2017:: The Year of the Steinman??

[Danny L]

It seems after a notable absence Jm Steinman's music is going to be thundering back into the world! Apart from Braver Than We Are which was released in September we have:

- BAT OUT OF HELL: THE MUSICAL - launching February in Manchester and June in London - also the original album celebrates 40 years!
- TYCE: HERO - new album out in February
- KARINE HANNAH: RENEGADE ANGEL - another album out in October


Plus Tanz der Vampire is still being performed and no doubt a production of Whistle or two may crop up?

[AndrewG]

In my opinion it remains to be seen how successful mostly unknown singers beyond Meat, Bonnie and the occasional single success such as Celine Dion, Air Supply & Barry Manilow (and we are talking 20 years+ ago) can be with Steinman's old material.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't do what they want to do and think is right. Just think they and their fans (including Steinman fans) should set their expectations accordingly.

[Danny L]

In my opinion it remains to be seen how successful mostly unknown singers beyond Meat, Bonnie and the occasional single success such as Celine Dion, Air Supply & Barry Manilow (and we are talking 20 years+ ago) can be with Steinman's old material.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't do what they want to do and think is right. Just think they and their fans (including Steinman fans) should set their expectations accordingly.

It is good the music is being put out there again

[rockfenris2005]

In my opinion it remains to be seen how successful mostly unknown singers beyond Meat, Bonnie and the occasional single success such as Celine Dion, Air Supply & Barry Manilow (and we are talking 20 years+ ago) can be with Steinman's old material.

Doesn't mean they shouldn't do what they want to do and think is right. Just think they and their fans (including Steinman fans) should set their expectations accordingly.

This is a new and different era for me. The era I knew and loved is gone. It's gone. I've accepted that. I look forward to what they come up with here.

[letsgotoofar]

The days of chart blockbusters are gone. They just are. When Taylor Swift can top the Billboard charts with her fifth album after selling only just over a million copies, that's a glimpse of where things are at, especially compared to the sales that Meat and Jim have racked up over time.

Jim's music was never for the average bear, to twist a phrase from a cartoon I loved as a child. Meat himself has made the point that if you released Bat Out of Hell at any time in history, it would never fit the trend. By sheer luck, Meat and Jim managed to catch a wave at the tail end of the Seventies and ride it through the Eighties (at least in Jim's case) and the Nineties. They could... would... never have a success story like that today.

As a fan, all I'm going to say is that right now, we're going through a hot period we haven't seen in a long time. Three artists putting out albums entirely by Jim, his dream musical finally getting produced, and his other successful pieces continuing to get some mileage (one of which is about to hit its twentieth anniversary). Is it critical mass reaching that elusive "X" factor that makes everyone involved a household name? Probably not, and the way things are today, I'm not holding my breath for it, but it's as close as we're going to get. So while we are setting our expectations accordingly, maybe some other people asking us to do so could do the same. Right now, their names and their music are out there, and garnering attention as serious as it's going to get at this phase in their career. So let's celebrate!

[Danny L]

Well put - OK I'm not expecting these projects to collectively put the world on fire but for us fans it's more exposure for Jim's work than what we're used to.

The musical is easily the most 'mainstream', it could potentially win some Oliver Awards/WhatsOnStage Awards etc in the UK if it does well

[rockfenris2005]

It's too soon for Jim's legacy to be reassessed (trying to articulate that and probably failing miserable), but I compare him to a seventeenth century playwright or composer, where I'm sure in the generations to come there'll be your Olivier's and so on and so forth. How many great actors have done Shakespeare? Jim's like Mozart. It's just a question of WHEN you find someone on that level that Meat succeeded so brilliantly at. That's the way it should be anyway, for me, with any composer.