Approval on this great 21 track compilation CD from Western Star, featuring some of the top rockabilly acts from the Western Star label, came in just before I slip of home for an exciting weekend of painting and housework. I’m all rock ‘n’ roll me!
Alan Mills – Never Forgotten Mini LP
Sometimes, doing what I do, I get to be involved in something a bit more special than the usual ‘special’. I caught the Rock ‘n’ Roll buzz in the early 1980s from listening to the charts. When they do those 1980s compilation albums what they fail to tell you is that Rock ‘n’ Roll was pretty big news back then and always in the charts. The Jets, The Stray Cats, The Polecats, Showaddywaddy, Coast to Coast, Shakin’ Stevens, Rocky Sharpe, Matchbox, etc. were all having hits and many pop bands were trying to get in on it by recording rock ‘n’ roll too. The film “Grease” was still big news with many other films trying to cash in like “Baby Love”, “Lemon Popsicle” and “Porkies”. One of those top bands was “Coast to Coast”, I had their album and singles (“Do the Hucklebuck” and “Jump to broomstick”) and then got the album in later years when re-released on CD. The well loved and charismatic front man of “Coast to Coast”, Alan Mills, sadly died in July this year and it’s been an honour to be asked to design and produce the cover for a 10″ vinyl tribute mini-album featuring recordings by the man himself and other greats on the rock ‘n’ roll scene today, Rusti Steel and Darrel Higham along with his son, Lloyd Mills.