Biography
The pairing of Hughes/Thrall was once hailed as a "marriage made in hard rock heaven," bringing together English vocalist and bassist Glenn Hughes—formerly of Trapeze and Deep Purple, and widely known as "the Voice of Rock"—with American guitarist Pat Thrall, an alumnus of Automatic Man and Pat Travers' band. By the early 1980s Thrall had earned recognition across hard rock and fusion circles through stints that included a brief collaboration with Al di Meola, yet broader success remained elusive. Hughes, meanwhile, had issued a single solo album after Deep Purple's breakup before spending the next five years hampered by substance issues, creative stagnation, and mourning the heroin-related loss of his former bandmate Tommy Bolin. Some observers have suggested that Hughes' fondness for Bolin's fluid blending of rock, jazz, blues, and other styles partly fueled his desire to team with the similarly eclectic Thrall. The project took shape in late 1981, after which the pair spent months rehearsing, writing, and refining material in Los Angeles before tracking their self-titled album with producer Andy Johns—known for work with Led Zeppelin and Free—keyboardist Peter Schless, and drummers Gary Ferguson, Gary Mallaber, and Frankie Banali, the last of whom would later join Quiet Riot. Despite this rich collective background, the finished record emerged as a polished, radio-friendly AOR effort clearly geared toward American airplay and issued without much promotion on the short-lived Epic subsidiary Boulevard Records. Two promotional videos were shot for the singles "I Got Your Number" and "The Look in Your Eye," and the duo toured with keyboardist Jesse Harms and drummer Tommy Aldridge—veteran of Black Oak Arkansas and Ozzy Osbourne's band—opening for Santana, yet the music fell between the expectations of their heavy-rock audience and mainstream pop listeners. Preliminary demos for a follow-up album were later included on Rock Candy's 2006 reissue of the original Hughes/Thrall LP, by which time the two musicians had already parted ways in 1983 to pursue separate endeavors.
Albums