Buyers Guide
A buyers’ guide to The Waterboys 1981-1990
The Waterboys are an act that for too long have laboured with being associated with just one song and one album, at least by the majority of people outside their fan base. What makes it even more baffling is the fact that that song is not even on that album. It’s probably fair to say …
A beginners’ guide to Deep Purple
Despite being one of the three great pillars of 70s hard rock and heavy metal, Deep Purple have not quite received the same level of retrospective love as either Led Zeppelin or Black Sabbath in subsequent decades. Perhaps this is because they are so frequently associated with one single song. Or more accurately, one riff. …
A buyers’ guide to Flight of the Conchords
I can’t remember the first I became aware of Flight of the Conchords. I had certainly heard of them prior to my friend Mark recommending their TV series to me. Although Mark has always had a good idea of what music and television I would enjoy, it would be a few years until I fully …
A buyers’ guide to Steely Dan 1972-1980
I disagree with Steely Dan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that during the period of 1972 – 1980, they released some of the finest albums of that era, and in Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had one of the finest songwriting duos to …
A buyers’ guide to Kirsty MacColl
Has any songwriter ever been more perfectly human than Kirsty MacColl? Intelligent, witty, wilful, vulnerable, contrary, mind-bogglingly talented, possessing a steely resolve and yet still coming across as approachable and utterly vulnerable, was there any wonder that I was besotted with her back when I was a teenager? Hell, I guess I still am. However, …
A buyers’ guide to The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
The Sensational Alex Harvey Band cut a unique dash through the mid to late 70s rock scene. A little bit hard rock, a little bit glam, a little bit blues, a little bit theatrical, a little bit prog, a little bit pub rock, they were simultaneously all of these, yet none of these, and though …
Buyers’ Guide: Slade – Live
Perhaps more than at any other point in the history of popular song, the early 70s were a schizophrenic time for rock music, particularly here in the UK, with a sharp contrast between the singles and albums charts. In the album charts, heavyweights like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and a whole host of other hairy …
Feature: double albums that are actually worth the time.
For some artists the single disc statement is not enough. It should be though, as the multiple disc release is a difficult beast to master and many of the most famous double albums are at least half a side too long (The Beatles, Blonde on Blonde, Songs in the Key of Life, Physical Graffiti, etc). …
A buyers’ guide to Queen
It’s often said that it’s always the quiet ones that you have to watch. Apparently no one ever told Freddie Mercury this, as for the best part of two decades he preened and strutted across the music industry as frontman of Queen, connecting with live audiences in a way that no one in rock music …
A buyers’ guide to AC/DC 1975 – 1981
There is a school of thought that you don’t actually need to know what an individual AC/DC album sounds like, you just need to know if it’s any good… If there is one band that stuck to a formula throughout their career, then it’s AC/DC. Hell, even Status Quo transitioned from their Carnaby Street phase …