a great, charismatic front man in Jamie St. James, Tommy Thayer’s elite-ly cool musicianship on guitar, and cachty, yet muscular songs to equally satisfy headbangers and melodic / glammy fans. Add to that a major label and top producers behind.Unfortunately, Black ‘N Blue lose in front of Bon Jovi, Ratt, Dokken, Warrant, etc success, and the band broke up in 1989.
“Collected” is an excellent Box Set including all the albums from US rockers BLACK ‘N BLUE, all housed in individual cardboard slipcases (mini-LP replicas) issued under license from Universal Music and remastered from the original tapes. The remaining copies of this already out of print box is being sold for almost € 400 right now.
Additionally to the 4 studio albums, ”Collection” includes a DVD with a show captured Live in Tokyo, Japan Nakamo Sun Plaza Hall November 16, 1984. We have grabbed the DVD Audio for all of you to enjoy.
The performance include songs not included into any BLACK ‘N BLUE studio album, such as “Run Run”, “Summer Heat”, and “Rock n’ Roll Animals”, which later became ‘Knocking On Heaven’s Door’ (second album Without Love, track 1).
Of all the admittedly second-tier bands to emerge from the the early 80s metal explosion, BLACK ‘N BLUE seemed like one of the bands that had a shot at the top. They had a sound and attitude that was all their own.
Because of their all-out energy, exuberance, and in-your-face-late-teenaged ballsiness, they got away — and had us pumping our fists and banging our heads — at lines that were as corny as heck but awesome to believe in when B’NB rocked them out.
After their killer self-titled debut produced by Dieter Dierks (Scorpions), the group released my favorite from them, ‘Without Love’ this time with dream team helping to shape the sound; Bruce Fairbairn, Bob Rock, Mike Fraser, and with the likes of Jim Vallance & Mike Reno also involved.
Then Black ‘N Blue were pick up by Kiss bassist Gene Simmons to produce, with the exception of the song “I’ll Be There For You” which was written & produced by the Journey’s Jonathan Cain.
Music industry A&R guru John Kalodner took control here to finally push the band to the stardom they truly deserved, but as he said after the album didn’t exploded into the charts; “I still don’t get why Black ‘N Blue weren’t huge”.
The same crew was behind the band’s 4th LP “In Heat”, but the record only made it into the 133 position album chart.
They had it all: a great, charismatic front man in Jamie St. James, Tommy Thayer’s elite-ly cool musicianship on guitar, and cachty, yet muscular songs to equally satisfy headbangers and melodic / glammy fans. Add to that a major label and top producers behind.
Unfortunately, Black ‘N Blue lose in front of Bon Jovi, Ratt, Dokken, Warrant, etc success, and the band broke up in 1989.
Their songs are as a good or better than any of the aforementioned bands, the first two albums are absolute must-haves for any US hard rock glammy fans, and the other two – more melodic, glossy and mature in songwriting – very good too.
This limited box set is a unique opportunity to own all four classic Black ‘N Blue albums with a pristine and powerful remastered sound (there’s an added DVD of the band’s performance in Tokyo in November 1984 too). The live performance in Japan never was released on CD audio, so this is you chance to grab it now, only at 0dayrox. The show was filmed in pro-shot quality, so considering the limitations of this format and the era, the sound quality obtained is really good.
“Collected” is very expensive right now, but the most comprehensive box set on one of the most underrated bands from the Californian hard rock heyday.
BLACK ‘N BLUE - Collected 1 – Black ‘N Blue 1984 [Remastered]
01 – The Strong Will Rock
02 – School Of Hard Knocks
03 – Autoblast
04 – Hold On To 18
05 – Wicked Bitch
06 – Action
07 – Show Me The Night
08 – One For The Money
09 – I’m The King
10 – Chains Around Heaven
BLACK ‘N BLUE - Collected 2 – WithOut Love 1985 [Remastered]
01 – Rockin’ on Heaven’s Door
02 – Without Love
03 – Stop the Lightning
04 – Nature of the Beach
05 – Miss Mystery
06 – Swing Time
07 – Bombastic Plastic
08 – We Got the Fire
09 – Strange Things
10 – Two Wrongs (Don’t Make It Love)
BLACK ‘N BLUE - Collected 3 – Nasty Nasty 1986 [Remastered]
01 – Nasty Nasty
02 – I Want It All (I Want It Now)
03 – Does She Or Doesn’t She
04 – Kiss Of Death
05 – 12 ‘OClock High
06 – Do What You Wanna Do
07 – I’ll Be There For You
08 – Rules
09 – Best In The West
BLACK ‘N BLUE - Collected 4 – In Heat 1988 [Remastered]
01 – Rock On
02 – Sight for Sore Eyes
03 – Heat it Up Burn it Out
04 – Suspicious
05 – The Snake
06 – Live it Up
07 – Gimme Your Love
08 – Get Wise to the Rise
09 – Great Guns of Fire
10 – Stranger
BLACK ‘N BLUE - Collected 5 / DVD audio Live in Tokyo, Nov 16, 1984
01 – Chains Around Heaven
02 – One For The Money
03 – Show Me The Night
04 – Summer Heat
05 – Run Run
06 – Autoblast
07 – Action
08 – The Strong Will Rock
09 – Hold On To 18
10 – Violent Kid
11 – Rock N Roll Animals
12 – Wicked Bitch
13 – School Of Hard Knocks
14 – I’m The King
15 – Lip Lock
16 – Sign In Blood
Jamie St. James – vocals
Tommy Thayer – guitars, backing vocals
Jeff Warner – guitars, backing vocals
Patrick Young – bass, backing vocals
Pete Holmes – drums
Woop – guitars on disc 4