Although drummer
Mick Fleetwood has
hinted strongly at
the possibility of
Fleetwood Mac
headlining next year’s
Glastonbury Festival,
negotiations with the
event’s organisers have
reportedly broken
down over finances.Metallica guitarist Kirk
Hammett joined UFO
on stage during their
recent gig at the
Avalon Theatre in
California, performing
the encore songs
Doctor Doctor and
Shoot Shoot.Magnum release their
21st studio album on
January 17 via SPV.
Produced as usual by
guitarist Tony Clarkin,
The Serpent Rings, is
the first to feature
their new bassist
Dennis Ward.The cardigan worn by
Kurt Cobain during
Nirvana’s 1994
MTV Unplugged
performance has
sold at auction for
$334,
(£260,000). The
previous owner said
he put the garment
up for sale because
the responsibility
of keeping it in his
house was too
overwhelming. The
Seattle mansion in
which Cobain lived
with Courtney Love
and daughter Frances
Bean is also up for sale
at $7.5 million
(£5.8m). (The
greenhouse in which
Kurt killed himself was
torn down by Love
following his death.)A commemorative
plaque celebrating the
life of keyboard player
Nicky Hopkins has
been unveiled in
Perivale, West London.
The unsung session
hero worked with the
Beatles, the Rolling
Stones, The Who and
many more.Classic Rock seeks talented
new photographers.Have feuding Robinson
brothers buried the hatchet?Calling all budding rock
photographers. Classic Rock has partnered
with the image editing software Affinity
Photo in a bid to find the best new music
photographers of 2020.
A newly launched competition which runs
over the next six months offers a series of
monthly challenges based on different
aspects of music photography – live shots,
portraits etc. It’s free to enter, and there are
monthly prizes for the winners of each
category. The overall winner will receive:
s I0AD 0RO
INCH !PPLE 0ENCIL AND !FFINITY
Photo for iPad.
s 4HE OPPORTUNITY TO GO ON ASSIGNMENT WITH
Louder/Classic Rock/Metal Hammer/Prog
photographer Kevin Nixon (or, if geography
makes that impossible, a Skype/online
workshop with Kevin).
s 4HE WINNING PHOTOS WILL BE PUBLISHED
online on the Louder website and in the print
editions of our sister magazines.
s %NTRANTS WILL ALSO BE ABLE TO BUY THE AWARD
winning photo editing software Affinity
0HOTO FOR 0# OR -AC FOR LESS THAN HALF
PRICE - £23.99 instead of the usual £48.99.
More information at http://www.surveymonkey.
co.uk/r/affinity_new_music
The Black Crowes are strongly
rumoured to be returning to the road next
year. According to their former manager Pete
Angelus, the band will celebrate the 30th
anniversary of their debut album Shake Your
Money Maker with some touring. Angelus told
The Wall Street Journal that he is “aware of the
deal” that siblings Chris and Rich Robinson
have made for a 2020 tour.
The Robinsons’ fractious relationship was
BEHIND A SEEMINGLY PERMANENT SPLIT IN
when frontman Chris claimed the financial
STAKES OF HIS GUITAR
PLAYING BROTHER 2ICH AND
drummer Steve Gorman.
The brothers are yet to break their silence
on the speculation. Gorman neither expects
nor wants a phone call. “This is nothing to
DO WITH TRYING TO RE
FIND A MUSICAL
connection,” says the drummer, who
RECENTLY PUBLISHED THE TELL
ALL MEMOIR Hard
To Handle: The Life And Death Of The Black
Crowes. “The last thing that the brothers
Robinson will do is involve someone to take
a chunk of the pie away from them.” DLBlack Crowes
To Fly Again?
Shoot To Kill?
Getting the prog rock supergroup together might be like
'herding cats', but, as they tell us, it's always worth it.Flying Colors
Modern-day prog rock
supergroups don’t come much more
super than Flying Colors. They’re fronted
by Alpha Rev’s Casey McPherson, with
DRUM GREAT -IKE 0ORTNOY EX
3POCKS
"EARD MULTI
INSTRUMENTALIST .EAL -ORSE
EX
$IXIE $REGS BASSIST $AVE ,A2UE AND
$EEP 0URPLE GUITARIST 3TEVE -ORSE
&OLLOWING S Flying Colors AND S
Second Nature, they’ve just released Third
Degree. We caught up with LaRue to get
THE SKINNY ON THEIR LATEST GENRE
HOPPING
musical extravaganza.You’re all such busy
musicians, getting
Flying Colors in
a room must be
liking herding cats!
%XACTLY )TS ALMOST
impossible. Our first
writing session for this
ALBUM WAS IN WE
wrote seventy per cent
of the material but ran out of time. We
managed to get together last year and
finish it, then went straight into the studio
to record it.What’s the writing process like in
a supergroup like this?
We all write together, all of us are in the
room. Nobody’s allowed to write a whole
song, we all bring in little ideas and work
on them. And with these guys the ideas
really f ly, you gotta pay attention.Geronimo starts with a really funky
bass riff. One of yours?
[Laughs] How did you know? Steve and
I jammed on it and it grew from there.You Are Not Alone starts as a lovely
standard ballad, then changes key
nearly every line. It must be
a challenge for Casey to f ind the
best vocal melody in there?
When we were working on that there was
a ‘discussion’ about it changing key too
often. We tried it simpler but it lost all theenergy, then when we put the modulations
back in Casey just lit up. It was more
natural for him with all the key changes in
there. He pushed us to do that.Love Letter is a bit Beach Boys, Crawl is
the full-on prog epic...
We think of ourselves as prog rock, but
there are lots of inf luences in the band,
and I really think that makes us unique.You’re playing dates in Europe in
December. What’s the vibe like when
you travel together?
Mike’s a dynamo, he’s
always got three
things going on. He
takes on a lot of our
tasks and we let him,
so all that energy’s
focused on something.
Neal’s the quietest and
usually the earliest to
bed. It’s definitely not
the eighties, that was a whole different ball
game. Let’s not go there.No, please, let’s! What was your most
‘eighties’ time?
Well, I started touring with the Steve
Morse Band in the late eighties. I was
single, out on the road a lot, and
I exploited my position fully.Are there ladies at a Flying Colors gig?
With music like ours there’s a lot of
testosterone in the concert hall, but yes,
there are few. I’m married now, but
Casey’s single, dating some nice ladies.Who’s the best musician in the band?
[Laughs] They all are! That’s what makes
it so great. We’re pretty humble and just
want to make a great record. We all enjoy
being together, and the music that comes
from that. At this stage if we didn’t we
wouldn’t do it. GMThird Degree is out now via Music
Theories Recordings/Mascot.JIM(^) AR
BO
GA
ST/
PRE
SS
“We think of
ourselves as prog
rock, but there’s
lots of influences.”
16 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM