There’s a point toward the end of the night that everyone in the audience and onstage knows is coming. It’s the signature song of the artist, a composition that is beloved all over the world and changed the course of a number of rock and roll careers. When the opening riff hits, the rapturous explosion – a combination of beloved recognition, joy and appreciation – overwhelms the venue and ramps up the excitement level to near frenetic levels.
For veteran British vocalist/songwriter Graham Bonnet, that song is classic Rainbow track Since You’ve Been Gone when the first chords begin to blast through the speakers, there is an almost visible cascade of emotion that washes over the crowd and reverberates around the room. It continues to be the most popular song in terms of sales and radio play for the Ritchie Blackmore-led band historically, and comes from the band’s first album without lead singer Ronnie James Dio, Down to Earth, released in 1979.
The piece itself was composed and originally released by Russ Ballard from the band Argent on his solo album in 1976. Revamped and re-recorded under Blackmore’s auspices, Since You’ve Been Gone became a huge commercial success for Rainbow, propelling the band to greater heights, but also shifting them away thematically from the more musically arcane and lyrically imaginative work that they had done under Dio’s sword and sorcery vibe.
It’s still a crowd pleaser today, especially in parts of the world where classic rock is still revered, like Europe, the Far East and South America, and is always going to be an integral part of any set list put together by Bonnet. He appeared on just that one Rainbow record before returning to his solo career, but it was a truly revelatory experience and completely transformed his life and career. Previously known more for his R&B stylings, he become a heavy rock maven, while Rainbow continued it’s more AOR-oriented pursuits with Bonnet’s replacement, Joe Lynn Turner, for three more albums until Blackmore rejoined a reforming Deep Purple Mark II in 1984. In other words, both benefited from the positive fallout and lasting legacy of Since You’ve Been Gone.
“We play that song and also All Night Long [from the same album and also a hit] every night and that’s when the audience really goes berserk. As soon as we start Since You’ve Been Gone they all jump around and start singing and you can almost let them sing the whole song some nights. So I do embrace that song and appreciate what it’s done for me, even though I have probably sung in more than 8,000 times. If it wasn’t for Since You’ve Been Gone I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you. And if Rainbow hadn’t recorded that song I don’t think they would have gone as far as they did later after the album I did, because they carried on in that vein. They got a whole new audience because they became radio friendly and got tons of videos on MTV and it was because of what we started with Since You’ve Been Gone,” said Bonnet, who turns 69 two days before Christmas.
And the reason he was talking to press on this particular day was not to reflect back on the past – although for someone of his pedigree it is inevitable that interviews will stray backwards in time – but to talk about his new album and the new band that helped create it. The Book comes out on Nov. 4 worldwide on Frontiers Music and is a delightful, powerful and hard driving collection of 11 new compositions from Bonnet on one CD, with him and his phenomenally talented new band – eponymously titled The Graham Bonnet Band – re-recording 16 songs from Bonnet’s past on a second CD.
It’s a past that not only includes his short but breathtakingly successful stint with Rainbow, but also his time with the Michael Schenker Group (for the album Assault Attack) as well as with the band Alcatrazz and many solo albums and appearances on many other artists’ albums over the years.
Alcatrazz was not as well known in North America as it was elsewhere, but Bonnet recruited two young guitar players in succession who would learn the ropes from him before going on to massive success and industry respect elsewhere – Yngwie Malmsteen and Steve Vai.
He’s fronted and released music with bands such as Impellitteri, Forcefield, Blackthorne and the legendary Japanese band Anthem, and also recorded a slew of solo albums which enjoyed varying degrees of acclaim around the globe.
At the start of his career in the late 1960s, Bonnet enjoyed a modicum of chart success in the U.K. as part of the duo The Marbles, with a pair of their singles [both penned by Barry, Maurice and Robin Gibb aka The Bee Gees] getting to the upper reaches of the charts. He then worked doing advertising jingles before his turn as the lead singer for a fictional band called Billy Beethoven in the movie Three for All in 1975. His performance in that film rekindled his singing career, leading to his self-titled debut solo album in 1977.
The re-recording of old material for The Book was a necessary evil in Bonnet’s opinion, and was the idea of the record label who felt it would be a way to remind folks of his impressive catalogue or to introduce him to new listeners who may not be familiar with that work.
“It was tough getting the enthusiasm up for re-recording a song I have sung thousands of times before. It was like ‘oh bloody hell; you want me to put new life into that?’ So I did the best I could but it really was the hardest part of the whole project. It was really down to me to sort of make these songs come alive again and maybe do them in a different way or add something that wasn’t there before, so some of the re-recordings are pretty damn good. I do know that my band play great on every single track,” Bonnet said from his home in California where he and his band, comprised of now-girlfriend Beth-Ami Heavenstone on bass, guitarist Conrado Pesinato, keyboardist and former Alcatrazz bandmate Jimmy Waldo, and drummer Mark Zonder, were rehearsing before heading to Europe for dates in Spain and Great Britain.
“The label wanted me to do it. It was part of the deal to do things this way and they chose the tracks they thought would represent my career the best. But it’s okay because they’re doing a great job for us. They wanted to do something to help sell this thing so if re-doing some of my past can help sell a few more copies, that’s great.”
Bonnet credits his new bandmates with providing the proverbial kick in the backside that fired up Bonnet’s creative energies for the first time in a long while. He said they encouraged him to write and record new material and he took that initial spark of enthusiasm and created an album that showcases not only his still amazing vocal prowess, but also his acumen as a writer of hard rock songs that are replete with crunching chords, rockin’ riffs, and memorable melodies.
“I put this band together to try something totally different and that’s what eventually happened. I played with Beth-Ami and Conrado at a jam night at the Whiskey here in Los Angeles. I enjoyed it so much I wondered if they would be interested in doing something different than the band I was playing with at the time. What I was doing was going out with a bunch of my mates playing Alcatrazz music and I wanted to do something different than that. With that band we never really thought about writing an album or doing anything new,” he explained.
“When I played with these guys at that jam night I thought it would be nice to start something fresh with new minds in there, people who didn’t really know all my music – or at least that’s what I thought at the time. But once I actually talked to them they actually knew a lot more of it than I thought they did. It was nice to have input from some younger musicians just to keep me alive and egg me on saying ‘yes you can do another album and people will care to hear it.’
“I think this band and this album, The Book, is a new lease on life for me. I will be honest with you, I went through a real downer time; a really bad time before I actually joined up with these guys. They gave me the boost that I needed. I was saying, ‘do I really have to do these kinds of songs?’ And they were like, ‘yes, you will write some songs that are better than the old ones and more modern.’ They kept me going and they still breathe life into me. And now I have the confidence that I thought was lacking. Five years ago I had no confidence and I didn’t want to do anything new. I figured I had lost it and that I would just keep on doing what I was doing, playing the old stuff. They convinced me that it was time to do something new and that they wanted to be a part of it. I am absolutely so glad I did because I think it’s come together as a really good album and that this has become a really, really good band.”
The Book sees Bonnet’s voice in nothing less than spectacular form, showcasing his smooth, yet still bluesy power and emotiveness in all its glory. He jokingly talks about the fact that he really does nothing special to preserve his voice or even to keep super fit as he closes in on his seventh decade.
“I do none of those things that I should, although I wish I did. I am just terrible when it comes to looking after my voice. I do all the wrong things. Getting on planes is the worst thing for me. As soon as the AC hits me, it’s horrible with dehydration. I do drink a lot of water and I try to sleep as much as I can and exercise as much as I can. But over the last couple of years I have had no time to do much of either properly. It’s all been about recording and recording and recording and then heading out on the road. So I don’t really spend a lot of time looking after my health whatsoever but I guess it’s something I should do because I am pretty old now,” he said with a chuckle.
“I do the best that I can and my vocal range is the same so I gather I have been lucky in that respect. My energy level is always pretty good when we play live. I do know now that Beth-Ami is in my life she tries to keep me in shape, eating better and taking vitamins and things like that.”
Bonnet’s process for writing songs hasn’t changed that much since he began in the business, although the batch he crafted for The Book are definitely imbued with an almost urgent energy, and emotional depth and intensity that are indicative of an artist in the midst of a creative renaissance, overflowing with an frisson that would shame most younger musicians.
“I think it’s pretty much the same because this time out the record company really wanted it to be a pretty heavy rock album, which is what I have been doing for so much of my career. When I am making up a song I usually do it on an acoustic guitar and hopefully it’s going to translate to a band format. And they all did for The Book. I am pretty much the same sort of writer as I have always been when writing. I always think of a story and a melody and try not to be obvious and telegraph the melody or the harmonies. I try to do something a little bit different along the way, but at the same time tell a story that means something to me or is a real thing that happened to me or something that I have seen happen to someone else,” he said.
“It’s like country and western writing, but with a rock edge. It tells a story.”
Like many of his contemporaries, Bonnet said he is amazed that the music he has created over the past 40 years continues to have an audience throughout the world, and that these folks continue to come out to his shows and seem to want new material. He is also taken aback at times at the range of ages of fans at his concerts.
“I signed an autograph for a kid when I was over in Finland one summer not long ago. It was the youngest person I have ever signed for and he was eight. The kid didn’t understand English but I remember asking his parents – or it may have even been his grandparents that he was with – how did he know my stuff? He was totally excited to have me and the others in the band sign his book and apparently he was there singing along to the songs. And they said it was because they played the music all the time around the house. So there is a whole new generation of fans who are really young, which is so refreshing because people in their teens or early 20s are usually just following whatever the latest trends are. But the rock world has kind of opened their ears to a lot of different people who are saying they love what we do because it’s real music. And I have heard that a lot lately from so many different people who love what we do because it’s the real thing. This isn’t prefabricated, manufactured, autotuned stuff. So that’s wonderful to hear,” Bonnet said.
Although he has been living in the United States for many years, he doesn’t tour North America regularly, partly because the market for his kind of hard rock music is kind of limited in the more fickle, trend-focused atmosphere of the USA, but also because he is so much in demand elsewhere – primarily Europe and Japan.
“This album is going to be a good re-introduction of me to everybody in North America because people have either forgotten or don’t know me and don’t know what the hell I am doing. Most of the year I am out of the country in places like the U.K. or Europe, Russia or Japan. Here, it’s difficult to actually play regularly unless you’re really up there in terms of being well known. That being said, it is pretty good in the Midwest or parts of the east coast. So we’re working on getting more gigs back here to reintroduce myself and the songs that were part of yesteryear and hopefully get people interested in what I am doing now,” Bonnet said.
“In Europe and Japan it’s amazing, which is why we play a lot over there. Japan has some of the greatest fans ever. I have known some of those people over there since I started and they’re still coming to my concerts. And it’s incredible to see them coming along with their grandkids. But it’s hard to crack it here, especially if you’re playing the kind of 1980s rock that I used to do. I think this album will help because it’s got a bit of that 1980s feel but also a modern sound.”
For more information on Bonnet and The Book, visit http://www.grahambonnetband.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com
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