Supertramp
Supertramp is a British progressive rock group founded in 1969 by musician Rick Davies. They are considered one of the most influential bands on the world music scene of the 70s and 80s of the XX century and has sold more than 70 million records. The first Supertramp line-up, made up of Davies, Roger Hodgson, Richard Palmer-James and Robert Millar, released a self-titled progressive rock album with little commercial success, followed by a second album, Indelibly Stamped, in which Palmer and Millar were replaced by Frank Farrell, Kevin Currie and Dave Winthrop.
After little initial success, Davies and Hodgson created a new line-up, made up of Dougie Thomson, John Helliwell and Bob Siebenberg, whose sound was more pop-oriented while maintaining the progressive style, with a predominant use of Wurlitzer piano, saxophone and other orchestral sounds. The first album of this formation, Crime of the Century, favored the commercial boom of Supertramp, consolidated with singles like "Dreamer" and "Bloody Well Right". >Crime of the Century was followed by works such as Crisis? What Crisis? and Even in the Quietest Moments, which built Supertramp's reputation as a live band.
The album Breakfast in America consolidated Supertramp as a successful band by reaching the top of the best-selling album charts in countries such as Germany, Australia, Canada, the United States, Spain and France, among others. Three of its singles—"Goodbye Stranger," "Take the Long Way Home" and "The Logical Song"—reached the top 20 in the United States, where the album sold more than four million copies. The success of Breakfast in America continued with...Famous Last Words..., after which Hodgson announced his departure to pursue a solo career.
With Davies as Supertramp's de facto leader, the group released Brother Where You Bound (1985), moving away from progressive rock, and Free as a Bird (1987), which incorporated elements of dance and featured the addition of Mark Hart. After a subsequent tour, Supertramp was inactive for nearly a decade.
In 1996, Davies reunited the group, expanded by Carl Verheyen, Cliff Hugo, Lee Thornburg and Jesse Siebenberg, to release Some Things Never Change, followed by a tour documented in the album It Was the Best of Times (1999) and Slow Motion (2002), his last album to date. After eight years of inactivity, Davies again reformed the group to perform the 70-10 Tour, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the formation of Supertramp, followed in 2015 by the Supertramp Forever Tour, which was finally suspended.
History
Early Years (1969–1972)
In 1969, Stanley 'Sam' August Miesegaes, a Dutch millionaire, stopped supporting a band called The Joint financially due to his disappointment with them. However, he offered Rick Davies, a member of the group and whose talent he felt had been "bogged down" at The Joint, a chance to form his own band, again with his financial backing. After placing an advertisement In the music weekly Melody Maker, Davies formed a band with Roger Hodgson (bass and vocals), Richard Palmer-James (guitars) and Keith Baker (percussion).
Davies and Hodgson had radically different musical origins and inspirations: Davies came from humble beginnings and his main musical influences were blues and jazz, while Hodgson had started to work in the music industry and was fond of pop and psychedelic music. Despite this, they began writing songs together, with Palmer as the third member of the songwriting team. Since no other band members were willing, Palmer wrote all the lyrics.
The group was initially referred to as Daddy. Baker was soon replaced by Robert Millar, and after several months rehearsing in a West Hythe country house, the band traveled to Munich for a series of concerts at P.N. Club. A ten-minute performance of the song "All Along The Watchtower" was filmed by Haro Senft during a concert. Rehearsals were unproductive, and his initial repertoire consisted of only four songs, two of them covers by other artists. To avoid confusion with the band Daddy Longlegs, the group changed their name to Supertramp, a nickname inspired by W. H. Davies' book The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp (The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp). Tramp).
Supertramp were one of the first groups to sign with the British arm of A&M Records, and their first album, Supertramp, was released in July 1970 in the UK and Canada (in the United States was not published until 1977). Stylistically, the album included characteristic progressive rock of the time and a sound similar to that of the Cressida group. Despite getting good reviews, the album did not attract a large audience.
Dave Winthrop (flute and saxophone) joined the group after the release of the first record, and soon after, Supertramp played at the Isle of Wight Festival. The lineup continued to change in the six months following the album's release: Palmer left the group due to personal conflicts with Davies and Hodgson, followed by Millar, who suffered a mental breakdown after touring Norway.
On their next album, Indelibly Stamped, released in June 1971, Frank Farrell (bass) and Kevin Currie (percussion) replaced Palmer and Millar, while Hodgson moved on to play guitar and Davies began to be the second vocalist. With the departure of Palmer, Hodgson and Davies began to write the songs for the rest of the group's work. Indelibly Stamped sold less than its predecessor, causing all members except Davies and Hodgson to leave the group, and Miesegaes to withdraw their financial support in October 1972.
Crime of the Century and commercial boom (1973–1978)
A search for new members brought on board Dougie Thomson, who had performed concerts with the group for nearly a year before they resumed auditions. In 1973, the group was expanded with Bob Siebenberg (drums) and John Helliwell (saxophone and wind instruments and keyboards), who completed the new line-up, in force for the next ten years. Hodgson also began to play the grand piano and the Wurlitzer keyboard, in addition to having other keyboards available live with which they created the orchestral settings of their music.
Meanwhile, the bond between Davies and Hodgson gradually began to weaken. In July 1972, Hodgson took LSD for the first time, offering it to Davies, who refused to take it. In a letter to Miesegaes, Hodgson described the experience as "the happiest day of my life" and expressed anxiety that Davies would not take it. Years later, Hodgson described this divergence in their experiences as the root of the rupture between them. During the history of Supertramp, the relationship between Davies and Hodgson was friendly but with lifestyles and musical inclinations increasingly distant and less overlapping. In this sense, their songwriting partnership was gradually diluted and, although all the songs were officially credited to both, most were compositions written individually by Davies or by Hodgson.
Crime of the Century, released in September 1974, was the group's first major critical and commercial success after peaking at number four on the UK Albums Chart. and to number one on Canada's best-selling album chart. Crime of the Century underscored the group's ambition, with many heavily orchestrated songs and tracks where Davies and Hodgson shared lead vocals, such as "School" and "Dreamer." The second, released as a single, reached the top 20 in the UK, while its B-side, "Bloody Well Right", reached the top 40 in the US..
With one successful album under their belt, the pressures mounted on Supertramp, and its follow-up, Crisis? What Crisis?, was recorded in the few month break between two tours. As a consequence, most of the material consisted of outtakes from Crime of the Century, and decades later it was considered by the band itself to be one of their worst moments. Despite the band's misgivings, Crisis? What Crisis? was well received by critics, peaking at number twenty on the UK UK Albums Chart and number 44 on the US Billboard 200.
The next album, Even in the Quietest Moments, was released in April 1977 along with the single "Give a Little Bit", number fifteen in the US and twenty-nine in the UK. As before, the album was more successful than the singles, and Even in the Quietest Moments peaked at number sixteen on the Billboard 200 and number twelve on the Billboard 200. UK best-selling album chart. During this period, the group moved their residence to Los Angeles, California.
Stardom with Breakfast in America and the departure of Roger Hodgson (1979–1988)
The focus on a more pop-oriented sound allowed Supertramp to achieve their greatest success with Breakfast in America, released in March 1979, which peaked at number three in the UK and charted at number three in the UK. topping the charts in countries such as Canada and the United States. Breakfast in America also produced four singles: "The Logical Song", "Goodbye Stranger", "Take the Long Way Home" and " Breakfast in America”, all of them top 20 in the United States. In March, the group embarked on a 120-concert tour that broke all attendance records for previous concerts in both North America and Europe. At the end of the tour, the group members decided to take a break for a while.
To avoid a long gap between albums during their hiatus, the group released Paris, a live double album recorded mostly at the Pavillon in Paris, France which peaked at number eight on the chart. American Billboard 200. on the US Billboard Hot 100 list.
During this period, Hodgson moved his family to the mountains of Northern California, where he built a home and recording studio. In addition, he began to spend more time with his family and show an interest in spirituality, recording in parallel Sleeping with the Enemy, a first solo album never released. to the rest of the group, and during the recording of their next effort, ...Famous Last Words..., Davies and Hodgson found it difficult to reconcile their respective musical ideas. ... Famous Last Words... was released in October 1982 and reached number five and six on the US and UK best-seller charts respectively. Following a world tour in 1983, Hodgson publicly announced that he was not going to continue with the group. According to the musician himself, his departure from Supertramp was motivated by a desire to spend more time with his family and pursue a solo career, and that he never had any real personal or professional problems between him and Davies.
After Hodgson left, Davies went on to lead de facto Supertramp as sole songwriter, releasing Brother Where You Bound in 1985. The album was a deliberate departure from to the pop of his last two albums and reached number twenty-one on the US Billboard 200 list and twenty-one in the United Kingdom. Brother Where You Bound included the single " Cannonball", top 30 in the United States, along with the title track, a long Cold War-themed exposition featuring a guitar solo by Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour.
Two years later, the group released Free as a Bird, an album marked by experimentation with synthesizers and by incorporating elements of pop and dance. Davies described the album as "an experiment in trying to be modern and building it up with computers and drum machines, and people coming in one at a time, which kind of made you lose group spirit a bit". I'm Beggin' You» peaked at number one on the Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart, Free as a Bird met with little commercial success.
After Hodgson's departure, and on the occasion of the Brother Where You Bound tour, the group decided not to perform songs by the musician, following an alleged verbal agreement between Davies and him. However, the public was unenthusiastic about the omission of these songs, so the Free as a Bird tour once again featured Hodgson compositions performed by Mark Hart which led to the departure of Dougie Thomson. After the 1988 tour, the group temporarily broke up. In this regard, Davies commented: “We have been there for close to twenty years between recording and touring and it seemed time to take a break with no idea how or when we will return. We actually decided not to say anything, as if we were old soldiers fading away."
From Some Things Never Change to Slow Motion (1996–2005)
In 1993, Davies and Hodgson performed together again for the first time in ten years at a tribute to Jerry Moss, co-founder of A&M Records, at the Beverly Hills Hilton, where they performed "The Logical Song" and "Goodbye Stranger." ». After the event, both collaborated for six months rehearsing songs like "You Win I Lose" and "And the Light", old Davies compositions. However, the meeting did not bear fruit and both went their separate ways.
Shortly thereafter, Davies resumed the project of recording a new album and reformed Supertramp with John Helliwell, Bob Siebenberg and Mark Hart, present since the recording of Free as a Bird. Expanding the group with With four other session musicians, Davies released Some Things Never Change, an album with a return to the usual Supertramp sound, in March 1997. Some Things Never Change reached the top 10 in European countries such as Switzerland, France and Germany but did not enter the US Billboard 200 list.
Some Things Never Change was followed by the It's About Time Tour documented on the live album It Was the Best of Times, recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in London and released in April 1999. Three years later, the group released Slow Motion, their last studio album to date. Slow Motion was recorded at Davies' new home in Hampton Bays, after residing for more than two decades in Los Angeles, using Pro Tools for the first time, and was followed by a new world tour, after which the group again remained inactive.
Reformation (from 2010 onwards)
After the release of Slow Motion, all members of Supertramp except Rick Davies did side projects with the group. John Helliwell formed the group Créme Anglaise with Mark Hart and released a self-titled album in 2005, while Bob Siebenberg was part of the group Todd Hannigan And The Heavy 29's with his son Jesse and worked on The Glendale River, a studio album.
In 2005, on the occasion of the publication of Retrospectacle - The Supertramp Anthology, Davies and Hodgson held several meetings to try to reform Supertramp that did not come to fruition. Three years later, both musicians returned to meet with a view to a possible meeting of the group that did not materialize either.
Despite Hodgson's refusal, Davies reformed Supertramp for the 70-10 Tour to mark the group's fortieth anniversary. The inclusion of Hodgson's songs on the tour, similar to the previous two, angered Roger, who said he was breaking a verbal agreement between him and Rick not to perform them in exchange for Davies keeping the Supertramp name. In response, Davies explained: “The only reality is that there are 600 pages of contract documents that determine what we can and can't do. As far as I'm concerned, I live up to my end of that deal and I do Supertramp songs. That has to do with everything we publish together and perform together on stage. To me, that's Supertramp music too."
The 70-10 Tour, which included the absence of Mark Hart and his replacement by Gabe Dixon, began in September in Germany and extended with some thirty concerts throughout Europe. A year later, the group offered a stage across Canada before returning to France, where he gave his 1,000th concert.
In August 2012, despite the disapproval of Hodgson and Davies, the group released the DVD Live in Paris '79, with previously unpublished audiovisual material filmed during the concerts in Paris on the Breakfast in America tour., Belgium, Norway, Austria, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In 2015, the group reformed again for the Supertramp Forever Tour, which was eventually canceled due to Rick Davies' health problems.
Members
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Timeline
Discography
- 1970: Supertramp
- 1971: Indelibly Stamped
- 1974: Crime of the Century
- 1975: Crisis?
- 1977: Even in the Quietest Moments
- 1979: Breakfast in America
- 1980: Paris
- 1982: ...Famous Last Words...
- 1985: Brother Where You Bound
- 1987: Free as a Bird
- 1988: Live '88
- 1997: Some Things Never Change
- 1999: It Was the Best of Times
- 2002: Slow Motion