A limited edition 2CD set featuring 52 rare studio and live recordings, including 20 previously unissued. Package includes a bumper 40-page booklet containing many unpublished photographs and a definitive 12,000 word essay incorporating interviews with several band members.
Johnny & the Hurricanes fans – standby to celebrate! This is unlike any other compilation on the market. Instead of the same old titles forever recycled, we have collected together many tracks that you will be hearing for the first time. With 20 unreleased tracks plus piles of rarities this bumper set is easily the most exciting release in decades from one of rock’n’roll’s most-loved bands.
We go right back to 1959 when Johnny Paris and the guys were taking their very first steps into a recording studio to provide back-up for Freddie & the Parliaments and the Dream Girls. We also include all of the tracks the Hurricanes recorded as the Fascinators after they left Johnny and brought in another saxman to replace him in 1961. There’s both sides of guitarist Dave Yorko’s little-heard solo 45 from 1965 and the band’s rare live German LP (in its entirety) which was not issued anywhere else in the world and has not been on CD before.
The package comes complete with a 12,000-word essay which details the history of the band from its beginnings in 1957 up to Johnny’s death in 2006. Many former Hurricanes from the ‘60s are interviewed, alongside 50s originals Paul Tesluk, Dave Yorko and the band’s first drummer, Don Staczek. There are also many rare photographs going back to the 50s when they were still called the Orbits and Paul Tesluk was playing the piano-accordion! For the first time several of the Hurricanes’ 60s line-ups are pictured and identified. The sound quality is second to none, and we even have a couple of brand new hi-definition mixes of alternate versions of celebrated favourites.
Dave Burke and Alan Taylor
