Background information
Origin
England
Genre(s)
Blues-rock
Hard
rock
Arena
rock
Years active
1973
- 1982
1986
- 2002
Label(s)
Swan Song Records
Associated
acts
Free
Mott the Hoople
King
Crimson
The Firm
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Website
http://www.badcompany.com
Members
Paul
Rodgers
Dave
Colwell
Simon
Kirke
Jaz Lochrie
Former members
Boz
Burrell (deceased)
Mick
Ralphs
Brian Howe
Steve Price
Felix Krish
Robert Hart
Rick Wills
Mark Wolfe
Bad Company were an English blues rock
supergroup founded in 1973, consisting of
band members from Free (Paul
Rodgers, Simon Kirke), Mott
the Hoople (Mick Ralphs) and King
Crimson (Boz Burrell). Bad Company was
managed by Peter Grant, who had
also guided Led Zeppelin to massive
success, the band enjoyed great success throughout the 1970s.
|
Contents
- 1 History
- 1.1 The
original Paul Rodgers era (1973–1982)
- 1.2 The
Brian Howe era (1986–1994)
- 1.3 The
Robert Hart era (1995–1997)
- 1.4 The
second Paul Rodgers era (1998–2002)
- 2 Personnel
- 2.1 Current
line-up
- 2.2 Former
members
- 3 Discography
- 4 Compilations
featuring Bad Company
- 5 External
links
|
History
The original Paul Rodgers era
(1973–1982)
Singer Paul Rodgers was so enamored
of the film Bad Company that he chose to
name his band after it.[1]
The film was also purportedly the inspiration for the band's eponymous
album and breakthrough single.
The 1974 debut album Bad
Company was an international hit, with the group considered one of the
1970s' first supergroups. 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 King
Crimson's bassist Boz Burrell. The group was
managed by Peter Grant who also
managed Led Zeppelin at the time and
would manage Bad Company until 1982. The album peaked at #1 on Billboard's
Pop Albums chart (North America) and included two
singles that reached the top 20 charts, "Can't Get
Enough" at #9 in 1974 and "Movin' On" at #14 in early 1975. In 1975, Straight Shooter gave the
group another #1 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. The album
also spawned three hit singles, "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" at #30, the
slower "Feel Like Makin' Love" at #10 and Shooting Star.
With Paul Kossoff in better health
again in 1975, he was delighted that now ex-Free
colleagues, Paul Rodgers and Simon
Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights in late
1975 with them playing "All Right Now" the super hit from Free's
third album. A British tour was set to begin on 25 April 1976 with Back
Street Crawler Paul Kossoff's band
headlining with Bad Company in support of the new album Run
With the Pack and Back Street Crawler's second
album, but again as with his later years in Free,
Paul Kossoff drug addictions contributed to a drastic
decline in the guitarist's health and on a flight from Los
Angeles to New
York on March
19, 1976,
Paul Kossoff died from drug-related heart
problems at the age of 25.
Run With the Pack
was Bad Company's first Platinum certified album. The third consecutive
million-selling record, reaching #5 on the Billboard
chart and featured the hit "Young Blood" that peaked at #29 on the Pop
charts. In the 1970s Bad Company never released an official live
album, even though they recorded some of the concerts, and are famous
for their live shows packing largest stadiums for almost a decade. Bootlegs
were the only way to find live songs from the shows, sound quality was
for the most part poor. The most famous are, Boblingen Live: (1974),
Live in Japan: (1975), Shooting Star Live
at the L.A. Forum: (1975). Not until the release of Live in Albuquerque 1976
in 2006 thirty years after it was recorded did the band release an
official live album of 1970's recordings. The recordings were made by Mick
Ralphs, who regularly taped the group's shows, utilizing them as a tool
to finely tune their set and performances. Not only is the sound
quality excellent but almost all the hit songs from the band's first
three albums appear on the live CD.
1977's Burnin' Sky
fared the poorest of the first four albums, peaked at a disappointing
#12, and was the worst selling Bad Company album to date. The album did
have one hit: the album's title song Burnin'
Sky that reached #18 on the Pop charts. 1979's Desolation
Angels fared better than its predecessor and
gave the band their first Top 5 Platinum selling album since 1976's
album Run With the Pack. Desolation
Angels embellished the group's sound with synthesizers
and strings. the album reaching #3 on the Billboard
charts and again had two hit singles "Rock 'n' Roll Fantasy" at #12
and, "Gone Gone Gone" at #44.
A three-year hiatus from the studio ended with the release of Rough
Diamonds in 1982. This would be the sixth and final LP in the group's
original incarnation
until four new songs were recorded in 1998. The album was the worst
selling Bad Company album of those that had Paul
Rodgers as the front man. The album peaked at #29; it yielded
one hit, "Electricland", that reached #10 on the newly created
Mainstream Rock Charts.
By the end of the 1970s the band were increasingly
disenchanted with playing large stadiums. In addition, Peter Grant lost
interest in the group, and in management generally, after Led
Zeppelin drummer John Bonham died in 1980. In the words
of Simon
Kirke, "Peter was definitely the glue which held us all
together and in his absence we came apart". (Reportedly, Paul
Rodgers—who has a black belt in martial
arts—was involved in a rather one-sided physical altercation with Boz
Burrell and Mick Ralphs.) After the release of Rough
Diamonds they 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". [2]
The Brian Howe era (1986–1994)
Image:Badcompany123.jpg
Bad Company 1989
In 1986, Ralphs and Kirke
decided to re-form Bad Company, but Rodgers
was engaged with a new supergroup called The
Firm. So the remaining three members hired ex-Ted Nugent
vocalist Brian Howe as the new
lead singer, Steve Price as the new Bass player and Greg Dechert on
keyboards. . Howe's vocal style brought more of a pop-rock sound to the
band, as opposed to Rodgers' more bluesy sound. The band hired Foreigner
producer Keith Olsen to produce the new lineup's initial album, 1986's Fame
and Fortune. The band also switched labels to Atco
Records. Reflecting the musical style of the mid-80s, the album was
laden with keyboards, unlike previous Bad Company albums, and was only
modestly commercially successful.
Burrell rejoined the band for the Fame and Fortune tour
supporting Deep Purple, but left midway through the tour and was
replaced by Steve Price for the next 5 years. Greg Dechert left the
band in 1987.
For the next Howe-era album, 1988's Dangerous
Age, the band replaced Olsen with producer Terry Thomas, who got rid of
most of the keyboards and returned the band to a guitar-driven sound. Dangerous
Age fared better than its predecessor, spawning several videos and the
hit "No Smoke Without A Fire". After the Dangerous Age tour during
which the band travelled separately from Howe as they could no longer
tolerate his behaviour, they set about finding a replacement for him.
However Howe , hoping to launch a solo career was unable to secure a
record deal and eventually the band was forced to allow him back as a
result of pressure to produce a new album from outside influences
Steve Price left the band in 1992 and was replaced by Felix
Krish in the studio and Paul Cullen live.. The band's next album,
1990's Holy
Water, also produced by Thomas, was enormously successful both
critically and commercially, attaining platinum status by selling more
than one million copies. The album sparked the hits "If You Needed
Somebody" and the title track "Holy Water." The album received
significant radio airplay and spawned several video hits. Mick
Ralphs sat out for most of the Holy Water tour, although he did perform
on the album.
The final studio album of the Howe era, 1992's Here
Comes Trouble featured the hits "How About That" and the title track
"Here Comes Trouble." Before touring in support of Here
Comes Trouble, the band officially expanded to a quintet, adding ex-Foreigner
bassist Rick Wills and rhythm guitarist
Dave "Bucket" Colwell, a protégé of Ralphs. The band recorded a live
album, What
You Hear Is What You Get: The Best of Bad Company on the Here
Comes Trouble tour. The album featured live versions of hits from both
the Rodgers and Howe eras of the band.
Howe left the band after the release of the live album. In
all, Bad Company's Howe-fronted lineup sold 19 million albums, with
most of the songs co-written by Howe and Thomas. Regarding his
departure from the band, Howe stated: "Leaving Bad Company was not a
difficult decision, it had got to the point where nobody was
contributing anything to songwriting and quite frankly the band was
getting very very sloppy live. I quite simply, along with Terry Thomas,
got tired of doing all the work and then get nothing but resentment for
it from Mick and Simon." [3]
Howe released a solo album, Tangled in Blue,
which did not fare well commercially. He continues to tour while his
relationship with his ex-bandmates, namely Kirke and Ralphs, remains
acrimonious. They claim he promotes his shows as Bad Company shows by
using the promo line "BAD COMPANY former lead singer Brian Howe."
The Robert Hart era (1995–1997)
After Howe's departure, the remaining foursome hired ex-Distance
vocalist Robert Hart to take over lead vocal duties. Hart's bluesy
vocal style reminded many of Rodgers. The new lineup released Company
of Strangers in 1995 and Stories Told & Untold
in 1996. The latter album contains re-recordings of seven of Bad
Company's biggest hits ("told" stories), and seven
previously-unreleased songs ("untold" stories). While neither album
were huge sellers, in retrospect many critics and fans consider them
the finest works of the band's long career.
The second Paul Rodgers era
(1998–2002)
During his absence from Bad Company, Rodgers
was involved in many projects. His solo album, Cut
Loose, was released in 1983, and A
Tribute album to Muddy Waters hit record store shelves in 1992. He
would also participate in two band-projects: The
Firm, with Jimmy Page of Led
Zeppelin fame and, The Law with Ex-The Who
drummer Kenny
Jones.
In 1998, Rodgers and Kirke
were discussing that the band should release 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 Bad Company's first number one
hit in 20 years with "Hey Hey". The second new song "Hammer of Love"
peaked at #2 and the band also scored a surprise hit when it
re-released "Deal with the Preacher," which first appeared on the album
Straight Shooter in 1975.
The new tracks appeared on the 1999 compilation album called The Original Bad
Company Anthology. Bad Company toured with Paul
Rodgers for only 30 dates in the U.S.; the tour drew sellout crowds.
Paul Rodgers, "The Voice" (as
the media called him since his days in Free),
again rejoined his life long friend Kirke
in 2001, for
Bad Company's Merchants of Cool
tour that kicked off in the U.S,
and then moved to the U.K.
The sellout tour produced the band's first DVD/CD
also called "Merchants of Cool" that features
the song "Joe Fabulous," which hit #1 on Classic
Rock Radio
and the top 20 on Mainstream Rock Radio in the U.S. in its debut week
in 2002. The Merchants of Cool tour featured Kirke
and Rodgers
asthe only original members left by this time as Boz
Burrell and Mick Ralphs (who has always had a fear
of flying) had retired from touring. Dave
Colwell previously second guitarist in the post-Paul
Rodgers era of Bad Company, took lead guitar, and Jaz
Lochrie was on bass. Guest performers at the shows
included former Guns N' Roses axeman Slash
and Neal
Schon of Journey fame.
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 70s and 80s.
Paul Rodgers, 56 years old in
2006, was still 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 April
28, 2006,
they released a live DVD
from their collaboration 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 ct 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 September
21, 2006, aged 60, at his home in Spain.
On the 6th of May 2007 Robert Hart, Dave "Bucket" Colwell and
Jaz Lochrie performed a small pub show for charity. Performing as Rock
and Roll Fantasy they offered a show of Bad Company songs for an
audience of just a few hundred. Harry James of Thunder hit the drums.
Personnel
Current line-up
- Robert Hart - Vocals
- Simon Kirk - Drums
- Mick Ralphs - Guitar
- Dave Colwell - Guitar
- Jaz Lochrie - Bass
Former members
- Paul Rodgers - lead vocals, piano, guitar (1973-1982, 1998,
2001)
- Brian Howe - lead vocals (1986-1995)
- Boz Burrell - bass (1973-1986, 1998)
- Steve Price - bass (1986-1992)
- Greg Dechert - Keyboards (1986-1988)
- Felix Krish - bass (1992-1993)
- Rick Wills - bass (1993-1995, 2001)
- Dave Colwell - guitar (1993-2002)
- Robert Hart - lead vocals (1995-1997)
- Jaz Lochrie - bass (2000-2002)
- Mark Wolfe - guitar, keyboards (2000-2002)
Discography
- Bad Company
(1974)
- Straight Shooter
(1975)
- Run With the Pack
(1976)
- Burnin' Sky
(1977)
- Desolation Angels
(1979)
- Rough Diamonds
(1982)
- 10 from 6 (1985
compilation)
- Fame and Fortune
(1986)
- Dangerous Age
(1988)
- Holy Water (1990)
- Here Comes Trouble
(1992)
- What
You Hear Is What You Get: The Best of Bad Company
(1993 live album)
- Company of Strangers
(1995)
- Stories Told & Untold
(1996)
- The Original Bad
Company Anthology (1999 compilation)
- Merchants of Cool
(2002 live CD/DVD)
- Inside Bad Company
1974-1982 DVD (2005)
- Bad Company 24k-gold
(remastered, 2006)
Compilations featuring Bad
Company
- Highs Of The 70's, Vol I -
2006
- Harley-Davidson: Ride - 2005
- Friday Night Lights - 2004
- Wonderland
- 2003
- Casey
Kasem Presents America's Top Ten: The... - 2003
- Hot Guitar Licks:
Guitar Rock - 2002
- Rock This - 2002
- You Will Be Rocked! - 2001
- Rolling
Stone Presents Classic Rock - 2001
- Instant Party: '70s
Rockadelic - 2001
- Rock Giants Vol. 1 - 1999
- Hard Rock Cafe: Party
Classics - 1998
- Harley Davidson
Road Songs Vol. 1 - 1998
- All Out Rock - 1998
- The
Greatest Rock: All-Time Classics Vol. 1 - 1998
- The
Greatest Rock: All-Time Classic Vol. 2 - 1998
- Chronicles of Rock - 1998
- Island
40th Anniversary Vol. 4: Electric Current - 1998
- Easyriders, Vol. 4 - 1998
- Stud Rock: Wild Ride - 1998
- Stud Rock: Rock Me - 1998
- Stud Rock: Heart Breakers
- 1998
- 70's Hot Rock - 1998
- Feel The Buzz - No Pain -
1998
- Rock
The Planet: 70's Super Groups 1- 1998
- 70s Hit(s) Back - 1998
- The Number One's:
Classic Rock - 1998
- Chart
Toppers: Rock Hits Of The 70's - 1998
- The Rock Album Volume 2 -
1997
- Easyriders - 1997
- Hard Rock Cafe: Classic
Rock - 1997
- Power Chords: Volume 2 - 1997
- Feel Like Makin'
Love: Romantic.. - 1997
- The Power Of Rock - 1997
- G.I.
Jane - 1997
- The
Ultimate Rock 'N' Roll Collection - 1996
- Only Rock'N Roll
1975-1979: #1 Radio Hits - 1996
- Frat Rock: More Of The
'70s - 1995
- 18 Screamers From The
70's - 1995
- Harley-Davidson.. - 1994
- 18 Rock Classics - 1994
- Harley-Davidson: Road
Songs - 1994
- Hard Love - 1994
- Surf Ninjas - 1993
- Wayne's World 2 - 1993
- The
Martell Foundation--The Ultimate Rock Album - 1992
- Atlantic Rock & Roll -
1991
- Guitar Rock Time-Life - 1990
- Best of Guitar Rock
Time-Life - 1989
- Guitar
Rock Super Groups Time-Life - 1989
- Best of Arena Rock - 1989
External links
| v • d • e Bad
Company |
| Paul Rodgers • Mick
Ralphs • Boz
Burrell • Simon
Kirke |
| Brian Howe • Robert
Hart • Steve Price • Felix Krish • Rick Wills • Dave Colwell • Jaz
Lochrie • Mark Wolfe |
| Discography |
| Studio albums: Bad
Company • Straight Shooter
• Run With the Pack
• Burnin' Sky • Desolation
Angels • Rough
Diamonds • Fame
and Fortune • Dangerous
Age • Holy Water
• Here Comes Trouble
• Company of Strangers
• Stories Told & Untold
• Merchants of Cool |
| Live albums: What
You Hear Is What You Get • Live in Albuquerque 1976 |
| Films and videos: Merchants
of Cool • Inside Bad Company
1974-1982 |
| Compilation albums: 10 from 6
• The Original Bad
Company Anthology • Merchants
of Cool |
