Chosen by Monk
It could be argued that my latest selection is a song that has been 40 years in the making, as it is built around a set of lyrics written by the legendary Phil Lynott way back at the beginning of the band’s initially ill-fated career.
Grand Slam trace their roots back to 1984 when the former Thin Lizzy frontman teamed up with ex-Stampede guitarist Laurence Archer – the band’s sole remaining founding member – and Magnum keyboardist Mark Stanway. But, their career was over before it began, with the band splitting up before the year was out – although the trio later collaborated on ‘Nineteen’, Lynott’s last solo single before his untimely death in January 1986.
Apart from a few archived live recordings and demo compilations, released primarily under Stanway’s aegis, the project lay dormant for almost 35 years, until Archer revitalized the band, issuing its first official album, the appropriately titled ‘Hit The Ground‘ in 2019. Now, five years further down the line, and with the stable line-up of Archer on guitar, Mike Dyer on vocals, Rocky Newton on bass and drummer Benjy Reid, they are spinning the ‘Wheel Of Fortune’ with their second album, with the latest single a hearkening back to the bands roots four decades ago.
‘Come Together (In Harlem)’ is the only one song on the album which came from ’84, offers Archer.
Phil had a little bit of a thing about pop music as we call it, and he started going down this pop line at the time. I went away, completely rearranged it, wrote another part, and just brought it into our back yard. The whole song is really about ‘let’s come together’. The original subject matter was derived from Harlem by Phil, and we’ve extended the song into something else.
- ‘Wheel Of Fortune‘ is released on Friday (7 June).