Utilita Live from the Drive In are thrilled to announce the addition of REEF featuring Andy Taylor (Duran Duran/The Power Station) to play a special Drive-In tour this August and September.
Reef frontman Gary Stringer says, “We love playing live but at the moment that up close and personal mode of show is on hold and who knows for how long? We all felt like this was the perfect opportunity for us to get back out there with our instruments and do what we do best.
“I’m really excited about this from a performance perspective and think it’s a great opportunity for fans to escape the confines of lockdown for a night in a safe environment, drink cider and rock out with us. Plus we have a couple of brand new songs that we are all really excited about and cannot wait to play.”
Reef will be joined by former Duran Duran / The Power Station guitarist Andy Taylor, so expect a few choice Andy Taylor numbers in the set too. Plus, to round things off for this special run of dates, the band will also be joined by virtuoso drummer Luke Bullen (Bryan Ferry / Joe Strummer / Chris Squire), capping off one very special line up.
Reef will also be releasing a very special vinyl edition of their debut album Replenish on September 25th to celebrate its 25th anniversary.
For tickets, venues, dates and more info head Here
HARD ROCK HELL announce HRH ROAD TRIP XI – IBIZA 2020, which is being held on 6th to 13th May 2020. The line up includes: SKINDRED, TED POLEY (Danger Danger), REEF, JOE LYNN TURNER, JOHN COGHLAN’SQUO, LA GUNS, JIZZY PEARL’SLOVE/HATE, TEN YEARS AFTER, WAYWARD SONS, SEETHING AKIRA, MASSIVE, MIDNITE CITY, and more to be announed!
Bands – Bikes – Beers – Boats – Brotherhood: The 5 cornerstones of HRH Road Trips– the ultimate rock’n’roll holiday.
Held annually on the world-famous holiday island of Ibiza, the HRH RoadTrip has grown from its humble beginnings 10 years ago to become one of rock and metals most celebrated events.
The event attracts world famous rock and metal artists – such as Hawkwind, Whitesnake’s Bernie Marsden, Motorhead’s Phil Campbell, Reef, Rainbow’s Joe Lynn Turner, Skindred, Girlschool, LA Guns and The Quireboys – to play and soak up the sun and unique atmosphere of the Spanish leg of Hard Rock Hell.
Over 4000 rock fans attended this year’s event making it the biggest yet – and next year is shaping up to be even bigger and better.
Doesn’t matter if it’s lazing by the pool with banging tunes in the background, making shapes on the most famous dancefloors in the world such as Eden or taking in the spectacular sunsets on the beach … there’s something for everyone.
HRH Magazine’s Adam Kennedy had this to say about this year’s event “With the unpredictable nature of British summertime weather, a five-day hard rock festival located on the Balearic Island of Ibiza doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. You can leave those wellies at home, put your tent away, and comfortably enjoy the diverse bill of entertainment on display without worrying about having to dredge through muddy fields or being washed away by the rain.
As the White Isle awakens from its annual winter hibernation, flocks of revellers will arrive at the party capital of the world as HRH takes over San Antonio’s hotels, bars, and legendary night spots. The event itself once again offers a comprehensive bill of both established and emerging talent whilst encompassing acts that represent many of HRH festival’s different brands. There will also be the chance to take part in Ibiza traditions such as the customary HRH bike ride, pool and boat parties, or take the opportunity to experience the island’s world-famous sunsets with an early evening boat trip.
When Axl Rose penned the lyrics to “Paradise City”, he could well have been thinking about a location not too dissimilar to San Antonio. At the heart of Ibiza’s Rock n Roll paradise is one of the island’s most beloved super clubs “Eden”. Every year HRH Road Trip will take-over the famed night club and its many different rooms for the duration of the event. Nestled away between San Antonio Bay and the world-famous nightlife of San Antonio town, the 5,000 capacity club is the perfect spot to host an event such as HRH RTX.
Described by one festival punter as being like ‘Download with a pool’ HRH RTX entails several music filled days and plenty of sun, sea and San Miguel plus of course a healthy mix of rock, blues, metal, stoner and prog that will keep the party going until the wee hours during four music-filled club nights.”
HRH Road Trip XI is being held on 6th to 13th May 2020. For all the details and packages visit www.hrhroadtrip.com or call 044+ 207 193 1164.
Not Just your regular summer, no sir, this one is hot! and its only getting hotter!
June 2018
Whilst May was relatively quiet (slang) June was positively bristling with releases and live shows for the RPM crew and the beginning of the festival season was open. But we couldn’t mention June 2018 without a few tributes to fallen comrades in Rock and Roll.
Firstly, Heavy Drapes frontman Garry Alexander Borland passed away the first week after returning from Holland after a really successful show at Rebellion over there. Garry’s passing was a huge shock to people close to him obviously but his passing was also felt in the wider alternative community with his band on the verge of much bigger and better things what with the up and coming decent billing at Rebellion UK and their debut album ready to go so its only right we record this moment and pay tribute to Garry. May he rest in peace.
Another sad passing was that of DJ Fontana who was Elvis Presley’s drummer for many a year, Dominic Joseph Fontana was responsible for laying down the backbeat on almost 500 songs with the king which is no mean feat and a really impressive CV by any standard also it’s only right we recognise his contribution to music. Rest in Peace DJ.
Sadly a third influential musician passed away in June this year, none other than Nick Knox the second but longest-serving Cramps drummer. Nick joined the band from the Electric Eels and occupied the drum stool from 1977-1991, Knox toured with the band and appeared on some of the Cramps’ best recordings, ‘Songs The Lord Taught Us‘, ‘Psychedelic Jungle’ and ‘A Date With Elvis’. Rest In Peace Nick Knox the man behind Lux and the man behind the shades.
Sadly the fourth person to pass away in June was none other than West coast punk rock legend Steve Soto of The Adolescents. Steve was originally the bass player in Agent Orange back in ’79 he then served as bass player in the Adolescents until passing. the most recent album ‘Cropduster‘ being his final piece of work and easily one of 2018 finest albums. The band went on to tour the summer around Europe with stand-in player and dedicated the set each night to Steve where they had a backdrop replacing the band’s logo and replacing it with SOTO at Rebellion in August Tony Reflex dedicated the show to his bandmate in a touching speech and subsequent performance that was electric and memorable, Rest In Peace Steve 54 is way too young.
Right hopefully onto much happier matters for the month of June 2018. With Festival season in full swing Fraser headed to Download and watched The Bronx, The Hives and Turbonegro show the festivals other acts how Rock and Roll was meant to be delivered to the people. elsewhere it seemed like the world and his Mrs were off to see the Rolling Stones play some enormadome or should that be a field?
IT might have cost the GDP of some countries to get close enough to see the band measure up to the size of a subbutteo player but it has to be said nobody was disappointed in either the performance or the setlist the band was knocking out on this leg of the tour. Jagger was ever his peter pan like self careering from one side of the huge stage to the other like he was a child with more energy than most performers more than half his age and some.
Nev decided he’d bowl darn London way and take in what Camden Rocks had to offer. Basically, all the pubs of any note and the dive bars, as well as the more famous landmarks such as Dingwalls, Electric Ballroom etc throw, open their doors to live Rock and Roll for the day and if you have a wristband and there’s room at the inn then uh, you’re in! Just wear some comfortable shoes and a stage planner. You might just happen across your favourite new band or someone you’ve been meaning to catch and hey presto there they are. (Deep Breath time) This year Nev caught The Ramonas at the Dublin Castle – Dirty Thrills at The Underworld Talia Dean in Brew Dog then back to the underworld for Sonic Boom Six and some knees up skanking ska which went down rather well with Nev. It wouldn’t have been right had our roving scribe not caught Urban Voodoo Machine down at the lock where the place to be was indeed Dingwalls then to finish off a marathon of live entertainment it was Camden Assembly for some Ryan Hamilton & The Traitors before the Rifles was a curtain call for Mr Brooks but he wasn’t banking on bumping into Paul-Ronny Angel either so his night wasn’t quite over!
Ben went to Rambling Man Fair and enjoyed the performances of such heavyweight rockers as The Cult and also managed to catch RPM favourites Jim Jones and The Righteous Mind as well as the real mock rockers Steel Panth..Nah I can’t type it sorry folks I’d be doing RPM a disservice even mentioning them. anyway, Ben also managed to take in the large club gig of the month that was the triple-headed Britrock Must Be Destroyed touring carnival that featured a rotating line up of Reef, The Wildhearts, and Terrorvision. there were multiple dates to be fair and it was decided on the day how the running order would play out. I reckon each band made new fans on the night as reports were coming in of all three raising each others game and an excellent way to tour. The night Ben had in Leeds also saw Dodgy added to the lineup.
Our intrepid European correspondent or one of them Craggy got to see Repetitor live at Kabinet Muz, Brno I said Craggy got to see Repetitor in Brno…oh forget it he enjoyed it anyway said it was one of his highlights of the year to be fair.
Now with a sharp intake of breath June was positively overflowing with album releases that would bother top tens come the end of the year. Just a few of those contenders has to be The Interrupters with their ‘Fight The Good Fight’ that saw them leap up the rankings with a fantastic collection of tunes that was shaking up not just fans of the bands previous two albums but new music fans who heard one of the many potential hits on the radio or tv with the album set to just keep on selling and selling we are looking at the next big thing as they won’t be playing clubs for much longer.
Getting Tim Armstrong in to produce the record is a great move as the guy oozes class and knows his way around a ska-punk record and if he had a hand in any of the songwriting or arranging then boy pat yourselves on the back because the infectious ‘A Friend Like Me’, ‘Shes Kerosene’ and the awesome ‘Got Each Other’ are three reasons why this record will deservedly be in many ends of year top 3’s and rightly so..
Elsewhere June saw the release of London Towns Portuguese legends The Parkinson’s return with the LP ‘The Shape Of Nothing To Come’ that confirmed that these gentlemen still had it and it was a fine return to the fold in every way. Now expanded to a five piece you can take the boys out of punk rock but you can’t ever take the punk rock out of the boys and that boys and girls is a fact. the Parkinsons still have the chops.
Another couple of worthy mentions in the albums released in June has to be Smash Fashion and their ‘Rompus Pompous’. Which has gone down a right storm at RPM as they’ve really hit their stride on this one and joioning them would have to be Nottingham’s The Speedways with the fantastic slice of power pop that is ‘Just Another Regular Summer’ the brains behind the idea to write an album was Matt former guitarist of The Breakdowns he’s since formed a band after the success of the record and has played a number of shows and next year they’ve already planned some shows in Spain and London. It really is power pop perfection and a record we highly recommend.
The old school shouldn’t be forgotten either because June was also the month when the phrase you can’t teach an old dog new tricks was debunked because The Uk Subs once again released a new album ‘Subversions’ of some of their favourite songs by other people – sure a cover album. there might well be some you could see coming but there are others on the album that you would never have seen coming.
Over in NYC the birthplace of hardcore and home to some of the best bands around Madball made a new record they put out in June 2018 and the brutal ‘For The Cause’ was unleashed on the world and immediately felt at home with the RPM crew.
Finally a mention of records released in June this time for the magnificent London power poppin’ punk rockin’ Los Pepe who released their long playing Greatest Hits on Snap Records! it came with a CD of the album and they also got to knock out a single this month as well which was nice. Don’t get me started on singles that appeared this month because ther were plenty with my pick of the pack coming from the Randy Savages who were ‘Guilty Of Nuthin’ .
Utilita Live from the Drive In are thrilled to announce the addition of REEF featuring Andy Taylor (Duran Duran/The Power Station) to play a special Drive-In tour this August and September.
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