Balaam and the Angel are a Scottish

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band founded by Mark, James (Jim), and Desmond (Des) Morris in

Cannock Cannock () is a town in the Cannock Chase district in the county of Staffordshire, England. It had a population of 29,018. Cannock is not far from the nearby towns of Walsall, Burntwood, Stafford and Telford. The cities of Lichfield and Wolverh ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

in 1984.

Career

As children in

Motherwell Motherwell ( sco, Mitherwall, gd, Tobar na Màthar) is a town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Historically in the parish of Dalziel and part of Lanarks ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, the Morris brothers worked in the entertainment industry as part of a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

act. They moved south to

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

. where they formed Balaam and the Angel.Moore, Christie (2006) ''The Unultimate Rockopedia'', AuthorHouse, , p. 27-8 Initially the band self-released a series of EP's and an album entitled ''Sun Family'' via their own Chapter 22

label A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed dir ...

and played some tour dates opening for

The Cult The Cult are an English rock band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Before settling on their current name in January 1984, the band performed under the name Death Cult, which was an evolution of the name of lead singer Ian Astbury's ...

. This caught the attention of

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

, who signed them and released their debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''The Greatest Story Ever Told''. It peaked at No. 67 in the

UK Albums Chart The Official Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales and (from March 2015) audio streaming in the United Kingdom. It was published for the first time on 22 July 1956 and is compiled every week by the Official Charts C ...

in August 1986. They toured in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

with The Mission,

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

and label mate

Iggy Pop James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of ...

. A second guitarist and the first non-sibling, Ian McKean of

Twenty Flight Rockers Twenty Flight Rockers were a late 1980s English rock music band, founded by the singer Gary Twinn, drummer Mark Laff, and the bassist Steve Counsel. Career The band was formed in London in 1983 by Gary Twinn, former singer/frontman of the Austr ...

, was added to the band in 1988. The band began to move away from

gothic rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie a ...

music styles into a sound that had more in common with

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

. With their new-found style, they recorded the album ''Live Free or Die''. This was soon followed up in similar style when they recorded ''Days of Madness'', before leaving Virgin Records. Their song ''I'll Show You Something'' ''Special'' appeared on the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

for the

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, ''

Planes, Trains and Automobiles ''Planes, Trains and Automobiles'' is a 1987 American comedy film written, produced and directed by John Hughes and starring Steve Martin and John Candy with supporting roles by Laila Robins and Michael McKean. It tells the story of a high-stru ...

''. Their presence was largely ignored by the time that their 1993 album, ''Prime Time'', had failed to interest record buyers.

Members

*Mark Morris - vocals, bass (1983–1989, 1991–present) *Jim Morris - guitar, keyboards (1983–1989, 1991–present) *Des Morris - drums (1983–1989, 1991–present) *Karen Morris - keyboards (2019–present) *Chris P Notes (Chris Williams) - keyboards (1994–2019) *Ian McKean - guitar (1988–1989, 1991–1994)

Discography

Albums

EPs

Singles

Compilation albums

References

External links

Balaam and the Angel Official websiteBalaam and the Angel Official UK website
{{Authority control 1984 establishments in England British gothic rock groups Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1989 Musical groups reestablished in 1991 Scottish rock music groups Sibling musical groups