Atomic Rooster was a British progressive-rock group formed in 1969 with an original lineup of Vincent Crane (organ), Nick Graham (bass), and Carl Palmer (drums).

ATOMIC ROOSTER is highly recommended to everyone looking for Hammond organ-driven rock of the early 70's but to anyone looking for high-energy prog. It is responsible for some of the all-time best hard-rock albums and should figure in all collection (you should hide a copy of "In Hearing Of …." in your grandma's collection just for kicks.

Previous hits anthologies representing this interesting prog-metal pioneer are either pricey imports, out of print rarities, sadly incomplete, or any combination of the three. Heavy Soul rectifies this by containing no less than four cuts from each of the band's first five discs that came out during the group's halcyon days of 1970-1973; In Hearing of Atomic Rooster gets eight of its nine cuts placed here, in fact. Some obsessive types might complain that none of the post-Nice & Greasy discs are represented – for some reason, there's a pocket of fans who salivate over the metallic '80s material the Roost put out before finally calling it a day – but the key material that put the band on the map is all here.

1973 BROADCAST FROM THE WHO’S QUADROPHENIA TOUR  By 1973, the Who had begun recording their Quadrophenia album, the rock opera about mod culture. The Quadrophenia tour started in Stoke on Trent in October ‘73 - the same month the record was released - but was immediately beset with sound and relationship problems. Their US tour started on 20 November at the Cow Palace; a legendary show during which Keith Moon passed out, prompting Pete Townshend to ask the audience, "Can anyone play the drums? I mean somebody good." The show was completed with audience member Scott Halpin behind Moon’s kit.  The Who’s penultimate gig in the US during their ‘73 tour, was performed at the Spectrum in Philadelphia on December 4th. Playing a stunning concert which for many fans was the best show of the tour, the Who ripped through an extraordinary set, bookended by Who classics, but with a dynamic selection of numbers from Quadrophenia at its core.

Emerson, Lake & Palmer were progressive rock's first supergroup. Greeted by the rock press and the public as something akin to conquering heroes, they succeeded in broadening the audience for progressive rock from hundreds of thousands to tens of millions of listeners. They created a major radio phenomenon as well, penning classic rock radio staples like "Lucky Man," Still…You Turn Me On," and "Karn Evil 9 1st Impression, Pt. 2," and issuing hugely influential albums like Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery. Their flamboyance on record and in the studio echoed the best work of the heavy metal bands of the era, proving that classical rockers could compete for that arena-scale audience.

2011’s Feels Like the First Time, which features 23 cuts spanning two discs, offers up a twist on the old best-of formula. Rather than serve up the same collection of iconic radio hits (“Cold as Ice,” “Hot Blooded,” “Juke Box Hero,” “Urgent”), which Foreigner has done so many times that their greatest-hits anthologies actually outnumber the studio albums, the band chose to re-record their biggest hits, allowing new vocalist Kelly Hansen the chance to further hone his admittedly impressive Lou Gramm impression. Disc one, which features unplugged versions of the songs, is the most interesting of the lot, though that’s mostly due to the fact that disc two, which contains the new studio versions, is so true to the originals that it sounds like Hansen doing karaoke. The addition of one new cut, the amiable yet generic “Save Me," might interest fans who have followed lone original member Mick Jones' version of the group since they began juggling new lead singers in 1991, but more than likely, Feels Like the First Time will simply hoodwink casual listeners looking for the classics into taking the bait.

The Moody Blues' resumed work together after a four-year hiatus and delivered Octave in 1978, which quickly became a hit but has also proved to be a very problematic album. Picking up where he left off on Seventh Sojourn, bassist/singer John Lodge generated a hit single (and also a solid album opener) with the surprisingly edgy (for this band) rocker "Steppin' in a Slide Zone." And Justin Hayward's "Had to Fall in Love," "Driftwood," and "The Day We Meet Again" – the latter their best album closer since "Watching and Waiting" – are also up to the standard one would wish for (and a bit of a surprise, coming in the wake of two major solo projects that should have depleted his song bag). Additionally, Graeme Edge's "I'll Be Level with You" gives the album some harder rocking moments, but that's not the real reason for buying Moody Blues records; rather, it's the sweep, the overall body of music and vision, psychedelic and romantic, punched up with some solid rock moments, and it's this larger arc of the music that is missing here.

The group started 1968 by touring Australia and New Zealand with the Small Faces. The groups had trouble with the local authorities and the New Zealand Truth called them "unwashed, foul-smelling, booze-swilling no-hopers". After an incident that took place on a flight to Sydney, the band were briefly arrested in Melbourne and then forced to leave the country; Prime Minister John Gorton sent a telegram to The Who telling them never to return to Australia. The Who would not return to Australia again until 2004. They continued to tour across the US and Canada during the first half of the year.

Such an unimaginative title for such a imaginative boxful. Across four discs and 105 songs, Cliff Richard's earliest catalog comes in for precisely the kind of treatment every rock & roll star should have: an all-encompassing study of his most important period. Even more impressively, though the song titles all sound familiar, the performances rarely are. Thirty-seven tracks are bona fide unreleased (South African 78s notwithstanding), but several dozen more are culled from scarce EP-only mixes, rarely resurfacing B-sides, and unusual mixes.

Présent dans les hit-parades britanniques depuis six décennies, Cliff Richard est une institution du rock anglais. Né Harry Rodger Webb à Lucknow, en Inde, le 14 octobre 1940, il fait ses débuts dans le rock'n'roll seize ans plus tard avec son premier groupe The Drifters, qui devient The Shadows et collectionne les succès : « Move It », « Livin' Doll », « Bachelor Boy », entre autres. Après un passage en solo, l'idole des jeunes se convertit au christianisme en 1964 et poursuit une carrière multiple de chanteur, acteur et animateur de télévision extrêmement populaire au Royaume-Uni. Doyen du rock britannique en activité depuis 1958, Cliff Richard a logé quatorze chansons au sommet des classements de ventes, dont « We Don't Talk Anymore » (1979) et « Millenium Prayer » (1999). Il continue d'enregistrer des albums entre pop, rock et chansons de Noël. Anobli par la reine Elizabeth II en 2009, Sir Cliff Richard retrouve son groupe historique, The Shadows, pour l'album Reunited. Puis, après un album de blue-eyed soul, Soulicious (2011), le septuagénaire consacre deux volumes au rock'n'roll de sa jeunesse, The Fabulous Rock'N'Roll Songbook (2013) et Just…Fabulous Rock'N'Roll (2016). Ce dernier, son centième album, est suivi deux ans plus tard par Rise Up et en 2020 par Music… The Air That I Breathe, qui rassemble des duos avec Bonnie Tyler, Albert Hammond, The Bellamy Brothers, Sheila Walsh et The Piano Guys.

CLASSIC 1978 BROADCAST FROM GERMANY S THEN DIVIDED CITY After falling out with his long-time manager Herb Cohen, Frank Zappa spent much of the late 1970s in a legal battle with Cohen and later with Warner Brothers too. With the majority of his own recorded material thus tied up, Zappa concentrated on touring with a small, rock-oriented band. March 1978 witnessed the release of Zappa In New York, recorded live with a 13-strong band at the Palladium in late December 1976. Demonstrating in equal measure Zappa s extraordinary ability as a composer and fearless approach to controversial topics, the record reached a respectable No. 57 on the Billboard chart. Two standout numbers from In New York, Titties & Beer and The Black Page , would be a fixture of Zappa sets by the time his 1978 European tour rolled around, as the concert featured on this two CD set can attest.

If there is one group that embodies progressive rock, it is King Crimson. Led by guitar/Mellotron virtuoso Robert Fripp, during its first five years of existence the band stretched both the language and structure of rock into realms of jazz and classical music, all the while avoiding pop and psychedelic sensibilities. The absence of mainstream compromises and the lack of an overt sense of humor ultimately doomed the group to nothing more than a large cult following, but it made their albums some of the most enduring and respectable of the prog rock era.

Metallica is the definitive heavy metal band, the group that brought the gnarly underground sounds of thrash metal into the mainstream, then reshaped the contours of heavy music and hard rock once they became the biggest rock band in the world after the release of their self-titled "black album" in 1991. By that point, Metallica had already experienced enough upheaval for two careers. Emerging from the feverish metal underground of the early '80s, Metallica became a word-of-mouth sensation with their indie releases Kill 'Em All and Ride the Lightning, records that helped them land a contract with Elektra.

Phish had a busy year in 1994 with the release of their fifth studio album, ‘Hoist’, on March 29th followed by extended U.S. and Canada touring from April through New Year’s Eve. ‘Hoist’ was recorded in Los Angeles County the previous October and November of 1993, when the band was evacuated from ‘Hoist’ sessions at American Recording Company due to the Old Topanga Fire. On May 16th, 1994 during their spring tour, Phish returned to Los Angeles to play The Wiltern Theatre – a landmark Art Deco vaudeville and movie palace built in 1931 with a capacity of about 2,200 and located in Koreatown at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Western Avenue. It was a Monday night, tickets cost $17.50, and the band had invited The Simpsons creator Matt Groening to the show, catalyzing a long relationship that eventually found Phish on The Simpsons in 2002. The Wiltern ’94 was a nearly non-stop show with an easy flow and adventurous jamming woven around a creative setlist that elevated all those fortunate enough to bear witness.

Frank Vincent Zappa was of Italian origins, his grandfather having arrived in America from Partinico, Sicily. Frank Zappa grew to be one of the most accomplished composers of the rock era, his music combining an understanding and appreciation for such contemporary classical figures as Igor Stravinsky, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Edgard Varèse. These influences, coupled with an affection for late '50s doo-wop, rock & roll and skillful guitar-heavy rock, dominated pop in the '70s. However, Zappa was also a keen satirist, whose reserves of scorn and parody seemed bottomless and whose wicked sense of humor and absurdity continued to delight his numerous fans - even when his lyrics crossed the broadest bounds of taste.