(Hard Rock) [LP] [24/96] Michael Schenker Group – Assault Attack - 1982, FLAC (tracks) US Pressing [Chrysalis – CHR 1393]

After returning to the UK from Japan in August 1981, having recorded the live album One Night at Budokan, Schenker and his band played a short tour of the UK. After the tour Cozy Powell and Peter Mensch (MSG's manager) wanted a better singer for the band and suggested David Coverdale, but Schenker himself wanted Graham Bonnet. After some disagreements, which ultimately led to the termination of the cooperation between Mensch and MSG, Bonnet joined the MSG in February 1982. Meanwhile, Cozy Powell and Paul Raymond left the band for their own reasons and were replaced by ex-Sensational Alex Harvey Band and Rory Gallagher drummer Ted McKenna and session keyboardist Tommy Eyre (Joe Cocker, John Martyn, Alex Harvey, Greg Lake, Gary Moore, B.B. King, etc.). After four months the band went to France to commence the album that would became Assault Attack. As a producer they choose Martin (The Ninja) Birch who arrived fresh from Iron Maiden's album The Number of the Beast. The sessions took part at a French castle, called Château d'Hérouville. Nevertheless, the MSG-Bonnet cooperation would be short-lived, due to a serious incident caused by a drunk Bonnet who insulted Schenker especially and the rest of the band, in front of the audience in a warm up gig at the Sheffield Polytechnic, just before the appearance at the Reading Festival. That was the last time until the Tales of Rock'n'Roll album that Schenker and Bonnet cooperated. The BBC broadcast of the Reading Festival concert was released in 1993 as BBC Radio 1 Live in Concert.

Attracting mixed reviews on release, it is now looked on more favourably, and Schenker himself is considered by many to be in top form. More recent CD reissues contains the bonus track "Girl from Uptown," the b-side of "Dancer", the album's sole single.