FIRE IN THE SKY 2021 REMIX

Back in 1982, Quasar released their debut studio album, which featured Paul Vigrass (lead vocals), Cyrus Khajavi (guitar synthesizer), Peter Ware (keyboards), Peter Shade (vibraphone), Steen Doosing (drums), andKeith Turner (bass, Moog bass pedals, 12-string guitar), and David Cairns (drums), along with a few guests. It was later reissued in 1990, with a different cover, and then many years later Keith contacted Graham Joiner of Audio Restored to create digital multitrack masters from the old master tapes, but to Keith's surprise they did not contain Paul's vocals, but instead those of Susan Robinson. Susan was highly regarded as lead singer of Quasar in the Eighties (the band have suffered from multiple line-up changes), yet apart from a live tape there was nothing officially released. Apparently this was recorded after the release of the album itself and on Bandcamp it states that all the tracks are original takes apart from the vocals, which is why the cover is virtually identical to the original with just the colouring of the logo giving it away.

It is more than a decade since I last played the original version of this album, which means in many ways I have been able to treat this as a brand new release, which is just as well as one of the things I know I really enjoyed about it previously was the confidence of Paul. This album is now more than 40 years old, and is not surprising that it is incredibly reminiscent of the neo prog of the time, yet even now this is a joy to listen to. Yes, it does sound dated, but not as much as one might imagine. Listening to it in 2025, with the ease of discovering music and connecting to others in the prog scene, it is almost impossible to think back to what the scene was like in the early Eighties when the mass media decided to do their level best to ensure any nascent prog scene was snuffed out for good. Even though Quasar were regularly playing venues like The Marquee they were destined for success only within the underground. This never sounds as of Susan was a replacement singer, as this material is perfectly suited to her vocal style, and one can certainly hear why she was so highly rated as this is a neo prog album which is a delight from beginning to end with a real freshness in approach.

I must confess to enjoying this more than I did with Paul singing, so why not go to Bandcamp and visit one of the stalwarts of the early Eighties prog scene.

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