Stu Levitan welcomes Brian J Kramp, author of a book about a world-famous band that is technically from Rockford IL, but which owes a lot of its success to Madison. That band of course is Cheap Trick, the book is This Band Has No Past: How Cheap Trick Became Cheap Trick, from the good people at Jawbone Press.

The book’s title notwithstanding, the band does indeed have a past, and a very interesting one at that. First, there was the Byzantine way in which the bands Grim Reapers, Toastin Jam, Phrenz, Toons, Zander and Kent, Sick Man of Europe, Fuse and others morphed and mutated into CT. Then there was the relentless and ultimately effort by our friend Ken Adamany, who booked or managed several iterations, to get them a record deal. Their hard work paid off – 5000 live performances, 20 million albums sold, induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It’s a double-header that Brian J. Kramp is well, maybe even uniquely qualified to tell. After all, he was across the street from Sunset Bowl in his native Waukesha Wisconsin that night in 1976 when a legendary record producer signed on with Cheap Trick. Now Brian was 2 years old at the time, so he was likely not aware of the epochal event, but it does give him some personal skin in the game.

And he’s worn out a lot of shoe leather researching the book, at least metaphorically, interviewing not just several of the principals, but tracking down musicians who were in bands with the tricksters close to sixty years ago.  The result is a fascinating deep dive on a band that went from bowling alleys and beer halls to arenas and stadiums, from the Stone Hearth to the Rock and Rolll Hall of Fame.

It's a pleasure to welcome to Madison BookBeat, Brian J. Kramp.