A Happy New Year to you all and we start 2018 with news that the winners of our 2017 WRC Best Tribute award, duly voted by yourselves, were Magic (Video Of The Day) who well and truly kept the spirit of both ELO and Queen alive in November at Wrinklystock VI at the Mick Jagger Centre in Dartford! Watch out for our next WRC award announcement tomorrow re: Best Radio Show!

Today's Blues On The Marsh Track Of The Day has a great and fitting end of year line up including Joe Rusi, Raven Cain, Tinsley Ellis, Holly Benton, Bootleggers, Delbert McClinton, Steve Kozak, Glenn Marais and The Mojo Train, GravelRoad, Nasta Super and Chris Cain, Curtis Salgado and Alan Hager, Frank Statesboro, Richard Townend and The Mighty Bosscats (pictured), Dan Burnett, Dago Red and a special section devoted to Kev's very special young lady, Sharon Hills, with tracks from Steve Sainas, Dan Auerbach, BJ Wilbank, Emily Burgess, Kathy Boye and Robert Finley!

Happy New Year - well almost! Today's January 2018 WRC Bulletin goes out a day early in order that we can politely remind you that you still have until midnight tonight to vote in our 2017 WRC Awards here with the eleven category winners being announced over the next eleven days from tomorrow here! Meanwhile, we look back at our December gigs including Airrace, Diamond Head, IQ, Queen + Adam Lambert, Dan Reed Network and Bad Touch (from late November) plus our Brian Tatler interview and our Samantha Fish CD review. We also look forward to our January gigs including Black Country Communion (pictured), Sari Schorr, Bernie Marsden, Black Orchid Empire, Atomic Rooster, Laurence Jones and GloryHammer. Don't forget that if you ever want to contribute a gig or CD review to our website then please get in touch!

Yes today we finally squeeze in our last category - Best Blues Rock Performance in our 2017 WRC Awards before voting closes at midnight tonight! First up is South African Dan Patlansky who we saw at London's O2 Academy in May and, exactly a month later, we also caught American Eric Gales (Video Of The Day) at Nells Jazz & Blues in London's Kensington. Finally, just down the road in October at Chelsea's Under The Bridge we also saw another American - Walter Trout (pictured)! Remember this is your last chance to cast your vote for all eleven categories by simply going here! The winners of our first category will be announced tomorrow!

Escape The Fate have treated fans to another taste of their upcoming album 'I Am Human', due out on Better Noise Records on Friday 16th February 2018, by releasing the lyric video for the title-track - today's Track Of The Day. In support of the album, the band also return to the UK in January and February for a headline tour which includes dates in Glasgow, Manchester, Bristol, London and Nottingham. 'I Am Human' is the bands 6th studio album and is the new era of Escape The Fate, featuring the previously unveiled tracks 'Do You Love Me' and 'Empire'.

In 1982 when four long haired German Metal-maniacs from Frankfurt decided to found a band named Tankard, nobody expected them to still be going three decades later! On Friday 12th January 2018, 'Hymns For The Drunk', the ultimate Tankard Best Of, will be released. This Best Of sums up their creative period from 2002 - 2010, while they were signed to AFM Records. The current band line-up consists of Andreas Geremia (vocals), Andreas Gutjahr (guitar), Frank Thorwarth (bass) and Olaf Zissel (drums).

The penultimate category in our 2017 WRC Awards is One's To Watch. Our nominees include Stone Broken (pictured) who we have seen three times this year, supporting Glenn Hughes at Islington Assembly Hall in January and Living Colour at London's ULU in October plus Ramblin' Man Fair in July! We also saw Massive at Ramblin' Man Fair plus previously at the O2 Arena's Stone Free Festival in June and at Camden's Proud in July. Finally, we also caught Black Orchid Empire (Video Of The Day) at Camden's Monarch in February, at Camden Rocks in June and lastly at Bournemouth's Anvil in September. Phew - anyway, if you want to cast your vote for any one of these 'One's To Watch' then simply go here!

Talking of Ramblin' Man Fair, further 2018 announcements sees not only the return of Southern Blues guitar legend Warren Haynes, but he'll also be bringing along Gov't Mule' to headline the Blues Stage! Another addition over the weekend of 30th June/1st July is the riff n' roll of Jim Jones and the Righteous Mind plus, thanks to one of the stand out performances of 2017, RMF (pictured) sees the return of one of the most electrifying Blues guitarists of his generation - The Kris Barras Band! And to round things off, the Prog in the Park Stage sees Scottish powerhouse Fish headlining with support from the mesmerising Mostly Autumn! With over 30 more bands still to be announced, we think 2018 will really be one not to miss!

Today's Blues Club Christmas Show Track Of The Day has two hours of non-stop Best in Blues with More Music and even Less Chat, featuring only Classic Blues Tracks with no comments between songs. Just letting the music do the talking as music this week Includes tracks from Buddy Guy, Keb' Mo', BB King, Bobby Bland, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Etta James, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmy Johnson, Fats Domino, Big Mama Thornton, The Jimmy Rogers All Stars, Gary Moore (pictured), Albert Collins, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Robert Cray, Jimmy Reed, Johnny Copeland, Albert King, Taj Mahal, Benny Turner, Rory Gallagher, Dr. John, Otis Rush, Howlin' Wolf, Johnnie Johnson, Steve Winwood, Luther Allison, Freddie King, Ray Charles, Jimmy Witherspoon and more!

Next in our 2017 WRC Awards, we turn our attention to our nominees in the Best Festival category. Firstly, we look back to a wet but wonderful weekend at the end of July when we took in Maidstone's Ramblin' Man Fair plus a month earlier at London's O2 Arena where we took in the Stone Free Festival (pictured) - at least it was under cover! Our final nominee is Hard Rock Hell X1 at the end of November - thankfully that was also under cover and the music was red hot (check out our Dee Snider Video Of The Day). So there you have it - if you want to cast your vote for one of these awesome festival's then simply go here!

Need a non-stop hour of great music with not a word about Christmas - in fact no chat at all? Then you'll love Blues On The Radio - The Great Escape - today's Track Of The Day - an hour filled with music from Muddy Waters, Sonny Boy Williamson, Buddy Guy, Etta James, John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers, BB King & Bonnie Raitt, Ray Charles, Taj Mahal, Big Mama Thornton, Albert Collins & Robert Cray, The Allman Brothers, Derek & The Dominoes, Willie Dixon, Jimmy Rogers, Eric Clapton & John Mayall, Jimmie Vaughan and John Lee Hooker. Yes all that in the space of just one hour and all you need do is click play and turn it up!

Two years ago, Fireroad (Video Of The Day), a four-piece Rock band based in South Wales, played with a band called Headline Maniac. Fast forward to London's Borderline as both bands co-headline tonight - our first WRC gig since Christmas! Formed in 2012 by Fireroad’s lead singer and songwriter Richard Jones, the band comprise of Tim Jones, Gavin Davies and Matt Whitney. Compared to Gaslight Anthem, Foo Fighters and influenced by everything from a lifetime of good music, all who have heard and seen them live have nothing but praise for the band and their songs. So much about music these days is disposable but Fireroad have no time for image and fakers, striving to provide their audience with the classic Rock sound that stands the test of time.