Bang - Bang........Mother / Bow To The King (1972/2004)

In the summer of 1971, BANG, a trio from the Philadelphia area, decided to take a road trip to Florida to try their fortune. While buying some rolling papers in the Sunshine State, they learned about a Small Faces and Deep Purple concert nearby in Orlando. They showed up at the venue and brazenly declared they were ready to go on stage. The concert organizer asked them to set up and play for him. After a couple songs, he told them they were opening for Rod Stewart and Faces. Before they knew it, BANG was playing with Bachman Turner Overdrive, Deep Purple, Three Dog Night, Fleetwood Mac, Ike and Tina Turner, The Doobie Brothers, and even Black Sabbath. Capitol Records signed them, and three LPs were released. This CD was put out by the band and has the albums Bang and Mother/Bow To The King both on the same cd. This was self released and not on any label.

Surely one of the most unsung bands in the history of American hard rock music, BANG released three full-length albums for Capitol Records in the early 70’s, that criminally sank without a trace. Capitol artist development at the time just did not know what to do with the band that was often called America’s answer to Black Sabbath. BANG‛s first significant break came when the Philadelphia band gate-crashed a Rod Stewart show in Orlando in 1971 convincing promoters to put them on as the warm up act. With the interest of the major concert promoters of the day, East Coast Concerts and Concerts West, the band soon became major contenders in the hard rock arena. The 1971 self-titled debut album “BANG“ is considered an important forerunner to the early Doom Metal genre. This was followed by the monumental “Mother/Bow To The King” album in 1972 which should have exploded. Changes in personnel at their record company and an externally forced line-up change led to frustration and bewilderment before releasing their swansong 1973 album “Music“. Undoubtedly the heaviest of America‛s ‘proto-metal’ bands from the period, BANG also had a strong sense of melodic power, which should have led them to much bigger things as chronicled in the BANGstory. Highly regarded as a cult act by many for years, it‛s now time for this truly amazing rock band to be enjoyed by a new audience. As can be heard, the versatility and songwriting skills of BANG were (are) second to none.