Status Quo - The Early Years 5CD Box Set (1966-69) due March 15th 2024

February 13, 2024 by David Vousden in Box Set, Classic Rock, Psych

Status Quo broke through commercially in the 1970s, but this was no overnight success story. Long before the denim and the heads down boogie, there was a band formed in 1962 by school friends Francis Rossi and Alan Lancaster, learning their craft for many years before they became the Quo we know. There would be many ups, downs and sartorial as well as musical variations into which ‘The Early Years’ a new 5CD set from BMG, takes a deep dive, including material from pre-Quo acts The Spectres and Traffic Jam as well as the first two albums credited to Status Quo with plentiful bonus tracks including BBC sessions. The full press release and track listing follows:

The RGM Inbox: April 2023

April 14, 2023 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Americana, Country, singer-songwriter, Folk, AOR, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock

Welcome to the latest edition of the RGM Inbox. For this instalment, we check out four singer/songwriters. Two are still at the start of what will be successful careers; one has an Ivor Novello award on the shelf, while our final artist has sold millions of records and earned multiple Grammy awards but is still probably best known for his skills as a guitarist. They may work in a range of genres, but the one thing they all have in common is impressive new music to share.

Two 1990s Steve Hackett albums set to make vinyl debut June 2nd 2023

March 31, 2023 by David Vousden in Classic Rock, Melodic Rock, News, Prog Rock, Reissue, Vinyl

With the resurgence of interest in the good old LP showing no signs of slowing down, it’s great to see albums from the 1990s getting the reissue treatment or being released on the format for the very first time. Those of us of a certain age can remember when you might have liked to buy an LP but a CD or even the dreaded cassette tape was your only option. Steve Hackett will see two of his 1990s solo albums make the leap to vinyl for the first time on June 2nd with newly remastered, gatefold sleeve 180g 2LP releases of ‘Darktown’ and ‘Guitar Noir’

January 2023 @RGM

January 24, 2023 by David Vousden in Acoustic, Alternative Rock, Power-Pop, Pop, Singer Songwriter, Soul, Classic Rock

A belated welcome to 2023 @RGM. After an extended break for the holidays, we’re back with more new music, which we think should be on your listening radar. January found the RGM Inbox inundated with cool new sounds we’d like to share with you. Some artists you might be familiar with, others less so, but as we always say, your favourite new beat combo might be just a click away. So join us as we share new music from both sides of the pond and an unexpected choice of cover tune.

The RGM Inbox - July 2022

July 15, 2022 by David Vousden in Americana, Classic Rock, Funk, New Wave, Country, Folk

Welcome to the latest edition of the RGM Inbox. This time we’ve a new venture for a man best known as the drummer for a legendary classic rock act and another artist who will release his debut solo album after a thirty-year hiatus from the music business exploring philanthropic causes. We round out our quartet with an Australian singer/songwriter based in France and throw in a curveball with a trio from Luton in the UK who would probably be more at home in a New York nightclub in the late 70s.

RGM presents The Maple Leaf Roundup #26

December 09, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Country, Pop, Soul, Singer Songwriter, Classic Rock, Americana

The leaves have been falling for weeks and weeks, and I’m ashamed to say that I’ve been rather neglectful with the broom. Still, it’s never too late for a bit of a tidy up. What follows is a selection of the most golden and honeyed Canadian musical beauties to have drifted our way in the last couple of months. Sorry it’s taken us so long.

The Vinyl Inbox: Re-Skinned .38 Special coloured vinyl reissues from Snakefarm Records

July 08, 2021 by David Vousden in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, News, Reissue, Southern Rock, Vinyl

RGM’s occasional look at the world of collectable vinyl returns with Re-Skinned from Snakefarm Records an ongoing series that looks to re-visit classic Country, Blues, Americana and Southern Rock albums. The Re-Skinned titles will feature brand new sleeve-notes, vibrantly coloured vinyl (hot pink and orange are the colours this time out) and “audio specially prepared for vinyl”, Today’s recipients of this enhanced reissue treatment are Southern Rockers .38 Special, a terrific band who added a dash of AOR to their Southern Rock influences and enjoyed considerable chart success with their ‘Wild-Eyed Southern Boys’ and ‘Special Forces’ albums now set for reissue on July 30th 2021. More details about Snakefarm Re-Skinned and .38 Special follow:

The Hard Place #8

June 17, 2021 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, News, Video

You have reached The Hard Place. A place where the hair is just a shade more voluminous. A place where the trousers are, on average, two belt holes tighter. A place wherein it is perfectly normal for guitars to begin spontaneously spewing fireworks. Or lightning. Or both. We bring you the choicest, freshest cuts of retro-metal on offer. And, in a scene where wrongness so often prevails, The Hard Place offers a distillation of all that is currently right with the world of melodic hard rock. Quite a lot of it is, as you might expect, from Sweden.

The Vinyl Inbox

March 30, 2021 by David Vousden in Vinyl, AOR, Classic Rock, Melodic Rock, Prog, Americana, Blues, Pop

With the resurgence in vinyl sales in recent years, the humble record is back and seemingly here to stay. With this in mind, RGM takes a look at some recent and upcoming releases for those who love the sound or possibly just need the images to be bigger as we’re getting older and a CD sized booklet presents a problem. Please read on for releases by Downes Braide Association, Ali Maas & Micky Moody and League Of Lights.

The Hard Place #7

March 17, 2021 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, News, Rock, Video, Melodic Rock

Ever since big-haired hard rock was criminalised in the spring of 1993, those with a medical dependency on the genre have found it increasingly difficult to know where to turn. Thankfully, for these broken and desperate souls there is finally a sanctuary. No longer must they endlessly search for misfiled contraband in the planet’s fourteen remaining record shops. No longer do they need to be sat in front of eBay, fruitlessly entering euphemistic search terms like “perm noise” in the hope that they might score a forbidden fix. No longer. These unfortunate creatures – perhaps you are one of them – now have a refuge and that refuge is The Hard Place. Welcome, friend. Here, finally, you are understood. Everything you are about to sample is pure rock of the highest quality. And, best of all, it’s all legal.

RGM presents The Maple Leaf Roundup #20

February 08, 2021 by Rich Barnard in Acoustic, Classic Rock, Folk, News, Pop, Rock, singer-songwriter, Video, Alternative Rock

Okay Canada, go easy on me. I somehow find myself in February 2021 trying to pick five chunks of hot new music for this feature, having amassed a ruthlessly edited shortlist of around 35. How did this happen, Canada? I can only account for the disappearance of an entire January by weeping before a hand-drawn graph of an alarming home-learning curve. You’ve made me choose, Canada, and it’s been hard. Nevertheless, here I am again, your most loyal of servants, educating the RGM readership on the subject of your latest and loveliest musical works of wonder.

The Hard Place #6

January 25, 2021 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Metal, News, Rock, Prog Rock

If you like to hibernate over the winter then it’s likely that these words are reaching you as you continue to languish in an eiderdown-enrobed soft place. You’re cosy, you’re warm and you may well be under the impression that there is precious little to get out of bed for anyway. The Hard Place is here to tell you the f**k otherwise. The Hard place is a bucket of cold water hurled over your snoozings. The Hard Place is here, now, to drag you out of that pathetic torpor into a world where leaping from drum risers is de rigeur and staying up all night to a soundtrack of deafening guitars is a raison d’être. So, stop snivelling and get yourself dressed, preferably in something black and butt-squeezingly tight. Good. Now, ready yourself to rock.

New Editions of Love and Gram Parsons biographies due February 2021

December 09, 2020 by David Vousden in Alt-Country, Americana, Autobiography, Classic Rock, Country, Country Rock, News, Biography

On February 18th, 2021 Extradition / Cadiz Publishing will issue two classic rock biographies in paperback. The titles are a new revised edition of Pegasus Epitaph - The Story of the legendary rock group Love’ by Michael Stuart Ware and ‘Hickory Wind’ by Ben Fong-Torres, which is considered to be the definitive Gram Parsons biography and will include a new epilogue by the author. I’m sure Love and Gram Parsons won’t need any introduction to RGM readers but full details of both books follow:

DBA to release 'Halcyon Hymns' CD/DVD February 5th 2021

December 04, 2020 by David Vousden in Classic Rock, Melodic Rock, New Single, Prog Rock

Downes Braide Association aka DBA will release their fourth studio album on February 5th 2021 as a CD/DVD set with a 2LP white vinyl pressing to follow on March 26th. DBA features Geoff Downes (The Buggles/Asia/YES) and Chris Braide who has spent the majority of his career in the USA writing and producing music for film scores, advertising campaigns and working closely with a host of big-name artists including Sia, Lana Del Rey, Christina Aguilera, Beyonce, Paloma Faith, Britney Spears and Marc Almond. If the first single from the album ‘Love Among The Ruins’ is any indication of quality then ‘Halcyon Hymns’ will be high on my list of albums to investigate in 2021. A slightly odd spoken word introduction opens out into a wonderfully melodic song blessed with intricate overlapping vocals and some gloriously expansive guitar breaks. Much more about DBA and the lyric video for ‘Love Among The Ruins’ follows:

The Hard Place #5

December 02, 2020 by David Vousden in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Metal, News, Prog Rock, Rock, Video

We all knew this winter was going to be hard. But nobody could have foreseen just how hard. Here, at the never-beating, black granite heart of The Hard Place, we’d like to think we can make it just that little bit harder. Just for you. “How hard?” you ask, expectant and not a little apprehensive. And the answer is “None. None more hard.” Walk with us now, barefoot, through the broken-bottle-strewn wasteland of rock’s best new releases.

The Hard Place #4

November 09, 2020 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Metal, News, Rock, Prog

It’s dark. You blink your eyes to try and take in some light but you realise that there is only black. You can barely move, surrounded by rock on all sides. Your heart races but then suddenly you realise you’ve been here before. Yes, you have come again to The Hard Place; you’re not sure how it happened but here you are. Here, and only here, will you satisfy your (understandably secret) desire to discover the very finest new things in the big-haired realm of melodic rock. Relax now, and let us show you the way…

The Hard Place #3

September 02, 2020 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, News, Prog, Rock

If variety is the spice of life, then today’s Hard Place menu is, we must warn you, hotter than ever before. We’ve got hard bits, soft bits (sue me) and even prog bits but, as usual, all of our bits are exceedingly good. There are no specials on the board because everything here is gourmet. We have assembled the tastiest new treats on the scene so, get as comfortable as you can in those leather trousers and prepare for a four-course feast of sizzling melodic rock delights.

The RGM inbox August 2020 (Part 2)

August 12, 2020 by David Vousden in Americana, New Single, News, singer-songwriter, World Music, Classic Rock, Country, Pop, Video

In the latest inbox feature, we’ve got a range of international talent for your perusal. From Canada, Terra Lightfoot returns with a new single and an album on the way while closer to home UK pedal steel legend BJ Cole is sharing his love of Hawaiian music. Speaking of sunnier climates (although High Wycombe would give Hawaii a run for its money in the heat stakes this week) we’ve got a London based Aussie in Nick Kingswell with a terrific single and also from Australia The Buckleys a sibling trio breaking out of their homeland with a nice line in pop-country.

FanTracks and DIRECTV to premier never-before-seen 311 Mardi Gras concert

August 10, 2020 by David Vousden in Alternative Rock, Classic Rock, News

An interesting new development for those of us missing live music and in need of our concert fix is available from FanTracks. The newly launched subscription live concert streaming service will give a World Premier to a show by 311 on August 15th, 2020, The HD/4K concert was filmed in February of 2020 during Mardi Gras weekend at The Fillmore in New Orleans. This was one of the last concerts to be recorded before health and safety precautions were put into place regarding live events. FanTracks is premiering this concert to all via their platform and DIRECTV on Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 9pm ET and can be streamed by fans for free with a first-month-free subscription, followed by $1.99 a month. This subscription unlocks a catalogue of shows ranging from classic to modern rock, as well as more features during the concert live streams. The press release follows with loads more details about 311 and FanTracks:

RGM presents The Hard Place #2

May 11, 2020 by Rich Barnard in AOR, Classic Rock, Hard Rock, Melodic Rock, Metal, News, Rock

Welcome back to The Hard Place, where the hair is big, the guitars are pointy and the teeth have almost certainly undergone a recent whitening procedure. In this, our second all-killer-no-filler roundup, we aim to pleasure you guiltily with the news of the latest melodic hard rock from all four corners of the globe; and we know that - for you - only the best will do. So, sit back, relax and remember, in The Hard Place, no-one can see you playing air guitar.