Press from Frontiers Records 15-December-99: Hugo started his career in a Journey covers band at the very beginning of the eighties. Later on he met the guys with which he would form Valentine. In 1986 they all moved to L.A. to "make it" and after 6 months moved back to NY where they were signed to SBK Management. In 1987 they got a deal on Columbia Records. They waited for 2 years to record with Neil Kernon, but due to changes at the label, the band was dropped from Columbia. However, they were soon picked up by Giant/Reprise. The album was released in September 1990 and the video for "No Way" ( Featuring Hollywood actress, Ally Sheedy ) was shot in November. The album was an outstanding collection of Journey-esque mid-tempo rockers, ballads and some harder rock songs in the Dokken vein. The band played out live for a while, opening for such bands as Extreme, Slaughter and Danger Danger. Then in the spring of 1991 they recorded a song for the movie "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" called 'Keep the Faith' ( the other song in the movie was 'Runnin' on Luck Again', which was taken from the bands self titled album ).
Over the next 2 years they wrote approximately 50 songs, and the band was eventually, in 1993, signed to RCA records. This is where all of the problems started. Neil Christopher was the whole band. When they got signed to RCA, Neil and the producer Richie Zito clashed from day one. Needless to say, after the band finished recording, Neil was so against what Richie had done that he decided to leave. The band subsequently changed their name to Open Skyz. This album was a more mellow recording, full of harmonies and great singing, but with a much smoother, lightweight production. The highlight of this album was the band's cover of the Supertramp classic "Give a Little Bit". Open Skyz floundered around for a few months and then was dropped by RCA due to the fact that the label hated the way the album came out. After that the band just drifted apart.
Since then, Hugo, put out his first solo recording in 1997 in Europe and Japan with enormous success in the melodic rock circles of fans with reviews like 92/100 in Burrn! in Japan, 8/10 in Frontiers magazine in the UK, 90% on the Hot Spot on the Internet, 10/10 in Hard Roxx magazine and A+ on the SFK e-zine. Hugo made his first European live appearance at THE GODS `97 prior to recording the album and then reprised his performance the following year to huge acclaim from both critics and fans alike.
For the new album,"Time On Earth", Hugo decided to record in New York, due to his commitments there and used local musicians like Teddy Rondinelli and Joey Sykes on guitars and Tom Nissen (who also co-produced the album with Hugo) on bass. Most of the keyboard parts and drums were handled by Hugo himself, while guitar wizard Vinny Burns of Ten supplied rhythm guitar throughout the album and guests on lead guitar on "I Will Be Waiting" and "Our Love Will Be There". The album was mixed at Startrack Studios, Manchester by Audu Obaje who also mixed Bob Catley`s latest album and has engineered on all of Ten`s albums. The result is quite up to every expectation as the songs are more mature and personal and easily recognizable as having the classic Hugo trademark. With a determined effort to make a classy AOR album, Hugo has finally come of age. From rockers like the opening duo of "Can`t Stop Loving You" and "Tell It To My Heart" to delicate, heart-wrenching ballads such as "Last One More Time" and the fragile "Our Love Will Be There" to pure quality such as "Anyone In Love" or the stunning title track through to the awesome cover of the Triumph classic "Magic Power", the album oozes class and AOR sensibility. What better way could there possibly be to start the new Millennium?