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Communication Breakdown, Classic Rock, TeamRock Ltd, 2 Balcombe Street, London NW1 6NW or email them to classic.rock@teamrock.com. We regret we cannot reply to phone calls. For more comment visit www.classicrockmagazine.com.
CHANGE OF HEART?
Great article on Black Sabbath in your recent issue [CR 207]. However, with reference to the side panel on their then upcoming album Never Say Die!, if Geoff Barton did indeed go around telling everyone it was the greatest album Sabbath have ever made, why did he only award it two stars when he reviewed it for Sounds weeks later?
Bill Beaman, via email
Geoff says: “Because I was overwhelmed by the sheer earth-trembling volume at the playback, when it came to be mastered and put on to vinyl the seismic experience was nonexistent and it sounded dull, lifeless and useless!”
SUPERMARKET SWEEP
Thank you so much for the Heavy Load on Phil Mogg [CR 207], which gave more insight in one article into someone I have followed for 30 years than his whole Wikipedia page. I particularly treasured the image of Moggy and Michael Schenker meeting at Morrisons.
William Hill, via email
BOXING CLEVER
Reading the review of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s latest vinyl box set The Complete Studio Albums in this month’s issue [CR 207] What I liked was actually the two ratings at the end of the review: nine for the music and four for the packaging.
I think it would be a good idea to do this on a regular basis when these super-deluxe sets come out either as vinyl or CD editions, as packaging is a major factor now, especially in the reissue market. There was another review (Anthology 1964-1971, by the Kinks) which just carried the normal star rating, which was a nine. But I have heard that the packaging is pretty poor, so it would be nice to get an unbiased view of that.
Recently I have purchased the Iron Maiden and the Cream vinyl album box sets. Both lovely items, but when you’ve collected all the albums you find that they won’t fit into the box. So even more reason to give the packaging a rating?
Steve Johnson
NO JIBBER JABBAR, FOOL
I enjoyed reading Fraser Lewry’s piece about Maiden’s 1980-88 albums collection on page 100 of the February [CR 206], but he needs to read up on his sci-fi. Iron Maiden can hardly be credited with the words: ‘He is the Kwisatz Haderach, he is born of Calidan and will take the Gom Jabbar’. These all relate to Paul Atriedes, the central character in Frank Herbert’s epic series of Dune novels. Credit where it’s due, Fraser.
Dave Dooler, Manchester
Y, THUNDER, Y?
As a long-standing fan of the band I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the Thunder live CD last month. That whole Brooklyn Bowl night must have been a blast – great to hear old favourites alongside the newer stuff. I swear Danny Bowes must have one of the best-preserved voices in rock (I saw them on tour with Whitesnake and Journey, and Danny out-sung everyone by a mile).
Just one question; what was with all the missing ‘y’s on the sleeve? Was it just my copy? Or a defunct printer? Or the result of the editorial team quaffing too many sherrys on deadline day?
Steve, Leicester
Alas, sadly, the curious case of the missing lower case ‘y’s was an unforeseen ‘font corruption issue’. We hope it didn’t spoil your enjoyment of the disc.
PURPLE REIGN
Interesting piece on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame [CR 207], and particularly Deep Purple’s continued exclusion. I am more concerned with the lack of any significant coverage of Deep Purple in the music press as a whole. While I realise you cannot speak for your competition, I might have expected a band as influential as Purple to warrant at least one cover feature from the likes of Mojo and Uncut, but, especially given Classic Rock’s positioning as champions of, well, classic rock, your own coverage of Purple has been inadequate, even allowing for the Remachined special. I may have missed a couple, but I can only recall two Classic Rock Deep Purple cover features in the magazine proper.
Alan Taylor
Hope you enjoy this month’s issue, Alan, replete with our deepest Purple celebration ever!
REPEAT OFFENDER
I’ve been a reader of CR since its inception and (much to my wife’s annoyance) still have most back issues stored in my garage. For the past 12 months or so I have also enjoyed the _CR website. However, while this once seemed to be a supplementary addition to the ‘main event’ of the monthly mag, it now appears to take precedence. For example, your March edition [CR_ 207], which I bought the day it came out, contains numerous articles and news stories already published online and which I have therefore already read free of charge. For the first time, I found myself scanning through a large portion of the pages with a real feeling of déjà vu – “Read that already… seen that before” etc. Even your main lead news story on the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame had already been posted.
I appreciate certain breaking news stories need to go on the website to keep it current, but surely bigger features and opinion-based stories should be reserved for the physical format first? I feel it is getting out of balance, and worry that my monthly CR experience is rapidly vanishing into cyberspace.
Tom Parker
Thanks for your letter, Tom. Glad you’re enjoying the website. If you’re a registered member, you do have a limited opportunity to read a couple of articles from the mags each month. But that’s it. We have a huge online audience and we want to give people the chance to sample the stories we tell. But we’re certainly not giving the mag away for free: if you want to read the whole mag online, you have to subscribe to TeamRock+ (see page 64). Please be reassured that the CR experience is not disappearing into cyberspace. The majority of our exclusive features and reviews – and much more – will always be available only to print readers and digital and TR+ subscribers first and foremost.
