John Waite - vocals; Earl Slick - guitar; Carmine Rojas - bass; Tommy Mandel - keyboards; Alan Childs - drums; Patty Smyth - guest backing vocals on "Change"
By the time the Babys had recorded their third album in 1982, they had essentially become John Waite's backup band. Two of their key founding members had already left and been replaced with salaried musicians. With the MTV craze at its height, it only made sense that the band's charismatic lead singer, Waite, should go off on his own, which he did when Jonathan Cain left the Babys for Journey. Shortly after departing from the Babys he released a solo album entitled Ignition that was a moderate success with the song "Change." He then left Chrysalis Records, (which also had been the Babys's label), and signed with the powerful EMI/Capitol conglomerate. EMI had the promotional resources to make Waite a star in his own right. "Missing You" from No Brakes was Waite's first single under his new deal with EMI and it became a huge hit.
This show was done originally as a radio broadcast on the King Biscuit Flower Hour. Detroit was a major market for the Babys, so it made sense to capture this show in that city. Waite used the massive exposure to mostly promote material from his solo albums such as, "Saturday Night," "Tears," "Dark Side Of The Sun," "The Choice," and "Dreamtime / Shake It Up," as well as the aforementioned singles, "Missing You" and "Change." He also does a nearly 11-minute medley of "For Your Love," (not the song of the same name, made famous by the Yardbirds in 1965, but his own), and the Babys hit, "Midnight Rendezvous." It closes with raucous song, "Wild Life." Waite had assembled a crackerjack band that included Earl Slick (solo artist and ex-Bowie guitarist); keyboardist Tommy Mandel (from Billy Idol and Scandal); drummer Alan Chance; and bassist Carmine Rojas (ex-Nona Hendryx and Baby Grand), among others.
Waite went on to do several more solo albums, but failed to have the same hit action as he did with his first EMI record. In 2003, he toured as part of Ringo Starr & His All Starr Band, before returning to his solo career in 2005.