NEWS ARCHIVE: 2008

(August 2008) STEVE ELLIS - "Best Of Days" - new CD!
Steve's brand new album, entitled "Best Of Days", was released on the Demon Records label on 04 August 2008. "Best Of Days" is a remastered version of the withdrawn (illegal) 2004 album "A Sort Of Innocence" and comes highly recommended! Helping Steve out on this new album are his friends Roger Daltrey and Paul Weller. More info

Minor Steve Ellis discography update: Epic Records re-issued the ELLIS single "El Doomo" b/w "Your Game" (produced by Roger Daltrey and first released in 1973 as Epic EPC 1052) on 06 August 1976. The re-issue got a new catalogue number, Epic EPC 4525, but for some unknown reason it was credited to Steve Ellis rather than 'Ellis'. More info

(July 2008) Love Affair 1969 radio show LP discovered!
A BBC transcription disc with three Love Affair songs recorded live for the BBC in November 1969 was auctioned on eBay recently and went for GBP 100! Interestingly one of the Love Affair tracks was "Walk On Gilded Splinters", a Dr. John song never released by the band officially. More info

More Love Affair 2008 tour dates!
Johnny Warman is continuing to perform with Love Affair and the shows are going from strength to strength. The band will tour UK and Germany in August - December:
1 Aug - Prenzlau Freilichtbühne Germany
2 Aug - Landsberg Freilichtbühne Germany
8 Aug - WeiBwasser Freilichtbühne Germany
9 Aug - Eberswalde Freilichtbühne Germany
12 Sep - Manchester (Private) UK
25 Oct - Melksham Assembley Hall UK
28 Nov - The Touchline Essex UK
29 Nov - Mehrzweckhalle, Obertraubling Germany
7 Dec - Civic Hall Sheldon UK

2 DRUMMERS DRUMMING feat. Maurice Bacon!
Maurice is also co-presenting a show at the Bongo Club in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival this summer along with Mathew Priest, drummer with Dodgy. The show runs from 4th to 25th August 2008. Says Maurice: The title of the show is 2 Drummers Drumming and one of the aims is to reclaim the reputation of the drummer. The make up of the show is Mathew and myself telling our stories of our lives as drummers in the music business, the by line of the show is "personal journeys through the music business from the 60's to the 90's and beyond - as observed first-hand from the back seat". More info on www.twodrummers.com and www.myspace.com/twodrummersdrumming

(June 2008) English Rose update!
Lynton Guest and Jimmy Edwards formed the band English Rose in 1970 - the band appeared in the movie "Groupie Girl" and had a single released on Polydor. But not many people know that Neil Peart who went on to do great things with Rush was also a member of the band at some point. More info

STEVE ELLIS - "The Love Affair Is Over" - new CD/DVD out now!
Angel Air have just announced the first five releases in their new "Sound And Vision" series - packaged in 2CD case format with separate audio CD and a separate DVD disc. The Steve Ellis set is one of the five and it is entitled "The Love Affair Is Over" (pictured left). It was released on 07 April 2008 and combines "The Last Angry Man" CD and the "Last Tango In Bradford" DVD. Available at mid price, this is a collection not to be missed!

Note that the DVD format is now NTSC all region (the original "Last Tango In Bradford" was PAL all regions). More info

STEVE ELLIS' LOVE AFFAIR - "Everlasting Love" - new CD out now! This is a low budget UK release on the Forever Gold label. It has just been released, and I think it is the soundtrack to the "Last Tango In Bradford" DVD, but I am not sure. Can someone confirm this? More info

Updated the Steve Ellis discography with details about the German edition of the "Last Tango In Bradford" DVD from 2003 and the UK DVD edition of the "Loot" movie (featuring Steve Ellis on the soundtrack) from 2005t. More info

Other Steve Ellis news: Steve will be touring with New Amen Corner this summer. The tour includes Steve, Mike D'Abo and Cliff Bennett. Check out the New Amen Corner website for tour dates and more details! Steve has also completed a new album which is scheduled for release in July. More details to follow...!

Lynton Guest discography updated!
In December 2007, Martyn Halsey released his latest CD-single "Earth Song", produced by Lynton Guest. Martyn is a whistler, and his version of the Michael Jackson song is kinda cool - although it may not appeal to everybody! More info

Other Lynton Guest discography news: Three more mid-70s productions by Lynton and his partner in crime Jimmie Edwards have been discovered: The Washington Flyers, Stumpy and Rotten To The Core. The latter was a studio band featuring Steve Holley (ex-Wings, now with Ian Hunter). Added German picture sleeves for the English Rose 1970 single and the Rotten To The Core single. More info

(January 2008) The Love Affair line-up change: new vocalist and guitarist!
After over 30 years in the band Martin Lyon has departed from the Love Affair and we wish him good luck and all the very best for the future. The line up of the band is now Dave Dulake on keyboards, Mike Steed on Bass, Maurice Bacon on drums, Mark Sullivan on guitar (Mark played with Mo in a band called Window in the mid 70's and Mo says he is probably the best guitarist he has ever played with) and on vocals for the time being and maybe longer if all works out Chip Hawkes from The Tremeloes. The first show with this line up was 20th January 2008 which spookily enough was 40 years to the date when Everlasting Love reached No.1 in The UK Charts. The band are also trying out some other singers. The show on 2nd February featured Johnny Warman from the Mods. But the band are looking for a permanent replacement.

Guitarist Rufus Ruffell left the band at the end of last year, and Ted Tomlin replaced him for five shows. Ted is the guitarist in The Hitmen, Martin Lyons' new band.

The Hitmen - Martin Lyons new band!
The Hitmen (formerly known as Legends Of The Sixties) were originally formed in 2004 as special guests to The Animals 40th anniversary tour. According to a press release, the band has gone from strength to strength over the last few years performing all over Germany, Denmark, Holland, Sweden etc. The nucleus of the band is original 60's icons Mick Avory (drums, ex-Kinks) and Eric Haydock (bass, ex-Hollies), joined by the phenomenal vocals of Martin Lyon, the lead singer of Love Affair for the last three decades, fellow Love Affair member Ted Tomlin (guitar), plus Graham Pollock (guitar/keyboards, ex-Mindbenders). The set is non stop hits including You Really Got Me, I'm Alive, Everlasting Love, Bus Stop, All Day and All Of The Night to name a few. Collectively this band have notched up over 100 hit records worldwide. More info