Swedish crosswords magazine Nostalgikryss, published by newspaper Aftonbladet. This edition focuses on the 1970s, so nice nostalgia. Singer Björn Skifs on the cover. He was the first Swede to have a #1 hit in America back in the day.
(My shot of said publication)
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Just a few days after having returned home from Europe, Risky Melody is doing gigs in Japan again. They are definitely paying their dues. I think their current album “The World” should be considered a game changer.
(Ad seen here is from official platforms)
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Just in time for Christmas 1980, Polydor released a compilation live album from the first Donington festival (now Download) in the UK. The band that played that day were Rainbow (headlining), Scorpions, Judas Priest, Saxon, April Wine, Touch and Riot. Priest did not make it on to this album, but the rest of them did. This review saw print on December 17 in Helsingborgs Dagblad. I saw a warm-up gig in Malmö, Sweden a week before this gig, and it was great.
(My shot of said article, image seen here was probably a promotional shot from Polydor)
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Found an article on me and the Deep Purple Freak Society club that saw print back on October 6 1979 in a local newspaper called LT. I was interviewed by Annika Engman and the shot of me holding a couple of fanzines was taken by Jan Andersson. I wrote a few words on Purple that they added to it, which was cool. This might have been my first little story ever in print, outside of my own publications and a letter that was published in a POSTER magazine before this. I will create one of my nostalgia posters with this being at the center of it. It was around this time that I started to write for newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad as well (in the south of Sweden, my first article for them was published on October 12 that same year, just days after this). I was 18 and things were about to kick off. Good times.
(My shot of said presentation, the Purple image was a promotional shot by Fin Costello sent out by EMI Records)
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Got to love a good western book and with Charles G. West that is what you get. He has written nearly 50 of them, so there is plenty to dive into here. And the covers are nice too.
(My shot of four of his titles, cover art is not credited)
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This really is one of the best western shows from the old days (1967) and Stuart Whitman is really good as Marshal Jim Crown. This episode had it all, and with guest stars like Telly Savalas and Warren Oates, it really is quite intense. The DVD cover is not exactly great, but do not let this fool you, this one deserves a pretty high ranking on the old Cool-o-meter for sure. Yep, I will hunt down more of these.
(My shot of said DVD)
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Babymetal has the honor of being curators of the Metal Stage(s) at the Japanese Summer Sonic festivals in Tokyo and Osaka in mid August. They will, of course, headline these nights themselves, but they have invited some interesting names, first and foremost The Warning from Mexico. This is a huge deal and maybe they have been collaborating on a new song in secret that is about to pop up? That would actually be pretty nice. In any case, it is a huge sign of respect for the Mexican trio to be invited to share that stage with them. Among the other acts are Pentatonix, Ave Mujica (another female band from Japan that I need to get into) and openers Metalverse. Band-Maid are also performing at Summer Sonic, but on the Pacific Stage. Now they have actually already collaborated on a song with The Warning, so something might happen there for sure. Babymetal has performed at Summer Sonic many times. The first year was 2012, when they played at a very small stage in the food court area. They were 13 (Moa and Yui) and 14 (Su) at the time and it went down well. In 2013 they moved to a bigger stage (The Rainbow Stage, and this time they created a mosh pit). Members of Metallica and photographer Ross Halfin checked them out. In 2014 and 2015, they rocked The Mountain Stage and in 2016 they headlined the Osaka Sonic Stage and also three other main festivals in Japan (Fuji Rock, Rock In Japan and Rising Sun Rock Festival). In 2017 the co-headlined the Main Stage with Foo-Fighters and in 2018 they headlined the Mountain Stage again, then we had a gap until 2023 (Metal Stage) and since then they have performed in 2024 (as special guests with Bring Me The Horizon) and in 2025 as headliners again. Needless to say, they have a spectacular history with this festival. As for The Warning, they dropped a new video for a song called “Ego” on YouTube the other day. Good stuff.
(Backdrop shot was taken by me yesterday, love that cat)
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Got to save an old article about comics that I had in print back in November 1988 (newspaper LT, Jämtland County) with this one that I am rather fond of, so this nostalgia poster has a lot of related stuff on it (and some Purple and other things, naturally). Saving old articles in this way is just good fun. This is actually costing me some serious money, but as a project it is going to be worth it. Poster one can be viewed on April 5 on this blog, poster two was highlighted yesterday and the fourth and the fifth is being framed right now.
(My shot of said poster project)
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We have a project called The Rock Orchestra that is going places. The new video of the classic AC/DC song “Thunderstruck” gives us an interesting peek into something that is actually quite interesting. Sounds really good. Singer Daria Zaritskaya is excellent, nice violin playing by Mia Asano. This could be fun to experience live.
(Cover seen here is from official platforms)
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The classic Rainbow “Rising” album has now been around for 50 years. That album was a game changer, as Ritchie Blackmore took his band into uncharted territory, and then some. As luck would have it, he had a great band with him. Not least singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Cozy Powell. And then there were the younger faces that had recently been recruited (Tony Carey and Jimmy Bain), perhaps especially young Carey whom managed to create a reputation for himself as he did some amazing keyboard work on this record. I would argue that Metallica borrowed the riff from opening track “Tarot Woman” years later and turned it into a classic song of their own (I might send you a cookie if you can spot it). Power metal also pretty much started here, with “A Light In The Black”. Half the guitar slingers of note from the late 1970s and 1980s were inspired by this (and by Deep Purple). Then there is the lyrical content, with wizards, rainbows, magical things. Again, pretty cool imagery that inspired singers for generations (and gave Dio a nice career that would last). When I interviewed the man in 2001, we talked about books, television and films (among other things, the interview is archived on this blog back in August 2012) but sadly not too much of comics. If I had asked him more specifically on what comics he enjoyed (and he said he did), it would have been quite interesting to hear his take on this. A picture has actually surfaced of him on facebook (a shot from an unknown rock publication) from back in 1977, reading the then newly published Asterix album “The Mansions Of The Gods”. Why am I not surprised? Of course he would enjoy Asterix. Knowing what I do know, it would be right down his alley. After all, Asterix was in the world of comics what Rainbow was in the world of rock. Untouchable, awesome and magical. When I spotted that image of him reading that Asterix book, I felt joy. Maybe rock journalists should ask rockers about their favourite books, comics, hobbies etc more often? I would be all for that. Could make the feeling of having things in common even stronger.
(My shot of my old copy of “Rising” and signed More Black Than Purple fan club magazine spread – Asterix comics inserted)
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