Alcatrazz

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Alcatrazz is a heavy metal band formed in 1983 in Los Angeles by Gary Shea, Jimmy Waldo and Graham Bonnet.

The band's initial line-up consisted of Graham Bonnet (lead vocals), Yngwie Malmsteen (guitar), Gary Shea (bass), Jimmy Waldo (keyboards, vocals) and Jan Uvena (drums, vocals). Their material was written by Waldo, Malmsteen and Bonnet. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz".

After recording the first two albums, creative differences between Malmsteen and Bonnet surfaced while on tour. Due to this and his admitted desire to begin a solo career, Malmsteen quit in 1985. Waldo replaced Malmsteen with Steve Vai despite resistance from Bonnet, and the band signed with Capitol Records. After recording the album Disturbing The Peace, Steve Vai left in order to join David Lee Roth's solo band. He was replaced by guitarist Danny Johnson, who recorded what would become Alcatrazz's final studio album, "Dangerous Games", which was released in 1986. Shortly afterwards, Johnson also quit to join the band Private Life. Disheartened by an ever revolving door of guitarists, Bonnet's refusal to work with outside songwriters and dwindling album sales, they split up in 1987. Alcatrazz remains as one of the most influential hard rock bands of the 80s and maintains a huge following worldwide.

Celebrating the 25th anniversary of the band, Stoneworks is releasing "AWOL in Hollywood" and "Live in Tokyo" through worldwide digital services such as iTunes, Napster and SnoCap as well as a MySpace page [1]. Bonnet has split from the original members and is playing club shows in Japan as "Alcatrazz featuring Graham Bonnet" using a small group of young musicians and a CD player playing keyboard parts.

Arguably their most famous song is Island In the Sun written by Jimmy Waldo while in the highly successful group New England.

God Bless Video appeared in the 2002 videogame soundtrack Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, playing on Rock station "V-Rock", a fictional radio station in the video games Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories.

The original Alcatrazz has posted this announcement on their MySpace site for their Japanese fans:

日本のファンの皆様へ

我々の元シンガーグラハム・ボネットと彼のバンドが"アルカトラズ”の名前で来日して演奏会が予定されています。日本のファンはこの新しいアルカトラズのバンドメンバーについてメールで問合せをしてきました。混乱を解決します。我々がオリジナルのアルカトラズのメンバーです。我々はグラハムとは何の関係もなくグラハムのバンドの構成メンバーではありません。

我々は才能のあるよい友達のグラハム・ボネットが成功することを望んでいます。我々は日本のファンが彼のショーを楽しんでくれるのを希望します。我々は新曲を作曲中で新アルバムをリリースする予定です。我々は近々日本のすばらしい友達とファンに演奏できることを望んでいます。

オリジナルのアルカトラズ

[edit] Discography

Album Cover	Date of Release	Title	Label	Chart positions	US sales
	1983	No Parole from Rock N' Roll	Rocshire	Weeks on Chart: 7, Peak: #128
	1984	Live Sentence	Rocshire	Weeks on Chart: 16, Peak: #145
	1985	Disturbing the Peace	Capitol	Weeks on Chart: 7, Peak: #133
	1986	Dangerous Games	Capitol