FEATURE SPECIAL: EARACHE’S NWORNR ALBUM

Drawing together a number of recent interview clips with Great Music Stories regulars, I spoke with six acts that appear on the Earache New Wave of Rock N Roll vinyl album – and put the set out as an hour special. Interviews in this piece include: The Dust Coda, Skam, Verity White, Matt Mitchell, Jack J Hutchinson and Tomorrow is Lost.

In recent years Earache has charted both the Wagons and Crows in the Top 20 of The Official Album Charts – and this new vinyl album extends a similar opportunity to 15 more bands.
 
The album is available to pre-order now at http://www.earache.com/nwornr

It is available in a choice of three different coloured vinyl variations – Black, Clear, Purple.
 
Track listing for the album below

Side A (27:27)

01. Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones – Bomb Through the Breeze (02:45)
02. Tomorrow Is Lost – We Are the Lost (04:13)
03. Loz Campbell – Back Biting the Bullet (02:57)
04. Elles Bailey – Medicine Man (03:41)
05. Verity White – Inside Your Love (03:01)
06. Matt Mitchell & The Coldhearts – Black Diamonds (03:33)
07. Jack J Hutchinson – Justified (04:01)
08. The Dust Coda – Rock N Roll (03:16)
 
Side B (29:45)
 
01. Piston – One More Day (03:05)
02. Dead Man’s Whiskey – Last Train (03:50)
03. Revival Black – Wide Awake (04:24)
04. Gorilla Riot – Bad Son (05:08)
05. Samarkind – Black Rain (04:52)
06. SKAM – Take It or Leave It (03:12)
07. Maker – Dead Ends & Avenues (05:14)
 
New Wave Of Rock N Roll – live showcase.
To further promote the album and live rock in general, Earache Records has teamed up with the Academy group and will stage a NWORNR live showcase at 02 Academy Islington, on Tues 10 March, featuring a number of the acts that appear on the album.

Tickets are available here: https://www.ticketmaster.co.uk/event/1F0057909819595B

GMS Sleeve notes

Earache also asked me to write sleeve notes for the vinyl and given my long-standing ties with many of the featured acts, I was delighted to support this exciting new project. An extract of some of my notes below – if you want to read the full piece, you’ll need to get yourself a copy of the vinyl!

It’s a time for new generation of rock in Britain today.

In recent years, too many rock icons have left us too soon; musicians that have left an emphatic mark on our lives and the evolving story of popular music. Their music will live on, but one of the greatest legacies of the likes David Bowie, Tom Petty, Malcolm Young, Chris Cornell and Lemmy Kilmister is they have inspired a new generation of guitar bands in Britain today.

In a media world where the word ‘classic’ has, at times, become synonymous with rock – as people look back nostalgically on the genre’s past glories – it is perhaps time to consider the term ‘modern’ rock, to look at what’s happening today at grassroots venues and grassroots media outlets around the UK. In almost every town of the UK you will find a young guitar band writing music, playing local gigs and connecting with fans on a range of social media platforms. This is a movement, it’s a new wave of British rock n roll and, on this fine compilation, Earache Records presents a taste of what’s happening in Britain today.

I stumbled into this new scene almost by accident back in January 2015. Two of the first bands I interviewed were Massive Wagons and Those Damn Crows. There were natural parallels with these acts. Living outside the music mainstream, here were bands fiercely committed to keeping the British rock tradition alive, writing original music and delivering intense live performances with the kind of passion that kept the heartbeat of local venues beating. Above all, the bands were defined by nice people – grounded, passionate about original music-making and building a direct connection with their fans.

As I look back, these base qualities were the common attributes of so many other new bands that I met and interviewed in the following months and years. As the scale of the emerging scene became apparent it was clear to me that quietly – town by town and band by band – a rock n roll revolution was happening. Social and grassroots media became the channels that connected people. Its power lay in the fact it was an organic, bottom-up process. No one manufactured it, no one started it – it just quietly grew. In the last couple of years, social media communities have added value and more national media have recognised the scene. The game-changing moment though was when Earache Records signed Massive Wagons and the Crows. These were moments that triggered a tidal wave of hope and belief across the scene. Wagons storming the Top 20 of The Official Album Charts in August 2018 set the tangible benchmark on what was possible.

So onto this new album. From a very long shortlist of dozens of bright, rising acts, Earache has selected a selection of 15 bands for you to experience.

For the last five years, on a small radio station in a far- flung corner of the country, I stopped playing the old classics five years ago and aired a weekly show about and for the new generation of bands. Like the bands I’ve supported, the audience has grown person by person, week by week. Today no one misses the old stuff, few people even request it. Once you dip your toe into the new scene there’s no turning back. With every step you take, you’ll uncover another gem. There are hundreds of young British rock bands out there writing great original music and keeping grassroots venues alive. These are today’s real rock heroes and I hope you enjoy this Earache album and, from it, decide to start a journey and discover the hundreds of rock bands that live beyond this album.

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