Hammer and Tongs

This article is about the Goodbye Mr Mackenzie album. For other uses, see Hammer and tongs (disambiguation).

Hammer and Tongs
Studio album by
Goodbye Mr Mackenzie
Released4 March 1991
RecordedBerlin, Germany (1989)
GenreAlternative rock
Length44:30
LabelCapitol
ProducerTerry Adams & The Mackenzies
Mack ("Diamonds")
Goodbye Mr Mackenzie chronology
Good Deeds and Dirty Rags
(1989) 		Hammer and Tongs
(1991) 		Five
(1994)
Singles from Hammer and Tongs
  1. "Love Child"
    Released: April 1990
  2. "Blacker Than Black"
    Released: 4 June 1990
  3. "Now We Are Married"
    Released: 11 February 1991
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[1]
Q[2]
Select4/5[3]

Hammer and Tongs is the second album from the Scottish rock group Goodbye Mr Mackenzie. It was recorded in Germany in 1989, at Berlin's Hansa Ton Studios just as the Fall of the Berlin Wall occurred.[2] The album sat on the shelf for almost 18 months, in which time the band were transferred across EMI record labels, from Capitol to Parlophone, who released two singles from the album in 1990. Parlophone sold the band's record deal to Radioactive Records and MCA, who released Hammer and Tongs in the United Kingdom in early 1991 and encouraged the band to record a new song "Now We Are Married" to promote the release.[4]

Later that year, Radioactive, and their partners MCA, repackaged the album for international release by including several stand-out tracks from the band's debut album Good Deeds and Dirty Rags and eponymously re-titling the album as Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie.[4]

Paul Davies of Q Magazine called the album a "more than adequate follow up."[2]

  1. ^ AllMusic review
  2. ^ a b c Davies, Paul (5 March 1991). "Hammer and Tongs review". Q Magazine. 55: 68.
  3. ^ Terry, Nick (July 1990). "Heroes and Villains". Select. p. 94.
  4. ^ a b Record Collector magazine, issue #209, interview with Martin Metcalfe, and Mackenzie discography