Thunder

Thunder were a five piece hard rock band from United Kingdom who formed in 1989, after singer Danny Bowes, guitarist Luke Morley and drummer Gary 'Harry' James left the band, Terraplane. They were joined by bassist Mark 'Snake' Luckhurst and guitarist Ben Matthews. After their second album, Laughing on Judgement Day, Luckhurst left the band citing 'personal differences'. He was replaced by Swedish bass player, Mikael Höglund, and the band went on to record their third album, Behind Close Doors, in 1995, which would be their last album on the EMI label. Mikael was unavailable for recording the band's fourth album, The Thrill of it All (1996), and so bass duty was left with Morley. For the tour, the band recruited bassist Chris Childs, who stayed with the band to record their fifth album, Giving the Game Away, released in 1999. In Autumn of that year, the band announced they were to split, annoyed at the state of the music scene, and following their final tour, they left in May 2000. After being given a slot in the 2002 Monsters of Rock show, Thunder decided to return in 2003 with a new album, Shooting at the Sun, released on their own record label. In 2005, they released their seventh album, The Magnificent Seventh After two well received tours in 2006, with many gigs completely selling out, and two gigs in Japan, which were eventually released on the DVD "Thunder Go Mad In Japan" November 2006 Saw Thunder releasing their 8th Studio album Robert Johnson's Tombstone Which has received acclaim from fans and critics alike, many claiming that it is their best album yet. A UK tour is taking place at the end of November, with the annual Christmas Show at Nottingham's Rock City in December. European and Japanese dates are being planned and American dates are being talked about, as is another UK tour in 2007. Thunder are releasing new material in 2007/08 by way of 3 EP's. The first, "Six of One..." was released in late 2007 and included 3 brand new tracks as well as 3 live recordings. The second EP "Half a Dozen of the Other" is released on 7th April 2008 - following the same format. The third EP "The Joy of Six" is released on 3rd November 2008 On 3rd November 2008 a new studio album - Bang! - was released. The band appeared with Def Leppard and Whitesnake at 3 dates in July 2008. In early 2009 Thunder announced they were to split for the second time with final tours and festival appearances through the summer. ----------------- Also a German heavy metal band from 1981.