1977. The release was produced by Bob Gallo and was accompanied by a single with two tracks from the LP. The A-side of the single featured a punk-rock deconstruction of the Cyrkle's sixties hit "Red Rubber Ball". The LP also included a cover of the Max Frost & The Troopers' "Shape of Things to Come" done in a similar style, along with eight original tunes written by the band. It was domestically released in Europe and Australia, however it was overlooked in the US and UK, where it was import only. The Diodes were featured in the January 9, 1978 issue of Maclean's, on the cover and included in the article "The Class of '78: Introducing the New Elite". They were touted as the Canadians "we'll soon be talking about". Others included in this elite group included Wayne Gretzky and Conrad Black. On January 20, 1978 they opened for the Ramones and Runaways at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago to an encore. The band also toured the U.S. east coast during the blizzard of 1978; performing in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In 1979 the Diodes released their second Bob Gallo produced LP, on Epic Records in Canada, after a year of delays. Ironically titled Released, after the band's internal problems with the label, it again opened with the track "Red Rubber Ball". This was due to the song getting US airplay on the American CBS compilation album Permanent Wave. It was followed by nine original tracks, including the highly regarded single, "Tired of Waking Up Tired", which also got UK domestic release. Unlike the band's debut album, which was exported heavily to the United States by Jem and other record importers, Released was not widely distributed in US record stores and the band seemed to disappear in the minds of many of their fans outside of Canada. 1980 saw the release of the Diodes' third album, Action/Reaction on the independent label Orient Records, distributed by RCA. It was produced by Ian Gunther and Willi Morrison. The band performed concerts in Los Angeles supported by The Circle Jerks and Agent Orange. They also played in San Francisco. The year was rounded off by a cross Canada tour with U2, Ultravox, Gary Numan and Split Enz. In 1981, John Catto and Paul Robinson moved to London, England to launch a short-lived version of The Diodes with a new rhythm