Foreigner still a classic live and on record

By Jim Dail

Anyone who loves the sound of classic rock has to like Foreigner. In fact, so many of the band’s songs are instantly recognizable, from the hard pounding of “Hot Blooded” and “Dirty White Boy” to the ballads like “Waiting for a Girl Like You” and “I Want to Know What Love is.”

As guitarist/keyboardist/saxman Tom Gimble points out, the music was just something people had to instantly appreciate.

“I think everyone liked Foreigner on the radio because songs like ‘Hot Blooded’ sound so good on radio,” Gimble said. “In the old days, all you had was FM radio, and they would come pumping through. And there was always a jukebox around playing those songs too. It was part of the sonic landscape of the ‘70s.”

There’s no doubt that Foreigner was a hit, with five top 5 albums, including chart-topper “4,” and 9 Top Ten hits. Now, the band is teaming up with Whitesnake and Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening on August 1 at FivePoint Amphitheatre in Irvine.

Gimble is quick to praise the songs not only for their hit qualities but the intricate structures.

“People hear the songs and think they are basic until they try to play them,” he laughed. “For example, in ‘Hot Blooded’ the F chord is actually an F9. This is not straight ahead rock and roll. There are all these suspended chords, and I am a huge fan of suspended chords. You might hear them in a band like Chicago and some jazz bands but not often in rock.”

He feels Jones is quite underrated as a guitarist.

“That’s part of the magic,” he said. “He slips it in there without you knowing. You would not know unless you try to do the note.”

And that’s exactly what people want to hear.

“More than just delivering the show, we try to stay close to the original especially when it comes to the vocal and melody,” he said. “When that happens, there’s a validation and people can sing along and be right there with what they are expecting and we love it.”

That doesn’t mean there are not times to mix it up, as the group definitely does, such as going acoustic.

“It came about naturally,” he said. “In the old days, you would go to a radio station and bring a couple of acoustic guitars and that’s how we started doing it, singing live on the air. That sounded good and radio stations would ask about us doing a promotion and they’d set us up in sound room and people love it because they feel they are involved and they aren’t getting blown over by a PA system with drums crashing. People are right next to you and if they sing or clap hands they become part of the percussion.”

As a result, the band figured they would try it.

“So, we said let’s do a couple shows this way, and we went up to Canada to try it and we had 5,000 people come to an acoustic show and the audience noise was louder than our regular shows,” he said. “It just kept going from there and we went to an acoustic album. So, occasionally we will do one of those sets during shows.”

Of course, not every song works acoustically.

“Hot Blooded wouldn’t work, but we do try to pick songs that they will know like ‘Say You Will’ and a couple others,” he said.

Of course, there are a lot of great songs, not just hits but album cuts.

“Do we ever say we might just do an album from top to bottom?” he said. “Well, we thought about ‘Foreigner 4,’ but we still want to do ‘Feels like First Time’ and ‘Double Vision’ and the catalog, so that’s difficult to do.”

They’ve also dabbled with orchestral sounds, as evidenced by the new release “Foreigner with the 21st Century Symphony Orchestra & Chorus.”

“We were in Lucerne, Switzerland, and we were there for the opera and we figured why not,” he laughed. “Mick had always thought about doing it, but he had to find the right person to collaborate. So, we got Dave Eggar, a maniac cello player who was the perfect fit. We had a great conductor and orchestrater Chuck Palmer. We knew it always going to be a big team with a 60-piece choir and an 80 piece orchestra.”

And there may be more to come in the future when it comes to new material.

“I think Mick has always got something brewing, and you know songwriters have to write,” he said. “I’m a player and I have to play because if I didn’t play I would have to explode. I know he’s got a notebook and he was talking with Lou [Gramm] and talking about finishing some things. The option is always out there. Sometimes you just have to wait to see what comes out of Mick’s mind.”