It bites

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It bites
General information
Genre (s) Pop rock , progressive rock
founding 1984
Website www.itbites.com
Founding members
Francis Dunnery
John Beck
Drums , vocals
 Bob Dalton
Bass , vocals
 Dick Nolan
Current occupation
Guitar, vocals
 John Mitchell
Keyboard, vocals
 John Beck
Drums, percussion, vocals
 Bob Dalton
Bass, vocals
 Lee Pomeroy
former members
singing
 Lee Knott
Howard Smith
Bass, vocals
 Nathan King

It Bites are an English rock band that play a mix of pop rock , hard rock and progressive rock .

history

As a teenager, guitarist Francis Dunnery , bassist Dick Nolan and drummer Bob Dalton had founded a band in Egremont ( Cumbria ), which from 1982 also included keyboardist John Beck and called It Bites . After an initial dissolution in 1983, Dunnery, Nolan, Beck and Dalton reunited in London in 1984; instead of replaying pieces from Level 42 , they wanted to merge progressive rock in the tradition of the 1970s with the pop of the 1980s to create something new.

A self-made demo won the band a record deal with Virgin Records , and in the wake of their successful single Calling All The Heroes (# 6 in the UK singles charts) they released their first studio record, The Big Lad In The Windmill , in 1986 . They appeared as opening act for Marillion and Robert Plant and gained a fan base as a neo-prog band with the second album Once Around The World , produced by Steve Hillage . With the third album Eat Me In St. Louis , Francis Dunnery was able to bring his preference for hard rock to the fore, and the pop production of the record by Reinhold Mack ( Queen , Electric Light Orchestra ) disturbed the prog audience (especially the artwork by Roger Dean came from), but was quite successful live performing with the Beach Boys and Jethro Tull . As a result of the quarrels resulting from this change of direction during the recording of a fourth record, Dunnery left the group in 1990 and turned to a solo career. After some experiments under the names Navajo Kiss and Sister Sarah (with singer Lee Knott) the group broke up; instead of the planned studio LP, the record company released a live recording.

The musicians then worked as studio and tour musicians for The Alan Parsons Project , Tony Banks , Ray Davies and John Wetton , before Beck and Dalton met again in 2005 at the Supergroup Kino (which released a second album in 2018 with a different line-up) and there the Guitarist John Mitchell, otherwise known as a producer and member of Arena . When an It Bites reunion was planned in 2006 , which failed because Francis Dunnery was living in the US and the rest of the band continued to live in England, Mitchell became the group's new singer and guitarist. Together with John Beck he wrote the compositions for the comeback album The Tall Ships . On the fifth studio album Map Of The Past , also composed by Mitchell / Beck, Lee Pomeroy acted as bassist, who had previously worked with Take That , Rick Wakeman and Archive , is a member of Headspace , and in 2017/18 with Yes feat. Anderson, Rabin, Wakeman and toured with Jeff Lynne`s ELO. In 2018, a 5-CD box will be released with live recordings from the late 80s and early 90s, which also includes material from the fourth album with Francis Dunnery, which was planned but never realized at the time.

Discography

Studio albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
1986 The Big Lad in the Windmill UK35 (5 weeks)
UK
1988 Once around the world UK43 (3 weeks)
UK
1989 Eat me in St. Louis UK40 (3 weeks)
UK

more publishments

  • 2008: The Tall Ships
  • 2012: Map of the Past

Compilations

  • 1990: The It Bites Album (Virgin Japan)
  • 1995: Best Of - Calling All the Heroes (EMI)
  • 2014: Whole New World. The Virgin Albums 1986-1991 (4-CD box, contains The Big Lad In The Windmill and Once Around The World each with bonus tracks, Eat Me In St. Louis and the live album Thank You And Goodnight )

Live albums

year title Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
1991 Thank you and goodnight UK59 (1 week)
UK

more publishments

  • 2003: Live in Montreux
  • 2003: Live in Tokyo (video album)
  • 2007: When The Lights Go Down
  • 2010: This is Japan
  • 2011: It Happened One Night
  • 2018: Live in London

Singles

year Title
album 		Top ranking, total weeks, awardChartsChart placements
(Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) 		Remarks
UK UK
1986 Calling All the Heroes
The Big Lad In The Windmill 		UK6 (14 weeks)
UK
Whole New World
The Big Lad In The Windmill 		UK54 (4 weeks)
UK
1987 The Old Man and the Angel
Once Around The World 		UK72 (4 weeks)
UK
1988 Kiss Like Judas
Once Around The World 		UK76 (4 weeks)
UK
1989 Still Too Young to Remember
Eat Me In St. Louis 		UK66 (3 weeks)
UK
Sister Sarah
Eat Me In St. Louis 		UK79 (3 weeks)
UK
Underneath Your Pillow
Eat Me In St. Louis 		UK81 (3 weeks)
UK
1990 Still Too Young to Remember
Eat Me In St. Louis 		UK60 (3 weeks)
UK
Re-release
Underneath Your Pillow
Eat Me In St. Louis 		UK77 (4 weeks)
UK
Re-release

more publishments

  • 1986: All in Red
  • 1988: Midnight
  • 1988: Once Around the World

Video albums

  • 2003: Live in Tokyo
  • 2011: It Happened One Night

swell

  1. ↑ a b c Chart sources: UK

Web links