Ted McKenna

McKenna was born in Lennoxtown, Stirlingshire. He was educated at St Patrick's High School, Coatbridge. His studies included double bass lessons at school, several piano lessons, and a year under Glasgow big band veteran, Lester Penman. He was the drummer of The Sensational Alex Harvey Band from 1972 to 1978, and then worked with artists including Rory Gallagher, 1978–1981; Greg Lake & Gary Moore in The Greg Lake Band, 1981–82; the Michael Schenker Group (MSG), 1982–84; Bugatti & Musker, 1982; Ian Gillan Band; during the Naked Thunder World Tour and worked on a solo album for Nazareth singer Dan McCafferty in 1975.

Before SAHB formed, McKenna started his career in a band called Rare Breed and also had a brief spell with Dream Police before joining up with Chris Glen, Zal Cleminson in Tear Gas where his cousin Hugh McKenna also joined. Tear Gas had got to a point where they had got as big as they could get in Scotland and if they didn't make changes then the band would fold. So they were introduced to Alex Harvey through their manager Eddie Tobin who at that time, Alex was looking for a band. They got together at Thor Studios in Glasgow and the first song they played together was Midnight Moses and within a matter of minutes, they knew the band was going to work and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band was born.

SAHB as they were better known achieved more success as a live band as they were at one point the highest grossing live band in the UK and were touring with reputable acts such as Jethro Tull, The Who, Slade to name a few. They released 8 albums in 5 years..the last being Rock Drill as the band had split just before the release of the album.

After SAHB, McKenna joined up with Irish Blues guitarist Rory Gallagher and performed on 3 albums. The albums were Photo-Finish, Top Priority, and a live album Stagestruck. McKenna was with Gallagher for 3 years before leaving the band to participate in what he called at the time a supergroup.

In 1981 after departing Rory Gallagher's band, McKenna joined forces with another Irish guitarist Gary Moore and bassist Greg Lake. This band recorded two studio albums Greg Lake and Maneouvres. They also released a live album which was recorded at the Hammersmith Odeon called Greg Lake In Concert.

This band was short lived and disbanded and from here McKenna met up with his old SAHB bassist Chris Glen at the 'Funny Farm' in London where all the touring musicians would hang out and was introduced to a German guitarist Michael Schenker who was looking for a drummer after the departure of Cozy Powell to Whitesnake. It was here he joined the Michael Schenker Group

McKenna was now at the peak of his career, performing shows all over the world, and recorded 2 studio albums with MSG which were Assault Attack, and Built To Destroy. The band also released a live album Rock Will Never Die in 1984 and shortly after the release of the live album, McKenna decided to leave MSG as Chris Glen had also departed due to Michael Schenker's behaviour due to drink & drugs.

After MSG, McKenna began doing session work for many bands and artists, as well as TV work. Some of his work included Billy Rankin on his solo album Growing Up Too Fast which was a big hit in the US. McKenna also worked with Bugatti & Musker, performed several tracks on the album Phenomena which featured some of the top rock musicians at the time, and even formed his first ever solo project McKenna's Gold which featured a young and very talented guitarist Julian Hutson-Saxby who would later replace Zal Cleminson in SAHB in 2008. McKenna's Gold band also had bassist Alex Bowler, keyboardist Richard Franklin, and vocalist Charles Bowyer. This project soon disbanded when McKenna was approached by Womack & Womack in which he performed live shows as well as perform on the music video for their hit single Teardrops where he also appeared live on Top Of The Pops to promote the single.

After the tour with Womack & Womack finished, McKenna began working with the legendary Deep Purple vocalist Ian Gillan alongside his old pal and SAHB/MSG bassist Chris Glen for a World Tour of Ian's solo album Naked Thunder. This tour lasted around a year.

In 1991, McKenna moved back to Scotland and it was here he put together a plan to form a new project which featured guest vocalists and were called The Party Boys. This band originally had bassist Alan Thomson most known for his work with John Martyn & David Gilmour, and keyboardist Ronnie Leahy who had worked with numerous acts over the years such as Jack Bruce, Jon Anderson, and Steve Howe. McKenna also brought in SAHB guitarist Zal Cleminson to complete the musical line-up and had vocalists such as Stevie Doherty from Zero Zero, ex Marillion vocalist Fish, and Nazareth lead vocalist Dan McCafferty who would all come in a various times to stand in and be a special guest. It wasn't before long until the audience would call out for more and more SAHB songs in the set. Alan Thomson & Ronnie Leahy stepped down which opened the door for Chris Glen & Hugh McKenna to come on board and it was at this point they decided to give SAHB another go.

The new SAHB were riding high, performing shows throughout the UK & Europe, recorded a live album called Live In Glasgow 93 but around the end of 1994 Stevie Doherty quit the band and was replaced for their final show with Stone The Crows vocalist Maggie Bell.

After SAHB split, McKenna was back doing session work with various band, and in 1998 he got himself a real job as he would call it. He became a lecturer at North Glasgow College to teach young aspiring musicians about the music industry and the dangers of the music world if you don't know what you are doing. Even though McKenna was now working full time in education, he still found time to go out and perform live and record for bands which he did.

In 2002, SAHB reformed for one night only which was for a benefit concert held at The Barrowlands, Glasgow for the legendary Frankie Miller. The band recruited ex Nazareth guitarist Billy Rankin to perform 3 songs on the night which was a success so they decided to do their own show at King Tuts, Glasgow where they recorded an Unofficial live album known as a Bootleg to the fans. The band decided to take a year or so out to consider their options and it was during this time they were introduced to their Final Frontman.

In 2004, SAHB with remaining members Zal Cleminson, Hugh McKenna, and Chris Glen introduced vocalist Max Maxwell, formerly of The Shamen to be their final frontman and go out as SAHB one more time but this time perform with full props and make up the way they had done in the 70's. Their 2004 farewell tour as it was billed was so successful they decided to carry it on and toured every year consistently between 2004 and 2008, performing at various festivals including The Wickerman Festival and The Sweden Rock Festival. In this time they released the live album Zalvation, which was the band's first official release since Rock Drill in 1977 with Alex Harvey. They performed tours in the UK, Europe and Australia, as well as two sell-out Christmas shows in 2006 and 2007 at the ABC in their hometown of Glasgow.

The tours were: 2004 - Brick By Brick, 2005 - Zalvation, 2006 - Dogs of War, 2007 - Hail Vibrania.

In 2008, Cleminson left the band and retired from performing, and was replaced by guitarist Julian Hutson Saxby for the last remaining shows before calling it a day.

After SAHB, McKenna performed with various acts such as the Frank O'Hagan band, the Rhumboogie Orchestra, Gwyn Ashton, American/Canadian blues guitarist Amos Garrett before working with guitarist Paul Rose where he became an official member and worked on & off for a few years. The Paul Rose Band performed shows throughout the UK & Europe and recorded a studio album called White Mountain Road which was produced by Paul Rose. It was through this venture that he rekindled his relationship with his former bandmate and bassist Gerry McAvoy and they formed Band Of Friends which was a Celebration of the music of Rory Gallagher which featured Dutch Guitar Virtuoso Marcel Scherpenzeel

Band Of Friends formed around 2011 into 2012 and began building up the grass roots of fans and followers playing shows all over Europe and the UK. The vibe was great and the shows got bigger and it was soon after they decided to write and perform their own material. During Ted's time with the band they recorded two studio albums Too Much Is Not Enough, and Repeat After Me and the live album was called Live & Kickin. McKenna also won the 'Best Musician (performance)' award at the European Blues Awards 2015. Band of Friends soon departed with Marcel and they brought in Davy Knowles for an American Tour.

In 2017, McKenna was approached by Michael Schenker's son Tyro as Michael was putting together a new project with all 4 of the singers from MSG who were Gary Barden, Graham Bonnet, Robin McAuley, and Doogie White. The band also included bassist Chris Glen, Guitarist/Keyboardist Steve Mann who has worked with MSG during the MacAulay era. The band were now known as the Michael Schenker Fest where they performed a 2-hour show of Michael's back catalogue of songs. They also recorded an album or brand new material with this line up called Resurrection, a live in Japan DVD which both were widely received.

McKenna was now as busy as he'd ever been as he was now an official member of two bands at the same time which was something he hadn't really done before so he was touring extensively with both Michael Schenker Fest, and Band Of Friends. He was back on top form.

On 19 January 2019, at the age of 68, McKenna died of a haemorrhage during a routine operation for a hernia. He was due to start a tour of Japan with Michael Schenker Fest when he went in for surgery but died on the operating table due to losing too much blood during the procedure. McKenna had two children, Casey & Laura as well as a young grandson.

Band Of Friends are continuing to tour extensively throughout the UK & Europe with ex Rory Gallagher drummer Brendan O'Neill, guitarist Paul Rose, and guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick who also plays with the band FM. For recording they occasionally bring in keyboardist David Cowan who was a good friend of Ted's and is also part of a Sensational Alex Harvey tribute called The SAHB Experience. David recorded on the 2-part lockdown albums Spotlight On The G-Man 1&2.

Ted's last ever stage performance was at the Cozy Powell Memorial Concert held at the Robin 2, Wolverhampton alongside fellow SAHB bassist Chris Glen.

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• Band of Friends website