1969–1973: Formation and early releases Trapeze formed in March 1969, with the original lineup featuring former
The Montanas members John Jones (trumpet, vocals) and Terry Rowley (keyboards, guitar, flute), along with former
Finders Keepers members
Glenn Hughes (bass, vocals, piano)
Mel Galley (guitar, vocals) and
Dave Holland (drums). One of the band's early performances was filmed for an appearance on the
BBC2 show
Colour Me Pop, recorded on 5 July 1969 at Club Lafayette in
Wolverhampton, at which they performed the song "Send Me No More Letters". Local promoter Tony Perry described the show as "one of the most outstanding nights at the [venue]", praising the band's performance as "fantastic". Later in the year, Trapeze signed as the first act on
Threshold Records, a record label founded by
The Moody Blues and distributed in the United States by
London Records and elsewhere by
Decca Records. The band reportedly declined an offer to join
Apple Records, the label founded by
The Beatles, as they believed that they would have more creative freedom with Threshold. bassist
John Lodge produced the first two albums by Trapeze, 1970's
Trapeze and
Medusa. Working with The Moody Blues bassist
John Lodge as producer, Trapeze recorded their
self-titled debut album at London's
Morgan Studios and
Decca Studios. Despite Jones being the band's official lead singer, Hughes performed all vocals on the release. Hughes has revealed that he was asked to sing on the album by the group's management, who deemed him to be the better of the two vocalists. Before the end of the year, the Rowley composition "Send Me No More Letters" was released as the band's first
single, backed with "Another Day" (written by Galley, Hughes and Jones).
Trapeze was released in May 1970. The album was generally well received by critics –
Billboard magazine described it as featuring "a strong rock personality" and dubbed it "a candidate for big chart action", while journalist
Nigel Williamson hailed it as "a classic period example of English prog, mixing pastoral whimsy, swirling psychedelia, rock guitars and pop harmonies".
Trapeze was promoted on a string of shows in the UK between January and July. In August 1970, Jones and Rowley left Trapeze, which was issued in the US in March 1971. Produced again by Lodge, the album has since been highlighted by multiple critics as the band's best release, as well as one of the decade's most underrated hard rock albums. Writing in the booklet for a 1994 reissue of the album, author John Tracy claimed that
Medusa was "greeted with instant, and seemingly universal, acclaim". "Black Cloud", written by Galley with brother Tom, was issued in the US as the only single from the album backed with "Your Love Is Alright", written by the three band members. The album was primarily written by Hughes (three tracks were written by the Galley brothers), produced by Neil Slaven, and featured a number of guest contributors including
Rod Argent on piano and
B. J. Cole on steel guitar.
Billboard dubbed the album a "fine set", The band toured throughout late 1972 and early 1973 in promotion of the album, including dates in the US and the UK.
1973–1976: Hughes's departure and return left the band in 1973 to join
Deep Purple, although briefly returned for a tour in 1976. In April 1973,
Deep Purple members
Ritchie Blackmore,
Jon Lord and
Ian Paice attended a Trapeze show at the
Whisky a Go Go in
Los Angeles,
California, with a view to asking Hughes to replace bassist
Roger Glover in the band. When approached at another show the following month, Hughes declined the invitation in favour of remaining with Trapeze, claiming that he was "in a very, very different frame of mind as a musician" at the time and dubbing Deep Purple "too basic rock for me". However, due to the high-profile status of the group at the time, combined with the prospect of working with former
Free frontman
Paul Rodgers, who had been approached to replace vocalist
Ian Gillan, Hughes reconsidered and agreed to join the band as bassist and second vocalist. The lineup change was officially announced in the music magazine
Melody Maker on 14 July 1973. Rodgers ultimately passed on the opportunity to join, focusing instead on the formation of
Bad Company. Hughes has since described the choice to leave Trapeze as a "horrible" one to make, dubbing the band his "family" and claiming in multiple interviews that to some extent he regrets leaving. After a brief hiatus, Trapeze returned in 1974 with Galley on lead vocals, adding second guitarist Rob Kendrick and bassist Pete Wright to their lineup. Threshold issued the band's first compilation album
The Final Swing in October, which featured tracks from their first three albums as well as the previously unreleased "Good Love" and "Dats It". December saw the release of the band's fourth studio album
Hot Wire, which peaked at number 146 on the
Billboard 200, number 153 on the
Cash Box albums chart, and number 161 on the
Record World albums chart in early 1975. Former keyboardist Terry Rowley was also featured as a guest contributor on the album, performing synthesizers, organ, electric piano and backing vocals. Rowley remained in the touring lineup of the band for the
Hot Wire cycle and featured on the album
Live at the Boat Club 1975, although again not credited as a group member. Later in 1975, Trapeze released a second
self-titled album, on which Hughes returned to perform vocals on two tracks.
Billboard praised
Trapeze as an example of "tight, cooking, soul-tinged hard rock", although
AllMusic's Dave Thompson criticised it as "a dour little disc, desperately missing the funk infusions of Glenn Hughes and, for the most part, overshadowed even by its disappointing predecessor". Galley and Holland briefly took a break from Trapeze in November to complete a British concert tour with
Justin Hayward and John Lodge, in promotion of their collaboration album
Blue Jays, released earlier in the year. The following year, after Deep Purple broke up, Hughes temporarily reunited the classic trio of Trapeze for The Appreciation Tour, which was scheduled to visit the US in August and the UK in September. After a short run of US dates, Hughes left again due to off-stage problems caused by drug abuse, particularly
cocaine. Speaking about the brief reunion in 2007, Galley recalled that Hughes "wasn't in a good state of mind at the time", suggesting that "if we could have carried the electricity of those shows on, we could have known no bounds". Similarly, the band's manager Tony Perry has recalled that Hughes "[had] major problems at the time and was very difficult to deal with", adding that he and the other members of the band had discussed the possibility of firing and replacing him during the tour. the band released their final studio album
Hold On in late 1979, produced by
Jimmy Miller. The album, initially released in Germany in 1978 under the title
Running with a different track listing, was hailed by
Sounds magazine's Graham Neale as the culmination of the band's "obvious regenerated enthusiasm" following recent challenges, while Galley presented it as an evolution in the band's sound and style of songwriting. AllMusic's Steve Huey hailed
Hold On as "quite possibly [Trapeze]'s best" album, while his colleague Joe Viglione praised it for its songwriting and production qualities. – by then, the only remaining original member – joined
Whitesnake. In August 1979, Holland left Trapeze to join heavy metal band
Judas Priest. The band released their first live album
Live in Texas: Dead Armadillos in 1981, which was recorded on the resulting tour in May 1981. By the time the album was released, Goalby had left Trapeze to join
Uriah Heep.
Mervyn Spence (bass, lead vocals) and Richard Bailey (keyboards) joined the band later in the year, and in 1982 Bray was replaced by
Kex Gorin. The final lineup of Trapeze had begun recording material for a potential new album before Galley left, with the material later adapted for Whitesnake and
Phenomena, a project started by Tom Galley. Another live album,
Live: Way Back to the Bone, was released the same year, featuring recordings from earlier in the band's career. The trio reunited again in 1993, recording a number of demos for a planned future release. This was followed later in the year by a short string of shows in the US and the UK, which Hughes described as a "wonderful run" and a "great experience". == Aftermath ==