Max Bacon (musician)

Max Bacon is a British rock singer. He became the general public primarily as a singer of the AOR - supergroup GTR known, but was also frontman of the less popular bands Moby Dick , Nightwing and Bronz .

Early years with heavy metal bands (1981–1985)

Moby Dick was a British heavy metal band that existed from 1981 to 1983. It consisted of the brothers Andrew and Gregg Evans (both guitar ) and Chris ( electric bass ) and Gary Steele ( drums ), as well as the singer Bacon. She released an EP called Can't Have My Body Tonight in 1982 .

Nightwing were a London heavy metal band that released six studio albums and one live album between 1980 and 1996. Bacon can be heard on Stand Up And Be Counted (1983) and My Kingdom Come (1984, produced by Genesis and GTR guitarist Steve Hackett ).

Bronz was also an English heavy metal band. Max Bacon can be heard on all releases ( Taken By Storm (1984), Unfinished Business (2001) and Live - Getting Higher (2003)).

GTR (1985-1987)

At the beginning of 1985 Steve Hackett and ex- Yes and ex- Asia guitarist Steve Howe brought him to their newly founded AOR supergroup GTR. With GTR he recorded a successful first album called GTR , which was produced by Howe's former Asian colleague Geoff Downes . The album achieved gold status in the USA, the first single "When The Heart Rules The Mind" just missed a top 10 position in the US Billboard charts. A subsequent USA tour through smaller halls was also a success.

Tensions in the band led to Steve Hackett leaving GTR in late 1986 to continue his solo career. Attempts to continue GTR without him failed, so that the original line-up of the band finally broke up. Howe and Bacon then tried to revive the band with new members (from October 1986 to October 1987): among others, the singer and guitarist Robert Berry came for Hackett . But Bacon didn't want to share the vocal work and Howe struggled with Berry's very American songwriting style. Berry then left the band, which soon broke up completely. In the meantime a second album had been recorded, again with Downes as producer, but this has not been released to this day, as there is disagreement between the musicians involved as to who the tapes belong to.

Over the years, however, songs from the second album have appeared again and again - on albums by Steve Howe. Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman, Howe (ABWH), Steve Hackett, Robert Berry, Asia and on Max Bacon's album The Higher You Climb .

Phenomena (1986)

After GTR ended, Bacon was hired by co-producer / manager Wilfried F. Rimensberger for the all-star rock project Phenomena . He recorded several tracks for the Phenomena II (1986) "Dreamrunner" album. The album was particularly popular in Germany , Scandinavia , Japan and South America ; other singers were Ray Gillen , Glenn Hughes and John Wetton .

Solo and collaboration with other musicians (since 1986)

After a failed attempt at reunification by the band Asia with singer / bassist John Wetton , keyboardist Geoff Downes, drummer Michael Sturgis and guitarist Scott Gorham (ex- Thin Lizzy ), Downes, Sturgis and Gorham teamed up with Phil Spalding , the former GTR bassist, and Max Bacon got together to write songs for a project called Rain , which never came to fruition. Also involved was the songwriter Johnny Warman and from the beginning of 1988 the singer and bassist John Payne , whom Downes had met through Spalding. Rain tracks were released on albums by Asia, Downes and Bacon, some years later: During these sessions, the songs Boys From Diamond City were created (still left over from the previous attempt to restart Asia, and by Wetton, and later by both Bacon and Payne), Who Can Stop The Rain , Someday , Tears (In My Eyes) and Moon Under Water (both Bacon and Payne) and The Higher You Climb (initially sung by Bacon, for one version which appeared on his solo album of the same name, then sung by Payne), which later appeared on Bacon's solo album From The Banks Of The River Irwell . Take No Prisoners from the same album probably also belonged to the Rain era.

Bacon's first solo album The Higher You Climb was released in 1996 and was dominated by mainstream pop rock. In addition to the Asian song The Higher You Climb with No One Else To Blame and Hungry Warrior, it contained two GTR pieces that were intended for a second album by this band, which, however, never came about. On The Higher You Climb Also all GTR band members find as playing instruments, Phil Spalding and Nigel Glockler by the second GTR occupation.

Bacon's later contacts with the GTR musicians also included guitarist Steve Howe, on whose album Portraits Of Bob Dylan (1999) he sang the Dylan song Going, Going, Gone . He can also be heard on Mike Oldfield's albums Islands (1987) and Earth Moving (1989) (the former was produced by GTR producer and Geoff Downes).

In 2002 Bacon's second solo album From The Banks Of The River Irwell was released . Six of the pieces on this album were from the collaboration with Downes in the Rain project in 1987/88, and musical contributions by Scott Gorham, Mike Oldfield, Michael Sturgis and Phil Spalding can be heard.

Discography

solo

• The Higher You Climb (1996)
• From The Banks Of The River Irwell (2002)

With Moby Dick

• Can't Have My Body Tonight (7 "EP. (Ebon 5))

With Nightwing

• Stand Up And Be Counted (1983)
• My Kingdom Come (1984)

With bronze

• Taken By Storm (1984)
• Send Down An Angel (single, 1984)
• Unfinished Business (2001)
• Live - Getting Higher (2003)

With GTR

• GTR (1986)