Rock – Metal Rewind
Reissue: Rush – All the World’s a Stage
For all Rush’s reputation as dazzling progressive rockers on their studio albums, they have an enviable parallell reputation as a thunderously hard rocking live act. While their 70s studio albums are heavy on meticulously played brainiac sci-fi / fantasy concepts, their first live offering, All the World’s a Stage, confirmed that when it came to …
A Buyers Guide to Alice Cooper 1971 – 1975
It’s easy to forget just how consistently impressive Alice Cooper was between 1971 and 1975, both as a group and then morphing into Vincent Furnier’s solo career. From Love It to Death through to Welcome to My Nightmare, Alice Cooper’s output stands comparison to the likes of both Elton John and David Bowie, two other …
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 David Bowie – The Glam Years
The career arc of David Bowie was nothing if not fascinating. From his early attempts at just about anything that would get him noticed, he managed a freak hit single after years of trying with the evergreen “Space Oddity” at the back end of 1969. Following the success of “Space Oddity” and the relative lack …
NOT FORGOTTEN – TERRORVISION – SHAVING PEACHES
Terrorvision are one of those bands where it has been all to easy for the world at large to forget them. There’s no obvious reason for this to have happened. Terrorvison were a good-natured knock-about four piece band who rocked hard and gave their paying audience a good-value night out every time they played. True, …
NOT FORGOTTEN – QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – SONGS FOR THE DEAF
It was at one of those get togethers you attend with your other half, so there’s always a few folks you’ve not met before. My girlfriend was saying hello to her sisters and various old acquaintances she’d not seen for years and I must have stood out like a sore thumb, because this giant of …
NOT FORGOTTEN – GROUNDHOGS – SPLIT
Oddly enough, the first time I heard of The Groundhogs was a minor ‘Forgotten Heroes’ piece on them in Melody Maker back in the late 90s as apparently a number of Brit Pop acts had been influenced by them. With both The Melody Maker and Brit Pop and both consigned to history since I first …
NOT FORGOTTEN – DREAD ZEPPELIN – UN-LED-ED
On paper it sounds like a terrible idea, a bunch of stoners playing reggae versions of Led Zeppelin tunes, fronted by an Elvis Presley impersonator. Leaping from your speakers it’s a different matter. The thing is, Dread Zeppelin could really play. They weren’t just playing for laughs either, they were accomplished musicians with a deep …