Biography
-
Years Active
1984 – 1989 (5 years)
-
Founded In
Birmingham, West Midlands, England, United Kingdom
-
Members
- Des Morris
- Ian McKean
- James Morris
- Mark Morris
Balaam and the Angel are a gothic rock band formed in Cannock, Staffordshire, England during 1983.
The three founding members of the band are Scottish brothers; the Morris brothers (James Morris, Mark Morris and Des Morris). As children in Motherwell, they worked in the entertainment industry as part of a cabaret act. They moved south to England, to Cannock, Staffordshire, where they formed Balaam and the Angel.
1985 saw the band augment their line up with keyboard player ‘Wendy Harper’.
Initially, the band self-released a series of EPs via their own Chapter 22 label and played some tour dates opening for The Cult. This saw Balaam and the Angel catch the attention of Virgin Records who signed them and would release their debut "The Greatest Story Ever Told" in 1986. They toured in support of it in the United States with KISS and label mates Iggy Pop.
A second guitarist, and the first non sibling was added to the band in 1988; Ian McKean. The band began to move away from gothic rock music styles into a sound that had more in common with hard rock. With their new found style they recorded the album "Live Free or Die", which featured the minor rock (#13) and college radio (#18) hit "I Love the Things You Do to Me". This was soon followed up in similar style when they recorded "Days of Madness", before being dropped by Virgin Records. Their song "I'll Show You Something Special" is on the Steve Martin and John Candy movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" soundtrack.
At some point, the band were joined by Chris P Notes on Keyboards.
Albums
1985 Sun Family
1987 The Greatest Story Ever Told
1988 Live Free or Die
1989 Days of Madness
1991 No More Innocence
1993 Prime Time
2019 That's Not The Real World
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
