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? Eventually, Bach left the band in late 1996 after an argument with Bolan What was this argument over? Bolan who turned down an opening slot on the Kiss reunion tour even though Bach already booked it.
What was their first album?
What was Skid Row's first album?
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
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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
What If... is the seventh full-length studio album by the American rock band Mr. Big, which was released on January 21, 2011 through Frontiers Records. It was the band's first album since their 2009 reunion, their first album in 10 years since 2001's Actual Size and their first album with the original line-up featuring guitarist Paul Gilbert since 1996's Hey Man.

The album was recorded between September–October 2010 in a Los Angeles-area studio with producer Kevin Shirley (Iron Maiden, Aerosmith, Rush, Black Country Communion).

The first single from the album, "Undertow", was released on November 27, 2010. A music video was filmed for the single and featured on the special edition DVD of the album The album was supported by a world tour in 2011.

Track listing

Personnel
Mr. Big
 Eric Martin – lead vocals
 Paul Gilbert – guitar, backing vocals
 Billy Sheehan – bass guitar, backing vocals
 Pat Torpey – drums, percussion and backing vocals

Production
Kevin Shirley – producer, mixing
Vanessa Parr – engineer at Village Recorders
Jared Kvitka – engineer at The Cave
Steve Hall – mastering at Future Disc, Los Angeles

Release history

References

External links
 'What If...' Album Review
 WHD Entertainment Website

Mr. Big (American band) albums
2011 albums
Frontiers Records albums
Albums produced by Kevin Shirley What the Future Holds Pt. 2 is the  seventh studio album by the British group Steps. The album was released on 10 September 2021 by BMG Rights Management.

Background
In April 2021, Steps announced what was intended to be a deluxe edition of What the Future Holds would now be released as their seventh studio album, What the Future Holds Pt.2. Claire Richards said of the new record, "we see What the Future Holds Pt. 2 as the perfect companion piece to the original album. The new record is classic Steps but also explores some brand-new sounds."

Singles
The first single was confirmed as "Heartbreak in This City" remix featuring singer and television personality Michelle Visage. It debuted on BBC Radio 2 on 25 February, and made available to stream/download that same day. The single debuted at number 25 on the Official Singles Sales Chart.

"Take Me for a Ride" was released on 29 July 2021 as the album's second single. 

A cover of "The Slightest Touch" was released on 20 August 2021 as the album's third single.

In November 2021 and during opening night of the arena tour, Lee Latchford-Evans confirmed "A Hundred Years of Winter" was the next single. It was released on 19 November 2021.

Commercial performance
What the Future Holds Pt. 2 debuted at number 2 in the UK Albums Charts with 25,000 units sold, only 2,000 copies behind Manic Street Preachers' The Ultra Vivid Lament. This was the second time the two groups competed for number-one position, after their albums This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours and Step One also charted at number 1 and 2, respectively, way back in 1998. This marks Steps' third consecutive number 2 studio album since their reunion in 2012, next to Tears on the Dancefloor and What the Future Holds Pt. 1. 

In Australia, the album debuted at number 11, Steps' highest peak in the country in 23 years, since their debut album Step One peaked at number 5 in 1998.

Track listing

Charts

Release history

Notes

References

2021 albums
Steps (group) albums
Pop albums by British artists