This weeks musical cavaliers are, Manchester-based, Well Wisher.

I first heard of the band Well Wisher, working with vocalist Michael Cahill who, in his eternal drunken wisdom, once imparted on me a piece of advice I will take to the grave:

“People need to realise to early 90′s emo music was the best kind of music ever and just start listening to it again.”

Well Wisher’s greatest strength isn’t on record, (not that the recorded stuff isn’t wicked!) but during their live shows. They have such an incredible dynamic, you’d think watching Black Flag was a laid back gig. There is humour, great audience interaction and such raw energy in every members enthusiasm for the music they play, not to mention some D.I.Y stunts throughout the set.

Luckily, and the reason this has come out a little earlier than planned, WW are playing at the Oxford this Thursday 29/07/2010 along with half a dozen other awesome bands. No words I write could describe just how cool it is to watch this band play, you can only truly believe it first hand. With such great live sets and an upcoming E.P (which the band aim to have out by late August, if any band was gonna bring back a music scene that truly deserves reviving, Well Wisher are your men.

I give them 5/5 Special Brews, with bonus points for being so damn old school.

Details of Thursdays gig can be found via this link:

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=126357054069516&index=1

You can listen to Well Wisher via their Myspace which can be found at:

http://www.myspace.com/wellwisher10

First on the agenda is a beautiful band called Above Them.

Above Them have been flying just below radar for sometime now, but since the release of their “now-nearly-a-year-old” album, Blueprint For A Better Time, the trio have been well and truly making a name for themselves in the punk scene playing with other greats such as Chillerton, The 255s and even the almighty Chuck Ragan.

The bands sound itself is a hard one to pin: It’s slick, smooth and melodic but at the same time featuring all the rawness of true punk rock or a chapped arse, but in a good way. Above Them have totally found their own sound. They’ve a uniqueness that is so relieving when compared to the many ‘might-as-well-be-tribute’ bands that occupy the punk scene.

As a live act the boys don’t hold back, with high energy, hard-hitting sets and some half decent banter to boot. Go and listen to the boys from Pontefract on Myspace, buy their album, go watch them live, whatever. Just make sure you sample the sweet sound that is Above Them. Oh, and buy a t-shirt, they’re smart as fuck.

I give Above Them 4/5 Special Brews, they lose a point because they’re from Yorkshire.

http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/event.php?eid=111334772244725&ref=ts

You can buy Blueprint For A Better Time on i-Tunes by clicking this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/uk/album/keep-smiling/id367479798?i=367479828&ign-mpt=uo%3D6

L-R: Martin, Ian, Jonah Matranga, Anthony

I bet some of you are reading this and wondering what the hell ‘Dicking Around Presents’ is and that’s what we are here to tell you. If you’re a reader of our work you’ll remember (hopefully) that, back when we interviewed Chris Farren, we mentioned “Dicking Around with Fake Problems” (we also brought this up to Tom Gabel too). Well that film is the works, but before that happens we decided to set up a little ‘production company’ and do a bit of video work for Moon & Back.

With Dicking Around Productions, we aim to bring you cool, music-based video content. Our first project was with, the lovely, Jonah Matranga. He allowed us to film some of his gig in Manchester last month and this is what we bring to you now. Sorry about the audio quality, we’ll be sure to fix that for our next video. Enjoy!

Jonah Matranga – ‘Smile’

All videos recorded and edited by Dicking Around Productions ©2010

Bad Company © John Rockwood

Taking a trip back to arguably one of rock’s heyday years of 1974, Rock’s Classics takes a gander at the hard rock classic “Bad Company” by Bad Company. Often considered by many to be a band that could and perhaps should have delivered more, Bad Company seemed to tap into a mentality and way of life that perfectly epitomised the early 70s rock scene. With their screaming lyrics and heavily amped guitars, Bad Company stood at the very edge of making a bloody charge at immortality, “Bad Company” was one of their war cries.

Formed in 1973 as the result of the remaining members of Free, vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke. Mott the Hoople’s Mick Ralphs on guitar and Boz Burrell formerly of King Crimson, it seemed that this band of plucky young rockers who had cut their teeth in what are considered some of the best seminal rock bands of their age, could do no wrong. The initial result of their meeting and cutting of their first album, Bad Company was a record deal with the newly formed Swan Song, a lucrative if not chaotic side project of Led Zeppelin. This deal also secured the services of Zep’s manager, one Peter Grant, the towersome former wrestler who is considered to be the pioneer of the rock band’s management system we know of today.

Thus in 1974, the band released their eponymous debut album much to the critics and fans of the member’s previous band’s enjoyment and pleasure. literally ladened with what are considered classic rock staples and anthems, “Can’t Get Enough,” and “Movin’ On” could probably justify a Rock’s Classics article to themselves, it was the self styled album and band leading song “Bad Company” that would secure itself as being the definitive sound for the band itself and the perfect calling card for the artists and their work.

Written by Kirke and Rodgers, the main basis for the song’s inspiration is taken from the Jeff Bridges western movie released a few years previously. Designed as an anthem for any rebelling soul and individual thinker, the lyrics deal with the somewhat regretful and remorseful narrator who acknowledges his rebellious and free way of life, ultimately not repenting but admitting it what he or she ultimately wants. This, accompanied by Ralphs guitar work in which he lumbers through the whole song with a heavy fisted dread, perfectly countering the flamboyant and wistful vocals from Rodgers. The percussion section and echoing piano/keyboard, also from Ralphs, paint the perfect picture of an Old West wilderness, the place in which the narrator has either decided or accepted will be the place of his final fight, a life spent on the wrong side of the tracks ending in the same way.

The solo, one of Mick Ralph’s best and a tribute to a rock guitarist often left off of most popular and talented lists, comes thundering out of this musical wilderness like a stampeding stallion. Erupting much like the protagonists frustration and temperamental nature, the solo works its way up and down the fret board in a controlled chaos, the voices of a thousand generations of rogues and renegades uniting as one distorted, amplified Marshall voice.

In all, “Bad Company” is not a song that is overlooked, nor is it a song that is underappreciated or unheralded by critics and fans of the hard and classic rock movements. It is a song that is a perfect embodiment of a band, era and genre that was perfectly master crafted and delivered to the mass public, of which they ate it up. Although Bad Company would go on to produce a total of twelve studio albums, the line up changed on an almost yearly basis at one point during the 80s and 90s, the band’s spirit was never truly captured again than in this album and thus within it this track. A great pity as many rock bands before and after Bad Company would attempt to come close to encapsulating all that they stood for but in the end, none were as close as Bad Company were, all of the time.

Jonathan Whitelaw

M&B presents an alternative, urban summer playlist. Enjoy…

First up, a classic cross-over belter from ’06. Skream’s Midnight Request Line.

Closely followed by ultimate summer feel-good pick me up, Major Lazer’s Can’t Stop Now.

Now we’ve to mash things up. Alot. Girl Talk’s Feed the Animals (Part I, at least) with 23 different samples. Phwah.

Followed by my all time favourite rave anthem classic SL2′s On A Ragga Trip. Summer summer summer!

After all that bouncing around, we need something a bit more relaxed. Chuck us a mojito and whack on Massive Attack’s Risingson (Underworld Remix), a veritable marmite of a song.

To cap it all off, one you all know and should love: M.I.A’s Paper Planes

Any suggestions to add? Post below and keep the night going

Slipknot

As a general rule of thumb amongst music aficionados, heavy metal and harder edged rock music are not the typical genres to find heart felt, ballad esque songs to evoke and pluck at the heartstrings. Often considered to be soft and, dare it be said, too emotional for long haired, uber masculine head thrashers, they like their strumming fast, drums thrashing and symbols crashing all the while listening to lyrics about death, hatred, mystical landscapes and of course, Old Nick. But looking back over the past forty or so years it has become apparent that these metal heads have a softer side to them also as the depths of hell are examined to reveal several calmer, more touching numbers from some of metal and rock’s hard men.

Kicking off this tour of the more enlightened and softer side to metal music is, quite fittingly the Prince of Darkness himself, Ozzy Osbourne. Ozzy, for most accounts can be heartily considered as one of the all time metal giants, from his groundbreaking work in the genre with Black Sabbath to his solo career and his unfathomable wit that has made him a branded global superstar. So how could this drug fuelled, raging alcoholic hell raiser ever turn his hand to something as soft as a turgid love song. That comes in the form of “Changes” from the Black Sabbath album Black Sabbath Vol. 4. With a lonesome piano from TVs Rick Wakeman, this tribute to a lost love is as far away a change in direction for the Brummy mentalist and his metal mayhem as is physically, psychologically and stomach churningly possible.

Acoustic guitars, tributes to his estranged wife and a tempo and composition that sounds more than a little like the theme song to “The Chipmunks go to The Movies” cartoon from the early nineties. Ozzy’s rap sheet expands with his 1992 effort “Mama I’m coming home”. This overly produced gag fest cannot even be saved by a considerably enjoyable Zakk Wylde solo midway through the gushing lyrics aimed at Sharon Osbourne whom he affectionately calls Mama, a psychiatrist’s field day. Hard to believe this was co-written by old wart face Lemmy of Motorhead fame, three must have really been something in the water.

Up next in the witness stand is American glam and hair metal rockers Poison. Their 1988, second studio album Open Up and Say…Ah was hailed and revered by critics at the time of its initial release. Mixing a devilishly charming blend of sexually driven, good time partying and general carrying on themed songs like “Nothin’ but a Good Time”, “Tearin’ Down the Walls” and “Look but You Can’t Touch”, listeners are then treated to the pseudo country, softest sounding rock ballad, possibly of all time, “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” From the bowel busting lyrics, “But I wonder does he know/ Has he ever felt like this” being a particular stand out reference to a DJ playing what can only be presumed to be as wet a song as this one. Poison’s Brett Michaels would later go on to be the self styled star of another sex tape featuring Pamela Anderson, not a considerable feat of genius but it can only be presumed that this song, affectionately and squirmingly known by fans as “Every Rose” for short was kept off of his mix tape for her.

To round off this name and shame list of metalers who, in their moments of weakness go over to the light side are a band who, to casual fans, would not be immediately considered candidates for a list such as this. Dressed in torn boiler suits and hidden behind macabre, hideous masks are Iwoa’s very own Slipknot. The offending material is the track “Snuff” from their typically bleak titled fourth album All Hope is Gone. This song, although admitted by the band’s frontman Corey Taylor as a “slow one” continues the over produced, rather ham fisted approach that this band have made millions from for the better part of fifteen years. Peddled as a post goth and emo anthem that had pubescent metal loving boys and girls the world over clamoring for the single as it out poured the emotions they all thought they had, the track does show a temporal maturity from a band who have now long been past their peak. Their lasting legacy disappearing in a cloud of well polished office jobs as the children who littered shopping canters and public spaces dressed all in black even in the scorching heat have at last grown up.

As bad as all of this may seem, it takes more than a few rotten apples to spoil the cider brewery. In general, metal fans are kept frothing at the mouth by their heroes on a yearly basis which almost makes some of these forays into the softer, fluffier branch of music a little more forgiving. If anything can really be taken from this venture down the industry’s dirt track it is that the vast musical ability and talent of which these musicians possess can be aptly demonstrated by their broad horizons and abilities. It still makes it hard to head bang to them though.

Jonathan Whitelaw

Ozzy Osbourne & Zakk Wylde © Kevin Winter/Getty Images Entertainment

Taking a distinctly metal fringe on this installment of Rock’s Classics, the 1991 hit “Hellraiser” by music’s godfather of carry on, Ozzy Osbourne. Taken from his sixth studio album No More Tears, “Hellraiser” has gone on to enjoy phenomenal success since its initial release, nineteen years ago and remains one of Ozzy’s most popular tracks.

Debuting in early autumn of 1991, Ozzy’s album No More Tears was intended to continue his long associated success now that he had fully established himself as a credible solo recording artist. The album spawned five singles, most notably “No More Tears” and “Mama I’m Coming Home” but interestingly did not include “Hellraiser”, an odd decision that baffles fandom and music listeners to this day considering the huge popularity that the song has gone on to accumulate. No More Tears also holds the distinction of being one of Ozzy’s most successful albums in terms of sales, the other being the 1981 solo debut Blizzard of Oz.

The track is one of great interest and love from heavy metal and rock fans the world over. Despite having a distinctly hackneyed and clichéd title, the song deals with the irreverent truth and almost sacrificial love that the narrator, in this case it should be believed to be Ozzy himself, has for the world of rock and roll music. Indeed the opening line “Heading out on an endless road/ Around the world for rock and roll,” aptly starts the drum fuelled, blistering guitar odyssey of mythical landscaping and grotty real life gigging.

Musically the song can be considered a borderline metal masterpiece, certainly much more credible than the album filling, seventh placed song on the track listings that it was treated to by producers. Zakk Wylde’s screaming Les Paul smashes through the speakers and earphones like a stampeding elephant, his riff writing and execution acting like a sharp bolt of lightning tearing through the night and down the listener’s spine. Couple this with Ozzy’s signature wailing and the song takes on a distinctly Gothic feel, continuing a wonderfully healthy obsession with such topics and trends that were popular in the early to mid nineties where it seemed nothing would be considered credible had it not been given the Mary Shelly treatment. See Meatloaf’s “I’d do anything for love” and Alien 3 for further examples. Osbourne’s vocal work should also be commended considering he probably hadn’t been home or even to bed since the late seventies.

“Hellraiser” has a strong legacy in many different formats and avenues. The song was covered by Motorhead, frontman Lemmy having contributed to writing and production on No More Tears, the song appearing on the soundtrack to the motion picture “Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth”. The song would also go on to appear in the video game GTA: San Andreas, continuing Osbourne’s now lengthy affiliation to the ultra-violent video game franchise. It is therefore with no real great surprise that “Hellraiser” for all of its semi biographical and almost demonic repenting nature that it has become a mainstay of Ozzy’s live set lists. With a popularity that grows with every generation that hears it for the first time, “Hellraiser” is certainly considered one of the textbook tracks for new and old metal and rock fans to listen to, another example of Ozzy Osbourne’s seemingly immortal talent and freedom of expression.

Jonathan Whitelaw

AC/DC Circa 1980

After a brief hiatus, the beady eye of interest and nosiness casts its glare onto a classic song from a classic era of a classic band… How couldn’t this have been more acknowledged than it is? Swamped amongst hard hitting rock classics such as “Hells Bells” “You Shook Me All Night Long” and of course “Back in Black” we have “Let Me Put My Love into You” by AC/DC, a bastion of less being more and the variance of three chord hard rock.

The world of 1980 was a very different place compared to today. Musically the planet was in a way still reeling from the fall out of sixties as the airwaves were filled with countless disco badgers and hounds that would pollute anything with ears. The Eagles had called it quits in 1980, as did Led Zeppelin amongst others, two behemoths of their respective genres becoming dormant and leaving large spaces that may never be filled. Riding the wave of their massively successful breakout album Highway to Hell, AC/DC suffered a monumental and almost catastrophic disaster in the form of lead singer Bon Scott’s demise at the tender age of 33, dying as he lived, partying. But in true rock and roll fashion, the Australian hard rockers decided the best way to pay tribute to the late Scott was to soldier on and keep going as he would have wanted. Geordie screamer Brian Johnson stepped into the fray and brought his own brand of grass roots, salt of the earth experience to the already blue collar band. The end result was Back in Black which would go on to be the second best selling album of all time, the scale of which can be seen considering the best is Michael Jackson’s seminal work Thriller.

Which brings the action neatly to the subject of this profile. Perhaps most famous for being the lead in track for the decisive “Back in Black”, “Let Me Put My Love into You.” Is a creeping, looming song that has an unassuming menace to its tone, lyrics and overall performance. As the title suggests there is no deep meaning, ambiguous or even, dare it be said, creative undercurrent to the song that makes it all the more enjoyable. Coming from a band who makes no qualms about their love for all things fornicated and party oriented, the song is an unusually barefaced, stark statement of the formula they have mastered and kept blasting out of their amps for almost forty years.

Even from the geography of the song on the album, “Let Me Put my Love into You.” Is a stark difference from the previous four tracks that precede it. In this sense, the song acts as a bridge for the two separate acts of the album as a whole, representing a transition from the first half of the album into the second, no mean feat considering the lasting impact of songs such as “Back in Black”, “You Shook Me All Night Long” and “Rock and Roll Aint Noise Pollution” all major staples of AC/DC’s legacy and hard rock trend setters. With the distinctly sedated three chord riff and pounding bassline, “Let me Put my Love into You.” Strikes the listener immediately as a break from the norm and stands as a testimony to the artists’ ability to create a wonderful sound in a less is more fashion, more so considering both the band’s track record and the genre’s more demanding, loud and fierce tendencies.

It is with all of these factors that the song builds itself up quietly and unassumingly on an album that is literally chocked full of classics from start to finish. “Let Me Put My Love into You.” Is therefore a wonderful track that delivers to fans and new listeners alike both an excellent rock track and a piece of production and tactical musical ability. From an album that has been noted as one of the best ever and from an era of music that is now considered transitional in its depiction, Back in Black can still be considered a fitting tribute from a band to their fallen hero and a must listen to anybody interested in music.

Jonathan Whitelaw

Ronnie James Dio 1942 - 2010

It is with the saddest and heaviest of hearts that the recent news of Ronnie James Dio’s death has touched every metal and music fan across the globe. With a career spanning the better half of five decades within the music industry, the metal and rock and roll world has lost one of its great champions and will be very, very much duller without. Here we pay tribute to his life and career.

Born Ronald James Padavona in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA, Ronnie was immediately bitten by the performing and musical bug having started his first bands in his early teens with other members of his school classes. After stints amongst various high school and college bands, and after changing his stage name to Dio from the notorious mafia member Johnny Dio, Ronnie found stability and fame in 1969 when he formed the band Elf who would open for Deep Purple.

Although moderately successful it would not be until Deep Purple’s virtuoso guitarist Richie Blackmore left the band and convinced Dio to do the same that his success would become apparent. The product of this borderline super group was Rainbow, a typically 70s blues inspired pop rock band that gave listeners such hits as “Stargazer” and “Long Live Rock n Roll”. Although their impact on rock and metal history will probably only be a footnote at best in the tattered, ruined history books of the genre, this incarnation of the second division band will always be important for bringing about the attention of recently frontman-less Black Sabbath of Dio.

As was heavily featured in the recent album review of Black Sabbath’s Heaven and Hell here on Moon & Back Music, Sabbath’s recent fall out with Ozzy Osbourne meant that Tony Iommi and the others were on the prowl for a singer to front their godfathers of metal act. Dio was the answer and provided a much needed regeneration and almost reinvention of the band as they pulled themselves from the drug and booze filled rut of the late seventies and rejoined the emerging New Wave of British Heavy Metal in the early 1980s. Dio would go on to record one more studio album, The Mob Rules in 1981 and Sabbath’s first live album; Live Evil, released in 1982. Although he never truly matched the popularity of Ozzy, an almost impossible task, it would be here that Dio would enjoy his most success and gain his reputation as a commercially viable and reliable member of heavy metal. It also helped of course that he popularized the “devil’s horns” hand gesture, a throwback from his youth, that is now enjoyed by every single person who loves heavy metal, that and anybody on MTV or Cribs pretending to be rock and roll.

In 1982 Dio left Black Sabbath with replacement drummer Vinnie Appice to form his own band, Dio. Throughout the remainder of the 80s and early 90s, apart froma  brief return to Sabbath to record Dehumaniser, Dio and his eponymous band enjoyed mediocre success, constant bookings and a large fan following assuring him and the rest of the group a constant presence within the metal community. In 2006, Dio and Appice teamed with Tony Iommi once again and with former Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler formed Heaven&Hell. Producing one album, The Devil You Know, the group performed a world tour that saw fans and a new generation be introduced to some of the finest and traditional heavy metal personnel and music.

Heaven&Hell were due to perform a string of dates this summer but had to cancel due to the diagnosis and ongoing treatment of Dio’s stomach cancer. The long haired metal magician eventually succumbed to his illness on May 16^th, 2010, a statement from his wife Wendy read on Dio’s official website: “Today my heart is broken, Ronnie passed away at 7:45am 16th May” he was 67. So the world begins to move on from the tragic news, now only left with the memory of one of metal’s great heroes and contributors. With his screaming, perfectly pitched vocals that described the most epic and fantastical of landscapes and worlds, Ronnie James Dio was for many their first introduction into metal and what a metal frontman could and should be. He will be sadly missed by all.

Dio Must Listenables:

“Stargazer” – Rainbow: Rising

“Children of the Sea” – Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell

“Neon Knights” – Black Sabbath: Heaven and Hell

“Turn up the Night” – Black Sabbath: Mob Rules

“Rock and Roll Angel” – Heaven&Hell: The Devil You Know

Jonathan Whitelaw

Cream © Forbes magazine

Rolling on with the irreverent look and tribute to rock music’s greats and giants, the clock is rolled back rapidly as we are hurtled through time to 1969 with Cream’s “Badge”. Considered by many to be the height of Cream’s short lived but hugely important and influential reign as Britain’s premier rock music group in the late sixties. Included on their final album, appropriately titled Goodbye, “Badge” has the backing of Eric Clapton and George Harrison’s writing talents coupled with influences from Ringo Starr, Ginger Baker and Jack Bruce, the last two the remaining members of the band along with Clapton. This, almost unbelievable, grouping of some of the best talents of the era come together to create an underrated and vastly uncelebrated classic of rock and roll.

The music industry and scene was changing in 1969, a turbulent and whirlwind change to cap off a decade that was dominated by the rise and rise of popular music, alternative and underground scenes and the emergence of so many different genres of new music. It is therefore no surprise that a band like Cream had achieved stellar success, not least, making a superstar out of Eric Clapton and assuring his place as one of the greatest guitarists all the way through until today. Thus when the band decided they were to progress their own separate ways, their final aptly titled album Goodbye was decided that each member would individually write a song, coupled with their normal writing collaborations with each other.

The outcome for Clapton was “Badge” in which the sultan of guitarists consulted his close friend and contemporary George “heartbeat of The Beatles” Harrison. During a late night jamming session, the two were able to complete the basic lyrics and chord layouts of the track. Beatles drummer Ringo Starr then inadvertently stumbled into the session, his intoxicated ramblings apparently responsible for the very 60s line “I told you ‘bout the swans, that live in the park”. The title of the song remains somewhat cryptic, with plenty of theories having been spawned over the years. One common theory is that the title is an anagram of the standard tuning of the guitars used during the production, those being EADGBE.

The truth in reality, however, is much simpler. Apparently, according to the late Harrison during an interview conducted previously, he stated that it was in fact a simple handwriting mistake. Having written bridge between sections of the chords and lyrics, Clapton and Starr, who could perhaps be forgiven for having had one too many cherrys, read the line as badge. Hence the song was titled and a legend was born, albeit through intoxicated means but hey, its rock and roll!

The true beauty of “Badge” is not in the various stories and history that surrounds the song but more in the actual music of the song itself. Acting as an unassuming little track in the middle of the Goodbye album, “Badge” offers the listener an insight and encapsulation of the late 1960s sound as a whole. Clapton’s lead guitar is strummingly brilliant before switching to his electrically charged, hauntingly resonant lead that erupts into the fiery solo. Ginger Baker’s almost muffled and subdued drums give the song a depth that reassures the listener that despite this journey of heartfelt love and possible heartbreak, not all things are that bad and there is a safety net. Couple these effects with a distant, almost forgotten piano that seems to faintly reach out and merely dust the listener like a light stroke on the back of one’s neck and the atmosphere and world that “Badge” creates is complete.

The song and the album as a whole proved to be a fitting swan song for one of the most important bands that Britain ever produced, not just in the 1960s but well beyond. Although looking back on their discography now, it could arguably be seen as being ever so slightly dated, the majority of the songs being relatively raw and, dare it be said, watered down versions of what the indiviual artists would produce in the future. A case in point would be that “Badge” arguably the best that Cream produced, is often regarded in the shadow of Clapton’s other solo bursting, fret board flying classic “Layla” that would appear only a year later as part of Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs by Derek and the Dominoes, his next venture.  With credits such as one of Rock’s greatest love song and Grammy’s coming out of its ears, it is with no real surprise that songs like “Badge” are often overlooked for the much wider “Layla”. This should not take away from “Badge” or its popularity amongst the music community, solidifying it as one of Rock’s classics and certainly one of its most under played and unappreciated.

Jonathan Whitelaw