Video's Of The Week: CITY BOY-Special

[Niels (Mod)]

VOTW - CITY BOY Special

Okay, more or less a request from our very own Scott Gabbert, here's a special about one of my favorite bands from the the 70's: City Boy. My personal history around this band, is that in 1978, 5705 was played quite a lot on the danish radio. In early 1979, a new song "What A Night" was then played, and I decided to buy the album, and to my surprise, the album was much more, than those two songs. Actually they are among the weakest tracks on the album. I didn't know it at the time, but Mutt Lange produced the band. In fact it was the first band he produced after moving to England from South Africa, and one of the things, I love about the album was the production/sound. A sound that he later would take to the fullest with Def Leppard, but you can hear some of the same stuff eapially the vocals and the guitar-sound, with CB. Even though, City Boy would go on and release another album in 1979, I had no idea about that release, until later on (remember the time before the internet?!). I did hear a new song by them on the radio in late 1980, and got the next new album as fast as I could. This time, a few of the members were gone, as was Lange, but still it was a very strong album (Heads Are Rolling). After that, I got fulltime in to Heavy Metal, and City Boy released a very lousy album in 1981, and that was it. I did buy a few CB-albums later on, but that was albums released earlier in the 70's, but off course also "The Day The Earth Caught Fire", which was the album, that was released in 1979, when I WAS a fan, but didn't notice the release. But I think it was around 1988, until I bought it. A very good album, in fact. Kind of "proggy", and it was no surprise of mine, to find an article about City Boy a few months back in the magazine "PROG", even though it was an article with the question "How Prog was City Boy". I was glad to see, they were'nt forgotten. Since there isn't much "City Boy" on Youtube, I had to post a couple of "Post-City Boy"-video's. Don't think, I like those video's/songs, because I don't, especially not the last one.

5.7.0.5.

(1978) UK #8, U.S. #27. "City Boy, the great 70's band tainted by comparisons to 10cc and Queen, performs their hit 5705." Yeah, whatever. This is the promo video, but apparently on a live TV performance Steve Broughton lip-synchs (though he really wasn't lead vocalist), but this is the promo, where the real singer on the song is the drummer Roy Ward, another great singer/drummer. Lol Mason also sings a bit lead. Another one od those bands with 3 (or more) lead-singers.

WHAT A NIGHT

 

City Boy - What A Night from "Scene 79". The song didn't appear on the first editions of the album. When I bought it in....April 1979, the song was there as the last song on side 1.

THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

1979's The Day the Earth Caught Fire, produced a minor UK hit with the title song. This album marked an early recording appearance by Huey Lewis, who played harmonica on the second track "It's Only the End of the World". Afterwards, Broughton and Dunn (two of the original members) left the band, and City Boy released Heads Are Rolling as a quartet in 1980. The soft rock track "Speechless" made the band briefly popular in the Philippines. Their final album, It's Personal from 1981, failed to attract any attention. Unable to secure a contract with any of the major companies, the band split up in 1982.

MASSIONETTES - HEARTACHE AVENUE

The Maisonettes were a 'one hit wonder' English pop band formed by Lol Mason (formerly of City Boy) and Mark Tibenham. Their debut single, "Heartache Avenue", reached number 7 on the UK Singles Chart in early 1983, and later peaked at number 12 on the Canadian chart and number 97 in Australia. The song was discovered by David Virr in a pile of demo tapes in his office, and had been recorded in Birmingham by singer Lol Mason, guitarist Mark Tibenham, and session drummer Nick Parry. Virr decided to put it out on his own label, which he named Ready Steady Go!

STREETS - SO FAR AWAY

Streets was a band made up of singer, keyboardist Steve Walsh, guitarist Mike Slamer, bassist Billy Greer, and drummer Tim Gehrt. A live performance of "So Far Away" by Streets from their "1st" album. Recorded at Charlie Daniel's Volunteer Jam X in Nashville, TN, in 1983.Steve Walsh had been in the band Kansas and Mike Slamer has been in several other bands, including Britain's City Boy. He was also a session guitarist. Greer and Gehrt were regional players who had seen success with bands in Tennessee and Atlanta, respectively.Gehrt was working with ex-Deep Purple bassist Glenn Hughes when Walsh recruited him for Walsh's first solo effort, Schemer Dreamer. Walsh had noticed him when one of Gehrt's earlier bands had opened for Kansas. The two became friends and eventually spoke of forming a band together.Slamer had never met Walsh until he showed up for the audition. "I decided that I wanted to move to America," says Slamer. "The kind of music that I wanted to make wasn't being played at all in England, so I came here."Streets made its debut performance at Charlie Daniels' annual Volunteer Jam in January, 1983. The debut LP was released later that year on Atlantic Records. The band played on another band's equipment and only played four songs."We got out there and proved that we could play," said Walsh. "We go out there and we did damn good. We proved to ourselves that we could pull it off and that we were on the right track. Starting over was very humbling. But we got a lot of good feedback to the album. We were playing live every night and being onstage (was) very renewing for us...""I wanted to form a democratic band," said Walsh. "I did not want to be a solo singer with a band of sidemen. I like being in a band... I couldn't have done (that project) alone. I needed the help of every musician involved. We were all of equal importance in the creation of the final song."The band later recorded its second album, Crimes in Mind, in 1985. Soon after, Streets disbanded. A year later, Walsh reformed Kansas, which had disbanded after two albums without Walsh. Walsh remained Kansas' frontman - singing, writing, and performing with them, as well as producing solo albums - until his retirement from the band on June 30, 2014.

[Scott]

SWEEEEET....

5705:  I do remember this tune from radio and the American Top 40 as presented by Casey Kasem.  Think it sounds better now than it did back then.  I do like the riff and the keyboard really takes me back!

WHAT A NIGHT:  Wasn't to sure about this one until the chorus and then I got hooked in quickly.  I like what they did with this one, thought it was a bit of a ballad as well, but kinda not.  I like the uniqueness I hear.  But vocally I do hear the Queen comparisons.  Though this is a weak comparison just because there's some falsetto in there doesn't automatically mean "Queen"!

THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE:  The guitar work feels similar to 5705 for some reason, and that drum kit takes me straight to Jackson Brownes - Running On Empty album cover.  This one turns out better than I thought it would.  The video?  Well its a pure pre-Mtv show-up-and-do-silly-stuff-with-no-real-plan kind of video - AKA funny!

MASSIONETTES - HEARTACHE AVENUE:  Cant say they don't write some catchy tunes!  Not sure this would be something I would enjoy personally but I wouldn't fuss if it came on again.

STREETS:  Seen Kansas a few times now and Walsh is hyper like that all the time.  Usually fun to watch him, but he was doing some weird Bruce Dancing In The Dark video imitation and that was off-putting.  Would have loved to seen this band do better, but I own nothing from them s I contribute to their lack of success in some small way! 

Thanks for posting this! It was fun to watch and hear!!!  I don't see anything on iTunes from City Boy that's mastered very well.  Maybe that will never happen but I will keep my eyes open ...

[RJhog (Admin)]

Must of been Jon that's posted Streets...my bad, I thought it was Scott.

[Niels (Mod)]

They've just released 2 remastered double-cd's: one with Book Early and the album that came before, and I can't remember what it was called, and one with "The Day The Earth Caught Fire" and "Heads Are Rolling".

I'm surprised if they're not available on ITunes? They are on spotify.

Yeah, Walsh is looking 100% Jane Fonda-stupid.

[RJhog (Admin)]

5705 - What a goofy looking band.  But then again, most bands were back then.  I get more of a Queen or ELO feel from the vocals.  Almost like Queen does 867=5309.  This, musically, is sort of, as Niels likes to say, American sounding.  I like this.  Did you realize that the video rolls right over to another City Boy song, Ambition.  Which sounds fantastic.  Almost like a pop-prog.  

What A Night - The production or the sound quality of this is atrocious.  Again, I'm feeling ELO.  Vocally of course.  It get's bad as it drags on.  This one definitely kills any momentum built up by the first two songs.

The Day The Earth Caught Fire - Now I'm back to hearing Queen again.  Released in 79, but a serious early 80's feel to me.  I do like the multiple vocalist thing.  And I like that they do it within the same song, though that style might get old after a while.  Cool song.

Heartache Avenue - This sounds like a 60's song.  Something that would have been played on AM radio in the U.S. The female backing vocals really stress this sound.  This guy's got a good voice.  I really doesn't sound anything like the prior songs posted from City Boy.  Totally different actually.

So Far Away - I wonder if Walsh ever looks back on that video and cringes?  He has to.  That is the worst looking choice of clothing I've ever seen.  That being said, this song is amazing.  Great vocals, great melody and a smokin' guitar solo. Scott has posted them before, I'm pretty sure.  But I can't really remember what I thought of it.  But I can tell you I like this.

Overall, I'm pleased here.  I actually bought a City Boy greatest hits disc recently and I'm gonna have to dig it out and spin it.  I just checked, it has 5705, What A Night and The Day The Earth Caught Fire.  Unfortunately, Ambition is not on there.  But still, you've peaked my interest a bit here bro.  Good job.

[Niels (Mod)]

Yay, at last!! You need "the 3 great ones", to really "get", that they were a great band. Too many great songs are missing from that "Greatest hits", and if you ask me, the albums they released before "Book Early" are not very interesting. Yeah, I noticed it rolled over in "Ambition" from the album "The Day The Earth Caught Fire". This was probably the track, that got them in "PROG"-magazine a few months back. "What A Night" is an attemt to follow 5.7.0.5. as a "Hit-single". I won't say they failed, but it's one of the weakest tracks on the "Holy trinity" (Book Early, TDTECF and Heads Are Rolling).