Thunder on Monsters of Rock and being a man down at Download Festival
The ever-genial Danny Bowes and Luke Morley of Thunder caught up with Planet Rock’s Paul Anthony ahead of their Download Festival performance.
Thunder’s Main Stage slot at Download Festival comes 28 years after their fabled Monsters of Rock set in 1990 and for Luke and Danny the gig was a triumph over adversity.
“It was pretty special,” says Luke. “It was a career-changing moment, almost a career-defining moment really. We didn’t know quite what to expect but at the end of the first number we kind of knew we’d won. It was interesting, we were terrified – well I was, certainly – it was a trouser-darkening few seconds before we went on.
“But at the end of the first number, the hands came up and I thought ‘ooh, this is good’. The other worry was that he (Danny) had lost his voice two days before so that wasn’t helping my trouser-darkening department. But he opened his mouth and out it came and everything was lovely.”
Planet Rock’s very own Danny Bowes added: “I think the fact that I had absolutely no idea whether or not I was going to be able to make a noise was very terrifying prior to the show. It really was.
“I had promo all lined up and then they cancelled it all and I had to sit in a portacabin and not come out, I couldn’t talk to anybody. I had no idea if I was going to be able to sing so when we went on stage and we did it and it was good I think we had a collective release of adrenaline that was so massive that I think that’s most of the reason we had a great gig.
“I mean the audience were stunningly good as well and I think having sort of finished that and done that and got that out the way, the relief was tangible.”
Paul also asked Luke and Danny why guitarist/keyboardist Ben Matthews has dropped out of Download with Dean Howard (T'Pau/Ore/Ian Gillan Band/Bad Co/Airrace/Cats In Space) filling in for him.
With his tongue firmly wedged in his cheek, Danny responded: “He basically fell off a motorcycle and because he’s made of paper, he broke his collarbone.
“Had it been anyone else with this teeny weeny little innocuous fall, they would have literally picked themselves up and walked away and said ‘blimey, that hurt’.
“But with Benny, no no no, because he’s made out of paper he has to break his collarbone and cause us all a load of misery because we then had to rejig what we were doing and suddenly think about where we’re going to get a new guitar player from, get him to learn the music. It’s all very inconvenient!”
Watch the full interview below where Danny and Luke also explain why they wanted to give their fans something to treasure with recent live album and concert film ‘Stage’.
PHOTO GALLERY: Friday at Download Festival 2018
PHOTO GALLERY: Saturday at Download Festival 2018