KICK
Leo Lyons and Tony Crooks began a songwriting partnership back in 1987 which led to the formation of the band KICK. The band's first gig was a festival in Hamburg, playing in front of 12,000 people.
Following this, they continued to tour extensively for several years throughout the mid 90s, during which time they released two CDs – Heartland and Tough Trip Through Paradise.
Heartland was first released in Japan in 1992. The line-up was:
Tony Crooks - guitar/vocals
Leo Lyons - bass
Andy Nye - keyboards/backing vocals (formerly in Michael Schenker group)
Kex Gorin - drums (formerly in Magnum)
Tough Trip Through Paradise was released in 1994. The line-up that year included:
Leo Lyons - bass
Tony Crooks - guitar/vocals
Steve Rodford - drums (now with the Zombies)
Mark Price - drums
Don Airey - keyboards (now with Deep Purple)
Jon Willoughby - guitar/backing vocals
KICK are not currently touring but Tony and Leo continue to work together on different projects, building up a large catalogue of songs, many of which have been recorded by other artistes. The reformation of Ten Years After in 2002 generated a new interest in KICK and requests to re-release Heartland, together with previously unreleased live material, are currently underway, whilst Tough Trip Through Paradise is available from the SHOP page right now.