Money for Nothing, stated to be the No.1 Dire Straits Tribute Band is an amazing example of the accurate re-creation of the sound of the original seventies band.
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By Pat Murphy The music we now know as country evolved out of a genre that used to be referred to as hillbilly.
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Breakfast with: Nicky Stevens - Brotherhood of Man. With the 64th Eurovision Song Contest looming, I thought it was time to look back some 43 years to the UK’s biggest success story of the competition.
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Leo Sayer as we chat about Versailles, broken hearts, The Little Prince and more.
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By Derek Mead JOAN SHAW/SALENA JONES is American by birth but resident in England since 1965. Salena sings Jazz – Latin – Pop – Funk Gospel – Cabaret – Swing – Rhythm and Blues as the forerunner to rock’n’roll – and has extended to the standards of the The Great American Songbook and International best-sellers. […]
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By Derek Mead WITH the recent death in October of Babs Beverley, it is time for some reflection on the Beverley Sisters trio which emerged from the war years to succeed in an era so different from the music and musicians of today. Only The Kaye sisters can be considered a good comparison, and they […]
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RUSTY YOUNG, founding member of Poco, songwriter, vocalist, et al, chats about Ann-Margret, sleepwalk, tap dancing, and more. By Jane Quinn RUSTY joined us on Planet Earth in 1946 as Norman Russell “Rusty” Young. He is, of course, the original POCO-man and the master of the pedal steel guitar; but did you know Rusty Young […]
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By Ian Wooley, former DJ and MD of Retro Nights IT WAS 20 years ago when local Eddie Cochran fan Angela Powell first laid a memorial on the Chippenham roadside verge where the 21-year-old Rock ‘n’ Roll singer’s hire car crashed one fatal night in April, 1960. The cream Consul in which he was traveling […]
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‘Group relationship grows stronger’Emerson’ A massive nerve- straining European tour over, Emerson, Lake and Palmer are safely back home rehearsing and recording again in preparation for another American stint and their fifth album. Parts of the European tour were recorded, and if, when they’ve heard the tapes,...
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Fans are invited to celebrate the 46th anniversary of David Bowie’s iconic album with a ‘Rock Tour + Tea’ at K West Hotel & Spa. The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars album artwork features the hotel’s name ‘K West’. The ‘Rock Tour + Tea’ package includes overnight accommodation in one of K West’s plush...
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FLEETWOOD MAC AND LED ZEPPELIN top the betting on Glastonbury Festival’s 2019 headline acts. Stairway to Heaven rockers Led Zeppelin head Betway’s list of potential Pyramid Stage head- liners. With a year to go before the festival returns, Led Zeppelin appear to be clear favourites followed by Fleetwood Mac at 3/1. Neither...
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Screamin’ Festival: 1999 – 2018: – 20th Anniversary. Crazy Cavan with the Rhythm Rockers rock ‘n’ roll and rip it up with Linda Gail Lewis, at the fabulous Spanish festival ‘Screamin’ last month in Calella, just 45 minutes from Barcelona, Spain. It’s a week-long holiday and 50s rock and roll...
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Like The Seekers, Judith Durham has been out of the limelight for a long time, having suffered a brain haemorrhage. Just recently, Judith was able to arrange a phone call from Australia to Dame Vera Lynn, our own 101-year-old veteran pop star. The call was set up by The Beat reader and contributor Derek Mead, and Shelley Bovey, who...
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THE NEW SEEKERS release 1974 albums on CD for the first time, Together/Farewell, on April 20 The New Seekers recording catalogue has been vastly overlooked on CD, considering just how enormous this mixed vocal group were between 1970 and the group’s split in 1974. In addition to their many hits which included I’d Like...
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Stones filter through THE ROLLING STONES No Filter tour is in the UK and Ireland this summer, with more shows in Germany, France, the Czech Republic, and Poland. They play 13 shows in 12 venues across Europe in September and October. STONES – NO FILTER has Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood out on the road...
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‘BIG GIRLS Don’t Cry’ is a show claiming to celebrate the music of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons. The publicity states: ‘Step back in time, to the era of romance. Where gents were gents, and gals were gals! Come and experience the iconic sounds of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons authentically recreated...
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By Pat Murphy THE early Grammys didn’t care for rock ‘n’ roll. The Grammys were invented in the late 1950s to give the American music industry its own version of Hollywood’s Oscars. Ostensibly, “artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence” would be the watchword. And right from the get-go, the works honoured...
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At the height of the Punk Rock explosion in the late seventies, a song by a relatively unknown American singer-songwriter drifted into the charts. Dean Friedman’s Lucky Stars followed his first chart entry, Woman Of Mine, which got to No.52 in the early summer of 1978. In September, Lucky Stars climbed to No.3 and has since become...
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