The REAL GONE Advent Calendar 2022

As 2022 begins to pull to a close, it seems almost unbelievable we’ve made it through another year in what feels like the blink of an eye. At Real Gone, we’re getting ready to bring you our highlights for 2022, but first, it’s time for our advent calendar!

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BADFINGER – No Matter What: Revisiting The Hits

Badfinger have long been considered one of the great power pop bands of the late 60s/early 70s. Scratching the surface of their career, hits like ‘No Matter What’ (covered by Jellyfish), ‘Without You’ (covered by Harry Nilsson and later turned into a monstrous hit by Mariah Carey) and the McCartney-penned ‘Come & Get It’ have helped them stay in the public consciousness. Other great, lesser heard tunes like ‘Baby Blue’ and well crafted album cuts give further examples of Badfinger’s enduring greatness for listeners who have bothered to dig a little deeper.

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REAL GONE GOES OUT: Ian Anderson, Ramblin’ Man Fair, Maidstone, Kent 26/07/2015

It’s approximately 6:45 PM and it’s finally stopped raining after about twelve hours.  It’s wet and cold and half the field’s population are still shuffling about draped in waterproof macs.  French progressive black metallers Alcest are coming to the end of their set.  Their wall of sound approach is definitely an acquired taste and often makes a lot of their material indistinct within the live scenario, with only occasional tinkly prog flourishes cutting through massive doom riffs.  Even so, it’s been enjoyable…and as they churn out their last few oppressively heavy chords (for Alcest have arguably been the heaviest band to appear at the festival), the sun finally breaks through – too little, too late – causing a beam of light to centre upon the middle of the crowd.  Had this occurred barely minutes later, you could even jest that it was stage managed, as was such a spooky spectacle.  This of course, is the only sunshine we’ve seen all day, and with that, it sheepishly hides back behind a huge blanket of cloud and decides that it’s all too hard.

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