CATEGORIES

The Impossible Dream

Despite the success of 2020’s acclaimed Love Over Fear, the last few years haven’t been an easy ride for Pendragon. Mainman Nick Barrett tells Prog about the new mini-album, North Star, and how the band are rising to the challenges of touring in the 2020s with their very own ‘VIP’ weekenders.

LOST KINGDOMS

On her latest album, The Last Kingdom – Destiny Is All, Eivør Pálsdóttir revisits her powerful collaboration with the Emmy-winning composer John Lunn for the Netflix/ BBC TV show, The Last Kingdom. Now its final chapter has been turned into a feature- length movie, Seven Kings Must Die, Eivør and Lunn have teamed up with Danny Saul to create an album of music inspired by it. The Faroese singer-songwriter discusses throat singing, her love for Enya and returning to her birthplace.

THE PINEAPPLE THIEF BROUGHT TO BOOK!

Due in June, a lavish eight-disc ‘book set’ will chart the early days of Bruce Soord’s melancholic progressive rock group, with plenty of bonus material fleshing out their story.

IN MEMORY OF RAY SHULMAN

He was the youngest of Gentle Giant’s three brothers and was regarded as the glue that held the band’s incredible music together. Bassist and violin player Ray Shulman’s influence can be heard all over the group’s best-known work, which includes The Power And The Glory, Free Hand and Octopus. His death at the age of 73, has left behind an impressive legacy for aspiring artists who prefer their music to have a more adventurous streak.

Q&A DAVID PATON

Pilot bassist and The Alan Parsons Project member reminisces about working with Kate Bush, Rick Wakeman’s unusual ice-breakers, and that time one of his songs was used to advertise a diabetes drug.

The Remains Of The Day

After a seven-year gap, Canadian occult rockers Blood Ceremony are back with The Old Ways Remain. Inspired by 70s soundtracks, folk and women’s literature, its 10 tracks of esoteric goodness are definitely worth the wait. Vocalist, organist and flutist Alia O’Brien discusses the benefits of recording local, her teenage passion for Jethro Tull and her new-found joy for foraging.

Label of Love

Q & A | AV8 RECORDS – Eastbourne/London

33 1/3 minutes with... Allan Clarke

Allan Clarke co-founded The Hollies with school friend Graham Nash. Between 1963, the year they started, and 1968 when Nash left to form Crosby, Stills & Nash, they notched up nine Top 5 singles including Just One Look, Here I Go Again and I’m Alive, their first of two No 1s.

MAEL PATENT BOLDNESS

Ron and Russell Mael – combined age: 151 – should be in the autumn of their career, a heritage act recycling the hits. Instead, more than a half-century since their debut LP, Sparks are enjoying an Indian summer of acclaim and popularity. As they prepare to release their 26th idiosyncratic pop album (including FFS), back with their original label Island after a 45-year break, they take a reverse journey through their body of work while considering their imminent landmark concerts at the Hollywood Bowl and Royal Albert Hall. What kind of shows can we expect? “Sexy and cerebral,” they promise Jeremy Allen.

maconblack

Ian McCann Stadium gigs? Forget it. And as for live albums...

SHAKIN ALL OVER AGAIN

Even a heart attack in 2010 couldn’t deter Welsh rock’n’roll institution Shakin’ Stevens from returning to fight the good fight. Now, at 75, he has made another highly personal record that might confound those expecting him to fall back on the vintage covers and 50s stylings that made him such a ubiquitous presence on the 80s pop scene. “A lot of people are going to be shocked,” he warns Jack Watkins.

Higher Power

Folk icon continues to bridge the past and the present.

Wish List

A half-speed master holds off time as it waits in the wings.

RELATABLE CONTENT

Evolving from blues-rock through prog and several different points in-between, East Midlanders Family perhaps don’t get the recognition they deserve these days, possibly because of such wilful refusal to stay in one musical lane. With a clutch of reissues ready to prompt a revision of that reputation, Roger Chapman tells his side of a tortuous tale to Michael Heatley.

Kick Out The Jams

Brilliant compilation celebrating Liverpool’s cultural heritage.

Present Tense

Songs for old-timers: veteran singer-songwriter mixes anguish and tenderness.

Battling the bootleggers

West Country millionaire’s counterfeit records racket shut down

Musician Paul Mayer

Paul Mayer, a creative director and musician, has been collecting “Exotica” music on vinyl since he was just 12 years old. In the 70s, his parents took him to Hawaii where, at a young age, he saw the great Martin Denny perform at the Surf Room in the Royal Hawaiian Hotel at Waikiki.

Movers And Shakers

A new box set chronicles the “saxophone Colossus”’s late 50s California sojourn.

Weeping Beauty

Anniversary edition of an angst classic, in an atmospheric new mix.

Above And Beyond!

Big brother triumphs by reminding everyone he knows how to write giant tunes.

Homeward Bound

Belief and beauty explored with rare grace.

EUROPEAN UNION

One is the daughter of a psychedelic rock hero, the other played bass in The Clash. As Galen Ayers and Paul Simonon unite for a duets album, Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, Kevin Harley hears about how they wore their pasts lightly while drawing inspiration from continental adventures and great male-female duos of the past…

DREAD ALERT

The dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson is publishing his first book of prose, a fine addition to his impressive CV that includes music journalist, label owner and punk and post-punk reggae avatar. Man free-lance: Rich Davenport

"YOU HAVE TO BE RUTHLESS"

Simply Red’s soulful pop was one of the most familiar sounds of the 90s and made Mick Hucknall a household name. Despite their commercial domination, they were critical pariahs, dismissed for their smoothness and Hucknall’s reputation as a lothario. Truth is, they were steeped in dub, gritty R&B and post-punk, proud working-class peers of ‘soulcialists’ Style Council and Redskins. Three decades on, they continue to sell more albums than there are ginger hairs on his famous head: the work ethic is strong with this one. “We played to a million people last year,” he points out, and with a new album and tour to promote, he’s only going to be stepping up the professional pace. “You can’t take anything for granted,” he tells Lois Wilson.

"We have a sickness it's called 'guitar pedals'!"

How the ambient music of Hammock is created a "guitar symphony" with tons of effects but no rules

DIMEBAG'S CHAMPION

GRADY CHAMPION, DIME’S FRIEND AND GUITAR TECH, TALKS ABOUT THE PANTERA CELEBRATION SHOWS — AND HIS ROLE IN THE MAELSTROM

TECH TALK

A QUICK ZAKK WYLDE RIG RUNDOWN WITH STEPHEN MURILLO, ZAKK'S GUITAR TECH FOR THE PAST DECADE

ARIA OF EXPERTISE

GW DIGS THROUGH 60-PLUS YEARS OF ARIA GUITARS HISTORY

AMERICANA'S GUITAR GODFATHER

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ZAL YANOVSKY OF THE LOVIN' SPOONFUL