_{“Second Skin” is, appropriately, the second album from Snakecharmer, a band that was originally founded by former Whitesnake players Micky Moody and Neil Murray in 2011. It was released on 12th May through Frontiers Music. The band has moved on a little since their debut release in 2013 and Moody has been replaced by local guitarist Simon McBride.  The influence and sound is still very much the blues rock era of the late 70’s and bands such as Whtesnake and Bad Company. I included the track “Sounds Like A Plan” on the Friday NI Rocks Show for 19th May.}

_{The name Harry Hess is one that appears regularly when I’m checking out melodic rock albums that have been sent into the station – either for his involvement in mixing or producing the record or for contributing vocals. He is of course also the frontman of Canadian band Harem Scarem. The band released their latest album “United” through Frontiers Music on 12th May and I arranged to record an interview with Harry via Skype on 4th May to talk about the album and his other work. You can hear that interview on the Friday NI Rocks Show that was originally uploaded for 19th May and which is now available on our MixCloud site. We also play 4 tracks from the new Harem Scarem album.}

_{https://www.mixcloud.com/NIRocks/interview-with-harry-hess-on-the-friday-ni-rocks-show-19th-may-2017/}

_{Dissonance Productions (Plastic Head Music Distribution) have certainly been doing their bit recently to re-invigorate the 80’s NWOBHM movement. Last year saw the release of new albums from Diamond Head and Grim Reaper and over recent months there has been a stream of classic albums being re-released, including the first three Girlschool albums (http://www.rockradioni.co.uk/back-stage/music-reviews/3101-ni-rocks-recommends-the-first-three-albums-by-girlschool.html ). This month (26th May) sees the re-release of 3 albums by Samson as well as albums from Blitzkrieg, Jaguar and Cloven Hoof. And in early June we get 3 re-releases from Raven.}