Pearl – November 2019

Quiet Riot is a rock & roll phenomenon. Widely known as the first heavy metal band to top the US pop charts, the Los Angeles quartet became a global sensation thanks to their monstrous smash hit 1983 album, Metal Health. That album topped the Billboard album charts for several months and the follow up album, Condition Critical went double platinum. The band has continued to record and tour throughout their 30 + year history. Hollywood Cowboys is the fourteenth studio album by the band Quiet Riot. It is their last album with voaclist James Durbin as he quit in September 2019 and was replaced by previous vocalist Jizzy Pearl. Musically, the new album offers exactly what you would expect from QUIET RIOT. Arena ready hard rock with strong hooks and infectious riffs, along with a maturity in the songwriting that only a band with such a history and pedigree can offer.

Best known for his work with Ultravox and as a co-founder writer/founder of Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, Midge Ure has also had a rich and illustrious career prior to Ultravox with the Rich Kids, Visage and throughout his career as a solo artist. Chrysalis Records are releasing a new 32-song collection, encompassing four decades of Midge Ure’s rich and varied career. This 2CD/1DVD is presented with double-gatefold card sleeves, a 20-page booklet with track notes by Midge and housed in a clamshell box. It features promo videos including the Rich Kids, through to his solo work and various collaborations. Bonus features include documentaries and additional live and video clips. As a special bonus, Midge has recorded a commentary over the promo videos. Midge Ure will be on a world tour from October – beginning with a full UK tour, then moving to Poland, Germany, Holland, Scandinavia, Australia, New Zealand and North America.

The very title of Goin' 50 suggests ZZ Top are considering their 50th anniversary as an event to be celebrated with a sense of humor. That's appropriate. Good spirits and lascivious jokes always have been integral to the trio's appeal, and they can be heard in abundance on this triple-CD/five-LP set that tells their story from beginning to end (there is also a single-disc edition that rounds up the highlights). Other compilations cover similar ground more succinctly – if you want just the hits, look elsewhere, or grab the single-disc incarnation of this 2019 set.

Pearl Jam’s 1992 MTV Unplugged session will soon make its vinyl debut. Recorded just days after the completion of the band’s first American tour, the stripped-back set featured six songs from their seminal debut album, Ten, including “Jeremy”, “Even Flow”, and “Alive”, along with “State of Love and Trust” from the Singles soundtrack. The limited-edition vinyl, the first such release of its kind, will be available as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event on November 29th.

The live and video album Crossroads Guitar Festival 2019 is the fifth release in the series of Eric Clapton's Crossroads Guitar Festivals to support his rehabilitation centre in Antigua, the Crossroads Centre, documenting the 2019 performances from two concerts held on September 20 and September 21, 2019 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. The album was released on November 20, 2020 through Warner and Rhino Records.