"Bruce had begun those initial writing sessions while still in Iron Maiden alongside producer Keith Olsen, whose credits stretched throughout the hard rock and soft rock bands across a decade or more. While expanding on these at Olsen’s LA studio, Bruce heard another band recording, and was so impressed he actually took the band to Rod Smallwood (who was still acting as Bruce’s manager), who signed them up. Eventually Bruce decided to scrap the project with Keith Olsen, and instead found a collaborating partner by the name of Roy Z, a partnership that was to end up being the most productive of Bruce’s solo career. Roy had his own band called the Tribe of Gypsies – the same band Bruce had heard in those same studios – who became the recording and touring band for Bruce as well. From these fortuitous circumstances, Bruce had started down the path that would eventually lead him back to the top of metal music... though it was to be a circling and more winding path than Bruce perhaps initially imagined".

On this episode we are going to talk about “Balls to Picasso” by Bruce Dickinson, his 2nd studio album released 30 years ago this week, on today’s ‘the misty ghosts of childhood fears’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.

"The opening salvo of “Too Young to Know” has a sound that incorporates a sound similar to contemporary bands such as Bad Company and Free, as well as the Rolling Stones. Phil Mogg’s smooth vocals are the immediate focal point of the song, while Michael Schenker’s easy listening guitar also makes its presence felt through the majority of the song. The rhythm of Andy Parker’s drums and Pete Way’s bass guitar keep the momentum throughout the song. “Crystal Light” generally sticks to the same style of song that the band had produced on their first two albums, without it stretching beyond almost four minutes that this song goes for. There is an almost-Eagles-like feel to this song, in the quiet tones of the song rather than any of the country rock themes that band had around this time.

The star attraction of the album, and the first sign of the band’s growing direction, comes next with “Doctor Doctor”. From the subdued guitar beginning, into the Schenker riff supported by Parker’s hard drums, and then into the main riff of the song, this is the song where your ears immediately prick up and think ‘wow... that’s different!’ And it is as brilliant today as it was 50 years ago. This is where the harder edge of the band began to appear, and the popularity and success of this song is what drove what came beyond this album. Great melody, heavier sound, and Schenker’s guitaring, including amazing solo. The genesis of what UFO became is the basis of this track"

On this episode we are going to talk about “Phenomenon” by UFO, the band’s 3rd studio album released 50 years ago this week, on today’s ‘she walked up to me, and really stole my heart’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.

"Flash forward to the current day and I have been listening to this album for a number of weeks leading up to this podcast episode, mainly to get my own facts straight in my head because as to how I feel about it in 2024. Because over the years when I’ve pulled this off the shelves to have another listen, I’ve always enjoyed it. It's easy to just go with the flow and say that “Dynasty” is only an average album, but for the most part I've always found this album to be very listenable and enjoyable. Whether that is because there is more of Ace Frehley being utilised on this album which makes it a change up for the band in that respect, or whether it's because at the time it was released I was coming to the end of my primary school years and this kind of album was one that was starting to attract my attention, I don't know what the answer is. If I was going to rate or rank Kiss albums then I know this probably wouldn't rank in my top 10, but I still believe this is a very listenable album for me and one that I can and have easily put on and enjoy without any qualms"

On this episode we are going to talk about “Dynasty” by Kiss, the band’s 7th studio album released 45 years ago this week, on today’s ‘You showed me things they never taught me in school’ episode of Music from a Lifetime.