The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Episode 12 of Season 3 of The Story of Rock and Roll was fraught with trouble right out of the blocks.  It took place on a cold, wet, rainy night on 5 November 2020 and my microphone didn’t work for the first hour.  It was the devil’s job to figure this thing out and check and recheck all the sound settings.  In the end, there was no other option than to go off air and shut the whole system down, and start again.  Luckily the damned thing worked as it should after the reboot.  What we have here is a show that starts with 50 minutes of non-stop Rock and then like a phoenix rising from the ashes begins to take the form of a radio show after the re-boot.  I have edited out all the long silences where the mic wasn’t working so in theory you may even go “What is he moaning about?”…... well now you’ve got the back story. 

The purely musical first third of the show featured amongst others, Judas Priest, Kadavar, Ted Nugent, The Rolling Stones and then a chilled Tom Petty doing ‘Turn This Car Around’.  Arapaho's 'Dump Truck' marks the point where the system is rebooted and after that, I have a microphone and can talk my usual kak.  Highlights of the second part of the show for me were Jo’burg Metal Masters Sunken State featuring the drumming of one Pete Pistorius ex of The Uninvited with a track called ‘Merchants of Time’.  Another highlight was a Joe Cockers version of Leonard Cohen’s wonderful ‘First We Take Manhattan’. 

All in all, it was an extremely difficult show to deal with but, which turned out OK in the end.  South Africa was represented by Fokofpolisiekar, Aking, Sunken State, Arapaho & Dan Patlansky, Aussie by ACDC, and The Lazy’s who are fast becoming a TSORR staple, Metal by Sunken State, Kreator and Slayer and the old guard by Alice Cooper and the Rolling Stones.   Anyway job done, catch you next week.   

Artists featured:  The Rolling Stones, Fokofpolisiekar, Megadeth, Kadavar, Joe Cocker, Hell Fire, Rush, Santana, Kid Rock, My Chemical Romance, Stiff Little Fingers, ACDC, Dave Hause, Tom Petty, Sunken State, Last In Line, Thunder, Arapaho, Judas Priest, The Gaslight Anthem, Rory Gallagher, Black Veil Brides, Tin Machine, The Pretty Reckless, Ted Nugent, Hinder, Tesla, Halestorm, Pop Evil, Accept, Twisted Sister, Dan Patlansky, Slayer, Godsmack, Journey, Kreator, Therapy?, Aking and The Lazy’s. 

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

29 October 2020 at 7 pm was the date and time that Episode 11 of season 3 of The Story of Rock and Roll aired.   It was quite a show, unusually chatty and with only one little balls-up which I left in there in the interests of reality. Don't adjust your set after Iced Earth's 'Burning Times' it just takes me 30 seconds to twig that the mic wasn't on :-)  The joys of live radio.  

It was a very lively show with plenty of people chatting on the Discord server and on Whatsapp.  We kicked off with 'Majestic' the traditional Journey opener but instead of more Journey, we cracked on with Metallica and Dio.  I started the local stuff early with another track off Johnathan Martin's amazing album Into The Nebulous Night.  Following up with Jack Hammer just made sense.  Punk happened in the form of The Stranglers and The Clash and there was plenty of classic metal and rock such as Iron maiden with 'The Trooper' and Judas priest with 'Hell Bent For Leather'.

The highlight for me was Bruce Springsteen with 'If I Was the Priest', as I said he's not called The Boss for nothing.  We also learned how to pronounce Bonamassa and took a listen to a track off his new album called 'Royal Tea'.   All in all, it was good fun and we had a lot of laughs.  Oh P.S. if any of you eve read this I'd like to know because I am not sure if I am wasting my time :-)

Artists featured:  Ozzy Osbourne, Journey, Metallica, Dio, The Cult, Social Distortion, Wolfmother, White Zombie, Johnathan Martin, Jack Hammer, Iron Maiden, Iced Earth, Audioslave, L.A. Guns, Bullet For My Valentine, the Clash, The Stranglers, Armored Saint, Joe Bonamassa, Blue Oyster Cult, Sixx A.M. Pearl Jam, Zakk Wylde, Bruce Springsteen, The Burning, Cold Chisel, Van Halen, Judas Priest. Jorn, Fokofpolisiekar, Kiss, Hanoi Rocks, the Black Crowes, Motörhead. 

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

Season 3 Episode 10 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show was broadcast on 23 October 2020 at 7 pm.  There was a quick recovery from a botched intro and we were off and running with Guns ‘n’ Roses’ controversial masterpiece ‘One in a Million’.  That was followed up with some Deep Purple and then, into the lesser-known with Fozzy and Catalano.  I reckon this was the most diverse TSORR ever aired, I even played The Smith’s for the first time ever, and I took flak on the Discord server for that J.  I made amends with the brand new Heathen called Empire of the Blind towards the end of the show. 

We took a listen to Bruce Springsteen’s new track ‘Ghosts’ for the second time in 3 weeks just because it is so good.  It’s definitely my song of the year, impossible to be in a bad mood when listening to that little bit of upliftment.  The Punk was taken care of by The Damned and The Exploited with a bit of Billy Bragg and The Boomtown Rats thrown in for good measure.  The Grunge part was really cool with ‘Put You Down’ off Alice in Chains’ debut album Facelift.  We followed with yet another track off Redux, The Brendon O’Brien remix of Pearl Jam’s masterpiece Ten.  A highlight for me was Temple of the Dog ‘s ‘Wooden Jesus’ Chris Cornell was amazing on that. 

We checked out the brand new Blue Öyster Cult which is great and the new Heathen and then we slapped in some Francois Van Coke and finished off with Kid Rocks’ Trucker Anthem.   I'd had a hell of a week as I mentioned a few times and I invented 'Bungle Time and gave it a theme song, see if you can relate :-)  Go to The Story of Rock and Roll on Facebook for any comments about that.   

Artists featured:  Kid Rock, Temple of the Dog, Joe Bonamassa, Thin Lizzy, The Killers, ACDC, Heathen, Catalano, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Francois Van Coke, Five Finger Death Punch, Buckcherry, Poison, Pearl Jam, The Raven Age, The Exploited, My Chemical Romance, Bruce Springsteen, Texas Hippie Coalition, The Damned, Blue Öyster Cult, The Gaslight Anthem, Fozzy, Autograph, Ozzy Osbourne, Chickenfoot, The Cruel Sea, The Smiths, Def Leppard, The Burning, Alice in Chains, The Boomtown Rats, Tom Petty, Deadline, Tesla, Van Halen, Billy Bragg, Skid Row, Deep Purple.   

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

Season 3 Episode 9 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired at 7 pm on 15 October 2020.  It had a rocky start so be warned, the show opens with Van Halen and Dreams because I am still sad about Eddie, it is followed By ACDC, and then on the 3rd tack it goes soft for about a minute DO NOT crank up the volume because it comes back to full volume as soon as I realise the levels we not right.  After that everything is fine.  Start-up blues we call it.  

We check out some Twisted Sister and some Volbeat and a couple of lesser-known bands like Austin Gold, Axel Rudi Pell, Bullets & Octane, and The Lazy's.  The Lazy's out of Aus are a great band, check them out.  I played another track off the Brendan O'Brien remix of Pearl Jam's Ten and it sounds fantastic, check out the guitars in that.

The brand new EP from Fokofpolisiekar got an airing and it's great.  The highlight of the show for me was an old track by No Friends of Harry called Make My Day, requested but a listener who said it makes him want to down a warm Black Label quart and attack your neighbours with an empty bottle.  I understood the moment I played it :-).  There was a lot of good stuff on the show so best you just listen to it, but remember not to adjust for the low volume in the beginning.

Artists featured:  Temple of the Dog, Hinder, The Rolling Stones, WASP, Twisted Sister, Judas Priest, Kiss, Axel Rudi Pell, Bullets & Octane, Volbeat, Mötley Crüe, Iron Maiden, Conil, The Uninvited, Marilyn Manson, Pearl Jam, Jerry Cantrel, ACDC, Great White, No Friends of Harry, The Cult, Joan Jett, Def Leppard, Van Halen, Austin Gold, Megadeth, The Anti-Nowhere League, The Temperance Movement, Phil Campbell, The Lazy''s, Herman Frank, Fokofpolisiekar, Rammstein, John Cougar, Backyard Babies  & Jet

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

Season 3 Episode 8 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired at 7 pm on 8 October 2020.  It was a particularly special episode due to the sad death of Edward Van Halen on 6 October 2020.  Eddie was very special to me and to pretty much all my friends and acquaintances.  The show was dedicated to him but it wasn’t as much to showcase his work as to point out why Eddie was so special.  So, in the spirit of that, we kicked off with the traditional Dr Who intro and went straight into Eruption.     

As I said the idea was to celebrate Eddie and rock and roll and not to get fucking morbid so we had some Judas Priest and Accept and then hit the new tracks.  ACDC have a new release coming up and the first track ‘Shot in the Dark’ was released yesterday at 12h00 so we played that and then the brand new Bruce Springsteen track called ‘Ghosts’.  There was so much good stuff it’s hard to know where to start, we had lesser-known bands like Rhino Bucket, The Answer and The Horrible Crowes, we had South African music from The Fismits, The Black Cat Bones, Pilgrim South, Piet Botha & Valiant Swart.  We played a fair amount of blues with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, SA blues god Dan Patlansky and Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of Voodoo Chile. 

Punk was taken care of by The Professionals and Anti-Flag, Australia by Rose Tattoo, the heavy stuff by Sepultura.  Another notable mention is the Brendon O’Brien remix of Pearl Jam’s classic album Ten.  It simply called Ten (Redux) and it’s incredible, it just brings the guitars to life.  We’ll be playing everything off it in the next few weeks.  We ended off pretty much-saying cheers to Eddie with ‘Little Dreamer’ because that’s what he did, he turned a world of young guitar urchins into little dreamers and because of him so many people really got stuck into this instrument.  The show closed with the sobering sounds of Avenged Sevenfold with ‘Seize the Day’, Ozzy’s ‘Under the Graveyard’ and finally cheers to Ed the way he would have wanted it, he would have wanted us to ‘Dance The Night Away’.

 Artists featured:  Van Halen, Warrant, Piet Botha, Judas Priest, Accept, The Answer, Rhino Bucket, ACDC, Greta Van Fleet, The Michael Schenker Group, Dan Patlansky, Valiant Swart, Avenged Sevenfold, Faith No More, Q5, Seether, Pearl Jam, Peter Frampton, Anti-Flag, The Black Cat Bones, Alice In Chains, The Damned Things, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Y&T, Bruce Springsteen, The Horrible Crowes, Aerosmith, Guns ‘n’ Roses, The Fismits, Ozzy Osbourne, The Professionals, Sepultura, Pilgrim South, Rose Tattoo & Therapy?  

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

S3E7 of TSORR was recorded on Saturday 26 September and broadcasted on Thursday 1 Oct 2020.  The reason for the upfront recording was that I was away on a guitar clinic with guitarist extraordinaire Dan Patlansky when the show was scheduled to air and I needed to pre-record as a result.  This was an interesting process, like playing to an empty stadium.  I am not sure if you would pick it up without knowing.  To me, it felt a bit off but also a bit more relaxed because I didn't have messages and comments to deal with.

The show had a fairly mellow start with some classic ACDC, Black Sabbath, and Def Leppard, we followed that with a bit of Coheed and Cambria and their track 'Feathers' which has a very odd video you should check out on the blog page of The Story of Rock and Roll website.  We said cheers to September with CrashCarBurn and stayed local with Johnathan Martin of his Highway Infinity 1996 - 2016 album. Dog Detachments 'The Last Laugh' was a highlight for me and then it was time to put the kids away while Metallica hammered out Antinowhere Leagues, filthy classic 'So What?'.  No question that Metallica do it better.  Patti Smith made a TSORR debut with 'Rock 'n' Roll Nigger off her Easter album, nice to hear that again.

We hit some local SA metal with Deadline and Agro who both put out great albums in 2020 and prevented the year from being a total write-off.  Then we went bluesy with Rory Gallagher and Free and ballady with Keel.  There is something for everyone here.  Check it out.  

Artists featured:  Keel, Jimmy Barnes, Disturbed, Rory Gallagher, Newsted, Dog Detachment, Agro, The Wild Hearts, Static-X, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Deadline, The Cult, Alabama 3, Metallica, ACDC, Kiss, Jethro Tull, Def Leppard, Coheed & Cambria, Johnathan Martin, Jerry Cantrell, ZZ Top, Free, Rush, Tesla, Black Sabbath, Icon, Ghost, CrashCarBurn, Testament, Equator, Patti Smith, Alter Bridge, Warren Zevon & The Donna's 

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

Season 3 Episode 6 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired from behind the bar at 7 pm on 24 September 2020 on Rebel Rock Radio.  It was Heritage Day in South Africa and so there were numerous celebrations of many cultural traditions going on around the country.  My heritage is rock and metal from around the world so it was a great opportunity to celebrate a couple of bands that fed directly into this heritage, bands like Judas Priest, Nazareth, Led Zeppelin, Queen, ACDC, Boston, Van Halen, and Ozzy Osbourne.  We also heard from two SA bands that were very much a part of growing up in SA, The Radio Rats with 'ZX Dan', and 'Stingray With Better The Devil You Know'.  

Technically this is the best show recorded since leaving Mix 93.8.  The microphone volume is finally at the right level and there were no glitches.  The show kicked off with 'The Black Parade' by My Chemical Romance and a bit of Airbourne.  The punk portion of the show was covered by The Sex Pistols, the Damned, and The Clash and for once we didn't have anything particularly heavy.  The highlight for me was playing 'Ow, My Tiny Heart' by Don Babylon.  It was used briefly on the TV series Billions but it's actually a 9-minute song which deserved an airing.  Kudos to Don for not bowing to pressure and shortening it for the sake of a killer chorus.  Thanks to everyone who tuned in and if you have any comments or questions find me on The Story of Rock and Roll Facebook page or on the website.  

Artists featured:  Foo Fighters, Nazareth, Airbourne, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Junkyard, Ted Nugent, The Lazy's, Van Halen, Boston, My Chemical Romance, Pirates of Radio, The Radio Rats, Fokofpolisiekar, ACDC, Stingray, Linken Park, Gov't Mule, Ozzy Osbourne, Firehouse, Queen, Hinder, Don Babylon, Judas Priest, Led Zeppelin, The Burning, Kid Rock, Black Bone Nation, Saxon, Buckcherry, Michael Schenker Group, Tony Carey, System of a Down, Junkyard, The Sex Pistols, Adrenaline Mob, The Clash, Ryan Adams and The Clash.        

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

Season 3 Episode 5 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show took place at 7 pm on 17 Sept 2020.  Finally, the microphone quality is right and we are very close with the volume levels now.  The show kicked off with a track called ‘Hit The Ground Running’ off an EP by an Aussie band I saw in a pub in Perth around March 2010.  It was such a great little band and even though they are long ago broken up, it’s a real little gem and deserves airtime.  Next up we had Fastway, with ‘All Fired Up’ and then we got into the better-known bands, Motörhead, White Zombie, Black Sabbath, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, stuff like that.

 New releases included the brand new Marilyn Manson with the title track of his album We Are Chaos and another track from Seether’s latest album Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum called ‘Pride Before The Fall’.  We had Punk with the Damned and Stiff Little Fingers, we had some Pixies and we nailed the metal with Children of Bodom and vintage Metallica and Megadeth.  The grunge was ably handled by Alice in Chains and the Stone Temple pilots and Johnathan Martin and The Univited took care of South Africa.  We were a bit light on the local stuff this week so expect a double dose next week.  There was a little moment of self-indulgence where I said goodbye to little Libby a dearly loved family Italian Greyhound who left this earth on Monday.  Asking Alexandria said the words in ‘Dedication’ and Zakk Wylde played a moving solo in ‘The King’.    All in all one of the best episodes in a long time I believe, see for yourself.  

Artists featured:  Seether, Metallica, Tom Petty, Pixies, Fastrack, Five Finger Death Punch, Stiff Little Fingers, Zakk Wylde, The Uninvited, Marilyn Manson, Alice in Chains, Blackberry Smoke, Van Den Berg, Motörhead, U.D.O. Children of Bodom, Bruce Springsteen, Johnathan Martin, Sammy Hagar, Fastway, Megadeth, Krokus, Whitesnake, Foghat, Warrior Soul, The Rolling Stones, White Zombie, Sixx A.M., ACDC, Iron Maiden, Rose Tattoo, Slash’s Snakepit, Stone Temple Pilots, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Asking Alexandria, The Beatles & the Damned.   

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

Season 3 Episode 4 of TSORR went out live on Rebel Rock Radio at 7pm on 10 September 2020.  Technically it was the best yet of the Rebel Rock Radio shows,  other than the small issue of the system crashing in the middle of Bullet Holes by Bush.  You won’t get the 3 minutes gap the live listeners suffered through on the podcast though, that’s been fixed.  On the plus side the microphone quality is way better and now its just a bit more fine-tuning on the music to voice volume balance.  The show kicks off with Judas Priest’s ‘All Guns Blazing’ and they blazed pretty much for the rest of the night.  That was followed up in no particular order by some Motörhead, Clutch, and W.A.S.P.  We took a trip to Aussie with Cold Chisel and Rose Tattoo.  South Africa was represented by Dan Patlansky, L.A. Cobra, and The Black Cat Bones.  L.A. Cobra’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll Pretoria’ was a lot of fun.     

It took a while to get to the heavy stuff but we finally took a listen to a track off L’ Enfant Sauvage by Gojira and then close to the end of the show we had Machine Head with A Nation on Fire which felt pretty apt right now.  There were lots of neat little pairings throughout the show; Black Star Riders with Thin Lizzy, Led Zeppelin with Greta Van Fleet & Slash with Alter Bridge.  I enjoyed taking in a blast from the SA past with ‘The Man in My Shoes’ by Stringray and Piet Botha always sounds fantastic with his vicious attack on the way things were in ‘Goeienag Generaal’.

There was plenty of support from listeners and Pages Pub in Benoni, hopefully, we’ll get more pubs around the world making Rebel Rock Radio their permanent Station.  The highlight of the show was realizing that exceeding the official TSORR timeslot and having the broadcast link drop at exactly 22h00 doesn’t mean the show has to stop and that podcast listeners can get a secret bonus track not heard on the live show.  Kid Rock pioneered the way with ‘Devil Without a Cause’.   

Artists featured:  The Black Cat Bones, Gojira, Mott the Hoople, Dan Patlansky, The Killers, Judas Priest, Tom Keifer, Led Zeppelin, Ozzy Osbourne, Motley Crüe, Slash, Clutch, Alter Bridge, Black Star Riders, Cold Chisel, LA Guns, LA Cobra, Bush, Smashing Pumpkins, Twisted Sister, The Monks, Rose Tattoo, W.A.S.P., Ugly Kid Joe, Motörhead, Accept, Danko Jones, Dave Hause, Phil Rudd, Kid Rock, Bullet Boys, Thin Lizzy, Badlands, Piet Botha, Stingray, Greta Van Fleet, The Clash & Machine Head.

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

S3E3 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show went on air at 19h00 on 3 Sept 2020.  Due to some technical issues, the first 40 minutes of the recording was lost so if you didn’t hear it live you’ll never hear that unique bit of radio history.  The show is getting smother and it’s just the microphone quality and level that is messing me around now.  The music is great no problem with that side of things.  The chat line into the show was alive and busy all the way through until 10 pm.  Rebel Rock Radio is picking up steam fast.   

We kicked off with Def Leppard ‘Action Not Words’ off Pyromania but you will hear it from The Pretty Reckless with their track ‘Heaven Knows’.  That led us to ‘Rock is Dead’ by Marilyn Manson and then we checked out everything from Kreator to Dire Straits. The fun part came late in the show where I played “two bands that everyone hates but no-one can tell me why” in the form of Nickelback and Hinder.  The results were amazing, actually everyone loves both bands and the only explanation for Nickelback hatred was that Chad Kroeger is a bit of a dick.  I enjoyed the Ratt and Bon Jovi back to back and the trip to Seattle to check out Nirvana and Pearl Jam was great.   The Audioslave vs. Rage Against the Machine also go a good discussion going.  On the SA music side I was a bit slack and we only got to Jack Hammer and The Burning, but I will fix that next week.       

Artists featured:  Pearl Jam, Bon Jovi, Kreator, Judas Priest, Rage Against the Machine, Hinder, Dire Straits, Kiss, Motörhead, Against Me!, Jack Hammer, Wolfmother, Marilyn Manson, Ratt, The Burning, Nickelback, Lynryd Skynryd, Joe Bonamassa & Jimmy Barnes, Boston, Böhse Onkelz, Nirvana, Ratt, The Clash, The Pretty Reckless, Stiff Little Fingers, Audioslave.  

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