DEMAND A SACRIFICE
“The Time Machine: The Story Of Jon Hiseman & COLOSSEUM” is the new book by Martyn Hanson who previously came up with extensive works on ELP, THE NICE and GROUNDHOGS. But this time Martyn has stuck with finding an appropriate publisher. A pity, as the tome is fully authorized, edited and supplied with additional material by Hiseman himself, a drummer par excellence and a great character to boot. Here’s how Hanson describes his latest project:
“The book documents that great time in the late 60’s when jazz, blues, classical and rock were blended to create what was loosely known as ‘progressive music’’, and goes right up to the present day. The story will appeal to quite a wide spectrum of fans as Jon Hiseman has worked with some of the all-time greats. It will also attract fans from both the jazz and rock fields. I have interviewed most of the main protoganists for this project including two unsung members of COLOSSEUM. These are Jim Roche, who was originally the lead guitarist when the band started in 1968, and Louis Cennamo who briefly took over bass playing duties from Tony Reeves“.
Himself having spoken to the some of the band members – Hiseman and Reeves as well as Dick Heckstall-Smith , Clem Clempson and Mark Clarke – DME’s pretty sure there’s a great read waiting to be issued. So if there’s a publisher out there willing to pay tribute to one of the great ensembles in the world, please, contact mr. Hanson via his site.
SOME THINGS THAT GLITTER
The word “special” can have a different meaning. When QUEEN + Paul Rodgers burst on stage risen on on Freedom Square in Kharkov, Ukraine, on September 12th, 2008, before the first date of “The Cosmos Rocks” tour, it was special for the band and for the post-Soviet public. Statistics have it that more than 350,000 punters came to see the band and more than 200 millions watched the show live on television, plus innumerable downloaders snatched the video from the web, even though the sound there wasn’t well balanced. Whether the recording will be special for those who’s to have an opportunity to buy 2CD or DVD “Live in Ukraine” on June 15th is a moot point, as there’s only three songs from the new album, including “Say It’s Not True” which was performed during their previous tour, while later on, as the world trek progressed, more fresh cuts entered the set list and made the Q+PR show much more interesting. In “no pain, no gain” situation, there’s a hope the veterans won’t be sqeezing money from their fans as they did with “Live In Japan” DVD released in the titular country soon after “Return Of The Champions”.
For now, aficionados have some choice anyway. There will be a 2CD version of the show which also will be available as a digital download as well as a limited edition 2CD and DVD set – with even more exclusive variant in a tin box with a T-shirt added. As for the real deal content, it looks like this:
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1. One Vision 2. Tie Your Mother Down 3. The Show Must Go On 4. Fat Bottomed Girls 5. Another One Bites The Dust 6. Hammer To Fall 7. I Want It All 8. I Want To Break Free 9. Seagull 10. Love Of My Life 11. ’39 12. Drum Solo 13. I’m In Love With My Car 14. Say It’s Not True |
15. Shooting Star 16. Bad Company 17. Guitar Solo 18. Bijou 19. Last Horizon 20. Crazy Little Thing Called Love 21. C-lebrity 22. Feel Like Making Love 23. Bohemian Rhapsody 24. Cosmos Rockin’ 25. All Right Now 26. We Will Rock You 27. We Are The Champions 28. God Save The Queen |
ALSO KNOWN AS… TO BE KNOWN YET
To say that the TOTO break-up last year was unexpected is equal to saying nothing. Still, the band members didn’t let themselves be stranded, music-wise, and while Steve Lukather’s been exploring the many possibilities of a full-blown solo career, the band’s singer, Bobby Kimball, has engaged himself in a new band situation withAKA and is working on a CD at the moment with YES associates and alumni Tony Kaye on keyboards, Billy Sherwood on bass and Jimmy Haun on guitar – all having not long ago played with Alan White in CIRCA – plus ASIA’s Jay Schellen on drums. Which means progressive elements should be in place on the finished product – but will the TOTO fans like it?
SLIPPIN’ AND SLIDIN’
The return of WHITESNAKE has a relentless quality to it with a new record and a re-issue of their monumental “1987” album to be followed on June 8th with two CD + DVD sets marking the 25th anniversary of 1984’s “Slide It In” and the 20th year since “Slip Of The Tongue” made it to the shops in 1989. Both will be housed in a digipack with thick booklets containing sleevenotes by David Coverdale , while extras come in shape of bonus tracks and videos plucked mainly from the concerts that the fans have been waiting for a DVD release of for a long time.
“Slide It In” is based on the US remix of the album which features John Sykes on guitar and Colin Hodgkinson on bass stepping accordinly in for Mel Galley, whose solos remained in place though, and Neil Murray who played on the UK version of the LP that’s still not been released in remastered form yet included partly – why, the hell, partly? – on this, new set. Essential purchase, anyway.
CD1. Gambler |
DVD1. Guilty Of Love |
For many, “Slip Of The Tongue” signalled the end of the real WHITESNAKE with Steve Vai diluting what remained of the band’s bluesy core after Adrian Vandenberg came into the picture. Still, the songwriting here is strong and consistent for the most part, even though a re-make of “Fool For Your Loving” lacks the delicacy of the original cut. Yet that’s the history.
CD1. Slip Of The Tongue |
DVD1. Fool For Your Loving |
CHASING RAINBOWS FOR A LIFETIME
They were a short-lived supergroup, U.K., featuring Eddie Jobson and John Wetton , initially with Bill Bruford and later with Terry Bozzio and Allan Holdsworth, but their two studio albums, the self-titled one, out in 1978, and “Danger Money” from the following year, as well 1979’s live “Night After Night”, are classic examples of free-thinking prog-pop. Eagerly awaited as remastered CDs, all three will be released on July 14th by Jobson himself as special 30th anniversary editions. The sound quality pristine, there’ll be no additional material. As Eddie noted on his forum, “Having already shut down planned re-releases of these albums containing superfluous ‘bonus’ tracks, I very much wanted to leave the albums untouched, other than some sonic enhancement and minor repackaging. There may be an opportunity in the future to release some live recordings, but there are a fair number of ownership and quality issues with such an endeavor”. A good point, even though some out-takes which have appeared on bootlegs before would make a nice extra.
LOOKING BACK AT THE PHOTOGRAPHS
If Gary Moore‘s studio works might be dull sometimes, live he’s a fantastic proposition – which makes a good point to make good of it and release at first the DVD collection of the Irish maestro Montreux endeavors and now a 5CD set “Essential Montreux” which will see the light of day on June 15th. A great compilation, of course, which explores Moore’s bluesy side, but there’s too much of the same for a casual buyer.
Disc One: 19901. All Your Love |
Disc Two: 19951. If You Be My Baby |
Disc Three: 19971. One Good Reason |
Disc Four: 19991. Walking By Myself |
Disc Five: 20011. You Upset Me Baby |
