Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: It.
It. Well, hello there and welcome to episode 59 of the Rock podcast Birds Battle Pod. We salute you in this episode. We've reached the letter l in the 8th set of Rock. It's going to be a tough one, Brian. Tell already.
There's hidden gems, of course, there's rock news, there's new rock on the block and plenty of other features, of course.
But without further ado, here he is. He's back, back in his lair with his princess Diana picture in the background. Here's Brian Hny.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Brian Hny, Matthew Hny.
[00:01:05] Speaker A: I've not seen much hny action this year, to be honest with you. Everyone's kind of keeping it literal, but anyway, hmy to you, my friend. How are you doing?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: I'm doing fantastic, mate. Had a great Christmas new year. Lots of presents, fab.
Maybe even a book. Maybe even an addition to the book club of Rock.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: The library. The library of Rock.
[00:01:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Well, maybe you can come on to that some other time.
Yes, me too. Thanks for asking.
Had a very nice new year. Seems like a long time ago now, doesn't it?
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Does.
[00:01:42] Speaker A: New year. Of course, we recorded just after Christmas, Brian, if you remember.
Do you remember that?
[00:01:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: Christmas special review of 2023.
I wonder whether anyone noticed.
Anyway, here we are, another year, 2024. Looking forward to it. Plenty to look forward to and plenty to discuss already. Briar, in what's caught your eyebrow? We haven't said that for a while. I think we should bring it back for 2024. What's caught your eyebrow?
[00:02:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it works much better than what's under your hat, Matt.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: That's true. That's very true. So what has caught your eye, Bry?
[00:02:21] Speaker B: I think we have to start with the weaving stories and many things that are happening in rush world at the moment, young man, because we went to see Getty just before Christmas, I went to see him in Glasgow. Had an amazing time. Mr. Phil Jupiter was the compare for the show. It was great. And Phil Wilding was the curator for the Q A in Glasgow. And I was very, very happy. I was sitting stage left, which was fab for me. And then you went to see him in London. And what happened in London, Matthew?
[00:03:04] Speaker A: Well, it was the last show of the tour at the Barbican center, which is a very kind of 60s style building, architecturally. We were there, me and our friend Matt, and, yeah, it was fun.
It was a fun night. So we had David Badil, the well known british comedian, and his brother, I think, was called Ivo or Iva Badil.
So they did a kind of joint sort of interview thing, and it was great. It was kind of an hour of chat. A lot of people were fairly disappointed in some respects, or they didn't say it or kind of mentioned it. But the night before, Alex Lifeson, of course, the acclaimed guitarist of Rush, had done the questions in Portsmouth.
So, because we were all sitting there thinking, well, it's got to be Alex. It's got to be Alex, isn't it? So when David Badil came out, there wasn't a sigh of disappointment, but I think there was possibly a kind of an internal sigh of, oh, well, it was good. And then there was a break, and then Alex Lifeson came out for the Q A, which was just fantastic. I think I put a few pictures on the Facebook page at the time, but, yeah, they were great. And I think you touched upon it when you and I spoke about it after you'd been, there was a sense that they are quite keen. I think Alex said, it's in our DNA tour, or at least to make music. And I think there is a sense that there is a keenness, an eagerness between the two of them to make music.
I think we touched upon this, didn't we? Because obviously he's been asked many times on this tour whether there's going to be music, are rush going to reform, blah, blah, blah. I don't think it's going to be a rush thing.
I think that's done and I think it would be wrong for the legacy. And I think they would probably say the same, that they would sort of dig that up with a different drummer. But as to whether there'll be new music, they. Funny enough, in the show that I saw in London, they touched upon possibly doing film music, which would be interesting, given the opportunity. And then subsequently, I think Alex has come out and, you know, my arthritis is just too bad now to do lots of gigs. Whether they do occasional gigs, whether they do new music together, we shall see. And then to kind of compound things, Danny Carey from tool, who remains one of their favorite bands, along with Queens of the Stone Age. They kept dropping those bands in the conversation.
We all know that your two favorite bands are thin, Lizzie and Kingsek, and you drop them in every opportunity. Well, they were dropping in tool and queens of the Stone Age, any opportunity.
So we shall see. It's exciting times.
I think this whole tour thing and the gigs they did for the Taylor Hawkins Memorial may have been a cathartic thing and maybe sort of opened the doors for them to work together again in whatever form. But we shall see. It's going to be interesting one way or the other.
[00:06:21] Speaker B: I'm sure it's very difficult when you've got fans.
I love Rush and I love what they stand for.
I love the journey that they've been on. And for three guys who are very private, who have always kept. They've only let us in through the dvds over the last ten years and it's been a revelation to us. And whenever the whole Rock and Roll hall of Fame, blah, blah, blah, I think we've learnt over the last few years as they've opened up to their fans what a funny bunch of guys that they are.
All you need is just a snippet of, yeah, I might be interested in having a conversation with Getty to see if we might get back into a room and maybe think about writing songs. And then that gets sneaked out onto social media by somebody on an Instagram and then somebody else is going, right. Which cities do you think Russia going to be playing on the two and a half year tour? So they seem very tentative. But we as fans are going, yay, Russia back. So it must be really hard when you're wanting to give fans an insight into what you might be thinking about possibly doing to give them some hope. But then we just go off the cliff and we're like, going, rush are back.
Danny Kerry's joining Rush. There'll be a new album recorded next year and the UK tour in the two arena in London is already booked.
[00:08:13] Speaker A: And we're going, they're only UK date, of course. No doubt. Absolutely.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: But good luck. Yeah.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: As a footnote, by the way, I've been reading Getty's autobiography or memoir, whatever you call it, whatever you want to call it, my effing life. And it's great. It's very interesting. I would urge everyone to have a listen or read or whatever format you want to grab it in and check it out.
It's very interesting. I think you have to be a rush fan, to be honest, because it's quite detailed and it's quite kind of esoteric. So it probably needs to be a rush fan without wishing people to kind of wade there through 500 pages. Wade through 500 pages and think, hang on a minute, it's just talking about all things rush. I don't even like rush. But anyway, it's a good read all the same.
In other news, briar, sadly, recently we've had a few of the rock fraternity pass on.
Notably Tony Clarkin of Magnum recently left us. That was a shock, wasn't it.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: It very much was. I think just before Christmas, Tony and the Magnum social media team had put out a message that Tony was suffering from a degenerative issue, which meant that they had to sadly, rather than postpone and postpone the tour, that they were going to cancel the up and coming tour on the back of their new album, which has just been literally released. So, yeah, very much a shock for Tony, who, as you well know, he was really the driving force and the main songwriter for all of the 23 studio albums that they were, that they produced with the Magnificent Bob Catley on vocals. So, Magnum.
Yeah, real shame.
Another know for me, it's like me with most bands. Matt, I got into Magnum around on Storytellers night, based on the short lived Channel Four program ECT, where they did two singles. I think it was just like an arrow and how far Jerusalem and then is kind of where I took my journey off for Magnum.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah. Great band.
They did some great albums.
They started in 1972, would you believe? Really? Yeah. I mean, a long, long time ago.
Were you at university then?
[00:11:10] Speaker B: I was just about to start my first course, my first curve.
[00:11:18] Speaker A: But, yeah, some great songs. We'll put a bunch of magnum songs as a tribute to Tony Clark in on the playlist, but you're right. Vigilante on storytellers night and Kingdom of.
So, even up to date, the new album sounds pretty good.
Here comes the rain, which, as you say, was released a couple of weeks ago. There's the lead off song from that, which is called. Just quickly, it's called blue Tango. Good song. So 50 od plus years on, they're still making good music. Sadly, probably no longer, but I think, hopefully, this album, here comes the rain, will be a good kind of end of career, as it were. Testament to great Tony Clarkin and also Brian. Sadly, we lost James Kotak, who will not be familiar to everyone necessarily, but we saw him when he was the drummer of the Scorpions. Yes, back in, I think it was 2016 or so, 15, when we saw him at Brown Man. James had been the drummer for a variety of bands. Montrose warrant, Wild Horses, the McCauley Schenker group, Kingdom Come.
[00:12:28] Speaker B: Yes, he was in that famous first.
[00:12:33] Speaker A: Line member of Kingdom come. Yeah, exactly.
Kingdom come. That were the original Led Zeppe imitators and. Yeah. Sad. And he's 61, bless him.
[00:12:44] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: So your condolences to James's family. I do remember him ridiculously tattooed.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Not in the sort of sense of Travis Barker type tattoo, tattoo art going on, but he's got Kotak written across his chest and rock and roll on his back.
I can see you with melee across your chest. Brian and I played the guitar, know not too well, but not too well. Not too well on your back possibly, maybe think about.
So, sadly, James left us a couple of weeks ago and then finally Annie Nightingale. Now, for those who don't know, for those outside the UK, Annie Nightingale was, I think, the first female disc jockey, radio presenter on Radio one, which is the sort of top radio station in the UK, BBC Radio one. And she sadly left us last week. Last, a few weeks ago at the age of 83. What an amazing woman she was. What a career and what a groundbreaking. I mean, it's many times been said about her and the groundbreaking role she played to open the doors for lots of other women, which was at the time a very kind of male dominated world of sort of disc jockeys with Radio one and Radio Carolina, Radio Luxembourg and so on and so forth. But she broke down the barriers and championed a lot of new bands and a lot of up and coming bands and still was up until her passing, a big fan of young bands and giving them the opportunity. So, again, condolences to her family, the great Annie Nightingale. Thoughts about Annie, Brian?
[00:14:35] Speaker B: I think when I look back at the old grey whistle test, the old grey whistle test, you think of, you know, whispering Bob Harris and all of the country rock, blues, little feet camel, very, very progressive. And then as the old gray whistle test progressed through the 70s, you've got Annie, who's introducing the Ramons, talking heads, ian jury, public Image Limited, you too, for example. So she really, to me, one of the best compliments I can give Annie is she championed new music as much as, you know, you had the John Peele sessions and then you had the Annie Nightingale request show.
She was amazing. And I remember watching her the first time I ever saw Bon Jovi, when he used to do the old gray whistle test specials where Bon Jovi were playing in Japan in 1985. And she had such a deadpan delivery. It's like, that's right, here we are. And here we are, Bon Jovi, 1985. And she does it so quietly, whatever. And then you've got pyrotechnics from 1985 and Bon Jovi and their full glam metal. She was amazing. So, yeah. R-I-P Annie Nightingale Maze.
[00:16:09] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:16:09] Speaker B: Broadcaster.
[00:16:10] Speaker A: Absolutely.
What other news have you got for us, Brian?
[00:16:14] Speaker B: Well, again, teenage cancer Trust, which is one of the great charities in the UK, very much championed by the who, Roger Daltry, Pete Townsend.
The who have been big supporters of it, and a bit like Eric Clapton, always doing his annual residency at the Royal Albert Hall. Roger Daltry curated for 24 years. He was one of the patrons of teenage cancer Trust.
He's stepping down this year after 24 years. So they're having a series of shows at the end of March at the Royal Albert hall. So the who are playing two shows? Noel Gallagher is playing, but to top off and to sign off, there's a special show that's been done on Sunday, the 24 march. I'm so lucky to have been able to get tickets for it myself. And my brother will be going to the show, which is entitled Ovation. And it's basically Roger Daltry with a lot of his friends who are going to do, like, a one off show. And when you can call some of your friends.
Robert Plant, Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher, Eddie Vetter, Pete Townsend. I think it's going to be a night.
It's going to be a one off night and a nice way for Roger to sign off after 24 years of supporting an amazing charity, which is teenage cancer trust.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Absolutely. Couldn't agree more. Yeah, have a great time with Peter.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: I will do. And I'll report back.
[00:18:06] Speaker A: Yeah, please do. I won't be there.
You didn't get me a ticket. I won't hold that against you.
[00:18:12] Speaker B: But, you know, one of the reasons why I want to go. Why is that, is I couldn't live with myself, Matt, if that night Jimmy Page ended up going out on stage for whatever reason, if that show happened and Jimmy Page got on stage with Robert Plant and I wasn't there, but I had the chance to go.
[00:18:41] Speaker A: You'Re not making it any better, to be honest with you, because I'm just thinking John Paul Jones as well, possibly on stage. Because if you remember, I did see John Paul Jones teenage Cancer Trust gig years ago with crooked vultures, that'd been amazing. You never know. Fingers crossed for you, Brian.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Exactly. Fingers crossed.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: Facebook Live will be going crazy on that night. And finally, this is one for you. Actually, when I saw this, I thought of you, Bry.
So, smashing pumpkins.
We love Billy Corgan, though. He's a rush fan. Great, massive rush fan. So he's good with me.
This is a great excuse to put some bashing pumpkins on the plates, of course, but smashing pumpkins, you're going to like this.
Smashing pumpkins. Their guitarist, Jeff Schroeder has left the band and they are casting the net far and wide for a new guitarist. Now, they're not auditioning in the sort of traditional sense Brian you'd be pleased to hear because you play the guitar. We've established many times, not very well, but a few chords and everything, a couple of scales.
You've got a couple of guitars. I can see them there just below the picture of Prince Steiner. I can see a couple of guitars there kicking around gathering dust. Anyway, Jeff Schroeders left the band he first joined in 2007.
So on their social media channels, which I imagine the same as our social media channels, you know, the usual. They are advertising for a new guitarist, Brian, especially pumpkins. That could be you.
[00:20:22] Speaker B: It could be.
[00:20:24] Speaker A: You can learn those songs fairly quickly. I imagine. They've got a very busy 2024. They got a UK tour. Must take some time off work. Right. Got a UK tour. And it's more than just London. You're pleased to hear they're playing in Dublin. I noticed you go spend some time with your mum and nip down to Dublin, play the gig.
[00:20:44] Speaker B: I could translate for them. I could translate for this.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: Exactly. You could have a cup of tea with your mum and then pop down for the gig.
[00:20:51] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: And then they're playing an extensive us tour as well as a UK tour.
And you might even get know. So worth thinking about, even with your limited skills. Thoughts on that, Brian? Brian. To join the splashing Pumpkins, boys and girls discuss. Wouldn't that be fun? Would you leave the podcast behind, though?
[00:21:16] Speaker B: Would you still have time to do the, you know. Obviously smashing pumpkins don't really stay careful.
[00:21:24] Speaker A: When you say that.
[00:21:25] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.
I can imagine that the hotels that they stay in would have Wifi, possibly.
[00:21:33] Speaker A: Free wifi.
[00:21:34] Speaker B: Free wifi. So maybe as part of the writer that I stipulate as part of my contractual obligations that I can maintain doing the podcast with you. With Wifi that's provided by smashing pumpkins, we can give them a bit of a plug as well too. Maybe get bully onto the.
[00:21:57] Speaker A: Yeah, great. Yeah. I think they'd probably appreciate a plug, wouldn't they?
So what else would be on your rider then? Pizza? Cut the bottles of. What's that beer you drink? Is it San Miguel?
Cut the bottles of lager. That'd be it really, wouldn't it?
[00:22:13] Speaker B: Yeah.
Do you know what this reminds me of? This reminds me of a story that I heard on social media a couple of days ago where Crusher jewel. Crusher Jewel met rush for the first time and he went backstage.
He went backstage to meet rush. And on the rider, for know, you could have. They had asked for like, dom perring young.
[00:22:40] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:22:41] Speaker B: Champagne. And there was some like, let's just kestrel. There was some really.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: It was cows.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: It was a Carlsberg beer. And Crusher had the choice of going for Don Perry Young champagne or going for the Carlsberg lager. And he went for the Carlsberg lager and he was, ah, I did have to choose the rubbish lager. So the one thing I would do is I'd make sure I had no Carlsberg lager. I'd probably have some of my select japanese beer.
I'd want the full discography of King's x with me.
I'd stipulate that King's X are the support band on the tour.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: I'm not sure you could do that, as you just recently joined. You just can't decide who's supporting support act. You might get a couple of bottles of Isahi and pizza and a couple of packets of crisps. That might be a lot. Right.
But you don't drink very much either and you need a siesta time, wouldn't you?
[00:23:46] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:23:48] Speaker A: They have to give you time to relax before and after sound check.
[00:23:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:23:53] Speaker A: When you're shooting your guitar up, it.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: Is going to be interesting because when you're basically going, hello, world, would you like to join the spicy pumpkins? It's going to be.
[00:24:04] Speaker A: I know there's going to be hundreds.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: Of thousands of people are just going to be blasting videos and going, here's smoke on the water.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
You know that, don't you?
[00:24:17] Speaker B: I do, yeah. I don't know any smacks or pumpkins.
[00:24:21] Speaker A: But we better hurry up and learn.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: Okay, I'll keep you posted. Next episode so, Matt, here we are at the beginning of the year and we have so much music to look forward to for the next twelve months. We've got Bruce Dickinson, who will be coming out with his new album. We've got new albums coming out from Saxon, Florence Black, BlackBerry Smoke, gun, these wicked Rivers, choir boys. I'm not quite sure which version of the choir boys it'll be.
So we've got loads of albums to look forward to, but in January we have got a few artists who've been teasing us and they're going to tease us with. They've teased us with a few tracks off their new album. So we've got some tunes to review. We have the Black Crows, Judas Priest, gun. Oh, we've got many to go through. Who will we start off with on our smorgasbord of singles?
[00:25:24] Speaker A: Well, bright, I think we should start with the karma effect.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Excellent. Who are they?
[00:25:30] Speaker A: Do you remember we interviewed a couple of their band members, Liam and Ash, a few episodes ago. You remember, don't you?
[00:25:36] Speaker B: I do.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: You do remember, don't you?
[00:25:38] Speaker B: I do remember. I do remember.
[00:25:39] Speaker A: Thank God for that. I was going to be worried there for a sec. Yeah, they've got a new album out this year called Promised Land, which I think is out in May.
I've been touring incessantly and I'm going to see them actually, in a couple of weeks.
I'm going to see them a couple of times this year. Henry and the boys, they've got a new album in Maple promised. New song from. It is called living it up, which I suppose is pretty appropriate for them because they're having a great time. New record deal just before Christmas with the ear. Eight records. Not frontiers, Bry. Sorry.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Well, they're not.
[00:26:15] Speaker A: No, not yet.
So what do you think of living it up, Bry?
[00:26:19] Speaker B: Absolutely fabulous. And it's a great tune to kick off from the new album Promised Land, the Swagger. I love Henry's vocal.
And I think what's really good with the karma effect is because of the material that they've self financed before. They've been in a studio and they've been able to get their sound going. And then when they've now got, as you say, now that they've got the major label support behind them in Eric. Yeah, great track to kick off the album. So, yeah, new album coming out, 3 May. Can't wait. Great tune.
[00:27:05] Speaker A: Yeah, I agree. Yeah, check out the video, too. They're clearly having a great time and living the dream as well as living it up, of course. So, yeah, good on you guys. We wish you well. And. Yeah, living it up from the karma effect. Check it out. Which brings us to. That was quick, wasn't it?
A relatively new band to a band that's been around for a few years in gun. Gun have got a new album coming out this year called Ombre's. And the lead off song about the second song off it is called Take me Back Home. It's not a cover of the old Slade song, bry, by the way, just in case you're wondering. We'll put both on the playlist, of course, time honored fashion, but yeah, gun been going since, I think, late 80s. Part of that sort of. I always think they're part of the original kind of brit rock explosion with little angels and thunder and the almighty and the quiet boys. You mentioned them. But a new song from Gun called take me back home. I've seen this live, actually. I saw Gun just before Christmas at that planet rock event I told you about.
It's a good song. It's got a kind of a nice. Kind of. It's quite short and sweet. 3 minutes 15, 3 minutes twelve. I better note of that for some reason. But it's got a good sort of sing along chorus. Everyone likes a sing along chorus, don't they? Let's face it. Even you, Brian.
And it's good. I think it's a nice piece of work, considering that they've been going sort of 30 od years and they've never really kind of caught.
Never really kind of been that band that everyone loves and at the top of the bill at festivals and so on. They've always been there or thereabouts, and there's nothing wrong with that. They've been consistent and they've kept busy over the years. But hopefully this new album, if the songs from it all fired up, was the lead off song, and taking back home is the follow up to that.
If the rest of the album is anything like this, it could be a great album from gun. So we're looking forward to Ombre's.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: Yeah, right. I'm a massive fan of gun. When they came out, I remember their very first single. Actually, I bought it on twelve inch, which was better days.
[00:29:33] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:29:34] Speaker B: And whenever I listened to the new tracks off the new album, it actually just reminded. Maybe it's the production and the writing, but it took me back to those first couple of albums. It's nice, good driving songs. And dare I say, because gun, isn't it interesting where you've.
I suppose Jules and Dante, who are the brothers, who've gone through all of the iterations of gun, even Toby Jepsen from Wayward Sons and Little Angels was the lead singer for a while, but Dante was the bass player. I know Dante's the singer, and when I was listening to the new single, I have to say Dante was reminding me of Mark Rankin, the original singer. So it feels as if it's gone full circle and the gets. I know that the last album that they recorded, which was the Kelton songs, it was really them revisiting a lot of the earlier material. And I'm wondering if that's just given them just that impetus of, hey, we know what our sound is, we know what we like, and it's just very reminiscent of the first know taking on the world. So. Yeah, no, real good single. Enjoyed it.
[00:31:05] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, same. And if they're playing the. You boys and girls, go and check them out. They're a really good band. Live, loads of energy. And Dante Gizzi is a brilliant frontman. He's quite understated.
He's a good front.
[00:31:21] Speaker B: Yeah. And I have to say, of all of the bands recently who've been able to pull off covers of great songs, gun are that band. I love their version of hot chocolates. Everyone's a winner. It's just fabulous. But a band now, you know this is a band that you love, Matt. Yes. And I know you're so excited to go and see them this year and I think they're about to release their 427th album.
[00:31:59] Speaker A: True.
[00:32:00] Speaker B: It's Judas Priest. No, I will go on record. They're a band that I don't know very, very well.
I know the big singles. Breaking the law.
Yeah, I know breaking the law.
No, I know Painkiller and a few others. But when I heard this song, in terms of the new single, which they have out, it's quite bizarre because I'm going Judas Priest. The production's amazing. Rob Halford's voice is up.
Know it's up there in the mix. But when I heard the first, like, the guitar riffs and it had that sort of building, dare I say it, diamond head. Am I evil? But when the bell came in, I'm going, it's so Iron Maiden. And I'm kind of going. Judas Priest must have influenced Iron Maiden in the early seventy s. And now in 20, 23, 24. Iron Maiden are now influencing Judas Priest because I heard that first track and it was just like, that's modern day Iron Maiden.
I was blown away by it, Matt. I have to say. I was kind of going, that is just phenomenal. Just Rob's vocals. The songwriting is great. It's good that still, you know, involved in the writing and the play ins. But I was pleasantly surprised by priest, mate.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Song is trial by fire. Yes.
Which is off the forthcoming album, which is called Invincible Shield, which is out, well, sometime this year, which we're looking forward to. Yeah, you're right. It's great. It's got a very kind of classic priest riff that kicks. It kind of runs through the whole song. Trial by fire. They've just about run out of song titles with kind of a rock edge to them. The lead off song from the album is called Panic Attack and the album has got songs like serpent and the King, devil in disguise, crown of horns and so on.
They'll probably call it. They would run out of song titles, I imagine. But for now, yeah, I'm really excited. I love the previous album, which was from 2018, which was firepower. That was a brilliant album. And, yeah, trial by fire and indeed panic attack are a kind of extension of that. And you should say, robert, sounding great. Glenn Tipson is still on there despite his Parkinson's disease. Andy. Steve's doing an amazing job of production and he also is the kind of touring sort of supplementary guitarist. So, yes, long may they continue. 50 plus years and still going strong. The mighty Junius priest has. They are now officially known, at least in my house, at least by me. My wife's kind of indifferent, really, but there you go. Which brings us to. This is exciting, isn't it? The new song from the first album in 15 years by the Black Crows, wanting and waiting, which is from the album to be released in March called Happiness Bastards. I may have said that a bit too aggressively.
Black crows. Do you like that? Do you like this song, by any chance? Brian?
[00:35:34] Speaker B: I love it. It has been on constant play in my.
It's. Do you know what I like about it?
There's a real groove to it. The Hammond organ is quite prominent in the mix.
It's just so well produced.
When we were chatting just before we started recording, it was that if the Black Crows recorded Rolling Stones songs or the Rolling Stones recorded Black Crow songs, where did he start and where did they begin?
It's such a stonesy track for two brothers who've fought the bet out for the last 20 od years.
[00:36:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. Jeez.
[00:36:27] Speaker B: It's quite a harmonious up song, Matt.
It's a good lead off single.
I miss Steve Gorham's drums. I love Steve Gorham's drums, but the production by Jay Joyce is just fantastic. It's great. And if you see, I think, the video that's on YouTube, et know they're obviously ice hockey fans, so it's got the track playing amongst the ice hockey guys, et cetera. It's really good. And the exciting thing is, obviously on the back of the single and the new album, we're expecting a UK tour. And dare I say it, matt, could they be a potential headliner for that festival that we.
[00:37:22] Speaker A: Dead?
It could be, I suppose, yeah. I mean, if they are, geez, that's a coup. If Chris Sumby has got the black. Well, I suppose you'll find out if he's got the Black Crows. That'd be amazing. Or indeed made of stone, which I bought tickets for recently.
She's happening this year and I remember to face the right way this year for this stage. Having moved from the rambling yes. Yeah. Well, have they announced a UK tour yet? I wonder where they just play in London and maybe Leeds or somewhere. But, yeah, I mean, this song is very reminiscent of the classic kind of black crows sort of style. And as you say, obviously Chris and Rich Robinson have sort of buried the hatchet, at least for now.
And, yeah, it's good. So fingers crossed. Yeah. First album coming up in March, 1 album in 15 years, happiness Bastards, which we look forward to. Interesting title. I'm not sure what the background to that is, but we shall find out in due course. So that was new rock on the block, Brian.
So it's a to z of rock time, Brian. Or if you're listening in America, it's a to z of rock time.
This time. We have reached the letter l. We have l. There's a lot to cram in.
I'm going to start, though. And in my opinion, the greatest rock band there's ever been.
[00:38:58] Speaker B: We did that last episode that was in k. We did King's x and K.
Have you found somebody else is better than commercial?
[00:39:14] Speaker A: All in the eye of the beholder. All right, Brian, as you know, Led Zeppe. Led Zeppelin.
[00:39:20] Speaker B: Oh, you mean the stairway to heaven, boys. All right.
[00:39:22] Speaker A: Okay. There you go. Do you know much about them? Do you know more than one song?
Have you played stairway to heaven? I imagine you can.
[00:39:29] Speaker B: I have one of the very first songs I played live.
[00:39:35] Speaker A: Really?
[00:39:36] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:39:36] Speaker A: Right.
[00:39:36] Speaker B: I didn't sing it. Thank goodness.
[00:39:39] Speaker A: Indeed.
Have you ever played it in a music shop? In a guitar shop and been told not to?
[00:39:45] Speaker B: No, never. No.
[00:39:47] Speaker A: A sacrosanct. Sacrosanct, exactly, yeah. Formed in 1968 from the remnants of the Yardbirds with Jimmy Pace. John Paul Jones, of course, who I briefly kind of met, but didn't really meet at Gatwick airport in the summer of 2023. Thank you, John Paul, for almost stopping. And of course, augmented by Robert Plant and a certain John Bonham from the band of Joy.
There's not much you can say about Led Zep, is there, really?
I would say it depends on your perspective. Of course, some people would say the Stones and Sabbath and the doors and so on. But in my opinion, and it's just my opinion, Led Zep, the greatest rock band there's ever been. And only a twelve year career, sadly, with the death, untimely death of John Bonham in 1980. I remember it well. Very sad day.
Led Zeppe Bry. Amazing band.
Thoughts on the mighty Zeppelin?
[00:40:50] Speaker B: Yeah, they're all right.
[00:40:57] Speaker A: Led Zep.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: I think the older, I think I've said this before. Led Zeppelin were one of those bands where I was probably listening to too much thund Lizie and too much Gary Moore and Led Zeppelin kind of passed me by. And I think the more music you listen to, the more you can see how rock music, singers and guitar players are all influenced. Drummers are all influenced by those four guys. And when you think of the back catalog, how many times in polls where they go, name a band whose first three albums are the greatest. Everybody goes, Leslie one, Leslie two, Leslie three. And then you go to four sticks and then you've got albums like physical graffiti at the latter parts of their career. Amazing band. Amazing band.
It would have been great to see them live.
Yeah. Their influence, their songwriting. And in some ways, as much as I'd love to see them, I think they did the right thing in 1980 and kind of called it a day because Led Zeppelin was the four of them and anything else is just a celebration of their music. But, yeah, amazing band.
[00:42:24] Speaker A: Absolutely.
So that's the best place to start, I think, with the letter L. But another amazing band, the mighty Leonard skinnered.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:34] Speaker A: Formed in 1964. I didn't know this, actually. They were originally known as my backyard.
I'm so glad they changed their name.
Famously, of course, named themselves after or kind of influenced by their gym teacher who was called Leonard Skinner. Yes, it's an apocryphal tale who used to chastise him for having long hair and the rest of it. It turned out to be quite an advocate of a fan of the band, as it transpired. But, yeah, the mighty Leonard Skinnerd really took off in 1973 with their first album pronounced Leonard Skinner and just classic after classic. Sweetheart Alabama and Freebird and you name it, just a catalog of amazing songs and still going, I say, still going strong. Different lineup, of course, the long way from the original lineup, a lot of which was decimated in the plane crash in 1977. But at a great band to see, still do the hits and song after song. You recognize them from give me three steps to you name it, sweetheart Manabama, as you mentioned earlier, and so on. Just an amazing catalog of work. Great then skinned fabulous.
[00:43:52] Speaker B: Yeah, no, great, great band. Great, great band. And another band from America that we've seen a lot as well, too. That's in the l's is living color.
[00:44:03] Speaker A: Yeah, great band. Saw them just for Christmas, actually. And they're still growing strong and sounding good.
They're on with extreme.
[00:44:14] Speaker B: That was a great.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: Was. It was a busy night in the forum in kentish town. I can tell you.
Yeah. Formed in 1984, Vernon Reed, Corey Glover, Will Calhoun, and richly Muzz Gillins, who was replaced by Doug Wimbish in 1992. Yeah, I've been a fan of living kind of for a long time, and in some respects, I always think they broke the white anglo saxon male domain that is rock and metal and opened the doors to the likes of that band that you sort of like. King's eggs and jellyfish and many others over the years, even up to date with bands like Skin dread.
Not only have they introduced kind of funk and sort of r and b into the rock genre, but they've also influenced a lot of musicians to kind of pick up instruments and just play whatever you like. And as we know, rock is a very wide genre. It can encompass anything from sort of hard rock to sort of more bluesy to more funky rock.
[00:45:31] Speaker B: So, Matt, when we were in the Jays, do you remember when we put together the Joneses, where we tried to put together a super group with all of the Joneses?
[00:45:46] Speaker A: A what now? Sorry, what was that?
[00:45:47] Speaker B: A super group.
[00:45:48] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
You do remember that. I don't remember that. Well, actually, that's going to be a regular theme. I feel it is the Alphabet.
[00:45:58] Speaker B: Exactly. So I think we have got a contender for a super group within a letter.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: And even within a word.
[00:46:09] Speaker A: So this is a name, you mean?
[00:46:12] Speaker B: Yes. So we can call this band Lee or Lee. Lee or the three Lee's.
[00:46:18] Speaker A: I like the three Lees.
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Do you like the three Lee's? Three Lee's.
[00:46:21] Speaker A: Three stooges. Possibly like three lees.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: Yeah, the three lees. So I have created.
No, Mike Portner's not in it.
So the three lees comprise of, on drums, Tommy Lee.
[00:46:41] Speaker A: Good shout.
[00:46:42] Speaker B: He's a good drummer.
[00:46:43] Speaker A: Obvious one, but. Yes. Good drummer, too.
[00:46:46] Speaker B: On the guitar, Mr. Jake Ely.
[00:46:51] Speaker A: Oh, yes. That's a good shout.
[00:46:53] Speaker B: Yeah. And on vocals, bass, keyboards, Getty Lee. What would that sound like?
[00:47:04] Speaker A: That would sound pretty special, I think, to be honest. Jakey Lee. Yeah. Thanks for bringing that up.
We have to admit, of course, none of those guys were born Lee's.
That's true. Yeah. Don't tell anyone just for the purpose of this, but it's a great series. Yes. Jake E. Lee was born Jakey Lou Williams.
[00:47:29] Speaker B: All right.
[00:47:30] Speaker A: Not sure why I changed that.
Tommy Lee was born Thomas Lee, bass or bass. And Geddly was born Gershon Weinerib or Gary Winerib and changed his name to Geddy Lee. But for the purposes of this, you know, I love kind of a stage name thing anyway. Yes, good shout. The Lee's. What do we call it? Three Lees. Three Lee's, yeah. That'd be a great band, actually. Jakey Lee, Getty Lee and Tommy Lee. I might send an Instagram message or something to Getty Lee and suggest it. He might like the sound of that, actually. Yeah, imagine that. Blimey. There'd be some fireworks with Tommy Lee and Getty Lee and Jake E. Lee.
I'm going to go with the next L. A. Very important, if you're a rock fan, is the live album.
Now, there have been a lot of live albums. We've touched on many over the years, Brian.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: And everyone's got their favorite. Everyone's got their top ten. I think we probably about episode two or three, even if we go that far back, might even listed those for old time's sake, if we go back. In fact, I would encourage everyone to listen to every episode from day one, from episode one, and tell us what you think. They're all on YouTube now, by the way, you can subscribe. Please do. As Brian said last time, if we get a thousand, is that a minute or a thousand?
[00:48:55] Speaker B: No, if you get 1000 subscribers, then it's monetized.
[00:48:58] Speaker A: Oh, that's right. And we get like a penny per 50,000 listens or something. That's right. Anyway, where were we? Live albums my personal favorite live album is Stranger in the night by UFO, followed by Unleashed in the east by Judas Priest, followed by if you want Blood, you got it by AC DC. Brian and your top three, obviously live and dangerous, anything by King's X, irish tour by Roddy Gallagher and live in the heart of the city by Whitestate.
[00:49:26] Speaker B: No thanks, Brian. Oh, you got others this stereotypical?
Every irishman born after 1976 says, here's your copy of Live and dangerous that.
[00:49:40] Speaker A: You have to say there's irish tour.
They go away and enjoy it.
[00:49:47] Speaker B: As Matthew, let's let the litnet. You did give me at least 15 seconds to choose what my three favorite live albums were, so I am going with my first one. You actually did get right. First live album that I would choose would be live in the heart of City by Whitesnake because I just think that is when white snake live were just phenomenal.
The second one is Alchemy by Dire straits, which I think is a fabulous album.
Any band that can have, like, it's an eleven minute version of Telegraph Road and it's one of those ones where I can listen to that the whole way through is fantastic. And then the last one for me is a live album by Glenn Hughes.
[00:50:34] Speaker A: Wow. Okay.
[00:50:36] Speaker B: Well, it's a light and it's called Burning Japan Live. And Glenn is on absolutely top form. And all of the band, or the majority of the rhythm section and keyboards is the Europe guys.
So the guys in Europe, when they had a downtime after they'd split up in the early 90s, Glenn put them together. So it was a great live album. And Glenn's doing loads of purple stuff, some of his solo material sounding really, really good. So those are my three albums. But I do love live and Dangerous and Rory Gallagher. Yeah. And King's ex's live in London, which.
[00:51:16] Speaker A: I'm on, of course. You said that many times. Yes, indeed. We'll save that for another day when we do albums that we're on or videos are in.
Right.
So notable mentions, album wise, London calling by the Clash. What an album. That is magnificent. I listened to that again recently. That's a brilliant album. Let there be rock. Of course, you mentioned, or I mentioned AC DC earlier. That's a killer album. Love drive. Think that was my introduction to the Scorpions, actually. About 19, 79, 80. That's a great album. We stick a ton of songs on that from that album on the playlist. Lights out, UFO.
My God. Can't stop thinking about that album. And strange in the night. And I'm going to put it off now. I'm going to put it on now. Brian, that's it. I'm off.
[00:52:07] Speaker B: Do the rest of the show on my own.
[00:52:09] Speaker A: Exactly.
Layla, lean into it by Mr. Big and so on. You got any others for us? Bright albums?
[00:52:17] Speaker B: Notable mentions for me, Steve Lookethher from Total, who will be touring with Total in 2025 in the UK, just announced.
I'd also like to give. We talk about Led Zeppelin being one of the most amazing bands.
Limp biscuit, love them or hate them, Lincoln park.
[00:52:41] Speaker A: Yeah, good show.
[00:52:43] Speaker B: And a band that I have know nothing about at all. Matt. But they always seem to get a mention in Karang during the midiaties. Legs Diamond.
[00:52:55] Speaker A: I think you say. Lover boy. I'm going for lover boy.
Legs diamond. Yeah. We should investigate Legs diamond. It might be related. I'm going to mention Lover Boy only because working for the weekend and loving him a minute, I think I might have seen them when they supported Def Leppard on the his Dua tour. They were pretty good.
And then of course, we kind of can't overlook. We mentioned Getty Lee, Alex Lifeson. We mentioned. But of course, the great John Lennon.
Wow.
John Lennon. I mean, so talk about Led Zeppe being influential. I mean, John Lennon, I think just about everyone on the planet and musician has probably been influenced by the Beatles and probably by John Lennon. So probably a good place to end, Brian?
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Yes, I think so.
[00:53:41] Speaker A: John Lennon. And we'll put a bunch of songs on let it be. Of course, we're going to add that in as an l. That's a classic from the Beatles canon of work, of course.
So that was letter L. Yay. Which will bring us to m next time. M for Matthew. That's my name, Brian, just in case you wondering, and many others.
So, Brian, we come to the end of episode 59 and we come to the most important, and dare I say, the most popular part of the podcast, hidden Ginger.
Thank you, Lola. Sounding great, as always. Happy new year to you, hny to your parents and family.
So, Brian, what have you got for us this time?
[00:54:27] Speaker B: I find it really interesting whenever we're researching and preparing for a tough. We said we were going to do that was going to be our new year's resolution for this. For this year. Let's prepare for the shows, not wing it.
[00:54:46] Speaker A: Oh, okay. All right. From now on.
[00:54:49] Speaker B: Okay, from now on. So when I was looking at all of the artists and bands and albums beginning with the letter l, yes, there was one artist who I thought, I'm just going to give a little shout out to as a hidden gem, because I remember going to see this young gentleman in the mid two thousand s, and he still could be, but he was going to be Britain's answer to Joe Bonamassa, and he still could be. So I'm going to go with an album that was released in 2008, 2009, and it was an album by Ainsley Lester. Ainsley Lester released an album called equilibrium. Now, Ainsley is. If you follow Ainsley on social media, he does lots of great videos on the amps and the guitars, and he's a well known guitar tutor as well, too. And he's done a lot of demonstrations for Guitarist magazine, but his main gig is singing, songwriting. And he produced an album, as I say, in 2009 called equilibrium, which is great. Opening track, soul Times up is the second track. When you listen to the album, you just get a real sense of that Jimi Hendrix vibe to it, but a real commercial vocal as well, too. So my hidden gem for this episode is Iansley, Lester and equilibrium.
You've seen Iansley, haven't you, Matt?
[00:56:35] Speaker A: I'm not sure I've seen him, but I'm aware of his music. He's a fantastic guitarist, as you say, and yeah, I need to go and see him because I think a few songs over the years that he's released, I've been really kind of captured by. So, yeah, good shout. Ainsley Lister.
[00:56:51] Speaker B: Yeah, touring.
He's doing a quick tour of the UK starting on the 30 January at the hundred club in London, and he's playing a few select shows. So go on to ansleylister.com and you'll see all of the gigs. What about a hidden gem for you, mate?
[00:57:09] Speaker A: Well, thank you. We mentioned living color earlier and I first got into living color. I was in America in 1990 as rocking and rolling. I was on holiday, actually, and one of the songs came up on MTV and I thought, wow, these guys are good. I'd known a couple of songs from the Vivid album, but the album that really took my interest was from 1990. It's called Times up, which is the second album for living color. And I think it's slightly underrated, slightly overlooked. As I say, vivid is very well thought of.
But time's up. It's got some great songs and some great appearances. Little Richards on it, would you believe? Queen Latifah's on it, James L Jones, the voice of Darth Vader's on it and so on.
And songwise, all songs written by Vernon Reed, guitarist from living color.
But there's some killer tunes on it. Type is a real. It's almost a thrash metal song.
A lot of people would know. Love rears its ugly head, that kind of offbeats almost reggae song. Elvis is dead. Times out, the title.
They were written by the band. A lot of were written by Vernon, but all were written by Vernon. But, yeah, it's a really good album. It's a mixed bag, as you can imagine. As I say, a bit of reggae, bit of metal, bit of kind of blues, bit of r and b even, but, yeah, well worth checking out. So my hidden gem for this episode is the 1990 album by Living Color, which is called times up.
That was it, Bry. We're finished. Another episode.
[00:58:59] Speaker B: I know. Time's up on episode 59.
[00:59:02] Speaker A: Indeed. Appropriately enough, time is up. So, got anything to say to our. How many listeners are we at now? 14?
[00:59:12] Speaker B: Maybe 15, is it? Yeah, maybe 15.
My good friend Alex has found out through various social media channels that we have a podcast. So hopefully Alex has subscribed to us. We're up to 15.
[00:59:28] Speaker A: Be good.
Alex is probably thinking, hang on a minute, I thought, I'm one of only 15.
[00:59:36] Speaker B: It's an exclusive club.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: Indeed. Now we got one of Tim. More than 15. But thanks for listening, everyone, and happy New Year, hmy. Of course. And we will see you for episode 60 next time.
Jeez, 60 episodes, Brian. Who'd have thought?
[00:59:53] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:59:54] Speaker A: Back in the dark days of 2020, when we're scrabbling around with things to do, we'd be episode 60. But we thank you for listening. And check us out on YouTube. We mentioned it earlier on Spotify on Scotland Rocks radio. Of course.
Every third Tuesday we're on there, so have a listen. Great radio station. There's some great stuff. What else we on, Brian? For? Everything else, aren't we?
[01:00:16] Speaker B: Oh, we are indeed. Just Google this. You'll find us TikTok and Instagram.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Are we on TikTok? You kept that quiet. Is it just stuff you just kind of dancing and playing, like a couple of calls on a guitar?
[01:00:28] Speaker B: That's where I'll make sure that I put my smashing pumpkins audition on.
[01:00:35] Speaker A: Yes. More to come on Brian's pursuit of being the guitarist for smashing pumpkins. That'd be smashing, wouldn't it? Right. Right. Thanks, everyone. See you next time. Bye for now.
[01:00:45] Speaker B: See y'all. Cheers.
[01:00:50] Speaker A: Back pod. We salute.
