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When I saw Tony McPhee's Groundhogs/Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash/Focus, it was about that, with Focus maybe a bit longer. And that was without a fourth band on the bill.

I saw them in a theatre-...

Yeah I think most of it never survived beyond the original tour.



It is, and it is. Genesis did the same with 'Home By The Sea' in later years (starting with the Ray Wilson versions).

I can...

I saw them and thought the same- fine but kind of tribute band-ish.

I suppose too much water has gone under the bridge for Downes to work with Payne again. I do actually really like a fair bit of...

Hmm, that is odd. Well, this happened a few years ago, but it actually says there are no shows booked at present.

https://originalasia.com/asia-announces-40th-anniversary-celebration/

John...

Undoubtedly, in my view. I think a Yes which had Anderson, Wakeman and Howe would be doing reasonably well. But it's not going to happen. And whilst I don't buy the current band's albums etc., (the...

There's a fundamental difference in the line-ups of the two bands. Some won't like to hear that, but it's a very different Yes now- not high on name recognition.

Deep Purple actually still has...

^Deep Purple generally have other 'name' bands on the bill in arenas but still, they've been playing them over here for many years.

Howe's Yes have simply reached a plateau on their own, I think....

Oh I bet that album sounds far, far worse than the originals. I'm not personally keen on the very dry production aesthetic of his latter-day output. And that's before you get into the mastering.

In the UK, Deep Purple still play arenas. That incarnation of Yes doesn't.

It sounds like a synthesiser- until now I never knew just how he got that sound.

^I think ELO, like 70s Queen, are far removed from audiophile. Possibly for the same reasons- a fair amount of overdubbing or editing etc. But I don't really care- those records make a big impact.

Some of those late 60s Pink Floyd TV appearances are very badly shot. I remember seeing a TV compilation of stuff which was released on those Early Years sets. 'Flaming' (a rarity, with Gilmour...

I like Ford. 3:10 To Yuma is classic, but Jubal isn't IMHO. All a bit stagey and melodramatic, particularly on Rod Steiger's part.

There's another Ford Western by the same director of both of...

Time was a bit of a return to form IMHO, after a few albums (Discovery, their half of Xanadu) which I find fairly by-the-numbers. It does have a somewhat different sound- to its benefit.

Wasn't this a digital recording anyway? As such it's not an album which I think would benefit from a 'remaster'.

^He actually shouted that word three times on the night.

Did Lake's 'feedback! feedback! feedback!' outburst make it to the official release? I remember that being somewhere in 'Tarkus'.

There was drama before their performance; I remember reading that...

I didn't necessarily intend a criticism of Palmer; that's his style, really.

I'm not sure how much rehearsal there was for High Voltage. Doing a tour might have been better than just doing a...

I'm not sure I said that.

The version of Pictures... within that Manticore Special film is another example of what I'm talking about. Really hell-for-leather.

You look at what was and wasn't played in the set and it's obviously fairly tailored, which is understandable really. So things like 'A Farewell To Arms' were in. Lake did play that one (and...

I'm afraid I'll never be convinced that Talk is any kind of lost classic. Of their 90s albums, it's obviously better than Open Your Eyes...but that's as far as I'll go. That middle part of the album-...

The first one with Roy Wood is a good album, for the most part, although the instrumentals are weaker IMHO (someone on here will say 'they are the best things they ever did'...I don't personally...

For me A New World Record and Out Of The Blue represent their/Lynne's artistic peak. I slightly lean to preferring the former, because it's a tighter, leaner record. But there's not that much filler...

^Really it is solo material yes- not much like the old ELO sound. But TBH that album felt like offcuts from the previous one Alone In The Universe, which I thought was a better effort. I wish he'd...

Lynne's comeback has been very well received in the UK- big shows at festivals, Wembley Arena etc. But in the US, I don't know. I know the last album From Out Of Nowhere greatly underperformed in the...

That's one I watched a while ago and thought it was great.

^'The Rain Song', 'In The Light', 'Four Sticks'. I'd argue for 'The Song Remains The Same' as well. There's several really.



Yeah that one has undeniably dated. I like 'Heaven Knows' and 'Ship...

Well yes, but he had a broader base than that. Outrider is not terrible or anything; it doesn't move the dial either way. It's fairly conservative really.

With The Firm's debut I only like a...

^Some good material, but the Steve Albini mix is so dull. I assume Plant was behind this choice; I wish someone else had mixed it.

The best thing post-Zeppelin that Page did without Plant was...

Yeah they obviously put in the work in rehearsing for that 2007 show. The previous 80s reunions had been pretty shambolic.

Sometimes with reunions, once is enough. When Cream went on tour, the old...

...Out Door has indicators of the sort of direction they'd have gone in during the 80s. Maybe Pictures At Eleven is a good guide as well.



They were 'revolving door' bands from very early on,...

Sorry but there's nothing as bad/dumb as ''Love Beach'/'Taste Of My Love' on Cured.



Indeed- I don't think it is even that badly regarded? A few of the other songs are nice enough like 'Hope I...

^I sort of like Cured for what it is. It's not as good as the ones before, but there's nothing disastrous on it IMHO. (Highly Strung probably has lower lows, in fact.)

They could have called Love...

I find I like it better live than on the record. That goes for the 1977 live versions (with synth instead of that electric piano sound) and that Australian one they did with the orchestra.
...

It's definitely not, agreed, but who was expecting that at such a late stage. I appreciated that he'd done a new rock album with some compositional meat to get to grips with. And there's some good...

Palmer unfortunately had much the same sound on that Albert Hall live album. I'm not a fan.

The only substantial work I'm aware of by any of the three after the 90s is the Keith Emerson Band...

^RE; Black Moon. The title track, 'Changing States' and 'Close To Home' are my favourite tracks on it. TBH other than 'Romeo And Juliet' which is a very rote 'rocking the classics' job, there's...

^I'm glad To The Power Of Three is better thought of than this or ...Hot Seat. It's one of those albums which sometimes got the 'worst album ever' treatment on here. I found a cheap second hand CD...

^Sky do the 'rocking the classics' thing to an extent, and had considerable success in the late 70s. But Sky's approach was much lighter musically than ELP's. They had that 'middlebrow' crossover...

My main issue with Black Moon relates to Palmer; the drum sound and the more basic style of playing. (Well, and Lake's changed vocals.) It's not a bad album on the whole, though. I play it reasonably...

There's a few songs on To The Power Of Three I genuinely like, although the production and Palmer's drum sound have aged less than gracefully.

I don't necessarily mind a shift towards a...

UK's Danger Money is more the sort of sound I feel that ELP should have had in the late 70s than Love Beach.

I guess there's a question over whether this album would be quite so disliked without...

Emerson got something out of it (that sound on the intro of 'Pirates' and later on 'The Score' is neat) but it's somewhat thin. I vastly prefer the instruments Emerson used in the 60s and earlier...

Thanks. I can't imagine anyone was clamouring for anything from either album.



It's a good track. Another 'rocking the classics' job, but it's fine. There's nothing else on it as good....

^Agreed. Both are dud albums. Actually as a side discussion, was anything from either of these albums ever played live by ELP? Love Beach wasn't toured and they basically fell apart in its wake. But...

The first few songs on here are all lousy. They had a few very well-written 'commercial' tracks in the past ('Lucky Man', 'From The Beginning', 'Still...You Turn Me On'). They could have easily made...

Those extra tracks were added to a CD version in The Complete Studio Recordings box, which I don't have. It should absolutely have had 'Hey Hey...' and 'Baby...' originally. The latter was an outtake...

Guitar Noir and Darktown are also very good albums, but they are older so I didn't really mention them. The latter has one of my favourite of his instrumentals- 'Twice Around The Sun'.

The...

'The Crunge', the rhythm track is fantastic but the goofiness ('where's that confounded bridge') and that synth...less so. Then again I quite like 'D'Yer Maker' which most people don't.



Plant...

I enjoy To Watch The Storms and Wild Orchids very much. Lots to like on these for me. Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth, a little less so. The first few tracks are excellent. On some of the others, it's...

Agreed. By their standards these are thin gruel. Not disastrous, just fairly ordinary. It's telling that none of these were ever played live, that I know of. Something like 'In The Light' was quite...

All three of those 1979 tracks are better than the likes of 'South Bound Saurez' (the most forgettable Zeppelin track IMHO) and 'Hot Dog'. But particularly 'Wearing And Tearing', which is a great...

I actually think the moment might have passed for them. If it was going to happen, it would have been when they (or who's left) 'reformed' in the 2000s. They were nominated and passed over in 2021/2....

Most of the good rock was done before I was born so it doesn't apply to me.

I like rock pretty much from its inception (say somewhere in the 50s) and follow the various twists and turns it took...

It's very US-centric. As a result, important and popular UK bands like T.Rex have not been inducted. Nor have Humble Pie, who were actually far bigger in the US. I prefer The Small Faces/Faces but...

The last one I watched was Uriah Heep's Acoustically Driven which I had not seen in years. Recorded live around 2000 or so, I still really like this. The set interestingly shies away from hits, for...

^Sonny and Cher and the latter's early solo hits I can handle. Those later 'comeback' hits of hers? Not so much.

I don't really see how several on that list get in ahead of- say- Iron Maiden....

A very MOR list. With a few exceptions, this is easily the poorest crop they've had.

Anyone heard that Audible Slayers thing? Reviews have been...mixed.

I heard yesterday that there is to be a Wynonna Earp TV movie as well.

Indeed, it wasn't anyone's finest moment- including Palmer.

But a festival for a band's first gig in 12 years (or whatever) was obviously not ideal. I suppose Emerson/Lake's duo shows were the...