"BELOW THE BELT"

1975 (Released January 1976)

Virgin Records B2049 (UK)
Virgin Records PZ 34115 (US)

Produced by Boxer and Richard Digby-Smith

"Below The Belt" established that Boxer would be a straight-ahead rock band. Ollie and Mike were writing together again, but the new music did not hark back to the days of Patto (you may notice that "Shooting Star" has a chord progression that was also used in "Time To Die" on Patto's first album, though).

According to the host for the BBC session the band did prior to the album's release, it was originally going to be titled "Round 1" or "Round One".

Their first album was produced and engineered by Richard Digby-Smith, an engineer for Patto's "Hold Your Fire" and "Roll 'Em Smoke 'Em..." albums.  Overall, the production gives the band a good, full sound, but as with many bands, it's been said that the album  failed to capture their impressive live sound.

All of the band's members were great players, but showcasing of their soloing capabilities was kept to a minimum, which shows that Mike and Ollie were more focused on the songwriting than the extended guitar/keyboard solos that were typical of the early to mid-seventies.  In fact, the "All The Time In The World" single does not feature any soloing at all. 

For the guitar fans, there is still plenty of great guitar from Ollie.  The slide work in "California Calling", the tasteful solo in "More Than Meets The Eye", the volume/echo bits in "Gonna Work Out Fine", and Ollie singing along with his guitar on "Save Me" are a few of the moments that come to mind

The album contains some great tunes.  "California Calling", "More Than Meets The Eye", "Waiting For A Miracle", and "Save Me" are my personal favorites.  "Waiting For A Miracle" is a great remake of Ollie's tune from the Tempest "Living In Fear" album (1974).  "Town Drunk" is a  slow, bluesy tune that features a great vocal from Mike -- it was written by Terry Stamp and Jim Avery for Terry's "Fatsticks" album (1975), on which both Ollie and Tony Newman played..

Unfortunately, the album cover received more attention than the music.  It featured a model named Stephanie Mariann.  The first pressings of the album had a full-frontal nude photo on the back cover, which caused the jacket to be banned.  The cover was redone covering her lower private bits with a Boxer logo.  The original uncensored covers are supposed to be quite rare.  Of course, in the United States, they wouldn't allow even her breasts to be shown, so they completely redid the cover using the band photo from the inside of the UK gatefold cover.  

Click here to read Ira Robbin's review from the April/May 1976 issue of Trouser Press.  Not extremely favorable, but at least they included a nearly-focused live photo.

Click on Mike's boxing glove to see an unobstructed view of the cover.

The album was reissued on CD in 1997 by Virgin Records (Cat. # CDV2049).  It was reissued on CD in 2012 by Esoteric Recordings (ECLEC2341), including the "Don't Wait" single B-side and expanded liner notes.