New England will be performing a reunion concert the Regent Theatre in Arlington, MA on August 15th. This is the first time all four original members have performed together since 1983. Tickets for this event can be purchased here.
New England is a four-piece rock and roll band hailing from Boston, MA. John Fannon (guitar & vocals), Hirsh Gardner (drums and vocals), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards and vocals) and Gary Shea (bass) broke out of the local scene with the release of their self-titled album on Infinity/MCA in 1979. The first single, Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya (see video below), became an AOR smash and even cracked the Top 40. The album was produced by Mike Stone and Paul Stanley of Kiss, with whom New England toured for much of 1979 and 1980.
For their sophomore effort, entitled Explorer Suite, the foursome once again called upon veteran knob-twirler Mike Stone. Highlights from this album are the orchestral title track, It’s Never Too Late, and Conversation, which features New England’s trademark lush background vocals. The touring never let up for the boys from Boston as they split their time on the Explorer Suite tour between headlining large clubs and sharing arena billing with Journey, AC/DC, Cheap Trick, and Kiss among others.
For the third album, Walking Wild, the legendary Todd Rundgren was at the helm. The results of these sessions were hard-driving anthemic tunes such as Don’t Ever Let Me Go, L-5 (co-written by Fannon, Waldo & Rundgren) and the kick-ass rocker Holdin’ Out On Me, which features Hirsh Gardner on lead vocals. The frustration over the lack of label support grew and the band parted ways. While Fannon & Gardner went on to successful careers as producers and Shea & Waldo formed Alcatrazz with Graham Bonnet
& Yngwie Malmsteen, nothing seemed to match the excitement of New England. The real strength of New England was the combination of four strong & diverse individuals: Fannon’s lead vocals & songwriting, Waldo’s whirling keyboards, Gardner’s driving skin-pounding and high-pitched vocals and Shea’s thunderous bass lines.
While the records speak for themselves, the fans are the reason New England lives: Waldo explains,“I would tour all over the world with Alcatrazz and every country we’d go to people would have New England albums for me to sign. It really shows you the power of music. We have fans all over Europe & Japan, places we never even toured. It’s amazing.”
Watch the video for Don’t Ever Wanna Lose Ya below.
Listen to their self titled debut album below.
47 Responses
I saw New England open for Kiss on the Dynasty tour, at the old War Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York.
It was a fantastic night that I will never forget.
Hey Brian, there’s nothing about the Kiss tour since it opened in SLC on this site, nothing. Reviews, song selection, Paul’s voice, etc.. I guess when Ace is 5 gigs into his tour we’ll have already 7 lead articles playing big dumps like the Ogden Theater in Denver. The last Kiss CD sold more in the NYC area alone than Ace’s did since it came out. New England sucked opening for Kiss at MSG, I was there booing too. Another Elektra cut-out bin fave for $1.99.
You want Kiss news? Okay, here you go: Paul and Gene are currently “celebrating” the 40th anniversary of their first album by playing abbreviated sets while piggy-backing on a double bill with Def Leppard, because they can’t headline arenas on their own and don’t have the energy to play a full 2-hour show anymore. And tons of Youtube evidence continues to prove that Paul can’t sing well anymore either.
There’s your Kiss news. Now go away.
yes i remember these guys saw them open for kiss & foghat , they were ok..,but hey good for them ,still rockin..
New England was a great band! I wish I could go to this show. I have seen them many times back in the day and even got to know Jimmy and Gary. I met them in a bar in New Hampshire back in 81 or 82 and could not believe it. They were sitting by themselves and I said to my cousin ” Do you know who those guys are?” I said I’ve got to say hello. I went over to them and said listen, I don’t to bother you but I am a big New England fan, your albums are great. They said sit down and join us. I could not believe it. We talked for a couple of hours about music, it was great. Finally they said to bad your going back to Jersey because were playing next week at this very place. I told them I would be back, they said fine will put you on the guest list, give me your phone number. A few days later my Dad said to me you got a phone call from a Gary Shea telling me to let you know everything’s set for this weekend. I went and it was a blast. I hung out with them before and after the show. I can only hope that this show gets recorded cd/dvd and gets released. A truly great band and great guys. Thanks guys for reporting this story.
On a separate note, this story is about New England why all the Kiss comments? I know Paul Stanley produced there first album and New England open for them once but I would like to read more comments about New England a truly great band!
Total garbage. Go see it. Go see Ace in a large bar after his release tanks after 2 weeks. Kiss Army 19,000 strong in SLC-Denver. Huge box office.
Ace was the worst concert I have ever saw!!!!!! The biggest let down ever!! It was at Toads place in the late 80’s. He was so god dam wasted he could barley stand up and kept playing and singing the wrong parts for the wrong songs! But the studio albums are what I like. May have miss spoken a little but at least I can say I may be wrong most people don’t. Like I said brand names are not what I care about it’s the music a band makes that matters to me. I’d rather listen to a No name band that puts out great music then support a band just because they have a brand name and sell tickets. But with that said every one has a personality and to knock someones likes and dislikes makes know sense there are enough musical styles out to fit us all. If you like kiss you have every right to do so and I would never knock on anyone’s door for it.
Were you born a dick or did you just work real hard to get this good at it? Obviously you have a bone to pick w/Eddie or this website but just to preserve everyone’s sanity how about you go growl under another bridge troll?