NICK GILDER – Nick Gilder ’85 [YesterRock remaster] *HQ*
320_1 /// 320_2 /// HQ 1 /// HQ 2
You remember NICK GILDER, don’t you? He goes way back. He was the lead singer for Sweeney Todd, one of Vancouver’s more popular glam/glitter rock bands in the Seventies. When Gilder left the band to pursue a solo career, he was replaced in Sweeney Todd by a young dude named… Bryan Adams.
Gilder released a couple of solo albums, scoring a late 70s hit, the power pop meets classic R&B hit “Hot Child In The City”, but later a legal battle with his record label put him on hiatus. Anyway, Gilder continued writing songs for others, such as Scandal’s hit single ‘The Warrior’, co-penned with talented Holly Knight.
The success of ”The Warrior” lead to Gilder sign a deal with MCA. Released in 1985, the self-titled “Nick Gilder” was pure ’80s. This is the YesterRock reissue, fully remastered.
Distinguishing himself mainly with his gender neutral appearance and voice, and knack for writing clever pop-rock songs, “Nick Gilder” has that mid-Eighties radio-friendly sound, very well produced by Peter Coleman (The Sweet, Suzi Quatro) and featuring top session musicians including Mr. Mister’s Pat Mastelotto on drums. On the songwriting side, one song here is co-written with Pat Benatar and Rick Springfield’s hit producer Bill Drescher, track #2 ‘Footsteps’.
While writing songs for a publishing agency, Gilder’s A&R man Paul Atkinson, a former member of The Zombies, had signed Patty Smyth & Scandal to their deal. Gilder contributed the song ‘The Warrior’ for Scandal’s debut, and MCA offered a record deal.
The majority of the record was co-produced with Peter Coleman who along with Mike Chapman had made Gilder’s ‘City Nights’ previous LP on Chrysalis. These were the days of particularly big budgets and they did some video work for the song ‘Footsteps’. This song was later featured in the movie ”Youngblood”.
“Nick Gilder’ has great players involved including Gilder’s bass player from the Nick Gilder Group that played on City Nights, Pat Mastelloto on all the drums, and producer Steve Sykes on guitar. Jeff Silverman (Rick Springfield Band) also did some guitar work, as well as Mitchell Fromm (Santana, Rick Springfield Band) and Phil Shenale (Lisa Hartman, Rick Springfield Band) some keyboards.
Songs like Scream Of Angels, Miles to Go (co-written with former Sweeney Todd guitarist Jamie Herndon), Footsteps, Fingerprints, are great examples of Nick Gilder crafting sweet lite AOR / rock&pop music, very Eighties in nature, augmented by the boomy drums and synths.
Highly Recommended
01 – Scream Of Angels
02 – Footsteps
03 – Let Me In
04 – Fingerprints
05 – Miles To Go
06 – Waterfront
07 – Rebel
08 – Nowhere To Run
09 – Sabotage
10 – Don’t Forget
Vocals, Guitar – Nick Gilder
Bass – Eric Nelson
Drums – Pat Mastelotto
Guitar – Steve Sykes
Keyboards – Charlie Giordano
Saxophone on 9 – Tom Scott
Guitar – Jeff Silverman
Keyboards – Mitchell Fromm, Phil Shenale
BUY
www.amazon.co.uk/Nick-Gilder/dp/B00D1MVUKS
