The Rock Jukebox with Jeff Collins: Recent Episodes

Jeff Collins

The Rock Jukebox with Jeff Collins is broadcast every Wednesday at 5pm (UK Time) on Hard Rock Hell Radio. It's 2 hours of classic rock presented by Jeff Collins: A broadcaster with 30 years experience of presenting at BBC, Sky Sports News, ITN Radio, Nation Radio, Sunshine Radio, LBC and many more. Jeff is also the author of 2 books published by the University of Wales press: Rock Legends at Rockfield and Stuart Cable: From Cwmaman To The Stereophonics and Beyond

View Details

https://archive.org/download/the-rock-jukebox-podcast-6th-may-2May 26h020/The%20Rock%20Jukebox%20Podcast%206th%20May%202020.mp3THE ROCK JUKEBOX with Jeff Collins
On Hard Rock Hell Radio

May 6th
1st Hour
Bob Seger - Hollywood Nights
Wings - Jet
Elbow -Empires (Acoustic)
Ad Break
INXS - Love Is (What I Say)
ELO - Yours Truly, 2095
The Faces - Miss Judy's Farm
Rory Gallagher - Just The Smile
BB King - How Blue Can You Get
Cats in Space – This Is London
Deep Purple - Holy Man
Ad Break
Black Sabbath - Seventh Star
Louise Patricia Crane – Ophelia2nd Hour
Motley Crue – The Dirt
Axel Rudi Pell - Bad Reputation
Nightwish - Harvest
çAd Break 35 B-GothicProphet
Kasabian - Where Did All The Love Go
PFM - River of Life
Guns N Roses - Dust n Bones
Ozzy Osbourne -Today is The End
Gillan -Mr Universe
AD Break
Joe Louis Walker -7&7 Is
Joe Deninzon & Stratospheerius - Frame by Frame
Witchcraft – A Boy and A Girl

View Details

The latest Podcast of The Rock Jukebox with Jeff Collins on Hard Rock Hell Radio.
https://archive.org/download/rock-jukebox-podcast-29042020/Rock%20Jukebox%20Podcast%2029042020.mp3THE ROCK JUKEBOX on Hard Rock Hell Radio
On April 29thRunning Order1st Hour
Styx - Too Much Time On My Hands
Bad Company - Can't Get Enough
Bebop Deluxe - Crying To The Sky
Ad Break
INXS - I'm Only Looking
Jack Russell's Great White - Gonna Getcha
Saiichi Sugiyama - Somewhere Down The Road
The Rolling Stones – Living In A Ghost Town
Kansas – Throwing Mountains
Deep Purple - Throw My Bones
Ad Break
Shinedown – Atlas Falls
Whitney Rose - You Blame Me For The Rain
Blackfoot - Not Another Maker
Rory Gallagher - Bought and Sold
2nd Hour
Aerosmith - Eat The Rich
Novena – Disconnected
Ad Break
Dictator Ship - Savage
Volturian - Broken
Gotthard - Every Time I Die
Sea Girls - Violet
Puddle of Mudd - You Don’t Know
Pearler – Gusher
Ad Break
Heavy Pettin - Tell Me Why
Allen Olzen - I’ll Never Leave You
Frank Zappa - Valley Girl
Testament - City Of Angels

View Details

Hi Here is the new PODCAST of my show The Rock Jukebox on Hard Rock Hell Radio.
It was first broadcast on Wednesday 22nd April 2020

https://archive.org/download/the-rock-jukebox-podcast-april-22nd/The%20Rock%20Jukebox%20Podcast%20April%2022nd.mp3
Here are the songs featured on my show

1st Hour
Yes - It Can Happen
The Georgia Satellites - Keep Your Hands to Yourself
Fleetwood Mac - Sarah
Ad Break
John Mellencamp - To The River
David Sancious - Urban Psalm #3
Harem Scarem – Mother of Invention
Death Cab For Cutie - I Will Possess Your Heart
Crobot - Welcome To The Fat City
Cryptex - Once Upon A Time
Ad Break
Blues Pills - Low Road
The Dirty Youth - Fight
Joe Satriani - Teardrops

2nd Hour
Archon Angel - Faces on Innocence
Axel Rudi Pell - Sign of The Times
Ad Break
Marko Hietala - The Voice of My Father
Dynazty – Hologram
Black Swan - Immortal Soul
Savage Hands - Break The Ice
Novelists Fr - C'est La Vie
Black Flower - My Last Day
Ad Break
Cirith Ungol - Stormbringer
Paradise Lost - Fall From Grace
Kreator - 666 World Divided

View Details

Two hours of classic rock on The Rock Jukebox with Jeff Collins.
It was broadcast by Hard Rock Hell Radio on Wednesday 15th April 2020

https://archive.org/download/rock-jukebox-podcast-april-15th/Rock%20Jukebox%20Podcast%20April%2015th.mp3

Playlist
THE ROCK JUKEBOX with Jeff Collins on
Hard Rock Hell Radio
April 15th

Dire Straits - So Far Away
Billy Idol - To Be A Lover
Hootie and The Blowfish – New Years Day
Ad Break
The Birthday Massacre – Enter
Night Flight Orchestra - Transmissions
Louise Patricia Crane – Deity
Michael Kiwanuka - Rolling
Tandy and Morgan – Zero Zero
The House of Love – Money and Time
Dictator Ship - In The Heat Of The Night
AD Break
Dennis De Young - East Of Midnight
The Outlaws - Showdown
Waiting for Monday – Make It Better
Styx - Renegade
Broken Witt Rebels – Money
Moonlight Haze - Til The End
Ad Break
Semblant - Murder of Crows
Spell - Psychic Death
Volturian - New Life
Thor - The Party Never Dies
Mean Motor Scooter - The Void
Lucifer Star Machine - The Void
Burning Witches - Wings of Steel
Ad Break
Loathe – Two Way Mirror
Darryl Way - Metropolis

View Details

https://archive.org/download/rockjukeboxapril8thcorrect/Rock%20Jukebox%20April%208th%20correct.mp3

This is the podcast of my show THE ROCK JUKEBOX
with Jeff Collins on Hard Rock Hell Radio from April 8th 2020.

Two hours of classic Rock --- Two hours of great music.

PLAYLIST
1 Cats in Space – Hologram man
2 David Sancious - In The Middle Of The Night
3 It Bites - Underneath Your Pillow
Ad Break
4 Birthday Massacre - Diamonds
5 Kristin Hersch - LAX
6 ELO - Twilight (Live)
7 Lone Justice - I Found Love
9 Rory Gallagher - Calling Card (Live)
Ad Break
10 Rose Tatoo – One of The Boys
11 Deep Energy Orchestra - Moksha II - The Battle
12 Khymera – Walk Away
13 Pure Reason Revolution - Ghosts and Typhoons
14 Dynazty - Presence of Mind
15 The Black Legacy - The Race
Ad Break
16 Allen Olzen - I'll Never Leave You Alone
17 Black Swan - Shake The World
18 Thor - The Game is On
19 Savage Hands – Blue
20 Burning Witches - Sea Of Lies
Ad Break
21 Jesus and The Mary Chain - Never Understand
22 Beesus - Reproach
23 Sepultura – Ali

Hope you enjoy!

View Details

Memories from writing LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD - Extract from chapter 5 - Motorhead

ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD by Jeff Collins (University of Wales Press)
Available for pre-order on Amazon, Waterstones, WHSmith, Walmart and many many others.

Chapter Five -- Motorhead.

This chapter is about the band's painful birth at Rockfield. The band recorded their first album in 1975. Lemmy himself says "Motorhead were born at Rockfield".
These two extracts, the first is about the first fews gigs played by Motorhead after Lemmy was sacked by Hawkwind. The second one is about dissent in the band over the appointment of Dave Edmunds as producer of their first album at Rockfield.
ENJOY!!!!!

'Lemmy got chucked out of Hawkwind when they were crossing the border from Canada to America,' says former Motorhead guitarist Larry Wallis. 'I was sitting around at home not doing very much, when Lemmy phoned up and said "I've just been thrown out of Hawkwind. How would you like to join the most evil band that ever walked the earth?" So I said "Sure" and jumped into a taxi, right there and then, and went over the rehearsal room in Chelsea, where Lemmy and Lucas Fox were waiting and that was that. We made an awful racket, took a load of drugs and became Motorhead.'

Lemmy set out the band's stall early on. His amps, which had been psychedelic coloured with Hawkwind, were now painted black. Their first show was at the Roundhouse in London on Sunday July 20th 1975. They were supporting pomp-rockers Greenslade. The band took to the stage to the recorded sounds of marching feet and people yelling 'Sieg Heil'. One of the band's dark black amps had a big silver-painted human skull on it – the forerunner to the now legendary Motorhead logo. That night the band played just 7 songs, including Silver Machine and Motorhead. Wallis was enjoying life with his new band and thought the Roundhouse gig boded well for the future.
'It was a great gig! We'd let people know it was going to be an awful, noisy, speedy monster of a concert. And so all of Lemmy's fans were there and a lot of Pink Fairies fans (Wallis' Band) turned up. They loved it.'
After a handful of gigs – including a disastrous experience supporting Blue Oyster Cult - Motorhead were voted 'worst band in the world' by Melody Maker magazine. Splashed over the front page, it was nevertheless good publicity for the embryonic band. Many audiences, though, were bemused. Lemmy and the band were often confronted by rows of people with blank faces and their mouths hanging wide open. Despite being early days, the trio already prided themselves on being the fastest band in the world. Sometimes this desire would get the better of them at their early gigs, much to the annoyance of many a promoter.
'We were doing a Sunday night gig in Croydon,' remembers Larry Wallis. 'We rushed on stage and off we went at 100 miles an hour. I remember Lemmy and I were shouting at Lucas "Faster, you bloody idiot, Faster." We went down well, and triumphantly strode off the stage. In the dressing room we were considering an encore, when a furious promoter burst in, demanding to know why we'd done 25 minutes instead of the agreed hour. We were astonished to find we'd played the entire set in half the usual time!


Larry Wallis had his doubts about appointing singer/songwriter Dave 'I Hear You Knocking' Edmunds as producer: 'Basically I never agreed to it. Edmunds is a fabulous producer. Absolutely incredible! But just because Lemmy was a fan of his, he wanted him to do our record, which I never thought was a great idea. I don't think Dave could cope with working with a group of maniacs, who had a entourage of drug addled Hells Angels and groupies.' Long time Rockfield producer John David also felt that Edmunds and Motorhead were unusual bedfellows.
'At that time Dave wanted to do more production and was willing to look at pretty much any band. Motorhead's manager even came up to us in the studio at Rockfield and said "Of course they're not really a band. They're just car thieves." That's how he explained them! But I do remember one time, when the band were completely out of their heads on drugs. It was about 6 o'clock in the evening and Lemmy was trying to overdub this guitar solo. It wasn't difficult. It was a very simple riff and only about 10 seconds long. But Lemmy was so out of it, on some drug or other, that he just could not play it. But he was trying over, and over again, without success. Every time I walked past the door, I could hear it, the same bloody guitar phrase. And Dave is sitting at the mixer desk with a dazed look on his face, while Lemmy was in the studio, sagging at his knees, still trying to play this solo. Anyway I was back there at about 10 o'clock the next morning. They were still there! They were still doing it. All night they'd been trying, so they hadn't gone to bed. And there was Lemmy still playing that same guitar line – and badly! I couldn't believe it. Then later that morning, the maintenance guy, Otto, went in to the studio just to tidy some stuff up and he saw this plate of beans on the floor with mildew growing on it. He thought that the way Lemmy was staggering all over the place, he was going to step in it. So he was going to take it away. But Lemmy saw him and slurred in a loud voice "Aww, don't take that. I was going to eat that!" So he left it for Lemmy to have for lunch! Motorhead used to get in a terrible state.'

ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD by Jeff Collins is published by The University of Wales press in the UK and the University of Chicago Press in the USA.

motorhead #rockfieldstudios #lemmy #larrywallis #daveedmunds #hardrockhellradio #therockjukebox

View Details

Ive been very privileged to have spent 30 years Presenting and Newsreading on radio and TV.
I started off in the late 80s working on local radio in the West Midlands such as Mercia Sound and BRMB in Coventry and Birmingham.
I then spent almost a decade in London working for the like of Classic FM, LBC, Sky News, ITN etc before heading back to Wales to work for BBC Wales, Swansea Sound/The Wave, Nation Radio amd Made in Cardiff TV. 
Below is a link to some of my favourite moment presenting on TV:

View Details

ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD - Extracts from chapter 9 - ROBERT PLANT

ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD -

Extract from Chapter Nine --- Robert Plant:
Led Zeppelin legend rediscovers himself in the pubs and studios at Monmouth.

This is the latest in the extracts from my book on Rockfield which shows behind the scenes of the making of some of the greatest rock records of all time including Queen, Black Sabbath, Rush, Motorhead, Judas priest etc etc.
On May 15th 2006 I reunited Robert Plant with his first solo band. They recorded Pictures At Eleven and Principle of Moments at Rockfield from 1981.
Drummer Phil Collins couldn't make it as he was in New York working on the musical Tarzan.
In the first of these two extracts, I read out an email Phil has sent to me to read to his friends and former bandmates. In the second - Robert relates some of the stories about how the songs got their names.
Enjoy!!!!

At Rockfield, Robert Plant greets me and my friend and photographer Andrew Pritchard. Eventually he sits down on one of three large green sofas in the living room, which are laid out in a ‘U’ shape around a coffee table. Sitting to the singer’s right in the living room is Jezz Woodroffe (Former Black Sabbath Keyboard player), while Robbie Blunt (Guitars) hovers nearby, lost amid his own memories, on the other side of the room. Andrew starts taking photographs of the three band members, while I sit opposite Robert Plant and read out an email, which I have been sent by another member of this band, who can’t be here today.
‘Dear Lads. Oh the memories. I remember it like it was 25 years ago! If you ever want to do it again, call me. I can still play drums, but I’m better on the slower songs!!! Wish I was there! Phil Collins xxxx’
‘Well’, laughs Robert Plant, ‘having played in Genesis all those years, being with us had to be good fun, didn’t it?’ Jezz and Robbie both chuckle loudly at their former singer’s affectionate barb at their one time drummer. Phil Collins was one of two drummers used on those albums: the other being the late Cozy Powell. Phil, though, is three thousand miles away in New York promoting the Disney Broadway musical, Tarzan, for which he has written the music. But he’s sent me an email, ahead of this reunion, to read out to his former band mates. At the end of the message, they nod and smile in unison at the memories of the long-time Genesis drummer’s contributions to the albums and the subsequent tour of America. They all agree that Phil Collins enjoyed his time at Rockfield, even if he sometimes couldn’t take the pace. ‘One of my favourite memories,’ says Robbie Blunt, ‘was hearing Phil throw up in the bedroom next to mine, after he’d been on a night out with us. That was amusing!’ My mind resists a mental image of the Phil Collins Spitting Image puppet on its knees, bent over a toilet bowl. I shake my head to clear the bizarre image from my mind and refocus on the conversation in hand. ‘I thought it was great when he played on the road with us,’ chips in Jezz - still on the subject of Phil Collins. ‘It just got better and better, and I loved that old plane we toured on. The five of us rumbling across America in this 60’s prop plane.’
‘That was a 1948 Viscount!’ corrects Plant, who’s either an aviation expert or simply a stickler for the facts. Mind you, he probably should know as he paid it!!


Robert Plant leans back in his chair as he pauses to remember the lighter moments of the band’s time together, and the three musicians look at each other and exchange smiles as they reminisce. ‘We can all relate some songs to one funny incident, or another, during recording,’ continues Plant. ‘The song Horizontal Departure is a great example. We all went to Ibiza to get in the groove of writing the second album Principle Of Moments. Our bassist Paul Martinez is a lovely guy, but could come across as a stroppy fucker. He could be so offhand that people would take it as an insult. One night he was in a club and someone he’d offended decked him. He flew through the door and hit the floor as he came out. We all rushed out into the street after him and there he was lying on the kerb, which was covered in his blood. We’d watched him be punched straight through the door – so that inspired the song Horizontal Departure. So there were all these little innuendos, which were comical to us at the time. It’s just the same for any band I guess.’
Jezz Woodroffe puts his cup of coffee on the table in front of him as he recalls another inspiring moment. ‘The song Fat Lip was called that because Robert’s son Logan, who was about 6 at the time, used to walk round telling people he was going to give them a fat lip!’ Robert Plant laughs at that recollection before adding, ‘Burning Down One Side was about a spliff. Big Log was about a spliff as well. In fact, its all just one big spliff attack,’ he announces with a flourish, clearly warming to his theme.

View Details

Rock LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD - Extracts from chapter 6 - Queen
Memories of writing my 1st Book - Rock Legends at Rockfield (University of Wales Press)

I've included here three extracts from Chapter Six which focuses on Queen. In the first extract Roadie Paul Hince talks about recording the album Night at the Opera and in particular Bohemian Rhapsody at Rockfield as well as working at a number of other recording studios and the chaos this caused.
In the second, producer Roy Thomas Baker looks at the creation of Bohemian Rhapsody. And in the third, members of Tigertailz and The Darkness talk about being inspired by Queen during their times at Rockfield.

EXTRACTS FROM CHAPTER SIX

Given the chaotic recording arrangements, Queen roadie Peter Hince spent a good deal of time traveling between studios and would probably have been better off being paid by the mile than the hour! As such his time at Rockfield was limited.
‘I only spent a brief time in Wales. I remember driving a van up to Rockfield to pick stuff up and drop equipment off. It was a nightmare because of all the different things going on. I remember there was a pub down the road that everyone used to go to after recording and I recall that the food at Rockfield wasn’t very good. I spent more time in London in the studios at Sarm, Scorpio and The Roundhouse. It was a hugely chaotic period. Some of the band would be in one studio, while the rest would be in another. All the while us guys on the crew would be moving equipment back and forward. If that wasn’t bad enough, at the same time, we were building this complex new stage show up at Elstree studios. Overall it was a pretty hectic time. The band made it quite difficult for themselves. I don’t know why they did it. There was a lot of pressure, so you got a feeling it was a real “make or break” time for the band. They had just left their old management company and signed up with John Reid. He used his clout as Elton John’s manager to persuade EMI to stick a lot of money behind Queen. At the time, A Night At The Opera was one of the most expensive albums ever made. The cost in terms of studio time was phenomenal. I think that if it hadn’t sold as many millions as it eventually did, there was this feeling that EMI might have had second thoughts after spending all that money and might have dropped Queen. Of course that didn’t happen.’
A Night At The Opera would be a huge hit reaching number 1 in Britain and number 4 in the States. It’s crowning achievement would be the smash hit single Bohemian Rhapsody. It was released on October 31st 1975 to huge acclaim and massive worldwide sales. The six minute epic swept through gentle ballad into operatic drama and a fiery riff-filled rock-out before another transition into its beautiful conclusion. With one broad sweep, the song sealed Queen's future in the Premier Division of rock performers.
Recording had begun on it at Rockfield Studios on August 24, 1975, after a 3 week rehearsal period in Herefordshire. At the time, guitarist Brian May referred to the track's parent album, A Night At The Opera, as "our Sgt Pepper".


At Rockfield, the first draft of Bohemian Rhapsody was just Freddy on a piano. Over the next few weeks, the singer’s skeleton framework for the song would change many times. Roy Thomas Baker recalls ‘the rough vocals were done at Rockfield, but they were rerecorded in London. There was a room at Rockfield full of saddle bags. It was one of the many rooms we used to hide ourselves away in individually to get away from the studio - to clear our heads and re-energise our batteries. So if people wanted to hide away, there were loads of these little rooms full of saddle bags and farm type things. I remember Freddy playing me Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time on his piano at his place in London. Then later at Rockfield, with the basics mapped out, he focussed on pinning down what was right. He played me the beginning part and said, “Right, now this is where the Opera section comes in” and he’d leave a gap and I’d have to imagine this dramatic opera style segment. And it just kept changing all the time in Rockfield. It took 3 weeks to record on a 16 track tape machine and we used 180 overdubs, which was very, very unusual for back then.’
**********The legacy of Queen’s time at Rockfield is immense. Many bands have been inspired to record there to follow in the footsteps of Queen and try to capture some of the sound and magic of Bohemian Rhapsody. Welsh glam-rock band Tigertailz - best known for their 80’s hit single Love Bomb - arrived at Rockfield in the early 90’s to record their album Wazbones.
‘We were there for three months’ says singer Kim Hooker. ‘I went into the studios really late one day and our producer said “Here’s the tape machine that Queen used to make A Night At The Opera”, and I thought, “We’ve got to use that same machine, because then we can sound like Queen.” But, of course, we didn’t! I was talking to some of the studio staff and they remembered Queen. They were telling me how the band got richer which each album they did there. Roger Taylor for the first album drove a mini cooper. Then for the next one, it was an MG, but by the end of Night At The Opera it was a Ferrari. The money was now rolling in.’ When in January 2005, The Darkness arrived at Rockfield to record with Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker, one of the group, bassist Richie Edwards, was in seventh heaven!
‘I’m probably the biggest Queen fan that I know. When I found out that Roy was going to be working on this album One Way Ticket To Hell And Back, and it was going to be at Rockfield - probably the most famous residential studio in the world - I was like a kid in a sweet shop. Just walking in there, I really did feel something. It sounds silly, but I could feel that history. And, as you know, Rockfield is not the most palatial studio in the world. It’s tatty and you get the impression that its not been decorated since Queen did Sheer Heart Attack.

Extracts from ROCK LEGENDS AT ROCKFIELD. The book is available on Amazon and all good book shops (inc Waterstones, Walmart, WHSmith etc )

Jeff Collins
You can hear THE ROCK JUKEBOX on Hard Rock Hell Radio every Wednesday at 5pm
Tune in via hardrockhellradio.com, TuneIn Radio, our app for android/Iphone or ask Alexa to play Hard Rock Hell Radio on the Amazon Echo