It’s now been two months since any of us could attend a live gig. And, sadly, summer 2020 will feature no Download festival, no Ramblin’ Man Fair, no Steelhouse festival, no Bloodstock, no opportunities at all to join several thousand close friends in screaming along to the best rock bands on the planet while nursing a warm beer in the sunshine. Happily, though, there’s nothing to prevent us from staging the festival of our dreams in the comfort of our own homes…

With that in mind, issue 21 of Planet Rock magazine is dedicated to the 100 Greatest Live Albums Ever!  Gigs might be on hold, but the best live albums can transport us into the front rows of the finest rock shows ever staged, to hear Zeppelin, Sabbath, The Who, Deep Purple, Thin Lizzy, UFO, Queen, AC/DC and more at the absolute peak of their powers. Over 30 pages, we bring you the louder-than-life stories behind those classic recordings. But who’s occupying that coveted Number One slot? There’s only one way to find out…

Elsewhere in the issue, we dig deep into the making of The Who’s masterpiece Quadrophenia with guitarist Pete Townshend in our Classic Album feature, we celebrate the revolutionary music of Jimi Hendrix in our Cult Hero feature, and we join ELO mainman Jeff Lynne in Beverley Hills to conduct the Planet Rock Interview.

We welcome back Dutch guitar hero Adrian Vandenberg in our Confessional feature, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale chooses the songs which soundtracked his North London childhood in My Planet Rocks, Reef’s Gary Stringer reveals all about the story behind BritRock anthem Place Your Hands and Planet Rock’s own Alice Cooper recalls debauchery and mayhem with his good friends The Doors in our regular Nights Out… feature.

In the reviews section we dissect and rate lockdown-blitzing albums from Mark Lanegan, Massive Wagons, Rush, Iron Maiden, Larkin Poe and more, we hail an under-rated classic from Enuff Z’Nuff, and we offer a definitive Buyers’ Guide to Euro-Metal superstars Nightwish.

All this, plus Guns N’Roses, Henry Rollins, Genesis, Stiff Little Fingers… and a letter saluting the late, great Alan ‘Fluff’ Freeman.