Chart entered : 28 July 1979
Chart peak : 54
As Kiss made their UK breakthrough , a home grown hard rock act closed their account.
As stated in their Hello post Nazareth never managed to top the number 9 peak of their first hit in the UK but elsewhere they're best remembered for the cover of "Love Hurts" which reached number 8 in the US in 1976 ( their only substantial US hit ) and was number one in Norway for 14 out of its 61 week chart run. Here it charted at 15 as part of the "Hot Tracks " EP in 1977 which broke a run of three flops. In 1978 they received a fillip when guitarist Zal Cleminson joined the band following the implosion of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band ( he was the guy in the clown make up ) and their first single with him on board , "May The Sunshine" made number 22 early in 1979. Sadly the best track on the "No Mean City" album, Manny's "Whatever You Want Babe" a proto-indie jangler which is not too far removed from New Order's Ceremony failed to chart when released as the follow-up single.
"Star" was the third single Written by singer Dan McCafferty and guitarist Manny Charlton it's a semi-acoustic power ballad addressed without rancour to a girlfriend who's made it to the big time. Apart from a couple of nicely harmonised guitar solos and Dan's meaty vocals it could be REM or Soul Asylum and this wistful tune is a pleasant surprise , having not heard it at all at the time.
Nazareth's subsequent career proved that unpretentious hard rock could still find an audience in Europe when the English-speaking markets demanded something more glamorous. Some essence of the early seventies remained potent on the continent when it was being ruthlessly excised by Thatcher and Reagan.
Nazareth were given immediate notice that their British audience was sliding away when their 1980 album "Malice In Wonderland" ( a title already used by Paice, Ashton and Lord of course ) failed to make the British chart. The lead single , the amiable but low impact "Holiday" was a dud. It was a minor hit in the US , their last to make the Top 100; the album peaked at 41 in the States and was also a hit in Germany and Norway. The album considerably softened their sound for more commercial impact but few bit and it must have been galling for them to watch all the bands from the New Wave of British Heavy Metal piling into the charts while they were out in the cold. Apart from a re-release of "Hot Tracks" in the summer it was their last release on the Mountain label.
Zal now quit the band preferring to work with Elkie Brooks for most of the next decade. He also recorded and played with Midge Ure and Bonnie Tyler. In 1993 he was part of a reformed SAHB ( despite Harvey's death a decade earlier ) who issued a live album "Live In Glasgow 93". In 2004, after time spent in obscure bands like Ze Suicide and Oskura , he reformed SAHB once more. The band toured for four years releasing another live album Zalnation in 2006. At the beginning of 2008 he announced his permanent retirement from the business.
With an expanded line -up including Zal's friend Billy Rankin on guitar and former Spirit keyboardist John Locke the band signed for NEMS. Their first release was a double pack single "Nazareth Live" of old material still featuring Zal. It was quickly followed by their new studio album "The Fool Circle". The album was recorded with Steely Dan associate Jeff Baxter and completely overhauls the sound to be more contemporary with synths, production polish, the odd reggae number and heavy-handed political lyrics . A live version of J J Cale's "Cocaine" , recorded when Zal was still in the band, seems to be included almost as a sop to their original audience. It's an interesting exercise but it never quite gels; when the music's good as on "We Are The People " the lyrics are terrible. The only single "Dressed To Kill" is an undistinguished synth rock number with a vaguely anti-war lyric. It was their last studio LP to chart in the UK peaking at 60, ten places higher than it managed in the States.
The band, now based in Canada , hurried to appease the rockers with a heavy version of the much-covered "Morning Dew". This was tacked on to the end of the double live album "It's Snaz" recorded in Vancouver in the spring of 1981 . It was released at the end of the year and became their last charting album in the UK peaking at number 78.
In February 1982 they released "2XS" which continued their experimentation with current sounds. "You Love Another" is a re-write of The Police's Bed's Too Big Without You on which Dan sounds like Buster Bloodvessel while "Gatecrash" rips off The Stray Cats. The three singles were all released a long time after the album in the UK which shows what a low priority market the UK had become by this point. "Love Leads To Madness" is a passable pop rock effort curiously predictive of Euythmics ' Thorn In My Side. It was their last single to make any ripples in the US and made number 3 in South Africa. "Dream On" is a plodding power ballad which was a big hit in the German-speaking countries. "Games" is a slowburning rock number like John Farnham's You're The Voice which wasn't a hit anywhere. The album reached 122 in the US after which that market too lost interest.
Locke left the band at this point though synths remained an important element in the sound on their next album "Sound Elixir", the only product of a new deal with MCA. Future Blue Nile producer Calum Malcolm was involved as an engineer and played some keyboards. It's a generally downbeat set of songs that only charted in Germany and Norway.
Rankin was next to quit the band leaving them with the original quartet on 1984's "The Catch" which was released on Vertigo. The cover of "Ruby Tuesday" was their last UK single apart from a couple of re-releases on Old Gold and it's utterly hideous with a robotic rhythm and horrible drum sound. The whole album is similarly devoid of inspiration; opening track "Party Down" is six minutes of aimless turgid synth work while "Love of Freedom" aims for a Peter Gabriel world music vibe but just bores. Still Germany and Norway remained loyal. With 1986's "Cinema" they were down to just the latter.
Three more years ( during which time Manny did some preliminary production work with a new American band called Guns n Roses ) elapsed before "Snakes 'n' Ladders" came out. Three covers including an unspeakable assault on "Hang On To A Dream" indicated that inspiration was running ever drier although it actually broke new ground by charting in Switzerland as well as Norway.
In 1990 Manny became the first founder member to quit the band . After being inactive for the first half of the nineties he started releasing a string of solo albums on minor labels between 1999 and 2013. He also relocated to Texas. In 2008 he formed his own version of Nazareth and toured as "Nazareth with Manny Charlton" for a year. There's another solo album out soon.
Rankin was persuaded to rejoin the band for 1991's "No Jive" recorded in Germany and the band's sound got heavier once more. Norway had lost interest by this point but Austria joined the Swiss in giving them a chart placing. In 1993 their bank balances got a boost when Guns 'n' Roses covered "Hair of the Dog " on The Spaghetti Incident ? though they declined a request to perform at Axl Rose's wedding. Rankin wrote most of their 1994 album "Move Me then quit after it only charted in Switzerland.
Still the band continued and filled the gap with guitarist Jimmy Murrison and Ronnie Leahy on keyboards. They were on board for the band's nadir in 1998 when their next LP "Boogaloo" failed to chart anywhere. The following year drummer Daryl Sweet had a heart attack while they were on tour and passed away. He was replaced by bassist Paul Agnew's son Lee.
For the next nine years Nazareth released no new material but tried to keep interest alive with a series of live and compilation albums. Leahy retired in 2002. At the beginning of 2008 they started a big European tour to celebrate their fortieth anniversary and released a new studio album on a German label , "The Newz" taking on new influences like the Chili Peppers on opener "Goin Loco" and Queens of the Stone Age on "Liar". It's a lively enough comeback album but the songs are too long and Dan's voice is beginning to creak. It charted in Austria, Sweden and Switzerland. In 2011 they released a follow up album "Big Dogz". Most of the songs are at a pedestrian pace and several mourn the passing of time like "Radio" and "Time And Tide" ( the latter at a punishingly ironic 7 minutes and 20 seconds ). It became their first hit album in Germany since 1984 as well as scoring in her Alpine neighbours.
In the summer of 2013 Dan had to pack it in at a couple of shows due to breathing difficulties caused by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He announced his retirement at the end of August. The band had done enough work with Dan to release their next album "Rock 'n' Roll Telephone" in June last year. It's turgid stuff with songs that sound like they've been written not to stretch their ailing singer too much. He sounds particularly weak on the hip hop influenced "Long Long Time". Nevertheless it charted in Germany , Sweden, Austria and Switzerland.
Dan gave his blessing to Pete carrying on the band without him and endorsed his replacement Linton Osborne but the band had to cancel a UK tour in the winter because he too fell ill. In February this year his replacement by ex-Krokus singer Carl Sentance was announced but it remains to be seen whether they'll record anything more without Dan.
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