Music Blog

The Guardian’s Michael Hann invites readers to nominate your favourite flop follow-up albums

So, fellow pop snobs – and don’t lie to me, you’re out there – which are the commercially disastrous follow-ups to smashes that set your pulses racing? And no nominating the Stone Roses’ Second Coming, which was a bigger hit, I am told, than its predecessor. Bonus points for anyone who nominates Quiet Riot’s follow-up to Metal Health. Bonus points, in fact, to anyone who even heard Quiet Riot’s follow-up to Metal Health.

I thought of a few, like Diamond Head’s ‘difficult second album’ “Canterbury”, too off-the-wall and experimental for many fans of their major-label debut, and saw the band dropped and subsequently splitting after it failed to sell. And then there was Marillion’s “Brave”, regarded by many fans as their definitive masterpiece, but which failed to sell in anything like the quantities expected by EMI, and marked the beginning of the end for their major-label career.

But if the theme is attempts to defend albums that mark the point where a previously successful band went down the commercial and critical toilet, Black Sabbath’s 1983 album “Born Again” checks all the requisite boxes.

Three years earlier Black Sabbath had successfully reinvented themselves by replacing the burned-out Ozzy Osborne with Ronnie Dio, and produced two classic albums. But when Dio departed due to a clash of egos (what do you expect from someone who’s stage name is Italian for “God”?), they replaced him with … Ian Gillan.

The tour was rightly dismissed as a bad joke; There was that gigantic fibreglass Stonehenge that provided the inspiration for Spinal Tap. Ian Gillan wore the same stage outfit as he’d worn when fronting his own band a year earlier and looked totally out of place. He butchered Ozzy’s songs to the point of unrecogisability, and didn’t even attempt any of Dio’s stuff. And the new songs, well, at the 1983 Reading Festival I remember a guy next to me sadly shaking his head and muttering “It’s not Sabbath”. The consensus was that special guests Marillion totally blew them off stage.

But… Ignore that awful cover and listen to the album. While it’s no “Sabotage” or “Heaven and Hell”, it still has it’s moments. If it’s ‘not Sabbath’ (and a lot of it isn’t), it’s still a worthwhile member of Ian Gillan’s canon. ‘Trashed’ is quite Purpleesque, and there are echoes of ‘When a Blind Man Cries’ in the title track. And ‘Zero the Hero’ with it’s menacing growling riff is one place where the alchemy finally worked.

Actually, a rather old quote from The Phoenyx that I must have missed the first time round

Are Mostly Autumn prog-rock? (pause) Oh, yeah, they have an album of songs inspired by LOTR. They must be.
- Carl Cravens, as quoted by Karen

Now, as we should all know, it’s only really prog if those 12 minute songs about hobbits are in 7/8 or 9/8 time…

If you’re a Mostly Autumn fan, you get used to semi-regular lineup changes. As Bryan Josh has just announced on the Mostly Autumn website, we’ll have to say farewell (for the time being at least) to Angie Gordon, Chris Johnson and Andy Jennings.

As Angie Gordon states:

It was my intention to return to touring after the birth of my daughter, Scarlett but I could never have anticipated how my feelings would change. Although there are several reasons, ultimately, performing locally over the last few weeks has made me realise that being away from Scarlett to tour further afield is out of the question at this time.

Meanwhile Chris Johnson, who has touring commitments with Fish, has this to say:

To remain so creatively focused on Mostly Autumn would have been spreading myself too thinly, and MA isn’t the kind of band where you can give less than 100%. This is going to be a key album for MA and they’re playing some of the biggest shows of their career in the next 12 months, I’d feel like I’d be letting down myself, the band and, most of all, the fans if I was going into this with my attention elsewhere.

And we see the return of some familiar names:

We are extremely pleased to announce the welcome return of…

Liam Davison on guitars.

Iain Jennings on keyboards (Barring the occasional gig due to former commitments).

Anne Marie Helder on keyboards, guitars, vocals and flute.

We would also like to welcome on board a fantastic new drummer by the name of Henry Bourn who is playing on the album as we speak.

I’ll miss Angie Gordon in particular. While her flute playing has been seriously underused on the last couple of albums, she’s played a very important part in the band’s live show, both on flute and on keys. Indeed, she was virtually holding the whole show together at one point in 2006. But when it comes to trying to combine being a touring musician with being the mother of a young baby, I think she’s made the right decision.

Chris Johnson’s departure really doesn’t suprise me in the least. With his touring commitments with Fish coinciding with the recording of Mostly Autumn’s new album, and a planned European Fish tour that clashes with MA’s own UK tour, it was going to be inevitable that he wouldn’t be able to continue as a member of both bands. And while he’s a good songwriter, I’m not sure of his style quite fits the Mostlies’ established sound. He’ll still be missed.

And I’m in two minds about Iain Jennings’ return. Not that he isn’t a superb keyboard player (and all-round nice guy), but it leaves me wondering where that leaves his own band Breathing Space, who have been getting better and better over the past year.

The war against lazy music journalism continues. This time, the Guardian music blog has given space to another stereotypical NME hack, who cheerfully admits he don’t bother to actually listen to records but thinks it’s acceptable to write dismissive reviews based almost entirely on prejudices.

He reminds me of Gerald Ratner. His famously-reported quote about his cheap jewellery being ‘crap’ that’s worth less than a prawn sandwich brought about the downfall of his chain of shops selling cheap tat. Let’s hope this article does the same for the NME and their ilk.

Oh, and anyone still using the term ‘rockist’ in 2007 is a dinosaur who somehow thinks it’s still 1979, and doesn’t realise the punk wars are over and nobody cares about them any more. He’s like those WW2 Japanese soldiers found in jungles of south-east Asia in the 1970s.

Last resort when I haven’t got anything worthwhile to blog about – just list the last ten CDs I’ve listened to, and say a few words about each one.

• Opeth – Ghost Reveries: Swedish death-metal that goes “Grrrrrhhhh!”. It’s actually surprisingly melodic if you listen to it closely; it’s just the melodies aren’t Mikael Ã…kerfeldt’s growling vocals, but in the intricate twin guitar harmonies.
• Mermaid Kiss – Etarlis: A concept album of atmospheric keyboard-led female-fronted prog, based on a fantasy setting that sounds quite gameable. What’s not to like? Hopefully I’m going to get to see this lot live some time in the next few months
• Porcupine Tree – In Absentia: I can never quite make up my mind which PT album is my favourite. Sometimes it’s last year’s “Fear of a Blank Planet”, sometimes it’s “Lightbulb Sun”. And sometimes it’s this one, which marks the point where they started adding a metal influence to their sound. It was The Guardian Readers Recommend Songs about Mental Illness that triggered me to dig out this one. Not that I expect Dorian will pick “Blackest Eyes”, even when it got ‘donded’.
• Mostly Autumn – Storms Over Still Water: Every playlist of mine must include an MA album, it’s a rule. This one was the first of their albums I pre-ordered, and I think it’s one of the most underrated albums of the career. No album containing the magnificent ‘Carpe Diem’ can ever be written off as a dud.
• Fish – 13th Star : Yes, I had mixed feelings about this one when it first came out, but it’s absolutely brilliant; the big Scotsman at his angst-ridden croaky best.
• Gentle Giant – Octopus: I dug this one out following discussion of GG on the Mostly Autumn forum. This is real off-the-wall 70s prog, an eclectic mix of rock, folk and jazz, taking off in several random directions often in the same song. Nothing else sounds quite like them, although you can hear their influence in early Spock’s Beard a generation later.
• Muse – Black Holes and Revelations: From 70s prog to 00s prog, from the band that finally made prog-rock cool again. And I’ve finally worked out what that killer riff that ends ‘Knights of Cydonia’ reminds me of. It’s not Thin Lizzy’s ‘Emerald’. It’s MSG’s ‘Into the Arena’!
• After Forever: Self-titled album by the latest band from the European ‘Lady Metal’ genre, big epic operatic stuff.
• Ordinary Psycho – The New Gothik LP As far as I know, this band only recorded the one album in 2000. Vocalist David Gulvin is a bit on an acquire taste, but this viola-driven prog/indie/goth crossover was well worth revisiting. Whatever happened to them?
• The Mars Volta – Amputecture: They’ve been described as ‘completely bonkers’, and I wouldn’t disagree with that. This is their third and (in my opinion) weakest album, which seems to lack some of the manic energy and inventiveness that characterised the first two. I’m seeing them live in a couple of weeks, and must pick up their (reportedly much better) fourth before then.

So there you have it. All kinds of music, metal, prog and prog-metal.

Michael Schenker, Manchester Academy 3, 9th Feb 2008

By all reports, his tour last year was a complete fiasco. There were reports of him shambling about too drunk to play properly, the tour came to a premature end when he injured himself falling off the stage. Many wondered if his career was over.

But this year, the blond axe hero was back, with something to prove.

Billed as ‘Michael Schenker and Friends’, the band were a bunch of unknowns (I’m told they were Swiss). They were more than competant most of the time, although the singer struggled with with the opening number ‘Assault Attack’, lacking some of the power and range that Graham Bonnet had in the early 80s. But he coped well enough with Gary Bardens’ and Phil Mogg’s songs, and anyway, it wasn’t the unknown singer what the 400-odd punters had come to see. It was the blond german playing that iconic Flying V.

And he was both sober and absolutely brilliant. It’s clear when he’s on form he’s lost none of his ability to reel off the incredible solos that blew me away when I first heard his music a quarter of a century ago. The setlist was a bit of a surprise; while I expected to hear ‘Rock Bottom’ and ‘Doctor Doctor’, I hadn’t expected half the set to be UFO numbers like ‘Let it Roll’ and ‘Too Hot to Handle’. The other half was early MSG material, mostly from the first two albums, including, of course, ‘Attack of the Mad Axeman’.

While Michael is still fighting his demons, he seems have them at bay for the time being. Let’s hope he stays that way, and continues to give performances like this one.

As has been widely reported in the media, Planet Rock, the digital classic rock station, is likely to close unless the current owners can find a buyer.

I have a sort of love/hate relationship with the station. When I first bought a DAB radio I used to listen to it quite a bit, but I gradually got bored with it as they seemed to play the same limited playlist of songs over and over again, so it got ignored in favour of the good old CD player.

In the last few years, Rock (as opposed to that watered-down genre of music called “indie”) has undergone a revival; there’s a huge number of recent bands producing the sort of music that sits comfortably alongside the likes of Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd that dominates Planet Rock’s playlist. Would have been nice to hear any of the bands I’ve blogged about over the past few years on the air.

Yesterday was the official release date (I think) of the retail edition of Fish’s excellent “13th Star”. So why did Nicky Horne play the hoary old “Market Square Heroes” rather than something off the new album on his show last night? Sort of sums the station up, really.

No definite release date for the album “Visionary Position”, but Panic Room are finally hitting the road.

• April 11th – Lydney Town Hall (support: Mermaid Kiss)
• April 12th – Classic Rock Society, Herringthorpe Leisure Centre,
  Rotherham (support: The Dreaming Tree)
• April 13th – The Point, Cardiff (support: Mermaid Kiss)
• April 17th – Bar Riga, Southend-on-Sea
• April 19th – The Peel, Kingston-on-Thames (double headline with Jump)

Time and finances probably mean I’m only going to be able to make one of these, not sure which of them it will be. Rotherham is the closest, but one of the two with Mermaid Kiss is looking tempting.

Sometimes, you just do need to spend the whole of Sunday afternoon listening to Marillion albums. I got through this lot over the course of six and a half hours.

• Marillion.com
• Somewhere Else
• Marbles
• Anoraknophobia
• Afraid of Sunlight
• Seasons End

Some of those I hadn’t listened to for ages, and I’d forgotton how great those albums are. I still love the much-maligned Anoraknophobia (nothing containing ‘Quartz’ or ‘The is the 21st Century’ can possibly be considered a bad album), and even dotcom, which I used to hate, has got better over time. And the oldies AoS and SE (the last of which is 19 years old!) haven’t dated at all.