  
Angel Air/Border
Anyone here who is into 70-ies blues-based rock and the NWOBHM? That will be necessary to maintain this discussion about BRB. The acronym is based on Messrs. Del Bromham (guitars, vocals, STRAY), Gordon Rowley (bass/vocals, NIGHTWING & STRIFE) and Steve Bartley (drums, NIGHTWING). All parties were busy with their respective outfits yet around 1987 a discussion rose of Del joining NIGHTWING, but it all ended up with a separate band. It has taken an impressive 37 years to get the album out, and the name had to be changed not to collide with the Rolf Munkes/Mike Terrana/Stefan Berggren vehicle. Bad luck prevented the band from taking action back then as Gordon became seriously ill. How has the album aged?
The pictures in the booklet are more in the vein of a seventies band than the post-NWOBHM/early thrash area they were aiming at. Opener “Give ´Em Enough Rope” is a take on MOTORHEAD intensity but stubborn as it is it doesn´t reach all the way. Their cover of ALEX HARVEY´S “Faith Healer” is way better, grateful song to do but still very much down to the musicians to get it right. It is a varied album, although with an emphasis on the bluesy seventies, or, slightly, the speedier second part of the eighties. “Here I Go Again” is not a cover put a much slower piece, more like TOM PETTY. A bit out of place here methinks. Motor biker Gordon had “Let´s Go” written for his new bike and that is more like it concerning the day and age this was recorded. But the mellow feeling is here in songs like “Mercenary Man” and “The Game”. But halfway through they seem to get into gear. A cover of TIM ROSE´S “Morning Dew” worked for the likes of NAZARETH and BLACKFOOT too, “Good to Be Alive” has a slight early THIN LIZZY tone to it, though without the soulful voice of PHIL LYNOTT, and “Angel Love” is my pick of the bunch with its stable blues based beat and seventies sound. Perhaps not on the spot back then but it sure fits the band. The oddity “The Book” finishes off with a banjo. It opens like the drum beat of ANGEL WITCH`S “Dr. Phibes”, has a backbone like the Rock´n´Roll riff in “Walk This Way”, but with a banjo instead of rap. It sure is one strange modernization that doesn´t work in my ears. The album has its good sides but also flaws, back then it would probably have had mixed reviws. Nevertheles it will probably find its way to fans of NIGHTWING and STRAY anyway!
Track List
Give ´Em Enough Rope
Faith Healer
Here I Go Again
Let´s Go
Mercenary Man
The Game
Morning Dew
Good to Be Alive
Angel Love
The Book
www.angelair.co.uk www.delbromham.co.uk
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