The band here is actually Writz but they had to do a name change for their U.S. release due to a conflicting band name. Now everything after this is up for debate as I’ve read a few different stories of how this album came to be. Apparently some time in 1981 Bev Sage and Steve Fairnie joined up with David Hewson to form the Techno Twins. Apparently this album had been recorded but not mixed or even accepted by the record company. There’s some back biting and accusations involved but I’m not going to repeat them. Simply enough I will explain it as, it’s Rock & Roll. Anyway apparently Steve Rowles had possession of the album and it found it’s way on to the internet. I tend to believe that this is a pre-production mix as it just has that feel. Anyway if you liked Writz then this should be a treat for you. I really liked it but it does suffer from a poor mix but who cares, it’s bonus music.
I really can’t find much about Donn. This was his first album but he had to have done some work before this. His singing style is very similar to Andraé Crouch and he would have fit in perfectly with that group of singers but I can’t find any record of him working with them. So that leaves us with this his first album and what a great album it is. Soul is not really my preferred genre but even I can appreciate how great this album is. The album contains the song “A Shield About Me” which has been covered many times but probably the most significant a cover by Tom Howard in 1985. Something rather odd is that we were searching for this album and we found several copies. They were all in horrible condition. I suspect that is was a poor pressing as that’s a little too coincidental.
Tracklist 1 – Live Wires – 3:57 2 – God’s Love (Is What The World Needs) – 4:04 3 – Not Now Doesn’t Mean Never – 4:17 4 – Walking With My Father – 4:32 5 – Oh My Livin’ Brother – 5:14 6 – Soul’d Out – 3:13 7 – A Shield About Me – 2:19 8 – Can’t Make It Without You, Lord – 4:34 9 – You Got Me Through – 4:22 10 – Soul’d Out – Reprise – 1:23
Credits Alto Saxophone – Dave Boruff Backing Vocals – Bob Carlisle, Carol Rogers, Denise Hunt, Donn Thomas, Elicesia Wright, Lillian Tynes, Steve Hunt Design Concept [Cover Concept] – Garry Whitlock, Harry Langdon Design, Layout – Dennis Hill Engineer [2nd] [Davlen] – Ernie Sheesley, Jeff Borgeson, Steve Crimmel Flute – Dave Boruff, Jim Coile Lead Vocals – Donn Thomas Mastered By – Steve Hall Mixed By – Bill Bottrell Photography By – Harry Langdon Producer, Arranged By – David Diggs Recorded By – Christopher Banninger Strings – Doug Cameron String Section Tenor Saxophone – Gary Herbig, Jim Coile Trombone – Alan Kaplan, Bill Reichenbach Trumpet – Charles Davis, Danny Ackerman, Jerry Hey, Terry Winch
In my quest to find all things Iva Twydell I stumbled across this album that he produced. This is essentially the band that backed Iva on his “Secret Service” album. This is the only album we got from these guys though there was another UK band with the same name who released another album in 1986 but none of the members were the same. Anyway this is a great Pop album that definitely feels like ATF and or Iva Twydell in many spots. It’s another one I would have loved to have heard in the 80’s but I missed it due to it’s UK only release.
Tracklist 1 – King’s Business 2 – Open Door 3 – Misty Skies 4 – Smiling People 5 – Speak To Me 6 – Prayer 7 – Feet On Solid Ground 8 – City Of Gold 9 – Sleep In Your Eyes 10 – What Can I Do For You? 11 – Countdown 12 – Take A Little Interest
Credits Backing Vocals, Producer – Iva Twydell Guitar, Vocals – Andy Balmer Synthesizer, Piano, Vocals – Dave Balmer Drums, Backin]g Vocals, Art – Tim Burgess Bass, Crowd Vocals – Pete Dillet Engineer – Bryan Smith
Companies, etc. Label – Rio Records, BANANA 500, Banana Records
This is Paul’s second solo album. His first album was released almost worldwide but not in the United States. As he’s Canadian that’s where his main audience was though he also did well in Germany where he has also lived and produced music. This album was released world wide including the U.S. Strangely A&M Records decided to take the most successful single from his first album and put it on this album. I am guessing the thinking was that it would re-single in the U.S. market. The album was not selling well but the record company decided to release “Believe In Me” as the final single and it caught making it to #26 on the Canadian Charts and #25 on the U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary chart but that was it for U.S. chart success. It did much better in Canada with 3 other top 100 singles. All in all it’s a solid pop album and as I grew up in Canada it is an album I remember and still quite like.
Tracklist 1 – One Night (Is All It Takes) – 3:42 2 – Electricity – 3:51 3 – I Won’t Cry – 4:45 4 – We Touch – 4:50 5 – I’ll Be Your Eyes – 3:57 6 – Send Me A Miracle – 3:51 7 – Believe In Me – 4:46 8 – I Go To Pieces – 3:29 9 – Angel – 5:00 10 – Alien – 4:39 11 – One Last Lie – 3:51
Credits Art Direction – Richard Frankel Bass – Bob Press Design – Melanie Nissen Drums – Michael Root Engineer – Dave Slagter, Mike Fraser Guitar – Tim McKenzie Lead Vocals, Keyboards, Percussion – Paul Janz Mastered By – Doug Sax Mixed By – Greg Ladanyi Photography – James O’Mara Producer – Paul Janz
Through the 80’s Charlie spent a lot of time in the studio cutting tracks that wouldn’t get released In 1989 Sparrow decided to release these tracks on series of 3 albums. While lots of artists have songs on the cutting room floor they are not this quality. This is not a bunch of B side junk. These are great tracks and this volume actually includes my favourite track from Charlie, “My Mind Played A Trick On Me”. These tracks were recorded in 86/87 and have that mid eighties sound and feel. This is a must listen to set of albums so start out here with volume 1.
Tracklist 1 – This Is How The Work Gets Done – 3:49 2 – Come On, Come On – 3:15 3 – Hot Night Downtown – 3:23 4 – One Thing – 4:25 5 – Tears Falling Down – 3:01 6 – The Last Hurrah – 3:42 7 – The Way Of Love – 3:45 8 – I Will Listen – 3:02 9 – Hiring A Worker – 3:49 10 – Big Man’s Hat – 4:22 11 – My Mind Played A Trick On Me – 4:40 12 – Only Love Will Hold Fast – 4:56 13 – Whole Lot Different – 7:13
Credits Bass Guitar – Daryl Anders Drum Programming – Bruce Spencer, Charlie Peacock Drums – Bruce Spencer Engineer [Overdubs] – Steve Griffith Guitar – Jimmy Abegg Layout – Wendy McFadden Mixed By – Charlie Peacock, Daryl Zachman Painting, Art Direction – Jimmy Abegg Performer – John Weber Photography By – Mark Tucker, Patrick Johnson Producer – Charlie Peacock Programmed By [Keyboards, Bass] – Charlie Peacock Recorded By – Charlie Peacock, Daryl Zachman, Steve Griffith Saxophone – Jon Skinner Vocals – Annie Stocking, Jan Eric, Jimmy Abegg, Mark Tootle, Vince Ebo Written-By – Bongo Bob Smith, Bruce Spencer, Charlie Peacock, Jimmy Abegg, John Weber
Psalm 150 included Bob Carlisle (Allies, Good News), Jack Blades (Damn Yankees, Night Ranger), and Randy Thomas (Allies, Sweet Comfort Band). To say this was a great group of musicians is putting it mildly. Several other members also went on to very good studio careers. The album lists 8 members of the band but there were actually many more that came and went. With that many members there’s no way anyone ever made any money so we have a group of people who were actually in the business to preach to the masses. Remember that most bands in the Jesus music movement at this time were more folky but not these guys. This was a solid late 70’s sound with even a little disco mixed in. Unfortunately but not unsurprising this is the only album we got from them. Too bad as they had a great style of seventies sound that was welcome in the genre at the time.
Tracklist 1 – God Be Magnified – 3:36 2 – Live In Me – 3:57 3 – Decision – 3:36 4 – Your Life Is At Hand – 6:28 5 – Get Yourself Together – 5:42 6 – Change It – 4:07 7 – My Father’s Business – 3:50 8 – Wonderful World – 7:34 9 – Make Up Your Mind – 7:26
Credits Arranged By, Producer – Psalm 150 Backing Band, Bass – Jack Blades Backing Band, Vocals – Chris Brock Bass, Guitar, Vocals – James Felix Design – Ray Storey Engineer – Frank Kejmar, Paul Elmore Guitar – Bob Anglin Keyboards, Vocals – Mike Escalante Percussion, Vocals – Jimmy Erickson Producer – Hal Spencer Trumpet – Allen Gregory Trumpet, Percussion, Vocals – Greg Eckler
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Manna Records Recorded At – Whitney Recording Studios
First of all I would like to apologize for the poor quality of this release. We did the best we could with a 35 year old cassette that sounds like it was recorded on a 4 track with a potato. Now I’m gonna cut the band some slack here because they admit they recorded it in their house so it probably was recorded on a 4 track. My real criticism is for Narrowpath Records who should never have released an album with this quality. Normally we wouldn’t release something this poorly recorded but in this instance we decided due to high quality of the songs we are going to. The Lonely Now was Greg Sostrom (Strange), Kevin Riemer, and Phil Watson and wow did these guys mesh nicely. This album has some of the best New Wave in the Christina Genre. This became one of my favourite New Wave bands of the 80’s instantly upon hearing it. Or at least after I worked on it for several hours trying to improve the quality. So my whole point here is try to forgive the quality because the music here is fantastic if you like New Wave.
Tracklist 1 – Reject A Thought – 3:19 2 – If I Could – 3:52 3 – Running Faster – 4:05 4 – A.R.C. – 3:22 5 – All My Dreams – 3:19 6 – Captive – 3:36 7 – Dead Of Night – 3:47 8 – Thunderclouds – 3:39 9 – Traitor – 3:28 10 – No Secrets – 3:00 11 – How Many More – 3:17
Credits Greg Sostrom – Lead vocals, guitar Kevin Riemer – Vocals, drums Phil Watson – Vocals, bass guitar
This is the first album from Age of Faith who at this point were just Jimi Ray and Rick Harwell. That said for this album I think they had the entire Huff family join them. Brothers David, Clayborn, and Rayborn Huff along with David’s son Lance are all on this album. David Huff also sat at the production table where is well suited. With all these great people involved it’s no surprise that this album is outstanding. There’s even an excellent cover of Donna Summer’s song Unconditional Love. I was actually quite surprised how great this album was. In my opinion 1991 was the era of Christian music going to the dogs but not this album. It’s definitely a must listen.
Tracklist 1 – God’s Got An Army – 4:56 2 – Take The Low Road – 3:32 3 – Sarah – 3:33 4 – Love – 3:59 5 – For Heaven’s Sake – 4:19 6 – Unconditional Love – 3:39 7 – The Way That You Trust Me – 4:37 8 – Arms Of Mercy – 3:38 9 – Tender Mercies – 3:51 10 – Last Night – 4:54 11 – Grace – 3:42
Credits Mark Baldwin – producer, arranger, arranging, songwriter, guitar, keyboards, slide guitar, solo, acoustic guitar Andy Ivey – executive producer Bret Teegarden – keyboard, overdubbing, keyboards, additional recordings, mix engineer Ronnie Brookshire – recording engineer David Huff – producer, guitar, background vocals, engineer, remixing Jimi Ray – songwriter, guitar Rick Harwell – songwriter, keyboards, background vocals, hammond, melodica Leonard Ahlstrom – songwriter Ron Collins – songwriter, background vocals Billy Smiley – songwriter Donna Summer – lyrics Michael Omartian – music Brian White – songwriter John Hammond – drums, drum, samples Gary Lunn – bass, drum programming Chris Rodriguez – background vocals Rick Florian – background vocals, harmony vocals Mark Pogue – background vocals Youth of First Baptist Church – guest, children’s chorus Lance Huff – drums Clayborn Huff – bass guitar, background vocals Rayborn Huff – keyboards, additional programming, background vocals Lloyd Bustard – background vocals Joe Hogue – keyboards Eric Darken – percussion Kim Thomas – guest, vocals, autoharp Scott Carter – engineer, assistant mixer
This was the one and only album from Writz but they have a long history of many albums from many different names. Writz was Bev Sage and Steve Fairnie, (Later to be the Techno Twins), Steve Rowles who was a member of Fish Co. with Steve Fairnie, along with Arry Axell, Jules Hardwick, and Nick Battle who did some work with After The Fire and Iva Twydell. Let’s further complicate things because Writz was actually called Famous Names for the purposes of their U.S. and Israeli audiences. Yes it’s a complicated story. Anyway they had a great B52’s, Devo sound and as near as I can tell were the only band doing this sound in this Genre. As I said they only had this album but even that’s a little complicated as they recorded an album using the name Famous Names but it never got released. I have that album and plan on releasing it later. It should be noted that they were supposed to play Greenbelt 79 but apparently for ego related issues they did not. Lucky for the fans because After The Fire played instead and had one of the best sets in the history of Greenbelt. Writz did however play Greenbelt 1980 using then name Famous Names.
Tracklist 1 – Night Nurse – 3:00 2 – Luxury – 3:20 3 – Swinging With The Reptiles – 3:50 4 – Drive Away – 3:30 5 – Super Heroes – 3:59 6 – Movies – 3:04 7 – Robberoni – 3:47 8 – Private Lives – 3:50 9 – TV Times – 5:07 10 – Muscle Culture – 6:06
Credits Arranged By – Writz Artwork, Design – Dobney Johnson Studios Bass – Nick Battle Drums – Arry Axell Guitar Synthesizer, Guitar – Jules Hardwick Photography – Paddy Eckersley Producer – David Rees Vocals – Bev Sage, Steve Fairnie Vocals, Guitar – Steve Rowles Written-By – Steve Fairnie, Steve Rowles
Companies, etc. Recorded At – Trident Studios Mixed At – Trident Studios Mixed At – DJM Studios Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Noeland Productions Ltd.
This album has a bit of an interesting backstory. Before this album Ivor Twidell left the band to work on a solo project and the band had Nick Brotherwood (Alwyn Wall Band) step in on drums. They recorded it at Utopia Studios and Tony Mansfield mixed and produced the album. It was presented and subsequently rejected by CBS records. CBS sent them back to a studio in Germany with ex-Fly’s drummer Peter King and producer Reinhold Mack. They reworked the album dropping 4 tracks and added 3, Wild West Show, Why Can’t We Be Friends, and Joanne. Somehow in all this confusion Epic Records ended up releasing the newly recorded album. Now here’s where it gets really interesting. In 1982 after the band had split Epic released a compilation album but used the Nick Brotherwood versions of Love Will Always Make You Cry, Starflight, and 1980-F. Anyway now I’ll give my opinion of the album. Bottom line CBS wrecked it. The 3 tracks they added are the 3 weakest tracks on the album. I have heard bits and pieces of Tony Mansfield’s production it was far superior. Tony knew the sound the band was trying to achieve and was able to mix it to that sound. Instead this album is poorly mixed and produced by Reinhold Mack and completely misses what the band was trying to record. Unfortunately I can only assume this didn’t help the morale of the band and probably contributed to the band splitting in 1982. ON a high note the album has one of the greatest songs of all time “Who’s Gonna Love You When You’re Old And Fat And Ugly?”
Tracklist 1 – 1980-F – 2:32 2 – Love Will Always Make You Cry – 3:30 3 – Can You Face It? – 3:15 4 – Who’s Gonna Love You (When You’re Old And Fat And Ugly?) – 4:05 5 – Starflight – 4:13 6 – Wild West Show – 3:30 7 – Billy, Billy – 4:40 8 – It’s High Fashion – 3:07 9 – Why Can’t We Be Friends? – 2:46 10 – Joanne – 4:10
Credits Bass, Vocals – Andy Piercy Drums – Pete King Engineer – Pete Hammond Guitar, Backing Vocals – John Russell Mastered By – Kevin Metcalf Producer [Backing Track] – Tony Mansfield Producer, Mixed By, Engineer – Reinhold Mack Synthesizer, Backing Vocals – Peter “Memory” Banks
Companies, etc. Phonographic Copyright ℗ – CBS Records Produced At – Utopia Studios Mixed At – Utopia Studios Engineered At – Utopia Studios Published By – Heath Levy Music Co. Ltd.
