rock/metal rewind
Classic Compilation: Free – The Free Story
There’s a load of stuff about The Free Story that just shouldn’t work. Released a little while after Free disbanded for the final time, yet just long enough for 50% of the band to enjoy huge success as 50% of Bad Company, and be able to ride that wave of success, there’s an inescapable whiff …
Not Forgotten: Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Messin’
Although never known as being one of the eras key acts, Manfred Mann enjoyed a few sizeable radio hits during the beat boom of the 60s. After the hits dried up, the eponymous keyboard player had flirted with jazz-rock with the ambitious, but dull, Manfred Mann Chapter Three, before deciding to recruit another band and …
Classic Compilation: The Beatles – Love
How many words have been written about The Beatles in the last five and a half decades? Too damn many that’s for certain, but it’s also probably one of the greatest indicators of how they still stand like an immovable colossus over popular culture. Almost fifty years after they imploded in a cloud of legal …
Not Forgotten: Golden Earring – Moontan
With their roots going back as far as the early 60s, many still overlook Golden Earring when considering the most enduring European rock acts. Initially a four piece beat combo, by the early 70s they were an accomplished psych-prog act, complete with a drummer who would mark the climax of every gig by launching himself …
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 …
Classic Album: Considering the status of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 50 years later.
50 years ago popular music reached its absolute apex when Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the most perfect musical statement in the history of the eardrum was released. It instantly made every album released prior to May 1967 sound utterly juvenile, and every album released after it has been a shockingly poor attempt to …
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 …