My special thanks go to all those who have visited (and hopefully enjoyed) Darren’s music blog during 2021. The blog has been the usual mad mix of hard rock, metal, folk, Americana, glam rock, britpop, and more – basically anything I enjoy listening to! Here, however, are the ten most popular blog posts from 2021.
1. Deep Purple’s Smoke On The Water: so who actually was the “stupid with a flare gun”?
Fifty years after the events that inspired the recording of Deep Purple’s most famous song and the world’s most famous heavy rock riff, I take a look at the history behind ‘Smoke On The Water’. In December 1971 the band were planning to record their forthcoming album Machine Head at the Montreux Casino in Switzerland. As we know at the Frank Zappa concert on 4th December someone burnt the place to the ground. Who was ‘the stupid with a flare gun’? This post went viral after being shared by a certain Ian Gillan and easily became my most popular post of the year.
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2. Tribute to John Rossall: Glitter Band founder passes away peacefully following cancer battle
This is my tribute to Glitter Band founder member sadly passed away on Saturday 2nd October following a cancer diagnosis earlier in the year. John Rossall played on all the early Glitter Band hits before leaving to pursue a solo career. A popular figure at festivals and gigs on the 70s live music circuit for many years, he stunned both fans and critics alike with a hugely well-received comeback album The Last Glam in Town released in Autumn 2020.
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3. Interview with guitarist/singer/song-writer and Grand Funk Railroad founding legend Mark Farner
I was luck enough to interview a number of music legends this year. My most popular of 2021 was with Mark Farner one of the founders of Grand Funk Railroad. In this interview we look back at Mark’s career: forming Grand Funk, performing at the Atlanta Pop Festival in 1969 and London’s Hyde Park in 1971 as well as discussing the inspirations behind his songs, his collaborations with the likes of Ringo Starr and Alice Cooper not to mention his brand new DVD.
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4. July Morning – a fifty-year-old British rock song and an annual celebration of summer in Bulgaria
Another post about another iconic fifty-year-old British hard rock song. July Morning is a 1971 song by Uriah Heep. Written by the band’s keyboard player, Ken Hensley, and vocalist David Byron with its distinctive organ sounds it has remained a significant highlight of the band’s live set. In most places the song is taken at face value for what it is – a classic slice of early 70s hard rock with lyrics celebrating the beauty of an early morning sunrise. In Bulgaria, however, the song has taken on a significance all of its own.
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5. Dirkschneider & The Old Gang: former Accept vocalist re-unites old colleagues for new project
In the Autumn of 2020 former Accept lead vocalist, Udo Dirkschneider, began putting together a new project that brought together some familiar faces. Going by the moniker Dirkschneider & The Old Gang, the name is pretty self-explanatory. Along with Dirkschneider and his son, Sven, two former Accept members (bassist Peter Baltes and guitarist Stefan Kaufmann) have also been brought in, along with singer Manuela Bibert.
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6. A quick tour around my CD collection
I obviously talk a great deal about my love of music but I thought it might be an idea to give readers a quick tour of my actual CD collection. Although I was a keen purchaser of vinyl in my mid to late teens during the first part of the 1980s, frequent house moves in my late teens and early 20s meant that the format was becoming a bit cumbersome. By the time the 1990s came along I was glad to embrace the CD and gradually began building up a collection. From just a handful of CDs thirty years ago it’s now grown to what it is today.
7. Book news: ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ by Darren Johnson – published 30th July 2021
Followers of this blog will be aware that my love of 1970s glam icons The Sweet is pretty well documented. They’ve featured heavily on Darren’s Music Blog over the seven years of the blog’s existence. This was the post announcing the impending publication of my first book – ‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ which came out as part of the Decades series published by Sonicbond.
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8. News: Back down to earth! Graham Bonnet to link up with old Rainbow bandmate Don Airey
Former Rainbow vocalist, Graham Bonnet, has announced that his forthcoming album will feature ex-bandmate Don Airey. The two who performed together on the classic Down To Earth album back in 1979 will appear on a new album Graham Bonnet solo album. Bonnet is currently recording with bandmates Beth-Ami Heavenstone (bass), Conrad Pesinato (guitar) and Mark Zonder (drums).
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9. Peter Donegan: interview with Americana singer-songwriter and son of skiffle legend, Lonnie Donegan
Another of the interviews I enjoyed doing during 2021. In the week of the sixty-seventh anniversary of the recording of Lonnie Donegan’s ‘Rock Island Line’ I talked to Peter Donegan about his father’s legacy, about his viral TV duet with Tom Jones on The Voice and about his forthcoming album.
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10. Let there be drums! interview with Slade legend Don Powell
One of my all-time musical heroes I catch up with founding member of Slade and drumming legend, Don Powell. Via Zoom in Don’s home in Denmark we talk about his single ‘Let There Be Drums’ raising money for crew, engineers and technicians hit by the pandemic, about the old Slade days, about working with Suzi Quatro and Andy Scott, about recovering from a stroke and much, much more besides.
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Darren's music blog 
Congrats to all these great posts, Darren. And how cool that Ian Gillan shared your post about “Smoke On the Water”! Deep Purple remain my favorite hard rock band, and if I only could pick one of their records, I’d pick “Machine Head”.
Looking forward to continue reading your blog. Keep up the great work!
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Thanks Christian. I would agree on Machine Head. in Rock and Machine Head are both perfect hard rock albums in my view but Machine Head just pips it. Here’s to a successful year blogging for both of us in 2022!
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I dig ‘In Rock’ as well. And, yes, looking forward to more blogging action in 2022! 🙂
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I’m not even a Slade fan, but I really want to check out the post about your interview with Don Powell. Especially because I was obsessed with Suzi Quatro in 2018. I have to check out that Deep Purple post too since I’m starting to get into their music.
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You should enjoy my next couple of books then Lana!
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What are they about?
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