Garrison - 'Hold Back the Night'

[Geoff]

This afternoon I spun some demos from these guys and as witnessed in this Youtube link, the sound quality is demo, but the songs are off the charts. Picture Blue Tears, Silent Rage 'Don't touch me there', Arti Tisi, Blind Date and Heavy Pettin' mixed in one band for an idea of their style. These guys are stunning.

 

The bone-breaking thing, if this makes sense, is that the songs sound as though they're fully complete, well recorded and finished products (and unreleased!!), but the sound quality of the demos is shit... which is heartbreaking. Listen to this link and be dazzled -

[JC_AOR]

Yeah a great song!!! A real shame about the low recording quality and the fact that an album was never released. Looked them up on AOR FM, seems there is very little info available on this band. Apparantly there are 24 demos and a couple of live tracks floating around. I'm downloading a bunch of demos right now.

[Geoff]

Yeah a great song!!! A real shame about the low recording quality and the fact that an album was never released. Looked them up on AOR FM, seems there is very little info available on this band. Apparantly there are 24 demos and a couple of live tracks floating around. I'm downloading a bunch of demos right now.

Yeah, I got those demos. As I said above, the sound-quality is heart breaking. I don't throw weighty names around like this for fun, but based on the 10 tracks I heard today, if I had a full well produced album from these guys I dare say it'd be up with Treat and Danger Danger... I loved it that much. The first 5 songs were like hearing Harem Scarem's 'Stranger than love' for the first time. Completely stunning.

 

I can only pray that Retrospect or Suncity or the like put some serious time into getting these songs out to the public with good sound quality... because as I said, it sounds like they were properly recorded. Where the masters are, though...?

[JC_AOR]

 

Man this band is awesome, some extremely catchy melodic hard rock tunes here, would love to hear them in higher quality.

Here are the demos I have, 20 in total, if anyone knows of any other I'd be very interested to hear...

*=best tracks

 

Are You Ready

Dance Dance

Down To The Ground

*Easy Street

Get Down And Dirty

Give Me Love

Here I Am

*Hold Back The Night

*Hungry Days (Live)

*I Need Your Love

I Will Be There

Let’s Get It On

*Lies

*Looking For A Stranger

*Never Let It Go

Oh Mama

Outta Luck

*Rock It

*Running Wild

*Strange Kind Of Love

 

These guys have been compared to many of the great Melodic Hard Rock bands of the late 80's/early 90's.

One review at truveo.com regarding the band and their 'Hold Back The Night' video reads as follows:

 

"Amazing, extreme underground and underrated U.K.'s Melodic Hard Rock act from the late 80's. This is a terrific song! The massive keyboards, the big vocals, great chorus and tasty axework are on the same style of bands like SHY, Treat, Zeno, Prophet, FM (UK), Skagarack, Only Child, Giant, Blue Tears, Tarzen (Madrid record)... etc. I'm think that if you like any these bands, you will like Garrison. Garrison are: Tony Mitchell - Vocals Kevin Wilson - Guitars Alec Burrell - Bass Derek Lindsay - Drums Michael Bruce - Keyboards / Guitar The band lasted from 1988 to 1991, but this magnific video was made in 2003 and its full of eights pictures. As far as I know, these guys never relesead a single EP or a full-lenght Lp, only demo-tapes. I don't know if Alec Burrell is relative to the Bad Company's bass player Raymond "Boz" Burrell (R.I.P). Video Credits to Michael Bruce. Thank you very much! Garrison deserve to be remembered! I hope you enjoy it! Stay Hard... "

[Jez]

'Hold Back The Night' (how many times have we heard that title) is a great tune, reminded me of the late, great,Tobruk and very typical of the stuff that was coming out of the UK in the mid/late 80's. Would be interested in hearing some more of this lot if anyone has a link.

[Geoff]

Okay guys, here the link for the 24 demos I have: Demos

 

You will be disappointed with the sound quality, but NOT with the songs.

[Jez]

Okay guys, here the link for the 24 demos I have: Demos

 

You will be disappointed with the sound quality, but NOT with the songs.

 

Thanx mate - will give them a good listen

[Rockposer]

'Hold Back The Night' (how many times have we heard that title) is a great tune, reminded me of the late, great,Tobruk and very typical of the stuff that was coming out of the UK in the mid/late 80's. Would be interested in hearing some more of this lot if anyone has a link.

 

 

Ah, hit the nail on the head ' Tobruk'

[melodicrockoz]

i'm pretty sure you can now find garrison's demos on cd through e bay. also a few whispers suggests you'll see proper garrison release on cd in the not too distant future by a u.k based label

[Geoff]

i'm pretty sure you can now find garrison's demos on cd through e bay. also a few whispers suggests you'll see proper garrison release on cd in the not too distant future by a u.k based label

How many tracks is it supposed to be, do you know? This release. And when?? I want it now.

 

The thing that worries me is that the first 5 tracks were stunning but featured pretty poor sound, and the first only okay song actually had pretty good sound quality.

 

'Hold Back The Night' (how many times have we heard that title) is a great tune, reminded me of the late, great,Tobruk and very typical of the stuff that was coming out of the UK in the mid/late 80's. Would be interested in hearing some more of this lot if anyone has a link.

 

 

Ah, hit the nail on the head ' Tobruk'

Yeah, Tobruk were big comparisons in the references I've seen.

[Jez]

What's the password Geoff?

[sharatan]

'Hold Back The Night' (how many times have we heard that title) is a great tune, reminded me of the late, great,Tobruk and very typical of the stuff that was coming out of the UK in the mid/late 80's. Would be interested in hearing some more of this lot if anyone has a link.

 

 

you need then to hear idol rich, with tyrant members and snakey from tobruk on vox....they ruled the airwaves...i have a dvd where they played in front of 5-6 maniax like there was no tomorrow.....

[Geoff]

What's the password Geoff?

Whoops, sorry mate:

Password: kissmar

[Geoff]

 

Man this band is awesome, some extremely catchy melodic hard rock tunes here, would love to hear them in higher quality.

Here are the demos I have, 20 in total, if anyone knows of any other I'd be very interested to hear...

*=best tracks

 

Are You Ready

Dance Dance

Down To The Ground

*Easy Street

Get Down And Dirty

Give Me Love

Here I Am

*Hold Back The Night

*Hungry Days (Live)

*I Need Your Love

I Will Be There

Let’s Get It On

*Lies

*Looking For A Stranger

*Never Let It Go

Oh Mama

Outta Luck

*Rock It

*Running Wild

*Strange Kind Of Love

 

These guys have been compared to many of the great Melodic Hard Rock bands of the late 80's/early 90's.

One review at truveo.com regarding the band and their 'Hold Back The Night' video reads as follows:

 

"Amazing, extreme underground and underrated U.K.'s Melodic Hard Rock act from the late 80's. This is a terrific song! The massive keyboards, the big vocals, great chorus and tasty axework are on the same style of bands like SHY, Treat, Zeno, Prophet, FM (UK), Skagarack, Only Child, Giant, Blue Tears, Tarzen (Madrid record)... etc. I'm think that if you like any these bands, you will like Garrison. Garrison are: Tony Mitchell - Vocals Kevin Wilson - Guitars Alec Burrell - Bass Derek Lindsay - Drums Michael Bruce - Keyboards / Guitar The band lasted from 1988 to 1991, but this magnific video was made in 2003 and its full of eights pictures. As far as I know, these guys never relesead a single EP or a full-lenght Lp, only demo-tapes. I don't know if Alec Burrell is relative to the Bad Company's bass player Raymond "Boz" Burrell (R.I.P). Video Credits to Michael Bruce. Thank you very much! Garrison deserve to be remembered! I hope you enjoy it! Stay Hard... "

I've only heard 10 so far, but my faves are:

 

Hold back the night

Lies

Looking for a stranger

Stay with me (tonight)

Running wild - STUNNING!

 

And not far behind:

 

Too far gone

Magic Goes away

Never let it go

 

And I lied before. There are actually 27 songs at that link.

[Rockposer]

Cheers Geoff

[Jez]

What's the password Geoff?

Whoops, sorry mate:

Password: kissmar

 

 

Thanx mate

[sharatan]

here's one track from idol rich with snakey on vox....i don't have here the title, i have to find the dvd to find the title...i got all these stuff from a great tyrant's buddy.....i still repent selling their single for 700 pounds to a greek nwobhm collector but i can't turn back time.....

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/202745691/idol_rich.rar

 

 

 

edit: i forgot that the long awaited cd version of tyrant anthology can be purchased from my bros in steel legacy recs:

 

http://www.steel-legacy.com/b/

[JC_AOR]

i'm pretty sure you can now find garrison's demos on cd through e bay. also a few whispers suggests you'll see proper garrison release on cd in the not too distant future by a u.k based label

 

Here's the demo CD your speaking of. It's on Time Warp Records (Italy). It has 20 tracks

 

 

Are You Ready

Dance Dance

Down to the Ground

Easy Street

Get Down and Dirty

Give Me Love

Here I Am

Hold Back the Night

Hungry Days (Live)

I Need Your Love

I Will Be There

Let's Get It On

Lies

Looking For A Stranger

Never Let It Go

Oh Mama

Outta Luck

Rock It

Running Wild

Strange Kind Of Love

[JC_AOR]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

[Geoff]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

[JC_AOR]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

 

Nah that link has the same 20 songs as the one I downloaded. I'll keep searching. I also noticed some of the best tracks were much lower sound quality.

[Geoff]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

 

Nah that link has the same 20 songs as the one I downloaded. I'll keep searching. I also noticed some of the best tracks were much lower sound quality.

Really??? Wow, okay. Well if you and Jez and all you chaps only got the 20 songs I'll upload the additional songs I have next Monday for y'all. How many songs did you get, Jez?

[Jez]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

 

Nah that link has the same 20 songs as the one I downloaded. I'll keep searching. I also noticed some of the best tracks were much lower sound quality.

Really??? Wow, okay. Well if you and Jez and all you chaps only got the 20 songs I'll upload the additional songs I have next Monday for y'all. How many songs did you get, Jez?

 

 

Er...1,2,3,4.........20 mate!

[Geoff]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

 

Nah that link has the same 20 songs as the one I downloaded. I'll keep searching. I also noticed some of the best tracks were much lower sound quality.

Really??? Wow, okay. Well if you and Jez and all you chaps only got the 20 songs I'll upload the additional songs I have next Monday for y'all. How many songs did you get, Jez?

 

 

Er...1,2,3,4.........20 mate!

Goddamn. Well, if you guys want them I'll try to upload those last few songs on Monday. Wonder why the link changed...

 

I wouldn't bother, but it sounds like the tracks that are missing are actually some of the earlier better ones.

[JC_AOR]

I can still only find a link with 20 songs as listed earlier. These are some of the songs I haven't got...if anyone comes across a link that includes them please let me know, thanks.

 

Magic Goes Away

Never Let It Go

Stay With Me (Tonight)

Too Far Gone

Hey mate, try the link I put above. It has all (I assume) 27 songs they have recorded.

 

Well, I'm at the end of the 27 songs and these guys are slight heartbreakers. Of the first 14 songs, 10 are literally as good as any songs I have ever heard. And even the okay ones in between are a lot better than most bands.

 

But there is a clear separation in recording time evident here. I know nothing of the band, but I'd say those first 14/15 songs were recorded in 1989/1990 with a keyboard player in the band. Then, I'd say the last 10 or so tracks were recorded around 1991, possibly with the keyboard player having left the band? Because they did a complete 180 on their sound and "threw an FM" (FM's transition from the flawless 'Tough it out' to the terrible 'Takin it to the streets'). The last ten or so tracks are useless raw "rock n'roll swagger" filler songs without a decent hook in sight. The only saving grave is a new version of one of their early songs, 'Lies', which is great.

 

So, Andre, my question to you - in these talks you have heard of a release from these guys, are we going to get a flawless melodic hard rock release from the early years, or a filler-packed album of the later years? Based on what Justin has said above, it looks like the Demos circulating on the Time Warp label are all based on the later years. Which I can understand as the sound quality is better... but the songs are certainly not.

 

Nah that link has the same 20 songs as the one I downloaded. I'll keep searching. I also noticed some of the best tracks were much lower sound quality.

Really??? Wow, okay. Well if you and Jez and all you chaps only got the 20 songs I'll upload the additional songs I have next Monday for y'all. How many songs did you get, Jez?

 

 

Er...1,2,3,4.........20 mate!

Goddamn. Well, if you guys want them I'll try to upload those last few songs on Monday. Wonder why the link changed...

 

I wouldn't bother, but it sounds like the tracks that are missing are actually some of the earlier better ones.

 

That'd be awesome Geoff.