Monthly Archives april 2012

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

The night starts with Skam – a local three-piece band. Despite them going on stage a mere ten minutes after the doors opened, there is already a decent sized crowd. They have a classic heavy rock sound which clearly went down well and certainly impressed me. They’re fun to watch too – their bass player is very animated and moves around like ACDC guitarist Angus Young.

Next up was The Union. Their intro tape is The Strawbs song – ”Part of the Union” and as it plays the fans are clearly getting excited. I last saw the band at the High Voltage festival in 2010 and hadnt been very impressed, so didnt have very high expectations...

Posted in Press Releases

The Ready Stance (ex-Ass Pony’s / Middlemarch) release debut album Damndest, May 21st

www.readystance.com

In rock ’n’ roll some tales are just too perfect to make up. And the back story of The Ready Stance is definitely one of them. A truly perfect storm that unfolded within one square block of the historic district in Newport, Kentucky, just across the Ohio from Cincinnati.
The back story of Cincinnati band The Ready Stance qualifies as rock’n’roll fairy tale.
“I hadn’t been in a band in years but was still writing songs and jamming with friends on weekends; really just a therapeutic thing after running a manufacturing business and having a family,” recalls guitarist Wes Pence, the creative force of 1990s outfit Middlemarch...

Posted in Cd Reviews

”Holiday at Lake Bodom (15 Years of Wasted Youth)” is a new ”CD+DVD career retrospective” – in other words its a greatest hits package from Finnish metal band Children of Bodom. It’s hard to believe but its true – Children of Bodom have been with us for fifteen years. The band took their name from the infamous unsolved ’Lake Bodom Murders’, which took place in Finland in 1960, and the album title is a clear reference to this.

”15 Years of Wasted Youth is the sound of Children Of Bodom working hard, partying hard, being relentless and stubborn,” says the band’s superstar guitarist / vocalist Alexi Laiho...

Posted in Cd Reviews

Stalingrad is the latest album from German metal legends Accept. It’s the bands second album with their current singer Mark Tornillo (formerly with TT Quick) and one of their few albums without their longtime singer Udo Dirkschneider.
Obviously there will be plenty of people who would rather they had kept Udo as their singer but in my view theres no point going on about this – Mark Tornillo is the bands current singer so live with it and give the guy a chance. Mark TOrnillo has a great voice that is well suited to Accept – it’s got some of that same coarse raspy quality of Udo’s voice, but Mark has a higher vocal range and it really does work well with the songs on this album – and he also does a great job with the older material in concerts.

The album was, like the previous album – 2010’...

Posted in Interviews

Ant May from Festivalphoto grabbed a quick word with two of the guys from Dripback just after their performance at Hammerfest.

Festivalphoto: OK you’ve just played on the third stage here at Hammerfest. How did you enjoy that?

Dripback: We’ve literally just come off stage, changed clothes and then come straight up here. Yeah it was super cool really, we had a good sound, we had our old faithfull Russ Russell doing the sound for us. Nice vibe as well. Haven’t really done much this year so its been nice man. We did the Biohazard tour but it was a bit short though. It’s been a nice start to the year so far and this place was cool.

Festivalphoto: Adam has had a nightmare trip to get here, having only flown back to the UK this morning – how did he manage to stay awake for the show?

Drip...

Posted in Gig/Festival Reviews

Tonight was a gig I’d been looking forward to since it was announced – Anthrax playing a small venue like the Oxford Academy. Judging by the fact that tickets sold out quickly then plenty of other people were looking forward to tonight as well. There were large queues outside the venue before the doors opened with people wanting to get a good spot near the front.

By the time the first band came on the venue was probably two-thirds full – almost unheard of at such an early time. The first band were Manchester band Obsesssive Compulsive who have been opening for Anthrax on the whole of the tour and who seem totally unfazed by the large crowd. Obsessive Compulsive have a heavy grunge rock/metal sound and seem to go down very well with the crowd here tonight...

Posted in Press Releases

Robert Cray – the legendary guitarist and five time Grammy Award winning rock/R&B/soul and blues icon, today confirmed his new studio album will be released in September 2012. He’ll also undertake a European tour during June that will include three UK concerts.

The Blues Hall of Fame Inductee heads into the studio this month to commence recording the new album, released internationally by the Mascot Label Group’s Provogue Records. Cray performs at this year’s London Bluesfest at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire (June 26), followed by concerts at Glasgow O2 ABC (June 28) and Birmingham Town Hall (June 29).

“I’m very proud to add the legendary Robert Cray to the Provogue roster,” says Label President Ed van Zijl...

Posted in Press Releases

Australian hard rock trio TRACER have today unveiled the new video for their breakthrough single “Devil Ride”, view it here – http://youtu.be/paoOYyecZZc

The video is released in anticipation of the band’s debut UK headline tour, which kicks off at London’s Islington O2 Academy on Tuesday 24th April. Tickets, priced at just £8 regionally and £9 in London, are available now from 0844 478 0898 and www.thegigcartel.com. Full tour dates are as follows:

Tuesday 24th April Islington O2 Academy, London
Wednesday 25th April The Tunnels, Bristol
Thursday 26th April Manchester Academy 3
Friday 27th April The Duchess, York
Saturday 28th April The Plug, Sheffield

TRACER was recently voted third pla...

Posted in Press Releases

Howard Jones is offering fans a free mp3 download of “Like To Get To Know You Well” to coincide with his Nationwide UK Tour, which starts on Wednesday April 11th. This is the first time Howard will undertake a nationwide tour to perform his first two studio albums ”Human’s Lib” and ”Dream Into Action” back to back, in their entirety.

The live track, originally recorded on November 6th 2010 at the London indigO2, is now available to download for free from HowardJones.com. The live recording also appears on a free limited edition double live CD which, given to all VIP ticket holders at the London’s Shepherds Bush Empire show on April 21st.

Howard currently presents his own radio series “Electronic 80s with Howard Jones” on Absolute 80s, Sunday evenings at 8pm.

Howard Jones Ap...

Posted in Press Releases

Shakespeare’s poetry. Shakespeare’s instruments. Modern songs.

Out on April 23rd (Shakespeare’s birthday)

Written during the time of Elizabeth I and re-imagined for the Diamond Jubilee year of Elizabeth II, these are the most precious words ever written about love. Performed on instruments from the early 17th century, played by the cream of the world’s period instrument specialists, conceived with immense passion, commitment and integrity, Shakespeare: The Sonnets was recorded in London over the last 6 months.

Fresh from his success of recording an outsize Renaissance mass for a massive 40 parts that had not been heard for 400 years (and winning a Gramophone Album of the Year Award in the process), Robert Hollingworth, director of vocal ensemble I Fagiolini (also a judge on the UK...