Rockbrat Remembers: Vicki Thomas and Burning Rome – L.A. hopefuls from 1982

Whilst rummaging through the old Rockbrat vaults, I spied some old copies of Mr. Rockbrat’s Kerrang! Magazines. With nothing better to do I recharged my coffee cup, tuned into Warren Ryan and David Morrow and began reading some fine old issues of the UK metal bible from 1982/83. I found this old article about BURNING ROME, an LA based band from 1981 who released one underrated slab of AOR/hard rock in 1982 and then faded. The album was produced by Ed Stasium, who would later go on to bigger things as a producer, and featured the vocal/visual delight that was one Vicki Thomas. In full, the band was Thomas on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Ron Murray on bass (who would later end up in 3rd Stage Alert), Steve Dougherty on guitar and Micky Shine on drums, who used to play with Tommy Tutone and also Elvis Costello). The album was released on A&M, but apparently they failed to promote it, so it sunk. I read an interview with Shine, who of his experience with Burning Rome stated, “So here we were, struggling, barely giggin’ in LA. trying to survive. My impression was Vicky had $80000 in the bank, but didn’t want to pay us to rehearse or keep us together. I talked to the managers about this to no avail.” (Read the full interview at the Clover-Infopage.com). Who knows. Almost 30 years later, ‘Burning Rome’s self titled album still sounds killer. Check out the cool video for the first single lifted from the album, ‘Once Over’. You can also enlarge the old Kerrang! article we’ve re printed for your gratification (at right). Nothing quite like re discovering lost treasures.