Fred Turner (left) and Randy Bachman . (QMI file photo)
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Singer-guitarist Randy Bachman and singer-bassist Fred Turner are still takin' care of business after spending two decades apart.
Some 20 years after the Winnipeg natives, now both aged 66, last played in a studio together, they release their new album of hard-driving, blue-collar rock on Sept. 7, under the name Bachman & Turner.
They will also play their last scheduled Canadian reunion show of 2010 -- more dates are planned for next year -- on Thursday night north of Toronto, at Casino Rama, backed by three members of Bachman's band.
"Randy and I have committed to three years," Turner told reporters at a news conference Tuesday. "At the end of the three years we'll sit down and say, 'How do we feel about this?' But right now, we'll have fun."
Added Bachman: "I'm thrilled that people are saying that this album sounds like it's supposed to be released in 1977. That's what I was trying for. People, they don't want Fred doing a rap/hip-hop kind of thing."
The Bachman & Turner reunion began last year in Winnipeg. (They are legally prohibited from using the name Bachman-Turner Overdrive by the band's two other original members, drummer Rob Bachman and guitarist Blair Thornton, who didn't want to tour.)
Bachman, now based in Saltspring Island, B.C., talked Turner into singing lead vocals on his song Rock And Roll is the Only Way Out, for what was going to be a Bachman solo album featuring guests such Neil Young, Paul Rodgers and Jeff Healey. Turner was enjoying retirement -- basically working on cars in his garage, playing bass in his basement and working out -- after wrapping up touring with Bachman-Turner Overdrive in 2004, but he couldn't turn his old mate down.
"I wouldn't have come back if Randy hadn't proposed that (new album)," Turner said.
"It's exciting, because we're moving forward," he added in an interview with QMI Agency afterward. "(BTO) always said that we would (record) but the push was never there. The other two fellas, actually, were kind of slow on the uptake. We didn't have the drive that Randy has. Actually, the overdrive's not gone. It's just not stated."
After rehearsing in Winnipeg, the two musicians -- who had been in touch over the years via e-mail -- launched the reunion trek there with a small club show at the end of May.
"We could have done no wrong," Bachman told QMI Agency in an interview after the news conference. "I could have broken five strings and finished the night playing one string, wet my pants, and they would have loved us -- just the fact that we were back together. It was a love thing."
Bachman & Turner then went on to play huge rock festivals in Sweden, the B.C. interior (Nakusp) and London. And a warm up date at the Empire Theatre in Belleville, Ont.
They already have at least 10 festival offers for next year in Europe and hope to add a couple more in England and Canada.
"(They are) some really good festivals," said Bachman, who also told reporters he just signed a new three year deal with CBC-Radio for his popular Vinyl Tap show. "I don't know if we could draw flies on our own. It's just really tough out there."
Bachman said the economy has hurt ticket sales in the U.S.
"It's a train wreck down there ... morale is quite down," he said. "Canada's a little bit better. But in Europe and the U.K., everything is kind of OK, as far as live concerts, and there always will be survivors in every train wreck. This (album and tour) is totally against all odds. Do we think can get any airplay? I don't know. It almost doesn't matter. We're doing what we were born to do."
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