Review and Photos by Mark Taylor

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. I’m so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.

Click here for Mark Taylor’s impression of Day One at High Voltage,
and check out the images from the scene in the BareFoot FotoBlog!

Day 2 of the High Voltage Festival would be another busy day with plenty of non-stop action which would see classic albums performed in their entirety, powercuts, fisticuffs … and not forgetting that the day would end with a performance from the reformed Emerson Lake & Palmer. Who ever said prog rock was boring?

Click through for the story and don’t miss the Bigger Photos in the FotoBlog!

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Review by Mark Taylor
Photos by LEON

History was being made this weekend at the inaugural High Voltage Festival as it was the first time a major rock festival was being held in Victoria Park, east of London, not too far from where the Olympics will be held in two years’ time.

This was also the first time a major rock festival was aimed at the older rock fan in the UK, who were being enticed with the first live appearence of Emerson Lake and Palmer in over 15 years, performances from bands that haven’t played on these shores in over three decades, a whole host of progressive rock bands as well a stage featuring some of the heaviest sounds around today to keep the youngsters happy.

Sadly this was also to be the final appearance from Heaven & Hell, featuring the Black Sabbath members playing a last tribute to the sadly departed Ronnie James Dio.

Click for more from Day One and check the BareFoot FotoBlog!

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It has been 14 years since Tupac Shakur’s death, and ten years since The Rose That Grew from Concrete, and I don’t know what’s going on with stuff, or if other people know what’s going on. I’ve been too busy travelling the world in the past twenty years to know what’s going on in the media.  But I feel something universal, something that touches me, and I think his words are real, and maybe not heard. And perhaps there is something healing within them. Amidst the concrete, a rose grows.

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We ran into James Demeter at the NAMM Show. Interesting guy. He was the guitarist for “The Heaters” back in the 70’s. (That’s him in the center, in the photo at left.) Although he knows his way around a guitar and even built them for a while, he is known more for his amps than anything else. His booth was kind of a green room for his friends, if you will. I heard he didn’t give many interviews as his special line of amps, pre-amps, compressors and other effects gadgets don’t need any salesman standing in the flow of foot traffic handing out flyers to the masses. The biggest artists in my (and your) world use his gear, and they line up to do so. His cutting-edge technology sells itself to those who want and need perfection in delivering sound waves to fans everywhere. At this show, a very limited-edition recreation of the pre-amp whose unique sound was made famous by Dean Deleo of Stone Temple Pilots made its appearance for the lucky 15 who will get to own one.

Click through for the video of the interview with James

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Musical Musings with Paul Bourgeois

There’s a reason I don’t own a TV. I envision a nightmare world of doers and watchers. Life isn’t lived by watching it. But then again, maybe – just like I traveled about a lot in my twenties and now I want to stay at home - I’m like that kid who did nothing else and now I have had enough of it.

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Review by Mark Taylor

Ozzy Osbourne is now a household name, but sadly not just for being the Godfather of Metal. He almost lost that status after making a moany divering old fool of himself on the reality show of his family the “The Osbournes.” Ozzy is now back doing what he loves best, making albums and performing on stage.

The double ‘O’ is at the legendary Roundhouse (so called because it’s round), the smallest venue Ozzy has played in the capital since The Forum on a club tour back in ‘88, a time when a young, slim, long-blonde-haired guitarist by the name of Zakk Wylde first shredded with the band.

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Sometimes the desire, pain and frustration hits me so intensely – everything has to be right and perfect, and I have to be willing to do anything to achieve – I get IT for one instance.  What right do I have to speculate about people like Jimmy Page or Jake Holmes or even an angel like Hayley Hart who have lived their entire lives like that? I have a tiny lawyer in my head telling me to say that what is to follow is pure speculation. So don’t nobody sue me ‘cause this is only for entertainment purposes.

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