Nazareth

In the latter part of the 1970s, Scottish hard rock outfit Nazareth seized heavy radio rotation through their razor-edged anthem “Hair of the Dog” and the timeless proto-power ballad “Love Hurts.” The group first surfaced in 1971 yet achieved broad commercial breakthrough with the platinum-certified fifth album Hair of the Dog in 1975. Despite repeated personnel shifts, Nazareth stayed active and well-received across Europe during the 1980s and 1990s, sustaining live and studio activity well into the 2000s; bassist and co-founder Pete Agnew remained the sole unchanging member throughout. Marking its fiftieth anniversary, the band issued Tattooed on My Brain in 2018, followed in 2022 by the twenty-fifth studio set Surviving the Law.

The quartet originated in Dunfermline in 1968 with vocalist Dan McCafferty, guitarist Manny Charlton, bassist Pete Agnew, and drummer Darrell Sweet. By 1970 the musicians had moved to London, unveiling their self-titled debut the next year. While Nazareth and the 1972 follow-up Exercises drew positive notice from British hard-rock listeners, it was Razamanaz in 1973 that propelled them into the U.K. Top Ten, powered by the hit singles “Broken Down Angel” and “Bad Bad Boy.” Loud ’n’ Proud and Rampant, both released in 1974, adhered to the same approach yet registered slightly softer chart returns.

Hair of the Dog arrived the subsequent year and cemented Nazareth’s status as an international hard-rock force; its reworking of the Everly Brothers’ “Love Hurts” helped the record exceed one million copies sold in the United States. The original four-piece maintained momentum through the remainder of the decade with several additional Top 100 albums. In 1979 they expanded their ranks by recruiting former Sensational Alex Harvey Band guitarist Zal Cleminson, who departed after contributing to No Mean City (1979) and Malice in Wonderland (1980); ex-Spirit keyboardist John Locke took his place. After the 1981 live release ’Snaz, guitarist Bill Rankin joined, prompting Locke’s exit and Rankin’s shift to keyboards.

Commercial traction had nevertheless faded in both the U.K. and U.S. markets. By the mid-1980s Nazareth lacked a label deal and entered a brief hiatus. They resurfaced in 1992 with No Jive, which found chart traction in Australia and Switzerland. Guitarist Jimmy Murrison came aboard following 1994’s Move Me. In 1999 the band returned once more with Boogaloo; during the ensuing tour, original drummer Darrell Sweet suffered a fatal heart attack at age 51, after which bassist Agnew’s son Lee assumed drum duties.

Following a decade-long recording gap, Nazareth delivered their twenty-first studio album, The Newz, in 2008 to coincide with the group’s fortieth anniversary. The blues-inflected Big Dogz appeared in 2011, succeeded by Rock ’n’ Roll Telephone in 2014. Citing health concerns, longtime frontman Dan McCafferty stepped down shortly before the latter’s release; with his endorsement, Linton Osborne assumed vocal responsibilities. Osborne exited ahead of the next project and was succeeded by Carl Sentance, formerly of Krokus, Persian Risk, and the Geezer Butler Band. Sentance made his recorded debut on the 2018 anniversary album Tattooed on My Brain. The same lineup—Sentance, Pete Agnew, Jimmy Murrison, and Lee Agnew—regrouped for Frontiers-released Surviving the Law, the band’s twenty-fifth long-player, in 2022. Founding guitarist Manny Charlton died on July 5, 2022 at age 80; longtime vocalist Dan McCafferty followed on November 8, 2022 at age 76.