The
Phenomena saga began back in 1985 with the first album. A studio
project, it was the brainchild of Whitesnake guitarist Mel Galley's
brother Tom Galley.
Glenn
Hughes did vocals on all but one track, and the album also featured
Cozy Powell and Neil Murray. Glenn had just seen the Hughes/Thrall
project come to an end (and indeed the pair contributed one
of the songs for Phenomena). After recording the vocals for
Phenomena, Glenn did a stint with Gary Moore, but that came
to a much publicised end just as Phenomena was issued. There
was something of a concept album approach to it, and it was
hoped to push the idea into other media areas (a video release
and a live tour were mooted), but despite quite a lot of publicity
this never happened. It came out in the UK, Europe and America
on Bronze Records, who went bust just weeks after release.
 Two
years later Phenomena 2 - Dreamrunner was released (this time
on CD as well) by Arista Records. It was reported as selling
250,000 copies world-wide. This time Glenn only sang on two
tracks.
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 A
third album (Innervision) didn't feature any of the Purple family.
Tom Galley retained the rights to the project, and the first two
albums were eventually reissued on compact disc on his own label
Parachute Records in 1993 (with bonus tracks), but have been out
of print for many years. There were some single and promo releases
associated with the albums too.
With
this new fourth album, Tom has revisited the concepts, though
whether the franchise will ring many bells almost twenty years
later is difficult to know.
Apart
from Glenn, the musicians this time round include Tony Martin
(BLACK SABBATH), Keith Murrell (MAMA'S BOYS, AIR RACE), Mel Galley
(WHITESNAKE, TRAPEZE) and JJ Marsh. It's being issued by Escape
Music (who did the Leisegang CD reissue in 2003 which also featured
Glenn Hughes).
More
details in Darker Than Blue Issue 58.
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