Skid Row – Skid / 34 Hours (2017) review
Skid Row - Skid / 34 Hours (BGO CD1302; 38.29 / 57.33 mins) The original Skid Row are usually called Gary Moore’s band and therefore blues, but these confuse...
Brian R. Banks
Simfonica – ‘Letters In Time’ (2017)
Just released is a fascinating new audio DVD by Trevor Midgley, known to John Peel and Dandelion record fans as Beau and before that on the BBC as...
Pearls Before Swine – “City of Gold”
Tom Rapp Pearls Before Swine: City of Gold / Beautiful Lies You Could Live In (BGO Records BGOCD 1285) Pearls Before Swine are placed in the liner notes...
Clear Blue Sky – “Clear Blue Sky” (1970) review
Clear Blue Sky: The First Album Now Remastered Back when there were less cloudy horizons across the world, global record labels were actually eager for new music (what...
Second Hand – “Death May Be Your Santa Claus” (1971) review
Second Hand - Death May Be Your Santa Claus (1971) (Esoteric/Cherry Red ECLEC 2594; 44.19 minutes) Just released by Esoteric/Cherry Red, hot on the heels of their excellent...
Spaced Out: The Story of Mushroom Records
(Grapefruit/Cherry Red CRSEG036D; 77.38, 75.04) Label retrospectives are released nowadays thick and fast as smog in Poland. Some compilations put together what doesn’t always seem to be linked,...
Raja Ram & Quintessence’s Complete Island Recordings
Just released are the remastered Island recordings of Quintessence (Move Into The Light, Cherry Red Records under their Esoteric imprint ECLEC 22584). Complete with a single and full-length...
Beau – ‘When Butterflies Scream’ (2017)
The singer-songwriter Trevor Midgley, known as Beau, has aged well like all good vintage stock; still a rich, heady consistency after all these years. From a Yorkshire teen...
Mick Softley – ‘Any Mother Doesn’t Grumble’ (1972)
At last a classic of the time before the Punk dam burst has a first CD release, from an era when a singer-songwriter could get a three-LP contract...
Snake Eye Rises Out Of Red Dirt
Just released is a recording by an obscure band Snake Eye, but it’s got a tale to tell and the only sting was done to them. Aficionados of...