LITTLE ANGELS – Don’t Prey For Me [Cherry Red remastered +7] *0dayrox Exclusive*

More requests on the go: here’s the now rare, out of print, expensive (over €120) digitally remastered version of LITTLE ANGELS cracking album ”Don’t Prey For Me” done by Cherry Red / Lemon Recordings including 7 bonus tracks.
Scarborough’s favorites sons burst onto the UK rock scene with their radio-friendly American-style hard rock in the late 80s. Attracting attention and column inches with their superb musicianship and youthful enthusiasm (one tour was dubbed ‘Rock And Roll Education’ and saw the band playing school halls by day and concert venues by night!), they signed to Polydor Records in 1988.
Preceded by the “Big Bad EP” which contained four non-album tracks (all included here as bonus cuts), this major label debut long-player propelled Little Angels in amongst the ‘big boys’ of British Melodic Hard Rock and led to support slots opening for Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses and Van Halen.
To capitalize on the band’s growing popularity, Polydor hurriedly issued the “Get Radical EP” which broke the UK Top 40 for the first time (two tracks included here as bonus cuts) and led to a UK headlining tour.

Some suggested Little Angels were mere Bon Jovi clones, others, The Who reborn! The truth? Well that lay somewhere in between. Either way the album was a mighty statement, and one which stands loud and proud to this day, “Do You Wanna Riot” pulsating, “Kick Hard” and “Kicking Up Dust” anthemic, all three sitting comfortably alongside the beautiful acoustic led “Don’t Pray For Me” (note the difference in spelling between the album and song titles) and heart tugging “Broken Wings Of An Angel”.

Impressively, all songs on this album have stood the test of time, “Big Bad World” and “No Solution” positively bursting with energy, “When I Get Out Of Here” nodding to a Classic Rock heritage, “Promises” taking that idea step further.
In Jepson what the Little Angels’ had was a singer of real force, but also stunning precision, great range and captivating presence (if this band were great in the studio, catching them live really was something special), while in guitarist Bruce John Dickinson, Little Angels possessed one of the least appreciated but most talented six stringer the UK had produced for many a year.

Drummer Michael Lee went on to have successful stints with The Cult and Robert Plant among others, before his untimely death in 2008, with his ex-band mates maintaining to this day that the percussionist was actually the most talented lad in the band. Unfortunately Lee’s departure from Little Angels a few years down wasn’t on the best of terms; something the rest of the band only really began to reconcile at the drummer’s funeral, an occasion which proved to be the catalyst for an all too brief reunion during 2012-13. Proof that at least some comfort can come from tragic circumstances.

This Cherry Red / Lemon Records reissue not only presents the Don’t Prey For Me album in its original ten track glory, but also adds a further seven bonuses. “Pleasure Pyre” was originally only featured on the cassette version, while the superb standalone single “Radical Your Lover” (co-written by Dan Reed!),
Other bonus highlight is phenomenal “She’s A Little Angel” from the Big Bad EP, which, along with the other three tracks from that release also features here – “Sex In Cars” still being a tongue (and maybe other things…) in cheek masterpiece.
The extras are excellently rounded out by “Don’t Love You No More” from the impossible to find ‘Get Radical EP’.

Little Angels would go on to have many top 40 hits in the UK, amazingly, a million selling number 1 album and a farewell show at The Royal Albert Hall.
However there’s an irresistible energy and charm to this first major label outing and I’d suggest that if any UK Rockers delivered a debut of this class in 2021, we’d be raising them on our shoulders and proclaiming them as the new messiahs of Rock. If only more of us had done exactly that in 1989…
HIGHLY Recommended

Only at 0dayrox

01 – Do You Wanna Riot
02 – Kick Hard
03 – Big Bad World
04 – Kickin’ Up Dust
05 – Don’t Pray For Me
06 – Broken Wings Of An Angel
07 – Bitter & Twisted
08 – Promises
09 – When I Get Out Of Here
10 – No Solution
BONUS TRACKS:
11 – Pleasure Pyre (Not on Original Vinyl LP)
12 – She’s A Little Angel (Big Bad EP)
13 – Don’t Waste My Time (Big Bad EP)
14 – Better Than The Rest (Big Bad EP)
15 – Sex In Cars (Big Bad EP)
16 – Don’t Love You No More (Get Radical EP)
17 – Radical Your Lover (Get Radical EP)

Toby Jepson – lead vocals, acoustic guitar
Bruce John Dickinson – guitars
Jimmy Dickinson – keyboards, synths, backing vocals
Mark Plunkett – bass, backing vocals
Michael Lee – drums, percussion

Try here:
www.amazon.com/LITTLE-ANGELS/dp/B002RBNNU4