Classic Rock

Every month Classic Rock is packed with exclusive interviews and behind-the-scenes features on rock’s biggest names, from Led Zeppelin to Deep Purple, from Guns N’ Roses to the Rolling Stones, from the Sex Pistols to AC/DC and beyond. Each issue plays host to the heftiest rock reviews section on the planet. In an average issue, you’ll find over 150 albums reviewed, all from the ever-varied, multi-faceted world of rock - whether it’s hard rock or heavy metal, prog or punk, goth rock or southern rock, we’ve got it covered.

Classic Rock

Editior’s Note

#12 Led Zeppelin’s ‘secret’ UK debut • When people turned up to a Newcastle ballroom, they expected to see The Yardbirds. Instead they saw the future of rock.

YOUR TIME IS GONNA COME • As the 60s ended, session supremo Jimmy Page put together a band and a plan that would change rock forever – even if it did owe a whole lot to music’s past…

TWO BY FOUR • On the 35th anniversary of the album’s release, Classic Rock tells the tale of ‘Led Zeppelin II’, a record that would dislodge The Beatles’ ‘Abbey Road’ from the top of the US chart, and go on to shape the craggy face of modern rock music. Not that Jimmy Page realised it at the time – by the time the album was finished he’d lost confidence in it! Squeezing the lemon: Dave Lewis

UNDER THE COVERS • THE ALBUM ARTWORK EXPLAINED

LED ZEPPELIN’S ONLY SINGLE. EVER

ZEPPELIN GOES POP! • ‘WHOLE LOTTA LOVE’ ON TELLY

LED ZEPPELIN II • BACKTRACKING

A Bustle In Your Hedgerow • When the reigning kings of rock holed up in the Welsh countryside to write a new album, no one expected the folky pastoral results. Critics hated it, fans didn’t get it, but Led Zeppelin III is arguably the band’s most important record.

WHEN ALL IS ONE AND ONE IS ALL The making of Led Zeppelin IV • It had no title, no band name on the sleeve, no singles released to radio. But the album that the record company said would bomb made Zeppelin the biggest band on the planet. Forty years after its release, the inside story of a rock classic.

FOUR SYMBOLISM • The origins of the album’s four symbols explained.

THE BACK TO THE CLUBS TOUR • 1971 was the last time you could see Zeppelin for 70p…

THE HOUSE THAT ZEPPELIN BUILT • Forty years ago this month, Led Zeppelin released their fifth album, Houses Of The Holy. Over the next nine pages, we celebrate Zep’s unsung masterpiece.

BRING IT ON HOME • Recorded at Mick Jagger’s country pile, Houses Of The Holy was the sound of a band at the top of their game. Producer Eddie Kramer was there with them, and these are his memories of the eight songs that make up their great unsung album.

HOW THE WEST WAS WON • In May ’73, Zeppelin kicked off their US tour. Label boss Phil Carson saw three months that changed everything.

BOMBAY NIGHTS • In October 1972, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page made an impromptu visit to Bombay, where they jammed with local musicians. What happened remained undocumented. Until now.

THIRTY-FIVE YEARS GONE • The band is getting death threats. John Paul Jones wants to leave. A backlash against the rock aristocracy is rumbling. So how did Zep manage to pull Physical Graffiti out of the bag?

Crisis? What Crisis? • In August 1975, Led Zeppelin were about to begin rehearsals for another huge US tour. Then disaster struck, their very existence in a mangled heap. Yet out of the wreckage climbed Presence, an album that Jimmy Page rates as one of their best.

In Through The Out Door • It would be great to say that their final studio album saw Led Zep light the blue touchpaper in a fireworks factory. Sadly their sign-off was more like a match burning out in an ashtray…

Days of thunder • John Bonham’s explosive drumming powered Led Zeppelin like the engine of...