''Collector's Edition No. 1'', (also known as ''L.A. Guns''), is the debut

extended play An extended play (EP) is a Sound recording and reproduction, musical recording that contains more tracks than a Single (music), single but fewer than an album. Contemporary EPs generally contain up to eight tracks and have a playing time of 1 ...

(EP) by American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band

L.A. Guns L.A. Guns are an American hard rock band from Los Angeles, formed in 1983. The lineup currently consists of Tracii Guns (lead guitar), Phil Lewis (musician), Phil Lewis (lead vocals), Ace Von Johnson (rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Johnny Mar ...

. Recorded in 1984 at Westwind Studios in

Thousand Oaks, California Thousand Oaks is the second-largest city in Ventura County, California, located in the northwestern part of Greater Los Angeles. Approximately from the city of Los Angeles and from Downtown Los Angeles, it is named after the many oak trees pr ...

, it was produced by Chuck Rosa and released in 1985 by Raz Records. The EP is the only release by the band to feature vocalist Michael Jagosz, bassist Ole Beich and drummer Rob Gardner, all of whom left shortly after its release (Guns, Beich and Gardner subsequently co-founded

Guns N' Roses Guns N' Roses is an American hard rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985 as a merger of local bands L.A. Guns and Hollywood Rose. When they signed to Geffen Records in 1986, the band's "classic" line-up consisted of vocalist Axl R ...

Background

L.A. Guns recorded its debut EP at Westwind Studios in

, a recording studio owned by former

Rainbow A rainbow is an optical phenomenon caused by refraction, internal reflection and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a continuous spectrum of light appearing in the sky. The rainbow takes the form of a multicoloured circular ...

and

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath are an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler, and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. After adopting the Black Sabbath name in 1969 (the band ...

frontman Ronnie James Dio. According to former vocalist Michael Jagosz, the group had only 24 hours available in the studio to record the EP, with "20–21 hours" used for the instrumentals and the remaining four used for vocals. The session was produced by Chuck Rosa and the EP released by the band's manager Raz Cue on his own label. Jagosz left shortly after the EP's release and was replaced by Paul Black, who would later rebuild the group after guitarist Tracii Guns, bassist Ole Beich and drummer Rob Gardner left to co-found

with Hollywood Rose vocalist

Axl Rose W. Axl Rose ( ; born William Bruce Rose Jr., February 6, 1962) is an American singer and songwriter. He is the lead vocalist and lyricist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, and has been the band's sole constant member since its inception in ...

and guitarist

Izzy Stradlin Jeffrey Dean Isbell (born April 8, 1962), known professionally as Izzy Stradlin, is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a co-founder, rhythm guitarist, and backing vocalist of the hard rock band Guns N' Roses, with whom he re ...

in March 1985. The tracks recorded for ''Collector's Edition No. 1'' have been re-released several times since 1985. First, in 2004, the songs were included as a bonus second disc with '' Hollywood Raw: The Original Sessions'', a compilation containing several recordings from before the release of the band's self-titled debut album in 1988. In 2017, all four songs were also included on the career retrospective compilation ''A Fistful of Guns: Anthology 1985–2012''.

Track listing

Personnel

L.A. Guns * Mike Jagosz – vocals * Tracii Guns – guitar, production * Ole Beich – bass * Rob Gardner – drums Additional personnel *Chuck Rosa – production *Tom Terranova – artwork, design

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1985 debut EPs L.A. Guns EPs