My Favourite Band

Often I am asked about my favourite band, and usually I give the same repsonse: The Cure and/or Queen. It is a fair statement, as both bands have been hugely influential in my music and their albums have been a cornerstone of periods of my life; I really latched onto The Cure when I left High School, and became suitable obsessed with their dark and epic sounds while on the road, and I've been listening to Queen since I can remember. We had a live concert of them in Rio from '84 which Dad used to watch and even then I wanted a guitar like Brian May's. I also wanted to be like Freddie Mercury on stage.

Dreams do come true.

But anyways, there is always one band I seem to overlook and I really can't understand why. I am, of course, talking about The Traveling Wilburys.

For those who aren't aware, The Traveling Wilburys were (from left to right) : Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, George Harrison and Roy Orbison. They weren't so much a band, more some friends that decided it would be fun to record some songs together.

It originally started when George Harrison needed a B-side for a single of his latest album, Cloud Nine, which he had recently completed with Jeff Lynne co-producing. They both agreed that they really wanted to work with Roy Orbison, so they took Roy to Bob Dylan's studio, invited Tom Petty along and wrote and recorded Handle with Care. They enjoyed it so much, they decided to make an album - the only difficulty being that Dylan had to go on tour in just over a week, so they had to write and record the album in 9 days (as George put it, "a song a day").

The result is even more than you would expect from a group of rock'n roll legends - a true collaborative effort (they all wrote the songs and take turns singing on each track), and is quite easily one of the greatest albums of all time. I'm not going to go into detail, but what I will say is that this album has such a great vibe to it, their friendships just shine through. You can tell just by listening that they were having a great time making this album; there is a quote in the new re-issue that puts it best by saying it "is like wandering into a park somewhere and finding some of the best and best-known baseball players in the world playing a pick-up game just for the hell of it. They're rich, famous, and successful, and they could be anywhere, doing anything. But they're playing just because that's what they enjoy doing most."

Sadly, Roy Orbison passed away soon after. The Wilburys did record another album 2 years later, and though more country rock than pop, it still has that same infectious joy that makes Vol. 1 so incredible.

Basically, both albums are awesome and I couldn't recommend them highly enough. And thankfully, they have recently been re-released in a box set that contains both albums (Vol. 1 & Vol. 3 - a personal joke from George Harrison) and a special DVD that contains footage shot while making the first album. Considering these albums were out of print for the last 15 years, its very cool to see them back in stores (and in my collection in a fancy box set). So if you are looking to spend $30 on a cool album, I say go buy these 2 and enjoy old school rock'n roll at it's finest.

Yeah I have no problems shilling a cool CD.