With their 50th anniversary on the horizon, BUZZCOCKS don’t seem to be slowing down. With 2022’s “Sonics In The Soul” successfully proving that the British veterans can carry on without Pete Shelley, who’d passed away in 2018, and get steered further by Steve Diggle, the last remaining member of the original line-up, it would make no sense for them to stop. That’s why the band releases a new record on January 30th.
Despite Bill Wyman‘s solid sonic contribution to THE ROLLING STONES oeuvre – arrangement-wise, because the bassist’s songwriting input was largely limited to a single piece, “In Another Land” from 1967 – he remains the most underrated member of the ensemble’s classic line-up, and his solo records don’t get enough attention despite the presence on them of such top-notch players as Dr. John, Joe Walsh and Guy Fletcher. It’s about time, then, to have a comprehensive look at the veteran’s creative career under his own name, what with 2026 marking the legend’s 90th spin around the sun, and so the forthcoming box set titled “Treasury” is very much welcome.
When Dr. John took to the stage in New York on March 5th, 1988, his fans hardly knew what to expect but were in for surprise. The veteran’s last record had seen the light of day about five years earlier, so no new material could be played, and the first shows of that tour of his seemed to demonstrate Mac Rebennack’s unwillingness to venture beyind time-tested pieces. Still, what the Big Easy master brought to the Big Apple differed from his previous sets – and now the recording made there is to make its debut.
When Damian Wilson released his sophomore solo album in 2001, it was in the wake of his tours with Rick Wakeman, so the singer’s hopes for “Disciple” were high, and indeed, that record deepened the listener’s impression of him as a composer and vocalist who could deliver stellar performances against rock and symphonic backdrop. Not a lot of people knew that getting uniform sonics across the platter which had been laid down in three studios – RG Jones, Abbey Road and St. Edward the Confessor – required certain sacrifices the artist didn’t feel too good about and wanted to present his work in original manner since. And now, close to the opus’s quarter-century anniversary, the time has come.
While a lot of original punks’ anger was artificial, rage and anguish felt too real for Belfast’s STIFF LITTLE FINGERS who burst onto the scene in times of The Troubles and channeled it all into their music. That’s why calling the quartet’s debut, “Inflammable Material” from 1979, a landmark album in the genre would seem like an underestimation. Perhaps, not the band’s best work, this record remains important on many levels, and seeing the classic get a deluxe treatment is an ultimate accolade.
