Supertramp
Supertramp were a British rock band formed in London in 1970. Marked by the individual songwriting of founders Roger Hodgson and Rick Davies, the group were distinguished for blending progressive rock and pop styles. The classic lineup, which lasted ten years from 1973 to 1983, consisted of Davies, Hodgson, Dougie Thomson, Bob Siebenberg and John Helliwell, after which the group's lineup changed numerous times, with Davies being the only constant member throughout its history.
Supertramp found no success with their first two albums, but after a lineup change into what became their classic lineup, their third album, Crime of the Century, was their breakthrough. Initially a more experimental prog-rock group, they began moving towards a more pop-oriented sound with the album. The band reached their commercial peak with 1979's Breakfast in America, which yielded the international top 10 singles "The Logical Song", "Breakfast in America", "Goodbye Stranger" and "Take the Long Way Home". Their other top 40 hits included "Dreamer", "Give a Little Bit" and "It's Raining Again".
In 1982 Supertramp released ...Famous Last Words..., the last album to feature Hodgson, who left in 1983 to pursue a solo career. The band continued with Davies as the sole leader and released two more albums until 1988. After this, they disbanded for a time and periodically reformed in various configurations, recording and touring two further albums, Some Things Never Change and Slow Motion. Davies died in 2025.
Supertramp attained significant popularity in North America, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. Their highest sales levels were in Canada, where they had two diamond-certified albums, and their only number one singles anywhere aside from "It's Raining Again" which reached number one in France. As of 2007, Supertramp album sales exceeded 60 million.
History
1969–1972: Formation, ''Supertramp'' and ''Indelibly Stamped''
In 1969, a Dutch millionaire, ceased providing financial support to a band called The Joint, as he was disappointed with them. He offered Swindon-born keyboardist Rick Davies, a former bandmate of Irish singer-songwriter Gilbert O'Sullivan, whose talent he felt had been "bogged down" by the group, an opportunity to form his own band with Miesegaes's financial backing. The band included Roger Hodgson, Richard Palmer and Keith Baker.Davies and Hodgson had radically different backgrounds and musical inspirations. Davies was working class and fiercely devoted to blues and jazz, while Hodgson had gone straight from English private school to the music business and was fond of pop. Despite this, they hit it off during the auditions and began writing virtually all of their songs together, with Palmer as a third writer in the mix. Hodgson and Davies collaborated on the songwriting while Palmer composed the lyrics.
The group, having dubbed themselves "Daddy", after several months of rehearsal at a country house in West Hythe, Kent, flew to Munich for a series of concerts at the P. N. Club. One 10-minute performance there of "All Along the Watchtower" was filmed by Haro Senft. The rehearsals had been less than productive and their initial repertoire consisted of only four songs, two of which were covers.
In January 1970 Keith Baker left, replaced by former stage actor Robert Millar, and to avoid confusion with "Daddy Longlegs", at Palmer's suggestion, the band changed its name to "Supertramp", a moniker inspired by The Autobiography of a Super-Tramp by William Henry Davies.
In April 1970 Supertramp, while back in Munich, returned the favour to their friend Haro Senft by contributing music to his next film, , and would also agree to have tracks from their first album used in a documentary, Extremes, by Tony Klinger and Michael Lytton.
Supertramp were one of the first groups to be signed to the UK branch of A&M Records and their first album, Supertramp, was released on 14 August 1970 in the UK and Canada; however, this disc was not issued in the US until late 1977. Stylistically, the album was fairly typical of progressive rock of the era. Despite receiving a good deal of critical praise, the album did not attract a large audience.
Dave Winthrop had first auditioned for the group in March 1970 but did not join until July, just before the release of the first record. He performed with Supertramp at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival on 27 August 1970.
The membership continued to change in the six months following the album's release. Palmer left the band in December 1970, followed by Millar in January 1971, who had suffered a nervous breakdown. Palmer, as Richard Palmer-James, went on to work as a lyricist for King Crimson. Palmer was replaced by former The Nice guitarist David O'List, who lasted for only one gig. A drummer from Birmingham, Dickie Thomas, was brought in during the interim until auditions brought the band Kevin Currie in February 1971.
South African Russell Pope, who started out working as a roadie for the band and later handled their sound, talks of his first joining them and their early days:
"I joined on December 28th 1970. Rick and Roger shared a moth eaten flat in Maida Vale, West London, no furniture, just a couple of beds. Richard Palmer had just left, reasons unknown to me. Bob Millar quit soon afterwards, the first of many 'Spinal Tap' moments to come. I have a vague memory of David O'List being mentioned by Rick in some scathing way, but if he was involved it must have been for about five minutes. Richard Palmer was already gone when I arrived. There was no guitarist. The band was a four piece: Roger Hodgson on bass, Rick Davies on organ mostly, Dave Winthrop on sax and flute and Bob Millar on drums. Dave was pretty much the lead singer, Roger sang about a third of the set. Rick didn't sing at all. Very strange line up for a rock band but it worked, although the music had no relevance to who they became in later incarnations. I joined Supertramp as an extra pair of hands to load and unload the van. No more, no less. I was broke, freezing and about to be homeless and somebody said 'Does anyone want to go to Norway with some band or other for ten pounds a week'? It was a fortune to me at that time. I volunteered. Who knew? The infamous Norway expedition started on the 28th of December 1970. We took the ferry from Newcastle to Bergen and the first gig was on December 30th on top of a mountain and the audience mostly arrived on skis. At the end of the show they were all screaming drunk and commenced beating the crap out of each other with chairs. The van stayed on that mountain until the spring of 1971 as it expired after getting up the steep climb. The expedition lasted about ten days in a new rented van, ferries and icy roads with 1,000 feet drops into the fjiords. Beautiful, terrifying. All I could think was 'What the hell have I done'?
file:Supertramp1971.jpg|thumb|Supertramp in 1971; Left to right: Roger Hodgson, Frank Farrell, Rick Davies, Kevin Curry, Dave Winthrop
For the next album, Indelibly Stamped, released in June 1971 in both the UK and US, Frank Farrell joined, while Hodgson switched to guitar and Davies served as a second lead singer. With Palmer's departure, Hodgson and Davies wrote and composed separately for this and the band's subsequent albums. The record sold even less than their debut. In the aftermath, all members gradually quit except Hodgson and Davies, and Miesegaes withdrew his financial support in October 1972.
1973–1978: ''Crime of the Century'' and commercial breakthrough
After Farrell's departure in the spring of 1972, 20-year-old bassist Nick South came in for a temporary stint until Dougie Thomson joined in July.In the summer of 1973 more auditions to replace the departed Curry and Winthrop started and introduced Bob Siebenberg, initially credited as Bob C. Benberg, and another Alan Bown alumnus, John Helliwell, adding saxophone, other woodwinds, occasional keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals, completing the lineup in the summer of 1973. Hodgson would also begin introducing compositions featuring keyboards, particularly the Wurlitzer electric piano, in the band in addition to guitar. This lineup of Supertramp would remain in place for the next ten years.
Meanwhile, the bond between Davies and Hodgson had begun weakening. Hodgson mused, "There's a very deep bond, but it's definitely mostly on a musical level. When there's just the two of us playing together, there's an incredible empathy. His down-to-earth way of writing, which is very rock 'n' roll, balances out my lighter, melodic style." Over Supertramp's history, their relationship would be amicable but increasingly distant as their lifestyles and musical inclinations drifted apart. Their songwriting partnership gradually dissolved. Although all of Supertramp's songs would continue to be officially credited as "written by Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson", most of them were written individually.
In 1973 a young A&M Records A&R executive, Dave Margereson, was impressed by their new demos and was instrumental in getting them resigned to A&M. By 1974 he had left the label to take over as Supertramp's full-time manager. With money advanced from A&M, the group, with family, friends and crew, moved to a cottage called Southcombe in Somerset, where they spent the rest of 1973 and a good part of 1974 living together and working on material for their third album.
But Supertramp needed a hit record to continue working and finally got one with Crime of the Century. Released in September 1974, it began the group's run of critical and commercial successes, hitting number four in Britain, number 38 in the US and number four in Canada. This album made the top 100 albums in Canada three years in a row in 1974, 1975 and 1976, even though it did not have a Top 40 hit in Canada. "Dreamer", the 1975 UK Top 20 single written by Hodgson, was the band's first hit single and drove the album to the top of the charts. Another single from the record, "Bloody Well Right", hit the US Top 40 in May 1975 and would be their only hit in the country for more than two years.
With a hit album under their belt, pressures on the band increased and the follow-up Crisis? What Crisis? had to be recorded in the few months between two scheduled concert tours. As a consequence, most of the material consisted of leftover songs from Crime of the Century. Decades later the band would continue to regard the album as one of their worst moments. Nevertheless, Hodgson said in a 2015 interview that Crisis? What Crisis? was his favourite Supertramp album. Despite Supertramp's own misgivings, the album was well received by critics. When released in November 1975, it broke both the UK Top 20 and the US Top 50 in spite of its singles all being commercial flops.
The following album, Even in the Quietest Moments..., released in April 1977, spawned a hit single with "Give a Little Bit", first written by Hodgson at 19 or 20 years of age before he introduced it to the band for recording five to six years later. As usual, the popularity of the album itself eclipsed that of its singles and Even in the Quietest Moments... hit number 16 in the US, number 12 in the UK and number one in Canada. During this period, the band permanently relocated to Los Angeles.