Stray are an English

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

band formed in London in 1966. Vocalist Steve Gadd (born Stephen Gadd, 27 April 1952,

Shepherd's Bush Shepherd's Bush is a suburb of West London, England, within the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham west of Charing Cross, and identified as a major metropolitan centre in the London Plan. Although primarily residential in character, its ...

West London West London is the western part of London, England, north of the River Thames, west of the City of London, and extending to the Greater London boundary. The term is used to differentiate the area from the other parts of London: Central London, N ...

), guitarist Del Bromham (born Derek Roy Bromham, 25 November 1951, Acton, West London), bassist Gary Giles (born Gary Stephen Giles, 23 February 1952,

North Kensington North Kensington is an area of west and northwest London. It is north of Notting Hill and south of Kensal Green predominately in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and partly in the London Borough of Brent and City of Westminster. The ...

, West London) and drummer Steve Crutchley (born 1952) formed the band whilst all were attending the Christopher Wren School in London. Richard "Ritchie" Cole (born 10 November 1951,

, West London) replaced Crutchley in 1968. They signed to

Transatlantic Records Transatlantic Records was a British independent record label. The company was established in 1961, primarily as an importer of American folk, blues and jazz records by many of the artists who influenced the burgeoning British folk and blues boom ...

in January 1970. Their brand of melodic,

hook A hook is a tool consisting of a length of material, typically metal, that contains a portion that is curved/bent back or has a deeply grooved indentation, which serves to grab, latch or in any way attach itself onto another object. The hook's d ...

-laden

proved to be a popular draw on the local club scene during the early 1970s. However, the band never achieved commercial success. At one stage Charlie Kray (brother of the

Kray twins Ronald Kray (24 October 193320 March 1995) and Reginald Kray (24 October 19331 October 2000) were English gangsters or organised crime figures and identical twin brothers from Haggerston who were prominent from the late 1950s until their arres ...

Ronnie and Reggie), was their manager. Gadd left the band in 1975 due to artistic differences and was replaced on vocals by Pete Dyer. The group's early musical style consisted of blues rock, acid rock and psychedelic rock. They then went on to join the hard rock and progressive rock movement. The band served as the rhythm section alongside a string orchestra for the 1975 Jimmy Helms LP, ''Songs I Sing''. The original Stray ended in 1977, although Bromham later continued to play in various resurrected versions of the project well into the 2000s. By the 2010s the band had a settled lineup again, as well as Del Bromham, Pete Dyer returned and Stuart Uren (bass) and Karl Randall (drums) were regularly gigging as Stray. In November 2016, the band hosted a 50th Anniversary celebration concert (featuring all original members) at a sold-out London Borderline. In 2019, Colin Kempster replaced Stuart Uren as permanent bassist and, for live gigs, the band was also joined by Simon Rinaldo on keyboards. After successful concerts in late 2019 and an acclaimed set at the annual Giants of Rock Festival in Minehead, Stray set out on a full joint headlining tour with Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs in February and March in 2020. In 2003, Stray were the support band to

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

on several of their European dates on the Dance of Death World Tour 2003-2004. These included dates in Spain, Portugal, Poland and France.
There are two other Iron Maiden connections to Stray. "All in Your Mind" from Stray's 1970 debut

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

was covered by Iron Maiden and was included on the 1995 reissue of ''

No Prayer for the Dying ''No Prayer for the Dying'' is the eighth studio album by English heavy metal music, heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It is their first album to feature Janick Gers on guitar, who replaced Adrian Smith (musician) , Adrian Smith. Smith left the ban ...

'', and Maiden bassist Steve Harris's daughter

Lauren Lauren is mostly a feminine given name. The name's meaning may be "laurel tree", "sweet of honor", or "wisdom". It is derived from the French name Laurence, a feminine version of Laurent, which is in turn derived from the Roman surname Laurent ...

has covered "Come On Over". From late 2006 until early 2007, the band's back catalogue of eight studio albums issued originally during the 1970s, were re-released by the UK based

Sanctuary Records Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and is, as of 2013, a subsidiary of BMG Rights Management solely for reissues. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest ...

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

format. The new releases were

remastered A remaster is a change in the sound or image quality of previously created forms of media, whether Mastering (audio), audiophonic, Cinematography, cinematic, or Videography, videographic. The resulting product is said to be remastered. The term ...

and had bonus tracks culled from single

B-sides The A-side and B-side are the two sides of vinyl records and cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a single usually features a recording that its artist, producer, or ...

, studio outtakes and

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

broadcast sessions.

Discography

Albums

*''Stray'' (June 1970)

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

link*''Suicide'' (March 1971) Allmusic link*''Saturday Morning Pictures'' (February 1972) Allmusic link*''Mudanzas'' (May 1973) Allmusic link*''Move It'' (May 1974) Allmusic link*''Tracks'' (compilation with previously unreleased outtakes) (1975) Allmusic link*''Stand Up and Be Counted'' (June 1975) Allmusic link*''Houdini'' (March 1976) Allmusic link*''Hearts of Fire'' (December 1976) Allmusic link*''Reflecting A Generation'' (compilation) (1977) Allmusic link*''Live at the Marquee'' (live) (1984) *''New Dawn'' (1997) *''Alive and Giggin (live) (1997) *''10'' (2001) *''Live: In Yer face!'' (live) (2002) *''Time Machine – Anthology 1970 – 1977'' (double CD collection) (2003) Allmusic link*''Valhalla'' (2010) Allmusic link*''Live in Japan'' (live) (2014) *''About Time (2023)''

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stray English hard rock musical groups English blues rock musical groups English heavy metal musical groups English psychedelic rock music groups English progressive rock groups Musical groups established in 1966 Rock music groups from London Pye Records artists Dawn Records artists Transatlantic Records artists 1966 establishments in England