Gary Barden- Lead Vox.
Jeff Summers - Lead Guitar & Vox.
Martin Mickels - Lead guitar & Vox.
Gavin Cooper - Bass Guitar & Vox.
Bruce Bisland - Drums & Vox.
Steve Glover - Keyboards.
Influences
Deep Purple, Rainbow, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Toto, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix, Beatles. And everybody we ever played with!!
GARY BARDEN belongs to THE voice of British hard rock. The first time BARDEN appeared in the scene as part of the newly formed MSG (Michael Schenker Group) founded by the former SCORPIONS guitarist of the same name. Their first collaboration resulted in the highly acclaimed album “The Michael Schenker Group” which was released in 1980. Besides the great songs, and the great guitar output, BARDEN’s voice was one of the reasons why this album became a huge success and allowed the band to hit the road in Europe, Japan, and the USA.
Their second album , “MSG”, saw the light of day in 1981 and followed an even more melodic direction than its predecessor. After the following world tour BARDEN was informed that he was no longer part of the band and replacement was found soon in ex-RAINBOW singer Graham Bonnet. Chrysalis, though, put out the band’s first a live disc recorded in Japan by the original MSG entitled “One Night At Budokan”. Searching for a new band, BARDEN started to write some songs with THIN LIZZY axeman GARY MOORE which later on ended up on MOORE’s “Corridor Of Power” release. Their working period was short and so was the collaboration between Bonnet and Schenker. Bonnet sang on the 1982 record “Assault Attack” but BARDEN was back with MSG for some live appearances including the Reading Festival in the same year, and the 1983 record, “Built To Destroy”. The label’s pressure to steer more into a commercial direction though made the band quit business in 1984. BARDEN moved on and found a new home in the business together with ex-THIN LIZZY six-string Brian Robertson with their band STATETROOPER who put out their highly acclaimed self-titled debut album in 1987 and played a couple of live shows in the following time, which now has been released on Escape Music ESM-095 .
After a long break BARDEN returned to the scene with "PRAYING MANTIS", “The Power Of Ten”, and the live album, “Captured Alive In Tokyo City” (1996). In the same year the powerhouse singer recorded the song “Don’t Take These Dreams Away” for LEA HART’s “Metal Monsters” Project. Later on, BARDEN and HART teamed up again for a cover version of MAIDEN’s, “The Trooper”, for the IRON MAIDEN tribute “666 Number One Beast” (1999) and in 2000 with FM’s Steve Overland for a recording of “Out In The Fields” for the THIN LIZZY tribute “Killers On The Loose Again”. In the same year, BARDEN hit the road again for a couple of live shows with COMPANY OF SNAKES and founded the band SILVER together with Michael Voss (CASANOVA) and Bernie Tormé (IAN GILLAN Band) who later released the albums “Dream Machines” (2002) and “Intruder” (2003) with a new, 4th album to be released soon. STATETROOPER finally re-united in 2004 and put out the classy new record “The Calling”.
It’s been nearly 20 years since Gary Barden, fresh off worldwide success as vocalist with the Michael Schenker Group, decided to branch out and put a band together with guitarists Martin Bushell and Jeff Summers, drummer Bruce Bisland, bassist Jeff Brown, with Steve Glover on keyboards. Statetrooper’s self-titled first album came out in 1987. Powerful hard rock songs like “Shape of Things To Come,” “Veni Vidi Vinci” and even a live version of MSG’s “Armed and Ready” made the album a critical and popular success, prompting one journalist to proclaim Statetrooper as “…the saviors of British rock…” at a time that they were competing with the success of such British headliners as Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, not to mention the early stages of the grunge/alternative movement that took over the industry in the 90’s.
Yet, the band’s sales figures combined with the impact of their live performances made them a popular guest act on many major tours in England and Europe with the buzz just beginning to reach across the pond to the United States. Indeed, Statetrooper seemed destined to break out on an international level when the combined frustrations of the changing musical climate and the band’s dissatisfaction with the way their career was being handled (both by management and label), inspired Barden to quit - not only Statetrooper, but the business as well. ). “I truly had no intention of ever performing professionally again,” Barden explains. “I enjoyed getting up for these one-off fun gigs, but to be in a serious band again, and put myself through the trials and tribulations was more than I could go through.” By this time, Bushell had already left the band having been replaced by guitar hero Brian Robertson (Motorhead, Wild Horses, Thin Lizzy), but with two of the founding line-up gone, Summers and Bisland decided to disband the group once and for all.
For the next 15 years, Gary performed only the occasional charity show or perhaps entertained at his local pub, while Bruce joined up with Sweet and Jeff with a series of bands that didn’t equal the success of Statetrooper. One would think that as year after year passed and Statetrooper’s history sank deeper into the past they would be all but forgotten (or perhaps a footnote on some of the other projects band members had worked on. But the fans had their own plans, and remained loyal to the group, pushing them to re-form, play a gig, re-release the album – anything to satisfy their devotion to this great musical group that had never quite had the chance to reach their full potential. Eventually bowing to fan pressure, the band re-released the Statetrooper album, first over the internet and then through a deal with Escape Music. The re-issue sold more than anyone had anticipated, and some soul-searching (not to mention just feeling a pull to one another again) convinced Barden, Summers, and Bisland to re-form and record a new album. They added guitarist Martin Mickels, and even invited old friend Steve Glover to play keyboards once again.
“From the first day, we all felt how right this is,” explains Bisland. “and everything has fallen into place from that point on.” Adds Summers, “We all realized that there was something missing in our lives…and it was the band. We all felt the calling to return to the band and to release the songs that have been clamouring to get out for all these years.” Appropriately, the new album is named The Calling. Songs like Casablanca” and “I’m Alive” –relentless guitar-driven tracks - display the band’s rock edge. But it is obvious that Barden’s experience playing with Schenker, help to assure that his vocals are never lost in the guitar tracks and his distinct voice is as commanding as ever.
Amerasians” and “Marionettes” have more of a pop feel than some of the other cuts and the melodic music topped with more meaningful lyrics than are usually found in most typical harder rock songs help display the broad talents of the band. Capped with the combined guitar prowess of Summers and Mickels, this album should appeal to Statetrooper’s old fans while attracting a wide troupe of new ones as well.
Calling” was released to worldwide critical acclaim in August 2004 being sited by some of the most influential rock magazines as “The best British hard rock record for decades” receiving more than its fair share of 9/10 and 10/10 ratings from various luminaries throughout the highly influential “Web” media!
In February 2005 ‘The Calling’ was signed to Japanese giant record label TOSHIBA-EMI with sub publishing licensed through the legendary BURRN music corporation. To further enhance the bands international reputation and to fulfil the demand for the bands music in South America, Rio based Brazilian Record label BIG ROCK MUSIC unleashed “The Calling” into the Latin territories during the latter stage of July 2005.
On the live front the band began touring the UK during the early months of 2005 culminating in 5 sell-out shows with a headline spot at the Sheffield Rock festival in May 2005. Statetrooper consequently were invited to play the Sweden Rock Festival on 11th June 2005 headlining the Spendrups stage supporting Dio and Motley Crew.
- Laura Kaufman, New York City August 2005.
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