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JOHN MARTYN: 'THE MAN UPSTAIRS' (DVD)
VOICEPRINT: VPDVD34
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 4th FEBRUARY 2008
The great John Martyn, whose career spans the great British Folk and Blues boom of the 1960s through to the present day, is the feature of a magnificent new DVD release, entitled The Man Upstairs, released via the Voiceprint label on Monday, February 4th 2008.
The Man Upstairs was recorded on March 17th, 1978 at the Audimax venue in Hamburg, and is released on DVD for the first time, originally filmed for the German music TV show Rockpalast. As long-term Martyn fans will attest, this period of his career was one of extraordinary creativity and feverish activity; two days after this performance, Martyn was in Miami, Florida, as the opening attraction on the Eric Clapton ‘Slowhand’ US tour. Several of the selections featured on the DVD originate from his One World album, then four months old, including Certain Surprise, Big Muff, Couldn’t Love You More and Small Hours, as well as the title track, a musing on the short life of Martyn’s Island Records compatriot and friend Nick Drake, whose music was then yet to undergo posthumous re-evaluation. The tracks show the influence of the album’s producer, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, as well as sumptuous examples of Martyn’s innovative guitar excursions, utilising layers of echoplex guitar and his inimitable slurred, smoky vocal technique.
This superb release comes with informative sleeve notes from Martyn expert John Hillerby, and affords an intimate, revealing insight to John Martyn’s remarkable and idiosyncratic talent, then at a creative peak.
For more information,
please contact Alan and Lesley at Indiscreet PR on 07813 290 474 or via this site for further details.
Track Listing: One Day Without You / Outside In / Bless The Weather / Certain Surprise / Big Muff / Couldn’t Love You More / Small Hours / Solid Air / May You Never / Seven Black Roses / Singin’ In The Rain / I’d Rather Be The Devil
FISH: '13TH STAR'
CHOCOLATE FROG: CF1402207
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 11th FEBRUARY 2008
Caledonian singer/songwriter, sometime actor,
wit, raconteur and all-round thoroughly decent bloke Fish is to release his brand new studio album, entitled 13th Star, on his own Chocolate Frog label (distributed by Voiceprint) on Monday 11th February 2008.
Those are the basic facts, but of course, there’s more, so much more to it than that. For, 13th Star is a landmark release in Fish’s career, his most intensely personal bunch of songs to date.
The phrase ‘concept album’ is one that comes loaded with a lot of progressive rock baggage, but 13th Star takes the themed record into a whole different world. For 13th Star is an album that was written as a celebration of his forthcoming marriage – BUT, during the recording of the album, the relationship sundered, which adds a wholly different and bittersweet dimension to the album. The history of rock and roll is positively littered with paeans of love and desire and loss of same – think of Layla, umpteen songs by The Beatles, entire albums by Joni Mitchell; but there are none, to this writer’s knowledge, that have their entire intent and meaning turned on their head during the recording process. However, it is to Fish’s credit that out of the emotional wreckage of a failed relationship, an album of such colossal strength has been created.
13th Star is truly a new peak in Fish’s twenty-odd year career; sure, long-time fans will point to his earlier work as lead vocalist in Marillion, or to fine solo works such as Internal Exile or Raingods With Zippos, but 13th Star is pushing buttons on an emotive register that he has only rarely visited until now.
13th Star has a unity of purpose that restores faith in the album as a set of complementary songs, but tracks such as Zoe 25, which outlines the minutiae of relations in a series of acutely observed everyday events, or the romanticism of Arc Of The Curve, or the desolation of Openwater, are highlight tracks. Fish’s melodic gifts are equal to the lyrical themes, with music that has muscle and groove – music for grown-ups, indeed, dealing with the intensely personal in a way that is of universal appeal.
Fish is available for interview in support of this remarkable and engrossing release. He will also be undertaking a lengthy UK tour in March 2008 in support of 13th Star.
To book in a chat with this most affable and loquacious of subjects, please contact Alan and Lesley at Indiscreet PR on 07813 290 474 or via this site for further details.
Check out his supremely informative website, too, by clicking on:
PHILLIP GOODHAND-TAIT: 'THE LAST LAUGH'
SPAN TV: PGT 007
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
Well, who’d have thought? Rock and roll is well over fifty years old. And it’s beginning to feel its age. A dodgy back, knackered teeth, a dicky ticker and varicose veins. It’s been many times in intensive care, with the Priest administering the last rights, but like a punchy prize fighter who won’t admit the jig is up, it tears off the respirator, thrusts aside the intravenous drip, and staggers to its feet, shouting “Is that the best you’ve got? Hit me baby one more time!”
Of course, it’s not as bad as this – it’s much, much worse. In its fifty years, we have gone from ten-inch black shellac 78s to the download age, and the ‘industry’, like Dusty Springfield, just doesn’t know what to do with itself. The kids (or is it Da Kidz?) are burning off copies of their heroes latest records on their laptops, file-sharing furiously. Their parents and grandparents, however, are non-plussed; how do you come to terms with the technology, when for the last twenty years you’ve been told that the Compact Disc was the acme of recorded sound? You still like the idea of the Long Playing Record – you know, a collection of songs that are sequenced to complement one another, not something front end loaded with the hit singles, and then a tail-off of filler and remixes. And the songs themselves – how about a bit of craft – verses, choruses, middle-eights, key changes, arrangements – as opposed to something written by committee, performed by a bunch of grinning idiots whose desire is to be famous at any price? Well, it warms the proverbial cockles to be able to announce that not everyone has given up on the ‘proper’ album.
Step forward Mr Phillip Goodhand-Tait, a Brit singer-songwriter with a career that stretches back longer than Pete Doherty’s rap sheet, to the heyday of the Beat boom, when he lined up with The Stormsville Shakers. Then, he wrote hit records for the likes of The Love Affair – indeed, his own version of their smash Bringing On Back The Good Times is featured on The Last Laugh. He was signed to the same label – DJM – as Elton John, and cut a bunch of strongly melodic, lyrically engaging solo records, chucking the odd song for Roger Daltrey to record on his solo albums, before moving into video directing.
Phillip has returned to the recording fray in recent years, and The Last Laugh shows that advancing years have not dimmed his lyrical wit. Indeed, The Last Laugh sparkles with mordant humour. Look no further than the opener, I Remember Comedy (When It Made Me Laugh), a hilarious litany of grumpy old bloke complaints parlayed with charm and humour. Moreover, Paradise Grill is possibly the only song ever written about a crematorium! His ode to late-flowering love, The Old Fool’s In Love Again, oozes charm and subtlety, whilst managing a wry chuckle at the situation he finds himself in! These are but a few of a number of supremely funny, but engaging and soulful songs from one of British pop’s most unfairly under-regarded talents.
Phillip Goodhand-Tait wants to talk about the album, of course, and what he has to say is worth hearing.
For more information,
please contact Alan and Lesley at Indiscreet PR on 07813 290 474 or via this site for further details.
WILLIAM TOPLEY: 'ALL IN THE DOWNS'
WILLIAM TOPLEY: WT 002
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
All In The Downs is the new album from the enigmatic William Topley. Born and bred in England, and nurtured on a diet of blues and rock and roll, William has been building a seriously dedicated fan base in the UK and the US ever since the release of his first album with former band The Blessing in 1991.
Now continuing to plough a unique solo furrow, All In The Downs is the latest instalment in Topley’s unfurling musical odyssey. Produced by Nick Davis (Genesis / XTC), and written and recorded in the heart of England, the album takes the listener on a mystery tour through Jamaica, the Bahamas and finally back to the Garden of England via Heathrow. In Nick’s words, All In The Downs started with great songs, we captured the magic and chemistry of a long standing band, and on top of this we have William’s superb and unique voice.”
Inspired by many influences and covering themes familiar to William’s many fans, the record opens with the powerful challenge “Are You One Of Us”, and carries the listener through musical vistas inspired by The Bahamas (Lotus Eater); Paris (Sooner or Later); and Palm Beach & LA (Quicksand, written with Alice Bierhorst, and Chapter and Verse co-written with Colin Vearncombe, formerly known as the artist Black). The album even features a song inspired by John Gay’s poem Black Eyed Susan’s Farewell to Sweet William. In William’s own words “it had Hampshire, seamanship, parting and love, the ‘full English’ of emotional nourishment all wrapped up in period costumes and cider burps”.
William’s voice, once praised by legendary Muscle Shoals producer Barry Beckett as “the best he’d ever worked with” – which, coming from a man who produced Aretha Franklin is praise indeed – is perfectly matched by the musical accompaniment of William’s band. They’ve now been with him for more than ten years and deliver performances that only road hardened bands with much shared experience can, and create a sound that can only come from having spent many hours together building up a musical empathy that comes across in the grooves.
When you listen to a William Topley record you get a lot more than you bargained for. This is an album that stands out from the ordinary, presenting intelligent lyrics and giving a new spin to the universal themes of love and loss. In a world of identikit artists Topley has a truly unique voice, both literally and metaphorically. William has appeared onstage with Mark Knopfler and Dominic Miller, written lyrics for Steve Winwood, and Neil Dorfsman (Sting / Dire Straits) described him as “the most original songwriter I’ve heard for years”.
After encountering All In The Downs you’ll understand why. This record is one of those rare gems that will stand up to repeated listenings and offer something new each time.
William Topley is available for interview in support of this fine album, and is also undertaking some select shows to promote it.
For more information,
please contact Alan and Lesley at Indiscreet PR on 07813 290 474 or via this website for further details.
“A future classic album.” Nick Davis
STEVE HILLAGE: 'LIVE IN GERMANY - 77' (DVD)
VOICEPRINT: VPDVD 32
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
The 1970s solo work of Steve Hillage, alumnus of the ‘Canterbury Scene’ bands, sometime guitarist with Gong and today one of the mainstays of the System 7 dance project, is under the spotlight by way of Live In Germany 1977, a DVD released on the Voiceprint label on Monday, 25th February 2008.
The DVD was recorded on 20th March 1977 in Bensberg, Germany, and was originally broadcast on the German Rockpalast TV show. It features Hillage and his band in sizzling form, ripping through a set that features such cracking Hillage originals as Salmon Song, Lunar Musick Suite, Electrick Gypsies and Meditation of The Dragon, as well as his classic interpretations of Hurdy Gurdy Man (Donovan), It’s All Too Much (a blissed-out George Harrison opus originally cut by The Beatles, of course), and most unusually still, the Buddy Holly / Rolling Stones rocker Not Fade Away. Hillage was closely involved in the production of this DVD, and has added three previously unseen performances to it, as well as a contemporary bonus feature interview.
What is perhaps most remarkable to consider about Hillage’s career at the time is that he managed to sustain a very successful career with thoroughgoing, heavily psychedelic influenced music while the Punk Revolution raged through the British music industry – indeed, Hillage would become label-mates of The Sex Pistols later in 1977, yet Hillage weathered the musical storm, building up a sizable international audience in the process. He then became an in-demand record producer, working with a variety of acts such as Simple Minds, It Bites, Robyn Hitchcock and The Charlatans. Moreover, in recent years, Hillage has, in association with Miquette Giraudy (who features in his band on this DVD) moved heavily into the ambient / dance music arena with their collaboration System 7.
System 7 are to release a new album in January 2008; Steve Hillage is available for interview and promotional work in support of this DVD release.
For more information,
please contact Alan and Lesley at Indiscreet PR on 07813 290 474 or via this website for further details.
Track Listing: Salmon Song / Hurdy Gurdy Glissando / Hurdy Gurdy Man / Solar Musick Suite / Lunar Musick Suite / Meditation Of The Dragon / It’s All Too Much / Aftaglid (Part 1) / Electrick Gypsies / Not Fade Away (Glid Forever) / BONUS FEATURE: Exclusive Interview
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS: 'HERNANDO'
SONGS OF THE SOUTH: 006
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
The North Mississippi Allstars are proud to announce the release of their fifth studio record. Entitled, Hernando it’ll be released on Monday February 25th 2008.
It is the band’s first studio album released on their own label, Songs of the South Records. Hernando also marks the first release since 2005’s critically lauded and Grammy-nominated Electric Blue Watermelon.
Where “EBW” was a tribute to the tradition of the Hill Country Blues legacy that has always influenced the band, the brothers Dickinson, Luther (guitars, vocals) and Cody (drums) and bassist Chris Chew, decided to cut the lines from the past with the new record and create their most personal sonic statement to date. To celebrate this newfound unity in independence, they called the record Hernando, which is the name of the town the trio grew up in together.
“This is definitely our most focused record of original music that we’ve done,” says Luther. “This records stands alone…we don’t draw as much on our Hill Country roots. We’re a blues rock band and set out to make a blues rock record.”
Despite the new direction, the band kept the vibe close to home. Not only did they have their dad, legendary producer Jim Dickinson, produce the record along with the band once again, they made it in the studio on his property. They spent most of September 2007 at Zebra Ranch Studio, aka “The Barn,” creating eleven songs of mostly original material. “There’s a vibe The Barn puts on music,” says Luther. “You don’t have the sterile environment and the feeling of the clock ticking.”
Hernando is a perfect representation of where The North Mississippi Allstars are now. It’s the sound of a world-class rock trio stripped to its bare essentials – each musician focused on his own personal-best performance yet intrinsically aware of the other players and the song – a communication only found between lifelong friends who have played and toured together for 11 years. Hernando is maximum-energy blues rock; it is The North Mississippi Allstars’ original blues rock record. It’s a culmination of all their experiences up to this point. It’s finally a band that is as confident in the studio as it is on the stage.
Look for The North Mississippi Allstars to launch a national tour in conjunction with the release of Hernando.
The North Mississippi Allstars will be available for phone interviews:
For more information, please contact Alan & Lesley at Indiscreet PR, on
07813 290 474 or via this website.
www.nmallstars.com
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IAN GILLAN: 'LIVE AT ANAHEIM'
EDEL: 0187732ERE – DOUBLE CD
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
Without doubt one of the all-time great Brit Rock vocalists, Ian Gillan is the definitive voice of Deep Purple, but his solo work is always worth lending an ear to, and in a live situation, there is none finer.
So, it is with the greatest of pleasure that Indiscreet PR presents Live In Anaheim, a double CD recorded at the famous House Of Blues club. An album that sounds exactly as any rock album should: powerful, fresh, with no studio corrections. And what a concert! No doubt one of the best live albums Ian Gillan has ever released.
There’s a plentiful stock of bangs for your entertainment Euro, as our hero and his trusty band rattle the cobwebs out of a bunch of solo and Deep Purple classics, recorded at the end of 2006, just after the release of his Gillan’s Inn album. Gillan takes time out to revisit some of the less obvious points of call throughout his career – such as Have Love I’ll Travel, which he recorded on the Michael Lee Jackson solo album – as he says himself as an aside to the audience, “I couldn’t do this with Deep Purple – I’m on vacation!”
The mega classics Smoke on The Water and Into The Fire are here, but also many songs that Purple rarely played (if ever), such as When a Blind Man Cries, or Knocking at Your Back Door, Wasted Sunsets or Not Responsible (both from the classic album Perfect Stranger).
Ian Gillan is available for interview in support of this awesome new release.
For more information, please contact Alan & Lesley at Indiscreet PR, on
07813 290 474 or via this website.
Tracklisting:
CD 1: Second Sight (intro) / No Laughing In Heaven / Into The Fire / Hang Me Out to Dry / Have Love I’ll Travel / Wasted Sunsets / Not Responsible / No Worries / Rivers of Chocolate (Band Jam) / Unchain Your Brain
CD 2: Bluesy Blues Sea / Moonshine / Texas State Of Mind / Sugar Plum / When A Blind Man Cries / Men Of War / Drum Solo / Smoke On The Water / Trouble / Knocking At Your Back Door
FLO & EDDIE: 'THE PHLORESCENT LEECH & EDDIE / FLO & EDDIE'
MANIFESTO: MFO 48001 - DOUBLE CD
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
Flo & Eddie – or Howard Kaylan and Mark Volman, if you’d prefer, have their first two albums – The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie and Flo & Eddie, from 1972 and 1973, released on CD for the first time on the Manifesto label on Monday, February 25th 2008.
Flo & Eddie first rose to prominence as vocalists with The Turtles, who scored heavily with classics such as Happy Together, and Elenore.
After the band split, they hooked up with Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention. However, it came to light that The Turtles former management actually owned the rights to their names, and Zappa dubbed them The Phlorescent Leech & Eddie as a sobriquet. As members of The Mothers, the duo appeared in the 200 Motels movie, and were present at the casino fire in Montreux in 1971 that spawned the Deep Purple hit, Smoke On The Water. The duo also have a strong UK connection, as backing vocalists on the T Rex hits, Hot Love, Get It On and others.
The two albums featured here are minor gems of inspired West Coast pop-rock
and good-time lunacy that have worn rather well, and thoroughly justify their
long-overdue debut in the digital domain.
Howard & Mark are also available for interview in support of this timely reissue.
For more information, please contact Alan & Lesley at Indiscreet PR, on
07813 290 474 or via this website.
UTE LEMPER: 'BETWEEN YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW'
EDEL: 0186982CTT
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
“The songs of Kurt Weill, the French, the European repertoire of chansons, with a contemporary dimension…,” that’s how the acclaimed German chanteuse Ute Lemper describes the concept which has earned her world-wide acclaim throughout the past 30 years.
Her new releases, Between Yesterday And Tomorrow, stands out among her 23 or so album recording career. For the first time, Lemper has recorded exclusively self-penned material. In her own characteristic style, she describes experiences, memories, impressions, which develop into moments of elation, doubt, and even violence.
The German-born New York resident of eight years reflects the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Twin Towers, the ascent of the moon between the sky and the Earth, and also of the atomic tests in Nevada between 1945 and 1962 – all feature in the subject matter of this demanding and diverse album. An ode to the strong faith of the nomads, an unmistakeable invitation to a stranger in a bar, an appeal to remember love, and even a caring motherly promise to… her children, her husband, a friendship? There is a variety of poetic excursions on this album, which consistently, deftly defies hasty interpretation.
Yet there are any number of references to the life of the multi-award-winning vocalist and dancer, mother and wife. “I could have told a hundred stories.” The fact that these eleven songs represent her “subjective vision of musical storytelling” is explained by the 44-year-old with an “attempt to condense this complex, tormented, and at the same time wonderful world into a poetic journey which combines musical elements from different genres and cultures.”
The result sounds by no means as heavy as it reads - in fact the opposite is the case. With great sensitivity, and not a little humour, Ute Lemper and her husband, Todd Turkisher, have produced an incisively arranged band album, which moves through all its thematic landscapes with apparent ease. Grooving rhythms create an urban feel, string sections provide musical grain, scratches or an accordion generate subtle shifts of tone and emphasis.
Lemper’s live and studio band moves effortlessly between world and pop music, touching on funk and jazz in their musical excursions. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, her compositions fan out these genres in her very own style, fusing harmonies that breathe the tango with jazz scales, without relying on tried-and-tested clichés. The bands’ consummate musicality is much too good to take the obvious route, anyway. Accentuated, multi-faceted, stylistically confident and with impressive dynamism, Turkisher (drums), Morris Pleasure (bass), Mark Lambert (guitar) and Werner Gierig (piano) play their way through complex mood changes. Frequently it’s only a break that separates a ballad from a pop-rock interlude. Kevin Killen manned the controls of the mixing desk, and Bob Ludwig mastered the material – so the overall sonic image is rich in contrast and leaves nothing to be desired.
With poetic intensity, she attends to the tragedy and tristesse which political events frequently bring about, faces the impenetrability of our emotional life, and finds a way out through positive thoughts. “Now is love, don’t live in the future or in the past”
A sound piece of advice from a true diva who has devoted herself to her art for some 30 years.
Ute Lemper will be available for interviews in support of this release.
For more information, please contact Alan & Lesley at Indiscreet PR, on
07813 290 474 or via this website.
LIVING LOUD: 'LIVING LOUD'
EDEL:
RELEASE DATE: MONDAY 25th FEBRUARY 2008
ROCK’S LIVING LEGENDS JUST GOT LOUDER!
DON AIREY-BOB DAISLEY-JIMMY BARNES-LEE KERSLAKE-STEVE MORSE
The heritage of Living Loud includes some of
the greatest rock bands of all time, with founding members Jimmy Barnes, Lee Kerslake, Steve Morse and Don Airey, a veritable rock royalty with lineage to Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Blizzard of Oz, Ozzy Osbourne, Cold Chisel, Rainbow and Black Sabbath.
The Living Loud story goes back over a decade. “It started twelve or so years ago” Bob Daisley explains. “Lee Kerslake and I talked about redoing some of the Ozzy songs with guests on them, and eventually hooked up with Jimmy through a mutual friend, Drew Thompson, who also spoke to Lee Kerslake and suggested Steve Morse as the guitar player. We had a very short window in which to record, so we all got together and rearranged the Blizzard of Oz songs, plus we wrote another five new ones, and the recorded them all in Florida, in less than three weeks."
Jimmy Barnes was familiar with all of the members of Living Loud but had known Deep Purple’s Steve Morse the longest. “I’d worked with Steve Morse before”, says Jimmy “The last time those guys were out, I found out they were huge fans of mine, and I was a huge fan of Deep Purple. I knew of Bob, I remember when he was with Rainbow. As a young head-banger, I was a Uriah Heep fan. That’s also where I knew of Lee.”
For the album, Living Loud re-recorded six songs from the first two Ozzy Osbourne Blizzard of Ozz albums. “We started knocking up some of the new arrangements for the Ozzy stuff, and it sounded great. That worked so well,” Bob says, “Then we came up with five new tunes. Jimmy came in and was listening to the new ideas and he had a book of lyrics that could go with what we had done. Everybody got so well together – there were no egos.”
Barnes came to Living Loud through his association with Drew Thompson. At first, Daisley was sceptical, but it turned out to be the right decision. Thompson agrees: “The music world has long spoken about the great rock singers – Robert Plant, Ian Gillan and Paul Rodgers. All are amazing talents, but you have to include the name Jimmy Barnes amongst them – he has an incredible range, and ability to sing anything from blues to rock to soul…to hard rock. Once you have heard this album you will understand what I mean, Jimmy Barnes is a genuine superstar” Bob Daisley concludes: “Listening to the album now, I don’t think anybody else in the world could have been as suited to the material as he was – Jimmy was just so right for this project.”
This album also comes with a separate DVD release of the band live in Australia – where Living Loud nail their awesome, in-your-face live sound before a baying crowd.
For more information, please contact Alan & Lesley at Indiscreet PR, on
07813 290 474 or via this website.