After recording Level Headed, an album that mostly forsaked their hard rock leanings for pure pop, longtime lead vocalist Brian Connolly left Sweet for good. The rest of the group decided to press on as a trio, combining their pop/rock sound with a variety of other musical styles in a bid to gain a more progressive image. The result was Cut Above the Rest, a bizarre combination of the hard-rocking pop that dominated classic Sweet singles with progressive flights of fancy in a 10cc/Electric Light Orchestra vein, plus a dash of lounge lizard-ish soft rock balladry thrown in to cover all the pop/rock bases. There's no way an album that tries do so many things at once could succeed at all of them, but Cut Above the Rest is a surprisingly listenable affair…
Recollections of Britain's arch-glam gods generally inspire two theories of their producers, Mike Chapman and his partner, Nicky Chinn. Either they knew just what they were doing and calculated accordingly, or blindly hit pay dirt, following toothless early singles like "Funny Funny" (none of which grace this disc). By this reckoning, Sweet was a '70s-era pinup band or a closeted hard rock quartet who only got their due after breaking the Chapman/Chinn combination…
Limited Edition CD of classic 1998 concert recorded in Long Beach, CA at the legendary venue The Foothill Club! Artwork by Stephen Blickenstaff (The Cramps' "Bad Music for Bad People") and liner notes by John Blair of Jon & The Nightriders! The Space Cossacks arrived in 1996. They were an all-instrumental, four-piece outfit from Washington D.C. who fit in nicely with the surf music crowd, but had taken the genre to a completely different level. They made quite a splash after only a few live performances; an overabundance of critical acclaim followed.
4CD set includes the following albums: Level Headed (1978) Cut Above The Rest (1979) Waters Edge (1980) Identity Crisis (1982) plus some bonus tracks.
4CD set includes the following albums: Level Headed (1978) Cut Above The Rest (1979) Waters Edge (1980) Identity Crisis (1982) plus some bonus tracks.
A remarkable phenomenon in the history of the blues was the vast contribution made by blind musicians, whose legacy left a lasting impact on American music to this day. From ‘The Father Of The Texas Blues’ Blind Lemon Jefferson to slide guitar evangelist Blind Willie Johnson, this Rough Guide highlights the blind blues pioneers who, against all the odds and in the face of incredible adversity, were responsible for a musical revolution.
London glam rockers The Struts return with their third album. Lead cut is Strange Days which features the incomparable pop legend Robbie Williams. A magnificent, sprawling and string-laced duet, it’s a tender-hearted epic that offers incredible solace in the most chaotic of times. The song came about – along with the rest of the ten-track album – as a result of the band’s enforced lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic but started out as an idea lead singer Luke Spiller originally had on a tour bus last summer. It then took on a life of its own as a result of a chance encounter online.
A 2CD set from organ supremo Brian Auger that includes the 1969 album Streetnoise, produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and featuring Julie Driscoll and Trinity, plus sixties compilation The Mod Years.
The final collaboration between singer Julie Driscoll (by that time dubbed as "The Face" by the British music weeklies) and Brian Auger's Trinity was 1969's Streetnoise - it was an association that had begun in 1966 with Steampacket, a band that also featured Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. As a parting of the ways, however, it was Trinity's finest moment. A double album featuring 16 tracks, more than half with vocals by Driscoll, the rest absolutely burning instrumentals by Trinity…