Broken Home Discography
- Life -

By 1981, Broken Home were reduced to a duo consisting of Dicken and Pete Crowther. They recorded a great album for Mercury, but "Life" only saw limited distribution on the Continent - and it was never released in England. It was finally remastered and re-issued on CD with three bonus tracks in June 2000. An expanded 20-track edition was released in August 2003.

album details:

Recorded at: Utopia Studios, London. Produced by: Greg Walsh, Dicken and Pete Crowther. CD bonus tracks produced by Dicken and Chris Baylis. Track listing: Life / Oh Yeah / I'm Losing You / Wake-Up Mr.Doctor / Nobody / Born Too Loose / Stop The Music / Rainbow Bridge / Dominoe / *Solid Gold / *The Beat Speaks / *Magic Of The Trees / *Death Boy / *Not For Glory / *Babylon / *Oxford Rock / *The Way To Find A Heartache / *Hollywoods / *Highways / *Strong Tower (* denotes CD bonus tracks) Comments: all songs written by Dicken, except "Life" and "Rainbow Bridge" by Dicken/Crowther. Most of the CD bonus tracks are culled from the Mr Big UK album "Rainbow Bridge"

line-up (original album):

DICKEN - vocals / all instruments
PETE CROWTHER - backing vocals / all instruments

with GREG WALSH - additional percussions / keyboards
with GRAEME PLEETH - keyboard on "Mr.Doctor"
with GARY BARNACLE - sax on "Rainbow Bridge"

current CD availability:

12 track edition (2000) available from 70s Rock Music Oxford (almost sold out)

20 track Norwegian edition (2003) available from Universal Music Norway

20 track UK edition (2004) available from Angel Air

reviews:

"Record Collector" (issue 253, September 2000), by Joe Geesin -
Following the demise of Mr. Big in the late 70s, vocalist and guitarist Jeff Dicken and bassist Pete Crowther formed Broken Home with Pete Barnacle and Rory Wilson. Their first album sold well after an appearance at Reading in 1980, and this second album gained a cult following, despite a limited Europe-only release. Mixing 70s hard rock with 80s AOR and an almost new wave sound, this is a break from Mr. Big, featuring light rhythms backing up Dicken's haunting vocals (check out "I'm Losing You"), plus some great guitar and bass lines. With "Oh Yeah" and "Solid Gold" released as singles, some tracks were aimed at the pop market too. If you like rock and appreciate early 80s popular music, then this album will suit you down to the ground. For others, it may be too much of an odd mixture.