With his partner in crime, vocalist Danny Bowes, sidelined for the foreseeable future following a stroke suffered last August, Thunder guitarist Luke Morley is finally set to release Songs From The Blue Room, a solo album he has tinkered with for the past couple of years. We caught up with him to find out more about that record, and also about his optimism regarding Bowes returning to the live stage at some point.
Your debut solo album, El Gringo Retro, was released in 2001 during a hiatus from Thunder. Now, regrettably, the same seems true of its follow-up, Songs From The Blue Room.
I hadn’t thought about that but, weirdly, you’re right. El Gringo was just a bunch of random songs I had hanging around, but this time there was much more structure. I wrote a lot during covid to keep sane. It was my wife that suggested putting out the songs under my own name. And why not? It’s been twenty years, I think the world is ready.
What’s your mind set with these extracurricular activities – just a bit of fun, or do you still have something to prove?
Probably a bit of both. I’m sixty-two years old, and I’ve learned that it can be healthy to step away and do other things. That was certainly true when I did The Union with Peter Shoulder. Returning to Thunder with lots of new ideas, I saw the band much more clearly.
You’re a rather decent singer on the sly.
I don’t know about that.
Don’t be modest, it’s true.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Joan Armatrading
The singer-songwriter on her new album, inspirations, being a 'band', what her key was about, meeting Nelson Mandela...
Meat Loaf: I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)
It was the power ballad to end all power ballads, and 30 years later people still ponder what the it’ is that the singer wouldn't do.
Kris Kristofferson: June 22, 1936 - September 28, 2024
Kris Kristofferson, the iconic, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and actor who played a key role in advancing a strand of country music into a more raw and confessional direction now recognised as outlaw country, has died peacefully at his home in Maui, surrounded by family. He was 88 years old.
"I have come a very long way in the last two-and-a-bit years"
Back from the brink: the Thunder vocalist who survived major medical trauma returns.
EVER MEET LEMMY?
He's heard Lemmy's unreleased solo album, had dinner with Chris Holmes, told Paul McCartney to get a round in, been told gangster Reggie Kray wanted to have a word with him... He is Dogs D'Amour frontman Tyla 7 Pallas, and these are some of his stories.
"LET'S NOT FORGET ABOUT HAVING FUN"
With their ninth studio album In Murmuration, Finnish rockers Von Hertzen Brothers have replaced their erstwhile prog epics for a more honest approach to songwriting reflecting their personal lives.
IN THE BEGINNING
With previously unseen photographs from their early days as featured in the new Queen | Collector's Edition, Sir Brian May talks us through sights of the band in the early seventies.
BASS-IC INSTINCT
Plucked from obscurity in 1975 to be in David Bowie's band, then unceremoniously out of the picture five years later, bassist George Murray looks back on his time with the Thin White Duke.
High Rollers
When Ronnie Wood, the Stones and some A-list mates holed up at his house to help with his solo album, it sparked a days-long party, a Rolling Stones hit and the last album by arguably their finest line-up.
THE NAME OF THE GAM
When ABBA-mad Opeth leader Mikael Akerfeldt met one of their singers, he lost it”. She didn’t sing on their new concept album, but some other, perhaps unlikely, big names did.
