Fastway. 1983 England

Last year I wrote about Fastway's sophomore album All Fired Up!, a very fine hard rock effort. I spoke about the history of the band there, so I won't cover that again. Now I've happened upon the debut, which I was more familiar with in the past. Primarily the song 'Say What You Will', which received decent airplay real time. Overall though, this debut is the template for future releases. Pure Zeppelin-ish hard rock. Which is why I didn't go for it much back in the day. By 1983, bands like Metallica were showing up, and that's what I wanted out of heavy metal. And yes, the latter designation is where Fastway was placed back then, due to its Motorhead heritage. But it's not metal at all. This is pure unabated late 70s styled hard rock, which obviously I appreciate more now than in my youth. I enjoyed this more than All Fired Up!, and I'll probably only keep one. This will likely be the sole representative for my collection. A decision for another day.

Ownership: LP: 1983 Columbia. Single sleeve with lyric inner bag. I like the simplicity of the checkered race flag cover - says what it needs to say. Found for a $1 at an estate sale (same one as the Goedert that I wrote about yesterday). Not as common an album as one would think (in the wilds) as I'm sure it sold quite a bit of copy back in the day.

8/30/22 (new entry)

Fastway - All Fired Up! 1984 England

Fastway was originally created by Fast Eddie Clarke of Motorhead and Pete Way of UFO (hence the name), but the latter didn't stick around long enough to record. This new band was all the talk in the metal magazines of 1982 and 1983. When I heard the debut - or at least parts of it - it wasn't heavy enough for me, and I passed on the band. Here we are some 38 years later, and I'm hearing a Fastway album for the first time all the way through. All Fired Up! is their sophomore effort, and isn't really metal at all. This is tried and true mid 1970s hard rock, bluesy style. Better than Whitesnake, but not as nuanced as Led Zeppelin. Dave King is an excellent singer and Clarke's guitar riffs and solos are solid. Good album for the style, though nothing that climbs a new mountain. I'll keep it for now. Maybe it's just me, but doesn't Clarke look like one of the Founding Fathers? Put a powdered wig on him and take a gander. There's a thought - Fast Eddie Clarke penning the US Constitution. Why not - everything else seems to have happened in the last 5 years...

Ownership: LP: 1984 Columbia (USA). Single sleeve. Always happy to find albums by bands like Fastway in the thrift bin, which is highly unusual, especially in mint condition like this. 

1/30/21; 12/10/21 (new entry)