Four on the Floor – Uriah Heep.

I have to admit to liking most variations of Uriah Heep, the only album I can honestly say I don’t like is Conquest (the first album ever recorded digitally fact fans) I like John Sloman as a vocalist, I simply didn’t like that album, so here we go my four Favourite Heep albums.

Uriah Heep – Demons and Wizards 1972.     8/10.

I heard this and the album Return to Fantasy on the same day ( on the day of release for the latter, and Demons and Wizards pip it at the post, I was never a huge fan of David Byron’s voice, it was OK on record but the live stuff I heard it was slightly off, he was a nice enough as I met him when he played at the Mayfair and Robin George was his guitarist, but I loved a couple of tracks on this album, The Wizard is still my fave Byron track/vocal and the whole album is pretty consistent musically and production wise, remember this was in the days when they used to release an album every six months.

Uriah Heep – Innocent Victim 1977.    8/10.

I like all of the albums (all three of them) that John Lawton sang on, even if he did look a little (ahem) dodgy this is the pick of the three, a little more “poppy” if you can believe it especially when it has a track like Free N Easy on it and my fave track with Lawton vocals on “Choices”, I don’t think the audience took him either, great voice but quite wrong image wise, I think that was because of the fact that they were never off the road so the light weight material was easy to produce, I still love Innocent Victim, I know some people who didn’t care for it, however it’s my choice so there you go!

Uriah Heep – Abominog 1982.     9.5/10.

My favourite vocalist and my favourite Heep album, a layoff while they considered their options, no Ken Hensley to bully them into recording his songs, mainly outside writers, and it rocked like a train with no brakes barrelling down hill to destruction, there was enough pace and shade, the only reason it loses from top marks is the production (which I do like) by Ashley Howe was a little muted in parts, I cant think of a single bad track, Pete Goalby sings like an angel again we got three albums before another change of vocalist, but in my eyes this is the perfect album!

Uriah Heep – Wake the Sleeper 2008.   9/10.

I have to admit that the band got off to a rocky start with Bernie Shaw singing, again I like him as a singer I simply didn’t care for the first couple of albums, dodgy production, dodgy record labels, something Mick Box realised, then he took the band by the scruff of the neck and give them a bloody good shake I remember blasting this album to death for nearly a month in my old job, the office was blasted morning noon and early evening I loved it to death and if I’m honest they haven’t done a bad album since, but this is the pick  of the crop for me.

So, there you go I had fun listening to the discography, I always knew which four albums I was going to choose, but you have to play the game don’t you, so until the next time stay safe , stay alive and well……..Toodles!

Right Here Right Now 1.

Ok so, I’m intending to do a series of small blogs, (hopefully no more than 500 words) a kind of thoughts of the day, the intention is to try and clear some of the deadwood that’s blocking the highways of my brain, yes the name game is in play but only for the first one and they will be named the same but numbered after this one!

My thoughts of today have primarily been about work and sleep, work the amount that is coming down the road in my direction, and sleep is about how very little I seem to be getting no matter how many cunning attempts I do to try and resolve the issue.

Work is well strange there has been a round of redundancies and I’m not one of them, let’s see what happens in the coming months, I’m relieved at the moment but lets see what the reality is six months down the line, we struggle with three of us in the team, so going down to two is going to be……Difficult!

As for my sleeping habits I’m averaging about 3 to 4 hours a night but with the potential to have small crashes throughout the day, I was at a symposium earlier in the week and yes you guessed it I fell asleep, if only for a couple of moments, but I still fell asleep, a worse one was I was on the bus home and one stop from the main bus station, we stopped at the lights and I was awake, I was asleep by the time we pulled away, yup you guessed it I was fast asleep just long enough to be half way down front street in Gimpsville, thankfully I managed to escape but was in a lot of pain by the time I climbed the hill to my humble abode, I’m starting to get tetchy (me with my reputation who knew) about the lack of sleep, watch this space, I have a feeling that this could get mentioned just a little bit more in the weeks ahead!

As for my weight that I have to lose so I can get my knee replacement, let’s just say’ I’m not eating a lot and not losing a lot, it’s at this point I have to be aware of the potential of me to start grazing through being depressed about the situation, I’m an adult I know that it won’t help but I find it hard to stop once the ball starts rolling! Worse is the fact if I don’t graze “Bob” will return with a pack of hounds to gnaw at my sanity, so there you have it more to come in the coming weeks, short and sweet with a couple of large ones in between, and look at this I brought it in, in under 500 words how good is that, see you all later but until then …... Toodles!

Four on the Floor – Anthony Gomes, Samantha Fish, Candice Night, Dio.

Ok so you know the drill, three relatively new releases and a classic, strap yourselves in it’s been a while! This blog is a lot later than intended simply as I have spent a lot longer reviewing/playing  these releases and consequently the scores have changed a number of times with the exception of one of them, here goes.

Anthony Gomes – Praise the Loud.   9/10.

This is the one that the score never changed, from the get go I liked it a lot, I’m late to the game and even missed him when he played over here earlier in the year, I won’t make that mistake again, but lets get to the album, it’s by a man who can sing and play the guitar, it’s nothing new, but I like it, I like the songs, I like the playing, I love the production, its an old fashioned album, and that’s probably why I like it so much, 12 songs clocking in at 42 minutes, it gets in it gets out and he even wipes his feet as he leaves, if you were to look in the dictionary under Power trio, there would be a picture of Anthony and his band! Is it going to change the world? No, it isn’t but it will bring a smile to your face because this is what music should be about……FUN! In the coming weeks I shall be having his back catalogue on in my headphones in heavy rotation, so far this year this is the top of the pile, I mean I know its only May but let’s see where we are at, at the end of the year!

Samantha Fish - Paper Doll.   4/10.

The disappointment of the year so far! I found about this young lady with her last album Faster, a cracking album again old school blues/rock, I liked it and I followed her career with a lot of interest watching live stuff on YouTube whenever something popped up. I saw the adverts for this album and waited with baited breath, and then it felt like my balloon had not been popped but deflated, I have played this album most out of the four being reviewed, and I simply don’t get it, I simply don’t like it, the score that I have given it is a damn lot better than I first did, primarily because I have seen a couple of numbers pop up online, and they work well live, the thing that I simply cant get my head around is the production, this is why I have gone back to it so much simply to see if I have missed something, I still like the artist, but this is 9 songs and 36 minutes I doubt I will go back to, I have played it around about twenty times since its release, its just not for me, hey what do I know I’m only reviewing it,  I will definitely be playing her back catalogue more than this unfortunately, a great artist but this to me is a misstep.

Candice Night – Sea Glass.   7/10.

Another album I have played quite a bit to get my head around, not that I was expecting a Blackmore’s Night type of album, well its kind of is, but not! Let me explain, I love her voice it’s like honey, and after seeing live her a number of times live I think she is quite a nice live performer as well, at ease on stage  friendly with the audience and takes no crap off Mr B, yes it’s not what I would call a rock album, but it could have been, the score for this album has gone up by one, down by one, in the end I decided to go with the middle ground, what’s missing from this album is a guitarist, go figure, I get why Mr B isn’t doodling away, it’s to let Candice have her own identity, not everybody is going to like the album, but its well-played, produced and sang with sincerity, she believes in the album, however the song Last Goodbye is a classic and it helps save the album from being one dimensional, there’s not a lot of variety style wise and there’s nothing wrong with that, and the instrumental Dark Carnival is screaming out for some bloody riffage, hopefully they will add some words and guitar and add it to the next Blackmores Night album, if it was a school report it would say could try harder, I know there’s tons of people who like her voice as she has guested on quite a few albums, go on get some guitar on the next one! Will I follow her career after Mr B finally? yes I will but it has to be something a little more special than this, its close but not quite there!

Dio – Holy Diver Remastered.   8.5/10.

I’m suspecting I might get some grief for this one, but before you jump in and bite my head off let’s see what my reasoning is. I am a fan of the album always have been however I hated the original production/mix of it I always thought it sounded “muddy” for the want of a better description, I also didn’t like the last song “Shame on the Night” it had filler stamped all over it, a couple of the other songs were not helped with the production, but hey that was just my opinion, so I was travelling to work looking for something to calm me down before heading into the new work space we were being moved to, and what was sat there? Well, it had been a while and so I decided to play it just a little bit loud (in headphones on the bus) it needed to be loud as I have explained as the sound was “Muddy” well this certainly wasn’t it was off like a whippet strapped to a motorbike, ye gods what has happened here, after a bit of research (Apple isn’t the best at putting the info on its pages) I discovered this was the 2012 edition remastered by Andy Pearce, and its like a brand new album, I was surprised but understood why Martin Birch wasn’t the man for the album (he was producing a young punk band called Iron Maiden at the time of recording) all of the songs have benefitted from the new spit and polish, well nearly all I still think “Shame on the Night” should have been relegated to a B Side like Evil Eyes was at the time, but what do I know a couple of million people bought the album (guilty as charged), I’m glad I came back to it, its still not my favourite album by Dio, I feel more grief coming for that but you know what, opinions are like arseholes, we all have one!

Enjoy the first of more musical and historical ones on the horizon, honest I get distracted easily …ooh look a butterfly, until the next time……. Toodles!