Towards the end of 1984 myself and a group of mates travelled along the south coast to Brighton to see Meatloaf on his latest tour. It was my second time of seeing him and was really looking forward to it. I have always made a conscious decision to watch the support bands, and that night it was Terraplane. I came away impressed with both their songs and attitude and wondered if they would break big time. That they didn’t was more down to attitude of the media as opposed to quality, and they soon changed into a more blues-based approach and morphed into Thunder. Unless you were living in the UK in 1990, and were an avid follower of the rock scene, it is hard to describe just how big their debut album ‘Back Street Symphony’ was both in terms of sales and impact. I managed to catch them twice at the Hammy O, being blown away each time, and the only reason I was convinced by mates to go and see ZZ Top at Milton Keynes Bowl was because both Thunder and Little Angels were in support. A few years later Guns ‘n’ Roses played at Wembley and me and a couple of others wandered into a bar which should have been off limits, but wasn’t for some reason, and we had a great time drinking and chatting with Luke and Danny.
OK, so they have supposedly broken up a few times in the past, but Luke, Danny and ‘Arry have been there since the Terraplane days, Ben has been there since the formation of Thunder and even “newbie” bassist Chris Childs has been there since 1996. Now into their third decade, Thunder have gone back and revisited their back catalogue, treating their songs in a totally different and mostly acoustic manner. This may come as a surprise to those who haven’t really been following their career, but really this is nothing new. Danny and Ben have played acoustically, and when they played with ZZ Top they started their set with all of them sat on bar stools playing like this.
It would have been very easy for them to just concentrate on the very early material, but they have mixed it up with a selection of songs. Some of these sound like lounge jazz, some are almost swamp blues, but all show a band who are totally confident in what they are doing. The core of the band has been together for thirty years, with three of them having a working relationship closer to forty, and it shows. I don’t know what this album will sound like to anyone who has never come across their material before this, as they have been close to my soul for so many years, but I had a blast. And if you don’t still know who they are, grab ‘Back Street Symphony’ and the amazing ‘Live at the BBC (1990 – 1995)’ and then get this. You can thank me later.
Rating: 8/10
Links:
https://www.thunderonline.com/
https://www.bmg.com/de/
