Frehley's Comet was an American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band formed and led by ex-

Kiss A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

lead guitarist

Ace Frehley Paul Daniel "Ace" Frehley (; born April 27, 1951) is an American musician, best known as the original lead guitarist and co-founding member of the hard rock band Kiss. He invented the persona of The Spaceman (a.k.a. Space Ace) and played wit ...

. The group released two

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

s and one live EP before Frehley left the band to release his 1989 solo album, '' Trouble Walkin'''. The band name was a pun of a pun;

Bill Haley & His Comets Bill Haley & His Comets were an American rock and roll band founded in 1947 that continued until Haley's death in 1981. The band was also known as Bill Haley and the Comets and Bill Haley's Comets. From late 1954 to late 1956, the group record ...

was a 1950s

Rock-n-Roll Rock and roll (often written as rock & roll, rock 'n' roll, or rock 'n roll) is a genre of popular music that evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It originated from African-American music such as jazz, rhythm an ...

band that derived its name as a pun of the typical mispronunciation of

Halley's Comet Halley's Comet or Comet Halley, officially designated 1P/Halley, is a short-period comet visible from Earth every 75–79 years. Halley is the only known short-period comet that is regularly visible to the naked eye from Earth, and thus the o ...

(properly pronounced as "Hal-lee", rhymes with "valley", but commonly mispronounced as "Hay-lee"), a comet which orbits the

Sun The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...

near

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

about every 75 years. It also helped people pronounce Frehley's name properly to connect it to the common mispronunciation of Halley as "Hay-lee", as in "Fray-lee" vs. the common mispronunciation as "Free-lee".

History

Before forming a band for his post-KISS career, Frehley had previously done a solo album in 1978 which was the most successful of the Kiss solo albums, and laid the groundwork for his solo career. Frehley left Kiss in 1982, but retained a one-quarter share in Kiss and could not release any solo projects until 1985 without losing that share. During this time Ace put together a band for his solo work, the original line-up consisted of Richie Scarlet on guitar, John Regan on bass, and

Anton Fig Anton Fig (born 8 August 1952 in Cape Town, South Africa), known as "The Thunder from Down Under", is a South African session drummer, perhaps best known as the drummer and second-in-command for Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Ba ...

on drums. This band, together with keyboardists Arthur Stead and later Frehley's friend from the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, Rob Sabino, played live and demoed 20 songs in various sessions with producers

Eddie Kramer Edwin H. Kramer (born 19 April 1942) is a British recording producer and engineer. He has collaborated with several artists now in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, including Jimi Hendrix, the Beatles, David Bowie, the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppel ...

Tony Bongiovi Anthony C. Bongiovi (born September 7, 1947) is an American record producer and recording engineer. He is the cousin of musician Jon Bon Jovi. Career Bongiovi has produced records by Gloria Gaynor, Talking Heads, Aerosmith ('' Classics Live''), ...

Chris Kimsey Christopher Kenneth Kimsey (born 3 December 1951 in Battersea, London, England) is an English record producer, mixer and musician most famous for having co-produced The Rolling Stones' ''Undercover'' and '' Steel Wheels'' albums. He was also an ...

and

Vini Poncia Vincent "Vini" Poncia Jr. (born April 29, 1942) is an American musician, songwriter and record producer. Life and career The 1960s In the 1960s, Poncia formed a songwriting team with Peter Anders (née Peter Andreoli). An album of songs co-writt ...

. However, before they made their initial record, Scarlet (and Sabino) was replaced by

Tod Howarth Tod Howarth (born September 24, 1957) is an American rock musician from San Diego, California. He is best known as serving as a keyboardist, a guitarist, and vocalist for the melodic hard rock group Frehley's Comet, led by former Kiss guitarist ...

who played guitar and keyboards. ''Frehley's Comet'' was supposed to simply be the title of Frehley's next solo album, but Frehley decided to use that as the name of the band rather than release the record as a solo artist. Fig did not tour for the album and was replaced by Billy Ward as touring drummer. For the second album, ''

Second Sighting ''Second Sighting'' is the third solo album by Ace Frehley and last to use the Frehley's Comet moniker. Due to Frehley's illness and substance abuse during the recording, Tod Howarth took a bigger role in singing and songwriting than on the prev ...

'', Fig was replaced on drums by veteran Eric Clapton Band member

Jamie Oldaker James Oldaker (September 5, 1951 – July 16, 2020) was an American rock music, blues rock and country music drummer and percussionist. Biography James Oldaker was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One of the first bands that he was a member of was ...

who also did the tour. Two studio albums and one live album were released under the "Frehley's Comet" moniker (The live album, '' Live+1'' featured four songs performed live in concert and one original studio song). Howarth and Oldaker left shortly after the last show under the Frehley's Comet name, opening for

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris. While fluid in the early years of the band, the lineup for most of the band's history has consisted of Harri ...

in August 1988. In 1989, for ''Trouble Walkin', '' his third studio release, Frehley dropped the Frehley's Comet name and put out a pure "Ace Frehley" solo album. Tod Howarth was replaced by a returning Richie Scarlet, and Jamie Oldaker by ex-

Riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

drummer Sandy Slavin (although Anton Fig and ex-Kiss Drummer

Peter Criss George Peter John Criscuola (born December 20, 1945), better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is a retired American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss. Criss establi ...

did perform some of the percussion work on the album.) The album featured numerous guest vocalists including Criss and

Sebastian Bach Sebastian Philip Bierk (born April 3, 1968), known professionally as Sebastian Bach, is a Canadian-American singer who achieved mainstream success as the frontman of the hard rock band Skid Row from 1987 to 1996. He has acted on Broadway and ha ...

. The tour ended and the band dissolved after John Regan resigned with immediate effect after a show in Las Vegas on April 11, 1990. Frehley did not perform live in any form for two years after that, until July 1992. Frehley put his solo career on hold to rejoin Kiss in 1996. He has since resumed his solo career with Richie Scarlet back in his touring band. After touring Australia together with

Gene Simmons Gene Simmons (born Chaim Witz; he, חיים ויץ, ; born August 25, 1949) is an Israeli-American musician. Also known by his stage persona The Demon, he is the bassist and co-lead singer of Kiss, the hard rock band he co-founded with Paul ...

and his solo band in 2018, Frehley fired his entire solo band including Scarlet with whom he had played on and off since 1984 and replaced them with Simmons's backing band. The band played various one-off reunion shows in 2017 and 2018 with Frehley, Tod Howarth, John Regan, and Anton Fig together.

Personnel

Members

– lead guitar, lead vocals (1984-1988) * John Regan – bass guitar, drums, backing vocals (1984-1988) *

– drums, percussion (1984-1987) *

– rhythm guitar, keyboards, piano, lead vocals (1986-1988) * Richie Scarlet – rhythm guitar, vocals (1984-1985) * Arthur Stead – keyboards (1984-1985) * Rob Sabino - keyboards (1985-1986) * Billy Ward – drums, percussion (1987-1988) *

– drums, percussion, backing vocals (1988) (died 2020)

Timeline

ImageSize = width:800 height:250 PlotArea = left:80 bottom:80 top:10 right:10 Alignbars = justify DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:01/01/1984 till:01/01/1989 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy Colors = id:vocals value:red legend:Lead_vocals id:lguitar value:green legend:Lead_Guitar id:rguitar value:brightgreen legend:Rhythm_Guitar id:keyboards value:purple legend:Keyboards id:bass value:blue legend:Bass id:drums value:orange legend:Drums id:lines1 value:black legend:Studio_Albums Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:1 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:1 start:1984 BarData = bar:Ace text:Ace Frehley bar:Richie text:Richie Scarlet bar:Tod text:Tod Howarth bar:Arthur text:Arthur Stead bar:Robert text:Robert Sabino bar:John text:John Regan bar:Anton text:Anton Fig bar:Billy text:Billy Ward bar:Jamie text:Jamie Oldaker PlotData= width:11 textcolor:black align:left anchor:from shift:(10,-4) bar:Ace from:start till:end color:lguitar bar:Ace from:start till:end color:vocals width:3 bar:John from:start till:end color:Bass bar:Arthur from:01/06/1984 till:01/01/1985 color:keyboards bar:Robert from:01/01/1985 till:01/01/1986 color:keyboards bar:Richie from:start till:01/01/1986 color:rguitar bar:Richie from:start till:01/01/1986 color:vocals width:3 bar:Tod from:01/03/1986 till:end color:rguitar bar:Tod from:01/03/1986 till:end color:keyboards width:7 bar:Tod from:01/03/1986 till:end color:vocals width:3 bar:Anton from:start till:01/08/1987 color:drums bar:Billy from:01/08/1987 till:01/01/1988 color:drums bar:Jamie from:01/01/1988 till:end color:drums LineData= at:27/04/1987 color:lines1 layer:back at:24/05/1988 color:lines1 layer:back

Line-ups

Discography

Studio albums

Live albums/EPs

Demos

*''

Sterling Sound George Marino (April 15, 1947 – June 4, 2012) was an American mastering engineer known for working on albums by rock bands starting in the late 1960s. Biography Marino was born on April 15, 1947, in the New York City borough The Bronx. He at ...

tape June 12, 1984'' - Back Into My Arms Again (Stead/Frehley), I Got the Touch (Stead/Frehley), I'm An Animal (Stead/Kimsey/Regan), I Will Survive (Stead/Frehley), Breakout (Carr/Scarlet/Frehley), We Got Your Rock (Kupersmith/Frehley). Produced by Eddie Kramer. *''Demo 2, 1984/85'' - Audio/Video, Give It to Me Anyway, Dolls. Produced by Eddie Kramer (unconfirmed) *''Summer 1985 demo'' - Stranger in a Strange Land (Frehley), Back on the Streets (

Vincent Vincent ( la, Vincentius) is a male given name derived from the Roman name Vincentius, which is derived from the Latin word (''to conquer''). People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003), Maltese sculptor *Vincent van Gogh ...

/Friedman), I Heard an Angel (Scarlet), Rock or Be Rocked (

Bob Halligan Jr Robert Sidney Halligan Jr. (born January 3, 1953) is an American singer, musician, music producer and songwriter who has collaborated with many artists, particularly in the hard rock/ heavy metal genre, throughout his career. He is currently the le ...

.), Baby It's You (

Mack David Mack David (July 5, 1912 – December 30, 1993) was an American lyricist and songwriter, best known for his work in film and television, with a career spanning the period between the early 1940s and the early 1970s. David was credited with writing ...

, Barney Williams,

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; born May 12, 1928) is an American composer, songwriter, record producer and pianist who composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. A six-time Gra ...

The Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

cover) *''Power Station studio demo 1985'' - Dolls (Frehley), Into the Night ( Ballard), Words Are Not Enough (Jim Keneally/Frehley), The Hurt is On (Frehley/Sabino), The Boys are Back in Town (

Thin Lizzy Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Their music reflects a wide range of influences, including blues, soul music, psychedelic rock and traditional Irish folk music, but is generally classified as hard rock or some ...

cover). Produced by

. *''Vini Poncia demo 1985/86?'' - Remember Me (Frehley/

Cathcart Cathcart ( sco, Kithcart, gd, Coille Chart)
is an are ...

), Wired-Up (

Jeff Paris (musician) Jeff Paris (born Geoffrey Brillhart Leib) is an American vocalist, keyboardist and guitarist who has primarily performed in the hard rock/ heavy metal genre. Still performing under the name Geoffrey Leib, Paris began his career as a session music ...

), The Girl Can't Dance (

Danny Tate John Daniel "Danny" Tate (born November 10, 1955) is an American musician, songwriter, composer, producer, and former Virgin Records recording artist, best known for penning songs covered by Jeff Healey, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tim M ...

Taylor Rhodes Taylor Laurence Rhodes is an American songwriter, producer, and musician from Nashville, Tennessee, most notable for his work with hard rock band Aerosmith since 1993. Music career 1980s In 1987, Rhodes co-wrote the lead-off minor hit title tr ...

). Produced by

Filmography

*''Live+4'' (1988) (VHS)

References

External links

Official Richie Scarlet WebsiteOfficial Anton Fig WebsiteOfficial Tod Howarth Website
{{Authority control Glam metal musical groups from New York (state) Heavy metal musical groups from New York (state) Musical groups established in 1984 Musical groups disestablished in 1988