CATEGORIES

BORN TO RUM

Dragging traditional folk into the rock sphere while on the precipice of international stardom, The Pogues looked like a chaotically ramshackle and dysfunctional unit in the mid-80s with second album Rum, Sodomy & The Lash. In reality they were a resolutely determined hard-working band.

THE VAGABONDS RETURN

With the release of Thin Lizzy's new Acoustic Sessions, with Phil Lynott's 70sera vocals, guitarist Eric Bell and producer Richard Whittaker tell us about grassaddled sessions, unfinished business and why this project definitely isn't Al.

"I WANTED A GROUP WITH GRIT.EXCITEMENT AND EDGE"

Between two spells with Deep Purple, singer lan Gillan led two of his own bands, with great success. Here he looks back at Gillan, and how intra-band friction tore that group apart.

KILLERS, BEASTS, SLAVES, SONS. SOULS...

With Iron Maiden celebrating their 50th anniversary this year, we talk to all the members of the band and look back over the successes, trials, tribulations, thrills, spills and genre-defining records of the longest-running and arguably greatest heavy metal band of them all.

“LIKE HAVING A BRICK WALL COMING AT YOU!"

In 1974 King Crimson released Red, one of their most underrated albums at the time. On its 50th anniversary, Crimson alumni discuss the continued allure of an album

Ricky Warwick

The Almighty frontman on his new solo album, digging Northern soul, his good work ethic, quitting drinking...

Shaman's Harvest

They've come through life-changing adversity. They know how to party. They're finally coming over here...

Last Train

With album number three they're hoping to pull into stations outside their native France.

The Knack My Sharona

The LA band's stuttering rocker with the dirty m-m-mind, about someone who for co-writer Doug Fieger was \"love at fist sight\", was one of the biggest hits of 1979.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE, SONGS OF EXPERIENCE

Moving to a new studio, and with band members taking on new roles, with their new album The Manic Street Preachers continue to innovate and experiment.

SISTERS IN ARMS

Taking care of business in all aspects of their music and career, Rebecca and Megan Lovell, aka the fast-rising Larkin Poe, really are sisters doing it for themselves.

"IT'LL FEEL LIKE A BRAND-NEW BAND"

The Temperance Movement rise from the ashes.

Joan Armatrading

The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a 'band', what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela...

Meat Loaf: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)

It was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the it’ is that the singer wouldn't do.

Kris Kristofferson: June 22, 1936 - September 28, 2024

Kris Kristofferson, the iconic, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actor who played a key role in advancing a strand of country music into a more raw and confessional direction now recognised as outlaw country, has died peacefully at his home in Maui, surrounded by family. He was 88 years old.

"I have come a very long way in the last two-and-a-bit years"

Back from the brink: the Thunder vocalist who survived major medical trauma returns.

EVER MEET LEMMY?

He's heard Lemmy's unreleased solo album, had dinner with Chris Holmes, told Paul McCartney to get a round in, been told gangster Reggie Kray wanted to have a word with him... He is Dogs D'Amour frontman Tyla 7 Pallas, and these are some of his stories.

"LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAVING FUN"

With their ninth studio album In Murmuration, Finnish rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have replaced their erstwhile prog epics for a more honest approach to songwriting reflecting their personal lives.

IN THE BEGINNING

With previously unseen photographs from their early days as featured in the new Queen | Collector's Edition, Sir Brian May talks us through sights of the band in the early seventies.

BASS-IC INSTINCT

Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie's band, then unceremoniously out of the picture five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke.

High Rollers

When Ronnie Wood, the Stones and some A-list mates holed up at his house to help with his solo album, it sparked a days-long party, a Rolling Stones hit and the last album by arguably their finest line-up.

THE NAME OF THE GAM

When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Akerfeldt met one of their singers, he lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did.

YOU GOT TO ROLL WITH PUNCHES TO GET TO WHAT'S REAL

In an exclusive extract from his touching new autobiography Brothers - a tribute to Eddie (see p.88 for the review) - Alex Van Halen recalls the recording of 1984.

WHAT'S THAT SOUND?

Welcome to 1984: it was the album that would see Van Halen straddle the planet like a rock colossus, but it would also mark the end of the original line-up featuring charismatic talisman Dave Lee Roth. This is its story.

Dream Theater

With friends (and bandmates) reunited for the band's 40th anniversary, it'll be a special night for fans at Wembley Arena.

Royal Republic

Livewire, turbo-harmonised, disco-rocking Swedes get ready for upgraded UK and Europe dates.

GOTTA KEEP MOVIN'

In 1968 the MC5's Kick Out The Jams album was a grenade thrown into the music scene. In the decades since, Wayne Kramer acted as guardian of the band's legacy until he died earlier this year, after making one final album.

THE KILLING FLOOR

Now revered as a linchpin moment in the history of the blues, Howlin' Wolf's London sessions in 1970, with a superstar cast that included some of England's rock royalty, came out of a chance encounter several months earlier at a gig in San Francisco.

ROGUE TRADER

Recording almost everything on his latest album himself and putting it out on his own label, Tuk Smith followed the adage that if you want something doing properly, do it yourself.

BILL WYMAN

WW2 evacuee, RAF airman, Rolling Stone, hit solo artist, bandleader, author, restaurateur, archaeologist, cricketer... Even just his time in The Greatest Rock'N'Roll Band In The World is storied, but there's been much, much more to his life than that.