The Rembrandts, new masters - the duo comes together for the 1st time – in Great Buildings
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Artist:
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Album:Apart From The Crowd
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Track:Hold On To Something - Great Buildings
(Fourth in a series)
The twosome that make up The Rembrandts – Danny Wilde (second right, above) and Phil Solem (leftmost) – first recorded together in a group called *Great Buildings*. After the breakup of *The Quick* (see last post), Danny reunited with the bassist/keyboard player from that group, Ian Ainsworth and, with Phil Solem and drummer Richard Sandford added, Great Buildings was born. A bit of a powerpop/new wave hybrid, they were signed to Columbia, which released one single (picture sleeve above and below) and one full-length LP by the band, called ??Apart From The Crowd??, in 1981. The only way you’d know that *that* was the title of the LP, however, was to look on the spine or on the disc itself, as it appeared nowhere on the front or back cover, to wit:
They were considered to be one of Columbia’s “Developing Artists” group in ’81, along with *Paul Collins' Beat*, *The Laughing Dogs*, *20/20*, *Tommy Tutone* and others). It is the beginnings of the rock/pop that Danny and Phil would come to specialize in. Danny sounds like his adult self vocally (as opposed to The Quick) and Phil’s harmonies and fabulous guitar work are well in evidence. And the songwriting team-up began as well, with Danny, Phil and Ian writing all of the 10 songs on the LP (ah, the bad old days – 10 songs?) in one combination or another. It has never seen a CD release. 
An additional track from this LP, ??Maybe It’s You??, can be found in Comments.This turned out to be another one-album deal (just like The Quick). The group began work on a second album in 1983 which never saw release, but a couple of tracks from that are now on The Rembrandts website (which has a MOG link! – pointing to their MOG page, which features posts from…moi, exclusively…) I have downloaded one of the two unreleased tracks, ??I Want You??, and it also follows in Comments. 
Next: The latter half of the 1980s would see Danny release three solo LPs, but the first of those had Phil Solem all over it.
The twosome that make up The Rembrandts – Danny Wilde (second right, above) and Phil Solem (leftmost) – first recorded together in a group called *Great Buildings*. After the breakup of *The Quick* (see last post), Danny reunited with the bassist/keyboard player from that group, Ian Ainsworth and, with Phil Solem and drummer Richard Sandford added, Great Buildings was born. A bit of a powerpop/new wave hybrid, they were signed to Columbia, which released one single (picture sleeve above and below) and one full-length LP by the band, called ??Apart From The Crowd??, in 1981. The only way you’d know that *that* was the title of the LP, however, was to look on the spine or on the disc itself, as it appeared nowhere on the front or back cover, to wit:They were considered to be one of Columbia’s “Developing Artists” group in ’81, along with *Paul Collins' Beat*, *The Laughing Dogs*, *20/20*, *Tommy Tutone* and others). It is the beginnings of the rock/pop that Danny and Phil would come to specialize in. Danny sounds like his adult self vocally (as opposed to The Quick) and Phil’s harmonies and fabulous guitar work are well in evidence. And the songwriting team-up began as well, with Danny, Phil and Ian writing all of the 10 songs on the LP (ah, the bad old days – 10 songs?) in one combination or another. It has never seen a CD release. An additional track from this LP, ??Maybe It’s You??, can be found in Comments.This turned out to be another one-album deal (just like The Quick). The group began work on a second album in 1983 which never saw release, but a couple of tracks from that are now on The Rembrandts website (which has a MOG link! – pointing to their MOG page, which features posts from…moi, exclusively…) I have downloaded one of the two unreleased tracks, ??I Want You??, and it also follows in Comments. Next: The latter half of the 1980s would see Danny release three solo LPs, but the first of those had Phil Solem all over it.
Comments (10)
Love this album. Been a fave for the last twenty-seven years (which seemed just like last month...a sign of old age for a music lover...). Still ticked off after all of these years that it was never put out on CD. There are so many great albums locked up in Columbia's vaults. Getting anxious that the vinyl that we're playing on the radio will start to skip. So far (knock on wood) - so good. Cue burn from the needle is completely different story. Thanks for posting all three songs! Always wondered what musical sounds that second album would have yielded.
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Haven't mastered the posting of a song in a message yet so check out the Great Buildings song at this link:
http://mog.com/The_Time_Machine
I'm sure you'll appreciate it. Just in case the link doesn't work you can try this one as well:
http://mog.com/The_Time_Machine/blog_post/158553
Have a rockin' weekend!
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You are welcome. Gotta give Phil Solem and Danny Wilde props for being our American version of Squeeze's Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook.
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