Classic Rock

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

All The World’s A Stage • Ozzy and Tony reunite for Commonwealth Games ceremony, Geddy and Alex play together live again.

RIP

Steve Grimmett

Mo Ostin

Darryl Hunt

Ray Majors and Sandy Dillon

Nicky Moore

The Godfathers • With a new line-up behind him, Peter Coyne reckons the band pack “a whole lot of rock’n’roll dynamite”.

Joni To Record A New Album?

Ronnie Dio Film Out Soon

NEWS

Spirit Adrift • Meet the trad-metal revivalists who went from doomed to heavy metal’s rising stars.

MY FIRST LOVE

NEWS

Goo Goo Dolls • They’re back with a new album partly inspired by the state of their USA home. And it’s not a smiley record.

Welshly Arms • They’re not Welsh and they don’t sell beer. So please don’t ask: “What flavour crisps you got?”

Queen • A song inspired by Roger Taylor’s toddler son saying ‘shit’ in French, it became a hit single and another Queen classic, and had an iconic video to go with it too.

Steve Diggle • The Buzzcocks leader on following his dream, the toll of partying too hard, and continuing after losing Pete Shelley.

PETER FRAMPTON • Over a six-decade career, Peter Frampton has lived the rock life to its fullest, playing many parts – prodigy, teen idol, guitar hero, global superstar, forgotten man, comeback kid, survivor. Through it all, he’s returned to one defining thought: “I’m a musician, first and foremost.”

HERE COMES THE SUN • They intended to make “a party record“. Instead, Sunrise On Slaughter Beach is “a moody record, a darker record, and in some ways a heavier record than previous Clutch albums”. Neil Fallon and Jean-Paul Gaster talk livestreams, impenetrable lyrics, jazz and getting the funk in.

WHO DARES WINS • It takes a brave man to change his band’s style of music. It takes an even braver, and smarter, man to then do it again, as Darren Wharton did with Dare.

MIDNIGHT COWBOYS • The Cult have always seen themselves as outsiders, “never really accepted into the rock buddy club”. Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy talk about new album Under The Midnight Sun, and their “simple vision to make guitar-oriented rock”.

IT'S BLOODY ROCK 'N' ROLL! • Hounded by self-appointed guardians of the world’s uncorrupted youth, stalked by religious groups, shot at, WASP could easily have packed it in. But after 40 years “we’re still here”, says mainman Blackie Lawless. “Which I’m sure some people aren’t happy about.”

INSIDE THE ELECTRIC CIRCUS • From shock tactics to hard-rock hymnals, here’s the best of four decades of WASP and Blackie Lawless.

MADS PERCH/PRESS • With their sparkling alt.rock and lascivious androgyny, Placebo aimed high and set the 90s alight – and got the nod from Bowie. “All I wanted was never to have to get a real job,” says frontman Brian Molko.

The HOT List • THE ESSENTIAL NEW ROCK TRACKS YOU NEED TO HEARTHIS MONTH AND BANDS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR

The Cult • British rock grandees deliver late-career gem with studio album number 11.

ROUND-UP: BLUES

Skid Row • Faded-star hair-metallers return with their best album since their best-ever album.

ROUND-UP: MELODIC ROCK

Alter Bridge • Arena rockers...