FOREIGNER To Be Rejoined By Drummer BRIAN TICHY For Five Shows

Drummer Brian Tichy will rejoin FOREIGNER for the next five shows, beginning with this Saturday's (November 11) concert in Hammond, Indiana. He will be filling in for FOREIGNER's regular drummer Chris Frazier, who is "ill" and "has been advised to rest it up a bit," according to Brian. "He'll jump back in sooner if he can!" Tichy wrote on his Facebook page.

Brian added: "It's always great to join back up with [FOREIGNER] and play one of the best setlists in rock!"

Tichy joined FOREIGNER in 1998 and remained until 2000. He rejoined briefly in 2007, stepping in for Jason Bonham. He then returned from 2008 until 2010, recording the album "Can't Slow Down". He returned for one show in summer 2011, filling in for Mark Schulman, who had recently lost his father. Tichy rejoined FOREIGNER for the month of August 2012 for live performances, replacing the departed Schulman once again.

Asked what he thinks the most important thing is that a drummer can do for a band, Tichy told Glide Magazine in a 2014 interview: "There really is only one most important thing and it's keeping good solid time, and solid doesn't mean you have to hit everything and smash it as hard as you can and all that. It just means no matter what you're doing up there, whatever it takes to make that band sound right and groove right and drive the band correctly, the way the band should be, you know, meaning like I don't want to hear like Neil Peart from RUSH playing in AC/DC and I don't want to hear Phil Rudd from AC/DC playing in RUSH. And I don't want a drummer to change it up too much. But the main thing is the groove and the timing."

Lou Gramm says that "it was great" to perform with fellow original FOREIGNER members this past summer.

Gramm (vocals), Dennis Elliott (drums), Al Greenwood (keyboards), Ian McDonald (multi-instrumentalist) and FOREIGNER's second bassist, Rick Wills, rejoined FOREIGNER's founder Mick Jones (guitar) on stage for a two-night special event on October 6 and October 7 at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Michigan for the ultimate toast to forty years of rock and roll. This special event was recorded for a forthcoming 2018 TV special, DVD and accompanying album release.

Jones, Gramm, Greenwood, Elliott, McDonald and Wills ran through a five-song mini set consisting of "Feels Like the First Time" — which Jones dedicated to late original bassist Ed Gagliardi — "Double Vision", "Blue Morning, Blue Day", "Long Long Way From Home" and "Dirty White Boy". The musicians later joined FOREIGNER's current lineup to play "I Want to Know What Love Is" and "Hot Blooded".

Although there have been previous partial FOREIGNER reunions earlier this year — in Florida, Spain and at Jones Beach in New York — the Michigan concerts marked the first time all of the musicians were together onstage at the same time.

In a brand new interview with Rockbandreviews.com, Gramm stated about performing with his former bandmates again: "It was great to get back on stage with the original FOREIGNER. We played about six or seven songs; it was a lot of fun. And Mick, of course, played with us. And then the two bands — the FOREIGNER of today and the original FOREIGNER — actually played a few songs together, and that was also fun. And they are really nice guys and good musicians. And we had a lot of fun, and we're gonna do some more, I think."

(Source: www.blabbermouth.net)

Roman P-V - 2017-11-12 12:03:24