Biography of the group (Russian version). Merry American Wanderers: Extreme

Extreme (Extreme) is an American hard rock band, popular in the late 80s - early 90s.

Their musical preferences were: Queen and Van Halen (the latter were joined by Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone).
The band is known for its multi-part vocal harmonies and virtuosic guitar playing, which combined the sonic palette of glam and shred metal. Extreme themselves characterized their style as funky-metal (the same name was given to their own publishing “label”).
The band's eponymous debut album (1989) is remembered mainly for its unconventional look at the dominant hair metal of the time and the action films "Two Little Girls", "Play With Me", "Kid Ego" and "Mutha (Don"t Wanna Go To School Today) )".
But already the second program “Pornographitty” (1990) showed the group in all the glory of its diversity. The program seamlessly coexisted with a variety of materials: the biting hard funk of the songs “Get The Funk Out” and “Decadance Dance”, the acoustic guitar ballad “More That Words” and the jazz number “When A First Kissed You”, where there were no guitars at all , far from “fake metal”, the competent and appropriate handling of classic harmonies in the numbers “Song For Love” and “He Man Woman Hater”, as well as the quirky country funk of “Hole Hearted”.
On the next disc “III Sides Of Every Story” (1992), symbolically divided into three parts: “Yours”, “Mine” & “Truth”, the group continued a series of risky experiments: the horn-arranged funk of “Politicalamity”, the symphonic rock of “Stop” The World", metal rock and roll "Warhead"... The traditional semi-acoustic "Tragic Comic" was replaced by the politically incorrect electricity of "Peacemaker Die" and "Rest In Peace". The disc ended with the trilogy "The Truth", recorded with an orchestra of forty people, and revealing the influence of young Genesis in the final "Who Cares?", while the guitar solo a la Strauss waltzes sounded like Bettencourt's tribute to his "old man Derzhavin" in guitar class - Brian May.
The next disc, “Waiting For The Punchiline” (1995), which already featured new drummer Mike Mangini (ex-Steve Vai), stunned old fans and unexpectedly attracted “alternative” players to the group. Sparing melodicism, very broken rhythms and harsh guitar chops in the numbers “Cinical Fuck”, “No Respect”, “Evilangelist” and “Hip Today” were a clear step forward. Overall, however, the album was disappointing with its unevenness, and the band entered a long hiatus.
Having gone to sing in Van Halen, Gary Cherone, almost repeating Ian Gillan at the time of his collaboration with Black Sabbath, literally crushed the Van Halen brothers under himself. In any case, the band's last major hit, "Without You", was trampled to the very top into its signature funk metal a la Extreme. This alliance had no chance.
In 2008, the group suddenly became more active. With their third drummer, Kevin Figuredo, Extreme recorded a new album, Saudades De Rock. The album turned out to be not particularly bright, but in any case, not as gloomy as the previous one. In any case, the clever Queen-inspired take on "Star" and the signature funk metal of songs like "King Of The Ladies" still manage to recall the band's former glory days.
Compound:

Gary Cherone - vocals.
Nuno Bettencourt - guitar, keyboards, vocals.
Patrick Badger - bass, vocals.
Paul Geary - drums (89-95).

Mike Mangini - drums (95).
Kevin Figuredo (08).

Discography:

1989 - Extreme
1990 - Extreme 2: Pornograffitti
1992 - 3 sides to every story
1995 - Waiting for the punchline
2008 - Saudades De Rock

"Extreme" is an American rock band that reached the peak of its popularity in the late 1980s - early 1990s. Extreme's sound was influenced by bands such as Queen, Van Halen, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin". The band members characterize their style as "Funky metal". Their most successful album was "Pornograffitti", and the most famous song- acoustic ballad "More Than Words", which reached No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. "Extreme" albums have sold more than 10 million worldwide. The group was formed in Malden (Massachusetts, USA) in 1985, and still exists. The main composition did not change, except for the drummers, of whom there were three in the group in turn.

In order to begin the story about the history of this, albeit not so popular, but very original and talented group, let's imagine the time of the late 70s and early 80s. All the youth of that time simply listened to such groups as: “The Beatles”, “Queen”, “Led Zeppelin”, “Van Halen”, “Metallica”, “Aerosmith”, etc. Four young guys from Boston - Gary Cherone (born July 26 .1961), Nuno Bettencourt (born 09/20/1966), Pat Badger (born 07/22/1967) and Paul Geary (born 07/24/1961) - were no exception and, under the influence of this music, began to shape each their individual style in order to one day meet and, united under the name "Extreme", set off together along a long and thorny path to the world rock scene.

The formation of the final lineup of the group began back in 1981, when Gary Cherone and Paul Geary performed in a local Boston team with a more romantic than rock 'n' roll name - "The Dream". The “dreamers” didn’t succeed much - they managed to leave behind a single, unknown six-track record.

In 1985, the group “The Dream” changed its name to “Extreme”, after which the guys took part in an MTV project, for which they specially wrote the song “Mutha (Don’t Wanna Go To School Today)”. From that moment on, the gradual rise of the “extreme fans” began, as this single was broadcast throughout the United States on the MTV satellite television channel. Inspired by their success, the guys continued to form their own unique musical style.

In 1985, Nuno Bettencourt joined Extreme, replacing Hal Lebeaux, and a little later Pat Badger took over from Paul Mangone. And with this line-up (Gary Cherone, Nuno Bettencourt, Pat Badger and Paul Geary) "Extreme" began their ascent to the top of the Musical Olympus!

Gary Cherone and Nuno Bettencourt began writing songs together and the group played many shows throughout Boston. Gradually they developed a strong local following and the band was named "Outstanding Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band" at the Boston Music Awards in 1986 and 1987.

In 1988, Extreme signed a contract with A&M Records and quickly debuted with the single "Play With Me", which was included in the soundtrack to the film Bill and Tedd Excellent Adventure in 1989.

Also in 1989, "Extreme" released their first album with the simple name "Extreme". Despite the fact that this was their first album, Gary’s professional vocals and Nuno’s technically and musically refined playing, a skill that many guitarists in the world dream of possessing, can already be clearly heard here.

The band's potential, inherent in the first album, was revealed in the second - "Extreme II: Pornograffitti" (1990), which took 10th place on the Billboard 200 hit parade and went gold in May 1991, and double platinum in October 1992. The acoustic ballad "More Than Words" topped the US Billboard's Hot 100 chart and reached number two in the UK. "Extreme" was also nominated for a Grammy Award for the song "More Than Words".

“Nuno and I were sitting in my Porsche,” recalls Gary Cherone. - “The car engine continued to run, and Nuno, as if accompanying him, was strumming out some melody on the guitar. And so “More Than Words” was born. Fans and critics appreciated this album, and the group began active concert performances, which are rightfully considered the strength of the team.

Let's not forget that "Extreme" have always highly respected the traditions of classic rock, and especially the work of the group "Queen", so it is not surprising that their performance at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert on April 20, 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London, made a huge impression on the fans and glorified the group outside the “metal world”. An addition to this success was Gary Cherone’s absolutely “awesome” and “freaky” performance of the hit “Hammer to Fall” together with “Queen” in terms of artistry and vocals, which captivated everyone!

In 1992, another "concept" album "Extreme" was released - "III Sides to Every Story", which gave fans three hits at once: "Rest in Peace", "Tragic Comic" and "Am I Ever Gonna Change". The "Tragic Comic" video was very funny, where Gary Cherone revealed himself as a great actor.

It is interesting to note that in addition to traditional instruments for rock music, a symphony orchestra was involved in the recording of the album "Three Sides", as a result of which it turned out to be very unusual and very different from the rock and metal styles of the group. Many tracks are very lyrical and melodic, and in general, the album itself makes you think about many things in life.

In the summer of 1994, Extreme performed at the Monsters of Rock festival in Donington (England). By that time, Mike Mangini (born April 18, 1963) (ex. "Annihilator") took the place of the drummer in the group and everything would have been fine, but after the release of the album "Waiting for the Punchline" in 1995, Nuno announced that he was starting solo career and, to the great regret of all fans, in 1996 it was announced that the group was breaking up.

Nuno Bettencourt's solo albums once again confirm his enormous musical talent not only as a guitarist and composer, but also as a vocalist.

The funny fact is that this man, despite being from musical family, had absolutely no intention of becoming a musician, but was very interested in sports, especially football. And who knows, perhaps the Portuguese national football team lost a great football player, however, thanks to brother Luis, who forced Nuno to learn to play the guitar, the rock scene acquired a multi-talented musician.

In early 1997, Nuno released his solo album "Schizophonic". A little later, he became a member of the "Mourning Widows" project, which produced two albums, "Mourning Widows" (1998) and "Furnished Souls for Rent" (2000).

In the fall of 1996, Gary Cherone received an offer to become the vocalist of the group "Van Hallen", in which he remained until 1998. Gary later created his own group, Tribe of Judah, which released its only album, Exit Elvis, in 2002.

During the “non-extreme” period, another side of Gary’s talent emerged – rock opera. Many fans were greatly impressed by his roles in Webber's rock operas The Phantom of the Opera and Jesus Christ Superstar.

In 2007, together with his brother Greg, they attempted to record their own rock musical based on Shakespeare, Lady Macbeth. This project I didn’t see the release, but the track “The Dangerous Thing” is very interesting and could become popular.

In the period 2002-2005 ex-"extreme members" are also actively involved in solo career. Nuno Bettencourt organized his own group "Population 1" (later renamed "DramaGods") and recorded 3 albums: "Population 1" (2002), which is distinguished by its lyricism and beautiful rock ballads such as: "Flow", "Spaceman" , "Iron Jaw" and others; 2004 EP "Session From Room 4" and "Love" (December 2005), which was released in Japan. When recording some of the compositions, Nuno played all of them himself musical instruments and there is an opinion that he recorded the album “Population 1” alone, and the group appeared for concert performances.

On October 15, 2005, Gary Cherone's EP "Need I Say More" was released. As Gary himself says, this is a “new direction” in his work, which combines jazz and blues. And in parallel with this, Gary works in a family project with his brother Mark - “Hurtsmile”. Together they released three singles: "Stillborn", "Set Me Free" and "Just War Theory". All these tracks were included in the new album "Hurtsmile", which was released in early 2011.

Tireless and loving to experiment, Nuno does not stop in his creative achievements. He tries himself as a film composer. It is his music that is heard in the film Smart People (2008), where Dennis Quaid and Sarah Jessica Parker play. Nuno also collaborates with other musicians: with the group "Satellite Party", with Rihanna. Nuno helped the Satellite Party group record and release their debut album, Ultra Payloaded, which was released on May 29, 2007. A little later, at the end of July 2007, Nuno left the group. Nuno began his collaboration with Rihanna in the fall of 2009, and then, as the lead guitarist, went with her on her world tours under the titles: “Last Girl On Earth” (April 2010 - March 2011), “Loud” (June 2011 - December 2011), "777" (November 2012) and "Diamonds World Tour" (March 2013 - November 2013).

On June 30, 2006, "Extreme" staged a show in Boston at the Bank of America Pavilion with the "original" line-up, which marked the beginning of their reunion.

In December 2007, Nuno Bettencourt and Gary Cheron officially announced the preparation of a new musical material group and in August 2008, for the first time after a 13-year break, the band's new album, "Saudades de Rock", was released, which was written in the best traditions of good old classic rock. Actually, where “Extreme” began, that’s how it continued: with the same thoughts, the same songs, the same traditions - still relevant today.

The group has a new drummer - Kevin Figurido (born January 12, 1977). Following the album's release, the band embarked on a world tour, ending with a huge show in Boston at the House of Blues on August 8, 2009. This show was filmed and became the basis for the creation of the band's concert DVD - "Take Us Alive", which was released in May 2010.

In April 2012, Extreme belatedly (due to Nuno being busy on tour with Rihanna) celebrated the 20th anniversary of the release of the Pornograffitti album by staging a mini-tour of the same name in Japan. The show included absolutely all the songs from this album. Also in April 2012, "Extreme" finally reached Moscow and, after spending several days in the capital of Russia, on April 25, 2012 they gave a special exclusive show for their Russian fans who have been patiently waiting for the group for more than 20 years.

The group's future plans include releasing a new album. In the meantime, fans are patiently waiting for the release of the group's new, sixth studio album, "Extreme" staged a grand tour of the cities and villages of our vast planet, dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the release of the album "Pornograffitti". The concert, which took place on May 30, 2015 in Las Vegas at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino as part of the Pornograffitti Live - 25th Anniversary tour, was recorded and released on DVD, CD and Blu-ray.

The solo creativity of the group members also does not stop. So, on October 7, 2014, the second studio album of the Hurtsmile group, “Retrogrenade,” was released. And on November 1, 2014, Pat Badger’s first solo album, “Time Will Tell,” was released.