On 27th April 2018, the legendary Van Morrison will release his 39th studio album ‘You’re Driving Me Crazy’.
Unbelievably, the album will be the veteran vocalist’s third album of new studio material in just seven months.
You might not have heard of Jack Watts.
But you will.
The UK singer songwriter has already had his music singled out by Spotify in Italy, Finland, UK and Turkey. As part of the promotion for his first two EPs, the musician has played extensive live shows and even shared a stage with quirky folk-dream pop band Slow Club.
From it’s birth in the coldest extremes of Scandinavia, black metal slowly spread across Europe like a harsh plague, invading territories with a barrage of riffs, twig shaped logos, minimalist artwork and sounds often characterised by especially harsh, thin vocals. Over the years, the style has become more refined, mixing the purer elements with death metal depths and complexities. In allowing itself to be more inclusive of a few other extreme metal styles, it seemed to become even more influential – a huge surprise for a metal subgenre born within such extremities. In short, it’s all come a very long way from it’s roots; it’s no longer about painting your face white and considering burning a church during your spare time.
Created with the idea of encouraging people back into independent record shops by issuing limited vinyl items by smaller cult bands, it wasn’t long before Record Store Day got utterly hijacked by major labels keen to milk a giant cash cow. Worse still, RSD stocks have actually been sold by dealers at inflated prices on ebay the day before the event. It’s hard not to see it as a giant sham.
It’s been a while since the Steve Rothery Band released their critically acclaimed ‘Ghosts of Pripyat’. Since then, Steve has been busy with Marillion, writing, recording and touring ‘FEAR’.
The beginning of March saw his solo band go back out on the road, where they will be playing sporadic dates between now and May.