Glenn Shorrock - Villain Of The Peace (1983) Remastered Reissue 1999

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Glenn Shorrock - Villain Of The Peace (1983) Remastered Reissue 1999

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A veteran of the Australian music industry, singer/songwriter Glenn Shorrock has had a long and successful career in the U.K. and Australia spanning more than three decades. Arriving in Australia with his family from England during the mid-'50s, Shorrock soon developed a passion for rock & roll and formed the vocal quartet the Checkmates. Under the influence of the Beatles after they achieved popularity in Australia, the Checkmates became the Twilights and from 1964 to 1969 had several hit singles in Australia. After they broke up, Shorrock spent three months managing the Australian group, the Avengers. In May 1969, Shorrock joined the supergroup Axiom in the U.K. until their breakup in 1971. Shorrock signed a solo deal with the MAM record label and released three singles.

In 1972, Shorrock joined the 12-piece international rock orchestra Esperanto. Their debut album, Esperanto Rock Orchestra, was released in 1973. Shorrock made a minimal contribution to their next release, Danse Macabre, and by their third release in 1974, Last Tango, had taken on a management role. The band had little success and Shorrock left to sing backup vocals for Cliff Richard. In October 1975, Shorrock returned to Australia where he formed the Little River Band. LRB's long run of success only came to an end after Shorrock decided to leave in February 1982, to be replaced by another Australian stalwart, John Farnham.

Shorrock already had a Top Ten single with Bobby Darin's "Dream Lover" back in 1979, and recorded his debut album, Villian of the Peace, in L.A. In late 1982, Shorrock toured Australia and also sang on Renee Geyer's single "Going Back." He recorded another single with the Bushwackers, "We're Coming to Get You," which reached number six on the national charts in October 1983. His next single, "Restless," appeared on the soundtrack to the documentary film World Safari II. Shorrock compared ABC-TV's Rock Arena in 1986 and released his next single "American Flyer." He also toured with the stage show One for the Money. In 1988, Shorrock rejoined the Little River Band for the next three years. In 1991, he was inducted into the Australian Record Industry (ARIA) Hall of Fame. In 1993, he formed the Blazing Salads with Brian Cadd and they released a self-titled album in the same year.

Brendan Swift, Allmusic.com

This record was made almost immeadiatly after Glenn left LRB in early 1982. The album was produced by John Boylan who had produced the LRB albums Diamantina Cocktail, Sleeper Catcher and First Under the Wire. Consequently, It comes off sounding like an LRB album with synthesizers. The albums real strength is in two places - the songs and the players on the record. The songs are all of a high quality. The stand out track is Will You Stand With Me which is an acoustic ballad that sounds as though it was performed as a single take in the studio. Angry Words (a Brian Cadd song) and the title track Villian of the Peace are also high quality tracks that give the feeling that the albums purpose was to let off some steam after the LRB situation. The players list on this album reads like the Whos Who of the west coast sound. Don Felder, Randy Meisner and Timothy B Schmidt of Eagles fame all play on this album as well as Jeff Baxter of the Doobie Bros and Andrew Gold. The record was a minor commercial success (well it wasn't anywhere near as successfull as John Farnham's first record post LRB) but it is one great album from one of Australia's most prolific singer songwriters of the rock era. Any Little River Band (or west coast sound in gerneral) fan should enjoy this record.

Review by Shane Sullivan, Amazon.com

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Glenn Shorrock - Villain Of The Peace (1983) Remastered Reissue 1999

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Glenn Shorrock - Villain Of The Peace (1983) Remastered Reissue 1999

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