Month: February 2023

An Introduction to ZZ Ward

New Music

ZZ Ward (Zsuzsanna Ward) is an American singer, musician and songwriter born in Pennsylvania and raised in Oregon, USA, in a small town called Roseburg. She grew up listening to her Dad sing the blues and started performing with him in his blues bands when she was 12 years old. She released her debut album, Til the Casket Drops, in 2012. A second album, The Storm, followed in 2017.

Her success so far has largely been confined to the USA with a number of singles featuring on the Billboard “Adult Alternative Airplay” chart. It’s about time that changed.

ZZ Ward’s self-penned Break Her Heart is new this week on RadiJohan.

Happy Birthday to Steve Harley

Flashback

English singer and songwriter Steve Harley turns 72 today. He is probably best known as the front-man of rock band “Cockney Rebel.” Over the years “Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel” have had four studio albums in the UK album chart and twelve singles in the UK singles chart. In 1975 one of the singles, Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me), made the top 10 in the Netherlands and Belgium while going to number 1 in the UK and Ireland.

CHVRCHES Release New Single

New Music

Synthpop band CHVRCHES probably need little introduction in 2023. The three band members settled on the name CHVRCHES, using the Roman letter “v” instead of a “u”. This spelling was chosen to differentiate themselves from actual churches in online search results.

The band have been around for more than a decade and have released four studio albums in that time. The latest, 2021’s Screen Violence topped the album chart in their native Scotland and featured the single How Not To Drown which spent three weeks at number one on RadiJohan’s Top 10.

This week CHVRCHES return with their first new single in over a year. In a press release the band shared:

“’Over’ is a song that we wrote with Oscar Holter, a producer we really respect and admire. Normally we collect songs over the course of months (or years!) until we have an album’s worth of material, but this time we just wanted to release something we were excited about and give the fans something new to mark the end of the ‘Screen Violence’ era, and the start of whatever the next CHVRCHES chapter might be.”

CHVRCHES’ new single, Over, is new this week on RadiJohan

RadiJohan Top 10 on 25 February 2023

Top 10
TWLWArtistTitle
10NewNoel Gallagher’s High Flying BirdsEasy Now
9NewThose Damn CrowsThis Time I’m Ready
8NewDMA’sFading Like a Picture
75Jethro TullGinnungagap
64Jelly RollShe
58KrezipIn The Water
47Visions of AtlantisClocks
31RouletteReady For Friday Night
23Six60Never Been Tonight
12TenThe Tidal Wave

Watch this week’s Top 10 by clicking the play button below.

A Smooth Supernatural Record

Flashback

This week in 2000 Santana won eight Grammy Awards for their star-studded, chart-topping album Supernatural, tying Michael Jackson’s record for the most awards won in a single night. The album featured guest performers like Rob Thomas, Lauren Hill, Eagle-Eye Cherry and Eric Clapton.

Supernatural was Santana’s first record in 28 years to top the Billboard 200 albums chart.

Love Never Dies and Ska Lives

New Music

The Interrupters are an American ska-punk band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 2011. They have released four studio albums. RadiJohan has previously featured a few of their singles including the excellent Gave You Everything which rose to number 1 on the RadiJohan Top 10 in 2019.

The interrupters’ latest single, Love Never Dies, which features English band “The Skints,” is new this week on RadiJohan.

Kilroy Was Here

Flashback

On 22 February 1983 Styx released their eleventh studio album, Kilroy Was Here, a concept album about a dystopian future where rock and roll is banned and technology is out of control. The album produced two hit singles, the synth-pop Mr. Roboto which later became one of their signature songs, and the power ballad Don’t Let It End. Both of them were major hits in 1983 reaching the top 10 of the US Billboard Hot 100.

Are You a People Pleaser Too?

New Music

Cat Burns is a 21 year old British singer and songwriter who went from busking to mastering Tik Tok in lockdown, singing a mix of her favourite covers and original music. As a result, she rapidly amassed a large following. One of her original songs, Go, went viral and ultimately rose to number two on the UK singles chart. She cites Ed Sheeran, India Arie and Tori Kelly as a few of her biggest inspirations. 

The lyrics of Cat Burns’ current single, People Pleaser, detailing her troubles with communication and confrontation, will no doubt resonate with many people.

We hope that you’ll be pleased that People Pleaser is new this week on RadiJohan.

In Memory of the Legendary Ronald Belford Scott

Flashback

On 19 February 1980 AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott died after a night of heavy drinking. The coroner’s report listed “acute alcohol poisoning” as the cause of death, classified under “death by misadventure.”

Scott spent the night out in London drinking with friends at the popular club Music Machine. Leaving with a friend, Alistair Kinnear, he went back to Kinnear’s home in South London, falling asleep in the passenger seat. Upon arrival Kinnear couldn’t wake Scott, so he reclined the seat and left him to sleep in his Renault 5. In the morning Kinnear again attempted to wake Scott and realized he wasn’t breathing. Scott was rushed to King’s College Hospital and pronounced dead upon arrival.

Shortly after Scott’s death the remaining members of AC/DC briefly considered disbanding but it was eventually decided that Scott would have wanted them to continue. With the encouragement of Scott’s family the band hired Brian Johnson as their new lead singer.

AC/DC went on to become one of the biggest rock bands in the world but, sadly, Bon Scott never lived to receive the adulation he deserved.