The American rock guitarist Ronnie Montrose was an influential, highly-rated player whose crunchy riffs, fluid licks and mesmerising solos lit up FM radio during the 1970s. Briefly a member of the Edgar Winter Group, he appeared on They Only Come Out At Night, the 1972 album which contained the barnstorming, chart-topping instrumental "Frankenstein" and the equally infectious "Free Ride", two tracks that have become staples of classic rock stations and the video game Rock Band 3.
Business Diary: Battle of the banks is on
Wednesday 24 August 2011
Hats off to the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment, for its plan to hold a fascinating debate – The City: Asset or Liability? – next month. It will pit Angela Knight, the former Economic Secretary to the Treasury who these days runs the British Bankers' Association, against Chuka Umunna, the Streatham MP and former member of the Treasury Select Committee who is carving out a name for himself, not least as a critic of the banks'. That's a recipe for fireworks, we reckon.
Take me down to the paradise city: Slash comes back home to Stoke
Sunday 17 July 2011
Business Diary: Pancakes are too expensive to drop
Tuesday 08 March 2011
If you can't afford to toss quite so many pancakes today, you know whom to blame – like everything else, it is the fault of the bankers, of course. The cost of many staple foods has risen very sharply in recent months – the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says food prices are now at a record high – and one reason for this is market speculators have caused a bubble to develop, claims the World Development Movement, the anti-poverty campaigner. Try not to drop them.
Cyberclinic: Has Google stopped searching for answers?
Thursday 03 February 2011
It's an ambition of mine to become a verb. Ideally, "to Rhodri" would mean to pen vast tracts of moving prose, display superhuman musical virtuosity, and be effortlessly charming. Sadly, it's not going to happen. It won't even come to mean "to moan about stuff", which is a better reflection of my personality. But Google managed it, the lucky so-and-sos, by creating the most efficient search tool the internet had seen. It made its competitors look so laughably bloated and inept that we deserted them like they were train carriages with a large, ticking parcel left in the aisle. Even today, with Microsoft's Bing doing all it can to challenge – including, say, dealing with Google copying its results – we're continuing to show loyalty to the search giant; more than two-thirds of the world's searches are handled by it.
They thought it was game over, but finally Duke Nukem is back
Thursday 06 January 2011
The Duke is back, but boy did he take his time. When Duke Nukem 3D hit the shelves in 1996 it revolutionised the computer games industry. The Duke, a muscle-clad, cigar-smoking alpha-male who stormed across the galaxy fighting hordes of mutated aliens, was the brashest, most controversial character to appear in pixelated form at the time. He swore like a trooper, paid for strippers and killed both the guilty and innocent alike in Tarantino-esque orgies of button-bashing violence.
Axl Rose 'greatest lead singer'
Wednesday 29 December 2010
Guns N'Roses star Axl Rose, who kept the world waiting 15 years for his comeback album, has been declared the greatest lead singer of all time.
Missiles force Guns N' Roses off stage
Thursday 02 September 2010
Concert organisers stopped Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose walking out on a gig after unruly fans fired plastic glasses at his band.
Culture Club: Reading and Leeds Festival, featuring Guns N' Roses, Arcade Fire, The Libertines and Dizzee Rascal
Thursday 02 September 2010
Axl hits the headlines (but not the notes)
Tuesday 31 August 2010
Leading article: Rambling rose
Tuesday 31 August 2010
What is it that is so horrifying about the ageing rock star who just won't hang up his guitar and accept that the final curtain ought to have come down? We don't object to actors coming out of retirement for yet another final performance. Perhaps it is because the rock star is an emblem of youth and sex appeal, so when they return, looking like wrecked pastiches of their former selves, it sends a shiver up our spines, reminding us that we're mortal too.
Axl Rose ends Leeds set with foul-mouthed rant
Monday 30 August 2010
Rock singer Axl Rose launched a foul-mouthed tirade against police and promoters as he left the stage at a festival.
First Night: Guns N' Roses, Reading Festival
Saturday 28 August 2010
Axl Rose's Twitter page hacked
Tuesday 17 August 2010
If you believed Axl Rose's Twitter account on Sunday night, the Guns N' Roses frontman had unilaterally canceled the band's upcoming European tour.








