VARIOUS ARTISTS – Shake That Thing: The Blues In Britain 1963-1973

The British blues boom was arguably one of the most important movements in musical history. Not only did it launch the careers of various guitar heroes – players much loved for decades afterwards – but the guitar driven sounds also paved the way for a whole universe of rock music. With that in mind, it’s interesting how few compilations have celebrated the British blues scene. Aside from Grapefruit Records’ excellent ‘Crawling Up A Hill’ box set, any other releases have been label specific, leaving a huge gap in the market for a set to explore some of the more niche sounds from the era.

‘Shake That Thing: The Blues In Britain 1963-1973’ is perfect in that regard. This three CD set from Grapefruit casts a much wider net than their earlier box set, but never loses site of its core objective. Bluesy sounds are out there, front and centre, at all times, but it also looks beyond the usual suspects to celebrate blues laden tunes shared by other singer songwriters, folkies and rock bands during a hugely transitional period.

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Watch: Them Crooked Vultures Live in Germany 2009

In the summer of 2019, Dave Grohl hinted at the possibility of a second Them Crooked Vultures album.  At that point, it had been a whole decade since the supergroup’s debut release, but fans had never quite given up hope of a return.  Grohl’s comments only served to fuel the rumour mill and in many ways it’s a pity nothing more materialised, as a brand new work involving John Paul Jones at that time would have outshone all of Jimmy Page’s non-existent efforts to mark Led Zeppelin’s 50th anniversary.

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Led Zeppelin: Poll results & video gallery

For the past week, Real Gone has been running a Led Zeppelin poll.  A huge poll containing each of the Zep studio recordings, rather than just letting fans come and choose their favourites, we structured things slightly differently.  Voters were given nine votes and only allowed to pick one track from each of the albums.

A few people claimed this to be unfair – after all, when faced with an album as strong as Led Zeppelin’s fourth, how could you possibly choose ‘Stairway To Heaven’ over ‘The Battle of Evermore’, or even ‘When The Levee Breaks’ over the mighty ‘Black Dog’ with its huge riffs?  How could only one vote be allocated to ‘Physical Graffiti’ – a sprawling double album featuring fifteen songs and at least seven cast iron classics?   Therein lied the big challenge.

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THE BIG LED ZEPPELIN POLL

With the release of the ‘Physical Graffiti’ deluxe edition due in a few weeks and Jimmy Page’s Led Zeppelin reissue campaign reaching the halfway stage, Real Gone decided to have some fun.

We know there are a lot of Led Zeppelin fans out there – and a fair few visiting this website regularly.  This week between Wednesday 21st and Tuesday 27th January, it’s OFFICIAL ZEPPELIN WEEK at Real Gone!

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Guitars & Zeppelins: Real Gone meets Slam Cartel’s Damo Fawsett

British rock band Slam Cartel released their debut album ‘Handful of Dreams’ in 2011.  Since then, the band have gone through a few changes and played a seemingly endless stream of gigs.  REAL GONE caught up with guitarist Damo Fawsett to discuss his influences, as well as the band’s past, present and future.   Bringing a few insights into the world of a hard-working band – as well as Zeppelin-y tangent –  a lengthy chat ensued…

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