Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: It.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Well, hello there, and welcome to episode 66 of the rock podcast. For those about pod, we salute you. In this episode, we have rock news.
There's a review of latest releases. We've got hidden gems, of course, and we've reached the letter s in the a to z. A bruh.
Bit tough. I'm Brian. Without further ado, here he is, my partner in crime, my podcaster in the north.
Other nicknames are available. Here's Brian.
[00:01:12] Speaker A: Hello, Matthew. Good evening to you, sir.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Hello. How you doing?
[00:01:18] Speaker A: I'm doing good. I'm doing good. I'm sporting my Dylan. Lizzie, I see that.
[00:01:26] Speaker B: Yes, I see that. I see that. It's looking good.
Yes, the good old bohemian fc t shirt you bought, which you didn't wear when I came to see you last weekend.
[00:01:39] Speaker A: No, I see I got. After a weekend in Dublin, Matthew, I've got my irishness back. A few pints again. It's three or four days, and I've just been listening to thin Lizzie and Rory Gallagher. I'm now fully fledged back.
[00:01:53] Speaker B: I noticed your accents come back quite strongly.
So, as always, a telltale sign you've been back in the, in the homeland. I saw you visited Phil Linnet's statue.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: He's a tall bloke.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yeah, I saw that. But it is on a plinth, isn't it?
[00:02:10] Speaker A: It is. It's just off Grafton street in Dublin, near, near a nice pub called Bruxelles or Bruzells. I wasn't quite sure the pronunciation.
And yes, a nice statue to Philip. There was some flowers around it. I had Philip's statue all to myself on Thursday afternoon. And then I went into the pub, had a nice pint of Guinness, and there was a bass guitar hanging from the ceiling, as you do. And they were selling memorabilia of Philip there. It was.
It was really, really good. But the highlight of the, the musical part of the trip was going to the Irish Rock and roll museum experience. Matt, Rachel and I went to. Oh, goodness. It was. It's just off Temple bar and we booked the tickets. And it's you. You're basically going in to a real live recording studio, rehearsal place. And a lovely tour guide, Scott, took us round to some of the rehearsal studios, took us into a rehearsal studio that you too, had played in. Lots of albums put up on the walls of artists who had played or recorded. So you had Rory Gallagher, Gary Murth and Lizzie honor the Cranberries. And it was great. So we went round. Scott gave us a history lesson in irish music. And then we went up to the end of the tour. And there was one room, Matt, which had three of Philip's guitars, Philip Lennox guitars, and lots of tour jackets from thunder Lightning, a pair of his leather trousers, a few of his bases. And it had the Neve console which recorded Thunder and lightning.
So I was just. I was. I was genuinely overwhelmed. I didn't expect to be finishing the tour and having a thin, lazy exhibition of lots of memorabilia which had been kindly donated by Philomena.
Philip. Smaller. Great, great hour and a half. If you're ever in Dublin, do the irish irish rock and Roll Museum experience. Fabulous. And it's in the button factory, so it's a live gig venue as well, too.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: Thank you, Brian, the new spokesman for tourism Dublin, Phil Linnet. By the way. Philip, is it Linnet or Lynette?
[00:04:59] Speaker A: Lynette Linnet.
[00:05:00] Speaker B: Linnet.
It's been like ace frailey and ace freely, isn't it? It's kind of one of the other, anyway. Phil Linnet was six foot one, by the way. And did you get to try his leather trousers on? I bet you were dying, too, Matthew.
[00:05:15] Speaker A: I would never have fitted in to Philip's leather trousers.
They were very, very. He's very thin legs.
[00:05:24] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
Great trip. Yeah, sounds like it. Well, we had a great trip up in Edinburgh as well when I came up a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember that?
[00:05:33] Speaker A: I do indeed. Doing this.
[00:05:34] Speaker B: I sat in that very room and I looked. Gazed upon the Princess Diana picture, which you have sitting behind you, of course, which is lovely to see it in the flesh, as it were.
Yeah, very nice.
We went to. Saw these wicked rivers. They were great.
[00:05:51] Speaker A: They were brilliant.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: I'll tell you one thing that I noticed about Edinburgh audiences or the Edinburgh audience that night. They made a lot of noise in London sometimes where I go quite often to gigs where I was last weekend. We'll come to that in a minute.
You know, it's not quite the same kind of riotous applause and cheering. It's a bit more sort of, you know, polite applause, but in Edinburgh, everyone went crazy. Supported by Dan Byrne. Caught up with Dan beforehand.
He's doing well.
Got his ep out at the moment, which is good. Getting a bit of airplay here and there, which is good. He's a good guy, Dan. And he did a nice set, acoustic set. And we wish Dan well in his solo career. Absolutely.
These wicked rivers. We reviewed their album, force of nature, of course, a few episodes ago. Sounded great, didn't they? Did a lot of songs off that.
You enjoy that gig, Brian?
[00:06:47] Speaker A: I could. I have to say they were. You said the audience were load.
These wicked rivers were quite loud as well, too. It's been a long time, Matt. Whenever. Whenever a band's sound checking and the bass, the bass, the bass drum. Whenever the drummer goes, hits the bass drum and it just hits you right in the chest. It hit me in the chest and it reverberated against the wall that I was leaning against. It was that. It was a boom.
But, yeah, they were really.
I was quite surprised they all fitted onto the stage because Bannerman's is not the biggest. You know, I've seen Simon McBride play there with a three piece band and these wicked rivers are five piece, aren't they? You know, and. Yeah, you know, and the keyboard player was. Was sort of squashed back into the corner, but the guitarist. And the vocalist, yeah, the guitarist was pulling loads of shapes and they were. They were genuinely really, really into it, you know. Yeah, yeah. And they've. Even in the short space of time that I've seen them, you know, opening up stone dead to playing in Bannerman's, they've got a pretty, pretty dedicated following. Loads of people. There was lots of people there that were specifically there to see these wicked rivers. Loads of merch. Loads. Loads of people wearing t shirts.
Yeah. A band on the up. So if you get a chance to go and see these wicked rivers, go and see them. They are fab.
[00:08:29] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And then last weekend I went to see the Scorpions UK tour, which is. Their only UK date was in London, which was fun. And opening for them was extreme.
What a double bill that was. It was fantastic. And extreme were amazing. And I was saying to you before we came on air in our pre production meeting, pre production, in our little chat we had beforehand, you know, I've seen a lot of the great guitarists over the years. I've seen Jimmy Page and Richie Blackmore and Shenka and Gary Moore and so on. Tony Iommi, Tony Iommi, Angus Young and so. But I have to say Nuno Betancourt of extreme must be.
I mean, he's up there. I would say he's one of the best, if not the best. I'm going to be quite controversial here, but if not the best guitarist I've ever seen live, because he is absolutely amazing. And they did the greatest hit set and a couple of solo bits and everything, which is all good. Scorpions were fantastic. Klaus Mine was a little bit kind of sedentary or a little bit stiff, I should say. He's had some back issues and a back operation. Recently, so he was a bit. Looked a bit frail, actually, but he sang fantastically and the rest of the band sounded great. The stage show, I think, was from their Vegas residency, so there's a lot of kind of references to Vegas, fruit machines and so on. So it brought back some memories to me of a couple of weeks ago last month when I was in Vegas. That was good. Scorpions. Absolutely brilliant. Check out their set list from that show, because they did, again, a fantastic sort of greatest hit set. They changed the words to wind of change, which is good because it used to be, obviously, focused on certain elements of Russia, but they changed that in recent times for obvious reasons, which is good to see.
But, yeah, what a show. Great gig and great night gig of the year so far for me.
[00:10:30] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:31] Speaker B: By some distance.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Do you know why? I'm not surprised with that much? Because I remember when we, you know, the few times that when we went to Rambling man festival, and usually the headliners, you know, we've had white snake and ZZ Top and the culture, so we've had, you know, big, big name bands at Rambling man. And I remember when extreme headline, I think they did the Saturday night slot and there was a few grumblings of. Well, I don't really think extreme are a headline act. And I thought they were just phenomenal. They play the hits and. Yeah, and Nuno's just. He's a force in nature, musically. He's just brilliant.
[00:11:21] Speaker B: Absolutely. Absolutely great stuff. So, bry, that brings us to news time. What has caught your eyebrow.
[00:11:31] Speaker A: On the day of the release? This was nice to see. So Bon Jovi's latest album, which we'll review later on the show, was released on the 7 June, and Bon Jovi were in Nashville and they played at John's Cafe Pub, restaurant, jbJs, and they did an impromptu five song set. So with the documentary coming out. I know. And all the talk about is surgery and being dangerously close to being able to tour again. It's actually nice to finally hear John sing.
Did five songs, did you know, a couple of old classics, blood on Blood, you give love a bad name, born to be my baby. And then they played the first single off the new album, Legendary. And you know what? He looked nervous.
He's certainly sounding a lot better than he did on some of the YouTube clips that we were. Whenever we were, everybody was giving him a hard time about his voice. Matt. So do you know what was lovely to see him? I would love to see him singing, and it'll just take more and more time to get the vocal cords back. But it was, that was nice to see. So that was nice to see in the news, the band playing, you know, a quick set on the day of the release of the album. It's good.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. More to come, hopefully, he said. What does he say? He's like worryingly close to wanting to do gigs or what? He expresses worryingly close expression. He uses a strange, strange expression.
Yeah. Hopefully they'll be back. More to come on the new bongiov album later on in new Rock on the Block.
In other news, I think, was it last episode or one before? We talked about the magnificent Lizzie Hale, who is filling in for Skid row now that Eric Gronvale has moved on, she's decided that actually, no, thanks very much, guys.
Good's playing with you. Maybe we'll meet further on down the road or whatever expressions you use. But she's sticking with, she's sticking with hailstorm is Lizzie. And, you know, that's interesting. You know, you could argue that. Well, okay. You could do both. That was what I suggested at the time. Allah, Miles Kennedy and many others. But she's quite comfortable with hailstorm and a band she's been in since she was 13, 26, 27 years ago, apparently.
So you can understand her loyalty to.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: Hailstorm, her partner and her brother in the band as well, too.
[00:14:25] Speaker B: That's right. Yeah. That probably helps.
But the search for a new skid row vocalist continues. It probably won't be. It definitely won't be Sebastian back. He's been very outspoken and his criticism isn't strong enough, I don't think. And he's used many a word that we can't repeat on this family podcast about his former colleagues in skid row. But essentially, I think it's safe to say that Sebastian Bach back another one. How do you pronounce that?
Fraley freely lit Lyna Sebastian Bach won't be rejoining skid row even to the extent they had a go at a kid or a guy that was wearing a skid row t shirt to come see a solo show, which, which begs the question, Brian, what t shirt should you wear if you don't own a t shirt of the band you're going to see, do you own a t shirt of, I mean, I mentioned, for example, when, I'm going off a tangent here, when you, when you go and see Bruce Dickinson or Adrian Smith in Smith Kotzen, for example.
[00:15:30] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: You're at liberty to wear an iron maiden t shirt, I would suggest, and if you, if you don't have a Smith Kotzen or Bruce Dickinson t shirt. But in this case, as I say, Sebastian Bach, I'm going to call him now, took up, took umbrage at this poor young fella who's innocently wearing a skid row t shirt in tribute probably to Sebastian back and his.
And his legacy. Anyway, enough about that.
[00:15:58] Speaker A: No, but you say that, but there's quite a few artists over the years. I remember Axel when he had his version of Guns N Roses going for a while and there'd be people wearing slash t shirts and stuff. And he was saying, the security gets such and such out and I'm kind of going, it's part of your heritage, I think, people wear, you know.
[00:16:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. What else you got for us, Bry?
[00:16:31] Speaker A: Well, I'm talking about. So next, next week, I'm very excited.
The Foo fighters are coming to the UK.
Yeah, they're doing a proper UK tour. They're coming to Scotland, I believe.
[00:16:46] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:47] Speaker A: So. So they're coming to Hampton next week. And in the news and Foo fighters related news, Greg Barton from America. I think he's from Nashville.
Greg did an epic non stop drumming challenge for a worthy cause. He was raising money for cancer research in memory of his grandmother. And so on Friday the 7 June, Greg played for 9 hours and 15 minutes the entire catalogue of the Foo Fighters. So he played it right from the first song and the very first foo's album. Right to the last album. No, I haven't sat. Sorry, Greg. I haven't sat and watched the. The full 9 hours in 15 minutes. But I have watched all my favorite foos songs like congregation, I learn to fly. And he's a cracking drummer, but. And the good news from a charity front, he blew his, you know, he completely surpassed his. The target that he'd set himself. I think it was maybe around about six, over $6,000. So hopefully with the.
He's got it up on YouTube and he might be able to get some good publicity on it. But great drummer. But, Matt, can you imagine singing or playing a guitar for 9 hours?
[00:18:20] Speaker B: I can't imagine doing anything for 9 hours, frankly.
[00:18:23] Speaker A: Sitting a plane.
[00:18:25] Speaker B: Yeah, actually, I've done that recently. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as you said, amazing achievement.
And he's raised just under $8,000.
And I think, as you were kind of alluding to, hopefully with all the exposure. And I would suggest that our listeners find Jeff, not Jeff Barton. Sorry, Greg Barton. Jeff Barton. Someone else completely, of course, Greg Barton's YouTube piece. And if you can sponsor. That'd be great. As you say, it goes to a good cancer related. Cause I thought it was quite cool that he played everything in order.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Chronologically, basically, from sort of song one, album one side one to last song of song side two on the most recent album, which is pretty good. It's so called rest, but here we are. So that's cool. Yeah. Good on you. Good on you, Greg.
[00:19:18] Speaker A: Yeah. Well done. Maybe we'll stick. We'll stick the.
We'll stick the YouTube clip up on our Facebook page.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. We should do that. In sad news, however, Kerrang TV is closing now. We talked fondly about Kerang magazine over the. Over the years. We were big fans of Kerrang magazine back in the day. Kerrang TV actually started back in 2001 and is finishing at the end of this month. It's owned by channel four, the UK tv company, Channel Four Corporation, to be precise. And along with two or three other channels, they are deciding that it doesn't fit into their five year strategy, which is a shame, because, you know, it's one of those kind of stations that you sort of rely on, really, if you want to go to it and watch a bit. I remember watching it, and you could actually. I remember you could pretty much guarantee if you. If you. I think you said, I think it was a text or an email or something to get a request on. They pretty much play it. It was great. It was very interactive. But I guess in. In the. In the current era, whereby you could do a similar thing with YouTube, you know, any song you want to see or listen to, you can go to it and watch it. It's sort of made correct tv a little bit sort of redundant, as it were, but it's a shame. Another one that kind of rock institutions which will, at the end of June, sadly bite the dust. So rip current tv.
[00:20:54] Speaker A: Right, Matt, we come to the part of the show where we discuss new rock on the block, and we have three albums to discuss, new releases from collateral, Hailstorm, and the aforementioned Bon Jovi. Where would you like to start?
[00:21:11] Speaker B: Let us start with the new album from collateral called. Should have known better.
Okay, I'll kick off with this one, actually. So collateral, been going since 2017. British band from Kentucky in the southeast of England, in case you don't know your geography of England.
Seen them a few times, actually. They've got that kind of eighties vibe about them, and that sort of comes through on this album, but not in a way that is sort of, you know, it sort of consumes you completely, but there are certain kind of elements which are eighties, but it still works. I think I would bracket them with heat, for example. They've got that kind of vibe about them, that sort of almost, you know, glossy eighties produced, in a way. You could also probably stick them alongside Europe. I'm sure they're influenced by both Europe and Bon Jovi because they've got melodies coming out of every pore.
Good musicianship. And Angelo Tristan is a great singer and a great front man.
And as I say, the vibe is very much of that kind of melodic eighties style in some respects, quite often bordering into country songs like on the long road and a song called elysium, which I really liked. So they've got a bit of everything going on. But, yeah, good songs, good lyrics and, as I said, good musicianship.
Yeah, I actually liked it. Needed a few listens, I'll be honest, before I kind of got into it, which is fairly standard, I suppose you can't just expect an album to grab you necessarily at first listen, but three or four listeners in and I liked it. I look forward to seeing these songs perform live, actually.
So, yeah, I think. Yeah. Good work from collateral. New album. What did you think, Brian?
[00:23:19] Speaker A: I loved it.
Good.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: I thought you might actually tribe your street.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: It was. I was listening to. Listening to the. Listening to the album. And as you say, it covers very safe territories for me. Very AOR.
The opening track, which is glass sky, I did it didn't get. That track. Didn't get me off to a good start with the album because it had a very Europop, Eurovision, sort of like soft rock rammstein.
And there was kind of like a Chris Barris.
Those damn crows feel to it a little bit, you know, that sort of like thumping sort of bass. But there's some killer tracks on it. They. Original criminal reminded me of rat. It was. Yeah, it was that kind of like Warren DiMartini sort of real crunchy guitar.
Just. Just one of these days is right out of Nickelback's catalogue. And you mentioned Bon Jovi. Teenage Dreams is a track that Bon Jovi should have had on their new album. It was, yeah. And they please put this on the playlist, Matt, because it's a standout track on the album. It's a track called no Place for Love. It's just an Aor classic, but it's not all aor.
They cover a few subtle sort of avenues on the album, so it's diverse enough that it's just not. You know, you're not listening to a status quo and it's like, here's where it is. So I was pleasantly surprised. And bearing in mind my goodness, they played. They played on the rising stage at Ramble man in 2019.
[00:25:19] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, they. They're doing all right. Yeah. Hopefully this takes. Hopefully this takes them to another level.
[00:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Because they. Yeah, they got the chops. And now I think they've got some really good songs. My only criticism, and I tend to major on this subject, 35 minutes, nine songs. I was thinking, lads, just give us one more song. One more song.
[00:25:41] Speaker A: I was all right with that.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: I was all right. I know, I know, I know. But we've gone the other way. Interestingly, there are two songs, by the way, in the catalogue of rock music that were written as fillers for the album that I can think of. Paranoid by Black Sabbath was written as a filler because they ran out of songs. They quickly wrote that. A new world, man by rush, same thing.
Was kind of a last minute, that we need another song, guys. And they knocked together that. That's that song in all those songs in relatively quick time.
So I think collateral could have done the same thing. But, hey, how. Still a good album. So, yeah. Should have known better by collateral. We wish you well. Which brings us to hailstorm live at Wembley.
Now, live albums, we all know, of course, everyone knows, and this is not disputed, that the best live album in 7 million times. We all know what you know. We all know that UFO, stranger in the night, is the greatest live album ever, of course, closely followed by unleashed in the east. And if you want blood, you got it. And live in the heart of the city.
But this.
[00:26:49] Speaker A: And live and dangerous, I'll just put it in there.
[00:26:52] Speaker B: And live and dangerous.
So other live albums are available. What did you make of live at Wembley by Helmstone?
[00:27:02] Speaker A: Matthew? Yes, I have a question to.
Yes, I have a question to ask you before I do this. Why do you like strangers in the night as a live album? Matt?
[00:27:16] Speaker B: What?
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Why do you like it?
[00:27:19] Speaker B: You don't even know me, do you? 2022 to 23 years, and you don't. You don't even know me, man.
[00:27:25] Speaker A: No, but why do I like it? Why is it you've got lots of live albums in your catalogue? Tell me. Just. Just tell me the reason. Because I'm probably going to use why?
[00:27:37] Speaker B: I think it's got great songs, it's got great performance. It's just got excitement, it's got passion, it's got the crowd going nuts. It's got its raw and so on.
[00:27:50] Speaker A: Okay. Thank you. So when I listen to. I'm going to start with the positives on this.
Lizzie Hale is an amazing vocalist. When you listen to this album and when she walks out and when she sings, is it, I miss the misery. And she sort of does her opening sort of screaming intro to the audience, like, she's got a great set of pipes on her. I'm listening to it going, my goodness, Lizzie, in ten years time, number one, are you still going to be able to do that? And two, are you going to have a voice? But if she's been singing since she was 13, she's looked after. So she is. She's the star of this album. She's a great singer.
And that's taken nothing away.
That takes nothing away from the rest of the members of the band.
The one thing I would say about Hailstorm, they're a lot more heavier than done in recording. So live there, I'm hearing. I'm hearing nobum, you know, I'm hearing really, you know, love bites, the second track in the album. It could sit on a Judas Priest album.
So, so if you want a warts and all kind of chronicle of hailstorm right now, this live album will suffice for you. The challenges I have and the high points for me is actually when Lizzie's at the piano and she sings breaking shatter me, there's slower acoustic tunes on it, and it just showcases the wonderful vocal. But there's two things, Matt, which let this album down for me. Number one, to production, it feels as if the guy who produced, you know, that metallic album where there's no bass on it, justice for all. Yeah. This album has no bottom end for me. And I, you know, I thought, is it my speakers? Is it my. And I went and listened to strangers. I listened to UFO. I listened to live and dangerous. I listened to lots of other live albums. If you want blood, and there was no bottom end in it. And I just thought it just, maybe that's what hailstorm sound like. But on a live album, I just didn't, I didn't like the mix. And there was one, there was a great song on the album. It's like a class. It's like a great track called a man. And it's, it's. It's got iron Maiden jewel guitars in it. It's got crescendo up and down. But there's, there's an electric guitar in it that's out of tune.
And it's, whether it's out of tune or it's got the chorus effect on it that makes it out of tune. And I listen. The only track of the track, I've listened to loads of this album, a man. I'm going, is it my ear? Is it my ear? And the rhythm guitar sounds out of tune, Matt. So if you want a warts and all. Yeah, it's a good. Whatever. And, yeah, so just. Songs are great. Great catalogue. Just missed it for me on the mix and a few tuning issues.
But I know you're a fan of hailstorm.
[00:31:28] Speaker B: I do like hailstorm. I wasn't at this gig, unfortunately, at Wembley arena last year, but it's a great hits type set.
I was thinking, actually, to your point, no overdubs, as far as I can tell. Whereas some of the. Some of the great live albums that we've talked about, live and dangerous, unleashed in the east, strange, the night did have plenty of overdubs. In fact, they were more overdubbed than live, to an extent. Whereas this is, as you say, warts and all, I think you touched on. I liked it in a way. I'm putting aside all the negatives that you mentioned, because I don't really care about out of tune guitars. I quite like them, really, in a way. I mean, AC DC had a whole couple of albums of out of tune guitars because I think it has a little bit of character. And her voice does go a couple of times. And I think, well, you know, fine, because, as I say, you know, everyone's voice kind of goes when you're hitting those notes. Songs are great. I mean, it is a great hits set of songs. I miss the misery, as you say. Amen. I would have called that freak like me, which is good rock shows. Okay. I don't know why we need a drum solo on a record. I don't know why we need drum solos live, really. But our brother TJ, I think his name is, he's an amazing drummer. Complete nutcase, but he's a good drummer.
We had a drum sailor on Saturday night, and in a way, I appreciate drum sellers because there are opportunity to go to the bar or go to the. Go to the bathroom, but I'm not sure we need to put one on a live album. But I thought it was good.
I did it. I did. I did like it. I did. I think it captured them live quite nicely, as you say, warts and all.
And, you know, it's not the greatest live album. I don't know whether live albums are a bit passe.
You know, traditionally, they're a kind of a filler to sort of, you know, so you can buy some time to write the next album and, you know, someone just have some time off or whatever. But this is all right, worth a listen. We'll put some song into the playlist and you gotta put that.
I forget what song you said now with the amen, even.
[00:33:41] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:33:42] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:33:43] Speaker A: Amen.
[00:33:44] Speaker B: Amen.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: Sorry, I pronounce it tomato. Tomato.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: Okay.
I put Amen on the playlist and people could work out whether it's attitude or not. So.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Aha.
[00:33:58] Speaker B: That brings us to the much awaited more than any other Bon Jovi album ever, because of reasons we touched upon.
That brings us to the new album by Bon Jovi, which we've all been looking forward to for a while. It was released last week. As Brian said, there were short live shows. The album's called forever.
And what did you make of it, young Brian?
[00:34:28] Speaker A: The Heelstorm album was better.
[00:34:31] Speaker B: Oh, really? Oh, my goodness. Controversial.
[00:34:35] Speaker A: So where do I start, Matt?
So it's really nice to hear Jon Bon Jovi singing again. And there's a. There. There's a. There seems to be a joy and abandon for, you know, I had high hopes with the single legendary. I thought that was great.
And there are some. There are some good tracks on it.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:35:05] Speaker A: The living proof seems to be it's my life, sort of.
It's my life part two, where they've got the, you know, they talking box bits. So that's. And then there's. There's a couple of.
Couple of tracks which I thought were waves and seeds. I really liked seeds, mid tempo tracks. And then, interestingly, there's a track on the album called living in paradise, which is a co write with Ed Sheeran.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: Right.
[00:35:41] Speaker A: And when you listen to that song, living in paradise, the rhythm of it sounds like Castle on the hill by Ed Sheeran. So it sounds very. If you like Ed Sheeran, you know, this is kind of a mashup of a Bon Jovi track with a little bit of Ed Sheeran.
So there are some good tracks on the album. There are some songs on it which, for me, just don't cut the mustard for the standard of Bon Jovi.
I hate calling it out, Matt, but there's a track on the album, and when you're listening through to it, walls of Jericho is just, oh, my goodness. I'm not a songwriter, but when I listened to that, I was like going, that's not great. And then my first guitar, it just took me back to Roger Taylor singing about I'm in love with my car.
It just did nothing for me.
Hollow man was John being introspective, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan ish with an acoustic guitar.
But there are some good tracks on it. Legendary is a good track on it. When it's good, it's good. I can't see many of the songs making the Bon Jovi live set, but when it's. When it's per mat, there are some songs on this which I'm going, I really don't want to hear again. So if I was to, I would probably be a generous six out of ten for me.
I was disappointed, but lovely to hear John singing. And there's some of this. Some of the tracks on the album, Matt, where you actually hear his voice, didn't sound processed. So if that's part of the process of him rehabbing and his voice getting good at, let's get him, you know, good, but not as finest are as a songwriter.
[00:37:50] Speaker B: No, no.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: How about you?
[00:37:52] Speaker B: I think I would absolutely agree with you on a lot of those points. There are some absolute stinkers on this album. I mean, for example, legendary is all right, as you say. That's okay.
There's a song called we made it look easy. When I saw that title, I thought, oh, no. I mean, you know, I think rock stars, and we talked about this a few weeks ago in the context of Nickelback, when they got.
They got a lot of negative press around the song Rockstar, because writing about yourself as in sort of mock humility is never, never a good thing. And this. This is sort of, in a way, autobiographical of the early days of Bon Jovi. It also, with that, just that line, we made it look easy. It just detracts from the whole song. It's very unfortunate. As you said, wars of Jericho has got the worst intro I think I've ever heard of a song. I mean, I don't really know what they're thinking there with that sort of, kind of acapella sort of chanted thing.
I agree with you. My first guitar is, I thought when I first started hearing, listening to it, that it was going to be a song about, you know, like a guitar as a kind of, you know, euphemism for a gorgeous woman sort of thing. But it's not. It's about his first guitar. You know, it's like, all right, you know, I mean, you've got lots of guitars. We know you're a really good guitarist, as we've established. Established well, once.
But you are. But you've got a few guitars, but you're not gonna kind of, like, marry one of them, are you?
[00:39:28] Speaker A: No.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: And then, on the subject of weddings, kiss the bride, which I know was well intended, which is written for his daughter, I think was only played to her coming up to her wedding or something.
And again, it's well intended, but it's just. It just misses the mark.
[00:39:49] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:39:49] Speaker B: And that's. And interestingly, collateral on their album, I've got a couple of songs which have kind of got a sort of sentimental, kind of poignant angle, and they hit the mark, which is very interesting one kind of route. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So. And also, that glass guy is. I think it's got a kind of a, you know, kind of pointing angle to it, I believe. But, yeah, I mean, it struck me a bit like a Bon Jovi solo album. A John Bon Jovi solo album. I mean, every song has got, like, a two bar intro and he's straight in. He can't even hang. He can't wait. He can't wait. I've got to sing. So desperate is he to show off his new vocal cord, which is a shame because he's a lovely guy and, I mean, a magnificent band. And, you know, as you say, when they play live, they might do two or three of these and they'll do the greatest hits and we will all go and see them when they do that. Yeah. UK tour at Webley Stadium. Um, but, you know. Yeah, it. Yeah, yeah. It's a shame, really. But, you know, hopefully they'll move on from this Richie sabora, rejoin, and they can just do the slippery web wet again part two and we'll be happy.
But that was. That was forever by horn chompy sorry, John, are you listening? Love you. Really?
Get well soon.
So that was, uh. That was. That was new rock on the block. Remember? We used to be positive about everything. Boy, those days have gone. But we're not. We're not horrible. We're just honest. We're honest.
Come on, have a listen. Tell us what you think.
So that brings us to the end of new rock on the block and the start of something else so bright. Yes, we have reached the letter s in the a to z of Rock s. Yes. So where should we start? I think we should start with an icon of the rock industry and rock music from New Jersey. 50 plus years from New Jersey, but not John Bon Jovi, because he would have been in the. In the bees.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: It's so. Say Johnny.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: It is not south side Johnny, it's Northside Billy. It's the boss, Bruce Springsteen. I always remember it about episode two or three or something like that. We were talking about Bruce Springsteen coming to the UK and I said it'd be nice for him to play near me when I lived near Croydon. And we wrote a letter to him saying, dear the boss.
[00:42:30] Speaker A: Dear the boss.
[00:42:31] Speaker B: Because you call him the boss you're so familiar with, you just call him the boss. Right. The boss. How's it going? The boss. We actually say the boss. So Bruce Springsteen, wow. Still going strong. You've seen him a couple of times, haven't you? You love the boss, don't you?
[00:42:46] Speaker A: I love going to see the boss live. I don't have that many albums by him. And I always remember the first time going to see the boss. Sunderland. And it was an hour and a half into the show, Matt and I knew one song.
[00:43:01] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:43:02] Speaker A: He's just. He's still, you know, he's mid seventies now. He's had a few health scares of late.
I know he's had to cancel a couple of shows on his european tour, but when he plays, he, you know, he gives you three and a half hours of just solid rock and roll.
Yeah. He's just. He's an icon, as you say. So no better place to start the s's than the boss. Mister Springsteen. Stick whatever you want on the playlist of Bruce Springsteen.
[00:43:38] Speaker B: Born to Bruno. I will, I will. Yeah. I love that song. Born to run. That was his third album. It released two albums in 1973. In the days when they used to release a couple of albums a year.
Greetings from Astrid park and the Wild, the Wedding and the E Street shuffle. Then, as you say, moved on to, I mean, just iconic albums. Born to run. Darkness on the edge of town. Edge of town. The river. That's one of my favorite. And what a song that is. I'm like. It's all about story songs. I mean, that's the way you write them.
And so I'm born in the USA and so on. Wow. I mean, what a man and what a legacy. And rightly known as.
I'm not sure what I call him, the boss, but anyway, I wonder who coined that, actually.
Can you give yourself a nickname?
[00:44:22] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:44:24] Speaker B: Can you?
[00:44:24] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: Okay. I might. I might start calling myself, you know, something along the same lines. Can't think of it yet, but I'll get there. All right, that was Bruce Springsteen. What else you got? From where else we're gonna go in the letter s? There's so much scope.
[00:44:37] Speaker A: There is. Well, let's. Let's just get some of the easy ones out of the way.
Somebody who we have not mentioned on the show for ages. And thank goodness he's going out on a stadium tour of America or he would be on the phone saying, guys, why you not talking about me?
That was my servivian accent attempt.
[00:45:01] Speaker B: Jeez.
Really?
Wow.
[00:45:06] Speaker A: Okay, so Vivian's first band that he was in before he joined the wondrous deal was, was sweet Savage from Nornairn. Sweet Savage, who were part of Newabham in the early days, in the early, early eighties.
One of the probably prominent, if not the prominent heavy metal band in Northern Ireland, probably famously known for Metallica covering their. One of their songs, killing time. But, yeah, sweet Savage from Northern Ireland, featuring the wonderful Vivian Campbell and Simon McBride was in them as well too, for a little while.
[00:45:50] Speaker B: Okay, great. Yeah, sweet stuff still going strong? Kind of.
Yeah. 1979 to present, it says on Wikipedia, which means they're still going well. Talking of NwobAm, of course, we can't mention NWObAm without one of the mainstays and one of those that have stood the test of time since then. In fact, they sang about new album in one of their songs, denim and leather. It's the mighty Saxon, now featuring, of course, Brian Tatler of Diamond Head on guitar. And Saxon. Wow, what a band. I mean, they formed in 1976.
They predated new album New Orleans, of course, for those who don't know, is the new wave of british heavy, heavy metal, which lasted from 1979 to 1982, a term coined by the music magazine sounds, of course, another s.
Yes, yes, indeed.
[00:46:47] Speaker A: Did you, did you, did you watch? So, art, did you watch, did I.
[00:46:52] Speaker B: Watch, did you read so much sounds? No, I read it. I didn't watch it. I mean, I sort of watched it and I picked it up and read it. But yes, I did buy by sounds for a few years and it was superseded by Kerrang that we mentioned many times. But Saxon. Saxon are, well, again, one of those iconic bands still going strong, proper heavy metal. They are fronted by Biff Byford. And is it bifurcated?
Yes, it is. It is not Bifford.
You know, the thing is, it could be, couldn't it, really? It's a bit like we said about just about everyone in the world of rock. It could be Bifford Byford. No, it's Biff Byford. Peter Biff Byford.
[00:47:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: Give me his full name. He featured in the. In the bees, of course, also in the essays, a band I mentioned last, I saw last weekend, Scorpions, who were formed in the year I was born, for crying out loud.
[00:47:56] Speaker A: Really?
[00:47:57] Speaker B: But they're 40 odd years old at least.
Yes, scorpions, admittedly, Rudolf Schenker. And they're young at the time, of course, Rudolph Schenker and Klaus Mein were in the band then, and now they are reaching their twilight years, but they're still going strong. So, again, a magnificent catalogue of songs and albums over the years, as I said, a wind of change through to dove drive and bad boys running wild and so on. There's a theme in their song, which I won't go into, but it does quite often sort of date them to the eighties when there's a lot of mention of, you know, girls and women and, you know, backstage and so on. But we won't go into that. So that was the Scorpions.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: So, Matt, another s a band that we have been champing for.
Stone dead. Slayer.
Slayer for Stone Dead.
[00:48:56] Speaker B: They need to reform first, of course, but.
[00:48:59] Speaker A: Well, they kind of have.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: Okay, that's true.
819. 81. Yeah.
[00:49:12] Speaker A: They were formed in Barnsley.
[00:49:15] Speaker B: I'm still. I'm still thinking about Saxon, you see. Formed in 1981 in. Where else but California?
One of the big four, of course.
Thrash, basically. Veggie thrash.
Magnificent. I mean, the pure energy of that band. I mean, just stick on, stick on anything from seasons in the abyss to south of heaven to rainy blood, and you'll see what I mean. It's just. Just absolutely kind of, you know, just smashes you in the face. Talk about bass drum in the chest. This smashes you in the face, then kicks you in the stomach and then asks you if she wants some more. It's just absolutely magnificent.
[00:50:04] Speaker A: And then you meet Tom Araya.
[00:50:06] Speaker B: He's lovely.
[00:50:07] Speaker A: He's absolutely lovely.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: The absolute pussycats, those guys. Kerry King, of course, the master of the riff. The king. Got a new album out which we almost reviewed last episode, but we didn't. Too scared to, in case we said a bad thing in the camera at our house. Smashed over the head with a flying v.
Yes. Slayer. The mighty slayer. I'm going to throw in a few other notable mentions at this stage. Status quo.
The mighty quo. Still going. They formed it about 1960. Some odd as well. I mean, they're still. Francis Rossi calls. Still the only original member now, sadly, but the mighty quo, we talked about them last time, I think, with quo. Was it last time? Under queue for quo live.
Yeah. Quo. Mighty quo. Status quo. People in. People outside the UK are thinking, who, why, when? Who are they? But, yeah, status quo. British institution and long may they reign.
[00:51:06] Speaker A: Oh, gosh, I have to. I have to put in one of my favorites. Favorite bands. Probably made the greatest single in 1982, from the soundtrack of Rocky three.
That would be the wondrous survivor.
[00:51:26] Speaker B: Yep, yep, yep. You half pick them, don't you, in the context of all these other bands you can choose, and you pick Survivor and sweet savage.
[00:51:34] Speaker A: I love survivor. Survivor. Fantastic. Yeah. Too hot to sleep. Jimmy Jameson, Dave Beckler. Great singer. Great, great singer. Survivor. Fabulous band.
[00:51:45] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. Got slightly kind of, you know, tarnished as being a one hit wonder, didn't they? But they've got some, you know, a bit more of a catalogue than that.
[00:51:54] Speaker A: And another band that somewhat gets tarnished with being maybe a. I don't want to say, you know, a one hit wonder, but maybe cheesy singles and Christmas songs is good old slades. So in the UK, Slades are. And I know you saw them and was it at Donnington? And I can remember loads of people when they talk about, you know, the Donington festival, when they go through the years when they say, who's the best band that you've seen? And they'll do AC DC or Van Hill, and they say, who surprised you the most? And the two bands that people talk about is Blackfoot.
[00:52:38] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:52:39] Speaker A: And Slade and how heavy slade wear.
[00:52:42] Speaker B: They were magnificent. Both of those bands that day, actually, Donington, Monster rock, 1981.
I was even on the COVID of. Actually, not the COVID but in a picture in Kerrang magazine, looking from the stage to the audience when Slade bar on and they threw toilet rolls into the stage for some reason. But they were great. Yeah. Good old Slade. Yeah. Much more than a one hit wonder. They had about 15 number ones in the UK. Yeah, yeah. Still renowned for that Christmas number one, which earns them a fortune every June, apparently.
Let's move on. Let's also mention Soundgarden. Yes, we mentioned Skid Row earlier, the magnificent sound garden fronted by late, great Chris Cornell. Of course.
We've got, courtesy of many of our listeners, put this on Facebook. We've got shinedown, love. Shine down.
[00:53:32] Speaker A: What a great singer. Great, great singer. Yeah.
[00:53:36] Speaker B: Well, in fact, Brent Smith.
You put together a Smith. Super. What are they called? Super what? Super.
[00:53:43] Speaker A: Super group.
[00:53:44] Speaker B: That's it. You put together the Smith supergroup.
[00:53:49] Speaker A: I couldn't really call them the Smiths because that name's taken.
[00:53:53] Speaker B: That's true.
[00:53:54] Speaker A: That was. So. I called it the Smith Band. So.
[00:53:57] Speaker B: And I'm so imaginative.
[00:53:59] Speaker A: I know, I know.
So my drummer, you could actually. Choice of two drummers. Let's have Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers or Steve Smith from Journey. You decide.
[00:54:10] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll go with both of them, actually. I'll take both double. Double drummer band.
[00:54:14] Speaker A: You're going like Adam and the Ants.
[00:54:16] Speaker B: Sorry.
[00:54:16] Speaker A: Allman Brothers.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Anyone who's got two drummers, basically.
[00:54:21] Speaker A: Then. Then we were struggling for bass players. So, bass players wise, you could either have Rhonda Smith from Jeff Beck or Prince's band, or Kurt Smith from tierce of fears.
[00:54:34] Speaker B: Yep. All right.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Good shout, guitarists. Well, we would have to have Adrian Smith in there as one of the lead guitarists. And then rhythm guitar. I would go for Ge Smith. And Ge Smith played with hollow notes.
Phenomenal guitar player. He also was the house house band leader for Saturday Night Live for about 20 years. So he played. There's a great video of Ge playing with Eddie Van Halen. Eddie Van Halen turned up at Saturday Night Live once and they kind of made up a jam with Eddie. And then I was struggling for a vocalist and, you know, I was kind of going, well, we'll go Robert Smith for cure. But you nailed the lead vocalist in the Smith band.
[00:55:19] Speaker B: Did I?
[00:55:19] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:55:20] Speaker B: Yes. What? Patti Smith.
[00:55:22] Speaker A: Oh, there is Patti Smith. There's two Patti Smiths.
[00:55:25] Speaker B: Oh, Brent Smith from Shinedown. Of course, yeah. Sorry, yeah. I completely forgot. Where. Where. I was there for a minute. Yes. Well, yeah. Magnificent. The Smith Band. I think that's one of the best names ever, Brian. Can't think of anyone. Anything better than that. What else we got? We've got. And interested time. We've got steel panther, spinal tap. You can put those together. That'd be fun.
Sex pistols, stereophonic, stained struts, skindred, fantastic skin dread. Go and see them if you get a chance.
[00:55:57] Speaker A: Smashing pumpkins, soul asylum, slipknot, the sensational Alex Harvey Band, Sepultura Santana and a lovely little band from Canada called Saga, who I love.
[00:56:12] Speaker B: He mentioned saga a few times and. Yeah, great. And then we got. We can't not mention the Schenker brothers, Scott Stapp, Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Rick Savage. Rick Savage. Ringo Starr. Some bloke who used to play. Play with Finn Lizzie with long hair and a Les Paul. What was his name?
[00:56:35] Speaker A: Oh, John Sykes.
[00:56:36] Speaker B: John Sykes. Ringo Starr. I mentioned him and many, many others. I'm also going to give a shout out to the saxophone, a much maligned instrument in the world of rock music. Pick out a few saxophone based rock songs from foreigner and UFO and one or two others.
[00:56:55] Speaker A: Urgent.
[00:56:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
Yes. Well, no, time is. Time is getting sick, you know, we might as might as well crack on them.
Snowden festival would mention that, which is good. Songs about the summer. There's been thousands of those. Stick those on. Songs about songs, songs from the wood. You name it, we've got it. So we'll stick those on the playlist for next time. Anything else in the. In the letter s you want to mention?
[00:57:19] Speaker A: No, we're okay. I've covered all mine.
[00:57:22] Speaker B: I covered all yours. So you're right, then. I've got a couple more pages to go.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: If that's not you, we'll put that on the extended Patreon page.
[00:57:33] Speaker B: 4 hours of ass, by the way, thanks for everyone who put ideas on Facebook. Hopefully we mentioned yours. If not, then. Sorry. We'll mention you next time. But, yeah, appreciate that. When everyone chips, it makes our life easy, doesn't it? Don't have to think about anything. Just read off a piece of paper. Great. Right?
So, Brian, that brings us to everyone's favorite part of the podcast. We all squeeze it at the end and rush through it.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: Hidden gem ties.
[00:58:06] Speaker B: Thanks, Lola. Sounding good, as always. What do you guys for us? Bride, it's time.
[00:58:10] Speaker A: I'm sticking with the letter s, Matt.
I kept this one behind. Specifically, I am going with the soundtrack of grunge from 1992. I am going with the album singles.
[00:58:25] Speaker B: Are you?
[00:58:25] Speaker A: Yeah, I am indeed. It got me thinking when. When we were going through Soundgarden and we've been talking about Pearl Jam lately, I just thought I would.
And I was. I'd been listening to them, and I thought, what a cracking album.
The official motion. The original motion picture soundtrack for singles. It's got a. Oh, my goodness. It primarily focuses on the Seattle grunts seen in the early nineties. So you've got contributions from Chris Cornell.
They has a wonderful acoustic track on it called seasons. You've got the smashing Pumpkins. Oh, Matt, put on whatever you like on the playlist from singles. The singles album. It's fabulous. So I'm going for this episode, the singles official soundtrack.
[00:59:25] Speaker B: Very good.
[00:59:26] Speaker A: What have you got?
[00:59:26] Speaker B: I like that. I've got. I've got another s for you, actually. Almost like we planned this. And this is recommended by one of our listeners, actually, Richard Monk. Hello, Richard. Hope you're doing well. He's recovering from hip surgery, so we wish you well, rich. And he mentioned to me a magnificent album from 1979. In fact, we mentioned the band earlier, Blackfoot. This is an album called strikes.
[00:59:48] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:59:50] Speaker B: Absolutely brilliant album and got a couple of covers on it.
It's got. I got a line on you, the old spirit cover. And it's got wish him well, the free cover on there. But it's also got some great songs. It's got train train. It's got highway song, which is there. I always felt that was their kind of free bird, as it were, great song, kind of road song, as it were, about touring, doing a UK tour in those days when they used to do about 1520 dates around the UK rather than just one date in London.
But yeah, check it out. They were a magnificent band, Blackfoot, as you said earlier, I saw them at Donnington, 1981. I keep saying 1980, warden, don't I? 1981.
But no longer a band, unfortunately. Ricky Medlocks, the singer and guitarist of Blackfoot, is now with Leonard Skinner. Let us the magnificent legacy. And this is from 1979. The album strikes by Blackfoot.
[01:00:49] Speaker A: Brilliant.
[01:00:49] Speaker B: So that's it then, isn't it?
[01:00:54] Speaker A: Whistle stop tour through the letter s.
Just an opportunity for us to thank everybody for listening to the show.
If you're catching us, you can subscribe to us on all of the normal streaming services, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, a number of other channels. Also thanks to Scotland rocks radio, who have us on every third Tuesday. And they have just celebrated their fifth anniversary. So congratulations to the guys for all of the hard work that they do in the rock and metal scene.
Yeah, that's about it, Matt.
[01:01:38] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, good. All right, well, yeah, we'll see you next time, then. Thanks for listening.
[01:01:44] Speaker A: Cool.
[01:01:44] Speaker B: Keep in touch. Facebook and so on. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now.
[01:01:50] Speaker A: Bye for now. See ya.
[01:01:57] Speaker B: Knows about Pod we salute you is a mania Rogers production.
