''Classic Rock'' is a British

magazine A magazine is a periodical literature, periodical publication, print or digital, produced on a regular schedule, that contains any of a variety of subject-oriented textual and visual content (media), content forms. Magazines are generally fin ...

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 ex ...

. It was launched in October 1998 and is based in London. The magazine publishes 13 editions a year, mainly covering rock bands from the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, with the likes of

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

AC/DC AC/DC are an Australian rock band formed in Sydney in 1973. Their music has been variously described as hard rock, blues rock and Heavy metal music, heavy metal, although the band calls it simply "rock and roll". They are cited as a formativ ...

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, 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 experiments ...

the Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for over six decades, they are one of the most popular, influential, and enduring bands of the Album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the band pione ...

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

Aerosmith Aerosmith is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Boston in 1970. The group consists of lead vocalist Steven Tyler, bassist Tom Hamilton (musician), Tom Hamilton, drummer Joey Kramer, and guitarists Joe Perry (musician), Joe Perry and B ...

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, although their musical style has varied throughout their career. Originally for ...

, and

Van Halen Van Halen ( ) was an American rock band formed in Pasadena, California, in 1973. Credited with restoring hard rock to the forefront of the music scene, Van Halen was known for their energetic live performances and the virtuosity of their guit ...

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

Alter Bridge Alter Bridge is an American Rock music, rock band from Orlando, Florida. The band was formed in 2004 by vocalist and guitarist Myles Kennedy, lead guitarist Mark Tremonti, bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips (musician), Scott Phill ...

Rival Sons Rival Sons is a Rock music, rock band formed in Long Beach, California in 2009 and also affiliated with Nashville, Tennessee. The band consists of Jay Buchanan (lead vocals), Scott Holiday (guitar), Dave Beste (bass guitar) and Michael Miley (d ...

Halestorm Halestorm is an American Rock music, rock band from Red Lion, Pennsylvania, consisting of lead vocalist and guitarist Lzzy Hale, drummer Arejay Hale, guitarist Joe Hottinger, and bassist Josh Smith. Siblings Lzzy and Arejay founded the band in ...

Ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

Blackberry Smoke Blackberry Smoke is an American country rock band formed in Atlanta, Georgia, in 2001. The lineup consists of lead vocalist and lead guitarist Charlie Starr, lead/rhythm guitarist Paul Jackson, bassist Richard Turner and keyboardist Brandon Stil ...

and

the Struts The Struts are a British rock band formed in Derby in 2012. The band comprises lead vocalist Luke Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer Gethin Davies. The band have released four studio albums, two EPs and two live a ...

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 enthusi ...

in 1998. It was 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 includes all new businesses including self-employment and businesses that do not intend ...

publishing company Team Rock in April 2013. Following the collapse of Team Rock 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 ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions published by different companies available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' featu ...

'' 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 Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

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 2014.

Fan packs

In 2010, ''Classic Rock'' partnered with

Roadrunner Records Roadrunner Records is a Dutch–American record label focused on Heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock music. Founded in the Netherlands in 1980, it is now a division of Warner Music Group and is based in New York City. Formerly seen as ...

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 th ...

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 Whitesnake are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1978. The group were originally put together as the backing band for singer David Coverdale, who had recently left Deep Purple. Though the band quickly developed into their ow ...

Alice Cooper Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1975 by bassist and lead vocalist Lemmy Kilmister, guitarist Larry Wallis and drummer Lucas Fox. Kilmister was the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band a ...

Def Leppard Def Leppard are an English Rock music, rock band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Since 1992, the band has consisted of Rick Savage (bass, backing vocals), Joe Elliott (lead vocals), Rick Allen (drummer), Rick Allen (drums), Phil Collen (guitar, ...

and Rush amongst others. The magazine released a second fan pack with Slash in 2012 for his album ''

Apocalyptic Love ''Apocalyptic Love'' is the second solo studio album by guitarist Slash (musician), Slash. However, it is also the first studio album billed to Slash (musician)#2009–present: "Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators", Slash feat. Myl ...

.''

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 a British musician. He was the founder, lead vocalist, bassist and primary songwriter of the metal band Motörhead, of which he ...

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and media personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead singer of the heavy metal music, heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which per ...

ZZ Top ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in Houston, Texas, in 1969. For almost 56 years, it consisted of vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard (musician), Frank Beard, and bassist-vocalist Dusty Hill prior to his death in 2021. ZZ ...

Gregg Allman Gregory LeNoir Allman (December 8, 1947 – May 27, 2017) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He was known for performing in the Allman Brothers Band. Allman grew up with an interest in rhythm and blues music, and the Allman B ...

, Queen and more.

The 20 Million Club

In July 2020, ''Classic Rock'' launched ''The 20 Million Club''

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

. Hosted by British broadcaster

Nicky Horne Nicky Horne (born 3 September 1950) is an English DJ, who has worked for a variety of radio stations, including Capital London, Capital Radio, BBC Local Radio and Boom Radio. Career Horne worked as a road manager for Emperor Rosko in 1969, b ...

with guests from the ''Classic Rock'' team, the podcast analyses the biggest-selling albums of all time, with two seasons produced .

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 Co ...

* Mark Blake *

Malcolm Dome Malcolm Dome (1955 – 29 October 2021) was an English music journalist. Dome wrote about rock and heavy metal from 1979. In addition to writing books, he was a journalist for ''Record Mirror'', ''Kerrang!'', ''Metal Hammer'' and ''Classic Ro ...

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 Mick Wall (born 23 June 1958) is a British music journalist, author, and radio and TV presenter. He has been described as "the world's leading rock and metal writer". Career Wall began his career in 1976 at the age of 18, contributing to the mus ...

References

External links

*
Welcome to the Classic Rock Archive
(archived 17 July 2011) {{Authority control Future plc 1998 establishments in the United Kingdom 2016 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Music magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1998 Magazines disestablished in 2016 Magazines established in 2017