Pomp Rock exponents NEW ENGLAND's roots lay way beyond the recording of their 1979 debut album co-produced by KISS man PAUL STANLEY. Drummer Hirsh Gardner was born in Toronto, Canada and had started playing drums at the age of 16 before moving to Boston three years later for his first act CROSSFIRE and enrolling at the Berklee College of Music.

Gardner met keyboard player Jimmy Waldo in 1972/73 after seeing him play in the group FATBACK, a North Carolina outfit that uniquely played without the need for a guitar player! Within a few months Hirsh was enrolled as the group's new drummer.

FATBACK went through a number of changes over the next few years, notably adding a guitarist/vocalist in the form of ex-FLASH PUDDING man John Fannon. When new bassist Gary Shea joined the group upon the recommendation of the female vocalist from local act CALAMITY JANE, the basis of NEW ENGLAND was born. However, the new quartet would split up in 1975 and then play as JACK and then TARGET before adopting NEW ENGLAND as the new band name

The group were introduced to Aucoin Management (responsible at the time for KISS, STARZ and PIPER) by a friend who knew Ric Aliberte, the assistant to Bill Aucoin. As KISS were playing in the vicinity Aliberte caught one of NEW ENGLAND's rehearsals and then suggested Aucoin see the band. NEW ENGLAND played two sets and within a week were in New York to sign with Aucoin.

The band were put into pre-production for their debut album in Massachusetts with Stanley producing in collusion Mike Stone. Despite an offer from Clive Davis at Arista Records, NEW ENGLAND were persuaded to go with Infinity Records by Aucoin and released the self-titled album in 1979 just as the group hit the road touring with KISS on the 'Dynasty' tour.

However, Infinity crashed during the recording of the band's second albumwith huge financial losses in 1980. NEW ENGLAND recovered with a new deal and although 'Explorer Suite' was released through Elektra the album was virtually in the bargain bins upon release. A third album, 'Walking Wild', fared no better

Wild' was produced by Todd Rundgren and found the band experimenting far more and concocting material not a million miles away from Pop Rock.

Despite a fourth album being recorded (that included songs such as 'Candy' and 'It's So Easy') it remains unreleased as the group split with no new deal. Shea, Waldo and Gardner hooked up with ex DAN HARTMAN and TREASURE guitarist Vinnie Cusano in the Heavy Metal outfit WARRIOR, recording a high quality demo before Cusano took up an offer from KISS to replace ACE FREHLEY, becoming Vinnie Vincent in the process.

Shea and Waldo swiftly joined the much vaunted ALCATRAZZ band fronted by ex RAINBOW vocalist GRAHAM BONNET and Swedish guitar guru YNGWIE MALMSTEEN for a series of high profile albums. They later worked with BLACKTHORNE and MURDERER'S ROW. Shea would also appear on the 1994 JONAS HANSSON BAND debut 'No. 1'. Session work found Waldo laying down the keyboard's for QUIET RIOT's eponymous album of 1988. Gardner returned home to Boston where he began to produce local acts, such as 8084. Gardner also put together THE WILD BUNCH with ex-THUNDERTRAIN man Mach Bell.

John Fannon attempted a solo career recording a reasonable set of demos in the mid 80s.

In 1997 all three albums were set to be re-issued in America with the addition of previously unreleased recordings, with the possibility of a brand new album on the horizon. However, the propsed re-issues failed to appear and prompted much speculation as to whether they were legitimate in the first place.

After releasing the debut album on CD a few years previously, the other albums appeared on the Japanese market in the Summer of 1998 alongside a record titled '1978' that included previously unreleased demos recorded prior to the debut album. HIRSH GARDNER would release a solo album, featuring both Shea, Waldo and Fannon, 'Wasteland For Broken Hearts' during November of 2002.