(Photo by EMI) On Saturday – as they were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Los Angeles – Duran Duran announced that guitarist Andy Taylor is battling stage four prostate cancer. Taylor wasn’t present at the ceremony due to ongoing treatment but he disclosed the news in a letter of which parts were read out by frontman Simon Le Bon at the ceremony.

Taylor, 61 years old, received his diagnosis four years ago. In the letter he says: “Many families have experienced the slow burn of this disease and of course, we are no different; so I speak from the perspective of a family man but with profound humility to the band, the greatest fans a group could have and this exceptional accolade.”

Taylor joined Duran Duran in April 1980 and left in 1986 to pursue a solo career. He then rejoined in 2001 for a string of concerts and their 2004 album “Astronaut” before quitting again in 2006.

Taylor’s condition is incurable, but he stressed in the letter that he was receiving “sophisticated life-extending treatment” that had allowed him to “just rock on”, but that he suffered a “setback” recently which apparently is rather serious. After reading parts of the letter Simon Le Bon said: “It is devastating news to know and find out that a colleague… Not a colleague, a mate, a friend, one of our family is not going to be around for very long. It’s absolutely devastating. We love Andy dearly and you know, I’m not going to stand here and cry. I don’t think that would be very appropriate but that’s what I feel like.”

Below you can see a video of Duran Duran playing “Ordinary World” during the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction at the Microsoft Theater in LA on November 5th.

And here’s the band talking about Andy Taylor.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Genre/Influences: Ethereal.

Format: Digital, CD. 

Background/Info: Accolade is a Seattle (USA) based band, which joined hands with Danse Macabre to unleash their new album. The band is driven by singer Stefanie Renée plus Aaron Goldstein and Mike Hines.

Content: One of the first elements emerging from this work is the beautiful and classically trained voice of Stefanie Renée. She has a noticeable high timbre of voice, injecting this Ethereal and Neo-Classic aspect to the work. Sound-wise the music has been composed by different authentic/acoustic instruments and Electronic treatments. It’s a delicate composition, although featuring rousing passages, which together with the vocals create an elevating sensation. 

+ + + : Accolade is a band I can’t remember having ever heard before, but, which I’ll not forget soon. I don’t want to compare their sound and the heavenly sensation of the vocals with Qntal, but there are for sure similarities. The delicacy of the composition together with the graceful singing of Stefanie Renée has something magic. Songs like “Relentless” and “Unconscious” both are little Ethereal pearls. The songs have something dark and yet enlightening and with a perfect balance between music and vocals. Another great song is the last one; “O Virga Ac Diadema” sounds more Electro-driven, but has a similar effect as the aforementioned cuts. 

– – – : I can’t say this album has true minus points, but it just takes a few songs to realize the real potential of “Tria Prima”.

Conclusion: Accolade is a talented Ethereal formation, which deserves more recognition. “Tria Prima” is a beautiful album to watch out for. 

Best songs: “Relentless”, “Unconscious”, “O Virga Ac Diadema”, “Confliction”, “Encantation”. 

Rate: 8½. 

Artist: www.facebook.com/accoladeseattle 

Label: www.dansemacabre-group.de / www.facebook.com/dansemacabrerec 

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Genre/Influences: Gothic, ethereal.

Content: I last year discovered this Seattle based gothic formation by their vinyl “Legends”, which was a rather good surprise.

Their new work is an EP featuring 5 new songs. Singer Stefanie Renée remains an essential element of the band’s sound. She’s a classically trained singer with a captivating voice and clearly a reference to ‘heavenly voices’ and ethereal music. Her angelic timbre of voice directly emerges to embellish the opening song with grace and beauty. A similar feeling can be heard at the beautiful “March”, but she also sings in a more spooky way (cf. “Carthage Fog”) while “Bleeding Cry” is a song where she really excels in the classical style.

Next to the outstanding vocals, the music is also worthy of examination. Accolade has concocted an intriguing gothic minded sound, which is pretty evasive and recovered by beautiful dark arrangements. It sometimes appears to be a little bit neo-classical like (cf. “March”) while the vocals and music together result in a truly ballad-style (cf. “Heaven”).

Conclusion: “Catharsis Of Rhetorik” is a well-conceived merge between gothic elements and ethereal influences. It all sounds like a dark, but delicate sonic caress.

Best songs: “Bleeding Cry”, “March”, “Gaze”

Rate: (Elise Din:7)Elise Din.

Band: www.accoladeseattle.com / www.facebook.com/Accolademusic

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com