Visions Of Atlantis are going places. Currently busy on the road in America to promote their latest album “Pirates”, we can now look forward to a live release called “Pirates Over Wacken” on March 31. You can watch a promotional video on YouTube now and also a full song, “Pirates Will Return”. They had an orchestra with them on stage and it sounds great. Looking forward to this.
(Tour ad and album cover from official platforms)
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People in the UK is getting severely pissed off about an attempt to ban the Tom Jones song “Delilah” from being sung by crowds at sports events. I think I can see a red line in the sand here. This could be the beginning of a massive pushback against you know who. Me? I love Tom Jones. How could anybody not love that man? I tell you what I will do today. I will order the 17 CD “Complete Decca Studio Albums” box that I have had my eyes on for a while.
(My shot of my old 1968 LP “Delilah”)
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Babymetal dropped an official video for the song “Metal Kingdom” yesterday. The sound is from the recorded version, the video footage is from the Makuhari Messe shows that they performed last week outside of Tokyo (see previous Babymetal post). The visuals are stunning, they really go for the epic here and this video will help make this song a true anthem. It is interesting that this track has opened their shows so far and that they kick off the new (upcoming) album with it. The three seat throne that you can see Su-metal occupy in the beginning of the video has vibes of Games Of Thrones to it for sure, but the message here is clear. There are three seats, not two. Things are about to change in Babymetal. I truly believe that Babymetal will conquer the world. This may be the album that pushes them to the elite on a global level. Hell, they are almost there anyway. For a band to achieve this kind of international interest coming out of Japan, that is just wonderful on so many levels. And the thing is, rock music has often been written off, I have seen it again and again over the years. Truth is it will never ever go away.
(Live shots is from said video)
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Discovered a new online hobby shop here in Sweden (HABO Modell Hobby) and checked out their stuff. To my surprise I found this James Bond box in 1/200 celebrating the classic 1979 film “Moonraker”. I absolutely love the box art. Manufactured by AMT, I have to assume that this is a reissue of some kind. Hopefully we will see more Bond kits like this in the future.
(My shot of said box, artist unknown)
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Tex Willer (issue) 701 popped up on import from Norway this week. Always a good read. I also checked out US publication Black Belt (December 2022-January 2023) just for the hell of it. I recall the Bruce Lee movies with fondness.
(My shot of said publications)
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Always nice to check out the annual Airfix catalogue. Loads of nostalgia, but also new stuff and ideas. 148 pages.
(My shot of said publication)
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Commando 5615-5618 is out today in the UK. Just search “Commando comics” should you want to subscribe.
(Covers courtesy of Commando)
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Babymetal have just performed two major concerts in Japan (at their old hunting ground Makuhari Messe near Tokyo, a 25,000 capacity arena) and at the end of the second night they announced that big news will be revealed on Fox Day (April 1). The announcement has been added to their YouTube channel as well and everybody is going bonkers as it would seem that they may announce a third member after years of having officially been a duo with guest dancers (called The Avengers). Two concerts have been added to coincide with the news at the PIA Arena MM in Yokohama. Fans have noted that Yokohama happens to be the area that current Avenger Momoko Okazaki (whom performed with Babymetal this weekend) has lived in since the age of three. She will turn 20 in early March. This may or may not be clues to her being the third official member of Babymetal a few weeks from now. Needless to say, the subject matter is red hot in Japan right now, and on Babymetal forums. Check out the announcement on YouTube (got to love the lore of this act). Babymetal performed the following songs this weekend: “Metal Kingdom”, “Divine Attack”, “Distortion”, “Pa Pa Ya”, “Gimme Chocolate”, “Megitsune”, “Doki Doki Morning”, “Light And Darkness”, “Monochrome”, “Headbanger”, “Ijime, Dame, Zettai”, “Road Of Resistance” and “The Legend”. So they premiered five tracks from the upcoming album. The European dates with Sabaton for their big Tour To End All Tours trek kicks off in Leeds (UK) on April 14. It would seem that Babymetal has picked a good time for big news like this.
(Top image from official platforms, with added layout)
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I figured it would be fun to highlight stuff from the fanzine years again and today I will add a Scrapbook type piece on Swedish rockers 220 Volt from Retrofurure 5 (published in 2012). Of course, 220 Volt is a Swedish band (they still exist) and they are from my neck of the woods (Jämtland County). I did include loads of stuff from these parts in the Retrofuture magazines and I printed 1,000 copies of which about 90% were handed out for free. If I still have copies, they are not free now but I am willing to trade for Babymetal stuff from around the world. In any case this 10 page look at the 1980s was done to highlight how fantastic it had all been. To me, 220 Volt is still the best band ever out of Sweden. Photographers are credited, writers get their due down below. Enjoy.
(My shots of said Scrapbook pages, writers include me (Helsingborgs Dagblad), Yoshiko Watanabe (Viva Rock), Annika Sundbaum-Melin (Aftonbladet), Katherine Turman (Rock Beat) and unknowns)
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Got to love Thin Lizzy. Got the new eight CD box of “Live And Dangerous” this week and it looks great. It also sports a 56 page book (hardback), packed with memorabilia from back in the day. Also, UK publication Classic Rock has a cover story about the release and the history of it all in the current issue (310). Nice.
(My shot of said magazine and box, legendary live image by Chalkie Davies)
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trinkelbonker 