Recently looking in to my favorite HURRICANE album, Liquifury, from 2000. This was the last Hurricane album, (the 80s band) that featured singer Kelly Hansen (later of FOREIGNER, now of DEAD DAISIES). Among the guitar players and songwriters on that album was Sean Manning. I knew little about Manning, but was aware he also had an association with QUIET RIOT (see 1993’s Terrified album). I also found The Exiles, and in checking this out, discovered the band’s lone album from 1996 has more recently been given a 30th Anniversary reissue. The Exiles was a project released by Manning, and (singer) Paul Rafferty. both British, who had relocated at some point to the US. Rafferty had been the original singer in BONHAM, though before the band released anything. The original 10 track CD release of The Exiles was produced by Neil Giraldo (Pat Benatar), and included members of Benatar;s band, as well as White Lion, Foreigner and Santana.
With this 30th Anniversary reissue, THE EXILES – Turning Time spearheaded by Manning, 5 recently unreleased tracks were discovered, mixed, and included. Now, if you like your classic British blues influenced rock, like FREE, BAD COMPANY, LED ZEPPELIN, and even pre-hair metal WHITESNAKE. Turning Time will seem like a long lost album you need to have. It is in that style, feel, and class, and it’s genuine, without coming off as another Zeppelin clone act. Highlights include “Rainmaker”, with it’s acoustic intro and heavy rock feel, the more laid back “Ain’t No Fool”, the ballad “Woman Let It Shine”, which really reminds of The Alllman Brothers (especially with the harmonies), and the rockin’ “Tearing Up A Storm”. There’s lots to get in to here, with different tracks, plenty of acoustics, harmonies, organ, …Check out the 3 videos and links below.
THE EXILES have released the music video for the track ‘I’m The (One’ from their album ‘Turning Time”, available now on Bad Reputation Records.
The first single “Rainmaker” recently entered the top 10 on 97 Underground radio, debuting at #4.
Lead Guitarist Sean Manning talks about the song “I’m The One”, “I was really into Jimmy’s Outrider solo album when I initially wrote this riff. I love the Telecaster—such a raw and honest guitar. Paul came up with the chorus, which really finishes it off, and I added the heavy Les Paul onto the new track here in Dallas at Empire Studios….And it sounds like I nicked some early Bernie Marsden rhythm work for the chorus.”
Well overdue, EUROPE’s brand new album comes 9 years after Walk The Earth. I really got reintroduced to the band with 2015’s War Of Kings, an outstanding record that made me want to go back and pick up all the albums since their reunion, so after 2 great albums, 9 years is a pretty lengthy break. So, was Come This Madness worth such a wait!? I think so. Musically heavier than it’s precdecessor, lyrically a bit deeper in places, as the band take on a few topics in the state of the world these days, as well as hope.
Certainly songs like “One On One”, “Scandinavian Eyes”, “In A Different World”, and the ballad “This Time Of Year” all stand out for me and sit comfortably among the band’s best. But really a very strong album, that I’m sure someone else could easily pick a few different favorites. John Norum stands out more here via his solos, and riffs on this record than the previous few, there’s a few classic intros from Mic Michaeli , and Joey Tempest, who’s voice hasn;t lost anything over the years. Again, for those who never got past Europe in their 80s pop-rock era, this is an excellent guitar driven, classic rock album, with latter day Europe filling the void of bands like Thin Lizzy and Gary Moore. Ends on a high note with “Nothing Can Follow This”.
*See below for the videos from this album, as well as press info, links…..
Europe’s new studio album Come This Madness signals a powerful new chapter for one of rock’s most enduring acts. Across songs like ‘One on One’, ‘The Cult of Ignorance’, and the title track ‘Come This Madness’, the band channel tension, truth, and raw energy into a record that feels both deeply personal and globally resonant.
Come This Madness was recorded at RMV Studio, the Stockholm-based recording facility founded by Benny Andersson and Ludvig Andersson. The album features special guest appearances from Tobias Forge (Ghost) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth) and was produced by acclaimed producer Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Rammstein, Pixies, The Cult, Opeth), who became a true creative force throughout the process, deeply embedded in the band’s writing and recording, shaping the album’s sound from the ground up. To bring the project to its final stage and complete their vision, the band turned to one of rock’s most respected recording and mixing legends Mike Fraser (AC/DC, Van Halen, Metallica, The Cult, Loverboy) to mix the record.
With Come This Madness, Europe deliver a landmark record that finds them fully realised and present, confronting the realities of the modern world with conviction and creativity. Building on the momentum surrounding the album’s release, the band will also embark on an extensive run of live dates, including numerous festival appearances and a major tour to celebrate the 40th anniversary of The Final Countdown. Kicking off in Glasgow on September 30th, The Final Countdown 40th Anniversary Tour promises to unite the legacy that defined them with the renewed energy, driving them forward today.
Come This Madness album artwork by Storm Studios (Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin…).
Track listing: One on One The Cult of Ignorance Come This Madness This Time of Year In a Different World Scandinavian Eyes Takin’ It Back In the Absence of Grace The Angels Must Have Flown The Devil’s Back Nothing Can Follow Thi
Come This Madnesswill be available on vinyl, CD and digital formats. Pre-orders can be placed Here
EUROPE are: Joey Tempest – Lead Vocals John Norum – Guitars John Levén – Bass Mic Michaeli – Keyboards Ian Haugland – Drums
Canadian drummer Paul Marangoni played with a number of acts in the 80s and 90s, notable Canuck acts like Coney Hatch, The Works, Kim Mitchell, and FM. The latter is currently preparing for a 50th anniversary show in November, with Marangoni behind the drums. Hopefully this 50th anniversary show will lead to more. Paul relocated to California decades ago, and played on a number of albums with guitarist Alex Masi, such as the 2001 Masi album, Eternal Struggle, and 2 albums of fusion instrumentals / covers under the name ‘The Trio Of Stridence’ (more on these in another post), and worked with former Alias frontman Freddy Curci (Zion).
This was a pretty casual disussion with Paul, and a lot of fun; we talked about the upcoming FM reunion show, a few other things he’s done since being in California, and what he’s listening to these days. Enjoy the read, and please check out all the links at the end.
I was going through those CDs you gave me (The Trio Of Stridence, Jazz Martyrs), and you did a lot of writing on them and a lot of producing them, so it’s kind of a…
Well, I think I wrote two songs on all those CDs. I arranged everything though, definitely.
Yeah, they’re very different. The Trio Of Stridence. I like that; I love the cover of “Red”. The other stuff is kind of straight up jazz. I put it on at one point, there is a Chuck Mangione song, and I was like, Wow, what is this?
Yeah, it’s too bad Chuck died. I was hoping he would hear my version, because my version is in seven as opposed to four.
Going back to when you were in the band FM (late 80s-early 90s), how long did that whole period last?
Not long, like two or three years. I can’t even remember. I really should have kept a diary. That was like 35 years ago or something. It’s scary to even say that number.
And you guys did recordings?
We were working on new music, but it was never recorded.
So, at what point did you relocate to LA?
January of 2000.
So you were still around then, in Toronto and that for much of the 90s then?
Yeah, definitely.
What else were you doing then? I have this on cassette (hold up The Works cassette).
Wow. Not much. I was just playing in a bunch of cover bands and I was doing the Genesis Tribute. Actually, at one point, we had a Yes Tribute, which Cameron Hawkins was playing bass and singing in. But we only did a few shows. And Phil Naro was singing in that band. I had a recording of a live gig we did at the Tralf in Buffalo. It was really good, but for some reason, that ended too. I don’t know what happened there. That was a good band. I love playing that stuff.
I saw Phil about 20 years ago, 15 years ago. He was playing in a club in Toronto, like an upstairs somewhere. It was him, Don Mancuso. I think his son. And so they’re doing a lot of Yes stuff.
I can’t believe he’s gone. Everyone’s dying, man. Holy cow.
Last time I saw him, he was doing an acoustic guitar duo, at a small place somewhere in Toronto. They were just doing acoustic tunes, the two of them. Would have been around 2007, 2006, (something like that).
There’s been other versions of FM. I saw them in ‘94 when they did the reunion tour, and there’s a few other things since then, live albums and the studio album from 2015… You weren’t involved in any of those. So how did this new line-up kind of come together?
Well, I kept in touch with Cam over the years because I was going up to Toronto like three or four times a year while my parents were still alive. And we’d get together now and then. And a couple of years ago, I was up there. And before I went up, I contacted him. I said, Hey, let’s get together for lunch. And he told me he was thinking of doing some shows to coincide with the release of this new documentary about Nash the Slash. And he said, It’s been 50 years. And I said, Well, if you need a drummer. I’m totally down. So that was when it started. So, the two of us were sending files back and forth on the tunes to work on. So he would have my drumming to along with. And then he set about to find someone to play mandolin and violin. It took a while.
I assume Ben Mink is not around anymore (locally)
Ben Mink is out in British Columbia. So, if for some reason this turns into doing a lot of shows, and if we ever end up on the West Coast, I’m sure we’ll get Ben Mink to sit on a bunch of tunes because I love Ben Mink’s playing.
Is the show going to focus mainly on the Black Noise stuff? Or is it going to be…
Yeah, it’s just going to be Black Noise and maybe a couple of other tunes. Some of the hits or other tunes.
When I saw them in 94, they put out that from it, but I always wonder, they called the FM Archives Volume One, there was no volume two.
(lol) Yeah, I don’t know what happened there. I got that too somewhere. They were kind of screwed over by labels all the time.
Other than Black Noise, what might you play or what do you like out of that catalog?
I really like Surveillance a lot. That was my favorite record. And then off of City of Fear, there’s one tune off there we’re probably going to play, “Surface to Air”. We’ll probably play that. We’ll probably do “Shapes of Things”; that got a lot of airplay. And that’s it. We’ll be extending solo sections and stuff like that, so it’ll be a lot of fun.
I don’t see much of Cameron Hawkins online, so I don’t… I never know what he’s up to.
Right. He said he’s going to probably put up an Instagram account one of these days. That was the plan, to do that and start promoting, but without any promotion, the show sold out in like three days.
Wow. So…
And there’s talk about, hopefully a show at the El Mocambo in January. And then if these shows go well, we’ll see where it goes next. We’ll probably stick to Canada for the time being, especially now that this arrangement in the US and Canada has kind of gotten pretty messy.
I wonder if the band ever actually played outside of Canada in that whole period of the late 70s, early 80s.
I’m not sure. I know they did a lot of shows with Rush.
And there’s some people that have posted some of those shows online pretty wild. It’s funny how fast they played a lot of those tunes.
I think it was Con-test that must have been the album that was current when I saw them. And then they did Tonight, which is funny because I watched an interview with Nash where he did not like that album. He mentions that they brought in a “hair guitar guy”.
Simon! (lol) Apparently Simon is now doing pyrotechnics for Katy Perry or something.
Really?
Yeah. That’s what Barry Connors was telling me.
He’s not playing?
I’m not sure. He was a good guitarist.
I know he did those albums with Andy Curran, post- Coney Hatch.
Yeah. He was the one that got me the FM gig. Because I was hanging out with him and Andy, and Simon said, We need a drummer for these shows coming up. And I said, Dude, I know all that shit. I grew up listening to FM. So, I jammed with them and got the gig.
What else are you doing? Are you playing a lot live?
No, I moved to Indio three years ago, and I can’t find players around here to do anything. I was working on doing more Trio Of Stridence stuff or some jazz stuff; working on my own and then sending files to people either in Europe or in LA. I love doing stuff with Alex (Masi), and before I left LA, me and Alex, we were thinking of doing a Jeff Beck Tribute thing after Jeff Beck died. We rehearsed a bit. I put together a little promo video. I sent it to a bunch of booking agents. No one was interested. It was too bad. It would have been cool.
I saw him over at Artpark (Lewiston, NY). the last time through here.
Yeah, I love Jeff Beck. And, like I said, I was working on writing some stuff, working on my own thing, and then the FM thing happened. So, I’ve just been focused on that since then. Rehearsing all the old FM stuff and working on making sure it’s going to sound good.
Do you know these other guys that are playing with you guys?
No, I’ve never met them, Kevin (Breit) and Hugh (Marsh). Actually, I did a recording with someone in the ‘80s that Hugh Marsh played violin on, but we weren’t in the room at the same time.
I imagine Cameron found them somehow(?)
We were trying to reach him through social media. Couldn’t do it. And then I was having lunch with Andy, and he said, Well, let me talk to Alex Lifeson, he’s a good friend of Hugh. So, he got Hugh’s email from Alex Lifeson. And that’s how we got in touch with Hugh.
Wow. So that was like more recent?
Yeah, that was like last December.
That’s interesting, all the connections with all the Toronto bands. I like picking up some of the late 70s Canadian stuff. I picked up the first Hunt album.
Wow. I remember seeing them at the Gasworks….
And you posted something recently about a band called Teaze.
Yeah, I saw them last week.
I remember them being big at some point, and I remember the logo. The logo looked cool, and the name was cool, but I didn’t know much about the band. And when you posted that stuff, I was reading something, and I said, Holy shit, these guys are Canadian! I didn’t know that.
(Talk ensues about Teaze, their comeback, and Canadian rock festivals)
It seems like most of these Canadian bands, especially from the last few decades, they tend to play a bunch of festivals. Three or four times a year, there’ll be a festival in Alberta or Newfoundland or Quebec, and then they all get together.
I hear about these things from Barry. Do you remember the band Alias with Freddy Curci?
Yeah, I’ve got that somewhere.
I recorded with Freddy a few years ago, and I was actually… I got together with him about a year ago, and I told him, I think it’s time you should go out on the road again, get the band going. He considered it. I haven’t talked to him in a while, but I think that would be good, too.
I find the connections with the Canadian band interesting. There’s so many… It’s kind of like the British bands where you have some of those connections between Whitesnake and Deep Purple and Rainbow, all those bands.
That’s right.
But, I mean you look at Helix and Honeymoon Suite and a few others. It’s almost like they (occasionally) share members.
Actually, I remember I auditioned for Helix when I was 17. I drove out to….they were playing a gig somewhere in London, I think. I played some tunes with them. And it went well, but they said, You’re just too young. We can’t take the chance. Yeah, I was a fan of Helix.
And their drummer and the guitarist were twins. Brian Doerner was the drummer, and he recommended me for a gig. I didn’t even know he knew me. And then me and a guitarist named Lawrence Falcomer flew down to LA to try putting a band together with Brad Gillis and Mark Free. So, for a week, we rehearsed and wrote some music. And the guy that was paying for it all was the producer from Night Ranger. And at the end of the week, he told us what the deal would be where he was going to take 50 or 60% of all proceeds from the songwriting. And we just couldn’t come to terms with it. Nothing ever happened of it.
(Talk about Brad Gillis being on Rick Hughes album).
What are you listening to these days? Is it mostly jazz type stuff?
Let me see what’s on my phone here (lol)
You know what I got recently, Genesis The Lamb Lies Down box set. And it has a live concert that they did in L.A., and the live concert is amazing! I don’t know if they touched up a bunch of stuff, but it sounds better than the studio record. It’s amazing.
I haven’t got that.
It’s actually all on YouTube, too. Simon Phillips’ latest record, I got that. That’s more of a fusion thing. Pat Metheny’s latest; I’m on the fence with that. A guitarist named Nir Felder. I really like his stuff. It’s kind of a fusion-y kind of thing. I probably listen to mostly jazz lately. I got the Jethro Tull Bursting Out re-release. That’s pretty good. Yeah, mostly jazz stuff.
You mentioned Genesis. Have you picked up any of the Steve Hackett live albums where he recreates each of the albums?
No, I haven’t. I saw Steve Hackett in Toronto. It was probably 1978 or 79 at the O’Keefe Center. That was amazing. love Steve Hackett. Speaking of Steve Hackett, You’ve heard of this Cruise to the Edge thing!? (No) It’s a cruise out of Miami, and it’s a bunch of progressive rock bands for like a week, and Steve Hackett is the headliner. I think Kevin Labrie is playing with the keyboard player from Dream Theater. Check it out, CruiseToTheEdge.com. Anyway, I figure it’s all progressive rock, and they leave port in April, so I sent an email to them, see if maybe I can get FM on the gig. But I never heard back from anyone as far as who to contact about booking, so maybe we’ll try to get the next year. They do it every year, apparently.
That’d be quite the slot to get on.
(Talk ensues a bit about Genesis, Phil Collins, Paul – “He was my favorite.”)
Any other Canadian bands you were really into?
Kim Mitchell, Saga, FM. I was a huge Rush fan from the beginning. I can’t really think and differentiate which ones were Canadian. I mean, going downtown and seeing stuff at the Gasworks. Dave Bendeth, he was kind of doing like a Jeff Beck thing, that was cool.
Well, did you keep your vinyl over the years or did you get rid of it?
I sold a bunch of it. Since I moved to California, it’s been like 26 years now. I’ve moved 11 times. So, you just keep throwing stuff away every time.
At one point, when we sold my parents’ house in Toronto, I had all my albums there, so we had to get rid of stuff. So, I took them all downtown to some vinyl place and sold them all and whatever they didn’t want to buy, I gave to friends of mine who were collecting vinyl. So, I don’t have any more vinyl.
(Further chat about records, Unidisc, Wireless – “I remember seeing them open for Rush, they were really good too.”)
BOSTON’s debut album has become a staple of FM radio over the past 50 years, and not just with 1 or 2 songs. The album written and recorded largely by guitarist Tom Scholz, along with singer Brad Delp, with Scholz and John Boylan producing.
Now, I know many may pass over this as an album they’ve overheard, especially with the album’s biggest hit “More Than A Feeling”. But there is no denying this album’s huge sound and impact at the time. And, if you’re a classic rock fan, you don’t know just 1 of the 3 hit singles – you probably know most of the album, as most of it (if not all) occasionally still gets FM radio play, somewhere. The hit singles “More Than A Feeling“, “Piece Of Mind” and “Long Time” are all featured on side one, with “Long Time” being part of the epic piece, accompanied with the instrumental “Foreplay”, rivalling anything Deep Purple or Uriah Heep had done. There is also the classics on side two, most notably “Smokin‘”and “Rock & Roll Band“. Then there’s no less impressive string of songs on that side – “Something About You“, and the softer “Hitch A Ride” and the closing ballad “Let Me Take Me You Home Tonight“. These guys mixed and layered melodic guitars (acoustic and electric), along with vocal harmonies in the choruses, and organ on many tracks.
Boston became the biggest selling debut album at that time. It’s since sold over 20 million copies worldwide. This album has become one of the most recognizeable albums in classic rock, not just with it’s distinctive sound, but with a number of songs from it appearing in lots of movies and TV shows over the years. The album’s cover is also outstanding, IMO, despite it’s artist once calling it “mediocre”; it is easily recognizeable with the upside down guitar, appearing to resemble a spaceship. The upside down guitar theme and logo would become part of the band’s subsequent album covers. Boston is absolute essential ’70s rock listening. The band’s follow up, Don’t Look Back, did not sell nearly many copies, but it was an excellent follow up.
*see below for Press items from that time, and various related links
BOSTON in the press:
BOSTON -Epic PE34188. This highly touted New England group more than lives up to its billing as being able to rock in heaviest metal style while remaining warm and fluid. The uniqueness would appear to emanate from Tom Scholz, an MIT mechanical engineer in product development for Polar- oid who played a mean local guitar in bar bands by night. Scholz was chief engineer and co- producer of this album, which grew at least partially from some phenomenal demo tapes he made in his own home studio. Lead singer Brad Delp and his many overdubs vocalize with a lot more feeling and beauty than the often perfunctory singing often found in even big -name hard rock groups. Scholz and Delp individually wrote all the songs on the album too, again with much more melody and imagination than one usually expects to find on a heavy metal outing. An unusually auspicious debut in an era of particularly high standards for new rock groups. Best cuts: “More Than A Feeling,” “Let Me Take You Home Tonight,” “Smokin’.” Dealers: This is a particular autumn push group for Epic. (Billboard, 09/11/79)
BOSTON — Epic PE 34188 — Producers: John Boylan, Tom Scholz — List: 6.98 Not many hard rock bands show even a smidgeon of the concern for pleasing melody lines and supporting harmonics that are the hallmarks of the Boston sound. An extremely impressive debut effort, “Boston” demonstrates all the essential in- gredients for first rate rock ’n’ roll — glassshattering vocals, molten guitar lines and just enough use of keyboards to make the whole package interesting. Don’t be surprised if you hear a majority of the cuts from this LP on the FMprogressive airwaves. In fact, tunes like the autobiographical “Rock & Roll Band” will also be warmly received by the pop programmers. Boston is a very promising group.(CashBox, 09/04/76)
BOSTON -More Than A Feeling (3:25); producers: John Boylan and Tom Scholz; writer: T. Scholz; publisher: Pure Songs, BMI. Epic 8 -50266 (CBS). Electric guitar-dominated rocker is made commercial with an accessible beat and hand- clap backup and smooth, soaring vocals. (Billboard, 08/28/76)
BOSTON -Long Time (3:03); producer John Boylan. writer Tom Scholz. publisher Blackwood. BMI Columbia 850329 The group had a top 10 single its first time out and Mrs lollowup is comparably catchy in its combination of spacey electronic fills and soaring, lull bodied vocal har monies. (Billboard, 01/22/77)
John Sloman is ready to release his brand new 2-part (2CD) album Meridian Man‘. This will be issued in a very limited CD run (to start), direct from John, himself. Contact John via his Facebook page or email (johnsloman@yahoo.co.uk)
Meridian Man marks the end of an era for John Sloman, as the Welsh singer and multi-instrumentalist, has left London, after decades, back to Wales. Like John’s previous 8 solo albums, which were made in his home studio, in London, John performs all instruments, vocals, and choirs, as well as produces and mixes this. The 2 CD set will come with booklet, as well as cover design by Tuula Halén.
I will write more on Meridian Man later. My early impressions are that the 2 tracks making up this release, both well over 20 minutes, are quite the musical epic journeys. So much has gone in to the music, with each track given memorable intros, as welll as various changes, various instrumentation. and vocals. It is a lot to dig into, but the songs flow well, and one can play a number of times (as I did today), and get more into it with each listen. If you are a fan of John’s albums, particularly his latest 2, you will not be disappointed in this new one. Definitely John’s most ambitious album yet. At 69, John is one of those few artists whose voice has aged better, and as an artist seems to have a lot more interesting things to create.
*Read John’s description below the album cover.
Further to Meridian Man, John is aiming to release ‘Rock Heaven – The Soundtrack Album‘, in 2027, which is a companion to his 2025 novel ‘Rock Heaven‘, available on Amazon with his previous books. He’s also planning to release his 4th book, a novel – ‘Diary of Dimensionist‘ next year. also.
Meridian Man , John Sloman´s 11th solo album
MERIDIAN MAN– For many years I lived near Greenwich in South East London. The area was steeped in Britain’s history. The River Thames was walking distance away and on Saturday mornings I would run up the steps in Greenwich Park and gaze down in wonder at the Royal Naval buildings stretching along the river. From this elevated vantage point, I could turn to my left to admire the Royal Observatory situated on its own plateau, next to which was the traditional home of the Astronomer Royal. As much of a magnet for tourists the observatory undoubtedly is, the “prime” reason for people visiting the site is to stand on (and photograph) a metal strip set made of brass and stainless steel set in the ground known as the Prime Meridian (0 degrees longitude) from which all of time is measured.Meridian Man is a melding of myth and reality. Psychologists often refer to mythology to explain the underlying impulses of the human psyche. This is sometimes referred to as the “Heroes Journey”. The man I am versus the man I aspire to be. We all fall short of this. It is called being alive. But still we are inspired by stories of ancient myth and folklore. The story of Meridian Man is told over two CDs. CD 1 is The Myth. And CD 2 is The Man. The mythological Meridian Man (The Myth) is responsible for the sun’s movement across the sky and comes armed with a sword and is prepared to use it if necessary. He is a man of honour and duty. He knows great loneliness and sometimes wishes he could party. But to him, “Life is a meditation, practice and dedication, it’s just the way it’s got to be, there is no other way for me.” When a woman urges him to come away with her, he replies “But who would mind the sun when the day is done?” He is fundamental to our existence, yet nobody knows he exists. And that is just how he wants it to be. He is as mysterious as the meridians in Chinese medicine – or the arcane signs and symbols which adorn our reality. He knows all and sees all while at the same time being both unknowable and invisible. The human Meridian Man (The Man) is based on the three decades I spent living close to the Prime Meridian. Like my mythological counterpart, I too existed in anonymity while aspiring to something better both artistically and spiritually. For seventeen years, initially as a coping strategy for dealing with the stresses of the artistic life, I immersed myself in the world of Tai Chi, learning hand forms and that of sword, spear and sabre. I have spent much of my adult life in search of a deeper meaning to this existence of ours. And on the rare occasion, I have caught a glimpse of it only for it to vanish like tracks in the snow. But just as the mythological Meridian Man will continue to carry the sun across the sky, so I, the mortal Meridian Man will continue to search for a deeper meaning to this thing we call LIFE. (JS)
The renowned Canadian singer Paul Laine announced that his new studio album, The Long Road Back, will be released on September 25, 2026, via Frontiers Music Srl.
The first single, “Love Me Or Leave Me”, came with an official visualizer. Laine commented: “I’m so happy to launch a new era in my solo career with my new single “Love Me Or Leave Me”. I feel like I finally got a chance to pick up where I left off all those years ago, when I finished making “Stick It In Your Ear”. Come join me on my new musical journey with “The Long Road Back” album. See y’all out on the Road in 2027.”
The second single, “Don’t Let Me Go Tonite” is now available. Laine commented: “I’m excited to share the release of my next single, ‘Don’t Let Me Go Tonite.’ This song is another chapter in the soundtrack of my life – a look back at love, loss, memories, and all those moments when you can’t help but wonder what could’ve been. I hope this one finds a place with you the way it found a place with me. See y’all out on the road in 2027! ❤️
A masterclass in melodic rock, Paul Laine’s new album delivers soaring hooks, heartfelt ballads, and arena-ready anthems that traverse the full spectrum of the genre. From the driving energy of “Love Me Or Leave Me”, to the intimate vulnerability of “Someday” (co-written with Andrew Oye), every track is meticulously crafted, showcasing Laine’s signature vocal power and melodic sensibility. “Don’t Let Me Go Tonite” comes alive with a striking video that complements its infectious energy.
Laine stated: “Ever since I released my first solo album, I’ve wondered when I’d finally have the chance to make a follow-up. Life – and music – have a way of taking you places you never expect. Looking back, every chapter of my career has led me down a different road, and each one has shaped me as both a songwriter and a person”.
“I’ve been incredibly fortunate to make records with Danger Danger, Darkhorse, The Defiants, Shugaazer, and Jetset Junkies. Every one of those experiences taught me something and gave me memories I’ll always carry with me. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I always knew the road would eventually lead me home – to where it all started. Just a kid with a guitar, trying to make sense of love, life, loss, hope, and everything in between through songs”, he added.
“The Long Road Back” is exactly that. It’s a musical journey back to my roots, but it’s also a reflection of every mile I’ve travelled to get here. Every song carries a piece of the life I’ve lived, the people I’ve met, and the lessons I’ve learned along the way. In many ways, this record feels like coming full circle. After all these years, I’m grateful to finally share this chapter with everyone who’s been waiting for it. I hope these songs find a place in your story, just as they’ve become part of mine”, Laine concluded.
Joining Laine in the studio are longtime collaborators Bruno Ravel (his bandmate in The Defiants and also in Danger Danger – bass, producer), Scotty “Hooch” Taylor (drums), Andrew Oye (lead guitar), with production handled by Laine and Ravel. The album features standout singles like “Love Me Or Leave Me”, the video-driven “Don’t Let Me Go Tonite”, and the heartfelt “Someday”.
Musically, the record touches every corner of melodic rock, yet the songs sound like they’re coming from the classic era when Bon Jovi dominated the airwaves – both in Laine’s soaring vocals and in the anthemic, hook-laden songwriting. This is an album for fans who crave big choruses, passionate performances, and the kind of timeless melodic rock that only Paul Laine can deliver.
Tracklist:
1. Love Me Or Leave Me 2. Don’t Let Me Go Tonite 3. Someday 4. Come Back To Me 5. Save Me Saturday Night 6. Her Name Is Trouble 7. Heaven And Earth Collide 8. Bad Habit 9. Kiss Me California 10. The Ones That Got Away 11. Now That You Don’t Love Me Anymore
Line Up: Paul Laine Bruno Ravel Scotty “Hooch” Taylor Andrew Oye
A new SWEET live album, from the band’s most recent tour will be released October 23, on Metalville. Live 25, will feature 16 tracks from Andy Scott and company. This is available for pre-order through Metalville’s website, on CD and colored vinyl.
With Full Circle (2024), the rock institution SWEET released an album that critics and fans around the world considered to be their strongest album since Level Headed (1978), the last album recorded by the four original band members. Full Circle was also the band’s first Top 20 entry in the German album charts since the release of the 1978 classic.
With such a strong album under their belt, it was only natural for the band, led by founding member Andy Scott, to present the new songs live. The album Live 25 is now ready for release. Alongside tracks from Full Circle, the band performed all the classics hits plus a few heavy rock tracks that had rarely made it onto the setlist in previous years.
The current SWEET lineup has proved to be the perfect team. The sound and dynamics of the band live carries the audience on a magic carpet ride of pure emotion.
Andy Scott comments: “Live 25 is more than just a live recording; it’s a celebration of what SWEET do best. From the 1970s, performing live has always been at the heart of who we are, and that fire still burns bright. So crank up the volume, sing your heart out, and experience the energy of a SWEET live concert.”
LINE-UP: Paul Manzi – lead vocals, Lee Small – bass guitar / vocals, Tom Cory – guitars / keys / vocals, Adam Booth – drums / percussion, Andy Scott – guitars / vocals
Since TEAZE, got back together in 2019, this was my 3rd time to see the band. Since the previous show I saw (Windsor, 2022), the band have released 2 albums – Live At Liege (2025) and their first new studio album since 1980 – Rev Your Engines, came out earlier this summer. In there the band also went through a change in drummers, with Mike Kozak retiring, and new drummer Jim Bonventre joining the band and playing on the new album.
Prior to the show we learned that Jim was unable to play due to a health emergency the day before, but last minute arrangements were made with Mike Kozak stepping in. Prior to Teaze, Christian Vegh performed, as did Rick LaBonte And The Band Of Brothers. Rick’s set featured classic rock covers as well as originals. I preferred the originals, and look forward to Rick’s new album coming out in the near future.
Teaze came out, and with the last minute change in drummers, meant a couple of changes in the set-list, leaving out a couple of the new songs. But the set was full of the band’s high energy guitar rockers, which resembled the Live At Liege set, but with the band adding a few, notably a cover of Rainbow’s “Man On The Silver Mountain” (which is on Rev Your Engines) and fan favorite “Boys Night Out”. A Teaze live show is a genuinely good time; these guys play like they are having a great time, with Mark Bradac all over the place, and singer Brian Danter, sounding like he hasn’t aged (check out recent clips of “Heartless World“), and Kozak, who hadn’t played in 2 years, stepped in like he hadn’t left, and seemed to have a good time. The band is completed with guitarist Charlie Lambrick (who joined the band in 2019), who also produced and engineered the new album. I did take a few pics of Rick LaBonte And The Band Of Brothers, and an excessive amount of Teaze. So, for I’m just going to put them all here. Here’s looking forward to more shows from these guys!
American Hard-rock band DARK MILE released their 2nd album earlier this year titled Freight Train. The band consists of guitarists Tracy G (ex Dio) and Paul Alfery, along with bass player Randy Oviedo, and singer Mark Huff (ex Quiet Riot). Freight Train is a solid follow up to the band’s excellent debut, with plenty of heavy riffs and guitar rockers & anthems, and a ballad, for a change of pace.
When the first Dark Mile album came out in 2024 I’d interviewed Tracy G and Mark Huff (both elsewhere at this site), and with this album I recently spoke with guitarist,songwriter, engineer, Paul Alfery. I’d not recognized Paul before Dark Mile, but in digging up a bit of his past, Paul was a part of the LA scene in the ’80s, and has been recorded a number of albums with various bands over the years, a few of which are discussed here. He also discusses Freight Train, picks a few favorite albums, and shares a few stories from the old days.
*Check out Freight Train either on Youtube or Bandcamp. And check out the links at the end!.
The CD is just the cover art and the card, so I’m assuming you guys have done this all independently.
Yeah, we did it independently this time, Kevin, only because the last one …because obviously the label does what the label does. But these days it seems like labels give you kind of a 30-day window where they do a little bit of social media promotion, and then it’s kind of on to the next thing.
So, it’s hard to commit to a two, three year kind of tying up that record when you’re going to get 30 days or so of promotion. And, beyond that, it doesn’t seem like a whole lot’s happening. And truthfully, as much as I hate to say it, we didn’t sell as many CDs this time, but we made more money this time doing it on our own. And we’re not really doing this for the money. One of the interesting things, lately is a few people have called me about, Eddie Trunk talking about how, if you’re a band doing 80s hard rock and you didn’t have a hit in the 80s, you are wasting your time and spinning your wheels. Here’s my thing with that, so if guys like us just stop doing it completely and a bunch of other people join in, well, then this type of music just dies. And we still love this kind of music. We still like making this kind of music. I think you have to do it out of passion, rather than because – let’s face it, at this point in our lives, do we think there’s a chance that a major label deal and a giant tour and all that kind of stuff? Yeah. Pretty unlikely, obviously. But, still, there’s a core audience that loves this kind of music. We go on the Monsters of Rock Cruise every year, and that’s a great example of a really dedicated fan base that still loves this kind of music, and they turn out for that.
As a rock fan, I like it because I like the older bands that are still doing something new as opposed to those that haven’t done an album in 20 years and they’re still just kind of milking it. So, for me, I’m going to be honest, I initially picked up on this because I stumbled across you guys and the mentions of Tracy, because I know my Dio stuff and that.
Sure.
…And Mark from Quiet Riot. So, I thought the name association alone would have been a little more, I would have seen a little more out there.
Yeah, we thought the label would kind of run with that. To be honest with you. And for whatever reason, they didn’t.
I don’t think that we’ve ruled out the possibility of doing another label thing, I mean maybe for us it’s just not a good fit and that’s not necessarily the labels fault. The other thing is the label’s in Germany, we’re obviously over here. The other thing I guess would be, we’re not a touring band at the moment, and that’s obviously that’s a part of it – bands that are out there and slugging it out and trying to tour. What’s interesting to me is, I see people talking about how, well, the music business has changed, Spotify doesn’t pay, and people stream music these days, but then I also find people talking about how tours are extremely difficult because it’s so expensive to tour. So, what do you do to try to find the sweet-spot where you can still do this.
But we’re working on another record right now, because we all still love doing this and it’s a great bunch of guys. That’s the other side of this thing is, Tracy and I have been friends for many many years, Randy the bass player, I’ve known him for a long long time as well. Mark obviously for just the length of the time we’ve done the Dark Mile thing, but he’s also a great guy. So, it really makes this an easy project to work on because it’s doing what you like to do with a bunch of friends.
Have you guys done any shows? I know Mark kind of lives far from you guys correct!?
He does, and this may be my hang up more than anybody else’s because we’ve talked about it, but you know obviously with Tracy having done the DIO years and toured on that level, and Mark too to a certain extent, it’s hard to start from scratch again, and, go out and do little clubs and try to draw people. And I guess I look at it like “man those guys paid their dues and they played big shows”, and so I’ve tried to look for opportunities. I mentioned that Monsters of Rock for example, that’s a cool situation because it’s a built-in crowd. People go on that cruise because there are a bunch of bands on there. And the truth is, there’s a band called ‘Midnight City’, that is also a Pride and Joy band. So, actually, they were on the cruise last year; they’re on the cruise again this year. So, there is that side of it, and that would be a great opportunity to play a show like that because there’s a built-in crowd for it.
I talked to those guys previously, after the first album came out they had said you guys were already writing for the second album. So how fast do the albums come about for you guys?
We usually finish something within a year, and sometimes a little sooner. It was funny, the first record we finished Tracy said, “Well do we have to stop?” And I said “No, we can keep going Tracy”. So, we started working on stuff right away, and in that instance Tracy still had a fair amount of material from a project that he had worked on a few years back, and I heard some of that material thought it was really cool, so we started working on that.
This third one, at least so far – I probably have written a few more tunes, and so I guess the one thing about that is the way Tracy writes and the way I write are kind of two different things, so we’re not making the same record over and over again. Bands sometimes, I think have a difficult time, obviously you don’t want to strike too far away because you don’t want to alienate fans of your music; at the same time, nobody wants to hear the same record, two or three times in a row.
Yeah, I get a bit of a bit of differences in this one. The first one to me seemed to more 80s, almost a little more radio friendly in places. This (2nd) one, I get a little more heavier, but you have the ballad on here, which was something you didn’t have on the first album.
Which is interesting because one of the things we got a knock on the first record was “Well there’s no ballad”. So, we did it on this one, and then of course somebody came out and said, “I don’t really like the ballad”. You know what you can’t make all the people happy all the time.
It’s funny because in the ‘80s bands did ballads because that was their way to get on the radio.
There’s the other side of it is getting on the radio. What a tough deal that is! I’m trying to think…so, on the cruise last year, one of the XM Hair Nation DJs was on there, and my brother got stuck with him at the airport, and they got delayed. So, Dangerous Darren, I think is the guy who he goes by. Anyways, so my brother spent a couple of hours talking to this guy, so when they saw each other on the cruise my brother said, “Hey, let me introduce you to Dangerous Darren”. And I said, “I don’t have XM radio anymore because Hair Nation plays the same songs that are 35 years old, over and over and over again”. And he said, “Yeah, I know what you’re saying .”..I said “Is there any opportunity for new music?” I mean bands like Whitesnake have made good new records since ”Here I Go Again, which they play, on repeat forever. And he said, “We’re pretty much tied to a pretty strict playlist, and it’s the hits.” And of course that’s the truth with classic rock across the country here – pretty much it’s, Zeppelin, Skynyrd, 38 Special. Great bands, obviously, but all bands that have been around for 40 years. You’ll never hear, Eclipse, if you’re familiar, is a band from Sweden.
Yeah, I’ve got a few of their CDs.
Great band. Eric is a strong songwriter and I’ve talked to him a bunch on the cruise because they’re on there every other year. They’re doing great as a band, but obviously don’t get played over here. So, the reason they do the cruise is it gives them some sort of exposure in the United States that they really don’t get through radio, because radio just doesn’t play their stuff.
There’s a lot of good bands over there. All the post-reunion Europe albums have been heavier and rockier. I saw them when they played over here in Niagara Falls, New York at the casino and in 2016 when War of Kings came out. It was a 450-seat theater and it was like just over half full.
Yeah, it’s just tougher these days. Music competes with a lot of stuff these days too. I mean, that’s the other side of it, is that there’s so much stuff to do these days and music competes with all of it.
Can you tell me a bit about some of the songs, kind of how you guys develop them. and was Mark in on the writing on the first album or was it was all kind of done before he joined?
Most of it was done and for the most part, lyrics and all that stuff are usually either Tracy or I. Mark’s a great singer; he’s got super great character to his voice. But he’s still exploring the whole lyric writing and vocal melody thing on his end, so we’ve tried our best to try to kind of give him some guidance there, and we just absolutely love the tone of his voice. I mean that’s just one thing, it doesn’t matter how well you sing – if you don’t have that cool character to your voice, and he’s got that.
On this one, on the title track “Freight Train”, I kind of had more (I guess) to do with that particular one. I just was reading a book at that point, and it’s basically about a loner guy who shows up in these cities and runs into trouble and, takes care of things. So, it seemed like a good subject to write about. We’re always trying to write songs that are, a little deeper than kegger parties and Camaros, which, as you know, the 80s is so full of…or hot women or… It’s tough and it’s not like we want to get too deep and philosophical but we’re certainly trying to write a little more mature in that sense.
Some of the other songs on Tracy had, prior to the DIO gig, Don Arden was his manager. So, they had worked for a while and basically Don wanted to try to put Tracy with somebody and put something together that they could then basically shop a deal. So, Tracy worked with a few different singers at that point and so there are some songs left over from that period of time. And we kind of freshened some of those up and used those for the second one as well. So, some of those songs, they go back a ways, but we did try to freshen up a little bit.
There’s a lot of good riffs and a lot of heavy guitar, obviously throughout it with two you guys.
That’s another interesting side about Tracy is, obviously, he is kind of a heavier player. And, when we talked about doing the Dark Mile project, but he was doing much heavier sounding stuff. I was really the one that approached him and said, “Hey, what if we did something that was maybe a little more like the Dio days!?” I probably go back earlier Dio days than Angry Machines and that kind of stuff.
Tracy’s guitar playing brings a uniqueness to this because he’s just got a very unique style and a certain sound. And I think it works well because I probably represent a more, (I don’t know what’s the right word for it) I guess the more pop-metal – melodic side of things. I’ve certainly written things that probably aren’t that far away from Bon Jovi. Tracy tends to write heavier than that.
You guys only did one video. Did you guys do that all yourselves?
No, I think that one we had a company do it for us. We’ve since found somebody who, because AI these days is all the rage and Tracy has a buddy that contacted him and did a video for Tracy. For The Tracy G group. It’s an instrumental tune, and it’s on YouTube… But anyways, really cool AI video. We’re looking into doing something in the near future on that. So, I think there’ll be something else that comes along here pretty quick.
Can you talk a bit about a couple of the songs that kind of stand out for you? I like things like “Eye On You”, “Lost”, and “World’s Gone Mad”, which is a single, and “Reason” – the Ballad. So, kind of stands out for you as far as ‘if you guys were to do a set list’. What do you think you would have to pull from this?
It would be a combination. We would certainly pull a few songs from the second one. The first one, obviously, we probably got more traction because it was attached to a label. And some of those songs… I obviously look at Spotify and look at streaming numbers and all that kind of stuff, and certainly songs like “The Boy” has a ton of streams, comparatively speaking. But, I think you just have to go through and pull out what you think are your strongest songs and put together a set list based on that.
We would like to get it together and play live. It would be really a cool thing. We’ve certainly talked about it, and I’m certainly not ruling that out.
I want to ask a bit about your before Dark Mile. You were in Gale Force with Tracy. I’ve looked that up a few times on Discogs and I don’t see a copy of it for like under 60 bucks or something.
Which is ridiculous. So…That was a project with Michael Drive, who was the singer for Barron Cross. If you remember Barron Cross, they were like a Christian metal band, kind of at the same time Stryper was doing what Stryper was doing. And then they broke up for whatever reason. But I think they have recently gotten back together and they’re doing some shows; that kind of thing. So, it was a cool project. At the same time Michael had very definitive ideas of what he wanted to do, and I guess I had fairly definitive ideas of what I wanted to do, and they just didn’t quite line up. We’ve talked about that too. I will say one thing; Michael is incredible about the accounting aspect of it – we all get a little bit of money every quarter and, the spreadsheet he sends us, I think, man, this guy is on it. He’s really good at it. So, it’s a wonderful thing that that is a project that continues to generate a little bit of money. It’s not, (again) not the real reason we’re doing this, but he has a pretty good fan base, and that really helped with promoting that project. And of course, Tracy’s also got a pretty good fan base and Mark has some too. So, we certainly count on that.
I did a project, I guess 2021 is when it came out, called ‘Walk the Walk’. So that was on AOR Heaven. And that record actually, as far as sheer numbers sold more than anything else. So that’s five years ago. And AOR Heaven was a really cool label. They did a really good job. I thought the promotion that they did for that record was incredible. I mean, I was really busy. It was right in the middle of COVID, so it was a very strange time, obviously. But I did a ton of interviews and there were a ton of reviews online, and it really kind of propelled that record to do some numbers because the word got out. That’s really the key these days, when you put a record out, it’s finding the way to promote it so that it really gets noticed, and obviously, it just gets harder and harder these days. There’s obviously Facebook, there’s TikTok, there’s Instagram; there’s lots of different things. And, we’ve all talked about it would be wonderful to find somebody who had like the magic path to really getting the word out.
What else you did you play in prior to this; what other bands were you in, and what did you grow upon?
Tracy and I were playing around in the Southern California area, at about the same time. Ironically, and this is just a goofy story but we’ve talked about this, and I think it was when we were initially starting to talk about doing the Dark Mile thing and talking about what influenced us and all that and I told him Well, I saw Van Halen when I was 15 years old.
And he said, Yeah, I would have been some of those shows. And we started talking about the specific show because I mean the first time I saw Van Halen, it just changed my life. I was like ‘Wow!’ Such an inspirational thing, and I just thought well I got to learn how to play guitar. So, we ended up talking about it. It was in a bowling alley; cost a dollar to get in. They were doing covers for the most part. This was really early, this would have been 1975, maybe 1976, right around that time. So they’re still not signed yet, they’re just a local band. But Tracy and I are at that very first same Van Halen show – we don’t know each other yet, we haven’t met each other, but we’re at that same show, which is a kind of an interesting thing. So we’ve talked about the fact that while neither one of us plays anything like Ed, he was absolutely an influence.
And just watching those guys, do what they did and follow the path that they did. I mean it was really a cool thing to witness. Great band.
So, Tracy was playing around in a band called ‘Riff Raff’, I think, at the time, and I was in a band called Inside Out, and we were both doing the Sunset strip. And there was lots of other areas, the clubs that were off the strip but still part of that whole kind of scene. We did all that for a number of years, and of course, there was that period of time where a lot of bands are getting picked up. In some cases bands that I don’t think really deserved to get picked up but they had the look and they kind of sounded like what the whole ’80s hair metal thing was at the time. And of course you just hope that you got caught up in all that, but that didn’t happen. But Tracy, on the other hand, I did watch him. I heard through the grapevine that he had got the DIO gig. And that came about, I think, because of a band called World War Three.
That was what the guys from Dio’s band.
Yeah, Jeff Pillson was in that at one point. And I think that what happened is, Dio was looking for a guitar player and Vinnie (Appice) said, I know somebody. So Tracy got the call for that, obviously. I think at that point, I’m still in California, but I got a call from Tracy at one point, and we didn’t know each other well yet, and he said, I don’t know if you remember me, my name is Tracy Grijalva, and I said, You’re the guitar player for Dio. I know who you are. And he said, I’ve got this Roland product that I can use some help with. So we connected on that he was starting to record demos. I knew how to use the digital recorder that he had. So, he came over to the house and that is kind of the start of the friendship, all through that.
Other than Van Halen, what sort of stuff did you kind of do? Were you a regular show goer?
Oh, yeah! I mean, pretty much on the Sunset Strip as many weekends as possible. And obviously, there was just a lot of great bands out here doing that whole thing. There were bands that I thought Why didn’t these guys make it? It’s always such a right place, right time, stars aligned a certain way. You never know why.
There was a band out here called ‘Smile’. They did shows with Van Halen all the time. And they were certainly a different band than Van Halen; they were not like them. I would call them more of a straight-ahead rock band and not kind of the party-rock thing that Van Halen was known for at the time. But incredible band! Great front man, great guitar player, really good songs. They signed to Curve Records, put out a record, apparently went out and did a little bit of a tour, and it just didn’t go anywhere. I just thought, These guys, I felt like they had everything going for them that, in many ways Van Halen did, and it just didn’t happen.
But yeah, a lot of really, really good bands I saw. Obviously early things. I remember going to a club and seeing a band called ‘Sister’ and thinking, Well, this is certainly interesting. And of course, that ended up being Wasp eventually. So, it was kind of interesting to see certain things develop. There was kind of the musical chairs thing – you watch guys go from this band to that band and all that kind of stuff. Nikki Sixx was knocking around back then doing that band London. We were playing at a place in Pasadena, California. It was a sandwich shop in the daytime, but a club at night, and it was certainly a long ways from the Sunset Strip, but many of the bands that played the Strip would also play this place. So, I went by to pick up a check from playing the weekend before, and the booker tells me, You should stick around tonight. And I said, Why? And he said, Because there’s this band playing, I think you might find that they’re interesting. And I said, OK, who is it? And he said, well, They look a little bit like the New York Dolls. They’re called Motley Crue. And those guys walked out and… it was among their earliest, earliest shows, because I still have the single that Vince was handing out that night, which I think is “Toast Of The Town”, and some other goofy song on there. So, it’s pretty rare single these days.
So, obviously I saw that and thought, Well, these guys look like they’ve got some money behind them. And they certainly had the image, and the songs were pretty catchy then too.
Did you see Y&T out there a lot?
Lots. Yeah!
Another band that didn’t become so big…
Yeah, there’s a great example, right!? Why didn’t they get bigger? They play the Monsters Rock Cruise, that I keep talking about. They’re on it a lot. And people love them and know the songs and all that. But, again, that’s a very dedicated crowd to that kind of music. Other than “Summertime Girls”, Y & T didn’t get a lot of radio play.
Yeah, that’s too bad. I have a friend up here in Canada who put out a review book on them last year.
And Dave Meniketti is the nicest guy. And sounds great. He’s a great example a guy who’s been in this business for a long, long time…And obviously, lots of us are not young guys anymore, but when Dave sings; he can belt it out and he plays guitar great.
What else do you guys got on the go, musically
So Tracy, he has another project that he’s doing, I think it’s just going out as the Tracy G Group. And there’s a new singer and they’re working on that. Mark, I think, he does some painting and so he’s busy doing that kind of stuff. I tried to kind of get out of the musical manufacturing industry, but it’s like once you’re in it, it is hard to get out of it. So, I work for an independent rep firm now, really just part-time, which is really cool. My boss is incredibly nice about it; he knows that I don’t want to do this eight hours a day, so I do it for a part of the day and then it frees up my afternoons to do the recording thing. And of course, I’ve got multiple projects going too.
Actually, there will be a new Walk The Walk record, which is about to come out. Really, really good singer, originally from Iran of all places. His name is Hadi Kiani, great vocalist, really, really good. I did all the instruments and he did the vocals. And, we kicked that one around for a while. We approached Frontiers. Frontiers, it seems like they’re looking for little supergroups now.
Yeah, they’ve got a lot of bands that they seem to put together and they put on an album and you never hear from them again, until they do a volume two or something.
Yeah, ever since Alessandro Del Vecchio left that label, it’s not quite the same. I mean, obviously, he was a very important part of things And, that first Dark Mile, Alessandro was still the guy at Frontiers at the time, and he got back to us and said, I like this. We might take a chance on this. It didn’t happen because somebody on the team apparently just didn’t have complete faith in it. But Alessandro was always very kind and said, I like this record. I think it should be out there.
Can you give me five albums (roughly), from your youth?
The first Van Halen record, Absolutely! I’ll go with the first Montrose record. That’s even further back. Rainbow Rising. I’m going to say Deep Purple Stormbringer And, this is an odd one but Accept Balls to the Wall – I Love that record! I’ve always thought the guitar tone on that song. I mean it’s just a loud Marshall, but they just somehow captured a guitar tone that I think a lot of people go, How do I get that sound?, because it’s just great.
There’s a lot of good European bands are still going; Helloween I listen to them once in a while.
Sure. And Wigwam is a band, they’ve been around a while. Absolutely love that band! And they’re still out there. They’re still slugging it out. And then, of course, the new guys, I would put, Eclipse and Heat. There’s quite a few, you know the guys are probably in their 30s, 40s, and they discovered this music and decided to give it a go.
There’s that band called Nestor…
Great band. Love that band It’s funny you say that, the year before on the Monsters of Rock Cruise, they did not announce Nestor as being part of it. And because we’ve been on some of these cruises, we go to this meeting where they ask questions and all that, and we said, What are the chances Nestor is on the boat next year? And Larry, who runs the cruise, said, You might just want to keep an eye on things. So we knew that they were booked. They were on the cruise last year. Just great guys.
It’s really funny, too, my wife wanted to get a picture with those guys, so we were walking, down a hallway in the ship and those guys were all standing outside the bathroom. They yanked the lead singer out of the bathroom to take a picture with my wife. And I just thought, Just let the guy use the restroom, please (lol)
Canadian band TRIUMPH have just announced a 2nd leg to their Rock & Roll Machine Reloaded tour, which includes APRIL WINE as openers. There is 16 US dates. See links below.
