AGENT - Agent [original recording Rick Livingstone vocals] (1986)

Requested  by a friend....

AGENT was one of the best Canadian AOR bands during the '80s and '90s.
Keyboardist Craig Zurba and bass player Andre Kunkel were songwriting partners and session musicians from the local scene having recorded for various mainstream artists. At the middle Eighties, both contacted talented vocalist Rick Livingstone, ex- September and Broken Hearts, and together with guitarist Bob Smart and drummer Dave Allan, Agent born.

Agent was signed by CBS / Virgin Records Canada and their self-titled debut album appeared in 1986 to good reviews, but sadly, their label's CEO quit during the week the album was released and no recording company leadership was evident during the 9 months following the release.
Agent broke-up the following year, but left us this wonderful piece of work. "Agent" is pure mid-Eighties AOR, curiously more American sounding than Canuck, akin Survivor, Shelter, Preview, Surrender, etc.
In short; classic '80s AOR with hooks, melodies and keyboards aplenty. Just check the monster "Surrender" below.



Ten years after, Agent returned with a new vocalist re-recording the album for an European label. Although resulted really good, AOR fans still prefer this original '86 release.
Never reissued on CD, this is not the best vinyl LP rip of the world, however, it's million times better than the copy floating the web.
Pure '80s AOR.


01 - Heartbeat
02 - Can't Hold Back
03 - This Could Be The Night
04 - She Trusted Me
05 - Turn On The Radio
06 - Can't Stop
07 - Change Of Heart
08 - Surrender
09 - Blame It On Love
10 - Headlines

Rick Livingstone - vocals
Bob Smart - guitars
Craig Zurba - keyboards, piano, synths
Andre Kunkel - bass
Dave Allan - drums, percussion




AGENT Rick Livingstone 1986
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RICK SPRINGFIELD - SDAA bonus CD Unreleased Stuff (2004)

Revamped post per request.
3 extra tracks added


As requested, more Springfield rarities.
His 'shock/denial/anger/acceptance' album was also released as a collector's package, including an extra CD with 17 bonus / unreleased tracks spanning Rick's career.

According to the press release back in the day:
" The LIMITED EDITION version of s/d/a/a is limited to 3500 numbered copies and hand signed by Rick!
Once they are gone, they're gone! No more will ever be produced! "

Seems they're gone now, so here it is.
Plus, more bonuses added: the bonus track from the main album limited edition (not present in the regular release), 'The Day After Yesterday' Japanese bonus track, 'Venus In Overdrive' Best Buy exclusive songs, and 'Working Class Dog' reissue bonuses.

A must for Fans & Collectors.
Grab this while it's hot...


1 - Love Screws Me Up (unreleased from Karma)
2 - Revolution Day (unreleased track from Karma)
3 - Rythym Of Love (unreleased '88 song)
4 - Her Body Makes Vows (unreleased track from Karma)
5 - Faithful (different version from the DVD)
6 - When You Dream (original song in EFX)
7 - Rhythm Of The Beat (extra verses)
8 - Forever (EFX version)
9 - Rock Of Life (home demo '86)
10 - Affair Of The Heart (home demo '82)
11 - Souls (home demo '82)
12 - Don't Talk To Strangers (home demo '81)
13 - Poison Pen (unreleased demo SHSMY)
14 - American Girls (live Troubadour '74)
15 - Fire Brigade (unreleased '74)
16 - Sweet Teaser (unreleased '74)
17 - Will I? (AC Radio Mix)

Extras:
18 - Forever (bonus track rerecorded for SDAA sessions)
19 - Love Is The Answer (TDAY Japan bonus)
20 - My Generation (VIO Best Buy exclusive)
21 - Jessie's Girl -Acoustic- (VIO Best Buy exclusive)
Working Class Dog reissue:
22 - Easy To Cry (bonus, prev. unreleased)
23 - Taxi Dancing (bonus, orig. version prev. unrel.)
24 - Jessie's Girl (bonus, demo vers. prev. unreleased)



RICK SPRINGFIELD - SDAA bonus CD
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RAY GILLEN - The Fire Still Burns

This year marks 20 years since the death of RAY GILLEN, one of the greatest singers from the eighties / nineties international Hard Rock scene. The American vocalist had a short but fruitful career which is covered in its entirety in this blog humble tribute.
Every project where Gillen was involved is present here: from his first official recording as part of Bobby Rondinelli's band to his final, posthumous released work with Sun Red Sun. He was featured as guest in a Savatage track, but as he only appears in a vocal duet at the end of the song I chose to leave out this one.

We have Ray's guest leads in the Atsushi Yokozeki Project and George Lynch's solo album, his wonderful participation in Phenomena as main vocalist and of course his own US band Badlands.
But as this tribute was done in a first place because a reader of this blog requested some Gillen's unreleased material, I offer you some rare stuff as well.
Ray was called by Tony Iommi to record Black Sabbath's album 'The Eternal Idol' in 1986, an although recorded most of the tracks he quit before the album was ever released due to internal troubles never clarified.

Gillen was eventually replaced by Tony Martin (another great singer), but Ray's pre-production takes are really awesome. These sessions finally saw the light of day in the 2-disc expanded set of the album released few years ago. I have chosen "Nightmare", a monster of a song.
Ray toured extensively during his stay in Sabbath and some of these concerts were caught on tape, but never released. Just listen Ray's performance on the classic "War Pigs", it is truly thrilling.

Also featured here is a rare early demo of "Stop" - one of the best tracks from the Phenomena album 'Dream Runner' (1987) - in a more 'aural' version.
There's also a demo, a never released song from the Badlands days, and the only known track recorded by Gillen as part of John Sykes' Blue Murder. He was in the band only few months, leaving the project when Sykes decided to handle vocals himself.
All these unreleased tracks were sonically cleaned by me, and I also did a really nice artwork to accompany this deserved tribute to one of the greatest shouters in Hard Rock history.

Tracklist, CLICK HERE:




RAY GILLEN - The Fire Still Burns - HERE

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