Fastway

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Fastway
General information
Genre (s) Hard rock
founding 1982
Founding members
Dave King (until 1988)
"Fast" Eddie Clarke († 2018)
Pete Way (until 1983)
Jerry Shirley (until 1985)
Current occupation
singing
 Toby Jepson (since 2007)
guitar
 "Fast" Eddie Clarke († 2018)
bass
 John McManus (since 2007)
Drums
 Steve Strange (since 2007)
former members
Vocals, guitar
 Lea Hart (from 1988)
singing
 John Harbinson (2007)
Guitar, keyboard
Shane Carroll (1985-1986)
bass
 Mick Feat (1983)
bass
 Alfie Angus (1983)
bass
 Charlie McCracken (1984)
bass
 Paul Reid (1985-1986)
bass
 Neil Murray (1988-1989)
bass
 Paul Gray (1989)
bass
 Nibs Carter (1990)
bass
 KB Bren (1990-1992)
bass
 Raymond Haller (2007)
Keyboard
 Don Airey (1988-1989)
Keyboard
 Toby Sadler (1990)
Drums
 Alan Connor (1985-1987)
Drums
 Gary Ferguson (1988-1989)
Drums
 Steven Clarke (1989)
Drums
 Nigel Glockler (1990)
Drums
 Riff Raff (1990-1992)

Fastway are a British hard rock band that celebrated their greatest successes in the 1980s. The band was started by former Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke together with UFO bassist Pete Way . The lead singer was the current flogging Molly frontman Dave King .

history

Fastway was founded in 1982 by former Motörhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke and ex- UFO bassist Pete Way. The two held their first auditions with The Clash drummer Topper Headon before they found a permanent member in ex- Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley. The then unknown Dave King joined the band as a singer.

The lawyers from Chrysalis Records quickly made Pete Way's attention to the fact that he was still contractually bound to them and therefore could not just release songs with a new band on a new label. For this reason, session bass player Mick Feat was featured on the Fastway debut. Way was also not mentioned in the album credits. The album received good reviews, not least because of the style reminiscent of Led Zeppelin .

For the tour activities, Clarke hired Alfie Angus as a substitute bass player. In 1983 Fastway toured America as supporting act for Iron Maiden and Saxon . The song Say What You Will received massive airplay from radio stations and MTV, which made the album climb to number 31 in the charts. The debut album eventually sold over 500,000 copies in the US alone.

The second album All Fired Up was again produced by Eddie Kramer, this time with session bassist Charlie McCracken. Only half as many units were sold as from the debut album, although Fastway toured America again with well-known bands such as the Scorpions , Ratt , Billy Squier and Rush . The band broke up in the meantime, but in 1986 another album was released with Waiting for the Roar . The same year the band toured the UK supporting AC / DC .

In 1987, Fastway wrote the soundtrack for the horror film Ragman , in which Kiss bassist Gene Simmons played a radio DJ and Ozzy Osbourne played a television preacher. Fastway toured Ireland with the latter in early 1988. In the same year singer Dave King left the band. A little later he founded the group Katmandu with the former crocus , Asia and Cobra guitarist Mandy Meyer , which released their first and only album in 1990. Today he sings with the Irish folk punk band Flogging Molly .

His replacement at Fastway was Lea Hart. To record the next album, Clarke recruited ex- Whitesnake and Black Sabbath bassists Neil Murray as well as ex- Gary Moore drummer Gary Ferguson and ex- Rainbow keyboardist Don Airey . For the concerts of On Target , the band hired drummer Steve Clarke and bassist Paul Gray . The follow-up album Bad Bad Girls was mostly recorded single-handedly by Eddie Clarke and Lea Hart. As a session musician was the Saxon -Rhythmussektion consisting engaged from Schlagwerker Nigel Glockler and bass Nibs Carter; Keyboard player was Toby Sadler. After the recordings, the band was restructured again. Bassist KB Bren and drummer Riff Raff were newcomers. In 1992 Fastway finally broke up.

In 1998 Receiver Records released the album On Target Reworked, which, in addition to newly recorded songs from the 1988 album, also contained earlier songs with the vocals of Lea Hart.

In February 2007 Fastway announced their participation in the Sweden Rock Festival. In addition to Eddie Clarke, Stormzone singer John Harbinson, bassist Raymond Haller and drummer Steve Strange were named as members of the band. A few weeks later, a change in vocals and bass was announced on the group's website. Former Little Angels singer Toby Jepson joined the band for Harbison and Mama's Boys bassist John McManus for Haller . With this line-up, Fastway completed several major festivals in Europe in the summer, including the Fields of Rock Festival in the Netherlands , the Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium , the Download Festival in Donington Park in England and the Wacken Open Air in Northern Germany . At the already mentioned Sweden Rock Festival Motörhead also performed, which Fast Eddie supported in a spontaneous reunion for some songs as a second guitarist.

Discography

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Albums
Fastway
  UK 43 04/30/1983 (2 weeks)
  US 31 05/28/1983 (32 weeks)
All fired up
  US 59 07/21/1984 (14 weeks)
Trick or Treat
  US 156 11/22/1986 (12 weeks)
On target
  US 135 04/22/1989 (10 weeks)
Singles
Easy livin '
  UK 74 04/02/1983 (1 week)

Studio albums

  • 1983: Fastway
  • 1984: All Fired Up
  • 1986: Waiting for the Roar
  • 1987: Trick or Treat
  • 1988: On Target
  • 1990: Bad Bad Girls
  • 1998: On Target Reworked (newly recorded On Target songs plus newly recorded older material)
  • 2011: Eat Dog Eat

Live albums and compilations

  • 1991: Say What You Will (Live)
  • 2000: The Collection (compilation)

Singles and EPs

  • 1983: We Become One
  • 1983: Easy Livin '
  • 1984: All Fired Up
  • 1984: The Stranger
  • 1986: The World Waits for You
  • 1988: A Fine Line
  • 1990: I've Had Enough
  • 1990: Bad Bad Girls

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b US singles: Joel Whitburn's Top Pop Singles 1955-2006. Billboard Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-89820-172-1 / US albums: The Billboard Albums by Joel Whitburn , 6th Edition, Record Research 2006, ISBN 0-89820-166-7
  2. ↑ a b British Hit Singles & Albums , 18th Edition, Guinness World Records Limited 2005, ISBN 9781904994008