Fastway were a British heavy metal band formed in 1982 by former

Motörhead Motörhead () were an English rock band formed in London in 1975 by Lemmy (lead vocals, bass), Larry Wallis (guitar) and Lucas Fox (drums). Lemmy was also the primary songwriter and only constant member. The band are often considered a prec ...

guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and

UFO An unidentified flying object (UFO), more recently renamed by US officials as a UAP (unidentified aerial phenomenon), is any perceived aerial phenomenon that cannot be immediately identified or explained. On investigation, most UFOs are ide ...

bassist

Pete Way Peter Frederick Way (7 August 1950 – 14 August 2020) was an English hard rock and heavy metal bassist. He was bassist for the rock band UFO from 1968 to 1982; Way rejoined the band briefly in 1988–1989, and full-time from 1991 to 2008. H ...

. The band went through many line-up and member changes and founding member and bassist Pete Way left the band after receiving an opportunity to play with

Ozzy Osbourne John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne (born 3 December 1948) is an English singer, songwriter, and television personality. He rose to prominence during the 1970s as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Black Sabbath, during which period he adop ...

Career

In 1982, both guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke and bassist Pete Way had become disgruntled with their own bands and decided to work together in a new outfit. They recruited

Humble Pie Humble Pie are an English rock band formed by guitarist and singer Steve Marriott in Moreton, Essex, in 1969. They are known as one of the first supergroups of the late 1960s and found success in the early 1970s with songs such as " Black C ...

drummer

Jerry Shirley Jerry Shirley (born 4 February 1952) is an English rock drummer, best known as a member of the band Humble Pie, appearing on all their albums. He is also known for his work with Fastway, Joey Molland from Badfinger, Alexis Korner, Billy Nic ...

, and the then-unknown vocalist Dave King. They took their name from a combination of the founding members' names. However, Way discovered that he could not break his

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording artist (or group), where the artist makes a record (or series of records) for the label to sell and promote. Artists ...

with

Chrysalis Records Chrysalis Records () is a British record label that was founded in 1968. The name is both a reference to the pupal stage of a butterfly and a combination of its founders' names, Chris Wright and Terry Ellis. It started as the Ellis-Wright A ...

and then received an offer to play for

; he left the band and did not record any songs. The band then brought in session bassist Mickey Feat and recorded their debut album '' Fastway'' (1983) (Feat was uncredited on the album). After critical and commercial success, the band toured to promote the album (with one-time Fixx bassist Alfie Agius as their session

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

player). The band then recruited Richard McCracken, formerly of

Taste The gustatory system or sense of taste is the sensory system that is partially responsible for the perception of taste (flavor). Taste is the perception produced or stimulated when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with taste receptor ...

, as "permanent" bassist, and released another success in the form of '' All Fired Up'' the following year. After the hardships of touring, Shirley and McCracken subsequently left. In 1985, Clarke and King reformed Fastway with a new line-up. Recruiting Shane Carroll (second guitar), Paul Reid (bass), and Alan Connor (drums) from Dave King's first band, Stillwood, this line-up released ''Waiting for the Roar''. The record took an

album-oriented rock Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock. Album-orien ...

approach instead of the driving bluesy-metal of the previous albums. The success of the record was limited, and it disappointed many fans. The same year, Fastway was approached to make the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrac ...

for the heavy metal

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, ap ...

, ''

Trick or Treat Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The ...

''. The film flopped, but the soundtrack re-established Fastway as a hard-hitting metal band. The soundtrack was a moderate success and stayed on the

Billboard Top 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine and is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artis ...

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent ...

for eleven months. The success of the soundtrack, combined with the little money the band received, caused in-fighting, and the group disbanded. King took most of the band with him and started Q.E.D., a more AOR-styled outfit. They released a two-

track Track or Tracks may refer to: Routes or imprints * Ancient trackway, any track or trail whose origin is lost in antiquity * Animal track, imprints left on surfaces that an animal walks across * Desire path, a line worn by people taking the shorte ...

single. Meanwhile, Clarke decided to restart Fastway again from scratch in 1988 using vocalist Lea Hart and session men, quickly releasing ''On Target'' in the same year, but it sold poorly. In 1990, this duo of Clarke and Hart released ''Bad Bad Girls'', employing various session musicians including members of

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. It was widely ignored and sold poorly. After calling it a day in 1991, they released a perfunctory

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

''Say What You Will LIVE'' (an older recording, curiously with King on vocals). In 1998, Clarke and Hart reunited and released a reworked version of ''On Target'', but there was no commercial success. On 25 May 2007,

Toby Jepson Toby Jepson is a singer and songwriter, and is the lead vocalist and guitarist of British rock band Wayward Sons. He was formerly the lead vocalist and guitarist of Little Angels between 1984 and 1994. Between 2008 and 2015, he was the lead ...

, former lead singer with

Little Angels Little Angels were an English hard rock band predominantly active between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. The band reformed on 8 June 2012 to play the Download Festival. History 1984–1994: Early history and UK popularity Little Angels formed i ...

, announced he had accepted an approach from Fastway to perform lead vocal duties during the year's

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival ...

appearances. An updated line-up played the Sweden Rock Festival, Japanese Hard Rock Hell, and the Download Festival at

Castle Donington Castle Donington is a market town and civil parish in Leicestershire, England, on the edge of the National Forest and close to East Midlands Airport. History The name 'Donington' means 'farm/settlement connected with Dunna'. Another sugge ...

. Besides guitarist Clarke and Jepson, the new band featured drummer Steve Strange (not to be confused with Visage singer

Steve Strange Stephen John Harrington (28 May 1959 – 12 February 2015), known professionally as Steve Strange, was a Welsh singer. From the late 1970s he was a nightclub host and promoter. He became famous as the leader of the new wave synth-pop group ...

) and John McManus (

Mama's Boys Mama's Boys were a 1980s hard rock/ heavy metal group from County Fermanagh in Northern Ireland. The band includes the three McManus brothers Pat, a.k.a. "The Professor", (guitar, fiddle), John (bass, vocals), and Tommy (drums). Later in the ...

). In an interview with Komodo Rock at the Hard Rock Hell Festival in November 2007, Eddie Clark confirmed that he and Toby Jepson would be working on new material. He said "Toby and I are going to sit down and maybe do a few tunes over the winter. See if we can write some tunes." In 2008, Toby Jepson announced he would go on to front Scottish hard rockers

Gun A gun is a ranged weapon designed to use a shooting tube (gun barrel) to launch projectiles. The projectiles are typically solid, but can also be pressurized liquid (e.g. in water guns/cannons, spray guns for painting or pressure washing, p ...

full-time. In late 2010, "Fast" Eddie Clarke returned to the recording studio to record a new album with Toby Jepson, titled '' Eat Dog Eat''. The album was released on 14 November 2011, by SPV/Steamhammer, and it is the first album of entirely new material from Fastway in over twenty years. Clarke died on 10 January 2018, after a battle with

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severi ...

at the age of 67. No official statement about the disbandment or the future of Fastway has been made following his death. Two years and seven months later Way died on 14 August 2020.

Members

Lead & Rhythm Guitars * "Fast" Eddie Clarke (1982-1991, 1998, 2007-2011, died 2018) Vocals * Dave King - lead vocals (1982-1986) * Lea Hart - also rhythm guitar & bass (1988-1991, 1998) *

- also rhythm guitar (2007-2010) Bass Guitar *

(1982) * Alfie Agius (1983 - official touring member) * Richard "Charlie" McCracken - bass (1983-1984, 1991) * Paul Reid - bass (1985-1986) * John McManus - bass (2007-2010) Drums *

(1982-1984, 1991) * Alan Connor (1985-1986) * Steve Clarke (1987-1989) * Steve Strange (2007-2010, died 2021) Keyboards & Rhythm Guitar * Shane Carrol (1985-1986)

Session musicians

Rhythm Guitar * Kim MacAllifie (1990) * Chris Bonacci (1990) * Terry Thomas (1998) Bass * Mickey Feet (1983) * Neil Murray (1988) * Nibbs Carter (1998) Drums * Gary Ferguson (1998) * Matt Eldridge (2010) Keyboards * Don Airey (1998) * Paul Airey (1998)

Discography

;Studio albums * '' Fastway'' (1983) #31 US * '' All Fired Up'' (1984) * '' Waiting for the Roar'' (1986) * ''

'' (1986) * '' On Target'' (1988) * '' Bad Bad Girls'' (1990) * '' Eat Dog Eat'' (2011) ;Singles and EPs * ''We Become One'' (1983) * ''Say What You Will'' (1983) * ''Easy Livin (1983) * ''All Fired Up'' (1984) * ''Tell Me'' (1984) * ''The Stranger'' (1984) * ''The World Waits For You'' (1986) * ''A Fine Line'' (1988) * ''I've Had Enough'' (1990) * ''Bad Bad Girls'' (1990)

References

External links

Rock detector's
band biography
Official Fastway Myspace page

Official Steve Clarke website

Fast Eddie Clarke, Interview: "Back In The Saddle" October, 2011
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fastway 1983 establishments in England English glam metal musical groups English hard rock musical groups English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 1983 Musical groups disestablished in 2018 2018 disestablishments in England Second British Invasion artists Columbia Records artists SPV GmbH artists Enigma Records artists Steamhammer Records artists