Foreigner

[Tim]

I wasn't there, but last night at the 150th Great Frederick Fair in Frederick Maryland, Foreigner was the featured musical act. What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no original members of the band on stage. And you know what else? NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE! Actually I'm sure Mick, his family, and the rest of the band probably care, but I doubt if anyone in attendance was thinking "How can they call this Foreigner?". I can just imagine the conversation here if a version of YES ever took the stage without at least one member who was there from the beginning.

Tim

[True]

Post by Tim
I wasn't there, but last night at the 150th Great Frederick Fair in Frederick Maryland, Foreigner was the featured musical act. What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no original members of the band on stage. And you know what else? NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE! Actually I'm sure Mick, his family, and the rest of the band probably care, but I doubt if anyone in attendance was thinking "How can they call this Foreigner?". I can just imagine the conversation here if a version of YES ever took the stage without at least one member who was there from the beginning.
Tim

It seems that Mick Jones owns the name and perhaps is OK with this tour since he may be the one earning much of the revenues, and paying the band to go and play the songs. I saw that Roger Taylor and Brian May auditioned and selected a touring company of great singers and players to go out and tour playing Queen music this past summer. I believe the tour sold very well and Taylor and May got to stay home and collect the revenues, paying the players a performance fee. Perhaps this is the sort of thing contemplated in the oft-quoted comment about a "Yes" one hundred years from now.

[Chris Jx]

On Sunday, September 23, 2012 12:17:36 PM UTC-4, True wrote:

I saw that Roger Taylor and Brian May auditioned and selected a touring company of great singers and players to go out and tour playing Queen music this past summer. I believe the tour sold very well and Taylor and May got to stay home and collect the revenues, paying the players a performance fee. Perhaps this is the sort of thing contemplated in the oft-quoted comment about a "Yes" one hundred years from now.

The part about auditioning and selecting great singers and players makes it hard to believe Yes will be doing this any time soon.

Benoit David for 3 years? Geoff Downes...? Gonna barf...

[y***@hotmail.com]

Post by Tim
I wasn't there, but last night at the 150th Great Frederick Fair in Frederick Maryland, Foreigner was the featured musical act. What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no original members of the band on stage. And you know what else? NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE!

The fans not in attendance at the "fair" cared enough _not to go_, obviously, which is why all they have left is gigs at the "fair". Soon to be at the "nightclub".

--

Paul

[Close to the Hedge]

Post by Tim
What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no
original members of the band on stage.

Wow. What a treat that must have been for fans of the band. I can
imagine the knowing glances and the nod's 'n' winks passing through
the audience like wildfire. "Hey, we're going to rock tonight" was
probably said quite a lot. And "You know, I'm glad there's no original
members on stage. I've always wanted to see that kind of thing" too.

Post by Tim
And you know what else? NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T
ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE!

There you have it. Those people must be *real* fans. Cynics will
undoubtedly call them all rude names, but they're obviously just
bitter.

[Kevin Caffrey]

Post by Tim
I wasn't there, but last night at the 150th Great Frederick Fair in Frederick Maryland, Foreigner was the featured musical act. What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no original members of the band on stage. And you know what else? NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE! Actually I'm sure Mick, his family, and the rest of the band probably care, but I doubt if anyone in attendance was thinking "How can they call this Foreigner?". I can just imagine the conversation here if a version of YES ever took the stage without at least one member who was there from the beginning.
Tim

That said, the other members of the band AFAIK have been with the current line-up of Foreigner for quite a while.

Kevin
http://kevincaffrey.proboards.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/all/kevincaffrey

[u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk]

Post by Kevin Caffrey
That said, the other members of the band AFAIK have been with the current
line-up of Foreigner for quite a while.

Not that long. Gimbel's been there since 1995; Pilsen and Hanson since the mid-'00s. The drummer's been on and off with them since 1998. They've got a new keyboardist, as well as someone filling in for Jones. Imagine a Yes consisting of Billy Sherwood, Igor Khoroshev and some new people for an equivalent!

But I think your more general point is right: authenticity doesn't come solely from original members. The Renaissance out on tour have Michael Dunford and Annie Haslam accompanied by four new (since 2001) people. Now, neither Dunford or Haslam were original founding members of the band, but they're names everyone associates with Renaissance.

As a thought experiment, consider a Yes with no original members: say, a Yes with Howe, White, Davison, Wakeman and Sherwood. And imagine that line-up was given the blessing of a retiring Anderson and Squire. That would seem more authentic to me than the current Foreigner!

[Kevin Caffrey]

Post by u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk

Post by Kevin Caffrey
That said, the other members of the band AFAIK have been with the current
line-up of Foreigner for quite a while.

Not that long. Gimbel's been there since 1995; Pilsen and Hanson since the mid-'00s. The drummer's been on and off with them since 1998.

We're in 2012 -- those dates sound kinda long to me! :)

Post by u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk
They've got a new keyboardist, as well as someone filling in for Jones. Imagine a Yes consisting of Billy Sherwood, Igor Khoroshev and some new people for an equivalent!

That's not an accurate analogy b/c BS and IK were with the band for less than 5 years. The current line-up has a mulit-instrumentalist there 17 years now, a bassist and vocalist there 8 years and 7 years respectively, and a drummer who has been pretty active with the band since the late 90s. If BS and IK remained with Yes since they originally joined in 1997 -- a big, big IF -- there might not be issues with them carrying on with Yes in the year 2012 with other people.

Another thing to keep in mind is that since their commercial breakthrough in the late 70s, Foreigner was pretty much always about Jones and Lou Gramm. I don't think there was a big dust up in their fanbase when their longtime bassist and drummer did not participate in the mid 90s reunion of Gramm & Jones in Foreigner. However, for comparison, imagine a 1996 re-united Yes just led by Anderson & Squire, or Anderson & Howe, or Howe & Squire, or Anderson & Wakeman, or White & Squire...Yes, today and 20 years ago, was a band about much more than just two people. I don't think Foreigner (like many AOR bands from the 70s and 80s) ever was.

Post by u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk
As a thought experiment, consider a Yes with no original members: say, a Yes with Howe, White, Davison, Wakeman and Sherwood. And imagine that line-up was given the blessing of a retiring Anderson and Squire. That would seem more authentic to me than the current Foreigner!

Jones has given his blessing though, and most of the current members have been with the band for a considerable time. This story of Foreigner touring without any original members doesn't seem much more than that -- a curiousity story. It's not as if the remaining members are hired guns from a 2010 tour supporting Jones and are now "pretending" to be Foreigner. Opinions aside, the current members are *members* of the band. What makes their membership legitimate is that they've been with the band--touring & recording--for a relatively considerable amount of time.

Kevin
http://kevincaffrey.proboards.com
http://www.cdbaby.com/all/kevincaffrey

[u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk]

Post by Kevin Caffrey

Post by u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk

Post by Kevin Caffrey
That said, the other members of the band AFAIK have been with the current
line-up of Foreigner for quite a while.

Not that long. Gimbel's been there since 1995; Pilsen and Hanson since
the mid-'00s. The drummer's been on and off with them since 1998.

We're in 2012 -- those dates sound kinda long to me! :)

Post by u***@bondegezou.demon.co.uk
They've got a new keyboardist, as well as someone filling in for Jones.
Imagine a Yes consisting of Billy Sherwood, Igor Khoroshev and some new
people for an equivalent!

That's not an accurate analogy b/c BS and IK were with the band for less
than 5 years. The current line-up has a mulit-instrumentalist there 17
years now, a bassist and vocalist there 8 years and 7 years respectively,
and a drummer who has been pretty active with the band since the late 90s.
If BS and IK remained with Yes since they originally joined in 1997 -- a
big, big IF -- there might not be issues with them carrying on with Yes in
the year 2012 with other people. [...]

You're right that it's not a perfect analogy: you can't make the two band histories line up for that.

(Although I'll point out that Sherwood was involved with Yes for around 10 years and played on and wrote for a lot more Yes albums than any of the current Foreigner band played on or wrote for Foreigner albums.)

[The_Chris]

I realize this is an old thread - but I just found this group AND I'm
from Frederick :)


Original members don't really matter - it's the members that played on
the great material.

Nobody would care about Banks, or the first UFO guitarist (before
Schenker) or the guys in REO Speedwagon before High Infedility.

It would be like being upset that Pete Best wasn't in the Beatles.

So.... These 'new' guys don't fit that bill either, because they haven't
played on any huge hits..

That's a problem.

Molly Hatchet played a few years with no original members - and no guys
from those first great records - untill they got Dave Hluebek back....
Then, they had cred :)

[JT]

I wasn't there, but last night at the 150th Great Frederick Fair in Frederick Maryland, Foreigner was the featured musical act.  What's notable is, because Mick Jones is currently ill, there were no original members of the band on stage.  And you know what else?  NOBODY CARED THAT THERE WEREN'T ANY ORIGINAL MEMBERS ON STAGE! Actually I'm sure Mick, his family, and the rest of the band probably care, but I doubt if anyone in attendance was thinking "How can they call this Foreigner?". I can just imagine the conversation here if a version of YES ever took the stage without at least one member who was there from the beginning.
Tim

Did they sound like Foreigner and play with a Foreigner like energy?

I was watching "Australian Pink Floyd" on PBS last night. They
sounded pretty damn good. Thought, "Hey, I would go see this band
play live for fun."

But there is still something wrong about touring as Foreigner and not
really being Foreigner. Yes, tours as Yes, but does not play like
YES, IMHO. The music is lethargic. The performances overall are
subpar.

And when they had a chance to record a new album, they turned a 30
year old song in to an "epic" about an airfield.

Therein lies the problem really.

Jim

JIm