Nick C

oops posted twice

Cheap Trick - The Complete Epic Albums Collection - Boxset - (glad this has been re-released, missed it 1st time around for whatever reason quite a bit cheaper on Burning Shed than Amazon too).

Robby Steinhardt - Not in Kansas Anymore

Exactly

Less is more - Nuff said

I was dumb enough to get the glow in the dark vinyl/CD deluxe edition. It starts ok - but goes downhill FAST. After the first hearing of the pre released Ice Bridge I was expecting more, it sounded interesting - but crikey the lyrics throughout the album are comical, songs are dull as dishwater with ab-so-lute-ly no imagination or inspirational qualities. I hate to say it (well actually I don't), Jon Davison is a f*ckin terrible singer - he has no presence and can't hold a note, how long has he been with Yes now??? Yet he still sounds like a 6th form girl (who thinks she can sing) performing in the school Christmas play. Add to that Billy Sherwood - talk about a one dimensional talent - everything - EVERYTHING he does sounds the same - World Trade was great - everything else (Circa, solo, The Key , lodgic) is just miniscule degrees of separation. He is a good but god damn boring bass player and song writer. Then you have Geoff Downes - less said the better, the musical equivalent of painting the Sistine Chapel with potato stamps...bland one dimensional, clumsy, an average keyboard player punching above his weight. That brings us to Steve Howe - love the guy, on this album he sounds really, really nice in parts - but it's not the SH of old, the dexterity has gone. Alan White - I have no truck with the guy - plays decent enough probably holds it together as any good drummer should. I love Yes - I don't think a return of Jon Anderson or Ricky boy Wakeman would help - but I would like to see a last go for broke, kick it out while they still have a little time and end with a shout rather than a whimper. Because as much as Steve Howe and Chris Squire (R.I.P.) kept the Yes flag flying it is Anderson who had/has that vision, that huge cinematic vision, imagination and drive that is the true flame . He might be a space cadet at times but wouldn't you prefer some crazy meaningful/meaningless lyrics and crazy out there vision rather than the pedestrian plod of the last ten years.

I'm always wary of bands that have too many members with beards

As stated right at the start the new P.Tree - pre-ordered already, I won't even listen to the track that has already been released as I don't want any spoilers.

Eagles - Live at the LA Forum 76 (2LP) - why do I let myself be scalped !!! The vinyl is flat nice and quiet - sounds great! It also has the crappiest etching on side 4 I have EVER seen. On top of that - there must be tapes of this full gig because of what has been released - it sounds like a great show - Eagles fans get teased (the version of the gig has been out on various Hotel Calif. re-issues) but never get the full show....what a load of sh*te. BUT the biggest bugbear is that Don Felder who was an intrinsic part of the band in this period has been erased from the history of this recording because Don Henley can't get over they had a falling out. As such Don Felder is not mentioned or shown anywhere on this release except for a mention on the writing credit to Hotel California - where he is listed last. HAHAHA comical - everyone knows this song was pretty much Felder's baby...the original writer credits on the actual Hotel California album are Felder/Henley/Frey...but on this they read Henley/Frey/Felder. Pitiful. Oh I see that this has been "produced" by Don Henley ...although the original recording was produced by Bill Szymcyk. Well that speaks volumes to the handling of the release. It's a good job Randy Meisner (best bass player ever) didn't fall out quite as badly with Don H otherwise Donny boy would have re-written history and had Eagles as a f*ckin power trio on this gig. You know you think some people - they have so much wealth, influence, respect (in some circles), beyond the dreams of you and me - but at the end of the day they can be just small minded, sad, pathetic cnuts, surrounded by cash and bitterness!

Cinema Face - Face Card Dowling Poole - See You, See Me Nazareth - Loud n Proud Box set (32CD / 3x 7" singles / 4 x lps (2 single + 2 double) Valentine - Demos from the Attic

Matt Berry - Gather Up 4CD Aerosmith - The Road Starts Hear LP

The Wildhearts - 30 Year Itch

Steven Wilson - Last Day of June - LP (flaming orange vinyl) The Darkness - Motorheart Beau Bowen - Flame of Love

Frank Soda - Saturday Night Getaway Frank Soda & The Imps - Soda Pop The Imps - In the Tube (Vinyl) Frank Soda - Adventures of Sodaman (Vinyl)

Nyttyme Chillz Inky Blottz - Lead vocals Dayz Dan Shokked - Guitar Throb Shudda - Bass Scuff - Drumz n Stixx

Judas Priest - 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music - 42CD Rob Gould - Plays Pawn Hearts

Well the core of the box is the 8 Charisma albums all remastered from the orig. tapes which makes 9 discs as Vital is the full 2 disc version rather than the orig. 1 disc which missed off a couple of songs - that was rectified with the 2005 version back to 2 discs and I must say compared to my mix of original and 2005 remastered CDs they sound top (so far - not had a chance to play all this yet). Then there is a disc with odds and ends on - the Pawn Hearts sessions, a few b-sides (all of the bonus material that was on the 2005 remasters is in this box across various discs as far as I can tell as well as pretty much every session they did for John Peel). There's a live in Rimini CD part of which appeared on "The Box" boxset some years back. There are 2 discs of a live in Paris gig Then there are 4 discs of new remixes for H to He Who Am the only One, Still Life, Godbluff and Pawn Hearts. Two of the blu-rays are 5.1 surround mixes Pawn Hearts, H to He, Godbluff and Still Life - but I don't have a 5.1 set up .... but maybe one day so at least they are there. The final Blu Ray is various performances taken from live/tv/promos. I was hesitant on grabbing this box but pleased I did as so far it sounds great - the only drawback is that the original cover art is missing, the discs are just in slots. I just bought a second set on behalf of one of my mates who is on his hols, he was umming and ahhhing about getting it too and was getting a bit antsy about it selling out so took the plunge - he wanted me to have it delivered here so it didn't get plonked out in the rain if delivered while away hahaha!

Van Der Graaf Generator - The Charisma Years 1970 - 1978 (17CD / 3 Blu-Ray)

Heh! I went a bit overboard with the answer to the question - I should have just said it's okay, certainly better than Heaven & Earth. The Darkness - Streaming of a White Christmas

Note: changed the below a bit after playing it another couple of times since what was originally written (during the old night shift). Well just played it through twice and all I can say is "it's nice" - polite even. That's the best I can do, it's more consistent than Heaven and Earth and more focused. Steve Howe's playing is tasteful. Billy Sherwood as ever pretty good but I can't listen to him without thinking of World Trade or Circa. Geoff Downes - apart from a few flourishes here and there mainly all he adds is "colour washes" in the background . Jon Davison sounds a bit more confident - but crikey he's been in the band what is it 10 years and he still sounds like he's STILL finding his feet sometimes. The songs on the main are okay - but nothing really grabs you - Ice Bridge is goodo and I quite like Dare to Know but then next thing I know the album is finished .... it's played through and nothing has made me go "Wow!" one song runs into another. The extra disc - well a bit of a waste - all these could have fitted on the main disc but I assume they wanted them separate from the main album - for good reason, Sister Sleeping Soul is ok but Mystery Tour has the worst contrived lyrics I have ever heard on any song, if you are going to do a tribute song to The Beatles at least make it less crass - the Barclay James Harvest song Titles shows how it should be done. Damaged World misses the mark it feels a bit awkward. So there you go -it's an okay album and this is from a Yes fan so I might be biased and overrating it - in parts it reminds me of other bands and as a friend on another forum said Yes should only sound like Yes they shouldn't remind you of other bands. There's just nothing on there that makes me want to go immediately back and play it again, but it is an album I will play again if that makes sense. The last song from Yes that made me do that was "Words on a Page" from the "From a Page" box which is great - Benoit David was booted out - at least Benoit would have given the band a different sound , he had strong vocals - plus the playing of Olly Wakeman on that mini album gave it further character compared to Geoff Downes at times, bland washes. But Yes - an okay album, far from a disaster, like I say a nice album - a small step in the right direction but still a feel of treading water and a feel that maybe they have forgotten who they are - or maybe not who they are but their vision - maybe this is them now - maybe they will continue ad-infinitum with different members and eventually do something as bombastic and head turning as they have in the past - who knows but it certainly isn't here.

Going to give it a listen tonight - I was quite chuffed actually - I bought it from Burning Shed and it came with the usual Burning Shed label stuff like coasters, cards and fridge magnet but one of the cards of was signed by Steve Howe, I didn't realise for a few hours until I was just checking over the stuff again. Checked the site and apparently the first 250 orders there came with the signed card. I was almost poised to list the album as Yes/World Trade.

Porcupine Tree - Lazarus - ring tone only that's about it.

Captain of the Lost Waves - Hidden Gems vol.1 Captain of the Lost Waves - Hidden Gems vol.2 Ozric Tentacles - Space for Earth (The Tour That Didn't Happen) 2CD Yes - The Quest (deluxe 2LP/2CD/Blu Ray and various bits n bobs)

Wildhearts - 21st century Love Songs

Porcupine Tree - Delerium Years 1991 -1997 (13CD) Legs Diamond - Diamonds are Forever Savatage - Sirens (turquoise vinyl to replace my blue vinyl Par copy I sold last year) things taking an age to arrive from outside UK though - sometimes a while inside the UK