Let There Be Rock: 2009

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

LIVERPOOL FC DROP "YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE"

Following the last premier league game at Sunderland, Liverpool FC have dropped the old crowd favourite "You'll Never Walk Alone"...apparently, they will now be playing a selection of hits by the Beach Boys...!

Wednesday, 17 June 2009

DOWNLOAD 2010 - 30TH ANNIVERSARY DONINGTON LINE UP

RAINBOW

JUDAS PRIEST

SCORPIONS

APRIL WINE

SAXON

RIOT

TOUCH

all to play at next years "Classic Rock" Sunday at 2010!

Rainbow

will reform with as close to the 'classic' line up as possible - the fans' favourite - rather than the line up that actually headlined the 1st ever Monsters of Rock.

Ritchie Blackmore (guitar), Ronnie James Dio (vocals), Bob Daisley (Bass), David Stone (keyboards), drums unknown yet to replace the sadly missed Cozy Powell.

Judas Priest

have already successfully reformed with Rob Halford a couple of years ago.

Scorpions

continue to tour with key members Rudi Schenker, Klaus Meine and Matthias Jabs.

April Wine

are still together and recording and were inducted in the Canadian Music Industry Hall of Fame this year.

Saxon

are still touring with frontman Biff Byford at the helm despite a major fall out with two founders several years ago and a subsequent Oliver/Dawson 'Saxon' spin off band. Lots of law suits, lots of money spent in making rich lawyers even richer!

Riot

founder and guitarist Mark Reale will need to find a new singer to replace original singer Guy Speranza who sadly died of pancreatic cancer in 2003.

Original openers Touch,

one of whose members allegedly swallowed a bee during the original 1980 set(!) will also need to reform with Mark Mangold (keyboards and songwriter) and Glen Kithcart etc.

(wouldn't it be superb if all of the above was true......!!!!)

DOWNLOAD 2009 - AWESOME

It's official! Download is the best live event in the UK!

Perfect weather, great organisation, great line-up for Sunday's "Classic Rock" day...

Def Leppard were surprisingly superb as headliners (saved the best sound for themselves, but that's the norm for the last band...)

Whitesnake - good. Mr Coverdale can't hit the high notes without his band detuning a couple of semi-tones these days, but still a showman and genuinely nice guy. Shame about the interminable guitar solos and pointless drum solo. When you have a relatively short set time, fans wanna hear songs, not twiddly diddly guitar duels for 10 minutes!

ZZ Top - absolute legends! So cool and laid back it's untrue. Fabulous furry white guitars for "Legs"!

Journey - enjoyable set. Classic tunes. Great singer soundalike to Steve Perry. Crap drum sound!

Sorry! Mislaid my Black Stone Cherry pic! They were ace!

Skin - superb! 2nd best band on the day! Wonderful and also very genuine and likeable band.

Tesla - disappointing. Didn't play their best stuff. "Hang Tough" from Great Radio Controversy was woefully missing from the set!

Stone Gods - great opening band! Superb set and the singer/guitarist made a good attempt at getting right into the crowd!

Wednesday, 28 January 2009

Most Over Rated....Album

LED ZEPPELIN - PHYSICAL GRAFFITI - Swan Song SSK89400
24 February 1975

Now don't get me wrong, I LOVE Led Zeppelin. I have every album (I even own all 6 copies of In Through The Out Door!). But this for me confuses the hell out of me when it constantly crops up right near the top (sometimes No.1) in the 'best rock albums of all time, ever, absolutely, etc. etc.).

Firstly; a double LP with 15 songs on, 8 of which were originally intended to be the 'album', but apparently these 8 were too long to fit on a conventional single LP (roughly 45 minutes). So, they decided to make it a double album and filled the remaining LP with previously recorded material - in other words...outtakes that weren't good enough for Led Zep 3, the 4th untitled LP and Houses Of The Holy! So, if they weren't good enough for those albums, why should they be good enough for this?

Yes, there are some absolute crackers on PG, namely In My Time Of Dying, Trampled Under Foot and Kashmir. But let's face it, Plant's vocals are probably the naffest he's ever recorded. He croaks and wheezes his way through most of the album, obviously his voice is shot from 9 previous US tours, one after the other (as well as UK and and other global gigs). Page is out of his face on heroin most of the time and Jones had actually quit to become a choirmaster at Winchester Cathedral! Only Peter Grant's insistence he take a few weeks off (how generous!) to recover from exhaustion persuaded him to return. So, I think it's safe to say their hearts were probably not quite in it!

Some great songs, but a victim of their own overblown pomp and publicity which meant they felt they could do no wrong and was the herald of the punk backlash against the 'boring old farts' and 'dinosaurs' criticism of 1976 onwards. Could have been a classic single LP, but it's a bit of "Emperor's New Clothes" for me I'm afraid.

Now...on to Guns N' Roses Use Your Illusion I and II...a classic single LP instead of 8 sides of pretentious farting about trying to be the Rolling Stones (don't get me started on crap albums containing 1 or 2 decent songs being lauded as 'classic albums'!!!)...where have we heard that kind of thing before?

Tuesday, 27 January 2009

Best Use of Rock Music...in a TV Show - "Supernatural"

SUPERNATURAL - BACK ON ITV2
Complete with annoying bloody station logo in top left corner of screen! But enough of that! At least the show's back on air, complete with the two impossibly-good-looking-and-not-at-all-having-a-family-resemblance-despite-being-brothers!

The show kicked off in style to AC/DC's anthemic "Back In Black". Great! Dean (or is it Sam?) has literally been snatched from the jaws of hell by (as it turns out) an angel. "Angel" - great reversible, upside down logo, awful, 70's pomp rock band! (look at it upside down, it's an ambigram)

A particularly eye-catching scene is Dean clawing his way out of his own grave! Awesome - reminiscent of "Night Of The Demon" - superb album cover and a cracker of an album too - the title track itself is perfect for the show...

Other great tracks they should use; "Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be", "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place", "666 The Number Of The Beast", anything by Demon, obviously! Any more suggestions welcome!

Friday, 9 January 2009

Life On Mars - Series 1 - Proper Rock Music!

LIFE ON MARS - Series 1 - BBC
Being repeated again, but well worth watching...if only to try and name all the songs used in it! Cracking first episode with the following tracks all being used: