(69:00; Cherry Red Records) If I look at my profile in LastFM, where I have been recording most of my listening for the last 18 years, I can see Genesis and two ex-Genesis musicians in my Top 8, but Anthony Phillips is at #5, Genesis at #6 and Hackett at #8. No other ex-Genesis musicians feature in my Top 200, it is always to the guitarists I have been most drawn, for different reasons, and it is wonderful to have this long unavailable album released again. It is widely known that one of the reasons Phillips left the band was due to his sever stage fright, so perhaps it is of little surprise that for most of his career he has been a studio musician, but back in 1978, as part of the promotion for his second album ‘Wise After the Event’, it was decided to undertake a few live sessions which saw him play material from both that and ‘The Geese and the Ghost’, plus material which would feature on the next album, ‘Private Parts & Pieces’ plus others which did not appear for some years. A...

(111:00; Cherry Red Records) Here we have a greatly expanded and remastered 2CD set of Anthony’s 1994 album ‘Sail The World’, which was composed and recorded for the UK television coverage of the Whitbread Around the World Yacht Race. It was originally released as 23 tracks, with three more provided on the 2010 remaster, but now it is available as 41 tracks with a total running time of more than 111 minutes. The 24 page booklet not only contains some wonderfully evocative photos but also has another incredibly informative and detailed essay from Jonathan Dann which is a perfect read when listening to this. It must be remembered that this was music written for an event which was actually taking place after everything had been recorded, which meant that Ant had to provide different styles of music at different lengths, not knowing how it would all fit together and whether it would all work. Also, originally there was not supposed to be an album, and it was only due to Rob Ayling’s persua...

(56:45; Shepherds of Cassini) I was at a gig one night, hanging around during the soundcheck, when I recognised one of the musicians, Felix Lun (violin). I hadn’t seen Felix in years, back when he was a member of Shepherds of Cassini, a band I had met a few times and really loved. He remembered me and we chatted about my old reviews, and later that night I also bumped into drummer Omar Al-Hashimi. I often saw multi-instrumentalist Brendan Zwaan (vocals, guitar, keyboards) around the scene or in the studio, so I was asked what had happened with Shepherds, with Omar telling me that bassist Vitesh Bava had moved to Australia which was the reason why they had been dormant, but that he had just returned to NZ so who knew what the future might hold? I must admit I never expected a reformation to happen, but the original quartet are now back with their third album, only ten years on from the last one. I often used to see Brendan playing when he was also a member of Mice on Stilts playing keyb...

(154:00; Cherry Rec Records) When I start discovering rock in the mid-Seventies, myself and a mate worked through his older brother’s record collection discovering bands who no-one was writing about anymore, one of which was the mighty Atomic Rooster. They had multiple line-ups, but for me (and many others) it was the trio of Vincent Crane, John DuCann and Paul Hammond and their album ‘Death Walks Behind You’ which was for me the height of their power. Given the way the band had imploded no-one ever imagined that Crane and DuCann would work together again, but they patched things up and recorded this album in 1980 with session drummer Preston Heyman. This was at the height of NWOBHM in the UK, with bands like Iron Maiden, Samson, Def Leppard, Saxon and Angelwitch all over the radio and in the charts, but here was a band with no bassist and huge amounts of Hammond Organ turning the clock back and showing the oldies could blast it out just as much as the new breed. Esoteric Records have ...

(69:00; Progressive Promotion Records) It is always nice to be able to revisit an old friend, and that is what we have here as towards the end of 2024, Progressive Promotion Records celebrated the 20th anniversary of TBNP’s debut album by issuing a remastered version with two additional demoes and a slightly revised cover. I reviewed it back in the day, and was in contact with Jérémie Grima who started this as a one-man project in 2001 as he wished to record personal musical ideas from a solo viewpoint. In 2002 Jérémie released a demo, which Musea liked and he set up a label called B-Smile Records to promote the album. The project soon became a band, with Jérémie (lead guitar and vocals) being joined by Arnaud Rousset (drums, Brainstore), Antony Leteve, (bass, Spectrum of Oblivion) and Matthieu Jaubert (keyboards).  I really enjoyed the album when it was released, commenting it was let down slightly by the production, which I was sure could be corrected in the future – but did not ...

(121:00; Cherry Red Records) Recorded in Germany during ‘The Final Round Tour 2022’, this album is going to be the last live release from ex-Manfred Mann’s Earth Band vocalist Chris Thompson. It was recorded with his band of 21 years featuring Mads Eriksen, Frank Hovland, Gunnar Bjelland and Zsolt Meszaros, with special guest Marc Rohles, and as one would expect it is packed full of MMEB classics, plus some of his other material, including the song made famous by John Farnham, “You’re The Voice”, giving us 18 songs in total. I have always loved Thompson’s voice but have only seen him in concert once, when he was part of the live version of ‘Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds’ when it toured New Zealand. I was massively disappointed that night as I felt his voice was shot and no longer had the power, control and range, and this album was recorded 15 years or so later. That there is a cooking band on this tour is never in doubt, but Thompson’s voice is suffering wh...