Originally made up of the three Morris brothers – Jim (guitar, keyboards, recorder), Mark (vocals, bass) and Des (drums) – Balaam and The Angel began their career playing working men’s clubs as a children’s cabaret act in their native Motherwell, Scotland, encouraged by their father who had insisted they all watch Top of the Popsas children.
They eventually moved down to Cannock in Staffordshire and after playing a number of support slots with The Cult were falsely categorised as a goth group. They were, in fact, self consciously colourful in both appearance and approach.
They released a series of EPs on their own Chapter 22 label, starting with World of Light in 1984 before signing with Virgin Records in 1988 and touring the US with KISS and Iggy Pop. They were joined by additional guitarist Ian McKean for their first Virgin album, Live Free or Die.
They were soon dropped by Virgin, however, and did not tour again until 1990. By 1991 they had truncated their name to simply ‘Balaam’ and released the mini-album No More Innocence. But it was all over by the time of their 1993 album, Prime Time.
Mark Morris
Vocals, bass Jim Morris
Guitar, keyboards, recorder Des Morris
Drums Ian McKean
Guitar
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