GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.56

Goodmorning all! :)
Today  is Saturday, therefore it's time to write here my Top-5 songs.
As many of you know already, in the "Juke Box" series of posts I'm writing my best 5 songs for the week.
This week I've listened to lots of music, mostly because I was preparing the radio show, so it was a tough choice to make.
Anyway, without further delay those are my best 5 songs for this last week:

Distorted Harmony: Breathe (Utopia) - 2012
Peter Gabriel: Here Comes the Flood (Cars) - 1977
Shadow Gallery: Ghost of a Chance (Tyranny) - 1998
Donovan: There is an Ocean (Essence to Essence) - 1973
Black Sabbath: End of Beginning (13) - 2013

And as usual I strongly recommend to anybody who might be in the mood, to write as a comment here or at G+ his/hers personal top-5 songs or albums for this week. It's great to see what music other people like to listen in their free time.
Have a great weekend everybody!
Thanks for reading.  :)
P.S:  In the following videos you can listen two songs from my top-5 list. The first is from the Israelian Prog-Metal band Distorted Harmony, and in the second one is Peter Gabriel's beautiful song "Here come the flood". Enjoy! :)

                    

                                        

GFreedom Team Presents: PROG & ROLL "Reloaded"...

Hello everybody!
After an almost 3 months break, our radio show "Prog & Roll" is back!
Starting from this Sunday, our show will be back online once more.
To be honest we really missed the fun we had altogether every Sunday night.
And I'm very glad to see that many of our listeners are really excited and they are waiting with great anticipation for our show to start again.
 All of you that used to be faithful listeners of our radio show there is no reason to read further more.
You know the day & time, you know the radio station, and you know the music style and the fun.
As for all of you who are not familiar with our radio show, maybe you should read a bit more.
   GFreedom Team is hosting a 2-hour rock music show at an internet radio station every Sunday night at 20.00GMT. The broadcasting is in English & Greek language and we play a wide variety of music styles, but we always try to be Prog-orientated.
F.E: Hard-Rock, Heavy Metal, Folk Rock, Progressive Rock, Neo Prog, Symphonic Prog etc etc...
  We make theme shows from time to time, and on many occasions, and we try to mix the things up a little in order to surprise our audience.
   On the top of all those things, we have a usually very active chatbox, and most of the times we have great fun altogether.
 So, if any of you is in the mood for some good music, and a warm and fun company, it will be our great pleasure to have you with us. You can join us by clicking here: JustIncase Prog Radio this Sunday night at 20.00GMT.
Thank you for reading this, and I hope to "see you" online... :)

BLACK SABBATH: 13 (2013)

   A couple of months ago (and to be more specific on the 10th of June) a new album came out in the market that was the dream of millions of Black Sabbath's fans for over 30 years now. A Black sabbath album with the original line-up! (Well, almost...)
   From the original members of the band only Bill Ward (drums) is absent here, and he is replaced by Brad Wilk (Rage Against the Machine & Audioslave). But the best news here is the return of Ozzy. No matter if we like it or not, Ozzy always had been the main attraction in the band. And now he is back!
   In our days we see many reunions from bands of the 70's (mostly), but not always with a great success. But this time what we have is a reunion with a very good album! And what does a "very good album" mean?
Well, it means that here we have an album with excellent production (of course), very good compositions, which includes all the elements that made Black Sabbath so famous everywhere. The dark and gloomy atmosphere, the lethal guitar riffs, the heavy bass line, the bizarre voice of Ozzy, everything is here once more! It's like it was recorded 30-35 years ago. The only "weakness" for me is the fact that their music don't seem to have the "power" of the early Black Sabbath albums. But that's only normal. Let's don't forget that almost 35 years have passed since their last (and not so good) release. So, under those circumstances I believe that it's a very good record. And despite the fact that many parts of the songs can bring to you the memory of other Black Sabbath songs, it is still a very enjoyable record to listen. It is a real Black Sabbath record folks!
  So, if there are any Black Sabbath fans that are reading this post and haven't purchased the record yet, my advice would be to go to the nearest record store and buy it! You won't regret it...
P.S: There are 2 versions available. The normal one which includes 8 songs, and the deluxe edition with 3 extra songs. I got the normal one, so I have no opinion on the 3 extra songs...
And here is the whole tracklist of the album:
1. End of the Beginning (8:05)
2. God Is Dead? (8:52)
3. Loner (4:59)
4. Zeitgeist (4:37)
5. Age of Reason (7:01)
6. Live Forever (4:46)
7. Damaged Soul (7:51)
8. Dear Father (7:20)
Deluxe Edition bonus tracks:
9. Methademic (5:57)
10. Peace of Mind (3:40)
11. Pariah (5:34)

In the following video you can watch the opening song "End of the Beginning". (I can't help but noticing how much it reminds the song "Black Sabbath" though...)

 

Travelling: NAFPLIO & TOLO (Greece)

Hello folks!
My holidays are over I'm afraid, and now I'm back to the routine of my everyday life.
This year because of money shortage we decided to go somewhere close to Athens. So together with my wife and the kid we visited for a few days the summer village of Tolo that lies almost 10 km away from the historical and very beautiful city of Nafplio in the Peloponnese region.
   Tolo is just a small holiday village with not much to offer, but a very beautiful seaside and a number of taverns cafe's pastry shops etc. We really enjoyed laying on the sandy beaches, swimming and playing in the sea. But further than this we didn't like the options that were given to us from the place. So almost every afternoon we were heading to Nafplio, which is really close.
   Nafplio was the first capital of Greece after the war of independence from the Ottoman Empire, therefore there are many historical monuments everywhere.The city lies on the seashore, and behind there is a small rocky mountain with a huge castle. This castle is one of my favorite places in the area, and I'm visiting it every time I have the opportunity to go to Nafplio.It's a really enormous and very impressive castle with a breathtaking view. You can reach it by climbing the 999 stairs that are curved on the rock, or by taking the road that leads to the western gate. (Well, my choice was obvious I think) :P
 Further than the castle, visitors can enjoy the beauty of the old city, with the many narrow streets filled with flowers, the very beautiful old houses, and many taverns, bars, cafe's etc.
 In my opinion it's a great pleasure for the visitor to make rounds in the streets of this historical city.
On the seafront, you can relax in one of the many cafeterias and enjoy the view of the sea and the second castle of the city, the famous "Bourtzi". The word "Boutzi" if I'm not mistaken is Turkish, and means "castle tower". And that's exactly what it is. A small tower that was used as the sea fort for the city, and later as prison. It must have been one of the most famous places all over Greece. It's impossible to visit Nafplio and not take a few pictures of Bourtzi.
  We stayed there for a few days and then we returned to Athens to continue our normal everyday life.
 It was a short but very nice and relaxing break.
 In the pictures you can see some of the places I mentioned in the post. I hope you'll find them nice.
Thank you for reading! :)

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.55

This is my weekly "Juke Box" post, which includes my Top-5 songs for this week.
As many of you know already, every Saturday I'm writing here the "Juke Box" series of posts with my most favorite songs for the past week.
 Lately I'm in a summer and relaxing mood as you will probably understand from the songs in my top-5.
And in the end of the post I will post a couple of videos from the songs in my top-5.
So, for this week here are my 5 favorite songs:

Mathews Southern Comfort: Colorado Springs Eternal
 (Mathews Southern Comfort) - 1970
Curved Air: Lovechild (Lovechild) - 1973
Bob Marley & The Wailers: Exodus (Exodus) - 1977
The Kinks: Village Green (The Village Green Preservation Society) - 1968
Quicksilver Messenger Service: Just for Love (Just for Love) - 1970

The videos I chose to post for this week are the beautiful "Village Green" by The Kinks, and "Lovechild" by Curved Air. I hope you will like them.
Enjoy everybody! 

                                 

Time for Holidays...

Hello everybody!
We are reaching the middle of August, and its about time for a small break.
So my little blog will go for holidays for a couple of weeks.
Even blogs need some rest, right? :P
So, I will write my weekly "Juke Box" post in a while, and after that I will take a break.
Upon my return I will continue posting things of course, and I hope I will have some interesting news for all of you.
'Till then have some great time, enjoy your holidays, and take care...
Thanks all for reading my blog.
GFreedom :)

TV Series: Mad Dogs (Season 1&2)

Ok, that was a real surprise!
   I never heard of these series before, until a few days ago. A friend of mine suggested these series to me, and I decided to give it a try. The result? I watched the first 2 seasons in 1.5 days!
This sounds crazy maybe, but its not. Because each season consists of 4 episodes of an average length of 45 minutes each. So its rather easy to watch 1 season per day, especially on a weekend. And that's what I did!
   "Mad Dogs" is a BBC production, with a very interesting plot and well build characters. A very pleasant surprise for me was the fact that on 2 of the basic roles are two actors that were the main characters in another great English series called "Life on Mars".
   So, what's the story?
Four friends are invited for a reunion holidays by another very rich friend of theirs, in his villa in Majorca (Spain).
They reach to his very beautiful villa, and everything seems to be perfect. But it's not!
Actually everything is far from being perfect. Because this very rich friend of theirs has many hidden secrets, and a life that they weren't able to imagine. So almost from the start, things are taking a very bad turn.
   Many crazy situations are coming their way, and the result is that they are kind of trapped in the villa, trying to find a way to escape and go back to England. (I'm trying not to reveal anything that has to do with the main plot, because I don't like the idea of spoiling the surprises of  the scenario).
  So, after many troubles they are escaping finally, but not for England. They are reaching at another place trying to find a hideout for a while, but soon they will realize that the only thing they will find there is more troubles. Season 2 ends with their efforts to escape once more, but again not for England.
   Unfortunately I couldn't find season 3 so far, so I have no idea what will happen next.
 The thing I liked a lot was the fact that with all the things that are happening, you can see how the main characters are trying to deal with the troubles they are facing, and  in the same time you can see how their behaviour changes every now & then. What at start seemed like a very nice company of old friends, turns out to be a company of people with many hidden secrets from the past, and with all the problems they are facing, everything comes on the surface.
   Concluding this post, I want to say that if you want a rather small series, with great plot full of surprises, very strong characters, and some dozes of black humour, then you should watch 'Mad Dogs"!
 IMDB's rating is 7.3 for the first two seasons.
 If I had put a rating myself, I would say 8 for season 1, and 7-7.5 for season 2.
 And here is a trailer for you to watch:

                      

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.54

Hello!
Since it's Saturday once more, it's time to post here my top-5 songs for this week.
And as I'm doing lately I'll post a couple of videos as well, so you will be able to check some of the songs
from my top-5 instantly.
Without further delay, here is my top-5 list for this week:

 Clepsydra: God or Beggar (Alone) - 2002
 Amarok: Fieldmour I (Amarok) - 2002
 Pink Floyd: Vera/Bring the boys back home (The Wall) - 1979
 The Incredible String Band: Maya (The Big Huge) - 1968
 Country Joe & the Fish:  Love (Electric Music for the Mind & Body) - 1967

 I wanted to post different songs for you to listen, but I couldn't upload them from YT. You can make a research by yourselves though. The 2 songs I uploaded for this week are "Love" by Country Joe & the Fish, and "Maya" by the Incredible String Band.
Enjoy, and have a great weekend all! :)
 

            

                                        

"The Wall" Live in Athens. Review & Footage.

I watched "The Wall Live" before two years, and a couple of days ago as well.
The first time the event was held at a closed basketball stadium with a capacity of almost 15.000, and two days ago at the Olympic Stadium, with a capacity of almost 70.000 people. The first time all 3 concerts days were sold out weeks before the event. This time there about 35-40.000 people gathered, and that was kind of frustrating.
 The concerts were almost similar in everything. Same scene set-up, same special effects, same video projections on the wall etc. The only real difference was the size of the place. In this last concert because of the stadium's size, the wall was really huge reaching (I think) over 100 meters in length.
   The whole show lasted almost 2.5 hours (including a 20-minute intermission).
 The start of the show is particularly impressive, with many fireworks and an airplane that flies over the stadium and "crashes" on the stage.
First impression: The sound is unbelievable!
There will be sounds of airplanes, helicopters, machine guns etc during the concert, and I really can't describe the feeling you get from this special designed quadrophonic sound.
  At the start of the show, the wall is half-build, (as you can see in the picture above), leaving a big empty area in the middle for the band. During the first part of concert the wall is slowly slowly closing, and when it's the time for the intermission it is totally build. Throughout the show there will be hundreds of projections on the wall, that are showing the band from close,
parts from the movie, political messages, pictures etc...
The whole set up is really impressive I must admit!
  After the intermission the second part of the show starts, and the whole band is hidden behind the wall.
But that's only for a couple of songs, because later on they will appear for a while in front of the wall to perform a few songs, and then go back again. In some songs huge mechanical dolls that represents the familiar figures (from the movie) of the teacher, the mother & the wife will appear in front of the wall, giving another nice note to the concert.
 (The big surprise that Mr.Waters was holding for us was the fact that he decided to make a 5-minute speech to the audience completely in Greek! Yeap! It's rather known that Roger Waters has some special bonds with Greece the last 30-40 years, but even knowing that, it was a real surprise to us)...
   And when the concert reaches its end, there is a huge explosion, followed by the destruction of the wall in front of the audience's eyes. The band reaches out, they play a last small song, Roger Waters presents the members of his band one by one, and they are leaving the stage...
   Concluding this post, I have to say that this show is a really expensive production, that everyone should watch it at least once! (Assuming of course that you are fond of Pink Floyd and their music).
   And then you will need a couple of days to "digest" what you show there, and surely you will think about it again and again in the following days...
Thank you Mr. Waters for a perfect show!
   Here are a couple of videos from this concert that will maybe help you to get a (very small) idea of what was happening in this concert.