GREAT KING RAT - Great King Rat [Japan Edition +1] (1992)

Requested in "Request & Fill Corner" section.

Formed by the cream of the Scandinavian Melodic Hard Rock scene from the late '80s / early '90s, GREAT KING RAT included into the lineup vocalist Leif Sundin (later Michael Schenker Group, Treat), guitarist Pontus Norgren (Jeff Scott Soto, The Poodles), drummer Tomas Broman (Humanimal) and Mikael Hoglund (Thunder) on bass, and on this, their self-titled debut featuring guest contributions from talented keyboardist Mats Olausson (Glory, Yngwie Malmsteen, Radioactive et all).

This is the kind of band - and album - where the sound & style is perfectly defined: Great King Rat play the brand of Melodic Hard Rock developed between 1990-1992, that meaning bright, clean production, pristine vocals, melodious yet powerful riffs, subtle keyboard touches and catchy choruses.
Think Hardline, Fate, Gotthard, Jeff Scott Soto's Eyes, TNT, and at places, Mr. Big.

Among the highlights 'Good Times' is a superb slice of catchy melodic rock, the funky 'Woman in Love', 'Ball & Chain', and terrific midtempo 'Take Me Back' with its AORish waves. For a bluesy hard rocker with some Thunder on it, check 'Dirty Old Man Stomp'.



You can hear why Michael Schenker later used Sundin for three albums, and Norgren created such good records with The Poodles, Humanimal, and more.
Top class production sound for this really good slice of early '90s Melodic Hard Rock.


01 - Bright Lights
02 - Good Times
03 - Woman In Love
04 - Ball & Chain
05 - Take Me Back
06 - Follow The Rains
07 - One By One
08 - Dirty Old Man Stomp
09 - Calling For My Angel
10 - Top Of The World
11 - Bad Woman (Japanese Bonus Track)

Leif Sundin (Michael Schenker, Treat): vocals, acoustic guitars
Pontus Norgren (Jeff Scott Soto, The Poodles): guitars
Tomas Broman (Humanimal): drums
Mikael Hoglund (Thunder): bass
Anders Nilsson: keyboards
Mikael Andersson lap steel (on track 6)
Rolf Alex: percussion
Backa-Hans Eriksson: cello (1)
Frans Lugmair: harmonica (7)
Mats Olausson (Glory, Yngwie Malmsteen): keyboards (1, 6)




GREAT KING RAT - ST [Japan Edition +1] (1992)


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TRIGGER - Trigger (1978)

TRIGGER was a four-piece act that rocked the New Jersey / New York circuit during the Seventies. The band recorded a private vinyl at the middle of the decade, but their great opportunity arrived when Gene Simmons presented Trigger to Kiss' recording label, Casablanca.
The deal was done and Trigger's self-titled album released in 1978.

If you take a look at the cover you can see that the image suggested to Trigger by the label has pretty much in common with other Casablanca artist: Giuffria's Angel.
But musically, Trigger is timeless catchy rock 'n roll with high doses of radio friendly melodies. They could be compared with Starz, Legs Diamond, Moxy and John Waite's The Babys.



Despite the year of recording, "Trigger" sounds crisp and commercially close to the refined early Eighties. The album was co-arranged & produced by Corky Stasiak (who worked with Kiss at the time) and together with Jay Messina (Aerosmith, Cheap Trick) and Dennis Ferrante (Alice Cooper) engineered the whole thing. So you know what to expect here.
Most tracks are sung by drummer Derek Remington with his slightly raspy throat, but guitarists Jimmy Duggan (RIP) and Richie House also did lead vocals on a couple of tracks each.
With three well trained lead singers plus bassist doing backgrounds, Trigger develops here as well very nice multi-part harmony vocals.



Apparently Trigger recorded a second album but they fell into oblivion with Casablanca's bankrupt.
Their album - only released on LP - become a collectors hard to find piece for many years, until a British specialized label reissued the disc on CD some years ago.
But this is a rip (not mine) from the original LP which sounds warm 'n nice. I did a scratch cleaning from the original .wav files, but kept some 'typical vinyl little noises' because it adds a special charm to the listening experience.
Quite rare album, packed with lovable, melodic American late seventies rock music.


01 - Somebody Like You
02 - Gimme Your Love
03 - Baby, Don't Cry
04 - Shake It Up
05 - Rockin 'Cross The U.S.A.
06 - Deadly Weapon
07 - I've Heard That Line Before
08 - Beware Of Strangers
09 - I Think I'm Ready
10 - Don't Stop Your Love
11 - We're Gonna Make It

Jimmy Duggan - guitars, vocals
Richie House - guitars, vocals
Tom Nigra - bass, backing vocals
Derek Remington - drums, vocals






TRIGGER 1978
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STEVIE VANN (Lange) - Stevie Vann + 3-track Single (1995)

STEVIE VANN (aka Stevie Lange) born as Stevie Van Kerken in Mufulira, Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia). Married to record producer Robert 'Mutt' Lange, in the late '70s Stevie met Chris Thompson while performing backing vocals for a Manfred Mann's Earth Band album.
Thompson approached Vann to form the Melodic Rock band 'Night', releasing two really good albums.
Stevie Vann is a well known vocal coach, including services to Joe Elliot, Atomic Kitten, Robbie Williams, etc. and sung live with Byan Adams, Elton John, Joe Cocker and Brian May just to name few. She also did backing vocals on "When Love And Hate Collide" (Vault version) for Def Leppard.
Additionally, Vann has recorded backup vocals for Manfred Mann, Sweet, Colin Blunstone, Jim Capaldi, Trevor Rabin, UFO, Rick Wakeman and many many more.

Seriously established in the music business, Stevie Vann finally had the opportunity to record her own album as solo artist, co-written and produced by her ex-husband 'Mutt' Lange (Def Leppard, AC/DC), who also sang background vocals. Although their marriage had broken up they still today remain the best of friends.


"Stevie Vann - ST" is a real good collection of classic sounding songs, where Stevie's singing is the star. Powerful, colorful vocals, from straight rockers to emotional ballads.
Production is top notch as you could imagine, with 'Mutt' Lange involved and Mike Shipley (Def Leppard, Winger, Foreigner) engineering. Session musicians are awesome too: Dann Huff, Bryan Adams dueting, Max Carl, Bob Carlisle, and the list continues.

Released through a small label, this CD is very hard to find and a collectors piece. I also included as bonus the CDsingle "I'll Take Your Heart", featuring an edit version of the title cut plus two tracks not present in the main album.

"Stevie Vann - ST"
01. What Would You Say?
02. Prove It [duet with Bryan Adams]
03. The Bigger The Better
04. (Let That) River Roll
05. What In The World?
06. Without Your Love (I Can't Live)
07. Will The Last One To Leave
08. I Thought I'd Seen Everything
09. I'll Take Your Heart
10. If Walls Could Talk

"I'll Take Your Heart" CDsingle:

01 - I'll Take Your Heart [single version]
02 - Mysterious [non album track]
03 - He Won't Let Me Be [non album track]


Personnel :
* Dann Huff - electric & acoustic guitars, bass
* Glenn Worf - bass
* Reggie Young - rhythm guitar
* Lonnie Wilson - drums
* Bosco De Olivera - percussion
* Wayne Stalling - keyboards
* John Jarvis - piano
* Steve Nathan - B3 organ and synths
* Philip Nicholas - keyboards, programming
* Richie Buckley - tenor and soprano sax
* Bryan Adams - vocals on "Prove It" (duet)
* Max Carl - backing vocals
* Bob Carlisle - backing vocals
Mike Shipley - engineer, mixing
Robert John "Mutt" Lange - producer, background vocals

STEVIE VANN Lange ST + 3-track Single
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AIR RAID - Air Raid (CD Reissue 2006)

Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, AIR RAID was active in the East area the for almost the entire Seventies, founded by songwriter, singer and keyboard player Arthur Offen. All members worked at a local recording studio while playing the club circuit.
At the end of the decade, Air Raid was signed by the new 20th Century Fox record division, and they secure the famous Eddie Kramer to produce the debut.

Released in 1981, "Air Raid" is definitely Pomp AOR, absolutely influenced by the sound & style of Styx, accented by Arthur Offen's pipes very similar in to Dennis DeYoung. Just check the melodic "Nowhere Without Your Love".
However, Air Raid is more visceral and rocking in many ways, especially due to Rick Hinkle's raw guitar setup sound and of course, Eddie Kramer.
At places they turn remind me Trillion, on others Giuffria's Angel, and even Freddie Mercury's Queen on the pompous "You're Mine" and the wonderful "Ballad Of Anymore".
As occurs with the genre, there's lots of rare keyboards / proto synths here, name it Mini-Moogs, Prophet V, Polymoog. Last track called "Air Raid / Drill" is a festival of those, and in my humble opinion, ranks amongst the 3 best Pomp Rock songs of all time.



The venture of 20th Century Fox into the record business was really brief, and Air Raid found themselves without promotion and management, and soon broke-up.
They delivered this one and only album, but this is as good as it gets when we talk about Pomp Rock / AOR.


01 - Nowhere Without Your Love
02 - You're Mine
03 - Anything-Anytime
04 - Love The Way You Look To-Nite
05 - Longships
06 - Lovewave
07 - Mystery Man
08 - Soldiers Of Fortune
09 - Ballad Of Anymore
10 - Air Raid / Drill

Rick Hinkle (guitars)
Tom "Tommy" Walker (bass)
Rick Brown (drums)
Arthur Offen (vocals, grand piano, multi-keyboards,12 string guitar)






AIR RAID - CD Reissue 2006 HQ
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