This week on The Collection, we talk Robbie Williams. With the news of a new album and some new songs including one with Tony Iommi, I thought let’s go back to the beginning and talk about his debut ‘Life Thru A Lens”. I have two box sets of that album. One is a 4CD set and the other is 7 – 7″ Singles Box Sox Set. We go through it all and talk about the album and the songs. If you remember songs like “Angels”, “Let Me Entertain You” and “Ego a Go Go”, then come along for the ride.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 14, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
It has been 11 years since we’ve had a full length studio album from Billy Idol. His last one was 2014 with ‘Kings And Queens of the Underground’. He has had a couple of 4 song E.P.’s since then, but no full album of new music. Now, the time is upon us. After he did those two E.P.’s, he realized the press on those was as much as a full length album so why not simply do a full album and we are glad he did. The album was released on April 25, 2025 and it went to #79 in the U.K., but Switzerland saw it go to #3 and Germany it was #2. How did it fare in the U.S.? Well, it was Billy’s first ever Top 10 album as it went to #7. Not bad Billy…not bad at all!
The interesting about this release is that it is a concept album and it is broken down in to two parts. Part 1 is called “Dying to Love” and is Side One on the vinyl. This side is focused on the past and sees Billy being nostalgic and focusing on his early years. Part 2 is called, “I’m Reborn” and is Side Two of the album. The focus here is more forward looking on his life now which sees him now as Grandpa and in love with a great family. Cool to see someone that almost died from his drug use and rock & roll lifestyle to be an older rocker and simply loving life. He seems to be in a good place.
I ended up buying both the CD and the vinyl simply because I collect everything Billy so had to have both versions. We get 9 songs, but really only 8 new ones as one of the song is a remake of the song “John Wayne” which was on hit 2008 greatest hits album called The Very Best of Billy Idol: Idolize Yourself. This time around it is a duet and we will get to that later. A little disappointing that we didn’t get 10 new songs. I was worried he was going to re-use some of the songs from his last two E.P.’s, but thankfully that was not the case. But we do a good some good stuff and some okay stuff, so let’s get to the music.
This week on the collection, we are going to show of the new Kiss ‘Off the Soundboard’ release we have on both vinyl and CD. The show is from San Antonio, TX recorded on December 3, 1985 and is the first ‘Off the Soundboard’ release to feature Bruce Kulick on guitar. The tour was for ‘Asylum’ which is one of the tours I saw and I actually saw the show later that month in 1985 in Atlanta. We will talk the packaging, the crappy things Kiss Online store do and talk the show itself.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, July 7, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.
A month ago, we did a review of ‘Kabuki Beasts: Kyoto 1977’ and it was recorded Saturday, March 26, 1977 at Kyoto Kaikan Dai Ichi Hall in Kyoto, Japan. This is another Japanese show from that tour. In fact, it is the Last Show of the 1977 Japanese Tour and it was April 4, 1977 at Budokan in Tokyo, Japan. It is called ‘Snake Attack Budokan: Last Show Japan Tour 1977’. There were only 150 of these made and sold so good luck trying to find one and if you do, I hope your wallet is full. Mine is #62.
I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.
The bootleg we have for you this time around is called ‘Detroit 1984’ and it was recorded at Cabo Hall in Detroit, Michigan on December 12, 1984. If you are die hard Kiss fan you know why this date is important. This show was recorded on video and released as the first concert video Kiss had ever released and it was called ‘Animalize Live Uncensored’. I had this on VHS and I remember it vividly although I did watch it again to make sure I didn’t miss anything. It came out on April 19, 1985 and I was so excited when this came out mainly because I saw this tour. My second Kiss show ever and now I was getting a video from that tour, how cool was that.
The show had a varied setlist with some old and some new. They kick off and end with some classic Kiss songs, but everything else in the middle was all 80’s from ‘Creatures of the Night’ (4 songs) to ‘Lick It Up’ (2 Songs) to ‘Animalize’ (3 Songs). For me, this is where I wanted them to spend their time as I was discovering Kiss on my own with these albums so I wanted these songs and I got my money worth with it.
I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.
The bootleg we have for you this time around is called ‘Electric Magic’ and it was recorded live from The Brewery in East Lansing, Michigan on October 21, 1974 about a week before ‘Hotter Than Hell’ was released. This particular one is a soundboard recording which means the sound is pretty good. A little more focused on the instruments as they are louder than the vocals. Also, it means the crowd noise is pretty limited as they weren’t mic’d up. This one is from Godfatherecords and is on a tri-fold cardboard sleeve. It was released on May 15, 2008 so it isn’t that old. But the show is.
The show opens with a classic opening line of “Put Your Two Lips Together and KISS” screamed from the announcer. The opening riff comes on and you know it is “Deuce”. A killer opening track and to be followed by “Strutter” is a brutal opening. Before the song starts, you hear a lot of noodling around on the instruments and it is a pretty long pause before the song kicks in. The bass is real heavy on this one, but it is still killer. Paul announces the next song is off their new album that will be out this week and it is “Got to Choose”. One of the coolest songs on that album and cool they heard it before the album dropped.
This episode we are going to show-off the Kiss 40th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set for their album ‘Creatures of the Night’. With talk of two new box sets this year from Kiss, I figured why not show-off the two that I have so this episode will be talking the second one they released. It is jammed pack with goodness. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been paying attention to other band’s box sets and now they know how to put one of these together and it is stellar…mostly. We walk through each CD that comes with it (there are 5), a Blu Ray, a hard back book and so much more. An album that came out March 15, 1976 when I wasn’t even 8 years old, but I remember it and still love the album today.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, June 16, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
This episode we are going to show-off the Kiss 45th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition Box Set for their album ‘Destroyer. With talk of two new box sets this year from Kiss, I figured why not show-off the two that I have so this episode will be the first one they released. It is jammed pack with goodness. Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley have been paying attention to other band’s box sets and now they know how to put one of these together and it is stellar…mostly. We walk through each CD that comes with it (there are 4), a Blu Ray, a hard back book and so much more. An album that came out March 15, 1976 when I wasn’t even 8 years old, but I remember it and still love the album today.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight right now, June 12, 2025 at 12PM (NOON). Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
I have been doing a Kiss Bootleg Series for years. You get a review every time I add a new one to the collection. Well, after buying 38 Bootleg CDs from John Humphrey’s personal collection, I figured let’s jump right back in and do a whole lot of reviews on the Bootlegs. Oh, if you don’t know who John Humphrey is, you need to know he is a massive Kiss collector. And he is the drummer of the band Seether. John decided to sell off his entire collection…sort of…he kept all the vinyl (like 4,000 of them). He did it through an auction at Backstage Auctions and I had to have a piece of it…and I did wind up with some things.
The next one in the collection I bought is ‘Live in Australia 1980’. It isn’t really a live show per se. It is actually a Australian documentary show that talks about Kiss and interspersed between the narrator, we get live songs and tidbits from band members, Doc Mchee and even their road manager. It sounds like the show was recorded on VHS and they transferred it to be put on CD (more on that later). You get about 11 live songs from their tour in Australia that hit Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane I believe. Most songs I’ve read come from Sydney, but I hear the announcer and Paul calling out Adelaide I believe.
As I said, it is a documentary type show as there is a narrator and the dialogue written is quite comical at times. The narrator delivers it so seriously, but it is so cheesy and at times so inaccurate. Quite enjoyable for the humor of it that wasn’t intentional. It all kicks off with a TV promo that has each member introducing themselves and then Ace introducing the band’s new drummer Eric Carr. The band gets introduced and they go in to “Detroit Rock City” but it is not listed on the track listing. That song is usually a great song to kick off the show, but because this recorded on tape, the tape was rather warped or whatever because we get a lot of tape drag and Ace’s playing sounds simply atrocious. Luckily, this is the only song that is that way.
Bon Jovi have been huge in Japan since the beginning. As a result, Japan gets all the cool stuff and they did again this time as well. Bon Jovi reissued their first three albums on SHM-CDs and in a 7″ Vinyl format…but on CD. You get Bon Jovi, 7800° Fahrenheit and Slippery When Wet. We will walk through what you get with each disc and how it differs from the two recent U.S. Reissues of Bon Jovi and Slippery When Wet.
So go check it out as it will be live tonight, June 9, 2025 at 7pm. Thanks for stopping by and please click “Like” and hit “Subscribe” as it helps out the site when you do.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 