12056 - CORKY LAING, IAN HUNTER, MICK RONSON & FELIX PAPPALARDI -THE SECRET SESSIONS (1979) (REPOST)

CORKY LAING, IAN HUNTER, MICK RONSON, FELIX PAPPALARDI
''THE SECRET SESSIONS''
JANUARY 19 1999
38:49
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1/Easy Money 02:50 (Ian Hunter, Corky Laing)
2/Silent Movie 03:20 (Ian Hunter, Corky Laing)
3/I Ain't No Angel 03:19 (Ian Hunter, Corky Laing)
4/The Best Thing 03:29 (Corky Laing)
5/I Hate Dancin' 02:40 (Corky Laing)
6/The Outsider 07:46 (Ian Hunter)
7/Just When I Needed You Most 03:06 (Van Warmer)
8/Lowdown Freedom 04:12 (Billy Joe Shaver)
9/On My Way To Georgia 03:42 (Mick Jones, Corky Laing, Leslie West)
10/Growing Old With Rock'n'Roll 04:25 (Corky Laing)
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Dickey Betts/Guitar
Eric Clapton/Guitar
Ian Hunter/Keyboards, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Corky Laing/Drums, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Felix Pappalardi/Bass, Vocals (Background)
Mick Ronson/Guitars, Vocals (Background)
Todd Rundgren/Organ (Hammond), Vocals (Background)
John Sebastian/Harp
Leslie West/Guitars
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REVIEW/AMG
Bruce Eder
Listening to this album is to hear a real tragedy for rock & roll -- a tragedy that this supergroup, as opposed to such overhyped outfits as Blind Faith and Ginger Baker's Air Force, never got its work out in its own time, and that Pappalardi and Ronson are no longer with us. From the opening notes of "Easy Money" to the ironic final track, "Growing Old With Rock 'n Roll," it radiates inspiration, power, and authority in songwriting and execution, and extraordinary boldness. As fine as Ronson's playing is -- and he does some great mandolin-style riffing, apart from some of his most inspired and fluid rock leads (in tandem with Leslie West on three tracks) -- the dominant players are Laing at the drum kit and Pappalardi on bass, who seemingly pick up right where Mountain left off. Coupled with Hunter's songwriting and his and Laing's singing, the whole effect is of a top-flight hard rock band running on all cylinders from the get-go, one that could have blown any rivals off the stage. As a bonus, two outtakes from Laing's 1977 solo album Makin' It On the Street are included, cut in Macon, Georgia with Dickey Betts and Eric Clapton. These are appendices more to Laing's work, or to the Allman Brothers' history, than to the work of this quartet, but they don't detract from the rest -- indeed, "Growing Old With Rock 'N Roll" may be the best thing Laing has ever done.
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In 1978 Corky Laing (of Mountain), acting on a suggestion from his record company, put a "supergroup" together featuring himself (drums/vocals), Ian Hunter (ex Mott The Hoople) on keyboards/vocals, Mick Ronson on guitar and Felix Peppalardi (Mountain) on bass. They started recording, but shortly after the record company lost interest and funding stopped. The sessions were completed at a different studio, but remained in the can, until now.

The CD opens strongly enough, with the superb Easy Money, but soon descends into ordinaryness. Although all the tracks are complete versions, they sound rushed or demo-like, with little standing out, apart from a brilliant, lengthy version of The Outsider, which of course Ian recorded for his Schizophrenic album.

The CD is filled out with two tracks from Corky's 1978 solo album, perhaps because originally once funding had stopped there wasn't the time or money to record a full album's worth of material.

In summary, a CD mainly of historical interest only. Ian Hunter completists will want it, ditto Corky Laing/Mountain fans, but I doubt if the casual fan would be persuaded to part with his cash.
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TO THE TOP
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7457 - IAN HUNTER BAND Live At Rockpalast (Feat. Mick Ronson) (2011)

IAN HUNTER BAND FEATURING MICK RONSON
''LIVE AT ROCKPALAST''
RECORDED AT GRUGAHALLE, ESSEN, GERMANY, APRIL 19-20 1980
DECEMBER 2 2011
68:30

1 F.B.I.3:41
P. Gormley
2 Once Bitten Twice Shy 5:24
Ian Hunter
3 Angeline 5:00
Ian Hunter
4 Laugh At Me 4:26
Sonny Bono
5 Irene Wilde 4:41
Ian Hunter
6 I Wish I Was Your Mother 6:53
Ian Hunter
7 Just Another Night 7:24
Hunter, Ronson
8 We Gotta Get Out Of Here 4:19
Ian Hunter
9 Bastard 7:41
Ian Hunter
10 All The Way From Memphis 4:17
Ian Hunter
11 Cleveland Rocks 8:02
Ian Hunter
12 All The Young Dudes 3:50
D. Bowie
13 Slaughter On 10th Avenue 2:46
R. Rogers

Bass – Martin Briley
Drums – Eric Parker
Guitar – Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson, Tom Morrongiello
Keyboards – George Meyer, Tom Mandel
Saxophone – George Meyer
Vocals – Ian Hunter, Mick Ronson

BIOGRAPHY
by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
With Mott the Hoople, guitarist/vocalist Ian Hunter established himself as one of the toughest and most inventive hard rock songwriters of the early '70s, setting the stage for punk rock with his edgy, intelligent songs. As a solo artist, Hunter never attained the commercial heights of Mott the Hoople, but he cultivated a dedicated cult following.

Hunter was born in Owestry, Shropshire, but was raised in cities throughout England since his father worked in the British Intelligence agency called MI5 and had to move frequently. Eventually, the family returned to Shrewsbury, where the teenaged Hunter joined a band called Silence in the early '60s. Silence released an album, but it received no attention. In the years following Silence, Hunter played in a handful of local bands and worked a variety of jobs.

In 1968, Hunter began playing bass with Freddie "Fingers" Lee and the duo played around Germany. Shortly afterward, Hunter became the vocalist for Mott the Hoople. During the next six years, Hunter sang and played piano and guitar with the band, becoming its lead songwriter within a few albums. Although few of their records sold, Mott the Hoople was one of the most popular live bands in England. In 1972, David Bowie produced their breakthrough album, All the Young Dudes, which brought the band into the British Top Ten and the American Top 40. For the next two years, the group had a consistent stream of hits in both the U.K. and the U.S.

Toward the end of 1973, the band began to fall apart, as founding member and lead guitarist Mick Ralphs left the band. Hunter carried on through another album, but he left the group in late 1974, taking along former Bowie guitarist Mick Ronson, who had just joined Mott. Just prior to leaving the group, Hunter published Diary of a Rock Star, an account of his years leading Mott the Hoople, in June 1974.

Hunter moved to New York, where he and Ronson began working on his solo debut. Released in 1975, Ian Hunter spawned "Once Bitten, Twice Shy," a Top 20 U.K. hit. Following its release, Hunter and Ronson embarked on a tour. After its completion, the pair parted ways, although they would reunite later in the '80s. All-American Alien Boy, Hunter's second solo album, was recorded with a variety of all-star and session musicians, including members of Queen. Released in the summer of 1976, All-American Alien Boy was a commercial failure. It was followed in 1977 by Overnight Angels, an album that saw Hunter moving closer to straightforward rock & roll; disappointed with the completed album, Hunter decided to leave it unreleased in America.

Following the mainstream approach of Overnight Angels, Hunter became involved with England's burgeoning punk rock movement, producing Generation X's second album, 1979's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. For Hunter's next solo album, he reunited with Mick Ronson, who produced and arranged 1979's You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. The album was a hit, especially in America, where it peaked at number 35. Hunter and Ronson set out on another tour, which resulted in the 1980 double-live album, Ian Hunter Live/Welcome to the Club. In 1981, Hunter released Short Back N' Sides, which was produced by the Clash's Mick Jones.

Two years later, he released All of the Good Ones Are Taken. After its release, Ian Hunter became a recluse, spending the next six years in silence; occasionally, he contributed a song to a movie soundtrack. In 1989, he resumed recording, releasing YUI Orta with Ronson. After its release, Hunter remained quiet during the '90s, appearing only on Ronson's posthumous 1994 album Heaven and Hull, and at tribute concerts for Ronson in 1994 and Freddie Mercury in 1992. Hunter returned to recording with Artful Dodger, which was released in Britain and Europe in the spring of 1997. After a Columbia/Legacy compilation titled Once Bitten Twice Shy offered a wealth of Ian Hunter solo titles in the year 2000, much attention was paid to 2001's fine Rant. In 2002, Hunter performed a pair of semi-acoustic concerts in Oslo, Norway, which were recorded for later release on CD and home video; the resulting project, called Strings Attached, introduced some new songs, including "Twisted Steel," inspired by the events of September 11, 2001. Shrunken Heads, a collection of all-new material, was released in 2007 on the Yep Roc label, followed by Man Overboard in 2009 from New West Records. That same year, Hunter unexpectedly reunited with Mott the Hoople for a series of concerts at the end of the year; Live at HMV Hammersmith Apollo 2009 documented these well-reviewed gigs. After a couple of quiet years, Hunter returned in the fall of 2012 with When I'm President, another critically acclaimed collection of rock & roll.

4918 - MICK RONSON - Slaughter On 10th Avenue (1973)

MICK RONSON
''SLAUGHTER ON 10TH AVENUE''
NOVEMBER 18 1997
51:27

1/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/4:50
2/Growing up and I'm Fine/David Bowie, Mick Ronson/3:10
3/Only After Dark/Richardson, Ronson/3:30
4/Music Is Lethal/Battisti, Bowie/5:10
5/I'm the One/Annette Peacock/5:03
6/Pleasure Man/Hey Ma Get Papa/Bowie, Richardson, Ronson/8:55
7/Slaughter on Tenth Avenue/Richard Rodgers/4:41
8/Solo On 10Th Avenue [Live]/Richard Rodgers/(Previously Unreleased)/2:02
9/Leave My Heart Alone/Craig Fuller/[Live] (Original B Side)/4:31
10/Love Me Tender/Vera Matson, Elvis Presley/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:33
11/Slaughter On 10Th Avenue/Richard Rodgers/[Live] (Bonus Track)/4:34

Mick Ronson - guitar, piano, vocals, arrangement, conductor
Trevor Bolder - bass, trumpet, trombone
Aynsley Dunbar - drums, percussion
Mike Garson - piano, electric piano, organ
David Hentschel - ARP on "Hey Ma Get Papa"
Margaret Ronson - backing vocals
Dennis MacKay - backing vocals
Sidney Sax - strings

REVIEW
by Dave Thompson
Reflecting, a decade after the fact, on his launch as a solo rock & roll superstar, Mick Ronson shrugged indifferently, as though he'd really had no say in the matter. David Bowie had just "retired" and, in the absence of the singing sensation with whom Ronson had already risen to unexpected heights, manager Tony DeFries was anxious to keep at least one of his many pots boiling. "Tony said to me, 'okay, we can make you a big star, get you a deal with RCA, all that.' So I said 'wonderful,' and went off to make my own record."
Was there ever a launch like the one which awaited Mick Ronson? For a few weeks through the early spring of 1974, you couldn't turn around without his blonde tresses and sad doe eyes staring out from the video still selected to represent his solo career: "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," a histrionic guitar rendition of the Richard Rodgers movie classic, was an inspired choice, and the accompanying video — Ronson watching helplessly as his girl is gunned down on the street — remains one of the unseen classics of the genre. No mere miming potboiler for this Kid — Ronson got the full Hollywood treatment. The same can be said for the accompanying album. Slaughter on 10th Avenue remains a startling achievement, however it is viewed. Guitar gods, after all, were ten-a-penny through the 1970s. But could Ritchie Blackmore sing? Jimmy Page? Robin Trower? Ronno's voice wasn't strong, but with sensitive material and lyrics he could get behind, he was unbeatable. A deliciously Pelvis-less "Love Me Tender" opens the album with warm depth and sparkling cadences; "Only After Dark," co-written with one-time SRC main man Scott Richardson, proved he hadn't left the hard riffing behind. The watchword throughout was variety — from the proto-Springsteen-esque "Growing Up and I'm Fine" (the first and only Bowie/Ronson composition to be publicly acknowledged) to the chest-beating Euro-angst of "Music Is Lethal" — all were a showcase for Ronson the performer, rather than the man who garroted Gibsons for fun, and initial reviews of the album made that point. Of course, the guitar didn't get off scot-free. The scorching ARP/guitar duel which concludes "Hey Ma, Get Papa" and, of course, the title track itself were evidence of Ronson's love for his day job, but today, it is the absence of screeching, squealing, neck-twisting frenzy which has ensured that Slaughter on 10th Avenue remain so much more than just another guitar picker's solo record; that the album does, in fact, stand alongside any of Bowie's own, immediately post-Ronson albums as a snapshot of a special time, when the triple disciplines of glam, rock and "Precious Art" slammed into one another without a care in the world.

BIOGRAPHY
by Denise Sullivan
Guitarist, arranger, songwriter, producer and perennial sideman, Mick Ronson made his mark during glam-rock's early '70s heyday but worked consistently with frequent collaborators David Bowie and Ian Hunter till his death in 1993. From 1967-68 he played with a hometown garage rock group, The Rats, in Hull. In 1969, he was discovered by fledgling folksinger and producer, Mike Chapman, who asked him to join his recording band. From there he was on to a collaboration with Bowie beginning with "Space Oddity" in 1969 and lasting through 1973's Pin-Ups. He arranged "Changes" among others on Hunky Dory (1972) and was Bowie's flamboyant guitarist in the Spiders from Mars during the Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust (1972) album and tours. It has remained a mystery as to how much of Bowie's material Ronson wrote in exchange for "arrangement" credits, but his stamp is on some important records of the era: He co-produced Lou Reed's Transformer (RCA, 1972) with Bowie and briefly joined Mott the Hoople after working as an arranger on All the Young Dudes (1972). As glam rock faded, Ronson continued to work with Hunter in the Hunter/Ronson band and as a songwriter, guitarist and producer on Hunter's solo work. He recorded two solo albums for MainMan, Slaughter on 10th Avenue (1974) and Play Don't Worry (1975). His identifiable wah-wah sound straddled genres outside his beloved glam and hard rock: From Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue to Morrissey's Your Arsenal(1992). Ronson consistently worked with divergent artists from Roger McGuinn and David Johansen to John Mellencamp ("Jack and Diane"). He and Hunter recorded YUI Orta in 1989 for Mercury and in 1990, Ronson was diagnosed with cancer. He was reunited with Bowie for Black Tie White Noise(1993) and that same year appeared at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert with Hunter and Bowie. He made one final record with some help from his friends Hunter, Bowie, Chrissie Hynde and Mellencamp, Heaven 'n Hull, (Epic) which was released posthumously in 1994. Just Like This, a two-disc collection of unreleased material, followed in 1999, and Showtime, a collection of live material, arrived the next year.
DoWnLoAd

2137 - MICK RONSON - Heaven And Hull (1994)

MICK RONSON
''HEAVEN AND HULL''
1994
EPIC
42:53

1/Don't Look Down
Colin Allen / Mick Ronson/5:51
2/Like a Rolling Stone
Bob Dylan/4:20
3/When the World Falls Down
S. Morris / Mick Ronson/4:22
4/Trouble With Me
S. Morris / Mick Ronson/4:42
5/Life's a River
S. Morris / Mick Ronson/5:20
6/You and Me
Mick Ronson / Suzanne Ronson/3:09
7/Colour Me
S. Morris / Mick Ronson/4:57
8/Take a Long Line/3:04
9/Midnight Love
Giorgio Moroder/3:21
10/All the Young Dudes
David Bowie/3:47

Martin BarkerDrums
David Bowie /Guest Artist, Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Martin Chambers /Drums
Phil Collen /Vocals
George Corsillo /Hand Tinting
Mick Curry /Drums
John Deacon /Bass
Joe Elliott /Vocals, Vocals (Background)
Ian Hunter /Guest Artist, Vocals
Chrissie Hynde /Guest Artist, Vocals
Peter Kinski /Bass
Brian May /Guest Artist, Guitar
John Mellencamp /Guest Artist, Vocals
Sham Morris /Bass, Drum Machine, Guitar, Guitar (Acoustic), Keyboards, Producer, Vocals
Peter Noone /Bass
Mick Ronson /Bass, Guitar, Multi Instruments, Producer, Vocals
Keith Scott /Guitar
Roger Taylor /Drums, Guest Artist
John Webster /Keyboards
Rene Wurst /Bass

REVIEW
by Ralph Heibutzki
Rightly hailed as David Bowie's high-flying guitar ace, the self-effacing Ronson had been recording only his third solo album in a 30-year career when he died of liver cancer in 1994. Undaunted, his surviving colleagues completed the project, which stands as a forceful reminder of his wide-ranging talents. Ronson's gleeful, anything-goes eclecticism holds true here. The recipe extends to bluesy pop ("When the World Falls Down"), brooding soundscapes ("You and Me"), an unlikely rearrangement of Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Love," and even rock-funk ("Colour Me"). Aficionados of Ronson's strangled, Jeff Beck-style string-bending won't be disappointed -- especially on the thunderous "Don't Look Down" and on "Life's a River," where he squarely addresses his imminent mortality. Not surprisingly, every track boasts a different lineup, yet two key factors provide continuity. Ronson writes or co-writes five of the ten songs. Additionally, guitarist-keyboardist Sham Morris -- like his famous collaborator a native of the English industrial city of Hull -- provides key instrumental and production support. The all-star lineup attests to Ronson's appeal and influence. Old co-conspirator Bowie lends suitably jittery vocals to a giddy trashing of the Bob Dylan standard "Like a Rolling Stone." Additional reinforcement comes from Def Lepperd vocalist Joe Elliott, Pretenders singer-guitarist Chrissie Hynde, and rustic rocker John Mellencamp -- whose 1982 hit, "Jack and Diane," benefited from Ronson's arranging prowess. The closing spot naturally falls to ex-Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter, Ronson's longest-serving partner during the 1970s and 1980s. Hunter leads a rousing take on "All the Young Dudes," the Bowie-penned number that his band made famous. The latter track hails from Ronson's last major public appearance, at the 1992 all-star tribute to Queen's late vocalist, Freddie Mercury, which closes the circle nicely. The back cover features a shot of the Humber Bridge, in Ronson's hometown of Hull. Part of the proceeds were intended for the T.J. Martell Foundation, to help the fight against cancer.

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