Tonight were a pioneering five piece Power Pop band formed in Southend in 1977. The roots of the band go back to Vocalist Chris Turner & Bassist Russ Strothard's first band, Hiker, which they formed in 1975. Together with Mark Duckworth on Guitar and Gary Warr on Drums they set off on a rock path in the vein of Free/Queen. A manager was found by the name of Pete Scarbrow and they recorded a Four Track Demo tape at Surrey University in Guildford. This was recorded by Phil Chambon, who ended up joining the band in Autumn 1976 as Mark left. The band was starting to be influenced by Canvey's Dr Feelgood and Southend band The Kursaal Flyers, as well as the newer sounds emerging from London and they were blown away on hearing Anarchy in The UK. The love of the new exciting sounds they were hearing was cemented when they saw the adrenaline fuelled brilliance of The Damned at The Queens Hotel, Southend in June 1977.

A line up change followed in 1977, with Gary Warr following Mark back to their more ‘70s Rock style roots, and new local musicians Dave Cook (on Lead Guitar) and Gary Thompson (on Drums) joined the line up. Dave had an exciting lead style to complement Phil’s classic rhythm playing, and Gary was an energetic Drummer and was fresh from a tour with The Radio Stars. Chris and Phil were writing a lot of new materiel at this time and the band changed their name to Tonight.

The band built up a local following, regularly playing venues such as The Top Alex, as well as playing at established London venues such as The Music Machine, The Nashville Rooms, The Hope and Anchor & The Rock Garden. Their earlier demo managed to secure them a deal with Target Records (A subsidiary of W.E.A) in December 1977. The band were recorded by Andy Arthurs at Studios like Air and Olympic and they began getting favourable reviews for their live shows. They were the first to be labelled ‘Power Pop’ in January 1978, and their first single got to No 14 in the charts in February, 1978.

Their rising popularity led to regular touring and further appearances on Top of The Pops, as well as shows such as Tiswas, Cheggers Plays Pop, The Saturday Banana, Crackerjack, Get it Together & The Paul Nicholas Show, as well as some TV shows in Europe. The band's second single 'Money (That's Your Problem)' released in April 1978 reached Number 34 in the charts, and together with features in magazines like Look-in, Jackie & Blue Jean helped raise the band profile. July 1978 saw the band release their third single - 'Wheels' - which evidenced a slight change in their sound to a more slower Pop/Rock feel.

Things were looking very promising for the band and they were hotly tipped for further success in 1978, but sadly internal struggles between Pete Scarbrow, Target and W.E.A began to manifest themselves, culminating in the bands planned album being put on hold (It was originally scheduled to be released in Autumn 1978). A final single - 'Jealousy Kills (Beware!)' was released in November 1978. There were demands put on the band to produce another Top 20 single before the album could be released and this caused a lot of tension. With no album out, and the band looking for a new record deal again, Tonight decided to call it quits in January 1979, as they were bound and tied in restrictive contracts.

After the demise of the band, all the members went on to play in many other bands, with Chris Turner and Dave Cook going on to form Go To, then Y (Yen), Phil continued in Production, Russ played with Wilko Johnson, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Phil Burdett and many others, and Gary played with The Rubies. Angel Air Records released the Tonight album in 2010, containing many of their singles and some unreleased songs. Speaking to Russ Strothard about the album he said : 'The album is actually the the long lost LP from Autumn 1978. It was shelved and not released by WEA at the time, because they wanted another hit single! So 2010 was it's final release from the vaults, never heard until then'.

Discography



'Drummer Man' c/w 'Stroll On By'' - 7" Single (TDS Records - January 1978)

'Money (That's Your Problem)' c/w 'No Sympathy' - 7" Single (TDS Records - April 1978)

'Wheels' c/w 'I Can Play Faster Than You Can' - 7" Single (TDS Records - July 1978)

'Jealousy Kills (Beware!)' c/w 'Second Hand Man' - 7" Single (TDS Records - November 1978)

'Drummer Man' - CD Album (Angel Air Records - 2010)