VIA PRESS RELEASE | On March 1, 2019, Blixa Sounds will release a career-spanning retrospective of legendary Boston band Robin Lane & the Chartbusters, aptly titled Many Years Ago. The set includes the band’s complete recorded early ’80s output for Warner Bros. Records: Robin Lane & the Chartbusters (1980), which features Robin’s MTV hit “When Things Go Wrong,” Imitation Life (1981), and the live EP “5 Live” (1980).
Robin Lane has a musical resume that spans coast-to-coast, as well as carries the unique distinction of leaping over the bridge of one decade-defining genre directly into another. Establishing herself in the late ’60s as part of her native Los Angeles’s legendary Laurel Canyon scene, Lane launched her career as a folk-rock artist, notably collaborating with Neil Young on the song “Round and Round” from his second album, 1969’s Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere. However, Lane’s direction changed with a cross-country move to the East Coast. She landed in Cambridge, Mass. and into a growing fascination with the burgeoning harder-sounding scenes such as punk and new wave.
By 1978, Lane had formed her group the Chartbusters with Asa Brebner, Leroy Radcliffe, Scott Baerenwald and Tim Jackson; in 1980 the band — already making waves on the Boston circuit —released their self-titled debut for Warner Bros., which featured the wistful, husky single “When Things Go Wrong.” The song became hit, as did its video, which was a fixture during the early days of landmark network MTV.
Two more albums followed with the Chartbusters before Lane made the decision to pursue solo work as well as start a family. Her independent catalog following the disbandment spanned through the mid-’90s, capped by a reunion with the Chartbusters in 2001 that resulted in 2003’s release Piece of Mind. A surge of re-interest in group’s earlier work was ignited with Chartbuster drummer Tim Jackson’s 2014 documentary When Things Go Wrong: Robin Lane’s Story, focusing on Lane’s life and career, a project that won best documentary at the 2015 New Jersey International Film Festival.
Fans searching to begin or complete their collection of Lane’s colorful and varied music history need look no further: Many Years Ago, in addition to the aforementioned Warner Bros. efforts, includes the band’s independent releases and a variety of Lane’s live and studio demos from her pre-Chartbusters days. All recordings are digitally remastered from the originals, with many never before released to the public.
Fans will be able to further explore Lane’s musical journey, as well as enhance their research of the Laurel Canyon music scene and early ’80s MTV-era culture with the set’s inclusion of a 20-page booklet containing liner notes, rare photos, flyers, and other memorabilia.
Many Years Ago contains the following releases: Robin Lane & the Chartbusters (1980), Imitation Life (1981), “5 Live” (1980), Heart Connection (1984), and all previously unreleased material from the Heart Connection sessions, as well as the band’s first independently released three-song single and a variety of demo and live recordings.
Lane is currently prepping to hit the road in support of Many Years Ago, and is planning another live reunion with the original Chartbusters for a special show in Boston around release date in March.
