At the end of July 2015, singer-songwriter Mark Morriss releases his second solo album ‘The Taste of Mark Morriss’.
On the LP, the sometime Bluetones frontman covers tunes from a range of eras and influences including REM, Scott Walker, Madonna and Weezer.
Legendary vocalist Joe Lynn Turner returns to the UK in April for a run of intimate acoustic shows where he will draw material from across his thirty year career.
While Joe has most recently been heard on albums by Rated X, Brazen Abbott and Sunstorm, for most fans, he is best loved for his three album stint with Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow in the 80s, lending his talents to the classic ‘Difficult To Cure’ in 1981, before ‘Right Between The Eyes’ and the under-rated ‘Bent Out of Shape’.
Frank Turner is one of those artists who just never stops working. If he’s not recording a new album, he’s touring. If he’s not touring, he’s recording radio sessions. If he’s not recording radio sessions, he’s touring. If he’s not touring, he’s recording extra material for b-sides or stand-alone EPs. It’s no wonder that his solo career has spawned compilation discs of album length every three years. This traditional taking stock resulted in a third compilation – predictably titled ‘The Third Three Years’ – in the autumn of 2014. While this particular instalment of FT’s extra-curricular recordings is, perhaps, a little more reliant on covers and live/session material than the previous two anthologies, the twenty one track disc brings plenty of enjoyable material for the Turner fan.
After the demise of hardcore band Million Dead, frontman Frank Turner embarked a relentless touring schedule. Playing most nights throughout 2006 helped build a strong and devoted following for his semi-acoustic folk-punk material. Appearing both deeply personal yet accessible, his debut album ‘Sleep Is For The Week’ – released in January 2007 – attracted very positive responses. His second release ‘Love, Ire & Song’ saw a huge leap in terms of quality and although not a huge seller upon its release, this album set Turner on the route to stardom.
The world has seen release of many tribute albums, many tossed off with casual indifference that miss the mark completely. Occasionally, one comes along that’s just so misguided you end up wondering how it came to be in the first place. The idea of thirteen different low-key French artists recreating Morrissey’s 1994 album ‘Vauxhall & I’ could easily sound like a bad one from the off, but somehow, through an array of reasonable talent – not to mention excellent source material and sheer balls – ‘Vauxhall & Us’ works. Without Morrissey’s distinctive croon adding to a many a black humour within his lyrics, these songs sound markedly different. Their charm is still often apparent, but in a wholly different way. The acoustic setting on some of the recordings allows Moz’s gift of words to remain the biggest draw of all, but the European slant evident from time to time also lends a certain charm.