Fastway were a British heavy metal band formed in 1982 by former Motörhead guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and UFO bassist Pete Way. The band went through many line-up and member changes and founding member and bassist Pete Way left the band after receiving an opportunity to play with Ozzy Osbourne.

Career

In 1982, both guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and bassist Pete Way had become disgruntled with their own bands and decided to work together in a new outfit. They recruited

Humble Pie Humble Pie are an English rock band formed by guitarist and singer Steve Marriott in Moreton, Essex, in 1969. They are known as one of the first supergroups of the late 1960s and found success in the early 1970s with songs such as " Black Cof ...

drummer

Jerry Shirley Jerry Shirley (born 4 February 1952) is an English rock drummer, best known as a member of the band Humble Pie, appearing on all their albums. He is also known for his work with Fastway, Joey Molland from Badfinger, Alexis Korner, Billy Nicholl ...

, and the then-unknown vocalist Dave King. They took their name from a combination of the founding members' names. However, Way discovered that he could not break his

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright Ag ...

and then received an offer to play for Ozzy Osbourne; he left the band and did not record any songs. The band then brought in session bassist Mickey Feat and recorded their debut album '' Fastway'' (1983) (Feat was uncredited on the album). After critical and commercial success, the band toured to promote the album (with one-time Fixx bassist Alfie Agius as their session

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

player). The band then recruited Richard McCracken, formerly of Taste, as "permanent" bassist, and released another success in the form of '' All Fired Up'' the following year. After the hardships of touring, Shirley and McCracken subsequently left. In 1985, Clarke and King reformed Fastway with a new line-up. Recruiting Shane Carroll (second guitar), Paul Reid (bass), and Alan Connor (drums) from Dave King's first band, Stillwood, this line-up released ''Waiting for the Roar''. The record took an album-oriented rock approach instead of the driving bluesy-metal of the previous albums. The success of the record was limited, and it disappointed many fans. The same year, Fastway was approached to make the soundtrack for the heavy metal

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

, '' Trick or Treat''. The film flopped, but the soundtrack re-established Fastway as a hard-hitting metal band. The soundtrack was a moderate success and stayed on the Billboard Top 200

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

for eleven months. The success of the soundtrack, combined with the little money the band received, caused in-fighting, and the group disbanded. King took most of the band with him and started Q.E.D., a more AOR-styled outfit. They released a two-

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

single. Meanwhile, Clarke decided to restart Fastway again from scratch in 1988 using vocalist Lea Hart and session men, quickly releasing ''On Target'' in the same year, but it sold poorly. In 1990, this

duo Duo may refer to: Places *Duo, West Virginia, an unincorporated community and coal town in Greenbrier County, West Virginia *Duo, Tampere, a shopping centre in Hervanta, Tampere, Finland * DUO, a twin-tower development in Singapore Arts, enterta ...

of Clarke and Hart released ''Bad Bad Girls'', employing various session musicians including members of Girlschool. It was widely ignored and sold poorly. After calling it a day in 1991, they released a perfunctory

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

''Say What You Will LIVE'' (an older recording, curiously with King on vocals). In 1998, Clarke and Hart reunited and released a reworked version of ''On Target'', but there was no commercial success. On 25 May 2007,

Toby Jepson Toby Jepson is a singer and songwriter, and is the lead vocalist and guitarist of British rock band Wayward Sons. He was formerly the lead vocalist and guitarist of Little Angels between 1984 and 1994. Between 2008 and 2015, he was the lead ...

, former lead singer with

Little Angels Little Angels were an English hard rock band predominantly active between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. The band reformed on 8 June 2012 to play the Download Festival. History 1984–1994: Early history and UK popularity Little Angels formed i ...

, announced he had accepted an approach from Fastway to perform lead vocal duties during the year's festival appearances. An updated line-up played the

Sweden Rock Festival The Sweden Rock Festival is an annual rock/metal festival held in Sweden since 6 June 1992. While having a clear rock/metal focus, the festival is noted for its diversity across these genres, from southern rock bands such as Molly Hatchet to de ...

, Japanese Hard Rock Hell, and the

Download Festival Download Festival is a British-created rock festival created by Terrance Gough, held annually at the Donington Park motorsport circuit in Leicestershire, England (since 2003); in Paris, France (since 2016); at Parramatta Park, Sydney (since 201 ...

at Castle Donington. Besides guitarist Clarke and Jepson, the new band featured drummer Steve Strange (not to be confused with

Visage Visage may refer to: *A synonym of face *Visage Mobile, an American software as a service company *Visage, Georgia, a community in the United States * ''Visage'' (film), also known as ''Face'', a 2009 French film * ''Visage'' (video game), a surv ...

singer Steve Strange) and John McManus ( Mama's Boys). In an interview with Komodo Rock at the Hard Rock Hell Festival in November 2007, Eddie Clark confirmed that he and Toby Jepson would be working on new material. He said "Toby and I are going to sit down and maybe do a few tunes over the winter. See if we can write some tunes." In 2008, Toby Jepson announced he would go on to front Scottish hard rockers Gun full-time. In late 2010, "Fast" Eddie Clarke returned to the recording studio to record a new album with Toby Jepson, titled '' Eat Dog Eat''. The album was released on 14 November 2011, by SPV/Steamhammer, and it is the first album of entirely new material from Fastway in over twenty years. Clarke died on 10 January 2018, after a battle with pneumonia at the age of 67. No official statement about the disbandment or the future of Fastway has been made following his death. Two years and seven months later Way died on 14 August 2020.

Members

Lead & Rhythm Guitars * "Fast" Eddie Clarke (1982-1991, 1998, 2007-2011, died 2018) Vocals * Dave King - lead vocals (1982-1986) * Lea Hart - also rhythm guitar & bass (1988-1991, 1998) *

- also rhythm guitar (2007-2010) Bass Guitar * Pete Way (1982) * Alfie Agius (1983 - official touring member) * Richard "Charlie" McCracken - bass (1983-1984, 1991) * Paul Reid - bass (1985-1986) * John McManus - bass (2007-2010) Drums *

(1982-1984, 1991) * Alan Connor (1985-1986) * Steve Clarke (1987-1989) * Steve Strange (2007-2010, died 2021) Keyboards & Rhythm Guitar * Shane Carrol (1985-1986)

Session musicians

Rhythm Guitar * Kim MacAllifie (1990) * Chris Bonacci (1990) * Terry Thomas (1998) Bass * Mickey Feet (1983) * Neil Murray (1988) * Nibbs Carter (1998) Drums * Gary Ferguson (1998) * Matt Eldridge (2010) Keyboards *

Don Airey Donald Smith Airey (born 21 June 1948) is an English musician who has been the keyboardist in the rock band Deep Purple since 2002, after the retirement of Jon Lord. He has had a long and productive career, playing with such acts as Gary Moore ...

(1998) * Paul Airey (1998)

Discography

;Studio albums * '' Fastway'' (1983) #31 US * '' All Fired Up'' (1984) * ''

Waiting for the Roar ''Waiting for the Roar'' is the third studio album by the Irish heavy metal band Fastway. It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in 1985 and released in 1986. Track listing Personnel ;Fastway * Dave King - lead vocals * 'Fast' Eddie Clar ...

'' (1986) * '' Trick or Treat'' (1986) * ''

On Target ''On Target'' is the fifth studio album by British rock band Fastway, and their first album without original frontman Dave King. Track listing Personnel ;Fastway * Eddie Clarke – guitars, backing vocals *Lea Hart – lead voca ...

'' (1988) * ''

Bad Bad Girls Bad or BAD may refer to: Common meanings *Evil, the opposite of moral good * Erroneous, inaccurate or incorrect *Unhealthy, or counter to well-being *Antagonist, the threat or obstacle of moral good Acronyms * BAD-2, a Soviet armored trolley ...

'' (1990) * '' Eat Dog Eat'' (2011) ;Singles and EPs * ''We Become One'' (1983) * ''Say What You Will'' (1983) * ''Easy Livin (1983) * ''All Fired Up'' (1984) * ''Tell Me'' (1984) * ''The Stranger'' (1984) * ''The World Waits For You'' (1986) * ''A Fine Line'' (1988) * ''I've Had Enough'' (1990) * ''Bad Bad Girls'' (1990)

References

External links

Rock detector's
band biography
Official Fastway Myspace page

Official Steve Clarke website

Fast Eddie Clarke, Interview: "Back In The Saddle" October, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fastway 1983 establishments in England English glam metal musical groups English hard rock musical groups English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 2018 2018 disestablishments in England Second British Invasion artists Columbia Records artists SPV GmbH artists Enigma Records artists Steamhammer Records artists