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FortuneBully
The Fortune Band began in the late 70's when brothers Richard Fortune on guitar and Mick Fortune on drums decided to join together and form a band. The first Fortune self-titled album was released on Warner Bros in 1978 with follow up WB singles releases including "Squeeze me, Tease Me" and "Saddle in the Wind". In the early 80's keyboardist Ray Barrett and bassist David de Leon (formerly Stanley Clarke's touring support bassist [1]) teamed up with the brothers and the band began its move more toward the pop rock style of the time. This phase of the band capped with a show at Aloha Stadium Summer Blowout 1981 opening for Heart and Blue Oyster Cult. The band began to receive some national attention with the 1982 Columbia Records/CBS Inc. release of "Airwaves" on The Last American Virgin motion picture soundtrack. The movie is considered by many to be a cult classic of the time and the soundtrack proved to be a memorable compendium of 1980s radio hits with Fortune sharing the bill with bands such as U2, Journey, Blondie, REO Speedwagon and the Police. As Fortune began to gain momentum the core of the band, Richard, Mick and David, decided to take their music more mainstream and that some adjustment in personnel was now necessary to move in that direction. By Fall of 1982 the band had recruited keyboardist Roger Scott Craig. Craig, formerly with Liverpool Express, a British based group known in Europe and South America. By year-end of 1982 Fortune's singer (Richard's wife Colleen Fortune) had left the band and was replaced by vocalist Larry Greene. The band began writing all new songs of which
Roger and Larry contributed significantly. Over the next two years
Fortune spent much of their time in the studio recording demos
for CBS records and performing live gigs in clubs around Los Angeles
and opened a stadium show in Hawaii. Unfortunately the band was
unable to get traction during this time and eventually disbanded
in 1984. In 1985 Camel/MCA Records came on the scene and
offered to release a Fortune album. The band regrouped with Bobby
Birch on bass. Greene and Craig had been collaboratively songwriting
and landed most of their songs in the second 1985 Fortune album.
The album was released, and was believed to have achieved significant
sales in Europe and Japan. During this period Camel/MCA had under-marketed
and understated album sales to the band. While well received by
the public, the band itself received virtually no revenue or recognition
from the album. Camel Records shortly thereafter unexpectedly declared
bankruptcy for undisclosed reasons and refused to give up the masters
of the album, making an album re-release almost impossible. Fortune
disbanded a second time. The band regrouped again in 2006 as a power trio
with original Fortune band members Richard Fortune on vocals/guitar,
Mick Fortune on drums/vocals and Dave de Leon on bass/vocals. The
band went back into the studio in mid 2008 to record new songs
with plans in the works to release a new FORTUNE album. Fortune's style is similar to that of similar
80's anthem rock artists, such as Journey, Styx, Survivor, Foreigner
, and Asia. Fortune, Warner Bros 1978 (BSK 3246) [2] [edit] Fortune: Tracks Fortune 1978 Last American Virgin Soundtrack 1982 Fortune 1985 Fortune - 20th Anniversary Re-Release 2004
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