The Dogs D’Amour – A Graveyard of Empty Bottles Vol. 1

Posted on by edwardlayland

With tales of love and loss, maverick heroes and loveable rogues, The Dogs D’Amour‘s mini album A Graveyard of Empty Bottles was one of the most delightful surprise releases I’ve ever encountered. Sandwiched between the Dynamite Jet Saloon and Errol Flynn albums, it came just over a month after the superb How Come It Never Rains had flirted with breaking the top forty. It would prove to be the premature peak of the band’s success and showcases their songwriting at it’s finest.

MTV Unplugged was still some eight months away and, although Guns N Roses Lies had set a precedent, acoustic albums/versions were not yet in vogue when the Dogs unexpectedly dropped Graveyard with an initial run of fifteen thousand limited edition, numbered 10-inch mini albums. It would go on to get a 12″, CD, and cassette release, propelling it to the dizzy heights of number 16 on the UK albums chart, but none would have the charm of the 10″. It’s a beautiful little package dominated by Tyla‘s artwork that so perfectly encapsulates the band’s aesthetic. The best thing about it though, was the songs themselves.

A Graveyard of Empty Bottles kicks off in upbeat fashion with the laid back, blues tinged, foot-tapping vibe of the jaunty I Think It’s Love Again, before the stark contrast of the bleak minor chords of So Once Was I, which doubles down on Tyla’s romantic view of modern day cowboys and wasteland heroes. There is more contrast as we segue into the blues shuffle of Comfort of the Devil, which finds the frontman at his most poetically sublime: “The devil runs his fingers down the spine of fate / Grins at me with a smile that spells out hate / Spins his chamber of his gun / There’s only one soul loaded for fun / Much more fun.”

But it is on Saviour, which closes out side one, or the Blue Blooded Bar Side, where the planets really align. It is two glorious minutes of the Dogs D’Amour at their very best as a heartbroken acoustic backdrop underpins a bittersweet tale of dereliction tinged with hope. In my humble opinion, this is where Tyla just about peaked as an artist, both poetically – “Let me lay your soul to rest / Let my lips drip red wine on your breast / Let me stain your pain with disinterest / Just let me be there for the rest” – and vocally as his voice soars on the killer hook, making this delicate pull on the heart strings nothing short of irresistable.

The flip side, or the 5th of Whiskey Side, opens with the original version of the title track of the then forthcoming album, Errol Flynn. Despite being a catchy, upbeat, mid-tempo romp it adds little to the record as a whole, serving more as a contrast to the heartbroken melancholy of what is to come. And come it does in the measured, atmospheric tale of disgrace that is the drunken downfall of the preacher stumbling from his castle of sin in The Bullet Proof Poet, before the understated When the Dream Has Gone brilliantly continues the story of the heartbroken lovers in How Come It Never Rains with surprising delicacy.

Once again, they save the best ’til last though. Angel initially sounds like a continuation of the previous track given the similar vocal melody, but it soon takes on a life of its own. Weighing in at a positively hefty 3 minutes 19 seconds it tells a serious of near misses for the self destructive, deftly covering loss, depression and grief in one fell swoop. The verses are as ponderous and full of heartache as the other ballads, yet the chorus soars with an absolutely sublime hook before they throw off all previous restraint in an electrified finale of blistering guitars – perfection!

A Graveyard of Empty Bottles may be short at around 19 minutes in total, but it is a delightful little collection that inadvertently showcases a much-loved band at their very best. It captures everything that was great about Tyla J Pallas and his Dogs D’Amour, from their romantic, booze-fueled melancholy to their raunchy, blues-soaked balladeering. This is unpretentious, good old fashioned acoustic rock n roll and deserves twenty minutes of your time.

Behind the Mask of MegaDave

Posted on by edwardlayland

I am a Megadeth fan. I have been listening to their music for the best part of forty years, I saw them at their very best on the Rust in Peace tour and supporting Metallica, and I have written about them extensively. So, last Saturday, I was really excited about watching the cinema release of the Behind the Mask movie. However, this intimite look at the world’s second most important thrash band indirectly revealed much more about its leader than providing deep insight into the life, times and music of a band the fans love so much.

Behind the Mask largely achieves its purpose of being a listening party for the band’s final release and it has an engaging format with Dave Mustaine telling us about the new songs and providing a potted history of the band’s journey between tracks. Although the film doesn’t appear to be particularly scripted, as Dave is often on a stream of consciousness skipping blithely over important moments in the band’s career, it does appear a little contrived with the frontman sitting at a desk surrounded by Megadeth merch such as the Vic Rattlehead Funk o Pop and copies of the Rust in Peace book.

We get to hear the entire album at full power through the cinema sound system, with a series of lyric videos alongside the official releases for the ferocious Tipping Point and the punky I Don’t Care, which we discover was written in place of covering a punk tune. The new record is actually pretty damn good, some of the visuals are stunning, others less so, and gaining some insight into how the songs were made and what goes on the studio made it all worth the ticket price. There is a fabulous scene of Dave dancing in his seat during playback, hair tied back, glasses on and waving a popsicle (ice lolly) around, revealing that he is still just a kid at heart.

However, I can’t help but feel that this is one massive missed opportunity and that Dave has a lot of things he needs to work out. The three main points that he makes, besides reminding us of being a black belt (he slips it seemlessly into a story about Nick Menza becoming the drummer) and revealing the ability to predict earthquakes based on the weather, are that he really doesn’t have a problem with the guys from Metallica (no, really), he does have a problem with band members receiving collaboration fees for “being in the room” when he shows them a song, and he is the first metal guy to thank Jesus at the Grammys. All of these things get mentioned twice.

The overall impression is that Dave never got past being the new kid at school that he often was and still feels the need to try hard to impress people and that he never got over being dumped by Metallica and still feels the need to show that he has “closed the circle”. He tells us how Megadeth was the first metal band to have a website and Gene Simmons wanted one just like it. On said website, Dave was hanging out in the chatroom one night and a kid got beaten by his drunk dad but Dave asked if anyone lived nearby and managed to get someone to intervene, thus saving the kid’s relationship with his father. Then there is how songs like Darkest Hour saved people or how Train of Consequences gave a girl who had been hit by a train the will to carry on! It all seemed to unnecessarily magnify the importance of Megadave in people’s lives.

The people watching the film already know how good Megadeth is, knowing about Dave being a black-belt fighting, earthquake predicting, internet pioneer, chatroom saviour inspiration to the depressed and disabled doesn’t really add to our appreciation of their speed metal awesomeness. Rather than telling us how amazing he is, Dave, who has been praised for his honesty in the film, could have told us about his addiction issues, or how he got through cancer and a debilitating nerve condition, or how he successfully navigated the grunge era, or given us some insight into accepting slots to open for Metallica, or what it was like touring Clash of the Titans or the Big Four, or how much it meant to go multi-platinum and receive an award for Countdown to Extinction or finally receive a Grammy for Dystopia.

Instead we get a stream of consciousness about Dave’s superiority and pettiness (there is a fine for any promotor who spells Megadeth with an A) and zero ownership of anything that went wrong. Despite making it clear that it is his band and he has creative control, he basically blames Bud Prager and Marty Friedman for the Risk fiasco. At one point, there are three (classic) song titles on the screen with the writing credit below each just listing Dave Mustaine; when the fourth song appears (I think it’s Crush ‘Em), it lists Mustaine, Prager, and Friedman as the writers as if to say “ya see what happens when other people get involved”. In fact, he is pretty dismissive of Friedman’s contribution to the band, saying that his solos for Rust in Peace were based on Chris Poland’s demos and that once Marty had said he preferred The Doctor is Calling after Dave slowed it down he knew that was the end.

Then there is the Metallica issue. The last song that gets played is Ride the Lightning. Fair enough, it is the last song on the record and it does take us back to the roots of Megadeth. But why allow your success to always come back to you being dumped out of Metallica? What about everything Megadeth achieved and all the great records you made? Some poignant music and a montage of photos from 1983 with James and Lars is not what defines the Megadeth legacy. If Dave genuinely has no problem with those guys, why keep bringing them up? Also, there is more of the distancing himself from anything that went wrong as he downplays the whole thing by saying that they were all young and alcoholic and that things got said, preferring to make it a collective scenario. It’s true that how Dave got fired was pretty shitty, but as to why he got fired, a lot of that is on him.

Anyway, I digress. Behind the Mask could have been an incredible experience for Megadeth’s family of fans – it has its moments with the new songs really standing up and the insight into making an album – but, unfortunately, Dave kinda rains on the parade a little with his discourse, leaving a sense of disappointment and a little sadness at his approach to life. Nevertheless, I will always love the music of Megadeth the band and remember that sometimes we need to separate the artist from their output.

The Definitive Megadeth Top Ten: https://hardpressed.com.br/2026/01/23/the-definitive-megadeth-top-10-2/

The Definitive Megadeth Top 10

Posted on by edwardlayland

With Megadeth releasing their eponymously titled, seventeenth and final studio album, the cinema release of the Behind the Mask film, and a fairwell tour on the horizon, it’s no surprise that all things Dave Mustaine are trending right now. As such, it seemed relevant to revisit their work and take another look at the top ten I came up with a few years back, which, while I stand by the songs included, I have rejigged a little. Also, despite the strength of their last three albums since the return to form on Dystopia, there hasn’t been anything new to compare to the tracks listed below, although the continued omission of Devil’s Island and A Tout le Monde may be cause for debate. Anyway, here’s what I had to say…

When Megadeth released their fifteenth studio album Dystopia ten years ago (almost to the day!), I was charged with the task of flexing my writing muscles on a Starter Pack piece for Already Heard (http://alreadyheard.com/post/137748764480/starter-pack-megadeth) as a kind of introduction for the uninitiated. As such, I spent many a waking hour with Mustaine and Co blasting through my headphones at breakneck speed as I explored their ample back catalogue; I listened to everything they have ever recorded! Although Dave’s work is consistently high quality, with even some of the newer releases boasting hidden gems, there are a handful of songs which stand head and shoulders above the rest. So here goes my take on a Megadeth top ten, buckle up!

10) Foreclosure of a Dream
Normally when people talk about ‘Countdown to Extinction’ they remember the title track, ‘Symphony of Destruction’ or ‘Sweating Bullets’, but for me Foreclose is untouchable. It’s got the riffing and the solos that epitomize the Megadeth sound, but it also has an absolutely killer hook – seriously underrated song.

9) Good Mourning/Black Friday
Maybe not the first song that springs to mind, but recent listens to ‘Peace Sells…’ revealed it to be one of their finest tracks. The atmospheric intro and sinister guitar lines to ‘Good Mourning’ was something nobody else was doing at the time. The song then gathers in brooding atmosphere, taking its time, before exploding into life with a blistering solo. ‘Black Friday’ then rocks to a mid paced groove and engine like riffing, before accellerating for a ball busting race to the end. Breathtaking.

8) Hook In Mouth
One of Megadeth’s most underrated tracks from an album many overlook. ‘Hook In Mouth’ deals with the issue of censorship and the moralistic stance of the PMRC (the reason we have those parental advisory stickers). It is a more measured track, but is a prime example of Mustaine’s songwriting prowess with its intelligent lyrics and top drawer arrangement.

7) Rust In Peace…Polaris
Only Megadeth do this – the two part song thing I mean – and ‘Rust’ is one of their finest examples. It puts the icing on the cake of their best album, Mustaine putting in one of his most vicious vocal performances on this politically charged track, whilst also delivering a killer hook. Just when you think it’s done the second part kicks off and basically it’s a guitar frenzy as solos blaze and riffs chop and change, while Nick Menza provides the groove.

6) Countdown to Extinction
As a whole, the ‘Countdown’ album lacks the teeth of earlier releases, yet it showcases the bands highly developed songwriting skills; the title track itself being one of its standout songs. The whole thing is highly accomplished, from the riffing being expressive of the lyrical matter, past the killer chorus and on to the hot rocking solo – it has everything a top rock song needs. Not surprising that it won awards.

5) Tornado of Souls
After the first two killer tracks on the R.I.P album some of the other songs pale in comparison to their monumental attack. However, ‘Tornado of Souls’ is similarly special and is surely one of the most complete Megadeth numbers. This is a guitar player’s song; the wonderfully complex arrangement layering riff upon riff, whilst giving Marty Friedman free reign on a raging solo. The rhythm work is also superb and Dave even manages a hint of melody to the hook; quality.

4) Hangar 18
The partner in crime to Holy Wars; you can’t hear one without the other following. Hangar is the ultimate conspiracy theory and one of the band’s finest moments.

3) Peace Sells
The first Megadeth track to show off Mustaine’s ability to write a hit. Killer bass line, killer hook, frantic thrash finale. “Can you put a price on peace?”

2) In My Darkest Hour
Famously written in one hour, upon hearing of the death of ex-band mate, Metallica’s Cliff Burton, In My Darkest Hour is a monster of a song. It broods intensely on the back of grinding riffs as Mustaine spits his bitter lyrics, before exploding into a thrashing finale, love it.

1)Holy Wars…The Punishment Due
Holy War’ is without question one of the greatest rock songs in history. It has everything: Powerhouse riffing, scorching solos, sublime time changes, politically charged lyrics and a level of technical excellence beyond compare; thrash metal perfection goddammit.



Def Leppard – Rejoice

Posted on by edwardlayland

Ahead of their upcoming Las Vegas residency, Def Leppard have dropped stand-alone single Rejoice, their first new music since last year’s cover of the Ben E. King classic, Stand by Me. Despite knocking on the door of 50 years since they formed, the veteran rockers show no signs of slowing down with a busy year on the road coming up and the new single sounding as fresh as ever.

With a slow-boiling groove, a classic Phil Collen riff, their signature drum sound and a hook-filled chorus, Def Leppard sound as good as they ever have. It’s as slick, tight and professional as you would expect, but most importantly, it’s a fine tune and as fine a slice of hard rock as you are likely to hear these days. The uplifting theme, slick harmonies and some cheeky delays hark back to the glory days of Hysteria while retaining a heavy edge to keep their poppier tendencies in check. It is, nonetheless, something of an earworm that is hard to ignore – you can definitely imagine a packed arena getting behind this one.

David Bowie

Posted on by edwardlayland

It’s been ten years since the world lost David Bowie, yet people still talk about him and his work resonates as much now as it ever did – it is like he is still among us somehow. I had quite a lot to say on his passing, so I am re-sharing as it still seems so relevant.

“Don’t believe in yourself
Don’t deceive with belief
Knowledge comes
with death’s release”

January 10th 2016 will forever be remembered as the day the world lost David Bowie. He innovated and created to the very end, having just released his (now) final album, barring the retrospectives, re-issues and studio outtakes that are sure to appear in the future. Thankfully, his inimitable work will resound in the collective conscience for generations to come. Few artists have left such an indelible mark on the world of entertainment and even fewer have been as unique or half as influential.

Bowie was always innovative, constantly updating and renewing, never afraid to move on without looking back; though the temptation to resurrect Ziggy Stardust and other such heroes may have been great during more difficult times. Instead he continued to create, up to his dying days, not only influencing his peers but allowing himself to be influenced by the world around him.

“I still don’t know what I was waiting for
And my time was running wild
A million dead-end streets
And every time I thought I’d got it made
It seemed the taste was not so sweet
So I turned myself to face me
But I’ve never caught a glimpse
Of how the others must see the faker
I’m much too fast to take that test.”

John Peel once said:
“Pop is a car-boot sale, a parade of trinkets, junk and handicrafts, most worthless, some capable of giving a few moments of pleasure with a few glorious items made more glorious by their unexpected appearance in this market. Then in an unpredictable double-bluff, the worthless can, within a few years, take on great worth and the glorious become merely laughable.” Bowie’s appearance in said market was always unexpected and mostly glorious, with any apparently worthless work standing the test of time and taking on great worth, or even proving incredibly portentous.

“Written in pain, written in awe
By a puzzled man who questioned
What we were here for.”

It’s incredible that one man has had such a profound effect on the human race and left such a massive cultural footprint behind. To say that I am saddened by his passing is not really the best way to put it. I didn’t have the privilege of knowing him, we were not friends, like most people my relationship with David Bowie is one of fan – artist.

Nevertheless, for me, as I’m sure it is for many, it goes much deeper than that; he has been a part of my life for longer than I can remember, his work has always been there, his influence has spread to other artists whose music I also love. It’s kind of strange because that familiar figure, with all his guises, is not there anymore, they’ll be no more interviews with those mismatched eyes and that broad smile on his face and his self deprecating laughter, no more groundbreaking albums, and no more parts being played.

His music will live forever though, and the memories we have all created that are intertwined with his incomparable body of work cannot be taken away from us. My earliest are of hearing ‘Ashes to Ashes’ on the radio, Major Tom already known to all. Then there’s my Mum’s copies of ‘Aladdin Sane’ and ‘Pin Ups’ with their striking cover art. Then came all those hits from the 80s, ‘Lets Dance’, ‘Absolute Beginners’ and ‘China Girl’ – someone had a copy, I no longer remember who. And of course the collaborations on ‘Dancing in the Street’ with Mick Jagger for Band/Live Aid and the unforgettable ‘Under Pressure’ with Queen. Which also reminds me of the stunning performance of ‘Heroes’ at Live Aid.

But it was as a young adult that I really discovered Bowie, my best friend introducing me to ‘Hunky Dory’, which along with ‘Space Oddity’ (a.k.a ‘David Bowie’) got played to death in the first home I ever owned. I once tried to get tickets for a “secret” gig at a small London venue but it was such an exclusive (comeback) show that not even the touts could get hold of them; I had to resign myself to never seeing him play live and to being content with ‘Live from Santa Monica’ and ‘At the Beeb’.

With his passing it is this evoking of bittersweet memories of how and when his work touched us that forces us to reexamine our own lives and contemplate our own existences. And therein lies the sadness – I’m not sad that David Bowie has died; he led a full and rich life and was one of the most significant artists in the history of humanity, I’m sad for what his death means to me, to everyone he touched and to our society. It moves me deeply to think that where once there was a constant that could be relied upon to challenge and inspire in equal measure, whilst sound tracking our very existence, now there is an empty space.

“I’m stuck with a valuable friend
“I’m happy. Hope you’re happy, too.”
One flash of light
But no smoking pistol…”

Rest in Peace David Robert Jones, you will be sorely missed.

My Ruin – Declaration of Resistance

Posted on by edwardlayland

This year has begun with party goers gleefully filming what would become a fatal blaze killing 40, while the president of the United States has illegally orchestrated an invasion of a smaller, weaker country that happens to have a lot of oil. There is clearly something very wrong with the world. We need people to speak out, we need people to question, we need people to use their platforms to help us wake the fuck up and smell the rancid coffee of the god awful, social media obsessed, post-truth, broligarchical world that we live in.

We need people like Tairrie B and Mick Murphy. We need bands like My Ruin. 

After a ten year hiatus, My Ruin are back, and Tairrie B. Murphy is angrier than ever. And rightfully so. Although My Ruin were on hold, Tairrie’s been busy with politically charged hip hop albums and the joyful rock n roll of SWTEVL with husband Mick. However, it is as My Ruin that their creativity really resonates, bringing together all the elements that are evident in their multiple side projects – it’s metal, it’s punk, it’s hardcore, it’s hip hop, it’s every part of who they are and what they are capable of. And the new album, Declaration of Resistance, does not disappoint, sounding urgent and fresh while rooted in the old school; it makes for an essential listen in the current political climate.

The album kicks off with the first single, Compromised, and right from the word go, the ominous riffing sets out the stall while Tairrie screams salvos like “A hollow oath with immunity; A cult of chaos and vanity; Malignant pig and fascist muse; Definition of waste, fraud and abuse; Persona non grata there is no doubt; About the man who sold America out“, making it clear that they are pulling no punches and giving no fucks. In the current oppressive climate, it’s a brave but much needed move.

The blows keep coming with second single Audacity, which burns a little slower in a controlled, but hard-hitting protest, using Tairrie’s vocal versatility to celebrate the power of female voices in a nod to their own feminist anthem Beauty Fiend.  

The current version of My Ruin has been stripped down to Tairrie and husband Mick, who not only plays everything but also co-produces and engineers the record, and, is absolutely on fire throughout. The guitar playing on this record is simply outstanding, particularly on stand-out track True Allies, the killer collaboration with Jack Osborne, of Call to The Void. The atmospherics, the mixed tempos, the vocal interplay, the heavy hook and blazing solos take it to another level.

Contempt follows in slightly more angular fashion with a more mechanical sound but it is another slap in the face of the evangelical power brokers with searing lines like “Cause there’s no hate like Christian love” – superb. Infinite Connection burns a little slower with its chugging riff and largely spoken lyrics before the punky earworm HHRL (Hitler Hated Red Lipstick) kicks everything up a gear and transforms beauty into a political weapon.

In another highpoint, Tairrie gives her rap tropes their full flow on Fragile Like a Bomb, even dropping a cheeky Ice Cube reference in the opening Goddam. This is rap-rock fusion at its very best with its retro feel and steady groove, underpinned by more stellar work from Mick to rock hard and deliver one of the fiercest blows of the record in an almost understated fashion. The straight up, “immensely cathartic dis track“, Dark Eyes of London, follows with zero subtlety but is equally effective, with Mrs Murphy spitting pure vitriol to an ever-intensifying rifferama.

Spoken word dirge Lady Liberty is cleverly done and demands that we actually listen to what is being said: “I watch as compassion; Withers and dies; Where those we once welcomed; Are scorned and despised“. You have to respect the message here, as even if this isn’t the most immediately accessible track, it really captures some of what Tairrie is trying to say and deserves some extra attention. Muzzle Velocity then uses its firepower to remind us that Democracy is at risk with the current regime if we remain apathetic. There are better tracks on the record, but the final message is one we should all pay attention to:

“It didn’t start with gas chambers & concentration camps; It started with one party controlling the media and the message; One party deciding what is truth & fake news; One party censoring speech and silencing dissent; One party dividing citizens into “us” against “them”; It started with a gradual erosion of democratic principles and human rights; When good people turned a blind eye and let it happen“

The album then closes with a quick-fire double whammy to deliver the knockout blow. First, Truth or Consequences provides a punchy summing up the overall theme of the record before the blistering cover of L7‘s Shitlist provides a fitting finale, it being pretty obvious who has made the shitlist.

All in all, Declaration of Resistance is a mighty fine record deserving of repeated listens. On a simply musical level, it is a great record of hard rocking, cathartic tunes that really hit hard. More importantly, it is a record of the moment and serves as a chilling statement on the pile of shit we are currently drowning in. Tairrie B has a well thought-out vision on the state of the world, which goes far too deep to fully do justice to in a simple album review. But if there is one takeaway, it is that despite the mess that certain people are creating, there are decent people in the world for whom prejudice and hatred is not the way forward.

So, sit down, listen to the record, look at the beautiful artwork that goes with each track, and read the lyrics and the thinking behind each song. The album drops on January 16th and will be available on Bandcamp at https://myruin.bandcamp.com/.

Also check out Tairrie and Mick’s side project SWTEVL: https://swtevl.bandcamp.com/

Lemmy

Posted on by edwardlayland

It’s been 10 years now since Lemmy died. Yet the man was such a legend in the world of rock that it’s almost as if he is still around. There are so many stories people tell, his music is still relevant, and it may also have something to do with his life philosophy. In his own words: “If you’re going to be a fucking rock star, go be one. People don’t want to see the guy next door on stage; they want to see a being from another planet.” He was that being from another planet.

Anyway, here is what I had to say at the time.

On February 18th, 1991, I had the privilege of seeing Motorhead live, at the Portsmouth Guildhall, on the ‘1916’ tour. Back then, at most rock gigs there was a crush against the barrier, a mosh pit, people jumping and then the static part where people just stood, tapped their feet or banged their heads.

But not at Motorhead.

At Motorhead, nobody stood still. There was no room for a mosh pit because the sea of people ebbed and flowed in great surges, moving as one. The crowd reflected Lemmy and his music; all or nothing, relentless, unforgiving – but together. It was an amazing and strangely moving night that I will never forget.

There was always something about Lemmy. From the position of his microphone to the way he wore his hat. Maybe it was the facial hair, or the gravelly voice, or maybe just the way he dressed – there was something cool, yet somehow unrelenting about the man. You could see it when he was on stage; you could see it from brooding looks in the pages of magazines and you could even see it on film with his cameo in ‘Hardware’.

Lemmy commanded respect, end of story.

R.I.P

Women in Uniform

Posted on by edwardlayland

Back in the 1980s when I was a mere wannabe metal head, visits to my Dad would sometimes involve hanging out with Tony O’Rourke. The O’Rourke, as he was known, was a bit of an old hippy. A middle aged guy, married but no kids, his interests were basically going to the pub and messing about with music – buying it, listening to it, cataloguing it, making mix tapes of it – his spare bedroom was any vinyl freak’s dream. He’d turned it into a kind of studio with rows of records and tapes-this was still before CDs had really taken off-and all kinds of equipment. He introduced me to these wonderful WH Smith inlays for mix tapes and the like and even made me a tape introducing me to the Eagles (see below). 

Anyway, O’Rourke loved his music – country rock, Americana, rock ‘n roll, blues etc. He particularly loved Clapton (he looked a bit like 70s Eric), could talk for hours about Van the Man (took me a while longer to work out who that was), and had an encyclopedic knowledge of the world of rock n roll. He was a nice guy and always good for a chat with a music obessessive like myself. So, when a friend of his passed on a box of old seven inch singles that was being thrown out of the ITV television studios in Southampton, he promptly spotted a hidden gem and passed it on to me. 

A mint condition, never-been-played copy of Women In Uniform, the third single by Iron Maiden, complete with Margaret Thatcher dressed as a soldier waiting to exact revenge on Eddie the Head for her killing on the cover of previous single Sanctuary. Or was it jealousy of Eddie’s company? I didn’t even know it existed. Now though, I actually have two versions, as I later stumbled across the 12″, which came with a cracking live version of Phantom of the Opera (Paul Di’Anno on vocals of course). It is nowhere near mint condition but a cool addition to my collection nonetheless.

Women in Uniform is actually a cover version of a song by Australian band Skyhooks that Maiden got sort of duped into doing by producer Tony Platt and Zomba, their publishing company, who wanted a hit single. There were some shenanigans over the mix involving then guitarist Dennis Stratton, and the song even spawned their first music video. However, the band have basically distanced themselves from the track and haven’t even bothered to have it remastered. In fact the whole soap opera surrounding the song left Steve Harris quite bitter, and he vowed to never let anyone on the outside “fuck around with our music again”. Nevertheless, regardless of its merits,  it is certainly a bit of a rarity, especially in such good condition, and worth it for the cover art alone. 

Isn’t it funny how life’s rich tapestry causes paths to cross and chains of events to happen. I’ll always be thankful to Tony O’Rourke for the wonderful gift and great memories. Thanks you “Olde Hipee” – Rest in Peace.

Original 7″
Back Cover
Disk
Label
Back cover of the 12″

Scott Weiland

Posted on by edwardlayland

It’s been ten years since Scott Weiland passed away; here’s what I had to say about it:

Scott Weiland


I used to have a friend called ‘Ewok’, I no longer remember his real name, if I ever actually knew it, but I, and well, pretty much everyone, knew him as such – he really, and I mean really looked like an Ewok! Anyway, I’d dropped round his house one day and he would not shut the fuck up about the new Stone Temple Pilots album, ‘Purple`. I knew about STP but had never given them much love; I’d been into grunge since the ground floor – having seen Alice in Chains back when they supported Megadeth; Pearl Jam‘s first UK appearance; Nirvana at Reading? Yep. I was there. So for me STP were imposters riding the wave, a kinda commercial grunge lite.

Then I heard ‘Purple’.

Damn, what a fine album that was and still is – it stands the test of time, every track a killer. Then I got hold of a twelve inch single of ‘Plush’ one day when I was out hunting vinyl. When I flipped it over to play the b-side – unplugged versions of ‘Plush’ and ‘Sex Type Thing’ – I had one of those beautiful music moments when you uncover a real treasure.

I’d like to say I went on to become a mega Stone Temple Pilots fan and that Velvet Revolver were a dream come true, but I didn’t and they weren’t. I don’t really know why, I guess there was just too much else going on and maybe VR just didn’t have the songs, whatever, it doesn’t really matter.

A man has died. A talented man with rock star charisma and one of the most incredible voices in rock. I cannot and will not pass judgement on the man, just as I won’t put him up as a hero. What I will do is give thanks for the incredible pieces of music that affected me so profoundly all those years ago and that are still a part of my life until today. Now, I guess I’ll go find that MTV Unplugged set in full on YouTube.

R.I.P Scott Weiland

My Ruin: The Audacity

Posted on by edwardlayland

Check out My Ruin‘s The Audacity, the pulsating new single from the upcoming album Declaration of Resistance. Tairrie B and husband Mick Murphy are rocking hard on this “unapologetic call to action for women who refuse to be silenced.” Tairrie combines spoken word with her visceral metal scream to confront the “entrenched ageism, sexism, and the double standards still weaponized against women in music, politics and culture“; while Mick creates a slow burning rhythm (playing all the instruments!) to offset his blazing guitar lines. This is protest music at its finest, resisting the prevalent facist agenda dominating American politics with a defiant, rock hard slap in the face for those with no respect for gender, race or age.

Declaration of Resistance drops in January. In the meantime, check out My Ruin’s Bandcamp page for downloads & streams: https://myruin.bandcamp.com