to tour with the focus on a single classic album is piano maestro Mike Garson, who has assembled a pan-generational collective and various starry guests to play Aladdin Sane. Orchestrating proceedings from his grand piano perch, the shiny-domed Garson has the louche air of a Bond villain on his day off. His florid avant-jazz style can feel excessive, especially when he inserts Beatles and Gershwin melodies into a marathon expanded reworking of Aladdin Sane itself, but such baroque maximalism suits the album’s undertow of velvet-lined glam-cabaret decadence, amping up the high-camp melodrama of Time and the sublime perfumed sexiness of Lady Grinning Soul. (Swoon.) Jazz singer Gaby Moreno’s warm, feminised slant on these androgynous anthems shows how effortlessly Bowie blurred gender lines. It is also great to witness huge 80s hits like Let’s Dance and Absolute Beginners electrify a mid-sized venue, triggering lusty mass singalongs. The sole jarring note in this big-hearted celebration of Bowie’s genius is guest vocalist Steve Harley, who turns the supple folds of Changes into a graceless trundle before self-indulgently deflating the party mood with his own 1973 ballad Sebastian.
W I L L I R E L A N D
Heavy Load Heavy questions for heavy rockers
BellRays frontwoman Lisa Kekaula on pain relief, her shoe obsession and making grown men cry.
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Interview: Paul Lester
owerhouse vocalist Lisa Kekaula has fronted The BellRays for almost 30 years. Their latest album, Punk Funk Rock Soul Volume Two, which follows 2017’s Volume One EP, is a superb blend of raw R&B vocals, pop smarts and high-octane rock’n’roll. “I feel great, and relieved,” she says of finishing their first album in eight years and ninth overall. “The fact that we’re still doing it is amazing.”
What is your biggest regret? There’s times I’ve been completely maudlin, but really you have to stand by your choices. Bob and I got married super-young, the kind of young that’s just stupid – I was twenty years old, he was twenty-five. We’ve been married ever since. Our daughter just turned thirty, she’s healthy… When you have that in your life, and you get to do it with the person you love… Sure, we’ve had to change drummers and bass players, and it used to get to me, but it’s all a journey. I’m surrounded by cool humans.
Do you believe in God? Yes. I don’t believe in religion, I just believe there’s a greater force out there.
Which are the best and worst drugs you’ve ever taken? The best one I remember is Vicodin, when I had my wisdom teeth pulled. I never understood the opioid thing until I took that, and I could see why people get addicted. I’ve always had a fear of being an addictive person. I never really drank until my early twenties.
What’s the meaning of life? Finding and following your own path and being brave enough to do it. Could The BellRays have made different choices and been bigger? No. Because we still had a black female fronting this band and we still had an eclectic style of music. I have no illusion that most people will never get what it is we do.
Would you describe yourself as insurrectionary? Revolutionary, radical, I’m comfortable with all those words. Because what I represent is not the norm. If somebody told them what I do is soul, then they’d say: “Oh yeah, I can hear that.” If they told them what I’m doing is rock: “Oh yeah, I can hear that.” They have to have a directed tour to understand it.
So you believe one of the stumbling blocks has been due to you being a black woman fronting a rock band? I do. But not being black per se – some of the biggest stars on the planet are black. But how many of them are in a rock band? It doesn’t happen. Why should the guys have all the fun? How do your audiences today compare to those when you started out? Back then nobody wanted to hear what we were talking about – nobody cared. All they cared about was grunge. We’re one of those eclectic bands that doesn’t fit into any trend. Are you Detroit meets Detroit? Motown meets the MC5? I’m not just a combination of those two elements. We have our whole Californian rock thing that really shines through in the songwriting too. I guess I’m some kind of amalgamation of Etta James and Bon Scott.
Which rock death has hit you hardest? Tom Petty’s. It’s weird to think of a world without Tom Petty. What were you like at school? I came across as being very shy in the beginning. But once I started talking to people, I had a vein in me for fairness. If something unfair was going on, I wasn’t going to say nothing. I can’t let bullshit go.
“I guess I’m some kind of amalgamation of Etta James and Bon Scott.”
You and your husband [Bob Vennum, guitar] have formed the core of The BellRays for nearly three decades. What’s your secret? We allow ourselves to quit once a day. Have you ever landed a punch? No, but sometimes words hurt more than any punch could. The songs matter more than our feelings. That’s true of any band, whether you’re married or not. 130 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM
Have you ever had a day job? I used to work at the University of California as an Administrative Assistant. But working in a band is way harder. What was your biggest waste of money? I have some shoes upstairs…
What’s your worst habit? I’ve been working on my temper for years. I have the ability to make grown men cry. I’ve had it since I was a child. Just by saying the most truthful thing you probably shouldn’t say. What would you like to be written on your tombstone? “Lived hard. Loved hard.” Punk Funk Rock Soul Volume Two is released on February 2 via Cargo.
