Dinosaurdays - Foghat

Foghat - UK outfit Foghat are another band we've featured on many occasions on the show, and you can read up on them elsewhere on these pages. What we will mention here is that when guitarist/vocalist Lonesome Dave Peverett (now sadly no longer with us - he passed away in 2000), drummer Roger Earl and bassist Tony S tevens left Savoy Brown after the "Looking In" album in 1970, they formed the band, together with guitarist Rod Price, and released their self-titled debut in 1972. The band quickly drew attention to themselves and built up a firm following in the US, although their home country was slow to react. Frustrated, they relocated Stateside and were instant hits there. At that stage they were the biggest grossing British act working the US stadia circuit bar Led Zeppelin and The Who. It's generally felt that after their awesome "Live" album, released in 1977, Foghat began a downhill slide and their style began to deteriorate with the introduction of four minute pop songs that weren't a patch on their earlier, more raunchy boogie material. Stevens later left to join Midnight Flyer andl ater on, Roger Chapman's band, and was replaced by Nick Jameson who was in turn replaced by Craig MacGregor. Rod Price left in 1981 and was replaced by Erik Cartwright. Foghat finally split in 1983, but the classic line-up of P everett, Price, Earl and Stevens reformed for a one off album, "Return of the Boogie Men", in 1994. A Rod Price solo blues album, called "Open", was released in 2000.

(If you have more info on this band, please e-mail us)

Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Foghat specialized in a simple, hard-rocking blues-rock, releasing a series of best-selling albums in the mid-'70s. While the group never deviated from their basic boogie, they retained a large audience until 1978, selling out concerts across America and earning five gold albums, as well as two platinum. Once punk and disco came along, the band's audience dipped dramatically, yet the group continued performing until 1980.

With its straight-ahead, three-chord romps, the band's sound was American in origin, yet the members were all natives of England. Guitarist/vocalist "Lonesome" Dave Peverett, bassist Tony Stevens, and drummer Roger Earl were members of the British blues band Savoy Brown, who all left the group in the early '70s. Upon their departure, they formed Foghat with guitarist Rod Price. Foghat moved to the United States, signing a record contract with Bearsville Records, a new label run by Albert Grossman. Their first album, Foghat, was released in the summer of 1972 and it became an album rock hit; a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You" even made it to the lower regions of the singles charts. For their next album, the group didn't change their formula at all — in fact, they didn't even change the title of the album. Like the first record, the second was called Foghat; it was distinguished by a picture of a rock and a roll on the front cover. Foghat's second album was their first gold record, and it established them as a popular arena rock act. Their next six albums — Energized (1974), Rock and Roll Outlaws (1974), Fool for the City (1975), Night Shift (1976), Foghat Live (1977), Stone Blue (1978) — all were best-sellers and all went at least gold. "Slow Ride," taken from Fool for the City, was their biggest single, peaking at number 20. Foghat Live was their biggest album, selling over two million copies. After 1975, the band went through a series of bass players; Price left the band in 1981 and was replaced by Erik Cartwright.

In the early '80s, Foghat's commercial fortunes declined rapidly, with their last album, 1983's Zig-Zag Walk, barely making the album charts. The group broke up shortly afterward, although they reunited for various tours in the late '80s and early '90s, releasing Road Cases in 1998. Peverett died of cancer on February 7, 2000.

Erik Cartwright
Roger Earl
Craig MacGregor
Lonesome Dave Peverett
Rod Price
Tony Stevens

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