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HISTORICAL FACTS: Decca - The Untold Story

“I listen now and think, ‘This is a young man’s game!’ I’m proud of the albums”: How future members of Marillion, Soft Machine and Caravan got their start via Darryl Way’s Wolf

The violinist’s post Curved Air band only lasted two years, but released three compelling albums in that time, and set his colleagues on course for prog greatness

Louder

From David Bowie to Fleetwood Mac and Eric Clapton, Mike Vernon’s ear was invaluable to British pop and blues

The musician, producer and label head, who has died aged 81, turned his boyhood passion for blues into a hugely impactful career

The Guardian - UK

"All of a sudden, she started biting my tongue and wouldn't let go. There was blood everywhere. Then she went for my forehead": How Thin Lizzy made the albums that saved them, only to be plunged into chaos

Thin Lizzy went from being stone broke to recording the two albums that came to define their career, but bad luck always seemed to be lurking in the shadows

Louder

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“We were absolutely convinced we were gonna just kill in the US. Then Phil gets hepatitis and – boom! – the tour just stopped there”: A metal fan’s guide to Thin Lizzy, the hellraising 70s rock icons who inspired Metallica and Megadeth

The late, great Phil Lynott and his band inspired many modern metal icons

Metal Hammer

"The bank robber seemed like a nice bloke. Said he had all my albums": The story of the wild tour that sent Joe Cocker over the edge

The Beatles queued up to give Joe Cocker their songs, but drink, drugs and wild times on the infamous Mad Dogs & Englishmen touring circus almost finished him off

Louder

“Robert Fripp is a really diddly-diddly man, all the riff stuff, and that works to an extent. But you need to put that in a context to make it accessible”: The secret to making King Crimson work by Peter Giles, the bassist who helped make it happen

He recalls The Cheerful Insanity Of Giles Giles & Fripp and the Brondesbury Tapes to 21st Century Schizoid Band, making music with his wife and winning athletics medals at 80

Louder

“We were virtually given free rein. In fact, they spent so much money on studio time, there was very little left for promotion”: How Caravan’s In The Land Of Grey And Pink became an unheralded prog classic

The leading lights of the Canterbury Scene’s third album is a genuine masterpiece – but pitifully few people heard about it on its arrival

Louder

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"One song took about seven weeks to do. It was insane": The Moody Blues on their best and worst albums, Charles Manson, and the mood-altering magic of Nights In White Satin

The Moody Blues were just another British R&B band. Then they got into some old clothes, mind-expanding drugs and lashings of Mellotron… and helped invent prog rock

Louder

Tchaikovsky: The Seasons album review – exemplary playing but Yunchan Lim’s take is strangely sombre

(Decca)The young Korean gives these 12 miniatures more gravitas than most pianists

The Guardian - UK

Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No 3 album review – hear the performance that made Yunchan Lim a star

The prodigious South Korean talent won 2022’s Van Cliburn piano competition with this performance; his version deserves a place alongside Argerich and Rachmaninov himself

The Guardian - UK

Roy Thomas Baker obituary

Record producer, songwriter and arranger whose work on Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody took the single to the top of the charts around the world

The Guardian - UK

Clodagh Rodgers obituary

Singer from County Down who represented the UK at the Eurovision song contest in 1971

The Guardian - UK

"It seemed like the Beatles were in the room”: Canadian record shop owner finds mint condition 15-track version of The Beatles first Decca demo tape

It’s pretty much the holy grail of any possible Beatles recording, and fans are falling over themselves for more

MusicRadar

"The quality is unreal. How is this even possible to have?" Record shop owner finds 1962 Beatles' audition tape that a British label famously decided wasn't good enough to earn Lennon and McCartney's band a record deal

Listen to The Beatles, with Pete Best on drums, play Money on a newly discovered 1962 audition tape

Louder

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The Independent UK

Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen to release new opera recording while awaiting birth of twins

Lise Davidsen, one of opera’s biggest names, is preparing to leave the stage for a few months to give birth and spend time with twins

The Guardian - UK

Readers reply: What is the biggest missed opportunity in history?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

Louder

"The only way I could approach this was making it up as I went along": Eric Bell on the controversial recording of Thin Lizzy's "new" album The Acoustic Sessions

Guitarist Eric Bell and producer Richard Whittaker tell us about Thin Lizzy's acoustic album, grass-addled sessions and why this project definitely isn’t AI

Louder

“Jimmy Page allowed Eric to unleash the power he had”: How Eric Clapton helped reinvent the blues with The Bluesbreakers’ landmark Beano album

The epic story of John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers’ 1966 blues rock milestone Blues Breakers With Eric Clapton

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MusicRadar

“I’d like to think that there's a big studio in the sky”: Shel Talmy, legendary producer of The Who and The Kinks, dies aged 87

He produced My Generation and other classics

Reason

More Rock and Roll, From My "Commonplace Book"

Number 8 in a series of sense and nonsense from my files

Louder

“They didn’t understand how important image was – they started the thing about us being academic geeks. It really hurt us”: The Zombies on living large, inheriting the Beatles’ studio and staff, and being prisoners in a concert hall

Colin Blunstone and Rod Argent look back on finding fame in their teens and experiencing the highs and lows of the music industry over six decades

Louder

“They put me in a cell with a bank robber and a murderer. The bank robber seemed like a nice bloke. Said he had all my albums”: The wild life and crazy times of Joe Cocker

Joe Cocker was the unlikely Sheffield superstar loved by The Beatles – but drink, drugs and debauchery almost sent him over the edge

Louder

Reissued compilation shines light on Decca's heavier psychedelic era

The Psychedelic Scene will be released on vinyl for the very first time in October

Louder

“It might not be commercial, but it’s important that the art be preserved”: The attitude that built Decca’s offshoot Deram into one of the labels that pioneered prog

Pye Hastings, Davy O’List and others recall the company that aimed for an audience of “groovy people” and backed The Moody Blues, Caravan, The Move, Camel, Procol Harum and others

Louder

“A fine overview of the label’s underground credentials… unclassifiable obscurities abound”: History of Deram (and Decca) celebrated in Psych! British Prog, Rock, Folk & Blues box set

A sprawling 3CD / 2LP retrospective of Britain’s first “groovy” record label

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