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The Bad Flowers – “Starting Gun”

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What does it sound like?:

Three years and 2 EPs on, The Bad Flowers have released their first album – no mean feat for a band that’s still unsigned and self-managed. The band have been getting increasing coverage from Planet Rock who are always keen to champion new British talent, and their debut is a full on stomping riff fest.

There’s no bluesy boogie here – it’s very much in your face thunder from the outset, and opening tracks “Thunder Child” and “Lions Blood” have plenty of twists and turns. Singer and guitarist Tom Leighton has a hint of the Cult’s Ian Astbury’s voice (although thankfully not his dress sense) and on “Rich Man” he gives his guitar playing more of a work out. There’s no hiding place in a 3 piece, and Dale Tonks (bass) and Karl Selickis (drums) are the foundations to the wall of sound that is central to this album.

“I Hope” offers up a change of pace showcasing Leighton’s voice, accompanied by just an acoustic guitar – the song is almost too slight to stand up but is saved by the vocal and the chorus. Across the rest of the album the » Continue Reading.

So Here It Is: How the Boy From Wolverhampton Rocked the World With Slade

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Author:Dave Hill

If you were growing up in the 70’s it was hard not to notice the glam and glitter of Dave Hill and Slade. Slade had 17 consecutive top 20 hits and 6 number 1’s, 3 of which entered straight into the top spot. Lifetime record sales are thought to exceed 50 million, making them one of the UK’s most successful bands ever. Even more remarkable is that Hill – now 71 – has been gigging for over 50 years with drummer Don Powell, and that the rebooted Slade with them at it’s core has been going as long as the “classic” Holder / Hill / Lea / Powell line up.

Hill is the 3rd of the originals to tell their story, some 18 years after Holder first told his. Hill has published his via book crowdfunding site Unbound which must have given Dave a lot more control over what’s in the book – which turns out to be mixed blessing.

The positives are that Hill gets to tell the story his way, and in his own voice (he was helped by Dave Bowler, a Midlands based writer). There’s no sensationalism and an agreeable matter of fact approach which » Continue Reading.

That Bowie tribute album you didn’t know you needed

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Todd Rundgren – check – “Life On Mars” Daryl Hall – yup – “Fame” Peter Frampton – oh yes – “Rebel Rebel” Sun Kil Moon – of course – “John, I’m Only Dancing” Billy Corgan – who else? – “Space Oddity” Lisa Loeb – absolutely – “All The Young Dudes” Greta Van Fleet – f’kin A – “The Jean Genie” Britt Daniel – who? – y’know, he was in Spoon and Divine Fits – “Never Let Me Down” Nickelback – obviously – “The Laughing Gnome”

Coming to a bittorrent site near you shortly. Seems a missed opportunity to me, not getting Bill Idol to cover “Rock n Roll Suicide”. Any others?

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/howard-stern-enlists-all-star-lineup-for-david-bowie-tribute-special-w516399

Fire and Fury

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Author:Michael Wolff

A book “full of lies, misrepresentations, and sources that don’t exist” according to Mr T. “Preaching To The Choir” might be a more accurate title. For the “snowflakes” appalled by Trump, the book offers page after page of proof of Trump’s abject unsuitability for office. For the “Deplorables”, it’s inevitably a fake, fictional account from an author with reputation for putting sales ahead of facts.

Either way Michael Wolff is having the last laugh, with sales recently reported as passing 1.7m copies (and it’s not in paperback yet), and TV rights already sold for a reported seven figure sum. Not bad for a “total loser” (D.Trump), given sales are forecast to pass “The Art of The Deal”, Trump’s 1987 manifesto, which the Donald often cites as the number 1 selling business book of all time – which it isn’t, as that honour goes to the Dale Carnegie’s “How To Win Friends”, a book Trump certainly hasn’t read. There again, according to Wolff Trump hasn’t read “The Art of the Deal” either. Or any books for that matter.

It’s a book doesn’t take a political position; the ability to focus on the dysfunctionality and schisms within the White House » Continue Reading.

AC/DC – Album By Album

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Author:Martin Popoff

Martin Popoff is a prodigious producer of heavy metal and hard rock books – 69 so far according to his bio. His books are not places to look for back story, tales from the road, gossip or other shenanigans. His books usually focus on albums as a way of relating the arc of careers, picking through the detail on a song by song basis. Many can be found for a $1 a Pop(off), usually covering a single album.

Here however Popoff has switched gear here, presenting a much more lavish coffee table style book that considers every AC/DC release in turn up to “Rock or Bust”. It’s beautifully produced and comes packed with a wealth of pictures of the band, album and single covers, posters, adverts and tour passes.

It’s an easy book to dip in and out of. Laid out in chronological order, each section starts with a track listing, writing, production and playing credits set alongside the album art. Popoff pens an introductory summary and then a panel discussion using a Q&A format sets out the more substantive narrative.

Although the panel doesn’t stretch to including Angus or Brian Johnson, amongst the eclectic mix of » Continue Reading.

Remembering Phil

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Not the sharpest video but a great performance by the best Lizzy line-up. I got to see them live several times between 1975 and 1977 – some of the most memorable gigs I ever went to. Phil died this day in 1986.

Some Fantastic Place – My Life In and Out of Squeeze

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Author:Chris Difford

It was just 50p that set Chris Difford up for the rest of his life. And it wasn’t even his 50p. It paid for an advert looking for a guitarist to join a band that didn’t actually exist. Glenn Tilbrook responded (well, more accurately, Tilbrook’s girlfriend Maxine did), and a bond is forged that connects Difford and Tilbrook for the next 44 years and still counting.

If Chris has had any help writing this, it’s been done with the lightest of touches. Chris’s voice is very much in evidence, his turn of phrase on every turn of page. It’s a candid, unflinching assessment of his work, his upbringing, his marriages and his addictions.

Throughout the book Chris paints himself as an outsider. The third of three boys, his brothers are grown men when he is born, making him almost an only child. His affection for his parents shines through but his home life full of silence and distance. Therapy later in life entails searches for explanations for his demons but Chris feels it revealed little memory of conflict or unhappiness. Describing his childhood there are suspicions of infidelity, acts of jealous anger and feelings going unsaid – the » Continue Reading.

Queen – “News Of The World” 40th Anniversary Edition

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What does it sound like?:

It’s hard to think of an album that has two more iconic, anthemic opening tracks. And to think that “We Will Rock You” was just the B side to the “We Are The Champions”. “News Of The World” now reaches it’s 40th anniversary year, and gets the special edition / deluxe treatment.

“NOTW” was Queen’s sixth album, and attempted to rein back a little on the arrangements and complexities that had reached their zenith on “A Day At The Races”. As a consequence they alienated some of their longer standing fans but found themselves a whole new mainstream audience.

As well as a picture disc pure analogue re-cut of the original vinyl LP, direct from the unmastered analogue master mix tapes, (pressed onto vinyl especially mixed from sunchoke resin and unicorn tears) this 3CD and single DVD set offers up alternate takes, raw mixes and some live cuts.

Selling for north of £100 there can’t be many prospective purchasers that don’t have the original album, so it’s likely to be the “Raw Sessions” CD (plus a new hour-long documentary on the DVD) that is of the most interest. Here, alternate versions sequenced » Continue Reading.

Steve Marriott – “Watch Your Step – The Final Performances”

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What does it sound like?:

Steve Marriott was a rarity – an instantly recognisable voice, sublime on rockers and soulful material alike. And a mean guitarist too, whether part of Humble Pie’s “Rockin The Filmore” thunder or on the more stripped back hard rock 3 piece bands he fronted across the 80’s. A mercurial character (described well in Jerry Shirley’s “Best Seat In The House”) at times prone to self-destruction, his years leading a stadium filling super group saw him broke and mistrustful of the music business, He eschewed mainstream record company interest in later years, often to the frustration of his bandmates, touring endlessly to earn some cash as well as do what he loved – live performance. And to think he turned down Keith Richard’s request to replace Brian Jones.

Since his death in April 1991 there’s been no shortage of posthumous material – 20 albums or so, most taken from live recordings made during his post Pie years. What makes this release stand out a little is that each disc in this 4 CD set features a different gig from Steve’s final tour in January 1991 including his last UK gig at the Half Moon in » Continue Reading.

Strange Days – The Doors

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What does it sound like?:

The 50th anniversary bandwagon keeps on rolling, with the Doors second studio album next up. For this re-release the hoop-la is a little more muted. No new material, but the set offers remastered mixes in both stereo as well as the original mono, making it’s debut on CD. Probably my tin ears, but I’d take the stereo mix over the flatter mono mix every time.

The success of their first album allowed the Doors to approach their second album with more time, a bigger budget and an 8 track studio. Cue lots of experimentation, overdubs, trippy Moog synth and messing with tape speeds. Recording engineer Bruce Botnick had got hold of a pre-release copy of the Beatles “Sgt Pepper” and there’s no doubt horizons expanded.

The album was recorded in the same year as their debut release, drawing from the same pool of songs as the first album, entering the album charts whilst the debut was still in the top 10. The slightly manic and fairly ordinary “My Eyes Have Seen You” along with the bluesy “Moonlight Drive” make the album despite predating Robby Kreiger even being in the band.

Given the Doors » Continue Reading.

The Doors – The Singles

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What does it sound like?:

There’s nothing like an anniversary to get the record companies combing the vaults to see what they can dust off and re-issue. The Doors 50th anniversary prompts this multi format collection, a follow on from an expanded 1st album set issued earlier this year. This set comes as 2 CDs, a 2CD set with a blu ray containing a quad mix of “The Best Of”, and most importantly a limited edition box set of 20 replica 7-inch singles, complete with original B-sides, and cover art. Oh, and a poster.

The 2 CD set features all the A and B sides from the first release in 1967 of “Break On Through (To The Other Side)” through to the singles taken from posthumous releases such as “The Mosquito” (from the album “Full Circle”), “Roadhouse Blues” (the live version included on “An American Prayer”) and “Gloria” (another live cut from “Alive, She Cried”.

The target audience for this kind of release has to be the hardcore Doors fan, and to tempt them to open their wallets the rarities emerging blinking into the re-release sunlight include a number of the original B sides making it to CD » Continue Reading.

ATM – Kitchen Knives

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I did a cookery course last weekend. Amazingly, I came back with the same number of fingers and thumbs, and I didn’t make myself ill. I even cooked stuff that was really quite nice to eat.

I plan to do more cooking at home, and I need a decent knife or two. The cooking school endorsed Robert Welch stuff but it’s fairly pricey (although I will get one of their sharpeners). Anyone here recommend other brands? Any other vital equipment to purchase?

Eric Johnson

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Venue:

The Tralf, Buffalo

Date: 21/05/2017

Bit of an enigma is Eric. Sometimes regarded as the guitarists’ guitarist, he continues to gig and record on his own terms. An example being this tour; having already played a lengthy set of dates in support his most recent release, an acoustic CD, this date in Buffalo is part of a tour for his electric band where there’s no new release to promote. None of which prevented a sell out in this 800 seat, rather excellent venue.

First up was Arielle playing a solo acoustic set. It would be easy to take a dig at the hippyish star-child persona but she’s a talented musician with a great voice. Her songs had a little too much whimsy for me until she offered up a beautifully rendered “Blackhole Sun” in tribute to Chris Cornell.

Johnson was backed by Chris Maresh from Eric’s home town of Austin on bass and Joe Travers on drums (yes, that Joe Travers – the vaultmeister for the Zappa Family Trust). They are a tight unit and Travers drum work really drives the band during the up-tempo numbers.

Johnson has always been hard to categorise and flicks between jazz, » Continue Reading.

Bad Company – Running With The Pack & Burnin’ Sky – Deluxe

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What does it sound like?:

Formed in 1974, Bad Company recorded their first 4 albums in 4 years. Their first two efforts, “Bad Company” and “Straight Shooter” (already the subject of the deluxe 2 CD treatment) set the bar pretty high – platinum selling, a US number 1 album and four hit singles.

“Running With The Pack” – – album number 3 – now gets the remastered deluxe treatment backed by a bonus CD of alternate mixes and early takes, virtually all of which are previously unreleased. The title track is strongest – a stomping rocker with a anthemic chorus, whilst “Sweet Little Sister” barrels along, picking up where “Moving On” on the first album left on. “Silver, Blue and Gold” became a staple of US FM radio because of its catchy chorus. The album alternates rockers with slower paced more soulful songs that exploit Rodgers voice to the full. A cover of Leiber & Stoller’s “Young Blood” features some neat fuzz guitar but otherwise remains faithful to the original and only closing track “Fade Away” had me reaching for the fast forward button.

The bonus disc mostly follows the track order of the original album, and » Continue Reading.

BT Sport

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I’m partial to a Sainsbury Big Breakfast sandwich, enjoying the opportunity to harden my arteries whilst reading their free papers. This morning the only paper available was The Mail. Far from ideal, but as I’m reading it for free, and I’m unlikely to see anyone I know, I took the opportunity to read the news from the dark side.

The front page splash was the way in which the evil insurance companies take advantage of people lacking the will to change suppliers and ramping up renewal quotes egregiously. Who’d of thunk? I suppose something had to replace what they had to ditch which presumably was Le Pen’s glorious victory.

It got me thinking. Time to ditch my BT Sport sub. I’d started a few years back when the cost was under £10 a month. It was now a staggering £28 a month, and they still wanted even more money to show on a 2nd TV. I’d renewed each year despite an increasing sense of getting screwed and watching almost none of its coverage apart from an occasional Premier League game. So today I said enough.

Obviously you can’t cancel on line. First you have find the number to call (and » Continue Reading.

Where’s My Guitar?

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Author:Bernie Marsden

Bernie Marsden has achieved many things of which others could only dream. Seven albums with a band that filled stadiums around the world and the co-writer of a multi-million selling song that reached Number 1 in the US and Canada. But regrets, there are a few.

Between 1978 and 1982 Bernie was in Whitesnake, the band that picked up (sort of) where Deep Purple left off, and in most respects, it’s this that will draw people to Bernie’s book. Aside from his natural regret at seeing his time in the band come to an end before he wanted there’s added poignancy surrounding writing and recording of “Here I Go Again”. A joint composition with Dave Coverdale. It’s a standout track on Whitesnake’s 1982 album “Saints and Sinners”, and today represents three of the top five ‘Snake tracks played on Spotify.

Bernie acknowledges that this song has given him financial freedom but there’s a sense of the bittersweet in that he never played the song live with the band as he was fired almost immediately after making the album. Barely troubling the UK charts at the time,“Here I Go Again” really took off five years later when the » Continue Reading.

The Doors 50th Anniversary Re-Issue

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What does it sound like?:

Back in the mid 70’s I listened to a lot of Ten Years After. Not because I wanted to, but because my best mate liked them. Occasionally other bands got a look in – Blue Oyster Cult, Thin Lizzy, The Dictators, and incongruously, his other favourite, The Doors. In particular, The Doors first album. It’s an album I’ve never felt the need to own, although I hoovered up every grubby detail about Jim Morrison in Danny Sugerman’s “Wonderland Avenue”. And now here we are, 50 years on from the release of the first album and about 40 years since I first heard it.

It seems unlikely that this set is aimed at those of us who still haven’t got round to buying the first album yet. In attempt to appeal to Doors cognoscenti – or maybe more cynically, Doors completists – this 3CD / single LP set seems to be trying to cover all the bases. On the CDs you get the album’s original stereo mix, remastered for the first time in around 30 years and out of print for around 10. The original mono mix has also been remastered and gets it first » Continue Reading.

20th Century Women

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Year: 2016 Director: Mike Mills

According to The Telegraph a “secret treasure of the season, though – crafted with tender precision, and built to last”

According to the Guardian, a film that boasts a “rush of gorgeous moments, a standout performance from Annette Bening and profound thoughts on family and identity”

According to the Mrs F8 “a load of bollocks”. And I’m inclined to agree.

Across two hours we get lots of “quirky”, something which seems to be director Mike Mills forte. Annette Bening plays divorcee Dorothea, mother to 15 year old Jamie living in shabby bohemian chic in Santa Barbara in 1979. The house is also home to lodgers Abbie – an art student with love of punk music who is recovering from cervical cancer, and William, a handyman still devoted to the hippy lifestyle. Jamie doesn’t have a girlfriend but 17 year old Julie sneaks into Jamie’s room most nights for sleep and conversation, but not sex. Although a willing participant with other boys she is off limits to Jamie who clearly adores her.

Early attempts are made to portray Jamie as a difficult teenager but he doesn’t even seem mildly exasperating. We are told in passing » Continue Reading.

When the blues came to Whistle Test

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I just saw this on Facebook. Toe curling in some parts but hugely enjoyable in others. 1985 eh? “

Rory Gallagher fans should skip to the end. “Once this hi-tech synthesizer carry on cools down a bit” …..

There’s a special Xmas bonus point for those of us who recognise Barry Martin from his (then) day job. No mention of the harmonica player at the end. Mark Felton maybe?

Queen – On Air

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What does it sound like?:

Back in 1975, the acquisition of any record was something I considered very carefully. Funds were scarce and it could be months before I’d saved up enough money to buy something new and better. As a dyed in the wool rock guitar fan, I just couldn’t decide if “Sheer Heart Attack” was too risky a punt. This 2 CD set includes the 1974 “Sounds Of The Seventies” session that piqued my interest, as “Now I’m Here” and “Stone Cold Crazy” sounded just my thing. Trouble was, “Flick of the Wrist” and “Tenement Funster” sounded less so. It was the Christmas Eve televised gig from Hammersmith Odeon that finally opened my wallet (helped in no small degree by my parents going out enabling viewing at close to concert like volume) and “Sheer Heart Attack” remains in my collection to this day. And “Tenement Funster” an all time favourite track.

This 2 CD / 3LP release covers all the BBC session material– a total of 24 tracks in all that span a 1973 set, 5 months prior to Queen’s first LP release through to a sixth session in 1977, post Bo Rap, coinciding with the release » Continue Reading.