SO...a Bon Jovi blog...I must admit to being a big fan first time I heard them, Runaway and Tokyo Rose, are still in my top 20 Jovi tunes...then came bloody "Slippery" ...geez, what a album , 20 something million in the first couple of years, critics hated it, but that only shows that crtics know a darn site less than f**k all really, now dont it?
I bought a copy of Slippery, wore the damn thing out too, just quietly, as well...hell, went to see the boys at the Sydney Ent Cent on the Slippery tour...unlike a few of my mates who went, who were determined not to enjoy, and I quote, the bloody poof's..I went with ears open, as is my usual state of listening to music, which is probably why I can listen to Bon Jovi, Motorhead, Slim Dusty , Poison and Metallica all in the same song list...
anyway by the time the Choirboys and Bon Jovi were done with the lads, the boys was amongst the converted, sadly the rest of the world aint as forthcoming and if memory serves, me and the boys had to fight our way out of a pub near the centre that night after the gig, thats something i'll never understand EVER...why just because somebody likes a band that some bogun f**khead doesnt ..said first person deserves an arse kicking, if anyone can explain that too me, give me a hoi and explain it to me....
ANYWAY, BON JOVI ..right?....here is a fun fact that I only just found out...you know Skid Row , right?...the other New Jersey band ...
well their founder Dave "Snake" Sabo was the guitarist on Runaway...he got replaced by Ritchie by the time the first album proper came out , but Jon remembered his mate and helped get Skid Row signed...nice fella that Jon....ANYWHOO..... after the Slippery tour, rest assured that regular purchases of Jon Bon Jovi product was a regular occurence, and I seen him a few more times as well, Sydney on the New Jersey tour and at Olympic park on the Lost Highway tours and I caught him in the states and Holland a couple of times as well, probably the only good thing (for the fans) was the way Doc McGee managed the band, he worked 'em till they almost dropped, us out front didnt know it, cause Jon and the boys dont half arse it EVER...anyway, they flicked Doc after 29 months straight of touring...f**k me, they woulda been seeing triple by that stage I reckon...so the boys took a well deserved break...about all we heard from Jon during his holiday was the Young Guns soundtrack which gave us "Blaze of Glory"..
.the boys re-grouped for the recoding of KEEP THE FAITH...but bass player Alex decided that his state of mind and his physical well being could not and would not handle anymore touring andhe retired, Jon reached out and got another mate Huey McDonald to take up the bass position, which he still hold's till this very day.
The resulting release, Keep the faith is a brilliant frikkin slab of rock as well..except the press focused on Jon haircut instead of the tunes...WTF!!...frikkin media, drooling dickheads sometimes, really.. a great album the length of his hair got more page inches that the songs...amazing waste of fkn talent there muso reporters
I sorta lost track of Jon and the boys after Keep the Faith , what with divorces and other shit going on in ReckyVille....then came the album called CRUSH...and my faith in Bon Jovi was still intact..what a great fkn album, probably the best since New Jersey...but thats all subjective I guess.
Have you seen the doco "When we were beautiful" ?....I only just watched it when the Madison square gig came out on dvd, and I didnt realise that Jon is truly the boss and all the band members are employees and they seem quite fine with that set-up so who am I to question corporate formation.
If there is one thing that I really...Really...REALLY like , its a well made music documentary....and so, this blogaroo, where music docos is concerned, is about one of the single most talented cats walking the face of the earth ...the only death metal fan I've heard of with a phd in anything ...SAM DUNN...the guy behind Banger Films, well, one of the guys anyway.
I've got all his efforts on dvd and to say there is a broad scope of music on them is a more than reasonable statement..Sam himself, likes a big helping of full blown thrash kinda guys, Slayer, Slipknot etc etc...but he started out with Iron Maiden( UP THE IRONS) and has been the filmographer for the band on a couple of occasions now
He also has done a couple of doco's about Metal...a couple about the history of, and one going around the metal world checking out how various country's play their metal.
The Global Metal one was pretty good, showed a wide variety of styles and bands...stuff from X-Japan to Sepaltura to Tang Dynasty.
Iron Maiden: Flight 666 Dunn co-wrote and co-directed the 2009 documentary Iron Maiden: Flight 666 with Scot McFadyen. The film chronicles the band's 2008 tour in which a converted Boeing 757 was flown from country to country by Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson.
Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage Speaking of single band docos...Sam, also did a biopic on the Canadian masters of prog, RUSH, they say if your Canadian your genetically disposed to like RUSH stuff and this appears to be true Metal Evolution Dunn produced the Metal Evolution series for VH1 Classic on various metal genres. and is also farkin brilliant...Sam gives each "genre" its own episode plus early and pre-metal from both sides of the pond....cant say I liked his take on hair metal..but everybody cant agree on everything now can they.
Rush: Time Machine 2011: Live in Cleveland Is a concert DVD, Blu-ray and double CD by Canadian rock band Rush released on November 8, 2011. It was filmed on April 15, 2011 at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio during the band's Time Machine Tour.
Iron Maiden: En Vivo! En Vivo! is a live/video album by British heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Filmed during The Final Frontier World Tour at Estadio Nacional, Santiago, Chile on April 10, 2011, it was released on March 26, 2012 and March 27 in the United States and Canada.
first time I saw a Saxon album was at Utopia records, my favourite heavy metal shop in the world, and to be fair, at the time, I hadn't heard any of their stuff but one of the blokes must of read my mind and played me Wheel of Steel and Strong arm of the law and that was me hooked, took both albums home with me and wore them OUT..
Had the pleasure of meeting the boys at Schiphol airport in 87, I was arriving as were they, I walked up and said g'day, they were stunned and Aussie had heard of them, I told 'em they were the grouse and they gave me some autographs and stuff, (which the ex wife chucked out)..ANYWAY.....
Saxon began with a lineup formed by Peter "Biff" Byford on vocals, Paul Quinn and Graham Oliver on guitars, Steve "Dobby" Dawson on bass and drummer David Ward. Early in their career, the band changed their name from Son of a Bitch to Saxon, and gained support slots on tour with more established bands such as Motörhead. In 1979, the band signed to the French record label Carrere and released their eponymous debut album.
n 1980, the follow-up album Wheels of Steel (UK no 5) spawned two hit singles: the title track, and the crowd favorite "747 (Strangers in the Night)". The album catapulted the band into stardom overnight and they began a series of relentless tours across the UK. On 16 August 1980 Saxon appeared at the very first Monsters of Rock Festival where they received a great reception from the crowd. The band's set was recorded but not officially released until 2000. In 1980 Saxon made their first of many appearances on Top Of The Pops where they preformed the hit single Wheels of steel. Strong Arm of the Law (UK no 11), considered by many fans to be their best recording, was released later that same year and kept the bands popularity increasing. Two singles were released from this album: Strong Arm of the Law and Dallas 1PM, the latter about the assassination of President
By 1981, the band had toured most of the world and were getting less time to record new material. With the band touring the world they had gained notable success in Japan where the single Motorcycle Man had stayed in the charts for almost 6 months. Nearing the end of 1981 the band released their fourth album Denim And Leather which was dedicated to their fan base.
The album is still very popular today and the title track "Denim And Leather" is considered to be a metal anthem of that era. The album also featured many other fan favorites "Princess of the Night", "Never Surrender" and "The Bands Played On" were all UK Top 20 hits. Denim And Leather followed its predecessors success and charted all over Europe and went silver in the UK.
Just as the band was about to embark on a huge tour to follow the success of Denim And Leather the bands drummer at the time Pete Gill dropped out due to damaged hand. The band had to quickly replace him with Nigel Glockler formerly of Toyah, who had to learn the whole set within a day and a half just before the tour was about to begin. Glockler is still with the band today.... but cracks began to appear within the band with Nobby doing a ton of blow and trying to take over the stage from Biff, and in early 1986 bassist Steve Dawson was fired, and Saxon was back in the studio recording their 8th studio album Rock the Nations without a bass player.
With Elton John guest playing on piano on 2 tracks, and Byford laying down the bass parts, the album charted higher than its predecessor and was considered a successful album. They hired bassist Paul Johnson to fill the spot and a European arena tour followed. In the summer of 1986 they headlined the Reading Festival and toured the U.S.
During 1994 Saxon recorded the album Dogs of War. Just after the recording of the album Graham Oliver was fired from the band after trying to sell recordings of Saxon's performance at Donningtion in 1980 behind the band's back....the man was clearly insane, and yet on the Saxon documentary he cant see anything wrong with what he did ( nor can Steve Dawson...weird)
The band replaced Oliver with Doug Scarratt, a long time friend of drummer Nigel Glockler.
in 1999, those two nimrods Graham Oliver and Steven Dawson tried it on again and registered 'Saxon' as a trade mark. They then maintained that they had exclusive rights in the name and tried to prevent Biff Byford and Saxon's promoters and merchandisers from using the name. Byford applied to the Trade Mark Registry to have the trade mark declared invalid. In 2003 the High Court told Nobby and Oliver they were barking mad and decided that it was Byford and the current members of the band who owned the name, and the goodwill which they had generated themselves and were therefore in a position to prevent Oliver and Dawson passing themselves off as Saxon...SUCKED IN
The line-up of Byford's Saxon has been fairly stable, other than in the spirit of Spinal Tap, they have gone through a few drummers Following Glockler's departure, German Fritz Randow took up the position until 2004. His replacement was former Stratovarius man Jörg Michael. 2004 saw the release of Lionheart their 16th studio album. The album title was inspired from Richard Lionheart, King of England. "Beyond the Grave" was released as a single and a video. The album received positive reviews and the title track remains a fan favorite. Glockler rejoined the band in 2005 after his neck and shoulder injury had healed. In 2006 the band released the live album, The Eagle Has Landed – part 3 Saxon released a new studio album, Into the Labyrinth, on 12 January 2009. The album received positive reviews and continued the success that The Inner Sanctum had created The band also headlined the Wacken Open Air Festival in Germany.
Saxon released their nineteenth studio album, Call to Arms, on 3 June 2011. It debuted at number 6 on the UK Rock Albums chart.The band embarked on a massive world tour which saw them visit the US; Saxon also revisited the UK for a second leg of the tour. In October 2012, the band announced that their next studio album would be titled Sacrifice and be released on the 25th of February 2013 On the 11th of December Heavy Metal Thunder - The Movie saw an international release and first Blu-ray release for the band.
