The Motels & John Mckay's Reactor, London

The Motels biography

The Motels is a New Wave music band from the Los Angeles area best known for Only the Lonely and Suddenly, Last Summer, both of which peaked at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982 and 1983, respectively.* (3)The Motels was formed by rock/jazz guitarist Cliff Hanley in 1976, based in Glasgow, Scotland. They mixed funk with punk and added reggae to the mix, with even some bebop creeping in. An extended fill-in by Ronnie Teape for Al Kerr on keyboards also added a bit of prog-rock,too. An early incarnation of the band included Danny Thomson on piano and Louie Rose (of Georgie Fame's Blue Flames) on congas. A lead guitarist, Tam Kerrigan, typical of Glasgow's fine tradition in rock, joined the front line for some months. Several bass players joined, notably the Pastorious-influenced Billy Lang, and Gordon Blank, from another Glasgow band, The Khyber Trifles.There was darkness as well as humour in their music, and they influenced other Scottish bands of the 70s. They eventually split up in London (1981) and the members joined other bands or moved on to session work, Hanley and frontman Craig Lockhart forming a production company.

When

Where