In February 2010, one of my favourite bands of the previous couple of years broke up rather suddenly. Driven by an equal love of Brian Setzer, Elvis Costello and old Phil Spector discs, the 78s were set to bring rock ‘n’ roll music back to the people. The timing was right – after all, other [...]

8-Point Rose is a band which rose from the ashes of Evermoore, a Swedish metal band who’d previously produced a couple of demos and toured Europe for seven years. The twin lead guitars, combined with the heavy drumming and the melodic, yet very 80s metal vocal stylings present during this album’s opening number tells you [...]

Released in 1979, Simple Minds’ debut album ‘Life In A Day’ was a largely unremarkable affair. Mostly made up of post-punk/new wave material (played by what sounds like a pub band), the only things which ever remain memorable are its two singles – the title track and ‘Chelsea Girl’. Few people could have predicted that [...]

From the opening moments of this Spanish garage rock duo’s album, I think it would be more than fair to say that the crashy rock ‘n’ roll spirit contained within the eleven songs on ‘Radio Days’ seemed instantly familiar. However, both Eva J Ryjien and Jave Ryjien share vocals and the contrast in voices provides [...]

For most of you of a certain age, the mention of the name Lloyd Dobler will raise a smile. If you’re smiling right now, you’ll know that this power pop outfit are named after John Cusack’s enthusiastic leading man in Cameron Crowe’s movie “Say Anything…”; Lloyd was a man with very specific goals. He didn’t [...]

Most of you will know Alexi Lalas as “that American soccer guy”. In 1998, Lalas released the album ‘Ginger’ (his third, I believe) and it’s a fantastic record, full of power pop gems. On the album, he not only wrote and sang all the songs, but played guitar, bass and drums. Lalas is a fine [...]

If you’ve been a regular visitor to Real Gone, you’ll know that Saxon is a band who have been featured previously – more than once, in fact. …And deservedly so, since their long history has seen many changes; from changes in line-ups, to changes in management – the band, driven by the heavyweight enthusiasm of [...]

After the release of the ‘Nervous Breakdown’ EP in 1978, Keith Morris, Black Flag’s vocalist, quit the band. Attempts at making a full-length LP were started and abandoned during the following couple of years and both Dez Cadena and Ron Reyes had a shot at being the band’s replacement vocalist. Things eventually fell into place [...]

By the time this album was released in September 1984, Bruce Dickinson was settled in his place as Iron Maiden’s frontman, having replaced Paul Di’Anno over two years previously. He’d also proved to be a great songwriter, as evidenced by ‘Revelations’ (from the band’s 1984 album ‘Piece of Mind’). Nicko McBrain had replaced Clive Burr [...]

Despite this Boston based hard rock/melodic metal band forming in 1980 and releasing albums throughout that decade, they’ve never really gained much attention. They were inactive throughout the 90s, but returned at the beginning of the 21st Century and played live shows, which eventually led to a comeback album ‘Crack of Dawn’, released on Escape [...]