Alcatrazz Discography (1983-1998)

Alcatrazz Discography

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Artist...............: Alcatrazz

Genre................: Hard Rock

Source...............: NMR

Year.................: 1983-1998

Quality..............: 192kbps (Except where noted)

Channels.............: Joint Stereo / 44100 hz

Tags.................: ID3 v1.1, ID3 v2.3

Covers...............: Front, Back

Information..........: Seperate nfo/sfv for each album

Tracklisting.........: See Full File List



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Albumlisting

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1983 - No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll

1984 - Live Sentence

1984 - Steve Vai's First Stage (bootleg) (256kbps)

1985 - Disturbing the peace (320kbps)

1986 - Dangerous Games

1998 - The Best Of Alcatrazz



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The band's initial line-up consisted of Graham Bonnet (lead vocals), Yngwie

Malmsteen (guitar), Gary Shea (bass), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards, vocals) and

Jan Uvena (drums, vocals). Shea And Waldo were previously members of the

group New England. Uvena had worked with Alice Cooper. Malmsteen had

been in the Swedish Prog-Metal band Silver Mountain and had recently come

to the US and joined the band Steeler for one album. Alcatrazz's material was

written by Bonnet and either Malmsteen or Vai, with Waldo co-writing on a

few select tracks. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz".



The band's debut album "No Parole From Rock 'N' Roll" surfaced in late 1983

on Rocshire Records. MTV gave decent support to the lead single "Island In

The Sun" which showed a heavy Rainbow influence. Surprisingly, despite the

commercial nature of the song, it barely received any radio play. The album

still spent 18 weeks on the Billboard charts and peaked at #128. A second

video was released in 1984 for "Hiroshima Mon Amour" which became very

popular in Japan. Creative differences between Malmsteen and Bonnet

surfaced while on tour. Due to this and his admitted desire to begin a solo

career, Malmsteen quit in 1984 and formed his own band Rising Force who

signed with Polydor Records. Rochsire then put out "Live Sentence", a

concert recording from the recent tour of Japan. A live video concert was

also produced. Malmsteen tried to prevent the release of the album but

failed. Though the record had hideous sonic quality, the playing is electric. A

few Rainbow covers were thrown in, including the classic "Since You've Been

Gone". The album would reach #133 in the US. Waldo replaced Malmsteen

with Steve Vai, former Frank Zappa guitarist, despite resistance from Bonnet,

and the band signed with Capitol Records. The group worked on new material

and then headlined another tour of Japan which introduced Vai to the fans

and allowed them to play new material from the upcoming album. A concert

video was filmed from these dates.



Disturbing The Peace was released in the spring of 1985. The album was

produced by Eddie Kramer who had worked with Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix

and Triumph among others. "God Blessed Video" was the first single and

video, yet MTV barely played it. The album peaked at #145 and charted for a

solid 16 weeks, but Alcatrazz could never break out of their small following. A

tour had to be cut short due to financial problems. Steve Vai left in order to

join David Lee Roth's solo band in 1986 and the split was on good terms as it

was an offer Vai could not refuse. He was replaced by guitarist Danny

Johnson (ex-Axis and Rod Stewart), who recorded what would become

Alcatrazz's final studio album, "Dangerous Games", which was released in the

fall of 1986. "Dangerous Games" was a desperate attempt at selling out for

the Big 80's hit, but no such hit was forthcoming. The album was watered

down and featured nothing even remotely heavy on it. There were covers of

The Animals classic "It's My Life" (one of the only Rock oriented tunes) and

Marbles' "One Good Woman". Bonnet had been a member of Marbles in the

late 60's when they had this hit in the UK. The album failed to chart. Shortly

afterward, Johnson also quit to join the band Private Life. Disheartened by

an ever revolving door of guitarists, and dwindling album sales, they split up

in 1987. In 1998 the Renaissance label issued "The Best Of Alcatrazz" which

was a solid look back at the band's all-too brief career.