Yeah, great stuff, Vinny!
Big Toto influence there, no? If I had to guess, I'd say the album "Isolation" from 1984 sounded closest, but that's probably 'cause it fell square into the mid-'80s pop-rock era of chorussed guitar and big snares. Hmm...
Yes, Isolation was a massive influence on me. It’s one of the reasons I went and bought a Mesa Mk series head once we had signed to A&M.
Back then, we were also really into Foreigner, Mr Mister, Journey etc. Working with Mike Shipley and Larry Klein on that album certainly helped to get those sounds. In the UK, I did practically all the distorted rhythms and main solos on my Mk3.
When we went to LA to finish the album, we did all the clean guitars and all the guitar ad libs through the songs.
We were renting loads of stuff from Andy Brauer. This was the first time I got to use Bradshaw systems. We rented a few off him as well as Mesa Mk3, Mk2C+ and Caliber 50 amps. One of the amps was Luke’s MK2C+ head. His name was stencilled on the front of the flight case. I asked him about it years later and he said he had no idea Brauer was renting his amp out. ?
Great times. In LA, we were recording in Joni Mitchell’s house in Bel Air as she was then married to Larry Klein one of our producers. I was only 22 (had my 23’s birthday out there). Very happy part of my life. Young and single spending a couple of months in 80’s Cali
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