The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Episode 19 was a ton of fun.  It aired on 12 May 2022 on Rebel Rock Radio and we kicked off with Mel Gibson's son-in-law Kenny Wayne Shepherd and a track called 'Any Way the Wind Blows', that sentiment pretty much guided the show as we moved through Southern Rock with Jimmy Van Zant and Kid Rock all the way through to show closer Cradle of Filth with 'Death Magick For Adepts'. 

We took a listen to another two tracks off what I have been referring to as the Phil Wright tapes, this week it was Deep Purple with 'King of Dreams' and Vixen with 'Cryin'.   We checked out some vintage Iron Maiden and Judas Priest off Killers and Stained Class respectively.  The story behind 'Better By You Better Than Me' which caused Priest so much trouble after they were accused of being implicated in the suicide of two US kids back in 1985 was briefly discussed.  For newish stuff i.e. 2019, we had Phil X and The Drills and for brand new stuff we had Rammstein and Kreator. 

South African music was covered by The Devil's Party Band and a track called 'Headstone' and Jonathan Martin with "Wayward Road'.  We also checked an SA metal classic called 'Ozone by Odyssey and a track called 'Here I Am' from East Rand rockers The Burning, apologies to the lads I am pretty sure I referred to their album as Highway to Hell instead of Headed to Hell.  No doubt they would love the royalties for the former.  Other than that there was punk, alternative, metal, blues, and even Rabbitt with a super refreshing instrumental called 'Take It Easy'.  The track goes back to 1971 and it's clear that Trevor Rabin was as good as the best on the planet which is why he has been so wonderfully successful.  Let's leave it here, the playlist is below, catch you next week.   

Artists featured: Kenny Wayne Shepherd, ACDC, Quiet Riot, Deep Purple, Vixen, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Buckcherry, Phil X and The Drills, Odyssey, The Burning, Thin Lizzy, David Bowie, Kiss, Megadeth, ZZ Top, Slash, the Devil’s Party Band, Johnathan Martin, Rammstein, Kreator, My Chemical Romance, Shinedown, Lit Matthew Goode Band, The Stranglers, Sex Pistols, Hollywood Vampires, Marilyn Manson, Kid Rock, Jimmy Van Zant, Dream Widow, Exodus, Clutch, Rabbitt, Dave Hause, Sixx A.M., Cradle of Filth

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

S5E18 went out on Rebel Rock Radio on 5 May 2022.  I was in Clarens on a Guitar Clinic with SA Blues Maestro Dan Patlansky.  

The show featured a fair amount of blues as you would expect, 'Hounds Loose' from Dan Patlansky and Rrude Mood' from Stevie Ray Vaughan.   I haven't got a gap to write this one up so I will post it and fix it later.....or not, if anyone cares about these write ups let me know.  

Artists featured:  Dire Straits, John Mellencamp,  Jimmy Barnes, Judas Priest, Iced Earth, Megadeth, Tokyo Blade. Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Bad Company, Walking Papers, Dan Patlansky, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Leslie West, Def Leppard, Girl, Dream Widow, Foo Fighters, Running Wild, Onslaught, Pantera, Rammstein, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, Mötley Crüe, L.A. Cobra, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Cult, ACDC, Saxon, Scorpions, Doro, Sitkovsky, System of a Down, Five Finger Death Punch, Cancer Bats, Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen, Roan Van As, Halestorm.  

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

Episode 17 of season 5 aired on 28 April 2022.  It seemed to fly by. We started with the one song that is most responsible for The Story of Rock and Roll, 'Detroit Rock City' by Kiss.  This song changed my life, once I heard it on an old black and gold Pye cassette tape in about 1978, I was never the same.  Next up was another band that had a huge influence on me Led Zeppelin with 'What Is And What Should Never Be'.

We had a bit of commercial rock in the form of Loverboy and Bon Jovi, two excellent bands that have left us a lot of good memories.  We gave the ladies a turn in the form of Thundermother out of Sweden and Burning Witches from Switzerland.  The South African music phase of the show went into overtime, we had The Black Cat Bones, 12th Avenue, Blue Scream, Dan Patlansky, and my current favorite The Devil's Party Band.  This EP titled The Best Album Ever was released last week and it's everything I love, high voltage energetic rock and roll with lots of guitar solos.  The whole concept of the Devil's Party Band is wonderful, I wish I had thought of it myself.  Well done Anthonie & Chris Van DerWalt, Jason Oosthuiden and Werner Bosman!

For the rest of it, we got heavy with Hellyeah, Machine Head, Mercyful Fate, and Metallica.  I made amends to everyone who experienced the brutal cut-over between my Stone Sour Rock Review and the next program on Rebel Rock Radio by playing 'ZZYXY Road' in its entirety.  As usual, I ran out of time and the show closed out with My Chemical Romance paying tribute to heavy metal legend Cronos with their track off Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge titled 'Thank You For The Venom.  And as always, there were drums.   

Artists featured:  Kiss, Led Zeppelin, Danzig, Sammy Hagar, Iron Maiden, Loverboy, Bon Jovi, Thundermother, Burning Witches, Bush, Matthew Goode Band, Accept, Counting Crowes, The Black Cat Bones, The Devil’s Party Band, 12th Avenue, Blue Scream, Dan Patlansky, Hellyeah, Machine Head, Joe Bonamassa, Staind, Rush, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Phil Rudd, Taylor Hawkins, L.A. Rats, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stiff Little Fingers, Steel Panther, Saxon, Halestorm, The Distillers, Stone Sour, The Horrible Crowes, My Chemical Romance   

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

S5E16 aired on 21 Apr 2022 on Rebel Rock Radio.  Load shedding had been suspended so the amount of distraction and chaos was reduced significantly from last week.  We kicked off with a track titled 'Washed Away' by Craig Goldie, and Vinnie Appice of Dio fame's outfit Resurrection Kings.  Sadly we are currently experiencing a lot of Natal being washed away so it's relevant to our troubled times.  Next up, some Deep Purple, a track called Spanish Archers off their 1987 effort titled House of Blue Light.  This features the classic Mark II line-up and the album has been overlooked by many.  

The next hour was full of typical TSORR rock and metal, we got fluffy with The Eagles, sleazy with Mötley Crüe, heavy with Pantera, and energized by Chickenfoot.  As mentioned before Joe Satriani in Chickenfoot is simply amazing.  We checked out 'My Name is Allen' off Stone Sour's House of Gold & Bones to mark the fact that Stone Sour will be featured on the next Rock Review and then we had a track off Troublegum, that magnificent ball of venom released in 1994.    

We did a little feature based on the Phil Wright tapes, I am working through old cassettes of Phil's shows and featured two of the tracks I dug up, 'Love is a Killer' by Vixen, and A cover of The Small Faces classic 'All Or Nothing' by Tygers of Pan Tang.  We checked out the new Red Hot Chili Peppers and gave thanks for the return of John Frusciante.  No disrespect to Josh Klinghoffer, it's just that John is part of the genetic structure of all the things I do like about RHCP.   

As usual in the last hour, we get a bit more off the beaten track and check out rare and amazing stuff Like Roger Kaye's home recording of 'Lucifer Lives in the Whitehouse' and a track off Deangersmith's latest EP Vocabular Vacation.  the track was called 'Escape From Johannesburg' and that is indeed a worthy goal.  For the rest, we had some classic Iron Maiden, Avenged Sevenfold, and Sepultura.  We took a quick look at Rick Rubin's work with ZZ Top and Johnny Cash, check out his podcast with Lex Fridman for context.  Hope you enjoy it and spread it the TSORR word.  Cheers \m/  

Artists featured:  Resurrection Kings, Deep Purple, Jetboy, The Eagles, Mötley Crüe, Hell Yeah, Pantera, Megadeth, The Dust Coda, Beastie Boys, Chickenfoot, Stone Sour, Therapy?, Avenged Sevenfold, Iron Maiden, My Chemical Romance, Nickelback, Richard Thompson, Anti-Flag, Scorpions, Tygers of Pan Tang, Vixen, Sham 69, Stiff Little Fingers, Roger Kaye, Deangersmith, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Sepultura, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown, Thin Lizzy, Manowar, Man As Machine, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, The Uninvited, The Doors, ZZ Top, Johnny Cash, Francois Van Coke, Kid Rock, Volbeat. 

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

S5E15 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio on 14 April 2022.  It had an unusual start which may have lost a few listeners.  Being a long weekend there was a bit of a party element in the air so we started with about 10 seconds of Pink 'Get This Party Started and then mercifully blasted into 'The Art of Partying' by Municipal Waste.  With that little joke out the way, we settled into some Mötley Crüe, Hanoi Rocks Slash, and ACDC.  

There was a nice little grunge bit where we revisited Alice in Chain's masterpiece 'Rooster'.  The story behind it is interesting and led to 'Blow UP The Outside World' by Soundgarden.  We bridged the grunge new metal vibe while keeping to the party theme with Deftones 'Knife Party.  Going from there into Tool made a huge amount of sense and it was here that the wheels came off.  Load shedding was scheduled for 20h00, for those who don't know what that it is it's a particular South African manifestation of mass corruption and incompetence.  It means we have no power for a few hours a couple of times every 24 hours.  I had turned the generator on before the power went off but switching it over in the dark took a bit longer than anticipated so there may be a slight gap between Deftones and Tool.  Do not adjust your set, it will come back.  

There was another gap after Bobby Gaylor's interesting bit of satire titled' Suicide' let's pretend that was to allow you to reflect on what he sang about rather than a load-shedding induced gap between the broadcast time and the playback time.  The joys of shitty wifi I tell you.  This episode has a solidly embedded metal infrastructure built out of Kreator, Machine Head, Parkway Drive, Hypocrisy & Arch Enemy.  We checked out the new Rammstein track 'Zick Zack' a fairly terrifying look at plastic surgery and the dangers of the human ego.  

A highlight for me was showcasing just how good our very own Dan Patlansky is, I played his 'Snake Oil City' back to back with Stevie Ray Vaughan's 'Couldn't Stand The Weather' and the main discernable difference is that Dan has a better guitar tone.  Yes, he is that good.  A bit of Samantha Fish got us out of the blues and into the metal as we closed with some pretty heavy stuff surrounding the aforementioned Bobby Gaylor track.  See what you think, it was technically very challenging.     

Artists featured:  Municipal Waste, Mötley Crüe, Hanoi Rocks, Burning Rain, The Gaslight Anthem, Slash, Sebastian Bach, ACDC. Kissin’ Dynamite, Seether, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Deftones, Tool, Steel Panther, Scorpions, Dead-Line, No Friends of Harry, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Rammstein, Kreator, Machine Head, Anti-Flag, The Jam, Chris Rea, Dan Patlansky, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Samantha Fish, System of a Down, Hypocrisy, Coheed & Cambria, Black Veil Brides, Bobby Gaylor, Arch Enemy, Parkway Drive, Warrior Soul

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

Episode 14 of season 5 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio at 19h00 on 7 April 2022.  For the first time we clocked in with 39 tracks.  The show was light on '70's classic rock, blues and SA content for some reason.   There just seemed not to be enough time.  Things just work out that way sometimes, very little of TSORR is planned. 

The show did showcase a track called 'South' off the new EP Vocabular Vacation from Deangersmith.  It made sense to feature his work in Odyssey while we were at it.  We also took in a bit of Agro and a new band out of Manchester called Heavy Sentence.  These guys are flying the flag for what may well become the NWOBHM II.  Lets hope.  

The variation you have come to expect on the show was in evidence:  UK punk from Anti-Nowhere League, The Stranglers and The Jam, heavy stuff from Arch Enemy, Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, and In Flames.  Southern Rock from Kid Rock and Black Stone Cherry, and then lesser-known metal from Tygers of Pan Tang, and Tokyo Blade.  There's plenty to get your teeth into, softer ballads from Lita Ford and The Pretty Reckless and then once again some rap / metal in a track called 'Gaddaar' by a band from India called Bloodywood.  

Artists featured:  The Answer, The Quireboys, Great White, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Avenged Sevenfold, Massive Wagons, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Heavy Sentence, Agro, Queensrÿche, Tesla, The Stranglers, The Jam, Anti-Nowhere League, Transvision Vamp, The Donna’s, Arch Enemy, In Flames, Kid Rock, Black Stone Cherry, Greta Van Fleet, Jimmy Barnes, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Tygers of Pan Tang, Tokyo Blade, The Offspring, Nirvana, Stone Temple Pilots, Deangersmith, Odyssey, Accept, Avenged Sevenfold, Megadeth, Metallica, Halford, Lita Ford, The Pretty Reckless, Bloodywood, Slayer

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

Season 5 Episode 13 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio on 31 Mar 2022.  We kicked off with some ACDC, the title track of their 2016 release Black Ice.  From arguably the biggest rock band in the world we took in 3 lesser-known outfits i.e. Left Lane Cruiser, Monster Truck, and Motor Sister before spending some time with a couple of '70s classics from Rush and Nazareth.  'Zeit', the new release from Rammstein, made its TSORR debut and it's a great track.  Zeit means time, so it was fitting to also take a listen to Pink Floyd's wonderful track 'Time' off dark Side of The Moon. 

The sad passing of Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins deserved some TSORR recognition.  We took a listen to Taylor with the Foo's in 'All My Life' then a track off his solo EP Kota.  The track is wonderfully titled' I've Got Some Not Being Around You To Do Today'.  Taylor was way more than just the drummer for the band he was a part of the creative whole, a unique multi-talented character who breathed energy and charisma into the band.  From there we took a listen to Dream Widow which is an album Dave Grohl put together as a soundtrack to the Foos 2022 movie Studio 666.  Apparently, Dave played drums, guitar, bass and did all the vocals but it's a bit unclear in the literature how much the rest of the band were involved.   

We took a listen to Bollywood out of India and a track called 'Aaj' off their album Rakshak.  It made sense to follow it with 'Ratamahatta' off Roots.  Two other tracks that make sense together were Halestorm's 'Break-In' featuring Amy Lee and In This Moment with 'The Fighter'.  To restore balance and get the show out of slow, dark, emotional albeit excellent stuff we played out with an energetic couple of tracks from Kiss with 'Rocket Ride', The Distillers with 'Sick of It All' and My Chemical Romance closed the set with 'Welcome To The Black Parade'.   

P.S. After over 4 years of hoping it was fantastic to announce and celebrate the return of The Gaslight Anthem.  They are doing a reunion tour and are expected to record a new album.  Happy days.  

Artists featured:  ACDC, Left Lane Cruiser, Motor Sister, Monster Truck, The Screaming Jets, Rush, Nazareth, Quiet Riot, Rammstein, Motörhead, Sanctuary, The Stooges, Pink Floyd, Queensrÿche, Gary Moore, The Dead Daisies, Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins, Dream Widow, Coal Chamber, Bloodywood, Sepultura, The Clash, Gary Numan., Dead Kennedy’s, The Black Cat Bones, Jack Hammer, Dan Patlansky, L.A. Cobra, Kid Rock, Dino Jelusic with Mendoza, Halestorm feat Amy Lee, In This Moment, The Gas Light Anthem, Kiss, Tyler Bryant & The Shakedown,  The Distillers, My Chemical Romance

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

The Story of Rock and Roll marks the sad passing of Foo Fighters legend Taylor Hawkins with the posting of a Foo Fighters Rock Review recorded a while back.  To Dave, Pat, Chris and Nate, so sorry guys, the world lost an amazing musician.  Tribute to Taylor, we miss you man :-(

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

Episode 12 of Season 5 aired on 24 Mar 2022 on Rebel Rock Radio.   The show kicked off with Saxon and a track off their latest album Carpe Diem called 'All For One'.  Next up Tyler Bryant and The Shakedown with a most excellent track called 'Without You'.  Tyler was widely hailed pre-Covid as the next big thing and there is no doubt he's got a lot to offer, awesome guitarist, great voice, and rock star looks.  We took another track off the new Tony Martin album Thorns.  It is a great album, well worth checking out.  We spent some time with the classics, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns 'n' Roses, and then checked out a Southern Rock band out of Bristol UK called Sons of Liberty.   I thought they were new kids on the block but Jon Schaffer of Iced Earth fame is in the band so I need to find out what, what before the next show.

Punk from Sex Pistols and Ramones with 'Pretty Vacant' and 'I Can't Give You Anything', we followed up with a bit of Oasis and then got back into the metal with Megadeth and Metallica.  New stuff came from Eddie Vedder and a track called 'The Dark' off Earthling and 'Kick' a new track from Def Leppard.  This led to a brief discussion about Vivian Campbell and an example played from his side project Last In Line.   I had the new Rammstein and didn't get a chance to play it.  I think I need a bit more time on it.  The New Kid Rock 'Still Somethin' off Bad Reputation is wonderful and a highlight of the show.

SA music came from The Black Cat Bones, Springbok Nude Girls and Falling Mirror with a track called '(Time) Is a Thief.  I played 'Smoke On The Water'!  I shy away from these super rock classics like Stairway and Bohemian Rhapsody because they have just been so overdone but the classic Made In Japan album version bought back some good memories.  We got heavy with Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, and Sepultura before wrapping it up in a mellow way with Tom Keifer, Neil Young and Tom Waits with 'Jesus Gonna Be Hear Soon'.  

Artists featured:  Saxon, Tyler Bryant & the Shakedown, Tony Martin, Ozzy Osbourne, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Volbeat, Helloween, Pop Evil, Marilyn Manson, In Flames, Sons of Liberty, Kid Rock, The Pretty Reckless, Joan Jett, Bewitcher, Eddie Vedder, Def Leppard, Sex Pistols, Ramones, Oasis, Megadeth, Metallica, The Black Cat Bones, Springbok Nude Girls, Falling Mirror, Last In Line, Mastodon, Killswitch Engage, Manowar, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Deep Purple, Scorpions, Sepultura, Slipknot, Tom Keifer, Neil Young, Tom Waits

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

Season 5 Episode 11 went out live on Rebel Rock Radio on 17 Mar at 19h17.  Yep, you read that right, 17 min late because the laptop did an upgrade and reset all the broadcast codes.  We started off with Guns ‘n’ Roses version of The Rolling Stones classic ‘Sympathy For The Devil.  Next up a bit of Airbourne out of Australia.  and a band called Dirty Honey with ‘It's All For Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and ‘Scars’ respectively.  Next up was a fantastic track called ‘Winters Call’ off the Badlands debut album with Jake E. Lee and Ray Gillan on guitar and vocals.  This album is one you really should have in your collection. 

For new stuff, we took another track of Tony Martin, ex of Black Sabbath’s new album Thorns.  It made sense to follow up with Dio on vocals with Sabbath and a track called ‘Computer God’.  The new album from Scorpions and Saxon also got some airtime.  It was St Patrick’s day today and some people take this really seriously so I let Thin Lizzy and Bob Geldof have a bit of airtime on behalf of Ireland ( I know, I know Bob Geldof?, I dig him OK 😊).    

For SA music I played some more from Hardy Mills’ outfit Diverted Disorder.  Hardy does all the guitar work and male vocals and Miss Rachel does the female vocals with Jared Gunston producing.  The good news is my mate Prawn has joined and that should be excellent for future live gigs.  We also heard a track from Prime Circle Keyboard player Neil side gig Cantrel, Devo of Devo Entertainment who promotes both bands sent me a cool little promo clip for Rebel Rock which introduced the track nicely. 

Other than that Sex Pistols and The Clash did the Punk, Metallica, Maiden, ACDC and Aerosmith di the classic rock and Hellyeah, and Killswitch Engage brought the heavy.  We had a double ending because I had to say cheers to the live listeners and then other cheers to the podcast guys.  It probably sounds a little weird.  All in all a show done under a ton of pressure but it is what it is.  Hope you enjoy it.   

Artists featured:  Guns ‘n’ Roses, Airbourne, Dirty Honey, Badlands, Sixx A.M. Mötley Crüe, W.A.S.P., Tony Martin, Black Sabbath, Hellyeah, Killswitch Engage, Smashing Pumpkins, Seether, Megadeth, Metallica, Cantrel, Diverted Disorder, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Distillers, The Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Arch Enemy, Scorpions, My Darkest Days, Buckcherry, Dan Patlansky, Tokyo Blade, Heaven Shall Burn, Danko Jones, Savage, Demon, ACDC, Ted Nugent, Aerosmith, Dire Straits, Steel Panther.  

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