Trapeze - Hot Wire (1974, Remastered 2015)

Fully Remastered Audio, Legendary UK outfits fourth album, Produced by Neil Slaven (Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Stray), Features ‘Back Street Love , Wake Up, Shake Up and Midnight Flyer, 16 page full-colour booklet, 2,500 word essay, brand new interviews with Mel Galley & Pete Wright, enhanced artwork and previously unseen photos.
Trapeze were initially one of the most promising and, later on, revered bands to have emerged from the UK during the 1970s. They blasted their way from obscurity to international acclaim, then, just as stardom beckoned, the carpet was pulled from under their feet when in 1973 vocalist and front man Glenn Hughes opted to leave the band, hitching his wagon to hard rock grandees Deep Purple. The general consensus was that Trapeze would not be able to carry on after such a catastrophic blow yet, against all the odds, they dusted themselves down, retrenched and got back in the ring to fight another day. Choosing to expand the band’s line up, founding members guitarist Mel Galley and drummer Dave Holland opted to recruit fellow Midlanders, bassist Pete Wright and second guitarist Rob Kendrick. Together they took the Trapeze blueprint of funky hard rock and injected it with a far more hook-laden sheen. Showing real growth the band’s sound evolved incrementally, with Mel Galley taking on lead vocals, there were now songs that wouldn t be out of place in the esteemed company of mid-seventies US arena acts such as Derringer, Montrose and Foghat. Originally issued in 1974 and produced by veteran blues champion Neil Slaven (Savoy Brown, Chicken Shack, Stray) at Island Records Basing Street studios in London, the album contains a stellar selection of hard-hitting tracks, including Back Street Love , Wake Up, Shake Up and the album centrepiece Midnight Flyer.