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.

CLASSIC Rock

WELCOME

23 THINGS WE’RE LOOKING FORWARD TO IN 2023 • Whether it’s gig, tours, festivals, spanking new albums, box-set reissues, DVDs, books or more issues of Classic Rock, there’s plenty of rockin’ good stuff coming along over the next 12 months.

Wilko Johnson • Guitarist. Singer. Songwriter. Punk rock pioneer. Actor. Classic Rock looks back at the life and work of the much-loved British musician.

Hip-gnosis

Faster Pussycat • Back with a new single, frontman Taime Downe talks the other ’Cat, not being industrial, and crazy 80s days.

NEWS

Rolie In, Cain out?

Spell • The Canadian brothers reckon metal is losing its magic, and are looking to bring it back.

FOREVER AMBER • The Love Cycle, Advance Records, UK, 1969. £4,500,

Jared James Nichols • The second-tallest man in rock on broken bones and being an “ugly, long-haired shithead” (his words).

Magna Carta Cartel • With this band, the former Ghost Ghoul is now embracing the “optimism” of 80s pop-rock.

Ugly Kid Joe • Written in protest at MTV’s sickly ballads, and accompanied by a video featuring a flyaway sex doll, there was much to love about the Californians’ misanthrope smash hit of 1992.

Ville Valo • The former HIM frontman on life after that band, fear of covid, going MOR and choosing music over alcohol.

Christine McVie • A ground-breaking artist and the calm eye of the decades-spanning storm that was Fleetwood Mac, she brought elegance and soul to the band’s sound through her voice, keyboard playing and some of rock’s most enduring hits.

DANGROUS TIMES • With the release of the 45th Anniversary Deluxe Edition of Thin Lizzy’s Live And Dangerous, Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham look back at the troublesome birth of a classic live album.

TAKK ONE : Action! • Moving Pictures was the album that was never supposed to be. Rush’s Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson recall angry mobs, out-of-control aeroplanes and Superman in the story behind the hugely successful record that defined the sound of rock music in the early 80s.

LOST IN MUSIC • With a star-studded new album just out and a UK show set for July, Iggy Pop talks about still giving his all, no more stage diving, addictions, his fondness for the word ‘fuck’, his cockatoo, and finally taking a phone call from the Hall Of Fame.

"I had a total idea about what Dr. Feelgood was and what it should be, I was absolutely obsessed" • Sadly, we lost the iconic Wilko Johnson in November. When Dr. Feelgood’s debut album Down By The Jetty turned 40 in 2015, the then surviving feelgoods -Wilko, Sparko, The Big Figure and manager Chris ‘Whitey’ Fenwick – looked back at the making of their classic record.

DOUBLE TROUBLE • In the lead-up to the double-bill tour of The Darkness and Black Stone Cherry, frontmen Justin Hawkins and Chris Robertson compare notes on vocal prowess, backstage riders and the perils of doing David Lee Roth-style splits.

THE HOT LIST • THE ESSENTIAL NEW ROCK TRACK YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS MONTH AND THE BANDS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR

ALBUMS

REISSUES

BOOKS & DVDs

The Band • Few artists, if any, have captured rustic, earthy Americana as well as this – strangely, mostly non-American –...