The VVN Music Interviews

Dick Taylor started his career with school friends Mick Jagger and Keith Richards in a group they called the Rollin' Stones but left before they cut their first album to return to art school.   The next year, Dick and Phil May started the Pretty Things with whom he stayed until 1969 after the release of the now critically acclaimed but initially failed rock opera "S.F. Sorrow". Taylor went on to produce, most notably the debut album of Hawkwind in 1970, before returning to the Pretty Things in 1979.  He remains with the group today.  The Pretty Things recently announced that they would be retiring from playing electric shows by the end of 2018. 

On March 23, Procol Harum released an eight-disc box set chronicling the band's history both in the studio and live.  The one person who has been there for that entire history is lead singer Gary Brooker.  Brooker and Robin Trower came from the band the Paramounts, who had a couple of minor hits in Britain in the early-60's before forming Procul Harum in 1966.   The new band had a major international hit with their first single, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" and led the way in the incorporation of symphony accompaniment with progressive rock music.   Procol Harum continues to record new material including last year's Novum.  Still There'll Be More: An Anthology 1967-2017

This time, we go back to 2012 for an archive interview with Tommy Roe. Tommy was one of the rare artists who was able to keep his songs in the top ten for most of the 60's, from 1962's "Sheila" through the late-60's and early-70's with "Dizzy" and "Jam Up and Jelly Tight". Roe also toured twice with the Beatles, once in the U.K. and once in the U.S. 

Rachael Sage is a true Renaissance woman of the arts. Over her lifeshe has danced with the New York City ballet, taught herself piano, painted, acted, started her own record company and become a successful singer-songwriter.  Since 1996, she has released fifteen full length albums and EPs including her LP of music for dance, Choreographic, and her new EP of holiday music, Joy!

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Glenn Hughes has had a long and very active career in music, first with the British group Trapeze and, starting in 1973, as a member of Deep Purple Mk. III and IV. It was with Deep Purple that he sang and played bass on the albums Burn, Stormbringer, Come Taste the Band and the live set, Made in Europe. After Deep Purple, Hughes recorded the first of over a dozen solo albums and went on to be a member of Phenomena, Black Sabbath (Seventh Star), Voodoo Hill, California Breed and his current band, Black Country Communion.  BCC, made up of Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Derek Sherinian and Jason Bonham, have just released their fourth studio album, BCCIV.