Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the more interesting individual tracks that have landed in our inbox over the past few weeks. This time out, we’ve got a number with retro post punk leanings, a catchy piece of garage pop, a huge and jangly workout that falls between garage rock and melodic punk, something insanely heavy, and more besides… As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy.
*
This visit to the Singles Bar mixes the familiar with the brand new. Making repeat appearances are an Irish shoegaze band with one of their most forceful tracks to date, a hard working metal band who are wholly committed to bringing huge riffs, and a singer songwriter who’s unafraid of a complex melody. There’s also a debut from an act who sound like they deserve to be big in record time, a number mixing garage rock and post punk sounds, and more besides. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!
*
Throughout the 80s, Magnum were one of the great hopes of British AOR. Their mid 80s releases ‘On A Storytellers Night’ and the Roger Taylor produced ‘Vigilante’ gained the band critical acclaim, and remain beloed by fans. 1988’s ‘Wings of Heaven’, arguably, represented a career peak, and a show from Hammersmith captured on that tour formed an essential VHS release. Unfortunately ‘On The Wings of Heaven Live’ languishes in a VHS limbo, now unlikely to gain an official DVD release.
After releasing three fantastic albums in ‘Demons and Wizards’, ‘Magician’s Birthday’ and ‘Sweet Freedom’ as well as a classic live document in a little over a year between May 1972 to September 1973, it’s no wonder Uriah Heep sounded less inspired on their 1974 LP ‘Wonderworld’. Although not a document from a creatively spent band, the album included absolutely nothing memorable in the long term. Bizarrely, the best track dating from those sessions,’Stone’s Throw’, was never completed. Released in demo form on an expanded reissue of ‘Wonderworld’ in 1996, it knocks the entire album into a cocked hat. Following bassist Gary Thain being electrocuted during a show in Texas on that tour, 1974 could very much be considered the end of the band’s “imperial phase”.
Having had support from BBC Radio 1 for their debut single ‘Ambi’, it seemingly didn’t take alt-rock crew Veins long to gain attention. In a world that’s absolutely flooded with new music on a weekly basis, that’s particularly impressive, but then again, Veins aren’t your average rock band.