| Description : | SOLD OUT
Most shops around the world have sold out of this CD, though band member Hansi Felbrink still has a few copies remaining.
Please contact him at hansi@sidelakemedia.com
REVIEW STRUTTER MAGAZINE 8.4/10
"Formed in 1985, this ROULETTE from Sweden was hot on the heels of countless other Swedish bands to secure a major label deal in a time when bands like EUROPE , MALMSTEEN, TREAT and such had paved the way for Melodic Rock/Hair Metal. Unfortunately the band RAT BAT BLUE beat them for a CBS RECORDS deal and so after a few great singles, the band split up and end of story until… Well here comes AOR FM RECORDS, the great new label from Scotland with their 2nd release, following up their amazing PRIDE release, which was another Swedish band that failed to secure a deal 20 years ago with their infectious melodic rock. ROULETTE’s ‘Better late than never’ is their 2nd release, another Swedish band with a collection of songs recorded back in the late 80s, happily sounding all crystal clear on this CD. In total 17 songs are included, with songs recorded between 1987 and 1991. Let’s have a quick round-up here, some great fun catchy uptempo melodic rockers like “Only the strong - 1991 – Single”, “Hearts keep on burning - 1988 - Single A-side”, “City heat – 1989” , “All I want – 1988” and “Call my name - 1988 - Single B-Side”, very fine midtempo AOR in the shape of “Bittersweet love – 1991” , “Fool for your love - 1989 – Single” and “Reachin for you – 1990” , a lovely aorish ballad “Evangeline – 1991” , aorish uptempo keyboard orientated poprock a la ZINATRA/2nd TOBRUK, URGENT's 2nd (“Run girl – 1988” ), midtempo EUROPE 'Superstitious' style (“5. Give me some affection – 1989” and “So far so good – 1989” ) and the rest (“Better late than never – 1990” , “Dancin – 1990” , “Body n soul – 1989” , “Turn me on – 1987” and “Tonights the night – 1988” ) is ok. All in all, pure Scandi 80s Class Melodic Rock, must-have for fans of DAVINCI, DALTON , TREAT, EUROPE , FATE, ZINATRA, VICE, PRIDE, etc. etc."
Aor-fm sign ROULETTE. The album will be called "Better Late Than Never" and will include all their singles plus some fantastic demos.
AT LEAST 16-17 SONGS OF CLASSIC SCANDINAVIAN MELODIC AOR.
Again these will be limited editions, but, this time, of approximately 1000 "numbered". Pic disc, color artwork, band history..and a new enhancement will be a collectors edition CD box, slip case.
BAND HISTORY
The band Roulette was formed in 1985, Sundsvall, Sweden. All the guys had been in previous bands with Hansi Fellbrink ex Overload, Lundgren and Nesslin, Red Skies, and the Nelin brothers, The Kaza.
5 young guys who had found each other, “clicked” and started to rehearse songs and play “live” at rock clubs and festivals around Sweden.
Roulette became one of the most popular bands in their hometown and had a couple of hits “Summer Sun” and “Call My Name” on the local radio stations. The year after they took part in the competition POP -86 where they went to the final at Hard Rock Café / Stockholm. In the jury was Tommy Nilsson from Easy Action and Kee Marcello from Europe!
In 1987 they signed a record deal with TAB Records and released their first single ”Hearts keep on burning” with Tommy Nilsson on backing vocals!!
The second single was released in 1988 called “Fool for your love”, and a video was shot to promote that single.In this period Roulette performed on a lot of Swedish TV-shows like ”Top Gear”/Nordic Channel, ”Night Life”/TV 3 and ”Metropol”/SVT where they played 2 songs on the same show as Status Quo and were support act to no one less than Chuck Berry at Hede Festival! They also has the privilege of sharing the stage with Treat, Guardian Angels, Electric Boys and Lionshare.
In 1990, influenced by their prospective label, they changed their name to Cherry Red and won a record deal with CBS. They started to record their first full length album at Stockholm Recording, with producer Per Blom, but unfortunately at the same time CBS signed another AOR band called Rat Bat Blue and after recording only 3 songs, the album became just a single called ”Only the strong” and was released on CBS subsidiary label, Cupol Records.
With the failure of not having a full album release, the band broke up but continued playing together as a Def Leppard tribute band. And to this day,still do.
"Fantastic Swedish melodic aor band trod the same paths as bands like Easy Action circa their 2nd album "That Makes One", Da Vinci and Guardian Angels, but with bigger keyboards! Their only official releases were two singles as Roulette and one as Cherry Red with an albums worth of demos from the late 80''s, early 90's, bootlegged, with different artwork. How this bands output remained at the demo stage is beyond me! Theres no accounting for taste and in any musical climate these guys could succeed on the quality of songmanship alone! In fact...I'm that confident that should any of the band members happen along with the master tapes...I'll release myself!"
...and so I did
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