Originally brought together by music svengali Kim Fowley in 1973, The Hollywood Stars recorded three albums during the 1970’s, although only one was released during that decade. The original line-up broke up in 1974, at which point Fowley offered two songs to producer Bob Ezrin who had been working with the band. Ezrin then took “Escape” to Alice Cooper who recorded it on ‘Welcome to My Nightmare’, and he offered “King of the Night Time World” to Kiss who recorded it on ‘Destroyer’. A new version of the band, with some original members, reformed in 1975, breaking up in 1977 before reforming shortly the following year. Then no more, until 2013 when one of the previously recorded but unreleased albums, ‘Shine Like A Radio’, finally saw the light of day. In 2018 original members Ruben De Fuentes (lead guitar), Terry Rae (drums, vocals) and Scott Phares (lead vocals) combined with bassist Michael Rummans (who had joined in 1976) and new guitarist Chezz Monroe, signing with Burger Records to release the 1976 demo album ‘Sound City’.
Now the band with their third album since 2013, but their first new recording in nearly 50 years! The lineup of the band responsible for the new album is founders Phares and drummer Terry Rae, bassist Michael Rummans along with new guitarists Jeff Jourard and George Keller. Everyone involved has been in the music scene for many years. The album is split almost evenly between new and old compositions. “Bad, Bad Man” dates back the farthest, pre-dating even the first lineup of The Hollywood Stars, being based on an idea by the group’s original main songwriter, Mark Anthony, recently finished by Phares. “Shortage of Love” was co-written in the early ‘70s by Phares and Fowley, “Taxi Driver,” originally appeared on the 1977 debut album by Hero, a group for which Phares was the frontman after leaving the Hollywood Stars in 1974. Rummans contributes three tracks, including “Haunted” which first appeared on the Sloths’ 2015 album, ‘Back from the Grave’ while “Total Control” is a remake that revisits Jourard’s days with The Motels.
I never realised “King of the Night Time World” was not an original (who looks at songwriting credits when you are a teenager?) as it was perfectly suited to Kiss, yet this album is packed full of rock-based songs which certainly sound as if they are bursting out of the same scene, with “Save Me” being another the costumed rockers could grab if they so wished. These guys may not be in their first flush of youth, but you can still hear the band which opened for The Ramones, had Journey open for them, and had such a fan in Iggy Pop that he joined them onstage. It is punchy, it is dated, and it is a check of a lot of fun. It takes me back to my teenage years, from a band who were spoken about in high regard. I have no idea why they didn’t make it at the time, but this album shows yet again that not all great bands get the limelight and rewards they deserve. Straight of the Seventies glam and proto punk scene and into 2024, this is very solid indeed. 8/10 Kev Rowland
