Touch

The hard rock/AOR group Touch got its start from the remains of former operation American Tears, a band that had released three obscure albums in the USA. in the mid-1970s. When Doug Howard(bass/vocals) joined in with Craig Brooks (vocals/guitar), Glenn Kithcart (drums) and songwriter Mark Mangold (keyboards/vocals) they assumed the new moniker and started again. Their debut album Touch (1980) failed to sell well initially but has since become considered a neglected and forgotten classic of the genre. It would be followed-up with Touch II (1982) with Tod Rundgren at the production desk.

Touch was one of the bands who were on the very first bill for the starting of the Donnington Monsters Of Rock festival, a heavy metal pilgrimage that has since seen populations of in the tens of thousands. The act's best-known track was played at the event and emerged on the compilation live recording of the day Monsters Of Rock. Their set on the stage, however, was more known for Howard's accidental swallowing of a bee while having a drink at the end of the set.

Disenchanted with their record company and management the band split around 1982. Two tracks from the second record's recording sessions survived to be extras on the re-issue of the debut in 1990. Mangold went on to become a session musician and worked with Michael Bolton on some of his first releases.

In 2014, Mangold resurrected the act, assembling a lineup featuring Swedish singer Göran Edman on lead vocals along with other Swedish musicians. This lineup performed live at Firefest in Nottingham, UK in October 2014.