Miller Anderson - ...and on guitar (1994)

Miller Anderson was born on 12 April 1945 in Houston, Renfrewshire in Scotland, and started his career in the group The Royal Crests in Scotland around 1964, and after moving down to London in March 1965 they renamed themselves Karl Stuart And The Profiles. Under this name they released two singles in 1965, 'Love Of My Eyes'/'Not A Girl In A Million' and  and 'Haven't They Got Better Things'/'Touch Of Your Hand', before dropping the Karl Stuart part and becoming The Profiles. Two more singles followed in the same year, before Anderson left the band and joined The Voice. This time the group only managed one single, 'Train To Disaster'/'Truth', before he departed, although he was there long enough to play with Mick Ronson when they were both members at the same time. Anderson then formed a duo with Dave Dufort in the mid-60's, but with the addition of future Mott The Hoople leader Ian Hunter on bass and Dante Smith on keyboards they became The Scenery, and after Dofort left the band and was replaced by John Vernon Smith, yet another single emerged in 'To Make A Man Cry'/'Thread Of Time'. In March 1968 he joined the strangely-named At Last the 1958 Rock And Roll Show, bumping into Hunter again, and with Freddie Fingers Lee on keyboards and Pete Phillips on drums, they released one single, with the Jimmi Duncan-produced 'I Can't Drive'/'Working On The Railroad' appearing on the CBS label in 1968. 

In October 1968 the band changed their name to Charlie Woolfe, with the same line-up, and they were soon back in the studio to record another single, this time for NEMS in UK (also released by CBS in Holland), with 'Dance Dance Dance'/'Home', with the b-side being a Freddie Fingers Lee, Miller Anderson and Ian Hunter co-write. Soon afterwards, Anderson and Hunter decided to abandon Charlie Woolfe, so they resurrected The Scenery, and although this edition of the band did not record, they did back singer David McWilliams for a British tour. In November 1968 Anderson finally got the call that he'd been waiting for, with an offer to join the Keef Hartley Band as vocalist and lead guitarist, and he ended up composing most of their original material. They released the excellent 'Halfbreed' album, recorded in just three days, and which opened with 'Sacked', a recording of an answerphone message from John Mayall telling Hartley that he was out of The Bluesbreakers. On this album Miller only contributed vocals, with guitar courtesy of Spit James, but once James left the band, Anderson took over the guitar role completely, and this line-up played in Woodstock Festival on its second day, although unfortunately they don't appear on the movie or soundtrack. With the addition of Mick Weaver, the Keef Hartley Band released their second album, 'The Battle Of North West Six', with guitar by Spit James, who was still in the band when it was recorded, and with one track featuring Mick Taylor guesting on guitar. 

'Overdog' followed in 1971 , and the group converted into a big band, in order to record a live album in the legendary Marquee in London, called 'Little Big Band', and they toured with a line-up of up to 20 members. After the live recording, the band returned to their usual quintet, and after recording some tracks for BBC in March 1971, Anderson started to think of pursuing a solo career. leaving the band in 1971. His first solo album 'Bright City', was released on Dream later that year, and he assembled a band to play some concerts, although he didn't actually tour. Around January 1973 he  formed a new band with keyboardist Mick Weaver, with Hemlock having more of a folk feel than the blues that he was associated with. They released a self-titled album, 'Hemlock', which was originally conceived as Anderson's second solo album, with help from Pete Willsher on steel guitar and Chris Mercer on sax. They toured supporting Procol Harum in England in March 1973, followed by another tour supporting Savoy Brown and Uriah Heep. On that tour, the chemistry between Savoy Brown's Kim Simmonds and Anderson finished with the offer of them forming a band together, so with the addition of Hemlock's rhythm section the formed The Boogie Brothers, which eventually led to him joining Savoy Brown themselves in January 1974, giving a three-guitar line-up of Simmonds, Anderson, and ex-Chicken Shack leader Stan Webb. 

They released the 'Boogie Brothers' album in 1974, but with too many leaders in the band, they only stayed together until December. In 1975, Anderson teamed up with his old boss Keef Hartley, and formed the short-lived Dog Soldier. After releasing their self-titled album, 'Dog Soldier', Hartley and bassist Paul Bliss left the band, and although they carried on with replacements Jim Leverton and Eric Dillon, they soon parted ways after touring with Back Street Crawler. Around August 1976, Marc Bolan refreshed the line-up of T Rex completely, keeping only Dino Dines, who recruited his old mate Anderson to play on Bolan's next album 'Dandy In The Underworld', and after that he joined Donovan for a tour, but before he could re-join T Rex, Bolan was killed in a car accident in 1977. The following year Anderson put together another band with keyboardist Ronnie Leahy, and after adding Colin Allen on drums, and recruiting guitarist Jimmy McCulloch, The Dukes recorded their only album in 1979, and then toured with Wishbone Ash. They had a minor success with the single 'Hearts In Trouble', but soon after that, tragedy struck again and Jimmy McCulloch sadly died. They replaced him with Mick Grabham, but the band folder shortly afterwards. In 1982 Anderson was asked to join Stan Webb in his new band Stan Webb´s Speedway, but he was only in the group for a short while, and didn't record with them. 

His next gig evolved from a collaboration between Ian Hunter and Corky Laing, who was the drummer in Mountain, who wrote several songs together, and then Hunter called Anderson to come over and sing and play guitar on the recordings. After Leslie West was invited to contribute to the project, it was suddenly a full-blown Mountain reunion, and in 1982 they started recording an album, 'Go For Your life', but Anderson has been forced to switch to bass after West joined, and so when he realized his part was to be too small, he left the band, although he can be heard on 'Makin' It In Your Car' from the record. In 1988 he joined The Spencer Davis Group, alongside vocalist Chris Farlowe, bassist Colin Hodgkinson, Zoot Money on keyboards, Pete York on drums, and Davis himself on vocals and guitar. They released a live album, 'Extremely Live At Birmingham Town Hall' in 1988, with Anderson in great form on 'Feet's Too Big' and 'Stormy Monday'. In November and December 1988 the toured Germany under the name of Pete York's R&B Revue, and in 1991 they recorded a live album under their alternative name of Pete York & Superblues, released in 1994, and featuring renditions of the Billie Holliday classic 'Lover Man', Chris Farlowe's early hit 'Out Of Time', and Anderson's showcases on 'Dimples' and 'Resurrection Shuffle'. Anderson is still working, and in the spring of 2016, he returned to the studio, releasing his new album 'Through The Mill' in the July, and this collection of tracks from throughout his long and varied career will go some way to show how he got to that point.  

Track listing

Disc One
01 Love Of My Eyes (single by Karl Stuart And The Profiles 1965)
02 Got To Find A Way (single by The Profile 1966)
03 The Train To Disaster (single by The Voice 1966)
04 Thread Of Time (b-side of 'To Make A Man Cry' by The Scenery 1967)
05 I Can't Drive (single by At Last The 1958 Rock And Roll Show 1968)
06 Dance Dance Dance (single by Charlie Woolfe 1968)
07 You Can Choose (from 'Overdog' by The Keef Hartley Band 1971)
08 The Actor (from 'Two Weeks Last Summer' by Dave Cousins 1972)
09 Ship To Nowhere (from 'Hemlock' by Hemlock 1973)
10 You Don't Love Me (from 'Boogie Brothers' by Savoy Brown 1974)

Disc Two
01 Broken Glass (from 'Broken Glass' by Broken Glass' 1975)
02 You Are My Spark (from 'Dog Soldier' by Dog Soldier 1975)
03 Jason B. Sad (from 'Dandy In The Underworld' by T. Rex 1977)
04 We Can Make It Together (from 'Heartbreak Hill' by The Strawbs 1978)
05 Time On Your Side (from 'The Dukes' by The Dukes 1979)
06 We Are One (from 'Neutronica' by Donovan 1980)
07 Makin' It In Your Car (from 'Go For Your Life' by Mountain 1985)
08 The Thrill Is Gone (from 'Extremely Live At Birmingham Town Hall' by The Spencer Davis Group 1988)
09 Dimples (from 'Superblues' by Pete York 1994)

Jessie And The Toy Boys - This Is How Rumors Start (2011)

Jessica Eden Malakouti was born on 30 March 1989 in Anaheim, California, and at age 16 she emancipated herself from her parents, graduated high school two years early, and moved to Hollywood to pursue her show business dreams. Soon after arriving in Hollywood, she started an all girl punk rock band called Shut Up Stella, which signed with Epic Records in 2006, and their songs started to appear in films such as MTV's 'Sweet 16 The Movie', which featured 'Watch Me Rain', while 'Welcome To My Party' appeared in the both 'Girl Positive' and 'Baby Mama' in 2008. Later that year the band were dropped by Epic, and the forthcoming album was cancelled, prompting Malakouti to go solo. In 2008 her songs 'Trash Me' and 'Outsider' appeared in episodes of MTV's 'The Hills', as well as being independently self-released as music videos and digital downloads, and in December she signed a publishing deal with EMI. The next two years were spent in London working on dance music with Fred Falke, as well as writing for UK production house Xenomania. The result of this time was a single called 'Standing Up For The Lonely', which was released on British dance label Ministry of Sound. In 2010 she formed Jessie And The Toy Boys, launching them with the  single 'Push It' in February 2011, which peaked at 7 on the Billboard dance chart, following this in June with the EP 'Show Me Your Tan Lines', and Malakouti made her network television debut on the Conan O’Brien Show. During this time, Jessie And The Toy Boys was one of the opening acts during Britney Spears' sixth concert tour, the Femme Fatale Tour, and they also released their next single 'Let's Get Naughty' in October. The band's debut album, 'This Is How Rumours Start', should have followed the single in October, but it was pushed back to summer 2012, and despite some of the songs appearing as videos on Youtube, the album itself has failed to materialise. In May 2013 Malakouti released a music video for what was originally a Toy Boys song called 'White Girl Wasted' under her own name, and this sparked rumours that she would no longer be releasing music under the name Jessie And The Toy Boys. In September 2013 she uploaded a picture via her Facebook page confirming that she had signed a new recording contract with Virgin Records, and that confirmed that the band was no more. As well as the songs posted on Youtube, others tracks have also leaked online, and track listings have even appeared, and so it is fairly easy to piece the album together to hear what it would have sounded like had it appeared as intended. 

Track listing 

01 This Is How Rumors Start 
02 Flashback 
03 Perfect Shade Of Red 
04 Marilyn 
05 Petty Theft 
06 Let's Get Naughty 
07 Boxers 
08 Push It (feat. Yelawolf) 
09 Money Makes The Girl Go Round 
10 Valentine
11 We Own The Night 
12 Key To The City 
13 Hitman 

14 Summer Boy
15 Can't Go Back To London 
16 Runaway 
17 Angels Get To Sing 

Blaque - Blaque Out! (2001)

Natina Reed and Shamari Fears both moved to Atlanta, Georgia, and met while in high school, with Reed forming Blaque while Fears formed another group called Intrigue, who won a recording contract with Elektra Records. Fears met up with Brandi Williams at a talent show while a member of Intrigue, but left the band shortly afterwards to join up with Reed in Blaque, and Williams joined the group a little later. Reed met Ronald Lopes while singing jingles to earn extra cash, and he introduced her to his sister Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes of TLC, who signed the group to her production company, Left Eye Productions. Outside the US the band are known as Blaque Ivory, and their self-titled debut album ('Blaque' in the US and 'Blaque Ivory' elsewhere) broke the top 30 of Billboard's Top R&B/Hip-Hop albums chart on its release, reaching number 23, and was later certified platinum by RIAA. The album's lead single '808' was a success in the U.S. reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and earning Gold certification, but the follow-up single 'I Do' was not a success like previous records, only reaching number 73 on the R&B/Hip-Hop single chart. The last single from the album, 'Bring It All To Me', which featured JC Chasez, was a hit song that made the number 5 position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and topped the Rhythmic charts in late 1999 to early 2000 for six weeks. In 2000, the group starred as cheerleaders in the film 'Bring It On', and they recorded the Shelly Peiken and Guy Roche song 'As If' for the soundtrack that same year. While their self-titled debut album went platinum, a second album called 'Blaque Out', which was set for release in 2001, was shelved when the group was dropped from Columbia Records for unknown reasons, and the video for the first single 'Can't Get It Back' was never released. The album was soon leaked on the internet, and it turned out to be a really good R&B record, which certainly didn't deserve to be so unceremoniously dumped. After Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes' death in a car crash in Honduras in 2002, Blaque signed with Elektra Records, and began work on their third album, while an alternate version of the shelved album 'Blaque Out!' was released to iTunes in May 2007, but was later taken down. 'Torch' was completed in 2003, but it too was shelved, although it did finally get an official release in 2019, serving as a belated tribute to Natina Reed, who was killed in a car accident in Atlanta in 2012.  

Track listing

01 Blaque Out
02 Know What's Up
03 Can't Get It Back
04 Thinkin' About It
05 Should I
06 Temperature
07 I Love My Group But ... (Interlude)
08 Bliss
09 I Wanna Be the One
10 Questions
11 Girls Like That
12 This Ain't Us
13 As If
14 Outro

Hunger - Strictly From Hunger (1969)

Hunger arrived in L.A. from Portland in late 1967 as the Outcasts, a teenage cover band, but within six months they'd signed with a connected manager, played all over Los Angeles, embraced psychedelia and signed up to record an album of original music for the label their manager founded for them: Public! Records. They showed tremendous promise – and their producers invested heavily into a band that was going to be the next marquee act at the Whiskey A Go-Go, bringing in members of Strawberry Alarm Clock, including future Lynyrd Skynyrd star Ed King, to produce an album. However, the band broke up before the record could be released, and so as the label had little interest in them any more, they butchered the tapes before releasing it on the Public! Records label. Most of the tracks had been recorded as lengthy guitar-led psychedelic rock, but many of them were cut down, often with hilariously fast fade-outs. Other tracks had the superb fuzz guitar parts unceremoniously buried in the mix, while the version of 'Trying To Make The Best', which in its unedited version was seven and a half minutes long, was split into two new songs, a heavily edited version of the original, losing two minutes from the recording, and then a second version, which was mostly the unedited version of the original but with the vocals removed, and tagged onto the end of side two. If the label were doing that to make up the playing time to 40 minutes then why didn't they just leave the longer takes of all the tracks? When I first heard this album some 40-odd years ago, it was on a cassette tape from a friend in Germany, and he sent me the original un-edited version of the album, which I didn't know existed, and so I just thought that it was a brilliant late-60's psyche album, and enjoyed it as such. When I later heard the story of this album, and listened to the Public! version of the record, I could see exactly why the band were so incensed at the butchery of their work, and I never listed to that version again. If you already know the band but not the back-story, then you are in for a treat, and if this is your first introduction to them, then prepare to be blown away by one of the best hard-psyche albums of the late 60's, now exactly as the group themselves wanted it to be heard.

Track listing

01 Colors 
02 Workshop 
03 Portland 69 
04 No Shame 
05 Trying To Make The Best 
06 Open Your Eyes 
07 The Truth 
08 Mind Machine 
09 She Let Him Continue 

The Lightning Seeds - Say You Will (2000)

Prior to the forming his own project, Ian Broudie had been a member of the 1970's post-punk band Big in Japan and the new wave bands Original Mirrors and Care. By the late 1980's, Broudie was better known as a producer than as a musician, and had produced albums for new wave and alternative rock artists such as Echo & the Bunnymen, Wall Of Voodoo and The Fall, but by 1989, he'd begun recording alone under the name 'Lightning Seeds'. Broudie performed all the vocals and instruments on the "band"'s 1989 debut album, 'Cloudcuckooland', which he also produced, while their first single, the psychedelic 'Pure', reached the top 20 in the UK, and the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. After the success of the first Lightning Seeds album, Broudie resumed his production career, but he returned to songwriting in 1991, and moved labels from Rough Trade to Virgin. Drafting in Simon Rogers as his studio partner in production, arrangements, and instrumentation, Broudie resurrected The Lightning Seeds, and Rogers would continue as Broudie's in-studio partner throughout the rest of the band's career. Their second album 'Sense' was released in 1992, and featured the song 'The Life Of Riley', which Broudie had written for his son, and which reached No. 28 on the UK Singles Chart. An instrumental version of the song later became better known as the BBC TV theme for the 'Goal of the Month' competition. In 1993 Broudie left Virgin and signed to Epic Records, who released the 'Jollification' album in 1994, which included contributions from Terry Hall, Alison Moyet and Ian McNabb. 

In August 1994 the band embarked on a promotional tour for 'Jollification', with a consistently changing line up, of which Broudie was the only constant. The tour benefited from the success of the second single from the album, with 'Change' reaching No. 13 in the UK Singles Charts, becoming the band's second UK top 20 hit, and it was also featured on the soundtrack of the hit movie 'Clueless'. 'Jollification' was a critical and commercial success, and the three singles taken from it were some of Broudie's very best work, with 'Lucky You', 'Marvellous' and 'Perfect' all making a noticeable impact on the charts. During this period the band  recorded a number of songs at a private river barge studio located at Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studios, with the intention of including them on  a fourth studio album, with 'Dizzy Heights' being released in 1996. The same year The Football Association commissioned Broudie to write a song for England's appearance at the upcoming Euro '96 football tournament, and he agreed on the condition that comedians Frank Skinner and David Baddiel, presenters of the late-night TV show Fantasy Football League, participated. The resulting song, 'Three Lions', became a No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart and was adopted as a football chant, not only in the UK but also in countries such as Germany, where the single and accompanying video reached No. 16 in their charts. In 1997 The Lightning Seeds headlined the Hillsborough Justice Concert, which was held at the Liverpool Anfield stadium to raise fund for the families in their struggle for justice following the Hillsborough disaster of 1989. More hit singles followed during 1996 and 1997, with one of their biggest hits being a cover of The Turtles' 'You Showed Me', which was also included on the 'Austin Powers' soundtrack. 

The time was ripe in 1997 for a 'best of' collection, and 'Like You Do...' was a superb overview of the band's career to date, and was followed by a UK promotional tour. In 1998, Broudie reworked and recorded an updated version of their hit football anthem for the FIFA World Cup in France, and 'Three Lions '98' reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart, becoming the first song to top the charts on two occasions with different sets of lyrics. Their 1999 album 'Tilt' was something of a departure from their pure pop, and was more dance-oriented, and it also featured collaborations with Stephen Jones. The single 'Life's Too Short' was heralded by BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles as "one of the band's strongest singles to date", and rose to No. 27 in the UK Singles Chart. Going out on a high, The Lightning Seeds as a band went on a ten year hiatus, returning in 2009 with their sixth studio album 'Four Winds', which they followed with a tour in April 2010. The band are still around, with their latest album 'See You In The Stars' appearing just last October, after a thirteen year gap. Broudie has a gift as a songwriter of being able to conjure catchy melodies seemingly from thin air, and so the non-album tracks that they but on the b-sides of their singles are worth hearing just as much as the hits, so here are nearly two dozen of them, plus some intriguing covers from artists as diverse as Tim Hardin, The Pretty Things, Pink Floyd, The Only Ones, Wreckless Eric, Fred Neil, and the theme tune to 'The Likely Lads'.  

Track listing

Disc I - 1989-1995
01 Fools (b-side of 'Pure' 1989)             
02 Frenzy (b-side of 'Joy' 1989)
03 Persuasion (b-side of 'All I Want' 1990)
04 Hang On To A Dream (b-side of 'Sweet Dreams' promo 1990)
05 Something In The Air (b-side of 'The Life Of Riley' 1992)
06 Flaming Sword (b-side of 'Sense' 1992)
07 Say You Will (b-side of 'Change' 1995)
08 Dust (b-side of 'Change' 1995)
09 Open Your Eyes (b-side of 'Lucky You' 1995)
10 The Likely Lads (b-side of 'Lucky You' 1995)
11 Lucifer Sam (b-side of 'Marvellous' 1995)
12 I Met You (b-side of 'Marvellous' 1995)
13 Howl (b-side of 'Perfect' 1995)

Disc II - 1996-2000
01 Never (b-side of 'What If' 1996)
02 The Crunch (b-side of 'What If' 1996)
03 Another Girl Another Planet (b-side of 'Ready Or Not' 1996)
04 Whole Wide World (b-side of 'Ready Or Not' 1996)
05 Here Today (b-side of 'What If' 7" 1996)
06 This Power (b-side of 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' 1997)
07 S.F. Sorrow Is Born (b-side of 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' 1997)
08 Porpoise Song (b-side of 'Sugar Coated Iceberg' 1997)
09 What You Say (single 1997)
10 Weirdaway (b-side of 'What You Say' 1997)
11 Blue (b-side of 'What You Say' 1997)
12 Be My Baby (b-side of 'What You Say' 1997)
13 Everyday And Everynight (b-side of 'Life's Too Short' 1999)

14 Swoosh (b-side of 'Sweetest Soul Sensations' 2000)

The cover uses a photo by Elena Jo Melanson

Sandra Barry - Stop! Thief (1979)

British pop singer Sandra Barry began her performing career in infant talent shows before attending stage school, followed by her debut as an actress on film in an uncredited role in 'The Belles of St Trinian's' in 1954. She went on to small roles in other British films and television shows, and then in 1957 she latched on to the early British rock and roll scene and released 'Rocket And Roll' b/w 'Six Day Rock' under her real name of Sandra Alfred on Oriole Records. At the same time she was starring on comedian Dave King's television series, and also appearing on radio in the long-running comedy show 'Educating Archie', but in 1963 she re-emerged on the music scene under the name Mandy Mason, and released 'A Tear In The Eye', written and produced by Barry Mason (no relation), on the Parlophone label. The following year she took on the stage name Sandra Barry and was signed to Decca Records, releasing 'Really Gonna Shake', backed by guitar band The Boys, who would later go on to become cult mod band The Action, and then even later Mighty Baby. They would sometimes be credited as Sandra Barry And The Boyfriends, before they decided to make a go of it on their own, and so she embarked on a solo career, starting with 'The End Of The Line' single for new label Pye, and this time she was backed by Jet Harris' backing band The Jet Blacks, which included future Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones. Despite that pedigree, she failed to score any hits with that song, or the follow-ups, 'Question' or 'Stop! Thief', and so she spent the remainder of the decade out of the spotlight. In 1973 she resurfaced with yet another new stage name, Alice Spring, as the frontwoman of pub-rock combo Slack Alice, who released a self-titled album and a few singles before disbanding. This allowed Barry to join the UK's version of Blondie, as the leggy brunette fronting indie-popsters Darling, a new wave group that was far removed from Slack Alice. I've included a single each from Slack Alice and Darling, as well as one album track from Slack Alice, which shows the gentler side of her voice. Oddly enough, the A-sides of her early singles are much harder to track down that their flips, so we only have the b-sides of the singles by Sandra Alfred and Mandy Mason, but they're all good stuff and so well worth hearing. 

Track listing

01 Six Day Rock (b-side of 'Rocket And Roll' by Sandra Alfred 1958)
02 A Sweet Love (b-side of 'A Tear In My Eye' by Mandy Mason 1963)
03 Really Gonna Shake (single by Sandra Barry & The Boys 1964)
04 When We Get Married (b-side of 'Really Gonna Shake')
05 The End Of The Line (single 1965) 
06 We Were Lovers (When the Party Began) (b-side of 'The End Of The Line')
07 Question (single 1965) 
08 You Can Take It From Me (b-side of 'Question')
09 Stop! Thief (single 1966) 
10 I Won't Try And Change Your Mind (b-side of 'Stop! Thief')
11 Motorcycle Dream (single by Slack Alice 1974)
12 Gravelstone Cottage (from the album 'Slack Alice' 1974)
13 Lookin' Kinda Rock 'N' Rolled (single by Darling 1978)

Ether - Precious Soul (1999)

Ether were a trio from Blackwood, Caerphilly, who formed in early 1996, and consisted of songwriter Rory Meredith on vocals and lead guitar, Gareth Driscoll on bass and Brett Sawmy on drums. They signed to Regal Recordings after their first ever gig, and released their first single 'He Say Yeah' in 1996, before moving on to Parlophone Records and putting out four further singles, followed by their sole album 'Strange' in 1998. The same year they they had a minor UK hit single when 'Watching You' was extracted from the album and released as a single, and in 1999 they recorded tracks for their second album, but they split up later that year and so the album was shelved by Parlophone. Meredith later formed the band Sugar Rush with singer-songwriter Katherine Davies, releasing an album 'Beautiful But Tragic' in 2006 on LA based indie label Beverly Martel Music, but for fans of the band, and there are some around according to the Youtube comments, here is what would have been the follow-up to 'Strange' had it come out in 1999 as expected. 

Track listing

01 Life Is A Four Letter Word
02 Little Animal
03 Goodbye 20th Century
04 I Scare Myself
05 Precious Soul
06 Sci-Fi
07 Make Believe
08 Modern World
09 Wonder
10 What I Feel
11 So Right
12 Answer To It All

Toyah - Madhatter (1996)

In 1992 Toyah Willcox began preparing a musical which was to be titled 'Cindy X', and for which several songs were written and recorded. When that project was abandoned, the songs were changed and revamped for inclusion in the 'Dreamchild' album, which was released in 1994, and is the record with the least amount of input from Willcox herself, with the singer contributing lyrics to only one track. The album was predominantly written by acclaimed producer Mike Bennett, whose credits for labels such as BMG, Trojan, Radikal and Creation Records include The Fall, BMX Bandits, Bob Marley, Kim Fowley, King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry, and the dance nature of the album contrasted radically with the rest of her catalogue, making Willcox appear like more of a guest vocalist than the leading artist on her own album. In 1997, the album was reissued by Receiver Records as 'Phoenix', featuring an additional track of the same name taken from sessions recorded in 1996. These were intended to be included on a new album to be called 'Eternity (Madhatter)', but once 'Phoenix' was released the 'Madhatter' album was abandoned, and remains one of the most elusive additions to her discography. Musically, it would have followed the sound of 'Dreamchild', since it was again produced by Mike Bennett and Tacye, and there is a heavy emphasis on dance beats, although a track like 'Beyond That Thin Disguise' does hark back to her punk roots. There is only one scanned copy of the cover online, which was signed 'To Paul, love Toyah', but I've managed to clean it up as much as possible, including upgrading the typeface, so that it hopefully now looks like it did before it was autographed. 

Track listing

01 Abandon Me Never 
02 Flicker 
03 Time Frame Deception  
04 Vicious Scream  
05 Satellite Whores 
06 Glowing So True  
07 Trapped Inside Paradise 
08 This Crumbling Sea 
09 Hold Me Down 
10 Tidal Waves 
11 Beyond That Thin Disguise 
12 Illusion

Allan Holdsworth - ...and on guitar (2017) EXPANDED EDITION

The premise of this series is to showcase famous guitarist's guest appearances on other people's records, but Allan Holdsworth had such an individual career that for this post it will be slightly different. Holdsworth is a unique musician, who is held in high regard by both his fans and his peers, and yet his career is quite fragmented, in that he tended to join a band, record one album with them, and then leave to move on, in effect becoming the guest musician in his own life. This expanded edition takes his career beyond his short-lived membership of those bands of the 70's, and into a 30 year period of solo albums, collaborations, and what turned out to be a multitude of guest appearances.
Allan Holdsworth was born in Bradford on 6th August 1946, where he was raised by his maternal grandparents. His grandfather Sam Holdsworth was a jazz pianist who had previously moved to London to pursue a career in music, but he eventually returned to Bradford. Holdsworth was given his first guitar at the age of 17, receiving his initial music tuition from his grandfather, and his professional career began when he joined the Glen South Band, which performed on the Mecca club circuit across Northern England. His first recordings were in 1969 with the band 'Igginbottom on their lone release, ''Igginbottom's Wrench', on which he also sang and wrote most of the music. In 1971 he joined Sunship, an improvisational band featuring keyboardist Alan Gowen, future King Crimson percussionist Jamie Muir and bassist Laurie Baker, but although they played live, they never released any recorded material. The following year he teamed up with Nucleus leader Ian Carr, and played on Carr's solo album 'Belladonna', before moving on to join progressive rock band Tempest, contributing to their self-titled debut studio album in 1973. Leaving Tempest, he then joined Soft Machine, playing on their 'Bundles' album, then leaving them to join The New Tony Williams Lifetime while they were recording their 'Believe It' album. Another move in 1976 found him in Gong, and recording their progressive jazz/fusion album 'Gazeuse!', before joining Jean-Luc Ponty to play on his 'Enigmatic Ocean'. In 1978 he was off again to team up with Bill Bruford for his 'Feels Good To Me' record, before Bruford formed the progressive rock supergroup U.K. with John Wetton and Eddie Jobson, and invited Holdsworth to join them, where he played on their first album before leaving them. 

Whilst U.K. continued with different musicians, Bruford returned to the core line-up of his solo band ,now simply named Bruford, with Holdsworth retained as guitarist, and their second album 'One Of A Kind' was released in 1979. At this point Holdsworth was ready to pursue his own musical aspirations and soon left the group, teaming up first with Gordon Beck, and then Gary Husband, and by 1982 he'd released his first album as bandleader, with his group I.O.U.'s self-titled record. This was the start of along and illustrious career for him, releasing numerous critically acclaimed albums over a 30 year period. His 1986 album 'Atavachron' was a landmark release in that it was the first to feature Holdsworth's work with a brand new instrument named the SynthAxe. This unusually designed MIDI controller (different from a guitar synthesizer) would become a staple of Holdsworth's playing for the rest of his recording career, during which he would effectively become the public face of the instrument. The next year saw the release of a fourth album, 'Sand', which featured no vocals and showcased further SynthAxe experimentation. This was also the year which saw him back in the studio as a jobbing musician, as after releasing an album a year for five years he answered the call to provide his inimitable guitar-work to an album being recorded by Swiss hard-rockers Krokus. It was a departure from his usual style, but it must have provided the impetus to do more session work, as from 1988 onwards he was hardly ever out of the studio. Firstly there was a second collaboration with Gordon Beck, 'With A Heart In My Song', in 1988, followed by his contribution to a track on Stanley Clarke's 'If This Bass Could Only Talk' album, and also appearing on the title track of 'Radio Free Albemuth' by Stuart Hamm. 

A collaboration in 1990 with fusion guitarist Frank Gambale came about in the form of 'Truth In Shredding', an ambitious collaborative project put together by Mark Varney (brother of Shrapnel Records founder Mike Varney) through his Legato Records label. In December of that year, following the death of Level 42 guitarist Alan Murphy in 1989, Holdsworth was recruited by the band to play as a guest musician during a series of concerts at London's Hammersmith Odeon, and with former band-mate Gary Husband now being the drummer for Level 42, these circumstances all led to him contributing guitar work on five tracks for their 1991 album, 'Guaranteed'. The same year he played on Chad Wackerman's first studio album, 'Forty Reasons', returning a favour as Wackerman was Holdsworth's drummer for most of their 30 year career. The 2000's began positively with the release of 'The Sixteen Men Of Tain' in 2000, but it turned out to be the last album he recorded at his Brewery studios, as immediately afterwards he abruptly slowed down his solo output due to events within his personal life. He did, however, tour extensively around both North America and Europe, and played as a guest on albums by numerous artists, most notably on keyboardist Derek Sherinian's 2004 album 'Mythology', as well as with the latter's progressive metal supergroup Planet X, on their 2007 album 'Quantum', and on K²'s 'Book Of The Dead' from 2005. In 2006 he performed with Wackerman, keyboardist Alan Pasqua, and bassist Jimmy Haslip as part of a live tribute act in honour of the late Tony Williams, with whom Holdsworth and Pasqua had played in the mid-1970's. His final contribution to a record was probably his appearance on a couple of tracks from MSM Schmidt's 'Life' album, and his 'Endomorph' was sampled by Playboi Carti on his track 'Location', both in 2017, the year in which Holdsworth passed away at the age of 70, with his death being attributed to high blood pressure. 

Holdsworth's mercurial career has covered many bands, sometimes going back to play with them again years later, but the one thing they all have in common is that their music was enhanced by his inventive guitar playing. Holdsworth was known for his highly advanced knowledge of music theory, through which he incorporated a vast array of complex chord progressions, often using unusual chord shapes in an abstract way based on his understanding of 'chord scales', and intricate improvised solos, frequently across shifting tonal centres. He used a myriad of scale forms often derived from those such as the lydian, diminished, harmonic major, augmented, whole tone, chromatic and altered scales, among others, often resulting in an unpredictable and dissonant 'outside' sound. His unique legato soloing technique stemmed from his original desire to play the saxophone, but unable to afford one, he strove to use the guitar to create similarly smooth lines of notes. His guitar style really was unique, and he continues to be cited as an influence by other musicians to this day. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1969-1978
01 Golden Lakes (from ''Igginbottom's Wrench' by 'Igginbottom 1969)
02 Hector's House (from 'Belladonna' by Ian Carr 1972)
03 Up And On (from 'Tempest' by Tempest 1973)
04 Land Of The Bag Snake (from 'Bundles' by Soft Machine 1975)
05 Proto Cosmas (from 'Believe It' by The New Tony Williams Lifetime 1975)
06 Expresso (from 'Gazeuse!' by Gong 1976)
07 Enigmatic Ocean Part III (from 'Enigmatic Ocean' by Jean-Luc Ponty 1977)
08 If You Can't Stand The Heat...' (from 'Feels Good To Me' by Bruford 1978)
09 Nevermore (from 'U.K.' by U.K. 1978)

Disc II - 1986-1991
01 Long Way From Home (from 'Change Of Address' by Krokus 1986)
02 The Grand Pajandrum (from 'Soma' by Soma 1986)
03 Stories To Tell (from 'If This Bass Could Only Talk' by Stanley Clarke 1988)
04 Radio Free Albemuth (from 'Radio Free Albemuth' by Stuart Hamm 1988)
05 Obsession (from 'A Question Of Time' by Jack Bruce 1989)
06 Under Fire (from 'Attack Of The Neon Shark' by Alex Masi 1989)
07 Bathsheba (from 'Truth In Shredding' by The Mark Varney Project 1990)
08 You Came Along (from 'Forty Reasons' by Chad Wackerman 1991)

Disc III - 1991-2004
01 A Kinder Eye (from 'Guaranteed' by Level 42 1991)
02 You Have To Wait (from 'Oneness' by Andrea Marcelli 1992)
03 Forest Of Feeling (from 'Lone Ranger' by Jeff Watson 1992)
04 Allan Qui? (from 'Suffer' by Gongzilla 1995)
05 Wring It Out (from 'From Your Heart And Your Soul' by Steve Hunt 1997) 
06 Day Of The Dead (from 'Mythology' by Derek Sherinian 2004)
07 Long Voyage Home (from 'Sonic Undertow' by Riptyde 2004)

Disc IV - 2005-2017
01 Aten (Window Of Appearances) (from 'Book Of The Dead' by K² 2005)
02 Skippy (from 'Nebula' by David Hines 2005)
03 Tsunami (from 'The State Of Things' by David Garfield & Friends 2005)

04 El Gato Fandango (from 'Prowlin' by Dan Carlin 2007)
05 The Thinking Stone (from 'Quantum' by Planet X 2007)
06 Fred 2011 (from 'Dirty & Beautiful - Volume 2' by Gary Husband 2012)
07 Location (from 'Playboi Carti' by Playboi Carti 2017)
08 Vista (from 'Life' by MSM Schmidt 2017)

The Three Johns - Men Like Monkeys (1985)

The Three Johns were an English post-punk/indie rock band formed in 1981 in Leeds, England, by guitarist Jon Langford (co-founder of the Mekons), vocalist John Hyatt and bassist Phillip "John" Brennan, augmented by a drum machine. The band initially formed just before the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Diana Spencer, and their first gig was to be part of a "Funk the Wedding" event, but they were refused permission to play because they were drunk. They specialized in abrasive, politically charged, danceable rock, sounding almost nothing like Langford's main band, and were a silly/serious bunch of political and cultural provocateurs. Recording during the height of Margaret Thatcher's ill-conceived Tory rebellion, the Johns were openly antagonistic to this new, conservative vision of Britain's future, and while their elliptical and epigrammatic lyrics might not offer the sloganeering that would easily identify them as lefties, certainly there were enough hints dropped along the way. To remove any doubt, the band explained that they were not a socialist band, but were a group of socialists who are in a band, and that  the distinction was an important one. Their left-wing leanings were further evidenced by the sleeve of their 1984 'Atom Drum Bop' album, which carried the words "Rock 'n' Roll Versus Thaatchiism", a reference to then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and her marketing by Saatchi & Saatchi, and in 1985 they played at the GLC's Jobs for a Change festival in London's Battersea Park. Unlike other rock agit-prop bands, the Johns played a fairly accessible version of polemical post-punk anti-pop that embraced big, messy arena-rock-sounding guitars and hard, repetitive, quasi-hip-hop dance beats. 

Perhaps the most subversive thing about them is that, despite Langford's and Hyatt's goofy vocals, they were, in their own weird way, pure pop for now people, especially those who hated Thatcher. With collective tongue planted firmly in cheek, the Johns took on British and American obsession with materialism, the diabolical Reagan/Thatcher lovefest, and the machinations of the pop music industry, all of it done with a great sense of humour mixed in with genuine fear and horror. Frequently hard to pin down, they revelled in being slippery, exhibiting a love and loathing for pop music, and in some respects they resembled friends and fellow Leeds mates The Gang Of Four, but where The Gang Of Four was dour and serious (bordering on academic), the Johns were loutish and boisterous, which when combining politics and rock & roll can, ultimately, be a good thing. They signed to CNT Records in 1982, which Langford jointly founded, and released two singles and an EP for the label. After signing to Abstract Records the label released all their material over the next five years, and their singles regularly appeared in the UK Indie Chart during the mid-1980's. They were a particular favourite of John Peel, and recorded six sessions for his BBC Radio 1 show, and also reached No. 14 in the 1985 Festive Fifty with 'Death Of The European'. The band split up in late 1988 after a disastrous US tour, but reformed in 1990, releasing 'Eat Your Sons', a concept album about cannibalism, before splitting again. During their time in the band, the members managed to maintain their day jobs: Langford as a graphic designer and Hyatt a teacher of fine art at Leeds Polytechnic, and after the split Langford continued with the Mekons, later releasing a solo album, while Hyatt concentrated on his academic career. They reformed again in 2012, playing five shows, and continued to perform intermittently through 2017 in the UK, mostly in the Manchester and Leeds-Bradford areas.

Track listing

Disc I - 1982-1983
01 Pink Headed Bug (single 1982)
02 Lucy In The Rain (b-side of 'Pink Headed Bug')
03 English White Boy Engineer (single 1982)
04 Secret Agent (b-side of 'English White Boy Engineer')
05 A.W.O.L. (single 1983)
06 Rooster Blue (b-side of 'A.W.O.L.')
07 Image Or An Animal (b-side of 'A.W.O.L.')
08 Kick The Dog Right Out (b-side of 'A.W.O.L.')
09 Men Like Monkeys (single 1983)
10 Two Minute Ape! (b-side of 'Men Like Monkeys')
11 Windolene (b-side of 'Men Like Monkeys')
12 Marx's Wife (b-side of 'Men Like Monkeys')
13 Paris-Forty One (b-side of 'Men Like Monkeys')

Disc II - 1984-1985
01 Do The Square Thing (single 1984)
02 The World Of The Workers (b-side of 'Do The Square Thing')
03 Zowee (b-side of 'Do The Square Thing')
04 Kinkybeat (b-side of 'Do The Square Thing')
05 Death Of A European (single 1985)
06 Heads Like Convicts (b-side of 'Death Of A European')
07 Rabies (b-side of 'Death Of A European')
08 Twentieth Century Boy (b-side of 'Death Of A European')
09 Fruit Flies (from the 'Never Mind The Jacksons...Here's The Pollocks' compilation 1985)
10 Brainbox (He's A Brainbox) (single 1985)
11 Watch It Go (b-side of 'Brainbox (He's A Brainbox')
12 Crazytown (b-side of 'Brainbox (He's A Brainbox')
13 Men Without Bones (b-side of 'Brainbox (He's A Brainbox')

Joi - Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome (1997)

Joi Elaine Gilliam was born on 25 January 1971, and is better known mononymously as Joi. She released her debut album, 'The Pendulum Vibe', in 1994 on EMI, with Dallas Austin as the executive producer, and while the lead single 'Sunshine & The Rain' received heavy airplay on video outlets such as VH1 and MTV, the single failed to become a hit, and album sales were disappointing. Despite the low sales, critical praise from the media was positive, with some calling her 'the new Madonna'. In fact, Madonna herself was so impressed with 'The Pendulum Vibe' that she changed the direction of her 1994 album 'Bedtime Stories', incorporating Joi's signature style of "neo soul". The track 'Freedom' from 'The Pendulum Vibe' was later re-recorded featuring Aaliyah, Mary J. Blige, En Vogue, Me'shell Ndegeocello, TLC, Queen Latifah, Vanessa Williams, SWV, Brownstone and many more, for use in the 1995 Mario Van Peebles film 'Panther'. In 1997, Joi prepared for the release of her second album, 'Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome', on Limp/EMI Records, adding funk-rock band Fishbone as her backing group, and including a nod to her renegade female funk predecessor Betty Davis with a cover of her 'If I’m In Luck (I Might Get Picked Up)'. 'I Believe' was picked to be the first single, and a video, which featured a then pregnant Joi, was shot, but weeks before its release EMI announced that they wanted more "radio friendly" tracks for the album, so the video's release was cancelled, and the album was put on hold. 

Before returning to the studio, Joi gave birth to a baby girl, named Keypsiia "Blue-Daydreamer" Gipp, and she decided to take a short hiatus. Around a year later she returned with a new single 'Ghetto Superstar', which featured her then husband rapper Big Gipp, and a video was shot with Big Gipp and their 1-year-old daughter Keypsiia. However, when her label Rowdy/EMI folded, that was the end for the album, which was then cancelled completely. Even though the record never saw the light of day commercially, bootleg copies began circulating on the internet, and some media outlets even posted reviews of it, calling it "ahead of its time", and to me there's more than a hint of trip-hop amongst the excellent R'n'B on show. In spite of the positive feedback received for the project, Joi was disappointed about its cancellation and decided to take a break to take care of her family. Dallas's company FreeWorld Records acquired the rights to release the album, but instead they released two different promotional EPs for radio, with a selection of songs from the album, and then FreeWorld Records went out of business before 'Amoeba Cleansing Syndrome' could be released. This was yet another example of a perfectly decent album being lost due to the fragile nature of the music business, and as it deserves to be given a hearing then here it is so that we can do just that. 

Track listing

01 Welcome Amoeba Spirit 
02 Move On 
03 Answering Machine (interlude)
04 If I'm In Luck (I Might Just Get Picked Up) 
05 Ghetto Superstar

06 After Show (interlude)
07 Time To Smile

08 My Brother's Letter

09 You Turn Me On (feat. Peach Of Whild Peach)

10 Hurts Sometimes 
11 E'En So Lord Jesus, Quickly Come
12 Soul

13 It's Over

14 I Believe

15 Dirty Mind 

16 Dandelion Dust

17 If I Could Fly 
18 Copy Cat (Outro)

Paradiso Girls - Crazy Horse (2010)

Jimmy Iovine, owner of Interscope Records, decided to create a new girl group after meeting French singer and former Star Academy yoga teacher Aria Crescendo, and together with Robin Antin, Martin Kierszenbaum and will.i.am, he auditioned over 500 girls in London, some of which had been noticed during The X Factor UK auditions. He cast six of them, including singer Lauren Bennett, singer/dancer Kelly Beckett, as well as rapper/singers Shar Mae Amor and Chelsea Grace Korka alongside Aria Crescendo. Each girl represented a different country with the group having no lead singer, unlike The Pussycat Dolls. After two years of production, the group finally released its first official single, 'Patron Tequila', featuring Eve and Lil' Jon, on iTunes in April 2009, and the song was intended as the lead single from their proposed debut album entitled 'Crazy Horse'. In June 2010, their second single, 'Who's My Bitch', was released digitally, but unlike the previous single, it performed poorly in the charts and the group did no promotions for the song. Following the poor performance of the second single, numerous rumours of disbandment began to circulate the internet after some band members began to remove the word "Paradiso" from their Twitter names, although member Shar Mae Amor stated in an interview on UStream that the group was preparing for a third single, while Lauren Bennett stated that the album was already finished and that the group were just waiting for their record label to set a release date. The fate of the group was then put into question when a brief disagreement broke out between band members Crescendo and Korka on Twitter, after Korka tweeted that the group was still together but each band member will be pursuing their own projects for the time being. A frustrated Crescendo then replied to her tweet by saying "why are you confusing the fans ????????? u know the troth Chealsea so stop pretending .......be truthful to ur hart for once". On 27 October 2010, Crescendo made an unofficial confirmation that the group had been dropped by Interscope Records, and she expressed her disappointment for the lack of promotion given to the band in return for their efforts over the last two years. She also confirmed that their highly anticipated debut album would no longer be released. No official track listing has ever surfaced, and the group apparently recorded over 50 songs in preparation for it, but enough of them have since surfaced to put together a pretty good approximation of the 'Crazy Horse' album, and so here it is. 

Track listing

01 Patron Tequila (feat. Eve & Lil Jon)
02 I Got it From My Mama (feat. ​will.i.am & Daft Punk)
03 Love Is All I Need
04 Down
05 Boys & Girls
06 So Over
07 Who's My Bitch

08 W.O.W.
09 Unpredictable
10 Big Ponny
11 My DJ
12 Boys Go Crazy (feat. The-Dream)
13 (That’s Just) What I Like (feat. ​will.i.am)

Sting - The Gordon Sumner Quartet (1993)

Timothy White was a well-known journalist in the US, being the senior editor for 'Rolling Stone' magazine, and then Editor in Chief of 'Billboard' from 1991 until his early death in 2002, from a heart attack at the age of 50. He also recorded interviews with musicians for broadcast on various radio stations around America, and in 1991 he invited Sting plus three of his band into the studio to talk about his career, and his recently released album 'The Soul Cages'. In between the chat the four piece group of Sting (bass/vocals), Dominic Miller (guitar), David Sancious (piano) and Vinnie Colaiuta (drums) played stripped-down jazz versions of a number of songs, some from the album, some choice covers, and a rare b-side in 'I Miss You, Kate'. Two years later, in 1993, the same musicians returned for a second interview, this time to discuss the recently released record 'Ten Summoner's Tales', and once again they interspersed the chat with jazzy versions of some of the tracks from the album, plus a few older songs and a selection of covers. A number of recordings from this second session are missing, as they were removed from bootlegs of the sessions after it was reported that they had been officially released, but I have searched everywhere and can find no sign of them on any official Sting record, so it appears that are probably lost forever. There are, however, enough great recordings from both shows to put together a superb album of Sting and the band in a jazz quartet setting, performing some of his best songs in a way you've probably never heard them before. I've selected what I consider the best of the tracks from each session and performed some subtle edits to tidy them up, to make a concise 50-minute album, and if you want to hear the full version of all the available recordings plus the interviews from the 1993 show then you can hear them here.

Track listing

01 Jeremiah Blues (Part 1)

02 I Miss You, Kate
03 The Soul Cages
04 The Wind Cries Mary
05 If I Ever Lose My Faith In You
06 Love Is Stronger Than Justice 
07 Fields Of Gold 
08 Englishman In New York 
09 Fortress Around Your Heart 
10 Nothing 'Bout Me> 
11 Every Breath You Take 

Bruce Springsteen - Across The River (1979) **UPGRADE**

When I first posted this collection of out-takes from 'The River' sessions, I did note that the vocals were mixed very low, and that in some cases they almost sounded like wordless guide vocals ready for over-dubbing later, but that never happened and so these are only versions of these songs out there. Since I posted the album there have been a number of innovations in music editing, one of which is that you can now use AI to split out the individual components of a track and remix them. Paul over at Albums That Should Exist is a great fan of this and uses it all the time, but I've never really tried it, and so I though that this was the perfect album to try it out on. I've therefore stripped out the vocals from all these songs and boosted the volume so that you can now hear them, and if anything it has just reinforced my opinion that they are guide vocals, as even at this new volume the lyrics are pretty much unintelligible. It's still good to hear them, though, as they do make these recordings sound more like songs than the quasi-instrumentals that they were before. The only one I didn't need to touch was 'In The City Tonight', so I hope that the rest of them now sound up to the quality of that track. The whole album has been updated on both Soulseek and Mega.  

Track listing

01 Out On The Run
02 The Man Who Got Away
03 Under The Gun
04 Chevrolet Deluxe
05 Night Fire
06 In The City Tonight
07 Slow Fade
08 Break My Heart
09 Find It Where You Can
10 Chain Lightning
11 I Don't Wanna Be

ABC - Alphabet Soup (2022)

As you will know from my recent post from Vice Versa, ABC came about almost by accident, when Vice Versa were touring in the Netherlands and they were invited to jam in a studio in Rotterdam. Martin Fry improvised some vocals, and after the initial surprise at the quality of his voice, they decided to make him the lead singer of the band. After spending the next year writing new songs, they re-christened themselves ABC and set off to have a stab at pop stardom. The new band retained some of the old Vice Versa line-up, with Fry singing, Stephen Singleton playing saxophone and Mark White on guitar and keyboards, and they were joined by Mark Lickley on bass and David Robinson on drums, with the band's very first single, 'Tears Are Not Enough', making the UK top 20 when it was released in 1981. Soon afterwards, Robinson left the band and was replaced by David Palmer, shortly followed by Lickley, who was not replaced. In 1982, the band released their Trevor Horn-produced debut studio album 'The Lexicon Of Love', which reached number one on the UK Albums Chart, and it often features in UK critics' lists of their favourite albums. Three further singles were extracted from the album, with 'Poison Arrow', 'The Look Of Love' and 'All Of My Heart' all being top ten hits in 1982. Following the culmination of the Lexicon Of Love tour, Palmer joined the Yellow Magic Orchestra for a series of tour dates, but when Fry, White and Singleton decided to reconvene in order to commence work on their next album, Palmer had to leave ABC in order to honour Yellow Magic Orchestra's touring commitments. The remaining members found it difficult to follow-up on the success of their debut, and their Gary Langan-produced second album, 'Beauty Stab', was released in November 1983, performing poorly in comparison to its predecessor, and peaking at number 12 on the UK album chart. 

The first single from the album, 'That Was Then But This Is Now', briefly appeared in the UK top 20, followed by a top 40 showing for 'SOS', and rather perversely they decided to eschew remixes, and so the 12" single for 'That Was Then But This Is Now' featured the disclaimer "This record is exactly the same as the 7" version. The choice is yours." Singleton left the band shortly after the release of 'Beauty Stab' as a result of Fry and White's reluctance to spend much time touring the band's material, and so Fry and White enlisted the services of Fiona Russell Powell (under the name "Eden") and David Yarritu in the band's new line-up. They recorded their next album 'How to Be A ... Zillionaire!', which was released in 1985, but the band's chart success dwindled further in the UK with this album, although they did score their first US top 10 hit with 'Be Near Me', which also made the UK top 30. The album also featured the singles '(How To Be A) Millionaire', 'Vanity Kills' and 'Ocean Blue', although none of them could crack the UK top 40. After a hiatus, during which Fry was being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma, he and White reconvened ABC as a duo, releasing the album 'Alphabet City' in 1987, which returned them to the UK Top 10 for the first time in five years, peaking at No. 7. It featured 'When Smokey Sings', a tribute to Smokey Robinson, which narrowly missed the UK Top 10, although it did give the group their biggest hit in the US, where it peaked at number 5 in September. In 1989, the duo issued 'Up', and their fifth and final PolyGram studio album experimented with house music, scoring a minor UK hit with the single 'One Better World', although a second single, 'The Real Thing', and the album itself were less successful. During this period, the duo worked on a couple of outside productions aimed at the house music scene, one for Paul Rutherford's (Frankie Goes to Hollywood) solo album and first single release, and also for Lizzie Tear on the duo's own Neutron label. 

In 1990, they released a greatest hits compilation album, 'Absolutely', which covered all of ABC's albums up until 1990 and featured most of their singles, and it made the UK Top 10. In 1991 the duo moved to the EMI label (and MCA in North America), where they recorded the album 'Abracadabra', and  two singles, 'Love Conquers All' and 'Say It', which narrowly missed the UK Top 40, though a remix of the latter by the Italian production team Black Box appeared on the US dance charts. Fry also collaborated with M People in 1991 on their first album, 'Northern Soul', recording vocals for the song 'Life', although when the album was re-released in 1992, and again in 1995, this track was omitted. After a six-year hiatus, Fry, now the sole member of ABC, resurrected the band's name in 1997 for the album 'Skyscraping', an homage to several of his musical heroes, including David Bowie, Roxy Music and the Sex Pistols. With Glenn Gregory of Heaven 17 and Keith Lowndes contributing to the sessions and songwriting, the album was commercially unsuccessful, though a single, 'Stranger Things', did reach No. 57 in the UK, while two other singles, 'Rolling Sevens' and 'Skyscraping', did not fare as well. In 1999, ABC released their first live album, 'The Lexicon Of Live', and two years later came 'Look Of Love – The Very Best of ABC', which was essentially a reissue of the 1990 greatest hits compilation, but featured two new songs by Fry, 'Peace And Tranquility' and 'Blame'. In 2004, the VH1 show Bands Reunited attempted to get the band's classic line-up of Fry, White, Singleton and Palmer together for a reunion concert, and although Fry and Palmer appeared and played together, Singleton and White opted not to participate. 

Following a tour of the United States in May and June 2006, Fry and Palmer, together with session keyboardist Chuck Kentis, put together a new ABC album, 'Traffic', which was released in April 2008. In January 2016, Fry announced that a new ABC album would be entitled 'The Lexicon Of A Lost Ideal' and would be released in the UK in May 2016, featuring tracks penned by Fry, with contributions by Rob Fusari, Marcus Vere, Matt Rowe, and with orchestrations by Anne Dudley, who worked in a similar capacity on 'The Lexicon Of Love'. In May 2016, the re-titled 'The Lexicon of Love II' was released in the UK and the US, and it entered the UK Albums Chart at No. 5, the first time ABC had reached the Top 5 since the original 'Lexicon Of Love' album in 1982. The same year the band contributed a new song called 'Living Inside My Heart' to 'Fly: Songs Inspired By The Film Eddie The Eagle', and they closed the year by releasing their first Christmas song, entitled 'A Christmas We Deserve', as part of a 4-track EP. On Thursday 28th May 2020, the band released a new track 'Look Good Tonite', which was  available for 24 hours only as a lockdown-download, but it was later pressed up as a 7" single with 'Sixty Seconds Later' and given away free with issue 90 of Electronic Sounds magazine. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of 'The Lexicon Of Love', the band performed at Sheffield City Hall on 21 June 2022, including a performance of 'The Lexicon Of Love' in its entirety, and a recording of the concert was released as a limited edition live album on 19 May 2023. With the band still going strong 40 years after they formed, it's a good time post a collection of their non-album b-sides and compilation appearances, to celebrate one of the most iconic bands of the 80's. 

Track listing

Disc I - 1981-1985
01 Alphabet Soup (b-side of 'Tears Are Not Enough' 1981)
02 Overture (From The Lexicon Of Love) (b-side of 'All Of My Heart' 1982)
03 The Look Of Love (Part Three) (b-side of 'Valentine's Day' 1982)
04 The Look Of Love (Part Two) (b-side of 'The Look Of Love' 1982)
05 Theme From "Man-Trap" (b-side of 'Poison Arrow' 1982)
06 Into The Valley Of The Heathen Go (out-take from 'Lexicon Of Love' 1982)
07 Vertigo (b-side of 'That Was Then But This Is Now' 1983)
08 How To Be A Billionaire (b-side of 'How To Be A Millionaire' 1984)
09 What's Your Destination (b-side of 'Be Near Me' 1985) 
10 Judy's Jewels (b-side of 'Vanity Kills' 1985)

Disc II - 1987-1997
01 Chicago (Parts 1 & 2) (b-side of 'When Smokey Sings' 1987)
02 Minneapolis (b-side of 'The Night You Murdered Love' 1987)
03 The Night You Murdered Love (The Whole Story) (b-side of 'The Night You Murdered Love' 1987)
04 What's Good About Goodbye? (b-side of 'Love Conquers All' 1991)
05 Snakebite (bonus track on re-issue of 'Abracadabra' 1991)
06 Kiss Me Goodbye (original version - bonus track on re-issue of 'Abracadabra' 1991)
07 The World Spins On (b-side of 'Stranger Things' 1997)
08 All We Need (b-side of 'Stranger Things' 1997)

Disc III - 1997-2022
01 Skydubbing (b-side of 'Skyscraping' 1997)
02 Peace And Tranquility (single edit from 'Look Of Love: The Very Best Of ABC' 2001)
03 Blame (exclusive track from 'Look Of Love: The Very Best Of ABC' 2001)
04 High And Dry (from the '80's Recovered' compilation album 2015)
05 Living Inside My Heart (from 'Fly: Songs Inspired By The Film Eddie The Eagle' 2016)
06 A Christmas We Deserve (single 2016)
07 Look Good Tonite (7" single included with issue 90 of Electronic Sounds magazine 2022)
08 Sixty Seconds Later (b-side of 'Look Good Tonite')

The Stunners - Spin The Bottle (2011)

In 2007, Allie Gonino, Hayley Kiyoko, Kelsey Sanders, Marisol Esparza, and Tinash became friends and formed a band which they christened The Stunners, and six months later they'd signed with Columbia Records and contributed a song to the soundtrack of the iCarly TV show. After they'd recorded their first single, Columbia refused to release it and so the band left the label and signed a production deal with Lionsgate Entertainment, who also produced a scripted television show pilot based on the group. In March 2009 they finally released their debut single, with 'Bubblegum' appearing on iTunes, but by July Sanders had left the group to pursue her acting career and was substituted by Lauren Hudson. In September the new line-up released a 5-song self-titled EP, influenced by Madonna, Gwen Stefani, and Rihanna, and the following year they signed to Universal Republic Records and released a single taken from their EP, with 'Dancin' Around The Truth' featuring New Boyz. In December 2010 they released a festive single, produced by Desmond Child and written by the five members of the group, titled 'Santa Bring My Soldier Home', and they encouraged donations to the USO for soldiers overseas who were not with their families for the holidays. After a tour with Justin Beiber they returned to LA to record new songs with producers and writers such as Toby Gad, The Cataracs, Dave Broome, Livvi Franc, Sheppard Soloman, Jimmy Harry and Tony Kanal of No Doubt fame, and one of these new songs, 'Spin The Bottle' was released as a single. While a second official second single titled 'Heart Stops Beating' was being readied for release, the group split up, and all future releases were cancelled. After the split, Alyssa Gonino focussed on her acting career, while Hayley Kiyoko, dubbed Lesbian Jesus by fans, pursued a successful solo career in the music business. The band released quite a few songs in their short career, and others have leaked online over the years, so there are enough tracks floating around to make up what could have been their debut album in 2011, and so here it is, named after the first song that was released from it. 

Track listing

01 Bubblegum
02 Make Me Sing
03 Spin The Bottle
04 We Got It
05 Dancing Around The Truth
06 Heart Stops Beating
07 Our Song
08 Imagine Me Gone
09 Let's Hear It For The Boys
10 Dancing Machine
11 Meltdown
12 Electri-city
13 The Truth About Us

Samantha Jade - My Name Is Samantha Jade (2007)

Samantha Jade Gibbs was born on 18 April 1987 in Perth, Western Australia, and she began modelling at the age of four, while at the age of nine she won a talent show after singing 'Amazing Grace'. In 2002 a friend of hers sent her demo to a record producer in Los Angeles, who decided to bring Jade and her family to Hollywood for a meeting, and the following year they moved there permanently. In 2004 she signed a deal with US record label Jive Records and began laying down a few demo tracks, one of which was recorded by JoJo, with 'Secret Love' appearing on the soundtrack of the film 'Shark Tale'. In 2006 she released her first single, which was written as the theme song for the the 2006 dance film 'Step Up'. It had little promotion, and only just cracked the US Billboard Pop 100, peaking at number 92. In 2007 she released her follow-up single 'Turn Around' as a taster for her debut album 'My Name Is Samantha Jade', but it didn't fare much better than the previous record, and after three years with the label, 'My Name Is Samantha Jade' had still not been released. She was later dropped by Jive Records, and continued to work on music independently with American record label Affinity West Entertainment, recording the controversial 'Golden Touch' album for them, which would later result in issues regarding its release. In 2010, Jade made her acting debut in the film 'Beneath The Blue', a sequel to 'Eye Of The Dolphin', and then returned to music to issue 'Secret' as her third single in Australia, but it also failed to chart. Following this disappointment she relocated back to Perth and worked at her father's mining factory counting stock. In a final attempt to return to the music industry, Jade successfully auditioned for the fourth season of The Australian X Factor in 2012, singing The Script's 'Breakeven', during which judge Guy Sebastian notably teared up. She progressed to the super bootcamp stage of the competition, where she sang 'It Ain't Over 'til It's Over' by Lenny Kravitz and 'No Air' by Jordin Sparks, which propelled her to the live finals. 

Over the ten weeks of live finals she sometimes struggled to stay in the competition, but in the grand final decider on 20 November 2012, she was announced as the winner, receiving a recording contract with record label Sony Music Australia and a Nissan Dualis car. After winning The X Factor, her winner's single 'What You've Done To Me' was released digitally via iTunes, debuting at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart, and her self-titled debut album was released on 7 December 2012, featuring re-recorded versions of the songs she performed on The X Factor. On 5 December 2012, Jade's former record label Camp West Recorders released the tapes that they'd kept of her 'My Name Is Samantha Jade' album, along with a few other tracks recorded with indie label Camp West Records, as 'The Golden Touch', without Jade or Sony Music's permission. Camp West Recorders Inc. company presidents John Harris and Ty Knox sued Jade for damages and alleged contract breaches, alongside Sony Music, Parade Artists, FremantleMedia Australia and Simon Cowell's Syco Entertainment, claiming that they were entitled to a share of Jade's income because they signed a development deal with her when she 15. While the court case was on-going Camp West Recorders were instructed to remove the album from iTunes, and so this example of her early work is now extremely hard to find. While in no way condoning the behaviour of Camp West, fans are bound to be interested to hear her early songs, and so rather than just posting the 'Golden Touch' album, which can be found on a number of other blogs, I've pieced together two thirds of the 'My Name Is Samantha Jade' album, and added a few of the later Camp West recordings to bulk up the record. Let's see if we can work out why Jive refused to release the album when they had the opportunity, but jumped at the chance when she became famous.

Track listing

01 What I Got 

02 Officially 

03 That's the Way

04 Free

05 Boyfriend 

06 Why Are We Strangers 

07 Turn Around

08 Step Up 

09 The Golden Touch

10 So Right

11 Forever

12 Love Gone Right

The Libertines - Dilly Boys (2004)

The founding members of the Libertines, Peter Doherty and Carl Barât, met when Barât was studying drama at Brunel University in Uxbridge, and sharing a flat in Richmond with Amy-Jo Doherty, Peter's elder sister. Barât and Doherty forged a bond over their shared passion for song-writing, and when Barât abandoned his course two years in, and Doherty left his English literature course at Queen Mary, University of London, and they moved into a flat together on Camden Road in North London, which they named "The Albion rooms". They formed a band with their neighbour Steve Bedlow, and named themselves The Strand, later discarded for The Libertines, after the Marquis de Sade's 'Lusts Of The Libertines. They later met John Hassall and Johnny Borrell, who played bass with the band for a short period, and many of their early gigs took place in their shared flat. In March 2000 the Libertines met Banny Pootschi, a lawyer for Warner Chappell Music Publishing, who recognized their potential and she took on an active role in managing them, taking over from Roger Morton's unsuccessful six month in the job. They recorded 'Legs XI', a set of their best eight tracks at the time, but by December 2000 they had still not been signed, and this caused Dufour, Hassall and Pootschi to part company with the band. The subsequent success of the Strokes, a band with a similar style, caused Pootschi to reconsider her position, and she determined to get the band signed to Rough Trade Records within six months. Gary Powell was recruited to play drums, as Paul Dufour was deemed by Pootschi to be 'too old'. On 1 October 2001, Barât and Doherty played a showcase for James Endeacott from Rough Trade without Borrell, who failed to attend this important rehearsal. When they contacted him they found that he was on tour "living the high life", and so after Rough Trade offered them a record feal, they were in need of a bassist, so Hassall rejoined the band at their request. 

Doherty and Barât were still the focus of the group, and they rented a flat together at 112a Teesdale Street in Bethnal Green, for which they resurrected the name "The Albion Rooms". Now with a firm line-up, they began to play more gigs alongside the Strokes and the Vines in quick succession, and this generated some positive reaction in the music press. Their first single was a double A-side of 'What A Waster'/'I Get Along', produced by former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler, and it was released on 3 June 2002 to highly positive reception, although it received little airplay due to its liberal use of profanities. Their first album was recorded and produced by ex-Clash guitarist Mick Jones, and their second single and title track from the album, 'Up The Bracket', was released on 30 September 2002, and charted at No. 29. This was followed by the release of the album on 21 October, reaching number 35 in the UK albums chart, and the group won Best New Band at the NME Awards for that year. During the recording of 'Up The Bracket' and in the subsequent touring, Doherty's use of both crack coacine and heroin had increased greatly, and his relationship with the rest of the band deteriorated, with some of this tension being visible in their performances. The band went to the US to promote themselves and work on new material, and while in New York City around May 2003, they recorded the 'Babyshambles Sessions', where they recorded versions of current and future Libertines and Babyshambles releases such as 'Last Post On The Bugle', 'Albion', and 'In Love With A Feeling'. However, Barât became increasingly exasperated with the people with whom Doherty was associating, and the drugs they brought, and so he quit the sessions in disgust and Doherty finished recording alone, giving the recordings to a fan called Helen Hsu who put them out for free on the Internet, allegedly on Doherty's instructions. Back in the UK, tensions continued to grow as Doherty organised and played guerrilla gigs which Barât did not attend, but they did release a new single, with 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' seeing the return of Bernard Butler as producer. 

The lyrical quality of the song was praised, and the single held as a prime example of Doherty and Barât's songwriting talents, but Doherty did not work well with Butler, and was rarely present during the recording process. As Barât's birthday approached, Doherty organised a special celebration gig in an attempt to smooth the tensions between them, but Barât was already attending a party organised by some of his friends, and the hosts convinced him not to leave. Doherty was therefore left to play the gig himself, and feeling betrayed, he refused to take the train to Germany the next day for the Libertines' European tour. The band were forced to play without Doherty, and as a result Barât refused to let Doherty back into the band unless he cleaned himself up. Doherty continued to play with separate musical project Babyshambles, whilst the Libertines completed tour commitments in Japan without him, and while feeling distraught and angry, Doherty burgled Barât's flat and was subsequently arrested and was sentenced to six months in Wandsworth prison, later reduced on appeal to two months. Amidst the internal turmoil, 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun' was released on 18 August 2003, and charted at No. 11, the highest position they had managed at that point. When Doherty was released from prison, Barât was waiting for him at the prison gates, and after an emotional reunion they played a gig the same day at the Tap'n'Tin pub, in Chatham, Kent, which was later named NME's Gig of the Year. In 2004 Banny Pootschi resigned and was replaced as manager by Creation Records founder Alan McGee, under whose watchful gaze they continued to play gigs and commenced recording their second album with Bernard Butler, but the relationship between Doherty and Butler was as unsuccessful as before and these attempts were soon abandoned. 

Mick Jones returned as producer for the second attempt to record the follow-up album, but Doherty had returned to his drug habit, and so relationships were strained, and security hired for the protection of Doherty and Barât had to be used to keep them from fighting. When the album was finished, Doherty left the mixing and dubbing to the others, and would not return to the studio with the Libertines for another ten years. On 14 May 2004, he was admitted to The Priory in an attempt to overcome his addictions, and when he left The Priory he informed Barât that he was going to Wat Tham Krabok in Thailand to get clean, and after a short set that night he left the band. Meanwhile, the Libertines were still releasing fresh material, and new single 'Can't Stand Me Now' detailed the breakdown of the ailing frontmen's once seemingly cast iron friendship, while illustrating the love-hate relationship between them. It was released on 9 August 2004 and charted at No. 2, while their eponymous second album came out in late August, and topped the albums chart. Their final single 'What Became Of The Likely Lads' reached No. 9 in the UK charts, and they played what would be their final show for over five years in Paris on 17 December 2004, still without Doherty. Barât then chose to dissolve the Libertines, as he was no longer willing to tour and record under the name without Doherty. Barât and Doherty remained out of contact for several months after the Libertines ended, due to Doherty's spiralling drug abuse, and any subsequent talks of a reunion remained tepid as Doherty and Barât concentrated on their respective bands Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things. In March 2010 it was announced that the Libertines were to reform to play at the Reading and Leeds Festivals, but for this post I've called a halt at their break-up in 2004, and collected all the non-album singles and b-sides released in that short two year period by this troubled, but much-loved, group.  

 
Track listing

01 Skag & Bone Man (b-side of 'Up The Bracket' 2002)
02 The Delaney (b-side of 'Up The Bracket' 2002)
03 Plan A (b-side of 'Up The Bracket' 2002)
04 What A Waster (single 2002)
05 May Day (b-side of 'What A Waster')
06 Don't Look Back Into The Sun (single 2003)
07 Skint And Minted (demo) (b-side of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun')
08 General Smuts (demo) (b-side of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun')
09 Mr Finnegan (demo) (b-side of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun')
10 The 7 Deadly Sins (demo) (b-side of 'Don't Look Back Into The Sun')
11 Bangkok (demo) (b-side of 'Time For Heroes' 2002)
12 Sally Brown (demo) (b-side of 'Time For Heroes' 2002)
13 (I've Got) Sweets (b-side of 'Can't Stand Me Now' 2004)
14 Dilly Boys (b-side of 'Can't Stand Me Now' 2004)
15 Cyclops (b-side of 'Can't Stand Me Now' 2004)
16 Never Never (b-side of 'Can't Stand Me Now' 2004)
17 All At Sea (b-side of 'Can't Stand Me Now' 2004)