The tubes

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The tubes
The Tubes live in Oslo 1977
The Tubes live in Oslo 1977
General information
Genre (s) Rock , Progressive Rock and New Wave
founding 1969/70
Founding members
Fairy waybill
Guitar , vocals
 Bill Spooner
Roger Steen
Prairie Prince
Michael Cotten
Vince Welnick † June 2, 2006
Rick Anderson
Current occupation
Fairy waybill
Roger Steen
Prairie Prince
Rick Anderson
David Medd
former members
piano
 Vince Welnick † June 2, 2006
guitar
 Bill Spooner
Drums
 Trey Sabatelli
piano
 Gary Cambra
synthesizer
 Michael Cotten
Bob Mcintosh
Re Styles
Mingo Lewis
singing
 Jane Dornacker † October 22, 1986
David Killingsworth
Gary Cambra

The Tubes is an American rock band from San Francisco , which attracted attention with an extravagant stage show and had their greatest success in the late 1970s.

history

The group The Tubes developed from a group of school friends from Phoenix (Arizona) who had already founded the bands The Beans and The Red, White and Blues Band there . In 1969/70 the group members moved to Los Angeles and the two previous bands merged to form The Tubes . The line-up at the time of formation were: Fee Waybill (John Waldo Waybill, vocals), Re Styles (Shirley MacLeod, vocals), Bill "Sputnik" Spooner (guitar, vocals), Roger Steen (guitar), Prairie Prince (Charles L. Prince, drums), Michael Cotten (synthesizer), Vince Welnick (piano) and Rick Anderson (bass).

The musical head of the group was Bill Spooner, who wrote the songs and designed the stage shows with Michael Cotten and Prairie Prince. Singer Fee Waybill created a stage character for each title and appeared in innumerable disguises. The group also attracted attention through their extravagant stage show with intelligent musical theater. For example, huge cigarettes danced on stage to the piece “Smoke”; the band wore costumes that were reminiscent of clowns and bondage and satirized the glam rockers of the time, the audience was actively involved, etc. The group's first album of the same name contained almost all of the songs from the early stage shows and was made in 1975 by Al Kooper for A&M Records produced. The included title "White Punks On Dope" should become the most famous piece of the Tubes, in German-speaking countries especially in a cover version by Nina Hagen from 1978 ("TV-Glotzer").

In 1976 the second album "Young and rich", produced by Ken Scott, followed, whose single "Don´t touch me there" was to become the group's first hit. On the third album "Now" from 1977, the former percussionist of Santana , Mingo Lewis, worked with, as well as on the subsequent live album "What do you want from live". The fourth studio album "Remote Control" from 1978 was produced by Todd Rundgren as a media-critical concept album.

In the early 1980s, the tubes came into financial distress due to their expensive shows. After switching to Capitol Records , the shows were streamlined and the group tried to position itself more as a rock band than a show band. The next concept album "The Completion Backward Principle" (1981), produced by David Foster, showed the band that used to be long-haired and wild now as well-groomed business people. The first single from "TCBP" was "Talk To Ya Later". The hit “She's a beauty” was released from the following album “Outside Inside” (1983).

When recording the album "Love Bomb" (1985), which was again produced by Todd Rundgren, Fee Waybill left the band for a solo career and was replaced by David Killingsworth on vocals. However, the band's success collapsed and neither the new album nor Waybill's solo disc received much attention. In the course of this, Michael Cotten also left the band. The tours of the rest of the cast in 1987 and 1989 were also less successful.

In 1990 Gary Campra replaced the pianist Vince Welnick, who was changing to the Grateful Dead , after which Fee Waybill found the group again as a singer, but guitarist Bill Spooner left the group. In 1993 the band went on tour for the first time without a stage show. In 1996 a new album "Genius of America" ​​followed as well as another solo album by Fee Waybill. The Tubes have held regular concerts to this day, and in 2005 the live album "Wild in London" was released.

Bill Spooner has the band The Folk-Ups today and occasionally supports the Tubes. In addition to his work with Tubes, Prairie Prince has also worked as a drummer in numerous other bands and musicians, including a. XTC , Brian Eno and Tom Waits .

reception

In the classical phase of the band in the second half of the 1970s, the Tubes combined musical theater , progressive rock and new wave in a unique way. Visually and musically they belonged to the avant-garde of the music scene at that time, and apart from their opulent stage shows they also impressed with two drummers and (as soon as Waybill also picked up the guitar or a dummy) with four electric guitars on stage, those of Cotten's futuristic synthesizer playing were accompanied. Many Tubes texts have socially or media-critical content ("TV is king", "Proud to be an American", "What do you want from life", "Mr. Hate"), others are rich in irony and humor. Since the Tubes released the title "White Punks on Dope" in 1975 (a biting blow to rich losers), they are often mistakenly assigned to punk . With a lot of self-irony, the Tubes commented on their live album, released in 1978 with the title "I was a punk before you were a punk", that the expression they used in 1975 had meanwhile become synonymous with a youth movement.

Members

Current line-up (as of 2012)

former members

Discography (selection)

  • 1975 - The Tubes (A&M)
  • 1976 - Young & Rich (A&M)
  • 1976 - The Tubes In Concert (Darted in my own armchair (bootleg)) (recorded 1976 in Los Angeles )
  • 1977 - Now (A&M)
  • 1978 - What Do You Want From (Live) (A&M)
  • 1979 - Remote Control (A&M)
  • 1981 - TRASH (A&M)
  • 1981 - Completion Backward Principle ( Capitol Records / EMI ) (First album with the tubes on the cover)
  • 1983 - Outside Inside ( Capitol Records / EMI )
  • 1985 - Love Bomb ( Capitol Records / EMI )
  • 1987 - Attack Of The Tubes ( Capitol Records )
  • 1991 - Best Of The Tubes (1981–1987) (Canada)
  • 1996 - Genius Of America (self-produced)
  • 1992 - Best Of The Tubes (Capitol Records)
  • 1996 - Goin 'Down (Compilation) (A&M)
  • 1999 - Hoods From Outer Space (New Recordings) [Brilliant UK]
  • 2000 - White Punks on Dope (Compilation CD [Spectrum Music] UK)
  • 2005 - The Best Of The EMI Years (1981-1983)

Web links