The concept of the Band
History of
THE UK LEGENDS
THE UK ROCK LEGENDS
and
THE ROCK LEGENDS
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THE LINE-UPS
Back in 2006, before the UK LEGENDS and UK ROCK LEGENDS shows were created, some of the early members of the very first UK LEGENDS line up were performing under the name of Lieutenant Pigeon which was a very popular band in the UK.
At this same time Polish promoter Marian Knapczyk of Santana Promotions was looking for a
British band that could perform the hits of Smokie on his corporate shows in Poland and he approached them
to see if they would be interested.
The Lieutenant Pigeon band members agreed and they performed a show at the Spodek Arena in Katowice under their keyboard player's own band name of 'The Legends'. The line up of the Lieutenant Pigeon band performing as The Legends were Gary Moberley, Simon Van Downham, Geoff Hammond and Martin Bland.
To clarify: The band 'UK LEGENDS' was not formed in 2006 by ex band member Martin Bland as he claims. The band that performed in Poland in 2006 was called 'THE LEGENDS'
Unfortunately The Legends band only lasted for this one show in Poland due to an altercation between Martin Bland and keyboard player Gary Moberley. This resulted in keyboard player Steve Hutchinson (Stevie Hutch) previously with The Animals and the Sounds of Smokie joining the Lieutenant Pigeon band in December 2006 starting with a Xmas show at Skipton in England.
In January 2007 the Legends keyboard player Gary Moberley made the claim that he held the historic rights to the name 'The Legends' that they had used for their Polish show and he informed his former band members that he would legally stop them from using 'The Legends' name if they were to do any further shows without him.
A meeting was held on 7th January 2007 between Marian Knapczyk and the new Lieutenant Pigeon keyboard player Steve Hutchinson (Stevie Hutch) who were both aware of the ongoing conflict between Gary Moberley and Martin Bland over the use of the name 'The Legends' for any future shows in Poland so they both decided they would create a brand new band with a brand new name for their future shows. The theme for the new band would be to perform the hit songs of legendary British bands from the UK to the Polish audiences.
The names LEGENDY ROCKA (ROCK LEGENDS in Polish) and BRYTYJSKIE LEGENDY (BRITISH LEGENDS) were both considered at this time but they both finally agreed on using Steve Hutchinson's much simpler name suggestion of UK LEGENDS for the new style shows. The decision to use this particular name was due to the fact that 'UK LEGENDS' could be easily translated into any language.
On 13th January 2007 Steve Hutchinson officially registered his new name 'UK LEGENDS'. This was to avoid any future conflicts over the ownership of the name and so he could commence the investment of his own time and money into his promotion of his new UK LEGENDS show in other territories of the world outside of Poland. Steve designed and printed all of the promotional material for the new band as well as creating the website for the band at his own cost.
In Poland Marian
Knapczyk set about advertising the band and establishing contracts for the shows as well as investing in
backline for the band and providing a specially modified splitter bus for the transportation of the
band and the equipment.
As each of the band members had a long history of working in other bands, some of which were internationally famous, they were able to put together a new show that would consist of the hit songs of the bands, and musicians, that the band members had all previously performed with. At that time this would include songs from The Animals, Smokie, John Miles, Joe Cocker, Bee Gees, Thin Lizzy, and Dire Straits just to name a few!
On 5th March 2007 the new band played its very first concert in Poland under Steve Hutchinson and Marian Knapczyk's brand new show name of :
In the following years Marian Knapczyk continued to promote the UK LEGENDS show throughout Poland using his vast experience and knowledge of the Polish market while Steve Hutchinson also promoted the UK LEGENDS as a separate show throughout the rest of the world undertaking all of the
band's administration, website creation and management, poster designs, media advertising and bookings for his shows.
In 2015 Graham Hunter left the UK LEGENDS / UK ROCK LEGENDS band to work with original members of the late Gary Moore's band and was replaced by previous Animals and Saxon rock vocalist Tony Liddle and previous Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist Steve Lamb.
In 2015 the highly respected drummer Mickey Mad Dog left the band after another dispute with Martin Bland and Paul Elliott rejoined the band.
In 2017 guitarist Graham Hunter left the UK LEGENDS / ANIMALS III / SONGS OF SMOKIE band after a further dispute with Martin Bland and he was replaced by the Tygers of Pan Tang guitarist Steve Lamb.
In 2017 drummer Paul Elliott left the band after a further dispute with Martin Bland and Mickey Mad Dog rejoined the band again.
In 2019 trouble started brewing in the band between Steve Hutchinson and Martin Bland over the underselling of Steve's UK LEGENDS shows by Martin Bland into bars and small venues around the UK resulting in Steve Hutchinson refusing to perform on any of his shows that were being undersold. Not wanting his band members to miss out on potential income Steve gave
them permission to temporarily continue performing without him using his registered UK LEGENDS band name. This was on one of the provisos that Steve Hutchinson would still continue to perform on all of his correctly marketed UK LEGENDS shows and for sound quality the band would always remain a minimum of a four-piece, so Bernie Lowery was brought back into the UK Legends band to make up the numbers. Also at this time Martin Bland and two other members of the UK Legends band formed their own band independent of the UK Legends under the name of KoolRock UK.
In 2019 drummer Mickey 'Mad Dog' left the band following a further dispute with Martin Bland over long distance travelling to shows for little money and was replaced by GEORDIE drummer George Defty.
In
2021, due to an irreversible dispute between Steve Hutchinson and Martin Bland over many issues including Martin Bland's miss-selling of Steve's UK LEGENDS and ANIMALS III bands,
Steve Hutchinson terminated all of his band member's involvement in any of his future shows. He also revoked his permission for them to use any of his legally registered UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS, ANIMALS III and SONGS OF SMOKIE band names.
In 2021 Steve Hutchinson set about rebuilding the reputation of his UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS and ANIMALS III bands by bringing in new professional band members to return his shows back into the credible high level shows that they had previously been.
The new replacement band members in 2021 for Steve's UK LEGENDS, UK ROCK LEGENDS and ANIMALS III shows were HOWARD BAKER on vocals and White Heat drummer GEORGE WATERS, with Steve also teaming back up with previous 1990's Animals bass player GRAHAM HILL, and
previous UK Legends / Animals III / UK
Rock Legends original guitarist GRAHAM HUNTER.
THE ROCK LEGENDS
SENSATIONAL ROCK LEGENDS
THE ANIMALS / ANIMALS II