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DANNY PEYRONEL Make The Monkey Dance (2006)
Well if I'd been asked to name the least likely person to bung out a debut solo album 30 years after making their first mark in rock'n'roll history, then Danny Peyronel would have been on my list.
For it is thirty years since Danny played keyboards and wrote some tunes for the 1976 UFO album "No Heavy Petting". Of course before that he recorded two albums with the Heavy Metal Kids, but it with UFO that he made his mark. Naturally, being UFO, it wasn't long before he was on his way to a career in the backroom, writing songs for the lies of Sade, Meat Loaf ("Midnight at the Lost & Found" was his), Nick Mason out of Pink Floyd before nearly making it again with Spanish rocker, Tarzen.
And now here he is, older, (probably) wiser and with a cracking melodic rock CD all of his own. Now it goes without saying that "Highway Lady" from "No Heavy Petting" and "Midnight at the Lost & Found" have been re-recorded to try and get people paying attention, but there's a lot more to enjoy here.
"Never Been Cool" is straight from the Rick Neilson songbook, there's oodles of power ballads to choose from with "Bigger Than Love" being the best of the bunch and of the re-recordings it's the lesser known ""Lie For A Lie" from the Nick Mason / Rick Fenn album that really stands out.
A special mention to Danny for an excellent vocal performance. Turns out that during the missing years he also found time to study classical singing with the likes of Franco Iglesias, Placido Domingo's teacher, and it obviously paid off.
***½
Review by Stuart A. Hamilton
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