The concept of the Band
The Rock Legends band are a 5 piece rock covers band performing
the hit songs of the legendary bands and rock music legends that they have worked with over their
musical careers, which includes The Animals, Smokie, Status Quo, Roxy Music, Joe Cocker, Dire Straits,
Gary Moore, Thin Lizzy, and many more.
The concept of the 'Rock Legends' show is that it consists of a wide repertoire of hit songs from legendary rock bands
of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s instead of performing the
songs of only one band. Having such a wide variety of songs in the concert guarantees that their show is not only very entertaining, but it also
satisfies a very wide selection of musical tastes, age ranges and gender.
With each of the band members holding the credibility of having worked with so
many famous bands and legendary musicians during their long careers, The Rock Legends band can rightfully lay claim to performing such a wide
variety of hit songs in their shows.
The Rock Legends are a professional British band that have regularly headlined at concerts
around Europe with audiences of up to 50,000 people per show. They have performed live on many TV
shows, some of which have been simultaneously broadcast to over 100 countries worldwide.
History
of
THE UK LEGENDS
THE UK ROCK LEGENDS
and
THE ROCK LEGENDS
THE SHOW
This show was first created under the registered name of UK Legends back in January 2007 by keyboard player Steve Hutchinson and the band that performs the show has had many different members and line-ups throughout its long history. Most of the performers who have taken part in the show since it started in 2007 have been listed below in chronological order.
Although the UK Legends show was always based around core musicians, it was always intended for the show to be an open platform for many different musicians and special guests to also perform on. The show has unfortunately had quite a turbulent core band member history and the following information is the true history of the numerous different UK Legends / UK Rock Legends / Rock Legends band line ups taken from documentary evidence and factual information that has been recorded by UKL Management, as well as personal information provided by previous band members.
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THE LINE-UPS
Back in 2006, before the UK LEGENDS and UK ROCK LEGENDS shows were created, some of the early members of the very first UK Legends line up were performing under the name of Lieutenant Pigeon which was a very popular band in the UK.
At this same time Polish promoter Marian Knapczyk of Santana Promotions was looking for a
British band that could perform the hits of Smokie on his corporate shows in Poland and he approached them
to see if they would be interested.
The Lieutenant Pigeon band members agreed and they performed a show at the Spodek Arena in Katowice under their keyboard player's own band name of 'The Legends'. The line up of the Lieutenant Pigeon band performing as The Legends were Gary Moberley, Simon Van Downham, Geoff Hammond and Martin Bland.
Lieutenant Pigeon performing as The Legends in Poland on 1st December 2006 featuring:
Band leader Gary Moberley, Simon Van Downham, Geoff Hammond and Martin Bland
Video footage of Polish TV presenter Andrzej Frajndt introducing Gary Moberley's band on
stage as 'The Legends' on 1/12/2006 prior to the UK Legends band being formed in 2007
Unfortunately Gary Moberley's Legends band only lasted for this one show in Poland due to an altercation between Martin Bland and keyboard player Gary Moberley. This resulted in keyboard player Steve Hutchinson (Stevie Hutch) previously with The Animals and the Sounds of Smokie joining the Lieutenant Pigeon band in December 2006 starting with a Xmas show at Skipton in England.
In January 2007 the Legends keyboard player Gary Moberley made the claim that he held the historic rights to the name 'The Legends' that they had used for their show and he informed his former band members that he would legally stop them from using 'The Legends' name if they were to do any further shows without him.
A meeting was held on 7th January 2007 between Marian Knapczyk and the new Lieutenant Pigeon keyboard player Steve Hutchinson (Stevie Hutch) who were both aware of the ongoing conflict between Gary Moberley and Martin Bland over the use of the name 'The Legends' for any future shows in Poland so they both decided they would create a brand new band with a brand new name for their future shows. The theme for the new band would be to perform the hit songs of legendary British bands from the UK to the Polish audiences.
The names LEGENDY ROCKA (ROCK LEGENDS in Polish) and BRYTYJSKIE LEGENDY (BRITISH LEGENDS) were both considered at this time but they both finally agreed on using Steve's much simpler name suggestion of UK LEGENDS for all of their future shows. The decision to use this particular name was due to the fact that 'UK LEGENDS' could be easily translated into any language.
On 13th January 2007 Steve Hutchinson officially registered his new name 'UK LEGENDS'. This was to avoid any future conflicts over the ownership of the name and so he could commence the investment of his own time and money into his promotion of his new UK LEGENDS show in other territories of the world outside of Poland. Steve designed and printed all of the promotional material for the new band as well as creating the website for the band at his own cost.
In Poland Marian
Knapczyk set about advertising the band and establishing contracts for the shows as well as investing in
backline for the band and providing a specially modified splitter bus for the transportation of the
band and the equipment.
As
each of the band members had a long history of working in other
bands, some of which were internationally famous, they were able to put
together a show that would consist of the hit songs of the bands, and
musicians, that the band members had all previously performed with. At
that time this would include songs from The
Animals, Smokie, John Miles, Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Thin Lizzy, and Dire
Straits just to
name a few!
On 5th March 2007 the new band played its very first concert in Poland under Steve Hutchinson and Marian Knapczyk's brand new show name of :
The UK Legends logo (c) 2007
The first line-up of the new 'UK LEGENDS' band
featured Stevie Hutch on keyboards along with Simon Van Downhamon vocals and guitar, Geoff Hammond on drums, and Martin Bland on bass from the Lieutenant Pigeon band. Very quickly the bookings started rolling in putting the UK Legends
show well and truly on the road.
The shows they performed were mainly in front of 17,000 strong audiences in some of the biggest arenas in Poland.
Stevie Hutch and Simon Van Downham in the UK LEGENDS in 2008
In the following years Marian Knapczyk continued to promote the UK LEGENDS show throughout Poland using his vast experience and knowledge of the Polish market while Steve Hutchinson also promoted the UK LEGENDS as a separate show throughout the rest of the world undertaking all of the
band's administration, website creation and management, poster designs, media advertising and bookings for his shows.
Unfortunately
in 2009 this very first line up of the UK LEGENDS band split up after a disagreement within the band which resulted in the top rated musicians Simon Van Downham and Geoff Hammond refusing to work with Martin Bland ever again. As the UK LEGENDS
name was registered to Steve Hutchinson the Polish promoter gave
him the task of quickly creating a replacement UK LEGENDS band to undertake further shows in Poland.
Because of the irreversible dispute between Martin Bland and Simon Van Downham, Steve had the choice
of either using Simon Van Downham and Geoff Hammond along with a new bass player, or to bring Martin Bland back into the band along with a new guitarist and drummer.
After a difficult decision Steve decided to re-enlist previous bass player Martin Bland and bring in new local top class musicians Graham Hunter on guitar and Ade
Evans on drums along with Alan Silson from the UK chart topping band Smokie also on guitar
and vocals, who was later
replaced by Bernie Lowery.
The 2nd UK LEGENDS band in 2009 Left to Right:
Graham Hunter, Stevie Hutch, Bernie Lowery, Ade Evans and Martin Bland
Steve's 2nd version of the UK LEGENDS band quickly gained
immense
popularity not only in Poland but also throughout Europe due to
the professionalism of
the band's performances and the popularity of the songs they performed.
In 2009
the UK LEGENDS name was officially trademarked in Poland by Wojciech Musnicki from the show's Polish
management company to stop other promoters in Poland from using the UK LEGENDS
brand name for their own shows.
In 2010 drummer Ade Evans left the band after a dispute with Martin Bland and was replaced by the session drummer Paul Elliott.
In
2012 due to a bitter dispute between Martin Bland and the top Polish promoter Marian Knapzcyk the band's shows in Poland as the UK Legends suddenly stopped.
This resulted in the band's management claiming that they had the rights to continue using the UK Legends name in Poland with a different band because at that time they held the Polish Trade Mark on the name.
To create replacement work for the musicians from the exiting UK Legends band Steve Hutchinson created a brand new image for the band using his previously registered name of 'UK ROCK LEGENDS' in an effort to re-introduce his long running successful shows into the UK and Europe.
A brand new logo was created along with new posters, a new website, and new promotion.
The UK Rock Legends logo (c) 2012
These new shows were
performed as a 4-peice rock band using some of the band members from the UK Legends shows but without the vocalist Bernie Lowery. This was because the rock songs that
Graham Hunter had already been performing in the UK Legends show would be more popular for the UK market
than the Smokie songs.
Steve's new UK Rock Legends band quickly proved to be extremely popular in the UK clubs and at rock music venues throught the UK. The band even supported 10CC at an outdoor summer festival, and also toured abroad as the 'Ultimate Gary Moore' tribute band.
In
2012 top session drummer Paul Elliott left the UK LEGENDS / UK ROCK LEGENDS band following a dispute with Martin
Bland and was replaced by drummer Mickey Mad Dog.
In
2013 the highly rated guitarist Graham Hunter left the band after a dispute with Martin Bland and the top rated local guitarist Brian Vasey joined the line up. Also at this time drummer Paul Thompson of Roxy Music & Garry Moore fame joined the UK Rock Legends band line up.
The UK Rock Legends in Denmark April 2013
Left to Right: Stevie Hutch - Bernie Lowery - Martin Bland - Paul Thompson - Brian Vasey
In
2013 after a short time in the band Paul Thompson left the band and Mickey Mad Dog rejoined on drums. Shortly afterwards Brian Vasey also left the band after a dispute with Martin Bland and Graham Hunter rejoined the band again on guitar.
In 2014 Steve, who was the longest serving keyboard player with The Animals, also created his own tribute band to The Animals to run alongside the UK Rock Legends band under his previously registered name of 'ANIMALS III' bringing together
former Animals vocalist Tony Liddle and former Animals guitarist George
Fearon, along with other musicians from the UK Rock Legends band lineup. Steve's
Animals III band has
performed shows in Scandinavia, Belgium and the UK.
Animals III logo (c) 2014
Steve's Animals III
band continues today with different band members under the newer name of
'ANIMAL TRACKS' performing 'The Animals Greatest Hits Show'.
In
2015 Graham Hunter left the UK LEGENDS / UK ROCK LEGENDS band to work with members of the late Gary Moore's band and was replaced by
previous Animals and Saxon rock vocalist Tony Liddle and previous Tygers of Pan
Tang guitarist Steve Lamb.
In 2015 the highly respected drummer Mickey Mad Dog left the band after another dispute with Martin Bland and Paul Elliott rejoined the band.
In
2016
Graham Hunter re-joined the band replacing Steve Lamb and Tony Liddle following a dispute between Martin Bland and Tony Liddle.
In 2016, due to increasing pressure from Martin Bland, Steve Hutchinson was reluctantly persuaded to change the band name away from the UK ROCK LEGENDS and back to it's previous longer standing name of the UK LEGENDS. It was being stated that by dropping the 'ROCK' status from the Legends name it would make the band more suitable for the UK's social clubs.
At this same time in
2016, Steve also set up and registered his very own Smokie tribute band under the name of 'SONGS OF
SMOKIE' featuring the previous UK Legends singer Bernie Lowery (also known as The Voice of Smokie) along with the members of his UK Legends band. Steve had previously been a member of the very poular Lancashire based band SOUNDS OF SMOKIE and he had also worked and recorded with the original SMOKIE guitarist Alan Silson at festivals throughout Europe with his own band. The SONGS OF SMOKIE tribute band was specifically created to perform shows in Europe and at the Butlins 70's
Weekends and other popular 70's festivals. The band still continues today but with a brand new lineup of musicians.
Songs of Smokie logo (c) 2016
The UK LEGENDS / UK ROCK LEGENDS band 2021
Left to right: Graham Hill - Stevie Hutch - Graham Hunter - George Waters - Howard Baker
From 2001 Steve Hutchinson and his new band members continued to perform their various shows under the names of the UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS and ANIMALS III, as well as performing theatre and festival shows under the name of the CLASSIC ROCK LEGENDS
The Classic Rock Legends logo (c) 2022
In
2023 the 'UK' and 'Classic' prefixes were both dropped from the band's
show names and the band started performing shows under the shorter name
of THE ROCKLEGENDS
'The Rocklegends logo (C) 2023
In 2024 the band still continues to perform and features the original and founding members of Steve's original 2012 UK ROCK LEGENDS band in the line-up.
The current band members are:
STEVIE HUTCH - Keyboards and Backing Vocals
(WARBECK, THE ANIMALS, UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS)
and
GRAHAM HUNTER - Guitar and Vocals
(ERIC BELL BAND, UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS)
with
HOWARD BAKER - Vocals
(WARBECK, BB FAITH, UK ROCK LEGENDS)
along with new professional band members:
PAUL LINDSAY - Percussion and Backing Vocals
and
GARY SCOTT - Bass and Backing Vocals
The Rock Legends logo (c) 2023
THE ROCK LEGENDS band continues to entertain you !
