A producer, composer and keyboardist from London, Paul Hardcastle debuted as a solo artist in 1984 and scored the following year with "19," an electro-oriented record featuring news reports and other sources on Vietnam. It became a major hit in his native country; in the U.S., it topped Billboard's club chart. Later, he produced and did remixes for artists such as Ian Dury and Phil Lynott. He continued to sell well in the specialty dance market and occasionally released records as part of the duo Kiss the Sky (with Jaki Graham) while also operating under names like the Def Boys, Beeps International, and Jazzmasters. Zero One (1985), Jazzmasters II (1994), and Hardcastle 2 (1996) were among his most popular releases through the '90s…

The most successful Hungarian rock band in history, OMEGA is one of the rare bands to have been known outside in his country. The legend has it that as albums were released in other countries it became necessary to brake the language barrier. Their music is a combination of Eastern European prog with a bit of symphonic and a bit of psyche prog. The result is a dark orchestrated sound combined with extended improvisation…

Anyone who ever clocked Alan Merrill's vocals with glam rock geniuses The Arrows back in the mid-1970s, and thought they detected a hint of American R&B lounging around the edges, probably wrote it off as a trick of the light. Certainly, they could never have expected Merrill to follow through (eventually) with this, a 23-song tribute album to Arthur Alexander and Otis Blackwell, recorded with ex-Yankees frontman Jon Tiven, and dropping so neatly into the very heart of the songs that one wonders precisely what else Merrill has tucked away in his quiver. First and foremost, Double Shot Rocks' closest living relative is Denny Laine's Wings-powered tribute to Buddy Holly, Holly Days. There's the same sense of simply rolling through the songs for fun, of relaxing into the words and rhythms, and of caring less for slickness and studio trickery than for the sheer joy of singing and playing such great songs.

Paul Jones, Dave Kelly, Tom McGuinness, Rob Townsend and Gary Fletcher - The Blues Band - are seen here in the intimate surroundings of The Fisher Theatre, Bungay. In 1979 the band marked the start of their career with the release of their Official Bootleg Album: thirty years later they have revisited that album to create The Official Bootleg DVD.

All things considered, Finnish heavy metal hitmakers Nightwish rebounded remarkably well from their traumatic divorce proceedings with lead singer Tarja Turunen, moving relatively quickly, once the dust had settled, to replace her with accomplished Swedish siren Anette Olzon (multiple auditions notwithstanding) before carrying on with their career, as usual, on 2007's Dark Passion Play…

Potemkine - Nicolas II it's a very unique piece of undiscovered history! This album hasn't a weak track, every song it's full of musical acrobaties, tecnique, great arrangments and emotions of course! This album it's very jazz/rock fusion influenced, there is not much zeuhl ispiration like his precedessor Triton. This work is more shiny than Triton.

Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour…

Thanks to the new Cherubini Edition, the composer’s unknown comic opera “Koukourgi” was staged for the first time in celebration of his 250th anniversary 2010. The premiere production of Luigi Cherubini‘s opera “Koukourgi” at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater revealed a work that combines a tale from ancient China with the sensibility of the French Revolutionary times of its composition. The three act opera sees a young Chinese man battling for the hand of his sweetheart against the Tartar mandarin Koukourgi, the not unlikeable anti-hero described as a large pumpkin. The turmoil in Paris led to Cherubini’s librettist Honoré-Nicolas-Marie Duveyrier being imprisoned in the Bastille and fleeing to Denmark.The opera was left with the finale incomplete and has remained unperformed for over two centuries.