Since 1989, LUKE MORLEY has served as Thunder’s guitarist, primary songwriter, and producer.
He played a key part in the commercial success of their 14 albums and in cultivating the devoted following and continuing appeal of these rock legends. Because of this, Thunder has enjoyed seven UK Top 10 albums and eighteen Top 40 singles; these are impressive statistics, but Luke Morley is more talented than most people realise. On his brand-new solo album, “Songs From the Blue Room,” he boldly enters the field of Rock-tinged Americana.
His new album showcases all of his strengths as a songwriter, vocalist, guitarist, and producer. He is not only a well-known guitarist—and a left-handed one at that—but he also plays every other instrument on the album, with the exception of the drums, which are handled by Dave McCluskey. Luke also performs lead vocals on every track.
Luke becomes a conduit for his innerself but also channels Tom Petty & Jeff Lynne…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
Luke has previously recorded solo music, such as 2001’s El Gringo Retro (released independently in the UK and made for EMI Japan), which featured songs written with Andy Taylor (Duran Duran), a friend and bandmate during the last years of the rock supergroup The Power Station.
And no fewer than three UK Top Five albums have been released by Thunder in the previous five years. The band managed to release All The Right Noises (2021) and the 20-song double LP Dopamine (2022) despite all the restrictions imposed by lockdown and the epidemic. Dopamine rode the Top 5 as Thunder embarked on an arena tour in the UK, which culminated in an electrifying performance at Wembley Arena.
However, due to the lockdown and other COVID-related restrictions on concerts, venues, and other activities, Luke Morley and Thunder were forced to pause and change how they worked. Working from home, Morley produced this excellent record for his own pleasure.
“It was kind of between Thunder albums,” says Morley, “And I thought ‘I’ve got these other ideas, maybe I’ll do a bit of work on them.’ Not with any purpose, really, but then with a bit of encouragement from people around me – close friends and my missus saying ‘This is really good, there’s an album there’ – I thought ok, I’ll try and make an album. That’s really how it came about.”
“I write a lot anyway,” says Luke, “and a couple of the songs, ‘Errol Flynn’ and ‘Nobody Cares’ had been around for a while. I thought ‘These aren’t Thunder songs, but they’re quite good,’ so I just made a demo of them and put them to one side.”
And so, on this magnificent solo undertaking, Luke becomes a conduit for his innerself but also channels Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne, delivering deliciously intoxicating melodies that become inspiring popped-up bops with zazzy guitar-play, jaunty rhythms, and impeccable vocal harmonies. In other words, this disc is filled with geezerlike spraunce!
Songs From the Blue Room by Luke Morley is due 23 June 2023, out via Conquest Music
Photo Credit: Jason Joyce
RAW RAMP 