Ronnie James Dio RIP

Another victim of cancer, Ronnie James Dio died on 16th May at the age of 67.

Most reports have concentrated on his stint as lead singer with Black Sabbath, replacing Ozzy Osbourne in 1979, but he came to my attention previous to that on a totally different sounding track.

Roger Glover had just put together his concept album, The Butterfly Ball in 1974 and it was the lead single from this album "Love Is All" that, although failed to chart in the UK, became a number one in Holland and launched Ronnie's career worldwide.

It was a career that had taken quite some time to get going, his first recording being released in the 1950s as a trumpet player with Ronnie and the Redcaps. He then progressed through several bands until, whilst supporting Deep Purple, he came to the attention of Ritchie Blackmore.

Ritchie left Purple and formed his own group with Ronnie and the rest of his band. Rainbow were to become one of the biggest rock acts around. In 1976 Dio came to my attention again, with what is still one of my favourite rock tracks of all time, from the 'Rising' album "Do You Close Your Eyes' is a masterpiece in classic rock composing, and set the standard for the rest of the album.

The following album, 'Long Live Rock 'n' Roll' started to generate hit singles, and it was then that Ronnie decided to move on. His relatively short stint with Sabbath was followed in 1982 by the formation of his own band Dio. Their first album was a top 20 hit in the UK and spawned a single from the title track (a song that was covered in 1998 by Pat Boone, of all people, in a 'swing' style with Ronnie on backing vocals - a unique performance!!!).

Ronnie continued with Dio and to collaborate with other artists, including another stint with Black Sabbath, until his death last week. His last project was a tour promoting a new album for his other band Heaven And Hell which he formed in 2006 with ex-members of Sabbath, which was recently cancelled due to Ronnie's ill health.

Here's my 2CD compilation for Ronnie;-

CD1

1. Ronnie & The Redcaps - Conquest

2. Ronnie & The Prophets - Love Potion No.9

3. Electric Elves - Hey Look Me Over

4. Elves - Amber Velvet

5. Elf - I'm Coming Back To You

6. Elf - Carolina County Ball

7. Roger Glover & Friends - Love Is All

8. Rainbow - Man On A Silver Mountain

9. Rainbow - Do You Close Your Eyes?

10. Rainbow - Kill The King (Live)

11. Rainbow - Long Live Rock'n' Roll

12. Rainbow - L. A. Connection

13. David Coverdale - Give Me Kindness

14. Black Sabbath - Neon Knights

15. Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell

16. Black Sabbath - Die Young

17. Black Sabbath - Mob Rules

18. Black Sabbath - Turn up the Night

19. Ronnie James Dio - Budweiser TV Ad

CD 2

1. Dio - Holy Diver

2. Dio - The Last In Line

3. Dio - Mystery

4. Dio - Hungry For Heaven

5. Hear'n Aid - Stars

6. Dio - I Could Have been A Dreamer

7. Dio - Hey Angel

8. Black Sabbath - TV Crimes

9. Dio - This Is Your Life

10. Pat Boone - Holy Diver

11. Ronnie James Dio & Yngwie Mamlmsteen - Dream On

12. Dio - Master Of The Moon

13. Queensryche - The Chase

14. Girlschool - I Spy

15. Heaven & Hell - Bible Black

Beestrax

Here's an odd one...one of my first ever compilations, originally made when I was still young enough to believe that all you had to do to make a compilation was to add together a load of your favourite tracks and copy them onto a C-90 cassette. Simple! No licensing, no rights to clear and you could draw your own cases for them too, and for that professional touch, you could use pics cut out from various magazines. No worries about marketing and creating 'hooks' to hang the album on so that people would buy it! All the complications that arose when creating various artist CDs for a living, just didn't exist (or at least it seemed that way!) Just make up a tape for your own enjoyment. Millions did it!

Over the years several of my friends requested copies of this tape, and it still remains one of my favourite things to listen to. Created from various album tracks and 7" single b-sides (remember them?), the title "Beestrax" was quite clever, at least I thought so at the time! Now lovingly re-created on CDR, I can let this album take me back to my youth, it'll do until they invent time-travel...

TRACK LIST

1. Duran Duran - The Chauffer (Blue Silver)

2. Pink Floyd - Money

3. Everything But The Girl - Never Could Have Been Worse

4. Black Uhuru - Party Next Door

5. Rolling Stones - 2000 Light Years From Home

6. Johnny Mathis - The Last Time I Felt Like This

7. Cocteau Twins - Pepper Tree

8. Focus - House Of The King

9. The Who - Boris The Spider

10. New Musik - Warp

11. Colin Towns - Kate

12. Imposter - Withered And Died

13. Rickie Lee Jones - Weasel & The White Boys Cool

14. Sandie Shaw - I Don't Owe You Anything

15. Juan Martin - Harlequin 1918

16. Nena - Ich Blieb Im Bett

17. Pink Floyd - Sheep Part II

18. ABC - Theme from Mantrap

19. Gerry Rafferty - Why Don't You Talk To Me

20. Elton John - Bitter Fingers

21. Space - Ballad For Space Lovers

OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST MEMORIES

Continuing on from my last blog, I thought I would share with you some compilations that I have made for my own amusement over the years.

One of my favourite programmes of my youth was BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test. A relative late-comer to the programme, I joined at the stage when 'Whispering' Bob Harris was beginning to lose control of, what until that point had been, his own private TV music show. No longer was the programme showing the prog rock dinosaurs of old. The youthful new bands of the mid-seventies were beginning to take a much larger foothold of TV's only real alternative to 'Top Of The Pops'. Although perfectly relaxed with the 'new wave' of music that he now presented, the introduction of excitable Annie Nightingale as co-presenter obviously irked the reserved Harris, quickly forcing him to leave the programme completely. 'Young upstart journalists' David Hepworth and Mark Ellen, and DJs Andy Kershaw and Richard Skinner, alternatively carried on banging in the nails and digging the grave, of this fine TV institution until it lost firstly it's 'Old Grey' pre-title and inevitably it's soul. By 1987 the programme was little more than an overriding title for live concerts and was dropped completely.

The influence of the 'Test' over the years can not be exaggerated, and it certainly introduced me to hundreds of acts that I would otherwise have missed. In 1980, the BBC released an album of tracks that had featured on the programme over the past few years, and the album became a regular visitor to my turntable at the time. Tracks on 'Test Pressing' were;-

1. Police - Can't Stand Losing You
2. Tubeway Army - Down In the Park

3. Willie Nile - Across The River

4. Yellow Magic Orchestra - Cosmic Surfin'

5. Simple Minds - Chelsea Girl

6. John Etheridge & Ric Sanders (credited as '2nd Vision') - Ice Bells

7. Blondie - Eat To the Beat

8. Jo Jo Zep & the Falcons - Shape I'm In

9. Landscape - Sonja Henie

10. Selecter - Missing Words

11. Alda Reserve - Some Get Away

12. Genesis - Please Don't Ask

13. John Cooper Clarke - Beasley Street

A fantastic album that I can recommend to anyone.

30 years later, I found all these tracks along with the theme tune to OGWT;- Stone Fox Chase by Area Code 615, and then went on to create my own album of personal memories of the programme.

Grey Memories:-

1. Patti Smith - Dancing Barefoot
2. Monochrome Set - 405 Lines
3. Devo - Jocko Homo
4. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
5. XTC - Radios In Motion
6. Frank Zappa - Baby Snakes
7. Bruce Springsteen - Rosalita
8. Meat Loaf - Bat Out Of Hell
9. Ellen Foley - What's A Matter Baby
10. Kansas - Dust In The Wind
11. Elton John - Tiny Dancer
12. Roches - Hammond Song
13. Santana - Black Magic Woman
14. Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing
15. Peter Tosh (with Mick Jagger) - (You Gotta Walk) Don't Look Back
16. Frank Zappa - City Of Tiny Lights
17. John Etheridge and Ric Sanders - Dancing Circle
18. XTC - Yacht Dance (Live on 'Whistle Test')
19. Patti Smith - Because The Night (Live on 'Whistle Test) 
20. Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat (Live on 'Whistle Test)

Malcolm McLaren RIP

Malcolm McLaren died earlier this month on the 8th April 2010 of progressive cancer.

The term that instantly sprung to mind when I heard the news was that of "impresario". It is a term that only a very few can legitimately use, but I think it certainly fits this individual. His creativity changed ideas for more artists than can be listed here. From fashion, design, image and music, his influence affected hundreds, and although his methods sometimes made unpopular amongst those he worked with, he will still be dearly missed.

Whenever someone of Malcolm's influence passes away, I wade through my music collection and create an 'ideal' memorial album. From my own experiences of compiling legal compilations, I know how difficult it can be licensing this type of compilation, but the joy I get from making these has never left me, so I still feel the need to create these albums, even if no record companies are interested in them anymore.

So for your interest (and mine), here's my 2CD set for McLaren...

CD1

1. TV Show extract.
2. New York Dolls - (There's Gonna Be A) Showdown
3. Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation
4. Television - Prove It
5. Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen
6. Malcolm McLaren - God Save The Queeen Symphony
7. Sex Pistols - The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle
8. Malcolm McLaren - You Need Hands
9. Adam & the Ants - Lady
10. Bow Wow Wow - C30 C60 C90 Go!
11. Bow Wow Wow - Go Wild In The Country
12. Malcolm McLaren - Buffalo Gals
13. Malcolm McLaren - Soweto
14. Jimmy The Hoover - Tantalise (Wo Wo Ee Yeh Yeh)
15. Malcolm McLaren - Double Dutch
16. Malcolm McLaren - Duck For The Oyster

CD2

1. Malcolm McLaren - Madame Butterfly
2. Malcolm McLaren - Waltz Darling
3. Malcolm McLaren - Aria On Air (from the British Airways Ad)
4. Malcolm McLaren ft Lisa Marie - Something's Jumpin' In Your Shirt
5. Malcolm McLaren - House Of The Blue Danube
6. Malcolm McLaren - Magic's Back (from 'The Ghost Of Oxford Street')
7. Fantastic Planet - Carry On Columbus
8. Malcolm McLaren - About Her (from 'Kill Bill Vol. 2')
9. Malcolm McLaren & Catherine Deneuve - Paris
10. Amerie ft Malcolm McLaren - Some Like It (Remix)
11. Liz Phair - Whip/Smart
12. Eminem - Without Me
13. Mariah Carey - Honey
14. Nelly Furtado - Powerless

Music of the Day: XTC

XTC are my favourite band of all time. More than that, I have aged as they have, and as their music has changed over the years, so my own taste has widened. From their first album ('White Music') way back in 1977, to the eclectic musings of their leader Andy Partridge today, their music has always been with me.

When I first heard 'Science Friction' at my friend's house in the late 70s, I was amazed by the combination of power and melody behind these punk 'wannabees'. When I rushed out and purchased their album, I was enthused even more, and in particular by one of the tracks that appeared on side 1.

'This Is Pop' is to me the perfect pop single, and as I played it again this morning, I was amazed by how fresh and immediate it sounded over thirty years later. In the interim, XTC have given me a whole range of musical genres to discover.

It was on this album that I first heard Bob Dylan's 'All Along the Watchtower' (even the Hendrix cover seems tame compared to this!). Their next album 'Go 2' was their progression into 'new wave'. This was one of the best album covers ever, with a cynical comment on the ever-increasing force of marketing on the music industry, cheekily printed with a section missing so that you would have to match the inner sleeve to the corner of the piece to read it in its entirety. The album also came with a free EP of 'dub' tracks that were remixed from the original album so as to become almost unrecognisable!

The third album 'Drums And Wires' cemented the band into my affections and should have been the album that launched them into the mainstream. Unfortunately around this time, Andy had a nervous breakdown live on stage, which ended XTC's career as a touring band, and from that they never recovered.

In the years that followed they transformed musically through pop, psychedelia (via their alter-ego's the Dukes Of Stratosphear), rock, and even traditional English folk music, but although critically acclaimed nothing seemed to attract Joe Public. It hadn't helped that their only Top 10 single to date had been the gimmicky 'Senses Working Overtime' way back in 1982. 'Dear God' was a college hit in the States, a song that always sends a chill down my spine, but after the release of 'Wasp Star' in 2000, Colin Moulding, the other leading force in the group, parted company with Andy and the band faded away. Andy started his own record label APE and released many XTC demos, out-takes and unreleased tracks on the label, as well as signing some creditable acts, but none have (to date) made any mark pm the charts. Andy has produced and appeared on many albums over the years and his consistent talents have always impressed.

Musically, he is my ultimate hero, not least because of his songwriting talents. Whilst others were writing of 'loves' and 'losts', he was composing songs about transport, buildings and politics - and you have to have talent to do that with any credibility. It's why he's seated on my immediate left in my 'last supper' picture (above) - the first invite tp what would be a great party!

BEST ALBUM: DRUMS AND WIRES (1979)

BIGGEST SINGLE: SENSES WORKING OVERTIME (1982) (lastfm)

FAVOURITE TRACK: `MAYOR OF SIMPLETON' (youtube)- from album ORANGES AND LEMONS (1989)

STARTING POINT: ENGLISH SETTLEMENT (1982)

Music of the Day: Joan Armatrading

I've just been listening to one of my favourite artists, Joan Armatrading.
Vastly underated over the years, I have made a compilation of all her singles from her first album "Whatever's For Us" from 1972 to "Into The Blues" made 35 years later, and what an enjoyment it's been.
I think what I like best about Joan is her subtleness. Having said that, my favourite track was the pop classic 'Drop the Pilot' from 1983, which is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but most of her other work displays an intelligence and distinctiveness that sets her apart from most female singers.
Best known perhaps for her first (and to date, only) top ten UK hit "Love And Affection", it's this song that set the tone for what has been an outstanding career taking in blues, jazz, folk and pop.

BEST ALBUM: THE KEY (1983)
BIGGEST SINGLE: LOVE & AFFECTION (1976) (youtube)
FAVOURITE TRACK: THINKING MAN (lastfm) - from album SECRET SECRETS (1985)
STARTING POINT: ME MYSELF I (1980)

And so it begins...

So why start a blog if nobody is listening?

I know there are millions of blogs out there wittering on about the music they love, so why can't I be one of them?

Having compiled compilation albums that sold in their millions, and having had a regular column published in a well respected music magazine for several years, I am probably more entitled to air my opinions than most. My music tastes are wide and varied, and if I manage to keep the blog going, I should be able to cover some of the wide variety of music I listen to.

From the pure pop of the 70s & 80s, to the chart fodder that is excreted through modern media. From classical composers of the past to the contemporary electronic ones of today. The world music from every country on the atlas, to local bands in London and the south of England.

My music collection has grown to around a quarter of a million recordings from all genres, on mp3, CD, vinyl, tape and shellac. Some of this lot might be of interest to others???

Along the way I'll make a note of those who depart this world, and probably add a few comments on those who should....