Sammy Hagar & The
Circle, which also
includes bassist
Michael Anthony,
drummer Jason
Bonham and guitarist
Vic Johnson, release
Space Between, their
debut album of
original material,
on May 10.Pearl Jam are Record
Store Day
Ambassadors for this
year’s celebration of all
things vinyl on April- “Support every
independent record
store that you can,”
says guitarist Mike
McCready. “They’re
really a good part
of society.”
Stay Around, an album
of previously unheard
material by JJ Cale,
the influential
American songwriter,
guitarist and singer
who died in 2013, is
released on April 26
via Because Music.Canadian company
Sunrise Records
stepped in to save
HMV Music after
the UK chain called
in the administrators
for the second time in
six years. The rescue
will bring 100 stores
out of administration,
although 27 more,
including the flagship
store on London’s
Oxford Street, will have
to close.Robert Plant
(pictured) has a new
band called Saving
Grace. Described as
“laid back and bluesy
with Eastern and folk
influences” and
completed by Suzy
Dian on vocals, Tony
Kelsey on guitar and
mandolin, Matt
Worley on banjo and
guitar, and
percussionist Oli
Jefferson, they played
a surprise debut show
in late January at the
Sparc Theatre in
Bishop’s Castle.The Fairport Convention
guitarist on American
electric guitar pioneer Les
Paul (who you can read more
about on page 50).Les Paul
THE LEGEND
AND THE LEGACYBy Richard Thompson
MY FIRST
LOVE
Next to Hanoi Rocks and HIM,
Children Of Bodom are Finland’s most
successful musical export. Since forming
in the city of Espoo in 1993, they’ve
released nine albums that combine old-
school thrash with death metal and
symphonic keyboards. Their new album,
Hexed, is out in March. Frontman and
leader Alexi Laiho reveals how sobriety
has given him a new focus.This is your tenth album. How did
you set out to make it different from
the last nine?
I never set out to make
any kind of specific
album. I try to keep
my mind as clear as
possible and block
everything out so
I don’t get distracted by
things like “What if the
old school don’t like
this? ” You’re always
going to piss somebody off anyway.With the title, Hexed, who are you
talking about?
Originally it was a song title I already had
and it just sounded cool. But then the
album kept getting pushed back by the
label and I was like: “Man, this shit is
really hexed.” It suits the record.You started Children Of Bodom when
you were in your mid-teens, and you
turn forty this year. Did you ever
think you’d be doing it this long?
I didn’t think we would get this far, not
with Children Of Bodom. I knew that
I was going to do music for a living in
some form, but not necessarily playing
in a metal band. So I’m proud we’ve been
making albums and touring for over
twenty years, and we can still do it at full
speed, without any breaks.You stopped drinking on the road
a few years ago. How has that changed
things for you?I was the worst party dude ever, so for me
it was a complete hundred-and-eighty-
degree turn. The first couple of tours were
weird. I felt kind of alienated from people.
And when I’m on the road, I’m in work
mode. I fucking hate hangovers.
Especially at my age. But it’s meant I have
so much more energy on stage. And
I didn’t have to have a couple of shots of
whisky to stop shaking or vomit blood
before I went on stage.That sounds pretty bad.
In the end it got really
bad. I was hospitalised
a couple of times.
I had bleeding ulcers,
and if they start
seriously bleeding it
can kill you. I was
feeling so bad that
I didn’t care if I died,
but I didn’t want to
fuck it up for anyone
else. I had to make a choice: music or
alcohol. And I don’t want to be fucking
addicted to anything. Apart from
cigarettes and coffee.You used to have the nickname
Wildchild. Does that mean you don’t
call yourself that any more?
No, I stopped calling myself that when
I was thirty. It doesn’t look cute when
you’re thirty years old and you call
yourself Wildchild. Not that I changed my
ways, I just got rid of the name.You’ve done this for more than twenty-
f ive years. Do you see yourself doing it
for another twenty-five?
I hope so. But I’ll be sixty-five. I’ll definitely
be playing something, but maybe it will be
blues or country or some shit like that.
Then again it would be pretty rad to still be
playing Children Of Bodom songs when
I’m sixty-five. Maybe that’s my goal. DEHexed is out on March 8 via
Nuclear Blast.“My dad had a set of Les Paul records,
seventy-eights he’d bought in the
late forties when they came out, and
I always remember hearing this
weird music.
“A lot of the early
records are multi-
tracked, he’s using
double-speed
effects, he’s
inventing tape
echo, all these
amazing special
effects. It just
sounded like music
from Mars to me.
“On the records
you heard the
beginnings of rock’n’roll; he’s playing
a lot of licks that became Chuck Berry
licks, that became standard stuff. You
hear that filtering through into
rock‘n’roll music – in a lot of ways he
was the unwitting father of rock‘n’roll.
“Favourite songs? His version of
Duke Ellington’s Caravan is beautiful
and strange. How High The Moon was a
big hit for him and Mary Ford, of
course, and What Is This Thing Called
Love. The definitive anthology is Les
Paul: The Legend And The Legacy, which
is his complete works for Capitol.
“He was a showman and an
incredible boffin. The guy never
stopped inventing. I asked him once
about one of these experimental
guitars he was playing at his club
[The Iridium, New York]. I said:
What’s that pickup? ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘just
something I’m tinkering with.’”“I didn’t think we
would get this far,
not with Children
Of Bodom.”
What’s the point pandering to the old school, says
Alexi Laiho. “You’re always going to piss somebody off.”Children Of Bodom
20 CLASSICROCKMAGAZINE.COM