Over the past decade, prog band Big Big Train have gone from strength to strength. Following the release of their ‘Underfall Yard’ album in 2009 the band’s popularity has continued to soar.
In many ways, their ‘English Electric’ pair of albums seemed hard to top – especially when reissued as a deluxe two CD set, resequenced with extra tracks – but the more pastoral ‘Grimspound’ and ‘Second Brightest Star’ have continued a wondrous musical ascent.
Here at Real Gone, we’ve been big fans of Marillion for longer than we’d care to remember. Unlike some fans, though, we accept that not everything the band has recorded resembles pure gold. Last year, we shared our “ten best” with you – an article that generated a lot of discussion. In the interest of balance and in the wake of the 2019 UK fan weekend, here are ten Marillion songs we think should have been consigned to the dustbin of history…
Combining the talents of singer-songwriter Stephen Smith and Bellyachers guitarist Brian Mello, The Morning Line are a jangling power pop/melodic alt-rock band heavily indebted to 90s sounds. They claim to appeal to fans of Ted Leo, Teenage Fanclub and a whole bunch of stuff in between and just one listen to their 2019 album ‘North’ is all it takes to realise that not only do they recycle a lot of influences with love, but every so often, they’re more than capable of hitting the listener with a very catchy chorus.
Kurokuma’s second release, 2018’s ‘Dope Rider’ EP presented the perfect mix of heavy riffs and branded artwork in a small but intensive package that was pretty much guaranteed to thrill fans of extreme metal and comic books. A release that really cemented the band’s wondrously sludgy sound, it would be a certainly hard act to follow.
2019’s ‘Sheffield’s Best Metal Bands, Vol. 1’ (a title referring to its being the first in a series from Off Me Nut Records as opposed to any psychosis within Kurokuma itself) brings fans another full compliment of obtrusive and sludgy riffs stretched across three lengthy tracks…and it’s a release that dishes out more extreme heaviness per inch than most listeners will handle.
Formed in the mid 90s as a punk outfit, The Peawees quickly established themselves as a band to look out for on the European scene. Over the next few years, they became musically stronger and eventually injected their sound with some good old rock ‘n’ roll attitude. A firm fan favourite, their third album ‘Dead End City’ was issued on Stardumb Records in 2001. The first pressing sold out in record time; a second pressing sold out very quickly and a vinyl reissue on Stardumb featuring bonus tracks was snapped up by eager fans, always keen for a Peawees fix. Although considered one of the band’s very best albums and a European punk classic, it took until 2019 for the album to gain a CD reissue and a US release…