Sammy Hagar has shared a personal tribute to the fan who gave him his famous nickname, the Red Rocker.
Hagar’s early success came in the band Montrose, but he was dismissed after just a couple of years. The singer embarked on a solo career, at which point he crossed paths with a man named John Pruner.
“In 1976 I had just released the red album,” Hagar recalled in a post to Facebook, referring to his self-titled LP. “I was playing one of my first concerts in Seattle, Washington supporting that record with the song ‘Red’ being the single. The next morning, I was checking out of the hotel and John Pruner the man in these photos, stopped me and asked for an autograph on the newspaper review of the concert. He asked me to sign it, ‘The Red Rocker.’ That was the beginning of being the Red Rocker.”
Little did either man know at the time, but the Red Rocker moniker would stick. Over the years, Hagar has embraced the nickname to the point of branding, with shirts, hats and even beer emblazoned with the Red Rocker title. Through it all, Hagar never forgot the man who gave him the name.
‘You Will Never Pay to See Me Again’
“John became maybe the first redhead before the fans became redheads,” Hagar noted in his tribute. “He followed me around the country, showing up everywhere. I got to know him well. Later, at a birthday bash in Cabo he showed me that he had paid to see over 100 shows! I said you will never pay to see me again and gave him the golden lifetime all access pass. That was well over 100 shows ago.”
According to Hagar, Pruner’s health had “been failing him for well over a decade.” Even in a wheelchair, the super-fan still made it out to shows, and Hagar “always made room for him on the side of the stage or wherever possible.”
“Well, we lost the original number one redhead a couple nights ago,” the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer announced. “We will miss you, John Pruner, and the show will go on without you. I know you wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Hagar is set to perform at the Stagecoach festival in Indio, California in April. He’ll then open his Best of All Worlds residency in Las Vegas on May 2.
The Best Song From Every Sammy Hagar Album
Solo or in a group, he proves there’s more than one way to rock.
Billy Joel‘s upcoming tour will be postponed for four months while he handles an unspecified medical condition.
According to a news release, Joel will be recovering from surgery and undergoing physical therapy. Nearly all of the affected concerts have been rescheduled — with the exception of Milwaukee — including shows in both the U.S. and U.K.
“While I regret postponing any shows, my health must come first,” Joel said in the statement. “I look forward to getting back on stage and sharing the joy of live music with our amazing fans. Thank you for your understanding.”
All previously purchased tickets will automatically be valid for the rescheduled shows. You can view a complete list of the new dates below.
Billy Joel’s Recent Fall and First Cancelation
The postponement news comes just a couple weeks after Joel fell onstage during a Feb. 22 concert in Montville, Connecticut. He did get back on his feet and continue performing, though some fans were left concerned.
Back in January, Joel postponed and rescheduled a single concert in Florida, again due to an unspecified medical procedure.
Billy Joel’s Rescheduled Tour Dates Nov. 15, 2025, Detroit, MI – Billy Joel & Stevie Nicks @ Ford Field March 14, 2026, Toronto, ON – Billy Joel @ Rogers Centre April 10, 2026, Syracuse, NY – Billy Joel & Sting @ Syracuse JMA Wireless Dome May 22, 2026, Salt Lake City, UT – Billy Joel & Sting @ Rice Eccles Stadium June 6, 2026, Edinburgh, UK – Billy Joel @ Scottish Gas Murrayfield Stadium June 20, 2026, Liverpool, UK – Billy Joel @ Anfield Stadium July 3, 2026, Charlotte, NC – Billy Joel & Sting @ Charlotte Bank of America Stadium TBD, Milwaukee, WI – Billy Joel & Sting @ American Family Field
Billy Joel Live Albums Ranked
For a guy who hasn’t released an album in over three decades, the Piano Man sure loves touring.
Feature Photo: Christian Bertrand / Shutterstock.com
New Order was never meant to exist. In the early months of 1980, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris were reeling from the sudden loss of Ian Curtis, the enigmatic frontman of Joy Division. What had seemed like the start of a promising ascent into the post-punk world was suddenly cut short by tragedy. But instead of dissolving, the surviving members did something extraordinary: they regrouped, redefined themselves, and pushed their music in a bold new direction. Adding keyboardist Gillian Gilbert, they became New Order, a band that would not only evolve beyond their Joy Division roots but would set the blueprint for alternative dance music. Their ability to merge post-punk melancholy with cutting-edge electronic music made them one of the most influential bands of their era.
The first steps were tentative. Their debut album, Movement (1981), still carried the ghost of Joy Division, its sound moody and atmospheric. But by 1983, New Order found its true identity with Power, Corruption & Lies, an album that embraced synthesizers and dance beats without sacrificing the emotional depth that had defined their past work. This was the album that cemented their shift from post-punk to something entirely new. Songs like “Age of Consent” and “Your Silent Face” proved they were no longer just carrying Joy Division’s torch—they were lighting a new path.
Then came Blue Monday. The 1983 single was a game-changer, not just for New Order but for the entire music industry. A seven-minute, synth-driven epic that blurred the lines between rock and club music, it became the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. The song wasn’t just popular—it was groundbreaking. Its use of sequencers and drum machines influenced an entire generation of musicians, bridging the gap between new wave and the emerging electronic music scene. New Order had effectively reinvented themselves, proving that a band built from tragedy could create some of the most forward-thinking music of the decade.
New Order’s run through the 1980s was relentless. Low-Life (1985) and Brotherhood (1986) solidified their reputation, balancing atmospheric synth work with guitar-driven tracks that reminded fans they still had rock in their DNA. Then came Substance (1987), a compilation that wasn’t just a collection of singles—it was a manifesto. The album featured extended versions of their biggest songs, including “Bizarre Love Triangle” and “Temptation,” and introduced their music to an entirely new audience.
By the time the 1990s arrived, New Order had nothing left to prove, yet they kept evolving. Technique (1989) had already shown their ability to incorporate acid house influences, and Republic (1993) took them even further into electronic territory. But the band’s internal tensions began to surface, and by the mid-1990s, they went on hiatus. When they returned in 2001 with Get Ready, their sound had shifted again—this time embracing a heavier, guitar-driven style. Despite lineup changes, including Peter Hook’s departure in 2007, New Order continued to release new music, with albums like Music Complete (2015) proving they still had the ability to innovate.
Their impact on music is impossible to overstate. Without New Order, electronic music would not have evolved the way it did. Their influence can be heard in everything from synth-pop to techno to indie rock. But beyond their sound, what makes New Order so remarkable is their resilience. They emerged from loss, reinvented themselves, and remained relevant across decades.
Outside of music, New Order’s cultural impact is just as significant. They were instrumental in the rise of Manchester’s legendary Haçienda nightclub, a venue that became the epicenter of the UK’s rave movement.
(#)
“1963” – Non-album single / B-side to “True Faith” (1987) “5 8 6” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) “60 Miles an Hour” – Get Ready (2001)
(A)
“Academic” – Music Complete (2015) “Age of Consent” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) “All Day Long” – Brotherhood (1986) “All the Way” – Technique (1989) “Angel Dust” – Brotherhood (1986) “Are You Ready For This?” – Movement (Definitive Edition) (2019) “As It Is When It Was” – Brotherhood (1986) “Avalanche” – Republic (1993)
(B)
“The B-Side” – Non-album single / B-side to “World in Motion” (1990) “The Beach” – Non-album single / B-side to “Blue Monday” (1983) “Be a Rebel” – Non-album single (2020) “Behind Closed Doors” – Non-album single / B-side to “Crystal” (2001) “Best & Marsh” – Non-album single / B-side to “Round & Round” (1989) “Bizarre Love Triangle” – Brotherhood (1986) “Blue Monday” – Non-album single (1983) “Broken Promise” – Brotherhood (1986) “Brutal” – The Beach (soundtrack) (2000)
(C)
“Californian Grass” – Lost Sirens (2013) “Ceremony” – Non-album single (1981) “Chemical” – Republic (1993) “Chosen Time” – Movement (1981) “Close Range” – Get Ready (2001) “Confusion” – Non-album single (1983) “Cries and Whispers” – Non-album single / B-side to “Everything’s Gone Green” (1981) “Crystal” – Get Ready (2001)
(D)
“Denial” – Movement (1981) “Don’t Do It” – Non-album single / B-side to “Fine Time” (1988) “Doubts Even Here” – Movement (1981) “Dracula’s Castle” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Dream Attack” – Technique (1989) “Dreams Never End” – Movement (1981) “Dub-vulture” – Non-album single / B-side to “Sub-culture” (1985)
“The Game” – Music Complete (2015) “Get Out” – Control (soundtrack) (2007) “Guilt Is a Useless Emotion” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Guilty Partner” – Technique (1989)
(H)
“Hellbent” – Lost Sirens (2013) “Here to Stay” – 24 Hour Party People (soundtrack) (2002) “Hey Now What You Doing” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “The Him” – Movement (1981) “Homage” – Movement (Definitive Edition) (2019) “Hurt” – Non-album single / B-side to “Temptation” (1982) “Hypnosis” – Control (soundtrack) (2007)
(I-J)
“I Told You So” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “I’ll Stay with You” – Lost Sirens (2013) “I’ve Got a Feeling” – Lost Sirens (2013) “ICB” – Movement (1981) “In a Lonely Place” – Non-album single / B-side to “Ceremony” (1981) “Jetstream” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005)
(K-L)
“Kiss of Death” – Non-album single / B-side to “The Perfect Kiss” (1985) “Krafty” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Leave Me Alone” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) “Let’s Go” – Salvation!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1988) “Liar” – Republic (1993) “Lonesome Tonight” – Non-album single / B-side to “Thieves Like Us” (1984) “Love Less” – Technique (1989) “Love Vigilantes” – Low-Life (1985)
(M-O)
“Mesh” – Non-album single / B-side to “Everything’s Gone Green” (1981) “Morning Night and Day” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Mr. Disco” – Technique (1989) “MTO” – Non-album single / B-side to “Run 2” (1989) “Murder” – Non-album single (1984) “Nothing but a Fool” – Music Complete (2015) “Ode to Joy” – Merry Xmas from the Haçienda and Factory Records (1982)
(P)
“Paradise” – Brotherhood (1986) “People on the High Line” – Music Complete (2015) “The Perfect Kiss” – Low-Life (1985) “Perfect Pit” – Non-album single / B-side to “The Perfect Kiss” (1985) “The Peter Saville Show Soundtrack” – The Peter Saville Show Soundtrack (2003) “Plastic” – Music Complete (2015) “Player in the League” – Non-album single / B-side to “Here to Stay” (2002) “Primitive Notion” – Get Ready (2001)
(R)
“Procession” – Non-album single (1981) “Recoil” – Lost Sirens (2013) “Regret” – Republic (1993) “Restless” – Music Complete (2015) “Rocking Carol” – Merry Xmas from the Haçienda and Factory Records (1982) “Rock the Shack” – Get Ready (2001) “Round & Round” – Technique (1989) “Ruined in a Day” – Republic (1993) “Run” – Technique (1989) “Run Wild” – Get Ready (2001)
(S)
“Sabotage” – Non-album single / B-side to “60 Miles an Hour” (2001) “Salvation Theme” – Salvation!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1988) “Senses” – Movement (1981) “Shake It Up” – Lost Sirens (2013) “Shame of the Nation” – Non-album single / B-side to “State of the Nation” (1986) “Shellshock” – Pretty in Pink (soundtrack) (1986) “Singularity” – Music Complete (2015) “Skullcrusher” – Salvation!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1988) “Slow Jam” – Get Ready (2001) “Someone Like You” – Get Ready (2001) “Sooner Than You Think” – Low-Life (1985) “Special” – Republic (1993) “Spooky” – Republic (1993) “Sputnik” – Salvation!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1988) “State of the Nation” – Non-album single (1986) “Stray Dog” – Music Complete (2015) “Sub-culture” – Low-Life (1985) “Such a Good Thing” – Non-album single / B-side to “World in Motion…” (2002) “Sugarcane” – Lost Sirens (2013) “Sunrise” – Low-Life (1985) “Superheated” – Music Complete (2015)
(T)
“Temptation” – Non-album single (1982) “Thieves Like Us” – Non-album single (1984) “This Time of Night” – Low-Life (1985) “Times Change” – Republic (1993) “Too Late” – The Peel Sessions (1986) “Touched by the Hand of God” – Salvation!: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (1987) “True Faith” – Non-album single (1987) “Truth” – Movement (1981) “Turn” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Turn My Way” (featuring Billy Corgan) – Get Ready (2001) “Turn the Heater On” – The Peel Sessions (1986) “Tutti Frutti” (featuring Elly Jackson) – Music Complete (2015)
(U-V)
“Ultraviolence” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) “Unlearn This Hatred” – Music Complete (2015) “Vanishing Point” – Technique (1989) “Vicious Circle” – Non-album single / B-side to “Ruined in a Day” (1993) “Vicious Streak” – Get Ready (2001) “Video 5 8 6” – Non-album single (1997) “Vietnam” (Jimmy Cliff cover) – Hope (2003) “The Village” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
(W-Z)
“Waiting for the Sirens’ Call” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Way of Life” – Brotherhood (1986) “We All Stand” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983) “Weirdo” – Brotherhood (1986) “Who’s Joe?” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “Working Overtime” – Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005) “World” – Republic (1993) “World in Motion…” – Non-album single (1990) “Young Offender” – Republic (1993) “Your Silent Face” – Power, Corruption & Lies (1983)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining New Order articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Long after British pop-rock band Transvision Vamp split up, vocalist and producer Wendy James encountered Iron Butterly via hip-hop – and it was love at first listen, as she told Prog.
“Iron Butterfly came up on my radar because of hip-hop. I moved to New York in 2002 and got heavily into East Coast hip-hop. As a musician and a producer of my own material, I was interested in how rap groups utilised these amazing samples, mainly from 70s soul.
I was doing geology of how they put their music together and their production values were so much more impactful than a typical white rock’n’roll record.
Then Nas’ song Thief’s Theme came up and I was like, ‘That main riff has to be a sample – no way did they write that!’ I started digging around and it was In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly. I went round to my friend’s house and said, ‘Have you heard this track?’ and he went, ‘Of course! Everyone knows it!’
Then I did my research on Iron Butterfly. Singer/organist Doug Ingle wrote the song, and he was so drunk when he was recording it – slurring it so badly – that ‘In the Garden Of Eden’ came out as ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.’
If you’ve had a couple of drinks or some drugs, you can stick your head in the speakers and really get into it
I think that’s amazing – but I’ve never done that myself. I love alcohol, but I don’t use it when I’m writing and recording; I always keep a straight mind because otherwise I can’t make accurate decisions.
Iron Butterfly were booked to play Woodstock but they had problems travelling there. So their manager called the festival organisers and said, ‘Send a helicopter and we’ll be there on time.’ The organisers replied back using an acrostic where if you took the first letter of each line in the telegram it spelled out, ‘FUCK YOU!’
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Obviously, I’m a fan of the song, and I actually sampled it myself – a little bit from the drum solo in the middle made this beat for a song called Let’s Not Keep Fucking Up. That lyric is taken from Grace Slick at Altamont, where she was trying to calm down the audience.
That drum beat is phenomenal! It’s a fantastic, heavy riff that you can trance out to. If you’ve had a couple of drinks or some drugs, you can stick your head in the speakers and really get into it.”
A six-neck guitar once played by Spinal Tap is being auctioned.
As spotted by Guitar World, UK auctioneers Gardiner Houlgate are selling the six-neck behemoth “The Beast”, designed by Gary Hutchins. It’s estimated to sell for between £2,000 and £3,000, and bids are currently being taken.
Hutchins masterminded the six-neck model in response to a five-neck guitar played by veteran rock band Cheap Trick. Described by its own creator as the guitar that “should never have been made”, it’s been displayed at the Victoria & Albert Museum and the Comedy Museum Of London. As well as Spinal Tap, it has reportedly been played by comedian Bill Bailey and the reigning King Of England, Charles III.
Each neck on The Beast has a different function, with the monstrous instrument combining a 12-string guitar, a six-string guitar with tremolo, a five-string bass, a four-string bass, a seven-string guitar and a six-string hardtail guitar. It comes with a metallic red finish, plus two three-way switches and three knobs.
On the back of the instrument is a signed message from Hutchins, reading: “This guitar was exhibited at the V&A museum.”
Spinal Tap, the legendary comedy rock trio, started as a fictional group in the Rob Reiner-directed mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap (1984). However, the band – portrayed by comic actors Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer – have made several live appearances and released a handful of real-life albums over the years.
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“Nigel [Tufnell, played by Guest] has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed,” he explained. “He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that.
“David St Hubbins [McKean] has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called The Trouble With Murder. He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.
“And then we have Derek [Smalls, Shearer]. Derek is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum Of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world, the whole history of glue, and he shows me around. He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called Hell Toupée.”
Last week, the Bristol trip-hop icons joined The Avalanches, Moses Boyd, Pussy Riot and a handful of other artists in launching their music into space for an art exhibition. Their contribution was a cover of Everything Is Going According To Plan, a 1988 song by Russian punks Grob, a snippet of which you can hear below.
The cosmic transmission was done as part of Art After Dark: Piccadilly Un:Plugged, an exhibition by the Piccadilly-based Art Of London gallery. The project sends music to the moon and back using “Earth–Moon–Earth” technology, with the signal being received by the Lovell Telescope in Cheshire.
According to the exhibition’s website, the returned recordings will have been altered to create “an otherworldly soundscape that connects Earth with the cosmos”.
Though Massive Attack’s Everything Is Going According To Plan cover hasn’t been released in its entirety, it’s the first new music the outfit have released since 2010 album Heligoland.
The duo of Robert “3D” Del Naja and Grant “Daddy G” Marshall said last year that they hope to release something in 2025, and Del Naja chalked the delay up to a “dispute at the [record] label”.
“Hopefully we’re going to be able to release it next year and do some gigs,” he said.
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When asked how he feels about the new music, he elaborated: “Yeah, I hate sitting on stuff for too long because I’m the first person to get bored of it. I deliberately don’t play it for months so that I can maintain some enthusiasm for it.”
However, he finished, “It’s good – I’m looking forward to it!”
Massive Attack will play two UK shows in June: one at Manchester’s Co-Op Live arena on June 5 and another at LIDO festival in London’s Victoria Park on June 6. LIDO will be London’s first fully battery-powered festival.
“I used to go to the Camden Palace and drink with Boy George. I loved Culture Club”: How Ian Gillan put Deep Purple behind him and launched a new chapter of his career with Gillan
(Image credit: George Bodnar Archive/Iconicpix)
Following his first four years as the frontman with Deep Purple, Ian Gillan and his band Gillan emerged as one of the most popular and colourful rock groups of the late 70s and early 80s. With a high-energy sound that was turbocharged with melody, few will forget their run of appearances on Top Of The Pops for hit singles such as No Laughing In Heaven, Mutually Assured Destruction and their riotous revisions of Elvis Presley’s Trouble and Stevie Wonder’s New Orleans.
From an alarmingly non-conformist visual image to Ian’s often quirky lyrics, which included rhyming ‘ultrasonic’ with ‘gin and tonic’, and their choice of subject matter (No Laughing In Heaven was a largely spoken-word paean to a sinner who cleans up his act to avoid going to hell, only to discover that up in the clouds partying is forbidden), Gillan – the band – rarely trod the conventional path.
They also grafted considerably harder than the average band, traversing the length and breadth of the country. Often revisiting Purple’s Smoke On The Water at a time when that band’s presence was sadly missed, it felt like Gillan – the man – was presenting us with a bucket-list moment that otherwise might never have been realised.
A new seven-disc anthology, 1978-1982, brings together their studio albums along with B-sides, standalone 45s and out-takes, from the band’s short but very sweet run. And although Ian Gillan admits that “things were not so good at the end”, he says “the memories are definitely positive”.
Gillan the band’s forerunners the Ian Gillan Band had come to an end when keyboard player Colin Towns brought in a song called Fighting Man that was ridiculed by the rest of the group.
“The end of the Ian Gillan Band had been coming,” reflects the singer. “Things weren’t right, but it was so difficult because I was working with my heroes. I idolised Gus [bassist Johnny Gustafson, ex-The Merseybeats, Roxy Music] for being so talented. We needed to get back on track, but Ray Fenwick [guitar] and Mark Nauseef [drums] were happy with that jazzier type of rock, though I wanted to play rock’n’roll. Fighting Man was a catalyst. It was a simple song but it had a certain profundity, and when those two took the mickey out of it, that was it for me.”
So you sacked yourself from your own band?
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“Yeah. I just left.”
Ian Gillan onstage at the Reading Festival in 1979 (Image credit: Gus Stewart/Redferns)
In forming Gillan, Colin Towns had to be there.
Colin was pivotal to it all. Rock’n’roll is good, but you also need a simple platform for virtuosity to shine. Colin kept that gravitas. He added texture and dynamics along with all of those musical elements.
Bernie Tormé was such a great guitarist.
Exactly. We had five guys that played equally well but Bernie was the one that stood out. I had spotted him some time earlier. He was amazing, and I marked him down for the future.
Shaven-headed man-mountain bassist John McCoy was almost a cartoonish character.
John was great. He made a big impact, just what we needed. He offset Bernie on the other side [of the stage].
McCoy projected quite a threatening presence.
He was ferocious looking, kind of manic. The kids either loved or were scared to death of him. John was a very, very good showman. His contribution to Unchain Your Brain [the opening track of the album Glory Road] was probably more important than all of the other guys because his bass line really set up that song. But you say ‘cartoonish’, and I suppose he was.
Here’s a random memory: on the Magic tour in 1982, McCoy learned over the barrier to slap an astonished audience member in the front row who had dared to boo his bass solo.
I don’t know about that incident. But I did learn that John was prone to violence, and I had to put a stop to that.
And last but certainly not least, drummer Mick Underwood (who died in July 2024).
Mick was an absolutely fantastic drummer [he had played in Episode Six with Gillan and Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover, preceded by a spell in The Outlaws with Ritchie Blackmore]. I first met Mick when I was still at school, at the bus stop at Henlys Roundabout [in West London]. He was carrying a briefcase with a pair of drum sticks sticking out. Along with Mitch Mitchell [of the Jimi Hendrix Experience] and a few others, Mick was another drummer taught by Jim Marshall. I make my own judgments, but when [Deep Purple drummer] Ian Paice says Mick is a great drummer, then it must be true.
The band’s first songs were released in Japan only, as the album Gillan, in 1978, and you’ve freely admitted that the following year, when it came to looking to get a record deal in the UK, you “couldn’t get arrested”.
That’s correct. My agent and later manager Phil Banfield and I, along with Phil’s partner Carl Leighton-Pope, sat around a desk with three telephones and called every record company listed in [entertainment industry bible] Kemps Directory, and nobody was interested. EMI [at the time still Deep Purple’s label] replied: “Rock bands are history.”’ Stiff Records simply told us to fuck off.
How did that make you feel?
I believed that we had every reason to feel confident, as we had a thirty-eight-date UK tour sold out. However, the fashion was that rock’n’roll or hard rock was out of the window and punk and new wave was the thing.
I understood what was going on in the industry. I know how the business goes. The music business is full of shattered dreams. I looked at things with a longer-term view. I had spent five years chasing dreams with Episode Six. We made something like thirteen singles. Purple was a different type of band. We quickly found our niche and avoided chasing fashion. But I’m a realist, I knew it would be difficult.
In the end a small label called Acrobat took you on, only to go bust as the album Mr Universe reached number eleven.
They had no money. Mr Universe got into the charts, but the following week it disappeared because the factory [pressing plant] bill hadn’t been paid. Had that not happened we’d have gone top three. It was frustrating, but [the incident] gave us just enough – just enough – to make the other labels think: “Okay, maybe we were wrong.” Virgin came in for us and we had a fantastic relationship with them.
In music weekly Sounds, Geoff Barton awarded five stars out of five to Mr Universe, hailing it as “heavy rock for the 1980s”.
Did he? I never read reviews. They don’t interest me.
Around Christmas 1978, Ritchie Blackmore visited you with an invitation to join Rainbow. Although you declined, he still played with Gillan at the Marquee club in London. Were you tempted by his proposition?
No. The reason I had left Deep Purple was that they were moving into a kind of territory [later filled by Rainbow]. I didn’t want that. I wanted a group with grit, excitement and edge. Also one that had balls. That’s no reflection on Ritchie, who was a fantastic, amazing guitar player – in fact I said: “You can come and play in my band if you want” – but Ritchie has firm ideas about how things should be, and there were things that we disagreed on.
Ian Gillan with bassist John McCoy (Image credit: Justin Thomas/Iconicpix)
With the line-up stabilised (guitarist Steve Byrd and drummer Liam Genockey had contributed to Mr Universe) and a reliable support network behind the group, Gillan’s major-label debut, 1980’s Glory Road, needed to be a masterpiece. And it was.
Thank you. I still consider that record among the best I’ve ever made.
The free companion album For Gillan Fans Only was full of the band’s irrepressible, zany humour, along with some great songs.
People seemed to like that. Every band, if they’re enjoying themselves in the studio, will have a lot of out-takes. Chucking them away would be foolish, so why not bundle them together and make them available to the fans?
Let’s not forget that Gillan had a lot of hits – six Top 40 singles in all.
That was lovely. As I said, Virgin never failed to put their weight behind us. The managing director said that Gillan saved the company. They were going through a bad spell at the time, though I had no idea of that until later on.
For us, the viewers, those spots on Top Of The Pops felt iconic. Your hair grew much longer, and with Bernie throwing his shapes the performances seemed charged with boozy bravado. You seemed to be thumbing your nose at the likes of Spandau Ballet and Culture Club, almost proud to represent the great rock community.
Not in slightest, no. I don’t care what you call it – rock’n’roll, rock, hard rock – it doesn’t matter. To me, rock’n’roll is not about a style, it’s about an attitude. There have been a lot of definitions I can’t relate to, let’s not go there. But that’s how I’ve felt all my life. Categories are irrelevant to me.
All the same, rock music used to get such short shrift on national television, so it really felt as though Gillan were flying the flag for rock.
Not to me. We never ‘thumbed our nose’, as you put it, to anyone. People often talk about the relationships between Sabbath, Zeppelin and Purple in the early days, and the magazines and media have always tried to pretend there was some sort of rivalry. That was rubbish. We would drink together. We were mates.
I used to go to the Camden Palace and drink with Boy George. I loved Culture Club. We had no competition with them. [With a quiet chuckle] I’m not quite so sure about Spandau Ballet.
Gillan – Sleeping on the Job (Official HD Music Video) – YouTube
For you personally, was that second phase of stardom a source of pride?
I don’t pay much attention to that side of things. I love every minute of what I do; I’m like a kid in a toy shop. I remember my first [support] tour with Dusty Springfield, just as I recall playing the Marquee for the first time and my debut with Deep Purple. Working with Gus [John Gustafson, in the Ian Gillan Band] was special, as was meeting Cliff Bennett [of Cliff Bennett And The Rebel Rousers] for the first time. Those were my thrills. So no, I never appraised or analysed things in the sense that you mean.
Gillan achieved their fame the hard way. At the time of Glory Road, the band were playing around two hundred gigs per year. You said then: “Gillan are a non-stop touring band. There seems no reason to change that. I like this life.” Was that completely truthful? Nobody likes being away from home for that long, surely?
[Slightly vexed] What do you mean? I still do it [with Deep Purple].
But not two hundred gigs a year.
We [Purple] started this last leg [of touring for the album =1] in May and I got home on Sunday [this interview took place in November]. So pick the bones out of that. I think it was less than two hundred shows back then, but let’s not split hairs. The intensity of the touring hasn’t diminished one little bit. Apart from the three years I left Purple, 1973 to 1976, I’ve been on the road since I was a kid. It’s my life.
The next album, 1981’s Future Shock, which featured the hits No Laughing In Heaven and a remake of R&B standard New Orleans, entered the UK chart at number two. Do you consider it as strong an album as Glory Road?
It depends what you’re judging it on. It’s like all of the records I’ve done, I can’t say I like all of the songs but I’ve got to love them because they’re my kids. Overall I really like that album, though I thought the drawing [of the band in ‘space age’ garb] on the cover was absolute crap. Having said that, the photos inside were amazing. I get a smile when I think of that record.
The old Gary U.S. Bonds hit New Orleans was possibly a strange choice for Gillan to cover.
I disagree. That song is part of my heritage, mate. I’d sing: ‘Hey, hey, heh, yeah’ and the audience would always respond.
Gillian in 1982, with guitarist Janick Gers (centre) (Image credit: George Bodnar Archive/Iconicpix)
Double Trouble was a half-studio, half-live set that made the UK Top 10.
I don’t have much interest in my own live recordings, but I love that our performance at the Reading Festival [in 1981] was included in Double Trouble. Those versions of No Laughing In Heaven and Mutually Assured Destruction bring back such wonderful memories. The crowd that night was just awesome.
You appeared at Reading for four consecutive years (the Ian Gillan Band in 1978, Gillan in 1979, then as special guests in 1980, and headlining in ’81). For us fans, Gillan really did feel like a band of the people. Were you proud of that?
It’s an honour [that someone might think like that], but you’re putting words in my mouth. I’m a passionate and intense person but I don’t get very emotional about such things. The most excited that I would get is ‘mildly content’.
Bernie Tormé suddenly leaving the band in 1981 felt like a real problem, but Janick Gers was brought in at quick notice.
It was a problem – for about five minutes. Virgin called us back from Germany to do Top Of The Pops for No Laughing In Heaven, but when I talked to the guys I got a really negative reaction. The label was paying for our flights to promote the new single, but Bernie insisted: “I’m not going, it’s a day off.” To which I replied: “If that’s your attitude, Bernie, it’s going to be more than a day off for you, mate. Because the van arrives at ten a.m. and anyone who isn’t on it is no longer in the band.” He wasn’t there, so Janick came in.
You’d seen Janick playing with White Spirit on the Glory Road tour?
Yeah. I filed him away [in my mind] for future reference. Bernie was fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but he was also quite volatile. Janick was much more placid. More of a steady guy. Janick walked on stage and [personality-wise] he changed entirely. I like people like that. It can be difficult when someone is still performing when they come off stage.
With respect to Janick, who of course went on to join Iron Maiden and remains there to this day, were Gillan as good without Bernie?
You can’t compare the two styles. Just as Bernie did, Janick brought something [of his own] into the band. He was a stunning performer, he looked amazing. People listened to him. The band loved him because he fitted in well, in addition to projecting his own individual image and sound.
What are your views on Magic, the final Gillan album?
It [the line-up change] really worked. Bluesy Blue Sea is a really important song, one of my top five from the whole Gillan period. Demon Driver is another song I used to love doing live. I had a great time writing that album at a village hall down in Musberry [in Devon]. At that point the atmosphere in the band was okay.
All the same, it’s been speculated that hints of things coming to an end were hidden in song titles such as Caught In A Trap, Long Gone and Living A Lie. Is there any truth at all in that, or is it complete bollocks?
[Laughing but sounding frustrated] It’s complete bollocks. I still get that all the time. People will say: “Oh, this is a very personal song” even with a story of unrequited love that has been written ten thousand times before, albeit with a different twist. I can’t tell you how many of my songs people have thought were about Ritchie. In fact there was only one.
Are you willing to name it?
No. But it was on Who Do We Think You Are [Deep Purple’s 1973 album, Gillan’s last in his first spell with Purple].
Gillan’s final tour was a long, thirty-eight-date trip around the UK. It was announced before the first date that afterwards you would need to stop singing for nine months because of problems with your voice.
We had to cancel a few shows because I had laryngitis. One of my most memorable shows was at Portsmouth Guildhall. The fans sang the entire show for me – they got it. That’s how special they were. Two separate consultants told me to have an operation or take six months off. I didn’t believe that. After cancelling two or three more shows I got a bit of a croak back, and we managed to hobble through the rest of the tour.
After the Gillan band had finished, I was in Germany and was introduced to Professor Theobald from Munich University Hospital. He looked at my throat rather more holistically than the other two gentlemen had. He told me it was massively inflamed and infected. I had been singing around corners, basically. My tonsils were removed and I’ve never had a problem since. So that’s the history. Anyone that doubts it can go take a hike.
Ian Gillan backstage at the Reading Festival in 1982 (Image credit: Justin Thomas/Iconicpix)
Aware that the band was ending, what was the atmosphere like backstage as the tour headed towards its final date, at Wembley Arena?
I must give you some more background information. First of all, when I started Gillan I said: “Let’s share everything.” I didn’t want to be a boss with backing musicians. It had to be a band. But that meant sharing not only the profits but also the expenses, and not everyone understood that. We were working in my studio [Kingsway], often for free. Basically, I was financing the band. Everything’s on record, in the end it went to court. I was right and they were wrong. A lot of harm was caused. It was led by McCoy and followed by Underwood, neither of whom I will say a bad word against as far as their musical contributions go. But they upset the apple cart and the rest of the guys realised what was going on. There was violence, and they brought that into the studio. By that time I’d had enough.
The other accusation is that I wrapped up the band to join Deep Purple. I’ll tell you exactly what happened there. When we played Hammersmith Odeon I went for a curry with Rodney Marsh [footballer who played for England in the early 70s, and has a huge love of rock music].During our meal, Rodney had said: “Gillan are a great band, but not as good as Deep Purple.” That got me thinking, especially as I was disillusioned with what was going on.
So the next day I called Jon Lord and told him I was winding up Gillan, and what did he think the mood would be [for a Purple reunion]. Jon said he would be interested and would ask around. When he called back, Jon said Ritchie was up for it but had commitments for the next year. So that’s what happened. There was no premeditation, it was just that I could see a gap coming. After that last Gillan date at Wembley, I got a call from Tony Iommi and I went for a drink with him. That’s how I ended up in Black Sabbath.
Had everything not imploded following that conversation with Rodney Marsh, was there a scenario in which Gillan could have continued?
No way. But it was Rodney’s Deep Purple comment that triggered those thoughts. I literally had not considered the idea. However, I had already made up my mind that I had had enough of McCoy and company.
Gillan – Living for the City (Official HD Music Video) – YouTube
Following an exceptionally bitter split, John McCoy wrote a song called Because You Lied for his next group, McCoy, which they recorded with Colin Towns on keyboards. The song lamented your joining of Sabbath. Did you hear it, and what did you think of it?
No. But I read all about it, don’t worry about that.
The words were particularly scathing: ‘Can’t wish you luck in your adventure, not while you’re digging your gold mine/You played with live, and I’ll just mention that the roof fell down on mine.’
You can interpret that any way you like. I read jealousy. Jealousy and insufficiency.
If you happened to encounter John again, and he was willing, would you bury the hatchet and make peace with him?
[After a long pause] I don’t think so. He caused so much trouble for my manager, Phil Banfield. [What McCoy did] was unforgiveable. It made me really angry. I’ve been with Phil since 1979, his professionalism is unchallenged, and McCoy was outrageously wrong.
In a more general sense, within the context of your life Gillan was a hugely important period.
Oh, massively so. It was a development period for me. I learned so much from so many people – including McCoy. It gave me so much in so many ways. Apart from any profit!
Gillan: 1978-1982 is out now
Dave Ling was a co-founder of Classic Rock magazine. His words have appeared in a variety of music publications, including RAW, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Prog, Rock Candy, Fireworks and Sounds. Dave’s life was shaped in 1974 through the purchase of a copy of Sweet’s album ‘Sweet Fanny Adams’, along with early gig experiences from Status Quo, Rush, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Yes and Queen. As a lifelong season ticket holder of Crystal Palace FC, he is completely incapable of uttering the word ‘Br***ton’.
“I lost the tips of two fingers in an accident when I was 17. Doctors told me that I had no hope of playing guitar again. I refused to accept that”: The life and times of Tony Iommi, metal’s indestructible dark lord
(Image credit: Joby Sessions/Total Guitar)
Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi may have been the king of metal riffs onstage, but offstage he was a fiercely private – at least until he published his autobiography, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, in 2011. Metal Hammer caught up with Iommi when the book was published to look at the events that made him the man he was.
Tony Iommi has never been a man to use his private life to foster celebrity status. While others have invited the world to invade their privacy in search of ephemeral fame, the Black Sabbath guitarist has always refused to talk about such matters. All that has changed with his autobiography, Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven And Hell With Black Sabbath, in which he has revealed a lot more about himself than ever before.
“I can’t say I am very comfortable with telling everyone what’s gone on in my life outside of music,” he says. “But I knew that if I was to do this book, that side of things had to be faced.”
Many who know him will be surprised that Iommi has chosen to do the book at all. Often reticent when faced with being in the spotlight offstage, the quietly spoken metal hero has never given the impression he’s keen to write his memoirs. But, having made the choice, the result is very much a reflection of the man: frank, honest, funny, entertaining, upbeat.
For Iommi, one of the biggest problems was that much of his life with Sabbath was so well documented there was hardly anything more to say. Which makes the other side of his story – the hitherto unrevealed private section – even more fascinating. For instance, the fact that he is an only child.
“I can’t say how that affected me compared to those who had brothers or sisters. Well, there was a time when my parents took in this guy. He was our lodger, but slept in the same room as me. I hated the situation. Suddenly, I wasn’t the centre of attention. It seemed to me I was being sidelined for someone who wasn’t even family.”
He looks a little tense as he talks about his upbringing and the way it affected him. But that’s part of the learning curve. Once you’ve gone public with this information, you have to expect to be probed about it.
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“My paternal grandfather had money, although that didn’t mean my father did. In fact, we really didn’t have much. The first house we lived was OK, but when we moved to a shop in Aston, I hated it. The carpet and lino were wearing badly, and my room was just so small. There were boxes all over it, which cut the size down even further. It was a horrible time. And the area was also bad. Lots of gang problems.”
Black Sabbath‘s Tony Iommi performing onstage in the late 1960s (Image credit: Ellen Poppinga – K & K/Redferns)
Yet it’s this very grimness that many believe helped to turn Birmingham into the home of metal. It’s something of which Iommi is fully aware. In fact, he recalls vividly what it was like to be a young, aspiring musician in the city.
This feature originally appeared in Metal Hammer issue 224, September 2011 (Image credit: Future)
“It was very different type of community to, say, London. But we didn’t all know each other, despite playing in the same venues all the time. Sabbath knew Robert Plant and John Bonham from Led Zeppelin. They were local lads and John was in a different band every week, or so it seemed. He ended up being the best man at my first wedding. But the attitude in Birmingham at the time was that if you were in a band, then you stuck with them. You didn’t go off and play with others – that was seen as being disloyal. Today, everybody seems to have side-projects and plays with anyone. But in the late 1960s, if you were in a band, then that’s where you belonged. It was like a gang mentality, and you never changed gang membership!”
This sense of belonging together gave a lot of the local acts a feeling of camaraderie, something that perhaps helped to keep the city apart from other areas of the country where the loyalty factor was overridden by the demand for success. And Iommi still remembers Sabbath’s first ever London gig with a shudder.
“We played the Speakeasy, and we just felt out of place. Everyone looked so posh compared to us, and we really didn’t belong there at all. It took us ages to come to terms with London.”
It wasn’t only in the capital where Iommi had a sense of unease. If he turned to his family, he’d have his musical aspirations derided.
“Everyone – my parents, cousins, the whole family – kept telling me I needed to get a proper job and stop wasting my time. Well, I did have a job in a factory, but I was committed to being a professional musician.”
However, attitudes weren’t totally cut and dried. Iommi’s mother, in particular, actually played a role in helping the band.
“My dad liked Ozzy a lot, and thought he was really funny – which he was. But it was my mum who helped us out. She’d put up the money for us to hire a van for a gig. But then an hour later, she’d be going on at me. ‘When are you getting a proper job?’ she’d say like everyone else. It confused me, so much, the switch from being supportive to suddenly being the opposite.
“My mum came to a few gigs in the early days. But she thought we were too loud!”
“Oh, that’s when everyone was suddenly proud of me and what I’d done,” smirks the guitarist. “Members of the family would go round telling everyone that they were my cousin, uncle or whatever.”
It wasn’t just his family who failed to take Black Sabbath seriously. The band were shunned by the city of Birmingham for years.
“We were ignored for so long. That’s why it means so much that the city council gave their approval recently for the Home Of Metal exhibition, which celebrates what Birmingham has done for metal. Recognition at last.
“Up until this happened, we were ignored, and we’ve always not only been proud to be from here, we’ve also actively supported what’s going on. We’ve never made any big fuss about it, but Sabbath have donated money to hospitals for beds and much-needed machines, and to other local charities. The thing is, we did it without looking for publicity.
“I do remember a while ago when someone suggested the council erect a statue of us. It was covered on the local TV news, and afterwards two women said on air (adopts a sneering voice), ‘They want to put up a statue to them?’ So, I’m glad for the acceptance now.”
No rock autobiography would be complete without drug stories. And Iommi doesn’t hold back about the excesses he and the rest of Sabbath enjoyed during the hedonistic 1970s. But he’s also prepared now to talk about how hypocritical he was in the mid-1980s.
“When Glenn Hughes was in Sabbath (for the 1986 album Seventh Star), he was having major drug problems. In the end we had to get rid of him because of it. He was doing so much coke. By then I was off the stuff, although I’ll admit I did have the occasional line. So I was guilty of having a go at Glenn about his problems, while sneaking off to have a little myself!”
Iommi reveals that, for him, breaking the drug habit wasn’t as tough as it was for others.
“I’ve always been lucky in that I can stop doing something when I want. I did it with coke, also drinking and smoking, I just quit them. Sure, I did have the very occasional lapse, but I’ve not done even that for years. What happened was that when I lived in LA, coke was so easily available that it became very natural. You didn’t have to go too far to get any. But when I moved back to England, it was so much harder to find. And that encouraged me to quit.
“My second wife, Melinda, was always good at spotting when I’d been doing drugs. It didn’t matter how much I’d lie and deny it, all she’d say is, ‘I can tell when you’ve been doing it!’”
Black Sabbath in 1970: (from left) Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Bill Ward, Ozzy Osbourne (Image credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Iommi has three ex-wives (he’s now married to Maria Sjöholm, who is described in the book as the love of his life), and the guitarist admits writing about those relationships meant he had to re-examine what went wrong with them.
“It would have been so easy just to have laid the blame on the ex-wives – and so wrong. I was at fault in my own way each time. So I had to be totally honest and tell it like it was, not like I wished it had been. I did cheat with other women, and there were other things that led to the break-up of each marriage. But that was one of the hard things with this book – opening up my private life the way it had to be done.”
Iommi also had to expose his innermost emotions over the death last year of Ronnie James Dio. And, sitting here even now talking about that painful moment clearly upsets him.
“It was the first time I’d seen a current bandmate die. We lost Ray Gillen [Sabbath singer in the mid-80s], but that was several years after he left the band. It was such a shock. Geezer was in LA with him all the time, but I was over here. One day, Geezer called and said that Ronnie’d taken a turn for the worst. I said I’d fly straight out, but he said, ‘You might not want to see the way he looks now.’ But before I could arrange to go out, he died.
“The thing is we were all getting on so well in Heaven & Hell. The problems we had in Sabbath when Ronnie was in the band were down to egos clashing, and we’d grown out of that. I’d learnt not to react when Ronnie blew up. You let it go and it passed. Before, I’d have a go back at him when he was in a mood, so things got worse.
“One of things about the funeral that sticks in my mind was seeing Ronnie’s body in the coffin. They’d done a very good job in hiding what the illness had done to him physically.”
Heaven & Hell – Bible Black (Official Music Video) – YouTube
As with anyone writing their life story, Iommi faced the publishers’ axe when it came to content. He had to cut out a lot of material, but he doesn’t feel that the book’s been compromised.
“I’d written a lot about my friends, but it was all very boring. Who wants to read about how I go out for dinner with them? It isn’t the sort of riveting stuff you expect from a book like this!
“I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I’ve written about them. I had Bev Bevan [an old friend of Iommi, who was briefly in Sabbath during the early 80s and appears on The Eternal Idol album as a guest] asking me the other day. I told him what I tell everyone: buy a copy and find out!”
Now it’s written, he certainly won’t be at a loose end, with plenty planned and rumoured. There are persistent reports of an original Black Sabbath reunion for a tour and possibly a new studio album. But the guitarist is far too wily to give anything away on this front.
“There are always stories. The Birmingham Mail took comments I’d made off the record and printed them as if it confirmed we were back together. I was indulging in speculation with a journalist I thought I could trust. Right now there’s nothing to say on the subject.”
But on stronger ground, Iommi is getting involved with the movie world. He’s signed up to compose the music for three films.
“It’s a deal with Mike Fleiss. He produced The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake and Hostel. The first film will be a horror movie. Will I have a part in it? Absolutely not!”
For Tony Iommi the future stretches out as an exciting challenge.
“I’ve always had a positive attitude to life. Whenever I’ve been knocked back, I get up and start again. I did it when I lost the tips of two fingers in an industrial accident when I was 17. Doctors told me that I had no hope of playing guitar again. I refused to accept that. When I heard what Django Reinhardt, the jazz guitarist did with just two fingers it inspired me to find a way to carry on and become a musician. After that anything was – and is – possible!”
Originally published in Metal Hammer issue 224, September 2011
Malcolm Dome had an illustrious and celebrated career which stretched back to working for Record Mirror magazine in the late 70s and Metal Fury in the early 80s before joining Kerrang! at its launch in 1981. His first book, Encyclopedia Metallica, published in 1981, may have been the inspiration for the name of a certain band formed that same year. Dome is also credited with inventing the term “thrash metal” while writing about the Anthrax song Metal Thrashing Mad in 1984. With the launch of Classic Rock magazine in 1998 he became involved with that title, sister magazine Metal Hammer, and was a contributor to Prog magazine since its inception in 2009. He died in 2021.
Thom Yorke may be one of the most singular artists of his generation but the Radiohead frontman has always played well with others. Whether with his OG band, his recent work with The Smile or his solo work, he has been a keen collaborator across one of the most eclectic careers in modern rock. He continued that theme on a recent collaborative single with the electronic producer Mark Pritchard titled Back In The Game, a pulsing slow-techno banger pairing menacing vocals with glitchy beats and swirling synths. Away from his own projects, Yorke has often lent his vocals to songs by other artists, jumping from genre to genre and always adding another level to tracks with his rich, emotive voice. Here’s the ten best times Yorke popped up as a guest and stole the show…
PJ Harvey – This Mess We’re In (2000)
One of the most captivating moments from PJ Harvey’s masterful Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea is this tender duet between the Dorset singer-songwriter and Yorke. It was released the same month as Radiohead’s Kid A, an album on which Yorke was trying to do anything but sound tuneful, but on Harvey’s song he lets the melody lead the way.
Björk – I’ve Seen It All (2000)
Around the time that Yorke appeared on this track from Björk’s Selmasongs, the soundtrack for a film titled Dancer In The Dark in which she starred, the Icelandic polymath described Yorke as her favourite male singer in the world. He lives up to the praise on a gently stirring hymnal where the dual vocals tiptoe around each other and stirring strings slowly unfurl.
Sparklehorse – Wish You Were Here (1997)
The late, great Mark Linkous, frontman of US indie-rockers Sparklehorse, was a remarkable songwriting talent but it wasn’t one of his songs he invited Yorke to guest on. Instead, it was this haunting, Americana-ish reworking of the Pink Floyd classic, recorded for the 1997 EMI compilation Come Again. Yorke’s vocals, sort of used as an atmospheric instrument around Linkous’ hushed delivery, were apparently recorded over the phone.
Drugstore – El Presidente (1998)
London indie-rock crew Drugstore had toured in support of Radiohead in the mid-90s and they got Thom on board for this tribute to former Chilean Salvador Allende, Yorke vocally sparring with Brazilian vocalist Isabel Monteiro over a soaring, Latin-tinged backing.
EL PRESIDENT HD Drugstore feat Thom Yorke new edit – YouTube
The team-up between Yorke and Pritchard has its roots in the latter’s remixes of songs from Radiohead’s 2012 album The King Of Limbs but Beautiful People, from Pritchard’s 2016 album Under The Sun, was the first music they made together. It’s brilliant, a hazy, ambient techno gem.
Mark Pritchard – Beautiful People (Official Video) ft. Thom Yorke – YouTube
Not a recording but this is too good to leave off. Radiohead pair Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood had already shown their love of this Portishead track by posting an acoustic cover but this goes one further, Yorke joining the trip-hop pioneers onstage at Latitude Festival for a genius performance of their electronic-folk masterpiece.
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The Rip – Portishead with Thom Yorke Live @ Latitude Festival, 2015-07-18 [MultiCam] – YouTube
Yorke gets his glam on here, doing a surprisingly nifty Bryan Ferry impression on this Roxy Music cover recorded for Todd Haynes’ rock’n’roll film Velvet Goldmine. The Venus In Furs was a group assembled especially for the soundtrack, comprising Yorke and Jonny Greenwood from Radiohead, Roxy Music’s Andy Mackay, Suede’s Bernard Butler and David Gray session player Craig McClune.
UNKLE – Rabbit In Your Headlights (1998)
The standout track on Psyence Fiction, the 1998 debut album from a project headed up by samplist trailblazer DJ Shadow and dance producer James Lavelle. A stark piano piece increasingly ambushed by frenzied breakbeats and dubby grooves, it introduced an experimental, electronic sound that Yorke would go on to explore more fully in both Radiohead and his solo material. The song often crops up at his solo live shows.
German electro duo Modeselektor roped in Yorke on this cut from their Monkeytown album. Yorke also appeared on the record’s This, but Shipwreck is the pick of the bunch, Yorke’s quietly commanding vocal holding its own against a tidal wave of frenetic beats and synth bass patterns.
Burial, Four Tet, Thom Yorke – Her Revolution (2020)
Talk about a coming together of experts in their field – Her Revolution sees Yorke unite with dubstep supremo Burial and ambient and dance maven Four Tet for a dreamy, downtempo ballad.
Burial, Four Tet, Thom Yorke – Her Revolution – YouTube
Since opening its doors in September 2023, the Sphere in Las Vegas has offered an unprecedented concert experience.
The technological marvel is truly something to behold, with state of the art visuals accompanied by incredible audio technology. UCR writers have taken in a handful of shows at the venue – including U2, Dead & Company and the Eagles – and each one of them has returned raving about the venue’s seemingly limitless possibilities.
So how could live music’s most exciting new location be facing financial hardship? Like most things in big business, the explanation is complicated.
Record-Breaking Price Tag
The Sphere has been operating at a loss since before they turned on their stunning exterior lights – It isn’t because of the electricity bill. It took five years – from 2018 to 2023 – for the Sphere to be built, with a final price tag of $2.3 billion, making it the most expensive concert venue in history. Even with excitement surrounding the Sphere’s opening, that’s a steep hole to climb out of.
Some pundits have questioned the Sphere’s business model. Concerts remain the biggest draw, yet the venue only appeals to a narrow lane of acts. The Sphere is designed for long residencies, and isn’t a reasonable option for bands looking to book a show or two as part of a larger tour. The list of artists who could successfully sell-out extensive blocks of shows is impressive, yet short.
To that end, the venue has continued branching out beyond concerts, hosting sporting events, multi-sensory films and even high-level corporate engagements. Sphere has also generated substantial income from advertising thanks to its otherworldly exoskeleton, which remains one of the most stunning displays in the world.
Despite such progress, Sphere Entertainment, the venue’s parent company, continues to operate at a loss. A report in Feb. 2025 noted that the company was carrying $1.5 billion in debt. Sphere Entertainment later reported an operating loss of $142.9 million for the first quarter of 2025 – a number that was actually slightly better than the same time period in 2024.
Now, there are signs that public interest in the Sphere has begun to ever-so-slightly fade. Concert tickets which were almost impossible to come by in the venue’s early days are now regularly available on the night of a show. Meanwhile, prices for the Sphere Experience – an immersive attraction paired with the showing of the Darren Aronofsky film Postcard from Earth – have dropped from $119 to $99. While some slowing is natural with any heavily-hyped project, can the Sphere really afford to see a dip in sales?
MSG Networks Dragging Down Sphere?
Sphere Entertainment has two business segments: its namesake Las Vegas venue and MSG Networks. While the former faces questions about its long term sustainability, the latter is mired in a financial spiral.
For decades, MSG Networks thrived as a regional sports network for the Mid-Atlantic. As home to the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils, it certainly carried plenty of marquee events. But like almost all regional sports networks, it has been hit hard by cord-cutting and various league-wide deals for national broadcasts. MSG Networks’ revenue has continually declined, and it sits more than $800 million in debt.
“If MSG Networks is not successful in negotiating a refinancing or work-out of its indebtedness, the company believes it is probable that MSG Networks and/or its subsidiaries would seek bankruptcy protection or the lenders would foreclose on the MSG Networks collateral securing the credit facilities,” Sphere Entertainment noted on their quarterly results call.
Since MSG Network is owned by a separate arm of the company, creditors wouldn’t be able to make a claim on Sphere, even though it shares a corporate parent. Some outside analysts have actually suggested that the Sphere would be able to right its ship much faster if it was able to rid itself of the financial weight of MSG Networks.
What Does This Mean for the Sphere’s Future?
While there are certainly some warning signs, it’s still business as usual for the Sphere. Executive Chairman and CEO James Dolan remains bullish on the endeavor, and continually insists there are more acts who want to perform at the venue than there are dates available to play. In addition to continuing shows from the Eagles and Dead & Company, pop star Harry Styles is rumored to have a residency on the horizon.
Meanwhile, a second Sphere is already in the works for Abu Dhabi, though details surrounding the project remain murky, with no official ground breaking date announced. Sphere Entertainment is also reportedly toying with the concept of building smaller Sphere venues that could seat around 5,000 people, a quarter of the size of their landmark Las Vegas location.
![The Rip - Portishead with Thom Yorke Live @ Latitude Festival, 2015-07-18 [MultiCam] - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vzXRW5Yw4Uk/maxresdefault.jpg)
