This Friday NOT TO BE MISSED Steve Lauri - Guitar, Vocals

Steve Lauri - Guitar, Vocals I was born in London on the 26th of April 1954. From the age of twelve, I went to Chatham Technical School, Kent and it was there my love of music and the guitar developed. We would listen to music on vinyl LPs and I remember someone bringing in a Led Zeppelin album and listening to the track Whole Lotta Love. I loved that guitar riff. It was a summer in the seventies that I bought a book of guitar chords and started to teach myself how to play on a guitar I borrowed from my dad's cousin. 'Alright Now' by the Free was the first solo I ever learned to play. When I left school I worked as an apprentice engineer in Rochester but also began playing with local bands, learning the musical and stage-craft that was to shape my future. I remember clearly learning the intro guitar solo to The Air That I Breathe as it was one of the new songs we were learning for the resident gig that we played every Thursday in Gravesend.     Having worked briefly on the U.S. Army and Air Force bases in Germany, I moved on to the London club circuit and it was there in 1977 that I joined pop disco group 5000 Volts. They scored two top ten hits, I'm on Fire, which got to number one in several countries around the world and Dr. Kiss Kiss. I was elated. 5000 Volts toured the UK, Europe, Scandinavia and South Africa where we had continued success with two further top ten hits. We also supported the Stylistics on their British tour, one of the dates being at the Royal Albert Hall. In 1978 the Bonnie Tyler Band required a singing guitarist and I joined them touring Europe & America when It's a Heartache, Bonnie's second hit single, was a chart topper and we appeared on Top of the Pops! I joined Sprinkler; Dennis Waterman's backing band, in the early eighties replacing Alan Coates for the first time. The band continued until the mid eighties, when we were called upon as session/backing players to the hit group Bucks Fizz. I did many UK and European tours with them. The infamous Bucks Fizz coach crash, in which I was injured, is a reminder that travelling and touring isn't without danger. Touring with Bucks Fizz led to an audition with the newly formed Cliff Richard Band in 1987. It was then that I met Peter Howarth a singer with ...er Cliff. I toured with Cliff for about three years including visits to New Zealand, Australia and Europe. The concert called The Event, at the now demolished Wembley Stadium was an experience I'll always remember. In the early nineties I toured with Elaine Paige, again as guitarist/vocalist. This tour included the Birmingham Symphony Hall, a venue at which The Hollies performed last year when I first joined them. Working with Elaine Paige was a terrific experience. I later worked with glam rockers the Glitter Band both touring and in the recording studio. In 1995, I re-formed 5000 Volts. It was great fun, the 70s thing was back up and boogying. We still perform on Euro TV now and then and do the odd live show at seventies festivals. In the late nineties I worked in Boogie Nights, a musical about the seventies staring Shane Ritchie at the Bromley Theatre. From 1996 to 1999 I worked in various theatres; playing guitar for comedian Billy Pearce, singer David Essex and as part of comedy duo Hale n' Pace's backing band. It was difficult keeping a straight face at times, but great fun.   Also in the nineties I did many recording sessions at Pelican Studios, which was part owned by Ray Stiles, you might know him! He rang me one day and asked me to play guitar on a few tracks he was producing for a company, He asked "Do you know how to play the solo on Alright Now" .................."Yes Ray", I replied "It was the first thing I ever learned to play." More recently I've been working as a solo performer and with duo partner Simon Rawlings of Big Bopper fame from the West End hit musical 'Buddy'. Though I continue to write and record my own original material when time permits, I am looking forward to many more years with The Hollies. It's a long, long road!