THE PAUL GODFREY BAND – More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology (1988 / 2008)
Established in the San Fransisco Bay Area, during the ’80s there was several incarnations of THE PAUL GODFREY BAND, fronted by guitarist and songwriter Paul Godfrey. At the half of the decade the group turned a female-fronted melodic rock band with the classic American sound from the genre spiced with radio-friendly AOR melodies. At charge of the mic was Celeste Alexander, Paul Godfrey’s wife.
After several demos, The Paul Godfrey Band recorded their self-titled 8-track debut LP released via private label Dolphin Productions in 1988. Only few vinyls were pressed resulting sold-out in few months and turning over the years a collector’s piece.
However, two years after the album was re-released for the first time on CD re-titled ‘Magic Touch’ including two previously unreleased tracks and different covert art. Yet again, the reissue went out of print soon becoming another highly-priced, hard to track down artifact that only true connoisseurs of AOR-thirsty ever got to hear.
Fortunately, twenty years after the original LP, the album was re-released again including the 2 extra tracks, plus 5 previously unreleased demos recorded by the band in 1987, hence the ‘more of the same excellence‘ title: “More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology“.
While these demos are good and fun, the real pearl here is the main album, a collection of pure US ’80s Melodic Rock / AOR of the highest order, at least female-fronted speaking.
This pop-up comparisons to bands / artists in the same style like Scandal or Cindy Valentine but The Paul Godfrey Band at places sound like many well known all-male bands in the genre. Additionally, Paul provides back up / supporting vocals on most tracks, and full leads on ‘Wild Ones’.
There’s no weak tracks here, even the two cuts left-off in the original LP release are among the best of the bunch. All are catchy, plenty of keyboards and melodic riffs, plus great guitar (solos) contributions by master Marc Bonilla and John Wedemeyer (Starship).
THE PAUL GODFREY BAND’s “More Of The Same Excellence; The Anthology” is a delicious slice of pure mid-80s American Melodic Rock / AOR still unheard by many fans of the genre.
HIGHLY Recommended
01 – Magic Touch
02 – Only One
03 – Love Lies Deep
04 – Never Felt This Way Before
05 – Too Many Lonely Nights
06 – Tonight
07 – Can’t Get My Mind Off You
08 – Wild Ones
09 – Hold On
10 – Got Lucky (Demo) [bonus track]
11 – Hot Night In The City (Demo) [bonus track]
12 – Jenny (Demo) [bonus track]
13 – Can’t Live Without You (Demo) [bonus track]
14 – Tonight (Demo) [bonus track]
Paul Godfrey: lead & back-up vocals, guitar
Celeste Alexander: lead vocals
Paul Fox: bass, vocals
Kirk Gibbs: keyboards, vocals
Norm Plischke: drums
additional musicians:
Marc Bonilla: guitar
Don Frank: drums
David Nowlin: bass
John Wedemeyer: guitar
Doug Caldwell: keyboards
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