As the author of the Marillion biography ‘Separated Out’ and the Rush history ‘Strange Chemistry’, writer Jon Collins has been well known to prog rock fans for decades. Those fans are less likely to know Jon for his poetry, or be aware of his work as a musician, but he has been rather wise in choosing to apply his writing talents to different media. After all, if you stick to the same thing, you’ll eventually end up stuck in an uninteresting rut.
Author Archives: Real Gone
Check out ‘Please Me’ – the new single and video from The Rattlebacks
Just a few weeks after the release of the enjoyable ‘Over The Edge’, The Rattlebacks have returned with another new single ‘Please Me’.
THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #63
Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This selection takes in a couple of pop-ish tunes, a pair of tracks from bands that are still very new, and even a singer songwriter offering that blends huge melodies with a strangely prog-like flair. As always, we hope there’s something here for everyone, and if you like what you hear, it’s worth exploring some of these artists further…
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NEIL YOUNG – Ready For The Harvest: Buried Treasure, Part II (1970-1972)
Our second delve into the Neil Young archives is long overdue. We had planned to share this just a couple of months after the first part, but other things got in the way. This second exploration had originally been sketched out to cover the first half of the 70s – Neil’s first truly great period – but the arrival of a couple of extra bootlegs and other stuff meant that it there was just too much stuff to fit into a five or six year stretch.
Instead, this second part takes us from the ‘Goldrush’ sessions to Neil’s one off collaboration with Graham Nash in 1972. Mining the gold from this fantastic period was difficult, but hopefully you’ll not only agree with some of our choices, but it’ll also take you deeper into a world of musical treasure to discover a couple of things you might not have heard.
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BUZZARD BUZZARD BUZZARD – Skinwalker
On their Mercury Prize winning debut album ‘Backhand Deals’, Welsh band Buzzard Buzzard Buzzard were unafraid to wear a very retro heart on their sleeve. The bulk of its tunes took a very melodic approach and fused a great set of pop and rock influences on a record that occasionally sounded like a 90s band who’d discovered a bunch of old vinyl LPs from the 70s in their parents’ loft. Instantly familiar but always entertaining, it was the kind of guitar driven, melodic pop/rock collection that seemed destined to rival The Feeling’s brilliant ‘Twelve Stops Then Home’.
Then, somewhere between the promotion for that record and the recording of their follow up ‘Skinwalker’, they had a drastic rethink.