Blue Plasma Orb were a band led by Billy Bishop (guitar) and Steve Bonino (vocals, bass, keyboards) who released two albums in the mid 2010’s. I must confess to never having heard of them previously, although I have known Steve for some time, and looking at the rest of the musicians the only other person I recognise is drummer Jimmy Keegan (Spock’s Beard etc). This compilation features different versions of BPO, so we also have Matt Magiera on drums, two guitarists in Richard Bredice and Greg Peters, plus Martin Gerschwitz on B3 Organ. Sadly, Billy Bishop has passed away, but Steve chose the tracks for this compilation, of which five of the ten have been recently remixed.
One of my favourite sayings is “so much music, so little time”, while Nick Katona at MRR often states “Music you didn’t know you would love”, and here is a band I have never heard of, yet Nick is right, I love it. There are so many bands out there who are so much better than the commercial mainstream, yet they rarely get publicity or airplay, which is absolutely criminal. The reason I have been writing about music for nearly 40 years is to bring attention to bands who deserve it, and there is no doubt that BPO is one of those. What we have here is a melodic rock/pop band who in another dimension would be selling millions of albums as each of these songs are packed full of hooks with nice clear lead guitar melody lines throughout, combined with Steve’s wonderful enunciation and lyrics. I have been lucky enough to have heard a great deal of Steve’s music, and this is another aspect, moving away from the more progressive or singer/songwriter, with keyboards often playing an important support role, but little more than that.
By the time I was through the album the second time I was already singing along with the choruses, and again I wondered about the justice of music as good as this being heard by just a very few fortunate souls, yet there is an honesty and bite here that would attract a great many. When they drop into boogie on “Whatcha Gonna Do (2025 Remix)” one can imagine ‘Eliminator’ period ZZ Top having fun messing with it and selling millions. This is an album which is all about having a good time and leaving the listener with a smile on their face, and sometimes that is just what we want. Fun from beginning to end.
Rating: 8/10
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Track list:
1. Lightning N’Ver Strikes Twice (2025 Remix) 2:44
2. Rocket (2025 Remix) 3:26
3. Mary Jane 4:06
4. Shane 3:12
5. Fire and Ice (2025 Remix) 3:53
6. Whatcha Gonna Do (2025 Remix) 4:11
7. Fight (2025 Remix) 3:38
8. I Got a Fever 3:36
9. What Do You Want 2:59
10. Heavy Time 4:29
Links:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581858044360
http://www.mrrmusic.com/