Some bands just evoke a place and a time and to me Heavy Pettin’ always reminds me of the early days of my lifelong love affair with Rock and Roll when I first started to see bands play live.
Formed in Glasgow in 1981 Heavy Pettin’ (named after UFO’s 1976 studio album), came together when “guitarist Gordon Bonnar, drummer Gary Moat, bassist Brian Waugh, vocalist Steve ‘Hamie’ Hayman and lead guitarist Punky Mendoza joined forces to give the biggest and best rock bands at the time a serious run for their money.”
This is their debut, though on the same day their other two offerings get re-released, and whilst the others are fine in and of themselves, this is the record for me, and one that transcends its anachronistic production to really standout as one of the early greats of the decade.
Some bands in the 80’s you find yourselves wondering if only they’d appeared sooner would they have been bigger, but with Heavy Pettin’ I always wondered what might have happened if they’d hit the scene a couple of years later than their first full length in ’83 – the Brian May and Reinhold Mack produced ‘Lettin’ Loose.’
The songs are there you see but the big breakthrough bands for this sort of Harder Melodic Rock sound, like Bon Jovi for example were still to emerge (Bon Jovi’s debut came the next year).
Best known for the Melodic Hard Rockers – ‘In And Out of Love’ and ‘Love Times Love’ there’s a sound that, sure, does owe something to the likes of UFO but which also pre-guesses the late eighties excesses of Hair Metal. For me this is a record up there with Bon Jovi’s debut.
All releases: http://cherryred.co/HeavyPettinReissues
