In 1971, when Procol Harum’s Broken Barricades was first released, the band that has been through a massive 23 different line-ups was only on their third, the same quartet responsible for the previous album Home.

There was Chris Copping doubling up on bass and organ, alongside BJ Wilson and Robin Trower from the classic era, on drums and guitar respectively. Then, of course, there was the one constant factor in Procol Harum’s lifespan: Gary Brooker, singer, pianist and songwriting partner to the band’s lyricist, the ever-present Keith Reid.

Home had seen the psychedelia of A Whiter Shade of Pale, and the earlier albums, shown the door in favour of a harder rock sound that kept the progressive edge and cemented Procol Harum’s reputation as one of the most innovative acts doing the rounds.

Broken Barrricades saw them continue along this road, paring back the symphonics that had really come to the fore on A Salty Dog and Home’s ‘Whaling Stories’, to produce an album that’s still chock full of ideas, despite seeing them in their rawest form.

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album reviews, blues rock, prog rock

All Night Sinnin’, the fifth album release from Chesterfield’s The Idle Hands, does what you’d expect from a modern-day blues rock combo without straying onto the path of mundane pedestrianism that often waylays lesser acts in a musical  genre nowadays championed by greying men old enough to remember the original Brit blues invasion of the sixties.

The Idle Hands deliver the goods, firing on all cylinders to produce an album worthy of a band who enjoy a formidable reputation as a live act, injecting it with the same passion that I’m sure also stokes their stage shows.

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album reviews, blues rock, classic rock