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PRETTY MAIDS BAND PAGE
 PRETTY MAIDS
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CURRENT NAME
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Pretty Maids | |
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FORMER NAMES
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- | |
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ORIGIN
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Denmark | |
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STATUS
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Active | |
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FORMED IN
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- | |
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LABEL
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Massacre Records | |
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GENRE
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Hard rock | |
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STYLE
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LYRICAL THEME
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- | |
| BAND ADDED | 2005-01-17, 00:00 | |
| LAST UPDATE | 2008-04-02, 05:45 | |
| Band biography |
In 1982 they recorded a demo tape at their own expenses which they presented to several record companies. As it often is no Danish record company dared to gamble on an unknown Danish heavy production. Pretty Maids therefore ended up at an English record company. In 1983 the EP "Pretty Maids" was released on Bullet Records. Then things developed. In December the same year Pretty Maids toured England and was by the English music press proclaimed as the new Heavy band of the year. The succes was so overwhelming, that the record company had to set up a fanclub. Pretty Maids also supported the legendary band Black Sabbath on their Scandinavian Tour in 1983. The breathtaking way that Pretty Maids delivered the goods was so impressing that Ian Gillian, who at the time was the leadsinger in Black Sabbath and a former member of Deep Purple, recommended Pretty Maids to a radioproducer in London. It concluded in a 4 track liverecording at the famous "BBC Friday Night Rock Show".
At the beginning of 1984 Pretty Maids was signed to CBS Records. The EP was remixed and released throughout Scandinavia. At spring the sameyear Peter Collins (guitar) and John Darrow (bass) was sacked andreplaced by Ricky Hansson (guitar) and Allan Delong (bass). In June Pretty Maids started the recordings of "Red, Hot And Heavy" in The PUK Studios in Denmark with producers Billy Cross and Tommy Hansen. It was released in October 1984 and achieved great sucess all over Europe. Before Pretty Maids went on tour Ricky Hansson was out and Peter Collins was drawn back.
After touring the rest of 1985 Pretty Maids went to USA in July 1986for the first time. They ended up at The Bearsville Studio inWoodstock, NY and recorded "Future World" with producer Eddie Kramer (Kiss, Jimi Hendrix among others). Ken & Ronnie went to San Fransiscoand teamed up with Kevin Elson (Europe, Journey) who mixed 4tracks. Back in Copenhagen Ronnie and Ken finished the rest of the album with Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica). "Future World" wasreleased all over the world in April 1987 and was followed up by a world tour. The tour included 3 weeks as opening act for Deep Purple as well as the Monsters of Rock Festival in Germany. "Future World" was the commercial break though. Heavy roating on MTV as well in Europe and in USA - riding high charts in France and Germany.
In the spring of 1988 Pretty Maids started working on new material andin January 1989 they went back to USA and met with producer Roger Clover (Deep Purple, Rainbow etc). Together the three of them arranged a pre-production of the fourth album. In March the recordings startedin the PUK studio in Denmark and the album was scheduled for releasei n August same year. This unfortunately did not happen as drummer Phil More was involved in a car accident during the recordings. The accident was of such seriousness that everything had to be postponed and the release was pushed until 1990. Everybody in the band was shocked but the recordings started again when Ian Paice from Deep Purple came in from London and offered his assistance. In August 1989 Ken and Ronnie went to the Hit Factory Studios and spent 3 weeks and ahell of a lot money mixing the album with Roger Clover. The result was not quite what the band expected and in September Ken, Ronnie, Roger and Henrik Nilsson met at Werner Studio in Copenhagen and remixed the album and at the same time Alan Owen left the band for personal reasons. "Jump The Gun" was released April 1990 and Phil More was back and Pretty Maids went on tour after three years of silence. They visit Japan in September 1990 for the first time. After a numorous of concerts throughout the world and support for Alice Cooper Ricky Marx, Allan Delong and Phil More left the band for various reasons.
With the loss of three member the future looked quite uncertain for Pretty Maids at the dawn of 1991 but after a few weeks of considering Ken and Ronnie refused to pack it in and started to write new material again and during the spring they recruited two new members. Michael Fast (drums) and the quite younger Kenn Jackson (bass). With this new four piece line up as well as a lot of regained energy Pretty Maidsonce again teamed up with producer Flemming Rasmussen determined to make a strong and quick follow up to the 1990 'Jump The Gun' album. The result was released in April 1992 and was called Sin-Decade. It received a boisterous welcome as the previous albums and with the single 'Please Don't Leave Me' riding high in the charts Pretty Maids toured Europe and Japan from August and throughout the year. 1992 also saw the release of the acoustic album 'Offside', which was recorded during the summer the same year.
During the spring of 1994 material for the next album was completed and in July Pretty Maids once again hooked with producer Flemming Rasmussen for the recordings that led to the 'Scream' album - releasedin Japan in 1994 and in Europe in 1995. 'Scream' proved that Pretty Maids was back on the tracks, keeping up with traditions with a much more guitar oriented and hard hitting album than the last one. In the summer they played a couple of festivals throughout Europe and in autumn the long awaited first official Pretty Maids live album 'Screamin' Live' was released. The album was some sort of a live document from the previous tour and was recorded on a hot night in the famous Tivoli Garden in Copenhagen. Apart from an appearance at the Roskilde Festival(DK) as well as a few other sporadic gigs Pretty Maids spent most of 1996 recharging their batteries and writing new stuff for their next album. Finally in November Ronnie and Ken teamed up with Tommy Hansen whom all the way back in 1984 produced the legendary 'Red, Hot And Heavy', to see if the old chemistry still was there - it was!
The next album "Spooked" was released in April 1997 and the band kept the promises they made in several interviews and returned with a heavy musicattack of Danish dynamite: 'Spooked' was highly praised by fans and critics throughout the world and immediately regarded as a Pretty Maids classic.
After these numerous studio albums and a world wide career 1998 was the time for a best-of collection gathering the pieces of the past on one album "The Best Of: Back To Back" was released in October 1998.
After that Pretty Maids recorded a new studio album entitled "Anything Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing". On this record Pretty Maids consequently followed their proven style. From fast Metal attacks to grooving midtempo rockers or emotional ballads.
Now, Pretty Maids has released their new album "Carpe Diem". Enjoy it!!!
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