I know they recorded their second record and the label decided not to release it. Is that what you mean?
That's part of it. It's the classic story of getting screwed over by the record company, but there were a few special knife twists too. They were lost in the Great EMI Purge of 1988, after getting a huge amount of buildup and a real producer hired for their second album. EMI wanted to make money off of the tapes and after dropping the band they wouldn't release the tapes for anything less than something close to $300K, I think, and no one would make that investment so they sat in limbo for long enough so that they started fighting amongst themselves and broke up. They had industry buzz, were very successful touring all over the country, but that album missed its window and it all went to hell.
There was nothing like that band when all three guitars were going. We saw the Fabulous Thunderbirds grow up in small clubs, watched Stevie Ray grow up in small clubs, and for my money there just wasn't anything like the Troobs.
They did a lot of acoustic shows too, as the Make Believers or the Blue Retrievers or whatever other names they'd come up with, and they were magical too.
