PHIL LYNOTT’S GRAND SLAM – Slam Anthems

Thin Lizzy were an exceptional rock band. The classic mid 70s line up managed to capture lightning in a bottle with Phil Lynott’s charisma and the trademark twin guitar sounds of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. Even when the band shifted line-ups to include Snowy White and, latterly, John Sykes for a heavier sound, they were still a top tier rock band. True legends.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Beyond The Pale Horizon: The British Progressive Pop Sounds Of 1972

Grapefruit Records’ 3CD anthologies covering music from 1970 and 1971 captured a British music scene during a period of change. Psychedelia may have been considered long gone, but various pop bands still seemed keen to dabble with the quirky and odd. Although the artier side of the era’s pop and rock scene during that period was often interesting, these sets suggested that the era didn’t always have a clear identity.

There are no such issues with ‘Beyond The Pale Horizon’, a triple disc collection promising to bring “The British Progressive Pop Sounds of 1972”. By the time 1971 had coughed its last and the pop and rock machine rolled into the new year, progressive rock was a dominant force within the album buyers’ market, while glam rock and hard rock were never far away from the singles chart. Between these two or three musical tribes, ’72 came with a strong musical base, but – as always with Grapefruit’s abilities to dig through a rich musical history – the year offered so much more greatness. Naturally, three discs really isn’t enough to paint the most complete picture, but the chosen highlights within ‘Beyond The Pale Horizon’ offer the kind of listening experience that so many lovers of 70s pop and rock will find both nostalgic and educational.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS – Riding The Rock Machine: British Seventies Classic Rock

Ever since the CD boom of the 90s, the market has been flooded with easily affordable and easily accessible rock compilations. These sets, often adorned by artwork showing a guitar or having a car and open road theme have typically been aimed at the undemanding listener – the kind of person wishing to revisit the classic rock singles of their radio filled youth; the kind of person who’d happily listen to Thin Lizzy’s greatest hits in their car forever. You’d think the market would eventually run out of these people as their target market, and yet year after year, cheap comps featuring Thin Lizzy’s ‘Boys Are Back In Town’, Rainbow’s ‘Since You Been Gone’ and Free’s ‘All Right Now’ seem to fill supermarket shelves continually.

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Grapefruit Records to issue ‘Riding The Rock Machine’ 3CD comp including 70s rarities in April

Ever since the CD boom in the 90s, the market hasn’t been short of rock compilations.  There have been literally thousands of collections of 70s rock classics flooding the market, often very similar in nature.  You’d think they’d only be a finite amount of people willing to put their hands in their pockets for discs containing Rainbow’s ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, UFO’s ‘Doctor Doctor’ and Hawkwind’s ‘Silver Machine’, but still they come…and in huge numbers.

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Massive Thin Lizzy box set coming in September

After years of speculation, ‘Rock Legends’, a massive career-spanning box set from Thin Lizzy, is to be released in September. Released to celebrate the band’s 50th anniversary, the 6CD + DVD anthology is an essential addition to any fan’s collection.

Where as some bands are happy to repackage a few rarities with a bunch of previously released material, ‘Rock Legends’ gives everyone great value for money, in that 74 of the 99 tracks are unreleased and the bulk of the rest are making their debut on CD.

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