The Moment Of Ruth

Upcoming young female rock singers always seem to have to endure comparisons with Janis Joplin or Joni Mitchell – just as new singer/songwriters used to be burdened with the suggestion that they might be “the new Bob Dylan” (when in fact there was only one of that kind).

Irksome as it may be, I would have to say that Olivia Ruth, a force of nature from Queensland, Australia, brings to mind elements of both Janis and Joni, with the raw power of the former and the vocal acrobatics of the latter.

Ultimately, she is more Janis than Joni... and in fact more Janis than Janis, in that, to my mind, her passionately beautiful voice, which seems to come from every fibre of her being, leaves Joplin in the shade.

In a bizarre way, her phrasing and the tendency of her voice to dominate, dictate and embody the whole feel of a song, remind me more of the amazing David Surkamp, frontman of prog rock greats Pavlov’s Dog, than of any other singer.

Olivia Ruth crowdfunded her current tour of the UK which I was lucky enough to catch at the New Cross Inn, south London. She is backed up by an excellent three-piece band, but, to be honest, she doesn’t need anything but her guitar and that remarkable voice. The more we hear of that, the better.

Kettering Rocks

I've been away... I'm back. A lot of time was taken up arranging the KettStock festival, son of the eight-year-old Tootstock festival.

KettStock in Kettering recreated the spirit of south London's Tootstock – and then some. We had a bigger venue, an audience twice the size, and we raised four times the amount for charity.

So, a major success and a night packed with poignancy, emotion and good music.

And as with all good things... everyone wants to do it again.

Many thanks to Russ Payne and Unison Bends, the Shark Dentists, Bill Deacon, Pete Derbyshire, Mez, Mark Turner, Olli Turner, Dave Part and Nevada Summerley, the musicians who made KettStock happen.

Now, who wants to play at KettStock 2?

That Boy From The North Country

Well, it's not 'Mamma Mia'... I'm talking about 'Girl From The North Country', the remarkable new play by Conor McPherson with music by Bob Dylan – which is definitely not a musical. And, as with most things that Dylan touches, it has a magic that is quite unlike anything else.

It's on at the Old Vic in London until October 7 and tickets are increasingly hard to come by. The word has got around that this is something special – and it lives up to its billing.

You don't expect something set in 1930s Depression-hit Minnesota to be a bundle of laughs, but there is humour woven in among the tragic storylines, and joyous moments amid the harshness of reality.

It's not a musical, it's not a jukebox musical... and the music that it does use is not a 'greatest hits' selection. It's lovely to hear less feted songs from 'Infidels' and 'Street Legal' being put into a new and passionate context, and the brilliant actors/musicians produce remarkable versions of 'Has Anybody Seen My Love?' and a dead-slow 'I Want You' (in the ballad style you can find on the 'Live At Budokan' album).

To tell anymore would spoil enjoyment of the show. Best thing is to go and see it. You are unlikely to be disappointed.

Happiness Is A Warm Rolls

Picture by LAWRENCE BOGLE

Yes... that's me with John Lennon's psychedelic Rolls-Royce. I had the unexpected pleasure of checking it out on its brief visit to London a few days ago when it was part of a display of famous Rollers at Bonhams in central London.

It normally resides at a museum in Canada, but it was here to help R-R promote a new model – along with cars belonging to Fred Astaire and the Queen.

Lennon took the car to the States in 1970, and ended up donating it to a New York museum to ease a tricky tax situation. It is now reckoned to be the most valuable automobile in the world

Even today, it is still a work of outrageous art. Chums such as Paul, George and Ringo, not to mention Brian Epstein, Bob Dylan and Keith Moon, all seemed to have had a jolly time in the back of the car – which was said to have an extensive supply of drugs and alcohol.

But the exterior was perhaps the trippiest thing of all – a collision of psychedelia with gypsy caravan-style art that defies you not to smile at the irreverence of it.

I thought of it again today when I was in rehearsal with my old band, the Shark Dentists, working on the infernally difficult-to-play Lennon song 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. With a little more work, it – and its combination of 4/4, 3/4, 6/4 and 2/4 – should be ready for performing at a little festival in the Midlands next month.

The Good Shepard

A great writer is gone. Sam Shepard will be remembered for many plays as well as acting roles. And he should be remembered too for his collaboration with Bob Dylan on what is one of the latter's most stunning pieces of poetry/music: 'Brownsville Girl'.

'Brownsville Girl', with its tumultuous imagery of life on the road mixed up with movie references and an impenetrably mysterious plot, was the high point on a humdrum album called 'Knocked Out Loaded' and one of Dylan's finest moments.

Much of the credit should go to Shepard for inspiring Dylan's tour de force, and for the feeling the song conveyed of a lost and decaying America.

Shepard also memorably travelled with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder review tour and published the diary that he kept during those momentous days and nights.

He was never starstruck, but in his own quiet way Shepard was a genuine star.

All The President's Mendacity

Not that this is the first time it's been quoted, but "even the president of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked"...

It was a Bob Dylan line that drew huge applause "live" at the time of Richard Nixon's downfall and which continues, like so much of Dylan, to be just as relevant now...

As does the more prosaic Watergate non-Dylan quotation: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

The "stand naked" line comes, of course, from "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)", a gigantic song that covers far more than the frailty of presidents, and which – if any were needed – could supply justification for Dylan's Nobel Prize for Literature.

On The Pembrokeshire Road

The new picture at the top of this blog was taken in Pembrokeshire and it captures quite a lot of what I feel about this special place in south-west Wales.

Every time I leave it, I'm drawn to return. And also to write about it. You can read my latest paean to Pembrokeshire (an appreciation of the county's back roads) on PembrokeshireLifeOnline and lots more about every aspect of my favourite place in the UK.

Big Not Beautiful

We used to have a great independent health store in our neighbourhood. The arrival of a Whole Foods Market nearby helped to shut it down. The superstore had more stuff and it was cheaper – although it didn't have anyone with the wide-ranging expert knowledge that the guy who ran the health store had.

Today, what was once an independent health shop selling fresh organic vegetables and top-quality supplements is a national grocery chain store selling brightly coloured packets of processed food and sweets.

In the end, I gave in and became a Whole Foods customer.

It was disenchantment with the onward march of big business putting small businesses out of business that led me some time ago to stop buying anything from Amazon. That decision made it harder for me to buy music and films, but not impossible.

Now I hear that Amazon has bought up the Whole Foods chain. Big fish swallowed by even bigger fish. And so now I can't shop in Whole Foods any more.

How does this all end? Not well, I imagine.

Our Drums Are Our Bond

Drummers stick together. When several bands play on the same bill, it's pretty much guaranteed  it will be the drummers who hang out together the quickest and easiest. Why? Because we have so much to talk about!

But seriously, we learn from each other and tend to respect each other's different approaches to playing.

The bond between drummers is, sadly, illustrated today by the tributes paid by the widow of John Blackwell Jr, former drummer with Prince, who has succumbed to cancer.

She lists among those who have given their support and friendship: Gregg Bissonette, Dennis Chambers, Antonio Sánchez, Billy Cobham, Chad Smith and Natalie Depergola. 

Great drummers and great hearts.

Out Of Time

I've mentioned Drumhead magazine before – as being the best drumming magazine there is. It has some really thoughtful pieces and carries serious interviews at length.

But it has just announced its new issue thus: "Drumhead's first female cover artist! Japan's sensational Senri Kawaguchi!"

Guys, it might have been better not to draw attention to this fact. This is the year 2017. Women have been playing drums for decades and decades – probably as long as men have. That it has taken you this long to feature a female drummer on your cover is something to be ashamed of – not to trumpet.

Great magazine – but it would be greater still without just a very faint whiff of sexism.

Rory Stories

Mention of Rory Gallagher (see previous post) seems to have sparked off numerous Gallagher-related stories. The affection that people have for this great musician is typified by the wonderful statue (above) that stands in his birthplace of Ballyshannon.

My barber (and blue/rock aficionado) Chris reminded me of the story that Jimi Hendrix is reputed to have referred to Rory as the greatest guitarist in the world. During my haircut, we also discussed the stories surrounding the Rolling Stones' supposed invitation to Rory to replace Mick Taylor.

Chris reckons that Rory's brother and manager, Donal, told him not to join the Stones – on the basis that Rory would end up upstaging Mick Jagger ("and Mick wouldn't like that"). Rory was certainly a greater musician and, arguably, a greater showman, since he could run and duck-walk all over a stage while continuing to play the most amazing guitar.

It appears that Rory did hang out with the Stones and may have contributed some riffs. But he allegedly grew impatient with waiting for some sort of decision from a comatose Keith Richards, and walked out to meet his own tour commitments.

Whether Keith's bad habits would have accelerated Rory's demise or vice versa will never be known.

Drumming With Taste

I’ve been away (at the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon, Ireland)... I’m back. I enjoyed three full days and nights of inspiring music, played in tribute to this great musician who died tragically 22 years ago.

The greatest highlight, among many others, was watching again the great drummer John Wilson. I saw him many times in the 1960s playing with Gallagher’s power trio, Taste.

Wilson combined technique with passion in equal measures in a way that few drummers do. And 50 years on, performing with his own power trio, A Taste Of Rory, he is an even stronger player.

I should also mention the phenomenal Pat McManus (now arguably Ireland’s finest guitarist, since the loss of Gallagher and Gary Moore) who played an epic outdoor set to an audience soaked by, but oblivious to, a hard rainstorm.

And the pleasantest surprise was to take refuge in a tiny bar and find a band called Catfish playing Gallagher’s back catalogue with a fire and spirit all the more remarkable since none of these young players looked as if they could have even been born before Gallagher died.

If you love blues/rock (and Guinness) and have never been to the Rory Gallagher Festival... go!

Pretty Shocking

I have a lot  of time for Drumhead magazine and its editor, Jonathan Mover – it's basically the best magazine that I know of for drummers. It has high standards and its content carries a lot of weight.

In its latest issue it carries an interview with the legendary Bernard 'Pretty' Purdie and eventually gets to his legendary claims about the fact that he played on quite a lot of Beatles tracks. Or 'fixed' them, to use his phrase.

But his claims become even more shocking here when he suggests that Ringo Starr's drumming did not appear on a single one of the Beatles' studio tracks. He claims there were three other drummers (including him, and excluding Andy White and Pete Best) who 'fixed' the drumming for the Beatles.

His only concession to Ringo Starr is that Purdie says Ringo played 'live' with the band (which seems beyond debate).

If this remarkable claim about the Beatles recordings is true, isn't it the most shocking revelation? If it is false, why is Drumhead printing it? And why aren't lawyers knocking at Purdie's door?

All sorts of rumours re Beatles drumming continue to circulate. Paul McCartney is said to have played drums on a number of songs (although Purdie claims McCartney wasn't a good enough drummer to do that – or even a good enough bassist) and there have been stories too of ace session drummer Hal Blaine doing some 'fixing' for the Beatles.

Whatever the truth, all of this seems to highlight a grim reality – that many hit records made by bands back in the day (and also today) probably often don't feature the bands themselves, but session musicians who could be relied on to get it right first or second time, rather than 47th time. Those unsung session musicians tend to keep their stories to themselves, but sometimes they play and tell, and maybe sometimes they don't tell it quite like it was but how they hazily recall it.

Life Is... Pembrokeshire

Apparently my grandmother was a gipsy... which could explain why I never seem to have settled anywhere or in any situation for any length of time.

Many places have felt like home to me, however... Bristol, Easter Island, Brighton, Arizona, Varanasi, San Francisco, Texas, the Florida Keys, the Greek islands, London... but the place that draws me back most right now is Pembrokeshire in South Wales.

I think I love it because it is so open and wild and far from England's overcrowded, polluted, stress-filled cities. And because I could walk and walk forever along its amazing coastline...

It is also blessed with an excellent website, Pembrokeshire Life Online, that covers every aspect of the area – and which also has been kind enough to run an article by me on walking the Pembrokeshire Coast Path.

Double Trouble

Virgil Donati has a remarkable mind. If you need proof, just get hold of a copy of his 'Double Bass Drum Freedom' instruction book.

Before you have got too far into his double bass lessons, you will probably start to think that not only is he a very clever drummer – but that he is a fiendishly clever teacher.

He sets some pretty demanding (for me, at least) tasks that will probably drive some players crazy.

But you can see the method in his slightly mad intensity – and you will not want to give up on trying to enter the challenging world that he has created.

What Are Drummers Like?

I've spent quite a bit of time trying to put down a book called 'Born To Drum' by Tony Barrell – and have found that difficult.

Barrell set out to discover what makes a drummer and what makes drummers tick. And he's done a pretty good job, packing in lots of interviews and anecdotes, all pointers to why we might do it.

Are we mad? Addictive? Obsessive? Extrovert? Introvert? He investigates all this and more. And he is particularly good when looking at the history of drumming, the travails of recording sessions and the physical toll taken by a life behind the kit.

My only complaint is that he tends throughout to refer to drummers bashing, whacking and smashing... when most of us have far too much respect for our kit to do that to it, and when most of us know that you get the best sound from drums and cymbals by playing them with at least a little finesse.

If you're a drummer reading 'Born To Drum', you'll find yourself nodding and smiling. If you're a non-drummer, it could be a revelation...

Rhythm Kings

I've said this before but George Recile is a drumming genius... which makes him the perfect percussionist for accompanying the musical genius of Bob Dylan.

I had the privilege of seeing them both – and the rest of Dylan's remarkable band – in Cardiff last night, with the master's voice and songs and piano-playing all in great shape.

Apparently when Dylan aficionado the late John Gibbens gave a talk on Bob's poetry, he used to start off by playing a Dylan instrumental.

That might sound odd but, on reflection, it's not at all odd. Because you can hear the essence of Dylan in every strum of his guitar and every note of his harmonica. And the key to everything he does – the words he chooses, the way he sings them, the way he plays piano or harmonica, the way he moves, even the way he stands – is rhythm.

Dylan is not just rock'n'roll's Nobel laureate... he is also the King of Rhythm.

And it's no wonder that George Recile finds in Dylan's music the most wonderful variety of drum patterns, fills and grooves. With George one side of the stage and Bob the other, it really is difficult to know which to watch. Either way, they're locked in tight... in rhythm.

It Was Fifty Years Ago But Hey...

It was fifty years ago today... but can we please forget it now? Sgt Pepper was an iconoclastic album. But, let's be honest, it wasn't as good as Revolver... or maybe even Rubber Soul... or even the White Album.

Every which way one turns there is Sgt Pepperami. There's an event in Brighton promising to play music from bands influenced by Sgt Pepper.... including Pink Floyd, Cream, the Doors and the Grateful Dead. Pink Floyd? Cream? The Doors? The Grateful Dead? The idea that these bands were influence by Sgt Pepper could only exist in the minds of those who weren't there in the Sixties.

None of these bands showed or needed any influence from Sgt Pepper... unless it was to go way beyond what the Beatles were doing.

Sgt Pepper seems to be being celebrated by people who have no idea what it was like to hear Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds for the first time in 1967. And if they weren't there, they'll never know...

And it's reasonably easy to predict what John Lennon would have said about celebrating Sgt Pepper fifty years on, isn't it?

Hard Time, Soft Time

There had been a bad few days and suddenly there was a very good one.

My offer to help my drumming mentor, the great John Marshall, with his gear at a Soft Machine rehearsal meant that I ended up sitting in a studio with John playing drums to my left, and John Etheridge playing guitar and Theo Travis playing sax to my right. And straight across from me was the formidable bass of Roy Babbington.

I've seen the Softs live many times, but sitting in the midst of them, and particularly getting that bass right up in the mix and in my face was a rare treat. And the playing of all four musicians was particularly uplifting and bordering on the spiritual – for me, at least, because I had had two days of stress and misery (not worth going into the details here).

Music really does have the power to heal, particularly when played by masters of their craft at this high level. 

If you're going to the Softs' upcoming gigs in the UK, you are in for something very special.

John Marshall (top right) and Roy Babbington (bottom right)

Boxing Clever

Sunday 9 April 2017

I've long been fascinated by cajons – which seem to be little more than expensive wooden boxes. But I've never thought you could do that much with them in terms of rivalling a drum kit.

I had to think again after seeing percussionist Demi Garcia playing cajon with flamenco guitar whizz Ramon Ruiz at the excellent gipsy jazz venue Le Quecumbar in London.

Demi is simply a drumming genius and he not only played full on and in perfect unison with Ruiz's guitar improvisation and the footsteps of dancer Araceli Garcia but he also never played one unnecessary stroke.

On top of this he is totally modest – which makes him even more endearing. When Ruiz asked him to tell the audience something about himself, he said: 'My name is Demi – that's it.' His drumming told everything else.

From Dire Straits To Dire Straits

I remember seeing my first CD. It was on a visit to Eindhoven in the Netherlands in the early 1980s. Philips was based nearby and was getting people to try out its revolutionary new product.

The CD in question was by Dire Straits. And the selling point of the new technology was that the disc was indestructible, was easy to store in large quantities, and gave the very best sound reproduction.

Time has proved all of those claims to be far from correct.

I've continued to buy CDs, though. And my favourite place to buy them has been the little Music Memorabilia shop in Alfriston, East Sussex, which has stocked an eccentric collection of great albums covering everything from music hall and comedy to a huge range of pop, blues and jazz.

But not any more. The shelves at Music Memorabilia are slowly emptying as the manufacturers cease to make CDs – and people cease to buy them.

The CD is now truly in dire straits... And I feel as though I've been there at its birth and its death.

In Very Good Company

It was sad to hear a few days ago of the passing away of James Cotton – a name synonymous with the blues harmonica. Cotton wailed with the greats – Howlin' Wolf and Muddy Waters – and played on countless recordings and gigs.

Playing the blues harp is as much about raw emotion as it is about technique. I occasionally get the chance to put down my sticks and play harmonica with Russ Payne and Unison Bends, and much as I love the drums, I always leap at a chance to try to emulate the likes of masters such as Cotton, Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson, Paul Jones and Bob Dylan.

It was also quite a big kick to find that a track from our new album, 'Liquor and Iron', was going to get big exposure from being on the playlist at Digital Blues this week – alongside a couple of tracks by James Cotton. Now that is a real musical honour...

Winwood Ho

At a time when most rock legends from the Sixties seem to be scarily older than you think – or in many cases, more scarily, dead – one of them still seems remarkably young.

Steve Winwood is still touring and is due in London in July. And though you might think he should be in his seventies by now, he's actually a mere 68.

That makes it more than 50 years since I first saw him on stage – when he was 16 or 17. He was already a veteran performer then, and fronting the Spencer Davis Group.

A precocious guitarist as well as keyboard player, he has had so many incarnations. But his finest hour was with the sadly short-lived Blind Faith, in which the Creamy musical virtuosity of Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker was harnessed to the truly lyrical songwriting and singing of Winwood.

I was fortunate enough to see Winwood and Blind Faith at Hyde Park. And despite all his brilliant work since that time, it is the Blind Faith album that seems perfectly to capture the Winwood essence.

Together Through Death

Bob Dylan has provided the soundtrack for so many lives. Now it seems he is doing the same for the dying.

BBC presenter Steve Hewlett who has died of cancer at the age of 58 apparently passed away in the company of his family and with Dylan's music playing.

Hewlett seems to have been a man who lived and died well. It would be intriguing to know which tracks he picked. So many spring to mind. But maybe there are some things you don't ask...

Complimentary Medicine

The last time I played drums on an album – 'In Love With Trouble' by the Shark Dentists – the reviewer in Blues Matters magazine complimented me... on my harmonica playing. That was, of course, welcome – although the drums are my first instrument, I do like to contribute a bit of blues harp on the side.

But it was good to find my drumming has finally been noted by Blues Matters, in its review of the new album 'Liquor And Iron' from Russ Payne and Unison Bends. (I did also play four bars of wistful harmonica to set the scene for the epic track 'Heading Out East' but, understandably, that didn't get a mention.)

Anyway, we're all grateful for the positive comments about our work. So here is the full review:

RUSS PAYNE AND THE UNISON BENDS

LIQUOR AND IRON

(Thousand Smiles Records)

The album opens brightly with the funky This Life (Gonna Be The Death Of Me), Russ Payne’s vocals and guitar riffs distinctive and engaging. Nigel Summerley’s infectious rhythmic drumming on Saskia’s Got A Gun provides the perfect backcloth to the conversational vocals and clipped guitar style. The pace slows with the balladic It Could Have Been Me; the textured vocal harmonies, Saal Seniveratne’s fluent keyboard skills and Payne’s soulful guitar interludes create mood-inducing crescendos. The clever tempo changes on All Talk add to the atmosphere of another good original song. The slower burning Waiting At The Gate, Certain Tears and the title track showcase the versatility of Russ and confirms his status as a very fine singer, songwriter and guitarist. Bassist Bill Keller and drummer Summerley maintain the high-energy grooves of Sometimes and Oughta Know By Now in the tradition of great, explosive power trios. Payne’s searing guitar solo and vocal harmonies with Jake Rousham stand out on the catchy, up tempo Good Luck. An impressive album, Liquor and Iron proves that the gap between relative unknown bands and those at the forefront of the current UK blues explosion is very narrow indeed.

Master Of Funk

It's sad to hear of the death of Clyde Stubblefield – one of the drumming legends who helped create the James Brown sound.

His playing on 'Funky Drummer' is said to be the most 'sampled' of all time – and has turned up on countless recordings.

For 'sampled', read 'ripped off'... Clyde Stubblefield received nothing for this. Apart from huge respect from other drummers.

For wonderful insights into the inventive achievements of Stubblefield and fellow James Brown drummer Jabo Starks, you can't do better than study 'Groove Alchemy' by Stanton Moore, a book that I've mentioned before but which deserves special mention for being one of the finest drumming books ever written.

Getting Back To The Garden

"I can't watch. And I can't look away." That was the one comment on the Trump presidency that really hit home. That's exactly how it has affected me and, no doubt, millions of others. And that's my excuse for not writing much for a while.

The antidote to Trump and the nastiness that surrounds him? As is so often the case, it's music.

Thankfully, I've recently been introduced to Radio Garden, the beautiful website that allows you to travel the world and alight wherever you please and listen to what's on the radio there.

I'm currently in Abuja, in Nigeria, but have also been having much musical pleasure in Havana, Cuba, and Montego Bay, Jamaica.

Now more than ever, we need to be reminded that there is a whole non-Trump, non-Brexit, non-fascist world out there – a world of music – that is positive, uplifting and inspiring.

Deep Covers

First the good news... a new and triple album from Bob Dylan. Then what seemed like not such good news... it's all covers. Again. 'Shadows In The Night' and 'Fallen Angels' were both brilliant records. But with Mount Sinatra climbed, the expectation was that, as after those other writer's block classics 'Good As I Been To You' and 'World Gone Wrong', Dylan would get back to Dylan.

However, after a listen to 'I Could Have Told You' from the new album, with its exquisite musical backing from Dylan's road band and a vocal that no one else could come close to for feeling and meaning, you realise that he had to do this...

3 Doors Closed

Watching Donald Trump become president of the United States might have left you feeling dismayed.

The fact that any musicians had anything to do with the inauguration was disturbing. 

Lots of them said no, of course. But not the band 3 Doors Down. And that left me feeling, at several removes, a little let down.

My old band the Shark Dentists used to play a good and thoughtful song by 3 Doors Down called "Be Like That". These were good guys, I thought. It goes to show you never can tell...

Trump is a huge 3 Doors Down fan apparently... Right or wrong, I've kind of gone off them...

Time Piece

Virgil Donati is an amazing drummer. Understatement. And now he is also a classical composer. He wedded these two talents together for "The Dawn Of Time", an album which is breathtaking in its ambition and achievement.

Any drummer who has attended a classical concert must have tapped a foot or two to some powerful rhythms – and wondered why the band doesn't have a proper drum kit and instead limits itself to a few timpani and a couple of cymbals.

But Donati hasn't just added drums to a series of orchestral pieces, he has enmeshed the drums into the music, giving them equal billing with the other instruments and sometimes taking centre stage. On top of this he has mixed up some stunning time signature changes and juxtapositions. And, as with Frank Zappa's orchestral work, he has created something new and urgent inside an established genre.

Wonder Man

The phrase "one-hit wonder" has seldom been as apt as it was when applied to Peter Sarstedt, the singer/songwriter who is one of the first casualties of 2017. He was – and long will be – remembered for "Where Do You Go To My Lovely", which was a wonderful song.

Somehow it shouldn't have worked, but somehow it did. It was slightly corny and it rolled along as if it were a sort of gentle "Like A Rolling Stone" in reverse: a rags-to-riches "how does it feel?" instead of a riches-to-rags one.

And similarly, you could never hear it too many times. It was a classic and a wonder...

Devilishly Good

It may sound slightly odd – Black Sabbath guitarist writes choral work for Birmingham Cathedral – but it should come as no great surprise that Tony Iommi has done just that.

There has always been a fine line between the devil's music and religious music – and sometimes no line at all.

Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison... need one say much more?

Great musicians ploughing the fields of blues, country, soul, funk, rock and even heavy metal have all been inspired by the spiritual – if not the outright religious.

In fact, the "devil's players" come well equipped (with passion and feeling and a few "sins" to confess) to get religion. Yet conventionally religious types, on the other hand, don't usually have what it takes to rock...