Supertramp

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).
Supertramp

Background information
Origin United Kingdom
Genre(s) Progressive rock
Art rock
Soft rock
Arena rock
Years active 1969-1988; 1997–present
Label(s) A&M (1970-1988)
Silver Cab (1997-present)
Website www.supertramp.com
Members
Rick Davies
John Helliwell
Bob Siebenberg
Mark Hart
Former members
Kevin Currie
Frank Farrell
Roger Hodgson
Cliff Hugo
Robert Millar
Jesse Siebenberg
Dougie Thomson
Richard Palmer
Lee Thornburg
Carl Verheyen
Tom Walsh
Dave Winthrop

Supertramp are a British art rock and pop band that had a series of top-selling albums in the 1970s.

Their early music included ambitious concept albums, but they are best known for their later, somewhat Beatlesque pop songs, including "Dreamer", "Goodbye Stranger", "Give a Little Bit" and "The Logical Song". Despite chart success, the band never attained superstardom in the UK (although they did in Canada, the United States and the rest of Europe); it was remarked at the height of their popularity that Supertramp was the best-selling group in the world whose members could walk down any street and not be recognized. [citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Members

Original members:

Members who joined the band after the departure of Palmer/Millar:

Members who joined the band later - the Lineup period:

Members who joined the band after the departure of Roger Hodgson:

  • Mark Hart - vocals, keyboards, guitars;
  • Cliff Hugo - bass guitar;
  • Lee Thornburg - background vocals, trombone, trumpet;
  • Carl Verheyen - guitars;
  • Tom Walsh - percussion, some drums;
  • Jesse Siebenberg (or C. Benberg) - background vocals, percussion

[edit] Career

Backed by a Dutch millionaire named Stanley August Miesegaes, vocalist and pianist Rick Davies (born July 22, 1944 in Swindon, Wiltshire, England) used newspaper advertising to recruit an early version of the band in 1969, an effort which brought aboard vocalist/guitarist and keyboardist Roger Hodgson (born March 21, 1950 in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England). Other members of this embryonic Supertramp group included Richard Palmer (guitar, balalaika, vocals) and Robert Millar (percussion, harmonica). Initially, Roger Hodgson sang and played bass guitar (and on the side, guitar, keyboards, cello and flageolet).

The first album Supertramp, although very interesting musically, proved a commercial disappointment. Desperate to achieve success, Davies and Hodgson changed their style and lineup for the next album. Frank Farrell (bass), Kevin Currie (percussion) and Dave Winthrop (flute and saxophone) replaced Millar and Palmer, Roger Hodgson switched to guitar and the new album Indelibly Stamped featured rocking Beatlesque tunes, a more commercial approach and eye-catching cover artwork. Supertramp had established themselves as a "cult" band. Sales, however, did not improve much, which lost them the support of Miesegaes and caused another re-shuffling of the band. Hodgson and Davies were back at square one. In fact, Supertramp briefly disbanded.

After being persuaded to carry on, Davies and Hodgson went on an extensive search for replacements to be brought aboard in Dougie Thomson (born March 24, 1951 in Glasgow, Strathclyde, Scotland) (bass), Bob Siebenberg (born October 31, 1949 in Glendale, California, USA, drums, and often credited as Bob C. Benberg), and John Helliwell (born February 15, 1945 in Todmorden, Yorkshire, England) (saxophone, other woodwinds, occasional keyboards, backing vocals), joining original members Davies and Hodgson, completing the line-up that would create the group's defining albums.

Crime of the Century, released in 1974, began the group's run of critical and commercial successes, hitting number four in Britain, supported by the top-10 single "Dreamer". Its B-side "Bloody Well Right" hit the US Top 40 in May 1975. Siebenberg would later note that he thought the band hit its artistic peak on this, their third album, though their greatest commercial success would come later.

The band continued its run with Crisis? What Crisis? (1975) and Even in the Quietest Moments (1977). During this period, the band eventually relocated to the United States and moved steadily from the progressive styles of their early albums towards a more song-oriented, pop sound.

This trend reached its zenith on their most popular album, Breakfast in America (1979), which reached Number 3 in the UK and Number 1 in the United States and spawned four successful singles, "The Logical Song", "Take the Long Way Home", "Goodbye Stranger" and "Breakfast in America". The album has since sold over 18 million copies worldwide.

The run of successes was capped with 1980s Paris, a 2-LP live album, in which the band stated its goal of improving on the studio versions of their songs. Interestingly, instead of focusing on songs from the hugely successful Breakfast in America, it included nearly every song from Crime of the Century, another testament to the importance of that album in the group's development.

Hodgson and Davies' differing singing and songwriting styles provided these albums with an interesting counterpoint, contrasting Davies' determined blues-rockers and songs of broken relationships ("Another Man's Woman", "From Now On", "Goodbye Stranger") with Hodgson's wistful introspection ("Dreamer", "School", "Fool's Overture", "The Logical Song"), but Hodgson felt constrained by the arrangement and left the band after the tour for their next album, ...Famous Last Words... (1982) which contained the Top 20 hit "It's Raining Again" and the Top 40 hit "My Kind of Lady". In an interview in the 90s, Roger stated that one of the main reasons he left the band was not so much his not getting along with Rick Davies; but his wife at the time and Rick's wife did not get along at all. It ended up causing so much tension for them and the band, he decided it would be better if he left Supertramp!

Having left the band in 1983 Hodgson immediately began a solo career, his biggest hit "Had A Dream (Sleeping With the Enemy)" coming from his first solo album In the Eye of the Storm, in 1984.

The Davies-led Supertramp soldiered on, releasing Brother Where You Bound the same year. This included a Top 30 hit single, "Cannonball", along with the title track, a 16-minute exposition on Cold War themes highlighted by guitar solos from Pink Floyd's David Gilmour; the album reached #21 on the US charts. 1987's Free as a Bird included more straightforward Davies rockers, including "I'm Beggin' You", which reached Number 1 on the US dance charts, a curious accomplishment for an "art rock" band.

After 1987's tour, Thomson left the band due to a strong disagreement with Davies about the use of Hodgson-penned songs during live performances: these songs were usually sung by Crowded House's Mark Hart (Hodgson's replacement on stage), and the Scottish bass player was firmly against this move. When Supertramp reunited in 1997, Thomson declined an invitation to return and eventually quit playing for good. According to fan web sites, he's been working as a music manager in the Chicago area.

By then, Supertramp were actually disbanded, though releasing two successful compilations in the early 1990s.

In 1993, Davies approached Hodgson in an effort to bring him back to the band, but this attempt failed. In interviews published on his and other fan forums, Hodgson later claimed he had been more than willing to rejoin Supertramp, but only if Davies's wife, Susan, abstained from interfering in band affairs. Sue Davies was A&R at A&M (in charge of welcoming the band and helping them settle) when Supertramp moved to Los Angeles in the mid-70s, and, as the romance between Davies and her blossomed, she eventually quit A&M and started managing the band herself. Having to fight two Davieses instead of one accrued to Hodgson's frustrations and misery, and ultimately prompted his departure, though whether this was due solely to her management style or competence still remains unclear. Ultimately, Davies declined to sideline his wife from his professional affairs, and Hodgson never heard from him again.

In 1997, Davies finally managed to re-form Supertramp with former members Helliwell, Siebenberg, and Hart and a bunch of new musicians. The result was Some Things Never Change, a polished effort which echoed the earlier Supertramp sound.

Early 2002 saw the release of another album, Slow Motion (album) (sold direct in North America).

Rick Davies has since left California behind and now resides in Long Island (East Hampton), less than an hour's drive from Manhattan.

In the past few years Roger Hodgson has donated Give A Little Bit to help raise funds for Tsunami Relief efforts and other worthy causes. It's been used by the Red Cross; United Way; the Make a Wish Foundation, and even The Oprah Winfrey show requested the use of Give A Little Bit as part of their ”Gift of Giving Back Program.“

2006 was a busy year for Roger Hodgson: throughout the summer of 2006, he has been touring Europe (France, Belgium, Portugal, Denmark, Switzerland, and Germany), as well as the US (St. Paul, MN) and Canada (fall 2006) and his DVD "Take The Long Way Home – Live In Montreal" has gone Platinum and to the #1 spot in Canada, in its first 7 weeks of release.

He has also been asked to mentor Canadian Idol’s Top 7 contestants, alongside Dennis DeYoung (a founding member of the group Styx (band)).

In March 2006 Roger Hodgson was honored for his song Give A Little Bit at the 23rd Annual ASCAP awards in Los Angeles. The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers gave the award in acknowledgment of the song being one of the 50 most played songs of 2005.

[edit] Trivia

  • Supertramp turned down a five million dollar offer from the Greyhound corporation to use their song "Take The Long Way Home" in bus commercials.
  • The Logical tramps (or Logicaltramp) started in 2004 to perform as a UK tribute some of Supertramp's tunes live. John Helliwell and Roger Hodgson gave glowing endorsements to this band, where seven fans joined to play their favourite music. John Helliwell even went on stage with the band one night to play. Website: www.logicaltramp.co.uk
  • The instrumental part of the song "Child of Vision" is the theme music of an extremely popular game show, "Kviskoteka", which aired in Yugoslavia throughout the 1980s and the 1990s.
  • An instrumental part of the song "Fool's Overture" was the theme music to the Canadian CTV newsmagazine program W-FIVE during the 1970s and early 1980s.
  • Bob Siebenberg used the name Bob C. Benberg as an immigration dodge in Britain, because he was there illegally.
  • "Crime Of The Century" was the theme song for "Derrick (TV series)" (a popular German Detective show in the 80s and 90s).

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

Album Cover Date of Release Title
July 1970 Supertramp
June 1971 Indelibly Stamped
September 1974 Crime of the Century
November 1975 Crisis? What Crisis?
April 1977 Even in the Quietest Moments
March 1979 Breakfast in America
October 1982 ...Famous Last Words...
May 1985 Brother Where You Bound
1987 Free as a Bird
June 3, 1997 Some Things Never Change
April 23, 2002 Slow Motion

Other Albums

[edit] Singles

  • Forever / Your Poppa Don't Mind (1971)
  • Land Ho / Summer Romance (1974)
  • Dreamer / Bloody Well Right (1974) (NL[81]#36)
  • Dreamer / You Started Laughing (1974)
  • Bloody Well Right / If Everyone Was Listening (1975) #35 US
  • Lady / You Started Laughing (When I Held You In My Arms) (1975)
  • Sister Moonshine / Ain't Nobody But Me (1976)
  • Give a Little Bit / Downstream (1977) #15 US (NL[77]#2)
  • Babaji / From Now On (1977)
  • From Now On / Dreamer (1977)
  • The Logical Song / Just Another Nervous Wreck (1979) #6 US (NL[79]#20)
  • Breakfast in America / Gone Hollywood (1979) (NL[79]#16)
  • Goodbye Stranger / Even In The Quietest Moments (1979) #15 US
  • Take the Long Way Home / Rudy (1979) #10 US
  • Take the Long Way Home / From Now On (1979)
  • Dreamer [live] / From Now On [live] (1980) #15 US
  • Breakfast In America (live) / You Started Laughing (live) (1980) #62 US
  • Dreamer (live) / You Started Laughing (live) (1980)
  • It's Raining Again / Bonnie (1982) #11 US (NL[82]#6)
  • Crazy (1983)
  • My Kind of Lady / Know Who You Are (1983) #31 US
  • Still in Love / No Inbetween (1985)
  • Cannonball / Ever Open Door (1985) #28 US (NL[85]#35)
  • Better Days / No Inbetween (1985)
  • I'm Beggin' You / No Inbetween (1987)
  • Free as a Bird / I'm Beggin' You [GBR] (1988)
  • Free as a Bird / Thing For You (1988)
  • School (Only NL[90]#33)
  • You Win, I Lose (1997)
  • Listen To Me Please (1997)

[edit] External links

Official sites
Unofficial sites
Supertramp
Rick Davies | Roger Hodgson | Bob Siebenberg | John Helliwell | Dougie Thomson
Richard Palmer
Discography
Albums: Supertramp | Indelibly Stamped | Crime of the Century | Crisis? What Crisis? | Even in the Quietest Moments | Breakfast in America | ...Famous Last Words... | Brother Where You Bound | Free as a Bird | Some Things Never Change | Slow Motion
Live albums: Paris | Live '88 | It Was The Best Of Times | Is Everybody Listening?
Compilations: The Autobiography of Supertramp | Retrospectacle - The Supertramp Anthology
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/u/p/Supertramp.html"