BLACK'N BLUE
Biography and full discography of BLACK'N BLUE, with a page for every album, on METAL BOOST.
English Discography Overview
This English discography hub highlights BLACK'N BLUE albums such as Hell Yeah!, In Heat, Nasty Nasty. The album notes emphasize these records' riffs, vocals, production character, songwriting flow and listening context: Hell Yeah! puts Black ’n Blue’s catchy choruses, thick guitar riffs and good-time rock-and-roll spirit up front. In Heat puts Black ’n Blue’s thick guitar, bouncing beat and memorable chorus writing in the foreground. Nasty Nasty pulls Black ’N Blue slightly away from polish and puts thick guitars and a rougher rock-and-roll feel in front.
Biography
BLACK'N BLUE
Biography
Black 'N Blue are a hard rock band formed in Portland, Oregon, in 1981. They started as Jaime St. James (vocals), Tommy Thayer (lead guitar), Jeff "Woop" Warner (guitar), Patrick Young (bass) and Pete Holmes (drums), signed to Geffen Records in 1983 and made four albums for the label between 1984 and 1988, the last two produced by Kiss's Gene Simmons. They split in 1989, and Thayer became Kiss's guitarist in 2002. St. James brought the band back in 2003, and Hell Yeah!, their first studio album since 1988, followed in 2011. They first played Japan in November 1984, the year of the debut.
Beginnings in Portland (1981-1983)
Tommy Thayer recalls that Black 'N Blue began in Portland in 1981: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was reaching America and Mötley Crüe had appeared in Los Angeles, and he, Jaime St. James and the others wanted to start a new heavy metal band. St. James had been the drummer in the band they had before; one night at a Portland club he moved up to the front and became the frontman (Thayer, in a 2005 interview). The official timeline dates the formation to the autumn of 1981 and describes the band as a group of friends. St. James says that because they played their own songs rather than covers, fewer clubs would book them (Sleaze Roxx, 2011).
Their first record was Metal Massacre, the compilation released on 14 June 1982 as Metal Blade Records' first release, to which they contributed "Chains Around Heaven" alongside then-unsigned Los Angeles acts such as Metallica, Ratt and Malice (Metal Blade). Marquee/Avalon's profile says they moved their base to Los Angeles gradually from 1982; the introduction at their 2010 Hall of Fame induction, as Thayer reported it, puts the move to Hollywood of five young rockers barely out of high school in 1983, the year they signed to Geffen Records (official timeline). According to St. James, the A&R man who signed them was John Kalodner.
Four albums for Geffen (1984-1988)
The debut, Black'n Blue, was recorded in Germany with Dieter Dierks, known for his work with Scorpions, and released in 1984, with "Hold On to 18" as a single and an MTV video (official timeline). The song is credited to Thayer and St. James, and a 1983 recording of it is on Rarities (2007). In 1984 they toured America with Aerosmith (official site), and in November they played Japan for the first time (Marquee/Avalon; Thayer's own post).
Without Love (1985) was recorded in Vancouver with Bruce Fairbairn, Bob Rock and Mike Fraser, with "Miss Mystery" as a single and video (official timeline). After it came out, the band opened Kiss's Asylum tour. Thayer says they had first met Kiss at a pre-show meet-and-greet at Long Beach Arena just after the debut was released, that the call about the tour came from their manager Warren Entner, and that the first night was in Little Rock, Arkansas (Burrn!, 2006).
Gene Simmons produced Nasty Nasty (1986), whose single "I'll Be There for You" was written by Jonathan Cain of Journey (official timeline). Its closing track, "Best in the West", has Ron Keel of Keel and Peter Criss of Kiss on it, and a horn section (St. James, 2017). That year the band toured with Dio, Queensrÿche, Ted Nugent, Lita Ford and Night Ranger (official timeline). Simmons produced In Heat (1988) as well, with Pat Regan playing keyboards. Thayer has said working with Simmons was great because they were Kiss fans to begin with, and St. James remembers Simmons listening to the songs in the rehearsal room and advising him to sing about himself rather than about other people. The official site puts the band's album sales in the 1980s at over a million.
The split and after (1989-2002)
The band broke up in 1989 (Marquee/Avalon; Sleaze Roxx). According to Sleaze Roxx's biography, St. James went on to record with Freight Train Jane and others, Thayer recorded with Doro, Harlow and Shake the Faith, and Holmes formed Monster with former members of Malice. Thayer stayed in touch with Simmons, and the two co-wrote "Betrayed" and "The Street Giveth and the Street Taketh Away" for Kiss's 1989 album Hot in the Shade; because Kiss finished both by overdubbing the demos rather than re-recording them, Thayer's guitar is still on them (Loudwire). Starting in 1993-94, when he helped with the photos for the Kisstory book, Thayer worked for Kiss behind the scenes (Burrn!, 2006), and in 2002 he became Kiss's guitarist in place of Ace Frehley; his first official show was the concert with an orchestra in Melbourne in February 2003 (BARKS).
On 31 October 1997 the original five played a one-off show at Key Largo in Portland. The live album was Thayer's idea, Pat Regan recorded it, and it came out in 1998 as One Night Only: Live (Sleaze Roxx, 2017). Thayer has said they always knew it would be a one-off. In 2001 the demo collection The Demos Remastered: Anthology 1 came out, along with the compilation Ultimate Collection (official discography).
The reunion and Hell Yeah! (2003-2011)
In 2003 St. James, Warner, Young and Holmes got back together at St. James's initiative. He says it began with a solo deal he had in England, which he suggested to Warner, who had a studio, they turn into a Black 'N Blue record (Sleaze Roxx, 2011). In May 2003 the album was reported as due that September through the British label Z Records (Blabbermouth). With Thayer in Kiss, the guitarist Shawn Sonnenschein, who had played in a Portland band with Young, took his place.
In February 2004, however, St. James became Warrant's singer and spent the next four years touring the world with them, and work on the album stopped (official site). In 2008, after Jani Lane returned to Warrant and St. James left, Black 'N Blue started up again, playing Rocklahoma on 12 July and Rock the Bayou in Houston on 31 August (Blabbermouth). On 9 October 2010 the band were inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, and the original five, Thayer included, played a 30-minute set at the ceremony at the Roseland Theatre in Portland, including "Hold On to 18", "Miss Mystery" and "Nasty Nasty" (Blabbermouth).
The album was held up further when Warner lost his studio and the band ran out of money to finish it, until their manager Jeff Keller arranged for Frontiers to buy them out of their previous label's contract and fund the rest (St. James, 2011). The songs were written by St. James and Warner, and Thayer, hearing the demos, told them they were doing fine without him. Hell Yeah!, their first studio album since 1988, came out first in Japan on 20 April 2011, then in Europe on 13 May and North America on 17 May; the Japanese edition adds the bonus track "I Smell a Rat" (Marquee/Avalon; Blabbermouth). For the album the band brought back their original logo, updated.
Since 2012
In 2012 they played the Monsters of Rock Cruise with Cinderella, Tesla, UFO and Kix. The official site lists Rocklahoma, M3, Rock the Bayou and Midwest Rockfest among the festivals they have played, and notes return appearances on the cruise. The guitarists have changed: Brandon Cook replaced Warner in 2013, and the other guitar was played by Bobby Capka from around April 2017 and by Doug Rappoport from 2021 (Sleaze Roxx). On 27 August 2025 the band released 2 Song Bruiser on Bandcamp, two songs demoed in 1984 and 1985 and finally recorded by St. James, Young, Holmes, Cook and Mick Caldwell.
Thayer and St. James also work as a duo, Thayer – St. James. The Lost Tapes, released on 3 June 2022, collects five unreleased songs recorded in the late 1980s (BARKS; Blabbermouth); the master tapes had deteriorated, so the songs were finished from a DAT and a cassette (the duo's site). In November 2025 they released Bombshell, a six-song EP and the first new music the two had written and recorded together since the late 1980s. St. James says it does not carry the Black 'N Blue name because only the two of them are on it, and that Thayer has no plans to rejoin the band (Blabbermouth).
The members
The official site lists the current members as Jaime St. James (vocals), Patrick Young (bass), Pete Holmes (drums), Brandon Cook (guitar) and Mick Caldwell (guitar), with Tommy Thayer and Jeff "Woop" Warner under the heading "Missing in Action". The original line-up was St. James, Thayer (lead guitar), Warner (guitar), Young and Holmes. Guitarists who joined after the reunion include Shawn Sonnenschein, Bobby Capka and Doug Rappoport.
Discography
The five studio albums and the newest recording, in order of release. Each album's page has its track list, liner notes and official videos.
| Released | Title | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 1984 | Black'n Blue | Geffen |
| 1985 | Without Love | Geffen |
| 1986 | Nasty Nasty | Geffen |
| 1988 | In Heat | Geffen |
| 20 April 2011 | Hell Yeah! (Japanese edition; Europe 13 May, North America 17 May) | Marquee/Avalon (Japan) / Frontiers |
| 27 August 2025 | 2 Song Bruiser (two songs, digital) | The band (Bandcamp) |
The official discography also lists the live and compilation albums One Night Only: Live (1998, from the Portland show of 31 October 1997), The Demos Remastered: Anthology 1 (2001), Ultimate Collection (2001), the box set Collected (2005) and Rarities (2007, Crash Music Classics). Live in Detroit 1984, from a 1984 show in Detroit, is dated 1998 by the official site and 2002 by Sleaze Roxx. The official timeline gives In Heat as 1987, One Night Only as 1996 and Ultimate Collection as 2002; the years here follow the same site's discography, which the other sources agree with. As Thayer – St. James, Thayer and St. James have released the EPs The Lost Tapes (3 June 2022) and Bombshell (November 2025).
Japan
The band first played Japan in November 1984. Marquee/Avalon's profile says the catchy songs of the debut, "Hold On to 18" among them, had caught on there, and in 2020 Thayer posted the photo for his Japanese visa application, taken on his birthday in 1984, noting that the band toured Japan that November. No source found gives the venues or dates. The Japanese edition of Hell Yeah! (Marquee/Avalon, MICP-10983) came out on 20 April 2011, ahead of Europe and North America, with the bonus track "I Smell a Rat". BARKS reported the release of The Lost Tapes on the day it came out in 2022.
About the sources
This page is based on the band's official site, blacknblueofficial.com (the timeline, the members and the discography); the band's official Bandcamp; thayerstjames.com, the site of Tommy Thayer and Jaime St. James; Marquee/Avalon's artist page as the Internet Archive kept it; Metal Blade Records' announcement; Tommy Thayer's post on X; Blabbermouth.net; Sleaze Roxx; Loudwire; and BARKS. The English Wikipedia was used only as a starting point. Where the sources disagree (the years of In Heat, One Night Only, Ultimate Collection and Live in Detroit 1984), the discography section says so.
Trivia
Black 'N Blue first played Japan in November 1984, the year of the debut album. The artist profile by Marquee/Avalon, which released Hell Yeah! in Japan, says the catchy songs of the debut, "Hold On to 18" among them, caught on in Japan and the band made their first visit that November. In 2020 Tommy Thayer posted on X the photo for his Japanese visa application, taken on his birthday in 1984, noting that the band toured Japan in November that year.
Black 'N Blue first appeared on record on Metal Massacre, the compilation that was Metal Blade Records' very first release, out on 14 June 1982. Their track was "Chains Around Heaven", and it sat alongside the label's pick of unsigned Los Angeles acts such as Metallica, Ratt and Malice. On the vinyl reissue Metal Blade put out for its 40th anniversary in 2022, the song opens side two, which closes with Metallica's "Hit the Lights". The Geffen deal came afterwards, and "Chains Around Heaven" went on to close the debut album, Black'n Blue.
The Lost Tapes, the EP Tommy Thayer and Jaime St. James released on 3 June 2022, collects five unreleased songs recorded in the late 1980s. Only the two of them play on it, so it came out under the name Thayer – St. James rather than Black 'N Blue. The recordings had been kept for over thirty years on two-inch multitrack tape and quarter-inch two-track mixes, the pair explain on their site, but both had deteriorated beyond use; after some searching, a DAT and a cassette were the only usable sources left, and the songs were finished from those with some digital polishing. The tracks are "Sweet Sensation", "American Man", "Time", "Ballad of the Bullet" and "Work It".
According to Tommy Thayer, Black 'N Blue started in Portland, Oregon, in 1981, when he, Jaime St. James and the others set out to form a new heavy metal band: the New Wave of British Heavy Metal was beginning to reach America, and Mötley Crüe had appeared in Los Angeles. St. James had been the drummer in the band they had before. One night at a Portland club, Thayer recalls, St. James moved up to the front of the stage and took over as the band's frontman. The official timeline dates the formation to the autumn of 1981.
Tommy Thayer told Burrn! magazine that the band first met Kiss at a pre-show meet-and-greet at Long Beach Arena on the Animalize tour, just after their debut came out. About six months later, with Without Love out, their manager Warren Entner called to say they would be opening Kiss's Asylum tour, starting a month later. The first night was in Little Rock, Arkansas. Early in the run, Gene Simmons walked over to Thayer and Jaime St. James after a soundcheck and suggested they change the announcement that brought them on stage, because it sounded too much like the one used by a certain band that had been around for a very long time. They agreed on the spot.
Ron Keel of Keel sings on "Best in the West", the closing track of Nasty Nasty, and Kiss's Peter Criss is on it too. Jaime St. James says he brought Criss in himself after running into him and his wife at the Rainbow. Criss was reluctant because he and Gene Simmons had not spoken for years, so his wife later gave St. James his number and urged him to talk him round. On the night Criss finally came down, nothing at all was recorded: Simmons and Criss spent it swapping stories in the studio. The brass on the song was Tommy Thayer's and St. James's idea; Simmons was taken aback when they brought in a horn section, St. James says, and conceded they had been right once he heard the result.
Hell Yeah! began life as a Jaime St. James solo album. Around 2003, he says, he had a solo deal in England and called Jeff "Woop" Warner, who had a studio, to suggest they make it a Black 'N Blue record instead. In May 2003 the album was reported as due that September through the British label Z Records, but in February 2004 St. James became Warrant's singer, and their touring stalled the record. The band started up again in 2008 after he left Warrant, yet there were more delays: Warner lost his studio and they had to find another, and the band, then on a different label, ran out of money to finish. In the end their manager Jeff Keller brokered a deal in which Frontiers bought them out of the old contract and put up a little more money, and the album finally came out in 2011.
On 9 October 2010 Black 'N Blue were inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, and the classic five-piece, Tommy Thayer included, reunited for the ceremony at the Roseland Theatre in Portland. Their introduction came from Peter Tashjian, son of their manager Garo, who told how five young rockers barely out of high school had set off for Hollywood in 1983. After receiving their plaques they played a 30-minute set that took in "Hold On to 18", "Miss Mystery" and "Nasty Nasty". Thayer needed clearance from Kiss to take part, Jaime St. James noted, but this was a night he could not miss. For St. James it was one of the happiest nights of his life: the band had played its own songs rather than covers, landed fewer club gigs as a result, and had long felt that Portland never gave it its due.
Albums
Hell Yeah! puts Black ’n Blue’s catchy choruses, thick guitar riffs and good-time rock-and-roll spirit up front.
In Heat puts Black ’n Blue’s thick guitar, bouncing beat and memorable chorus writing in the foreground.
Nasty Nasty pulls Black ’N Blue slightly away from polish and puts thick guitars and a rougher rock-and-roll feel in front.
Without Love refines Black ’N Blue’s sharp guitar riffs and catchy choruses into a smoother 1980s sound.
Black ’n Blue is a debut that gathers clear riffs, layered choruses and youthful momentum.