Fireworks Magazine Issue 68, Mar/Apr 2015

SNAPPY DRESSERS
Glancing through an old copy of Fireworks melodic rock magazine made me think about the outfits the bands are wearing more than their music(1). A number of the bands, like Wolfpakk, Ammunition and The Amorettes, I do not know because I have not heard their material, while others are familiar or even famous like Gun, Thunder, UFO, Toto and Scorpions. Some are of no interest, because I either do not like their music or the genre is off-putting (power metal). Many, or most, are very good. Fireworks has always endeared itself to me, because the journalists are positive and enthusiastic. The downside of this is that they may enthuse about albums, which I explore and sometimes find to be disappointing. Occasionally, they will make it clear they do not like a band or album, but it is quite rare (an Arapacis album in this issue).

My favourite section is the Album Reviews and, in this month’s issue, those that interested me were by Anthony Phillips, Beardfish, Dave Kilminster, Gun, Herman Rarebell and many others. The highlighted album reviews, at the front of the section, are the first S/T album by supergroup Revolution Saints, II a comeback by cult band China Sky and the much anticipated Toto XIV. Main articles were on: Scorpions in an interview with Klaus Meine on their future, which appears to be open-ended; Sweet and Lynch fronting a supergroup which bears their name; and Steve Lukather of Toto, discussing the aforementioned Toto XIV.
On the subject of rock musicians’ outfits, it is clear they are wearing them for a photo-shoot which will be used in magazines like this and for promotional purposes. Do a Google search in ‘images’ on some of these artists and the chances are you will see more of the same.

Some are quite stylish, like Eric Clapton, Axl Rose, David Coverdale, Billy Idol, Freddie Mercury, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Slash, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles. Others get it totally wrong such as The Red Hot Chili Peppers, the late great Chris Squire, Marilyn Manson, Dee Snider, Billy Ray Cyrus, MC Hammer, Will.i.am, and an endless list of eighties synthpop bands wearing jackets with rolled up sleeves. Due to their inconsistency, some of these could be in both lists; Rose and Squire to name but two.

Rock stars, according to their dress code in Fireworks, can be categorised into four broad groups:

First is the Dressed in Black category, with the worst offenders being: Soto, who all wear sunglasses, except the man after whom they are named, Jeff Scott, who is wearing a scarf with a cheesy skull pattern; UFO, whose lead singer Phil Mogg is also sporting a trilby that is too big; and power metallers Ordan Ogan in hoods, but Mediaeval hoods. Black is worn with monotonous regularity, rather than bad taste, by bands such as: Ammunition, with Age Sten Nilsen of Wig Wam; all-girl group The Amorettes; Swedish band Eclipse; supergroup Devil Train; cult melodic band China Sky; southern rock band, Blackberry Smoke; hard rock legend Jorn Lande with Trond Holter; German power metal band, Blind Guardian; and others.

Next, is the Eccentric Garb category, which by nature tends to be randomised. Duo Wolfpakk are wearing shirts with American Indian feather imagery, but lead singer, Michael Voss, has warpaint on his face. JK Impera, drummer with his own band Impera, is wearing a sensible enough grey jacket, but he has running ink-style eye makeup – running upwards. This may seem a bit crazy, but it is a case of once seen, never forgotten. It might work for him. Perhaps most eccentric of all, David Paich, keyboard player with Toto, is wearing a grey top hat, a long grey coat and a scarf. He could be on his way to a wedding, but in fairness has worn tall hats before and one of the early title ideas for XIV was ‘Great Expectations‘. Great guitarist he may be, but Steve Lukather’s hair needs combing. Brazilian power metal ‘monsters’, Angra, should be in the Dressed in Black category, but qualified for Eccentric with one of them wearing a T-shirt with a tartan skull design, which is a combination of corny and weird. Funniest of all is neo multi-instrumentalist John Mitchell, recording under the moniker Lonely Robot, strolling through Trafalgar Square dressed as an astronaut.

Sexy Kit is the third category, starting with ‘Norwegian songstress’, Issa, in a cropped vest top and hair styled by a wind machine. Polish neo singer, Anieszka Swita, is similar in a purple bustier (I think). Skarlett Riot lead vocalist, Chloe, almost qualified for the Dressed in Black or Eccentric clusters, but with ripped leggings I put her here for balance. Also Canadian vocalist, Leah, who has a fantasy style of her own, is not overtly sexy, but she is a good-looking girl and a lot more attractive than many of the men here. Talking of which, we have Revolution Saints’ guitarist Doug Aldrich who, borrowing from Coverdale, has that, ‘Hey, I’m here ladies,’ look about him. At least with the inclusion of Aldrich, I cannot be accused of sexism!

Last, but not least, is the Long Hair but Normal bracket – jackets and T-shirts. These musicians look as if they would wear their stage clothes on the way to the gig and include: Michael Sweet and George Lynch; retro band The Answer; Brighton-based band, Furyon; Swedish band, Last Autumn’s Dream; Thunder, who are all dressed in black, but look natural; young Swedish band Reach; and New Zealanders, The Datsuns. Hooray! for their unpretentiousness. I hope they all see continued success, just for being themselves.

My comments here are tongue in cheek, as there are many fine musicians discussed in my blog and their clothes do not count for much when one is listening to the music. Fireworks has many other features, interviews and reviews beyond those mentioned here. I wholeheartedly recommend the magazine for fans of melodic, heavy, hard and progressive rock.

(1) Fireworks Issue No. 68, March/April 2015

W18.09.15/P18.09.15/RP07.11.15

Classic Rock Magazine: Brave New World

Classic Rock Magazine October 2015 (Courtesy: Ebay)

EDDIE AND THE ROT RODS
In celebration of Iron Maiden‘s Brave New World album, the front cover design of October’s issue of Classic Rock magazine is No.13 of 17 ‘collectable’ covers, each representing a different album by the band. My image in blue of a futuristic London landscape is from the new album. I am no Iron Maiden fan, ever since seeing a poster of them outside The Marquee Club in Wardour Street, in the late seventies, clad in what even then was a cliched uniform of leather jackets and studded wrist bands. The Iron Maiden: Flight 666 documentary, from a few years ago, presented them as still predictable in the noughties. But, it is a sad fact of publishing that commercial hard rock bands sell more magazines than the Budgies and Nektars of this world, especially when they have released a new album. In defence of the group, Janick Gers was lead guitarist with the outstanding live NWOBHM outfit, White Spirit, and drummer Nicko McBrain was a member of the terrific Pat Travers Band when they were at their best.

The Iron Maiden article itself is interesting, not least because journalist Paul Elliott discusses the effects of Bruce Dickinson’s recent illness with the lead singer himself and the other members of the band. At the end of last year, Dickinson discovered a lump on his neck which was diagnosed by his doctor as a cancerous tumour on his tongue, with another in his lymph node. Weeks of chemotherapy, radiation and milkshakes followed. He is quite witty as, after diagnosis, he says he thought, ‘Stop it. Start noticing women’s legs and pubs again. Get back to normality.’ His stoicism is further demonstrated by the comment, ‘This wasn’t the universe having its revenge on me. It’s just random shit.’

One of the opening stories in the magazine, in a regular section called The Dirt (dishing?), is titled, ‘Will the Future of Rock Look Like This?‘ To the side is a large photograph of a Japanese all girl band called Babymetal, posed in front of open coffins. It is cliched in a currently fashionable mock-gothic style. Dragonforce’s Herman Li is quoted as saying, ‘The critics have forgotten that metal has evolved. Bands don’t sound like Led Zeppelin and Sabbath now.’ He is wrong because it is difficult not to hear both of those bands in so many groups, whether they be 70s contemporaries or modern. My guess is that we won’t see much of Babymetal again, in the same way that Dragonforce were quickly forgotten.

A slender column labelled RIP Thank You and Good Night has all too brief obituaries of the influential producer, Bob Johnston, and the well-connected Liverpool chanteuse, Cilla Black. Hopefully, the team at CR will see fit to expand on these in future articles. We are told in News that Bruce Dickinson is selling private jets at Harrods, presumably as an investment, but it could be no less unpalatable. Axl and Slash: the Feud is Over appears to be good news for fans of the real G’n’R, but Slash’s memoirs indicate that Rose was more trouble than he is worth.

Another regular article The Stories Behind the Songs is about Rhiannon by Fleetwood Mac. Although it is a strong track, the fact that it is biographical and, bearing in mind how much of the Buckingham-Nicks Fleetwood Mac story we have heard over the years, makes this article superfluous. More interesting would be the story behind some of Peter Green’s influential songs or Christine Perfect’s underrated version of I’d Rather Go Blind. An account of the subsequent careers of those musicians, like Danny Kirwan, Bob Welch and Stretch, who kept the band going during difficult times but were discarded, would also make interesting reading.

I remember interviews with Cherie Currie and The Runaways, in Melody Maker or Sounds, during the mid-seventies, as being the sort of muddled nonsense one might expect from over-indulged teenage girls made rock stars. In the old colour photo on page 28, she appears enigmatic and, in the Q&A interview, talks of working in a homeware shop after the drugs and booze of The Runaways, her abduction and assault at the hands of a psychotic fan, and her relationship with Svengali Kim Fowley during his illness. Regarding Jackie Fox’s tales of assault, Currie’s verdict is that she was an attention seeker. It seems there is more to Cherie Currie than met the eyes forty years ago. The same cannot really be said for Johnny Rotten. Just before I come to the latter, I should point out that later in the magazine there is an article on one of the first all-female rock bands, Fanny.

Ian Fortnam’s sympathetic interview with Johnny Rotton, or John Lydon as he now prefers to be called, is interesting by way of a comparison, because those for the BBC in the seventies were terse and defensive. In the intervening period, the progressive and heavy rock baby was thrown out with the bathwater, while Lydon appeared on the Sex Pistols‘ filthy lucre tour, TV ads for butter and I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here.

Far from arbitrarily condemning hard rock bands, Lydon now ‘adores’ Led Zeppelin, which is only fair as Robert Plant described him as having ‘flare’. Talk of being thrilled by libraries is good to read at a time when Conservative government policy is to close them, but reading books does not seem very ‘punk’, and these anomalies set the tone for much of Ian Fortnam’s interview. Lydon turned down contributing vocals to The Professionals (a better band than its predecessor); he is a fan of Hawkwind and encountered a Paladin album, with Roger Dean artwork, in a record shop; he lives in LA to escape his past; he worked with Bill Laswell, Steve Vai and Ginger Baker because Elektra were on his case, and so it goes on. Reassuring to read is that Lydon and his wife Nora Forster are now bringing up the children of her daughter Ari Up, who
passed away in 2010.

An interview with distinctive vocalist Kelly Jones attempts to present Stereophonics as an authentic rock band, which is unlikely to succeed with him also appearing in Waitrose Weekend magazine. Something which struck a chord with me though, in the latter piece, was his answer to the question, ‘What is the kindest thing someone has done for you?’ He replied, ‘Probably my parents letting me go to art school with no real hope of a job while I worked out what I wanted to do with my band.’ Stereophonics are no strangers to tragedy, with drummer Stuart Cable dying from the effects of alcohol while out of the band.

Reviews have always been my favourite part of Classic Rock, but this month’s edition has little of interest apart from David Gilmour‘s Rattle That Lock and Graveyard‘s Innocence & Decadence, probably more due to the dearth of material being released through the summer than the fault of the magazine. Both reviews are favourable.

Elsewhere, there is a feature on Rush, which is always useful as they tend to remain an enigma. Alex Lifeson it appears is keen to quit the business, but Geddy Lee is not so enthusiastic. It is a dilemma as their popularity shows no sign of abating. Psychedelia is becoming trendy again, so CR, feeling some pressure to take note, include a history of the genre with The Electric Prunes and ?and the Mysterians. Darling of the forums and music press alike, Steven Wilson gets three columns in Live! in addition to his album review. Foreigner are the subjects of the much copied Buyer’s Guide, with 4 and Foreigner unsurprisingly classified as essential. ‘Prog mastermind’ Jesse Hughes bares his soul in the closing Heavy Load, but I am not aware of his work. We will see if the label is justified.

Although the bands featured in this month’s issue are not among my favourites, the articles are a compelling read from journalists who are understanding of their subjects. Further features and regulars, such those on Pentagram, King King, Metallica, reissues, live reviews and the cover disc can be found, as well as more on Fanny, Lydon and Rush than time and space allows here, by purchasing a copy. Prog magazine, with a cover feature on the late Chris Squire and an excellent article on ELP’s Manticore label, is also available.

W14.09.15/P14.09.15