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Sunday Old School: Thunder

By the time the nineties reared its head, metal music had evolved significantly from the blooming genre it was twenty years previously. It had been commercialised as glam metal, deified by thrash metal and taken to the extreme by the emerging death and black metal sub genres. But not everyone had shrugged off or forgotten about the roots of metal, which were firmly in the blues. There was one band who decided to put the blues back into metal and hard rock, who went by the suitably striking name of, Thunder.

The origins of the band date well back to 1975, when guitarist Luke Morley and singer Danny Bowes met at college and formed a band called Nuthin' Fancy, who released an independent single, "Looking For a Good Time," before changing their name to Terraplane. It was after adopting this new moniker that they found some relative success, releasing two albums and performing at the 1982 Reading festival. However, in time, 1989 to be exact, the band decided to rename themselves to their familiar alias, Thunder and in that same year, inked a record deal with EMI after impressing with a demo audtion.

Early the next year, the group released their debut album, "Backstreet Symphony," which proved to be quite successful, eventually reaching Silver status and spawning two top 30 singles in the title track and, "Love Walked In," while they also released a video for their cover of, "Gimme Some Lovin'" It performed well enough to earn the band a slot at the 1990 edition of the Monsters of Rock festival alongside such acts as Whitesnake and Aerosmith.

Following on from this, Thunder faired even better with their 1992 sophomore full length, "Laughing on Judgement Day," which reached as high as number 2 in the British album charts. The record also saw the group continue their success in the singles department, with all four cuts from the album reaching the top 40 at home, while the album as a whole received some very good reviews from the music press. In the meantime however, bassist Mark "Snake" Luckhurst decided to leave the band and was replaced by Swedish native, Mikael Höglund.

Höglund made his recording debut with the band on their 1995 album, "Behind Closed Doors," which was received warmly by critics and fans but failed to match the commercial success of its predecessor, reaching number 5 on the UK albums chart while the singles from the record were not particularly big, though they all crept into the top 40. The bassist was unable to stay for personal reasons however and so Luke Morley handled bass duties on their next album, "The Thrill of it All," released through the independent label, B Lucky. It wasn't particularly well received by the press but was a moderate commercial success, peaking at number 14 in their home country.

Following the release of "The Thrill of it All," Thunder recruited a new bassist, Chris Childs and hit the road, recording their first live album, simply entitled, "Live," at the famous Shepherd's Bush Empire, as well as some other recordings from a show in Wolverhampton, before their fifth album, "Giving the Game Away," hit the shelves in 1999. Shortly after the record was released, the band announced that they had decided to call it a day and focus on other projects, with short tours of the UK and Japan planned, resulting in the live albums, "Open the Window, Close the Door" and "They Think It's All Over... It Is Now," the latter taking it's name from a famous line spoken in the 1966 World Cup final which saw England claim their only tournament win.

Their time away wasn't to be for long, as in 2002, Thunder returned for the Monsters of Rock arena tour, before releasing their sixth album, "Shooting at the Sun" through their own label, STC Recordings. Three years later, another new album, "The Magnificent Seventh," was released, which contained a top 30 single in, "I Love You More Than Rock and Roll." They were once again added to the returning Monsters of Rock bill, this time a one time only show in Milton Keynes along with Deep Purple, Alice Cooper and Queensryche, amongst others, as well embarking on their own headline run of the United Kingdom.

It was also in 2006 that Thunder's eighth album, "Robert Johnson's Tombstone" was released and performed quite well commercially, cracking the British top 40 and producing another successful single, this time for, "The Devil Made Me Do It," which featured a popular animated music video. They then hit the road for their first headlining tour of Europe in over eleven years, before embarking on another tour, opening for Def Leppard and Whitesnake. This was followed by their ninth studio album, "Bang!" which earned some very good reviews, but was succeeded by the announcement that Thunder once again planned to lay the name to rest after their touring obligations had been fulfilled, citing the numerous sources of stress that went with being in the band.

Just as before, Thunder's dissolution proved to be temporary, as in 2011, the band got back together initially for a one off performance at the High Voltage festival, alongside the likes of Dream Theater, before announcing that they would be performing a Christmas show the next year at the Manchester Academy, before supporting Whitesnake once more, this time being joined on the trek by Journey. Thunder has since gone on to perform at numerous festivals in Europe and in February of this year, released, "Wonder Days," their first album in seven years, which reached number 9 in the UK albums chart, proving once again, that there's no school like the old school.

Thunder - "Gimme Some Lovin'"

Thunder - "Dirty Love"

Thunder - "Low Life in High Places"

Thunder - "River of Pain"

Thunder - "Don't Wait For Me"

Thunder - "I Love You More Than Rock 'n' Roll"

Thunder - "The Devil Made Me Do It"