Commando 5475-5478

Commando 5475-5478 is out today in the UK. Just search “Commando comics” should you want to subscribe.

(Covers courtesy of Commando)

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ABBA In Concert (1979)

Added the classic ABBA “In Concert” DVD to the old collection. Filmed by Swedish Television on the US Tour and at Wembley (UK) in 1979, they are captured at the peak of the disco era as they were promoting the “Voulez-Vous” album. You can hear the general vibe of the era in their performance, but there is no denying that they could present some incredible songs and that they knew what they were doing. I think most people had realized by then that ABBA wrote some wonderful music and in the booklet (and in the bonus material on this extended DVD) we get to hear that a lot of famous people catched them live in London, including Robert Plant, Joe Strummer, Ian Drury and Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues. Bruce Springsteen saw them in New York. The critics may have been a bit on the negative side at times, but the artists knew how good ABBA were at creating excellent tunes, knowing full well how hard that is to do for any length of time. In 1979 roller skates ruled and some of the scenes captured here was done on stage by crew that actually wore them to get the kind of shots they wanted! The pyramid looking stage set were meant to be an arty way to present icy mountains (as they came out of Scandinavia). Promoter Thomas Johansson says that they could have done another 20 gigs at Wembley at the time, and not “only” the six that they did. Also included in the bonus section, we find “The Way Old Friends Do” (that would appear on the next studio album) and some peeks behind the scenes. Made for TV back in the day, the original show was cut to 60 minutes. Here you have an additional 40 minutes of ABBA footage and history. As it were, they would never return for a second tour of America and Canada. After this trip (which ended in Japan) they would never tour again. Because of this there is precious little live performances captured of this group compared to, say, TV appearances. One would think that most of the stuff that they have in the vaults that they want out there has been released by now.

(My shot of the “In Concert” DVD – also, added ABBA as a category on the blog today)

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Slaves & Masters

At 60 I have seen freedom of speech and our general freedoms under attack from many sources, but never before like today. As a writer, going back four decades, I used to come back to the subject in many newspaper articles. In 2015, I dedicated a good chunk of my final publication (Retrofuture 8) to the subject. Six years down the road, all bets are off. The censorship is through the roof. The assault on our freedoms is quite astonishing. The good thing is that although we are under attack (and this is not a left/right issue, it is top/down), the guilty are putting themselves out there. They are in the spotlight now. The overreach is there for all to see. We all live in a horror movie at the moment and I am glad to be in Sweden as things stand. All eyes should be on Australia right now though, as the worst case scenario is playing out right before our eyes over there. I would include BitChute and the Christian news outlet TruNews among the platforms that are freedom friendly right now. It would be nice if mainstream media could be as honest but it is what it is. Never lose hope though. Most people that I know, and that includes people of all walks of life (including journalists), are wide awake. The rest is about personal courage and integrity. We certainly live in interesting times.

(Top image shows Retrofuture 8 spread)

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Kerrang! Elevates Live Babymetal Output To Purple Status

Kerrang! (magazine) is still out of print but the online operation is going strong. In a recent album review by Mark Sutherland he compares Babymetal live output with Deep Purple (which for a lot of old geezers is as good as it gets). Reviewing “10 Babymetal Budokan” he writes: “Here, we find them reaching the sort of zenith usually only accessible to bona fide rock legends: a 10-night stand at Tokyo’s storied Budokan venue to celebrate their first decade together, documented by a Deep Purple-style double live album”. The respect for Babymetal is there. And it is well deserved.

(Kudos to Kerrang! writer Mark Sutherland – Babymetal & Purple live covers shown to highlight these immortal words)

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The Phantom 1693

The Swedish edition of The Phantom is not that bad these days. Nice blend of new and old comics. I enjoyed the current issue (20 2021, or 1693 from the beginning) and I actually bought it for the cover.

(My shot of said comic, cover by Luca Erbetta)

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Tempo 36

Added the 36th Norwegian comic book Tempo to the old collection. 114 pages of classic comics, Bruno Brazil, Lucky Luke, Bob Morane and Mark Breton. I think you can say that the summer is officially over in these parts, so the library will come in handy soon enough.

(My shot of said book)

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Got To Love Japan

I am happy to announce that I will soon be able to present an interview on this blog with George Murasaki from the classic Japanese hard rock band Murasaki. We are in touch and I think this will be very interesting indeed. So stay tuned for that. The fascination for all things Japanese is growing stronger. In Germany we now have the first two issues of a new magazine called Japan Faszination out, and I think that means something. On the Babymetal front, they are now busy hyping all the Vinyls that are issued in Japan this Fall. Check out the trailers on their YouTube page. Also, Babymetal has just past 1,000,000 listeners per month on Spotify. Not bad.

(My collage)

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Happy Birthday David Coverdale

David Coverdale celebrates his 70th birthday today. He was 22 when he joined Deep Purple and as we all know he went on from there to even greater heights in Whitesnake. Still rocking too.

(My shot of signed Coverdale promotion shot from the “Restless Heart” days – inserted is a shot by Michael Johansson with DC holding my SLICE 2006 publication)

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Italian Deep Purple Tribute Magazine

Found this 116 page Deep Purple magazine on import from Italy here in Sweden, so it might be easier to find worldwide than we know. It is one of these Tribute magazines with stuff collected from old publications (Classic Rock, Prog and Vinile) and added material to fill it up. So you get the history, the albums and a bunch of classic interviews etc.

I recognize some of the layout from old articles that comes out of the UK, but all in all you have a fairly decent choice of photographs throughout this magazine (which is essential if the lingo is not that easy to grasp for you). I like the paper that it sports, more like the type that you have for colouring books.

(My shots of said publication)

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Asterix Puzzle

Spotted this 1,000 piece Asterix puzzle from Ravensburger. Fans of the comic books will recognize a lot of familiar faces. I have to say that I quite enjoyed looking at the details. Definitely a contender for the old Cool-o-meter.

(My shot of said puzzle)

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