There's a question that is bound to be asked during the course of this review so let me get it out there straight away - why didn't Keel make the step up to the big league?

They certainly had a lot of things going for them in the 1980's - Gene Simmons in the producer's chair, support slots on major tours, an ass-kicker of a music video - yet they got left treading water while a slew of sequined suckers rode the log flume all the way to platinum success. Was it that they just weren't good looking enough? C'mon, Marc Ferrari was a cute fella. Maybe that, in public at least, the band just weren't controversial enough - no cheesy headlines for these guys. So, while lesser bands had crutches, licence plates and real retro titties flashed at them in formulaic performance videos, Keel found their level and stuck to it.

The video to title track 'The Right To Rock' hasn't aged particularly well but, if you grew up with this music or in this age, I dare you to watch it and not have a big ass grin on your face and happy thoughts of a simpler time in your mind by the end of it. And it was for this reason exactly that I couldn't wait to get this 25^th Anniversary Edition released by the cool cats at Frontiers Records into my stereo.

Getting Gene Simmons to produce your record back in 1985 was a licence to print money, right? Even though Gene clearly struggled with a number of troublesome changes in the 80's - the transition from demon to day-glo, top knot to toupee couldn't have been easy - his cultured business mind that spotted a disastrous venture at fifty paces had yet to be universally accepted. Before we all chuckled at pathetic projects like Gene Simmons' Tongue magazine - which flew off no shelves apart from the ones at the pulping plant - the recruitment of the soon-to-be-huge-movie-star as producer was a massive deal, and his influence on the record is hardly well hidden.

If the trademark Kiss backing vocals that are all over the cover of 'Let's Spend The Night Together' don't do it for the Kiss Kompletists, then the Simmons tune 'Easier Said Than Done' will for sure. The fact that the song is arguably better than 75% of the songs he wrote and recorded for Kiss in the same decade probably says everything you need to know about where his head was in those days. The two other songs that he contributed to the album - 'Get Down' and 'So Many Girls, So Little Time' - were, to be fair, probably deemed not good enough for inclusion on the day job albums for Gene but are, as Keel songs, pretty friggin' decent.

Enough about the producer, let's talk 'The Right To Rock' - every band needed an anthem, a call to arms, and this was Keel's. The album's opening and title track is an anthemic, fists-in-the-air retro rock classic and reason enough alone for you to buy this album. Want more reasons? 'Back To The City', 'Electric Love' - songs that belong in another age or in your record collection? Swallow your pride, stop pretending that you are too cool to enjoy this music and slap this disc in your death deck when you're getting ready to go out and you are guaranteed to not be sleeping alone that night......or Gene Simmons will give you your money back! 'Speed Demon', 'You're The Victim, (I'm The Crime)' - honestly, there isn't a bad track on this album.

If you shed a little tear for the 1980's, when your troubles - and waistline - seemed much smaller, then this album is an essential purchase. A time capsule maybe, but a time capsule that just so happens to be rammed full of mullet-shaking rock anthems. For the purists who already have this classic album on every format, there are a couple of reasons why this 25^th Anniversary Edition is a must-have; there's a remix of 'Easier Said Than Done' but, of more interest, a new version of the title track recorded with the reunited line-up - which replaces bassist Kenny Chaisson with Geno Arce - which, happily, doesn't do the original a disservice.

I saw Ron Keel doing his solo thing as support to Y&T here in the UK late last year and his attitude and enthusiasm was infectious - to have him back with a reunited Keel is kinda cool. The brand new Keel album, 'Streets Of Rock & Roll' will be reviewed here on Über Röck in the coming weeks but, until then, get your classic rock fix with this nice 25^th Anniversary Edition of 'The Right To Rock'. Not cool enough for you? Haircuts not fashionable enough for you? Stop living a lie, you grew up with this shit - embrace it. Feels good, right?

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