Vintage Rock

VINTAGE ROCK celebrates a time when music changed the world - 45s, youth culture and the odd thrusting pelvis. Vintage Rock chronicles all the stellar artists and music, the enduring legacy of those early pioneers - and why it’s still the best way to live. Spanning the dawn of the 50s to early Beatles (pre Eastern mysticism!), Vintage Rock covers a time of Mods and Rockers, crinoline skirts and blue jeans, rock star movies and screaming-girl concerts. This special magazine rejoices in the music and verve of Elvis, The Shadows, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Gene Vincent and a host more, and speaks to a contemporary audience that relishes the vitality and flair of the era.

Vintage Rock

WELCOME…

Setzer says: “Let’s get ready to rumble”

Reed all about it – Ronnie’s live on stage

GA-20 • “Raw, high energy and honest”… we meet the Boston trio bringing bags of gritty authenticity to traditional blues music

The Man In Black goes to San Francisco on new live album

EVENTS

The Strays • Album two from the “genre-fluid” Cheltenham band has landed. Stella Sonic tells VR how the fourpiece are looking to a bright future.

Bob Berryhill – The Surfaris • The Californian guitarist recalls the band’s beginnings and reveals why his mother was responsible for their classic B-side Wipe Out

Please Mr Postman THE MARVELETTES • In 1961, a lonely, hard-working teenager wrote a letter in song, turning a sense of longing for her soldier boyfriend into a chart-topper that established Motown on the world stage

A SHOCK TO THE SYSTEM HOW TV TRIED TO TAME ELVIS • It’s 65 years since Elvis Presley found himself singing to a dog on national TV in what’s considered the nadir of his career. But was the programme’s host really out to humiliate? We look at how The Steve Allen Show tried to neuter the raw charisma of rock’n’roll’s newest star…

Who was Steve Allen?

Battle of the chequebooks

Loving Elvis • When Miss Tennessee met the King of rock’n’roll, it was the start of a fairytale romance that was doomed to end in sadness. Linda Thompson recalls the four-and-a-half years she shared with Elvis Presley.

Song from the heart

My Pal Elvis • Linda’s brother Sam Thompson remembers what life with the King was like

Classie album JERRY LEE LEWIS JERRY LEE LEWIS • Arguably the last outstanding album he’s made and the Killer’s first for Elektra Records, the Jerry Lee Lewis LP saw him end the 1970s on a critical high and return to his rockin’ roots

TOP TEN

ROCKET MEN • Released under the name of a band that didn’t exist, recorded with a broken amplifier – and possibly the first rock’n’roll song – 70 years on, we take a ride on the Rocket 88…

LIFTING THE LICKS

ON THE ROAD AGAIN: 10 50S CAR CLASSICS • Post-World War II, American car ownership was on the rise. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956 launched the network of interstate highways, while teenagers embraced automobiles in pursuit of independence from their parents. Songwriters caught the zeitgeist, penning tunes about cars to cover every occasion, from falling in love to breaking up and everything in between.

Fool’s Paradise THE HEAD CAT • We revisit the LP where a Motörhead icon met a Stray Cat and Rockat to bond over their love of classic 50s rock’n’roll

Ballroom Glitz • As the Rivoli Ballroom’s monthly Jive Party returns after lockdown, we talk to the organisers and artists and take a look inside London’s last vintage dancehall

STEP BACK IN TIME • Treading the boards at three more of the UK’s vintage venues

Introducing VINTAGE*ROCKPLUS+ JOIN OUR COMMUNITY

BIRTH OF THE COOL • Starring as the tough guy leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, The Wild One made Marlon Brando an icon. Now re-released on...