Thunder is a British hard rock band, who originally formed in 1989 when Terraplane broke up, leaving lead singer Danny Bowes and guitarist/main songwriter Luke Morley to form a new band, namely Thunder. Retaining drummer Gary James (popularly known as 'Harry' James) from Terraplane, they completed the line-up with bassist Mark 'Snake' Luckhurst and guitarist/keyboard player Ben Matthews. They were signed with EMI after performing a demo audition in 1989, and soon began recording their first album Backstreet Symphony. With their producer, Andy Taylor (of- Duran Duran) they created many blues-rock and atmospheric ballads, steering away from the melodic power pop of their previous band. The album was a huge success in the UK, and led to a prestigious appearance at the 1990 Monsters of Rock festival at Donington Park.
A follow-up album, Laughing On Judgement Day appeared in 1992, just as the grunge scene was changing the hard rock landscape. This period was the most turbulent in the band's career; Snake quit the band after the subsequent tour and was replaced by Swedish bass player Mikael Höglund. Meantime, rumours of an approach by Whitesnake singer David Coverdale to recruit Luke Morley were circulating, and it would be another two years before the third album appeared.
That album, Behind Closed Doors was the band's last studio album for EMI. They parted company with the label with a compilation: Their Finest Hour... And A Bit, notable for its inclusion of several unreleased tracks, in particular a cover of the Python Lee Jackson song In A Broken Dream. For personal reasons Mikael Höglund was unable to participate in the recording of the band's fourth album The Thrill Of It All; Luke Morley handled bass duties and the album was released on the independent B Lucky label. The band recruited bassist Chris Childs for the tour; he remains with them to this day.
