Tom Peterson and Another Language

Background

On August 12, 1980, Petersson left Cheap Trick, shortly after the recording of their fifth studio album All Shook Up with producer George Martin, on August 26, 1980. He left the band to work with his then-wife Dagmar, at the time a European model. Petersson formed a new group with Dagmar, session guitarist Jeffrey Rollings, and drummer Thom Mooney who once played for the 1960s band Nazz, which involved Todd Rundgren on lead guitar. It was reported as early as May 15, 1981, in The Tuscaloosa News that Petersson had formed a new band with his wife on lead vocals. Together the band released the mini-album Tom Peterson and Another Language in 1984, (Petersson dropping the extra pseudo-Swedish 's' from his name), and then toured the North American club scene. The release, which Allmusic writer Doug Stone described as "new wave wildness", was the only release Petersson issued outside of Cheap Trick. Peterson moved to New York during the mid-1980s after that and played shows with his band called Sick Man of Europe, which was the name of a pre-Cheap Trick band he was in with Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen. This was the last anyone heard from the bassist until he accidentally spilled beer in Nielsen's lap at a birthday bash for a member of Duran Duran, which not-so-strangely led to his permanent reunion with the band in 1987, first returning on their 1988 album Lap of Luxury.

The mini-album itself featured six songs which were written by Tom and Dagmar Petersson, except "Rainy Day", which was written by Tom, Dagmar, Nicole Hanson and Michael Conoscenti. The majority of the lead vocals were performed by Dagmar, although Petersson made an occasional vocal appearance, mainly on "My Car" - a track which also featured an instrumental reprise version at the end of side one of the vinyl release. Petersson produced and arranged the record himself, and also played piano, as well as 12 and 18-string bass. The album was recorded at Artisan Sound & Kendun Recorders. The release was not a commercial success, and the band soon split afterwards, and this was followed by the failure of their own marriage. Out of 10,000 vinyl copies printed, it reportedly sold only 323 initially. Although no singles were released from the mini-album, the opening track "Lose Your Mind" was pressed as a 10-inch acetate single, although it was not given a proper single release. This acetate featured just the one track, and was created by Future Disc Systems of West Hollywood in California.

An official music video to promote the Tom Peterson and Another Language EP was released during 1984. The music video was for "Lose Your Mind", and largely featured the band playing the song live, along with other various filmed scenes - Brian Irving on drums at this point. At the beginning of the video, Dagmar revealed "I was a model for two years, I was very successful at it, but it didn't fulfill me. They just altered you to the product. I met Tom a little bit over five years ago. Tom had Cheap Trick, and we decided to start to work together, and today we have our band."

Release

The release was issued on vinyl only in America by the now-defunct California indie label Enigma Records. To date the release remains obscure and never released on CD or as an official download.

Personnel

Additional personnel