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22 1st June 2004
Heading off on a well earned break this week.
29th May 2004
With an appointment to see New Generation Superstars at Junktion 7 last night (the new line-up ROCKED, by the way!) I was amazed to find that the legendary Beki Bondage, fronting the revitalised Vice Squad (the headlining act), looked absolutely no different to the woman I last met in the late 80s. She looked and sounded great. I do think some of the older punks who attended were disappointed to find the band adopting more of a metal stance than the straight ahead punk sound of old, but Beki did sound better when she went for the harder edge to her music once she'd adopted it in her solo days. Besides, with ex Virgin guitarist Paul Rooney in the band the odd sub Motley Crue riff dropped in here and there can't be helped.
19th May 2004
"When I saw her I was fascinated. I never even hesitated. When I touched her I went right up in smoke and when I kissed her I was blistered now it's time I spoke....."
I'd like to tell you about Jo. She's a babe. I fell for her the day we met. Her smile captivated my heart. It still does. And I want the entire world to know that, although there have probably been times where she has seriously doubted the fact, I love this woman more than anything. I love her and my family love's her. She is undoubtedly my soul-mate, best friend and confidante. There is a bond and a chemistry between us that neither can explain or truly break. We can laugh. We can cry. We can frustrate and irritate each other. But, ultimately, a great affection remains. That's true love. Put it this way, given the choice of a week in Tokyo and a week with her, there is no question that I would much rather spend the week with her. I told her something around this time last year that remains very true and is, in fact, a major goal in my life and that's that one day I am going to marry her in Las Vegas.
"Her lips are all I needed to survive, so she blitzed me with kisses just to keep me alive..."
My heart will always be with you sweetie. xxx
17th May 2004
Hmm. First update I've felt motivated enough to add in a while. Anyway, thanks to the folks at www.metalsludge.com for the link posted recently. Look out for White Light Motorcade touring the UK this week. I saw them on Saturday at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Despite the same kind of dodgy sound that nearly every band playing at the venue appears to suffer, they rocked. And then some. Jesse Malin was quite dull in comparison. I'd question whether his audience is the right one for WLM, but kudos to Jesse for bringing them over and granting them further exposure throughout the UK. Got a call from Craig Short this evening. Rumours of him going to Sheffield United and (very bizarre this one) also coming back to Notts County as a player/coach can be discounted. He's just signed a one year deal that keeps him at Blackburn Rovers for another season. He is looking to get into coaching after that though.
19th April 2004
I interviewed Gene Simmons this evening and, rather amusingly, spent part of it debating the offensiveness of certain profanities. This does, of course, tie in with the man's decision to court controversy (and garner huge amounts of press attention) by calling his forthcoming solo album 'Asshole'. Having listened to the album again, it's not as good as his first album of '78 vintage, but the heavier stuff is very worthy of attention and the cover of The Prodigy's 'Firestarter' (with Dave Navarro on guitar) is keenly observed. The title track, incidentally, is very reminiscent of SR-71! Far and away the best tracks are the opener 'Sweet 'n Dirty' (originally written in 1977 and titled 'Jelly Roll', this could've/should've been on 'Love Gun') and 'Black Tongue' (co-written with the late Frank Zappa). The interview will first appear in 'Fireworks' and later here on this site. Look out also for forthcoming interviews with Span, Ken Mary, Jet City Fix and Jizzy Pearl. Amongst many others. Hopefully, I'll be getting my 'ass' into gear and finally putting the Skid Row, Waltham and White Light Motorcade stuff up too. By the way, if you've never heard the latter, I implore you to check them out. They recorded one of the best albums of last year. Sadly, BMG appear to have dropped the ball on the record over here in the UK and decided to no longer push it. Sheer madness!! Still, they are coming back to the UK in May, opening for Jesse Malin. I'll be there!
15th April 2004
Where are the months going? Half a month has gone since I last wrote something here! I've still got around 30 CDs to listen to as well. Still, I finally got around to adding some new album reviews of my own today. Mind you, it's stuff I've been sitting on since Christmas! Hopefully you'll be reading about the delights of Motion City Soundtrack, Autopilot Off and more before too long. Thank Heavens for Andrew Ellis and Chris Ward being more more up to date with their contributions than the Webmaster!!! Memo to himself: Must take time off work.
27th March 2004
Hopefully the next week will see a whole lot more activity on this site. I haven't been able to do any updating or reviews due to having spent the week in London in relation to the day job. Still, it did give me a chance to scour the capital's record stores again.
20th March 2004
Haven't had much time to do many updates, but I hope to get back on top of things in about a week. I have added a couple of previously unseen Desmond Child & Rouge pix to the Diana Grasselli interview and will be adding a load of new reviews (including new contributions from Andrew Ellis and Chris Ward) very soon. Span is still spinning wildly on my 'Death Deck', though the 'Mass Distraction' album has now been joined by Motion City Soundtrack's excellent 'I Am The Movie', Bill Leverty's 'Wanderlust' and Courtney Love's 'America's Sweetheart'. At least playing these records gets me through the depression of the disappointing afternoon suffered by Notts County at a very gusty Meadow Lane earlier today. Chesterfield would never have scored in a month of sundays had Ian Richardson not put the bloody ball in his own net. Why have we got such a dodgy keeper again? Stuart Garden's recovery from injury can't come soon enough. 14th March 2004
Checked out The Start's gig at the ULU
in London on Friday. Amazing performance. The new songs a Look for an interview update shortly. Thanks to Chrissie for organising this. As ever a trip down south wouldn't be complete without a tour of the various CD stores, including 'Beano's' in Croydon. Scored a few hard to find pieces and, elsewhere, picked up a copy of Cher's 'I Paralyze' album. I've never seen that on CD before. 10th March 2004 The Start are in the UK. Notts County sack Mikael Antoine-Curier for a night out on the town (which might explain his diabolical miss against Plymouth last Saturday) and Firehouse continue to rock the country. It's all going on!! 6th March 2004 Just about recovered from last night's events at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Firehouse and Vaughn were in fine form in front of a pretty much capacity crowd. I wound up literally getting kicked out of the Hard Rock Cafe with Firehouse and talked ice hockey with Bill Leverty on the street outside. This was shortly before the band departed for a few hours zzzz prior to an early morning departure to Gatwick and the flight to Madrid. Anyway, here's a blurry, early morning photo of the festivities outside at around 2am. A quick shout out to Kieran Dargan, Dave Herron, Phil and Sue Ashcroft, Mark at RPM and Penny (AKA The Rock City Hose Mistress). The latter I hadn't seen in over ten years. Good to see you all.
3rd March 2004
It's been quite some time since I've been able to find the time to post any updates to this site. The job that pays the bills these days has been the busiest I've known it since I started there. Weekend working and all. No rest for the wicked, as Helix once said... Still, following on from a third win on the trot for a (hopefully) rejuvenated Notts County, I've been able to take a break and do a little bit more round here. And it comes on the back of the announcement that Tyketto will be returning to the fray in November. Look out for a bit of a chat on the site with Danny Vaughn over the next week. I've arranged to talk to him on Friday, when he hits town on the Firehouse tour.
Going back to football for a second,
rumour has it that Craig Short (the man responsible for coming
Anyway, in other music news, I'm still playing the heck out of Span's 'Mass Distraction' album (see Chris Ward's review elsewhere) and also got an advance of The Blueskins' debut album. Thankfully, the latter is better produced than the EPs, but I still feel the material has become a little bit weird since I first saw them play in Nottingham about a year ago. At that time I thought they were the best band I'd seen since Diamond Head. Maybe it was the drink talking.... maybe it's just the fact that they are far better live than on record. 18th February 2004 I'm bemused to learn that the excellent Spin Gallery album is being promoted online by Atenzia Records with a quote attributed to me that also states that I am the founder of 'Kerrang!' magazine. This is simply untrue and I have no idea where this came from. I was a mere spotty 20 year old metal fan when the mag first appeared. Indeed, I didn't start contributing to the title full-time until 1987. Sir Geoff Barton was the founder of 'Kerrang!'. Let there be absolutely no mistake about that! 18th February 2004
The internet is a pretty amazing thing at times. Thanks to Brad Sinsel of TKO and War Babies infamy, I've recently got back in touch with James Tolin. Now if ever there was a guy Brad (and a whole host of other Seattle musicians from the same period) owes a debt to for the global recognition received over the years, it has to be James. He was the guy who first spread the word about the TKO 'In Your Face' album. Ironically, I also heard from Ken Mary this week. Ken played his part in Seattle's musical history by playing drums with bands like Strike and TKO. Of course, he went on to also record with Chastain, Fifth Angel, Alice Cooper and House Of Lords (amongst others), as well as cutting an album as the vocalist in Soul Shock Remedy. Now there was a band clearly ahead of their time! Look for an interview with Ken very soon. 6th February 2004 Andrew Ellis has very kindly supplied the site with a brand new 'Wired'. Check it out by clicking here. In terms of interviews, I added a long awaited interview with Aimee Echo of The Start earlier in the week. Gotta thank band manager Dana Sims and Nitro Records' UK PR Chrissie for arranging this. The band's forthcoming new album is top of my 'eagerly awaited' list. 25th January 2004
N 23rd January 2004
Another busy week of all work and
no play. Still, a few new CDs appeared in the mail, including the new
House Of Lords album
Despite the busy schedule, I'm sure Bruce Mee was pleased that I managed to get the Firehouse and Starz interviews completed for the next issue of 'Fireworks'. The latter was a bit of a retro trip. It's always nice to catch up with Richie Ranno, but I don't think I'd spoken to him about Starz in such depth as this since I was invited up to Brendan Harkin's place on a trip to New Jersey back in 1986. I love Starz. Indeed, I just HAD to drag that first album out for yet another airing this afternoon. I'll be singing the likes of 'Nite Crawler' and 'Boys In Action' all night now.... 12th January 2004 Having had a very hectic time of it with regards my day job the past week or so there hasn't been much time to update the site. Unfortunately, things won't be calming down for a few weeks yet. Still, there's plenty in the pipeline and some great new music to look forward to as well. Coming up on the interview front will be Firehouse and Starz. However, both will be featured first in the next issue of 'Fireworks', which is due out next month. One of the best records I've heard so far this month is the comeback record from Skew Siskin. 'Album Of The Year' might not live up to its title, but it's still a fantastic record, with a mix of old school hard rock and a more Manson-esque industrial approach. And Nina C. Alice sings her band's bollocks off!!!!! As for the football. Jeez, Saturday was depressing. Not only was I cautioned by a steward about using a digital camera to take pictures during the game (on grounds of copyright), but Notts lost the game when Bristol City scored a very, very late winner. And this after the 'Pies had battled against some appalling decisions from the referee and the linesmen. 1st January 2004
I've just posted my Top 20 Albums of 2003 list. Click here to go to the page in question. Have a great 2004 folks! 30th December 2003 Yay! My birthday. Having a great day and I've finally launched one of the coolest things yet. Yup, the Diana Grasselli interview. Gotta thank Diana for all the help she's given to me in putting the piece together. Especially when it came to the pictures. Incidentally, I also have one of her singing in the Kurt Weill show last October that I will be using at a later date. 24th December 2003 A big 'Thank-You' to all those of you who sent me e-mails after Andrew McNeice kindly plugged the site on his news update yesterday. Look out for another surprise interview over the next couple of days from an artist heavily involved in a highly regarded, though (again) criminally ignored, 70s act (that featured a highly sought after songwriter). I'm just putting the finishing touches to it this evening. Happy Christmas! 20th December 2003 Pleased to get my exclusive with Reggie Knighton on the site this afternoon. Despite the fact that I spent much of the day at work, I got back home to find myself really motivated to get that done and begin work on the 'Classic Reviews' section. That should, hopefully, be up by tomorrow evening. Over the festive period I hope to get all the other outstanding stuff online too. I'll also put my Top 20 Albums of the year up shortly too. All good stuff, but I'm sure there will be one or two complaints...LOL. 14th December 2003 Got an interesting e-mail from Belgium this morning with some thought provoking comments regarding the site and its seemingly biased promotion of more modern rock bands than the classic AOR/melodic rock I wrote about in the pages of 'Metal Forces' and 'Kerrang!'. I found what the writer had to say to be interesting because, despite the negativity, I appreciated the honesty. Despite the fact the individual concerned was never going to come here again, at some point they may wish to revisit the site on occasion, because I have been working behind the scenes to secure interviews with a number of names from the period when AOR/hard rock was at its peak. And many of these people few have heard from in years. I totally agreed with his comments that modern rock bands will never equal the popularity or sales of the classic AOR and hard rock bands we grew up with. But I like what I like and I have always liked to alert others to bands I discover, regardless of style, and to spread the word about them. At the moment, those bands aren't to some tastes. But that's not to say I have abandoned the 'classic' sound to 'nu breed' totally. See, in terms of the melodic rock scene, I think the reason why I was so encouraged to embrace the modern rock scene is, firstly, because I cannot live in the past (after all, wasn't it Boston who sang 'Don't Look Back'???????) and that the material being released by all the usual labels at the time just wasn't very good or was just a re-hash of everything that had gone before. And even the reformed bands weren't doing much. Let's be honest here, the Angel 'In The Beginning' album was very poor!!!! That won't stop me from going to see them in Germany next year though. However, this year I have been impressed with the resurgence in quality. I agreed with the writer that the Pride Of Lions and Vertigo albums, in particular, are very, very good. The new Dream Theater album is really good (although 'Falling Into Infinity' is my favourite album next to 'Images And Words') and the new Last Autumn's Dream album is pretty good too. However, I have always felt that (mainly because of the production) Two Fires (a band he mentioned) have always been rather poor. But that's my opinion.
Robin Black And The Intergalactic Rock
Stars were cited as one of the worst examples of the new age of hard rock.
Well, so far as Mr Black is concerned, the album doesn't do his live show
justice. I spent some time talking to the guy recently and he is just as
much influenced by the 70s and 80s hard rock and melodic rock bands as any
of us. It was quite funny to be talking to him about these bands - Orphan,
Kim Mitchell, Coney Hatch - to the bemusement of several 'twenty-somethings'
in the vicinity who had no idea who we were talking so enthusiastically
about. Indeed, Robin is friends with a couple of the ex Orphan/Dead Beat
Honeymooners guys. By the way, I finally found the time to post the Xoch and Five Star Iris interviews. Watch out for Waltham and more later this week. 7th December 2003 Glam is back!!! But did it ever go away? Spent Friday night at Junction 7 in Nottingham and an entertaining half hour or so prior to the gig talking to Robin Black (of Robin Black And The Intergalactic Rock Stars fame) and friends. Amazed to discover ex The Age Of Electric/Static In Stereo bassist John Kerns was now a fully fledged space ace! Robin and fellow cosmonauts were headlining a three band bill that also featured the reformed Tigertailz and rising local heroes The New Generation Superstars. All three bands were on form. The punk edged glam rock of NGS set the mood with a heated performance that got the crowd buzzing. Thus, Steevi Jaimz made his Nottingham comeback fronting a reborn 'Tailz. And they sounded like more of a combination of old school Crash K.O. and St. Jaimz, in terms of the harder approach Steevi, Jools, Ace and Gregg are taking with the material. Good stuff. Then, of course, came Robin Black. Some say The Darkness are the future of hard rock. Hmmm. Wait til they get a load of this guy! 3rd December 2003 HAPPY BIRTHDAY JO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 29th November 2003 Apologies! I seriously need to update the site with all the interviews and reviews I have to post. Haven't had much time to do so recently. Spending all day working with computers often means that, by the time I get home, the last thing I want to do is switch on another one! Still, look out for the long-promised Xoch chat and more besides. Including some amazing exclusives that I'm pretty excited about. Another of the reasons I haven't done much to the site this week is that Jo and myself took off to London to catch Marilyn Manson at Alexandra Palace. An amazing gig! 'Nuff said. Off to catch White Light Motorcade opening for Therapy? later on. More on that shortly! 17th November 2003 Still working on the interview stuff. Added a couple more to the list, so I've got plenty of catch up work to do. Skid Row were extremely good at Nottingham Rock City last night. As much as the larger than life character that is Sebastian Bach is missed, Johnny Solinger is easily the best frontman the Skids could have possibly replaced him with. Look for a chat with Messrs Solinger, Varone and Sabo up here soonest. Here's a tip: Go buy the Five Star Iris EP 'Five Star Iris'. Check 'em out at www.fivestariris.com 15th November 2003 Off to see the Distillers tonight and Skid Row tomorrow. Currently arranging upcoming interviews with a diverse array of artists. Watch this space! The Xoch and Waltham interviews should finally be up by tomorrow. 9th November 2003 That new Bon Jovi album is bloody awful, isn't it? Review up soon. What WERE they thinking? 8th November 2003 Post through the door this morning included the latest issue of 'Fireworks' and the new Pink album. First impressions on the latter indicate that the lady has gone for a much rawer rock 'n' roll feel. Review up soon. Slowly recovering from a night of chili, beer and Playstation 2 courtesy of my mate Tony's birthday bash. To be defeated 4-0 by his ten year old son Asher on 'FIFA 2004' earlier in the evening was rather embarrassing though.... 5th November 2003 Interviewed Frank Pino Jr. from Waltham last night. Top man! Talking to Frank about 80s rock (of all varieties) prompted me to grab a second hand copy of 'The Very Best Of Elvis Costello' CD on the way home from work this evening. But I digress, this will be amongst a whole host of interviews going live on the site next week. 2nd November 2003 I finally added the Reviews page this afternoon. I'm well aware that there needs to be a serious number of other albums added on there, but Andy Ellis supplied me with some great stuff that I felt had to go up as quickly as possible. Therefore, I've got some work to do to catch up and post reviews of albums running the whole gamut of the hard rock genre, from Story Of The Year through to Vertigo. I also intend getting the 'Classics' section sorted out. This will initially feature re-issues, but ultimately will include some of the true hard rock gems in my collection. Another section of the site that needs some work is the Interviews area. I have a wealth of material in the can, including some big surprises. Andy Ellis is going to be contributing some first-class stuff too, so stay tuned! By the way, look out for the forthcoming new issue of 'Fireworks' magazine. Bruce Mee asked if I'd be able to help out with an interview with The Darkness and I duly obliged. There's also an interview with Charlotte Martin. Both will be up on the site once the magazine has been out for a couple of weeks. 30th October 2003 Just got back from London. Despite the result (a 4-2 loss) the atmosphere at Stamford Bridge last night was brilliant. 3000 Notts County fans singing 'The Wheelbarrow Song' in unison. There were even a few Chelsea supporters singing it on the bus I was on back to Victoria. Now let's see if the boys can put the same kind of fighting performance in against Hartlepool on Saturday in the league.... 27th October 2003 Last Saturday night, the very lovely Jo and myself caught Europe's premier Kiss tribute band Dressed To Kill live in action at the Kiss Expo held at Rock City. Full report to follow, but needless to say they rocked. I especially loved DTK's renditions of 'All American Man' and 'I'. Why doesn't the real band play these songs????? Even Jo - not the biggest Kiss fan by any stretch of the imagination - was impressed in places; 'Let Me Go Rock'n'Roll' especially. Oh, and was that New Generation Superstars frontman Aaron James playing air guitar to 'Cold Gin'??? Big kudos to promoter Dave Herron for organising the event and nice to meet Mark Owen from RPM too. Off down to 'That London' shortly in order to catch the mighty 'Pies (cough) take on Chelsea's third team at Stamford Bridge in the League Cup. If Notts County even score one goal, it'll be a miracle. But, as Blaze Bayley once said as a member of the inaugural Inter Kerrang! squad while getting thrashed by a Steve Harris Select XI over at the Maiden bassist's gaff in Harlow some years ago now: "The less goals we score, the more glorious each one becomes." I recall the game ending 18-1 in Steve's favour...
WANTED: Anyone have the following CDs for sale or trade?
By the way, the reviews and interviews sections of the site should be added and seriously updated by early next week. Oh, and before I forget, a big 'THANX' to Pauline Sweeney for spreading the word about the site. Dave
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ired were pretty
cool and Aimee Echo and co are extremely excited with the progress of the
new album, which is all but finished. I had a chat beforehand with the
band and was amazed that Bill and Jamie were familiar with the work of
Angel (it was the necklace that brought that subject up!). Bill described
discovering a copy of 'Helluva Band' in a collection of records given to
him by a relative when he was a kid. "The album cover made them look
pretty cheesy, but the album was incredible!"
up
with the 'Reyno' part of Reyno-Roxx) is being linked with a move to
Sheffield United in the summer. Neil Warnock, the Blades manager, has been
quoted in the press as saying he wants to bring the Craiger to the club
when his contract expires with Blackburn Rovers in the summer. Warnock, of
course, was the big defender's gaffer at both Scarborough and Notts
County. Coincidentally, Craig's brother Chris (who also played for Notts
County) spent a spell at Sheffield United in the mid 90s.
ot music related, but another subject
I'm quite passionate about and that's ice hockey. Having been away from
all news media the last day or so, I was quite stunned to learn that Jaromir Jagr (my favourite hockey player) had been traded to the New York
Rangers. Having excelled at the Pittsburgh Penguins, Jagr's decline since
being traded to the Washington Capitals a couple of years ago has been
quite remarkable, if not expected. And how did he fare in his first game
for The Blueshirts? Held to zero points in a 9-1 road loss to the Ottawa
Senators. The Rangers have been bad for years. Adding Jagr to the roster
really is not going to make them any better.
(which
I still haven't formed a real opinion on as yet) and the Mike Tramp double
live set. My Japanese friend Kathy, unarguably Mike's number one fan,
e-mailed me her thoughts on the latter, along with the accompanying
picture of herself with some bloke who looks vaguely familiar.....
Happy New Year!
I hope everyone celebrated New Year
in style. Look out for a mixture of the old and new on reyno-roxx.com over
the next year. I have another couple of great retro interviews lined up in
the next couple of weeks, plus another from one of the best of the modern
rock bands on the planet at the moment...except not too many people know it
yet! That situation will change over the next twelve months!!
