Stealers Wheel
Biography
Stealers Wheel was a British folk-rock band formed in Paisley, Scotland, in 1972 by former school friends Joe Egan (1944-2024) and Gerry Rafferty (1947 - 2011). In the early 1970s, the band was considered to be the British version of American folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.
The duo was initially joined by Roger Brown, Rab Noakes and Ian Campbell in 1972. However, that line-up only lasted a few months and by the time the band were signed to A and M Records later that same year, Brown, Noakes and Campbell had been replaced by Paul Pilnick, Tony Williams and Rod Coombes. This line-up recorded their eponymous debut album, Stealers Wheel and was produced by the influential American songwriters and producers Leiber and Stoller.The album Stealers Wheel (1973), became a commercial success. It contains their biggest hit Stuck in the Middle with You. Two more albums were released (Ferguslie Park, 1974 and Right Or Wrong, 1975) before Rafferty and Egan broke up. It took several years to sort out the legal problems connected to their break-up. After that, Rafferty became a star with his hit Baker Street from the album City to City (1978).
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Williams briefly re-formed Stealers Wheel in Blackpool in 2008 with Rod Coombes and Paul Pilnick, together with close friend Tony Mitchell, before disbanding again.
Pilnicks early career was promoted and managed by Mr George Roberts whilst Pilnick worked as lead guitarist for the band, "Vince and the Volcanoes", led by Mr Vincent Tow/Ismail (Vinnie was an early, informal and friend, guitar tutor to, Lennon and McCartney). They all worked a,t and from, Liverpool 8, granby during and including 1959 to 1963 and from 54 Huskisson Street Liverpool 8. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.
