Midnight Flyer CD: "Midnight Flyer"

Sleeve and track listing

Hey Boy
Love Games
French Kisses
In My Eyes
Over And Over
Last Resort
Do You Want My Love
Sweet Loving Woman
What Ever I Want
Midnight Love
Rough Trade
Rock 'n' Roll Party¹
Waiting For You¹

¹Bonus track on CD

Review

Midnight Flyer was Maggie Bell's band in the early 80's. This was their self-titled first and only album, as after two years solid road work they didn't achieve the breakthrough many had expected. Maggie certainly demonstrates that she is one of the UK's finest female rock vocalists but the band perhaps don't live up to the standard their pedigree suggests. Glance through the CVs of the various band members and you'll see mentioned the likes of Savoy Brown, Whitesnake, Bernie Marsden, Hudson-Ford, the Tommy soundtrack LP as well as years of session work, so you expect a band bristling with experience. Add to that Mick Ralphs (Mott The Hoople, Bad Company) in the producer's chair and this should have been a smash.

Something is missing, tho'. That undefinable "something" that turns a band into something better and sets them on the road to greatness. Somehow the songs don't make it and ultimately are forgettable, the listener struggling to remember what they were like even after repeated listens. Does Mick Ralphs help out on guitar (the sleeve notes suggest yes, but guitarist Anthony Glynne tells me no)? If so, it doesn't rescue what ends up, sadly, as a disappointing album.