U2 ROSE BOWL SHOW ON DVD AND BLU RAY

U2360° At The Rose Bowl was the penultimate gig of last year’s U2360° Tour in support of their Grammy nominated album No Line on The Horizon. The Rose Bowl performance was the band’s biggest show of 2009 and U2′s biggest ever US show, with a live audience in excess of 97,000.

The show was also streamed across seven continents via YouTube. The first ever live streaming of a full-length stadium concert, U2360° at the Rose Bowl had over 10 million views on the channel in one week.

Shot entirely in HD, the concert was filmed with 27 cameras and directed by Tom Krueger who had previously worked on U23D, the first live action 3D concert movie taken from U2′s Vertigo Tour.

Available in standard and 2-disc deluxe DVD formats (see below), U2360° At The Rose Bowl will also be U2′s first concert available in Blu-ray. The deluxe formats and the Blu-ray will feature a new documentary called Squaring the Circle: Creating U2360° with new interviews from U2, Paul McGuinness and the team behind the touring production.

The ground breaking U2360° tour continues this year, with the US leg opening in Salt Lake City on June 3, and the European leg opening in Turin, Italy on August 6.

Tracklisting of U2360° At The Rose Bowl is as follows:
Get On Your Boots, Magnificent, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day, I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of, No Line On The Horizon, Elevation, In A Little While, Unknown Caller, Until the End of the World, The Unforgettable Fire, City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Sunday Bloody Sunday, MLK, Walk On, One, Where The Streets Have No Name, Ultra Violet (Light My Way), With Or Without You, Moment Of Surrender.

U2360° At The Rose Bowl is released in the following formats:

- Single Disc DVD, live concert only
- Deluxe DVD (content to be announced)
- Two Disc DVD Deluxe edition

and

- Blu-Ray Single Disc edition each featuring the live concert plus:
Squaring The Circle: Creating U2360° Documentary
U2360° Tour Clips
Bonus Track ‘Breathe’ (Live At The Rose Bowl)
Berlin Timelapse Video
Videos:
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (Animated)
I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight (Live At Barcelona)
The Making Of ‘Get On Your Boots’ Video
The Making Of ‘Magnificent’ Video

We are not sure why the opening Breathe is relegated to the ‘bonus song’ selection. Seems like a bizarre move to say the least.

U2360° At The Rose Bowl will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by Mercury Records on June 7, 2010.

Source U2.com

NEW ROBERT PALMER LIVE BBC CONCERT CD

Relive Robert’s Palmer’s concert at the Hammersmith Palais from 1983, which was originally recorded and broadcast on Radio 1 by the BBC.

This live release features many of the tracks from the album Pride and other classics that showcase Palmer’s innovative and legendary style.

Also included as a bonus track is favourite ‘Johnny & Mary’, also recorded by the BBC in 1982 for ‘Friday Night…Saturday Morning’.

Tracklisting:

1.
Every Kinda People
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
2.
What Can You Bring?
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
3.
Dance For Me
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
4.
Want You More
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
5.
You Can Have It (Take My Heart)
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
6.
Woke Up Laughing
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
7.
Say You Will
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
8.
Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
9.
Pride
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
10.
It’s Not Difficult
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
11.
Some Guys Have All The Luck
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
12.
Best Of Both Worlds
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
13.
Sulky Girl
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
14.
Looking For Clues
Hammersmith Palais 31/05/83
15.
Johnny and Mary
Friday Night…Saturday Morning 29/01/1982

JOHN MELLENCAMP RELEASES LIVE ALBUM FROM HIS 2008 TOUR

Life Death LIVE and Freedom, recorded during John’s 2008 tour, an 8-song live companion collection featuring many of the key songs from John Mellencamp’s 2008 much-lauded Life Death Love and Freedom.

While the Life Death Love and Freedom studio album was in various stages of production under the direction of T Bone Burnett, Mellencamp endeavoured to “road test” the album’s songs long before its release. Over the course of almost a year, Mellencamp – variously as a soloist and with his band — introduced concert goers to the new material, an unusual move for an artist who is identified with such a well-known body of prior work. The new music blended beautifully with his classic repertoire and was incredibly well received, something significant in light of the serious themes and the overall tone of many of the new songs. These songs were highlights of Mellencamp’s concerts as they spoke directly to the country about where we were and where we were headed. They include the driving, blues-rooted “If I Die Sudden,” the politically charged “Jena” and the poignant “A Ride Back Home”, who’s studio incarnation as a duet with Little Big Town’s Karen Fairchild, is Mellencamp’s latest single and video release. Also part of Life Death LIVE and Freedom are the ominous “Troubled Land,” which chronicles the malaise that gripped the country during the Bush years and the contemplative “Longest Days,” inspired by Mellencamp’s late grandmother. “Young Without Lovers” (with audience participation), the rollicking “My Sweet Love” and the folk-styled “Don’t Need This Body” complete the LIVE line-up.

The collection reflects the way the songs were heard by audiences for the very first time as Mellencamp assiduously adhered to a doctrine of “audio vérité.” Concert tracks, sourced directly from the mixing board, were not subject to after-the-fact studio enhancement, overdubbing, etc, and, as a result, offer a view of Mellencamp as both songwriter and communicator, on an elemental, truly accessible level. While Mellencamp’s touring band – Andy York (guitar), Dane Clark (drums), John Gunnell (bass), Miriam Sturm (violin), Troye Kinnett (accordion/keyboard) and Mike Wanchic (guitar) are heard on both the studio and live sets, there is a markedly discernable difference in terms of approach, intensity and tempo which transforms these live versions into something wholly unique and extraordinary.

Wanchic, part of Mellencamp’s band for over 30 years is co-producer of Life Death LIVE and Freedom with John Mellencamp. Engineer Bill Chappell recorded the songs live in concert over the course of six months of tour dates through North America.

Tracklisting:

1. If I Die Sudden
2. Troubled Land
3. Don’t Need This Body
4. Longest Days
5. Young Without Lovers
6. A Ride Back Home
7. Jena
8. My Sweet Love

KINKS REISSUES DUE ON 26 APRIL

Preservation: Act 1 and Preservation: Act 2 are 1973 concept albums (originally a single rock opera, but the idea was scratched), released as separate albums in 1973 and 1974 by the English rock group The Kinks.
Many hardcore Kinks fans were alienated by Ray Davies’ melodramatic songwriting during the Preservation project era, resulting in albums that played more like the soundtracks to a piece of musical theatre than rock albums.

More recent reviews of Preservation: Act 1 have been more sympathetic to its ambitions. In particular, All Music’s Stephen Thomas Erlewine has declared “Sweet Lady Genevieve” to be the “real candidate for Davies’ forgotten masterpiece”.

The CD reissue of Preservation: Act 1 includes the single versions of “Preservation” and “One of the Survivors”, neither of which are available on the original vinyl release.

Tracklisting:

Preservation Act 1

1. Preservation US Single
2. Morning Song
3. Daylight
4. Sweet Lady Genevieve
5. There’s A Change In The Weather
6. Where Are They Now?
7. One Of The Survivors
8. Cricket
9. Money And Corruption / I Am Your Man
10. Here Comes Flash
11. Sitting In The Midday Sun
12. Demolition
13. One of the Survivors Single Edit

Preservation Act 2

1. Announcement
2. Introduction to Solution
3. When A Solution Comes
4. Money Talks
5. Announcement
6. Shepherds of the Nation
7. Scum of the Earth
8. Second-Hand Car Spiv
9. He’s Evil
10. Mirror of Love
11. Announcement
12. Nobody Gives
13. Oh Where Oh Where is Love?
14. Flash’s Dream (The Final Elbow)
15. Flash’s Confession
16. Nothing Lasts Forever
17. Announcement
18. Artificial Man
19. Scrapheap City
20. Announcement
21. Salvation road

The Kinks – Everybody’s In Show Business

Everybody’s in Show-Biz is a 1972 double album released by the English rock group, The Kinks. The album’s first disc features studio recordings, while the second disc documents a two-night Carnegie Hall stand.
Everybody’s in Show-Biz is often seen as a transition album for The Kinks, marking the change in Ray Davies’ songwriting style toward more theatrical, campy and vaudevillian work, as evidenced by the rock-opera concept albums that followed it.

This album marks Davies’ first explorations of the trials of rock-star life and the monotony of touring (these themes would reappear in future releases like The Kinks Present A Soap Opera, Think Visual and the 1987 live album Live: The Road).

Tracklisting:

1. Here Comes Yet Another Day
2. Maximum Consumption
3. Unreal Reality
4. Hot Potatoes
5. Sitting in My Hotel
6. Motorway
7. You Don’t Know My Name
8. Supersonic Rocket Ship
9. Look A Little On the Sunnyside
10. Celluloid Heroes
11. Top of the Pops
12. Brainwashed
13. Mr. Wonderful
14. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
15. Holiday
16. Muswell Hillbilly
17. Alcohol
18. Banana Boat Song
19. Skin And Bone
20. Baby Face
21. Lola
22. Till the End of the Day
23. She’s Bought A Hat Like A Princess Marina Live

The Kinks – Muswell Hillbillies

Muswell Hillbillies was the band’s first album for RCA Records their prior recordings having been released on Pye Records released in November 1971. The album is named after the Muswell Hill area of North London, where band leader Ray Davies and guitarist Dave Davies grew up and the band formed in the early 1960s

The album centered around themes of poverty and working-class life, as well as the destruction and subdivision of old Victorian neighborhoods that had become commonplace in North London during the 1970s.

The album is a wide-ranging collection of Ray Davies compositions which focus on the frustrations and stresses of modern life, such as poverty, housing development, and subdivision Musical styles range from rock (“20th Century Man”) and country (“Muswell Hillbilly”) to blues (“Here Come the People in Grey”) and theatrical, music-hall inspired numbers (“Alcohol”). The album is notable for the intentional use of dated recording equipment. Ray Davies and engineer Mike Bodak utilized 10 year old microphones on many of the tracks to give the record an antiquated feel. Muswell Hillbillies was also the first of The Kinks’ records featuring their new brass section, The Mike Cotton Sound, which included Mike Cotton on trumpet, John Beecham on trombone and tuba, and Alan Holmes on clarinet.

The front cover picture was taken in The Archway Tavern, a pub more than 2 miles away from Muswell Hill. The back inset picture, showing the band below a signpost giving direction to Muswell Hill, was taken on the small traffic island at the intersection of Castle Yard and Southwood Lane in Highgate.

Tracklistings:

1. Twentieth Century Man
2. Acute Schizophrenia Paranoia Blues
3. Holiday
4. Skin And Bone
5. Alcohol Live
6. Complicated Life
7. Here Come The People In Grey
8. Have A Cuppa Tea
9. Holloway Jail
10. Oklahoma USA
11. Uncle Son
12. Muswell Hillbilly
13. Mountain Woman
14. Kentucky Moon

Buy your copy here:
US
Europe.

JEFF BECK RELEASES ‘EMOTION AND COMMOTION’ NEW CD FOR NEW LABEL RHINO WITH SPECIAL DELUXE EDITION

For his first studio album in seven years, Grammy-winning guitarist Jeff Beck returns with an eclectic mix of tracks that find the guitar virtuoso accompanied by a handpicked cast of talented musicians, as well as several songs accompanied by a 64-piece orchestra. Rhino unleashes the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer’s restless genius with EMOTION & COMMOTION. The album will be available on Atco Records, an imprint of Rhino Entertainment, on April 12 in Europe and April 13 at all retail outlets.

Beck recorded EMOTION & COMMOTION late last year at Sarm Studios in London with award-winning producers Steve Lipson and Trevor Horn. To create the album’s diverse sound, Beck used a number of musicians, including appearances by frequent collaborators Vinnie Colaiuta (drums), Jason Rebello (keyboards), and Tal Wilkenfeld (bass). The album also includes contributions from a trio of singers: Imelda May (“Lilac Wine”), Olivia Safe (“Elegy For Dunkirk”), and Grammy-winner Joss Stone (“I Put A Spell On You” and “There’s No Other Me”).

To complement the innovative tones he coaxes from his guitar, Beck recorded with a 64-piece orchestra on songs that range from Puccini’s immortal aria “Nessun Dorma” and “Elegy For Dunkirk” from the film “Atonement” to “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” from “The Wizard Of Oz” and Jeff Buckley’s interpretation of “Corpus Christi Carol.”

Beck says the idea of pairing his guitar with an orchestra evolved from the version of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 he recorded a few years ago. “It turned out amazingly well, but I didn’t want to commit to an entire album of classical music. What appealed to me instead was the idea of bringing together these seemingly contradictory sounds on different kinds of nonclassical music.”

In addition to the orchestral pieces, EMOTION & COMMOTION showcases a number of original compositions. For “Hammerhead,” Beck fires the rocker’s opening salvo through his wah-wah pedal before falling into a deep groove carved out by the rhythm section and horn arrangement. At the opposite end of the sonic spectrum, the airy arrangement that elevates “Never Alone” provides a wide-angle soundscape for Beck’s imagination to freely explore the high-flying melody.

Before launching a world tour to support EMOTION & COMMOTION, Beck will unite with Eric Clapton in February for a series of exclusive shows in London, New York City, Toronto, and Montreal. The guitarists — both former members of the Yardbirds — will play separately before taking the stage to perform together.

After the shows with Clapton, Beck will play South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia, and Japan before returning to America for the U.S. leg of the tour starting mid-April and including an appearance at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on May 1.

For Beck, the new album and tour follows in the wake of a triumphant 2009 — his most successful year ever. Among the many highlights were a sold-out world tour; his second induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; the release of the platinum-selling “Performing This Week… Live At Ronnie Scott’s,” which earned a Grammy nomination for “A Day In The Life”; and magnificent performances with his band at the 25th Anniversary Concert of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Madison Square Garden.

Tracklist:

1. Corpus Christi
2. Hammerhead
3. Never Alone
4. Somewhere Over The Rainbow
5. I Put A Spell On You
6. Serene
7. Lilac Wine
8. Nessun Dorma
9. Pristine Delusion
10. Elegy For Dunkirk

There is also a deluxe edition set with a bonus dvd featuring tracks from Jeff’s memorable performance at Eric Clapton’s Crossroads Festival:

Disc 1
1. Corpus Christi Carol
2. Hammerhead
3. Never Alone
4. Over The Rainbow
5. I Put A Spell On You Beck, Jeff & Joss Stone
6. Serene
7. Lilac Wine Beck, Jeff & Imelda May
8. Nessun Dorma
9. There’s No Other Me Beck, Jeff & Joss Stone
10. Elegy For Dunkirk Beck, Jeff & Olivia Safe

Disc 2
1. Stratus Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD
2. Behind The Veil Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD
3. Nadialive Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD
4. Big Block Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD
5. Brush With The Blues Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD
6. Day In The Life Crossroads Guitar Festival 2007/DVD

The Japanese cd edition of the album has 2 bonus tracks exclusive to this release:

Poor Boy
Cry Me A River

Buy your copy here if you live in Europe.
Buy your copy here if you live in the USA.

CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR – LIVE AT THE TROUBADOUR RECORDED LIVE AT LOS ANGELES’ FAMED “TROUBADOUR” NIGHTCLUB SET FOR RELEASE MAY 4TH

Special 2-Disc CD/DVD Package, Released by Hear Music/Concord Music Group, Captures Legendary Singer-Songwriters’ Historic 2007 Troubadour Reunion Performances in Dazzling HD Video and 5.1 Audio

In November of 1970, James Taylor and Carole King first performed together at the Troubadour on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, California. Taylor had just released his debut album for the Beatles’ newly-formed Apple Records and King was finding her way as a first-time solo performer even though by then she was a famous songwriter with a string of hits for other artists. When they returned to the club for a two-week co-headlining run in 1971, their lives were somewhat different. That summer, Taylor’s “Fire and Rain” was topping the charts and King’s landmark Tapestry was on its way to making her a music superstar. Thirty-six years later, in November 2007, James Taylor, Carole King and members of their renowned original band “The Section” (featuring guitarist Danny Kortchmar, bassist Leland Sklar and drummer Russell Kunkel) returned to the Troubadour for a three-night, six-show run to celebrate the venue’s 50th anniversary. Those historic shows are documented in Live at the Troubadour, a special 2-disc CD/DVD available May 4th from Hear Music/Concord Music Group. This remarkable recording, culled from these unforgettable shows, features 15 songs and 75 minutes of pristine video and audio, including stunning performances of the pair’s most beloved hits such as Carole King’s “So Far Away,” “It’s Too Late,” and “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”, as well as James Taylor’s “Carolina in My Mind,” “Sweet Baby James,” and “Fire and Rain”, to name just a few.

The return to the intimate Troubadour–the fertile ground that served as the unofficial home to a some of the era’s defining musicians such as the Eagles, Elton John, Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt and Joni Mitchell–rekindled King’s and Taylor’s love for making music together. Variety enthused at the time, “Taylor and King reminded us about the intensity of the song, that the artistically-rich and commercially-viable are not mutually exclusive and how one tiny club continues to be a birthing room for some of this city’s most memorable music.” The experience was deeply felt by everyone–the musicians on stage, the fans in attendance, as well as the project’s technical crew: audio producer Peter Asher (an instrumental figure throughout Taylor’s career) and Emmy-winning video director, Martyn Atkins. Live at the Troubadour is captured in sterling 5.1 stereo and state-of-the-art high definition video.

Live at the Troubadour track listing:

1. Blossom (James Taylor)
2. So Far Away (Carole King)
3. Machine Gun Kelly (Danny Kortchmar)
4. Carolina in My Mind (James Taylor)
5. It’s Too Late (Carole King – Toni Stern)
6. Smackwater Jack (Gerry Goffin – Carole King)
7. Something in the Way She Moves (James Taylor)
8. Will You Love Me Tomorrow? (Gerry Goffin – Carole King)
9. Country Road (James Taylor)
10. Fire and Rain (James Taylor)
11. Sweet Baby James (James Taylor)
12. I Feel the Earth Move (Carole King)
13. You’ve Got a Friend (Carole King)
14. Up on the Roof (Gerry Goffin – Carole King)
15. You Can Close Your Eyes (James Taylor)

Buy your copy here if you live in Europe.
Buy your copy here if you live in the USA.

THE RUNAWAYS ‘THE MERCURY ALBUMS ANTHOLOGY’ DUE VIA HIP-O-SELECT

The Runaways, considered among the most influential forces for female artists in rock history–and celebrated in the film The Runaways, which opened March 19–were the first all-female rock band to gain widespread notoriety. Now, for the first time, the group’s first four albums were brought together in one package, the digitally remastered two-CD set The Mercury Albums Anthology (Hip-O Select/UMe), recently released March 16, 2010.

Buy your copy here if you live in Europe.
Buy your copy here if you live in the USA.

Including original “bad girl” manifestos “Cherry Bomb,” “Queens Of Noise,” “Born To Be Bad,” “Hollywood,” “School Days,” “Wasted” and “Waitin’ For The Night” plus scorching covers of “Wild Thing” and Lou Reed’s “Rock & Roll,” along with the group’s only live album, the 42-selection The Mercury Albums Anthology tells the musical tale of girls who didn’t just wanna have fun–they wanted to rock hard and loud.

Originally formed in late 1975 by drummer Sandy West and guitarist Joan Jett with bassist Micki Steele, and under the eye of producer Kim Fowley, the Runaways played the club circuit in Los Angeles. The next year, they added lead singer Cherie Currie and lead guitarist Lita Ford. After Steele exited (later joining The Bangles), the permanent bass spot was filled by Jackie Fox. Teen girls playing their own instruments and singing about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll was incendiary, and the band soon signed to Mercury, debuting with a 1976 self-titled album.

1977′s Queens Of Noise drove the leather-and-attitude group further into the punk camp epitomized by the Ramones and skirted by the Deborah Harry-led Blondie. The album also sparked a world tour. Playing a series of sold-out shows that summer in Japan, the Runaways ranked behind only ABBA, KISS and Led Zeppelin in popularity among that country’s imported music acts. Not surprisingly, Live In Japan was issued later that year.

When Fox left, she was replaced by Vicki Blue, and when Currie departed for a solo career, Jett took over the lead vocal duties. The band’s fourth album, spanning just two years, Waitin’ For The Night, was released in late 1977. But the group came apart and by the following year, the Runaways and Fowley parted ways, and the band split from Mercury. Though there would be a final contemporaneous album, the band played their last concert New Year’s Eve 1978 and broke up in April 1979.

Their run was brief but the recordings on The Mercury Albums Anthology are indispensable to the history of women in rock.

SOURCE Universal Music Enterprises

URIAH HEEP ANTHOLOGY DUE

The story of Uriah Heep is one that is now within its 40th year and as such, is testament to the band’s talent and tenacity as both recording and touring artists.

From their early incarnation as The Gods and Spice, through record breaking tours, gold and platinum selling albums, timeless chart scaling anthems and a fiercely dedicated fan base of worldwide proportions, Uriah Heep can rightly claim to be one of the greatest U.K. progressive heavy rock bands of both the 20th and 21st centuries.

Lead by original lead guitarist Mick Box since 1982, whose Cheshire cat grin has endured throughout all the highs and lows that are inevitable for such a lengthy musical career, Uriah Heep returned in 2008 from a recording hiatus that had lasted ten years with Wake The Sleeper, a brand new studio album that floored the critics and fans in equal measure, such was the strength of the music on display. The fresh material proved why Uriah Heep have enjoyed such a lengthy career supported by an equally strong and enduring fan base.

This 2-Disc set honourably and ‘umbly marks Uriah Heep’s 40th Anniversary as one of the U.K.’s most prestigious Heavy Rock bands.
From their first full length album release in 1970 (Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble) right through to their storming come-back with Wake The Sleeper in 2008,

On The Rebound: A Very ‘Eavy 40th Anniversary Collection with its homage artwork to that first record, showcases at least one track from every studio album throughout the band’s entire career and as the title suggests, it’s the heavier material that we’ve chosen to represent Heep’s grit and determination and as a salute to the sheer beauty that is a well struck power chord.

Compiled in conjunction with band leader Mick Box, the release is unique in its content from any other collection that has gone before and its ‘shuffle-ready’ running order can be enjoyed in equal measure from the die-hard fans to the younger iPod generation who might be discovering Uriah Heep’s music for the very first time.

Included in the selection is a bonus track from the Wake The Sleeper sessions which sees its very first release here.

Due for release on Sanctuary on 26 April

URIAH HEEP LIVE JANUARY 1973 DELUXE EDITION DUE

The story of Uriah Heep is one that is now within its 40th year and as such, is testament to the band’s talent and tenacity as both recording and touring artists.

From their early incarnation as The Gods and Spice, through record breaking tours, gold and platinum selling albums, timeless chart scaling anthems and a fiercely dedicated fan base of worldwide proportions, Uriah Heep can rightly claim to be one of the greatest U.K. progressive heavy rock bands of both the 20th and 21st centuries.

Lead by original lead guitarist Mick Box since 1982, whose Cheshire cat grin has endured throughout all the highs and lows that are inevitable for such a lengthy musical career, Uriah Heep returned in 2008 from a recording hiatus that had lasted ten years with Wake The Sleeper, a brand new studio album that floored the critics and fans in equal measure, such was the strength of the music on display. The fresh material proved why Uriah Heep have enjoyed such a lengthy career supported by an equally strong and enduring fan base.

Always ‘Eavy, Always ‘Umble!

Dateline: January 1973. Three years of dogged hard work and steady musical evolution had paid off and Uriah Heep were well on the way to becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. Issued within six heady months of each other the previous year, their most recent two albums – Demons And Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday – had seen the four-fifths British quintet (New Zealander bassist Gary Thain joined English-born vocalist David Byron, guitarist Mick Box, keyboard player/guitarist Ken Hensley and drummer Lee Kerslake) perfecting a colourful sound and achieving a well-deserved international breakthrough.

But there was still one important thing missing. Deep Purple already had Made In Japan, the Rolling Stones had released Ger Yer Ya-Ya’s Out and The Who’s Live At Leeds was already on the way to assuming legendary status. Somebody in the Heep camp (the favourite would have been manager Gerry Bron) realised that five studio records into their own career, Uriah Heep needed their own live concert recording – preferably a top of the range double gatefold job, with all the trimmings.

Live January ’73 was rightly hailed as one of the best live records of the year and whilst the band were on tour in the States, the album reached reached #13 in the UK charts and became their third US Gold album.

Due for release on Sanctuary 26 April

HUMBLE PIE ANTHOLOGY DUE IN APRIL

Formed in the Spring of 1969, HUMBLE PIE were hailed as Pop’s first ‘Supergroup’, their personnel comprising singer/guitarists Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton from The Small Faces and The Herd respectively, alongside former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and seventeen-year old drummer Jerry Shirley, from Apostolic Intervention. After establishing themselves in the UK and Europe with the radio-friendly ‘Natural Born Bugie’ and their debut album As Safe As Yesterday Is, they moved to the United States where an intensive touring programme established them as a major live draw. They enjoyed their biggest successes during the early 70s with four consecutive Gold albums, Rock On, Performance – Rockin’ The Fillmore, Smokin’ and Eat It, and were sufficiently well-entrenched that in 1972 they were able to survive the loss of founder-member Frampton, who was replaced by ex-Colosseum axeman Clem Clempson. After splitting in 1976 Marriott and Shirley reformed the band in 1980 with two new members, Bobby Tench and Anthony ‘Sooty’ Jones, cutting two further hit albums before finally calling it a day in 1982.

This 38-track, 2-CD set is the very first wholly comprehensive Humble Pie career overview, comprising sides from all their various LPs – including their US hit singles, ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’, ‘Hot’n’Nasty’ and ‘Fool For A Pretty Face’ – alongside non-album singles and collectors’ rarities. Kicking off with their very first hit, ‘Natural Born Bugie’, it features tracks from their two Immediate LPs, As Safe As Yesterday Is and Town And Country, alongside a couple of rarities from this period, including a stunning studio jam of Ray Charles’ ‘Drown In My Own Tears’. They subsequently signed with A&M, cutting a non-album single, ‘Black Dog’, before going on to cut seven killer albums for the label between 1970-75, viz: Humble Pie, Rock On, Performance – Rockin’ The Fillmore, Smokin’, Eat It, Thunderbox and Street Rats. In 1980 they reformed to cut two final albums for Atlantic’s Atco subsidiary, On To Victory and Go For The Throat. This unique package also features extensive liner notes, which were prepared in conjunction with Pie drummer Jerry Shirley.

Released on 26 April vis Universal Music

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