Foghat

Foghat are an English rock band formed in London in 1971. The band are known for the use of electric slide guitar in their music. Their best known song is the 1975 hit "Slow Ride". The band have released 17 studio albums, including eight gold albums and one platinum, along with one double platinum live album. Despite several line-up changes, the band continue to record and perform.AllMusic classed the band's style as "boogie-blues" and further described it as "simple, hard-rocking blues-rock".The band initially featured Dave Peverett ("Lonesome Dave") on guitar and vocals, Tony Stevens on bass, and Roger Earl on drums, after all three musicians left Savoy Brown in December 1970. Rod Price, on guitar/slide guitar, joined after he left Black Cat Bones. The new line-up was named "Foghat" (a nonsense word from a Scrabble-like game played by Peverett and his brother) in January 1971. There is a cartoon drawing on the back cover of the group's first album of a head wearing a foghat.Foghat relocated to the United States after signing a deal with Bearsville Records. Its debut album, Foghat (1972), was produced by Dave Edmunds and featured a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You", which received considerable airplay, especially on FM stations. The album also included a remake of Savoy Brown's bluesy ode to the road "Leavin' Again (Again!)", and "Sarah Lee", a classic blues burner featuring Price's slide guitar solo. The band's second self-titled album went gold. It was also known as Foghat (Rock and Roll) for its cover photo of a rock and a bread roll. Energized (1974) came out, followed by Rock and Roll Outlaws (1974) and Fool for the City (1975). In 1974, Stevens left the band due to their relentless touring schedule and was temporarily replaced by producer Nick Jameson for the recording of Fool for the City. During the next year, Jameson was replaced by Craig MacGregor, and the group released Night Shift (1976), a live album (1977) and Stone Blue (1978), each attaining gold status in record sales. Fool for the City spawned the hit single "Slow Ride" (which reached No. 20 in the United States and No. 14 in Canada), but the greatest sales figures were reached by Foghat Live, which went double platinum. More hits followed: "Drivin' Wheel", "I Just Want to Make Love to You" (from the live album), "Stone Blue", and "Third Time Lucky (First Time I Was a Fool)". Price left the band in November 1980, unhappy with the group's still constant touring and shifting away from the hard boogie sound toward a more new wave-influenced pop direction. By February 1981, after months of auditions, he was replaced by Erik Cartwright.After 1978, Foghat's record sales began to slip, and their last album for the Bearsville label, Zig-Zag Walk (1983), only briefly touched the charts at number 192. MacGregor quit in 1982, and Jameson returned to play on In the Mood for Something Rude and Zig Zag Walk before being replaced by Kenny Aaronson (1983) and then Rob Alter (1983-1984). MacGregor returned in 1984.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.