We’ve reached the end of REAL GONE’s first full year online and it’s been great. I would never have imagined at this point a year ago the blog would have gained such momentum. REAL GONE has gathered increasing support from bands and music fans across the world and it’s getting stronger all the time. 2010 [...]

Ben Fuller believes that every place he visits and every person he meets has a story and that visiting new places fills him with new energies he puts into music. It’s likely it’s that kind of wandering spirit, hippie ethos which gives his debut EP an upbeat vibe. ‘Ashes’ opens the EP with a 4/4 [...]

Named after the Rolling Stones’ drummer, Boston quartet Watts make a sound that’s trashy, yet tight. If I were to tell you that the chief influences behind their sound are The Faces, mid-period Replacements and (unsurprisingly) 1970s Rolling Stones, you’ll know instantly what they sound like. Dan Kopko’s vocals have a slightly gravelly edge that’s [...]

Chris Francis is a guitarist from south east England. He will be familiar to melodic rock fans as being the man who replaced Vinny Burns in TEN, playing on their ‘Return To Evermore’ and ‘Twilight Chronicles’ releases. In addition to that, he’s released guitar instrumental albums under his own name. Moving away from the guitar [...]

More reviews coming later, but first, to get you in a Christmassy mood, here are a few festive videos! I know people who hate this, y’know – the fools. It’s one of the best Christmassy songs ever, even if Jona hadn’t intended it to be. Like Jona Lewie, it’s only a mention of Christmas which [...]

I have to admit, despite often reading good things about his 2002 album ‘Redhead’, I was late in discovering Bleu, first hearing him as part of The Major Labels with Ducky Carlisle and Mike Viola. The Major Labels album had some great tunes on it, but I still hadn’t been moved enough to check out [...]

By the tail end of the 1960s and having recorded three seminal studio albums with his power trio Cream, Eric Clapton was at the forefront of guitarists. By 1970, Blind Faith (the supergroup featuring Clapton, Steve Winwood, Family’s Ric Grech and Ginger Baker – who’d previously worked alongside Clapton in Cream) had imploded. Clapton had [...]

Sebastien is a band/project based in the Czech Republic, specialising in metal with many symphonic and progressive influences. Their press release claims their music is a breakthrough in progressive and symphonic music, but with regard to their chosen musical field, I’m struggling to hear anything that doesn’t sound like a bunch of safe, tried-and-tested ideas. [...]

Twenty studio albums and various live albums into their career, it’s only Lemmy who remains from the “classic” Motörhead line up, but in many ways, that’s all you need. On 2010’s ‘The World Is Yours’, Lemmy, drummer Mikkey Dee and guitarist Phil Campbell (celebrating seventeen years together – Motörhead’s longest serving line-up) add little to [...]

One Day as a Lion is an alliance between Rage Against The Machine frontman Zack de la Rocha and ex-Mars Volta drummer Jon Theodore. That’s it. Two guys: one with a loud drum kit and the other with a message. No band. …And ultimately, very little in the way of music – just vocals, lots [...]