Ron Keel

Alcatrazz was originally formed as a vehicle for vocalist Graham Bonnet, but became famous for introducing budding guitar heroes instead, namely Swedish phenom Yngwie J. Malmsteen and ex-Frank Zappa associate Steve Vai. After toiling away unsuccessfully for most of the '70s with the Marble and as a solo artist, vocalist Graham Bonnet got his lucky break when he was tapped to replace Ronnie James Dio in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in 1979. But after recording the much maligned Down to Earth album and a single live performance headlining the first Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in the summer of 1980, Bonnet was unceremoniously sacked by the temperamental Blackmore. Down but not out, Bonnet set about forming Alcatrazz, drafting veteran musicians in keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, bassist Gary Shea, and drummer Jan Uvena, and looking to reproduce the basic Rainbow sonic formula.

Los Angeles-based hard rock/heavy metal unit Alcatrazz was originally formed as a vehicle for vocalist Graham Bonnet, but became famous for introducing budding guitar heroes instead, namely Swedish phenom Yngwie J. Malmsteen and ex-Frank Zappa six-stringer Steve Vai. Emerging in 1983 with No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll, which featured the hit "Island in the Sun," the band peaked in 1985 with the release of their sophomore effort, Disturbing the Peace, which housed their second most well-known single, "God Blessed Video." The band issued one more studio LP, 1986's Dangerous Games, before ceasing operations the following year.

You’ve heard the Southern rock-inspired riffs and solos from Mechanical Resonance and onwards, marveled at that twin-neck Gibson SG that distinguished TESLA’s sound from many of their other 80’s hard rock contemporaries, and also wondered how many shares he’d invested in Bluenotes because of his fondness for flannel shirts. Indeed, there’s no mistaking the musical aura of Frank Hannon and how he’s been a key architect in the honing of the bluesy rock sound that’s helped rock TESLA to the top…

Not too long ago (a year or so) and while Axel Rudi Pell, was touring in support of his latest opus “Into the Storm”, the “25th Anniversary” of his came up and with it, the idea to celebrate the proceedings in a special way, so the stage was set, for a live performance at that years installation of “Bang Your Head” festival in Balingen/Germany, that was special and memorable for a variety of reasons. For the first time in absolutely ages, Axel, did perform a short four song set with his original band Steeler (not to be confused with the Ron Keel led American “Steeler” which also featured guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen) then a set that utilized as many of the studio singers as possible, was performed, with them, singing their “own” era’s material and finally a bunch of classic rock tracks were performed by the band enlisting the aid of some special guests/friends. All in all the whole show lasted for almost three hours and celebrated the long history of ARP, in the best way imaginable!

Kiss is one of the most shocking, charismatic and long-lived bands in rock history. From their beginnings, in the early 70's, until today, they have been always active, impacting crowds with their particular combination of rock and roll, hard rock, glam and disco rock, but always with pop sensibilities. In addition, Kiss fans are famous for being among the most faithful in the world. In this new volume of the successful collection The Many Faces, dedicated to explore the world of the definitive artists in the history of rock, we pay a deserved tribute to Kiss.

The Rolling Stones’ 1981 tour was the biggest rock and roll event of the year. The size of the production, the length and the pubulicity surrounding it were unprecedented. They played in the biggest arenas, sometimes for multiple nights, and orchestrated a media blitz which saw them appear on television somewhere in the world at least once a week on local stations, syndicated shows like Rona Barrett’s new news program “Inside & Out” and on cable television with several appearances on the brand new channel MTV. The big tour finale was the pay-per-view broadcast by satellite on the final night…