If ever there was a band born out of their time, Cats In Space are that band. Formed in Sussex in 2015, by guitarist Greg Hart and Drummer Steevi Bacon, soon the pair had completed the Cats line-up with second guitarist Dean Howard (Ian Gillan, Toby Jepson), bassist Jeff Brown, keyboardist Andy Stewart, and on lead vocals former Arena/Gordon Giltrap singer Paul Manzi. Having more in common with the high octane rock of Queen or ELO than their darker rock contemporaries (Marilyn Manson, Clutch et al), Cats In Space joined groups like The Darkness in a quest to bring pomp rock to the masses. This collection brings together the “Manzi Years”, consisting of the three studio albums and one live album released prior to the frontman’s departure in 2019 to front Andy Scott’s The Sweet, a roll he had been filling on and off since 2014.
Being a relative new comer to the Cats In Space universe (and not a fan of The Darkness), plus having only seen them once supporting Bonnie Tyler at the London Palladium in 2019, I was intrigued to find out what I would find within this sets clamshell exterior and I must say that I was pleasantly surprised.
Too Many Gods (CD1) arrived appropriately with ‘Arrival’ an introduction to the title track which immediately hits you with a Queen inspired power chord, but moving forward there is more of a Cheap Trick meets Styx feel on display here. It’s difficult to believe that this was 2015, a time when those big name bands were starting to rely on their re-issued back catalogue to provide tour set-lists and pay the bills. If only I’d have known about Cats In Space back then, they could have filled the hunger for new sounds in a power rock black-hole. To prove that they are no one trick pony the Cats are not afraid to shake things up, as displayed on ‘Last Man Standing’ where Beatle-esque vocal harmonies are the order of the day or lead single ‘Mr. Heartache’ (featuring Andy Scott), which supplies a time warp inducing reminder of the power ballads of AOR folklore and would have stood a good chance of becoming a mega hit in a ‘Lovin’, Touchin’, Squeezin” 1979. Admittedly not everything comes over as wholly original and the cliches come thick and fast (Hart’s Moritz remnant ‘Greatest Story Never Told’, ‘Man In The Moon’) but throughout Manzi manages to pull every vocal shape available, keeping it real without sounding like any of his vintage forerunners and the use of saxophone (possibly of the synthesized variety) on ‘Schoolyard Fantasy’ is an interesting diversion. Top tracks are the pop-tastic, ‘Unfinished Symphony’ and ‘Five Minute Celebrity’… a party on your CD player sounding like Pete Townshend has joined Kiss. Edited down a little this would have made an awesome ten track album in the (original) days of vinyl. Here in the CD era each studio album is boosted by two extra tracks proving that maybe you can have to much of a good thing, although they do include a couple of welcome covers, ‘How Does It Feel’ featuring Danny Bowes from Thunder and a barnstorming take of ‘Communication Breakdown’.
By the time of the follow up studio recording, the band had made their live debut appearance at The Half Moon in Putney (6th January 2016) and were mixing it with the big boys on the festival circuit. This environment permeates the core of 2017’s Scarecrow (CD 2), providing the arena rock power of ‘Jupiter Calling’, and ‘Timebomb’, accompanied by the more glam rock meets power pop of ‘The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’, and ‘Felix And The Golden Gun’, the humorously radio bashing ‘Two Fifty-Nine’, and the almost heavy metal ‘Broken Wing’. They also hammer the rock into AOR with, ‘Clown In Your Nightmare’, ‘September Rain’, and the titular track, alongside featured ballad ‘Scars’. It is no wonder that during this period the band were gaining high profile attention from the likes of Danny Bowes, who became theirmanager for a time, and Steve Homer from Live Nation who helped secure them a number of prestigious support slots. Scarecrow saw them drop much of the imitation and definitely feels like the Cats “coming of age” album.
Following such a strong second album the only logical move to make was, Cats Alive! (CD 3). Released in 2018 with a set list pulled mainly from their debut album (only one track is present from Scarecrow) and recorded at The Motorpoint Arena in Cardiff on the Thunder’s “Rip It Up” tour the previous year, Cat’s Alive! finds the band in their happy place. ‘Too Many Gods’, ‘The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party’, ‘Mr. Heartache’, ‘Greatest Story Never Told’ and ‘Five Minute Celebrity’, all sound like they have found an extra gear and are a wonderful showcase for Hart’s guitar playing, Manzi’s vocal prowess and the bands overall live chemistry. The ELO-lite of ‘Only In Vegas’ is the only minor misstep here, but Cat’s Alive! is the perfect reminder of what must have been a landmark tour for the sextet.
Day Trip To Narnia (CD4) is the final instalment of Chapter 1 and leaves the best till last. Proving that this band had more aces up their collective sleeves, Day Trip To Narnia (2019), is literally a tale of two halves. The opening section keeps The Cats humour throughout ‘Narnia’ and ‘She Talks To Much’ with it’s Jackdaw4 style twists, before introducing big arena choruses (‘Hologram Man’, ‘Unicorn’), classic 70’s melodic rock (‘Tragic Alter Ego’, ‘Silver & Gold’) along with that essential acoustic/power ballad (Chasing Diamonds’). All of those Cats In Space trademarks are still in evidence, but this is just the set-up for the hero of the piece which strikes during the albums second half. Part two of Day Trip To Narnia is a seven track, twenty-seven minute concept piece tracking the adventures of wannabe spaceman Johnny Rocket via a tongue in cheek study of (super) stardom? Each track bookended by ‘Space Overture’ and ‘Destination Unknown’ builds on the journey, but each is comfortable within its own skin, with the emotional ‘Johnny Rocket’ and ‘Twilight’ amongst the strongest tracks that the band have produced to date and add to this the disco beats of ‘Thunder In The Night’ and ‘One Small Step’ with its Beach Boy backing vocal and Day Trip To Narnia finds extra depth and is a huge statement of intent for the future. “I’ve seen the ‘big cat in the sky’. I wanna go and find it…” (Johnny Rocket – 6 ¼ yrs old). A story of fake news.
This may have been the final mission for Paul Manzi, but it was by no means the end of the race for Cats In Space. Four albums later the band are still spreading their brand of retro rock across the galaxy, and if the reviews of 2024’s Time Machine are anything to go by (“These Cats have still got it” – Ready To Rock, “An unabashed rock album” – Music News) they could go cosmic at any moment. By the time this box set hits the web stores the band will have graced the stage supporting ELO at their sold out show in London’s Hyde Park before heading to the Nene Valley Rock Festival and LiveFest 4 in Wolverhampton in September. I can assure you that, “they will make the audiences purr!” There really is so much to unpack within this new set and I would advise any listener to let the music do the talking. Cats In Space certainly put a smile on my face and a skip in my step, and I for one will be exploring further. Bring on Chapter 2.
- Reviewed By Peter Brockwell.
- Chapter 1 is released via Esoteric/Cherry Red Records on 25th July 2025
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Track List:
CD1 – Too Many Gods
1. Arrival
2. Too Many Gods
3. Stop
4. Last Man Standing
5. Mr. Heartache
6. Unfinished Symphony
7. Schoolyard Fantasy
8. Greatest Story Never Told
9. Only in Vegas
10. Man in the Moon
11. Five Minute Celebrity
12. Velvet Horizon
Bonus Tracks:
13. How Does it Feel
14. Scandalous
CD2 – Scarecrow
1. Jupiter Calling
2. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
3. Clown in Your Nightmare
4. Scars
5. September Rain
6. Broken Wing
7. Two Fifty-Nine
8. Felix and the Golden Sun
9. Timebomb
10. Scarecrow
Bonus Tracks:
11. September Rain (Acoustic mix)
12. Felix and the Golden Sun (vocal mix)
CD3 – Cat’s Alive!
1. Too Many Gods
2. Only in Vegas
3. Last Man Standing
4. The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
5. Mr. Heartache
6. Greatest Story Never Told
7. Five Minute Celebrity
CD4 – Day Trip to Narnia
1. Narnia
2. She Talks Too Much
3. Hologram Man
4. Tragic Alter Ego
5. Silver & Gold
6. Chasing Diamonds
7. Unicorn
8. Space Overture
9. Johnny Rocket
10. Thunder in the Night
11. One Small Step
12. Twilight
13. Yesterday’s News
14. Destination Unknown
Bonus Tracks:
15. Communication Breakdown
16. Thunder in the Night (12” Thunder mix)
