U2 RELEASES NEW, PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED TRACK “HAPPINESS” OUT NOW

‘HOW TO RE-ASSEMBLE AN ATOMIC BOMB’ THE SHADOW ALBUM TEN SONGS FROM THE ORIGINAL  ‘HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB’  GRAMMY-WINNING ALBUM SESSIONS OUT 29 NOVEMBER 2024 EXCLUSIVELY FOR RECORD STORE DAY BLACK FRIDAY ALONGSIDE STANDALONE DIGITAL RELEASE DUAL DIGITAL RELEASE OUT 22 NOVEMBER

24 OCTOBER 2024 (TORONTO, ON) - U2 have today shared a new track titled ‘Happiness’ from How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, the forthcoming collection of ten songs taken from the original recording sessions for ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ - U2’s critically acclaimed, eight-time Grammy winning album - which includes new, previously unreleased songs recently rediscovered in the band’s archive and available for the first time as a standalone shadow album on 29th November. Listen to ‘Happiness’ here. Watch lyric video here.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition) – featuring both How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb + How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb - will be available as a dual digital release on 22nd November to mark the 20th Anniversary of this seminal album.

‘Happiness’ follows the first two songs to be made available from How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb: lead single ‘Country Mile’ and ‘Picture Of You (X + W)’, listen here.

The Edge said of How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb – “The sessions for ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ were such a creative period for the band, we were exploring so many song ideas in the studio. We were inspired to revisit our early music influences, and it was a time of deep personal introspection for Bono who was attempting to process - dismantle - the death of his father.

For this anniversary edition I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot. We chose ten that really spoke to us. Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something.

What you’re getting on this shadow album is that raw energy of discovery, the visceral impact of the music, a sonic narrative, a moment in time, the exploration and interaction of four musicians playing together in a room… this is the pure U2 drop.”

To further celebrate the anniversary of this seminal album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has now been remastered for the first time, a process which saw the band go back to the vault to revisit those early ‘00s recording sessions, a period of intense creativity for U2 in the studio, as well as a time of deep personal and artistic reflection following the passing of Bono’s father Bob in 2001. This special 20th anniversary edition – out 22nd November - will include the bonus track ‘Fast Cars’. See below for a complete list of formats. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition) – featuring both How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb + How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb - will be available as a dual digital release on 22nd November.

ABOUT - HOW TO RE-ASSEMBLE AN ATOMIC BOMB:

How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is a collection of ten songs taken from the original recording sessions for ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ - U2’s critically acclaimed, eight-time Grammy winning album - recently rediscovered in the band’s archive and now released for the first time as a standalone album. This shadow album includes new, never-before-heard or previously released songs - ‘Treason’, ‘Evidence Of Life’, ‘Country Mile’ and ‘Happiness’; plus a song called ‘Luckiest Man In The World’ - familiar to fans under its working title ‘Mercy’, an early demo of which was leaked online almost 20 years ago - which now gets its official release; as well as five newly remastered songs - ‘Picture Of You (X+W)’, ‘I Don't Wanna See You Smile’, ‘Are We Gonna Wait Forever?’, ‘Theme From The Batman’ and ‘All Because Of You 2’ - all collected together for the first time to mark the 20th anniversary of ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’.

The tracklisting for How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is:

Picture Of You (X+W)
Evidence Of Life
Luckiest Man In The World
Treason
I Don't Wanna See You Smile
Country Mile
Happiness
Are We Gonna Wait Forever?
Theme From The Batman
All Because Of You 2
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is U2’s eleventh studio album. Released by Island Records / Interscope on 22nd November 2004, it went to No. 1 in 34 countries around the world, including Ireland, the UK and the US.  Described by Bono at the time as “our first rock album”, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was recorded at the band’s studio in Hanover Quay, Dublin and the South of France, and produced by Steve Lilywhite, with additional production from Chris Thomas, Flood, Jacknife Lee, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Nellee Hooper and Carl Glanville.  The 11 tracks included the songs ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own’, both of which debuted at No. 1 in the UK charts, the first time a U2 album produced two chart topping singles. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and its singles won a total of eight Grammy Awards, sweeping all of the categories in which the band were nominated, with ‘Vertigo’ alone winning three in 2005, including Best Rock Song. The band were the night’s big winners in 2006, taking home the Grammy for Album of the Year, as well as Song of the Year for ‘Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own’ and Best Rock Song for ‘City of Blinding Lights’, with Steve Lilywhite also winning Producer of the Year. 

The tracklisting for the remastered How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 20th Anniversary Reissue is:

ABOUT - HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB:

1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
4. Love and Peace or Else
5. City of Blinding Lights
6. All Because of You
7. A Man and a Woman
8. Crumbs from Your Table
9. One Step Closer
10. Original of the Species
11. Yahweh
12. Fast Cars

FORMAT INFORMATION:

The remastered How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (20th Anniversary Edition) will be released in the following formats on 22nd November: Vinyl 8LP Super Deluxe Collectors Boxset (Limited Edition); Vinyl 2LP; Exclusive D2C 2LP Black & Red Ink Spot Vinyl (Limited Edition); 5CD Super Deluxe Collectors Boxset (Limited Edition); CD; and Exclusive Red & Black Cassette (Limited Edition). The digital releases include HTDAAB remastered (12 tracks); and HTDAAB & HTRAAB (22 tracks). How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition) – featuring both How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb + How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb - will be available as a dual digital release on 22nd November.

How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb will be exclusively available in physical format for Record Store Day Black Friday as a Limited Edition Black & Red Marble 1LP Vinyl; and as a standalone 10 track digital release. Out 29th November.

UB40 Talk Touring, New Album & Paul McCartney
Frontman Ali Campbell discusses the sparks that have inspired UB40's upcoming studio album

Steve Baltin
Interview
Recording Academy
Oct 12, 2017 - 08:28 pm



As has been well documented for hundreds of soap opera-esque TV documentaries, band dynamics can make marriages or families look downright harmonious. Take the case of the now-splintered UB40.

Four-time GRAMMY nominees for Best Reggae Album, the group saw lead singer Ali Campbell leave in 2008 due to business disputes with the band’s management. Campbell embarked on a solo career before reuniting with band members Mickey Virtue and Astro in 2014 for the album Silhouette.

Three years later the trio are touring under the UB40 moniker and have a new album on the way in February of 2018. Campbell spoke with GRAMMY.com about revisiting the classic songs, rediscovering his love for touring and his friendship with Paul McCartney.

How has the tour been going?
We do like little festivals, we’ve got Raging Fyah with us and the original Wailers. We had Billy Ocean with us the last gig, so yeah, we just go around and do this “Grandslam” and it’s been really lovely. The weather has been fantastic, thank god, cause there’s only one thing that can ruin an outdoor show. And in England that’s the weather.

I spoke with Christine McVie recently and she said she was done with music until she realized she missed her musical family. Was it the same for you?
I was tired of touring. I’d been touring since 1980, literally my adult life. And I thought I was sick of touring as well. But then I stopped touring and I realized that’s what I do and it’s just lovely to be back with my muckers on the road, going around all the beautiful places in America. We also finished the “Red, Red Winery” tour of Australia and New Zealand last year and that was just fantastic. We finished that one actually in Hawaii. So we’ve just been spending all our time in these absolutely beautiful locations drinking wine and doing shows. It doesn’t get any better than that really.

Having been away from it and realizing you do miss it do you have a greater appreciation for being on the road now?
Yeah, absolutely. And the thing is I’m touring now with a new band really. Me, Astro and Mickey [Virtue], we always say it’s UB40 featuring Ali, Astro and Mickey, so nobody gets us mixed up with the other lads. And basically we’re having a bit of a renaissance. We’ve been all around in the world and we’ve sort of carried on, carried on. Now we’re also doing a new album for Universal, which will be released February. And that’s gonna be so, wow, the monitor mixes has got me overboard about it. So I’m sure we’ll be touring that one next year as well.

Are there songs you’re surprised the audience has made them favorites?
Definitely songs we’d forgotten about that we sort of dug up. We did a British tour, I think it was the Labour Of Love I and II tour and there were a bunch of songs on there that we’d forgotten about, songs we hadn’t played in decades. And so a couple of those have made their way back into the normal set now because of the reaction they got. We thought, “Bloody hell, forgot about that, let’s put that in the set.” So the set that we’re doing now has been sort of evolving the last three years and it’s the set now that we play everywhere. We don’t change for each country, we just do the same set. And it’s going down really well.

Tell me about the new music. How far along are you on the new album?
They’re all the backing tracks, 16 backing tracks, and it’s the best stuff I’ve done in years and years and years. I feel like it’s the best stuff I’ve done in years. We haven’t finished it yet and I think that’s what’s exciting. Astro’s done his vocals and I’m continuing to do mine over the next couple of weeks before coming back to the States. But we’re not in a rush to mix it because we’ve got until February, that’s when it’s gonna get released, for Valentine’s Day. So Universal have given us plenty of time to get all our ducks in a row before the release. It couldn’t be going better actually. I don’t know how I could make this album fail it’s going so well. It’s like it’s taken on a bit of a life of its own. That’s what happens with good albums. Most people say they can’t wait to get it released. So that’s what we’ll be doing next year, we’ll be touring for that album.

Was there one song early on that shaped the sound of this record?
The last recording we did was just a sort of almost like a joke. We were pushing the Silhouette album in England and we were doing lots of radio sessions where obviously they can’t have the whole band, there are 11 people on stage in UB40, so you can’t bring everybody to a session in a radio station. So we started doing little acoustic sets, acoustic versions of songs, and we did about five of those sessions. Then of course I realized I’ve got an unplugged album here, so it was really strange doing it unplugged because it’s a reggae album that’s got no bass on it, which is unprecedented right there. So it was a strange recording without bass and with the acoustic style. So to get back doing a proper album with electric bass and stuff it’s been really exciting. And it’s reenergized the recording process, it’s almost like going in with fresh ears I think. It’s my thirtieth production of an album, so I should be getting it right by now (laughs).

How crazy is it Paul McCartney called to tell you he liked your solo album?
It’s funny you mention Paul McCartney because I’ve been traveling in the van and I’ve been watching the anthology. It’s eight CDs long and it’s brilliant. It’s an in-depth look at the Beatles story, what happened to them. And it’s very sobering when you see what they went through. And the fact everything they did was for the first time and I’m sure they wouldn’t have stopped after the Candlestick Park concert had they known what to expect, if they’d known what playing to 50,000 people sounded like. So it’s a great thing to watch it. And I watched it just after I watched the Eight Days A Week film, the new one. Like anybody of my age I grew up listening to the Beatles and that was sort of the music that I knew up until I started listening to reggae when I was 10, 11 years old. So I went from the Beatles to the Jackson 5 to reggae.

Synth-pop pioneer Howard Jones looks back on 40 years of groundbreaking music, release of debut single
by Christopher Hoffman, Sinclair Broadcast Group
Wed, August 9th 2023 at 9:27 PM
Updated Sat, August 19th 2023 at 10:07 PM



Pioneer is definitely not a big enough word to quantify Howard Jones' impact on the musical tapestry of the past 40 years.

With his colossal bank of keyboards that gave him an encyclopedia of sounds that would drape over his audience and open our ears to a new wave of musical ideas, Howard made a new era in musical technology more accessible to the masses.

Howard helped define the synth-pop sound that dominated the airwaves back in the 1980s, with infectious hits like "What is Love," "Things Can Only Get Better," and "No One is to Blame" that still garners immense airplay even in the new millennium.

"I've always said that I feel very fortunate to have been able to perform for so long," he said. "America embraced me pretty early on and it's always a treat to see the fans enjoy what you're doing. I've got a really unique relationship with my fans."


But in 2023, Howard is celebrating the 40th anniversary of his debut single "New Song" being released. The song that kickstarted this whole magnificent journey started for this humble Englishman that continues to mystify and envelope his fans in his musical web that, for many, has become the soundtrack of their lives.

To celebrate this milestone, Howard is doing what he does best - perform for his fans, as he's out on the road going across America with Culture Club and Berlin.

Howard said he remembers playing in the amphitheaters in America back in the 80s and welcomed the chance to relive those fond memories.

It's been going so well. I'm just loving, playing these outdoor amphitheaters or sheds as they're called. It's unique to America," Jones said during a recent interview with Sinclair Broadcast Group. "And I obviously played them all during the 80s. I've had all those memories, and then going back now, playing them again. It's just so great. And people are still coming. They know all the songs. It's just a joy. Honestly, I feel so well, you know, how lucky am I to be doing what I love after all this time.
But when asked if he feels like it was just yesterday when he released his first album, "Human's Lib" and toured America, he said he felt like he's done more than four decades of living.

"It feels like more than 40 years because when I look back on what we've done, all the gigs and the amount of records I've made, not to mention the amount of changes that have happened to me as a person in that time," he said. "I mean as a young man to where I am now. It feels like several lifetimes."

He's come far since his days of dreaming to one day play Madison Square Garden. But it was a near-fatal auto accident that gave Howard an epiphany that music is what he should do with his life and he couldn't waste another day.

ONE-MAN ELECTRONIC BAND
Howard's love for music turned into an obsession during his teenage years, especially his affinity for the piano.He also began to experiment with synthesizers, which were still relatively new at the time. As he got older, Howard continued to hone his craft while trying to make ends meet doing various jobs, including as a piano teacher. That is where Howard met his future wife, Jan Smith.

But one day, while they were both working dead end jobs, Howard came up with a plan so they could still put food on the table, but also work together.

"I was working in a factory during the day and then doing other job like giving piano lessons. Jan was working in the tax office," he said. "One day, I traded in our car for a van. And I said to Jan that we've got to get out of these jobs because we need to work on the music. So I had this job where we could work together and deliver vegetables to people at their house."

But one night, a drunk driver would give Howard to inspiration to forge ahead with his music with the blessing of his wife.

And that one night, that accident happened. A drunk driver hit the front of the van while we were parked on the side of the road. Jan was trapped underneath the van and hurt her spine. And you know, Jan could have been killed that night. I could have been killed that night because I was in the van as well. And we came to this realization that there's no time to waste. You just go for what you really want to do with your life because it could have ended that night. You know don't hold back. And so we decided to do that. And then the money that Jan got for her compensation, she wanted me to have it to buy gear. So, I bought Jupiter 8 and 808 drum machine and it just flew from there.
Many believe Howard was an overnight success, hitting the charts with his first single and his debut album "Human's Lib" doing double platinum in England and giving him a foothold in America. But not many got to see Howard spending many years perfecting his one-man electronic show and building a following around where he lived in High Wycombe, about 30 miles northwest of London.

Practically surrounded by keyboards and drum machines, Howard knew that the people coming to his show were experiencing something that they had never before. He said he was always writing and then playing new material for his fans at his gigs to get a sense of how they responded to them.

People really hadn't seen those instruments before or heard those sounds before. This was all new territory, but I knew I was on to something. But it took years and years before I was able to building an audience and get the record companies to take notice," he said. "I worked on building an audience around where I lived, as people would follow me wherever I went in the country. So when record companies came down to see me, they knew that people were getting it because the places are all full. So when we finally got done at the Marquee Club in London and I mean it was full of people coming from where I lived from High Wycombe and the surrounding areas. It was very organic. And so once I got on TV and on the radio, it was of its time, you know, the music did fit in with what was going on. I was very fortunate, you know, that it worked out.
Those sold out shows soon brought Howard to the attention of Elektra Records, who signed him to a deal. Things were starting to pan out for the keyboard wizard, but even after signing his deal, what Howard was most obsessed with was getting on the radio.

"My goal was always to have my songs on the radio," he said. "I grew up listening to the radio and all those songs that I listened to meant so much to me."

NEW SONG
And to get on the radio, Howard knew he needed a song that would get everyone's attention, so he joined forces with producer Colin Thurston, who produced Duran Duran's first two albums and worked on David Bowie's "Heroes" album, to work on his debut single "New Song," a song that quantified not only Howard's one-man band direction, but his philosophy on life as well.

I remember working on 'New Song' in the front room of the home that Jan and I had in High Wycombe," he said. "It was just experimenting with all the different synthesizers and working within the limitations of the time. This was before computers really. I was working with primitive sequencers and during this time of experimentation, this song evolved and I knew I had come onto something special. I couldn't wait to get on stage and perform it for my fans. I mean this song was my manifesto about my work. I mean it's about letting go of fear and seeing both sides of an argument and throwing off the things that hold you back mentally. It is really a positive song. And my fans, who have been so supportive of my work, just loved it.
"New Song" was released in August 1983 and stormed up to No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart, while staying on the charts for 20 weeks. It would later reach No. 27 in 1984 when it was released in America. He made his first appearance on Top of the Pops in September 1983.

The momentum from "New Song" would continue as Howard went into the studio to record the songs for his debut album. And Howard couldn't have asked for a better producer than the legendary Rupert Hine.

Hine had worked with artists such as The Fixx, Saga and Chris de Burgh and would later produce several tracks for Tina Turner's multi-platinum album "Private Dancer," including the smash hit "Better Be Good To Me."

Howard said that on their first meeting at Rupert's home, where they talked about the songs for the album, that " I quickly realized that this guy really understood where I was coming from."

It was amazing good fortune for me to end up with Rupert as my producer," he said. "Rupert was so in tune with me on so many levels. First of all, he loved the lyrics because the lyrics actually meant something and were about philosophy. They weren't about sort of corny, you know, love lyrics. He just loved he loved where I was coming from philosophically. And then he was was a total keyboard nut as well, just like me, I loved working with technology, but had this great vision for, for how, you know, how records should sound and how engaging they should be. So, I just was so happy when the record company, you know, suggested that I worked with Rupert, and they could have put me with a lot of other producers that were having Top 40 hits at the time, but they wouldn't have been right for me. Rupert was right for me because he had the edge. And so yeah, so perfect.
And Rupert said it wasn't a challenge at all to work with Howard and honing his brilliant compositions into a singular stream that would be not only radio friendly, but keep Howard's positive message.

It was always very exciting, very intriguing. Howard always came with most of the arrangement ideas in his head already and most of the time actually being played, as well, between his various keyboard lines and various keyboards," said Hine during an interview back in 2011 with Songfacts. "And because I was also a multi-keyboardist myself, and used to making records out of keyboard sounds at that time and making it work, that was probably the reason it wasn't a challenge. But the idea was that it should be at this very strong pop end of songwriting, which I wasn't doing. I was doing sort of dark and mysterious almost soundtrack-like work on my own albums at that time, and Howard was really full-on pop songs. But his songwriting and his arrangements or techniques were very, very musical - he's one of the most musical artists I've ever worked with. Classically trained, he was, in fact, a piano teacher when he was making his first record, and had been for years. So he's extremely skilled, and that came across and made the whole recording process that much more fun, particularly because it was really full-on pop music.
Hine set his new protégé at ease immediately by telling him to set up his entire keyboard setup he'd been using in the clubs right in front of the speakers in the studio. It was a way to capture the energy and excitement of Howard's live show on vinyl.

"Rupertjust kept it exciting to be there. The energy level was so amazing. We were never over thinking things," he said. "He only ever let me do four vocal takes on any any song. Only four. And then he would use those four to get the best bits. So Rupert's genius to me was keeping everything. Capturing the excitement and then getting it on the record. It's there on the record."

All the years of hard work and playing in those London area clubs finally paid off, as Howard's debut album "Human's Lib" went double platinum in the United Kingdom and spawned four hit singles, including "What Is Love," "Pearl in the Shell," and "Hide and Seek," which Howard performed in front of billions of people around the world in 1985 during Live Aid at Wembley Stadium - a performance that he is still extremely proud of nearly 40 years later.

"I heard that Bob (Geldof) and Midge (Ure) were going to do Live Aid. I told my manager David (Stopps) that I have to be involved in this. It's the most brilliant project maybe for the whole of the 80s. We're saving people's lives and really showing that the 80s wasn't just about greed and and power. I wanted to be part of this so I canceled shows on the West Coast and me and (my backing vocalists)Afrodiziak flew back to London. I did one song and that was enough to be a part of that wonderful event."

On his early tours, it was just Howard and his keyboards. He said that minimalist approach was groundbreaking in a way that nobody had done it before in a way or were totally dependent on technology. With his arsenal of keyboards that included a Roland Jupiter 8, Yamaha DX-7, Pro One, Moog Prodigy and more, Howard was able to create sounds that had never before been possible, but in the beginning, it came with a price, especially when critics saw him leave his keyboards and interact with the audience.

"Some people didn't think we were actually playing (on stage)," he told the Los Angeles Times. "They thought we just programmed the music and that was it, which was completely unfair. Actually, I was programming synthesizer sequences as I played , so that when I left the keyboard setup, the only things running were the arpeggiating patterns on one keyboard, and a five- or six-note sequenced loop. I was generating the music at that moment, and it was right on the edge. But no one had done that one-man kind of show before, so how could people know what I was doing?"

I'm really proud of those early one-man show tours," he said. "The technology was advancing so much that allowed for me to go down and buy stuff at a local music store and put on a one-man show. It allowed me to be really creative. The problem was being that dependent on technology is that things can go wrong and did go wrong. You just have to deal with it as a musician. It was pioneering for its time and something I'm really proud of.
America has always held a special place with Howard, as he immediately felt a connection with the American audience.

"I remember my first proper tour of the States was with Joe Jackson and the Eurythmics, (back in 1984)," he said. "I just remember the really big crowds and they really responded to me and my songs. I was still a one-man band back then so they immediately took me in."

NO ONE IS TO BLAME
After the success of "Human's Lib," Howard raced back into the studio to record his biggest selling album to date "Dream Into Action," which went on to sell over a million copies in America on the wings of the lead single "Things Can Only Get Better." In 1985, Howard was on top of the world, playing the world's biggest arenas, including Madison Square Garden, which was a dream of his since he was a teenager.

"I mean, it was like, Whoa, how did that happen? I mean for a kid growing up in England, reading the New Musical Express and Melody Maker, Madison Square Garden was like the Holy Grail," he said "I never thought that would ever happen. It was such an exciting time. And there was a sense that we really need to enjoy this because you never know if this is going to happen again."

But it was one song off "Dream Into Action," that was never released as as single that would become Howard's biggest hit in America.

And it was all because of a request that superstar Phil Collins made of Howard in the hours before they went into the studio.

"No One Is To Blame" was initially released on Howard's second album, but with a much darker musical landscape. Howard knew that he couldn't let this song fall on deaf ears.

I'd always thought that radio wouldn't go 'No One Is To Blame' in that form," he said. "But I thought we could do a version that radio would like. I said to the record company that this could be a big hit, but they were very skeptical about that. I kept believing in it. And then I'd met Phil because we've done a Prince's Trust concert and all sorts of charity things. So I feel we knew each other and got on really well. And so I sent the song to him and he really loved it and wanted to do it. I think he could hear what I was thinking we could do with it.
But Phil's request of Howard was to program a drum track so he could play along to during the re-recording of the song, which took place over two weekends in 1985.

A lot (Phil's) own solo records were made with a sort of drum machine. He liked playing along with it," he said. "And he said 'look, program me something that I can play with it. And it's funny because I was talking to David Paich recently from Toto. And he said when he first heard the record, the whole band were like in the studio playing it over and over again, trying to work out what that was at the front. When I played it to Phil, and Hugh Padgham, who co-produced it with him, they absolutely loved it. And as you say, it became the biggest hook of the song. It's the first thing you hear and they wanted to keep all of it, you know. So yeah, it was funny how things happen, isn't it. But I was so panicked because Phil had asked me to do this drum piece. I thought this one's got to be really special because Phil's gonna play with it. So, I made a massive effort to make good tonight.

That drum track would later become the biggest hook of the song and propel "No One Is To Blame" to No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts and become his signature song in the States.

Howard has released 15 studio albums, eight live albums and several more compilation albums since making the decision to go after his dream and put it all into action.

And now 40 years since he was in the studio with Rupert Hine and the release of "New Song," Howard is still appreciative of his fans and the enjoyment people get out of his songs - old and new.When asked if he was to make his debut album in 2023, Howard said there wouldn't be much he would change.

I wouldn't change the songs at all. Those songs were a reflection of my time and experiences," he said. I suppose if I was to make my first album today, it wouldn't be done in a top-end, expensive studio like we did back in the day. I could have just recorded it at home. It was a very different time (back in the 80s.) The budgets are not as huge for an album as they were back then. But I like the freedom that working at your home studio affords you. I can now send a track to my drummer (over the net) and give him a good template that I want and he can spend the day in his own studio working it up. We can talk during the process live over the computer. That side of (the recording process) is absolutely brilliant. "But it still comes back to the songs. They are just filled with positive messages and gives people a bit of hope. They make people smile. That's all you can ask for as a songwriter.

https://youtu.be/1muGVlwIAOQ

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