Michael Gear

British Beat was the term adopted to describe the exciting new sounds out of Liverpool and other cities in the wake of The Beatles' explosion onto the world stage in 1963/64. Named after the slang term forever associated with The Beatles, this mammoth 6-CD box set offers around 180 tracks in chronological order from the mid-1960s, many of which are new to CD and some of which are previously unissued. Fab Gear includes many of the era's biggest names such as The Kinks, The Moody Blues, The Searchers and The Tremeloes and other hit acts such as The Marmalade, The Alan Price Set, The Rockin' Berries, David & Jonathan, The Ivy League, Twinkle, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, Chad & Jeremy, The Tornados, Arthur Brown, Tony Jackson & The Vibrations, The Undertakers, Billie Davis, The Migil 5, The Truth, The Quiet Five and The Sorrows.

Truth is the official full-length version of the demo album of the same name released by Christian rock singer and Stryper frontman Michael Sweet, two years before (1998). This version was released by Restless Records in 2000. The first demo version of the album, sold independently through Sweet's website, did very well selling 25,000 units. This prompted several labels to seek the rights to release it.

Michael Chapman's The Man Who Hated Mornings might be seen as comparable to Eric Clapton's Slowhand release of the same year, and the presence of guitarist Mick Ronson (reunited with Chapman after six years spent elsewhere) does ensure that the frets get a fair workout as the album goes on. The comparison, however, has more in common with the mood of the record than any virtuoso concerns – it is Chapman at his most laid-back, and only occasionally stirring himself into first gear. A cover of Dylan's "Ballad in Plain D" is a triumphant highlight, seguing into Chapmans own "Steel Bonnets" instrumental to emerge a shoo-in for any "best-of" Chapman anthology.

Four is a winner: that was the unanimous opinion of critics and audiences alike on the first album from German-Swedish supergroup 4 Wheel Drive. The eponymous debut disc from this band of bandleaders went straight to the top spot as best-selling jazz album in Germany for2019. And the media didn’t hold back with their praise either: “Four first-league jazz musicians with pure joy of playing and a love of good pop music”, said ZDF’s “heute-journal” about this spirited and enjoyable group, which combines trombonist/singer Nils Landgren, pianist Michael Wollny, bassist/cellist Lars Danielsson and drummer Wolfgang Haffner. AllAboutJazz, a leading American jazz website, asked whether this album might be worth adding to a listener’s collection, and answered the question succinctly:”4 sure”.