By the dawn of the 1980s, Uriah Heep was considered a relic in the heavy metal world and no one was surprised when they disbanded shortly after 1980s half-hearted Conquest album. However, everyone listening received an unexpected surprise when the band returned with a new lineup and a sleek, revamped sound on 1982's Abominog. If one can get past the Spinal Tap-like title and the gruesome cover art, this outing quickly reveals itself to be one of the most consistent and engaging albums in the group's lengthy catalog. The new Uriah Heep that debuted on this outing was a different animal from the gothic metal ensemble that barnstormed its way through albums like Look at Yourself and Return to Fantasy: echoes of the group's old style could be heard in the drama and instrumental firepower of the new songs, but the overall sound owed a greater debt to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and harder-rocking AOR groups of the time.

English rock vocalist and songwriter, most famous for his work with hard rock band Deep Purple, and his later band Whitesnake. He has also worked with former Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page on the 'Coverdale Page' project…

Guitarist, vocalist and songwriter Chris Mayfield began to play at the beginning of the Sixties in local Kent band The Moral Set, then went on to the usual plethora of bands and sessions, playing with the earliest Nirvana, John Gustafson, Gene Latter and Ian Hunter among the others. In 1968 after a few disappointing musical adventures, Chris joined Amen Corner as a roadie/driver, but his girlfriend passed some of his demos to Amen's sax player, Mike Smith, who immediately got them to various labels, EMI approved and immediately signed Chris to a recording deal.
Pete Saunders (keyboards), Steve Bradley (bass) and ex-Elastic Band Sean Jenkins (drums) soon joined and Mayfield's Mule was born. Three Parlophone singles were recorded in a few months and the band also began to work on an album at Abbey Road studios…

Led Zeppelin's fourth album, Black Sabbath's Paranoid, and Deep Purple's Machine Head have stood the test of time as the Holy Trinity of English hard rock and heavy metal, serving as the fundamental blueprints followed by virtually every heavy rock & roll band since the early '70s. And, though it is probably the least celebrated of the three, Machine Head contains the "mother of all guitar riffs" – and one of the first learned by every beginning guitarist – in "Smoke on the Water." …

Founding Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman essentially retired from music after leaving the band in 1993, choosing to dedicate time to his family and his restaurant, Sticky Fingers. He returned to music in 1997 with Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings, a rotating old-time rock & roll, R&B, blues, and boogie collective of superstar musicians anchored by keyboardist Georgie Fame, guitarist Albert Lee, pianist Gary Brooker, and guitarist Terry Taylor. Their first album, Struttin' Our Stuff, appeared that year and it was followed two years later by Anyway the Wind Blows, which featured cameos from Peter Frampton, Geraint Watkins, Paul Carrack, and, notably, fellow Stone Keith Richards. Groovin' arrived in 2000, reaching a career peak of 52 on the U.K. charts. Next was Double Bill in 2001 and Just for a Thrill in 2004, before the band primarily dedicated itself to live performances. A pair of these were featured on the live albums Rhythm Kings Live (2005) and Live Communication (2011), but it took them until 2017 to deliver a new studio album with Rocking the Roots.

Mean Machine is the eighth album by Lucifer's Friend. On this album the band returns to its heavy metal roots, albeit with less of the Hammond organ found on the first album. However, by this time the band had lost its core following years ago and it was too late to recover. Lucifer's Friend lasted a year after the album's release and then finally broke up. John Lawton would join the hard rock bands Rebel and ZAR. Lucifer's Friend would reunite in 1993 and would release Sumo Grip in 1994 and would break up for the final time in 1996.

Sneak Me In is the seventh album by Lucifer's Friend, an album in which Mike Starrs, formerly of Colosseum II, replaced John Lawton on vocals for a second time. This album and the previous Good Time Warrior (1978) were an attempt at a more commercial, accessible style which met with limited success. Starrs was replaced by the returning Lawton, for 1981's Mean Machine.

Crucial to the creation of this album was Daltrey's meeting with guitarist/songwriter Gerard McMahon, since Rocks In The Head, which credits "Musical Direction and Production" to McMahon, also features him as primary backup musician and writer or co-writer of ten out of the 11 tracks. Daltrey himself is co-credited on seven, a new high for him, but it's hard not to feel that he is acting primarily as McMahon's mouthpiece. McMahon updates Daltrey for the '90s, constructing hard-edged tracks based on harsh electric or acoustic guitar textures, suggesting everyone from The Who to The Police. The result is an album that does nothing to diminish Daltrey's reputation.

This latest addition to the From The Vault series captures a truly unique event in the long and eventful history of The Rolling Stones. On the May 20th, 2015 at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, California, the band performed the entire Sticky Fingers album live in concert for the first and so far only time in their career. The show celebrated the reissue of the Sticky Fingers album and was the opening night of The Rolling Stones Zip Code Tour of North America that would run over the next two months…

Thomas Earl Petty was an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, and actor. He was the lead singer of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, formed in 1976. He previously led the band Mudcrutch, and was also a member of the late 1980s supergroup the Traveling Wilburys…

The past Elton John has in mind is the era of soul music of the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s, and although all the songs are new, he recreates it well here…

Let's make no doubt about this review from the start: Alvin Lee solo is not the same thing as Ten Years After and such comparisons miss the mark entirely…