Dinosaurdays - Kingdom Come

Kingdom Come, (not to be confused with Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come!), were formed by German born vocalist, Lenny Wolf, when he disbanded his US band, " Stone Fury", in the mid eighties. He returned to Germany for a short while and returned to the US in 1987, and formed Kingdom Come with Johnny Frank (bass), Danny Stag (guitar), Rick Stier (guitar) and James Kottack (drums). Mention should also be made of a solo album, called "Germany", that he recorded around about this time as well, although details of this album and its actual date of recording will remain a mystery until the Japanese liner notes can be translated! Anyway, Kingdom Come's debut, self titled album, released on Polydor Records in 1988, was one of the best blues based hard rock albums of the eighties. The album appeared to be a total carbon copy of Led Zeppelin, from the drum sound of John Bonham to Robert Plant's vocals! Interest in the US, however, ensured that the album went gold within a few weeks of its release, but this didn't prevent Plant and Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones from making less than flattering remarks about the band. Guitarist Gary Moore was prompted to write the song "Led Clones" on his "After the War" album that year. Nonetheless, Kingdom Come seemed to go down very well, especially with the folks that had never seen Zeppelin in action, but Wolf and company decided to try a more original approach on their second album, "In Your Face", which was released in 1989. This was also quite a good album, and the main hit "Do you like it" appeared to do fairly well. Wolf disbanded Kingdom Come that year and embarked on a solo career but reformed the band in 1991 with a totally different line-up, one of the members being guitarist Blues Saraceno, and released an album called "Hands of Time". Not as good as the first two albums, it nevertheless had some good moments, as did subsequent albums, "Bad Image" in 1993, "Twilight Cruiser" in 1995, "Live and Unplugged" in 1996, and this album, which had a number of really strong tracks, easily being one of Kingdom Come's best albums. A compilation album, "Balladesque: The Pearls", was released in 1998, and the latest effort from old Lenny, as far as we know, is a solo album released in1999, sung exclusively in German, called "Lenny Wolf". Led Zeppelin/Robert Plant clone or not, this man can sing and write excellent music, and this fact made Kingdom Come one of the best German/US bands doing the rounds. Their debut album is essential listening.

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

Biography by Tom Demalon
Few new bands have caused as much of a stir with the release of their debut single and few have, simultaneously, generated so much backlash as German hard rockers Kingdom Come did with "Get It On." Mistaken by many fans as a reunion of the surviving members of Led Zeppelin, the quintet was derisively known to some as "Kingdom Clone." Signed to Polydor, lead singer Lenny Wolf put together a band and entered the studio with producer Bob Rock, an engineer and musician who would later find success working with Mötley Crüe, Bon Jovi, and Metallica. When "Get It On" was leaked to several radio stations around the U.S., it generated considerable buzz due to the speculation of the "mystery" band. The Zeppelin comparisons were enough to bolster early sales and the record shipped gold as "Get It On" became a sizable AOR hit and the band took part in the Monsters of Rock tour with acts like Van Halen and the Scorpions. However, a heavy backlash soon followed and subsequent releases from their self-titled debut failed to make much impact on radio. Kingdom Come entered the studio to record a follow-up with producer Keith Olsen at the helm. The resulting In Your Face, released in 1989, did little to quell the Zeppelin comparisons or to reverse the act's decline in commercial clout. The ensuing tour saw Kingdom Come collapse and all the original members, save for Wolf, leave the band. Wolf would carry on, releasing Hands of Time under the Kingdom Come banner in 1990, but the album stiffed and, along with the emergence of grunge, sealed the act's fate in the U.S. Kingdom Come would continue to release new material throughout the '90s and into the new century, but it was mostly limited to issue in Wolf's native Germany.