UK legends Briar are gearing up to issue their 1988/89 Demo recordings Reach Out thanks to the folks at Mighty Monster Records and Battle Cry Records. Briar‘s Facebook page posted this short teaser news a few hours ago: “The 3rd release from those fine Battle Cry Records & Mighty Monster Records dudes will be our fine 1988/89 demo’s REACH OUT….more news on this CD release soon!”
Briar formed in 1979 in Birmingham, UK. Founding member and Briar drummer Dean Cook recollects: “Briar started as a school band, at school myself & Kevin Griffiths were into Motorhead, UFO, Black Sabbath and all our mates were the same so we decided to start a couple of bands, just really to play in the school hall… the band myself & Kev started was I think called Emerald or Lucifer can’t remember which… but we went thru both of those names at some point, I’ve gotta be honest I can’t remember the names of the people in that original band but we became a band (kinda) for real when we got our mates David Tattam (Bass) & Dean Rogers (Guitar) involved.”
The debut album Too Young was recorded and released in 1985 and it was very well received by fans and media alike. Hot on the heels of Too Young they put out their sophomore effort Take On the World in 1986 on the GBB label (reissued on CD by Battle Cry Records in 2012) which was a great album filled with 80’s metal favoured by pop melodies and choruses. This album landed Briar a major label deal with Sony/CBS Records. Through them, the classic third album Crown of Thorns was released in 1988 and spawned a hit single in “Frankie” that saw rotation on MTV. To show they had more in store Briar immediately went into the studio and recorded another full album worth of material called Reach Out which remains unreleased to this day.
