WAR to Perform Januray 14th at Lancaster Performing Arts Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WAR

Lancaster Performing Arts Center
Friday, January 14, 2010
8:00 PM

Tickets:                                  Orchestra $45 / Balcony $40

Artist Web Page:                   www.wartheband.com

Artist Press Contact:           Joel Brandes, (818) 225-0444

joelwl@sbcglobal.net

Lancaster, CA. 1/5/2011 – An American original, WAR was the first and most successful musical crossover phenomenon that forever fused rock, jazz, Latin, and R&B, while transcending racial and cultural barriers with a multi-ethnic line-up. Originally called “Eric Burdon and War,” this American funk band from California, is best known for the hit songs “Low Rider,” “Spill the Wine,” “The Cisco Kid” and “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” More than 30 years after they first appeared on a Los Angeles stage, WAR can still “Deliver the Word” and is bringing it to the Lancaster Performing Arts Center on Friday, January 14^th, 2011 at 8:00 pm.

 

WAR was created in the late-1960s by producer-songwriter Jerry Goldstein and British singer Eric Burdon. Burdon was then living in Los Angeles and eager to seek out new collaborators after several years with The Animals. In 1969, Goldstein saw musicians who would eventually become WAR playing at the Rag Doll in North Hollywood, backing Deacon Jones, and he was attracted to the band’s sound. Eric Burdon and WAR began playing live shows to audiences throughout Southern California before entering into the studio to record their debut album “Eric Burdon Declares WAR”. The album’s best known track, “Spill the Wine,” was a hit and launched the band’s career.

 

After Burdon moved away from the group, WAR’s career skyrocketed in the early 1970s, as their exhilarating sound spoke to millions of Americans about the troubled times of Vietnam, Watergate, racial strife, and the tensions of the inner cities.

 

“The diversity of influences on us was not only musical but was social as well. As a result we tried to be entertaining while also spreading the word of peace, harmony and brotherhood,” says singer-keyboardist Lonnie Jordan, who has been involved since the group’s inception. “Our instruments and voices became our weapons of choice and the songs our ammunition. We spoke out against racism, hunger, gangs, crimes and turf wars, as we embraced all people with hope and the spirit of brotherhood”.

 

One of the most popular funk groups of the 1970s, WAR was also one of the most eclectic — freely melding soul, Latin, jazz, blues, reggae, and rock influences into an effortlessly funky whole. Although WAR’s lyrics were sometimes political in nature (in keeping with their racially integrated lineup), their music almost always had a sunny, laid-back vibe emblematic of their Southern California roots. WAR kept the groove loose, and they were given to extended jamming; in fact, many of their studio songs were edited together out of longer improvisations. Even though the jam sessions were excessive, they demonstrated WAR’s truly group-minded approach: no one soloist or vocalist really stood above the others (even though all were clearly talented), and their grooving interplay placed WAR in the top echelon of funk ensembles.

 

By the mid-1980s the band members went their separate ways, working on a variety of projects. In April of 2008, Eric Burdon and Lonnie Jordan reunited for the first time in 37 years to perform a one-time-only concert at the London Royal Albert Hall. This concert triggered a reawakening of WAR’s fan-base, which soon after began demanding a reunion tour. As a result, WAR is touring the world this year and will once again enter the studio to do what they do best, make music. After decades of pushing the harmonic envelope, the band’s twenty-fourth album release can be expected sometime in the near future.

 

 

For more information or to purchase tickets
Call, Click or Visit the
Lancaster Performing Arts Center Box Office:

(661) 723 – 5950 / LPAC.org / 750 W. Lancaster Blvd., Lancaster, CA 93534