Albums of 2004

Of course theres no right or wrong just opinion. ...here are some of my faves from 2004 as we are on the eve of entering a new year.



Stage Dolls - Get A Life (fantastic quality album in the def lepp/bryan adams meets trade mark stage dolls..very worthy!!!)

Silvertide - Show & Tell ( great songs - ac dc meets tesla meets black crowes - strong catchy hard rock album)

Pete Lesperance - Down In It (one of my fave albums of the year without doubt from the Harem Scarem guitarist..great songsmith, singer and all rounder!!!)

Butch Walker - Letters (mellower but a solid album i think - certainly a grower for me)

Richard Marx - My own best enemy (good comeback from one of the most under rated artists in rock)

Jeff Scott Soto - Lost in the translation (very solid - he nailed it with this one)

The Corrs - Borrowed Heaven (melodic plus..despite some of the over the top celtic pop cheese this gets me in the heart!! )

TNT - My Religion (solid release...welcome back!!)

Spin Gallery - Standing Tall (fantastic high polished pop done very very well)

Rick Springfield - shock denial anger acceptance (respect!!! this guy really is a master!)

Dream Evil - the book of heavy metal (for the metal head in us all...im a sucker for this type of metal!)

Ayreon - the human equation ( great package, deep project and great music)

Tesla - Into the Now (another welcome back..great to see this one chart..)

Avril - Under My Skin (might be seen as a punk pop princess but a very solid album with good songs...the pop brat saturation factor might be somewhat annoying but to my sunrise i think this one could be as good if not better than her debut which i was also a big fan of)

Stan Bush - Shine (again solid good songs trademark voice and a great backing band)


(still not heard but anticipating Wig Wam and Soul Sirkus )

Late Bloomer of the Year / Late Discovery (2003 release) - Mars Hill - Sink or Swim (produced by Michael Sweet and very good !!!!! One album i kept going back to thru 2004)

Most Disappointing
Europe - Start From the Dark (patchy and the de-tuned inklings just spoil it for me personally.. - Hero is great track though)

* am hoping the above actually did come out in 2004...not double checked a couple of em)

PATTY SMYTH & SCANDAL - first show together in over 20 years!

Patty Smyth and Scandal - Friday 4 Feb 2005
Their first performance together in over 20 years!
At the Starland Ballroom, New Jersey!

Patty Smyth and Scandal tore up the 1980s Top 40 charts with singles like "The Warrior," "Goodbye To You," "Beat Of A Heart" and "Love's Got A Line On You."

Patty Smyth and Scandal will rock Starland on Friday, February 4th. On sale now through Ticketmaster, Vintage Vinyl and Starland's box office.

the Scandal dates at hand from Ticketmaaster are:

2/04 (Fri) Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ 7:30 pm
2/05 (Sat) Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA 9 pm
2/11 (Fri) Westbury Music Fair, Westbury (Long Island), NY 8pm
2/12 (Sat) Trump Marina - Atlantic City, NJ 9 pm
2/18 (Fri) Odeon - Clevland OH 9 pm
2/19 (Sat) Bogarts - Cincinnati, OH 8 pm

STAGE DOLLS - Get A Live!

One of my fave albums of the year has been Stage Dolls - Get A Life!

STAGE DOLLS will release a live cd called "Get A Live" on December 20th through the 'MusicBusiness' label in Norway. The live CD was recorded at their anniversary gig in Trondheim last year. It will be released with a bonus DVD featuring live tracks from the same show.

Tracklist for "Get A Live" :

01: Stand By You
02: Love Cries
03: Hard To Say Goodbye
04: Commandos
05: Sorry Is All I Can Say
06: Still In Love
07: Wings Of Steel
08: Magic
09: Love Don't Bother Me
10: Left Foot Boogie
11: Ten Tons Of Rock 'n Roll
12: Money
13: Ammunition
14: Heart To Heart
15: Soldier's Gun

The bonus DVD will feature 10 tracks from the 15 above.

Queen to tour with Paul Rodgers singing. Great choice!

From an interview with Roger Taylor:

"I must just tell you actually, we're enjoying playing Brian and I so much at the moment we've decided wer'e gonna do a Queen tour. So we'll be touring in Deutschland, in Germany and Europe next spring so first time in many years - a Queen tour. So it's brand new news and we're very excited to do that.

We're not nervous, we're excited. We're too old to be nervous. It's more exciting than nerve racking. We have a fantastic singer whose going to be singing woith us. used to be in a band called Bad Company and his name is Paul Rodgers. He has many many hits with Free and Bad Company and he was one of Freddie's favourite singers and one of our favourite singers so it's … we did one TV show with him in England and it worked very well so we're very excited to be doing a tour. "

C'mon Idol C'mon

Australian television station Channel Nine has chosen Australian Idol runner up Shannon Noll to sing the remake of their cricket summer anthem "C'Mon Aussie C'mon". All profits go to the Red Cross's Good Start Breakfast Club -- a community initiative where more than 600 volunteers serve breakfast everyday for school children in areas of greatest need throughout Australia. The GSBC program currently serves more than 120,000 nutritious breakfasts per year consisting of toast, cereal and juice served to school children who would have otherwise gone hungry.

The original record in 1979 was cut by the Mojo Singers. The new lyrics were updated to include new cricket heroes by Nine's cricket executive producer Graeme Koos from the original penned by Alan Morris & Allan Johnson. Noll's version went to radio on Monday, following a behind the scenes of the recording airing on Nine's A Current Affair. The full video of "C'Mon Aussie C'Mon" will premiere this Wednesday, December 8 during Nine's Wide World of Sports coverage of the second one-day match between Australia and New Zealand in the Chappell Hadlee Trophy.

Noiseworks - make a little more noise

Four fifths of Noiseworks -- Jon Stevens, Steve Balbi, Kevin Nicol and Stuart Fraser but not Justin Stanley -- reform for a series of shows around Sydney. They have not played together since 1992.

The first of these shows, at the Gaelic Club on Wednesday Dec 15, is for the Triple M's final Garage Session of the year, exclusive to Triple M Freqs. They'll bang through Hot Chilli Woman, Touch, Millie RIP, No Lies and Take Me Back.

Icehouse freezes up again.

An electric version of Icehouse did its first live gig in 11 years -- before 80 people in Gambaro's Function Centre in Brisbane's Petrie Terrace, at a surprise retirement party for Austereo radio executive Greg Smith.

The lineup included Paul Gildea, Paul Wheeler, and David Chapman, with Steve Bull stepping in for Steve Morgan. They started with Great Southern Land, with the six-song set including Crazy, We Can Get Together, Hey Little Girl as well as the new Your God Not Mine.

Will this mark a return to the road for Icehouse? Mainman Iva Davies himself isn't crazy about touring. Yet with radio getting excited over "Your God Not Mine", there may be a distinct possibility.

Heavy Metal Guy Rules!

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