Cries from the Quiet World: Mama's Boys "Growing Up The Hard Way"

martes, 13 de octubre de 2020

Mama's Boys "Growing Up The Hard Way"

In 1987, former Airrace vocalist Keith Murrell was brought in after Rick Chase started having trouble with his vocal cords and they recorded the album Growing Up The Hard Way. The new wave of British heavy metal, as played by established bands such as Iron Maiden and Saxon, was quickly giving way to the softer and more melodic "hair metal" sound, typified by the emergence of Bon Jovi and other American metal bands, who were scoring big hit singles. Therefore, it was obvious that the route to breaking the band into the big time was now to follow suit. The resulting album, which had a very positive review from Kerrang! magazine, was a far more commercial and radio friendly sound than their previous work, and had gorgeous sound quality. The most obvious choice for a lead single was perhaps the track "Waiting for a Miracle" which was duly released (along with the superb funk rock cover of the Stevie Wonder song "Higher Ground"). With a video and suitably coiffed lead singer, it seemed that "Waiting For A Miracle", with its catchy chorus and suitably colourful 1980s bright blue sleeve, (albeit with a "dead body" child's doll on the front) would be the band's "Livin On A Prayer" and launch them into the spotlight at last.

Inexplicably, this was not the case. Neither single from the album charted in the UK, and the album was regarded by fans as too commercial sounding compared to their previous work. As with Saxon's attempt to ride the new hair metal trend with singles like the chart orientated "I Can't Wait Anymore", Mamas Boys failed to please both their current fanbase nor capture a new audience. The reasons for this unexpected failure are debatable, but it certainly was not the quality of the music, as "Growing Up The Hard Way" not only sounded state of the art, but the songs on the album were catchy, well crafted and with an excellent vocal performance from Keith Murrell. Perhaps it's fair to say that more TV appearances in the UK at that time would have found the audience they needed. The album was produced by Phil Begley who had produced the successful single "Pop music" by "M", so the album's failure to break the band into the big time is even more of a mystery. The Jive contract, which ended that year, was not renewed and Murrell left in 1988 to join Cliff Richard as a backing singer. Connor McKeon replaced Keith on 1989, but this was short lived and he was replaced by Mike Wilson.

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