JEFF SCOTT SOTO’s music legacy
lives again in « Live at Firefest 2008 »
Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of JEFF SCOTT SOTO’s double live album “Live at Firefest 2008” on December 3rd 2010.
Firefest has become a pivotal event in the Melodic Rock season in Europe. Born from the ashes of the ‘Gods of AOR’ festival, Firefest started in 2004 and not only did they continue the tradition of Europe’s finest Melodic Rock/AOR festivals but exceeded all previous expectations.
Not many bands have the chance to play on ‘that’ stage nowadays and when Bruce Mee and Kieran Dargan have realized the demand for particular artists to continuing rounding up annually. Jeff Scott Soto was no stranger to ‘that’ stage. He performed at the Gods festival in 2002 putting up an amazing show that was mirrored with a live CD/DVD. So when the call came to Jeff about the new and continued version of this proven festival, he wasted no time in answering “Of course!”.
But not all good things come easily… “Unfortunately the date clashed with my commitments touring with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in the US for their annual Winter Tour” recalls Jeff. “This meant a week of 12 hour rehearsals in the US, leaving on a Friday to land in London on a Saturday morning, bee-line it up to Nottingham for 4 hours in traffic, meet with the band for 30 minutes, as they were wrapping up the ONLY rehearsal we had prior to the show (the last time we had played together was nearly a year prior!), straight to the venue and onstage within the next hour!”
But once onstage, the warmth of the crowd and the energy transmitted by the electricity of the event was such that Jeff and his band stormed through our 70 minute set like gangbusters! It was the first time the songs from the “Beautiful Mess” album were performed in Europe and the last show the original JSS band featuring Howie Simon on guitar, Dave Dzialak on drums and Gary Schutt on bass played together.
In JSS words: “Here it is in all its glory, a little extra something for you all to help me remember this wonderful night of music and memories”.
“Live at Firefest 2008” tracklisting includes:
CD1: 21st Century; Colour My XTC (prelude); Soul Divine; Drowning; Our Song; DD Solo; Guitar Jam; Mountain; Eyes Of Love; Testify; Broken Man.
CD2: Hey; Crazy; Piano Medley (If This Is The End, Nobody Said It Was Easy, 4 U); Gin & Tonic Sky; I'll Be Waiting; Funky Medley (Play That Funky Music, Jungle Boogie, The Roof Is On Fire, Brick House, Shake Your Booty, Kung Fu Fighting, Yo Baby Yo, Macho Man, Ice Ice Baby, Stayin’ Alive, Another One Bites The Dust, Walk This Way, My Love, My Friend)
The songs “21st Century” and “Eyes Of Love” can exclusively be listened in full in streaming on the Frontiers Web radio. Tune in at: www.frontiers.it/webradio
ONE NIGHT WITH JSS:
Frontiers Records is pleased to announce the release of Jeff Scott Soto One Night in Madrid in CD and DVD formats on December 4tin Europe and January 12 in the USA.
This live performance will set Jeff Scott Soto's outstanding career in context. It is a road-map through a journey spanning more than twenty-five years that begun with college bands and culminated as front-man for the ever popular 'Journey' taking in Talisman, Soul SirkUS and the band that lifted his career into the consciousness of rock fans across the world – Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force.
His first solo album, 'Love Parade' was released almost 15 years ago in the mid 90s and was picked up by Frontiers Records and re-released in 2002 to coincide with his appearance at 'The Gods' Festival. Since then Jeff has released three stunning albums; 'Prism' (2003), 'Lost In The Translation' (2004) and his latest offering 'Beautiful Mess' produced with Paulo Mendonça and released on download in 2008. Released as a CD in February 2009, JSS toured 'Beautiful Mess' across the USA, Europe and South America showing fans a brand new direction as well as a new line-up featuring Jorge Salan on guitar, BJ on guitar and keyboards, Fernando Mainer on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.
As a grand finale to the tour this concert in Madrid, in front of a packed and enthusiastic audience, was taped for a release that could portray the artist as he is today with a set-list that showcases Jeff's long and successful musical career including many favourites from his past & present, including a cut from the motion picture "Rock Star" as well as selections from all his solo albums including 'Love Parade', 'Prism', 'Lost In The Translation' and his outstanding work with 'Talisman'.
Clocking in at approximately 2½ hours, these specially packaged CD and DVD capture the stunning performance of the show!
CD contents include:
CD-1: Intro; 21st Century; Colour My XTC; Soul Divine; Our Song; Drowning; Edu drum solo; Funky Jam; Jorge guitar solo; Mountain; Eyes Of Love; Testify; Band Introductions; Broken Man.
CD-2: Hey; Frozen/Crazy; Piano Medley: If This Is The End/Holding On/Nobody Said It Was Easy/4 U/Just Between Us; Gin & Tonic Sky; JSS/Jorge workshop; I'll Be Waiting; Encore: Stand Up; Funky Medley: We Will Rock You/I Love Rock & Roll/Play That Funky Music/Jungle Boogie/The Roof Is On Fire/Brick House/Shake Your Booty/Kung Fu Fighting/Yo Baby Yo/Macho Man/The Right Stuff/Ice Ice Baby/Stayin' Alive/Another One Bites The Dust/Walk This Way.
The DVD includes the full show track listing plus the following extras: Video clips: Holding On, Eyes Of Love, Believe In Me (w/Neal Schon), If This Is The End, 21st Century, Hey, Gin & Tonic Sky plus a Special Tribute video "In Memory of Marcel Jacob".
The DVD will be available in NTSC Region Free format, in 5.1 mixPaul O'Neill says that "we caused a massive number of heart attacks.at Atlantic (Records)" when he and his Trans-Siberian Orchestra crew finally turned in "Night Castle," the collective's latest rock opera, which will be released on Oct. 27.
O'Neill and company have, in fact, been working on "Night Castle" since 2005, a year after TSO's last release, "The Lost Christmas Eve," which has sold 1.8 million copies and gave TSO its highest ever chart peak at No. 26 on the Billboard 200. The group even released one of the tracks, "Night Enchanted," in 2008 via Amazon.com, "just to show people that we really did have something new coming," O'Neill says with a laugh.
"Night Castle's" release will be preceded by a single, a cover of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Nutrocker" that features Greg Lake guesting on bass.
"Obviously our fans have been unbelievably patient," he says. "We were dedicated to making something really special.And each time we thought we were finished it just wasn't good enough, so we'd go back and tweak and re-write and re-record. The longer that took, the more pressure we felt to get it right. It just kind of snowballed.But we finally got it right, I think. We're very proud of it. We just hope everyone thinks it was worth the wait."
"Night Castle" is TSO's second non-Christmas rock opera, following "Beethoven's Last Night" in 2000. At is heart is the story of a U.S. Army special forces officer (Lt. William Crozier, voiced by former Journey and Yngwie Malsteen singer Jeff Scott Soto) and his journey to fight the Khmer Rouge in the early '70s Killing Fields of Cambodia. "It's an anti-evil album," explains O'Neill, who produced the album with Robert Kinkel. "What happened in Cambodia still breaks my heart. The things humans can do against humans never ceases to blow my mind, but somehow in the end good always wins and gives us hope. I think that resonates, especially with what's going on now in the world."
The "Night Castle" opera takes up 21 of the two-disc set's 26 songs and is fleshed out by a 68-page booklet featuring the artwork of TSO cohort Greg Hildebrandt. The five "bonus tracks" include "Nutrocker" and a rendition of Carl Orff's 1930s composition "Carmina Burana," both of which are works O'Neill says "were tremendous influences on us."
TSO, which has sold 7.2 million albums since 1996, hits the road for its annual two-company holiday season tour on Nov. 1 after playing to more than 1.2 million fans in 2008. Songs from "Night Castle" will be included in the show, but no full-scale stage production of the album is scheduled yet. O'Neill, meanwhile, is plotting a variety of future TSO endeavors, including a re-release of "Beethoven's Last Night" with a revised and expanded booklet, a Broadway production of "Gutter Ballet," which he originally worked on with the band Savatage in 1989, and a series of films that will likely include at least one animated feature by Hildebrandt.
Frontiers Records will release the highly anticipated, self-titled debut album from W.E.T. on November 6 as a special CD/DVD package.
Featuring the immense talents of singer/songwriter Jeff Scott Soto (Talisman); guitarist/songwriter Erik Martensson (Eclipse) and guitarist/songwriter Robert Sall (Work Of Art), this is the melodic hard rock album you have been waiting for!
(W)ork of art (E)clipse (T)alisman was written and recorded over the last 12 months and features the best elements of the three bands the principle artists have been involved in.
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