Glasgow: Zero Four One (1987)

Back in 1985 I was working in the center of the universe, which is Eastbourne, where the busiest day of the week was Thursday, Pension Day! To say I spent a lot of time either bored or on the train to London is something of an understatement, but then lo and behold a rock band decided to come to town! In March of that year, we were graced by Uriah Heep in full flow, and I was right at the front, loving every second of it. But before we got to Uriah Heep there was a support act who I never thought of again until I was offered this promo. Yep, back in 1985 the support act was Glasgow, and here we now have a reissue (with an additional track) of their sole 1987 album. Apparently, they were offered a deal by Neat Records earlier in their career but turned it down as they had such self-belief that they would get a better and bigger deal, which of course didn’t happen. After this album and a few singles, the band broke up.

They did not make much impact for me on the night, but I do remember thinking that in many ways they were a perfect warm-up act in that they played melodic hard rock in a style not too dissimilar to the current version of Uriah Heep (this was the Pete Goalby/John Sinclair version which released ‘Abominog’, ‘Head First’ and ‘Equator’), but there was nothing really special about them which would make them outshine the headline act. The quartet have a guest keyboard player in Don Airey, but I would never have guessed he had been involved without reading the press release as he is just providing some simplistic harmonies at times. The drums are solid and hit hard, the bass does ist stuff, but although the songs are never anything special, there is no doubt that the highlight of the band is guitarist Archie Dickson who shines throughout. Singer Mick Boyle has a very NWOBHM voice, but he is often slightly disconnected with the band or even slightly off key. He might have been able to get away with it somewhat in a live environment but here it is quite off putting.

Definitely one for collectors only, who will certainly appreciate this being made available again for the first time in a large number of years.

Rating: 5/10