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PRESS COVERAGE JAM SHOWBIZ Articles
Thursday, September 12, 2002
"We have to take it easy, make sure there's something there the next morning." So much for the question of whether or not the band uses drugs to keep up its long, unlikely tale, after what technically amounts to 33 years writing prog-rock lyrics both ponderous and plodding, otherworldly and even a little brilliant. The band plays Skyreach tonight. Helliwell, born in 1945, joined the band late, though you'd hardly notice in any greatest-hits repackaging, joining original lineup-surviving members Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson in '73 after the bankroll of Dutch millionaire Stan Miesegaes ran dry. Asked for his own take on being sponsored, Helliwell complies nicely. "I showed up for Crime of the Century. (Miesegaes) gave them a roof over their head, but he was kind of bowing out by that time. He realized he didn't really have the rock-and-roll contacts necessary." Which is saying nothing about the fact the band really didn't initially gel that well, although the first two albums do have their fans. But nothing with the kind of appeal that selling millions illustrates, thanks to hits like, initially, Dreamer, Bloody Well Right and School. Boom. Enter the screaming hippy girls. "The band really came together when (drummer Bob Benberg) and I joined it, a great combination of five people (including bass player Dougie Thompson). We had about 10 great years with Roger." This was the era of songs like the rousing Give a Little Bit, off Even in the Quietest Moments, and its hazy follow-up hits The Logical Song, and Goodbye, Stranger, sprung from 1979's Breakfast in America. Wow, are those songs really 23 years old? Time does what it does. It's Raining Again was the last big hit for the Hodgson co-piloted band in '82. "By the time we got to '83, see, he's quite a prolific writer, he felt quite constrained. I mean, we were doing one album every two years, and he'd have only four songs on that album, splitting them with Rick. So he felt that he'd be better off on his own," Helliwell shrugs. "We're very happy with Brother Where You Bound.'' But Cannonball, with that great video, was like our final Stanley Cup without Gretz. The defiant end of a winning era, the wonderful song Better Days ostensibly turning out the lights. "At the end of '88, we decided to take a little break and we didn't do anything till '97 with Some Things Never Change. The band felt so good and we had such a good vibe we had to keep it going. And so here we are." Every single Canadian concert review of the band talks about the irrelevance of the new Slow Motion, but it's quite nice, and there are songs off the Davies-written album that will play well. But the reviewers are right, it's the saga that resonates. "People say, 'Don't you get tired of playing? You might have one night where you're thinking, 'Oh God' - well, not even that." That's as close as Helliwell comes to admitting he'd rather have the reinvention matter, the way David Bowie still manages to keep it up. "But the glimmer of recognition is precious," Helliwell says. "Some people seem to sing more readily than others, but however they express themselves, we really do appreciate it."
"The climate is very different now, it's very TV oriented. Our bellybuttons are not that good," the band's vocalist/keyboardist says. "When we came up it was perfect because everybody sat cross legged on the floor and smoked something and listened to the music, and it's not like that now." Supertramp formed in 1969, when a Dutch millionaire offered to support a band Davies would start. After recruiting a group of musicians from an ad in Melody Maker, Supertramp recorded two prog-rock albums -- a self-titled debut in 1970, followed the next year by Indelibly Stamped -- before the millionaire pulled his financial backing when they failed to sell. He should have stuck around. With a slight tweaking of the formula to include more pop hooks, Supertramp's third album, Crime of the Century, kicked off almost a decade of hit records for the band, which included Crisis? What Crisis?, Even in the Quietest Moments and Breakfast in America. The key to their success was the songwriting collaboration between Davies and Roger Hodgson who penned the band's biggest hits such as School, Dreamer, The Logical Song, Take the Long Way Home and Bloody Well Right. Hodgson left the band after 1982's Famous Last Words to embark on a solo career. Supertramp continued on without him for a couple of albums -- with Davies writing all the material -- before the band took a 10-year break. "At that time we thought it may be the end, but we didn't want to say it was the end because so many people say it's their farewell tour, then they get back together and it just feels stupid," says Davies, 58. Davies and longtime Supertramp members Bob Siebenberg, Mark Hart and John Helliwell recruited some new musicians in 1997, recorded the comeback album Some Things Never Change and embarked on a wildly successful world tour. "I was going to do a solo album at that time and do things other than music and try and get fit and all the rest of it, but as I wrote more and more there was a lot of Supertramp material in there and I called around and everyone wanted to do it," Davies says of the band's reunion. Noticeably absent from the lineup is Hodgson, whom Davies doesn't see much, although some of the other members of the band have worked with him from time to time. Working with Hodgson just isn't logical for Davies, he says. "Roger is a strange character, he kind of disappears into the wild for months at a time." The current Supertramp tour, which stops in Winnipeg Monday, features musical selections from the band's entire career and their newest album, Slow Motion, which doesn't have North American distribution and is only available for sale on the band's Web site. And for anyone who thinks the tour is just a cash grab, they are dreamers, Davies says. "It's full production and lights and movies, it's not something we just threw together to pay the mortgage," he says. "We really enjoy getting up there and cranking it out, maybe the travelling and the hotels aren't always that fun, but we really enjoy playing."
It's called a 'hook,' a short bit of harmony that gets locked in your brain, where it stays for the rest of your conscious life. You accidentally think about some four-chord chorus you first heard in 1969 and that's it, there goes the rest of the day. REVITALIZED The hook is something revitalized '70s supergroup Supertramp wrote in abundance. They play the Corel Centre tonight. Slow Motion is the first Supertramp album in five years and the first batch of new original tunes since the band reformed in 1997. Written by founding member Rick Davies, the album pushes the restored eight-piece band, still missing Davies' writing partner Roger Hodgson, to a pared-down rootsy sound. The band, which took its name from W.H. Davies' The Autobiography of a Supertramp, went their separate ways until Davies started another solo album in 1995. REUNION "I was writing music that sounded very much like Supertramp," Davies recalls over the phone from New York City. "I called all the old members and before long we were a band again." The result is their 17th album. Joining Davies are Supertramp veterans John Helliwell on reeds and sax and drummer Bob Siebenberg, with new recruits Mark Hart, bass player Cliff Hugo, vocalist Jesse Siebenberg, trumpeter Lee Thornburg and guitar player Carl Verheyen. "I still like to create music and there's still a large audience for Supertramp," Davies explains. The irony of Slow Motion, an album with a more relaxed view of the hypertense global lifestyle, is the band plugged the album with a crazy, whirlwind 73-city European tour that took almost five months to complete. Is this a case of, 'Do as I say, not as I do?' "It's a little dizzying right now," admits Davies. "But then, we don't do this every day." Now that's an understatement. MOST AMERICAN ALBUM Davies, who's been living in the States for more than 20 years, calls this his most American album to date, reflecting his recent obsession with the music of Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters. "Even growing up in England, I've always felt American," he says. "It's because I identified so strongly with the music." One of the most influential bands from the 1970s, Supertramp was the clever conjurors of AM-style pop for an FM generation. Songs such as The Logical Song, Take The Long Way Home and Bloody Well Right struck a chord with Canadians. One in every 20 Canucks bought Crime of the Century, Crisis, What Crisis, Even in the Quietest Moments and Breakfast in America. It was a good ride until Hodgson, founding member, songwriter and looming personality of the band left, in 1984. "Roger was much more the British personality of the band. He was the band's showman while I was more into being a good rock band."
Wednesday, August 6, 1997 Saving the best for last Last night's show at the Coliseum was billed as "an evening with Supertramp" - and what a long one it was. Running more than two hours and no opening act (what band could - or would - do it?), the show featured expensive self-indulgence, fine musicianship and the reason the band was so great to begin with: the songs. They definitely don't build pop songs like that anymore. Listen well, kids, this band is a true dinosaur from another era, when DJs didn't make music, when songs were "pieces," and no piece was complete without more parts than the bride of Frankenstein. Unlike other so called art-rock bands, Supertramp was able to put them all together to please a mass audience. So what if there are only three original members? - keyboardist Rick Davies, saxophonist/master of ceremonies John Helliwell and drummer Bob Siebenberg - the spirit of Supertramp came across largely intact. Musically, the band was masterful. Aside from a rather silly and distracting light show, there was no flashy entrance for this veteran art-pop outfit. The first thing a loyal, 40-ish crowd of 6,500 heard wasn't Bloody Well Right, Fool's Overture or even Take the Long Way Home - the "biggies," as Davies calls them. No - it was a bass solo in a jazzy interlude. What followed was an exercise in building anticipation. Taking advantage of its captive and sweaty audience, the band opened with songs from the newest album, Some Things Never Change. There were some highlights, like a cooking version of Listen To Me Please, but the new songs were mostly unmemorable. They were faint clones of the past at best. If the band had released them in the '70s, they'd be playing the Westin ballroom for Jazz City, not the Coliseum. Of the new stuff, only You Win, I Lose, the latest single, brought cheers of recognition. Proof, if any was needed, of how loyal this crowd was. The biggies came later. It was at least an hour before the first old chestnut flew down the pike - and it was a minor hit at that. The band seemed to relish teasing the crowd. A version of Rudy - the last and least memorable track from the band's breakthrough album Crime of the Century - seemed merely to be a promise of favorite delights to come. The crowd cheered their heads off in any case. Needless to say, it was bedlam for Take the Long Way Home and other biggies. The Supertramp of the '90s is a bluesier, more solo-oriented band than it used to be, which means that the songs can be longer than they already are. In putting together the third version of the band, Davies didn't cut corners, although he did tend to hog the spotlight. Former Crowded House keyboardist Mark Hart provided some fine high vocals. Trumpet player Lee Thornburg, of Tower of Power fame, was brilliant - on horn, vocals and piano. And drummer Siebenberg was a rock, locking in with son Jesse on percussion and bassist Cliff Hugo of the Ray Charles band. Noting that it was minus 40 the last time the band played in Edmonton (February 1988) - a difference of about 70 degrees from last night - Helliwell said, "Every visit to Edmonton is etched on my mind ... well, what's left of it, anyway." He later called us "the friendliest city in Canada ... maybe the friendliest city in North America." The crowd roared its approval. I guess there is no such thing as laying it on too thick when it comes to Supertramp.
Bloody well right now Besides, some bands strike such a powerful chord with their fans that it would be impossible - unthinkable - that they'd ever be forgotten. The love of Supertramp, for example, goes beyond a nostalgic preference for classic rock. What happened last December was pure devotion. It was the Gig of the Century. A group of local musicians calling themselves the Art Rock Preservation Society (ARPS) presented a two-hour, note-for-note tribute of Supertramp at the Sidetrack Cafe. They had rehearsed for eight months for a single concert that would never be repeated. Dreamer, Goodbye Stranger, Bloody Well Right ... they just don't build pop songs like that any more. Memories of the '70s came flooding back - especially for ARPS drummer Andy Okell, who has to be Supertramp's No. 1 Edmonton fan. "Supertramp was probably the most musical and most accessible art rock band," he says. "Back then, I don't think non-musicians were listening to Yes, King Crimson or Emerson Lake and Palmer. But they were listening to Supertramp. Of all the art rock bands, Supertramp really crossed the boundaries to the common man." The day after the ARPS show, there was a run on Supertramp albums, Okell says. He estimates at least 50 CDs were sold as a result of the tribute. One radio station had even reported that it really was Supertramp playing the Sidetrack, but few believed such an outrageous thing. The real Supertramp was long gone. Or so we thought. The band playing tomorrow night in the Coliseum may be missing a member or two, but it is the "real" Supertramp. The band is supporting its first studio album in 10 years, Some Things Never Change. We checked the back files, and sure enough, Supertramp's Rick Davies had never gotten around to announcing the band had broken up - even though it had effectively done so three times: Once in 1971 when the band's first two albums flopped, once in 1983 when singer-songwriter Roger Hodgson left and once in 1988 following the Free as a Bird tour. Davies, on the phone from a tour stop in the U.S., explains that he simply didn't want to do anything rash. "You just read about all these guys that have their retirement and then they have their comeback and retirement comeback," he says. "It just seems silly to me. As long as there's a chance that you might play again, I think it's silly to say anything." Davies, who would make a good illustration for "mellow" in the dictionary, says the fact that Supertramp is returning among hordes of other '70s bands is "purely coincidental, but we're certainly happy to take any benefits that go with that, of course," he laughs. "As far as we were concerned, we could've just faded away. We'd been out on the road for about 22 years and decided it was time to take a break. I was scheduled to make a solo album. That was the vague thing in my mind of the next thing to do." After tinkering in his home studio, Davies says he realized that the songs he was coming up with were too strong to be thrown away on a solo album that would probably get lost in the shuffle anyway. The project fizzled. Hodgson returned briefly in 1992, performing just two songs at a birthday party for A&M Records' co-founder Jerry Moss. Talk of a reunion fizzled, too. That might've been it for Supertramp were it not for that undying fan devotion. The Very Best of Supertramp set, released later in 1992, sold more than five million copies worldwide, much to Davies' surprise. "That went a long way in convincing me that there was still a pretty big audience out there," he says. "So I started to figure out a different way to do Supertramp." The result is Supertramp Version 3.0, a bluesier, jazzier, more solo-oriented band than devoted fans may remember. And, yes, they play all the "biggies," Davies promises. "It's the most enjoyable band that I've ever been in. It's just got an energy that sort of plays itself now. It's taken a long time to be in a band like that, actually." About 28 years, in fact. The Art Rock Preservation Society would be proud. Davies laughs, "Well, I hope we're as good as they are."
Rockin' railroad So there I was with the rock group Supertramp on the Orient Express. When the train rolled out of Paris that warm spring night 12 years ago, 50 reporters and the band sat down to a seven-course dinner in a dining car we had only ever seen before in movies. And as the champagne flowed and flowed - and never did stop flowing - the noise level went up to a point where our fellow passengers were considering some form of murder on the Orient Express. Picture this: half the train was filled with rich couples celebrating a numerically significant wedding anniversary, who'd carefully packed their brocade gowns and paid $2,000 for a 22-hour train ride. They were not the slightest bit amused at having Supertramp and its low-rent entourage on board. The freeloading pack of reporters strained the Orient Express dress code which bans "jeans and other casual clothing.'' The rules had never encountered the skinny leather ties and multi-hued jackets that passed for formal wear that night. The big surprise for me? The band members were a far cry from the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll image one might have expected. These are the kind of guys you wouldn't mind riding with in a car from Paris to Venice, let alone on the greatest train in the world. Bob Siebenberg, the American drummer, was mainly interested in combing through a day-old International Herald Tribune for news of his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers. It mattered little to him that he was rolling through Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy. Scottish bass player Doug "Doogie'' Thomson, who is no longer with the band, kept the Brits howling with laughter although his accent turned most of his jokes into indecipherable verbal puzzles for those of us from this side of the Atlantic. Band leader and lead singer Rick Davies was at his witty best as he strode into a bar car filled with men in tuxedoes and women in evening gowns and called to the bartender: "Can I have a beer? I spent all me money on the fare.'' After a very moist dinner, we invaded the vintage, wood-panelled bar car where Davies assumed the baby grand piano, quickly dislodging a grey-haired man who had been tinkling that old song Feelings. By 2 a.m. the paying customers were in their beds, leaving the bar car to a boisterous crowd that stayed until dawn while John Helliwell played his sax and Davies the piano. The next morning, far too early after such a late night, some hungover reporters did one-on-one interviews with some almost chirpy members of the band, which shattered my illusion that journalism was the home of hard living. "We thought that even if people didn't like Supertramp, they would still want to go to Venice,'' Davies replied when asked about the unique launch of their 1985 album Brother Where You Bound. "This is something nice for the press, a little unusual twist.'' Later, as we pulled into Zurich, several British reporters bemoaned the cleanliness of this place, Switzerland. "It looks as if it's been freshly Hoovered overnight,'' moaned Chris Frew, a frenetic Scotsman who wrote for Variety and was assigned the other bunk in my compartment. "I'd rather have gone through Italy. It's a bit more scruffy.'' Inspired by his complaints, a pair of Brits hurried back into their cabin and emerged with overflowing ashtrays. They promptly dumped them out the window onto the pristine platform. "That's better,'' one said. "The station manager'll have a heart attack.'' During an incredible lunch - la tourte depinards et de langoustines (leaf spinach and scampi in puff pastry) and le gigotin de lotte au fumet de cresson (steamed fish fillets with watercress sauce) with a 1983 Pouilly-Fuisse (good wine) - Italian border guards searched every bag on the train, hoping to find the drugs. Considering the hangovers, there wasn't even a Tylenol left on the train. They departed very disappointed. We spent the rest of the afternoon listening to the album on huge speakers in the dining car while enjoying a novelty Supertramp had added to the trip for our pleasure: the bottomless champagne glass. As the train roared through the rugged north end of Italy with rain beading on the windows, music never sounded so good. Even today, when I put on that tape, I can close my eyes and be back on that train, although I'll never be that drunk again. The album ended as we pulled into Venice at sunset, an experience everyone should have once. We boarded a boat for the Excelsior Hotel, the best in town. The rooms were 300,000 lira a night, which in those days was $200 and a lot of money. Hey, when you arrive first-class, you gotta stay first-class, right? A day later I was back in my Paris apartment - smaller than my Excelsior suite - and wondering if the whole thing might have been a dream. No, any hangover that lasts for two days is very real. So, my next dream assignment? How about if the crew aboard the American space shuttle is a pilot, Supertramp and a pool reporter - me? Hey, the menu isn't that great but I hear the scenery's fantastic! Kevin Scanlon is an Edmonton Sun copy editor. He plans to attend Supertramp's concert on Tuesday. He won't be offended if the band does not provide bottomless champagne glass service.
Supertramp reunion was logical
thing to do Not everyone finds it so amusing. "I don't really think about it," says British-born Supertramp founder Rick Davies on the phone from Long Island, N.Y., prior to Supertramp's Molson Amphitheatre show tomorrow night. "That just happened. People say, 'Why are you old guys all getting together again?' I have no idea." Davies also points out the return of Supertramp, who had worldwide hits with The Logical Song, Goodbye Stranger, Dreamer and Bloody Well Right, certainly isn't a reunion in the traditional sense. Of the regrouped band's members, Davies is the sole representative from Supertramp's odd beginnings, when they were brought together by a Dutch millionaire in 1969. Sax player John Helliwell and drummer Bob Siebenberg, who joined Supertramp three years after its creation, are the only other veterans to return. Among the new notable members is Mark Hart, previously of Crowded House. "We packed up in 1988," says Davies. "We'd been out there for about 20 years just recording and touring and it seemed time to have a break with no ideas as to if or when we would come back. We decided not to actually say anything, just sort of fade away like an old soldier." But then in 1993, after Davies' long-delayed solo album failed to materialize, he was persuaded to sing with his old Supertramp songwriting partner Roger Hodgson at the L.A. birthday party of Jerry Moss, the "M" of A&M Records. "He wanted to see us together again, and of course when that happened there was talk about us getting together and regrouping and we gave it shot. But for some reason Roger didn't want to continue with it. He thought it didn't feel right. Then it seemed that, well, maybe it should be a Supertramp record anyway." Thus Hodgson, who left the band to do solo work in 1983 and briefly rejoined in 1985, is absent from the 1997 lineup. "In a perfect world, I would have loved to have Roger out there, but we've had wonderful response as it is, so we can't complain," says Davies. Supertramp, who are now signed to a two-record deal with EMI-France, just finished a three-and-a-half-month tour in Europe that saw them performing to crowds of 17,000 in Barcelona, 20,000 in Lyons, France, and 18,000 in Paris. "Canada's looking quite good," comments Davies of ticket sales. "Of course that's a traditionally good place for Supertramp." He credits a Montreal deejay way back when for getting the Supertramp ball rolling in Canada. "For some reason it clicked," he says. "So I think the first time we played in Montreal, we had 12,000, which was the very first time that we played to that size of a crowd." While the new Supertramp record, Some Things Never Change, has hardly been flying out of record stores, the first single, You Win, You Lose, has received air play on pop stations. Of the album's apt title, Davies says: "It seemed to sum up the philosophy a little bit, in that we still believe in melody and dynamics in the music and lyrics that make sense. So from that point of view, we haven't changed."
Summer Tramp Aside from the fact that a Supertramp concert hasn't happened here in a very long while, Ontario and Quebec have always been important places for the band, because it was here that Crime Of The Century first took off back in 1974 -- giving the band a jump on what was to become international stardom. It's been 10 years since their last studio album and now they've reformed, released a new CD (Some Things Never Change), and are hot off a two month European tour. They'll play the Corel Centre on Friday. "It's really wonderful to be back," says sax wizard John Helliwell, during a breather at his home in England. "I'm really enjoying this new phase, we've put what we believe to be a great show together and everything's been rolling along quite well." One wonders what was the catalyst that brought Supertramp back together in the studio for another go-round at the rock machine. "With us, we'd toured and recorded right through until `88 and then just decided we should have a proper rest. There had really been no time limit on this thing and we just all went off to do our own things. "Personally, I did a little session work and then decided to go to college and actually study music here in England. "At the same time Rick (Davies) started working on a solo album, put a little band together but once the material began to come together, he realized that it all sounded like Supertramp anyway. "So about 18 months ago he began seriously thinking about reforming the band." This is when the call went out for original Supertramp members, and both Helliwell and drummer Bob Siebenberg answered the bell. "We built the band around that core as well as some of the people Rick was working with. This includes singer Mark Hart of Crowded House fame, who also worked with us on our '86 and '88 tours and the last CD Free As A Bird." Helliwell indicates that although he had a little trepidation about starting this thing up again, he just couldn't say no. "On paper it looked really good. Then when we started doing the rehearsals to actually start making the album it all came together in a fashion that was so easy and felt so great. "The capper was that we recorded the album in a way that Supertramp never had and that was by all going into the studio together and doing it as a much more live thing. It gave the band a more organic feel." Those studio sessions also heralded a bit of a new direction. "We brought a trumpet into the mix and it gives us a jazzier, bluesier sound. And there's a lot more people in the band today who have those influences as well." The hugely successful tours of bands like Supertramp -- who hit their stride in the '70s -- has been dubbed Geezer Rock or Dinosaur Rock, with many critics unable to explain the renewed popularity. "I think the bands who were big before punk were from an era that concentrated a bit more on melody and I firmly believe a lot of people are missing that at the moment. There's certainly a lot of good new artists but we feel like we're nowhere near the stage of extinction. We're probably more creative than ever these days and we're also very proud of what we've done." One of Supertramp's concert trademarks was the BIG show and Helliwell says that hasn't changed either. "Certainly the technology of concert production has changed remarkably since we stopped playing. We use it to a degree to assist with the style of show people are accustomed to." "But the main thing the fans will find this time is the state of the art sound system we use and it's based on scientific concept of how the thing is put up -- so everyone attending gets a perfect stereo sound."
Supertramp returning to Canada The 1997 version of the band -- which features a core of Rick Davies, John Helliwell, and Bob C. Benberg from the glory days, though pointedly NOT co-frontman Roger Hodgson -- is touring overseas through early July. The North American leg of the tour, their first in 10 years, runs from mid-July through mid-August. A new Supertramp album, "Some Things Never Change," -- which consciously evokes the classic sound of "Breakfast In America" -- hits the street in Canada and the U.S. on June 3. According to fan reports filed on the Supertramp web site, the band is playing a marathon two-and-a-half-hour show featuring seven of the 12 songs off the new album, plus virtually all of the band's '70s FM staples, including "Goodbye Stranger", "School", "The Logical Song" and "Crime Of The Century." Relative newcomer Mark Hart, who played with Supertramp in the late '80s and also enjoyed a stint with Crowded House before they packed it in, is singing lead vocals on the songs associated with MIA member Hodgson. Here's the full Canadian itinerary. Ticket info will follow shortly. Below that is a set list from the European shows.
European set list: "It's A Hard World" (new)
Band? what band? Some Things Never Change, the band's first studio album in 10 years, comes out June 3 - but founding vocalist/keyboard wizard Roger Hodgson is still nowhere in sight. Due to "tensions" with partner Rick Davies, Hodgson left Supertramp after the tour for the Famous Last Words album in 1982. The current lineup includes Davies, former Crowded House guitarist Mark Hart, Ray Charles bassist Cliff Hugo, plus Supertramp regulars John Helliwell on sax and Bob Siebenberg on drums. The new Supertramp single, You Win, I Lose, is earning a mixed response at radio - at least on Edmonton. The Bear isn't playing it. "We believe that Supertramp without Roger Hodgson isn't Supertramp," said program director Greg Diamond. But K-97 is. "We added it right out of the box and it is now in heavy rotation," said program director Kevin Grexton. "We're getting lots of requests for it, too." Supertramp has tried the Roger-less route before without much success. Although core fans remained loyal, the three albums released from 1985-87 failed to generate any hits on the order of Dreamer or The Logical Song. More than 14 years after Crime of the Century made the band an international success, Supertramp apparently called it quits in 1988, though there was no official announcement. Version No. 3 of Supertramp will tour Europe starting May 1, landing for a North American tour this August. Canadian dates are expected.
Supertramp gears up for breakfast
in America Last year's geezer-rock trend is continuing in a big way with the June 3 release of Supertramp's first album in 10 years, appropriately called Some Things Never Change. The album, produced by Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon), features 12 songs written by founding member Rick Davies -- including the first single You Win, I Lose. Davies' songwriting partner Roger Hodgson, who left the band in 1983 to pursue a solo career but briefly rejoined in 1985, is absent from the 1997 lineup. Among the new members is former Crowded House guitarist-keyboardist Mark Hart, who co-wrote two songs with Davies and joins longtime Supertramp vets John Anthony Helliwell on sax and Bob Siebenberg on drums. A Toronto date is expected sometime
in the summer or fall
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