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 The Beatles
For me there is one genuine great body of creative work from the 20th Century which is beyond criticism. It towers above the collected work of artists like Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. The collected writings of JRR Tolkien finds itself overshadowed by comparison. The original trio of films in the Star Wars franchise looks …
A beginners’ guide to Peter Gabriel
From progressive rock pioneer, to art rocker, to world music conduit, to pop star, to multi-media explorer, Peter Gabriel has covered a tremendous amount of ground in his four and a half decades in the music industry, ensuring him an unarguable place among popular music’s icons. Starting as frontman for Genesis, from 1969 onwards he …
A beginners’ guide to Pink Floyd
With The Beatles having called it a day, Bob Dylan walking in the opposite direction of the psychedleic counter-culture and The Rolling Stones having reached a critical mass they would never exceed, throughout 1970s there was only one band that even vaguely threatened Led Zeppelin’s positiion as the biggest act on the planet. That band …
Feature: Buyers Guide – 70s Live Albums
From the solo acoustic troubador, to the thunderous rock band in full flight, to the electro pioneer peeping above banks of keyboards and oscillator, there’s few things more thrilling than the experience of music being performed live in front of an appreciative audience. The live album has been a part of the musical landscape ever …
A Buyers Guide to Warren Zevon – The Asylum Years
Warren Zevon is one of those songwriters who is unfortunately best remembered for one song which overshadowed the rest of his career. This is a great shame, as Zevon’s output is one of considerable depth which underwent repeated twists and turns in terms of commercial success which lead to a relatively stop-start career punctuated by …
A Buyers Guide to Supertramp 1974-1980
Even with the relatively charitable effects of nostalgia, there aren’t many bands less cool than Supertramp. They were briefly kings of FM rock, at a time that Album Orientated Rock shifted huge amounts in America and it is for Breakfast in America and the singles from that album that they are best remembered. Personally I’ve …
A Buyers Guide to The Bonzo Dog (Doo Dah) Band
Way back in the mid 90s there was a radio documentary about The Bonzo Dog Band. Co-bandleader Vivian Stanshall had passed away in recent years in tragic circumstances, so it was a nice tip of the hat to an act that contemporary audiences had dismissed as a mere novelty act responsible for nothing more than …
A Buyers Guide to The Wonder Stuff 1988 – 1994
Few acts split opinion like The Wonder Stuff over the years, on one hand their detractors are plentiful and vocal, yet their fans have been loyal and passionate. Rising to prominence in the late 80s when being a guitar band usually meant you were heavy metal, arena rock, The Pixies or The Smiths, they offered …