Trigger wrote:
I hope you don't mind me asking but is Randy Rhoads well known and well thought of in France?
I don't mind at all. The question is interesting because the answer is not obvious. Thanks for asking...
My impression and experience is that Randy's name is not very well known in France. I only met a few people about my age who had heard of his name, indentifying him with Ozzy but barely able to name a song. It may be a question of generation though: I was about 13 when I discovered Randy, in 1983/84, thanks to my elder brother. Later on, playing around with my bands, I always felt honoured to bring Randy's music to people who did not know him but appreciated it. It kind of sounded sad that he was not more known.
More generally, I think France has never been a large audience for heavy metal. Note that, for example, we tend to use the term hard rock rather than heavy metal. More significantly, it always hit me that a touring HR/HM band would often play four or five dates in Germany, but only one or two in France ! In the 80s, as I remember it, Ozzy was obviously seen as a respectable veteran, and we heard a lot more of bands like Iron Maiden, Scorpions, Judas Priest, Motörhead, Metallica...
A quick search on google gives us a more or less the same number of pages for "Randy Rhoads", "Kirk Hammett" and "Ace Frehley"... in Germany ! About the same in the UK. In Sweden, Randy's score is half of Hammett's and Frehley's. In France, that's only a third of Hammett's and a sixth of Frehley's. Matthias Jab scores as much as Randy on French pages, go figure.
Now, regarding the few that know his music, I usually had a good feedback although not very elaborated. I never met another fellow musician with a passion for his music. But I remember I opened a few ears to that magic.
My two cents (or pennies).
Cheers,
Pat
) how to listen to the stereo track from a video on youtube, provided it was uploaded as such. That's good news because it makes a sensible difference on most of the clips I posted there, and even more on those recorded with overdub (split over left and right channels).
