- Music
- 22 May 01
Séan D. Naylor's 1983
As far as H.R. goes, 1983 was a year when the cream tended, for the most part, to float to the top. If you could wade through the crude dished up over the last 12 months by those such as Meat Loaf, Journey and Loverboy, you might have easily found yourself chancing upon some very high quality material indeed. What’s more, top-notch albums were produced both by groups who were kicking-ass well over a decade ago, and by relative newcomers to the H.R. scene – surely an indication of the vinyl strength in depth currently available to the discerning headbanger.
Of the combos falling into the former category, the outfit who provided the biggest shock of the year was undoubtedly Kiss. I’m not talking about their decision to finally remove their grease-paint and stock-heels after 12 years, either, but rather the stupendous power of ‘Lick It Up’, their nineteenth LP.
Whilst such a superb platter as ‘Lick It Up’ from old-timers like Kiss was unexpected (to say the least!), a classic album was always on the cards from veteran vocalist Ronnie James Dio’s new band, called, simply enough, Dio, sure enough, ‘Holy Diver’ delivered the goods in no uncertain fashion. Having recently completed what was, by all accounts, an extremely successful headlining British tour, Dio’s prospects look very, very rosy. The same could also be said for Coney Hatch, four young Canadian hopefulls, who on their first two albums (‘coney Hatch’ and ‘Outa Hand’) display an originality which belies their tender ages. They are equalled in this respect by Fermanagh’s own Mama’s Boys, whose ‘Turn It Up’ is choc-a-block full of punchy riffs, driving rhythms and simply divine lead guitar work, courtesy of the brothers Pat, John and Tommy McManus.
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On dear, (for want of a better exclamation), I’ve already exhausted my meagre word limit, and so will have to end off without having extolled the virtues of Iron Maiden, Grand Funk, Def Leppard, and Y+T, all of whom produced records which demonstrated that I might very well be writing about then in a year’s time, as part of my look back on ’84 – a year which, with impending vinyl releases from Scorpions, Whitesnake and Judas Priest, looks like being rather tasty.