Tag Archives: rock

THE QUIREBOYS – A Bit Of What You Fancy: 30th Anniversary Edition

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When The Quireboys released their debut album ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ in early 1990, the band seemed to attack the rock media with all guns blazing. They’d spent a few years sweating it out on the live circuit and had released a couple of singles, but the album itself thrust vocalist Spike Gray and company into a whole new league. With huge coverage from the rock mags, a couple of video appearances on Top of The Pops and a high profile appearance at the Donington Monsters of Rock festival that summer, it seemed hard to avoid the band for a time.

Their success was wholly justified. ‘A Bit of What You Fancy’ seemed to speak to a broad cross section of rock fans with its big hooks and retro charm. Looking back, it’s slightly shiny production values and big, slightly brassy female backing vocals didn’t necessarily give the material the best send off – and those backing vocals in particular made the studio recordings seem a lot less urgent than the live shows at that time – but, in terms of songs, the band really couldn’t have presented themselves in a much stronger way.

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HARDLINE – Heart, Mind And Soul

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After returning from a four year break, Hardline managed to hit upon a rich vein of melodic hard rock with their 2016 album ‘Human Nature’. Although the band’s sound had toughened up a little since their early days, in Johnny Gioeli – at this point the only original member – they still possessed a first rate vocalist – and the record demonstrated a very consistent approach to song writing. 2018’s follow-up ‘Life’ offered more of the same – even a little tougher in places – and was well received by the fans, and even though it wasn’t quite as enjoyable as its predecessor – or Gioeli’s side project with Deen Castronovo – there was plenty to suggest more musical mileage in Hardline yet.

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BANG BANG FIRECRACKER – See Evil EP

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Bang Bang Firecracker find themselves thinking much bigger in terms of both sound and concept for their follow up to their 2019 release ‘Welcome To The Slaughterhouse’. Although that album did a fine job in introducing the Stoke On Trent hard rockers as strong players, it featured the kind of drum sound and occasionally trebly edge that gave away its DIY origins (also, the least said about its horribly dated, David Coverdale channelling artwork, the better). Their next batch of material takes the form of not one but three separate EP releases which, combined, are designed to form a strong full length release. At a time where a lot of independent rock is issued digitally and so many younger listeners are seemingly incapable of committing to a full forty minutes, the EP format seems like a smart move. More importantly, the short and sharp approach also serves to make BBF’s riffs seem even more forceful. Also, a staggered release, in theory, also helps to keep the band in people’s minds a little bit longer.

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Listen: Real Gone’s New Release Round-Up – April-June 2021

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It seems unbelievable that we’re now half way through the year, but here we are. We discovered and shared a truckload of new music during the first quarter, half expecting things to fizzle out as we moved towards the northern hemisphere summer, but it really wasn’t the case. If anything, the year’s second quarter was every bit as strong.

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JATK – Japanese Butterfly EP

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At the tail end of 2019, the self-titled EP from JATK appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It’s four slabs of guitar heavy power pop drew heavily from bands like Cheap Trick and The Wannadies, serving up a familiar and retro sound, yet applying the kind of energy that still made the material sound fresh. Despite its very late appearance, it beat some serious competition to become one of the year’s finest releases. [A full review can be found here.]

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