G'day, I was just kicking back watching some music videos that I really REALLY dig...so, I thought i'd share them with you...you may even find a new personal favourite amongst them....so
G'day, this time I hand the reigns over to a special guest....Brother Norm, so go on enjoy his work....Recky
I first encountered SKINNY MOLLY through a friend of my wife, who in about 2008 said to her "Does your Norman know that the bloke from Lynyrd Skynyrd is playing a gig at The Three Tuns?"
Now when she Told me that i was, to say the least a little sceptical, "Could someone from my favourite band actually be playing a low key gig in my hometown.......surely not".........HOW WRONG I WAS
I Asked the wife to ask her friend to get 2 tickets & lo & behold the ticket said "SKINNY MOLLY FEATURING MIKE ESTES(LYNYRD SKYNYRD) so along we went & while standing at the bar waiting to be served i hear a voice like sweet molasses saying "Thats a really cool Blackfoot shirt man, where`d you get it from?" i turn around to see whos asking me about my shirt only to be confronted with EX LYNYRD SKYNYRD guitarist Mike Estes......
Well, to cut a long story short, the band played a hell of a set of mostly Skynyrd songs with a couple of their own thrown in & as i`ve seen them every tour since & this includes having to travel to London & Brighton when i couldn`t get time off work to see them at home the Skynyrd songs have lessened & the originals are now at the forefront of their set......
anyway, enough of my rabbiting, here`s a potted history of the band......Skinny Molly is a southern rock band from Nashville, Tennessee.
The band was formed in 2004 by guitarist/vocalist Mike Estes (guitar player for Lynyrd Skynyrd and Blackfoot), Dave Hlubek (guitarist and founding member of Molly Hatchet) and drummer Kurt Pietro. Hlubek rejoined Molly Hatchet in 2005 and was replaced by guitarist/vocalist Chris Walker and then Jay Johnson (formerly played with the Rossington Band and Blackfoot).
Nashville bluegrass and Grand Ole Opry bassist Luke Bradshaw joined Skinny Molly in 2007. This lineup continues to tour the US and Europe.
Mike Estes became friends with Rossington Collins Band while still in high school and that friendship eventually led him to write and play with Lynyrd Skynyrd in the early nineties. After leaving Skynyrd, Mike released two solo albums, Drivin’ Sideways and Brave New South, before teaming up with Dave Hlubek and forming Skinny Molly in 2004. Nowadays Hlubek is back with Molly Hatchet and their line-up consists of Southern Rock Allstars / Blackfoot guitarist Jay Johnson, and Grand Ole Opry bassist Luke Bradshaw along with Mike Estes and drummer Kurt Pietro.
Skinny Molly started by playing Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet covers but also performed their own songs occasionally. Their 2008 debut album featured many of these live favorites, including Whiskey And Cocaine Blues, Straight Shooter and High Price Of Low Livin’.
More popular in Europe than US, Skinny Molly are hungry for success on their home turf and released their second album “Haywire Riot” in 2011. A single entitled “Mr. President” which wasn`t on the album was available as a free download from their website.
Their latest release “Here For A Good Time” came out in 2014 and saw the band explore new genres such as country, blues, and americana along with good ol’ Southern rock .
If your interest has been peaked, here's the website to do some shopping at
There are a few Euro bands I like ...as you may have noticed, Nightwish, Avantasia, Helloween, Blind Gaurdian...and then there is GAMMA RAY....as a matter of fact the Gamma boys are right up there with my absolute favourite Euro band Hammerfall....even seen them on their home ground in 1987 at a gig in Munich....lucky me huh....so, here is the Gamma Ray story....
Kai Hansen formed Helloween in 1984, playing guitar and singing on the speed metal band's first four albums. He left in early 1989, however, and founded Gamma Ray with vocalist Ralf Scheepers (formerly with Tyran Pace). The duo intended to record a one-off project that Hansen originated while in Helloween, so they recruited bassist Uwe Wessel, drummer Matthias Burchardt, and several other musicians.
The album, Heading for Tomorrow, was released in 1990 and proved a hit with fans and critics, so much so that Hansen, Scheepers, and Wessel decided to tour the album with added members Dirk Schlacter (guitar) and Uli Kusch (drums). During the tour the Heaven Can Wait EP was released. By 1991, Gamma Ray produced another album of new material, entitled Sigh No More. Following 1993's Insanity & Genius, vocalist Scheepers departed to try out for Judas Priest; he didn't get the gig, but opted to form a new band called Primal Fear rather than return to the fold, leaving Hansen to take over vocal duties on 1995's Land of the Free.
Further recordings with Hansen as lead vocalist followed, including 1997's Somewhere Out in Space, 1998's Valley of the Kings, and 1999's Power Plant. Blast from the Past was released in 2000. Gamma Ray returned to a raging New Wave of British Heavy Metal style for 2001's No World Order, and followed that album with the live set Skeleton in the Closet. Gamma Ray returned in 2005 with Majestic, the release of which was accompanied by a world tour.
In 2007, Gamma Ray released Land of the Free II (the sequel to 1995's Land of the Free), and went on tour with Helloween to promote the album. Three years later, the band released its tenth full-length album, To the Metal! In 2012, drummer Daniel Zimmermann left the group after 15 years. He was replaced by Michael Ehre. The band released their eleventh studio album, Empire of the Undead, which took the band's sound in a more thrash-oriented direction, in the spring 2014.
In 1988, after four years with the German power metal band Helloween, guitarist and songwriter Kai Hansen decided, for reasons that are still the subject of much debate, to leave the group. Hansen claimed that Helloween had become too big for him to handle, although the group's troubles with financial issues and their record company, Noise Records, most likely played a part as well. He proceeded to do some studio work with German power metal band Blind Guardian and in 1989 decided to form his own project with long-time friend Ralf Scheepers, former vocalist of the band Tyran Pace.
This two-man project grew into a four-man band with the addition of Uwe Wessel on bass and Mathias Burchardt on drums. This was the first line-up of Gamma Ray, bearing a sound understandably close to that of Helloween of that period.....The original line-up released the album Heading for Tomorrow in February 1990 and later that year the Heaven Can Wait EP, with new guitarist Dirk Schlächter and new drummer Uli Kusch.
In February 1991, the band began rehearsing for the recording of their second album in a small, remote house in Denmark. With some brand new songs written, Gamma Ray entered the studio under the supervision of producer Tommy Newton and recorded their second album Sigh No More, which was released in September 1991. The style differed vastly from that of Heading for Tomorrow, featuring darker lyrics inspired by the Persian Gulf War that was raging at the time.
A 50-date worldwide tour followed. After the Japanese tour at the beginning of 1991, Gamma Ray underwent another personnel change: the rhythm section (Wessel and Kusch) left due to a personal disagreement and were replaced by Jan Rubach (bass) and Thomas Nack (drums), both from the Hamburg band Anesthesia. The band also began to build their own studio, so work on their new album didn't start until 1993. The album Insanity and Genius was released in June 1993, with a style which was closer to that of Heading for Tomorrow than Sigh No More. In September 1993 Gamma Ray, along with Rage, Helicon and Conception, embarked on the Melodic Metal Strikes Back tour. The tour contributed to the release of the double CD The Power of Metal, and the videos Power of Metal and Lust for Live, in December.
More changes in the lineup were to follow for Gamma Ray. Vocalist Ralf Scheepers, who lived far away from the other band members hometown of Hamburg, was attempting to become the new Judas Priest singer after Rob Halford left. He felt that his position in the band had been strained due to the distance between him and the other members. Hansen and Scheepers agreed to an amicable departure. After failing to be recruited for Judas Priest, Scheepers started his own band, Primal Fear. Hansen then began to search for a new vocalist but, due to demand from friends and fans, took on the guitar-vocal duties himself as he had done for Helloween's first EP and album.
In a 2008 interview, Hansen spoke about the importance of the Land of the Free album and what it represented: "We made it exactly at a time point when this kind of metal was proclaimed to be dead as can be. Where it was almost like if a drummer came up with a double bass drum people would say ‘ ya dooga daga yourself out of here man.’ Everything was ruled by Kurt Cobain and the alternative to the alternative and all that kind of stuff. So at that point we made an album like this and it went down very successful. That was cool, that was something special. I think it was the album that gave Gamma Ray the acceptance as being a band not only a Kai Hansen project."
In 1995 the fourth album, Land of the Free, the first to feature Hansen on vocals, was released. The album was universally praised by critics and fans alike. The tour following the album, Men on a Tour, brought the recording and release of the live album Alive '95 in 1996.....Soon after, there was yet another major lineup change. Jan Rubach and Thomas Nack both left in order to return to Anesthesia and in came new drummer Dan Zimmermann.
Zimmerman is also known for being a founding member of the German power metal band Freedom Call. Schlächter, who was originally a bass player, as can be seen on the 1990 video Heading for the East, left the second guitar spot and took back his original instrument, being replaced on guitar by Henjo Richter.
Work started on the next full-length album, and 1997 saw the release of Somewhere Out in Space, which marked the beginning of the band's thematic concentration on space. The album featured the hit "Valley of the Kings" and entered in the charts of many European countries. After two years of touring came the album Power Plant, which was a continuation of Somewhere Out in Space's lyrical approach, but a new direction musically. The album was highly acclaimed throughout the world and gained even more chart success than its predecessor.
For Gamma Ray's next work, Hansen decided to do things differently from the usual compilation of songs. He let the fans decide by voting on their website for their three favorite songs on each album, then the band went back to the studio to re-record the old tracks from the first three albums and made remixed versions for the songs on the later ones. Blast from the Past was the name chosen for this double album.
After a break of one year, when Hansen concentrated on his side project Iron Savior, the band was ready for the recording and release of the album No World Order, which was stylistically similar to NWOBHM bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. Again, the album was highly praised and the No Order World Tour saw the band visiting dozens of European countries and Japan. After resting from the tour, the band went on with the Skeletons in the Closet tour, which saw the band performing songs that they never or rarely played live before. Once again, the setlist was voted by the fans on the band's website. Only a few shows were played on this tour but two of those were recorded for the live album Skeletons in the Closet.
Kai Hansen and Henjo Richter also participated in Tobias Sammet's project Avantasia, on both The Metal Opera and The Metal Opera Part II, along with various other musicians including Hansen's former bandmates from Helloween, Markus Grosskopf and Michael Kiske......
A live DVD, Hell Yeah - The Awesome Foursome (And The Finnish Keyboarder Who Didn't Want To Wear His Donald Duck Costume) Live in Montreal was recorded on May 6, 2006 at Le Medley in Montreal, Quebec. The setlist contained songs drawn from all of their albums up to Majestic (excluding Insanity and Genius) and also a cover of the Helloween hit "I Want Out". The DVD finally saw release on November 4, 2008. It entered the German media control charts at No. 9 and the Swedish charts at No. 1, according to the band's official website.
Recent Gamma ism's
In recent years, Gamma Ray have made use of touring keyboard players to fully augment their sound in a live environment. Axel Mackenrott of Masterplan fulfilled these duties in the past and was followed by Eero Kaukomies, a Finn who also plays in a Gamma Ray tribute band named Guardians of Mankind.
His bandmate Kasperi Heikkinen also played on part of the Majestic tour in 2006 following an injury to Henjo Richter. On their most recent "To The Metal" tour, Kasperi Heikkinen replaced Henjo Richter once again for shows scheduled in Germany and Czech Republic in March 2010. Richter was hospitalized on March 16, 2010 due to retinal detachment. Heikkinen also shared stage with fellow axemen Hansen and Richter making "a three guitar special" for the encore numbers at the Nosturi club in Helsinki, Finland on March 29, 2010.
Land of the Free II was released in late 2007 as a sequel to the hugely successful Land of the Free album. To promote the album, Gamma Ray were the "very special guest" on Helloween's Hellish Rock 2007/2008 World Tour, on some shows along with the band Axxis. For the final encores of the evening, Kai and members of Gamma Ray joined Helloween to play a couple of songs from when Kai was in the latter band. Kai would also regularly join Helloween co-founder Michael Weikath at center stage to the delight of fans of both bands.
To the Metal! was released as the tenth full length studio album by the band. It was released on January 29, 2010 .....On May 31, 2011, Gamma Ray released an EP entitled Skeletons and Majesties. It contains newly recorded, rarely played material (Skeletons) and acoustic versions of other older songs (Majesties).
Kai Hansen revealed, in an interview with Metal Blast in April 2013 that their upcoming album, Empire of the Undead would have a "more thrashy" sound. In the same interview, Dirk Schlächter announced that the band would do a headlining tour following its release. Empire of the Undead was released in March of 2014, despite Gamma Ray's studio being completely destroyed by a fire.
ALL THE GAMMA BOYS Current members
Kai Hansen - rhythm and lead guitar (1989–present), lead vocals (1994–present)
Its safe to say that in my early listening , 3 guitarists grabbed my earholes ...Billy Thorpe, Lobby Loyd But the first and maybe the foremost was Chuck berry....
he got me rockin alrighty...so allow me to unveil the Chuck Berry tale
It could be argued that no one is more important than Chuck Berry. He is its greatest songwriter, one of its greatest guitarists, and one of its greatest performers....without him there would be no Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, Bob Dylan, nor a stack of others. ...
CHUCK ON THE BEEB IN 1972
the whole history (and artistic level) of rock & roll songwriting would have been much poorer without him. Like Brian Wilson said, he wrote "all of the great songs and came up with all the rock & roll beats." Chuck Berry was its heartbeat .
He was born Charles Edward Anderson Berry to a large family in St. Louis. A bright pupil, Berry developed a love for poetry and hard blues early on, winning a high school talent contest with a guitar-and-vocal rendition of Jay McShann's big band number, "Confessin' the Blues." With some local tutelage from the neighborhood barber, Berry progressed from a four-string tenor guitar up to an official six-string model and was soon working the local East St. Louis club scene, sitting in everywhere he could.
He quickly found out that black audiences liked a wide variety of music and set himself to the task of being able to reproduce as much of it as possible. What he found they really liked -- besides the blues and Nat King Cole tunes --
CHUCK AND HIS SON CHUCK Jnr
ROCK THE AVO SESSIONS
Was the sight and sound of a black man playing white hillbilly music, and Berry's showmanlike flair, coupled with his seemingly inexhaustible supply of fresh verses to old favorites, quickly made him a name on the circuit. In 1954, he ended up taking over pianist Johnny Johnson's small combo and a residency at the Cosmopolitan Club soon made the Chuck Berry Trio the top attraction in the black community.
But Berry had bigger ideas; he yearned to make records, and a trip to Chicago netted a two-minute conversation with his idol Muddy Waters, who encouraged him to approach Chess Records. Upon listening to Berry's homemade demo tape, label president Leonard Chess professed a liking for a hillbilly tune on it named "Ida Red" and quickly scheduled a session for May 21, 1955. During the session the title was changed to "Maybellene" and rock & roll history was born.
Although the record only made it to the mid-20s on the Billboard pop chart, its overall influence was massive and groundbreaking in its scope. Here was finally a black rock & roll record with across-the-board appeal, embraced by white teenagers and Southern hillbilly musicians (a young Elvis Presley, still a full year from national stardom, quickly added it to his stage show), that for once couldn't be successfully covered by a pop singer like Snooky Lanson on Your Hit Parade. Part of the secret to its originality was Berry's blazing 24-bar guitar solo in the middle of it, the imaginative rhyme schemes in the lyrics, and the sheer thump of the record, all signaling that rock & roll had arrived and it was no fad.
Helping to put the record over to a white teenage audience was the highly influential New York disc jockey Alan Freed, who had been given part of the writers' credit by Chess in return for his spins and plugs.
But to his credit, Freed was also the first white DJ/promoter to consistently use Berry on his rock & roll stage show extravaganzas at the Brooklyn Fox and Paramount theaters (playing to predominately white audiences); and when Hollywood came calling a year or so later, also made sure that Chuck appeared with him in Rock! Rock! Rock!, Go, Johnny, Go!, and Mister Rock'n'Roll. Within a years' time, Chuck had gone from a local St. Louis blues picker making 15 dollars a night to an overnight sensation commanding over a hundred times that, arriving at the dawn of a new strain of popular music called rock & roll.....The hits started coming thick and fast over the next few years, every one of them about to become a classic of the genre: "Roll Over Beethoven," "Thirty Days," "Too Much Monkey Business," "Brown Eyed Handsome Man," "You Can't Catch Me," "School Day," "Carol," "Back in the U.S.A.," "Little Queenie," "Memphis, Tennessee," "Johnny B. Goode," and the tune that defined the moment perfectly, "Rock and Roll Music." Berry was not only in constant demand, touring the country on mixed package shows and appearing on television and in movies, but smart enough to know exactly what to do with the spoils of a suddenly successful show business career, it was after this that Chuck spent a couple of years doing time... two very important things had happened in his enforced absence.
First, British teenagers had discovered his music and were making his old songs hits all over again. Second, and perhaps most important, America had discovered the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both of whom based their music on Berry's style, with the Stones' early albums looking like a Berry song list. Rather than being resigned to the has-been circuit, Chuck found himself in the midst of a worldwide beat boom with his music as the centerpiece. He came back with a clutch of hits ("Nadine," "No Particular Place to Go," "You Never Can Tell"), toured Britain in triumph, and appeared on the big screen with his British disciples in the groundbreaking T.A.M.I. Show in 1964.
he returned to Chess in the early '70s and scored his last hit with a live version of the salacious nursery rhyme, "My Ding a Ling," yielding Berry his first official gold record. By decade's end, he was as in demand as ever, working every oldies revival show, TV special, and festival that was thrown his way. But once again, troubles with the law reared their ugly head and 1979 saw Berry headed back to prison, this time for income tax evasion. Upon release this time, the creative days of Chuck Berry seemed to have come to an end. He appeared as himself in the Alan Freed bio-pic, American Hot Wax, and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but steadfastly refused to record any new material or even issue a live album.
His live performances became increasingly erratic, with Berry working with terrible backup bands and turning in sloppy, out-of-tune performances that did much to tarnish his reputation with younger fans and oldtimers alike. In 1987, he published his first book, Chuck Berry: The Autobiography, and the same year saw the film release of what will likely be his lasting legacy, the rockumentary Hail! Hail! Rock'n'Roll, which included live footage from a 60th-birthday concert with Keith Richards as musical director and the usual bevy of superstars coming out for guest turns.
But for all of his off-stage exploits and seemingly ongoing troubles with the law, Chuck Berry remains the epitome of rock & roll, and his music will endure long after his private escapades have faded from memory. Because when it comes down to his music, perhaps John Lennon said it best, "If you were going to give rock & roll another name, you might call it 'Chuck Berry'."
