City Boy Live
City Boy are one of my favourite bands from the mid to late 1970s and deserved to be a much bigger success than they were. Unfortunately punk and new wave took attention away from their clever and catchy music.
Studio Albums by City Boy
City Boy released seven studio albums in their career and had a hit single in the UK and the USA with 5705 from their Book Early album. Strangely I think this is one of their weakest tracks as it heads into commercial AOR territory.
1976 – City Boy
1976 – Dinner at the Ritz
1977 – Young Men Gone West
1978 – Book Early
1979 – The Day The Earth Caught Fire
1980 – Heads Are Rolling
1981 – It’s Personal
There is also an 18 track compilation album called Anthology which is worth hearing if you’re not ready to start buying the individual albums. It misses some of their best songs but that’s the way of a compilation for an excellent but underrated band where there isn’t an established popular opinion.
Live Albums by City Boy
Unfortunately there haven’t been any official live albums but there were a number of live radio broadcasts that I’ll be featuring.
It may be nearly 40 years ago but I don’t think it’s too late for a City Boy revival.
Live At My Father’s Place is a radio broadcast recording of City Boy performing on Long Island, New York in 1978 on the tour to promote Book Early.
There are five live tracks recorded by the BBC for the Radio 1 In Concert programme available as bonuses on the two-for-one off of City Boy + Dinner At The Ritz.
Continue reading City Boy Live At My Father’s Place 1978One of my favourite groups who should have been a much bigger success than they were is City Boy from Birmingham, England.
I classify City Boy as art rock with their strong instrumental skills and clever songs. I see other people consider them to be prog rock but in my opinion, the song is always dominant. They did drift more towards AOR after their first couple of albums.
The BBC and Wikipedia describe City Boy as “a moderately successful English rock band in the late 1970s, characterised by complex vocal arrangements and heavy guitars.”
Think of early 10cc and early Queen and you won’t be too far away.
The BBC broadcast some very early In Concert live recordings on City Boy from late 1975 and before their debut self titled album came out.
