Balance (band)

Balance
Origin	New York City, United States
Genres	Hard rock
Years active	1980–1983
Labels	Portrait
Associated acts	KISS, Meat Loaf, Skull, Blackthorne, Murderers Row, Blues Magoos, Barnaby Bye, Wiggy Bits, Heaven, Speedway Blvd., Blue Öyster Cult, Red Dawn, Rainbow, Brand X
Members	Bob Kulick Peppy Castro Doug Katsaros Andy Newmark Gregg Gerson Dennis Feldman Chuck Burgi

Balance was an early 1980s hard rock band based out of New York City and fronted by Illinois native, Peppy Castro, formerly of Blues Magoos. They are perhaps best known for their minor 1981 hit, "Breaking Away".

In addition to Castro, original members included guitarist Bob Kulick and arranger/keyboardist Doug Katsaros. The trio recorded their self-titled debut album with session musicians, one of whom, drummer Andy Newmark also co-wrote one of the songs on the album and was apparently an official member of the band at one point. Newmark was later replaced by Gregg Gerson, who departed soon thereafter to play with Billy Idol. Prior to recording their follow-up album, Balance added the rhythm section of drummer Chuck Burgi (ex-Brand X) and bassist Dennis Feldman (ex-Speedway Blvd.) to the lineup.

The group's most noteworthy release was 1981's "Breaking Away" from their eponymous debut album which reached No. 133 on the Billboard 200. The song peaked at No. 22 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The album's follow-up single, "Falling in Love", peaked at No. 58. The band failed to reach the chart again.

In early 1982, Balance entered The Power Station in New York, now Avatar Studios, to produce their sophomore album, In For The Count, with Tony Bongiovi, a cousin of Jon Bon Jovi, engineering and co-producing. After a massive house cleaning on so-called 'Black Friday', when 200 staffers at CBS, Epic and Portrait were let go, Balance would lose their supporters at the label and In For The Count became a direct casualty of the turnover.

Although things looked bleak at home, the band experienced one last hurrah when they were asked to write a song for a major Japanese commercial to launch the new Daihatsu Charade. The resulting song was "Ride the Wave" which was also commercially released through Polydor, with album leftover "She's Alone Tonight" on the B-side. Balance would play a short tour of Japan before calling it quits due to lack of interest from their label and management company.

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