Sir Rod Stewart has taken to Instagram to slam MasterChef host Gregg Wallace after the presenter stepped away from his role in the face of a misconduct probe. Stewart’s wife, TV personality Penny Lancaster, appeared on Celebrity MasterChef in 2021.
Wallace, who has hosted the BBC cooking show since 2005, has stepped away while allegations of historical misconduct are investigated. A series of women have complained about Wallace’s alleged behaviour, with one reporting that he regularly spoke about sex, domination and spanking while at work, and another claiming that Wallace had removed his shirt and offered to give her “a fashion show” after a shoot in Italy.
“So Greg [sic] Wallace gets fired from MasterChef,” writes Sir Rod. “Good riddance Wallace… You humiliated my wife when she was on the show, but you had that bit cut out didn’t you?”
“You’re a tubby, bald-headed, ill-mannered bully,” the Do Ya Think I’m Sexy? hitmaker continues. “Karma got ya. Sir Rod Stewart.”
Wallace has not responded directly to the accusations but took to Instagram to thank fans for their support, saying, “I would like to thank all the people getting in touch, reaching out and showing their support. That’s good of you, thank you very much.”
Earlier this week, Stewart was confirmed for the traditional “legend” slot at next year’s Glastonbury Festival. He’ll perform on the Pyramid Stage at Worthy Farm on Sunday, June 29.
“After all these years, I’m proud and ready and more than able to take the stage again to pleasure and titillate my friends at Glastonbury in June,” said Sir Rod. “I’ll see you there!”
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Swedish power metal masters, Sabaton, have issued the following announcement:
“We’re excited to announce that our 24 Days Of Metal Christmas advent calendar campaign kicks off this Sunday, December 1st! Get ready for epic giveaways, exclusive discounts, and some super fun competitions! Make sure you’re following us on social media so you don’t miss out on the action. Stay tuned, metalheads!”
Sabaton recently announced The Legendary Tour 2025 with the following message:
“EUROPE ARE YOU READY?
“We are conquering 20 European cities in 2025 with a groundbreaking tour that will be bigger and better than anything we’ve ever embarked on. Get ready for The Legendary Tour 2025!
“We’ve put together a show unlike anything you’ve experienced. Throw traditional thinking out of the window and prepare yourself for more Sabaton than ever!
“This isn’t just another tour; it’s a huge celebration of our music, storytelling and the incredible bond we share with you, our fans.
“But wait… there’s a twist. We’re doing something we’ve never done before! Without revealing too much too soon, let’s just say that we’re planning to make history with the Legendary Orchestra! Along with that and other surprises, you’ll be in for an unprecedented experience, so trust us when we say you’re going to want to be there!
“Put your history books down, mark your calendars and set a reminder! Tickets for The Legendary Tour 2025 go on sale Friday, November 15 at 10 AM, local time (9 AM, UK local time). Below you will find our tour schedule. For more information and ticket purchase links visit our tour page.
“We can’t wait to see all your faces in the crowd as we bring our biggest show yet to Europe. Let’s make history!”
Italian power metallers, Frozen Crown, who recently released their War Hearts album, have checked in with the following update:
“We are extremely happy and excited to finally announce our first European headlining tour ever next spring!
This is definitely a huge milestone for us, a goal we could only have reached with your unending support, and we can’t wait to get on the road and prove ourselves. We’re also super happy to announce that the awesome Fellowship and Lutharo will be our companions on this epic journey as Special Guests.
Of course, the European War Hearts Tour 2025 is just the beginning, and we can’t wait to hit more countries in the near future. In the meantime, we’re preparing a special set to make this experience unforgettable for every single one of you who’s going to take part to this.
Tickets available on frozencrown.net. See you on the road!!!”
Frozen Crown recently released their guitar-driven new single, “I Am The Wind”, taken from their War Hearts, out now. Dominated by the dynamic vocal duo of frontwoman Jade and guitarist Federico, bold guitar riffs and flawless drumming once again underscore their passion for modern power metal together with a gripping official music video.
Check out the official music video for “I Am The Wind”:
Frozen Crown constantly define and refine their sound, pushing their trademark elements to new levels of complexity without forgetting the characteristic catchy hooks. War Hearts exceeds their previous successes and solidifies their place in the global metal scene.
War Hearts is available in the following formats:
– Ltd. 1LP Gatefold Crystal Clear Black Marbled (Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive) – strictly ltd. to 200 copies – 1LP Gatefold Translucent Red (Napalm Records Mailorder exclusive) – Digisleeve – Digital
“War Hearts” “Steel And Gold” “To Live To Die” “Night Of The Wolf” “On Silver Wings” “Edge Of Reality” “Bloodlines” “I Am The Windv “King Of The Sky” “Ice Dragon”
Power metal pioneers, Dynazty, have announced their new album, Game Of Faces. Two years after their last long-player Final Advent, the Swedes enter a new chapter in their career, already introduced with pre-cursor release and single “Devilry Of Ecstasy” in August.
Today, Dynazty present their upcoming album Game Of Faces which will be released on February 14 via Nuclear Blast Records. For this special occasion, the band is not only releasing their second single, the title track “Game Of Faces”, but they are also unveiling the music video for the song, which you can witness below.
Singer Nils Molin comments: “We are extremely excited about finally starting the campaign that will lead to the release of Game Of Faces. We’ve worked on this one for quite some time and I’m sure the results will show and speak for themselves. Nonetheless, Game Of Faces is one hell of a ride and one we’re damn proud of. Get on it now with the release of the title track as a single, one of the very first songs written for the album back in late 2022.”
Stream the new single here, and watch the video below.
The new album; Game Of Faces; contains eleven brand new tracks and will be available in the following formats: CD jewelcase, vinyl, and digital. Pre-order here.
Game Of Faces tracklisting:
“Call Of The Night” “Game Of Faces” “Devilry Of Ecstasy” “Die To Survive” “Fire To Fight” “Dark Angel” “Fortune Favors The Brave” “Sole Survivor” “Phoenix” “Dream Of Spring” “Mystery”
“Devilry Of Ecstasy” video:
Dynazty is:
Nils Molin: vocals Love Magnusson: guitar Mikael Lavér: guitar Jonathan Olsson: bass Georg Härnsten Egg: drums
Drummer Matt Sorum (formerly of The Cult, Guns N’ Roses, and Velvet Revolver) will serve as “Celebrity Grand Marshal” for the 32nd Annual Palm Springs Festival Of Lights Parade, taking place Saturday, December 7 at 5:45 PM in downtown Palm Springs, California.
The Palm Springs Festival Of Lights Parade kicked off in the early 1990’s along Palm Canyon Drive and has been held every year since on the first Saturday in December – becoming a much-loved holiday tradition in downtown Palm Springs. The parade was the brainchild of former Mayor Will Kleindienst and a small group of community minded individuals who believed it important to offer the Coachella Valley an event that would allow residents and visitors to celebrate the spirit and joy of the holiday season while at the same time creating a unique tourism event, which over the years has brought in an estimated 100,000 people annually to the downtown. Over the past 29 years, the parade has featured a host of marching bands, performing groups as well as the Budweiser Clydesdales, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Snoopy and the Gang — and of course Santa and Mrs. Claus!
Yet more than anything else, it is the parade’s signature floats adorned in thousands of colorful holiday lights and huge Macy’s-style balloons that keeps the crowds coming back for more. Consistently voted one of the best local events in the Coachella Valley, the parade was also voted one of the Top Ten Holiday Parades in the country in an AOL survey.
Legendary US thrash metal band, Hirax, will release their new full-length album, Faster Than Death, on February 21 via Doomentia Records. The album will be available on LP (die-hard version, 2 colors), CD digipack, and cassette tape.
Further details, as well as pre-order options, will be available next week. In the meantime, check out the album artwork, created by Thomas Pinheiro, below:
Back in August, Hirax released the Faster Than Death 7″ vinyl EP via doomentia.com.
Tracklisting:
“Drill Into The Brain” “Drowned Bodies” “Faster Than Death” “Relentless”
In 2019, Creed frontman Scott Stapp released his third solo album, The Space Between the Shadows, and we asked him to talk about the album that got him started.
“I was at my friend’s house in 1983 and the video for Photograph came on MTV and from that moment I was hooked on rock n’ roll. That album connected to me in every way: I wanted to be those guys. When I saw the Photograph video I wanted a model wife, and everything that a teenage boy thinks a rock star has. The music moved me, something inside me was different from the moment I heard this record.
“I’d heard Elvis records, and some Donny Hathaway and Otis Redding from my mother, but Pyromania was the record that completely changed the course of my life. The guitars, the rhythms, the energy in the music, the way it was sung… everything spoke to me.
“I’d never heard anything like it and it just made me want to move, I just felt it. When my friend brought the record over to my house we must have listened to Photograph and Foolin’ ten times in a row. But my step-father was extremely religious, and he came into my bedroom when we were listening to it and he said that it was the Devil’s music, so from then on I had to sneak over to my friend Robbie’s house to listen to it in secret.
“I felt a bit guilty about that, but I also kinda felt that my step-father was wrong about this. And I’m glad I listened to my heart, because everything started from there.”
This interview originally appeared in Classic Rock 261, published in April 2019. Scott Stapp’s current album is Higher Power.
(Image credit: Roy Harper: Doug McKenzie/Getty Images | Maddy Prior: GAB Archive/Redferns | Tim Buckley: Jack Robinson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
It’s an inaccurate science to try to define music by category and genre. Artists rail against it, critics endeavour to nail it down into the simplest terms, the most convenient definitions and snappy soundbites. But, ultimately, it’s helpful to try to explain the bond that seemingly disparate artists may share. So just what kind of folk is this genre we’re calling progressive folk?
Well, exactly that: folk bands and artists who have dared expand their horizons from the traditional format. At its heart, folk music screams tradition. Folk songs are passed down from generation to generation. They are songs sung in pubs and in living rooms the world over. As such, true folk music is an important historical device.
A heckler at Manchester Free Trade Hall on May 17, 1966 might have called Bob Dylan ‘Judas’ for daring to expand his folk roots, forsake his battered acoustic and pick up and plug in an electric guitar, but in truth folk has often been among the most progressive forms of music. It’s had to be, simply to survive this long. The music has had to change with the times.
In the days before guitars were around, folk music was sung a cappella by default. Then sometimes it was sung a cappella by design. Then, as technology brought us guitars, mandolins, pianos, electric guitars, sitars, the Mellotron and thousands of other instruments, folk music could be played on anything.
Folk artists are at the very heart of forms of rock music. Face it, without folk and blues there would be no rock’n’roll. Without the innovative guitar work of Pentangle’s Bert Jansch or Roy Harper’s intriguing playing, Led Zeppelin would probably have sounded a whole lot different. If Rick Wakeman had not begun his musical odyssey with The Strawbs and embraced their progressive nature, surely Yes would have been an entirely different-sounding beast?
Arguably the most influential and greatest rock band in the world might have developed in a totally different way were it not for their crossing paths with a progressive folky. If Donovan hadn’t expanded his early folky leanings and sat around jamming guitar with John Lennon and George Harrison, The Beatles may not have sounded like the band we know today.
The progressive folkies were (and still are) unafraid to experiment, be that vocally, lyrically, in terms of arrangement, with using extra musicians, orchestras or simply just mucking about with their guitars that they sound so incredibly alien (please stand up Roy Harper and John Martyn). Using fiddles and electric guitars, sitars and gourds, unison vocals and searing guitar lines are de rigeur for our progressive friends, and we must be thankful for it.
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The following feature highlights some of rock music’s finest innovators – the bands and solo artists who can be truly defined as progressive folk.
Pentangle
Classic line-Up: Terry Cox (drums and vocals), Bert Jansch (guitar and vocals), Jacqui McShee (vocals), John Renbourn (guitar and vocals), Danny Thompson (double bass)
From: London.
Ever considered the idea of a folk supergroup? Well, if ever there was such a thing, then it’s certainly Pentangle. Two leading lights of the 60s folk revival teamed up to make a glorious cacophony of progressive folk noise. Innovative guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn got together in early 1968 with the crystal-voiced Jacqui McShee, double bass player Danny Thompson and drummer Terry Cox. The rhythm section both came from a jazz/blues background which would be a profound influence on the new band’s sound.
Jansch (a huge influence on Led Zep’s Jimmy Page) and Renbourn had differing guitar styles that delicately clashed and seared and underscored McShee’s soaring vocals. The jazz-inflected rhythms that Thompson and Cox brought to the band supplied a levity to Pentangle’s primarily acoustic folk rock.
Having the wherewithal to realise that rock and folk needn’t be mutually exclusive, the band enlisted producer Shel Talmy (who had worked with both The Who and The Kinks) to shape their sound. They successfully mixed trad folk songs like Let No Man Steal Your Thyme with jazz standards from the likes of Charlie Mingus.
Pentangle had significant mainstream success – their third album Basket Of Light went Top Five in the UK and stayed in the album chart for over six months. Their influence remains profound, and finally this year the band were recognised for their achievement, and the original line-up reunited for the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards where they were awarded a Lifetime Achievement gong. Oh, and they played too.
Recommended: The Pentangle (Castle, 1968).
Pentangle – Light Flight (In Concert), 4th January 1971) – YouTube
Classic line-Up: Dave Cousins (guitar and vocals), John Ford (bass and vocals), Richard Hudson (drums and percussion), Dave Lambert (guitar and vocals), Rick Wakeman (keyboards).
From: London.
Both Yes’s Rick Wakeman and Fairport Convention’s Sandy Denny spent time with The Strawbs before venturing into their progressive future. The Strawbs’ debut album managed to straddle the lines between folk and more traditional prog rock with songs such as Oh How She Changed and The Battle.
But the band weren’t able to sustain this on their second release Dragonfly in 1970, and founding member Dave Cousins brought in Rick Wakeman. This collaboration was a success and The Strawbs released a genuine folk rock/prog rock crossover album called Just A Collection Of Antiques And Curios.
Recorded live at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in July 1970, the record saw the band stretching out and includes an exhilarating performance from Wakeman on Temperament For A Mind. If anything, this was the record that succinctly marked the transition of The Strawbs from folkies to more traditional progressive rock. 1973’s Bursting At the Seams finally yielded the band a hit single in Part Of The Union, but by now their folk beginnings were fading.
Classic Line-up: Robin Williamson (fiddle), Mike Heron (guitar), Dolly Collins (flute, organ and piano), Licorice McKechnie (vocals and finger cymbals).
From: Glasgow.
You wouldn’t necessarily think that Glasgow would be the place from which progressive folk gained its Indian and African influences. But The Incredible String Band took their fiery brand of Celtic folk and mixed it up with some very international flavours. Guitarist Mike Heron and his fiddle-playing partner in crime Robin Williamson effortlessly managed to blend Indian and African nuances to their music.
Things really came to a head after Williamson spent some time in Morocco, resulting in the full-on, impossibly eclectic The 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion in 1967 (which also featured Pentangle’s Danny Thompson on bass). Many critics cite it as a psychedelic record, but if that’s not the title of a prog album, we don’t know what is.
Despite its disparate, unusual and, frankly, bonkers songs (with lyrics about singing hedgehogs and random references to Christmas trees), the folk community loved it. The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter followed in 1968, and that was just as trippy.
Recommended: The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter (Warners, 1968).
Roy Harper
From: Manchester.
Roy Harper’s contribution to progressive folk cannot be understated. Rising from the London folk scene of the mid-60s, Harper shied away from interpreting folk standards and focused upon his own material from the very beginning. His early albums consisted of his quirky poetic lyricism backed by his intriguing acoustic guitar playing.
Always trying to push traditional folk boundaries, Harper was inventive with his sonic exploration – an early album (Flat Baroque And Berserk) saw him playing his acoustic guitar through a wah-wah pedal on the track Hell’s Angels. While Hendrix had introduced us to the wah-wah on an electric guitar, hearing the effect on a more traditional instrument was startlingly different.
Harper had always extended the song format, and his defining fifth album galvanised this talent. Featuring just four songs, Stormcock was a stunning piece of work, lyrically running the gamut from lambasting religion (The Same Old Rock – a song that features a sneaky cameo by Jimmy Page masquerading as S. Flavius Mercurius) to Me And My Woman, an epic tribute to the women in his life, underscored by a great orchestral arrangement. Hats off to (Roy) Harper, indeed.
Recommended: Stormcock (Harvest, 1971).
John Martyn
From: Surrey, UK.
A phenomenal guitar player and singer, Martyn’s form of progressive folk changed over his long and distinguished career.
Eschewing traditional folk, Martyn included many elements of both blues and jazz in his early work. This was further enhanced by his guitar trickery. Unafraid to experiment, Martyn ran his acoustic guitar through many effects pedals – everything from distortion (traditionally used with an electric instrument) to flanger and phase-shifter – morphing its sound into something alien and unique.
For many, Martyn’s playing is synonymous with the Echoplex – a unit that puts an echo/delay on to the guitar sound, rendering it distinctive and otherworldly. This process was used to fine effect on the track I’d Rather Be The Devil on Martyn’s 1973 album Solid Air – the title track of which was a tribute to John’s friend and fellow prog folker Nick Drake.
Throughout his career, Martyn encompassed all styles of music into his idiosyncratic playing. He even worked with jazz flautist/saxophonist Harold McNair for his second album, The Tumbler. While remaining a folkie at heart, Martyn pushed musical boundaries throughout his life. And if that’s not progressive, we don’t know what is!
Recommended: Solid Air (Island, 1973).
John Martyn – I’d Rather Be The Devil & Make No Mistake (Live) – YouTube
From: Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire (Born in Rangoon, Burma)
Underappreciated in his lifetime – he died in 1974 at the age of 26 from an overdose of anti-depressants – Nick Drake nevertheless managed to change the perception of traditional folk music, albeit posthumously. Chronically shy and dogged by depression and insomnia, Drake was never truly cut out to be a performer, but it was these psychological conditions that clearly influenced the haunting nature of his work.
Primarily a guitarist (and one who used some of the weirdest and most innovative tunings imaginable), Drake’s lyrics often reflected his fragile mental state. But it was the combination of his idiosyncratic playing, the affecting lyrics and the skilful orchestral arrangements from his college friend and collaborator Richard Kirby that truly took Drake beyond being just another run-of-the-mill singer-songwriter. His second album (Bryter Later) would even contain elements of jazz.
With only three albums to his name, Drake was little more than a cult figure in his lifetime. He rarely played live, and despite being discovered by Fairport Convention’s Ashley Hutchings, the folk scene never truly embraced him either. He remained very much a musician’s musician until the late 80s when he started to become namechecked in the popular music press.
Today, Nick Drake is probably the most namechecked progressive folk singer in mainstream culture.
Recommended: Five Leaves Left (Island, 1969).
Fairport Convention
Classic Line-up: Sandy Denny (vocals), Dave Swarbrick (fiddle and viola), Richard Thompson (guitar and vocals), Simon Nicol (guitar and vocals), Ashley Hutchings (bass and vocals), Dave Mattacks (drums and percussion).
From: London. Fairport Convention fluttered into existence in 1967 in London’s Muswell Hill. The brainchild of bassist Ashley Hutchings, guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, Fairport was a band that initially owed a great debt to traditional American folk music and the up-and-coming West Coast acoustic scene.
Before their debut self-titled album hit the shelves in 1968, Fairport had already swapped their lead female singer Judy Dyble for Sandy Denny. It featured mostly original material, primarily written by Thompson, save for a cover of Joni Mitchell’s Chelsea Morning. Their sound was eclectic enough to gain some attention and the band were even briefly alluded to as ‘the British Jefferson Airplane’.
The addition of Denny took the band on to greater heights though. Fresh from her stint in The Strawbs, she was a familiar voice to the traditional folk contingent. The band’s second album (What We Did On Our Holidays, 1969) mixed things up – the band taking on songs from Mitchell and Bob Dylan alongside traditional English folk tunes.
Unhalfbricking (July ’69) saw the band continue in this vein, but after a tragic traffic accident that killed drummer Martin Lamble the band regrouped to record their definitive statement Liege And Lief. Violin player Dave Swarbrick joined full-time, and the band immersed themselves in the material – from ferocious acoustic riffs to high-voltage fiddle playing, all topped off by Sandy Denny’s stunning vocals.
It would be their defining moment – but it would also spell the classic lineup’s demise. By the close of 1969, both Hutchings and Denny had quit the band.
Recommended: Liege & Lief (Island, 1969).
Tim Buckley
From: Washington DC. S uccessfully straddling the worlds of prog folk and psychedelia, Tim Buckley was one of the most intriguing singersongwriters of the late 60s.
While folk music was definitely at his core, Buckley managed to infuse his songwriting with elements of so many different musical styles – from progressive jazz to West Coast country. Consequently, many Buckley detractors (and even fans) criticise him for his non-consistent sound.
And, as the years progressed, Buckley became more and more interested in jazz – infusing his work with a bravura that is seldom heard in folk. He would use his voice as an avante-garde instrument and as such, 1970’s Lorca album alienated him from many of his fans. Gone was the sensitive, soulful singer-songwriter and in his place was an off-the-wall experimentalist, replete with vocal scatting over jarringly discordant jams.
Sadly, 1975 would signal the end of Buckley’s musical journey as he died from a heroin overdose. But, as far as progressive folksters go, Buckley still remains at the cutting edge.
Recommended: Starsailor (Rhino, 1970).
Steeleye Span
Classic line-up: Tim Hart (dulcimer, guitar and vocals), Bob Johnson (guitar and vocals), Rick Kemp (bass, drums and vocals), Peter Knight (violin, keyboards and vocals), Maddy Prior (vocals).
From: London. When he quit Fairport Convention, bassist Ashley Hutchings needed another project – he wasn’t finished in the progressive world. So he hooked up with established folkies Maddy Prior and Tim Hart to create Steeleye Span. But Hutchings’ tenure wasn’t to last and he went his separate way after three albums.
This wouldn’t spell the end of Steeleye, though. The band had worked hard throughout their existence to be welcomed into the rock world. So they decided to carry on. Capitalising upon a harder, proggy edge, Span released Below The Salt (1972) and Parcel Of Rogues (1973). Big rock guitars fought for supremacy among killer electric fiddles and their by-now trademark harmony vocal lines.
To further their prog folk sound, the band roped in Jethro Tull’s Ian Anderson to produce Now We Are Six (which also featured none other than David Bowie on sax), an album of primarily traditional folk songs given the Steeleye treatment. Their commercial breakthrough came in the form of the Mike ‘Womble’ Batt-produced All Around My Hat (1975), and in 2019 the band released their 24th studio album.
Recommended: Parcel Of Rogues (Chrysalis, 1973).
Donovan
From: Glasgow.
They may have called him mellow yellow, but there’s a lot more to Donovan than his 1966 hit. Rising to prominence at the same time as Bob Dylan was making headway in the US, Donovan was often unfairly tagged, or even dismissed as ‘the British Dylan’.
But this was hardly surprising given that both Dylan and Donavan admired the work of Woody Guthrie and other early American traditional folkies. The singer was also influenced by both Scottish and English folk music (he spent time on both sides of the border growing up), and Donovan picked up the guitar at an early age and began to teach himself to play. In terms of guitar playing, fellow folkie Bert Jansch was hugely influential on the young player, so much so that Donovan wrote the song Bert’s Blues in tribute.
Once honed, Donovan’s guitar playing style was truly distinctive – he developed his own trademark ‘flatpicking’ technique – and he is often credited with having taught The Beatles’ George Harrison, Paul McCartney and John Lennon this specific picking style while they were all on retreat in India with the Maharishi.
Donovan was not content with merely writing acoustic, light folk ditties and his sound would soon develop, incorporating jazzy elements (he was a huge admirer of Billie Holliday), psychedelic overtones and thanks to his sojourn in India, sitar orchestrations.
Despite expanding his musical horizons and making his brand of folk as progressive as possible, Donovan still remained a fixture on the UK folk scene, managing to take his audience along for the ride rather than alienate them.
Today, Donovan continues this musical journey and released his most recent album, Gaelia, in December 2022. He’s currently preparing for 60th Anniversary shows in 2025.
Recommended: A Gift From A Flower To A Garden (Pye, 1967).
NEW 📀 Hurdy Gurdy Man – Donovan {Stereo} Summer 1968 – YouTube
Classic Rock editor Siân has worked on the magazine for longer than she cares to discuss, and prior to that was deputy editor of Total Guitar. During that time, she’s had the chance to interview artists such as Brian May, Slash, Jeff Beck, James Hetfield, Sammy Hagar, Alice Cooper, Manic Street Preachers and countless more. She has hosted The Classic Rock Magazine Show on both TotalRock and TeamRock radio, contributed to CR’s The 20 Million Club podcast and has also had bylines in Metal Hammer, Guitarist, Total Film, Cult TV and more. When not listening to, playing, thinking or writing about music, she can be found getting increasingly more depressed about the state of the Welsh national rugby team and her beloved Pittsburgh Steelers.
To mark the 40th anniversary of Yes’ remarkable seventh album Relayer in 2014, Steve Howe and the late Alan White shared their memories of their early struggles to move on without Rick Wakeman, and eventually delivering one of their favourite records in their catalogue.
From The Yes Album through to Tales From Topographic Oceans, Yes’ capacity to harness differing ideas and influences gives the impression that those albums are incremental – each one building upon the successes and lessons learnt from its predecessor.
By contrast, 1974’s Relayer is perhaps the most radical departure in the group’s 1970s catalogue. Startlingly different to anything preceding it, the record incorporated adventurous time signatures and other harmonic elements more usually associated with jazz-rock acts such as Return To Forever or Bundles-era Soft Machine.
Never content to rest upon their laurels, Yes required their listeners to take a leap of faith as they enthusiastically dived into uncharted waters. Though significantly shorter than Tales, Relayer is just as multifaceted and, in its own way, just as challenging.
It possessed many recognisable features, including Roger Dean’s striking cover artwork; but it also included some of their most angular and dissonant music up to that point. Despite the ambitious and sometimes difficult musical terrain it mapped out, upon its release in the winter of 1974, it hit the Top 5 in the album charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the ensuing years, Relayer’s reputation and stature has continued to grow. Yet at the end of May 1974, following Rick Wakeman’s decision to quit the band, that outcome was by no means certain when the band settled in their rehearsal room to consider their next move.
Alan White: Morale was low – obviously people were disappointed Rick had gone because he was an important part of the band. I think we’d started working on some of the Relayer material before he left, but he had a bad taste in his mouth after playing and touring Tales From Topographic Oceans, and I guess he just wanted to carry on with his own music.
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We all got a grip and started looking for a new person, while working as a four-piece to get the flow going. We spent a long time rehearsing, getting the basic ideas for Relayer together.
Steve Howe: We’d tried working with ex-Aphrodite’s Child keyboard player Vangelis Papathanassiou. Musically it would have been fantastic with Vangelis – he had a fantastically strong direction – but the reason it didn’t work out with him was that when we said, “Let’s play that again,” he’d say, “Well, it won’t be the same.”
We were kind of improvising – but were learning parts as we went along, and I think that’s when we realised he was such a spontaneous player that Yes was going to be a problem for him. We were really about working out a solid arrangement and relying on him at any given point to play something that we’d recognise.
Vangelis felt he didn’t really need to. He was always going to play off the cuff – which would have been wonderful, but we’re not a jazz group!
Patrick brought something like fresh blood to the thing – like I had and like Rick did
Steve Howe
Alan White: It took a while before we found the right keyboard player. I used to joke, “Whoever turns up next week is recording the next album!”
Steve Howe: There was somebody before Patrick Moraz, and I called him and made the offer. But he said, ‘Why do I need to join Yes when I’ve got ELP?’ Musically, it would have been amazing to work with Keith Emerson, but whether or not the personalities would have blended, I just don’t know.
We were starting to realise that the personalities in the group is a very important thing. It doesn’t matter how much the music seems to be the goal – it won’t work unless you all get on.
Alan White: The first time Patrick played with us, he had this jazzy, prog kind of intro that became the opening of Sound Chaser. It didn’t really have a fixed time to it but rather it was something that was felt between the keyboards and drums. I came in with the drum pattern that’s in fives and sevens.
I got to know the lick real well and played it note for note on the drums around the kit. I don’t think we took that many times to nail it. It was one of the real early takes and we used one of them. It was pretty off the cuff.
Steve Howe: I think the confidence of the band really comes from the union of the five people. Once we had Patrick there, we were up and running. With his flamboyance he brought something like fresh blood to the thing – like I had and like Rick did. Patrick was brilliant and more than capable of holding the fort, so to speak.
An album doesn’t sound good unless you’re having fun and that’s what you hear when you put that record on
Alan White
Alan White:The Gates Of Delirium was one of the hardest numbers we ever did. It demands a hell of a lot of energy and precision; and, of course, if it’s played sloppily, it just doesn’t work. I look back on it and I think, “Oh my God, we were really crazy!” It’s certainly out there.
Steve Howe: For me, every Yes album was always a journey to find better sounds and ways of interpreting the music on guitars that excited me. When it came to Relayer, I decided I was going to go Fender, but not a Stratocaster because the sound was so common at that time.
The Telecaster is one of the greatest guitars ever designed and I was so excited to have a great 1955 model. It just felt right for the album. The guitar on Gates rarely stands still. I move from being sweet and the next minute I’m scratching at the melody.
Alan White: We were very prog-minded and experimental in those days. We were looking for anything that sounded different. From a percussion point of view, it extended to Jon Anderson and myself going to a scrap yard and banging pieces of metal in the morning for about an hour to see what sounded good.
We actually built a frame in the studio made out of springs and car parts which, of course, ended up on the album in the battle section of Gates – it was pretty crazy stuff.
I came up with the theme that comes out of the battle on Gates. I used a rhythmic technique and my basic knowledge of chords and wrote the changes between chords in seven. Patrick liked that progression and Steve took it and developed it.
To Be Over is one of the most beautiful things we did that wasn’t actually a slow song
Steve Howe
Steve Howe: Jon wrote most of Gates, though we get credited in a very discrete kind of way that Yes invented. There was a balance in the way that members of the group contributed to each other’s music – that was the whole key to what we did in Yes.
None of us could stand up and say we wrote that whole thing because it was all a collaborative process. The way we operated from Topographic onwards was to give everybody more credit. Some guys did a lot and some did very little, but it was a way of involving the whole band.
The other highlight of the album is definitely Soon. To end Gates with what is, in effect, another song entirely, really is such a cool thing to do. We were trying so many things. Patrick added quite a flair to the album generally, but it was very noticeable on Sound Chaser. That was the most crazy, OTT number where we all had to think on our feet every single second of the track.
In the middle there’s what’s in effect a cadenza for electric guitar, synth and percussion. We’d got to that point and said, ‘What’s going to happen now?’ I had this idea, which was a kind of rock flamenco. I was using flamenco guitar technique with a plectrum. There was a diminished chord which we used to refer to as the ‘Hammer Horror’ chord and I used that a lot in that section.
Alan White: The whole thing about Yes is we would work things out melodically and do all the technical side, working out parts. When it comes to putting it down, then you add the feeling on top and that’s what makes a difference with Yes. It’s very complex, technical stuff with feeling.
Steve Howe: The other instrument I use on To Be Over is the pedal steel, which is a complicated instrument. I cite this track as one of the most beautiful things we did that wasn’t actually a slow song. It’s mellow, soft and gentle, but it’s also quite bouncy, and I like that quality. Overall, it’s a pretty important album without too many comfort zones.
Alan White: Relayer is in the top three albums Yes ever did – the other two being Tales and 90125. We were all totally into it. We were in the studio and coming up with new ideas on a daily basis. An album doesn’t sound good unless you’re having fun and that’s what you hear when you put that record on: Yes having fun.
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It’s 1974. Britain is coming out of the chaos of the 3-day week, endless power cuts, rubbish in the streets. In a grubby flat above a makeshift porn studio, two wide-eyed young Londoners, brought together by a 50p advert calling for musicians to join a band that didn’t actually exist, start to write songs together about everyday life – kitchen-sink dramas, teen pregnancies, waking up and looking at the lino. Gradually, they start elevating the prosaic into something else.
Fifty years on, and those slightly older Londoners, Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford, stride out onto the stage at the Roundhouse. Suited and booted, they look eager to get on with proceedings; there is a lot of music to get through, after all.
It’s fair to say that Squeeze play to a dedicated fan base – but tonight has a slight edge to it. Could it be the fact the show is being filmed, or that it’s the last night of their tour? Whatever the reason, gone are the softer fan-club vibes of past gigs. The tempo is high and the songs come in great thundering waves of sound. Black Coffee In Bed, Footsteps, Is That Love and Up The Junction leave us wondering: “Have they gone too big, too early?”
A handful of old favourites and a clutch of newer songs add to the depth and pacing of the performance, but that harder edge is still there, tempered slightly by Glenn and Chris’ anecdotes, giving context and meaning to their back catalogue.
Gloriously recognisable songs are reworked, reimagined and rearranged. This 50-year anniversary show wasn’t ever going be just a nostalgic run-through, or a simple confirmation of national treasure status.
(Image credit: Brad Merrett)
The minute details in Difford’s lyrics, while seemingly at odds with the grandeur of a sumptuous stage setting, are balanced perfectly by Tilbrook’s underrated soloing. At times his guitar has bite and attack, with angular notes playing off against Difford’s Alan Bennet-flavoured lines.
Allaying our earlier fears (“Have they scored too soon?”), the hits keep on coming. From Pulling Mussels (From The Shell) and Another Nail In My Heart to Slap & Tickle and Tempted… It’s encore material that lasts for over half the show.
Squeeze at the Roundhouse, November 2024(Image credit: Brad Merrett)
Audience participation is at its peak with the new wave knees-up Cool For Cats, magically enticing couples and friends to dance and sing together. Punching the air, pints overflowed to the point where friendly apologies have to be made before returning to chant the chorus with glee.
And that’s the great secret about Squeeze – moments of lyrical poetry, clarity and reality set against unique and powerful songwriting. It’s a combination that’s seen that 50p advert in 1974 do very well over the years. Tonight, everyone is more than happy with the return on that singular investment.
Squeeze were gigging in support of Trussell, the anti-poverty charity working to ensure no one in the UK needs a food bank to survive.
An Art Director and designer since 2004, Brad Merrett is currently Head of Design (Music) at Future Publishing PLC. He is responsible for the design strategy of online & print brands for the music division. Brad currently Art Directs Guitar World, Classic Rock, Guitarist, Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine and Guitar Player, Louder & Music Radar online. He has worked on The Classic Rock Awards UK and Japan, played Hendrix’s Flying V (badly) and accidentally strangled Slash. When not contributing live photographs to the music brands he is supporting Liverpool FC.
