GRAHAM BONNET BAND – Lost In Hollywood Again

In 2024, Graham Bonnet and his band took to the stage at the legendary Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles. On this night, the intimate venue saw the veteran performer plough through a sixteen song set that celebrated many of the highlights of his long career.

The audio from the Graham Bonnet Band’s 2025 live release ‘Lost In Hollywood Again’ might not sound quite as vital as 2017’s unexpected Alcatrazz reunion in Japan (released for posterity on ‘Parole Denied’), but it’s clear that Bonnet – a man well into his seventies at the time of this show – still loves what he does, and is more than capable of summoning a huge amount of volume at a time of life when some of his peers sound like a shadow of their former selves.

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CHIMPAN A – Here Comes The Flood / Wolves

Chimpan A’s ‘The Empathy Machine’ was an interesting album. Its songs took on the kind of lengths that would normally be associated with prog rock, but its sounds were far more pop oriented. The best tracks blended layers of synth with perfectly pitched melodic vocals, straddling the musical gulf between pop, AOR and electronica, almost in a way that pre-empted Alex Lifeson’s commercial sounds on the Envy of None debut, released just a few years later.

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BIG CANYON – Big Canyon

On their debut release, ‘Horizon’, British rockers Big Canyon delivered some absolutely massive riffs. Often sounding like a much bigger, warmer version of Tangier and Tattoo Rodeo, and akin to more recent, retro sounding hard rockers in line with Blackberry Smoke and Bad Touch (albeit with more of a bluesy edge), they couldn’t be faulted from a musical point of view. The lead guitar playing was especially impressive. A very retro, slightly scratchy vocal took a little adjustment, but with some strong material in hand, it was clear that, even at an early stage, Big Canyon were a band on the road to potentially better things.

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Watch: The Big Deal share new video for ‘Fairy of White’

Today sees the release of The Big Deal’s second album, ‘Electrified’. It’s a record that shows none of the signs of being a “difficult” follow up to an excellent debut, partly because the Serbian rockers have stuck to a familiar blueprint. The mix of bombast, melody, melodic metal crunch and soaring hooks works just as well for them the second time around.

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