She was barely over three years together. Between 1967 and 1970 she recorded five albums. The Vanilla Fudge formation has written music history with these and since then has been repeatedly apostrophized as the "best cover band of all time". Presumably the New York Quartet is the same, because there is no other act that has forged such heavy-blooded versions from sometimes light-footed originals by such different artists as the Supremes, Zombies, Beatles or Sonny & Cher. A phenomenon! In 1999 the reunion took place, which has lasted until today. Keyboarder and singer Mark Stein (70) and guitarist Vince Martell (72) are proud of the exceptional formation they co-founded.
eclipsed: How does it feel to have been a part of Vanilla Fudge for half a century?
If you look at the portrait photo of Chris Hillman in the inner cover of his new album, you can see a handsome man resting in himself with thick white-grey hair and walrus schnauzer. The beloved guitar is enthroned on his lap. The country rock legend, who turns seventy-three years old on the fourth of December, uses the record to take stock of her exciting musical career, which began in the early sixties. On "Bidin' My Time" long-term buddies Hillmans meet David Crosby, Roger McGuinn and the Heartbreakers. Their boss Tom Petty, who died in October, produced the record. In the interview, Hillman shares his views on friendship and death. And about US politics in times of Donald Trump.
eclipsed: On your new album you reinterpret "She Don't Care About Time" with Roger McGuinn and David Crosby, and with "Here She Comes Again" you record for the first time a title you wrote with McGuinn in 1979. So can we speak of a kind of Byrds reunion on this record?
It was supposed to be a short, whimsical US trip. A few gigs where Wobbler wanted to present their new album "From Silence To Somewhere". But it came differently. Because they allegedly had false visas, the Norwegians were arrested. No entry into the United States, but twenty hours in a cell. Back home, singer Andreas Wettergreen Strømman Prestmo found his humour again in conversation with eclipsed: "Playing prog is a hard job!
With "Blackbox" the Norwegian Progger have released Major Parkinsona first excerpt from their fourth studio album...
Suzi Quatro, born and raised in Detroit, was one of the best-known rock protagonists before the Heart sisters. This must have been due to the musical as well as liberal upbringing of her family of Italian descent. With her sisters Patti, Arlene and later Nancy she played from 1964 in the All-Girl-Garagerock-Band The Pleasure Seekers, which later changed its name to Cradle. While her older sister Patti stayed in the USA and formed the first All-Girl-Hardrock-Band with Fanny in 1969, the bassist and singer Suzi got an offer from England, from producer and manager Mickie Most (among others The Animals, Jeff Beck Group, Hot Chocolate), who wanted to build Quatro into a successor of the recently deceased Janis Joplin.
Premiata Forneria Marconi from Milan, PFM for short, were one of the most successful rock bands in their homeland in the seventies. Founded over forty-five years ago, the project continues to exist today with constantly changing members. The only remaining founding member is the 70-year-old singer and drummer Franz Di Cioccio. Musically, the current septet formation has always remained true to itself: complex progressive rock with a Mediterranean touch. Di Cioccio (71) and bassist Patrick Djivas (70), who has been with the band since 1974, are enthusiastic about their latest prank in an interview. And hungry to return to the stage with this one.
eclipsed: What do PFM have to do with "emotional tattoos", and what is that anyway?
Emerson, Lake & Palmer are history. Still in summer 2016 Lake and Palmer gave interviews about whether and how ELP will continue after Emerson's death. Already at that time Carl Palmer said: "Of course I am happy that there are obviously still enough people [...] who are interested in our compositions. I'm very proud of that. But ELP as such has become pure nostalgia for me. I'd rather look to the future, have my own projects, especially the Carl Palmer Band."
And he continued: "Many of our fans thought Keith, Greg and I had been at odds for ages. In fact, there's never been a really dramatic fight between us. We were even in contact with each other somehow, at least sporadically, over all the decades we knew or knew each other. But we were never fat friends, not even in the seventies. But we made amazing music together. That's what connects us forever, or am I wrong?"
Asaf Avidan is no newcomer to the songwriting scene, but with his new album "The Study On Falling" he dares to make a new start. This not only applies to his voice, which was once confusingly similar to Janis Joplin's, but has now become an androgynous trademark, which is associated solely with the name Asaf Avidan. Never before has the Israeli bard with his still unusually high timbre sounded so haunting as on this CD. The topic of failure is only one of several aspects. With "Falling" he takes up a very topical problem, because globally as well as in many biographies the topic of stumbling and failure seems to play an increasingly central role. "There are many facets to falling," says Avidan.
