George Harrison - Cloud Nine (Mike's Mix) (1987)

Time for another guest appearance from Mike Solof, with his own remix of a classic album.

It’s been a while since my last post…but I’m back with a vengeance! This time I got a hold of some combined multi-tracks from George’s brilliant comeback album from 1987 'Cloud Nine'. So using wonderful current technology with such funky names as Demucs V4, UVR and who could forget that fan favorite MDX KIM Vocs 2… I was able to reduce them down even more. So what started as something labelled backing tracks and lead vocals, became one track each of: vocals, backing vocals, bass, drums, synths, keyboards and saxophones. 

And then I went to work!

I wanted my remix of this album to accomplish a couple of things. I wanted to turn it into something leaning much more toward a rockin’ yet mellow acoustic set of songs. I wanted it to highlight George’s guitar playing and his incredible vocals and harmony vocals much more than on the original album. I also wanted it to be very different from the original album. And finally…I wanted it to be a beautiful listen…not heavy at all, just fun! I think I succeeded on all counts. PJ asked me what changes I made…but made that unfortunate request AFTER I 
was done remixing the whole thing…so I went back and re-listened to it again and I will now explain track by track the many differences between the released version and my remix:
01 Cloud Nine: I cut out a lot of tracks from this song. You’ll notice no drums and bass. I did that on most of my remixes. To me, it really clears out the sound and allows you to focus on so many details that were covering up. I reduced the sax’s to just a hint here and there and really tried to focus on George’s and Eric’s echoing guitars throughout. 
02 That’s What It Takes: I dug the vocal harmonies on this one so I really brought those to the fore. I removed all the drums again and left a muted bass line. And now you can really hear Clapton’s awesome guitar solo with crystal clarity. This was the only time in the entire album that I kinda added something that wasn’t originally there. During the fadeout I doubled up on the vocals because although George only did that one time, I loved it, so I copied this section and had him do it a couple of times at the very end. 
03 Fish On The Sand: I lowered the drums and bass a lot on this one but left them in because this one just sounded strange with them completely gone, and I left in and upped the driving guitars. I once again played up the backing and harmony vocals, and occasionally left out some of the main vocals so you could hear much better what was going on underneath. Ohh, and and I left in the descending synths that appear occasionally because they're fun. 
04 Just For Today: I left out a ton of things from this one and when I did, it just became this lovely harmony-laden track filled with George’s beautiful weeping guitars. Stunningly beautiful, and one of my favorite mixes on the album.
05 This Is Love: Drums are gone again which allows the focus to be totally on George’s vocals and Jeff Lynne’s soulful funky bass and synths.
06 When We Was Fab: I left in the strings and Gary Wright’s keyboards on this. No drums again. A mini Beatles reunion on this one with Ringo on backing vocals and George on sitar. Fun, Beatlesque vocals and feel throughout!
07 Devil’s Radio: Great Clapton guitar throughout on this along with some great vocals. And you guessed it… almost no drums and a very reduced bass presence on this one as well.
08 Someplace Else: A beautiful ballad showcasing Harrison’s stunning slide guitar work,

something he never got enough credit for. 
09 Wreck Of The Hesperus: Focused on Clapton’s guitar again. So good! Little bass and no drums… again.
10 Breathe Away. Removed a lot but not all…(see the break) of the foreign sounding atmospheric instruments which left mostly just the vocals, Strings and drums (yes, I left them in this time! LOL!) Some of George’s most beautifully dreamy lyrics of any album on this song: “as the morning light was painting whispers of a sigh… like an opalescent moon all alone in the sky of a foreign land.”
11 Got My Mind Set On You: The classic single…redone! No drums and very little sax completely changes the feel of the entire track. I made this a much more almost acoustic track. It still rocks…but in a very different way! The funky bass by Jeff Lynne is stellar!

12 Cheer Down: A bonus cut! My other favorite song written and (parts) recorded during the 'Cloud Nine' sessions… but left off the album. With no drums and reduced bass, this lets Harrison’s slide and lead guitars, and Lynne’s backing vocals, shine! 
Here’s the rest of the story from Wiki: The title of the song is attributed to Harrison's wife Olivia, who would tell her husband, "Okay, cheer down, big fellow" when he became too enthusiastic. Harrison first recorded a rhythm track for the song during the sessions for his 1987 album 'Cloud Nine' He subsequently finished the lyrics with assistance from Tom Petty. The following year, along with 'Run So Far' and 'That Kind of Woman', 'Cheer Down' was among the four compositions that Harrison offered to Eric Clapton for inclusion on the latter's album 'Journeyman'. Clapton instead decided to use it for the soundtrack to the film 'Lethal Weapon 2', which he had been commissioned to supply, but he persuaded Harrison to contribute his own recording for inclusion in the film. This one was also produced by Jeff Lynne..so it’s kind of a Wilbury track too! And it's all housed in an alternative cover featuring a more laid-back George, in keeping with the new feel of the album. 

Track listing 

01 Cloud Nine
02 That’s What It Takes
03 Fish On The Sand
04 Just For Today
05 This Is Love
06 When We Was Fab
07 Devil’s Radio
08 Someplace Else

09 Wreck Of The Hesperus
10 Breathe Away From Heaven
11 Got My Mind Set On You
12 Cheer Down

Mike has some more of his remixes all ready to go, so leave a comment and we can choose between 'Rubber Soul', 'All Things Must Pass', 'Ram', or 'Double Fantasy/Milk And Honey'.

Adele - Morning Becomes Eclectic (2008)

On 21 March 2008, when Adele was just a fledgling singer-songwriter, she appeared on the US radio show Morning Becomes Eclectic at the KCRW studios in Santa Monica, California, to promote her recently released debut album '19'. As well as talking to Nic Harcourt, she performed a lot of the songs from the album in a stripped-down format, with just piano or guitar backing, which allowed her vocals to shine through. On 17 November 2008 she was back, chatting again with Nic Harcourt and playing more songs from '19'. Three years later she was a household name, but agreed to return to KCRW studios on 25 February 2011 to talk about her sophomore effort '21' with Jason Bentley, and as well as playing songs from that record in the same way that she had the previous times, she returned to '19' for a couple of songs that she'd missed the first time. This meant that she had performed ten of the twelve tracks from that debut in an acoustic setting, and so when I tracked down a similar version of 'Best For Last' I though it would be good to hear what the whole album would sound like acoustically. The only track that she didn't perform that way was 'Tired', but she did add a couple of covers in those first two sets, and so I've replaced 'Tired' with her take on Etta James' 'Fool That I Am', and added Sam Cooke's 'That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On' as a bonus at the end. I know that Paul over at Albums That Should Exist posted these tracks a few years ago, but he included all of the songs from all three sessions, plus the chat in between, whereas I just wanted to hear '19' in all it's stripped-down glory.  

Track listing

01 Daydreamer
02 Best For Last
03 Chasing Pavements
04 Cold Shoulder
05 Crazy For You
06 Melt My Heart To Stone
07 First Love
08 Right As Rain
09 Make You Feel My Love
10 My Same
11 Fool That I Am
12 Hometown Glory
13 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On

Iggy Azalea - Digital Distortion (2017)

Amethyst Amelia Kelly was born 7 June 1990, and is known professionally as Iggy Azalea. At the age of 16, she moved from Australia to the United States in order to pursue a career in music. When she first arrived in the United States in 2006, she stayed in Miami, Florida, and afterward lived briefly in Houston, Texas. She then settled for a few years in Atlanta, Georgia, working with a member of the rap collective Dungeon Family named Backbone, and during that period she met future collaborators FKi and Natalie Sims. On 27 September 2011, Azalea released her first full-length project, a mixtape titled 'Ignorant Art', including her songs 'Pussy' and 'My World', for which she released a video featuring a cameo appearance from character actor and former wrestler Tiny Lister, which earned her more attention due to its rising popularity online. In December 2011, Azalea revealed she would release her debut studio album, 'The New Classic', as soon as she signed a major record label deal, with Interscope Records being her preferred choice, but Interscope were not happy with her insistence that T.I. was to be an ongoing part of her deal, and so she opted not to sign with the major label and stay independently signed to Grand Hustle Records, and the release of her first album was postponed. An EP, 'Glory', was released on 30 July 2012, as a stop-gap before the album, and a second mixtape 'Trapgold', produced entirely by Diplo and FKi, emerged in October 2012. In January and February 2013, Azalea worked on tour while still working on her upcoming singles, and a proposed summer release of 'The New Classic'. On 13 February 2013, it was announced that she had signed a record deal with Mercury Records,  and he debut album was slated for an October 2013 release, but in an interview with Australia's Herald Sun she revealed that due to other commitments, such as supporting Beyoncé on her Mrs. Carter Show World Tour, her record label would not allow her to release it until March 2014. In February 2014, it was announced that she would be releasing a new single titled 'Fancy', featuring English singer-songwriter Charli XCX, going on to become Azalea's most successful single to date, and her first to chart on the US Billboard Hot 100. After much delay and speculation, 'The New Classic' was finally released on 21 April 2014, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 chart, and in May 'Fancy' reached number-one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. In January 2015 she announced that she had started to work on her second studio album, and in May she released a duet with Britney Spears titled 'Pretty Girls', although later that month she cancelled her up-coming The Great Escape Tour, as she wanted a new tour to be planned around her new album, which was to released in 2016. 

In June, when asked details on her new music, she explained she had scrapped six months of work to start from scratch, and in October she revealed the initial title of her second album was to be 'Digital Distortion'. It marked her reunion with D.R.U.G.S., the production team behind her 2011 breakthrough mixtape 'Ignorant Art', and it included collaborations with artists such as rappers YG, Jeremih, DJ/producer Zedd, Brazilian singer Anitta and others. The project's lead single 'Team' was released on 18 March 2016, along with a dance video, and after replacing Chris Isaak as a judge on eighth season of The X Factor Australia, she explained that she was delaying the release of her album to 2017, after ending the relationship with her fiancé Nick Young. In November 2017, Azalea stated that she was not allowed to release any music until January 2018, as she had signed with a new label, Island Records, and she also revealed that the title of her second album had changed to 'Surviving The Summer'. By June 2018 the album had become an EP, and it was released on 3 August 2018, debuting at number 144 on the Billboard 200. In November 2018 she left Island Records to form her own label 'New Classic Records', and in February 2019 she announced that she had completed work on her second studio album 'In My Defense', finally confirming that 'Digital Distortion' had been scrapped. Reasons for the cancellation of the record include the numerous delays since recording started in 2015, the three underwhelming singles in 'Team', 'Switch' and 'Mo Bounce', and the change in her record label from Def Jam to Island. Some of the intended songs were posted for free download, including 'Middle Man', '7Teen', 'Elephant' and 'Azillion', while the three singles were officially released, and other songs hinted at inclusion included 'Savior', 'Sexy' and 'Higher'. Many old tracks were incorrectly labelled as leaks from the album, such as 'Down South', 'Slo.' and 'Demons', while others like 'Miami' were thought to be lost but have since surfaced. For this reconstruction I've used the three singles, which we know were intended for the album, plus the best of the remaining leaked recordings, to piece together an approximation of what 'Digital Distortion' might have sounded like had it appeared as intended in 2017.  

Track listing

01 Team
02 Saviour
03 Sexy (feat. French Montana)
04 Elephant (feat. YG)
05 Mo Bounce
06 I'm Nasty

07 Azillion
08 Middle Man
09 Switch
10 Miami
11 Three Day Weekend
12 7Teen
13 Boom Boom

Adam And The Ants - Beat My Guest (1978)

In my previous post for Adam And The Ants' 'Madam Stan' album I mentioned that the band had recorded quite a few demos around 1977 and 1978, before they eventually signed to Do It Records and released their 'Dirk Wears White Sox' debut album. 'Madam Stan' included a number of these demos, but there were others that were omitted, and so this second album from the group pulls them all together. In 1977 the line-up of  Mark Ryan (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar), Paul Flannagan (drums) and Ant himself on vocals recorded 'Plastic Surgery' (along with seven other unreleased demos later dubbed the 'Jubilee Demos' by bootleggers), and after Ryan was replaced by Johnny Bivouac in October 1977 the band finally adopted the name of Adam And The Ants, under which they re-recorded 'Deutscher Girls', and overdubbed a guitar solo onto the above-mentioned version of 'Plastic Surgery' for inclusion on the 'Jubilee' film soundtrack album. After signing to Decca Records and releasing the 'Young Parisians' single, more line-up changes resulted in the band now consisting of  Adam Ant (vocals and guitar), Matthew Ashman (guitar), Andy Warren (bass guitar) and Dave Barbe (drums), and they recorded a total of 19 demo recordings at Decca's studio in West Hampstead. This post collects together the 'Jubilee Demos' which were not included on the 'Madam Stan' album, plus the rest of the Decca demos from 1978, for a nostalgic look back at the nascent punk scene of the late 70's. 

Track listing 

01 Plastic Surgery
02 Beat My Guest
03 Deutscher Girls
04 Dirk Wears White Socks
05 Fat Fun
06 Hampstead
07 It Doesn't Matter
08 Puerto Rican

09 Fall In
10 Juanito The Bandito
11 Never Trust A Man (With Egg On HIs Face)

12 Young Parisians
13 Lady/Catch A Falling Star/Lady (Outro)
14 Whip In My Valise

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)