I was much sad when i heard that this tour would be their last, turns out they done a Farnham and just do spot gigs now instead of major tours...but fear not, I shan't sue them like that wally tried to do to John Farnham for stress and telling fibs.
One of my great musical disappointment's has been, not being able to take Deb to a Thunder gig...
I got to see them at the Town & Country club in Blighty back when Snake was playing bass for them, so I lucked out, BUT, they aint shy in producing concert dvds , so I got most of them and Deb and moi, sit down on occasion and rock out to the lads.
.{mental note to self: start Sophi on her Thunder addiction)..
{Thunder , when I first saw them}
Anyway, this is the last gig on the British wide tour that marked the end of the entity known as Thunder...
I can imagine quite a few people were bummed at the announcement, as was I, so those lucky few thousand who got into the HammerBangSmith Odeodoo, for the final show , must of been feeling the grouse.
And the boys pulled no punches, they hit the stage running and pretty much stayed there for the next 2 hours, of course they couldnt play everybodys fave tunes, shit, they would still be there...
but they played a damn fine selection....form all ends of the history of the band.....SO...here's to Danny, Luke, bennie, "Arry and Chris ...much thanks gents, heres to a brighter future...YOU ROCK
Running time: 122 mins (main show).....Extras - Tour Montage (with exploding head) and a Photo Gallery.
For a band that has done their "farewell "tour, the Thunder boys are remarkably busy...BUT..BIG F**KiNG DEAL, HUH?....
I first heard they were gonna do wacken last year and wondered if some clever lad will have dvds of the gig and sure enough there are ...so I bought one...and its a bloody cracker
The boys got the big stage at, what looks like 3 or 4 in the avo, whenever time it was, the suns up and its cooking all kinds of headbanging europeans standing in the WackenDome watching Danny and the boys.
Now, I dunno if Thunder are not suited for Wacken or the crowd are unfamliar with 'em and hungoverbut the crowd dont seem that into it...I may be wrong of course.
Anyway, I like 'em and its a cracking gig ,,,so if you can find the dvd , get it, its a ripper....speaking of a farewell tour...I better finish the dvd review of that gig too, huh?
WHAT..no picture of 'Arry !....bugger! HOLY SNAPPING DUCK BOG...LOOK ITS THE GIG ....your welcome...;)
I can categorically state , without fear nor favor that Jim Keays was one of Aussie rocks greatest frontmen...and its only fair that he get a Reck'nRoll send off
I was well into the Masters Apprentices...they were one of my first aussie faves...they were loud, hairy, soulful and they could write a tune and they recorded at Abbey Road, good enough for me then.,...anyway to Keaysie... Ive had the great , good fortune to see Jim a couple of times..The Concert of the Decade, The Countdown Reunion and Ted Mulrys Benefit Gig ( with a reformed Masters, which was very fkn cool INDEED....
ITS BECAUSE I LOVE YOU
Jim helped kick off garage rock in Australia, and then helped transform the Masters Apprentices into one of the best pop and rock bands of the 1960s and ‘70s, has joined Rock'n'Rolls Helluva Band
. Keays, who was 67, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma seven years ago but released an album of modern garage rock in 2012, recently recorded another album and continued touring with two of his '60s contemporaries, Darryl Cotton and Russell Morris as Cotton Keays and Morris.
TURN UP YOUR RADIO
He died at 10.30 in the morning from pneumonia related to the multiple myeloma ( a type of blood cancer). He had been admitted to intensive care of The Alfred Hospital in Melbourne a FEW of weeks ago when the illness got serious but it was thought that he was on "the road to recovery".
The singer with the shock of long hair and the nasally voice that was all vim and vinegar became the frontman of Adelaide instrumental band the Mustangs in early 1965 and they transformed themselves into the raw, rhythm-and-blues outfit the Masters Apprentices.
5:10 MAN
Taking their cues from the likes of the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones and the Pretty Things, the Masters Apprentices took American blues, added snotty attitude and within a year went from placing third in the Adelaide heat of Hoadley’s National Battle Of The Sounds to releasing one of the classic underground Australian singles, Undecided/War or Hands Of Time.
Although they’d started as a R&B combo in 1965 along the lines of other seminal Australian bands such as the Loved Ones, the Missing Links and the Purple Hearts, by the end of the decade, the Masters had travelled from punkish rock to pop to psychedelia and then onto a kind of compressed progressive rock on their landmark 1971 album Choice Cuts.
That album, which was recorded in the Abbey Road studios, just missed the top 10 in Australia and earned excellent reviews in the UK, now is recognised as the equal of anything released around the world that year. Keays was one of the mainstays of the band as it went through several traumatic line-up changes, including gaining future manager and impresario Glenn Wheatley on bass and losing original writer Mick Bower. Wheatley, who was to be the power behind the rise of John Farnham a decade later, described Keays as "the consummate showman".
ELEVATOR DRIVER
"Jim had an aura about him: you always knew when he was in the room," said Wheatley. “Always the Master, never the Apprentice.” As a sign of Keays' importance and influence, rather than end the band, the loss of Bower gave Keays an opportunity to step up as a writer in the Master’s Apprentices with new guitarist Doug Ford. It was this pairing which was responsible for hits such as 5-10 Man, Turn Up Your Radio and the quintessential Australian rock ballad, Because I Love You.
While the band split in 1972 as their advanced but ignored album A Toast To Panama Red failed to chart, Keays never stopped performing or being excited by music. His vitality and passion for music saw him rock to the very end He leaves behind his partner, Karin and three children, Holly, Bonnie and James. Much love and respect brother...have a beer with Doc for us will ya ;)
As you might of guessed by now ...I'm a HUGE fan of classic pommy rock acts..Ive paid homage to Zep, Sabbath, Purple, Slade, Preist, Saxon, Maiden etc etc ...and now its Bad Co turn...I can actually remember seeing Free on tv in aussie, the song eludes me but it wasnt yesterday after all....then in a issue of RAM magazine, I read a story about Paul Rodgers newest band and being the inquisitive bloke that i am ...
I probably waited a couple of months but i found a copy of their first album, and that was me hooked, on the original line up anyway, cant say with any honesty I heard much of 'em after the original line up imploded....ANYWAY, a few years ago I was in Sanity records and stumbled on the Official Bad Co Anthology c.d box set...and it came home with me....then I found Paul Rodgers fronting Queen...but thats a whole other blog.....here is the Bad Co history
Formed in 1973, the British hard rock outfit Bad Company was a supergroup comprised of ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell, former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs, and singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke, both previous members of Free. Powered by Rodgers' muscular vocals and Ralphs' blues-based guitar work, Bad Company was the first group signed to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song vanity label. Bad Company's eponymous 1974 debut was an international hit, topping the U.S. album charts and scoring with the number one single "Can't Get Enough of Your Love Many of their singles, such as "Bad Company", "Can't Get Enough", "Good Lovin' Gone Bad", and "Feel Like Makin' Love", remain popular with rockers of both the past and present, and their hits remain staples of classic rock radio.
There was a rumor that singer Paul Rodgers was so enamored with the Jeff Bridges film Bad Company that he chose to name his band after it, but Rodgers, in an interview with Spinner.com, explained that the idea came from a book of Victorian morals that showed a picture of an innocent kid looking up at an unsavory character leaning against a lamppost. The caption read "beware of bad company
Bad Company consisted of four seasoned musicians: two former members of Free, singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke; former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs; and ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell.
Straight Shooter, issued the following year, was another major success, notching the hit "Feel Like Makin' Love," while 1976's Run With the Pack was Bad Company's third consecutive million-selling record. After 1977's Burnin' Sky, Bad Company recorded 1979's Desolation Angels, which embellished the group's sound with synthesizers and strings; a three-year hiatus followed before the release of Rough Diamonds, the group's final LP in its original incarnation.
After the release of Rough Diamonds, Bad Company disbanded. Mick Ralphs said, "Paul wanted a break and truthfully we all needed to stop. Bad Company had become bigger than us all and to continue would have destroyed someone or something. From a business standpoint, it was the wrong thing to do, but Paul's instinct was absolutely right".
Despite being famous for their live shows packing the largest stadiums for almost a decade, Bad Company did not release an official live album of performances from this time period until the 2006 album Live in Albuquerque 1976. The recordings were made by Mick Ralphs, who regularly taped the group's shows and utilized the tapes to critique the band's performances. Bootlegs of Bad Company's live performances from this period were also available, including "Boblingen Live" (1974), "Live in Japan" (1975) and "Shooting Star Live at the L.A. Forum" (1975).
In 1985 Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke, having just worked together the previous year on Ralphs' solo album Take This, decided to reteam for a new project. But in 1986, their label, Atlantic Records, insisted they resume the Bad Company name. Unfortunately, Paul Rodgers was already engaged with a new supergroup called The Firm. With Rodgers gone, the remaining two members partnered with ex-Ted Nugent vocalist Brian Howe as the new lead singer. In addition, they hired Steve Price as the new bass player and Greg Dechert (ex-Uriah Heep) on keyboards. Howe's vocal style brought more of a pop-rock sound to the band, which Atlantic Records, looking to bring the band back up to arena status, was looking for after declining turnouts to previous live performances and the dismal sales of Rough Diamonds.
The band hired Foreigner producer Keith Olsen to produce the new lineup's as name checked on the Fame and Fortune album, even though he didn't play on it. But just before the supporting tour, he left once again (Steve Price then returned). Among the subsequent projects Burrell was involved with was a nine-piece Jazz outfit called The Tam White Band.
In 1986, Ralphs and Kirke resurrected the Bad Company name, enlisting former Ted Nugent vocalist Brian Howe to replace Rodgers. The reconfigured unit's debut, Fame & Fortune, was a commercial failure, but 1988's Dangerous Age became a minor hit. Released in 1990, Holy Water fared even better, as the power ballad "If You Needed Somebody" became a Top 20 success. Here Comes Trouble, issued in 1992, achieved platinum status, and earned another Top 40 hit with "How About That." On their 20th anniversary, Bad Company expanded into a quintet with the addition of bassist Rick Wills and rhythm guitarist Dave Colwell, and released the live retrospective The Best of Bad Company Live...What You Hear Is What You Get..... Two more LPs -- 1995's The Company of Strangers and the next year's Stories Told and Untold -- followed, and in 1998 the original lineup of Rodgers, Ralphs, Kirke, and Burrell reunited to record a handful of new tracks that surfaced alongside past material early the following year on The Original Bad Company Anthology. A reunion tour followed that spring.
After Howe's departure, the remaining foursome hired ex-Distance vocalist Robert Hart to take over lead vocal duties. Unlike Howe (who had a different style and a higher range), Hart was closer in voice and an imitator of Rodgers. Hart became very popular with both the band and public alike, especially in the US and Canada. In July 1994 a contract was drawn up by Alliance Artists and Legend Management and signed by the then Bad Company line up: Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke, Hart, Dave Colwell and Rick Wills, giving Hart the right to perform write and record songs and albums and receive royalty payments as a full Bad Company member. With Hart, who bore an uncanny vocal similarity to Paul Rodgers, the new lineup released Company of Strangers in June 1995 which came out on EastWest Records and peaked at No. 159 on the Album charts. It produced the AOR hit "Down And Dirty" (#17).
The band then undertook a lengthy promotional tour of the US with Bon Jovi. Stories Told & Untold was released in October 1996 and bombed commercially. Stories contained re-recordings of seven of Bad Company's biggest hits ("told" stories), and seven new songs ("untold" stories). Many of these were recorded in Nashville and featured guest appearances by country stars such as Vince Gill. For their 1996 tour, the Bad Company lineup was: Kirke, Hart, Rick Wills and Dave "Bucket" Colwell. Ralphs sat out this tour due to health issues.
On 4 December 1995 the four original members of Bad Company had come together for the first time in thirteen years to attend the funeral of their former manager, Peter Grant. This would be a precursor of things to come. In 1998 Rodgers and Kirke were discussing release of an extensive compilation album with a biography and pictures for the fans. Rodgers decided the album should include four new songs. He finally reunited with the other three original members in the studio to record these four new tracks. The reunion was short, but it produced a Top 20 AOR hit with "Hey Hey" (#15). The second new song "Hammer of Love" peaked at No. 23. The new tracks appeared on the compilation album called The Original Bad Company Anthology released in March 1999, which only charted at No. 189. Many fans were displeased with the track listing which left off many favourites, although a number of rare tracks did appear. The reunited original foursome toured in the summer of '99 for only 30 dates in the US. The shows drew well, but after that, Ralphs announced he was retiring from live performing and Burrell left again as well bringing the reunion to an end. In the 2014 Bad Company 40th Anniversary DVD documentary, Kirke elaborates further on the end of the 1999 reunion, stating that he and Rodgers did not wish to continue on since he and Rodgers were sober and the other two were not.
Paul Rodgers again rejoined Kirke in 2001 for a tour that kicked off in the US and included co-headlining dates with Styx and Billy Squier as special guest. Wills and Colwell took over for the departed Ralphs and Burrell. The tour did decent business then moved to the UK. The band secured some dates on the West Coast of the US to record a new live album and DVD, Merchants of Cool, recorded by Chris Mickle, Bud Martin & Justin Peacock and which featured the song "Joe Fabulous", which hit No. 1 on radio and the top 20 on Mainstream Rock Radio in the US in its debut week. The Merchants of Cool promotional tour in 2002 once again featured Kirke and Rodgers as the only original members left. Colwell again took lead guitar and Jaz Lochrie, who had played live and recorded with Paul Rodgers from 1995 on, was on bass. Guest performers at the shows included former Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash and Neal Schon of Journey fame. After the 2002 tour, Bad Company went inactive once again as Rodgers returned to his solo career.
In 2005 a DVD called Inside Bad Company 1974–1982 was released that reviews Bad Company on stage, on film and on record. It also interviews Simon Kirke and has some live recordings from the 1970s and 1980s. This was an unauthorized release. In 2005 Paul Rodgers began touring and playing Bad Company songs with Queen. It was stated, including on Brian May's own website, "that Rodgers would be featured with Queen as: Queen + Paul Rodgers, not replacing the late Freddie Mercury". The CD and DVD of their collaboration was released in 2005 called Return of the Champions with songs by Queen, Bad Company and Free. On 28 April 2006 they released a live DVD from their show in Tokyo called Super Live in Japan. There are many bootlegs from nearly every show of the 2005 and 2006 tours in audio, as well as a few in video form. In 2006 a limited edition CD of 24 carat gold was released of the first Bad Company album (Bad Company). After taking over a year to find the original master tapes, the analog masters were put through a proprietary analog-to-digital converter that remastered the songs for the best possible sound. Boz Burrell died of a heart attack on 21 September 2006, aged 60, at his home in Spain. On 6 May 2007 Robert Hart, Dave "Bucket" Colwell and Jaz Lochrie performed in a small pub in Surbiton for The Macmillan Cancer Trust. Performing as Rock and Roll Fantasy, they offered a show of Bad Company songs for an audience of just a few hundred. They were joined by Mick Ralphs. Chris Grainger was the drummer. In 2008 "Mick Ralphs' Bad Company" toured in the following formation: Robert Hart, Mick Ralphs, Dave "Bucket" Colwell, Jaz Lochrie, Gary "Harry" James. On 2 July 2008 it was announced that the original remaining line-up of Bad Company would do a one-off gig at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida on 8 August 2008. For this show, the surviving three were joined by Howard Leese (guitar, formerly of Heart) and bassist Lynn Sorenson. According to Paul Rodgers, they did this gig in order to "protect the legacy they have built and cement the rights to the trademark Bad Company for touring." The live performance was released on Blu-ray, DVD, and CD on 9 February 2010 and the tracks include 17 Bad Company hits. Rodgers dedicated "Gone, Gone, Gone" to original bassist Boz Burrell, who died in 2006. Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke (again joined by Leese and Sorenson) performed together again during the summer of 2009 playing 10 shows throughout the United States. The band then played shows in the UK during April 2010 before embarking on tours through North America and Japan that lasted from July to October. Mick Ralphs was forced to pull out of the Japan dates, as he was undergoing hip replacement surgery. Leese handled lead guitar for the Japanese tour. After this, Rodgers had said that at the moment "there will be no further plans for Bad Company", explaining that he was working on solo material, however he hadn't ruled out more activities from the band. Speaking to The Times Record, he said: "We aren't saying never – we never want to say never. We aren't putting Bad Company to bed, as they say, but the band definitely is something that will be placed onto the back burner." In March 2011 a budget live release Extended Versions was issued, taken from the band's UK tour in 2010. The CD debuted at No. 139 on Billboard's Top 200 Albums Chart and featured 10 selections, and climbed as high as No. 84 on the chart. This is the first Bad Company album to chart in 12 years. In March 2012 it was announced that Bad Company would be performing a short run of European festival dates beginning 9 June at the Sweden Rock Festival in Solvesborg. This would mark the first time in 37 years the band had performed in the European continent, outside the U.K. However, it was announced in May that the German festival dates were cancelled but that the Sweden Rock Festival show was still on. In March 2013 Bad Company and Lynyrd Skynyrd announced a joint 40th Anniversary Tour commemorating the 40th anniversary of Skynyrd's first album release and Bad Company's formation. Todd Ronning, from Rodgers' solo band, took over bass at this point, playing alongside second guitarist Howard Leese, who was celebrating his fifth year with the band. On 10 June 2013 Bad Company appeared on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, kicking off their commemorative tour to enthusiastic crowds from coast to coast throughout the United States and Canada. A Paul Rodgers fronted Bad Company once again is joining Lynyrd Skynyrd for tour in 2014.
Current members
Paul Rodgers – lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, harmonica (1973–1982, 1998-1999, 2001-2002, 2008–present)
G'day, Growing up, we had our fair share of Beatles vinyl about the house, hell, my aunty, it is alledged, jigged school and went to the Sydney Town hall where the mop tops were being given the key to the city or something...ANYWAY....I've lept an interest in what the lads from Liverpool did after the BeatleMan ia era subsided (to a degree anyway) ...I got some of John and Georges solo work. got a Ringo hits c.d ...BUT...I got a few of Macca's Wings releases...matter of fact, I've replaced Band on the Run and Red Rose Speedway a couple of times in various formats...I do enjoy meself some Wings on occasion...
Wings formed in 1971 by Paul and Linda McCartney, session drummer Denny Seiwell, and former Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine. Like all great "solo acts", Paul had frequent personnel changes, going through three lead guitarists and four drummers. However, the core trio of the McCartneys and Laine remained intact throughout the group's history
Following his second solo album, Ram, in 1971, ex-Beatle Paul McCartney and his wife, Linda, formed Wings, which was intended to be a full-fledged recording and touring band. Denny Laine, a former guitarist for the Moody Blues, and drummer Denny Seiwell filled out the lineup and Wings released their first album, Wild Life, in December 1971. Wild Life was greeted with poor reviews and was a relative flop.
McCartney and Wings, which now featured former Grease Band guitarist Henry McCullough, spent 1972 as a working band, releasing three singles -- the protest tune "Give Ireland Back to the Irish," the reggae-fied "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the hard-rocking "Hi Hi Hi" -- in England. Red Rose Speedway followed in the spring of 1973, and while it received weak reviews, it became his second American number one album.
Later in 1973, Wings embarked on their first British tour, at the conclusion of which McCullough and Seiwell left the band. Prior to their departure, McCartney's theme to the James Bond movie Live and Let Die became a Top Ten hit in the U.S. and U.K.
That summer, the remaining Wings proceeded to record a new album in Nigeria. Released late in 1973, Band on the Run was McCartney's best-reviewed album to date and his most successful, spending four weeks at the top of the U.S. charts and eventually going triple platinum.
Venus and Mars Following the success of Band on the Run, McCartney formed a new version of Wings with guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton. The new lineup was showcased on the 1974 British single "Junior's Farm" and the 1975 hit album Venus and Mars. Wings at the Speed of Sound followed in 1976, and it was the first Wings record to feature songwriting contributions by the other band members.
The album became a monster success on the basis of two McCartney songs, "Silly Love Songs" and "Let 'Em In." Wings supported the album with their first international tour, which broke many attendance records and was captured on the live triple album Wings Over America (1976). After the tour was completed, Wings rested a bit during 1977, as McCartney released an instrumental version of Ram under the name Thrillington and produced Laine's solo album, Holly Days.
Later that year, Wings released "Mull of Kintyre," which became the biggest-selling British single of all time (at the time of its release), selling well over two million copies. In 1978 Wings followed "Mull of Kintyre" with London Town, which became another platinum record. After its release, McCulloch left the band to join the re-formed Small Faces, and Wings released Back to the Egg in 1979.
Though the record went platinum, it failed to produce any big hits. Early in 1980, McCartney was arrested for marijuana possession at the beginning of a Japanese tour; he was imprisoned for ten days and then released, without any charges being pressed. Wings embarked on a British tour in the spring of 1980 before McCartney recorded McCartney II, which was a one-man-band effort like his solo debut.
The following year, Laine left Wings because McCartney didn't want to tour in the wake of John Lennon's assassination; in doing so, he effectively broke up Wings, which quietly disbanded as McCartney entered the studio later that year with Beatles producer George Martin to make his 1982 album Tug of War.
Later in 1978, lead guitarist Laurence Juber and drummer Steve Holley joined the band, restoring Wings to touring strength. In 1979, McCartney signed a new record contract, leaving Capitol, the company he had been with since he was a Beatle, in the US and Canada and joining Columbia Records, while remaining with Parlophone in the rest of the world. Influenced by the punk and New Wave scenes,
Wings abandoned its mellow touch and hired Chris Thomas to help in the production process. The result was a somewhat less polished sound. This new version of Wings released the disco-oriented single "Goodnight Tonight", backed by "Daytime Nighttime Suffering", which reached the top 5 in both the US and UK.
However, the subsequent album Back to the Egg was not favourably received by critics and although it went platinum in the US, sales were disappointing in comparison to its immediate predecessors. It contained the Grammy-winning song "Rockestra Theme", the result of an October 1978 superstar session with members of Wings, The Who, Led Zeppelin, and Pink Floyd, among others. Two singles were culled from the album, but both performed poorly on the charts. During much of 1979, Wings were inactive as McCartney worked on a new solo album (McCartney II) without the band.
In November and December 1979, Wings toured the UK, once again adding the horns and brass section consisting of Tony Dorsey, Howie Casey, Thaddeus Richard, and Steve Howard. This tour climaxed with a massive "Rockestra" all-star collection of musicians in London in aid of UNICEF and Kampuchean refugees. Also during this tour, a live version of the McCartney II track "Coming Up" was recorded in Glasgow and became Wings' sixth US number one hit the following year. In January 1980, McCartney was arrested for possession of 7.7 ounces of marijuana upon arriving at New Tokyo Airport for Wings' concert tour of Japan. The tour was cancelled and the band, except Linda, returned to England. McCartney spent ten days in jail before being released and deported.
After returning to England, McCartney decided to release his solo album McCartney II and plans for an autumn US tour were dropped. Meanwhile, Denny Laine released the single "Japanese Tears" and formed the short-lived Denny Laine Band with Steve Holley and released a solo album Japanese Tears that December.
In October 1980, McCartney began work on his next album, Tug of War, with Beatles producer George Martin. For this album, Martin and McCartney decided to record with a variety of guest musicians instead of Wings. Wings reconvened in January 1981 to work on the Cold Cuts album of previously unreleased songs, and Denny Laine continued to participate in the Tug of War recording sessions in Montserrat in February, but on 27 April 1981, Laine announced he was leaving Wings due to McCartney's reluctance to tour in the wake of John Lennon's murder.
In March 1997 Laine, Juber and Holley did an impromptu "Wings" reunion at a Beatlefest convention in East Rutherford, New Jersey. This was not a planned event, and no further reunions were intended. However, ten years later, in July 2007, Laine, Juber and Seiwell reunited for one show at a Beatlefest convention in Las Vegas. Among other songs, they performed "Band on the Run", "Mull of Kintyre" and "Go Now".
SO, there you go the history of Wings...hope you dug it.
