News
November 27, 2003
WHO'S LAKE
THE WHO are still keen on putting together a new album, yet instead of roping in the great Pino Paladino, who helped the band do a tour when John Entwistle died, Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey called another veteran, Greg Lake. Big L spent a week recording with the group he always loved, though going on the road with his heroes can't be as easy. Still, Greg played in Ringo Starr's ALL STARR BAND, so anything can happen. Having completed the work on a new Townshend's song “Good Looking Boy”, Lake pays much more attention to the projects of his own. There are three of them.
The first is "From The Underground Volume 2 - Deeper Into The Mine", a compilation of rarities unearthed in the artist's own archives, including live ELP tracks, cuts designed for KING CRIMSON, for Greg's solo albums, for RIDE THE TIGER, a project Lake had with Geoff Downes, and for EMERSON, LAKE & POWELL record. The latter band is a subject of two other releases, "Emerson Lake & Powell - Live In Concert" and "The Sprocket Sessions", which collects Greg Lake, Keith Emerson and Cozy Powell rehearsal tapes.
SOME MORE SHADES
There seems to be no end to DEEP PURPLE's live recordings, which is quite easy to explain: there's only a handful of bands who סan go improvising to the infinite length without losing the edge and still rocking. That's why Purple Records imprint, Sonic Zoom, that's putting out the group's 'official bootlegs', has compiled a bunch of one-off gems to release it as "New, Live & Rare". Don't mistake it for classic Japanese collection bearing the same title, that's why, in the Land of the Rising Sun, it'll be out labelled as "New, Live & Rare 2".
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1. Wring That Neck (Amsterdam, August 1969) |
BENDING THE BAND
Jools Holland is an institution now, but one nobody will want to rebel against, as the musician-cum-TV presenter is clearly on a mission to show the audience what does a good taste in music mean. First two albums in his "Small World Big Band" series were ripe with superstars' contributions, and the third title in the line, "Friends 3 - Jack O The Green", is no exclusion to the rule, the obvious diference being the bluesiness of the record. Which is not bad - but why the "green" in the title? Ah, a must anyway.
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1. She Suits Me To A Tee - Buddy Guy |
10. Please Can I Talk - SUGABABES |
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OF THEIR ELABORATE PLANS
THE DOORS stage performances are the opposite to easy listening. Still, the band could be great when on form, which any of the official recordings failed to catch. More so, there's no sign of humor that certainly belonged to their music. That was quite the reason for the group's guitarist, Robby Krieger, to start sifting through the bootleg tapes and cherry-pick the most exciting stuff: on-stage jokes, Jimbo's madful incantations and the cream of the ensemble's repertoire sprinkled with songs very rarely played live. Hence the title of the 4CD-box, "Boot Yer Butt". Uninitiated, keep off!
Disc One:
1. Bootlegger's Chat (1968) |
Disc Two:
1. Never Before In Public (1968) |
Disc Three:
1. Back Door Man (1969) |
Disc Four:
1. Light My Fire (1970) 
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November 20, 2003
SLICE OF THE PIE
It seems he never had a chance to shine as bright as he deserved: Greg Ridley always was in the shade, be it Steve Marriott's shadow or Luther Grosvenor's, but if not for Ridley's bass "Spooky Two" wouldn't have packed its jaw-breaking impact and HUMBLE PIE wouldn't have rocked as hard as they did. Now, the mighty rattle has silenced for ever - on November 19th Greg peacefully passed away from pneumonia-related complications. The artist was just 56. The blues world lost another diamond to a great gig in the sky...
KAMEN GONE
Another sad loss is Michael Kamen, one of those precious few who belong to both classical music and rock domains. Kamen had a big heart and he died from heart attack on November 18th, at the age of mere 55, so it's hard to believe Michael was just 31 years old when he did the orchestral arrangements for PINK FLOYD's "The Wall", his most famous work of many. Since then, the master lent his helping hand to a couple more of FLOYD albums, to many artists including Eric Clapton, David Bowie and Bryan Adams: those famous themes for "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" and "Don Juan DeMarco" brought Michael, respectively, a Grammy award and Oscar nominations. He wrote music for the "Lethal Weapon" and "Die Hard" movies, and, most recently, was the conductor for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra when they recorded with METALLICA. He lived for all things music, having established the "Mr. Holland's Opus" Foundation in 1997 to raise money to make musical instruments available to the children, and will be sorely missed.
ALICE'S NEW ADVENTURE
For an artist widely famous for his stage show, Alice Cooper doesn't have many full-length concert videos under his belt as well as stage recordings - all the more welcomed is "Brutally Live", recorded back in 2000 but making it to DVD only now, with a CD version of the Hammersmith Apollo included in the package. In for the nightmare you are!
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1. Brutal Planet |
14. It's Hot Tonight |
PICTURED WITHOUT
Yes, for the first time Jon Lord is to be presented to the DVD watching masses without the band he's driven to shattering success. "With Pictures" is a documentary filmed in Australia early this year, when the organist took on his first solo tour which saw him playing not only with orchestra but also with his old friend Bob Daisley's band, THE HOOCHIE COOCHIE MEN. So the treats stored alongside the revelatory interview are many: Lordy jiving around with Jimmy Smith's Hammond masterpiece, "The Chicken Shack", rocking with Daisley and going lyrical with DEEP PURPLE's "When a Blindman Cries" sung by Jimmy Barnes.
BITING ALIVE
In this summer interview with DME, Neil Murray said M3 CLASSIC WHITESNAKE would go to record a live album, which is out now: "Classic 'Snake Live" can be purchased through www.classicwhitesnake.com. The title needs not more to be said, except for this: there's over 70 minutes of many titles never played with David Coverdale at the mike. As for the line-up, the core band of Murray, Bernie Marsden and Micky Moody is augmented now with Tony Martin (ex-BLACK SABBATH), Mark Stanway (ex-MAGNUM) and Jimmy Copley (ex-Paul Rodgers band). And here's a "Volume 1" tag to the album, "Volume 2" featuring out-takes and rare tracks will be out in next year.
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1. Walking In The Shadow Of The Blues |
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November 6, 2003
YOU CAN'T ALWAYS GET
THE ROLLING STONES a cult band? With a multi-million following? No way, you may think, but you're not one of the STONES, who decided to sell their "Four Flicks" (tracklistings) exclusively through the Best Buy stores. The sum paid for securing the rights must have been huge, and the company plans to run an equally huge marketing campaign, yet there are other companies that objected to such an operation.
Three Canadian music stores including HMV, and U.S. TransWorld removed all the STONES products from their shelves in protest, which prompted Mick Jagger to strike a defensive pose saying that music DVDs don't sell as good as movies and there's no big sense in selling them in the regular shops. The singer added that the band care about the fans all along, the Best Buy partnership allowing them to buy the 4 DVD set for about $30 instead of $60.
Well, yes, except for one little thing: Best Buy informed DME that the company is yet to start serving customers from abroad the U.S. - it means, unless you live in America, or at least have a good mate there, "Four Flicks" aren't for you.
BOY, HE WAS FAB
November 17th is the release date for the DVD and CD "Concert For George", a document of the 2002's Albert Hall performance dedicated to the loving memory of George Harrison. Sad it could have been - yet wasn't, and George would have surely been glad to see his closest friends playing his music from the Fabs' and solo years. The DVD set is comprised of two discs, one with complete concert, including performances not featured in the theatrical version, and the other containing the theatrical version featuring concert highlights, interviews with the performers, rehearsals and behind-the-scenes footage.
With a line-up like this, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton who produced the show, the set is a must and can lose only in competition with THE BEATLES' "Let It Be... Naked" album and the "Lennon Legend" DVD, all out on the same day.
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1. Sarve Shaam |
15. Taxman - Tom Petty and THE HEARTBREAKERS |
BREAKING THE BLUES
John Mayall is still to become 70, on November 29th, but the celebrations already started, and the British scene veteran has already played his 70th Birthday Concert, having invited the former BLUESBREAKERS' Eric Clapton, Mick Taylor and Chris Barber to join him on the stage. They did, and the recording of that historic show is out on both DVD and CD now, hot and nasty as usual. It seems, the blues is the thing which keeps a man alive and well and kicking.
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1. Grits Ain't Groceries |
10. No Big Hurry |
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WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD
British label Angel Air has all the reasons to be proud having achieved much in terms of pure reverence from those who love good music and are eager to hear everything their favorite artist had done. 2003 ends great for the company who re-releases MOTT THE HOOPLE's Island catalogue, so plans for the next years are aplenty: there'll be titles from Ian Hunter and Mick Ralphs (they toured together in 2001), GREENSLADE (the band march into a studio in March, says bassist Tony Reeves, The RATS (is that Mick Ronson's band?), AFFINITY (scrapping the barrell continues) and IAN GILLAN BAND. Details on these later, but some recordings are ready to make it to the CD, the first being...
..."Live, Wembley, 17 December 1982" by GILLAN. Back in 1982, the band was riding high, having notched another success with "Magic", and no one could have predicted the break-up following Ian Gillan's recuperation from the throat problems. So the Wembley gig was the last for the ensemble which at the time included also keyboard player Colin Towns, guitarist Janick Gers, drummer Mick Underwood and bassist John McCoy, from whose archives this recording emerged; and the singer's next concert would be with BLACK SABBATH.
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1. Second Sight |
9. Dead Of Night |
Another batch of gems of old - called, accordingly, "Hidden Gems & Treasured Friends" - comes from Mike d'Abo who first scored hits with Manfred Mann's combo and then moved to pastures all new, including King Herod's part in original "Jesus Christ Superstar" recording and writing hits like megapopular "Handbags & Gladrags". Some of the singer's work has not been heard at all, so here's a chance to re-value Mike's output with this collection featuring, among other tracks, an album recorded in 1972 yet never released.
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1. Poor Old Joe |
10. Slim Pickings |
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THEIRS IS NOT DISGRACE
Expectations for the YES' upcoming 30th anniversary DVD, "YesSpeak", out on November 24th, are high. Its features have been written about before, but now the musical content is revealed, looking like this.
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1. Siberian Khatru |
11. Rick Wakeman Solo |
Feels like any classic rock fan won't refuse to have the DVD, even if he doesn't like the band: there's not been any YES release that could come close to this.
NIGHTINGALE AND BOMBER
He was the one and only, Roy Orbison, сasting spells with his nightingale's voice and bombing people with emotions - and he never let his listeners down, even when they didn't reciprocate with love. Orbison's performances were unique experiences, and the best way to take a bite of what Roy'd been up to may be "The Authorized Bootleg Collection", three new titles of which - all called "Roy Orbison Over England" - represent the singer in different decade - 60's, 70's and 80's. You can choose, yet the difference is just in the songs, not in delivery.
The 60's: May 9th, 1969, Batley Variety Club:
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1. Only The Lonely |
10. Lana |
The 70's: October 18th, 1975, The Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch:
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1. Only The Lonely |
10. Go Go Go |
The 80's: March 25th, 1980, The Fiesta Club, Stockton:
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1. Only The Lonely |
11. Crying |
THE DUDE BEHIND THE GLASSES
While the MOTT THE HOOPLE re-issue programme's unfolding, the band's erstwhile singer, Ian Hunter, comes up with his first live DVD, which has a companion in a form of a 2CD-set, both releases called "Strings Attached". His voice's never been great, yet that charisma... Even though there were live albums of Hunter's before, like "Missing In Action", the new set seems to be the definitive one.
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Disc One:
1. Rest In Peace |
Disc Two:
12. Rollerball |
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