In 2014, music fan and entrepreneur Andrew Curry masterminded ‘Here Comes The Reign Again’, a double disc set of recordings by cult singer-songwriters and power pop bands covering various UK hits from the 1980s. The results, as you’d expect, were a mixed bag, but the high points were high enough to recommend an addition to any quirky record collection. Three years in the making, the follow up brings back various familiar faces for a near complete run through of themes from James Bond movies. The results are…interesting…but mostly, nowhere near as good as such a project seems on paper. This is a project fraught with problems, not least of all that Bond themes just can’t be reproduced on a meagre budget. Continue reading
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JIM BOGGIA – Fidelity Is The Enemy
Following a stint as a jobbing songwriter and working with and/or supporting well-known singer songwriters Juliana Hatfield and Amanda Marshall, power pop performer Jim Boggia delivered a storming full-length debut in 2001. ‘Fidelity Is The Enemy’ takes in many moods during its old fashioned created- for-two-sides-of-vinyl-length forty two minutes. Every one of those moods is as fully realised as the previous, showing Boggia to not only be a strong songwriter, but an arranger of some confidence.
VARIOUS ARTISTS – Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion
In the spring of 2013, record producer Andrew Curry gathered many power pop superstars and cult artists to record their own versions of 1970s AM radio hits. Highlights included a note perfect take on 10cc’s ‘The Things We Do For Love’, alongside previously unheard covers by the almost legendary Mike Viola, ex-Candy man Kyle Vincent and – no stranger to the cover version – one man pop factory Michael Carpenter, who put his own stamp on Cliff Richard’s UK #1 hit ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’. ‘Drink a Toast To Innocence’ was the embodiment of “guilty pleasure”, for those who believe that such things exist. A year on, Curry gathered more cult pop performers – including return visits for some – for ‘Here Comes The Reign Again: The Second British Invasion’, a similar look back at 80s radio hits.