Scorpions – Tokyo Tapes

My first Scorpions album was ‘Animal Magnetism’ back in 1980 or so. I really liked that so I got something else. I suspect it was ‘Tokyo Tapes’. I must have been one of my first Cd’s. I think I had recorded it off a friend prior to that but from that date on this has […]

ELO – Zoom

Well this is an unfortunate day for me to be writing my opinion of the new "ELO" album. But I am at the end of my endurance of the disc and I promised to comment to a couple of friends. If I remove the disc from my carousel I will never get to the review […]

Motoi Sakuraba – Force Of Light

I saw this advertised as using lots of keyboards old and new and I must have been in an adventurous mood as something made me decide to order it. I did first I look for reviews and the only one I found put me off a bit as it mentioned the sleeve notes talking about […]

Francis Monkman – 21st Century Blues

When I first got this I hadn’t a clue what to make of it. It is a very unusual but interesting album. Poisonality – The album opens with a very simple riff as the loud theme. Under it there is some terrific guitar and good atmospherics. The track is very long, well 9.42, and by […]

New bands grabbing my attention

My tastes in music are it seems rather dated. Most of the bands I like originated in the 70’s. In fact it was quite some time until I found a band I even wanted to try that originated after 1985. Suddenly though in the last couple of years I have started to find new bands […]

Remasters – The Official Anthology – Uriah Heep

In recent times the affairs of Uriah Heep have been very ably handled by their new label Classic Rock Legends. Unfortunately this time I feel they have made a mistake. Or several. The album title implies these tracks are remastered originals i.e. Old mixes cleaned up for a new release. They are not and this […]

Renaissance – Tuscany

This in an interesting one. There hasn’t been a new Renaissance album with Annie Haslam on vocals since about 1985. Actually Time Line seems the latest studio I have and that is P1981. I am surprised. Knowing another of my heroes Roy Wood had had some involvement with it spiked my interest further. He had […]

Rick Wakeman – Prayers

I was initially not to sure about buying this disc but I am glad I did it contains some great songs. "Hymn Of Hope" is has had its arrangement added to and now makes the Softsword version seems under worked. “I can hear you” is one of my all time favourite tracks it is an […]

Rick Wakeman – The Classical Connection

For years I struggled to appreciate Rick’s quieter piano albums. This was my breakthrough album. This album is great. Rick’s great piano playing (electric I think) goes without saying but what I really love is David Paton’s bass work. I am normally deaf to bass work so when it hits me like this it is […]

Rick Wakeman – Phantom Power

Phantom Power is a soundtrack Album but not in the usual style. The album consist of full blown songs and it is as if the film was added to the soundtrack instead of vice Versa. In fact the recent video for Queen’s "Heavens for everyone" would be a good example of the way the film […]