Over the years, Cherry Red Records and their vast array of subsidiary labels have been responsible for releasing some great box sets centring around 60s and 70s material, but ‘What A Groovy Day: The British Sunshine Pop Sound 1967-72’ is potentially one of their most quirky. By throwing a light on an era when single releases were still considered important, it guarantees a great listen full of pop laden treats. but It also provides an easy opportunity to rediscover various oft-forgotten or unknown three minute nuggets when digging deeply into the archives. As always, by mixing the cult with lesser known tunes by familiar faces, it’s the kind of Cherry Red release that should appeal to a broad spectrum of retro pop fans.
Author Archives: Real Gone
SCARLATAMUSIC – Skatepunk EP
John Scarlata began his journey as a guitarist in the 90s as a young man who wanted to “jam along with his favourite metal songs”. His talents grew, and eventually he’d mastered the art of fretboard manipulation, but any musical success was slow in presenting itself. Eventually, he self-released a debut track, ‘Metal-Baby’, via Bandcamp, which showed him to be someone capable of wielding a really big musical tone. The track’s multi-layered guitar sound and influences from old thrash tracks were a classic metal fan’s dream. Unfortunately, Scarlata’s vocal did the recording no favours. At odds with some great riffs and shredding elements, he sounded like a man shouting on a mobile phone’s answering machine.
TEN – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Ten’s fifteenth studio album ‘Here Be Monsters’ was easily the band’s finest collection of songs in many a year. Although a lot of their post-Chris Francis albums are home to some great tracks, Ten’s later output, when taken as a whole, sometimes feels patchy or like a band desperately trying to recycle old glories. ‘…Monsters’ was a cut above. It’s choruses were often great; the music had a sense of fire that had been partly absent for a while, and the vocal contributions from the great Gary Hughes were especially good throughout. With all of that in mind, 2023’s ‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’ had a lot to live up to. The fact that the songs were recorded in tandem with ‘Here Be Monsters’ automatically stood the record in good stead, but would it merely made up from the tracks that weren’t good enough to make the cut almost a year earlier?
HEROES AND MONSTERS – Heroes And Monsters
Although formed as a new band in 2022, Heroes And Monsters features three very established musicians. Guitarist Stef Burns will need no introduction for a lot of rock fans, having played with Alice Cooper and Y&T in the 90s. Bassist Todd Kerns mightn’t have reached household name status in the UK, but he’s also been a member of Alice’s touring band, recorded with Slash, and been an integral part of big selling Canadian alternative rock band Age of Electric. With Evanescence/Black Label Society man Will Hunt occupying the drum stool, Heroes And Monsters have a great pedigree, even before taking their music into consideration.
THE LEMON DROP GANG – Sweetie Pie / The Party’s Over
This two track release from garage rockers The Lemon Drop Gang presents the band’s first new music since 2020’s cult sensation ‘I’m Not The One!’, and for those who loved that full length release, these tunes will certainly be hailed as a welcome return. New listeners will, perhaps, have to work slightly harder to reap those listening rewards, but they’re very much there, and should present themselves very definitely somewhere around the fourth play.