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Upcoming Gigs & Albums
Latest Album Reviews
Latest Gig Reviews
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Gig review: SQUEEZE – Roundhouse, London, 22 November 2024
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Gig review: CARDINAL BLACK – Sub 89, Reading, 15 November 2024
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Gig review: SUZI QUATRO – London Palladium, 13 November 2024
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Gig review: HRH XVII, Great Yarmouth, 7-9 November 2024
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Gig review: WHEN RIVERS MEET, CHANTEL MCGREGOR, XANDER AND THE PEACE PIRATES – Dingwalls, London, 7 November 2024
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Gig review: DEEP PURPLE – 02 Arena, London, 6 November 2024
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Category Archives: ALBUM REVIEWS
Quick plays: TAYLOR YOUNG BAND, AUTUMN’S CHILD
TAYLOR YOUNG BAND Mercury Transit Handrawn Records [Release date 08.10.21] Taylor Young drummed for the likes of The O’s, Young Heart Attack and Polyphonic Spree. Now he takes on the role of band leader and is joined by guitarist, vocalist … Continue reading
Album review: CHRIS FARLOWE & THE THUNDERBIRDS – Stormy Monday & The Eagles Fly On Friday
Repertoire [Release date 28.1.22] This 3CD set brings together more than 50 newly remastered tracks, recorded by the R&B/soul powerhouse Chris Farlowe between 1962 and 1969. It’s an eclectic mix of studio, radio session and live tracks, and a definitive … Continue reading
News: Albums of the Month (October 2021 – December 2021)
DEEP PURPLE Turning To Crime (earMUSIC) While the production is big, solid and bright, there’s also a live-in-the-studio feel, like it was recorded quickly and spontaneously. Listen with open ears and the album shows the band on great form, and … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), Albums of the Month, ALL POSTS, NEWS
Tagged Afterlight, albums, blues rock, Burntfield, classic rock, December 2021, Deep Purple, Eclipse, Leverage, melodic rock, November 2021, October 2021, Progressive Rock, review, singer, songwriter, Thea Gilmore, Thorbjorn Risager
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Album review: THE MURDER OF MY SWEET – A Gentleman’s Legacy
Frontiers [Release date: 10.12.21] The Murder Of My Sweet’s latest release, A Gentleman’s Legacy, is a concept album, with a plot worthy of some of the better psychological thriller writers we may have encountered over the years. The band is … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Abba, album, concept album, Dan Brown, Daniel Flores, Frontiers, Genesis, MURDER OF MY SWEET, Phil Collins, progrock, review
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Album review: CAP OUTRUN – High On Deception
Frontiers [release date 10.12.21] Swedish rock band, Cap Outrun’s debut album integrates Progrock with Melodic Rock. A bold mix of nostalgia and modernism. One of the prime reasons for Progrock’s popularity is the music’s illusion of improvisation. You’re not quite … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Chandler Mogen, Denis DeYoung, Lou Gramm, melodic rock, progrock, review, Steely Dan, Toto, Von Hertzen Brothers
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Album review: DAVID CROSS & ANDREW KEELING – October Is Marigold
Noisy Records [Release date 03.12.21] David Cross releases fine instrumental music via his own Noisy Records imprint. Cross was with King Crimson in the 1970s whilst Keeling has scored new versions of the band’s repertoire. You’d expect that their music … Continue reading
Album review : STAHLMANN – Quarz
AFM Records [release date: 10.12.21] 7th album from German band, Stahlmann. When Rammstein released their first album, in 1995, the German music press coined a new phrase, Neue Deutsch Harte. NDH became a cutting edge calling card for other bands … Continue reading
Album review: MERCURY X – Imprisoned
Frontiers [release date 10.12.21] In straddling the border between Progmetal and Symphonic Rock, Swedish band, Mercury X have staked out a fertile chunk of territory. This is their debut album (excluding two independent releases). It remains to be seen if … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Frontiers, Marillion. Pink Floyd, Mercury X, prog metal, review, Sweden, symphonic rock, The Flower Kings
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Album review: JAMES WHITE & THE WILD FIRE – Live at Saffron Hall
Facebook [Release date 19.11.21] James White & The Wild Fire formed in 2020 and musically are a blend of country, bluegrass, indie and Americana, hailing from Saffron Walden, Essex. The group consists of James White (vocals and guitar), Brooke Bond … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, bluegrass, country, folk, folk rock, James White & the Wild Fire, live album, Live at Saffron Hall, review
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Album review: DEEP PURPLE – Turning To Crime
earMusic [Release date 26.11.21] The rock legends’ 22nd studio album and it comes only a year after the critically acclaimed Whoosh (one of the band’s best albums in their 50+ years). Clearly at a loose end or two during the … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, classic rock, Covers, Deep Purple, Don Airey, hard rock, Ian Gillan, Ian Paice, review, Roger Glover, Steve Morse, Turning To Crime
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Album Review: AFTERLIGHT (Thea Gilmore) – Afterlight
Mighty Village Records - [Release date: 01.10.21] What’s a woman to do when the life that you’ve led for over twenty years reveals itself over time to be a stifling, coercive relationship that’s dominated your life and musical career? The … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile)
Tagged acoustic, Afterlight, album, review, singer, songwriter, Thea Gilmore
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Album review: JULIAN LITTMAN – Goblin Market Music
Website [Release date 01.12.21] Steeleye Span’s Julian Littman has created a concept album based on Christina Rossetti’s famous 19th Century poem ‘Goblin Market’. In addition, author John Matthews set out to adapt the themes in the poem to create a … Continue reading
Album review: THORBJORN RISAGER & THE BLACK TORNADO – Best Of
Ruf [Release date 21.09.21] If there’s still a debate about the merits of European blues as opposed to its American antecedents, then Denmark’s Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado have finally kicked the argument into touch with this stellar ‘Best … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged acoustic, album, big band, blues, compilation, country, Danish, Emil Balsgaard, funk, Harold Adamson, horns, Joachim Svensmark, Kasper Wagner, Martin Seidelin, Nat King Cole, Peter Kehl, review, rock, ruf records, soul, Søren Bøjgaard, Thorbjorn Risager &The Black Tornado, vocals
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Album review: MANIMAL – Armageddon
AFM Records [Release date 3.12.21] Armageddon is Swedish Power Metal band, Manimal’s 6th release. What it lacks in subtlety, it makes up for in bravado and sheer power, with the rough edges sanded down by a bunch of resilient, tough … Continue reading
Album review: RHAPSODY OF FIRE – Glory For Salvation
AFM Records [Release date 26.11.21] Italian symphonic metal legends Rhapsody (for that is what they were originally called) return with their 13th studio album and is the second in the The Nephilim’s Empire Saga concept series, and follows on from … Continue reading
Album review: SKID ROW – The Atlantic Years
BMG [Release date 03.12.21] American rock band Skid Row, who formed in New Jersey in 1986, found fame in the late 80s and early 90s with their brand of hard rock that included elements of glam and sleaze. Signing to … Continue reading
Album review : CORROSION OF CONFORMITY – Sleeping Martyr: 2000-2005 (3 CD digipack)
Cherry Red [Release date 26.11.21] The Sleeping Martyr digipak is a cleverly selected three album package from one of the world’s coolest metal bands, Corrosion Of Conformity. All three – America’s Volume Dealer (2000), Live Volume (2001) and In The … Continue reading
Album review: JIM PETERIK & WORLD STAGE – Tigress – Women Who Rock the World
Frontiers Records (Release date 05.11.21) Jim Peterik’s World Stage project, whether live or in the studio, is characterised by the Survivor founder using the widest array of musical chums to sing his songs. ‘Tigress’ (what is it with his obsession … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, AOR, Cathy Richardson, Chez Kane, Chloe Lowery, Janet Gardner, Jim Peterik, melodic rock, Survivor, World Stage
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Album review: GROUNDBREAKER – Soul to Soul
Frontiers Records (Release date 12.11.21) Groundbreaker’s debut album was a Frontiers Records project to reunite Steve Overland with the pure AOR sound of early FM. That was a collaboration with Work of Art’s Robert Sall, but the latter is not … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Alessandro Del Vecchio, AOR, FM, Groundbreaker, melodic rock, Steve Overland, Sven Larsson
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Album review: ASIA – The Official Live Bootlegs (10 CD Boxset)
BMG UK [release date 26/11/21] Asia : In 1997, Paul Stump wrote in “A History Of Progressive Rock” that the band’s “links with the genre were as tenuous as George Formby’s links with Mozart”. It is a memorable quote. And … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged albums, AOR, Bootlegs, boxset, Carl Palmer, ELP, Geoff Downes, John Wetton, King Crimson, live, progrock, Steve Howe, Yes
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Album review: ESKINA – We Were The Moon
Challenge Records [Release date 19.11.21] www.eskinamusic.com Has the music world gone all reflective? Or maybe it is just a coincidence that in the past few weeks we have received several releases that seem to chime with the times. Or maybe … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, ambient, chill-out, classical, Eskina, instrumental, review, We Are The Moon
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Album review: BRITNY FOX – Britny Fox and Boys In Heat (Remasters)
Rock Candy Records [release date: 29.10.21] Britny Fox’s first two albums at last get the hi-tech treatment from the UK’s reissue/ remastering specialists, Rock Candy Records . Thirty years later it’s not easy to look behind the band’s glittery Glam … Continue reading
Quick plays: BREMER McCOY, L.SHANKAR, PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE, FREEDOM TO ROAM
BREMER McCOY Natten Luaka Bop [Release date 29.10.21] We all need some chill-out music, perhaps the more so as we enter the festive season. A perfect antidote (and respite from socks, Scotch and smellies) could be found in the hands … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged album, Animals Reimagined; A Tribute to Pink Floyd, Bremer McCoy, chill-out, Christmas From India, classic rock, folk, Freedom To Roam, instrumental, L.Shankar, Natten, prog, progressive, review, The Rhythms Of Migration, world music
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Album review: INSANIA – V Praeparatus Supervivet
Frontiers [Release date 12.11.21] Few bands get back together after a 14 year breakup, but that’s what Sweden’s Power Metal band, Insania have done. Twin vocalists, twin guitars, bubbling bass and ahhh… that double kick bass drum thump on the … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS, PURE METAL (All posts)
Tagged album, Frontiers, Helloween, Insania, Iron Maiden, power metal, review, Sweden
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Album review: PEPPERKID2 – Adventures In Pepperland
Website [Release date 12.11.21] Pepperkid2 is the brainchild of FM’s keyboardist Jem Davis. Joining Jem is Mike Dyer (Grand Slam) as the main vocalist/co-writer. Also appearing on the album is Dyer’s fellow Grand Slam band member guitarist Laurence Archer, along … Continue reading
Posted in ALBUM REVIEWS, ALBUM REVIEWS (Mobile), ALL POSTS
Tagged Adventures In Pepperland, album, Cats In Space, FM, Grand Slam, Jellyfish, Jem Davis, melodic, pop rock, power pop, review
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