If nothing else,
Airrace's brief and unheralded career proves that having friends in high places doesn't always guarantee surefire success. Originally formed in September 1982 by erstwhile More guitarist
Laurie Mansworth, the group would also feature vocalist
Keith Murrell, bassist Jim Reid, and keyboardist
Toby Sadler (ex-
White Spirit), and was essentially handpicked by legendary former
Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant to serve as the launching pad for 17-year-old drummer
Jason Bonham's career (he was the son of
John, of course). But Grant's heavy-handed tactics and general unreliability while shopping
Airrace to different labels ended up making them a point of contention between outsized egos and split loyalties once they accepted an offer from Atlantic Records, having already parted with the manager. Nevertheless, things certainly looked promising when
Airrace were matched with in-demand producer
Beau Hill (white hot after his work on
Ratt's million-selling
Out of the Cellar) to record their 1984 debut,
Shaft of Light, at New York City's Atlantic Studios. Unfortunately,
Hill was so enamored with ‘80s technology that he insisted on polishing every last remaining New Wave of British Heavy Metal morsel out of the band's songs, turning down
Mansworth's guitars while pushing
Sadler's synthesizers to the fore, and even ordering
Bonham to use electronic drums throughout the sessions. As a result,
Airrace's gritty AOR vision, akin to
Foreigner's early albums, could only be glimpsed on a few cuts ("Promise to Call," "Open Your Eyes," "Caught in the Game") and left the vast remainder sanitized beyond repair (think
Loverboy!), despite the notable vocal chops exhibited by
Murrell at all times. Not even he could restore the passion and pulse lost during
Airrace's studio domestication, though, so after tumbling off Atlantic's radar in the U.S. (so much for the
Bonham legacy), even as the group was busy opening shows for everyone from
Queen to
Meat Loaf to
AC/DC back in Europe,
Shaft of Light vanished from record stores and, seemingly, history itself. In retrospect, though, the album represents an extremely solid, if rare, example of clean-cut British AOR that, while very much dated to the ‘80s, still holds a special place in the hearts of fans of that style. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia