Well, by now a lot of you have heard Neverland and given it you're verdict. But for the rest of you who haven't.....the good news is that it is coming your way in July. But for now, here is some more insights into the reunion record. It was also time to get the lowdown on the Night Ranger rumour mill. So I called up Jack Blades to get a fill in, and while I was at it, quizzed him on each track from the album. How's It Going? Real good, the single comes out here June 9th and then the album comes out July 15th. Great Stuff. What is the label you've got? Columbia. Is that right? Is John Kalodner in there somewhere? John Kalodner is in the middle of it all. The new single was mixed by Bob Clearmountain. And we put a fifteen piece string section on the song 'Forever All Over Again', and had Clearmountain mix it, and it got mastered last Friday. Now we're getting everything ready, getting ready to do some radio promotion and all that kind of stuff. Well I hope that will be big, it's a killer song. Yeah, we're very happy. ...

So the Spinatras is a pretty big style change! From Heyday and Manowar to this - it's like a whole new attitude. Yeah, Heyday was like, my thing into blues rock. But before that I was in Manitoba's Wild Kingdom, and then Manowar before that. And the dictators before that. Every band I have been has had a distinct style change. What is happening with the Spinatras? Is it coming out on disc? We hope for it to come out on disc. We are dealing with a few major labels, and independent labels. I think it will be on a major. I don't know yet, what exactly it's going to be. There is a lot of interest. Well it sounds good enough to be on a major. You like it? Yeah, it's got a lot of attitude. It pretty loose, groovy. Was it recorded live? We basically recorded it live and added our little overdubs to it. The rhythm track is always live, and I go in and do my little magical thing to it. A good fun vibe to it this time. You guys really are having a lot of fun. Right. The thing is, all the bands were ...

Rick's first ever online interview - Interviewed via phone end of June 1997. Keep an eye out for two exclusive sound bytes, from two tracks left off Sahara Snow!     Rick was born Richard Springthorpe, in Sydney Australia in 1949. His father was a career soldier, with Rick growing up on army bases around the country. He received a guitar for his thirteenth birthday, and described his love of playing as 'as hard core as you get at sixteen'. His first band 'The Jordy Boys' played regularly in the rough pubs of Melbourne, leading him to leave school and join his first full time rock band 'Rock House'. They earned a reputation strong enough to be invited to play to troops in Vietnam, during the late 60's. Back in Australia, Rick moved into the now legendary pioneering Australian rock act 'Zoot'. He joined with Beeb B, who went onto join Little River Band, and Daryl Cotton, who went onto form the also now legendary Sherbet. Zoot soon became one of the biggest acts in Australia, and had a top 10 single with a cover of 'Eleanor Rigby', styled in the bands' unique relentless pop/rock style. Rick subsequently won awards for the ...

Steve Stevens is the guitar talent behind Billy Idol, Michael Monroe, Vince Neil and of course his own Atomic Playboys. Now he has teamed with the legendary Terry Bozzio and Tony Levin to create a power trio and the album 'Black Light Syndrome'. Here is Steve talking about a few aspects of his career to date. Hey Steve, how's it all going? Very well thanks. What are you in the middle of right now? Actually I am doing a solo record. It has dance music underneath the rock style, with lots of odd loops and ethnic percussion. Very trance like. That sounds like a big departure! Yeah, it's different, but it works though. Who is that going to be for? It's for Myles Copeland, who is Sting's manager, he has a new instrumental based label called arc 21. I have heard of Copeland's castle in France, and Jack Blades hangs out with him also. That's right, yeah he has a song writing retreat once a year in France. Hard life isn't it? Yeah, ha ha. So how has the response for Black Light Syndrome been? I think well. Based on the fact that it is released on a very small label, ...

I am preaching to the converted in describing John Waite as a legend. The former singer for the Baby's, Bad English, and producer of five very fine solo records, is about to unleash his sixth solo record. It promises to break more new ground for a singer who has had his ups and downs, but is currently riding high with enthusiasm. I chose to leave the interview in it's original format, rather than into a life story, because as a conversation it was relaxed and light hearted - mostly! See what you think..... Andrew…. John, how are you! Andy baby! How are you doing? I am very well. Thank you. How are you? Great! It is an honor to speak to you. Thank you for taking my call. It's all right mate! How's Australia? Good actually. Where abouts are you? I am in Hobart, Tasmania. Almost at the bottom of the earth. Wow! It's about 6am and it's fairly cold. How's New York? Stinking hot – we are right in the middle of summer, so it's stinking hot. How are you these days? Great, boiling also! I have just finished a record, and it is about another 3 weeks until the single ...

Well, it was with a degree of caution that I broke the first question to Jimi Jamison, the man who joined Survivor half way through their grand career, and helped add a bunch of hit singles to their roster. I had to get straight to the point about what happened to the band after 'Too Hot To Sleep'. It has been a few years now, and I still don't think I have heard what really went on. So now Jimi's back, got that theme thing with Baywatch going on...and I thought it was a good time to get to the bottom of things. Jimi, How's it going? Everythings going really well. The band sounds great and we're writing and touring a lot. Jimi, I don't know how to put this, so I am just going to get straight to the point. What happened to Survivor after the 'Too Hot To Sleep' album? And just how ugly did it get?! You know, it never really got ugly. At least in my eyes. I mean , I don't hate or wish Jim, Frank or any of the guys any harm or bad luck. I hope they are successful and happy. You see ...

James Christian has been going at it for over twenty years now, but it's been in the last several years that he has proved himself one of the best hard rock vocalists in the business, with three classic House Of Lords albums and a debut solo album from a couple of years ago. James also sang with Eyes and LA Roxx back in the early eighties, and has just had a compilation album from his first band with other AOR singer/songwriter Jeff Cannata, Jasper Wrath, released to the unsuspecting public. But where is that House Of Lords Re-union?   So James, last thing I heard fom you, was the House Of Lords re-union. What happened to that? There still might be a House Of Lords re-union soon. We have already written three songs. It all comes down to timing. The timing must be right. Okay. I had heard on the rumour mill, that was you had submitted tracks to the label, and they didn't like it. No it is not true. We never submitted any new tracks to the label at the time. But when we do, it will be on our terms. Why elso do a record after ...

Eddie Money IS a legend. And for a guy who has been through everything (and I mean everything) he has come out a survivor. Born Eddie Mahoney, in New York, he started out as cop just like his old man, but escaped to California and to a infamous meeting with Bill Graham, who was fundamental in launching his career. The great thing about talking to Eddie, is that he knows he’s a legend, ’Hey man, I’m a rock n roll star!’. But not in the arrogant way, more in the fact he has a great ‘attitude’ and loves what he does, and loves playing to his fans. To interview him you need not prepare questions. Just say howdy, and he does the rest! He was more than happy to chat about the ups and downs of his life, and clearly loves where he is now, hanging out with his wife and five children, one of which he put on the phone at one stage, and still playing and recording his tunes. In a career spanning 20 years, he has sold over 11 million albums and played to thousands of people live every year, and basically lived the excesses of the ...

  Slamer: Anywhere but nowhere for this melodic rock legend. Mike Slamer talks about the killer new Slamer album, working with Terry Brock and his other work with Steelhouse Lane and Seventh Key. G'Day Mike, Nice to talk to you again, this time to cover a new project from you – the debut Slamer release. Nice to talk to you too. First of all - the critical response to this album is among the finest reviews of your career to date. That's obviously going to give you a great deal of satisfaction, but what else do you draw from such reviews? When you put as much time and energy as I did into this album it's brilliant when you get some great reviews. I wasn't sure how this album was going to be received because there are quite a few songs that don't fall into the typical melodic rock format. This sort of response is an endorsement that it's ok to be a little creative and unpredictable, and I think rock music needs to be more of both. The last few years have been spent working with Billy Greer, which has obviously been rewarding for you - as Billy is along ...

Daniel Flores: Sweden's Man Of The Moment   Daniel, you are fast becoming the go-to man for session drum work, so there's a few tings to cover here. But first and foremost, we are here to promote your new Mind's Eye album Walking On H20. The album is a concept album about nothing less than human evolution. Couldn't you find anything more light and fluffy to write about?!!! :) Hahahaha Well the topic of world terror had already been taken by George Bush so Human evolution has the only theme left for me… ;-) Seriously, I thought I was a great lyrical theme with the potential of being dramatic and serious at the same time. I mean who dares to write about something like Human evolution? Who dares to say out loud that Darwin's evolution theory has huge wholes in its socket? I wanted to create some discussions about these facts, its fun to provoke feelings into people's minds. I am a guy who likes to provoke, it's so much funnier than to be on the safe side. Still, it's only music. That's why I chose the theme, to encourage people and at the same time still make some good old ...

Change Of Heart: Truth Or Dare? Change Of Heart's frontman Alan Clark talks about the band's very cool new album filled with classic AOR... G'Day Alan, nice to talk to you again, congrats on the new album. A few interview questions for you as part of my Escape Music promotion. Hi Andrew, Good to hear from you too. Many thanks, I took a look at your web site, enjoyed the review. So Alan, it's been a while between drinks for Change Of Heart - welcome back! Thanks, quite a few drinks!! Why so long between albums? It's not COH that I'm solely thinking about here, but you can answer the question in any regard! Various reasons really, a few personal changes which stopped us, and the problems of being a full band one minute, and down to just two members the next! With Trev and Garry leaving, followed by John's departure, meant the way we worked had to change dramatically. I personally like working in a band environment, which means playing live, writing and rehearsing new material as you go. I think where bands like COH work as a studio based project; do tend to take a lot longer to ...

Blue Tears: Mad, Bad And Back In Your Face. Gregg Fulkerson talks about the return of Blue Years - first from the past over two different volumes and then into the future. First of all Gregg - it's great to be talking in terms of Blue Tears again. The band meant a lot to a great number of people.... Well, I'm very glad that seems to be the situation although it is a surprise to me...we recently had a friend run a soundscan on us and we sold over 5 times what we were told we sold...so I guess it reached more people than we thought! I formerly interviewed you last time around for the Attraction 65 record. Briefly to that - I take it that the band is now over? Not necessarily...it was an incarnation of Blue Tears...just a darker, moodier version...since it was different, I changed the name...it was my first record in several years...but the new Blue Tears record that is almost finished is very true to the original idea of the band. I still think that was a great record with an updated sound that was still reminiscent of your past ...

Metal Majesty: Mixing Pomp With Metal. The one man band Valensia talks about his latest release - the hard rock friendly Metal Majesty and offers up some direct and honest answers, some surprises and a great deal of honesty in this interesting interview. Valensia, there seems to be a certain mystique that surrounds you as an artist. Is that a strategy that was put in place earlier in your career, or does it stem from the strong cult like following you have in Japan and Asia? I'm not your average milkman, but 'a certain mystique'.. I don't know. When I was released in Japan, the early days, the record company made up that story I was some kind of computer-generated pop artist…that I didn't exist in real life. Now I'm older I know certain people are born with that mystique. I'm one of them, but I don't do anything to promote myself as being mystique, I actually do not promote myself at all since ages. Hence the mystique! Your debut album sold a million copies plus - how does a young artist adjust to such a high impact start to ones career? There was nothing to adjust; I came ...

Swirl 360: A Californian Revenge Brothers Kenny & Denny talk about their new album and the hardships from being cast aside by industry BS... Hi Kenny and Denny, I have to start by asking about the long time between the debut Swirl 360 album and the new one on Atenzia. First of all - you were signed to Mercury Records and as we all know, the deal went sour due to label politics. Looking back, can you sum up the frustration that 1000 bands have been put through and how you felt? Denny: Tragic, best describes that whole experience. When we first got signed to Mercury/Polygram, we did not really have any of the songs written yet. Steve Greenberg, who signed us, told us we could not start recording until half the record was written. Ken and I wanted the record out by summer so within November and December of 1997, we had written more than half record. Once we handed in the songs like Hey Now Now, Candy In The Sun, Rewind, Stick Around, Ask Anybody,... the radio department got a hold of it and we were immediately bumped to priority. We all new that we had a hit record on our ...

Heartland: Moving On To Better Things Heartland's Steve Morris and Chris Ousey discuss the band's cracking new studio album Move On. Steve is highlighted in green and Chris in blue. G'Day Chris and Steve, Great to take this opportunity to talk to you about the smashing new Heartland album - one which I have a lot of enthusiasm for. Chris - to you first - not too many people are still in the business closing in on 20 years since their debut album. We all know this business doesn't work on talent alone - how have you managed to stay in it for so long? Has it been that long? That's truly scary, but I don't think a passion for music can ever be discarded. I also class myself as very lucky that there's always been people interested enough in what I do, to want to help and encourage me to continue. I know I certainly hold this opinion, but do you consider yourself unlucky not to have broken into a wider audience and acclaim? You have a great standing within the melodic rock community, but with a voice such as yours, I think you are unlucky not to be a ...

Thunder: The Magnificent Album! Danny Bowes talks about the very latest and most impressive Thunder album, The Magnificent Seventh, out now... G'Day Danny, time again for a wonderful little interview....thanks in advance for your time. Thank you. Thunder is at it again - the album is out and looking like being every bit as successful as Shooting At The Sun and even more so. Are you a happy man? Extremely happy. This LP is going down really well with fans both old and new, and it's going to sell a lot more than the last one, which tells me we must have been doing something right for the past 18 months. It seems the band has slipped into a very comfortable pattern post-reformation. You have a very strong organization supporting the band, getting your releases into stores in the UK and the word out to fans via the Internet. How do you find working in this environment, as compared to the days on a major label? I don't know about comfortable.... In the old days we never really knew what was happening (we thought we did), but we left a lot to our management and the record labels. Nowadays I'm ...

Pride Of Lions: Fulfilling Their Destiny. Jim Peterik talks about the spirit behind the music and the making of the new Pride Of Lions album, not to mention what else he has in store for 2005. Ok, Jim - first of all, well done on creating another great slice of classic melodic rock. Thanks Andrew - coming from a man that has "heard it all" in classic rock that is a great compliment! Going right back to the time following the release of the debut - that album also gained some amazing reviews and personal feedback for yourself. Did you feel any pressure building in the time following that to start work on a follow-up that would have to top the work done on the debut? I happen to work well under pressure. When Frankie and I were asked to write the theme for Rocky 3, we had one week to write it, record it and mix it! Not to mention rewrite it a few times. If there seems to be more urgency and a fresher sound on this record it is because we didn't have time to over-think it and process it to death. In some cases I would write a ...