This month I talk to the man behind the Hammond organ in iconic 60’s band Procol Harum, about Croydon’s music scene, making it big and fuzz boxes. I will also be focusing on some of the venues in Croydon in the 60’s and the bands that played in them Here is my ‘Croydon in the…
The man behind Dreadzone, Greg Roberts talks about his new album Escapades, Mick Jones, sampling music, being John Peel’s favourite drummer and appearing on Top of the Pops. Its Dreadzone’s 20th anniversary this year what would you say is the key to remaining successful in an ever changing music industry? I don’t know if it’s…
Ever wondered where bands find the inspiration for their names? I stumbled across a site which detailed the origin of band names and found these: ’90’s band Gin Blossoms name derived from late 1800’s “slang for the burst capillaries on the face from drinking for many years (WC Fields nose) – gin was a popular…
Monday 16th May 2016 was the 50th Anniversary of Pet Sounds, an album most people aged 35 upwards have in their music library. It has touched the lives of generations, it is critically rated by many of the great musicians and is often cited as being one of the best albums of all time (it’s actually Rolling…
A month or so ago I had the pleasure of bumping into Mr Francis Rossi of Status Quo and he was kind enough to help us promote Purley Festival by giving me an interview. I transcribed part of the interview for the Croydon Advertiser. You can listen to the podcast here.
A month ago we took a leap into the unknown (at least since our 20s). We decided to get rid of our Virgin box and relinquish ourselves from the millstone around our neck commonly know as ‘The Television’. Since its invention in the 1950’s, the television has become a staple in our daily lives, used…
We don’t usually celebrate Valentine’s Day but this year we decided to push the boat out and head up town, inevitably we ended up on a massive pub crawl but we found some real gems that I thought I should share. The first is The Angel in St Giles High St, spitting distance from Denmark…
Joan Armatrading, MBE and more importantly – according to her – (BA Hons) has won the coveted Ivor Novello Award, been nominated three times for a Grammy and twice for a Brit, written over 20 albums, has a plethora of gold, platinum and silver discs, been honoured by the Queen, sung for Nelson Mandela and…
You can pretty much guarantee that anyone in the UK who was in their teens or twenties in the early 90’s will have fond memories of dancing The Spin Doctors alt-pop chart toppers like Two Princes and Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong, you might even find they have a copy of multi-platinum album Pocket Full Of Kryptonite in…