The latest album from Amber Weekes finds her paying tribute to Nancy Wilson, the singer discovered by Cannonball Adderley (with whom she made a classic album), who recorded a string of jazz-inspired albums for Capitol in the 1960s, had great success in the pop world,...

In 1979 I was 16, and there is no doubt that NWOBHM was a major part of my daily listening. It was exciting and vibrant, and with bands like Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, Samson, Angel Witch, Raven, Venom, Tygers of Pan Tang, Bitches Sin, Mythra, Witchfynde, and so...

Vain are probably one of those Eighties glam metal bands which many have heard of, but few have actually heard. Originally working as a producer, singer Davy Vain produced the monster debut by Death Angel, ‘The Ultra-Violence’ (still a great album to this day) before...

Apparently, the band announced that their 2022 studio album ‘Reverse Engineering’ would be their last and the 2023 tour in support of the album would be their final tour. They ended the tour with five consecutive sold out shows at London’s 100 Club, from which this...

The full title of this album is ‘British Disaster! The Battle of ’89 Live At The Astoria’, from which one might guess this is a live recording from 35 years ago when the band were promoting their third album, ‘Fabulous Disaster’. They may have lost Kirk Hammett to...

Over the years there is no doubt that Sonata Arctica have released some really powerful melodic metal albums, but it is also true they have released some which have not really been up to standard, and their last album, 2019’s ‘Talviyö’ is one of those. Given they have...

On his twelfth album as band leader, Shawn Maxwell (alto & soprano saxophones, flute) takes us back to his hometown, Joliet, Illinois. It is not a very bright and lively release, but perhaps that is because Joliet is not the brightest and most inspiring of places,...

I am not going to go over Sebastian Bach’s history, as he is quite a controversial figure in some ways, but no matter what anyone thinks about him there is no doubt he is one of the best singers around. ‘Skid Row’ is one of the finest rock debuts ever, and I was lucky...

One morning I was working through my emails and came across one from Play MPE informing me of an album by Sarah Prodan, someone I had not previously come across. I was just about to file it when the photo caught my attention, long enough for me to then read the...

Riot were a band who appeared in many ways to get more praise in the UK than they did in their home of New York, with both ‘Rock City’ and ‘Narita’ gaining lots of praise during the NWOBHM era although their sound was quite different. It was always Mark Reale’s band,...

Even before playing this album I was a little bit in love with it, as not only does it feature seven compositions by the mighty Thelonious Monk, but the album cover screams Fifties/Sixties jazz or blues and looks mighty fine. During COVID lockdown harmonica player...

Given the title, one might expect Schwartz to be leading a saxophone quartet, and in some ways, one is correct but also very wrong. Schwartz is an organist, as well as a composer and arranger, so here we have an album with his name on the front cover, but he does not...