Kelly Hansen, lead singer with Foreigner for the last 20 years, has announced that he’s leaving the band. Hansen made the announcement live on popular NBC show The Voice, and confirmed that Foreigner guitarist Luis Maldonado will be stepping up to the mic.
“Being the voice of Foreigner has been one of the greatest honours of my life,” said Hansen. “But it’s time to pass the mic. Luis has the voice, the energy, and the soul to carry these songs into the future. I couldn’t be prouder to hand this off to him.”
“This music has been part of my life for as long as I can remember,” adds Maldonado. “I’m ready to honour Foreigner’s legacy and bring my heart to every performance.”
“In 1976, my goal was to assemble the finest group of musicians I could find,” says Foreigner leader Mick Jones, who no longer performs onstage with the band. “Results have shown that it worked! About thirty years later, Jason Bonham encouraged me to do it all over again and create a brand-new Foreigner, and the magic was still there.
“I was especially fortunate in the choice of lead singer. Kelly Hansen is one of the best front men in our business and over the last twenty years he has breathed new life into our songs. His boundless energy and flawless talent has helped us climb the mountain and set up the opportunity for Foreigner vocalist and guitarist, Luis Maldonado, to bring us home.
“I wish Kelly great happiness in his next endeavors after our summer tour, and I look forward to welcoming Luis to his new position. Luis was my choice as a guitarist and he has already shown us what he can do on lead vocals by fronting the band in South America to incredible reviews. He will soon lead the charge that will carry us forward to new heights.”
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To confuse matters further, Foreigner also announced in March that the Canadian dates would be fronted by Broadway singer and actor Geordie Brown. It has not yet been confirmed if this is still the case, or if Maldonado will be out front.
Luis Maldonado’s first releases as lead singer both arrived this month, with the band sharing Spanish-language versions of two classic singles, 1981’s Urgent and 1984’s I Want To Know What Love Is.
Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
George Wendt, best known for his portrayal of barfly Norm Peterson on the hit sitcom Cheers, has died at the age of 76.
Wendt’s passing was confirmed by his publicist, who released the following statement: “George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him. He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time.”
Born and raised in Chicago, Wendt honed his comedy chops as part of Second City in the 1970s. After six years with the improv troupe, he transitioned into an acting career, initially getting small parts in films and TV shows.
When Wendt landed the role of Norm on Cheers, which debuted in September 1982, he was able to call upon the skills he’d acquired at Second City. The key, he’d later explain, came from his character’s authenticity. “You make it sound real. If people stop believing you, you’re just telling jokes,” Wendt remarked in a 1983 interview. “That’s the way I do Norm. I don’t try to punch it up or joke it up.”
While Cheers was a little slow to catch on with viewers, it eventually became a ratings juggernaut. The series was regularly one of the most watched comedies on television, racking up awards along the way. Wendt was nominated for an Emmy six years in a row for his portrayal of Norm, though he never took home an award.
Still, even in an ensemble cast that featured such heavyweights as Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammar and Woody Harrelson, Wendt managed to shine. His embodiment of Norm – gruff and brutish at times, sweet and supportive at others – endeared him to generations of TV watchers. In each episode, yells of “Norm!” would welcome the character whenever he entered the show’s namesake bar. That exuberance was shared by viewers at home, happy to welcome one of their favorite characters to the screen.
What Did George Wendt Do After ‘Cheers’?
Over the years, Wendt remained humble about his time on Cheers. “Norm is just me with better writing,” he told Chicago Magazine in 2021. “There were hundreds, if not thousands, of actors who could have delivered on the absolute gems that I was handed on a silver platter every Wednesday morning.”
After Cheers ended in 1993, Wendt continued to land plenty of work. He made guest appearances on everything from Columbo to Seinfeld, lent his voice to episodes of The Simpsons and Family Guy and even had his own short-lived series, The George Wendt Show.
The actor also cemented his place in Saturday Night Live history thanks to his appearances in the recurring sketch, Bill Swerski’s Superfans. Famous for the “Da Bears” catchphrase, as well as a boundless loyalty to coach Mike Ditka, Wendt, Mike Myers, Chris Farley and Robert Smigel embodied a quartet of Chicago sports fans that left viewers at home in stitches.
Foo Fighters in 2017(Image credit: Brantley Gutierrez)
On January 8, 1995, Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder broadcast two songs, one a cover of an Angry Samoans track, from a demo tape by a new Seattle-based rock band, on his Self Pollution Radio show. “I’m just going to let these songs fly,” said Vedder. “They’re really good.” This was the world’s first exposure to the Foo Fighters, a new group led by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.
In truth, at the point at which these songs were recorded, just three months earlier, there was no band, for Grohl had played every riff, pounded every beat and sang every note on his new project’s demo tape himself.
On February 19, 1995, the Foo Fighters – now featuring ex-Germs guitarist Pat Smear, who’d joined Nirvana for their truncated In Utero tour, plus Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith, rhythm section of the recently defunct Seattle emo group Sunny Day Real Estate – took their first faltering steps in (semi) public, performing at a keg party for friends above a boating store on Seattle’s Mercer Street. It was weeks before Dave Grohl got around to listening to a recording of his new band’s first show.
“I was fucking mortified!” he told Rolling Stone magazine, 20 years on. “I thought we sounded great… [then] I heard the recording. [I was] like, ‘Oh… that’s the Foo Fighters? We’ve got to practice!’”
Once dismissed as ‘The Grunge Ringo’ by a caustic UK music press, Grohl can afford to laugh. In 2023, his band exist as one of the most successful rock acts in the world, but their path to the top has not been without turbulence and tragedy. The easy-going and charmingly charismatic Virginia-born musician has been unafraid to take bold and unpopular managerial decisions in pursuit of his dreams, but his band have retained credibility even as their commercial appeal soared.
After Nirvana’s abrupt demise, Grohl was offered a position playing drums with Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers: onstage, he shares some of the late singer-songwriter’s everyman charm, helping his group secure a position in the heart of mainstream American rock.
“I remember there were people that really resented me for having the audacity or gall to fucking keep playing music after Nirvana,” Grohl said in 2009. “It was the most ridiculous thing. I was fucking, what, 25-years-old? I was a kid. I’m sure that the thing I was supposed to do was become this brooding, reclusive dropout of society and that’s it.
“Nirvana’s done, I’m done, that’s the end of my life,” he said. “Fuck that… When Nirvana ended, I wasn’t finished. I’m still not fucking finished.”
In 2022, of course, he had to make the choice again, and this time it was his brother-in-arms, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins. But after a respectful pause for grief, reflection and tribute, the band re-emerged with an album that was as much celebration as it was eulogy.
New man Josh Freese eventually stepped into Hawkins’ impossible-to-fill shoes, but in May 2025 he was dismissed as the band decided to “go in a different direction.” Their journey is far from over.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Suede have announced a September release for their tenth album, Antidepressants, and have started to build anticipation for the record by sharing the video for its first single. Disintegrate.
The follow-up to 2022’s Autofiction, their highest-charting record in over 20 years, Antidepressants will be released on September 5, via BMG.
In a statement announcing the release, frontman Brett Anderson says: “If Autofiction was our punk record, Antidepressants is our post-punk record. It’s about the tensions of modern life, the paranoia, the anxiety, the neurosis. We are all striving for connection in a disconnected world. This was the feel I wanted the songs to have. The album is called Antidepressants. This is broken music for broken people.”
“This is a widescreen and ambitious record,” adds bass player Mat Osman. “It’s a big stage record and it’s taking it up a gear.”
The release of Antidepressants, which can be pre-ordered here, will be accompanied by a special concert series in London by the band, staged over four nights n different venues across the Southbank Centre.
‘Suede Takeover’ begins at the Royal Festival Hall on September 13 and 14, with two surprise sets of Suede’s fiercely loved classics, hits and brand new music. On September 17 the band will perform in the Purcell Room for an unusual and intimate off-mic evening with Suede. The residency closes on September 19 in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with Suede’s first-ever full orchestral headline show, in collaboration with the Paraorchestra.
Talking about the four shows, Brett Anderson says, “Expect old songs, new songs, borrowed songs, blue songs, drama, melody, noise, sweat and a couple of surprises.”Southbank Centre members can access an exclusive ticket presale on May 21 at 10am.
Fans who pre-order the album from the band’s official store can access a presale from May 22 at 10am. General on sale begins on May 23 at 10am here.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“It all came to a screeching halt and forever destroyed the band’s life.” Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro insists there’s “no chance” that the band will ever play together again
(Image credit: @drornahum YouTube)
On Friday, September 13 last year, Jane’s Addiction imploded onstage at Boston’s Leader Bank Pavilion with a violent altercation between band members. Specifically vocalist Perry Farrell was seen to aim a punch at guitarist Dave Navarro and had to be restrained and bundled off-stage by crew members.
A statement subsequently announced that the remaining dates of the LA quartet’s US tour had been cancelled, and on September 16, Navarro, bassist Eric Avery and drummer Stephen Perkins declared that the group were going on hiatus, saying, “Due to a continuing pattern of behaviour and the mental health difficulties of our singer Perry Farrell, we have come to the conclusion that we have no choice but to discontinue the current US tour. Our concern for his personal health and safety as well as our own has left us no alternative. We hope that he will find the help he needs.
“We deeply regret that we are not able to come through for all our fans who have already bought tickets. We can see no solution that would either ensure a safe environment on stage or reliably allow us to deliver a great performance on a nightly basis.
“Our hearts are broken. Dave, Eric and Stephen.”
Speaking in a new interview with Guitar Player, Dave Navarro says that the situation is “still very tender and unresolved”, but firmly declares that the band will never play together again.
Talking to writer Andrew Daly, Navarro says, “All the hard work and dedication and writing and hours in the studio, and picking up and leaving home and crisscrossing the country and Europe and trying to overcome my illness — it all came to a screeching halt and forever destroyed the band’s life. And there’s no chance for the band to ever play together again.
Speaking about the band’s European tour which preceded their North American dates, and received rave reviews, Navarro says, “t was just four guys making great music, just like we did in the beginning.”
“That gig, September 13, in Boston, ended all of that… The experiences are there, but the potential of having those types of experiences ended that night.”
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
Feature Photo: Kubacheck, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
For nearly three decades, Zak Starkey was at the center of The Who’s live resurgence—a drummer whose energy, pedigree, and power earned the respect of die-hard fans and the band’s legendary co-founders. But after months of public uncertainty, abrupt reversals, and behind-the-scenes tension, Starkey’s long-standing tenure with the band came to a definitive and public end in May 2025.
The saga began in April 2025, when The Who announced that it had parted ways with Starkey following performances at London’s Royal Albert Hall. That announcement came as a surprise to many, including Starkey himself, who later revealed he had experienced a serious medical emergency earlier in the year involving blood clots in his right leg. Despite recovering from the condition, the drummer was stunned to learn he had been dismissed so soon after returning to the stage.
Public speculation intensified when Roger Daltrey, onstage at the Royal Albert Hall, openly expressed frustration with the live sound, claiming he couldn’t hear properly due to the overpowering drums. The moment hinted at a deeper fracture within the band, suggesting a rift over musical direction and communication. Starkey later confirmed to Rolling Stone that the incident seemed to be the catalyst for his termination.
Less than a week later, however, The Who reversed course. In an official statement posted on the band’s website, Pete Townshend confirmed that Starkey was no longer being asked to leave the group. Townshend acknowledged communication issues and expressed a desire for Starkey to adjust his playing style to better fit the group’s current non-orchestral format. Starkey, according to Townshend, agreed to the adjustments. The announcement seemed to cool the controversy—for a time.
But that peace didn’t last. On May 18, 2025, just before the band publicly confirmed his exit, Starkey issued his own statement via Instagram, revealing he had been fired a second time only two weeks after his reinstatement. He alleged that The Who asked him to release a statement claiming he had left voluntarily to pursue other projects. “This would be a lie,” he wrote bluntly.
That same day, The Who formally announced that Scott Devours would take Starkey’s place. Devours is no stranger to the band’s inner circle, having previously played drums for Roger Daltrey during solo tours. In their announcement, Townshend and Daltrey framed Starkey’s departure as amicable, citing his youth and his future projects as reasons for the decision. “The Who are heading for retirement,” the statement read. “Zak is 20 years younger and has a great future with his new band.”
Starkey pushed back against the narrative, alluding to the chaos of recent months by saying his on-again, off-again employment made him feel like he was going “in and out like a bleedin’ squeezebox.” The remark not only referenced a classic Who lyric but also underscored the surreal nature of the firing and re-hiring process.
Zak Starkey first joined The Who in 1996, stepping into a role previously held by his godfather, Keith Moon, whose style and energy had defined the band’s early years. Starkey was uniquely positioned for the job—not just because of his connection to Moon, but as the son of Beatles drummer Ringo Starr. Unlike other legacy musicians, Starkey earned his place with raw talent, capturing Moon’s frenetic flair while delivering technical precision.
His arrival helped fuel The Who’s 1996–1997 Quadrophenia tour and subsequent live revivals. Starkey contributed to Endless Wire in 2006, the band’s first studio album in over two decades, and remained a fixture on stage as The Who toured extensively through the 2000s and 2010s. His contributions were widely praised by fans and critics who considered him essential to the modern version of the band.
Founded in 1964, The Who originally consisted of Roger Daltrey, Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon. The band defined British rock’s mod era and eventually evolved into pioneers of rock opera and high-concept albums like Tommy and Quadrophenia. Moon’s death in 1978 and Entwistle’s death in 2002 marked major losses, but the band continued on with various lineups—anchored in later years by Daltrey, Townshend, and Starkey.
Starkey’s drumming not only kept The Who alive on the road—it preserved the spirit of a band that had built its reputation on musical explosiveness. His departure severs one of the last remaining links to that live identity, particularly as the band prepares for its The Song Is Over farewell tour set to begin August 16, 2025, in Sunrise, Florida.
What remains unclear is how the public back-and-forth will affect Starkey’s future projects. Though he has yet to confirm details, his public statements make it clear that he plans to move forward creatively. He has worked with bands like Oasis and The Lightning Seeds and is known for his versatility outside of The Who’s sphere.
The breakdown in communication between Starkey and The Who leaves a complicated legacy. For nearly 30 years, he was more than just a touring member—he was a cornerstone of the band’s second act. The abrupt and public nature of his dismissal raises questions about how bands with decades of history handle change, loyalty, and public perception.
Whatever comes next for Zak Starkey, his legacy with The Who is already etched in the band’s later history. For millions of fans who saw The Who after 1996, he was the man behind the drums—and for many, the man who made it all work.
Check out Zak up close with The Who…..
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They’ll be dancing in the streets of Belfast as news breaks that Comac Neeson’s new psychedelic folk ensemble California Irish have triumphed in the latest edition of our Tracks Of The Week contest. Congratulations to him, and to them. You can hear their now prize-winning Live Fast, Die Free single again below.
In second place was the late Bernie Marsden, while Mark Morton was voted third, so congratulations to them too. Our latest contestants are below, eager for your ears.
‘Live Fast Die Free’ In The Studio – (Official Video) – YouTube
One of our favourite new artists at the moment, Houston-born De’Wayne has a super-slinky, scorching summer banger on his hands in the form of the title track (and ‘muse’ of sorts) for his upcoming album. Irresistibly hooky, funked up pop rock that feels cool, fun and old-school all at once. “I wrote June because I had to,” he says, “it poured out of me. I was heavily inspired by Talking Heads and Prince, but I wanted this to reach everybody. Young or old, whatever your background, we all know what it’s like to fall for someone who flips your world upside down.” Damn straight.
It’s all there in the title, really. If you imagine the frenzied, kamikaze mentality it must take to fly planes into hurricanes, and somehow distil that into just under three minutes of rock’n’roll, this is pretty much what you’d get. With the twosome’s second album Bored Animal on its way, I Fly Planes Into Hurricanes is a brilliantly fast, frantic, fiery taste of the Stooges-ified punk’n’roll that awaits – its heart in the 50s and its head dipped in fire.
His Lordship – I Fly Planes Into Hurricanes – YouTube
Brent Cobb (Nashville uber-producer Dave Cobb is his cousin) and his rock’n’roll posse The Fixin’s continue to lay down tasty teasers for their album, Aint’ Rocked In A While, with Even If It’s Broke. Part 70s bluesy classic rocker, part low-slung southern-fried groovefest, it’s a more-ish taster of the rabble-rousing noise Cobb makes live – now realised on record, after a period of largely leaning into his softer, singer-songwriterly side.
Brent Cobb – Even If It’s Broke (Official Visualizer) – YouTube
“After cutting myself off from so many things in life, I decided to flip the script,” French maverick Lucie Sue say, of this dark yet highly danceable mesh of smoky industrial ambience, dirty riffage and PJ Harvey-esque swagger. “This song is a kick in the ass to hesitation. It’s a manifesto for living wide open. No brakes, no filters, with the raw hunger to just be.” Play loud and enjoy.
In another life Josh Todd might have fronted Velvet Revolver (the gig of course went to Scott Weiland). In a more recent life he was a certified phlebotomist, working in a COVID vaccine clinic in LA for four months. But if this latest taste of new album Roar Of Thunder is anything to go by, his current life with Buckcherry looks pretty damn good. Stomping beats, singalong chorus, verse riffs so juicy you want to eat them… there’s a lot to like there.
Buckcherry – “Set It Free” (Official Video) – YouTube
Aussie-Greek guitar star (with Alice Cooper, Prince, Richie Sambora, Michael Jackson and Santana among her past collaborators, she earns the ‘guitar star’ label more comfortably than many) and lifelong rocker/road warrior Orianthi flexes her singing, as well as soloing, chops on this heartfelt, melancholy yet driving slice of her next solo album Some Kind Of Feeling, which comes out later this year. Vulnerability and 90s grunge/pop-ish melody, with a generous side of classic rock guitar heroism.
Blondie and The Strokes have both had nice things to say about Brooklyn punkers Surfbort in the past, and USA Cheese may give you an inkling why. It’s spiky and spirited – think Amyl & The Sniffers, but with Noo Yoik attitude – and, most importantly, seems to be celebrating one of cuisine’s most unlikely heroes, American cheese. This is evidenced in a video in which both squirty and sliced cheese are celebrated. Punk’s still not dead, it’s just developing some very tasty mould.
Surfbort- “USA CHEESE” (Official music video) – YouTube
Released to raise funds for the longrunning Farm Aid charity, this version of Journey’s classic ballad Faithfully finds legendary former Journey vocalist Steve Perry hooking up with the even more legendary country star Willie Nelson. While neither man’s voice is quite what it used to be, age has lent a poignancy to the performance that’s genuinely moving. “No one has a voice or vocal phrasing anything like Willie Nelson,” says Perry. “Singing this duet with Willie has been something I’ve always wanted to do.”
Polly is deputy editor at Classic Rock magazine, where she writes and commissions regular pieces and longer reads (including new band coverage), and has interviewed rock’s biggest and newest names. She also contributes to Louder, Prog and Metal Hammer and talks about songs on the 20 Minute Club podcast. Elsewhere she’s had work published in The Musician, delicious. magazine and others, and written biographies for various album campaigns. In a previous life as a women’s magazine junior she interviewed Tracey Emin and Lily James – and wangled Rival Sons into the arts pages. In her spare time she writes fiction and cooks.
“The world was my oyster, but when I opened it there was a turd inside… When my wife said, ‘I want half of everything,’ I said, ‘Write me a cheque for 450 grand and you can have half the debt!’” Fish on his three-decade solo career
(Image credit: David Darling)
If you’re of the opinion that an artist needs to be put through life’s wringer in order to be sufficiently inspired, well, Fish could write a book about it. Seasoned Marillion fans will have read chapter and verse on that band’s story over the years. But as for what happened next for their original frontman – it’s a less well-documented tale. In 2020, ahead of releasing his final album, Weltschmerz, and with his retirement from music still on the horizon, he took us through his 30-year solo journey and the turbulent tales that provided its backdrop.
New Beginnings, Old Problems
Within days of Fish’s exit from Marillion during rehearsals for the follow-up to 1988’s Clutching At Straws, a very public row was ignited. He still winces at some memories of it: “I’ve looked back at some of the press and gone, ‘Oof! I wish I’d never said that.’ But it was an emotional time.”
Just a bit. But for Fish, there were still positives. Despite reluctantly agreeing to EMI’s request to delay Vigil In A Wilderness Of Mirrors so as not to clash with Marillion’s first post-Fish outing Seasons End, the album still performed respectably – imagine notching up a No.5 album on the back of three Top 40 singles now. And the new dawn felt good.
“I’d just walked through a hugely successful band for reasons that most fans found inexplicable. So the pressure was on. But when I found Mickey [Simmonds, co-writer and keyboard player], I was dealing one-on-one with someone, and I could do what the fuck I wanted without having to come through a committee. That freed me up, and made Vigil a great album.
“If you look at The Company, you look at Family Business, you look at Big Wedge: they were fully realised songs. You still had the Marillion elements like Vigil, which is a longer song. You had View From The Hill, which was a nod to my Who-ey, rockier side. And then you get A Gentleman’s Excuse Me – a beautiful song.”
Yet at the same time, he and EMI were clearly on a collision course. “Every time I wanted to make an album, I had to go to them and get an advance with the studio. They had complete control of the material. And promoters wouldn’t book gigs unless they knew EMI was providing tour support. I wanted my independence.”
Which is roughly when, after deciding to move out of London with his then-wife, German model Tamara Nowy, and their newborn daughter, he had an idea. “It was just a farmhouse with rundown outbuildings, but I fell in love with it. I had the vision,” he remembers. “One of the reasons I – and Marillion – ended up owing so much to EMI, was every rehearsal, every residential writing session came off our royalties. Here I could be in control of the situation and bring people up when I wanted to have them stay. And it worked for me. It was a lang sair fecht [long sore fight], as they say up here… for a number of years this studio was like a fucking concrete albatross around my neck financially, but if I hadn’t gone through that, I wouldn’t be here.”
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This return to his East Lothian roots also reflected a reconnection with his own Scottishness, which would become evident on his second solo set, Internal Exile (A Collection Of A Boy’s Own Stories).
Even if his dispute with his old band had yet to be resolved, and he also had to fight EMI to let him leave and sign to Polydor (“I was writing the album with a head full of legalese”), Internal Exile wasn’t short on spirit.
There were some beautiful songs on Suits… When I played Emperor’s Song a couple years ago, it sounded so fresh
While the tin whistle-laden folk of the title track, and its video featuring traditional dancers, reflected an upbeat, unironic Celtic pride, there was righteous anger crackling within Credo, reflecting a newly politicised Fish who saw how his homeland was suffering.
“I was up here and the poll tax was going on [the hated ‘community charge’ was tried out in Scotland a year before the rest of the UK], and I found myself in the company of some very politically oriented people. They opened my eyes up,” he says.
Meanwhile, though, Just Good Friends and Shadowplay suggested all was not well on the romantic front and more pressingly, the album, released on Polydor after a suitably acrimonious parting of the ways with EMI, didn’t sell in the numbers Fish and the label had hoped.
He partly blames himself – “We wrote great songs on the album but as an album, it wasn’t cohesive” – but the only way to rectify the situation, in Polydor’s eyes, was for Fish to come up with something else. Now.
“They wanted another album, I was paying off all this interest on the studio… so the only option was to put an album together quickly.” Songs From The Mirror, an album of covers, revisiting some favourite songs from his youth, was the result.
“I needed to rediscover the magic of the music that had brought me to that point,” he says. On the other hand, he also compares it to “a coyote caught in a trap where you bite your fucking leg off to go,” because Polydor wouldn’t commit to putting out another album of originals after this one. It has some standout moments, though, not least his brave attempt to offer a male- voiced version of Sandy Denny’s Solo. “I related so much to that lyric,” he says, “and it’s one of my favourite songs on that record, next to Five Years, the Bowie one.”
State Of Independence
In 1993, Fish began to manage himself, and go it alone label-wise, with the launch of the Dick Bros Record Company, on which he released 1994’s Suits. By this time, the songwriting set-up had evolved, with chief musical contributions coming from producer James Cassidy and Foster Paterson on keyboards. Although the album made No.18 in the UK charts, Fish was still getting to grips with doing things himself, and he didn’t have the resources required.
“I spent the money on the album and then you got the promotion – I was having to learn all this stuff. But there were some beautiful songs on Suits, which I still play now. When I played Emperor’s Song a couple years ago, it sounded so fresh. It was lovely.”
The lead single, meanwhile, Lady Let It Lie, seemed to betray some bleak feelings in its writer, admitting: ‘I don’t want to be me no more.’ He pauses. “Well, I’ve got to put that in perspective. During the recording of Vigil I came up to the house and I discovered my wife was having an affair. And I had to go back during the recording of Vigil and sing Cliché after I discovered that.
Fish – Lady Let It Lie 1994 Music Video HD – YouTube
“My marriage was just fuckin’ disintegrating, and I would go on the road to escape. But my daughter was born in January ’91, and my DNA is like, ‘You’ve got to be a family guy,’ so I didn’t want to give up.”
However, a more fruitful relationship would soon emerge on the professional front with a new collaborator. “Steven Wilson was an absolute breath of fresh air. He had new ideas, a different approach, and he started just sending stuff up to me. And then it was like, ‘Well, yeah, that works.’ So I decided to really invest in that album.”
History backs up that decision in the sense that the resulting 1997 LP, Sunsets On Empire remains among Fish’s best-loved solo sets, although Prog can’t imagine all of it being as well-received in 2020’s cultural climate.
It was a brilliant sounding album and I’d got a chance for a release in America… We ran out of money
Touring further afield after Suits (including an eye-opening visit to war-torn Bosnia in 1996) inspired pointedly polemical lyrics such as lead single Brother 52 and the opening track The Perception Of Johnny Punter, which begins with a string of racial epithets that evoke the hatred and intolerance still being stirred up across the globe, but which would surely trigger an almighty Twitterstorm if it was written now and, inevitably, taken out of context.
“I’m a fan of Lenny Bruce,” he explains, “and it was inspired by one of his stage performances [where he racially insults everyone in his audience], and he’s trying to say, ‘They’re words, and the more you use them the more you disempower them.’”
Whether or not readers agree with that, Fish’s “investment” in Sunsets ensured a rich production with mastering in the US by Bob Ludwig. “It was a brilliant sounding album and I’d got a chance for a release in America. The world was my oyster again, for a moment… until I opened it up and found out there was a turd inside it. We ran out of money, basically.”
By the time the next Fish album of original songs, 1999’s Raingods With Zippos, came to be made, budgetary restrictions were making their presence felt in more than just promotion. Many fans still complain of a flat sound to this album and its successor, and while Fish is loath to criticise producer Elliot Ness, he does still wonder about what might have been, particularly when it comes to the 25-minute centrepiece of the record.
“If Plague Of Ghosts had been recorded by [current producer] Calum Malcolm it would have been a fucking epic,” he says. “If we’d had Calum’s knowledge and experience of arrangements and how to decorate songs…”
Meanwhile, Steven Wilson was contributing guitar, but didn’t co-write any tracks, and the credits are many and varied, reflecting a period of rebuilding on several fronts.
By the time Fellini Days followed in 2001, thanks to overspending on recording and tours and crippling bank interest, he admits, “I was nearly 900 grand in debt.” The Dick Bros label had gone under, meaning Raingods had been put out by Roadrunner, and Fellini Days came out on a new self-launched indie label, Chocolate Frog. Meanwhile, his marriage finally bit the dust.
I went from being completely broken-hearted, completely confused, to being very fucking angry. I still am
“If you want a song to illustrate how I felt, listen to Long Cold Day on that album,” he says. “Our Smile is on that album too – that was about an affair that I was having in 2000 before my wife left. I met somebody and I went, ‘Wait a minute, I’m actually happy and I’m smiling.’ Then my wife left me for good in 2001. She’d been having another affair. When we had the meeting in 2001, it was like, ‘I want half of everything.’ I’m like, ‘Cool. Write me a cheque for 450 grand, you can have half that debt!’”
The finances were eventually sorted (“it took an awful lot of manoeuvring”) chiefly through the sale of most of Fish’s house. “All I kept was the studio, but thank God I did,” he concludes. “It’s the best place I’ve ever lived, and it’s still my home.”
Two Weddings, A Court Case, And A Creative Rebirth
The next major songwriting collaborator for Fish turned out to be his chart contemporary from Marillion’s prime, Big Country’s Bruce Watson. The album they co-wrote most of, Field Of Crows, is another with bittersweet associations for the gentle giant – that was when he discovered his office manager had been up to no good. “I reckon she took us for round about 100 to 150 grand,” he says, and although he won a civil case against her, she disappeared and still owes him money.
Things were at least still ticking over creatively. Field Of Crows isn’t a Fish album often mentioned among his solo highlights by fans, but if the blues rock undercurrent beneath tracks such as Innocent Party and The Rookie were an acquired taste for Fish-heads, ballads such as Shot The Craw and Exit Wound were as affecting as anything he’d previously done.
The seeds would also be planted for a new creative partnership that would bear fruit on the next album. “Steve Vantsis, my bass player, had been on about having a go at writing,” Fish explains, “We started to play about with things and came up with some really interesting ideas.”
I had an operation, then I had another one… in the middle of which I got married again for six months
The first building blocks of what would become 2007 album 13th Star duly took shape… and then, as ever with Fish, life intervened. “Around that time I got involved with [former Mostly Autumn singer] Heather Findlay. It was all hunky dory and we were going to get married. I was working on the album, had a bunch of lyrics for it, and then, kaboom! She walked out. I think it was about two months before the wedding, with everything booked.
“It was like someone had put a frag grenade in my head. Steve was working in the control room, and I was going out to the greenhouse and writing all these lyrics about the situation I was in. I went from being completely broken-hearted, completely confused, to being very fucking angry. I still am. I wouldn’t go out of my way to do anything, I just leave it up to karma. And my karma was a fucking brilliant album.”
The qualities of 13th Star lie not just in piercing lyrical dissections of heartbreak such as Circle Line, Dark Star and Manchmal. The multi-instrumental creativity of Vantsis allied to another newcomer’s work – the bold, dramatic production of Calum Malcolm – put the heart back into Fish’s sound again.
Walking Back To Happiness
Were calmer seas on the horizon? No such luck. As he entered his sixth decade on Earth, things would get even worse before they got better. “I’d been having problems with my voice. I was walking onto stages and my voice just wasn’t there. It was awful – people were saying, ‘Fish’s voice is fucked.’”
At the end of 2008 he finally found a specialist who could pinpoint the problem. Literally. “She said, ‘You’ve got a growth on your vocal cord.’ I said, ‘Is there cancer?’ And she said, ‘We won’t know until we operate.’ I spent three months not knowing if I would have a voice again. It was fucking awful. I went in for that operation, she went in with a scalpel, she touched it, and she said it exploded. She said, ‘You’ve had a cyst on your vocal cords for probably three years.’
“I had that operation, then at the end of 2009 I had another one… in the middle of which I got married again for six months. Tcchhhh!” He laughs ruefully and lights up another roll-up. “I thought I was cured,” he says of travelling to Vietnam after the first throat operation, “And I met Katie. I fell head-over-heels. Got engaged in October and married the following May. And all I can say is I met Felicity Kendal from The Good Life, and then six months later I find I actually married Margo.”
I’m an ex-forester; I’ve got an affinity with woods, trees. I saw this wood on this hill, and it was just pure malevolence
It turned out his intended was not as keenon giving up the bright lights and big city for the rural charms of East Lothian as she had initially indicated. “I came out from my second operation on the December 23. My then-wife went down to London on Boxing Day and that was it – she disappeared.”
He wasn’t just heartbroken again; he was also unsure if his voice would ever be the same again: “The beginning of 2010 was the lowest I can ever remember being in my life.” Thankfully, a Fish Heads club tour for fans proved a welcome fillip in the latter part of that year, and he also met his future wife, Simone, a fan since the 1980s.
And nearly a quarter of a century since he clutched his last straw from his disintegrating relationship with Marillion, he’d achieve another creative landmark. His 10th studio album, A Feast Of Consequences, was another adventurous step forward, with the five-part High Wood suite forming a darkly moving, and sometimes se thingly unsettling emotional peak.
The idea formed on a visit to the First World War battlefields of northern France, with the small but strategically crucial area of Bois des Fourcaux (known to the British as High Wood) making a particular impression. “I’m an ex-forester; I’ve got an affinity with woods, trees. And I saw this wood on this hill, and… it was just pure fuckin’ malevolence.” He found out his grandfather William Paterson “dug trenches through bodies” on that very ground. “It became personal, and I became completely enveloped,” he says.
That album was signed off with The Great Unravelling, a song Fish admits he “can’t even listen to any more,” wherein he got to thinking about his own mortality, the lives of his parents and his grandparents.
And it wasn’t long after that when he began to think about a life beyond music. But not before he dealt with a concept that his grandfather would have known plenty about: Weltschmerz.
That brings us just about up to date, and to the question of what’s next for Fish after he faces the final curtain as a singer – screenwriting, a memoir, who knows what else?
“People ask me: ‘What are you gonna write about?’ What don’t I write about? You know, trying to get all the stuff I’ve talked about over in lyrics becomes really claustrophobic. There are so many things I wanna say. I mean, I could write a fucking book about my two days at the Somme. I ended up sitting… no, no, that’s another story…”
Johnny is a regular contributor to Prog and Classic Rock magazines, both online and in print. Johnny is a highly experienced and versatile music writer whose tastes range from prog and hard rock to R’n’B, funk, folk and blues. He has written about music professionally for 30 years, surviving the Britpop wars at the NME in the 90s (under the hard-to-shake teenage nickname Johnny Cigarettes) before branching out to newspapers such as The Guardian and The Independent and magazines such as Uncut, Record Collector and, of course, Prog and Classic Rock.
Formed by Tobias Forge in 2008 in Linköping, Sweden, Ghost have charted a meteoric trajectory from the tiny clubs of their homeland to the arenas and festival stages of the world, counting the likes of James Hetfield, Dave Grohl and Duff McKagan among their devoted followers – not to mention the millions of converts they continue to leave in their wake.
Visually captivating, the Swedes appear as a spooky, blasphemous horde, with a ghoulish anti-Pope as a frontman, leading a pack of anonymous musicians shrouded by dark robes, masks and other nightmare-inducing garb. Every album cycle brings with it a drastic makeover, including a ‘new’ frontman – the most recent of which, Papa V Perpetua, took the reigns for 2025’s bombastic Skeletá.
Of course, their success would be nothing without the music, an absurdly-catchy blast of 70s hard rock, 80s metal and ample doses of pop, prog and even show tunes. As the band evolves, their tunes seemingly get all the more glittery and over the top – and the cult just will not stop growing. That said, here’s our official ranking of every single Ghost album released thus far, in reverse order of greatness.
6. Infestissumam (2013)
A cruel, but understandable consequence of a breakout debut — like 2010’s Opus Eponymous, for example — is the corrosive deluge of expectations that await the sophomore effort. Ghost found themselves in this very situation with the release of Infestissumam. At times campy (the ABBA cover, I’m A Marionette) and other times fiendishly heavy (Per Aspera Ad Inferi), their second album leveraged the band’s burgeoning notoriety in an effective, if calculating way.
The front half of Infestissumam absolutely smokes, from the soaring choral harmonies of the title track straight through to the blood-pumping sacrilege of Year Zero. The latter half however, fails to keep pace.
The final few tracks are not without their own seditious charms but they collectively lack the kind of ginormous hooks or arena-sized choruses that incite the raising of lighters, the dusting of speed limits or the feverish pounding of chests – that is, until the magnificent Monstrance Clock wraps things up. A fine album, by any estimation, but one that captures Ghost reconciling their first real dose of fame with somewhat mixed results.
We’re already at the point where it’s becoming difficult to separate Ghost records in terms of sheer quality, such has been the consistency of Tobias Forge’s output over the years. While Skeletá still ploughed its own path – most of all through a uniquely existential new bent of lyrical focus from Forge – it very much feels like an album joyously waltzing around the same, glittery, 80s dancefloor that Impera and, to a lesser extent, Prequelle gaily strutted on.
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In that sense, it perhaps falls just a little short of its predecessors – there’s nothing quite on the level of a Call Me Little Sunshine, a Rats or a Darkness At The Heart Of My Love here – but it’s still absolutely stacked with killer cuts, not least the awe-inspiring opening triple-hit of Peacefield, Lachryma and Satanized, all of which already sit snugly within Ghost’s upper tier of all-time bangers.
It’s undoubtedly the album’s best run, but there are some other big highs: Cenotaph sneaks a beautiful emotional punch under it’s Quo-aping boogie-riffs; Marks Of The Evil One is an urgent slice of dramatic arena metal; Umbra manages to cram a woozie space-prog break into its otherwise instantaneous synth-rock. All in all, a damn good album, only slightly overshadowed by the sky-high bar Tobias has set for himself.
Produced by the Midas-fingered pop maestro Klas Åhlund (Madonna, Usher, Katy Perry), Ghost’s magnificent third album revealed aspirations that extended far beyond their metal fanbase, straight into the bloody, beating heart of the mainstream.
Witness mega-addictive, instantly-hummable tracks like Cirice and From The Pinnacle To The Pit. Whereas Blue Oyster Cult and Mercyful Fate had offered the most well-lit reference points on the first two albums, Meliora celebrates the brutal potency of the Almighty Riff, courtesy of bangers like Mummy Dust and the unabashedly AC/DC-esque Absolution.
Far more than a rehash of the first two albums, Meliora discloses its vast depth in the velvety Laurel Canyon harmonies of He Is, in its baroque organ passages (Spirit), and in the anti-religious bombast of classical choirs (Deus In Absentia). Masterfully balancing its sharp siege of power riffs with softer moments of genuine melodic splendour, Meliora never feels scattered. Meant to be enjoyed at neighbour-bothering levels.
The album that started it all. By the late-Noughties, a handful of retro outfits had struck commercial gold by reverting to the oldest trick in the retro rock songbook – sound exactly like Led Zeppelin (see Wolfmother, Graveyard, etc.). It was something of a revelation, then, when Ghost smashed their way into the thick of the fray with elegant, melodic compositions, radiating with warm production and showcasing Forge’s feathery vocal harmonies. Where was all the noisy, overdriven Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden worship?
They were there, of course, but stitched deep within more obvious references such as Blue Öyster Cult, Mercyful Fate and Pentagram, as well as with less-conspicuous influences like Uriah Heep, Demon and the Devil’s Blood. As the funereal organ passages of opener Deus Culpa give way to the unholy wail of guitars and keyboards in Con Clavi Con Dio, you know you’re in for a literal Hell of a ride.
Tracks like Ritual and Stand By Him combine surging, hard rock riffing with spacious choruses big enough to knock satellites out of orbit. There’s not a bad track on the album.
Opus offered a convincing demonstration that Ghost could not merely conjure a unique sound but they could effectively employ it in a broad range of styles, from the heaviness of tracks like Satan Prayer or Elizabeth to the smooth instrumental purr of Deus Culpa and Genesis.
Unsurprisingly, with its overt Satanism and galloping riffs, the album’s earliest adopters hailed from the metal community, which is no small feat, considering that Opus is not a pure metal album by any stretch.
In fact, one of Opus’ highest achievements is that it inspired diehard metalheads to expand their sonic horizons; to look beyond genres, beyond blastbeats and beyond metal’s beer-stained, leather-and-studded tropes and to appreciate catchy, mainstream rock at its finest.
In 2019, in the midst of Prequelle’s album cycle, Forge stated that its successor had already been conceived and that it would be a darker and heavier effort altogether. Yet, at first blush, Impera feels like Prequelle’s younger sibling – a bit livelier and more colourful and in some ways more extreme, yet very much a sonic pairing.
Bursting with juicy glam metal hooks, Impera uncorks one banger after another. From the siege of power chords and the piercing opening wail of Kaisarion to the towering gothic grandeur of Hunter’s Moon, Impera bottles all of the energy and theatricality of an 80s stadium show. Informed by Andrew Lloyd Weber as much as Def Leppard, Forge once again partnered with Klas Åhlund to synthesise his grandiose vision into an ambitious and cunningly-catchy affair.
You want pure pop? Spillways, with its breezy chorus and blinding fretwork will do you nicely. If it’s balladry ye seek, Darkness At The Heart Of My Love unfolds with a memorable, lighter-waving, arms-around-your-mate chorus that you’ll still be humming days after you’ve last heard the song. Doggedly fresh and genuinely affecting, Impera is an instant classic.
Ghost – Call Me Little Sunshine (Official Music Video) – YouTube
Ghost’s fourth album remains their greatest show of force – a relentlessly ambitious outing that synthesised Ghost’s trademark sound with Forge’s grand, theatrical vision, exemplified by the lush choral pageantry of Pro Memoria and closer Life Eternal.
Further underscoring the Broadway vibes were the instrumentals – the dreamy Helvetesfonster and Miasma, a proggy space rock voyage, building to an exhilarating crescendo that manages to include both an unambiguous Michael Jackson reference and a goddamned saxophone solo. We’d be forced to draw Spinal Tap comparisons if the band didn’t pull these off so utterly convincingly.
Prequelle also reaffirmed Forge’s enduring love affair with the polished album rock of the early-80s in the guise of full-tilt anthems like Rats and Witch Image. Swedish to the core, he also boasts a preternatural gift for writing sugary pop classics, none catchier than the dancefloor-packing Dance Macabre. Prequelle is both an extension of all that fuelled Ghost’s rapid ascent and a bold step forward.
The whole thing could have backfired, alienating potential new fans with its unvarnished Luciferian imagery, while repelling existing fans with its heavy pop and showtune undercurrents. Instead, it dazzled them all.
Debuting at number three on the Billboard charts, Prequelle united critics and fans in frothy acclaim, attracted legions of new followers and it has easily stood the test of time, destined to enjoy, dare we say, “Life Eternal.”
Hailing from San Diego, California, Joe Daly is an award-winning music journalist with over thirty years experience. Since 2010, Joe has been a regular contributor for Metal Hammer, penning cover features, news stories, album reviews and other content. Joe also writes for Classic Rock, Bass Player, Men’s Health and Outburn magazines. He has served as Music Editor for several online outlets and he has been a contributor for SPIN, the BBC and a frequent guest on several podcasts. When he’s not serenading his neighbours with black metal, Joe enjoys playing hockey, beating on his bass and fawning over his dogs.
“Getting kinda saucy already. Jeez!” Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham analysing a Charli XCX video with his daughter is the joyous, uplifting online content that the world needs right now
(Image credit: Lindsey Buckingham YouTube)
Fleetwood Mac legend Lindsey Buckingham has given his seal of approval to British pop star Charli XCX after watching her video for Von Dutch for the first time.
This unanticipated development took place during the launch of ‘Lindsey + Leelee React’, a new YouTube series from Buckingham in which he and his 25-year-old daughter analyse music videos, a format which will be familiar to fans of ’90s MTV stars Beavis and Butt-Head.
At the outset, Buckingham admits that he isn’t overly familiar with Charli XCX’s musical output, though he does recall seeing her perform on Saturday Night Live. Leelee Buckingham then asks her father if he has enjoyed a “Brat Summer’ – a reference to the Cambridge-born pop star’s zeitgeist-influencing 2024 album Brat – to which her father gamely replies: “The brattiest.”
Leelee then introduces the video by stating that Charli XCX – real name Charlotte Aitchison – is “coming in fierce”, as she struts through Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. “She’s ripping off her pants in the airport” Leelee then observes, leading her father to respond, “”Getting kinda saucy already. Jeez!”
“That’s not a good place to get saucy,” Lindsey then observes sagely.
The 75-year-old guitarist is visibly taken aback when the pop star appears to head-butt the camera, leaving a smear on blood on the lens.
“Ouch!” he says, wincing, then looks shocked once more when Aitchison spits on the camera.
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When the pop star is filmed climbing on to the wing of a plane on the tarmac at Paris–Le Bourget Airport, Buckingham senior comments, “I can’t believe she got away with all this… I’m surprised the airport let her do all this stuff.”
“Well, she’s Charli XCX, she’s huge now,” Leelee reasons, leading her father to comment that he thinks he’d be told “Get outta here!” if he asked permission to perform in such a manner.
Summing up his reaction to the video, Lindsey Buckingham says, “I thought it was very entertaining. I mean, there was so much going on, and all in the context of a normal restrictive environment, paranoid environment, uptight environment. That set the whole thing off very well, I thought.”
In conclusion, Leelee Buckingham asks her dad, ‘What does it really mean? What is she really saying?”
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
