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 club scene, and fronted many national acts on their Southern swings in the late 1970s. Their original songs were highly laced with pop hooks and multi-part vocal harmonies. They have been likened to power pop groups such as The Rascals, The Raspberries and Fotomaker. Phillips' lead vocals gave the group an identifiable trademark. They also peppered their sets with covers of complex songs that exhibited their musical prowess.
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.
Afterward, Marc Phillips & Tommy Calton promptly returned to performing, as the Calton-Phillips Group, then after a few incidents in which their name was misspelled on club marquees, they changed the band's name to "Split The Dark". This latter formation, with guitarist/vocalist Damon Johnson, produced a music video which won the highly acclaimed "MTV Basement Tapes" competition in 1986. The group broke up 1988.
In 2018 Derek Oliver's London, England-based Rock Candy Records distributed a "collector's edition" compact disc of Hotel's 1979 eponymous album.