HOW I FOUNDED BAD COMPANY WHILE LOOKING FOR ANOTHER BAND
Story: Corky Laing
It is an amazing thing to have been in this business for over 30 years and still be a major player. With so many stories from the world of rock n roll, I find it a great opportunity to share with Cashbox Canada readers some of these moments in time with some rock music greats.
A perfect example of the more obscure English Band is Mott the Hoople. The boys in Mott involved in the recording session I’m about to address were Mick Ralphs (guitar), Overend Watts (bass), and Leslie West and I (Mountain) were looking to start a new rock ensemble in 1972. This was at the time Felix Pappalardi, Mountain’s Bass player and producer, had decided to retire.
Photo at right: Bad Company looking the part.
Les and I both loved the UK so we began our search at ISLAND Studios in LONDON. Incidentally, Island Studios is the home office of Island Records, which was a very hot label at that time. Their stable of acts included, Bob Marley, Traffic, (Stevie Winwood), Free and Mott the Hoople. These bands were all going through personal changes.
A breakup that was relevant to us was that of Free and Les and I had the opportunity to jam with Paul Rogers (lead singer) along with Mick Ralphs and Overend Watts, while we were writing and recording on the spot. A song called ‘Sail On’ was the tune we immediately started to get our teeth into. It sounded brilliant. Paul Rogers’ voice was at its peak, Free having just finished the good-bye tour. There were many hours of energetic playing. Since it was the first time we had all met, it was also very refreshing.
Fast-forward a day later. Les receives a return phone call from Jack Bruce who had just finished a Tony Williams (drummer for Myles Davis) Lifeline tour. Jack was also looking to get into a rock band. He had been sliding into a jazz format since leaving Cream. Les and I had to make a decision. Where do we go? What do we do? This was by far the very best of the UK rock elite and it was a gratifying position for us to be in.
We decided that we were more comfortable with the rock trio setup. We hooked up with Jack for another three years/4 album window ( 1972-1975) for West Bruce and Laing. On the other hand, little did Les and I realize that we had actually A&R’d and put together the boys that became the band Bad Company.
That group went on to make their creative mark in classic rock with some great songs including “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love”, and of course the title song “Bad Company”. By the way, the name Bad Company was contrary to some of the nicest musicians in the game.
After 7 years as VP of A&R at Polygram Canada (1989-1996), I still take great pride in being part of orchestrating the formation of Bad Company.
