Lost in Translation: Shooting the cover of 'Quiet Riot II'

How a good idea went wrong

By Peter Lindblad

Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years Red Match Productions

Chasing an American record deal was ultimately a dispiriting experience for the first version of Quiet Riot, featuring the late, great Randy Rhoads on guitar.

Time after time, Quiet Riot, through its management company the Toby Organization, had opportunities to perform showcases for various record label executives, and they got a few nibbles, but they just could not land that big fish.

This despite having Warren Entner of The Grass Roots in their corner, pushing them to create a flamboyant, pre-glam look that would surely attract a great deal of attention. He was a part owner of the Toby Organization and he had connections. They represented Angel, who was on Casablanca Records. Still, he could not get anybody interested in Quiet Riot, despite the fact that they were playing to crowded houses at famed Sunset Strip rock and roll haunts like the Whisky-A-Go-Go and, their home away from home, The Starwood – that is except for label called Buddha. But, Buddha had financial problems, and so, even though they’d signed with them, when Buddha went under, their deal was null and void.

Being the resourceful types, the Toby Organization did secure a deal for Quiet Riot in Japan with CBS/Sony, and the band put out its first record there – basically on the strength of its cover, it did well, although the band was not thrilled with the production, as is explained by original drummer Drew Forsyth in the engrossing new documentary “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” directed by longtime Quiet Riot photographer Ron Sobol, who has also authored an accompanying coffee table book of the same title.

Though they still dreamed of getting that elusive American record deal, Quiet Riot had obligations in Japan – namely, they had a second record to make. And they did it, and when the time came to do the artwork for it, Sobol, the band’s photographer, lighting director and good friend, had an idea for the cover.

Quiet Riot II 1978

“Somehow the concept was thought of – I can’t remember it exactly. Kevin [DuBrow] wanted to call the record – it was their second record – 2^nd and 10 – 10 songs on their second record,” remembers Sobol. “It was a football term. And I said, ‘Can I shoot it? Here’s what we’ll do: We’ll have you guys in a locker room, with these football players, and the juxtaposition of you skinny guys with these huge football players might make an interesting picture.’ Kevin said, ‘Okay, let’s do it, but it’s on spec. You’ve got to pay for it. If we can’t use it, I’m sorry.’”

Undeterred, Sobol set the whole thing up.

“To me, it was worth the expense to try to get it done,” says Sobol. “So I rented all this equipment, and I paid the football players … I went to this school. I was going to Valley College at the time. It’s a junior college in Van Nuys, Calif. And first, I got permission to use the locker room, and then I asked the football coach if I could use the players. And he said, ‘Yep, that’s fine with me.’ So I offered them $50 to be models. Four of them jumped on it right away. They said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll do it. I’ll do it.’ And they were great. They did everything I wanted. And the band was great, too. So, we went to the locker room, and we spent about four hours in there that day shooting pictures. It came out great. And our concept was like the back cover has the baseball cards … football cards or baseball cards. That was our concept, too.”

There was only one problem: It did not occur to them that in Japan, nobody knew what 2^nd and 10 meant, being mostly unfamiliar with American football vernacular in the Land of the Rising Sun.

“We sent a mock-up of the thing to Japan, and it came back where they said, ‘Yeah, great,’” recalls Sobol. “The record comes back, like the finished copy, and it’s called Quiet Riot II. And we were going, ‘Why did they call it Quiet Riot II?’ Well, because they don’t play football in Japan. So, 2^nd and 10 meant nothing to them. It’s just one of those things that people don’t think about.”

A bit deflated by the packaging of their second album, the men of Quiet Riot were not too upset, and neither was Sobol. After all, they’d had a blast at the photo session, and they could only laugh about the mix-up. Looking back on it now, Sobol has only fond memories of Quiet Riot’s pre-Metal Health days, although, having been good friends with DuBrow from the start, he was around for the band’s meteoric rise in the early-‘80s, when Metal Health became the first heavy metal record to shoot all the way to No. 1 in the States.

There are great candid shots from that photo session in Sobol’s book, including one of a huge lineman carrying Rhoads around as the guitarist, wearing a flashy, colorful bow tie, vest and flared pants, clutched a stuffed Snoopy toy – “Snoopy” being one of Rhoads’s nicknames. And at one time, there was talk of DuBrow doing a book on Quiet Riot with Sobol, but it never came to fruition.

“Yeah, everybody had a great time that day. It’s just like, hey, I never imagined when I was taking those pictures just for fun that they’d end up in a book,” says Sobol. “Kevin actually wanted to do a book with me, and he said, ‘Get your stuff together, we’ll write a book about the Quiet Riot years.’ And then he called me back, and he goes, ‘You know, I found out it’s going to cost X amount of money to make these. I don’t know what we could sell them for. Plus, I have to go out on tour again with Quiet Riot.” You know, they were playing clubs. And so that idea got put by the wayside. But I got all the stuff together, and now it’s almost like Kevin was there with me doing this.”

Stay tuned for a more extensive Q&A with Sobol coming this week.

Click Here for Additional Information: Red Match Productions

CD Review: Deep Purple – Live in Paris 1975

CD Review: Deep Purple – Live in Paris 1975

earMusic/Eagle Rock Entertainment

All Access Review: A-

Deep Purple - Live in Paris 1975 2013

The balance of power had already shifted within Deep Purple, and Ritchie Blackmore could read the writing on the wall. With the arrival of singer David Coverdale and bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, Deep Purple was entering a new phase, one that would see the band incorporating more of the northern English soul and R&B sensibilities of its newest members, while veering away from the cyclonic mix of nitro-burning hard rock and swirling classical music that Blackmore and others within Purple favored.

He didn't want to stick around to watch the transformation take hold. On April 17, 1975, the guitar icon, and one of the true architects of Deep Purple’s progressive sound, would play his last note for Deep Purple – that is until the Mark II lineup reunited for 1984’s Perfect Strangers album. He went out in a blaze of glory, as Blackmore’s high-voltage fretwork sends electricity shooting through the digitally remixed – and re-mastered from the original multi-track recordings – two-disc Live in Paris 1975, which documents that final Blackmore performance, prior to forming Rainbow, with amazing clarity and expansive volume. Recorded for optimum impact, Live in Paris 1975 actually benefits from the tension between Deep Purple’s warring camps, as that artistic push and pull fuels what is a dynamic, thrilling, once-in-a-lifetime performance from a band on the verge of big, sweeping changes. 

Sparks fly from the start as Deep Purple, absolutely on fire this particular night at the Palais des Sports in Paris, launches into hot-wired, frenzied versions of “Burn” and “Lady Double Dealer” that leave their witnesses gasping for air – the vigorous riffing and scorching, yet tricky, leads of Blackmore’s playing off Jon Lord’s dizzying organ maneuvers and the precision of Ian Paice’s stampeding drums. Just as feverish, “Stormbringer” is a power surge of insistent, hammering riffs and wailing vocals, loaded with Coverdale’s hairy-chested machismo and illuminated by Hughes’s starry croon. Blending so perfectly, the two give a smoldering, smoky rendering of “The Gypsy” here that offers a vision of what Deep Purple, Mark IV, had in store melodically for the world.

Having dispensed with some of their tighter, more compact material early on, Deep Purple embarked on long, extended jams the rest of the way, including the 20:09 “You Fool No One,” with its Cream-like, bluesy combustibility, a spellbinding organ intro from Lord and stunning drum and guitar soloing from Paice and Blackmore, respectively. Even longer and more abstract, with a playful nod to the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the classic “Space Truckin’” clocks in at 22:12, and after going into overdrive around the four-minute mark and flying around its familiar routes with reckless abandon and exuberance, Deep Purple goes off in various directions, expanding the possibilities of a song that’s never been bound by limits or borders – the sinewy funk of Hughes’s bass and his improvised singing, so clear and commanding, compelling the band to drive harder and soar higher, even if his lovelorn scatting seems somewhat out of place.

But this is Blackmore’s stage, and his playing is not just technically sound on this auspicious occasion, but it’s also fiery and impassioned. Along with painting the anguished, bluesy expression of “Mistreated,” Blackmore propels “Smoke on the Water” and the closer “Highway Star” – Coverdale lending that track a little more sexual heat than it had previously – ahead with searing six-string savagery and the occasional crazed arpeggio as Purple, its improvisational instincts as keen as ever, plows ahead, gathering momentum and driving both songs straight off the cliff without any fear of what awaits them below. Perhaps the most interesting facet of Live in Paris 1975, however, is the 24 minutes of in-depth interview recordings tacked on as a bonus feature. Set against a backdrop of the music directly piped in from Live in Paris 1975, it’s utterly fascinating to hear members of Deep Purple offer their perspectives on what was happening within the band at the time, while also hashing over studio sessions that birthed some of Mark III’s best work and offering great insight into their creative process. 

The transition was not an easy one for Deep Purple, and substance abuse would eventually tear the Mark IV edition apart, but not before Tommy Bolin arrived to let everyone get a glimpse of his prodigious talent on the vastly underrated Come Taste the Band. On the vital Live in Paris 1975, however, Blackmore made damn sure nobody forgot who made Deep Purple a household name. (www.eagle-rock.com)

– Peter Lindblad

Chuck D. brings the noise with Anthrax

Public Enemy's MC discusses groundbreaking thrash-rap collaboration

By Peter Lindblad

Public Enemy - It Takes a Nation of Millions
to Hold Us Back 1988

At first, doing a thrash-metal remake of his own group’s utterly explosive diatribe “Bring the Noise” with Anthrax made little sense to Public Enemy’s Chuck D.

Though he certainly appreciated Anthrax’s enthusiasm for the idea, as well as their feverish support for all that Public Enemy stood for, this political firebrand of an MC had no interest in doing it over again – especially since this wasn’t exactly virgin territory for Public Enemy. They’d already combined hip-hop and rock before in startlingly original fashion. Still, this collaboration with Anthrax was different.

“I should say the first time we went into a rock-rap was Vernon Reid [Living Color] playing on ‘Sophisticated Bitch’ on Yo, Bum Rush the Show, and then on the second album, we had that Slayer sample [‘Angel of Death’] on ‘She Watches Channel Zero,’” recalls Chuck D.

That got the attention of Anthrax’s Charlie Benante and Scott Ian, who were already fans of the band and Public Enemy’s biggest ambassadors among the thrash-metal community.

“This actually got across to the Anthrax guys, Charlie Benante and Scott Ian,” remembers Chuck D. “And Scottie Ian was a fan from the jump, man. Charlie and him thought it was cool to wear our t-shirts in front of a hundred thousand people at the Monsters of Rock gig. People were asking, ‘Ooooh, who’s Public Enemy?’ So, he was our first guy, man (laughs).”

With Ian in their corner, Public Enemy suddenly had crossover potential, as the heavy metal market was, however slowly, opening its collective mind to rap. To show how much he thought of Anthrax, Chuck D. invoked the name of New York City’s most aggressive thrash-metal street gang in the hard-hitting, fiery original version “Bring the Noise” that appeared on PE’s It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back.

Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's 1991

“That was what made me name check them in the song, ‘Bring the Noise,’” says Chuck D. “I was telling ‘em that music is all the same – ‘Wax is for Anthrax.’ And so I’m name checking everybody from Eric B. to Sonny Bono and Yoko Ono and Anthrax – imagine (laughs)? So Charlie and Scott came back and said, ‘Look, we want to do a thrash version, Chuck. Let’s get on it.’ And I was like, at that time, ‘Well, I mean, I already did the song. You guys cover it.’ They said, “But we want you on it.” And they just went ahead and did it, and I got on and we did the video, and we did the tour and Charlie and Scott made history.”

This past fall, Chuck D. participated in another kind of tour, the first-ever HipHopGods.com Classic Tourfest Revue. The concerts featured Public Enemy and a revolving lineup of rap artists from the golden age of hip-hop. Among the participants: X Clan, Schoolly D, Leaders of the New School, Monie Love, Son of Bazerk, Wise Intelligent (of Poor Righteous Teachers), Awesome Dre and Davy DMX.

Working with HipHopGods.com is a labor of love for Chuck D., who feels it’s important for hip-hop fans to maintain a connection with those artists who fought to establish rap as a respected art form.

“Well, somebody has to do it,” says Chuck D. “I was really impressed with what they did, over the years, with classic rock, how they separated classic rock from the mainstream – I guess [I wanted to do the same for] the pioneering, golden era and spirit of rap and what was happening in the mainstream, contemporary, major record industry. And I looked at all of this and I wanted to make sure that this happens, and then after a while, you say, ‘Look, I guess we might as well do this … we wanted to be able to say, this is our old crew, this what we do and for Lynyrd Skynyrd and all the brothers who are still touring and doing their thing and still draw big crowds. We need to take care of it.’”

It’s a sure bet that nobody will ever forget about Public Enemy. Controversial, innovative and powerful – Public Enemy started a revolution, both sonically and lyrically. Not surprisingly, they were named as a 2013 inductee to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, an honor Chuck D. is sincerely awed by.

“I take all halls of fame seriously,” he says. “It’s respect from your peers.”

And for Chuck D. respect is serious business. Stay tuned for more from the Public Enemy MC in the coming weeks.

Eric Clapton pulls the plug on Player?

Well … not exactly

By Peter Lindblad

Player: Peter Beckett and Ronn Moss 2013

Others might have been intimidated by the prospect of opening up for guitar god Eric Clapton, but not Player.

After all, they had a No. 1 song to their credit in the blue-eyed soul ditty “Baby Come Back” – released in late 1977 – and in the grand tradition of giving audiences what they want to hear, Player decided to muscle up sonically for their 1978 album Danger Zone.

“We had to, because we were plucked from Boz Scaggs’s ‘Silk Degrees’ tour,” says Peter Beckett, one of the founding member of Player. “And we were still a young band. And they stuck us on Eric Clapton’s ‘Slowhand’ tour supporting Clapton for a month to [play to] like a 30,000 mainly male audience, so we couldn’t go on and be a little pop band. That’s when we started injecting more hard rock [into our sound], and it’s been that way ever since.”

In February, Player will release Too Many Reasons, its first album in 20 years. Around 35 years ago, Player was riding high, having been chosen as the support act for Clapton’s 1978 North American tour. Mixing tracks from Danger Zone into an eclectic set list that ran the gamut from pretty soft-rock ballads to melodic hard rock, Player did more than just win over Clapton’s audiences.

How were they received on that tour?

“Excellent … in fact, a little too good,” says Beckett, the lead guitarist and singer for Player.

While Beckett was being coy about what happened, Player bassist Ronn Moss – better known worldwide as the actor who’s played Ridge Forrester for 25 years on the massively successful soap opera “The Bold and The Beautiful” – expanded on Beckett’s statement.

“We had a wonderful little thing happen to us at the Aladdin Theatre in Las Vegas,” relates Moss. “Player had a No. 1 record, and in the middle of ‘Baby Come Back,’ there’s a silence before the last chorus starts. Well, right at that downbeat to that chorus, after the silence, we all came in … and, no power. The power had gone out. There was nothing but drums.”

The possibility of a citywide blackout was immediately dismissed, since the lights didn’t go out … “just the power to our amplifiers,” says Moss. “So we all looked around, and they finally got it up and rolling, running …”

Adds Beckett, “… but, we’d finished (laughs)."

So, what happened exactly? As Moss recalls, the guilty party, or parties, didn’t step forward right away.

“It took several days for somebody backstage to finally fess up,” says Moss. “And it turned out to be Eric Clapton’s crew who fessed up and said, ‘Yeah, we pulled the plug on you guys.’ We were going down too well, and initially, we were really pissed. [I said] ‘Why would you do that?’ and the guy said, ‘It’s because you were going over a little too well.’”   

Beckett cautions, “The truth of it was, Eric Clapton knew nothing about it. It was just an uppity roadie. You know how those roadies are (laughs).”

They can joke about it now, but at the time, they were apoplectic.

“We were just pissed about it, and then I thought, ‘Wait a minute. Eric Clapton pulled the plug on us?’” says Moss. “They fessed up. They fessed up. And [Clapton] came in the dressing room a couple of weeks later with a bottle of Jack Daniels, and he never really admitted anything, but he said, ‘Are you guys okay?’”

Clapton wasn’t the only massive ‘70s rock act that took Player out on the road. There was Heart, who was promoting 1978’s Dog and the Butterfly LP. And, of course, there was Boz Scaggs.

“Well, you know, the Boz Scaggs tour wasn’t chopped liver, either,” says Beckett. “So we’d already done about two months of 30,000-seat arenas, and then we went back and did the Danger Zone album. We knew we were going on the ‘Slowhand’ tour, so we made the Danger Zone album harder edged so that we were able to go out and support Eric Clapton and have the right kind of music under our belts. So, it all turned out great.”

Too Many Reasons is due out Feb. 26 on Frontiers Records, and it was written and produced by Beckett. Look for a more expanded interview with Beckett and Moss in this blog in the coming weeks. In the meantime, visit www.player-theband.com and www.ronnmoss.com for more information and check out the track listing for Too Many Reasons:

* Photo by Devin DeVasquez-Moss

Too Many Reason track listing:

1. Man on Fire

2. Precious

3. I Will

4. Tell Me

5. The Sins of Yesterday

6. My Addiction

7. Too Many Reasons

8. To the Extreme

9. The Words You Say

10. Life in Color

11. A Part of Me

12. Nothin’ Like You

13. Baby Come Back

Book/DVD Review: Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years

Book/DVD Review: Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years

Red Match Productions

All Access Review: A-

Randy Rhoads - The Quiet Riot Years
Red Match Productions

Ron Sobol’s access was unlimited. Having befriended Kevin DuBrow, after the two bonded over a shared interest in photography and Humble Pie, Sobol eventually became part of the Quiet Riot family – as the band’s personal shutterbug, as its lighting director, and simply as somebody they would pal around with. Along for the ride, through all the ups and downs, Sobol watched the early version of Quiet Riot, featuring a young Randy Rhoads on guitar, tear up the Sunset Strip and garner a following rivaled locally only by Van Halen.
 

This was long before Metal Health made Quiet Riot a worldwide phenomenon, however. Back in the late 1970s, Rhoads and Quiet Riot – despite their colorful stage garb and charismatic live shows – couldn’t get any American record label to take a chance on them. The showcases they performed for label executives led to nothing but false promises. Even the well-publicized demonstrations they organized outside record companies in Los Angeles, where supporters pleaded for them to sign the band with well-meaning placards and chants even as the police tried to silence them, fell on deaf ears. Sobol had his camera trained on Quiet Riot, and the circus surrounding them, the whole time.
 

For years, Sobol, the ultimate band insider, has been sitting on a mountain of hundreds of behind-the-scenes still photos and mountains of super 8mm concert footage he compiled while running with DuBrow and the rest of the Quiet Riot pack. And it’s all here in “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” undoubtedly the most comprehensive and candid biography of that period in Quiet Riot’s history that’s ever been compiled. Packaged together as a vividly illustrated coffee table book plus an illuminating DVD, Sobol’s collective work – he directed the DVD and authored the book – revisits the halcyon days when Quiet Riot ruled The Starwood and other Hollywood hot spots, such as the Whisky A-Go-Go and The Troubadour, while also performing before thousands of people who showed up to bask in their pre-glam metal glow at local colleges and festivals. And yet, that major American record label deal eluded them.
 

The frustration was palpable, as Sobol’s documentary illustrates in such heartbreaking fashion. Everybody associated with Quiet Riot were pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to break this band. Fan club president Lori Hollen did her part, hauling a boatload of friends to go see Quiet Riot, and Jodi “Raskin” Vigier, the one-time girlfriend of both Rhoads and DuBrow, and Laurie MacAdam worked on livening up the band’s image – MacAdam’s fashion sketches for the band’s dazzling, completely over-the-top stage clothes are shown in both the film and the book. Then, along came Ozzy Osbourne, and the party was over, as he took Rhoads to be his new guitarist and his musical salvation. Unfortunately, that meant the original Quiet Riot, fronted by the indomitable DuBrow and Rhoads, his very close friend, would never hit the big time together, as they’d hoped they would.
 

Watching and reading “Randy Rhoads – The Quiet Riot Years,” it’s impossible not to get a full sense of the abject disappointment everyone associated with this version of Quiet Riot felt when their career stalled. In a DVD full of wide-ranging, completely open interviews, drummer Drew Forsyth – with some bitterness – relates how a disinterested producer torpedoed the band’s first album, 1977’s Quiet Riot, and details how management failed them on numerous occasions. And there was drama within Quiet Riot, as DuBrow knocked heads with bassist Kelly Garni, which caused tension between DuBrow and Rhoads, who’d been friends with Garni since childhood. Garni’s time in the band ended rather abruptly, however, when in a drunken rage he pulled out a gun during an argument with Rhoads, an incident thoroughly hashed out in a film that captures the youthful joie de vivre and DIY spirit of Quiet Riot and its closest allies. At the same time, it deals with the crushing disillusionment that comes with seeing one’s dreams go unfulfilled, this despite scintillating footage of a swaggering Quiet Riot knocking them dead in exciting live performances. Big issues, such as Rhoads feeling stifled creatively by DuBrow, drive the story and make it a gripping yarn, but there are other individual moments of greatness, including a thorough dissection of the mind-blowing solo Rhoads used to play at Quiet Riot gigs from his guitar tech Brian Reason. And this is just half the story.
 

Edited and laid out skillfully, with particular attention paid to attaching bite-sized pieces of text with compelling graphics, the book is jam packed with beautifully shot color and black and white images, augmented by scraps of memorabilia as well as moving tributes from its senior editor – and one of Rhoads’ guitar students – Peter M. Margolis and DuBrow’s mother. Among the treasures from Sobol’s archives are mesmerizing portraits of Rhoads, leftover pictures of the band taken during a football locker room photo shoot for the Quiet Riot II cover, stolen scenes of backstage high jinks – including one section with the boys parading around in dresses – and an endless stream of highly visceral, electrifying close-ups of the band’s two lightning rods, Rhoads and DuBrow, giving it their all onstage. Accompanied by an informative, if somewhat skeletal narrative, the photography jumps off the page, and it’s not just because there is so damn much of it to sift through. The product of inspired intuition, fly-on-the-wall observations and a true cause – namely, the advancement of Quiet Riot – Sobol’s images catch members of the band and their entourage at their leisure, having a fantastic, carefree time in sunny Southern California before they lost their innocence.

Click Here for Additional Information: Red Match Productions

       

      –   Peter Lindblad

Anthrax Memorabilia

Anthrax Promo License Plate

Anthrax memorabilia will certainly continue to be sought after and continue to fetch big auction prices.

Along with Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth, New York City-based Anthrax is considered of the so-called "Big Four," the quartet of bands largely responsible for dragging thrash metal - or, as some call it, speed metal - out of the underground and into the mainstream in the late '80s and early '90s. Combining the blistering virtuosity and strong vocals of heavy metal with the fury of hardcore punk to create a whole new musical sub-genre, Anthrax was formed by Scott Ian and Dan Lilker in 1981.

Fistful of Metal, Anthrax's debut, was unleashed in 1984, even though the band hadn't settled on a lineup. After singer Joey Belladonna and bassist Frank Bello joined the band, and later, guitarist Dan Spitz was brought aboard, Anthrax enjoyed its greatest success, as fiery albums like 1985's Spreading the Disease and 1987's Among the Living - their most acclaimed records - cemented their reputation as sonic innovators. However, it was Anthrax's hard-hitting collaboration with Public Enemy on 1991's crossover remake of the hip-hop legends' classic "Bring the Noise" - and their subsequent joint tour - that put them on the map. The group dropped its last LP, the critically acclaimed Worship Music, in 2011.

Scott Ian Signing Memorabilia

With '80s metal memorabilia drawing increased attention from collectors, Anthrax memorabilia will certainly continue to be sought after and continue to fetch big auction prices. In 2012 Scott Ian and Charlie Benante offered up for auction an amazing array of Anthrax relics direct from their own personal collections.

Stage worn clothing, concert and studio used gear, vinyl, posters, promotional items topped the list for collectors - demanding high prices and securing Anthrax's position on collectors lists of "have to have".

Collectors and fans should hold on to their metal memorabilia as the value will continue to rise as it's popularity soars.

Check out the Anthrax Relics available in the store:  Anthrax Memorabilia

Steve Howe steps away from Asia

Prog-rockers recruit new guitarist, plot new record

Asia - Sam Coulson, Geoff Downes, John Wetton
and Carl Palmer

Steve Howe is leaving Asia. The renowned guitarist announced his intentions to step away on Thursday, saying he needs to do so in order to focus more fully on other projects.

“Myself and the band wish to thank their fans for the enthusiasm shown during the original members’ reunion,” relates Howe. “I will continue with Yes, and with my trio and solo guitar work. I wish my friends continued success.”

Moving quickly, Asia has already found Howe’s replacement. They have hired newcomer Sam Coulson, recognized throughout the guitar community as a virtuoso performer. With Coulson in tow, Asia plans to perform at Sweden Rock 2013 and work on a new studio album, titled Valkyrie, for Frontiers Records.

“Asia is ready to take its next steps along this remarkable road,” says Asia’s lead vocalist and bassist John Wetton, known also for his work with King Crimson and U.K. “We cannot wait to perform again for the fans and also to unveil some of the new material, of which we are very proud.”

Keyboardist Geoff Downes, who has also played with Yes and the Buggles, added, “We look forward to writing another chapter in Asia’s history,” while drummer Carl Palmer, of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame, chimed in, “We’re all looking forward to the next decade of great Asia music.”

The original members of Asia reunited in 2006 for a U.S. tour, several jaunts across the European continent and four the spanned the world, while also managing to release three new studio albums, three DVDs, and a number of live records. Asia’s exposure grew exponentially when their song “An Extraordinary Life,” off 2008’s Phoenix LP, was picked as the theme music for the TV show “America’s Got Talent.”

One of the biggest-selling super groups of all-time Asia began in the early ‘80s, when Howe, Wetton, Downes and Palmer agreed to join forces. Their self-titled debut album arrived in 1982 and spent nine weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard charts. It remains one of the three most successful albums, in terms of record sales, in the history of Geffen Records, along with the likes of Guns ‘N Roses and Whitesnake. Their song “Heat of the Moment” was a smash hit, and an MTV phenomenon. Their ability to make videos that combined storytelling with compelling messages resulted in heavy MTV rotation for tracks like “Wildest Dreams,” “Only Time Will Tell,” “The Smile Has Left Your Eyes,” and “Don’t Cry.” And “Heat of the Moment” has appeared in TV shows and movies including “40 Year Old Virgin,” “South Park,” “Cold Case” and “The Matador.”

Visit OriginalAsia.com for more information.

CD Review: Public Image Limited - Alife 2009: Live at Brixton Academy

CD Review: Public Image Limited – Alife 2009: Live at Brixton Academy

Four Worlds Media

All Access Rating: A-

Public Image Limited - Alife 2009: Live at Brixton Academy 2012

“Proper music for proper people” – that’s the public service Public Image Limited provides, according to John Lydon. It’s a mission statement, as much as anything, for John Lydon and the revived PiL, playing their first gigs since Lydon pulled the plug on the post-punk insurgents in 1993. And Lydon, making an entrance as only he can, reintroduced PiL to the Brixton Academy crowd with that statement as the industrial noise of “The Rabbit Song (Intro)” died down. Those “proper people” Lydon refers to were in for quite a night of it, as PiL, established by Lydon after the Sex Pistols imploded, had no intention of leaving them feeling they’d been cheated.

Superbly mixed audio, coupled with the vitality and edgy, adventurous spirit of PiL – who deliver a sonically mesmerizing and stylistically diverse performance, full of different moods and textures – recommend Alife 2009: Live at Brixton Academy, another in the line of immaculately recorded and extravagantly packaged concert records from Four Worlds Media. Like the most depraved grave robbers, they plunder the PiL back catalog, digging up the bodies of 23 strangely compelling tunes from such classic LPs as Second Edition, Metal Box and Flowers of Romance and giving them new life. Where their studio versions could be grim and sterile, here, they have more color in their cheeks, many of them extended well beyond their original borders. Against a backdrop of eerie, unsettling dub rhythms, dissonant squalls of razor-like guitar and alien keyboards, Lydon – joined in this PiL incarnation by former members Bruce Smith and Lu Edmonds, as well as Scott Firth – goes on enigmatically poetic rants in the vaguely menacing, hypnotic and austere “Albatross,” “Careering,” “The Suit” and “Four Enclosed Walls.” Sounding more predatory, as an insistent bass line creeps around the edges, the disturbing meditation on family dysfunction “Tie Me to the Length” becomes a particularly nightmarish vision of a psychological breakdown in Lydon’s emotionally scarred hands.

It’s not surprising then that after “Tie Me to the Length” takes its last breath, Lydon jolts the seemingly stunned audience awake by yelling, “You’re too quiet.” Somewhat brighter, if not entirely happy and shiny, dance-oriented numbers like “Flowers of Romance,” “Bags” and “This is Not a Love Song” bounce off a muscular, thumping trampoline of bass that makes bodies want to writhe in the doomed ecstasy of the damned, as tangled coils of guitar vainly attempt to unravel themselves in puzzling and interesting ways. As ringmaster, the howling, growling Lydon is enthusiastic, funny and defiant, making an impassioned plea for unity, racial harmony and (gasp!) love in the airy, melodic “Warrior” and demanding the exile of all politicians from Britain, before pleading for more bass from a sinister, smoldering take on “Religion” – Lydon’s scathing indictment of an institution he despises. 

The cynical “Disappointed,” one of PiL’s biggest hits, has neither the bite or the snarl of the original studio version, and that’s … well, disappointing. Weak and ineffectual as it is, however, that failed effort is the exception, not the rule, on Alife 2009: Live at Brixton Academy. Even the more atmospheric, starry numbers like “Usls 1,” are rapturous on this occasion, and the seething undercurrent of danger and anger running through “Chant” – cosmic, swirling guitar work hovering above the growing unrest like supernova – is decidedly palpable, while the angular “Memories” and the propulsive “Annalisa” move surreptitiously in the manner of assassins, springing with violence only when necessary.

Vicious and uncompromising at times, and removing some of the grey drone of their recordings, this pulsating set is also deliciously entertaining, although the melodies and subtle hooks of their music maintain their subversive character. As the lighthearted, Eastern European-flavored “Sun” dances to the beat of its own drummer in the most easygoing, uninhibited manner, another one of PiL’s most recognizable tunes, “Rise,” throws weary travelers along life’s sometimes rocky path a bouquet of well-wishes and offers a reminder that “anger is an energy.” Yes, it is, and so is Lydon, whose unique brand of populism still resonates with “proper people.”

-            Peter Lindblad

CD/DVD Review: Triumph - Live at Sweden Rock Festival

Triumph – Live at Sweden Rock Festival

Metal Works/Universal

All Access Rating: B-
 

Triumph - Live at Sweden Rock Festival 2012

That other power trio from Canada, Triumph was never flashy or flamboyant. A band of the people that often found itself a punching bag for hostile critics who characterized their meat-and-potatoes hard rock as bland and uninteresting as drywall, the threesome of guitarist/vocalist Rik Emmett, bassist/keyboardist Mike Levine and drummer/vocalist Gil Moore began life in 1975 in an abandoned Toronto- area bowling alley. 

 

Uncomfortable with being tagged as the white knights of heavy metal, they preferred to be known as a straightforward hard-rock outfit whose tastes gravitated toward simple, heartfelt melodies and big, uplifting anthems. And that’s the way they went out, dying with their boots on, for all intents and purposes, when Emmett, an honest-to-goodness guitar hero, departed in 1988 – although Moore and Levine valiantly kept Triumph going well into 1993, before the disheartening dissolution of their label, Polygram Records, left them with little reason to continue. Dormant for years, the men of Triumph reunited briefly in 2008, not long after being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame. Shaking off the rust, they returned to the stage in June of that year – at the Sweden Rock Festival of all events, having never played the Nordic country, even during their 1970s and 1980s heyday, when all of their records seemed to go gold.

 

Released in 2012, coinciding with the arrival of fall, this CD/DVD package documents an inspired and solid, if sporadically flat and listless, performance that makes one wonder if they actually could have endured a full-blown, continent-traversing tour. Sagging noticeably when Triumph wanders aimlessly through the interminably dreamy, Yes-like labyrinth of “Blinding Light Show/Moon Child” and loses its momentum in an overly fussy, unsatisfying “Never Surrender” and a much too delicate “Magic Power,” the “Live at Sweden Rock Festival” set is buoyed by the sinewy, hard-charging “Rock and Roll Machine,” and “Allied Forces,” among other rougher cuts. As tough as longshoremen and just as vigorous, gnarly rockers like Triumph’s grinding cover of Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” – which features an extraordinary, fret-scorching showdown between Emmett and guitar partner Dave Dunlop – and “When the Lights Go Down” are downright nasty, while a particularly muscular “Lay it on the Line” and the glorious showstopper “Fight the Good Fight,” perhaps the greatest motivational speech ever disguised as a classic-rock anthem, make you want to run through a wall.
 

Given ample opportunity to stretch out and solo like demons, while also delivering tightly wound twin-guitar leads that are well-executed, Emmett and Dunlop prove a formidable tandem, and their dexterity, finesse and rugged riffing are worth the price of admission. The DVD half of this set, however, is not; in fact, it’s damaging to overall impressions of the release. On screen, Triumph displays inconsistent chemistry and is ... well, rather dull, even as flash pots are set off to please a crowd that seems genuinely excited to see their heroes – possibly for the first time ever. And the press conference included on the DVD has such poor sound and is shot at such a terrible camera angles that it adds little to the experience. Still, this could very well be Triumph's last voyage, and if it is, it’s not a bad send-off. Still, some of that magic power they once possessed seems to have gone away.

   

      - Peter Lindblad

DVD Review: Peter Gabriel - Classic Albums: So

DVD Review: Peter Gabriel - Classic Albums: So
Eagle Vision
All Access Rating: A-

Peter Gabriel - Classic Albums: So 2012

Usually, Peter Gabriel’s artistic instincts are above reproach, but his original choice for the female half of the hopeful duet “Don’t Give Up” that appeared on his commercial breakthrough LP So was an odd one. 

For this song about the devastating emotional effects of job loss in a troubled economy, Gabriel thought “country and western” queen Dolly Parton, so cheery and brassy, could be a perfect fit for the role – and make no mistake, whoever was going to be picked to sing opposite of Gabriel was going to be acting, as So producer Daniel Lanois explains in this edition of the highly acclaimed “Classic Albums” documentary series from Eagle Vision.

It’s not that Parton was incapable of toning down her act to express the gritty and desperate compassion Gabriel – inspired by Depression-era black-and-white photos from the lens of Dorothy Lang – needed from her to make it work. After all, as Gabriel says here, he originally imagined the piece as a country song. Because Parton grew up impoverished, she could certainly relate to the subject matter, and she’d performed songs that dealt with the anxiety of economic distress with the requisite empathy and emotional resolve to get through it. Still, Parton’s earthiness and boundless good cheer, at least in retrospect, seem particularly ill-suited for the affecting, air-brushed “Don’t Give Up.” Even veteran music journalist David Fricke, who’s as open-minded as anybody when it comes to musical experimentation, remarks on camera that he “couldn’t imagine anybody else” doing the song but Gabriel’s other choice, Kate Bush.

Bush made perfect sense, her feathery, angelic vocals offering soothing comfort and clinging hope to a broken man facing unemployment and an uncertain future. Lanois, as he relates so eloquently in “Classic Albums: So,” believes Bush’s acting was flawless, and some would say So was pretty close to perfect, as well. An awakening of sorts for Gabriel, So found Gabriel opening himself up to possibilities, tinkering with fecund African rhythms and toying with the classic swinging R&B and soul sounds he loves so much to make music that was more infectious and joyful. He had emerged from the dark, tangled psychological jungles and the obscure, arty ghetto of previous works ready to be artistically “revealing and naked,” according to Lanois. Or, to put it another way, Gabriel just let himself be human on a record that was guileless and openhearted, a piece of art that left him exposed and opened up floodgates of emotions, and yet was still quite experimental. And the filmmakers here conduct a proper examination of its body and its soul.

Unlike a lot of the editions in the long-running “Classic Albums” series, this one wisely doesn’t spend much time on the back story, except to detail the renting of that bucolic paradise Ashcombe House – the manor home where many of Gabriel’s solo LPs were recorded – and discuss Gabriel’s reluctance to give his records titles, as well as reveal how Lanois convinced him to give up his longstanding insistence that his recordings be free of cymbals. Instead, this film focuses on the sometimes thorny, but intensely productive, partnership between Gabriel and Lanois, which, as the film indicates, was tested during the year it took to make So, their sometimes contentious chemistry setting off sparks and spurring creative epiphanies. 

An insider’s perspective on the making of colorful and charming video for“Sledgehammer” is provided, along with engaging, yet detailed, discussions about how that track and others like “Red Rain,” “Big Time” and “In Your Eyes”developed and evolved, with particular attention paid to the one-take drumming of Manu Katche on “Red Rain” and that funky Tony Levin bass line that drives “Sledgehammer.” One of the more interesting segments, however, finds Laurie Anderson spilling the beans about how the innovative and arty “This is the Picture (Excellent Birds),” an austere and almost futuristic collaboration with Gabriel that was light years ahead of its time, was so quickly thrown together, at least by Gabriel’s standards, who, as the documentary reveals, is infamous for taking his own sweet time in the studio and asking for a multitude of takes. 

Rich with entertaining anecdotes, the narrative – constructed with a wide-ranging collection of incisive and intelligent interviews – flows smoothly and logically, though not in what could be considered a linear fashion, from a generous overview of the record into a microscopic study of all its most intricate parts. “Classic Albums: So” also dissects Gabriel’s creative process with an invigorating intellectual curiosity, as evidenced by the sheer number of interviews the filmmakers undertook. All the while they also seem intent on letting viewers in on a little secret: Peter Gabriel has a sense of humor. Although it too often gets bogged down in the minutia of the recording process and glosses over some key aspects of So, the film is exactingly researched and forms a wonderfully edited backdrop of vintage video and photographic stills of Gabriel and company at work or at play – the images serving what is a fascinating story. And the bonus features offer more extensive looks at that “Sledgehammer” video that was so ahead of its time and other album tracks, so that viewers get a more complete picture of how the LP came together in the 35 extra minutes that didn't appear in the broadcast version of “Classic Albums: So.” Lanois calls Ashcombe House a “construction site,” where Gabriel and company did painstaking work on So, the most successful album of his career. He might have added that it was also where the magic happened, because there was some of that in the air as well.

-         –   Peter Lindblad

Saxon's 'Sacrifice' to drop Feb. 26

New album from NWOBHM legends a blast from the past

Saxon - Sacrifice 2013

Saxon’s 20^th album, titled Sacrifice, is due out Feb. 26 via UDR, and front man Biff Byford promises it’ll offer a return to traditional metallic Saxon values, as the band seeks to restore the Harley-like roar of its glory days.

“Less tricks, more power!” That’s what Byford wanted from Sacrifice, as he says, “My brief to the band was to be raw, be real and not be afraid to look back at the old classic material for inspiration.”

Not that Saxon has wavered much from those principles of late, as recent albums like A Call to Arms, Into the Labyrinth and The Inner Sanctum have, indeed, harnessed the horsepower and raw energy of classic LPs Wheels of Steel, Strong Arm of the Law, and Denim and Leather. New tracks like “Warriors of the Road,” “Wheels of Terror” and “Stand Up and Fight” are purported to be weighty and hard-hitting, with some elements of modern-day thrash thrown in for good measure and the invigorated guitar work from Paul Quinn and Doug Scarratt amplifying Saxon’s thunder.

“It’s certainly been done from a more early ‘80s thrashier perspective,” explains Byford, “and it’s not just guitars bashing away willy-nilly, they’ve got a fresh drive, purpose and perspective.”

It’ll be interesting to see what Saxon has cooked up this time around, considering the record was co-produced by Byford and the highly sought after Andy Sneap, who helmed the production of Accept’s last two records, the critically acclaimed Blood of the Nations and Stalingrad. Along with ten new songs, Saxon has some other surprises in store, including unique re-recordings of Saxon classic songs – among them an orchestrated version of “Crusader” and an acoustically rendered “Frozen Rainbow.”

Sacrifice will be released in a variety of formats, from a limited-edition deluxe digibook (including a bonus disc featuring the revisited classic tracks) to the standard jewel-case CD, a vinyl LP picture disc, a direct-to-consumer fan package (available exclusively for online order from online retailers), and as a digital download.

“From the songs to the production, I wanted to focus on the raw aspects which made us great in the first place,” says Byford. “And living in that rawness, combined with some great classic Saxon songwriting, has in my opinion made Saxon fresher than ever.”

Sacrifice track listing:

01. Procession

02. Sacrifice

03. Made in Belfast

04. Warriors of the Road

05. Guardians of the Tomb

06. Stand Up and Fight

07. Walking the Steel

08. Night of the Wolf

09. Wheels of Terror

10. Standing in a Queue

Bonus Disc:

01. Crusader (Orchestrated version)

02. Just let me Rock (Re-recorded version)

03. Requiem (Acoustic version)

04. Frozen Rainbow (Acoustic version)

05. Forever Free (Re-recorded version)

Jeff Scott Soto rises up with Yngwie Malmsteen

Melodic hard-rock singer reflects on his time with the virtuoso guitarist

By Peter Lindblad

Jeff Scott Soto’s plate is not just full ... it’s actually spilling over the sides.

Jeff Scott Soto - Damage Control 2012

One of the busiest and most in-demand singers in melodic hard rock, Soto spent much of last summer touring North America with “Queen Extravaganza,” at the behest of Queen’s drummer Roger Taylor. Before that, he released a solo album titled Damage Control in the spring on Frontiers Records and EMI, and more recently, he’s been carrying out vocal duties for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, while also collaborating in W.E.T. with a couple of hot-shot Swedish musicians, Robert Sall from Work of Art and Erik Martensson of Eclipse, on an unexpectedly heavy, but also thoroughly accessible, second LP, Rise Up, that is due out in February on Frontiers Records.

In 2013, Soto is scheduled to hit the road in support of Damage Control, and there may be more tours in the offing with W.E.T. and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Versatility is his calling card, as Soto’s strong, commanding voice works well with pop-infused heavy metal, album-oriented rock and even hot funk.

Perhaps that’s what Yngwie Malmsteen found so appealing about Soto when the virtuoso guitarist hired the then 18-year-old unknown as lead vocalist for his Rising Force project way back in 1984. It was the chance of a lifetime for Soto.

“Basically, [Malmsteen] left Alcatrazz in 1984,” says Soto, recounting how he first hooked on with Malmsteen. “I just happened to be at a friend’s house when the news came out on ‘MTV News’ that he was looking for a singer. And literally, I just sent the cassette in, and – Cinderella-story luck later – I got the call to go meet him.”

To say the least, Malmsteen was a demanding taskmaster, and at first, Soto wasn’t sure where he stood with the supernatural shredder, whose ambition it was to make to classical music and heavy metal co-exist in a manner few had thought possible. The legendary Malmsteen put Soto's feet to the fire almost immediately.

Yngwie Malmsteen - Rising Force

“It was a strange meeting and a strange situation to be a part of, but it took three weeks of singing with him at his house and demoing up things until I was finally inducted as the permanent singer of the band,” remembers Soto. “And even the first two songs – the only songs that had vocals on them on the first album, the debut, Rising Force album – I didn’t know the songs until he put me in the studio. I basically learned them as I was singing them, and he kind of gave me the, ‘Well, if you sound good on them, then I’ll keep you on them. Otherwise, I’m going to sing on them.’ And so I literally had the time I was singing on them to learn them and get a good performance in, and he actually really liked it. Strangely enough, I was 18 years old. I had no idea what I was doing, and I pulled it off.”

In addition to his involvement with the Rising Force recording, Soto also sang on Malmsteen’s 1985 LP Marching Out. With Malmsteen controlling almost every aspect of his musical enterprise with an iron fist, Soto felt suffocated and wanted to spread his wings. So, he left soon after Marching Out and then helped get Talisman – the band he played in for 19 years – with bassist Marcel Jacob, who had also played in Malmsteen’s Rising Force band.

As for his time with Malmsteen, Soto has mixed feelings about it. Though it was certainly a great learning opportunity and a chance for increased exposure, Soto wished for a bigger say in the music.

When asked what it was like working with Malmsteen, Soto replied, “Well, I usually answer that question sort of tongue in cheek, and I usually answer that the same way: I didn’t really work with him … I worked for him. There were a few times where he kind of let me do my own thing when it was time for it, and we were collaborating and co-writing songs together, but he always had final say. He had a vision of what he wanted, and if it strayed too far from that vision, then he would cut it. It was a great situation for me as far as cutting my teeth, but it also was a frustrating one, which led me to not sing with him too long because I was too strong-headed over where I wanted to go. And I knew I wasn’t going to get that singing with him too long.”

With Swedish rockers Talisman, Soto took on a more prominent role, and the band experienced success in their home country and beyond. Interestingly, during our interview, Soto advanced the notion of a possible Talisman reunion in the summer of 2013, as well as his involvement in some potential Trans-Siberian Orchestra studio work and less wintery live outings for the epic power-metal institution. Stay tuned for further news on those subjects.