Page 95 - Classic Rock (January 2020)

Originally an English quartet, Gun ‘em, after all – which range from friendly rockers (Love Leads To declining northern industrial
The Babys’ trump card was the R3loaded SILVER LINING the sensible (Rock The Casbah) Madness) alongside giant Sheffield had a roster of
voice of future solo star John Glasgow arena rockers revisit to the weird (Fight For Your Right experimental material (Games). bands near the equal of
Waite, backed by guitarist their glory days. And some To Party) to the really, really The experimentation Manchester, Edinburgh, Detroit.
Wally Stocker, drummer Tony other people’s glory days too. weird (Rihanna’s Diamonds) but undermines Sound Elixir (1983, Led by press stars Cabaret
Brock and multi-instrumentalist If this was 1989, it’s all done with plenty of 6/10), Rags’ To Riches’ knockout Voltaire, Martin Fry’s shiny new
Mike Corby. The band signed to you’d probably energy, and they put their own punch and rootsy ballad Where ABC and the unstoppable
Chrysalis and enjoyed most of be fully aware signature spin on each track. All Are You Now saving the day. Human League, the musical
the label’s support and success of Scottish hard in all, a fun ride. Cinema (1986, 8/10) retooled wake was fertile and febrile,
in the USA (inspiring Phil Mogg rockers Gun, QQQQQQQQQQ their sound with a slick ZZ Top- from the dance electronic visions
of labelmates UFO to write Ain’t whose debut album Taking On Sleazegrinder style 80s makeover, Manny of B.E.F., early Pulp and smart-
No Baby in sulky protest). They The World spawned the Top 40 Charlton’s guitars and Dan funny They Must Be Russians, to
began like a more soulful version hit Better Days and landed them Nazareth McCafferty’s sandpaper rasp the early gothic esoterica of the
of Bad Company, then got better a support slot on the Rolling Reissues BMG still resounding on One From Danse Society and In The
as their songs became less Stones’ 1990 tour. But it’s not, An underappreciated era The Heart and Just Another Nursery, to the post-Beefheart
derivative. This roughly so hopefully this best-of will jog revisited. Heartache. Billy Rankin returned churnings of Kilgore Trout and
coincided with the departure of a few happy memories. By the time to replace Charlton as Nazareth A.C. Temple and beyond.
founder Corby (who followed his Enigmatic and difficult to pin Classic Rock lustily re-embraced their roots Flangers at the ready!
business partner, also the band’s down, Gun’s sound was part launched in the on No Jive (1991, 7/10) with Look, there! One Thousand
manager, out the door in 1978) Cars and part Guns N’ Roses, late 90s, the bruisers like Do You Wanna Play Violins’ drum machine-led flexi-
ahead of third album Head First. a smart man’s arena-rock band, term ‘classic House, this line-up hitting an disc piss-take of Ike & Tina, and
Produced, like its predecessor, and one that liked taking rock’ denoted a genre. In the especially fiery good-time The Smiths You Ungrateful
by Ron Nevison it was their chances. R3loaded is a two-disc 80s, it was a different story; groove throughout Move Me Bastard. Some early Thompson
biggest seller. collection that includes all their bands like Nazareth, now (1994, 7/10). Twins! Post-industrialist jazz-
Union Jacks (their fourth, 1980) hits (and near misses), from the revered as epitomising the Rich Davenport heads The Box, and Clock DVA’s
was arguably stronger, featuring aforementioned Better Days to style, were unfairly dismissed sublime, brooding 4 Hours. I’m
American recruits Jonathan Cain their funkier, poppier mid-90s as dinosaurs in certain countries, Various So Hollow, Artery, The Prams,
on keybords and bassist Ricky AOR chart chasers like Steal with some of the albums in this Dreams To Fill The U.V. Pop, Stunt Kites and
Phillips (both later with Waite in Your Fire and Favourite Pleasures. third batch of coloured-vinyl Vacuum: The Sound Of a dizzying miasma of jagged,
Bad English). With Cain aboard, If you missed them the first remasters not released in the UK Sheffield 1978-1988 CHERRY RED scuttling bands who didn’t even
The Babys became more radio- time, this is a fantastic place to or US. As the decade began, There is so much here! make it to a Peel Session.
friendly, and in hindsight it’s easy catch up. they could still crack the US Once called “the A bewildering array of DIY
to see why Journey did the same The second disc is a whole Billboard chart, first with ‘Snaz ugliest city in the delights – four CDs, 20,000
after recruiting him in time to different kettle of fish and should (1981, 8/10), a ferocious, hit- Old World” by words and 84 tracks. Dreams to
co-write all of Escape. amuse, enthrall and enrage in heavy double live set, and George Orwell, by fill the vacuum indeed.
QQQQQQQQQQ equal measure. It’s an album full again with 2XS (1982, 7/10), the time post-punk QQQQQQQQQQ
Neil Jeffries of covers – they are known for featuring beguiling radio- rolled along in the late 70s, Everett True

Girl

Sheer Greed/Live In Osaka ’82 HNE/CHERRY RED

First and last by a band that lived fast, died
young and left a half-decent looking corpse.

irl’s 1980 debut Sheer Greed had as Phil Collen told me, matter-of-
everything: great songs, Phil Collen on factly, in 2015: “That band was
Gguitar and, on vocals, the cocksure, interesting – we had so many girls
shouty-pouty Phil Lewis. The record rocked around us. When the success
hard, but took in punk (Lovely Lorraine), pop started to happen with Def
(Strawberries), sneering new wave (My Number), Leppard, I expected things to go
a Kiss cover (Do You Love Me), reggae (Passing crazy in that department. But the
Clouds)… It even got away with the lyric ‘Hey I’m calibre of women we saw in Girl
sarcastic, I’ll treat you like a spastic/Ignore every word was way higher! There was
that you said’ (Hollywood Tease). Well, almost. something about guys in make-
But for every one of us who loved Girl there up, apparently, that attracted
was a coachload who hated them (they met women more than multi-
a hail of beer cans at the 1980 Reading Festival): platinum success, haha.”
because Lewis was dating actress Britt Ekland, As Sheer Greed (8/10) was
Rod Stewart’s ex; because the whole band wore re-mastered three years ago by
eyeliner; or both. The middle of the NWOBHM Rock Candy, this new ‘expanded’
was no time to look like Girl did… and then edition’s selling point is the 70-minute set six from Sheer Greed, six from its star-crossed
declare a love of Japan, The Cars and Tom Petty (originally released in 2001 as Live At The follow-up, that year’s Wasted Youth, Tush and
& The Heartbreakers. Exposition Hall, Osaka, Japan) (6/10) recorded in four then-new songs. Sadly the mixing-desk
Right band, wrong time, then. Shame. They May 1982, marking the very opposite end of tapes lack ambient input, so we’ll never know
could have become London’s glamtastic answer their short career. By then, Collen was gone and if Girl generated a Cheap Trick-at-Budokan
to the New York Dolls. Instead (supporting Girl had only weeks to live. But even so, with the atmosphere. But if you ask Lewis, he’ll tell you
UFO, Pat Travers and ZZ Top aside) they were indefatigable Lewis droppin’ aitches and playin’ it was better.
doomed. Although there were compensations, the star, this is no death rattle. Girl crash through Neil Jeffries

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