PROG & ROLL Radio Show on 27/4/2014. The Full Playlist...

Hello all!
Last night one more Prog & Roll radio show took place, and here I will write a small review about it, and the full playlist as well.
This time GFreedom Team's co-host wasn't able to participate due to a travel so I prepared and run the show by myself.
The main idea of last night's show was to change the music every half hour, not according to music styles but according to decades. So, on the first half-hour the playlist included songs from the years 2000-2009, on the second half hour from the years 1990 - 1999, and so on... 
I tried to include mostly famous bands and artists, so it would be a pleasant show to listen and to enjoy.
As for the playlist, you can see it here:
Part 1 (2000 - 2009): MUSE: Asassin / GALAHAD: Termination / PORCUPINE TREE: Blackest Eyes / RIVERSIDE: Loose Heart / ADVENTURE: A Crack in the Ice (Prt.2).
Part 2 (1990 - 1999):   ARENA: Medusa / PSYCHOTIC WALTZ: Morbid / BLIND GUARDIAN: Nightfall / AYREON: Time Beyond Time / ANATHEMA: Lost Control.
Part 3 (1980 - 1989):  MARILLION: Emerald Lies / RUSH: Jacob’s Ladder / SAVATAGE: Strange Wings / FATES WARNING: Chasing Time / CAMEL: Fingertips.

Part 4 (1970 - 1979): ELOY: De Labore Solis / JETHRO TULL: Cross Eyed Mary / VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Pilgrims / GENESIS: Lilywhite Lilith / PINK FLOYD: Comfortably Numb.

Thank you all for joining the show last night, and I hope you had some nice time. :)

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.89

Hello all!
After almost 2 weeks my JukeBox is back, with my top-5 songs for the week.
So, without fyrther delay, here's my weekly Top-5 list:

RAINBOW: Gates of Babylon (Long Live Rn'R - 1978)
ANATHEMA: Lost Control (Alternative 4 - 1998)
ARENA: Solomon (Songs from the Lion's Cage - 1995)
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR: Every Bloody Emperor (Present - 2005)
BLUE OYSTER CULT: Nosferatu (Spectres - 1977)

And as usual, i'll conclude this post with two videos from my list.
Enjoy the music everybody, and have a nice weekend! :)

Spotlights on: DEMON (A Hard Rock or a Prog Rock band?)

Demon is an English band, formed in 1979 by the vocalist Dave Hill and the guitarist Mal Spooner. They are one of those bands which although they never became widely known, their story and musical career is very interesting.
Despite the fact that their music was a purely God-sent Hard Rock, in their early years they were considered as one of the bands of New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
  Their first album 'Night of the Demon' was released in 1981, and it was an interesting debut. But the second one was a really excellent sample of how good Hard Rock sounds like. 'The Unexpected Guest' (1982) included some of the band's finest moments, and it reached to #47 in the UK album's charts. And at the time when everything seemed to go fine, the band decided to change their style making an effort to mix Hard Rock with Progressive Rock in  their 3rd album 'The Plague' (1983). This was a weird and a rather experimental album which didn't sell, and had as a result the end of their contract with the record company. 

  They returned to their first and small local record company, and they released first the EP 'Wonderland', and one year later their first truly Progressive Rock album named 'British Standard Approved' (1985).
The recordings of this album finished late in 1984, but a tragedy struck the band less than a week after the final sessions when Mal Spooner died after a short illness, and didn't see the release of the album, which was delayed until the April of 1985.
If 'The Plague' was Demon dipping a toe into the waters of Progressive Rock, 'British Standard Approved' was the band swallow diving into the same pool from a ten-meter-board. The whole album comes over sounding more than a tad like Eloy jamming with Pink Floyd.  
But the changes they tried were not only musical, but  lyrical as well. In their first two albums their lyrics were dealing with mysticism, occult etc, but that stopped with the release of 'The Plague'. Both 'The Plague' and 'Btittish Standard Approved' are concept albums, and Dave Hill takes a long hard look at UK's history and politics to find his inspiration. He compares the decline and fall of the British Empire with the sinking of the Titanic. 
 After the death of Mal Spooney the band recruited some new members and continue releasing a few more albums until 1992 when they officially broke up.
   Dave Hill reunited the band with new members in 2001, and released a new album called 'Spaced Out Monkey'. The band has since gone onto release a further two albums, 'Better the Devil You Know' (2005) and their latest release 'Unbroken (2012)^. Both of the bands post reunion releases have received positive reviews from the press leading the band to go on and play in many festivals across Europe.
  In a nutshell, if any of you is interested to make a dig into Demon's music, I would recommend to start with 'The Unexpected Guest' and 'Brittish Standard Approved'. That way you will be able to discover the two musical "faces" of Demon.
I hope you found that post interesting and informative.
Thanks for reading...
 

GFreedom's new channel on YouTube

Hello all!
After a short period on which I was away, I have returned and ready to go on with everything I'm dealing with lately.
My latest interest on the internet is my new channel on YouTube. I decided to give it a try to see if I can make something worthy. So, a few days ago I opened my music channel on which I will be uploading songs in an almost daily basis.
 The main idea is to upload not so famous bands and artists, so the people who will be visiting will be able to listen and learn some things they don't know. In the other hand, of course I will be uploading famous groups and bands, but in not so famous songs for the same reason. I mean what's the point of uploading only famous songs? You can find them anywhere, and they are already known to almost everybody, right?
For the moment I have uploaded only 6 songs, but in the following days/weeks I'm planning to upload many many more, in order to have a nice collection for the visitors to watch. I'm starting from the letter 'A', and I will continue until someday I'll reach the letter 'Z'. (But I will need lots of timeand efforts for that).
 If any of you is interested to find my channel, I think you can find it under the name George 'GFreedom' Eleftheriou. If you like what you see in there please subscribe in order to be able to follow up all the uploads I will be doing.
Thank you in advance :)

Goodies from GFreedom's Music Collection # 13

           KALEIDOSCOPE: A Beacon From Mars (1968)
Kaleidoscope was a Psychedelic-Rock band formed in Los Angeles in the mid '60's, by 5 musicians with different music backgrounds, hence the unique sound and style of the band. The band's sound
was based mostly on string instruments like Guitar, Banjo, Mandolin, Violin, Bouzouki, Viola, Saz etc...
 Their style can be characterized as Psychedelic Rock, which includes many influences from Folk, Country, and Middle-Eastern music. The Middle East influences are due to Solomon Feldthouse, who had been raised in Turkey and knew many Anatolian instruments and rhythms. And that in my opinion is what makes Kaleidoscope so unique. If I can use that term, I would dare say that Kaleidoscope was one of the first 'Ethnic' bands in history.
Another interesting fact is that Kaleidoscope first tried the -later famous- guitar playing style, by using a violin's bow. (It became famous from Led Zeppelin's guitarist Jimmy Page, whom in 1967 stated that Kaleidoscope was his all-time most favorite band!)
  The band released 4 albums between 1967 - 1970, and then split up. (They released a couple of more albums later on though, when they tried some unsuccessful reunions).
   'A Beacon From Mars' was the band's second album, and it was released in February of 1968 by Epic Records. At the time of its release, it received some positive reviews, but commercially was

unsuccessful. (As were all 4 albums of Kaleidoscope). In the '90's AllMusic online music guide wrote a retrospective review about this album characterizing it as a 'flawless brilliance'. In my opinion 'A Beacon From Mars' has got such a unique style and sound, that you either hate it or love it. (I'm among the ones who love it).
The album includes 8 tracks and has a running time of almost 43 minutes. As for the songs, there are two traditional ones, (like the wonderful 'Greenwood Sidee'), and 6 more with total different styles between each other. I believe that for some reason the first side (in the vinyl version) is excellent, but the second side not so much (At least in comparison with the first one). All 4 songs of A-Side are wonderful, with the last one being the breathtaking 12-minute-long 'Taxim', which as you probably understand from the title is a total Middle-Eastern rhythm.
 Concluding this, I have to say that 'A Beacon From Mars' is a 'must have' for all those who are interested finding a band with a unique and personal sound, different from the rest of the bands of the same era. (And to the fans of Psychedelia of course).
Speaking for myself, I bought the vinyl record over two decades ago, and never regretted it!
I will add a couple of videos here for you to listen and get a small idea. First song is 'I Found out', and then comes 'Taxim'.
I hope you enjoyed the post and the music as well.
Thank you for reading :)

Prog & Roll "70's Special" Radio Show on 13/4/2014. The Full Playlist...

  Last night we had one more Prog & Roll radio show, and this time we prepared a special playlist including songs only from the '70's. Further than that, because we are in the week before Easter, we thought of playing a few songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber's Rock Opera 'Jesus Christ Superstar' as well. So, at the start of each half-hour part we played 1 song from this famous Rock opera.
  As for the show itself, I must say I'm pleased. Many people joined, and as far as it seemed they really liked the music and the show in general.
  Here you can see the whole playlist from last night:

AN.L.WEBBER: Heaven in Their Minds / MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND: Get Your Rocks Off / KANSAS: Point of Know Return / BEGGAR’S OPERA: Open Letter / JANE: Mother You Don’t Know / AN.L.WEBBER: Simon Zealotes - Poor Jerusalem / JETHRO TULL: Nothing to Say / DEEP PURPLE: You Keep on Moving / THIN LIZZY: Romeo & the Lonely Girl / URIAH HEEP: Return to Fantasy / AN.L.WEBBER: Gesthemane / PHANTOM: Merlin / QUEEN: The Millionaire Waltz / THE MOODY BLUES: The Story in Your Eyes / MACHIAVEL: Moments / YES: Wonderous Stories / AN.L.WEBBER: Pilate & Christ / PAVLOV’S DOG: Of Once and Future Kings / RUSH: The Twillight Zone / GENESIS: Time Table / SPRING: The Prisoner / EMERSON LAKE & PALMER: From the Beginning / BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST: Ursula / PROCOL HARUM: Nothing That I Didn’t Know. 

  I want to thank all of you who logged in and listen and/or participated in last night's Prog & Roll. I hope you enjoyed the show. We surely did! :)

GFreedom's Juke Box Nο.88

Hello all!
This week was including many things to do, and lots of travels, therefore I used my MP3 player a lot.
I put it to 'shuffle', and listened many of different music styles. That is rather obvious if you look at my Top-5 list actually... :P
So, my best 5 songs for this week are the following:
ESPERS: Rosemary Lane (The Weed Tree - 2005)
URIAH HEEP: Return to Fantasy (Return to Fantasy - 1975)
JOAN BAEZ: Prison Trilogy (Come from the Shadows - 1972)
INTERPOL: Pioneer to the Falls (Our Love to Admire - 2007)
ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER: Gesthemane (O.S.T 'Jesus Christ Superstar' - 1973)
And as usual I'll conclude this post by adding a couple of videos from songs in my Top-5 list, so you can listen to them instantly. For this week I chose the songs: 'Prison Trilogy' by Joan Baez, and 'Gesthemane' from the Soundtrack of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. The video is actually from the movie as well.
Enjoy the music folks!
Thank you for reading, and have a nice weekend! :)

 

PROG & ROLL Radio Show presents: "The '70's Special Show"

Hello everybody!
I'm writing this post in order to inform you about the forthcoming PROG & ROLL Radio show, and the special playlist we are preparing...
On this Sunday 13/4, and at 21.00 CET if you want you can join our radio show. We are preparing a special playlist for you which will be including only songs from the '70's. Many really famous and some not so famous bands are already in our playlist for you.
We believe we have a very interesting playlist, so if you are in the mood join our us!
The broadcast is in English and Greek language, so it will be easy to almost everybody to understand what we are talking about.
We hope to see you online on Sunday night.
Thank you in advance, and take care! :)

PROG & ROLL Radio Show on 6/4/2014. The Full Playlist...

Hello all!
On last night's Prog & Roll we had a special playlist prepared, only with cover versions.
We had some very famous and some not so famous songs, all of them in interesting cover versions.
There were many people listening, and most of them stayed 'till the end, which is something that shows they enjoyed the music and the show in general.
As for the playlist, you can see it here (Inside the parenthesis is the artist or the band who recorded the original version):

DREAM THEATER: In the Flesh? (Pink Floyd) / AFTER FOREVER: Who wants to live forever (Queen) / CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX: Of a Lifetime (Journey) / FISH: Five Years (David Bowie)  / STEVE HACKETT: Can Utility & the Coastliners (Genesis) / BLONDE ON BLONDE: Eleanor Rigby (The Beatles) / MANFRED MANN’S EARTH BAND: It’s all Over now Baby Blue (Bob Dylan) / RUSH: The Seeker (The Who) / TRANSATLANTIC: The return of the Giant Hogweed (Genesis) / PAVLOV’S DOG: Today (Jefferson Airplane) / ANNIE HASLAM: Moonlight Shadow (Mike Oldfield) / TRIDDANA: All Souls Night (Loreena Mc Kennitt) / NIGHTWISH: Over the Hills & Far Away (Gary Moore) / RAINBOW: Black sheep of the Family (Quartermass) / BLACKMORE’S NIGHT: MondTanz/Child in Time (Deep Purple) / ROBERT PLANT: Darkness Darkness (The Youngbloods) / MERCURY REV: Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (The Beatles) / ROXY MUSIC: Jealous Guy (John Lennon) / JOE COCKER: A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum) / DAVID BOWIE: Port of Amsterdam (Jaques Brell) / THE ENID: Mockingbird (Barclay James Harvest).
I want to thank all of you who joined our show last night, and I hope you had some nice time... :)