![]() ![]() Knight convinced the band they needed him as their lead singer and frontman to propel them to success, and The Jazz Masters were renamed Terry & The Pack. But I went to see them and lost the bet – I thought they were fantastic.” “I hated local bands worse than anything in the world. “A fellow disc jockey had bet me that if I went to see The Jazz Masters, I would like them,” Knight recalled. Playing covers to an audience who demanded all the latest hits, the band found themselves going around in ever-decreasing circles until one night DJ/blagger Terry Knight came across them, in unusual circumstances. The seeds of Grand Funk were sown in the early 60s with The Jazz Masters, an above-average bar band that featured Don Brewer, a drummer with a wild Afro hairdo. Grand Funk played R&B loud and with lashings of feedback, and the people of Flint – a close neighbour of Detroit – loved their local band with a vengeance. Flint was, and remains, violent, downtrodden and resolutely working class. In the mid-60s he managed to blag his way into a job as a DJ on a Michigan radio station by convincing his future employers he was a close friend of The Rolling Stones.Ĭonstantly reinventing himself, Knight was an old-school huckster in the style of Elvis Presley’s mentor, Colonel Tom Parker.ģ. Formerly known as Terence Knapp, Knight was a crass cabaret singer and master bullshitter. The band’s original manager/svengali, Terry Knight. At the start of the 70s the band took over the US chart with a succession of million-selling, classic rock albums: On Time, Grand Funk, Closer To Home, Live, Survival and E Pluribus Funk… which, for me, is where their story ends.Ģ. ![]() In their prime, Grand Funk were a bludgeoning riff machine that brought you such subtly titled gems as TNUC (read it backwards), Sin’s A Good Man’s Brother and Inside Looking Out. For the original Grand Funk Railroad, look no further than the above trio, and disregard the watered-down AOR outfit they developed into in later years. The band, of course: Mark Farner (guitar/vocals), Mel Schacher (bass) and Don Brewer (drums/vocals). and Canada playing about 40 shows per year.1. In 2000, Brewer and Schacher added vocalist Max Carl, former Kiss guitarist Bruce Kulick and keyboardist Tim Cashion to the line-up. Farner decided to leave the band at the end of 1998 to resume his solo career. In 1996 Brewer, Schacher, and Farner reunited as Grand Funk. ![]() Two years later, they split again and Brewer joined Bob Seger's Silver Bullet Band. In 1981, Brewer and Farner resurrected Grand Funk for the album Grand Funk Lives that cracked the Billboard albums chart. He also continued in other musical endeavors, including producing for the band The Godz (from Columbus, Ohio) their self-titled debut album The Godz in 1978. Flint released one self-titled album in 1978 before disbanding. In 1977, following the initial breakup of Grand Funk, Brewer and former Grand Funk bandmates Mel Schacher and Craig Frost formed a new band named 'Flint'. In 1974, the label Qualico released the album "Monumental Funk", recorded by Mark Farner and Brewer. Brewer was the baritone lead singer for the group, in contrast to the tenor vocals of Mark Farner. In addition to playing drums for Grand Funk, Brewer also provided lead vocals for a number of songs, including the first and third verses of " Some Kind of Wonderful" (1974). Still popular, the song has since been recorded by other artists. This track, written and sung by Brewer, was the band's first #1 single. In 1973, Grand Funk released the album We're an American Band, featuring the hit song " We're an American Band". Grand Funk Railroad released their first album On Time in 1969 which sold over a million copies. They hired Terry Knight as their manager. In 1968, Brewer left Terry Knight and the Pack along with bandmate Mark Farner and recruited Mel Schacher, the bassist for the hit band ? and the Mysterians, and formed Grand Funk Railroad. ![]()
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