Animals and music

This poor cat was obviously forced to listen to The Spice Girls or something



Animals are soooo amusing, where would we be without our faithful friends.

My husky (pictured here ) loves listening to music with me and loves singing along to it just as much. (This is the same dog who has his own claim to fame, he sings duets with my friend Hazel (O'Connor) when she stays at my place during tours.)

He has a favourite song that we play on CRR , he just loves Werewolves Of London by Warren Zevon and is also keen to join in with AC/DC when Who Made Who is playing, anything with OOOOO he joins in singing with me ''aroooooooooooooo !!'' I also had a cat and horse who loved music.

When my dog hears me on CRR or anything else, his ears move and he puts his head to the side, looking at me as if to say '' did you just throw your voice Mom??' ' It's sweet as!


So do your pets like to sing along and what do they like to sing? I have a friend who's budgie went crazy and danced to The Killers. Bless our pets! Long may they rock!

Jail time for Vince Neil - I am baffled

While I loathe gossip, and don't want to become a 'tabloid talker' as I prefer to focus on the music side of things I am rather annoyed and baffled right now. Earlier I was looking at the Daily Mail website and saw the piece about Motley Crue's Vince Neil having 'checked himself into jail'' to begin serving a 15 day sentence for a drink-driving conviction. To be followed by 15 days of house arrest afterwards.

Huh?? Checked himself in? Is it supposed to be a vacation? Hellraiser Hotel Holiday? 15 days house arrest to follow that? This is meant to be a punishment. It's as pointless as sending a child to their room because the child probably has a pc, x-box and tv in room!

15 days...for putting not only himself in danger but others also. This is the same chap that in 1984 while driving under the influence of alcohol crashed his car, killing Nicholas 'Razzle' Dingley the drummer from Hanoi Rocks and injuring 2 others. ( I was not aware of this until our CRR Fountain Of Rock Knowledge Jon Kirkman informed me of this )

Oddly enough he served just 15 days of a 30 day sentence then. Oh and got fined, and a bit of community service, and had to pay out $2.5 million in compensation. 30 days for killing someone??!!

Why is it that most people who are in the public eye ( and who thus should be setting a better example) seem to get off lightly? Look at the Paris Hilton palava! (Who is she??? Indeed! Pffft!) I say most because there is actor Wesley Snipes getting himself a 3 year sentence for TAX evasion,

So tax is obviously MORE important than possibly endangering lives eh? How can that be?!


I would have thought Vince would have learned the lesson the first time. Following common sense and laws may not be very 'rock and roll' but even so...!!

I love the music Motley Crue gave the world but this leaves a foul taste in the mouth!

My humble opinion anyway

Stevie Lange

Those of us may well remember a TV commercial in around 1980-81 for a deodorant called Limara. Of course the brand of deodorant is long gone but the music from the ad lives on as it was releasd as a full single under the title Remember My Name in 1981.

It was performed by Stevie Lange who in the late seventies and early eighties was a big name on the session circuit singing on albums by the likes of Manfred Mann's Earthband amongst many others. It was here that she met Chris Thompson who was the then singer with the Earthband and shortly after Chris left the Earthband he and a few other like minded individuals including Stevie Lange got together under the name of Filthy McNasty.

This band would go on to be called Night and sign a deal with American record producer Richard Perry's record label Planet records. They had a pretty big hit single in the American charts which Stevie sang on called Hot Summer Nights and their debut self titled album also charted. The band could also cut it live as they proved on a tour supporting the Doobie Brothers.

Both the Self Titled Night album and its follow up Long Distance are being reissued shortly with bonus tracks and sleeve notes by yours truly.

The reason I am writing this is because we actually feature Stevie's single Remember My Name from the aforementioned Limara commercial in our playlist and of course we will be featuring Hot Summer Nights as soon as the Night Album is reissued.

The reason I am compelled to write all this is because I have just been listening to Stevie on the single on CRR and I have to say she had an incredible voice (I assume she still does) . Check it out sometime by requesting it and you will see what I mean.

In Concert

Well as it is the weekend and I am listening to the output of Classic Rock Radio I have been thinking of some more feastures to thrill you all here at Classic Rock Radio and one of the popular features on the old Rockahead Rock radio programmes was the "In Concert" Section.

Quite simply what we do is take three or four tracks or in the new instance half an hours worth of tracks from a Classic live album and play them out as a half hour Mini "In Concert" feature on a Saturday and Sunday evening.

Of course there are a great many Classic live albums and I am sure we won't have any trouble filling the slots we have decided on but I would love to hear from you what Classic Live albums would you like to hear featured on the station? Let is know by dropping us a line at
studio@classicrockradio.eu

I have just received the Delxe re mastreed edition of Thin Lizzy'z Live And Dangerous which is probably one of the most iconic and influential live albums of all time. I have to say that the new version sounds absolutely amazing and I will be writing a review of that and posting it here soon. So there you have it let us know your favourite live albums and we will feature them in the Live In Concert feature on Saturday and Sunday nights at Classic Rock radio

www.classicrockradio.eu

Boot Up Tune In and Rock On!

Typo Traumas

<--------- This is what happens when Typo Traumas occur. This is why it is important to proof read 3 times before posting, because in my very first Classic Rock Radio blog post I made an awful typo and didn't even see it.

When the error was pointed out to me after I had gone on Facebook and posted the link to the blog page, I hid my face in my hands just like in the photo.

What's even worse is I had copied and pasted it to my boyfriend in email earlier who had read it, spotted the typo and not said a word. Double EEK!!

So the moral of the story, proofread 3 times. Or 300. Now don't ask about the typo, typo, what typo? You are imagining it!! Thank goodness for the edit button. Enough said!! Keep on rocking, good night!

so what does this button do

Well, I have had my arm twisted, ahem, I mean I have agreed to contribute to our Classic Rock Radio Blog. Now I sit here thinking ''what the heck can I contribute''

Should I discuss the weather? It's cold (no surprises there)

Should I discuss economics - uh no! ( that will get my blood pressure to rise )

Should I 'talk' about....me? sure why not, it can give you an easy insomnia remedy :-)

Well listeners tuning in may be somewhat confused by my many voices and accents, they can change like the weather, but that's ok, it confuses me too!

I started life in Canada, and from there both lived in / spent a lot of time in many other places such as Germany, South Africa and Australia, in theory this could give me the multi-tasking ability to drink maple syrup at Oktoberfest while watching lions and throwing a boomerang... or maybe not!

How the heck did I fall into radio? Well I guess I work backwards, some people start in radio and go onto other things, me I started as an actress and singer , did a bit of modelling and then fell into radio and voiceovers totally by accident. Having many different accents has been a help in that I guess. Valley girl one moment, plummy BBC tones the next, and various others inbetween.

Have I mentioned how thrilled I am to be involved with Classic Rock Radio? Well I am, utterly and totally, I mean how cool is getting to listen to and talk about music..and rockkkkk music at that, and with such a great team too!


Where would we be without music? Well it would be a dull world for sure. Music forms us, shapes us, and even controls us, ever noticed how some songs are like literal hypnosis? Music can make or break our mood, it can bring back memories both good and bad.

As I write this Queen's We Will Rock You is playing On Classic Rock Radio, which reminds me of the stage musical of same title, have you seen it? I saw it in London some years ago and loved it, if you get the chance to see it you really should. It was on in Manchester not that long ago but I didn't get chance to see it again, drats!

I love a wide range of music, from opera and classical right through to rock and metal. This used to confuse my father a great deal as I could be listening to Mozart one moment and Metallica the next.

anyway, that's enough from me for now, now I must see if this button does what it says and 'posts'...here we go!

New York Dolls!

Well he has played for some amazing people over the years including David Bowie of course and he has also led his own band but I have to say I am surprised to hear that Earl Slick has joined the New York Dolls. Maybe I shouldn't be surprised after all I mean I don't suppose it is that much of a stretch to go between DavidBowie and the New York Dolls even if there is thirty five plus years between originally playing with Bowie and joining the Dolls. Oh well we can see what he brings to the Dolls party when the band tour later this year. Think I might just venture along and catch them. I reckon it will be a great gig for both parties!

End Of A Busy Week!!!

Well here I am at the end of a very busy week. I have been writing sleeve notes for a couple of forthcoming releases for a record company. The releases in question are by a band called Night. Night was an American based band which actually came together ot of a loose grouping of musicians who met up to play at The Bridge House in London. they started under the name of Filthy McNasty and subsequently changed their name to Night; probably a good decision in the end.

The band featured a number of old hands in Chris Thompson former vocalist and front man for Manfred Mann's Earthband and Nicky Hopkins a very very famous keyboard player who made his name playing for Screaming Lord Sutch, The Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck group and Quicksilver Messenger Service amongst many many others. Other members of the band were vocalsit Stevie Lange a fantastic vocalist and guitarist Robbie McIntosh who at the time had just finished a stint with The Foster Brothers who had recorded one album for Elton John's Rocket records label. He would go on to enjoy massive success with the Pretenders and Paul McCartney's band. He did along with the other members of Night however taste success with the bands debut self titled album and a couple of hit singles in Hot Summer Nights and If You Remember Me which some of you may remember from the John Voight film The Champ.

Anyway the bands two albums are coming out with bonus tracks and sleeve notes by yours truly. I have also recorded a podcast and interview with Chris Thompson who talks about the two albums and takes us through the history of the band so look out for that on the CRR website

I have also been working on two albums from Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe. The first to be released is the self titkled debut album upgraded to include a second disc with rare mixes and live tracs and the second is a live album from the bands only tour. I have been Executive Producer on both those albums and the recenltly released Yes UNION DVD/CD package and believe me these three releases have taken almost two years to put together and there was so much to do in order to get them out and finished. Hopefully though the Yes fan base will love them. The response so far to the UNION has been really good thankfully which is really good after all the time spent on them. You can check out the Union set here
http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/

Finally this past week has been a sad one for me because as I am sure you will have heard by now Gary Moore died last Sunday. At Classic Rock Radio we played an extended tribute to one of my favourite guitarists featuring music from his solo career, Thin Lizzy and his brief time with the Greg Lake band and if you wrote in or just listened in thaks for doing so. Gary was an exceptional talent and a really nice guy to boot and his passing is a sad one for me and I guess millions of others. I will be trying to put up an old interview I did with Gary around the time of his album A Different Beat which as you may remember a very contentuious album. However he was extremely gracious and happy to talk about both the album and his past including his time with Thin Lizzy.

Right, that is it for me for the time being stay in touch and if there is something you feel we should be playing at Classic Rock Radio and we aren't then please let us know using the normal channels!!!

Cheers


Jon