“Dear Mr. Le Bon…” – crowdfunding campaign

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A few years ago, a couple of pensioners from Bournemouth – home of the mighty prog band Big Big Train – embarked on an unusual hobby.  They began to write to musicians, questioning their song lyrics.  It all began in 2008, when Wilf Turnbull and Derek Philpott decided to write to Simon Le Bon, stating that other animals besides wolves experienced hunger and it was perhaps wrong for Duran Duran to single out our lupine chums.

The whole thing snowballed.  Soon, their project became a fully functioning website, with replies from Gary Numan, Toyah Willcox, Steve Dawson (ex-Saxon), Billy Bragg and many, many others.

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Queen 80s & Beyond poll results + video gallery

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Real Gone’s first Queen poll, looking at the band’s 70s work, was a roaring success.  Hot on its heels, we ran a second poll asking you to vote for your favourite songs from the second phase of their much-celebrated career.  While similarly successful, the second poll showed how much love fans have for band’s singles – in this case, far more so than the album material.

There’s no denying the quality of Queen’s hits between 1980-1991.  Aside from those from the “marmite” album ‘Hot Space’ (1982), the band achieved wall-to-wall greatness in the singles department during their stadium years; their singles still in regular radio rotation the world over.  …And fans clearly still love them.

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ANDREW DANSO – Fly EP

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flyIn 2011, Devin Townsend released his fourth “project” album, ‘Ghost’. A record heard by millions, it combined ambient-ish qualities with a mellow style that showed off a very relaxed side of the man who once gave us skull-crushing metal as frontman with Strapping Young Lad.  Around the same time that those millions were getting (rightly) excited about Devin’s ‘Ghost’, somewhere in Northern Ireland, guitarist Andrew Danso had not long finished work on ‘f i n d’, a collection of largely instrumental soundscapes which appeared to share more than a few traits with Townsend’s record, but approached atmospheric music with an even spacier slant.  The album, unsurprisingly, slipped under the radar of most of the people who really should’ve heard it, as is the plight of many an independent musician.

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ANATHEMA – Fine Days 1999-2004

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Anathema-MFN-Remaster-Fine-DaysIn the twenty-first century, Anathema have often been mentioned in the same breath as Opeth and Porcupine Tree due to their increased movement towards thoughtful progressive rock structures.  It hasn’t always been that way, of course.  Like Opeth, the band began life as a totally different musical beast, playing in a melodic death metal style.  Shifting line-ups naturally resulted in shifting sounds, and by the time the band signed with the legendary Music For Nations label for their fifth album ‘Judgement’ in 1999, they’d settled on a rather tough but accessible blend of gothy and alternative rock.

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