Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Marillion – Clutching at Straws
Marillion are one of those acts whose days of commercial success are far behind them, yet whose fanbase remains so rabidly loyal, that whatever they release will be met with no small amount of enthusiasm. They are also a band of contradictions. As a prog rock act in the mid 80s, they found their greatest …
Not Forgotten: Deep Purple – Burn
Having established themselves as one of the premium hard rock bands of the early 70s, by 1973, it was seemingly simply too much effort for Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan and scalloped-fret worrier Ritchie Blackmore to co-exist in the same band. Gillan walking away / being pushed gave Blackmore an opening to try and convince …
Not Forgotten: Neil Innes – Taking Off
When the rare conversations regarding the merits of the Bonzo Dog Band are had, a fair portion of that time is spent discussing the work of Viv Stanshall, he of the instantly recognisable voice, weird lyrics, variable solo career and someone generally held to be a cult hero. While Stanshall and his creative career certainly …
Not Forgotten: Ian Hunter – Welcome to the Club
While Mick Ronson will always be most closely associated with David Bowie, thanks to his status as Chief Spider and that iconic Top of the Pops performance of “Starman”, he arguably had a more equitable collaborative relationship with former Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter. It’s sometimes forgotten that Ronno did serve as Mott’s guitarist …
Not Forgotten: Little Feat – Sailin’ Shoes
Little Feat are a band that I have been patient with. Perhaps it’s because the first album I heard by them, the fantastic live offering Waiting for Columbus made such a favourable impression on me, that I’ve been a little disappointed that the studio albums of theirs that I have explored have not had the …
Not Forgotten: Parliament – Mothership Connection
Simply put, Mothership Connection is the album which proved that you could do the ostentatiousness of prog rock and still make the listener want to get up and dance. It’s a headspinningly brilliant throw down from funk to every middle-class prog rocker with aspirations to be taken seriously. Sure, prog rock often showed musicianship, but …
Not Forgotten: Rainbow – Rising
The haziness of music history shows that Rainbow were one of the first acts to actually identify themselves as Heavy Metal. While it may have been Jimi Hendrix’ guitar playing that had been described as ‘heavy metal falling for the sky’, and the trio of Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Black Sabbath started out as …
Not Forgotten: 10CC – Deceptive Bends
Having cornered the intelligent pop market with a brace of hit singles and a quartet of albums which made the most of each individual band member’s top-draw songwriting and cutting-edge production techniques, by 1976 10CC had very little to prove. The arty / techy duo Godley & Creme were getting increasingly enamoured with the types …
Not Forgotten: The Bees – Octopus
There’s something heartening when you discover a band that’s obviously not part of a media-hyped ‘scene’. Released during a period where tie-rock, Brit-pop revivalists and Coldplay-clones still held sway here in the UK, at least as far as rock music goes, Octopus confirmed that The Bees particular brand of shaggy retro-revivalism just didn’t seem to …
Not Forgotten: The Soundtrack of Our Lives – Welcome to the Infant Freebase
Retro rock is a risky business, if you pay homage to your influences too closely you risk ending up in a creative cul-de-sac, when your fans don’t need to know what your new album is like, only if it is any good. In a worse case scenario you could do all you can to attempt …