Alcatrazz
Alcatrazz is an American heavy metal band formed in 1983 by Graham Bonnet (ex-Rainbow singer), Gary Shea (ex-New England member) (bassist), Jimmy Waldo (ex-New England member) (keyboard), Jan Uvena (ex-Iron Butterfly) (drums), and virtuoso guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen (ex-Steeler).
History
Beginnings
The band's initial lineup consisted of former Rainbow singer Graham Bonnet, young Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who had recently left American band Steeler, Gary Shea and Jimmy Waldo from New England and Clive Burr known for having formed part of Iron Maiden. Reportedly, Burr was only in the band for a week, and after finding out that the band was going to be based in America, and not his native England, he decided to leave the project. Burr was soon replaced by former Iron Butterfly drummer Jan Uvena, who had just left Alice Cooper's backup band. Shea named the group Alcatrazz. For the first album, most of the material was written by Bonnet and Malmsteen, with Waldo contributing to several tracks.
No Parole From Rock N'Roll and internal problems
The band's debut album, No Parole From Rock 'n' Roll appeared in late 1983 on Rocshire Records. MTV gave decent support to the first single, 'Island in the Sun', which showed a strong Rainbow influence. Despite the commercial nature of the song, it received little radio airplay. Nonetheless, the album spent 18 weeks on the Billboard charts and peaked at number 128. A second video released in 1984 for "Hiroshima Mon Amour" became popular in Japan.
Rochsire then released Live Sentence (1984), a live album containing recordings of the two concerts of his Japan tour at the Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo on January 28, 1984. Some covers of Rainbow, including the classic Since You Been Gone and Night Games a solo Bonnet theme. The album would reach number 133 in the United States. A video for the live album was also produced. During this period, internal turmoil began to arise within the band, between Malmsteen and Bonnet. According to Malmsteen, Bonnet was upset by the attention fans paid to the guitar and not the voice. Apparently Bonnet did not like the role of the guitarist. According to Malmsteen, their professional relationship ended with the two having an altercation on stage after Bonnet allegedly tampered with Malmsteen's amplifiers during a guitar solo at a show in Oklahoma. Following this, Malmsteen left Alcatrazz and created his own band called Rising Force, who signed to Polydor Records and released a successful self-titled debut album.
Steve Vai and Disturbing The Peace
Waldo replaced Malmsteen with ex-Frank Zappa guitarist Steve Vai, despite Bonnet's resistance, the band signed to Capitol Records after Rocshire was shut down for fraud. With Steve Vai, the group worked on new material and then headlined another tour of Japan, which introduced Vai to fans and allowed them to play new material from the upcoming album. A concert video was filmed from these dates.
The band released Disturbing the Peace in the spring of 1985. The album was produced by Eddie Kramer, who has worked with Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Triumph, among others. "God Blessed Video" was the first single and video. The album peaked at number 145 and ran for 16 weeks. Alcatrazz, however, was never able to break out of its small following, and had to cut short a tour due to financial problems.
Dangerous Games and separation
Steve Vai left to join David Lee Roth's (ex-Van Halen) solo band in 1986. The split was on good terms, as it was an offer Vai couldn't refuse. He was replaced by guitarist Danny Johnson (formerly Axis, Rod Stewart and Alice Cooper), who recorded what became Alcatrazz's last studio album, Dangerous Games, released in the fall of 1986. The album featured cover versions of the song. classic from The Animals ". It's My Life' (one of the only rock oriented tunes) and The Marbles (Graham Bonnet's band) song 'Only One Woman'. The Dangerous Games album could not be located, and soon after, Johnson also quit to join the band Private Life. Discouraged by the lack of a steady guitarist and declining album sales, they broke up in 1987.
After Alcatrazz
After the separation Graham Bonnet became part of Impellitteri where he recorded the album Stand In Line while he continued his solo career in parallel. In 1993 Bonnet and Waldo collaborated together on Blackthorne's album Afterlife, the project of guitarist Bob Kulick. A year later Jan Uvena and Gary Shea recorded on the album No. 1 by guitarist Jonas Hansson. In 1997 Danny Johnson also met with Bonnet to participate as a composer and guitarist on his album Underground.
Graham Bonnet Tours
In 2006 Graham Bonnet would revive the group, although already under the name of "Alcatrazz Featuring Graham Bonnet", Bonnet being the only member of the old formation to participate. They participated in the 'Berkrock Festival', in Bulgaria, and going on tour in Japan in 2007, the rest of the band included guitarist Howie Simon, drummer Glen Sobel, and bassist Tim Luce, during this tour. Japanese, the new Alcatrazz shared the bill with Joe Lynn Turner. During 2008 Alcatrazz toured the United States with Y&T. The project stops spinning in 2014.
Back
After the revival of the artistic relationship between Jimmy Waldo who in 2016 joined Graham Bonnet's solo band in 2017, the Alcatrazz tours officially reappear with original members. Gary Shea and Jimmy Waldo founding members of Alcatrazz accompany Bonnet to tour Japan. For these presentations, Conrado Pesinato joins on guitar and Mark Benquechea on drums. From these tours comes the live album Parole Denied: Tokyo 2017. After completing the presentation tour, Bonnet and Waldo continued working together in the Graham Bonnet Band, a band with which to date they have recorded two albums together and in which they have achieved a sound very close to Alcatrazz. In 2019 Graham Bonnet resumes the Alcatrazz project once again with another formation. This time Beth-Ami Heavenstone replaces Gary Shea on bass and Joe Stump replaces Conrado Pesinato on guitar. The formation is recording a new album that will have the participation of Chris Impelliteri as a guest guitarist and Steve Vai (ex-guitarist of the band) as a collaborator in some compositions.
