There are certain moments in rock history where the entire bloody landscape seems to change overnight.
One minute, huge choruses, leather jackets, massive guitar solos and arena-sized hard rock are ruling the roost.
Then somebody hits play on Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden or Alice In Chains… and suddenly the bloke from the record company is asking whether you own a flannel shirt.
😂🤘
For Thunder guitarist and songwriter Luke Morley, the explosion of grunge in the early ’90s created a particularly strange situation.
Because while grunge may have made life considerably harder for bands associated with traditional hard rock, Morley wasn’t sitting around throwing darts at pictures of Kurt Cobain.
Quite the opposite.
He actually liked the bands.
🎸 “AS FAR AS I WAS CONCERNED, IT WAS ALL JUST ROCK MUSIC”
Reflecting on the period, Morley explained:
“Grunge was a difficult time for us. It was also frustrating because as far as I was concerned it was all just rock music.”
And THAT, mun, is probably the most sensible way of looking at the whole thing.
Because strip away the marketing labels and the geographical arguments and what were Soundgarden, Alice In Chains and Nirvana doing?
Big guitars.
Huge riffs.
Distortion.
Attitude.
Emotion.
Noise.
Sounds suspiciously like rock ’n’ roll to us. 🤘
Morley specifically named Soundgarden, Nirvana and Alice In Chains as bands he really liked. (Facebook)
🌧️ WHEN SEATTLE CHANGED EVERYTHING
By 1991, rock music was undergoing one of its biggest cultural shifts.
Nirvana released Nevermind, Pearl Jam released Ten and Soundgarden unleashed Badmotorfinger, while Alice In Chains were already making serious noise following Facelift. The Seattle scene rapidly became the dominant story in rock, and the word “grunge” was suddenly slapped across virtually anything involving distorted guitars and miserable weather. (Louder)
For groups who had emerged from the late-’80s hard-rock world, that change could be brutal.
Thunder had formed in 1989 and released their debut album Backstreet Symphony in 1990, establishing themselves as one of Britain’s strongest new hard-rock outfits just before alternative rock began changing the industry around them. (Wikipedia)
The maddening part for Morley was that he didn’t necessarily see these new bands as enemies.
He heard rock bands.
The industry heard genres.
And unfortunately, genres sell magazines.
🔥 THUNDER, PEARL JAM AND ALICE IN CHAINS ON THE SAME BILL
Then comes the gloriously bonkers bit.
Morley recalled that Thunder played a show in Los Angeles in 1991 alongside Alice In Chains and Pearl Jam, at a birthday event for RIP magazine. (Facebook)
Just imagine that bill for a second.
Thunder.
Alice In Chains.
Pearl Jam.
All sharing the same rock ’n’ roll universe while journalists were busy constructing invisible walls between them.
What a night that must have been.
And apparently the backstage situation was every bit as entertaining.
😂 SHARING A DRESSING ROOM WITH PEARL JAM… AND SPINAL TAP
Morley remembered sharing a dressing room with Pearl Jam, describing them as very nice.
So far, so wholesome.
Then things got properly rock ’n’ roll ridiculous.
Because they were apparently also sharing space with Spinal Tap.
Yes.
THAT Spinal Tap.
Morley recalled the comedy rock legends being very funny — and looking rather sheepish when they discovered certain backstage realities surrounding the evening. His social-media recollection of the night confirms the bizarre Pearl Jam/Alice In Chains/Spinal Tap crossover. (Facebook)
Only rock music could give you a dressing room containing a respected British hard-rock band, future Seattle megastars and the fictional group responsible for amps that go to eleven.
Beautiful.
Absolutely bloody beautiful.
🤘 GRUNGE DIDN’T REALLY “KILL” ROCK
The story also highlights something that often gets lost whenever people revisit the early ’90s.
The narrative usually goes something like:
1980s rock existed.
Then Nirvana arrived.
Then somebody switched all the hairspray off.
But reality was far messier.
Metallica were enormous.
Guns N’ Roses continued filling stadiums.
Thunder kept making records.
Traditional rock bands survived.
New alternative bands exploded.
And plenty of musicians from supposedly opposing camps actually liked each other’s music.
Even members of the Seattle scene themselves have pushed back against the idea that every band lumped under the “grunge” banner represented one unified musical style. Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd, for example, has described the term itself as an oversimplification of what was actually happening. (Louder)
Which makes Morley’s attitude feel even more refreshing.
To him, it was simply rock music.
🎤 THUNDER KEPT ROLLING
And Thunder certainly weren’t finished.
Their second album Laughing on Judgement Day arrived in 1992 and reached No.2 on the UK Albums Chart, demonstrating that there was still plenty of appetite for what Thunder were doing even as the musical landscape shifted around them. Morley has since joked about being kept from No.1 by Kylie Minogue’s greatest-hits collection. (MetalTalk)
That’s rock history for you.
Seattle revolution happening on one side.
Thunder smashing the charts on the other.
And Kylie standing at the top going:
“Sorry lads.”
😂
🎸 RIFF REPORT VERDICT
Luke Morley’s story is a brilliant reminder that the supposed war between grunge and classic hard rock was probably far more dramatic in magazine offices and record-company meetings than it was between many of the musicians themselves.
Morley liked Nirvana.
He liked Alice In Chains.
He liked Soundgarden.
Thunder shared stages and dressing rooms with some of the very bands supposedly overthrowing their generation.
Because underneath the labels, fashion and marketing nonsense…
it was all rock music.
Big amps.
Big riffs.
Sweaty clubs.
Ridiculous backstage stories.
Exactly how it should be.
And somewhere in Los Angeles in 1991, Thunder, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains and Spinal Tap somehow ended up inhabiting the same chaotic rock ’n’ roll universe.
Now THAT is a festival line-up we’d happily fire up the time machine for. 🤘🔥
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. Zero Apologies.
#Thunder #LukeMorley #Grunge #RockHistory #TheRiffReport
