Biography: The Burn Story
…..so far….so good
Burn was formed in by brothers Barney and Marc Stackhouse out of the remnants of Loughborough band Renegade. Mutual friends Jeff Ogden, Karl Bee and Rab Devenney completed the original line-up. The band’s first album, So Far, So Bad, released in 1993, was very well received by critics and lovers of classic melodic rock alike. The release received no less than a 5K review in Kerrang, along with many other glowing tributes, and went on to sell north of 10,000 copies. This was no mean feat, as the band’s independent release fought against the wave of Grunge sweeping all before it in the music world at that time.
The band followed up the debut release with Spark To a Flame in 1995. Unfortunately, this album, despite having many notable moments, failed to have the same impact as the previous release and momentum stalled.
Towards the end of the decade the band started to write songs for their third album but they were dealt a hammer blow when Drummer Karl Bee was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident in 2001. This devastated the close-knit band and all Burn activities were put on hold. Rab decided that he no longer wanted to continue and left the band.
It was in 2005 that Barney took up the reins again and started to rebuild Burn. In possession of a part finished album of songs he brought in Zodiac Mindwarp drummer Rob Vomm and former Rogue Male Lead Guitarist Julian Nicholas to complete the line-up. The band started playing live again and Barney and Julian set about finishing off the album.
In the meantime, on the recommend of Jeff, Barney contacted Phil Hammond, who had once been a member of Leicester band Alien. Jeff remembered that Phil was the main songwriter in Alien and thought he may be an option to bring additional new material to the band. The timing was perfect as Phil had just started writing again after a 15 year break from music.
The band started working on the original songs that had been recorded and Julian and Phil brought in new material to bolster the album. Their influence also led to the Burn sound becoming significantly more muscular. Along with the new tracks the original songs were partly re-recorded to add much heavier guitars and epic keyboards. Jeff Ogden’s stunning vocal performance across the material, new and old, took the band’s sound to a whole new level. Rob Vomm was replaced in the meantime by American drummer, Benjamin Reid (ex-Kick, Debbie Bonham, Ted Nugent)
The finished album was titled Global Warning and it was released in May 2007.
The album was extremely well received by the rock media with review after review praising the songs, the performances and the production. The album sold particularly well in Japan, where advance orders numbered 2500 following a glowing review in the influential Japanese magazine, ironically called, Burrn!
The band took to the road in 2007 and 2008 as a 6 piece, culminating in a triumphant appearance at Firefest V in Nottingham.
Although the album sold relatively well and live reviews encouraged people to go out and see the band when they could, momentum once again stalled. The band members drifted apart and Burn effectively ceased to be at the end of 2008. The planned follow-up album to Global Warning was put on indefinite hold.
Marc and Jeff formed a local band, Benj joined Letz Zep and the others drifted off into other things.
Once again Barney was the one to drag Burn from its slumber. Phil had been writing and demoing songs in the intervening years and in 2012 they started to construct the fourth Burn album. By 2014 they were ready for someone to sing the songs. Jeff had effectively ruled himself out of the band and so Barney and Phil started the search. Finding someone of a high enough calibre was proving difficult until a conversation with Eden’s Curse mainman Paul Logue led to Phil contacting Steve Newman. Steve has a catalogue of highly regarded solo albums to his name and his vocal style seemed to be just what the Burn version of melodic heavy rock required. Fortunately, Steve liked the material and was excited to get involved in a band for the first time in many years.
Steve was the perfect fit and his vocal performances left Phil and Barney in no doubt that they had found their ideal frontman.
On Steve’s recommendation Phil approached Chris Green (Tyketto, Pride, Furyon, Rubicon Cross) to fill the lead guitar berth. To say that Phil and Barney’s jaws hit the floor when they heard the first solo Chris presented to them would be an understatement. Once again, the perfect fit. Chris subsequently recorded a string of solos for the album that should leave listeners in no doubt that he is one of the very best lead players out there.
The new line-up was complete, and so was the album.
In order to make sure that the finished tracks reached their full sonic potential, Grammy Award Winning Swedish Engineer Tobias Lindell (H.E.A.T., Europe, etc)was brought in to work with the band to complete the final mix.
So here we are. Burn’s fourth album is ready for release. It is called Ice Age and it is a work of which all the guys are extremely proud. They can’t wait to share it with you. We are sure that it will be worth the wait.