a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

(This is the final part of a two-part story. Part one is here.)

We, that is the Accidents, did get to meet the Flamin Groovies, in 1977, at Essex University.

Radio Birdman supported them, though we didn’t know alot about them then.. They sounded a bit “country” to our ears at the time (????!!!???) so we really didn’t give them a chance. I love Radio Birdman now of course, “Aloha Steve and Danno” being an all time classic single, amongst the other classics I first heard via the New Race album. That album, “The First and the Last” being one of my all time favourites, which I got on cd for the first time recently, an expanded version. [Read more →]

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I believe I’ve seen the Ramones in excess of 27 times. I simply can’t comprehend that Joey, Johnny and, my personal favourite Dee Dee, are dead. If I had to choose just one band to take to heaven, a desert Island, or where ever, it would be Da Brudders, hands down. To say they totally rock out would be a massive understatement! Johnny’s guitar, Joey (and Dee Dee’s) vocals, the lyrics, the simple nursery rhyme-like fluidity of the song. The sunny, Beach Boys type melodies, the melancholic tunes, the raw aggressive more-punk-than-the-rest songs. But most of all, that adrenalin, amphetamine charged raw power. [Read more →]

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(This is the final part of a two-part story. Part one is here.)

Another major influence on Powerpop has to be the Byrds. Certainly their gorgeous three part harmonies have been emulated many times. The Groovies, the Raspberries, Big Star, and the Posies, have all used the Byrds style harmonies as standard, as have many others.

Also Roger Mcguinn’s twelve string Rickenbacker sound, a la “Mr Tambourine Man”. George Harrison said he’d started playing the Ricky as a direct result of hearing “Tambourine Man”, massive praise indeed! [Read more →]

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Listening to Eric Carmen singing ” All by Myself” I think yes, I could call this Powerpop. So what exactly is Powerpop? It’s said that Pete Townsend coined the phrase to explain the Who’s sound, but I wonder what he really meant?

I suppose some might say “All by Myself” is a power ballad, and they’d probably be right, but by virtue of the fact that Eric Carmen was in the Raspberries, I think it could still be cast as Powerpop. And the bombastic instrumentation and arrangement, coupled with the sweetest of vocals and melody, not to mention the Beatlesque orchestration.
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The first big gig I remember going to was at the Oval cricket ground, on the 30th of September, 1972.

The main attraction for me was Emerson Lake and Palmer (ELP). My dear old mate Barn was fanatical about them and I’d bought “Pictures at an exhibition” myself, which I thought was rather dark, and rocked in an odd kind of manner.

The cover images of the “Tarkus” were all it took to convince me I should attend. When we walked into the Oval, either side of the stage there were what initially looked like huge images of the tarkus. But they were actually full sized models of tarkuses. They were almost as big as the p.a. stacks – which were about the size of a house! It seemed like a comic book prog rock wet dream!

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