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

New albums &reissues • Our guide to what needs to be on your rockin’ radar across the next 12 months

VINTAGE EXPLOSION ANNOUNCE LIVE ALBUM

Live tours

GETTING THAT 60S NOSTALGIC SENSATION

QUARTET $LIP BACK ONTO YOUR RADAR

Events • *All listings subject to Covid restrictions and cancellations 

Worldwide weekenders

The Bitter Lemons • Reaching across musical boundaries but always rooted in red hot rhythm and blues, we meet the Birmingham band who are keeping the vintage scene swingin’ and rockin’ all night long

Baby this Rock ‘n’ Roll • Matchbox take flight on their first American adventure, including live dates in an iconic honky tonk and at a world-famous Hollywood club

The Caezars • More raucous than a riot at a chariot race, the band have reunited for anew album that captures their explosive blend of rockabilly and garage –raw and undiluted. Hail Caezars!

He’s So fine • When the much-loved Jackie Wilson died in January 1984, the music world lost one of its most soulful stars. To mark the 40th anniversary of his passing, his son Bobby Brooks Wilson joins Vintage Rock to celebrate the life and career of the singer dubbed ‘Mr Excitement’.

GOING PLACES • 65 years ago, Berry Gordy – a former boxer and failed record store owner – launched the label that would become Motown. We trace its funky first five years, which followed in the slipstream of rock’n’roll.

Classic album • Having cut their teeth on the pub rock circuit, Darts’ combination of old school doo-wop and R&B made a big impression near the end of the 70s, yet they are strangely overlooked today. In the company of key band member Griff Fender, we reflect on their long-playing, sharp-shooting masterpiece of 1978.

Space Guitar YOUNG JOHN WATSON • Johnny ‘Guitar’ Watson is best remembered as a 70s funk artist, but back in the 50s, as a teenager called Young John Watson, he cut one of the most extraordinary guitar instrumentals ever

TWISTIN’ ‘N’ TWANGIN’ • Duane Eddy was one of the first guitarists to popularise the rock’n’roll instrumental. On the 30th anniversary of his induction into the Rock &Roll Hall Of Fame, we salute ‘The King Of Twang’...

TOP TEN

GET THE PARTY STARTED • Aquarter of acentury after his passing, we remember the Texan rockabilly pioneer Buddy Knox, who got the world on its feet with his evergreen dancefloor-filler Party Doll

Rock ’n’ Roll Heroes • He may never have been accorded the status of a true great, but Lloyd Price’s Lawdy Miss Clawdy was one of the cornerstone songs of rock’n’roll. Later dubbed ‘Mr Personality’ after his cross-Atlantic hit song of 1959, his back catalogue is well worth a listen...

Long haul JETS • Still flying high after a remarkable 50 years together as The Jets, the Cotton brothers Bob, Ray and Tony reflect on the ups and downs of a life spent rocking

TOP TRACKS & ONSTAGE CRACKS

SCENE CHANGES

Top 20 Rock ’n’ Roll Car Songs • Right from the beginning, rock’n’roll embraced the allure of the car with its promise of teenage liberation,...