The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Welcome to episode 21 of Season 6. The show went out on Rebel Rock Radio on 25 May 2023.  It was pre-recorded as I was away in a wonderful little town called Sedgefield somewhere along the Garden Route in the Western Cape.  I listened in and chatted to the people and it was a very cool show.  We kicked off with Orange Goblin, they made their TSORR debut with ‘Save Me From Myself’.  I will be playing much more Orange Goblin in the future, Ben Ward and the lads know how to rock.  From there it was all slash-and-burn up-tempo stuff like Jørn, L.A. Guns and Ace Frehley with ‘In Pursuit of Rock ‘n’ Roll.   

https://yourlastrites.com/2016/07/26/diamonds-and-rust-exploring-metal-classics-riot-fire-down-under/  

I had a great chat with Justin VR and it was really interesting to talk to him.  We took a listen to his brand new single ‘She Said’.  Justin is described as country alt-rock so we stayed in a related area and checked out a guy who is new to me followed by a guy who is definitely not new to me.  I am talking Jelly Roll and Kid Rock respectively.  After that, we needed a bit of metal so Exodus and Gojira were called into the ring to break some heads.   

Near the end of the show, we checked out some interesting cover songs, Longview, which is a Bily Joe Armstrong side project, and Chris Cornell with a very interesting mix-up of the lyrics from Metallica and U2 in his version of the U2 track ‘One’.  Chris committed suicide on 18 May 2017, this track was recorded in 2015.  RIP Chris, you are missed.   

This week’s Immortals track was provided by one of my favourite bands ever The Stranglers.  We checked out 7:58 of the final track of their debut album Rattus Norvegicus.  JJ Burnell and Dave Greenfield are superb throughout.  For the Ultimate Challenge, we had a look at 2011 and the four albums chosen were Chickenfoot – III, Foo Fighters – Wasting Light, Sixx A.M. – This Is Gonna Hurt, and Five Finger Death Punch.  It was a toss-up between Foo Fighters and Chickenfoot.    

Artists featured:  Orange Goblin, Jørn, Megadeth, L.A. Guns, Ace Frehley, Grand Funk Railroad, ACDC, Korn, Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, Van Halen, Tom Keifer, Triumph, Rush, Riot, Sinner, Texas Hippie Coalition, Circus of Power, Justin VR, Jelly Roll, Kid Rock, Exodus, Gojira, The Stranglers, Five Finger Death Punch, Chickenfoot, Sixx A.M. Foo Fighters, Rammstein, Queensrÿche, Marvellous 3, Matthew Good Band, Chris Cornell, The Longshot, Arch Enemy

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

Neil Young is very special to me.  He's a love him or hate him artist.  If you love him you are in the right place.  Attempting to review Neil Young in 60 minutes is as the Greek philosopher Sextus Empiricus once said "It is possible and it is not possible".
 

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S6E20 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio at 19h00 on 18 May 2023.  There is plenty to get your teeth into here.  We have all the greatest rock and roll in the world, see artists featured below.  The show starts off pretty fast-paced and delivers the goods via, Poison, Thin Lizzy, Stone Sour and a good mix of new and old.   We had a new track called ‘I Come From The Dirt’ from Texas Hippie Coalition.  The album is called The Name Lives On and is well worth your time if you haven't heard it.

We had a short, sharp, and very entertaining five-minute interview with Peter Toussaint from Fourth Son South and we took a listen to their brand new single 'The Moon'.  As always with this weekly SA music presentation slot it went down very well.  

In this week's Ultimate Challenge, we looked at 1990 and there were a ton of killer albums released over those 365 days.  The four that made the list were ACDC – The Razors Edge, Judas Priest – Painkiller, Queensrÿche – Empire, and Megadeth – Rust In Peace.  I was studying hard for a degree in 1990 and these albums were part of the soundtrack which made them extra special.   Due to technical reasons, ACDC dropped out and was replaced with Pantera - Cowboys From Hell.  Queensrÿche took it from Megadeth but it was close.  

Earlier this week I did a Rock Review on Neil Young.  If you missed it you can find it on podcast.  On that Rock Review I wanted to play Neil's absolute classic track 'Cortez the Killer' but clocking in at 7:49 it would have swallowed up 11% of the show.  I kept it for this week's Immortals track and it went down very well.  For those who do not know TSORR Immortals are tracks that are considered too long for radio but that are classics and fully representative of what the band is capable of.  

The show ended fairly quietly by TSORR standards.  the last 15 minutes is normally the heavier side of the show, for a change we were mellow with Bowie, Tom Petty, a rare Status Quo ballad, and The Killer's wonderful Miss Atomic Bomb.  Hope you enjoy it, 

Artists featured:  Poison, The Four Horsemen, Thunder, Thin Lizzy, U2, Texas Hippie Coalition, Stone Sour, Smith / Kotzen, Molly Hatchet, Adrenaline Mob, Phil Campbell, Ricky Warwick, Soundgarden, Five Finger Death Punch, Nashville Pussy, Green Day, Sum 41, Blink 182, Marvelous 3, Volbeat, Fourth Son South, Van Halen, Rainbow, BlackØwl, Doomsday Outlaw, Neil Young, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Pantera, Queensrÿche, Dave Hause, Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Status Quo, The Killers

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S6E19 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio at 7 pm on 11 May 2023.  The show kicked off with Herman Frank and we settled into a hour of uptempo, driving rock and roll from the likes of Quiet Riot, Seether, Buckcherry and Rival Sons.  These last two bands mentioned had new tracks released so we took a listen to get a feel for the forthcoming albums.  Later in the show we continued with the goal of bringing you new SA artist releases.  This week we had a short interview with Liaan Horten of The Color Blew and we took a listen to their brand new track ‘Love In Space which was released about 10 hours' later on Friday 12 May,   

The Ultimate Challenge for this episode looked at 4 albums from 1978 and what a year it was.  Van Halen – Van Halen, Judas Priest -  Stained Class, ACDC – Power Age, and Rainbow – Long Live Rock and Roll.  It went to the wire between ACDC and Van Halen but in the end, sanity prevailed and Van Halen took its rightful place as the greatest album of 1978 and probably the decade.    

This week's Immortals track was Metallica's ‘The Day That Never Comes’ off the Death Magnetic album.  For the rest of the show, we fitted in US Punk (Anti-Flag), UK Punk (The Clash), and SA Rock (Cutting Jade, Van Coke Kartel, and Future Radio).  Things are tough in South Africa right now, we are up to 10 to 12 hours a day without power, so we used Foo Fighters to give us a bit of a boost with 'Times Like These'.  Hope you enjoy the episode, cheers until next time.  

Artists featured:  Herman Frank, Drowning Pool, Quiet Riot, KilliT, Cutting Jade, Shinedown, Seether, Reef, Buckcherry, Rival Sons, Satellite Party & Perry Farrell, Extreme, Bush, The Cult, Bad Company, Doomsday Outlaw, Anti-Flag, Future Radio, Foo Fighters, Van Coke Cartel, The Color Blew, The Clash, Stone Sour, Machine Head, Metallica, Rainbow, ACDC, Judas Priest, Van Halen, The Rolling Stones, Texas Hippie Coalition, Girish & The Chronicles, Sepultura, Savage, David Bowie, Parkway Drive

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S6E18 of The Story of Rock and Radio Show kicked off on Star Wars Day i.e. May the Fourth, live on Rebel Rock radio at 7:00 PM show started off with the old favorites Judas Priest of the 1986 album Turbo.   

There were some great pairings on this episode;  we checked out Sons of Apollo back to back with Bristol band Sons of Liberty, and we put Rush and Mastodon together and heard  'Subdivisions’ and ‘The Beast’ respectively.  We also went to Germany and played Accept (winner of last week's Ultimate Challenge) and Rammstein who has been neglected on TSORR of late.   

We looked at 1986 for the Ultimate Challenge.  The UC is a look at four albums from a particular year.  This week it was Van Halen - 5150, Metallica - Master of Puppets, Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet, and Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time.  On the Immortals we featured a track by Steve Winwood off the amazing album Arc of the Diver.  The track was 'Night Train', and as I recall Steve played all the instruments himself. 

We had a big scoop this week where we got to play another track off the brand new (Released 5 May) Deadline album Vitriol Inc, we heard 'Codebreaker' and the other big news was we played Philistine's debut track called 'Blue Train'.  Philistine is Dean Smith and Marq Vas, both stalwarts of SA Metal through bands like Metalmorphosis and Ragnarok.  Theo Crous produced this masterpiece.   

Artists featured:  Judas Priest, Glenn Hughes, Ted Nugent, UFO, Status Quo, Q5, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Nazareth, Jimi Hendrix, Rush, Mastodon, Sons of Apollo, Sons of Liberty, Accept Rammstein, Shinedown, Soundgarden, ACDC, Airbourne, Oasis, Sex Pistols, Stiff Little Fingers, KISS, Tom Petty, John Mellencamp, Steve Winwood, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Philistine, Deadline, Overkill, Dave Hause  

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S6E17 or Season Six Episode Seventeen of The Story Rock and Roll Radio Show went out live at 7:00 PM on the 27th of April 2023 on Rebel Rock Radio. We kicked off with ACDC and a track off Back in Black called 'Shoot to Thrill'.  It was Freedom Day in South Africa so we celebrated our freedom from electricity, water, and roads without potholes.  We listened to stuff like Badlands 'Streets Cry Freedom' and Tesla ‘Freedom Slaves’ to stay in the moment.   

The Immortals track this week, (that’s a track over 7 minutes long that is fully representative of what an artist is all about but generally is too long for radio airplay) featured Rory Gallagher performing his masterpiece ‘A Million Miles Away’.  This version was nine minutes long and came from his fantastic album Irish Tour ’74 40th Anniversary Edition.  Special shou out to bass guitarist Gerry McAvoy whose contribution is immense.  There were some awesome moments on this show, like the power pairings of Dirty Honey's  ‘Another Last Time’ with The Darkness' ‘Holding My Own’.  Here the synergy comes from the emotional slow bluesy guitars, it is just amazing.  

There wasn’t a lot of new stuff so we continued with Metallica’s 72 Seasons as well as Ian Hunter’s Defiance pt 1.  There was a new Texas Hippie Coalition so planned to give that a run but ran out of time, next week, I promise.   

On the local music, we had a short interview with flash rockers Marene and took in their brand new release ‘Partners In Crime’, it is a great track and we also took a listen to ‘Poison’ by Jackson Colt just to keep the SA music flowing.  Jackson Colt is such an awesome guitarist, it’s great how we have all these guitarists who were exposed to guitar-based music from bands like Kiss, Van Halen, and all the ’80s mega-bands by parents like me :-), we are certainly richer for it. 

The Ultimate Challenge this week featured Tom Petty – Hypnotic Eye, Foo Fighters – Sonic Highways, Accept – Blind Rage, and Seether – Isolate and Medicate.  No clear winner here, I got votes for all of them, but then Accept just crept in by a last minute vote.  Top lyric goes to Seether for “Because you’re the one who needs the fucking intervention" line although in retrospect The Jam with 'Thick as Thieves' a song all about the ANC was right up there.  

The end of this show was a mad rush to squeeze in UK Punk from The Stranglers, The Clash, and The Jam, also some Kid Rock, and for the first time ever on TSORR a track from Eminem.   We finished with something completely different and it went down very well, enjoy.   

Artists featured:  ACDC, Badlands, Rough Cutt, Airbourne, La>a Guns, Adrenaline, Clutch, Dirty Honey, The Darkness, The Offspring, Danko Jones, Aerosmith, Rainbow, Rainbow, Five Finger Death Punch, System of a Down, Tesla, The Dead Daisies, Marene, Jackson Colt, Judas Priest, Megadeth, Metallica, Ian Hunter, Ace Frehley, Rory Gallagher, Seether, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Foo Fighters, Accept, The Clash, the Jam, The Stranglers, Kid Rock, Eminem, Monty Python

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

S6E16 went out live on Rebel Rock radio at 7 pm on 20 April 2023.  It was jam-packed with new stuff including Metallica, Overkill, Dave Hause, and Ian Hunter.  The highlight of the new releases was a track called ‘#Rebel’ from Extreme, Nuno Bettencourt is on fire on the tracks released so far. The album is to be called Six and there are 3 tracks out so far.  We also had a surprise release from the Foo Fighters.  The band is calling it a new beginning.  According to Rolling Stone; The album arrives “after a year of staggering losses, personal introspection, and bittersweet remembrances,” the album’s listing page notes. “A brutally honest and emotionally raw response to everything Foo Fighters have endured recently, But Here We Are is a testament to the healing powers of music, friendship, and family.”  Following on from the tragic death of Taylor Hawkins the Foos have regrouped and united through music.  No one is saying who drummed on the track, but it does sound like Dave to me. I still hope Rufus Taylor will get the gig. 

The Ultimate Challenge was way more difficult than normal because 1976 was so strong.  We had 6 albums, Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak, Kiss - Destroyer, Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny, Rainbow – Rising, Rush - 2112, and Boston – Boston.  What do you do when you are supposed to pick one out of four and you can't even pick four from six?  I played all 6 and broke my own rules.  The popular choice was Jailbreak, personally Sad Wings and Destroyer are very special to me.  The general view from the listeners was that 1976 was phenomenal and these 6 albums just prove it.    

We had some TSORR oddities and called back the past with Madness and Adam and the Ants, both went down well.  The Immortals this week featured Creedance Clearwater Revival and their 7:39 Track ‘Keep on Chooglin’.  This track gets into your head, the Doctor says it normally takes a week to stop singing 'Keep On Chooglin' to yourself.    

This was one of the most enjoyable shows in a long time, with good vibes on the airwaves and cool people to share it with, Ed’s dead baby, Ed’s dead, Long live Nuno.   

Don't forget to catch TSORR on Feedspot where it is ranked No 11 in the 35 Best Rock and Roll Podcasts
https://blog.feedspot.com/rock_and_roll_podcasts/?feedid=5328472

Artists featured:  Sammy Hagar, Monster Truck, Gary Moore, The Lazy’s, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Black Crowes, Bad Company, Ian Hunter, Dave Hause, U.D.O., Krokus, iron maiden, Paradox, Massive Wagons, Oasis, Madness, Adam and the Ants, My Chemical Romance, Metallica, Overkill, Hinder, live, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Rainbow, Judas Priest, Rush, Kiss, Boston, Thin Lizzy, Extreme, Foo Fighters, Arch Enemy, John Mellencamp, The Uninvited, Piet Botha & Jack Hammer.  

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

Season 6 Episode 15 aired live at 19h00 on Rebel Rock Radio on 13 April 2023.  The show kicked off with Ozzy Osbourne’s 'Miracle Man' and then blasted through some fast-paced hi-octane rock/metal.  There were some excellent new tracks on the show; Buckcherry with ‘Let’s Get Wild’ off the soon-to-be-released Volume 10, Greta Van Fleet with 'Meet The Master', and Ian Hunter with Stone Temple Pilots' Eric Kretz, and the De Leo Brothers, and a track called Pavlov’s Dog. 

The Immortals track this week was ‘Cold Gin’ off KISS – Alive.  It is KISS at their best and shows just how important Peter Criss and Ace Frehley were to the sound of the band.  The 5 min interview with Jessy Switchblade of Deadline fame clocked in at about 8 min, Jessy is very easy to talk to and as always has plenty to say.

 This week's Ultimate Challenge looked at 1985 and the four albums were:  ZZ Top – Afterburner, ACDC – Fly On The Wall, John Mellencamp – Scarecrow, and Megadeth – Killing Is My Business......And Business Is Good!  In between we heard from the likes of Doomsday Outlaw, Jetboy, Tesla, The Black Crowes, Iron Maiden, Saxon, and Judas Priest.   

Artists featured:  Ozzy Osbourne, Disturbed, Godsmack, Saxon, Coverdale / Page, Buckcherry, Danko Jones, Airbourne, Drowning Pool, Halestorm, The Donnas, Doomsday Outlaw, Whisky Myers, Greta Van Fleet, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Mötley Crüe, The Black Crowes, Tesla, Audioslave, Alice In Chains, Ian Hunter, The Rolling Stones, Anthrax, Jetboy, KISS, Deadline, ACDC, ZZ Top, John Mellencamp, Megadeth, Arch Enemy, Bullet For My Valentine, Kid Rock, The Halo Effect, Parkway Drive.

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

Find out why In Flames was such an important band for me and how the Gothenburg sound shaped everything going forward in my Metal world.  Known amongst those who know as Johnny's Gift, In Flames was the gateway band to 21st-century metal.   This 60 min rock review takes you through most of the albums and provides a good all-round introduction to the band for new comers and a blistering reminder of their greatness for everyone else.  .  

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock

Episode 14 of Season 6 aired on 6 April 2023 live on Rebel Rock Radio.  We started with Nightwish and 'My Walden' and progressed to Mastodon and a track called ‘Teardrinker’.  We dabbled a bit in the funkier side of things which is unusual for TSORR, Ugly Kid Joe with ‘Same Side’ and Extreme with ‘Get The Funk Out’ did the honours there.  Nuno Bettencourt’s solo on that track is unbelievably cool.   

The Immortals track this week was Metallica’s ‘One’ off the And Justice For All Album.  Kirk Hammett doing an amazing job.  The SA music included Ross Harding with 'Black Sun Blues' and Mark Haze with 'Step Off'.  Other highlights from the show included Jimmy Barne’s version of 'A Change Is Gonna Come' and Iron Maiden’s 'Remember Tomorrow' off the debut album. Paul DiAnno shone brightly on this.   

The Ultimate Challenge this week looked at the year 1977.  The albums in contention were Rammstein - Sehnsucht, Megadeth - Cryptic Writings, Foo Fighters – Color and Shape, and Machine Head – The More Things Change.  Megadeth took it.   

Artists featured:  Nightwish, Mastodon, Night Ranger, Van Halen, Ugly Kid Joe, Extreme, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, The Cult, Saxon, Iron Maiden, Audioslave, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Rob Zombie (Feat Marilyn Manson), KISS, Ace Frehley, Accept, Sebastian Bach, Jimmy Barnes, Greta Van Fleet, Ross Harding, Mark Haze, Metallica, Marilyn Manson, Motörhead, Rammstein, Foo Fighters, Megadeth, Machine Head, Madness, The Offspring, The Stranglers, Ablaze My Sorrow, In Flames, Fall Out Boy, The Uninvited

The Story of Rock and Roll.  TSORR - Your one-stop shop for Rock