Picture courtesy of Dave Musson (Sheffield City Hall, 3 December 2007)
Wednesday 28 January - music suffered a hideous setback on 4 May 2000 when Thunder played their 'final' gig at Camden Dingwalls in London. It was the end of a chapter in rock history that started way back in 1989 and encompassed five studio albums (two that went gold) and seven albums of compilation and live performances. We thought it was all over...
Then the band were tempted back from retirement with a slot on the touring Monsters of Rock UK arena shows in late 2002. To the delight of their faithful fan base they returned in 2003 with a new album, Shooting At The Sun, released on their own label The patient was fully recovered and banged out a further four studio albums, probably their finest material ever, and another four albums of compilations and live stuff. Add to that 22 singles and five EPs and you get an idea of their output.
Sadly, on Wednesday 28 January the band final hung up their gloves citing increasing outside interests as the reason to put the band back on the shelf. They will be concluding the tour of their current album, Bang!, in Germany, Switzerland and Japan, and then embarking on a final farewell UK tour in July with the possibility of a few goodbye festival dates.
It's a real black arm-band time in my family where three generations of Thunder fans are still struggling to come to terms with the loss of their favourite band. We tried to get tickets, but failed miserably. My youngest daughter was nearly in tears with frustration. We've decided to have our own memorial by declaring 4 July 'Thunder Day' when we will be listening to all their studio albums in sequence, watching DVDs of live performances, and having a right old sing-a-long. It's the end of an era.
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