Follow this link in order to register.  If you are already registered, follow this link in order to login.

Voicemail for the request line is:  646-222-8198

ZZ Top – 2008-07-18 – Festival des Vieilles Charrues, Carhaix, France FM

ZZ Top is an American  blues rock band that was formed in Houston, TX in 1969 by Billy Gibbons (guitar and main lyricist), Greig Lanier (bass and organ), and Dan Mitchell (drums).  They released their first single in 1969, and shortly after replaced Mitchell with Frank Beard of American Blues and Lanier with Billy Ethridge.  However, Ethridge was unwilling to sign a recording contract and quit the band.  Dusty Hill replaced him, and that lineup has survived to date.  In 1971, they released ZZ Top’s First Album and it reflected their heavy blues roots.  In 1972, they followed up with Rio Grande Mud, which failed dismally.  1973 brought them Tres Hombres, their first top ten album, and caused their popularity to soar.  A far cry from the tour in support of Rio Grande Mud, when they played to mostly empty auditoriums.  ZZ Top has become one of the best selling musical artists of all time, having sold in excess of 50 million units worldwide.  This concert is an FM broadcast of a concert in France on 18 Jul 2008 and you can ‘feel’ their driving guitar work.  ZZ Top is most definitely one of the world’s leading power trios, and totally amazing that they have managed to keep the same lineup for over four decades of recording and touring.

Cream – 1967-10-15 – The Grande  Ballroom, Detroit, MI

Cream was a British blues rock, psychedelic rock power trio formed in London in 1966 by Jack Bruce (bass, vocals), Eric Clapton (guitar, vocals), and Ginger Baker (drums).  In 1966, Clapton of the Yardbirds and John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers met Ginger Baker in the band the Graham Bond Organisation.  Baker asked to join the new band that Clapton was forming.  He said sure as long as they could bring Jack Bruce along.  Bruce and Baker had played together in the Graham Bond Organisation and had developed a dislike of each other, but they put their differences aside, and Cream was formed.  The band’s unofficial debut came at the Twisted Wheel on 29 Jul 1966.  Their heavy, bluesy, psychedelic sound influenced the emergence of British bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and the Jeff Beck Group.  Their third album, Wheels of Fire, was the world’s first double album that attained platinum status.  This concert was on 15 Oct 1967, in the Grande Ballroom in Detroit, and not in Nov 1968 as incorrectly listed on the jacket.  The last three bonus tracks were at Winterland in San Francisco on 10 Mar 1968.  In 1993, the band was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

West, Bruce & Laing – 1973-04-14 – Live in K-Town, Germany

West, Bruce & Laing were a power trio blues rock band formed by Leslie West (guitar and vocals) and Corky Laing (drums and vocals), both from the group Mountain.  They were joined by ex-Cream Jack Bruck (bass, keyboards, harp and vocals)  West and Laing are currently back in Mountain.  The trio agreed to work together near the end of Mountain’s 72 tour when Felix Pappalardi announced that he would leave Mountain at the end of the tour, quite possibly due to his addiction to heroin.  Bruce was viewed as a drop in replacement for Pappalardi, so this was basically Mountain mk II.  They released two studio albums, Why Dontcha (1972) and Whatever Turns You On (1973).  They officially announce their break up in early 1974, just before the release of their third album,  Live ‘n’ Kickin’.   In 2009, West and Laing briefly reformed the band, with Malcolm Bruce (Jack’s son) on bass under the name, West, Bruce Jr. and Laing.  This concert was in Kaiserslautern, Germany on 14 Apr 1973.  The Whatever Turns You On album sessions would be the last time the trio would play together, as they had become fairly nasty towards one another due to heroin use.