THICK RICHARD – Fire It Up [Retrospect Records first time on CD]

As requested, we have here the debut album from American melodic hard rockers THICK RICHARD titled “Fire It Up“, for the first time on CD reissued by Retrospect Records. This 5-piece was formed in 1985 in Sacramento, California, from the ashes of a local band called Front Runner, and inspired by the Arena rock US acts from the era.
While this facetiously named band started playing pretty straight hard rock, the trend of the moment was mainstream Melodic Rock / AOR and you can hear these genres throughout their debut “Fire It Up”, which it was recorded between 1986-87 but released in 1988 by themselves.

With the line-up consisting of songwriter / guitarist Mark Adorni, vocalist Brian Burch, keyboardist/guitarist Perry Clark, bassist Terry Justin and drummer Darrell Hale the band toured the US West Coast and South Pacific coast circuit and temporarily established in L.A. They signed a publishing deal with Michael O’Conner Music and recorded the songs for this debut in various studios

The music is driven by the tasty guitar work from Adorni and a sprinkling of keys along with some really catchy tunes / choruses that should definitely appeal to the ’80s AOR connoisseurs as well as Melodic Hard Rock aficionados.
‘Soldier Of Fortune’, ‘Face It’, ‘Against The Grain’, ‘Breakin’ The Spell’ are among the best songs here, feel-good stuff with American flavor circa 1985-86.
Very cool stuff for fans of the genre and collectors of obscure bands / material from the ’80s US Melodic Rock / AOR indie scene.

01. Fire It Up
02. Soldier Of Fortune
03. Pick Your Poison
04. Face It
05. For The Record
06. Against The Grain
07. Calendar Girl
08. Breakin’ The Spell
09. Lost In The Shuffle

Brian Burch – Vocals
Mark Adorni – Guitar
Perry Clark – Keyboards, Guitar
Terry Justin – Bass
Darrell Hale – Drums

Out Of Print