What does it sound like?:

It’s 1974 and my best buddy, and indeed the only other boy my age in my village was a big TYA fan. And so by default was I. Although if pressured lightly – a small Chinese burn perhaps – I’d have come clean and said I preferred Thin Lizzy or Focus, but had his own record player and I didn’t, so I listened to a lot of Alvin and the boys.

“Green” is therefore familiar to me, not least because my mate not only had the album, but also the 45 of “Love Like a Man” which had an edit of the studio version as the A side. Side B was a 33rpm cut of the same song live from the Fillmore East included here. There was more than one occasion where it was played at 45rpm and no one noticed until the vocals.

“Cricklewood Green” was TYA’s 5th and most successful studio album, released in 1970 shortly after Lee’s flying fingers were immortalised in the film of “Woodstock”. This isn’t the first “Green” re-release, as a remaster issued in 2002 added the unreleased “Warm Sun” and “To No One”. These also feature » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Vanity project, supergroup or homage to fallen hell-raising friends? Maybe all of them. A drinking “club” that became a band in sobriety, founded by Alice Cooper in his drinking days in “the 1970s” (obviously no one can remember exact dates), meeting mostly at the Rainbow Bar and Grill in LA, where regulars included Keith Moon, John Belushi and Harry Nilsson.

The Vampires re-emerged in 2012 as a musical entity. By then Cooper had been sober for 29 years, playing off a golf handicap of 5 and appearing as himself in a film called “Dark Shadows” (35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes). Here Cooper met Johnny Depp, whose early musical ambitions had long since taken second place to global movie stardom. Conversations about music lead, three years later, to gigs at the Roxy in LA with the current line-up of Cooper, Depp, and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry. Tommy Henriksen from Cooper’s band is the guy that whips it all into shape. Curiously, getting promoters to book them wasn’t a problem – their 3rd gig was the Rock in Rio festival. Instead, scheduling was the biggest challenge. To date there have been two studio albums, plus » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Purple’s most iconic phase came between 1970 and 1973, when they released “In Rock”, “Fireball” “Machine Head”, “Who Do We Think We Are” and “Made in Japan”. The Gillan / Glover / Paice triumvirate that featured on all of these can also be found on Splat!, their 24th studio release, along with Don Airey, with a mere 24 years’ service, and Belfast’s Simon McBride, who is the Purps’ fourth guitarist and arguably the one with the biggest shoes to fill — not to mention he joined nine years after their “Long Goodbye” farewell tour, which turned out not to be.

By the time lead guitarist McBride was born in 1979, Deep Purple had recorded ten studio albums and disbanded three years earlier after “Come Taste the Band”. That didn’t stop Purple becoming well known to him, as his guitar‑playing dad loved classic rock and encouraged him to play, winning “Young Guitarist of the Year” at Wembley aged just 15. When he replaced Steve Morse (Purple’s longest‑serving guitarist) in 2022, the appointment was described by some as something of a bolt out of the blue, which rather overlooked how McBride had known Airey for ten » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

It’s not as if I need reminding that I’m getting old (I sent off my bus pass application last Friday in anticipation of unlimited free use of the park and ride) but just in case I’d forgotten, here’s the 50th anniversary release of the first Trower album I ever purchased and played so often it started to skip.

This is the 4th Trower album to get a 50th buff up, and more a restoration than an enhanced re-release. Richard Whittaker has once again overseen a remix but the main event here is the resequencing of the tracks back to the order they were originally played and inclusion of the songs edited out of the original.

This bumps the track list from 7 to 12. “Gonna Be More Suspicious”, “Fine Day” and “Confessin’ Midnight” are added back, all played on the night ahead of their release on the “For Eart Below” album and (most likely) removed to give a bit more exposure to the older back catalogue. “Day Of The Eagle” is restored as the opener followed by “Bridge of Sighs” giving the album a totally new first half and returning “Rock Me Baby” » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

In 2023 the Leps co-headlined a global with Mötley Crüe, which stopped off in their hometown of Sheffield. A warm up gig at the 900 capacity Leadmill was staged 3 days before the full monty with Crüe at Sheffield United’s Bramhall Lane ground and approximately 39,100 more punters. The Leadmill gig was given a multi format release a year ago, and now DL return for another nibble with the stadium set.

DL gave the full 40 year anniversary box set treatment to Pyromania and there’s Las Vegas residency at Cesare’s Palace for the whole of February 2026 (it was Dean Martin the last time I went…) and a European and UK tour following a little later which seems likely to platform a new studio release – the last was “Diamond Star Halos” back in 2022.

Back to back live sets albeit a year apart is a little unusual and suggests this release is a stop gap. A few side by side listens suggest it’s the in many ways same but here and there different. The Leadmill set is shorter and has a little more rough edges, but even busking DL would be still » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Few bands have had as many incarnations as Purple – at the time of writing, Mark IX is going strong, with a second album planned for 2026. New guitarist Simon McBride gives the band an edge unseen since Blackmore flounced back in 1993, Steve Morse coming off the subs bench after first choice Joe Satriani was blocked by Epic Records.

“Rapture” was Morse’s 4th DP album, and heralded Mark VIII when founder member John Lord stepped down, replaced by Don Airey. At its time of recording in 2005, Purple were without a record deal, EMI having dropped the band after indifferent sales of “Abandon” and “Bananas” in 1998 and 2003. This may have contributed to Purple raising their game and this re-mix overseen by Roger Glover adds some sparkle and punch that was absent the first time round.

This 20th Anniversary edition captures the 10 rack original plus bonus tracks that appeared only in Japan (“Things I Never Said”) or on limited edition / special tour editions (“MTV”, “Junkyard Blues”, “Before Time Began”) although the London Hard Rock Café live set from 2005 that accompanied a special tour edition is absent. Along with new » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Summer 1974 and my best mate Mark is enthusing about this guy Robin Trower and his new album “Bridge of Sighs”. He saw him on “Old Grey Whistle Test” (I didn’t). Worse, he had his own record player (I didn’t) and both of his albums (I didn’t). Obviously, I taped both albums anyway. I was killing music apparently but funds were scarce but hey I was saving up for a stereo. By the time “For Earth Below” came out a year later, I decided to invest some very precious cash in a copy, now the proud owner of a second hand music center with what turned out to be one blown speaker.

I immediately decided that “For Earth Below” was superior to “Sighs”, in retrospect mostly because I’d actually bought a copy but also because it was a little harder edged. And if you look at chart success, I wasn’t alone in my evaluation. “For Earth Below” was Trower’s third album and the first to chart in the UK. To this day it remains his most successful release.

50 years on, Trower is now 80 years old, has 33 albums to his name (excluding » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Looking back on “Harmony Row” 50+ years after its release, Bruce’s work is remembered as much for its diversity and the breadth of his musicianship as it is for his (relatively speaking) brief spell in a “supergroup”. However, first released in 1971 this was Bruce’s 3rd solo effort, markedly more adventurous and jazzy than some expected, bookended by his brief spell in Tony Williams’s Lifetime and before his return to more power trio bombast with West, Bruce and Laing.

This 4 disc set includes the now fairly predictable further remaster of the original, and a new stereo mix with 4 of the 5 extra tracks first seen with the 2003 remaster. There are also 2 Blu-ray discs which offer a surround mix and then live sets from Granada TV in 1971 and Rockpalast in 1972, where the studio band of Chris Spedding on guitar and John Marshall on drums (both recently in jazz fusion outfit Nucleus) are supplemented by old mate Graham Bond and Art Themen on sax. These weren’t provided for review but can be found on YouTube on Bruce’s own channel and WDR’s Rockpalast channel.

The album defies easy categorization, weaving together » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Hailing from Bridgend, this is TDC’s fourth release in a career that goes all the way back to 2014. The band are already a regular fixture at UK rock and metal shows, having featured at Download and Planet Rock events as far back as 2019 and more recently getting support slots with The Hollywood Vampires and The Go Goo Dolls.

The album opens with “Dancing With The Enemy”, squalls of feedback morphing into a pumping bass drum that drives the song along. An anthemic chorus and catchy hooks are made for the festival stage, and set a high watermark for the rest of the album.

“Glass Heart” takes things a step further, mixing grungy metal with soaring harmonies that showcase vocalist Shane Greenhall’s abilities. There’s a harder edged Linkin Park vibe and crosses over into main stream rock territory . “Fake” goes darker, with a more complex structure and despite the moody piano it’s a touch too drum dominated.

Standout track is “Dreaming” which swoops back and forth, dirty riffs contrasting with the uplifting lyrics, dropping back into what’s almost a stripped down ballad, before a cheeky key change gets everything barrelling along again.

» Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Justin Hawkins loves rock’n’roll, but returns are diminishing. On “Walking Through Fire” he points out “we never stopped making hit albums, it’s just that no one buys them anymore” and “don’t even think my mum bought the last one”. He says he’s “under the moon”, but nonetheless this album is awash with the kind of enthusiasm few bands can muster 8 albums in.

They haven’t forsaken their hard rocking roots, but after the initial thrash of “Rock and Roll Party Cowboy” (where celebration and parody shake hands) and “I Hate Myself” (a vintage Quo LP played at 45 rpm) there’s a pop vibe that is one long curtsey to Queen whilst dressed as Angus Young’s schoolboy. The double track guitar on “The Longest Kiss” is Brian May all day, (someone Justin H has often cited as the reason he first picked up a guitar), and the band’s love of word play is unabated.

The opening track rhymes “cowboy” with “Tolstoy” (as well as “bok choy”) whilst “Hot On My Tail” seems to be a toe tapping sing-a-long that explains how a romantic anniversary was ruined by intestinal turbulence. “Cold Hearted Woman” is not just » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

A year ago Adams released a live 3 album retrospective which pulled together “Cuts Like A Knife”, “Into The Fire” and “Waking Up The Neighbours”, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall. He broke the chronology as “Reckless” was skipped, but even before the det was released, Adams was back at the RAH to give “Reckless”, “18 ‘Til I Die” and his most recent studio release “So Happy It Hurts” the same treatment.

Available as 3 CDs or 4 LPs, there’s also a blu ray of each concert. I’ve bought a great many concert DVDs and watched them very little but, in this case, I found myself preferring them to the identical audio versions. “Reckless” is up first, and the band emerge from moody backstage monochrome onto a full colour stage, although the band are all decked out in black, white sneaker laces the only offset. Adams continues to sport a retro slicked back haircut and an equally vintage Gibson ES-295 and is in fine vocal form throughout.

Although Adams is reprising previous releases, he changes the playing order and here throws in tracks that didn’t make the original. He restores the song “Reckless” that » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

Gilmour’s fifth studio album comes after a 9 year hiatus, and a proclamation from DG that this is the best music he’s made since “Dark Side Of The Moon”. Bold. And just in case any Floyd fans still might not be paying attention, the closing track (which rather confusingly has the same title as the second track) is an instrumental that Gilmour built from a jam he recorded with the late Rick Wright back in 2006 when the latter had toured with DG.

It’s essentially a Gilmour family project – Polly Samson once again provides lyrics, whilst children Romany, Gabriel and Charlie add vocal or lyrical support – augmented by a number of top drawer session musicians that include Steve Gadd, Guy Pratt and Roger Eno. Although the opening track “Black Cat” is only a touch over 90 seconds, it’s sets the scene for nearly everything follows. Swirling, synth soundscapes a bed for DG’s trademark, often melancholy tone.

The first version of “Luck and Strange” follows, a sparse bluesy shuffle. Just as it settles into a loping groove the entire vibe is knocked sideways by DG’s vocal that is clearly well out of » Continue Reading.

What does it sound like?:

When Cream split up in late 1968 Atlantic Records supremo Ahmet Ertegun told Bruce the best thing he could do would be to form another trio. With “Songs For A Tailor” he proceeded to do the exact opposite.

Bruce had studied cello and composition at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music & Drama and didn’t see himself as “just” a bass player. He wanted his first album to showcase the diversity of his talents and do something much more expansive than Cream ever allowed. Although recorded after “Things We Like” it was released ahead of it in 1969 to mixed reactions – not wholly surprising given how it was far from a continuation of the Cream / power trio format.

Bruce returned to re-interpret nearly all of the songs on this album in the years that followed, and this box offers a return of a different sort. There is a remaster of the original mix, a new stereo and 5.1 mix plus (according to the press release ) 32 bonus tracks and DVD of the 1970 documentary of “Rope Ladder To The Moon”. The new mixes are by the much in demand Stephen » Continue Reading.