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Good day to be alive
Black Country Communion is on tour in Europe, and on June 7, 2025, they have performed at the Sweden Rock Festival, and Glenn Hughes was interviewed backstage by the Sweden Rock TV podcast.
And here’s a snippet from the BCC performance at the festival:
…The day before at Amager Bio in Copenhagen:
Thanks to Blabbermouth for the heads-up, and to Saša Jurišić and U2iHorsens2010 for the live videos.
Unauthorized copying, while sometimes necessary, is never as good as the real thing
A good version of that ‘Zeppelin’ song Save Me. Good to hear Hughes keeping it simple with his singing too. Joe is a ‘old school’ guitarist in that sense, he keeps it within that realm along with Jason Bonham’s drumming. Derek Sherinian has that ‘eastern’ thing going on with the keys, nice one. Thanks for posting. Cheers.
June 9th, 2025 at 02:04Sounds good, that riff Joe plays on Sway is badass in all its Zeppelinism too, good to see Derek take a solo in the live version.
https://youtu.be/OvKaASTfTwk
Looking forward to seeing them next week, Judas Priest on one day, BCC on the other – double dose of Midlands steel mill music!
June 9th, 2025 at 13:17Just stumbled across this by sheer coincidence and it made me realize that – added to the black component – there is a whole lot of Jack Bruce in Glenn’s singing style:
https://youtu.be/a3kCnufWhcM
His attempts at being Jennifer Rush do not sound quite as convincing, @00:55! 🤣
https://youtu.be/kSZat7K9_n8
I love me a bit of The Darkness, such swagger!
https://youtu.be/DBfmX1xvNVQ
June 9th, 2025 at 15:09Hello erveryone, I do agree with Uwe : in my opinion, Derek Sherinian is the real revelation of BCC. The heritage of Jon Lord, with a personal touch. A great musician.
June 9th, 2025 at 17:46I wish the man played even more!
https://youtu.be/NZ_JZ9EUd7M
June 9th, 2025 at 18:03@ 2 Steel Mill is simply the best 😀
June 9th, 2025 at 19:49Herr Downing for once put his JP royalties to good use and it has already established itself as a popular venue for hard & heavy acts.
https://www.kkssteelmill.co.uk/
I will have to go there one day, always wanted to take a look at Wolverhampton too.
June 9th, 2025 at 21:39One of Glenn Hughes biggest influences has passed away. Sly Stone, RIP. Hughes pays tribute to him in this article and good ole Stormbringer (two songs off the album) gets mentioned along with Ritchie and Jon Lord. Cheers.
https://www.loudersound.com/bands-artists/sly-stone-dead-rip
June 10th, 2025 at 00:19@ 2 – Uwe, can you please finally attend a Judas Priest concert dressed appropriately. Leather, studs, chains, piercings etc etc. Poor Edith, seeing you about to leave your abode and we can just imagine the exchange in conversation. Edith: “where do you think you’re going?” Uwe; “I am going to a heavy metal concert honey, can’t you tell? You know I have a penchant for Judas Priest and have been to many concerts over the years, even though they all sound the same”. Edith : “that is what they all say, home no later than 11.00pm.” Uwe, at least all the JP fans will finally accept you into their fraternity, no holds barred of course. Enjoy your experience and make sure you are home at a reasonable hour to allay any possible suspicions. Cheers.
June 10th, 2025 at 02:39@9
😂🤣
Good one MacGregor!
And Uwe – listen: I have homeopathic remedies for that you know 😉
June 10th, 2025 at 08:19It will no doubt reassure you immeasurably, Herr MacGregor, that I intend (together with my nephew Kai) to travel to the gig with my Harley-Davidson Fat Bob – ganz standesgemäß!. What could be more appropriate for the Priest?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09c1xRCYHSk
HELL BENT, HELL BENT FOR LEATHERRR !!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘
June 10th, 2025 at 08:20Sly was way, way ahead of everybody else with his fusion of rock, pop, soul and funk. Nice that Glenn credits him. Hope he’s taken somewhere higher.
This was 1968!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG_xmmllfFw
June 10th, 2025 at 08:27@ 7 – KK Downing at least had some money left over, well he has recently sold off his songwriting royalties as you said. Didn’t he previously lose most of his lucre building that golf course? Anyway it good to see him out and about and he will apparently be playing at the ‘O$$y’ farewell on July 5 in England. Priest will be in Germany with the Scorpions and of course couldn’t make that circus event. They (O$bournes) wanted to fly Halford (possibly the band too) out to old Blighty and then fly him straight back to Germany in time for the Scorpions gig. Halford declined, too risky and too rushed etc, for his little moment of doing a ‘Phil Collins’ Live Aid cameo. That wasn’t very appealing to Halford and rightly so. KK Downing may very well be the only British musician other than the Sabs themselves at that ‘event’. At least Bill Ward will get his ‘farewell’, sort of and poor old Ozzy too. Cheers.
https://blabbermouth.net/news/rob-halford-is-absolutely-gutted-to-have-to-miss-black-sabbaths-final-concert
June 10th, 2025 at 23:01@ 11- enjoy your JP concert Uwe, I had forgotten that you owned a Harley, otherwise that would have been in that joke too. Poor Edith, she has probably given up on you by now, he he he. With this current Scorpions ’60th anniversary’ tour, I hadn’t realised that they were that long in the tooth. When we look at their history, Meine joined with Schenker in 1969 and they didn’t record their first album until 1972. Still, a bit of nostalgic marketing eh? Technically speaking the name of the band along with Rudolph Schenker is from 1965. Sheesh, he would have been just 17 years at that time. Registering the name and so forth, he had a vision of sorts way back then, good on him. I can see why Rob Halford is in awe of them. Cheers.
June 11th, 2025 at 00:02Most Germans tend to be slightly cringe-taken aback when the subject turns to ze Scorps, but I’ve made my peace with them, yes, Klaus’ Eeengleesh, the dumb sexism (“You’re Just Another Piece Of Meat” 🫣🙄, the corny stage raps … but through all that they have forged their sound. I don’t think they ever got over the loss of Uli Jon Roth who I rate both over his prede- and his successor, but no matter they are a German export item like Volkswagen, Stihl Motorsägen and Mercedes/BMW. All power to them.
We all just wish that sometimes there was a little more finesse to their music. They’ve dumbed it down considerably since their Wishbone Ash’y beginnings …
https://youtu.be/ojx1znP0CAQ
Uli was really something …
https://youtu.be/vy7mBEpBpOY
I saw him live early on with them – he was as mesmerizing to watch as Blackmore.
June 11th, 2025 at 15:50KK actually makes a good case for selling your back catalog from a certain age onwards:
https://blabbermouth.net/news/k-k-downing-explains-decision-to-sell-his-share-of-royalty-rights-to-judas-priest-catalog
The fact that he is childless by choice (as is his sister, they came from a not very nurturing home with some violence/intimidation) and has no heirs likely plays into his decision though.
In general, Priest never had financial issues except very early on as all young bands do. It might have to do with their across-the-board blue collar Walsall heritage (only Glenn Tipton came from a middle class household where money wasn’t a constant issue).
They never had DP type sales, more like a third to half of what DP had, but they just weren’t wasteful. KK’s golf resort investment looked great on paper and he was really into it (an avid player himself), but at one point something went wrong through no real fault of his.
If it had been possible in any way, I’m sure Halford would have been there for Ozzy’s goodbye, he worships Sabbath endlessly.
https://youtu.be/4Uedtk9XOcQ
When he was with his neo-Pantera outfit FIGHT (not his greatest idea to regain “street credibility” if you ask me) in the 90s they’d regular encore with a lengthy medley of assorted Sabbath chestnütz from the earliest albums. War Pigs, NIB and Children Of The Grave I distinctly remember, early Fight covered more Sabbath than Priest! 😎
That said, Priest and Scorpions have been buddies for ages too, a young Glenn Tipton and KK Downing revered Michael Schenker, the NME once jeered: “After the UFO gig, two guitarists from Brummie outfit Judas Priest drop by backstage to pay their respects to the German wunderkind – as they stand there in solemn adulation, they have the look of acolytes …”. 😂
June 11th, 2025 at 16:29Interesting hearing that earlier Scorpions music Uwe. It sounds like they stayed with their earlier music longer than Priest did before going all out metal. I remember hearing the Scorpions and UFO back in the late 70’s and I was drawn more to UFO, (No Heavy Petting, Phenomenon, Lights Out) the songs sounded more to my liking. The later day metal Scorpions I heard plenty of, with the metal heads I became friends with in the later 80’s and early 90’s. Good musicians all round and yes Uli is a special guitar player. In regards to Judas Priest being at that circus next month in England, I was surprised at first that they were not on the list. A quick bit of research found them touring at that time. Of course Rob would have loved being there, he would be disappointed indeed. We also have to remember he filled in for Sabbath back at O$$y’s so called retirement gig in the early 90’s. Thirty years or so later and people’s health now plays a much more important part in proceedings, along with the logistics of everything else. Cheers.
June 11th, 2025 at 23:05In the latish 70s, UFO’s music with Schenker’s melodicism and Mogg’s manly vocals and strong lyrics was much more matured than the one of the Scorpions which still had a lot of naïve fledgling charm. You’re forgiven for your preference, little drummer boy!
Michael Schenker – who could be arrogant at times, he’s German you know – once quipped about Priest: “And it was about time they finally made it – hard to watch how long they had been unsuccessfully at it.” I’m not sure whether Michael considered Ken and Glenn (rhymes!), the ying and yang of Priesthood, in his league (though Tipton never stopped improving until Parkinson’s hit him). The paths of Priest and UFO crossed often in the 70s. They were established B league (UFO) and promising C league (Priest) bands.
And there was also this lingering thing with Michael that KK Downing stole his mid-70s image (blond hair, Flying V, leather outfits showing some skin) -, though vehemently denied by KK, but I believe der liebe Michael had the right hunch.
June 12th, 2025 at 14:42