City Boy (band)


City Boy were an English rock band formed in the late 1970s. They were originally called Sons Of Doloyne, then Back In The Band, and finally City Boy. They featured strong melodies, clever lyrics, complex vocal arrangements, and heavy guitars. The band consisted of Lol Mason, Steve Broughton, Max Thomas, Chris Dunn, Roger Kent, Mike Slamer, and later, Roy Ward. Their most popular songs were "5.7.0.5.", "What A Night" and "The Day the Earth Caught Fire".

History

Lol Mason and Steve Broughton met at 7 years of age, at school in Birmingham. They remained best friends throughout the years and started writing and recording their early songs in their mid to late teens. In the early 70s, Lol and Steve started playing for beers in a few acoustic clubs around the Midlands. At one of these clubs they met ragtime guitarist Chris Dunn, who immediately became a third member. Soon thereafter they enlisted Lol's friend, Max Thomas, to play 12 string guitar and bongos. The four of them toured the folk clubs for a while, until around late '74/early '75, when they made the decision to turn electric and added Mike Slamer and Roger Kent to the lineup. Very soon afterwards they secured a recording contract with Vertigo, a new sub-label of Phonogram Records, and changed their name from Back In The Band, to City Boy.
City Boy's first five albums were produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange, who was recommended to them by Phonogram A&R guy Chris Peers, and their debut album entitled City Boy, was the first full album that Mutt produced after relocating to the UK from South Africa. Lange became the defacto seventh member of the band, helping Chris Dunn hone his bass guitar skills and assisting with vocal arrangements. "Shake My Head and Leave", City Boy's first single off their eponymously titled debut album, was released in 1975 and received decent airplay. Their next single, "The Hap-Ki-Do Kid" earned them an appearance on BBC's Top Of The Pops, where they became the first act to ever perform 'live' on the show. Their first national tour saw them open for labelmates Thin Lizzy. City Boy's follow up album, Dinner At The Ritz, garnered powerful reviews. The NME wrote, "Not even the highest ballyhoo of praise could do justice to City Boy's masterwork, Dinner At The Ritz...you hear a composing style which has been influenced by, respectfully, Lennon and McCartney, novelist Ian Fleming, and Noel Coward. Very English...but very strange." However, chart success still eluded them. Roger Kent left the band before their third album, Young Men Gone West, and was temporarily replaced, for immediate recording purposes, by session drummer and ex-Crawler member, Tony Braunagel. Despite showing commercial growth this album also failed to supply the hit single they needed. Before the next album, Book Early, Roy Ward became the band's permanent drummer and fortuitously Book Early yielded the international hit single, "5.7.0.5.", which reached the Top 10 in the UK Singles Chart. The single also made the Top 30 in the U.S., peaking at #27 on the Billboard Hot 100, and was a sizeable hit in many European territories. In support of this album, they toured extensively in Europe and the United States, where they played 66 gigs, 56 of which were with Hall & Oates.
In 1979, City Boy parted ways with their US label, Mercury Records, and signed with Atlantic Records for the US and Canada. Their first album under this new deal, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, received strong reviews and produced a minor hit with the title song. The album marked an early recording appearance by Huey Lewis, who played harmonica on the second track, "It's Only the End of the World". They continued to tour heavily in Europe, the US and Canada. However, this album would prove to be the last album with the six man lineup.
In December 1979, original members Broughton and Dunn parted ways with the band. The remaining members of the group went on to release their next album, Heads Are Rolling, as a quartet in 1980. The soft rock track "Speechless" made the band briefly popular in the Philippines. Their final album, It's Personal from 1981, failed to attract any attention. Unable to secure a recording contract with any of the major labels, the band split up in 1982.

After City Boy

After the split, Lol Mason formed The Maisonettes and in 1983 had a top ten UK hit with "Heartache Avenue". In 1984, after the breakup of The Maisonettes, Lol concentrated on script writing and, along with his friend Dave Smith, won a Radio Times Comedy Award for their first script, Total Accident. A few years later, Lol's six-part Radio 4 series, Richard Barton: General Practitioner, a hat-tip to his father's hit series Dick Barton: Special Agent, proved to be a huge success. Lol's father was Edward J. Mason, the creator and original scriptwriter of The Archers, the UK's longest running radio serial. Coincidentally, Chris Dunn's father, Leslie Dunn, was an actor in The Archers for 27 years and Steve Broughton's aunt also had a recurring part in the show. None of them knew this when they first joined forces. Laurence Edward Mason died on 30th July 2019 at the age of 69 at his home in Harborne, Birmingham, from a heart attack, after complications following a kidney transplant.
Steve Broughton moved to New York and became a songwriter and producer, under the names Stephen Broughton Lunt and Steve Lunt. He co-wrote Cyndi Lauper's hits "She Bop" and "The Goonies 'R' Good Enough", which was written for the Steven Spielberg movie, The Goonies. He has written and/or produced songs for Britney Spears, Cyndi Lauper, Nick Carter, Aaron Carter, Joan Jett, Jefferson Starship, Peter Frampton, Felix Cavaliere, Brenda K Starr, Junior, and Stacy Lattisaw. He later became Vice President of A&R at Jive Records, where for almost 10 years he was instrumental in the early career of Britney Spears. He was also the responsible A&R executive for *NSync, Justin Timberlake, Backstreet Boys, Nick Carter, Aaron Carter, and Laura Izibor. After Jive Records, Steve went on to work as Vice President of A&R at Atlantic Records, where he produced and developed the career of the best selling acapella group, Straight No Chaser. Steve recently won 3 awards at the Independent Music Awards in New York, for his writing and production work on Seth Glier's fifth album, Birds.
Mike Slamer went on to record and work as a session musician and staff composer after a stint with American band Streets fronted by Kansas vocalist Steve Walsh in the early to mid-1980s. They recorded two albums for Atlantic Records, 1st and Crimes in Mind. Later with bass player Billy Greer, he formed the band Seventh Key.
Chris Dunn moved back to the UK in 1982 and worked for Zomba on various projects including the Shape Up And Dance roadshow, and was personal manager to Jive Records artists Tight Fit, who had a number one hit with the remake of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight". Dunn then took over managing Battery Studios in London. He went on to found Dreamhire Professional Audio Rentals in the UK and then relocated to the US in 1988 to set up Dreamhire locations in New York and Nashville. He bought out Dreamhire from BMG after they had taken over ownership of Zomba in 2001, and announced his intention to close the business in an interview dated 15 August 2016. As of 1 July 2017, the business was closed and liquidating the remainder of its assets, mostly on eBay.
Roy Ward was the lead session singer on the remake of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which was a major hit for Tight Fit in 1982. He went on to release a remake of Del Shannon's "Runaway" under his band name Tokyo Charm in 1982.
Max Thomas went into teaching.

Selected discography

Albums

"The Day the Earth Caught Fire" has since been covered twice, once in 1999 by Swedish hard rockers Lion's Share, and again in 2000 by Jørn Lande with Ronni Le Tekrø on guitar and Sid Ringsby on bass.
In 1998, the first four City Boy albums were reissued in two double-CD sets by Renaissance Records. In October 2009, City Boy's last studio album, It's Personal, was released for the first time on CD.
In 2015, Cherry Red's Lemon Recordings reissued the first four albums, again in two double-CD sets, this time remastered from the original master tapes with added bonus tracks and new liner notes.