While the world around him is sleeping, Benji Webbe is up with the lark. The Skindred frontman usually goes to bed around nine, wakes by 2.30am and spends the early hours being creative. This morning he was up at 4am writing lyrics. Now 56, he’s still is one of the most entertaining rock frontmen of our time, a man who was born to play ringleader to thousands in festival fields. But it’s here in this pre-dawn solitude where Webbe runs through the creative windmills of his mind.
“I watch movies, and lines come from the movies and stay with me,” he says, chatting to Classic Rock in a hotel bar a short walk from Wembley Arena. It’s a sunny afternoon, and this evening Skindred will be at the venue to receive the Best UK Live Act award at the Heavy Music Awards 2023.
“There was one line the other day,” he says: ‘Don’t let your past hold you hostage.’ I thought it was a great line, because so many of us are troubled by our past. When I’m writing for Skindred, I know it’s such an engaging audience-participation in the music, it’s beautiful knowing people are going to be affected in the right way.”
These were the thoughts going through Webbe’s head as he was writing the words to Skindred’s exhilarating latest album, Smile, their eighth. Never before has their blend of metal and reggae been so well honed, with the dancehall element of their music – always such a key part of Skindred’s DNA – particularly prevalent on the skanking summery vibes of recent single L.O.V.E. (Smile Please), a candidate for the pop song of the summer.
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Denne historien er fra August 2023-utgaven av Classic Rock.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Bright Sparks - Undertakers, band managers and museum workers by day, pop-charged rockers by night, The Hot Damn! are a gang you'd want to join.
Gill Montgomery has come straight from the mortuary. Her mortuary, to be precise. Some rockers wait tables, others teach music or pick up temp work. The Hot Damn! frontwoman looks after dead people.“It’s interesting,” she muses, of her day job running a funeral home in South East London. “It’s very hands-on. I think you’re either for it or you’re not.”
Motörhead
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LET'S DANCE
Dialling back on the aggressive approach that has helped bring Idles this far, and putting swing to the stomp, their new album is intended to make you shake a leg rather than a fist
Steve Hackett
The former Genesis guitarist’s latest themed’ tour enables him to visit the best of both worlds”.
Monster Magnet
“It's all-energy. It's rock excitement, psychedelic glory and space-rock hooks.” Sounds good to us!
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Embracing their roots on record for the first time, Don't call us southern” band The Cold Stares’ seventh album is both a love letter to Kentucky and a Call for unity in volatile times.
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Jerry Cantrell
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In 1976, Thin Lizzy were touring Jailbreak in the US and were breaking big. Then disaster struck. Band manager Chris O'Donnell details the roller-coaster year in which they were cruelly robbed of their American dream.