Big Guns - On Dangerous Ground + Stick Em Up

[Stefan]

 

Press release:

This album is available for purchase at www.fnarecords.net

After the demise of ‘Mai Rouge’, a band who had made substantial waves in the late eighties, early nineties in the UK, supporting the likes of ‘Nazareth’, ‘Romeos Daughter’ and ‘Little Angels’ as well as having airplay on the legendary Tommy Vance, Radio 1 Rock Show, school friends Robin Ward and Wayne Lawson were determined, having been so close, to re-build and go again!!!!

The writing partnership of Ward (drums) and Lawson (guitar and keys) already had a line up in mind and quickly approached and recruited Ian Taylor on vocals and John Ward on bass. With only one position left to fill and the name ‘Big Guns’ agreed, the boys were aiming high and launched a nationwide search to find that all important lead guitarist.

With the hint of a record deal already in the air, ‘Big Guns’ were an attractive proposition and were soon being approached by prospective axmen! The outstanding candidate, Neil Brocklebank, hailing from Hull, had writing ability recording experience and talent in abundance, immediately ticking all the boxes and completed the ‘Big Guns’ line up.

Writing and rehearsing began without delay and the hint of a record deal soon came to fruition with the boys signing to EMI owned Zero Corporation of Japan.

In 1994, debut album ‘On Dangerous Ground’ was released. Early reviews were good and ‘Big Guns’ were soon on the road throughout the UK headlining shows as well as supporting the likes of ‘Magnum’, ‘Ted Poley’s Bone Machine’, ‘Brian Robertson’, ‘Thunder’ and ‘The Choirboys’.

This busy period promoting the debut album unfortunately saw the premature departure of Neil Brocklebank. However, a replacement was soon found in Phil O’Dea which proved to be a smooth and successful transition which left the bands drive and momentum still fully in tact.

As a live act the boys were now at the top of their game and with new material already written the next step would be to pursue Zero for a second album deal. Unfortunately with a change in the musical climate and a move away from melodic rock by the record company, that offer never materialised.

The change in the musical climate also lead to the band drifting apart to work on other projects and it wasn’t until twelve years later, due to continuing demand and interest in ‘Big Guns’ material that the guys were approached by ‘Sun City’ records to finally put out that second album in 2007.

The boys have continued to write and record over the years for various projects but are still immensely proud of the two ‘Big Guns’ albums that were written, released and so well received!

 

Tracklisting:

1. Living It Up
2. Live A Dream
3. Live and Learn
4. Mistreated
5. Love Gets In The Way
6. Heart and Soul
7. Picking Up The Pieces
8. Let's Get Crazy
9. City Lights
10. Slipping Away
11. Intelligent and Blind
12. Women
13. A Little Bit of Love
14. Money Talks
15. Don't Push
16. One More River

 

 

 

 

[Crazysam]

This looks like a nice reissue.  Both of the original releases were getting expensive and hard to find, especially On Dangerous Ground, which I thought was the better of the two.