By Pete Wadeson

When Shy had their 'fifteen minutes of fame' they were riding the coattails of American bands such as Dokken, Queensryche, Warrant and to a lesser extent our very own Def Leppard. However, despite major label backing, the band failed to break the most important continent for this music---America. Home and birthplace of AOR, it really is a case of taking coals to Newcastle but despite my seeming cynicism, we have over the years had a few bands that were capable of cracking the good ol' U.S. of A., one more notable being the criminally overlooked FM. With original vocalist Tony Mills back in the Shy fold, the band have now decided it's time for an AOR-retro-fest by releasing two albums simultaneously, a "Live In Europe" release featuring 14 tracks captured on their European jaunt with Gary Moore. That album in itself is a nice piece of Shy history whilst this current studio release, the aptly-entitled "Regeneration" showcases the band for the late '90s---virtually a decade later! Basically, the band sound exactly as they did at the time of "Excess All Areas." one of the band's better late-80s major label offerings. So in that sense, time really does seem to have stood still but the trouble is the band were damn fine then and "Regeneration" is proof positive they're here to show it again now. Oh, and if nobody ever noticed, Steve Harris is a hell of a guitarist!

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