MONEY – First Investment +1 [Rock Candy Remastered & Reloaded]

Here’s another request (place yours!); British combo MONEY and their album “First Investment +1” remastered and reloaded by Rock Candy Records.
Money were an incredibly talented first generation of NWOBHM band who were really much more melodic than their peers, like Queen in their hard rock side an plenty of creativity than any other band of that musical movement.
Other bands like Girl / Def Leppard, Judas Priest (whom shared recording label) and Iron Maiden went on to become much more successful. But for a very short period, Money were the main event – hailed by the Friday Rock Show’s Tommy Vance as the holy grail of rock and quoted in Melody Maker as being the ‘New Queen’.
A strong Midlands UK following and a successful Japanese tour wasn’t enough, due to divisions in the band’s strong personalities and the label’s wrong promotion, which meant they missed out on a supporting role for a major Rush tour.

The music business is littered with those that should have, could have and would have made it.
For Midlands based band Money, the story was a familiar one; a highly talented unit, formed amidst a musical climate that was more concerned with punk and new wave than hard rock yet still managing to earn plaudits and praise despite their ill-timed presence.

And then, just when the tide appeared to be turning in favour of heavy rock via the emergence of the NWOBHM, Money were perceived as a band riding the coat tails of the movement rather than taking a place on its frontline. Sadly, they fell between two stools, a position which they never quite managed to improve, forever dubbed as NWOBHM nearly men.
Despite this lack of good fortune the band did however attract the attention of UK independent label Gull Records, home at the time to none other than Judas Priest, who paired them with fast rising production maestro Chris Tsangarides, a man who would later go on to work with Priest, Gary Moore, Y&T and Ozzy Osbourne.

‘First Investment’ was uniformly praised by fans and critics for being a brave, forward thinking work encompassing a variety of influences (Led Zeppelin, Queen and Sparks have been rightly mentioned) that should have catapulted them to major acclaim. Unfortunately, despite a ground swell of grass roots support, a lack of major management, no agent and few touring opportunities meant that the band were always playing catch up rather than leading the charge.

However, their lack of commercial success has failed to dim the bands brief but bright appearance on record with ‘First Investment’ consistently hailed as a hidden British hard rock classic.
Truly, one of the era’s most highly regarded obscurities, and a very good one musically.

‘Mari-Anna’ is a glorious opening track. Excellent slashing, chunky riff developing in to a fine heavy rocker featuring some nifty lead breaks. ‘Leo the Jester’ is not is a dissimilar vein staring to hint and the quirkiness/progginess to come whilst still managing to have a strong edge.
‘(Aren’t We All) Searching’ rocks along nicely too with the Queen-style stuff evident then Geneva has an infectious feel to it, especially the chorus.
There’s more edgy, quirky rockiness with the finely arranged ‘Statement and Demands’, ‘Remembering’ and ‘Goddess’.

”First Investment” remains a great rocking album and sounds strong and fresh decades later. The Rock Candy remastering is first class as always. Be aware there’s fake files floating the web, this is the actual remastered CD.
Highly Recommended

01 – Mari-Anna
02 – Leo The Jester
03 – (Aren’t We All) Searching
04 – Geneva
05 – Cosmic Lullaby
06 – Opening Night
07 – Finale
08 – Statements and Demands
09 – Remembering (MGO)
10 – Goddess
BONUS TRACK:
11 – Where Have All The Dancers Gone?

Vocals, Percussion – David West-Mullen
Guitar, Vocals – John Overton
Bass, Vocals – Larry Phillips
Drums, Percussion, Vocals – Tony Boden
Producer, Keyboards – Chris Tsangarides

BUY IT
www.amazon.com/First-Investment-MONEY/dp/B0012908T6