As requested by many, here’s the not easy to find only CD version of cult Canadian rockers TROOPER album “Trooper 1980“. Trooper is one of Canada’s best Seventies melodic rockers. From 1975 to 1980, the Vancouver quintet produced five albums and a dozen top 20 hits.
And they’re still around, despite founding members Ra McGuire and Brian Smith announced their retirement last year – giving their encouragement and blessing to remaining members to continue.
In their early era Trooper was huge in Canada selling platinum, but due to MCA inept operations the band never made it big in America. There’s still a legal dispute and Trooper early albums only have been reissued on CD in Canada.
However, ”Trooper 1980” only was released on CD in Japan during the Nineties, and never re-pressed. Used CD’s are being sold for over $100.
This album, also known as ‘Untitled’ was the first produced by the band. Released at the end of 1980, TROOPER fully embraced the polished US sound here, mixing pop-rock with AOR. ”Trooper 1980” is some kind of a mix of Cheap Trick, and the upcoming The Tubes & Loverboy albums.
After receiving the ‘Group of the Year’ Juno Award in 1980, TROOPER started to record this, their second self-titled album (the first was debut). There was a bad timing for this release – again MCA didn’t see it coming.
By Oct 4th, 1980, when ”Trooper 1980” hit the streets, AC/DC literally had exploded into the Canadian charts (also world-wide, btw) in that rocking stuff was the ‘thing of the moment’.
The songs on ”Trooper 1980” got almost zero airplay, and while singles “Real Canadians” and “Laura” (Trooper again writing a song with a woman name, and one of the highlights on the album) did it decently, the album sunk.
A shame, as if properly promoted in the U.S. (there was a market for this polished pop-rock lite AOR there), ”Trooper 1980” would’ve sold much better.
01 – Don’t Feel Like Dancin’
02 – If I Never See Your Face Again
03 – Are You Still My Baby
04 – Real Canadians
05 – Legend
06 – Dump That Creep
07 – Laura
08 – I Don’t Wanna Be Here
09 – Volunteer Victims
Vocals – Ra McGuire
Guitar – Brian Smith
Drums – Tommy Stewart
Bass – Doni Underhill
Keyboards – Rob Deans