Mick Ralphs, whose guitar and writing propelled two classic British groups, Bad Company and Mott the Hoople, died. A spokesperson for the Ralphs family confirmed the news to Roller. Ralphs was 81.
In 2016, Ralphs underwent a stroke after a series of bad societies in the United Kingdom and was hospitalized; According to the main singer Paul Rodgers, who co -founded Bad Company with Ralphs in 1973, Ralphs was in a nursing home in recent years. A bad company had just been elected to Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and was to be inducted during the ceremony in November.
“Our Mick has passed, my heart has just hit the ground,” Rodgers said in a statement. “He left us exceptional songs and memories. He was my friend, my writing partner of songs, an incredible and versatile guitarist who had the greatest sense of humor. Our last conversation a few days ago, we shared a laugh but it will not be the last. [Ralphs’ wife] Susie. I will see you in paradise.
In addition to providing the group with its recognizable riffing and power agreements, Ralphs also wrote group classics like “Can’t Get Enough”, “Ready for Love” and “Good Lavin ‘Gone Bad” and co-written “Bad Company” and “Feel Like Makin’ Love”. Ralphs was also a founding member of Mott The Hoople and played on the group’s first six albums, including the David Bowie produced All young guys.
“I think he is very versatile, and his sound is very versatile, and he locks himself perfectly in a song,” said Rodgers in an interview last year. “If it is” cannot have enough “or” bad company “or” feel like Makin “love” or “shooting star”, you can immediately recognize his game and go, “it’s Mick Ralphs”. »»
Born March 31, 1944, Ralphs played in several groups in adolescence before becoming a member of Silence, a group based in Hereford, near Wales. When singer Ian Hunter joined the group in 1969, the group changed his name for Mott The Hoople (after a novel by Willard Manus). In this group, Ralphs wrote one of its first standards, “Rock and Roll Queen”, and joined the group to dress in glamorous outfits. (“Ready for Love” was also cut for the first time by Mott.)
The tension between Hunter and Ralphs led the guitarist to leave the group in 1973. “I always felt a game of Mott, but things have changed a lot since the ancients,” said Ralphs Roller This year. “Ian has somehow taken the initiative now, which is great for the group as a whole but not very good for me as an individual. I should sing and write more than I am, but rather than fighting with Ian at the bottom, I thought I am leaving.”
By coincidence, Ralphs had already met Rodgers, who was frustrated by his own free group, despite a massive blow with “All right now”. “I was able to speak with Paul and he felt a bit like me,” said Ralphs Roller In 1974. “We were both in situations where we were not entirely free to do what we wanted to do.” Ralphs remained with Mott Le Cerceau throughout the manufacture of MartelleAnd a recording of a studio fight between Hunter and Ralphs was included in “Violence”, the very song on which they argued.
With drummer Simon Kirke and bass player Boz Burrell, Bad Company was launched in 1974. Compared to other so-called supergroups of the time, they were more consistent in terms of music and image. But thanks to the heavy management (Peter Grant of Led Zeppelin) and support (they were one of the first groups signed with the new Swan Songlin Song label). Powered by “I can’t have enough”, their eponym of 1974 struck no. 1 on the Display panel Chart of albums.
“Can’t Got Envellain”, recalls Rodgers, in the notes of the lining of a bad corporate anthology, “I remember that he had played for me. I was absolutely certain that it was a success. It was one of the reasons why I thought I had a future together.”
Compared to Mott the Hoople, Music in Bad Company and less flashy songs were preferable. “All these sparkling things!” Ralphs said in 1974. “From David Bowie, he has become passed.” Ralphs would also have provided his name to the group: after Rodgers told him that he had written a song entitled “Bad Company”, Ralphs insisted that it was also his nickname. But as the discreet ralphs said in 1978, “it is not literal; we do not come to town and do not beat anyone.”
After the bad original company broke out in the early 1980s, Ralphs made a solo album, but quickly reformed Bad Company with Kirke and the first of the two new main singers replacing Rodgers. The group made four albums from the 1980s, but in 1990, Ralphs sat in one of their tours, saying that he had never loved the road and was to take care of his sick father.
A member of his discreet nature, Ralphs spent the following decades returning to the studio and on the road with a bad company and even grouping Hunter for shows in the United Kingdom, but after a series of bad concerts in November 2016, Ralph’s family announced that he had undergone a stroke, from which he never completely recovered.
Earlier this year, Ralphs had sent an email to Display panel Expressing happiness with the group which is finally inducted into the temple of fame: “I am delighted and I think that the enthronement of bad company in rock and roll Hall of Fame is fantastic!” Ralphs is survived by his wife, Susie Chavasse, two children and three fine children.
