Where are they now? - Alan White
This page last updated: 1 Jun 2010
On this page: White - The White Sox - John Lennon-related projects - Other projects - Solo appearances - Charity work
On other pages: Yes news - Work with Billy Sherwood (tribute albums and CIRCA:)
Alan White's official site: Homepage; News; MySpace page; Facebook page
In a Jun 2009 interview, White said, "As far as energy levels and all that goes, I'm ready to go another 10 or 15 years." He remains a member of Yes—see main page.
The White Sox All-Star Band & charity activityAfter two private, corporate gigs in late 2007, their first public appearance was in May 2008 in Seattle, WA. The band consisted of White, Edney, Moses, Bodal and Soto. They headlined For Rock's Sake, a benefit concert sponsored by Music Aid Northwest for MusiCares. The band, in a rather different incarnation, played next at the visitRaleigh.com Rock Hall Benefit festival (Sep 2008) in Cary, NC, and in aid of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum's educational outreach and the John Entwistle Foundation's programme for disadvantaged youths. The 19 Sep saw various acts including the White Sox, with a line-up including White, Bodal, Castle, Bazilian, Hansen, Williams, Bowes and Mark Farner (ex-Grand Funk Railroad; vocals). At the aftershow party, Alan played in a jam band including Buck Dharma (Blue Öyster Cult), Joe Lynn Tumer (ex-Deep Purple) and Hansen. Roger Dean did a collectable poster for the event and was in attendance. In an Oct interview, White said The White Sox were considering some work around Xmas and in a Feb 2010 interview, White seems to describe a Jan White Sox benefit show for the Hall of Fame.
The band returns to Cary for the second annual benefit for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum (again benefitting the Hall of Fame's educational outreach programme, and also the Cary Community Foundation and United Way of the Greater Triangle). Originally planned for Sep 2009, this was postponed to 1 May 2010. The line-up was expected to be White, Edney, Moses, Soto, Hansen, Castle and Bodal; they also did a warm-up gig on 28 Apr in Seattle, WA.
Alan and wife Gigi co-founded and are on the board of directors for Music Aid Northwest (MAN), whose mission is "to bring business and community organizations together, with the talent and resources of the Northwest music industry, to provide funds to aid people in need while enhancing and promoting music awareness and performance throughout the region." (You can donate to MAN here.) MAN organise various benefit concerts, including a recent series supporting their "Music Matters" license plate campaign to augment music education in Washington state schools.
John
Lennon and Beatles-related
projects
Yoko Ono is planning some Plastic
Ono Band shows in 2010 in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of John
Lennon's death. After Yes's
8 Dec Düsseldorf show, White was reported to have said that Ono
has asked him to be involved, which he will be, Yes's schedule
permitting. He suggested the first such show would be in New York.
Alan hosted Imagine a Cure II, An Evening with the Music of John Lennon, a benefit concert for breast cancer at Snoqualmie, WA on 24 Apr. Performers included Roger Daltrey, Vince Neil (Mötley Crüe), Simon Kirke (ex-Free, Bad Company), Daniel De Los Reyes (Sting), Natasha Bedingfield, Mandi Perkins, plus familiar White Sox players Spike Edney, Elliott Easton, Jamie Moses, Bernt Bodal and Mark Hudson.
Alan has been playing with Beatles tribute
band Apple Jam.
They headlined
Let
It
Be
Liverpool,
the
International
Beatle
Week
Festival in Aug
2009, playing
three
shows in Liverpool, UK. White also played "Owner of a Lonely
Heart" and "Roundabout" with Yes tribute band Fragile on 30
Aug. Before then, Apple Jam played a 2-hour
show on 7 Aug in Seattle, WA, with White playing on a portion of the
show. Apple Jam feature
members of The Beatniks, Herding Cats and the Paul Rodgers Band: namely
Rick Lovrovich (bass, lead vocals), Jon Bolton (drums, lead vocals),
Mike Mattingly (guitar),
Johnny Jones (keyboard), Kurtis Dengler (guitar). The first set was Beatles members
solo tracks, including "Jet" (originally by Paul
McCartney
& Wings), "My
Sweet Lord" (George
Harrison), "Imagine" (John Lennon),
"Crippled
Inside" (John Lennon), "Dark Horse"
(George Harrison), "Early 1970" (Ringo Starr); the
second set consisted of all of their Off the Beatle Track album, in
which they play early
Lennon/McCartney compositions released by others, but never by The
Beatles while they were together (White does not appear on the album).
Album track listing: "I'll Keep You
Satisfied", "I Don't
Want to See You Again", "Like Dreamers Do", "You Know What to Do", "Bad
to Me", "It's for You", "I'm in Love", "I'll be On My Way", "Hello
Little Girl", "A World Without Love", "Tip of My Tongue", "From a
Window", "Nobody I Know", "Love of the Loved", "One and One is Two".
The second set then continued with
further Beatles solo numbers, including "Another Day" (Paul
McCartney), "Back Off Boogaloo" (Ringo Starr)
and material by George Harrison, closing with "Instant Karma" (with
White
on drums). The encore was "Twist
and Shout". There is a YouTube
playlist of Apple Jam and Alan performing.
Alan also appears on Billy Sherwood's Beatles tribute album, Abbey Road—see details here. Alan White, Chris Squire and Trevor Rabin all participated in the Imagine a Cure Benefit Concert honouring the music of John Lennon, in Washington state in Apr 2009.
John Lennon & The Plastic
Ono Band's "Live In Toronto '69" is being released on DVD by Shout! Factory Records
(directed by D.A. Pennebaker). The band consisted of John Lennon (lead
vocals, rhythm guitar), Yoko Ono (vocals), Alan White (drums), Eric
Clapton (guitar, backing vocals) and Klaus Voorman (bass). The DVD also
includes a 1988 interview with Ono, and the opening acts for the show;
tracks: openers—"Bo Diddley" (Bo Diddley), "Hound Dog" (Jerry Lee
Lewis), "Lucille" (Little Richard); Plastic Ono Band—"Blue Suede
Shoes", "Money", "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", "Yer Blues", "Cold Turkey", "Give
Peace a Chance", "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand
in the Snow)", "John John (Let's Hope for Peace)". Meanwhile, the new
George Harrison
compilation, Let It Roll: Songs
by George Harrison,
includes tracks from 1970's All
Things Must Pass, on which White performed. The album
debuted at #4 in the UK chart, and #24 in the US.
CIRCA:
Alan White was in CIRCA:, with Billy
Sherwood, Tony Kaye and Jimmy Haun—see the
CIRCA:
page. Their debut album, CIRCA: 2007, is out
and the band played live in 2007/8 leading to a live DVD, "CIRCA:
Live". However, in Jul 2008, Alan
left CIRCA: to focus on Yes, being replaced by Jay
Schellen (GPS, ex-Asia, ex-Conspiracy, ex-Badfinger).
Alan
also
guests
on
several
other
projects
organised
by
Sherwood,
including
a
Beatles
tribute
album,
Abbey Road—see details for all
these here.
White
The band White
consisted of Alan (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Kevin Currie (ex-MerKaBa; lead
vocals),
Karl
Haug
(ex-Treason; electric &
acoustic
guitars, lap steel, backing vocals) and Steve
Boyce (ex-MerKaBa, Two Sheds Jackson; bass,
guitar,
backing
vocals).
After
recording
their 2006
debut
album,
the
band was
joined
by
Richard
"Wayo"
Hogan
(ex-Merkaba; rhythm
guitar,
backing
vocals,
keys)
and
Phil
Davis
(a.k.a. Peter Davis,
ex-Bighorn; keys, backing vocals). Geoff
Downes had played keys on the album and one show with the band in
2005; he left, busy with Asia.
The band has been inactive of late after several attempts at touring did not work out and Alan's focus on the new Yes line-up. Only Alan, Haug and Boyce still have a performing relationship. Boyce and Haug joined Alan White at a recent benefit show. In late 2009, Boyce told one fan that he and Alan had been working on some material and that the band may re-emerge in some form. In a Jan 2009 interview for Notes from the Edge, White said he's "trying to rebuild White at the moment too." He goes on: "the singer, Kevin [Currie], he was having a bit of a problem, so I've been talking to Steve Boyce [...] and I've been trying to kind of like reconstruct that as a side project kind of thing, so we're still working on that right now. But I can see something coming about right now, so we'll see what happens."
A follow-up album was being planned.
In a Jul 2005 interview for Notes
from the Edge, Alan White said, "We've got plenty of material,
that's for sure. There is a lot of material that's still hanging
around." In his
blog, Boyce previously implied new recording in late 2006 and the
band,
with
Hogan by then,
recorded
a
piece
called
"To
Kill
the
Pain"
in Aug 2006, but for release under some other moniker
than White.
Other
projects
& solo appearances
Alan was due to attend the Cape Breton
International Drum Festival, late May, in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Alan White co-headlined at the Synergia Northwest 2010 Benefit to Aid Northwest Youth Music Education on 15 May in Tacoma, WA. The show featured the 46-piece Synergia Northwest Orchestra, conducted by Dr Nikolas Caoile (Central Washington University), who accompanied White for a performance of "In the Presence of" and an abridged version of "Ritual"; line-up: White, Steve Boyce and Karl Haug (both White), the keyboard player from Yes tribute band Parallels, Tracy Bonham (vocals) and a second drummer. White played a baby grand piano for the majority of "In the Presence of", before switching to drums. For "Ritual", they were joined by violinist Geoffrey Castle (worked with Alan White) and the Seattle Seahawks Blue Thunder. Show order: Castle accompanied by the orchestra; Bonham; various others; White et al. set; guitarist Howard Leese (ex-Heart, Paul Rogers Band, Bad Company) leading a re-union of original Heart members Fossen, Fisher, Derosier and Macek, plus new vocalist Summer Hayes, for a set of Heart songs; White leads everyone in a performance of "Instant Karma".
Alan will be participating in
the London Rock and Roll
Fantasy Camp, 25-9 May 2010. Others involved include Jack Bruce,
Nick Mason, Jeff Beck, Pete Best, Slash and Joey Molland.
Alan was participating in a recording project involving former members of Russia, possibly to be a reunion, but is no longer involved. It is unclear whether any of his work will appear on the final release.
Asked about a new solo album in a Jan 2000 interview,
White said: "I've got tons of material, I just need the time to do it.
[...] I've had the material hanging around for a long time". In a Nov
2001
interview, he said: "I've actually had a lot of material, collected
over
years and years, but I use some of it in every Yes album. However I'm
collecting
some other pieces and maybe my second album will come out someday." In
a Dec 2003 interview with Delicious
Agony, he said, "I have stockpiles of material," but that he wanted
to take his time over any project to "make sure it's right." In his
2004
MSN Chat, White said, "I have a home studio and I'm working on some
solo
projects as well [as the White band]."
Other news
A remix of Alan and Chris Squire's "Run
with the Fox" is included on Chris Squire's Swiss
Choir.
Alan
is
on
the
advisory
board
of
Northwest
Program
for
the Arts. Alan
and White were at Woodstick
2007 (MySpace
page) in Puyallup, WA, in Oct. Woodstick is sponsored by Rotarians
for Hearing Regeneration: A Rotarian Action Group and raises
money
for various causes.
Woodstick
were trying to break their own world record of 533 for the largest
number of drummers with
drum
sets playing one song simultaneously, but were unsuccessful.
White continues his partnership with Reek N.
Havok
as Crash and Bang
with an emphasis on music for entertainment purposes (TV, computer gamesetc.).
(Crash
and
Bang
is
an
offspring
of
Reek
Havok's
Sounds
Amazing! company, which concentrates on technical aspects.)
Any news, additions or corrections, please e-mail Henry Potts. Thanks.