An album of undoubted interest to fans of 70’s rock with the talents of guitarist Michael Schenker (MSG/UFO/SCORPIONS) joining forces with vocalist Davey Pattison (GAMMA/PAT TRAVERS). Not only that but you get drummer Aynsley Dunbar (UFO/JOURNEY/JEFFERSON STARSHIP/WHITESNAKE) and bassist Gunter Nezhoda (PAT TRAVERS) along for the ride as well.

It’s all covers and not one is a duffer. The Yardbirds’ ‘Shapes of Things’ sees Schenker play some delightful slide guitar and Davey Pattsion has a suitably gruff blues vocal ideally suited to the songs on here. They have great fun on the Free classic, ‘The Stealer’ with bass player Gunter Nezhoda hitting a funky groove.

But the two undoubted highlights come when Mountain guitarist Leslie west trades solos with Schenker on the Mountain classic, ‘Theme From An Imaginary Western’ and West again pops-up on another Mountain song, ‘Never In My Life’, this time playing slide. Procul Harum must be raking in the royalties this year as ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ gets the Schenker-Pattison treatment (Black Label Society also covered this tune on their new album) and Schenker again delights on the guitar.

For Schenker fans this is a must-have, because although the last MSG album was very good it has since transpired that he didn’t play all the solos (Night Ranger’s Jeff Watson helped out on a few songs). It may be all covers but you can tell all the players on here put their best efforts in and produced a very enjoyable album.

****

Review by Jason Ritchie

10 Questions...

***** Out of this world | **** Pretty damn fine |
*** OK, approach with caution unless you are a fan |
** Instant bargain bin fodder | * Ugly. Just ugly