Supergroup are ready to rock the UK

The latest rock “supergroup” is about to undertake a short UK tour in support of their latest album, 2, which was released last month. Combining the talents of Glenn Hughes (Deep Purple, Black Sabbath), blues supreme Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and keyboard player Derek Sherinian(Dream Theater), the band quickly came together following the King Of The Blues event in November 2009, when Glenn and Joe performed together and decided they’d like to record something. Joe says getting together as a band came about quite speedily. “It was basically (record producer) Kevin Shirley’s idea.” he says, “Glenn and I wanted to do something, but couldn’t get around to actually doing it. We rang Jason, and Kevin suggested Derek, as I didn’t want us to be a power trio. We were in the studio five weeks later.”

The first, eponymously named album was released in September last year, reaching number six in the US Indie charts and number 13 in the UK.

The band, named after the region of the UK where Hughes and Bonham grew up, performed a couple of dates in Britain last year and are appearing at the High Voltage Festival at Victoria Park, London, on July 24, the same day as Sherinian’s band Dream Theater.

Joe Bonamassa is widely regarded as one of the world’s premier blues artists and he too has not long since released a new album. Dust Bowl, released last March, is his ninth studio album and reached number 37 in the American charts and 12 in the UK – his highest placings in either country. But, strangely, Joe was influenced not by the blues men of his native land (with the possible exception of B.B. King). “It’s a taste thing really,” he says, “I found European, and particularly British, blues a bit more loud and dangerous, The American stuff is a bit more subtle. “I’d describe our music as early ’70s British hard rock with elements of bands like Deep Purple, Free and ELP.” The blues seems to have come more into Black Country Communion’s second album, as the first was very definitely rock. There’s arguably a totally different sound. Joe says: “It’s a totally different batch of songs. The first album was put together very quickly and we had nothing left over, so we were starting from scratch. “The first album took five days to record, whereas this new one took two-and-a-half weeks, so we had more time to conventrate on the songs.” “We didn’t want to repeat anything from the first album and they are two totally different works.”

The live shows promise to be full of riff-laden songs, with musical virtuosity and all punctuated with Glenn Hughes’ gut-wrenching voice. Joe adds: “I have no idea at the moment which songs we’ll be playing. “We have two albums to call on, with songs of differing tempos, plus we have our respective catalogues there as well.” “Plus we’ll be doing it ‘old school’ with just the four of us on stage.” With only five dates (six if you count High Voltage), tickets will sell pretty fast, and because all four members of the group have hectic solo schedules – Joe will be doing a solo tour of the UK in October – it is impossible to say when they will be back, or when any new material will be released. “It’s really hard to say,” Joe says. “But we’ve nothing else really planned until late next year.”

Black Country Communion will be appearing at the Manchester Academy on Saturday, July 30. Tickets are available from the box  office on 0871 230 1101

By Martin Hutchinson