''Classic Rock'' is a British

magazine A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...

and website dedicated to rock music, owned and published by

Future The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

. It was launched in October 1998 and is based in London. The magazine publishes 13 editions a year, mainly covering rock bands from the 60, 70s, 80s and 90s, with the likes of Led Zeppelin,

AC/DC AC/DC (stylised as ACϟDC) are an Australian Rock music, rock band formed in Sydney in 1973 by Scottish-born brothers Malcolm Young, Malcolm and Angus Young. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock, and Heavy metal ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Black Sabbath,

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of Steven Tyler (lead vocals), Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry (guitar), Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton (bass), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whi ...

and

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

amongst its most prominent cover stars. As well as veteran rock artists, ''Classic Rock'' also covers modern rock bands and releases, with Alter Bridge, Rival Sons, Halestorm,

Ghost A ghost is the soul or spirit of a dead person or animal that is believed to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to rea ...

Blackberry Smoke Blackberry Smoke is an American rock band from Atlanta. The lineup consists of Charlie Starr (lead vocals, guitar), Richard Turner (bass, vocals), Brit Turner (drums), Paul Jackson (guitar, vocals), and Brandon Still (keyboards). In 2020, they a ...

and The Struts amongst the younger artists to have appeared on its cover in recent years.

Publication history

''Classic Rock'' was launched by

Dennis Publishing Dennis Publishing Ltd. was a British publisher. It was founded in 1973 by Felix Dennis. Its first publication was a kung-fu magazine. Most of its titles now belong to Future plc. In the 1980s, it became a leading publisher of computer enthusia ...

in 1998. It was subsequently sold to Future in 2000, then sold again to

start-up A startup or start-up is a company or project undertaken by an entrepreneur to seek, develop, and validate a scalable business model. While entrepreneurship refers to all new businesses, including self-employment and businesses that never intend t ...

publishing company TeamRock in April 2013. Following the collapse of TeamRock in December 2016, Future bought back the magazine and its website in January 2017. On 27 March 2018, Future re-launched Classic Rock and its sister magazines '' Metal Hammer'' and ''Prog'' under the umbrella title of Louder.

Brand extensions

Special editions

''Classic Rock'' has published numerous special editions, including magazines dedicated solely to Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden,

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 1985. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band comprised vocalist Axl Rose, lead guitarist Slash, rhythm guitarist Izzy Stradlin, bassist Duff McKa ...

and others. ''Classic Rock'''s sister publication, ''Prog'', was originally issued as a ''Classic Rock Presents'' one-shot magazine in 2009 before being launched as a separate, full-time title soon after. Other off-shoots of the publication included ''The Blues'' magazine, which ran from 2012 to 2016, while ''Classic Rock Presents AOR'' ran for 13 issues between 2010 and 201

Fan packs

In 2010, Classic Rock partnered with

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is an American record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock bands. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. History The label was launched in 1980 in t ...

to publish ''Classic Rock Presents: Slash'', featuring a special edition magazine dedicated to then-former Guns N' Roses guitarist

Slash Slash may refer to: * Slash (punctuation), the "/" character Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slash (Marvel Comics) * Slash (''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'') Music * Harry Slash & The Slashtones, an American rock band * Nash ...

and packaged with a copy of his debut solo album. The partnership marked the first time a major album was released exclusively with a magazine publisher ahead of general release. Classic Rock subsequently released official 'fan packs' with Whitesnake, Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Def Leppard and

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

amongst others. ''Classic Rock'' would also release a second fan pack with Slash in 2012 for his album '' Apocalyptic Love.''

Classic Rock Roll of Honour Awards

Between 2005 and 2016, ''Classic Rock'' hosted the Classic Rock Roll Of Honour - an annual awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of some of rock music's biggest icons. Held in London annually, winners at the Roll Of Honour Awards over the years included

Lemmy Kilmister Ian Fraser Kilmister (24 December 1945 – 28 December 2015), better known as Lemmy Kilmister or simply Lemmy, was an English musician. He was the founder, lead singer, bassist and primary songwriter of the rock band Motörhead, of which he wa ...

, Alice Cooper,

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

, Ozzy Osbourne, ZZ Top, Gregg Allman, Queen and more.

The 20 Million Club

In July 2020, ''Classic Rock'' launched ''The 20 Million Club'' podcast. Hosted by British broadcaster Nicky Horne with guests from the ''Classic Rock'' team, the podcast analyses the biggest-selling albums of all time, with two seasons produced so far.

Notable contributors

Geoff Barton Geoff Barton (born July 1955) is a British journalist who founded the heavy metal magazine ''Kerrang!'' and was an editor of ''Sounds'' music magazine. He joined ''Sounds'' at the age of 19 after completing a journalism course at the London Col ...

* Mark Blake * Malcolm Dome *

Jon Hotten Jon Hotten (born in Aldershot, Hampshire, 7 January 1965) is an English author and journalist. He is best known for the books ''Muscle: A Writer's Trip Through a Sport with No Boundaries'' (Random House 2004) and ''The Years of the Locust'' (Random ...

* Mick Wall

References

External links

*
Archive
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