Some rock and rollers make for charismatic front-men by dint of being unfeasibly cool, others through virtuoso musicianship and others through seemingly hypnotic personal appeal. With Anvil frontman, Steve ‘Lips’ Kudlow, however, it is simply his sheer, childlike wonder at the privilege of being up on stage performing to people by playing the music he loves.
I first saw the Canadian heavy metallers, Anvil, at Preston Guildhall as a 17-year-old when they were supporting Motorhead on their Another Perfect Day tour back in 1983 (a birthday gift from my father). And even 40 years later, Kudlow’s enthusiasm is as infectious as ever. Of course, Anvil’s profile in the past decade has been helped enormously by the hugely successful ‘Story of Anvil’ film, a tale of perseverance that The Times once deemed “possibly the greatest film yet made about rock and roll”. How much of a material impact the film has ended up having in terms of day to day life on the road for Anvil it’s hard to tell. They are still playing small clubs, like the one here in Hastings tonight, but they are playing them to a deluge of love and affection and, looking around at the audience tonight, while there’s a few of us who may have remembered them from that early Motorhead tour there’s plenty who were clearly not even born when Anvil first came to the UK.
Still with original vocalist/guitarist, Steve Kudlow, and original drummer, Robb Reiner, these days the pair are joined by bass-player, Chris Robertson, whose now been playing with them for a decade. From the moment the trio hit the stage the energy levels remained stratospheric. Kicking off with ‘March of the Crabs’ and ‘666’ there was no shortage of classics from Anvil’s early ’80s heyday, and the band’s Metal On Metal and Forged In Fire albums were well represented in the set-list. But there was also more recent material, too, including the band’s tribute to the Canadian government’s legalisation of cannabis – the title track of their 2020 Legal At Last album, as well as ‘Bitch In The Box’ (about satnavs!) from the excellent Pounding The Pavement album – and a new song ‘Truth Is Dying’ (about online misinformation) from the band’s very latest album.
It’s powerhouse drumming, thunderous bass-lines and monster guitar riffs throughout. The only time they stop for a breather is when Kudlow regales us with anecdotes about touring with Motorhead and (for a Canadian) he doesn’t do a bad Lemmy impersonation either – wonderfully capturing that deadpan, Jack Daniels-soaked, Stoke-on-Trent gruffness.
As the band draw to a close, and following an immense drum solo from Reiner, Kudlow pays emotional tribute to former Anvil second guitarist, Dave Allison, who died recently and dedicates ‘Jackhammer’ to him. Then it’s almost all over as the trio blast us with their bona fide metal anthem, ‘Metal On Metal’. But it’s not quite over. Kudlow jumps down into the crowd, guitar on his shoulder, soloing and sharing selfies. Neil Diamond’s ‘Sweet Caroline’ blasts from the PA while he continues doing selfies, shaking hands and thanking everyone for coming to the party. What a party it was.
“So, Darren, out of your vast collection what was the first CD you ever bought?”
It’s a question I’ve been asked on numerous occasions and one that often pops up on various CD collectors’ forums on social media. For me it, was actually this one – Read an’ Willin’ by Whitesnake.
I didn’t even own a CD player at the time but I bought it for my dad’s birthday in 1989 when it came out on CD for the first time. We both loved the album when it was first released on vinyl back in 1980 and Whitesnake were one of the first bands I saw when my dad took me to the Monsters of Rock Festival at Donington in 1981.
When my dad died in 2007, I inherited it back again and a number of years later, Whitesnake guitarist Bernie Marsden actually signed it for me. With my dad no longer here and Bernie Marsden no longer here it’s an important memento and an integral part of my collection. I wouldn’t part with it.
The revamp of the White Rock’s downstairs area into a more intimate studio space below the main theatre means the venue is now well-equipped to host two gigs simultaneously on the same night. Upstairs in the main auditorium was the Bob Marley tribute show – Legend, while downstairs in the studio we had a bona fide living legend in the shape of Martin Turner.
Turner was, of course, one of the founding members of Wishbone Ash and its bass-player and lead vocalist from the band’s formation in 1969 until his departure in 1980. Although he had a couple of reconciliations with Andy Powell in the 80s and 90s (the sole remaining original member of Wishbone Ash) for the past two decades Turner has been on the road with his own interpretation of the band’s legacy. I first caught Turner and his band in 2010 performing the classic 1972 Argus album in full at the first High Voltage festival in London and again doing similar at one of the Butlins Giants of Rock Festival a few years later.
For this tour things are fast-forwarded a few years, with a set-list focused around celebrating the Wishbone Ash Live Dates Volume 2 album, released in 1980. It follows a previous tour last year, performing the original 1973 Live Dates album in its entirety.
I’ve never actually owned either of the Live Dates albums and I’m generally a lot more familiar with the band’s early ‘70s studio material than with later releases – so the full set-list won’t all be entirely familiar to me. Nevertheless, it’s a gig I’ve been looking forward to for many months and Turner and his band have never disappointed when I’ve seen them live.
Performing two hour-long sets with a short half-hour interval in the middle, it’s a superb night packed full of Wishbone classics. I won’t say I haven’t enjoyed Andy Powell’s ‘official’ version of the band when I’ve seen them live but, for me, what gives Turner’s outfit the edge is being able to hear the original voice behind many of Wishbone Ash’s most famous songs live on stage. And his bass-playing is as majestic as ever. Moreover, the twin lead guitar work, courtesy of Danny Wilson and Misha Nikolic who have both been with the band a good number of years, is just absolutely stunning and does the band’s legacy proud.
Wilson also took the lead vocal on a couple of songs that had originally been fronted by Laurie Wisefield and his predecessor Ted Turner back in the day. The line-up is completed by the new boy of the band is drummer, Sonny Flint – son of Blues Band legend, Hughie Flint – who has been with the band since 2022. He gets a special cheer when he’s introduced, not only for his excellent drum-work but also for being one of Hastings’ many resident musos.
Turner is an entertaining and affable frontman, with his between-song patter bringing a touch of old-time music hall to the world of progressive rock, as well as providing some fascinating insights into the inspiration behind a number of the band’s classic songs.
It’s the songs, of course, that made this such a special gig. And there was no shortage of memorable classics, including ‘Doctor’, ‘The Way of The World’, ‘Rock and Roll Widow’ (with lead vocal from Wilson), ‘Time Was’ and, of course, ‘Blowin’ Free’ a song inspired by a love-struck teenage Turner being on Dartmoor with a visiting Swedish girl. Turner told the audience that the rest of the band wanted to keep the track off the Argus album as it didn’t fit the more serious, proggy themes of the rest of the album. Turner responded by going “psychotic” and the song remained. Phew!
As well as their usual Saturday night fare of free hard rock, heavy metal and punk gigs, Hastings infamous seafront rock pub, The Carlisle, has also been putting on a slew of great ticketed gigs of late. This week it was the turn of acclaimed blues rock band, The Cold Stares – all the way from Indiana, USA. Kicking in Denmark the previous week, Hastings is the first date on the UK leg of a European tour.
Support is in the shape of the excellent AK & The Red Kites, the new power trio formed by songwriter/guitarist, Andrew Knightley, who are well worth keeping an eye out for and have recently released their debut EP, Proverbial Storm.
Andrew Knightley of AK & The Red Kites
They got the crowd nicely warmed-up for the main event and a short while later The Cold Stares launched straight into ‘Horse to Water’, the recent single from their brand-new album, The Southern, which is officially released on 6th September. Described as a homage to Southern rock, it combines the riff-laden muscularity of bands like Humble Pie with that special Southern sweetness of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Another great song from the new album, also is given an airing tonight, is ‘Third Degree’, a punchy rocker that morphed into an extended, hard-rocking instrumental work-out.
The Cold Stares have the songs, the sound and the attitude that is just tailor-made for the power trio format. But it’s only relatively late on in their career that they’ve embraced such a set-up, with guitarist/vocalist Chris Tapp and drummer Brian Mullins being joined by bassist Bryce Klueh in time for the release of their sixth album (and their first trio album)Voices in 2023.
Chris Tapp of The Cold Stares
With quite an extensive back catalogue to draw on, there is no shortage of older material though, including a nice, rootsy rendition of ‘In The Night Time’ dedicated to the sunset on Hastings beach earlier in the evening and the raw, guttural blues of ‘Prosecution Blues’, complete with spellbinding guitar.
Giving us a good hour-and-half set of gutsy, energy-packed, hard rock and blues, and some mellower moments where Tapp dons his steel guitar, the trio draw things to a close with some obvious crowd-pleasers. ‘Two Keys and a Good Book’ elicits plenty of cheers when it’s introduced as an encore and the full-on freak-out of ‘Head Bent’ rounds off the evening in brilliantly OTT fashion.
If you’ve a chance to catch The Cold Stares on the remainder of this tour, do take it up. You won’t be disappointed.
I’ve been responsible for herding a fluid and evolving group of friends, family members and friends of friends to attend Fairport’s Cropredy Convention for some fourteen years now. Looking for somewhere to rendezvous that very first time back in 2010 (in order that we could all drive in together and camp next to one another) we happened across a layby in Banbury. Now, every year without fail in the days leading up to Cropredy I start getting text messages from various people in various parts of the country asking me where the layby is. I can never remember so every year without fail I end up visiting a dogging website to get the name, postcode and exact location so people can programme it into their satnavs.
So it was that this year (after numerous texts and checking out the dogging website once again) three cars, a caravan and a campervan all assembled punctually in said layby ready to enjoy another Cropredy weekend of fun, friendship and fantastic music.
Our Cropredy camping group this year – Photo credit: a friendly Cropredy punter
Day one: Thursday
As is now traditional, Fairport Convention opened proceedings with a short acoustic set. It still seems slightly unreal not seeing Gerry Conway’s beaming face alongside the rest of the band. Even though he’s been succeeded by long-time Fairport legend, Dave Mattacks, my years of following the band live had all been in the Gerry era so his retirement in 2022 and tragic death in March this year came as a real shock. He will be greatly missed.
Feast of Fiddles followed, always a great festival folk band and always a delight. Much as I wanted to see Kathryn Tickell and the Darkening, however, a combination of rain, cider and lack of sleep sent me back to the campsite for a snooze so I could be match-fit ready for Rick Wakeman’s set. What turned out to be an extended snooze meant I missed all of Tony Christe’s set, too, but I’m told he went down really well.
Rick Wakeman, on the other hand, I certainly did not want to miss. Performing the whole of his 1974 concept album, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, based on Jules Verne’s 1864 science fiction novel, it’s a masterclass in showing that while prog can be bombastic, over the top and full of itself, with Rick Wakeman at the helm it need ever, ever, ever be boring. It was brilliantly entertaining and something of a family affair for retro rock, with Wakeman’s own son, Adam, on keyboards, the son of Fairport’s Dave Pegg, Matt Pegg, on bass, and the daughter of Humble Pie’s Steve Marriott, Mollie Marriott, as one of the two female lead vocalists. Wonderful stuff and one of the real highlights of the weekend for me.
Rick Wakeman and son Adam. Photo Credit: Simon Putman
Day two: Friday
As the sun shone down for the start of a very hot afternoon, things kicked off on the Friday with folk punk outfit Black Water County. Not a band I had seen before but I’m pretty familiar with the genre, having seen the likes of Ferocious Dog and legendary local band here in Hastings, Matilda’s Scoundrels, who they very much reminded me of. Highly entertaining, I’ll definitely be up for seeing them again if they ever play down my way.
Cropredy village – Photo Credit: Simon Putman
The rest of the afternoon’s line-up looked very tempting indeed for a fan of folk rock and classic rock like myself. But I’d already agreed to have a wander around the village with one of our party and then check out Cream of the Crop, the boutique festival in the field next door which these days runs parallel to the main Cropredy event every August. We arrived just in time to catch the last part of the set from my old friends, Parkbridge, including a storming cover of Neil Young’s ‘Rockin’ In The Free World’.
Parkbridge at Cream of the Crop. Photo Credit: Simon Putman
It was then back to the main stage in time for Swedish banjo trio, Baskery and bluesy Americana singer-songwriter, Elles Bailey, both of whom went down well. Then it was back to the campsite for pot noodles, some chill time and putting on some warmer clothes ready for a late night with Richard Thompson. We arrived back at the main stage just in time to see Spooky Men’s Chorale, a sprawling choral ensemble I’d heard lots of people speak very favourably of but who I knew next to nothing about. I’m not sure I’d sit at home listening to one of their albums (they are now on to their sixth apparently) but they make for a superb festival act with a mix of deadpan humour, melancholy ballads and anthemic covers.
Elles Bailey up on the big screen. Photo Credit: Simon Putman
Richard Thompson, on the other hand, I knew exactly what to expect and he didn’t disappoint. Launching straight into a plethora of RT classics, just him and his acoustic guitar and some mind-blowingly stupendous finger-work, it was precisely what I’d been looking forward to all day. Around two-thirds of the way through his slot, sundry Fairporters joined him on stage for an electric set and he dazzled us all over again.
I did, however, start to see a lot of people leaving during Richard Thompson’s set. I don’t think this was any reflection on the performance whatsoever. Indeed, I suspect many of those leaving were actually long-term Richard Thompson fans. I believe it’s got far more to do with the timing. Given an aging demographic among long-term Fairport devotees, and given even second and third generation attendees may have young kids or grandkids to put to bed, it may be time for the organisers to think about putting the headliners in the penultimate slot, when they can be guaranteed maximum attendance, and having an inexpensive late-night party band in the final slot for the remaining revellers to party the night away. I’ve seen other festivals do this and it works a treat.
Richard Thompson. Photo Credit: Darren Johnson
Day three: Saturday
Following a fascinating talk by legendary 60s producer and the man who discovered Fairport, Joe Boyd, folk-singer-cum-funnyman and inciter of mass outbreaks of Morris dancing, Richard Digance once again formally opened proceedings on the Saturday. Sometimes I find his songs a little bit twee and sentimental and the nostalgia is certainly laid on with a trowel – but I wouldn’t miss the now-infamous communal hanky-waving routine for the world.
Richard Digance and a mass Morris Dance. Photo credit: Simon Putman
Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage, Zac Schulz Gang and Ranagri all put in sterling performances. Focus was one of the bands I’d been really looking forward to seeing on the Cropredy stage, however. I’d seen them before at classic rock festivals and will admit to approaching them slightly tongue-in-cheek, gleefully dancing around like an idiot to ‘Hocus Pocus’, channeling my inner Neil from the Young Ones persona and not taking them entirely seriously. Here, the atmosphere was markedly different and the audience really seemed to get Focus and really absorb the band’s extended prog masterpieces. As keyboardist, vocalist, flautist and founder member, Thijs van Leer, said at the end, the band felt “truly at home here in this beautiful field.” Perfect.
An appreciative Cropredy crowd for Focus. Photo Credit: Darren Johnson
I can’t do a full twelve-hour shift in the main field without some chill-time back at the tent before returning for the evening headliners. Normally, it’s fairly easy. I find someone I’m not too bothered about (or ideally someone I really can’t stand at all) who’s on the bill around teatime and time my break for then. This year it was an impossible choice. I wanted to see everyone. Unfortunately, Eddie Reader got the short straw. I love her music and have seen her live several times but I really didn’t want to miss Focus and I didn’t want to miss the special guest slot just in case I missed someone really… special.
There had been quite a bit of speculation within our camping group about the identity of the ‘Special Surprise Guest’. It would have to be someone who was mates with the band and was willing to perform for free, it would have to be someone who was reasonably well-known and it would have to be someone who was still alive. That narrowed it down quite a bit and we were left with a potential shortlist of Robert Plant, Jasper Carrott or Ralph McTell.
After our little break back at the campsite we headed back to the main arena. I was hoping for Robert Plant but expecting Jasper Carrot. I wasn’t wrong. I have huge admiration for him performing gratis as a way of helping ensure Cropredy’s financial viability at an increasingly fraught time for the festival sector. But his humour seemed very dated and his routine was not exactly up to the minute: jokes about Covid and the US presidential election which would have hit the spot when Biden was still in the race but made little sense now Kamala Harris is running. I should have trusted my instincts and stayed for Eddie Reader and given Carrott a miss.
Fairport’s Chris Leslie. Photo Credit: Simon Putman
It was wonderful to see Fairport Convention take the stage to round off another successful Cropredy though. My one niggle is that there did seem rather a lot of Chris Leslie-penned songs in the set-list and not nearly enough by Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick or Sandy Denny songs. We did get some wonderful Ralph McTell material though, including stunning renditions of ‘The Hiring Fair’ and ‘Red and Gold’, the latter performed by the man himself with some wonderful accompaniment from Anna Ryder, Hannah Sanders, Michelle Plum and Ed Whitcombe. As things drew to a close with the familiar rendition of ‘Matty Groves’ prior to ‘Meet On The Ledge’ Simon Nicol confirmed that he’d been given permission by the ‘powers that be’ to throw in his usual ‘same time next year?’ invite, in spite of the festival’s future looking extremely precarious earlier this year.
Phew! It will be going ahead in 2025 then. I’ll be there…
Fairport Convention at Cropredy. Photo Credit: Simon Putman
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).
Running this blog I often get bands (or their PRs) offering to send me free CDs. Almost without exception it’s usually when they’ve got a new album to promote and are looking for a review.
Recently, however, I received the following email from a guy called Todd Jasko who was once in a band called the Brick City Three:
“Quick random question for you: my band is trying to get rid of our CDs. We’re goofy party hard rock. Can I send you one for free? More detail: we had a band. We had a blast. Our drummer got sick and passed away. Now I’m left with 30ish CDs and I would rather give them away free than try to sell them. Happy to mail you one for free if you like! Or if you want to check us out first, we’re called Brick City three and we’re free digitally on Bandcamp. Let me know, and thanks for your time!”
Intrigued, I checked them out online, instantly liked what I heard and emailed Todd back to take him up on his very kind offer.
A few days later, said CD arrived in the post all the way from New Jersey. Quirky, punked-up, party rock with witty self-deprecating lyrics and irresistably catchy hooks, it’s been blasting out of my stereo all week. As per the email, it’s not a recent album. It came out in 2008 and the back cover still advertises the band’s Myspace account! So I’m going to resist doing a full blow-by-blow review but the good news is that the band still have some unreleased tracks and Todd is planning to put a final album together. That, I definitely will review.
A bit more background on the Brick City Three:
Brick City Three was formed in 2006 in Newark, NJ (aka “The Brick City”.) Mike (bass) and Cal (drums) grew up in Jersey listening to Rush and Yes, but none of their friends enjoyed rock music, so they didn’t know any local guitarists. In the early 00’s, Mike met Todd through Mike’s coworker (Pete Levine – former drummer of Flowerhead), and Todd’s habit of remembering people’s birthdays led to him reach out to Mike in August of 2006. Mike remembered Todd from some previous jams at Pete’s house, and he asked Todd if he would want to come out to play some music with Cal and him. Considering Todd was anything BUT an in-demand guitarist, singer, or songwriter, he jumped at the chance! Their first jam included covers of “Rockin’ in the Free World”, “Dig In”, and “Space Oddity”, and they enjoyed it so much that they decided to do it again!
One of their improvised jams during that initial meeting stuck in Todd’s head, and he asked Mike and Cal if he could try bringing an original tune to their next jam. Their second jam birthed this first song as a band, “Show Me”. Eventually, this song would be their album opener as well as every show’s closing number.
Rehearsals continued most Saturdays in Newark, and by the spring of 2007, the band had enough solid originals to start playing shows. What they lacked in talent they made up for in enthusiasm! After a few months, they settled on the moniker “Brick City Three” since Newark was such a big part of their formation.
Between 2007 and 2011, the band played several shows in NYC and NJ, released one studio album, and developed a repertoire of approximately 20 original songs and 15 cover songs. And they weren’t afraid to mix it up! For example: they knew that Mike and Cal’s friends at the Juke Joint (a backyard venue in Newark) weren’t huge rock fans, so they once surprised the crowd with a more dance-friendly set of covers ranging from 70’s disco to 80’s hip-hop to 90’s R&B including a variety of guest singers.
Sadly, Cal’s health slowed the band down, and he eventually passed away in 2015. But we are still left with memories, video, and hours of audio from shows and rehearsals. Todd is currently planning to put together a final, second, posthumous album in the near future to honour the band’s and Cal’s legacies.
Brick City Three and Cal – we salute you! And I very much look forward to hearing the second (and final) album.
Update:
Since I wrote this post Todd made this heart-warming video about his project to distribute the band’s remaining CDs around the world. Watch it here!
One of the advantages of living in Hastings, now the adopted home-town of Praying Mantis founder Tino Troy, is getting the chance to see the band performing tracks from their new album, Defiance, down the road in your local rock pub within days of its worldwide release. Indeed, introducing the title track of the new albumtonight, Tino Troy acknowledged it would be the first time it has ever been performed in public.
First, however, we hear from Gypsy’s Kiss who have the claim to fame of being the first band Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris played in. Like Praying Mantis, they formed over fifty years ago, with their first gig being played back in April 1974. Founder Member and guitarist, David Smith, reformed the band in 2018 with a new line-up and they’ve gigged solidly since then, as well as releasing an album and a couple of EPs. Indeed, this is their third time playing the Carlisle and they’ve built up quite a local fan-base now. They play a mixture of songs from their original tenure and off their new album and if you like that brand of good, honest, 1970s, guitar-driven hard-rock, in the vein of say Stray or a heavied-up Wishbone Ash, it’s a very enjoyable set. Not to mention the historical curiosity element that comes from hearing the songs that were performed by Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris at his first ever public gigs.
And then it was on to the main event. The set from Praying Mantis included material from the early days like ‘Captured City’ and ‘Praying Mantis’ alongside more recent material, like ‘Keep It Alive’ and ‘Cry For The Nations’, together with two tracks from the brand-new album, the aforementioned ‘Defiance’ along with ‘Standing Tall’, with its unexpected dance-beat. A packed-out Carlisle gave the band a rousing reception, with bass-player Chris Troy, in particular, visibly moved by the response. The band rewarded the crowd with an encore that included a rendition of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Simple Man’ and their own ever-green ‘Children Of The Earth’.
But what of the rest of the album? Eleven tracks that are “a perfect blend of classic Praying Mantis with a contemporary twist,” as bass-player, co-founding member and principal song-writer, Chris Troy puts it.
As well as nine original songs and an instrumental track, there’s all a cover of the Russ Ballad-penned classic, ‘I Surrender’, a huge hit for Rainbow in 1981 and a track I absolutely loved as a young teenage rock fan and still love today – a song that marked the high-point of Rainbow’s post-Dio embrace of more accessible, melodic hard rock. Rainbow are now long-gone, of course, but who better to continue flying the flag for accessible-but-intelligent, polished, melodic, hard rock than Praying Mantis? Interestingly, Praying Mantis, themselves, were actually in the running to release this song back in the early ‘80s but were overtaken by events when Blackmore and co. were given the nod to release it themselves. They certainly do it justice here. Other album highlights include the instantly-catchy rocker, ‘Feeling Lucky’ and the nicely mellow ‘One Heart’, with its lovely keyboard flourishes and Spanish-style guitar.
Both a highly-enjoyable album and a equally enjoyable album launch, Praying Mantis have definitely earned themselves the right to be a tad defiant these days.
I first came across the Julie July Band in the band’s early days when they were performing their lovingly-collated and extremely well-received tribute to Sandy Denny. Time has flown by and the band have been together a decade now and are about to release their fourth studio album.
While the first one stuck to material that had been written or performed by Sandy Denny herself, subsequent albums have been composed of original material. The last album, the post-lockdown Wonderland, saw the band draw on a more eclectic range of influences. With Flight Of Fancy they continue on that journey still further.
The band themselves characterise it as “music inspired by the folk, rock and blues movements of the ‘60s and ’70;s with a 21st Century twist.”
The title track picks up that laid-back, sun-kissed, US country rock -meets- English folk rock vibe which Sandy Denny’s post-Fairport outfit Fotheringay delved into so wonderfully but there’s many, many more influences here beyond Denny, Fairport and Fotheringay. From the psychedelia-tinged ‘All In Our Minds’, to the funky reggae party of ‘Boho Woman’, to the wistful minor-key singer-songwriter vibe of ‘Lost In A Crowd’ to the sparse, delicate beauty of piano-and-vocal closing track, ‘Simply Yours’, it’s like a magical mystery tour through a fifty-year-old, recently-rediscovered record collection for the discerning buyer.
Holding it all together is Julie July’s crisp, clear vocals; great five-part harmonies, thoughtful but accessible songwriting, and a superbly versatile band – now with an established line up of Steve Rezillo (Lead guitar), Caley Groves (acoustic guitar) Dik Cadbury (bass), Mick Candler (drums) and Carol Lee Sampson (keyboards).
Flight Of Fancy is a really enjoyable album and it’s not at all fanciful to conclude that the Julie July Band continue to soar and continue to deliver great music.
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.”
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