MUSUC IN EXILE:

  If you’ve ever travelled abroad, you’ll know what it is to be an ‘alien’ I’ve never really labelled myself as one during my life on the road as a performing artist, but believe me, I’ve felt like an alien more times than I can count. Scratching my head about the food, the transport, the […]

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REVOLVER: Why was this so much more clear sounding and better mixed then any of their other albums?

AP writes: I’m not sure you can say it’s much better mixed than their other albums, but it certainly sounds better than most contemporary albums and that’s largely down to Geoff Emerick. The Beatles changed engineer after Rubber Soul – Norman Smith left EMI and became the manager of Pink Floyd. Geoff Emerick replaced him […]

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TEN YEARS AFTER: Undead (2CD)

Ten Years After are an English blues rock band, most popular in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1968 and 1973, Ten Years After scored eight Top 40 albums on the UK Albums Chart. In addition they had twelve albums enter the US Billboard 200, and are best known for tracks such as “I’m […]

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JAZZ: A Crash Course in Jazz Appreciation

Brett & Kate McKay write: Jazz. It’s the music that many men say they like, but don’t actually know anything about. Which is a shame for a whole host of reasons. For starters, jazz has had a major influence on most popular music genres in the 20th century — rock, hip-hop, Latin…the list goes on […]

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ELMORE JAMES: A very useful mini-biography

Not my words, but …….. “No two ways about it, the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period was Elmore James, hands down. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the ’60s blues revival as his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf did, James left a ……..” […]

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KEVIN AYRES: Joy Of a Toy

The solo debut of Kevin Ayers, originally released in 1969 on the Harvest label after his departure from The Soft Machine, was the start of a brilliant and unique career. “Joy Of A Toy” is one of the greatest examples of late 60s music opening up to new influences and experiences. The result is an […]

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JOHNNY WINTER: True To The Blues: The Johnny Winter Story (4CD Box)

This new 4-CD box set includes 56 tracks spanning Winter’s entire major-label career from 1968 to the present day (his most recent album having been released in 2011).  Though the two-time Grammy Award nominee is looking back with this comprehensive retrospective, he’s still very much an active artist, and will mark his birthday with a […]

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