I recently had an hour with nothing to do so went online looking to waste it. Luckily I quickly came across a documentary about Queen. Now we all know about the group, their influence on a range of musicians, and their most famous hits: ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘We Are the Champions’, ‘Killer Queen’, ‘Somebody to Love’, I could go on and on. The 60 minutes whizzed past as I got caught up in the first part of the two part series.

Once it had finished I noticed at the bottom of the screen the thumbnail link to the second programme of the series. The temptation was overwhelming, within a minute I had given in and was watching it.

What I took away from the series, outside of the quality of the songs and their musicianship (both live and in the studio), was the power of Freddie Mercury as frontman and main vocalist. Put him against anyone in the rock, indie and metal fields (it’s blatantly obvious that no-one in pop could compare) and they instantly shrink in size. It’s like Gulliver in the land of the Lilliputians, a brontosaurus striding over tiny mammals, to sum up it’s no contest.

I can’t quite recall if I was watching TV when Live Aid was on but seeing the footage of the rehearsals and the concert itself, what comes across is their professionalism and Freddie’s mastery over the audience. This is something that he’d obviously perfected over the years since the band formed in 1971. Wembley Stadium that day in July 1985 held 72,000, but in January that very same year Freddie and the guys had played to a combined audience of 600,000 over two nights at the Rock in Rio festival in Rio de Janeiro. Freddie dominated that main stage with such confidence that it still takes one’s breath away.

Robbie Williams tried his best at Live 8 with a cover of ‘We Will Rock You’ but really it was a pale imitation. The way Freddie orchestrated the audience’s responses was like seeing a major conductor wielding their baton over a prestigious symphony orchestra; effortless control.

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Little Room are by no means the only unsigned alternative act in London. However, they certainly have plenty of their own quality tunes under their belt. And if you are into the likes of Joy Division, Interpol, Mogwai or White Lies, then the chance are that you are really going to like this band.

Lead singer Simon Howlett has a great voice for this type of music his songs always have some excellent instrumentation. All in all this Little Room are well worth checking out!

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Anyone with a fondness for Rock music will undoubtedly know a good deal about it already. But do you understand how Rock came about in the first place? And do you realise just how many changes it has been through since it all began?

You see, Rock did not simply slip into a leather jacket and turn up on the music scene one day. This is a genre that has evolved, morphed and spread out in many different directions (all at the same time too!).

Here is a brief history of the beast that is Rock; how it began, what it became and where it is heading to next!

The Blues

Most music connoisseurs will happily agree that the Blues laid the groundwork for all modern Rock music. It had the beat, it had the guitar riffs and most it most certainly had the attitude!

Bluesmen such as Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins and B.B. King are now all absolute legends and their sound has influenced countless musicians over the years.

Any real fan of Rock music will also have a very deep love for the Blues!

Rock and Roll

This is where things began to get really exciting! Rock and Roll may have stemmed directly from the Blues, but it also took music to a whole new level.

Guitarists like Eddie Cochran broke all the rules with their raucous guitar sound and many bands are still playing their own versions of Rock and Roll songs today. In fact, Mr Cochran’s, ‘Summertime Blues' happens to be one of the most covered tracks of all time!

Psychedelic Rock

The next big thing to come along in the music scene was Psychedelic Rock. Of course, this was now the Hippy era and musicians were experimenting with all manner of interesting sounds… However, it was the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane and Janis Joplin who would really break new ground.

Musicians like these were the first to introduce distortion into their guitar playing; something that would become increasingly important in the years to come…

Heavy Metal

Groups who play Heavy Metal are given a pretty bad name a lot of the time. They are often made out to be total brainless morons who are not even capable of reading Newquay hotel reviews !

However, Heavy Metal is actually a really important musical genre that is often far more intricate than many people will realise. It is usually written in sections much like Classical music and it has been incredibly influential over the years!

Prog Rock

Twenty minute long meandering guitar solos may not be everyone’s cup of Rosy Lee, but Progressive Rock is still a notable genre. And what it lacks in the ’Rock Out Sounds' department it more than makes up for with its sense of imagination.

Prog Rock also helped to introduce electronic sounds into music, teaching all of those puritan Rockers that synthesisers are actually our friends, not our enemies!

Punk Rock

It was big, it was loud, it was angry and it upset a whole lot of people (most of whom were parents). Whilst Punk Rock was inarguably nasty and self-destructive, it was quite simply the result of a frustrated and disillusioned generation. Prospects were pretty vacant (!) for the young and Punk was the perfect vehicle for their rage.

There may not have been a great deal of depth to this particular phase in music, but it still had its own distinctive sound. And the Punk guitar style would be adopted by many bands further along the line.

Post Punk

This movement was almost like a thoughtful interlude after a very destructive storm! Post Punk was still loud and rough around the edges, but it had much more of an artistic flavour about itself.

Bands such as Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Joy Division all boasted well-crafted songs, contemplative lyrics and a very definite guitar sound. Needless to say, this all helped to steer Rock back towards the creative.

Grunge

Originating in Seattle, Grunge was the last big thing to come along in the world of rock music. Nirvana were the most commercially accessible band from this genre, but there were certainly plenty of others to choose from…

The Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Audioslave were/are all notable acts. And each of these employed the same dirge-y, distorted guitar style too. Rather ironically, this Grunge sound hails back to the Blues of the early days; right where we began with this article on Rock!

It would seem then that Rock has literally gone full circle. Sure, it has certainly changed its sound and its look plenty of times, yet it has never really wandered very far from its roots at all. So perhaps Rock is not as much of a wild and untamed beast that we have all been led to believe… Maybe it is actually very proud of its ancestry and it does not want to stray too far from this.

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When country music is thought of, the general public normally perceive a hillbilly wearing a ten gallon hat whilst downing a bottle of whisky. Although there are some country music bands which do still wear a cowboy hat and sup from a bottle, the music has developed extensively in such a way that there are many country bands out there that play music which can be classed as heavy rock, rather than traditional country.

This is what makes my country music show very popular not just locally but with many people around the world. Broadcasting every Sunday at 12pm to 2pm on www.expressfm.com in the heart of Portsmouth, my name is Russell Hill and I write for many companies, such as the country music magazine Maverick. Throughout my time writing for Maverick magazine and broadcasting on Express FM, I have come into contact with many amazing bands and enjoyed every single moment when spinning any of their music. As the station prefers to play upbeat music, this is certainly enjoyed by yours truly, especially as I get to play some excellent music which depends heavily on guitars that are turned right up to eleven.

A couple of weeks ago, I had my first live session with the Portsmouth band Bemis. Despite a few hiccups where we couldn’t find a working plug for the bass guitarist’s amp, we soon located one. Within a couple of minutes, Bemis were soon performing brilliantly and, most importantly, loudly. The noise was that brilliant at many points that I had to take my headphones off because, even then, the music they were playing nearly pierced my eardrums.

As we finished a very enjoyable session, there was just enough time to take a couple of photos of the band standing in front of several pop up display stands which Express FM use in the local area. In all, a very good session and I hope to have Bemis back on my show soon.

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The music industry has always been filled with a mixture of talents and genres ranging from the detestable pre made pop bands, cheesy trance DJ’s and love song singers to the talented singer songwriters and bands. The main difference in my opinion between the rubbish and the great in music is down to something that cannot be taught or bought and that is raw musical talent. Too many people seem to have been able to bypass the musical talent part of things and have been let loose on the microphone!

If you look back over time, you can see many of the bands that had this raw musical talent produced loads and loads of albums, and many of the bands are still around today, in their old age, still performing. If they are no longer performing, they are still involved in music through the production side of things. The same cannot be said of put together outfits that have no musical inspiration of their own. They simply sing what someone else has written for them, and have their vocals corrected by the people in the recording studio. I think it is a bit of a joke that so many of these people are given the chance to make music, as they are just seeking a few minutes of fame.

There are a great number bands out there that have been producing really great quality music for years and years, album after album, and yet they still do not receive the play time they deserve on the radio due to these manufactured bands and singers filling the airwaves. They should entertain themselves with a new chess set rather than in a recording studio. Incubus is one such band that has been making superb albums for well over 10 years now, and has a huge underground following. Radio play time is very rare though, and I bet that if they were played on the radio, people would love to hear it over the rest of the rubbish.

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This year’s Mercury Prize may only have just been handed over to the divine Polly Jean Harvey, but that hasn’t stopped the music press from dusting off their crystal balls and giving us their insider tips on who is going to scoop the award in 2012. I have no problem with the music press giving us their hot tips for the future (even if most of them are back in their pharmacy jobs by the end of the month) but predicting the winner of an album prize that has always prided itself on being a little bit different a whole year in advance is just crazy talk!

The Mercury has quickly become the equivalent of the Brits for people with brains. Which is why it saddens me to see such banal and drab suggestions being put forward by the likes of the NME when it comes to 2012’s front-runners. Kasabian. Coldplay. Radiohead. Even Noel Gallagher’s first solo effort is a “sure” nomination according to whichever 40-year-old writer still turns up to the NME office in his ’Wonderwall' t-shirt.

Don’t get me wrong, if any of those established acts produce a great record between now and this time next year, then I’m sure they’ll be on the short-list and one of them might even take the prize. But when you look at the list of Mercury winners over the last five years or so, the odds are very much against acts who have already “made it” taking the award. OK, Polly Jean is a megastar in certain circles (i.e. me and my friends) but Elbow were hardly the darlings of the music press, until ’The Seldom Seen Kid' won the Mercury and started appearing in music collections across the country. Do me a favour, music journos, save the predictions until we’ve actually heard the albums you’re touting as a sure thing for the Mercury. Let’s face it, there’s a tiny possibility that Radiohead’s new material will be maudlin and depressing and Coldplay’s self-absorbed and arrogant, while Noel’s new album just might sound like Oasis' greatest hits…

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Fleet Foxes released its second album, “Helplessness Blues” in May 2011. Fans of the Seattle folk band who loved their first album will not be disappointed by their follow-up.

While paying homage to its folk hero influences like Simon and Garfunkel, the band also puts its own stamp on the 12-tracks of “Helplessness Blues”. The band’s signatures – the organic feel, the poetic lyrics and delivery – are still intact, though there are more mature sounds, and more exploration musically.

The album’s opening track, “Montezuma,” features the band’s signature harmonies. This, coupled with the song’s old-fashioned lyricism might make some feel the song is formulaic. It is like someone seeking Teaching Assistant Jobs and not expecting much only to be pleasantly surprised. But the end result is pleasing, if not musically avante guard, and delivers what fans of the Fleeting Foxes want.

The second track in the album, “Bedouin Dress,” shows more inventiveness in its composition, bringing a breath of freshness without straying far from its core sound. The mix of familiar and new can especially be seen in the 8-minute track “The Shrine/Argument”, which begins rather conventionally, but then gets a dramatic punch of percussion and inventive vocal elements.

The album’s title track is arguably the best of the album, incorporating the best of the band’s signatures with a more modern sound. It is by far more than a stand out.

The album is a fine second outing, thoughtfully constructed to showcase the best of the band, while also showing they can also delve into new territory with style.

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The Foo Fighters are one of the few remaining rock bands that have stayed true to their music, and have generally “behaved” themselves. Their latest album Wasting Light displays their finest work yet, and ranges from softer songs to their iconic hard rock.

With eleven tracks full of voice, harmonies and soul the Foo Fighters have delivered another rock and roll album that needs no ridiculous PR stunts or large format printing. The cover itself features the bands five members, Dave, Pat, Nate, Chris and Taylor.

Bridge Burning” sets of the whole album with the exclamation “these are my famous last words!” After this, their single “Rope” follows reminding us of the bands former rhythms and “Dear Rosemary” features Bob Mould. The songs begin to get softer after “White Limo” and “Arlandria”, with “These Days” progressing to the mellow tracks. The final track “Walk” “which was featured in the credits of the movie “Thor”) closes the album to a strong close.

All eleven of the songs build to their own climax and are powerfully and cleverly composed. Like their old albums “Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace”, “The colour and the Shape” and “In your Honour”, the Foo Fighters have no particular theme that defines them other than great music. Dave himself explained how for “Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace” the band did not stick to their usual instruments for many of the songs. Nevertheless “Wasting Light” seems to reveal a more sophisticated style of rock from this band that will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the greats.

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To fill the gap of John Liiva, a female vocalist Angela Gossow joined the band. The fan followers of the band were upset to see a female vocalist as they felt she wouldn’t be competent like John Liiva and thought that Michael had chosen her because of their love relationship. Generally, female guttural growling singers are hardly found in metal bands but Angela Gossow has a remarkable vocal skill as she is capable of making deep and shallow growls. In fact she can even growl lower than some of her fellow male equivalents. Her first record, Wages of Sin (2001) was an immense success and was a major breakthrough record. The second major hit record was Anthems of Rebellion (2003).

Presently, the band members are Michael Amott, Christopher Amott, Angela Gossow, Sharlee D’Angelo and Daniel Erlandsson. The main composer of the songs is Michael Amott but he also takes help from the other band members, especially Angela Gossow and Christopher Amott. The types of songs they sing are melodic death metal which is a subgenre of classical death metal. Few other albums released by them are Rise of the Tyrant (2007), Doomsday Machine (2005) and Root of All Evil (2009). The songs and albums are available as freebies on certain websites.

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