Simon RushworthThe Western Front — Eureka (Music Theories Recordings)
Listening to Thin Lizzy alumnus Scott Gorham trading licks with sometime Supertramp six stringer Marty Walsh is a genuine treat.
The duo’s intuitive call and response trade-off is truly addictive as the former’s blues rock roots intertwine beautifully with the latter’s AOR-styled, dreamy West Coast touch.
And there’s a sense this sonic match made in heaven was always meant to be.
Gorham and Walsh bounce off each other so naturally it would be easy to believe that The Western Front were already a well-oiled pop rock machine by the time Eureka was laid down in Los Angeles.
That couldn’t be further from the truth.
This was a band brought together — almost by chance — by longstanding friendships, mutual friends and perfect timing.
But theirs is a story of missed opportunities and unfulfilled ambition.
A magical debut never saw the light of day. Gorham and Walsh parted ways.
And until 2023 The Western Front was no more than a mythical name lost in the sands of time. How come?
By the early 80s Walsh had already pulled together a team of like-minded musos — including songwriting partner Dennis O’Donnell (guitar), Derek Bergmann (keys), Richard ‘Moon’ Calhoun (vocals) and Darrell Verdusco (drums) — when he roped in old high school buddy Gorham.
Eureka was tracked between 1983 and 1984 and its 12 songs represent a snapshot in time when pop and rock were on a spectacular and chart-busting collision course.
But record label wrangles ripped up the script and while The Western Front should have been riding on the coat tails of Journey and Toto, their finest work never saw the light of day.
Until now.
The Western Front’s Eureka moment
There’s always been talk of rock’s ‘great lost albums’ and the genre’s fabled ‘buried treasures’.
But Eureka is the real deal.
Until a chap in Sweden came across a couple of The Western Front’s tracks online in 2023, a remarkable record would have remained forever hidden and long forgotten.
That renewed interest — and a timely intervention from Toto’s Steve Lukather — changed the course of history.
Deals were done and the original tapes acquired.
And more than 40 years after Eureka was meant to make its mark, an outstanding melodic rock masterpiece has finally been uncovered.
Perhaps a young Richard Marx heard the masters?
Maybe The Power Station got wind of a game changing project.
What if the founder members of Giant or Hardline somehow heard Eureka before it was carelessly binned?
You see the songs here feel and sound exactly like the polished, chart-friendly pop rock that peppered the US charts from the mid 80s.
Rain, for example, was made for Marx — its earworm of a melody and that Gorham/Walsh guitar axis could have lit up the Billboard Hot 100 for weeks.
Chain Of Light leans on funk and soul to fire up the senses.
And it’s easy to imagine Danny Vaughn transforming Man To Man into a monumental Tyketto classic.
Set Me Free — the first taste of Eureka after its release was teased earlier this year — is peak AOR as sublime keysman Bergmann jostles for position with an on-fire Gorham and Walsh.
Once upon a time there was a legendary LA supergroup called The Western Front…
…and this music soundtracks their incredible story.
