Hello!
This week has been very difficult one, therefore I had not so much time to listen to lots of music
as usual. Expecially yesterday and today I had a jammed program. (That's why this post comes later
than usual).
But I found some time to write down my best 5 songs for the week, so here they are:
Thin Lizzy: Emerald (Jailbreak - 1976) Santana: Oneness (Oneness - 1979) Van Der Graaf Generator: Every Bloody Emperor (Present - 2005) Crippled Black Phoenix: The heart of Every Country (Mankind - The Crafty Ape - 2012) Led Zeppelin: Since I've been Loving you (Live) (The Song Remains the Same - 1976)
And as usual, I will post here a couple of videos for you to listen.
On the first video you can listen to 'Every Bloody Emperor' by Van Der Graaf Generator, and on the second one you can see the magnificent 'Since I've been Loving you' from the live DVD The Song Remains the Same by Led Zeppelin.
I hope you'll like them.
Have a great weekend all!
Thanks for reading. :)
I want to inform you that on this Sunday (1/12/2013) on Prog & Roll Radio Show we will have our big contest for 'The Song of the Month'.
For those who don't know what that means, let me write a few things about it:
On each of our shows, we ask from our audience to grade the songs we play on a scale from 1-10. At the end of each show we make the calculations, and we see the average points of each song. The best 5 songs in rating are entering the Top-5 list, but that's not all. The songs which achieved an average of 8.5 or higher, are going on a separate list, and on the first show of each month we play them again, and the audience is grading them once more, but this time in a more serious manner. And at the end of this special show, the song with the highest rating is 'The song of the month'.
This contest will be the last we will ever do, because starting from January we are planning to make some changes in our show.
In a nutshell, don't miss this Sunday's Prog & Roll, because we have some excellent songs in our playlist, and I believe you will enjoy it! :)
I hope to 'see you' online...
Thanks for reading :)
Today I will write about the very good and rather unknown English Neo-Prog band Arena. They were formed in 1995 by the keyboardist Clive Nolan (ex-member of Pendragon and Shadowland), and the drummer Mick Pointer (ex-Marillion), who are the only steady members from 1995 'till today. The basic 'problem' of the band was the non steady line up. Many members came and gone through the years, and that affected their musical personality. Especially the frequent changes of their singers was a major problem for their sound. (They have changed 4 lead singers so far). Their best period was most probably between 1996 - 2000 on which they released 3 of their best albums (Pride - 1996, The Visitor - 1998, Immortal - 2000). Their full discography consists of 7 studio and 4 live albums.
Arena are one of the bands which are deeply influenced by Marillion's sound, and their music style varies from Symphonic-Prog to Hard Rock. They also tried to write their own epic pieces, and I have to admit they were sucesfull in their efforts. (Fine examples are the songs Solomon and Sirens).
Concluding this post, I must say that I strongly recommend Arena to those who are fond of melodic Progressive Rock, and of course to all Marillion fans!
I will post here a couple of songs as well, for you to listen.
On the first video you can see a live version of the beautiful 'Butterfly Man' and on the second one you can see 'Sirens' also from a live version.
I hope you will like them.
Thank you for reading...
Good morning everybody! Last night's Prog & Roll was a nice one in general I think.
We had enough crowd listening and many of them participating as well. Once more we played our "game" by asking our audience to grade the songs, and many participated.
We had also a music contest, on which we played a cover version of a song, and we were asking who was the band who recorded the original version, and the name of the song.
The winner of the contest has the right to name a band, and we have to start our next show with this band. So, our next show will start with Led Zeppelin... (this was the winner's choice).
And now I will write down last night's top-5 songs according to our audience's grades:
1. LOREENA Mc KENNITT: La Serenissima 2. RENAISSANCE: Ocean Gypsy 3. BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Mockinbbird 4. GENESIS: The Return of the Giant Hogweed 5. FAIRPORT CONVENTION: The Time is Near
And here you can see the whole playlist from last night:
VELVET
UNDERGROUND: I’m Waiting for the man / SPIRIT:
I Got a Line on You /
SANTANA: Oye
Como Va / MOTHER SUPERIOR: Ticklish all sorts / IT’S A BEAUTIFUL DAY: Bombay Calling / BREATHING SPACE: Below the Radar / DREAM THEATER: Another Day / IQ: Frequency
/ THE
3rd AND THE MORTAL: Shaman / SAVIOUR
MACHINE: Legion / BLACKMORE’S NIGHT: Street of Dreams (Music Contest) / STRAWBS: Stormy Down / FAIRPORT
CONVENTION: The Time is Near / MARILLION:
Market Square Heroes /
ARENA:
Running from Damascus / GENESIS: The Return of the Giant Hogweed / STEVEN WILSON: Postcard / PENDRAGON: King of the
Castle / LOREENA Mc KENNITT: La Serenissima / RENAISSANCE:
Ocean Gypsy / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Mockingbird.
As for next Sunday's Prog & Roll, we'll have our big contest for the 'Song of the Month', which most probably will be the last contest of that kind we will do. We have 11 great songs in our playlist, and I'm guessing there's gonna be a tough contest!
I want to thank you all who joined our show, and I hope you had some nice time.
And as usual, I'l post here last night's winning song.
Heya all! :) Another Saturday came, so it's time to post here my Top-5 songs for this last week...
I had a nice week (musically) and I did listen to many wonderful songs and albums, so the decision was not easy at all!
After I put some thought on it, I chose the following 5 songs as my best:
Genesis: The Return of the Giant Hogweed (Nursery Cryme - 1971) Cockney Rebel: Death Trip (The Human Menagerie - 1973) Fairport Convention: The Time is Near (Babbacombe Lee - 1971) Galahad: Richelieu's Prayer (Beyond the Realms of Euphoria - 2012) Arena: Sirens (Pride - 1996)
Some of those songs are included in tomorrow's Prog & Roll radio show, but I'm not gonna reveal which ones... ;)
And as usual, I will conclude this post by adding 2 videos for you to listen.
First one is the magnificent 'Death Trip' by Cockney Rebel, and the second one is 'Richelieu'sPrayer' by Galahad. I hope you will like them. Have a great Weekend everybody, and thanks for reading... :)
FAIRPORT CONVENTION: Babbacomble Lee (The first Folk-Rock Opera)
Fairport Convention were formed in 1967, and are widely regarded as a very important and influential band in the English Folk-Rock scene. During the first years they had very important
musicians in their ranks such as Simon Nicol (Guitar, vovals), Dave Pegg (Bass, Mandolin, Backing Vocals), Judy Dyble (Piano, autoharp, Vocals), and Sandy Denny (Piano Vocals), just to name a few.
In their early years they were influenced from the American Folk-Rock scene and that's why many people were confused thinking they were from the States. Further than this, because of their name and especially the use of two lead singers (male & female) the British audience gave them the nickname the "British Jefferson Aiplane". Between 1967 and 1970 many members came and gone, but after the departure of Sandy Denny in
1970, Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg took over, and the band changed its musical direction. In 1971 Fairport Convention released their most ambitious work so far, which was the first Folk-Rock opera ever recorded, named 'Babbacomble Lee', and it was a concept album. The album follows John 'Babbacombe' Lee's life story, who was a Victorian-Era muderer, he got arrested, and condemned to death by hanging. But finally he was set free, when for 3 concecutive times the gallow didn't work properly!
The songs describe his boyhood poverty, his time in the Royal Navy,
and his being invalided out. The album then describes how Lee went to
work in the service of a Miss Keyes. While Lee was in her
service, she
was murdered, and he was accused, tried and convicted of the crime, and
sentenced to death. However, when authorities attempted to hang him, the gallows failed three times, resulting in his release. These events are all told in song, and all but one of those songs are originals.
Although is not my favorite album by Fairport Convention, I have to admit that is a really serious and ambitious work, very important for the Folk-Rock scene of England. As for all those who are familiar with the female vocals in Fairport Convention's album, may find weird the fact that there are no female vocals at all.
In the following video you can listen to one of my favorites from this album, 'The Time is Near'.
Thank you for reading! :)
The White Queen is a BBC production Tv Series, consisting of 10 episodes, and each episode is almost an hour long.
The background, the story & the plot are set in England during the 'War of the Roses', where there
were two main factions fighting for the throne of England. The House of York, and the House of Lancaster. But it's not exactly a historical series, because the story is based on a series of Historical novels written by Philippa Gregory, named 'The cousin's war'. The story starts in 1464, and the war between the two Houses is already in its ninth year. In the first episodes, we see the marriage of King Edward with Elisabeth, and next we see the events which followed because of this marriage.
As you can probably understand the intrigues, the backstabbings, the murders etc, are always present in each episode.
In general, I found 'The White Queen' very interesting and pleasant to watch, although I disagree at some points. For example it shows Queen Elisabeth dealing a lot with witchcraft, while there are no historical evidents that proves such thing.
Another thing that disturbed me was the end, which leaves you with a bitter-sweet taste, because it seems as it is unfinished. The first idea that came to my mind was that there will be another season next year which will continue the story. But then I read that BBC stated there is no plan for a second season, so the story ends there.
Anyway, I strongly recommend 'The White Queen' to those who are interested in historical movies or series, and especially to those who like reading or watching about the English history of the time.
If I had to rate the series, my rating would be 7.5 - 8.00
IMDB has a rating of 7.6, and TV.com of 8.6
I hope you'll find this post interesting & helpful.
Thanks for reading... :)
In thee following video you can watch the trailer.
Good morning everybody! Last night I had one more Prog & Roll radio show as usual. Once more, my co-host couldn't be there, so I did everything on my own. (The playlist, the English & Greek broadcasting etc).
Many people logged in last night, and they seemed to enjoy the show.
As you know already, we are playing a little "game" on which I ask from the audience to grade the songs at the time of the show. So, according to their grades, those are the 5 best songs from last night:
1. LED ZEPPELIN: Stairway to Heaven (Live) 2. WISHBONE ASH: Warrior 3. CHRIS DE BURGH: Spaceman came traveling 4. JETHRO TULL: Slow Marching band 5. J.HAYWARD - J.LODGE: This morning
And here you can see the whole playlist:
EYE IN THE
SKY: City of Sun / WE OWN THE SKY: Alterecho / HIDRIA SPACEFOLK: Kaikados / KINGSTON
WALL: With my mind /
GHOST: Con
clavi Con Dio / KANSAS: The Wall / WISHBONE ASH:
Warrior / ASHBURY: The Warning / BLUE OYSTER CULT: Joan Crawford / JOSH & Co
LIMITED: Land of the God / CAMEL: City Life / JETHRO
TULL: Slow Marching Band / ELOY:
Mysterious Monolith /
MIKE
OLDFIELD: 5 miles out / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: How do
you feel now? / DAVID GILMOUR: Love on the Air / J.HAYWARD
– J.LODGE: This morning / CHRIS DE BURGH: Spaceman came Traveling / LED ZEPPELIN: Stairway to Heaven (Live).
Thank you all for logging in last night, I really hope you enjoyed the show.
In the following video you can see the No.1 song, which is the live version of Stairway to Heaven, from the album The Song Remains the Same...
Good morning all! This last week was a very busy one, so I didn't have much time to deal with my blog unfortunately...
But today it's Saturday, and I couldn't miss the 'Juke Box' post.
So, in the following list you can see my best 5 songs for this week:
Kansas: On the Other Side (Monolith - 1979) Ghost: Con Clavi Con Dio (Opus Eponymous - 2010) Haggard: Per Spera ad Astra (Per Spera ad Astra - 2004) Wishbone Ash: Warrior (Argus - 1972) Dulcimer: Sonnet to the Fall (And I Turned as I had Turned as a Boy - 1970)
And as usual, I'll add at the end of the post the videos from 2 songs in my top-5 list, for you to listen if you want.
I hope you will like them... Have a great weekend!
This is a not so famous album for many reasons, but I really like it and I thought of sharing it with you.
The Beau Brummels were an American Rock band that emerged from the San Fransisco scene in 1964. They had a minor hit single in 1964 with the song 'Laugh Laugh', and another one the following year with their album 'Introducing the Beau Brummels' and the Top-10 hit single 'Just a Sound'.
In early 1966, their record company sold their rights to Warner Bros, which demanded a quick success from them. So they pushed the band to record an album which included only cover versions. The album was released on July 1966 and it was a failure. It includes 12 tracks, all of them cover versions from artists like The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan etc.
Most of the cover versions are very interesting to say the least, and in some occasions I like them equally with the originals.
I don't really have more things to write about this record, because there is no reason actually.
I'm just putting the song list for you to take a look, and I will add a couple of videos at the end, so you can listen to some songs by yourselves.
1. You've got to Hide your love Away 2. Mr. Tambourine Man 3. Louie Louie 4. Homeward Bound 5. These Boots are made for Walking 6. Yesterday 7. Bang Bang 8. Hang on Sloopy 9. Play with Fire 10. Woman 11. Mrs Brown you've got a lovely Daughter 12. Monday Monday
Hello!
