50s-60s Rock 70s Rock 80s Rock 90s Rock Punk New Wave Blues Jazz Soul Funk Country Flok Full Colour T-shirtsGuitar Heroes Northern Life Comedy Movies Stars The Word Countries Cities Clubs Plain T-shirts Full Colour T-shirts
Loads of new stuff out this week as you can see from the front page, so here's a little guide to the music I dig most from these brilliant musicians.

Glenn Hughes - you'll go a long way before you hear s good hardrock album as Deep Purple's Burn and that's driven on in great part by Hughes' bass and shared vocal duties with Coverdale.

Before he was in the Purps you could catch Glenn in Trapeze - check out their album Meduza for plenty good rockin'. His solo work is a huge catalogue of stuff, I love the album he did with Pat Thrall in 1982. The 21st century has seen his output consistently high with Soul Mover and his latest First Underground Nuclear Kitchen being just two highlights. He does soulful rock funk hybrid better than anyone.

Billy Gibbons; I've discussed Billy's superb work a few times but for me you'll go a long way to here a better bit of riffage than Cheap Sunglasses on Deguello. And check out his playing on Tejas. Just life affirming riffing.

Matt Sorum: Guns n Roses and Velvet Revolver sticksman. He's built like a brick sh*thouse and is a super-human powerhouse that drove Gun's on. I also love VR and his work on Slither is just proper rock drumming sone to the max.

Ian Paice Deep Purple's most under-rated musician and one of THE most influential drummers of the rock era. He's up there with the best. I can think of no better example of his art than on the live version of Stormbringer on Made In Europe. He plays this storming rock number like a jazz drummer - which is what he was originally - stopping, stuttering, then pounding the living daylights out of the skins.....his work on the hi-hat is genius. There are and have been so many great musicians in the Purps but the music they made needed omnipresent Paice behind to make it live and to give it power.

Lemmy - Mr Rock n Roll himself, on stage giving it the full gun as always. The embodiment of power and heaviosity, he looks like his music sounds. Ace Of Spades remains a genre defining record and No Sleep Till Hammersmith one of rock n rolls best live albums.

Pidgeon Detectives. Crazy name, superb band from Leeds. Ami took this superb shot of the lads. We put it on a shirt. Ace. Their new album Emergency is a stormer.

Willie Nelson: He just gets better and better as he gets older. Has the most lived in face ever! His mid 70s Red Headed Stranger is what I keep going back to. Great ballads and senstive, poetic western songs.

Don't forget that if you order before the end of Wednesday and you want to entered into the draw to win over £300 of CDs, DVD's and books, as documented below, then all you do is email me john@djtees.com with your order ID number and I'll put you in the hat.

This week we have a new Jeff Healey design created from one of Tony’s shots of the great bluesman taken on his first tour in the UK in support of the brilliant See The Light album. We’re giving profits from this design to Daisy’s Eye Cancer Fund. RIP Jeff.
http://www.daisyseyecancerfund.ca/

YOU COULD WIN ONE BIG MASSIVE PILE OF GOODIES!!
This week we have ONE big bumper packs of goodies for you to win. I’m clearing the decks of a lot of odds n sods that have built up in the freebies boxes.

So, we’re giving away £300+ of Albums and DVD’s and books!!

But in order to have a chance to win this bundle you need to BUY something from us between 18th June and 25th June.

I'll pick the winner at random on the 16th.

Then all you do is email me john@djtees.com with the Order ID number and I’ll enter you into the draw for the packs.

If you don’t buy anything in the coming week I can’t put you into the competition. So if you’ve been thinking of buying something, the next 7 days is a great time to do it!!

And just look at what you could win!!

George Harrison – Living In The Material World
The 1973 solo classic from George. Uplifting and laid back and chock full of LA’s best sessioners noodling away in the background.
Peter Gabriel – Shaking The Tree
One of England’s unsung geniuses – this is 16 of his best. Shock The Monkey still sounds like a radical piece of music that would still shock many a monkey and Biko is as stirring as ever. He’s just very, very fantastic.
Mike Oldfield – Ommadawn
36 minutes of ground breaking ambience featuring Mike’s strangled granny style of guitaring. All done without sequencers and anything other than one mans musical genius. He was 22 when he made this. Bloody hell!
The Association – Greatest Hits
We thought it was fluffy pop at the time but now it’s clear it was classy, uplifting, wonderfully constructed music. You can’t listen to Windy and not feel better about life.
John Lennon – The Collection
Kicks off with Give Peace and Chance and ends with Cold Turkey, in between are all the hit singles. And how brilliant is Number 9 Dream? I always fancied being a Mind Guerilla.
Elton John – Greatest Hits
In the 70s he was at his brilliant best – fantastic stuff like Honky Cat, Bennie & Jets and Daniel are all present and correct and just downright ace.
The Who – Live At Leeds
It’s the best live album of all time. Essential rock n roll. If you don’t love it, you should get new ears fitted.
The Rascals – Greatest Hits
We’re talking 60s American rock n soul here. Most famous for Good Lovin’ and the all summer long classic Groovin’ Impossible not to enjoy.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Greatest Hits
12 songs from their mid-late 70s period including their rip-snorting version of Springsteen’s Blinded By The Light and
James Taylor – Hourglass
His best 90s album which echoes the classic Sweet Baby James era. Classy stuff for grown ups.
Wings – Band On The Run
McCartney’s best non Beatles album? I think so. Heavier than you might remember, Let Me Roll It is a forgotten classic on here.
The Who – My Generation The Very Best Of
Want 20 of The Who’s finest moments? They’re all on here. Best track? The Seeker.
Bonnie Raitt – Give It Up
Laid back, classy, tasteful blues on this, Bonnie’s second outing.
The Police – Synchronicity
Their final album and the most interesting. The title track is early 80s prog rock and owes more to Yes than to the insipid white reggae that they made their name doing. And Wrapped Around Your Finger is one of those fantastic ballads that Sting writes every 20 years or so.
Van Morrison – Moondance
It’s always a marvellous night for a Moondance. About as stoned soul as you can get, it made Van the Man.
Al Green – Greatest Hits Vol 1
And they are great hits. Unrelenting, wonderful soul. How Can You Mend A Broken Heart is almost too delicate and beautiful to exist in this cruel world.
The Beach Boys - The Warmth Of The Sun
A comprehensive trawl through their less well known tracks. Rarities, remixes and lost treasures are the order of the day here. Worth owning for the staggering piece of music that is Sail On Sailor from the Holland album.
Mountain – Best Of
The heaviest of heavy bands best stuff and some live belters such as Crossroader – a real stormer and there’s a 5 minute guitar solo from Leslie West of course……play loud. Very loud. It will frighten your children, even the ones you’ve not had yet.
The Who –Ultimate Collection
A 2 CD collection of all their best stuff and a third bonus disc with footage of the 1974 Charlton gig on. Cracking stuff it is too.
Allman Brothers Band – A Decade Of Hits 1969-79
A magnificent 16 track introduction to one of the best bands ever. All killer, no filler.
The Black Crowes – One Mirror Too Many/Pimpers Paradise/Somebody’s On Your Case.
Quality rock n roll taken from the Three Snakes & A Charm album. Released as a single in 1996.
The Black Crowes – Hotel Illness/Words You Throw Away/Interview with Rich Robinson
A 1992 single drawn from, the awesome, must have Southern Harmony album
The Black Crowes – Lions
Some said it wasn’t a strong album but Midnight From The Inside Out and Lickin’ remain two of the toughest bad ass songs they ever wrote. And there’s a lion with a third eye on the cover, which is never a bad thing.
The Steve Miller Band – The Best Of 1968-73
From the early psychedelic stuff – which is my favourite - to the Joker, dipping into blues and acoustic stuff along the way. Much under-rated as a songwriter and guitarist.
Steve Miller Band – The Gangsters Back, Live In New York
An Italian release of a live show in 1978. Full of classics and a ripping version of Going To The Country.
The Pink Fairies – What A Bunch Of Sweeties.
Notting Hill’s primo stoner band of the early 70s. Wild, anarchic R & B. Warning: contains riffs that may disturb your mind. Don't forget to boogie and up the pinks!

DVD
A Night At The Family Dog – featuring Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Santana
Its 1970, its San Francisco, drugs have been taken. So on come Santana and do Incident At Neshabur and Soul Sacrfice, then the Dead ramble through China Cat Sunflower and I Know You Rider, Airplane do a cracking The Ballad Of You Me & Pooneil and Eskimo Blue Day and then everyone comes on stage and jams for 15 minutes. Rambling, sloppy and yet compelling live work by all concerned. Sponsored by Rizlas I would imagine.

Emerson Lake And Palmer: The Birth Of A Band- Isle Of Wight Festival 1970
It was their second gig. It was massive. It was scary. As radical, messy and glorious as you might imagine. Unmissable for any fans of insane musicians breaking new ground. Comes with interviews with all concerned. And to think just 6 years later these radical musicians were called old farts – ridiculous. ELP remain one of the most original bands ever.

BOOKS

Hammer Of The Gods – Stephen Davis.
‘A fierce and fearless story about a band that remain a legend of musical, sexual and mystical power It is the last word in rock n roll savagery.’
A classic of the genre, some say its not all 100% accurate, other say it is. Either way it’s a rollicking good read.

The Longest Cocktail Party – Richard DiLello
‘An insiders diary of the Beatles, their million dollar ‘Apple’ Empire and it’s wild rise and fall’
A compelling look into what seems such a different era now. An era before things went corporate and before cynicism ruled. An era that was as this book ends already creeping in.

That's all for this week. Good luck with the competition

Jeff Beck: Genius       
Welcome to another week of rock n roll t-shirts. We have just created a new design of Jeff Beck

So this a great time to discuss one of England's most innovative and stellar guitarists.
Let’s get the basics out of the way first. Along with Hendrix, Jeff Beck is the most influential guitarist in the history of rock n roll whose legacy continues to wash down the decades. He invented the way we know the an electric guitar can sounds

Beck is a sonic architect. Even before Hendrix arrived on these shores he was utilizing feedback, whammy bar histrionics, playing of weird scales and using effects pedals when working with the Yardbirds.

You can get a taste of it on their hit ‘Happening Ten Years Time Ago’ and throughout the whole album The Yardbirds – which is usually known as Roger The Engineer. That album came out in July 1966 and its revolutionary 35 minutes of music. Some say it created what later became heavy metal but that’s only true in the sense that the techniques Beck deployed influenced a whole generation of players who ended up in metal bands.

For a brief period, the Yardbirds toured America with Beck and Jimmy Page both on guitar – you can see them in the movie Blow Up of course and on the soundtrack of that movie you can hear Beck and Page on ‘Stroll On’. ‘The Happening’ single also features them both of lead guitar and John Paul Jones on bass. But Beck was soon sacked or quit the band and went off to form the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart.

The two albums they did, Truth and Beck-Ola set the blueprint for the heavy blues rock group that would be so influential in the coming decade.
As the 70s dawned Beck seemed to grow tired of the heaviosity and began recording more soul and jazz influenced work. Rough and Ready in 1971 owed much to R & B and 1972’s Jeff Beck Group was recorded in Memphis with Steve Cropper producing. Both are tasty outings and feature a young Cozy Powell on drums.
Weirdly in 1973 he took what many at the time thought was backward step and formed Beck Bogart & Appice. A power trio they sounded clumsy and dated compared to his previous two albums. If their eponymous album had been released three or four years earlier, it would have had an audience but in ’73 those days were gone.
Beck was dismissive of the album at the time however, if you can get their Japanese only live album it reveals three brilliant musicians - though none of them can sing to save their lives - who really could cut it live, even if their best stuff were other peoples songs such as Stevie Wonder’s Superstition.

The mid 70s saw him at a creative peak releasing Blow By Blow and Wired. The first of those is perhaps THE jazz rock fusion album par excellence. Jaw dropping playing backed up with an epic sense of ambience and dynamics, Beck redefined what was possible on guitar. His version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Cause We Ended As Lovers’ is an inexpressibly beautiful piece of music; tender, expressive and emotional. This was a no mere guitar noodling, this was a fella who had a genius about him.
Wired, though not quite the equal of Blow By Blow, was by most people’s standards a mind-blow. The 1977 Live album lacks the subtlety of the studio albums but is an enjoyable romp through this period’s music.
As the ‘80s dawned There And Back came out and was a top 30 album in America. Star Cycle was used as the theme tune to the UK music TV show The Tube. I saw him on this tour and can report he was in top form, playing with the awesome Simon Phillips on drums. There and Back is a forgotten Beck album I think but its hybrid spacey jazz rock boogie still satisfies.
Over the following 28 years he’s released six or seven albums sporadically – the best of which is Jeff Becks Guitar Workshop – which was a return to the mid 70s form in terms of expression and melody and won him a Grammy. ‘Where Were You’ from the album is a magnificent delicate piece of music and is up there with his finest work.

He still tours regularly and if remains a radical purveyor of guitar music. His days as a heavy rock style guitarist are long gone but he turned up in 1007 to play with The White Stripes and proved he could still do that Yardbirds thing is he wanted to.

I’ve always thought that he must be an influence on Spinal Tap’s Nigel Tuffnal, who shares Becks’ hair cut and accent, and lets face it, Beck went up to 11. And then some.

The essential JB is Roger The Engineer, Truth, Blow By Blow, There And Back, Guitar Workshop. Get those ones first and then stretch out.

One rarity to look for is an album by jazz rock band Upp. Their 1975 debut album features him on guitar and is excellent jazz rock funk.

CHEAP STUFF


I've uploaded a new batch of cheap stuff on 10th June. Get yourself a bargain while you can. As you know, it always flies out and when its gone it really has gone. Prices from £4.00. It's worth checking this page all the time - as we're often putting bits and pieces on there at low low prices. So bookmark it!

FREE STUFF

Pack 15
DEEP PURPLE – LIVE IN PARIS 1975
This is a two CD historic recording of DP’s show on April 7th 1975 after which Ritchie Blackmore left the band. With Coverdale on the vocals in magnificent form, we tear through the best bits of Burn and Stormbringer albums, then throw in a long, long version of Space Truckin and Smoke On The Water and you’re guaranteed an aural feast. Originally some of this appeared on Made in Europe of course and while debate over the pre-eminence of Mark 2 or Mark 3 Purps, there is some outstanding rock n roll here – some of the finest you’ll ever hear in fact. I am a huge Deep Purple fan of course and own every single thing they have ever released, and that’s a lot of stuff!
LED ZEPPELIN – HOUSES OF THE HOLY
It’s my considered opinion that the opening three tracks on this – The Song Remains The Same, The Rain Song and Over The Hill And Far Away are the best opening trio of songs on any Zep album. And of course you also get no Quarter on this which is in the top 5 Zep tracks ever for me. So all in all, its total class.

Pack 16
GRATEFUL DEAD – TWO FROM THE VAULT
Recorded 23/24th August 1968 at the Shrine Auditorium in LA, here are The Dead in their acid drenched glory. 11 minutes of Dark Star, 14 minutes of The Eleven, 17 of Turn On Your Lovelight make up the best part of two hours out on the outer reaches of rock n roll. It’s radical music. Turn on and tune in.
IRON BUTTERFLY: IN-A-GADDA-DA-VIDA
Also recorded in 1968 and also severely whacked out. The 17 minute title track became the very definition of acid rock at the time. Heavy, heavy organ from Doug Ingle, Iron Butterfly was the perfect name for this band. Colourful but heavy it spent 87 weeks on the Billboard chart and peaked at number 4.

As usual just email me john@djtees.com with the pack number in the subject line for a chance to win. I'll draw the winners next week.
All previous draws have bene done so there's no point in entering for them now!
That's all for this week. Keep an eye open for some more great guitarist t-shirts coming soon.
Be rock n roll.

cheers......Johnny

Here we are again. A bit later this week. it's been busy busy busy here after we uploaded over 300 sale stock items on Friday. About 70% of them have sold now but there's still some good bargains to click on Cheap Stuff to snaffle a cheapy there's still some £3 as I write.


This week we've launched a Bo Diddley tribute t-shirt after the great man passed on this week aged 79. you know, there's a good argument to be had to say no Bo, no rock n roll. The Bo Diddley riff is the rock n roll riff at core. It's one of the roots of the tree that grew into a mighty oak - or perhaps more accurately a Mariposa Redwood.

Amazingly, within an hour of his death being announced we began getting requests for a tribute shirt of him. And to be honest, I wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do or not. But the requests kept coming in all through yesterday and Mark's shot of Bo was in the 'designs to do' folder. I wrestled with this issue a few weeks ago in relation to Jeff Healey, who I loved and whom Tony had met and photographed on the See The Light tour. We've decided to do a design of Jeff in the near future and donate the profits of it to the Daisy's Eye Cancer Research Fund, which he did so much to support.
Anyway, I hope our design of one of rock n rolls greatest men is some sort of fitting tribute to his talent. If anyone knows of a charity that Bo was allied to, then do let me know and we'll do a similar deal, otherwise I'll be sending the profits on this one to Sweet Relief Musicians Fund http://www.sweetrelief.org/ who do so much great work.

Next week we'll be launching designs of Jeff Beck and Steve Howe and i'll be writing about both guitarists recordings, so there's no major feature this week. now onto the free stuff.

FREE STUFF
Pack 12
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Greatest Hits
Well of course Skynyrd didn't have 'hits' as such - except for Sweet Home Alabama but semantics aside, most of the their best work is here from Simple man to Saturday night Special and Call Me The Breeze. Naturally the live Freebird is here too. Tuesday's Gone is missing however, and that is one of the finest ballads in rock n roll. But hey, its Skynyrd in the 70s, so its all good.
Allman Brothers - Eat A Peach
This came out after Duane's untimely death and is part live with Duane at the Fillmore East. A stunning album of telepathic jamming on Mountain Jam, burning riffing on Trouble No More and One Way Out and some countryish guitaring on blue Sky. It ends with the delicate acoustic number Little Martha with Duane and Dickey on guitar. Beautiful. A Legendary record.
Pack 13
Stevie Ray Vaughan - In Step
A tough and taut SRV album full of brilliant blues and R & B. He didn't do bad records. This one is one of his best.
ZZ Top - Greatest Hits
Mostly drawn from the second half of their career, this has all their hit singles on and their finest albums tracks too including Tush, I'm Bad, I'm Nationwide and La Grange. Put it on, drink beer, feel good.
Pack 14
Queen - Stone Cold Classics
Well perhaps not all their Stone Cold classic but some of the good stuff from Sheer Heart Attack, A Day At the Races, News of the World and a few others. Early Queen is a magnificent sonic assault....best track on here Tie Your Mother Down - as good a riff as was written in the 70s
David Bowie - Changes One Bowie
David Bowie is in my DNA. No one can rival his 70s catalogue for brillinat, innovative music....its not just good, its so damn radical. And here are all the hits up to the early 80s much of it featuring the brilliant riffage of mick Ronson. I never wanted to be Bowie but man, I wanted to be Ronno.


Just email me with your address john@djtees.com and put pack 12/13/14 in the subject box for a chance to win one of three pairs of each I've got to give away.




Dick Heckstall Smith is a worthy new addition to our jazz & blues t-shirt collections. He was one of the most imporetnat and innovative sax players in the country in the 60s and played on some legendary records.
DHS was part of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated which did so much to progress blues in this country. He left to join The Graham Bond Organisation alongside Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker. He moved on in '67 to join John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and played on the very, very superb Bare Wires album - an essential record for anyone interested in British blues and jazz.

However, his most innovative period was to come. From '68 to '71 he was in Colosseum, a pioneering jazz rock band. Playing two saxs simulataneously was a nice trick for Dick and one which gained him a big reputation. Colosseum's first two albums For Those About To Die and Valentyne Suite are marvelous excursions into a new jazz/rock hybrid. Over driven blues guitar from James Litherland on the first and Clem Clempson - later of Humble Pie - on the second and honking DHS saxes kick ass while Jon Hiseman's drums fill every pocket and Dave Greenslade plays jazzy keybaords. 1970's 'Daughter Of Time' is a classic album and saw the band at their peak. A very good live album came out before they called it a day.
DHS spent the next 30 years playing in jazz, fusion and blues bands before passing away at the age of 70 in 2004.
Our design of him comes from Jorgen's photos of the late 60s Colosseum in his classic 'two sax' magnificent best.
ENO:
Our new Eno design is one of Jorgen's portraits from '73. It's easy to forget just how radical Eno was at the time. He looked lik an extra from, Star Trek for a start but his roll in the early Roxy Music sound shouldn't be under-stimated. All those funny swirls and noises are all from Eno's early synths.
When he left Roxy, his released a series of albums that we mnight now call New Age - though even that term now sounds distincitly old fashioned. They were certainly sonic. The 1st of them Here Come The Warm Jets was a top 30 album in the Uk and featured 16 musicians from The King Crimson/Canterbury scene. It was a massive critical success and was hailed as a meisterwork and ahead of its time, It still sounds ahead of its time in 2008. It's hugely enjoyable slab of radical noise.
The following year he released Taking Tiger Mountain(By strategy) - those brackets are so important eh! Phil Manzanera was on guitar and it bears some comparison to his Quiet Sun album. 1976 Another Green World was proper new agey - all mellow synth noise and ambience, it was as radical as his previous work but in a new way. Manzanera and Fripp were also on board for this one.
Throughout this period he laso worked with John Cale and Kevin Ayers - a very good live album from 1974 exists from that collaboration simply called June 1st 1974. He also helped out Manzanera on his wonderful 801 project. Do find both 801 albums they're splendid jazz/rock ambient affairs - challanging and very satisfying.
Eno spent the 80s mostly doing production for the likes of U2 and making lots more ambient albums. His 70s output is an unrivalled sleection of left-feild oddness and all the better for it.
Our design of him captures that early period's downright unusualness from a portrait of Jorgen's.
Our other new design this week is a new one of Brian May. Our original design from 2004 has proved very popular so it was time to do a new one. This again is from Jorgen's collections of early Queen shots with 'Red Special' very much to the fore. I think the first two Queen albums from around this '73/'74 period are all too often ignored. Some have called them derivative but for me songs like Seven Seas of Rye and Tie Your Mother Down are top notch, first class rockin' While subsequent massive success put this period in the shadows a bit, I still enjoy it better than anything they subsequently did.
FREE STUFF
After a week off, we're back with two great CD packages to give away.
Pack 10
Blue Oyster Cult - Secret Treaties
BOC are in their very heavy period here in 1974 on their third album. not yet massive but just about to become massice, its a very satisfying and occasionally brutal record.
Boston -Boston I like AOR and I don't care who knows it. Terminally unfashionable of course but there's no doubting the top down magnificence of More Than A Feeling on this, the bands first album. Just the job for hot summer nights.
Jefferson Starship - Gold. The revolutionary days of Airplane were long gone but Starship were still a primo AOR rock band and this is indeed the gold of their music. Ride The tiger is classic Grace Slick snarl, Miracles is classic Balin smaltz. The stuff with Craig Chaquico on guitar is all good. if you don't have the classic Starship albums from this period (and you should) - they are Dragonfly, Red Octopus, Spitfire and Earth - then this is great album to join Starships intergalactic trip. Its radio friendly melodic rock - what's not to like about that?
Pack 11
Aerosmith - Greatest hits
More accurately the greatest hits of the 70s. As an introduction to the 'smith this is as good as it gets. All the meat is here from Drema On, to Sweet Emoption, Walk This Way and the epic riff-a-long-a Joe Perry of Back In The Saddle. Like rock n roll? Love Aersosmith.
Fleetwood Mac - Greatest hits
This is the 70s and 80s Mac of course. Tracks from Fleetwood Mac, Rumours, Tusk and Tango in the night. ok you know all the songs but they all still sound great. The Mac are like tomato soup - simple and very tasty and you wouldn't want to live without them.
Canned Heat - The Best of
Although a version of Canned Heat still gigs, this is the best from their first 5 years. And what an influential band they were - no Canned Heat, no Blues Traveller et al. You get the hits On The Road Again and Let's Work Together, lots of choog-a-loo boogie numbers, and Going Up The country that is forever associated with the Woodstock movie. Impossible to dislike, Bob Hite and the boys really knew their stuff. I played my copy of Live In Europe - bought for 40p from a stall on Newcastle Quayside until it was almost smooth. If this gives you a taste for the band go back and find 1968's Boogie With Canned Heat - it still satisfys. Another great live album is Live At Topanga Coral - which features early storming versions of Bullfrog Blues and Dust My Broom.
Just writing this makes me want to get into them all over again. Great band, great, great band.

Just email me with pack 10 or pack 11 or both in the subject line john@djtees.com for a chance to win one of these packs. I've got 3 packs of each to give away.

That's all for this week. Keep it rock n roll.

This week we've created three excellent new designs. The first is one of our favourites, Rory Gallagher. Inspired by the cover of Taste's first album, we think this design is quintessential Rory.
Also new this week is a Santana design. He's been missing from our guitar heroes section for far too long and at last we've been able to remedy that omission.
There's also a lovely new design of Ringo flashing the peace sign.

I thought I'd take the launch of the Carlos design as an opportunity to write a feature on Santana. They've been one of my favourite bands since I first heard Samba Pa Ti on the in-and-out wow and flutter of Radio Luxembourg back in the early 70s.

Formed in San Francisco the mid 60s, Santana were originally called the Santana Blues Band. Carlos first recording was on the Live Adventures of Mike Bloomfield and Al Kooper double album recorded live at the Fillmore in San Francisco September 26/27/28 1968. Carlos was called in to play when Bloomfield who suffered from insomnia was hospitalized in order to be sedated to get some sleep - this is according to Al Kooper's album sleeve notes. so he and the excellent Elvin Bishop and Steve Miller volunteered their services. Carlos plays on side three track two 'Sonny Boy Williamson' It's a superb debut recording.

The first Santana album was in essence an album based around several jams which was how the band operated at the time. There are lots of live recordings released from this era - you always find them cheap in supermarkets for some reason - and these always features Jingo, Fried Neckbones and some kind of version of Soul Sacrifice. Akarma Records an Italian company released S.F.mission District from this era and its a fine live album.

The first album has all the rhythm and lyrical playing of the later band but it feels a bit half powered, like Carlos hadn't turned it up to 10 yet. If you get the legacy edition it comes with extra jams and the Woodstock set.

It was Woodstock and the subsequent movie, as for so many bands, that brought their brilliant latin infused rock to a big audience.

So when Abraxas the second album was released it climbed to 1 on the Billboard chart in 1970. This album was the Santana manifesto. Irresistible rhythms and percussion, simple catchy choruses and fiery bursts of magnificent guitar. their version of Fleetwood Mac's Black Magic woman was a radical re-working which transformed a delicate blues into a roaring, heart breaking guitar classic.

It was impossible not to like Santana. They had everything you could want from a band. The had riffs great solos, dance rhythms, soul style vocals and they could rock as hard as anyone if they wanted to. The appealed to men and to women in an era where guitar rock was largely the preserve of hairy men in trench coats and afghans.
Santana 3 was also a number one album and featured future Journey axe man Neal Schon for the first time. It's another cracker and home to Toussaint L'Overture - a Santana set closer and classic for years to come.

Caravanserai from 1972 was a more jazz rock album with much much less Latin and much more noodling as tracks with titles such as 'Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation' would suggest. Most of it is dense and instrumental - a great record to put on if you want get inside your own head, I reckon.

This trend was continued on Welcome, Borboletta and on Carlos solo work with John McLaughlin on an album called Love, Devotion and Surrender. Both men were followers of Sri Chimnoy and the album is a veritable volcano of manic high paced soloing. If you like extended guitar work outs and are not bothered by such things as songs or melodies, this is a great album for you.

I was an early convert to jazz rock when aged 14 I bought the Mahavishnu Orchestra's 'Inner Mounting Flame album which I still consider to be the pinnacle of the jazz rock/fusion movement. The sheer chutzpah of the playing and the virtuosity of the musos on board is mind blowing.
In 1972 Carlos had played with Buddy Miles in Hawaii out of which came a live album which charted well. He also recorded with Alice Coltrane - Illuminations is another interesting album of
spiritual guitar noodling.
But most people like music to have songs and a bit more structure, so the more experimental Santana albums didn't sell anywhere near as well - they still went gold though.

The 1974 Lotus triple album was only available as a Japan import in the UK and it was about ten quid at the time which seemed about as much as you'd have to pay for a house back then. It came with magnificent fold out sleeves and artwork. I wanted a copy so bad it hurt.

By the time 1976 came around, just when everyone was beginning to forget about Santana, out came the staggering Amigos album., This was a return to the style of Abraxas. Danceable songs and brilliant solos. On the track Europa he laid down one of his finest solos - achingly beautiful and passionate to sometimes to point of aggression, its a huge solo and one which I've always though Steve Vai psychically plugged into for his awesome 'For The Love Of God' on the Passion and Warfare album.

This was followed up by Festival which kept the more song based theme going.

With a top ten album under his belt, he then put out the hugely enjoyable double album Moonflower, much of which is live. A record of pure joy for the music, its 4 sides of brilliance. I wore side 2 out - Black Magic woman, Dance Sister Dance and Europa were a trio of unmatchable excellence. Carlos guitar was now epic in its scope and expansiveness and is a whole trip in itself.

They even pulled a hit single of the Zombies She's Not There out of thin air. This was a peak that Carlos didn't reach again in this kind of format. Other excellent albums followed over the next twenty years - of which Ze Bop and Havana Moon are fantastic.

But it was 1999's Supernatural which brought him to a whole new audience as he laid down his unmistakable guitar down in collaboration with a new generation of performers. Gone were the extended jazz rock workouts and in came the sales......Supernatural is a classified as a Diamond seller in America. That's 15 million+ to you and me. Wow.

A fantastic live album recorded at the Fillmore East in 1968 was released in 1997 and like all Santana live albums it's magnificent.

A consummate musician and major league spiritual fella, Carlos and his band have brought so much joy into the world with his music. We all owe him big time. Cheers Carlos.

THIS WEEKS FREE STUFF
More great CD's to give away this week.
Pack 7

The Who - Greatest Hits
You get 13 classic hit singles, including The Seeker which I reckon is in the top 5 numbers the 'orrible 'Ooo ever laid down.
The Who - Live At Leeds
The Finest live album ever? This is the full show from Leeds University in 1970 Stand out track? gotta be Young Man Blues and a heady version of My Generation on which The Ox's bass is jaw dropping.
The Who - My Generation
Where it all began. This is the American version called The Who Sings My Generation - yeah groovy baby. The band are in front of big Ben looking very young. Slightly different track listing from the UK release too.
Pack 8
UK:Concert Classics Volume 4
Who were UK? We're talking prog jazz rock fusion here. Led by Teessider Eddie Jobson who had stints in Curved Air and Roxy Music and in the mid 70s in Zappa's band playing a clear perspex electric violin. UK were a kind of supergroup - John Wetton on bass, Allan Holdsworth on guitar and Bill Bruford whacking the skins. They formed at the height of punk in 1977 - nothing was less fashionable but they were fantastic. UK and Danger Money their first two albums are a minor classics of the genre and a live set Night After Night is also very satisfying .
This was recorded live in Boston in 1978. It's all whizzo muso stuff and wonky time sigs.
Jethro Tull: MU The Best Of
A great sampler to either get you into Tull or if you want a light graze across their music.
Jethro Tull: Stand Up
Their second album from April 1969 and the first Martin Barre on. Lovely album artwork from a wood cut by New York artist Jimmy Grashow. Still in their heavy blues phase but with flutey folk coming through on tracks like Bouree.
So just 39 years since this came out then - blimey.

As usual email me john@djtees.com with pack 7 or pack 8 or both in the subject line for a chance to win either of these packages. I've got two sets of each to give away.

That's all for this week. more boogie next week.

We're back this week with a couple of great new designs. Blind Faith and Family.

Interestingly the two bands are inter-related. Bass player, the late, great Rick Grech played in both bands, leaving Family after two albums to join Blind Faith.

In the early Spring of 1969 when word got about that Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker from Cream were getting together with Steve Winwood who was temporarily out of the superb Traffic there was much excitement and anticipation from all concerned. Would this be another fantastic supergroup as good as Cream?

The first songs were not finished until April & May by which time they'd already been booked in for tours of Scandinavia and America, which was a bit mad really as they had very little new music to play to people. It looked like the money men knew how popular they'd be and got them out on the road as soon as possible.

Their debut was as part of the support for the Rolling Stones free in Hyde Park gig on June 7th. Footage and recordings from the gig show a band that were very nervous and sometimes unsure but with great potential. Clapton left the stage feeling as though he'd let people down.
But there wasn't a lot of time to dwell on it as they headed off to Finland five days later for a short tour of seven or eight gigs in Helsinki, Oslo, Gotenburg and Copenhagen.
They played what was eventually the first album's material padded out with the Stones Under My Thumb.

Less than a month later their debut on American soil came in front of 15,000 fans at Madison Square Garden on 19th June - no pressure there then lads - supported by Free & Rory Galagher's Taste - they interchanged nights. Delaney & Bonnie were second on the bill - what a great triple header that was. However, trouble broke out after the encores and the usual heavy handed security started beating heads.

It was one of those big tours that bands did back then - far too big really. Reports from some shows report audiences being disappointed with the show but live recordings that survive while not always pin sharp are anything but shambolic. Maybe too much was expected by too many.
These are the tour dates - thanks to the brilliant www.ectours.de/
Fri 11-Jul-1969 Cancelled: Fort Adams State Park Newport, Rhode Island
Sat 12-Jul-1969 Madison Square Garden New York City, New York
Sun 13-Jul-1969 Kennedy Stadium Bridgeport, Connecticut
Wed 16-Jul-1969 Spectrum Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Fri 18-Jul-1969 University of Toronto, Varsity Stadium Toronto, Ontario (Canada)
Sat 19-Jul-1969 Forum Montreal, Quebec (Canada)
Sun 20-Jul-1969 Civic Center Baltimore, Maryland
Wed 23-Jul-1969 War Memorial Stadium Kansas City, Kansas
Sat 26-Jul-1969 Wisconsin State Fair Park West Allis, Wisconsin
Sun 27-Jul-1969 International Amphitheatre, Chicago, Illinois
Fri 01-Aug-1969 Sports Arena Minneapolis, Minnesota
Sat 02-Aug-1969 Olympia Stadium, Detroit, Michigan
Sun 03-Aug-1969 Kiel Stadium St. Louis, Missouri
Fri 08-Aug-1969 Center Coliseum, Seattle, Washington
Sat 09-Aug-1969 PNE Coliseum Vancouver, British Columbia
Sun 10-Aug-1969 Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Oregon
Thu 14-Aug-1969 Almeda County Coliseum, Oakland, California
Fri 15-Aug-1969 Forum, Los Angeles, California
Sat 16-Aug-1969 Fairgrounds Arena, Santa Barbara, California
Tue 19-Aug-1969 Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas
Wed 20-Aug-1969, Hemisfair Arena, San Antonio, Texas
Fri 22-Aug-1969, Salt Palace, Salt Lake City, Utah
Sat 23-Aug-1969 Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Phoenix, Arizona
Sun 24-Aug-1969, HIC Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii
Tue 26-Aug-1969, UCLA Pauley Pavilion[this concert never happened] Los Angeles, California

By the end of it, the band were already unhappy with the whole project, disbanded and never played live again. Meanwhile the album had been released on July 21, 1969 by Atco in the U.S. and on August 16, 1969 by Polydor in the U.K to much controversy as the cover featured a naked teenage girl holding a metallic plane - well of course. In America it was released with a snap shot of the band on instead.

The band might not have been happy but fans loved the record and put it at number one on both sides of the Atlantic. While they had clearly needed more time to write more material than they eventually had, 'Sea Of Joy', 'Presence Of The Lord' and 'Can't Find My Way Home' stand out as some of the finest work any of the participants have ever done.
But big seller or not, Clapton, seeking anonymity went off with Delaney & Bonnie, Winwood returned to Traffic taking Grech with him, Baker formed another supergroup of sorts - Airforce.

A 7" single of 'Can't Find My Way Home' b/w 'Presence of the Lord' was released but failed to chart anywhere.

Blind Faith are the forgotten supergroup, probably because they lasted for barely 8 months. But they left behind one excellent album full of soul and rock extravagance. It's a shame they didn't do more work but what they left behind really does the business.

Family. One of the finest bands ever to come out of Leicester in the English midlands, for seven years and for seven albums they were a hugely popular band on the college and city hall circuits all across Europe and more importantly still, one of the most original and creative bands of the era.
Their debut album Music From A Dolls house as trippy psychedelic rock led by the unique vocals of Roger Chapman - sometimes called the singing sheep- - but not in a bad way. This was band full of multi instrumentalists who could turn their hand to many different styles. Charlie Witney could play guitar, sitar and keyboard, Rick Grech played bass but would play a bit of cello and violin too, later Poli Palmer would do synths, vibraphones, flutes and kitchen sink.

However weird they were, they were also popular. The debut charted at 35 in the UK. The follow up Family Entertainment peaked at 6 and featured their hit single Weavers Answer, a marvelous piece of proggy rock.
A Song For Me went higher still to 4. Personnel changed but the Chapman/Witney axis remained.
My favourite Family album was their 4th Anyway. Again, it was a top ten seller. Originally it came in an elaborate plastic sleeve with gold embossed graphics on. side one is live side two is in the studio.
On stage they were a powerful band as well illustrated on Anyway. They could do big riffs such as on Good News Bad News, they could do jazzy interludes, they could do bluesy too. A veritable smorgasbord of aural pleasures all given an intensity by Chappo incendiary warble.
Fearless appeared in October 1971 and made a small dent on the USA chart at 177. 172's Bandstand made 188 but the band was falling apart leaving Witney and Chappo to recruit new members for the final release Its Only A Movie.
The hit singles had continued despite their avowedly noncommercial nature. In My Own Time made 4 in June of 1971 and the raucous belting rock of Burlesque made 13 in September of 1972.
After splitting up in 1973, Chapman and Witney formed the very excellent Streetwalkers band. Eventually Chappo would go onto great solo success in Europe, especially Germany. The other lads dispersed to a million different projects.
They are fondly remembered as an unglamorous bunch of lunatic musicians who walked their own path. Their first single Scene Thru' The Eye Of A Lens from Sept '67 is a real collectors item. If you've got a mint copy of it on Liberty LBF 15031 you've got at least £125 worth of 7" single there. A Mono version of their first album with the insert that came with it is now priced at around £80.
If you've never heard the band, do check them out. They're a band like no other before or since.

FREE STUFF;

This week I've got some superb DVD's to give away.
RAINBOW LIVE IN MUNICH 1977

This is one of if not the only professionally made live footage of the early Rainbow line up with Bob Daisley and David Stone on bass and keys. Cozy is on the drums. A nice little package this one as you get a reproduction of the tour programme included - featuring the lads all lined up in bollock crushing jeans looking a bit awkard and Ritchie scowling.
The early rainbow stuff such as Kill The King and Catch The Rainbow are all here. There's bonus interviews and promo vids too. Blackmore(just out of jail the night before apparently) is an extraordinary player. A lot of the time he's just making noise - scraping the pick up and down the strings, letting chords feedback - but its all done with maximum drama and effect. Dio is in superb voice. Never has a man sang so powerfully about Wizards.
Love Rainbow? You'll love this. I've got 6 copies to give away.

LEGENDS OF ROCK: Santana; Johnny Winter, Taj Mahal, IABD

I picked up four copis of this - it's a really weird one. It's actually live footage - albeit somewhat grainy - from a British TV show in 1971 of a gig at the Albert Hall. Taj kicks things off, then Johnny Winter tears through Johnny B Goode and Tell The Truth, Its A Beautful Day do a couple of numbers - White Bird obviously - and Santana finishes it all off with a long Soul Sacrifice.
It's only 45 minutes long but its a fascinating set of music - it looks like you're peering back in time to another era all together - a feeling thegrainy footage only enhances.

If you'd like to win either of these just email me john@djtees.com with 'Rainbow DVD' or 'Legends DVD' in the subject box, or both.

That's all for this week.

Rock On

johnny

We've taken a break this week from the rock n roll t-shirts and instead designed 13 new Veggie t-shirts. You'll find them in The Word section under V - naturally enough.

This is something we've been asked to do for years so as usual we eventually got around to doing it. There's an excellent range of designs for all non meat eaters in the usual wide colour combos. Many will look great on hoodies too.


FREE STUFF


Last weeks draws for triple sets of albums went very well. Well done to Dominic in Germany, Sophie in Oxford, Gill in Kent, Frankie in Paris, Sara in Norwich and Pete in somewhere exotic sounding called Swiss Cottage.


This week we've got another 3 sets of two packs of classic albums to giveaway.


Pack 5:

Neil Young - Everyone Knows This Is Nowhere.
Possibly still the finest album Neil has ever made. A genre defining slice of rock featuring classic such as Cinnamon Girl and Cowgirl In The Sand. Originally released in July 1969 it never charted in the UK but peaked at 24 in America. Here's an interesting bit of trivia. If you bvougfht the UK 7" single of Down By The River - which was edited for the singles market on the flip side is an alternate and some would say superior mix of Cinnamon Girl. Expect to pay £6 for a mint copy if you ever see one.

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Soul to Soul

It goes without saying that SRV was a genius of a guitarist whose impact and influence still reverberates today 18 years after his death. This was his 3rd album and came out in September 1985, making 34 on the Billboard charts but not troubling the UK chart at all. This one is sometimeso verlooked in favour of the groundbreaking first two album Texas Flood and Couldn't Stand The Weather. It is however a searing album of blues and R & B with fantastic instrumentals and some of his best slow blues.

Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow. Beck can rightly claim to be the grandfather of all the tonal manipulation and whammy bar hystrionics that came in the 80s. A master of expression and emotion across six strings of steel, this album is his gift to the world of guitar art. There simply hasn't been a better guitar instrumental than his 'Cause We Ended As Lovers' - a Stevie Wonder song. Lilting and yet heart wrenching, Beck never over plays. He's one of those - the-spaces-matter-as-much-as-the-notes players, and possess tremendous taste and mastery of the aural landscapes he weaves. An essential album that peaked at 4 in USA and in a shocking lack homegrown support actually failed to chart in the UK.


Pack 6:

Van Morrison - Tupelo Honey. So its November 1971 and Van's first two solo albums Blowin' your mind and the seminal waxing Astral Weeks had failed to chart. Moondance had done much better and Street Choir had sustained his success as a unique jazzy, bluesy vocalist. Tupelo Honey has a country air and it clearly an album full of love and joy and on 'I want to Roo You' raw sex. Hurrah. As usual the UK ignored it but it made the top 30 in America and the title track even scraped into the top 50 as a 7". It's a delightful album, full of upbeat vocal riffing.

Carole King - Tapestry. Some records define an era. Tapestry is one of those epoch making pieces of music. It almost instantly defined what a singer songwriter could do when they were a genius writer such as Carole. Recorded with the cream of Lou Adlers session musos 'The Section' on board such as Russ Kunkel on drums, and Danny 'Kootch' Kortchmar on guitar. It so cinqued in with the mood of the times that for many years Tapestry was the biggest selling album on earth and all other known planets. It peaked at 4 in UK and 1 in USA where it was at the top for 15 weeks and stayed on the chart for 6 years! Wow! That is popular. Oh yeah, it earned her 4 Grammy's as well.

Interestingly, 6 months earlier her first solo album Writer:Carole King - a splendid album in itself - failed to trouble the charts. You almost certainly know all the songs on Tapestry - but when you listen to it with fresh ears you find an album of remarkable confession and emotion sung with a rich, full, beautiful voice. It has a laid back style that simply keeps on giving through the years. Like an old friend you're always happy to see, Tapestry is one of the albums that life is far less enjoyable without.

The 22 million people who have so far bought it all agree.

Maria Muldaur - Maria Muldaur
It is my humble belief that Maria should have been as big as the excellent Linda Rondstadt. This is her 1973 debut release. An utterly glorious album it was a top 3 album by the end of the year and Midnight At The Oasis was a top ten hit both sides of the Atlantic. A doe eyed beauty with a soaring, melodius voice backed up by a crack team of L.A session musicians, including Amos Garrett who laid down that swooping solo on Midnight At The Oasis. Also on the album are luminaries such as Ry Cooder - a man who is incapable of playing anything bad - Dr John, Clarence White and David Griseman. I

t's bluesy and soulful but with countryish tinges too and it should have been the start of a massive career but her success peaked with this album, though she continued ot make really good albums such as Waitress In A Donut Shop and Sweet Harmony. If you've not discovered this much under-rated singer, you're in for a real treat.

As usual just email me john@djtees and put pack 5 or pack 6 or both in the subject line for a chance to be one of the 6 lucky people who will win them.

That's all for this week, nect weke we'll be back into very, very classic rock territory with Blind Faith and Family. What do you mean you've never heard of them! There'll also be a chance to win free t-shirts.

Rock on!

cheers.........Johnny

Hello hurray...here were are again then. We're in a bluesy mood this week with a great new Alexis Korner t-shirt design.

Alexis Korner would have been 80 this week had he lived. Alexis turned me and many others onto the blues via his Radio show in the 70s and 80s. He was a remarkable bloke around whom the British blues boom of the 60s seems to orbit.

His band Blues Incorporated at one time or another included every major blues player in the country including Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Keith Richard, John Mayall and Jimmy Page. He was a major advocate of the blues, jazz and rock n roll and helped turn this country onto people such as Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

He later supported the Stones at Hyde Park with his band New Church and he was instrumental in the creation of Free, who he championed from an early stage. He was also working with Robert Plant when Page was setting up the New Yardbirds.

As the 70s broke, he formed CCS - best known for their cover of Whole Lotta Love which was the theme tune to Top Of The Pops for many years. CCS were a superb band - a heavy, bluesy big band they had four hit single - Tap Turns On The Water being the biggest making #5. Their two albums CCS and CCS2 are both well worth hunting down.

He started his Radio show in 1977 and played old blues, soul and rock n roll coming on like a friendly professor after the fluff of the chart show. I used to sit and write down everything he played and then go and find it. He was a walking encyclopedia of the blues and through him I got in to Graham Bond, John Mayall, Skip James, Sonny Boy Williamson and many more.

He died of lung cancer on New Years Day in 1984 aged just 55. He was a big smoker as his husky, rasping voice well betrayed.

Its a pleasure to celebrate this great man who did so much for the music scene in this country for so many years. If you want to read more about Alexis, Harry Shapiro's biography of him in 1997 is highly recommended.

Our other new design this week is an addition to our northern Life collection ' From up North' just so everyone knows eh!

THE BLOG
Just wanted to take a moment to plug the Talkin' T-shirts Rock n Roll & Life blog. Most days I'll add an entry about the music we're playing here today and talk about anything that's pressing my buttons. It's here.

FACEBOOK & MYSPACE
And while I'm bigging up the blog - you can also find it on our Facebook and Myspace pages.
We've not had any photos of y'all wearing DJTees shirts for a while so do email me with some more and I'll put them in the gallery on FB.
If you add us as a friend or fan on either or both, you'll get occasional special discount offers from me and you'll learn first about new sale stock and anything else that's happening.
FREE CD's

Last weeks classic rock packs proved very popular, well done to Mary-Beth in Canada, Mandy n Kev in Winsford, J J in Spalding, Gunter in Munich, Saul in Seattle and Mike in Glamorgan for getting lucky.

This week there are two more packs to win. I've got three sets of each. Just email me john@djtees.com putting pack 3 or 4 or both in the subject box.

Pack 3
Bob Dylan: Greatest Hits This originally came out in 1967 and it features all the Dylan classics such as Blowin' In The Wind, Like A Rolling Stone and Positively 4th Street. When you see these ten tracks one after another it crystalizes just what a genius Dylan is. If most people had written just one of them it'd be the peak of their career.
Doors: L.A. Woman The band's final album is one of their best. You get the fantastic title track, the landscape of Riders On The Storm and the power of Love Her Madly. I've often wondered what the band would have produced next had Morrison lived. LA Woman is poetic and yet accessible. Less weird than some of the early stuff but utterly original rock n roll nonetheless.
Jimi Hendrix: Band Of Gypsys. Recorded live at the Fillmore East on New Year's Eve as the 60s became the 70s with Billy Cox on bass and the late great Buddy Miles on the skins. With this rhythm section his live shows had power and soul. It features Machine Gun, a tour-de-force of rhythm and sonics and Buddy Miles' classic Changes. It still feels weird to think he had just 9 months to live.
Pack 4
Genesis: Trick Of The Tail. By 1976, Gabriel had left and Phil Collins was on vocals. This was the mighty Steve Hackett's last album and was a brilliant album it is. Collin's turns in a superb performance both on the mic and on the drums. for too long he's been the butt of jibes and insults for his solo music but its worth remembering that Phil Collin's is one of the finest drummers these fair lands have ever produced and its much in evidence here on Dance On A Volcano and the Genesis classic Los Endos which he drives forward with a rattling fury a pace. It's a tremendous achievement. Hackett's signature melodic licks are all over it as well.
Ripples is also on this - I don't care if you're a hardened grizzled prog rocker, Ripples still brings a tear to the eye; gorgeous stuff and if you've not indulged in Genesis or have forgotten how good they were, this is a great album to start with.

ELP: The Best Of. I have every record ELP have released including the 8 Cd box sets of bootlegs. So I can tell you with confidence that if you want an intro to ELP's oeuvre, then this is perfect. you get all the important stuff like the opening of Karn Evil 9, all 20 minutes of Tarkus and Emerson's classic Knife Edge. Perhaps the finest bit is Still...you Turn Me On - Lakes 2.53 ballad which sounds like it was recorded in a cave. Really awesome. ELP are genuinely radical noise and jaw-dropping musicians.

Yes: Highlights - The Very Best Of. The best of Yes is really the 70s Yes. Again, as an intro to this legendary band's work this is ideal. What strikes you is the radical guitar playing of Steve Howe on songs like Roundabout - which was actually a minor hit single - and Starship Trooper. He is really a unique player. Add to that the gloopy zomming Chris Squire bass and Jon Anderson's lyrical bizarreness and you've got a unique and satisfying musical adventure. We take Yes for granted - or my generation do - but we shouldn't - they're extraordinary.

The Weekly Feature: 60s Blues

Since we've created a new Alexis Korner design, it seems like a good time to have a short discussion about 60s blues more broadly. It's important in the evolution of what would become heavy rock, because it was where we first heard electric guitars deployed at volume and used for soloing rather than just rhythm. And of course, most heavy bands like Zep, Purple etc deployed what were essentially blues riffs.

It's a remarkable quirk of history that so many American blues players were bigger in the UK in the early to mid 60s than they were in their home country. The blues found a home here - initially amongst the merchant seaman who brought the records back to ports like Liverpool from, America. The likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker were regular visitors to these shores. Band such as the Yardbirds would often be hired as their backing bands.

Early Yardbirds records reveal a powerful R & B band. Their debut album was recorded Live. Five Live Yardbirds is raw and shouty and wonderful. Throughout the 60s with a variety of stellar guitar players from Clapton to Beck and to Page whose New Yardbirds became Led Zeppelin, they created a catalogue of groundbreaking blues and rock.

Similarly, Mancunian John Mayall's Bluesbreakers set about popularizing a form of hard Chicago blues also with a range of stellar guitarists including Clapton, Peter Green and Mick Taylor. The 'Beano' album which features Clapton reading the Beano on the cover is a quintessential album from this era - Clapton has never played better. But A Hard Road with Greeny on the 6 string is also a superb blues document. Blues From Laurel Canyon in 1968 is also not to be missed.

Some took a more jazzy path from a blues base. The Graham Bond Organisation featured bond playing a hammond organ with a rotating Leslie speaker. it made a fierce noise and Bond later to get into the occult and throw himself under a tube train at Finsbury Park cuts an imposing scary figure.

John McLaughlin played with bond initially before going on to Miles Davies band and then in thew 70s the Mahavishnu Orchestra, helping invent the jazz rock genre in a blizzard of notes and sweeping arpeggios.

Colosseum emerged from, ex Bluesbreakers and blended the blues with Dick Heckstall Smith's sax to create a form of early jazz rock. Check out the album Valentyne Suite - it pins yer ears back. It's also on that nice swirly Vertigo label - the first release on that label in fact.

By the mid 60s electric blues was all the rage and Cream helped export this new amplified version back to America, sweeping all before them in a hurricane of virtuoso jamming, in their wake Ten Years After - a Nottingham blues band led by Alvin Lee - rode the blues rock wave all the way to Woodstock. Their live Undead album remains a superb example of where the art form was at in 1967/8

The Stones, with the help of Alexis Corner started out as a blues and R & B band and The Kinks and The Who all played loud hard R & B numbers such as Heatwave in their sets.

Over in Ireland Rory Gallagher & Taste were taking the power trio work of Cream to new places and in doing so created a legacy of great albums Taste and On The Boards should be in the collection of any blues rock fan.

And of course Jimi had to come to the UK to get his break playing an electrifried version of the R & B he'd played with Little Richard and The Isleys.

As heavy and prog rock started to evolve out of the blues boom, blues players who wanted to remain pure to the art form faded into the background or went down jazzy roads instead. The legacy of the 60s blues boom was enormous though as the influence of Cream and their contemporaries reverberates in rock n roll to this day.


That's all for this week. Keep yourself on the rock n roll side of the road.