Gary Friday

Wild Frontier is the sixth solo studio album by Irish guitarist Gary Moore, released in 1987. His first studio effort after a trip back to his native Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985, the album contains several songs about Ireland and even the music itself is steeped in Celtic roots. The album is dedicated to the memory of Moore's close friend and former Thin Lizzy bandmate Phil Lynott, who died on 4 January 1986, with the words "For Philip" on the rear cover. Wild Frontier contains the hit single "Over the Hills and Far Away", which reached #20 in the UK, as well as a cover of the Easybeats' song "Friday on My Mind". The Max Middleton-penned "The Loner" was originally recorded by Cozy Powell for his Over the Top album in 1979 (on which Moore performed, albeit not on Powell's recording of "The Loner").

Wild Frontier is the sixth solo studio album by Irish guitarist Gary Moore, released in 1987. His first studio effort after a trip back to his native Belfast, Northern Ireland in 1985, the album contains several songs about Ireland and even the music itself is steeped in Celtic roots. The album is dedicated to the memory of Moore's close friend and former Thin Lizzy bandmate Phil Lynott, who died on 4 January 1986, with the words "For Philip" on the rear cover. Wild Frontier contains the hit single "Over the Hills and Far Away", which reached #20 in the UK, as well as a cover of the Easybeats' song "Friday on My Mind". The Max Middleton-penned "The Loner" was originally recorded by Cozy Powell for his Over the Top album in 1979 (on which Moore performed, albeit not on Powell's recording of "The Loner").

The album adopted Celtic elements from Gary Moore's homeland of Northern Ireland, and was dedicated to Moore's childhood friend, Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott, who passed away the earlier year.
Wild Frontier attempted to repeat the pop-metal formula of Gary Moore's 1985 album, Run for Cover, but falls short for various reasons. First, the songwriting wasn't quite up to par and except for "Over the Hills and Far Away, the title track, and "The Loner" - a beautifully moody guitar instrumental, Moore seemed to be going through the motions. Second, and most fatal was the decision to use a drum machine throughout the album; a failed experiment which just plain sounds wrong. Still, this is hardly a bad record, just slightly disappointing.

With countless Gary Moore compilations released over the years, it's understandable for fans to greet the release of yet another, 2006's Platinum Collection, with skepticism. But what differentiates this three-disc set from the previous compilations is that it does a fine and dandy job of collecting highlights from all phases of Moore's career – heavy metallist, mainstream melodic rocker, and blues enthusiast. A cover of the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" allows Moore to show off his smoking six-string skills, and serves as proof that with a little more luck, Moore would have been up there with Van Halen, Vai, and Satriani as top rock guitarists of the '80s. Elsewhere, a pair of tracks recorded with the late great Phil Lynott – "Parisienne Walkways" and "Out in the Fields" – show the promise that future collaborations between these onetime Thin Lizzy bandmates held, if Lynott hadn't senselessly died young. Also, you'll find tracks that show Moore streamlining his sound in hope of crossover success – which he did obtain in Europe ("Over the Hills and Far Away," "Wild Frontier") – as well as his early-'90s rebirth as a bluesman ("Still Got the Blues," "Oh Pretty Woman," "Since I Met You Baby").

Robert William Gary Moore was a Northern Irish guitarist and singer-songwriter. During his teenage years in the 1960's, Moore played in the line up of a number of local Belfast based bands, before a move to Dublin, Ireland, after being asked to join the Irish band Skid Row, whose soon to depart lead singer, was one Phil Lynott. Later on, Moore could be seen playing in the likes of Thin Lizzy and British jazz-rock fusion band Colosseum II, as well as having his own, highly successful solo career split between the genres of heavy metal and blues. Moore shared the stage with such blues and rock musicians as B.B. King, Albert King, John Mayall, Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker, Albert Collins, George Harrison, and Greg Lake.

This is the final chapter of a trilogy of albums in which I explored and arranged popular songs. The entire project was made in collaboration with vocalists Theo Bleckmann and Kate McGarry, pianist Gary Versace, and the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. For the first recording, Songs I Like A Lot, I selected the majority of the songs for the album. Many of the songs I chose were from my childhood, and as I started to really listen to them again, I was surprised by how well I actually knew them. The second recording, Songs We Like A Lot, is composed primarily of songs that Theo and Kate liked and chose for me to arrange. Uri Caine held down the piano chair on this recording. And for this third and final recording, Songs You Like A Lot, we asked listeners to nominate their favorite songs for me to arrange. We then had an internet-wide vote on a list of nominated songs, and I chose (with the help of Kate, Theo and Gary) from the top 20 most popular songs.