Glenn Williams
MUSIC WRITER IN JAPAN
ALBUM
VELVET REVOLVER
CONTRABAND
20th ANNIVERSARY RE-ISSUE
Sony Muisc International
Rock music wasn’t doing very well in 2004. In the USA, the Billboard 100 was dominated by singer-songwriters such as Norah Jones and Usher while topping the UK charts were Guns ‘n’ Roses Greatest Hits, Thin Lizzy’s Greatest Hits and The Best Of Def Leppard: the top three best-selling tours were Prince, Celine Dion and Madonna. Rock wasn’t dead but it wasn’t healthy. It needed a new band to inject new life into it and that’s exactly what happened with Velvet Revolver’s debut album, Contraband.
Twenty years on, it’s easy to see why this album was lauded by so many. The opening song, with its teasing guitar and wailing siren intro that crashes into a driving riff and machine-gun vocals, gave even the most pessimistic Rock fan a glimmer of hope. One hour later all pessimism had turned to optimism and less than a month later, it had bumped Usher off the top of the Billboard charts. Great reviews from everywhere were followed by armfuls of awards in 2005; Rock, was once again, a cool genre.
This 20th Anniversary edition is a Japan-only release and if you bought the album back in 2004, you should by this edition for several reasons. Firstly, CD mastering has moved on significantly in twenty years and Sony’s Blu-spec (BSCD2) process gives the music much more depth, clarity and volume. Secondly, a second disc pulls together six tracks that were available as bonus tracks on various releases both in Japan and internationally and thirdly, it’s beautifully packaged with revamped artwork that replicates the original and adds to it. The discs are housed in a durable, double-gatefold cardboard sleeve and there is a twenty-page English booklet, the middle pages of which fold out for the lyrics; a twenty-page Japanese booklet contains the translated lyrics and liner notes.
Velvet Revolver were short-lived. Following up the phenomenal success of their debut was always going to be difficult and so it proved to be. Originally, it was going to be a concept album, then it wasn’t. Rick Rubin started producing it but then they changed to Brendan O’Brien and there were rumours of internal conflict within the band. Eventually, it was recorded and released as Libertad but wasn’t as critically acclaimed and sold far less. Less than a year later, Scott Weiland was out of the band and they were put on hiatus. Scott’s death in 2015 seemed to put a permanent end to the band.
There are many ‘Top 100 Greatest Rock Albums’ list on the internet and they are all subjective. Contraband is listed in many of them and rightly so, not only for what it did for Rock music in 2004 but because as this re-issue shows, musically, it has stood the test of time. It’s a classic and always will be. If you’ve never owned it, now would be a very good time.
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Track List
Disc 1
Sucker Train Blues
Do It For The Kids
Big Machine
Illegal I Song
Spectacle
Fall To Pieces
Headspace
Superhuman
Set Me Free
You Got No Right
Slither
Dirty Little Thing
Loving The Alien
Disc 2
Fall To Pieces (Acoustic)
Bodies (Live)
Surrender
No More No More
Negative Creep
Money
GIG
TUK SMITH &
THE RESTLESS HEARTS
CLUB QUATTRO, SHIBUYA, TOKYO
29th September 2024
Bang on 6pm, the houselights go off and Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts strike their first notes in Japan. What followed over the next hour and twenty minutes was one of the best Rock ‘n’ Roll debuts in Japan this decade and the near capacity crowd loved every second of it.
Plugging in, Tuk thanks everybody for coming and then they are off. Three things are instantly noticeable; Firstly, the band is tight and punchy but not so tight as to have no feel. The rhythm section is locked in, the twin guitar parts would make Scott Gorham and Gary Moore nod in admiration and Tuk handles his dual guitar and vocal duties with ease. Secondly, Tuk’s voice is as good if not better than on the records. He can hold the long notes and deliver his lyrics without even thinking about them and thirdly, these guys are having fun!
Two numbers in and the band are already on fire. A section of the crowd stage-left, obviously already big fans, knew every song and when Tuk gives them a big ‘Wooah’ before the third song, the cheer is overwhelming. By the time they got to Shadow On The Street, the whole place was moving and it was only then that Tuk really spoke for the first time, taking a minute to thank Sony and UDO for bringing him and also to introduce the band. That done, it’s back to the music. Girls On The East Side Of Town is followed by Tuk swapping his electric for an acoustic for a few songs, including a striking rendition of Little Renegade (Reimagined), the bonus track on the Japanese release of Rogue To Redemption.
After Ballad Of A Misspent Youth, Tuk engages the audience with complimentary words about fans haircuts, Japanese whisky and Masa Itoh’s curry, after which, the band go flat-out until the end of the show. It culminates in a blistering execution of Runnin’ With The Wild Ones where The Restless Hearts push Tuk to his limits – and he loves it. Flailing around the stage, he knocks his mic stand over and doesn’t even notice. He pushes back at the band who push back even harder; the egg each other on to the crescendo at the end.
They return to the stage for one more. The perfectly weighted set is topped off with the new single, Take The Long Way. It’s a rocker with a singalong, stomping chorus that has fists pumping in the air, not just from the previously mentioned fans stage-left but the entire audience. Even after the house lights come back on, there is still a demand for more but the P.A. music and ushers say otherwise. The gig is over but there is no doubt that Tuk Smith & The Restless Hearts will return to Japan in the not-to-distant future. Miss it at your peril.
Set List
Little Renegade
Glorybound
Same Old You
Shadow On The Street
Girls On The East Side Of Town
Blood On The Stage
Little Renegade (Reimagined)
Everybody Loves You When You’re Dead
Ballad Of A Misspent Youth
What Kind Of Love
Ain’t For The Faint
Runnin’ With The Wild Ones
Encore
Take The Long Way