Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce the signing of Last In Line, featuring original Dio members, Vivian Campbell, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell, along with vocalist Andrew Freeman.
When he left Black Sabbath in early 1982 to form his own band, the late, great Ronnie James Dio took powerhouse Black Sabbath drummer, Vinny Appice with him.
Ronnie knew that he wanted a European flavor to balance-out the band, so he asked his former Rainbow bandmate and Scottish native, bassist Jimmy Bain to join him. In turn, Jimmy recommended a young Irish guitarist, Vivian Campbell to complete the line-up. When the four of them met and played for the first time in a North London rehearsal room in September 1982, the magic was evident and the classic Dio band line-up was born.
Between 1983 and 1985, in quick succession, that line-up wrote, recorded and toured the first three Dio albums. Widely considered to be the crown jewels of the Dio catalogue, Holy Diver, Last In Line and Sacred Heart went on to sell millions as the band, now reinforced by keyboard player, Claude Schnell, played to audiences worldwide.
By 1985, however, trouble was brewing and the fabric of the band had started to unravel. Beginning with Vivian Campbell’s firing during the Sacred Heart tour, one by one the other original band members left the fold and slowly the magic was lost.
30 years after the recording of Holy Diver, and without trying to replace the singular sound that was Ronnie’s voice, the original band have started playing the songs they created together again. Joined by the passionate, powerful and unique voice of vocalist Andrew Freeman, Vivian Campbell, Vinny Appice, Jimmy Bain and Claude Schnell have united under the name of their classic album, Last In Line, to perform and tour their original songs again.
When any group of musicians write and record together, they create a sound that becomes uniquely theirs. Last In Line brings to life those early, classic Dio albums in a way that only they know how. In a way that only they can.
Frontiers plans to release the new recording in the spring of 2015.
31 Responses
At least they’ll be playing music with some balls. I could probably take everything Def Leppard’s released after Pyromania and pull together enough good songs to make ONE decent album. Maybe riffing on some Dio classics will get Vivian in a more aggressive mood for the next DL record. Unless he’s not a real member of DL either and they don’t let him write for them, I dunno.
The reality of the situation is this: NONE of these guys are in, or want to be in, something that is 24/7/365 like it was when they were young and single. I am sure they now all have families and want to work when they want to work. That said, they DO want to work, but not for 2 years at a time. Each CD any of these guys release is basically a six month project. They work and pay the bills at six month clips. They also have the option to not go past six months if they don’t want to. A lot of this provides flexibility to do what they want for as long as they want at relatively short clips and earnings. As far as bands: Most bands are not bands, they are a main guy or partnership, and the rest are hired guns. Skid Row was not five guys, Kiss is not longer four guys, AC/DC is unknown but Mal and Angus call the shots. Poor Brian Johnson. Such a nice guy and always having Bon shoved in his face. Let’s face it, bands are corporations and they have power plays like any other corporation.
DR, that’s the funniest post I’ve ever read.
I’m curious enough to see them live if they hit Tucson Az. I’m sold because these new band suck compared to the classic stuff
DL would like any good songs even from a Navajo elder in Kayenta Arizona. Ask Pete Townshend and Paul Simon about writing classics the last couple decades. Nada.