Monsters of Rock – History of Sorts

Vortex-Open the Gate- Probably the worst Rock song ever, yet I still love it.

It is 1986 you get ready for your weekly dose of Heavy Metal on Sky’s Monsters of Rock. presented by Mick Wall.

You hear the opening theme ” Ice 9″ by Joe Satriani from his Epic album “Surfing with the Alien”

You sit back relax and get ready for an onslaught of Rock and Metal. Mick just finished playing “Gonna get close to you” Queensryche’s cover version of a Dalbello song, one of those rare occasions where the cover is better then the original.

Then Mick announces a band from the Netherlands, called Vortex, the Dutch are not known for the abundance of Rock bands, So I have high hopes. ‘Vortex, who are they?’ I never heard of them, but they are on Monsters of Rock an international Rock show. They must be good.

Mick tell me the track is called “Open the gate” it is a bit of a cliché title, but hey I am willing to give it the benefit of doubt.

Four minutes of pure brutality follows, a brutal assault on my delicate ears. Would there perhaps be naked women in the clip, to soften the blow? No, just a few men and some dude singing into a bone, a character mash up between Mad Max and the Last of the Mohicans.

No redeeming features whatsoever.

Fast forward to 2023. I listen to the song again. It is just bad as it was then , in fact it is so bad it is good. I love it despite the lack of quality it did bring me back to that Sunday night in 1986.

Rebel without a clue

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I could not call myself a music fan and more specifically a Rock music fan without paying tribute to one of the all time greatest Rock musicians, Tom Petty.

I have to confess I was quite late getting to know the music of Tom Petty,it was really by chance.Back in the 80s I was a great fan of a music show called “Monsters of Rock” on Sky Channel presented by Mick Wall.

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It predominantly showed hard rock/heavy metal videos, but occasionally they would put on other rock acts. So one time they showed the clip of “Don’t come around here no more” by a certain Mr Tom Petty, and I was hooked.

Written by Tom Petty and David A. Stewart of Eurythmics,who has a cameo appearance in the video.

Although I hadn’t really actively listened to any Tom Petty songs prior to that, I did recognize his voice immediately. And I think that is what made him so unique, people may not always have known his name, his distinctive voice was just so recognizable.

Not only was he a great singer he was also a great songwriter and guitarist, so many songs with so many great guitar riffs.

Photo of Tom PETTY

In 1976, Petty, with himself as lead singer and guitarist, formed “Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers” with Mike Campbell (lead guitarist), Ron Blair (bass), Stan Lynch (drums), and Benmont Tench (keyboards). The Heartbreakers began their recording career with a self-titled album, released through the Shelter label.

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He did also release 3 solo albums and did get Hollywood Walk of Fame star as Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.

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Such was the greatness of the man that he wasn’t intimidated by being a member a super band with Rock N Roll royalty like George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne.The Travelling Wilburys.

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Alas with Tom Petty’s passing away this week there are only 2 of the Traveling Wilburys left, Bob Dylan and Jeff Lynne. I am sure Tom has already being playing some sessions with George Harrison and the Big O , up in that place which is more and more becoming a Rock N Roll heaven.

Dear sir I salute you and hope you will your place in that great wide open , you may have been a rebel without a clue but when it comes to music there is no one else like you.

RIP Tom Petty.

The music that shaped my life-part 2

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Music plays an important role in my life, it always have and it always will. It is not only listening to music, playing it also often played a therapeutic role, especially during my teenage years.

My weapon of choice,Guitar. Below a picture of my very 1st guitar. Many more were to follow.

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It was my neighbor and friend who got me first interested in playing guitar. He had started playing it and it sounded cool, so I thought give it a go.After a while we both got the hang of it and we would often duel, sitting on our windowsills.Me on the 1st floor of our apartment block and he on the 2nd floor.Credit goes to all other neighbors,no one ever complained.

However there were two guitarists that really ignited the spark of my inner guitarists, They were from the other scales of the jazz/blues/rock spectrum.

First Jim Croce, the combination of his lyrics and the acoustic(easy sounding but not that easy to copy) way of playing guitar touched my soul. I only discovered his music years after he died. This is my favourite Jim Croce track.

The second guitarist is in my opinion the best guitarist that ever roamed the planet. The second you hear him you know it’s him. I am referring to Stevie Ray Vaughan. 27 August 1990, a piece of me died too.Tin Pan Alley is 9 minutes and 9 seconds of musical heaven.

I was lucky when I grew up music channels still played music,which opened up a whole array of music from bands I wouldn’t have heard of before. Fondly I remember a show called “Monsters of Rock” it was either on Sky(which basically started of as a music channel) . The opening theme of the show introduced me to another great Guitarist, the legendary Joe Satriani, I never heard anyone play guitar like that it was mesmerizing.

Me and my best friend would watch Monster of Rock religiously and we would rate the bands who were on it and would even write reports on the best performances and the best( I know it’s sad) Below a clip of the show(And no neither me or my friend wrote in)

This concludes ‘ The music that shaped my life-part 2’ in part 3 I will be talking about a song that confirmed to me that the changes I made to my life were the right ones.I know I said this concludes part 2, but I couldn’t leave out one particular SRV song, that I played a lot on the day he died 27-Aug-1990, it is from his last album.