Boomtown Rats US review

http://www.musicnewsnashville.com/new-releases-and-re-issues-rock-out-the-record-store-racks/

Artist: The Boomtown Rats
Title: Live Germany ’78 (Gonzo Multimedia)
You might like if you enjoy: The Boomtown Rats, ’70s-era Rolling Stones

Tell me more: Far better known in their native Ireland and neighboring U.K. than here in the U.S., the Boomtown Rats’ groundbreaking mix of “Sticky Fingers”-era Rolling Stones, early punk rock and reggae is fully celebrated on “Live Germany ’78,” a two-disc collection featuring a concert film with bonus tracks on the DVD and an audio CD of the 1978 performance.

Singer Bob Geldof leads the band through more than a dozen originals including the old school punk rocker “Never Bite the Hand That Feeds You,” the New Wave-minded “Neon Heart” and loose rocker “(It Feels) So Strange.” Information: gonzomultimedia.co.uk.

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Live in Germany '78 DVD/CD - £14.99

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Chinese Hymn 詩歌 - 風雨念香港 ( 曾路得 )

Being Sunday I always post sacred music. The name of the deity may change, or even the deity Him/Herself but the spirit remains the same.
 

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

LAKE IMAGE

LOOK!(eye did!)TOO LATE!

Selfies always on the surface

Shedding ,cataract surgery-

before power loss,retain visions.

Dark allows me to see moon and stars

Deserts teach belated silences.

Even water gets bored when dammed

Watch the difference when it breaks banks!

Returning as a forgotten stranger

only finds forgetting strangers

Miracles require belief as donations

Belief takes faith to the bank.

We learned from poverty NOT TO BE POOR

It is hard to buy wisdom from the rich

Yes, “Clear Days” from Time and a Word (1970): YESterdays

Jon Anderson has written a few classic Yes songs by himself. A couple that immediately come to mind include “Astral Traveler” — from later in this sophomore 1970 release, Time and a Word — and, much later, the title track from 1977’s Going For The One.

Sadly, “Clear Days” is not a high point for the world’s greatest progressive rock band.

In fact, there is nothing progressive about the track, which is weighed down by a dirge like orchestral arrangement, flower-power lyrics, and a sappy vocal arrangement. “Clear Days” underscores just how much Yes was still struggling with its identity.

Read on...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM YES AT GONZO

Union (Standard DVD) DVD - £9.99

Union DVD - £12.99

Union (2CD) 2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's DVD - £12.99

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s DVD - £9.99

GONZO WEEKLY #146

PLAYLIST: Strange Harvest #2

Strange Fruit is a unique two-hour radio show exploring the world of underground, strange and generally neglected music. All shows are themed and all shows set out to give the most hardened of sound-hounds some new delight to sample.

The show is also unique in providing homework for undergraduate students

on North West Kent College’s Foundation Degree in Professional Writing (who dig up many of the odd facts featured in the links between tracks).

Neil Nixon, the founder and co-presenter of the show has released a book about rare albums for Gonzo Multimedia.

The show is broadcast on Miskin Radio every Sunday from 10-00-midnight. For the next few weeks we shall be broadcasting four one hour specials: Strange Harvest

Strange Harvest #2 – 21-06-15

John Lodge:  10,000 Light Years Ago

Bird Radio:  The Stranger

Harry Bruer and his Quintet:  TV Funeral March

Kris Drever and Boo Hewerdine:   Five Past Two in the Afternoon

Steve von Til:  Chasing Ghosts

The Membranes:  Money is Dust

Ozric Tentacles:   Far Memory

Kid 606:  D Minor

Valet:  Clouds

Prurient:  Jester in Agony

Terry Reid:  May Fly

Boo Hewerdine and Kris Drever:  Bluebirds

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Raz Band - Cars & Girls (Down At The Jersey Shore)

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Madison Park CD - £9.99

COMING TOMORROW

Barbara Dickson at The Plough

JOIN well known folk artist Barbara Dickson in Ilfracombe

Don’t miss Barbara Dickson and pianist Nick Holland in Torrington on Friday, September 11.

Enjoy a special acoustic performance at The Plough Arts Centre as folk stalwart Barbara Dickson and her pianist Nick Holland explore her catalogue of songs on Friday, September 11.

The pair let the words and melodies take ‘centre stage’ as they perform a range of material drawing on Barbara’s folk roots, her latest exploration of the songs of Gerry Rafferty, and some of her classic hit records.

Read More...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:

Morning Comes Quickly
CD - £7.99




Answer Me
CD - £7.99




Winter
CD - £9.99




Che Faro
DVD - £12.99




B4 74 - The Folkclub Tapes
2CD - £11.99




Full Circle
CD - £9.99




Into The Light
DVD - £12.99




Time And Tide
CD - £9.99

Yes’ symphonic rock still progressive

Current lead singer since 2012, Jon Davison didn’t miss a beat singing all of the group’s greatest hits. 
Dan Cruz | For The Telegraph

World-renowned recording artists Yes rocked The Family Arena stage Wednesday night in St. Charles County in front of a crowd of lifetime followers who cheered wildly as soon as they heard the guitars’ first chords. 
Dan Cruz | For The Telegraph

Toto’s lead guitarist Steve Lukather gave an outstanding performance along with the other Toto ensemble members prior to Yes taking center stage. 
Dan Cruz | For The Telegraph

Toto made a return to the St. Louis area on Wednesday playing among their Top 5 hits “Hold the Line,” “Rosanna,” and “Africa.” 
Dan Cruz | For The TelegraphShare on linkedin

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ST. CHARLES, Mo. — World-renowned recording artists Yes rocked the Family Arena Wednesday night, along with Toto who clearly held their own.

Lifetime Yes followers cheered the chart-topping band under the roof of the St. Charles County venue as soon as they heard the guitars’ first chords. Toto co-headlined the North American tour playing first.

Current lead singer since 2012, Jon Davison didn’t miss a beat singing all of the group’s greatest hits.

Among the world’s most influential, ground-breaking, and respected progressive rock bands, Grammy Award-winning Yes has sold nearly 40 million albums in a career that has so far spanned more than four decades.

Yes continued with its tradition of symphonic progressive rock at the Family Arena remaining timeless, fresh and innovative to legions of multi-generational fans. Yes played iconic favorites “I’ve Seen All Good People,” “Owner of a Lonely Heart,” “Roundabout,” and “Starship Trooper” as the encore. Earlier in the evening Yes guitarist Steve Howe did a solo on “Clap.”

Yes alumnus Billy Sherwood on bass joined the tour with current Yes band members Davison, Howe, Alan White and Geoff Downes. Sherwood played in place of the band’s founding member Chris Squire, who recently lost his battle with acute erythroid leukemia, an uncommon form of acute myeloid leukemia.

Toto’s lead guitarist Steve Lukather gave an outstanding performance along with the other Toto ensemble members prior to Yes taking center stage.

Read on...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM YES AT GONZO

Union (Standard DVD) DVD - £9.99

Union DVD - £12.99

Union (2CD) 2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's DVD - £12.99

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s DVD - £9.99

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

PILLS AND CARDS

ANSWERS IN A BOX

Take the pill!Take a card(any card!)

"One pill makes you larger,the other makes you small..

and the ones that mother gives you won't do anything @all"(Jefferson Airplane)

""So go running for the shelter of that mother's little helper .."(Jagger/Richards)

Trucker pills,party-popping pills,contraceptives ,antibiotics,recreational and prescription pills

If it comes in the form of a tablet-TAKE 3 TIMES A DAY.Forget the side effects-

credit card bankruptcy,shopping therapy,plastic addiction.Slap that plastic down

and CONSUME!(yes,consumption was also a disease/one for which there is no pill-

unless it is a sugar pill,a placebo-some Stevia laced little white tablet

that takes away the pain of consumer envy .Just as homeless roll out shopping trolleys

full of detritus,we take the side-effects of authorized purchasing power /high interest rates

bills that tower over tiny incomes,until all we can say is"GIVE PILLS A CHANCE!"

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

SILENCE BEFORE,AFTER,BETWEEN

CHAPTER ONE:NOTHING,NOWHERE,NO ONE

LISTEN.!..ALMOST SILENCE.....HALF-SOUNDS.

MIRANDA!YOU HAVE NO RIGHTS.

BETWEEN US?SOUNDS..and consenting silences

If you choose to be silent/silence will raise the rent.

Silence has Noh depth.What if it were shallow?

Syllables fell in.Drenched in music.

Silence moved in.Words moved out.

City means less than noise in a box.

You do not have to Babel.Silence is patient.It,too,ages well.

So i bought a box of sounds.It ran out,screaming.I was left with an empty box.Unplugged.

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: 2011 Violent Opposition by Keith Levene

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Search For Absolute Zero Limited Edition CD/DVD - £9.99

Steve Hillage on Gong, Steinbergers and disappearing guitars

The psychedelic guitar maestro tells us tales of unlistenable vinyl, an invisible guitar and why his teenage self had it sorted as he fields the 10 questions we ask everyone...

What was your first guitar and when did you get it?

"My first guitar was a six-string Spanish guitar and I got it when I was nine. It would have been around 1960 and the first song I learned to play on it would probably have been a Lonnie Donegan song like My Old Man's A Dustman.

"But my dad bought me the Strat on the front cover of Motivation Radio because I went to a public school - the City Of London School - and I did quite well on my O Levels and I won a scholarship, which meant that my father didn't have to pay fees any more and he bought me that guitar. We found it through Exchange & Mart or Melody Maker - one or the other, I don't know.

"I did a gig on acid and my guitar disappeared while I was playing it. It was rather unpleasant"

"It was originally white, but I tired of the whiteness and so I scraped it all off and varnished it and my dad helped me a bit. That was the main guitar I used with Gong, but I also had a Les Paul that I used a lot and an SG; they were the three guitars, really. I'd say I probably used the Strat around 50 per cent, Les Paul around 30 per cent and 20 per cent SG."

Read on...

Live at the Rainbow 1977 CD - £9.99

Live in England 1979 CD - £9.99

Yes, Toto to take over Cohen Stadium Friday

Yes is currently comprised of, from left, bassist Billy Sherwood, vocalist Jon Davison, guitarist Steve Howe, drummer Alan White and keyboard player Geoff Down

Do you love classic rock? If your answer is "Yes," then get ready for a treat.

Two of the genre's biggest acts of the 1970s and 1980s, Yes and Toto, are set to perform Friday at Cohen Stadium.

The Grammy Award-winning group Yes, best known for its progressive rock hits like "Roundabout" and "Owner of a Lonely Heart," has seen many members come and go (and in some cases come back again) since the release of its self-titled debut album in 1969.

Through it all, the one member who never left was bassist Chris Squire. The virtuoso bassist formed the band, along with original vocalist Jon Anderson, in 1968 and is the only person to have played on each of the band's 21 studio albums. It was announced in May that Squire had been diagnosed with leukemia and would not be joining the band on the road this summer. Squire died in June.

Read More...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:

Union (Standard DVD) DVD - £9.99

Union DVD - £12.99

Union (2CD) 2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's DVD - £12.99

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s DVD - £9.99

“Drama“? To say the least. Following the release of their divisive ninth LP, 1978′s Tormato, Yes found themselves gazing weakly into a New Wave-y new decade. Weighed down by mounting creative and personal strain, keyboardist Rick Wakeman and frontman and chief songwriter Jon Anderson fled the band in March 1980, leaving the core trio – guitarist Steve Howe, bassist Chris Squire and drummer Alan White – without a sense of direction.

The band’s unlikely savior? The Buggles’ stylish hit-makers, Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes, best known for their MTV-launching 1979 synth-pop smash, “Video Killed the Radio Star.” The duo introduced themselves to Yes in May after hearing them rehearse at an adjacent studio, marking the start of another turbulent – if more creatively assured – period for the prog-rock legends.

Recording for two months at London’s Townhouse Studios, Yes reunited with their previous engineer Eddy Offord, whose sonic muscle refocused the band’s material after the confused, crowded Tormato mix. Squire’s punishing bass tone on “Tempus Fugit” and the metallic thunder of epic opener “Machine Messiah” proved they hadn’t lost their mojo. But Yes were bored with nostalgia in 1980 – under Horn’s glossy supervision, the quintet dabbled with sleek new synth tones (“Run Through the Light”), vocoder effects (“Into the Lens”) and sculpted arena-pop choruses that pointed toward their MTV rebirth on 1983′s 90125.

Yes had survived yet another crucial lineup exodus, even weathering the storm of losing their iconic frontman. But even if Horn’s similarly pitched vocals helped smooth the transition, fans weren’t satisfied in the long run – after an awkward tour filled with mixed crowd responses, the band collapsed in 1981. After reuniting for another Buggles LP, Horn began his new career as an in-demand producer, while Downes co-founded soft-prog supergroup Asia with Howe.

But the Yes chronology is anything but linear: In 1983, Squire and White rebuilt the band once more, recruiting Anderson, South African guitarist Trevor Rabin and former Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye – with Horn assisting behind the boards. The result? The triple-platinum behemoth 90125 and classic singles like “Owner of a Lonely Heart.”

Read on...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM YES AT GONZO

Union (Standard DVD) DVD - £9.99

Union DVD - £12.99

Union (2CD) 2CD - £7.99

Rock Of The 70's DVD - £12.99

The Lost Broadcasts DVD - £7.99

Rock of the 70s DVD - £9.99

Former Genesis member Steve Hackett and Marcus Miller to play the Sage Gateshead

Steve Hackett & Nad Sylvan

The August lull in the touring schedule provides a brief opportunity to have a look a little further ahead to the autumn when it seems as if every musician on the planet wants comes to the region.

One such artist, former Genesis guitarist/composer Steve Hackett has a gig in sage Gateshead's big sage one on October 17.

Hackett comes to Tyneside with an anniversary to celebrate plus a new-ish album, Wolflight, and a huge career retrospective box-set just released.

Wolflight is the first studio album of new material since Beyond the Shrouded Horizon in 2011 and explorers past and contemporary cultures in a revolutionary journey around the globe. The record reached the top 40 album chart on release back in March.

Read More...

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE AT GONZO:

Spectral Mornings DVD - £5.99

THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem

Rob Ayling writes: 

"Thom the World poet is an old mate of mine from way back in my history. Even pre-dating Voiceprint, when I was running "Otter Songs" and Tom's poetry tapes and guest appearances with Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth and Mother Gong are well known and highly regarded. It just felt right to include a daily poem from Thom on our Gonzo blog and when I approached him to do so, he replied with in seconds!!! Thom is a great talent and just wants to spread poetry, light and positive energy across the globe. If we at Gonzo can help him do that - why not? why not indeed!!" (The wondrous poetpic is by Jack McCabe, who I hope forgives me for scribbling all over it with Photoshop)

TRUTH,BEAUTY,FORM,CONTENT

Poet,singer-songwriter,actor,storyteller

Wisdom is trust in us.Each one-common but universal.

Art is life applied.Take Kaiki Azmi.His devotion to honest expression

finds him putting his body on each line in the Swadeshi movement("Telegana'),

praising the "Common Man"in "Makan","Bangla Desh"/

writing songs for Haqueeqat(1964)and that poem celebrating the moon landing-

'Pin Tasmi Pa(1970),and urging his daughter to "be her best"in "Aurat"

Those songs,films,stories and personal examples of applied life via art

endear Kaiki to his country.His famous quote-"I was born under a colonial India,

grew old in Independent India,and will die in a socialist India.

And these is not the dream of a madman.."

THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Boomtown Rats - Like Clockwork

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE FROM GONZO

Live in Germany '78 DVD/CD - £14.99