Eighties Hollywood Band MASQUE Releases Face First CD
After more than 20 years in the vault, Hollywood band Masque have released their album Face First on SunCity Records. The album was originally recorded in the 80s and never released.
Masque shared the bill with various unsigned bands at the time including Poison, Warrant, Stryper, Bulletboys and Guns N’ Roses, who at the time were an opening act. "I’m thrilled that the
Masque Face First album will finally come to market," states lead vocalist and co-founder Tony Kelly. "It’s truly amazing, and encouraging, that a whole new generation of rock fans are embracing our music genre."
Based on requests from long-time friends of the band, Kelly posted a Masque tribute page on MySpace.com as an historical retrospective. Within three weeks the tribute page had received thousands of friend and fan requests prompting the band to re-surface.
"We were overwhelmed by the amount of positive comments and feedback from people all over the world," states Kelly. "Our music was part of an exciting and historical time in Hollywood music and we’re thrilled that it will be made available to the public."
Masque burst onto the Hollywood scene in early 1985 quickly attracting a loyal following and selling out legendary hot spots including The Troubadour, Whisky, The Roxy Theatre and Gazzarri’s.
Masque was formed by lead-vocalist Tony Kelly and lead-guitarist Dale Fine shortly after Kelly departed the Hollywood band Network formed by original Quiet Riot drummer Drew Forsyth. Kelly and Fine originally met in their hometown of Las Vegas and joined forces a few years later in Hollywood to form
Masque along with Network bassist Bruff Brigham and completing their lineup with drummer Ross Cristao, originally with Chicago based metal band Thrust.
Biography: Masque burst onto the Hollywood scene in early 1985 quickly attracting a loyal following and selling out legendary hot spots including The Troubadour, Whisky, The Roxy Theatre, Gazzarri's and other L.A. venues.
Masque was formed by lead-vocalist Tony Kelly and lead-guitarist Dale Fine shortly after Kelly departed the Hollywood band Network formed by original Quiet Riot drummer Drew Forsyth. Kelly and Fine originally met in their hometown of Las Vegas and joined forces a few years later in Hollywood to form
Masque along with Network bassist Bruff Brigham and completing their lineup with drummer Ross Cristao, originally with Chicago based metal band Thrust.
Masque was one of the first bands to move away from the "black leather & studs" image which was prominent at that time in Hollywood spawned by Motley Crue, WASP, LA Guns and others. Wanting to stand out from the crowd they focused on unique colorful clothing and stage show influenced by their 70's glam rock heroes including The Dolls, KISS, Sweet, Bowie and others. The
Masque image caught on and was eventually borrowed by some of the biggest bands of that decade.
Masque shared the bill with various unsigned bands including Poison, Warrant, Stryper and Guns N’ Roses, who at the time were an opening act. Shortly after the launch of the
Masque MySpace page in 2008, the popularity of the page prompted the band to sign with SunCity Records for the worldwide release of their CD titled "Face First" featuring the 11 songs originally recorded in the 80's but never released.
Eighties Hollywood Band MASQUE Releases Face First CD
