GTR were a rock band founded in 1985 by former Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett and Yes and Asia guitarist Steve Howe. The band name came from an abbreviation of "guitar". Besides Hackett and Howe, GTR featured vocalist Max Bacon (ex-Moby Dick, Nightwing and Bronz); bassist Phil Spalding (ex-Bernie Torme, Toyah, Mike Oldfield and Original Mirrors); and American drummer Jonathan Mover (ex-Marillion, later of Steve Vai fame). GTR were notable for attempting to create a band with guitar and synthesizer sounds, but without the use of conventional keyboard synths, using guitar synthesizers instead. Hackett and Howe's guitars were outfitted with Roland synthesiser trigger pickups, which used the vibrations of the strings to create MIDI signals used to play the synthesizers. While this may have worked in the studio, they were forced to take a keyboardist on the road because of the poor tracking qualities of the guitar synths. GTR's only studio album, a self-titled LP produced by Geoff Downes of Asia, released by Arista Records, went gold, hit #11 and spawned a hit single, "When the Heart Rules the Mind" (#14), which stayed in the charts for 16 weeks. Another single, "The Hunter", received some video coverage and modest airplay and peaked at #85. 01 - When The Heart Rules The Mind 02 - The Hunter 03 - Here I Wait 04 - Sketches In The Sun 05 - Jekyll & Hyde 06 - You Can Still Get Through 07 - Reach Out (Never Say No) 08 - Toe The Line 09 - Hackett To Bits 10 - Imagining LINK (RS) Or LINK (FS)
