Bror Gunnar Jansson: Blues Tradition for the 21st Century
One of the rarely lauded treats of mass media is that different cultural genres can be explored and experienced simultaneously. Watching the T.V. series Damnation I was struck...
Brian R. Banks
Barclay James Harvest – ‘Barclay James Harvest’ (1970)
Music-finders all, how do we come to our stuff today in this new century? Much of course forms the core of our collection, as if DNA-like essence from...
Beau – ‘Rattle the Asylum Bars’ (2018)
Almost 49 years to the day after his first recording session for John Peel’s Dandelion label that brought 1917 Revolution to the west, Russia and a hit in...
Stack Waddy – “So Who The Hell Is Stack Waddy?” (2017) review
Stack Waddy - So Who The Hell Is Stack Waddy? (Cherry Red Records, 2017) Once upon a time—September 1969 to be precise—a band formed in Timperley near Manchester...
Skid Row – Skid / 34 Hours (2017) review
Skid Row - Skid / 34 Hours (BGO CD1302; 38.29 / 57.33 mins) The original Skid Row are usually called Gary Moore’s band and therefore blues, but these confuse...
Simfonica – ‘Letters In Time’ (2017)
Just released is a fascinating new audio DVD by Trevor Midgley, known to John Peel and Dandelion record fans as Beau and before that on the BBC as...
Pearls Before Swine – “City of Gold”
Tom Rapp Pearls Before Swine: City of Gold / Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (BGO Records BGOCD 1285) Pearls Before Swine are placed in the liner notes...
Clear Blue Sky – “Clear Blue Sky” (1970) review
Clear Blue Sky: The First Album Now Remastered Back when there were less cloudy horizons across the world, global record labels were actually eager for new music (what...
Second Hand – “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” (1971) review
Second Hand - Death May Be Your Santa Claus (1971) (Esoteric/Cherry Red ECLEC 2594; 44.19 minutes) Just released by Esoteric/Cherry Red, hot on the heels of their excellent...
Spaced Out: The Story of Mushroom Records
(Grapefruit/Cherry Red CRSEG036D; 77.38, 75.04) Label retrospectives are released nowadays thick and fast as smog in Poland. Some compilations put together what doesn’t always seem to be linked,...