Mark Luckhurst

Thunder are an English hard rock band from London.

Formed in 1989, the group was founded by former Terraplane members Danny Bowes (lead vocals), Luke Morley (guitar, backing vocals) and Gary "Harry" James (drums), along with second guitarist and keyboardist Ben Matthews and bassist Mark "Snake" Luckhurst.

On 1 January 1989, at the group's annual New Year's Day meeting, Terraplane was disbanded by vocalist Danny Bowes and guitarist Luke Morley, who decided to form a new band under the name Thunder.

Later in the month, the pair recorded a number of demos at Great Linford Manor Studios in Milton Keynes with producer Andy Taylor and engineer Ben Matthews, as well as Terraplane drummer Gary "Harry" James, who was brought in after the initially planned drummer failed to attend.

According to Morley, the band name was chosen as a combination of two elements: a song he had written called "Distant Thunder", and Taylor's debut solo album.

Enlisting Bad Company's Steve Price to play bass temporarily (Morley played bass as well as guitar on the Linford Manor demos), the group invited a number of record labels to their rehearsals in London, and later signed with EMI in April.

Mark "Snake" Luckhurst joined Thunder as the group's original bassist on 2 May 1989, having been recommended by James after the two had performed together in Hellfire Corner.

The band's lineup was completed with the addition of Matthews, who had earlier played keyboards for Terraplane's last two shows and engineered Thunder's January demos.

Thunder played their first live show on 13 July 1989 at the Reid's Club in Southend-on-Sea, the first date in a short run of seven UK dates dubbed "The Toilet Tour".

In August the band returned to the Great Linford Manor to record their debut studio album, again working with Taylor as producer.

The album was mixed at London's AIR Studios by Mike Fraser, who also engineered the record.

"She's So Fine" was released as the first single from the upcoming album on 30 October, after which the band embarked on a 27-date tour of the UK and Ireland dubbed the "Static Discharge Tour", which included two shows supporting Aerosmith at the NEC Arena in Birmingham.

Originally signed to EMI Records in the UK, the band released their debut album Backstreet Symphony in 1990, which reached number 21 on the UK Albums Chart and number 114 on the US Billboard 200.

"Dirty Love" was released in February 1990 and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40, before peaking the following week at number 32.

The band's debut album Backstreet Symphony was released on 5 March and entered the UK Albums Chart at its peak position of number 21.

Backstreet Symphony was featured at number 7 on the Kerrang! "Albums of the Year" feature for 1990, and in 2008 was voted by the magazine's readers to be the 84th best British rock album of all-time.

Backstreet Symphony was promoted on a UK tour running from late February through until the end of March, after which Thunder travelled to the United States to perform a pair of shows for American media and meet with EMI's sister label Capitol Records, who had originally released the album in the US.

According to journalist Mick Wall, who had been travelling with Thunder for a number of months, "Capitol in America were notorious at the time for not supporting acts signed to EMI in the UK", which resulted in the band splitting with the label shortly after their meeting.

Thunder continued touring in support of their debut album, including a stint supporting Heart in April and May, and another supporting Love/Hate in July, both in Europe.

On 18 August they performed for the first time at Monsters of Rock, which was headlined by Whitesnake.

After splitting with Capitol earlier in the year, the band signed a US deal with Geffen Records in September, who reissued Backstreet Symphony with a new cover the following April.

By 1991, it had been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

Four more tracks from Backstreet Symphony were later issued as singles –

the title track, "Gimme Some Lovin'", a reissue of "She's So Fine", and "Love Walked In" – all of which reached the top 40 of the UK Singles Chart.

The 1992 follow-up Laughing on Judgement Day reached number 2, while both albums were certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI).

All nine singles released from the two albums reached the UK Singles Chart top 40.

Luckhurst left the band in late 1992, and was replaced the following February by former Great King Rat bassist Mikael Höglund.

The new lineup recorded only one studio album, Behind Closed Doors, which peaked at number 5 in the UK and spawned three UK top 40 singles.

The 1995 compilation Their Finest Hour (And a Bit) reached number 22 in the UK and was certified silver by the BPI.

Höglund left in 1996 and was replaced by Chris Childs, after Morley performed bass on fourth album The Thrill of It All, which reached the UK top 20.

Thunder's 1998 live album Live reached number 35 on the UK Albums Chart, while the following year's fifth studio album Giving the Game Away reached number 49.

The band broke up in early 2000 due to "outside business forces".

After a brief hiatus, Thunder returned in 2002 and formed their own record label, STC Recordings.

The band's sixth studio album Shooting at the Sun was released the following year, supported by the UK top 50 single "Loser".

Writing for Classic Rock magazine in 2002, journalist Dave Ling claimed that the album was "greeted with critical rapture", calling it "one of the all-time great hard rock debuts".

AllMusic's Alex Henderson, however, proposed that while the record "wasn't lacking when it came to spirit and enthusiasm", it displayed Thunder as "[not] the most original or groundbreaking band in the world".

After three more new studio albums – 2005's The Magnificent Seventh, 2006's Robert Johnson's Tombstone and 2008's Bang! – Thunder decided to break up in 2009.

Two years later, however, the group returned for a third active spell, scheduling a number of sporadic live shows over the following years.

A tenth studio album, Wonder Days, was released on the earMusic label in 2015, giving the band their first UK top ten since 1995 when it peaked at number 9.

Rip It Up followed in 2017, reaching a peak UK Albums Chart position of number 3.