Dance to the Holy Man

Dance to the Holy Man is the third album of Scottish rock band The Silencers released in 1991. When beginning to work for this album, personal conflict between members of the band derailed the process. Donnelly and Hanlin left the band, and were replaced by Tony Soave on drums and Lewis Rankine on bass. The album, a departure from the band's "guitar-based atmosphere pop", was recorded during the summer of 1990. It included funk, blues, and Celtic strains. The O'Neill-penned "This Is Serious" had previously been submitted to other artists and had been recorded twice prior to The Silencers' version; in 1987 Eric Martin recorded it for his I'm Only Fooling Myself album, and one year later Marilyn Martin recorded it for her 1988 album, which took its name from the track. The single "Bulletproof Heart", a re-recording of a track from the Fingerprintz album "Distinguishing Marks" and later to be covered by Jim Kerr for his Lostboy project, became a big hit in Spain and France, where the band had success at that time, but album sales lagged back in the United Kingdom (Dance to the Holy Man entered nevertheless the UK Top 40, it was their first entry, and last to date, in this chart).