MICHAEL FURY – Affairs In Babylon [AOR Heaven digitally remastered] (2021) *0dayrox Exclusive*
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AOR Heaven Records just released a remastered limited edition of cult classic Canadian AOR album “Affairs In Babylon“, from MICHAEL FURY, which is not an individual but the name of the band which was formed in 1979 by singer Myles Hunter (formerly of the Canadian band Avalon), guitarist Rob Kennedy and bassist Martyn Jones, with the name of MICHAEL FURY being chosen after a character in the James Joyce story ‘The Dead’.
Originally released via a small label in Canada only (1984), the band soon secured a deal with an American company and re-named themselves REFUGEE, releasing two fantastic AOR albums. In fact, Refugee’s first album consists of re-mixed and re-recorded of half the tracks from this MICHAEL FURY first LP.
But 5 songs, awesome songs, remain exclusive to this LP, for decades impossible to find. Now it’s being available on CD for the first time, a wonderful piece of mi-Eighties Canadian AOR.
In the early ’80s MICHAEL FURY played a reasonable amount of gigs in their native country until they they put the band on hold to write new material. Then Hunter met keyboard player Howard Helm (ex ZON) who joined the group with drummer Dave Mihal.
The band signed a deal to a small local label soon after, and the debut “Affairs In Babylon” finally came out in 1984, on LP and cassette.
The group toured Canada extensively but due to some identity confusion between the band name MICHAEL FURY and singer’s name Myles Hunter the situation soon became difficult. First of all, the label tried to market the group as a solo act which did not work well for anyone involved, including Hunter himself.
When MICHAEL FURY then received an offer from an US based major label, they decided to buy back the rights for their album, to re-mix and re-record most of the parts and also to add five new songs. Brian Doerner (Helix) joined the group on drums. “Affairs In Babylon” at the time was re-issued under the new band name REFUGEE.
But this is the original recording done in Canada. Among the highlights, ‘Through The Thunder’ is full of parping synths underpinned by guitar riffs and solos. This should have been all over the radio back in the day.
Plenty of uptempo melodic rock to be enjoyed include ‘(Janie) Here We Go Again’ and ‘White Wine and Roses’. The latter allows Howard Helm to show off his keyboards skills. All this and ballads too, like the album’s closing song ‘Love Comes Down’. You can almost feel the heat from the lighters in the air on this one…
MICHAEL FURY’s “Affairs In Babylon” is now, for the first time ever, available on CD as a limited mail order edition of 1000 copies.
The tapes of this original recording were lost in America when the band moved there in 1985. So this reissue has been carefully restored from vinyl and digitally remastered by Anthony Panacci. The resulting sound quality is good, clean, and it’s a pleasure to be able to enjoy this cult AOR album again.
HIGHLY Recommended
Only at 0dayrox
01 – Affairs In Babylon
02 – Through The Thunder Of Another Night
03 – Pictures And Prints
04 – There’s Gonna Be A Fire Tonight
05 – These Are The Good Times
06 – (Janie) Here We Go Again
07 – Hot Words
08 – …And We All Go Down To The River
09 – White Wine And Roses
10 – Love Comes Down
Myles Hunter – Lead Vocals
Rob Kennedy – Guitar, Vocals
Martyn Jones – Bass, Vocals
Dave Mihal – Drums
Greg Bociek, Howard Helm – Keyboards
BUY
www.aorheaven.com/index.php/englisch_a/michael-fury-affairs-in-babylon-digitally-remastered.html
Myles Hunter passed away December 20th, 2017 aged 60.
The bio is interesting, but not accurate…
I was introduced to Myles by an agent in Toronto in 1979. We worked together on a number of songs and put the original band together with Martyn; we eventually found Rob after a long series of guitarist auditions. Through 1979 to 1981, we had three other keyboard players until Greg came into the band. Howard came in much later after working with Toronto rock band “Zon”.
A lot of these tunes were written in Myles’ apartment late in the evening. We used to sit around in the living room with acoustic guitars and I played the drum parts on the couch and foot stool.
I still feel that one of the best songs to come out of these writing sessions was “These Are The Good Times”; the first demo is even BETTER than what we recorded for the album…!!