White Lion

White Lion was a Danish/American rock band that was formed in New York City in 1983 by Danish vocalist/rhythm guitarist Mike Tramp and American lead guitarist Vito Bratta. Mainly active in the 1980s and early 1990s, releasing their debut album Fight to Survive in 1985. The band achieved success with their No. 8 hit "Wait" and No. 3 hit "When the Children Cry" from their second album, the double platinum selling Pride. The band continued their success with their third album, Big Game which achieved Gold status and their fourth album Mane Attraction which included a supporting tour. White Lion disbanded in 1992 and not long after their first compilation album, The Best of White Lion was released. Mike Tramp reformed White Lion with all new musicians in 1999 and again following a failed attempt to reform the original line up and several legal issues in 2004. The new White Lion released a live album in 2005 and a brand new studio album Return of the Pride in 2008. After moving from Denmark to Spain and then New York City, vocalist Mike Tramp (formerly of the bands Mabel, Studs and Danish Lions) met Staten Island guitarist Vito Bratta (formerly of Dreamer) in 1983. They decided to put together a new band and recruited drummer Nicki Capozzi and bassist Felix Robinson (formerly of Angel) and named the group White Lion. White Lion was signed by Elektra Records in 1984 and recorded their debut album Fight to Survive. Elektra was unhappy with the final recording, and after refusing to release the album, terminated the band's contract. Both Capozzi and Robinson soon left the band. Nicki Capozzi was replaced by former Anthrax drummer Greg D'Angelo, and Felix Robinson was replaced by bassist Dave Spitz (brother of Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz). Within a month of joining, however, Dave Spitz left to play bass with Black Sabbath and was replaced by James LoMenzo. The album Fight to Survive was eventually released by Victor Company of Japan, Ltd, (JVC Records) in Japan in 1985. Philadelphia-based Grand Slamm Records bought the album from Elektra and released it in America the following year, under licensed by Elektra/Asylum Records. A few months later, Grand Slam Records went bankrupt. Fight to Survive charted at number 151 on The Billboard 200 and featured the band's debut single and music video, "Broken Heart". In early 1986, White Lion, with a fictitious female member (portrayed by Louise Robey), had a brief part in the Tom Hanks/Shelley Long movie The Money Pit. Early in 1987, the band was signed by Atlantic Records. The recording of the album took six weeks and on June 21, 1987 their album Pride was released. The first single, "Wait", was released on June 1, 1987, but did not reach the charts for nearly seven months. The Pride tour started in July 1987 as White Lion opened for Ace Frehley's 80s band Frehley's Comet. The next year and a half was filled with constant touring, opening for such bands as Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne, Stryper and Kiss. In January 1988 White Lion landed the opening slot for AC/DC on their Blow Up Your Video American tour. While touring with AC/DC, the Pride album and "Wait" single finally charted, due in no small part to MTV airing the "Wait" music video in regular rotation-nearly seven months after the single's release. "Wait" hit No. 8 on the singles chart, while Pride hit No. 11 on the album charts. Pride would remain on the Top 200 Billboard album charts for a full year, selling two million copies in the US alone and achieving double platinum status. In August 1988, the album's second single, "Tell Me", reached No. 58. Around the time this single was released, White Lion played at the Ritz club in New York City. The show was filmed and later aired on MTV. The Pride album's third single, a power ballad titled "When the Children Cry", made it to No. 3 on the charts with heavy MTV airplay. The success of "When the Children Cry" would eventually push sales of Pride over the two million mark. In addition, Vito Bratta was recognized for his instrumental talents by racking up Best New Guitarist awards with both Guitar World magazine and Guitar for the Practicing Musician magazine. All You Need Is Rock 'n' Roll was the final single released from the album. In the spring of 1989, the Pride tour finally ended, and the band released their first video albums titled "Live at the Ritz" and "One Night in Tokyo" both of which featuring full concerts on VHS. The band then immediately began work on their next album. In August 1989, White Lion released their third album, Big Game, a musically eclectic follow-up to Pride that featured the single "Little Fighter" (which peaked at No. 52), in Memory of The Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace boat which was destroyed by the French. A cover of Golden Earring's "Radar Love" (which peaked at No. 59) was released as the second single and "Cry for Freedom" was released as the third single. "Going Home Tonight" was released as the album's final single. The album quickly went gold, with a peak of No. 19 on the album charts. The band's success continued with more constant touring. n 1999 after commencing his solo career Mike Tramp, with all new musicians, also released Remembering White Lion, which featured new versions of some of White Lion's classic songs and started what would be a long battle to reform White Lion. In 2000 momentum for a new White Lion continued with the release of an updated White Lion compilation titled "The Essential White Lion" and a second best of album was released titled "White Lion Hits". In October 2003, Tramp announced a White Lion reunion with the original members. This statement was quickly denied by the other former members. Later Tramp said that Vito Bratta wanted nothing to do with a reunion. With summer festivals in Europe already booked, Tramp attempted to put together a "new White Lion" featuring former members James LoMenzo and Jimmy DeGrasso, along with Warren DeMartini of Ratt. Vito Bratta filed suit claiming partial ownership of the name, and the tour was scrapped. Tramp later commented that despite his willingness, "There will never be an original White Lion reunion". In late 2004, Mike Tramp organized another group of unknown musicians and continued with a new White Lion under the act Tramp's White Lion, this however did not stop the persistent legal issues with former members. Despite all the issues 'TWL' (aka White Lion 2) played and re recorded White Lion songs, touring and releasing a box set titled "The Bootleg Series" in 2004 and a double-live CD entitled Rocking the USA in 2005. The Band had several concerts cancelled in late 2005 as promoters backed away due to the threat of possible legal action and by the end of the year Tramp had almost completely given up on "White Lion", but six months later was inspired to continue with the booking of a European tour for November and December 2006. Tramp's White Lion played several dates in Europe including Sweden, Norway, Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark. In 2005 a Concert Anthology DVD was released followed by the album Anthology in 2006 featuring never before released songs and demo versions of White Lion classic songs from previous albums. On February 16, 2007, Vito Bratta appeared on the Eddie Trunk radio show in New York, stating that despite what Mike Tramp said, he had never refused a White Lion reunion, stating that the only reason he was unable to participate was due to the illness of his father. He added that he would still be open to the idea and has not closed the door to returning to the music industry again. Trunk made it clear that Bratta's involvement in the show was something that he had wanted to happen since White Lion first broke up in 1991. Bratta took calls and answered questions from fans for almost 3 hours. On April 6 and 7, 2007, at the L'Amours Reunion Shows in New York, Bratta made his first public musical appearances in over 15 years. Three weeks later Mike Tramp called the same show from Australia, speaking about Bratta and the band's new album, including the tour dates that Tramp's White Lion had recently confirmed. Tramp said that he was thankful that Bratta had finally answered fan's questions, the same questions he himself had been asked many times over the past 15 years. He also stated that he felt uncomfortable answering on Vito's behalf, and that he was upset that Vito had withdrawn himself from the music industry.