Graham Bonnet Band – Lost In Hollywood Again
Graham Bonnet Band – Lost In Hollywood Again
Frontiers Music s.r.l.
Release Date: 12/12/25
Running Time: 76:37
Review by Dark Juan
666,666,666,666,666,666,666/10
This review is going to be biased, and I will make no bones about it. Graham Bonnet is one of my all-time heroes and I have written probably tens of thousands of words about just how consummately brilliant he is and his importance in the world of Metal, because of his work with Rainbow (stepping into Ronnie James Dio’s shoes and crafting hit singles is no small achievement), MSG, Impellitteri and Alcatrazz as well as his solo works. The man is a bona fide living legend, and I simply love him. Granted, I also love bassist Beth-Ami Heavenstone for ENTIRELY different reasons, and this is also very well known if you are a regular reader of my work. Her fragrant and lovely presence is always a treat, as well as her being one of the nicest people I have ever met in the world of Metal. Even Mrs Dark Juan likes her and that is quite the achievement in itself. Guitarist Conrado Pesinato is also a gentleman quite beyond compare, and I am delighted to count Graham, Beth-Ami, Conrado and mercurial key-maestro Alessandro Bertoni among my friends.
Hence this review is going to be generally complimentary.
The Platter of Splatter ™ has been yanked from its lair and called into action to play “Lost In Hollywood Again”, a live recording of the Graham Bonnet Band’s performance at the legendary Whisky-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles on August 29th 2024. I am going to get one thing out of the way now – bear in mind that there are a couple of slightly… not dodgy, but rough moments from Graham vocally until he is properly warmed up, but the bloke is fucking 77 years of age and still kicking more arses than I could ever dream of kicking, and his voice has matured and takes a little bit of pushing to get going. The man can still effortlessly soar and that’s all I am fucking bothered about.
Another disclaimer – Dark Juan is not generally a fan of live albums either. Frequently they lose all the vibe of the live setting and just end up being poorly produced cash cows for bands needing a spare few quid.
Pleasingly, “Lost In Hollywood Again” is not one of those records. It has some magnificent sound design going on and every instrument can be cleanly heard even in this live setting. Too often the music descends into barely listenable sludge, whereas everything on this record is clean, polished and streamlined, and it has to be said that the rest of the band MAKE this recording as much as the maestro upfront. I am a fucking huge fan of Conrado’s Pesinato’s incendiary guitar gymnastics anyway, but the man is fucking note-perfect on this album. The man is a master of the six strings and the fleet-fingered solo. He’s also a wonderful person too. As is Alessandro Bertoni, keyboardist extraordinaire, all-round lovely chap and thrower of some of the most outlandish shapes I have ever seen from a player of what is normally a fairly static instrument.
I’m also going to get my absolute adoration of bassist Beth-Ami Heavenstone out of the way here, too. What a woman! Dark Juan has been captivated by this vision of American beauty for several decades now and is still like an awkward teenager in her august and fragrant presence every time he claps eyes on her. This makes life difficult in the committed relationship Dark Juan has with the endlessly patient Mrs Dark Juan. However, they have met and like each other so I am safe for now…
This album is a journey through Bonnet’s exemplary career as one of the leading lights of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal through the decades, featuring works from Rainbow, the Michael Schenker Group and Alcatrazz (where he was famously in the band with a young Swedish guitarist you may have heard of, called Yngwie Malmsteen. Wonder what happened to him?) as well as some GBB originals, and although it is a look back on five decades of music, the performances from all the band do not make it feel like merely a retrospective or a celebration of a career, they are just a kick-ass Rock band with a stellar frontman playing killer tunes to an audience lapping up every single note. Which is what it should be.
Opening in exactly the right tone with ‘Eyes Of The World’, Graham and the band are clearly not in the mood for taking prisoners, being spiky, sharp and snarling in their delivery of this classic song before dialling up the sexiness for a particularly louche version of ‘All Night Long’, all seductiveness and feeling like you’re on the pull in a German dive bar on a hot summer night. The version of ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ on this album has been released as a single and is a particularly noteworthy choice, as it is the first single with Rainbow Graham released and also the first time I ever saw him as a mere boy who had just got into Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, so it holds a very special place in my heart. ‘Imposter’ is also on here, from the Graham Bonnet Band’s last studio album, “Day Out In Nowhere”, where ageing is dealt with in a most perfunctory and unamused fashion by Mr. Bonnet.
I’m still not sure that a keyboard and drum solo need to be recorded and put on an album for posterity, though. I have always kind of considered solos to be a bit, well… wanky, actually. We already know that you are a decent musician otherwise you wouldn’t be in the fucking band, would you?
Anyway, once Francis Cassol has got his tubthumping out of his system, although there is a little joke at the end of it which I am not going to spoil for you, the next tune up is ‘Night Games’, which is the MOST EPIC Graham Bonnet tune and my favourite. I did have some concerns about the backing vocals on this song in the live setting, but the band are more than up to the task and turn the song into a kaleidoscopic thing of magnificence which has got Dark Juan panting in close to orgasmic joy. Do not mention Beth-Ami at this time. It would not be safe… Did I mention that Dark Juan has quite the thing for her?
I need to wrap this motherfucker up. There’s too much pleasure and there is only so much I can take before it all becomes too much and the cenobites from Hellraiser will turn up and tell me that I need to tone it the fuck down because I’m making them look bad. Over to the Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System ™…
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System ™ has sedated Dark Juan and put him in the sensory deprivation chamber as he was muttering some deeply actionable stuff about Beth-Ami Heavenstone and this is never safe to allow. Suffice it to say that the version of ‘Into The Night’ in this performance was fucking epic, instead. The score awarded for the Skeggy Boy and his band of maestros and mistresses is 666,666,666,666,666,666,666/10. It always going to be a high score and this review was never going to be thoughtful, considered or objective. I just love Graham too much. And Beth-Ami, and Conrado and Alessandro. I have never been friends with legends before. It is a very weird feeling.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Eyes Of The World
02. All Night Long
03. Love’s No Friend
04. Making Love
05. Since You’ve Been Gone
06. Keyboard Solo
07. Lazy
08. Imposter
09. S.O.S.
10. Desert Song
11. Drum Solo
12. Night Games
13. Into The Night
14. Assault Attack
15. Too Young To Die, Too Drunk To Live
16. Lost In Hollywood
LINE-UP:
Graham Bonnet – Vocals
Conrado Pesinato – Guitars
Beth-Ami Heavenstone – Bass
Alessandro Bertoni – Keyboards
Francis Cassol – Drums
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of Dark Juan and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
