Latest about Bands
Festivals are down… but gigs are through the roof as new figures show how important live performance has become
With streams earning artists pennies, music’s cash increasingly comes from big tours with no shortage of fans willing to pay big money
Ringo Starr joins Paul McCartney for emotional Got Back tour finale in London
The surviving Beatles reunited at the O2 Arena to mark the end of Paul's mammoth world tour
![Session guitar ace Tim Pierce wears a ballcap and poses with a Powers Electric guitar [left]; a young Jon Bon Jovi rocks Super Rock 84 on Bon Jovi's first tour of Japan. His shirt is open. His hair is big. And he has a red Fender Stratocaster slung low by his hip.](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/hcRVrVWpPRxr5HrsXuDAxW-840-80.jpg.webp)
Tim Pierce on why Jon Bon Jovi was destined for superstardom, and how he nailed his Runaway solo
Sometimes rock history is settled by the fickle finger of fate. When Pierce was asked to help a young Jon Bon Jovi track his 1981 demoes, he ended up playing guitar on a Bon Jovi classic – a song that set its frontman on his way to the top
“Because the guy’s got a knife, he’s fairly persuasive!”: How Paul McCartney survived a mugging - and a mutiny - to create his solo masterpiece
The full, amazing story of Band On The Run
“Everybody clap your hands and boogie!”: Watch the young Ozzy Osbourne raising hell in newly unearthed Black Sabbath live footage from 1976
30 minutes of head-banging action to enjoy
“I never thought it would be a hit. It was too long for radio. So we lied about it. And it worked!”: How an ’80s classic got to No 1 - with a little bit of cheating…
A perfect soft rock ballad from a band whose guitarist travelled with a whole case of hairspray!
The top music documentaries to watch this Christmas (and where to find them)
Give Christmas Top of the Pops and The Two Ronnies the swerve this year with our pick of essential festive music viewing
Watch James Hetfield lead Metallica in a swampy blues version of fuel with a Danelectro Baritone
In 2009, Hetfield told us that the Fuel era was all about loosening up and on Friday night at the Helping Hands charity gig he made good on it as Metallica reimagined Fuel, slower and lower
“This band’s been going for 50 years. When you really think about it, it’s insane!”: Steve Harris says there is plenty of life left in Iron Maiden
“Mick Jagger has set the bar fitness-wise,” Harris says
Keane’s Tim Rice-Oxley on keeping the "character" of his Yamaha CP-70 and the ups and downs of being in a band
“Putting it simply, we’d sort of split up. We no longer felt we were on the same page musically and it looked highly unlikely that we’d ever be celebrating any kind of 20th anniversary”