Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin (Atlantic)
Review by Felix Dennis, Oz, March 1969
VERY OCCASIONALLY a long-playing record is released that defies immediate classification or description, simply because it's so obviously a turning point in rock music that only ...

Led Zeppelin Are Not Prefabricated
Interview by Keith Altham, Top Pops, September 1969
WHEN is a hit single unnecessary? Apparently when it is a group like Led Zeppelin who have never released a single but have reached super group ...

Grand Funk Railroad
Profile by Danny Goldberg, Circus, January 1970
ODDLY ENOUGH, the first question that come to mind writing about Grand Funk Railroad is, why don't people like them? This is followed quickly – Why ...

Jimmy Page: Superstar
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, February 1970
JIMMY PAGE is the phoenix who has arisen from the ashes of the Yardbirds to emerge amongst the electric guitarist gods, through the meteoric success of ...

Black Sabbath
Report and Interview by Steve Turner, unpublished, March 1970
2003 Note: Having written my very first article for the Beatles Monthly I was asked by the publisher, Sean O’Mahoney (aka Johnny Dean), to contribute to ...

Deep Purple: The Smashing-Up Bit Is Valid!
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, September 1970
WHEN DEEP PURPLE smashed up their equipment on a TV show recently, here were howls of protest throughout the land. A flood of complaints hit MM's ...

Black Sabbath: It's All Word Of Foot
Profile and Interview by Rob Partridge, Record Mirror, October 1970
THE BLACK SABBATH album Paranoid, slipped into your record shops a couple of weeks ago. No ballyhoo. The release was as quiet as it was for ...

Deep Purple: Rock Is Where We're At
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, October 1970
ORGANIST JON Lord asserts triumphantly that with Deep Purple In Rock the group have finally found their true musical identities following their early 'success' as a ...

Black Sabbath: Nobody But The Public Digs Sabbath
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, January 1971
THERE WOULD seem to be a lot of unnecessary resentment over Black Sabbath's success in this business. And even outside it by those bastions of public ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Grand Funk — Or Bunk?
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, February 1971
RESENTMENT from the critics is something that Grand Funk Railroad are having to live with in the United States, but the pill is made the easier ...

Jimmy Page: Zep Come To The People
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, February 1971
"WHAT DO YOU want if you don't want Money?" was the lyrical question once put but never answered by a certain Adam Faith nee Terence Nelhams ...

Sir Lord Baltimore: Kingdom Come (Mercury)
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Creem, May 1971
ALL YOU TRUE blue Heavy fans, take heart. This album is a crusher. Sure enough, Sir Lord Baltimore is none other than a new heavy band ...

Deep Purple
Interview by Keith Altham, Record Mirror, May 1971
THE CRY most likely from the touchline as Deep Purple rocket on from standing ovation to standing ovation in the next few weeks is "bring on ...

Deep Purple: A Band Breakdown
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, September 1971
OFTEN ABUSED BY critics and disc jockeys, Deep Purple have won through during the past two years to become one of this country's top groups. Formed ...

Black Sabbath
Interview by Andrew Tyler, Disc and Music Echo, January 1972
"THE TROUBLE with English and European crowds," said Black Sabbath vocalist Ozzy Osbourne, "is that they listen to you as if you were a jukebox. They ...

Deep Purple: Victims Of Their Own Fame
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, March 1972
DEEP PURPLE'S new album Machine Head comes to you courtesy of the Rolling Stones' redoubtable studio manager Ian Stewart who saved their famous mobile recording studio ...

Breakfast of Champions: Deep Purple's Machine Head
Review by Metal Mike Saunders, Circular, May 1972
IF YOU'RE OVER 20, you needn’t read on. Unless, of course, you want to hear why Deep Purple are a good group – just like Black ...

Mountain: The Road Goes On Forever
Review by Jon Tiven, Rolling Stone, June 1972
MOUNTAIN, A BAND now departed for the great Fillmore in the Sky, was a standby whipping boy for practically any rock critic, regardless of taste. ...

Black Sabbath: Volume 4
Review by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, November 1972
IT REALLY freaks me out when somebody tries to tell me Vol 4 is the best thing Black Sabbath ever did. ...

Black Sabbath: Volume 4
Review by Max Bell, Let It Rock, December 1972
DESPITE BLACK SABBATH'S protestations that they have spent both a great deal of time and money on their latest album (earthshatteringly entitled Volume 4) the end ...

Deep Purple: So Dreadfully Hot Here In The Colonies
Report by Jim Esposito, Zoo World, December 1972
"WHERE'S THE booze?" ...

AUDIO: Black Sabbath's Tony Iommi (1973)
Interview by Keith Altham, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1973
From collapsing at the Hollywood Bowl to Geezer Butler's gallstones, via the making of Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and enjoying a nice game of Monopoly at home, ...

Deep Purple: Who Do Purple Think They Are?
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, March 1973
IN CONTEXT, WE'RE AS VALID AS ANYTHING BY BEETHOVEN. ...

Beck, Bogert and Appice
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, March 1973
THE BECK, BOGERT and Appice album is completed and virtually upon us, and it leads us to two inescapable conclusions. The first is simple: man for ...

A Brief Survey Of The State Of Metal Music Today
Comment by Metal Mike Saunders, Phonograph Record, April 1973
When you get right down to it, the story of heavy metal rock has been the tale of Led Zeppelin. As indicated by its name, Heavy ...

Uriah Heep: Live (Bronze)
Review by Tony Stewart, NME, May 1973
IT BECAME Friday night in Birmingham on a Friday morning in London – when I listened to this live Heep set. ...

Deep Purple: Who'll Be Purple's New Voice?
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, June 1973
THE NEWS that Ian Gillan is to leave Deep Purple comes at a time when the group are on the crest of world-wide acclaim. Yet it ...

Deep Purple: A New Bassman — But Still No Singer
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, July 1973
"PAUL RODGERS was asked to join us, but there were just too many things in the way. Apart from just the contractual side of it, he ...

Nazareth: Razamanaz
Review by Ken Barnes, Phonograph Record, September 1973
WHILE AMERICA continues to wallow in endless overblown funk, monotonous middle-of-the-rodomontade, and the unceasing soporifics of multitudinous mellow fellows and laid-back lasses, they've really been bopping ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Days Of Rest
Interview by Keith Altham, NME, September 1973
Forget witchcraft, forget heavy metal – Tony Iommi is laying back in his luxury pad, listening to the Carpenters and Sinatra ...

Uriah Heep
Interview by Tony Stewart, NME, September 1973
THIS INTERVIEW had the most ordinary of beginnings. David Byron and Uriah Heep's Press Miss and myself left the other four members of the band in ...

Beck, Bogert and Appice: Heavyweight Champions Of The World
Report and Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, September 1973
TAKE A LONG guitar lead. Sit as far far away from the studio as possible. And record some of the funkiest sounds ever laid down in ...

Deep Purple: Purple, Introducing The…Err…Unknown Mr. Coverdale
Report and Interview by Tony Stewart, NME, September 1973
PURPLE RECORDS took the press down to Clearwell Castle on the Welsh-English border last week to meet their new singer boy. The name of this new ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Cult Heroes
Profile and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, February 1974
NEW YORK: They say that heavy rock is on the decline and it's become fashionable to put down bands whose music is based on a series ...

Deep Purple: Burn
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1974
NEW LINE-UP time, folks. As all you well-informed young people will have been aware for nigh on a full season, Ian Gillan has left to be ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbra Cadabra!
Report by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, February 1974
THE GRINDING riff sears through the eardrums, ripping the senses and dulling with monotony. It crashes through the PA system, hurtling itself towards the back of ...

Blue Oyster Cult/Black Oak Arkansas
Report and Interview by Nick Kent, NME, March 1974
THIRD TIME down 52nd and 6th, and this guy from The Process is still trying to accost you with his pamphlets and spectre-of-doom rap. ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Tyranny And Mutation (Columbia Import)
Review by Ian MacDonald, NME, March 1974
WELL, HERE it is then: volume two of Sandy Perlman's boys' collective voyage in the S.S. "Cosmic Greaser Speed-freak" towards strange new worlds of murk and ...

Jimmy Page: The Power And The Glory
Profile by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1974
WHEN THEY showed Antonioni's classic film of the 'sixties, Blow Up, on TV last week, apart from evoking the real or imaginary spirit of "Swinging London," ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath, Bloody Sabbath (Warner Bros.)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, April 1974
THE QUESTION, Sabs, is where you been so long? So highly irresponsible was their disappearing act over a year ago that heavy metal almost vanished from ...

Deep Purple: Burn
Review by Ken Barnes, Rolling Stone, April 1974
DEEP PURPLE'S first album since last year's departure of vocalist Ian Gillan and bassist/composer Roger Glover is a passable but disappointing effort. ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Funk On A Grand Scale
Report and Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, May 1974
RINGING EARS are a symptom of excessive listening to loud rock and roll. When the ears tingle after a gig, you know the band in question ...

Black Sabbath/Black Oak Arkansas: Black Power
Report and Interview by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, June 1974
IF JIM DANDY'S PANTS were any tighter they'd have hair growing out of them.

Fringed suede jacket, fringed suede boots, and those white satin pants. Now, what ...

Uriah Heep
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, June 1974
"IT GETS ON my tit when people start talking when I'm listening to music, so when I'm at 'ome I always turn the sound right up ...

Rapping with a Burke from Budgie
Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, June 1974
...is extremely difficult, seeing as he's not the slightest bit interested that The Album has made the charts. In fact, he couldn't care less. What's more, ...

Steppenwolf Howls Back From Oblivion On Slow Flux
Report and Interview by Steven Rosen, Circus, November 1974
"IT JUST ISN'T fun anymore." With those cursory words on Saint Valentine's Day, 1972, John Kaye and the other members of Steppenwolf parted company — forever. ...

Deep Purple: Stormbringer (Purple Records)
Review by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1974
'Stormbringer'; 'Love Don't Mean A Thing'; 'Holy Man'; 'Hold On'; 'Lady Double Dealer'; 'You Can't Do It Right'; 'High Ball Shooter'; 'The Gypsy'; 'Soldiers of Fortune'. ...

Deep Purple: Angry Young Man
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, November 1974
THE FORTUNES of Deep Purple have taken strange paths over the past 12 months. But changes in line-up and strange stories about their antics in the ...

Deep Purple: Stormbringer
Review by Peter Makowski, Sounds, November 1974
IT IS going to be interesting to see the fans' and critics' reaction when they lay their hands on Stormbringer. ...

Deep Purple's Tommy Bolin
Interview by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, January 1975
A CURIOUS MARRIAGE of convenience. That is how the link between American lead guitarist Tommy Bolin and British speed rock band Deep Purple might appear to ...

Blue Oyster Cult: That's Right, Another Bunch Of Neo-Fascist Heavies
Profile and Interview by Max Bell, NME, February 1975
"We're pain, we're steel, we're a plot of knives...we're obsessed with the technology of matter...our symbol is a swastika substitute..." ...

Alice Cooper: Welcome to My Nightmare
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, February 1975
ETHYL'S FRIGID AS an eskimo pie, she's cool in bed/she oughta be, 'cuz Ethyl's ...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees
Review by Max Bell, NME, March 1975
FIRST OF ALL let me tell you about the art work that John Berg has concocted for the Blue Oyster Cult's most extreme venture to ...

Uriah Heep: Ex-Crimson Bass Man Seduced
Report and Interview by Chris Salewicz, NME, March 1975
JOHN WETTON JOINS HUMBLE WEALTHY HEEP ...

Blue Oyster Cult: On Your Feet Or On Your Knees (Columbia)
Review by Wayne Robins, Creem, May 1975
THE BLUE OYSTER CULT have been heavy metal's premier studio musicians. Initially, they were an image manipulated, a persona directed by their producers, Murray Krugman and ...

Ritchie Blackmore
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, June 1975
RITCHIE BLACKMORE'S DEPARTURE from Deep Purple comes as no surprise to followers of Deep Purple who have watched their activities closely over the years. For almost ...

Man, Steeleye Span and 10cc at Cardiff Castle
Live Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, July 1975
DEKE LEONARD IS getting ...

Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
Review by Max Bell, NME, July 1975
TOYS IN THE Attic, is Aerosmith's third record. No one here knows that much about Aerosmith, except that they're a straight-ahead Eastern seaboard band with roots ...

Black Sabbath: Paranoid
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, October 1975
IT'S NO MERE coincidence that an Ozzie Osbourne song on the new Black Sabbath album is called 'Am I Going Insane?' Ozzie, who professes that all ...

Hawkwind: Lock, Edmonton
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, NME, January 1976
IT'S ALL A far cry from Alfred ...

Bad Company: Run With The Pack (Island)
Review by Idris Walters, Street Life, February 1976
SOMEWHERE DEEP inside the mix on Bad Company's first album was a little shimmer of Oriental Rock. Not much. Just enough to suggest the germ of ...

10cc: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Salewicz, NME, February 1976
THE MUSIC IS exactly as you'd expect it really. More or ...

Deep Purple: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1976
THIS REVIEW SHOULD have been written in the white heat of anger after seeing Deep Purple play at the Empire Pool, Wembley, on Friday night. But ...

Jimmy Page: Past, Presence & Future
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, March 1976
JIMMY ENTERED a whole hour late. But Abe, who was accompanying him, was not in the least embarrassed by the delay. He muttered an obligatory apology, ...

Deep Purple: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Tony Stewart, NME, March 1976
AT THE Empire Pool, Deep Purple rule. The roaring audience of ten thousand or so press their hands to their heads as their ears get pinned ...

Thin Lizzy
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, April 1976
THERE WE STOOD. Dumb-founded, we stared in stark amazement at the spectacle. It's Liverpool Stadium and the mashed wood strewn around the floor had earlier that ...

Led Zeppelin: Presence (Swan Song)
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, April 1976
AFTER THIS PLATTER had spun incessantly for an afternoon on the office phonogram I asked a non-Zep fan what he thought.

"Oh, it's okay I guess. They're ...

Kiss: Destroyer (Casablanca)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, April 1976
WE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN that the total eccentricity of approach, the gross make-up and the blanket heavy metal music would have eventually ensured that Kiss would ...

Kiss: Destroyer
Review by Max Bell, NME, April 1976
IF EVER A GROUP have made it huge in America by carefully manipulated saturation in terms of records, concerts and promotion then Kiss are that ...

AC/DC: Nashville Rooms, London
Live Review by Caroline Coon, Melody Maker, May 1976
AC/DC'S SINGLE 'IT'S A Long Way To The Top', has a lot to answer for. First, since its weird, bagpipe-drone of a break sounded unusually imaginative, ...

Kiss: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, May 1976
MAN, KISS HAD everything; every single effect in the book. They had a perfect lighting system; dry ice; smoke bombs; a fire-eater; a huge lighted insignia; ...

Kiss: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Max Bell, NME, May 1976
THE LADY on the door was most persuasive. "Would you take a Kiss mask? Please...go on have a couple, we're trying to get rid of them". ...

Blue Oyster Cult: We Copped A Lot From Sabbath
Interview by Chris Charlesworth, Melody Maker, July 1976
EVEN THE hardest of hearts must soften sometime, and so it is with Blue Oyster Cult, whose fifth album Agents of Fortune offers a degree of ...

Blue Oyster Cult
Report and Interview by Max Bell, NME, August 1976
Nectar of strychnine! Seminal psychedelic trip-wire rock'n'roll! Geometric chaos! Neo-nuclear Pearl Harbour precision! Flash-pod explosion! Blood-on-snow controlled fury! Boot-heeling ...

AC/DC: Marquee, London
Live Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, August 1976
THOSE PUZZLED by the Status Quo phenomenon should beware. AC/DC, from the same rock family, could wreak similar havoc, but they will only realise their full ...

Rainbow: If You Don't Like Rock'n'Roll, It's Too Late Now
Report by Peter Makowski, Sounds, September 1976
"We're not in Kansas We must be over the Rainbow"
– Judy Garland, Wizard Of Oz ...

Led Zeppelin: The Song Remains The Same (Swan Song)**
Review by Jonh Ingham, Sounds, October 1976
THREE YEARS to get a live album out? Three years??? I mean – really!! After all, John Denver did it in ten days. ...

Nazareth: Naz in Exile
Interview by Peter Makowski, Sounds, November 1976
NAZARETH are pissed off!!! Well, they're not that pissed off. Only a bit. In fact they're probably just ...

Starz: Starz
Review by Max Bell, NME, January 1977
PREDICTABLE BOYS from the Rock Steady stable with Jack Douglas production. ...

Black Sabbath: Technical Knock-out
Interview by Steven Rosen, Sounds, January 1977
TONY IOMMI walked into the Hollywood Holiday Inn dining room like some living zombie. One wondered, actually, why the Warner Bros. publicist had set up an ...

Ted Nugent: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Mick Farren, NME, March 1977
WE'VE HEARD a great deal lately about how Ted Nugent abjures drugs and alcohol. Perhaps that's his mistake. The occasional soul searching high might have produced ...

Alice Cooper: Love It To Death
Retrospective by Vivien Goldman, Sounds, August 1977
"I'M CAUGHT in a dream –so ...

Ted Nugent: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chas de Whalley, Sounds, August 1977
I WAS STANDING on the stairs backstage at the Hammersmith Odeon when the Ted Nugent band came down from the dressing rooms. ...

Motorhead
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, September 1977
Sunrise, wrong side of another day,
Sky high, and six thousand miles away
Don't know, how long I been awake
Wound up, in an amazin 'state
Can't get enough,
And ...

Lynyrd Skynyrd/ Foreigner/Ted Nugent: Rock And Roll All Nite
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, September 1977
AN AFTERNOON of heavy rock at the Los Angeles sports stadium. Score: Lynyrd Skynyrd – Win. Foreigner – Place. Nugent – Show. ...

Kiss: Los Angeles Forum, LA
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, September 1977
'LOS ANGELES Police Department reminds you the use of fire works is illegal,' warned the notice outside the Los Angeles Forum. With all the bravado of ...

AC/DC: Let There Be Rock
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, October 1977
AC/DC ARE A 4-letter word band. If you don't like, them and some misadventure elbows you into their firing line the foulest oaths would be your ...

AC/DC: Sex, Snot, Sweat and School Kids
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, October 1977
AC/DC: The Mayfair, Newcastle ...

AC/DC Hit California
Report and Interview by Howie Klein, New York Rocker, November 1977
AC/DC PLAYED their West Coast debut at the legendary Whisky A Go Go in Los Angeles, with the club fully living up to its legend of ...

Motorhead: Motorhead
Review by Ira Robbins, Trouser Press, December 1977
I'VE FELT A LOT of things about a lot of bands over the years, but pity isn't one of the most common. ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Beyond Black Sabbath
Interview by Tony Stewart, NME, December 1977
IN THE PAST Ozzy Osbourne has often over-dramatised the state of both his mental and physical health, but as he now relates his reasons for leaving ...

Black Sabbath: Greatest Hits (Vertigo)
Review by Jon Savage, Sounds, December 1977
ENGLAND CAN be depressing to the point of insanity...grey oozing days for months on end...rows of mean streets, pinched people...clausterphobic scrapyard vistas of country turned rotten ...

Ritchie Blackmore: Wailing over the Purple Rainbow
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar Player, 1978
WHILE RITCHIE Blackmore’s Baroque-tinged shred solos make him the in-vitro father of today’s progressive- and classical-metal movement (just ask Yngwie), his foot-stomping power chords in Deep ...

Blue Oyster Cult: The Cult Occult And The Disco Nightmare
Interview by Max Bell, NME, March 1978
ALLEN LANIER sits down for a pleasant chat about bikers, Burt Bacharach and band ideology. ...

Detective: Watching The Detective
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, March 1978
LOS ANGELES is a city full of Englishmen and Anglophiles. British bands don't play here any more, they live here. Londoners hanging out at the Rinabow ...

Motorhead: Friars, Aylesbury
Live Review by Kris Needs, ZigZag, April 1978
JUST GONE 7.30 and the punter queue is already half in. About a thousand punks, bikers, 'Awkwind 'Eadbangers and 48 hour fun-makers have turned up to ...

Judas Priest/No Dice: Whisky a Go Go, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, April 1978
JUDAS PRIEST had a captive audience, No Dice made a mark, and Gary Valentine just about escaped alive. Proving that heavy metal lives, good old-fashioned rock ...

AC/DC: Mayfair, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, May 1978
ANGUS YOUNG has got himself some new front teeth. An elegant row of even ivories that wouldn't look out of place in the mouth of Bowie ...

Van Halen: Platform Boots Still Make It
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, May 1978
COLUMBUS, Ohio. Van Halen, just called back for an encore, are basking in the unexpected adulation. The support band takes a bow. "Thank you Cleveland", yells ...

Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
Report by Peter Silverton, Sounds, May 1978
OZZY COWERS back against the wall and opens his eyes about as wide as they can go in what I can only assume is fear while ...

Rainbow: Long Live Rock'n'Roll
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1978
MENTION GUITARIST Ritchie Blackmore around so-called "intelligent" rockers and you'll just get a bunch of barf noises in response. ...

Judas Priest
Interview by Jon Young, Trouser Press, June 1978
I DISCOVERED A GREAT pastime the other day that you've gotta hear about. It's called headbanging. Not exactly what Suzy does in that cute li'l old ...

REO Speedwagon/Rainbow: Los Angeles, California
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, June 1978
REO Rattled By Rampant Rainbow ...

Ian Gillan Band: Mayfair, Newcastle
Live Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, June 1978
WHEN YOU'VE seen one old Deep Purple singer you haven't seen them all. It happened that a month ago I reviewed David Coverdale putting his larger-than-life ...

Ted Nugent: Long Beach Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, September 1978
ISN'T IT nice to know that in this ever-changing world there is always something you can rely on to stay the same? Apart from a quick ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Some Enchanted Evening
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, September 1978
IT COULD be just my fevered imagination running away with me, but right now it seems that Sandy Pearlman (wily old fox and Cult behind-the-scenes mastermind) ...

Kiss: An Interview With Ace Frehley
Interview by Kris DiLorenzo, Grooves, October 1978
Grooves: As a kid, were you tough? Were you a street kid? Were you a quiet kid or...class clown or what? ...

Judas Priest: Killing Machine
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, NME, November 1978
"YOU ARE not in touch with the modern world, sucker," hissed the obnoxious little voice in my ear. 'Today's kids don't give a flying one about ...

Black Sabbath: Never Say Die
Review by Jon Young, Trouser Press, December 1978
NEVER SAY DIE! Black Sabbath didn't never say it, and that's why the heaviest damn band ever is back. Forget all those other bands, because after ...

Judas Priest: Killing Machine
Review by Jon Savage, Melody Maker, December 1978
THE LEAD SINGER sweats redly, tuffness of the strategic stud decorations unable to blind the look of uncertainty in his eye for the camera as he ...

UFO: Strangers In The Night: A Double Live Album (Chrysalis)
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, January 1979
THE LESSON to be learned from this album is undoubtedly that the natural habitat of a heavy metal band is in concert. The proof comes when ...

UFO: In Search Of Heady Riff
Interview by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, February 1979
In which UFO try for world domination...HARRY DOHERTY followed them round the concert circuit ...

UFO: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Chris Welch, Melody Maker, March 1979
"UFO! UFO!" The chant blasts across the stalls, and security men blench at the prospect of a mass invasion. ...

Scorpions: Lovedrive
Review by Harry Doherty, Melody Maker, March 1979
NOW THAT the new wave has been institutionalised and tamed by the Establishment, heavy metal is once more basking in a glorious and celebrated comeback, a ...

Van Halen
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, April 1979
Dateline Hollywood: SYLVIE SIMMONS demurely averts her gaze from the tight satin loonpants and sez: Gimme the track-by-track lowdown on the new album. At least, that's ...

Judas Priest: The Starwood, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, April 1979
THIRD NIGHT at the Starwood and they're still packing them in. Limbs flailing through the dry ice that fills the stand-up section in imaginary guitar solos, ...

Big Teasers From Barnsley: Saxon
Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, August 1979
HERE'S A challenge to sort the men from the boys. From new "grassroots English heavy metal band" Saxon to the latest American skullcrushers to go megastar ...

AC/DC Plugs Into Primitivism
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, September 1979
AC/DC: Long Beach Arena ...

Judas Priest in Santa Monica
Live Review by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1979
WHILE THE PRESS has been busily lavishing attention on punk bands, a new wave of groups has been quietly – well, not exactly quietly – staking ...

Motorhead: The Year Of The Gory Boys
Report and Interview by Kris Needs, ZigZag, January 1980
IT'S STILL ONE of the greatest pleasures known to man: dig out the Motorhead albums, crank every knob, climb every wall and blister blissfully in the ...

Black Sabbath/Girlschool: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Peter Makowski, Sounds, May 1980
THE SABS are back. And after a series of false starts to their British tour due to drummer Bill Ward contracting viral pneumonia they are now ...

UFO: The Only Way To Travel
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1980
THUNDER SPREADS across the weathered visage of Selecter's dumpling coach driver Tennessee Roman Reynolds. He thumps the breakfast table like he's an SPG man working out ...

Girlschool: Back to Schooldays
Interview by Peter Makowski, Sounds, August 1980
Pete Makowski deciphers the scrawl in his exercise book. Mike Laye makes with the paints, crayons and Box Brownie ...

Gillan: Glory Road; Tygers Of Pan Tang: Wild Cat
Review by Paul Morley, NME, September 1980
IN OTHER music papers, Heavy Metal has been irresponsibly ghettoised. Melody Maker, Sounds, Record Mirror all have their HM specialists who drily serve a facile, dogmatic ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Night Of The Locusts
Interview by Max Bell, NME, September 1980
THE GOLDEN AGE of hotrod and dragster racing is over but the USA is still littered with its mythology. One such relic is Lebanon Valley Speedway. ...

Kiss: Empire Pool, Wembley
Live Review by Paul Rambali, NME, September 1980
AWWWRIGHT LONDON!! ARE YA STARTING TO SWEAT?! ...

Led Zeppelin: Bonzo's Last Bash – Is It The End For Zeppelin Too?
Report by Cynthia Rose, NME, October 1980
EARLY LAST Thursday afternoon Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones went up to one of the guest bedrooms in Jimmy Page's £900,000 Windsor house, where he ...

Motorhead: Ace Of Spades (Bronze)*****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1980
BUZZARDS CIRCLE high above the heads of the three outlaws standing silently waiting far out in the arid badlands of New Mexico. Suddenly, the tranquility is ...

Tygers, Tygers, Burning Bright
Report and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Sounds, January 1981
The TOPT are even better with new singer JOHN DEVERIL, claims PHIL ...

Motorhead
Profile and Interview by Adam Sweeting, Trouser Press, May 1981
"NOISE IS a big part of Motorhead mania" says the stark black lettering inside one of the band's tour brochures. Immediately below it is a quote ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Insanities In Ten Cities
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1981
NEW YORK'S Plaza Hotel is so posh you wouldn't be at all surprised to turn round and catch the Queen Mum sliding down the bannisters between ...

Motorhead
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, June 1981
TWO LUVLY black eyes, oh what a surprise. Or more to the point, OWWW! what a surprise. I know it's traditional for hacks to liken the ...

Fantasy Castle: Monsters of Rock!
Live Review by Barney Hoskyns, NME, July 1981
BARNEY HOSKYNS straps on his breastplate, girds his loins and takes his sword to the HM Monsters Of Rock joust at Castle ...

Ozzy Osbourne
Interview by David Gans, unpublished, January 1982
On the bus en route from Salt Lake City to Denver in the early morning hours of January 10, 1982 ...

Blue Oyster Cult: Country Club, Los Angeles CA
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, January 1982
FIRST TIME I've seen Blue Oyster Cult in ages. Actually seen them. Last time HM's Santas-little-helpers played in the neighbourhood was one of those monstrous stadium ...

Ozzy Osbourne: LA Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Live Review by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, January 1982
ACT ONE Scene One: Outside, on the coldest night of the year, the wind is howling. But a noise more unearthly still emanates from the large ...

Why You Should Care About Blue Oyster Cult
Comment by Jim Green, Trouser Press, February 1982
Action conforms to preexistent imagery.
– Sandy Pearlman, The History of Los Angeles, 1965-1969 ...

Def Leppard: The Leppard Doesn't Sleep Tonight
Report and Interview by Peter Makowski, Sounds, February 1982
ROUGH NOTES/ROUGH NOTES (Prelude) ...

Mötley Crüe: Crüesin' and Blüesin'
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, February 1982
"FIRST YOU got to cut it real jaggedy. And you need this stuff." ...

Tank: Filth Hounds Of Hades (Kamaflage)
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, March 1982
IMAGES OF destruction – of a solid steel stallion smashing through barbed wire, ploughing through miles of muck and wire to mutilate your mind. Visions of ...

The Scorpions: Boom! Boom! Out Go The Lights
Report and Interview by Peter Makowski, Sounds, March 1982
HERE WE are in Spain – San Sebastian to be precise. Poli de Portivo is the name of the venue and the Scorpions have just finished ...

Iron Maiden: The Number Of The Beast (EMI)****^1/2
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, March 1982
DREAMS DON'T come true too often so when they do it's worth making a song and dance about them. The Steve Harris story is a good ...

Motorhead/Tank: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, April 1982
HOLY MIGRAINE, Batman, howcomes my brain feels like Ardiles just borrowed it for a kickabout and put it back upside down? And who the hell planted ...

Iron Maiden: The Metal Masquerade
Interview by Paul Morley, NME, May 1982
THE UNSMILING but unthreatening Iron Maiden are being photographed in the bright white tiled shower room of a compact sports stadium in Offenbach, near Frankfurt Germany. ...

Van Halen: Diver Down (WEA)
Review by Cynthia Rose, NME, May 1982
HEAVY METAL has one of the longer and more honourable traditions as a "musical influence" in rock, yet its recent renaissance is by and large a ...

UFO: Object, Refuse, Rejects Abuse
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, May 1982
"JOIN SHOUNDS, hic, and shee the world," Big Al Lewis (Ed Rtd; now Mega-Ed) had shlurred on that historic day in 1978 when I conned him ...

UFO: Tonka, Wailer, Snowman, Sailor
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, May 1982
REGULAR READERS of my exciting adventures may recall that two weeks back your humble scribe was snowed under with top rock band UFO in the bar ...

Sammy Hagar: Standing Hampton (Geffen)
Review by Jeffrey Morgan, Creem, June 1982
AS MY OLD PAL Bugs would say: "What a maroon!" I'm talking about Sammy Hagar and, let's 'fess up: you probably don't even know who the ...

The Rods: Pack Men
Profile and Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, August 1982
WIMP ROCK. Every time you turn on the radio out here, there it is, hitting your ears with all the strength and power of a cotton ...

Iron Maiden: Unleashed With The Beast
Report by Garry Bushell, Sounds, August 1982
CORPUS CHRISTI lies humid and unhurried under a scorching Texas sun. The shining orb's efforts to reduce the populus to mobile blobs of molten jelly are ...

Twisted Sister: Under The Blade (Secret) *****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, September 1982
THERE'S A body of opinion that holds that Pete Way couldn't produce a rabbit out of a hat. There's a similar one holding that Twisted Sister ...

Gillan: Magic (Virgin) **
Review by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, September 1982
THE INTENTION of the artwork on the cover of the latest Gillan opus seems to be an evocation of something merging images of David Nixon, "authentic'' ...

Motorhead & The Plasmatics: Tammy Can You Hear Me?
Report and Interview by Sandy Robertson, Sounds, September 1982
A DREAM or a nightmare, in retrospect it still sounds like the kind of project so daft that both parties involved would, by virtue of inherent ...

Motorhead Gives Good Show!
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1982
SURE AIN'T NO Howard Johnsons. There's a woman in the lobby looks like a Kentucky Fried Chicken leg let loose in Freddie Mercury's wardrobe; all flesh, ...

Tank: Power Of The Hunter (Kamaflage)
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, October 1982
MENTION TANK to yer average cloth-eared critic and these thoughts will run on autocue through his lazy mind: Tank are a three-piece with a bassist frontman ...

Tank: Armour Geddon
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
The permanent new wave of HM rolls on with Tank reports GARRY BUSHELL ...

Venom: Black Metal (Neat) *****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
OH LORD forgive them for they know not what they ...

Ozzy Osbourne: Talk Of The Devil (Jet) *****
Review by Garry Bushell, Sounds, November 1982
EXACTLY HOW and why this extraordinary album came about is a mystery on a par with the Turin Shroud. I personally fancy it's Ozzy's way of ...

Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow: Seeing is Believing
Report and Interview by Garry Bushell, Sounds, December 1982
MOST PEOPLE reckon Ritchie Blackmore's a miserable bastard. Mean, moody, mysterious, macabre and, by implication, Mandraxed to the gills, the Blackmore of popular imigination has a ...

Led Zeppelin: Coda
Review by Richard Cook, NME, December 1982
THAT THERE is no appreciable difference between 'We're Gonna Groove' from 1969 and 'Wearing And Tearing' from 1978 – the opening and closing tracks in this ...

Kiss: Creature Feature
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, December 1982
BACK IN the days before Asteroids took over, Kiss was the pagan religion for America's pimpled ...

British Steel: How UK rock got ever harder, heavier and more metallic in the '70s
Retrospective by Chris Welch, The History of Rock, 1983
ROCK CRITICS HAD IT ALL PLANNED: music during the Seventies would become increasingly sophisticated. By dint of hard reviewing all folly would be removed, leaving a ...

Ritchie Blackmore
Book Excerpt by Stuart Grundy, John Tobler, 'The Guitar Greats' (BBC Books), 1983
ONE REASON for the selection of ace heavy metal guitarist Ritchie Blackmore as one of our subjects relates to a previous, slimmer and somewhat inferior volume ...

Spot Checking Def Leppard
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, May 1983
LONDON – Directly or indirectly, Eric Clapton is responsible for my being here. ...

Iron Maiden Tattoo America
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1983
A DREAM. I'm lounging on the balcony of a Beverly Hills hotel staring out over the pool when there's a knock on the door. In glides ...

Eddie Van Halen drops the bomb on Heavy Metal
Interview by Steven Rosen, Guitar World, January 1984
SIX ALBUMS AGO (including the one yet to be released). Van Halen issued its first record. It was dramatic, intense and bold. and contained within the ...

Quiet Riot: Cum On Feel The Boize
Report and Interview by Mat Snow, NME, January 1984
"CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE!! GURLS RAAACK YOUR BOIZE!! WE'LL GET WILD WILD WILD!!!" ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Kiel Center, St Louis
Live Review by Paul Yamada, Concert News, July 1984
IT WAS OBVIOUS that this was what the crowd was waiting for; they had tried to be totally oblivious to the first band, Wet Willie, but ...

Scorpions: Stinging Scorchers Or Virgin Killers?
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, August 1984
IF, AS JAH ROTH says, there's a little bit of Van Halen in everyone on a Saturday night, there's likely a whole lot of Scorpions the ...

WASP: Lyceum, London
Live Review by Simon Witter, NME, October 1984
THEY DON’T MAKE metal mutants like they used to. Whilst WASP obviously consider themselves the baddest muthas to walk this earth, many of their audience looked ...

Deep Purple: Deep Throats
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Sounds, November 1984
"WE ALL CAME IN at different times. Paicey and I walked in – we'd booked a conference room in Greenwich, Connecticut overlooking the harbour, and it ...

Twisted Sister: Twisted Logic (I'd Say Severely Bent)
Report and Interview by David Gans, Record Magazine, December 1984
IT IS A fundamental conceit of Heavy Metal that teenagers are a great oppressed underclass, forced to take out garbage, load dishwashers and do homework with ...

Dokken: All Bozos On This Bus!
Report and Interview by Bill Holdship, Creem, March 1985
OH, SAY CAN YOU SEE...
IT'S ELECTION DAY in America, and I'm in Washington, D.C. Several miles away, Ronnie & Nancy are celebrating the fact that most ...

Deep Purple Returns!
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, March 1985
DEEP PURPLE. Two words that mean so much to so many. It's been 13 years since DP – the DP, Gillan, Glover, Paice, Lord and Blackmore; ...

White Noise: How Heavy Metal Rules
Essay by Deborah Frost, Village Voice, June 1985
It's Friday night at L'Amour, Rock Capital of Brooklyn (well, that's what it says on the awning). The smell is smoke and damp, black lipstick and ...

Iron Maiden: What's It All About Eddie?
Interview by Karen Schlosberg, Creem, July 1985
HEAVY METAL. Now – wait. Before you all go screaming off into the night, crossing yourselves and mouthing prayers to the soul of Michael Jackson, read ...

The Scorpions: From Europe To Video Domination
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, August 1985
AFTER SPENDING virtually all of 1984 on the road, rocking fans on four continents, you'd think Scorpions needed a break. So they did, and they decided ...

Saxon: A Dog Day Afternoon
Interview by Jack Barron, Sounds, September 1985
SATAN IN a shitlake, I'm here on serious medical business and I've left the pliers on the anvil at home after cuffing the slave-girls. ...

Scorpions: Around the World
Interview by Jeff Tamarkin, Circus, November 1985
IT TOOK THE Scorpions more than a dozen years to do it, but there now remains no doubt that the Hannover, West Germany-based rockers have gone ...

Give Us Van Halen!
Interview by Dave DiMartino, Creem, March 1986
"YOU DO IT one of two ways: either spectacle or personality. ...

Judas Priest: Leathered, Studded Dudes Or…
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, September 1986
COWS ARE VERY useful except in India. There are varying degrees of cow-use – milk, cheese, burgers, cheeseburgers – but none so useful as the concealment ...

I Confronted Metallica On Their Own Terms!
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Creem, October 1986
METALLICA. YOU KNOW the story. Those that don't are doomed to have me repeat it. ...

David Lee Roth's Revenge
Interview by Roy Trakin, Creem, October 1986
THE SYSTEM OF law in New Guinea involves a concept loosely defined as "payback," which means if one village has wronged another, that village is duty-bound ...

No Sleep 'Til San Diego: Motorhead
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1986
IT'S BEEN A TOUGH five years for Motorhead. The English heavy metal quartet, which appears Saturday in Santa Monica, Sunday in San Bernardino and in San ...

Motorhead Guitarist Is Running On All Cylinders
Interview by Don Snowden, Los Angeles Times, October 1986
WURZEL BURSTON'S road to Motorhead qualifies as one of rock's more implausible success stories. Originally a drummer, Burston switched to guitar at the advanced age of ...

Iron Maiden: Apollo Theatre, Oxford
Live Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, October 1986
ON THE opening night of the British leg of their world tour to promote an album called Somewhere In Time, Iron Maiden play like pirates, and ...

To Hell And Back: Slayer
Report and Interview by Simon Witter, NME, March 1987
Not all the old Heavy Metal cancers have been cured. SLAYER - erstwhile thashers, now adopted by the speed-metalists - have been forced to deal with ...

The Sound of Speed, Thrash & Death Metal
Overview by Simon Witter, i-D, April 1987
In 1987, against all odds, HM has become an issue again. i-D dives into the Metal underground to find out about moshing, skateboards, and the joys ...

Guns N' Roses: Colt Heroes
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Kerrang!, June 1987
"KNOW WHAT I want to do? Really want to do? Go over to Japan and pollute it. I'm not talking about drugs, I'm talking about teenage ...

Guns N'Roses: Hammersmith Odeon, London
Live Review by Jack Barron, Sounds, October 1987
"THIS SONG is my favourite," screams part-man-mostly-dog guitarist Slash, Guns N'Roses' mascot pimple. "It's for all you thrashers out there and it's dedicated to BLOW-jobs and ...

Motorhead: Corn Exchange, Cambridge
Live Review by Ben Thompson, NME, October 1987
"IF WE moved in next door to you your lawn would die" Lemmy once proclaimed gleefully. To a 12-year-old HM fan like myself, Motorhead always seemed ...

Welcome To The Machine: Iron Maiden
Interview by Simon Witter, NME, March 1988
MUCH AS WE may laugh at the blustering antics of its ambassadors, HM is no joke. As a kind of musical Rollerball, exorcising taboos and neutralising ...

Deep Purple: Nobody's Purple
Interview by Peter Makowski, Metal Hammer, June 1988
"Rock'n'Roll is the perfect art which conceals art, that satisfying spontaneity which can be achieved only by taking intense thought"
– Kathleen Cleaver (paraphrased) ...

Van Halen: Tales From The Crypt
Interview by Dave Zimmer, BAM, July 1988
THE ITINERARY for Van Halen's Monsters of Rock Tour reads like a combined schedule for the Washington Redskins and University of Miami football teams. ...

Megadeth: Beacon Theatre, NYC
Live Review by Christine Natanael, Reflex, August 1988
SUBSTANCE, MESSAGE, uprising, controversy, extremity, intelligence – were all on display at Beacon Theatre in the form of Megadeth, churning up anger and angst among fans ...

Frehley's Comet
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, January 1989
GUITAR HEROES come along once in each generation, whether they be prized in the hearts of their fans for their technical ability or their public personality. ...

Anthrax
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, March 1989
Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael skateboards down the backstreets of New York with those jam mongers, Anthrax... ...

Testament
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, March 1989
Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael talks with Testament's Chuck Billy and Alex Skolnick about Native American heritage, guitar influences, and trimmer figures... ...

Stryper
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, May 1989
DISCLAIMER: This article does not necessarily represent the views of this magazine, however, it does not necessarily not represent the views of this magazine. But we ...

Dark Angel: Californian Dreams – Shedding Light On The Angels
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Hammer, May 1989
OUT OF THE SEARING underground of Los Angeles, an unlikely place for speed/death metal in the wake of such like bands as Guns N' Roses, comes ...

Motorhead
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, July 1989
As we've found on occasion, it can be a dangerous thing to assign an interview to Christine Natanael. No such problem here. We've found the "Writer ...

Winger: A Success Story In The Making!
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene Spotlights, July 1989
IN THE SUMMER of 1988 an album was delivered to my house from the offices of Atlantic records. Now, this is nothing out of the ordinary, ...

Defiance: My Vacation From Hell
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, July 1989
The most controversial writer in the universe, the writer that people love to hate! Yes, the infamous "Writer From Hell" Ms. Christine Natanael takes a little ...

Metallica's Lars Ulrich
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, September 1989
'Turning Japanese, I'm turning Japanese, Ah, so!' Yes, Christine "The Writer From Hell" Natanael gets Lars Ulrich on the phone straight from the land of the ...

Exclusive: Beyond Hanoi Rocks! Cheap & Nasty (Suicide)
Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, December 1989
EVER THE one to keep my ear to the ground in search of the new and hot happening thing, I was more than fucking happy to ...

AC/DC
Interview by Martin Aston, Auckland Star, 1990
"Just what are the East Germans who flock across the crumbled Berlin Wall spending their money on? While champagne and fresh fruit were once hot items, ...

Metallica: Reminiscing With Lars
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, January 1990
OKAY, SO what can be said about the dudes in Metallica that hasn't already been said? We've heard the records, we've seen the stadium tours. We've ...

Onslaught
Interview by Christine Natanael, Powerline, January 1990
Christine Natanael, the "Writer from Hell," goes In Search of Sanity with new Polygram thrash wonders...ONSLAUGHT. We thought she would be better off taking up EST...but ...

Princess Pang: Beauty Meets The Beast, Rock & Roll And Conquers!
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, January 1990
I GUESS THAT this is what you would call a true story of friendship and ambition. The scenario is a group of kids in their early ...

Discussing Hear & Now with Billy Squier
Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, March 1990
RUSHING INTO the Capitol record offices in New York, I was more than a little nervous about doing this interview. That is making a major statement, ...

From Out Of The Underground: Faith No More
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, March 1990
WALKING INTO the offices of Warner Brothers, I knew that this wasn't going to be a normal interview. I mean, I couldn't just ask the usual ...

Accepting The Inevitable: Wolf Hoffman of Accept
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, March 1990
ABOUT NINE years ago, when I was still a snotty nosed kid with a bad attitude living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, there was a group ...

Sepultura: Viva Brazil!
Interview by Christine Natanael, Creem Presents: Thrash Metal, May 1990
THE PHONE rings at the ungodly hour of...noon...and it's the friendly publicist from Roadracer asking me if I'm still asleep. Not only am I still asleep, ...

Exodus Exclusive: Prepare For Impact!
Interview by Christine Natanael, Metal Mania, May 1990
AFTER SPENDING three days running around in Los Angeles like a demon-child hell-bent on raising Cain at the second Annual Concrete Foundations Forum, seeing everything from ...

Treading Water With Diving For Pearls
Interview by Christine Natanael, Rock Scene, June 1990
STRAIGHT-FORWARD pop rock – the stuff of summer fun, driving with the top down, and hot sticky summer nights when you're in a strange town listening ...

Poison: Flesh and Blood (Enigma)/Winger: In the Heart of the Young (Atlantic)/Warrant: Cherry Pie (Columbia)
Review by Deborah Frost, Village Voice, September 1990
KIP WINGER is a hunk. And what a perfect hunk he is. With his Harlequin hero name, decepticon logo, and carefully exposed nipple, he's engineered more ...

Warrant: Cherry Pie
Review by John Mendelsohn, Rolling Stone, October 1990
IN VIEW OF MÖTLEY CRÜE’S AND OZZY Osbourne’s ongoing mega-stardom, it’s hard to imagine that success in heavy metal is the result of anything other than ...

Led Zeppelin
Retrospective and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, December 1990
IT IS 10 YEARS since, disconsolate at the death of drummer John Bonham, Led Zeppelin ceased to be. Though there is perhaps no conscious attempt at ...

AC/DC: Phew! Got Away With It, Readers!
Retrospective and Interview by David Sinclair, Q, December 1990
MOST PEOPLE in Britain first heard about AC/DC at about the time of the punk explosion. A bunch of roughneck Aussies with a guitarist dressed like ...

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine on Rust In Peace
Interview by Christine Natanael, New York Review Of Records, Fall 1990
"AUGUST 24TH MARKS the anniversary of our last performance. Since then nothing's really mattered," emphatically states the enigmatic Dave Mustaine. That date was in 1988. It ...

AUDIO: Ozzy Osbourne Speaks! Part 2 (1991)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1991
Sacked by Sabbath, saved by Sharon, going solo: Ozzy tells all about the ups, the downs, the addiction and alcoholism. ...

Guns' N' Roses
Profile and Interview by Simon Witter, Sky, 1991
ONLY DAYS INTO Guns N' Roses' world tour and there was trouble. At a St Louis stadium Axl Rose jumped into the audience to snatch a ...

AUDIO: Ozzy Osbourne Speaks! Part 1 (1991)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, 1991
In that inimitable Black Country accent, Ozzy talks about his background, musical roots and the birth and death of Black Sabbath. Drugs! Drink! Management Rip-Offs! It's ...

Judas Priest: Touch the Hem of His Garment
Comment by Deborah Frost, Village Voice, January 1991
I TOUCHED Rob Halford's hem. It happened, if you must know, on a gray afternoon in a Marina Del Rey condo owned by the man who ...

Thin Lizzy: Dedication
Review by Charles Shaar Murray, Q, March 1991
FOR A FEW good years in the mid-'70s, Dublin cowboys Thin Lizzy bought the pop virtues of literate, evocative wordplay, danceable, funky grooves and a lilting ...

Metallica: One Louder
Profile and Interview by Mat Snow, Q, September 1991
They're a notch above your average cochlea-rupturing, pensioner-intimidating thrash outfit, Metallica. But their passage from fresh-faced punk-paced hopefuls to multi-platinum metal phenomenon has not been an ...

Slash Speaks
Interview by Sylvie Simmons, Music Life, November 1991
THE PLUSH CONRAD HOTEL at Chelsea Harbour has for some reason (maybe it's the copious amount of Moet & Chandon champagne in the minibar!) become the ...

AUDIO: Metallica's Lars Ulrich, part 1 (1991)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, Summer 1991
Mat Snow talks to Metallica's Lars Ulrich about his roots, the formation of Metallica, the L.A. and S.F. scenes and the sacking of Dave ...

AUDIO: Metallica's Lars Ulrich, part 2 (1991)
Interview by Mat Snow, Rock's Backpages Audio, Summer 1991
Metallica's Lars Ulrich talks about the Washington Wives, Cliff Burton's death, touring with Ozzie, and Alcoholica! ...

Aerosmith: Pandora's Box
Review by Mat Snow, Q, March 1992
THE RISE AND fall and rise of Aerosmith has been rock's most up-beat cautionary tale of the last few years. ...

Faith No More: Dusted In A Zone Of Their Own
Profile and Interview by Christine Natanael, Livewire, September 1992
ONE EVENING, as I sat in a friend's living room eating Chinese food, watching cable comedy shows and feeling my deadline time approach, I began pondering ...

Warrant: Up To Date With The Down Boys
Interview by Metal Mike Saunders, BAM, September 1992
AS GOOD A place as any to start here might be with a letter I wrote to an unnamed Pacific Northwest fanzine editor on January 4, ...

Extreme
Profile and Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, October 1992
"I HATE IT, I hate it, I hate it," says Nuno Bettencourt, nodding at the 48-track mixing console of the New River Studio, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. ...

Megadeth
Interview by Andy Gill, Q, December 1992
ON A TWISTY MOUNTAIN ROAD ABOUT 25 miles outside Toulon, another mad bastard is laying his life on the line, taking his bike way over to ...

Axl Rose: The Mussolini Of Mass Culture
Profile by Toby Young, The Modern Review, Summer 1992
FEW THINGS ARE MORE CAPABLE of convincing you that rock 'n' roll is dead than a benefit concert. The spectacle of all those cadaverous rock stars ...

The Second Coming of Black Sabbath (According to Geezer Butler)
Interview by Dave Thompson, The Rocket, 1994
IT WASN'T ALWAYS this way, you know. There was a time when, if you mentioned that you liked Black Sabbath... if you mentioned that your ...

The Return of Ronnie James Dio
Interview by Steven P. Wheeler, Music Connection, March 1994
CUTTING HIS professional teeth with the mildly successful early Seventies band Elf, the 45-year-old Ronnie James Dio (Ronald Padavona) first rose to fame with former Deep ...

Noise International: It’s Napalm Death for World Music
Report and Interview by Ian Christe, Alternative Press, August 1994
THE LANGUAGE OF death metal can be as undecipherable to outsiders as street grafitti, but the meaning is as clear: "Stay away – I hate ...

L.A. Confidential: Life In The Fast Lane With Redd Kross's Jeffrey & Steven McDonald
Interview by Joss Hutton, Bucketful of Brains, 1996
I said to a friend of mine "Hey, great! Redd Kross have got a new album coming out!"
She said "The girl ...

AUDIO: Metallica (1996)
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages Audio, April 1996
The Rashomon interview: all four Metallicas sit down, separately, to talk about the making of Load. ...

Def Leppard: Slang
Review by David Quantick, Q, June 1996
FOR DEF Leppard, it really ought to be That Time Of The Career. ...

The Alternative Metallica
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, July 1996
THEY MAKE THE ODDEST OF rock couples, James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Watching them at work in Manhattan’s Right Track Studios, it’s hard to imagine how ...

Ozzfest ‘97
Report and Interview by Edward Helmore, unpublished, 1997
THE UNEARTHLY NOISE that barrels over the pines and down Alpine Valley in rural Wisconsin last summer was a clear signal that the natural order had ...

Ozzy Osbourne: His Satanic Majesty Repents
Interview by David Stubbs, Uncut, December 1997
JOHN "OZZY" OSBOURNE, FORMER HELL raiser, outrageous roister-doister, Dark Lord of Metal and rough diamond geezer extraordinaire has sung much about death, visited it summarily among ...

The Hard Stuff
Overview by Chuck Eddy, Boston Phoenix, July 1998
Almost A Dozen Reasons To Like Metal Again ...

Slipknot: Kiss Devo Goodbye
Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999
NOW IS PROBABLY not the best time to say it, but they look like Devo. Those boiler suits with bar-codes on them, those crazy little ...

Mil-Lemmy-Um: The Man from Motörhead
Interview by Joel McIver, Record Collector, 1999
The artist formerly known as Ian Kilminster waxes lyrical on guns, drugs, feminism and ancient rome. Joel McIver meets rock'n'roll's elder statesman, ...

Get Yer Scuttles Out: Coal Chamber
Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999
DEZ SOUNDS genuinely horrified. "You can't do that! I'll be naked!" And, though it probably takes a lot to shock him, the idea ...

Marilyn Manson
Report and Interview by Dave Thompson, Alternative Press, 1999
HE BROUGHT YOUR sickest fantasies to life, and now you, poor fools, have fulfilled his. When Broadway wheels out the new millennial Jesus Christ Superstar, ...

Limp Bizkit: Significant Other (Flip/Interscope)
Review by Eric Weisbard, Village Voice, July 1999
WHEN MTV and BET air the new Eminem video 'Guilty Conscience', they run into the small problem of the song's conclusion, where bad-angel Slim Shady convinces ...

Def Leppard: On The Road: Again….
Report and Interview by Ben Myers, Kerrang!, October 1999
"RIGHT," SAYS Joe Elliot. "I think it's time for a few drinks." ...

Megadeth, Where Is Thy Sting?
Interview by Joel McIver, Record Collector, Winter 1999
After sixteen years at the forefront of speed metal, Megadeth are releasing a new album, Risk. Joel Mciver finds controversial frontman Dave Mustaine a reformed character. ...

Twisted Sister: An Interview with Jay Jay French
Interview by Joe Matera, Musician (Australia), 2000
Taking their lead from their glam-rock roots, Twisted Sister went on to become one of the biggest bands of the 80s. In 1984, the band, now ...

Anthrax: The Original Skate-Thrash Nutters Speak
Interview by Joel McIver, Record Collector, Spring 2000
IN THE CLICHÉ-RIDDEN world of heavy metal, it's sometimes refreshing to encounter a band that redefines the genre without sticking to the tired old formulas. Anthrax ...

Poison Us: Venom
Interview by Joel McIver, Record Collector, Summer 2000
FEW BANDS can claim to have started off a whole musical trend; even fewer can claim to have started two. Newcastle band Venom recorded three seminal ...

Slipknot at Ozzfest
Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, The Face, 2001
STANDING CENTRE-stage and plastered in a grin that pretty much redefines the very word maniacal is a 52-year old man uniquely blessed with the voice of ...

Metal Ear
Book Excerpt by Ben Thompson, Ways Of Hearing, 2001
"They had brought this music with them when they were born, these bandmen, in their hearts and their muscles, their blood and their bones".
Jay Allison Stuart ...

Brandon Boyd: The Voice of Incubus
Profile and Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Vogue Italia, 2001
BRANDON BOYD is a handsome, thin, fine-boned young man who holds the microphone for a popular band called Incubus, and wields it with odd grace and ...

Marilyn Manson: NEC, Birmingham
Live Review by Nick Hasted, The Independent, January 2001
THE FEARFUL naivety of the American mainstream that hates him has made Marilyn Manson the multi-million selling man he is ...

Izzy Stradlin
Interview by Ian Fortnam, bol.com, March 2001
SHAKING THE notoriety gained following six years on the road with Guns N' Roses was never going to be the easiest of tasks. But Izzy Stradlin, ...

Black Sabbath: The Complete '70s Replica CD Collection 1970-78
Review by Simon Reynolds, Uncut, December 2001
THE MYSTERY OF THE RIFF – so crucial to rock, so oddly neglected by ...

Bon Non-Jovial
Interview by Joel McIver, Record Collector, Summer 2001
IF POP'S MOST unpredictable comeback - from has-been oblivion to global success - was made by Blur between Modern Life Is Rubbish and Parklife, then the ...

The Madness of King Axl
Report by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2002
AS OPPRESSIVE darkness gradually envelops Temple Newsam, a remote agrarian idyll that annually plays host to the Leeds leg of the Carling Festival, the all-pervasive atmosphere ...

The Scorpions' Rudolf Schenker: An Interview
Report and Interview by Joe Matera, Powerplay, 2002
One of metal's most enduring and successful bands, The Scorpions have been taking their German bred metal to the masses for over 35 years now. Slowly ...

The Darkness Descends
Report and Interview by John Robb, playlouder.com, August 2002
THIS IS A STORY of nudity, skintight cat suits, East Anglian folk tales, a mad dog with bloodshot eyes, well-clipped moustaches, crazed frontmen and hard ...

Still In A Grand Funk: How The Boys From Flint Exploded, Imploded & Still Haven't Patched Things Up
Retrospective and Interview by Fred Mills, Detroit Metro Times, August 2002
IT'S A SUNNY spring morning in the Motor City but the wind whipping across the Detroit River makes it feel a lot more like winter. Not ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Train in Vain?
Report and Interview by Fred Mills, Seattle Weekly, August 2002
APRIL 26, 1996, the State Theatre, Detroit: Grand Funk Railroad are onstage together for the first time in two decades, accepting a Lifetime Achievement Award at ...

Rage-a-holics Anonymous: Metallica
Report and Interview by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, 2003
OF COURSE, you all know the deal with Metallica. At present, the single most enormous band in the entire rock firmament who, having casually taken file-share ...

On The Roundabout With Deep Purple
Retrospective and Interview by Kieron Tyler, Mojo, January 2003
DEEP PURPLE were on top of the world in June 1973. 'Smoke On The Water' was climbing the US charts. They were news wherever they went. ...

You Gotta Have Faith
Interview by Joel McIver, Terrorizer, February 2003
IS NU-METAL your fault?
(laughs) Well, it’s kind of interesting. When we split up in 1998 there was this wave of nu-metal bands that used us as ...

Hold Your Head Up: In Praise of Bi-Level Rock!
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, February 2003
Barney Hoskyns, co-author of The Mullet: Hairstyle of the Gods, hails Mullet Rocks!, a new compilation of bodacious bi-level hard rockers. Below we feature cool new ...

Sympathy For The Devil: Marilyn Manson
Interview by Miles Marshall Lewis, Oneworld, April 2003
BRIAN WARNER took the long, hard road out of hell (Canton, Ohio, to be exact) to emerge in 1994 on Portrait of an American Family as ...

Tasteful ’Tones
Interview by Joel McIver, Bass Guitar, June 2003
Deftones bassist Chi Cheng takes Joel McIver through the highs and lows of being in one of the world’s top alternative metal acts. Just don’t say ...

Nikki Sixx Speaks
Interview by Joel McIver, Bass Guitar, June 2003
The Mötley Crüe survivor talks to Joel McIver about business manoeuvres, string-boiling and how saliva can make your bass sound ...

Been A Long Time: Led Zeppelin
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Mojo, July 2003
EVEN NOW, after all these years of hairtree wannabes and idiot tribute bands, there's something so fierce and coruscating about Led Zeppelin in their prime that ...

Kiss And Make-Up: Gene Simmons
Interview by Joel McIver, Bass Guitar, August 2003
Joel McIver asks entrepreneur, record company head, insatiable groupie-pleasurer and – oh yes – unfeasibly long-tongued Kiss bassist Gene Simmons about his four-string habits, and gets ...

Ozzfest
Report by Christine Natanael, crushermagazine.com, August 2003
SUMMERTIME IS THE time of the grand traveling music festival. And August in New York/New Jersey usually means Warped and Ozzfest. Having already experienced 52 bands ...

Iron Maiden: Dance Of Death (EMI)
Review by Ian Fortnam, Classic Rock, October 2003
IN ESSENCE, Iron Maiden are the rock Marmite. Ambivalence is simply not an option when bearing witness to their characteristic onslaught of dense, prog-laced riffage. You ...

Rammstein: Lichtspielhaus (Universal DVD)
Film or DVD Review by John Doran, Metal Hammer, February 2004
RAMMSTEIN ALWAYS had an unashamedly arty, even pretentious, agenda and it is easy to see this developing by watching their videos. ...

Zakk Wylde
Interview by Steven Rosen, Total Guitar, June 2004
ZAKK WYLDE is a dichotomy – physically he resembles some psychotic biker, pumped biceps stretching the fabric of a sleeveless Levi's jacket, a scraggly beard and ...

Metallica: Welcome Home (Sanitarium)
Film or DVD Review by Chuck Eddy, Village Voice, July 2004
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky (IFC) ...

Velvet Revolver's Scott Weiland
Interview by Stevie Chick, Kerrang!, November 2004
THE RIBALD ROCK'N'ROLL spirit of Guns'n'Roses and their ilk has long since evaporated into the smog. Once they owned Sunset, roaring up the strip in outlandish ...

Just a Good Ol' Boy: Dimebag Darrell
Obituary by Edward Helmore, The Guardian, December 2004
Former Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell was murdered on stage by a lone gunman last week. Edward Helmore celebrates the life of the influential and charismatic "Dolly ...

Mötley Crüe's Tommy Lee Lets It All Hang Out
Interview by Roy Trakin, Grammy Magazine, April 2005
EVEN BEFORE HE agreed to join bandmates Nikki Sixx, Vince Neil and Mick Mars in this year's surprisingly successful Mötley Crüe reunion tour – the original ...

Deep Purple: 'Smoke On The Water' (Warners)
Retrospective by Johnny Black, Blender, May 2005
Performers : Ritchie Blackmore – guitar; Ian Gillan – vocals; Jon Lord – keyboards; Roger Glover – bass; Ian Paice – drums; Producer: Martin Birch; Released: ...

Grand Funk Railroad: Get The Funk Out
Retrospective and Interview by Peter Makowski, Classic Rock, October 2005
WHO THE hell are Grand Funk Railroad? More to the point, why should we even care who they are? These are pertinent questions for any self-respecting ...

AUDIO: Def Leppard's Joe Elliott (2006)
Interview by Gavin Martin, Rock's Backpages Audio, 2006
Joe Elliott tells tales of the road, talks about his heroes (and one or two villains), and looks back at Rick Allen's accident and Steve Clark's ...

Richie Blackmore: Blackmore's Nightmare
Retrospective by Peter Makowski, Classic Rock, March 2006
"I'm at that stage where I will play anything I want to. I will not be dictated to by fans or people who say: 'You shouldn't ...

Black Sabbath
Profile by Deborah Frost, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame programme, March 2006
BLACK SABBATH never intended to appeal to, never mind be understood by, rock critics. Nor were they designed for screaming teens, swooning debs, your mom, industry ...

The Power and the Glory: Led Zeppelin and the making of IV
Retrospective and Interview by Barney Hoskyns, Rock's Backpages, July 2006
Author’s note: This is the full, unexpurgated version of a piece for Uncut magazine. It is itself a very truncated distillation of the full-length study of ...

Motorhead's Phil Campbell
Interview by Steven Rosen, ultimate-guitar.com, August 2006
FOR SOMEWHERE around 31 years now, Motorhead has been revving it up, cranking it out, and laying it down, a juggernaut of heavy metal that has ...

Paul Allender of Cradle Of Filth
Interview by Steven Rosen, ultimate-guitar.com, March 2007
PAUL ALLENDER'S playing on Thornography, the new Cradle of Filth album, is both a nod at tomorrow and a bow towards yesterday. ...

Van Halen
Retrospective by Deborah Frost, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame programme, March 2007
THE NATIONAL Weather Service labels a blizzard as severe when winds reach 45 miles her hour, snowfall is dense, and the temperature drops to ten degrees. ...

Metal Machine Musings: Gary Pig Gold's All-Time Top Ten Heavy Primal Hitters
Overview by Gary Pig Gold, ballbustermusic.com, April 2007
NOW BEFORE ya all call out the KISS Army or somethin' on me, let's just insist that there's one terrifically fine line indeed between, say, 'All ...

Lemmy: The Oldest Rocker In Town
Interview by Stephen Dalton, The Times, June 2007
THE SUN hammers down on the French Riviera like a vengeful Old Testament god. With temperatures topping 90 degrees, the beach at Nice is heaving with ...

Don't Fear the Blue Oyster Cult
Retrospective and Interview by Gillian G. Gaar, Goldmine, September 2007
IN THE SUMMER of 1977, Blue Oyster Cult found themselves in one of the trickiest situations for a rock band: recording the follow-up to a breakthrough ...

John Paul Jones: The Quiet One
Interview by Mat Snow, Mojo, December 2007
IN THE WORLD'S loudest group, John Paul Jones was the Quiet One. He never seemed to speak, and though he grooved, it was pressed up against ...

Led Zeppelin: Why We Should Dig The 'Rock Dinosaurs' All Over Again
Guide by Nick Coleman, Independent on Sunday, December 2007
They were the biggest band of the 1970s and they're about to reform ...

Led Astray: How Four Long-Haired Limey Geezers Changed My Life
Memoir by Gerrie Lim, August Man, November 2008
TOOTING BEC, London, is only memorable to me because of a cold, windswept day in November 2005. ...

Metallica
Retrospective by Deborah Frost, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame programme, April 2009
HAPPY FAMILIES, Leo Tolstoy noted, are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way. That goes double, if not quadruple, for bands, particularly ...

AC/DC: Heavy Metal's Eternal Schoolboys at the O2 Arena
Live Review by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times, April 2009
We've got some old songs and some new songs for you," AC/DC's singer Brian Johnson growled, in an accurate but dispiriting précis of the AC/DC concert-going ...