New man: Leon Cave

Status Quo have named Leon Cave as their new drummer after Matt Letley bowed out following a 13-year stint.

Multi-intrumentalist Cave has been a member of Francis Rossi’s solo band and an in-demand session drummer, guitarist and bassist.

He’ll make his live debut with the band in Germany tonight.

Quo say in a statement: “Leon has been in rehearsal with the band and will be playing at the Wolkenkratzer Festival in Frankfurt, Germany.”

Cave is described as “a fast learner of new material with the ability to play across all genres of music.”

Last year Letley announced his decision to move on. He was scheduled to make his final appearance at the O2 Arena in London on December 19, then stayed on to cover the band’s Australian tour in February this year.

He said: “It’s been a fantastic journey – but I have decided that now is the right time for me to leave Quo and move on to something new.”

But he denied the move was anything to do with the band’s Frantic Four reunion shows, played by Rossi and Rick Parfitt alongside founding members Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan.

The last of those concerts, in London March 17, was filmed for a later DVD release.

The veterans released their feature film Bula Quo! in July and tour the UK in December with 10cc:

Dec 6: Liverpool Echo Arena
Dec 7: Birmingham LG Arena
Dec 8: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Dec 10: Plymouth Pavilions
Dec 11: Bournemouth BIC
Dec 13: Brighton Centre
Dec 14: Nottingham Arena
Dec 15: London O2
Dec 17: Leeds Arena
Dec 18: Glasgow Hydro
Dec 19: Newcastle Metro Arena

Iggy Pop: “My pants fall down a lot”

Despite his mantle of the Godfather Of Punk, Iggy Pop isn’t actually a fan of punk rock music. Oh yeah – and he’s never intentionally displayed his penis on stage either, saying: “That’s an urban myth.”

To celebrate the release of The Stooges’ second comeback album Ready To Die, Iggy is interviewed in the latest edition of Classic Rock. When asked how he deals with the fact that everyone and their dog calls him the Godfather Of Punk, he responded:

“[Industry suits] have to think in boxes. They have to have a place to put me to reference the whole thing. And they think they have to explain that to an audience of people who are similarly lacking in intelligence or education. So you get that. It’s okay. But it’s tedious.

“We hadn’t sold out one of the shows, so the promoter wanted me to go on the radio. So I said: ‘Alright, I’ll do an interview.’ Well, then that wasn’t enough. They wanted me to talk about five punk songs. And I told them: ‘I don’t like punk.’”

Iggy also denied threatening the audience that he’d take his penis out while performing at the recent South By Southwest festival.

“I wasn’t threatening them… I mean, I never really have displayed my penis. That’s sort of… that’s an urban myth. Once in a while it slips out here and there, or my pants fall down a lot.”

Ready To Die contains social commentaries on modern America in the form of songs such as Burn, Sex & Money, Job and Gun. There’s also a track called DD’s, on which Iggy declares his passion for big breasts…

“Well, yeah,” he agreed. “Tits are very big in America, y’know? I mean, we have lots of big tits. And people don’t have big tits, they have the operation to get them. I always liked Russ Meyer, wonderful movies. I used to go when I was making Raw Power if I wanted to relax. They’re beautiful. The attitude’s great and the tits are fucking amazing.”

Read the full interview with Iggy Pop in the latest edition of Classic Rock, on sale now.

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Classic Rock is proud to present the exclusive premiere of Shinedown performing their track Miracle live in the studio. View it below.

The clip was shot for Warner Sounds’ acoustic session series and sees Brent Smith’s band delivering the eighth song from last year’s album Amaryllis.

Shinedown will tour the UK tour in October supporting Alter Bridge, with Halestorm opening – and some of the shows are already close to selling out.

Alter Bridge / Shinedown tour with Halestorm

Oct 16: Nottingham Arena
Oct 17: Birmingham NIA
Oct 18: London Wembley Arena
Oct 20: Cardiff Motorpoint Arena
Oct 21: Glasgow Hydro
Oct 22: Manchester Arena

Killing Joke: tales from the dark side

The Singles Collection 1979 – 2012 captures the ever-evolving Killing Joke story with a series of dark, apocalyptic songs.

The Singles Collection… is initially being released as a Limited Edition three-CD set (33 career-spanning singles plus a third disc of rarities, including previously unreleased studio tracks), plus a Super Deluxe Cigar-Boxed Edition.

Check out all the abovementioned 33 tracks from The Singles Collection… via the stream here.

Killing Joke, with their original line-up of Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Big Paul continuing to hold firm, have now signed a new deal with Spinefarm. They will soon set about recording a third studio album for the label, with Youth once again at the production helm. The release date is likely to be early 2014.

In the specially filmed video below, we delve into KJ’s history in the third and final part of an – almost – track-by-track guide to their new boxset.

Part one is here.

And part two is here.

Of Earth have released a video for their track Heart Of The Hard Drive. View it below.

The band, fronted by UFO bassist Rob De Luca, beat David Bowie to Classic Rock’s Track Of The Week in March when they launched previous video, Prototype.

De Luca is joined by guitarist Paul Casanova, drummer Rik De Luca and keyboardist Matt Baram in Of Earth. He describes the band as “more art rock” and adds: “There’s a fine line where despair and hope can meet and mix. It’s a powerful and profound moment. I feel our music somewhat represents that place.”

He’s on tour with UFO in early June, culminating in their performance at this year’s Download festival.

Heavy Metal Truants: Bruce ready to add pedal to the metal

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson has joined the line-up for the Heavy Metal Truants Download Festival Charity Bike Ride.

He will ride alongside the likes of Iron Maiden manager Rod Smallwood, Classic Rock Editor-In-Chief Scott Rowley, Metal Hammer Editor Alexander Milas and Prog Editor Jerry Ewing for an event that is set to help some excellent causes.

Dickinson will be flying in specially from Germany following two sold-out Maiden shows in Frankfurt so he can join the Heavy Metal Truants in cycling the final 25-mile leg of the bike ride into the Download Festival on Friday, June 14 – the day before Iron Maiden’s headline appearance there in front of an expected 100,000 fans.

All proceeds from the ride will go to three charities: Nordoff Robbins, Teenage Cancer Trust and Childline.

Dickinson commented: “Yes, maybe it’s the first time the headliner has shown up on a bike, but I do use my bike to get around in London when l get the chance and have turned up at the Beeb on a bike before, though the Commissioners were a bit surprised as they are too used to seeing limos!

“These are great causes, I am only sorry that due to our tour schedule l can’t do more of the ride, and hope our fans will support our efforts. I look forward to a day off after the ride seeing some great bands before we go into full Maiden action on the Saturday, with every intention of giving the fans a memorable show. Download and metal fans are the best there are, so everyone expects something very special.”

Head to www.heavymetaltruants.com for more info.

Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready admits he found it difficult listening to his work with Mad Season – because of the bad memories it brought back.

But he’s also proud of the work the supergroup did in a “quick flash” of time.

They released their only album Above in 1995, then had to abandon the follow-up after the death of bassist John Baker Saunders in 1999 and frontman Layne Staley in 2002.

McCready and drummer Barrett Martin regrouped with vocalist Mark Lanegan to complete three songs that had been started at the end of 1990s, and they were released as part of a Mad Season box set earlier this year. It also featured a remastered version of Above – which was a “bittersweet” experience for the guitarist.

“I’d listened to it all the way through probably two times since it came out,” McCready tells MusicRadar. “It’s very sad. Baker and Layne both died, so there’s a sadness that hangs over the entire record. I wasn’t willing to live that again. Those couple of times I did listen to it, it was tough.

“When I went back and heard it again it was freeing and said. I cried and laughed, and felt proud. I felt a real mixture of emotions that I’d never had with any other music I’d done, because two of the guys passed away, and I miss them.

“I wish that they could be here talking about it. I’d like to see what they’d be like now, when they weren’t as young as they were whenever we made the record.”

Looking back, it seems Mad Season was a perfect fit for the band’s name – and McCready feels the box set underlines that. “There was a feeling of closure because we put out everything we did,” he says. “To be able to do two DVDs from two shows was pretty cool. It was good to say: ‘This is what we did in a short period of time. We were a quick flash – then we were gone.’”

The guitarist believes Saunders has never been recognised for his contribution to the band. “Everybody sort of gravitated towards Baker,” he recalls. “He was a real honest, really cool bluesman. I think Layne felt that – the honesty and the realness – and so did Barrett.”

And he’ll always be grateful for the lessons he learned with Mad Season: “It was a free-form, fun thing; there wasn’t any pressure, like, ‘This isn’t my band, Pearl Jam.’ I didn’t have all of the insecurities that went along with that. Running back to that time, I definitely needed something to help me gain confidence in my songwriting. Mad Season was kind of the vehicle for that.”

Classic Rock is proud to bring you Black Star Riders’ debut album All Hell Breaks Loose in full. Stream it below.

The Thin Lizzy offshoot record is released today in the EU, Monday (May 27) in the UK and Tuesday (May 28) in the US.

Black Star Riders were created by Lizzy men Ricky Warwick, Scott Gorham, Damon Johnson and Marco Mendozam, plus former Megadeth, Ozzy Osbourne and White Lion drummer Jimmy DeGrasso.

Frontman Warwick recently explained: “I was watching a documentary about World War II bombers and saw ‘All Hell Breaks Loose’ painted on the side of one of the aircraft. It just resonated with me – it seem to encapsulate the turmoil that we, as a society, are currently experiencing.

“The past few years have been such a wild ride. It sounded like a bad-ass album title that summed up what Black Star Riders is all about.”

You can buy All Hell Breaks Loose via Nuclear Blast Records, iTunes and Amazon.

Tracklist

01. All Hell Breaks Loose
02. Bound For Glory
03. Kingdom Of The Lost
04. Bloodshot
05. Kissin’ The Ground
06. Hey Judas
07. Hoodoo Voodoo
08. Valley Of The Stones
09. Someday Salvation
10. Before The War
11. Blues Ain’t So Bad

Movie icon Sir Christopher Lee releases his second metal album Charlemagne: The Omens Of Death on May 27. View a video introduction below.

It follows Charlemagne: By The Sword And The Cross, which came out in 2010 and won him a Metal Hammer Golden Gods award, an event he describes as “the most amazing occasion.”

Lord Of The Rings star Lee, 90 – who’s better known for his association with another Hammer, the cult horror movie firm – says the new record is more metal than the previous one.

He explains: “The first Charlemagne album is metal, of course, but what I sang was more symphonic. The Omens Of Death is one hundred percent heavy metal. I’ve done my bits and pieces, and they are heavy metal. I’m not screaming or anything like that, but it is definitely heavy metal.”

The music was arranged by Richie Faulkner just before he replaced KK Downing in Judas Priest. “Most of the songs were already there,” says the guitarist. “But they needed riffs, drum parts and musical parts that reflected what the guys wanted – which was a metal record with an aim to be played live by a band. Some of the tracks didn’t have any music at all and were just Sir Christopher singing his melodies. I remember how surreal it was sitting in my place at the time with Saruman blasting out over the speakers! I’ve no idea what the neighbours thought!”

Tracklist

01. The Portent
02. Charles the Great
03. The Siege
04. Massacre of the Saxons
05. Dawning of a New Age
06. Let Legend Mark Me as the King
07. The Betrayal
08. The Devil’s Advocate
09. The Ultimate Sacrifice
10. Judgement Day

High time: Pendelton on Everest with the guitar

A guitar signed by Alice Cooper has been taken to the summit of Mount Everest by a charity fundraising firefighter. Todd Pendleton has made nearly $20,000 of his target $25,000 for the Leukaemia And Lymphoma Society. He says: It’s hard to put into words how difficult the journey has been. Death was palpable every time we put our crampons on. You had to focus on what you were doing, not what could happen, but it was always in the back of your mind. I haven’t been able to put into words what happened on summit day yet, but it tested my soul. It was terrifying and beautiful. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone though.” Donate now.

Metallica can’t concentrate on a new album until their touring activities have covered the costs of upcoming film Through The Never. Frontman James Hetfield says: “We’ve been touring some obscure places. Basically what we’re trying to do is pay for this movie. The touring is keeping us from getting in and finishing the record. I want it done yesterday.” He adds that the band have enough material to make the follow-up to 2008′s Death Magnetic, noting: “We’ve gone through maybe one-tenth of the material on our riffs CD.” [Billboard]

Roger Hodgson kicks off his UK tour tonight. The former Supertramp vocalist says: “You kept asking me to return and now it’s official. I’m truly grateful to have the best fans in the world – I thank you for your support in spreading the word, and connecting my name with my voice and songs to those who only know my songs as Supertramp.”
May 24: Buckingham, Stowe School
May 25: London Royal Albert Hall
May 26: Birmingham Symphony Hall
May 28: Liverpool Philharmonic
May 29: Manchester Bridgewater Hall
May 30: Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Jerry Cantrell started work on Alice In Chains track Stone while he was unable to play guitar. Recording sessions for The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here was put on hold while he underwent shoulder surgery, and the idea for the song came to him while he was still recovering. “I just started hearing something in my head,” he says. “My arm’s all fucked up, so I grabbed the phone and started humming the riff into the phone, and that’s where the song came from. I still have the voice recording – it’s hilarious!” [Grammy.com]

Alex Lifeson admits Rush need to take a day off after each three-hour show. He says: “we’re much more conservative than we used to be – not that we were crazy party guys. We don’t work consecutive gigs any more. Those off-days are truly recovery days, especially for Geddy and Neil. Geddy tends to get up at 1pm and doesn’t talk, so he can rest his voice. We’ll go for dinner together – it’s pretty subdued with a nice meal and a glass of wine. We’re going to be 60 this year so we have to look after ourselves.” [Metal Express Radio]

Slash has described Chester Bennington’s debut with Stone Temple Pilots as “fantastic” and says he’s “really excited for this new lineup.” Bennington has replaced Scott Weiland in STP, although he’ll continue working with main band Linkin Park. Slash, whose band Velvet Revolver sacked Weiland in 2008, revealed last year that STP had made the same move, before it was confirmed in February.

The version of Queensryche fronted by Todd La Torre have made samples from every track of their upcoming self-titled album available on Amazon.

Josh Homme believes you can’t cherry-pick when it comes to decision-making. The Queens Of The Stone Age frontman says: “I think people believe I’m some kind of evil dictator, but I don’t much care about that. I made a lot of hard decisions in my life. Sometimes hard decisions have to be made – and sometimes wonderful decisions have to be made. You’ve got to be willing to make them all. You can’t just avoid stuff that’s necessary.” [NME]

Ginger Wildheart’s Hey! Hello!, a collaboration with Victoria Liedtke, will release their self-titled album on July 23. Ginger says of the ten-track record: “It allowed me to enter the world or lyrical fiction, much in the vein of Sparks, who are a massive influence on Victoria and I.”