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Author Archives: andynathan
Album review: BLOOD RED SAINTS- Undisputed

Frontiers Records (Release Date 06.08.21) Blood Red Saints’ fourth album sees them come full circle, not only with a return to Frontiers Records, but to the style of their impressive debut album before exploring a more guitar dominated and modern … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Blood Red Saints, Lee Revill, melodic rock, Pete Godfrey
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Album review: NIGHT RANGER- ATBPO

Frontiers Records (Release Date 06.08.21) Night Ranger’s first album in four years, the title ‘And the Band Played On’ is a nod to the challenges of making music during the pandemic, though to reduce the album title to its less … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Brad Gillis, Erik Levy, Jack Blades, Kelly Keagy, Kerri Kelli, melodic rock, Night Ranger
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Book review: On Track…TOM PETTY (Every album, every song) by Richard James

SonicBond Publishing (Release Date 30.07.21) The posthumous Tom Petty box set was titled ‘An American Treasure’, a fitting description of a legend of rock who did things on his own terms and has perhaps only been fully appreciated since his … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged book, On Track, Richard James, Tom Petty, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
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Gig review: COLLATERAL – The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 19 August 2021

Back at the start of 2020, I began what I hoped would be a big gigging year with Collateral at a packed Cavern. It was also promising to be a breakthrough year for the Kent rockers whose first full-length album … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS
Tagged Angelo Tristan, Collateral, gig, melodic rock, Rob Fenning, Todd Winger
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Gig review: NOZFEST – The 1865, Southampton, 14 August 2021

Oh, how we have missed rock festivals during the pandemic. 2020 proved to be a write-off as Coronavirus proved more stubborn than originally imagined, and with depressing predictability, as spring turned into summer most organisers gave up the unequal struggle … Continue reading
Gig review: ATOMIC ROOSTER- Cabbage Patch, Twickenham, 5 August 2021

For the past 20 years or so the Eel Pie Club have been keeping alive the spirit of the sixties music scene that was so influential in this part of South-West London. As that decade gave way to the seventies, … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS
Tagged Adrian Gautrey, Atomic Rooster, Eel Pie Club, gig, Pete French, Steve Bolton
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Album review: TOBY HITCHCOCK- Changes

Frontiers Records (Release Date 09.07.21) Less than a year after the latest Pride of Lions album and only two after his ‘Reckoning’ release, powerhouse singer Toby Hitchcock is back in fairly short order with his third solo album. After using … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Alessandro Del Vecchio, AOR, melodic rock, Pride of Lions, Toby Hitchcock
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Album review: MR BIG- Lean Into It (30th anniversary reissue)

EvoXS (Release Date 23.07.21) While their debut appeared a couple of years earlier, it was their sophomore effort, ‘Lean Into It’ in 1991 that marked melodic rock supergroup Mr Big’s finest hour. It is of course remembered for their worldwide … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, Reissues
Tagged Billy Sheehan, Eric Martin, Lean Into It, Mr Big, Paul Gilbert, reissue
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Book review: Decades – FLEETWOOD MAC in the 1970s by Andrew Wild

SonicBond Publishing [Publication date 14.05.21] No band survived the seventies with a more spectacular transformation than Fleetwood Mac. They began it as a successful British blues band who were about to be left reeling by the departure of their founder … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, BOOK REVIEWS
Tagged Andrew Wild, book, Decades, Fleetwood Mac, review
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Gig review: SPIKE- The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 15 July 2021

There can hardly be a rock fan who has not seen the Quireboys at some point in the last 35 years and whatever their view of the band, warmed to the bibulous, twinkly, laddish charms of singer Spike. The Quireboys’ … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS
Tagged acoustic, Cavern, Christian Heilmann, gig, Quireboys, Spike
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Book review: Decades – URIAH HEEP in the 1970s by Steve Pilkington

Sonicbond Publishing (Release Date 28.03.21) Following the series of ‘On Track’ releases, reviewing a band’s back catalogue in comprehensive detail, Sonicbond have been moving onto a new ‘decades’ concept in which a band’s history is examined in more detail over … Continue reading
Album review: DENNIS DE YOUNG – 26 East, Volume 2

Frontiers Records (Release date 11.06.21) This is an album I’ve been looking forward to for 12 months since the release of Volume 1. That represented the former Styx singer’s return to his melodic rock roots in far better fashion than … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Dennis De Young, Jim Peterik, melodic rock, pomp rock, Styx
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Album review: ONE DESIRE – One Night Only- Live in Helsinki (CD/DVD)

Frontiers Records (Release Date 11.06.21) In normal times, it might seem vainglorious for a band to issue a live CD and DVD just two albums into their career. However, in these strange times it is easy to empathise with One … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, DVD REVIEWS
Tagged album, AOR, live album, melodic rock, One Desire
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Album review: TOTO – With A Little Help From My Friends

The Players Club/Mascot Label Group (Release Date 25.06.21) Last November Toto broadcast a live stream from California, which in the absence of concerts was the only way to introduce to the wider world their new line up in which Steve … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Joseph Williams, live album, melodic rock, review, Steve Lukather, Toto
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Gig review: PAPA GEORGE AND VAL COWELL- Cabbage Patch, Twickenham, 28 May 2021

A return to normality for gigging is a long way off, just witness the continuing cancellation or postponements of shows into 2022. However at least lockdown has lifted enough for a few socially distanced shows to resume. Last autumn I … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS
Tagged Bad Influence, blues, blues rock, gig, Papa George, Val Cowell
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Gig review: JIM KIRKPATRICK- The Cavern, Raynes Park, London, 20 May 2021

If 2020 was a desert for live music, the road out of lockdown in 2021 has been an even longer and gloomier slog. Down in South West London, Cavern owner Noel Nevin has been fighting the good fight to stay … Continue reading
Posted in ALL POSTS, GIG REVIEWS
Tagged blues rock, FM, gig, Jim Kirkpatrick, melodic rock, The Cavern
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Album review: MARK SPIRO- Traveling Cowboys

Frontiers Records (Release Date 07.05.21) Best known as a writer for Cheap Trick, Giant, Bad English and others, Mark Spiro’s career has significantly picked up after a dormant few years. Less than a year after the ’2+2= 5‘ triple anthology … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Julian Lennon, Mark Spiro, melodic rock, singer songwriter
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Album review: LEVARA – s/t

Mascot Records [Release Date 14.05.21] So there was an American, an Englishman and a Frenchman…. no, not a set up to one of the world’s oldest forms of joke, but the line up of hotly tipped new melodic rockers Levara. … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Josh Devine, Jules Galli, Levara, melodic rock, Trev Lukather
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Album review: ROBBIE LaBLANC – Double Trouble

Escape Music (Release date 16.04.21) Robbie LaBlanc is not only one of the melodic rock world’s most admired singers, but increasingly its most prolific. It’s only a few months since I reviewed the East Temple Avenue album he lent his … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, melodic rock, Robbie LaBlanc, Steve Overland, Tommy Denander
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Album review: FM – Tough It Out Live

Frontiers Records (Release date 09.04.21) It already seems a long time ago but one of the gig highlights of the winter before the pandemic struck was the Big-Three-O tour in which FM, together with Dan Reed Network and Gun, celebrated … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, FM, live album, melodic rock, Steve Overland, Tough It Out
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Album review: GARY HUGHES – Decades

Frontiers Records [Release Date 12.03.21] With Gary Hughes having just released his first solo album in a long while, the simultaneous release of this generous 29 track double compilation is very timely as an opportunity to discover (or rediscover) the … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, compilation, Gary Hughes, melodic rock, TEN
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Album review: A RISING FORCE – Undertow

HighVolMusic [Release Date 07.05.21] A Rising Force brings together several seasoned Minnesota musicians in a new band. They include guitarist Leni DiMancari, who was an original member of Hericane Alice but is better known, at least to me, as the … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged A Rising Force, album, Brian Lorenson, Lane Allen, Leni DiMancari, Mark Westlund, Undertow
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Album review: CHEZ KANE

Frontiers Records [Release Date 12.03.21] Chez Kane is one of three sisters fronting Kane’d, who have gained a reputation pre-pandemic as an enjoyable live act. This is her debut solo album, though equal uncredited billing goes to Danny Rexon, lead … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Chez Kane, Crazy Lixx, Danny Rexon, melodic rock
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Album review: GARY HUGHES – Waterside

Frontiers Records [Release Date 12.03.21] It’s been a relatively quiet period for Gary Hughes, the usually prolific Ten mainman- over two years since Ten’s last album but a whopping 14 since his last album under his own name. Now, on … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Dann Rosingana, Darrel Treece-Birch, Gary Hughes, melodic rock, TEN
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Album review: TOUCH – Tomorrow Never Comes

Escape Music [Release Date 26.03.21] Here’s a reunion few ever expected to see. Touch are most famous to the wider world as the band that opened the first ever Monsters of Rock at Download in 1980. Many years later I … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Craig Brooks, Doug Howard, Glenn Kitchart, Mark Mangold, melodic rock, pomp rock, Touch
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