"Night Games"
Single by Graham Bonnet
from the album Line-Up
B-side"Out on the Water"
Released6 March 1981 (1981-03-06)[1]
Recorded1981
StudioRed Bus, London[2]
Genre
Length
  • 3:25 (single version)
  • 4:36 (album version)
LabelVertigo
Songwriter(s)Edwin Hamilton
Producer(s)
Graham Bonnet singles chronology
"Can't Complain"
(1978)		 "Night Games"
(1981)		 "Liar"
(1981)

"Night Games" is a song by British singer Graham Bonnet released as a single in March 1981 from his third solo album Line-Up. It peaked at number 6 on the UK Singles Chart.[3]

Background and release

"Night Games" was written by Edwin Hamilton and was first recorded in the mid-1970s by rock band Fast Buck, for whom Hamilton was the lead vocalist and also guitarist. However, the band's version remained unreleased until the release of the box set Night Games – The Complete Recordings in 2019.[4]

Graham Bonnet had been the lead vocalist for the British rock band Rainbow between 1979 and 1980, recording one studio album, Down to Earth. After leaving the band and whilst staying in New York, Bonnet's then manager David Oddie gave him a tape of "Night Games". Bonnet thought "it was perfect, coming across as the sort of poppy hard rock tune that I should be doing. It seemed to follow on from what I had done in Rainbow".[2] It was then recorded in early 1981 with many well-known musicians playing alongside Bonnet and was planned to be released as a single at the end of February, though it was pushed back a week to the beginning of March.[5][1]

The single was co-produced by Status Quo lead singer and guitarist Francis Rossi and producer John Eden, who had also worked on Bonnet's first two solo albums. Rossi has said that Oddie wanted "a 'face' to produce ["Night Games"], someone to help with the profile and marketing" and Rossi agreed so long as he had a "good engineer with me in the studio, because I had no experience in the role", so Eden was also brought in.[2] After the single's release, Bonnet went on to record the album Line-Up, with "Night Games" and the B-side "Out on the Water" both included on it.[6]

Reviewing for Record Mirror, Simon Tebbutt wrote that the song has "a clever contradiction of lyrical pessimism and musical optimism with a driving chorus which overcomes Francis Rossi's somewhat melodramatic production".[7]

Track listing

7": Vertigo / VER 1

  1. "Night Games" – 3:25
  2. "Out on the Water" – 3:27

Personnel

Charts

Chart (1981) Peak
position
Finland (Suomen virallinen lista)[8] 10
Ireland (IRMA)[9] 3
UK Singles (OCC)[3] 6

References

  1. 1 2 "New Singles" (PDF). Music Week. 7 March 1981. p. 24. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 Line-Up (booklet). Hear No Evil. 2016. HNECD064.
  3. 1 2 "Graham Bonnet: Artist Chart History". Official Charts Company.
  4. ↑ "Fast Buck: Night Games – The Complete Recordings, 4CD Boxset". Cherry Red Records. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  5. ↑ "Bonnet On" (PDF). Record Mirror. 14 February 1981. p. 2. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  6. ↑ Marchese, Joe (17 May 2016). "Night Games: Graham Bonnet's "Line-Up" Is Expanded By Cherry Red's HNE Label - The Second Disc". The Second Disc. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  7. ↑ "Singles" (PDF). Record Mirror. 14 March 1981. p. 12. Retrieved 29 September 2021.
  8. ↑ Timo (13 August 2015). "Sisältää hitin: Levyt ja esittäjät Suomen musiikkilistoilla vuodesta 1960: Artistit BO - BOY". Sisältää hitin. Retrieved 30 September 2021.
  9. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Night Games". Irish Singles Chart.
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