On Thin Ice - 2024 Remaster.
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| Musicians | Pat Rowbottom | vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion |
| Dave Conner | electric and acoustic guitars | |
| Barry Stones | vocals, electric guitar | |
| Mick Whatley | drums and percussion |
All songs written by Pat Rowbottom and David Conner except Cried Out Blues, Tears For A Friend by Barry Stones and Rich Man's Song, Fourteen Wheeler Man by Ralph Hall. Additional vocals on Walk Away, Soft Shoe Shuffle, Crying, Rich Man's Song and Fourteen Wheeler Man - Ralph Hall. Thanks to Dave Forward for additional drum programming and percussion.
Recorded originally on analogue tape at Soundcraft Studios, Leicester and The Basement Studios, Broadbottom, Cheshire during spring and summer 1993 and released six months later in November 1993 in cassette format only. The extended version of 'On Thin Ice' featuring no less than 20 original blues rock songs was finally released in CD format in February 2002
Engineered by Dave Forward and Derek Roberts and produced by Pat Rowbottom with additional artwork design by Julian Homer and Pat Rowbottom
On Thin Ice - 1993/2002
'On Thin Ice' originally released in November 1993 in cassette format only, represents the debut studio album from Cold Flame. Initial recordings took place in mid 1991 when the band booked a day's recording in Leicester in a studio that no one can now remember and possibly no longer exists. A less than successful outing with no one in the band feeling happy with the overall sound, things were allowed to gather dust in a forgotten corner at band HQ. Several months later, Dave, Barry and Mick recorded some tracks at Soundcraft studios in Leicester. This material included Lucky Man, Cried out blues, Tears for a friend and Walk away. Pat was not involved in these sessions but early in 1993, these same sessions were revisited with Pat supplying new bass parts as the recording process for the 'On Thin Ice' album began to take shape. Two separate recording studios were used during the sessions which took took place in the spring and summer of 1993. The initial group of songs came from those same sessions at Soundcraft Studios with sound engineer Derek Roberts whilst the main body of material which included both stage favourites as well as brand new music was undertaken at The Basement Studios in Broadbottom, Cheshire with sound engineer Dave Forward. All these songs, written by Pat and Dave highlighted the blues rock style that Cold Flame quickly became best known for. Pat takes up the story 'As the sessions progressed, we just carried on recording even though we knew that some material would not be used. It seemed a good idea at the time and in hindsight we were probably right'. This meant some new tracks written by Pat also ended up as part of the final product when the full collection was officially released as a studio album several years later. An additional musician who featured on some of the material was Leicester blues man Ralph Hall who had played bass parts on early sessions recorded at Soundcraft Studios. Ralph was a regular on the Midlands blues scene and he kindly volunteered his services, contributing vocals on five songs. Studio engineer Dave Forward then mixed and mastered the whole project at the Basement Studios. Collectively the final group of twenty songs released in CD format as 'On Thin Ice', reflected the style of the band in the early 1990's - original blues rock featuring a twin guitar approach albeit with the limitations that came with using two separate recording studios for this project.
On Thin Ice - The 2024 Remaster
Fast forward to March 2024 and the unexpected and rather unfortunate discovery that a relatively recent batch of duplicate copies of 'On Thin Ice' mastered at a reputable duplication company in the north of England and delivered to band HQ twelve months previously were faulty and thus needed replacing as quickly as possible. In discussion with Neil Scales at Starring Studios in Todmorden west Yorkshire, a new plan was realised with an agreement for Neil to remaster all the existing material available from this album both for cd and download release. This work was undertaken over a period of three weeks in June in conjunction with Cold Flame band founder Pat Rowbottom. Sadly no suitable additional material was found that could be added to this collection but it did at least provide an opportunity for Pat to redesign the album cover with input from Derbyshire printing company Interlith Ltd Glossop as well as assessing and rewriting updated album notes for the official website's Album section.
With 2024 representing the band's 40th anniversary, 'On Thin Ice - The 2024 Remaster' is a welcome addition to Cold Flame's recorded album catalogue. It also marks the very first time that any of these songs have been available to download via all the usual worldwide channels. In reflecting on this project, 'On Thin Ice' may have been the band's first ever studio release but it remains very much a part of the band's ongoing music legacy with several songs featured on the album still appearing in band blues rock setlists today.
Cold Flame 'On Thin Ice - The 2024 Remaster' released by UK independent record label 'Starring Records' is available on CD and to download from Tuesday September 10th 2024 and the album will also be available for purchase at all future band concerts and via the Band Shop. The link for the download version of the album is https://ditto.fm/on-thin-ice-cold-flame.
The album 'On Thin Ice' is available via the band website Shop.
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