Free and Bad Company in the 1970s: Decades

by John van der Kiste

Free were formed in 1968 towards the end of the British blues boom. After two critically acclaimed albums, the release of ‘All Right Now' and the album Fire and Water in 1970 brought them major success. Musical and personal differences took their toll and they split after the comparative failure of their next album and single. After starting new bands that never took off they reformed, but following further dissension and guitarist Paul Kossoff's drug problems they disbanded for good in 1973. Vocalist Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke then formed Bad Company, who became one of the hottest bands on both sides of the Atlantic, maintaining a stable line-up with ex-Mott The Hoople guitarist Mick Ralphs and ex-King Crimson bassist Boz Burrell for the rest of the decade. Each member later pursued outside ventures, although they regrouped at intervals, recruiting new members after Ralphs' retirement and Burrell's death. This book examines both bands' work and career from 1968 to 1980, plus the Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu, Rabbit album, Kossoff's solo work and Back Street Crawler, with a chapter on their later history, notably Rodgers' three years with Queen.

160 pages, Paperback

Published June 24, 2022

About the author

John Van der Kiste, British author, was born in Wendover, Buckinghamshire, on September 15, 1954, son of Wing Commander Guy Van der Kiste (1912–99). He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, where he briefly formed a rock band Cobweb with fellow pupil Miles Tredinnick, later vocalist with new wave band London and subsequently playwright and scriptwriter, and read Librarianship at Ealing Technical College, where he edited the librarians’ student magazine.
He has worked for several years in public and academic libraries, but is best known as a writer. His first book, Frederick III, appeared in 1981, and since then he has published over twenty historical biographies, as well as books on local history, true crime, rock music, a novel and a play. He is also a contributor to Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Guinness Rockopaedia, and has produced articles on historical, musical and art subjects in national and local journals, including Illustrated London News, Royalty Digest, European Royal History Journal, Best of British, BBC History Magazine, Record Collector, Antique Collector, This England, The Independent, and Gibbons Stamp Monthly. He has reviewed books and records for the press, written CD booklet notes, and between 1991 and 1996 edited the 70s rock fanzine Keep on Rockin.
In 2002 he was a consultant for the BBC TV documentary 'The King, the Kaiser and the Tsar', first screened in January 2003.
He married professional musician and teacher Kim Graham (née Geldard) in 2003 and lives in Devon.

Reviews

[Amanda Hinchman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Free is my all time favorite band, and I’ve been wanting to read a biography about them for some time. Because two members also went on to form Bad Company (another of my top bands) grouping them together in the same book makes sense.

This was very informative albeit not the definitive Free biography, as the author readily admits. The writing wasn’t the best, probably because it could have benefited from some tighter editing. It was a little clunky and repetitive at times too. I appreciate the author’s efforts and research. But sometimes the writing also came across as contradictory; again this is an editing issue more than anything. Overall worth the read for a better understanding of my favorite band.

The author gets into each album but infused too much of his own opinions concerning some songs. It’s all subjective I suppose