Pretty psyched that SANTERSone of the very best bands that came out of Toronto in the early ’80s are getting there due with there early albums getting the full remaster job.
SANTERS first album Shot Down In FLames was reissued a ways back but yesterday came what I would consider there best album and that’s Racing Time which was originally released in 1982.
It was a complete no brainer click on iTunes when I saw Racing Time added to the Apple Library!
Upon listening I can tell you all that the remaster is very noticeable. The album sounds like it could have been released now! It sounds warm, big and fuzzy. How’s that for a quick hit review!
As an added bonus SANTERS has totally revamped their website with album credits/lyrics/liner notes/story for all of there albums.
That’s how you do a website, Folks!
Click the Santers Home link below to check it all out. Tell em dEke’s sent ya!
Ah yes, the time has come for Europe The Final Countdownto be featured here at Arena Rock!
Story Time Folks…
So a few years back I somewhat reviewed this album via JoeyTempestsinging into that Heinz Ketchup Bottle in the video of RockThe Night which is a great track. But the power of video footage back in the day(1986) ruined me as that became a running gag between me and Tbone at the time!
Ok ok, I was a young noob back in 86 (19 years old), and when I saw stuff like that in videos it was like ‘ugggggh!’
But a funny thing happened a few years back I rediscovered these guys about 4 years ago when Tempest and crew released War ofKings which was a phenomenal hard rock album stepped in all the right things U.F.O and Deep Purple!
Two years ago(2017) Europe released another hard rock masterpiece titled Walk on Earth which features Guitarist JohnNorum playing blistering lead after blistering leads on the whole friggin album! ^
Check out Wolves from the Walk on Earth album. You never heard Europe sound like this! Brilliant album! Add in the fact that Europe has had Dave Cobb produce the last 2 albums is one friggin slick move.
But I’m getting way ahead here.
Back to 86!
So this album drops. The Final Countdown video is everywhere and then some. The girls in my Highschool go all mushy over the power ballad Carriewhen it was released. Then the whole Heinz ketchup bottle fiasco in Rock The Night seals my fate in not wanting this album.
(One fellow at my highschool did record this for me on cassette, but that’s kinda cheating. I will get to the songs eventually here. Bare with me!)
1988 and here comes the follow up to The Final Countdown in the shape of Out of this Worldwhich my younger brother Todd bought on tape! I borrowed it. Wasn’t that bad but didn’t grab me, so I ignored it as I did with all their other stuff until 2015!
Bit of a gap, huh!
Fast Forward to the Present:
So a few weeks back I was in my local Used Record Shop(MoonMoney Vintage) and one of the few times I was about to leave empty-handed when the owner said If I wanted to, I could check the 7 or 8 albums before they hit the bin that she had sitting on the counter. There was a couple I was on the fence about, but there it was staring at me for $5.00 Canadian!
Europe: The Final Countdown!
Time to take the plunge seal the deal and grab it! Done Deal and out the door, I went!
Am I going to go track by track? Meh. I mean opener The Final Countdown has been played to death so much with that opening proggy swirl of the synth that I now lump it in with the Livin On APrayer tunes of the world that I’m ok if I never hear them again! Great songs don’t get me, wrong friends, I’m just burnt out on those tracks!
Carrie, I just can’t do it, man. Too much of a cash grab but it won the ladies over and good on Europe crooning up the charts with a bunch of horny woman in tow! Frigg I’m jealous hahaha!
But I will tell ya the rest of the album is a pretty decent spin in a High Techy big Production Rock Sound on how you do go about producing a significant mid-1980s Album!
Kevin Elson tweaked the production dials on this album. Kevin produced those big selling Journey albums in the early ’80s like Escape and Frontiers, so Kev-Boy knew the angle of making rock records sound good on radio!
Europe and Elson made a hard rock album that when you take out the two songs that I talked about earlier is a pretty good dabble of slick catchy tunes none more evident than Rock The Night!
Now take away the goofy vid for Rock The Night its actually a perfect track!
Kudos to Keyboardist Mic Michaeliwho kinda dabbles with the Jon Lord like Hammond during the chorus! John Norum plays a heavy yet melodic rock solo that sports all the flash n dash guitar hero’s of the ’80s but John never steps outside his boundaries!
Danger On The Track does feature that 80’s synth, but Norum takes matters into his own hands and rips down another significant lead. This song features one of those choruses that stick with you for hours after. Ok, maybe not hours after minutes at least.
Cherokee! Yep I love this track. Perhaps my fav from this album! Check out these lyrics below!
They lived in peace, not long ago A mighty Indian tribe But the winds of change Had made them realize, that the promises were lies
The white man’s greed, in search of gold Made the nation bleed They had lost their faith And now they had to learn There was no place to return Nowhere they could turn
Cherokee – marching on the trail of tears Cherokee – marching on the trail of tears
Whoa! Like, look what Joey did there. Got all socially conscious and follows it up with a catchy chorus and a fandango good time solo by Norum! Winner Winner Europe gets the chicken dinner! ^^
From there Its some pretty slick hard rock tracks like Ninja/On TheLoose. Groovy slick tracks like Time Has Come/Heart of Stoneand album ender Love Chaser!
The Final Countdown album that once you take out the played to the death title track and Carrie is stuffed with polished hard rock gem’s.
In saying that about it being polished yeah it is but at least with the polish, Europe could back it up with the tunes!
^I thought it would be cool to feature some Live EUROPE from 1986 than to feature the actual videos of the songs which may taint my image once again if I see a Ketchup Bottle! haha
^^ Pretty impressive that its the same 5 Europe dudes in the band in 2019! Not any of this revolving door bullshit by many acts! The fact that 3 Decades have passed and it’s the same band that’s a testament as well!
You know over the past 35 years Tooth And Nail has become looking back at it one of those Impact Albums that shaped my listening curve as a young fella upon this albums release back in September 1984 as I was just starting Grade 11 at Highschool!
Two reasons jump out when I look back on this album!
1- This was my first purchase of a Dokken album. The debut from 2 years earlier ( Breaking The Chains) I had on cassette tape for that old Walkman. While Breaking The Chains was ok to me then again as I always say there was so much music coming out how the hell do you keep up! Before Tooth And Nail hit the record shops the magazines like Circus and Hit Paraderhad adds for the album. Right away, the look of the cover caught my eye, as well as the magazines, were falling all over themselves about George Lynch’s six-string playing! I was sold, and it was a quick purchase!
2- My Pal, the one and only Chico, had just gotten his Drivers License(circa 1984) and had his own set of wheels. Chico, as you may remember, was the guy I had first heard AC/DC’s Back in Black in 1980 on 8 track in Chico’s Moms car. Chico’s older sister had purchased Back In Black as well as Queen’s News of the Worldwhich was the first-ever Queen record I had seen as well.
Chico anyways wasn’t the music junkie I was but when he got his own car the first order of business for Chico was the cassette deck in his vehicle needed tunes! He gave me a bunch of blank Maxwelltapes with strict rules of rocking tunes only. Not a problem and I was happy to oblige.
What I am getting at is the first two songs on Tooth and Nail were the first two tracks I taped for Chico ( Without Warning a little Lynch guitar ditty that launches into the frantic power-driven album title track Tooth and Nail!)
Wonder if Chico ever got pulled over by the cops as Tooth and Nail just lift’s off like a rocket and don’t get me started on the Lynch solo as he lays down who is Boss on this song and album as a matter of fact.
In the 80s you basically needed a slick guitar hero to survive and for your band to get over the hump of all the other bands going at the time(1984).
George Lynch may have done some silly goofy hair dyes at the time but as Lynch couldn’t dye his hair properly he sure made up for it in the guitar playing on the Dokken albums all through the 80s!
Case in point George co-wrote 9 of the 10 tracks on Tooth and Nail. George shaped this album(along with Jeff Pilson) with his ax work on the tracks. Don Dokken only co-wrote 4 tracks if that tells you anything!
This album is built on the formula of a successful album. 10 songs! 9 rockers and 1 Ballad! Power Ballad!
Dokken nailed it to a T on this album on writing great catchy tracks! Just Got Lucky is one great written song that sounds like a Lynch guitar solo throughout! Heartless Heart /Don’t Close Your Eyes /When Heaven Comes Down/ Turn on the Action/ Bullets To Spare are just hard-driving straight-ahead rock tracks!
Thing is with Dokken I dug Don’s melodic rock voice mixed with George’s firepower on the fretboard!
When this album came out it didn’t really take off in the sales department. I’m sure there was a freak out in the Dokken camp when Tooth and Nail wasn’t selling!
Now the album made it into the Billboard Top 100 (at #71) than stalled! You would think that the first two singles Just Got Lucky and Into The Fire would push sales along right?
Nope. Both songs didn’t take off for some reason and the album was starting to slide out of the Top 100 when the power ballad AloneAgainwas issued as a single!
The result! The ballad worked it’s magic and resurrected the album pushing it into the Top 50 with Tooth and Nail finally hitting Goldstatus a full 10 months after its initial release!
Alone Again is an interesting story as it was composed by Don Dokken and Jeff Pilson. George Lynch I have read was against this song being on the album at all costs as Lynch didn’t care for the song at all! It resulted in a ton of friction between Don and George which even resulted in producer Tom Wermanquitting because of the ego clashes between Dapper Don and Curious George!
Roy Thomas Baker and Micheal Wagnercame into finish producing the album!
Dokken, I have written about lots here at the blog. I always made the point that these guys were so close to becoming headliners in their own right and by 1988 they had tossed that away by being pissy pants with each other!
When you really think about it. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise as we all know what happened to the musical climate once the early 90s came.
Dokken who knows what would have happened to them but it makes for an interesting conversation as when Kurt and his tatteredup Cardigandemolished a ton of bands popularity it really didn’t take out Dokken in that grunge tsunami!
Say Whut??
In 1995 Dokken with the original lineup (Lynch/Brown/Pilson and Don) released a comeback album of sorts in the form of Dysfunctional (great album title) and in 1995 not many LA bands were surviving but Dokken pushed that album over 400.000 copies in the U.S to almost Gold Status until the wheels came off of Don and George as the relationship hit the skids once again! Dysfunctional I will add is a strong effort as that album had Dokken do what they do best which is Rokken! (ok I admit that was lame!)
But back to Tooth and Nail which for me started a real decent run of Dokken albums in the 80s. Under Lock and Key(1985)/ Back For The Attack(1987) and the Double Live Beast From The East(1988) had Dokken firing on all cylinders yet the personal shit between Lead Singer and Guitar Hero couldn’t save this band from imploding!
Last November or so Iron Maidenannounced a 2019 North American leg of there Legacy of the Beast tour after it had sold out all across Europe in the summer of 2018.
My very good pal Metal Toddinvited me out as he scored tickets! I was psyched, to say the least, to see Maiden for a third consecutive tour after Maiden England(2012), Book of Souls Tour(2017) which were phenomenal shows to have seen. ( Two of the best concerts I have ever seen in my almost 40 years of attending Live Arena Shows)
Septemeber 3rd was the day of the show which is ironically the 35th Anniversary of the release of Maidens fantastic Powerslaverecord which as you all know is an Impact Album in my world.
As we were walking towards Rogers Arena in downtown Vancouver (Metal Todd’s two good friends Emersonand Graham came along as well) I asked Todd where our seats were. Todd told me he got 4 General Admission Tickets which is the floor area!
WHUT?
Todd told me that he joined Maidens Fan Club to get an early shot at tickets but as he said the ‘Bots’ snapped up the seats quickly and getting 4-floor tickets was the quickest and easiest way to score. I’m glad this was the case actually as we could control how close or far away we wanted to be from the stage!
SHOWTIME!
Maiden on the video screens had an animated Legacy video of mascot Eddie going through all the various incarnations of the certain periods of the band’s history while Transylvania from Maidens debut played underneath.
Then it was onto UFO’s Doctor Doctor which only means one thing! T-Minus 5 minutes to the show. As Doctor Doctor was pumped through the bins. On the left and right side of the stage were two Military Men dressed in camo and once Doctor Doctor got towards the end they took off the huge canvas that was covering the stage which revealed a wartime set!
With the intro tape of Churchills Speech being cranked through the Arena came the intro of Ace’s High and then Bam…
Maiden hit the stage flying literally with an actual Spitfire hanging above their heads. What a screamer of an opener. ( check out the video posted below as to see how you open a show!)
“Aces High”
“Where Eagles Dare”
“2 Minutes To Midnight”
“The Clansman”
“The Trooper”
“Revelations”
“For The Greater Good Of God”
“The Wicker Man”
“Sign Of The Cross”
‘Flight Of Icarus”
“Fear Of The Dark”
“The Number Of The Beast”
“Iron Maiden”
Encore:
“The Evil That Men Do”
“Hallowed Be They Name”
“Run To The Hills”
Actually, Maiden didn’t fool around as they kept the momentum coming fast and furious with Where Eagles Dare and 2 Minutes toMidnight! Hit us hard and Maiden delivered.
4 Tracks from Piece of Mindwere played and if your keeping score at home all of Side 1 from 1985s double Live After Deathwas heard as well!
Bruce Dickinson, I mean what can you say about this guy and his voice. Still giving it his all onstage going all over the place no stage space is untouched by Bruce along with his various wardrobe changes/brandishing a sword during The Clansman and The Trooper or donning a cape during Sign of the Cross. No one works crowd participation harder than Bruce. All night making the crowd roar along with his trademark ‘Scream For Me Vancouver’ and ‘Scream For Me Canada.’ The man is simply brilliant!
The energy coming from the stage was crazy. None of the Maiden guys stand around. Steve Harris galloping those Bass lines running miles (like Bruce) onstage mowing down the front row as if his Bass was a shotgun is insane. Nicko McBrain as well. What a beast on the drums close your eyes and when you hear him drumming you would think it’s 1983-84 he’s still that good!
Now the 3 Amigos on Guitars. How many classic solos have Guitarists Dave Murray and Adrian Smithput down on tape together since 1981? Yeah too many to count. I will add that the solo Adrian plays in Number of the Beast gives me chills every time I hear it. Talk about an Impact Solo if anything. Dave as well man. I can’t count that high. The Trooper and Where Eagles Dare come to my mind quick. JanickGers puts on an athletic rock workout with his six-string. Whether it be his leg kicks/flinging the guitar around all over the place/wrestling with his guitar cord Janick, as well as tosses in some brilliant solo’s as well(Fear of the Dark/The Clansman ) You don’t get bored watching and how could you! 3 of the best at there game.
As a fan ( 38 years and counting) I really enjoyed this setlist!
I totally dug it all but to hear for the first time live in person Where Eagles Dare/The Clansman/Revelations/For The Greater Good of God/The Wicker Man/Sign of the Cross/Flight of Icarus and Hallowed Be Thy Name was a mind blower!
Speaking of The Clansman and Sign of the Cross. These were two tunes that were from the Blaze Bayley years and Bruce delivers them vocally like he was on the original versions. It’s amazing and awesome to see that he has no ego in doing songs that he was not originally part of.
Sign of the Cross I have to add has Maiden taking you on a sonic journey of twist and turns and the stage production is crazy with pyro and all the trimmings that keep the flow considering its an 11-minute track!
The place was packed and rocking for Maiden. We were about 40 feet back from the stage. So close you could feel the fire that went off like crazy during The Number of the Beast. I posted another clip of the Vancouver show. Watch it and you will see what I mean!
I have read a ton of reviews for this tour and they all have been great. One thing that all these paid people that review shows don’t notice is Maiden is having fun. Hell, even Harris and Dickinson had a couple of laughs together as they all seem to enjoy what there doing. That comes across huge. Sure the payday is sweet for them but they deliver on all fronts!
Nothing fazes these guys as some knucklehead from the crowd got up on stage(during Hallowed Be Thy Name) and was quickly taken out by security during one of the songs. Maiden being the pros went on like nothing happened as Harris and Gers just grinned. I mean what have they not seen?!
Maiden know how to do a stage presentation going from one theme to another(war look to a cathedral stained glass look) is simply amazing to see Live. Eddie, of course, showed up during The Trooper and as a huge prop behind Nicko (during IronMaiden)
As any Maiden fan knows openers The Raven Agefeaturing Steve Harris son George on guitar who is a pretty damn good player and at a young age works the stage like his father(must be the genes). The Raven Age was more of that current metal stuff. They are very good musicians mind you featuring at times some cool heavy melodic pieces that were quite good but where they lost me at times was some stuff sounded the same( I can do without the gruff satanic backing vocals at times) as the singer didn’t really introduce the songs except for a couple. A lot of “Hey Vancouver’ to stir the crowd up. Maybe they will figure it out or maybe I’m just getting senile!
Special mention must be made to the huge billow of BC Bud throughout the building as well as a ton of empty beer cups/water bottles/crowd surfers being tossed about through the air when on the ground level. Warfare indeed!
Thanks to Metal Todd not only for the invite out to Vancouver but for taking some awesome pictures that he took of the show!
Bruce sang during Number of the Beast that Maiden will return. So will we! Best arena show I have ever seen.
Martin Popoff has once again delivered to the masses another excellentbook stuffed on all things, Iron Maiden!
288 pages that basically features the whole Maiden era from 1980to 1988. Here in Canada, these were Maiden’s heyday years in the Great White North. Each album from the self-titled in 1980 through to 1988’s Seventh Son of a Seventh Sonattained Double Platinum status in sales with 1982’s The Number of the Beast achieving Triple Platinum in Canada!
Martin digs into past interviews with all the Maiden guys throughout the years even Maiden Manager Rod Smallwood has some quotes in this book along with album artist Derek Riggs
Martin does his homework with each book that I have purchased off of him throughout the years. I believe I own about 12 Popoff books written. (Martin has done about 85 books!)
I have said in my other Popoff book reviews that if the bands themselves aren’t putting these out themselves this is the closet thing to an actual biography as Martin has interviewed all the parties involved!
Every Maiden album released in the 1980s is featured with its own chapter with a song by song breakdown of each tune with Popoff spinning his own thoughts on each track. Martin dives into these albums and even he admits in the book that he had found a new appreciation of 1986s Somewhere in Time!
That’s ok, Martin. It took me about 33 years to really appreciate AlexenderThe Great as well from that album!
Not only are the 80’s featured but Martin goes on in great detail about the various Maiden Lineup Changes pre 1980 which segues right into the whole 80s period!
The book also features some great live Maiden pics from Martin himself. Some great photos from there 1981 Killers Tour from Toronto as well as some other great shots of Maiden throughout the decade! Amazing shots that Martin took of Maiden back in 1984! All in color, as well!
It’s a great read. Period!
The cool thing about Martins book is that you can be the biggest fan of that band that Martins writes about but still find out some interesting tidbits about that specific band and in this case, it’s Maiden that I even didn’t know!
I can probably spill the beans in case your wondering that Mr. Popoff will indeed write another Maiden book chronicling the 90’s decade and I think a third Maiden book for everything after the 90s!
If your a Maiden fanatic(like me) this book is worth the money as I love Martins way of writing which is like if he was in front of you and you were both shooting the shit about Metal in general over some suds!
But if you are just getting into Maiden, this is a great book to get caught up on on the timelines of Maidens career!
Support Independent Authors like Martin! Tell him deKe’s sent ya!
Monday, September 3rd, 1984, started off like any other day. Grade 11 just began for Tbone and me. It was back to the books so to speak except by the end of that day I was totally absorbed with the new Iron Maiden release ‘Powerslave’that I picked up after school. Let’s just say that the first week of Grade 11 was a complete write-off!
IRON MAIDEN is Gonna Get Ya!
Indeed Iron Maiden! Hell, Tbone scored a copy of Powerslave on cassette tape none the less, so we were both off to the races!
When I got ahold of my vinyl copy of Powerslave I was blown away! The cover drawn by Derek Riggs is brilliant. What a fantastic total color scheme instead of using the natural colors( Black) of Metal album covers back in 1984!
Such intricate detail in the artwork on the cover! It was crazy good as I almost went crosseyed looking at all the hidden little messages that Riggs incorporated in the cover! I posted a small gallery below so you can see why I went studying the artwork of Riggs as opposed to studying Darwin! Click the pics below and see if you can find the sense of humor that Maiden could incorporate on there covers!
Now onto the music at hand! 51 minutes plus of Maiden wizardry spread over 8 tracks! Hows that for getting your money’s worth?
Side 1.
The one-two opening punch of Ace’s High and Two Minutes ToMidnight just blew my mind (and still do) as Maiden just soars into all things Metal with Steve Harris and his galloping bass locked in with Nicko McBrainon the drums.
The guitars of Dave Murrayand Adrian Smith dip n dive into all kinds of zany metal notes that are brilliant riffs of rock! (how about that opening riff of Two Minutes to Midnight?)
Bruce Dickinson like he did on the previous two Maiden albums sings for his supper and delivers in spades as he always does and still does for that matter whether it is Bruce’s solo or Maiden tracks.
LosfersWords (Big ‘Orra) is Maiden flexing their musical muscle as Bruce gets the day off for writing lyrics and singing as the rest of the boys romp n roll all over on this track. Pretty cool groove put forth by McBrain which the others follow!
The next two tracks Flash of the Blade and The Duellists are excellent tracks that have never been played live before which is a shame as they are stellar tracks.
Flash of the Blade solely written by Bruce tells the tale of his passion for fencing and this song drives forward at a crazy clip. Harris not to be outdone chips in with The Duellists which clocks in at close to 7 minutes that features some dynamite soloing along with Bruce taking the reigns vocally!
Side 2.
Back in the Village, a tune that was written by Smith and Dickinson deals with you guessed it War! The song drives at a super rate of speed, and both Adrian and Bruce hit this one out of the park come chorus time. Such a fireball of a track!
Powerslave another Bruce only written track is simply put, Brilliant! Everything about Powerslave is classic. Creepy Creeky opening followed by Nicko launching a full out metal assault of the tune. Powerslave deals with the Eye of Horus, which mean protection. Wisdom, health, and prosperity! The song builds up and then breaks down at the solo section only to ramp up again. Nicko, like he does, plays some awesome fills as Dave and Adrian lift off some fantastic soloing. Bruce must have known he had an ace up his sleeve when he presented Powerslave to the rest of the band considering the whole album and tour was based around this song!
Powerslave ends with Rime of the Ancient Mariner which is a 13 in a half minute musical tour de force written by Harris which is based around the poem written by Samuel Taylor Coolridge back in the 1700’s! Harris had a real knack for taking stories or movies and turning them into epic metal tracks. Rime is one of them. Considering its length the song moves at a decent clip as Bruce tells the tale of the Mariner while the boys deliver some severe playing and chops throughout.
When I was just about to turn 17 about a month after Powerslaves release tracks like Powerslave and Rime blew my mind as here are the Maiden guys in there mid 20’s writing about serious life stuff, not your ‘Hey Baby’ deal that was very prominent in 1984. Rime, especially as this, was a significant number when Maiden hit the road supporting it. Maiden liked to party I’m sure of it, but man Bruce had to remember the lyrics while the fella’s had to know their music as shit could south quickly! Amazing is the word that pops into my noggin!
Not only did Bruce have to memorize all the lyrics night after night on the 13 month World Slavery Tour as Steve/Adrian/Davey and Nicko had to know there parts as well but Rime was also played night after night on 1986-87’s Somewhere On Tour!
Impressive!
What a huge game-changer of a metal album in my world in September 1984! Maiden with Powerslave grabbed me by the throat and wouldn’t let me go and basically derailed me for a good week in getting any serious schoolwork done!
For all of us Canucks out there, Streetheartis a name we are all familiar with. To this day you will still hear a bunch of there tracks on rock radio like One More Time/Tin Soldier and What Kind of Love Is This.
2019 brings us a Live StreetHeart album titled Live After Darkwhich is basically a reissue of StreetHearts release from 1983.
I sure do love the live album and come to think of it I don’t know how I missed this album the first time around! I had no idea this Double Album even existed.
The question has to be asked, ‘How did I miss this live set that came out 36 years ago?
I guess the saying goes snooze you lose. I did but not anymore as this album has been re-released and I can tell you Its a fantastic spin of some supreme Rock!
Streetheart recorded these tunes in Winnipeg/Edmonton and Regina back in July 1983.
Streetheart consisted of the following fella’s
Kenny Shields – vocalist
Daryl Gutheil – keyboards
Ken “Spider” Sinnaeve – bass
Jeff Neill – guitar
Bruce Crump – drums
The Songs:
1. Hollywood
2. Action
3. Too Hot To Stop
4. One More Time
5. Miss Plaza Suite
6. Without Your Love
7. Snow White
8. Just For You
9. Tin Soldier
10. Trouble
11. What Kind Of Love Is This
12. You’re Not The Only One
13. Look In Your Eyes
14. Highway Isolation
15. Under My Thumb
Streetheart was a severe live band, and this album and songs prove it. Opener Hollywoodsets the bar and from there its one dangerous rock track after another. Under My Thumb(album closer) the Stones cover is a wicked version, and this band makes it there own.
It’s so good to hear these songs Live. The mix of the album is brilliant as Jeff Neill’s guitar is mixed straight to the left side and has some decent crunch to the sound which makes the tunes a little more rockier. In other words, not too glossy.
One More Time proves my point! Give it a listen below.
Some serious players are in this band. If you are one for extra tracks, look no further than the Bass/Drums mashup of Highway Isolation which was never released on the original release back in 83. Bassist Spider and Drummer Bruce Crump lock in a wicked groove that will impress any music fan.
I have to add that Crump was the drummer in Molly Hatchet back in the late 70’s/early ’80s, as well as Spider, has gone on to play with Loverboy as well as Streetheart. Neill back in the 80’s played with Jimmy Barnes down in Australia, so these guys were sought out as well proving my point that they had the chops!
Live After Dark is basically a Greatest Hits Live Set which features the band in its prime as shortly after this release they disbanded for many years until they regrouped a ways back.
Unfortunately, Streetheart lost Kenny Shields a few years back which was a huge blow as well as former drummer Bruce Crump which is a total shame, but this release is an excellent tribute to there musical legacy.
For my readers outside of Canada Streetheart had an impressive run with 6 Gold 4 Platinum releases. Even fellow rock acts like Frehley’sComet and Hardline covered their tunes. In this case, The Comet covered the song Dancing With Danger while Hardline covered HotCherie. They opened for AC/DCacross Canada on AC/DC’s Back In Black Tour(1980).
Nice to see these guys are back with a new lead vocalist PaulMcNair. Hopefully, the road will lead Streetheart back to Tbay!
Advertisements
Hard Rock Album and Concert Reviews! (Odd Book Review as well!)
