Bernie Tormé

Bernie Torme, a guitarist steeped in heavy metal and hard rock, repeatedly came close to major stardom as a sideman for established or rising acts, only for outside factors to block each path. Born in Dublin, Ireland, he first grasped the guitar at age 11, drawing inspiration from fellow Irish players Rory Gallagher, Gary Moore, and Thin Lizzy’s Eric Bell. He soon joined several hometown outfits before heading to London in the early ’70s. There he assembled the hard-rocking power trio Scrapyard, which later became the Bernie Torme Band and adopted a stripped-down punk approach that mirrored the era’s prevailing British sound. Although the group put out two singles and logged constant UK dates, it never achieved commercial traction. With the band faltering, Torme accepted an offer from ex-Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan to join Gillan toward the end of the decade.

His stint proved brief yet productive: the unit scored three UK Top Ten albums—Mr. Universe in 1979, Glory Road in 1980, and the chart-topping Future Shock in 1981—while mounting extensive tours across Europe, Japan, and the United States. Despite those gains, Torme quit Gillan in 1981, naming “boredom” as his reason, and moved on to veteran prog-rockers Atomic Rooster. That first spell with Atomic Rooster was fleeting; although he toured with them, he appeared on none of their studio releases. (He would rejoin sporadically, and the archival Live in Germany 1983 surfaced in 2000.) His growing reputation nevertheless secured him the role of Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist in spring 1982 after Randy Rhoads’s death. Osbourne needed a quick replacement to fulfill arena dates, yet Torme’s real focus remained Electric Gypsies, the new band he was forming; after just a few shows he returned to England, with future Night Ranger guitarist Brad Gillis stepping in.

Electric Gypsies released the little-known albums Turn Out the Lights, Electric Gypsies, and Live before renaming itself Torme. The updated lineup featured ex-Girl and future L.A. Guns singer Phil Lewis and delivered three further sets—Back to Babylon, Die Pretty Die Young, and Official Live Bootleg—yet met the same commercial fate, dissolving by the late ’80s. Another invitation soon arrived, this time to the heavy-metal supergroup Desperado alongside ex-Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, ex-Iron Maiden drummer Clive Burr, and bassist Marc Russell. Elektra Records signed the quartet, raising hopes of U.S. success, but disputes with the label kept the debut unreleased and ultimately split the band; the album eventually appeared years later as the independent release Bloodied, but Unbowed. Throughout the ’90s Torme continued writing and playing for Snider’s later projects, including Widowmaker’s Blood & Bullets and Stand By for Pain, while also contributing to recordings by the Walker Brothers, Mammoth, and Rene Berg and issuing the collaborative album Demolition Ball with ex-Samson vocalist Gary Owen.

In the late ’90s he formed a power trio with former Anti-Nowhere League members Chris Jones on drums and John Pearc on bass, releasing the double-disc Wild Irish in 1997 and White Trash Guitar in 1999; by the early 2000s Jones had been replaced by Simon Jeffrey. Torme also operates his own imprint, Retrowrek Records, which has issued material spanning his entire career, among them the 1977–1979 compilation Punk or What and reissues of early titles such as Turn Out the Lights and Electric Gypsies.