5/19/2023 0 Comments Utopia bandThe live LP Another Live (1975) featured new members Powell and Wilcox. He was replaced by John "Willie" Wilcox, who had been the drummer with Hall & Oates on the Rundgren-produced War Babies album. Ellman left the band to become an executive at his family's Beefsteak Charlie's restaurant. Former Moog programmer Roger Powell joined the band on synthesizer, restoring it to a sextet. The remaining five-piece lineup was referred to by Rundgren as the "Rhythm Kings" and recorded the song "Real Man", later released on Rundgren's 1975 album Initiation, along with other Rundgren solo material. Soon after this first album was completed, Labat left the band. The debut album contained only four tracks and ran for almost sixty minutes total, opening with "Utopia Theme" - recorded live in concert - and closing with the extended concept piece "The Ikon", which ran more than thirty minutes and took up all of side two of the album. Ellman debuted with Rundgren on the album Todd. Meanwhile, Rundgren had played on Labat's solo album M. Klingman had played with Rundgren as early as his first album Runt both Klingman and Siegler had played on Side 4 of Rundgren's third album Something/Anything, and together with Schuckett they had also played on Rundgren's fourth album A Wizard, A True Star. The first two albums - Todd Rundgren's Utopia (1974) and Another Live (1975) - featured lengthy, complex and highly arranged progressive rock pieces, performed by a six-piece multi-instrumental ensemble composed of Rundgren (guitar and vocals), Ellman (drums and percussion), Siegler (acoustic and electric basses and cello), Mark "Moogy" Klingman (keyboards), Jean-Yves Labat (now on synths), and Ralph Schuckett (keyboards). However, the Sales brothers had left by the time the band recorded its first release, being replaced by percussionist Kevin Ellman and bassist John Siegler. Frog" (Jean-Yves Labat), who initially played rhythm guitar and later synthesizers. On his 1973 album A Wizard, a True Star, Rundgren had sung the line "Wait another year, Utopia is here."įor a short period of time (1973–74) Todd Rundgren's Utopia consisted of Rundgren plus Hunt Sales and Tony Fox Sales together with the late David Mason (a musician from Florida, not to be confused with the former Traffic guitarist of the same name) and "M. In 2018 Rundgren, Sulton, and Wilcox reunited for a tour with new keyboardist Gil Assayas under the moniker Todd Rundgren's Utopia. In 2011 the earlier prog-rock incarnation known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia was revived for a series of live shows. The group broke up in 1986, but reunited briefly in 1992. Though often thought of as a Rundgren-oriented project, all four members of Utopia wrote, sang, produced and performed on their albums "Set Me Free", for example, was sung by Sulton. In 1980, they had a top 40 hit with "Set Me Free". This version of the group gradually abandoned progressive rock for more straightforward rock and pop. By 1976, the group was known simply as Utopia and featured a stable quartet of Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Roger Powell and John "Willie" Wilcox. Most of the members in this early incarnation also played on Rundgren's solo albums of the period up to 1975. During its first three years, the group was a progressive rock band with a somewhat fluid membership known as Todd Rundgren's Utopia. Utopia was an American rock band formed in 1973 by Todd Rundgren. Bearsville, Network, Passport, Epic, Rhino
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