Many of you have been asking for some old Rock Candy releases to complete collections, and here’s one of never featured here, the self-titled, one and only album from THE REGGIE KNIGHTON BAND fully remastered & reloaded.
Reggie Knighton had played guitar with the American soft-rock group The Grass Roots, and also played in the band of former Lovin’ Spoonful mainman John Sebastian in the mid -70’s. He succeeded in getting a record deal with CBS / Columbia records in 1977, and released this excellent, self-titled rocking debut album.
Produced by Roy Thomas Baker (Queen, The Cars, Journey) the sound is enormous incorporating John Bonham style drumming, razor-sharp guitar work and flamboyant backing vocals in the mould of classic Queen. That this album rocks hard is a revelation in itself.
Although it sounded like many LA based singer-songwriter records at the time, lyrically, Knighton penned songs which featured some unusual subject matter – such as Alien life forms, being a drug dealer, etc. By 1978, he’d got a band together, and released this album.
Baker graced the LP with a big, late 1970’s FM radio production, and Knighton responded with a fine, again very unusual set of songs. Knighton had a quirky, some might say eccentric, views on life, love, and long distance space travel, and that’s reflected on the lyrics here.
For Reggie all topics are game. If not singing about a ‘Clone In Love’, with obvious reference points to genetic modification, strange aerial phenomenon in ‘UFO’, the ever popular Walter Mitty fantasy touched on with ‘Lear Jet’, and the extraterrestrial conundrum examined in ‘Rock ‘N Roll Alien’, he’s off with the fairies singing about the bizarre imaginary bond between him and Elvis in the ‘King And I’.
‘Highway Patrol’ is about a highway patrolman who wants to ‘get down and play some rhythm and blues’, who ‘just gets laughed ’cause he wears short hair and shiny shoes’.
Throughout, the band back Knighton with searing bursts of hard rock guitar, crashing drums and genuine rock power.
All the songs on this album are very pop/rock / hard rock songs that should have been hits on the radio back in the late 70s. The singing is excellent and the musicianship superb, especially the wonderful guitar hooks.
Unfortunately, due to almost complete lack of support from the record label almost no one heard this album when it was released.
After touring the US supporting 10CC, Knighton fell off the map and took up computer programming, making only brief and modest forays back into the world of recording.
The Rock Candy 24-bit remastering from original source tapes is clear & clean, and there’s an interesting 4,000 word essay about the making of the album and a new interview and full involvement from Reggie Knighton to know a little more about this quite unknown LP.
01 – Breakin’ up Inside
02 – Rock ‘n’ Roll Alien
03 – The King and I
04 – Clone in Love
05 – Lear Jet
06 – Highway Patrol
07 – UFO
08 – Ooh Girl
09 – Magnum Sally
10 – Behind a Rock ‘n’ Roll Band
Vocals, Guitar – Reggie Knighton
Guitar – Brian Ray, John Staehely
Bass – Kurtis Teel
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Glenn Symmonds
Backing Vocals – Jon Lind, Richard Hovey
Strings Ensamble – Geoff Workman
Producer – Roy Thomas Baker
MP3 FLAC