rock/metal rewind
Not Forgotten: Cat Stevens – Tea for The Tillerman
Maybe it was a reaction to being a social misfit during my school days, but while my contemporaries were falling underneath the spell of various grunge and hip hop acts back in the early 90s, I had started to pay more and more attention to my parents’ album collection. As teenagers during the 70s, they …
Classic Album: Black Sabbath – Sabbath Bloody Sabbath
If Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut is their most influential album, Paranoid boasted the hit single that became the band’s signature tune, Master of Reality and Vol 4 are the fan favourites, then where does that leave Sabbath Bloody Sabbath? Better produced than its four predecessors, a touch broader in its musical scope (even heavy metal’s …
Not Forgotten: The Beatles – The Magical Mystery Tour
A Not Forgotten article on The Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour? I must have flipped my lid right? How can any album release by the biggest act in popular music be forgotten? Okay, so maybe it hasn’t been forgotten, but it has been massively under appreciated, especially when you compare the avalanche of sycophantic praise heaped …
Not Forgotten: Tom Waits – Nighthawks at the Diner
Sometimes it is impressive what can be achieved with proverbial smoke and mirrors. Promotions, relationships, business deals. Sometimes the appearance that you are something can get you further than actually being that thing. Smoke and mirrors work in the music industry too. From the doing quite well on the surface pop act whose managers are …
Not Forgotten: Jethro Tull – Stand Up
For many fans 1969’s Stand Up is where the Jethro Tull’s story really starts. That’s not to say that their debut, This Was, wasn’t any good, but Stand Up is where Jethro Tull started to sound like no one other act than Jethro Tull. In the few months that split the release of This Was …
Classic Album: Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
Down the decades certain albums have had so much praise heaped upon them by fans and critics alike, that it becomes almost impossible to be objective about them. If so many people tell you how Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Dark Side of the Moon and OK Computer are the greatest albums ever recorded, …
Not Forgotten: Rick Wakeman – Journey to the Centre of the Earth
It can’t be easy having been the interesting member of Yes. While the rest of that most hilariously pompous prog-rock act had their heads firmly jammed up their own derrieres, keyboard twiddling cape fancier Rick Wakeman alone was responsible for ‘keeping it real’. Or as real as things can be when your vocalist sounds like …
Classic Album: Electric Light Orchestra – A New World Record
By October 1976 Electric Light Orchestra had managed to morph themselves into a slick prog-pop group, scoring hit singles the world over and releasing a string of increasingly impressive albums. Not only that, but band leader Jeff Lynne was merrily picking up influences from progressive rock, Beatlesque pop and even elements of disco, all of …
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 …
Classic Albums: Considering the status of Nirvana’s Nevermind 25 years later
It should go without saying, but sometimes it’s okay not to like something as much as people tell you that you should do. This applies many multiple times over for music. So why am I pointing out the obvious? Because since the widespread use of the internet, there are more and more opinion pieces …