NO MORE JINX  Wild Blue grew out of a Chicago group called Jinx that toiled in the local club scene beginning in the late 1970’s. The core members of this band were Joe Zanona (keyboards), Terry Curtin (bass guitar), and Frank Barbalace (guitars). They had been looking for a female vocalist, and they found one in Renee Varo; Mike Neff was also added as the drummer. Chrysalis Records caused unnecessary friction in the band, however, by flying Renee Varo and Joe Zanona over to London to record half of the No More Jinx album with other studio musicians. (They were also the only two bandmembers to make the front cover). About this time, Terry Curtin and Mike Neff quit; they were replaced by Mike Gorman (bass) and Ken Harck (drums), two members of a late 1970’s Chicago power-pop band called Off Broadway. Frank Barbalace is ambitiously advertising on his website a two-CD collection of most of his recorded works – Wild Blue, Trillion and other material for a $50 tab. Oddly, there are only three tracks from the No More Jinx album that are listed. He was one of the bandmembers who was left behind when most of the recording was done across the pond; and these are the songs that he co-wrote, though he also played guitar on one of the best songs on the album, “Fire with Fire”. (June 2012) * * * The UARB of three months back, Wild Blue was a successful band called Jinx for many years in the local scene in Chicago; their history was hinted at in the title of their album, No More Jinx. (September 2012) * * * Previous UARB Wild Blue was a popular Chicago band called Jinx that was ready to go national; but someone in California was already using the name, so eventually, they settled on their new name. As a nod to their roots, their first album was called No More Jinx.
(June 2014) * * * This is their first album, No More Jinx:  (June 2015) |