Category Archives: Miscellaneous

Bob Welch: August 31, 1945 – June 5, 2012

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Although overlooked by millions, Robert Lawrence Welch Jr had relatively a lengthy musical career. He came to relative prominence as a member of Fleetwood Mac in during the first half of the 1970s. In 2012, his life came to an end after he committed suicide. He was discovered with a gunshot wound to the chest.

Welch’s talent and invaluable contribution to a string of Fleetwood Mac discs released between the “wilderness years” of 1971-74 should not be ignored. While those albums are rarely seen as classics, in tunes like ‘Sentimental Lady’ and ‘Hypnotized’ he proved a great songwriter of adult pop, while other material like ‘Bermuda Triangle’ showcased a darker side to his work. Across five albums (none of which received at UK release in the 70s), Welch’s stamp on the Fleetwood Mac sound is pivotal, moving the band away from the blues and further towards the AM radio adult pop with which they would conquer the world. On his last work with the band, ‘Heroes Are Hard To Find’, Welch was the sole guitarist and chief songwriter, penning eight of the album’s eleven cuts.

After moving on from Fleetwood Mac in 1975, Welch headed a short-lived power trio named Paris, which saw him working alongside ex-Jethro Tull bassist Glen Cornick and ex-Nazz drummer Thom Mooney. Closer to hard rock than anything Welch committed to plastic previously, their quasi-angry arrangements were perhaps a knee-jerk to Welch’s time with the Mac; a pair of albums released in 1976 sold poorly.

Kicking off a solo career in 1977, Welch returned to familiar musical territory with ‘French Kiss’, a well-received collection of radio friendly tunes which owed a great deal to Welch’s time in Fleetwood Mac. The album yielded a couple of relatively successful singles in the title cut and a re-recorded ‘Sentimental Lady’ (the latter featuring Mick Fleetwood, Christine and John McVie). The album was a big hit in the US, reaching #12 on the Billboard Chart. While Welch never achieved such success again, his solo career continued, and between 1978 and 1983 he released another five studio albums. At this time Welch’s career was hampered by drug problems, but after getting clean he chose to work as a songwriter, only returning to recording in 1999. His first work after the hiatus was an experimental jazz release. Other releases included two volumes of re-recorded solo and Fleetwood Mac material.

Bob Welch was survived by his wife of twenty-seven years and leaves behind a legacy of work still awaiting discovery by many.

SOUNDGARDEN: Pro-shot footage of complete Rock Am Ring show

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By the middle of 2012, Soundgarden fans had much to celebrate. Not only had the reformed band played a few festival shows and proved they sounded as good as ever, but there was also a new album on the horizon. Although nearing the end of the previous year Chris Cornell had suggested that the new album would appear in the spring, by June 2012 no release date had been set.

Fans had, however, already been given a taste of what to expect with the new single and video for ‘Live To Rise’ from the ‘Avengers Assemble’ soundtrack and hopes were set high. Strange, then, that for their seventy minute appearance at Germany’s Rock Am Ring Festival, the band chose not to play the track or, indeed, any of their upcoming material.

While it could be argued their Rock Am Ring set is a little unbalanced in places (let’s be honest, ‘Down On The Upside’ is hugely under represented and ‘Beyond The Wheel’ isn’t really an appropriate finishing statement!), the thirteen song set explores back catalogue in a more than appropriate manner, even finding time for a couple of earlier relative obscurities for the hardcore fan.

Below, you can watch the complete set, professionally shot for a German broadcast. Some consolation for those outside Germany and for those Germans who were not present on the night.

METALLICA: Pro-shot footage of complete Rock Am Ring show

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As the centre piece for their 2012 festival shows, metal titans Metallica have chosen to play their multi-million selling 1991 self-titled release in it’s entirity.  The fact that ‘the black album’ is now twenty-one years old is enough to make many self-respecting rock fan feel the pangs of age, but the album itself has weathered the years rather well.

Such a revisitation of the past is surely interesting for Metallica too.  The album features material which has been absent from the live sets for some time, or in some cases – ‘The Struggle Within’ and ‘Don’t Tread On Me’ – has never been played live before.

With a selection of successful ‘black album’ shows already under their belts, on June 2nd 2012, Metallica took the stage in Germany at the Rock Am Ring Festival for another tour-de-force two hour set.

The complete performance can be seen below.  As a bonus, we’ve also included an embedded link to Metallica‘s headline slot at Rock Am Ring in 2008.  Enjoy!

HELLYEAH: Pro-shot footage of complete Rocklahoma 2012 set

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Following the tragic murder of Dimebag Darrell, nothing will ever bring back Pantera, but the first half of 2012 saw a resonably full calendar for the other band members:

Pantera’s classic, career-defining release, ‘Vulgar Display of Power’ was given an expanded 20th anniversary reissue; Philip Anselmo has been touring with his band Down with new material is very much in the offing; as part of Kill Devil Hill, bassist Rex Brown toured Europe and shared a stage with Mike Portnoy’s Adrenalin Mob.

2012 presented an equally full calendar for ex-Pantera drummer Vinnie Paul, too.  His band Hellyeah, devoted time to recording their third album and playing live shows.  Just prior to the release of that third release, ‘Band of Brothers’, Hellyeah appeared at the Rocklahoma Festival, where they performed a forty minute set.

Professionally filmed footage of their entire performance can be seen below.

REAL GONE’S EUROVISION GOLD, part 2: United Kingdom – almost nul points

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People talk endlessly about the Eurovision Song Contest being all about politics, and it’s hard to deny that.  Votes of top marks between Greece and Cyprus aren’t a new phenomenon; chumminess between the Scandinavian countries not uncommon.  Despite this, the Real Gone extended family has always made a night of it.  It is, after all, a good laugh.  Unless you ask our acquaintance from Albania, who actually really told us off, pointing out that we should never take the piss out of the ESC and that in Albania such things are taken very seriously indeed.  That said, we’re not sure what Albania were thinking with their 2012 entry, which seemed like three minutes of tuneless wailing.

Something discussed less frequently is that the Eurovision Song Contest is also about tourism.  Let’s be honest, here; before the broadcast of the 2012 edition of the contest, how many people knew what Azerbaijan looked like?  How many people even figured it would be so modern and beautiful?

With that in mind, Real Gone would like to offer a fairly interesting theory (which may have been bandied about elsewhere, though if it is, it certainly takes a back seat to the political theories):  Before the contest every year, everyone gets asked if they’d like to be the next year’s host.  Following this, on the actual night of the final, the voting countries are told – largely, if not completely – to award the three top marks to the six or so most willing potential hosts; the rest of the marks are distributed more fairly.

Think about it.  Not so silly, is it?

If it is true, of course, we’re not going to let that stop us enjoying the spectacle.  After all, it would take a pretty hard heart not to laugh at the fact that Jedward simply cannot do things in sync, despite [presumably] years of practice at that sort of thing. Even the bunch of Russian grannies seemed more professional…

In our second instalment of Eurovision gold, we offer more clips of Eurovision faux pas. In the previous entry, we poked fun at – but ultimately enjoyed – a few European entries. This time, to redress the balance, we’d like to look at the UK getting it more than a bit wrong.

People talk about Britain doing really badly in the “contest” every year, but stats show differently. For the first thirty years, the UK always did extremely well. In the “olden days” we seemingly could not get it wrong [we even came seventh with this piece of crap]. It’s only in more recent years – and again, for political reasons – our Euro-standing has taken a dive.

While the UK probably didn’t want to win the 2012 ESC, since our tourism isn’t doing too badly and the 2012 Olympic Games is costing a packet, crooning legend Engelbert Humperdinck deserved better placing than second-to-last.  Yes, the song was more maudlin than most of the entries, but he’s well known across Europe.

No matter what your opinion of the man or the chosen song, he certainly performed better than the following gallery of horrors – a couple of which, bizarrely, scored more points than Engelbert.

 

1991:  SAMANTHA JANUS – A Message To Your Heart

On the surface, this could have been reasonable.  The basic arrangement sounds like it’s been cobbled together from late 80s Swedish AOR albums and then embellished with some brassiness, making reasonable Eurovision fare.  What could go wrong?  Getting a poor singer-turned-actress in to sing it was step one… Step two was getting her to sing a trite lyric about world poverty while smiling and wearing a sparkly pink dress.  Just horrid.

2003: JEMINI – Cry Baby

Choosing Jemini for this entry is a bit like shooting fish in a barrel, but there’s no way this could be overlooked.  Technical problems on the night led to this woeful, woeful performance, resulting in the UK’s only nul points to date.  Those problems were not the fault of Jemini, obviously, but it’s unlikely that even a faultless performance would have made this average dance-pop tune a Euro-winner. Interestingly, even though Jemini couldn’t hear themselves, they manage to be a bit more in tune than Sam Janus.

2006: DAZ SAMPSON – Teenage Life

This is the crowning glory of British Eurovision embarrassment: a thirty-something year old man rapping badly about teenagers, while some women squirm around behind him in school uniforms. Presenting the worst of white, English rap, this makes George Michael’s efforts in ‘Wham Rap‘ seem credible. Who liked this exactly, and whom were they aiming it at?  Perhaps most importantly, how bad were the British contenders that didn’t get through in order for this to be the best?   When we first saw this we wanted the ground to swallow us up.  Jesus Christ.  Proceed with caution, you might get put on a list.

May 2012