Category Archives: Rock
LITTLE FEAT-THE LOWELL GEORGE YEARS.
LITTLE FEAT-THE LOWELL GEORGE YEARS. Before founding Little Feat in 1969, Lowell George was a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. Then in 1969, Lowell met Bill Payne who previously, had auditioned for The Mothers Of Invention. Bill however, never joined The Mothers Of Invention. No. In 1969 pianist Bill Payne and guitarist Lowell …
THE WILD OATS-THE WILD OATS.
THE WILD OATS-THE WILD OATS. Way before The Beatles burst onto the scene with Love Me Do in 1962, bands were being formed up and down Britain. Bands literally sprung up from John O’ Groats to Land’s End. This included in Leiston, a small, rural town in sleepy Suffolk. It was an unlikely place for …
GORDON LIGHTFOOT-DREAM SWEET ROSE, SHADOWS AND SALUTE.
GORDON LIGHTFOOT-DREAM SWEET ROSE, SHADOWS AND SALUTE. By 1980, the man dubbed “Canada’s greatest songwriter” was about to release the fourteenth album of his career, Dream Sweet Rose. It was the first album Gordon Lightfoot had released since Endless Wire in January 1978. Endless Wire had reached number two in Canada, and number twenty-two in …
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO-EVIL IN OSLO.
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO-EVIL IN OSLO. Most groups choose to release just one new album at a time. That’s most groups. However, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio aren’t most groups. Instead, they’re musical trailblazers, who push musical boundaries, and in the process, create inventive and innovative genre-melting music. That’s been the case since the Hedvig Mollestad Trio were …
LINDA PERHACS-A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS.
LINDA PERHACS-A TALE OF TWO ALBUMS. It was in 1970, that twenty-seven year old dental hygienist Linda Perhacs released Parallelograms, her debut album. Some people wondered why it had taken Linda so long? After all, she was a musical prodigy. Linda Long was born in Mill Valley, which lies just north of San Francisco’s Golden …
JIMI HENDRIX THE MAN WHO CHANGED MUSIC.
JIMI HENDRIX THE MAN WHO CHANGED MUSIC. On the 4th of July 1970, Jimi Hendrix journeyed 100 miles south of Atlanta. His destination was the second Atlanta International Pop Festival, which was being billed as the second Woodstock. That was where The Jimi Hendrix Experience were about play a starring role. When The Jimi Hendrix Experience …
TEENAGE FANCLUB-BANDWAGONESQUE-VINYL LIMITED EDITION.
TEENAGE FANCLUB-BANDWAGONESQUE-VINYL LIMITED EDITION. Hardly ever does commercial success and critical acclaim come overnight for a band. Instead, it often takes a couple of albums before a band hits their stride. That was the case with the Teenage Fanclub. It wasn’t until the Teenage Fanclub released their third album Bandwagonesque in November 1991 that commercial …
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO-BLACK STABAT MATER.
HEDVIG MOLLESTAD TRIO-BLACK STABAT MATER. Just over two years ago, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio released their critically acclaimed and career defining third album Enfant Terrible. It was hailed as the finest album of the band’s five year career. That however, is until now. Currently, the Hedvig Mollestad Trio are currently preparing to release their much …
KLAUS SCHULZE-CYBORG.
KLAUS SCHULZE-CYBORG. By the time Klaus Schulze released his debut solo album Irrlicht in 1972, he had already been in what would prove to be two of the most important, innovative and influential Krautrock bands, Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel. Both groups would write their names into the history books. However, being in a …
THE BLUE NILE-THEY COULD AND SHOULD’VE BEEN GIANTS.
THE BLUE NILE-THEY COULD AND SHOULD’VE BEEN GIANTS. Enigmatic, reluctant and contrarian are words that best of describe The Blue Nile. They’re the complete opposite of most bands. The Blue Nile have been described as publicity shy. That’ is an understatement. Ever since Paul Buchanan, Robert Bell and Paul Joseph Moore formed the Blue Nile, …
DAMON- SONG OF A GYPSY.
DAMON- SONG OF A GYPSY. For any collector of psychedelia whose fortunate enough to find a copy of Damon’s Song Of A Gypsy, it quickly becomes one of their most prized possessions. Sadly, finding an original copy of Song Of A Gypsy is another thing. It’s one of the rarest psychedelic albums, and copies have changed hands for …
DAN FOGELBERG-HIGH COUNTRY SNOW AND EXILES.
DAN FOGELBERG-HIGH COUNTRY SNOW AND EXILES. Music was in Dan Fogelberg’s blood. His mother was a classically trained pianist, while his father was a high school band director. So it was no surprise that after Dan Fogelberg graduated from University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign that he embarked upon a career as a musician. Initially, Dan …
BLACK MOON CIRCLE-SEA OF CLOUDS.
BLACK MOON CIRCLE-SEA OF CLOUDS. Last year, I described Norwegian space rock pioneers, Black Moon Circle as one of the rising stars of the Norwegian music scene. Since then, Black Moon Circle’s star has been in the ascendancy. Their third album, The Studio Jams Volume I: Yellow Nebula In The Sky was released to widespread …
MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY-SATELLITE.
MULL HISTORICAL SOCIETY-SATELLITE. You shouldn’t judge a book by its covers. These are wise words. Especially when it comes to Mull Historical Society. The name doesn’t sound particularly rock ’n’ roll. Far from it. Instead, it conjures up dusty relics in a far flung museum on the remote, but beautiful Isle Of Mull. However, that’s …
BIG STAR-THE GREATEST BAND YOU’VE NEVER HEARD.
BIG STAR-THE GREATEST BAND YOU’VE NEVER HEARD. Sadly, in music, talent doesn’t equate to commercial success. If it did, Big Star would’ve been the biggest bands in musical history. That wasn’t the case. Lady luck failed to smile on Big Star when they released a trio of albums between 1972 and 1978. Despite this, nowadays, …
JODY REYNOLDS-THE COMPLETE DEMON AND TITAN MASTERS.
JODY REYNOLDS-THE COMPLETE DEMON AND TITAN MASTERS. Jody Reynolds life was changed forevermore in 1958, when Demon Records released Endless Sleep as a single. This was a song that Jody Reynolds had written in 1956, after hearing Elvis Presley’s Heartbreak Hotel. Not long after this, Jody Reynolds performed Endless Sleep for the first time. The …
LONNIE MACK-THE WHAM OF THAT MEMPHIS MAN!
LONNIE MACK-THE WHAM OF THAT MEMPHIS MAN! By 1963, twenty-two year old Lonnie Mack was already an experienced musician. He had been making a living as a musician since he was thirteen. That was when Lonnie Mack quit school, after getting involved in an argument with a teacher. For most thirteen year olds, this would’ve …
DIE KRUPPS-STAHLWERKREQUIEM.
DIE KRUPPS-STAHLWERKREQUIEM. In 1978, German music began to change. The Krautrock era which began in 1969, had ended in 1977. There was then a shift more towards electronic music. This wasn’t new. The Berlin School had been around since the early seventies. It was also a precursor of ambient music, and went on to influence …
TYLL-SEXPHONIE.
TYLL-SEXPHONIE. During 1975, a number of Krautrock’s most innovative bands released new albums. The year began when Neu! released their third album Neu! 75 in January 1975. This got the ball rolling. Over the next eleven months, many of the leading lights of the Krautrock scene released new albums. Harmonia released their sophomore album Deluxe; …
PHIL’S SPECTRE-A WALL OF SOUNDALIKES.
PHIL’S SPECTRE-A WALL OF SOUNDALIKES. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. So it must have seemed to Phil Spector, as producers on both side of the Atlantic tried to replicate his famous Wall Of Sound. These producers looked enviously at Phil Spector, and wanted to enjoy the same commercial success and critical acclaim that …