Bad Company |
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Wed. July 28.1999 3:00 AM EDT |
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Bad Company's Simon Kirkeby Frank Tortorici |
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Hard-rockers Bad Company are trying to stage a comeback. ( ) |
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Bad Company, the hard rockers who achieved massive success as the first band signed
to Led Zeppelin's Swan Song Records in the early '70s, are staging a comeback. Original drummer Simon Kirke kept the band's name alive in the mid-'80s and
Kirke was born 50 years ago today in Shrewsbury, England. He initially achieved fame in the hard-rock band Free, best known for its 1970 hit "All Right Now," which still gets a great deal of radio airplay. Also in Free was lead singer Rodgers, who decided to form a new band with Kirke when Free split in 1973. The pair added former Mott the Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and former King Crimson member Burrell to form Bad Company in England in 1973. The new group's chances for success looked good, given the members' pedigrees and their label association with Led Zeppelin, then the most successful rock band in the business. Nevertheless, the enormous popularity of Bad Company's 1974 eponymous debut was startling. The album, full of potent meat-and-potatoes rockers highlighted by Rodgers' sultry growl, yielded the global smash #1 hit "Can't Get Enough" and made the band almost as popular as its mentors, Led Zeppelin. Other radio favorites on the LP included the title track, "Rock Steady," "Movin' On" and "Ready for Love." The following year's Straight Shooter was just as successful, spawning the top-10 "Feel Like Makin' Love" (RealAudio excerpt) and the popular "Good Lovin' Gone Bad" and "Shooting Star." Run With the Pack (1976) was the band's third album to hit the platinum mark. By the time of Burning Sky (1977), which was less successful commercially and critically, Bad Company had come under attack from music scribes for the allegedly misogynist lyrics of some of their songs, as well as their increasingly repetitive music. Just when it seemed they wouldn't recover, Bad Company had a huge hit with "Rock and Roll Fantasy" from 1979's Desolation Angels. After a hiatus, Bad Company returned in 1982 with Rough Diamonds, disbanding shortly after its release. Rodgers went on to form the short-lived Firm with Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page as Kirke and Ralphs assembled a new Bad Company. Brian Howe, who had played with Ted Nugent, became their lead singer. The new Bad Company were also successful, their biggest hit being "If You Needed Somebody" from 1990's platinum Holy Water. Their 1992 LP, Here Comes Trouble, also went platinum. In 1993 Bad Company added bassist Rick Wills and guitarist Dave Colwell, and issued a live retrospective album. After 1995's The Company of Strangers and 1996's Stories Told and Untold, Kirke and Ralphs began meeting again with Rodgers and Burrell to plan the re-release of their catalogue and this year's The Original Bad Company Anthology. These get-togethers spawned a tour, now in progress. The bill also features ex-Van Halen singer David Lee Roth. The band is touring as the "Original" Bad Company because of an ongoing legal fight with Howe, who left the group in 1994. Kirke and the band's lawyers maintain that Howe bills himself as Bad Company, violating a written agreement with the band not to do so. Howe's manager said in April that Howe has never willingly violated the agreement, blaming any confusion on individual promoters. He also accused Kirke and Ralphs of professional jealousy in pursuing trademark-infringement lawsuits against Howe. Rodgers held the original rights to the band's name, leaving its use to the discretion of Warner Bros., the parent company of the group's label, Elektra, when he left the group. Rodgers called the band's new retrospective the "soundtrack of people's lives." "It's very gratifying," he said. "People come up to us all the time and say, 'Our first baby was conceived to "Feel Like Makin' Love" in the back of a Chevy.' " Anthology's four new songs were written last year by the reunited band. The titles are "Hammer of Love," "Ain't it Good," "Tracking Down a Runaway" and "Hey, Hey." Other birthdays: George Cummings (Dr. Hook), 61; Rick Wright (Pink Floyd), 54; Johnathan Edwards, 53; Peter Doyle (New Seekers), 50; Rachel Sweet, 37; Tex Axile (Transvision Vamp), 34; and Steve Peregrine Took (Tyrannosaurus Rex), 1949-1980. |
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