One of the advantages of living in Hastings, now the adopted home-town of Praying Mantis founder Tino Troy, is getting the chance to see the band performing tracks from their new album, Defiance, down the road in your local rock pub within days of its worldwide release. Indeed, introducing the title track of the new album tonight, Tino Troy acknowledged it would be the first time it has ever been performed in public. First, however, we hear from Gypsy’s Kiss who have the claim to fame of being the first band Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris played in. Like Praying Mantis, they formed over fifty yea ..read more

I first came across the Julie July Band in the band’s early days when they were performing their lovingly-collated and extremely well-received tribute to Sandy Denny. Time has flown by and the band have been together a decade now and are about to release their fourth studio album. While the first one stuck to material that had been written or performed by Sandy Denny herself, subsequent albums have been composed of original material. The last album, the post-lockdown Wonderland, saw the band draw on a more eclectic range of influences. With Flight Of Fancy they continue on that journey still f ..read more

I was fortunate enough to enjoy a sneak preview of the new single from Collateral when they played legendary Hastings rock venue, The Carlisle this month. ‘On The Long Road’ (released today 19th April) is the second single to be released from the band’s forthcoming album Should’ve Known Better. With this latest single the Kent-based hard rock band slow things a notch with an emotive ballad on a deeply personal theme. Collateral frontman Angelo Tristan comments: “I’ve never been in a position to write about such a personal painful subject,” says  about the new single. “During the pan ..read more

I first came across David and Clare Rozzell as two-thirds of the bluegrass/folk trio, Wood Wire & Words. The trio saw David (guitar/vocals) and Clare (double bass/vocals) joined by Clare’s father, Pat Francis (dobro/mandolin), with the trio chalking up a plethora of gigs and festival appearances across the UK and Europe and releasing several albums – one of which I reviewed here. The constraints of lockdown restrictions, however, meant that the established trio reformulated themselves into a duo and for two years , every Friday evening, the pair would stage their online Folkgrass Lockdown ..read more

Back on 4th April I received an email from someone warning me about a person called Danny Stoakes, a guy I knew who ran his own rock music website, ‘Stoakes Media’, and had his own radio show, ‘Stoakes Media Live’. With my music PR hat on, this is someone for whom I’d arranged numerous guests to appear on his show or else get their music played or their live gigs reviewed. And with my author hat on, I’d even been interviewed by him myself. The shocking news in the email was that ‘Danny Stoakes’ was not, in fact, his real name and that his real name was Andrew Welsh, a man who had received a 27 ..read more

Like many regional theatres in the UK, the events programme for the White Rock In Hastings has been the typical mix of touring tribute shows, musicals and panto with the odd stand-out musical gem thrown. Recently, the theatre saw a change in operator with Trafalgar Theatres (who run many similar venues across the UK), giving way to the Guildhall Trust. The latter are a charity that operate the Portsmouth Guildhall and they came in promising “exciting times ahead” and a “broader programme of entertainment” for the White Rock. Certainly, having Robert Plant on stage sets high bar and is hopefull ..read more

Frank Torpey, the last surviving original member of The Sweet, has sadly passed away. His family have posted the following message on Facebook. “Frank passed away in his home surrounded by family at 1AM on Saturday 23rd March 2024. He will be missed and remembered by all his friends and family, rest well xx” Frank, along with Brian Connolly, Steve Priest and Mick Tucker, was one of the founder members of The Sweet. Torpey, Connolly and Tucker had previously been part of the Middlesex-based band, Wainright’s Gentlemen. Torpey and Tucker were unceremoniously sacked and an infuriated Connolly dec ..read more

Intelligent Music Project, the Bulgarian-based supergroup comprising world-famous rock musicians, is set to launch their much-awaited eighth album, Miracles Beyond, on May 15th.  The band recently released their first single from the album, offering a fascinating preview of the musical journey that awaits. While the album boasts the presence of globally celebrated rock stars, it’s noteworthy that the lead vocalist for the single ‘Shine for You’ is none other than Slavin Slavchev. Serving as the band’s primary vocalist in live performances, Slavchev, also an X-Factor winner ..read more

Having worked on the PR for the first Lust For Life Tour last year (featuring Clem Burke on drums, Glen Matlock on bass; Katie Puckrik on vocals, Kevin Armstrong on guitar, Luis Correia on second guitar, and Florence Sabeva on keyboards), it was a real privilege, not to mention a huge load of fun, to be asked to do the same again for this year’s tour. Photo: Darren Johnson Talking to Kevin Armstrong a few months after the 2023 tour he explained how the project originally came about: “Tom Wilcox has these amazing concepts of bands that he’d like to see put together. And some of them work and so ..read more

“You should start writing a blog,” my brother Sam mentioned to me while we were sitting at a festival one afternoon in the Summer of 2013 discussing the various bands we’d each seen recently. Darren and Sam (right) at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention I told him the thought had vaguely crossed my mind but it was something I could give more thought to the following Spring once my lengthy stint as a local councillor was coming to an end. My evenings would then be freed up, giving me time to start seeing more gigs and, crucially, sharing my thoughts online about what I’d just seen. I’d always writte ..read more