Veteran Rockers

05/04/2025

After two fun years, I’ve decided to hang up Veteran Rockers — but a similar project is in the works. Stay tuned! The name and details of the project are tight lip-sealed for the time being.

06/03/2025

Check out the of is out now. Listen on at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-ep-12-clapton-and-collins/. Though the episode is also available on all major podcast platforms, the only place to listen to this episode with music is on MixCloud. And it’s FREE and UnCompressed audio from my personal vinyl collection. The episode is all about when and collaborated in the 1980’s in different ways including Phil producing two records by EC and Eric jamming on some of Phil’s songs.

23/10/2024

Hello again. The new episode of Veteran Rockers is here and the best place to listen to it is on at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-ep-7-the-cars/.

American rock group The Cars was founded in Boston in 1976. They were composed of Greg Hawkes on keyboards, David Robinson on drums, Eric Ocasek on rhythm guitar, Benjamin Orr on bass guitar, Elliott Easton on lead guitar, and Greg Hawkes on keyboards. Orr and Ocasek first worked together as members of the folk group Milkwood in the early 1970s, before The Cars were formed. They sprang from the new wave era in the late 1970s. Orr and Ocasek took turns leading the group’s songwriting and playing lead vocals.American rock group The Cars was founded in Boston in 1976. They were composed of Greg Hawkes on keyboards, David Robinson on drums, Elliot Easton on lead guitar, Benjamin Orr on bass guitar, and rhythm guitarist Ric Ocasek. They came out of the late 1970s new wave era. Orr and Ocasek took turns leading the group’s songwriting and playing lead vocals.In the 1978 Rolling Stone Readers’ Poll, The Cars came in first place as Best New Artist. Six million copies of the band’s debut album, The Cars, were sold, and it spent 139 weeks at number one on the Billboard 200 album chart. “Shake It Up” (1981), “You Might Think” (1984), “Drive” (1984), and “Tonight She Comes” (1985) were the four Top 10 successes for The Cars. At the first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, the band’s “You Might Think” video won Video of the Year.

14/09/2024

https://open.spotify.com/show/6Cp0xpeId5CfeefdliV3Me
A brand new episode of Veteran Rockers is finally here. Listen to this episode with music on MixCloud at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/both-sides-phil-collins/.

The most authentic and emotionally transparent album of Phil Collins’ career is explored. That album, of course, is “Both Sides,”  which was released in October of 1993. From it’s opening title track to “Everyday,”  a more run-of-the mill Phil ballad, to a song that’s clearly a commentary on domestic terrorism called “We Wait and We Wonder,” this record has it all. This record is as raw as Phil gets. I highly recommend streaming it or buying a physical copy. Both Sides was written during an emotionally tumultuous time for the Genesis drummer after concluding their We Can’t Dance tour. It’s very 90’s Phil, but it has aged well despite the Philifiers/rock purists out there. It’s also worth pointing out that he plays every instrument on the album.

21/07/2024

Hear this episode with music on MixCloud at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-podcast-episode-5-paul-mccartney-surviving-the-1980s/. Part 2 of Macca surviving the 1980’s covers the second half of the decade of decadence, between the years of 1986-1989. Press to Play was an ambitious effort for the former Beatle as he recruited Hugh Padgham for the project. It would receive mixed reviews but Paul would bounce back with a memorable collaboration with Elvis Costello on his 1989 album called Flowers In The Dirt.

11/07/2024

Listen to the MixCloud version of this episode at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-podcast-episode-3-billy-idol/
Billy Idol is a singer, songwriter, musician, and actor who is both British and American. As the lead singer of the band Generation X, he rose to prominence in the 1970s after emerging from the London punk rock scene. He then started a solo career that brought him prominence on a global scale and elevated Idol to the lead position during the MTV-led “Second British Invasion” in the US. The term “Billy Idol” originated from the way a schoolteacher described him as “idle” ldol started out as a punk rock guitarist in a band called “Chelsea” in late 1976. Idol founded Generation X with Tony James, his former bandmate. The band, which included Idol as the lead singer, was successful in the UK and put out three studio albums on Chrysalis Records before breaking up. Idol relocated to New York City in 1981 in order to work with guitarist Steve Stevens on his solo endeavors. Billy Idol, his 1982 studio debut album, was a commercial hit. With music videos for the hits “White Wedding” and “Dancing with Myself,” Idol quickly cemented her place on MTV, which had only recently launched. The popular songs “Rebel Yell” and “Eyes Without a Face” from Idol’s 1983 second studio album, Rebel Yell, made the album a huge sales success. He put out Whiplash Smile in 1986. Idol released Idol Songs: 11 of the Best, a greatest hits album, in 1988 after scoring three UK top 10 hits (“Rebel Yell,” “White Wedding,” and “Mony Mony”). The album earned platinum in the UK. Subsequently, Idol released the concept album Cyberpunk (1993) and Charmed Life (1990). Idol devoted the latter part of the 1990s to his private life, keeping it hidden from the public. Devil’s Playground (2005), Kings & Queens of the Underground (2014), and an EP titled The Roadside (2021) and The Cage (2022) marked a new era for Billy Idol.

10/06/2024

The early years of David Bowie are explored. You can hear music on this episode by listening on MixCloud at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-episode-2-david-bowies-early-years/. David Bowie was born on January 8, 1947, into a London still scarred from World War II. This was a landscape littered with bomb sites and wreckage, inhabited by a populace that was traumatized by the experience and had to learn to live with rations, austerity, and make due. But then, there was nothing traditional about him from the beginning. The future Starman was born David Robert Jones in Brixton, south London, to Margaret “Peggy” Burns, a movie usherette, and Haywood “John” Jones, a PR officer for the children’s charity Barnardo’s. His parents were married only eight months after he was born. Both had children from prior marriages, and his father had attempted to launch his former wife Hilda as a singer in an attempt to fulfill his own dreams of being in show business. His efforts were in vain. Bowie’s early years were anything but simple by all accounts. Bowie was close to Terry Burns, his older half-brother, despite their 10-year age difference. Terry would go on to have a significant impact on Bowie’s life and tried to shield him from the schizophrenia on his mother’s side of the family. The half-brothers would split for a couple of years when, in 1956, Terry was called up as part of his National Service. A year later, the Jones family left Brixton for the more staid environs of Bromley, an outer borough of Greater London where he met his lifelong friends Geoff MacCormack – who would later work with Bowie as his backing singer – and George Underwood who’d later make an inadvertent yet significant impact on Bowie’s life. The trio bonded over a love of Americana and rock’n’roll.

01/06/2024

Veteran Rockers with Mike Fox is back and this episode explains why the podcast is starting from scratch with a new episode one. To hear music on this episode, click this link: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-podcast-episode-1/. You can hear Billy Joel’s first single in 31 years called: Turn The Lights Back On. I also give a shout out to musician/podcaster/good friend Bruce Chamoff, as it’s his birthday today.

04/05/2024

Thanks to MixCloud, I finally have a radio show again, for the first time since 2001 at: https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-radio-2/

This rocking hour includes familiar classics from Wings, The Cars, and Queen, plus deep cuts from Billy Joel, Ray Davies, and Eagle Eye Cherry.

27/04/2024

https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-radio-2/

Happy rocking Saturday everyone. Please listen and like my latest VR Radio show on ! I include a quasi-double-shot from as one of those tracks is a 2017 solo cut from Ray Davies.

12/04/2024

https://www.mixcloud.com/veteranrockers/veteran-rockers-radio-1/
The three months of silence are broken as Veteran Rockers is BACK BABY!!!!! Veteran Rockers is no longer solely a podcast anymore, but instead a channel on ! The above link isn’t for a podcast episode but a radio hour with songs you’ve heard and songs you will just be discovering for the first time.

The VR podcast will return in June and will break free from the restraints of only being on but the Mixcloud versions will include some songs but the versions on podcast platforms outside of Mixcloud will only have talk. Happy listening.

🎧

08/04/2024

In 1986, Billy Joel collaborated with Cyndi Lauper on a track from The Bridge called . Code of Silence is one of my favorite Joel songs and Lauper adds soul to the song about how keeping quiet is dangerous. I’d love to hear Billy play that live again and better yet, with Cyndi.