Fastway (band)
Fastway is a British hard rock band, which celebrated its greatest success in the 1980s. The band was brought together with the UFO bassist Pete Way launched by former Motorhead guitarist " Fast" Eddie Clarke. Lead singer was the current Flogging Molly frontman Dave King.
History
Fastway was founded in 1982 by former Motorhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke and ex - UFO bassist Pete Way. The first auditions kept the two from the The Clash drummer Topper Headon - before they found a permanent member in ex- Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley. As lead singer of the then unknown Dave King joined the band.
The attorneys at Chrysalis Records made Pete Way quick to point out that he is still under contract to them and thus not simply allowed to publish with a new band on a new label songs. For this reason, session bassist Mick Feat could be heard on the Fastway debut. In the album credits, Way was also not mentioned. The album got good reviews, not least by the reminiscent something to Led Zeppelin style.
For the tour activities Clarke took the services of Alfie Angus as a temporary bassist to complete. 1983 Fastway toured as opening act for Iron Maiden and Saxon America. The song Say What You Will received massive airplay in the aftermath of radio stations and MTV, which made the album climbing to number 31 on the charts. The debut album eventually sold over 500,000 copies in the U.S. alone.
The second album All Fired Up was once again produced by Eddie Kramer, this time with session bassist Charlie McCracken. There were only half as many units sold as the debut album, although Fastway with well-known bands like the Scorpions, Ratt, Billy Squier and Rush toured America again. The band broke up in the meantime, but already appeared in 1986 with Waiting for the Roar another album. In the same year the band toured as support for AC / DC by the United Kingdom.
In 1987 Fastway wrote the soundtrack for the horror movie Ragman, a radio DJ and Ozzy Osbourne playing a televangelist in the Kiss bassist Gene Simmons. With the latter, Fastway toured at the beginning of 1988 by Ireland. In the same year singer Dave King left the band. He later founded with former Crocus, Asia and guitarist Mandy Meyer, the Cobra group Katmandu in 1990 released their first and only album. Today he sings in the Irish folk punk band Flogging Molly.
His replacement at Fastway was Lea Heart. In order to record the next album, recruited Clarke ex- Whitesnake and Black Sabbath bassist Neil Murray and ex- drummer Gary Moore Gary Ferguson and ex- Rainbow keyboardist Don Airey. For the concerts to On Target undertook the band drummer Steve Clarke and bassist Paul Gray. The follow-up album Bad Bad Girls was mostly played by Eddie Clarke and Leah Hart single-handedly. As a session musician was the Saxon rhythm section consisting of drummer Nigel committed Glockler and bassist Nibs Carter; Keyboardist Toby Sadler was. After the recordings, the band was reorganized again. New here bassist and drummer KB Bren Riff Raff were now In 1992, Fastway finally dissipated.
Published in 1998, Receiver Records Album On Target Reworked, which in addition to newly recorded songs from the 1988 album also contained earlier songs with the vocals of Lea Hart.
In February 2007, Fastway announced its participation in the Sweden Rock Festival. Besides Eddie Clarke Storm Zone singer John Harbinson, bassist Raymond Haller and drummer Steve Strange were named as members of the band. A few weeks later a change on vocals and bass, it was announced on the website of the group. For Harbison former Little Angels vocalist Toby Jepson and Haller for the Mama 's Boys bassist John McManus joined the band. Fastway completed in this occupation in the summer some big festivals in Europe, including the Fields of Rock Festival in the Netherlands, the Graspop Metal Meeting in Belgium, the Download Festival at Donington Park in England and the Wacken Open Air festival in Northern Germany. In the already mentioned Sweden Rock Festival Motörhead also occurred, the Fast Eddie supported in a spontaneous reunion for some songs as a second guitarist.