Doors 7pm

20 YEARS & OUT - THE FAREWELL TOUR

English hard rock band Thunder originally formed in 1989 from the ashes of Terraplane (Bowe’s and Morley’s previous band). The initial line up of Thunder consisted of members Danny Bowes (vocals), Luke Morley (guitar), Gary James (drums), Mark ‘Snake’ Luckhurst (bass), and Ben Matthews (guitar/keyboard).

Thunder signed to EMI in 1989 and released their debut full-length record soon afterwards. ‘Back Street Symphony’ was a huge success in the UK and led to the band securing a slot at the prestigious Monsters of Rock festival in 1990.

The band’s sophomore ‘Laughing On Judgement Day’ was released in 1992. This was quite a turbulent time for the band as the emerging grunge scene was altering the hard rock landscape. Also, at this point in the band’s career, Snake left the group and was replaced by Swedish bassist Mikael Hoglund.

‘Behind Closed Doors’, Thunder’s third album, was their last on the EMI label. They parted company with the label with a compilation ‘Their Finest Hour...and a Bit’ which featured several previously unreleased tracks.

Due to personal reasons bassist Mikael Hoglund was unable to participate in the recording of the band’s fourth album ‘The Thrill Of It All’ so Luke Morley stepped in to handle the bass duties. Thunder also recruited bassist Chris Childs for their tour, who remains with the band to this day. ‘The Thrill Of It All’ was released on the independent label B Lucky Records.

1998 saw the release of ‘Live’, which featured a full recording of the live performances at Wolverhampton and Sheffield’s Bush Empire in London.

The band’s fifth album ‘Giving The Game Away’ saw its release in 1999 and sees the band take on a much more mellower approach favouring keyboards over guitar. The album was released to coincide with the band’s tenth anniversary, however they announced that they would be splitting up towards the end of 1999, which was a huge blow to their fan base. Following a UK tour in November 1999, Thunder disbanded in May 2000 with a last performance at Camden Dingwalls in London, which was recorded for the album ‘They Think It’s All Over...It Is Now’.

In 2001 Luke Morley released his debut solo album ‘El Gringo Retro’ and in 2002 Morley and Bowes reunited for the soul-influenced album ‘Moving Swiftly Along’.

In 2003 Thunder reunited, tempted by an offering to perform as part of the UK Monsters of Rock tour and released their ‘Shooting At The Sun’ album on their own label STC Recordings. Thunder’s second self-released album ‘The Magnificent Seventh’ spawned the hit single ‘I Love You More Than Rock and Roll’ that reached number 27 in the UK singles chart.

2006 saw the release of ‘Robert Johnson’s Tombstone’, Thunder’s eighth studio album which is filled with some great honest blues-rock tracks.

Thunder released their ninth studio album ‘Bang!’ in the UK on 3rd November 2008 through their own STC label. Whilst writing the album they released three limited edition EP’s.

Thunder announced that they would be disbanding on 28th January 2009 via their website. The band cited outside interests as the reasons for the split, with members of the band playing in other bands when not touring with Thunder. The band will tour until summer 2009 and will perform a British farewell tour in July 2009. They have also expressed a desire to play some goodbye festival dates.