EDITORIAL COMMENT: “Everybody’s dead, Dave…”

It is normally customary at this time of year for Real Gone to put together a brief round-up of the year’s high points, detailing our top ten releases of the previous twelve months and drawing attention to a few more great recordings that didn’t quite make the cut.

This year – 2016 – has been somewhat different. Somewhat challenging, to say the least. That’s not to say there hasn’t been good music, since there has been various gems to be discovered throughout the previous twelve months (and we shall be sharing our thoughts on such things with you in due course), but most of the positive feelings surrounding the year have been clouded by the spectre of death.

Continue reading

Thrones, Kings, Minos & Rhinos (A Real Gone Sampler)

An important and popular fixture on the Real Gone calendar, the free sampler has offered a broad range of tracks for keen-eared listeners since its inception back in 2010. Usually, the samplers would cover a broad range of music. This year, in line with 2014, we’ve covered so much metal, it needed it’s own free download!

Continue reading

A Million Ways To Change Your Life (A Real Gone Sampler)

In 2016, Real Gone celebrated it’s seventh full year online. This year also marked the sixth year we’ve given away new music at the end of the year. Now a staple of the RG catalogue, the free album-length download is looked forward to by a core of our supporters and in turn helps bring new readers and listeners to our site.

2016 hasn’t been quite as notable for new music compared with a couple of years previously, but that’s not to say it hasn’t thrown up some great stuff. On the first of Real Gone’s free compilations for 2016, we take a look at a broad selection of tunes from punk, country, singer-songwriter fare and more… [a selection of metal oriented artists can be found over here]. If you’ve been paying attention to our website over the past twelve months, a few of these names will be familiar. If not, it’s time to say hello to new music. If you find a couple of things to love, our work here is done!

Continue reading

The Real Gone Advent Calendar 2016

As is traditional at Real Gone every December, we like to count down to Christmas with various clips.  2016 might have been rubbish, but that’s not going to stop us digging up archive videos!

A new clip will be uploaded here every day until the 24th.  Hopefully, something will entertain and inspire you to dig out a long neglected album or three…

DEC 01 DEC 02 DEC 03 DEC 04 DEC 05 DEC 06

DEC 07 DEC 08 DEC 09 DEC 10 DEC 11 DEC 12

DEC 13 DEC 14 DEC 15 DEC 16 DEC 17 DEC 18

DEC 19 DEC 20 DEC 21 DEC 22 DEC 23 DEC 24

Reviewing the Reviewer: Fraser Marshall talks to Real Gone

There’s an old quote that says “writing about music is like dancing about architecture”. For many, though, writing about music has become an important part of pop culture. From the listening notes on the backs of old jazz albums from the 1950s and the great Rolling Stone essays during rock’s 70s boom, to the punk fanzines and the many essays filling the twenty-first century’s super deluxe box sets, writing about music has taken many forms, which sometimes can enrich a listening experience. A good music review can inspire a new purchase or even make a listener seek out forgotten treasures. Maybe the originator of the “architecture” quote – often believed to be Frank Zappa, but actually traced back to US actor/comedian Martin Mull – didn’t actually want to understand.  Whatever, the importance of music scribes hasn’t escaped music fan Fraser Marshall.

In an age where we now have access to more music than ever and the rise of the internet has meant there are now more budding scribes out there, Fraser hit upon a plan… A plan not only to highlight some of the best independent music websites, but to also sit down with prolific reviewers and find out what makes them tick.

Not all good ideas come to full fruition, as Fraser explains below. For the first time, you can now read the full interview Lee Realgone gave Fraser back in June ’16. Our many thanks to Fraser for not only being interested in what we had to say, but also for allowing us to publish the interview at Real Gone.

Maybe one day Reviewing the Reviewer will become a reality but, in the meantime, it’s over to Fraser…

***

Continue reading