Suzi Quatro is an American singer/songwriter/bass guitarist who came onto the music scene with a trail of hits in the mid-1970s. Dressed in leather outfits and playing a bass guitar that all but dwarfed her, she was really one of the very first women to break the mould and play hard and driving rock and roll. Although not that well known in her native America (Suzi Quatro more known as the singer who plays Leather Tuscadero on Happy Days), she has still been quoted as an inspiration to many of those who came after her including such people as Joan Jett.
Suzi Quatro born to parents Helen and Art Quatro and being second youngest in a family of 3 sisters and one brother. Suzi grew up in a suburb of Detroit called Grosse Pointe. Art Quatro had a band called the Art Quatro Trio which Suzi made her musical debut at the age of eight. Continuing with her musical family influences Suzi was trained on classical piano and then turned to rock'n'roll working in bands at the age of 14, being the rebel and tomboy of the family Suzi called herself Suzi Soul. Suzi played bass guitar in the 1960's bands with her sisters the Pleasure seekers and Cradle playing in clubs all over the U.S.A.. The Pleasure Seekers went on to release a few singles in the late 60's, in 1967 they toured Vietnam to entertain the troops and called in on hospitals on the island of Guam. Another famous name from Detroit Suzi worked with at this time was her friend Alice Cooper.
In 1971, with the band Cradle, Suzi is 'discovered' by British Record Producer, Mikie Most, while he was in Detroit recording with Jeff Beck. Cradle was slowly falling apart and Mikie Most had asked Suzi to come to England.
In late '71 Suzi arrives in London with a suitcase and a bass guitar. She was to spend 2 lonely years working on songwriting and recording. Her first single, 'ROLLING STONE', being a flop everywhere but Portugal, where it surprisingly went to No.1 in 1972. Suzi gets her band together and is keen to go on tour. Mickie Most had signed 2 new songwriters to his RAK record label, Mick Chapman and Nicky Chinn, they were to come up with Suzi's first hit 'CAN THE CAN' in 1973 which placed Suzi at No.1 on the UK, Japanese, European and Australian charts. Suzi tours Australia for the first time in 1974 and is greeted by the Hells Angels at the the airport, they then escorted her to her hotel in Melbourne.
Suzi was now becoming famous for her leather clad tough wild, street wise form of rock with the following hits '48 CRASH', 'DAYTONA DEMON', 'THE WILD ONE', 'TOO BIG' and her anthem, 'DEVIL GATE DRIVE' was a house hold name. Suzi's fist appearance on Top Of The Pops in England made parents shudder, seeing this 5 foot blonde, decked out in black leather, swinging a bass guitar with 3 heavy guys behind her, as she belted out 'CAN THE CAN', which sounded like a thousand decibels, you could think she was a leader of a gang that you would meet in a dark steamy alley at night. Suzi recorded a version of 'ALL SHOOK UP' by Elvis Presley, her idol, Elvis heard the version and liked it so much he asked Suzi to come to Gracelands, Suzi declined.
In 1977 Suzi was offered her first major acting roll in the t.v sitcom 'Happy Days', being asked to interrupt a tour of Japan to come to the States for an audition. The
producers' daughter had a picture of Suzi from Rolling Stone magazine on her bedroom wall. They were after someone tough but sweet to play the part of Leather Tuscadero. Suzi got the part, and went on to do 7 episodes. There was an offer of a spin off series but Suzi said no because of being type cast. In 1978 Suzi and her long time lead guitarist, Len Tuckey, were married in England and later repeated the ceremony in a traditional Japanese style in Japan.
Through the late '70's and early '80's, Suzis' music grows and matures, a slightly different style but still rock, with songs like 'SHE'S IN LOVE WITH YOU', 'MAMA'S BOY', 'IF YOU CAN'T GIVE ME LOVE', 'RACE IS ON' and her first No.1 hit, in the U.S.A, 'STUMBLIN IN'. Sadly the RAK years were over by the early '80's but Suzi continued to work with Mike Chapman on his own record label Dreamland. In the US Suzi's 1981 release on the label was a return to heavy rock with songs like 'LIPSTICK', 'HARD HEADED' and 'ROCK HARD' which was used in the film 'Times Square'.
Suzi's acting ability is being put to use in the 1980's with guest appearances on UK tv shows 'Minder', 'Dempsey and Makepiece'. In 1982 Suzi records her album MAIN ATTRACTION, while being pregnant, which is influential to her music.
On the 23 September 1982 her daughter Laura was born, Suzi is singing the Stevie Wonder hit 'Isn't She Lovely" on the way home from the hospital. But 10 days after Laura's birth it's straight back to work with TV interviews and promotion of the new album. In 1983 Suzi tours the UK and Australia including Laura in the t.v. interviews.
Suzi's keen to do some acting and is offered a part she had always wanted to do. The stage musical 'ANNIE GET YOUR GUN' playing Annie Oakley. The part is recommended to her by Andrew Lloyd Webber, who had discussed the part several years earlier. In October 1984 Suzi's second child, Richard Leonard, is born. Suzi continues touring around the world including Australia and brings the whole family as the tour runs for about 6 weeks. In 1986, Annie Get your Gun finally comes together and the show moves to London West End Theatres. Suzi's recording career had all but disappeared throughout the late 1980's, but she still managed to tour and work on different projects, although there was the odd single they failed to have much impact. In 1989 Suzi toured Russia which was a great experience for her.
The 1990's have shown a more musical direction for Suzi. Tours have taken off in Europe, Japan and Australia and for the first time we get to buy a lot of Suzi's albums re-released on compact disc. Suzi is signed to a new record label and production team, Bolland and Bolland in the Neatherlands. Suzi's first album in 9 years is released, 'OH SUZI Q'. This marks a big progression in her music. Unfortunately there is only limited release on this album and sadly, it is not released in Australia. This is a very personal album for Suzi and one of her finest.
In 1992 Suzi and her husband of 16 years decide to divorce, a sad year for Suzi when her mother Helen Quatro passed away and also her mother-in-law. Suzi, being the survivor she is to prescribe her own tonic of more touring and songwriting, coming up with one of her best self penned songs 'AND SO TO BED'. Which turns up on a B side single.
1993 Suzi tours Australia and brings her Dad with her, this is the first time Art Quatro has seen Suzi constantly doing gigs night after night and is amazed at her energy levels. Suzi also gets a guest t.v. appearance in the UK comedy hit 'ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS' with Joanna Lumley and Jennifer Saunders. Suzi continues to release the odd single, "Fear of the unknown", "Hey Charley" and "If I get lucky". Later that year work continues on a musical she has written called 'TALLULAH WHO', about the 1930's actress Tallulah Bankhead. In October Suzi marries her second husband, German Tour Promoter Rainer Haas. Suzi proposes to him while in Egypt and then flies by Concorde to the USA for a small ceremony in Las Vegas. Suzi and Rainer now split their time between Hamburg, Germany and Essex, England.
1994 marks Suzi's 20th year of touring Australia. We get to see a big band change and are much surprised to hear songs she hasn't played live for years. This was for me the best Suzi Q tour I have seen. She has also done an album of old hits and some new songs which was released Christmas 1995 in Europe called 'WHAT GOES AROUND'.1997 Suzi tours Australia on her 14th tour to promote the release of the "What Goes Around" album which was relesed in Australia in 1996,this tour we see Suzi back into leather cat suits and as always a successful tour. In february 1997 Suzi has returned to New York to finish recording 2 tracks for the new album working again with Mike Chapman. In 1998 Suzi was approached by a New York film company to look at doing a film of her life, this is currently still be worked on and a possible movie soundtrack aswell. Also Suzi begins a new venture, well for us at least, but Suzi has been interested in helping others for along time. Her first public appearence was at the London festival of mind,body and spirit, where she spoke about her problems and success through her life. At last a gem from the past see,s the light of day, the unreleased album from 1983 is released in England titled "Unreleased Emotion" a fantastic album, little softer then usual, alot of songs were written while Suzi was pregnant with her first child Laura.
Now in 1999 this has so far been a big year for Suzi, with one of her most extensive tours including England, Germany,Australia, Malaysia and Finland. There is also some talk of a North American tour. Suzi was givin the Big Red Book on the BBC TV show "This Is Your Life", an emotional show for Suzi catching up with Family and friends from the USA and pop icons from the 70,s and surprise guest Chrisie Hynde from the Pretenders. This year Suzi will be back doing more recording with Mike Chapman and very keen to have a new album out. At last we will see the release of the final Suzi Quatro album from 1975 "Your Mamma Wont Like Me" released and remastered on CD through EMI Australia around late 1999/2000. Suzi is continuing her work with the "School of Life", releasing a CD with Shirlie Roden called "Free The Butterfly" and doing lectures at different festivals around the world...Suzi says "I feel I have to do this, I have to give something back".
In 2000 Suzi was approached to do a radio show on BBC in London, The format was unknown at the time but had turned out as a weekly show usually a Saturday night called "Rocking With Suzi Q", several series have been made and are continuing on, aswell as the odd "specials" shows such as the story of Janis Joplin. The year 2000 bought Suzi back on the touring trail taking in Australia, Europe and some of the UK, ending the year with a big 70,s Christmas tour .
2001 is the year the New album plans start to surface, an album thats is speacial to Suzi and a continuation of work thats been gathered along the way, working with members of her original Quatro band, Len Tuckey and Dave Neal aswell as bringing in a new team and producer Jean Roussel , This ablum was due to be released sometime in 2001. Now postponed until 2003 2001 has turned out to be an extra speacial year for Suzi and her family when daughter Laura gave birth to a girl "Amie Susan on the 15th of June.
2002 Suzi has gained alot of ground work this year, working hard on a new album titled "Naked Under Leather" while contiuing not stop tours throughout Europe and recording more BBC2 radio shows in London.
The most exciting is the work that is currently being done with the help of Victory Tischler - Blue former bass player with the Runaways. Suzi and Vicki have begum work on the movie of her career which will be released on DVD, titled "48 Crash".And a possible Anthogy release of recordings from 1964 onwards.
2003 will bring Suzi to Australian shores for her "Rock Hard" tour,this is Suzi's 20th tour to Australia that will show case a few new songs for the album aswell as the classic rock songs that bought her fame.
ARLINGTON, Va. — Any deployed servicemember can talk about the lifeline the Internet represents when it comes to staying connected to loved ones back home.
But as Laura Brown of Cody, Wyo., knows, that same lifeline is just as important when you are lying helpless in a hospital bed, with time hanging heavy and nothing but pain and bad memories to kill it.
After striking up an e-mail friendship last October with the mother of a young Iraq veteran at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington who was in that very fix, Brown, 50, decided to try and help him, she told Stars and Stripes.
“He was a multiple amputee and he had been in rehab for a long, long time,” Brown said. “His mother said the one thing he wished he had was a laptop computer.”
Brown herself has limited mobility from repeated knee surgeries and suffers from traumatic brain injury from a bad fall down some stairs in 2005.
“In the condition I’m in, I understand the isolation of not being able to be with my buds,” Brown said. “I’m sure it must be 10 times worse for [wounded servicemembers], with their buds at war.”
But at Walter Reed, as Brown learned, “There was only one public computer in the entire rehab center.”
Brown’s own son, Army Reserve Spc. Johnny Barker, 25, a light equipment operator, had returned home safely from his Iraq deployment with the XVIII Airborne Corps in March 2004. But she couldn’t get the Walter Reed amputee out of her mind, she said.
“I thought, if each of my buddies would donate about $3 each, we could buy this guy a laptop,” Brown said.
So Brown hit her e-mail address book and the Internet, and began soliciting friends and even strangers for donations.
As it turned out, the amputee at Walter Reed was given a laptop by another charity organization before Brown raised enough to purchase him a laptop, she said. But the heartfelt responses, particularly from strangers, got the Wyoming mom thinking.
“I knew if there was one out there who needed a laptop, there were more.”
So she set a goal: to raise enough funds to buy four new laptops, complete with Web cameras, for soldiers recovering from their war injuries in one of the military’s large rehabilitation hospitals.
Brown set up Laptops for the Wounded as a tax-deductible, charitable nonprofit organization, and developed a Web site to promote her effort, www.laptopsforthewounded.com.
In the year that she has been working on the project, Brown has raised $8,000 — enough to buy and send four laptops with webcams to Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington; three laptops with cameras to Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego; and one to the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, she said.
Thanks for the add!!! Suzi Quatro is still one of the best things to happen to ROCk n ROll!!! Very awesome and blessed with that natural talent to ROCk, something that some of us can only dream of, while Suzi and a few other wonderful artists ROCk it out with natural ability :D
Thank you Suzi for still rockin my world!
Sammy
commentshack.com Thank You for the add. It is an honor considering I have had a serious crush on you since...well, let's just say it was back when you were the only female rocker that had made it.
This is the website address for info and details
regarding NTG Radio's "Fans Choice Awards" Contest...Suzi is a participant!
We need everyone to vote for SUZI! This will help her get more exposure and her music played.
http://www.thecoverzone.com/2006catfights.html
Start voting now... oh, and there is a chance for YOU to win a prize as well..
Leather
