Category Archives: Music news

‘Days Rollin’ – new single to coincide with release of the latest album from Intelligent Music Project

To coincide with the release of their latest album, Miracles Beyond, this week, Bulgarian-based supergroup Intelligent Music Project have released a new single and video. ‘Days Rollin’ features lead vocals from Toto’s Joseph Williams, alongside Simon Phillips (drums), Ernest Tibbs (bass), Biser Ivanov (guitars) and Ivo Stefanov (keyboards).

The band have also released a video with Simon Phillips ((Toto, The Who, Judas Priest), John Payne (ex-Asia) and Ernest Tibbs discussing the making of the Miracles Beyond album and their work with Intelligent Music Project.

John Payne: “The songs are great, it’s an interesting album. There is some pretty rocky stuff on this one and I see influences from bands like Queen, progressive music, pop music and really deep meaningful songs.”

Milen Vrabevski, MD, producer, songwriter and founder of the project, “The album’s dedicated to free spirits – the driving force of the progress of humanity. It’s a testament to the spirit of collaboration and the power of music to transcend boundaries. Musically, we offer a good example of what a super-group product should sound like. It’s great to have all these musicians on board again. This is Simon Phillips’s 6th album with us, John Payne’s 5th, and Joseph Williams’s 4th. Such a star turnout is a special privilege for me, which again shows that we have another world-class product!”

About Intelligent Music Project

Intelligent Music Project is a Bulgarian supergroup with an exceptionally international line-up, created in 2011 by Bulgarian businessman, philanthropist, and arts patron Dr. Milen Vrabevski, who is not only the project’s producer but also the composer of the band’s music and lyrics.

Intelligent Music Project is a creative mix of melodic, hard-rock songs with progressive hooks, driven by catchy guitar riffs and keyboards, often combined with interesting symphonic textures and complex musical arrangements. The lyrics of Intelligent Music Project’s songs carry a positive and motivating message, with an emphasis on themes from everyday life, through which the author offers key advice about success based on his personal experience and vision. Through the language of music, Dr. Vrabevski aims to bring to the forefront basic values that can serve as a solid foundation for young people on their path to becoming mature adults leading meaningful lives.

Prior to Miracles Beyond, the band released seven albums – The Power of Mind, My Kind O’Lovin’, Touching the Divine, Sorcery Inside, Life Motion, The Creation, and Unconditioned. Intelligent Music Project was the Bulgarian representative to the Eurovision Song Contest 2022 in Turin, Italy, with the song Intention.

Besides the aforementioned musicians, over the years, the band has seen a stellar lineup, including John Lawton (Uriah Heep, Lucifer’s Friend), Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Michael Schenker’s Group), Nathan East (Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Toto, Stevie Wonder, and more), Tim Pierce (Joe Cocker, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper, and more), Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow, Black Sabbath), and Todd Sucherman (Styx).

Miracles Beyond: released 15th May 2024

Visit website here

New Collateral single ‘On The Long Road’ out now ahead of 24th May album release

I was fortunate enough to enjoy a sneak preview of the new single from Collateral when they played legendary Hastings rock venue, The Carlisle this month. ‘On The Long Road’ (released today 19th April) is the second single to be released from the band’s forthcoming album Should’ve Known Better. With this latest single the Kent-based hard rock band slow things a notch with an emotive ballad on a deeply personal theme.

Collateral frontman Angelo Tristan comments: “I’ve never been in a position to write about such a personal painful subject,” says  about the new single. “During the pandemic, my partner’s mum passed away with no real warning. It was a real dark time, and there was no way of escaping it, so I did the only thing I know how, and that was to try and get those feelings out. It’s about tragedy, but I’m starting to see an underlying hope within the song. After all, it’s a story that sooner or later, we all take part in.”

‘On The Long Road’ is available on all streaming platforms HERE.

On May 24th, the album will be released by Big Shot Records on red vinyl, picture disc, CD and digital with worldwide distribution by Cargo Records Direct. The album is available to pre-order from www.collateralofficial.com and Cargo Records Direct.

Collateral are comprised of Angelo Tristan (lead vocals, guitar), Louis Malagodi (guitar), Jack Bentley-Smith (bass) and Ben Atkinson (drums). 

Photo credits (this and header image): Rob Blackham

Both the new single and the forthcoming album are produced by Dan Weller (Those Damn Crows, Elles Bailey, Enter Shikari, Monster Truck, Kris Barras). It’s the band’s second album following their eponymous debut in 2020 which secured a Top 5 placing in the UK Rock Album Chart. A remixed and remastered version of the album, retitled Re-Wired, also saw the band back in the UK rock charts.

Commenting on the new album Angelo Tristan added:

“We felt that our debut album was lacking the production. For the sophomore album, I wanted to make sure that this time we left no room for error and so got one of the hottest producers in the music industry, Dan Weller, to help lift these songs into a new dimension. With Dan’s pioneering studio expertise, this album has massive production quality that enables you to get lost in each character-filled track. Dan really brought out the emotions we were trying to portray and has achieved it with his own unique style.”

“We wanted this album to express where we were in our own lives since the release of our first. So much has happened since then, I mean the world shut down for what felt like a lifetime! And it was obvious that people were going to need some sort of optimism.  I hope ‘Glass Sky’ is one of those songs that gives people the belief to find themselves again.”

“Whereas, the feel-good ‘Just One Of Those Days’ is trying to find the good side of a bad day. Me being me, couldn’t help but to write a big power ballad, ‘The Long Road’, that I wrote from a very hard and deep place, in hope that it could maybe bring some peace and comfort to people who need it. I think there’s all aspects of life running though this album and what it means to us will remain in our hearts forever.”

“Should’ve Known Better” is an album that goes beyond specific music genres. It’s almost like a soundtrack to a beating heart.  It’s an album that will remain timeless in years to come.”

https://www.collateralofficial.com

This week’s featured artists: transatlantic-inspired folk duo, David & Clare Rozzell

I first came across David and Clare Rozzell as two-thirds of the bluegrass/folk trio, Wood Wire & Words. The trio saw David (guitar/vocals) and Clare (double bass/vocals) joined by Clare’s father, Pat Francis (dobro/mandolin), with the trio chalking up a plethora of gigs and festival appearances across the UK and Europe and releasing several albums – one of which I reviewed here.

The constraints of lockdown restrictions, however, meant that the established trio reformulated themselves into a duo and for two years , every Friday evening, the pair would stage their online Folkgrass Lockdown Sessions direct from their home on England’s South Coast.

Recently, the pair released their very first single as a duo, ‘Museum of the Missing’, which came out towards the end of February.

Conceived as the theme song for a sci-fi/horror podcast of the same name, ‘Museum Of The Missing’ is said to be a powerful, dark tale, of a world where all memories and evidence of a global incident in which 3.5 million people vanished, have seemingly been erased from existence.

For David Rozzell, however, the song was also inspired by events much closer to home. On a personal level, the song is about memory loss, something he has experienced himself as a result of a brain injury.

The duo explain: “The museum being that part of the brain where a condition, like Alzheimer’s or a brain injury, such as David has, hides the memories they had before it stole them away.”

With the duo’s trademark blend of David’s deep, rich vocal delivery, poignant lyrics and gentle melodies, ‘Museum of the Missing’ heralds an important new step in David and Clare Rozzell’s continuing  musical journey.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/folkgrasshippies/

Bandcamp: https://folkgrasshippies.bandcamp.com/track/museum-of-the-missing

Related post:

Folk/Americana/Bluegrass: album review – Wood, Wire & Words ‘The Boy With The Smile’

The child sex offender and wannabe rockstar who came straight out of prison and got his own radio show

Back on 4th April I received an email from someone warning me about a person called Danny Stoakes, a guy I knew who ran his own rock music website, ‘Stoakes Media’, and had his own radio show, ‘Stoakes Media Live’. With my music PR hat on, this is someone for whom I’d arranged numerous guests to appear on his show or else get their music played or their live gigs reviewed. And with my author hat on, I’d even been interviewed by him myself.

The shocking news in the email was that ‘Danny Stoakes’ was not, in fact, his real name and that his real name was Andrew Welsh, a man who had received a 27-month prison sentence back in 2018 for child sex offences.

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/former-radio-dj-sent-picture-14220856

He had been operating under this fake persona since coming out of prison but people in North Wales, who had previously known him, had recently rumbled his fake identity and set about warning others as well as contacting the local police.

It was a shock to take in but on checking previous YouTube interviews he’d done as Andrew Welsh, compared to interviews he’s done under his ‘Danny Stoakes’ persona and having met him at gigs on several occasions, I could categorically state these were one and the same person.

I immediately set about warning clients and other key contacts so they could cancel anything they had planned with him and cease promoting his work. I was shocked that his radio show went out as normal that Saturday evening so on the Sunday morning (7th April) I also emailed his radio station. They came back to me that day and, when presented with the evidence, agreed to cancel his show and terminate his involvement with the station with immediate effect.

Andrew Welsh (aka Danny Stoakes) taken in 2023

A big question, though, is just how this convicted sex offender was able to come straight out of prison and fool so many people in the music world? Many well-known rock musicians had appeared on his show and he was given free tickets and back-stage access to high-profile gigs and festivals across the country.

It set me thinking about when I first came into contact with him and the unsolicited email I received from him back in September 2020. The Covid pandemic had gripped the world, there had been wall-to-wall coverage of Captain Tom doing his thing and ‘Danny’ was getting in touch about a charity album he was doing:

It seemed a worthwhile cause, a number of established musicians were on board in the making of the album and it ended up getting a stack of sympathetic coverage in the online rock media. However, if you look at the Just Giving page for the project (which is still online) it raised a grand total of just £285.

It was clearly never really about raising money for charity at all, was it? It was so obviously about giving a veneer of credibility and respectability to this newly-invented character of Danny Stoakes, with the man behind it fresh out of prison. A ghastly business all round.

Farewell Frank Torpey – the last surviving original member of The Sweet

Frank Torpey, the last surviving original member of The Sweet, has sadly passed away. His family have posted the following message on Facebook.

“Frank passed away in his home surrounded by family at 1AM on Saturday 23rd March 2024. He will be missed and remembered by all his friends and family, rest well xx”

Frank, along with Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, was one of the founder members of The Sweet.

Torpey, Connolly and Tucker had previously been part of the Middlesex-based band, Wainright’s Gentlemen. Torpey and Tucker were unceremoniously sacked and an infuriated Connolly decided to quit of his own accord. The three musicians then opted to find themselves a bass-player and form a band of their own. Steve Priest was recruited, the four of them meeting up in the Swan pub in Ruislip in January 1968 to discuss plans for a new band.

Frank Torpey (seated) with myself and other Sweet fans in the very pub where the band was first formed

Rehearsals began and as well as working up their own cover versions of well-known and not so well-known songs, the four also devoted considerable time to coming up with a suitable name, eventually alighting on The Sweetshop. Priest wrote in his autobiography: “There were many bands around at this time that had silly names like Marmalade, Strawberry Jam or Strawberry Alarm Clock, and so we managed to come up with a silly name too. We thought that Sweet Shop would do it.”

Although the band were still only semi-pro at this stage, Frank and the rest of the newly-christened Sweetshop would play their debut gig on 9th March 1968 at the Hemel Hempstead Pavilion. Things appeared to be moving fast as soon after, the band were recording their debut single, ‘Slow Motion’, after impressing producer Phil Wainman.

The release of the single necessitated a shortening of the band’s name to The Sweet after someone else nabbed the name for another release before they got their own single out. It was to be Frank’s only release with the band. Although the four continued gigging throughout 1968 and the first half of 1969, tiring of the quality of the venues and the lack of money coming in, Frank decided to call it a day with the band to be replaced, initially, by Mick Stewart and then, more permanently, by Andy Scott who joined in 1970. Indeed, very permanently, Andy is still at it now!

Frank Torpey’s role in the history of The Sweet was a small one but, nevertheless, an important one. Moreover, as well as continuing to play and record, he was always happy to engage with fans about The Sweet’s very early days.

It was in February 2022 after Steve Priest’s memorial service that Frank met up with Sweet fans in The Swan in Ruislip, the very pub where the band was formed back in 1968. When I presented him with a signed copy, he was delighted when I told him he got more than just a passing mention in my book The Sweet In The 1970s, even though it primarily focused on the band’s hit-making decade. “Just tell me which chapters I’m in,” he joked. “It’ll save me reading the whole thing!”

Related posts:

‘The Sweet in the 1970s’ published by Sonicbond Publishing is available from all major book retailers – visit here

Death of a glam icon – Steve Priest: 1948-2020

Review: Sweet 50th anniversary concert – Berlin

Review: Sweet live 2017, London and Bilston

The Sweet versus Bowie: the riff in Blockbuster and Jean Genie – origins and influences

Before glam: the debut 60s singles of Bowie, Bolan, Slade, Mud and Sweet

Intelligent Music Project announce new album – Simon Phillips, John Payne and Joseph Williams back on board

Intelligent Music Project, the Bulgarian-based supergroup comprising world-famous rock musicians, is set to launch their much-awaited eighth album, Miracles Beyond, on May 15th. 

The band recently released their first single from the album, offering a fascinating preview of the musical journey that awaits. While the album boasts the presence of globally celebrated rock stars, it’s noteworthy that the lead vocalist for the single ‘Shine for You’ is none other than Slavin Slavchev. Serving as the band’s primary vocalist in live performances, Slavchev, also an X-Factor winner, emerges as the driving force behind the track with his exceptional and powerful vocal prowess.

As mentioned, Miracles Beyond features an ensemble of legendary musicians, including Simon Phillips (TOTO, Protocol, The Who, Judas Priest), Joseph Williams (TOTO), John Payne (ex-Asia), and Carl Sentence (Nazareth), each bringing their unique flair to the project. The artwork shared on the band’s Facebook page has already ignited curiosity and excitement, hinting at the magic Miracles Beyond is poised to deliver. 

Intelligent Music Project captured attention as Bulgaria’s representative at Eurovision 2022 in Turin, showcasing their versatility on the international stage with their song “Intention”.

Milen Vrabevski, MD, producer, songwriter, founder of the project, and the mastermind behind the band, expressed his joy at the collaboration with top-notch musicians. He shared, “I’m so happy to present our eighth album with yet another magnificent line-up!! So great to have all these musicians on board again. This is Simon Phillips’s 6th album with us, John Payne’s 5th and Joseph Williams’s 4th. Such a star turnout is a special privilege for me, and I hope I truly hope to bring to the audience some delight in those strange times. Enjoy our next world-class product!”

The Miracles Beyond line-up includes also the Grammy Award Nominee Ernest Tibbs and the producer’s favourite Richard Grisman.

Besides the aforementioned musicians, over the years the band has seen a stellar lin-eup, including John Lawton (Uriah Heep, Lucifer’s Friend), Ronnie Romero (Rainbow, Michael Schenker’s Group), Nathan East (Eric Clapton, Michael Jackson, Toto, Stevie Wonder and more), Tim Pierce (Joe Cocker, Bon Jovi, Alice Cooper and more), Bobby Rondinelli (Rainbow, Black Sabbath), and Todd Sucherman (Styx).

‘Shine For You’ available digitally via the following platforms:

Amazon: https://music.amazon.de/albums/B0CXQT3RG2
iTunes: https://music.apple.com/us/album/shine-for-you-single/1735347687
Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/us/album/558843472
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/3yg8mOoOWXgWfl07tSxEJ7
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=879i-dOvKjI&feature=youtu.be

Website: https://intelligent-music.com/language/en/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IntelligentMusicProject/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs1iAXjp1rafar98KwPI5aw

March 2014-March 2024: Celebrating ten years of Darren’s Music Blog

“You should start writing a blog,” my brother Sam mentioned to me while we were sitting at a festival one afternoon in the Summer of 2013 discussing the various bands we’d each seen recently.

Darren and Sam (right) at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention

I told him the thought had vaguely crossed my mind but it was something I could give more thought to the following Spring once my lengthy stint as a local councillor was coming to an end. My evenings would then be freed up, giving me time to start seeing more gigs and, crucially, sharing my thoughts online about what I’d just seen.

I’d always written a lot about politics and current affairs and I’d never exactly shied away from blatant self-publicity, ever since I got the local paper to run a front-page feature about me doing a stand-up gig in the local pub when I was 16. But I’d never really written about my lifelong love of music before.

That all changed in early March 2014 and Darren’s Music Blog went live.

Although I’d seen tons of bands during my teen years and early 20s, by the time I got into my mid-20s I seemed to have constant overdrafts and less money available to spend on concert tickets. In my 30s and 40s, with my chosen career by now pretty well-established, I found that although I had the money for gigs I no longer really had the time. Once I approached my late 40s, however, I was finally in the lucky position of having both the time and the money. It’s fair to say I went for it…

Darren meets members of Uriah Heep

Looking back at my first month of combining gig-going with blogging, it was quite a busy one. I reviewed concerts by Uriah Heep on 4th March, the Young ‘uns on 5th March, Fairport Convention on 9th March, Judy Dyble on 16th March, Graham Bonnett on 19th March, The Elizabethan Session on 22nd March, Status Quo on 28th March and Peter Knight’s Gigspanner on 29th March. Phew!

That first month pretty much summed up my approach. I didn’t want to get too hung up on genre. I didn’t want to do a classic rock blog or a folk blog or any other sort of genre-specific blog (although there are some great ones out there). Rather I wanted to write about all of the artists that happened to interest me, whether heavy metal, glam rock or folk. If others enjoyed reading that, then great, but the starting point was about any music that happen to please me.

Over time, I started added album reviews as well as gig reviews, along with interviews, book reviews, music history and discussion of iconic songs.

Fairport Convention’s Simon Nicol is interviewed for Darren’s Music Blog

Ten years later, 700+ posts, 400,000+ views, many, many incredible gigs and some wonderful chats with artists as diverse as Andy Scott from the Sweet, Mark Farner from Grand Funk Railroad and  Simon Nicol from Fairport Convention, my blog gets more and more people stopping by to read it with each year that passes.

Thank you!

Darren Johnson

[Header image: Uriah Heep at Koko – my first gig review. Photo credit: Elise Benjamin]

Darren’s music books:

The Sweet In The 1970s

Suzi Quatro In The 1970s

Slade In The 1970s

‘Sociology’: Waveney Wilcox lines up world-class musicians for release of debut single at age 71

‘Sociology’ by Waveney Wilcox: digital release 1 March 2024

At the age of 71, Suffolk-born singer Waveney Wilcox has recruited an all-star line-up of stellar musicians for the release of his debut solo single, ‘Sociology’ on 1st March this year.

Waveney Wilcox: “I wrote this song in the late ‘70s whilst playing in the band Plazma from Halstead, Essex. All these years later, living in the Black Forest in Germany, it has been exciting to remake/remodel it for my first single release.”

‘Sociology’ was inspired by a long conversation with a man Waveney shared a night in a police cell with back in the late 1970s. The man had been in institutions most of his life and claimed to just want to be put in a cell and forgotten about; having no interest or belief in joy, love, and a normal life of societal conventions. The horror of those stark nihilist statements made a deep impression on Waveney – then a father of young children – that has lasted for almost 50 years.  

Waveney Wilcox, a complete unknown in the music world, made this record with world class musicians – multi instrumentalist and producer Paul Cuddeford (Ian Hunter, Steve Harley, Bob Geldof) and saxophone player Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey, Gallon Drunk, Yoko Ono) – who volunteered to work on the project on the strength of the song and the vocal delivery.

Waveney will be performing ‘Sociology’ with Fifteen Lions (AKA Stuart Fiddes) on all dates on the Feb/March 2024 Lust For Life Tourhttps://www.lustforlifetour.com/

Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/waveneywilcox

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waveneywilcoxmusic/

Lust For Live: Lust For Life band (Glen Matlock, Clem Burke, Katie Puckrik) release live album from 2023 tour

In February and March 2023 an all-star line-up convened to celebrate the forty-fifth anniversary of the release of Iggy Pop’s classic Lust For Life album. Legendary Blondie drummer, Clem Burke, was joined by former Sex Pistol and punk pioneer, Glen Matlock on bass; broadcaster and Pet Shop Boys dancer, Katie Puckrik on vocals; Iggy Pop and David Bowie collaborator, Kevin Armstrong on guitar; Luis Correia, who’s toured internationally with Earl Slick on second guitar together with classical pianist, composer, and touring member of Heaven 17, Florence Sabeva on keyboards.

Lust For Live, recorded live over two exhilaratingly riotous nights at London’s Lexington on 11th and 12th March 2023, sees the band perform Iggy’s Lust For Life album in full, as well as revisiting songs from across the individual band members’ careers with legendary artists including Blondie, David Bowie, Iggy Pop and the Sex Pistols.

Lust For Live is available as a 19-track, limited edition, double-gatefold, live album as well as being released digitally. One disc will be pressed in opaque white with the other in opaque yellow, in a limited-edition pressing of just 1,000 copies.

Lust For Live will be released on 15 March 2024. Pre-order at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lust-Live-VINYL-Life-Band/dp/B0CT8K4S3M/ref=sr_1_3

Tickets for the band’s second UK tour (Feb-March 2024) available via: https://www.lustforlifetour.com/

Related posts:

Lust for Life 2024: Clem Burke, Glen Matlock and Katie Puckrik reunite for second UK tour

Suzi Ronson joins the Lust For Life Tour – ‘Me and Mr Jones: my life with David Bowie & the Spiders from Mars’

Notes from the Lust For Life Tour – Feb/Mar 2023

Absolute Beginner: Interview with Bowie/Iggy guitarist Kevin Armstrong

Bowie backing vocalist to reprise iconic ‘shopgirl’ role on ‘Absolute Beginners’ – Lust For Life, Islington Academy – 9th March

This week’s featured artist: Yorkshire-based singer-songwriter Serious Sam Barrett

New album: A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club released 1 March 2024

Distilling both folk and country influences and performing a heartfelt mixture of self-penned and traditional songs on 12-string guitar and banjo, Serious Sam Barrett was raised in the Dales village of Addingham and began performing in and around Leeds in 2004. With the release of his debut album Close To Home in 2009, word began spreading further afield and Sam was soon grabbing the attention of audiences both around the UK and in the US.

Having performed at SXSW in Austin, Texas in 2010, he has toured the US widely, usually in the company of friends and fellow skaters The Pine Hill Haints. Along the way, Sam has shared stages with the likes of Martin Carthy, Dave Burland, Katherine Tickell, Lucero, The Young Un’s, Frank Fairfield, Deer Tick and Karine Polwart, and received airplay and praise plaudits from the BBC’s Bob Harris, Marc Riley, Mark Radcliffe and Mike Harding.

Recorded live at a gig at a celebrated Keighley folk club in January 2023, Sam’s forthcoming album A Drop Of The Morning Dew: Live At Bacca Pipes Folk Club includes eleven self-penned highlights from his career, along with his own arrangements of a further seven traditional songs. A folk club has existed in Keighley in one form or other since the early 60s, adopting the name Bacca Pipes during the early 70s and playing host to a long line of notables such as Mike Harding, Swan Arcade, Julie Felix, Peter Bellamy, Norma Waterson, Martin Carthy and many more. It was a tradition into which Sam Barrett was born.

Serious Sam Barrett: “Folk clubs have always been part of my life. My parents met in one and I was taken to the clubs and festivals from a young age. The clubs have always been a massive source of inspiration for my music. The magic that happens week in and week out is impossible to put into words. Sometimes the experience is almost transcendental. The old pubs, the reverence for the singers, the jokes, the raffle, the stories and the music. There’s nothing like it.”

Ahead of the album release, Serious Sam Barrett is touring throughout February and March this year including a gig at the Music Room in the world-famous Liverpool Philharmonic on Thursday 15 February.

When I asked for a quote for this piece, Sam came straight back:

“What an honour to be part of Darren’s Music Blog!! Thanks so much I can’t wait! I’m in some very esteemed company there!!! Can’t believe I’m getting to play the world famous Liverpool philharmonic!! What an honour. And it’s all thanks to Mellowtone!!”

For all gigs visit:

https://www.serioussambarrett.co.uk/