Dad was a real party animal. He loved to go at the pub and have a
singsong with his mates and drink as much stout as possible. All of his
cronies used to go with him. And at closing time they'd come back home.
Back to the front room where Dave and I would be practising.
And dad would walk in and he'd say "Shut that rubbish up. Get out.
We're gonna have a party and I'm gonna perform".
You see, dad was a real performer. He'd clear the floor, had more
to drink, started dancing around, balancing beer on the top his head,
singing at top of his voice until he fell arse over tip on the floor.
But the girls would come home, the boyfriends would arrive,
and everybody had a great party. That's everybody except Dave and I.
And we thought to ourselves "How can we make some sort of impact
on this very strange family?". So we decided to put away our plastic
skiffle guitars and turn electric. Yes, make more noice!
There was an electrical appliance shop up the road, that's where we
thought we'd turn electric. It was in the window, it was this long,
and this high, and it was 8 Watts in volume. But it was covered in this
really horrible green formica. But Dave and I thought "That's for us".
We bought it and we christened it "the green amplifier".
But does anyone know what 8 Watts sound like? 8 Watts? Crap!
But never mind. We thought it was brilliant then, because we took it
home, both plugged in the back and practised day and night.
Yeah, Dave, come on man, yeah, come on, Dave.The girls thought it was great, young musicians in the family.
But Dave and I noticed that one of our sisters was going out with a guy
who was a bouncer in the local ball room. And our observations through
the keyhole into the front room told us that this guy wasn't going down
to well with my sister. And we rephrace it over there for this lady.
Sorry, madam, I'm sorry. The relationship was not flourishing as it should,
how's that? But Dave, he was only 8 years old, but he was already
corrupt, and he says to this guy "Excuse me, mister, if you get me and
my brother a gig at your ball room this weekend, we'll have a word with
our sister. Will that be alright?".
And this guy says "Oh, thanks very much, son, that 'd be nice".
But lo and behold, the following saturday Dave, myself and a friend from
Coldfall estate with the name of Pete Quaife, we all found ourselves on
stage, playing in front of a thousand cynical teddy boys.
And all three of us were plugged in to the little green amp.
And we didn't have a drummer, we didn't need a drummer, we had
the movements, coordinated movements. But the teddy boys were
unimpressed. Somebody threw a bottle of beer at us and eventually
the management were forced to drag us off the stage.
We were still plugged in and still playing, but they dragged us off.
But the green amp stayed on stage, still plugged in, still giving everything.
You know, the green amp came to service very very well in our career.
These things often have a way of working out.
In the realm of rock 'n' roll, there are few names as iconic as Queen, and within the Queen pantheon, Brian May stands out not only as a legendary guitarist but also as an astrophysicist with a profound connection to NASA.
Hip-hop, one of the most influential cultural movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, has recently reached a significant milestone - it's turning 50 years old.
Coachella Festival 2022: here we are. In two days the doors of one of the most anticipated musical events of the year will open, even more so after the last two years in which for very obvious reasons the live music sector has suffered a very important setback.
The 2022 Grammy Awards were the chronicle of an announced triumph: Jon Baptiste collected 11 nominations and won 5 Grammys, defeating all opponents. This was also the year of the very young Olivia Rodrigo, who managed to take home 3 Grammys, including the the best new artist.
Here is finally some good news, the Arcade Fire have finally revealed the title and release date of their new album, 5 years after the last one. For the fan of the group it has been a time that seemed eternal,
Do we want to define "I know you know me" a masterpiece? Yes, without a shadow of a doubt for at least two reasons. The first and most evident are the artists who interpret it: Caroline Spence and Matt Berninger, second for the deep and poetic text.
My favorite group when I was just a teenager were the Fugees, thanks to them a certain curiosity about english language was born in me. I wanted to know and understand the lyrics of their songs, it wasn't enough for me to be carried away exclusively by their beautiful music.
Sweden and the United States are two countries far from each other, thousands of kilometers separate them, the language, culinary and sporting traditions, I don't feel so categorical about the landscapes, not knowing all of America there may be states that have the same reliefs of the country of northern Europe, but on one thing I am sure
It has been talked about for almost 3 years, rumored and it is hoped that sooner or later they will arrive at a collaboration, and now we are satisfied: the Catalan singer Rosalia and the American musician Oneohtrix finally announce the publication of a piece together!
In England there are institutions that are untouchable, first of all Queen Elizabeth II who reigns undisputed in the beating heart of every Englishman, then there are the Beatles, and that's the reason why they were awarded the title of baronets.
Looking at the images, one immediately thinks of archive photos of at least a year and a half ago. Lots of people together without masks dancing freely
How a music group can deliver strong and clear messages without singing is a mystery yet Canadians GoodSpeed You! Black Emperor they succeed very well.
"Creep" by Radiohead is certainly one of the most listened to, revisited and reinterpreted songs in the history of music. So much loved and listened to on all six continents, at least once in our life we all found ourselves humming it.
Very bad story for rapper T.I. and his wife Tiny, in fact, they have been accused of sexual abuse and kidnapping.
The malefactor managed to take Koji and Gustavo away, while Miss Asia, the third bulldog, escaped and was found shortly after by Lady Gaga's bodyguards.
David Crosby against Phoebe Bridgers, if we had been in the Middle Ages, they probably would have challenged each other with the sword, while in 2021 they decided to go wild with tweets.
Evan Rachel Wood, the beautiful protagonist of Westworld has decided to denounce the violence she has suffered for years, at least according to what she claims, by Marilyn Manson.
After some positive signs in the past months, here is the news that we weren't hoping to learn and that throws new questions on the possibility of organizing festivals and live concerts for 2021.
The winners of the 43rd edition of the Kennedy Center Honors have recently been announced, including Joan Baez, Dick Van Dyke, Debbie Allen and the violinist Midori.
The band Soundgarden recently recorded two classics with Brandie Carlile. After the death of their leader Chris Cornell, the band had decided to stop for some time also as a sign of respect for the untimely death of their front man.
New year is synonymous of news and in fact 2021 opened with a nice surprise. The American rock group, The Foo Fighters, founded in 1994 by Dave Grohl ex drummer of Nirvana, delight us with the release of a new single entitled "No son of Mine".
He was 69 and on Christmas Day, guitarist Tony Rice, Bluegrass legend, passed away. His label, Rounder Records, made the news with an official release on December 26th.
We still talk about music, but today we do it from a different point of view, taking a cue from a book, a photographic book called Ten Cities.
I was about 6 years old when I listened for the first time "Blowing in the wind" hummed by my mom while she was accompanying me to school, the version was the Italian one, but I liked the rhythm right away.
Julia Fordham
Status Quo
Dirty Pretty Things
The Kooks
Little Barrie
Talk Talk
Sky
Robert Plant
Matchbox
Paul Carrack
B21
Jonathan Jeremiah