Buyers Guide
A Buyers Guide to Frankie Miller 1973 – 1980
Frankie Miller is a name that few are familiar with beyond a freak hit single with a cover of a song he wasn’t that fussed with, and an undeserved reputation of being a second-tier white-soul vocalist. Having cut his teeth in short lived bands The Stoics and Jude, two acts that were both signed to …
A Buyers Guide to XTC
For reasons I’ve never been able to adequately explain, the majority of my favourite musicians have never achieved the level of success that their talent deserved, instead achieving artistic integrity while other, lesser talents, enjoyed far bigger commercial success and radio play. Super Furry Animals, Eels, Cud, are all bands that deserved to be much …
A Buyers Guide to Randy Newman
Quick – who is the greatest songwriter America has ever produced? Okay, how many of you said Bob Dylan? More than three quarters of you I should imagine and you may even be right, but how many of you looked beyond the obvious and said Randy Newman? Quite a few probably, because you’re reading an …
A Buyers Guide to Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin. You’ve heard of them right? They were quite good at that rock music thing back in the day and after years of putting it off their chief architect is finally getting around to releasing their studio albums in remastered and expanded form. Quite why it has taken Jimmy Page until now to finally …
A Buyers Guide to Supergrass
Fizzy, fun and yet still possessing surprisingly more depth than their singles would suggest, Supergrass was that rare thing in Britpop, a band that was worth the hype at the time, whose material still stands up to scrutiny today. I Should CoCo finds the band as callow youths, still juggling style and substance and yet …
A Buyers Guide to Pixies
Just imagine what rock music over the last 25 years would have been without the influence of Pixies. Few bands have had the all-infusing influence that Pixies have demonstrated and fewer can claim to have had a direct impact on two of the biggest rock acts of a generation. Indeed, both Nirvana and Radiohead are/were …
A Buyers Guide to Free
The late 60s were an exciting time for blues based rock in the UK, Cream was the supergroup, Fleetwood Mac had genuine hit singles and we haven’t even mentioned Led Zeppelin yet. Hot on the heels of these heavy hitters were four little skinny guys, younger than their contemporaries, they could still play the blues …
A Buyers Guide to Progressive Rock
Progressive Rock, much like Dr Who, was far more enjoyable in the 70s. While it is undeniably glossier these days, it has lost much of the intangible brilliance that caught the imagination back in the day. As for me, I’ve had a love / hate relationship with the genre for decades. There are some prog …
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 …
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 …