Steve One and the Shades

Rock of the 80's, new wave, modern rock, 80's, classic, pop-rock, pop, rock, rock and roll, club band, concert act, live show, electric guitar, acoustic guitar,

Steve One and the Shades, the quintessential 80's power-pop, rock band from the San Francisco Bay Area, disbanded in 1990. They released one 5-song E.P., produced by Scott Mathews, on cassette in 1987 and a 7-song vinyl album and cassette, produced by Dave Denny, in 1988. (Two of the songs were repeated, so there was no reason to include both versions of the same songs here.) These recordings were primarily to be used as demos to "shop" to the major labels, but after numerous requests from fans and media, they printed two limited runs of product...albums and tapes...and were distributed throughout northern California. The two pressings sold-out almost immediately. These songs were produced on an extremely tight budget with minimal overdubs. In fact, for the lead vocals, Steve was given only one take per song. And in rapid succession. All the vocals were cut in one quick 2 hour session. These MP3's were copied from a CD which was a copy of the 18 year old, well-worn cassette tapes found in a box just last month...hiss, dropouts and all! (A search is on for the masters, but no one seems to know where they are, or what happpened to them.) As a live performance band, they headlined and opened literally hundreds of shows in northern California, sharing the stage with many of the decades' notable performers, including Huey Lewis and the News, Chris Isaak, Greg Kihn, Night Ranger, Ronnie Montrose, Eddie Money, Starship (KBC), and more. They received local radio airplay, great reviews and performed live on the radio, sometimes in a semi-acoustic format...long before the term "unplugged" was coined. Sadly, the lack of a real record deal and the "usual band stuff" broke them up around 1989-1990.

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