Just watched part one of Blood and Thunder, an excellent new doco on the Albert music company and its place in Australian rock history. Fast paced and carefully researched, it told a story well known to music fans but worth hearing again. How the Young family of Glasgow took the ten pound assisted passage to […]
While assembling the album cover Portrait Playoff (One and Two), I considered having a satellite event where the artist portrait was not a photograph, but a painting, drawing, watercolour, stick and ochre, whatever. But that idea did not really mesh with the ‘realistic’ covers, and so was shelved. Yet those LPs making it through the qualifying rounds were diverse and […]
For the second instalment in the Art On Your Sleeve series I’m delighted to welcome JDB. Her blog Augenblick is well worth checking out. JDB contributed the ‘art’ section of this piece, increasing the overall depth and quality of the post immeasurably. Hope you agree. * OSIBISA – Osibirock [1974] * THE MUSIC When Osibisa was […]
Vinyl Connection’s love of live albums is well known. They’ve been written about frequently (the series on triple live albums, for example) but not recently (Back Live goes way back). Not through waning interest nor fears of retribution from the unconverted but simply because there just so much music to enjoy and so little time. […]
There have been occasions when Vinyl Connection has grouched about how much stuff is required to step outside the house. We have been heard to talk movingly of those long gone, halcyon days when a chap simply strolled breezily out the front door unencumbered by anything other than his thoughts. Nowadays it requires a hold-all […]
Rock and roll will never last, you know. Gone in a couple of years. That’s what they said back in the early 60s. Yet not only has the beast survived, some of its protagonists have notched up multiple decades in the biz, inviting today’s extraordinary mission: Reviewing two albums by the same artist, released four […]
* Learn more about artist Roger Dean at his official website. The ‘feature image’ is the cover of the Ilex publications book “Roger Dean: Dragon’s Dream” published in 2008. According to the Ilex website, the book “encompasses album covers, paintings, and stage designs; logos and icons produced for computer game companies (such as Psygnosis, Bullet Proof […]
The Melbourne International Jazz Festival began in 1998, co-incidentally the year that the Ms Connection/Vinyl Connection international festival kicked off too. Seventeen years on, both are still going strong though artists in both arenas seem to be a touch more, er, mature. Seasoned. Venerable. Ah shit. We’re all older. Nevertheless, when we noticed that the […]
Debut albums are a bit special. Often the result of a long gestation period that may well have begun in someone’s teenage bedroom, there is an exuberance and excitement to a first offering that combines confidence (“Look at me! Listen to my music!”) and nervousness (“Is it OK? Will anyone like me?”). Over the life of […]
The passing of Tangerine Dream founder Edgar Froese in January 2015 was a shock. That he died in his seventieth year, so soon after taking the Phaedra Farewell Tour around the world adds to the sense of loss. Herr Froese left behind a massive body of work spread over five decades. Fans will have their […]
One of the energising aspects of supporting a large – many would say excessive – music collection involves those moments when something crops up on the turntable (or, whisper it, in the CD player) that provides an unexpected thrill. It might be something from years past whose charms have faded from memory, leading to a mild shock […]
Named after one of the most odious characters in literature, Britain’s Uriah Heep have been churning out records and touring relentlessly for over forty years. The Allmusic guide lists more than three dozen albums and informs us that there have been over 30 members of the band formed by the wonderfully monikered Mick Box and […]
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