Skid Row (American band) Subhuman Race and split with Bach (1992-1998) Was Subhuman race an album? In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album. Subhuman Race
What was Spli with Bach?
What was Spli with Bach for Skid Row?
After the Slave to the Grind promotional tour, an EP of covers B-Side Ourselves was released in September 1992. Before a third album could be recorded, Skid Row took an extended hiatus in 1993 on McGhee's recommendation to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. For some time, Skid Row parted ways with Wagener, possibly due to the music taking a different direction for the follow-up to Slave to the Grind. In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album. Subhuman Race was released in March 1995, and charted in the top 40 on the American charts. Although it did not achieve the success of its predecessors, it charted one single in the US and received positive reviews.  At that point, the band shifted to performing at smaller venues and its videos were rarely played on MTV, partly because of the rise in popularity of grunge and subsequent decline of many 1980s heavy metal styles. Skid Row was the opening act for Van Halen on its North American leg of the tour. Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan who turned down an opening slot on the Kiss reunion tour even though Bach already booked it. Other band members told Bach that Skid Row was too big for an opening act and that they were not going to do the show. Bach then left a message on a bandmate's answering machine telling them the band was never too big to open for Kiss.  Bolan had a side project, a punk band Prunella Scales who was playing at the same time as the planned Kiss show. The rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to him leaving Skid Row. Four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour. In 1998 Skid Row released the compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row. After Bach's departure, the remaining members continued as Ozone Monday with singer Shawn McCabe of Mars Needs Women. In 1998 and 1999, the group opened up for Kiss and Motley Crue under the new moniker. CANNOTANSWER
Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan
Skid Row is an American rock band, formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey. Their current lineup comprises bassist Rachel Bolan, guitarists Dave Sabo and Scotti Hill, drummer Rob Hammersmith and vocalist ZP Theart. The group achieved commercial success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with its first two albums Skid Row (1989) and Slave to the Grind (1991) certified multi-platinum, the latter of which reached number one on the Billboard 200. Those two albums also produced some of Skid Row's most popular hits, both in and outside of the United States, including "18 and Life" and "I Remember You", which peaked in the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100, and other charting singles such as "Youth Gone Wild", "Monkey Business", "Slave to the Grind", "Wasted Time", and "In a Darkened Room". The band's third album Subhuman Race (1995) was also critically acclaimed, but failed to repeat the success of its predecessors. During this period, the band consisted of Bolan, Sabo, Hill, drummer Rob Affuso and frontman Sebastian Bach. The band had sold 20 million albums worldwide by the end of 1996. Amid rising tensions, Bach and Affuso both left Skid Row towards the end of that year, after which the band entered a three-year hiatus.

After replacing Bach with Johnny Solinger and Affuso with Phil Varone in 1999, Skid Row released Thickskin (2003) and Revolutions per Minute (2006), both of which garnered mixed reception. In April 2015, Skid Row announced that they had parted ways with Solinger, and replaced him with former TNT singer Tony Harnell. Eight months later, however, Harnell left the band. In January 2017, former DragonForce vocalist ZP Theart was named the official lead singer after spending a year as a touring member of the group.

History

Early years (1986–1988)
Skid Row was formed in 1986 in Toms River, New Jersey, by bassist Rachel Bolan and guitarist Dave Sabo. The pair recruited guitarist Scotti Hill and drummer Rob Affuso through newspaper ads. Lead vocalist Sebastian Bach replaced original singer Matt Fallon after the band spotted Bach singing at rock photographer Mark Weiss's wedding at the age of 18, and the members asked him to join in early 1987. Bolan claimed in a 2020 interview on the Chuck Shute Podcast that, before settling with Bach on vocals, then-future Mötley Crüe singer John Corabi auditioned for Skid Row. The band began playing shows in clubs throughout the eastern United States.

Sabo and John Bon Jovi were teenage friends and Sabo was briefly a member of Bon Jovi before being replaced by guitarist Richie Sambora. Sabo and Bon Jovi agreed that if one of them made it in the music business, he would help the other out. Bon Jovi's manager Doc McGhee sought out Skid Row, and secured the band a record deal with Atlantic Records in 1988. Skid Row recorded its debut at the Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin with producer Michael Wagener. Before releasing the album, the management paid a reported $35,000 to guitarist Gary Moore for the rights to the name of his namesake band.

Skid Row and Slave to the Grind (1989–1992)
The band's debut album Skid Row, released in January 1989, was an instant success. The record went 5× platinum on the strength of the Top 10 singles "18 and Life" and "I Remember You". Skid Row supported the album by opening for Bon Jovi on their New Jersey tour. As part of the six-month tour, Skid Row played its first-ever UK gig supporting Bon Jovi's outdoor show at Milton Keynes Bowl on August 19, 1989. The next day, Skid Row played a successful club show at London's Marquee Club in Charing Cross Road. Skid Row also took part in the Moscow Music Peace Festival, which was set up to keep McGhee out of jail. McGhee was facing drug trafficking charges, and therefore set up an anti-drug/peace concert in Russia, featuring a few of the artists that he and his brother managed.

Skid Row returned to the UK three months later, opening for Mötley Crüe on their European Dr. Feelgood tour in early November 1989 with Mr. Big. That was followed by a UK headlining tour culminating in a show at London's Hammersmith Odeon, with Vain supporting. Skid Row continued touring into 1990, including supporting Aerosmith on the North American leg of their Pump tour.

In what is referred to as "The Bottle Incident" by fans of the band, Bach was hit onstage with a bottle thrown from the crowd at a concert in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Skid Row was opening for Aerosmith on December 27, 1989. Bach threw the bottle back, hitting a girl (not the thrower), so he jumped on the crowd to beat the person who can be seen on a tour video released by Skid Row called Oh Say Can You Scream in 1990.

Shortly thereafter, at another show, Bach put on a T-shirt proclaiming the anti-gay slogan "AIDS Kills Fags Dead" as a spoof of the slogan for the insecticide Raid, "Raid Kills Bugs Dead". The shirt was previously given to him by a fan, as Bach was seen wearing the year prior. On MTV News Bach dismissed the controversy saying "I don't see what the big deal is really but I guess if someone wore a T-shirt saying "Cancer Kills Grandma's Dead" I'd probably be a little bit pissed too." Bach eventually expressed regret over the incident, claiming that he did not read the slogan before putting the shirt on, even though he wore it for a photo shoot in Metal Edge magazine. The band also recorded a cover of the Sex Pistols' "Holidays in the Sun" for the Make A Difference Foundation release Stairway to Heaven/Highway to Hell.

Skid Row returned to the studio with Wagener in 1990 to record its second studio album Slave to the Grind. The album was released in June 1991 and debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, reaching 2× platinum status without any radio hits. It was a departure for the band; while Skid Row was an album that followed the typical 1980s band formula, Slave to the Grind had a heavier sound. Skid Row once again went out on a worldwide tour which lasted over a year, including a leg supporting Guns N' Roses in 1991 and an appearance at Monsters of Rock in Castle Donington in 1992. The band then took out Pantera, Soundgarden, L.A. Guns and Love/Hate as supporting acts as part of the tour supporting Slave to the Grind. Skid Row had originally asked upcoming grunge band Nirvana to open for them but they declined, saying that Skid Row was "too homophobic", relating to the Sebastian Bach T-shirt incident. Coincidentally, an earlier incarnation of Nirvana was briefly also named Skid Row.

An EP of covers B-Side Ourselves was released in September 1992. Not only does the EP include cover versions of songs originally recorded by artists that had influenced Skid Row, but it is essentially a compilation of tracks that had previously appeared as B-sides of the Slave to the Grind-era singles, while its closing track – the cover version of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing" – had never appeared elsewhere. B-Side Ourselves peaked at number 58 on the Billboard 200 (Skid Row's lowest chart position to date), and it was certified gold by the RIAA approximately six months after its release.

Subhuman Race (1993–1998)

After the Slave to the Grind tour ended in February 1993 in Australia, where they again opened for Guns N' Roses, Skid Row took an extended hiatus on McGhee's recommendation to wait for the grunge movement to fade away. Also during this period, Skid Row parted ways with Wagener, possibly due to the music taking a different direction for the follow-up to Slave to the Grind. In 1994, the band returned to the studio with producer Bob Rock to record its third album Subhuman Race. The members of Skid Row have claimed that its recording sessions were filled with rising tensions between both the band members and Rock, including debates over the album's musical direction, and have also indicated that this was the beginning of the band's strained relationship with Bach. Subhuman Race was released in March 1995, and peaked in the top 40 on the US charts, supported by the singles "My Enemy", "Breakin' Down" and "Into Another", the latter being the band's last to chart there. Although the album did not achieve the success of its predecessors, it received mixed to positive reviews and has also been viewed as Skid Row's darkest album. As of 2019, the band rarely plays any songs from Subhuman Race live; most of them were last performed on the album's tour in 1995, while "Beat Yourself Blind" is the only song they have played live with its subsequent singers Johnny Solinger and ZP Theart.

At that point, the band shifted to performing at smaller venues and its videos were rarely played on MTV, partly because of the rise in popularity of grunge and subsequent decline of many 1980s heavy metal styles. Skid Row was the opening act for Van Halen on the North American leg of their Balance tour. Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan who turned down an opening slot on the Kiss reunion tour even though Bach had already booked it. The other band members told Bach that Skid Row was too big to be an opening act and that they were not going to do the show. Bach then left a message on Snake's answering machine telling them the band would never be too big to open for Kiss along with a number of insults; this resulted in Snake telling Bach that he would never work with him again.

Dangerous Toys vocalist Jason McMaster revealed in a May 2020 interview on The Chuck Shute Podcast that, during this period, he was approached by Sabo and Bolan to audition for Skid Row as Bach's replacement, but turned it down as he was "just not a huge fan" and "was trying to get Toys back on the road." McMaster also recalled: "Sebastian was gone, so whatever year he was gone [is when they got in touch with me]. When he left, and here's a campfire, and Snake and Rachel are sitting around: 'Well, who do we wanna try out?' And my name was on the list."

Bolan had a side project, the punk band Prunella Scales. The rift between Bach and the other band members subsequently led to his leaving Skid Row. Four years later, Skid Row was one of the opening acts for the 2000 Kiss Farewell Tour. In 1998 Skid Row released the compilation 40 Seasons: The Best of Skid Row without Bach's input. After Bach's departure, the remaining members continued as Ozone Monday with singer Shawn McCabe of Mars Needs Women. In 1998 and 1999, the group opened up for Kiss and Mötley Crüe under the new moniker.

Thickskin and Revolutions per Minute  (1999–2008)

Skid Row re-formed in 1999 with new lead vocalist Johnny Solinger and drummer Phil Varone. After re-forming, the band opened for Kiss on its farewell tour, and also played with other 1980s metal bands such as Poison and INXS's bassist Garry Gary Beers. In 2002 they were part of the Rock Never Stops Tour. Skid Row released its fourth full-length studio album Thickskin in the summer of 2003, which was the first album to feature Solinger and its first studio album in 8 years. In 2004, Dave Gara was announced as the new drummer.

The fifth Skid Row album Revolutions per Minute was released in October 2006 by SPV Records. Wagener reunited with Skid Row and became this album's producer. In 2007, the band recorded "Jingle Bells" for a Monster Ballads Christmas album. In January 2008 they performed as part of the Motley Cruise with Mötley Crüe, Ratt and Slaughter. In early 2010 Rob Hammersmith became the band's new drummer.

United World Rebellion Chapter I and II: Rise of the Damnation Army (2009–2016)
Speaking in 2009 about the next Skid Row album, Hill said "we haven't sat down and recorded anything yet, but we have sat down and worked out some ideas and just played them on a handheld recorder. Everybody's writing and we're getting into that mind set. Once the wheels get in motion we'll all probably fly out to Atlanta spend a week or two up there come home, go back up there do it again, we're all living in different cities, which can make it difficult at times."

In February 2013 Skid Row signed with Megaforce Records, and stated the new material would be released as three separate EPs. The first chapter United World Rebellion: Chapter One, was released in April 2013, with two more EPs set to follow in the following 12 to 18 months.

In February 2014, the band began working on the second EP. In August 2014, Skid Row released the second chapter of the trilogy titled Rise of the Damnation Army. In February 2015, Skid Row announced they were writing the third chapter of the United World Rebellion series. In April, Solinger was fired from the band., and the same day it was announced that Tony Harnell, formerly of the Norwegian melodic metal band TNT, would replace Solinger. That same month the band released a re-recorded version of its early single "18 and Life" as a free download.

United World Rebellion Chapter III (2016–present)
Harnell left Skid Row in December 2015, and former DragonForce vocalist ZP Theart was filling in as the lead singer for concerts in 2016.  In January 2017, ZP Theart was named as an official member of the band. In March 2018, it was revealed the band's next release for the United World Rebellion trilogy would now be a full-length album and would be released sometime in 2019.

In January 2019, a deluxe edition of Skid Row's self-titled debut album was released digitally, which included the original album remastered for the first time (with "Forever" added as the bonus track), as well as a recording of the band's April 28, 1989 performance at The Marquee in Westminster, California. The band members have stated that they had no input into the reissue.

In the summer of 2019, former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach announced plans to perform the band's self-titled debut album in its entirety on tour as a celebration of its 30th anniversary, and issued an open invitation for the band to play on stage with him for the first time since their split, hoping it would result in a proper Skid Row reunion with Bach. Guitarist Dave "Snake" Sabo declined the offer, while former drummer Rob Affuso subsequently confirmed that he would be joining Bach on stage during the tour.

On June 26, 2021, former vocalist Johnny Solinger died one month after revealing that he was suffering from liver failure.

Band members

Current members
Dave "The Snake" Sabo – lead and rhythm guitar, backing vocals (1986–1996, 1999–present)
Rachel Bolan – bass, backing vocals (1986–1996, 1999–present)
Scotti Hill – rhythm and lead guitar, backing vocals (1987–1996, 1999–present)
Rob Hammersmith – drums, backing vocals (2010–present)
ZP Theart – lead vocals (2016–present)

Awards and nominations
American Music Awards

Discography

Studio albums
Skid Row (1989)
Slave to the Grind (1991)
Subhuman Race (1995)
Thickskin (2003)
Revolutions per Minute (2006)

References

External links

 

 
 

 
1986 establishments in New Jersey
Heavy metal musical groups from New Jersey
Atlantic Records artists
American hard rock musical groups
Musical groups established in 1986
Musical groups disestablished in 1996
Musical groups reestablished in 1999
Musical quintets
American glam metal musical groups
Bach composed , as chorale cantata for the Marian feast of the Annunciation, for a first performance in a church service in Leipzig on 25 March 1725. The cantata, for soprano, tenor and bass soloists, four-part choir and Baroque orchestra, takes around 25 minutes to perform.

Recordings
The conductor Fritz Lehmann recorded nine Bach cantatas with the Berliner Motettenchor and the Berliner Philharmoniker with Deutsche Grammophon. Recordings of nine cantatas were made between 1950 and 1952, and  was the first one to be released, in 1952. Lehmann died in 1956, preventing an expansion of the project. The nine cantatas were reissued by Eloquence Classics in 2018. Fritz Werner recorded around 50 of Bach's church cantatas with the Heinrich-Schütz-Chor Heilbronn and the Pforzheim Chamber Orchestra between 1959 and 1974, recording  in 1965. Several of them were reissued in 2004. A reviewer of the first volume noted: "Fritz Werner has this music in his blood. His instincts for Bach style are generally sound and he directs the music with a profound belief in it. These are performances of quiet conviction."

In 1971,  was the first cantata for the project to record all church cantatas by Bach on period instruments in historically informed performances for what is now known as the Teldec series (it began on the Telefunken label); the conductor was Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who was one of two conductors on the project, the other being Gustav Leonhardt. While some instruments such as baroque violins were relatively easily available, other instruments necessary for historically informed performance posed more challenges, for example, the oboe da caccia which is specified in the score of this cantata. A reconstructed version of this instrument was available by 1973, when the revival of the instrument had benefited from scholarly research at the beginning of the 1970s. However, it is not clear what would have been available for Jürg Schäftlein and Karl Gruber, the oboists of Harnoncourt's instrumental ensemble Concentus Musicus Wien, when BWV 1 was recorded. Another aspect of historically informed performance is the use of all male singers (which was the norm for Bach in Leipzig). Harnoncourt conducted the first four cantatas with the Wiener Sängerknaben, with a soprano soloist from the boys' choir and a countertenor for the alto part.

Helmuth Rilling, who began a recording of all Bach cantatas in 1969 and completed it in 1985, recorded  in 1980, with the Gächinger Kantorei and Bach-Collegium Stuttgart. Thomaskantor Hans-Joachim Rotzsch, recorded Bach cantatas with the Thomanerchor and the Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum. They recorded , coupled with Bach's chorale cantata on a hymn by Nicolai, , in 1987. Pieter Jan Leusink conducted all Bach church cantatas with the Holland Boys Choir and the Netherlands Bach Collegium in historically informed performance, however with women for the solo soprano parts. He completed the project within a year on the occasion of the Bach Year 2000. A reviewer from Gramophone noted: "Leusink's success elsewhere comes largely through his admirably well-judged feeling for tempos and a means of accentuation which drives the music forward inexorably".

Masaaki Suzuki, who studied historically informed practice in Europe began recording Bach's church cantatas with the Bach Collegium Japan in 1999, at first not aiming at a complete cycle, but completing all in 2017. They released  in 2007. Sigiswald Kuijken recorded a series of cantatas with the ensemble La Petite Bande with vocalists singing one voice per part (OVPP). They recorded  in 2007. The Swiss J. S. Bach-Stiftung plans to cover all church cantata by Bach in recorded live concerts with introductions. They covered  in 2010. In 2013, a CD was released sung by the Thomanerchor with the Gewandhausorchester, conducted by Georg Christoph Biller. As part 9 of their series Das Kirchenjahr mit Johann Sebastian Bach (The church year with J. S. Bach), titled Marian Feasts, they performed Cantata 125 for Purification, Cantata 1 for Annunciation, and Cantata 147 for Visitation.

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders" style="margin-right: 0;"
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|+ Recordings of Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern
|-
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Conductor / Choir / Orchestra
! scope="col" | Soloists
! scope="col" | Label
! scope="col" | Year
|-

References

Cited sources

External links 
  (recordings)
 
 Brian Robins: Johann Sebastian Bach / Cantata No. 1, "Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern," BWV 1 (BC A173) (Description and recordings) AllMusic

Discographies of compositions by J. S. Bach Ole Christian Bach (31 May 1957 – 11 July 2005) was a Norwegian con artist.

Bach came into the spotlight in 1987 after organizing an illegal pyramid scheme where many investors and banks lost a total of 40 million NOK. Bach fled and was arrested in London and extradited to Norway. In 1988, he was convicted on charges of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison. 

He was convicted again for his involvement with the theft and sale of Edvard Munch's Madonna in 1992, and sentenced to seven months in prison.
Bach managed to establish new connections, most importantly with Gerard Cok. Cok controlled the German porn enterprise Beate Uhse, and he trusted Bach with the establishment of porn shops in Norway and Sweden. With security in an estate out of Oslo, Cok also gave Bach a NOK 60.000.000 loan. The security later turned out to be only in the estate's boat house.

In 2005 he was again charged with economic fraud. On 11 July 2005, he committed suicide in Sweden after a car chase with Swedish undercover police.

Aftermath
After Bach's death, Gerhard Cok sued Ole Christian Bach's lawyer Ronny Mulstad for his role in securing Cok's loan to Bach. The dispute was settled outside court.

The role of the journalists who covered the Bach's hiding came under investigation after Bach's death. One journalist was fined for having helped Bach to avoid arrest by paying him for interviews. A magazine was fined for similar reasons.

A friend of Bach's was sentenced to prison for helping Bach to avoid arrest.

References

1957 births
2005 deaths
20th-century Norwegian businesspeople
Suicides by firearm in Sweden
Norwegian prisoners and detainees
Norwegian fraudsters
Prisoners and detainees of Norway