As the 60s gave way to the 70s, some musical fashions began to take a more aggressive turn. The psychedelia and blues that had been a dominance force on the rock scene had started to fade and while some of the psych bands took the leap into full-on prog rock waters, many psych bands merely just fizzled out. Deep Purple, whose early mixture of psychedelia, rock covers and blues took a harder direction and helped forge what would soon be known as heavy metal; Status Quo – who’d had major success with a couple of brilliant psych-pop singles – floundered for a bit and eventually became a lynchpin of a no nonsense boogie rock sound. In February 1970, the Black Sabbath debut changed everything, killing the last remnants of a 1960s optimism for good. For The Gods – a little known rock pop band who’d released two unsuccessful LPs – the writing seemed to be very much on the wall. In what appeared to be a last throw of the dice, they changed their name and beefed up their sound in an attempt to rejuvenate their ailing career.
Tag Archives: jethro tull
Jethro Tull ‘This Was’ 50th Anniversary box set coming in November
Over the past few years, Jethro Tull fans have been utterly spoilt. The lion’s share of their classic albums have been reissued as multi disc sets at very affordable prices. Typically, each reissue has contained the main album of the chosen title, alongside all available associated recordings, plus a 5.1 remix by Steven Wilson.
Over the past couple of years, there has been a little grumbling amongst fans regarding the lack of Wilson remix for the debut album, 1968’s ‘This Was’.
The Great 70s Project: 1972
1972 AD. The year that bored suburban teens attempted to resurrect Dracula, in a much maligned Hammer film that’s actually quite good fun. The year that Bolan’s musical craft was at its most perfect; the year Ziggy Stardust came to Earth and changed Bowie’s fortunes forever.
The Great 70s Project: 1971
Welcome to a look back at some of our favourite music from 1971. In some ways, it seems the perfect continuation of 1970, with the hard rock pioneers releasing some of the best albums of the careers.
Looking elsewhere, though, things are perhaps more interesting…
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.