Artist: NEO a4, Album: NEO a4, Song: Rescue Me

NEO a4 were a new wave rock band from Edmonton, Alberta.  The principle members were Ric Johnston, John Tidswell and Joel Anderson.  They formed in 1981 after years of playing in cover bands both in Calgary and Edmonton.  They were heavily influenced by the new technology emerging in music as well as alternative methods of approaching the craft of songwriting.  Robert Fripp, former guitarist from King Crimson, was a major influence for them at the time.  They would gain some early success, landing opening spots for The Cure, Thompson Twins and Thomas Dolby when they toured through the West.  The band would release their debut independently in 1984 as well as a follow up in 1985 before attracting the attention of Duke Street Records.  Duke Street then remixed and re-released some tunes from their sophomore release and re-titled it, Desire.  The title track was the band's first single.  It led them to their major label self titled debut in 1988 which was produced by Colin Thurston.  Colin had just made a name for himself with the production credits on some very popular Duran Duran albums.  The album would spawn a couple of singles, namely the song, Say This To Me.  Rescue Me is a deep album track that I don't believe was ever released as a single but it certainly could have been.  You can check out the song on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnzmUlqCP2s&feature=channel_video_title).  The guys would add a fourth member for their final release in 1989.  This release would be produced by Chris Wardman of the band Blue Peter (see blog 10/4/11).  They would break up in 1990.  All of the members have remained in music in some capacity over the years and they've posted a Facebook page on the band (http://www.facebook.com/pages/NeoA4/).  You can purchase the self titled debut from Duke Street Records on Itunes.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!