Not my bag, but I do remember him well from about 77 with Tubeway army, bit of an outlier on the then current punk scene. The king of cool and bad flying
Good list there. I recently saw Trivium, Bleed from Within and Orbit Culture. Was an amazing gig! Check out Bleed and Orbit.
Interesting Alan!
Blimey Dave, the music and bands you've mentioned are the only ones I've recognised ...
. I went to many gigs and festivals in the 80’s and progressively got more into rock bands.
Saw the Ramones (original line-up) at Birmingham Odeon in about 1978 or 79 - supported by The Boys (AKA The Yobs), An awesome gig.The Ramones are my great regret as well, but in my case it is because I could have gone and didn’t! Needed the money for bike parts
I think that was the tour I couldn’t get to…….
Interesting points!I wouldn’t really call myself a massive metal or punk fan anymore. My first recollection of a sound that floated my boat was Black Sabbath’s Neon Nights when it hit the charts in 1980. Up until that point I had only really been exposed (subjected to ) more folksy, poppy tunes like the Carpenters, the Eagles, and Abba. I did get a few Ozzy, AC//DC and Judas Priest albums but due to having mates that were more into punky stuff like the Stiff Little Fingers, The Anti Nowhere League, and the Clash I ended up at gigs with the usual fighting and spit fest
I took a few drum lessons in the very early eighties and bought my first kit in 1982. My favourite band by far from that era was Motorhead and as sacrilegious as it is to say, as well as the original line up albums, I really liked Another Perfect Day. I even had a white double kick drum kit with exactly the same size drums as the Philthy one. By the mid-eighties my mates introduced me to a broad spectrum of heavy sounds, but I can’t really say I was massively into the majority of new metal bands from this time. I did however paint plenty of rock album logos on leather jackets. Maiden’s Eddie being a top seller. I also had some older mates who introduces me to a far more eclectic fusion of styles, and another favourite artist was Frank Zappa.
Around 1984 (another great album), the guitarist in my first ‘real’ band was more into the bluesy side of rock and was heavily into Hendrix, the Groundhogs and Cream. The bassist however worshipped Cliff Burton so as you can imagine, we had an ‘interesting sound’. I personally thought Kill ‘Em All was a terrible sounding album, and I’ve never been a fan of Metallica. Speaking as a drummer, Lars does nothing for me. He gets a rough time about both his technique and his timekeeping and TBH (from a rhythm perspective only) it’s probably justified, although his contribution to Metallica’s sound is undeniable.
In the early nineties I met my now wife who was heavily into more grungier and US influenced rock and metal. Although the majority of those bands don’t get a spin these days, many still do. I’m still a big fan of early Van Halen stuff, Janes Addiction, and some Pearl Jam and Soundgarden, and I loved the drumming of a guy called Chad Gracy in a band called Live. It was around this time that I joined another band, and the guitarist was really into what is unkindly termed (IMO) fret w*****g guitarists like Vinnie Moore, Tony McAlpine, Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Whilst not typical heavy metal these guys could rip a riff apart and the sound production was always exceptional. Whilst not all the songs had vocals the rock/metal drumming on some of these albums was nothing short of phenomenal. Technically superior in this genre to anything that came before. End Of! It improved my tub-thumping skills no end and made me a far more proficient drummer.
In 1996 I heard the album AEnima for the first time and was BLOWN AWAY. The Tool sound encompassed all the rhythms and melodies that I had always wanted a band to sound like. I just didn’t know it until now! It was beautiful, haunting, and powerful, and I’ve been a massive fan ever since. I have, since 2002’s Absentia, also been a massive Porcupine Tree fan, the combination of Steve Wilson’s writing skills and the sublime rhythms of Gavin Harrison is music to my knackered ears!
My son was taught to play guitar in the early noughties, and he turns me on to stuff that I wouldn’t naturally get exposed to these days like Trivium, Periphery and the Contortionist
As I’ve got older, I like to blend my tastes. Here is what got played last week via Spotify:
Tool
Porcupine Tree
Frank Zappa
Jane’s Addiction
Peter Gabriel
Rammstein
Jeff Beck
Black Sabbath
Motorhead
Massive Attack
Ozric Tentacles
A System of a Down
Foo Fighters
Alter Bridge
Muse
Not forgetting a spot of Tenacious D
I still like to play!
Monster 1988 Pearl BLX double kick kit
2008 Pearl MMX gigging kit
Roland Electric practice kit
...and some plastic kits :_
View attachment 500714
TBH there are only a few Motorhead tracks that I still enjoy listening to. I guess when you are brought up in an era where they held sway, they were difficult to ignore and left quite an impression.
I’d go along with most of that. Love kind of blue and any of the Lady Day and Lester Young collaborations, for example. Birth of the cool does nothing for me though. Most bebop leaves me cold in fact. Classical I love, especially Beethoven, Mozart, and Elgar, apart from the late romantic period which I find just a bit dull. Disco is pretty much a closed book, as is Rap, but Blues and Folk are both up there with my most favourite forms. Accounts for my stupidly large record collection really.
For FULL Forum access you can upgrade your account here UPGRADE