Supertramp
 In 1969, a young Dutch millionaire called Stanley August Miesegaes
('Sam' to his associates) gave vocalist and keyboard player (and -
at the time -drummer) Rick Davies an opportunity to form the
"band of his dreams" and Miesegaes would bankroll the
lot. Davies placed an ad in Melody Maker.
One of the responses came from a youngster fresh out of
boarding school named Roger Hodgson. "My mother was getting
sick of having me at home;" said Hodgson, "so she saw
this ad in the paper and had me answer it."
The band were originally to be called Daddy, until original
reedman Dave Winthrop suggested naming the band after the
garrulous The Autobiography Of A Super-Tramp by W.H
Davies.
The group released two long-winded progressive rock albums - Supertramp
(1970) and Indelibly Stamped (1971) - before
the flying Dutchman withdrew his support (although he did absolve
the group of about $100,000 in equipment and recording
costs). With no money or fan base, the band was forced to
redesign their sound.
Rebuilding the group and coming up with a more pop-oriented sound (which they dubbed
"sophisto-rock") the band had a hit with their third
album Crime Of The Century (1974). Stripping away the
long-winded excess of their first two albums, this LP featured
tighter, more melodic songs, as evidenced by the singles, Bloody
Well Right and Dreamer.
Their music was a carefully arranged, generally medium-tempo
amalgam of ethereal art-rock sonorities; power drumming; whiffs of
R&B-ish sax; steady jabs of electric piano and either Davies'
bluesy, nasal vocals or Roger Hodgson's reedy, ingenuous ones -
and some of the most tenacious riffs in rock music.
American record buyers loved Supertramp, which resulted in the
group moving to the USA - although British success was never
automatic for them.
Throughout the seventies, they had a number of
best-selling records, culminating in their 1979 album, Breakfast
In America which contained the hit singles Goodbye
Stranger, The Logical Song and Take The Long Way
Home. The LP sold over 18 million copies worldwide.
After that album, Supertramp began to develop a more R&B
flavoured sound. The change in direction was successful on the
1982 LP, Famous Last Words, but the band soon ran out of
hits. Nevertheless, Supertramp continued to record and tour into
the 90s.
Hodgson departed for a solo career in 1984 after making a deal:
he kept his songs, Rick Davies kept the name 'Supertramp'. The
agreement meant that Hodgson's compositions (Dreamer, Give
A Little Bit, The Logical Song, Breakfast In America,
Take The Long Way Home and It's Raining Again) were
out of bounds for any Davies-led version of Supertramp.
It was a verbal contract - one apparently witnessed by the
other members of Supertramp - and Davies stuck to it for four or
five years. Since the late 80s, however, he irregularly toured
under the guise of Supertramp for concerts that substantially
comprised Hodgson material.
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