BAND OF THE DAY: MICHAEL THOMPSON BAND

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The Michael Thompson Band is back with a brand new album entitled ‘Love And Beyond’.
For this release, Michael wanted to return to the polished AOR sound of the band’s 1989 debut, ‘How Long’, so once again teamed up with Wyn Davis to mix the album. Renowned songwriter and musician Mark Spiro is involved in the songwriting as well as appearing on vocals together with Larry King and Larry Antonino, who is best known for being the bass player in Unruly Child. Another member of that band, Guy Allison, appears on keyboards, drumming duties are handled by Sergio Gonzalez and Tim Pedersen.

Originally from New York, Michael Thompson moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to start his career. After working to get a deal with his band Slang, he signed to Geffen and released ‘How Long” as the Michael Thompson Band (MTB). The album featured notable guests such as Terry Bozzio on drums, singer Richard ‘Moon’ Calhoun (ex-The Strand), Pat Torpey (Mr. Big), bassist Jimmy Haslip, John Elefante (Kansas), Bobby Kimball (Toto) and Great White associates Michael Lardie and Wyn Davis (who also produced the record). Songwriters included AOR luminaries such as the aforementioned Spiro, Jeff Paris, Billy Trudel and Brett Walker.

Still regarded as one of the premiere examples of hi-tech West Coast AOR with superb production and immaculate songwriting, ‘How Long’ was reissued by Frontiers in 2007, who subsequently released a new Michael Thompson Band record entitled ‘Future Past’ in 2012 for which Michael teamed up with singer Larry King from the band Soleil Moon. Larry brought a rockier approach to proceedings, although the album nevertheless carried the trademark MTB elements of quality songwriting and melodies.

Seven years on, the Michael Thompson Band returns with ‘Love & Beyond’, an album that will delight all AOR and melodic rock fans.

Michael Thompson is considered one of the world’s leading guitar players and has been awarded the ‘Distinguished Alumni’ honour from Berklee College of Music to commemorate his contributions to the music industry. His former college noted that “he is widely regarded as being among the elite studio session players, and his amazing list of credits includes such prominent names as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, ‘N Sync, Toni Braxton, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Scorpions, Vince Neil, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, Madonna, Babyface, En Vogue, Gloria Estefan, Stanley Clarke and Ricky Martin.”
MICHAEL THOMPSON BAND
Michael Thompson – guitars
Larry Antonino – lead vocals & bass
Larry King, Mark Spiro – lead vocals
Sergio Gonzalez, Tim Pedersen – drums
Guy Allison – keyboards

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