Badger (band)

One Live Badger

The band was co-founded by keyboardist Tony Kaye after he left Yes, with David Foster. Foster had been in The Warriors with Jon Anderson before Anderson co-founded Yes. Foster later worked with the band on Time and a Word. Kaye had worked on a solo project by Foster that was never released.

The pair found drummer Roy Dyke, formerly of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, and Dyke suggested Brian Parrish formerly of Parrish & Gurvitz which later became Frampton's Camel (after Parrish left P&G) on guitar. The new band began rehearsing in September 1972 and signed to Atlantic Records.

Badger's first release was the live album, One Live Badger, co-produced by Jon Anderson and Geoffrey Haslam, and was taken from a show opening for Yes at London's Rainbow Theatre. In the progressive rock genre, five of the songs were co-written by the whole band, with a sixth by Parrish (initially written for Parrish & Gurvitz). The cover art was done by Roger Dean, the artist responsible for many of Yes's album covers, although Kaye left Yes before their partnership with Roger Dean.

Reissue of the first album One Live Badger. Published on CD in 1998 with the same songs in the same order. Label : Seven Dollar – 008

White Lady

By 1974, the band had been reduced to Kaye and Dyke. They recruited bassist, Kim Gardner, who had worked with Dyke in Ashton, Gardner & Dyke. Paul Pilnick, formerly of Stealers Wheel, joined on guitar, as did singer Jackie Lomax.

Lomax proceeded to turn them into the type of R&B/soul band he had used on his solo albums. The band became a vehicle for Lomax's songs and singing. During this period, they released one LP, White Lady, on Epic Records, produced by Allen Toussaint. All ten songs were written or co-written by Lomax. Guests on the album included Jeff Beck (contributing a guitar solo to the title track).

However, before the album's release, the band had split into two factions, with Lomax and Gardner leading a short-lived band called White Lady, before Lomax returned to a solo career.

"White Lady" b/w "Don't Pull the Trigger" was released as a single in May 1974.

David Foster