''Drivin' Hard'', released in May 1981 on the

Polydor Polydor Records Ltd. is a German-British record label that operates as part of Universal Music Group. It has a close relationship with Universal's Interscope Geffen A&M Records label, which distributes Polydor's releases in the United States. ...

label, is the first album by English

jazz-funk Jazz-funk is a subgenre of jazz music characterized by a strong back beat (groove), electrified sounds, and an early prevalence of analog synthesizers. The integration of funk, soul, and R&B music and styles into jazz resulted in the creatio ...

band

Shakatak Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Nigel Wright and former Wigan Casino DJ Kev Roberts. Following an initial white label release 'Steppin', the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack. I ...

Track listing

All tracks written by William "Bill" Sharpe except where indicated. #"Livin in the U.K." (Stayton Heyward; Neil Heyward; Bill Sharpe; Wally Badarou) – 5:54 #"Into the Night" – 4:36 #"Toot the Shoot" (

Roger Odell Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Nigel Wright and former Wigan Casino DJ Kev Roberts. Following an initial white label release 'Steppin', the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack. I ...

) – 4:00 #"Lumiere" 4:14 #"Late Night Flight" – 3:58 #"Waves" – 1:38 #"Steppin' (Live)" – 6:27 #"Covina" – 4:46 #"You Never Know" – 5:10 #"Brazilian Dawn" – 6:33

Personnel

* Bill Sharpe –

Bösendorfer Bösendorfer (L. Bösendorfer Klavierfabrik GmbH) is an Austrian piano manufacturer and, since 2008, a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha Corporation. Bösendorfer is unusual in that it produces 97- and 92-key models in addition to instrument ...

grand piano, keyboards Shakatak - ''Drivin' Hard'' (1981) album releases & credits
at

Discogs Discogs (short for discographies) is a database of information about audio recordings, including commercial releases, promotional releases, and bootleg or off-label releases. While the site was originally created with a goal of becoming the la ...

* Nigel Wright – Fender Rhodes electric piano,

Sennheiser Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (, ) is a German privately held audio company specializing in the design and production of a wide range of high fidelity products, including microphones, headphones, telephone accessories and aviation headse ...

Vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''voice'' and ''encoder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder was ...

Oberheim OB-X The Oberheim OB-X was the first of Oberheim's OB-series polyphonic analog subtractive synthesizers. First commercially available in June 1979, the OB-X was introduced to compete with the Sequential Circuits Prophet-5, which had been successf ...

synthesizer, keyboards and synthesizers *

Wally Badarou Waliou Jacques Daniel Isheola "Wally" Badarou (born 22 March 1955) is a French musician. Born in France with ancestry from Benin, West Africa, Badarou is known for his close association with the English group Level 42, and for his prolific work ...

–

Prophet 5 The Prophet-5 is an analog synthesizer manufactured by the American company Sequential. It was designed by Dave Smith and John Bowen in 1977, who used microprocessors, then a new technology, to create the first polyphonic synthesizer with full ...

and inspiration * Keith Winter –

Yamaha Yamaha may refer to: * Yamaha Corporation, a Japanese company with a wide range of products and services, established in 1887. The company is the largest shareholder of Yamaha Motor Company (below). ** Yamaha Music Foundation, an organization estab ...

& Fender guitars with Fender amplification,

Ovation The ovation ( la, ovatio from ''ovare'': to rejoice) was a form of the Roman triumph. Ovations were granted when war was not declared between enemies on the level of nations or states; when an enemy was considered basely inferior (e.g., slaves, p ...

acoustic guitars * Steve Underwood – Fender bass with Fender amplification *

–

Sonor Sonor is a German musical instrument manufacturing company headquartered in Bad Berleburg. Established in 1875, it is one of the oldest percussion companies in the world. Sonor currently manufactures drum kits and hardware. Apart from drum kit ...

drums,

Rototom The Rototom is a drum developed by Al Payson, Robert Grass, and Michael Colgrass that has no shell and is tuned by rotating. A rototom consists of a single head in a die-cast zinc or aluminum frame. Unlike most other drums, this type has a variab ...

s, synthdrums,

Zildjian :''Zildjian leads here. For people with the surname, see Zildjian (disambiguation)'' The Avedis Zildjian Company, simply known as Zildjian (), is a musical instrument manufacturer specializing in cymbals and other percussion instruments. Founded ...

cymbals *

Jill Saward Jill Saward, also known by her married name Jill Drake (14 January 1965 – 5 January 2017) was an English campaigner on issues relating to sexual violence. She was the victim of a violent robbery and rape in 1986 at a vicarage in Ealing, Lond ...

– vocals *

Jackie Rawe Shakatak is an English jazz-funk band founded in 1980 by Nigel Wright and former Wigan Casino DJ Kev Roberts. Following an initial white label release 'Steppin', the band's name was derived from a record store in Soho, London Record Shack. I ...

– vocals

Formats

*LP: Polydor POLS 1030 7'08 (May 1981, red label) *LP: Polydor 2383 635 (1981, Netherlands), extra track A1 "Easier Said Than Done" *MC: Polydor POLSC 1030 7'08(May 1981) *CD: Polydor 823 017-2 7'11 (1984, track 7 is in fact the studio version of "Steppin'" '50 *CD: Victor VICP 64131 (2008, Japan), bonus tracks "Feels Like the Right Time" and "Killing Time"

References

External links

Shakatak - ''Drivin' Hard'' (1981) album credits & releases
at

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

Shakatak - ''Drivin' Hard'' (1981) album releases & credits
at

Shakatak - ''Drivin' Hard'' (1981) album to be listened
as stream on

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

1981 debut albums Shakatak albums Polydor Records albums {{1980s-album-stub