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BAD CO. (SZC)
Old band mates proved good company
By Jack Lloyd
FOR THE INQUIRER
Paul Rodgers didn't jump at the opportunity to get it on
again with his
old Bad Company mates. It had been 17 years since he last
performed
with the hard-rocking British band, and his career had
hardly skipped a
beat.
"With Bad Company, there was a certain chemistry," he
said, getting
ready for the band's appearance at the Trump Marina on
Sunday night
and in Philadelphia at the Mann Center for the Performing
Arts next
Saturday. "I wasn't sure we could generate that again."
The subject of a reunion tour came up as the members of
Bad
Company were preparing for the release of The Original Bad
Company Anthology, a two-disc boxed set containing 33 of
the
group's hits, plus four new tunes, just released by
Elektra Records. It's
customary, of course, to hit the concert trail in support
of such
recording projects, but Rodgers, the group's lead singer,
just wasn't
sure.
"That's one of the reasons we decided to go into the
studio and record
the new material," he said. "Did we still have it as a
unit? So we went
in and it was fun right away. Everyone saying 'Good to
see you,' that
sort of thing. Finally, we all kind of said, 'Well, what
do we do now?'
There we were, our instruments plugged in, so I counted
off and we
went right into a number. It all seemed to flow from
there."
Following a number of warm-up dates in Florida last
month, the North
American tour officially began on Wednesday in
Winston-Salem, N.C.
Mick Ralphs on guitar; Simon Kirk, drums; Boz Burrell,
bass; and
Rodgers, lead vocals and guitar, are once again in full
flight, cranking
out such vintage hits as "Can't Get Enough," "Feel Like
Makin' Love,"
"Good Lovin' Gone Bad," "Bad Company," "Seagull," "Run
With the
Pack," "Shooting Star," and "Rock and Roll Fantasy."
When Bad Company formed in 1973, the band was a mix of
some
solid rock pedigrees. Rodgers and Kirk had been with
Free, Ralphs
had been with Mott the Hoople, and Burrell had put in
time with King
Crimson. Quickly, even before a first record, Bad Company
was taken
on by Peter Grant, who was managing Led Zeppelin at the
time.
Green signed the new band to a contract with Swan Song
Records
Actually, Grant initially had set his sights on Rodgers
as a solo act.
When Rodgers announced, "I come with a band," Grant
pondered the
proposal, detected a diamond in the rough, and agreed to
represent the
entire group.
The band already had stockpiled enough material for an
album. What
it needed next was a studio - the right studio. It
benefited from a
moment of perfect timing.
"Led Zeppelin already had a mobile studio ready to go at
Headly
Grange but suddenly got delayed by two weeks," Rodgers
said. "So
we slipped in and put the entire album down in that time."
That self-titled first album turned out to be everything
the band could
have hoped for, with such songs as "Rock Steady," "Ready
for Love,"
and "Movin' On" setting the standard for future Bad
Company
recordings. Rock, blues and country influences were
evident. And
touches of band members' personal favorites could be
heard - Otis
Redding, John Lee Hooker, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and,
naturally, the
Beatles.
Bad Company made its live debut in Newcastle and quickly
caught on
with British audiences. Its U.S. debut was as the opening
act on an
Edgar Winter Group tour.
"It was amazing," Rodgers said. "When we started that
tour, we were
number 99 on the charts, and by the end of the tour we
were on top.
Basically, we played like a bar band, but it was clear
that the bars
were getting very large indeed."
Less than two years after forming, Bad Company was
headlining
concerts around the world. In 1979, Desolation Angels was
released,
and despite its success, Rodgers realized he wanted to
back off on the
touring.
"I had a young family at home, unlike the other members
of the band,
and felt the need to be there to help them grow," he said.
A couple of years went by, and the band returned to the
studio in 1981
to record its last album, Rough Diamonds, but it was
decided not to
tour in support of that release. In the mid-'80s, Ralphs
and Kirk
re-formed Bad Company without Rodgers. After trying three
different
vocalists, they threw in the towel.
Rodgers went on to a variety of projects, including solo
albums and a
brief collaboration with Jimmy Page in a group called the
Firm. Just
before rejoining Bad Company for the current tour,
Rodgers was on
the road with his own band, which he is quite pleased
with. What
happens when the Bad Company tour ends is up in the air.
"We never really did a farewell tour, so maybe this is
it," Rodgers said.
"At the moment, there are no plans beyond this, but one
never knows."