Every month Classic Rock is packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features on rock’s biggest names, from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, from Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, from the Sex Pistols to AC/DC and beyond. Each issue plays host to the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you’ll find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock - whether it’s hard rock or heavy metal, prog or punk, goth rock or southern rock, we’ve got it covered.
WELCOME
CLASSIC Rock
Morse’s Purple Exit Permanent
RIP
Barbara Thompson
Manny Charlton
NEWS
Mike Tramp
“Some people are too full of themselves”
Master Of Puppets A Hit Single!
Deraps
ELOY
NEWS
LostAlone
MY FIRST LOVE
NEWS
Timothy B Schmit
The Chats
Jesus Built My Hotrod • A troublesome track, eventually finished off when a drunken Gibby Haynes staggered into the studio and babbled a load of nonsense, it became a big seller and a middle finger to the label.
Luke Spiller • The Struts frontman on Taylor Hawkins, the “quirky” new Struts album, and the therapeutic appeal of playing bowls.
Thundermother • A football club has spurred them on, gig time is party time, and they’ve learned their trade from some of the best of the old masters.
Going 4 It... • Exhausted and near breaking point following a US tour, Black Sabbath were hardly ready to start recording a new album. But with a driven Tony Iommi doing the heavy lifting and a mountain of narcotics fuelling the slog, they ended up with the classic Vol 4.
Lucky 13? • It hasn’t had an easy journey, with illness among the hurdles that have come along and stood in its way, but Ozzy Osbourne’s star-studded new album, his thirteenth, is finally upon us. And he reckons it really is something special – so much so that he has an eye on the top spot of the chart.
Songs of Experience • Walter Trout hasn’t had it easy. First it was a troubled childhood, which still haunts him. A few years ago he expected to be dead by now. Recently life’s been good, but the American bluesman’s new album still resonates with echoes of darker times.
GOODBYE TO THE BLUES • After an unremarkable bluesy debut album, Ian Anderson decided that Jethro Tull needed to change tack. With follow-up Stand Up they set out on a new road, which led them to superstardom.
ROCK STASR, INTERRUPTED • The story of Seattle grunge forerunners Bam Bam, fronted by the incendiary Tina Bell, is one of the most compelling – and criminally overlooked – in rock’n’roll. Ten years after Bell’s tragic death, we find out where it all first went right – and then wrong.
FEEL THE FORCE • In June 1979, guitarist Gary Moore sensationally quit Thin Lizzy mid-tour. In our exclusive extract from Gary Moore: The Official Biography, we look back at his immediate post-Lizzy period and the formation of his new band G-Force.
EVAN ALMIGHTY • Out of nowhere, in 1992 The Lemonheads were suddenly stars and frontman Evan Dando was alt.rock’s new god. But in typical rock’n’roll fashion, that’s when things started to go wrong.
The HOT List • the essential new rock tracks you need to hear this month and the bands to have on your radar
HARD STUFF • p74 Muse Despots, diseases, mass uprisings, wildfires, the nuclear shadow… Rich pickings for their new album.
THE HARD STUFF
Skid Row • With their new singer on board, the band return to the UK to promote their new album.
Big Big Train • The enduring British proggers play Hard Rock Hell in September.
Lillian Axe • The veteran American band tour the UK for the first time since 1993.
Tour...