Tag Archive: The Stranglers


The prettiest stars of Glam Rock

Filed under: Books, Gender, Music — Leave a comment
October 31, 2016

SHOCK AND AWE – GLAM ROCK AND ITS LEGACY by Simon Reynolds (Faber & Faber,2016)

“Got your mother in a whirl ‘cos she’s not sure if you’re a boy or a girl” – David Bowie (Rebel Rebel)
“Even the greatest stars live their lives in the looking glass” – Kraftwork (Hall Of Mirrors)
“There’s something in the air of which we will all be aware yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah” – Sweet (Teenage Rampage)
“Whatever happened to the heroes?”- The Stranglers (No More Heroes)

glamIt’s fair to say Glam Rock has never really been taken all that seriously. Being casually dismissed as a joke genre is partly what drove Simon Reynolds to write this impressively weighty tome.

In so doing, he proves that this musical phenomenon deserves to be more than just an amusing footnote in the story of popular music. The author doesn’t claim that all the music tagged as Glam (or Glitter is you’re American) is of a universally high standard yet, even at its most crass and commercial, Reynolds endorses the viewpoint of Noel Coward who once wryly observed : “It’s extraordinary how potent cheap music is”. Continue reading →

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MAX RAPTOR: PORTRAITS

Filed under: Music, Politics — Leave a comment
April 11, 2011

Max Raptor: L to R- Tom Garrett (bass), Wil Ray (vox), Matt Stephenson (drums), JB Wilcox (guitar)

The long-awaited debut Max Raptor mini album, Portraits, hits the streets today.

In case you didn’t know, Max Raptor are four young men from The Midlands and UK’s finest Indie-metal punksters to boot.

If I sound a little biased, this is down to the fact that the band’s charismatic front man, ‘Wil Ray’, is my nephew.

The album is out on Naim Edge records and is produced by Dan Weller and Justin Weller, respectively guitarist and vocalist from the now defunct UK metal band SikTh.

It features eight quality tunes which Kerrang magazine call “heavy slabs of rocking punk” .

Carolina is the most obvious power punk number although this is the sound of a generation born too late to experience the rabble rousing Brit-Punk spirit of ’76/’77 first hand so they also take on board hard-boiled metal, classic rock and a hint of screamo.

The result is potent blast of articulate rebellion backed up by rowdy yobbo chants.

I have seen the band two times, on both occasions they produced performances full of energy and commitment in relatively inauspicious settings. The first was in a muddy field in Derbyshire as part of the Y-Not Festival, the second was a show in December 2008 at a freezing Bar Fly in Birmingham. I remember musing that if they play like that in such inhospitable surroundings, what would they be capable of in half way decent venues?

Since then, they have  gained valuable experience of more glamorous gigs; especially as a result of landing a prestigious support slot to Punk survivors The Stranglers last year.

This constant gigging has made their sound even tighter and Wil has effectively nailed the art of channelling his rage into songs that positively drip with indignation and venom. “We talk about cheery things like alcohol abuse and domestic violence” he says in an interview for Rock Sound in which he also highlights the fact that the songs are deliberate rants about politicians’ abuse of power and how we ordinary citizens struggle to make our voices heard. Continue reading →

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