Saturday, June 26, 2010

Rock News for Saturday 26th June, 2010

Stevie Ray Vaughan  - Couldn't Stand the Weather Legacy 20th Anniversary Edition to be released July 27th.
COULDN'T STAND THE WEATHER: LEGACY EDITION commemorates the 20th anniversary year of the passing of legendary guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan. It revisits the commercial breakthrough of the second album by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Released in May of 1984, it was their first LP to earn RIAA gold certification, and their first platinum-seller as well.

The first entry by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble in the prestigious Legacy Edition series of multi-disc packages, COULDN'T STAND THE WEATHER: LEGACY EDITION will be available as a two-CD set at all physical and digital retail outlets starting July 27th, however, you can pre-order your copy now at Amazon

• Disc one restores the original eight-song, 38-minute album with "Cold Shot" (a Top 30 Modern Rock track), indelible covers of blues standards including "Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)" and Guitar Slim's "The Things (That) I Used to Do" and, most notably, Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)" (also a Top 30 Modern Rock track and a Grammy®-nominated performance); the sequence expands with another 11 studio outtakes from the original recording sessions in January 1984, three of them previously unreleased;

• Disc two premieres a previously unreleased live concert captured three month's after the original LP's release, from August 17, 1984, at The Spectrum in Montreal, Canada. The band played two sets that night and this disc captures selections from the late show. Featured are a mix of songs from the just-released Couldn't Stand the Weather (among them "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)"), plus tunes from the 1983 Texas Flood debut.

As with every title in the Legacy Edition series, the booklet contains a comprehensive liner notes essay written by an acknowledged expert. Andy Aledort, associate editor of Guitar World magazine, is a blues-rock maven and accomplished guitarist in his own right. He has authored more than a dozen guitar instruction books on trailblazers like Hendrix, Van Halen, Joe Satriani, Jeff Healey and others; and annotated CDs on Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, Dickey Betts and more. Aledort has been covering Stevie Ray's career since his arrival at Epic Records in the summer of 1983, and has written liner notes for several of his Epic/Legacy releases, including the four-disc box set SRV (2000); The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan (2002); The Real Deal: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1 (2006); and Solos, Sessions & Encores (2007).

Aledort's 2,700-word essay sets the stage: "Though a mere six months had passed between the release of Texas Flood [SRV&DT's Epic debut in 1983] and the start of the Couldn't Stand the Weather recording sessions," Aledort writes, "a great deal changed for the band, professionally and personally, in that short period. Couldn't Stand the Weather represented the first time the band had a recording budget, but with it came record company pressures that had been absent previously. In addition, as the pace of the band members' careers increased, so did the level of partying and drug use."

The bonus track studio outtakes on disc one add a new perspective to the band's chronology at this early stage, starting with Stevie's original, "Empty Arms," one of several tracks here from the first posthumous SRV collection, 1991's Grammy Award-winning The Sky Is Crying. Hank Ballard & the Midnighters' "Look At Little Sister" and New Orleans blues man Earl King's standard "Come On" (covered by Hendrix on Electric Ladyland) showed up in different versions on SRV&DT's next album, 1985's Soul To Soul. They had performed Freddie King's "Hide Away" and Hound Dog Taylor's "Give Me Back My Wig" at shows (cf. Live At Montreux 1982 & 1985), but neither song would ever show up on one of their albums during Stevie Ray's life-time.

The previously unreleased versions here of "Boot Hill" and Elmore James' "The Sky Is Crying" are different than those heard on The Sky Is Crying. In addition to "Empty Arms," that album contained a number of tracks from the January 1984 sessions, including covers of Lonnie Mack's "Wham!," Hendrix's "Little Wing" and Willie Dixon's "Close To You." Disc one comes to a close with a previously unreleased alternate take of the short instrumental, "Stang's Swang" – compare it to the version that closes the original Couldn't Stand The Weather album and it's evident this version strips away the saxophone.

In August 1984, SRV&DT headlined Montreal's Spectrum arena, where they performed an early and a late set, the latter chronicled on disc two here. They reprised a number of songs from the well-received Texas Flood debut of the year before, among them "Testify," "Love Struck Baby," "Texas Flood," "Lenny," and "Pride And Joy." But the bulk of the attention that night was given to the songs on the new album, Couldn't Stand The Weather, among them "Voodoo Chile (Slight Return)," "The Things (That) I Used To Do" "Honey Bee," "Couldn't Stand The Weather," "Cold Shot," "Tin Pan Alley (aka Roughest Place In Town)," and (for a third time in this package) "Stang's Swang."
Order this from Amazon now:
 
 
Scorpions set list from Sting in the Tail show in New Jersey
 
This info on a recent Scorpions show from a week back on Friday over at http://www.blabbermouth.net/ where there a detailed gig review too. - FYI - I'll have my review posted after this coming Thursday's show here. :)
Meantime, here's the setlist from the show at Holmdel, New Jersey.
 
01. Sting In The Tail
02. Make It Real
03. Bad Boys Running Wild
04. The Zoo
05. Coast To Coast
06. The Best Is Yet To Come
07. Send Me An Angel
08. Holiday
09. Wind Of Change
10. Raised On Rock
11. Tease Me, Please Me
12. Dynamite
13. Kottak Attack
14. Black Out
15. Six String Sting
16. Big City Nights

Encore:
17. No One Like You
18. Rock You Like A Hurricane
More details on that show on June 18th, here:

Original Kinks bass players dies aged 66 after being in coma
 
This information on Peter Quaife, original Kinks bassist was posted at their fan site, as there's no official Kinks website anymore:
Thursday, 24th June, 2010 - 'I'm sad to report the death of Pete Quaife, the Kinks' original bass player. Pete died yesterday, June 23rd, of kidney failure after spending several days in a coma in a hospital in Denmark.'
 
Here's a piece published by Rolling Stone magazine on the sad news:
 
My thoughts and sympathies go out to friends and family members of Peter's.
 
Update from UFO's Andy Parker
 
This from the Andy Parker diary:
Andy Parker - Diary Update - 25th June 2010

Hey everyone

Just a quick update on what's been going on since I last put finger to keyboard. I say quick because I have been so overwhelmed on the home front lately that now I am finally getting down to writing about our exploits I am having difficulty remembering a lot of what happened! Still I will do my best to fill you in on recent events and I apologise in advance for anything that I might leave out.

The last run of European UFO dates started out normally enough. We all met in Hannover, mid April, for a day of rehearsal before the start of the tour. Barry (Sparks) joined us on bass once again, and along with his lovely wife Allessandra we also had the pleasure of meeting his beautiful new baby daughter Serena. Apart from that it was pretty much the usual suspects - Tonio, Martin, Andre, Kate and Dave. Eric was absent this time, having also just become a new dad. Congratulations to him and Trish on the birth of their son Logan! The guitar tech position was masterfully filled by Niclas Mellander, alias 'The Swede', a colleague of Andre's and now a fully fledged member of the UFO family.

The first show at the Blues Garage in Hannover went without a hitch, then it was an overnight drive to Berlin airport to catch a plane to Greece. As we were only playing Athens and Thessaloniki, the plan was for us to use rented gear for those shows, then fly back to Frankfurt where we would meet up with our bus, the suitcases with all our clothes etc for the rest of the roadtrip, and the trailer full of our backline gear, and continue the tour. Unfortunately this was not what happened. While we were busy entertaining the good citizens of the aforementioned cities, a volcanic ash cloud from the Icelandic eruption was spreading across Europe like the plague. First thing you know, Frankfurt airport is closed down. But no matter, Tonio leaps into action. He books us tickets to Belgrade and instructs the bus driver to meet us there. Problem solved - or so we thought. That was until they closed Belgrade airport too. At this point our options were rapidly decreasing so it was decided that we should stay put and have the bus come to us. Long story short, after several relief drivers, thousands of litres of diesel, and a thirty five hour journey through half the countries of Eastern Europe, we finally made it back to Germany. Our apologies to the folks in Nurenburg for missing the show, we will see you on July 21st and do our best to make it up to you.

Anyway, after the show in Oberhausen we set off by bus again for the journey to jolly old England. I must say that this was one of the most enjoyable UK tours that we have done in a while. The shows were pretty well all sold out and the audiences just fantastic. A big thanks to the guys from Voodoo Six for doing such a great job in supporting us. To anyone who hasn't caught them, they are well worth seeing! After a whirlwind week, taking in England, Scotland and Wales, it was back on the boat to Belgium, then Holland, France and finally Germany again where we finished off the tour in Dresden. One sad note however. Three days before the end of the tour Barry received word from his family that his mother was very ill. He immediately flew back to Arizona to be with her and we sincerely thank Peter Pichl for stepping in at the last minute and helping us out with the remaining shows. I have since learnt that Barry's mum passed away and I'm sure you all join me in sending condolences to Barry and his family.

After all that you would think it was time for a bit of a rest, but as they say, "there's no rest for the wicked" so a little more than a week later I found myself on a plane once again this time heading for Brazil. This was UFO's first time in South America and as such we weren't sure what to expect. Turns out that it was a blast. We played four shows, this time with Rob DeLuca on bass. Sao Paulo, Goiania, Belo Horizonte and Recife. The reception was brilliant, those people really know how to party! Much thanks to Rodrigo (Chico) and Milton from A.W.O. for all their hard work, and I hope we can do it again very soon. Some of Milton's photos can be found HERE.

As always, thanks to all our fans everywhere for their continued support and for making us feel so welcome wherever we go. I look forward to seeing you all very soon. Cheers!
Andy

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