Ian Pollard - GRTR! Reviewer
Ian Pollard is a Magnum fanatic plus he has written a cracking review of this year's Sweden Rocks festival (hop over to GRTR! to see it).
1 What have you been up to so far this year and wehat have you planned for the next few months?
Plenty of work keeping me busy. Nearly all spare time is taken up with the kids or going to gigs and festivals :-) Off on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks - nice little cottage in Scotland well away from any signs of civilization. Just going to chill out, switch mobile phone off for the duration, read, kick a ball around, build sand castles etc etc.
Probably only been to about 20 gigs so far this year (+ SRF of course, which counts for a lot more bands), so pretty slow. Kicks off big time after the hols though with absolutely loads of bands touring in the last 4 months of the year. First one after we're back is the 2nd "Party in the Paddock" - a charity gig organised by Bernie Marsden. You might want to give it a mention on the newswire - great opportunity to meet all the musicians there. Check out http://www.partyinthepaddock.co.uk/index.php last year's was great (you can even spot me in one of the photos on the site wearing my very loud "Queen" shirt) - http://www.partyinthepaddock.co.uk/gallery/event/orig/4.jpg.
2 Best live gig(s) this year & why? (Can be your own gigs and/or other bands)
The Magnum Storyteller gigs were awesome of course, the band were really on form and almost overwhelmed at the response they got. Also the Mostly Autumn album release day show (I still like the Astoria as a venue, despite the horrendous beer prices and now living 200 miles away). Great band performing the whole of the fantastic new album live on the day it was officially released (just about everyone there had the album 2 months earlier as we were all pre-order subscribers that actually created the finance for it to be recorded).
I must give a special mention to the headline act at "Rock and Blues" this year - the Australian Pink Floyd Show! I'm not usually big on tribute bands, but these guys are bloody impressive. They do the full Floyd thing, with a stage show that gives Queen or the Rush 30 tour a good run for their money. They sound absolutely spot on too.
3 New msuic/books/films you've discovered/bought this year and why are they so good?
Not too much new music - Within Temptation for sure (playing at Bloodstock in 2 weeks). Blew me away at SRF. Evanesence / Nightwish / Kate Bush all rolled into one.
New album "The Calling" by Audiovision, which is a project put together by a friend of mine from Sweden - Christian Rivel. He's really got quite a few "names" working on this one, and it is very good indeed. Check it out at: http://www.rivelrecords.com/
Best film I've seen this year has to be "Sin City". Very dark, and a great performance from Mickey Rourke. Even Clive Owen is OK in it.
1 What have you been up to so far this year and wehat have you planned for the next few months?
Plenty of work keeping me busy. Nearly all spare time is taken up with the kids or going to gigs and festivals :-) Off on holiday tomorrow for 2 weeks - nice little cottage in Scotland well away from any signs of civilization. Just going to chill out, switch mobile phone off for the duration, read, kick a ball around, build sand castles etc etc.
Probably only been to about 20 gigs so far this year (+ SRF of course, which counts for a lot more bands), so pretty slow. Kicks off big time after the hols though with absolutely loads of bands touring in the last 4 months of the year. First one after we're back is the 2nd "Party in the Paddock" - a charity gig organised by Bernie Marsden. You might want to give it a mention on the newswire - great opportunity to meet all the musicians there. Check out http://www.partyinthepaddock.co.uk/index.php last year's was great (you can even spot me in one of the photos on the site wearing my very loud "Queen" shirt) - http://www.partyinthepaddock.co.uk/gallery/event/orig/4.jpg.
2 Best live gig(s) this year & why? (Can be your own gigs and/or other bands)
The Magnum Storyteller gigs were awesome of course, the band were really on form and almost overwhelmed at the response they got. Also the Mostly Autumn album release day show (I still like the Astoria as a venue, despite the horrendous beer prices and now living 200 miles away). Great band performing the whole of the fantastic new album live on the day it was officially released (just about everyone there had the album 2 months earlier as we were all pre-order subscribers that actually created the finance for it to be recorded).
I must give a special mention to the headline act at "Rock and Blues" this year - the Australian Pink Floyd Show! I'm not usually big on tribute bands, but these guys are bloody impressive. They do the full Floyd thing, with a stage show that gives Queen or the Rush 30 tour a good run for their money. They sound absolutely spot on too.
3 New msuic/books/films you've discovered/bought this year and why are they so good?
Not too much new music - Within Temptation for sure (playing at Bloodstock in 2 weeks). Blew me away at SRF. Evanesence / Nightwish / Kate Bush all rolled into one.
New album "The Calling" by Audiovision, which is a project put together by a friend of mine from Sweden - Christian Rivel. He's really got quite a few "names" working on this one, and it is very good indeed. Check it out at: http://www.rivelrecords.com/
Best film I've seen this year has to be "Sin City". Very dark, and a great performance from Mickey Rourke. Even Clive Owen is OK in it.
posted by JasonR at 2:30 am
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