Foghat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
Please expand this article. Further information might be found in a section of the talk page or at Requests for expansion. |
| Foghat | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Background information | ||
| Origin | England | |
| Genre(s) | Blues rock Hard Rock |
|
| Years active | 1970 - present | |
| Label(s) | Bearsville | |
Foghat was an English rock band that had its greatest success in the mid- to late-1970s. Their music was straight-ahead blues-rock, dominated by electric & electric slide guitar, and the band achieved five gold records. The group remained popular during the disco era, but after the emergence of punk rock, the band no longer had a substantial audience, and they stopped performing live in 1984.
The band featured Dave Peverett ("Lonesome Dave") on guitar and vocal, Tony Stevens on bass, and Roger Earl on drums. They added Rod Price on guitar/slide guitar and formed Foghat upon leaving Savoy Brown in the early 1970s. Their 1972 album Foghat had a hit with a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The second album was also called Foghat (known as "rock and roll" for the cover photo of a rock and a roll), and it went gold. Energized came out in 1974, followed by Rock and Roll Outlaws and Fool for the City in 1975, the year that Stevens left the band. Stevens was replaced temporarily by Nick Jameson in 1975 and then permanently by Craig MacGregor in 1976, and the group produced Night Shift in 1976, a live album in 1977, and Stone Blue in 1978, each reaching gold record sales. Fool for the City was possibly the band's high water mark, as it spawned two hit singles, "Fool for the City" and "Slow Ride" (which reached number 20 on the US charts), but the highest sales figures were for Foghat Live, which sold over 2,000,000 copies. Rod Price left the band in 1980 and was replaced by Erik Cartwright. After 1978, Foghat record sales were far lower, and their last album, Zig-Zag Walk in 1983, only touched at the charts at #192.
Dave Peverett left the band in 1984 and went back to England, but Earl, along with MacGregor, Cartwright and others continued touring as Foghat into the early nineties. In 1990 Peverett formed his own version of Foghat with guitarist Bryan Bassett, formerly with Wild Cherry, and both bands were touring simultaneously in the early nineties. In 1993 the original lineup reunited and released a studio album entitled Return of the Boogie Men in 1994 and a live album entitled Road Cases in 1998. The final album of the decade, King Biscuit Flower Hour from the syndicated radio show of the same name, was released in May of 1999, and consisted of live recordings from 1974 and 1976.
The 2000s saw the death of Founding members Dave Peverettt and Rod Price. Dave Peverett died in February of 2000 from cancer and Rod Price died on March 22, 2005 from a heart attack as a result of a head injury sustained in a fall down a stairs.
After the death of founder Dave Peverett, the band re-formed with two of the founding members (drummer Roger Earl, and bass player Tony Stevens), plus Bryan Bassett, and Charlie Huhn, (a vocalist for Ted Nugent for a brief time), released the studio album Family Joules in 2003 – the first without the late "Lonesome Dave" Peverett. Tony Stevens has since been replaced again by Craig MacGregor.
[edit] Discography
- Foghat (1972)
- Foghat (Rock and Roll) (1973)
- Energized (1974)
- Rock & Roll Outlaws (1974)
- Fool for the City (1975)
- Night Shift (1976)
- Foghat Live (1977)
- Stone Blue (1978)
- Boogie Motel (1979)
- Tight Shoes (1980)
- Girls to Chat & Boys to Bounce (1981)
- In the Mood for Something Rude (1982)
- Zig-Zag Walk (1983)
[edit] Trivia
- In the Documentary film Spinal Tap Goes to 20, members of the band claimed that the plot and many of the incidents in This is Spinal Tap were based on Foghat.
- Drummer Roger Earl sported one of the biggest mustaches among rock stars. To the dismay of many fans, he decided to shave it off before many of later reunion concerts.
- Carl Brutananadilewski, a character in the TV series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, expressed in a commercial that he was a fan of Roger Earl, saying "I like the drummer from Foghat. That's my drummer."
- Foghat was a notoriously "anti-disco" band, starting in the late 1970s, when disco was at its peak of popularity.
- The TV show Still Standing has a character that plays in a Foghat tribute band.
- Their song "Slow Ride" was featured in the 1993 American movie Dazed and Confused. It has also been used in an episode of Malcolm In The Middle, in a Seinfeld episode and in an episode of Family Guy, where the evil monkey smokes a joint. It pulls station owner Jimmy James out of a coma in an episode of Newsradio. It was featured in the K-DST classic rock radio station of the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and an advertisement for the Honda Odyssey, and also an ad for Carl's Jr.
- Most, if not all tracks from "Foghat Live" are featured as party music in the 1981 action-adventure film "Nighthawks", starring Sylvester Stallone, Rutger Hauer, Billy Dee Williams and Lindsay Wagner, which includes a soundtrack by Keith Emerson, of Emerson, Lake & Palmer.
- In the music video for Yo La Tengo's "Sugarcube", the members of Yo La Tengo are sent to "The Academy of Rock" by their record company. There, one of the teachers informs them of the "Foghat Rule", which is that fourth album must be double live.
- In March of 2005 a highschool student located in Chula Vista, CA petitioned his school principal to have "Slow Ride" by Foghat to be played as the school lunch bell. After lengthy battles with the administraion, threats of hunger strikes, and anarchy, an agreement was made. On March 18th Bonita Vista High School played Foghat as their lunch passing period bell. [citation needed]
- In the fox TV series King of the Hill, Bill Dauterive says " I made most of my life decisions at a Foghat concert... I stand by them."
