Thunder biography
Thunder were an English hard rock band, who originally formed in 1989 when the band Terraplane broke up, leaving lead singer Danny Bowes and guitarist/main songwriter Luke Morley to form a new group, namely Thunder. Retaining Terraplane drummer Gary James (popularly known as 'Harry' James), they completed the line-up with bassist Mark 'Snake' Luckhurst and guitarist/keyboard player Ben Matthews. Though the band's main area of support has remained their homeland of the UK, the band also enjoy significant success in Japan.
Band history
Early years
Luke Morley and Danny Bowes first met at Haberdashers' Aske's Hatcham College in 1975. At the age of 14 Danny talked his way into a band Luke had formed with some other boys, he couldn't play an instrument so claimed to be a singer; the band auditioned him and he was deemed good enough to join. The boy he replaced was pushed aside to become a bass player but by a twist of fate would one day become Thunder's manager. The band went on to call themselves Nuthin' Fancy, in following years they played in pubs around the London area and released an independent single "˜Looking For A Good Time'. When Harry James joined after the previous drummer left, the band renamed themselves Terraplane. As Terraplane they played many gigs, including regular gigs at the Marquee Club and a performance at the 1982 Reading Festival. They were signed by Epic Records and ultimately released two albums, but they became frustrated by the more pop orientated direction the record company was guiding them in. After a trip to the US showed them that there was a vibrant rock scene developing they realised that there was a place for the sort of music they wanted to make and came back to England to form Thunder.
Thunder were signed quickly with EMI after performing a demo audition in 1989, and soon began recording their first album
Back Street Symphony. With their producer, Andy Taylor (of Duran Duran) they created many blues-rock and atmospheric ballads, steering away from the melodic power pop of their previous band. The album was a huge success in the UK, helped by a prestigious appearance opening the 1990 Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park. Their performance at this event was almost universally praised and elevated them to new levels of popularity.
A follow-up album, Laughing on Judgement Day appeared in 1992 and reached number 2 in the album charts at a time when the grunge scene was beginning to change the hard rock landscape. All four singles released from the album were Top 40 successes, and A Better Man made the UK Top 20 in early-1993. However, this period was the most turbulent in the band's career; Snake quit the band after the subsequent tour and was replaced by Swedish bass player Mikael Höglund. Meantime, rumours of an approach by Whitesnake singer David Coverdale to recruit Luke Morley were circulating (Although in 2002 Danny Bowes stated that "the whole thing was made up" by the band to engineer some press interest). and it would be another two years before the third album appeared.
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