quarta-feira, 24 de fevereiro de 2021

Colosseum - Transmission Live At The BBC (6 cds)


















Colosseum - Transmission Live At The BBC - 2020

Pioneering Progressive Jazz rockers Colosseum are to have a new, fully authorised six-disc collection of their BBC Sessions from 1969-1971 released through Repertoire Records later this month.

“Transmissions Live At The BBC” features Colosseum sessions for BBC radio shows such as John Peel’s Top Gear, Sounds Of The 70s, Jazz Workshop and more and comprises some 60 tracks recorded between 1969 and 1971. It featurtes the earliest version of Colosseum with founder members Jon Hiseman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Dave Greenslade and Tony Reeves joined by guitarist/vocalist James Litherland. Later classic line-ups include Dave Clempson on guitar with Chris Farlowe (vocals) and Mark Clarke (bass) with guest appearances by Barbara Thompson (sax/flute) and the New Jazz Orchestra.

Much of the material has been rescued from the BBC and Colosseum archives, along with rare recordings by fans and enthusiasts. It has been painstaking collected, collated, restored and digitalised by the combined forces of historian and archivist Colin Harper and Jon’s daughter Ana Gracey.

CD 1
Top Gear, 19 January 1969
01. The Road She Walked Before
02. Backwater Blues
03. A Whiter Shade Of Powell
Symonds On Sunday, 16 March 1969
04. Walking In The Park
05. Interview With Jon Hiseman
06. Beware The Ides Of March
07. Plenty Hard Luck
Johnnie Walker, 24 May 1969
08. Elegy
09. Walking In The Park
10. Butty's Blues
11. I Can't Live Without You
Top Gear, 6 July 1969
12. Elegy
13. The Grass Is Greener
14. Hiseman's Condensed History Of Mankind
15. February's Valentyne
Symonds On Sunday, 20 July 1969
16. Elegy
17. The Road She Walked Before
18. Walking In The Park
19. Butty's Blues

CD 2
Radio 1 Jazz Workshop, 17 July 1969
20. Elegy (take 1)
21. I Can't Live Without You
22. Walking In The Park
23. Those About To Die (take 1)
24. Butty's Blues (take 1)
25. Mandarin
26. The Grass Is Greener
Top Gear, 22 November 1969
27. Interview with Dick Heckstall-Smith
28. Lost Angeles
29. Arthur's Moustache
Unknown Session late 1969 / early 1970
30. Jumping Off The Sun
31. Theme For An Imaginary Western
32. Take Me Back To Doomsday
33. Lost Angeles (partial)
34. Angle
35. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice

CD 3
John Peel's Sunday Concert, 8 March 1970
36. Lost Angeles
37. Downhill And Shadows
38. Theme For An Imaginary Western
39. The Machine Demands A Sacrifice
40. Walking In The Park
Sounds Of The 70s, 7 April 1970
41. Bring Out Your Dead
42. Time Lament
43. Daughter Of Time

CD 4
John Peel's Sunday Concert, 8 November 1970
44. Rope Ladder To The Moon
45. Downhill And Shadows
46. Tanglewood '63
47. Time Lament
48. Lost Angeles

CD 5 
Sounds Of The 70s, 21 July 1970
49. Butty's Blues
50. Shades Of Blue
51. Rope Ladder To The Moon
52. Tanglewood '63
Sounds Of The 70s, 19 February 1971
53. Take Me Back To Doomsday
54. Skellington
55. The Pirate's Dream
56. Tanglewood '63

CD 6
Sounds Of The 70s, 10 September 1971
57. Jumping Off The Sun
58. Sleepwalker
59. The Pirate's Dream
60. Upon Tomorrow
Bonus Tracks Symonds On Sunday, 16 March 1969
61. Walking In The Park (off-air)
Radio 1 Jazz Workshop, 17 July 1969: Extra Tracks
62. Those About To Die (take 2)
63. Butty's Blues (take 2)
64. Elegy (take 2)

+@320

segunda-feira, 22 de fevereiro de 2021

Colin Hare, Jim Kelly, Honeybus - For The Benefit of Mr. K


















Colin Hare, Jim Kelly, Honeybus - For The Benefit of Mr. K - 2020

COLIN HARE Of The Honeybus & The Honeycombs Fame Has Just Released A New Album In Memory & Tribute To The Late Honeybus Member Jim Kelly Who Died Aged 49 In 1995. The Production Is Titled For The Benefit Of Mr K.. Colin Hare Is A Famed Artiste Since The Summer Of Love Era In The Late Swinging 60's & He's Performed A Thousand Plus Shows Through Our Agency Over The Decades. Colin's Colleague Jim Kelly From Dundee Is Rated One Of Scotland's Greatest-Ever Lead Guitarists Accompanied By His Competent Vocal. The Late Jim Also Worked With Legendary Lulu & Hung Out & Shared Artistic Creativity With Ronnie Wood & Scotland's Superstar Rod Stewart. Dundee Is Of Course Not Only Connected To Me In Showbiz But Also Football. I Have Coached With The Top Dundee United Football Club Coaches Including Jim Easton & Kenny Cameron. I Must In Addition Give A Mention To The World Famous & Yummy Dundee Cakes.

This CD is a celebration of Jim Kelly from Dundee, former guitarist with the long mourned Honeybus.Songs written in memory of Jim are”See those eyes” lyrics Pat Kelly, Jim’s nephew also “The way old friends do” by yours truly. 

A live version by Honeybus alongside Jim’s “Mary Mary” and “Reverend Richard Bailey” make this album a must for Honeybus collectors. 

01. See Those Eyes
02. Looking Down
03. Paradise
04. The Way
05. Reverend Richard Bailey
06. Take Me Away
07. Mary Mary
08. Stars on Sunday
09. Free Together
10. Black Mourning Band (Live)
11. Bloodshot Eyes
12. The Way Old Friends Do
13. Beyond the Veil


+@320

quinta-feira, 18 de fevereiro de 2021

Tandyn Almer - Along Comes Tandyn
















Tandyn Almer - Along Comes Tandyn - 2013

Tandyn Douglas Almer (July 30, 1942 – January 8, 2013) was an American songwriter, musician, and record producer who wrote the 1966 song "Along Comes Mary" for the Association. He also wrote, co-wrote, and produced numerous other songs performed by artists such as the Beach Boys, the Purple Gang, the Garden Club, and Dennis Olivieri. In the early 1970s, he was a close friend and collaborator of Brian Wilson, co-writing the Beach Boys' singles "Marcella" (1972) and "Sail On, Sailor" (1973).

Almer died on January 18, 2013, aged 70, from a combination of illnesses, including atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Shortly after, Along Comes Tandyn, an album consisting of demos of his early songs recorded by professional studio musicians, was released in 2013 on Sundazed Records. In the liner notes, Parke Puterbaugh, a former senior editor of Rolling Stone, called Almer “one of the lost and hidden voices of the '60s," adding that Almer "left behind a body of work that's ripe for rediscovery

01. Find Yourself
02. You Turn Me Around
03. Anything You Want
04. About Where Love Is
05. Everytime I Take You Back To Me
06. There's Gotta Be A Way
07. Alice Designs
08. Face Down In The Mud
09. Where Will They Go
10. Escape
11. Victims Of Chance
12. Bring Your Own Self Down
13. I Get High
14. Menagerie Of Man
15. Sunset Strip Soliloquy

+@320

domingo, 14 de fevereiro de 2021

The Good Rats - Play Dum (re-post)


















The Good Rats - Play Dum - 2002

The Good Rats had two fairly discreet periods to their career. The first was their rise and fall as a burgeoning national band era, which ran from the mid-1970s through 1981. To the extent that they are known and remembered by rock fans in general, it was for their albums released during this period -- including Tasty (1974), Ratcity in Blue (1976), From Rats to Riches (1978) and Birth Comes to Us All (1979) -- and for their corresponding live shows during this decade. This was when the Good Rats performed with -- and often headlined over -- bands such as KISS, Rush, Aerosmith and Journey, all the while playing in some of the larger arenas in the US.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, though, The Good Rats re-formed and reinvented themselves as something of a family business, with singer/songwriter Peppi Marchello fronting a new version of the band that featured his now-grown sons Gene and Stefan (and often found his middle-son Spencer selling merch) in shows at clubs throughout the New York Tri-state area. The Rats released a number of albums independently during this period of their existence, the best of which, arguably, was Play Dum.

Play Dum is hard to classify. It contains re-recorded versions of several songs first recorded by earlier incarnations of the band, including "Beethoven", "Joey Ferrari", "Mr. Mechanic", and "Mean Mother"; a few songs originally released on their 1996 Tasty Seconds album ("Thunder Rocks My Soul", "She's Stayin' Home Tonight" and "Football Madness"); and some songs that had first been placed on a very limited release (mostly to radio stations) LP called Let's Have Another Beer (2000). The album is also something of an anomaly, in that it was originally put out under the band name "Dum", in an experiment to see if they could attract a younger crowd by dispensing with the "Good Rats" moniker.

For Good Rats fans, and rock fans in general, there's a lot to love about Play Dum, whether you consider it to be more of a studio release or a compilation album. Specifically, there is a troika of songs that are absolutely among the best tracks the Rats ever recorded, and a second-tier of very good songs just a level or so below these.

The aforementioned trio of honor includes "Ashes to Ashes", "World Party Anthem" and "The Springer Singalong". Think of the classic hard rock groups of the 1970s -- bands like Rush, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Mountain and even Led Zeppelin. "Ashes to Ashes" is a rock anthem in the same league as many of these bands' top works. It's a song about the cycle of life, and in typical Good Rats fashion, it's sung from the point of view of those of us who strive every day, but always feel we're somehow playing a losing game: "You play the wheel/You lose on black, so you switch to the red/Your horse was good/But he breaks down the stretch." It's a hard driving, dramatic track that features some of Gene Marchello's best guitar work.

The other two top songs on Play Dum are both of a more comedic nature. "World Party Anthem" (also sometimes known as "Let's Have Another Beer") is a mid-tempo number that advocates for massive alcohol consumption as the only real balm for life's many indignities. "Close their eyes and in a flash/Bills and wives have all their cash/And their sons are lazy boors/And their daughters all are whores". It shares a lot thematically with Jethro Tull's "Too Old to Rock 'N Roll: Too Young to Die", and maybe with the TV show Married With Children, except that this is more the drunkard's version of each. The other novelty number, "The Springer Singalong" has some fun with the Jerry Springer show, and other daytime television programs of the same ilk. It captures the essence of the kind of human train wrecks who populate these programs and make us all feel better about our own lives: "You sleep with your wife/You sleep with your dog/You sleep with your sisters, your cousins, and brothers-in-law/You're just a loser with no shame/Who needs his fifteen minutes of fame/Your time is now, you got the call!"

The second-tier numbers include several more good ones, including "Elbo", which pokes fun at some of the old blues singers who are much-revered in certain circles, in spite of the indifference of the public at large, and "6000 Days" which pays tribute to a young woman who passed away much too young. (I thought at first it was about Joan of Arc, but the lyrics make reference to her lovers and passions of the flesh, so I guess not.) It's also nice to have newly recorded versions of tracks such as "Beethoven", which had only previously been released in a live version, and "Joey Ferrari", which was one of the only worthwhile tracks on The Good Rats' primitive self-titled debut album in 1969.

There are some misses here as well -- "Football Madness" was really nothing but an attempt by Marchello to try to market his way into a deal with the NFL -- and all told, I prefer the original versions of "Mr. Mechanic" and "Mean Mother" -- but this is nitpicking. In general, Play Dum is a very strong album. If you're a fan of the classic version of The Good Rats, you'll want to give this a listen. And if you're a devotee of 1970s-style hard rock who somehow wasn't previously familiar with The Good Rats, while I'd suggest that you start by listening to some of their classic albums like Tasty and From Rats to Riches, you're probably going to enjoy Play Dum as well.


01. Beethoven
02. Ashes To Ashes
03. Elbo
04. 6000 Days
05. The Springer Sing Along
06. Mean Mother
07. World Party Anthem (Let's Have Another Beer)
08. She's Stayin' Home Tonight
09. Thunder Rocks My Soul
10. Football Madness
11. Joey Ferrari
12. Mr. Mechanic
13. Rock Radiold
14. World Party Anthem (short)
15. Ashes To Ashes (short)


+@192

quarta-feira, 10 de fevereiro de 2021

Erik Braunn - Touch My Heart, Lift My Soul


















Erik Braunn - Touch My Heart, Lift My Soul - 2011

Erik Keith Brann (August 11, 1950 – July 25, 2003), also known as Erik Braunn, was an American guitarist with the 1960s acid rock band Iron Butterfly. He is featured on the band's greatest hit, the 17-minute In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (1968), recorded when he was 17.

A Boston, Massachusetts native and a violinist, Brann was accepted as a child into the prodigy program at the Boston Symphony Orchestra, but was soon lured away to become a rock guitarist, joining first Paper Fortress, then Iron Butterfly at 17. He played with Ron Bushy, Lee Dorman and Doug Ingle from late 1967 to December 1969. The first album from this lineup, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, sold over 30 million copies, was awarded the first platinum award and stayed on the Billboard magazine charts for nearly three years. With arrangement assistance from Dorman, Brann wrote the song "Termination", which was featured on the album. He also provided the lead vocal for the track.

The album's mini-bio, written when he was 17, tells of an acting ambition he once had, clothing and food preference and the ease with which rock 'n roll artists were able to arrange sexual encounters (usually with groupies). It reads: "Although music has always been his one great love, Erik studied drama and before joining the Butterfly, his acting ability had landed him the lead role in a local play. 

In 1970, Brann and former Iron Butterfly member Darryl DeLoach formed Flintwhistle. This band performed live for about a year before breaking up. Between 1972 and 1973, Brann worked solely in the studio on various demos. In 1973, he recorded a couple of demos with MCA Records which can be found on bootleg sites. Notable songs from these demos include early versions of "Hard Miseree", "Am I Down" and "Scorching Beauty".


In 1974, he was contacted by a promoter about reforming Iron Butterfly, so he reunited with Ron Bushy to form a new version of the group, signing with MCA. The 1975 LP Scorching Beauty featured Brann on guitars and vocals, Bushy on drums, Philip Taylor Kramer (Bushy's friend) on bass and Erik's friend Howard Reitzes (who worked in a music store frequented by Brann) on keyboards. The band also released Sun and Steel in late 1975 with Bill DeMartines replacing Reitzes on keyboards. Neither album sold well, and the band disbanded shortly afterward (around summer 1977).



Between 1979 and 1990, Brann occasionally reunited with Iron Butterfly for concerts. He died in 2003 of a cardiac arrest related to a birth defect that he had struggled with for years.

01. Heart Misery
02. Break This Heart Of Mine
03. Don't Give Up
04. Give Me Some Of Your Love
05. Going Back Home
06. Can't Make It Without You (Scorching Beauty)
07. Guitar Interlude
08. Evoree Day
09. Beneath The Laughing Sun
10. Can't We Just Be Friends
11. Beautiful Lady
12. Another Guitar Interlude
13. Wait
14. So Sad I Have To Leave
15. Touch My Heart, Lift My Soul
16. Reprise


+@320

sexta-feira, 5 de fevereiro de 2021

Ross - Ross (Repost)


















Ross -  Ross - 1974

Guitarist Alan Ross played on 2 of John Entwistle's solo albums in the early 70's, "Whistle Rhymes" and "Rigor Mortis Sets In". He was also part of Entwistle's touring band during that period. In 1973, he played guitar on Tim Hardin's album "Painted Head". That same year, he formed a band called Ro-Ro with bass player Warwick Rose and they released an album called "Meet At The Water" on the Regal Zonophone label. By 1974, he formed the group "Ross" with former Indian Summer keyboard player Bob Jackson. The band's career seemed to take off when they landed themselves a contract with RSO Records. 


They recorded 2 brilliant albums for the label, "Ross" and "The Pit And The Pendulum", released in 1974 and 1975. Eric Clapton, who was also an RSO artist toured the USA in 1974 and the Ross band was on the same bill. The band disbanded after two albums. In 1976, he appeared on the band Stars' self titled album. He released another 2 albums in 1977 and 1978, "Are You Free On Saturday" and "Restless Nights", this time for a small British label, Ebony Records under the name Alan Ross Band. In 1980, he appeared on an album by Wilson-Gale called "Gift Wrapped Set". In 1983, he played on Alexis Korner's album "Juvenile Delinquent".



01. Alright By Me
02. You're Looking Down A Road
03. Wherever You Go
04. Caroline
05. Changes
06. Help Me Understand
07. Blackbird
08. I Need Your Love
09. Buxton
10. Leave It All Behind You

Alan Ross - Lead Vocals, Guitars
Steve Emery - Bass Guitar, Vocals
Bob Jackson: Keyboards, Vocals,
Tony Fernandez: Drums, Percussion
Reuben White - Percussion






+@256