Stoneground, a band born in Concord, California, in 1970, emerged as a distinctive voice in the American rock scene with their blend of rock, blues, and folk influences. This unique group was initially envisioned as part of a broader multimedia project spearheaded by radio DJ and music entrepreneur Tom Donahue. Comprised of an eclectic lineup of musicians, the band quickly gained recognition for their multi-vocalist approach, blending male and female voices to create rich harmonies that stood out against the backdrop of early 1970s rock.
The original lineup of Stoneground was as diverse as their sound. It included Tim Barnes on guitar, bassist John Blakeley, and Michael Mau on drums, with a vocal lineup featuring Annie Sampson, Lynne Hughes, and Deirdre LaPorte. Sal Valentino, formerly of The Beau Brummels, added his distinctive voice and experience to the mix, while Cory Lerios and David Jenkins contributed on keyboards and guitar, respectively. This dynamic group of musicians brought their individual talents together to create a sound that was both timeless and innovative.
The band’s inception was intertwined with Donahue’s vision of a traveling rock revue, and Stoneground soon became part of the “Medicine Ball Caravan” tour, a countercultural project akin to the famous Woodstock film. Their participation in this tour, which included performances across the United States and Europe, provided the band with valuable exposure and helped them hone their craft on the road. The Medicine Ball Caravan experience was captured in a 1971 documentary, solidifying Stoneground’s place in the annals of rock history.
Over the years, Stoneground experienced several lineup changes, which brought fresh perspectives and new dimensions to their music. Members like Cory Lerios and David Jenkins departed to form Pablo Cruise, while others joined and left in a revolving-door fashion that was common among bands of the era. Despite these changes, Stoneground managed to maintain their core identity, built around their powerful vocal arrangements and diverse instrumentation.
Stoneground released their self-titled debut album in 1971, followed by several others, including Stoneground 3 (1972) and Family Album (1972). These records showcased their ability to blend genres, incorporating elements of country rock, gospel, and blues into their repertoire. Songs like “Passion Flower,” “Rainy Day in June,” and their covers of classic tracks demonstrated their versatility and artistic ambition. Although they did not achieve significant commercial success, their music resonated deeply with a dedicated fan base, earning them a cult following that persists to this day.
One of Stoneground’s most notable contributions to music was their emphasis on collaborative artistry and community. The band’s multi-vocalist approach not only set them apart but also highlighted the importance of collective creativity. Their performances were marked by an infectious energy and a sense of inclusivity that drew audiences into their world, creating a shared musical experience that transcended individual egos.
Beyond their music, members of Stoneground contributed to the broader cultural landscape of the 1970s. Their involvement in projects like the Medicine Ball Caravan highlighted their commitment to the countercultural ideals of the era, emphasizing themes of unity, peace, and artistic freedom. While awards and chart-topping hits eluded them, the band’s legacy lies in their ability to capture the spirit of their time and translate it into music that remains relevant and inspiring.
Today, Stoneground is remembered as a band that defied conventions and embraced the communal spirit of rock music. Their innovative sound, diverse lineup, and commitment to artistic exploration have cemented their place in the history of American rock. While they may not have achieved widespread commercial acclaim, their influence on the genre and their dedication to creative authenticity continue to inspire musicians and fans alike.
# 10 – Dancin’
This is a great track to introduce the music of Stoneground to anyone who has never heard of this band. Dancin was the opening track on the band’s third album. It would be the band’s final record before most of the original group left the band.
# 9 – Total Destruction to Your Mind
Now, that’s what you call a rock and roll title. “Total Destruction to Your Mind” was released on the band’s classic double LP Family Affair. I love the photograph on the album cover; it just perfectly captures early 70s rock and roll culture, as does this stunning, grooving tune. This one will not destroy your mind, but it will totally blow it away. This band really jams on this track. There’s even a drum solo.
# 8 – Prove It
“Prove It” stands as one of the defining tracks from Hearts of Stone, the 1978 album that marked Stoneground’s return to a major label after a tumultuous period of lineup changes and independent releases. Produced by Bob Gaudio, the track was recorded at Record Plant in Sausalito, California, and served as the album’s lead single.
The song features a tight, driving groove, propelled by Sammy Piazza’s crisp drumming and Terry Davis’ pulsing bass work. The addition of Lenny Lee Goldsmith on vocals and keyboards added a new dimension to the band’s sound, complementing the powerhouse lead vocals of Jo Baker and Annie Sampson. The interplay between Tim Barnes’ guitar licks and Fred Webb’s keyboard textures creates a rich sonic backdrop, with Jerry Peterson’s saxophone injecting an extra layer of intensity. As a single, “Prove It” was meant to reintroduce Stoneground to a wider audience, blending their signature roots-rock sensibility with a more polished, radio-friendly production.
Despite the strength of the track and the band’s ambitious return to the mainstream, Hearts of Stone struggled commercially, leading Warner Bros.
# 7 – Added Attraction (Come And See Me)
Once you get past the annoying announcer in this video below, the following musical performance stands as a great musical presentation of what this band was all about. Don’t miss this one, take a few minutes and watch it. The song was released on the band’s debut album.
# 6 – Down to the Bottom
Released on the band’s third album, Stoneground 3, this one is a lot of fun. I love the backing vocals on this track.
# 5 – Looking For You
Simply smoking stuff from the band’s debut album. Listen to that guitar work at the song’s start. The song lands a little differently from what you’re expecting, but still eventually takes off again.
# 4 – You Must Be One of Us
From the wonderful Family Affair album released in 1971.The album was produced by Tom Donahue, Sal Valentino, and Ron Elliott, with recording sessions taking place in San Francisco. The lineup on this track includes Sal Valentino on vocals, Tim Barnes and Luther Bildt on guitars, Mike Mau on drums, John Blakeley on bass, and vocalists Lynne Hughes, Annie Sampson, Lydia Moreno, and Deirdre LaPorte.
# 3 – Passion Flower
Just listen to the great blues piano opening on this killer track. Lynne Hughes’ vocal performance takes it to another level. The song was featured on the band’s double album Family Affair.
# 2 – Queen Sweet Dreams
“Queen Sweet Dreams” is another standout track from Stoneground’s 1971 album, Family Album.
# 1 – Colonel Chicken Fry
Featured on their self-titled debut album released in 1971.
Check out more Robert Plant articles on ClassicRockHistory.com Just click on any of the links below……
After the Thrill Is Gone – One of These Nights (1975) Already Gone – On the Border (1974) Best of My Love – On the Border (1974) Bitter Creek – Desperado (1973) Business as Usual – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Busy Being Fabulous – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Center of the Universe – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Certain Kind of Fool – Desperado (1973) Chug All Night – Eagles (1972) Desperado – Desperado (1973) Do Something – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Doolin-Dalton – Desperado (1973) Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (Reprise) – Desperado (1973) Doolin-Dalton (Instrumental) – Desperado (1973)
(E-H)
Earlybird – Eagles (1972) Frail Grasp on the Big Picture – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Funk 49 – Hotel California (40th Anniversary Bonus Disc) (1976) Fast Company – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Good Day in Hell – On the Border (1974) Guilty of the Crime – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Heartache Tonight – The Long Run (1979) Hole in the World – Long Road Out of Eden (Deluxe Edition) (2007) Hollywood Waltz – One of These Nights (1975) Hotel California – Hotel California (1976) How Long – Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
(I-J)
I Can’t Tell You Why – The Long Run (1979) I Don’t Want to Hear Any More – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) I Dreamed There Was No War – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) I Love to Watch a Woman Dance – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) I Wish You Peace – One of These Nights (1975) In the City – The Long Run (1979) Is It True? – On the Border (1974) It’s Your World Now – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) James Dean – On the Border (1974) Journey of the Sorcerer – One of These Nights (1975)
(K-N)
King of Hollywood – The Long Run (1979) Last Good Time in Town – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Life in the Fast Lane – Hotel California (1976) Long Road Out of Eden – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Lyin’ Eyes – One of These Nights (1975) Midnight Flyer – On the Border (1974) Most of Us Are Sad – Eagles (1972) My Man – On the Border (1974) New Kid in Town – Hotel California (1976) Nightingale – Eagles (1972) No More Cloudy Days – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) No More Walks in the Wood – Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
(O-S)
Ol’ ’55 – On the Border (1974) On the Border – On the Border (1974) One of These Nights – One of These Nights (1975) Out of Control – Desperado (1973) Outlaw Man – Desperado (1973) Peaceful Easy Feeling – Eagles (1972) Please Come Home for Christmas – Long Road Out of Eden (Deluxe Edition) (2007) Pretty Maids All in a Row – Hotel California (1976) Saturday Night – Desperado (1973) Somebody – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) State of the Universe – Long Road Out of Eden (2007)
(T)
Take It Easy – Eagles (1972) Take It to the Limit – One of These Nights (1975) Take the Devil – Eagles (1972) Teenage Jail – The Long Run (1979) Tequila Sunrise – Desperado (1973) The Disco Strangler – The Long Run (1979) The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks – The Long Run (1979) The Last Resort – Hotel California (1976) The Long Run – The Long Run (1979) The Sad Café – The Long Run (1979) Those Shoes – The Long Run (1979) Too Many Hands – One of These Nights (1975) Train Leaves Here This Morning – Eagles (1972) Try and Love Again – Hotel California (1976) Tryin’ – Eagles (1972) Twenty-One – Desperado (1973)
(U-Z)
Victim of Love – Hotel California (1976) Visions – One of These Nights (1975) Waiting in the Weeds – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) Wasted Time – Hotel California (1976) Wasted Time (Reprise) – Hotel California (1976) Witchy Woman – Eagles (1972) What Do I Do with My Heart – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) You Are Not Alone – Long Road Out of Eden (2007) You Never Cry Like a Lover – On the Border (1974)
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Eagles articles, detailing in-depth the band’s albums, songs, band members, and more…all on ClassicRockHistory.com
Brian Kachejian was born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of ClassicRockHistory.com. He has spent thirty years in the music business often working with many of the people who have appeared on this site. Brian Kachejian also holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stony Brook University along with New York State Public School Education Certifications in Music and Social Studies. Brian Kachejian is also an active member of the New York Press.
Intra-band turmoil was nothing new in Guns N’ Roses but by the beginning of 1995, irreparable cracks had begun to appear. Their imperial first phase was coming to an end and the debut album by Slash’s Snakepit, released 30 years ago this week, was a crucial nail in the coffin.
On the face of it, it didn’t need to be. Duff McKagan, after all, had released his own solo album, Believe In Me, in 1993 and then was back in G N’ R mode for their covers set “The Spaghetti Incident?”, released the same year. But Slash’s extra-curricular work, and the resultant record It’sFive O’Clock Somewhere, was different. This was an album intertwined with the ever-growing discord and division in Guns N’ Roses. In an interview just a year earlier, Slash had declared he had no interest in doing a solo project. So what changed?
It’s Five O’ Clock Somewhere began life as a bit of a laugh for the guitarist, a sort of musical release valve to offset the high-flying, high-pressured, multi-cogged machine that GN’ R had become. “I had to get away from Guns for a minute just because it’s such an institution,” Slash told Metal Edge at the time. “I want to get really inspired to do any new Guns stuff. Guns is big enough that it doesn’t matter what year we come out with a record.”
He had grown a little uneasy, he added, with what GN’ R had become. “We’d been doing so many ballads and conceptual videos that I started to get a little concerned about where it was going,” he said. He was keen for the world’s biggest rock band to start rocking again.
Looking for something to do in his downtime following the conclusion of GN’ R’s mammoth Use Your Illusion tour, the guitarist built a studio in his house (the titular Snakepit) and was keen to get down some of the ideas and riffs he’d come up with on the road, inviting drummer Matt Sorum over to help him flesh them out.
“I wrote 17 songs or something,” he told Metal Hammer in 1995. “After all that set was done, I was like, ‘What will I do with all this stuff?’. We had so much fun doing it that I wanted to keep the momentum going and didn’t want to sit around.”
The way Slash told it at the time, his next step was to put together a band around him, enlisting Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez, recently-sacked GN’ R guitarist Gilby Clarke and Jellyfish’s Eric Dover on vocals alongside himself and Sorum, and then the group set to work on making the record.
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But numerous interviews over the years have revealed that this version of events omits the fact that Slash originally intended those demos for Guns N’ Roses. He openly explained that he had played the barbed, bluesy central riff to instrumental Jizz Da Pit to Axl Rose and been knocked back. “It was a riff I’d been carrying around that Axl hated,” he said. “He called it ‘red neck’. He hated it so I never did anything with it.”
That pretty much sums up Rose’s opinion of everything Slash played him. By 2000, the guitarist was more open about where much of It’sFive O’ Clock Somewhere’s material had originated from. “On the first Snakepit record, I used some ideas which were really planned for the next GN’ R record,” he explained to Rock Hard magazine. “But Axl and I disagreed on the future direction of the band. I played Axl a demo with some of my ideas for songs and all he said was, ‘I don’t feel like playing this kind of music.’ I answered, ‘But this could be an excellent Gunner-record, hundred percent in G N’R style’. He didn’t really care because he only wanted to play industrial and Pearl Jam-sounding crap.”
“What people don’t know is, the Snakepit album is the Guns N’ Roses album,” Rose himself said in a 1999 interview with MTV’s Kurt Loder when asked on the state-of-play for a new GN’R album. “I just wouldn’t do it… I didn’t believe in it. I thought that there were riffs and parts and some ideas that needed to be developed.” In a catty swipe at what he seemingly considered to be the below-par quality of the album, Rose concluded, “I think I’m with the public on that one.”
Rose had obviously chosen to ignore the fact that It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere had actually sold over a million copies, and that its blend of up’n’at’em rock grooves and crunching riffs would’ve been a great next move for GN’R. Maybe the frontman had picked up on some of the album’s lyrical themes and the fact that a lot of these songs were about Slash’s problems with a problematic singer.
“All of my songs are directed at one person, though no-one picked up on it at the time,” Slash wrote in his autobiography. “I used that record as an opportunity to vent a lot of shit that I needed to get off my chest.”
Perhaps he didn’t vent enough, though. A year and a half later, he was gone from the band he’d joined in 1985 and who had gone on to conquer the world. The spontaneous nature of It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere’s creation and the intimate club shows he’d played to support it had reminded Slash of what GN’R once had and lost. For now, the Snakepit was where he felt most at home.
Niall Doherty is a writer and editor whose work can be found in Classic Rock, The Guardian, Music Week, FourFourTwo, on Apple Music and more. Formerly the Deputy Editor of Q magazine, he co-runs the music Substack letter The New Cue with fellow former Q colleagues Ted Kessler and Chris Catchpole. He is also Reviews Editor at Record Collector. Over the years, he’s interviewed some of the world’s biggest stars, including Elton John, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Muse, Pearl Jam, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Robert Plant and more. Radiohead was only for eight minutes but he still counts it.
Spring Into It: Here’s How You Can Win a $500 Prepaid Visa Gift Card
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*This is a multi-market contest open to residents of the contiguous United States who are at least 18 at the time of entry. One (1) winner will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received on Monday, March 31, 2025.*
QUIZ: Can you identify 50 famous companies by their logos?
How well do you know the logos of 50 of the world’s most famous companies? Keep scrolling to see if you can guess which icon belongs to which brand.
LOOK: Food history from the year you were born
From product innovations to major recalls, Stacker researched what happened in food history every year since 1921, according to news and government sources.
(Image credit: Sacha Lecca/Rolling Stone via Getty Images))
Pulp have announced six arena shows in the UK and Ireland to take place in June.
The tour will kick off at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on June 7, and take in visits to Dublin, London (two nights at the 02 Arena), and Birmingham, before closing on June 21 at Manchester Co-op Live.
The dates are:
Jun 07: Glasgow, OVO Hydro Jun 10: Dublin 3Arena, Ireland Jun 13: London The O2 Jun 14: London The O2 Jun 19: Birmingham Utilita Arena Jun 21: Manchester Co-op Live
Tickets for the shows go on general sale next Friday, February 21, at 9:30am.
Fans who sign up to Pulp’s mailing list by midnight on Monday, February 17, will be eligible for a pre-sale, scheduled to begin at 9:30am on February 18.
In a press release announcing the band’s summer sessions, Jarvis Cocker says, “You deserve more & we have more. In fact, we have More – (but that’s a whole other story… you’ll have to wait a little more time to hear that one). In the meantime: see you this Summer!”
Jarvis Cocker’s band played two shows in Japan last month, and also have summer festival appearances lined up in the UK (Tramlines, in Sheffield, on July 25) and Spain (Bilbao BBK 2025, July 10-12).
Last year the reactivated Britpop legends announced that they have signed a record deal with Rough Trade Records.
“Rough Trade have managed Pulp for over 30 years so it feels great to be finally on the label” they stated. “We did it!”
The Sheffield group have premiered a number of unreleased songs since their reunion.
These include A Sunset (co-written with fellow Yorkshireman Richard Hawley), Hymn Of The North (debuted at Sheffield Arena on July 15, 2023) and Background Noise, performed for the first time at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico in November ’23, during the Corona Capital Festival. and Spike Island, premiered at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom on September 8 last year.
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A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
“The wolves are howling with great soul, great passion… it’s jazz, the jazz wolf of the Arctic tundra.” Former Police drum legend Stewart Copeland on recording his new album with wolves, hyenas and a black-footed albatross
(Image credit: Lester Cohen/Getty Images for The Recording Academy | Anthony Souffle/Star Tribune via Getty Images)
Stewart Copeland, former drummer with The Police, has announced the imminent release of one of his most ambitious and audacious albums, a concerto fusing orchestral compositions with authentic animal sounds, recorded in the field by celebrated British naturalist Martyn Stewart.
Inspired by the migration of the Arctic tern from pole to pole, Wild Concerto will be released by Platoon Records on April 18, and will be premiered live on Earth Day, April 22, to underscore its environmental message.
In a video released to tease the concerto, Copeland says, “This project is the culmination of everything that I learned as a film composer, and then the years since as an opera composer, taking all that I’ve learned about how the orchestra works and guides emotions. I don’t have a soprano and a tenor, I’ve got hyena and wolves and all different kinds of birds howling away.”
In the video, producer Ricky Kej describes Martyn Stewart as “The David Attenborough of Sound”.
Copeland adds: “In my comfortable air-conditioned studio as I’m composing these sounds I am very aware of Martin out there on his hands and knees in the deepest jungles getting bitten by tsetse fly, Black Mamba, tarantula. Because he has to go far, far away because of sound pollution he’s got to go way out there to get this incredible library of sounds.”
Talking exclusively to The Guardian about his new ‘bandmates’, which include an Asian barred owlet, a black-footed albatross, and red deer, Copeland says, “Their voices bring an unparalleled authenticity to the music.”
“They all have their own individual, often atonal melodies but when you put a flute against a red-breasted nuthatch, for example, the synergy is amazing. I picked out sounds that I felt were the soloists, like the wolves, and others that were more atmospheric, like the wild winds of Antarctica, and treated them in a similar way to a trombone or a guitar … The wolves are howling with great soul, great passion, and accompanied by a trombone following their line. It’s jazz, the jazz wolf of the Arctic tundra.”
Watch the teaser video, and listen to the album’s first single White Throated Sparrow (Is Happy On the Glacier), below:
Stewart Copeland | Wild Concerto : Teaser – YouTube
The latest news, features and interviews direct to your inbox, from the global home of alternative music.
A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne’s private jet, played Angus Young’s Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.
It was a time of upheaval and tragedy, yet Coda, In Through The Out Door and Presence showcase some of Led Zeppelin’s most intriguing work. In late 2014, as Jimmy Page put the finishing touches to the deluxe edition editions of those albums, he spoke with Classic Rock.
Whenever Jimmy Page is asked a question that he’s uncomfortable about answering, his body language betrays him. His shoulder twitches and his lips purse. He will answer, although not necessarily the question you asked. It’s a game. And a game that Jimmy Page is an old hand at.
Led Zeppelin’s guitarist/producer/gatekeeper has been on the campaign trail since March 2014. Since then, each Zeppelin album has been remastered and reissued under Page’s watchful eye. For seasoned Zeppelin followers, it’s been like having several Christmases in a year. For Jimmy Page, it’s meant answering – and sometimes dodging – questions about Robert Plant’s solo career, groupies, drugs and Satan. There’s been a lot of shoulder-twitching and lip-pursing these past 16 months.
Now, though, Page’s work is done. This month sees the release of the final three: 1976’s Presence, 1979’s In Through The Out Door and 1982’s out-takes collection, Coda. But for Page, will it ever really be done?
We meet on a Friday afternoon in West London in what was once Olympic Studios and is now a private members’ club. Page is wearing regulation black and a raffish scarf, and looking eerily healthy for a septuagenarian rumoured to have spent years gone by in a pharmaceutical haze.
Earlier, he hosted a playback of tracks from the new reissues. The club’s impeccable sound system pumped new life into every note and nuance. Tell Page this, and the inscrutable gaze softens and the eyes light up. The problem is, we’re here to talk about Coda, but also Zeppelin’s final album, In Through The Out Door.
Previously, Page has described it as “too polished” and “not really us”, though Zeppelin’s worst is better than some groups at their best. Perhaps it’s not helped by the fact that it came after the guitar-heavy Presence, rumoured to be Page’s personal favourite. Either way, let the twitching and lip-pursing begin.
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Is Presence really your favourite Led Zeppelin album?
I certainly really like it. It’s a bit of a muso’s album, though, isn’t it? So many times, I speak to people and they say that Presence is their favourite, and it always surprises me, because you’ve got to really listen to what’s going on.
It wasn’t made under the easiest of circumstances, was it?
No. Robert had had his accident [a car crash in Rhodes in August ’75], so his leg was in plaster in the studio. So that was a set of circumstances right there that wasn’t in script. So Presence was very reflective of what was going on – a lot of darkness and intensity. There’s some extraordinary stuff on there: from my point of view, Achilles Last Stand, but also Tea For One, where Robert is singing his heart out.
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 213 (January 2015) (Image credit: Future)
When Led Zeppelin played the Presence track For Your Life at the O2 reunion, could you see that some of the audience didn’t know it.
Yes, I could. Some reviewers even wrote it was a new song [looks appalled]. Mind you, perhaps that shows how popular Presence is in the grand scheme of things! [Laughs]
On the deluxe edition there’s a piano ballad called Pod. But it feels like the beginning of In Through The Out Door rather than part of Presence.
Yes. It wasn’t going to go on Presence because Presence was a guitar album. But [bassist] John Paul Jones presented this piece, and it says something that in among all that intensity and darkness we could do something like this. It was good enough for In Through The Out Door, but by then we’d done a new set of writing.
(Image credit: Atlantic Records)
Before Led Zeppelin started In Through The Out Door, they had to survive 1977. On July 24, they played what turned out to be their final US gig at San Francisco’s Oakland Coliseum. All the darkness and intensity of Presence reached fever pitch, when drummer John Bonham helped beat up a security guard backstage. Worse was to come. A day later, Robert Plant learned that his young son, Karac, had died from a viral infection at home in the UK. “It was a terrible time, God, yes,” sighs Page.
And one that led to Plant walking away from Led Zeppelin. When he returned, he was keen for the band to do something different in the studio, “something more conscientious and less animal”, he said later.
Plant wasn’t the only one with new ideas. When Zeppelin reconvened in May 1978 at Clearwell Castle, in the Forest Of Dean, John Paul Jones unveiled his new toy, a Yamaha GX-1 keyboard. “Stevie Wonder had one,” says Page, “We called it The Dream Machine. Immediately, John Paul started writing full numbers on it.”
Plant and Jones’s new ideas and instruments would have a major impact when Zeppelin arrived at ABBA’s Polar Studios, in Stockholm, to start work on their next album.
How did Led Zeppelin end up recording in ABBA’s studio?
They contacted me. The studio was only known for ABBA and they wanted an internationally known rock group to record there, and would Led Zeppelin consider it. We had a chat and they said they’d be generous with studio time. We went out there in December [’78], I think. It was biting cold, snow everywhere…
Did you meet ABBA?
I met Björn [Ulvaeus] when I was setting up. I don’t think the others had got there then. He gave me a guitar, which was very sweet. A day later I met Benny [Andersson]. Björn was the blond one? Benny was the one with the beard and the keyboard, yes? [Laughs] He was very interested in John Paul’s new toy. At the time Benny was still married to Frida [Lyngstad]. So we all went out to a club together one night. They were nice people.
You didn’t meet Agnetha [Fältskog] then?
No, I was rather hoping we were going to meet Agnetha, but that wasn’t part of the deal!
Revisiting the album again, what was the first thing you noticed about it?
The album sounds a little bit contained. It was a state-of-the-art studio, but there was no ambience. We had to take the front bass skin off John Bonham’s drums. Then we had to use a machine to create a fake ambience.
How was the mood in the band at that time?
It was good, as far as I knew.
Robert Plant has said that his lyrics to Carouselambra (‘And powerless the fabled sat/Too smug to lift a hand…’) are about the tension in the band at the time. Did you know that?
I’m sure they were… but I didn’t know. The way we listened to music then was to make your own interpretation. We were still a few years away from videos where they told you what the song was about. In the early stages of Led Zeppelin I wrote lyrics. But if I’d concentrated on lyrics I wouldn’t have been able to give as much attention to the guitars.
Led Zeppelin – Presence (Super Deluxe Unboxing Video) – YouTube
John Paul Jones remembered the Polar sessions like so: “The band was splitting between people who could turn up at recording sessions on time and people who couldn’t,” he told Zeppelin biographer Barney Hoskyns in 2012.
Those who couldn’t were Bonham and Page, both of whom were supposedly using heroin. Ask Page about his drug use and he clams up, every time. He doesn’t deny it, but insists that, whatever else he was doing at the time, he was always ready to work.
“When I needed to be focused, I was really focused,” he said. “Presence and In Through The Out Door were only recorded in three weeks. That’s really going some. You’ve got to be on top of it.”
But although he produced the album, as usual, In Through The Out Door is the only Zeppelin release to include original songs not written or co‑written by Page. After seven studio albums in which his iron grip on Led Zeppelin never weakened, you can’t help wondering why it did so at the end.
In Through The Out Door is very much the Plant/Jones album. The impression is that they were in a huddle together while you were otherwise engaged.
[Long pause]. Hmm… I do remember them being in a huddle, yes. That was good, though, wasn’t it? I had done a serious amount of writing all the way through and having done all the writing on Presence, I was relieved. Okay, Robert and John Paul are writing numbers together? Let them do it. Cool. I was very happy about it.
Really?
Yes, really, because I had just done a whole guitar album.
In Through The Out Door is quite a lightweight album. Fool In The Rain and All My Love are very poppy. What did you think of those songs?
I think they’re good. They’re alright. It was another dimension. On Presence, I wanted to do something that made a show of the guitars. That’s why Achilles Last Stand was a guitar orchestra extraordinaire. But with Fool In The Rain, even with the chorus and the acoustic guitars, when it comes to the solo, I employed a sound that made people go, “What the hell was that?” – even on a keyboard album. It made you think.
Were you aware that All My Love was about Robert’s son Karac?
Yes. I realised that it was over time.
Let’s pick a track at random: the piano number, South Bound Suarez. What do you remember about that?
I remember everything. I honestly do. What do you wanna know? Yeah, it’s a piano number, and I played a [B-] string-bender on the chorus [long pause]. Look, it was a departure…. The thing with In Through The Out Door is that there’s nothing like an Achilles… or a Kashmir on there.
In The Evening comes close, though?
In The Evening is maybe in that sort of vein. People always say that that’s the song on In Through The Out Door that feels closest to the Led Zeppelin they know. And my solo on that is another one that makes you think, “What the hell?”
When Coda came out, a lot of fans wondered why that great track Wearing And Tearing hadn’t been on In Through The Out Door?
Because the album was so much lighter, it wouldn’t have fitted. Wearing And Tearing was ‘One, two, three, four, charge.’ My goodness! It was like an assault. It wasn’t in character with something like All My Love.
Do you think In Through The Out Door was just another progression? Like the one from Led Zeppelin II to III?
A logical progression, yes. But after In Through The Out Door, we would have done an album that was entirely different.
So what would the ninth Led Zeppelin album have sounded like?
[Emphatically] Riffs, interestingly constructed riffs and hypnotic music. John Bonham and I spoke about this a lot. Let’s put it this way, on the next Led Zeppelin album, John wouldn’t have been playing with brushes. John loved the idea of anything where he could really get going.
Led Zeppelin onstage in 1977 (Image credit: Jeffrey Mayer/WireImage)
Led Zeppelin IX never happened. When John Bonham died on September 25, 1980, Zeppelin died with him. Two years later came Coda, an album of outtakes, including Bonham’s drum extravaganza, Bonzo’s Montreux. The deluxe version of Coda brings more buried treasure to light, such as Friends and Four Sticks (retitled Four Hands), recorded by Page and Plant with Indian musicians in 1972.
Listening to Page discussing this material, you glimpse the obsessiveness that helped make Led Zeppelin such a force, but also a reluctance to reveal too much, as if this will diminish his and/or the music’s power. You realise why Robert Plant once described his old bandmate as “a man of mystery… hiding in shadows and peeping round corners”.
Yet, you also glimpse a more innocent time – if ‘innocence’ and ‘Led Zeppelin’ could ever be used in the same sentence – before the so-called “darkness and intensity” took over. Most of all, though, you realise how much John Bonham’s death impacted on him.
Coda seemed to creep out in 1982. There was none of the fanfare that’s accompanied these latest reissues.
It was a very difficult album to approach. We’d lost John in 1980 but even when I came to do Coda, it still felt tough [long pause]. It was a contractual album. We had to do it.
How did you approach it?
It had to have credibility, because it could have been quite unpalatable otherwise. It helped that we had Darlene, Ozone Baby and Wearing And Tearing from the Polar Sessions. And only John and I knew about Bonzo’s Montreux.
Why didn’t the others know about it?
Because it was something we did together – just him and me. John was alone in Montreux at the time [Bonham was taking a tax year out of the UK in 1976], so I went there to cheer him up. John liked all those old Sandy Nelson records, because of the drums. So we wanted to make something that sounded like a drum orchestra. It was fun, but it wouldn’t have fitted on any of the albums.
So what were you aiming for with the new Coda?
To make the mother of all Codas! [Laughs] Before I started this whole campaign, I had to know what I was saving for this one – all the little treasures.
Led Zeppelin – Coda (Super Deluxe Edition Trailer) – YouTube
Let’s talk about Friends and Four Hands, then. We’ve read about the trip you and Robert took to India in ’72, but never heard the music you made there.
We were on the plane from Australia and had to break up the journey for refuelling. I had worked out a situation where we could go into a studio [EMI Studios in Bombay] with some Indian classically trained musicians. I wanted to see if it was possible to go in with a guitar and an interpreter and make something happen.
Had these musicians heard any of Led Zeppelin’s music before?
No. It was 1972 and they were immersed in their own world. But Friends was written around the idea of Indian music. I just about managed to explain it to them. On Four Sticks, they did things in odd times and multiple beats. As far as I was concerned, I was in paradise. I’d gone in to do something that seemed impossible and I’d done it.
You were an early fan of Indian music. You owned a sitar when you were a teenager, didn’t you?
Yes [long pause]. This story has leaked out… Now I suppose it will leak out even more. I managed to acquire a sitar, when I was a teenager, early on in my session musician days. I’m not saying I was the only person interested in Indian music, and I’m not detracting from George Harrison’s sitar work but I was in there earlier… Although I had to get Ravi Shankar to show me how to tune it.
How did that happen?
I had a connection with a lady that knew Ravi Shankar and said she’d get me an introduction. I went to see him when he played in London. There were members of the Indian high commission and Indian actors there, but no other young people. I was granted an audience with the master and he showed me how do it.
Will we ever hear Jimmy Page playing sitar?
I still have the sitar and I still play, but you don’t mess with two thousand years of culture. To hear Ravi playing, now that’s amazing. It’s a spiritual discipline.
(Image credit: Neal Preston / Atlantic Records)
Ten years ago you talked to me about making a solo album. What is happening with that?
Look at the reality. Ever since the release of [the Zeppelin reunion live DVD and CD] Celebration Day [in 2012] I’ve been working on this material, selecting and rejecting, to get to where we are today. This is Led Zeppelin’s reputation. But I’m happy that it’s all accomplished. Now I can concentrate on all things guitar.
Have you actually recorded some new music?
Yes, I’ve got new music. But I haven’t worked with other musicians on any of it. But never mind what I have or where it is – is it acoustic, electric or experimental. I’d rather be seen going out there and playing publicly rather than doing it at home.
This reissues campaign had been your life for the past couple of years – but only yours. Why aren’t Robert Plant and John Paul Jones sitting here as well?
I’ve not heard from them about this new stuff, but they know how things have shaped up. But we all know I formed the band and I was the producer, and consequently I have all the points of reference, more than anyone else. [Long pause] Some people might have forgotten all the things we did, but I didn’t forget. I’m the one who knew.
With the recording device switched off, the other Jimmy Page reappears, all easy grins and friendly chit-chat. “When we talk again about my new solo album, let’s see how confident I am then,” he jokes.
But can any new music Jimmy Page makes possibly measure up to Led Zeppelin, and also to his own exacting standards? And as the now 71-year-old leader of one of the biggest rock bands of all time, who’d blame him if he never played a another note? But Page is both Led Zeppelin’s number one authority and their biggest fan. He can’t let it go. Maybe that’s why he’s so defensive when discussing In Through The Out Door. The truth is – whisper it – it wasn’t as good as the other albums, and he knows it.
As a parting shot, I tell him that there are a lot of Zeppelin fans of a certain age for whom Zeppelin’s last album was their first; who vividly remember the LP coming out, hearing In The Evening being played on the radio, and as such have a soft spot for it. “Okay,” he says, looking slightly surprised. “I can understand that. Yeah, that does makes sense.”
As he leaves the room, you notice that his shoulders are finally down, the lips are un-pursed and once again Jimmy Page is smiling.
This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock 213 (January 2015)
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So which Manic Street Preachers do we get this time? Is it the widescreen Manics, with their terrace anthems and Technicolor bleakness? Or is it the post-punk Manics, all terse, screaming riffs, balaclavas and slogans like a very cold Clash? The answer with Critical Thinking is neither. With this new record they’re not pretending to be Magazine or Guns N’ Roses. They’re not even pretending to be themselves.
This is a much more raw Manic Street Preachers, fuelled by despair as usual but also simplicity. The songs are rock throughout, with big, crunchy riffs by James Dean Bradfield and small-doubt-filled lyrics by Nicky Wire. There are also vocals by Nicky Wire, most notably on the Robocop-funk title track and the brilliant closing track One Man Militia, where, over drums reminiscent of the Sex Pistols’ No Fun, Wire lists his personal reasons to be uncheerful: ‘I don’t know what I am for but I know what I’m against’ and ‘I can’t breathe when I hate this much’.
Manic Street Preachers – Critical Thinking (Album Trailer) – YouTube
There are proper drivetime punk anthems, naturally, like recent single Decline And Fall, which shares its sense of the epic with The Mighty Wah!, and there are songs with classically Manics titles, like Brush Strokes Of Reunion – which sadly doesn’t feature Karl Howman as a painter and decorator.
People Ruin Paintings is stadium jazz, while Being Baptised is a pop song, almost. Throughout, passion and doubt run side by side, most notably on the oddly plaintive Dear Stephen, a song that basically asks Morrissey to stop being a twat.
Manic Street Preachers – Hiding in Plain Sight (Official Video) – YouTube
People who like to compare things to other things will note that this album shares some of its rawness with Postcards From A Young Man, and its affection for rock with Gold Against The Soul, but really it doesn’t sound like any Manics album. It lacks the smoothness of their recent retro-Euro albums, and tempers the fury with a vein of melancholy.
The three founding members of the Manic Street Preachers are in their mid-50s now, a time when for most artists being your own archive beckons. At this stage – 30-odd years and 15 albums – the Manic Street Preachers should be playing heritage rock shows and releasing albums to fill up the time between greatest-hits tours. Critical Thinking shows that with the Manics, rage never sleeps.
David Quantick is an English novelist, comedy writer and critic, who has worked as a journalist and screenwriter. A former staff writer for the music magazine NME, his writing credits have included On the Hour, Blue Jam, TV Burp and Veep; for the latter of these he won an Emmy in 2015.
Since the turn of the millennium, Sweden’s Grand Magus have been flag-waving champions of trad metal. But unlike their tank-loving countrymen in Sabaton or even fellow leatherwear enthusiasts Hammerfall, nobody’s ever dared call them power metal.
Spawned very much in the vision of Priest and Sabbath, theirs is a doomy take on heavy metal’s blueprint that brings it all back to the source. Now 10 albums in, Hammer caught up with frontman Janne Christofferson – or JB, as he’s better known – to talk gangs, giggle grass the disappearance of two years.
Beowulf, the Germanic Old English epic poem, is a theme throughout your new album, Sunraven. It’s perfect fit for Grand Magus; metalheads who read the tale often come away thinking ‘Some band should do an album about this…’
“I got in touch with Beowulf when I was a tiny boy, I was fascinated immediately, and it’s something I’ve carried with me all my life. Over the years we’ve picked stuff from this poem for other songs, maybe not overtly but at least subliminally. But when we started to write Sunraven, somehow it seemed the right time and the right music to fit with this concept.”
You, drummer Ludwig ‘Ludde’ Witt and bassist Mats ‘Fox’ Skinner have been together for 12 years. Presumably you’d move Heaven and Earth to keep this line-up now?
“It’s weird the way this ‘guns for hire’ thing suddenly became the norm, like everybody’s replaceable as long as one original member is still in the band. I’ve always felt that the most important thing with a band is the humans involved, the personalities. It was very important with the bands that I got into growing up. So when Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple, they did some great stuff after that, but for me it wasn’t DP. It’s an old example, but a good one! I met another of those bands a few weeks ago: Clutch. Same guys, still amazing live. It’s heartening to see they’re still the same gang.”
Have Grand Magus ever come close to splitting up?
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“When Covid struck, it was like, ‘Maybe that’s it.’ It was so extreme and unprecedented. Everything stopped, and we didn’t know if live music would ever return. If we couldn’t do it the way we used to do it, I couldn’t see any point. Why replace the memories of all the great things we’ve experienced with just standing around our rehearsal room with a video camera on? So two years pretty much disappeared, and it wasn’t until things came back properly that I felt any inclination to do anything with the band. Interaction is everything. You can write music without it, but you can’t perform.”
What’s the most you have ever laughed together?
“Me, Fox and one of our first drummers [Sebastian Sippola] were at one of the earliest festivals we ever played, and I had my first whiff of grass. It was the ‘giggle grass’, so everything struck me as hysterically funny for about three hours. It shuts off your logic! It was hysterical, but I never experienced that again. I didn’t keep that up, it was never my type of thing. I prefer alcohol.”
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
“My earliest memories are of wanting to be a zoologist or a marine biologist. Didn’t turn out that way! But nature was my earliest interest that I can recall, and when I get interested in something I’m pretty thorough. Birds of prey were a big interest, I delved into that, learned the Latin names and all that. But now it’s just a hobby – no pun intended.”
You’re touring with Opeth – an exciting Stockholm double bill. Do you go back a long way?
“When we started they were a well established band, and although they were death metal, they were always out in their own little niche. The death metal bands we hung out with in the early days were more like Dismember, Entombed and Unleashed, we met Opeth a little later on. But we know each other really well. I’m close friends with Mikael [Åkerfeldt] and Fredrik [Åkesson]; they’re all brilliant people.”
Do you keep up with the younger heavy metal bands? Any hot tips to check out?
“There are definitely some newer bands that I’ve really enjoyed, if I stumble on something when I’m looking for Uriah Heep gigs on YouTube! I like to mention Eternal Champion, Visigoth and Night Demon… although they’ve been going for many years. They’re veterans of the scene now!”
Sunraven is out now via Nuclear Blast. Grand Magus support Opeth on their UK tour from February 25.
Metal Hammer has teamed with Lacuna Coil to offer an exclusive magazine cover and signed art print.
To celebrate the release of new album Sleepless Empire on Friday (February 14), the Italian goth metal maestros have been put on the cover of Metal Hammer’s new issue, for a bumper edition that can only be found now in the Louder store. On top of that, the bundle comes with an art card signed by vocalists Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro.
Cristina is interviewed inside the magazine, talking about not just Sleepless Empire, but also Lacuna Coil’s whirlwind rise from the Italian underground to metal’s mainstream. It was a journey fraught with hard work, overzealous fans and even the involvement of the FBI!
(Image credit: Future)
“I did have actual stalkers that were potentially dangerous and would follow me around,” she tells Hammer journalist Paul Travers. “I remember them sending me weird pictures of me covered in blood or sending me pictures of a foetus.
“I reported it, and for one complete tour I had an FBI agent in every town checking on me. It was not only disturbing, it was also boring for me because I had to be confined on a tour bus every day.”
As if that weren’t enough, the new Hammer also features an extensive interview with Canadian metal’s modern greats, Spiritbox. Fresh off a nomination for Grammy Award For Best Metal Performance, singer Courtney LaPlante and guitarist Mike Stringer discuss everything to do with their long-awaited second album, Tsunami Sea.
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Other features include a deep dive into Limp Bizkit’s shocking 2020s comeback – or the “Durstnaissance” – as well as the story of Parkway Drive’s transformative metalcore anthem Vice Grip, a day in the life of Fit For An Autopsy, and gardening in a London graveyard with Wardruna.
There’s also a stacked reviews section, featuring a critique of Sleepless Empire. Lacuna Coil’s 10th album gets a glowing eight-out-of-10 from writer Holly Wright. “With Sleepless Empire, Lacuna Coil dive headfirst into their heavier side – and it works,” she declares. “This is a band that’s unafraid to evolve, to experiment and to hit hard. Gothic metal’s crown isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.”
