The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Season 2 Episode 10 of The Story of Rock and Roll radio show aired at midnight on 6 March 2020.  I’d had a crap day so 2 hours of rock and metal which turned largely into Metal went down very well.  From the get-go the WhatsApp line was alive which always makes a huge difference to the energy.   A big thanks to all of those who “listen live”, it was technically flawless I might add.  The show felt more metallic than normal, at one stage, we had Slayer, Testament, Cradle of Filth, & Annihilator almost in a row, but I am getting ahead of myself.  

The show started off with Led Zeppelin off Led Zep II, recorded back in 1969 it sounded amazing, it hasn’t aged at all.  Then it was time for some Iron Maiden and Ozzy Osbourne.  The local music got in early on this show, 5 songs in and we already had Springbok Nude Girls with ‘Bubble-gum On My Boots’ and from there we took a listen to ‘London Lady’ by The Stranglers.  There is no doubt that The Stranglers and Stiff Little Fingers are two of the most popular bands with TSORR listeners.  Anything off Rattus Norvegicus gets the WhatsApp line raving instantly.  

One of the highlights of the show was Marilyn Manson into Slayer, which worked out brilliantly.  Another one was checking out the breakdown at 2:20 into The Attitude by Annihilator.  Their new album Ballistic Sadistic is the Best Metal album of the year so far and it’s going to be pretty hard to beat.  I struggled to find something for this week’s Songs Greater than Seven Minutes feature, nothing seemed to fit and I was ping-ponging between Dire Straits Telegraph Road and Opeth The Drapery Falls and couldn’t get a good feeling so I settled for something slightly under 7 minutes in the form of Cradle of Filth with Her Ghost In the Fog, clocking in 6:25.  Other than that it was pretty much what you would expect from the show, except near the end I crammed it a whole lot of 3 min songs: Jet, The Offspring, Linkin Park, Skid Row, Reef, The Stones, and Motörhead, which pushed this episode to the top of the pile when it comes to number of songs played in a show.  

Artists featured in this Podcast:  Whiskey Myers, Skindred, Ozzy Osbourne, Testament, Slayer, Jet, Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin, Motörhead, The Pretty Reckless, the Springbok Nude Girls, Paul Stanley, Live, The Rolling Stones, Linkin Park, Cradle of Filth, Five Finger Death Punch, The Stranglers, Alice in Chains, The Offspring, Reef, Dead-line, Last in Line, Marilyn Manson, Piet Botha, Stiff Little Fingers, Green day, Annihilator & Skid Row

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

Welcome to Season 2 Episode 9 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show, it took place at exactly midnight on 28 February 2020.  There were a lot of broadcast and steaming problems from the radio station this week and technicians were working on it throughout the week.  It should be resolved soon but it did have an effect on the live listenership and makes this podcast all the more important.  We kicked off with an energetic little ball of rock to get you in the mood courtesy of The Defiants and then went straight into some ZZ Top Live From Around the World.  I highly recommend that album, it’s ZZ Top at their best.     

Boston’s Cool The Engines still sounds super fresh 34 years later and showcased what a genius Boston mastermind Tom Scholtz really is.  The brand new music was ably represented by the voice of Saxon, Biff Byford off his first-ever solo album.  He’s got Fredrick Akersson from Opeth doing the guitar work and has Phil Campbell, ex of Motörhead – as if that needs to be said - guesting on the album.  It sounds great, glad he’s done it.  We followed up with a bit of Joe Jackson just to mix it up a bit and then after some blues rock courtesy of the amazing Rory Gallagher and some Southern Rock courtesy of Whiskey Myers.  After that, we got seriously heavy with In Flames and Gojira.  It’s the first time for Gojira on TSORR, they are quite amazing.  The 7 Minute plus feature this week was filled by The mighty Judas Priest performing Beyond the Realms of Death live off the Battle Cry album.  It is and will always be one of the greatest songs ever recorded.   

We hit the downhill run after that and mellowed it out with Ozzy and Elton John doing the tile Track of Ozzy’s brand new album, Ordinary Man.  I love the album, Ozzy is one of my guys, he never disappoints.  I am particularly impressed with the quality of the songwriting.  I do have to say, and it’s my personal viewpoint, but both tracks that have the involvement of Post Malone are garbage and at least in this modern day you can delete them rather than have them destroy your album.  The local corner was represented once again by Johnathan Martin, who makes his fourth consecutive appearance on TSORR Radio Show, 12th Avenue, and Van Coke Kartel.  Check out the special bonus track after the show ends especially dedicated to Graeme in Brisbane in recognition of a conversation we had about 15 years ago.  

Artists featured this week:  Ozzy Osbourne, Van Coke Kartel, Megadeth, ACDC, The Defiants, Johnathan Martin, Rory Gallagher, Gojira, Judas Priest, Joe Jackson, ZZ Top, In Flames, Biff Byford, Scorpions, Accept, Whiskey Myers, Slash, Conil, Queensrÿche, Uriah Heep, Drowning Pool, Motörhead, 12th Avenue, Keel & Boston  

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

Season 2 Episode 8 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired at midnight on 21 Feb 2020.  Technically it was flawless with no recurrence of last week’s minor technical glitches.  The biggest problem was the amount of load-shedding going on which affected the number of listeners who stay up to listen to the show.  It’s either Telkom signal affecting streaming or Eskom cutting power to areas during TSORR Radio Show, you gotta fight hard for your music these days.  

The show started with Mercyful Fate out of Denmark and a track called ‘Desecration of Souls’, I don’t want to say it’s a first but it is certainly not common to hear Mercyful Fate on the radio.  They were a huge influence Metallica and can stand proudly as having a major role in starting the thrash wave that engulfed the world in around 1983.  We checked out some Kiss and then a bit more thrash in the form of Overkill with a track called ‘Electric Rattlesnake’ especially for Valeska who had a birthday this week.  We featured a rare little gem by an Aussie band called Fast Track off an EP I bought at a gig in Perth in 2010, I am pretty sure they are long gone now.  It was a night for playing bands that don’t often get airplay on the show with booth Tool and Faith No More getting a look in.  Our very own Johnathan Martin scored the much-coveted TSORR hat trick, with his 3rd appearance in 3 consecutive weeks.  We took a listen to his track ‘April’ off The Highway Infinity album.  The Midnight 7-plus feature, the one where we play a song that goes longer than 7 minutes, featured Metallica with ‘Master of Puppets’.  It sounded phenomenal, goosebumps all the way.

We caught another one of those TSORR theme songs, this one in the form of Night Wolf by Krokus and then checked out two of SA’s finest back to back with Black Bone Nation and The Color Blew.  The rock music is alive and well in South Africa and just needs a lot of support, the bands are gigging and the music is available on-line and at gigs, check them out.  Hopefully some of the shows international listeners will check out these great bands we have.  We got into the final straight and blasted our way to the finishing line with something off Butchering the Beatles, a track featuring Lemmy, John 5 and Eric Singer, and some Journey for Margy, a regular listener, and then finished off with a track by the Foo Fighters.  Last night featured a bonus track in the form of Thin Lizzy because I was still answering WhatsApp’s and wasn’t quite ready to go.  All in all a good time was had, Enjoy \m/

Artists featured this week:  Krokus, Mercyful Fate, Van Halen, Metallica, The Professionals, Johnathan Martin, Foo Fighters, Kiss, The Color Blew, Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, The Pretty Reckless, Overkill, Tool,  Journey, Michael Schenker Group, Night Ranger, Black Bone Nation, Def Leppard, Nevada Beach, Faith No More, The Stranglers, Fast Track, The Alabama 3, Butchering the Beatles & Thin Lizzy       

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

Shortly after midnight on 14 February 2020 Season 2 Episode 7 aired from the Mix 93.8 FM studios deep in the heart of Midrand, South Africa.  As always it was great fun and, to put it in its historical context, we had the State of the Nation address and Valentine’s Day as a backdrop.  There were a couple more technical glitches than normal but the show still hangs together OK, you may not even notice.  One track started again and then later two tracks stopped rather abruptly and I had to deal with that.  In the spirit of good rock radio, it’s better to leave those bloopers in than to edit it, its way more natural and a lot more humorous.

We kicked off a bit differently to the usual TSORR all-out metal detonation by starting with Josh Ritter and a track called ‘For The Dogs or Whoever’.   Next up Whiskey in the Morning and then a bit of Judas Priest and some Megadeth.  Because it was 14 Feb we took a listen to Bullet For My Valentine and roared through some serious 80’s and 90’s metal.  I mentioned that although we are only 2 months into the year the honours for Metal album of the year are probably already sorted in the form of Annihilators' new release Ballistic, Sadistic.  We took a listen to ‘Dressed Up For Evil’,  I am not quite sure what dressed up for evil would even look like but it’s a cracking good song, check out the instrumental bridge at around 1:56.  Our usual bit of TSORR Punk was covered by Anti-Flag, The Clash and Bad Religion and it was the Clash, who’s already short 1 minute and 47-second song,  was rudely cut even shorter, apologies for that.  

The new Midnight 7-Plus feature was filled this week by Great White and Rock Me, in fact, we had Rock You, Rock Me and You Wreck Me all in a row, try saying that fast 3 times.  Some more local content was supplied by The Burning, check out the podcast of the interview I did with them a couple of months back.  Herman Frank’s contribution was definitely one of the highlights of the show as was Johnathan Martin’s Liberty off his The Highway Infinity album .  Apologies to Dino Jelusic, he of the golden voice, for the tiny technical glitch and early ending on his new killer track with George Lynch of Dokken fame, I’ll play some more off that Dirty Shirley album next week.  The show ended off with a very effective quest to see how much damage I could do in 5 minutes.  The vote from the Whatsapp line was a resounding yes!  

Artists featured this week:   Motörhead, Bad Religion. Judas Priest, Rammstein, Buckcherry, Josh Ritter, Dirty Shirley, The Burning, Scorpions, The Gaslight Anthem, Bullet For My Valentine, Herman Frank, Type O Negative, Skid Row, Kiss, The Clash, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Great White, Jimmy Barnes, Megadeth, Johnathan Martin, Tom Petty, Night Ranger, Ryan Adams, ZZ Top, Anti-Flag, Annihilator

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

Season 2 Episode 6 happened at a few minutes past midnight on 7 Feb 2020.  We got straight into it with Black Sabbath and Thin Lizzy.  The show was pretty much old school metal for the first half hour before we got a dose of Grunge via that bastion of mirth, cheer, and happiness, Kurt Cobain.   

SA bands were represented by Pilgrim South a solid rock band out of Sekunda, I don’t know much about them but I will probably do an interview with them when they are in JHB.  Its good to know that there is a rock and roll soul alive and kicking in Mpumalanga.  12th Avenue, one of my favourite SA bands ever, were also featured with a track called Time Bomb.  Alice Cooper’s Generation Landslide sounded as fresh as ever, amazing that it's nearly 50 years old.  Iron Maiden took the Midnight 7-Plus slot this week with a track called The Longest Day off their 2006 release ‘A Matter of Life and Death’.  The highlight of the show for me was playing Ozzy Osbourne’s new track Under the Graveyard at high volume through the studio speakers.  Ozzy is sounding amazing and that chorus is catchy as hell, you have been warned.  My only regret here is that he hasn’t got Zakk Wylde on the album.  No disrespect to Andrew Watt who has done an excellent job of producing the album and playing all the guitar but Zakk would have made a massive contribution I reckon.  Note that Duff McKagan  & Chad Smith from G ‘n’ R and the Chillie Peppers provided the rhythm section.  

The Punk came a bit later than normal, this week in the form of the Dead Kennedy’s with 'Kill the Poor' and then a bit of Green Day.  Another show highlight was hearing Johnathan Martin’s brilliant cover of 'Cortez the Killer' back to back with Neil Young doing Pocahontas live off the Weld album. We got back to the heavy stuff with Judas Priest’s Hellrider and then a really menacing bit of metal called Walker of the Dark, courtesy of Udo Dirkschneider in his solo outfit U.D.O.  We managed to cram in a last bit of Motörhead and the Foo’s and then it was "Cheers" until next week.  The playout song was a little goodbye to Dave Brock a high school friend who sadly passed away this week  RIP Dave. 

Artists featured this episode:  Thin Lizzy, The Foo Fighters, Ozzy Osbourne, Johnathan Martin, Motörhead, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Nirvana, Pilgrim South, Judas Priest, Baton Rouge, John Frusciante, Alice Cooper, Slash, Green Day, Def Leppard, Volbeat, Neil young, Steelheart, Rush, Rex Brown, Great White, U.D.O., 12th avenue, the Dead Kennedy’s

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

Under a cloud of rain and the ever-present threat of load shedding, Season 2 Episode 5 took to the air at midnight 31 Jan 2020.  Incredible as it may be there are already only 11 months to Christmas!  The good news is that with The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show,  time stands still.  We kicked off with The Beatles (sort of) and a cover of The Magical Mystery Tour taken off a tribute album called Butchering the Beatles. The album features a whole host of the cream of the crop of 80's shredders.  This track had the inimitable Yngwie Malmsteen and Bruce Kulick all over it.   After that, it was W.A.S.P. then Ozzy and in the words of Forrest Gump we …..were….. running.   

We hit the punk early in the show courtesy of Anti-Flag and Bad Religion.  Anti-Flag are far and away the best punk band around in the last 15 years in my view. As always it was guitar solo heaven on TSORR and you'll hear that courtesy of Jinx and Jake Pitts of Black Veil Brides and DJ Ashba with Brides of Destruction.  The mystery of the track titles on my Audioslave album were finally revealed and we listened the "My Moon, My Man", or as it is normally known, ‘Gasoline’.  We stayed with Gasoline  but this time with Seether and then it was time for the new feature where we check out a track over 7 minutes long.  Once again that feature was a huge success.   

Dave Hause was great and then we got more killer guitar courtesy of Mark Tremonti off the 1st Alter Bridge album.  The SA music took a turn for the different with Kobus! and ‘Volk Van Main’. It was especially played for that hardcore team of TSORR regulars who keep me company until two am week after week after week.  You guys are truly die Volk Van Main.  I let Francois Blom & Theo Crous tell the story.  We wrapped up quietly with Rodriguez and Zakk Wylde.   

Artists featured include: Zakk Wylde, Guns ‘n‘ Roses, The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne,  Led Zeppelin, Dave Hause, Type O Negative, Bad Religion, Seether, Black Veil Brides, Paul Stanley, Anti-Flag, Megadeth,  Rodriguez,  Bullet Boys, The Cult, Black Star Riders, Blue Öyster Cult, Alter Bridge, Kobus!, Black Star Riders, Audioslave,  Brides of Destruction, Scorpions, Yngwie Malmsteen, & W.A.S.P.

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

Season 2 Episode 4 played out at midnight on 24 January 2020 and it was great fun and pretty much seamless.  The show kicked off with Queensrÿche and ‘Spreading the Disease’ and then straight into Dio with The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.  From there it was balls to the wall through until 2 am.  The Black Cat Bones and Fokofpolisiekar took care of the South African music, ACDC did the honours for Aussie, Accept represented Germany, Pink Floyd, and Billy Bragg were some of those from the UK, the USA was well represented as always and the colours were represented by Black Sabbath and Deep Purple.     

We took a listen to a new-ish band called 3Teeth who are making waves at the moment, see what you think, I find it Marilyn Manson-ish.  After that is was the turn of a band formed in California in around 2007 called White Wizzard, the audience loved it.  It was definitely a highlight of the show, check it out, the track was called Storm the Shores and the guitar work is great.  Seether as always can be relied on to keep the show on track and then we had two tracks perfectly demonstrating one of the things TSORR radio Show is known for, notifiable guitar.  Adrenaline Mob with Mike Orlando showing us how to solo and then straight after that, no stranger to the show, Animal Bites, Dino Jelusic’s band with a proper cover version of Roxette’s ‘The Look’.  Dino’s voice is as always off the scale good and I’m not sure who is on guitar but he is all over this.   The Rolling Stones ably represented the bands formed in the ’60s and then it was time for something new on the show.  If you listen regularly you will have picked up that I am of the Van Halen school of thought i.e. that songs between 2 and 4 minutes are perfect.  Alex Van Halen once said they don’t plan it that way, that’s just how long it takes to say what you gotta say and move onto the next one.  This means that we are missing out on some good stuff so to remedy that I decided to play one 7 min or longer song per week.  The first of these was a track called A Little Piece of Heaven by Avenged Sevenfold.  I am happy to say the WhatsApp line loved it.  Carry the Cross by Arch Enemy was exquisite, such power.     

Artists featured this week included:  Pink Floyd, ACDC, Billy Bragg, Joe Bonamassa, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Fokofpolisiekar, Queensrÿche, Bruce Springsteen, Dio, Avenged Sevenfold, Accept, Green Day, Windowpane, White Wizzard, Five Finger Death Punch, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Live, Arch Enemy, The Black Cat Bones, Animal Bites,  Seether, 3Teeth, Adrenaline Mob & The Rolling Stones, 

From: James Daubeney 
 
 

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

Season 2 Episode 3 went out live at midnight 17 Jan 2020.  The show started with a bit of The Offspring before the traditional Dr Who start-up theme that signals arrival of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show.  That was just a bit of fun to keep you on your toes, otherwise, it was pretty much a textbook show.  One thing I suggest you do when you listen to the show is Google the lyrics, it’s fascinating to see how good they are on so many of these songs.  In the old days you had the lyrics on the album cover, probably why the generation growing up through the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s know all the words to everything,  but actually we are better off now where you can get lyrics for everything while you listen.   

The show kicked off with The Sweet’s Teenage Rampage and then straight into the mighty Judas Priest.  It would have been remiss of me not to call out the Rock and Roll Hall of Fiasco for their latest travesty of justice so that was done pretty much straight away.  Motley Crue restarted again halfway through the song but you won’t really notice because I clipped it out for your listening pleasure.  I do however speak about it, so in the words of one of my high school teachers, “And boys that is why”.  I don’t normally edit the show but no-one wants to hear a song twice in a row with so much other good stuff to get to.  The highlight for me was the brutality of Sepultura into the smooth perfection of Gary Moore with Still Got the Blues.  It made me realize Gary Moore and Rory Gallagher would have been the most amazing twin guitar combo ever.  There were so many good moments on this show, ‘(White Man ) In Hammersmith Palais’ from The Clash, ‘California Uber Alles’ from ‘The Dead Kennedy’s’ as well as ‘Man in the Box’ featuring some great guitar work from Jerry Cantrell.  These were just a few that spring to mind, the whole thing is good.  Finally let’s not forget the sheer, power, aggression and rawness of Fokofpolisiekar in their hey-day with ‘Angs Aanval’ was sublime.  And then, of course, we did need to pay our respects to the amazing Neil Peart, drummer and lyricist for Canada’s greatest band Rush.  Neil sadly passed away on 7 January and we played Spirit of Radio to say cheers, RIP Mr. Neil Peart.   

Artists featured included:  Pink Floyd, W.A.S.P, The Clash, Fokofpolisiekar, Stone Sour, Bush, The Sweet, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest, Mötley Crüe, Black Sabbath, UFO, Sepultura, Neil Young, Tesla, Def Leppard, Motörhead, ACDC, The Defiants, Marilyn Manson, Alice in Chains, Gary Moore, Desolation Angels, Rush, The Dead Kennedy’s, Nazareth.  

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

Season 2 Episode 2 of the Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show was great fun indeed.  It aired at midnight 10 Jan 2020 and right from the start everything felt good.  Once again I was stuck by Time Dysplasia Panic Disorder i.e TDPD  at 01h06 when I realized I had 34 songs to play and enough time for only 13.         

The show opened with a jolt of good times rock and roll courtesy of Sebastian Bach and the fun didn’t stop for the next two hours.  One of the highlights was definitely Neil Young’s Revolution Blues, it’s amazing how the environment has changed in the last 46 years, lines like  “Well, I hear that Laurel Canyon is full of famous stars, But I hate them worse than lepers and I'll kill them in their cars” would probably upset some and lead to accusations of promoting mass shootings these days.  The show took a further turn for the violent after that with Halestorm’s hard-hitting 'I Miss the Misery', My Chemical Romance’s 'Thank You For the Venom' and an acoustic rock masterclass from Guns ‘n’ Roses with One in a Million.  

The other highlight was the emotional tragedy that is Danger Line by Avenged Sevenfold, the whole song changes at about 3:20 with the heartbreaking “Tell my baby girl that it’s alright, I’ve sung my last song tonight” and then Syn Gates’ solo and the harmony guitar with Zakky before M. Shadows' outro whistling.  Goosebumps or you ain’t human.   Rory Gallagher live was another one, unbelievable guitar sound, or as one listener said “so raw”, it feels like you are in the crowd at that show.  We started with drinking and ended with drinking, Jeff Beck with Rod Stewart's show closer was sublime.   

Artists featured on Episode 202 included:  Megadeth, Ryan Adams, Autograph, Jeff Beck, ACDC, Badlands, Iron Maiden, Buckcherry, Halestorm, Newsted, Rammstein, Saxon, The Sex Pistols, My Chemical Romance, Deep Purple, The Damned, Neil Young, Whitesnake, Sammy Hagar, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Avenged Sevenfold, The Damned Things, Greta Van Fleet, Rory Gallagher, Guns ‘n’ Roses & Sebastian Bach 

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

The Story of Rock and Roll Season 2, Episode 1 went out live at midnight on 3 Dec 2020.  It was a great little show, a very decent way to start off the new decade.  God knows where we'll be in another 10 years, pretty sure podcasts like this will be like talking about cassette tapes.  It was great to be back in the midnight time slot, but it felt like it was over before we started.  

The show kicked off with Krokus followed by a bit of Walking in the 'Shadow of the Blues'.  That was courtesy of White Snake and then we were off and running, pedal to the metal for the next two hours.  We dealt with the Ozzy Osbourne, deathbed or no deathbed issue, contemplated a 'Post American World' with Megadeth and checked out some Papa Roach.  It's hard to believe Papa Roach have been around for 20 years!  The highlight of the show for me was Slipknot with 'Opium of the People', hearing a song like that in the early of the morning is just so special.  The South African music was covered by Cutting Jade, The Color Blue and of course Seether.    

Artists featured this episode include:  Megadeth, Joe Bonamassa, Cutting Jade, ACDC, Krokus, Ramones, The Color Blew, Whitesnake, Night Ranger, Metallica, Ozzy Obourne, Kid Rock, Seether, Black Label Society, Clutch, Wolfmother, My Chemical Romance, Thin Lizzy, Slipknot, John Mellencamp, Social Distortion, Papa Roach, Rainbow, Volbeat, Soundgarden & The Gaslight Anthem.  

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