Rock Of Ages

Benjy says...

Hi Rock of Agers,

Beggars Opera

Thanks to the many Beggars Opera fans who called on Thursday to congratulate us on our tune selection, of course there were some glaring omissions like "Raymond's Road"," Light cavalry" and "I've no idea" which were left out due to their length... Rest assured they will be played on the show in the very near future. Next week's special will be the legendary Welsh hard rock oufit, Budgie.

Budgie

For some, Budgie will bring back memories of first gigs, joss sticks, greatcoats, haircut angst and heavy drinking. The combination of Burke Shelley's bass notes and a mix of cider and cheap wine was pleasantly lethal, but it all somehow made sense at the time. Hey, it was part of growing up!

The Welsh trio made some impact with their eponymous debut album in 1971 which combined Shelley's thumping bass and screaming vocals and Tony Bourge's riffola, pinned down by Ray Phillips' solid drumming. The first two album efforts were produced by Roger Bain who had worked with Sabbath on their first album and later produced Judas Priest, the band's style had echoes of Sabbath and Zeppelin, with a nod to sixties beat (and Beatle-esque) music.

After the debut came a thrusty succession of classic hard rock albums some with distinctive cover art by Roger Dean and, invariably, our seed-sucker in any manner of different guises adding a strong visual element to the mix. On 1973's 'Never Turn Your Back On A Friend' there was the track 'Breadfan', later covered by Metallica. They also covered 'Crash Course In Brain Surgery', Budgie's first single and now a bonus track on the 2005 first album reissue.

In the late seventies, like so many others, Budgie struggled with the onset of punk and several line-up changes provided further instability. By 1978 Bourge and drummers Phillips and Pete Boot, had gone. The band became increasingly more polished and their later work less distinctive. They even added a keyboard player [South African wizard, Duncan Mackay]. The band soldiered on in the eighties buoyed by the resurgence of interest in things metal, with an appearance at the Reading Festival in 1982 and cult popularity in the States, boosted by Metallica's patronage. They are still gigging albeit with Shelley as the mainstay and John Thomas from a late-seventies line-up.

For more information take a flight to www.budgie.uk.com

Rock of Ages's recommendations

Harvest Festival

Along with Island Records, Vertigo, Deram and Virgin, Harvest Records was one of the leading labels in progressive and heavy rock throughout the 70's. As an imprint label of EMI Records the label was responsible for introducing the musical wonders of such obscure artists like Kevin Ayers, Michael Chapman, Roy Harper and the Third Ear Band alongside such luminaries as Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Greatest Show on Earth, Edgar Broughton Band, Babe Ruth and the Climax Chicago Blues Band.

I have just acquired the "Harvest Festival" 5 CD box set covering this legendary label's output from 1969 to 1979 ..... 97 tracks in total from all the artists mentioned above PLUS The Pretty Things, Syd Barrett, Barclay James Harvest, The Move and many, many more. It is housed in a large coffee table book style with a 120 page, full colour libretto and is the best CD package I have ever come across and is highly recommended for Rock of Ages fans who want an early Xmas/birthday present. Richard Filmer from CDW is trying to source some copies of this amazing box set so get your orders in now (Richard's details below).

Competitions

Coming soon.....

April is David Gilmour and Pink Floyd month at Rock of Ages with a fantastic month long competition: you could win one of fifteen copies of the new David Gilmour album "On An Island" on-air or one of five grand prizes of the album plus the "The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story" double DVD ... stay tuned to Rock of Ages for details.

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Contact Rock of Ages

Email: click here
Snail mail:
PO Box 782022, Sandton 2146
Studio phone: 089-1102003
Richard Filmer @ CDW

Disclaimer:
The views, opinions, rants, raves and ramblings expressed on this website are the author's own and in no way reflect the views of Radio 2000 or the SABC.

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News from the
World of Rock

Lost Bolan Tapes
A stash of unreleased MARC BOLAN recordings have come to light, after a former studio receptionist handed them to the late rocker's son ROLAN. The tapes were snapped up by the employee at Air London Studios when the music mecca was due to close down, as she feared the rare glam rock tracks would be lost forever. She subsequently vowed to give them to Rolan, now 29, when he was at an age when he could appreciate them. Rolan plans to release them next year in honour of his late dad.

Uncle Bill says.....
Ex-Rolling Stones star Bill Wyman has called for the "ridiculous" wrinkly rockers to split up. The bassist left the Stones fifteen years ago and thinks it's time for the remaining three original members – Sir Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Keith Richards – to call it quits before they become too much of a parody. He tells the Guardian, "I can't see them going on too much longer, I really can't. It's getting a bit ridiculous, innit? It's their lives. But I don't know if they've got anything else that's important to 'em outside that apart from families." Wyman thinks Jagger in particular is hiding his own personal unhappiness behind a rock'n'roll lifestyle. He explains, "Mick will never answer a question properly. He doesn't like to talk about the past. He can't stay in one place for more than a couple of weeks, and then he has to be off somewhere else. I don't think he's happy."

Rotten Vs Green Day
Ex Sex Pistols frontman Johnny Rotten has launched a fresh trade against Green Day.The singer believes that Green Day wouldn't have had a leg to stand on in the punk heyday and that they have since nicked punk's ideas. He blathered: "They're sticky tape on a duck's arse. They wouldn't have survived it. We had to earn our wings". We made it easy for them to come in and nick things from us. Silly fat kids

Superband
Motley Crue's Tommy Lee has teamed up with Voivod bassist Jason Newsted (ex-Metallica) and former Guns n' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke in a new band, expected to be called Supernova. They've already signed up Butch Walker to produce their debut album, and will use the 'Rock Star' reality TV series to find a singer.

Live Gigs

Cofield Mundi
Friday March 24 Oude Libertas Amphitheatre, Stellenbosch

Stoned Goblin
Friday 24 March Hidden Cellar, Dorp Street, Stellenbosch

Coca Cola Colab Massive Mix
Saturday March 25 featuring Metallica, Collective Soul, Seether, The Rasmus and many more.

You say it's your birthday...

March 20
Carl Palmer (Emerson Lake & Palmer) - 1950

March 21
Roger Hodgson (Supertramp) - 1950
Eddie Money - 1949
Conrad Lozano (Los Lobos) - 1951

March 22
Jeremy Clyde (Chad and Jeremy) - 1941
Keith Relf (Yardbirds) - 1943

March 23
Ric Ocasek (The Cars) - 1949

March 24
Dougie Thomson (Supertramp) - 1951

March 26
Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) - 1948
Richard Tandy (Electric Light Orchestra) - 1948
Fran Sheehan (Boston) - 1949

March 27
Tony Banks (Genesis) - 1950

March 28
John Evan (Jethro Tull) - 1948

March 29
Bobby Kimball (Toto) - 1947
Chad Allan (Guess Who)

March 30
Graeme Edge (Moody Blues) - 1942
Eric Clapton - 1945
Dave Ball (Procol Harum)
Jim "Dandy" Mangrum (Black Oak Arkansas) - 1948

March 31
Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople, Bad Company) - 1944
Angus Young (AC/DC) - 1955

Courtesy of About ClassicRock

Birthday archives

December
January
February
March

"Benjy says..." Archive

Stay tuned every Thursday 8-12pm for the best in classic rock on RADIO 2000.

Your Host

Benjy Mudie

Then	Now

Benjy Mudie was inducted into the South African Rock Hall Of Fame on 14th August 2002. Of Scottish origin, Mudie started out in the music industry working in record shops. He later became the A&R man for WEA records, signing such luminaries as Lesley Rae Dowling, Baxtop and Falling Mirror. He has ventured briefly into the realms of songwriting, getting co-writing credit for Little Sister's song 'You Got My Heart', but it is mainly for his running of record labels, notably Tusk and more recently Fresh and Retro Fresh that he is honoured. With these labels he has tirelessly dedicated himself to putting South African music out there, showing an unshaking belief in the quality of SA music.

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