The Official Oxford Stomp

The first album was not initially released in the U.S. (although "Hiding from Love" was issued as a single and reached No. 43 on the dance chart), so Adams assembled a backup band and embarked on his first Canadian tour as a solo act, spending four months playing clubs and colleges.

The tour was to be the foundation for his second album, You Want It, You Got It, which was recorded in two weeks and released in the spring of 1981. The original album title was Bryan Adams Hasn't Heard Of You Either but that title was rejected by A&M as being too provocative. This 2nd album became Adams' first 'official' release in the U.S.

He toured America for six months, opening for the Kinks and Foreigner and by January of 1982 the album broke into the Billboard charts peaking at No. 118 in 13 weeks. The single "Lonely Nights" became his first Hot 100 entry at No. 84 and peaked at No. 3 on the mainstream rock chart.

His third album, Cuts Like a Knife was released in January of 1983, with the single "Straight from the Heart", leading the way. It broke his career open, peaking in the Top Ten of the Hot 100 and setting up the LP which followed. The album also reached Top Ten, selling platinum and spawning further Top 40 hits with the title song and "This Time".

The album's success was stimulated by Adams' extensive touring in support of it, which began in Canada and continued into the U.S., where he opened for Journey. From there he toured Europe followed by dates in Japan and then back to Canada.

Adams' fourth album Reckless was released on his 25th birthday, November 5, 1984, and was preceded by the single "Run to You", which reached the Top Ten. It was followed by no less than five Top 20 singles drawn from the album: "Somebody", "Heaven" (which hit number one), "Summer of '69" (Top Ten), "One Night Love Affair", and a duet with Tina Turner, "It's Only Love".

Reckless reached No. 1 in the U.S. selling five million copies in America and a reported three million more in the rest of the world. Adams also earned his first two Grammy nominations, Best Male Rock Performance for the album as a whole, and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group for "It's Only Love". As per usual, Adams toured extensively in support of it. His "World Wide in '85" tour began in December of 1984 finally wrapping in November 1985. One of the highlights that year included being the first artist to open the American side of the Live Aid concert from Philadelphia on July 13th.

Into the Fire, followed in March of 1987, prefaced by the single "Heat of the Night," which became Adams' fifth Top Ten hit in the U.S. The album reached the Top Ten in the U.S. and sold a million copies, with another million sold overseas. It also spawned the Top 40 hits "Hearts on Fire" and "Victim of Love". Adams' worldwide tour in support of the album went on for more than a year. One of the final shows, in Werchter, Belgium, was filmed for a television special, "Bryan Adams: Live in Belgium", broadcast in Canada the following year.

Live! Live! Live! a concert album drawn from the 1988 Belgium show, was initially released only in Japan but later garnered a wider audience. In a departure from earlier years, Adams did not tour extensively but opted to spend his time in England with writer/producer Robert John "Mutt" Lange, preparing for his next album.

In June of 1991, Adams went back on the road in Europe co-headlining with ZZ Top. This coincided with the release of the single "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You" which topped the U.S. charts for seven weeks - the longest any song had remained at No. 1 in eight years. Its international success was even greater; spending 16 weeks at No.1 in the U.K., making it the longest-running chart-topper in the history of the British charts.

Waking Up the Neighbours was released in September of 1991, and Adams once again hit the road - this time until July of 1993. The album featured two Top Ten hits "Can't Stop This Thing We Started" and of course, "(Everything I Do) I Do It for You". Before it finished running its course there would be three more Top 40 hits, "There Will Never Be Another Tonight", "Do I Have to Say the Words?" and "Thought I'd Died and Gone to Heaven". Waking Up the Neighbours sold four million copies in the U.S. and another six million in the rest of the world. It also earned Adams a Grammy nomination and an award for Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television. That song also provided his first Academy Award nomination.

Adams began to look forward to his next studio album, but in the interim released a hits compilation, So Far So Good, in November 1993 featuring the single "Please Forgive Me," a new Adams/Lange track. The song would also find its way into the Top Ten. Then came the Adams' theme song for the movie The Three Musketeers, "All for Love", recorded with Rod Stewart and Sting, which hit No. 1 in the U.S. in January of 1994. That same month, Adams embarked on an ambitious tour of the Far East, including countries like Vietnam that were rarely visited by Western pop artists.

Throughout the better part of 1994, Bryan kept a low profile with the exception of a song called "Rock Steady" written for Bonnie Raitt's live album Road Tested. He performed the song as a duet with her, and the two soon shared a chart single.

At the beginning of 1996 Adams released a new album 18 'Til I Die. The album featured the flamenco-tinged "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman?" from the Johnny Depp/Marlon Brando film Don Juan DeMarco. Adams was rewarded with yet another No. 1 hit, as well as a Grammy nomination for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance and his second Oscar nomination for Best Song.

An 18-month world tour followed and the album soon went platinum in the U.S. The singles "Lets Make A Night To Remember" charted briefly in the Top 40 and the provocatively titled "The Only Thing That Looks Good On Me Is You" proved to do well outside of the US, but didn't dent the US charts, perhaps due to the fact that his record company (A&M) transferred his contract in the middle of the release to independent rap label, Interscope Records.

Adams filmed an appearance for MTV's popular Unplugged series in the fall of 1997, and it was released as an album in December. It was a modest success, and served as a stopgap until the appearance of his next studio album, On a Day Like Today, which was released in October 1998. Overseas, the disc featuring the Melanie C duet "When You're Gone", reached the UK No. 3 spot in December of 1998 and spent 10 weeks in the Top 10. This was followed by the Top 10 dance re-mix of "Cloud Number Nine". The album also hit No. 3 in Canada.

In November 1999, Adams issued a second hits compilation, The Best of Me, but the American branch of A&M/Interscope declined to release it. The title track "The Best Of Me" charted all over Europe and in Canada.

Adams returned in the spring of 2002 collaborating with Hans Zimmer on his first full- length song score for a film, the animated DreamWorks feature Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron. The soundtrack made it into the Top 40 and Adams and Zimmer earned a Golden Globe Nomination for their collaboration.

In September of 2004, Room Service was released in Canada and Europe where it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard European Top 100 albums Chart. This was shortly followed by its release in the US in the spring of 2005.

In the fall of 2005 Bryan Adams celebrated his 25th anniversary as a recording artist with his first two-CD collection Anthology, the biggest retrospective of his multi- platinum career. The 36 selection Anthology spanned Adams' entire career from 1980 through to 2005 offering the very best of one of the most popular rock singer- songwriters to ever don jeans and a t-shirt.

In 2006 Bryan became the first western artist to perform in Pakistan. The concert in Karachi was in aid of helping to rebuild schools in that country devastated by an earthquake the year previous.

In May of 2007 Bryan was inducted into Wembley’s Square of Fame. The ceremony coincided with his 25th show at Wembley and the anniversary of his first performance at the Stadium, when he headlined The Prince’s Trust Charity Concert in the summer of 1987.

In 2006 Bryan had two songs featured in major movie releases. “Never Let Go” was in The Guardian starring Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher and “Never Gonna Break My Faith” was co-written for the film Bobby. The song was performed by Aretha Franklin and Mary J. Blige, and earned Adams a Golden Globe nomination in 2007.

11 was released in Canada and throughout the world in 2007, followed by a U.S. release in the spring of 2008. It debuted atop 3 international charts, including Canada, India and Switzerland and was top 10 in Austria, Denmark, Germany, Portugal, the UK and Holland. The appropriately titled disc, produced by Adams, was his 11th album of all-original music and featured 11 songs. In September of 2008, Bryan performed in Tbilisi, Georgia – a concert billed as Peace, Freedom and Democracy for Georgia. It took place 40 days after the conflict of George that resulted in loss of life and was seen as a symbolic gesture of peace.

In 2009 Bryan would be honoured with his picture appearing on a postage stamp as part of the Canadian Recording Artist Series. That same year, he also wrote, produced and performed “You’ve Been A Friend To Me” for the Disney movie, Old Dogs.

In 2010, Vancouver would host the Winter Olympics and Adams, along with Nelly Furtado would perform “Bang The Drum” (co-written with Jim Vallance) at the opening ceremonies held at BC Place Stadium. Adams also released “One World, One Flame” during that same time period. It was used as a theme song for the German TV Station ARD, for their Olympic coverage.

That same year would see Bryan receive the Allan Waters Humanitarian Award for his charitable concerts and campaigns over the course of his career, as well as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for his lifetime contribution to the arts in Canada.

In November of 2010, Bare Bones was released, an acoustic album recorded live in various locations on his Bare Bones tour earlier in the year. February of the next year would take him to Kathmandu, Nepal, where he would become the first-ever international artist, to perform in Nepal.

In 2011 Bryan Adams received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

In 2016, the acclaimed singer/songwriter was on tour for this 13th album Get Up, and in less than a month after release, Get Up reached the Top 10 in nine countries. The album’s success came shortly after celebrating the 30th anniversary of Adams’ iconic album, Reckless.

On November 3, 2017, the acclaimed singer/songwriter released his best-of album, Ultimate, via UMe/Polydor Records, a collection of his much celebrated career, containing hits such as “Cuts Like A Knife” and “Run To You” , “When You’re Gone” with Melanie C and of course, “Everything I Do (I Do It For You)”.

The album also features two brand new songs, “Ultimate Love” and “Please Stay”

Bryan Adams’ music has achieved #1 status in over 40 countries. He is a Companion of the Order of Canada, has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and Canada’s Walk of Fame and the recipient of numerous Juno Awards, 3 Academy Award and 5 Golden Globe nominations, a Grammy Award, American Music Awards and ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards. In 2018, Adams, along with longtime collaborator Jim Vallance wrote all the music for “Pretty Woman: The Musical”, which is continues to run on Broadway.

Adams continues to tour somewhere in the world ten days every month intertwining stadium concerts with special, intimate solo acoustic dates. His live concerts have established him as one of the world’s best rock singers of our time.

Singing myself to sleep...

"One of my earliest memories is being recorded by my parents when I was two or three. I'm sure the tapes are still around somewhere. They used to do that a lot, 'cause I used to sing in the bath a lot, I’d sing myself to sleep… They really made a point of letting me hear myself on tape when I was a kid. I remember that being a really big deal. I think my first memory of being on stage was when I was five or six and in a school production kind of thing, but it was always a very positive aspect of my life as a kid. I always got a lot of positive reinforcement. I think when you're a kid, you do things to merit the approval of the adults around you... When you get a lot of really positive reinforcement from the adults around you that makes you want to keep doing whatever it is that you are doing. Singing for me was always like that, I always got a lot of really positive feedback from the grownups around me and that made me want to do whatever I could to get back up on stage."

For the love of music...

"Singing for me was always going to be a part of my life. Nobody can chart the future and you never really know exactly what you're life's going to be and how it's going to turn out. You can make plans, but even the best laid plans tend to fall apart. For me, I never knew what the path was going to be for me, but I always knew that music would be a big part of it. And I always knew that it was something that I really, really wanted. It was something I wanted to be a part of. I loved being around it and I loved being on stage. It was very natural for me and I would do everything in my power to seek it out... I made myself as available as possible to any production that was coming through my high school... I was always a part of extra-curricular activities at school, part of the school choir that kind of stuff... I think it's very important when you're a kid because it kind of gives you your bearings... it gives you a solid foundation. I was lucky because I was able to take a certain amount of formal training when I was a kid. I had a pretty extensive background as a classical sort of musician, and got to learn how to read music and how to write music. That's not necessarily the most important aspect of what I do know, but it was definitely part of building a solid foundation. Music is a language like any other language and the earlier you learn to speak it, the more fluent you are going to be as you grow up."

Making my second record...

"This record was really a pleasure in many different senses. It's not a huge musical left turn from the first record, it's sort of a logical extension of where we started. I was very happy with the direction we were going in. I think it's a slightly less anonymous record than the first record. I made the contribution that I felt was appropriate on the first record but I didn't really think of myself particularly as a songwriter. I was more an interpreter. I chose songs that were reflective of me but I have fairly decent taste and I chose a good collection of songs. This record, I had just come off the road after two years of touring the first record, so I was really on my game as an entertainer and as a vocalist. You can only get better the more you do it, so for me, this record was really precipitated by a huge explosion of creativity. The record itself took about three to four months to write the bulk of it, by then I had a vast array of different experiences to choose from and talk about. Bits of myself that I could inject into the record. I had a much better sense of what I wanted it to sound like. I was a lot more involved in the production of the album than I anticipated. In the writing and the playing of the record, and the shaping of the album than I expected to be. It was something that came very naturally, it was something that I fell backwards into and I was so happy to really get a chance to record in a relaxed creative atmosphere."

Career Highlights

MARSHALL'S EPONYMOUS DEBUT ("AMANDA MARSHALL") WAS RELEASED BY SONY MUSIC IN 1995. THE ALBUM ACHIEVED DIAMOND STATUS IN CANADA, AND SOLD IN EXCESS OF 4 MILLION COPIES WORLDWIDE. THE ALBUM ACHIEVED GOLD, PLATINUM OR MULTI-PLATINUM STATUS IN MORE THAN TWENTY COUNTRIES AND PRODUCED SIX TOP TEN HITS IN CANADA ALONE.

IN 1999, MARSHALL RELEASED THE SUCCESSFUL FOLLOW-UP ALBUM "TUESDAY'S CHILD". THE FIRST SINGLE "BELIEVE IN YOU" WAS FEATURED ON THE MULTI-PLATINUM SOUNDTRACK FOR THE CBS TELEVISION SERIES "TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL". "TUESDAY'S CHILD" ALSO ACHIEVED MULTI-PLATINUM STATUS. THE ALBUM FEATURED A GUEST APPEARANCE BY BON JOVI GUITARIST RICHIE SAMBORA, AS WELL AS A COLLABORATION WITH LEGENDARY SINGER/SONGWRITER CAROLE KING.

IN 2001, MARSHALL RELEASED THE JUNO-AWARD-WINNING ALBUM "EVERYBODY'S GOT A STORY". THE ALBUM FEATURED A PARED-DOWN, HIP-HOP-LACED SOUND AND TEXTURAL, MULTI-LAYERED VOCALS. IT MARKED A CHANGE IN CREATIVE DIRECTION, AND ACHIEVED PLATINUM STATUS IN CANADA WITHIN EIGHT WEEKS OF ITS' RELEASE. THE TITLE SINGLE AND TWO FOLLOW-UP SINGLES ("SUNDAY MORNING AFTER", "MARRY ME") WERE ALL TOP TEN HITS.

2003 MARKED THE RELEASE OF "INTERMISSION: THE SINGLES COLLECTION", A COMPILATION FEATURING PREVIOUS WORKS AS WELL AS TWO NEW TRACKS, "UNTIL WE FALL IN" AND "CROSS MY HEART", BOTH CO-WRITTEN AND PRODUCED BY MARSHALL.

“I guess you'd call it a play,” says Craig Northey, Odds' longtime singer and guitarist. “It's a narrative, maybe a storytellers’ concept about our strange history. We weave these ideas and war stories between [performing] the songs. There are visuals to accompany the show, including a large screen with gorgeous colours and dynamic clips. It all works together to take people on a different ride than that of a regular concert.”

The band has been test-running the show in B.C. and is currently filming a DVD. Expect clips to appear on the Odds' website (www.oddsmusic.com) and for them to take it on the road in 2011- 2012. Northey says the response so far has been fantastic.

“The last thing we wanted was some dreary 20th anniversary tour run through the back catalog. We wanted to get to the core of why we are still out there as a creatively vital band.”

Northey conceived the idea while working with longtime friend Kevin McDonald, actor and member of ground-breaking comedy troupe Kids in the Hall, on his one-man show. “I realized we had a lot to talk about as four guys who'd triumphed and screwed up together.” He thought back to the original "Storytellers" tour featuring the Kinks' Ray Davies. “It was spellbinding but all the Kinks weren't there and there was no rocking. I thought that having our whole band there would make it three dimensional but still intimate.”

Northey wrote the first version of the play while on an airplane then took another plane to another Kid in the Hall's house, Bruce McCulloch, to whip it into shape. It all came together pretty fast. Fortunately for him, the band has a long, colourful journey to draw on.

The journey began in Vancouver in 1987, when Northey (vocals-guitar), Steven Drake (vocalsguitar), Doug Elliott (bass) and drummer Paul Brennan got together for reasons they couldn't figure out. Maybe that's why the name stuck. When explaining the oddity of their name, Northey says “it's a dumb name that you can't really search on the internet, you know gambling and stuff, but it seemed to fit.” They cut their teeth and paid bills with a six-night house gig, playing sets as a satirical '60s and '70s cover band. This allowed them to record and write in the daylight and venture to places that might accept them. Soon, an LA bigwig heard what was going on and came to visit.

Odds eventually rolled the dice and made one of those naïve follow-up trips to Los Angeles. The music quickly opened doors as they duked it out at a regular house gig while commuting from Vancouver. After securing a deal with Zoo/BMG, they released their first LP Neopolitan in 1991. The debut was a precocious demonstration of the band's ability to craft songs anchored by addictive melodies, clever lyrics, and classic pop arrangements. It featured their first radio hits, “Love is the Subject” and “King of the Heap.” Rock scribes scrambled to applaud them for their black humour. Famed music journalist Griel Marcus included a description of their track, "Wendy Under the Stars" within his book Dead Elvis.

The literate rock world came knocking and a mentorship followed as the touring band for “Mr. Bad Example” himself Warren Zevon. Odds then returned with 1993's Bedbugs. The album's leadoff single “Heterosexual Man” broke into the charts on both sides of the border. The music video featured the band members performing in drag with the Kids in the Hall. Two other songs, “It Falls Apart” and “Yes (Means It's Hard to Say No)” followed up to establish a pop culture beachhead for the band.

1995 brought a line-up change as drummer Paul Brennen left the group during the recording of their watershed album Good Weird Feeling. Old friend Pat Steward, who had previously manned the kit for Bryan Adams, walked right in. That year also saw the band break into the mainstream. Good Weird Feeling yielded six Top 40 singles, including “Truth Untold” and “Eat My Brain.” They quickly followed up with Nest in 1996, which featured the band's first #1 chart hit to date, the irresistibly catchy “Someone Who is Cool.” Playing to larger and larger crowds the band toured extensively until 1999 when, inexplicably, announced they'd be taking a hiatus to pursue other projects.

Northey, Elliott and Steward continued working together on music in the coming decade, forming new acts like instrumental Memphis soul group Sharkskin and Strippers' Union with Rob Baker of the Tragically Hip. Northey released a solo album, Giddy Up (2002), and began a fruitful collaboration with Gin Blossom's guitarist Jesse Valenzuela. In addition to releasing an album together, the pair co-wrote “Not a Lot Going On,” the theme song for CTV's hit comedy Corner Gas.

In 2007, Northey, Elliott, and Steward started writing together again and took an invitation to join pals the Barenaked Ladies' on their first Ships & Dip concert cruise. Joined by new guitarist Murray Atkinson, the revitalized group recorded the stellar Cheerleader (2008) album and released it under the name The New Odds. The original members wanted to honour their past, albeit with their traditional gallows humour. “The transition is documented in the play, the whole 'New Odds' idea,” Northey explains. “With The New Odds, we thought it was a funny in-joke and we kinda did feel like a new band. It's a rock cliché to break up and then add New to your name. It still gave people an indication of our past and we thought it might give us a leg up. But in the end it just confused the bejesus out of people.”

In 2008, after some scrambling with the naming rights, the band became, once again, just Odds. Northey says it's been both strange and wonderful reintroducing Odds to the world. “The most fun we have is playing this new music but we get a small charge out of the strange spell the catalog songs can cast. The whole cocktail makes new fans. We play shows and, we're in our forties, except for Murray, and we see people who are 18, 19, 20 going crazy in the front row. A lot of them were in Grade seven when they got an Odds record and it means so much to them because it was one of their first experiences with music. They just can't believe they're seeing us play because they thought it was never going to happen.”

“And that’s cool, but we're not doing it to be some nostalgic curiosity. We got back together because we had something to say musically. That's why this play came about. We can look back and put it all together now. We see that every weird decision we made, every pratfall, was all part of staying true to ourselves. That's how we can still be looking forward to this day. We're still writing the story.” Check in with www.oddsmusic.com for new tour dates