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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JIM PETERIK - The Magical Pen (Camelblue's demo compilation)

JIM PETERIK is one of the living icons from the American Rock scene: member of AOR Gods Survivor, mastermind of Pride Of Lions and prolific songwriter. With his 'World Stage International Records" Peterik is constantly recording, to offer his own penned songs to other artists, publishing agencies and record companies.

I have compiled many of these unreleased demos (professionally recorded) entitling the pack "The Magical Pen", as indeed Peterik is like a songwriting magician. Jimbo sings lead vocals on a bunch, and there's a lot of talented vocalists and players joining him.
To wrap the whole package I did a nice little artwork, and you'll find a brief description on each file inside-tags, but take a look here as well if you are interested:

01 - Gutters Of Gold (duet with Jeff Boyle)
Demo of a song written for Sammy Hagar, featuring Chicago musician Jeff Boyle on the duet vocal. Sammy loved the song, but never recorded it. Joe Lynn Turner, of Rainbow and Deep Purple fame, did record it though for his 2009 Sunstorm album 'House Of Dreams'.

02 - Love Doesn't Get Any Stronger Than This (feat. Blue Miller)
This song features vocals by Nashville singer / songwriter / artist Blue Miller. Words and Music by Jim Peterik.

03 - Tears On The Pages (feat. John Melnick)
Song wrote with Jon Lind, of the Fifth Avenue Band way back when. Vocalist is the awesome John Melnick, formerly of the band Zazu. John sang as well on "Late Night Radio" also posted here. Joe Lynn Turner recorded this song on his Sunstorm project's album 'House Of Dreams'.

04 - Late Night Radio (feat. John Melnick)
The song was pitched to Kansas for their more AOR period back around the 'Drastic Measures' era (1983), but they passed. Words and music by Jim Peterik & John Melnick.

05 - Someone Else's Blues
Peterik performs alone (vocals, guitar, keys) on this demo song dedicated to his sister Janice right before she passed away in 1994. Words and Music by Jim Peterik.

06 - Heart Broker (duet with Cathy Richardson)
Unreleased demo, featuring a duet between Jim and Cathy Richardson, Chicago native female artist, lead singer in The Jefferson Starship.

07 - No Ordinary Miracle (feat. John Wetton)
A track co-written with John Wetton of King Crimson and Asia fame. This is the demo for the song that ended up on Wetton's 2001 'Sinister' album. Words and music by Jim Peterik & John Wetton.

08 - Deep End Of The Ocean (feat. Alice Peacock)
This song was written for the 1999 movie of the same name starring Michelle Pfeiffer, but not used. Vocal by a young Alice Peacock. Words and music by Jim Peterik.

09 - Tender Fire (feat. Jan James)
Lead vocals on this one are by Jan James, former lead singer of Chicago-based band Jewel Fetish. Drums are by the late Kyle Woodring. Words and music by Jim Peterik.

10 - The Day America Cried (feat. Johnny Van Zant)
Peterik wrote this song with Johnny Van Zant (the awesome AOR gem 'Van Zant' 1985) right after the Twin Towers fell on 9/11. Johnny called Jimbo in shock, and after talking for a while this song came out of that. It was released shortly thereafter as a benefit.

11 - Armageddon
Jim recorded this for the hit movie starring Bruce Willis but it wasn't taken. Six-string wizzard Dave Uhrich play a lot of the guitars on it as well.

12 - Holley (feat. Jim Ellison)
A song co-written by Jim Peterik and the late Jim Ellison of Material Issue. Beautiful tune with a very classic sound.

13 - Man Against The World (feat. Toby Hitchcock)
Promoter Paul Braun had asked Jim if there was any way to perform the song at an upcoming show as it was one of his favorite Survivor tracks. Jim asked Toby Hitchcock of Pride Of Lions to learn the song, which he did the day before the show.
The result was a powerful, raw performance. Given the fact that this was the first time Toby had ever sung the song with Jim, and he had only learned it the day before, nobody cared that there were a couple of bobbles. The overall soul of the song was what came shining through.

14 - Forever And A Day
Wrote by Jimbo in Miami years ago. Apart from Peterik, the performers on this beautiful ballad are unknown.

15 - Kick The Door Down (feat. Kelly Ferro)
Unreleased demo, written by Jim Peterik. His niece Kelly Ferro sang the vocal.

16 - Just For You (feat. Kelly Ferro)
Peterik wrote this song with his friend Kevin Cronin of REO Speedwagon. REO did record it and it ended up a bonus track on "The Essential REO Speedwagon" compilation. Vocals on this original demo by Kelly Ferro.

17 - We Wish (feat. Jeff Boyle) [Live]
Recorded during the 2007 'County Stage / World Stage' acoustic show at the Chicago Street Theatre in Valparaiso, IN. Jim Peterik: guitars, Jeff Boyle: guitars & vocals, Chuck Soumar: percussion, Lisa McClowry: backing vocals.

18 - Christmas Morning
Composed and recorded by Jim Peterik for the fans as Christmas gift, featured at his website some time ago.


That's all folks, enjoy this rare & good material.

click to expand;



JIM PETERIK The Magical Pen
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REFUGEE - Affairs In Babylon [vinyl rip] (1985)

Thanks to Rocky Birboa for helping me to recover this original vinyl-rip

REFUGEE, the brainchild of Canadian songwriter / vocalist Myles Hunter (RIP), released this LP "Affairs In Babylon" in 1985 after an initial indie release under the moniker MICHAEL FURY.
You can read the story and get the album HERE

REFUGEE's "Affairs In Babylon" wasn't released on CD until 2005 by a German label.
Unfortunately, they didn't take as a source the original master tapes, just a wasted & scratched vinyl, and also gently destroyed the original signal harmonics with a cheap processor.
That CD sounds terrible, a classic album like this deserves a better CD reissue.

From a pretty good vinyl rip (courtesy of troynew, thanks my friend), I've tried to get the best audio quality possible, de-crackling, de-clicking and de-noising the whole thing. To my ears, it sounds far better than the aforementioned German CD.
Tracks 1 & 2 are chained in the vinyl, I have left them as a single track to preserve continuity and avoid the typical mp3 gaps. Anyway, included into the file, are both as separated tracks as well: you choose.
320K including re-worked artwork.


01 - Affairs In Babylon
02 - Thunder Of Another Night
03 - Listen To Your Heart
04 - Hot Words *
05 - Dream On Anastasia
06 - Exiles In The Dark
07 - No Survivors, No Way Out
08 - Body To Body
09 - Here We Go Again *
10 - These Are The Good Times


Myles Hunter : Lead Vocals, Guitar
Rob Kennedy : Lead Guitars, Backing Vocals
Howard Helm : Keyboards, Backing Vocals
Martyn Jones : Bass, Backing Vocals
Brian Doerner : Drums
Greg Bociek : add. Keyboards *



REFUGEE - Affairs In Babylon [restored audio] (1985) HERE
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MICHAEL FURY - Affairs In Babylon (1984) restored audio

Myles Hunter (ex Avalon Canada), bassist Martyn Jones and guitarist Rob Kennedy founded MICHAEL FURY (named after a character in James Joyce's short story, "The Dead") in 1979. They did the predictable round of club gigs throughout Canada until split up in 1983.

Hunter met keyboard wiz Howard Helm (ex Zon) one year later and start to play with him the songs he has been written. Together decided to call Kennedy and Jones back, and with the addition of drummer Dave Mihal reform MICHAEL FURY.
An initial demo was picked up by a local small label and the result is "Affairs In Babylon", released in 1984.

MICHAEL FURY toured constantly throughout the country, but they began getting an identity crisis as people mistook the group name 'Michael Fury' for Myles Hunter himself.
To compound matters the label tried to push the band as a solo act. This didn't sit well to the group (Hunter included), then a major US label offers a deal to the band, they brought back the rights to the album and signed a new contract.
The disc was re-mixed and re-recorded for the most part, and modified with new songs, "Affairs In Babylon" was re-issued under the band name REFUGEE, with new drummer Brian Doerner (Helix).

As REFUGEE, Hunter & Co. released another album in 1987; "Burning From The Inside Out". Both REFUGEE releases are considered classic '80s AOR gems by fans of the genre (I totally agree).

But let's talk about this MICHAEL FURY album.
For the re-release of "Affairs In Babylon" under the Refugee moniker, 5 tracks were replaced by 5 new ones, and what a new songs!, the best they ever recorded in my opinion, the Refugee release is far superior, with an updated remix job and the new tracks getting big production. A classic indeed.

However, the exclusive 5 songs on this LP are very good too, and that's why I am posting here the original MICHAEL FURY recording. Besides, this album is really hard to find.
The sound is not so 'big' (self produced and mixed), and more direct than lush and polished. According to Hunter, he still prefer some of the original FURY's versions instead of the later re-recorded as REFUGEE.
As example; 'These Are The Good Times' (later popularized by Eric Martin, but written by Mr. Hunter) features completely different arrangements here.



Maybe not many readers will be interested in this post (Michael who?) because this album version is unknown and rarely mentioned on some specialized rock magazine / website. Big mistake, since "MICHAEL FURY - Affairs In Babylon" is a collector's item, and contains very good '80s Melodic Rock / AOR music.
Ripped from vinyl (never released on CD), de-crackled and de-clicked by myself, including artwork.


01 - Affairs In Babylon
02 - Through The Thunder Of Another Night
03 - Pictures And Prints *
04 - There's Gonna Be A Fire Tonight *
05 - These Are The Good Times
06 - (Janie) Here We Go Again
07 - Hot Words
08 - ... And We All Go Down To The River *
09 - White Wine And Roses *
10 - Love Comes Down *

Tracks marked with * are exclusive to this LP


Myles Hunter : Lead Vocals, Mustang (¿?)
Martyn Jones : Bass, Vocals
Rob Kennedy : Guitars, Vocals
Howard Helm : Keyboards
Greg Bociek : Keyboards on 6
Dave Mihal : Drums
Bear : Percussion, Noises & Effects




MICHAEL FURY - Affairs In Babylon (1984)
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VA - Elektra AOR Collection [Japan only] (1993)

Request fulfilled, hard to find

Some time ago a reader requested some early material from John David Souther, who in very late '70s changed his artistic name to J.D. Souther releasing the stupendous You're Only Lonely LP. His previous albums are not easy to find, but digging deep in my collection something appeared.
And it's this rare compilation only released in Japan (limited quantities) in 1993 by Elektra / Warner Records, including tracks from their AOR / Westcoast artist roster.

"Elektra AOR Collection" is wonderful compilation featuring some of the finest Westcoast artists from the late '70s / early '80s - the golden age of the genre. You can't go wrong with cats of the stature of John O'Banion, Bruce Roberts, Robbie Dupree (tracks from his 1st and 2nd albums) or Bill Champlin.
However, most of them are well known by AOR fans, and the real find here are the songs from J.D. Souther, plus the excellent Rupert Holmes, Andrew Gold and Terence Boylan.



All the albums from where these tracks are taken have been reissued on CD, but today are almost impossible to find. So this is a great chance to have on CD quality these hard-to-get tunes.
"Elektra AOR Collection" is a collectors piece and a stunning set of songs to enjoy.
MEGA RARE.


01 - John O'Banion - Love you like I never loved before
02 - Andrew Gold - Lonely boy
03 - Carole Bayer Sager - It's the falling in love
04 - Bruce Roberts - Cool fool
05 - Robbie Dupree - Steal away
06 - Terence Boylan - Don't hang up those dancing shoes
07 - Rupert Holmes - Full circle
08 - Andrew Gold - That's why I love you
09 - John David Souther - Black rose
10 - Robbie Dupree - Saturday night
11 - Bill Champlin - Sara
12 - Terence Boylan - Shake it
13 - John David Souther - It's the same


VA - Elektra AOR Collection 1993
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JOHN PARR - Walking Out Of The Darkness [single] (2007)

Requested in "Request & Fill Corner" section.

"Out of the Darkness" has been written and recorded specially for the Doncaster Rovers Football Club.
The song is played to herald the entry of the teams onto the pitch at the start of each home match.
The other track, "Dream On", was written by John Parr in tribute to Rovers legend Alick Jeffrey.
Typical Parr signature on both tunes, rare single, not for sale. I love this man's music.


1. Walking Out Of The Darkness (The Rovers Anthem)
2. Dream On (dedicated to Rovers legend Alick Jeffrey)


ENJOY IT HERE
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