If you haven’t heard of George Lynch or Jeff Pilson, they played in the extant 80s glam metal band Dokken. If you haven’t heard of Dokken – named after its frontman Don Dokken – that isn’t because they aren’t any good but because rock both sides of the Atlantic and indeed the world over has […]
The legendary guitarist Jeff Beck died January 10. Beck came from humble beginnings and studied at Wimbledon College of Art. Like so many of his generation he was inspired to take up the guitar by another legend, Les Paul, the father of multitracking. He started out in rock ’n’ roll then rock moving into jazz/rock, […]
A youthful 58, Vinnie Moore has been the lead guitarist with UFO since 2003. Youthful indeed because the band is currently on hiatus following the 74 year old Phil Mogg suffering a heart attack. They were to start their farewell tour this month but that has been cancelled on doctor’s orders. Get well soon, Phil, […]
Dusty Hill, bass player with one of the greatest of American rock bands, has died aged 72 at his Texas home. Hill and the other members of power trio ZZ Top can be seen in this photograph from thirteen years ago. They are lead guitarist Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard. Gibbons is in the […]
I saw Great White at the Astoria in September 1991. Can that really be thirty years ago? I can’t remember the concert, but if it had been bad, I certainly would have. A lot of water has passed under a lot of bridges since then, most significantly the fire at the Station nightclub, West Warwick, […]
Although they have been around since just before the turn of the Millennium, I had never heard of Tantric, at least I don’t recall ever having heard of them much less heard them. The band hails from Louisville, like the late great Muhammad Ali, and the best forgotten serial killer Edward Edwards. Their last album […]
The American rock guitarist Tommy Bolin died December 4, 1976 aged just 25, neither the first nor the last time-serving musician to fall to heroin. In spite of his youth, he left an impressive body of work. Although he died long before the inception of the WorldWideWeb, a domain for an official website was registered […]
Leslie West died December 22. Although best known as a guitarist, he will be better remembered for his influence than for his music. He is said to have inspired both Eddie Van Halen and Michael Schenker, both exactly ten years his junior; Van Halen died October this year, and the appreciation was mutual. Early in […]
One of the giants of rock has died. Edward Van Halen was sixty-five.
Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was born in Amsterdam on January 26, 1955, and moved to the United States with his parents in 1962. Eddie, to friends and fans alike, together with his older brother Alex, formed their eponymous band in 1972 at the peak of musical excellence for melodic rock and other forms of contemporary music. Like his brother, his first instrument was the piano; Alex would take up the drums, and Eddie would take up the guitar. And what a take up it was.
A short-lived five piece metal band named Hanover First was formed at Toronto in 1983. Charles Erickson and James Henry formed another short-lived band, a synthesiser duo at Minneapolis in 1985. This rather obvious pun was therefore far from original when Hanover Fist mark 3 was formed. The original line up was Ronny Lamanna on lead guitar, Bud Shepard on bass, and Jamie Mintz on drums.
Mintz, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina and US Army veteran died in March 2011 at the relatively young age of fifty. Five years later, the band was reformed with Eric Stahle on drums.
