BENNY HESTER - Perfect (1989)

Released in 1989, BENNY HESTER's album "Perfect" is one of the best examples of the American '80s CCM Lite AOR. With a career staring in the Seventies and with a FM rock / Soft Rock / Wast coast touches, Benny's music was widely popular especially in the second half of the '80s.

Aiming for the Adult contemporary charts, "Perfect" is far from its title, yet easily listenable and very enjoyable. The style of the music and the year of production demanded a pristine, crystal clear output and that's exactly what you'll find here.

Handled by expert Bill Baumgart behind the desk, the recording label secured the presence of top notch session musicians, like Toto's Jeff Porcaro at the drum kit, Neil Stubenhaus on bass, etc.



With a balance of synth-driven rockers and smooth power ballads, songs like the upbeat "Headlights On The Highway" (my favorite), the dynamic "If You Die Before You Die", "Two Good Reasons" (akin John Waite solo), or the sweet title track (with a West Coast feel) are among the best cuts here. There's a surprisingly hot guitar solo on the rocker "Passion, Possession, Position", another good one.
A nice, cool late 80s album.


01 - Headlights On The Highway
02 - Before You Know It
03 - If You Die Before You Die
04 - Perfect
05 - Hungry World
06 - You Weren't Meant To Live Your Life Alone
07 - Two Good Reasons
08 - This One's For Keeping
09 - Passion, Possession, Position
10 - Shall We Gather At The River

Benny Hester - Lead & Background Vocals
Jeff Porcaro - Drums
Pete Pfiefer - Percussion
Marty Walsh - Guitars
Neil Stubenhaus - Bass
Aaron Zigman, Tim Heintz - Keyboards
Bob Carlisle, Bill Baumgart, Allison Beech - Background Vocals


BENNY HESTER - Perfect (1989) HERE
.

0 Day Rock

0day has moved to this new url:

https://0dayrox.org

Updated November 14, 2019

*********************************************************************************

HAVEN (Rose Coppola) - ST (2000)

Requested in "Request & Fill Corner" section...

HAVEN was a Melodic Hard Rock consisting of female singer Rose Coppola and guitar player John McCarthy.
Taking the name from thier native town (New Haven, Connecticut), during the nineties the band performed & opened for many national artists: Blue Oyster Cult, Kansas, Steelheart, LA Guns, XYZ and more.
Seems Rose Coppola is a well known vocal teacher as well, as she released the popular 'Rock Your Vox Vocal Performance Instructional DVD' and has trained bands such as Zebra and Winger for their debut albums' harmony backing vocals.

HAVEN never made it big or inked a record deal, but managed to release by themselves the collection of all their nineties recordings in this self-titled CD (now impossible to find).
The material ranges from American Melodic Hard Rock to radio-rock oriented tunes. The quality in sound varies as these tracks were recorded between 1990-1999 in different studio facilities.
Songwriting is strong for the most part, being my favorites the more rockin' ones as the tongue-in-cheek opener "Me", "Crazy For Lovin' You", and specially the choppin' guitar driven "Really Good Times".
There's a good poppy oriented track in "Crawl Back To Me" and a good cover of "Love Hurts" made popular by Nazareth.
The ballad "Don't Cry It's Only Thunder" is one of the best produced tracks here, complete with orchestrations and a really good vocal duet between Coppola & McCarthy.

HAVEN had potential, and although some tracks are not completely well mixed, you guess the great product they would able to deliver with a proper producer tweaking the knobs.


01 - Me
02 - Crazy For Lovin' You
03 - Really Good Times
04 - Crawl Back To Me
05 - Shaman Lies
06 - Understood
07 - Shake Me Down
08 - Seven Million Stars
09 - Hollywood
10 - Love Hurts
11 - Don't Cry It's Only Thunder
12 - Waiting For Love To Come

Rose Coppola - Vocals
John McCarthy - Guitars, Vocals
Nick DiMichino - Bass
Wayne Sobotso - Drums
Additional Players:
Al Spinelli - Keyboards
Scott Cunningham - Drums
Mark Dirini - Bass





HAVEN (Rose Coppola)
.

BON JOVI - The Slippery When Wet Outtakes / Demos

Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

It's not strange the interest in BON JOVI's demos from their 'Slippery When Wet' era, because this is the band's more popular, best-selling album to date. 
Even someone, some time ago, pressed on CD (and a quite well done Bootleg including artwork) all these pre-production demos for sale. Sadly, what it is not so good is the tape transfer audio quality.
Anyway, it's very interesting to hear the genesis of such classics like "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Wanted Dead Or Alive" or "Livin' On A Prayer".

Additionally, there's the early versions of songs that never were included into the final release. "Borderline" was a single B-side (featured here in a demo form), but "Game Of The Heart" (wrongly titled Give My Heart), "Lonely in The Night" and "Deep Cuts The Night" (wrongly titled Dick After Night !), never were finished and remain unreleased.



I did a very quick 'remastering' of these tracks to clean and enhance the sound a bit. Got the Bootleg in lossless format but I encoded the resulting files into VBR mp3, it's more than enough, believe me.
As bonus, I've added a couple of tracks from other source that sound slightly better.


01 - You Give Love A Bad Name
02 - Without Love
03 - Wild in The Streets
04 - Wanted Dead Or Alive
05 - Raise Your Hands
06 - Never Enough*
07 - Edge of a Broken Heart
08 - Borderline
09 - Give My Heart (Game Of The Heart)*
10 - I'd Die for You
11 - Let It Rock
12 - Social Disease
13 - Livin' on a Prayer
14 - Lonely in The Night*
15 - Dick After Night (Deep Cuts The Night)*
16 - Never Say Goodbye
Extras:
17 - Deep Cuts The Night (different source)
18 - Game Of The Heart (different source)

Jon Bon Jovi – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Richie Sambora – lead guitar, background vocals
David Bryan – keyboards, background vocals
Alec John Such – bass, background vocals
Tico Torres – drums


BON JOVI Slippery When Wet Outtakes HERE
.

THE TRUTH - Weapons Of Love (1987)

The last album (1989) from British rockers THE TRUTH was featured at this blog some years ago, now one of you requested their previous and record, "Weapons Of Love".
This 1987 release was an unexpected success in America, with the title track reaching #7 on the Rock single charts and general Billboard Hot 100. Three songs from the album were also used in the great sci-fi movie 'The Hidden', and other in a Miami Vice episode.

The music packed in "Weapons Of Love" is commercial radio-ready rock with clean vocals, precise guitars, fine synths typical from the era, and an overall polished production sound.
Helped by ex-Mr. Mister drummer Pat Mastelotto and keyboardist Paul Fox (XTC), the only stable and founder members Dennis Greaves (Lead Vocals & Guitar) & Mick Lister (Vocals, Guitar) recorded a bunch of highly enjoyable '80s tunes here.



At places on this album The Truth bring to mind Mr. Mister, others the likes of Michael Learns To Rock, the lighter side of Honeymoon Suite, etc.
Good 80s album.


01 - Weapons Of Love
02 - Winterland
03 - Until It Burns
04 - The Edge Of Town
05 - Cover Up My Face
06 - Respect
07 - Come On Back To Me
08 - This Way Forever
09 - Another New Day
10 - Soul Deep Fascination

Dennis Greaves: Lead Vocals & Guitar
Mick Lister: Vocals, Guitar
Dennis Herring: Guitar, Keyboards, Programming
Pat Mastelotto: Drums
John Pierce: Bass
John Van Tongeren, Paul Fox: Keyboards
Pat MacDonald: Harmonica
Davey Faragher: Backing Vocals




THE TRUTH - Weapons Of Love (1987)- HERE
.

MICHAEL BREEN - ST (1987)

Requested in "Request & Fill Corner" section...

Michael Breen is a Canadian session vocalist / guitarist / keyboardist, one of these musicians that got the opportunity to record his own solo album.
Apart from his work as session man, he was part of the local band Concert who released one album in 1982 called 'Vitamin', and later, vocalist of The Sailcats.

Breen soon came to the attention of Alert Records owner Tom Berry who signed him to the label.
Being born in the french side of Canada (Quebec), they wanted songwriting partners to provide english lyrics for his songs to have a universal appeal. The first single, in example, was penned by by the soon-to-be-famous female vocalist Sass Jordan.
With the songs ready, and Michael playing most of the instruments, the album was recorded at the end of 1986 produced by Pierre Bazinet (Luba, Boulevard, Paradox).

Breen's self titled effort is a mix of Rock&Pop / Lite AOR in the typical canadian style and sound, with some Hi-Tech elements.
Songs like "Rain", "SOS Emotion" and "Risky" are keyboard dominated poprockers, the most commercial and radiable tracks on the album.
But with "How Will I Know" things start to become interesting. This is a good semi-ballad with more tough vocals (shared with Sass Jordan) and great keyboards. A song in the Tommy Shaw style.

"So Long" has a very classy sound, a relaxing late-night Lite AOR that reminds me Russ Irwin, with good keys and guitars. One of the best tracks here.
"Face To Face" is an old song written when Breen's was in The Sailcats, placed 2nd in the 1985 Music Express/MuchMusic National Talent Search contest. Another good one, an uptempo poppy AOR with nice orchestration.
"Do It" is the more guitar dominated track of the album. Richard Marx comes to mind, Brian Spence also. Good guitar solo.
"All The Way" is a 'techy' number with a catchy chorus, similar to Robert Tepper stuff. Breen's vocals are rougher and effective.

This album is a good exponent of the 'eighties canadian sound'.
Nothing spectacular or memorable, but a pleasant listen, well composed, played and recorded.
Impossible to find -particularly this CD version- (artwork included).
A collectible item.


01 - Rain
02 - Risky
03 - High And Low
04 - SOS Emotion
05 - How Will I Know
06 - So Long
07 - Face To Face
08 - Do It
09 - All The Way
10 - How Will I Know (Reprise)


Michael Breen: Vocals, Guitar, Keyboards, Bkg Vocals
Sass Jordan: Vocals, Bkg Vocals
Rest of Personnel: unlisted



MICHAEL BREEN - ST _ HERE
.

REQUEST & FILL CORNER 22

From now, all request & fills goes in this post Comments.
If you need an album or a single track, request it here, if you have it, be kind with other readers, upload the file and post the link here as well.
Access to this page will be placed at the right column ------>
(the "CLICK HERE" neon sign)
It will be opened in a new window.

Check this section regularly.
You'll find many albums uploaded by readers, not present on the main blog ...

Help each other people!


and don't forget to check out ARCHIVES:


ARCHIVES PART 18

ARCHIVES PART 19

ARCHIVES PART 20

ARCHIVES PART 21

.

BRIAN ISLAND (Canada) - ST (1989)

Requested by Kissmar...

BRIAN ISLAND (real name Brian Cowieson) is a Canadian bass player and vocalist. The man has played with many local acts, written songs for other artists and scores for movies & TV shows.
He was part of the cult cancon AOR band Prototype which released a very good album back in '83.

For his one and only solo album, Brian required the services of his old partner in Prototype, guitarist & producer Dan Lowe.
Lowe, inventor of an enhancement method for stereo recording (named Q-Sound), also contributed on guitars and songwriting.
This recording sounds million bucks indeed, with excellent instrument separation and crisp edge.

Island's style is Hi-Tech AOR with high dosis of adult pop. A playground where the likes of Stan Meissner, Gowan or Stan Meissner hang out.
All the songs on this disc are catchy and highly enjoyable, featuring strong bass lines, very very good guitars and cool keyboards.

If you are fan of high quality Hi-Tech, perfect recording techniques and compact, glossy sounds, don't miss Brian Island.
This is a mega-rare CD, as far I know, only released in Canada.
Thanks Adriana!


01 - In spite of what you do
02 - Treat me like a lover
03 - No surrender
04 - Walk on water
05 - I'm your hero
06 - Night after night
07 - Major motion
08 - When you lose your love
09 - Draw the line


Brian Island: Vocals, Bass, Background Vocals
Brad Steckel: Guitar, Background Vocals
Brent Saks: Guitar
Amin Bhatia, Ted Alexander: Keyboards
Jerry Adolphe: Drums
Dan Lowe: add. Guitar
Backup Vocals: Martha Cobb, Debbie Hughes, Georgina Skebo, Deanna Dubbin





BRIAN ISLAND (Canada)
.

VON GROOVE - Von Groove [Japanese Edition] (1992)

Requested in "REQUEST & FILL CORNER" section...

Founded by Canadian vocalist / drummer Michael Shotten and bass player Matthew Gerrard (a songwriting duo contributing songs for Triumph among others) plus Croatian born guitarist simply called Mladen, VON GROOVE born in Gerrard's own basement recording studio in the early Nineties.
The tapes they recorded sounded so great that A&M Records signed the band and decided to release the material without modifications.

However Chrysalis wanted some 'sure fire' potential single hits, so Von Groove agreed to re-record 4 of the songs in Los Angeles with super-drummer Deen Castronovo (Bad English, Hardline, Journey) and famous (and talented) Richie Zito producing.


Simply put, "Von Groove" is one of the greatest Melodic Hard Rock records ever made. Killer songs, superb performances and brilliant production turns this CD a classic for the genre.
Someone asked for a HQ Cdrip so here it is from the Japanese edition, including 2 bonus tracks and full art.
A Must !


01 - Once Is Not Enough
02 - Better Than Ever
03 - Can't Get Too Much
04 - Once In A Lifetime
05 - Every Beat Of My Heart
06 - House Of Dreams
07 - C'Mon, C'Mon
08 - All The Way Down
09 - Arianne
10 - Slave To Sin
11 - Love Keeps Bringing Me Home
12 - Smaug
13 - Sweet Pain
Japanese bonus tracks;
14 - Soldier Of Fortune
15 - King Of Your World (Live)

Michael Shotton - lead and backing vocals, drums
Matthew Gerrard - bass, backing vocals, keyboards
Mladen - guitars, mandolin, backing vocals
Deen Castronovo - drums
Norm Arnold - percussion
Scotth Humphrey - keyboards, digital edition
Tommy Funderburk, Al Langlade, Grant Cummings - backing vocals




VON GROOVE - Von Groove [Japanese Edition] (1992)
.