Goodbye, Ozzy

July 22, 2025

“The jester with a broken crown,
It won’t be me this time around”:
when Ozzy Osbourne was intoning these lyrics, he could hardly imagine they would one day prove prophetic, and unfortunately that day is now. A man affectionately and humorously known as the Prince of Darkness passed away, aged 76, only two and a half weeks after his farewell performance. Ozzy talked about dying right at the Birmingham stage, yet didn’t want to ruin the celebration of his creative life by bringing death into equation. Talk about honesty, then, because Osbourne, for all his clowning, has always been telling the truth – through the plethora of songs recorded with BLACK SABBATH and solo.

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Poli Palmer Passed Away

July 21, 2025

It’s so sad that we’ve not been in touch for a long time, and now the great Poli Palmer has died at the age of 82. Mostly known as a member of FAMILY in their classic period, who not only played vibes, ivories and flute and provided quite a few classics for the ensemble’s canon, most prominently on the “Fearless” album, Palmer’s creative reach always seemed much wider than that. Before joining Roger Chapman’s band, he used to help out another future colleague, Jim Cregan‘s group, BLOSSOM TOES, and even once he did join the ranks of the ensemble he’s associated with, Poli added memorable details to such important records as MATTHEWS’ SOUTHERN COMFORT’s eponymous platter and “Second Contribution” by Shawn Phillips.

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Jan Schelhaas Releases A Single With Andy Latimer

July 21, 2025

Woven into the very fabric of English progressive rock from the very beginning, Jan Schelhaas first came to prominence as part of NATIONAL HEAD BAND, alongside Lee Kerslake, and later became part of CARAVAN – after a stint there in the ’70s, he returned to the fold in 2002 and has been playing in this band ever since – and CAMEL. There were also solo albums from the keyboardist, but it took him seven years to follow 2018’s “Ghosts Of Eden” with new music.

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Eric Gales Hosts Joe Bonamassa On Homage To His Big Brother

July 19, 2025

A cult hero, Little Jimmy King passed away way too early, aged merely 37, back in 2002, having left behind cherished – and, fortunately, recorded – memories of his work with such blues giants as Ann Peebles and Otis Clay and influenced his now-famous younger sibling. If that doesn’t ring a bell to many a listener, it’s just because the late guitarist who changed his last name after playing in Albert King’s band was born Emmanuel Lynn Gales and his little brother is none other than Eric Gales. And now Eric decided to remember Little Jimmy by laying down quite a few of his tunes on an album titled “A Tribute To LJK” and scheduled for release on October 24th.

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FANNY Uncover Their Lost Rock ‘n’ Roll Opera

July 17, 2025

2021’s documentary “The Right to Rock” introduced a lot of people to FANNY, but connoisseurs admired this American ensemble’s music long before they became a symbol of feminism in rock. Still, the foursome’s fifth and final album has always been underestimated, not least because it was the first to not feature the quartet’s original line-up, with guitarist June Millington and drummer Alice de Buhr departing to be replaced – as selected by the former’s sister, bassist Jean, and keyboardist Nickey Barclay – with, respectively, Patti Quatro, the sister of Suzi, and Brie Howard. This configuration, however, managed to make their fresh songs gel into a concept work, titled “Rock And Roll Survivors” and produced by Vini Poncia for Casablanca Records. That record didn’t see a lot of chart action, apart from a couple of singles which did entered hit parades, yet now time came to reassess it.

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