Glass Tiger

The Canadian rockers return with a new album, and tour the UK for the first time in 27 years.

At the end of the 80s and into the early 90s, Canadian melodic rockers Glass Tiger were bothering the lower reaches of the UK Top 40, recording with the likes of the then-cool Bryan Adams and Rod Stewart, and touring with Journey and Tina Turner, among others. But then on the back of their finest album, 1991’s Simple Mission, and a UK tour with Roxette things went rather quiet. Now the band are back to play their first UK shows in 27 years, following on from a new album, 31, which lends a Celtic dash to songs from their catalogue. “It’s more a re-imagining, rather than simply re-recording the old songs again,” Scottish singer

Alan Frew tells us. You suffered a stroke in 2015. How did that affect you and how are you feeling now?

Oh I’m fine. Thanks for asking. Yes, I’d just finished recording my last solo album [802090] when it happened. It came as a real shock, because it wasn’t like I was particularly unhealthy or anything like that. It affected my right side and

I couldn’t sing for a while, which was pretty daunting at the time. But a mixture of therapy, diet and medication, and looking after myself, and I’m back fighting fit. It makes you appreciate what you’ve got.

It’s a bit of a surprise to see Glass Tiger back after so long.

Yes, I guess so. Maybe we’re a bit surprised too. But, you know, it’s great to be back and playing a lot of those songs again.

The last time we saw the band, indeed the last time you played the UK, was supporting Roxette at Wembley Arena in 1991. My Town cracked the UK Top 40. You seemed poised to make a break. Then the band dropped off the radar.

We’d worked so hard, and it seemed such an intense period of time, and we hadn’t really made as big a break as we’d have liked. I don’t know. We kind of took a break in 1993 to do other things. I released a couple of solo albums, did some acting. We toured again in 2003 and have been working in Canada ever since. We even toured with Roxette again.

Glass Tiger hit some pretty heady heights during those early years, working and touring with some huge names. What was that like?

I remember we were touring with Journey, and we played a show with them then we had to fly back to Canada and do a TV show, and then fly back and rejoin Journey for the next show. That kind of thing leaves you feeling a bit bemused.

“For these UK shows we’re doing we're going to rock hard.”

Tell us about your new album, 31.

Well it’s called 31 because it’s been thirtyone years since we hit big with Don’t

Forget Me (When I’m Gone). We’ve reworked a lot of our older songs with a more acoustic, Celtic feel, which we’ve always had, with things like My Song and My

Town. It’s worked really well. We’ve been playing shows opening with acoustic Celtic stuff and then moving on to more rocky stuff.

That might come as a shock to UK fans who remember Glass Tiger as a hard rock band.

Oh, don’t worry, for these UK shows we’re doing we’re going to rock hard. Hopefully if they go down well we’ll be back, too. JE Glass Tiger play University of London Union October 19, Rockingham Festival in Nottingham 21.