Archive - February 2017

        This is a cracking release. A two-disc anthology of Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers – a band who were at the centre of the so...

        Hmmmm… would I enjoy an entire album where cello is mostly the main instrument – and that’s NOT a classical...

        This a lovely find. Previously unreleased nine-track album recorded in New Orleans in 1991, produced by British legend Chris Barber...

           I am a great admirer of Otis Taylor. A true “one off” as an artist. For some he is an acquired taste and sometimes a...

          This never-before-issued live album is an absolutely sparkling gem. I cannot stop playing it. It grooves like a mutha and...

        A good few years before he was recruited to play guitar on many of Motown’s big hits, Dennis Coffey was tearing up a storm in the...

      Middle of the road by name, but most definitely not by nature. One of the strongest blues releases thus far in 2017 and destined for a clutch...

          Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be, but this album is unashamedly retro. A hefty dollop of 1970s bluesy, rootsy, powerful...

        Fabulous release from SoulMusic Records of the also fabulous Norman Connors; the American jazz drummer, composer, arranger, and...

        A brilliantly inventive and soulful, not to mention funky, multi-racial US group who refused to be pigeon-holed, their music spanning...

        After a successful period at Blue Note, trumpeter Donald Byrd moved over to the Elektra label in 1978.  With his ensemble 125TH Street, Byrd...

      Back in 1978 and the final days of the punk era, I was just starting out as a music journalist and photographer, and having been spat upon and...

        First of all, let’s play a little game of word association. I say Smokie and you say: “Who the fuck is Alice?” More on that...

            We are well ahead of the pack on this one and really excited about this new band……………….Four young Manchester guys, late-teenage and...

        In a previous life, as a columnist on an international music magazine before launching Music Republic Magazine, and taking up the...

    Fairground Attraction founder and main songwriter Mark Nevin releases his fifth solo album in March, with a six date UK tour from 17th February...

          There are said to be seven wonders of the world. As a guitarist, perhaps Aussie Tommy Emmanuel is the eighth? You can be the...

       The tag line; “the singer who made Sir Tom Jones cry,” is gonna follow Ms Barker around for the rest of her natural days. Was she that bad that Tom...

    Beautiful, sublime and coming from deep within British newcomer Rag ‘n’ Bone Man’s soul; each of the 19 tracks on his stonking...

      A quartet of talented young musicians who met at University in Newcastle on the folk degree course six years ago, have committed their musical...

        Here’s an obscure one that will appeal to collectors and fans of the 1960s British pop music scene. A group that many will not have come...

    Dan Clews releases his third solo album, “While Middle England Mows Its Lawn” on 31st March 2017.  Dan signed to Sir George...

        * FIRST UK REVIEW *   One of the very best soul releases this year thus far, and for a long time, in fact. Bound to appear...

      Hands up who has danced around their white handbag to the timeless 1990 Deee-Lite gem, “Groove Is In The Heart”? A smash hit around...

    Double-CD extended editions of two best-selling ‘80s albums by popular US R&B band Starpoint – with nine bonus tracks. Starpoint began as a Maryland...

      Whenever I read the description “Supergroup” on a project, I expect an over-hyped and mediocre affair, usually with has-been once big-name...

          Long forgotten by many, this British soft rock meets country meets folk band from the 1970s were taken under the wing of...

    Fans of the likes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden will flock to this one, which offers a total of 47 cuts. Formed in 1982, Tokyo Blade dropped their self...

      This man was my absolute hero back in the 1970s. I adored his guitar playing, his vocals, his song writing and his brilliant band Be Bop Deluxe...

      The third and final album by this Welsh prog’ rock band, who hailed from Newport, formed in 1967 but moved to London a year later when they signed...

    Newly re-mastered and expanded edition of “Rebirth”, the classic 1970 album by Welsh Progressive rock group Blonde On Blonde. Featuring a line-up of...

      A pretty rare and hard to get hold of album for collectors; Austrian multi-instrumentalist and composer Gandalf, aka Heinz Strobl’s ambient...

      A real gem…“I Kinda Miss You – The Anthology: Columbia Records,1973-87,” is a two disc first-of-its-kind set by the legendary Manhattans that...

      Long admired by fans of Afro Funk, Matata were contemporaries of Osibisa, Cymande, Assagai and other black groups from the early 1970s...

      Big Break Records  presents the debut CD release of jazz-fusion funkateers Chameleon, re-mastered and re-packaged with the 12” disco...

    Two cracking albums on one CD. “Night Cruiser” was originally released in 1980. The lead-off title track ‘Night Cruiser’ begins with syncopated...

    One of my favourite interviews of a four decade career in journalism, was the time I spoke to bass legend Larry Graham. What a nice guy. What a player. A...

    A fabulous collection here. Great band. Great singer. Superb song writing. Two discs, 40 tracks in total, including nine previously unreleased...

    With Quo fans still mourning the death of Rick Parfitt, here’s a new release that Rick appears on; albeit as a backing vocalist with his partner in crime...

    Record collectors who sold a kidney to get their sweaty hands on sought-after albums, singles and EPs from this Leeds post-punk explosion since the...

      Atomhenge, the label home for the Hawkwind catalogue between 1975 and 1997, releases a triple CD set of all three of Hawkwind’s albums originally...

Are you ready to rock? You need to be if you are gonna spin this pure gem of a five-disc box set. Those who know Rick Derringer’s work as a guitarist will need...

   It kicks off melodically and grabs the attention from the off with the commercial cut “Life Forms.” Then the lead vocal slaps you round the chops, with a...

The debut album from Manchester-based duo Alive In Theory – Kirsty Mac and Paul Ayre – has been a long time coming. The pair met a decade ago when...