On September 23, 1971, Led Zeppelin played their first-ever Japanese show at Tokyo’s famous Nippon Budokan Hall, and more than half a century later more than 40 minutes of newly upscaled footage from the show has been posted online.
The two films, which were originally shot by Zeppelin fans Hideo Yamada and T. Ohtaki, were initially shared online in 2018. More recently, the footage was shipped off to the US, where it was scanned in 4K and colour-corrected to produce some of the best quality fan-shot footage from the era.
“At that time, there were almost no videos of Led Zeppelin, so we were happy just to see Led Zeppelin in action,” Yamada tells LedZepNews.
“And we were blown away by how cool Jimmy’s actions were. When the members appeared, the excitement in the venue was more exciting than in previous bands. When the performance began, the hi-hat sound bounced off both walls, and my personal first impression was that this high note was very pleasant.”
The first of the films, shot by Yamada, is a short clip featuring Dazed and Confused, Jimmy Page’s Stairway to Heaven solo and the acoustic set, while Ohtaki’s longer clip features 37 minutes of footage including Immigrant Song, Heartbreaker, Since I’ve Been Loving You, Dazed And Confused, Celebration Day, What Is And What Should Never Be, Moby Dick, Whole Lotta Love and Communication Breakdown.
“These are films I’ve waited years to work on,” say LedZepFilm, “and I’m so grateful Hideo was willing to send these reels out to the United States to be re-scanned.”
Multiple audio recordings made by audience members at the Tokyo show have circulated over the years, but it’s also been reported that the Japanese shows were professionally recorded for a mooted Japan-only live album. These recordings have never officially surfaced.
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Online Editor at Louder/Classic Rock magazinesince 2014. 39 years in music industry, online for 26. Also bylines for: Metal Hammer, Prog Magazine, The Word Magazine, The Guardian, The New Statesman, Saga, Music365. Former Head of Music at Xfm Radio, A&R at Fiction Records, early blogger, ex-roadie, published author. Once appeared in a Cure video dressed as a cowboy, and thinks any situation can be improved by the introduction of cats. Favourite Serbian trumpeter: Dejan Petrović.
A documentary about cult Los Angeles alt. rock band Failure is to air later this month, almost a decade on from when it was first announced.
Every Time You Lose Your Mind, directed by the band’s singer and driving force Ken Andrews, will premiere on Hulu and Disney+ on June 27.
A band ahead of their time, Failure never achieved more than cult success in the 1990s, despite scoring positive reviews from critics and numerous endorsements from their peers: their 1996 album Fantastic Planet is one of the most under-rated records of the decade. A year after its release, the band split, with its promise frustratingly unfulfilled.
“It was a good period for some bands, but not to us,” Andrews told Metal Hammer in 2015, a year after the band reformed . “Our sound was confusing to a lot of people. It was confusing to records labels, it was confusing to press and it was confusing to a lot of fans.”
In the documentary, some of the band’s most high profile fans – Tool’s Maynard James Keenan, Paranore’s Hayley Williams, Motley Crue drummer Tommy Lee and Mastodon’s Troy Sanders among them – salute Andrews’ band, as do producers/musicians Steve Albini, Butch Vig and fans within the worlds of film and television.
In a newly-released trailer for the documentary, Nevermind producer Vig hails Fantastic Planet as ” a gret unsung classic”, adding “There’s a lot of records from the ’90s I really don’t want to ever listen to again, but that record I put on all the way through.”
“Our fans have connected with the themes of depression and addiction in our music,” Andrews says in a statement announcing the film’s imminent release. “The film crystallizes those connections and, ultimately, communicates hope. We’re a band that faced a specific set of challenges and somehow managed to survive and thrive. It’s a story about resilience, finding ways to cope, and not giving up.”
Every Time You Lose Your Mind – 2025 Trailer – YouTube
Ahead of its streaming premiere, Every Time You Lose Your Mind will be screened at Los Angeles’ Harmony Gold Theater on June 26, with the added bonus of a an acoustic Failure set thrown in. The group will play the Louder Than Life festival and Aftershock festival in the US in September/October.
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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.
Faster Pussycat frontman Taime Downe reflected on the cruise ship death of his fiancee Kimberly Burch in a recent interview with Eddie Trunk, expressing hope that his band’s newly launched tour will prove therapeutic in his grieving process.
“It’s a roller coaster,” Downe told Trunk on a May 30 episode of Faction Talk on SiriusXM. “I’m hanging in there. I’m just taking it a day at a time. And everybody thought going out on the road and doing what I do and being with my family in my band would be good for me. So I’ve taken their advice and [I’m] doing this.”
Burch, who had been engaged to Downe since 2022, went overboard The ’80s Cruise in March as the ship was heading from Miami to the Bahamas. She was 56. Shortly after the tragedy, The Hollywood Reporterpublished an article alleging that security footage showed Burch jumping from the ship, and that Downe had been cleared of any wrongdoing.
Taime Downe Says Fiancee’s Death Has Reinforced His Sobriety
Trunk noted during his conversation with Downe that fans were worried the death of Burch would jeopardize the singer’s sobriety. On the contrary, Downe said, the tragedy has only reinforced his sobriety.
“What happened with Kimberly, too, it was alcohol and prescription-related,” he said. “So I blame alcohol and pills on it. There’s no way I’d touch booze. For me, that’s just completely disgusting in my brain, you know what I mean? So I’ve got some hatred for booze, ’cause I loved the hell out of Kimberly, and it was just hard to deal with. We spent basically nine years together.”
“I don’t wanna get into what her psyche was at the time, but there’s a lot of things that make up people’s lives at a certain time of their life,” he added. “It’s been hard on everybody.”
Faster Pussycat kicked off their current tour on May 30 at Count’s Vamp’d Rock Bar & Grill in Las Vegas. They’ll be on the road through early July.
“I just think it’ll be very therapeutic to get to see a bunch of fans and a bunch of friends across the country,” Downe said. “So I think it’ll be helpful.”
Kiss released 20 albums and over 200 songs during their five-decade long touring career, but only a handful ever got the honor of opening the band’s live shows.
The opening moments of any rock concert are very important, particularly for a highly theatrical stage show such as the ones Kiss performed each night. When you’re descending from the rafters amid a blizzard of flames and sparks, you want to make sure your lead-off sound provides the perfect soundtrack for the spectacle.
With apologies to “Creatures of the Night,” “Psycho Circus” and “King of the Night Time World,” here are the Top 5 Kiss Concert Opening Songs:
“Modern Day Delilah” From: Sonic Boom (2009)
Tours: Sonic Boom Over Europe (2010) / Hottest Show on Earth (2010-2011)
After going over a decade without releasing a new studio album, Kiss returned in fine form with 2009’s gimmick-free Sonic Boom. The lead single “Modern Day Delilah” was one of the strongest songs from the group in decades, and made for a strong concert opener on the band’s ensuing tours. The ferris wheel-styled entrance used on these tours didn’t hurt either.
“Love Gun” From: Love Gun (1977)
Tours: Crazy Nights (1987-1988) / Revenge (1992)
The drum-crazy title track to Kiss’ final golden era album wasn’t used as a concert opening track for over a decade, but it filled the role quite nicely on the otherwise rushed, keyboard-clogged Crazy Nights tour. In more recent years, “Love Gun” was used even more effectively near the end of the group’s main set, as the soundtrack for Paul Stanley‘s nightly flight out to a second stage in the middle of the crowd.
Tours: Love Gun (1977) / Alive II (1977-1978) / Hot in the Shade (1990)
“I Stole Your Love” – the second Love Gun track in a row on this list – was tailor-made for the stage, with an big propulsive guitar riff and an infectious chorus. It got the lead-off spot for the band’s next tour tours but didn’t stick around in future set lists nearly enough. However, when Kiss got serious about reclaiming their legacy as the hottest band in the land on the 1990 Hot in the Shade tour, they brought this one back to serve as the opener again.
“Detroit Rock City” From: Destroyer (1976)
Tours: Destroyer (1976)/ Rock and Roll Over (1976-1977) / Alive II (1977-1978) / Unmasked Tour (1980)/ Animalize (1984-`1985) / Asylum (1985-1986) / Farewell (2000-2001)/ World Domination (2003) / The Tour (2012) / Monster (2012-2013) / 40th Anniversary (2014-2015) / Freedom to Rock (2016) / End of the Road (2019-2023)
As you can see by the list of tours above, there’s little doubt “Detroit Rock City” opened more concerts than any other Kiss song. The newly sophisticated and cinematic approach Bob Ezrin helped the band achieve on 1976’s Destroyer made it perfectly suited for the job, shining a nice spotlight on all four members of the band, from Gene Simmons‘ unusual R&B-styled bass line to Stanley and Ace Frehley‘s twin guitar interludes.
“Deuce” From: Kiss (1974) Tours: 1973-1974 club dates / Kiss (1974) / Hotter Than Hell (1974-1975) / Dressed to Kill (1975) / Alive! Tour (1975-1976) / Alive Worldwide (1996-1997) / Alive 35 (2008-2010) / KissWorld (2017-2018)
As with our recent list of Kiss’ album-opening songs, the narrow distance between the gold and silver medal winner comes down to a preference between the rawer sound of the band’s first three albums or the more polished approach of their later work. “Deuce” is a primal blast of Stones-style raunch that hits the ground running and never lets up.
It’s the song that the band used to open every show when they were on the rise to fame, it’s got some of Frehley’s best guitar work ever, and it’s where he, Simmons and Stanley perform their famous (if primitive) choreography during the final riffs. It’s the song the original lineup chose as the first number of their 1996-1997 reunion tour, and if wasn’t the first thing they played in recent years it was usually the first song Simmons would sing each night.
(Yes, I know “Deuce” wasn’t the opening song at the concert shown below, but it’s got better audio and video than any other clip on YouTube.)
Kiss Live Albums Ranked Worst to Best
You wanted the best, you get the best.. and the rest.
Back in 2023, Wobbler’s keyboard mastermind Lars Fredrik Frøislie spoke to Prog about singing in his native tongue and staying sane with his solo album, Fire Fortellinger
“That was scary, man. Really,” says Lars Fredrik Frøislie.
As the keyboard wizard of Norway’s brilliant Wobbler, composer for film and TV, and a producer, Frøislie is a seasoned, accomplished musician. But with his solo debut Fire Fortellinger, he not only plays everything but the bass himself, he sings too. “I’ve only done backing vocals before,” says Frøislie. “Just to release a solo album under my name is scary. I had no idea what people would think so it’s rather frightening. It’s a completely different thing to a band where I’m hiding in the back. Here I am really in the front.”
Fire Fortellinger, or ‘Four Stories’, was born from the restrictions of lockdown. With nowhere to go and temporarily detached from his Wobbler bandmates, Frøislie started making music in his home basement studio. It was, he says, “to keep my sanity.” Working alone was a contrast to Wobbler’s creative process, but that’s what Frøislie wanted.
“In a band it’s very democratic,” he says, “and for the last three albums, we’ve jammed and worked off each other. You present one riff and then another… how about this? And it can take forever, for good or bad, but on this solo project, I wanted to make it spontaneously and quickly, not ponder too much, just go with my gut feelings.”
Initially, Frøislie started with no greater intent than to put down some ideas he could develop at a later date.
“Thank God I had the good preamps and everything set up, so I could keep those takes,” he says. “I improvised and things happened, and it would be completely wrong to try to recreate something I’ve improvised, the spontaneous thing would be lost. I was very relaxed because I was thinking: this is just a test, it’s a demo, so I’m having fun. I think you can hear I’m having fun. Plus, my studio computer was broken, so I basically had no plug-ins. I only had the analogue keyboards and stuff and a basic recording computer, so I had to do it very old school. No click tracks, no MIDI, but that made it organic.”
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(Image credit: Karisma Records)
As the music developed, Frøislie went back and forth from drums to keyboards, capturing ideas as the muses whispered in his ears, deploying an arsenal that includes a harpsichord, Mellotron, Minimoog, Yamaha CP70 and Hammond organ.
“I’m a huge fan of these old keyboards, plus that’s what I had in my basement, so I had to use them,” he says. “But I love the sound. Like the harpsichord, it’s hell, basically. You’re tuning it for two days and it goes out of tune in one day. The same with the piano. Then again, that piano is sort of out of tune because I was thinking, this is just a test. But I think it’s charming. It’s not supposed to be perfect. The Mellotron is not in perfect pitch, but that’s the point. There’s too much perfection these days.”
He compares the Mellotron to an old, rundown car. “There are oil spills, you have to push it to get going sometimes,” he says. “You’re working on their terms or you’re almost fighting them.”
The only instrument Frøislie doesn’t play on the album is the bass, which was recorded by Nikolai Hængsle from Elephant9. Frøislie started with synth bass parts, but realised the music was crying out for the unique tone of a Rickenbacker, so he picked up the phone.
“I thought, let’s just ask the best bassist in Norway,” he says. “The worst he can say is no. [But he said,] ‘Yeah, I’ll do it!’ He’s incredible.”
Each song spins a tale. Rytter Av Dommedag (‘Rider Of Doomsday’) was inspired by the legends of Ragnarök and a nearby landmark, a burial mound called Raknehaugen that’s rumoured to be the resting place of the mythical King Rakne. Frøislie and his family took day trips to Raknehaugen “because my wife had a school project about cultural landscapes. We had to take these trips to photograph it and it was just such a magical landscape, it sparked the imagination. In the winter it’s a ski jump, it’s that big, but the legend is that it is King Rakne in there surrounded by white horses, treasure and so on.”
Frøislie imagined Rakne being roused from centuries of slumber and coming forth to bring about Ragnarök, throwing in other dark legends for extra spice.
“He’s like one of the riders of the Apocalypse from the Bible, there’s Oskoreia or The Wild Hunt, I’ve mixed in everything,” he says.
Less apocalyptic, Et Sted Under Himmelhvelvet (‘A Place Under The Heavens’) is about longing for escape, a sentiment no doubt widely shared during lockdown.
“You couldn’t leave the country, but you dreamt of a warmer place, so that’s a song where I’m dreaming away to a warmer place. Maybe it’s Florence, it could be anywhere,” says Frøislie. “I’ve had experiences where I’ve been somewhere and it felt familiar, like I’d been there before, and it touches that as well. Maybe it’s just coincidence. Even on my farm where I grew up, [my family] moved there in 1950, but we did some searching and it turns out a Frøislie lived there 400 years ago, so maybe it just felt like home when they bought the farm. It’s a fun thought.”
The cosmic Jærtegn, meaning ‘Omen’, sprang from a Viking saga, “where Olaf The Holy died at the Battle Of Stiklestad,” says Frøislie. The song tells of riders rushing through a forest before their carriage crashes.
“They die and at that time there is a solar eclipse, and they turn into these ghostly figures and wander in the darkness. This was during winter and there were some wonderful northern lights in the sky, and I imagined those were the arms of these wanderers trying to reach for the Sun.”
(Image credit: Thomas Kaldohl)
The album’s closing epic, Naturens Katedral (‘Nature’s Cathedral’), was inspired by Harald Sohlberg’s Winter Nights In The Mountains, the national painting of Norway that captures the mountains of Rondane, an image that resonates with Frøislie.
“My wife’s family has a very old cottage near there,” he says. “It’s like going back in time, there is no phone signal, no electricity, we get water in the mountain stream, very primitive, and rather cold. In the winter it’s not possible to get there. Even in July and August, you have a fire going because it’s so cold up there, so it’s a harsh but beautiful place. And an amazing view, no people, just some eagles, reindeer, moose, it’s spectacular. That’s the scenery of this last song. It’s romanticising that idea of going back to the wild.”
All four stories on the album are told in Norwegian, something that Frøislie has been waiting to do since Wobbler’s debut, Hinterland, in 2005.
“With the first Wobbler album we had Norwegian lyrics and the record label, which was American, didn’t want Norwegian lyrics so we did it in English,” he says. “This was the perfect time to test it out. There’s not that much prog in Norwegian. Norwegian isn’t like the Italian language, which is very beautiful sounding, but I tried to see if it’s possible to make this crude, barbaric language sound nice.”
And that returns full circle to the challenge of stepping up to the mic on Fire Fortellinger.
“I have no idea how my voice sounds to others. I just went for it,” explains Frøislie. “Basically, this was almost for my sanity that I made this project. I could’ve left it in a vault and just done it for myself, but it’s exciting. After all these albums I’ve released, you never know when people will like it. So far so good. I hope you can hear that it’s very sincere and heartfelt. It’s a joy project.”
Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.
John Lennon only issued seven solo albums in the 10 years after the Beatles broke up. The posthumously released Milk and Honey and Menlove Ave. made for a total of nine. With such a small sample size, every choice for opening song takes on added significance.
As in all things, Lennon’s selections would be deeply contentious, open and emotional, and shot through with uncommon joy – or some combination of all three.
Then there were the times when Lennon front-loaded some of his very best material, as on 1971’s Imagine, 1973’s Mind Games and 1980’s Double Fantasy. Those LPs led with a U.K. No. 1 single, an international Top 30 hit and a Billboard chart-topping smash.
Here’s a ranked look back at every opening song from John Lennon’s tragically brief solo career:
No. 9. “Woman Is the N—– of the World” From: Some Time in New York City (1972)
As Lennon shed his youthful chauvinism, he kept coming back to something Yoko Ono had said not long after they met in 1968 – and that phrase became the controversial title of this song. To the surprise of exactly no one, radio stations refused to play it. The single subsequently stalled at No. 57 on the Billboard Hot 100, becoming the lowest-charting U.S. song in Lennon’s lifetime. “Borrowed Time” peaked at No. 108 almost four years after Lennon was murdered.
No. 8. “Be-Bop-a-Lula” From: Rock ‘n’ Roll (1975)
This long-gestating album of early rock covers began with a critically important song from Beatles lore. It’s not just that Gene Vincent scored a Top 20 hit with his debut single “Be-Bop-a-Lula” in 1956, making a lifelong fan of the young John Lennon. The Quarrymen, Lennon’s childhood band, were playing this song during a Liverpool church garden party in July 1957 when a stranger introduced himself. “The day I met Paul [McCartney], I was singing that song for the first time onstage,” Lennon later told Rolling Stone.
No. 7. “I’m Stepping Out” From: Milk and Honey (1984)
This light-filled song was the first attempted when sessions got underway for Double Fantasy, Lennon’s comeback record after time spent raising his son, Sean. Unfortunately, Lennon never finished the song – and the early take included on the posthumous Milk and Honey is obviously only a rough draft. “I’m Stepping Out” became the third song pulled from this album, but sputtered to a stop 50 spots lower than the No. 5 hit opening single “Nobody Told Me.”
No. 6. “Here We Go Again” From: Menlove Ave. (1986)
Not much came out of Lennon’s ruined final sessions with a whacked-out, gun-toting, now deeply paranoid Phil Spector. They managed to co-compose this leftover, though Spector’s contributions remain unclear – and an original song wouldn’t have fit into the oldies project Lennon was working on. Otherwise, they could only salvage three Spector-produced tracks for Rock ‘n’ Roll. Bolstered by Spector’s patented Wall of Sound production, “Here We Go Again” wouldn’t surface until after Lennon’s death.
No. 5. “Going Down on Love” From: Walls and Bridges (1974)
As with “Surprise, Surprise” from elsewhere on Walls and Bridges, “Going Down on Love” started out much differently. Early versions matched the gritty stripped-down honesty of 1970’s Plastic Ono Band. Then Lennon started adding parts, most notably a tough little horn section. A song that was once this bleak exploration of the drama surrounding his love life was transformed – in sound, anyway. A check of the lyric sheet confirms that a directionless Lennon was standing at the very edge of an emotional abyss.
No. 4. “Mind Games” From: Mind Games (1973)
What if “I Am the Walrus” had an anti-war thread running through it? You’d have the title track from Mind Games, as Lennon tosses off Lewis Carroll-ish references to “druid dudes” and “mind guerrillas ” while railing against the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. “Mind Games” began as a rather rote demo titled “Make Love Not War,” with a protest message in the style of “Give Peace a Chance.” Lennon kept working, creating a careful balance of fantasy and message that likely helped this single into the U.S. Top 20.
No. 3. “Imagine” From: Imagine (1971)
Lennon himself actually nailed it: This U.K. No. hit was “anti-religious, anti-nationalistic, anti-conventional, anti-capitalistic – but because it is sugarcoated, it is accepted.” Yoko Ono was instrumental in completing “Imagine,” and earned a subsequent co-writing credit. Belatedly aware of the irony found in a rock star asking others to forego worldly possessions, Lennon later changed the lyric in a performance heard on Live in New York City from “I wonder if you can” to “I wonder if we can.”
No. 2. “Mother” From: Plastic Ono Band 1970
Lennon switched from guitar to piano as he worked out this tortured wail for his missing parents. “I express myself best in rock, and I had a few ideas to do this with ‘Mother’ and that with ‘Mother,’ but the piano does it all for you,” Lennon told Rolling Stone. “Your mind can do the rest of it.” Former bandmate Ringo Starr provided a smartly economical and fill-free rhythm that only added to the lyric’s stabbing emotion. Lennon recorded the shredding finale in single-line takes to save his voice. His pain is simply excruciating.
No. 1. “(Just Like) Starting Over” From: Double Fantasy (1980)
Lennon combined three demo ideas to create the last single released in his lifetime, “My Life,” “Don’t Be Crazy” and “The Worst Is Over.” “(Just Like) Starting Over” then became an international No. 1 hit just after Lennon died. He hadn’t sounded this openhearted since the Beatles’ early days, neither musically (there’s a welcome nod to the music of his youth) nor lyrically (as he looks unabashedly forward). That sense of renewal, when taken in context, can begin to feel like a huge letdown. Don’t give in. This is joy, sheer joy.
Beatles Solo Albums Ranked
Included are albums that still feel like time-stamped baubles and others that have only grown in estimation.
Gallery Credit: Nick DeRiso
How an Old Beatles Song Connected David Bowie With John Lennon
The Old Man and Me (Kootchypop Version) – Cracked Rear View – 1994
The Rain Song – Hootie & the Blowfish – 2003
Time – Cracked Rear View – 1994
Time (1991 Version) – Cracked Rear View – 1994
Tootie – Fairweather Johnson – 1996
Tucker’s Town – Fairweather Johnson – 1996
Turn It Up – Imperfect Circle – 2019
Waltz into Me – Looking for Lucky – 2005
We Are One – Imperfect Circle – 2019
What Do You Want from Me Now – Musical Chairs – 1998
What’s Going On Here – Musical Chairs – 1998
When I’m Lonely – Fairweather Johnson – 1996
When She’s Gone – Hootie & the Blowfish – 2003
Where Were You – Cracked Rear View – 1994
Why – Imperfect Circle – 2019
Wild Fire Love – Imperfect Circle – 2019
Wishing – Musical Chairs – 1998
Woody – Hootie & the Blowfish – 2003
Albums
Cracked Rear View (1994): 32 songs
Fairweather Johnson (1996): 14 songs
Musical Chairs (1998): 13 songs
Hootie & the Blowfish (2003): 13 songs
Looking for Lucky (2005): 12 songs
Imperfect Circle (2019): 14 songs
Check out our fantastic and entertaining Hootie & The Blowfish 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.
Garbage may be back in action with their newly-released eighth studio album, Let All That We Imagine Be the Light, but vocalist Shirley Manson admits that not everything in the band is “hunky dory”, and confesses that she frequently feels “isolated” within the group she has fronted since 1994.
“I was always separate from the second I joined the band, ” she acknowledges, “I’ve always been an outsider.”
Manson’s comments come in a new interview with The Independent newspaper. “Nothing’s wrong with the band per se,” she insists, “but there’s very little proper communication about anything at all.”
“I’ve just started talking about it because I feel like I’ve become so isolated,” she tells writer Kate Hutchinson. “I don’t want to pretend everything’s hunky dory.”
Garbage started when producer friends Butch Vig, Steve Marker and Duke Erikson recruited Manson for their new project after seeing Manson’s previous band, Angelfish, on MTV.
“I love my bandmates, they’re lovely men, but they’re a boys’ club, and I’ve never been part of that,” the singer states honestly. “We live very separate existences and identities – it could be the secret of why we’ve lasted 30 years!”
“I was the interface between the band and management; band and record company,” she adds. “I stopped doing it because I hit a wall and had to protect myself. And then the entire communication between us just… drifted away.”
Manson goes on to reveal that Garbage’s management suggested that the quartet might wish to undergo group therapy together, as Metallica infamously did with Phil Towle following the exit of bassist Jason Newsted, but the process would have cost the group £100,000 – “or someething mad like that!” – so the four musicians turned down the idea. And if, not too far over the horizon, the band do decide to break up after more than three decades together, Manson will have few regrets.
“I realise it’s not going to last forever,” she says, “and we’re already running out of time, and so it feels very poignant and beautiful, and something that I want to protect.”
And as she suggests in a new interview with NME, Manson isn’t about to slink back into the shadows, whatever lies ahead. In reference to the fact that, at 58, she is the youngest member of the band, she says, “For some reason, society wants us to fold up and go away. When you get older, you can’t be pushed around in the same way that you once were.”
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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.
While metalcore itself preceded Killswitch Engage’s arrival by almost a decade, it was unquestionably the rise of Massachusettes’ finest that helped push the genre to the very front of the metal scene in the 2000s, laying the groundwork for everyone from Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine to Bring Me The Horizon and Bad Omens to conquer the planet.
Killswitch also remain one of the few metal bands to sustain major success despite changing singers at pivotal moments in their career. Jesse Leach‘s surprise departure following the release of 2002 breakthrough Alive Or Just Breathing could have sunk a lesser band, but the arrival of Howard Jones only rocket-boosted their ascent. Incredibly, Howard’s own exit just under a decade later – and the unlikely return of Leach soon after – helped rejuvenate the band once more, and their reach and influence remains as strong as ever. Here, then, is every Killswitch Engage album so far, ranked in reverse order of greatness.
9. Killswitch Engage (2009)
The band’s last album with vocalist Howard Jones, and the only real stinker in their entire back catalogue. While the melodic, radio-friendly side of KSE’s sound was crucial to their success, the second self-titled album of their career leaned way too far in that direction – they simply forgot to add the riffs and the aggression that worked so brilliantly as a counterpoint to those soaring melodies. No revisionist opinion here: this is pretty bad.
Killswitch Engage – Starting Over [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
It would be unfair to deny that Incarnate has its moments – first single Strength Of The Mind is an absolute world beater – and frontman Jesse Leach deserves great credit for using his lyrics to confront his demons on the record. In terms of positives, though, that’s pretty much about it. Songs like Cut Me Loose plod along with no real fire, and the more melodic songs like the partially acoustic Quiet Distress try to soar but fall flat. Not awful, but, next to the rest of their back catalogue, not anywhere near good enough.
Killswitch Engage – Cut Me Loose [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
It’s an improvement on Incarnate, but Atonement is still far from KSE at their very best. Howard Jones rejoined the band for a song – the admittedly massive The Signal Fire – but it’s actually The Crownless King, featuring Testament frontman Chuck Billy that wins the battle of the guest spot. The main problem is the dip Atonement takes after those songs; I Am Broken Too is an uncharacteristically sappy ballad that we could really do without. Better, but still not quite there.
The most visceral Killswitch Engage have sounded in quite some time, This Consequence matches scything metallic riffs and a surprisingly gritty Adam D production job with what might just be the most impassioned performance of Jesse Leach’s career. His guttural roars and exacerbated, furious musings on the state of Planet Earth give the album an extra sense of urgency and propulsion, while the likes of Forever Aligned and I Believe pack those quintessential, earwormy choruses. There’s no all-time-great Killswitch banger on here, but this is still a hell of a showing overall.
Back when metalcore was an underground movement that few had heard of and Adam Dutkiewicz was still a drummer, Killswitch Engage released their debut album to little fanfare. It’s aged well: the likes of Soilborn, with its blastbeats, snotty punk aggression and death metal riffs, still stand up. It lacks the massive melodic choruses that would help the band break into the mainstream, but if you long for the glory years of underground metalcore then Killswitch Engage delivers.
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It’s best known for My Curse and the cover of Dio’s Holy Diver tacked belatedly on the end, but there’s way more to As Daylight Dies. This Is Absolution is one of Killswitch’s great underrated songs, The Arms Of Sorrow repeats the trick they pulled on The End Of Heartache with similarly stunning results, and For You has a riff that Dimebag Darrell would be proud of. The album drops off a little during its second half, but for the most part, As Daylight Dies still holds it own with anything else Killswitch Engage have done.
Killswitch Engage – The Arms of Sorrow [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
When Howard Jones left the band at the end of 2012, there were rumblings that it could have been the end for Killswitch Engage. Instead, they brought Jesse Leach back into the lineup and released Disarm The Descent. From the second The Hell In Me comes tearing at you like a feral Rottweiler, it was clear they had pulled it out of the bag. Songs like the skyscraper huge Always and the call to the pit of In Due Time are established as essential Killswitch Engage anthems, making Disarm The Descent an undoubted fan favourite. One of the great metal comebacks.
Killswitch Engage – In Due Time [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
The album that established Killswitch Engage as one of the most exciting metal acts on the planet, and that was partially responsible for hastening the demise of nu metal. Alive Or Just Breathing is an absolutely monstrous set of songs. The riff that opens Numbered Days, the rhythmic battering of Life To The Lifeless and, of course, the generation-defining anthem My Last Serenade are pretty much as good as metalcore has ever got. It may only have been their second record, but Alive Or Just Breathing set a benchmark that pretty much any other band would struggle to replicate for the rest of their career. But amazingly, Killswitch themselves would top it next time around.
Killswitch Engage – My Last Serenade [OFFICIAL VIDEO] – YouTube
The immenseness of Alive Or Just Breathing was tempered by the departure of Jesse Leach, leaving an absurdly high bar for his replacement to aim at. The fact that they got bigger and actually one-upped their previous effort is a staggering achievement. The introduction of former Blood Has Been Shed frontman Howard Jones brought greater levels of melody to the band and, crucially, a more romanticised set of lyrical influences that opened Killswitch up to an entirely new set of fans.
As their profile soared, they became staples of MTV2 and were tipped as future festival headliners; with songs like A Bid Farewell, the anthemic, sombre stomp of the title track and the absolutely wonderful thrash-meets-rock-meets two-step of The Rose Of Shary,n no one can say it wouldn’t be fully deserved. It’s by the slimmest of margins, but The End Of Heartache edges it as the best Killswitch Engage album – and perhaps metalcore’s defining statement.
Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.
(Image credit: Joe Maher/Getty Images | Shirlaine Forrest/Getty Images)
British actor and comedian Rob Brydon has spoken about his life-long love of Bruce Springsteen, revealing that, as a teenager growing up in Wales, he found Springsteen’s songs about New Jersey wholly relatable to his own life.
Brydon, perhaps best known for his role as Bryn West in the much-loved BBC TV sitcom Gavin and Stacey, and his three series alongside Steve Coogan in The Trip, shares his love for Springsteen in the documentary When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain, which aired on BBC2 on May 31.
As proof of his devotion to Springsteen, Brydon shows viewers of the documentary a scrapbook of articles on the legendary New Jersey singer/songwriter which he collated in the early ’80s, cut from the pages of music magazines such as NME and British newspapers.
“I bought The River at Woolworths in Porthcawl,” Brydon recalls. “It was the first album I ever had with a lyric insert and I remember showing it to my grandmother, saying, Look at this, this is like poetry!
“Part of the connection,” her continues,” is when he writes about the New Jersey Turnpike, driving ‘on a wet night, ‘neath the refinery’s glow’, where I grew up in South Wales, we had oil refineries near us, and there was a kind of steel town feel. When I was young, and Paul Weller talked about Down In The Tube Station At Midnight, what the hell is a tube station? I was from Port Talbot. I felt much closer to New Jersey, than I did to London.”
In 2019, Brydon was able to translate his love of The Boss into his role in Blinded By The Light, a British comedy-drama directed by Gurinder Chadha (Bend It Like Beckham), inspired by journalist Sarfraz Mansoor’s obsession with Springsteen while growing up as a Muslim teenager in Luton, England.
“One of the things Blinded By The Light does very well is show people’s devotion to Bruce,” says Brydon. “My character had to sing a bit of Thunder Road, and I was so enchanted by the idea that Bruce would have to see that, he’d have to at some point sign off on the film, and he’d see this idiot singing in a very badly-advised wig!”
For those resident in the UK, or those with access to a VPN, When Bruce Springsteen Came To Britain is available now on BBC iPlayer.
Springsteen will release Tracks II: The Lost Albums, a set of seven complete, unheard records made between 1983 and 2018, boasting 74 never-before-heard songs, on Columbia Records on June 27.
“The Lost Albums were full records, some of them even to the point of being mixed and not released,” Springsteen said when announcing the box set. “I’ve played this music to myself and often close friends for years now. I’m glad you’ll get a chance to finally hear them. I hope you enjoy them.”
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“I often read about myself in the 1990s as having some ‘lost period,’” he added in a promo video. “Not really. I was working the whole time.”
The collection includes the lo-fi LA Garage Sessions ’83, which is described as “a crucial link between Nebraska and Born In The USA.”
The set is available in limited-edition nine-LP and seven-CD formats, including original packaging for each record, with a 100-page cloth-bound, hardcover book featuring rare archival photos, liner notes on each lost album from essayist Erik Flannigan, and a personal introduction on the project from Springsteen himself.
Bruce Springsteen – Tracks II: The Lost Albums Trailer – YouTube
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.
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