Category: Line-up

Upon analysis, 220 Volt probably did not intrinsically have fewer qualities than its European compatriots, at least in the beginning. The parallel is far from being preposterous. They were formed the same year, 1979, and they both played melodic hard rock not without spirit, but with an excess of Scandinavian charm. Yes, ‘Europe’ (1983) didn’t outdo ‘220 Volt ’ (1983 also) and ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ (Europe 1984) as well as ‘Power Games’ (220 Volt 1984 also) was more or less on equal footing. Everything finally rode on one single, ‘The Final Countdown’, and on the charisma of lead singer Joey Tempest, driving force of the winning group.

 

Mats Karlsson, lead vocalist and guitarist – present on every line-up – and his Praetorian guard, the other guitarist Thomas Drevin and drummer Peter Hermansson, had never found this frontman who could have brought them to new heights. After the excellent ‘Walking in Starlight’ in 2014, 220 Volt promises to deliver new material and a great performance at GARF this year.

In 1982, the hard rock world had never known such prodigality, as good bands proliferated everywhere. The Scots of Heavy Pettin’ didn’t remain not stuck there. They pulled out a trump card from their sleeve: producer Brian May, Queen’s famous guitarist.

 

Their following didn’t take long to come: with ‘Lettin’ Loose’, Heavy Pettin’ is considered the new Def Leppard and the spearhead of the second wave of NWOBHM. The Reading in 1983 nails it down: sexy looks, aptitudes, great melodies and Hamie as a small reincarnation of the great Rod Stewart…

 

Heavy Pettin’ ended up giving into the Adult Oriented Rock (AOR) format. ‘Rock Ain’t Dead’ in 1985, is a reference, possibly the best album of its kind in Great Britain. After the bad choice of Eurovision and some bad timing, Heavy Pettin’ is back in 2019 to make everything right !

The three Irish brothers McManus showed up in the new sphere of hard rock at the start of the 1980s. Pat on the guitar and violin, John on bass and Tommy on drums perform with a typically Irish hard rock feeling, soaked in the very best Celtic rock tradition. This all takes place on super albums such as ‘Plug It In’ (1982) and the single ‘Needle in the Groove’, ‘Turn It Up’ (1983) and a tour with Thin Lizzy as well as ‘Power and Passion’ (1985), which produced the exceptional ‘Don’t Tell Mama’.

 

The death due to leukaemia of Tommy meant the end of the band. Since then, Pat ‘The Professor’ McManus continues to preach the good word. A rarity, he promised us to focus his show on the adorable Mama’s Boys. Ah, memories !

Irish Coffee was founded already in 1970 in Aalst when Belgian rock was still in its infancy. A hit single, ‘Masterpiece’, quite high on the charts, put the group of guitarist and singer William Souffreau in the spotlight. Managed by Louis de Vries, the boss of The Pebbles, Irish Coffee radiates early with an eponymous album in 1971 which, today, is always cult. The meeting of young hard rock and more mature blues and rock reminiscent of Deep Purple/Uriah Heep was a good one.

 

Irish Coffee stopped much too fast due to the death of keyboard player Paul Lambert. However, William Souffreau, the best Belgian hard rock singer of any era, didn’t stop there. He will surely still surprise you on Day 3 of the GARF like a hot and boozy drink.

The visit of our friend Uli Jon Roth to the Golden Age was inevitable. He has always maintained a particularly strong link with Liège, ‘the fervent city’. This goes back to the mid 1970s when Liège was the first foreign port for our venomous Scorpions. Uli has many friends in Liège and will get nostalgic in the first steps of a future great group in which he became an object of adulation, even if he had difficulties blossoming. “I’ve always been disappointed with recording conditions. I never had the sound I wanted,” admits the gifted guitarist. As well, he’s the inventor of the Sky Guitar.

 

Having worked on four Scorpions albums, Uli was much more than a hippie emulating Hendrix with surgical precision: “Virgin Killer, in 1976,  is my favourite Scorpions album. It’s the album I was the most involved in.” Taken By Force’ is softer and more melodious than the other. I had the opportunity to write ‘Sails of Charon’ and ‘We’ll Burn the Sky’, but I already had ‘Electric Sun’ in mind,” he explains.

 

Electric Sun! The name is out. Uli is finally his own boss and offers us a kind of quintessence between blues and trendy rock à la Hendrix, and classic grandiloquence. The acme of this period it is ‘Beyond the Astral Skies’ in 1985 with a top production, finally. This native of Düsseldorf, vegetarian, cantor and inspirer of neoclassic metal, will celebrate his fifty years of stage presence at our place. The Night The Master Comes?

You wanted something unheard of? Here you go! Moxy has never set foot in our neck of the woods. Found in Toronto in 1974, a city rich in good rock bands, the Moxy of guitarist leader Earl Johnson had Tommy Bolin – yes, the future Deep Purple – put down a few tracks on the first opus. Moxy II was produced by Jack Douglas, the producer of Aerosmith. It’s time to compare: Aerosmith, Rush, for some and downright Led Zeppelin for Geoff Barton, hard rock specialist in Sounds Magazine.

 

‘Ridin’ High’, in 1977, is the most convincing and upbeat album. The hard rock of Moxy swings with a very specific feeling, those of the magical 1970s. Moxy replaces singer Buzz Shearman by the future Loverboy Mike Reno for a short while, taking the arrival of melodic rock badly and misses out inevitably on the 1980s and beyond. Clinically dead for ages, Moxy rises just like Lazarus in 2015 with re-recordings and live album live on fire, ‘40 Years and Still Ridin’ High! Earl Johnson, as green as ever, will perform at the GARF with young cubs and their sharp claws, and shake up our neurons with ‘Can’t You See I’m a Star’, ‘Moonrider’, ‘Sail On Sail Away’, ‘Midnight Flight’ and ‘I’ll Set You on Fire’, eternal fireworks of solid rock.

The Netherlands truly does not know how lucky it is to have among their ranks the top talent of Robby Valentine. Of course, his music, Adult Oriented Rock (AOR), is not highly ranked. It’s even controversial… However, in his genre, Valentine is worth the Americans and the English.

For more than a decade, this huge Queen fan faithfully defends with a certain success the music of the English giant who is back in the public eye with the ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ biopic. Valentine is so strong and inspired, and not a vulgar clone of master Mercury , in reprising Queen’s repertoire that we wonder how Brian May and Roger Taylor actually preferred Adam Lambert, a product of reality television. Go figure!

However, the Dutch master will delight the old fans of Queen and astonish the curious. Somebody to Love?

Former guitarist of Such A Noise with blues rock tendencies, ex leader of Huy, of proper pop, Alain Pire wanted to bring good psych elements to his new project. Alain and psych, that’s a great love story. And as the story goes, he wrote a PhD thesis on British psych rock. Today, the Alain Pire Experience has a heck of a hold. Their second album, ‘Songs from the 13th Floor’, was one of the nice surprises of 2016 with ‘Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out’, which deserves a place in the pantheon of British psych rock. As a trio with bassist René Stock and drummer Marcus Weymaere, Alain will kick off our typically 1970s day. With or without magic mushrooms?

In 1981, Tygers of Pan Tang released their fundamental album ‘Spellbound’ and dumbfounded the world of hard rock. It’s also in the middle of NWOBHM that the leader and guitarist Robb Weir found his perfect partners in crime with John Sykes (future Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake, etc.) and Jon Deverill, howler of Persian Risk. After some tough times, the English tigers reappeared at the new millennium with a cathartic performance at the famous Wacken.

 

Since then, they have a new start: a superb gold album in 2016 and scenic performances where Weir and his new cubs properly snipe without any shame.

Young ones of the British blues boom who go off to discover the New World ? Unaware yet courageous ! This is in fact what guitarist Lonesome Dave Peverett and drummer Roger Earl, good pilgrims of a promising Savoy Brown, actually did. Rod Price of the Black Cat Bones also joined in. The air of the Big Apple did them a world of good. However, they came back to their motherland in 1972 for a few concerts, but were quickly considered pariahs. Foghat will forget the old country now and forever.

 

Americans do not care about the band’s origins. They delight in this group of brilliant simplicity that served up a unique mix of bluesy, rock ‘n’ roll, with a red boogie BBQ sauce. Albums such as ‘Energized’, ‘Fool for the City’ and ‘Night Shift’ send them off to stadiums and the live album of 1977 will remain a cult object with a hot ‘Honey Hush’, copied from the famous ‘Train Kept A Rollin’/Stroll On’. After a few lesser moments, Rod Price threw in the towel in 1999 and, worse, Lonesome Dave Peverett definitely bowed out in 2000.

 

This double blow should have meant the end of this fantastic Anglo-American group, but no! With science and stubbornness, Roger Earl rebuilt a Foghat with some pink tones. Lonesome Dave irreplaceable ? Well no ! Charlie Huhn, a performer from Michigan, reared on British blues boom Cream and Hendrix, beings a new dynamic to the group. His resume is impressive: Ted Nugent, Gary Moore, Victory and Humble Pie. What could be better ? Bryan Bassett, slide expert, ex Molly Hatchet, had a blast in Rod Price’s shoes.

 

In 2019 Foghat remain Foghat. The peak of rock/blues/boogie, but also an unfading quartet that does not need to show off its virtuosity to gain smiles, admiration or foot tapping… In a few words, world-class !