Chain

Chain - Child of the Street - 1985 - Team/EMI

Although Chain are not a high profile band outside Australia, they are a very good blues rock band, and arguably the greatest blues band Australia has ever produced. The band was named by the Australian Blues Singer, Wendy Saddington, after Aretha Franklin's famous "Chain of Fools" song. They count musicians like Muddy Waters, Buddy Goy, Miles Davis, Paul Butterfield Blues Band, and Howlin Wolf as being large influences in their music style. Phil Manning, a great guitarist with Chain has worked hard to increase the popularity of blues music in Australia. The band have recorded with the Muddy Waters Band, and toured with Albert Collins and the Icebreakers and many other great artists. This particular Chain album saw the re-formation of Chain's classic "Towards the Blues" line-up (Matt Taylor, Phil Manning, Barry Harvey, and Barry Sullivan). The album is not in the progressive blues mould of their "Towards" album. "Child of the Street" has a more conventional rock and blues song structurre, but it is a more than competent blues rock album. In parts the album is reminiscent of the blues/boogie rock style of Canned Heat. The playing is what you would expect from a band of this experience and talent. If you can find their 1969 "Chain Live" album, give it a listen, and buy the band's great 1974 "Two Of A Kind" album which features Pee Wee Madison and Mojo Beaufort from the Muddy Waters Band. This band deserves a worldwide hearing. For detailed info on Chain, visit http://www.milesago.com/artists/chain.htm

TRACKS

01. Child of the Street
02. Missile
03. Messages
04. I Don’t Want To Be Like Anyone Else
05. (Doin’) The Highway 31 Shuffle
06. More Than A Man Can Stand
07. The Ginza
08. Outrage
09. A Tribute To Muddy Waters
10. The Night

BAND

Matt Taylor - guitar, vocals, harmonica
Phil Manning - guitar
Barry Harvey - drums
Barry Sullivan - bass

BIO

Over 40 musicians have been a member of Chain, one of Australia's premier blues bands that has been going strong for over three decades. Formed from the remnants of Perth band the Beaten Tracks in 1968, the Chain were named by singer Wendy Saddington after the classic soul track "Chain of Fools." Saddington soon left and the band released one of Australia's first progressive blues singles, "Show Me Home," in 1969. Soon after, the Chain shortened their moniker to Chain. In June 1970, Chain recorded the classic live album, Live Chain, at Caesar's Palace discotheque, and along with other Australian acts like Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs, Carson, and the Adderley Smith Blues Band, were considered at the forefront of the Australian blues movement. Signing a new deal with Infinity, the blues subsidiary of Festival, Chain released the single "Black and Blue," which reached number ten on the national charts in May 1971. The classic album Toward the Blues peaked at number six in 1971 and is considered one of Australia's greatest blues albums. The follow-up single, "Judgement," established Chain as the nation's leading progressive blues band. Chain Live Again was released in October 1972 and Chain went on to appear at the first Sunbury Festival in January 1972. In 1973, the band singed with the new Mushroom label and issued the Two of a Kind album. Chain's rotating lineup broke up in 1974 and Mushroom issued the retrospective History of Chain album. Six years later, interest in Chain was still strong and they played at the Mushroom Evolution Concert in January 1982 to celebrate Mushroom's tenth anniversary. They re-formed permanently in 1983 and released Child of the Street in October 1985. Their next album, Australian Rhythm and Blues, was released in April 1988, followed by Blue Metal in May 1990. Several members undertook a tour of Australia in 1991 as Blues Power, while another member, Matt Taylor, toured as Matt Taylor's Chain, who released the album Walls 2 McGoo (Trouble in the Wind) in 1992. The original Chain again undertook a national tour in 1995. © Brendan Swift, All Music Guide