GTR - Nerotrend (1987)

After Steve Howe left Asia in 1984, he and former Yes manager Brian Lane discussed forming a new group, and Lane approached former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. Hackett's last few solo albums had sold disappointingly, and he hoped being part of a new band would sustain his prominence as a guitarist and finance future solo work. They recruited American drummer Jonathan Mover (ex-Marillion), bass guitarist Phil Spalding, and singer Max Bacon, named themselves GTR, and sought to create a contemporary band sound without using keyboards, which Howe felt had become too dominant in Asia. Hackett and Howe's guitars were outfitted with Roland guitar synthesizer pickups, which operated rack synthesizers. While Lane pursued record deals, the band set about recording songs with Howe’s former Asia and Yes colleague Geoff Downes as producer. Howe and Hackett disagreed on method: whereas Howe favoured investment in high-quality studio time, Hackett preferred a relatively low-budget recording approach but greater investment in instruments and technology. Howe's approach prevailed and proved expensive, leaving the group uncomfortably in debt, but the result was released by Arista Records in April 1986, and in the U.S. the album went gold, hit No. 11 on the album charts, and spawned a hit single, 'When The Heart Rules The Mind'. 

While the album was a chart success, it was (and has remained) a work with a mixed and highly debated reputation among rock fans, especially supporters of Genesis and Yes, with accusations of the album containing substandard filler material beyond the two singles, and criticism directed at Max Bacon's strident tenor seeming to be the main issues. GTR toured North America and Europe in 1986, but live rehearsals revealed that the band's "no keyboards" method did not work in concert due to the poor tracking qualities of the guitar synthesizers, and therefore the tour featured keyboard player Matt Clifford in the GTR line-up in order to recreate the studio sound. By the end of the tour the band was falling apart, and his dissatisfaction with both the music and financial management of GTR (as well as a failure to see eye-to-eye with Howe) led to his beginning to question the project. He saw GTR as becoming more of a project than a band, with perhaps the idea of a number of guitarists all getting together, and with this in mind he approached guitarist Brian May of Queen with the suggestion that he join the project. Despite May's initial enthusiasm, the potential collaboration only extended to three tracks demoed with Hackett, and it is unclear whether Hackett ultimately intended May to replace himself or replace Howe. 

The band's debt situation had not improved, and in 1987 Hackett called time on the group, leaving the band and resuming his solo career. Unwilling to give up on the band, Howe tried to continue GTR with Bacon, Spalding, ex-Saxon drummer Nigel Glockler, and a second singer/guitarist, former Hush member Robert Berry. Initial sessions featured both Bacon and Berry as vocalists, but ultimately they were abandoned, with some of the material later resurrected or reused on future albums by group members. Post-GTR, Howe resumed his solo career and rejoined the Yes line-up (initially as part of Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe) while Berry became part of the partial Emerson, Lake & Palmer reunion project 3. Spalding returned to a session career and Glockler returned to Saxon, while Bacon's 1996 solo album 'The Higher You Climb' included some GTR material. The abandoned album was to be called Nerotrend, which was also mooted to be the new name for the band, but nothing ever came of it and so the tapes were locked away, until now. So here is the unreleased second album by GTR, recorded after they fell apart, but before they totally imploded. 

 

Track listing

01 Young Heart
02 Away
03 These Eyes
04 Loneliness
05 Listen To The People
06 Young Blood
07 Running The Human Race
08 Sharp On Attack
09 Endless Nights
10 This World's Big Enough
11 Hungry Warrior
12 You Can't Do That