Howard Goodall explores why Sgt Pepper is still seen as so innovative, so revolutionary and so influential, with the help of outtakes and studio conversations between the band.
Video of the Week: BBC Sgt Peppers Musical Revolution with Howard Goodall
04 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in Video of the Week Tags: beatles, sgt peppers lonely hearts club band
Video of the Week: What ’We Are The World’ Stars REALLY Thought Of The Charity Single
02 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
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Songs You May Have Missed #758
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in Songs You May Have Missed Tags: evil love, kate pierson
Kate Pierson: “Evil Love” (2024)
From the second solo album by the singer and founding member of the B-52’s.
Happily Kate hasn’t moved far from the party vibe that characterizes her former band. At times on her solo releases she evokes the girl pop sound of Tracey Ullman.
And that’s a compliment.
Video of the Week: The Korgis–‘Good Old Days of the Cold War’
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
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Every Journey Album Ranked, from Worst to Best
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: journey
(via LounderSound) by Paul Elliott
Journey are one of the biggest rock bands of all time, and their most famous song was briefly the best-selling digital track from the 20th century (it’s since been usurped by two perennial classics, Elton John‘s Candle In The Wind and Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You). But global stardom might never have happened if not for a hard-hitting ultimatum from their record company back in 1977. As the band’s original drummer Aynsley Dunbar recalled: “We were told: ‘Get a singer, get some hit songs or you’re off the label.’”
At that time, the San Francisco-based band had made three albums for Columbia Records, and all three had stiffed. Guitarist Neal Schon and vocalist/keyboard player Gregg Rolie had previously played in Santana, but Journey’s early music, mixing Santana-style jazz fusion and progressive rock, was a hard sell, and Rolie’s voice wasn’t the strongest.
Everything changed when Steve Perry joined the band after they’d tried out another singer, Robert Fleischman. With a richly expressive voice, Perry could hit high notes that other singers could only dream of. His first album with the band, 1978’s Infinity, reinvented Journey as a mainstream rock act. The album promptly went platinum, and from there, the only way was up.
In the 80s, Journey became one of the biggest bands in America, with the Holy Trinity of AOR albums: Escape, Frontiers and Raised On Radio. Perry also had a huge hit in 1984 with his first solo album, Street Talk. But the pressures of fame led Perry to quit the band in 1987, leaving Journey on hiatus until his return in 1995. And when he quit again two years later, he was gone for good.
How to replace the irreplaceable? Journey survived by finding the best Steve Perry impersonators on the planet. They made two albums in the early 2000s with Steve Augeri, formerly the singer in cult AOR band Tall Stories. And in 2007, when Journey’s classic hit Don’t Stop Believin’ was featured in The Sopranos – making the song more famous than ever before, and putting the band’s name back in the spotlight – they unveiled a new singer who had been discovered via YouTube.
Filipino Arnel Pineda’s performance of Journey songs in covers band The Zoo was enough to secure him his dream job. He sounds uncannily like Steve Perry, and has now made three albums with Journey, including Freedom, released in 2022. And while internal and legal bickering may define the current band almost as much as their back catalogue, their best work remains unimpeachable…
Director Rob Reiner Gives Hilarious Details on ‘Spinal Tap II’ Plot
01 Jan 2025 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: spinal tap
(via Q104.3 FM)
‘Spinal Tap II’ began production last spring, and director Rob Reiner has revealed what the fictional band’s members have been up to in the 40 years since ‘This Is Spinal Tap’ came out.
“Nigel [Tufnel, played by Christopher Guest] has been running a cheese and guitar shop in Berwick-upon-Tweed. He’s also been performing with a local folk band in the village that play penny whistle and mandolin, and he plays electric guitar with them. We show a little clip of that,” Reiner explained in a recent interview with Empire. “David St. Hubbins [played by Michael McKean] has been living in Morro Bay in California, and he’s been writing music for podcasts, particularly this one true-crime podcast called ‘The Trouble With Murder.’ He also writes the music that you hear when you’re on hold on the phone.”
“Derek [Smalls, played by Harry Shearer] is living in London and is now the curator of the New Museum of Glue. He’s curated glue from every country in the world – the whole history of glue – and he shows me around,” Reiner added, “He’s also been performing with a philharmonic orchestra, and he’s written this kind of symphony about the fact that the devil wears a bad hair piece. It’s called ‘Hell Toupée.’”
The idea for the sequel came when Tony Hendra died in 2021. Hendra played ‘Spinal Tap’s manager Ian Faith in the original film.
“[W]e came up with this idea that Ian Faith had willed his daughter, Hope, this contract that called for one more performance,” he said. “She thinks initially, ‘Well, this is not really worth anything…’ But then some big music star, while screwing around at a sound check, is filmed on an iPhone singing a Tap song, and it goes wild on social media. All of a sudden, the contract is worth something.”
In addition to the surviving members of the original cast, ‘Spinal Tap II’ also features cameos from Elton John, Paul McCartney and others.
Every Moment Has A Song 