Rail

by Bradley Torreano'80s hard rockers Rail were one of the countless hard rock bands to taste the spotlight for a moment only to never get back to that place again. Vocalist and bassist Terry Young, guitarist/synth player Andrew Aldwin, guitarist Rick Knotts, and drummer Kelly Noble met while attending high school together in Washington. By 1980, they were touring regularly, opening for acts like Van Halen and Heart, while beginning work on their debut record. It was self-released in 1981 as Arrival, and it gained them much attention in the Northwest. They made a video for the track "Hello" and submitted it to MTV for potential rotation. The network instead entered it into a Basement Tapes contest, where it took home first prize. EMI Records picked up the band as a part of the contest and re-released Arrival in 1983. Although the album sold respectably, the group found itself overshadowed both by pop metal acts with a stronger gimmick (M?tley Crüe) and other local acts emerging from the Northwest (Queenr?che). Despite another album (Three) and more touring, they were faced with a decline in interest and eventually split up. They got back together in the mid-'90s for the Big World reunion album and by the end of the decade, they re-released all their older material with remastered sound and enhanced packaging.