God bless the cockroaches. this issue, we feature two of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest survivors, keepers of the torch who’ve somehow endured for a combined 143 years, despite the grave punishment exacted on their own bodies, minds and souls. Firstly, Michael Stephens heads back to Birmingham in 1970 to find the famously indestructible Ozzy Osbourne and the nascent Black Sabbath more or less inventing heavy metal. the road they took was pockmarked with mishaps – accidentally recording their debut album, Tony Iommi lopping off the tips of his fingers, and the band rejecting any association withthe genre they’d seemingly spawned. Regardless, they inspired thousands of bands to pledge their allegiance to the horned one. Fifty years on, despite a lifetime of the kind of wanton excess that would have put most of us in the ground long ago, and recently being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Ozzy continues to rock. Secondly, in one of the most entertaining pieces to appear in the pages of Long Live Vinyl, Daniel Dylan Wray rounds up the poor, traumatised souls who accompanied Iggy Pop through his hedonistic, exploratory 1980s. Along the way, there’s drugs, booze, violence, gratuitous Iggy nudity and David Bowie getting punched down a fight of stairs. “Him and KeithRichards are like the cockroaches you can’t kill,” says Iggy’s pal and 80s bandmate Clem Burke. Of course, it’s not just about the war stories. Iggy made some great and varied records post-Stooges, while from the seed Ozzy and the boys sowed 50 years ago, the metal tree sprouted in many disparate directions. After recounting the Sabbath story, Michael digs out 40 essential metal albums to add to your wants list. fiere’s plenty of a non-metallic description going on this issue, too. We’ve got interviews with Johnny Marr, Supergrass, Wire and Isobel Campbell, and we look back at the album that emerged from the feuding egos of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in March 1970, Déjà Vu. Before I sign off a quick note to look out for our next issue, on sale 6 March. It’ll come complete with your free official Record Store Day guide, as well as a new-look logo. We’ll still be the only magazine solely and completely dedicated to vinyl culture, the places we buy it and the kit we play it on, and we want to shout louder about it. Long Live Vinyl: those who know, know it never went away…
