Classic rock
Not Forgotten: Little Feat – Waiting for Columbus
It starts with the band chanting along with each other instead of the usual crowd noise, which eventually gives way to the sound of an MC introducing the band and then the glorious sound of Little Feat ripping into one of their signature tunes. By 1977 Little Feat had long established themselves as one of …
Album Review: Def Leppard – Def Leppard
It’s been seven years since Def Leppard’s last album, “Songs From the Sparkle Lounge”, and the musical landscape has continued to evolve at a bewildering rate in their absence. Things have changed for Def Leppard too, as their new eponymous album is their first without the support of Mercury Records. Listening to their new album, …
Classic Album: Elton John – Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player
By the time of Don’t Shoot Me, I’m Only The Piano Player, Elton John was one of the biggest musical stars on the planet, his writing partnership with Bernie Taupin being one of the most fertile on the early 70s. They were adaptable too, being able to run the gamut from simple pop, ballads and …
Not Forgotten: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Damn the Torpedoes
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are one of the great rock and roll bands of the American Heartland. Every bit as accessible as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, they’re huge in the USA, yet they have always had oddly inconsistent commercial success in the UK. This is really rather odd, as Tom Petty …
Not Forgotten – Mick Ronson – Slaughter on 10th Avenue
I will always argue that Mick Ronson is always massively short changed in any assessment of the career of David Bowie. Without Ronson’s arrangement acumen, iconic guitar heroics and unerring sense for what made for great rock and roll dynamics, Bowie would have been little more than a cult artist, rather than the international mega …
Not Forgotten: Ray Davies – The Storyteller
The rock star’s autobiography is big business these days, but rarely are they as revelatory, or as informative as they could be and even rarer do they actually make for enlightening reading. There are, of course, honourable exceptions. Indeed, both volumes of Julian Cope’s autobiography are wildly entertaining (whether you are actually a fan of …
Not Forgotten: Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
The career path of Fleetwood Mac has been a long, complicated and much storied one. Following their Brit-blues-boom beginnings, they enjoyed a flurry of initial success in the UK before band founder Peter Green departed. They would then have difficulty retaining guitar players until American Bob Welch gave them a sense of stability during which …
Track: Bill Wyman – What & How & If & Why & When
So he may not be in the Rolling Stones anymore, despite doing thirty one years service on the bass guitar slot, but Bill Wyman is a busy boy. Since quitting the band back in 1993, he’s written seven books, exhibited his photographs globally, launched his open brand if metal detector, composed for film and TV, …
Meet: Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule
Warren Haynes is one of those musicians that everyone that meets him holds in high esteem. Joining the reformed Allman Brothers Band in the 80s he’s built a formidable reputation and list of credits to his name, not least fronting Gov’t Mule since the mid 90s. 2014 has been Gov’t Mule’s 20th anniversary and January …
Album review: The Lonely H – The Lonely H
This is good-time music. It’s got everything that you need: bendy, blues- and rock’n’roll-infused guitars, confident brass, an unobtrusive but muscular rhythm section, a strong and soulful vocalist, and a good understanding of how to write coherent, tuneful, ass-shaking, country rock. This five-piece, who have been together for around a decade, hail from Port Angeles, …