Minnesota Night is a nice little snapshot of Eric Clapton’s tour in support of his 1986 album August which happened to be produced by his ol’ buddy Phil Collins. I’m not sure if Collins felt like he owed Clapton after the album got panned by critics at the time but in any case, Collins played with him for a number of shows during 1986 and 1987.
So what we have here is a fantastic sounding recording of the April 18th Minnesota show which featured a stripped down four piece unit that included Nathan East on bass and Greg Phillinganes on keyboards. It’s a stellar band and it’s also nice to hear Clapton as the sole guitarist in the group since he normally includes one or two extra guitarists in his touring band.
Even though I’m a huge fan of Phil Collins’ drumming, I have to say that his style is a bit too heavy-handed for some of the material featured here. Frankly, at various points in the show, his pounding backbeat overpowers the rest of the band and even ruins “Layla” by setting the tempo way too fast. But I’m a musician and I’m probably being overly critically about the playing captured here. In any case, this is a unique band lineup and I’m glad to have a nice sounding document from this tour.
retroGrade: B+
It’s definitely worth seeking out. In the meantime, here are a couple tracks from the boot.
Nobody cared what we’d think, what we’d say, what we’d do… – Findlay Brown
Well, if they didn’t care about Findlay Brown before, I’m sure they care for him NOW! Brown’s recent U.S. release titled Love Will Find You is a superb sonic tribute to the classic pop sounds of the early 60’s. The new album is like unearthing a time capsule from that era and finding pop gems that hark back to the sounds of Phil Spector, Roy Orbison and Elvis Presley.
From a songwriting point of view, it’s no easy feat to conjure up new and memorable melodies and catchy refrains within the confines of early 60’s pop chord structures. But somehow Brown has come up with ten terrific tunes that successfully capture the feel and mood of that long gone era without overstepping the line into cheesy parody.
At the helm of this project is producer Bernard Butler who is pretty much the “go-to” guy for getting vintage sounds (i.e. Duffy’s 2008 album “Rockferry”). Highlights on the album include the ultra-catchy “Love Will Find You” (complete with Phil Spector’s “Be My Baby” drumbeat), the Roy Orbison-ish “Everybody Needs Love” and the dramatic album closer, “I Had A Dream”.
TrackList: 1 Love Will Find You (Brown) 3:18
2 Nobody Cared (Brown) 3:56
3 All That I Have (Brown) 2:40
4 Everybody Needs Love (Brown) 4:33
5 That’s Right (Brown, Hinkley) 2:27
6 Teardrops Lost in the Rain (Brown) 3:23
7 Holding Back the Night (Brown) 4:19
8 If I Could Do It Again (Brown) 2:37
9 I Still Want You (Brown) 2:04
10 I Had a Dream (Brown) 5:34
Get Ready To Rock radio will be streaming a brand new Todd RundgrenAWATS interview on their website this weekend.
Todd recently spoke with Get Ready To Rock to celebrate the forthcoming London A Wizard A True Star concert at the HMV London Hammersmith Apollo on Friday February 6th!
Here’s the official announcement from Get Ready To Rock:
Hello and Happy New Year!
Have you checked out our radio channel?
We broadcast every day with a mix of continuous music sequences and feature programmes.
We are available in the radio section (iTunes), via the Reciva and Pure software that powers many wi-fi radio sets, or via the pop-up player at our dedicated website.
All music is hand-picked by specialists and you’ll always hear a healthy blend of the new, less familiar, and classic rock tracks.
This month TODD RUNDGREN is our featured artist, when we add more of his music to our playlists.
This Sunday (10 January, 20:00 GMT) Stuart Hamilton profiles Todd Rundgren’s music followed by a new interview with the man himself (21:00)
Todd talks about his forthcoming London show and his recent career…
More information:
Other weekend highlights include Tony Charles (Sunday 15:00), Joe Matera (Sunday 18:00) and Peter Muir (Sunday 19:00) with their choice of classic rock, melodic guitar-based rock and progressive.
More information: http://www.getreadytorockradio.com
This is your radio station, so do get in touch with your requests, suggestions, and comments.
And starting soon, our quest to find “Ten for 10″, ten bands we’ll support through the year and with a chance to vote for your own favourite.
With best wishes
The Get Ready to ROCK! Radio Team
I’m still amazed that Paul McCartney’s little one-off ditty “Wonderful Christmastime” from 1979 continues to get substantial airplay each and every year around the holidays. I mean, it couldn’t have taken Sir Paul more than a couple minutes to come up with the whole song. Just take a look at the lyrics and it’s pretty obvious.
The mood is right, the spirits up
We’re here tonight and that’s enough
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
The party’s on the feelin’s here
That only comes this time of year
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
The choir of children sing their song
They practiced all year long
Ding dong, ding dong, ding dong, ding..
The word is out about the town
To lift a glass and don’t look down
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
Simply having a wonderful christmastime
The party’s on the spirits up
We’re here tonight and that’s enough…
Sir Paul seems to recognize the “won’t ever go away” aspect of the song and even included it in his live set in Cologne (16Dec09). Fans will most likely get to hear it again in Dublin (20Dec09) and in London (22Dec09).
Check out the live footage from Cologne on youtube:
I’m so conditioned to expect mediocre releases from Hillsong that I was really taken aback while listening to their latest CD Faith + Hope + Love. This is by far the best Hillsong album in recent memory. I’m not sure what happened between the recording of this release and their previous effort, Across the Earth: Tear Down the Walls but the material is so much stronger this time around. Casual listeners may not notice a difference since the song arrangements and the overall sound mix are pretty typical for a Hillsongs recording. But the well crafted song structures and the depth of the lyrics take this Hillsong release to another level.
And for a change of pace, a Brooke Fraser Ligertwood song isn’t the major highlight of the album. It’s a song by Jill McCloghry titled “We the Redeemed”. The powerful worship anthem will most likely be a congregation favorite for years to come. And there’s plenty more on the album for worship leaders to use with their respective teams. Be sure to check out: “The First and The Last”, “For Your Name”, “Yahweh” and “The Wonder of Your Love”
It’s also great to hear Darlene Zschech’s lovely voice again on “The Wonder of Your Love”. No longer the main worship pastor at Hillsong Church, Zschech has taken a lesser role on recent Hillsong recordings. Even so, there’s no replacing that remarkable voice of hers which will be forever linked as part of that classic “hillsong sound”.
RetroGrade: A
— Hillsong Live – Faith + Hope + Love released: August 2009
recorded during the month of March 2009
label: Hillsong Music/Integrity
I’ve been listening to some old Paul McCartney boots these last few days just to wash the bad aftertaste left from this whole autotune debacle. I’d rather listen to a pure, un-altered performance of a Macca show than some artificially pitch-corrected mess that’s on Good Evening New York City.
So for today’s Friday Free for All I thought I’d share a few tracks off of the Hey Tokyo! bootleg. It’s a great sounding live recording from 1993 with absolutely no auto-tuning to speak of.
The live band: Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney, Hamish Stuart, Robbie McIntosh, Wix and Blair Cunningham.
from the November 14th and 15th 1993 gigs at the Tokyo Dome
Mute Records recently announced the release date for a brand new studio album from the U.K. based duo Goldfrapp. “Head First” will be released on March 23rd, 2010. The first single, titled “Rocket”, will be out on March 9th. “Head First” is the followup to their critically acclaimed Seventh Tree album. From what I’ve heard, the group has gotten the folk-vibe (ala Seventh Tree) out of their system and is back in the electro-dance groove. We’ll see what they’ve got under their sleeve in a couple months..
Good news for fans of 80’s prog-rock band Asia. Management recently announced that the four original members of the band are currently in the studio working on the follow up to their highly successful 2008 album, Phoenix. This time around they’re working with an outside producer, Mike Paxman who will hopefully draw out stronger material from John Wetton and Geoff Downes. They don’t seem to have much time allotted for this project with Steve Howe still actively involved with Yes at the moment. In any case, I’m looking forward to new material from these legendary musicians.
Lou Gramm is a true rock and roll survivor. The man had grappled with a brain tumor for goodness sakes! Unfortunately after going through all of that, Gramm isn’t the same as he once was. He has gained a bit a weight, lost the recognizable quality in his voice and is now a born-again Christian. In fact, Gramm’s most recent album, The Lou Gramm Band is what you would classify as a “Christian Rock” album. Big props to Gramm for having the balls to go the less commercial route. I mean, can you imagine the meetings he must of had with his business managers pleading with him to release something that could be more marketable to the “Foreigner/classic rock” crowd? In any case, what’s done is done and I’m sure Gramm meant well. But in my opinion, this is not the “comeback” record we’ve all been waiting for. Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with Christian music and I personally listen to a number of different Christian artists like Lincoln Brewster, Israel Houghton and Michael Gungor. The problem here mainly stems from the material. It’s simply not strong enough. Aside from the track, “Baptized by Fire” (which is pretty good), the majority of the songs are filled with generic chord progressions and cliched lyrics. To compound the problem, Gramm makes some cringe-worthy choices on several of the tracks. Take for instance “Single Vision”. It’s a solid rocker with a nice enough hook but he totally ruins it by including a hokie spoken-word interlude pleading to some unknown entity to not take “the Lord from the classrooms”. WTF. Other cheesy moments include “That’s the Way God Planned It” (which sounds like something you’d hear on a local cable access broadcast of a southern baptist worship service), “So Great” (sounds a bit like old-school worship leader Graham Kendrick from the 80’s) and “You Saved Me” (almost a Meat Loaf parody but in a bad way).
So for now, if I’m in need of a Lou Gramm fix, I’ll simply pull out his 1989 classic Long Hard Look.
TrackList: Made To Be Broken
Redeemer
Willing To Forgive
That’s The Way God Planned It
Baptized By Fire
(I Wanna) Testify
So Great
Single Vision
Rattle Yer Bones
You Saved Me (more…)
Time’s almost up for fans to register to win the brand new Rolling Stones Deluxe Box SetGet Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!. To celebrate the 40th anniversary, ABKCO records put together an expanded reissue of the original 1969 album. The deluxe set contains 3 CDs, 1 DVD and a 56-page book. Rarities include 5 unreleased tracks by the Rolling Stones and 12 never before released tracks by the opening acts of the Madison Square Garden concert, B.B. King and Ike & Tina Turner. Register for the box set giveaway before the December 3rd deadline for your chance to win.
Not only will the grand prizer winner get the deluxe reissue, he/she will also get a Gretsch Drum kit, a Gibraltar hardware pack, a Let It Bleed book, an official Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out Poster, guitar picks plus an eco-friendly shopping bag. That’s a pretty cool prize pack if you ask me. get your name in the drawing today!
I’m so conditioned to expect mediocre releases from Hillsong that I was really taken aback while listening to their latest CD 
