Every Record Tells A Story
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Led Zeppelin’s Re-Masters: To Buy or Not To Buy?
The news that Jimmy Page has completed his work remastering Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue bodes well for a 2014 release. Page has confirmed this, saying to Rolling Stone Magazine that the first three Led Zeppelin albums will be released in 2014. Each album will come out as a deluxe edition, including alternate mixes and never…
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BLUES DEATH MATCH – er, YEAH! Death Letter: Son House v The White Stripes
I like old songs. And I like modern cover versions of old songs. But which is best? The old or the new? There’s only one sensible, mature and adult way to find out: A Death-match of course! FIIIIIGHT! This will be the first of an occasional series of Death-matches where I pit old songs against…
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The Led Zeppelin Controversy: Who Wrote The Songs?
It is easy now to look at the relative fortunes of the likes of Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones – who doubtless regularly bathe in asses milk and feast on panda and swan – with the poor, early blues pioneers who struggled to scrape a living, as evidence that the British bands exploited /…
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The Man From Hell Comes To The 100 Club
Michael Katon and drummer Johnny Bee relax backstage at The 100 Club Michael Katon Live! The 100 Club in Oxford Street, London boasts a strong tradition of supporting the blues, having hosted Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Otis Span, Sonny Boy Williamson and those influenced by them such as The Yardbirds, Clapton, Beck, The…
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Daft, But Not Punk: The Grammy Awards 2014
It’s always a joy to watch awards shows. It’s the sheer joy of the thing as we watch uncomfortable speeches, awkward silences after attempted jokes and disastrous outfits. And that’s just me sitting at home making jokes on Twitter. The show opened up with Beyonce who was joined by her other half, who treated us…
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Ten Reasons Why The Blues Shouldn’t Appeal To British Teenagers
It’s strange fact that so many white British teenagers have found such appeal in music made half a century or more ago by black Americans. The blues appeals to so many people, very few of whom will have had direct experience of the subject matter. Being unfamiliar with what you are singing about is not…
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First Time I Got The Blues…
It wasn’t easy to expand one’s musical horizons in the eighties. Napster and Spotify really made life easier for us in the 21st century. Back then we didn’t have anyone to hold our hands and tell us “these are the good songs, these are the less good ones”. There was no one to advise that if…
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It was 2 Years Ago Today…
I have always been fond of celebrating minor successes. The first record I owned, Stars on 45: The Beatles, if you must know, was a prize I won at the school end of year party. I won it by winning a disco dancing competition. This remains the one and only prize I have won for…
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In Praise of Muddy Waters – Live At Newport
I’m going to start a piece about Muddy Waters and the history of the blues by talking about The Sex Pistols, so bear with me. The Sex Pistols 1976 gig at the Manchester Free Trade Hall was one of the most influential of all time, not because of a vast crowd – there were only…
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Are You A Music Obsessive? Check This Scientific Test: Plus A 2013 Mixtape
How much of a music fan are you? You may be pretty keen, but just how keen? I remember many years ago someone called Danny Baker’s radio show to say he had regularly sorted through Paul McCartney’s bins and pulled out a Christmas card from one of the other Beatles. What was interesting about that, aside from…
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Michael Katon, a UK Tour, Two Letters and a Special Cat
Have you ever written to a musician? What happened? Unless you are currently enjoying supper with Bono, I suspect the answer is “not very much”. Not that I would generally blame the musicians. I’m sure at least sixty percent of all letters to pop stars are written in green crayon and contain uncomfortable adolescent confessions…
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The Story Of The Blues (Part One)
Keith Richards remembers the first time he heard the blues, because it hit him pretty hard. He recalled the moment in his foreword to Robert Gordon’s “Can’t Be Satisfied: The Life and Times of Muddy Waters”: “I heard Muddy through Mick Jagger. I met him on a train around 1961. He had a Chuck Berry…
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Every Record Tells A Story Photos of 2013
“People take pictures of the summer / Just in case someone thought they had missed it / And to prove that it really existed…” Ray Davies: “People Take Pictures Of Each Other” As 2014 begins, I thought it would be good to look back at 2013 through the pictures I took at various gigs. It…
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Let’s Start The Year With a Words and Music Q&A…..
It isn’t often that I am grouped together with former UFO guitarist Michael Schenker, Anthrax six-string slinger Scott “Not” Ian and members of Magnum, Marillion and Saxon, except perhaps in my wildest dreams as I entertain a rapturous Donington crowd of 120,000 with an improvised ten-minute drum solo *, only to wake up and find I have…
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An Open Letter To Simon Cowell: Dear Simon, Please Bring Back Top of the Pops…
It is the 50th anniversary of one of the UK’s most loved and celebrated institutions today. No, not the anniversary of Simon Cowell‘s first Botox injection. It’s fifty years to the day that Top of the Pops first appeared on our screens. Along with Swap Shop, TOTP was my first window into the world of…
Every record tells a story 