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

CLASSIC ROCK

Unseen Led Zep Footage Unearthed • Fan-shot film from a 1970 LA show discovered in a drawer.

RIP

NEWS

Queensrÿche • They’re back with a new album, and still with the signature sound they say “will always be in our DNA”.

The Rock World Pays Tribute

Hendrix At 80

NEWS

Archers Of Loaf • Eric Bachmann on burnout, returning, and rediscovering his anger – poured into the band's new album – at 52.

Birth • Meet the San Diego quartet delivering premium 70s prog elements for modern ears.

Gun • With an unplugged album and a new single filled with nostalgia, the Glaswegian band are thrilled to be back.

Riches from the rock underground • Mirkwood, Flams Ltd, UK, 1973. £3,500

NEWS

October Drift • Autumnal alt.rockers prove they belong somewhere with their latest album.

Bonnie Tyler • With more than a billion streams across YouTube and Spotify, singer Bonnie Tyler’s collaboration with writer/producer Jim Steinman might just be the biggest power ballad of them all.

Francis Rossi • Status Quo’s grand statesman on un-Royal behaviour, his pal ‘ Reg’ (aka Elton John) and the fear of slowing down.

Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts • From punk rock madness to shelved studio albums, Tuk Smith has had no choice but to embrace the chaos.

NICE GUYS Don't Always FINISH LAST • It’s been “a fight from day one”, say Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, but now they are now reaping the rewards. The pair are also living proof that you don’t have to be an asshole to sell loads of records, pack out stadiums and be a rock star in 2022.

RAISE YOUR FIST AND YELL • It was the final album the Three Amigos line-up of Motörhead made – and wasn’t their best. Iron Fist, which even Lemmy said was “inferior to anything else we’ve ever done”, marked the end of the band’s golden period.

HIS BARK MATERIALS • Diamond Dogs was the point at which an unsettled David Bowie was shedding his glam-rock skin and shaping up to become the ‘plastic soul’ man of his next album. It was also, he said, “my most difficult album”.

SAINTS & SINNERS • How the maverick Britrocker survived another messy divorce to shack up with his “bit on the side”: Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners.

TIMING IS EVERYTHING • Fronted by vocal powerhouse Joyce Kennedy, Mother’s Finest were simply too ahead of the game: black musicians playing rock. If they’d arrived a decade later they could have been huge.

THE LAST STRAW • It’s 35 years since Marillion’s final album with Fish was released, and it was a tumultuous journey for all involved. From the influence of alcohol, to incessant touring schedules and the final, bitter split, this is the inside story behind Clutching At Straws.

A BEATIFUL NOIZE! • With the release of a new box set of Slade live albums, Noddy Holder looks back over the band’s glittering career and recalls the shows that delivered the magic.

ON THROUGH THE NIGHT • Dark times won’t stop the newly chart-bothering Massive Wagons, they assure us – and neither will the bullies, bigots and bent politicians skewered on new album Triggered! As frontman Baz Mills bluntly tells us: “Fuck ’em…”

SUN KING...