The Story of Rock and Roll: S6E5

The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

S6E5 aired at 19h00 on 2 Feb 2023 live on Rebel Rock Radio. The opening track was by Warrior Soul, I have some good memories of this band. Marq Vas and I discovered them in the early ‘90s and their Last Decade, Dead Century album, where this track came from was always in heavy rotation. Next up, Thunder Mother with ‘Borrowed Time’ conjured up the image of thousands of lighters held aloft, and ‘Turn of the Screw' from Heaven & Hell again reminded us of the magnificence of Ronnie James Dio’s Voice.

During the show, Tim sent me the list of 2023 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations and coincidently four of them were in the 'possible track' playlist. So with that, I had to play Iron Maiden, Sound Garden, Sheryl Crow, and Warren Zevon. Good luck to all of them. Billy Idol has a very cool thing going, he has released an EP every year since 2021, I assume it is on purpose, and we will get another one in 2023. It keeps things fresh and as long as Steve Stevens is with him I will buy every single one. Suicidal Tendencies raised the tempo by a factor of about ten with a delightful track called ‘Disco’s Out, Murders In'. We had a bit of fun trying to figure out which of these four albums released in 1984 you would choose if you could only choose two. We had Van Halen, - 1984, Iron Maiden - Powerslave, Metallica - Ride The Lightening and, Judas Priest - Defenders of the Faith. There was no clear favorite which was to be expected given the quality of those albums, and that was the point. For my money, it was Metallica and the mighty Judas Priest, but tomorrow it might be different. Next week we will look at 1980. We took a listen to 'The Sentinel' and 'Creeping Death'.

South African music was well represented by Future Radio, comprising Johnny Future and Drikus Roets, two very talented artist/musicians. We heard a track called 'DOI' off their Freedom album, then we had Johnathan Martin with 'Don't Want To Know' and finally SA Rock and Bluesman Kenny Hughes who spoke to me this week and told me a bit about the new track 'Midnight Man'. We listened to what he said about it and then took a listen to it. It is a great track and people liked it a lot. The plan is to do more of these short 5 min interviews and to give the artist a chance to tell you about their music.

The UK Punk slot was ably filled by The Stranglers, UK Subs, and Sham 69 and then it was time for our weekly Immortals, i.e. tracks over 7 min long that will live forever. This week it was The Fall of the Peacemakers by Molly Hatchet. For my money the highlights of this show were Indian rockers Girish & the Chronicles, their new album Back on Earth is simply stunning, its got everything you would expect from a top-flight '80s style metal band. The brand new Iggy Pop is out and we played ‘Morning Show’ which is wonderful. I advised you to listen to it a couple of times. It is a serious grower. There is plenty more to get into, this episode was a cracker. Cheers and thanks for listening.

Artists featured: Warrior Soul, Thunder Mother, Heaven & Hell, Black Stone Cherry, Soundgarden, L.A. Rats, Slash, Suicidal Tendencies, Black Label Society, Billy Idol, Skid Row, Sheryl Crow, Iron Maiden, Moon Tooth, Pearl Jam, Future Radio, Johnathan Martin, Kenny Hughes, Girish & the Chronicles, ACDC, Judas Priest, Metallica, The Stranglers, UK Subs, Sham 69, Molly Hatchet, Santana, Uriah Heep, Iggy Pop, Bush, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, U2, Tim Minchin, Robbie Robertson, Warren Zevon, Slayer

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