Tuesday, May 11, 2010
To speak with Rob Halford you must call Monday night between 8:30pm PT to 10:00pm PT, or 11:00pm to 1:00am ET. You can listen to the broadcast on both nights by following the simple "Listen Live" instructions on this website. The show will be streamed here beginnign on Tuesday, May 11th. PLEASE CALL ON MONDAY ONLY!!!
It’s hard to believe it’s been thirty years since the breakthrough, genre defining album, “British Steel” was released by Judas Priest. The first thing that grabbed you was the cover, the iconic chills-up-the-spine image of a hand gripping a double edged razor blade so mightily that it was well into the flesh. It’s an unforgettable entre to one of the greatest albums ever created, one which not only provided Priest previously undreamt of recognition and reward, but also a release that drew a line of demarcation between traditional blues based Rock and Roll and Metal. It also meant that Priest could become a mainstream band and still retain their credibility and perform music their way.
One of the first things which grabs you with the brand new “British Steel: Thirtieth Anniversary Edition” is that the hand, which conveyed a bamboo-shoots-under-the- fingernails creepiness is gone, replaced by the inevitable blood which was bound to ensue after such hand was removed from the shimmering steel blade which had seeped into the consciousness of any self respecting rocker. Two paragraphs in and we haven’t gotten past the cover.
Well presented with extras worth having, such as two previously unreleased songs from the era and a DVD of their August 2009 concert at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL, the 30th anniversary release is must have. The re-mastered version (done in 2001) brings out the dynamics of the music without compromising the original recordings. 5.1 surround sound for the DVD further enhances the feeling of having actually attended the show. Good thing too because this is how you’re going to see Judas Priest in concert in 2010. They’re taking a year off from touring, having earned the right to do whatever they want at this point; they are the Metal Gods after all.
The concert on DVD captures the band performing their gold standard for albums, “British Steel” live in its entirety and proper sequence serving as a reminder that this was one of the great rock albums ever created and recorded, far beyond just the hits on the radio, “Livin’ After Midnight” and “Breaking The Law”. In fact, it is the non-radio songs which serve as the spine and framework for this important statement from the Birmingham band. “British Steel” has longtime concert favorites like “Metal Gods”, groundbreaking guitar work on “The Rage” and “Steeler” and the anthemic “United”. Performed from cut one straight through to the end serves as an explosive display of a band that hit it out of the park in 1980. Our guest for this show, Rob Halford, proclaimed during last year’s tour that performing the album in its entirety was a dream and for fans, because there isn’t a bad song on the album, a criterion for all proclaimed classic albums, it was nirvana. JudasPriest.com and MySpace are two of the band’s websites.
The Metal God himself, Rob Halford, will join us to take calls and answer your questions about this memorable release and all things Priest On Monday May 10 and rebroadcast on Wednesday May 12, only on the next ROCKLINE!
