As a one time member of Samson, vocalist MICK WHITE had played most of the UK’s premier venues at the tender age of eighteen. He’d supported Iron Maiden on their mammoth UK trek for the “Somewhere In Time” tour and also had a wealth of writing and recording experience for someone so young.
Following his departure from Samson in 1989 White formed First Strike and continued to write, record and tour his way around the UK including tours with Uriah Heep, Giant, Dare, Slaughter, Shy and many others making videos and headlining shows at the Marquee in London. The future was looking bright with major record company interest and an impending management deal with a big American management company until the grunge movement happened and virtually changed the music landscape overnight.
Well, now MICK WHITE is back into the scene with “Something’s Got To Give“, a new album packing really good traditional hard rock / melodic hard songs with a warm production and catchy arrangements.
After First Strike split in the first half of the ’90s, White found his talents were very much in demand in the studio and spent the next five years doing session work across various studios in London.
Towards the end of the decade he started writing again and was offered a deal with US record company Domo records. This became the band Seven Days who went on to release two singles recorded in London and mixed by Kip Winger at his studio in Santa Fe.
As the new millennium began White drifted away from music for a period of time finding no inspiration in the direction music was taking as rock went further underground.
In the Summer of 2019 White was approached by Steelheart Records to finally get a release for the First Strike album. ‘Just Another Night’ appeared in October and was greeted enthusiastically by rock radio and fans with three pressings of the CD selling out and a digital release early in 2020 also doing very well.
During the Autumn of 2019 White guested on a track called “Better Be Strong” written by German songwriter “Marty Punch”. Drummer Carsten Enghardt also played on the song and on hearing the vocal knew straight away he was the man his band Endfield were looking for.
Phone calls were made and after agreeing to join the band Mick added lyrics and melodies to the tracks over the next few months. In January 2020 Mick flew out to Munich to record the vocals at 1st take Studios where a further two songs were also written and recorded and the ten songs were now finalized for the new album.
As the global pandemic hit White found time to start writing a solo album enlisting the talents of guitarist Luke Hatton and Endfield bandmate Carsten Enghardt.
Eleven tracks were recorded mostly co-written by White/Hatton but also including ‘Don’t Close Your Eyes’ a song co-written with Paul Samson in 1988, a reworking of the First Strike song ‘ Hold Tight’ and a new version of ‘Better Be Strong’.
All vocals, guitars, bass and keyboards were recorded in the UK with drums added at 1st take Studios where it was also mixed by Carsten and Ulrich Hilbel.
This is melodic, classic hard rock album with strong guitars and powerful clean vocals, vintage ’80s in sound but with a modern vibrant production.
It’s great to see such a classy singer / songwriter getting the chance to record again. You can’t go wrong with White’s pedigree; ”Something’s Got To Give” is classy from every corner and will please you at first listen.
Tracklist:
01. Burning In The Night (03:42)
02. Something's Got To Give (04:27)
03. Without You (04:48)
04. Emergency On Planet Earth (04:54)
05. Ordinary Girl (05:29)
06. Altar Of Desire (03:28)
07. Sometime Superman (05:22)
08. Hold Tight (06:39)
09. You Poisoned My Love (03:04)
10. Don't Close Your Eyes (04:29)
11. Better Be Strong (04:57)
MICK WHITE (ex Samson , First Strike) – Something’s Got To Give (2022)
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please reupload this fine album