Column from February 14th, 2000 issue

The sorest of sore throats means I don't feel like writing a column too much this week, but here's some snippets for you to be going on with in the meantime....

Song Haus has more material coming from the long-lost pomp band "Thrills" to follow on from the previously unreleased third album that's recently been put out. Song Haus now has the rights to release the bands two previous albums and has also tracked down another unreleased session from before the band had any recording deal....

Song Haus has also picked up hard rocker Michael Britton and is looking to do some serious work with him over the next year.....

Point Music in Germany finally seems to be getting their finger out regarding releasing the new Sojourn comeback album (even though the masters and artwork were delivered to them months ago!) and it should now be released in May. I have an advance of that album, and it's very interesting and might well shake up your perception of where melodic rock is at right now.

Scanning the up-and-coming Japanese releases: the tedious Fair Warning have a number of re-releases coming on March 23rd all with bonus cuts. First there is "Four" with one bonus track; "Go!" with four bonus tracks; and the double CD "Live and More" which also gets four bonus cuts. Supreme jazz and blues guitarist Larry Carlton seems to have a new album also coming out on March 23rd called "Fingerprints", while the same day will also see a new album from progressive crossover outfit the Rocket Scientists called "Oblivion Days" and the Japanese issue of Metropolis' "The Power of the Night" with a single bonus track. Rush also has a "Chronicles" DVD coming out in Japan in mid-March, though seeing as it has a running time of 63 minutes, it doesn't seem to be quite embracing the DVD format appropriately....