Tricks Of A Trade

Touchdown was a Calgary hard rock band active through the first half of the 1980s. The group came up through the city’s early-eighties hard rock and metal scene, working with melodic songwriting, heavy guitar and a clean studio sound that sat between hard rock, AOR and metal.

The lineup on the band’s first album, Don’t Look Down, was Terry Kushner on vocals, Gary Hurley on guitar, Dave Temple on bass and Perry Segal on drums, with Ted Alexander on keyboards and synthesizer. Hurley wrote the music. The lyrics came from Ana Shandia Hurley and producer Mark Holden, who also produced, engineered and mixed the album for Supernatural Productions with Segal assisting on the mix. It was recorded and mixed at Thunder Road Studios in Calgary.

Don’t Look Down was released in West Germany in 1984 on Harlequin Records, a division of Woolfe Records, pressed as Harlequin 25.001 and distributed by Deutsche Austrophon. Its nine tracks were ‘Don’t Look Down’, ‘The Way You Are’, ‘Spirit In A Well’, ‘Aktavatar’, ‘A Fool Believes’, ‘Mystery Trail’, ‘Outlaws’, ‘Hello’ and ‘Threshold Of Pain’.

By the time Touchdown recorded a second album the lineup had turned over. Bob Moody took the lead vocal spot, Dave Temple moved from bass to guitar and guitar synthesizer, Dennis Marcenko came in on bass, and Perry Segal stayed on drums and backing vocals. Brian Island and Derek Sigurdson added backing vocals, and Amin Bhatia supplied the police siren on ‘Looking For Traces’.

Tricks Of A Trade followed in West Germany in 1985 on Woolfe Records as WR 9016. Mark Holden again produced and engineered at Thunder Road Studios, with additional engineering by Dan Lowe and Perry Segal, and Holden and Segal handled the mix. The ten tracks were ‘On The Run’, ‘Christine’, ‘Pretty Baby’, ‘Looking For Traces’, ‘Illusions’, ‘Breakin’ Out’, ‘Overload’, ‘Pay The Price’, ‘Fight’ and ‘How Long’. The material hit harder than the first album while keeping the hooks up front.

Touchdown carried on after Tricks Of A Trade with a lineup built around Dave Temple and Perry Segal. Dennis Matechuk sang, Murray Temple played bass and Ted Alexander returned on keyboards. The band recorded further material, including ‘Heart On The Line’, ‘Don’t Let Time Stand Still’, ‘Looking For Traces’ and ‘She Calls My Name’, for a release that never came out while the group was together.

Touchdown wound down and both German albums went out of print. In 2017, Karthago Records, a sub-label of Pure Steel Records, reissued Don’t Look Down and Tricks Of A Trade and released the shelved later recordings as Don’t Let Time Stand Still. Archival radio material from the Calgary stations CJAY-FM and CKIK-FM was included with that release.

Both albums were recorded at Thunder Road Studios in Calgary and released only in West Germany, which kept Touchdown’s catalogue largely out of reach in its own city until the 2017 reissues brought it back.

-Robert Williston