Prog
Universal Numbers
After the stop-start of the last three years, Lazuli have quietly unveiled their 11th studio album, simply called 11. Vocalist, instrumentalist and composer Dominique Leonetti reveals why the French group are buzzing about their new release but choosing to remain fiercely independent, and how it felt to finally play on the same stage as their musical heroes.
5 min |
Issue 141
Prog
Wired For Sound
A lot has changed since North Atlantic Oscillation released their last album, the well-stocked Grind Show, in 2018. After a strange five years it feels somewhat reassuring to see the return of the electronic post-prog outfit, and it's now effectively a one-man band as Sam Healy leads the way. Prog catches up with the musician to find out more.
7 min |
Issue 141
Guitarist
First Rate
Blackstar takes a break from floorboard amps and effects and expands its affordable practice amp range for gigging guitarists
5 min |
August 2023
Guitarist
Messin WITH THE RIG
Three decades since his death, Rory Gallagher remains the ultimate road warrior. As we rebuild the exact rigs from the late Irishman's most famous live periods, using historic gear loaned by his estate, Daniel Gallagher looks back over his uncle's lifetime on the boards
8 min |
August 2023
Classic Rock
The White Buffalo
The man aka Mr Smith plays five UK shows in July
2 min |
Summer 2023
Classic Rock
SOUL POWER
They’ve been off the radar for a while, but Vintage Trouble have returned with new album Heavy Hymnals, and this time their blazing rock’n’soul is fuelled by heartbreak, social commentary and racial injustice. Just don’t call it a comeback
9 min |
Summer 2023
Guitarist
Tones Behind The Tracks
Nuno Bettencourt tells us about the \"torture\" of recording Six, the return of rock 'n' roll mythology, and the solo that set the guitar world ablaze
4 min |
August 2023
Classic Rock
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
With the deaths of two key members, a rival band, and fans who just won’t let the old days go, the past 10 years have been a roller-coaster ride for Yes. But with the release of a new album, Mirror To The Sky, the enduring prog legends are not about to give up
9 min |
Summer 2023
Classic Rock
GOING IT ALONE
Thunder guitarist Luke Morley on his new solo album, singer Danny Bowes' illness and rehabilitation, fans' generosity, and feeling old when hearing his songs being covered
4 min |
Summer 2023
Prog
All Tomorrow's Parties
A familiar name in the Canterbury scene, Dave Stewart's career reached unexpected highs in the 1980s when he teamed up with Spirogyra's Barbara Gaskin for an unlikely pop cover. Forty years on, the pair are still making \"intelligent pop\" with a ninth studio album on the way. Now preparing to play a very special one-off show in London this summer, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin tell Prog about the unexpected spark that's led to their longstanding musical, and romantic, relationship.
7 min |
Issue 141
Classic Rock
REACH FOR THE STARS
A forgotten curio from 1983, the Star Fleet Project saw a supergroup come together with members of Queen, Van Halen and REO Speedwagon. Brian May reminisces about working with EVH and tells us the story
10 min |
Summer 2023
Guitarist
New Dimension
Beetronics takes the chorus effect and sweetens it with an extra layer of pitch shifting to offer an endlessly creative tool
2 min |
August 2023
Prog
Argus Panoptes
Wishbone Ash never set out to create a progressive concept album, but things took an unexpected twist on their third record, Argus. Fifty-one years on, it's been reissued and expanded into a handsome seven-disc multi-format box set. Prog sat down with Martin Turner and Andy Powell to explore the record's genesis and legacy, taking in everything from stolen swords and nascent romances to trance-writing and twin guitars.
7 min |
Issue 141
Guitarist
Build It Yourself
You won't put assembly-line workers out of a job, but you will get some cool sounds from Korg’s Nutube-powered pedal kits
3 min |
August 2023
Classic Rock
The Revivalists
The New Orleans octet on how to deal with a mega-hit, and giving something back to their community
3 min |
Summer 2023
Guitarist
STEVE LUKATHER
The top sessioneer and Toto stringsman recounts his early six-string experiences and an epic deal on a rare Vox 12-string
5 min |
August 2023
Guitarist
PLAY TO WIN
Fender's acclaimed Player Series is celebrating its fifth anniversary and to mark the occasion it's receiving some brand-new colours. Allen Abbassi shares the history behind the best-selling range
2 min |
August 2023
Guitarist
the Wishlist
Dream gear to beg, borrow and steal for...
2 min |
August 2023
Classic Rock
RETIREMENT? WHAT RETIREMENT?
In 2012 the Scorpions announced their retirement. A decade later… they’re still with us. Classic Rock caught up with the core members to look back at the life and times of one of hard rock’s great and most enduring bands
10+ min |
Summer 2023
Prog
SELF-MADE MEN
On their new, independently released album, guitarist Misha Mansoor talks of taking Periphery back to the band they always wanted it to be. No longer bending to the pressures of suits or the public, and more comfortable now in their own skin than ever before, this is the story of how Periphery V: Djent Is Not A Genre finds the US group at their defiant best.
5 min |
Issue 141
Classic Rock
Billy F Gibbons
Playing Top tunes, solo songs and covers, expect “something old, something new and a lot that’s blues”.
3 min |
Summer 2023
Guitarist
CAROL KAYE
If you’ve ever wondered what connects Frank Zappa to Frank Sinatra, Burt Bacharach to The Beach Boys or Ray Charles to The Righteous Brothers, the answer is simple: Carol Kaye. We discover the story behind the legendary bassist’s iconic sound
8 min |
August 2023
Total Guitar
"We're borrowing amps for every show"
Island Of Love are signed to Jack White’s label, but the band’s two guitarists are still hustling for gear in the pursuit of ear-bleeding volume
7 min |
July 2023
Total Guitar
"The first note I play, I miss the whole string completely!"
It’s the guitar solo that everyone is talking about – but as Nuno Bettencourt now reveals, it starts with a mistake…
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
KINGS OF THE WORLD
Fifty years ago, imams of immaculacy and avatars of the acerbic, Steely Dan, were jazz pop's cool rulers. They had under their belts a debut album, Can't Buy A Thrill, that wasn't so much hesitantly promising as fully-realised, supremely accomplished. Clearly, on a roll, the follow-up, issued in July 1973, was, if anything, even better: their second - and, some would say, finest - album of cutting perfection (ism), Countdown To Ecstasy. Max Bell evaluates its razor buoyancy.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
WIND OF CHANGE
It is 1974 and the Bee Gees haven't had a hit for a while. Nor are they enjoying the critical respect of the heavenly-harmony \"B\" boys: Beatles, Beach Boys, Byrds. Into this commercial and critical lull enters producer Arif Mardin. In this extract from his book on the brothers Gibb, Bee Gees: Children Of The World, author, RC writer and pop musician Bob Stanley finds them midway through Phase 2 of their transition from late 60s orch-popsters to late 70s disco behemoths.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
POP ART
Numerous rock'n'pop artistes have proven dab hands with other artforms over the decades. RC artist Paul Bowler paints a picture of some of those who work on other canvases
6 min |
July 2023
Record Collector
BREAKING THE WAVES
A going concern since 1976, first in The Hague and since 2006 in Rotterdam, the annual North Sea Jazz Festival returns this summer with a stellar lineup including Janelle Monáe, Seal, Stormzy, Little Simz, Lizzo, Duckwrth, Snarky Puppy, Tom Jones, Van Morrison, Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Jill Scott and more. It showcases the best contemporary jazz-influenced acts while attracting the biggest names. Photographer Paul Bergen has been capturing images from the festival for nearly four decades. He talks us through some of his favourite shots from previous years...
4 min |
July 2023
Record Collector
NO LESS THAN HERO
To mark the release of Seven Psalms, an astonishing meditation on spirituality and mortality and his first album of new material in seven years, Paul Simon a giant of postwar American popular song matched only by Dylan - takes to Zoom for an RC exclusive to talk about (his) music with fan, friend and fellow master songwriter, Elvis Costello. Listening in: Terry Staunton.
10+ min |
July 2023
Record Collector
Oh, Sit Down!
We will if you stop playing those infectious big-venue anthems to alienation and belonging. But James can't help themselves, and they never could, whether in their early indie phase, during Madchester, with Eno, or any time since. Still on their singular path and in pursuit of the new, they're releasing an orchestral retrospective album, Be Opened By The Wonderful. Tim Booth, Saul Davies and Jim Glennie tell Kevin Harley about their choppy journey as perennial outsiders and the value of an open mind.
10+ min |