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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nNew Project from Members of Hanoi Rocks, The Digressions & The Loyalties\u2014Straight-Up Rock \u2019n\u2019 Roll with Heart<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Sideshows is a brand-new project featuring critically acclaimed songwriter Rich Ragany (Role Models, Rich Ragany & The Digressions, The Loyalties, solo), legendary musician Sami Yaffa (Hanoi Rocks, New York Dolls, Jesse Malin, Michael Monroe), and powerhouse U.K. drummer Simon Maxwell (Yo Yos, The Loyalties, Role Models). Their debut features Side A: “Brand New” and Side B: “The Start”\u2014two anthemic rock \u2018n\u2019 roll tracks recorded at Yaffa\u2019s own Red Mud Studios in Mallorca, Spain. Songs by Ragany; music by Ragany\/ Yaffa\/ Maxwell. Engineered by Puter and Sami Yaffa, produced by Yaffa and Ragany, mixed by Andy Brook, and mastered by Graeme Lynch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sami tells how it came to be\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Find The Sideshows online at:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ran into Rags (Ragany) in NYC in the early 2000\u2019s. Seems like a lifetime or two ago now. Rags was a newcomer to the Lower East Side\u2019s music scene, talked a mile a minute, and poured me a couple of free drinks on Jesse\u2019s tab at Niagara Bar, where he was working to make ends meet, while shooting for that glitter in the gutter. Once mutual friend Rich Jones joined our Michael Monroe can can troupe around 2012, Rags started turning up to our gigs in UK and even supported us on a tour there (Turns out he had fallen in love with a lady from the UK and moved after her to a new neighbourhood in London). Over the years of hanging occasionally it became apparent that Rich was a formidable song writer and made great records with The Digressions, Role Models, The Loyalties and solo. When Rags showed up recently at KK\u2019s Steelmill gig in Birmingham to say hi to us (the Monroes that is) he said he had a buncha new songs and was itching to get ’em on 0\u2019s and 1\u2019s. Well hell, I told him I\u2019d been building a small recording studio in my backyard in Mallorca, Spain and said, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you come down and we knock a few out and see how the studio sounds? We made a plan, and Rags came over with his anchor, a superb drummer, Simon Maxwell, who had played on pretty much every recording Rich had done in the UK. We proceeded to record. Windows and doors wide open with a view of the Spanish countryside, all silent except for some roosters and lamb bells. Simon said it was a bit different than their usual recording spot, a room with no windows in Croydon. The studio ended up sounding pretty good. We knocked these two songs out in a couple of days, each session followed by a long dinner\u2026and lots of stories. I think this is a beginning of something, I don’t know what, yet, but something. Stay tuned, and in the meantime enjoy these two great RnR songs!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n