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GL OW IN TH E
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ALICE COOPER
THE ALBUM THAT MADE HIM A STAR
ZZ TOP
KENT BEARD RIOT!
ALTER BRIDGE
MYLES KENNEDY’S WILD MUSICAL TRIP

ISSUE 3
UK£5.00 US$10.50 CAN$11.99

“We Went Too Far Every Single Day…”

 56 Alice Cooper
The artist formerly known as
Vincent Furnier transports Stevie
Chick back to early ’70s Detroit
for an education in the making
of the classic School’s Out album.
“What is this that
stands before me…” Contents
Issue 3 September 2017

F E AT U R E S

40
Rick Wakeman
Prog’s ultimate keyboard wizard on
Bowie, Sabbath, Yes and why having
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50
Airbourne
The Warrnambool warriors laugh in
the face of civil unrest, debt and threats
of actual bodily harm, but how would
they cope when faced with the genteel
surroundings of the Musilac festival?

64
Soundgarden
Seattle’s most contrary band set out to be
“Black Sabbath without the parts that
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70
Diamond Head
The Stourbridge quartet were
roundly tipped to be the NWOBHM’s
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Metallica have ensured Brian Tatler’s
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76
Alter Bridge
Myles Kennedy reveals the songs
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one reminds him of shovelling shit?

80
T H E C O V E R S T O RY

Black Sabbath
Phil Alexander delves deep into
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hearing the inside story of their rise, fall
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PLANET ROCK 3
 September 2017

U P F R O N T

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Metallica The Darkness
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with Slade. 18
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GET TY IMAGES, ROB BLACKHAM, REX, PAUL HARRIES

U P T H E B AC K

96 112 114 116 129

25 Albums Books & DVDs Unsung The Buyers’ Crossword
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GLASGOW BARROWLAND // Saturday 2nd December 2017

MANCHESTER CLUB ACADEMY // Friday 8th December 2017
ELECTRIC BALLROOM, LONDON // Saturday 9th December 2017

NEW ALBUM ‘FAVOURITE PLEASURES’

released September 15th
Includes ‘FAVOURITE PLEASURES’
and ‘SILENT LOVERS
Buy concert tickets and the album at
,:34+æ (.&1Ű(4Ű:0 now
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Email: mail@planetrock.com
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Stevie Chick, Ian Danter, Paul Elliott, George
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Ben Mitchell, Darren Redick, Nick Ruskell, Amit
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Group Managing Director, Advertising

Abby Carvosso
Music Director
Joel Stephan
Classified Sales Executive
Philip Nessfield
PHIL ALEXANDER, EDITORĥINĥCHIEF Production Manager
Carl Lawrence
Ad Production Controller
Helen Mear

Chief Executive
Paul Keenan
Group Managing Director
Contributors gathered in their masses… Rob Munro-Hall
Managing Director
Patrick Horton
Darren Redick is Planet Rock A journalist of 25 years standing, Managing Editor
Danielle O’Connell
Radio’s pet Yank and afternoon Ian Winwood is the co-author of Senior Marketing Manager
presenter. You can hear him yakking two books, Birth School Metallica Fergus Carroll
Marketing Manager
about Rush, dogs, BBQ-ing, playing Death and Into The Black. This Natalie Paszkowski
bass and ballet (!) daily between 2pm month he breaks off from writing his Head Of Marketing (Planet Rock)
Jon Norman
and 7pm. He also plays music, and in third book, Smash, a modern history Direct Marketing Manager
this issue reviews Saxon atop a rainy of ’90s American punk, to join Julie Spires
Direct Marketing Executive
Welsh mountain. Airbourne on tour in France. Olivia Caouki
Head of Communications
Jess Blake
In his 12 years at Kerrang! James Legendary music photographer
Hickie has stood, poised with pen Paul Harries has been shooting
and pad, in dark basements and bands for more than 20 years. His MOJO (ISSN 25144626) is published by
shiny enormodomes alike, in the portfolio amounts to nothing less Bauer Consumer Media Ltd.
Bauer Consumer Media Ltd is a company
service of rock and metal. His fave than a rock fan’s dream. Paul’s registered in England and Wales with company
number 01176085, registered address Media
band of all time is Jane’s Addiction, Slipknot: Dysfunctional Family House, Peterborough Business Park, Lynch
and in this issue he surveys the best Portraits book is available now. Wood, Peterborough PE2 6EA
For subscription queries, please contact CDS
new bands at Ramblin’ Man Fair. Go to www.paulharries.com Global on Bauer@subscription.co.uk
© All material published is copyright of Bauer
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6 PLANET ROCK
 Lords of Summer:
Metallica on-stage in
Quebec, July 14, 2017.

Heroes
Of The Day
THE BIG PICTURE
Metallica thrill 135,000 crowd
at 50th anniversary staging of
the Festival d’été de Québec.

FORGET THE Glastonbury hype, summer

2017’s biggest festival was the extraordinary
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PLANET ROCK 9
Upfront Over and out:
Sabbath say
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Into The Void

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10 PLANET ROCK
Upfront
10 Things You’d Forgotten
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IN BRIEF
Remembering MTV’s
flagship heavy metal
showcase, which
launched 30 years ago.
A Ronnie James Dio
6
hologram is embarking upon
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King Diamond
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in gown.
LONG-AWAITED DEBUT SOLO ALBUM

Featuring a raw an’ stripped-back

presentation of 14 classic blues cuts
produced by Grammy-winner Jim Gaines
OUT NOW
CD / LP / DIGITAL
CD INCLUDES BONUS TRACK
‘DYNAFLOW BLUES’
georgethorogood.com

spinefarmrecords.com
Fringe benefits: Mollie
Marriott steps out of
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Mollie
Marriott
Here Comes
The Nice
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Jagged Little Pill.

PLANET ROCK 15
 Upfront
King King
NEW ROCK
The gutsy Glaswegians had ballsy blues-rock
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formidable weaponry. W O R D S : J A M E S M C N A I R
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16 PLANET ROCK
King rocker: Alan
Nimmo (third from
left), kilt not shown.
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+DPPRQGRUJDQPDHVWUR%RE
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WKHUHZDVQRSUHVVXUH´ĦDQG SUHSSHGWKHTXDUWHWIRUDELJ
PL[HGE\&KULV6KHOGRQĪ)RR OHDSRIIDLWK
)LJKWHUV)HHGHUīExile & Grace )HEUXDU\¶V8.WRXULQFOXGHV
EDUHVLWVVRXOLQ DVKRZDW/RQGRQ¶V
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ONES TO WATCH
Three more Wyatt
Wendels-approved acts
to keep an eye on.
Red Sun Rising
A decade into their career,
Akron, Ohio’s Red Sun Rising
have graduated to the Planet
Rock A-List, thanks to the
classy post-grunge stylings
of The Otherside, one of two
cuts from 2015’s Polyester
Zeal to top the US Mainstream
Rock chart. Scorchio!
Find out more at:
redsunrisingmusic.com
Greta Van Fleet
Youthful Michigan hard rockers
Greta Van Fleet’s stunning
debut EP Black Smoke Rising
sounds like Zeppelin at their
most cocksure. The quartet’s
debut UK show at London’s
Black Heart on September
26 is already sold out: beg,
borrow or steal a ticket for
their Boston Music Room gig
in the capital the next evening.
Find out more at:
gretavanfleet.com
JOANovARC
Having produced the quartet’s
debut album Ride Of Your Life,
Foo Fighters knob-twiddler Gil
Norton hailed JOANovARC
as: “the new queens of rock”.
R AY TA R A N T I N O
Their Seeds Of Summer single
backs up the hype. Sam and
Shelley Walker’s sister act are
only getting started…
Find out more at:
joanovarc.co.uk
Catch
their fire:
JOANovARC.
999T-+0)-+0)T%1T7-
999T/#0*#6104'%14&5T%1/
999T(#%'$11-T%1/f/#0*#6104'%14&5F
Upfront

Slade
Entertain
LA’s Rock’n’
Roll Queens
BACKSTAGE
WHO:Slade
WHERE: Los Angeles
WHEN: May 8, 1973

W I T H F O U R UK Number 1
singles already under their belts,
Slade were being promoted by
Polydor Records as ‘England’s
New Beatles’ ahead of their secĥ
ond American tour in the spring
of 1973. The Wolverhampton
quartet were in bullish mood as
they talked up their prospects.
“We’re presenting music and
excitement and fun,” guitarist
Dave Hill told a Californian
newspaper. “It’s like having a good
SDUW\,W¶VDZRUNLQJĥFODVVWKLQJLQ
England, it’s a teenage thing in
America. I can’t see what group
here is catering to teenagers.”
Ultimately, it wouldn’t be
Slade. Released to coincide with
the tour, Cum On Feel The Noize
stalled at Number 98 on the US
Billboard charts, while the press
coverage wasn’t charitable: “Slade
proved themselves to be an inept
simplistic group bordering on
musical idiocy,” one critic wrote.
“America wasn’t quite ready,”
Hill later mused. It would, in fact,
be a full 11 years later before the
group scored their sole Top 20
single in the States with Run
Runaway reaching Number 20 in
June 1984. Still, with popular local
scenesters Lori Maddox and Sable
Starr in attendance, at least their
GETTY

LA promotional bash was a night

worth celebrating…

18 PLANET ROCK
 Skweeze me, pleeze me:
Slade’s Dave Hill provides the
meat in a Sable Starr (left)
and Lori Maddox sandwich.
Upfront
The Hairy Bikers Present...
ROCK’N’ROLL COOKERY
WITH COREY TAYLOR
Stone Sour/Slipknot polymath
dishes out his tips for a ‘hit’
recipe, soundtracked by Ol’ Blue
Eyes and Dave Grohl’s jokes.
What food would you cook on
a good night in?
Cooking is a lesson in patience. It’s
OLNHEHLQJLQWKHVWXGLR\RX¶UH
‘producing’ a meal, and gradually
layering in the ingredients, but you
can’t rush it otherwise the whole
thing goes to shit. If it comes out
right, however, you may well have a
‘hit’ on your hands. I would always do
VWXɱHGEHOOSHSSHUVWRVWDUW,VWXɱ
them with a mix of breakfast sausage,
Good taste:
Stone Sour,
with Corey
Taylor (centre).
32
cream cheese, Parmesan, and
garlic salt and garlic pepper. I
mix that all up and bake it for
about 25 minutes until the top
starts to bubble. During that
time I cut the peppers into
OLWWOHWDFRVKHOOĥW\SHVKDSHV
but you don’t cook them
because you want them to have that
FUXQFK2QFHWKHVWXɷQJLVRXW\RX
OHWLWFRRORɱDELWDQGWKHQVSRRQLW
into the peppers. It’s quick, it’s easy,
and it’s delicious.
What would you drink?
I haven’t drunk alcohol in seven years.
,ORYHFRɱHHEXW,KDYHWRFXWP\VHOI
RɱDWDFHUWDLQSRLQWGXULQJWKHGD\
ĦXVXDOO\DWDERXWSPĦEHFDXVH
otherwise I won’t be able to sleep.
Having said that, if I’ve had a good
steak, I might have to have an
espresso afterwards to help me
through the meat coma that slowly
I ONLY LISTEN TO starts to set in.
METAL DURING What music would you listen to?
THE MEAT- I probably wouldn’t be listening to
metal. If I were going to, it would be
POUNDING STAGE DWWKHPHDWĥSRXQGLQJVWDJHRI
preparation for the meal. I tend to put
OF COOKING. RQVWXɱWKDW¶VDOLWWOHHDVLHUWROLVWHQ
to. I’ll listen to anything from Frank
Sinatra to the Dave Brubeck Quartet,
but also Looking Glass and the
$WODQWD5K\WKP6HFWLRQĦVWXɱWKDW
I’ll know the choruses to but not the
verses. That way I can concenĥ
WUDWHRQWKHLQWULFDWHVWXɱ
during the verses, but when
those choruses kick in I’m
singing loudly while throwing
everything into the pot.
Who would be your dream
guests for a night in?
'H¿QLWHO\+HQU\5ROOLQV,
could pick that guy’s brain all
QLJKWĬ'DYHĭ*URKOEHFDXVHKH
OLJKWHQVDQ\IXFNLQJPRRGĦKH¶V
just joke, joke, joke. I’ve been
RXWWRGLQQHUZLWK'Xɱ0F.DJDQ
and he’s an absolute fucking pleasure
How to make
to hang out with and talk to, so he’d
stuffed peppers:
garlic salt and GH¿QLWHO\EHWKHUH%H\RQGWKDWLW¶G
pepper, Parmesan, start to get a little crazy because I
cream cheese, ZRXOGEHSXOOHGLQVHYHUDOGLɱHUHQW
sausages, peppers.
directions…
What’s the best night in you’ve
ever had?
2QRQHRIP\ELUWKGD\V,KDG'Xɱ
I L L U S T R AT I O N : M A X I M I N
DQGKLVZLIHĬPRGHO6XVDQ+ROPHVĭ
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EXQFKRIP\IULHQGVZKRDUHQ¶W'Xɱ
0F.DJDQDQG.HUU\.LQJ7KRVH
friends were sitting there going, “Holy
fuck!”, because of the other people
that were there. I was sitting at the
other end of the table laughing
because it was such an awesome thing
I N T E RV I E W : JA M E S H I C K I E
to witness. It was one of those rad
nights where I didn’t know what was
going to happen, but I ended up
surrounded by great people.
Present
T H E H A I RY B I K E R S
on Sunday
T H E H A I RY R O C K S H OW
PRUQLQJVIURPDPĦSP5HSHDWHG
HYHU\7XHVGD\QLJKWIURPSP
Upfront
HOW
I WROTE...
BREADFAN
Budgie vocalist/bassist Burke
Shelley on how channelling
anti-capitalist hippy vibes helped
birth a heavy metal standard.
W E W E R E rock
stars by 1973. I could
walk down the main
VWUHHWLQ&DUGLɱDQG
everyone knew who I was. We never
actively courted stardom, but we had
a good following and being ‘famous’
helped when it came to chasing girls,
of course. By the time it came to
make our third record we were on a
roll. We were only young, so we were
IXOORIRXUVHOYHVYHU\FRQ¿GHQW
We had a rehearsal room in the
FRXQWU\VLGHRXWVLGH&DUGLɱDQGZH¶G
go in most days and jam on
ideas, until it was time for a
cup of tea. Breadfan came out
RIRQHRIWKRVHMDPVĦ,WKLQN
7RQ\Ĭ%RXUJH%XGJLH
JXLWDULVWĭcame up with the
PDLQULɱDQG,ZURWHWKH
slower middle bit and the
melody and lyrics.
22 PLANET ROCK
It wasn’t too deep and meaningful,
it was just that idea that it won’t do
you any good having too much money.
,¶GKDGDZRUNLQJĥFODVVEDFNJURXQG
one of seven kids on a council estate,
and in the late ’60s/early ’70s there
ZHUHDOOWKHKLSS\ĥLVKLGHDVDERXWORYH
DQGSHDFHĦμ<RXGRQ¶WQHHGPRQH\
PDQDOO\RXQHHGLVORYH¶ĦVRWKHVRQJ
ZDVDUHÀHFWLRQRIWKDW
We recorded Never Turn Your Back
On A FriendDW5RFN¿HOGVWXGLRVĬLQ
0RQPRXWK:DOHVĭ:HZHUHSDUWRI
WKHIDPLO\ĦZHXVHGWRUHFRUGWKHUH
ZKHQWKH\KDGWKHLUĥWUDFNGHVNLQD
converted cow shed. Rodger Bain
SURGXFHGWKH¿UVWDQGVHFRQGDOEXPV
Ĭ¶VBudgie and 1972’s SquawkĭEXW
by the third album I wanted my
¿QJHUVRQWKHIDGHUVWRRVRZHGLGLW
ourselves with our engineer
WRITERS
Pat Moran. We’d set up in the
Tony Bourge, studio as we would at a gig,
Ray Phillips, and try to get a live feel to the
Burke Shelley
tracks. It wasn’t exactly
RELEASED
June 1973, on
complicated and I’m not sure
Never Turn that we considered Breadfan
Your Back the album’s most special song
On A Friend but it was good.
LABEL
MCA
Bread famous:
Budgie, with
Burke Shelley
centre.
Metallica had already covered
&UDVK&RXUVH,Q%UDLQ6XUJHU\ĬRQ
¶V7KHIJ(3*DUDJH'D\V
METALLICA 5Hĥ5HYLVLWHGĭDQGWKH¿UVW,KHDUGRI
WKHPGRLQJ%UHDGIDQĬDVD%ĥVLGHRQ
COVERING US their 1988 Harvester Of Sorrow
DEFINITELY
VLQJOHĭZDVZKHQWKHUHFRUGODEHO
phoned up and said, ‘Oh, you got
PHOTO: FIN COSTELLO/GETTY
DIDN’T HURT. covered again…’
We’d had a few younger bands
BURKE
TXRWLQJXVDVDQLQÀXHQFHĦ6RXQGĥ
SHELLEY garden covered Homicidal Suicidal,
Iron Maiden covered I Can’t See My
Feelings and Van Halen would play In
)RU7KH.LOOOLYHĦDQGLWGLGXVWKH
world of good, really. We’d be playing
JLJVLQRXU¿IWLHVDQGWKHDXGLHQFH
would be packed with all these kids in
their twenties. I’ve no idea how much
I N T E RV I E W : PAU L B R A N N I G A N
money Metallica’s version has brought
in, I didn’t check our royalty stateĥ
ments in that kind of detail, but their
HQGRUVHPHQWGH¿QLWHO\GLGQ¶WKXUW
,VWLOOGR%UHDGIDQRQĥVWDJHDQG
I’m still writing music. We’ve been
talking about bringing
out another Budgie
DOEXPĦDQGWKDW¶VWKH
standard I’m aiming for.
CLASSIC ROCK MUSICIANSHIP
ON ANOTHER LEVEL!

EXCLUSIVE EUROPEAN SHOWS

WOLVERHAMPTON LONDON
CIVIC HALL EVENTIM APOLLO HAMMERSMITH
Tue 2 Jan 2018 Thur 4 Jan 2018

NEW STUDIO ALBUM

BOOK TICKETS AT
BCCIV ticketmaster.co.uk
Released worldwide on
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 22ND wolvescivic.co.uk • eventim.co.uk
Available on CD, 180 gram vinyl
and download
Upfront
BLACK
SABBATH
AND ME...
SPIRIT OF RADIO
A selection of Planet Rock’s
presenters share their latest
tips and Sabbath memories.
PAUL
ANTHONY
The best thing I’ve
seen recently The
reaction that Stone Broken
received from a packed crowd
as they opened the Planet Rock
main stage on the Sunday at
Ramblin’ Man Fair. It comes
just a year after they played
the Rising Stage.
The best thing I’ve heard
recently Def Leppard’s Joe
Elliott talking in depth to me
about the iconic Hysteria album
on its 30th anniversary, at our
recent Facebook Live Q&A
event at the Gibson Guitar
Studios in London.
My favourite Black Sabbath
memory For me it’s more
‘memories’. I’ve really enjoyed
seeing them live throughout
WKH\HDUVZLWKPDQ\GLɱHUHQW
OLQHĥXSVDQGYRFDOLVWVIURP
Ozzy through RJD, to Ian
Gillan, Tony ‘The Cat’ Martin,
and a particular favourite gig on
0D\DWWKHPXFKĥPLVVHG
Birmingham Odeon featuring
the late Ray Gillen.
24 PLANET ROCK
LIZ BARNES
The best thing I’ve
seen recently I’m
UHĥUHDGLQJ(ULF
Clapton’s autobiography. I’ve
always been fascinated with how
‘anonymous’ he is as a
SHUVRQDOLW\DQGRQUHĥUHDGLQJLW
,¶P¿QDOO\XQGHUVWDQGLQJZK\
The best thing I’ve heard
recently I love the Motörhead
cover of David Bowie’s
“Heroes”. It shouldn’t work
but it completely does.
My favourite Black Sabbath
memory I once got stuck in
Ozzy Osbourne’s sitting room.
I’d been to interview him at his
house in Buckinghamshire and
was told to take a
Planet Rock branding
board with me for a
SKRWR,WZDVDIROGĥXS
contraption but it was
much taller than me. I
managed to get it in
place and we took the
photo at the end of
the interview, but after
Ozzy left I couldn’t
fold it up again. I
Kiss and tell:
Liz Barnes
and Ozzy
Osbourne.
eventually had to carry it out the
front door like a plank of wood,
praying no one saw me looking
like an idiot on his CCTV!
IAN DANTER
The best thing I’ve
seen recently Pretty
much everything at
the Steelhouse Festival,
including Stone Broken and Last
In Line. Best festival in the
country, and they even let myself
DQG'DUUHQ5HGLFNJXHVWĪRQ
GUXPVDQGEDVVUHVSHFWLYHO\īRQ
Wishing Well with Bernie
Marsden and Hand Of Dimes!
The best thing I’ve heard
recently The new Cats In Space
album ScarecrowĦVXSHUEO\
crafted melodic rock with
delicious harmonies and ‘kitchen
sink’ production. Also Alice
Cooper’s ParanormalĦWKHEHVW
thing he’s done in yonks.
My favourite Black Sabbath
memory Meeting Tony Iommi,
along with Eddie Van Halen in
1993 at the Musical Exchanges
guitar shop in Birmingham
where I worked. I’m on the right
in the pic above. Van Halen were
touring and EVH wanted a jam
ZLWK6DEEDWKRQKLVGD\RɱEXW
DOOKLVJXLWDUVZHUHLQ6KHɷHOG
Hysterical: Paul
Anthony and Def so Tony brought him into our
Lep’s Joe Elliott.

store to hire one of his EVH
signature models from us. We let
KLPERUURZRQHĦHYHQLIKH
GLGQ¶WKDYHDQ\,'ZLWKKLP
DARREN
REDICK
The best thing I’ve
seen recently ,
WLFNHGDFRXSOHRIDUWLVWVRɱP\
EXFNHWOLVW7RP3HWW\DQG
6WHYLH1LFNVSOD\HG+\GH3DUN
for the British Summer Time
IHVWLYDODQG6WHYLHDEVROXWHO\
NLOOHGLWWKRXJK7RP3HWW\ZDV
DELWÀDW,ZDVDOVRDWWKH
6WHHOKRXVH)HVWLYDODQGZKLOH
DOOWKHEDQGVZHUHWHUUL¿FWKH
KLJKOLJKWVIRUPHZHUH5LYDO
6RQV%HUQLH0DUVGHQDQG
Skindred.
The best thing I’ve heard
recently Alice Cooper’s
Paranormal&DWV,Q6SDFH¶V
ScarecrowDQG6WHYHQ:LOVRQ¶V
To The Bone,DPDOVRORRNLQJ
IRUZDUGWRIXOO\DEVRUELQJWKH
QHZ%ODFN&RXQWU\&RPPXQLRQ
album BCCIV$QG,ORYHWKH
new Prophets Of Rage album
Ħ8QIXFN7KH:RUOGLVP\
DQWKHPRIWKHVXPPHU
My favourite Black Sabbath
memory Seeing them at the
2$FDGHP\LQ%LUPLQJKDP
EDFNLQ,WZDVDJUHDW
VKRZ2QDQRWKHURFFDVLRQ
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P\UHFRUGLQJGHYLFHKDGQ¶W
UHFRUGHGWKHLQWHUYLHZ,KDG
just done with him. After a
VZHDW\WULSEDFNWR3ODQHW
5RFN,GLVFRYHUHGLWZDVLQWDFW
:KDWDMRNHU
Iron men: Tony
Iommi and
Darren Redick.
ROOM
666
WYAT T
WENDELS 565 times more
The best thing I’ve evil than Room
seen recently 101! The things
([WUHPHDW5DPEOLQ¶0DQ)DLU you love to hate…
7KHLU¿UVWĥHYHU8.IHVWLYDO
headlining performance. That People who talk
JXLWDUWKHPKDUPRQLHV«HYHQ during band’s sets!
LQWKHSRXULQJUDLQLWZDVMXVW We don’t pay to listen
VWXQQLQJ to you! Shut it,
respect the band.
The best thing I’ve heard
Guys that think it’s Danny
recently *UHWD9DQ)OHHWĦ
+LJKZD\7XQHIURPWKHLUGHEXW
appropriate to cop
a quick grope in the
Bowes
DOEXP7KHZRUOG¿QDOO\KDV mosh pit. Presents
POCKET MONEY PICK
VRPHRQHWKDWHɱRUWOHVVO\VRXQGV Any ’80s rock videos
like Robert Plant in 1971 containing women as
ZLWKRXWWKHEDQGWU\LQJWREH decoration.
/HG=HS7KH\KDYHVROGRXW People who don’t use The first record you bought
WKHLU¿UVW8.JLJLQ6HSWHPEHU deodorant before a
concert. with your own money.
DQG,H[SHFWELJWKLQJV
This month: PR listener
Grunge. It ruined rock
My favourite Black Sabbath David Pyne on AC/DC’s
music for me.
memory ,QWHUYLHZLQJ2]]\ Blow Up Your Video.
2VERXUQHEHIRUHWKHLU¿QDO People who watch a
whole gig through a
'RZQORDGDSSHDUDQFH,¶YH “I loved it from the minute it went
mobile phone!
QHYHUVSRNHQWRVRPHRQHVR on the turntable! I think it gets
LQRɱHQVLYHO\RɱHQVLYH+H Rush – a poor man’s
forgotten but I reckon AC/DC’s
Yes…
rattled through all manner of best tunes were when they still let
VXEMHFWVXVLQJWKHZRUVW Elitism in rock… “My Brian [Johnson] write the lyrics.
language in the happiest kind of genre is cooler than Nothing against the stuff they’ve
your genre.” done recently but it hasn’t got the
ZD\PDNLQJLWVHHPVRQDWXUDO
,W¶VKDUGWRNHHSDVWUDLJKWIDFH Bohemian f**king swagger of these songs. My mum
Rhapsody. As soon used to work near the local Our
EXWKH¶VDOZD\VJUHDWIXQ
as I hear “Is this the Price so I gave her my five quid and
real life?” off goes she went in there and bought Blow
H EAR TH E GANG AN D A the radio. Up Your Video on its day of release
W H O L E L OT M O R E :
People at festivals like [January 18, 1988] in her lunch
Tune in to Planet Rock Radio, hour and brought it home. That night
say Ramblin’ Man Fair
DYDLODEOHYLD'$%RQOLQHīYLD being seated in their I played it in full to my parents on
KWWSZZZSODQHWURFNFRPOLYHĬ picnic chairs. What their stereo downstairs much to their
RQ79YLD6N\īFKDQQHOĬ about dancing, people? delight. I think it was a bit louder than
9LUJLQ0HGLDīFKDQQHOĬ
Demos as CD ‘bonus’ the Jack Jones albums my mum
)UHHVDWīFKDQQHOĬRURQ\RXU
tracks. was used to! My favourite song was
mobile via the Planet Rock app. That’s The Way I Wanna Rock’n’Roll.
VISIT: Metallica covering
The tour accompanying the album
W W W. P L A N E T R O C K . C O M other band’s songs.
F O R M O R E I N F O R M AT I O N was also the first-ever gig I went to,
Guys, don’t do it, they
always sound terrible! at Wembley Arena
[in March 1988]
Men in Lycra pants. when AC/DC
No, just, no!
were supported
by Dokken. A
Thanks for the rants to great gig and it
Planet Rock listeners made them a firm
Jen Roper, Sarah favourite in my
5HHYH&UD]\%LUG record collection
Drew Coull, Helen ever since.”
S, Stuart Taylor,
Morgan Mason, Jason
Pearson, Mark Adlam, Hear T H U N D E R frontman
Andrew Farnell and DA N N Y B OW E S on P L A N E T
-RQDWKDQ.DUGDV] R O C K HYHU\6XQGD\IURPĦSP
Mail us at M A I L @ Or the repeat on Thursday from
PLAN ETROCK.COM
ĦSP(DFKZHHNKHEULQJV\RX
a P OCKET M ON EY PICK.
or commune via Twitter
via # R O O M 6 6 6
PLANET ROCK 25
Upfront

LETTERS

IT’S ALL WRITE!

YO U R L E T T E R S P R I N T E D ! I N C LU D E S YO U R T H O U G H T S O N T H E P U N K WA R S ,
DAVE BROCK’S VEGANISM AND FRANCIS ROSSI’S “SHIT”…

Lemmy and
I’M A ROCK’N’ROLL SOLDIER John Lydon:
a beef-free

FIRST-CLASS MAIL I have a comment to make about your editorial approach in

the last two issues. With both the Motörhead and Queen cover
bromance.

stories there seems to have been this sense that hard rock bands were somehow
battling the punks. As someone who was 15 in ’76/’77, I can tell you that that is not how
it felt at all. Maybe I’m the exception but, to me, punk was a continuation of that original
rock’n’roll spirit. I liked Motörhead as well as the Pistols, and The Damned were something
of a bridge between the two scenes. Listening to those records now, I feel that even more.
Never Mind The Bollocks is simply one of the greatest rock albums ever, up there with
Zeppelin’s first LP and Sabbath’s. And there’s no need to have a war about that, is there?
George Rogers, London

SORTING OUT
WHAT’S TRUE
There seems to be a misprint in your
otherwise fine Issue 2. On page
42 (bottom right), Francis Rossi,
referring to your reporter’s question
about “classic Quo albums, Piledriver,
Hello!, Quo, Blue For You”, appears
to say, “I think there were moments
of magic on them coupled with a lot
of shit.” This should surely read: “I
think there are moments of shit on
them, coupled with a lot of magic”?
He’s been playing songs from those
albums and other ones from that era
for the last 40-something years
as typically around half of Quo’s
live set or more. He wouldn’t
deliberately serve us up shit, would
he? Would he?
Hattie Des Nimes, Midlands
I SIT HERE WAITING
I am a huge fan of your great mag, I
bought the first two issues and love
them both. Planet Rock has started
like Godzilla entering this planet!
Lots of interesting interviews and
awesome articles so your mag is my
favourite one at the moment. I wish
you would feature Journey or Steve
Perry in the next issue. Journey
were inducted into the Rock’n’Roll
Hall of Fame this year and [former
not write about the peak of their
career with the 1983 album Frontiers
where Journey became megastars
but it was also the end of the classic
line up of Neal Schon, Jonathan
Cain, Steve Perry, Ross Valory and
Steve Smith?
Kaj Roth, Sweden
Thanks, Kaj. Watch this space…
WHAT CAN I DO
I have just bought Issue 2 of Planet
Rock magazine, but was unable to
find Issue 1. Can you please tell me
how I can get one?
Steve Calder
Sadly, Steve, yours is one of many
letters we have had concerning
Issue 1. Unfortunately, the print
edition is sold out, though a digital
copy is available. Please download
the MOJO magazine app from the
Apple App store (iOS) or Google
Play store (Android) and you can
download Planet Rock Issue 1 as
an in-app purchase.
WHAT A COMBINATION
After a great first issue, I held my
breath taking home my copy of
Issue 2, and was wondering whether
everything was going to be thrown
into the first issue to get us hooked,
Zep, Marillion, Rush, Aerosmith
(again!), brilliant Queen main feature,
and – although I’m not a Quo fan
– I did enjoy Mr Blake’s chat with
Francis [Rossi], who didn’t seem
to mind chatting to him for longer
than allowed. Then there was a bit
of Saxon, a bit of Glenn Hughes, a
bit of Judas Priest’s Rob, all in one
issue! Quirky regulars like Full Metal
Jacket (if only I’d kept mine!), Nights
Out With Alice, My Planet Rocks,
Backstage all have the vibe of ‘Who
will it be this month?’ anticipation.
So, in answer to your question:
“What would we like in this new
publication?” Well, more of the
same, please. Stories behind the
albums, frank interviews like Rossi’s,
and those Upfront quirks like Ten
Things…, Nights Out With, How I
Wrote, etc. Personally, I’d love to see
my favourite band Horslips featured.
How about an interview or album
guide? So far, so good, PR mag!
Do keep it up, and don’t forget we
read (and listen!) to you over here in
Ireland, too…
Martin Kilbride, Wexford
JUST LIKE THE HERO
I would like to applaud Dave Brock
for using the platform of your
magazine to make a valid and serious
Most musicians probably just see that
feature as a bit of fun but Dave still
managed to introduce the concept
of veganism into the piece which is
pretty good going. As a vegan myself,
I was glad to see him spread the
message. I was also touched to read
his comments about Lemmy. Very
humanising indeed.
Sam Jones
MEET THE BOYS…
RE: Who The Hell Are These Guys?
[Issue 2] I remember Teeze from
around 1985. I have the album on
Roadrunner Records (somewhere!).
I think musically they were more Ratt
wannabes than Crüe. I don’t recall
them ever playing in the UK. Some
of the songs on the album were
OK such as Party Hardy and When
The Moon Is Full. They eventually
changed their name to Roughhouse,
I believe, so maybe a full-blown rise
and fall of hair/glam metal feature is
on the way, yes?
Shaun Freeman, via email
Congrats, Shaun. The band in
question are indeed Pennsylvanian
’80s outfit Teeze. Hats off, too, to
Lauren Tilley, Danny Wyckaert,
Grey Robinson, Richard Wesley
and Jonathan James, who guessed
ALAMY

frontman] Steve Perry is making a and then it would thin out afterwards. point when he appeared in your correctly. Now check out this issue’s
solo comeback later this year. Why Well, how wrong wuz I? AC/DC, Rock’n’Roll Cookery slot in Issue 2. suspects on page 130…

26 PLANET ROCK
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 Upfront
FULL METAL JACKET
Planet Rock listeners show us their colours.
S L I P K N OT DAT E O F B I R T H : 1 9 8 1 R E BOR N: 2011
“I caught Slipknot at W H E R E F O U N D : Boyle, Ireland
Alexandra Palace last year.
³7KLVLVDQDPDOJDPDWLRQRIWZRMDFNHWVĦWKHRULJLQDOLV
It was so packed that I had
to change my headbanging
IURPDQGWKHQLWZDVXSGDWHGDERXWVL[\HDUVDJR´VD\V
stance that night and it RZQHU%ULDQ+LFNH\³$ORWRIWKHROGHUSDWFKHVOLNH6WDWXV
gave me health problems 4XRDQG$&'&DUHIURPZD\EDFNZKHQ0\GDGZDV
afterwards. I had to take DWDLORUDQGKHXVHGWRVWLWFKWKHPXSIRUPHDQGP\
two weeks off work!” EURWKHU:HWKRXJKWZHORRNHGVRFRROEHFDXVHZH
ZHUHWKHRQO\SHRSOHDURXQGZLWKGHQLP
MDFNHWVWKDWKDGSDWFKHVRQ´

WH ITE S NAKE S KAM

“I bought this “A trio from Leicester
Lovehunter patch that actually have
when I was 11 from two patches on this
Minstrel Music in my jacket – one of which
little town of Boyle on is the original logo
the west of Ireland. from when they were
I was wondering if called Skam# – and
I’d get away with the it’s another patch
naked woman, but that nobody else
my mum shouted has. I was talking
at my dad for to their singer/
stitching it on.” guitarist Steve Hill
at Glastonbudget
festival and he gave
me this patch for
my jacket.”

TH E AN SWE R
“I’ve seen The
Answer more than
any other band,
around 20 times.
I heard their song
D R EAM Come Follow
T H E AT E R Me in 2006 and
“For me, Dream wondered, Who
Theater’s The are these guys?
Count Of Tuscany The next year I
is the greatest saw them open
song of all time. for Aerosmith in
Seeing them play Hyde Park in the
it in full at High pouring rain, and
Voltage Festival knew they were a
2010 was probably band for me. I’ve
my best musical even met their
moment ever. I’ve mums now!”
all their albums,
MARCO VIT TUR

D I STU R B E D
and I’ve seen them
a good few times.” “I could have gone with AC/DC or Iron Maiden,
but I thought I’d get something no one else
has. Everyone bangs on about how good
Don’t be shy. Raid that wardrobe, cellar or
Disturbed’s cover of The Sound Of Silence is,
loft and email us a photo of your old colours
and it is good, but it’s their own stuff that I
to appear in the next issue of Planet Rock.
like most because it’s hard and heavy. David
Contact: mail@planetrock.com.
Draiman is a brilliant vocalist.”
28 P L A N E T R O C K
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Upfront
JOE ELLIOTT
WHO:
IAN HUNTER
Joe Elliott, Ian Hunter
WHERE: High Voltage Festival,
Victoria Park, London
WHEN: July 25, 2010
I F I R S T became
aware of Mott The
Hoople when I heard
their version of Crazy
Horse’s Downtown on Radio
Luxembourg, though that had
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,KHDUG2ULJLQDO0L[HGĥ8S.LGRQDQ
Island Records sampler album, and
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compilation I bought second hand for
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I N T E RV I E W : PAU L B R A N N I G A N P H O T O : G E T T Y I L L U S T R AT I O N S : C W B
Then they have a hit with All The
Young Dudes and they’re on Top Of
The Pops and there’s this guy with big
hair and big shades and his mad guitar
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when Overnight Angels, the name of
his band touring his third solo album,
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over the phone from Paris while we
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,DQZDVSOD\LQJ5RFN¶Q¶5ROO+HDYHQ
in Toronto on the same night that
Def Leppard were playing the
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30 PLANET ROCK
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At Me and All The Young Dudes,
probably, and that was when we IAN WAS
VZDSSHGSKRQHQXPEHUVSHUPDQHQWO\ HOLDING HIS
GUITAR LIKE
I can’t remember how many times
he’s dragged me on a stage since,
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'RZQ¶Q¶2XW]ZHUHERRNHGWRSOD\WKH A BASEBALL
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BAT, READY
TO BATTER
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SOMEBODY.
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a song or two, but I was told it was
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Bitten… and a stage guy motions for
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You Love and they pulled the PA and
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baseball bat, ready to batter
somebody, and I was ready to ram my
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,WZDVDIXOOĥRQEUDZO
-LPP\3DJHZDVLQRXUGUHVVLQJ
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stayed in some hotel that night and
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was with him on the last night of the
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Listen to J O E E L L I OT T on Planet Rock
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SPĬN I G H TS W I T H A L I C E C O O P E R
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All smiles: Elliott
and Hunter before
all hell broke loose...
Upfront
Is it just him?:
The Darkness,
with Justin
Hawkins (left).
Six songs to...
LISTEN TO
IN THE DARK
Justin Hawkins of The Darkness
on “peacocking”, the joys of
Queen’s “shittiest” LP and “mad
as a box of beaks” producers.
1
ELTON JOHN
Madman Across The Water
(on Madman Across The Water, 1971)
This song has a brilliant orchestral
arrangement by Paul Buckmaster,
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you would expect a guitarist to do. It’s
really startling and a bit scary. The
idea with all the songs I’ve chosen is
that they are so detailed and luxurious
that you get more out of them
listening with your eyes closed. But
with this one you might open your
eyes at the end and glance around
the room anxiously, in case there is
literally a madman who has come
across the water to stab you.
2
DEEP PURPLE
Sail Sway
(on Burn, 1974)
This song makes me feel like I know
32 PLANET ROCK
TATTOOED ON
something that other people don’t.
That might be because it comes from
that era of Deep Purple that is a little
overlooked, when they had David
Coverdale and Glenn Hughes singing.
Lots of people say, “I liked that band
before they were famous.” No one
ever says, “I liked them after they
were famous.” But that’s sort of what
I’m saying here. Listening to Sail
Away makes me feel special, and I
think it will make you feel special too
if you listen to it in the dark.
3
QUEEN
Dancer
(on Hot Space, 1982)
I love Hot Space and I get
a kick out of the fact that
everybody else hates it. It
might be Queen’s shittest
work, and even members
of the band dislike it, but
LW¶VVWLOODIXFNĥWRQEHWWHU
than most of the shit
that’s out today. My
favourite song is
'DQFHUĦZKR Let’s prance:
doesn’t like Billy Squier
gets funky.
dancing in the dark? I’ve got a
tattoo of the artwork from Hot
Space on my hand, one face on
HDFK¿QJHU)UHGGLHLVRQP\
PLGGOH¿QJHU
4
10CC
Feel The Benefit
(on Deceptive Bends, 1977)
10cc were huge but not huge
enough. Maybe because they
did jokes, and because some of
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7KH%HQH¿WZKLFKLVLQWKUHHSDUWV
over 11 minutes. It’s fucking brilliant.
,WVWDUWVRɱZLWKDVLOO\LGHDDQGHQGV
up sublime, really massive and
pompous with a beautiful string
arrangement. By the end the lyrics
DUHDERXWIHHOLQJWKHEHQH¿WRI
everybody singing together in the
name of humanity. It’s like, fucking
KHOOĦZKHUHGLGWKDWFRPHIURP"
5
JIM STEINMAN
I’VE GOT
The Storm
(on Bad For Good, 1981)
FREDDIE The Storm is an instrumental piece
and for years I’ve wanted it to be
MERCURY WKHZDONĥRQPXVLFIRU7KH'DUNQHVV
It invokes the power of the storm,
and what better way to spend a night
MY MIDDLE than to listen to a storm as interpretĥ
ed by an orchestra which has Jim
FINGER Steinman presumably waving his
arms about conducting it? I love the
man. He’s obviously as
mad as a box of beaks.
In a good way.
6
BILLY
SQUIER
Emotions In Motion
(on Emotions In Motion, 1982)
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Roger Taylor sing on
this song. Billy Squier PHOTO: ALAMY
is a great guitar player
and I really admire his songwriting.
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RI/HG=HSSHOLQVWXɱZLWKDKXJH
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drum sound. The track Emotions
In Motion was a departure from
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a song for peacocking, preening
and prancing.
Pinewood Smile by T H E DA R K N E S S is
released on October 6 via Cooking Vinyl.
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Upfront
Things
you’ve always
wondered
about...
DO BANDS
REALLY NEED
PRIVATE
JETS?
High-flier Ben Mitchell discovers
that luxury air travel is about
far more than tour logistics and
unlimited complimentary scones.
O N J U LY 24, 1973, ahead of playing
a show at the Three Rivers Stadium in
Pittsburgh, the members of Led
Zeppelin posed for photographer Bob
Gruen on the tarmac at New Jersey’s
Teterboro Airport. Though there is
nothing remarkable about the band’s
DSSHDUDQFHĪEDUULQJWKHRSHQVKLUW
PLFURĥSDXQFKORRNVSRUWHGE\-RKQ
3DXO-RQHVīWKLVLVZLWKRXWGRXEWWKH
most famous picture ever taken of the
quartet. It is the backdrop that catches
WKHH\HĦDOHDVHG%RHLQJZLWKWKH
group’s name stencilled above the door.
This is The Starship, a customised
aircraft equipped with bar, electric
organ and shower room. Other clients
RIWKLVÀ\LQJIXQKRXVHLQFOXGHG$OLFH
Cooper, Elton John, The Rolling
Stones and Peter Frampton. Though it
was scrapped for parts 35 years ago,
34 PLANET ROCK
7KH6WDUVKLSĦDQGWKHVKHQDQLJDQV
WKHUHLQERWKUHDODQGLPDJLQHGĦVWLOO
represents everything tremendous
DERXWWKHH[FHVVHVRI¶VURFN%XW
seeing as how this brand of decadence
went out with Quaaludes, is it actually
necessary for bands to still tour by
private jet?
7KHUHLVĦDQGDOZD\VZDVĦVROLG
¿QDQFLDOVHQVHEHKLQGJRLQJSULYDWH
with the aeronautical side of touring.
Metallica, for instance, will set up base
LQRQHμKXE¶FLW\DQGÀ\WRYHQXHV
within range, only moving HQ when
absolutely necessary. That means less
IDɷQJDURXQGZLWKKRWHOVDQGDJUHDWHU
number of concerts within the time
available. So more money.
Way before Led Zeppelin, the Dave
&ODUN)LYHZHUHWKH¿UVW%ULWLVKJURXS
WRUHDOLVHWKHHFRQRPLFEHQH¿WVRI
having their own plane, known as the
DC5, which they hired from the
5RFNHIHOOHUVLQWKHHDUO\¶V7KHUH
have since been some notably less
KDUGĥQRVHGXVHUVRIWKHMHWDVSHUVRQDO
FKDULRW'RQ+HQOH\ZRXOGÀ\LQ6WHYLH
Nicks to visit him while the Eagles and
Fleetwood Mac were both on tour
under a policy the couple dubbed
“Love ’em and Lear ’em”.
OTHER FACTORS play their part
too. Disconcertingly for a highly
VXFFHVVIXOEDQGRQDVFKHGXOHGÀLJKW
there is no special treatment beyond
WKHXVXDOSHUNVRI¿UVWĥFODVVWUDYHO<HV
the stewardess will happily slip the
GUXPPHUDQH[WUDPLQLDWXUHRI
Calvados and bag of pretzels but this
FRXUWHV\ZLOODOVREHH[WHQGHGWRDQ\
Tom, Dick and Harry who’s coughed
up for a seat at the front.
Having totally nailed the
keyboard parts on Mr.
Roboto holds no value
here.
To the cabin crew,
famous musicians are no
better than the other
passengers and will be
seated among same. Such
egalitarianism holds
further horrors, such as a
fan having the temerity
to attempt polite
conversation or ask to
borrow a pen. It’s all
entirely unacceptable to
the sort of individuals
who are typically
accessed via a comple system of guest
lists, wristbands and laminate passes
that even immediate blood relatives
IZZY must obey.
STRADLIN I WA S DɱRUGHGDEULHIZKLUOLQWKLV
WAS ONCE
VIP ionosphere when I joined Iron
0DLGHQIRUDFRXSOHRIOHJVĦ&RVWD
ARRESTED FOR Rica to Colombia, then on to Brazil
ĦRIWKHLU6RPHZKHUH%DFN,Q
URINATING Time tour. For these shows, singer
IN THE GALLEY
Bruce Dickinson was undertaking pilot
duties aboard Ed Force One, the band’s
ON A FLIGHT. Boeing 757. Travelling with their road
FUHZĪVDWDSDUWIURPWKHEDQGīDQG
equipment, Maiden had created a
touring operation that was entirely
VHOIĥFRQWDLQHGIRUPD[LPXPHɷFLHQF\
Emblazoned with the band’s logo and
imagery, the aircraft caused a stir with
the hundreds of people waiting for a
glimpse of their heroes when we
touched down at Bogota’s El Dorado
airport. On the inside the plane was
comfortable but by no means opulent.
Given manager Rod Smallwood’s
UHSXWDWLRQIRUEHLQJH[WUDRUGLQDULO\
frugal, it was a pleasant surprise to
¿QGWKDWGULQNVZHUHDYDLODEOHZLWKRXW
money changing hands.
So does anyone really need to tour
by private jet? Well, given that rock
advocates a philosophy of total
freedom, the problem with commercial
DLUWUDYHOLVWKDWLWRɱHUVWKHOHDVW
liberal environment imaginable. Little
wonder, then, that once in transit,
EDQGVVRRIWHQ¿QGWKHPVHOYHV
squaring up against that oldest of
Going To
enemies The Man.
California?:
Led Zep with their Particularly egregious incidents
big boys’ toy. include Guns N’Roses guitarist Izzy
Stradlin being arrested
for urinating in the galley
RQDÀLJKWWR/RV
Angeles, and Liam
Gallagher receiving a life
EDQIURP&DWKD\3DFL¿F
I L L U S T R AT I O N : PA N I K
for becoming unruly after
he didn’t receive a
complimentary scone.
Only in the private jet
can these nonconformist
creative types casually
relieve themselves and
gorge delicious baked
PHOTO: WENN
goods without censure.
Plus, you get to have your
band’s name painted on
the fuselage. Just like Led
Zeppelin did.
Upfront
MICHAEL SCHENKER
Follow your dreams
T H E M A D A X E M A N O N T U R N I N G D O W N O Z Z Y, M A K I N G H I S B R O T H E R C R Y
AND FINDING PEACE OF MIND. HERE ARE HIS ESSENTIAL LIFE LESSONS…
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MY GUIDE TO LIFE
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M ICHAE L SCH E N KE R FEST
tours the UK in November.
See www.michaelschenkerhimself.com
Don’t mention the war:
Schenker at manager
Peter Mensch’s Earl’s
Court home, 1980.
Upfront
Back in Black: Glenn
Hughes (left) and Joe
Bonamassa.
 Born Again
ON PLANET ROCK
Listen in for the story behind
Black Country Communion’s
Lazarus-style return.

F E W WO U L D have predicted the return

of Black Country Communion in 2017. After
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to hear more…

Listen to the B L AC K C O U N T RY C O M M U N I O N
special on P L A N E T R O C K Radio in September.
CHRISTIE GOODWIN, PETER NOBLE

PLANET ROCK 39
Close to the edge:
Rick Wakeman,
April 9, 1975.
 THE
PLANET
ROCK
INTERVIEW
HE’S RECORDED OVER 100 SOLO ALBUMS AND
HAS A CV FEATURING EVERYONE FROM YES
TO DAVID BOWIE AND BL ACK SABBATH. YET
PROG WIZARD RICK WAKEMAN ’S APPETITE
FOR BOTH MISCHIEF AND MUSIC ENDURES…
I N T E R V I E W BY MIKE BARNES. P O R T R A I T BY MICHAEL PUTLAND

R ICHAR D
CH R ISTOPH E R
WAKE MAN
BOR N
May 18, 1949
London
OCCU PATION
Keyboardist
songwriter
TV/radio presenter
author
YEAR S ACTIVE
1969-present
ASSOCIATE D ACTS
Yes, Strawbs
David Bowie
Black Sabbath
GETTY

PLANET ROCK 41
NINE
Synths and
legends:
(clockwise from
top left) Rick with
Strawbs, 1970;
O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING DOES SEEM AN You worked as a
recording Fragile
unusually early time to interview a rock musician, but then session player from with Yes, 1971;
1969. What was it like ’74’s Journey To
Rick Wakeman is an extremely busy man. He has just got
working in the world The Centre Of
back from his Piano Portraits tour of Italy and is due to go The Earth; Life On
of the stars?
out on the road again in a couple of weeks, this time for Mars; Wakeman’s
I suppose the people
almost two months in North America with Yes Featuring English Rock
who were big stars were Ensemble; circa
Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman.
your Cilla Blacks and ’72; Rick with
“It’s unbelievable,” he says of his punishing schedule. people who’d had hits, keys, 1984; as Thor
“I’m going to bed later and later, and getting up earlier and and they were always in Ken Russell’s
earlier, just to get things done. I’m not complaining, but really nice. There was an Lisztomania, 1975.
I thought that as you got older things quietened down.” element of doing your
As if to prove his point, 30 minutes into our interview job, but you always wanted to impress because that’s
Wakeman has to excuse himself to open up his Norfolk how you got your next job. People like David Bowie,
studio, as engineer Erik Jordan arrives to help record some I’d worked with him since Space Oddity, which was
radio idents for America. his first hit, so I was watching him become huge.
%DFNLQWKH¶VμNH\ERDUGZL]DUG¶ZDVDWHUPUHVHUYHGIRUSURJUHVVLYHURFN¶V¿QHVWDQGPRVW So you weren’t starstruck?
ÀDPER\DQWLYRU\WLFNOHUVEXW5LFN:DNHPDQUHOLVKHGORRNLQJWKHSDUWWRRVRPHWLPHVZHDULQJ I never went into a session thinking, “Oh my God, I’m
DSRLQWHGKDWWRDFFRPSDQ\KLVWUDGHPDUNFDSH$VZHOODVKLVRQĥRɱSHULRGVLQSURJRYHUORUGV going to meet so and so”, because I’d known a lot of
Yes, his baroque playing has graced a staggering 100 solo albums, ranging from the proggest these people before they had become stars, like
of the prog, to Christian albums and ambient music. Nobody can ever accuse this giant of the Marc Bolan. So there was an element of growing up
keyboards of being a slacker. with them. But I think the one thing I learnt is that if
:DNHPDQ LV DOVR D ZHOOĥNQRZQ SURIHVVLRQDO UDFRQWHXU ZKRVH GUROO ZLW DQG IXQG RI VWRULHV you contributed to whatever they were doing, and did
what they were after and more, you were treated
have featured on radio and TV, most notably BBC2’s Grumpy Old Men, though he’s also
almost as an equal.
appeared on Countdown, Antiques Inspectors and more. He is also the author of three entertainĥ
LQJERRNVĦDQDXWRELRJUDSK\DQGWZRIXUWKHUPHPRLUV How did David Bowie’s Space Oddity session
During our interview, he’s characteristically aware of life’s absurdities and potential for come about?
humour, but he is also a thoughtful conversationalist. At the start he notes that I could probably I’d done a session in 1969 for Tony Visconti with a
¿QGDOOWKHQHFHVVDU\LQIRUPDWLRQRQKLVZRQGHUIXOO\GHWDLOHGZHEVLWHEXW³SHUKDSVZHPLJKWJHW band called Junior’s Eyes, who had made a fabulous
album called Battersea Power Station – which is well
LQWRDUHDVWKDWFRXOGDGGWRLWDOO´&OHDUO\DPDQZKRHQMR\VDFKDWDVVRRQDVWKH¿UVWTXHVWLRQ
worth a listen – and the studio had a mellotron that
is asked he is engaged and completely focused. had just arrived and everybody was having a night-
mare trying to get it in tune. I played around with it for
about an hour and found a crafty way of keeping it
What music heard when you were young has although we had a good guitarist, Alan Leander. It in tune. I was working at the Top Rank Ballroom at
had the biggest impact on you? was all 12-bar blues, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Reading in a big 17-piece soul band, and at
It would be the music that my dad played to me on that kind of thing – anything that had three chords, rehearsal I got a call from Tony. He said, “I’m in the
the piano. He used to have a concert party with my basically. We only had one amp, a Vortexion, and studio with David Bowie, we’re recording a piece,
mum and a couple of uncles and aunts. They all there was only one input that worked. It we’ve got a mellotron, no one can keep
played in our tiny front room and I thought that was was Alan’s amp and so he was the only it in tune, can you get up here quick?”
magic. As I got a bit older my father took me to one who was heard. The drummer had a
How did it get from there to
concerts. When I was eight years old, he took me to Gigster drum kit that he bought from
playing piano on Hunky Dory?
see Lonnie Donegan. Skiffle influenced so many Woolworths for 40 quid, but his main
rock musicians who lived through that era. I’d love to asset was that he owned a Bedford van. I drove from Reading to London, went
see it come back. Maybe I should form a skiffle band. I remember the piano at Neasden was a into Trident studios and did the
semitone flat. They were all playing in E, mellotron parts on Space Oddity, and
You took organ lessons in 1962 and taught at
I was playing in E flat, but it didn’t really afterwards David said, “Tony tells me
a Sunday school in 1967, so I assume the
matter because you couldn’t hear me RONNIE SMITH that you play a mean piano, would you
church was a big influence.
anyway. The Ronnie Smith Big like to do some piano stuff with me?” I
With church music I think it was the big sounds that Band were the resident said, “Yeah I’d love to.” We did Wild Eyed
affected prog rock keyboard players like me – we What did the Neasden Mental dance band at the Top Boy From Freecloud and Memory Of A
liked the pomp and the grandeur. The Sunday school Rehabilitation Club do, exactly? Hat in Littlehampton
Free Festival a few weeks later, among
teaching was hilarious. “Taught” is the wrong word. I from 1952 and at
It was a social club for kids with Down’s other things. Space Oddity was a big hit
had the nine-to-12-year-olds and I was only 17. The Watford’s Top Rank
syndrome. When you look back, thank and David called me and said, “I want to
book that you were supposed to teach them from Ballroom in the 1960s.
goodness that things have changed, as Wakeman was sacked play some you some new songs”, and it
was just rubbish, really naff, so I ignored it totally. We
Down’s syndrome kids tended to be twice: first for not was Hunky Dory.
used to have chats instead, so I’d often get bollocked
locked away. I actually learnt so much taking dance music
by the superintendent. I used to pick them up in my In 1970 you joined the Strawbs.
from these kids and I had great fun with seriously, then later for
ALAMY, GETTY, REX

Vauxhall Victor Estate. They were all crammed in the
back, and if it was a nice day we’d go up the park –
you wouldn’t be able to do it these days.
Your first group, Atlantic Blues, had a
residency at Neasden Mental Rehabilitation
Club. Can you set the scene?
I remember it really well. I was 13 or 14 and, to put it
bluntly, we were pretty bad. Very bad, actually,
them. I was only young myself and they asking for a pay raise.
were absolutely brilliant. Next year I’m
going to bring the Atlantic Blues back to life, with a
band called the Earl Grey Band who do a lot of fan-
tastic rock’n’roll stuff. We are going to do a concert
and recording specifically for Down’s syndrome.
So Atlantic Blues will finally, after its last official
performance in around 1964, be reborn in 2018.
What did you learn from that
experience?
I learnt a lot from the Strawbs. One thing about that
sort of folk and how we turned it into folk rock was
how important melody was and how a lot of Dave
Cousins’ songs were telling stories to music, which
I really liked. The Man Who Called Himself Jesus is
a poetic work of art. I was with them for a year

42 PLANET ROCK
 and three months, although I had worked with
“DAVID BOWIE SAID,
them doing sessions for a year before. But it seemed
much longer as we did two albums [1970’s Just A
‘I HEAR YOU PLAY
Collection Of Antiques And Curios and ’71’s From
The Witchwood] and toured all over the place, and
A MEAN PIANO’…”
changed it from an all-acoustic folk band into one of
the first folk rock bands.
You were asked to join both Yes and Bowie’s
Spiders From Mars on the same day in 1971.
You have said that Life On Mars is the great-
est song on which you ever had the privilege Close To The Edge was created, I say have a listen to
to play. Given that, have you ever had regrets Fragile because that will give you most of the clues.
about joining Yes?
There is the infamous story of you eating a
None whatsoever. David said later, “You made abso- curry on-stage with Yes and you were sacked
lutely the right choice.” If I’d joined Spiders From Mars from The Ronnie Smith Band in 1968 for not
I’d have been playing David’s music, which I love, but taking the music seriously enough. You also
there’d be a ceiling of how much I could contribute, mimed playing the organ with a paint roller
whereas if you are part of a band, there is no ceiling. with The Strawbs on Top Of The Pops in 1971
playing Hangman And The Papist. Would you
What was the band dynamic when you joined
say there is some kind of a pattern there?
Yes? Was it an open democracy?
Oh yes. I always went down that kind of route. I got
Yes was one of those bands, and always will be,
sacked twice from Ronnie Smith’s band, once for
where different people will be in charge at different
climbing over his [Hammond] B3 organ, which is his
times. The secret is, if someone is in charge because
pride and joy. The thing is, I take my music very
they can make it happen better than anybody else,
seriously, but when things start getting overall too
you let them get on with it. Occasionally, there were
serious I tend to go, “OK, time to be irreverent.” It’s
two or three people at the same time who thought
called reality. When someone says, “I’ve got some-
they could do the same job, and that just ended in a
thing unbelievable here”, or a lyricist says the work
row. But that’s what happens in all bands, really. Yes
they’ve done is the 21st century equivalent of
was democratic, but if it had been a government Shakespeare, out comes the paint roller.
there would have been a lot more resignations.
Was playing on Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Speaking of which, you left on a couple during the sessions for Yes’s Tales From
of occasions. Topographic Oceans at Willesden’s Morgan
Five times I left! Someone said it was bit like Richard Studios in 1973 a way of getting back to
Burton and Elizabeth Taylor – couldn’t live with them, reality?
couldn’t live without them. That’s fair. I Oh, it was. Playing on Sabbath Bloody
think the healthy thing for bands is if Sabbath and being with the guys was
people go away and get experience brilliant for me. That was the period
working with other people and come when Yes was thinking that it was
back with new and fresh ideas. And I divine, almost, and it needed divine
think that a band that doesn’t change intervention. And that, for me, was going
their line-up whatsoever can get stale. over the road to Studio 4 and being with
There are a few exceptions to the rule, Sabbath. That was sanity. I loved them
SABBATH
bands like Zeppelin and The Who, BLOODY to bits and still do.
although obviously, through deaths, they SABBATH
had to move over to different areas. But Drinking pals with How does ...Topographic Oceans
by choice, I think it’s healthy for people Sabbath, Wakeman sound to you today?
to come and go. agreed to provide It was an important part of Yes’s history
Mini-Moog parts and there are some very good tunes on
Fragile was the first Yes LP on on Sabbra Cadabra
it, but for me there is also a lot of pad-
which you played and was the in exchange for
beer while Yes ding. We were trying to make the pieces
group’s breakthrough album. Now
and Sabbath were fit one side and that’s a mistake. Before
it seems a little overshadowed by
recording at Morgan that, a piece of music had always ended
Close To The Edge. How do you
Studios in Willesden. up as long as it ended up as. “How long
rate it with hindsight?
is that? Six minutes? That’s OK.” We
In a strange way you are absolutely right. Fragile was
didn’t try to add another 12. That was the problem –
the perfect forerunner to Close To The Edge. It taught we started to fit the format. But I can look back on it
us a lot about each other, how we could work togeth- now with a smile.
er, how we could play together and how we could
actually make something like Close To The Edge. We Yes have recently been inducted into the
needed to learn about how we could put the music Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame. How important is
together before we could get on to what was an epic. that to you?
Fragile has some great tracks on it, like Roundabout, It’s important if you live in America. I don’t think
which was a massive hit in America. South Side Of anyone else in the world gives a monkey’s toss, to be
The Sky is another. If anybody wants to know how honest. I would love to see a Music Hall of Fame that
44 PLANET ROCK
covered everything, and see it in the UK, I just think it
would be tremendous. Yes, I’m proud to be in it, but to
put it bluntly it’s the American Hall Of Fame.
Back in the ’70s you were friends with Keith
Emerson. As well as the camaraderie, was
there any rivalry between you?
No. The music press used to make it out as rivalry,
which we loved because it just meant that we got
more press, and often they just used to write total
crap. Keith would phone me and say, “Have you seen
what they have just written?” We were so different in
terms of playing. Keith was very jazz influenced and
that was one of his great loves. I’m not a jazzer what-
soever. I was more classical and more into a mixture
of keyboards; Keith was very much organ, piano and
synth, which he did brilliantly. He had a unique style.
He once said, “The perfect keyboard player is Rick’s
right hand and my left hand.”
Your first solo album was The Six Wives Of
Henry VIII in 1973. How did you arrive at that
concept?
I love storytelling. When my father took me to see
Peter And The Wolf, I thought, “Here’s a story set to
music – how wonderful is that?” And that’s all I’ve
ever wanted to do. I have a great love of history and
read a lot about the wives. Somebody said to me,
“We don’t get this. What is it? Is this bit when Cather-
ine Howard was young and is this the bit where she
got bumped off?” I said, “No, think surrealistically.
Think Dali, think Picasso, think cubism. Because
basically what I did is what these guys do.”
So the storytelling is conventional?
It was never meant to be a depiction of their lives, but
every single bit of that album came from thoughts
of one of the wives, and sometimes for no apparent
reason. With Jane Seymour, it had to be a church
organ – I couldn’t get a church organ out of my head.
It would never have worked on something else.
Your Art In Music Trilogy is being reissued.
Can you give us some background on that?
It was done in 1999 and it came about because I’d
recorded the Aspirant… series (Suntrilogy 1-3,
1991), which was meditational music and there was
an element of scientific writing in that. I made friends
with a professor called Cary Cooper who is an
American psychologist at Manchester University. He
believed that there is a musical formula that has
specific effects on people. I wasn’t 100 per cent
certain, but then lullabies send people to sleep and
big triumphant drums and trumpets sent people into
war. You have bagpipes to frighten the English, you
have all sorts of instruments and sounds and music
to do specific things.
Was the reaction what you expected?
I put together some music and produced this series,
which we never advertised, but it sold 400,000
copies by word-of-mouth. They were bought by
hospitals, they were used in hospices, by stressed
business men. I wanted to do some more, so I did the
Art In Music Trilogy and The Natural World Trilogy. It
wasn’t meant to be as scientific as the Aspirant…
series but something that would put you in a relaxed
mood for anything that you wanted to do.
 OUT THERE 6
RICK WAKEMAN
WHITE ROCK
(A&M, 1977)
Commissioned to accompany a documen-
tary of the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics,
this lyrical set features Wakeman with
just drummer Tony Fernandez and a choir
for company. A recurrent theme is woven
Eight albums to investigate from Rick Wakeman’s prodigious catalogue.
through a series of appropriately chilly
atmospheric pieces and high-velocity
synth-slaloms.

7
RICK WAKEMAN
1984
(Charisma, 1981)
Wakeman meets Orwell with lyrics by
Tim Rice, a band and orchestra, and vocal
guest appearances by Jon Anderson,
Steve Harley and Chaka Khan. It feels
like the West End musical that never was.
On songs like Robot Man the slightly
alienating gloss of the ’80s production
feels oddly apt.

8
RICK WAKEMAN
PIANO PORTRAITS
Rick Wakeman (UMG, 2017)
performs on-stage
at an outdoor festival Inspired by the reaction to his solo ver-
in Lisbon, Portugal, sion of David Bowie’s Life On Mars on a
July 19, 1981. 2016 Radio 2 tribute, these
fantasias on favourites
from Debussy to Lennon

1
of six pithy, melodic & McCartney take us full
STRAWBS
cameos played with circle from 1970’s Tem-
JUST A COLLECTION wit and brio captured perament Of Mind, with
OF ANTIQUES AND the public’s imagina- a series of harmonically
CURIOS tion and ended up inventive and exquisitely
(A&M, 1970) going platinum. played variations.

4
Recorded live, this album broke the
Strawbs into the Top 30. In his first ‘proper’ RICK
band, the young Wakeman’s organ, harp- WAKEMAN
sichord and celeste enhances the baroque JOURNEY TO
folk atmosphere, while his solo piano fan-
THE CENTRE
tasia–cum-medley, Temperament Of Mind,
marked him out as a star-in-waiting.
OF THE EARTH
(A&M, 1974)

2
YES
CLOSE TO THE EDGE
(Atlantic, 1972)
This is where it all clicked for Yes, with
three long-form songs full of colour,
melody and inventive playing. Wakeman
only plays a couple of solos, concentrating
instead on harmony and colouration, and
making particularly striking contributions
One of the most lavish prog
rock concept albums, this live
recording, like an adven-
ture film in sound, featured
a prototype version of the
English Rock Ensemble, the “A band that
London Symphony Orchestra, a choir and doesn’t change
gets stale”:
actor David Hemmings as narrator. It gave
solo Wakeman,
Wakeman his first solo Number 1.
March 1976.

5
on church organ and mellotron. YES

3
GOING FOR THE ONE
RICK WAKEMAN (Atlantic, 1977)
THE SIX WIVES Released at the height of punk, this
OF HENRY VIII album was Yes’s most direct
(A&M, 1973)
statement to date and features
Wakeman’s debut solo some of Wakeman’s most
album was viewed warily inspired playing, from the
by A&M, who couldn’t ecstatic high synths on the
see how an album of title track to his towering
GETTY

keyboard-based instru- ecclesiastical organ and

mentals could break choral arrangement on the
even. But this collection 16-minute Awaken.
The caped crusader:
Wakeman in his
mid-’70s pomp, and
(opposite page) today.
 That’s interesting because it seems the
polar opposite of much of your other music,
“IN SOUTH AMERICA
which definitely does demand attention. Was
it as satisfying to make?
THEY WRITE IN THE CONTRACT,
Oh yeah, [like] anything you do, if the end result is
‘YOU WILL WEAR A CAPE.’
what you were aiming for and turned out better than
you hoped it would. Everybody’s music collection is a
IT’S A DEAL BREAKER!”
real mixture and you should be able to pick off the
shelf whatever music you want, to suit whatever it is
you are aiming to do at the time.
Do you always like to have a concept or
theme before you start to compose?
Rock Radio from 2005-’10 – and as an
Oh yes, I’m not very good at writing and then thinking,
author. How did that side of it all start?
“What can I use this for?” It probably has happened,
but it will be literally a handful of bits over the years. Danny Baker had a show called Danny Baker After
I always like to have a reason. That’s really important All that moved me into TV and radio. It was the Num-
because that helps produce the adrenalin flow to ber 1 Saturday evening chat show, it was huge. I’d
achieve what you are after. been trying to get on chat shows and various things
for radio. I had an agent and they’d all failed – it was
Do you ever regret the capes and the grand hopeless. When I arrived at the studio, they said,
conceptual gestures like King Arthur? “You’re only on for two minutes, he’s just going to ask
No, I’ve worn capes since about 1971 and when I go you about what it’s like touring these days.” I thought,
to countries in South America they write in the “Ah, boring!” I’d just got back from Russia where I’d
contract, “You will wear a cape”, and it’s a deal break- been arrested for stealing a KGB uniform and I just
er! It’s a bit like an actor. David Bowie walked on wearing it. Danny went for it
took it to another extreme, not only did and we did about a 20-minute spot.
he have costumes, but he created
different characters. It’s all part of feel- So you overran by 18 minutes?
ing the part. And there are two Rick I came off and the producer came up to
Wakemans – the on-stage and the off-. me afterwards and I went, “Sorry, really
And the on-stage one wears a cape. sorry, I know that was very unprofes-
Except when I’m doing the piano shows, sional and out of order.” She said, “Well,
when it doesn’t work. MY LABRADOR you have given me a problem because
EATS POO I want to keep it all but I’m going to have
Given your love of storytelling
An audio book of My to ditch two of the other people who
and big productions, if you had
Labrador Eats Poo, a
were on.” They put it on and the follow-
been born a couple of hundred collection of “whimsical
ing day my agent’s phone went nuts.
years earlier, might you have been verses”, narrated by
poet Charles Garland, I was invited on almost everything that
an opera composer?
with musical inserts by moved.
That’s a good question. Yes, I certainly Wakeman, is available
would have got into the realms of Was your Grumpy Old Rick
now from Wakeman’s
operas and ballets, which I love dearly. own HaGaTaS persona ever in danger of over-
shadowing the music?
Depends who your employer was, publishing company.
because back in baroque times you Well, Grumpy Old Men certainly was
were either employed by the church and wrote shed- massive and enabled me to do the books [Grumpy
loads of church music like Vivaldi, or later on, with the Old Rockstar and Further Adventures Of A Grumpy
likes of Mozart, you worked for kings and lords. Old Rockstar] as well. It projected me into the realms
of after-dinner speaking. I’d always play the piano if
On your website you invite fans to vote for
there was one there, and some people would come
their favourite albums of yours. Are there any
up to me and say, “Oh, I didn’t know that you
that you particularly like but feel have been
played piano.” That’s fine, it doesn’t worry me.
overlooked?
There probably was a time when I was
I did an album called Seven Wonders Of The World better known for doing the TV than
[1995], which I really like and it disappeared without the music, but things go up and
trace. It had a launch where the record company down in peaks and troughs,
hung it out of the window, saying, “Here it is”, then and in the last few years,
brought it back in again. I also did an album with an particularly with Piano
opera singer, Ramon Remedios, called A Suite Of Portraits, the peaks
Gods [1988]. I just love it. When I look back and think have gone very much
of the sounds that we created and what we did with on the musical side.
ALAMY, GETTY
the instruments that were around at the time, I think
Piano Portraits
it’s a remarkable little album. I love it to bits. I hate
reached Number
compilations but I would like to make a compilation,
6 in the album
The Ones That I Think Got Away.
chart, your high-
You’ve had a long career in the media on TV est chart placing
and on radio – including a stint for Planet since 1975. another
Are you surprised at its success?
It’s done unbelievably well. I’ve been doing up to
1,500-seater theatres and they’ve all been selling
out. Gosh, if we all knew the rules of what was going
to work… I was very pleased with the album. It wasn’t
flung together, Erik [Jordan] and I really did spend a
lot of time and care on it. I’m thrilled it’s done so well
and it’s really nice when people come up say how
much they’ve enjoyed it – it’s lovely.
Were there any particular criteria you used to
choose the material for the album?
Yeah, melody. Didn’t care whether it was five years
old or 500 years old, it had to have a melody,
because that’s how you can do variations. If the
melodies aren’t strong, then it’s hopeless. Compos-
ers throughout the centuries have always done
variations on other composers’ work. But they have
always picked music that has strong melodies.
What happened to Bohemian Rhapsody?
That was mooted to be one of the tracks on
the album.
It was. I’m a huge Queen fan and I really wanted to do
a little trilogy on Bohemian Rhapsody, but it just didn’t
work, no matter how hard I tried. Then you can go
to the other extreme and you can take pieces like
Stairway To Heaven. I love that tune but I thought it
was never going to work and it works a treat. There
are no rules and regulations.
What other specific plans do you have for
the future?
I was asked to do Piano Portraits Two but I’m not
going to do it as I think it would detract from Piano
Portraits, and that route is called the bank-raid route.
If your sole purpose is to make money, it’s a bit of a
worry. I have got plans to do more stuff of that classi-
cal variation nature, but I’ve got to get this year out of
the way first. We’ve got the Anderson Rabin and
Wakeman tour of the US, then back for the 30
additional Piano Portraits shows and I finish on
Christmas Eve, so I’m not even thinking of anything
until the beginning of the year.
You are very busy right now. You’ve had a
number of heart attacks and double pneu-
monia in the past, so do you ever worry
about how your workload might affect
your health?
Yeah, I really do. Which is why on May
18, 2019 I’ll be 70, and things will total-
ly wind down. That’s the date that I
picked and I will stick to it. I have 15 dif-
ferent projects I want to do in my life-
time, and rather than spend a day on
them here and there, you have to do it in
two- or three-month blocks. I’ll pick
and chose. I will still do concerts,
but the big tours will have gone.
R I C K WA K E M A N ’ s
Piano Portraits
UK Tour resumes on
October 23 and runs
through to November 27.
PLANET ROCK 47
 THE LONG GOODBYE TOUR

P LU S D
L BAN
O R IG IN A W IT H
P L U S S P E C I A L G U E STS M IN T IT H ,
I S E
N E A L S M WAY &
UNA
D E N N IS D L B R U C E !
M IC H A E
NOVEMBER 2017
F R I DAY 17
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PLUS VERY SPECIAL GUESTS
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NOVEMBER
04 LONDON ROUNDHOUSE 12 GLASGOW O2 ACADEMY
06 BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY 14 LIVERPOOL O2 ACADEMY
08 LEEDS O2 ACADEMY 16 NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY
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AEGPRESENTS.CO.UK AXS.COM TICKETMASTER.COM
AEG Presents in association with United Talent Agency
 AEG Presents, DHP, DF Concerts & PVC in association with X-Ray

plus guests
Photo: Simon Emmett

THE EVIL SPIRITS TOUR 2018

JANUARY
NOVEMBER
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 thedarknessofficial t thedarkness  theactualdarkness
Runnin’ Wild: Airbourne
frontman Joel O’Keeffe
meets his public.
50 PLANET ROCK
HIGH
ON THE ROAD

VOLTAGE
Even war cannot halt A I R B O U R N E
on their mission to take over the world,
one stage at a time. As the Aussie hard
rockers park their tour bus on the shores
of France’s beautiful Lac du Bourget,
they insist, “There is no plan B…”
WORDS

IAN WINWOOD
PHOTOGRAPHY

PA U L H A R R I E S

PLANET ROCK 51
 M OT H E R R U S S I A was
throwing her weight
around when Aussie
quartet Airbourne
landed in Crimea. It was August 18, 2014 when
they set foot in the Federation’s disputed
southern territory at precisely the wrong time
and in exactly the wrong place. In the country
to perform at that year’s Kubana festival,
an event somewhat inconvenienced by the
outbreak of war, the group found themselves
at a small airport just miles from Russia’s
border with Ukraine, which Vladimir Putin’s
armed forces were attempting to annex.
“When we arrived the promoter grabbed
us, told us to stand under the sign above the
entrance to the airport and gave us a copy of
WKDWGD\¶VSDSHUWRKROG´VD\V-RHO2¶.HHɱH
Airbourne’s singer and lead guitarist. “We
were asking, What do you need that for? And
he explained that it was so people would
know that we were actually in the country
and were going to play the festival because
everyone else had cancelled.
“For some reason,” he adds, “no one
wanted to come to a war zone.”
In order to play the festival, Airbourne
¿UVWKDGWRWUDYHODORQJXQSDYHGURDGVDWWZR
in the morning, as lorries without headlights
hurtled toward them at full speed. Their hotel
looked like a bomb had hit it, which indeed it
might have done, and featured as part of its
adornments a dead dog outside the entrance.
*XQ¿UH FRXOG EH KHDUG LQ WKH GLVWDQFH7KH
band were warned not to venture too far from
the building lest they encounter a local
motorcycle gang who could be relied on to
kill them.
Airbourne, a group who could scarcely be
more robustly Australian if they were fronted
by Sir Les Patterson, responded to these
unpromising conditions in a manner that says
much about their attitude to everything:
they set up a PA through which they
played AC/DC and Rose Tattoo at
VNXOOĥFRQFDYLQJYROXPHDQGGUDQNYRGND
with the locals until the sun clocked in on
a brand new day.
“I don’t think there is any gig that we
wouldn’t agree to play,” says drummer
5\DQ 2¶.HHɱH -RHO¶V EURWKHU 7KH SDLU
DUH$LUERXUQH¶VDOSKDPDOHVĦWKHLQHYLWDĥ
ble comparison being with ’DC’s
0DOFROPDQG$QJXV<RXQJĦWKHPDMRULW\
shareholders to the silent partnership of
bassist Justin Street and new guitarist
Harri Harrison.
“We’ve been through enough in our
younger years to have developed a very
thick skin,” the drummer adds.
The undeniable parallels between
Airbourne and AC/DC are more fundaĥ
mental than the fact that the younger

52 PLANET ROCK
 band play a brand of unreconstructed
rock’n’roll, which, were it any more meat and
potatoes, would turn into a shepherd’s pie. As
with their famous forebears, the group made
their bones in Australian towns one might
GHVFULEHDVEHLQJRQHĥKRUVHGĦKDGWKHORFDOV
not eaten it.
Formed in Warrnambool in 2003,
Airbourne rehearsed in a condemned hotel
with asbestos in its walls and which, it later
turned out, was being prevented from sliding
GRZQWKHFOLɱĥHGJHRQZKLFKLWVWRRGRQO\E\
the weight of its windows. They played their
earliest gigs at the Criterion Hotel, a place
frequented by locals that had been barred
from all the other pubs in town; most had
prison tattoos and criminal records. The band
drove for 24 hours in a van to perform in the
kind of dives where bringing down the house
equated to be being allowed to live.
“The crowds we played to in those days
were the toughest of the toughest,” recalls
-RHO 2¶.HHɱH ³%DFN WKHQ ZH RQO\ NQHZ WKH
songs that we’d written, we didn’t know any
FRYHUVDSDUWIURPPD\EHĬ$&'&¶Vĭ717VR
we had to play them and have the audience
accept them and us. We’d load up our
Marshall stacks, pack ourselves into our

“WE’D BE MET AT THE VENUE

BY SOME GUY WITH JAIL
TATTOOS WHO’D SAY, ‘I
BETTER F**KING
’
LIKE IT.’”
JOEL O KEEFFE

station wagon and then arrive at the venue

and be met by some guy with missing teeth
and jail tattoos who’d say, ‘If you’re gonna
Point of entry: (main pic) make a heap of fucking noise I better fucking
Joel gives the Musilac
like it.’ These were the kind of people that
crowd a rock’n’roll
education; (below, wanted a good Saturday night, and if they
from left) Airrbourne’s didn’t get it there was gonna be trouble.”
Crimean War poster, Ryan
O’Keeffe, the Musilac O DAY, JOEL DQG 5\DQ 2¶.HHɱH
setlist, Justin Street.
sit on a leather sofa in an

T DLUĥFRQGLWLRQHG GUHVVLQJ URRP

LQWKHEHDWL¿FVSDWRZQRI$L[ĥ
OHVĥ%DLQV LQ VRXWKHDVWHUQ
France. The drummer has biceps that look
like Californian redwoods; his brother is a
mass of split ends and sinew. They dive into
each other’s sentences as if they were the
ZRUVWUDSDFWRIDOOWLPH%RWKORRNOLNHWKH\
PAUL HARRIES

FRXOGKDQGOHWKHPVHOYHVLQD¿JKW
They are here on this Thursday afternoon
in order to play a late evening slot at the
Musilac Music Festival, on a bill from which
they stand out, as Ryan deftly puts it,

PLANET ROCK 53

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54 PLANET ROCK
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Smirk on the water:
Airbourne prepare
for take-off.
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 “EVERY SHOW IS A BATTLE
THAT WE NEED TO WIN.
Out of this, rent is paid on properties in mainland Europeans who for an hour are fully
Melbourne in which they rarely live, not to committed to the music to which these men

SO FAR OUR SUCCESS RATE

mention the costs accrued recording an have dedicated their lives.
album which by the standards of the day for a $V XQUH¿QHG DV FUXGH RLO WKLV HYHQLQJ¶V

HAS BEEN 100’ PER CENT.”

band this size are astronomical. ĥVRQJ VHW IHDWXUHV O\ULFV WKDW HPSOR\ WKH
“All the way up to our third album, we words ‘rock’n’roll’ and ‘rock’ no fewer than 51
ZHUHLQGHEW´VD\V-RHO2¶.HHɱH³:HRZHG R YA N O K E E F F E
times. In addition, at one point the band
a shitload of money.” swerve into a few bars of AC/DC’s Let There
How much? Be Rock, as if we hadn’t already got the point.
“Millions.” lakefront apartments and classic and grand Although clearly not to the taste of this
Millions? French architecture, representatives of the HYHQLQJ¶V GD\ĥWULSSHUV IRU PDQ\ RWKHUV KHUH
“Yeah, at least one or two million. And it ZRUNLQJĥFODVVVHHPWKLQRQWKHJURXQGWRR Airbourne’s undeniable energy and propulsive
was fucking ridiculous because in a band No one seems to be wearing one of the band’s WKUXVW DPRXQW WR PRUH WKDQ D PHUH DPXVHĥ
you’re constantly spending money. You’re 7ĥVKLUWVDQGLWLVKDUGWRSLFWXUHDQ\RIWKH bouche on the festival’s opening night.
always trying to pay it back but you’re always SUHWW\ \RXQJ WKLQJV KHUH WRQLJKW ZDLVWĥGHHS Having sweated more than any other act
spending. Even today we probably earn just in mud at Download. on today’s bill, by late evening the Australians
DERYH WKH PLQLPXP ZDJH:H¶G PDNH PRUH The space reserved for people who wish DUHDOUHDG\RQWKHLUZD\WRWKHQH[WWRZQWKH
money if we were doing a paper round.” to eat, drink and take in the balmy summer QH[WFRXQWU\6RRQWKHEUHDWKĥKDOWLQJEHDXW\
“The record industry was going OK until evening air is far larger than the area allocated RI$L[ĥOHVĥ%DLQVZLOOEHEHKLQGWKHP
DERXW ´ VD\V 5\DQ 2¶.HHɱH ³:H for those who wish to watch a band. As such, “In 20 years’ time we’ll still be a touring
recorded Runnin’ WildĬWKHEDQG¶VGHEXW FRQYHUWV WR $LUERXUQH¶V FDXVH DUH IDU RXWĥ URFN EDQG´ VD\V -RHO 2¶ .HHɱH LQ SDUWLQJ
DOEXPĭ GXULQJ WKDW WLPH DW ZKLFK SRLQW WKH numbered by those who care not a jot whethĥ ³7KH RQO\ GLɱHUHQFH EHLQJ WKDW LQ 
industry took a huge dive. The span of our er the group lives or dies by a ratio of at least we’ll be headlining this place.”
career has taken place during the worst two to one.
monetary crash in the history of the industry This, though, should not detract from the
A I R B O U R N E play Portsmouth Pyramids on
ZHZRUNLQ:H¶YHPDQDJHGWRQHJRWLDWHWKH sight that greets the Australians from their
September 27, then tour the UK from November
money to make records the way we want to YDQWDJHSRLQWRQĥVWDJH$VWKHVXQWXFNVLWVHOI 10. For more info, visit www.planetrock.com.
with the realisation that we’re not going to in for the night, in front of them are 20,000
get anything back.”
So, like a cartoon character that will
SOXQJHWRHDUWKIURPWKHFOLɱRYHUZKLFKKH
has just stepped only if he stops running and
looks down, Airbourne are a machine of
perpetual motion. The days when they once
travelled for 32 straight hours in a van from
6HDWWOH:DVKLQJWRQWR$XVWLQ7H[DVIRUDJLJ
at the South By Southwest music convention
attended by just 30 people may be behind
them but, were they to return, one senses that
Airbourne would be entirely undaunted.
“For us, there is no plan B,” says the
drummer. “This is all there is.”
“People see us and sense that we’re a
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They look at us and think to themselves,
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world, and it’s not like we’re playing the most
technically advanced music you’ll ever hear
either. But the emotional punch is what we’ve
got. That’s the thing that sets us apart.”

on one of the
L A I L I N G AWAY
Musilac Music Festival’s two

F main stages, tonight Airbourne

fail to get everyone from the
safety barriers to the hot dog
stands at the back raising their hands and Iron Fists:
clapping in unison. For one thing, there are no Harrison, O’Keeffe,
hot dog stands; instead, there are a vast array O’Keeffe, Street.
of stalls selling artisanal dishes. In a town of

PLANET ROCK 55
Class act:
Alice Cooper
(clockwise
from top) Neal
Smith, Michael
Bruce, Glen
Buxton, Alice
Cooper, Dennis
Dunaway.
 I L L U S T R AT I O N : P E T E R C ROW T H E R ; P H O T O : G E T T Y

PLANET ROCK
57

E C E M B E R 1 9 7 2 . At the studios of BBC Televiĥ
sion Centre in White City, west London, the
Top Of The Pops Christmas Special is underĥ
way. The show’s scattershot bill this evening reĥ
ÀHFWV D GHFDGH WKDW FXOWXUDOO\ KDVQ¶W TXLWH
found its groove yet, in much the same way as the ’60s didn’t really get
started until the inaugural peal of harmonica that opened The Beatles’
Please Please Me back in March ’63.
Gary Glitter, Slade and Marc Bolan’s T.Rex have all made appearĥ
ances on tonight’s show, proof that glam rock is in the ascendancy. But
the lion’s share of music is the kind of novelty tat that might prove
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)DVWHVW0LONPDQ,Q7KH:HVWī3DQ¶V3HRSOHHYRNLQJWKHLQFRQVRODEOH
longing of Nilsson’s Without You by dressing like garlic bulbs and
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Lieutenant Pigeon’s Mouldy Old Dough.
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Osmond’s Puppy Love fade away, however, the camera cuts to four
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what appears to be a wizened crone in ripped black leather
pants, black strangler’s gloves, a black piratical blouse cut
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staining his eyes and cheeks so he resembles a cross
Alice inspires
moral panic on the
Top Of The Pops
Christmas Special,
December 1972.
58 PLANET ROCK
“IN ARIZONA, YOU COULDN’T GO OUT IF
YOU HAD LONG HAIR. TWO OF MY FRIENDS
GOT BEATEN TO DEATH BY COWBOYS.”
ALICE COOPER
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particularly gnarly Manson Family member.
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with unlikely menace, thrust a fencer’s rapier down the lens of a BBC
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courtesy of sidemen Glen Buxton and Michael Bruce, grab an angelic
pubescent audience member by her hair and pretend to hang her, all
the while singing of a student uprising that makes the climax of
Lindsay Anderson’s 1968 movie If…. look tame.
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All across the UK, viewers’ grumpy dads are
choking on their turkey leftovers, while Mary
Whitehouse and her moral majority race to their
desks to pen letters of complaint. But nothing can
stop these lurid collegiate arsonists, with their props,
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School’s Out topped the UK charts, with the School’s Out
album reaching Number 2 in the US. Unlikely as it seems,
Alice Cooper is about to become one of the world’s greatest
rock’n’roll stars, and then nobody will be safe.
/HDVWRIDOO9LQFHQW)XUQLHUKLPVHOI
L I C E C O O P E R ’s ‘overnight success’ was a good eight
A years in the making. The group started life as The
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most entomologists, 7KH (DUZLJV EHFDPH 7KH 6SLGHUV DQG EHJDQ
playing local bars, with future Alice Cooper drummer Neal Smith and
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his bandmates originated from Ohio, Oregon and Kansas. There were
other reasons why they found themselves outsiders in Phoenix, too.
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who got beaten to death by cowboys. The local cowboys were like the
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GETTY, ALAMY
on one side of the room and the greasers on the other side, and were
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A greaser girl came up and asked him to play Louie Louie, and he
tapped cigarette ash into her cleavage. And the greasers were all, like,
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 Children of the evolution: (above
from left) The Earwigs in 1965;
The Nazz in 1967; Alice Cooper
with mentor Frank Zappa; (main
pic) the band photographed for
1969’s Pretties For You.
“After the show, the promoter told us the gangs were waiting
outside to jump us on our way to our cars. So, he smashed up a
barstool, handed a leg to each of us and said, ‘Are you ready?’
We’d carry knives, because when drunk cowboys jumped out
of their cars to beat you up, you needed something to defend
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was a very dangerous pastime in Arizona.”
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much more love after they relocated to Los Angeles. At the
height of the hippy era, their gonzoid garage noise left most
of the peace’n’love set nonplussed. “The Doors took us under
their wing when we arrived,” remembers Alice. “They were the weirdĥ
est thing in LA, and maybe they recognised we were the next weirdest.
We weren’t just another band, we had something else going on, we
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“We were raw as hell then, just vicious,” remembers Alice. “Everyĥ
one just seemed to be saying, ‘Could you guys please leave LA?’ So we
did. We went to Detroit, and people there totally got us.”
PLANET ROCK 59

“THE DOORS TOOK US UNDER THEIR WING.
THEY WERE THE WEIRDEST THING IN LA,
AND WE WERE THE NEXT WEIRDEST.”
ALICE COOPER
It wasn’t just the change in scenery that changed things for the
band. Arriving in Detroit they found a local scene dominated by kinĥ
dred spirits, most notably The Stooges and the MC5. They also found
a man who would help them translate their sound from the stage to the
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producer who had made stars of Winnipeg rockers The Guess Who.
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conceived virtuoso ambitions. “We wanted to be The
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band to channel their raw energy, adding structure to
their music, his production nous also allowed them to
retain their outré sense of self. It was this combination of
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audience, most of whom were weirdos.
The mainstream, however, still eluded Alice’s eldritch grasp.
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turned out there were a lot of outsiders. They chose us. I was their
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Soon, that gang would swell with hundreds of thousands of
new pledgers, as Alice and his band chanced upon a message evĥ
ery kid could identify with.
C H O O L’ S O U T began with a moment of
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“To us, rock’n’roll was about tapping into
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hate more than everything else? School! And what was the
greatest moment of the year? The last three minutes of the last
day of school! You couldn’t wait for that bell to hit three o’clock,
because then you would be free. I said, We’ve got to capture that
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ways two illegal things in his pockets at any
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60 PLANET ROCK
Public animal: Alice
Cooper (opposite
page) at the centre
of his own universe
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c.1972 and (below)
this bratty thing. That was just him, sticking School’s Out’s
it to The Man. infamous inner-
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the song. The lyrics, meanwhile, were written
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been the only song I ever wrote where I was pretty sure it was going to
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was the presence of a choir of snotty schoolkids singing the backing
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hear ’em laughin’ and screamin’, like it’s the last day of school. The song
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For the rest of the album, the band expanded upon their
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indeed, that Alice Cooper were a pretty cultured
bunch of guys, on the quiet.
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of West Side Story. In our early shows we’d play out Sharks
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connection even more explicit, its carnal feline metaphors giving way
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battle hymn. Cooper chews the scenery throughout, his performance
campy as hell, but the band leave you in no uncertainty that every
one of them knows how to wield a musical switchblade, bassist
Dennis Dunaway in particular.
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cord Plant. “Dennis was a lead bassist, he didn’t
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there and created his own world. Pretty
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bassline and I pretty much think the
whole song needs to be built around
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Public Animal #9, meanwhile,
 Pout and about:
Alice at his most
smooth and
seductive.

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GIVE EVERY SONG A ‘PUNK’ ATTITUDE.”
ALICE COOPER
DERUQĥDJDLQ&KULVWLDQZKRVWLOOWRXUVDVRIWHQDVKHFDQ)XUQLHUKDV
VWUXFNDPXFKKHDOWKLHUEDODQFHEHWZHHQKLVUHDOOLIHDQGWKDWRIKLV
DOWHU HJR 7KH UHFHQW UHOHDVH RI KLV WK VWXGLR DOEXP Paranormal
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Listen to Nights With A L I C E COOPE R every weeknight on
P L A N E T R O C K R A D I O 0RQGD\QLJKWVDWSP 7XHVGD\Ħ)ULGD\SP
Alice’s new album, PA R A N O R M A L , is out now via earMusic.

“THEY WERE
“[Alice manager] Shep Gordon written a hit, get down here.’ I that lasted four or five years. collaborators. On Paranormal,
came to Toronto to see my boss, heard this wonderful Glen Buxton Instead, School’s Out has created that meant guitarists Tommy
Jack Richardson. Shep wanted guitar riff, and it took us a day to a career that’s lasted 50 years Henriksen and Tommy Denander,

LIKE A
Jack to produce Alice, but Jack
took one look at the press
photographs and was horrified.
Jack sent me to NYC to turn them
knock it into shape. We recorded “Our way of working hasn’t and little-known guys like [U2’s]
the album at the Record Plant, changed at all – we have a Larry Mullen Jr (laughs). And we
this community of crazy New York common language and a mutual had the original Alice Cooper
artists, on the bleeding edge of understanding of the character of band play with us again, and that

HIERONYMUS
down. I went to see Alice play rock recording art. We had Alice Cooper. The difference now was magical.”
Max’s Kansas City, and it was like special filters on voices, a whole is that we cast a very wide net for As told to Stevie Chick
a Hieronymus Bosch painting – orchestra, and five

BOSCH
everyone was entangled, wearing
black spandex, jet-black hair and
fingernails and lipstick. And Alice
looked like a ghoul – pasty white
stage brats singing on
the title track. I met
the stage mothers in Buxton and
the hallway, and when

PAINTING”
Producer Bob Ezrin
recalls a fateful trip to
NYC, reconstructing the
group’s songs and
petrified “stage brat”
parents in the studio.
skin, blood-red gums, black
spider-eyes. It was an insane
show – props, sets, lights, a big
on-stage pillow fight. I LOVED it.
“I got back to Toronto and
convinced Jack this was a cultural
movement we were seeing the
nascence of. He said, ‘Fine, but
you gotta produce ’em.’ They lived
on a farm in Pontiac, Michigan
where we started deconstructing
their songs and then reconstruct-
ing them, until they were
recording-ready. The first song
was I’m Eighteen, eight-and-a-half
minutes long when they played it
to me. We tightened it up to single
length, got the bass and drums to
play together and the guitars out
of the way of the vocals, and it
sounded like a real record.
“With School’s Out, Shep
called me and said, ‘I think they’ve
Cooper
these women saw the with
crazy people walking producer
around they were Bob Ezrin.
petrified for their kids.
Then Alice came out
and scared the shit
out of the mums, but
the kids loved him –
he was like their
birthday party clown.
“School’s Out
established Alice as a
legitimate mainstream artist –
before then, this was a glam rock
act, boys in make-up, an oddity.
People presumed they would be
gone in moments. Instead, they
came back with an anthem which
will live forever. That was the
turning point – if we’d kept making
albums like Love It To Death,
maybe his career would’ve been
more Ramones-like, a gimmick
 I
T SAYS something about the fecundity of
the early ’90s rock scene that in the
spring of 1992 Soundgarden were only
the sixth hottest band in the world. The
quartet’s third album, %DGPRWRUÀQJHU,
had been released the previous autumn
to both critical applause and the kind of
commercial impact that today would see
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music, August and September 1991 had also
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garden’s moment would have to wait.
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into confusion everything played with a loud,
distorted guitar. But as established British
rock magazines struggled to strike a balance
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Iron Maiden and Bon Jovi with this new
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both a classic rock groove as standard
issue, and the kind of street cred which in
1992 was reckoned by many to be as importĥ
ant as the music they were playing.
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band of the day to sign with a major label
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their block to hear one of their own songs
played on FM radio, as singer Chris Cornell
did while driving down a highway in Los
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aired Hands All Over from the group’s second
TONY MOTTRAM

album /RXGHU7KDQ/RYH, released in 1989.

Long story short, come the spring of 1992
tickets for the band’s show at the Camden
Underworld were so hot that it was advisable
WREULQJD¿UHH[WLQJXLVKHUWRWKHER[RɷFH
when picking them up.

66 PLANET ROCK
 Gardeners’ world:
(from left) Kim Thayil,
Matt Cameron, Chris
Cornell, Ben Shepherd.

Quite how this writer got his hands
on one, I really have no idea.
On March 12, 1992 I had been a music
journalist for just one month. I wrote for the
smallest, most dysfunctional and surely most
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monthly magazine for 11 months, during
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quid. Less than a nobody, I was nothing.
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68 PLANET ROCK
“DESPITE TEMPERATURES
HOTTER THAN A PIZZA OVEN,
CHRIS CORNELL BROKE THE
HABIT OF A LIFETIME BY NOT
REMOVING HIS SHIRT.”
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doubt, but the band themselves were not
without a sense of humour. Introducing the
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Shock and awe:
Chris Cornell and Ben
Shepherd feel the heat.
In a club which combines an enviable
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that stood right in front of the stage, but a set
list that featured %DGPRWRUÀQJHU¶VPRVWFKRLFH
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 Academy Events present

ACADEMY EVENTS & TIDAL CONCERTS PRESENT

PLUS SUPPORT FROM

FEATURING 3 CLASSIC MSG VOCALISTS:

GARY BARDEN I GRAHAM BONNET I ROBIN McAULEY
CHRIS GLEN (BASS) I TED McKENNA (DRUMS) I STEVE MANN (GUITAR/KEYS)
NOVEMBER 2017
02 LONDON O2 SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE
03 SHEFFIELD O2 ACADEMY NEW ALBUM OUT NOW
04 MANCHESTER O2 RITZ AVAILABLE ON
2CD, 2CD + DVD COMBO,

05 HULL CITY HALL

2 LP, DVD, BLU-RAY, DIGITAL

MICHAELSCHENKERHIMSELF.COM

Academy Events, DHP, VMS Live & Friends, By Arrangement With The Fresh Start Agency Presents

PRESENTS

With Very Special Guests

02/10 Bilston, The Robin 2 07/10 London, Boston Music Rooms

03/10 Nottingham, Rescue Rooms 08/10 Manchester, Club Academy
05/10 Sheffield, Local Authority 09/10 Newcastle, The Cluny
At The Corporation 10/10 Glasgow, O2 ABC2
06/10 Norwich, The Waterfront

ACADEMY EVENTS & VMS LIVE by arrangement with IAA and ITB present
02 DUBLIN ACADEMY
03 BELFAST LIMELIGHT
05 GLASGOW O2 ABC
06 INVERNESS IRON WORKS
07 NEWCASTLE O2 ACADEMY
09 SHEFFIELD CORPORATION ‘Coming Under Heavy fire’ Tour 2017
10 HARD ROCK HELL FESTIVAL Wednesday November 8th - WULFRUN HALL, WOLVERHAMPTON
12 HULL WELLY Thursday November 9th - QUEEN’S HALL, EDINBURGH
14 MANCHESTER ACADEMY 2 Friday November 10th - PARR HALL, WARRINGTON
PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
15 CARDIFF Sunday November 12th - UNIVERSITY OF HULL, HULL
CARDIFF UNI Y PLAS Tuesday November 14th - EMPIRE, MIDDLESBROUGH
16 LIVERPOOL HANGAR 34 Wednesday November 15th - O2 ACADEMY, SHEFFIELD
17 COVENTRY KASBAH Thursday November 16th - O2 ACADEMY, LEICESTER
AND MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED
19 NORWICH WATERFRONT Saturday November 18th - THE JUNCTION, CAMBRIDGE
20 BRISTOL O2 ACADEMY Sunday November 19th - PYRAMIDS, PORTSMOUTH
NATIONAL TO UR 21 BRIGHTON CONCORDE 2 For ticket info go to www.blackstarriders.com
MAR CH 2 01 8 22 NOTTINGHAM ROCK CITY PRESENTED BY WCH Concerts, triple G, the gig cartel, vms live and academy events BY ARRANGEMENT WITH APA & SIREN ARTIST MANAGEment

TICKETMASTER.CO.UK & ALL USUAL AGENTS

 THE CULT HEROES

EVERYONE THOUGHT DIAMOND HEAD

WERE GOING TO BE SUPERSTARS,
THE NWOBHM’S OWN LED ZEPPELIN.
E V E R Y O N E WA S W R O N G . B U T, A S
G U I TA R I S T B R I A N TAT L E R E X P L A I N S
T O P A U L E L L I O T T, E N C O U R A G E D B Y
S U P E R - FA N S M E T A L L I C A T H E I R S T O R Y
I S FA R F R O M O V E R . PORTRAIT BY ROSS HALFIN

70
70 PLANET ROCK
Diamond geezers:
(from left) Colin
Kimberley, Duncan
Scott, Sean Harris,
Brian Tatler.
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72 PLANET ROCK
 “NOT MANY BANDS GET
T O T H E T O P. T A L E N T
IS NOT ENOUGH.”
B R I A N T AT L E R
This epic showed ambition, but for the
ĥ\HDUĥROG7DWOHUHPXODWLQJ=HSSHOLQ6DEEDWK
DQG3XUSOHVHHPHGDQLPSRVVLEOHGUHDP
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Kimberley, Harris,
In this moment, Diamond Head were not
Tatler and Scott as
they appeared on DORQH $FURVV WKH 8. RWKHU \RXQJ PHWDO
the inner sleeve of EDQGV LQVSLUHG E\ SXQN¶V ',< HWKRV ZHUH
1982's Borrowed FXWWLQJGHPRVDQGVHOIĥ¿QDQFHGVLQJOHVSOD\ĥ
Time album. LQJ LQ SXEV DQG FOXEV DQG ¿QGLQJ
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Instead, Diamond Head were
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Lightning
conductor:
KHOSHGEDQNUROOWKHEDQGZLWKSUR¿WVIURPKLV
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on-stage. 0DLGHQVLJQHGWRPDMRUODEHOV'LDPRQG+HDG
PLVVHGRXW³:HKDG6RXQGVUDYLQJDERXWWKH
EDQG´ 7DWOHU VD\V ³, ZRQGHUHG +RZ FRPH
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VHYHQ WUDFNV Ħ $P , (YLO" ,W¶V (OHFWULF
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KHQFH LWV DOWHUQDWLYH QDPH μ7KH :KLWH
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PLANET ROCK 73
 Brian Tatler (second
from right) on-stage
with Metallica in
San Francisco, JXLWDULVW5RELQ*HRUJHWRIRUPDGXRQDPHG
December 5, 2011. Notorious. A debut album was recorded at
KXJH H[SHQVH ZLWK +DUULV GRLQJ D 5REHUW
3ODQWĥPHHWVĥ%LOO\ 6TXLHU VKWLFN RQ WKH SDLU¶V
promotional single The Swalk. But a stinging
UHYLHZ LQ .HUUDQJ Ħ LQ ZKLFK MRXUQDOLVW -RQ
Hotten goaded, “Never in a million years,
ER\V´ĦSURYHGSUHVFLHQW7KH
album was deleted three weeks

Crown
DIWHU LWV UHOHDVH LQ  ³$
complete disaster,” Tatler says.
There was, however, a plan

Jewels
Five more
%IRUERWKPHQĦUHWXUQLQJWR
the mothership. Interest in
Diamond Head had grown
since their split, largely due to
Metallica-endorsed the patronage of their biggest
NWOBHM bands. fan. At Metallica’s earliest club
shows in California, they would
Holocaust play as many as four songs
Metallica
covered the
from Lightning To The Nations,
Edinburgh neglecting to mention to their
band’s The audience that these tracks had
Small Hours been authored by a band on
on 1987’s
$5.98 EP: Garage Days
the other side of the Atlantic.
They were also reaching for the kind WKH¿UVWYLQ\OFRSLHVRI Re-Revisted. But as his group developed
of sophistication that Def Leppard would Canterbury unplayable, making into the biggest heavy metal
achieve with visionary producer ‘Mutt’ Lange it jump all the way through. All Sweet Savage act on the planet, Lars Ulrich
on 1983’s Pyromania album. As their producer, but a handful of copies were A take on was voluble in acknowledging
the Belfast
Diamond Head had Mike Shipley, who had returned to retailers, and in the debt Metallica owed to his
band’s
served as engineer on Pyromania, but the way 6HSWHPEHUĦMXVWDPRQWK Killing Time old pals.
WKDW KH DQG /DQJH ZRUNHG ZLWK /HSSDUG Ħ after Diamond Head played to appeared as 0HWDOOLFD ¿UVW FRYHUHG
³SHUIHFWLRQPRGH´DV7DWOHUFDOOVLWĦZDVIRU DQ DXGLHQFH RI  DV WKH the B-side Diamond Head on vinyl in
Diamond Head a major problem. During the RSHQLQJDFWDWWKH0RQVWHUV2I of The Four Horsemen’s
1984, recording a version of
1991 single The Unforgiven.
recording, both Colin Kimberley and Duncan 5RFN IHVWLYDO DW 'RQLQJWRQ $P , (YLO" IRU WKH ÀLSVLGH RI
Scott departed. 3DUN Ħ Canterbury limped into Saxon their Creeping Death single,
³&ROLQTXLWDQGZH¿UHG'XQFDQ´7DWOHU WKH8.FKDUWDW1XPEHU Metallica’s then dipped back into their
says with a heavy sigh. “It was terrible. We By the end of 1983, as Lars second gig catalogue when including a
should never have done it. We were under Ulrich’s Metallica were helping came as
raw take on Helpless as the
support to
pressure. Debts were mounting. But we lost revolutionise heavy music with Saxon at OHDG WUDFN RQ ¶V IJ (3
something when Colin and Duncan went. The their debut album Kill ’Em All, LA’s Whisky *DUDJH 'D\V 5Hĥ5HYLVLWHG
band fell apart after that.” Diamond Head had been A Go-Go on March 27, 1982. The following year, they took
The album, titled Canterbury ZDV ¿QDOO\ dropped by MCA. The quartet In 2011, Biff Byford sang RQ7KH3ULQFHDVWKH%ĥVLGHRI
Motorcycle Man on-stage
completed with bassist Merv Goldsworthy recorded demos for a possible during the quartet's 30th
+DUYHVWHU 2I 6RUURZ :LWK D
ĪODWHURI$25EDQG)0īDQGGUXPPHU5REELH fourth album, tentatively titled birthday celebrations. new generation of metal fans
)UDQFH 7KH UHFRUGLQJ EXGJHW FDPH LQ DW D )OLJKW (DVW DQG IHDWXULQJ D exploring their history, it made
KHIW\ ĸ 2Q D SXUHO\ DUWLVWLF OHYHO LW beautiful song, Today, that Blitzkrieg sense for Tatler and Harris to
was a triumph, a classy hard rock album both VRXQGHG OLNH 8 %XW DPRQJ Originally a place their band back into the
B-side for
modern and classic. To The Devil His Due had the big labels there were no the Geordie
present tense.
the pomp and majesty of Zeppelin’s Kashmir. takers. In early 1985, Diamond band of the $Q DOEXP EHJXQ LQ 
The title track had shades of early Queen. And Head quietly disbanded. same name, was eventually completed in
if there was one song that should have made “I felt that Sean was aiming Blitzkrieg 1993, with Tatler and Harris
was recorded by Metallica
stars of Diamond Head it was Makin’ Music, a to go solo,” Tatler explains. backed by new drummer Karl
as a B-side for 1984’s
euphoric anthem that sounded like the future “Also, we needed a break from Creeping Death single. Wilcox and bassist Pete
of rock. each other.” 9XFNRYLF ĪZKR ZHQW RQ WR
“It was a bold and adventurous album,” ,QWKHODWH¶V%ULDQ7DWOHU Iron Maiden IURQWWKHEDQG&RORXUV5HGī
Tatler says. “We probably tried too hard. Too resurfaced with a new group, Metallica Titled Death And Progress, it
covered
much too soon.” 5DGLR0RVFRZEXWIDLOHGWRJHW had all the hallmarks of classic
GETTY

Maiden’s
But the music was not the problem. That a record deal. Sean Harris, Remember 'LDPRQG+HDGĦSRZHUJUHDW
came with a manufacturing fault that rendered meanwhile, teamed up with Tomorrow PHORGLHVULɱVDSOHQW\
for Kerrang!
magazine’s Maiden Heaven
74 PLANET ROCK tribute album in 2008.

It also featured guest appearances from
two big names. Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine, a
Diamond Head fan since his time in Metallica,
played on Truckin’, while Black Sabbath’s Tony
,RPPL FRĥZURWH DQG SOD\HG RQ 6WDUFURVVHG
Ī/RYHUV 2I 7KH 1LJKWī :KHQ /DUV 8OULFK
invited the band to open Metallica’s huge
RSHQĥDLUJLJDW0LOWRQ.H\QHV1DWLRQDO%RZO
on June 5, 1993, it appeared that Diamond
Head’s second act would have a triumphant
opening. In reality, Tatler recalls, “it turned
into a nightmare”.
7KH EDQG ZDV XQGHUĥUHKHDUVHG IRU ZKDW
ZDV WR EH WKHLU ELJJHVWĥHYHU JLJ7DWOHU WKHQ
VXɱHULQJIURPDERXWRIVKLQJOHVFRXOGEDUHO\
PRYH DERXW RQĥVWDJH$QG KDYLQJ FKRVHQ WR
EHJLQWKHLUVHWZLWK$P,(YLO"ĦWKH'LDPRQG
Head song likely to be most familiar to the
KHDGOLQHDFW
VDXGLHQFHĦWKH\EOHZLWDVWKH\ an album titled simply Diamond Head, Tatler
did so many times before, when Sean Harris
appeared, to general hilarity, in a Grim Reaper
costume complete with a cardboard scythe.
“It looked ridiculous,” Tatler groans. He
later discovered that the singer had decided
before this show that he wanted out, and that
the bizarre Grim Reaper act was intended to
be symbolic. “His message was: ‘Diamond
+HDGLV¿QLVKHG,¶PPRYLQJRQ¶VD\V7DWOHU
‘Death and progress.’ So that was that.”
$QGLWZDVIRUWKHQH[WVHYHQ\HDUV$VLGH
from royalties accrued when Metallica put
their three Diamond Head covers and a new
UHFRUGLQJRI,W¶V(OHFWULFRQ¶VGarage Inc.
collection, Tatler made ends meet as a studio
engineer and playing in tribute bands. But
in early 2000, the release of Live In
The Heat Of The Night, a concert
recording from 1991, promptĥ
ed him to call Harris, and
from this came another
reunion, with an acoustic
(3OLYHGDWHVLQWKH8.DQG86
and then the recording of a new album.
:LWK:LOFR[ DJDLQ RQ GUXPV DQG (GGLH
Moohan on bass, the band laid down some
WUHFHLYH
VWURQJPDWHULDOĦ0HGXVD¶V*D]HKHDY\OLNHLW
ZDVLQWKHROGGD\V0XVLF%R[ZLWKDOLJKWĥ
er touch. By 2003 they had a whole
album in the can when Harris, in typiĥ
cally contrary fashion, told Tatler that it
should be released under a new name,
Host, and not as Diamond Head. Tatler recalls
thinking, “This madness will pass.” It did not.
$GHDOZDVRQWKHWDEOHIRUD'LDPRQG+HDG
album, but not for Host. Take it or leave it.
:KHQ+DUULVGXJKLVKHHOVLQ7DWOHUNQHZ
how this was going to play out. The album was
lost, and this time it was Tatler who moved on.
“I got fed up of waiting,” he says. “So I
WKRXJKW/HW¶VDXGLWLRQVRPHVLQJHUV«´
“M Y M E TA L L I C A R OYA LT I E S
MEAN I OWN A HOUSE AND
D O N ’ T H AV E T O W O R K . ”
B R I A N T AT L E R
,QDQRWKHU0LGODQGVĥEDVHGYRFDOLVW
1LFN7DUWJRWWKHJLJ7KHQHZĥORRN'LDPRQG
+HDGWRXUHGZLWK0HJDGHWKDQG7KLQ/L]]\
DQG UHFRUGHG WZR VROLG DOEXPV Ħ All Will Be
Revealed Īī DQG What’s In Your Head?
Īī,Q7DUWOHIWWKHEDQGE\PXWXDO
consent, and was replaced by Swedish singer
5DVPXV%RP$QGHUVHQ7ZR\HDUVODWHUZLWK
KLV¿QHVWULɱVĦ6XFNLQJ0\/RYHLQWR6HHN 
recaptured the spirit and energy of the early
GD\V WKH ROG PDVWHU VWLOO  FRQMXULQJ XS ULɱV
that Metallica would kill for.
“That album,” says the
guitarist, “has given us the
FRQ¿GHQFHWRFRQWLQXH´
Diamond
Head’s last
man standing:
Brian Tatler.
OR B R I A N TAT L E R , Diamond
Head is now, more than ever, a
F labour of love. “I do it because I
want to,” he says, “not because
I have to. The Metallica royalĥ
WLHVKDYHPDGHDKXJHGLɱHUHQFHWRPHDQGP\
OLIHVW\OH%X\LQJDKRXVH1RWKDYLQJWRZRUN´
$QG LI 0HWDOOLFD KDYH DSSURSULDWHG VRPH RI
Destroy, To The Devil His Due into Sad But
7UXHĦ7DWOHULVQRWDERXWWRELWHWKHKDQGWKDW
feeds. “Imitation,” he smiles, “is the sincerest
IRUPRIÀDWWHU\:LWKRXW0HWDOOLFD'LDPRQG
Head would not be going now.”
1RZ7DWOHUVWLOOOLYHVLQ6WRXUEULGJHDV
do the three other founders of Diamond Head.
7DWOHU PDGH KLV SHDFH ZLWK &ROLQ .LPEHUOH\
DQG 'XQFDQ 6FRWW ORQJ DJR .LPEHUOH\ QRZ
works for a water company, Scott in a factory.
³:H¶UHJRRGIULHQGV´7DWOHUVD\V³$QGLWPHDQV
a lot, after all that we went through together.”
He also sees Sean Harris now and then.
Their last meaningful conversation was in
December 2011, at one
of four gigs held in
San Francisco as part
of Metallica's 30th
ELUWKGD\ FHOHEUDWLRQV $IWHU MRLQLQJ WKHLU
hosts on stage for a blast through four classic
Diamond Head songs, the two men talked for
WKH¿UVWWLPHLQ\HDUV³:HGLGQ¶WJHWLQWRDQ\
GLɱHUHQFHV´ 7DWOHU VD\V /DWHU WKDW QLJKW
he was told by Harris’s wife that the singer has
ZULWWHQ HQRXJK VRQJV IRU  DOEXPV ³:K\
QRWUHOHDVHRQH"´KHDVNHG+HGLGQ
an answer.
8QGHUVWDQGDEO\ 7DWOHU KDV KLV UHJUHWV
about the past. Most of all, the way in which
&ROLQ.LPEHUOH\DQG'XQFDQ6FRWWORVWRXWRQ
WKHLUGUHDPV$OVRKRZKLVEDQGFRQWULYHGWR
grasp defeat from the jaws of victory. In the
end, though, what he takes from all his years
LQ'LDPRQG+HDGLVDKDUGĥHDUQHGZLVGRP
³1RWPDQ\EDQGVJHWWRWKHWRS´KHVD\V
³7DOHQWLVQRWHQRXJK<RXQHHGZKDW/DUVKDG
WKDW ZLOO WR VXFFHHG:H MXVW GLGQ¶W KDYH
enough of that in Diamond Head.”
DIAM ON D H EAD tour the UK
and Ireland from November 23.
PLANET ROCK 75
 MY PLANET ROCKS

Haunting blues,
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ONE-TIME GUITAR TEACHER
TURNED ALTER BRIDGE
VOCALIST MYLES KENNEDY
SELECTS THE SONGS
THAT ROCK HIS WORLD.

I L LU S T R AT I O N BY TIM MCDONAGH

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76 PLANET ROCK
LED ZEPPELIN
Going To California
(on Led Zeppelin IV, 1971)
It was a struggle choosing
between this and Whole
Lotta Love. But I went with this
because it was such an inspiraĥ
tion to me as an artist. I didn’t
discover Zeppelin until a year
after getting Pyromania and Van
Halen. I had an English teacher
who was quite the rocker. She
VDLGμ<RX¶YHJRWWRKHDUWKLVĦ
go back to the source.’ She lent
me her copy of Led Zeppelin IV.
I took it home and my chores
that day were cleaning out the
horses. I put the cassette in my
boom box and went to work
ĦDQGZKHQHYHU,KHDUDVRQJRɱ
this record I can still smell horse
manure. It was a big moment
when I got to play with Jimmy
Page and John Paul Jones
Ĭ.HQQHG\MDPPHGIRUDWRWDORI
¿YHGD\VZLWK/HG=HSSHOLQLQ
LQSODFHRI5REHUW3ODQWĭ
I didn’t mention Going To
California… or the horse
manure. I was trying to be as
cool as possible so they didn’t
think I was a total dork.”
JEFF BUCKLEY
Lover, You Should’ve
Come Over
(on Grace, 1994)
I was washing dishes at
home one night when I
heard this voice coming from
WKH79,WZDV-Hɱ%XFNOH\,
dropped the plate and ran into
the other room. At the time,
I was working in a music store
and I’d sold enough guitar
strings to qualify for a free
album, so I ordered Grace.
It came around
Christmas ’94 and
sounded like a
breath of fresh
air. I saw him
perform this song
in a small theatre in Seattle. SDUHQWVFUD]\ZLWKWKDW¿UVW9DQ
The house lights were still on, Halen album for the rest of the
and out comes this guy who summer. I knew they didn’t
I thought was a tech. Then he write You Really Got Me, but
picks up the guitar and starts their interpretation was wicked.
playing Lover, You Should’ve Hearing that breakdown in the
Come Over, the lights dim and middle where David Lee Roth
it turns out it’s him. It had a makes all those weird noises and
SURIRXQGHɱHFWRQPHEXW grunts… I don’t know how to
,GRQ¶WWKLQN-HɱĬZKRGLHGLQ articulate this as an adult, but as
ĭHYHUKDGDQ\LGHDKRZ a kid I remember thinking,
LQÀXHQWLDOKH¶GEHFRPH´ Wow! It sounds like he’s having
sex in Outer Space.”
VAN HALEN
MARVIN GAYE
Eruption/You Really
Got Me Inner City Blues
(on Van Halen, 1978) (Make Me Wanna
Holler)
,¿UVWKHDUG
(on What’s Going On, 1971)
Eruption as a kid
playing in my ,ZDVDQGP\¿UVW
backyard. It was on SURSHUJLJZDVSOD\LQJ¿YH
the radio but it nights a week in this lounge with
sounded like it was a bass player who was a few
coming from Mars. years older than me. I’d started
7KLVZDV¿YH getting into R&B and soul and
years after it was he recommended What’s Going
released, but On. I bought it, and as soon as
Spokane, I heard Inner City Blues I was
Washington,
was slow
coming to new “DAVID LEE ROTH
things. I pleaded
with my mom to SOUNDED LIKE HE
buy me the
WAS HAVING SEX IN
REX, GETTY
cassette. So
OUTER SPACE.”
Kinky: she did and
David Lee I drove my
Roth. M Y L E S K E N N E DY

captivated. Later, my band The
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1998’s Falloutĭ2XU$ 5PDQDW
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DEF LEPPARD
Photograph
(on Pyromania, 1983)
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¿JXUHVDQG,WKRXJKWLW
VRXQGHGDZHVRPH7KDW Check out M Y P L A N E T R O C KS ,
where the world’s greatest artists
ZDVZKHQ,VWDUWHGWR
play the music that inspired them,
IDOOIRU6WHHO\'DQ,
every Sunday at 7pm only at Planet
was seven, maybe Rock radio. A LT E R B R I D G E
HLJKW\HDUVROG play the UK in October. For more
That’s weird, info visit planetrock.com.
ULJKW"´
’Snake
charmer:
David
Coverdale
PLANET ROCK 79
War machine: Black Sabbath
(clockwise from top) Geezer
Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy
Osbourne, Bill Ward.
 THE COVER STORY
REX

PLANET ROCK 81
 Children of the grave:
Black Sabbath at
London’s Hammersmith
Odeon, June 1978.

Outside St Giles-in-
the-Fields church
PL
in London, 1970.
 TO N Y I O M M I I S F I N I S H I N G U P a quick bite to eat, washed down with
a couple of glugs of Kronenbourg 1664. Black Sabbath’s guitar player and
mainstay has journeyed down from his home in the Midlands for the
launch of Black Sabbath’s latest reissue box set, The Ten Year War, and is
SUHSDULQJKLPVHOIWRUHYLVLWWKHPDNLQJRIWKHEDQG¶V¿UVWWZRDOEXPVLQ
particular. Both were recorded at Regent Sound Studio in nearby
'HQPDUN6WUHHWWKH¿UVWIDPRXVO\LQWKHVSDFHRIWZRGD\V,RPPLKDV
QRWEHHQEDFNWRWKHVWXGLRIRUWKHEHVWSDUWRI¿YHGHFDGHVDQGZKLOH
the studio sign still hangs above the door, today it has been transformed
LQWRDJXLWDUVKRS7KHEDVHPHQWĦWKHURRPZKHUH,RPPLIURQWPDQ
Ozzy Osbourne, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward
“YOU F**K
¿UVWFRQJUHJDWHGWRUHFRUGEDFNLQ2FWREHUĦLVQRZDFOXE
$V,RPPLSUHSDUHVWROHDYHWKHUHVWDXUDQWDQXQDVVXPLQJ
EVERY
couple sitting at the neighbouring table get up and ask whether
KHZLOOSRVHIRUDSKRWRJUDSKZLWKWKHP³,VDZ
you on that tenth anniversary tour back in ’78 at
+DPPHUVPLWK2GHRQ´RɱHUVWKHFKDS³,ZDVVR GROUPIE UNTIL YOUR DICK’S
into you back then!” adds his wife. Ever gracious,
,RPPLREOLJHVZLWKDSKRQHVQDSDVWKHZDLWLQJ ABOUT TO FALL OFF, DRINK
VWDɱORRNRQ³,VKHIDPRXV"´DVNVDZDLWUHVV³1R
but he often gets mistaken for a famous guitar player,” comes EVERY DRINK
the reply. “Oh, OK,” she says, with a disappointed tone.
Rather than calling for a car to drive him the quarter of AND TAKE
D PLOH WKURXJK 6RKR WR 5HJHQW 6RXQG ,RPPL SOXPSV IRU D
EVERY DRUG.
¿YHĥPLQXWH ZDON RQ ZKDW LV D ZDUP -XO\ HYHQLQJ$V ZH VWUROO
SDVWWKH&UREDUĦWKHFHOHEUDWHGURFNZDWHULQJKROHĦDWRXULVWLV
RXWVLGHWKHEDUWDNLQJDSKRWRJUDSKRIKLVIULHQGV,RPPLZDONV AND WE
swiftly across the shot and, as we move away from the bar, we
chuckle at the prospect of the fan having inadvertently caught DID. "
the moustachioed Sabs guitar player in one of his holiday snaps.
³%OLPH\7KH SODFH KDV FKDQJHG D ELW´ VD\V ,RPPL DV ZH
DUULYHDW5HJHQW6RXQG)ROORZLQJDĥPLQXWH¿OPHGLQWHUYLHZZLWK%LOO
Ward, where the drummer talks through chunks of Sabbath’s history,
,RPPLZDONVWKURXJKWKHSDFNHGEDUZKHUHMRXUQDOLVWVPHGLDW\SHV
and fans have gathered to hear him discuss the past further. What
IROORZVLVDQHQWHUWDLQLQJĥPLQXWHFRQYHUVDWLRQZKHUHLQWKHJXLWDULVW
recalls the events that shaped the band’s most formative period, his tales
ranging from skirmishes with marauding skinheads to the band’s endless
R O S S H A L F I N , C H R I S WA LT E R
EDWWOHZLWKWKHSUHVVDQG7KH(QGĦWKHEDQG¶V¿QDOWRXU+HGRHVVR
with good grace and even better humour. Asked about a photo session
ZKLFKWKHIRXUĥSLHFHXQGHUWRRNLQDQHLJKERXULQJFKXUFKJUDYeyard in
the company of a tramp, he smiles and quips: “That was Bill!” Humour
has always been a huge part of the Sabbath story, forged in the deep
IULHQGVKLSWKDWGH¿QHGWKHLUHDUO\GD\V«
S TO N I S A L A R G E LY ZRUNLQJĥFODVVDUHDRI%LUPLQJKDP'XULQJ
:RUOG:DU ,, LW VXɱHUHG HQGOHVV ERPE GDPDJH %\ WKH PLG
’60s, it was a multicultural neighbourhood humming with a
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PLQXWHV¶ZDONIURP9LOOD3DUNKRPHWR$VWRQ9LOOD)&LQDVWULFW,ULVK
Catholic household. His parents, originally from Dublin, were fans of
¶V,ULVKVLQJHU5XE\0XUUD\KLVEURWKHUVLQWKUDOOWR(OYLV3UHVOH\(GGLH
&RFKUDQDQG%XGG\+ROO\ZKLOHKLVVLVWHUVIDQFLHG&OLɱ5LFKDUG*HH]HU
bought records by jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and the Chicago bluesĥ
men, Muddy Waters’ At Newport 1960 being a favourite.
“There was always a lot of music around,” recalls Butler. “We had the
Birmingham Odeon where big bands like The Beatles played. Midnight
City was the big soul place where Ozzy went when he was a skinhead.
Then there was the Penthouse and Mothers for rock bands. You also had
ORWV RI SHRSOH SOD\LQJ PXVLF DW KRPH 7KH -DPDLFDQV IRU
LQVWDQFH ZHUH DOZD\V SOD\LQJ UHJJDH DQG EOXH EHDW VR , XVHG
to like Prince Buster as well. Then, next door to us, there was
DQ ,QGLDQ IDPLO\ DQG WKH\ SOD\HG VLWDU PXVLF:H KDG DFFHVV
to everything.”
-RKQ μ2]]\¶ 2VERXUQH DWWHQGHG %LUFK¿HOG
5RDG6HFRQGDU\0RGHUQZKHUH7RQ\,RPPLZDV
in the year above him. The former displayed an
aptitude for acting rather than academia, while
the latter applied himself and was obsessed with
music from an early age. For all four future members of Black
Sabbath, however, employment prospects were not so much
EOHDNĦOLNH'HWURLWSRVWĥZDU%LUPLQJKDPHQMR\HGDZHOFRPH
HFRQRPLFXSWXUQWKDQNVWRWKHFDUPDQXIDFWXULQJLQGXVWU\ĦDV
OLPLWHG :DUG 2VERXUQH DQG ,RPPL ĪZKRVH ,WDOLDQ SDUHQWV
RZQHGDVKRSRQ3DUN/DQHīDOOHQGXUHGGHDGHQGMREVĦ2]]\
IDPRXVO\DVDFDUĥKRUQWHVWHUEHIRUHWDNLQJDMRELQDQDEDWWRLU
“You just knew that you were most likely to end up in a
factory,” explains Geezer. “That was just the reality of the world
ZH ZHUH OLYLQJ LQ 1RQH RI XV KDG DQ\ PRQH\7KH FRUQHU RI
ZKHUH,OLYHGZDVVWLOODERPEVLWHZKHUHLWKDGEHHQERPEHGLQ
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WKHQ,KDYHWRJHWWKLVMREWKDWZLOOODVWPHXQWLO,GLH,FRXOGQ¶WVWDQG
that idea so that was driving me on.”
*HH]HUVHFXUHGD¿YHĥ\HDUDSSUHQWLFHVKLSLQDQDFFRXQWDQF\¿UP
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in at four o’clock in the afternoon, pissed out of my brains, and we were
GXHWR¿QLVKDW¿YH,GLGQ¶WWHOOP\GDGIRUPRQWKVDQGNHSWRQSUHWHQGĥ
LQJWKDW,ZDVJRLQJWRZRUN7KHQ,UHIXVHGWRFXWP\KDLUZKLFKPDGH
it impossible for me to get a job.”
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four wannabe musicians toiled in bands that initially struggled to even
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WKDQ 2]]\ ZLWK D UHSXWDWLRQ DV D ¿JKWHU WKH ĥ\HDUĥROG JXLWDULVW ZDV
driven enough to parlay his way into The Rockin’ Chevrolets, a beat
combo with a set based on The Shadows and early rock’n’roll. Armed
with a set of matching red lamé suits, they soon established themselves
as local heroes and began gigging throughout Birmingham.
PLANET ROCK 83
 In fact, both Iommi and Ward were more seasoned than their
future bandmates, serving apprenticeships in a number of other local
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attracted an ardent following and who supported fellow Brummies The
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band were busted for possession of cannabis resin in July ’68, forcing
,RPPLDQG:DUGWREHDWDKDVW\UHWUHDWEDFNWRWKHLUUHVSHFWLYHSDUHQWV¶
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³,WKDGQ¶WUHDOO\ZRUNHGRXWIRUDQ\RIXVLQDQ\RIWKHEDQGVZH¶G
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“IT WAS
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F**KING
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and secured management from promoter Jim
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EHDWĥFXPĥSURJUHVVLYH W\SHV /RFRPRWLYH -LP
Simpson had opened a new club, Henry’s Blues STARVING. SOMETIMES I’D CRY
House, which gave the band a few early gigs.
³*LJVZHUHKDUGWRFRPHE\EHFDXVHZHZHUHDEOXHVEDQGDQG BECAUSE
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(DUWK¶VFDUHHUZKHQKHMRLQHG-HWKUR7XOOEULHÀ\LQ'HFHPEHU I’D BE SO
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Key to the band’s emerging sound was Iommi’s distinctive
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HUNGRY.”
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hand were severed. Rushed to hospital with the
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that restorative surgery was not an option.
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up.’ It was no big deal to them as playing
guitar wasn’t a proper job. I, however, was
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record and told me to listen to it.
When I realised he was playing
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Inspired by the fact that
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recovered from injuries he
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a bid to resume playing Tony created
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bottle, later reinforcing them
with leather. He also loosened his
84 PLANET ROCK
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top strings, Iommi sought to further minimise the pressure on his right
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the guitarist. Technological innovations aside, Iommi also had to deal
with the physical limitations of his injury.
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playing, bending the strings and hitting the open string at the same time
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then, the bass player was supposed to do all these melodic runs, but I
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what we’d done musically, along with certain lyrics.
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that’s what I brought to Sabbath. I wasn’t very good
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hyperactivity disorder.
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recording of Sabbath’s debut album at Regent
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Club in 1969.
 Early daze: Sabbath
at the outset of their
recording career.

Says as revisit the eight classic albums

made by the band’s original line-up during their first decade together.
Cue tales of hobbits, hauntings and heavy metal… WOR D S :

ULY 13, 2017. At the Gibson Guitar UK showroom in Eastcastle Street, central
London, a panel of sound experts are sat on-stage unveiling The Ten Year War – the new
limited edition Black Sabbath box set. Among them are sound engineer Andy Pearce,
A last-minute request for a (a rumination on faith which
whose job it has been to track down the tapes of the albums made by the band’s original line-up
final track to round out the appears to boast a Christian
in order to remaster them – a process he agrees is akin to, in artistic terms, restoring an Old running time on the album message), the cantering
Master. To Pearce’s left and sporting a bright Hawaiian-styled shirt sits ‘Colonel’ Tom Allom, the yielded Paranoid (see main Children Of The Grave and
engineer on Sabbath’s first three albums, and producer Rodger Bain’s most trusted associate feature). The track propelled the space-trucking Into The
during those sessions. Since he worked with Sabbath, Allom has carved out his own reputation the LP, which would sell four Void. Iommi’s talent as a
as a producer of note, most specifically thanks to his work with Judas Priest, whose latest album million copies in the US, to guitarist is also on show in
he is currently working on. Allom provides insight into the band’s most formative period, outlining the top of the UK chart. a pair of instrumental inter-
the seriousness with which the four-piece approached their music. ludes, Embryo and Orchid,
while the balladry of Solitude
As well as discussing the process that has led to the new versions of Sabbath’s first eight
reveals the band’s melodic
albums, those in attendance are given a chance to hear the high definition audio versions of the prowess. Master Of Reality is
music housed on the USB ‘cruci-stick’ that comes with the box. What becomes crushingly the sound of a band becom-
obvious during the proceedings is just how timeless the band’s first run of albums – all eight of ing increasingly comfortable
which are revisited below – actually are… in their studio surroundings.

just reading The Hobbit at 1970 to record the follow-up

the time.” N.I.B., too, boasts
humble origins: “It became
known as Nativity In Black
but the title came from Bill
Ward’s beard which looked
like a pen nib,” says Butler.
Dismissed by critics – “like
Cream, but worse,” sneered
Lester Bangs in Rolling Stone
– Black Sabbath stayed in the
US charts for over a year and
with producer Rodger Bain.
The cornerstone of the album
was War Pigs which had been
in their live set for over a
year. Other nihilistic anthems Master
included the frenetic Electric
Funeral, the crunching Iron Of Reality
Man and the lurching Hand
(Originally on Vertigo, 1971)
Of Doom, while the more
light-hearted Fairies Wear +++++
Boots was inspired by a Sabbath’s third album starts

Black Sabbath
(Originally released on Vertigo,
1970)
++++
While Cream, Led Zeppelin
and Deep Purple were in the
vanguard of the heavy music
emerging from the British
underground scene in the
late ’60s, no one sounded as
heavy as Black Sabbath.
“Everybody describes their
first album as the source of
heavy metal,” says producer
Rick Rubin, “but it’s actually
pre-heavy metal because
it has different elements
on there: blues, jazz and
psychedelia. It has it all.” The
band’s signature tune sets
an ominous tone, followed
by harmonica-soaked heavy
blues march The Wizard –
said to have been written
after several LSD-inspired
visions. “It wasn’t,” says main
lyricist Geezer Butler. “I was
sold a million copies. “We
were making dark music for
dark days,” reflects Ozzy.
Paranoid
(Originally on Vertigo,
1970)
+++++
After the quite
unexpected success
of their debut,
Sabbath returned
to London’s Regent
Sound Studios for a
five-day stint in June
run-in with some skinheads
following a show on the
South Coast (see Tony Iommi
interview on page 93 for the
gory details). “Musically, we
felt more confident,” admits
Butler, “and we tried out dif-
ferent things.” Contemplative
semi-acoustic Planet Caravan
typified their newfound
sense of adventure: “I sang
it through a Leslie speaker,”
recalls Ozzy. “Then Rodger
Bain used an oscillator on it –
whatever that is.”
with Sweet Leaf, a track
introduced by a looped,
phlegmy cough cut short by
one of Tony Iommi’s most
trenchant riffs. To many, it
is the quintessential stoner
anthem, a point borne out
by Sabbath’s consumption
of hashish during their
early days. “Actually, the
title comes from a packet of
cigarettes I’d picked up called
Sweet Afton,” explains Butler.
“I didn’t know what to write
about and there was this
slogan on the side of the
box that mentioned,
‘It’s the sweet leaf’, so
I just went from there,
and the song started
to work on a totally
different level.”
Sweet Leaf’s heavy
musical invective
was matched
elsewhere –
most notably
on After
Forever
Black Sabbath
Vol.4
(Originally on Vertigo, 1972)
+++++
If booze and heavy dope use
helped fuel Sabbath’s early
LPs, Vol. 4 is their cocaine
album. Recorded at the
Record Plant in Los Angeles
while the quartet cheerfully
indulged in various acts
of self-destruction in their
rented Bel Air mansion, Ozzy
wanted to call the album
‘Snowblind’ after the song
they’d written in tribute to
the band’s newfound drug of
choice (check out Osbourne’s
less-than-subtle whisper
after the first verse). The label
wouldn’t have it, changing the
album’s name to Vol. 4, and
Sabbath had to make do with
a simple credit on the sleeve:
“We wish to thank the great
COKE-Cola company of
Los Angeles”.

PLANET ROCK 85
 California
screaming:
Ozzy at 1974’s
Cal Jam.
Despite their spiralling
addictions, musically Vol. 4
is another ambitious outing.
The band’s heavy side is
showcased on Supernaut
and Tomorrow’s Dream, but
the guitar intro on St. Vitus
Dance possesses a jaunty,
Led Zeppelin-flavour, while
the evocative Laguna Sunrise
is a neo-classical Iommi
instrumental. The melancholy
Changes is ostensibly a love
song, but, in the context of
Sabbath’s own developing
turmoil, it also feels like an
ode to the end of innocence.
Sabbath Bloody
Sabbath   Eight vinyl LPs reproduced
(Originally on Vertigo, 1973)
+++++
After an ill-fated start to the
album in LA – where Iommi
developed writer’s block –
Sabbath moved to Clearwell
Castle in Gloucestershire,
re-energising their guitarist.
The result was Sabbath’s
most ambitious effort to
date. The title track led into
an expansive set as Butler’s
lyrics contemplated the
mysteries of birth and DNA in
A National Acrobat and Spiral
Architect, respectively. Killing
Yourself To Live, meanwhile,
86 PLANET ROCK
tackled the band’s grow-
ing alcoholism. Housed in
a phantasmagoric sleeve,
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was
also the product of Clear-
well’s creepy atmosphere.
“We rehearsed in the armoury
and one night I was walking
down the corridor with Ozzy
and we saw this figure in a
black cloak,” recalls Iommi.
“We followed this figure back
to the armoury and there was
no one there. Whoever it was
had disappeared into thin
air! The people that owned
the castle knew all about this
ghost: ‘Oh, that’s the ghost
of so-and-so.’ We were like,
What?! We spent our time
there trying to frighten each
other. In the end we were
so petrified we had to drive
home every night rather than
stay there!”
Sabotage  own unique colour scheme.
(Originally on Vertigo, 1975)
+++++
Having played California Jam
in front of 200,000 fans and
a TV audience of millions on
April 6, 1974, Sabbath were
now one of the biggest bands
in the world. Now managed
by Patrick Meehan, who had
taken over from Jim Simpson,
the quartet discovered that
they’d effectively run out of to Criteria Studios in Miami
money. What followed was in summer ’76 to record.
a lengthy legal battle: the Meanwhile, in the UK, punk
wrangles gave the LP its title. was beginning to explode.
The band’s anger is evident “We were 26 years old and
on Sabotage, most notably everyone seemed to decide
on The Writ where Ozzy asks, we were past it!” says Geezer.
“Are you Satan? Are you “The whole thing got to us.”
man?”, quite possibly in Informed by this sense of
reference to the band’s confusion, Technical Ecstasy
former handlers. Opener Hole is the sound of Sabbath
In The Sky and the crunching trying to make a grown-up,
Symptom Of The Universe radio-friendly rock record.
illustrate that, for all their In parts, it works – most
problems, Sabbath’s power notably on It’s Alright (sung Technical Ecstasy and left
remained undimmed. by Bill Ward). If another band the band, briefly replaced
had released this album it by Dave Walker (ex-Savoy
may have been met with a Brown/Fleetwood Mac). He
modicum of acclaim, but for returned to the fold just as
diehard Sabbath fans, the the band entered Toronto’s
weight of a considerable Interchange Studios. Flatly
legacy counted against it. refusing to sing the songs the
band had been working on,
Osbourne insisted they write
new material but, out of their
minds, Sabbath struggled.
“I’d go down the studio and
I heard what sounded like a
jazz band playing. Is this real-
Technical ly Black Sabbath? I’d just fuck
off,” recalls Ozzy. With time
Ecstasy running out, they recorded
what they could and released
(Originally on Vertigo, 1976) this patchy 13-track LP, its
+++ title track a clear misnomer.
Beset by ongoing business
problems – “We hired lawyers
Never Say Die! “We felt lost and worthless,”
Butler later noted. Black
(Originally on Vertigo, 1978)
to deal with our managers Sabbath’s least successful
and they ripped us off even ++ album to date, it was released
more!” spits Geezer Butler Ozzy Osbourne was vocal in September 1978. Ozzy
– and increasing musical about the band’s lack of was fired by the band eight
uncertainty, Sabbath headed direction in the wake of months later.
Your at-a-glance guide to Sabbath’s heavyweight mega-set The Ten Years War.
OME TWO YEARS in the making, The  The super-rare The Ten Year War
Ten Year War is housed in a handsome brochure, reproduced from the original
box with artwork designed by Shepard publication issued around the release of the
Fairey for the band’s final run of shows earlier Never Say Die! album. It details the endless
this year. In many respects, it is the ultimate slatings received by Sabbath during their first
reissue of the band’s most significant decade – hence the box set’s name.
albums. Here is what you’ll find in the
limited edition box:
 A hardback book, featuring
accolades from the cream of
rock royalty, coupled with
in their original sleeves, official and candid iconic
pressed on 180-gram photography of the band
splatter-coloured vinyl – during their 1970s tours,
each album containing its recording sessions and pho-
to-shoots.
 Two reproduction 7-inch  A reproduction of the Tenth
singles: The Japanese release of Anniversary World Tour 1978
Evil Woman (Don’t Play Your Games Official Programme.
With Me)/Black Sabbath, and the Chilean
 A reprinted tour poster from Sabbath’s
Paranoid/The Wizard, of which only 100 cop-
1972 Seattle Centre Arena show.
ies of the original radio promo were pressed.
 Crucifix shaped Black Sabbath USB The T E N Y E A R WA R box set is out
stick – aka the ‘cruci-stick’ – which can serve via BMG on September 29 and
as a pendant and contains MQA high defini- available through www.tenyearwar.com
tion audio of the first eight Sabbath albums.
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PLANET ROCK 87
 Charlie company:
Iommi, Ward, a
prone Osbourne
and Butler,
c.1974.
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88 PLANET ROCK
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LFV7KH¿QDOUHVXOWZDVLQWHQGHGDVWKHWLWOHWUDFNRIWKHEDQG¶VVHFRQG
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 introduced Sabbath to other narcotic delights. “Coke was a new drug for
us,” admits Tony. “So, we started taking that, but America changed us in
VRPDQ\GLɱHUHQWZD\V´
For Osbourne and Ward, touring meant a life of increasing excess.
The pair hired a GMC mobile home to get from gig to gig, allowing
them the freedom to indulge in anything they chose.
“We went too far every single fucking day,” says the singer. “In the
end, Bill and I used to travel together because the other two didn’t want
to be around us. They would avoid being anywhere near us. We had no
respect for anything. My drink of choice? It was yours and mine. Then
there was any drug I could get my hands on.
“When you’re in that environment, you wake up with a hangover
and you know what cures a hangover? Another fucking drink! Then
\RX¶UHRɱDJDLQ%XWWKHUHDVRQ,GUDQNLQWKH¿UVWSODFHZDV
³$OORIDVXGGHQ,JRWKROGRIWKLVULɱDQGZHZHUHRɱDJDLQ´VD\V
Iommi, recalling the inception of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, the track
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WRRNXVWRDGLɱHUHQWOHYHO´
“Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was really the album after which I should
have said goodbye, because after that I really started unravelling,”
admits Ozzy. “Then we ended up falling out of favour with each other.”
At the heart of their initial discontent were the endless business
ZUDQJOHVWKDWEHVHWWKHP,QIDFWWKHYROXPHRIZULWVWKDWZHUHÀ\LQJ
around actually placed the band on a virtual hold, touring being curtailed
by further papers being served. Despite this, Sabbath headlined New
<RUN¶VSUHVWLJLRXV0DGLVRQ6TXDUH*DUGHQIRUWKH¿UVWWLPHRQ

“SABBATH
'XWFK FRXUDJH EHFDXVH , ZDV DIUDLG DQG , VXɱHUHG 'HFHPEHU7ZRPRQWKVODWHUWKH\EHJDQZRUNRQWKHLU
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BLOODY
became monumental. Butler. Unsurprisingly, the resultant album, Sabotage, remains
“If you were working for someone and you one of Sabbath’s most acerbic outings...

SABBATH WAS THE ALBUM

behaved like I did then they’d say to you, ‘You’re
¿UHG¶%XW,¶PDURFN¶Q¶UROOHUVR,JHWIXFNHGXS
and people would go, ‘Ozzy’s out of his mind!
Looks like it’s going to be a great show tonight!’ AFTER WHICH I SHOULD
That allowed it to carry on.”
)RUDOOWKHVHOIĥLQÀLFWHGGDPDJHPXVLFDOO\6DEEDWKZHUHRQ HAVE SAID
a roll, writing as they toured and completing enough material
for their third album, Master Of RealityĪVHHSDQHOSDJHī GOODBYE.
“The Paranoid album really crystallised our sound,” nods
%XWOHU³,I,¶PKRQHVWWKH¿UVWIRXUDOEXPVMXVWFDPHIURPQRĥ AFTER THAT
where. We were on the road forever, and in two years we had
done four albums and God knows how many tours. If we I STARTED
weren’t in the studio, then we were on the road.”
And the band’s touring requirements now revolved
around their new drug of choice. “We had a guy travelling
TO UNRAVEL.”
around with us with a suitcase of cocaine,” explains Ozzy. “I’m
VXUH VRPH RI LW ZDV -RKQVRQ¶V DUVH SRZGHU :H ZHUH WDNLQJ VWXɱ WR
pretend we felt good.”
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XS´FODUL¿HG*HH]HU\HDUVODWHUī+ROHGĥXSIRUPRVWRI-XQH¶LQD%HO
Air mansion, Sabbath wrote Vol. 4LQDELWRIDKD]H³:HKDGORFNĥLQVDOO
WKHWLPHZKHUHLWZDVMXVWXVDQGDEDJRIZKLWHSRZGHU´UHFDOOV2]]\
³7KH DOEXP FRVW IJ GROODUV WR PDNH DQG ZH VSHQW
OR O Z Z Y T H E E N D was still three
DOEXPVDZD\¶VSabotageĪPDGHDV
the band’s litigation against former
PDQDJHU 3DWULFN 0HHKDQ WRRN KROGī
¶V Technical Ecstasy and the disastrous Never Say Die! ĪVHH
SDJHVĥIRU,RPPL¶VWKRXJKWVRQDOOWKUHHDOEXPVī%\WKH
time Sabbath released the latter, they were really in trouble.
³7REHKRQHVWZHZHUHDOOORVWE\WKHQ´UHÀHFWV,RPPL
³,JRW¿UHG¿UVW´UHPHPEHUV%XWOHU³7KHQ,FDPHEDFN
And then it was Ozzy’s turn.”
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Never Say Die!, his best friend Ward told him that the band he’d
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,KDGORVWLWZLWK6DEEDWKORQJEHIRUH,JRW¿UHG/RRNLQJEDFNLWZDV
the best thing that could have happened to me and them.”
%XWZDVWKHUHDVHQVHRIXQ¿QLVKHGEXVLQHVV"³2K\HDK$QGWKDW
lasted for a long time.”
Ozzy’s comments are something of an understatement. It would
WDNHFORVHWR\HDUVIRUWKHEDQGWRUHXQLWH«

IOMMI SPEAKS
IJRQFRFDLQH´VD\V%XWOHU³,GLGQ¶WUHDOLVHKRZQXWV TURN
THE
we’d gone untLO , ZHQW KRPH ĬWR (QJODQGĭ DQG WKH JLUO PA G E . . .
GETTY, SAM EMERSON/POLARIS/EYEVINE EYEVINE

I was with didn’t recognise me.”

Despite their increasing addictions, Sabbath’s touring
VFKHGXOHFRQWLQXHGXQDEDWHG¶VWRXUVWDUWLQJLQ-XO\SULĥ
or to Vol. 4’s release in September. “On that tour we were
absolutely, completely exhausted,” recalls Butler. “We got to
WKH+ROO\ZRRG%RZOĬRQ6HSWHPEHUĭDQG7RQ\MXVW
FROODSVHG,WZDVUHDOO\WRXFKĥDQGĥJRDWRQHSRLQWZKHWKHU
he’d survive or not because he was totally depleted. So, we
had to cancel the rest of the tour and we actually took time
RɱIRUWKH¿UVWWLPHVLQFHZHVWDUWHG7KHQZHFDPHEDFN
On-stage at
together to start on the next album, and couldn’t come up with anything.”
Madison Square
5HOLDQW RQ7RQ\¶V ULɱV WR NLFNĥVWDUW WKH FUHDWLYH SURFHVV 6DEEDWK Garden, 1975.
regrouped in LA and found their leader bereft of ideas. “I panicked
because I didn’t have a single idea about what to write,” says Tony. “It
might have been the drugs, it could have been the pressure, but either
way I felt it was my fault.”
0RYLQJ EDFN WR WKH 8. 6DEEDWK KLUHG &OHDUZHOO &DVWOH Ħ QRZ
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in which the likes of Zeppelin, Purple and Mott The Hoople wrote
and recorded.
 , ’s lynchpin and
riff master, looks back at the band’s early career,
their last gigs, and the forthcoming live concert
filmThe End Of The End. He also shares his vision
of a Sabbath-free future with ...
P H O T O F E AT U R E S

Portrait by

90 PLANET ROCK
CHRIS WALTER
 SAYS TO N Y I O M M I ,
the day after the launch of The Ten Year War at Regent Sound Studios, as he everybody is obsessed with money. But back in
SUHSDUHVWRSURYLGHXVZLWKDQRYHUYLHZRI%ODFN6DEEDWK¶VFDUHHU¿OOLQJLQVRPHRIWKHEODQNV those days we were just in it for the music. That’s
DORQJWKHZD\$VZHOODVFRQGXFWLQJLQWHUYLHZVWRSURPRWHWKHER[VHW,RPPLKDVEHHQEXV\ all we cared about. In fact, we still do. You can’t
PL[LQJWKHDXGLRWKDWZLOOIHDWXUHRQ7KH(QG2I7KH(QGWKHFRQFHUWPRYLHPDGHE\GLUHFWRU make music if you don’t think that way. You have
'LFN&DUUXWKHUVDURXQGWKHEDQG¶V¿QDOVKRZVLQWKHLUKRPHWRZQRI%LUPLQJKDPLQ)HEUXDU\ to get the music right and nothing else matters.
of this year. Prior to travelling down to record at Regent
,QGHHG6DEEDWK¶V¿QDOWRXUZDVDELWWHUVZHHWDɱDLULWVFHOHEUDWRU\PRRGVOLJKWO\WHPSHUHG Sound, you’d done some pre-production
E\WKHDEVHQFHRIRULJLQDOGUXPPHU%LOO:DUGZKRIHOORXWRYHUWKHWHUPVKHZDVRɱHUHGDQG with Rodger Bain. What did that consist of?
WKHQREMHFWHGWRFHUWDLQFRPPHQWVPDGHE\2]]\2VERXUQHFRQFHUQLQJKLVJHQHUDOKHDOWK³, I think he popped up to see us rehearse for a
WKLQNZH¶GDOOZLVKHG%LOOKDGEHHQDEOHWRGRWKHWRXU´VDLG7RQ\GXULQJWKHLQWHUYLHZDW5HJHQW couple of days but it wasn’t anything more than
6RXQGGLVFXVVLQJWKHIUDFWXUHGUHODWLRQVKLSWKDWKDVHQGXUHGVLQFHWKHRULJLQDOIRXUPHPEHUV that. And it was a few days before we actually
RI%ODFN6DEEDWK¿UVWJRWEDFNWRJHWKHULQ came down to London. It was really just a case
)RU,RPPLWKHWRXULWVHOIZDVWLULQJDVKHFRQWLQXHGWREDWWOHWKHFDQFHUKHZDVGLDJQRVHG of getting acquainted with each other. I think it
was Rodger’s first project too so they were really
ZLWKLQZKHQKH2]]\2VERXUQHDQG*HH]HU%XWOHUEHJDQWRPDNH13WKHLU¿QDODOEXP
using it as a test for him also.
ZLWK SURGXFHU 5LFN 5XELQ 5HOHDVHG LQ -XQH  WKH DOEXP LWVHOI PHW ZLWK PL[HG UHYLHZV
WKRXJKLWFKDUWHGDW1XPEHULQERWKWKH8.DQGLQWKH866RKRZGRHV7RQ\,RPPLIHHO No one sounded like Black Sabbath at the
DERXW7KH(QG"$QGDVIDUDVWKHIXWXUHJRHVZKDWGRHVWKHJXLWDULVWLQWHQGWRGRQH[W"$OOZLOO time. Was it a particular challenge for him to
EHUHYHDOHGEXW¿UVWZHKHDGEDFNWR6DEEDWK¶VHPEU\RQLFUHFRUGLQJFDUHHU« capture your sound?
It was pretty straightforward. In terms of my
Let’s go back to the beginning. Before you The band’s initial record deal is a tangled sound, he just set up a mic in front of the cabinet
recorded the first album, didn’t you head affair. Is it true you got paid £100 each to and we just played our set. We didn’t have a load
down to London in autumn 1969 and record record the first album? of technology at the time, just eight
two tracks – The Rebel and Song For Jim It is true. We got four hundred tracks. In all honesty, other than
– at Trident Studios? quid for the band but that our playing, we didn’t have a
I don’t remember that. I thought we recorded didn’t matter because all whole lot of say in the
those songs in Birmingham at a small studio we wanted to do was matter, everything was
called Zella. It was more of a rehearsal for us, record an album. That pretty basic. But Rodger
where we played through the songs and they was just so important did capture the sound
were recorded. They were songs that were to us. Today, of and there was no
suggested to us by [then manager] Jim Simpson. course, things have fiddling or diddling
Am I a fan of those songs? Not really. totally changed and around. Geezer had
a fuzzy bass sound
and I had a fuzzy
guitar sound, and no
one moaned about it
Street fighting man: at the time. Later on,
Iommi at Regent though, producers
Sound during the would say, “You’ve got
making of Paranoid. this odd fuzzy sound that’s
Note the skinhead- too distorted.” I’d say to them,
supplied shiner.
“Listen to the band’s entire sound,
not the isolated instruments.” It was all
about the combination. That’s what our sound is:
P H O T O F E AT U R E S , RO S S H A L F I N

a combination. If you listened to what we were

doing individually it probably sounded crap but
together it really worked. It was powerful and
that’s how producers needed to listen to us, as a
whole rather than by isolating tracks. You had to
hear us as a band.
You arrived at Regent Sound on October 16,
1969. What was the first track you cut? Did
you work on the album in sequence?
I don’t remember whether we did that and
whether it was the track Black Sabbath itself.
It may well have been, though.

92 PLANET ROCK

You liked to get up to mischief in those
days. Did anything untoward happen during
that first session?
Not that much. It was really serious because we
had a few hours and we knew that time was
limited. We got down to it immediately and, like I
said, it was like doing a gig. We probably did
Black Sabbath twice but that was good. When
you play a song too much in the studio you lose
the spirit of it. I like two or three takes otherwise
you just suck the life out of the music.
At what point did you get to hear the whole
of the album?
It was kept away from us. They were mixing it
and they didn’t want us around so we heard it
properly when we came back [from Zurich], by
which point it was out. I think we heard a track
on the radio. That was quite exciting.
When you went back to Regent Sound to
record Paranoid, how had the band evolved?
We knew what the studio was like and we’d
really prepared ourselves as far as the songs
were concerned. We’d found our direction and
we knew what we were doing, so we had the
material ready, apart from the song Paranoid.
That came out of the blue and it worked...
In the photos shot in the studio during those
sessions you have a black eye…
Yes. We had a fight at a seaside resort. Basically,
Geezer had gone to ring Jim Simpson because
there was a problem with the money from the
promoter at the end of the night – as there often
was in those days. Suddenly the phone box was
surrounded by skinheads and when he came out,
they went for him. He ran back to the gig and
told us. The fumes rose as a result and we went
out to confront these skinheads with a couple of
hammers, a mic stand and whatever we could
get our hands on. It ended up in a real fight. Then
another 15 or so skinheads turned up and we
were a bit like, “Oh, bloody hell!” It got really
messy then, there was quite a lot of blood
everywhere. It got dispersed, but by then I’d also
got booted in the face.
That episode gave birth to Fairies Wear
Boots which ended up on Paranoid. The
album itself went to Number 1 in the UK.
Was that the point when you first started to
see some money?
We started to see money a little bit after that, but
that was really when we started touring America.
It was odd because we didn’t really see any
physical money as such. If we wanted something,
then we’d ring the office and they’d sort it all out.
If we saw a car – say, a Mercedes – you’d tell
them where you’d seen it and they would sort it
out and get it delivered. It was the same with
houses too. But we were in the dark in terms of
the cash itself. We did have a bit in our accounts
but not that much. It took us a while to realise that
Princes of darkness:
(clockwise from top left)
Black Sabbath backstage
at London’s Royal Albert
Hall, February 17, 1972;
Tony Iommi on-stage in
1978; Ozzy’s handwritten
lyrics for The Wizard.
we were earning but not seeing very much of that
fortune but that’s because we weren’t thinking
about that kind of stuff. It was all about the music.
Obviously, despite the success, the press
criticism was harsh. The Ten Year War box
set’s very title is based on that. Did that
criticism affect you?
Well, it’s never nice. I used to read the slaggings
we’d get and I’d just think, “Why?” There was
one moment that really hurt and that didn’t
actually come from the press. It came from Pink
Floyd’s Roger Waters. He reviewed Paranoid
when it came out as a single because he was
reviewing the singles that week for a music
paper. He gave it such a terrible review. I
thought, “Blimey!” Hearing that from a fellow
musician seemed really harsh. It didn’t affect
what happened to the single, though. It got in the
charts and, as you know, it still gets played all the
time. It’s on an advert right now and it’s on the
soundtrack to the new King Kong movie, too.
In terms of the band’s trajectory, your third
album, Master Of Reality, maintained that
momentum and it really cracked the States.
What impact did America have on the band?
It had a big impact on us. It opened our eyes to a
whole new world and it took us on to a big
stage. We’d been slated in England but in
America they seemed to really get what we were
doing. The stages there were bigger too,
PLANET ROCK 93

Lord of this world: (top)
Tony Iommi at home in
Warwickshire in 1975
and (below) on-stage
in the US in the same
year; Clearwell Castle;
Quiet Riot’s best-selling
Metal Health album;
the Ten Year Booklet.
and it was the first time we actually used a
monitor system. We also had really good PAs
which was a new thing for us. Then there was
the lifestyle, of course. Touring there introduced
us to quite a lot of other things!
Looking back, what impact did success have
on you as a band, and as individuals?
I don’t think success changed our personalities.
We were still basic chaps. The only difference
was that we saw a new kind of lifestyle around us
and we got everything that we wanted. But we
didn’t pose around because to us it was still all
94 PLANET ROCK
about the music, not about success itself. There
wasn’t much flash nonsense that went on. I have
never understood that, really. There was a band
we toured with once, I won’t name names, but
they had a Number 1 album in America… Actually,
I will name names... It was Quiet Riot. I couldn’t
believe the attitude they had. We went to this do
and their guitar player was there surrounded by
women. He was really trying to impress them by
talking about the fact that he’d got a platinum
album. I heard him and I couldn’t resist saying,
“Oh, you’ve only got one, then?” (laughs) I just
didn’t like the ego and the attitude. I’ve never
understood when people behave like
that. You’re a musician, you play music.
That doesn’t give you the right to treat
people differently. Why should it?
Even though you maintained a certain
earthiness, excess came into play. Was
there a specific moment where you felt
you’d lost the plot because of that?
There probably was. It was definitely more when
the drugs got involved. I know I lost the plot at
that point. But I realised I was doing too much
and I managed to cut it down. Some people don’t
realise it at all but I did. I realised I was losing my
identity and myself, too. Some people go into
rehab to sort that out. I didn’t. It was like when I
stopped smoking, I just did it. But, to be honest,
I did do quite a lot of drugs and then I stopped.
Obviously, there were moments in the
band’s career when you felt under pressure.
Sabbath Bloody Sabbath being one of them
when you had writer’s block. Did that ever
happen again?
It didn’t but when it happened the first time, it
frightened me to death. We went to LA to write
and record, and it just wasn’t happening. Maybe
it was the fact that the drugs had got in the way.
It was the same set up as we’d had on Vol. 4,
exactly the same house and the same process
but the more I over-thought things, the worse it
got. In the end we just had to stop. Then, when
we booked time at Clearwell Castle, the writing
all started again.
Sabotage is another album title based on
the reality that surrounded the band, most
notably the legal battle you waged with your
management at the time. What do you feel
when you hear that album now?
It puts me back into that situation. It was most
definitely not a good time. We also had a
problem in the studio where one of the
engineers taped over the master tape. There
was just so much bad stuff going on. We’d be in
court in the morning and back in the studio in the
afternoon. It was dreadful really, but somehow
we got the album done.
Is Technical Ecstasy overlooked as a
Sabbath album?
ROSS HALFIN, ALAMY, GET TY, MIRRORPIX
Yeah. I liked Technical Ecstasy. There was some
good stuff on there but it did get overlooked.
Even our band overlooked it. Ozzy didn’t like it at
first, and then, when it started selling, he did.
I was totally involved in it from start to finish so
I had a different perspective. We did it in Miami
so there was a lot of sitting on the beach for
everyone but I was stuck in the studio for most of
the time. [Keyboard player] Jezz Woodroffe played
on it so it sounded different but it had some really
good stuff on it, like Back Street Kids and You
Won’t Change Me. They were good songs.
Never Say Die! was the final bow. How do
you feel about that period now?
That was hard. It was the period when Ozzy left.
We wrote a few songs with Dave Walker then
Ozzy wanted to come back and he didn’t want to
record any of the material we’d written with
Dave. We went to Toronto to record and we
started with Junior’s Eyes, which we had actually
recorded with Dave, but Bill had to sing
Swinging The Chain because Ozzy didn’t want
to do it, so we had to start all over again. It was
freezing in Toronto and we hired this cinema to
start writing again. We’d write in the day and
then record in the evening. The pressure was
unbelievable and the whole process was
disjointed. It was terrible, really. We couldn’t
carry on like that. It had to change.
The Ten Year Booklet – which came out to
accompany Never Say Die! – collated a
large chuck of slatings you got from the
press down the years. Whose idea was it?
I can’t remember but we thought it was quite
funny. There was so much turmoil in that period.
At what point do you think you fell out?
It almost felt like a betrayal when Ozzy left but it’s
hard to put myself back into that space. We
were all having so many problems that it got to a
point where something had to happen. It started
with Ozzy, but things were bad for us all. We
went to LA again and that was really it. The
drugs really did set it all off and Ozzy in
particular got carried away. We went into the
studio to start writing songs and he’d go missing
for days and we wouldn’t know where he was.
Then, when he was in the studio he’d just fall
asleep. He just wasn’t into it
anymore.
The wounds took a while
to heal but you finally
got there in 1997. It’s
been a stop-start
reunion but 13 was
a Number 1 album.
How do you view
the album now?
You know what I’m
like. It’s hard to leave
it at that as far as I’m
concerned. I don’t
think it’s the best album
we’re ever going to do.
But, bearing in mind the
circumstances in which we did
it with me falling ill, it’s pretty
good. The process of making it brought
the three of us so much closer together. That
was great. The guys were really there for me,
they were real friends. We had Rick Rubin
involved and there were times when we were
at loggerheads.
What did you disagree about?
Basically, Rick wanted to recreate the first album
sounds. We recorded at Rick’s place out in LA
and strange things would happen. Like a stack of
10 vintage Marshall amps would appear in the
studio. I’d be like, “What are they for?” And he’d
say, “They’re vintage amps to get that old sound.”
Then I’d say, “But I used Laney amps to get that
sound.” The next day a load of Laney amps would
turn up which didn’t exist when we recorded the
first album. One day Rick said, “I’ve found
somebody who knows how we can get that
sound.” I was like, “What do you mean? I’m the
guy who got that fucking sound in the first place!”
In my personal view, I wrote and recorded a
lot of the songs at home and I liked what we’d
done with those versions. Not trying to put Rick
down, but I preferred the sound we got there.
But it was good to have him involved because he
has a different way of doing things.
The final tour is being documented with the
upcoming concert film The End Of The End.
How did you find the tour?
It was great. I really enjoyed it. When you say
upfront, “Let’s do a tour”, and then you see it’s 80
shows, it can be daunting. I did feel a little lonely
at times because everybody wanted their own
little space and stayed in their room a lot. They
didn’t come down to the bar and have a pint
because they’re all recovering alcoholics. In the
old days that was our way of communicating,
relaxing at the bar, but it didn’t happen this time.
We didn’t really hang out the way we used to, and
I missed that. It was quite lonely at times.
People forget that touring can be quite a
lonely experience.
You do get isolated sometimes. I’d keep myself
busy but it would’ve been nice for all of us to go
out more and to chat more. I also wished we could
have changed things around in the set more. It
would’ve been nice to do different
songs every night. As a musician
you like to play different
things. It’s different for Ozzy
though because some of
the old songs are really
hard to sing. A song
like Symptom Of The
Universe is just too
high for him to sing.
Fiends reunited:
Sabbath’s original
line-up at Monnow
Valley Studios,
Wales, May 1998.
But that was the idea with the film. I suggested
we go into the studio and play through a few
songs as if we were just rehearsing. It was just
a case of playing so that Ozzy wouldn’t feel the
pressure of performing in front of the audience
and we could concentrate on the music, so that’s
what we did and it’s part of the package.
The film documents the final show in
Birmingham on February 4, 2017. What is
the main memory you have of that night?
It was strange and nervy. I remember thinking,
“Blimey! This could be the last time we play
together”, and then the next second I’m thinking,
“No, it won’t be.” Seeing the audience was
strange too – all these people that had come to
see us from everywhere. It was quite sad, really.
A very weird experience in the end that’s quite
hard to put into words.
It must have been and you do sense you
want to play with Sabbath again. But what’s
next for you?
Well, I’ve been involved with the mixing of the
CD and the movie, so I still feel like I’m on the
road because I’ve been so busy. I haven’t really
had any time off as such, so I want a break to be
able to think what’s next. I need to close the door
for a bit. But I also want to get back to writing.
I’ve been offered some TV work too because I
did that TV show for Sky, Guitar Star, and there’s
a different way of approaching that which they
want to discuss. I’ve also been offered the
chance to play with various bands on different
things. There’s quite a few things I’ve been
offered but I just want to breathe a bit. The last
few years have been quite intense so I want that
looseness for a bit. I don’t want to stop playing,
though, and I won’t because I love it too much.
There’s always something for me to do and, in
the end, I’m glad because that’s really good.
Let’s see what comes next.
PLANET ROCK 95
. . .ALBUMS YOU NEED TO HEAR RIGHT NOW!
Your hand-picked selection of essential
releases… Foo Fighters, Black p98

Country Communion, Oh Sees, p100 p101

QOTSA, The Darkness, Alter

p102 p103

Bridge, Josh Todd, Prophets Of

p104 p104

Rage, Arcane Roots, Gun,

p104 p105 p105

Lionize, Lionheart, Dead Cross,

p105 p105 p106

Living Colour, King King, Koyo,

p106 p106 p106

Lukas Nelson, Dead Lord, p107 p107

Wayward Sons, Suzi Quatro, p107 p108

Motörhead, Monster Magnet,

p110 p110

Saxon, ELP, Stone Temple Pilots

p110 p110 p110

PLUS BOOKS & DVDS Foreigner, Jane’s p112

Addiction, Guns N’Roses,

p113 p113

Greg Lake, Brian Slagel

p113 p113

AND... LIVE ACTION ZZ Top, Tyler Bryant p118

& The Shakedown, Saxon p120 p122

PLANET ROCK 97

“
Experimental. Intriguing.
Classic rock rewired in
fascinating fashion...
Dave Grohl’s arena rockers get “weird” B Y PA U L B R A N N I G A N
FOO FIGHTERS
on shape-shifting ninth album.
IT’S TELLING that when Foo Fighters closed
their summer 2017 European tour at Athens’
Concrete And Gold
stunning Odeon of Herodes Atticus on July 10, COLUMBIA
not a single track from 2014’s Sonic Highways
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piece to the HBO series of the same name, frontĥ
++++
man Dave Grohl’s “love letter to the history of
American music”, the album was compromised
as a result of the concept attached to its creation, namely that each of
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Though the conceit was consistent with Grohl’s desire to frame
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muscular Wasting Light, was recorded in Grohl’s garage by Nevermind
producer Butch Vig, and envisaged as a “tapping the source” collection
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But if Sonic Highways was the sole Foo Fighters album not
represented at the band’s televised Acropolis, Wow! spectacular, it’s
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selections from Concrete And GoldWKHQVWLOOWZRPRQWKVIURPUHOHDVH
In an age where record company paranoia over piracy ensures that even
the most undistinguished releases are guarded as if they are freshly
excavated ‘lost’ Led Zeppelin sessions, this displayed a welcome chutzĥ
pah: moreover it suggests that Grohl is preternaturally pleased with
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Those speculating in advance as to the colour and shape of Concrete
And Gold have zeroed in on the hiring of producer Greg Kurstin, best
known for his work with Adele, Sia and Ellie Goulding, as telegraphing
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would make sense: in 2016, Metallica’s Hardwired collection was the
sole hard rock/heavy metal album to top 500,000 sales in America, and
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An unlikely catalyst for this atypically experimental approach,
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Invited to record backing vocals for Concrete And Gold’s title track, the
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I L L U S T R AT I O N B Y tracked choral vocals, adding a grandiose
GIAN GALANG Queen sheen to a striking album closer
Albums
”
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“He left the room and I said, The rest of the
fucking record has to sound like this!” Grohl
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I just wanna sing a love song, pretend there’s
nothing wrong…” over spare, sparse minor
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Part of the joy of Concrete And Gold is the inescapable sense that the
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snarl on the otherwise dreamy Run, Dirty Water switches at its midĥ
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And if Grohl’s lyrics remain frustratingly
opaque, maybe that’s part of the fun, satisfying
as it may be for the curious to know the
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mavericks Psychic TV, Whitehouse and Death
In June in the thrillingly punchy La Dee Da, or
the source for “licking bitter envelopes, blood
on your tongue” in the otherwise jaunty, Beatĥ TRACKS
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Grohl has likened Concrete And Gold to Run
“Motörhead’s version of Sgt. Pepper” and “Slayer Make It Right
making Pet Sounds´,W¶VQHLWKHUREYLRXVO\EXW The Sky Is A
it’s undeniably an album ambitious in scale and Neighborhood
rich in invention, yielding more tricks and La Dee Da
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imperil the Foos’ stadium rock status, but gleeĥ Arrows
fully detonates any criticism that Grohl’s unit Happy Ever After
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KLJKZD\VDKHDGKDYHQHYHUORRNHGPRUHRSHQ Sunday Rain
The Line
B E ST TRACKS: Concrete And Gold, La Dee Da, Concrete And Gold
The Sky Is A Neighborhood
PLANET ROCK 99

“
A phoenix rises from
the ashes to take flight...
Glenn Hughes and Joe Bonamassa’s hard BY STEVE B E E B E E
BLACK COUNTRY
rock supergroup rise from the dead…
THERE CAN be little debate about the meaning of
COMMUNION
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acrimonious ending in 2013, few would have expectĥ
ed Black Country Communion to be in any position BCCIV
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Yet, remarkably, the band that received its worldĥ
wide radio debut on Planet Rock back in 2010 has ++++
not only returned but has exceeded its earlier
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respect, BCCIV isn’t perfect but it’s a true realisation
of four extraordinary talents, united through an instinctive chemistry
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up with blues rock supremo Joe Bonamassa in 2009, and with the help
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The shows, if you were lucky enough to catch one, were incendiary but,
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100 P L A N E T R O C K
Fire and ice: BCC
return in style.
”
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and a frustrated breakdown, with both Hughes and
the guitarist airing their disappointment and apparĥ
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 Albums

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P L A N E T R O C K 101
 Albums
“
Hooks, fun and grooves
led with the heart...
Homme’s heroes return – and this time BY STEVI E C H I C K
QUEENS OF
they’ve got the Saturday night fever.
JOSH HOMME, indestructible bastard. Invented
THE STONE AGE
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of the summer.
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Villains Of Circumstance
 Triumphant
return: The
Darkness.

“
They sound like
eccentricities on their sleeve, to embrace being, well… The Darkness.
7KLVWLPHDURXQGWKLQJVDUHGLɱHUHQW
On the most basic level, Pinewood Smile is thrilling because it
adheres to the most simple of mandates: rock very hard. To achieve

a band intent on this, sometimes they borrow liberally from AC/DC’s orthodoxy, at
others they branch out into the kind of metallised rock that Alter
Bridge have made a career out of. Regardless of approach, and even

reasserting their GXULQJWKHVOLJKWPLV¿UHRI%XFFDQHHUV2I+LVSDQLROD7KH'DUNQHVV

”
sound like a band intent on reasserting their sovereignty.
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2017 would record a song called Lay Down

sovereignty... :LWK 0H %DUEDUD":KR HOVH ZRXOG KDYH WKH

temerity to write a track about major commutĥ
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on Southern Trains being,
“trying to eat dinner with an
Lowestoft’s glam rock boulevardiers put BY G E O R G E G A R N E R arse in your face, it’s a

THE DARKNESS
their troubled past behind them on disgrace”. This is to say nothĥ
ferociously confident comeback. ing of Japanese Prisoner Of
Love’s compelling account of
THERE ARE moments on The Darkness’s Pinewood being “taken by force from TRACKS
Smile that feel more like extracts from an autobiograĥ
Pinewood Smile
behind by a stabby white All The Pretty Girls
COOKING VINYL
phy than songs. Take Solid Gold, a strutting track supremacist named Klaus”. Buccaneers Of
which lays bare their early naivety and hubris in the
music biz, Justin Hawkins singing about an A&R who
++++ You wouldn’t want to meet
the person who doesn’t at
Hispaniola
Solid Gold
is “desperate to sign us, ’cos we melted his fucking least crack a smile during Southern Trains
IDFH´ (OVHZKHUH $OO 7KH 3UHWW\ *LUOV RɱHUV DQ these songs. Why Don’t The Beautiful
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ise on the blockbusting success of their 2003 Permission To Land debut. ¿UVW DQG IRUHPRVW D EULOOLDQW EDQG GHOLYHULQJ Love
“A year full of glory and an empty decade, came out for the encore but IUHQHWLF ULɱV DQG XQGHQLDEOH PHORGLHV $QG Lay Down With Me,
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ODFNHGIRURYHUDGHFDGHQRZLVWKHFRQ¿GHQFHWRZHDUWKHLULQDOLHQDEOH Lay Down With Me, Barbara

P L A N E T R O C K 103

PROPHETS OF RAGE
Prophets Of Rage
FANTASY
++++
Moshpit manifestos from
the rock-rap supergroup.
An unexpected rush on this
summer’s festival circuit,
VHOIĥSURIHVVHG ³HOLWH WDVNIRUFH
of revolutionary musicians” Prophets Of
5DJHPLQHERWKURFNQRVWDOJLDDQGULJKWHRXV
anger. Combining the engine room for Rage
Against The Machine’s scorched grooves
Ī7RP0RUHOOR%UDG:LON7LP&RPPHUIRUGī
with the vocal heft of Public Enemy frontman
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104 P L A N E T R O C K
Rage Against
The Public Hill:
revolutionary.
captured on a recording, no one told Alter
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November 24 show at the world’s busiest
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alongs bringing an energy usually lost in
translation. An extra disc of rare/unreleased
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liners could do worse than starting here.
CAREN GIBSON
B E ST TRACKS: 7KH:ULWLQJ2Q7KH:DOOīOLYHĬ
Zero, Never Born To Follow
JOSH TODD & THE CONFLICT
Year Of The Tiger
CENTURY MEDIA
++++
Buckcherry singer
and guitarist go for
pumping manifestos. And while broke on cathartic
not reaching the sonic highs of side project.
their previous projects, they’ve
Step on a viper and you
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can expect it to uncoil at speed and jab
project that ensures their
you with venom. That’s pretty much
dissident juggernaut can
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for dangerous times”.
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MATT ALLEN
cherry frontman Josh Todd and guitarĥ
LVW6WHYLH'KDVUHVXOWHGLQDKDUVKOHDQ
B E ST TRACKS: Living On The
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110, Unfuck The World, Hail To
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The Chief
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plosive a release of frustration as you
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ALTER BRIDGE and Good Enough are more
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Live At The O2 Arena PLQG LQ WXUPRLO VHHNLQJ DQVZHUV
+ Rarities Meanwhile, Erotic City’s disco hue
NAPALM  aligns it more closely with the duo’s
++++ other band. This isn’t simply the
VRXQGRI%XFNFKHUU\RQVSHHGĦ
Florida rockers’ it’s the best album that the band
landmark 2016 never made.
Myles Kennedy:
O2 show in full – STEVE BEEBEE
crowd pleaser.
and much more.
If it’s a truism that the B E ST TRACKS: Push It,
spirit of a live gig can never be fully Fucked Up, Rain

ARCANE ROOTS
Melancholia Hymns
EASY LIFE/RED ESSENTIAL
++++
Kingston-upon-Thames
trio soar skywards.
Arcane Roots have developed
a reputation for crafting sideĥ
winding slabs of proggressive
atmospheric rock, most notably on 2013’s
Blood & Chemistry. Melancholia Hymns further
advances their claim for greatness, bringing
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grandiose soundscape underpinned by band
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complexities are revealed with repeated plays,
the highs arrive when distorted, heavy guitars
are twinned with scattershot drum grooves
Ī6ROHPQīRURQVHYHUDOVQLSSHWVRIEURRGLQJ
V\QWKĥGULYHQ KDUPRQ\ Ī,QGLJR¶V DWPRVSKHULF
close; dreamy, slow burning album opener,
%HIRUH0Hī$QDEVHQFHRIREYLRXVUDGLRKLWV
might slow their progression to festival
ubiquity, but it won’t be for a lack of ambition.
MATT ALLEN
B E ST TRACKS: 6ROHPQ,QGLJR2ɲ7KH)ORRU
GUN
)DYRXULWH3OHDVXUHV
CAROLINE INTERNATIONAL
++++
The Italo-Glaswegian
outfit’s seventh album.
Given the band’s numerous
OLQHĥXSFKDQJHVRYHUWKH\HDUV
you could be forgiven for
thinking that the favourite pleasures of Gun
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KLULQJDQG¿ULQJ/DVWPDQLQWKLVWLPHLVQHZ
lead guitarist Tommy Gentry, a tasteful player
who adds extra vim to an album teeming with
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es. The set is largely a return to the tougher
textures of debut album 7DNLQJ2Q7KH:RUOG
and Swagger, but piano ballad closer The Boy
:KR)RROHG7KH:RUOGPD\EHWRR86WHHQ
soap opera for some. Thankfully, Gun strike
bullseyes elsewhere, the title track a winning
cousin of Zeppelin’s Trampled Underfoot, and
6KH.QRZVDPLQLPDVWHUSLHFH
JAMES MCNAIR
B E ST TRACKS: 6KH.QRZV+HUH·V:KHUH,$P
6LOHQW/RYHU
LIONHEART
6HFRQG1DWXUH
AOR HEAVEN
++++
Former Iron Maiden
guitarist’s 1980s band
completes remarkable
comeback.
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weren’t expecting this. Formed back in 1980
E\ JXLWDULVW 'HQQLV 6WUDWWRQ ZKR SOD\HG RQ
,URQ 0DLGHQ¶V VHOIĥWLWOHG GHEXW /LRQKHDUW
made one album, +RW7RQLJKW, before abruptly
disappearing. A new version of the band
returned in 2016 to play the Rockingham
)HVWLYDO Ħ EXW ZKDW¶V UHDOO\ LPSUHVVLYH LV WKH
fruits of their labour since then. 6HFRQG1DWXUH
is classic hard rock that doesn’t shy away from
VKRZSLHFH ORRNĥDWĥPH FKRUXVHV 7KHVH DUH
WKH W\SH RI KRRNV 'HI /HSSDUG IDQV ORYH Ħ
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of imaginative and compelling guitar work
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6FKHQNHU *URXSī WR EDFN WKHP XS 1HZ
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IRUELJĥPDQHGURFNHUV
STEVE BEEBEE
B E ST TRACKS: *LYH0H7KH/LJKW3ULVRQHU
Lionheart
Gun: firing
on all
cylinders.
Albums
LIONIZE
1XFOHDU6RXO
THE END 
+++
Foot-stomping,
deep-grooving blues-rock
from Clutch’s mates.
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/LRQL]H KDLO IURP WKH FUHDWLYH
hive of Maryland, and consequently spent
much of their formative years bonding with
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Weathermaker imprint was their last home.
7KHLU FORVH UHODWLRQVKLS KDV OHG WR &OXWFK
JXLWDULVW7LP6XOWSURGXFLQJ1XFOHDU6RXO, the
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\HDU WKH\¶YH SDUHG EDFN WKH UHJJDHĥ DQG
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a more turbocharged rock furrow: think Five
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it’s a subtle accent, allowing the soulful
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QLHVWRSOD\WKHVWDUULQJUROHKHUH,I\RXPLVV
6RXWKHUQ +DUPRQ\ĥHUD %ODFN&URZHV 1XFOHDU
6RXO is a solid investment.
CAREN GIBSON
B E ST TRACKS: 'DUNHVW7LPHOLQH3RZHU*ULG
/HW<RX'RZQ
P L A N E T R O C K 105
 Albums

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Dead Cross
IPECAC preposterous melodrama Daughter Of Darkĥ 5REHUW-RKQVRQ¶V3UHDFKLQ¶%OXHVWUDFHVWKHLU

++++
Mike Patton/Dave
Lombardo ‘supergroup’
in manic hardcore treat.
If there’s something ludicrous
about Faith No More/
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URDUV1LPPRHPSOR\LQJWKHFXULRXVOH[LFRQ
hard rock reserves for its Jezebels.
JAMES MCNAIR
B E ST TRACKS: ī6KH'RQ·WĬ*LPPH1R/RYLQ·
Find Your Way, Heed The Warning
path back to the source, but Living Colour
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Fantômas frontman Mike Patton deciding, at Expression, Who Shot Ya?

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punk album, rest assured, Dead Cross is no
laughing matter. Drummer Dave Lombardo
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Six albums in, the New
++++
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York quartet have got a Ambitious, engaging first
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right to sing the blues. album from youthful
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enough for curious headbangers.
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PAUL BRANNIGAN
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B E ST TRACKS: Shillelagh, Church Of The
Motherfuckers, Divine Filth
Fall guys: Leeds
quintet KOYO

KING KING
meddle with prog,
psych and post-rock.

Exile & Grace

MANHATON

++++
Taking a new direction,
studio album number four
is a right royal rumpus.
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106 P L A N E T R O C K
 Dirty Thrills:
get them while
they’re hot.

Düül II bassist Dave Anderson, its ten tracks
have a stately feel, luxuriating in rich, layered
sounds. It’s easy to imagine the rural surrounds
bled into the mix, not least on What Is Mine,
which mixes bucolic folk with echoes of
0HOORQ &ROOLH $QG 7KH ,QÀQLWH 6DGQHVVĥHUD
Smashing Pumpkins, and The Beauty In
Loneliness, featuring guest vocals from the
studio cats. A classy, inventive, inviting debut.
PAUL BRANNIGAN
B E ST TRACKS: 6WUDQJH%LUG,Q7KH6N\:KDW
,V0LQH7HWUDFKURPDWī3DUWV Ĭ
Scarborough’s answer to Bon Jovi. Since then,
PLJKW\ĥYRLFHG IURQWPDQ 7RE\ -HSVRQ KDV
FRĥZULWWHQVRQJVZLWK.DWLH0HOXDDQGVXQJ
with Fastway and Gun. Wayward Sons pairs
KLP ZLWK EDVVLVW 1LF :DVWHOO ĪH[ĥ&KURPH
Molly, a group familiar only to lapsed
.HUUDQJ UHDGHUV RI D FHUWDLQ DJHī7KHUH¶V D
/DVW&KDQFH6DORRQIHHOWRWKLVGHEXWDOEXP
WKH ZRUN RI RQHĥWLPH SUHWW\ĥER\ URFNHUV
coming to terms with middle age spread and
stubble. Everything here sounds urgent and
to the point: Give It Away and the standout
Until The End are awash with pummelling
JXLWDUV DQG VLQJĥVRQJ FKRUXVHV ZKLOH WKH

SHORT CUTS
RSHQLQJ WUDFN $OLYH LV WKH VRUW RI FKHVWĥ

DEAD LORD
beating arena rock Alter Bridge have built an
empire out of. If Wayward Sons had one big
power ballad and a set of American passports
,Q,JQRUDQFH:H7UXVW they’d probably be massive.
CENTURY MEDIA MARK BLAKE but ’80s glammers
Nothing More
+++ B E ST TRACKS: $OLYH8QWLO7KH(QG'RQ·W
THE STORIE S
WE TELL
The Quireboys fill
the air with
:DQQD*R*LYH,W$ZD\ summertime blues,
Tongue-in-cheek OURSELVE S
offering more in
Swedes pay homage to BETTER NOISE
Allman Brothers-
Jailbreak-era Lizzy. ++++ worship than

LUKAS NELSON
Though only the thickness of decadent sleaze.
Phil Lynott’s mirrored scratch
Jon Stevens
& PROMISE OF THE REAL
plate separates Stockholm’s Dead Lord from
STARLIGHT
D IXOOĥRQ7KLQ /L]]\ Sastiche, their playfully BMG
GXPEHGĥGRZQGHPHDQRXUDQGVXLWDEO\JXQJĥ
ho manner makes third album ,Q,JQRUDQFH:H /XNDV1HOVRQ 3URPLVH2I7KH5HDO For album number
+++
FANTASY six, the Texan radio
7UXVW a most enjoyable listen. That Hakim
Krim and Olle Hedenström are credited with
“left side guitar” and “right side guitar”
++++ rockers have
written some of the
most infectious
respectively on an album that was recorded to Superstar appearances songs of their
tape speaks volumes about their approach, and storytelling defines career to date.
Ex-INXS frontman
and they do indeed party like it’s 1976. “Tired latest outing from Neil
Jon Stevens gets a
of reruns in my head/Tired of dancing with Young collaborator(s). Dirty Thrills
little help from his
HE AV Y LIVING
WKH GHDG´ +DNLP VLQJV LQ EHVW ZDUULRUĥSRHW Talk about pressure. As if FRONTIERS MUSIC
friends – including
voice on Reruns, while Darker Times is all being the progeny of Willie Nelson wasn’t Ringo Starr and
syncopated swagger, spit and sawdust. Only enough, as part of Promise Of The Real,
++++ Eurythmics’ Dave
Stewart – on 11
on Part Of Me, a widescreen cowboy ballad, /XNDV 1HOVRQ DOVR KDG VRPH &UD]\ +RUVH tracks of soul-
does the chorus of The Boys Are Back In KRRI SULQWV WR ¿OO ZKHQ 1HLO<RXQJ DGRSWHG searching soft rock.
7RZQVHHPPRUHWKDQDGUXPĥ¿OODZD\ĦEXW WKHP DV KLV WRXULQJ EDQG <HW WKLV UHOHDVH
LW¶VDOOGRQHZLWKDɱectionate aplomb. FRQ¿UPV WKDW ZLWK 3275 LQ WRZ 1HOVRQ¶V Walter Trout
JAMES MCNAIR talent lies in nobody’s shadow. Whether WE’RE ALL IN
London upstarts THIS TOGETHER
PHUJLQJ FRXQWU\ DQG URFN WR VXEOLPH HɱHFW
led by Louis James, PROVOGUE/MASCOT
B E ST TRACKS: ,JQRUDQFH5HUXQV'DUNHU7LPHV on Forget About Georgia, or stomping
through America’s current, febrile political
son of one-time
Moody Blue Nicky,
++++
and cultural landscape on the loaded High come on like the
next Rival Sons.

WAYWARD SONS
Times, Nelson distinguishes himself throughĥ
out. His gift for storytelling is clearly evident,
The
Runnin’ Shine, with it’s opening: “My grand Quireboys
*KRVWV2I<HW7R&RPH ĥIDWKHU GLHG XS LQ WKH KLOOV RI $SSDODFKLD´ WHITE TR ASH
FRONTIERS MUSIC
EHLQJ RQH VXFK WKUHHĥPLQXWH HXORJ\ :LWK Walter Trout also
BLUE S
++++
gets his mates into
Lady Gaga supplying impassioned guest OFF YER ROCKA
the party. And it
YRFDOVRQ&DUROLQDDQG)LQG<RXUVHOISOXVKLV +++ looks though he
Former Little Angel Toby GDG¶V ÀHHWĥ¿QJHUHG VROR RQ -XVW 2XWVLGH 2I has even more: Joe
Jepson and friends keep Austin, Lukas Nelson has engineered a comeĥ Bonamassa, John
themselves limber by Mayall, Randy
EDFNRIPXFKPDJQL¿FHQFH
Bachman, Warren
bringing the noise. GEORGE GARNER Haynes, Sonny
Little Angels’ star burned Landreth… the list
EULJKWO\LIEULHÀ\DWWKHWXUQRIWKH¶VZLWK B E ST TRACKS: )RUJHW$ERXW*HRUJLD5XQQLQ· The weather may goes on and on.
the outside world quickly losing interest in 6KLQH+LJK7LPHV have let us down, AMIT SHARMA

P L A N E T R O C K 107
 Reissues
“
A pint-sized rebel with
shitloads of attitude and
a gravelly voice...
Career summary of Leather Tuscadero is BY JA M E S M C NAI R
SUZI QUATRO
a masterclass in pounding bubble-glam.
At least to begin with…
IN THE HDUO\ĥWRĥPLGĥ¶V JODP ZDV HYHU\ZKHUH
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Happy days:
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The Fonz.
108 P L A N E T R O C K
”
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Shine My Machine
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Cat Size
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XWWHU FRPPLWPHQW WR WKH PLQL VWUHHWĥRSHUD Michael
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7XFNH\WDNHQIURPKHUDOEXP,f You Knew Stumblin’ In
Suzi… ¶V  0LQXWHV 2I )DPH ZLWK LWV If You Can’t Give Me Love
YRFRGHUDQG-*HLOV%DQGĥOLNHFKRUXVLVDZIXO Suicide
$OOWKDWVDLG4XDWURGRHVLQGHHGUHPDLQD Wiser Than You
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ALAMY, REX
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Free The Butterfly
B E ST TRACKS: Can The Can, Devil Gate Drive, Dancing In The Wind
If You Can’t Give Me Love
 Solid gold:
Suzi Quatro at her
discombobulating
’70s zenith.
 Reissues
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
)DQIDUHĦ
BMG/MANTICORE
+++
Career-spanning box of
remastered CDs, unis-
sued live stuff and more.
The six sets of live recordings
here mirror ELP’s career arc.
Those from 1972 and ’73 show an eclectic but
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way through material in a bombastic but
nonetheless thrilling manner. There were
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drum solos. The musicians have all been
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EUHDNEHWZHHQ¶VBrain Salad Surgery and
Works Volume I in 1977. ELP were losing their
way and soon arrived at the dismal Love Beach
LQWKH\UHIRUPHGLQEXWWKHVWXGLR
albums Black Moon and In The Hot Seat are avĥ
HUDJHDQGOLYHVHWVIURP¶DQG¶¿QGWKHP
OHVVÀDPER\DQWMIKE BARNES
B E ST TRACKS: The Barbarian, Tarkus, Fanfare
For The Common Man
SAXON
Solid Book Of Rock
DEMON MUSIC GROUP
+++
Stalwarts’ ‘difficult’
years in a big box.
After the gold rush of the early
¶V6D[RQ¶VIRUWXQHVSOXPPHWĥ
HG7KH¶VHVSHFLDOO\ZHUHDQ
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crew. Solid Book Of Rock corrals the nine
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But there’s still something admirable about an
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stoically singing about Attila The Hun while
HYHU\RQH HOVH MXPSHG RQ WKH DOWURFN EDQGĥ
ZDJRQ3OXV6D[RQDOZD\VNQHZDJRRGWXQH
Ħ ¶V 6ROLG %DOO 2I 5RFN LV NQXFNOHĥVXFNĥ
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FDPHRDV.LQJ$UWKXULQWKH6SDQLVKDUWKRXVH
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MARK BLAKE
B E ST TRACKS: Solid Ball Of Rock, Stand Up
And Be Counted, Never Surrender
110 P L A N E T R O C K
MONSTER MAGNET
Spine Of God/Tab
NAPALM
++++
Space-rock heroes take
us back to the start of
the trip.
There was always something a
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an element that would eventually get toned
down by the time they came to record 1998
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strong acid. Though only singer/guitarist
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AMIT SHARMA
B E ST TRACKS: Zodiac Lung, Pill Shovel,
Longhair, Black Mastermind
MOTÖRHEAD
Under Cover
MOTÖRHEAD MUSIC
+++
Lemmy’s heroes plunder
the Sex Pistols, Rolling
Stones, Metallica and
Bowie song books.
Lemmy’s tireless belief that
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always undermined by their gothic horror
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history seemingly going around and around
in circles forever.
MARK BLAKE
B E ST TRACKS: God Save The Queen, Jumpin’
Jack Flash, Heroes
STONE TEMPLE PILOTS
Core
RHINO
++++
Celebrating the 25th
anniversary of the
Californian’s grunge
masterpiece.
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the only two singers they’ve ever had in
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his tour bus in 2015; and more recently
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suicide left the members mourning “a beacon
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their 1992 debut and this was a band at the
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featuring an additional 36 live cuts and
demos alongside remasters of the original 12
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what is undoubtedly one of the greatest
grunge albums ever made.
AMIT SHARMA
B E ST TRACKS: Sex Type Thing, Piece Of Pie,
Dead & Bloated, Creep
 Academy Events present

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF GROOVUS MAXIMUS! NOVEMBER ACADEMY EVENTS by arrangement with IAA and ITB present
26 SHEFFIELD
LOCAL AUTHORITY E XC L U S I V E LO N D O N CO - H E A D L I N E S H OW
27 NEWCASTLE
THE CLUNY
28 GLASGOW
O2 ABC2
29 WOLVERHAMPTON
SLADE ROOMS
30 CHESTER
LIVE ROOMS
DECEMBER
02 PORTHCAWL
PLANET
PLUS ROCKSTOCK PLUS SPECIAL GUESTS
SPECIAL
GUESTS
03 NOTTINGHAM
RESCUE ROOMS
SUNDAY 11th MARCH 2018
O2 SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE · LONDON
PRESENTED BY ACADEMY EVENTS, 04 LONDON
PLANET ROCK AND FRIENDS BY ARRANGEMENT
WITH THE FRESH START AGENCY THE UNDERWORLD

ACADEMY EVENTS by arrangement with X-RAY and FRESH START AGENCY presents
THURSDAY
9th NOVEMBER
WOLVERHAMPTON
THE SLADE
ROOMS
FRIDAY
10th NOVEMBER
SHEFFIELD
LOCAL
AUTHORITY
SUNDAY
12th NOVEMBER
PLUS
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“
He never shakes
off that feeling
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of foreboding...
G e n t l e m a n B r i t - ro c ke r ’s l i f e a n d
A FOREIGNER’S TALE
t i m e s i n a h a n d s o m e h a rd b a c k .
NO ONE, not even the staunchest Foreigner
devotee, needs 200 pages of photographs of a band
whose image never graduated beyond fur coats and
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++++
Completed prior to the
ELP man’s passing to
cancer last December.
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THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

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FOR THE SAKE OF HEAVINESS:

LA legends revisit a masterpiece
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on Blu-ray/DVD/CD set.
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BMG WKHUHVSHFWDQGWUXVWRI,]]\6ODVK'XɱDQG with other favourites

+++
A life on the frontline of
metal’s cutting edge
recounted in all its
testosterone-
fuelled glory.
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gutter to
PAUL BRANNIGAN
the stars:
Axl Rose.
at California’s Irvine
Meadows Ampitheatre, the birthplace of
Lollapalooza. Filmed during 2015-’16’s
Silver Spoon Anniversary Tour –
commemorating the 25th anniversary of
both the album and alt-rock festival – it’s
a sumptuous presentation.
While the 4K resolution captures the
sheen of Perry’s pimp-cum-gondolier
tailoring and guitarist Dave Navarro’s
inky guyliner, the songs are rendered just
as flawlessly. Three Days remains the
centrepiece, with Foo Fighters drummer
Taylor Hawkins making a percussive
cameo. For sheer spectacle, however, the
sight of ladies hanging from hooks during
Ted, Just Admit It is hard to shake. As is
the sense that the absence of original
bassist Eric Avery, whose iconic playing
helped define these songs, means this
isn’t quite as classic as it could be. It’s a
minor quibble, though.
JAMES HICKIE
P L A N E T R O C K 113
 Unsung Dramatic meeting: ‘The
Yuggles’ (from left) Alan
White, Geoff Downes,
Chris Squire, Trevor
Horn, Steve Howe.

Strange
Bedfellows
Showing some love to those underrated albums.
This issue: when the masters of prog rock met
The Buggles. By Mark Blake.

YES
Drama ATLANTIC, 1980

I T WA S April 1980 when BBC Friday Rock Show presenter Tommy

Vance announced that The Buggles had joined Yes. Even a pro like
Tommy couldn’t hide his shock. “It’s true!” he declared, like a doomsĥ
day preacher predicting the end of civilisation.
As quaint as it seems now, tribalism was rife among music fans at
the time. Heavy progressive groups like Yes didn’t recruit members of
HOHFWURĥSRSGXRVOLNH7KH%XJJOHV([FHSWWKH\KDG
Hand on heart: if you still liked Yes in 1980 you felt a bit like the
Hunchback of Notre Dame in a Close To The Edge 7ĥVKLUW EHLQJ
drummed out of town by angry Jam fans. There wasn’t much to like
either. Most of Yes’s last album, ’78’s Tormato, was as rotten as its titular arenas. But Chris Squire was apparently impressed by his daughter’s
IUXLWYHJHWDEOH DIWHU VL[ PRQWKV LQ WKH EDFN RI WKH IULGJH :KDW copy of The Police’s Reggatta De Blanc/3ĪWKHRQHZLWK:DONLQJ2Q
a shock, then, when ‘The Yuggles’ came up with Drama, the best Yes 7KH0RRQDQG0HVVDJH,Q$%RWWOHī<RXFDQKHDULWVLQÀXHQFHRQWKH
album in ages. jittery Run Through The Light, where Trevor Horn channels Jon
In April 1980, Yes were making a new record in time for an autumn Anderson and6WLQJĦQRWDVULGLFXORXVDVLWVRXQGV
86WRXU7KHQYRFDOLVW-RQ$QGHUVRQDQGNH\ERDUGSOD\HU5LFN:DNHĥ Unlike other Yes albums, Drama didn’t hang around and stopped
man left in the middle of the sessions. Yes’s wily manager Brian Lane after 35 minutes. Truth is, they’d run out of songs and had to get it out
suggested his fellow clients, The Buggles, step in. The in time for the tour. Aware perhaps of critics and Friday
deal was done before either party had the opportunity to Rock Show listeners sharpening their knives, the group
change their minds. hired their former sleeve artist Roger Dean to create a
The Buggles had enjoyed a big hit with Video Killed FRYHUWKDWPDGHLWORRNOLNHDμSURSHU¶ĪLHROGī<HVDOEXP
The Radio Star in September 1979. But keyboard player I once interviewed Chris Squire. Fresh from a long
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ZD\ IURP EHLQJ SRS UR\DOW\ ,Q FRQWUDVW <HV ĪEDVVLVW we got to Drama. He loved the album, and wouldn’t shut
Chris Squire, guitarist Steve Howe and drummer Alan up about it. However, by Yes standards, it didn’t sell, and
:KLWHīZHUHWLWOHGURFNDULVWRV7KLQNPDQVLRQVLQUXUDO The Yuggles wouldn’t last.
Surrey, bottles of vintage claret in the cellar… Musically, 7UHYRU+RUQZDVXQFRPIRUWDEOHRQĥVWDJHDQGKDQGĥ
however, they were spent. Yes needed some young blood; HGLQKLVQRWLFH+HZHQWRQWRRYHUVHH$%&¶VVXDYHĥSRS
HYHQLIGHVSLWHWKHLUVNLQQ\ĥWLHGQHZZDYHLPDJH7KH album The Lexicon Of Love EHIRUH UHWXUQLQJ WR FRĥ
TRACKS
Buggles weren’t much younger. SURGXFH<HV¶VPXOWLĥSODWLQXPRXWLQJ90125. A year later,
Machine Messiah,
White Car, Does It Really Horn would become the studio brains behind Frankie Goes
D R A M A WA S FUHDWHGLQDWKUHHĥPRQWKEOXULQVWXGLRV Happen?, Into The Lens, To Hollywood.
DURXQG /RQGRQ LQ VSULQJ  :LWK 86 GDWHV SHQGLQJ Run Through The Light, After Chris Squire’s death in 2015, the remains of Yes,
Tempus Fugit
WKHUH ZDV QR WLPH WR ZDVWH Ħ DQG LW VRXQGV OLNH DQ DOEXP LQFOXGLQJ*HRɱ'RZQHVSOD\HGDrama in full on tour. Horn
made by a group with a gun to their heads. PERSONNEL joined them for Tempus Fugit at the Royal Albert Hall date.
The whole thing vibrates with chemically enhanced Geoff Downes The song belted along for a couple of minutes before the
energy and nervous tension. The opener Machine Messiah’s (keyboards), Trevor Horn vocals were due to come in, leaving Trevor standing around
(vocals), Steve Howe
PLJKW\ULɱVXJJHVWVDZDWHU\SUHKLVWRULFEHDVWULVLQJIURP (guitars), Chris Squire with a bemused grin on his face, looking like a man who
WKHGHHSDQGOXPEHULQJRQWRGU\ODQG7KHJUDYLW\ĥGHI\LQJ (bass), Alan White ZLVKHG KH ZDV EDFN LQ WKH VWXGLR UDWKHU WKDQ RQĥVWDJH ,W
runs and tremorous basslines on Does It Really Happen? (drums) was a reminder that he was a better producer than a
and Tempus Fugit do suggest the old Yes, but after a shot of PRODUCER frontman, but also that The Buggles had once given Yes
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Punk passed Yes by; they were too busy selling out Tommy Vance would have agreed.

114 P L A N E T R O C K
 T h e B u y e r s’ G u i d e
THE ONE WITH THE WHISTLING SONG. THE CLASSIC LIVE ALBUM.
SCORPIONS
THE LP WITHTHAT COVER. BUT WHICH ONE IS BEST?
Paul Elliott turns ze spotlight on the German hard rock maestros’ five-decades-deep discography.
I N 1 9 6 5 , a young German rock group led by
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116 PLANET ROCK
Scorpions in 1984:
(from left) Francis
Buchholz, Rudolf
Schenker, Matthias
Jabs, Klaus Meine.
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Sting In The Tail
I0 9
Sony, 2010
The best of the
band’s late-career
albums, Sting In
The Tail was aptly
named. Its title
track is a hum-
dinger, driven by
the kind of propulsive,
choppy riff that has always
been Rudolf Schenker’s
trademark. Raised On Rock
has echoes of two Scorpions
anthems from the ’80s: a
riff and lyric evoking Rock
You Like A Hurricane, and
talk-box guitar recalling
The Zoo. And in The Good
Die Young they delivered a
monumental power ballad in
which Meine sings with ex
Nightwish star Tarja Turunen.
Tokyo Tapes
5 2
RCA, 1978
In the ’70s and ’80s,
the live album was a
big deal for heavy
bands whose
reputations were
made on-stage.
And there was
added cachet if this
recording was taped in the
exotic Far East, a trend set
by Deep Purple’s Made In
Japan, and followed by
Scorpions with Tokyo Tapes.
As Uli Jon Roth’s swansong,
this double album has
definitive versions of many
of the band’s early classics,
and a magical atmosphere.
1985’s self-explanatory
World Wide Live was a
bigger seller, but this is
undoubtedly the Scorps’
best live document.
In Trance
RCA, 1975
There were flashes
of brilliance on the
first two Scorpions
albums: on Lonesome
Crow, the beautiful
ballad In Search Of
The Peace Of Mind;
on 1974’s Fly To The
Rainbow, Uli Jon’s Roth’s
debut, the high-octane
rocker Speedy’s Coming
and the long and trippy title
track. But it was with third
album In Trance, the first
of many with producer
Dieter Dierks, that the
band’s early style was
defined: the heavy fire in
Dark Lady and Robot Man,
and a powerful emotive
quality in the title track.
Animal
Magnetism
4 3
Harvest/EMI, 1980
So many legendary
hard rock and heavy
metal records were
released in 1980
– Back In Black,
Ace Of Spades,
British Steel, et al
– that Animal Magnetism
has been largely written out
of history. It is, however, an
indisputable classic in its
own right, with brilliant
tracks in Make It Real, the
delicate ballad Lady
Starlight and, most famous
of all, The Zoo, an homage
to New York City in which
a throbbing riff and Jabs’
growling talk-box solo
captured the pulse and the
sleaze of the Big Apple’s
street life.
Crazy World
8 7
Vertigo, 1990
The band’s last album
of the ’80s, Savage
Amusement, had only
one great track,
Rhythm Of Love. For
a new decade,
Scorpions dumped
Dieter Dierks to work with
American producer Keith
Olsen (Fleetwood Mac,
Whitesnake). The result was
a more rounded collection,
with Tease Me Please Me
all swagger, the title track
a throwback to the badass
vibes of the Uli Jon Roth
years, and whistle-enhanced
power ballad Wind Of
Change a post-Cold War
anthem, and the biggest hit
of the band’s career.
Love At First
Sting
Harvest/EMI, 1984
Following their big
breakthrough in the
US with 1982’s
Blackout, capped by
an appearance at the
US Festival in
California before an
audience of 350,000, these
guys just couldn’t miss with
Love At First Sting. It was a
collection built on anthems:
Rock You Like A Hurricane,
Big City Nights, Bad Boys
Running Wild, Coming
Home. And it climaxed
with the ultimate Scorpions
power ballad, Still Loving
You. In sync with the rise of
hair metal, Love At First
Sting became the band’s
biggest-selling album in
the States.
Virgin Killer
RCA, 1976
If ever a great album
was undone by its title
and its cover art, it
was this. The original
design – since
replaced by a
regulation band shot
– featured a photograph of
a naked prepubescent girl
beneath a pane of glass
shattered over her crotch.
In the band’s defence, the
song Virgin Killer was an
eco-warrior protest against
Man’s rape of the Earth. But
the attendant controversy
has overshadowed this and
other fine songs here, such
as Pictured Life, Polar Nights
and the supercharged Catch
Your Train.
Blackout
Harvest/EMI, 1982
During the making
of Blackout, Scorpions
were in crisis – Klaus
Meine, suffering
damaged vocal cords,
feared he might never
be able to sing again.
But an Austrian doctor,
whose patients included
none other than Luciano
Pavarotti, restored Meine’s
voice to full power. And he
needed all of it on an album
where the title track and
Dynamite had a manic
intensity, and songs such
as No One Like You had
high melodies to stretch
even a singer of Meine’s
lofty calibre. His perfor-
mance was heroic on what
was the band’s most
explosive studio set.
Taken By Force
6
RCA, 1977
The band’s last studio
album with Roth was
also their first with
drummer Herman ‘Ze
German’ Rarebell,
who would write lyrics
for a number of key
Scorpions songs. His
contribution to Taken By
Force was a bemused
statement on transsexualism,
He’s A Woman – She’s A
Man. But elsewhere on the
album was a more elevated
mindset in the artistry of
Roth’s The Sails Of Charon
and the epic We’ll Burn The
Sky. And in the pneumatic
drill intro to Steamrock
Fever was a foreshadowing
of industrial metal.
Lovedrive
I
Harvest/EMI, 1979
Here, as with Blackout,
adversity brought out
the best in the band.
Lovedrive was created
amid chaos, as Matthias
Jabs and Michael
Schenker swapped
places as lead guitarist.
But from this confusion
came the greatest of all
Scorpions albums – a pivotal
work in which a more
modern and accessible
sound was developed in
the slick groove of Loving
You Sunday Morning and
in two classic ballads,
Holiday and Always
Somewhere. And in the
titanic Coast To Coast –
an instrumental anthem –
there was surely a touch
of pure genius.
P L A N E T R O C K 117
In sync: Dusty Hill
and Billy Gibbons
making it look
spontaneous.

Jesus Just Left
Maidstone...
The Texan trio bring a ray of sunshine to a muddy field in Kent.
ZZ TOP
S U N D AY J U LY 3 0 , 2 0 1 7
Ramblin’ Man Fair, Mote Park,
Maidstone
N OW I N its third year, Ramblin’ Man Fair
faced its biggest challenge yet, with bad
weather on the Saturday and a headliner,
Extreme, who shouldn’t have been headlining
at all. Thankfully, Mother Nature and the
patron saint of booking agents took pity, and
Sunday brings clear skies UFO and ZZ Top to
WKHWRZHULQJ3ODQHW5RFNPDLQĥVWDJH
One word sums up Ramblin’ Man: easy.
It’s intimate enough to stroll comfortably
between three stages and a blues/country
tent. But if you want a break from all that,
you can just kick back, sip your beer, chow
down on an ostrich burger and watch the
world go by.
&RPHODWHDIWHUQRRQWKH¿HOGLQIURQWRI
the main stage is a sea of bandannas and black
leather, but also foldaway chairs and picnic
blankets. At times, it looks as if the cast of
Sons Of Anarchy have taken
a road trip to the nearest
garden centre.
As the sun settles over
the yardarm, UFO vocalist
Phil Mogg leads his fellow
revellers on to the stage and
straight into Lights Out.
“Is that their old keyboard
player?” marvels one audiĥ
ence member, squinting at
ĥ\HDUĥROG 3DXO 5D\PRQG
a gentleman who appears to
have been cryogenically
frozen around the time Jim
Callaghan was Prime Minisĥ
PAUL HARRIES
ter. Yes it is. Wisely, UFO
only play one song from this
century. And by the time
Lights out: the sun
they bow out with Doctor
goes down on a
Doctor, even the laziest victorious ’Top.
rambler is on their feet, head bobbing,
VKXɹLQJIURPVLGHWRVLGH
S O T O ZZ Top, then. The Texan trio’s last
UK festival date was an underwhelming
performance at Glastonbury 2016. That day,
bassist Dusty Hill had to play keyboards after
breaking his shoulder. As Hill also once shot
himself in the stomach with a Derringer
VWDVKHGLQKLVFRZER\ERRWWKDWZHQWRɱE\
accident, some wondered if he’d make it
through Ramblin Man’ without requiring a
paramedic. But he does.
8.35pm and a robotic voice declaring, “It’s
party time…”, announces the main act’s
arrival. What ZZ Top bring to any festival bill
LV KXPRXU VKRZEL] ÀDLU DQG SOHQW\ RI KLWV
They roll out Got Me Under Pressure, Waitĥ
ing For The Bus and Jesus Just Left Chicago
in quick succession, Hill and guitarist Billy
*LEERQV SHUIRUPLQJ WKRVH VORZĥPRWLRQ
dance steps in unison, while making it look
spontaneous and unrehearsed.
7KUHH VRQJV GRZQ WKH\ ¿QDOO\ SDXVH WR
ÀDVKWKHLU+ROO\ZRRGWHHWKDQGVWURNHWKHLU
beards, as the crowd roars its appreciation.
Live Wire
“Let’s hear it for the drummer,” croaks
Gibbons, as Frank Beard takes a few drags on
a cigarette before striking up the intro to
Gimme All Your Lovin’. ZZ Top have got this
act down so pat they could do it in their sleep,
though the torpid expression on Beard’s face
VRPHWLPHV VXJJHVWV KH¶V KDOIZD\ WKHUH Ħ QRW
that he ever misses a beat.
Tonight’s show is a canny mix of the songs
WKDWPDGHWKHPVXSHUVWDUVĪEDVLFDOO\DQ\WKLQJ
Rɱ ¶V Eliminatorī D IHZ FRYHUV DQG WKH
honking blues they’ve returned to in their
dotage. ZZ’s last album, 2012’s La Futura,
included I Gotsta Get Paid, their best work
LQGHFDGHV%XWLWVPDFKLQHĥJHQHUDWHGEXPS
and grind is tricky to reproduce live, with Hill
working a keyboard and Gibbons doing the
heavy lifting out front alone.
2QĥVWDJH WKH\¶UH RQ VDIHU JURXQG ZLWK
songs about cars and women, like I’m Bad I’m
Nationwide, where Billy celebrates “easin’
down the highway in a new Cadillac” with “a
¿QHIR[LQIURQW´DQG³WKUHHPRUHLQWKHEDFN´
ĦDQGWKHDXGLHQFHWDNHRYHUWKHFKRUXV
While the other two are regular Joes,
Gibbons is the source of ZZ Top’s eternal
P\VWLTXH DQ LQVFUXWDEOH ĥ\HDUĥROG ZKR
plays sublime guitar, wears what appears to be
a bejewelled shower cap under his regular hat
and looks like he’d keel over in the lightest
breeze. You wonder, where does Billy Gibĥ
bons go and what does he do when he’s not
being ‘Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top’?
7KHUH¶VDPLGĥVHWOXOOZKHUHWKH\LQGXOJH
themselves with covers of Buck Owens’s Act
Naturally, among others. It’s time that might
have been better spent on Tube Snake Boogie,
Heard It On The X, or Rough Boy even?
Gibbons plays out of his skin, but by the end
the queue for the Portaloos are huge.
7KDW VDLG ==7RS DUH WRR ZHOOĥWUDYHOOHG
to ever lose an audience, and quickly pull it
back with Cheap Sunglasses
and a thumping Just Got Paid.
From here on, it’s the home
stretch: Sharp Dressed Man,
/HJV/D*UDQJH7XVK«$¿QDO
romp through Elvis’s Jailhouse
5RFN VHDOV WKH GHDO Ħ DQG WKHQ
they’re gone, into the dark
Maidstone night before the
cheers have subsided.
For ZZ Top, another day,
another big bag of dollars. For
Ramblin’ Man, a welcome victoĥ
ry at the end of a long weekend.
Stock up on foldaway chairs and
picnic blankets, it’ll be back
next year. MARK BLAKE
B E ST MOM E NT: Dusty Hill and
Billy Gibbons’ synchronised
ZREEO\ĦNQHHGGDQFHPRYHLQ6KDUS
Dressed Man. Corny but fun.
P L A N E T R O C K 119
 Live Wire
Rising Power
Meanwhile, further down the Ramblin’ Man bill, the future stars of rock…
BEST OF THE
OTHER STAGES
Ramblin’ Man Fair
S AT U R D AY & S U N D AY,
J U LY 2 9 & 3 0 , 2 0 1 7
W H I L E I T ’ S Z Z To p ,
Extreme and other ‘heritage’
acts who understandably take
top billing at Ramblin’ Man,
what of the newer generation
RI DVSLULQJ DUVHĥNLFNHUV"
Thankfully, situated among
the real ale tents and other
attractions, the smaller stages Bon Scott snarl:
Blackwater
RɱHU D ZHDOWK RI UHDVRQV WR Conspiracy.
feel reassured that rock’s
future is in safe hands.
Some bands are more
naturally vocal about their burgeoning greatĥ
ness than others. Take Xander And The
Peace Pirates IRU H[DPSOH ZKRVH VHOIĥ
proclaimed ‘New Saviours of Guitar’ mission
statement can’t help but grab attention and
raise expectation. If that claim didn’t build a
URGIRUWKHLURZQEDFNVWKHQVLQJHUĥJXLWDULVW
Keith Xander’s revelation that they wouldn’t
be here if another act hadn’t cancelled probaĥ
bly does. Thankfully, the Liverpudlians justify
the faith that’s been shown in them. Keith,
who has a prosthetic ‘hook’ for a right hand
adapted to hold a plectrum, proves a superbly
dexterous player on Dancing In The Light,
ZLWKDQLFHVWUHDNRIVHOIĥGHSUHFDWLQJKXPRXU
Ī³&ODS\RXUKDQGVLI\RX¶YHJRWWKHP´ī
Never mind the Pirates’ name, it’s actually
The Picturebooks that appear more likely
WRSOXQGHUJROGĦDQGQRWSHDFHIXOO\MXGJLQJ
by dastardly tunes such as Wardance. The
*HUPDQ GXR PDGH XS RI EHDUGHG VLQJHUĥ
JXLWDULVW )\QQ &ODXV *UDENH DQG VLPLODUO\
hirsute drummer Philipp Mirtschink, unleash
a bluesy stomp as raw as sashimi.
It’s bolstered in no small part by Philipp’s
NLWZKLFKLVPDGHXSRIWZREDVVGUXPVĦRQH
120 P L A N E T R O C K
in the traditional position, the other turned
WR DFW DV D ÀRRU WRP Ħ WKDW DOORZ IRU VRPH
truly cacophonous beats. Meanwhile, Fynn’s
WDON RI KDYLQJ SOD\HG YHQXHV ³VPDOOHU WKDQ
WKLV VWDJH´ ZKHUH WKH\ ³DOZD\V JLYH  SHU
FHQW´IHHOVOLNHDQRGGO\HDUQHVWLQWURGXFWLRQ
to a song called Zero Fucks Given.
$ODUJHDPRXQWRIHɱRUWKDVFOHDUO\JRQH
into what Aaron Buchanan & The Cult
Classics lay on, given that the music is as
sharply turned out as Aaron himself, resplenĥ
dent in a dandyish silver embroidered blazer
and purple shirt. Despite the esteemed musiĥ
cal company appearing this weekend, it’s hard
to imagine many songs matching All The
Things You’ve Said And Done for sheer unĥ
DGXOWHUDWHG UDEEOHĥURXVLQJ 7KRVH ZDWFKLQJ
certainly agree, judging by the number of alĥ
bums snapped up when Aaron appears afterĥ
wards to greet fans and sell his band’s wares.
<RXZRQ¶W¿QGPXFKPXVLFE\Wayward
Sons out there as they only made their live
debut this summer. The band, led by Toby
Jepson of Little Angels and Dio’s Disciples
fame, release their debut album Ghosts Of Yet
To Come in September. Its impressive title
track and Killing Time both suggest fans of
VWUDLJKWĥVKRRWLQJURFNHUVOLNH$HURVPLWKDQG
$&'&ĪZLWKDWZLVWRI6RXQGJDUGHQīVKRXOG
be getting very excited.
Appearing on the same stage some 24
hours later, Blackwater Conspiracy are
similarly transparent about their heroes, with
5ROO 7KH 'LFH VKRZFDVLQJ 3KLO &RQDODQH¶V
own tribute to Acca Dacca in the form of his
%RQ6FRWWĥHVTXHVQDUO)RUDOOWKHLUVXFFHVVIXO
G\QDPLFPRPHQWVLWSURYHVPRUHGLɷFXOWWR
appreciate the delicate
ones, though that’s not
UHDOO\ WKH EDQG¶V IDXOW Ħ
Penny For Your Dirty Mind
is marred somewhat by
a sound clash with the
neighbouring ‘Wall of
Death’ motorbike show.
Thankfully there are no
such impediments to
enjoying Tyler Bryant &
The Shakedown. Given
that this is the Tennessee
TXDUWHW¶VIRXUWKDSSHDUDQFH
RQ WKHVH VKRUHV LQ 
PRQWKV Ħ WKLV VKRZ EHLQJ
their sole reason for getting
RQDSODQHĦLW¶VVDIHWRVD\
WKHLU ORYH DɱDLU ZLWK WKH
UK is genuine. They’re on
¿JKWLQJ IRUP WRR WKRXJK
that’s perhaps unsurprising
given that they’ve played
VHYHUDOGDWHVRQ¶VPRVW
DQWLFLSDWHG ĪDQG VFUXWLQLVHGī MDXQW *XQV
N’Roses’ epic Not In This Lifetime tour.
³, GRQ¶W NQRZ LI ,¶G KDYH NQRZQ DERXW
URFN¶Q¶UROOLILWZDVQ¶WIRUWKHEOXHV´ĥ\HDUĥ
old Tyler confesses, mindful that despite the
ERPEDVWLF ULɱV DQG FRFNVXUH FRXSOHWV Ī³,I
GHVLUHFRXOGNLOO,WZRQ¶WEHORQJ¶WLO,¶PGHDG´ī
they are, in fact, playing the Blues Stage. As if
proving his credentials, the frontman regales
the packed tent with the tale of a blues
education earned working at a guitar shop in
Paris, Texas where he was introduced to the
music of BB King, Lightning Hopkins and
Muddy Waters. A version of Got My Mojo
Working, popularised by the latter, proves
they’re emulating the masters in muscular
style, and shows why Tyler is a guitarist comĥ
fortable sharing stages with a legend like
Slash. Easy Target, a monolithic cut from the
band’s new album, due in October, suggests a
future in bigger venues and under their own
PAUL HARRIES
banner beckons. JAMES HICKIE
B E ST MOM E NT: Tyler Bryant’s set earning the
KLJKHVWKRQRXUWKHVHIHVWLYDOĦJRHUVFDQEHVWRZħ
IROGHGFDPSLQJFKDLUVKHOGDORIWLQDSSUHFLDWLRQ
 Fighting form: Tyler
Bryant (front)121
with
Shakedown guitarist
Graham Whitford.
 Live Wire
And The Band Played On
Biff Byford’s evergreen British metal legends display their unbending steel on a wet Welsh farm.
SAXON
S U N D AY, J U LY 3 0 , 2 0 1 7
Steelhouse Festival, Ebbw Vale
S O M E V E RY British things: tea and
biscuits. Bangers and mash. Denim and leathĥ
er. All these were present and accounted for
high atop a mountain in South Wales as the
6WHHOKRXVH )HVWLYDO VHW XS RQ +DIRGĥ<ĥ'DIDO
Farm for a seventh successive outing. Though
the nearby Ebbw Vale steelĥ
works now lies silent, the comĥ
munity it nurtured remains
tightly knit and durable, as is
clearly evident in the family
units braving the unholy
trifecta of wind, rain and mud
KHUH RQ WKH ¿QDO ZHHNHQG LQ
July. Everyone at Steelhouse
seems to know everyone else,
and those who don’t, soon do.
“Rain is a big leveller!”
ODXJKV %Lɱ %\IRUG VLWWLQJ
backstage ahead of Saxon’s
scheduled headline slot on the
weekend’s closing evening. It’s
 \HDUV VLQFH WKH <RUNVKLUH
band made their debut on the
festival circuit, their appearĥ
ance at the inaugural Monsters
Of Rock festival at Donington
Park racetrack in the summer
of 1980 helping usher the
nascent New Wave Of British
+HDY\ 0HWDO WR FHQWUHĥVWDJH
)URP %Lɱ %\IRUG¶V YDQWDJH
point, not a whole lot has
changed for rock festivals in
the ensuing four decades.
“The facilities are better,
EXWZKHQLWUDLQVLW¶VQRGLɱHUĥ
ent,” he notes. “Now it’s more of a quality
time for the punters. Back in the day there
used to be a lot of vans and campers…”
If in 2017 sleepovers in vans and campers
have been exchanged for more upmarket
accommodation, Steelhouse has retained
DSOHDVLQJO\ROGĥVFKRROYLEH-XVWDVZLWKWKH
RULJLQDO0RQVWHUV2I5RFNVHWĥXSWKHUH¶VRQH
arena with just one stage; and while, Saxon
aside, the names on the event posters are
122 P L A N E T R O C K
GLɱHUHQW ĪZLWK 5LYDO 6RQV DQG ,URQ 0DLGHQ
bassist Steve Harris’s side band British Lion
LQWKHVXSSRUWLQJFDVWWKLVHYHQLQJīWKHUH¶VD
welcome familiarity to the occasion.
Saxon’s own journey from NWOBHM
trailblazers to internationally appreciated
godfathers of hard rock/heavy metal has been
an epic adventure, and their presence topping
tonight’s bill is a testament to a resurgence
LQ IRUWXQHV IRU WKH <RUNVKLUH TXLQWHW WKDW
their frontman freely admits, has taken even
him by surprise.
Battering rain: Biff
gives it some welly
in the downpour.
“We sort of got really big again without
XV QRWLFLQJ´ ODXJKV %Lɱ ³:H¶UH KHDGOLQLQJ
IHVWLYDOVDFURVV(XURSHDQGRXUSUR¿OHLVKLJK
in America, so I think it’s a good time now to
be in Saxon.”
On the evidence of tonight’s performance,
there has rarely been a better time to see
6D[RQ 6WDUWLQJ Rɱ ZLWK %DWWHULQJ 5DP WKH
title track of the band’s most recent studio
DOEXPĦWKHLUVWĦWKHQWKHWUDFN/HW
0H)HHO<RXU3RZHU%LɱDQGWKHER\VEHJLQ
a marauding rampage through the best of
their back catalogue, including perennial live
favourites Motorcycle Man, Princess Of The
Night and Wheels Of Steel.
M A N O F WKH SHRSOH WKDW KH LV %Lɱ ¶V
investment in connecting with the Steelhouse
crowd is made clear early on when he says, “If
you’re gonna get wet, I am gonna get wet with
you!” And he does. While guitarists Paul
Quinn and Doug Scarratt, together with bassĥ
LVW1LEEV&DUWHUĦWRQLJKWVSRUWĥ
ing a pirate hat passed up from
WKHFURZGĦWDNHVSRUDGLFWXUQV
walking down the stage’s ‘ego
UDPS¶ %Lɱ VSHQGV WKH JUHDWHU
part of the set out there, getting
soaked along with his audience.
One highlight of the set comes
when he’s handed an umbrella,
which rather suits his commandĥ
ing presence as he surveys his
damp, but happy minions.
Understandably, much of
%Lɱ ¶V RQĥVWDJH EDQWHU IRFXVHV
on the deluge pummelling the
mountaintop. He introduces
And The Bands Played On with
a short preamble, explaining,
“We’re gonna change some of
the lyrics for ya and from now
on we’re gonna dedicate this
song to Steelhouse!”, then
proceeds to change “We’re sat in
the sun” to “We’re sat in the
rain”. Well played, sir, well
played…
$VWKH¿QDOQRWHVRI'HQLP
And Leather ring out across the
Welsh hills, it’s obvious to everyĥ
one here that Saxon remain
D IRUFH WR EH UHFNRQHG ZLWK Ħ
proud possessors of both a back catalogue to
GLHIRUDQGDFUHZRIURDGĥKDUGHQHGPXVLFLDQV
who have the potential to pull it out of the
DARREN GRIFFITHS
bag for many years to come. In 2017, they are
both a true hard rock institution and a very
%ULWLVK WKLQJ Ħ MXVW OLNH IHVWLYDOV DQG UDLQ
DARREN REDICK
B E ST MOM E NT: 7KDWPLVFKLHYRXVFURZGĦ
pleasing lyric change in And The Bands Played On.
 Seeing the lights shining:
a triumphant Biff, flanked
by Scarratt (left) and Quinn.
 Showtime

TEN GIGS TO SEE

THIS MONTH
FOR MORE
INFO AND
TICKETS GO TO

5
PLANETROCK.COM

3
2 4
Intimate
dates:
Metallica.

1
W.A.S.P.
THE DARKNESS
The Sunset Strip survivors
revisit 1992’s The Crimson
Idol album – an ambitious
Their arena-headlining days rock opera chronicling the

LIVING might be behind them, but

few bands deliver a more
rise and fall of a rock star
named Jonathan – on the

COLOUR entertaining balls-out

rock’n’roll evening than The
Re-Idolized tour. The band
will also screen a 50-minute

PHIL RUDD BAND

Having cancelled Darkness. See Justin film detailing the story, and
two previously Hawkins flashing his toothy chuck in a greatest hits
scheduled UK pinewood smile on this trio set to boot.

tours, New York’s
Black Rock
Coalition leaders
are finally
returning to our
sceptred isle, with a stunning
new album, Shade (reviewed
on page 106) in tow. Expect
funk, soul, heavy, heavy blues
and jaw-dropping fretboard
pyrotechnics from the
incomparable Vernon Reid.
Planet Rock faves Stone
Broken open.
Expect to hear: the
irresistible Cult Of
Personality
Pretend to know: last
year’s killer reworking of
The Notorious B.I.G.’s
Who Shot Ya?
When: September
26-October 7
METALLICA
Though the world’s biggest
metal band are annual
visitors to the UK, they
haven’t actually toured
Britain since their World
Magnetic trek in February/
March 2009. Given that
the San Francisco quartet
usually play stadiums and
headline festivals, these
five arena dates represent
relatively ‘intimate’ shows.
Noisy Norwegians
Kvelertak support.
James Hetfield will: give
repeated lengthy shouts out
to the Metallica familehhhhh
Lars Ulrich will: wear short
shorts he out-grew in
primary school
When: October 22-30
of dates in Ireland.
The best old song you’ll
hear: Get Your Hands Off
My Woman (mother**ker)
The best new song you’ll
hear: All The Pretty Girls
When: October 13-15
Don’t go for: a naked
woman on a rack. Those
days are over
Do go for: a rare opportunity
to scream, ‘I f**k like a beast’,
without getting arrested
When: October 12-27
It’s been a turbulent couple
of years for one of rock’s
most reliable timekeepers,
what with losing his drum
seat in AC/DC and being
accused of attempting to
procure a murder, a charge
subsequently dropped.
Expect the odd ’DC classic
to pop up between songs
from his 2016 solo album
Head Job. SCARLET PAGE, PAUL HARRIES, ROSS HALFIN
Don’t shout out for: AC/
DC’s Jailbreak, smartarse
Duckwalk across the
venue for: the quintet’s
high voltage take on
Powerage deep cut
Up To My Neck In You
When: September 14-21,
then October 13-21

Parallax sound:
Alter Bridge.

124 P L A N E T R O C K
 Strewth!:
Airbourne
hit Pompey.

6 7 8 THE KENTUCKY
HEADHUNTERS
Founded in 1968 as Itchy
Brother – surely one of the
worst band names ever – the
veteran Headhunters bring
their Southern rock charms
AIRBOURNE
Ahead of a nine-date UK
tour in November, the
brothers O’Keeffe drop in
for a sweaty hellraising
one-night stand at
Portsmouth Pyramids Centre.
Fists will be pumped, beers
will be hurled, good times
ALTER BRIDGE
Myles Kennedy’s post-
grunge arena-fillers show
their class on this all-too-
brief UK visit, including two
dates at London’s Royal
Albert Hall, where the
quartet will be accompanied
by the 52-piece Parallax
10 ANATHEMA
Scouse prog rock adventurers
Anathema are one of the
UK’s most criminally
underrated bands. Bathe your
ears in the Cavanagh
brothers’ rich, luxuriant
soundscapes as they air
choice cuts from June’s

INGLORIOUS
back to our shores for eight
will be had. Orchestra, conducted by superb The Optimist album.
dates in support of last year’s
Simon Dobson. Look out for: a beautiful
fine On Safari album. Expect: lots and lots of
Producer Kevin Shirley (Iron songs featuring the words Sing yourself hoarse to: take on Portishead’s timeless
Hope to hear: a rollicking
Maiden/Black Country rock’n’roll Blackbird Glory Box
take on the peerless
Communion) has hailed Norman Greenbaum hit Look out for: guitarist Mark Don’t hold your breath for:
Don’t expect: ballads
brawny rock’n’roll Spirit In The Sky Tremonti taking lead vocals anything from the band’s
newcomers Inglorious as When: September 27
on the stirring Waters Rising doomy debut Serenades
“the best British band since Don’t (rebel) yell for:
Freebird When: October 2-8 When: September 22-30
Led Zeppelin”. No pressure
then, lads. This 11-date trek, When: October 3-10
incorporating shows in
Northern Ireland, Wales,
Scotland and the Republic
of Ireland, will give cocksure
frontman Nathan James the
chance to prove there’s
genuine substance behind
the hype.
Most impressive David
Coverdale impression: the
bawdy High Class Woman.
Keep an eye out for:
super-fan Baron Andrew
Lloyd Webber, who has
called James “the best
rock singer I’ve heard
since Ian Gillan”.
When: September
30-October 20

Eternal
optimists:
Anathema.
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BLACK SABBATH’S
TEN YEAR WAR BOX SET
All eight Ozzy-fronted Sabs vinyl albums,
remastered, in a box with a crucifix USB
stick you can wear. You want it, don’t you?
Then complete this crossword…
ENTRIES IN BY OCTOBER 21, 2017
How to enter Got a pen? No? Well, go to the
drawer in the kitchen and get one. Good. Now fill in
the answers to the questions opposite – without
using google, sneaky, don’t think we won’t know!
Then whack it over by snail mail to Planet Rock
Magazine, Sabbath Crossword, Academic House,
24-28 Oval Road, London NW1 7DT
Terms and conditions One entry per person. Entries must
be received before October 21, 2017 or will not be valid. One
winner will be selected at random. Competition promoted by
Bauer Consumer Media Limited t/a Planet Rock (“Planet
Rock”). Planet Rock’s choice of winner is final and no
correspondence will be entered into in this regard. The winner
will be notified by email seven days after the competition ends.
Entrants must be over 18, resident in the UK and not be
employed by Bauer Media. The prize is non-negotiable with no
cash alternative. Entrants agree to the collection of their
personal data in accordance with Planet Rock’s privacy policy:
http://www.bauerdatapromise.co.uk/. Bauer reserves the right
to amend or cancel these terms or any aspect of the
competition (including the prize) at any time if required for
reasons beyond its control. Any questions, please email mail@
planetrock.com. Complaints will not be considered if made
more than 30 days after the competition ends. Winner’s details
available on request (after the competition ends) by emailing
mail@planetrock.com. For full Ts&Cs see bauerlegal.co.uk/
competition-terms.
ACROSS
1 Ships should steer clear of this Buckethead
album (7,8)
5 Roger Waters solo album (5,1,1,1,1)
8 Record label and Sex Pistols song (1,1,1)
9 Jimi Hendrix’s Peter Gunn disaster (11)
10 First name of frontman who keeps his Balls To
The Wall (3)
11 Paul Di’Anno sang of Murders In The _ _ _
Morgue, on Iron Maiden’s Killers album (3)
12 Saxon hefted a Battering --- (3)
14 Dave Grohl’s Fighters (3)
15 First name of late Deftones bassist (3)
16 The Oedipal climax to The Doors self-titled
debut album (3)
17 _ _ _ Bottomed Girls, as celebrated in song by
Queen (3)
18 First word of the opening track on Sweet’s
Sweet Fanny Adams (3)
19 Classic Judas Priest track eternally paired with
The Hellion (8,3)
20 Motorhead wove --- Magic on their final studio
record (3)
21 Dio detected ---- On ----- Street (4,5)
22 Early Prince gem from Dirty Mind (4,3,4,4)
Crossword
DOWN
1 Iggy Pop once lived in the Zombie variety (9)
2 Iron Maiden considered this 2006 album
- ------ -- ---- And Death (1,6,2,4)
3 Orlando rock band fronted by Myles Kennedy
(5,6)
4 Audioslave came out of this on their second
album (5)
6 They brought Lightning To The Nations (7,4)
7 Explosive debut single from Stiff Little Fingers
(7,6)
8 Mercury Rev song, ------ ----- (Son House In
Excelsis) (6,5)
CROSSWORD SET BY: JASON ARNOPP
9 Pink Floyd declared themselves this degree of
Numb (11)
13 Notoriously fastidious Def Leppard, AC/DC
producer (4,5)
19 (Take Your ----- Out Of The Soup) You’re
Sitting On The Chicken, insisted Ian Dury (5)
TE L L U S WHAT
YO U TH I N K O F
P L AN ET R O C K
MAGA Z I N E AN D WI N £500! G O TO
P L AN ETR O C K.CO M / S U R VEY
P L A N E T R O C K 129
 WHO THE HELL ARE THESE gUYS?

Where we’re going

we don’t need roads...
Not every rock band dreams of
driving a Rolls-Royce into a
Beverly Hills swimming pool.
Simpler pleasures often suffice.
With the benefit of hindsight,
these lads may have been
tempting fate by posing in a
scrapyard, but back in the early
’80s who honestly knew the
road that lay ahead for them?
Do you know who they are?
PETE CRONIN

Or better still, were you a

member of this plucky,
tastefully permed outfit?
Answers to mail@planetrock.
com; see page 26 for last
issue’s correct answer.

130 P L A N E T R O C K
 INSIDE ISSUE THREE OF THE NEW MAGAZINE FROM THE MAKERS OF
MOJO AND PLANET ROCK, BRITAIN’S GREATEST ROCK RADIO STATION

ALBUMS
OVERLOAD
Your guide to all
the music you need
STARRING
BACK TO
SCHOOL’S OUT QUEENS OF THE
STONE AGE
BLACK COUNTRY
“We appealed COMMUNION
to the outsiders. OH SEES

I WAS THEIR LEADER .

FOO FIGHTERS
a n d m o re

They were
our gang…” ZZROCK
TOP
RAMBLIN’

ALICE
MAN FAIR
PLUS!
TYLER
BRYANT
& THE
SHAKEDOWN

COOPER
AND
The rising acts
you need to catch
right now!

SOUNDGARDEN AIRBOURNE ALTER BRIDGE RICK WAKEMAN

BADMOTORFINGER ON THE ROAD. WHAT’S ROCKING IN THE COURT
REVISITED… IN YOUR FACE! MYLES’ WORLD? OF A PROG KING

STONE SOUR Co rey Taylo r Co o ks Up A Storm THE DARKNESS Af ter Da rk…

MICHAEL SCHENKER T he Mad Axe m a n Re t u r n s ! SAXON Stor m Stee lhou se
DIAMOND HEAD The Tr ue Stor y Of Me ta llica ’s He roes. ..