Shot Down in Flames (CD) (Remaster)

Shot Down In Flames - The Definitive Remasters It was the summer of 1980. The Rick Santers Band, as they were known then, was cutting it's teeth on the local club circuit in Toronto. Between lugging gear and afternoon sound checks, that would pause so as not interfere with the scheduled exotic dancer shows, Rick Santers along with his brother Mark and bassist Rick Lazaroff were eager to rehearse their newly written songs so they could to introduce them into their live set. In the early days the band's live repertoire consisted of a healthy dose of Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Who cover songs, which were rock music staples for the audience at the time. So, when original songs like quot;Turn Me Onquot; started to get a rousing round of beer-bottle-on-table-top applause, it meant that Rick Santers needed to write more songs to add to the band's set list. It was during one of their first tours outside of Ontario, in quot;la belle provincequot;, when they finally got the call from their manager. One week of studio time was arranged to record their first album, or at least that's what they expected it to be. Rick recalls, quot;Now the pressure was on to write more songs and put the finishing touches on others. During the daytime while the club was closed for business we got together and rehearsed every original SANTERS song we had, in spite of putting in three, sometimes four sets a night performing until the early morning hoursquot;. In December of that year the band returned home and settled in at Masters Workshop recording studio in Rexdale Ontario for it's first sessions. Before digital recording, analogue tape recording was king. The sessions were recorded onto a 24 track Studer A80 machine running 2quot; tape. The recording console was a 1960's Neve, and it came with the standard assortment of vintage microphones, compressors, limiters, delays along with some very nice plate reverbs. The band had only one week to record and mix twelve songs. They began by recording the bed tracks (guitar, bass and drums) which were cut in the first couple of days. The lead and background vocal tracks along with solo guitar tracks and keyboard tracks were recorded over the following sessions. That left only three days to mix all the songs. The instrument line-up read like a rock and roll text book. Rick Santers had his 1964 Fender Stratocaster and his 1967 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe pumped through a 50 watt Marshall and 4 x 12 cabinet. Rick Lazaroff had a 1971 Fender Precision Bass running through an Ampeg SVT while Mark Santers played his vintage Ludwig kit. With the album being almost complete producer Bob Connolly suggested that they record a cover tune. That evening Rick was listening to albums (the vinyl kind). He tripped across an old K-Tel record, quot;24 Electrifying Hitsquot;, and heard a song he remembered from when he was eight years old. The song was called quot;The Rapperquot; by The Jaggerz. After hearing it Rick knew right away that the band could really put the boots to the song. So, he quickly wrote out an arrangement for the guys to learn for the next day's recording session. The song was cut in only two takes and became the first track on side one. Songs written on the road, last minute daytime rehearsals in the clubs, and five days of recording with three days of mixing. The result: SANTERS debut album. Shot Down In Flames was released in 1981 in Canada and Europe and spawned classics like quot;Time after Timequot;, quot;You Turn Me Onquot; and the title track quot;Shot Down in Flamesquot;. Now, aft