Shona Laing

By Steve Ward

This article first appeared in Platform End No's 18 and 20

Back in the early 80's I was fortunate enough to be on the mailing list of several Record Company's, and as a result received a number of demo's. I always made a point of playing every one, and although the majority were complete rubbish and destined for the local charity shops and jumble sales, occasionally a gem would surface which made the trawl through all the dross worthwhile. Such was the case with one white label album I received around 1981. A female singer with great songs and an incredible voice, but as the Record Company neglected to to include any blurb, I has no idea who it was. Nevertheless I kept it for future reference and consigned it to the depths of my collection.

A couple of years later as a long standing earth Band fan, I bought the new album 'Somewhere in Afrika', and instantly recognised the female voice as being the same as on the white label album. My investigations identified the artist as being 'Shona Laing', and the mystery album turned out to be 'Tied to The Tracks', and so began an obsession which has lasted nearly 20 years and is still as strong today as it ever was. A lot of money has been spent in phone calls and faxes to New Zealand. Many expensive purchases have been made from dealers over there, due to the fact that many items were never given a UK release. The consistent quality of her work has made it all worthwhile and I have been rewarded with some of the best music in my collection.

I still have an unfulfilled ambition to visit New Zealand and meet Shona in person and to see her live in concert and I am determined to do so one day when I can afford to.

What follows is a pen picture of Shona, together with a full album discography with a brief review which is strictly a personal fan's eye view and I have included my favourite tracks as a guide to anyone who might be interested in checking out Shona's work.

Shona Laing was born on 9th October, 1955 a birthday she shares with the late John Lennon and Jackson Browne, amongst others. Her early teenage years were spent quote; "Writing songs and singing them in my bedroom at home", honing a talent which was obviously recognised early on as she wrote and recorded her debut album "Whispering Afraid", as a sixteen year old high school student in 1972.

By the mid 70's she had competed twice for New Zealand in the Tokyo world song festival and was compared to Bonnie Raitt by the New Zealand music press.

With two hit albums behind her, she left her native New Zealand and came to England in the late 70's where she stayed for seven years. It was here that she recorded two albums, (although only one was released), and whilst her career didn't take off as expected, it is certain that if she hadn't been living and recording in the UK at this time she would never have been offered the gig with the Earth Band.

Album Discography

1. Whispering Afraid (Vertigo 6360 - 901/ 1972) No UK release

A strong mature debit, especially considering that she was a 16 year old high school student when written and recorded. Very much the girl at home in her bedroom feel, referred to earlier, some of the production leaves a little to be desired but does not spoil the overall quality of this album.

Stand out tracks:

Masquerade, Quiet Night, 1905. (1905 was inspired by Henry Fonda and won Shona second place on New Zealand national TV series New Faces in 1972)

2. Shooting Stars Are Only Seen At Night (Philips 6334 - 012/ 1974) No UK release

A change of label but a style very similar to the debut album, but with stronger songs and a much better production. A lovely gate fold sleeve with great photographs of a very young looking Shona.

Stand out tracks:

I'm Crying Too, Shooting Stars, Remains To Be Seen, Rainbow.

3. Untitled/ Unreleased Album (Recorded 1976/77)

By this stage of her career, Shona had moved to England and recorded this album at R.G.Jones' studios in Wimbledon. Produced by Roberto Di Nova, it was being paid for by the record company back in New Zealand and when they realised she wasn't coming home they promptly withdrew the funding. Shona has tried to track down the master tapes without success, so anyone who has any information or the whereabouts of the tape, please get in touch.

4. Tied To The Tracks (EMI EMC 3360 - 1981) First UK release

The album which started it all for me again recorded during her spell in England and a move to a more main stream rock sound with a traditional; band format. An excellent album full of great songs with Shona's wonderful voice to the fore, which should have given her the break through she deserved but didn't do quite as well as expected. The single 'Don't Tell Me', received plenty of air play on Radio 1 and Shona recalls Manfred offered her the gig with Earth Band as a result of hearing this track. Shona wryly describes her time with MMEB as an educational experience.

Stand out tracks:

Don't Tell Me, Overboard, Money Is The Measure, By The Night (written at the time of the Bradford massacre).

5. Somewhere In Afrika - Manfred Mann's Earth Band (Bronze BRON 543/ 1982)

Shona featured prominently on tracks, Nostradamus, Third World Service and Demolition Man, plus the single version of Redemption Song and non album tracks, I Who Have Nothing and War Dreams.

Worthy of mention is the coincidence that the first line of Demolition man is Tied To The Tracks, the title of Shona's last solo album.

6. Genre (Epic 471547 - 1984/85) No UK release

By the time this album was recorded, Shona had moved back to her native New Zealand. A complete change of style. The traditional band format being replaced by sequencers and drum machines, combined with generally poorer songs this made for uneasy listening and is undoubtedly the weakest album to date.

Stand out tracks:

(glad I'm not a ) Kennedy, Neat and Tidy

7. South (Virgin V2494 - 1987)

A similar synthetic sound to Genre, but an altogether more satisfying album. The songs are much stronger in fact this album contains some of the best work of Shona's career. This was also Shona's first release in the USA.

Stand out tracks:

Highway Warriors, South, Drive Baby Drive amongst others. The version of Kennedy is a re-recording of the track that appeared on Genre and gave her a No. 2 hit in N.Z. and went to top ten in Australia.

8. 1905 - 1990 Retrospective (Epic 468529 - 1991) No UK release

A fairly straight forward Best Of compilation covering the period from her debut album up to and including 'South'. Worth mentioning for the non-album single, Bundle of Nerves, only recorded to fulfil a part of the recording deal. It is without doubt one of her finest moments and one of my personal favourites. The mere mention of it is enough to give me goosebumps.

9. New On Earth (Epic 471514 - 1992)

Five years in the making and well worth the wait, if you only ever hear one Shona Laing album then this has to be the one, (and it was released in the UK). This is Shona at the absolute peak of her powers, a return to the traditional band format. Awesome songs, and superb production, making this album absolutely essential. Five of the songs were recorded for Atlantic records before it all turned sour. Also worth noting the guest appearance of former New Zealand Prime Minister David Lange reading a poem based on the track 'Banned'. Night's Billy Christian plays bass on several tracks.

10. Shona (Epic 476790 - 1994)

Another excellent album, the more melancholy feel perhaps reflects what she was going through in her relationship at the time. Her marriage had just broken up and the track 'Hard And Fast' covers this. To quote Shona, "Phil Collins wrote a whole album about it, I just did the one song". She admits that she did set out to record a softer album and in this she succeeded. Again the songs are very strong, indeed three of them were written for 'New On Earth' (Rome, Kick Back and Hard World), but were rejected and wouldn't go away. Shona confesses she would like to remix this album but she considers the production to be too luscious. Trivia fans should also note the guest appearance on backing vocals of the late Charles Tumahai of Be-Bop Deluxe fame.

11. Roadworks (Epic 488241 - 1997) No UK release

Should be sub-titled 'Shona Laing Unplugged' as it features just Shona and acoustic guitar which highlights her wonderful voice. This is a mixture of old songs re-recorded from earlier albums, together with numbers written in the 70's and 80's which never saw the light of day.

That about covers it and hopefully it will at least give you an outline of Shona and her work.

Steve Ward - Sheffield 1999

Editors Comments:

In an interview with Manfred a few years ago, he described Shona as a great singer with a great voice. At the time he could not see her as part of a live touring band and as we know, in the end Chris Thompson returned to complete the album and go on tour. I also own a copy of Tied To The Tracks and can only agree with Steve what a great album this is.

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