Fastway began as, basically, a supergroup. You had former Motorhead guitarist “Fast Eddie” Clarke and former UFO bassist Pete Way, hence the name Fastway, accompanied by former Clash drummer Topper Headon, but Topper only rehearsed with the band for a few weeks before deciding against making it a full time commitment. Clarke and Way eventually recruited former Humble Pie drummer Gerry Shirley. Clarke found his singer in a pile of demo tapes he’d been sent, a red-headed Irishman named Dave King. Fastway swiftly signed with Columbia and booked studio time to record their debut album.
The album opens with the killer theme song the band penned for the film, entitled (duh) “Trick Or Treat.” You’ll probably notice that Dave King sounds a lot like Jack Russell from Great White on these songs.
That great song is followed by an even better song called “After Midnight.” Vocalist Dave King had quit the band by the time the video for the s
ong was filmed and Fast Eddie made the dubious choice of having none other than Tony Fields, Sammi Curr himself, lip sync the tune for the video.
ong was filmed and Fast Eddie made the dubious choice of having none other than Tony Fields, Sammi Curr himself, lip sync the tune for the video.
The third song on the record, “Don’t Stop The Fight,” is just as good as the first two. These are excellent pop metal tunes, what else can I say? Keep it simple stupid.
The next song is called “Stand Up” and it’s not terrible, it has a decent hook but it’s a bit plodding, gets kinda boring. Not as good as those first three, that’s for sure.
Side One ends with a short, upbeat yet generic tune called “Tear Down The Walls” that was obviously written to work as an interstitial piece in the film. Side Two opens with an excellent hard rocker called “Get Tough.”
Next up is a bouncy rocker called “Hold On To The Night.” It’s a really good song, I like it a lot, but it doesn’t sound at all like the rest of the album. I’m guessing it was written for a specific scene or to serve a specific purpose in the film, but I’d have to watch the film again to figure out what scene or what purpose. Thanks but no thanks. The last two songs on the record are classic Fastway tunes: “Heft” from the first album and “If You Could See” from the second. The latter is a great ballad, one of the better metal ballads of the early eighties.
And that’s that. A quality album all the way through, one of those records you can just put on and let it play. And thanks to Youtube, you can do just that right now, one click.