UK (band)

UK was a short-lived British progressive rock supergroup founded by singer/bassist John Wetton and drummer Bill Bruford (both King Crimson alumni) with keyboardist/electric violinist Eddie Jobson (late of Roxy Music and Frank Zappa's band) and guitarist Allan Holdsworth. According to a 1986 Guitar Player Magazine article, virtuoso guitarist Eric Johnson was a band member before the lineup settled with Allan Holdsworth. UK's first, self-titled album (1978) is regarded by many as a classic in the genre.

Bruford and Holdsworth both left the band after their first tour in 1978 for reasons of difference in musical desires. After their departure, drummer Terry Bozzio (another one-time Frank Zappa band member) joined and the band recorded the album Danger Money as a three-piece. Following a tour in Japan and the acclaimed live album Night After Night (which has some tracks not on the studio albums), the band broke up. Eddie Jobson worked with Jethro Tull, while John Wetton eventually became a co-founder of Asia and Bozzio formed Missing Persons with his then-wife.

UK's music is characterized by virtuoso musicianship, jazzy harmonies, occasional close harmony vocals, use of odd time signatures (like 7/4 on "In the Dead of Night"), occasional electric violin solos, and unusually varied synthesizer (Yamaha CS-80) sonorities that Jobson could convincingly reproduce live.

It is worth mentioning that there were rumours about UK reforming from 1995 to 1997. A project involving Jobson, Wetton and Bruford was planned, but soon transformed into an Eddie Jobson solo project, Legacy, with Wetton's contributions removed. Others involved in the Legacy recordings were Bruford, Tony Levin (King Crimson, Peter Gabriel) and Steve Hackett (ex-Genesis). The project remains unreleased and seems to have been abandoned. Three tracks from Legacy were previewed on Voices of Life, a compilation from the Bulgarian Women's Choir. These tracks were produced and composed by Eddie Jobson: he plays on two of them, while Bruford and Levin play on one each. There are new rumours that Jobson and Holdsworth are in contact and considering a project, possibly with Bruford and Levin.

Discography

* U.K. 1978
* Danger Money 1979
* Night After Night 1979 - Live
* Concert Classics, Vol. 4 1999 - Live, Compilation
* Road Test, November 9, 1978 - Bootleg

See also

* List of bands named after places