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It’s hard when you’ve loved and lost like Honeymoon Suite. The Niagara Falls natives were stars of radio and arenas in Canada, not least because of records like their sterling second album, 1986’s The Big Prize. Monsters… came in ‘91 after the band had made some commercial inroads towards the AOR grail that was success in the States, which should come as no surprise to anyone.

There was much to like about Honeymoon Suite’s slick, melodic, open road rock’n’roll. It wasn’t so much that their songs failed them, more the machinations of the music business.

It’s a familiar story, but at least the soundtrack’s a good one, and there’s much to like here; the punchy Say You Don’t Know Me and If Ya Love Me (clearly, the lyrics could have used some work) or the expansive The Road and the lilting How Long showcase a band on a creative streak, little knowing that there was only a stop sign up ahead./o:p

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion.