CARMINE APPICE - DRUMS

Carmine has been breaking new ground in drumming for nigh on one decade. Maybe it's the way they're tucked behind a kit at the back of the stage, but only a handful of rock drummers have achieved the kind of prominence accorded to a whole legion of guitar artists. Carmine Appice is one of those few. Towards the end of teenage years spent tapping out the right rhythms in bar mitzvah bands, he joined the Pigeons, al local Long Island group that turned progressive as Vanilla Fudge and broke through with a grandiose slow motion reworking of a Supremes hit, 'You Keep Me Hangin' On', which made the British top ten in 1967 and eventually reached No 6 in America almost a year later. They tried the formula again with everything from Donovan's 'Season Of The Witch' to 'The Windmills Of Your Mind', but by 1969 Carmine and bassist Tim Bogert were making plans for a band with Jeff Beck and his vocalist, Rod Stewart. But Rod joined the Faces and Beck almost wrote himself off in a car smash, so the pair formed Cactus instead, before finally getting together with Beck in 1972 for a two-year stint as an explosive strong-arm trio, Beck, Bogert & Appice. Between BBA and the Rod Stewart Group he had a spell with short-lived KGB.

An immensely accomplished technician who spends his time off from the group conducting drum clinics for Ludwig coast to coast, he still found he had lessons of his own to learn from Rod. "Most Americans play rock'n'roll right on the beat", he explains, "and it was really weird to jump into the English way of playing. I'd studied for years, taught, written books, done clinics and everything was bam! right on the beat, and Rod kept saying, 'Look, you've got to lay behind the beat a little', and it's almost like playing in a very slight difference in tempo to the guitars and the bass".

PHIL CHEN - BASS

The success of that move is underlined by the variety of his studio credits, which include work for Cleo Laine, Linda Lewis (with whom he also toured), Jimmy Witherspoon, Gary Boyle, Jeff Beck ('Blow By Blow') and the 'Tommy' soundtrack. He missed his first opportunity to work with Rod in 1973, when Ronnie Lane quit the Faces, because he was stuck with the short-lived Butts Band in a Jamaican recording studio, but he was a natural choice when Stewart got around to forming his own group three years later, a second chance that offered the twin satisfactions of a challenge that session work now rarely provided and playing with an artist he really admired.

"Playing with someone like Rod", he says, "and being part of a band, a team, who all got on well and played various types of music, that's what really attracted me. I really liked Rod's direction and I've always wanted to be in a group that was doing a mixture of music which was like sort of soul-based rock and roll. And I'd always done support gigs, so it was nice to have reached here and play to all these big audiences."

JIMMY CRESPO - gUITARS

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jimmy was the lead guitarist & member of the hard rock band Aerosmith from 1979 until 1984. Crespo co-wrote Rock in a Hard Place with Steven Tyler. Crespo has also performed or recorded with Rod Stewart, Billy Squier, Meat Loaf, Stevie Nicks, Robert Fleischman, Rough Cutt, Renegade, Flame and others. Following his time in Aerosmith, Crespo played on releases by Stress and spent several years with Adam Bomb, a Geffen Records-signed band. His work with Stress is documented in the bonus tracks added to the CD reissue of Killing Me Night & Day on Deep Shag Records. Crespo contributed guitar to the Adam Bomb album "Fatal Attraction" (Geffen 1985) before settling in Los Angeles. Crespo joined bassist Danny Sheridan and Bonnie Bramlett in their new band Bandaloo Doctors from 1987 to 1992 and returned to session work as well as touring and recording with Billy Squier for several years. From 1994-1996, Crespo was part of Rod Stewart's live band as lead guitarist.

Continuing to play as a studio musician, Crespo has also performed at some of Las Vegas' biggest casinos, whilst also engineering a rock amplifier simulator ("Rock Amp Legends by Jimmy Crespo") for Nomad Factory. He is working on a new album The Jimmy Crespo Project. Crespo also performs with the The HitMen All Stars featuring former members of Aerosmith, Boston, Dire Straits, Journey, Fleetwood Mac & Night Ranger.

DANNY JOHNSON - GUITARS

The young native of Louisiana was discovered by Rick Derringer at the age of 18. Johnson played guitar, wrote and sang on four Derringer records for CBS. He then reformed his own trio Axis, produced by Andy Johns and landed a contract with RCA. Rod Stewart heard Danny and made him and offer to write, record and tour with him. Johnson accepted and wrote, played, toured on the “Tonight I’m Yours” record and tour which spawned the hit, “Young Turks”. At the same time Danny also did records for Phil Seymour and Alice Cooper.'

Considered one of the best guitar players in the world. Danny has lent his talents as a guitar player, singer and songwriter to Rick Derringer, Alice Cooper, Rod Stewart, Stevie Nicks, Zackary Richard, Alacatrazz, Steppenwolf, Carmine Appice and Dwight Twilley. He wrote and played on five songs for the multi-platinum selling “Wayne’s World”, has songs in “Gremlins I and II, Fade To Black and The Nolan Ryan Story. He has a total of 20 albums and 8 films to his credits. Danny has three solo releases, “Grih Grih Thing“, “Over Cloud Nine“, and his latest “Love Sweat and Blood“.

Danny Johnson has toured with Rod Stewart, Rick Derringer, Van Halen and recorded with artists Alice Cooper, drummer Carmine Appice and Fleetwood Mac’s Stevie Nicks among others. His unique combination of blues, rock and roots (which he has termed ‘psychedelic swamp rock’) has garnered praise from such established publications as Rolling Stone and Guitar World.

Eddie Van Halen was once quoted in Guitar Player Magazine as saying, “One of my favorite guitarists is Danny Johnson”.