Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Framed
As 1972 drew to a close, things had seemingly settled down a little bit in the landscape of British rock music. The singles charts were full of good time glitter stompers, and the album charts full of amplified heavy rock and ambitious prog rockers. There were a few acts that bridged the chasm between singles …
Not Forgotten: Bob Dylan – John Wesley Harding
Music changed forever in 1967, primarily because in the wake of Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, it was firmly established that the long player had finally wrestled the mantle of definitive medium for rock and roll statements from the single format. Sure, it was already in the pipeline anyway, as acts like Pink Floyd …
Not Forgotten: The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band – Gorilla
Released mere months after Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band shook the popular music scene to its core, The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band’s Gorilla turned the whole pop culture thing on its head. 1967 saw music at something of a counter culture cross roads. While ‘the kids’ had spent recent years embracing The Beatles, …
A buyers’ guide to Steely Dan 1972-1980
I disagree with Steely Dan. But that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that during the period of 1972 – 1980, they released some of the finest albums of that era, and in Walter Becker and Donald Fagen had one of the finest songwriting duos to …
Rude Bootleg – Cardiacs Live, Reading Festival 1986
Once a year in my adopted home city of Liége, Belgium, there’s a mini festival in a rough-and-ready part of town. One time a local character, sat smoking on his doorstep and looking like a cross between Al Pacino and Popeye, engaged me in conversation, energised by the influx of young revellers. He asked me …
Classic Compilation: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – Anthology: Through the Years
Tom Petty – a Dylan disciple, a Byrds with harder-wearing tunes, a Bruce Springsteen for the rest of us. Few artists have defined approachable Middle-American rock and roll radio quite like Petty and his loyal band, and no one has made such a consistently good job of it for as long as he did. Anthology: …
Classic Compilation: Orange Juice – The Glasgow School
So, who are the most influential British Indie band of all time? Okay, so I’m going to assume that almost all of you said The Smiths. It is after, all the, predictable and obvious choice. However such cultural myopia is also doing great disservice to Orange Juice, the Edwyn Collins fronted band of indie pioneers …
Album Review: Steve Miller Band – Ultimate Hits
Released as both single and double disc compilations, Ultimate Hits is an odd one. The single disc does everything a compilation should do, giving the listener the feel for the Steve Miller Band’s long career, whereas the double disc version I am reviewing is a game attempt to fill a particular niche. The single disc …
Obituary: Tom Petty
Of all the luminaries of pop music that we have lost in the last couple of years, it is the music of Tom Petty which I have had the longest and most committed relationship with. A radio-friendly American Heartland rocker, Tom Petty was less earnest then Springsteen and more consistently brilliant than Bob Seger. Originally …
Not Forgotten: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Live / 1975-85
40 tracks of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band live and rocking in various theatres, arenas and coliseums over a decade may seem excessive, until you consider the fact that, over three decades later since this live monolith’s initial release, few live acts can come close to matching the heavyweight reputation of their epic, …