So it was off to Toronto back on October 8th with Tbone coming along as we were going to see Iron Maiden on the 11th.
Other than seeing Maiden live the other bit if business we had to take care of was scoring Vinyl.
‘Sonic Boom’ and ‘Kops Records’ were our two focal points of dropping serious cash in which we did.
It was a no brainer for me to buy vinyl but I was glad to see Tbone jump both feet in and grabbed what turned out to be 11 albums of his own!
Atta boy Old Man!
The day before we left (Oct 7th) Amazon dropped off an album at my house that was a gift from Tbone which was The Cult’s latest release ‘Under The Midnight Sun’ which is a fantastic record. What a way to start our trip the following day.
So here are the scores from ‘Kops’ and ‘Sonic Boom’ posted below..
Some more T.O finds except for ‘Skid Row’ which I ordered from Amazon.
As I mentioned earlier we were there to see Iron Maiden and of course a visit to the merch table is a must…
We also hooked up with Brent Jensen who brought us gifts including T shirts, books and for myself basically what is a demo version of Brent’s ‘Leftover People’ book before he sent the final copy off to get published. What a gift and its the only one is existence!
One other thing and that was the latest copy of ‘Rock Candy Magazine’ which I have been a subscriber since Day 1. Always a great read!
There ya have it folk’s…
Coming up..
November 12th- Record Fair
November 18th- Iron Maiden Triple LP vinyl set of ‘The Number of the Beast’ and the super deluxe box set of KISS ‘Creatures of the Night’ on (ugh) CD!
November 22nd- Headstones live in Tbay and kicking off there Canadian tour here of all places!
Rockin Roberts/BMellis and Deke’s rocking out to Tom Keifer!
Hey Friends ….
Once again thanks to YOU the readers of this Blog who continually show up/read/comment around these parts and enjoy my Scribbles of Rawk!
Some Rando Info …Up to this point I have reviewed 452 albums/books/live shows…
I had a couple of guests as well to add to the total which were Tbone with a Hip and Van Halen review and my sister who reviewed Def Leppard recently! Tbone and Kristin did a fantastic job!
A total of 455 Posts and over 27,000 views in three years along with 8,525 comments! Holy Crap! Thanks everyone!
I thought it would be cool to show u the Most Viewed Blogs from June 24th 2016 to June 24th 2017 (that’s when this Post was typed)…
dEke’s Top 10 Most Viewed Rambling’s are….
1-Sebastian Bach/18 & LIfe On Skid Row- Yup Ladies and Gents in the past year a Book takes the top spot. Mikey Ladano posted my review on his Twitter page in which Baz seen and retweeted it to his Twitter and posted it to his Facebook Page. Thanks Mikey….and just goes to show you that people are watching what you post even coming from a rock schmuck sitting at his computer in Tbay!
2-Toque-Is the all star Canuck only group featuring Todd Kerns/Cory Churko and Brent Fitz who released a fun Canuck only cover album featuring a bunch of cool cover tunes with an updated sound! Thanks to Cory who posted my review on the Toque Facebook homepage!
3-Stephen Pearcy/Smash- Stevie-o totally stepped up on this album and kicked out the jams in superb 80’s sleazeball rock that totally blew me away. Blown away that Stephen plastered my review on his Twitter and Facebook page and sent me a thanks via messenger!
4-Rock The Fort Day 2/The Cult/Cinderfella…- This was the ass kicking festival that showed up in Tbay and was a two day affair with Day2 headlined by Wolfchild and Duffy who basically ruled the weekend with there performance(check out current release Hidden City folk’s) Must also mention that Tommy Keifer showed up and played a wicked set of Cinderella tunes and solo stuff. Ol Tommy almost stole the weekend….Trews/Helix and Doucette also played this day as well! Great day of Live Rock!
5-Helix/Wild In The Streets-This review was written a few years back and Helix bassist Daryl Gray graciously posted my review at the time. Daryl a few months ago reposted it via his memories on Facebook and this review picked up a bunch of steam again. Why not! Its a great album and ‘Whacha Bringing To The Party?”
6-Age of Electric/Live at Crocks,April 7th 2017- AOE showed up played Tbay and blew myself and Tbone out of the water with an airtight show filled with a ton of cool tunes. Met the dudes afterwards and they signed my discs and were all cool to chat with.
7th (Tie)- Metal Heart/Aiming High With Accept- Author Martin Popoff wrote a wicked good read on Accept that is well worth the dough. I am by no means a huge Accept fan but Martin delved in a band that really wasn’t written about much even back in the day so it’s these kind of Rock Books that peak my interest level. Martin interviews all these Accept dudes so it’s not some bullshit read. Check out Popoff’s site.
7th(Tie)-Age of Electric/The Pretty Ep-AOE comes in with there second Top 10 entry and for Todd Kerns it’s 2 Top Tens here with AOE along with Toque. Dude is everywhere. AOE after a ton of years had passed put out this little ass kicker of an EP that is worth your time friends. Do check out!
8-The Tragically Hip-Roxy & Elsewhere- A bunch of fellow writers decided to do a 200 word only review and I choose to do this great soundboard bootleg of The Hip that was recorded back in 1991! They are on fire on this release. Highway Girl and Killer Whale Tank are so good as singer Gord Downie is looped and in another time zone but is so good at telling stories with the Hips riding shotgun and blasting off a ton of riffs underneath! Pure Brilliance and Geoff Stephen would and will be proud to see this entry of his hometown homey’s!
9-KISS Rocks Vegas- Is the audio portion from KISS’s Vegas performance that Mikey Ladano sent me! (Thanks Mikey) How could KISS not crack the Top 10. These old Geezers are a part of my Musical DNA so to speak and say what you will. Whether you like em or hate em Kiss are a great discussion …..
10-Swords And Tequila/Riots Classic First Decade-Martin Popoff scores a second book here in the Top 10 and Riot is a band I love that stuck out great albums but for some reason never lifted off. Martin did his homework here, Tons of interviews/pics/the real story of which took me right back to over 3 decades ago. Riot had even less written about them than Accept! Martin fixed that problem and wrote what I feel is one of his best written works!
Well,there you have it. Kinda wild that 3 books cracked the Top 10! Some Cancon is included withThe Hip, AOE,Helix & Toque. Kinda of a neat mix really….
If you read my recent book review on Martin Popoff’s excellent Riot book(Swords And Tequila/ Riot’s Classic First Decade) you will recall that I had stated that Martin writes on bands that normally would not get books written about them.
Accept is one of those bands that Martin has tackled and I will be totally honest with you all. I am not a huge Accept fan! Sure back in the mid 1980s I owned Restless And Wild/Balls To The Wall/Metal Heart but when I heard Russian Roulette for some reason it did not register with me. I just could not get into it for some crazy reason. Even so I still bought Eat The Heat as well!(more on that one later)
When I seen on Martins website that he had written a book about Accept I was Intrigued as they did not get much press back in day sure Hit Parader would feature them maybe Circus but my curiosity factor was raised so I ordered it at http://www.martinpopoff.com
I should mention in regards to my other reviews of Martins Books is that he writes as a fan and it totally comes across in his book’s by the first 7-8 pages has Martin explaining the actual dates when he purchased each Accept album(date,prices with whom he was hanging out with at the time ) If that doesn’t constitute a Fan what does?
Like The Riot book Martin pulls out all the stops. Talks to all the main guys in Accept. Udo Dirkschneider/Wolf Hoffman/Peter Baltes/Stefan Schwarzmann/Jorg Fisher/Mark Tornillo.
Another interesting person in the Accept story is Gaby Hoffman (Wolf’s Wife) was Accept’s Manager since 1981 and contributed lyrical idea’s and cover concepts for a ton of years but she went under the pseudonym as Deaffey which I recall seeing that name on the Accept albums back than. Never would have known that it was a woman running the show and naming albums Balls To The Wall and contributing lyrics to songs like Fast As A Shark/London Leatherboys/Midnight Mover.
Martin also has once again added a ton of add’s for various albums and even a section of coloured pics from Accept’s 1984 tour when Udo was decked out in his camouflage gear. Even the cover of this book reminds me of Judas Priest with the Flying V’s as I guess they took a page from Priest in the dual lead guitars/stage presence 101 when they opened for JP back in 1981!
Each album goes under Martins Metal Microscope as his diagnosis each album with commentary which makes for a total worthy read. Basically once I dug into the book I could not put it down.
The success of the Balls To The Wall album in 1983-84 is interesting as they toured with all the heavyweights backs than.(KISS & Iron Maiden) They were kept on the straight and narrow by Deaffey and management not to get messed up in the Party Treats of the day. Tight Leash the Boys were kept on I guess you could say!
Martin also goes into detail how even though we both consider Metal Heart (1985) a top-notch Accept record. For some reason though it never really caught on which was surprising as it featured some great tracks like Midnight Mover(Accept didn’t care for it!) Too High To Get It Right /Screaming For A Love Bite/Metal Heart.
Course like so many bands the wheels start coming off of Accept after the release of Russian Roulette(1986) and as the album didn’t catch on here in North America internal strife was brewing and out goes Lead Singer Udo.
Now here’s where I really got into the book for that matter as it’s always fascinated me on how a Lead Singer change can either propel a band to the next level or disintegrate a band into a huge mess of dysfunction and chaos.
Unfortunately Accept slammed head first into dysfunction( record company politics wanting to Americanize there sound with a new singer) and chaos (keep reading)with the release in 1989 of the Eat The Heat album with a New American Lead Singer named David Reece.
I bought Eat The Heat at the time of its release on cassette tape and it was a massive change in direction. Songs were Melodic Lite Metal. The production by Dieter Dierks ( who manned a few other albums by Accept and made his name by producing a ton of Scorpions albums in the 80s) was weak. Had a few good things but generally was a sub par release to put it nicely! Even with this album being the Sore Thumb in the catalogue of Accept music Martin still gives it a bunch of pages just like the bigger albums in Accept’s career!( he doesn’t play favourites!)
Martin talks to Reece and the rest of the guys on what went down on the Eat The Heat album and the backstage fight(hello chaos) between Peter Baltes and Reece which led to the singer getting fired as well as the tour getting canned. Accept folded up shop for a few years!
Of course like so many bands they can only simmer for so long and back comes Udo for a few albums and tours( two reunions with Udo) before issues once again rise and Accept once again goes into hiatus that is until they come across another American Singer named Mark Tornillo and have released some recent works (Blood OF Nations/Stalingrad/Blind Rage) as Martin champions their cause as great albums and another fact that Martin points out is that Tornillo handles all the lyrics pretty much now.
Aiming High is another fine read from Martin! For a casual Accept fan like myself it was a real interesting read and every section had a ton of written stuff that I had no idea what went on in the inner sanctums of Accept(Well researched!)
To be quite frank I was about to order Martin’s Book on Ted Nugent but for some reason I clicked and ordered the Accept book but fret not Friends I will get the Nuge book and like I always say…
Do support our local Canadian Writers and click Martin’s link above.
Gotta laugh At The Title of The Accept Article The Metal Avengers! Who wrote this stuff? Ha!The Pic of Roth is classic! Funky Roth it says. Ha! Classic pants with a tinge of a woman’s flair tossd in for good measure!
My sister in law Kristy came across this mint(all pages intact including the Judas Priest Centerfold) copy of Hit Parader while she was out doing as she calls it Junkin! This mag came in at under $1! I paid $1.95 for it back in 1985.
So for this past Christmas as a gag she wrapped it up and my nephew Cameron(Cambo)presented it to me. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley in there 80s heyday glory on the cover of the February Issue(1985)
I howled as I unwrapped it and once I seen the cover and the red Hit Parader title at the top! Wowzers I flashbacked like Marty Mcfly in Back To The Future and basically for about a minute I tuned out the whole world around me and flipped through it like I standing at Larry And Gary’s Convienance Store in Current River (Tbay)circa 1985 as a 18 year old!
Kristy laughed as I had told her I had this copy and many other magazines as well. It was a total score!
Once I snapped myself back into present day reality I passed the Hit Parader over to my sisters boyfriend Darren who turned the pages and we laughed at the title of the articles! Man how much was it snowing at the editors table at Hit Parader? Haha! We also marvelled at the one of the many T shirt adds for Rock bands! 2 Rock shirts for $11! That was 1985 and for those wondering that included the Maiden Shirts! The Number Of The Beast,Purgatory,Killers,The Trooper! The ironic thing is these Maiden shirts are in circulation today except it’s gonna cost you a lot more today! Damn Inflation!
My 75 year old Father (Don and Yep if your wondering if he has a nick name,it’s Ol Boy!)even took a turn leafing through the magazine! He even hollered over the people in the house “Derek is this one of the Kiss guys?” when he got to the Kiss article on page 34! Ha….
Brent Jensen in his superbly written No Sleep Til Sudbury book states that magazines like Hit Parader and Circus were handlers for the record industry back in the 80s and I totally agree with Brent! Except at the time I didn’t realize it but after Brent wrote about and explained it I just had to laugh about it! Call Me Sucka!
Lemme explain ….
Basically I would buy the magazine…read the articles about bands and than go and buy the album! Repeat this process over and over,month after month! Add in more magazines like Circus,Creem,Rock Scene,Faces and later on RIP and Metal Edge Magazines. Looking back and thinking about it I was the record company’s mule in the 80s! Transporting back and forth and spreading to all who would listen (take a bow Tbone) the new bands,what the current bands were doing! Holy hell I was doing free promotion for a ton of acts! Mr Jensen I could have used your wisdom back in 1985 …
They should have hired me I mean I laugh now at it all but some of these band articles with the titles are classic…. for instance and just this issue….
Dokken-Rough And Ready,Dio- The Evil Eye,Scorpions- The Continental Noblemen,Fastway-Rocking On The Edge,Kick Axe-Pedal To The Metal and my fav titled article …Zebra- Earning There Stripes! Hahaha….
The back of each issue of Hit Parader would feature about a dozen or so pages of current rock songs with the lyrics. Can you say magazine filler! It irked me back than but today it made giggle! I mean here’s the lyrics to New Girl Now by Honeymoon Suite,Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden, Heavens On Fire by Kiss and many more! Give me more rock info so I could babble more about it. Than again maybe these dozen wasted pages did me a service by not featuring more articles whereas I would have spent more cash!
Writing this Ramble was fun! Thanks Kristy and now I know why Axl Rose went off the rails lyrically in the song Get In The Ring when Axl spewed venom towards Andy Secher(editor) and Hit Parader Magazine. Ha!
Gary Moore (RIP)should have been huge in North America! Of course Gary laid done some brilliant guitar work in Thin Lizzy but like many others in successful bands he split and went solo!
It was sometime in late 1984 I first read about Belfast born Gary Moore in Metallion Magazine (RIP) as Moore was gonna be doing the Monsters Of Rock 1984 with Van Halen,Motley Crüe, Dio,Accept,AC/DC,Ozzy and Y&T! There’s some serious guitar action there! Geezus a ton of heavy hitters!
All the bands mentioned above I had on vinyl or cassette except for I had nothing by Moore! I figured what the F*^k I’ll check out something by Gary Moore as I mean here’s this guy named Gary and he’s playing on the same stage as Ed Van Halen,Angus Young,Jake E Lee,Vivian Campbell,Wolf Hoffman, Jompa’s home boy Dave Menketti so Moore must be good!
Corridors Of Power was the chosen cassette tape I bought and it took one track the first song Don’t Take Me For A Loser and man I was hooked! The dude could play guitar,sing plus for added bonus he had Neil Carter ex of UFO riding shotgun playing rhythm guitar and keys!
From there I bought the double live We Want Moore as it was released at the time (1984) that I first read about him! The opening track Murder In The Skies just flat out rocked! His guitaring on that track is soooo good and the fact that he wrote it about the Russian Jet Fighter that shot down that Korean Airliner carrying civilians proved that he wasn’t just gonna sing about party rock doofus themes all the time!
When 1985 rolls around I’m onboard right away with Run For Cover when it’s released!
Run For Cover is a great rock record! Moore embraces the rock side but pushes it’s limits at time with 1985s technology! Also interesting is that he used including himself 5 different producers and there are some decent names Like Andy Johns(Led Zeppelin) Beau Hill (Ratt) Mike Stone(Journey) and Peter Collins(Rush) ….
Gary also brought on board with him some real good musicians like Glenn Hughes (vocals), Bob Daisley(bass) and one of Mike Ladanos favs Phil Lynott (RIP) .
So between producers and all star musicians Gary from Belfast plays a real good Strat and sings a decent tune!
Boys are indeed back in town….
RUN FOR COVER-a snazzy whirl of the keys and boom Run For Cover is just that! Gary and his Strat are ripping licks left and right and the drums and bass are locked and Run For Cover is a great opener as its features great verses and chorus along with a real slick move by dumping the opening snazzy whirl of the synth in the middle of the song which segues right into Moores solo and this solo is soooooo friggin good..well watch the vid! Moore kicks my ass in a cool 1985 kinda way….
REACH FOR THE SKY-Moore peels leads right off the hop at the start of this track. This is a basic rock track so basically it’s old school rock not a synth in site and Glenn Hughes delivers the bass while Gary wails on his guitar and throws down a good rock vocal.
MILITARY MAN-Phil Lynott wrote this track as Gary and him hook up on this track. Military Man has some Military like drum rolls and sharp bursts of almost a Celtic like flavour added and of course two years later Gary really dives Into the Irish roots with Over The Hills And Far Away. Military Man is a great track. Kinda a Thin Lizzy reunion!
EMPTY ROOMS-this is a great slower paced tune. Moore oooozes slow riff after slow riff but not to the point of Sap! Neil Carter was Moores wingman on keys,rhythm guitar and backing vocals and is showcased on this tune as well since he co wrote it. This song did well for Moore! Case in point I heard it back in the day of our local Am watered down station 580 CKPR! Usually they were pumping Air Supply and Little River Band to give you old foggies a idea!
OUT IN THE FIELDS-Lynott returns and along with Moore take this tune to town! Out In The Fields is a classic song about the boys growing up in Ireland and the turmoil and war going on at the time. Moore plays a great guitar on this track and this is one of the songs that embraces 80s technology but in 2015 keeps it in check! Great solo on this tune and if you want a good ass kicker version check out YouTube and search Gary Moore Out In the Fields Monsters Of Rock 2003! It’s just a Moore,some bass and guitar and a shitload of Moores fantastic playing….the vid I posted is the studio track and you can see by the lyrics written it’s none of that cat dragged in material! Great song!
NOTHING TO LOSE-Gary sets the pace with this track and it’s just another straight ahead rock track! No frills just a good rock track. Gary has some tunes that have nothing to do witht 80s technology and are just simple tunes! Great solo by Moore and the band just use the keep it simple silly rule! Atta Boys!
ONCE IN A LIFETIME-this is a great song! Sure it has the 80s trappings of poppy kind of Keys but man it has Moore playing some good guitar and when duty calls he could write a decent track that could be played on radio. Great poppy chorus with a added touch of coolness tossed in!
ALL MESSED UP-this is a straight ahead party rock track! Gary is All Messed Up With No Place To Go! Have you been to that place? This song is a good loud rock guitar drivin track and I’m sure it went down a storm live in concert!
LISTEN TO YOUR HEARTBEAT-Moore ramps right down and almost goes a little bluesy on this tune. Of course it was a sign of the times as 5 years later(1990) Moore ditched the Rock and went into full out blues mode with his 1990 album Still Got The Blues and scored his first ever Gold Record in the USA! I didn’t follow Moore’s path to Bluesville but he put a ton of Blues albums and also dabbled with Rock until he died in 2011.
IN CONCLUSION- living in Tbay I could count on one hand the amount of people that I knew that listened to Moore! There loss as they missed out on some real good Rock guitar. Run For Cover is a great no frills Rock record and actually I guess with 5 producers and special guest musicians its a allstar record now that I think about it!
Moore has all kinds of tunes on here embracing 80s technology but also staying true to the rock guitar roots of his career!
If anyone reading this comes across any of Moore’s stuff pick it up! ITunes as well has a lot of his stuff not that I’m plugging Apple but that is my method of purchase nowadays as we all know ……
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