Monday, December 16, 2013

FASTWAY - On Target [Reworked] (1998)

FASTWAY - On Target [Reworked] (1998)
This one was requested by a friend, so here it is as it's a very hard to find disc.
"FASTWAY On Target (Reworked)" it's a strange record in Fast Eddie Clarke's discography. These actually are re-recordings of original songs from the 1988 On Target album plus fresh takes on earlier Fastway hits, all featuring the vocals of Lea Hart and with Clarke adding new guitar layers and re-mixing the whole thing.

After the first successful bluesy hard rock albums Fastway was dropped by the record company around 1987 and the group soon disbanded.
Then Clarke met singer & guitarist Lea Hart (ex- YA YA, Joan Jett) who convinced him to resurrect Fastway with a completely new line-up and a different musical approach: the melodic hard rock dominating the scene these years.
"On Target" was a very good rockin' AOR / melodic rock album plenty of keyboards and catchy choruses, co-produced by Terry Thomas (Charlie, Giant, Bad Company) and credited on all of the arrangements, resulting into a very melodic and polished recording.
As said, a great album for the genre, but Fastway's first time fans hated the move, because you barely can hear Fast Eddie's trademark heavy riffs here.

Ten years after with the original tapes at hand, Hart and Clarke decided to rework the entire album, re-recording almost all the guitars and some new vocals, but retaining the original backing tracks like bass, drums, backing vocals, etc.
But they did more: only seven tracks were rescued from the original 1988 CD, the other six are re-recordings of Fastway earlier popular cuts such as "Easy Livin", "Trick Or Treat", "Say What You Will", etc.
So "On Target (Reworked)" is a completely different album, all sounding more classic Fastway and rocking, with Fast Eddie Clarke's riffage and soloing all over. Don Airey's original keyboards are still there, but more attenuated in the background.

FASTWAY - On Target [Reworked] (1998) back cover

Recorded on an old 24-track tape machine, production is quite vintage and could have been alot better. I still prefer the original '88 version, but this is a nice opportunity to listen these songs with a different musical approach, arrangements & mix, and the classics sung by Lea Hart.
I've seen "On Target (Reworked)" posted on few forums / blogs, but with a missing track. Chances are that if you grabbed the files from there, you have an incomplete album in your archives.
"On Target (Reworked)" it's absolutely out of print, a true rarity these days. I can't believe that a guy is selling this one on Amazon for $3,735.29 !!! Check here


01 - Trick Or Treat (reworked)
02 - The Answer Is You (reworked)
03 - These Dreams (reworked)
04 - Station (reworked)
05 - Change Of Heart (reworked)
06 - Two Hearts (reworked)
07 - Make My Day (reworked)
08 - She Is Danger (reworked)
09 - Dead Or Alive (reworked)
10 - Easy Livin' (reworked)
11 - Let Him Rock (reworked)
12 - Show Some Emotion (reworked)
13 - Say What You Will (reworked)

Lea Hart (vocals, guitar)
Fast Eddie Clarke (guitars)
Don Airey, Paul Airey (keyboards)
Paul Gray, Neil Murray, Tim Carter (bass)
Terry Thomas (bass synth) [erased here]
Steve Clarke, Garry Ferguson (drums)




FASTWAY - On Target Reworked
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6 Comments:

Freeman said...

Thank you for saving me $3,735.29 !!!

^_^

Dan said...

Any chance of a Re-Up on this one?....

Cheers,

Dan

Dan said...

Disregard that last comment. It was meant for the Fair Warning B Sides thread.....

Thanx for this one!!!

Dan

PS - Was it really worth that much?

I remember getting this for $5 at a "Sanity" clearance sale back in the day.

Sold it on ebay when I got rid of all my CDs. Definitely didn't get
$3735.29 for it.....



Anonymous said...

Thanks, need to hear this one. Loved the early albums, then they lost me with that album with synths "Waiting For The Roar", so never heard "On Target" until I downloaded it a few years ago.
Now that I am old, giving it all another chance.

Matthew G said...

I happen to love On Target and Bad Bad Girls. Reworked, not so much. From what I gathered from Fast Eddie interviews, he in fact wasn't even on either album. Thus the reason for doing Reworked. He got the rights to On Target and wanted to redo it with his guitars.

On Target and Bad Bad Girls were essentially Lea Hart solo albums. That being said, if you like them, then check out Lea Hart's Trapped and Ready To Rumble albums.

analogkid610 said...

I found one that is still alive Yay!