The San Francisco Bay Area thrash scene from the 1980s remains one of the most colourful and potent genres in metal history. Naturally, it was fuelled by the music but was also driven by fan tape trading and a brotherhood between the bands and a united relationship between musicians and fans. Even now during its..
Heavy Pettin – Best Of Heavy Pettin (Wreckords/Cherry Red)
Now, this 'Best Of' set is a real treat for fans of high quality hard rock as it used to be played in the '70s and '80s. Many of you of a certain age should remember Heavy Pettin, a hard working journeyman rock band which was formed in Glasgow in 1981. You can perhaps get..
SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS – Do It Dog Style 3CD Set (Cherry Red / Captain Oi!)
The album opens with with two authentic slices of ripped-jeans, glue-and-speed teenage punk thunder... Ah, classic first-generation UK punk! For those of us who were in our teens at the time, this sort of thing is invariably fantastic nostalgia, evoking memories of a time which was genuinely exciting to be a part of. Even though..
SURRENDER TO THE RHYTHM: THE LONDON PUB-ROCK SCENE OF THE SEVENTIES (Grapefruit/Cherry Red)
You couldn't hide behind a lengthy guitar solo or a cape if you were on stage at The Hope And Anchor in 1975. You had to play good songs and play them well. Pub Rock. That's a term which I'm sure we've all heard bandied about on many occasions, but it's one which is far..
SHAPE OF THE RAIN – Riley, Riley, Wood & Waggett: Deluxe Edition (Cherry Red / Grapefruit)
Shape Of The Rain. If you are immediately asking ‘who?’, then you are in good company, as I have to confess they are a band who had eluded me as well until this release appeared. In actual fact they were a band formed in Yorkshire around the mid to late ‘60s, who did the hard..
Anthony Phillips – The Living Room Concert: Remastered & Expanded (Esoteric)
Alternating sections of gentle, fluttering notes and commanding strumming... With thirty-one studio albums, a host of compilations, boxed sets, and a massive amount of library music to his credit, Anthony Phillips is not the type of musician whose catalogue is easy to trim down to an hour's worth of favourites. But 'Ant' was tasked with..
Judie Tzuke – The Chrysalis Recordings (Cherry Red)
This three CD set represents Tzuke at her artistic peak and proves categorically that she was much more than a one hit wonder. The 1979 hit single Stay With Me Till Dawn – a good ballad made memorable thanks to the glorious vocal delivery of Tzuke – has etched itself into the national consciousness as..
SIR LORD BALTIMORE – THE COMPLETE RECORDINGS (HNE / Cherry Red)
[on the second album] They'll still hit you over the head with a wooden mallet, but they'll see if they can do it in an interesting time signature. Here we are, finding ourselves in the company of another one of those artists who spend most of their time hiding in the shadows, and lurking in..
FISH ON FRIDAY – BLACK RAIN (Cherry Red / Esoteric)
...if you are after a well-crafted, well-produced, melodic rock album which isn't afraid to go for the grandiose jugular when the opportunity arises, you can safely order a helping of this particular seafood Fish. They seem to exert a curious fascination with prog rock, as the piscine influence has intertwined itself with the music for..
VARIOUS- A Slight Disturbance In My Mind: The British Proto-Psychedelic Sounds Of 1966 (Cherry Red / Grapefruit)
Things get even more interesting on the second disc, with the lost tracks by the big guns jostling with ever more eye-opening lesser lights The 1960s are rightly remembered as being perhaps the most pivotal decade in the development of what we now know as rock music, and that largely comes from specific events. The..