Last year Ritchie Blackmore returned to playing rock music playing just three dates with Rainbow including one in the UK.  Now he’s back doing a UK tour including tonight’s show at the Genting arena. While he’s touring under the Rainbow name, the shows last year included a lot of Deep …

German band Orden Ogan are back with their new album Gunmen.  They’ve already released the video to the single, Gunman, and it’s a spectacular video filmed in Monument valley which is perfect for the Western theming of the song and album.  It’s a great song. The second song to be …

I spoke to Seeb and Dirk from Orden Ogan recently in London to discuss their new album, Gunmen. You’ve released the single “Gunman” from the new album “Gunmen”.  That’s going to confuse people trying to remember which is the album title and which is the single title. Seeb: Yes it’s …

In October last year, Eagle Rock released the classic Bryan Adams video from his 1996 Wembley concert on DVD for the first time.  Now they’re following up with a CD release.  That’s good news for fans as I suspect many people are like me in that we listen to music …

Love Zombies are an international band which formed when American singer Hollis Mahady met New Zealander Davey Fitzsimon at a gig in London.  Together they formed a band that can best be described as Blondie meets the Ramones. Passionfruit is their debut album and was funded via a Pledgemusic campaign …

First up were three-piece band Arcane roots.  They put in an energetic set and go down well with the audience despite being very different musically to Evanescence.  While they weren’t to my taste, their music having a Biffy Clyro sound is likely to see them getting very popular. I’ve been …

A foreboding storm is gathering overhead. Bells toll, lighting cracks, rain falls…something dark and sinister is heading this way. It’s 1970 and four guys from Birmingham, with the release of their debut self-titled album, have single-handedly created what would become known forever as heavy metal. It was a singular moment …

I spoke to Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth recently to discuss the new album Incorruptible (Out now on Century Media records). Your new album, Incorruptible will be released in June.  Where did the title come from? It had nothing to do with politics – I’ve been asked that. It just …

Tonight’s gig at the Craufurd arms was sold out quickly after the show was announced several weeks ago.  Fresh from playing Download, Fozzy was here for a small intimate gig. Support tonight came from Walsall based Stone Broken, who, like Fozzy had played Download festival a few days ago.  They’d …

Brutai had the job of opening the Dogtooth stage today.  Playing Download for the first time, they showed no sign of nerves and put in an excellent performance to get the day off to a great start.  They are always good live, but they’ve excelled themselves here at Download. It …

Irish band Dead Label kicked off proceedings on the Dogtooth stage.  I last saw them at Bloodstock two years ago and was impressed by them then, and they’ve improved further in the last two years.  They look to be having a great time on stage and they’ve drawn a good …

It’s a busy summer for Kai Hansen – his “Thank you Wacken” live solo album comes out in late June, and then a month later one of his bands, Unisonic, release their live album, also recorded at Wacken, and of course he’ll be busy preparing for the Helloween Pumkins united …

On the eve of the release of their acoustic album, Simple Minds played a special show at the Hackney Empire for BBC Radio 2 as part of their “In concert” series.  Alongside their well known hits they played some cover versions – Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot”, David Bowies “Andy Warhol” …

After negotiating the queues and thorough security checks and finally making it into the arena, I headed straight over to stage 2, just in time to catch Blackwater Conspiracy.   I reviewed their new album recently and was blown away by how good it was, so I had high expectations for …

”Checkerboard lounge: Live in Chicago 1981” was originally released as a CD/DVD bundle in 2012 and is now being released as a standalone CD in a month that see’s Eagle Rock also releasing two other Rolling Stones live CDs – “Some girls: Live in Texas ‘78” and “Ladies and gentlemen: …

“Ladies and Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones” was a concert movie filmed at four shows in Texas on the 1972 “Exile on main street” tour.  It was released in 1974.  After that initial cinema run, it was largely unavailable apart from a VHS release in the 80s, until 2010 when it …

“Some Girls, Live in Texas ‘78” was recorded in 1978 on tour at the Will Rogers memorial centre in Fort Worth, Texas soon after the release of the “Some girls” album.  The video was released in 2011 by Eagle Rock Entertainment as a DVD or CD/DVD bundle, and now the …

On May 14th, 2017 following Alice Cooper’s customary execution via guillotine on stage at his Nashville concert, fans were treated to something rarely seen since 1973. The stage went dark and original band members, bassist Dennis Dunaway, guitarist Michael Bruce and drummer Neal Smith reunited to perform a five song mini-set of their classic hits with Alice.  This followed the recent announcement that his forthcoming album – Paranormal, out …

Following their jaw-dropping set at Download Festival this weekend, US rock giants ALTER BRIDGE have announced their return to the UK for two very special headline shows on October 2nd and 3rd. Appearing at the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London for the first time, the band will treat the …

Goldblade are always fun to watch at Bearded Theory – their hyper-energetic frontman John Robb never stays on stage for long and predictably it’s not long before he jumps down and comes to the barrier to get up close with the fans as he sings.  He’s one of the best …