BONFIRE – End Of An Era [Unreleased with Michael Bormann on vocals] *Exclusive*

There has been more and more requests of BONFIRE material, and now we have here the rare unreleased recordings with vocalist Michael Bormann (Jaded Heart frontman). “End Of An Era” is the title of one of the songs, and in many ways describes what happened with Bonfire at the time of the recordings, 1993.

After many attempts to break through in the North American scene and what he thought a disappointing result, lead vocalist Clauss Lessmann left Bonfire on September 25, 1992.
His announcement was not a total shock to the rest of the band, but it did leave them with the dilemma of who would take his place.

One vocalist had the group’s attention, Michael Bormann, who was singing for Letter X and had his own side-group called Jaded Heart. Moreover, he was previously in High Voltage and the J.R. Blackmore Group.
Even though he was willing to sing with Bonfire, he was committed to his other two projects so the group continued looking.
The unsuccessful attempt to find a full-time vocalist led to Bormann becoming the new frontman of Bonfire in March 1993. Although he did leave Letter X, he maintained his band Jaded Heart.

This new Bonfire started to write songs – ‘End Of An Era’ co-penned by Paul Sabu, ‘Whisper In The Wind’ with Autograph’s Steve Plunkett, etc – and recording professional pre-production demos.
The record company liked all the new material, but they had no confidence the band could sell albums without Claus Lessmann as frontman.
So these recordings were shelved, and Bonfire broke-up next year.

Guitarist Angel Schleifer reunited with Bormann again in 1997, calling themselves Charade, and finally released the 1993 / 1994 Bonfire demos.
While the self-titled ‘Charade’ album is a great one, I actually prefer this original pre-production demos, which, by the way, sound excellent, A+ quality.
Additionally, there’s some songs not present in the Charade album, as they decided to not re-recording these because were used by Bormann for Jaded Heart and Paul Sabu into one of his solo albums.

This is a collector’s item, top class melodic hard rock, melodious and catchy. All a very well written songs, taped with an early ’90s vibe.
For me, the ‘atmosphere’ on these recording sessions highlights the ‘freshness’ of the new line-up, and Bormann shows why he will release such superb albums with Jaded Heart in the furture.
Highly Recommended

1. Reachin’ Out : Angel Schleifer/Jeorg Deisinger/Michael Bormann
– music was used by Sabu for “Mad Dog” while the lyrics were used by Jaded Heart for “Stop Me From Falling”

2. You’re My Home : Schliefer/Deisinger/Marc Ribler
– later released by Charade

3. Heart To Heart : Schleifer/Deisinger/Ribler
– later released by Charade

4. Whisper In The Wind : Schleifer/Deisinger/Steve Plunkett
– later released by Charade

5. Somebody’s Waitin’ : Ribler/Schleifer/Deisinger
– later released by Charade

6. How Many Tears : Bormann
– later recorded by Jaded Heart

7. Heart Of Stone : Bormann
– later recorded by Jaded Heart as “Ain’t No Love”

8. End Of An Era : Schleifer/Deisinger/Paul Sabu
– later recorded by Paul Sabu

9. I’ll Be Waitin’ For You : Schleifer/Bormann
– later released by Charade as “Waitin’ For Love”

Michael Bormann – lead vocals, acoustic & rhythm guitar
Angel Schliefer – lead guitar, keyboards
Joerg Deisinger – bass
Edgar Patrick – drums

Not for sale
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