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Posts tagged Chris Slade
Firm – Mean Business (1986) (@320)
11 Feb 2008
(Review from wikipedia, allmusic, amazon)
The Firm’s second and final album wallowed in the arena rock that only occasionally appeared on the debut. Punchy yet atmospheric with the bluesy vocals of Paul Rodgers, they actually tried to produce a pretty serious album.
One of the album’s tracks “Live in Peace” was first recorded on Paul Rodgers’ first solo album, 1983′s Cut Loose. The differences between the two versions was that Chris Slade played the drums slower than the Cut Loose version except for the ending and Jimmy Page added a bluesy guitar solo at the end of the song.
The album’s title was intended to have a double meaning: that the music business is a hard one, and that the band was serious about its music (“The Firm mean business”). However, perhaps due to the lukewarm-at-best critical and financial success with which the band met, Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers decided to disband The Firm within months of this album’s release.
For anyone suffering Led Zeppelin (or 70s Bad Company) withdrawal symptoms in the mid 80s, the Firm wasn’t quite the answer. Others (without high expectations) might as well give it a try.
Line-up:
* Paul Rodgers – Vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, producer
* Jimmy Page – Acoustic and electric guitars, producer
* Tony Franklin – Bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizer
* Chris Slade – Drums and percussion, backing vocals
Track List:
01. Fortune Hunter – 5:03
02. Cadillac – 5:59
03. All the King’s Horses – 3:21
04. Live in Peace – 5:09
05. Tear Down the Walls – 4:48
06. Dreaming – 6:05
07. Free to Live – 4:17
08. Spirit of Love – 5:07
09. Radioactive (Bonus Special Mix) – 5:54
10. City Sirens (Bonus Live) – 4:31
11. Live in Peace (Bonus Live) – 5:29
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Firm – Firm (1985) (@256)
10 Feb 2008
(Review from allmusic)
Anticipation was quite high when it was announced in 1984 that Paul Rodgers, the past voice of Bad Company, and Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin’s former guitarist, were creating a “supergroup” called the Firm.
Page and Rodgers had first tinkered with the idea of an album after their successful collaboration on the ARMS benefit tour for Ronnie Lane in 1983. Based upon the fact that it had been over five years since Page’s last band effort, and two years since Rodger’s lackluster finale with the original Bad Company, pundits were more than eager to hear what new material the duo would unleash.
Though at the time the debut received a critical drubbing and was all but ignored by the record-buying public, the album is quite good and does nothing to taint the sterling reputations of either of its key players.
Slade’s Bonham-esque sledgehammer attack on the skins, coupled with Franklin’s fretless basslines, added dimension to Rodgers’ smooth vocals and Page’s layered guitar textures. Page’s tone throughout is very reminiscent of the sound of his overdubs on Led Zeppelin’s Coda.
Opening track “Closer” cleverly uses a subtle horn section to good effect, while “Someone to Love” represents all the good elements of the band in one number. Rodgers’ “Radioactive” was actually a minor hit for the band, its quirkiness overcoming the goofiness of the lyrics.
The album’s best cut is “Satisfaction Guaranteed”, a mid-tempo gem with a snaky and exotic Page riff and a heartfelt vocal performance by Rodgers. The album-closing “Midnight Moonlight” could have been the Firm’s best song, but the underwhelming arrangement and superfluous backing vocals partially destroyed it. The fact that “Midnight Moonlight” was actually an unfinished Led Zeppelin cut entitled “Swansong”, left over from the Physical Graffiti sessions, led some to believe that Page had run out of new ideas for the project.
While it is true that this album isn’t as uniformly excellent as Led Zeppelin’s work, it is the best from this short-lived band and turned out to be Page’s most consistent effort from the entire decade of the ’80s.
Line-up:
* Paul Rodgers – Vocals, Guitar
* Jimmy Page – Guitar
* Tony Franklin – Bass, Keyboards, Synthesizer
* Chris Slade – Drums, Percussion, Back Vocals
Track List:
01. Closer – 2:52
02. Make or Break – 4:21
03. Someone to Love – 4:55
04. Together – 3:54
05. Radioactive – 2:49
06. You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling (Mann/Weil/Spector) – 4:33
07. Money Can’t Buy – 3:35
08. Satisfaction Guaranteed – 4:07
09. Midnight Moonlight – 9:13
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Manfred Mann's Earthband – Messin' (1973) (@256)
14 Aug 2007
(Review from amazon, wikipedia)
After many years of being worldwide pop stars, Manfred Mann wrote a new chapter in the evolution of his career with the new outing Manfred Mann’s Earth Band. The Earth Band’s direction was very different from that of Manfred Mann. Mann made a conscious decision to move away from the pop-oriented three-minute format of his former group. The Earth Band was, from a pop perspective, almost deliberately contrary, but combined the stylistic approach of progressive rock with Mann’s keen ear for melody.
After two fairly successful albums in the early 70′s, Mann and Co. sustained substantial album radio success with their third Earth Band platter Messin’. This third installment gave the listener an accurate feel for what the band sounded like when they played live in concert. While maintaining an ever-expanding line up of musical interpretations to their catalog of albums, the band explored new territory with Dr. John’s “Mardi Gras Day” and the classic Bob Dylan tune “Get Your Rocks Off”.
Line-up:
* Manfred Mann – synthesiser, organ
* Mick Rogers – guitar, vocals
* Colin Pattenden – bass guitar
* Chris Slade – drums
Track List:
01. Messin’ – 9:53
02. Buddah – 7:01
03. Cloudy Eyes – 5:34
04. Get Your Rocks Off – 2:49
05. Sadjoy – 5:15
06. Black And Blue – 6:44
07. Mardi Gras Day – 3:04
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Uriah Heep – Conquest (1980) (@256)
05 Apr 2007
(Review from progarchives.com)
Generally accepted as the low point of the band’s studio career, “Conquest” has little to recommend it even to the most ardent fan. This was to be Ken Hensley’s last album with the band, and it is a real travesty that his parting album should be so poor.
To be fair, the main problem with the album is the vocals of John Lawton’s replacement John Sloman. The ex Lone Star singer has a good voice which fitted in well with the music of that band. Unfortunately, his style did not suit the music of Uriah Heep at all. Hensley soon recognised this, leading to a major personality clash between the two. Hensley thus departed after the album had been released, leaving Mick Box as the only original member.
Lee Kerslake’s replacement Chris Slade (Manfred Mann’s Earth Band) makes a much better go of the drums, but it’s doubtful whether he saw his membership of the band as anything other than a temporary appointment.
The songwriting credits are slightly more distributed than on previous albums, although Hensley still manages sole or partial credit on six of the eight tracks. Songs like “Imagination” and Trevor Boulder’s “Fools” would have sounded good if performed by Lawton, but Sloman seems to constantly struggle to identify with them, in fact he seems at times to be completely out of his depth. There are occasional moments of inspiration, such as the synthesiser and guitar interplay on “Out on the street”, and the synth driven ballad “It ain’t easy” (which also suits Sloman’s vocals better), but generally the album lacks inspiration and focus. It seems clear that had the album been made by a previous line up of the band, the songs could have been developed into much stronger pieces (the potential IS there), and the performance too would have been much tighter.
After Hensley’s departure, Sloman’s former band mate in Pulsar, Greg Dechart was brought in on keyboards on a temporary basis. Two of the tracks he recorded with Uriah Heep appear as bonus tracks on the CD remaster of “Conquest”, but they sound nothing like Uriah Heep. The band then effectively split up altogether, founding vocalist David Byron having declined an offer to rejoin Box and Boulder. Box was to pull things together again later on, but the road back would be long and difficult.
Line-up:
- Mick Box / guitars
- John Sloman / lead & backing vocals, piano, percussion
- Chris Slade / Staccato drums, percussion
- Trevor Bolder / bass guitar
- Ken Hensley / obx, vocoder, organ, piano, guitars, backing vocals
Track List:
01. No Return (6:02)
02. Imagination (5:49)
03. Feelings (5:26)
04. Fools (5:03)
05. Carry On (3:57)
06. Won’t Have To Wait Too Long (4:54)
07. Out On The Street (5:57)
08. It Ain’t Easy (5:45)
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