Next to Trevor Rabin, Stingray are without doubt South Africa’s shining light on the melodic rock stage.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Stingray
ALBUM: Stingray
LABEL: Nitty Gritty/Carerre
SERIAL: NGC 1023, CAR 38-127
YEAR: 1979
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: South Africa
LINEUP: Dennis East – vocals * Mike Pilot – guitars, vocals * Allan Goldswain – keyboards * Danny Anthill – keyboards, flute * Eddie Boyle – bass * Shaun Wright – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Where Do We Go From Here * 02 Better The Devil You Know * 03 Lovesaver * 04 Whole Lotta Fire * 05 Lucy * 06 Breakdown * 07 The Man In My Shoes * 08 How Much * 09 Hard Headed Loner * 10 Gonna Keep My Head * 11 Better The Devil You Know (extended)
WEBLINKS: Wikipedia Site Link
Stingray Background
Next to Trevor Rabin, Stingray are without doubt South Africa’s shining light on the melodic rock stage. Even decades later, they are still mentioned and remembered by many fans and collectors alike.
Stingray originated from Johannesburg, and some of their members had incarnations in bands before this. East, Pilot and Boyle for instance were previously with The Rising Sons. They were a typically 70’s pop bubblegum band, who scored minor success in their native land. A number of songs making the charts.
However, they changed the game plan completely with Stingray, with a heavy influence from what was going on Stateside at the time. They named Queen, Journey and Boston as chief culprits.
The Songs
The debut album initially released locally on the Nitty Gritty label, is without a doubt an enjoyable melodic rock romp. It comes with an emphasis on effective and memorable choruses.
‘Better The Devil You Know’ is a good introduction, a neat chorus, and some forceful instrumentation. ‘Where Do We Go From Here’ is guitar-oriented AOR featuring a series of handclaps towards the end a la Boston‘s ‘Long Time’.
If there is a classic track on this album it would undoubtedly be ‘Lovesaver’. The punctuated approach comes with stabbing piano lines, and Mike Pilot’s guitar sound a la Brian May, These are both memorable aspects.
Dennis East’s vocals really power up on the slower track ‘Lucy’. Man, this guy can sing! Other highlights include the soaring ‘How Much’, and the punchy ‘Breakdown’. Not forgetting the infectious choruses of ‘Man In My Shoes’ and ‘Gonna Keep My Head Together’.
In Summary
Being South African, it is not reflective of any local influence. It is purely a big label sounding release which ordinarily you’d think came out of the US production houses. So congratulations for doing so well.
The band followed this up one year later with ‘Operation Stingray’, another worthwhile album to obtain. On that one though, their lineup had changed slightly, with the departure of both Goldswain and Wright.
The Carerre label gave this band some recognition at least with their albums being released in Europe at the time. Though by then, the band were already on the verge of folding. Finally, a big thanks goes to Luc for finally enabling me to hear this after so many years of trying to track it down. I personally think it was worth it.
Stingray on Video
Click to go to YTM album page.
