Classic rock
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 …
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: 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 …
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 …
Album Review: Little Steven – Soulfire
For anyone to successfully step out of the shadow of one of the iconic figures in American popular song is a rare thing. To do so and return to the familiar shadow later, with their own career in full swing and successfully diversified, is a rare thing. While Little Steven will forever be associated with …
Classic Album: Elton John – Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy
Managing to traverse the chasm between critics favourite and global commercial acceptance at the same time as David Bowie, the former Reg Dwight seemingly had the best of both worlds by the mid 70s. Like Bowie, he had segued almost effortlessly from lauded singer-songwriter to glam rock icon (and, lest we forget, had even cracked …
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 …