Stand 平井大

After the turn toward a more accessible sound that Rockin' All Over the World supposed, the British band returned to its hard rock approach on its next work. If You Can't Stand the Heat isn't so hard and heavy as Quo or Blue for You, but it incorporates subjects – the electric guitars filling everywhere again, the groovy boogie spirit – that recover the rocking essence they seem to have lost only one year before…

In such turbulent times it's important to stand closely together as humanity instead of fighting each other. That's exactly what the new Firewind album 'Stand United' is about! In addition to societal problems and environmental issues, which are the main topic in ten new tracks, we are expecting the strongest masterpiece of band history. In line with the new release, the band around ex Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G. and vocalist Herbie Langhans (formerly Avantasia) will spread their message of 'Stand United' all over Europe in spring 2024. Combined with MASTERPLAN they will play a big co-headliner tour, among Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and many other countries.

Stand Up! It's not just an album title, it's an order, forcing anyone who hears Whitney Shay's brand of rocket-fueled R&B onto the dancefloor. A flame-haired stick of dynamite in a sparkling dress, this San Diego phenomenon has made a record for dancing, drinking and dreaming, with songs to soundtrack the peaks and punches of life. Stand Up! Is sure to mark the global explosion of a singer-songwriter who's long been threatening to go 'boom'. Coming up the old-fashioned way - with a thousand word-of-mouth shows blazing her reputation across the planet - Shay's first decade has seen four wins at the San Diego Music Awards, a nomination at last year's prestigious Blues Music Awards and the tag of "future blues icon" bestowed by Blues Matters! #magazine.

Sometime between the release of her second album Hotel Paper in 2003 and the birth of her first child in 2005, Michelle Branch decided that she was tired of following the adult alternative career path that she'd been pursuing since her 2001 debut Spirit Room. She made no bones about her frustration, memorably posting on her website in late 2005 that she was "tired of sucking ***** to get my music heard" in the course of an inspired rant in which she vented her frustration at the music biz and everything that surrounded it. It was a ballsy move, but it did accomplish its desired effect of loosening the log-jam that stalled her career, particularly her plans to release a duet album with her friend and collaborator Jessica Harp under the name the Wreckers.