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THUNDER… Formed in 1989 by guitarist and songwriter Luke Morley and singer Danny Bowes, the band adopted their name from Producer Andy Taylor’s first solo album “Thunder” – Adding drummer Harry James – bassist Mark ‘Snake’ Luckhurst and guitarist/keyboard player Ben Matthews – the new band entered the studio with the Duran Duran’s guitarist producing & co-writing

 

What emerged was a latter day classic; The material drew heavily on the influences of giants such as Bad Company and the Who (to name but two), the twin guitar attack of Luke Morley and Ben Matthews allied with the rock solid rhythms of Snake and Harry were an irresistible combination

 

When you throw into the mix the amazingly talented Danny Bowes, a singer good enough to rank alongside the likes of Coverdale and Rodgers in my view, the whole package could not possibly fail, “She’s so Fine”, co-written by Taylor & Morley was the breakthrough track, & from their the album went onto become a British Rock Classic.

 

 

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GLASGOW’S ALMIGHTY was swinging between punk and hard rock… since the 1989 debut of “Blood Fire and Love”. The band tapped Andy Taylor to produce “Soul Destruction” their biggest selling album and then went on to play with Metallica at the Milton Keynes Bowl and at the Monsters of Rock festival in Donington.

Reforming in 2000 with Nick Parsons on guitar, they released the critically acclaimed “Psycho-Narco” Gav Gray on bass. Vocalist Ricky Warwick is keeping the music alive today with a solo career & handling Lead Vocals fora reformed Thin Lizzy ….

In 2005, original bassist lost his fight against Lukemia, and by popular demand the the band reformed for two benefit gigs, followed by a headline appearance at the 2006 Bulldog Bash and a hotly anticipated tour in late December 2006.

 

The Almighty anthology, “The Gospel According To” was released in February 2007.

 

 

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SHORTLY AFTER HIS DEPARTURE FROM DURAN DURAN, guitarist Andy Taylor…  more than proved his mettle with the solo album “Thunder”. pairing his incomparable hard rock roots with an unapologetic and melodic tour de force.

Songs like “I Might Lie” brought Andy’s unforgettable riffs and sought-after dual-vocal harmonies together and energized the landscape of 80s music. “Thunder” touched universally soulful depths with tracks like “Don’t Let me Die Young” and the finely-produced album is full of now-classic riffs.

With his solo debut album, Taylor built upon his now signature guitar sound laced with elegant melodies on tracks such as “Life Goes On”. For many, “Tremblin’” will always be the melancholy soundtrack for the confusion of heartbreak.

 

 

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ANDY TAYLOR WAS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE BRISTISH BAND - formed in Birmingham, UK in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven “Second British Invasion” of the United States. Since the 1980s, they have placed 14 singles in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart and 21 in the Billboard Hot 100 and have sold more than 100 million records.  The band worked with fashion designers to build a sharp and elegant image that earned them the nickname “the prettiest boys in rock.” The band’s controversial videos, which included partial nudity and suggestions of sexuality, became popular in the early 1980s on the then-new music video channel MTV. Duran Duran were among the first bands to have their videos shot by professional directors with 35 mm film movie cameras, which gave their videos a much more polished look. In 1984, the band were early innovators with video technology in their live stadium shows. Andy Taylor and Duran Duran parted ways in 2006.

 

 

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“Out of Order” sold like crazy for Roderick! It was deemed a “comeback” for Rod Stewart at the time and was a return to Rod the Rocker that many of his loyal fans had longed for. Co-written and produced by Andy Taylor of Duran Duran, “Out of Order” was hand-crafted from solid rock mixed with Rod’s signature balladeer style and storytelling.

“Lost in You” was a lead single that immediately received heavy airplay, Second up was “The Wild Horse” A strong guitar, very Faces-like tune from Taylor – You also had mega-hits “Forever Young” & “My Heart Can’t Tell Me No.” Lesser known rockers from the album are “Dynamite”, which is classic Rod. “Lethal Dose of Love” and “Almost Illegal” are more fine rockers in the traditional Rod style. Sadly, Rod has never rocked this way since “Out of Order, ” which is very good album by the standards of any Rod Stewart fan.

 

 

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Riptide is the ninth solo album by the British singer Robert Palmer, released in November 1985. It featured his hit single “Addicted to Love” which reached #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1986,[2] helped by a memorable music video. Palmer won a Grammy Award for the song in 1987.

The album also featured Palmer’s Power Station bandmates Andy Taylor and Tony Thompson providing guitar and drum services respectively. Power Station producer Bernard Edwards (from Chic) played bass and produced the album as well.

The song “I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On”, originally performed by R&B singer Cherrelle, was again covered in 2001 by Mariah Carey for her movie Glitter.

The album charted at #8 in the US and #5 in the UK. It was certified US 2 X Platinum by RIAA in March 1996 and certified UK Gold by BPI in August 1986.

 

 

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ON THE HISTORY BEHIND THE COVERS ALBUM DANGEROUS  ”It sort of one of those happy accidents”& everybody has to do a covers album at least one…

 

A very well known band had this idea to do that and they wanted me to produce the album for them, doing this selection of their favourite covers. At the very last minute they pulled out. I confronted the label – A&M, wasting my bloodytime –  ”I could do that!”  The guys that managed me at the time went into overdrive – “You can do that if youwant to, and you know how much money they are going to pay you to do it ?”  I thought great, get paid for something everyone would want to do – an album of their favourite covers, not so difficult, although I hadn’t thought about vocals for a whilr.  The reason things are so raw, was that within 3 days we were in the studio recording this thing and it was done in that sort of ‘ok, let’s rehearse them and beat the shit out of them and play them and move on and just play them as you would do if you were in high school playing a bunch of covers!’ It was done in that very short space of time and raw, real takes, minimal overdubs a totally upfront way. Its not the greatest record ever made, but was probably one of the easiest, well we all started as High School Covers Bands …

 

 

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