Artist: Briar
Release: Gimme All You Got / Stop Me Foolin', Single 1989
Genre: Hard Rock / Melodic Rock
Country: UK
Bitrate: 256Kbps
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Kevin Griffiths - Vocals & Bass
Darren Underwood - Guitar & Vocals
Dave Fletcher - Guitar & Vocals
Dean Cook - Drums & Vocals (TENBOY, MACHINE BOY, TINYBLUECHILDREN)

BRIAR were a young band formed in Birmingham 1979, initially using names such as ARK & EMERALD in the early days. The bands first gig under the Briar name was in 1980, and from there they were soon gigging regularly supporting the likes of CRYER and SHY. In 1982, after some line up changes, the first Briar 7" single "Rainbow To The Skies", was released on Worcester indie label Happy Face Records. The record recieved brilliant reviews, with metal magazine Kerrang! claiming "Another new band on their way to stardom !". BBC Radio 1 DJ Peter Powell gave the band their first radio session at this time and also featured Briar on his TV show "The Oxford Roadshow".

Soon the band inked a record deal with FM/Heavy Metal Records and their first album "Too Young", was released. The band took to the road again, supporting TYGERS OF PAN TANG, STATETROOPER and ANGEL WITCH. The band then put out a new longplayer in 1986 titled "Take On The World", which saw Briar embrace a far slicker AOR based sound. At this point Briar were signed to (later) disgraced pop empressario Jonathan King's management company, JonJo. A new record deal with PRT was signed and the "Edge Of A Broken Heart" single became a minor hit, eventually reaching the top 50 in the national singles chart.

In 1988 a new worldwide record deal was signed with CBS/Columbia and a new album album was released titled "Crown Of Thorns", followed by a single titled "Frankie". Allthough things appeared to be going well, behind the scenes the band were becoming disillusioned having recorded a further album's worth of material titled "Reach Out" which was never given an official release.

The band parted company with Jonathan King in 1990 after the band's last major label 7" release "One Monkey" on A&M Records. At this point band manager George Bond set up his own label Shotgun Charlie Records and put out a new Briar 7" "Gimme All You Got".The band issued one more single, "All She Wants", & an album "Hard Times", a keyboard heavy Bon Jovi styled release, but by 1993 Briar was no more.