Not Forgotten
Not Forgotten: Bruce Springsteen – Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.
I took the scenic route to being a Bruce Springsteen fan. Perhaps bizarrely I started with his critically acclaimed Tunnel of Love, before back tracking to the stadium-conquering Born in the USA. Losing interest for a while, it wasn’t until one of my closest friends started dating a Springsteen obsessive that my interest was sparked …
Not Forgotten: William Shatner – Has Been
Can you imagine trying to pitch a William Shatner album to a record label in 2003? For decades he had been sniggered at for his various attempts at ‘singing’, with his much derided rendition of “Mr Tambourine Man” being a subject of much criticism down the years, though the reaction to that was nothing compared …
Not Forgotten: Leaf Hound – Growers of Mushroom
Ah, 1971, a time when rock music was rapidly evolving and youth culture as a whole was still suffering from the hangover caused by the end of the hippy dream. The giants of the new decade had begun to emerge in the late 60s, with The Beatles split having handily cleared the decks for a …
Not Forgotten: Ocean Colour Scene – Marchin’ Already
Anyone who has read more than a handful of my reviews will be familiar with my oddly conflicted attitude to the mid-90s Britpop movement. Seemingly a term coined by Stuart Maconie, it was one co-opted by mass-media to basically refer to any British guitar wielding act at the time. This led to a lot of …
Not Forgotten: Cat Stevens – Teaser and the Firecat
Teaser And The Firecat is in many ways the twin of the superb Tea for the Tillerman, which has been one of my favourite albums since my early teens and one that meant so much to me over the years, that I didn’t want my illusions of Cat Stevens shattered by finding out that the …
Not Forgotten: Wild Butter – Wild Butter
Every now and then, while perusing the racks at Record Collector, I’ll happen across an album that will demand to be purchased based on its artwork alone. Wild Butter’s eponymous debut of 1970, resplendent in its artwork featuring a giant stick of butter flying through the sky, is one of those albums. Upon initial listen, …
Not Forgotten: Vernon Elliott – Clangers: Original Television Music
Do you remember when a group of knitted pink miniature aardvarks to rocked your world? More action-packed than Bagpuss, cooler than Chorlton and the Wheelies, more psychedelic than Jamie and The Magic Torch and less mainstream than The Wombles, when it came to kids TV in my early youth, only the incomparable Danger Mouse rocked …
Not Forgotten: Rush – Rush
With them having spent the last four decades carving out the most enduring career of all the iconic prog rock acts, hearing Rush’s self titled debut for the first time can come as something as a shock to the newcomer. The only one of their albums not to feature drummer, lyricist and former tractor salesman, …
Not Forgotten: Matt Berry – Opium
A few weeks ago my father-in-law asked me, as the family’s resident source of music recommendations, if there was an act in the contemporary music scene that I was genuinely excited about. “Matt Berry”, was my immediate answer. The reason for my lack of hesitation in my response was simple. Other than Half Man Half …
Not Forgotten: The Sensational Alex Harvey Band – Tomorrow Belongs to Me
Absolutely uncategorisable throughout their career, by 1975, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were still in pursuit of an elusive hit singles, but album wise Tomorrow Belongs to Me followed hot on the heels of the brilliant The Impossible Dream, and proved beyond a doubt that its predecessor was in no way a fluke hit. Rocker …