Winger
| Winger | |
|---|---|
 Winger in Santa Clara, March 1, 2007 |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Hard rock , hair metal |
| founding | 1987, 2002, 2006 |
| resolution | 1993 |
| Website | http://www.kipwinger.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Kip Winger (1987–1993, 2002, since 2006) | |
Guitar , keyboard |
Reb Beach (1987–1993, 2002, since 2006) |
Guitar, bass, keyboard |
John Roth (1990–1993, since 2006) |
Keyboard , guitar |
Paul Taylor (1987–1990, 2002, since 2006) |
| Rod Morgenstein (1987–1993, 2002, since 2006) | |
Winger is from New York native American hard rock band. It celebrated its greatest successes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, mainly in the USA, and is named after its singer and bassist Kip Winger .
history
Kip Winger and keyboardist Paul Taylor were members of Alice Cooper's band when the latter made his comeback in the mid-1980s with the albums Constrictor and Raise Your Fist and Yell . After the end of the Raise Your Fist and Yell tour, both left the group to pursue their own musical goals. Reb Beach , with whom Kip Winger had previously composed, was won as guitarist . Both had met while working on the album Beyond the Pale by the singer Fiona . The trio recorded a demo tape called "Sahara" and thus secured a record deal with Atlantic Records . The band was completed by the drummer Rod Morgenstein, who had previously played with the Dixie Dregs , the band around Steve Morse .
The band recorded their self-titled debut album in the winter of 1987 under the direction of producer Beau Hill, who had also worked with Ratt and Fiona. As a guest musician , Dweezil Zappa was involved, who played guitar on the cover version of Jimi Hendrix 's Purple Haze . Following advice from Alice Cooper, the band renamed themselves “Winger” while the album was released in July 1988. The album cover, which was already ready for printing, had to be changed at short notice, but the original band name can still be seen on it.
The band then went on tour as opening act for Ozzy Osbourne , the Scorpions and King's X , followed by another tour with Cinderella and the BulletBoys . The album and the singles Seventeen , Headed for a Heartbreak and Hungry achieved the desired success in the USA. The album was awarded a platinum record in the United States and a gold record in Canada and Japan.
The 1990 released second album, In the Heart of the Young , surpassed the success of the debut album and reached number 15 on the American charts . By the end of the year it had sold two million times in the USA alone and, like its predecessor, achieved platinum status. It also contained three single hits, Can't Get Enuff , the ballad Miles Away and Easy Come Easy Go . The band played in the opening act for KISS , the Scorpions , Extreme , ZZ Top and Slaughter , among others . Paul Taylor left the band in late 1991.
The third album, Pull , recorded the group as a trio under the direction of Mike Shipley. The band has nothing suitable to counter the radical change in the music landscape caused by grunge , and they also became a welcome victim of Beavis and Butt-Head , the main actors in an MTV cartoon series that started in 1993. Whoever was into Winger was, according to this series, a "Wuzzy", a flimsy sack. The album reached number 83 on the US album charts, but the band broke up in late 1993.
In 2001 The Very Best of Winger was released with the new song On the Inside . On June 6, 2002, Winger appeared again for the first time at a festival together with Cinderella , Faster Pussycat and the headliners Poison . In May 2006 the group signed a new recording contract with the Italian label Frontiers Records and recorded a new album entitled IV , which was released in October 2006. Cenk Eroglu was involved in the recordings as a keyboard player. In March 2007, the band recorded the end of the same year released live double album Winger Live , which was also available on DVD. In the same year the song collection Demo Anthology compiled by Kip Winger was published .
Despite other commitments by the Winger musicians (Reb Beach is guitarist with Whitesnake , John Roth plays with Starship , and Rod Morgenstein teaches at Berklee College of Music ) the band gets back together at irregular intervals to record new albums. Released in 2009, the album Karma was positively received by fans and critics and received worldwide recognition.
With Better Days Comin ' , released in 2014 , the group made it back into the US charts for the first time since 1993: The album was listed at number 85 on the Billboard 200 on May 10, 2014.
During and on the occasion of the COVID-19 pandemic , the group released a newly recorded music video of the theme song in April 2020 , which fans of the band and numerous artists had participated in the recording and creation. Among others, Klaus Meine ( Scorpions ), Jeff Scott Soto , Alice Cooper , Richie Kotzen , Alan Parsons , Danny Vaughn ( Tyketto ), and Michael Starr ( Steel Panther ) participated in the video. In an interview in January 2020, Kip Winger said about plans for a new album:
“Oh we're writing right now. The problem is just that everyone's so busy we're just trying to find the time. Reb [Beach] and I have already got a couple of songs for the new album and he's coming next week to knock out a few more but he's been touring with Whitesnake and it's been hard for us to get together you know. [...] So we're making an album right now, I don't know how long it's gonna take but we started already. "
“Oh, we're writing it right now. The only problem is that everyone is so busy. We're trying to find the time. Reb [Beach] and I already have a couple of songs together for the new album, and he's coming over to chop some more out soon, but he was on tour with Whitesnake so it was hard to work together. [...] So we're doing an album right now, I don't know how long it will take, but we've already started. "
Trivia
When asked what he thinks of the band, considering Winger's legacy, Reb Beach answered in April 2014:
“Our friendship. That's the difference between Winger and so many other bands. We're all really good friends. Not only are the guys super musicians and so good at their craft, but they're also really cool people. It's great to be up there doing it as a team. "
"Our friendship. That's the difference between Winger and so many other bands. We are really good friends. Not only are these guys great musicians and masters of their craft, they're also cool people. It's great to be up there and do it as a team. "
Discography
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Studio albums
- 1988: Winger (CA:
gold) - 1990: In the Heart of the Young (CA:gold)
- 1993: Pull
- 2006: IV
- 2009: karma
- 2014: Better Days Comin '
Live albums and compilations
- 2001: The Very Best of Winger
- 2007: Demo Anthology (2-CD)
- 2007: Winger Live (2-CD)
Singles and EPs
- 1988: Madelaine
- 1989: Hungry
- 1989: Headed for a Heartbreak
- 1989: Seventeen
- 1990: Easy Come Easy Go
- 1990: Can't Get Enuff
- 1991: Miles Away
- 1991: Headed for a Heartbreak '91
- 1993: Down Incognito
Video albums
- 1989: Winger: The Videos Volume One (VHS)
- 1990: In the Heart of the Young (VHS) (US:gold)
- 1991: In the Heart of the Young Part 2 (VHS)
- 1993: The Making of Pull (VHS)
- 2007: Live (DVD)
- 2009: Then and Now - The Making of Pull and Winger IV (DVD)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Holger Stratmann (editor): Rock Hard Enzyklopädie ; Rock Hard GmbH, 1998, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 , page 471
- ↑ Booklet of the CD edition
- ↑ Better Days Comin ': Reb Beach Talks Guitars, New Winger Album and More Guitarworld.com, accessed April 29, 2014
- ↑ Winger CD 'Karma' . In: Winger - Karma Hits Top Album Lists For 2009 Worldwide . Retrieved May 24, 2012.
- ↑ Winger - All-Star Video for Better Days Comin ' feat. Klaus Meine, Michael Starr, Alice Cooper and many more, rockhard.de , accessed on May 1, 2020
- ↑ Charts UK Charts US
- ↑ Music Sales Awards: US CA