IN HEARING OF ATOMIC ROOSTER

Given that Atomic Rooster had a single in the charts, the classic "Devil's Answer" (written by singer/guitarist John Cann), it might seem strange that band leader Vincent Crane invited Paul French to join the band as singer. Pete's first job was to re-record all of the vocals for 'In Hearing Of', at which time Vincent sacked John who left, taking with him drummer Paul Hammond. The result was an album being released, but with only two band members still there. There had been a clash caused by John's love of hard rock, and Vincent wanting to take the band in a different direction. It wasn't the last time that Vincent showed who was boss.

Pete was a different type of singer to John (as can be heard on the American version of "Devil's Answer", included here as one of the bonus cuts, where Pete again overdubbed his vocals onto John's), while Vincent wanted the music to be less hard rock and much more keyboard based. In fact, he removed many of John's guitar parts from the recordings. The album itself is very consistent, and gives an inkling of what the band might have achieved if they had stayed together and if they had decided to consolidate the home market before embarking on breaking the States, but it wasn't meant to be. The booklet goes a long way to trying to make sense of what was troubled times for the band, with lots of quotes from Pete himself. The band toured with Ric Parnell (later in Spinal Tap, believe it or not!) back in the band on drums, and guitarist Steve Bolton, but Pete French was quickly disillusioned with the whole thing and accepted an invitation to join Cactus.

Originally appeared in Feedback #79, May 2004