Phil Campbell

This month’s contributors

MICHAEL HANN Michael has spent most of 2020

WELCOME

Welcome to the final issue of 2020. What

The Year That Was 2020

INSIDE THE WORLD OF ROCK

RIP

Thank you and good night

Ken Hensley

August 24, 1945 – November 4, 2020

Getting High On A New Thing

Rockers celebrate the end of Trump’s US presidency

Wolfie Slams Van Halen Rumour

“This is a shitty lie,” Eddie's son says about taking dad's place

NEWS

Jimmy Page says the pandemic has been a

Midnight Oil

Veteran politically driven Aussie rockers return with a new album and promise there’s more to come

NEWS

The Official Keith Emerson

Albert Bouchard

Decades on, the Blue Öyster Cult man releases the solo album that BÖC’s album Imaginos was intended to be

MY FIRST LOVE Boléro

MAURICE RAVEL

Jimi Hendrix

Dolly Dagger

The Smashing Pumpkins

Billy Corgan’s trademark sharp melodies fly on upbeat synth-pop

5 Billion In Diamonds

Sunshine and strange times from Butch Vig a nd friends

Ellefson

Megadeth man spearheads indulgent but hugely spirited covers blow-out

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard

Prolific Aussie band’s sixteenth album since 2010

L.A. Guns

It’s L.A. Guns, Jim, but not as we know it

John Fogerty

Creedence man brings the kids

Katatonia

Swedish gloomsters live in lockdown

Iron Maiden

Live and beastly

Bring Me The Horizon

Modern-metal mavericks hit their contact book hard on new EP

Cats In Space

Supremely crafted fourth album from rock classicists

ROUND-UP: SLEAZE

Bona Roba: slithery, black-leather rockers deliver the goods.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse

Fan-polarising album recorded live in 2003, also as deluxe box set with documentary

Stan Bush

AOR cult hero in nostalgic mood

Kevin Godley

Extraordinary ‘debut’ from former 10cc visio nary

Hollywood Undead

Seventh album from evermasked LA rap-rockers

The Wildhearts

Anthem after anthem, after motherfucking anthem! 

Volbeat

Danes’ latest album (and all the hits) live

Warrior Soul

Party-hearty covers album from sleaze-met al champs

Sensible Gray Cells

Primitive pop smarts from punk super-trio

The War On Drugs

Raw retro-rockers attain the addictive. 

ROUND-UP: MELODIC

Unruly Child: the same old problems remain. Unruly

Mr Bungle

Disturbing Bungle-style surgical strike on thrash metal

Dream Theater

Veteran virtuosos return to full vivacity

Paul McCartney

Nineteenth solo album finds Macca enjoying yet another purple patch

Penny Rimbaud

Brutally vivid Great War fiction from Crass veter an

Kelly Jones

Stereophonics frontman reimagines his s ongbook

Sons Of Otis

Raising the doom bar

Marathon

Marillion man rocks and pops on his first ‘solo’ record

BEST OF THE REST

Other new releases out this month

Nothing

Fourth album of shoegaze magnificence from Philadelphia’s black-hole sons

Walter Lure’s LAMF

Last Heartbreaker’s last stand. 

Spear Of Destiny

Kirk Brandon and co. reboot 1985 misfire with extra muscle and manly stubb le

Mudhoney

This is the real shit, the true grunge

Graham Bonnet

Six-record set that proves Bonnet can pretty much sing anything – and did

Iron Butterfly

Seven CDs, 85 tracks from a pioneering band

Killing Joke

Honour the fire! Two Joke zeniths get double vinyled, while singles get quadruply collected

Manowar

The true metallers’ three albums for Atlantic

Various Artists

A compendium of Denmark’s first generation of psych, prog and heavy nuggets

George Thorogood And The Destroyers

Badder than ever

Helloween

German trad-metallers beef things up

The Stranglers

Schizophrenic charge through classics and curios gets a vinyl reissue

Keith Richards And The X-Pensive Winos

Multi-format reissue of Keef’s side project in full flight

The Kinks

The brothers Davies bundle up rarities and live takes for Lola’s 50th birthday

Five Finger Death Punch

Metal heroes display their prowess on new collection

Roxette

Expansive collection of rarities from everyone’s favourite guilty secret

John Prine

Still smiling illeg ally

Neil Young

Ten CDs, 139 songs, one very singular artist

The Gun Club

Revelatory restoration of Chris Stein-produced second album, plus full demos

Chris Squire

Cleaning out the Fish tank

Scars

Early-80s gold from neglected Scottish treasure

Doro

Quiet-loud compilation box from German ‘metal queen’

Porcupine Tree

Steven Wilson-led prog gods’ early years get the high-spec box-set treatment

Lou Reed

Bereavement-driven concept work endures

The Drones

First-wave Manchester punks anthologised

BEST OF THE REST

Other reissues out this month

GWAR

A load of scumbag joy

Heavy Pettin

Def Leppard wannabes fail the test of time

Janis Joplin

Engaging portrait of the troubled rock’ n’roll icon

A Year With Swollen Appendices

Reissue of 1995 journal featuring Bowie, Bono, Bosnia and more

John & Yoko/ Plastic Ono Band

Memorabilia, unseen photos and words of those who made the album, 50 years on

Crock Of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan

Punk veteran Temple raises a glass to perpetually pissed Pogues singer

Zappa

Moving documentary about avant-garde rock’s most famous figure. 

PeteWay

Photos of the late UFO/ Waysted bassist, with tributes  from his famous friends. 

Thin Lizzy: EveryAlbum, Every Song

The title says  it all

Tour Dates

The Bronx/Mariachi El Bronx

LA hardcore punks and their Mexican alter egos share a virtual stage for the first time

Black Stone Cherry

Even with no audience the Kentucky rockers give it all they’ve got

These Wicked Rivers

Rivers reduced to stream prove they have plenty to offer

Wednesday 13’s Halloween Spooktakular Variety Show

Wednesday hams it up while he and his band deliver a five-song set with plenty of variety but little finesse

Foo Fighters

All the hits to celebrate 25 years of Foo Fighting

Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes

Punk rock ramalama meets Tron.

The Howling Fiends

The twang’s the thang

The Soundtrack Of My Life

Singer/guitarist  George Thorogood on the records, artists and gigs that are of lasting significance to him

Ego Kill Talent

HIGH HOPES

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

 It's been a very odd 12 months, but 2020 delivered plenty of new albums to get excited about, from both big names and newcomers. Here, then, is the Classic Rock critics’ choice of the best 50

OUT OF AFRICA

Optisme came into 2020 like a clear-eyed breath of fresh air. But who are the Malian rockers behind it?

FM

Positivity, big choruses and trying to write their own Billie Jean has done the British melodic veterans good, and it's also served to get their latest album into the international charts

TOP 5 PROG ALBUMS

1 DYBLE LONGDON Between A Breath And A

DRIVE-BY TRUCKERS

Unable to tour early 2020’s The Unraveling album, instead they wrote some new songs and dug into the ‘unused’ drawer and made another cracker

STONE TEMPLE PILOTS

With the electric guitars spending most of the recording sessions in their cases, the band crafted a mostly light-touch acoustic album that could well come to be seen as being among their best

THE EP OF 2020

How The Damned hit a latter-day peak with The Rockfield Files. 

METALLICA

Drummer Lars Ulrich on lockdown, missing live music, and what the future holds for his band

MASSIVE WAGONS

Now with a Top 10 album under their belt, the quintet have spent much of 2020 keeping their creativity going and remaining optimistic

TOP 5 AOR ALBUMS

1 VEGA Grit Your Teeth FRONTIERS They’re still

H.E.A.T

Meet the new guy, it's the old guy… Sweden’s melodic rock torch bearers on Eurovision, Def Leppard and a change of man at the mic

TOP 5 COUNTRY ALBUMS

1 LUCINDA WILLIAMS Good Souls, Better Angels HIGHWAY

DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE

It looked like it was all over for AC/DC after their last tour. But the best hard rock’n’roll band in the world don’t quit that easily. And back they’ve come, with the best album of 2020: Power Up.

STRANGER DAYS

Clouds and silver linings… No one wanted a pandemic to come along and tip 2020 on its head. But without the lockdown we were forced into as a result, The Struts’ new album would not exist

GUEST STAR 1: ROBBIE WILLIAMS

The Take That boy and solo megastar tells us about singing on the title track of The Struts’ new album

GUEST STAR 2: DEF LEPPARD

Joe Elliott and Phil Collen on the glam and glory of The Struts’ Strange Days album

"THERE CAN COME A STRANGE BEAUTY OUT OF IT ALL"

After spending the last four decades immersed in music, Fish is calling time. But with his farewell album, the prog legend is signing off with the best record of his solo career

My 2020 MARK KELLY

The Marillion keyboard player on his new record with Marathon, lockdown and former bandmate Fish’s new album

SALE OF THE YEAR

While Chrissie Hynde has been involved in other projects, she’s always had The Pretenders. And with 2020’s Hate For Sale they returned to guitar-based rock’n’roll and came back with a bang

TOP REISSUES OF 2020

With a stack of major anniversaries and desirable compilations coming out this year we were spoiled for choice. Here are some definitely worth the investment

OUT OF THIS WORLD

Strangers In The Night captured a great rock band at their peak, and is one of the all-time great live albums. But by the time it was released, UFO were no longer the band who’d made it

REMEMBERING PETE

The late UFO bass player is celebrated in a brand new photo book

WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES

As Diamond Head celebrate the 40th anniversary of their debut album Lightning To The Nations, guitarist Brian Tatler and long-time fan Lars Ulrich catch up over Zoom

My 2020 KEITH RICHARDS

Like everyone else, his year has been dictated by you know what. And while he’s behind on his reading, he’s still found time to “sit around writing songs, basically, or parts of songs”

THE ULTIMATE PLAYLIST OF 2020

Looking for the perfect soundtrack to accompany your Christmas and New Year festivities? Then start with Classic Rock’s selection

FROM DOWN TO DUSK

After a bright start with his band Silver Sun’s debut album, followed by more records filled with sparkling power pop, in 2020 James Broad gave us his final masterpiece

My 2020 STONE GOSSARD

The Pearl Jam guitarist was due to spend 2020 on tour, but ended up at home. Now with a new band in the works, he looks back on a year of music, politics and heavy-duty parenting

IN MEMORIAM

Here’s to the rock’n’rollers, among them musicians, producers, writers and more, who sadly left us in 2020. Thank you for the music