Suzi Quatro Back To The Drive (2005)

Suzi Quatro

Suzi Quatro was born on June 3, 1950 in Detroit of a musical family and made her debut, at eight, playing bongos with her father's jazz band, the Art Quatro Band and, at fourteen, she was TV go-go dancer Suzi Soul. At fifteen, she formed an all-girl group, Suzi Soul and the Pleasure Seekers, with her sisters Patti and Nancy; they played in mini skirts from Las Vegas to Vietnam.

In late 1970 Mickie Most, in Detroit recording Jeff Beck at Motown, heard her and brought her to Britain, where she toured, third on the bill, and released singles that got nowhere. In early 1973, she was teamed with songwriters /producers Chinn and Chapman who wrote and produced 'Can The Can', a British chart topper on RAK.

With a new image encasing her five-foot figure in a leather jump suit, the idea of her playing bass guitar in a band of large bruisers — Len Tuckey (guitar), Alistair Mackenzie (keyboards), Dave Neal (drums) — made her an instant suc-cess. '48 Crash' and 'Daytona Demon' (1973) and 'Devil Gate Drive' (1974) consolidated that success which went unchallenged until late 1974, when she had two flops in a row.

She spent the first six months of 1975 in America, gaining wide recognition via an Alice Cooper tour.