2020 Charity Shop Purchase 15 - China Crisis - Working With Fire And Steel
Back to the Greyhound Rescue shop in Lockerbie and someone had handed in a job lot of ealy 80's vinyl. Unfortunately most of it was by King.Still I managed to come away with a couple.
From 1983 on the Virgin label Working With Fire and Steel - Possible Pop Songs Volume Two was the second album by Liverpool band China Crisis.
Although they often played and recorded as a larger band China Crisis were effectively a duo George Daly on vocals and synthesiser and Eddie Lundon on guitar and vocals.
On this album they are joined by Gary Johnson on bass and Kevin Wilkinson on drums.
The album spent 16 weeks on the charts peaking at number 20. The two singles below got to number 48 and 44 respectively.
It wouldn't take a genius to guess that this album is from the 80's According to Allmusic it is chock full of intelligent, well-written pop songs
My pal Raymie saw them playing live in Largs
China Crisis - Working With Fire and Steel
China Crisis - Hanna Hanna
I bought their album "Flaunt the Imperfection" because Walter Becker (Steely Dan) played on it. "Black Man Ray" was a good single.
ReplyDeleteI's completely forgotten about King...until now!
I liked 'Flaunt The Imperfection' and 'African and White' a lot at the time, this one not quite so much - but its not bad.
DeleteKing are probably best forgotten about FBCB
DeleteRaymie? Or Raymy? https://soundcloud.com/songweekyear-com/sawney-bean-campfire?in=songweekyear-com/sets/songweekyear-com
ReplyDeleteI liked them but wasn't a huge fan in their heyday, but I have picked up singles and albums in used shops through the years and now have quite a collection of China Crisis material. I'm certainly better for it. In recent years, Gary Daly has been busy self releasing solo albums. I wouldn't be surprised if Echorich has them. He's quite a fan.
ReplyDeleteAs Brian has imagined correctly, I am a massive China Crisis fan. There is something in the greater Liverpool water as so many bands that I have stuck with over the last 40+ years come from there.
ReplyDeleteTheir debut album was a wonderful experiment playing with new sounds and ideas in a Pop Music vein. Working With Fire And Steel took some of the best of those experiments and created an album of really memorable songs. Songs like Hanna Hanna, Tragedy and Mystery and the title track were certainly intelligent and entertaining Pop music, while tracks like Wishful Thinking, Here Comes A Raincloud and especially, one of my all time favorites by the band, The Soul Awakening, furthered the boundaries of Pop with subtle ambience and tender soul.