Rock (All) charts

Notes: The top cover story this issue: the Futuristic Sounds of the Yardbirds; writer Peter Stanfield explores their change of direction in 1965, their rivalry with The Who and lots more. Also featured: Detroit rock pioneers the Chosen Few, the band that spawned future members of SRC and the Stooges, the compelling story of UK '70s punk outsiders the Subway Sect as told by guitarist Rob Symmons; '70s power pop princes the Paley Brothers; Viennese proto-punk anarchists Novaks Kapelle; the sixties adventures of Matthew and Daniel Moore (the Moon, Colours, Matthew Moore Plus Four); and a fascinating study of the beat music industry behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. Plus: Moby Grape, the Ascots, Cyril Jordan on Little Richard, and our meticulous review sections, covering all the latest vinyl and CD reissues, and rock 'n' roll-related books. (152 pages)

Review: With the recently announced news of a final "new" track from The Beatles set to imminently drop, reissues of both the iconic/infamous Red and Blue compilations are set to be delivered on a gatefold 180 gram vinyl 3xLP half-speed remaster, with the blue spanning their output from 1967 to 1970, this version exclusively bears the highly anticipated last original recording 'Now & Then'. Running from The Magic Mystery Tour EP all the way up to Let It Be (with a bevvy of essential non-album cuts such as 'Hey Jude' and 'Don't Let Me Down'), the compilation offers a detailed insight into the artistic abandon the members felt during the final years of their tenure once touring, radioplay and listener expectation had become moot points.

Notes: Weird Walk Zine Issue Seven

48 page A5 zine

Printed on high quality PEFC certified recycled stock

With the sun at its lowest ebb, and the night stretching to its longest duration of the year, Weird Walk Issue Seven is offered up as a symbol of the continuing cycle of rot and renewal, death and new life.

Taking inspiration from the woodland, author Nadia Attia explores the folklore surrounding some of Britain's iconic tree species, while leafy associations abound as the Hastings Jack in the Green festival is reflected upon, and the suitably named Verdant Wisdom collective take us through a rural take on dungeon synth music. Elsewhere two mavens of weird walking, Alice Lowe and Benjamin Myers, lead separate quests in two very different locations, each filled with magick and memory.

And if trees can emotionally connect us to the landscape, then so can the old stone monuments that so entrance us; in this issue, phenomenological approaches to ancient sites are explored (and, also, cheese).

Includes photos by Sarah White, Rachel Adams and Freddie Miller.

Notes: This cover story focuses on NYC garage-pop wizards the Magicians ('An Invitation to Cry') and the fascinating twilight world of Greenwich Village in the mid-sixties.

Also: The remarkable story of Jefferson Airplane's first bass player Bob Harvey is revealed for the first time, along with the saga of '60s garage heroes the Chancellors (famous for the Back From the Grave fave 'On Tour'). Mark Cunningham of '70s New York no wave renegades Mars is interviewed, David Holzer explores Lou Reed's obsession with the white light mysticism of Alice Bailey, and the mystery of Phantom's Divine Comedy is unravelled (rumored at the time to be the recently deceased Jim Morrison in disguise).

Plus, Part 2 of the story of Detroit proto-punkers the Dogs, and much more, including our popular review sections, covering all the latest vinyl and CD reissues, and rock 'n' roll-related books.

Notes: "Matinee: All Ages On The Bowery" was created during the early 1980s when New York City was embroiled in debt and crime, and as the middle class continued to evaporate, the city confronted one of the most trying periods in its history.

Paradoxically, its underground music scene was teeming with vitality like never before. Still staggering from the violent outset and eventual deterioration of punk rock, hundreds of disenfranchised kids living in the city and outlying boroughs began forming their own groups to rail against the everyday trials and prejudices of urban existence. As a result, New York City became a hub for a flourishing hardcore scene; a cultural phenomenon that used punk rock as a platform for a politically charged, inherently regional catharsis.

Between 1983 and 1985, local photographer Drew Carola began photographing the patrons of the now infamous hardcore matinees that were going on at the seminal underground music club, CBGB. During the week, Carolan was working as an assistant to legendary portrait photographer Richard Avedon, and on weekends he set up a makeshift studio across the street from CBGB and intercepted kids on their way to the all-ages afternoon shows. The result is a collection of photographs capturing the beauty, vulnerability, and the unbridled energy of youth during the height of the Reagan years.

Now more than thirty years later, all of that has disappeared and a copacetic, prosperous, and gentrified element has taken its place. While the hardcore punk scene still thrives today, these photographs capture a time and place in history that no longer exists.

Review: While David Bowie's talents were many, it was his skills as a musician, a composer and a performer which were, and indeed remain, the most celebrated of the great man's gifts. But Bowie was a self-taught intellectual too, a thinker of unparalleled originality and, quite probably, the best-read rock star of all time. He was also a talented speaker, an enormously absorbing conversationalist and someone you just know you could have had a damn good chat with, if only the opportunity had arisen. When these faculties are combined, as they are throughout the recordings here, some of the most stimulating archive film available on the boy from Beckenham is revealed. This double DVD set concentrates on David Bowie's spoken word video recordings, collating as it does more than 3 hours of the Thin White Duke in interview, in conversation, in conference and when simply having a bit of a natter! Intriguing and enthralling throughout, this set features both classic and rare footage, which all at once make it a must-have compilation for Bowie fans the world across.

Notes: In the early '90s, aspiring filmmaker (and General Hospital co-star) Ryan Sexton lugged a giant camcorder into some of the seediest clubs and the filthiest apartments in Hollywood. There he filmed hour upon hour of VHS footage of the jaw-droppingly offensive Shock Rock band The Mentors, focusing on their infamous lead singer, 'El Duce.' 30 years later, the team behind The Nightmare and Room 237 and the editor of Leap of Faith: William Friedkin on The Exorcist uncover this dusty stockpile of long forgotten - and unseen - footage. They begin to piece together a picture of the man under the black executioner's hood and what his willfully offensive act and controversial views might tell us about 21st century America. An Incendiary, tragicomic documentary (midway between The Decline of Western Civilization and Crumb) which has been hailed as 'Essential Viewing' by CineVue and called 'Dark and Irresistible"' by director John Carpenter, The El Duce Tapes will chew you up, spit you out, and leave you floored.

Notes: The book project "M_Dokumente" focuses on the explicitly female perspective of the all-female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador on the West Berlin music and art scene from the late 1970s on.

The three bands around Bartel, Koster and Gut played concerts, released records and toured around the world in different formations from 1979 on. What stood out and was new was the self-determined appearance of the musicians, which was reflected in their music and lyrics as well as in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the three M_Bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for important and necessary emancipatory movements in the music industry.

With oral history documentary by and with Beate Bartel, Gudrun Gut and Bettina Koster as well as contributions by Nick Cave, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christine Hahn, Peter Bommels, Mark Reeder, Scumeck Sabottka, and Annett Scheffel.

In German and English.

Notes: English rock band Pink Floyd perform live at Earls Court in London on 20th October 1994.

The tracks performed include 'High Hopes', 'Money', 'Us and Them' and 'Wish You Were Here'.

Notes: In the annals of Pink Floyd history, Pulse is the release which best typifies the grandiose ideals of the progressive titans. Released in 1995 at the vanguard of digital music technology, Pulse sought to capture the band as a live spectacle in exacting detail as they played through a polished set of classics headed up by the entirety of Dark Side Of The Moon. The visual companion of the monolithic stadium show was just as vital in the presentation, and so now comes a high-definition Blu-Ray edition, specially restored to ensure every breathtaking moment of music and theatrics looks and sounds the best it possibly can.

Review: "Planes, Trains And Eric" follows Eric Clapton on the Far and Middle East leg of his 2014 world tour. In addition to live footage of the tour, the film features interviews with Eric Clapton and his band members, footage of rehearsals and soundchecks, travel on trains and planes. Through its beautiful impressions and impressions of life on tour, this film makes you feel as if you were part of it yourself.

Region code: 0 (All countries)

Notes: Zakk Wylde shines with his Black Label Society in this concert recorded in Paris by big sound, good editing and sharp image. The directior is extremely creative with tools such as zoom, split screen and optical alienations, including tracking shots from the ceiling of the location. The band itself additionally gives everything in its committed and agile performance. As a plus there are four songs from a gig in London. With almost four hours of total playing time, this Blu-ray is filled to the brim and should be an essential part of any BLS collection!

Region code: 2

Review: Steely Dan are the kind of band where everyone has their favourite album, with a fanbase who might well get a little heated debating which phase of the band is superior. But when it comes down to it, everyone will agree Aja is their masterpiece, where that exacting studio process and the elevated songwriting hit some magical sweet spot that yielded the semi-mythical perfect album. The grooves are so slinky as 'Black Cow' opens the record up, they spring with joy out of 'Peg' and they lock down heavy on 'Josie', and there's so much more in between. This faithful reproduction from Analogue Productions is a limited audiophile edition for a band who were made for audiophiles.

Notes: Amidst the turmoil of the times, such as the spread of coronavirus and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Gezan searched for ways to interact with people and pursued new music with the theme of "voice", at a live concert at the Hibiya Open Air Concert Hall. The performance of the new system "Million Wish Collective" was unveiled for the first time, and Hibiya was shaken with shock and joy. Directed by Shuichi Bamba, the vivid camerawork with 13 cameras with different textures captures the complexity of this world and approaches the true meaning of what a rock band is. Tickets for this performance, which was greeted with the largest capacity in their career, were sold out quickly at full capacity. The package is a special jacket with a bright red photo of Taro Mizutani stamped with gold foil wrapped in a special jacket called the December Newspaper, and the newspaper consists of the members' columns and illustrations. It is a work full of imagination that presents hope after regaining human wildness and flesh in a distorted era.

Region code: 0 (universal)

Notes: Shot at the Camden Palace in London during September of 1985 this rare footage captures Wendy and band during an epochal point in her career of which there is very little other footage around. Having been called the "Queen of Punk Rock" in the early stages of her career, by this time known as the "High Priestess of Metal", gotten a Grammy Nomination for the Gene Simmons (of KISS) produced "WOW" album and just released her speed metal album "Kommander of Kaos". In top form here, Wendy's scorching vocals are punctuated by her famous backbend screams. The show features Motorhead (Lemmy and Wurzel) joining Wendy onstage for "Jailbait", and also includes a performance of "You'll Succeed", a crowd favorite that never made it to an album of the Wendy's. The show, originally broadcast throughout Europe on Sky TV. was Directed by Plasmatics creator, Rod Swenson, and Produced by Phillip Goodhand-Taite.

Region code: 0 (universal)

Notes: Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the release of Journey's incredible Lollapalooza performance from Chicago, IL on July 31, 2021. The stunning set, which will be released on CD/DVD, Blu-ray, and Vinyl, serves as a testament not only to the band's enduring legacy, but their relevance to a whole new generation of rock 'n roll fans.

"Journey are veteran professionals when it comes to throwing entertaining concerts, and the fans upfront knew that from experience. But for the young festival goers and indifferent onlookers who expected a weathered band of baby boomers to twiddle their thumbs for an hour before breaking out jukebox staples, they got to experience arguably the most underrated feeling a music festival can offer: discovering a different side to an artist's discography that you overlooked up until then." - Rolling Stone

"Journey's Lollapalooza performance blended fresh and familiar, with the band's new lineup delivering a hit-packed package during their Saturday headlining slot." - Ultimate Classic Rock

"Pineda's kinetic showmanship was evident throughout the set's litany of hits, as he brought fresh energy to ubiquitous singles from "Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)" to "Lights". However, the true spark of the night's set rested in the hands of the band's longest-serving members. Guitarist and founder Neal Schon was a quiet force, delivering a reliable string of solos that felt as economical as they were effortless, while on keys, hometown boy Jonathan Cain added soulful sharpness to "Stone in Love" and "Just the Same Way". If anyone in the crowd was worried about their image, they weren't letting on. Instead, they were singing along to the band's deep catalogue of songs that have embedded themselves in the heads of anyone who's owned a radio in the last 50 years." - Consequence Of Sound

"Unlike so many of their classic rock brethren, Journey has managed to maintain some semblance of relevance amongst a younger demographic and wasted no time getting to the hits Saturday at Lollapalooza." - Forbes

Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018, Journey have 25 gold and platinum albums, including the fifteen-million selling Greatest Hits collection, with total sales adding up to 80 million records around the world. As the band's legend continues to grow larger and their touring gets bigger, they recently released a new studio album, "Freedom" in July 2022. It was their first album of new material to be released in eleven years, since 2011's "Eclipse". The album was met with rave critical and fan reviews and charted in multiple countries around the globe.

Review: After their first round was such a success, Gary Crowley and Jim Lahat have been tasked with pulling together another essential collection of punk and new wave from the 70s and 80s, and you can rest assured they've done it again. There are some major, familiar names here like The Clash, The Slits and Ramones, but there's also a hell of a lot of rare delights from the likes of The Limit, The Art Attacks and The Newtown Neurotics. Musically, there's plenty of range too from spiky three-chord pub rock and punk through to Linton Kewsi Johnson and Dennis Bovell's crossover dub as Poet & The Roots. That's just a tiny overview of this mammoth six-disc set, which takes you deep into the heart of a vital, thrilling period in alternative music.

Review: A multi region Blu-ray edition of the classic album by the Alan Parsons Project.

Remastered and remixed from the original master tapes by Alan Parsons.

Featuring a stunning new 5.1 surround sound from the original multi-track master tapes by Alan Parsons and 4 promotional videos.

Includes an illustrated booklet with new essay.

First released in November 1980, 'The Turn Of A Friendly Card' was the fifth album by The Alan Parsons Project, the brainchild of composer, musician and manger Eric Woolfson and celebrated producer and engineer Alan Parsons.

Inspired by their time in Monte Carlo, this legendary album was recorded in Paris. The album sessions featured the contribution of musicians such as Ian Bairnson (guitars), David Paton (bass), Stuart Elliott (drums) with Eric Woolfson playing keyboards and providing lead vocals, along with Elmer Gantry, Chris Rainbow and Lenny Zakatek.

It became one of the biggest selling albums for The Alan Parsons Project, attaining gold status in many European countries and the USA.

Notes: San Francisco was at the center of an explosion of artistic creation during the mid-to-late 60's. Whether it was art, poetry or music, the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco was the place for like-minded individuals to explore and create. Renowned jazz columnist and television producer Ralph J. Gleason took note of the exploding rock music scene and created several groundbreaking television documentaries spotlighting the music emerging from San Francisco.

A Night At The Family Dog was videotaped in February 1970 at Family Dog on the Great Highway in San Francisco. The show captures the heyday and diversity of the San Francisco sound with live performances from Santana, The Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

Go Ride The Music was recorded in 1969, focusing on two of the Bay Area's biggest bands at the time - Jefferson Airplane & Quicksilver Messenger Service.

West Pole is an essay on the San Francisco music scene, originally airing in 1969. It features rare performances from local and national favorites, including The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Steve Miller Band, Ace of Cups and Sons of Champlin.

DVD (NTSC, no regional coding)

Review: Capturing the era of Black Sabbath with Ronnie James Dio on vocals following Ozzy Osborne's departure, Live Evil was the first officially sanctioned live album from Birmingham's foremost heavy metal pioneers. The album came together in 1982, drawing on shows from Seattle, San Antonio and Dallas on the Mob Rules tour, and now it has been given the deluxe reissue treatment. As well as the original mix of the album, there's an entirely new mix of the album from the original analogue master tapes by long time band associate Wyn Daivs, complete with a 40-page hardback book featuring new liner notes and replicas of the original concert book and poster form the Mob Rules tour.

Notes: NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories is the first tell-all autobiography from one of the world's most influential and controversial punk bands. Fans and non-fans alike will be shocked by the stories of murder, suicide, addiction, counterfeiting, riots, bondage, terminal illness, the Yakuza and drinking pee. Told from the perspective of each of the band's members, this book looks back at more than 30 years of comedy, tragedy and completely inexplicable success.

Notes: Massive document collecting all 12 issues of In Effect Fanzine from 1988-1999. Extras include essays and context from Chris Wynne for every issue and a foreword by Brett Beach, along with new photos, flyers, etc. 722 pages total dedicated to this legendary NYHC fanzine.

Notes: Crass was the anarcho-punk face of a revolutionary movement founded by radical thinkers and artists Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, and Steve Ignorant. When punk ruled the waves, Crass waived the rules and took it further, putting out their own records, films, and magazines and setting up a series of situationist pranks that were dutifully covered by the world's press. Not just another iconoclastic band, Crass was a musical, social, and political phenomenon.

Commune dwellers who were rarely photographed and remained contemptuous of conventional pop stardom; their members explored and finally exhausted the possibilities of punk-led anarchy. They have at last collaborated on telling the whole Crass story, giving access to many never-before-seen photos and interviews.

Praise:

"Lucid in recounting their dealings with freaks, coppers, and punks the band's voices predominate, and that's for the best."
The Guardian UK

"Thoroughly researched...chockful of fascinating revelations...it is, surprisingly, the first real history of the pioneers of anarcho-punk."
Classic Rock

"They (Crass) sowed the ground for the return of serious anarchism in the early eighties."
Jon Savage, England's Dreaming

About the Author:

George Berger has written for Sounds, Melody Maker and Amnesty International amongst others. His previous book was a biography of the Levellers: State Education/No University.

Author: George Berger
Publisher: PM Press
Published: 9/2009
Format: Paperback
Page count: 304
Size: 6 x 9
Subjects: Punk Rock, Anarchism

Review: Who doesn't love a bit of Dolly Parton? The globally renown queen of country - and the unlikely cult hero who invested heavily in the quest for a Covid-19 vaccine once the pandemic hit - is still turning out plenty of new music. Rockstar is her latest full length and it comes via Butterfly Records and Big Machine Records. It is a collaboration with a variety of rockstars which marks her first moves in the world of rock. Legends like Simon Le Bon and Rob Halford, Pink, Brandi Carlile and Sheryl Crow all feature across eight sides of vinyl and an adventurous and accomplished long player.

Notes: "How Much Art Can You Take?" compiles over 170 images, many of which have never been seen before, plus first-hand commentary from the band and their crew, spread across 190 pages in a beautiful, 10" x 10" hardcover book.

Notes: Cream in 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall was an emotional experience for the fans and the musicians, as it marked the end of an era. It was a final highlight of the band's career, who had released highly influential albums in the three years they were active.

The band performs their famous improvisational skills and unique musical chemistry.The concert is considered an important moment in music history and was an unforgettable event for the fans, who were able to experience the supergroup Cream live.

The mediabook with a foreword by director Tony Palmer and a personal text by Nettie Baker, daughter of the legendary drummer.

Farewell Concert: Live At The Royal Albert Hall in London 26, November 1968 - German cinema premiere: November 1973. Cream is considered the first supergroup in the history of rock music - The music magazine Rolling Stone listed the band as number 67 of the 100 greatest musicians of all time.

The legendary Farewell Concert - worldwide for the first time in HD - It is also cinematically remarkable concert recording, as the film through its means of expression (monochrome sequences, hectic cuts, preference for close-ups and detail shots, double exposures, etc., the film also documents the pop art and flower power movement of the late 1960s and with it the attitude to life of the young generation.

DVD + Blu-ray (region 2)

Notes: Cream in 1968 at the Royal Albert Hall was an emotional experience for the fans and the musicians, as it marked the end of an era. It was a final highlight of the band's career, who had released highly influential albums in the three years they were active.

The band performs their famous improvisational skills and unique musical chemistry. The concert is considered an important moment in music history and was an unforgettable event for the fans, who were able to experience the supergroup Cream live.

The legendary Farewell Concert - worldwide for the first time in HD - It is also cinematically remarkable concert recording, as the film through its means of expression (monochrome sequences, hectic cuts, preference for close-ups and detail shots, double exposures, etc., the film also documents the pop art and flower power movement of the late 1960s and with it the attitude to life of the young generation.

Blu-ray, (region B)

Notes: Beautiful People "If 60's Were 90's" Box Set Consisting of over 50 sampled Guitar Riffs, Lead Vocals & Word Raps From Guitar God Jimi Hendrix. Commissioned by legendary record producer and former creative head of the Jimi Hendrix Estate Alan Douglas in 1990, the cleverly titled "If 60's Were 90's" by the band Beautiful People, is a truly unique and seminal record. "Beautiful People are a bunch of movers and shakers from London's Acid House Scene, who have a highly developed fascination with the music of Jimi Hendrix, emphatically not a 'Tribute' band in the style of the Bootleg Beatles or the Australian Doors, Beautiful People have used sampling technology to virtually recruit Hendrix into the groups line up." - David Sinclair, Billboard Magazine.

Consisting of over fifty guitar riffs, vocal cut outs, out- take lead breaks, and word raps from guitar god Jimi Hendrix, "If 60's Were 90's" also features spoken steals from Brian Jones of the Rolling Stones, Experience drummer Mitch Mitchell, 60's blues guitarist Mike Bloomfield and a party called the "Milky Way Express" that included the one and only Frank Zappa.

Like some Groovy Psychedelic time-machine cruising the Hendrixphere, Beautiful People pluck from over 30 different Hendrix recordings, writing nine new songs creating an... "Ambient Dance Dream Tribute" (Kris Needs, NME)... of ... "Super Psychedelic Baggy Indie dance with Orb like overtones.." (Ian McCan, VOX) creating a sound that arguably helped kick off the rock dance crossover phenomenon of the early 90's, bringing guitars back into dance music, while still retaining the psychedelic rock majesty of one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th Century.

Region code: 0 (universal)

Review: One of the most successful British bands of the last 3 decades, Blur are back with their first new album in over 8 years: The Ballad of Darren. The album was produced by James Ford and recorded in Studio 13, London and Devon, and is the sound of a band at the very top of their game.

The Ballad of Darren is the band's ninth studio album, their first since the chart-topping The Magic Whip in 2015, with artwork featuring an image by British photographer Martin Parr.

Region code: ABC (universal)

Notes: Dio: Dreamers Never Die delves deep into the singer's incredible rise from '50s crooner to his early rock days in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow to replacing Ozzy Osbourne in Black Sabbath - and finally cementing his rock star status with DIO. Includes 20 minutes of bonus interviews. This limited Deluxe Edition DVD & Blu-ray set is packaged in a lift-off box and includes DIO-branded trading cards, guitar picks, label pin, coasters and a fold-out poster from the film. [Deluxe Edition DVD/Blu-ray]

DVD (NTSC, no regional coding)