Whispering Jack Phantom ...LEGEND

JOHN FARNHAM...lot of people bag him in Aussie ..yet, his probably the only bloke here who  can do a 11 month tour and sell out every night...so bash that up your arse non-believers

I had Farnham's early "King of Pop" singles, HELL, who in Aussie didint...the very famous Sadie (the cleaning lady )and Raindrops were the two 45's in question ...and after his King of Pop wins John got into stage and cabaret performing in stage shows Dick Whittington and Charlie Girl...not my cup of tea..but I dare say he gave it his all, like he does anything else.....He even had a weekly television show in the 70's called Bobby Dazzler about a pop star putting up with chicks chasing him everywhere.....but I started
to get a bit rockier and John sorta faded off my radar....

John also did an album with aussie gun geetar player Tommy Emmanuel...it was the album Uncovered but unfortunately radio in oz at the time considered John  a piss poor cabaret act and didnt push it at all.....

THEN.....he showed back up in my sphere when he had his Little River Band stint, he replaced Glen Shorrock for a couple of albums...he done good in the LRB but apparently Goebles and Birtles didnt like John "entertaining " and shortened his mic cord during gigs...assholes...

Anyway, to say that John  done it tough for a while, is calling a black cat black, quite frankly...somewhere along the line,  Glenn Wheatley, ex-bassist for The Master's Apprentices and manager of champions...encouraged him to write stuff along with some mates and to put together a album along with sound engineer extrodinaire Ross Fraser...this ,quite frankly was Johns last shot, Wheatley even mortgaged his house..NOW... that's faith.

While they were putting the album together they were in a jazz club state side and the  yank who clearly didnt use english as a first language called John Farnham ...

JACK PHANTOM...John liked the mistake and filed the name away for later use...after working with Ross Wilson and a slew of other muso's, he got the album done....

the album was delivered to Sydney radio stations as being performed by NEW act Whispering Jack Phantom...and the radio stations played it....the next time I saw John was on a very famous variety show here in aussie, HEY HEY ITS SATURDAY..and him and the band banged out Your the Voice and a quick cover of "Women in Uniform" with Graham "Shirley" Strachan from Skyhooks...(who wrote it ,NOT Iron Maiden, for all you poms out there;))

I listened to Your the Voice, then it started showing up on radio more and more so, I thought to myself..hmmm...and then thought ahhhhh-HA...and went out and bought the most famous album in aussie in recent memory WHISPERING JACK, well, me and about 1.6 million others..it was the Bat out of Hell of Australia...every other house had a copy, and it went 24 x PLATINUM...WOW!

Farnham went out on the road to give back to the people that got him  back to the top of aussie rock...and dont John do a show...fkn brilliant isnt a strong enough word..I been to a couple of tours and he worked his arse off every night...I can safely say that Ive never seen OR heard of John half arsing a gig..and that says a lot about the bloke if you ask me....a

and hasnt he had some of Aussies greatest muso's working with on tours..People like Lindsay "The Bloody Hippy" Fields on back up voice, Angus "The Mongrel" Burchell on the drums, Stuart Fraser (yes him from Feather) on guitar and Brett "Rambo" Garsed who other gig of note was with hair metal act NELSON...oh and we cant forget the Queen of Australia, Vanetta Fields on voice

Everything he touched turned to gold ...He done a in the round version of Jesus Christ Superstar as JC himself with Angry Anderson as Pontius Pilate and Jon Stevens of Noisewoks as Judus...wasnt bad I suppose...

not my cup of bourbon and he also did a series of gigs called Main Events with Olivia Neutron Bomb...umm Newton John and Anthony Warlow, which Deb loved, once again, me not so much, he also done a duet with Jimmy Barnes "Something is wrong with my baby"...a sterling tune

John has produced a string of albums that are just off the hook..Romeos Heart, Chain Reaction (my personal fave), Age of reason...33 &1/3, The Last Time and Farnham  all live at  my place...and they all are the goods....(psst ...wasnt a big fan of the great australian songbook, But dont let that stop ya looking for it)

He even done a gig with Tom Jones and released a dvd and cd of the gig...to the best of my knowledge they met on Hey Hey...thats the first time I saw them together and they did an acapella version My Yiddisha Momma and it blew the roof off the joint...fkn awesome doesnt cover it....

He did an album called the Last Time in 2001...and this resulted in the "retirement "tour...which me and Deb went to at Newcastle Entertainment centre in 2002...some halfwit tried to sue him for emotional  stress and breach of promise for doing a mini tour  in 2003...BUT.. John said he wasn't doing any more major tours he never said anything about never gigging again.

Around this time he did a version "We Will Rock You" with Brian and Roger from Queen  and while he never was gonna do a gig proper with them , he coulda pulled it off with no doubt about.

So there you go, my homage to Whispering Jack Phantom...hope you hunt him down and get into him

Sadie (1968)

Everybody Oughta Sing a Song (1968)

Looking Through a Tear (1970)

Christmas Is... Johnny Farnham (1970)

Johnny (1971)

Together (1971)

Johnny Farnham Sings the Shows (1972)

Hits Magic & Rock 'N Roll (1973)

Johnny Farnham Sings Hits from the Movies (1974)

J.P. Farnham Sings (1975)

Uncovered (1980)

Whispering Jack (1986)

Age of Reason (1988)

Chain Reaction (1990)

Then Again... (1993)

Romeo's Heart (1996)

33⅓ (2000)

The Last Time (2002)

I Remember When I Was Young: Songs from the Great Australian Songbook (2005)

Jack (2010)

The Acoustic Chapel Sessions (2011)

The Strolling Bones..umm...THE ROLLING STONES

The Rolling Stones....they were supposed to be the bad boys of english rock, the antithesis of the Beatles...I think it is fair to say that even if we really dont own a stack of stones, we all know a song or six...

.I know I do, they have done pretty good, considering that they were cover heavy on their first album, then someone locked Mick and Keef in the kitchen and said "GET STARTED SCRIBBLING  WE NEED SOME PRODUCT"...and the content hasn't stopped some 51 years later.

The emergence of The Rolling Stones apart from giving the press the Anti-Beatles,and just quietly, on their best day The Stones wouldn't have won a stink with the lads from liverpool.....John Lennon with one arm tied behind his back and with a dozen pints in him  would probably creamed the lot of them

The boys made some of the old Chess Records Blues players some extra coin, names such as Muddy Waters, who wrote "Rollin' Stone", the song from which the band drew its name.....NOW, The Stones, its fair to say,  have had some historic moments alrighty....

Like Keef getting busted for drugs a few times, Bryan dying, and then there was Altamont...the same year we had peace and love, we had the Angels kill someone at a free Stones gig...

AND people blamed the Stones...they should try blaming the organisers, they hired a bunch of drunk angry 1% patch wearers to do the security

They were formed in 1962 and have had a reasonably static line-up....Mick, Keith and Charlie have always been there, Woodsy is the newest bloke at 20 + years on rhythm guitar,

 The group's earliest line-up consisted of Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica), Ian Stewart (piano), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bassist) and Charlie Watts (drummer).....Although I must say that I really got into the Stones after Woodsy joined up...not a knock on Brian or Mick Taylor, just the way it is.

Speaking of Brian, Stuey and Mick....

BRYAN JONES
Original guitarist and founder Bryan Jones was found drowned at his home after a year long struggle with a serious drug problem and was suffering from a real bad LSD trip during the filming of Rock'n'Roll Circus and shortly after was shunted from the band, .original Stones bassist Bill Wyman stated about Jones: "...he formed the band. He chose the members. He named the band. He chose the music we played. He got us gigs ... Very influential, very important, and then slowly lost it - highly intelligent - and just kind of wasted it and blew it all away."...

IAN STEWART
original Stones piano player Ian Stewart became the road manager in 1963 and stayed in that position until he succumed to a heart attack in the emergency department in '84...Mick Taylor said about Stewy..."he remained aloof from the band's lifestyle. "I think he looked upon it as a load of bollocks,"  "I also think it was because he saw what had happened to Brian. I could tell from the expression on his face when things started to get a bit crazy during the making of Exile on Main Street. I think he found it very hard. We all did."

MICK TAYLOR
Michael Kevin "Mick" Taylor, best known as a former member of John Mayall's Blues breakers (1966–69) and The Rolling Stones (1969–74). "He is regarded by a goodly percentage of  hardcore Stones fans as the best musician ever to play with the band, and appeared on some of their classic albums including Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main St.." then after getting a real bad heroin addiction, one day he walked up to Mick and said I cant handle it, I quit (alledgedly).....Since resigning from the Rolling Stones in December 1974 Taylor began working with numerous other artists and has released solo albums. Taylor was listed in Rolling Stone magazine's 2012 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, ranked at 37th place.

Those bloody hippies at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted them in 1996, about 15 years too late if you ask me ....the Rock Hall stated; "critical acclaim and popular consensus has accorded them the title of the “World’s Greatest Rock and Roll Band.”They were ranked number 4 in Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, and their worldwide sales are estimated at more than 200 million albums.


AND...if you havent seen it..wrap your peepers around CROSSFIRE HURRICANE..an absolutely brilliant doco about the Band

Band members

Current members

Mick Jagger – lead and backing vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, piano, harmonica, bass guitar, synthesizer, percussion, slide guitar (April 1962 –present)

Keith Richards – electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, piano, backing and lead vocals (April 1962 –present)

Charlie Watts – drums, percussion (January 1963 –present)

Ronnie Wood – slide, lap and pedal steel guitars, electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, saxophone, drums, backing vocals (March 1975 –present)

Additional musicians

Chuck Leavell – keyboards (May 1982 –present)

Darryl Jones – bass guitar (January 1993 –present)

Lisa Fischer - background vocals (1989–1990;1993 -present)

Bernard Fowler - background vocals (1989 -present)

Former members

Brian Jones – guitars, sitar, keyboards, accordion, marimba, harmonica, dulcimer, autoharp, percussion, recorder, cello, mandolin, saxophone, backing vocals (April 1962 –June 1969)

Bill Wyman – bass guitar, marimba, organ, percussion, backing vocals (December 1962 –January 1993)

Ian Stewart – piano, keyboards, percussion (April 1962 –May 1963; additional musician: January 1964 – December 1966, November 1968 –August 1985)

Tony Chapman – drums (April 1962 –January 1963

Mick Taylor – electric, acoustic and slide guitars, bass guitar, backing vocals (June 1969 –December 1974)

The Rolling Stones (1964, UK) / England's Newest Hit Makers (1964, US)

The Rolling Stones No. 2 (1965, UK) / 12 X 5 (1964, US)

The Rolling Stones, Now! (1965, US)

Out of Our Heads (1965, UK) / Out of Our Heads (1965, US)

December's Children (And Everybody's) (1965, US)

Aftermath (1966, UK) / Aftermath (1966, US)

Between the Buttons (1967, UK) / Between the Buttons (1967, US)

Their Satanic Majesties Request (1967)

Beggars Banquet (1968)

Let It Bleed (1969)

Sticky Fingers (1971)

Exile on Main St. (1972)

Goats Head Soup (1973)

It's Only Rock 'n Roll (1974)

Black and Blue (1976)

Some Girls (1978)

Emotional Rescue (1980)

Tattoo You (1981)

Undercover (1983)

Dirty Work (1986)

Steel Wheels (1989)

Voodoo Lounge (1994)

Bridges to Babylon (1997)

A Bigger Bang (2005)

SO...there you go , the Strolling Bones....LEGENDS

GLAM GODZ...the tale of The Sweet !!

QUOTES:

Without Sweet, there would be no KISS

We wanted to be The Sweet - Motley Crue

Tis is the band I wanted to be in - Joe Elliot of Def Leppard

Sweet were formed in 1968 as The Sweetshop and achieved ABSOLUTELY nothing till their first hit "Funny Funny" in 1971 after teaming up with songwriters Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman and record producer Phil Wainman...

The band achieved a stack of success in Blighty, with a awesome run of  thirteen..that's 13,  Top 20 hits during the 1970s alone, with "Block Buster!" (1973) topping the chart, followed by three consecutive number two hits in "Hell Raiser" (1973), "The Ballroom Blitz" (1973) and "Teenage Rampage" (1974). Their first self-written and produced single "Fox on the Run" (1975) also reached number two on the UK charts. ...
.From 1976...well, the success started to decline, right along with Brians substance problems, and Sweet had their last Top 10 hit in 1978 with "Love is Like Oxygen".

The band had quite the string of albums, and I must admit to not knowing about 55% of them, I mean I'd mostly bought Greatest Hits collections...THEN...I came across a box set called
THE SWEET 1971-1989......I played them and discovered a stack of stuff that's really REALLY the grouse...only shows to go you dont it...if you expand your horizons, you end up with a fuller mp3 gizmo

Back to the band....I thinks its fair to say, that most of my mates thought the Sweet had a touch of the poof about them, I asked one guy, then explain all the chicks?...he couldnt....I seen 'em live in '75 with Connolly, there was nothing poofy about them, they weren't bubblegum in a live situation...not in the tiniest bit.

70's promoters must of been chewing on magic mushies A LOT...We have all heard of strange bills at rock shows , right?..how about this one  -BOB SEGER and THE SILVER BULLET BAND and THE SWEET

in 1978, Sweet extensively toured the US, as a support act for Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band....(this included the infamous gig where the record company showed up and Brian Connolly passed out on stage blitzed out of his skull)...

The boys returned briefly to England to dry Brian out,  before resuming the second leg of their US tour in late May supporting Seger, bands on that tour were FOGHAT and ALICE COOPER...now, going out with Coop makes sense,  Alice and The Sweet...BUT FOGHAT?

Back home, the boys arrived at The Town House studio in Shepherds Bush, London to write and record new material for their next album, Cut Above the Rest...a few songs were recorded with Brian singing. BUT for the most part they flat out sucked and a good percentage of the tracks were erased from the album..

On 23 February 1979, Brian Connolly's departure from Sweet was announced by Handle Artists' Manager, David Walker, at a press conference. Publicly, Connolly was said to be pursuing a solo career with an interest in recording country rock....privately, he was a raging alcoholic

Since the mid-1980s, Scott, Connolly and Priest have each played with their own versions of Sweet during different periods of time. Connolly died in 1997, and Tucker died in 2002. The two surviving members are still active in their respective versions of the band; Scott's is based in the United Kingdom and Priest's in the United States.

ROCK IN PEACE

Brian Connolly died at the age of 51 on 9 February 1997 from liver failure and repeated heart attacks, attributed to his earlier 1970s and early 1980s chronic drinking.... Mick Tucker subsequently died on 14 February 2002 from leukaemia, aged 54.

I think its fair to say that we all know Sweets BIG hits...so to that point...here are some of my personal favourite tracks......ANYWAY....OH, and just in case your wondering...my favourite Sweet album is DESOLATION BOULEVARD

GODZ of GLAM

NWOBHM-ism's

What If I said something like, um, say....NWOBHM...

ANGEL WITCH - Angel Witch

whats the first thing that pops into your head ?....for me,  its Kerrang magazine and its Neil Kay and that very 70's fu man chu moustache he had hopping out of his Jaguar XJS with a stack of vinyl under his arm and walking into the Soundhouse...,

 I vaguely remember being in Eutopia records one day on a lunch break and a video playing of a BBC heavy metal documentary...I have since got said doco on the Iron Maiden through the years dvd...but, yeah, that was my first inkling of a new wave of anything.

 I must have got into a conversation with the blokes who worked there cause suddenly I had Saxon albums and Diamond Head albums and all sorts of other bands product living at my place, I think I can even link my motorheadism to this point, maybe, not sure...

ANYWAY....NWOBHM, I guess was indirectly created by punk, although Steve Harris would have you thinking different,  Brian Tatler from Diamond head reckons the young metal generation that formed after punk grabbed hold of the punk DIY attitude and applied it liberally to their music.....I havent heard too many bands deny that NWOBHM got 'em started , well, except for Def Leppard, Joe Elliot steadfastly refuses to be lumped in with the NWOBHM guys....

the recording companys went on a signing rampage, similar to what happened on the strip in LA when hair metal showed up, and subsequently, as you would expect , there were some fkn shockers sign to record deals...BUT...there were some classics that have survived to this very millenium..Maiden, Motorhead, Saxon, Preist, Leppard and Girlschool

...just too name a couple...and then their was some that shoulda of cracked it ,but for some f**ked  up reason didnt end up with mansions (well, Lemmy didnt but thats another story) and stuff......Diamond Head, Grim reaper, Tygers of Pan Tang and my personal favourite the band commonly known as SPIDER..the fact they didnt crack it for mega stardom is just f**kin wrong...but thats just my opinion I guess.

MOTORHEAD - louie, louie

After Sounds editor Alan Lewis coined the term, journalist Geoff Barton first used it in the May 1979 issue of Sounds magazine as a way of describing a second wave of heavy metal bands that emerged in the late 1970s during the period of punk rock's decline and the dominance of New Wave music

NWOBHM bands toned down the blues influences of earlier acts, incorporated elements of punk, increased the tempo, and adopted a "tougher" sound, taking a harder approach to its music. It was an era directed almost exclusively at heavy metal fans and is considered to be a major foundation stone for the extreme metal genres,

Metallica main man, Lars Ulrich cite's NWOBHM bands like Saxon, Motörhead, Diamond Head, and Iron Maiden as a major influence on Metallica's musical style.

NWOBHM was recognisable by fast upbeat tempo songs, power chords, fast guitar solos and melodic, soaring vocals, with lyrical themes often drawing inspiration from mythology and fantasy fiction....so there you, go, now tyou know were Power metal came from...my pleasure

It would be fair to say that NWOBHM existed outside the world of the mainstream pop and rock culture. Magazines such as those sanctimonious pricks over at NME and Melody Maker usually wouldnt feature NWOBHM acts at all......

VENOM - WELCOME TO HELL

It was left therefore to Sounds to feature NWOBHM artists. Geoff Barton began writing features on the new up and coming metal bands and Sounds even featured a weekly Heavy Metal chart compiled from record requests at “The Soundhouse”, a heavy metal 'disco' in North West London and the spiritual home of the movement.

Good old Geoff Barton then set up Kerrang!, my personal favourite magazine at the time and the first magazine exclusively devoted to heavy metal...the man should be knighted...the only national radio show to feature the genre was The Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 presented by the legendary Tommy Vance.

The early movement was associated with acts such as Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, Saxon, Angel Witch, Girlschool, Raven, Diamond Head, Samson,Tygers of Pan Tang, Blitzkrieg, Sweet Savage, Jaguar, Avenger, Demon, Witchfynde, Witchfinder General, White Spirit and Tank.

The image of bands such as Saxon, (who I ran into at Schipol Airport in 1987,but thats another story) consisting of long hair, denim jackets, leather and chains, would later become synonymous with heavy metal as a whole during the 1980s.

Some bands, although conceived during this era, saw success on an lower scale, as was the case with Venom and Quartz ( who quite frankly, aint very good) NWOBHM suffered the same decline as any other musical movements. Many of the movement's leaders were unable to follow up with a decent sophomore album. In addition, many bands moved further away from the era towards mainstream hard rock, with Def
Leppard in particular targeting the American market with a more refined sound despite having major success.

IRON MAIDEN - Women in Uniform

By the mid 1980s, a fair percentage of my mates and other rock fans found a more commercial metal scene coming from Los Angeles led by bands such as Mötley , Poison and Ratt...but I stuck solid and kept an ear on our pommy cousins....

 In addition, thrash metal, emerged around the same time, and attracted many rock fans for being even faster and even heavier than NWOBHM, despite being NWOBHM's first cousin

Some of the more popular bands of the movements  however, went on to considerable, lasting success. Iron Maiden and Motörhead stayed with a more traditional heavy metal style, allowing them to retain a large and rabid fan base even after bands with a similar sound had lost record company support.

SAXON - DENIM & LEATHER

 Iron Maiden has since then become one of the most commercially successful and influential heavy metal bands of all time. Def Leppard, after discarding their earlier, heavier sound, became even hugely successful when they put together  Pyromania and Hysteria (which wouldnt have worked in NWOBHM)

SO, there you go...some NWOBHMISM's for ya..