Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Artist: Santers, Album: Guitar Alley, Song: Can't Shake You

Santers were a rock band from Toronto, Ontario.  They won a Homegrown talent contest put on by local radio station, Q107, in 1980, which led to their signing with indie label, Ready Records.  Santers likely stood out as one of the few hard rock bands on Ready's roster.  The label was shared by artists like The Spoons, The Demics, Steve Blimkie (see blog 2/10/11) and The Extras (see blog 9/18/10).  Santers were brothers Mark and Rick Santers along with Rick Lazaroff.  They released their debut album in 1981 and created quite a buzz both at home and abroad.  Over the course of 5 years, the band toured internationally and opened for bands like Ozzy Osbourne, Blue Oyster Cult as well as the Scorpions to name a few.  Guitar Alley was likely the band's most commercially successful release in 1984 and their last as a band.  They enlisted the support of Rik Emmett from Triumph for production purposes as well.  Coincidentally, Rick Santers would join Triumph in 1986 for four years, eventually helping to replace Emmett when he decided to quit the band.  Guitar Alley featured a cover of Free's All Right Now which charted in many countries but the original classic off this album is the tune, Can't Shake You.  You can check out the tune on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyIiMPWsS1c).  The band actually ventured into the studio for a follow up release but it was never completed because of Rick's departure to Triumph.  However, in later years, the album eventually titled, Top Secrecy, was released along with a couple of compilations of the band's work.  Unfortunately, they remain difficult finds today and some are now out of print.  You can contact the band through their website at http://www.santers.com/ for copies of their compilation release entitled, Cold Fusion, that includes this track.  You can also purchase used copies on Ebay and Amazon of the Guitar Alley release that are currently trading between $10 and $70.  Itunes doesn't have any of the Santers' releases specifically but they do have a 20th Century Masters Millennium Collection: The Best Of Ready Records (1979-1985) Volume II which includes the track, Can't Shake You.  Thanks for reading and enjoy!