Average White Band - Renaissance 1988-2003 Average White Band

AWB’s catalogue has remained hugely influential across generations of R&B, funk and hip-hop artists, making them one of the most sampled bands in music history. Artists including Snoop Dogg, Fatboy Slim, Ice Cube, Puff Daddy, TLC, Rick Ross, will.i.am and Mark Ronson have all borrowed from their unmistakable grooves.

After splitting in 1982, Average White Band reformed in 1988 with a revised line-up centred around Alan Gorrie, Onnie McIntyre and initially Roger Ball.

Aftershock, the band’s eleventh album, was originally released in 1988 and featured the singles The Spirit Of Love, with guest appearances from Chaka Khan and Ronnie Laws, alongside Sticky Situation. Additional guests included The Ohio Players. The album was produced by John Robie, Dennis Lambert, Alan Gorrie and AWB themselves.

Following another extended hiatus, the group returned in 1996 with Soul Tattoo, recorded at Daryl Hall’s studio in upstate New York. The album included the single Back To Basics, while longtime Hall & Oates collaborator Klyde Jones handled lead vocals on Every Beat Of My Heart. Daryl Hall also appeared on I Wanna Be Loved, which he co-wrote with Alan Gorrie. Production duties were shared between Average White Band and Peter Moshay.

In 1998, while touring alongside Tower of Power, the band recorded Face To Face live at The Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco. Mixing fresh material with classic favourites, the release captured AWB’s enduring live energy and marks the first CD reissue of the concert since its original 1999 release.

After a further seven-year break, Average White Band returned in 2003 with Living In Colour, their most recent full studio album. The record included soulful interpretations of I’m Gonna Make You Love Me and Major Harris’ Love Won’t Let Me Wait. Alongside Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre, the line-up featured Klyde Jones, Fred Vigdor and Brian Dunne, supported by additional musicians including Eliot Lewis, Cliff Lyons, John Fumasoli, Tony Kadleck, Bill Harris, Carlos Gomez, Joe Najmy and Rob Aries. Production was handled by Average White Band and Matt Noble.

The final non-album bonus track included in this retrospective is 2017’s Harvest For The World, featuring Chris Jasper of The Isley Brothers, who sadly passed away in 2025 — a fitting collaboration between two legendary forces in soul and R&B music.

This era of AWB’s recorded output remains just as significant as their earlier material, documenting how the band evolved their sound and embraced new production approaches while continuing to preserve the authentic musicianship at the heart of everything they created.