19. 09. 2015

Now I can confirm the extra happy news: just today I have received a pack with two fan-tickets for the only mid-European area concert of 2015 David Gilmour European Tour. David is set to promote the new solo album of his, which reportedly is now in the making "with the works going on nicely" and probably will be released before the tour kicks off. No title, or release date was given yet, there were only reports of Phil Manzanera's involvement in the producing process and the guest appearance by Crosby, Stills and Nash on one of the tracks.

Of note, David's management set the start of pre-sales of tickets for 8 concerts in 6 venues on Friday, March 6th - Gilmour's 69th birthday. Three nights at Royal Albert Hall in London went sold within minutes, my friend located in London wasn't able to secure a single ticket due to transfer jams on the venue's website! Just next day, Saturday afternoon it was officially announced and confirmed that all the tickets are now sold out, including two additional nights in Royal Albert, added in the last moment due to the scale of demand! This goes to show pretty nicely how high is the need of the public to see Gilmour doing his thing live. Since the Floyd's "Division Bell" tour ended in late 1994, surely one solo album and one big worldwide tour of the man wasn't enough to cover the thirst cumulating over the period of 20 relatively silent years, where David only scarcely appeared on the stages of the world. That is a big pity and a huge missed opportunity, since now it's visible that close to turning 70, quite understandably Gilmour's physical abilities will be crossing out prospects of longer tours. In fact, it is very likely that these 10 gigs spread over 3 weeks of September and early October will be the last ever possibility to see The Floyd Wizard playing his full length concert. This makes me even more happy about the possibility to visit Oberhausen in September!

Early signs of anticipation for the autumn in the mid spring? Read why....

Fantastic news for my country rock fans start to circulate in the secret circles.

Right yesterday I was messaged that there might be a Glenn Hughes concert in my hometown in mid autumn. I got extremely excited with the news, which was a surprise to my-very-self. Seeing the man eught years ago in Warsaw was certainly one of the times of my life. Glenn has pulled out an awesome concert in spite of being iinfected with a heavy cold, having 39*C degree fever. His voice was top notch and the show had couple of highlights, with Trapeze epic track "Medusa" as a standout - heavy and ripping to pieces. One of the finest moments I've ever had during the rock concerts attended, absolutely unforgettable.

I am not sure if the autumn gigs are linked to promotion of the new material by Glenn, but a nice bunch of his favourites and classics from the entire career spawning now over four decades of an outstanding musical output will bemore than welcome.

There is another one that birdies are, now yet very secretly, humming about - the Heaven And Hell list of European appearances to promote the new album for this year is not yet closed. They might get closer than we here expect them to.

This year's autumn season might come nicely packed with awesome new concert expiriences, for which we all should keep fingers tightly crossed!

Jon Lord on the cathedral organ of Lichfield, yesss!!!

Now this is what I call *a news*!!! :-)

According to www.deep-purple.net:

>>Jon Lord is lined up for the Lichfield Festival on July 17th 2009. The full programme for this year's event will be released in April. Early tickets are available for members of the festival association, and for the rest of us on April 17th. The best way to get more information is to check the dedicated festival web site. Lichfield is just north of Birmingham.

According to the Lichfield festival director's blog, Jon Lord visited Lichfield on March 31st to have a go on the cathedral organ in preparation for his performance.... "Now, having heard a bit of what the cathedral organ can do, he's gone off to plan how best to use it in his event." (Hopefully not as a shelf)<<

After 45 years of his illustrous career he's finally given a chance to play the instrument compatible with His Lord's Genius. How excellent. I'm sure it will be absolutely amazing to hear Jon commanding this type of the instrument. WOW! Can you imagine the cathedral halls rousing with the opening bars of "Perfect Strangers"!? :-)

Snowy White is coming to town [notes] (yesss :-) )

Now this is awesome news, at least in terms of musical adventures on the horizon.

I live in a country significantly different to the south and western neighbours. If you want to see a performer who is regarded in well accustomed listeners circles, but does only club appearances - you must go to Czech Republic, Slovakia or Germany. No easy way. This year even Heaven And Hell is not doing a gig in Poland this summer, despite having a new release in the pipe. Reasons? Probably the one and only Tommy Djubinsky was too depressed that in 2007 two gigs in big halls of Warsaw and Katowice sold in range of only 50% - 66%. And it's not that Black Sabbath is disregarded here. The Dio line-up is one of the most acclaimed classic bands around. It's just the price of the tickets that was keeping many from attendance, because - who would ever tell??? - the organiser has to earn, you know. Screw the promotion, downdrain the chance to make people go to the concert. No pockets filled, no sleeping on the money - no invitation. How charming.

This is not the back of the post, however. Still if you dig a bit around - you'll find that highly acclaimed performers do drop in to Polish clubs with a bit of luck and good will. Budgie and Nazareth are doing lengthy raids this spring and summer. And one more damn fine visitor.

Snowy White.

The name that, when clicked in mind is linked with the Pink Floyd and Thin Lizzy camps. The earliest effort was to participate in "Animals" recording sessions in late 1976, providing a part in unleleased take of "Pigs On The Wing, pt. 3". Later on Snowy was invited to help the band in the live promotion of the record, being a member of the tour line-up of the band. The cooperation resulted in being invited to record the guitar parts on Richard Wright's solo debut LP "Wet Dream" in early 1978. Some of the parts are truly extraordinary, especially in "Cat Cruise", "Drop From The Top" and "Funky Deux". The link with the Pink Floyd camp continued as the band promoted "The Wall" album over the several concerts 1980 in 1981. Meanwhile Phill Lynott called for assistance having a vacat in his guitar duet while Gary Moore left him again and the stepping in of Midge Ure did not last.

Snowy accepted the offer and got to record "Chinatown" with Thin Lizzy. He got sort of mixed reception from the fans (since being a calmer player than the sorts of guitar extraordinaries like Moore or Robertson), but his effort of going along with Scott Gorham was significant. In 1981 the unsuccesful "Renegade" followed and although the album failed to impress, the band was still a considerable live force. One of their finest moments was the new reendition of a classic hit "Don't Believe a Word". Lynott has used the slow, melancholic alternate version of the classic, where Snowy had a minute to show his amazing bluesman abilities, right after the song was scoring a turn to the classic, driving arrangement with White firing on all cylinders. The band got barely better musically ever after.

Snowy went parted ways with Lizzy in mid-1982 and started a succesful solo career with a hit 'Bird Of Paradise'. I don't like the song much, since it reminds me of Dire Straits' "Brothers In Arms" (soul intention would be to ask Snowy if Mark Knopfler has plagiarised his composition, basing on Snowy's single). Some parts of the mentioned songs and chord progressions are shamelessly similar.

Over the 80's the colaborations of White with David Gilmour and Roger Waters continued. When Waters became active touring from 1999 on - White was an important member of his touring band, sharing the guitar duties with Dave Kilminster (also known for his collaborations with Ken Hensley in 90's). Meanwhile the market saw Snowy White releasing new material under his own logos of 'Snowy White and The White Flames' and 'The Snowy White Blues Agency'. Famous names of Max Middleton (former Jeff Beck cooperator) and Peter Green can be mentioned among his guests and bandmates from the time.

Consistently active in recording and performing, impressive both in studio and on stage Snowy starts promoting the new album of his new 'Snowy White Blues Project' outfit which is due for release on April 20th. Polish concert of the guitarist is planned on May 10th in "Blue Note" club, Poznan. I hope to be there to meet the legend.

Creeping in, the BEAST you know... :-)

I've been waiting for this to surface - to forward it here... Just a month away. I think I'm gonna skip any previews just to have more fun when I get my hands on this CD. So far it looks like it will be a CD release of the year. I feel VERY excited about it.

HEAVEN & HELL INTRODUCES THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

Highly Anticipated New Album from Dio, Iommi, Butler, and Appice, Their First in 17 Years, Features Epic First Single "Bible Black" Available from Rhino April 28

LOS ANGELES - After finishing several heralded world tours as Heaven & Hell last summer, Ronnie James Dio, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Vinny Appice were tighter than ever before, both musically and personally. Agreeing that it would be a shame to stop making music together at tour's end, the quartet began writing, first in England at Iommi's home studio and later in Los Angeles at Dio's studio. "The band had gotten too good to just walk away," Dio says. "We wanted to show people that we were still capable of giving them new music that measured up to what we'd done in the past." With that goal in mind, the band once again converged on Rockfield Studios in Wales last winter, the same place they used 17 years earlier to record their last album, Dehumanizer. The result is the long awaited new album THE DEVIL YOU KNOW, featuring 10 soon-to-be-classic tracks from the Dio-fronted version of Black Sabbath. The highly anticipated set arrives on April 28 from Rhino for a suggested list price of $18.98 (physical) and $9.99 (digital). It took less than three weeks to finish the album, with most of the songs only needing a couple of takes. "It was good to play them live in the studio. It keeps you on edge," Iommi says. "I mean, somewhere along the line we were gonna have to play them live; might as well start in the studio." Butler adds: "We've learned from the past that you can kill a song doing it over and over. The first Sabbath albums were done in two or three days. Technically they weren't great, but vibe-wise they were great. If you capture that feeling, that's all you need." "Bible Black", the epic first single, begins with Iommi on acoustic guitar behind Dio's plaintive wail before the rhythm shifts to a menacing stomp for the rest of this dark tale about a book of sinister scriptures. One of the first songs written for the album, Dio says it established a tone for the rest of the album. "When you start off with a blockbuster like that, it makes the rest of the album so much easier because it gives you a benchmark to measure the other songs against." Iommi proves he hasn't lost the ability to inspire six-string envy, unleashing riffs like a pack of rabid hellhounds on "Atom And Evil," "Fear," "Neverwhere," and "Eating The Cannibals," a tune about doing more than biting the hand that feeds. Butler and Appice slow the pace while ramping up the intensity on "Follow The Tears" and "Double The Pain" and "Breaking Into Heaven," the latter diverging from its glacial procession for Dio's majestic chorus about fallen angels planning an attack on paradise.

THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

Track Listing

1. "Atom And Evil"
2. "Fear"
3. "Bible Black"
4. "Double The Pain"
5. "Rock And Roll Angel"
6. "The Turn Of The Screw"
7. "Eating The Cannibals"
8. "Follow The Tears"
9. "Neverwhere"
10. "Breaking Into Heaven"

http://www.black-sabbath.com/news/index.html

The cover is probably the most horrifying one in the Dio fronted line-up string, or even maybe whole of the Sabbath artwork catalogue. If "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath" or "Mob Rules" were ones I would not choose to wear on the t-shirt - then "The Devil You Know" rules out them both... Though I guess it will fit the red blood coloured shirts. Glad the band looks much better than it. Would you age Dio 67? :-)