Tuesday, November 22, 2016

THE PAUL GODFREY BAND - More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology (1988/2008)

THE PAUL GODFREY BAND - More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology (1988/2008)
Established in the San Fransisco Bay Area, during the '80s there was several incarnations of THE PAUL GODFREY BAND, fronted by guitarist and songwriter Paul Godfrey.
By the middle of the decade, the group turned a female-fronted melodic rock band with the classic American sound from the genre spiced with radio-friendly AOR melodies. At charge of the mic was Celeste Alexander, Paul Godfrey's wife.
After several demos, The Paul Godfrey Band recorded their self-titled 8-track debut LP released via private label Dolphin Productions in 1988. Only few vinyls were pressed resulting sold-out in few months and turning over the years a collector's piece.

However, two years after the album was re-released for the first time on CD re-entitled 'Magic Touch' including two previously unreleased tracks.
Yet again, the reissue went out of print soon becoming another highly-priced, hard to track down artifact that only true connoisseurs of AOR-tistry ever got to hear.

Fortunately, twenty years after the original LP, the album was re-released again including the 2 extra tracks, plus 5 previously unreleased demos recorded by the band in 1987, hence the 'more of the same excellence' title.
While these demos are good and fun, the real pearl here is the main album, a collection of pure US '80s Melodic Rock / AOR of the highest order, at least female-fronted speaking.
This pop-up comparisons to bands / artists in the same style like Scandal or Cindy Valentine but The Paul Godfrey Band at places sound like many well known all-male bands in the genre. Additionally, Paul provides back up / supporting vocals on most tracks, and full leads on 'Wild Ones'.

THE PAUL GODFREY BAND - More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology (1988/2008) back

There's no weak tracks here, even the two cuts left-off in the original LP release are among the best of the bunch. All are catchy, plenty of keyboards and melodic riffs, plus great guitar (solos) contributions by master Marc Bonilla and John Wedemeyer (Starship).
"More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology" is a delicious slice of pure mid-80s American Melodic Rock / AOR still unheard by many fans of the genre. 
Requested by a friend... request yours!


01 - Magic Touch
02 - Only One
03 - Love Lies Deep
04 - Never Felt This Way Before
05 - Too Many Lonely Nights
06 - Tonight
07 - Can't Get My Mind Off You
08 - Wild Ones
09 - Hold On
10 - Got Lucky (Demo) [bonus track]
11 - Hot Night In The City (Demo) [bonus track]
12 - Jenny (Demo) [bonus track]
13 - Can't Live Without You (Demo) [bonus track]
14 - Tonight (Demo) [bonus track]

Paul Godfrey: lead & back-up vocals, guitar
Celeste Alexander: lead vocals
Paul Fox: bass, vocals
Kirk Gibbs: keyboards, vocals
Norm Plischke: drums
additional musicians:
Marc Bonilla: guitar
Don Frank: drums
David Nowlin: bass
John Wedemeyer: guitar
Doug Caldwell: keyboards




PAUL GODFREY BAND - More Of The Same Excellence
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3 Comments:

T.P said...

More Of The Same Excellence is not just the album title of a surprising coming-out-of-nowhere band (at least for me they are), but could also be the headline of this great feature of yours, Camelblue, with so much pleasant background knowledge for the inclined readership to hear and absorb, so that I can only take my hat off before another one of your precisely written results.

And in regard to the audible part, I'm quite sure that I'll have my enjoyment with this anthology, since the YT appetizer already incited my curiosity!

Bye for now,
Thomas

Miguel said...

Hello there, any chance to re-upload this album? THX

Ross said...

I would love a repost of this fantastic album.