Brian Robson Rankin of Newcastle-upon-Tyne moved to London while still a teenager, armed with a guitar and a dream. He adopted the name Hank Marvin, melding his childhood nickname of “Hank” with the first name of American country singer Marvin Rainwater, and put on a pair of glasses inspired by Buddy Holly’s. His school friend Bruce Welch joined him, and before long, the pair had met Cliff Richard’s manager. In 1959, Richard’s band then known as The Drifters became The Shadows, and Richard, Marvin, Welch, and Brian Bennett (who replaced drummer Tony…
Do Ya, Do Ya Want This Disc? The Move’s Transition to Something Electric Comes Alive from Esoteric
The final works from British rockers The Move were relatively ignored by everyone, including the band themselves – until listeners started to realize how it marked the trio’s transition into a whole new sound. Cherry Red’s Esoteric label will revisit the group’s fourth album Message from the Country in a newly remastered and expanded package, available February 28. The Move started life as a harmony-rich quintet from Birmingham in the late ’60s, enjoying a half dozen Top 10s on the U.K. charts including chart-topper “Blackberry Way,” “Night of Fear” and “Flowers in…
Hats Off to Del Shannon in New 12CD Box Set
If Edsel’s recent double-disc overview of the work of early rock pioneer Del Shannon wasn’t enough for you, the label has even more: a 12CD box set comprehensively covering the singer’s oeuvre. Stranger in Town: A Del Shannon Compendium pretty definitively captures the work of the man born Charles Weedon Westover, from early landmark hits like the chart-topper “Runaway,” “Hats Off to Larry” and “Little Town Flirt,” all the way to scores of posthumously released sessions. It comprises material from several labels, including Bigtop, Amy, Liberty, Dunhill/ABC, United Artists, Warner Bros. and…
Go Ahead, Have A Vision: Paul McCartney Prepares “Flaming Pie” Archive Edition Sets for July
Today, Paul McCartney fans everywhere have much to celebrate as the inimitable musician has announced the July 31st release of the latest volume in his ongoing Archives series – this one’s a look back on Flaming Pie, an album that marked a sort of return to form upon its release in 1997. Inspired by the simpler, more immediate recording style that The Beatles used decades before, Paul McCartney returned to Abbey Road with some of his favorite collaborators, including Ringo Starr, George Martin, Jeff Lynne, and Steve Miller. Nearly 25 years later,…
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Review: Electric Light Orchestra, “The U.K. Singles Volume One: 1972-1978”
The A-side of Electric Light Orchestra’s first 45 had been originally written for The Move, but once it was recorded, it was clear to songwriter-producer Jeff Lynne and his co-producer and bandmate Roy Wood that “10538 Overture” was the sound of a different band altogether. Wood had overdubbed what he later remembered as a “cheap Chinese cello” onto the driving track which the two singers/multi-instrumentalists had created with the aid of Bill Hunt on French horn and Steve Woolam on violin. The pair reveled in the wonders of double-tracking as they created…
Can’t Get It Out of My Head: ELO’s “The U.K. Singles Volume One” Arrives From Legacy in September
As Jeff Lynne gears up for a North American tour this August, Legacy Recordings has announced a new box set celebrating the legacy of Electric Light Orchestra. The U.K. Singles Volume One: 1972-1978 will be released on Friday, September 21, collecting ELO’s 45 RPM singles and one EP originally released in the U.K. between those years on 16 newly-remastered vinyl discs. Beginning with 1972’s “10538 Overture” b/w “First Movement (Jumping Biz)” and ending with 1978’s The ELO EP containing “Can’t Get It Out of My Head” and “Strange Magic” b/w “Ma-Ma-Ma Belle”…
Rock ‘N’ Roll Is King: ELO’s “Secret Messages” Comes to Double Vinyl in August
35 years after its first appearance, Electric Light Orchestra’s Secret Messages is returning to vinyl in a new edition moving closer to founder Jeff Lynne’s original vision for the album. On August 3, Legacy Recordings will reissue Secret Messages on double 150-gram vinyl restoring all but one of the tracks which were cut from the original LP release. Alas, that outtake – the near-legendary “Beatles Forever” – is still missing in action. 1983’s Secret Messages was originally conceived by producer-writer Lynne as a 2-LP set, but the idea was torpedoed by a…
Give Me Peace On Earth: Craft Reissues ‘Concert For George’ In Various Formats
George Harrison would have been 75 years old next month, and Craft Recordings is celebrating that milestone with the ultimate tribute to the former Beatle: a multi-format reissue of 2002’s Concert For George. Available February 23, two days before Harrison’s birthday, Concert For George will bow in five different physical configurations – the most enormous of which is an online-only box set, limited only to 1,000 copies worldwide and featuring the star-studded tribute show on two CDs, two DVDs, two Blu-ray Discs and four 180-gram LPs. This 12″ x 12″ box set…
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Shine a Little Light: Jeff Lynne’s ELO’s “Wembley or Bust” Arrives In November
Jeff Lynne’s ELO packed London’s enormous Wembley Stadium to the rafters this past June with a greatest-hits set featuring many of the band’s most classic songs including “Mr. Blue Sky,” “Evil Woman,” and “All Over the World.” Now, that gig is getting a wide release this Friday, November 17. Wembley or Bust will arrive on that date from Columbia Records in a variety of formats: 2CD/1DVD; 2CD/1BD; 2 CD; and 3LP. Recorded on June 24, the Wembley concert has been described by recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Lynne as…
Turn to Stone: Electric Light Orchestra’s “Out of the Blue” Returns to Vinyl with Picture Disc
Electric Light Orchestra’s sprawling seventh studio album Out of the Blue landed with four sides melding impeccably-crafted, widescreen pop and symphonic rock. Written and produced by Jeff Lynne, the LP went multi-platinum and introduced some of the band’s most enduring songs including “Turn to Stone,” “Sweet Talkin’ Woman,” and most especially, “Mr. Blue Sky.” It’s returning to vinyl on September 29 from Legacy Recordings in a new picture disc edition. This 2LP collector’s picture disc edition of Out of the Blue was remastered from the original master tapes and includes a digital download of…
Message From The Country: Esoteric Collects “Best of The Move” On CD and DVD
Can you hear the grass grow? Continuing its series of reissues dedicated to the Birmingham rockers The Move, Cherry Red’s Esoteric Recordings imprint has just issued a CD/DVD collection that chronicles the band’s many facets and iterations between 1966 and 1972. Magnetic Waves of Sound: The Best of The Move, featuring 21 tracks on CD and a further 21 live performances and promotional films on DVD, is certainly not the group’s first anthology, but it’s doubtless among the finest. Over the course of just four studio albums – all but one of…
Moving On: Esoteric Expands The Move’s “Something Else” and “Looking On”
Esoteric Recordings has recently continued its series of Move reissues with expanded editions of the band’s 1968 EP Something Else from The Move, and its 1970 studio album Looking On. Something Else began life as a 5-track mono EP culled from performances at London’s Marquee Club on February 27 and May 5, 1968. Between those two gigs, bassist Chris “Ace” Kefford had departed the group’s roster, leaving it a four-piece consisting of Carl Wayne on vocals, Roy Wood on guitar/vocals, Trevor Burton on guitar/vocals (and newly, bass) and Bev Bevan on drums. …
Handle with Care: Traveling Wilburys Box to Be Reissued in June
A new business agreement will bring rock supergroup The Traveling Wilburys past the end of the line. The all-star quintet, consisting of George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne, is now represented by Concord Bicycle Music in a worldwide agreement that will include physical and digital reissues of the band’s complete back catalogue–including, for the first time, streaming rights across Apple Music, Spotify and others–on June 3, as exclusively reported by Billboard. That same day, Concord will physically reissue The Traveling Wilburys Collection, a multi-disc audiovisual box set…
Release Round-Up: Week of September 11
Welcome to this week’s Release Round-Up! Second Disc Records is going back to the beach with Ricci Martin, but that’s far from all this week! We’re also taking off with ELO, singing street-corner symphonies with The Four Seasons, and much more! Plus: new titles from classic artists! Ricci Martin, Beached: Expanded Edition (Second Disc/Real Gone) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) What if key members of The Beach Boys, Chicago, America, and Wings had teamed up to create one of the greatest California rock albums you’ve never heard? Well, they actually did! Singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, author…
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Can’t Get It Out Of My Head: Jeff Lynne and ELO’s 2014 Hyde Park Concert Gets Fall Release
Last September, 50,000 lucky spectators bore witness to Jeff Lynne’s return to the concert stage when the Electric Light Orchestra frontman took the stage at London’s Hyde Park for the most eagerly-anticipated performance of BBC Radio 2’s Festival in a Day. Now, Lynne’s performance – backed by his band (including ELO’s Richard Tandy) and the BBC Concert Orchestra – is coming to DVD, Blu-ray and digital formats. On September 11, Eagle Rock Entertainment will release Live in Hyde Park preserving Lynne’s 17-song set. Per the press release, Jeff Lynne “has been involved every…
