Search Still Got The Fever

Thursday 8 February 2024

Blackberry Smoke new album's life-affirming message


A LESSER band of brothers might have despaired that the fates were against them. First, Covid, then a major health crisis, have conspired in recent years to scupper Blackberry Smoke’s plans.

The Atlanta southern rock band, grown from country roots, saw the release of their last album – the chart-topping You Hear Georgia – delayed by a year because of the pandemic.

And their new album, Be Right Here – set for release on February 16 – was recorded back in late 2022 as drummer Brit Turner began his recovery from surgery to remove a brain tumour.

Turner’s bombshell brain cancer diagnosis followed the heart attack he had suffered earlier in 2022, for which he also underwent major surgery, and the 2009 cancer that struck his daughter, Lana.

But Blackberry Smoke are made of sterner stuff than most and it says much for their grit and determination that they’re on their way back to Birmingham for a gig at the 02 Academy this summer.

Happily, Turner’s recovery has gone well – he designed the new album jacket and hopes to be back behind the drums in Birmingham – while his daughter’s cancer is in remission. 

Lana has gone on to become a successful actress, famously playing Seven in the fourth season of smash hit Stranger Things.


The health scares have, says frontman Charlie Starr, made them all appreciate every day they enjoy together with bandmates, family and friends. Since 2011, the band has also donated more than £800,000 - a million dollars - to childhood cancer research.

“It gave the recording process, and then everything after, a sense of urgency,” says Starr says of Be Right Here. “But we didn’t feel a whole lot of pressure to go in and make this one quickly.

“It didn’t hurry us but rather made all that time really precious. Everybody took a long hard look at it and count our blessings – we get to make music and make records and work together.

“And it just made it all seem so special.”

The eighth studio album is already picking up plaudits thanks to the now commonplace streaming of initial tracks to build anticipation of the full set’s release.

The consensus is that, almost a quarter century since they first got together, the band may well have come up with their best yet, a blend of country, rock and Americana recorded mostly live.


Lead track Dig A Hole sums up the album’s evolution in adversity.“In life, we all are faced with choices,” Starr says. “Are we going to do good, or are we going to do bad?

“Are we going to love, or are we going to hate? We have a finite amount of time, each of us on this Earth. So we probably want to make the best out of it instead of wasting time.”

Elsewhere, both Azalea and Other Side Of The Light have hints of Midland supergroup Led Zeppelin, of whom Starr has always been a fan, occasionally dropping Zeppelin covers in the live setlist.

The band played a sold-out Academy gig last year, and wanted to return such has been the long-time support of fans on this side of the Atlantic, particularly in Birmingham, the home of heavy metal.

Support comes from Nashville country rockers The Steel Woods, friends of the band and themselves a big attraction back in the States. Be Right Here is out on February 16.

  • Blackberry Smoke, 02 Academy Birmingham, September 13.

Wednesday 14 December 2022

From Black To Blood - Albums Of The Year 2022

 


1. CARDINAL BLACK : January Came Close

     Long anticipated debut album from the Cardiff band whose stop-start journey has seen them supporting Myles Kennedy and The Struts, headlining Cardiff Castle, and picking up plaudits. Slash is among the band’s fans, championing guitarist Chris Buck whose gorgeous licks adorn songs spearheaded by the soulful vocals of Tom Hollister. A sublime set in every way.



2. GRADY SPENCER & THE WORK : Wait

     Contemporary Americana combining Red Dirt, rock and folk served up by the West Texans now on their fourth album. Spencer quit his construction job to pursue a full time music career in 2020, just as the pandemic locked the world down and tour dates had to be scrapped. I’ve loved all of the band’s albums so far - let’s hope they make it to the UK in 2023.



3. MORGAN WADE : Reckless

    She supported The Eagles in Hyde Park this year, headlining the second stage, and it’s only a matter of time until the Virginian singer-songwriter plays the biggest stages. This is the deluxe edition of 2021’s debut album, adding extra tracks and including Wilder Days, rated one of the year’s 10 best songs by Rolling Stone. A contemporary country delight.



4. WHISKEY MYERS : Tornillo

     Superb sixth album from the Texan band who combine southern rock, country and Americana roots - and this time they’ve brought company in the shape of a added horn section adding brass punch to their riffs. The Mariachi band who open the album just happened to be playing in a Tornillo street outside the studio, so Whiskey Myers dragged them in to the sessions! 


5. A THOUSAND HORSES : Broken Heartland

    The Nashville band serve up a set shot through with unashamed country, classic rock and a shot of Jack Daniels on the side. Not afraid to tie enticing hooks to accessible songs, they list among their influences The Rolling Stones, Dwight Yoakam, Tom Petty and Noel Gallagher. Not prolific, it’s only their third album in 12 years but each one has been worth the wait.




6. WEYES BLOOD : And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow

     Second in a planned trilogy by singer-songwriter Natalie Mering, who has performed under various Weyes Blood guises since 2003. It’s the warmth of her vocal that makes you sit up and pay attention as it cosies up to all manner of lushly produced, occasionally experimental, soundscapes. Her voice has been compared to that of the late Karen Carpenter, although I feel Aimee Mann is nearer the mark.


7. THE WANDERING HEARTS : The Wandering Hearts


    The Londoners among the vanguard of the British Americana boom serve up an eponymous debut album that ranges from rootsy retro to 60s Laurel Canyon and never fails to charm. The harmonies at times recall Rumours era Fleetwood Mac as the lead vocal swaps between band members, and the performance is casually tight - a feat few can pull off properly. They supported the Eagles at Hyde Park too.


8. SHAWN WILLIAMS : Wallowin’ In The Night

     Heartbreaks and hangovers, break-ups and booze, vices and vulnerability all rub shoulders on the New Orleans singer’s fourth outing that serves as a late rainy night soundtrack. Williams describes her work as “alt-rocka countrybilly serial killer blues” and it covers all the angles of a strong set ranging across genres. Just when you thought you had her figured out, Everything You Stood For goes all Radiohead. 


9. EDDIE VEDDER : Earthling

     The Pearl Jam frontman’s first solo set in a decade offers guest spots to Stevie Wonder, Elton John and Ringo Starr but they’re just a sideshow for an accessible album that includes some of Vedder’s best vocals yet. Highlights include Tom Petty soundalike Long Way, which just happens to be washed by Heartbreaker Benmont Tench’s trademark organ, and the anthemic, aptly titled and multitracked, Invincible.


10. MIKE CAMPBELL & THE DIRTY KNOBS : External Combustion

      Speaking of Tom Petty, longtime sideman Mike Campbell is back with a second helping of his Dirty Knobs that, while reminiscent of his late friend, is not the slavish soundalike session of the band’s debut. Sure, there’s plenty here that Heartbreakers fans will lap up, but also more stretching of musical muscle. Most of the time, regardless, you can hear Campbell & Co having a ball in the recording studio.

      * Yes, of course, it’s a personal collection and I’m aware of an ongoing shift toward country influences this year, but these are great albums well worth your time, whatever your tastes in music. I’ve also not included a trio of great live albums: Creedence Clearwater Revival Live At The Albert Hall, the huge Tom Petty Live At The Fillmore 1979 box set and ZZ Top’s Raw rockumentary soundtrack.

     Last, but not least, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!





Friday 26 November 2021

Black Sabbath icon Tony Iommi: Pandemic blues, new band, new single, and working with Ozzy again

 


WHEN Tony Iommi famously sliced off the tips of his right hand fingers in a metal press at the age of 17 he feared he would never play guitar again.


He defied the odds and conquered the world with Black Sabbath, of course. 


When he was diagnosed with blood cancer lymphoma in 2012, he started planning his own funeral. This time there was more at stake than music.


He battled back, took to the Sabbath swansong stage, and is now in remission.


Then along came Covid-19 and – just a few weeks ago – another accident, this time at his Cotswolds home, that left him fearing once more for his career.


Just as he returned with a new band, his first new music in eight years, and the launch of a signature scent, the horizon was clouded by concern.


The long-awaited new track - his first in eight years

“I snapped a tendon in my left arm – my one good arm,” he reveals. “A delivery man came with a a big box on a pallet – it contained 200 bottles of the perfume we’d just developed. I said I’d give him a hand but as we were walking through my hallway, I went flying.


“I grabbed to save the box because I didn’t want the bottles to smash, and – bang! – my tendon just snapped. I knew what it was because the pain was horrendous. I realised that I’d done some serious damage somewhere.


“I couldn’t move my arm at first. It was bruised from the wrist right up to the shoulder where it had snapped from.


“I went last week to have an MRI scan, then back to the Priory Hospital in Solihull for the results. They said I’d left it too late to repair. If the tendon shrinks, and you don’t get it done within the first week, it can be a big problem.


Tony Scent of Dark photoshoot. Pic: Ross Halfin


“They could take a tendon from my leg to fix the problem but the consultant said he wouldn’t like to guarantee that I’d be able to straighten my arm afterwards. Even if I could, he warned that it might take over a year.


“I thought ‘Forget it’. It’s OK. I can still move it round enough to play guitar – that was the main thing for me. That was what I was really concerned about.”


The injury means that Tony cannot pick up heavy objects but has not stopped him carrying on with this week’s big heavy metal comeback.


Tony and the new scent, filmed at Sudeley Castle

The 73-year-old guitar hero has recorded a four-minute rock single titled Scent of Dark, initially to promote the new scent of the same name he has designed with Sergio Momo, designer for Italian luxury perfume house Xerjoff.


Over the past 18 months he has been working secretly on the new scent, which recalls the heady patchouli days of rock festivals in the late 1960s and 70s, and hits stores ahead of Christmas.


“It’s mainly patchouli,” says Tony from his second home in Sandbanks, where Harry Redknapp is a near neighbour, on the South Coast. “I didn’t know this but apparently they used to use the smell of patchouli oil to get rid of the smell of people smoking dope back in the day.


Tony and Sergio comparing notes in the new video

“The main ingredient is patchouli but there’s a lot more to it than that. Sergio asked me to list my favourite smells – like the new car smell, leather, strawberries and raspberries – and added stuff that he thought was right until we were very pleased with it.”


It was the decision to record a heavy rock riff to promote the perfume that fuelled Tony’s hunger to return to the fray after a frustrating pandemic lockdown.


Still in remission from lymphoma, with which he was diagnosed in 2012, the Sabbath legend had to self-isolate at his house in Broadway because of his weakened immune system – and still wears a mask whenever shopping or at an indoor event.


“I was petrified, to be honest,” he admits. “I had to be really careful with everything. I really did cut myself off for quite a while. You start going a bit mental because you can’t do what you normally do. It stopped me from working so much musically because people couldn’t come in your home.


“When restrictions were eased, my friend and producer Mike Exeter came round again but we both had masks on and it was crap, sitting there with a mask on and trying to get into something. Oh blimey. It just seemed odd so we didn’t do that much in the end.


Tony soloing in the Scent of Dark video


“My wife Maria and I had just bought the house in Sandbanks when the pandemic hit, and we couldn’t travel down to sort it out because all but essential journeys were banned. That was very frustrating too. Then my daughter Toni and her partner got Covid and we couldn’t see them.


“As things eased off a bit, I did this thing with Robert Plant. We signed a guitar for charity. He came over to my house and we did it socially distanced in the garden while Maria took photos of us both with our masks on. We both had gloves on, too, sitting there drinking coffee.


“Eventually we were able to go down to Sandbanks and that has kept me busy, with work being done on the house. Now, when we’ve had all the jabs and everything, hopefully we’re all a bit safer – but I still wear a mask whenever I go shopping or to get petrol.


“I don’t like them but I’d rather feel safer wearing one – and you’re also protecting other people.”


Tony still has regular blood tests to monitor his condition. A private doctor visits him at home when required, and he has tests and check-ups back at the Spire Parkway Hospital in Solihull, where he was treated for his lymphoma.


Scent of Dark is Tony’s first new music to be released since Black Sabbath’s ’13’ album back in 2013,  four years before the band played their final farewell in hometown Birmingham.


Tony and Sergio Pic: Max Sticco


Joining him are Sergio Momo on guitar, bassist Jimmy Crutchley, drummer Ash Sheehan, Mike Exeter on keyboards, and strings players Rebecca Rose and Julianne Bourne. The track was 

mainly recorded at Gospel Oak studio in Rowington, Warwickshire.


Jimmy Crutchley


“It’s based on a riff I’ve had around for some years,” says Tony. “It wasn’t right for a Sabbath album but it just seemed to fit this project. I added some heavier, doomier bits so it’s part old and part new, but we’re all really happy with it.


Ash Sheehan


“I knew Jimmy, Mike and Sergio – he plays guitar as well as making magic with scent – but I hadn’t met the others before we went in to do the session. I developed a band overnight and it worked so well that I’m definitely going to make an album now.”


Rebecca Rose and Julianne Bourne


In the meantime he has also played on a charity track with fellow Brummie and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason and appeared as guitar guest on a track by metallers Candlemass, earning him a Grammy Award nomination for best heavy metal performance.


Next up is a collaboration with old bandmate Ozzy Osbourne, for whose new album Tony has written, and played on, a track titled No Escape From Now. A stellar guitar line-up also includes Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Zakk Wylde.


“I don’t know what it sounds like, mind,” he smiles. “I haven’t heard it yet. I wrote the track for Ozzy, sent it to him and he really liked it. I recorded it at home, with Mike Exeter on bass and programmed drums. They’ve had Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers re-do the drums.


“I still talk to Ozzy a lot, and keep up with Geezer and Bill from time to time. I just wish Ozzy wouldn’t forget the time difference and call me from the States at two in the morning!”



Who is the ghost in the video? It's someone you won't expect, that's for sure. All is revealed in my sister blog paulcoletravels.com



Thursday 25 November 2021

Black Sabbath legend Tony Iommi releases first new music in eight years

 

Picture: Ross Halfin

BLACK Sabbath legend Tony Iommi today releases his first new music in eight long years, complete with a new band, a single, plans for an album … and the sweet smell of success.


The 73-year-old heavy metal hero has recorded a four-minute rock single titled Scent of Dark, initially to promote the new SCENT he has designed with a leading Italian perfumer.


Picture: Max Sticca


Over the past 18 months of the pandemic, he has been working secretly with Sergio Momo, designer for Italian luxury perfume house Xerjoff, on a new project not to be sniffed at.


Or rather, it IS to be sniffed at.


The perfume is called Scent of Dark, recalls the heady patchouli days of rock festivals in the late 1960s and 70s, and hits stores ahead of Christmas, with a barnstorming instrumental track and video.




“It’s mainly patchouli,” says Iommi from his second home in Sandbanks on the South Coast. “I didn’t know this but apparently they used to use the smell of patchouli oil to get rid of the smell of people smoking dope back in the day.


“The main ingredient is patchouli but there’s a lot more to it than that. Sergio asked me to list my favourite smells – like the new car smell, leather, strawberries and raspberries – and added stuff that he thought was right until we were very pleased with it.”


But the decision to record a heavy rock riff of the same name has sparked Iommi’s hunger to return to the fray with an exciting new band.


Recording the track in the studio


Scent of Dark is his first new music to be released since Black Sabbath’s ’13’ album back in 2013,  four years before the band played their final farewell in hometown Birmingham.


Joining Iommi are Sergio Momo on guitar, bassist Jimmy Crutchley, drummer Ash Sheehan, Mike Exeter on keyboards, and strings players Rebecca Rose and Julianne Bourne.


It was recorded mainly at Gospel Oak studio in Rowington, Warwickshire with a spooky video shot at haunted Sudeley Castle in the Cotswolds.




“It’s based on a riff I’ve had around for some years,” says Iommi. “It wasn’t right for a Sabbath album but it just seemed to fit this project. I added some heavier, doomier bits so it’s part old and part new, but we’re all really happy with it.


“I knew Jimmy, Mike and Sergio – he plays guitar as well as making magic with scent – but I hadn’t met the others before we went in to do the session. I developed a band overnight and it worked so well that I’m definitely going to make an album now.”


Still in remission from lymphoma, with which he was diagnosed in 2012, the Sabbath legend had to self-isolate at his house in Broadway because of his weakened immune system – and still wears a mask whenever shopping or at an indoor event.


“I was petrified, to be honest,” he admits. “I had to be really careful with everything. I really did cut myself off for quite a while. You start going a bit mental really because you can’t do what you normally do. I’m just so glad to be back making music again.”


Read about the haunted castle video shoot in my sister paulcoletravels blog 


Wednesday 21 April 2021

Treasures from the Attic No 8: When Genesis were just the warm-up act for Lindisfarne



October 10, 1972 and folk/poppers Lindisfarne were huge, playing sell out theatres and festivals.

Here, at Manchester's Free Trade Hall,  they were supported by singer songwriter Rab Noakes ... and the opening act was a bunch of strange guys called Genesis.

It was the month Peter Gabriel & Co released fourth album Foxtrot and, much to the bemusement of Fog On The Tyne fans, Gabriel wore a fox’s head.



The only reason for such a mismatched bill was that they were all then on the Charisma record label. 

Wonder whatever happened to Genesis....

Friday 12 March 2021

Treasures From The Attic No 7 : Pink Floyd's shortest gig


More than a year before the album came out, Pink Floyd were trialling Dark Side of the Moon with a quadraphonic PA.

What they hadn’t factored in was the miners’ strike which led to phased power outages across the nation.


We’d been warned before the gig at Manchester's Free Trade Hall started that there might be a power cut so the band ripped up the set list just in case.

They played One Of These Days and Careful With That Axe Eugene then the 10-minute warning came.


Floyd launched into a blues jam as the Free Trade Hall emptied and the lights went out in the Dark Side of Manchester.

They came back a month later to play the full mind-blowing show so we got two gigs for the £1.25 price of one!

From the attic came the gig ticket and the two photos I snapped with my Instamatic camera at the gig before the power cut.



Thursday 14 January 2021

Treasures From The Attic No 6: The night Eric Clapton paid West Bromwich Albion to play

Another treasure from the keepsakes box.

It was September 27, 1978 the night Eric Clapton paid for a West Bromwich Albion football match.



I'd only been at the town's Sandwell Evening Mail for just over a month when the news editor asked if I'd do a colour piece on Albion's second round UEFA Cup tie against Galatasary.

And, by the way, could I see if I could get a chat with Eric Clapton, who was sponsoring the whole shebang?

I dutifully headed for the Hawthorns more in hope than expectation and came back with an exclusive.



I met Eric and other members of his family, headed by his 70-year-old gran Rose, who he'd brought up for the game in a minibus.

"It's a family tradition to support Albion," he told me before the kick-off. "Rose has been a fan as long as I can remember. No-one really knows what started it.

"I grew up in this Albion atmosphere and played a bit of soccer at school. My football never really took off but I've always really wanted to play for West Brom. Albion are simply the best..."



They certainly were on the night. Already leading Galatasary 3-1 from the first leg in Istanbul, the Baggies replicated that scoreline with goals from Bryan Robson, Laurie Cunningham and John Trewick.

Eric later presented gold discs of his Slowhand album to each member of the team.
There was a sting in the tale. Eric later played a 'secret' gig at West Bromwich Gala Baths for John Wile's testimonial year, and I organised tickets for the Mail.

My news editor pulled rank, took the tickets and got to see the show!