GTR (album)

GTR
Studio album by GTR
Released	24 April 1986[1]
Recorded	1985–86
Studio	The Townhouse, London
Genre	Progressive rock
Length	44:43
Label	Arista
Producer	Geoff Downes
GTR chronology
GTR (1986) King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents GTR (1997)

GTR is the only album from the short-lived supergroup GTR, released in April 1986. The album peaked at No. 11 on the Billboard 200 chart, and the single "When the Heart Rules the Mind" reached No. 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Another single, "The Hunter", peaked at No. 85.
In the UK, the album was released on 7 July 1986,^[2] where it reached No. 41 on the album charts.

An instrumental piece recorded by GTR guitarist Steve Howe years before, "Sketches in the Sun", was included on the album due to a shortage of content. It resurfaced on his solo album Motif Volume 1 and again on his Anthology album. Steve Hackett's "Hackett to Bits" was a simplified version of the title track from his Please Don't Touch album. (It has no connection with the similarly titled "Hackett to Pieces" from Highly Strung.) Asia recorded their own version of the Geoff Downes-penned "The Hunter" for their 1997 compilation album Anthology.

The group, founded by Hackett and Howe, disbanded in 1987. Downes, who like Howe had been a member of Yes and Asia, produced the album.

The band's name, anecdotally, comes from the marking on the studio mixing console that indicates the 'guitar' volume control.

The album was reissued in 2001 as a remastered CD and again in 2006 as a Japanese mini-LP CD, but otherwise remained out of print until a deluxe 2-CD version was released in 2015.^[3]