Articles by Geoff Barton

Geoff Barton is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine Kerrang! and was an editor of Sounds music magazine. He specialised in covering rock music and helped popularise the new wave of British heavy metal (NWOBHM) after using the term for the first time (after editor Alan Lewis coined it) in the May 1979 issue of Sounds.

Articles by: Geoff Barton

Paul Di'Anno and Steve Harris onstage in 1980

"Fake blood starts pouring from an amateurish-looking skull incorporated into a plank of wood": A night out with Iron Maiden before they were famous

By Geoff Barton published 14 January 25

In October 1979 Classic Rock's Geoff Barton watched Iron Maiden play a heavy metal disco in North West London. He took notes

Twisted SIster’s Dee Snider in full make-up in the mid-80s

“I called Gene Simmons. He said: ‘How the hell did you get this number?!’ That was when I got the idea that we weren’t going to be best buddies”: Dee Snider’s wild tales of Robert Plant, Frank Zappa, Freddy Krueger and Kiss

By Geoff Barton published 28 December 24

From Johnny Cash and John Denver to Manowar and Henry Kissinger, former Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider has mixed with them all

Ritchie Blackmore smashing his guitar onstage

"I was lying in bed at about three in the morning when an axe smashed through my door": Deep Purple’s 25 maddest moments

By Geoff Barton published 20 December 24

Life in Deep Purple has never been dull

"The sound of a band that knew its influences and leaned into them unapologetically": Detective's debut album paints them as the original Greta Van Fleet

By Classic Rock Magazine published 9 December 24

Michael Des Barres leads Detective through an album that owes much to their Led Zeppelin paymasters

"I think Freddie would be happy, because I feel his spirit throughout the music": How Queen + Paul Rodgers took Freddie Mercury's spirit back to the stage

By Geoff Barton published 28 November 24

Before Queen + Adam Lambert there was Queen + Paul Rodgers. We spoke to them about the plusses and the minuses

Glenn Hughes posing for a photograph in 1976

“John Wayne said: ‘My daughter would be so happy to get your autographs.’ So David Coverdale and I signed his cowboy boots”: Glenn Hughes’ wild tales of Ritchie Blackmore, David Bowie, Phil Lynott and The Duke

By Geoff Barton published 23 November 24

Bowie, Blackmore, Richard Burton and Linda Blair – Glenn Hughes has crossed paths with them all

"Ritchie Blackmore never missed a note, and that ain't easy when you're about to be beheaded": An introduction to Terry Reid, the man who could have fronted Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple

By Geoff Barton published 13 November 24

Unfairly framed as rock’s ultimate nearly man, Terry Reid chose to take his own path, and he's still going strong

Deep Purple posing for a photograph in 1975

“I had a meltdown. Cocaine psychosis took over – it’s a form of paranoid schizophrenia”: How Deep Purple split from Ritchie Blackmore and made a funky masterpiece in Come Taste The Band

By Geoff Barton published 9 November 24

Ritchie Blackmore was out, US hotshot Tommy Bolin was in and Deep Purple’s Mk IV line-up were about to make the most under-rated album of their career

Deep Purple backstage on the Perfect Strangers Tour in Australia

"Purple is like an old love affair and love can be very close to hate": Deep Purple on chemistry, magic, and the birth of Perfect Strangers

By Geoff Barton last updated 28 October 24

We travel back in time to 1984 and talk to the reformed Deep Purple as the ready themselves to release comeback album Perfect Strangers

Jim Morrison of The Doors onstage in 1968

“Jim’s whole shaman thing only became apparent later, after people wrote books about us. To us, he was just the frontman”: Jim Morrison – the man behind the myth, by the people who knew him

By Geoff Barton published 20 October 24

Shaman? Lizard King? Visionary? This was the real Jim Morrison, according to his Doors bandmates

Every Deep Purple album ranked, from worst to best

By Geoff Barton published 15 October 24

Updated Deep Purple's albums ranked, from patchy Purple to purple patches, from iconic albums to the one Ritchie Blackmore dubbed "cattle grazing" to the one with the new chap

"That's the problem with me, you see. I'm a lunatic": The true story of Marc Bolan's final days

By Geoff Barton published 15 September 24

Marc Bolan, the Guru Of Glitter, was killed in a car crash in 1977 – just as his career was on the rise again. This is the story of his final hours

“The great albums were not made under a microscope. They were made by living, breathing people who were excited by what they were doing”: How Kiss fought back against the music industry with Sonic Boom

By Geoff Barton published 7 September 24

In 2009, Kiss released Sonic Boom, an album that called back to past glories

"Reminiscent of a deeper, darker version of UFO": Phil Mogg ponders his own mortality on the brilliant Moggs Motel

By Geoff Barton published 6 September 24

Mogg-nificent

“We had collapsed financially – I couldn’t pay the wages. I was on the verge of bankruptcy”: The chaotic story of Ian Gillan’s erratically brilliant solo career

By Geoff Barton published 1 September 24

Jazz-funk, solo hits and near-bankruptcy – this is the turbulent story of Ian Gillan’s post-Deep Purple career

Fanny: The Reprise Years 1970-1973 cover art

"The most comprehensive collection of Fanny material to date": The full Fanny and more celebrated on The Reprise Years 1970-1973

By Geoff Barton published 23 August 24

Fanny business

"I'm sure this sounded perfectly bitchin' blasting out of a Camaro's hi-fi": Sammy Hagar provides the late-70s party soundtrack on All Night Long

By Classic Rock Magazine published 5 August 24

Sammy Hagar's puffed-up personality oozes from every pore during a short, sharp, scintillating set

Tormé: The Bernie Tormé Archives Vol. 2 1985-1993 cover art

"Cheap, rushed and ill-conceived": Bernie Tormé sounds inessential on second archive collection

By Geoff Barton published 26 July 24

The Bernie Tormé Archives Vol. 2 1985-1993: Big in Cleethorpes

"This next song is about destruction, like all heavy metal songs": In 1979, the fledgling Def Leppard played a small club show in Sheffield, and our man was there

By Geoff Barton published 22 May 24

Joe Elliott might decry the phrase "heavy metal" in 2024, but 46 years ago he was ready to embrace it

"It was all a bit exhausting and emotionally draining": Meet the man who auditioned to replace Bon Scott in AC/DC and Paul Di'Anno in Iron Maiden

By Geoff Barton published 15 May 24

Terry Slesser, singer with Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler, recalls the days when AC/DC were a humble support act

"Spandau Ballet, Visage, Ultravox… there's some good music going down": In 1981, Rush's Geddy Lee was ready to blow the boundaries of progressive rock wide open

By Geoff Barton published 19 April 24

From Led Zeppelin copyists to sword and sorcery maestros to purveyors of über-prog, Rush have always pushed the envelope

"One demo was of a guy playing one finger piano on Black Night": When the call went out to replace Ian Gillan in Deep Purple, only one man got an audition

By Geoff Barton published 16 April 24

In 1973, Deep Purple replaced Ian Gillan with an unknown singer. They then went on to make one of rock’s most underrated albums, Burn

"I could stand up with four cardboard cut-outs and still be a star": Steve Harley spent four years of his childhood in hospital and grew up to hate journalists, but all he wanted was an audience

By Geoff Barton published 3 April 24

The late Steve Harley was most famous for his 1975 hit Make Me Smile (Come Up And See Me), but his story involves so much more

"The scent of cremated steaks and exotic gateaux lingers in the air": Revisiting the secret launch of Deep Purple's Perfect Strangers

By Geoff Barton published 20 March 24

In 1984 Deep Purple's much-loved Mk II lineup reformed, and one Classic Rock writer was invited along to a secret location to hear all about it

"A mesmerising snapshot of the nihilistic grunge age": Mad Season's only album may forever be associated with tragedy and loss, but the musicians sound liberated

By Geoff Barton published 13 March 24

With members of Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Screaming Trees on board, Mad Season's 1995 album Above was gut-wrenching but transfixing

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Geoff Barton

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