Express & Star

Thundering on: Rock icons Thunder talk ahead of Birmingham show

It’s perhaps not surprising that Thunder think of the West Midlands as being a home from home.

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Back at the start . . .

During the past 30 years, they’ve visited the region more times than they care to remember – and always had as raucous a reception as they get anywhere in the UK.

They’re back on February 12 to end a whistle-stop UK tour at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. And for a band more used to tearing up arenas, they’re looking forward to playing in surrounds that are more genteel and refined.

There’s a reason for the transition, of course. While Thunder are typically all about jumping up and down, losing inhibitions and having a good time; they’ve just completed the biggest creative transformation of their 30-year-plus career.

Their aptly named Please Remain Seated double CD reprises some of the classic hits from their three-decade catalogue – but re-imagines them as blues tunes and acoustic melodies. And while some fans have been shocked – a few, bless them, have been outraged – it’s one of the smartest and most compelling creative moves of their career.

The album has raised eyebrows, hackles and heartbeats in equal measure as the band have taking an unexpected journey into their own music. Thirty years of pedal-to-the-metal rock has been re-imagined in flavours of blues, soul and even jazz.

Frontman Danny Bowes says the band had as much fun as at any point of their career when they hit the studio.

“It was very much a challenge. While we were doing the initial demos they were deliberately done over a very short period. We did 18 songs per session and gave ourselves five days to demo those in October 2017 before going back in in March 2018. We didn’t really have any idea what we were going to do. We just went for it. We didn’t talk about the arrangements until we got there.

“Having decided to take these tunes on it was all about fiddling around with them until they became pretty good. Having done the two sessions, we had a period of reflection to think about which ones really worked for us. Then last summer, we went in to re-record them properly. We worked out which ones were the most interesting. You know, it took us by surprise, as well as the listeners. We took rock songs and ended up doing Johnny Cash impersonations, almost.”

Thunder

And yet perhaps it’s no surprise that Thunder should temporarily move away from the foot-on-the-monitor classic rock sound that has been their stock in trade since their debut, Backstreet Symphony, dented the charts at number 21 in 1990. In recent years, one of their most popular activities has been an annual Christmas tour. The shows are broken down into two halves – one in which they play acoustic versions of classic tunes and the other where they rock out.

“That’s the thing,” says Danny. “I think we’ve hinted at this a couple of times over the years. If you look at the Christmas show, that’s split into two with the stripped back laid back set, when we‘re all sitting down, then the jump-around set. So we’ve been fiddling around with different versions of that over the years.

“Besides, we’ve been nagged for years by fans asking if we’d do a quieter version of Love Walked In. A lot of people wanted to feature that as their wedding song but were worried with the rockier version in case it blew their grannies’ hair off. We resisted it for years because we didn’t think we could do it. But then Luke wrote a song that sort of paved the way to Please Remain Seated. We started thinking about how we could radically rethink and rearrange songs from the catalogue. We didn’t just want to do quiet versions. We wanted to put ourselves in the position of being a different band, almost.”

There’s no getting away from the fact that Please Remain Seated marks a major change in direction for Thunder. They had inherited the mantle of classic British rock from some of the greatest. Having grown up listening to such bands as Free, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, they became the latest in a long line of classic British rock bands, with a touch of the blues.

And recorded a record that puts those influences front and centre, while referencing the likes of Robert Johnson, was the best of fun. “It was a strange but very interesting experience and very liberating. When I heard the mixes I just kept walking around with a big smile on my face. It brings back really good memories of doing it.”

The tour will be well-attended: Thunder shows always are. But this time the band wanted to go off the beaten track. So there’s no arenas, civic halls or academies where fans enjoy sweaty, ribald nights. Instead, they’re going to some of the UK’s most gentrified venues, including Birmingham’s Symphony Hall on February 12.

“Part of the plan was to do a tour in these places. We’re going to some of the towns and cities that we know and love but we’re not playing our regular venues. This has to be a very different show to the one we’re used to doing. Anyone who expects to be jumping up and down is going to be disappointed.”

Perhaps the greatest achievement by one of Britain’s best-loved and most enduring rock bands is that they’re still pushing the envelope despite being deep into their career.

“It would be very easy to tour the greatest hits but to be honest whenever I’ve seen bands doing it they look bored. And if you’re bored, you’re boring. We like to be fully immersed in what we’re doing. We like to feel we’re making a difference for ourselves and everyone else. And we like to keep things fresh and relevant.”

That’s something they’ve been doing for 30 years. And, with Please Remain Seated, they’re showing no signs of slowing up.