On YouTube right now, Grant’s Rock Warehaus had me on as a guest and we talked the I.R.S. Years for the band The Alarm. I love the I.R.S. Years of the band and they were one of my favorite bands of the 80’s. I mean who’s talking about The Alarm!! We are so join Grant and myself as we spread the love of this band.
The Alarm, hailing from Wales, burst onto the scene in the early ’80s with a powerful blend of punk rock energy and anthemic, socially conscious lyrics. Fronted by Mike Peters, the band quickly gained attention with their passionate performances and songs like “68 Guns” and “Strength.” Their music, often characterized by ringing guitars and a distinctive mix of punk, rock, and folk influences, resonated with fans looking for both substance and style. Over the years, The Alarm has remained a beloved band, known for their resilience and Peters’ commitment to using music as a force for change.
I am sure you have a few questions… Like, who are the Cybernauts? The Cybernauts are a Mick Ronson/David Bowie tribute band and they play all the hits they had together. David might have wrote the songs, but Mick was the guitarist and what a player he was and what life he gave those songs. And, why is this part of the Def Leppard series? Well, that is because two members of this cover band are none other then singer Joe Elliott and guitarists Phil Collen from Def Leppard. The rest of the Cybernauts are Trevor Bolder (bass) and Woody Woodmansey (drums) both from David Bowie’s band Spiders from Mars. Also, to round it out on keyboard is Dick Decent.
Trevor and Joe meet way back in 1983 and had been friends ever since. When Trevor was asked to put together a band for a Mick Ronson memorial service, he found out Joe and Phil were asked to play as well so they teamed up for the event and performed. A few years later they were asked to do it again, but this time they decided to actually do a small tour with the band and finish it at the Mick Ronson memorial show. Joe had the idea of recording the Dublin show and they did. That was August 7, 1997 in Dublin, Ireland at the Olympia Theatre. And three years later in 2000, the CD was released and only released in Japan.
My copy though was released in 2001 and was a 2 CD set with the original show, plus a 2nd CD of studio recordings. The E.P. was called The Further Adventures of the Cybernauts…which we will discuss later. For now, we will focus on disc 1, the live show they recorded which consisted of 18 tracks that will take you back to those critical years of David Bowie and Mick Ronson and you are reminded of what an amazing catalog the two had together.
Joel Hoekstra might be one of the best hired guns in the business. From his time in Night Ranger, to Whitesnake, to Cher, to Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) to now Revolution Saints. And in between he has done several solo albums of instrumental music. This time, he wanted to showcase his songwriting abilities and so he started a new project called Joel Hoekstra’s 13 and he brought along some heavy hitters. Helping on this album were none other than Tony Franklin (Blue Murder, The Firm, Whitesnake) on bass, Vinny Appice (Last in Line, Heaven & Hell, Dio & Black Sabbath) on bass and then on vocals he brought in the great Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob, Allen/Lande, TSO) to handle the vocals. But the reason for the post is the final connection with Jeff Scott Soto.
Jeff was brought in to do backing vocals, but Jeff being the powerhouse and force of nature he is, ended up singing about half the songs on the album. Yes, he is that good. Now, Joel wrote all the songs including music and lyrics which is why this has his name stamped on it. He did have help on one song that he did with Russell called “Changes”. This has been treated as a solo project, but really this is something more. Heck, in fact all of these people would be back for second album a few years later (except Jeff would be only backing vocals on that one – and we wont’ review if for this series as a result.
Even with all these major players on the album, there is still some more help brought in. We get the great Derek Sherinian on keyboards, Charlie Zeleny on percussion and Dave Eggar on the cello for the final song on the album “What We Believe”. And that isn’t all. He also wrangled in Toby Hitchcock (Pride of Lions) and Chloe Lowery (TSO) to do some duets with Mr. Soto. This line-up is pretty damn impressive so the music has to be good…right? Ahhh…you are damn straight!! I missed this album when it came out, not realizing Mr. Soto was on it and if I did, I would’ve been all over it. But I am going to say something that surprises even me, my favorite parts of this album aren’t Jeff Scott Soto…no sir. They are Russell Allen. I forget how awesome he is vocally and this stuff really makes him shine. Alright, let’s get to it, shall we.
The first album I ever bought was off a TV commercial way back in the 70’s. We were watching the TBS channel, but for us it was a local channel as we were from Atlanta. This was before it became a cable channel. TBS was showing re-runs of the TV show The Monkees. I saw that commercial and begged my mom to buy that album as I really, really wanted it. Well, being the fantastic mom she was, she picked up the phone, made a call and the next thing you know I had a copy of that album. It was The Monkees Greatest Hits and I still have that record today (see below).
Fast forward about 46 years later and I’m still a Monkees fan. But I didn’t have any of their other albums in my collection. I was on Amazon and I saw this box set called 50: Classic Album Collection by The Monkees. It had their first 9 albums included as well as a bonus disc of other tracks. I asked Santa for it and guess what was under the tree.
The Box Set came out in 2016 and is celebrating the band’s 50th Anniversary as they started in 1966. It was released on April 16, 2016 and was a Record Store Day special. I missed this because my first Record Store Day wasn’t until 2017 because if I was back in to collecting in 2016, I would’ve bought this then with no questions asked as it was limited to only 3,000 copies. Now, when I asked for this for Christmas, I actually assumed the box set was only the black vinyl, but when I opened it up and pulled out the debut album, it was a colored vinyl, in fact, they all were a different color. Man, what a surprise it was. There was nothing on the label to tell you if you got the standard black or the color…I got lucky I guess.
2 Loud 2 Old Music 