Reassessing GTR

I'll reply next weekend when I get the time to sit down and think about what I CAN say ... very interesting story !!! PS xXx

 

Great stuff guys ... very impressive !!! I love this song ... great chorus !!!
PS xXx

 

Saw the GTR tour in Minneapolis. Still one of my favorite all time shows. Thanks Phil.

 

god i cant wait. thanks so much phil!!!

 

"younnnnnng hearts, playing the part so welllllllll"

WHY WASNT THIS ON MTV

from how phil sounds this is gonna be qute a story.

 

Hi guys ... who do I answer to ??? This is for general consumption and interested parties ... So I'm still SUPER tired and I have a similarly tiring week in front of me this coming week so this'll be short tonight ...
Nerotrend Ltd was the name of a dormant off the shelf limited company that Steve Howe (and I assume Brian Lane) picked up to process the advance money that came from Clive Davis and Arista in an attempt to perpetuate the project. I assume now that at the time they needed an off the shelf limited company quickly because any advances at this time (early '87) COULDN'T be processed through the previous companies for reasons that I can only speculate on ... you can add ONE and ONE and make TWO ... that's up to you.
Steve Hackett had long gone (another story). The last time I ACTUALLY SAW him was at our last gig in Munich which I believe was in September '86 ... you can check that date easily enough (put me right if I'm wrong) AND there are plenty of clips of that gig on Youtube ... that night was the very last time to this day that I've ever seen Steve Hackett.
Robert Berry was subsequently introduced to us by Brian in an attempt to keep the band's image (of having two guitarists) intact AND also Robert had a whole bunch of songs that we could use too. He was a nice guy I thought but, at the time, quite naive having not really been successful in an international sense BUT he did think a great deal of himself (not a bad thing) AND he was a proper songwriter whereas GTR, up until that point, had been 'cobbling' songs together out of bits and pieces, relying more on the arranging and performing capabilities of the band as musicians.
What you guys out there call the 'Nerotrend Album' was never more than a set demos for another GTR album. The fact that Robert is singing his own songs and Max is singing some of them too supports that fact ... they were all demos towards another album. Jonathan had left (and afterwards took them to court!!!) due to the business 'irregularities' and Nigel, being an old rhythm section partner of mine, was available to play drums at the time. The later songs on this collection of album demos were songs that Max and I had worked on independently and 'Hungry Warrior' was actually MY song which Geoff Downes topped and tailed and so it became OUR song. I don't believe the actual credits reflect that at all anywhere that it has been released. I even saw 'Hungry Warrior' on a Best Of Asia outtakes when I was Tower Records in LA once !!! INCREDIBLE !!!
We didn't know either (I found out by accident and rushed round at the time to tell Steve Howe very angrily !!!) that Brian was also lining Robert up to work with Carl Palmer so he (Brian) was just doing his usual thing of trying to put together some kind of deal (whatever that may have been and with whoever) to get another advance, make more money etc etc blah blah blah ... In the event, after GTR had to give up, the world got '3' for it's troubles AND (I have never listened to it) probably got some of those same songs Robert brought to GTR in the first place. There's more ... so I hope that's been enlightening so far and I'll think about what else I can say ...
Have a good week ...
PS xXx

 

very interesting, thanks so much phil....

 

Phil,

Wow, talk about business getting in the way of the music!

 

Thanks for that info Phil, looking forward to more!

 

Thanks Phil... very interesting !!!

 

Phil, it's a privilege to be reading your 'behind the music' narrative - some twenty-five plus years later. Thanks.

 

Great cover !!! Sounds really nice !!!

 

Thanks for the insights, Phil!

 

Great version!!!!! Love it!

 

Great information Phil!!!

 

That was a nice version. Wonder when it was filmed? I've always liked that song.

 

Curious if anyone feels there is a difference between Japanese re-issues of this CD and the original? It's not an all-time favorite, but I think they really got something good with "When the Heart Rules the Mind," "Toe the Line," and "Imagining."

 

Just seen this thread. I actually really liked the GTR material and saw them in concert at the Hammersmith Odeon.

It would be lovely if the album could be remixed, as the sound really was bizarre. Sadly I doubt this will happen. The King Biscuit is worth hearing - it was a mighty rhythm section live and nice to hear Phil's comments about the weird history of this unit.

 

http://shop.cherryred.co.uk/esoteric-exd.asp?id=5129

 

Interesting! I hope the remastering is good.

 

This is a nice trip back in time. Even though this wasn't my kind of music back then, I had a soft spot for this album. We blew off graduation night and went night surfing and picked this cassette up for the trip and by the time I'd heard it a few times I really liked it. Looking forward to the reissue in a few days, if for nothing else...nostalgia's sake. Joan Lunden was so beautiful back then......still is.

 

So, is the "deluxe" remaster worth getting?

 

The original master isn't even worth getting.

 

I didn't think much of GTR (the album) when I first heard it back in '86, didn't think much more of it when I heard it again some time in the 90's, and almost forgot it completely until I recently picked it up for a quick listen and to my surprise I quite liked it.