Classic Rock UK - April 2019

(Martin Jones) #1
Despite the fact that
Deep Purple
undertook a farewell
tour for their 2017
album InFinite,
guitarist Steve Morse
reveals that work on
a new recording is
under way. “And
I know there’s more
Purple gigs that they
haven’t announced yet


  • so don’t tell them
    that I told you so!”
    quips the guitarist,
    who is also recording
    with prog supergroup
    Flying Colors.


Deadland Ritual, the
band featuring Black
Sabbath bassist
Geezer Butler, Billy Idol
guitarist Steve
Stevens, ex-Guns N’
Roses drummer Matt
Sorum and Scars On
Broadway frontman
Franky Perez, have
been added to this
year’s Download bill.

Sontaag (pictured),
a “cross-generic space
rock grand opera”
project featuring
Classic Rock’s own Ian
Fortnam, release a
cover of Hawkwind’s
Silver Machine through
Cleopatra Records this
month. It features
cameos from
ex-Hawkwind
saxophonist Nik
Turner, Dave
Barbarossa (Adam
And The Ants, Bow
Wow Wow) and
Youth from Killing
Joke. Look out also for
a remix by The Orb.

Girlschool have
parted company with
bassist Enid Williams
for the second time.
An original member of
the band, she re-joined
them in 2000.
Williams posted on
Facebook: “I’m on the
last day of my holiday
with my boyfriend to
discover I’d been
stabbed in the back
yet again.” Tracey
Lamb is to deputise
until a permanent
replacement is found.

Thank you
and good night.

Paul Whaley
January 14, 1946 - January 28, 2019
The Blue Cheer drummer has died at
the age of 72. Eric Clapton once
referred to the San Franciscan trio as
the “the originators of heavy metal.”
Whaley, who performed in numerous
line-ups of the group and was a part of
their 1968 debut Vincebus Eruptum,
succumbed to heart failure.

Reggie Young
December 12, 1936 – January 17, 2019
The session guitarist with a seven-
decade career has died of heart failure
aged 82. Raised in Missouri, he played
on records by artists as varied as Bob
Dylan, B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Paul
Simon, Joe Cocker, Willie Nelson and
more. Young’s first ever solo album,
Forever Young, was released in 2017.

Lorna Doom
January 4, 1958 – January 16, 2019
Born Teresa Marie Ryan, Doom
enjoyed two spells as the bass player
of LA punks Germs, appearing in
Penelope Spheeris’ documentary The
Decline Of Western Civilization. Red Hot
Chili Peppers bassist Flea said: “I can’t
count the times I lay on the floor
listening to Lorna play.” Cause of death,
at 61, has yet to be revealed.

Mickey Ramone Coyle
October 9, 1963 – January 10, 2019
Punk rock stalwarts GBH cancelled
their January tour commitments when
Coyle, a “regular stand-in bass player
and lifelong friend” of the group, died
suddenly. A crowdfunding campaign to
cover his interment raised over £8,000.

Clydie King
August 21, 1943 – January 7, 2019
Dallas-born King was best known as
a backing vocalist for the likes of
Humble Pie, the Rolling Stones, BB King
and Bob Dylan. King, who also sang on
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama,
was 75 at the time of death through
complications of a blood infection.

Bruce Corbitt
December 22, 1962 – January 25, 2019
Having been stabbed at one of his own
concerts, witnessed a bandmate die
onstage and survived a heart attack,
the singer for Rigor Mortis and Warbeast
has lost a battle with esophageal
cancer. Corbitt, 56, was a much-loved
figure in US thrash-metal. When he
married in 2012, Pantera’s Philip
Anselmo acted as his best man.

David Gilmour is to auction off
around 120 of his favourite guitars,
instruments that were used on Pink Floyd
albums and his solo releases, with the
proceeds being donated to charity.
“Everything has got to go,” he joked to
Rolling Stone. “It’s the spring sale.”
Though he has no intention of retiring
from music, Gilmour is parting ways with
the guitars as he believes “having been
very good to me, it’s time that they went
off and served someone else”.
This includes a Stratocaster with the
serial number 0001, the 12-string which
was used to write Wish You Were Here and
the legendary Black Strat on which
Gilmour played Comfortably Numb, Money
and Shine On You Crazy Diamond.
Funds raised from an auction at
Christie’s in New York in June will go to
Gilmour’s own charitable foundation,
which aids “famine relief, homelessness
and displacement of people throughout
the world”. The Black Strat alone has been
estimated to sell for around $150,

(£116,000 ). When asked how much he
hoped to raise, Gilmour replied: “I haven’t
given that a second’s thought. I’m sure there
will be people who look at what is going to
be sold, and they will do some guesses on
sums, but I’m not going to be that person.”
One thing Gilmour wanted to make
clear was that the auction might signal an
end to his own career. “I’m neither
retiring nor particularly planning things
at the moment,” he explained. “I’m sure
I’ll get around to something [else] one of
these days, but it’s a big commitment.”
A tour of the instruments launches at
Christie’s in London’s King Street between
March 27 and 31, where music fans will be
able to see the full collection. A select
number of the guitars will then move to
Los Angeles in May, followed by a sale
preview in New York ahead of the auction,
which takes place between June 14 and 19.
Once a guitar collector always a guitar
collector, Gilmour jokes: “Perhaps one
day I’ll have to track one or two of them
down and buy them back! ” DL

As this issue went to press, Ozzy
Osbourne was out of intensive care
following the dose of f lu and bronchitis
that caused him to cancel the European leg
of his No More Tours trek which was due
to run from January 30 to February 11.
“Ozzy’s doing great [and] he’s
breathing on his own,” his manager and
wife Sharon told viewers during an
appearance on the US chat show The Talk.
Fearing that the condition might develop
into pneumonia, doctors had admitted
Ozzy, 70, to Keck Hospital in Los Angeles.
At first it was thought that Osbourne
would miss the first four shows of his
itinerary of 79 dates. However, after he
was diagnosed with a severe upper-
respiratory infection it became necessary
to pull the entire tour. Though nothing
official has been announced, Classic Rock
understands that Ozzy aims to reschedule
the cancelled dates for September.
Apologising to fans, his band and road
crew and to Judas Priest, who were due to

be the tour’s special guests and will retain
their place on the bill for the revised dates,
Osbourne says he was “completely
devastated” at the course of events,
adding: “It just seems that since October
everything I touch has turned to shit.”
The singer’s Black Sabbath bandmate
Tony Iommi tweeted his support, saying:
“I’m wishing Ozzy a speedy recovery and
I know he’ll be gutted that he’s had to
cancel part of his tour, but I’m sure he’ll be
back on stage as soon as he’s able. Get
better soon, my friend.”
In related news, despite a history of bitter
feuding, Ozzy and Sharon have responded
to a deathbed wish from Lee Kerslake, the
drummer on Ozzy’s first two post-Sabbath
albums, by providing two multi-platinum
discs. Kerslake, who spent most of his career
with Uriah Heep and who recently told The
Metal Voice that doctors had given him
months to live due to cancer, was presented
with the discs when he was inducted into
the Hall Of Heavy Metal History. DL

More than 100 guitars to be auctioned for charity.


“Everything I touch turns to shit,” says singer.


Gilmour Sells Up


Ozzy Cancels Tour


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