Thunder

Vocalist Danny Bowes and lead guitarist Luke Morley began making music together as fifteen-year-old schoolmates in London. They went on to establish the group Terraplane, which issued two albums before splitting in 1988. Thunder took shape once Bowes, Morley, and drummer Gary "Harry" James brought bassist Mark "Snake" Luckhurst and rhythm guitarist Ben Matthews into the fold.

Both of the band’s initial singles reached the U.K. Top 40, securing an opening slot on an Aerosmith tour as well as a performance at the 1990 Monsters of Rock Festival. Issued eighteen months after Thunder’s first live appearance, Backstreet Symphony climbed into the U.K. Top 20 and earned gold certification. Laughing on Judgement Day followed in 1992, with Behind Closed Doors appearing three years later. The radio-focused fourth album Thrill of It All surfaced in 1996. A handful of live sets and compilation releases occupied the ensuing five to seven years until Shooting at the Sun arrived on Frontiers Records in 2003. Frontiers next put out Magnificent Seventh! in 2005 and Robert Johnson’s Tombstone the following year. Thunder mounted its first European tour in twelve years during 2007 and delivered the ninth studio album Bang! in 2008.

Invoking “outside interests,” the band disbanded in 2009 and its members pursued separate endeavors. A one-off reunion concert took place in 2011, after which Thunder maintained occasional live activity. In 2014 the group confirmed plans for a fresh studio record, resulting in the February 2015 release Wonder Days. All You Can Eat documented that album’s story through a short film and two live recordings, one captured in the studio. The eleventh studio effort Rip It Up appeared in 2017. While supporting the album on the road, Thunder captured a performance at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena; the set, titled Stage and drawing from the band’s extensive catalog, emerged in early 2018. Their twelfth album, Please Remain Seated, arrived in 2019. Prompted by the reimagined B-side of their 2017 Christmas single “Love Walked In,” the project revisited earlier material and recast several songs in markedly different arrangements. Marking thirty years of activity, the career-spanning Greatest Hits collection also appeared that year. Delayed six months by COVID-19, the thirteenth studio album All the Right Noises surfaced in March 2021 and returned to the group’s classic high-energy approach.