This year is special for Al Stewart, who’s aiming to celebrate his forthcoming 80s birthday by embarking on a farewell tour, so it’s quite fitting that there are going to be a few records issued to tie in with his anniversary. One of these seems to have already seen the light of day in Europe and should hit the shelves in America on May 9th: titled “Live At Radio Bremen TV” and comprising CD and DVD which share the content, it’s a document of the Scottish troubadour’s 1979 concert trek.
While Neil Tennant‘s non-PET SHOP BOYS appearances are numerous, usually he ventures out as a singer and occasionally as a singing lyricist, rather than a voiceless wordsmith, yet that’s apparently the role the veteran inhabits on a forthcoming album masterminded by piano player Mark Springer whose impressive body of work harks back to post-punk also-rans RIP RIG + PANIC. Aimed to “explore the intersection of divergent creative approaches-one characterized by radical expression, the other by meticulous craftsmanship” and based on Francisco Goya’s paintings, the record is titled “Sleep Of Reason” – as in “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters” – and comes on two discs.
It’s impossible to overestimate Irma Thomas‘ influence on contemporary music. A songstress whose future rhythm-and-blues evergreens inspired, among many others, Otis Redding and Mick Jagger, she remains a vital soul force, regularly playing live and releasing her last studio album as late as 2020. Past-pandemic, though, she didn’t seem to have visited a studio but, eventually, April 11th will see the octogenarian issue a follow-up to “Love Is The Foundation” – under the title of “Audience With The Queen”: a joint effort with GALACTIC, the mainstays of New Orleans scene.
Never really touted as a rock opera, Jeff Wayne’s “The War Of The Worlds” was written as exactly that, with prog fans latching onto its sci-fi foundation and wider audiences happy to hear quite a few of their heroes – including Phil Lynott, Chris Spedding, Justin Hayward and Chris Thompson. There have been a few versions of the musical since the original double album saw the light of day in 1978, both studio and stage ones, so fans didn’t get stuck with the classic which, nevertheless, couldn’t really be bettered, but now there’s a chance to dig deep into it, as August 8th is when a massive box set, typical for the Madfish label, hits the shelves to tell the story in full, on no less than sixteen CDs and two Blu-ray discs.
There’s not a lot more adventurously unpredictable artists than Robert Webb. Mostly known as a founding member of art-rock also-rans ENGLAND, whose recently released "The Concerts In Japan" carries on the ensemble’s legend, and logical contributor to such prominent collectives as SAMURAI OF PROG and a href=”https://dmme.net/tag/band-of-rain/”>BAND OF RAIN, the keyboard player has also been a songwriter of note, quite remarkably penning tunes for blues diva Jenny Darren, yet the veteran’s latest endeavor seems least expected of all. In a deliciously quirk turn of events, Webb went for reimagining an album titled “Epiqurium” originally recorded about four decades ago by another ivories master, Per Sundbom, and his Swedish group THE NEW GROVE PROJECT – playing everything from scratch, in the company of Scandinavian musicians, molding new arrangements and adding fresh melodic components.
