The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show

Here is an interview with East rand heavyweights The Burning.  I was privileged to get Steve and Glenn into the studio to discuss their new album Headed To Hell.  Bands like The Burning have been keeping SA Rock alive for years, take a listen to the interview and check out 4 songs off the album.  It's available on all platforms and you can get the details in the interview.  

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

Episode 50, the final chapter of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show for the second decade of the 21st century aired at 21h00 on 26 Dec 2019.  The show was in an earlier timeslot so it's about an hour longer than normal, the music was great, but I struggled a bit to find the rhythm.  There are good reasons for this but I won't go into them here, let's just call it a year.  For TSORR it's been a steep learning curve, it's been exciting and really interesting.  Thank you all for the incredible support and for listening.  I learned a lot in this first year of podcasting and you can look forward to exponential improvements in Season II of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show in 2020.

On this show were some great moments, the music is always rock solid, excuse the pun.  Having an extra 10 songs allowed me to experiment with two tracks from the movies.  The first being Atticus Fetch (Tim Minchen) performing a track called 'So Long' off Season 6 of the Californication Series.  Then the final track of the show, 'The Flame Still Burns', performed by Jimmy Nail and written by Mick Jones, of Foreigner fame, is from a movie called Still Crazy.  All rock fans should see it and you will get some more detail about it on www.thestoryofrockandroll.com.  It is special, those who know will know.  We had a bit of a look at 2019 and I reckon that Mania is now my best Metal album for 2019.  It's from a little known band out of San Francisco called Hell Fire.

Artists featured included:  Def Leppard, Marilyn Manson, Ace Frehley, Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, Northward, Dio, Van Halen, The Sex Pistols, Blue Scream, Rose Tattoo, Coheed & Cambria, Newsted, Dirty Honey, The Wildhearts, Strange Fruit, ACDC, Arapaho, John Mellencamp, Iced Earth, Linkin Park, Iron Maiden, Skid Row, The Almighty, Alice In Chains, Bad Company, Desperado, The Clash, Cinderella, Airbourne, Atticus Fetch, Hell Fire, Strange Fruit, Sugar Drive, In Flames and The Wildhearts.  

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

Episode 49 of The Sory of Rock and Roll Radio Show took to the air a few minutes past midnight on 20 Dec 2019.  It was the 2nd anniversary of the show even though the podcasts only started Q1 2019.  It was a nice opportunity to reflect on how far the show has come.  The maiden flight of TSORR was pretty rocky as I recall.  I was alone in the studio on air for the first time.  I got through it OK but I am eternally grateful there are no recordings of that show.  This episode includes a few tracks that I know for sure I played that night.  John Paul Young's Yesterday's Hero, The Boomtown Rats with Someones looking at you were definitely played.  Most of this episode is a continuation of the usual TSORR theme I didn't get all nostalgic, its 2 years not 10 ffs :-)

The highlight of the show for me was Zakk Wylde's guitar solo on Darkest Hour which I mistakenly said was off Hangover Music Vol II, a BLS album, instead of Book of Shadows II.  It was too late to retract so if you noticed, so did I.  Yesterday's Hero also went down very well.  It is amazing how many people have the same or very similar memories of discovering this amazing music called Rock.  It is really why both The Story of rock and Roll book and show exist.  So many of us heard the same bands at various stages in our lives and it changed anything.  TSORR, as always, is a celebration of both this fact and the music.  The show intro was probably one of the greatest I have done, The Stranglers Live and then straight into Pantera with Drag the Waters.  This was not lost on people and the first WhatsApp in immediately said: " The Stranglers into Pantera, banging bro " !!!.  Anyway take a listen to the show, I hope you enjoy it and stick around for the next anniversary in 2020.

Artists featured in Episode 49 include:  The Stranglers, Tank, Metalmorphosis, Queen, Nazareth, Billy Bragg, Newsted, Aerosmith, Iron Maiden, Jimi Hendrix, ZZ Top, Def Leppard, Pantera, The Boomtown rats, Megadeth, scorpions, Fokofpolisiekar, Roan Ash, Accept, Metallica, Airbourne, Judas Priest, Zakk Wylde, Y&T, Nazareth, Hanoi Rocks & Scorpions. 

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

Episode 48 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show detonated at midnight on Friday the 13th, December 2019.  Not even Friday the 13th scares us at TSORR, the show was a cracker.  The front end was loaded with fast tempo rockers mainly by bands everyone knows, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Pantera & Def Leppard.  We took a break to listen to some blues with Danko Jones and South African Master Bluesman Dan Patlansky.  Then it went the opposite of pear shaped, whatever that may be, with Slayer feeding into The Sex Pistols with God Save the Queen.

There were many highlights this week, one of which was the Slayer Sex Pistols combo, another was the latest track released off The Burning’s new album Headed to Hell.  The track was The Call and it is a wonderful call to recognizing the situation SA is in and calling for people to stand together and rebuild, or maybe I have got it wrong?  If so we will find out on 30 December when I interview Glenn Scarthroat Unger lead vocalist and lyricist of said band.  Stand by for that one.  We then got our recommended daily allowance of Citrus in the form of Led Zeppelin with Tangerine and I especially loved the segue into Black Label Society, I got those chords just right Another highlight was a little bit of Anti-Flag just because it is so relevant to the local situation right now with power cuts, water outages, load shedding, and mass unemployment.  It just made sense.  We were on the downhill run and took in another track off new EP by Equator called No Mercy.  I have played a few tracks before so this is the third one.  I threatened with some Vader but then the show took a turn for the mellow with an amazing goose bumping track by Lynyrd Skynyrd called That Aint My America off God & Guns.  It stayed that way for something off Exile on Main Street and some Springsteen before we used some Vader to close the show.  I swear I saw a mushroom cloud in my rearview mirror as I left Midrand at 02h30 am.

Bands featured this week include:  Rainbow, Led Zeppelin, Dan Patlansky, Pantera, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Danko Jones, Metallica, Biters, Twisted Sister, Kiss, The Burning, Slayer, Tyler Bryant& The Shakedown, Bruce Springsteen, Airbourne, Def Leppard,  Equator, Anti-Flag, Pearl Jam, Equator, Dave Hause, Billy Bragg, The Rolling Stones, Black Label Society, Vader, Black Sabbath

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

Episode 47 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired at midnight on 6 December 2019.  It was a cold, wet, rainy night and fairly early in the show, all the lights went out as the Mix 93.8 FM fell victim to load shedding.  The music never stopped.  For the next hour or so, Midrand was subjected to a generator driven little beacon of light in the form of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show, blasting rock and metal into the powerless night.  It was sort of like a scene from Stephen King’s masterpiece, ‘The Stand’.    

The music was great as always, despite once again walking in to find that the show hadn’t been loaded, I managed to put something together at short notice.  The show featured everything from Led Zeppelin to Skid Row, Stiff Little Fingers to Bowie, In Flames to Tom Petty.  The highlight for me was hearing German (punk?) rockers Die Toten Hosen with Hier Kommt Alex, their ode to Anthony Burgess’s psychotic malletjie, Alex.  It’s exactly the kind of thing you don’t hear on the radio but should.  As always there was humour, we had Audioslave with I Am the Highway which, on my CD, is called The Limit To You Love.  This quirk of the CD printing has provided mirth before but I have never been able to find out how many of the 2002 release of Audioslave there are with completely the wrong tracks listed.  Not only are the tracks wrong they are not even written in good English.  We gave a bit of love to The Burning and L.A. Cobra. two S.A. bands that just keep grinding away putting out world-class rock and roll in a country that has largely never really appreciated or understood it.  On TSORR we definitely get it and we are very grateful to these guys and many like them.  Another highlight was taking a listen to Ozone by Odyssey, a track released in the early ’90s and is considered a classic by me.  Graeme in Brisbane immediately remembered it and gave it horns on the Whatsapp line.  In other news, I may get into trouble for calling Led Zep a “band out of Birmingham” instead of London and for using the word ‘Legend’ to describe people who are not dead.  Que sera era, ain’t life grand? :-) 

Artists featured on Episode 47 include:  Nashville Pussy, ACDC, Thin Lizzy, The Screaming Jets, Sixx A.M., Odyssey, Kiss, Skid Row, Tom Petty, Ozzy Osbourne, Rory Gallagher, David Bowie, Nirvana, Led Zeppelin, The Burning, In Flames, L.A. Cobra, Audioslave, Stiff Little Fingers, Rush, Cold Chisel, The Exploited,  Die Toten Hosen, Rival Sons and Guns ‘n’ Roses.       

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

Welcome to Episode 46 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show.  It went on air at midnight Friday morning 29 November 2019.  Time flew as it always does when fun was being had.  The big news of the week was my interview with Tommy Thayer, lead guitarist for KISS.  I was lucky enough to get the chance to interview him on Wednesday night and it was an absolute pleasure to talk to him.  I had planned to play the interview on this episode but given that there are only 2 hours I didn’t want to lose 15 min of high grade music time with an interview so the interview is now a stand-alone podcast, check it out amongst the other podcasts.  Nothing like doing shows at two in the morning, I see I said that Lyzyrd Kyngs spelt their name the same way as Thin Lizzy do, when it was supposed to be the way Lynyrd Skynyrd do.  Obviously something to do with the zzzzzzzz’s  

The highlight of the show was definitely Billy Bragg, he doesn’t get a lot of air play but man, that aggressive guitar just sets the studio alight, it sounds so raw and pissed-off.  Steve Jones, doing a cover of Bowie's Suffragette City, also got the Whatsapp lines buzzing as did the comment about Michael Jackson.  HIM made their first appearance on TSORR and UK blues hero Aaron Keylock was also a first timer.  Machine Head’s Davidian sounded as powerful as ever and certainly reaffirmed my belief that Burn My Eyes is one of the finest Metal albums ever released.  All in all a very mixed bag with no obvious weak links in my opinion, see what you think.   

Artists featured included:  Van Halen, Judas Priest, The Donna’s, Joe Bonamassa, Lyzyrd Kyngs, Billy Idol, My Chemical Romance, Wolf Mother, Marilyn Manson, Tesla, Steve Jones, Y&T, Volbeat, Whiskey Myers, In Flames, HIM, Chickenfoot, Aaron Keylock, The Gaslight Anthem, Billy Bragg, Machine Head, Me & That Man, The Damned Things, The Wildhearts, Cold Chisel & Burn The Priest

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

It was announced a few weeks back that KISS will be coming to SA in July 2020.  I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to interview lead guitarist Tommy Thayer.  It was actually my first ever radio interview so I am very proud to have started off by talking to him, nice to start in the deep end :-)

What an amazing guy.  Tommy has actually been the longest running lead guitarist, he's been in Kiss for 17 years.  Ace did 9 and then came back 14 years later for another 6 and Bruce Kulick was there for 12.  Tommy got involved with KISS in 1994 and officially came on board as lead guitarist in 2002.  We covered a lot ground in 15 min   

I started by taking Tommy back to his earlier bands Black 'n' Blue and Shake the Faith and asked him about working with Jimmy Barnes and how he got Hunter S. Thompson to do an album cover.  We chatted about the Johannesburg gig on 25 July 2020 and I asked what we can expect at that show.  

Time flew I had a lot more to ask him but management intervened and gave me one last question and then it was over.  What a great experience, very grateful to Tommy and the Kiss organisation for making the time to talk to me.  

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

Episode 45 went out live at midnight on 22 Nov 2019.  The show followed the standard TSORR format, plenty of rock and metal, a smattering of punk, some new stuff, some local artists and some unusual stuff.  We had another track from the brand new Equator EP and a track off the new Phil Campbell album, ‘Old Lions Still Roar’, he proved that admirably.  For the first time in a while, I had some technical problems which resulted in 4 tracks in a row and a bit of editing.  It’s a first for TSORR because I don’t edit the show, what gets said and played goes out as is.  In this instance I had to break the rule otherwise you would have had a less than two-hour show.  The joys of modern age internet connectivity, the main thing is that all the songs are there.  

The highlight of the show this week as judged by WhatsApp line commentary was The Stranglers with Toiler on the Sea proving once again how opinions differ when it comes to music.  Asking Alexandria made a welcome return to the show and the current love affair with My Chemical Romance continued.  Piet Botha’s Goeienag Generaal sounded as magnificent as ever, love that sarcastic little chirp where he says “slaap lekker”.  Pat Travis Band with Snortin’ Whisky was a breath of fresh air and, for me personally, I enjoyed my latest discovery The Damned Things with a track called Bad Blood.  All in all, a fairly well-rounded show which felt rushed to me but I was assured didn’t to those listening.  

Artists featured included:  Megadeth, L.A. Guns, Queensrÿche, Scorpions, Pat Travis Band, ACDC, Giant, Thin Lizzy, Red Dragon Cartel, Asking Alexandria, Phil Campbell, Drowning Pool, Tom Petty, Ryan Adams, The Damned Things, Tesla, Animal Drive, Equator, Rancid, The Stranglers, The Black Cat Bones, Piet Botha, The Temperance Movement, My Chemical Romance, Motörhead and Duff Mc Kagan

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

Episode 44 was a real banger, plenty of good stuff happening on this one.  It went out live at midnight on 15 Nov 2019. The show kicked off with Rammstein and then a bit of ACDC and Van Halen.  Thanks to a great comment on the WhatsApp line the Roth vs. Hagar argument has been won, it’s all about Eddie.   

The highlight of the show was the reaction that new kids Equator got for a track off their debut EP called ‘No Mercy’.  Equator are 3 brothers ranging in age between 14 and 18 and they have a seriously good sound.  When it comes to rock bands people often say “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore”  to which it can now be argued, “They just did”. The other highlight was W.A.S.P.’s nearly 8 min monster-piece Chainsaw Charlie.  It’s probably the only example of lead chainsaw in existence.  I am very grateful to be able to play this music for you guys and the speakers in the Mix 93.8 studio are amazing, when Hanoi Rocks’ ‘Don’t You Ever Leave Me’ blasted through it was like time stood still.  ‘Lions’ by Dire Straits was also like cool water in a heatwave.  As always I ran out of time so it was the Big Goodbye until next week.       

Artists featured included:  Rammstein, David Bowie, Van Halen, W.A.S.P., Venom, Equator, Fokofpolisiekar, 12th Avenue, Dire Straits, The Horrible Crowes, ACDC, Bruce Springsteen, The Lazy’s, Tom Keifer, Black Label Society, Great White, aKing, Metallica, My Chemical Romance, Dokken, Stiff Little Fingers, The Burning, Slash, Therapy?, Tom Petty & Hanoi Rocks

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

Episode 43 of The Story of Rock and Roll Radio Show aired at the stroke of midnight on 8 November 2019.  We were straight into it with a brand new release by Airbourne, who were referred to as “the thinking man’s ACDC” by a quick witted listener.  The pace stayed right where it was all the way through Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Marilyn Manson and Iron Maiden.  Next we hit a short blast of Punk with the amazing Brody Dalle before going off to the movies for a few tracks.   

Speculation is rife that we will get to see KISS in July next year so we took a listen to them.  The highlight of the show for me was taking a listen to Metallica’s  ‘The Four Horsemen’.  It’s amazing how refreshing that track sounded and it was a great reminder of just how cutting edge they were back in 1983.  The speakers in the studio are really good so I got to hear it properly at about one thirty a.m. and had the speakers glowing red by the end of the show.  It must be really cool to be driving a big truck through the night and to have that track come over the airwaves like a fucking super nova.  After a false start we got our weekly dose of Cold Chisel and we also got to hear one of those bands you can’t play on the radio. 

Artists featured in this episode include:  ZZ Top, My Chemical Romance, Sugar Drive, Airbourne, The Mayfield Four, Kiss, Badlands, Joe Bonamassa, Kid Rock, Metallica, The Distillers, Marilyn Manson, Foo Fighters, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Northward, Steel Panther, The Drop Kick Murphy’s, Halford, Cold Chisel, Stone Temple Pilots, Oasis, Def Leppard, Hinder, The Rolling Stones, Iron Maiden as well as Mick Jagger & Dave Stewart.

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