A band that totally passed me buy probably due to having limited UK success ! Anyway they have a new album due so it's never too late to discover .
Any fans of this bands catalogue ?
A band that totally passed me buy probably due to having limited UK success ! Anyway they have a new album due so it's never too late to discover .
Any fans of this bands catalogue ?
Any idea who is on this album? Last I read, all of the original and classic lineup members no longer had the rights to the LRB name.
Originally Posted by Dan Roth
Dunno , Wayne Nelson is still with the band though !
Nelson is the only current member of LRB who was a member during what most consider the band’s classic era (appearing on the “Time Exposure” album), and was co-lead vocalist / bassist during the Jonathon Farnham years. Everyone else in the current band are relative newcomers (although some have been members for over a decade now). A lot of LRB fan’s don’t consider Nelson’s band to be legit, even though he owns the name and has been a constant member since 1980. Anyway……I was always a pretty big fan of LRB. They put out some really great stuff, and pure pop does not get much better. I only got to see them once on “The Net” tour, but they were great. I would be interested in at least giving Nelson’s band a shot.
Steve Sly
there are NO original members in the band. this is an Americanized version using the LRB name. the new music doesn't stand close to the original lineup. LRB maybe delivered top 10 hits in the late 70's and early 80's, but anyone who owned their albums knew that ALL there songs were top notch. this new version of the band is just a cover band performing classic LRB song mixed in with their own. the classic LRB broke up in 1990.
i think Steve Housden (guitarist) owns the rites to the name. he & Nelson joined the band in 1981.
I think you are correct the Housden still owns the name although he is no longer a member of the band and has not toured with them in several years.
Steve Sly
Rufus, as you probably figured out based on the above comments, the "new album" is very likely to be of poor quality. It features none of the members that made those 1970s hits so great.
If you want to explore LRB, and I would recommend you do, get the Expanded Greatest Hits cd. It is all killer, from start to finish. Not a bad song on it. If you want to move past that one, start with Diamantina Cocktail, and move forward until you don't like them any more. For the first time in many many years pretty much everything is back in print! Just a year ago First Under the Wire was selling for $100 on Amazon Mktplace. Now it is $24 as a two-fer with Sleeper Catcher, another good one. So it is a good time to check out the band.
Will start with the expanded greatest hits . Just out of interest what other bands are they similar to ?
First time I have seen John(ny) Farnham referred to as Jonathon. Did he use that name in the US?
“Pleasure and pain can be experienced simultaneously,” she said, gently massaging my back as we listened to her Coldplay CD.
LRB are pretty unique. I can’t really think of any band that sounded that much like them. I agree that the expanded “Greatest Hits” is a decent place to start, but this is a band that really deserves more than a single disc compilation. I would really like to see a 2 disc anthology that covered a bit more ground. Another good introduction to the band would be their live album from back in the day “Backstage Pass”. These guys could pull off their vocal harmonies as well live as they could in the studio and they were no slouches on their instruments either as the live album shows.
Steve Sly
I don’t really know for sure, that is just what I remember him going by back in the day. Farnham is virtuously unknown here in the U.S. I know he had a successful solo career in other parts of the world, but I doubt that very few people here would even recognize the name. The albums he did with LRB did not do all that well commercially having only two minor hits with “We Two” and “Down On The Border”. The tour that I saw was great though. Farnham had an incredible voice and combined with Wayne Nelson’s other lead vocals the two made a very formidable pair.
Steve Sly
Never really liked LRB, but I do dig this song. I don't like soft rock. Why don't they just call it pop?
My fave LRB song. Borderline prog. Frankly, I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet:
When I was a kid, I loved them. Nowadays, I don’t really have time for that mega-commercial pop-AOR stuff of the 70s/80s but a lot of their hits remain guilty pleasures. Compared to today’s pop there was definitely more songcraft, better musical chops and less formulae.
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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"It is not an obscenity to be free. It is a divine right." --Annette Peacock
N.P.:nothing
Plus, they played their own instruments and wrote their own songs.
I'm only familiar with the AOR-FM hits of the late 70's and to be honest, the onlything I remember well is that Lonesome Loser hit
Either way,as with all those AOR bands, I didn't care at all... and never did enough to even investigate by borrowing from my library system
obviously the pretty-decent Long Way There (YT link above) was not radio-friendly enough to warrant any kind of airplay... Is there anymore
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Three of LRB's best songs in the youtube links above. Soft rock/pop doesn't get much better than that...
LRB were one of my favorite bands until I heard Yes (1980) and became a dedicated progger. Unlike many of my other pre-prog faves, though, I never cooled to LRB. My only regret is that I never got to see them in their heyday.
The single edit was their first US top 40 hit (they had two top 20 hits in their native Australia before that), peaking at #28, so clearly it got some kind of airplay.
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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"Parece cosa de maligno. Los pianos no estallan por casualidad." --Gabriel Garcia Marquez
N.P.:“Fruit Tree”-Nick Drake/Five Leaves Left
OK, my bad
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
i think we've seen too many bands using the names to make a living, even though key member are long gone. i can accept that, but i'm not gonna support it. LRB has become nothing but a cover band performing classics from 30 years ago that they never wrote or will come close to writing. if a fan can accept that and attends their shows and be entertained- more power to you. i'd rather just watch my Time Exposure DVD or my Birtles/ Shorrock/ Grahm DVD and here the guys who wrote these songs perform them.
I always liked this song a lot. They kind of rocked a bit on this one:
^^^^
Fuck, I had no idea this was LRB... though it doesn't change much in my opinion of them
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
^^^^^
maybe this will..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuVqCCMLzGA
or this..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=568ESWGLuJo
I recognize that everything Housden has done is entirely legal, but the whole thing is sad. I respect that Housden owns the LRB name, and that he can license the name to Nelson or whoever he wants to perform endlessly on the casino/corndog circuits, but he has also essentially prevented BSG from even trying to tour the US by not allowing any mention of LRB in promotion. I have read that without the ability to mention LRB no promoters would touch them.
BTW You are lucky that you got a copy of the BSG DVD. It has been out of print in the USA for a few years (I understand this was Housden's doing too). Right now there is one used copy on Amazon for $90!
mmmhhh!!!!... not too bad...
I've just checked my library system.... they've got the following albums:
DIAMANTINA COCKTAIL - XL578G
GET LUCKY - XL578I
GREATEST HITS - XL578C
LITTLE RIVER BAND - XL578H
MONSOON - XL578F
THE NET - XL578B
NO REINS - XL578E
ONE NIGHT IN MISSISSIPI - XL578J
PLAYING TO WIN - XL578D
SLEEPER CATCHER / TIME EXPOSURE - XL578K
which would you recommend first.... I don't suppose they've got a prog track compilation anyway , so I might have to run through a few albums
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
You've got a great library! Given what you say you like above, start with:
1. LITTLE RIVER BAND - XL578H
2. SLEEPER CATCHER / TIME EXPOSURE - XL578K (focus on the Sleeper Cather disc)
3. DIAMANTINA COCKTAIL - XL578G
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