Diary
Merry Christmas
Written: 22st December, 2007Well, 2007 has certainly been an exciting year for me with the publication of my first book but I’ve always been one to look ahead so I hope 2008 will be an even more successful year. A big thanks must go to Omnibus, IMP and Matthias at Iron Pages for their continued support.
50 publicity copies of my Robert Plant book have been printed in the wake of Led Zeppelin’s 02 gig and I have to say it looks superb. Dave at IMP posted me a copy the other day and I’m really impressed with the cover design and the quality of the book; I can’t believe its production has been so fast. You should start seeing some reviews in the New Year. It’s published on February 28, 2008.
Thanks to my friend Robert McKenna for designing and running www.neildaniels.com; it’s looking great, if I do say so myself.
As for what 2008 will bring, well, I’m sure you’re as excited about the new Priest album as I am. It’s certainly going to be an interesting opus. Let’s hope the band play the UK!
I’d like to thank you all for your support; Merry Christmas and all the best for the 2008!
Signing out for the last time in 2007…
Neil.
Autobiography and Biography
Written: 21st December, 2007
In response to an interview I did recently by email with the Swedish website Metal Shrine (www.metalshrine.se) in which I jokingly said that I’d still like to write Rob Halford’s autobiography, there has been some comments made that say I don’t know the difference between ‘autobiography’ and ‘biography.’
One such email from a guy in America named Brian Kelly reads:
“Some free advice - get a dictionary and learn the difference between AUTOBIOGRAPHY, AND BIOGRAPHY...........you'll find it'll be physically impossible for anyone BUT Rob Halford to write his autobiography, lol.”
Well, Brian I’ve got news for you: rarely does a rock star, actor or celebrity ever write their autobiography either because (a) they can’t write (b) they don’t have the time to write (c) they simply can’t be bothered or (d) why bother when somebody else can do it for less money? A professional writer will write the subject’s autobiography on their behalf hence my line in the interview: “I'd still love to write Rob Halford’s autobiography. I doubt that will happen now...”
Example: Eric Clapton's recent book simply called ‘The Autobiography’ was written by a professional writer/journalist NOT by Clapton; he provided the sources and time with interviews, etc., but he didn’t write it. Obviously the subject has full control but the subject does not write the book.
I am currently writing Al Atkins’ autobiography; he is the narrator, I am the writer.
So there!
Neil.
R.I.P. Kevin DuBrow
Written: 26th November, 2007I’ve just read on Blabbermouth that Quiet Riot’s lead singer Kevin DuBrow has passed away at his home in Las Vegas. I interviewed him for ‘Defenders Of The Faith’ and he was everything a writer could wish: funny, outspoken, knowledgeable and honest. My thoughts go with his family and the guys in Quiet Riot.
Neil.
I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll
Written: 19th November, 2007Sunday’s Joan Jett/Motorhead/Alice Cooper show at the Manchester Evening News Arena was an absolute blast. Admittedly the venue was half empty (still, I reckon they’d sold a few more seats than the other week’s Heaven & Hell gig, which had a disappointing turn out) but that was only a minor issue.
Joan Jett opened proceedings with a taut 40-minute set filled with songs from her band’s (The Blackhearts) new CD ‘Sinner’ and some classics from The Runaways such as ‘Cherry Bomb’ and her signature song ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll.’ There was the odd sound issue but she did a great job working the crowd up.
My main reason for attending the gig was the indestructible Motorhead. They were granted a set lasting 1 hour, 10 minutes (including an encore of ‘Whorehouse Blues,’ ‘Ace Of Spades’ and ‘Overkill’) and made good use of their allotted time. Opening with ‘Doctor Rock,’ Lemmy’s voice sounded a little strained but it was the last night of the tour so that can expected. For the most part, they were in excellent shape but I was disappointed they didn’t squeeze in ‘Bomber’ and ‘Iron Fist.’
Alice Cooper was, well, Alice Cooper; everything you expect really – a twisted night of fun and games. There were no surprises but thankfully he played less new material than I expected. Don’t get me wrong I like some of his new back-to-basics material but I much prefer his more commercial heavy rock stuff like ‘Feed My Frankenstein’ and ‘Poison’ and even the industrial metal of his albums ‘Brutal Plant’ and ‘Dragontown.’ Here’s a list of most of the songs he played: ‘It's Hot Tonight,’ ‘No More Nice Guy,’ ‘Muscle Of Love,’ ‘Under My Wheels,’ ‘I'm Eighteen,’ ‘Woman Of Mass Distraction,’ ‘Dirty Diamonds,’ ‘Dead Babies,’ ‘Feed My Frankenstein,’ ‘Halo Of Flies,’ ‘Cold Ethyl,’ ‘Only Women Bleed,’ ‘Steven,’ ‘Ballad Of Dwight Fry,’ ‘I Love The Dead,’ ‘Welcome To My Nightmare,’ ‘School's Out,’ ‘Billion Dollar Babies,’ ‘Poison’ and ‘Elected.’
Thanks must go to Sharon and Emma at The Publicity Connection (www.thepublicityconnection.com) for putting me and a friend on the guestlist.
Neil.
Heaven & Hell
Written: 10th November, 2007
Thanks to Tracy Gosling at Noble PR for putting me and a friend on the guest list for last night’s Heaven & Hell gig at the M.E.N. Support bands Iced Earth and Lamb Of God were tight and ferocious although I certainly preferred the former who are enjoying great success at the minute with their new album ‘Framing Armageddon.’ I noticed that a lot of the older metal fans walked out during Lamb Of God’s set or didn’t bother attending at all, choosing to stay by bars. The sheer volume of the Virginian band definitely disturbed a lot of people not familiar with their music. To be truthful I thought Heaven & Hell would have played for longer; an hour-and-a-half was a few songs too short and I was disappointed they didn’t play ‘Lady Evil.’ On the whole though, I was very impressed. As Dio himself would say - they were bloody great! Aside from a few mic problems, the sound was near-perfect. The man of the night was Tony Iommi whose riffs were crystal clear and at times mesmeric. As expected the venue was half-empty but that didn’t stop the band from playing any better or worse. Best songs of the evening: ‘Mob Rules,’ ‘Children Of The Sea,’ ‘The Sign Of The Southern Cross,’ ‘Heaven & Hell,’ ‘Voodoo’ and the classic ‘Neon Knights.’ Let’s hope this is not just a one-off project …
Neil.
Planty & Led Zeppelin
Written: 3rd November, 2007
While I’m gearing up for the release of Led Zep’s latest compilation ‘Mothership’ and the remastered and expanded version of ‘The Song Remains The Same’ on DVD their reunion concert in London has been postponed because Jimmy Page has broken a finger. The re-ranged date is 10th December at the O2 by the Thames. What a ballache for those who have tickets!
Neil.
Meat Loaf’s Final Days?
Written: 2nd November, 2007
It’s no surprise that Meat Loaf walked off stage after an hour during his gig at Newcastle’s Metro Radio Arena earlier in the week claming stress and exhaustion. By all accounts he told the crowd that “This is the last show I may ever do in my life.” I was totally surprised that he even added a second set of UK tour dates to his ‘3 Bats’ world tour. Perhaps it’s record company intervention for the length of the tour; I read somewhere that his record company wanted him to tour for 2 years straight. Well, there’s no chance of that now. He cancelled Friday’s gig in Birmingham and it’s doubtful that Sunday’s show in Manchester will go ahead considering what’s happened. I was tempted to buy a ticket for the M.E.N. gig but was dubious about doing so for the very reason that he’d be exhausted and pissed off after so many gigs and I’m right. His two shows last May at the M.E.N. were better than I’d expected but as the tour moved along at a snail's pace the fatigue, stress and anxieties have kicked in and look what’s happened. Just watch the documentary ‘In Search Of Paradise’ on the recent ‘3 Bats Live’ DVD; you’ll see him collapse after a show and struggle to walk, sing and perform. Maybe it’s time for him to throw in the towel and call it quits before he dies on stage. He can still do the odd charity gig and showcase performance but he should pack in the extensive world tours because it’s obvious he’s not up to it anymore. As a dedicated Meat Loaf fan I’d hate to see him singing and performing any worse than he is right now...
Neil.
W.A.S.P.
Written: 1st November, 2007
I bumped into my Fireworks colleague Sue Ashcroft at last Tuesday’s W.A.S.P. gig in Liverpool and had a quick chat about the amount of exciting gig’s that are coming up before Christmas. Much to my shame it was the first time I’d ever been inside Liverpool’s legendary Cavern club. The band played a disappointingly short set of about 90 minutes, which finished around 22:15: the first half was dedicated to The Crimson Idol while the second (much shorter) half was left for their more popular stuff. It was an enjoyable night despite the dodgy sound and the poor quality of the video projection. And as it was their second Liverpool gig this year there was plenty of space to move around the venue. The only time Blackie spoke was to tell the audience that they’ve been to the UK quite a bit over the past few years and so “we won’t be back to the UK for a while.” Shame!
Neil.
Bit’s ‘n’ Bobs
Written: 31st October, 2007
Well, so far the feedback on Defenders Of The Faith has been excellent; you can see ALL the reviews in the Current Projects section. Of course there’s been the odd mixed review here and there but the criticisms that have been made have been justified and everybody has a right to their own opinion and I certainly can’t argue with the overall response I’ve received so far. After years spent reviewing CD’s, DVD’s and the odd book I now know what it’s like to be on the other side of the camp. Without cooperation from Judas Priest I had to work with mostly secondary sources and so the main angle I took was on the early years of the band – which have never been written about before in such depth – with the help of several ex-members and people who knew the band at the time (1969-1973.) However, it’s a shame that many of the reviews which have been published so far have not made note of the original quotes that are included in the book from many of the bands that supported Judas Priest during the eighties, onwards: I had some great conversations with the likes of Annihilator main man Jeff Waters and Quiet Riot’s Kevin DuBrow. If you buy the book and it sells well enough there may even be a chance that one day in the distant future an expanded edition will be published; I’m sill trying to track down some former roadies and ex-members who eluded me during my research but alas at the time of writing I simply ran out of time. You have to stop typing at some point …
I’m well aware that the appendices in Defenders Of The Faith is over a hundred pages and the reason for that is because I think it tells a story in itself: the tour dates for example illustrate the band’s ‘rags to riches’ career.
Of all the ex-members of Judas Priest the one person I wanted to speak to more than anybody else was Mr. Les Binks. Since his tenure in Priest he has faded into obscurity and these days spends his time – from what I understand – gigging in tribute bands around London. Binks has an incredibly loyal fan base and he’s regarded as Priest’s greatest drummer; Scott Travis is a strong contender for that title too and although on stage Travis is tremendous, on record Binks has proven unbeatable.
Robert Plant’s new album Raising Sand was released last Monday and what a fine album it is. Although the chances appear slim, I’d love to see Zeppelin reform for a world tour but one critic writing in The Sunday Times last week argued that a reunion “would do irreparable damage” to Plant’s career. Good point! Since the Page & Plant project came to an abrupt and highly-publicised end after their 1998 world tour, Plant’s solo career has been growing from strength to strength; if he was too take a large chunk out of his career because of something such as a Led Zep reunion, he would most definitely lose momentum and possibly even drain himself of creativity. But then again it’s LED ZEPPELIN so who care’s about anything else?
I read some exciting news on Classic Rock’s website (www.classicrockmagazine.com) that Heaven & Hell are supposedly set to record an album together next year and although such a prospect is certainly enticing I’d rather see Ozzy, Bill, Tony and Geezer on tour for Sabbath’s looming 40th Anniversary. Heaven & Hell can be put on hold until 2009, I think.
Neil.
Desert Island Discs
Written: 22nd October, 2007Which albums would I choose as my desert island discs? If I was stranded on an island I presume I’d be really pissed off and nothing makes me feel better when I’m angry more than Rage Against The Machine’s masterful self-titled debut album because I don’t think I could ever be that pissed off. But then again if for some odd reason I’d be in a good mood then Meat Loaf’s ‘Bat Out Of Hell’ would be the perfect album for my mood. Of course I’d have to take something by the mighty Judas Priest; I’m a big fan of their eighties melodic metal albums and my absolute favourite is ‘Defenders Of The Faith.’ I think you can only pick eight albums as your desert island discs but I’m going to cheat and pick quite a few:
- - - - - - - E’nuff said…
Neil.
Scott Travis
Written: Monday 15th October, 2007
Some people have complained about the lack of pictures of Scott Travis in my book on Judas Priest (if you haven’t already bought it – it’s out now.) Well I can tell ya that I think he is a magnificent drummer but with him being the band’s current sticks-man, he appears in the rock magazines (and occasionally on TV) often enough for me to warrant giving more space to the band’s previous drummers who with the exception of Simon Phillips have descended into obscurity. I felt that as the book explores the bands ENTIRE history a little credit should go to some of the other drummers like John Hinch. As for the Jonathan Valen thing, well, he’s a lovely guy and a very talented musician who was treated poorly by the band so I felt he should be given some space to tell his side of the story with some pictures to go with it. Besides, it seems that those people who have voiced their complaints on the Internet are from Norfolk, Virginia – Scott Travis’ home town. Go figure!
Birthday Celebrations
Written: 8th October, 2007The big three-o seems ever so close now as I’ve just turned 26, which is why I was unfortunately unable to attend yesterday’s Z Rock, the indoor all-day festival in Wigan that was headlined by Dokken. I’m not going to lie and say I had an all day party or a lazy Sunday because aside from watching ‘Bobby,’ the new film about Bobby Kennedy, I spent much of the day revising the first draft of my book on Robert Plant for IMP. Anyway, I did receive some welcome treats:
‘Dylan’ – Bob Dylan
‘Magic’ – Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
‘The Collection’ – The Travelling Wilburys
‘The Early Roots Of Led Zeppelin’ – Various
‘The Autobiography’ by Eric Clapton
‘The Guillermo Del Toro Collection’ DVD box-set (features ‘The Devil’s Backbone,’ ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ & ‘Cronos’)
‘Bobby’ DVD
‘3:10 To Yuma’ DVD (original)I (cough) splashed out on myself with some small bargains: I paid a visit to Kaleidoscope Records (www.krecords.com,) my local specialist record shop, on Saturday and picked up three CD’s by Slayer, namely, ‘Christ Illusion,’ ‘Divine Intervention’ and ‘Diabolus In Musica’ for £3 each and ‘Louder Than Love’ by Soundgarden for £3. Er, I also bought ‘Daredevil’ on DVD for £3; it’s not the worst film I’ve ever seen but then again it’s hardly the best.
Neil.
Eighties Rockers
Written: 4th October, 2007I did an interesting twenty-five minute phone interview with Nikki Sixx yesterday for Powerplay magazine. The Motley Crue bassist is currently promoting his brutally honest book The Heroin Diaries and its brilliant accompanying soundtrack of the same title. He was friendly and talkative (although he did yawn a few times – it was morning over in California) and came up with some cracking quotes: “I’m now a recovering arsehole.”
The best interviews I’ve done have been with unappreciated rock veterans like Don Dokken and Kevin DuBrow who don’t mince their words at all and consequently they’re fascinating conversationalists. Current rock stars should understand that a bit of self-deprecation and humour goes a long way…The St. Helens Star, my local paper, has just published an interview with me about my book on Judas Priest which is also published on their website:
http://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/display.var.1732322.0.neil_charts_rise_of_judas.php
Neil.
Music Retail Hypocrisy & Other Things
Written: Sunday 23rd September, 2007Having spent a couple of years of my life working for two major UK music retailers I can tell you that it was not nearly as comfortable as it is looks in the film High Fidelity. What annoyed me most of all about working for corporate music retailers was their blatant hypocrisy; their bold statements that they promote new music and inspire young up-coming artists are misleading ... at they very least they should put into brackets (only if they’re guaranteed to enter the Top 10.)
This morning I went to one particular music store and heard, yet again, The Killers frustratingly overplayed first album Hot Fuss. When it was released in 2004 Hot Fuss was played to death at one of the music stores that I worked at and it’s still played now in 2007. How can that be promoting new music? The simple fact is that these huge companies play music which they know will sell: i.e. they knew the Artic Monkey’s debut album would reach Number 1 because of all the hype so they manipulate their customers by telling them they are promoting new music when in actual fact new bands like the Artic Monkey’s really didn’t need the press, having already acquired so much of it leading up to the release of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The success of that album was inevitable.
Music retailers should be promoting the artists who really need the press; I remember once asking a manager if I could play Madeleine Peyroux’s soothing jazz album Dreamland and selling a copy to a customer almost straight away but then I had to change the disc to something more commercial. My point is: one of the reasons why major music retailers are suffering from low sales is that besides from downloading, they place too much emphasis on mainstream artists and not enough interest in struggling/underground musicians. Specialist record stores still do well because they concentrate on artists back catalogues and on the music that major stores would never stock … there is a whole world of music outside of the likes of Virgin Megastores and HMV! Remember that! I doubt you’d find the latest release by AOR goddess Robin Beck at your local mainstream CD retailer.
Congratulations to Iced Earth and the success of their terrific new album Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1), which has recently entered the US Billboard Top 100 charts and the Greek Top 10. They certainly deserve it, especially singer Tim Owens who is growing from strength to strength since being booted out of Judas Priest when Rob Halford decided he want to go back to the Metal Gods.
Unfortunately Ratt have just announced the cancellation of their low-key October UK tour and the rest of the European dates so they can continue to work on their new album in LA. Maybe it’s a good thing because my gig diary is already filled from now until the end of the year. Next on my list – Z Rock in Wigan.
Neil.
Why Reunions Are A Good Thing …
Written: Thursday 21st September, 2007There are a lot of ignorant people out there who erroneously claim that the recent spate of rock reunions are purely motivated by the disgustingly stuffed bank accounts of those involved. I beg to differ. The absurd amount of money which the likes of The Police, Genesis, Van Halen, Cream and to a lesser extent Judas Priest, Heaven & Hell (aka Dio-era Black Sabbath) and Motley Crue have made – and in some cases continue to make – from their high-profile reunions will mostly please those people who work behind the scenes such as managers, lawyers, accountants and of course the famously greedy record label. By Christ, it’s not as if these bands are poor – they don’t really need the cash! Sure, rich rock stars have money problems too but let’s not forget that in order to make money from reunions there’s a hell of a lot of work involved and artists who are already rich enough and enjoy sunning-it-up in the tropics would most definitely begrudge spending 10 months of the year on the road doing show after show, rehearsal after rehearsal, sound check after sound check and a ridiculously large amount of interviews and guest appearances on the TV.
Making money is always good but you’ve gotta work hard to earn it and most of the aforementioned bands worked amazingly hard to climb the proverbial ladder to success and would probably never wish to return to those strenuous years again – tired, hung-over, skint, depressed and bored. They say artists suffer for their art and a case in point is Judas Priest: it took the band from 1969 to 1974 to get one record out and those years saw several line-up changes and even when they did release Rock Rolla – their debut album – it flopped. But they worked hard and achieved their goal.
Here are some fundamental reasons behind a reunion tour/album that don’t necessarily concern money:
(1) Why do musicians/singers want to be in a band in the first place? Er, to make music … obviously. Why do so many people think that reunions are all about money and not for the simple fact that bands miss playing the music that made them famous in the first place? Why is it so hard to believe that reunited bands actually want to play their old music again?
(2) They miss each other and not just the music. Sure bands like Cream and Van Halen have had their fair share of internal differences but there must be a side of them that wishes they could just be friends and get on with it and make some more music before life passes them by.
(3) There’s a mass of contemporary bands from all over the world that simply love to talk about their predecessors and how great their idols music is. Such comments evidently flitter through their fan base like an electrical surge. So basically bands like HIM – who appeal mostly to teenagers – tell their fans how great Black Sabbath albums are. And overtime those young fans, who continuously crave for more rock music, seek out Black Sabbath CD’s and tell their friends and word of mouth spreads like a bush fire. Basically that means Black Sabbath end up with a much larger and perhaps more energetic fan base who were not lucky enough to see the original line-up in action – so what does Black Sabbath do about that? Armed with the dedicated fan base that has been with the band since the beginning and with the younger generations since, they can hit the road knowing they do not have to worry about the humiliation of poor ticket sales. It’s a cause and effect relationship...
(4) Most fans miss the classic line-up and cease caring about a band in any other version and the singer’s solo career fails to ignite any interest so they have no other option but to get back together if they want to be taken seriously again: Judas Priest and Iron Maiden are perfect examples. (NB: I have opted for the word ‘classic’ rather than ‘original’ as we all know that Al Atkins preceded Rob Halford and Paul Di’Anno preceded Bruce Dickinson.)
I’m sure some spoil sports will say I’m being naïve and some will go so far as to say I’m talking BS but frankly I wanna enjoy the music and want to be able to hold my head up high and declare: rock is not dead!
Neil.
P.S. The above does not apply to The Sex Pistols!
What – A Led Zep Reunion!
Written Friday 14th September, 2007It could not be better timed: as I am about to finish the penultimate chapter in my almost-completed book on Robert Plant’s solo career for IMP – titled ‘Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page & The Solo Years’ – the three surviving members of the band along with Jason Bonham, son of the late legendary Zep drummer Bonzo, have just announced a reunion concert at the 02 Arena in the capitol in November. Coupled with that, a release date has been confirmed for Robert Plant’s album with Alison Krauss – due October 23rd. Good luck to all those 20 million people who have registered to buy tickets for the 30-minute performance at the 22,000 capacity venue by the Thames. Names will be picked at random from a ballot and proceeds go to the Ahmet Ertegun Educational Fund, which will distribute money to the UK, US and his native land Turkey. But I have to ask: is it really worth it? I mean, just 30 minutes! And at £125 a ticket, which doesn’t include transport, food, accommodation and merchandise!
They’ve reformed before and their Live Aid set (with drummers Phil Collins & Tony Thompson) in ’85 and their performance at Atlantic Records 40th Anniversary concert in 1988 with Jason Bonham were famously below par for a band of such high calibre. Of course Plant can still sing magnificently well but suffice to say he’s lost his famous whale and Page, with his grey head of hair, looks more like an extra on Last Of The Summer Wine than a guitar rock god … so is it really worth all this fuss? Of course it is – they’re Led Zeppelin for Christ sakes! They can do whatever the hell they want to!
Inevitably rumours have circulated that this may very well be the absolute last time Messrs Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones will grace the stage together under the moniker Led Zeppelin. But with those guys, you just don’t know. I mean, 20 million people have requested tickets – how much money would they make from a full-length headlining gig at Wembley Stadium? Or even better: what about a world tour! They would make an insanely HUGE amount of cash if they ever decided to hit the road for the first time since 1980. Such a prospect is mouth-watering but also incredibly far-fetched.
I think I’ll sit back on my torn leather chair and give ‘Led Zeppelin IV’ a spin now …
Neil.
Latest Entries
Click Here For 2008's Diary Entries