Full marks must be given to a man who has put his heart and soul into this album.

Born and raised in Czechoslovakia, then primarily delivering dance music throughout Germany, Jommo Nokes is now living his dream of solely creating/producing music that reflects the Rock and Pop artists who have been a strong influence on his life so far – Gary Moore, Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Alice Cooper, Van Halen and Nik Kershaw would appear to have all played a part in the crafting of 'The Last But One', and occasionally you do witness microscopic snippets, but not enough I'm afraid. Nokes' biggest attributes are his confidence and belief, which he has in abundance; so much so that on his extremely minimalist website this album is upheld as "A Rock album made to stand the test of time" – there's confidence and belief for you ... but only you can decide if it's misguided or not!

The fifteen songs (far too many, I think) showcase Nokes' early song-writing years, and he certainly provides a variation of styles. Initially, I suppose this was intended as a "guitar" album, but Nokes takes every opportunity to demonstrate his abilities on vocals, drums, keyboards and bass too. Without question, he has positioned his best songs upfront, and 'Noneday', 'Uneven Match', 'With Her' and 'Draft' are all proficient songs with high tempos, riffs and brief guitar breaks that leave you wanting more ... much more.

Nokes' vocals are more than competent, but, not surprisingly, they do carry a slight European, monosyllabic accent which some of you may find a tad uncomfortable; I didn't, and found it only added to the personality of the album. As the opus passes the mid-point it regrettably begins to lose a large proportion of its "Rock" qualities in favour of Euro Pop/Rock characteristics with lightweight keyboard interjections and shallow lyrical content. Having said that, even the most prominent Pop offerings, 'Eat Me If You Love Me' (see what I mean about lyrical content?!), or the Men At Work vibe of 'Reality Hurts' are rescued by the aforementioned guitar interplays. Throughout this album I was thinking that maybe a "guitar instrumental" direction should have been adopted instead, and with the five minute 'Nommo Jokes' I believe my theory may have substance; only the guitar techs amongst you can decide that.

Remember, the name is Jommo Nokes, NOT John Noakes of "get down Shep" fame. So no gold Blue Peter badge for this album; not even a silver one! However, full marks must be given to a man who has put his heart and soul into this album. As Leo Sayer once sang, "...I'm a one man band, nobody knows or understands, is there anybody out there want to lend me a hand..." – I sincerely hope so.

Dave Crompton