Geordie - The Albums (CD) (UK Import)

Geordie is a hard/glam rock band from Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England, United Kingdom, that was formed in 1971 under the name U.S.A. The band changed its name to Geordie in 1972.

The line up of Geordie was stable from 1971 to 1975. It consisted of vocalist Brian Johnson, main songwriter and guitarist Vic Malcolm, bass guitarist Tom Hill and drummer Brian Gibson. The band released two albums with that line up, in 1973 and in 1974. This was also the most successful period of the band's career because five singles that were released around the first album ("Don't Do That", "All Because Of You", "Can You Do It", "Electric Lady" and "Black Cat Woman") reached the charts in different European countries.

In 1975 the history of Geordie starts to get a bit confusing, when original guitarist Vic Malcolm left the band. He was replaced by Micky Bennison. Interestingly the band's third album includes tracks with both guitarists: five tracks were recorded with Malcolm and seven tracks with Bennison. But before the release of that album in August 1976, Brian Johnson released the solo single in January 1976. This fact showcases that the band had already split up when the third album was released. A fact which confirms the split is that there were no single releases and tour dates after the release of the album to promote it.

Surprisingly, in 1978, a fourth album called hit the stores. And - to make things really confusing - this time you can actually hear two completely different versions of Geordie on the album. While three tracks of the album were recorded by Brian Johnson, guitarist Derek Rootham, bass guitarist Dave Robson and drummer Davy Whittaker, the remaining seven tracks were recorded by Vic Malcolm with vocalist Dave Ditchburn, bass guitarist Frankie Gibbon, drummer George Defty and keyboardist Alan Clark. The original members Hill and Gibson weren't involved in this record at all. In an interview, Dave Ditchburn confirmed that the line up with Vic Malcolm was formed in 1976 and this version of Geordie, that can also be heard on No Good Woman, was actually called Brass Alley 2 (Ditchburn and Gibbon had played in Brass Alley before) because the rights of the name Geordie were copyright of the Red Bus label.

In 1980, Brian Johnson's line up of Geordie released the single but this version of Geordie called it a day when Brian Johnson took over vocal duties in AC/DC after the death of Bon Scott.

Two years later, in 1982, surprisingly a new Geordie single, , was released. It was recorded by Malcolm, Hill and Gibson with the addition of vocalist Rob Turnbull and guitarist David Stephenson. A year later, in 1983, it was followed by a fifth Geordie album called . After the album, Malcolm and Stephenson left the band and the remaining members of Turnbull, Hill and Gibson formed the band Powerhouse with guitarist Martin Metcalf. Powerhouse released the self-titled album in 1986. After it, the band finally split up.

Source: Discogs