Wireless


albums w/ jackets & lyrics
Originally from Sydney, Australia, bassist Allan Marshall, guitarist Steve McMurray, and drummer Glenn Beatson were in a rock group called Autumn that by early ’75 had moved to England in an attempt to cash in on bigger audiences. They were on tour in Canada that year with Lighthouse, when after seeing a good portion of the country, decided to trade the koalas and fish & chips in for parkas. They made Toronto their new home and added a pair of local natives to the lineup, ex-Morning Drive singer Michael Lalonde and guitarist Mike Crawford – and Wireless was born.

They were signed to Atlantic Records and entered Toronto’s Soundstage Studios with producer Jack Richardson (The Guess Who, Alice Cooper, and Bob Seger, among a million others). Their self-titled debut album in 1976 was met with relatively good response, as were the singles – “Spend the Night With Me” and “Lovin’ In Return.”

But following a series of dates throughout Canada, by the spring of ’77 Atlantic dropped them from their roster. To make matters worse, Beatson was homesick, and once it was decided that Marshall and McMurray were going to stay, the following months saw an exhaustive auditioning process for a new drummer finish when ex-Goddo member Marty Morin came on board. During the process, Lalonde also left, and the band decided to keep it a foursome, with Marshall now handling the bulk of the lead vocals.

With new manager Ray Danniels, the next order of business was to find a new label, and Anthem, home for Rush and Max Webster, fit the bill. They came out of Phase One Studios in the summer of ’78 with producer Mike Tilka (ex-Max Webster bassist) with their new album, POSITIVELY HUMAN – RELATIVELY SANE. Along with the single “I Know You Know” the critics ate it up, with other noteable mentions including the b-side “No Way Out,” and “The Rut” and “What You Make It,” both featuring Morin on lead vocals.

Encouraged but not necessarily happy, Anthem execs wanted a ‘name’ producing their next album, so Rush’s Geddy Lee was brought in for the sessions at Le Studio in Morin Heights, Quebec. The culmination was the NO STATIC album in 1980. Like its predecessors, the record saw Marshall and McMurray handling the bulk of the writing, and the first single “Pay To Ride” was released amongst much hype. Unfortunately though, hype doesn’t always equate to sales, and the single failed to make the top 30 at home and was all but invisible south of the border, a key in the label’s plans.

By the following spring, Morin returned to a reformed Goddo, then spent time in Bongo Fury, before rejoining Goddo again. Everyone else in Wireless went on to other projects, or got out of the business all together. In 2012, Anthem re-released POSITIVELY HUMAN and NO STATIC on a single disc.

  • With notes from Gary Lessard, Glen Thomas

    wireless
    WIRELESS (1976)
    Spend The Night With Me
    Old Fashioned Feeling
    Where We Ought To Be
    Lady Anne
    I Just Couldn’t Believe It
    Lovin’ In Return
    Chain Of Fools
    Go Now
    Love The Way You Feel
    positively human relatively sane
    POSITIVELY HUMAN RELATIVELY SANE (1978)
    I Know You Know
    No Way Out
    Goodnight Ladies
    Right To Beg
    What You Make It
    The Hard Way
    Sign Right Here
    The Rut
    461 Markham
    no static
    NO STATIC (1980)
    Pay To Ride
    Timekeeper
    Go Naked Through The World
    One Of A Kind
    East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon
    Deep Heat
    Warm Night With A 3/4 Moon
    Friends
    Journey Of A Possible Hero
RELATED ENTRIES

goddo