News: Get Ready to ROCK! announces first band in the Grotto of Greatness (December 2022)

The Darkness - CORNBURY Music Festival - The Great Tew Park, Oxfordshire, 8 July 2022

Rock website Get Ready to ROCK! has announced the first band to be inducted in its “GRTR! Grotto of Greatness”.

The website’s version of the “Hall of Fame” is part of its 20th anniversary celebrations in 2023.  A different artist/band will be announced each month until the end of the year.

The Darkness are the first to be named ahead of UK tour dates in late January.

News and Reviews Editor Jason Ritchie was responsible for one of the band’s earliest online interviews in 2003 and GRTR! has followed the band’s progress ever since.

Managing Editor David Randall commented that the “Grotto” idea reflects the coverage at the website and an artist’s consistency over a twenty year period.  “Each month we’ll plunder the archive, highlighting our reviews and interviews, but also adding new material.”

“The Darkness have proved durable, and resilient considering they were regarded as the proverbial “marmite” band at the outset and of course they had a difficult period after releasing two albums then reforming in 2010.  They’ve gone from strength to strength ever since.”

Jason adds: “The emphasis in all our coverage is the sheer entertainment value of the band, and our month long promotion will reinforce this.”

The Grotto starts on 1 January 2023.

Get Ready to ROCK! is celebrating 20 years in 2023 and will be revisiting an impressive archive of material.  During the year the review team will be naming their Top 10 albums and live acts of two decades amongst other activities.  The GRTR!@20 promotion was launched in October with a series of unique essays written by genre experts highlighting changes over the website’s lifetime.

More information


Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

Since early 2020 Josh has been entertaining us with exclusive monthly live sessions, streamed via Facebook.

Next session: Sunday 19 January


Check out videos here: https://www.facebook.com/getreadytorockradio



David Randall presents a weekly show on Get Ready to ROCK! Radio, Sundays at 22:00 GMT, repeated on Mondays and Fridays), when he invites listeners to ‘Assume The Position’. The show signposts forthcoming gigs and tours and latest additions at getreadytorock.com. First broadcast on 1 December 2024.

UK Blues Broadcaster of the Year (2020 and 2021 Finalist) Pete Feenstra presents his weekly Rock & Blues Show on Tuesday at 19:00 GMT as part of a five hour blues rock marathon “Tuesday is Bluesday at GRTR!”. The show is repeated on Wednesdays at 22:00, Fridays at 20:00). This show was first broadcast 3 December 2024.

How to Listen Live?

Click the programming image at the top of the page (top right of page if using desktop)

Listen via Windows Media Player. Click or tap here and “open file”
Listen via other media player (eg. VLC) Click or tap here and “open file”

Get Ready to ROCK! Radio is also in iTunes under Internet Radio/Classic Rock
Listen in via the Tunein app and search for “Get Ready to ROCK!” and save as favourite.

More information and links at our radio website where you can listen again to shows via the presenter pages: getreadytorockradio.com


Power Plays w/c 9 December 2024

In this sequence we play ‘The Best of 2024′ GRTR! reviewer selections

Featured Albums w/c 9 December 2024

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2024 (Singer Songwriter)



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