history

THE RAINCOATS Released Their Self-Titled Debut LP 40 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

Classics from the past…

20 November 2019

40 years ago today, on 21 November 1979, all-female post-punk band THE RAINCOATS released their self-titled debut LP. The London band formed in 1977, while all members were still students, after seeing the awesome The Slits. Vocalist/bassist Gina Birch said
“It was as if suddenly I was given permission. It never occurred to me that I could be in a band. Girls didn’t do that. But when I saw the Slits doing it, I thought, ‘This is me. This is mine.’

Their DIY debut LP was a gloriously crackling, raw, plain-spoken, in your face and snappy record. If PJ Harvey was around at the time she would have definitely been a Raincoat.

Album in full here…

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THE RAINCOATS: Facebook – All Albums

Third LED ZEPPELIN Album Number One In The UK And THE US 49 Years Ago Today

Posted on by JL

LED ZEPPELIN III was one of the most anticipated longplayers of 1970. On top of it came the fact that the release date was delayed by 2 months because of technical problems with the design and production of the front, inner and back sleeves. Despite this issue problem, the advance orders in the US alone were close to the million mark. The LP topped the UK as well as the US albums chart on the same day, 18 November 1970, 49 years ago today. By 1999 the blockbuster record went 6 times platinum. The remastered version came out in 2014.

AllMusic wrote: “Led Zeppelin III provided the band with the necessary room to grow musically. While there are still a handful of metallic rockers, III is built on a folky, acoustic foundation that gives the music extra depth. And even the rockers aren’t as straightforward
as before…” . Full review here. Score: 5/5.

Faithful to the band’s day one principle, no single was released in their home country to promote the LP. But, as it did happen before, also this time a single came out in several countries outside the UK, including the United States (peaked at #16). It was the album’s opener, the giant riff monster ‘IMMIGRANT SONG’, that got a 7″ vinyl treatment. Here’s that wall-breaking knockout…

Album in full here…

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LED ZEPPELIN: Website

THE JAM Released Their Fourth Album ‘SETTING SONS’ 40 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

Classics from the past…

15 November 2019

THE JAM released SETTINGS SONS, the fourth LP since their 1977 debut In The City on
16 November 1979, 40 years ago. Definitely one of their best, critically and commercially. It peaked at #4 on the Albums Chart while The Eton Rifles, the sole single of the record was their first Top Ten Hit, reaching number 3.

AllMusic wrote about the album: “The Jam’s ‘Setting Sons’ was originally planned as a
concept album about three childhood friends who, upon meeting after some time apart, discover the different directions in which they’ve grown apart. Only about half of the songs ended up following the concept due to a rushed recording schedule, but where they do, Paul Weller vividly depicts British life, male relationships, and coming to terms with entry into adulthood. Weller’s observations of society are more pointed and pessimistic than ever, but at the same time, he’s employed stronger melodies with a slicker production and comparatively fuller arrangements… ‘Setting Sons’ often reaches brilliance and stands among the Jam’s best albums, but the inclusion of a number of throwaways and knockoffs (especially the out-of-place cover of “Heat Wave” which closes the album) mars an otherwise perfect album.” Score: 5/5

Album in full…

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THE JAM: Biography – All Albums


Back sleeve

DAVID BOWIE Released His Self-Titled Second Album 50 Years Ago Today…

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14 November 2019

DAVID BOWIE released his second, self-titled album on 14 November 1969, 50 years ago. In the US the LP was, bizarrely enough, titled differently as ‘Man of Words/Man of Music’. The opening song was his brilliant breakthrough hit single ‘SPACE ODDITY‘. Three years later, in 1972, the LP was even reissued RCA Records called ‘Space Oddity’. Besides that timeless classic it was obvious that the enormously curious artist was still looking for/and exploring new directions, on this record, within the fast-evolving pop and rock boundaries of the flourishing 60s.

Regarding its mix of folk, balladry and prog rock, then famous NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray commented: “Some of it belonged in ’67 and some of it in ’72, but in 1969 it all seemed vastly incongruous. Basically, David Bowie can be viewed in retrospect as
all that Bowie had been and a little of what he would become, all jumbled up and fighting for control.” To me, one thing was already crystal clear: Bowie‘s voice was already (until his
last breath) an instrument of unique beauty and one of a high-quality kind.

Album in full here..

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DAVID BOWIE: Website – Facebook – All Albums


Back sleeve…

LED ZEPPELIN Topped The UK Album Charts With Double Live LP ‘THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME’ 43 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

13 November 2019

‘THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME’ is the live soundtrack album of the concert film of the same name by rock icons LED ZEPPELIN. The double LP was released in September 1976 and hit the top spot of the charts on 13 November, 43 years ago. The filming took place during three concerts at New York‘s legendary Madison Square Garden, during the band’s 1973 tour of North-America. Reviews were mixed and later band members, especially Jimmy Page expressed his dissatisfaction with the quality of the recordings.

Here’s the remastered version…

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LED ZEPPELIN: Website

SEX PISTOLS Topped UK Albums Charts 42 Years Ago With Debut LP ‘NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS HERE’S THE SEX PISTOLS’…

Posted on by JL

12 November 2019

Despite the controversy around the album’s title, the song’s lyrics and the fact that the
SEX PISTOLS were banned from playing many venues in the UK their debut LP ‘NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS HERE’S THE SEX PISTOLS’ – the best punk album ever in my book – the longplayer topped the UK Albums Charts on 12 November 1977, 42 years ago today…

Never mind the critics, here’s the fury…
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SEX PISTOLS: Facebook – Website

33 Years Ago PINK FLOYD Decided To Continue Without ROGER WATERS…

Posted on by JL

11 November 2019

pinkfloyd

On 11 November 1986, 33 years ago today PINK FLOYD announced in a press statement that the band decided to continue using the name ‘Pink Floyd‘ without Roger Waters who left the band the year before in 1985 and that they were recording a new album.

Guitarist/vocalist David Gilmour said afterward “By 1984, Roger had very obviously decided that enough was enough for him. And I hadn’t decided that enough was enough for me. So I imagine I thought, ‘Yes, we’ll go back to doing Floyd.’”

Drummer and co-founder Nick Mason remembers: “I think David led on the idea of continuing. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to carry on – I did – but I don’t think I cared as much
as David did. We’d be partly in the studios and partly in the lawyers’ office – ‘Was Roger going to injunct?’ And the answer was, of course he couldn’t, because he’d left the band, and 
the one thing clear in all our contractual arrangements was that if someone left, they left, and the band continued without them… That gave David and me the authority to carry on.”

Finally, after all the legal battles, the new PINK FLOYD – Gilmour, Mason and Richard
Wright – released triumphant longplayer ‘A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON’ in 1987…

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PINK FLOYD: Website – Facebook

Legendary Music Weekly NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS Published First Ever UK Pop Chart 56 Years Ago Today…

Posted on by JL

The first ever UK Pop Chart was published by music weekly NEW MUSICAL EXPRESS on
8 November 1952, 67 years ago today after 53 record shops were asked to declare their sales returns. ‘Here In My Heart’ by Al Martino was the first No.1. and stayed at the top spot for nine weeks.

Here’s that very first Number One hit in the UK, 56 years ago today…

CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Released Their Top Longplayer ‘WILLY AND THE POOR BOYS’ 50 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

Classics from the past…

2 November 2019

50 years ago today, on 2 November 2019, Californian legends CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL released one of their most successful longplayers with ‘WILLY AND THE POOR BOYS’ (their third LP in just one year). A first-class album combining rock, Americana, country, blues and rockabilly in a most astounding, exciting and utterly catching way with John Fogerty‘s characteristic voice – born to sing rock ‘n’ roll – injecting each and every song (except instrumental track Poorboy Shuffle, of course) on this LP, with his irresistible vocal bewitchingness. Still a BIG sounding and highly entertaining album today!

Ultimate Class Rock wrote: “Has anyone in rock history had a year as a productive and as uniformly excellent as Creedence Clearwater Revival did in 1969? They started the year, in January, with their sophomore album, Bayou Country. They followed it up in August with ‘Green River’. Three months after that they released their masterpiece, ‘Willy and the Poor Boys.’ One of the band’s greatest achievements, which is even more remarkable coming at the end of Fogerty and the group’s tireless year. Before 1970 ended, they’d release six albums in less than two and a half years. Only the Beatles, during their Beatlemania era, worked at a more feverish pace. But they had more than one songwriter supplying them with hits. Fogerty was pretty much on his own. Any way you look at it, that’s an amazing accomplishment.”

Three stellar highlights…

– DOWN ON THE CORNER –

– FORTUNATE SUN –
(Their anti- Vietnam war anthem)

– IT CAME OUT OF THE SKY –

Album in full…

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CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: Facebook – All Albums

NIRVANA Released ‘MTV UNPLUGGED IN NEW YORK’ Album 25 Years Ago…

Posted on by JL

1 November 2019

25 years ago today, on 1 November 1994, NIRVANA released ‘MTV UNPLUGGED IN
NEW YORK’, 7 months after Kurt Cobain’s death. The LP features an acoustic performance recorded at Sony Music Studios in New York City a year before, for the television series ‘MTV Unplugged’. The set consisted of lesser known Nirvana songs and covers from songs by
the Vaselines, David Bowie, Lead Belly, and Meat Puppets whose members Cris and Curt Kirkwood joined Nirvana onstage.

It was overall an unexpected and a most striking event as the stripped versions of all songs, musically and vocally, turned them into heartbreaking, profound and almost spiritual musings sung by Kurt Cobain with an impassioned depth we never heard
before, because of most of the tracks we only knew the original, noisy renditions.
The final result was truly impressive, wholehearted and gripping.

AllMusic wrote: “If ‘In Utero’ is a suicide note, MTV Unplugged in New York is a message
from beyond the grave, a summation of Kurt Cobain’s talents and pain so fascinating,
it’s hard to listen to repeatedly… It’s a nakedly emotional record, unintentionally so, as the subtext means more than the main themes of how Nirvana wanted to prove its worth and diversity, showcasing the depth of their songwriting. As it turns out, it accomplishes its goals rather too well; this is a band, and songwriter, on the verge of discovering a new sound and style.” Full review here – Score 5/5

Three highlights…

– ALL APOLOGIES –

Album in full…

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NIRVANA: Website – Facebook