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Del Bromham
began playing guitar at the age of eleven and while
still at school in West London he formed the band
STRAY in 1966.
School was soon left behind as STRAY
took their dynamic brand of rock on the road and
soon secured a recording contract with Transatlantic
releasing their first album STRAY
in 1970 featuring the song ALL IN YOUR MIND
which soon became the group's anthem and was later
recorded by IRON MAIDEN.
Following the release of their second album SUICIDE,
the band finally tasted chart success with their
third release SATURDAY MORNING PICTURES
for which the legendary Rainbow Theatre
in London's Finsbury Park was hired to premier the
album at a Saturday Morning Picture show - those
were the days!
Constant gigging around Europe built a huge following
for the band and elevated Del Bromham amongst the
all-time great guitarists. UK tours supporting American
band KISS and Canadian rockers
RUSH reflected the immense popularity
of the band.
Although a highly respected group, led by Del’s
playing and writing, the band just failed to become
the superstars they deserved despite a number of
successful album and single releases. MUDANZAS,
MOVE IT, STAND UP AND BE COUNTED,
HOUDINI, HEARTS OF FIRE
and a compilation album TRACKS
were all released before the advent of Punk Rock
took its toll on the band in 1977.
Del Bromham continued touring with his self-named
BLUES BAND whilst working as a
session musician, engineer and producer until 1983
when he was persuaded to reform STRAY
and go back on the road.
This period saw the release of the excellent LIVE
AT THE MARQUEE album that reflected the
excitement, power and energy generated at any STRAY
concert. Sadly the reformed band was only to last
two years before Del was tempted into other projects
once more.
Early in 1997, with the STRAY back
catalogue released in Germany, and soon to be released
in England, with a batch of new songs, Del Bromham
teamed up with drummer PHIL McKEE and
bassist DUSTY MILLER to reform
STRAY. The band picked up where
they left off. A live album was released in April
1997 entitled ALIVE AND GIGGIN
on Mystic Records (MYS CD 108). This reintroduced
STRAY to the European public. In
January '98 the first new studio album from the
band in twenty years was released entitled NEW
DAWN (Mystic Records MYS CD 120).
In March 2001 Del and the band toured with rock
legends URIAH HEEP and NAZARETH
to promote their new CD entitled, quite simply,
10 - this time with PAUL
WATSON on drums and JOHN BOOTLE
on bass - followed in February 2002 by
a hugely successful tour with Leslie West’s
MOUNTAIN which they repeated again later
in the year including shows and festivals in Germany
and Scandinavia. 2003 saw STRAY
off to Spain with Y&T and then
across Europe as special guests on the sold out
IRON MAIDEN tour. Their new album
LIVE: IN YER FACE (Mystic Records) was
released together with the double CD ANTHOLOGY (Sanctuary
Records) in time for the tour.
Del Bromham has now completed his first blues based
solo album DEVILS HIGHWAY which
was released in March 2004 to coincide with his
European Tour with LESLIE WEST.
Since then, Del has appeared once more at Sweden's
prestigious Silja Rock and is currently touring
the UK both as a solo artist and along with his
band THE DEVILS performing songs
from DEVILS HIGHWAY along with
classic blues numbers - and even some STRAY
favourites!
STRAY is back on the road again
with a new line-up and a new website and October
2005 saw the re-issue of the first STRAY
album with five extra bonus tracks. Three more re-issues
followed in 2006, and 2007 brings even more. See
the STRAY
website for details of all
these!
October 2006
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