For Those About to Pod, We Salute You - Episode 57

[00:00:24] Speaker A: Well, hello there, and welcome to episode 57 of the rock podcast. For those better pod, we salute you. In this episode, we've reached the letter k in the az of rock. Are you excited, Brian? I think you are. [00:00:39] Speaker B: I stream Lee. [00:00:40] Speaker A: I know you are. There's rock news, there's new rock on the block, and of course, there's everyone's favorite feature, hidden gem time. But without further ado, here he is, the man with a PhD in all things Kings X. Here's Brian. [00:01:04] Speaker B: Hello, Matthew. [00:01:06] Speaker A: Hello, mate. How you doing? [00:01:08] Speaker B: I'm okay. Thank you for that lovely buildup. A PhD in Kings X. However, my Spotify wrapped doesn't agree with that. [00:01:19] Speaker A: For the benefit of everyone who doesn't know what a. What's it called? A Spotify wrap. [00:01:23] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:24] Speaker A: What's that all about? [00:01:25] Speaker B: So basically, this is where. This is where when you listen to material, when you listen to all of your artists over a year, Spotify sends you like a. They send you a report at the end of the year to tell you how much music you've listened to, how many genres, and then it gives you a little list and a little playlist of all your favorite songs, all your favorite artists that you've listened to throughout 2023. And you would always. Since. I think they've been doing this since 2017, Matt. And you could pretty much name mine off, but it's usually that my top five artists are usually somewhere in between. John Mayer, King's ex thin Lizzie Whitesnake, deep purple. [00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:15] Speaker B: This year, my top artist is mister Bryan Adams, followed by Mister David of Coverdale with Whitesnake. And. And Kings X are not in my top five artists at all, or John Mayer. So I'm gonna go for recount. [00:02:32] Speaker A: I would if I were you. I did two, actually. I did an Amazon music one. Interestingly. I did. I got two amazing music. My top artist is rush, which I think is reasonable. And on Spotify, my top artist is the mighty Iron Maiden. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Yes. [00:02:50] Speaker A: But yeah, anyway, so, yeah, I mean, that's great. I don't know what it tells us, particularly apart from the fact we listen to a lot of music. Yeah. Interesting. So I haven't spoke to you since we spoke to lovely ChRIS somehow. He was very entertaining, wasn't he, this guy? [00:03:08] Speaker B: He was indeed. And as of yet, we've no idea who's going to be the headliner for Stone Dead. [00:03:16] Speaker A: It was quite interesting. Some of the fantasy bands that he wanted to have on the bill, for example, Nightwish. Yeah, I don't think that's good, because I would always have diamond headlining any festival, whether it be the one in my back garden or something the size of Stone Den. But it's very entertaining. [00:03:43] Speaker B: We love Sammy Hagar and David Lee Ross and the Van Halen van Hagar activities. And obviously Michael Anthony and Sammy Hagar have announced that they're going to go out next year for a best of both worlds world tour. I'm saying hopefully, with Joe Satriani sitting in on guitar and the wonderful Jason Bonham on drums. And they played the Howard Stern show recently and, you know, they were doing all the. Doing some Van Halen material. And I think the tour next year will be predominantly Van Halen deep cuts with some sami solo material. [00:04:32] Speaker A: Yes. But on the subject of that, sort of. It's a great idea and it's kind of, you know, three quarters of chicken foot or a great band. [00:04:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:42] Speaker A: Who we saw, didn't we, back in that 2011 or something. Yeah. Plus Jason Boddam, of course, who's, I think, is he with Sammy Hagar? [00:04:52] Speaker B: He plays in the circle. Yeah, he's a drummer in the circle. [00:04:54] Speaker A: So it sort of makes sense. And of course, chicken foot had a couple of drummers in there. That your man from red hot chili, Peb. [00:05:04] Speaker B: Your man. Your man, Chad. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Your man, Chad Smith. And was it mark now, seef? [00:05:10] Speaker B: They had no. You were very. You're very close. You're very close. Kenny. Kenny Aronoff. [00:05:18] Speaker A: Kenny Aronoff. I knew it was something. Some with an exotic name. So it doesn't surprise me that neither of them can make this reworking reimagining of the Van Halen songs. And of course, no one better than the amazing Joe Satriani to take on. Take on those amazing songs. But what I thought was an interesting kind of footnote to all this was Sammy Hagar. And I saw this unfold. It was hilarious. Sammy Hagar said, yeah, it'd be great to have Daily Roth and Alex, you know, come on and come on tour with us. And then immediately, daily Roth's like, yeah, I'm up for it. Brilliant. And then almost the next day, five minutes later, Sammy Hagar's like, no, no, no. Not the whole tour. Just a gig or maybe a song within a gig and maybe a slightly different with Alex, he was very disparaging of, as he's got every. You know, he doesn't really care, does he, Sammy? He was very disparaging with David Roth saying, you know, he could come along to the odd show, but, you know, he doesn't want to. He doesn't want to doesn't want to tor with him again. I think they probably had a few ups and downs before they tried Turin. [00:06:44] Speaker B: It was very short lived. I think it's one of these situations where it all starts off very well. You know, the nice press conference, we're all going to play nice. And then I think at the end didn't end well. [00:07:00] Speaker A: No. As you said, and I quote, I know better than to have him on tour again. Been there, done that. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Yes. [00:07:07] Speaker A: So, you know, clearly, you know, no, no particular love loss, but a couple of gigs will be nice and they're no doubt going to play in Britain and they're no doubt going to play one gig and that'll be in London and I'll be there. Happy days. So in the same vein, with band members coming and going, Mike Mangini has left dream theater and Mike Portnoy has rejoined. Which is interesting, isn't it? The ubiquitous Mike Portnoy. What do you make of that, Brian? [00:07:36] Speaker B: I was not surprised in the least, really not surprised in the least. After I can remember. I can remember when we watch. When we were watching the winery dogs and I thought the guys individually played very, very well, but it didn't feel cohesive for me as a band. And I just thought, I think the winery dogs have ran their course. And whenever John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy kind of reconnected during lockdown, he recorded on his album. Then when John Piccucci went out on tour, Mike Portnoy was drumming. Then there's another project called Liquids lte, the liquid tension experiment, or with Jordan Rudish, who's the keyboard player. So there was a lot of reconnecting with Mike Portnoy with the dream Theater guys. So I wasn't. [00:08:43] Speaker A: Every time we mentioned Mike Portnoy, I had to play my Mike Portnoy drum fill. [00:08:48] Speaker B: Yes, 51 toms. [00:08:50] Speaker A: Exactly. And 48 floor toms. Do you know what it reminded me of? You know, when you guys, when someone leaves a band, you always get a sense if there's someone really kind of prominent within the band and he's the drummer. I mean, he's not even guitarist and frontman or anything like that, but you always get a sense that they'll be back. But like Bruce Dickinson when he left Maiden, you felt that Blaise Bailey was kind of, you know, just kind of keep the seat warm. Similarly with Tim Owen and Rob Halford in Judas priest. We touched on that many times, Ripper Owens. And this was very similar. I think it was 20, 1112 that Mike Portenoy left that's right, yeah. And in came Mike Mangini and Mangani, however you pronounce it. And here he is. But my man guinea was. It was very kind of, you know, kind of humble and very kind of, you know, almost philosophical about it, wasn't it? The fact that, oh, okay, you know, end of an era for me. I was only really keeping the. Keeping the thing going and, you know, all that kind of stuff, I suppose just, you know, good on him. [00:10:01] Speaker B: I think they did it really, that they did it very. It was a very grown up, as you say. I think Mike Mangini was very gracious. He effectively said he was keeping, you know, Mike Portnoy is coming. You know, I think the theme of it is Mike Portnoy's coming home. And so it was very, very, very gracious. And, yeah, I thought, well done. And I suppose early next year, dream theater will be getting back in the studio, new album, and, of course, a potential headliner for Stone Dead. [00:10:42] Speaker A: Of course, it does take. It does kind of bring their stock up a little bit, doesn't it? Because, you know, it probably takes them from, I don't know, dare I say, you know, I don't know, Hammersmith Odeon type venue to maybe a Wembley arena type venue just because of the reintroduction of the great Mike Portnoy. Talking of bands, kind of bringing members back together, half the press. So Geddy Lee, as we touched upon it, is doing this sort of spoken word sort of tour globally. I'm going to see him in a couple of weeks, actually. I mentioned that as a Christmas present from my wife. And during the course of the spoken word shows performances, there's a q and a session. And clearly someone has said, or people have said many times, not only are rush coming back, but probably diluted a little bit. Are you going to be. Are you going to be recording with Alex Lyson? And it appears that Geddy and Alex, two thirds of Rush, may well be getting back together to make some music, either as rush, unless I'm reading too much into it, or sort of as a new kind of entity, which is, I can tell you, as a rush fan, is very exciting, even though Geddy's voice is not what it was in 1977, of course, but even so, it's very exciting. Just the prospect of new music from those two, and who knows how that will play out. Any thoughts on that, Brian? [00:12:21] Speaker B: It will be interesting lyrically how it works, because obviously Neil Peart was the main contributor lyrically to what russia have done for many, many years. So I think. I think. I think Alex and Geddy have always musically have, you know, gelled. So, yes, it will be interesting how. What they do. And I think Geddy's interested in very much writing music with, you know, as the pair of them. But I like the way he's kind of trying to dampen down the expectations of. Right, we'll do an album and then we'll go out and do a, you know, a three year global world tour. So I do. I think he's just. I think it's early days and. But again, Alex was out, you know, last, recently with. In Toronto and he was playing with tool. And Danny Kerry, obviously, was one of the drummers who played at the Taylor Hawkins tribute. So everybody's. Everybody's. Now the odds have shortened now that Danny. It's. I think it's now between Danny Kerry from tool on drums or Matt Cameron from. From Pearl Jam and Soundgarden because he played on Getty's solo album. So let all the conjecture happen, but good luck to them, you know. [00:13:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Nice bit of detective work there, bry, because I thought exactly the same as I was listening to. So Bengo is my hidden gem for this week. I was listening to my favorite headache recently, which is Geddy's solo album from, I think, 2000. 2001. And as you say, Matt Cameron from Pearl Jam and sound Garden at the time plays on it. So, I mean, as we know, it's going to be a queue a mile long. And some of, you know, I'll play, I'll play. I'll drop everything and play. You know, it could be someone out of the blue, of course. You know, a bit like when Josh freeze joined Foo Fighters, you know, we were talking about Rufus Taylor and, you know, and others kind of kicked around and ended up being Josh, who's, with all due respect, maybe slightly unknown. So we'll see. It could be Danny Kerry, could be Mike Portnoy, could be Dave Grohl, could be Chad Smith, could be you. [00:14:52] Speaker B: But I just have a wee feeling that somebody like. Somebody interesting, like Brad Wilk, who's available, could play with Geddy. [00:15:02] Speaker A: Yeah, and Alex. I mean, we called it with Brian Tatler and Saxon, of course. Well, I say we. You know, I called it. So, you know, you'll be right, Brian. We'll put a pin in that one. Exactly. And then, who knows? Talking about Black Sabbath now, I love this story. Talk about creating publicity out of thin air, which I guess is Sharon Osborne's kind of, you know, her forte. So there's two things come up recently. So Ozzy allegedly is annoyed with geezer Butler, not Tony Iommi, but Giza Butler, the great geezer butler, the bass player of Black Sabbath. And if you haven't read his book, it's fantastic, by the way. We did that as a book club of rock. [00:15:52] Speaker B: We did. Yeah. [00:15:54] Speaker A: But apparently Ozzy is annoyed that Giza didn't reach out to him when Ozzy was. I mean, he's still not well, and he's got a few issues and ailments and everything that Giza hasn't. Hasn't reached out to him and, you know, kind of put a sort of virtual arm around him, I suppose, and. Which I think is a little bit childish, really. And Giza said, well, you know, I did. I tried. You know, I did, I did. Honestly, I tried. But, you know, there's no response. But he's got the wrong email address or wrong phone number or whatever. And he said, but I held him in my thoughts, which I think is nice, you know. Yeah, that's just as good, really. I think it's just calling. I might. I might sort of, you know, so it's my wife. I didn't get you a Christmas present, but I had it in my thoughts to buy you a Christmas present and see how that goes down. But obviously, this is a different scenario. But, I mean, they talk about pets. And then adding to that, Sharon Osborne, Ozzy's wife, is now annoyed. This is a news item. She's annoyed that there's paparazzi taking pictures of Ozzy in his frail state. Well, okay, yeah, I'm sorry about that, Sharon. But, I mean, you know, there's going to be, obviously, the odd person taking pictures. But, you know, I saw these two stories, I thought, well, they're literally stories out of thin air, just created out the ether just to kind of get Ozzy's name back out there and Sharon's name and so on. Am I being a bit cynical, Brian? [00:17:34] Speaker B: No, you're not being. You're not being cynical at all. And I have to say, there is something to be said for maintaining the mystique of rock bands. You look in the 7th, you look in the seventies, you know, Black Sabbath, their music, you know, you didn't know about what Bill Ward, you know, there was. There's so much history and, you know, my goodness, spinal tap. Spinal taps. A lot of the stories around this spinal tap come out from Black Sabbath. Black Sabbath's story is legend, and. And it's going to end up with old men not speaking to each other, emailing each other's wives because they're not talking to each other. It's just. It's, you know, we're into. We're just into farce, really. It's a. Which is a real shame. [00:18:31] Speaker A: But it's fun to watch it unfold. [00:18:33] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. My goodness. [00:18:36] Speaker A: Tony obey. By the way, there's a new tv show, I don't know whether anyone's seen it. I very much recommend it. The great Tony Iobi was on the first episode, the great guitar riffs. So the sky. Sky arts. [00:18:49] Speaker B: That's right. [00:18:50] Speaker A: Andy's. Andy Summers was on it. And Nancy Wilson. It's well worth a watch, by the way. I'm just. I'm giving that one for free. It's not even a hidden gem. I'm just giving it some free publicity. Anyway, where were we? AC DC News, Brian. [00:19:04] Speaker B: Yes. [00:19:06] Speaker A: So AC DC played the. The inaugural power up festival, I think, was last month or month before, whatever it was a few weeks ago. And it went down really well, as we know, which is great. And there's all sorts of chitchat about, will they. As we talked about, will they play Hyde park or will they play, you know, a tour? Will they do this? Will they do that? Well, apparently the proverbial cat is out of the bag in Germany. In Munich, to be precise. Dieter Reiter. I think that's how you pronounce his name. The mayor of Munich has basically told the world that, very specifically, actually, AC DC will be playing the Olympic stadium in Munich, um, on the 12 June next year, which is nice. And. And then when. When he was told, no, you shouldn't have said that, he said, oh, I didn't. I didn't know it was supposed to be a secret. And, I mean, I think. I thought, well, fair enough. I mean, you know, unless someone tells you, for God's sake, don't mention it to anyone. We're telling you as the mayor of Munich because it's coming next year and you might have to be there in your finery, but he might be smart. [00:20:27] Speaker B: The mayor, by, you know, if he's leaked it now and. And they try to withdraw it from Munich, you know, in some ways it's kind of going. Right. 12 June 2024. Put it in your diary because AC DC have to come to Punich now, because. So, Matt, we have some new rock on the block. New releases. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Yes. [00:20:57] Speaker B: Let's see if we've got any late comers for our album of the year, which we will be discussing on our best of show coming up soon. [00:21:06] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:07] Speaker B: And we will kick off with the second album from a band that you introduced me to, which is. [00:21:15] Speaker A: You're welcome. [00:21:16] Speaker B: Thank you. Which is Dirty Honey's second album, which is can't find the bricks. What did you think of it? [00:21:27] Speaker A: Well, I mean, I thought it was great. I loved it. If you could put me on the spot. No, I did enjoy it. It's very similar to the first album. It's a little bit more light and shade, this one. Yeah. From the californian quartet. That is dirty. Dirty honey. I wrote some notes about it, actually. There's so much swagger on it. Swagger? The swagger coming out of every pore on this. [00:22:01] Speaker B: Stones. Stonesy swagger. [00:22:04] Speaker A: Well, it's got stones. I wrote down AC DC meets Aerosmith meets black crows. Put it in a blender with a bit of stone sprinkled on the top, maybe Stones seasoning. And also the singer whose name escapes me. His lower register reminds me of Jeff Buckley. Listen again. Certainly like the title song, don't put out the fire. There's almost a Jeff Buckley feel when he sings lower register. And he goes into kind of full on, you know, full voice. Bon Scott, Stephen Tyler. But, yeah, I thought it was great, but it was, you know, it's kind of more of the same, really. If you've got the first album, you know, it's very similar. It's good. And I love the first album from, I think. Was it 21 or 22? Saw him a couple of times. Really good. Live. You get a chance to see them. They're out. They're out early next year. I'm going to see them in. In London, naturally. [00:23:04] Speaker B: 7Th of Feb. Yeah, the tour runs from the 7th of Feb, where they open up in Glasgow, all the way through to march, where they finish up in Baba. So they're in Europe for, you know, knocking of two months. [00:23:19] Speaker A: Yeah, it's great. I loved it. I mean, the songs. The songs are, you know, they've got an Aerosmith sort of. Sort of twang to them, and they're Aerosmith tinged, I think we talked about it when can't find the breaks. The song came out was it don't put out the fire. But they're riffs that. They're not chord driven riffs. They're kind of note driven riffs. Classic kind of Steve Perry style. I mean, just for a four piece, I make a great noise. And so they've got some light in the shade. Rome is a really cool kind of quieter song. Very much, you know, for your Sunday morning rock playlist, copyrighted that by the way, sunny Morning rock get a little higher is a cool song. I mean, it's just so many cool songs in this album. It's just. I loved it. It's certainly, as you say, it's a contender for album of the year as far as I'm concerned. [00:24:16] Speaker B: Okay. [00:24:17] Speaker A: And they're going to be huge. They're playing. They're playing. They're playing the election ballroom in London, which is a step up from. Where did I see them? Oh, they were supporting rival suns. I saw them in Norwich, actually, in a tiny little place. So they're obviously on the rise and. And rightly so. They're a great band and I love this album. I thought it was really good. Really nice vibe, really nice groove to it, which, however, that brings us to. Not, however. I've got to stop ranting about how much I like the album. However, that brings us to. We talked about this album quite a lot over the months because Dolly Parton, the lovely Dolly Parton, was very much in the press putting together various luminaries from the world of rock to be a part of this album. And wow, has she done it. There are some massive names on this album. They're weighing in at 30 songs, 2 hours and 22 minutes. It's like the titanic of albums and it's just huge. Some sort of original songs as well as covers, shall we say. What did you make of this, Brian? Rockstar. You go first. Rock star by Dolly Parton. [00:25:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm just, just. I was just thinking there, Matt. Boy, did I pull the short straw by. By letting you go with Dirty Honey first and then me. [00:25:47] Speaker A: Anyway, you're welcome. [00:25:48] Speaker B: Thank you. Thank you. So this is Dolly Parton's 49th solo album. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Jeez. [00:25:55] Speaker B: It's her 49th solo album. And as you quite rightly say, she got inducted into the Rock and Roll hall of Fame and then she pledged to make a rock album. And what's really nice was when you're listening to the album and you think of, I think this is how lovely a person she is. Most of the people who were also inducted that year in 2022. So Juran. Juran were inducted. Neil Giraldo and Pat Benatar were inducted. So what, she's. And Judas Priest. So what's really interesting, when you listen to the album and you go, why, Simon Le Bon, she actually has invited quite a lot of her fellow inductees from that year to be on the album. So this is an album of. I'm not going to say two halves, because, as you say, it's 37 chickens and it's insane. Encyclopedia I. This, to me, there was. Whenever I listened to all of these tracks, matt, the first word that came into my mind was Doleokie. [00:27:08] Speaker A: Yes. [00:27:08] Speaker B: Dolly okey. Was Dolly ok. And, and where, where the album, I actually think all of the original tracks. So if you look at the tracks that she wrote with her producer for the album, the album opens up with the track Rockstar, and then you follow it on with the world's on Fire. Again, another original track. And I kept. Whenever she was singing about worlds on Fire, I was just thinking pants on fire, I was making up lyrics. But of all of the original songs that she'd written, I actually think there's an. There was enough original material to actually put out without the covers. So, and I, and I also thought the collaborators that she had on the original songs, like either or, which had kid rock on, there was a nice, there was just a lovely blend between kid rock singing and Dolly singing. I want you back, Stephen Tyler again. And even bygones with Rob Halford. I thought all of the original material, it really felt like a duet. Even the Simon Le Bon. When you then look at, effectively, some of the greatest songs ever written in the world, you hear the keyboard and the beautiful piano for open arms with Steve Perry. Like, she got Steve Perry to record, and you're sort of sitting there going. Dolly starts singing, you know, the opening, opening verse of open arms. Then the second verse starts and I'm going, where's Steve Perry? [00:29:00] Speaker A: Steve Perry, where are you? [00:29:01] Speaker B: Yeah, Steve Perry gets. Steve Perry gets like a line and a half. And then it seems to be with the collaborators, be it sting, Kevin Cronin, like, all these great singers, they seem to be stuck singing a harmony below where they're usually singing it. And, and it's all processed and it's all. It just feels like everybody was auto tuned and it was like sting. They did every breath you take. And I was like, going, oh, my goodness. And then. So for me, I think it would have been a brilliant. I think it would have been a really good album. Just all of the original materials. Maybe one. There's one or two of the covers that really work for me. Matt, like, I think. I think the. I think the Rolling Stones, I can't get no satisfaction with pink is, is fabulous. And the Joan jet, I hate myself for loving you. Those are brilliant. All of the rest of them are kind of going, I'm sorry, but free bird, she changed. It just sounded like Boyzone. It's. It was like they used it sounded so much like Leonard Skynyrd at the start. And I love free bird as a song. And then when she sings, it comes in in a different key, then Skynyrd do it in their normal key and then she sings in our key. Some of the songs just didn't work for me. Let it be with McCartney. Just let it alone, you know? Yeah, that's where I come with it. [00:30:39] Speaker A: Matt, you know, God bless her. She's promoting rock music. The collaborations are well intended. If they don't always kind of come out as well as you would hope. So, you know, I don't know whether be a follow up to this. I doubt it. She just pretty much used up all her contacts, I imagine, from the world of rock. But, yeah, not my album of the year, but well worth a listen, boys and girls. Just out of curiosity, I think, more than anything. [00:31:11] Speaker B: Absolutely. [00:31:11] Speaker A: So that was. That was new rock on the block, Brian. So, Brian, you're a very excited boy. I can tell. It's nearly Christmas. And this, in a way, is my Christmas present to you, which saves me. Saves me buying something and sending it to you. And we have reached k in the a to z of rock. [00:31:39] Speaker B: And you tell me that after I bought your present. [00:31:44] Speaker A: All right, okay. Maybe it's not your real present. Anyway. It's okay. And you know what that means. [00:31:50] Speaker B: It's King's x time. There you go. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That was k. That was the. A desert of rock and it was k. And it's King's x. End of. [00:32:05] Speaker A: On a serious. On a serious note. Now, you love King's x. And they are a great band. [00:32:10] Speaker B: They are. [00:32:11] Speaker A: For those who don't know the uninitiated, just give everyone a. A two minute history of Kings X. Their greatest songs, their greatest albums. Go. [00:32:20] Speaker B: Okay, so Kings X, King's ex, have released loads and loads of albums. I'll do the short version and. But they're always. They were always in magazines which begin with k, that we'll talk about later. They were always the darlings of the underground and they seem to have now been relegated to the. One of the. The bands that should have been huge. King's x should have been great. Critical. Yeah. So Kings X came out 1987 there. Oh, my goodness. The three albums that came out of the silent planet, Gretchen Ghost in Nebraska and faith hope love are probably three greats. You know, the three good albums. Then you had dog man with. With Brendan O'Brien produced now Kings X for a lot of artists quite influential around grunge, the guys in Pearl Jam, I would say that they're heavily influenced. The best way I would describe King's x to anybody who hasn't had the chance to listen to them. There are three piece who can do fabulous harmony vocals with a very grungy, hendrixy groove to them. So it's kind of like Jimi Hendrix with beatle harmonies. Great songwriters for many, many years. They split the vocals. Doug Pinnock, the bass player and the singer, Jerry Gaskell, the drummer, and Ty tabor, who's a guitar player and singer. They all sang and they all split it. And for many years, then Doug Pennock, who's the bass player and singer, did most of singing. And on their recent album, three sides of one, they've kind of gone back to their old formula where all three of them are singing King's x. Yeah, they are. They're an excellent band. End of. Matt, thank you for indulging me again. [00:34:30] Speaker A: I know. You're very welcome. And what I love is the fact that they are, as you say, they're not globally well known, but you love them. I mean, I know this from the first time we met, 20 some odd years ago, that was your number one band. And I've seen them, thanks to you. And I've never been to a gig like it. I've said this many times. We saw them in Islington, of all places, in London, literally across the road from where my daughter George now lives, actually. And I've never. I've never been. I've been to maiden gigs and AC DC and the rest of it over the years, but I've never been to a gig where the audience is so partisan and so, so kind of at one without being too cheesy at one with the band, as they said in spinal attack. But they are an amazing band. That's a great song. We'll stick. We'll stick a ton of kings x songs on the. On the. On the playlist for. For everyone to enjoy. And check out those three albums, because they are great albums. As you mentioned, I'm going to go from the sublime to the ridiculous piss piss. 50 years old this year and obviously no fair war at all. Firmed. Formed in 1973 in New York City, originally Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, Haim Weiss and Stanley Eisen, to give them their real names, were in a band called Wicked Leicester. I'm not sure whether they would have. Would have had global kind of, sort of stardom with a band with a name like Wicked Leicester, but, you know, not a bad name after all. But I mean, what can you say about kiss, which is huge, the makeup, the pyrotechnics, the good songs, too. Great songs. You know, rock and roll all night, detroit rock city, crazy, crazy nights, you know, you name it. I mean, you know, a long list of mega rock songs and of course, merchandise and branded stuff. And famously Dimebag Daryl from Peter is buried in a kiss coffin. You know. I mean, you know, anything goes in the world of kiss, but well, well worth a mention, of course, the mighty kiss coming in the road. You've seen them. I've seen them. If you haven't seen them, you probably missed out because they're amazing. Amazing spectacle. [00:36:50] Speaker B: Or have you, Matthew? Have you, Miss Toad? [00:36:54] Speaker A: Who knows? There's quite a lot of people I've been disappointed recently. They cancelled a couple of gigs in Canada. They cancelled a gig, I think, in Dubai. A friend of mine in Dubai missed out seeing them. He was really excited. But they cancelled. So, yeah, they cancelled because of the issues in Israel and being essentially a couple of guys are jewish, they felt there might be some issues with them being front and center in Dubai, which is possibly overly cautious. Know, better be safe than sorry. But, yeah, you may see them again. Who knows? It might be one of those, you know, farewell tours that never ends. What else you got for us in the keys, Brian? [00:37:32] Speaker B: A band who I think would have made it on the list anyway, Matt. But it's probably a little bit more poignant for this episode. Was killing Joke. Yeah, killing Joke. I don't know them particularly well. Apart from one absolute banging tune in the eighties. I think it's one of the best goth rock songs of all time, which is love like blood that goes on the playlist. So killing Joke. There's an amazing documentary about killing Joke and. And just their whole career. You can get it on Amazon prime if you. If you. If you search for killing Joke, it just goes through their whole history and jazz. Coleman is kind of maj genius, you know, he composes. He composes operas and symphonies. But Jordy Walker, who was the guitar player, passed away recently. Quite an influential guitar player. He played a massive Gibson ES 295. Matt. He was one of the. That was his. It was a gold guitar. I loved it. It's one of those guitars which is iconic. And Jordy had such a trademark. I could always tell when it was Jordy playing guitar. So. Yep, killing Joke, one of those most influential. What sort of genre would you call killing jokes? [00:39:10] Speaker A: It's an interesting one, isn't it? I was thinking about this. I mean, you're right, they kind of got bracketed with the goth movement, but sort of post punk, industrial, sort of, I don't know, alternative rock. And you say when you talk about influential, allegedly, Doctor feelgood by Motley Crue, the riff is essentially kind of slightly stolen from the aforementioned love like blood. [00:39:38] Speaker B: I get that. I can hear that. [00:39:40] Speaker A: I'll put them side by side on the playlist and you listeners could decide, but there's nothing wrong with being influenced and so on. But yeah. Sad loss of Jordie Walker killing Joe. I'm going to mention a few albums and songs. Kaylee by Marillion came out about 19, 85, 86 when Marillion were at their peak. Everyone knows that song. I think it was a hit on the the chart, certainly in Britain. And I. And I've always wondered whenever I come across somebody called Cayley, when they were born in 86 or 87, that era, and their parents thought, well, that's a good name. We'll have that. So Cayley by Meridian. I'm also going to go with Killers by Iron Maiden, the 1982. Their second album. Actually, funny enough talking about second albums, the last album to feature Paul Diano, which is a great album. We'll stick a bunch of songs from the Killers album on any excuse to put some maiden on the playlist. Of course, the Kinks. Briar, yes. Essentially invented heavy rock when Dave Davis. And that's featured on that great riffs program, actually, he decided that he wanted the more punchy sound from his amp. So he literally slashed it with a. Slashed the cone with the razor blade and got a more distorted sound played you really got me in 1964 and, well, the rest is history. I mean, a classic, classic song covered by, well, pretty much every pub cover band ever. And pretty, most importantly by Van Halen on their debut album. But the Kinks bride from Muswell Hill, near where I was born. Near where we were born, actually. Yeah, in north London. There you go. Come full circle. What else you got for us, Brian? [00:41:25] Speaker B: Well, it's funny, you talk about names like Keely and Keely actually got to number two in the charts. It nearly went, wow. Yeah, 19. It was released in 1985 and just held off the number one spot. So it got me thinking. You said Kaylee and people, another one beginning with k, which was a big single for me with a little bit more in the softer rockside would have been mister. Mister Kyrie. Fantastic, which is a. And who knows the lyrics for that one? We've no idea. [00:42:04] Speaker A: Not me. Off of the album. What's it called? [00:42:08] Speaker B: Welcome to the real world. [00:42:10] Speaker A: It's a great album. That is. That's another hidden gem of mine gone for today. Thank you. [00:42:16] Speaker B: No, we have to talk about from for me, Matthew, and I'm sure it was the same for you. We have to talk about the encyclopedia, which we devoured weekly. Which was the wonderful Tome that was Kerrang magazine, Karang magazine, which came out from Science magazine. And Karang, I think crying started around. Oh, gosh. The early eighties. 1980s. [00:42:50] Speaker A: 81. 81. I remember it coming out. Actually, I bought the first. Well, first, I don't know, 50 issues. Wow. Um, yeah, the first one featuring, uh, Angus Young on the front, appropriately enough, came out in June 1981. [00:43:05] Speaker B: Wow. [00:43:06] Speaker A: Um, you were just starting your 15 years at university then, I imagine. [00:43:12] Speaker B: I don't even think I had a rock album in 1981, Matt. [00:43:16] Speaker A: It was originally. Yeah, right. It was a kind of offshoot from Sounds magazine. Um, which was kind of a mixture, but, yeah. Of sort of punk and scar and rock and everything. Keren was solely dedicated to what, basically heavy. Heavy rock. Heavy metal. I think it originally came out as a kind of monthly thing. And then it became fortnightly. And then, ironically, it's gone back to. I think it's quarterly now. [00:43:44] Speaker B: Wow. [00:43:45] Speaker A: Yes. It's still going. But as I say, it's not quite as frequent as it was in its heyday. But you're right. I mean, it was essential reading, wasn't it? [00:43:54] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. And, you know, people that. People that you and I still see at festivals, and they always. People that were in Kerrang turn up on all of the documentaries about hard rock. So you would have had Jeff Barton, who was famously the editor, Malcolm Doom, sadly passed away. Rip Crusher Dave Lang, of course. [00:44:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. All these. All these London kind of inner circles. [00:44:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:28] Speaker A: Still see Dave Ling dotting around Xavier Russell. Yes, exactly. Our friend Trevor streets. Hello, Trevor. If you're listening, in France, he unearthed the first, I think, three. Three issues of Kerrang magazine in his mum's garage. When he was clearing. Clearing out the garage one time. And he won't part with them. I've tried many times to try and get him to part with him, but he won't because I think they're worth probably the prince, who's some of pound 25 each. Those original in mint condition. Correct. Magazines. And, of course, the k rating. It was the only band to get five ks, bro. You told me many times. [00:45:10] Speaker B: No, a few bands got five. They actually created for the band only child. God, you're testing me. And instead of five k's, they gave them an l. Was. It was a. It was an l that only child album got. And it was like. It was like the Matrix is broken. You know, you had. And then. Do you remember when the reviews. You had the reviews and crying of the. Of a show and you would have. It was basically done on a heartbeat. So you would have, like, I remember saying, you know, the almighty. The almighty were playing the marquee or Aerosmith were doing their secret gig at the marquee before they played special guests at Donnington. And you'd have like, you know, it's like off the scale for. For the. There's so many things that. Crying was just amazing. [00:46:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Lovely, lovely stuff. All right, we're gonna move on. [00:46:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:20] Speaker A: Other notable mention, Simon Kirk, the great Simon Kirk, drummer from free and Bad Company. Miles Kennedy, voice of the 21st century. Allegedly his birthday recently on the Facebook page, Richie Kotzen, the mighty Richie Kotzen from. Well, all manner of bands. Winery, dogs with Kotzen poison. [00:46:41] Speaker B: Yeah, of course. [00:46:42] Speaker A: Mister Big. I think he was in. He was a pick, right? You can play the guitar. Not very well, of course, as we all know. But you. He plays with a. You play with some sort of plastic pick, don't you? I guess, yes, but he. He plays with his fingers and he. Amazing guitarist. [00:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:56] Speaker A: Richard got some Kasabian. You saw them recently in your. On your. [00:46:59] Speaker B: They were really good. I would. I was quite surprised how. It was bizarre seeing a band that's headlined Glastonbury. They headlined Glastonbury and I saw them in the Webster hall, which effectively is a club that holds 1400 people. And Kasibian were the leads. The lead guitarist is now the lead singer, Serge. Serge went to the bar. Yeah, he went to the bar, stood at the bar. And he. And he was actually genuinely. He ordered drinks for the band on stage and then he was asking a few people if they, you know, fancy drink, me fancy drink. And then he. Then he went all Peter. Then he went all sort of Steve Hogarth, Peter Gabriel with. With kind of neon hands, so with lasers coming out of a pair of gloves. Honestly, man, it was just. I'm kind of going, this is. This is mad. It was honestly. Great band. Kasamian. Great, but great, great band. [00:48:03] Speaker A: Well, worthy of the case. Karma effects. Cause our old friends. Yeah, listen to the. Have a. Listen to the interview if you haven't listened to it. They were great, great guys. Liam and ash. Hello, guys. If you're listening, of course, in the tour bus. Still on the UK tour. Who else? We've got KK's priest. [00:48:19] Speaker B: Yep. [00:48:19] Speaker A: The offshoot from Judas Priest to meet the mighty KK downing king. King. Well, worth a mention. Amazing band. Amazing. Bluesy kind of undertone, but fantastic. Fantastic. Well, I mean, anglo, anglo scottish band, I suppose you could say. The mighty king. King. I've got to mention this one for my daughter's boyfriend, my daughter Georgia, her boyfriend Jay. He says, he keeps saying to me, you're going to listen to King Gizzard and the lizard wizard. You got to listen to them. They're great. Listen to them. Listen to them. So I j, I. One day I will listen to King Gizzard and the lizard wizard. You know, King. There's King everything, isn't there, Brian? [00:48:57] Speaker B: Well, there is. Yep. Kings of Leon. You've got, you've got Kerry King who, who was the king. [00:49:06] Speaker A: The king, yes. [00:49:08] Speaker B: For slayer. And I think he's, he's going out solo now as Kerry King, but nobody's sure who's actually in the band yet. Okay, I've got Dave King. Do you remember day of King? [00:49:22] Speaker A: I do. One of the. Let your testimony again. I can tell. He, I think, was the original singer of wasted. [00:49:30] Speaker B: No, you're close, though. [00:49:32] Speaker A: Dave King. All right. Where was he then? [00:49:34] Speaker B: Dave King was the original singer in Fast Way. [00:49:38] Speaker A: Fast way. [00:49:39] Speaker B: I was close with Pete Way and fast Eddie Clark. Fast way. So. [00:49:45] Speaker A: And I'm with you. I got that at the time. Yeah. [00:49:50] Speaker B: But, but bizarrely, bizarrely, whenever, whenever fast way came out and we're all expecting to see Pete Way and fast Eddie Clark on the video, there was no Pete way because he'd recorded the album and then he, I think he buggered off back to UFO. So, so there you've got Dave King, Kerry King, King diamond. [00:50:10] Speaker A: Yes. [00:50:11] Speaker B: Who is like, from merciful fates, who are, who are massive. [00:50:16] Speaker A: They were always in Karang, weren't they? [00:50:18] Speaker B: Yes. I was scared of him. [00:50:22] Speaker A: I still am. [00:50:24] Speaker B: And to hear him, when you watch those document, you know, the documentaries about the history of heavy metal, he's singing open areas where only dogs can hear you. [00:50:34] Speaker A: Is that ridiculous? [00:50:35] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. King. [00:50:38] Speaker A: We'll put some merciful fate on them and King diamond on the playlist. That would sort the boy, the men from the boys, the boys from the girls and all that sort of stuff. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Oh, my goodness. [00:50:48] Speaker A: So King Crimson, of course, amazing. [00:50:49] Speaker B: King Crimson, a documentary coming out soon about the, obviously, Robert, Robert Fripp at the moment, who's enjoying a new lease of life, is Toya Wilcox. [00:51:02] Speaker A: Husband. Yes, indeed. Oh, dear. I think that's it. We've, we've sort of. We done k to death. [00:51:11] Speaker B: I think we've done k to death. We're done k to death. [00:51:13] Speaker A: The main thing is we got to it. We covered King's x. We're all. We're all good. The world is the world. Everything's okay with the world. [00:51:20] Speaker B: It is, dude. I'll try. I'll maybe try and sneak them in at x. [00:51:26] Speaker A: Why not? It might be slim piggins in x, let me tell you. So that brings us, finally, boys and girls, to everyone's favorite part of the. [00:51:39] Speaker B: Podcast, hidden gym ties. [00:51:43] Speaker A: Oh, thanks, Lola. Is that it? Great as always. Hope you're doing well. Right, Brad, what you got for us? [00:51:51] Speaker B: Matt? I feel that this episode has been one of the most eclectic episodes that we've done in our 57 episode history. We've covered Dolly Parton. [00:52:04] Speaker A: Yes. [00:52:05] Speaker B: Killing joke. Oh, my. You know, we've, we've kiss. Oh, my goodness. We've covered lots of different. Merciful fate. [00:52:18] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:52:19] Speaker B: So I'm going to expand our genre. And for my hidden gem, this is something I watched a couple of weekends ago and I watched it on Apple TV. And it is a live documentary film which was directed and written by Spike Jones. And it's. It's a film called Beastie Boys Story. No, it's effectively a live show with, with Michael diamond and Adam Horovitz. So two. So it's the two remaining members of the Beastie Boys. So Adam Yoick, who sadly passed away, he succumbed to cancer. And it's effectively a staged story, just a telling of the 40 year history of the Beastie boys. Now, for those of us who come in and out of the Beastie boys, we'll always remember the license to ill album. Matt, where you've got, you know, you've got a fight for your right to party, you know, all that kind of stuff. And Rick Rubin and def Jam records. And they, and the connections that, the connections that the Beastie boys had with run DMC, them coming across to the. I remember, I remember them coming across to great Britain and they were debated in parliament about how loose, because they had, they had a big, massive symbols and they basically said, what do you want as you, what do you want on your, on your stage? And they basically come up with outlandish stuff. And because they were a headline act, they got it all. So they were banned in the UK. But what's really interesting is through throughout the, the story of the two guys who remain who are still with us, the friendship of the three of them, you know, and Adam Yoick who was the bass player and he was coming up with some outlandishly innovative ideas around the Beastie Boys. And it's honestly, Matt, you just go through their history of 40 years and you've effectively got three best friends who for many, many years just made the music that they, that they loved. They didn't follow any genres. Like, one of my favorite tracks of the Beastie Boys is a song called Sabotage. [00:55:18] Speaker A: Oh, amazing song. [00:55:19] Speaker B: It's a fabulous. And that came out of a jam where Adam's playing the bass, you know, and then they move into areas where, you know, freed the freedom, Tibet, and they were able to call on Dave Grohl and rage against the machine. So they're such an influential band. But it's, it's a really powerful documentary about a band. And I know it's not, I know it's not hard rock or classic rock, but if you get a chance to watch Beastie Boy's story, it's just a really, really interesting insight around how a band starts, how they can keep going, and how sometimes bands are just, luckily three best friends who go through, you know, a career together. So my hidden gem for this episode is Beastie Boys story. [00:56:12] Speaker A: Very good, very good. I think that's the first time we mentioned the Beastie Boys. On for those about the pod, beastly and, yeah, what a band. I mean, fantastic. That's a great shout, Brian. After, we'll put again a load of classic Beastie boys on the playlist. So from the Beastie boys, I'm going to go back to late eighties british goth and I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to create a new genre, Brian, another one for the collection. [00:56:44] Speaker B: It's a different day of the week now. [00:56:46] Speaker A: Is it Sunday of the week still Sunday? This is. This is going to be. So it's Sunday morning goth with Matt Rogers. And I present to you the debut album from all about Eve. Now, all about Eve. And the reason I came across this, I knew out all about Eve from the late eighties, fronted by Julianne Regan, who was one of those kind of female sort of figureheads of the Gothmu movement in late eighties. I was listening to the radio and they, and they played, you know, you know what radio stations, planet rocks specifically, they played, they played a song from this album, you think, hang on a minute, I haven't heard that since, well, 1988. In this case. It was every angel from the debut album from all about Eve. And it's called all about Eve. Simple as that. Named after a 1951 film of the same name, and it's great. I listened to it that day and it brought back a lot of memories. Martha's harbor. A lot of people remember their doomed. [00:57:52] Speaker B: Oh, the top of the pops performance. Oh, my goodness. [00:57:55] Speaker A: Exactly. Which was a kind of blessing in disguise because they did the song. We could hear them hear the song, if you like listening at home, but in the studio, they couldn't hear it. They played it again next week. It rocketed up the charts. Everyone was happy. Every angel I mentioned, shelter from the rain and so on. It's a. It's. It's a nice, mellow album. Julianne Regan's voice is beautiful. Tim Pacino is. His guitar playing is fantastic. I think he went on to join the mission or the Sisters of Mercy, one of those bands. He was kind of those ubiquitous guitar players in that era, but, yeah. So there you go. So I'm going to surprise everyone with my selection of hidden gem, this time coining the phrase Sunday morning goth. The debut album from all about Eve called what about Eve? [00:58:48] Speaker B: Fabulous. [00:58:48] Speaker A: There you go. There you go. Right? That's it, Brian. That's it. It's quite sad, actually, isn't it? Yeah. Episode 57. We've got to wait another three weeks before we do episode 58. And I'll talk about planet Rockstock next time. [00:59:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:04] Speaker A: Which I haven't had a chance to talk about today. It was great last weekend, but, yeah, I shall cover that next time. And thanks for listening, everyone. Check us out on Facebook. Subscribe to us on Spotify, Apple Music. I'm gonna get serious now. And tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell complete strangers. I do. As you know, Brian, always accosting complete strangers, telling them about the podcast. Give me funny looks and then walk away. But worth a try. Yeah. We'll see you next time. [00:59:39] Speaker B: You will do. And for those people who are. For those people who are doing their Spotify wrapped, if we are one of your top podcasts, thank you so much for listening to us in 2023. [00:59:54] Speaker A: Yes. [00:59:57] Speaker B: Do you know where I had us, Matt, on my top podcasts of 2023? I had us third. [01:00:04] Speaker A: What? I know, mind you. I mean, it's a bit self indulgent to listen to yourself, isn't it? You know? Yes, that was probably the same, actually. My daughter Georgia, she sent me hers, and I think we were. We were second. I've got to mention my other daughter, Olivia, of course. Got to mention my wife Kate got mentioned the dog. You know what it's like. Got to mention everyone, really. Sam, my stepson. And so on. Anyway, where were we? [01:00:27] Speaker B: Are you looking for Christmas presents now? [01:00:31] Speaker A: Always, always on. Always on the hunt for Christmas presents, bry. [01:00:35] Speaker B: And also as well, too. Yes, as Matt says, you'll find us on all of the normal social channels. But for those of you who are more traditional in your listening habits, you'll catch us on Scotland rocks radio every three weeks on a Tuesday. So listen to us there. But until the next time, we will see you. Take care. Say, Matt. [01:00:58] Speaker A: Bye. Rosebat pod, we salute you is a Mandy Rogers production.