Brian Howe (singer)
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Brian Howe is a British rock singer and songwriter best known for replacing Paul Rodgers as the lead vocalist of the rock group Bad Company. Howe's career was jump-started in 1983 when Ted Nugent recruited him to handle lead vocals for Nugent's "Penetrator" album and front its subsequent world tour.
In 1986, drummer Simon Kirke and guitarist Mick Ralphs recruited Howe to replace Paul Rodgers as the lead singer of Bad Company.
Howe's first album with Bad Company was Fame and Fortune in 1986. Next came Dangerous Age in 1988, Holy Water in 1990, and Here Comes Trouble in 1992. His last Bad Company album was the 1993 live CD What You Hear Is What You Get: The Best of Bad Company, which was recorded on the Here Comes Trouble tour.
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[edit] History
In the early eighties, Brian Howe had a brief stint with the NWOBHM group White Spirit, having replaced their recently-departed singer Bruce Ruff. However, the group quickly collapsed, and Howe never even recorded an album with the group (though demos from this era are available on the 2CD remaster of the White Spirit album.)
In 1986, Ralphs and Kirke decided to re-form Bad Company, but Rodgers was engaged with a new supergroup called The Firm So the remaining two members hired Howe as the new lead singer, Greg Dechert on Keyboards and Steve Price on Bass. Howe’s vocal style brought more of a pop-rock sound to the band, as opposed to Rodgers’ more bluesy sound. The band hired Foreigner producer Keith Olsen to produce the new lineup’s initial album, 1986’s Fame and Fortune. The band also switched labels to Atco Records. Reflecting the musical style of the mid-80s, the album was laden with keyboards, unlike previous Bad Company albums, and was only modestly commercially successful.
Boz Burrell, the original bass player joined the band at the start of a tour with Deep Purple but was soon replaced by Steve Price again for the next 5 years.
For the next Howe-era album, 1988’s Dangerous Age, the band replaced Olsen with producer Terry Thomas, who got rid of most of the keyboards and returned the band to a guitar-driven sound. Dangerous Age fared better than its predecessor, spawning several videos and the hit "No Smoke Without A Fire".
The band's next album, 1990’s Holy Water, also produced by Thomas, was enormously successful both critically and commercially, attaining platinum status by selling more than one million copies. The album sparked the hits "If You Needed Somebody" and the title track "Holy Water." The album received significant radio airplay and spawned several video hits. Mick Ralphs sat out for most of the Holy Water tour, although he did perform on the album.
The final studio album of the Howe era, 1992’s Here Comes Trouble featured the hits "How About That" and the title track "Here Comes Trouble." Before touring in support of Here Comes Trouble, the band officially expanded to a quintet, adding ex-Foreigner bassist Rick Wills and rhythm guitarist Dave "Bucket" Colwell, a protégé of Ralphs. The band recorded a live album, What You Hear Is What You Get: The Best of Bad Company on the Here Comes Trouble tour. The album featured live versions of hits from both the Rodgers and Howe eras of the band.
Howe left the band after the release of the live album, having written and sold 19 million albums in the late 80s and early 90s. Most of the songs on the four Howe-era studio albums were co-written by Howe and producer Terry Thomas and for the first time in many years they were back selling millions of records and selling out tours. On his departure, Howe stated: "Leaving Bad Company was not a difficult decision. It had got to the point where nobody was contributing anything to songwriting and quite frankly the band was getting very very sloppy live. I quite simply, along with Terry Thomas, got tired of doing all the work and then get nothing but resentment for it from Mick and Simon."[1]
Howe released his first solo album, Tangled in Blue, in 1997 on Touchwood Records. The album was re-released under the name Touch in 2003 on MTM Music and Publishing; this version contained one song not featured on Tangled in Blue. Howe continues to tour billed as "BAD COMPANY former lead singer Brian Howe." His relationship with his ex-bandmates, namely Kirke and Ralphs, has remained acrimonious. Brian is still selling out most of his shows though which feature all the hit songs of Bad Company.
His current line-up is as follows:
Brian Howe - Lead Vocals
Dean Aicher - Guitar / Vocals
Miguel Gonzalez (bassist) - Bass / Vocals
Ricky Sanders (drummer) - Drums
On May 10, 2008 the group played at a small venue in Winchester, VA (USA) called the Sportsplex with roughly 400 people in attendance. According to Howe and Aicher's websites no other tour dates are immediately scheduled.
[edit] Discography
- Penetrator (1983)
- Fame and Fortune (1986)
- Dangerous Age (1988)
- Holy Water (1990)
- Here Comes Trouble (1992)
- What You Hear Is What You Get: The Best of Bad Company (1993) (live)
[edit] Solo
- Touch (2003)
[edit] Singles
- No Smoke Without A Fire (1988)
- Holy Water (1990)
- If You Needed Somebody (1990)
- How About That (1992)
[edit] External links
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