Back to England
Due to his long stay in the States, Waite misses England and his English girlfriend who has already gone home. From Akron, he flies back to New York for some surgery on his knee and then flies to England to see his family in Lancaster for Christmas.
Jonathan Cain is asked to join 'Journey' while Wally Stocker and Tony Brock want to do 'something different' and end up in Rod Stewart's band. The Babys have recorded some tracks for a new studio album, but these, along with many other titles, remain unreleased. Back in his motherland, Waite buys a cottage in the Lake District with his girlfriend Lynn. He said: "I didn't really have much intention of ever making another record." Still, he spends six months writing new songs.
IGNITION
In 1981, John Waite returns to New York, where he lives in an apartment on 72nd Street. In New York he records his first solo album, 'Ignition' for Chrysalis. Waite: "it took me a year to write." Produced by Neil Geraldo and released in June 1982, it is a superb set, but the album receives little attention on both sides of the Atlantic. Geraldo is well-known as songwriter and guitarist for Pat Benatar. The album reaches #68 on the USA album charts. Disappointed with the reception for 'Ignition,' Waite decides to quit the music business altogether. Nothing is heard publicly from him for two years. In an interview some years later Waite stated he felt very bitter toward Chrysalis because the album was hardly promoted.
He goes back to England again in the summer of 1983 and stays 8 months, He gets married in Kendal, a few miles from his Sedgergh home.
No Brakes
At his country home in the Lake District in England, he continues to write material, and is coaxed out of temporary retirement by a new management team and a new label, EMI America. He flies to LA where he hires musicians for his new album. Guitar player Gary Myrick co-writes several songs with him.
"EMI treated me with much respect, which was really good for my confidence," Waite recalls. The sessions result in the million selling 'No Brakes' album (a #10 on the Billboard charts), which includes one of 1984's biggest hit songs in both the United States and Europe, 'Missing You.' The album goes platinum. On September 22nd, 1984 'Missing You' hits #1 in the USA singles charts. Another 2 singles are pulled off the album: 'Tears' and 'Restless heart' while in Japan a unique 12-inch is released with special versions of the three singles.
