John Lurie The Legendary Marvin Pontiac

“A cubicle for you, a cubicle for me….but not together…” The Year 2020 was not a year for a band to 'get things together in the country', or gather in a room to write songs. This statement certainly applied to the Legendary Pink Dots with two members in The Netherlands and one in the UK. The pandemic reared its ugly head as the Dots’ criss-crossed Europe on the second stage of their 40th Anniversary Tour. Just a few days before much of Italy locked down the band was in Milan. A few days later, the destination was Cologne where they opted for a hotel in the countryside… it turned out that the resting place was one village away from the most lethal outbreak of the virus in Germany. The tour eventually finished in a sold-out club with a worryingly low ceiling in London. There were hugs, a real feeling of togetherness with a truly lovely audience. Then the World stopped.

“Curse” was intended as the Pink Dots’ first official album, but a surprise request from a label to release the cassette album “ Brighter Now” on vinyl meant the proposed debut was delayed for a year. In the interim, many new songs were recorded, the line-up of the band changed and the entire complexion of the album changed drastically. It remains a strong favourite within the Dots’ community to this day.

Originally released in 1986 as the natural successor to “The Tower”.The focus, although framed by 80s reality, was set on a truly desolate, Dystopian future with a conclusion so bleak in the “Our Lady “ trilogy, that the band penned “ The Guardians of Eden” for the sake of their own sanity. Ironically, the irreverent pop song “ Curious Guy” emerged from the same sessions. Remastered in 2020 by Ray Steeg and Peter Van Vliet.

Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton was Eric Clapton's first fully realized album as a blues guitarist – more than that, it was a seminal blues album of the 1960s, perhaps the best British blues album ever cut, and the best LP ever recorded by John Mayall's Bluesbreakers. Standing midway between Clapton's stint with the Yardbirds and the formation of Cream, this album featured the new guitar hero on a series of stripped-down blues standards, Mayall pieces, and one Mayall/Clapton composition, all of which had him stretching out in the idiom for the first time in the studio. This album was the culmination of a very successful year of playing with John Mayall, a fully realized blues creation, featuring sounds very close to the group's stage performances, and with no compromises.