Los Angeles, California, US
Heavy metal, shred
Alcatrazz was an American heavy metal band formed in 1983 by Graham Bonnet, Jimmy Waldo and Gary Shea. They are best known for their songs "Island in the Sun" and "God Blessed Video".
The band's initial line-up consisted of former Rainbow singer frontman Graham Bonnet, young Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, who had recently left American band Steeler, Gary Shea and Jimmy Waldo from New England and Clive Burr of Iron Maiden fame. Burr was reportedly only in the band for a week, and left upon discovering the band was going to be based in the United States, as opposed to his native England. Burr was soon replaced by former Iron Butterfly drummer Jan Uvena, who had just left Alice Cooper's backing band. Shea dubbed the group "Alcatrazz". For the first album, the bulk of the material was written by Bonnet and Malmsteen, with Waldo contributing to several tracks.
The band's debut album, No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll surfaced in late 1983 on Rocshire Records. Decent support was given by MTV to the lead single, "Island in the Sun", which showed a heavy Rainbow influence. Despite the commercial nature of the song, it received little radio play. The album nonetheless spent 18 weeks on the Billboard charts and peaked at No. 128. A second video released in 1984 for "Hiroshima Mon Amour" became popular in Japan.
Creative differences between Malmsteen and Bonnet surfaced while on tour. Due to this, and his admitted desire to begin a solo career, Malmsteen quit in 1984 and formed his own band, Rising Force, who signed with Polydor Records.
Rochsire then put out Live Sentence (1984), a concert recording from the recent tour of Japan at the Nakano Sun Plaza in Tokyo on January 28, 1984. A live video concert was also produced. Malmsteen tried to prevent the release of the album but failed. A few Rainbow covers were included, including the classic Since You Been Gone. The album would reach No. 133 in the US., Waldo replaced Malmsteen with former Frank Zappa guitarist Steve Vai, despite resistance from Bonnet, and the band signed with Capitol Records. The group worked on new material and then headlined another tour of Japan, which introduced Vai to the fans and allowed them to play new material from the upcoming album. A concert video was filmed from these dates.
The band released Disturbing the Peace in the spring of 1985. The album was produced by Eddie Kramer who had worked with Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and Triumph, among others. "God Blessed Video" was the first single and video, yet MTV barely played it. The album peaked at No. 145 and charted for 16 weeks. Alcatrazz, however, could never break out of their small following, and had to cut a tour short due to financial problems.
Steve Vai left to join David Lee Roth's (ex-Van Halen) solo band in 1986. The split was on good terms, as it was an offer Vai could not refuse. He was replaced by guitarist Danny Johnson (ex-Axis, Rod Stewart, and Alice Cooper), who recorded what became Alcatrazz's final studio album, Dangerous Games, released in the fall of 1986. The album had covers of the Animals' classic song "It's My Life" (one of the only rock-oriented tunes) and Marbles' song "Only One Woman". Bonnet had been a member of Marbles in the late 1960's when they had this hit in the UK. The Dangerous Games album failed to chart and shortly afterward, Johnson also quit to join the band Private Life. Disheartened by an ever revolving door of guitarists, and dwindling album sales, they split up in 1987.
No Parole from Rock 'n' Roll (1983) 2016 Rem.
Live Sentence (1984) 2018 Rem., Compl.Ed.
Disturbing the Peace (1985) 2016 Rem.
Dangerous Games (1986) 2016 Rem.
Live '83 (2010)
Breaking the Heart of the City: The Very Best of Alcatrazz 1983-1986 (2017) BoxSet
Parole Denied: Tokyo 2017 (2018)
