Flashback Friday: Sightseeing at Night Is Alright When You Shatter The Darkness

Welcome back to Flashback Friday, the time when we reach back into CCM's storied archive and bring the recent arrivals up on the history. We have been using the Jungle Music skit as our jumping off point, and this week we get into a bit of a spat with Stanley and Livingstone.

S: I Say, Do You Fancy Fireworks
L: Why they're strictly forbidden. It Shatters the Darkness. One Shot and the animals go quite crackers. The rocket's red glare and all that.

And with that we move on. The Band of the week is Fireworks, also known as Marty McCall and Fireworks. Originally a Trio consisting of Marty McCall, Garry Pigg and Cindy Lipford, their eponymous debut in 1977 was mostly adult contemporary in nature. They soon ditched that sound, (and Lipford and Pigg) and went rock with McCall, Lanny Avery on Drums, Jerry Gaston on Guitars and Chris Harris and Bob Sincovic on Bass. During this time they released three more albums Shatter The Darkness (1979), Live Fireworks (1980), Up (1981), and Sightseeing at Night (1982). Then they disbanded, and McCall went on to form the AC/Country First Call, and I lost interest. In their heyday they were backup to groups like Servant and Petra, but never reached the rarefied air that those two bands would attain.

Since they fizzled out before the advent of the Music Video, there are none. However, that doesn't mean that YouTube couldn't help out with audio. I've got a few to share.

Here's the extremely acoustic Like Children (just McCall on Keys) from Shatter The Darkness.

And Shatter the Darkness itself.

One of my favorites, Incognito, from Sightseeing at Night (though Marty tries too hard to rhyme Incognito. A presidential Veto?)

And let's finish by rocking out. This is I've Got News for You, one of their hardest tunes.


Good thing this isn't music video Monday. This band never got the following it deserved, and that is a shame. Until next Flashback Friday, I am Awaiting Your Reply.