format: 7"
year: 1980
country: UK
label: private
#: CU 001
info: Reissued on CD by Obscure NWOBHM Releases in 2003
style: Hard Rock, NWoBHM
7" tracklist:
A1: House
On Chester Road
A2: Preacher
B: Who's My Killer
CD tracklist:
One is tempted to call C.U. a "one-hit wonder", but then again they never unloaded truckloads of the EP at the time. It was released in 1980 in a very limited issue, especially the picture sleeve edition, and one dare not imagine the pricetags on the market today. The "hit" in question is the EP flipside "Who's My Killer", a great 70's upbeat, Heavy rocker with some Glam/new waveish SPARKS/ROXY MUSIC sprinkles for extra flavor, but heavy enough to at least qualify as "semi-classic" NWOBHM.
The CD reissue bonus material is a bit more up & down. The remaining 2 EP cuts aren't
quite as exciting. "House on Chester Road" don't qualify as
Hard Rock in my book, more like classic Rock a la STONES and the likes,
while "Preacher" is a softer but more likable melancholic tune.
The rest of this disc contains their only other known recording, a demo
quickly recorded after the release of the single. There's a handful of
decent Hard Rock pieces here, like the LED ZEPPELIN-sounding "Sometimes
I go out of my mind", faster rockers like "Try it again"
and some really heavy riffing in songs like "Memories" and "Keep
the peace". The main purpose of these kind of CD-reissues of old
bands is usually to dig up all material by the band in question, to satisfy
the hungry completists of this world. This has both it's up- and downsides.
It's always nice to have more material to complete the picture of the
band and it's sound, but this way you also get a lot of throwaway material
that would never have got past the rehearsal-stages. There's a handful
of fine examples of such redundant material on this CD, really generic
boogie-rockers like "To get back home" and "Time to go"
as well as some lame ballads I won't bother mentioning. "Digby Rising"
is nice though. If you've got a tolerance for BEATLES-mania that is.
Manic and open-minded NWOBHM collectors and/or those who incorporate bands
like CHEVY and WHITE SPIRIT in their NWOBHM-adorations should definitely
give this CD a chance, but the rest of us Metalheads might wanna pass
this one. Let's hope ONR have the wits to also market CHARLIE 'UNGRY among
the 70's fans and distributors, because that's where they are likely to
find the most buyers. Who knows, 25 years from now this CD might be a
lost collector's item like the original EP, and perhaps someone on a similar
publication will give it a less skeptical review. So what's next on the
ONR-label then? Dare one hope for SPARTA? OMEN SEARCHER? or the incredible
REINCARNATE?? Oh, it's GOLDSMITH. Aw well.....