ROBERT PLANT
The showman must go on
62 years old, nominated for the BRIT Awards - Robert Plant doesn't give the impression that he wants to hang up the microphone so quickly. On 22 January, on the verge of his two appearances in Toronto, Canada, the legendary shouter talked about how he became the musician he is today and why a Led Zeppelin reunion would give him nothing.
JOE BONAMASSA
Blues traveller
Apparently restless, Joe Bonamassa races from one career highlight to the next. The past year was the most successful for him so far. With the album "Black Rock" and the even more successful debut with the supergroup Black Country Communion, he also made it into the charts in Germany. Now he's on his own again. And "Dust Bowl" has also become a blues rock delicacy.
PJ HARVEY
One against all
The rock poetess calls to arms: On her eighth album "Let England Shake", Polly Jean goes to war against corrupt politicians, unscrupulous economic bosses and religious fanatics who turn the 21st century into a global battlefield.
R.E.M.
"The Midwest will never vote for Palin."
You're America's flagship alternative rocker. And it's been that way forever. To record her new work "Collapse Into Now", R.E.M. travelled to Berlin. Here, in the distance, they worried about the political situation in their homeland.
SWANS
Majestic and horrible
It's a sudden comeback. A comeback nobody seems to have been waiting for. Fourteen years after their last studio album, the Swans have released new material out of the blue: And "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky" makes it clear that the music world needed the return of the uncompromising New Yorkers.
BLACKFIELD
X-ray image of the soul
Man, man, man: It's actually been ten years since Israeli Aviv Geffen and Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson, celebrated as pop superstar in his homeland, joined forces for Blackfield. With their third album "Welcome To My DNA" the duo wants to show that they have lost nothing of the euphoria and freshness of the early days.
THE CRYSTAL CARAVAN
The Seven Sweden
Where the Swedish glam rockers The Ark are looking for the pose and the beautiful glow, their fellow countrymen from Crystal Caravan focus entirely on the sound. The furious formation has what it takes to grow into a big hard rock band.
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
love song to mathematics
The fact that they appeared on the scene again in 2005 was a sensation. The fact that Van der Graaf Generator are still there six years later and are now presenting their third album in the new millennium is a mercy. It wouldn't be if the band wouldn't keep trying to push the boundaries of rock music.
WHITESNAKE
Forever and ever
David Coverdale is one of the most charming conversational partners in business. Care must therefore be taken to ensure that the 59-year-old Briton does not sell apples as pears. The ex Deep Purple singer wouldn't have needed it anyway, as he doesn't offer any rotten fruit on the new Whitesnake album "Forevermore".
GARY MOORE
Dark Days in Paradise
On February 6th, Gary Moore made headlines one last time. On this day a musician's life ended which was "spectacularly unspectacular" ("Spiegel Online"). The spectacle is actually less in the person than in the songs and guitar playing of Gary Moore. We remember the great blues man.
KLAUS SCHULZE
Big in Japan
It bears the common name of Schulze. But fans and critics have long since awarded him noble titles: "Pioneer of electronic music" for example, "Ambient pioneer" or "Godfather of Techno". In fact, Klaus Schulze from Berlin has dedicated himself uncompromisingly to the production of purely electronic sounds in his career, which has lasted more than forty years, than almost anyone else. Now he is presenting a new live album.
Keep the text up! Cult songs and their meaning
RANDY NEWMAN - SHORT PEOPLE
For the lyrics of the greatest hit of his career, the US-American singer-songwriter Randy Newman had to put up with harsh criticism at the time. It is Newman's special approach to lyrics that has always distinguished him. Quite apart from the fact that "Short People" is by no means a slander for small adults.
Advanced Shopping List LOU REED
New York
With The Velvet Underground he had founded one of the most uncompromising formations of the sixties. And one of the most influential. However, the importance of the New York noise pioneers should only become clear to the public years after their dissolution. Lou Reed had already drawn the consequences from internal quarrels and left the group before the break-up. The wounded drug freak had crawled under his parents for some time to lick his wounds. In 1971 he had appealed so far that he tried his hand as a solo artist - at first with little response. Then the ardent Velvet admirer David Bowie took care of him and produced with "Transformer" one of the jewels of Glamrock. Reed became a star. A status that didn't seem to please the grumpy singer and guitarist. After all, with the dark "Berlin", the indiscriminate "Sally Can't Dance" and the hard to digest "Metal Machine Music", he did everything in his power to increase the crowd again. The uncontrolled course of his career was probably also due to Reed's consumption of alcohol and speed. He renounced both in the early eighties. As a result, the rocker who was shimmering in the wrong direction turned more and more into a critically pampered singer-songwriter. Today, Lou Reed enjoys fool liberty. Of course, he himself has always conceded this to himself.
