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Angel: Helluva Progressive Hair Metal 70s Glam Rock Band
09.05.2012
07:25 pm
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Don’t ask me why, but the wife and I were just having a conversation about the lame mid-1970s group Angel. Remember them?

Angel was a heavy metal progressive glam rock band from Washington, D.C., who were discovered by Gene Simmons. The group was formed in the mid-70s by pouty pretty-boy guitarist Punky Meadows and bassist Mickie Jones and their gimmick, basically, was that they dressed in all white and were extremely androgynous. Simmons got them signed to Casablanca Records and generally speaking, they were considered the “opposite” of Kiss.

Or something. I never followed them, and paid them no mind, but I did find them vaguely amusing. At times Angel sounded like a 1970s version of what would later become the 1980s hair metal sound, at other times like The Sweet would if their songs sucked, and sometimes they even sounded like Supertramp. There is no doubt that Angel influenced This Is Spinal Tap. None at all.

Punky Meadows was disrespectfully immortalized in Frank Zappa’s “Punky’s Whips” but was a good sport about it and even joined Zappa onstage in his white Angel stage garb.

Below, “The Tower,” a song well-known on 70s FM radio:
 

 
After the jump, a 1978 TV commercial for Angel…

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Posted by Richard Metzger
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09.05.2012
07:25 pm
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Deep Purple’s Jon Lord dead at 71

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One time Deep Purple keyboardist, Jon Lord has died in London at the age of 71. In a band with such a continuously flucuating line-up, Lord was one of the heavy group’s few constant members, co-writing hits like “Smoke on the Water,” “Strange Kind of Woman” and “Black Night.” Lord played keyboards in Deep Purple from the band’s formation in 1968 through their first split in 1976 and when they reformed in 1984 until he retired from music in 2002.

The statement from his website reads:

It is with deep sadness we announce the passing of Jon Lord, who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism today, Monday 16th July at the London Clinic, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jon was surrounded by his loving family.

Jon Lord, the legendary keyboard player with Deep Purple co-wrote many of the bands legendary songs including Smoke On The Water and played with many bands and musicians throughout his career.

Best known for his Orchestral work Concerto for Group & Orchestra first performed at Royal Albert Hall with Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969 and conducted by the renowned Malcolm Arnold, a feat repeated in 1999 when it was again performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra and Deep Purple.

Jon’s solo work was universally acclaimed when he eventually retired from Deep Purple in 2002.

Jon passes from Darkness to Light.

Born in Leicester, June 9, 1941, Lord was a classically trained pianist, who originally planned a career as an actor. He attended the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, while keyboards (piano, Hammond organ) with various Jazz combos.

In 1960, he joined the jazz band the Bill Ashton Combo. He also worked a as session musician playing keyboards on The Kinks first hit “You Really Got Me”. During the mid-1960s, Lord formed and played with a variety of bands (including one with Ronnie Wood) before forming Deep Purple with Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Paice in 1968.

Deep Purple, along with Black Sabbath, pioneered Heavy Metal during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Purple had the edge through the Blackmore’s brilliant guitar-playing and Lord’s mastery of the keyboards (primarily the Hammond organ). Together they made Deep Purple one of the most exciting bands on the planet. Of particular merit was their ability to perform a classical album Concerto for Group and Orchestra, mainly under Lord’s influence, and one of Rock’s greatest albums Machine Head, mainly under Blackmore’s influence. It was this ability to try out each other’s musical ideas that made the band so successful. Or as Lord said in 1973:

‘We’re as valid as anything by Beethoven.’

After he left Deep Purple in 1976, Lord released a solo album Sarabande and then went on to join Whitesnake, remaining an integral part of the band until 1984.

Lord was a brilliant musician, whose talents went beyond his work in Rock and Heavy Metal. He wrote and released several classical music albums including The Gemini Suite , Windows and To Notice Such Things. He also had a fruitful collaboration with the singer Sam Brown on the albums, Before I Forget, the concept album, Picture Within and Beyond the Notes.

Jon Lord 9 June 1941 – 16 July 2012.
 

 
Bonus: Deep Purple in concert from New York, 1973, after the jump…
 

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Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.16.2012
03:21 pm
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Iconic heavy metal album covers turned into coloring book for kids

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Image via Nerdcore.
 
German artist Christopher Tauber created this fantastic heavy metal children’s coloring book just in time for the holidays. I like how he puts his own spin on popular metal album covers so that they’re more kid friendly.

Check out Christopher’s Flickr set here.
 
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More metal madness after the jump…

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Posted by Tara McGinley
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12.05.2011
12:21 pm
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The heavy metal cowboys of Botswana
05.03.2011
04:34 am
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These photographs by Frank Marshall of heavy metal devotees in Botswana, Africa are simply amazing, oozing style and attitude.

Botswana metalhead Tshomarelo Mosaka describes the scene:

Metal is given very extreme respect and great dignity in Botswana. A metal gig here is like a religious ritual among the metallers, they become very, very delighted or even crazy sometimes whenever there is an upcoming gig. They will spend weeks preparing their leather pants, boots and other metal attire – it’s like they are preparing for war!”

One of the only white metal musicians in Botswana, Giuseppe Sbrana, shares his take on where the scene’s fashion sense comes from: 

A good example of where we get the style from is Motorhead’s Ace Of Spades cover. Also, many metalheads in Botswana are cowboys from the villages and farms, so they mix the cowboy image with a biker metal look. Many wear hunting knives and parts of dead animals. We drink from the hollowed-out cow horns.”

Cue the Ennio Morricone.
 
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Some serious Misfits influence in this photo:
 
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The names these cats have given themselves are hardcore poetry: Bone Machine, Morgue Boss, Bound By The Moon, Coffinfeeder, Venerated Villain and my favorite Apothecary Dethrok. I’m buying some leather and changing my name to Malcolm Sex Formal D. Hyde Sinister Minister.

Be your own hero, anytime anywhere. Dudes, you rock!
 
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See more of these wild photographs and read the entire article over at Viceland:
Atlas Hoods: Botswana’s Cowboy Metalheads

Posted by Marc Campbell
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05.03.2011
04:34 am
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