Hotel
- This article is about the band. For actual hotels, see Category:Hotels.
The band Hotel was a power pop group formed in Birmingham in 1973 and disbanded in 1982. The group enjoyed a strong regional following, but did not achieve their ambitions for nationwide stardom.
After various personnel changes marked their early formative years, the group solidified their lineup in 1976 with original members Marc Phillips on lead vocals/piano with Tommy Calton on guitar/vocals. Rounding out the most-popular formation of this group at that time were Lee Bargeron on keyboards/acoustic guitar/vocals, Mike Reid on guitar/vocals, George Creasman on bass/vocals, and Michael Cadenhead on drums/vocals, which is the lineup that recorded their two MCA studio albums.
The group was a popular favorite on the southeastern USA rock-n-roll club scene and played in all the best and largest clubs, as well as fronting concerts for many national acts who toured through the area in the mid-to-late `70's. Their original songs were highly laced with pop hooks & heavy vocal harmonies, sometimes 6-part. Their sound was relative to power pop groups such as The Rascals, The Raspberries and Fotomaker, but with a unique sound. Phillips' lead vocal gave the group an identifiable trademark that combined a good range with exceptional quality. They also peppered their sets with cover tunes that showed off their musical prowess by covering difficult-to-play songs note-for-note by acts such as Steely Dan.
In 1977, Hotel recorded a single for Mercury Records, "You'll Love Again", which barely charted nationally, but was popular across the band's touring footprint. The band was disappointed by Mercury's promotional efforts and they agreed to part ways.
In 1979, they signed with MCA Records and released a debut full-length album entitled "Hotel". The album, recorded in Nashville, Tennessee with producer Dain Eric, featured 10 power-pop songs. MCA released two singles, "You've Got Another Thing Coming" (not to be confused with the 1982 Judas Priest song of the same name), and "Hold On To The Night", penned by Phillips with prolific 1960's songwriter Barry Mann. Those singles failed to chart, but the band continued to work on a follow-up.
It appeared that by 1980, with popular music moving away from power pop, not to mention progressive rock, punk and disco, these elements would eventually meld themselves into "new wave", which combined elements of all these styles using a combination synthesizer and guitar-based sound. Seeing this change in the music environment taking place, Hotel began work on their second album, "Half-Moon Silver", which was released by MCA in 1980. Though this second album contained some strong power-pop tunes and was quite a bit edgier than the debut album, including the album's first cut, "Refugee", it didn't get much promotion and sold even less than the debut album, which led MCA to drop the act. Subsequently, the group languished for a while as the perennial star of the club circuit, but finally threw in the towel and disbanded in 1982.
Later Formations
Not fazed by their failure to land firmly on the national scene, founding members Marc Phillips & Tommy Calton promptly created the aptly-named "Calton-Phillips Group", then after a few incidents in which their name was misspelled on club marquees, the band changed its name to "Split The Dark". This latter formation created a video which won the highly acclaimed "MTV Basement Tapes" competition in 1986, but still no record company was interested in signing the group. With the prospect of playing once again in the club circuit with no promising future in sight, Split The Dark disbanded in 1988.
Notably, one of the final members of Split The Dark was guitarist/vocalist Damon Johnson, who later formed the rock group Brother Cane, which had some national success in the 1990's with three albums, including their biggest hit "I Lie In The Bed I Make".
In 2018 Derek Oliver's London, England-based Rock Candy Records distributed a "collector's edition" compact disc of Hotel's 1979 eponymous album.