Andrew "Duck" MacDonald (born September 17, 1953) is an American heavy metal/hard rockguitarist, who has played in several bands, the most well-known of which being Blue Cheer.
He started playing in various bands around New York City. In 1980 he was asked to join Shakin' Street, replacing guitarist Ross the Boss. Shakin Street toured the U.S., supporting Black Sabbath and Blue Öyster Cult on the Black and Blue tour. Following this and a tour of France, Shakin Street broke up.
MacDonald met with ex-Elf/Rainbow members Gary Driscoll and Craig Gruber, and started the band Bible Black. They recorded the album Ground Zero with singer Jeff Fenholt. After this, MacDonald and Driscoll worked with Anthrax producer Carl Canedy to put together the album Thrasher, with various other musicians. It was released in 1985.
For the next three years he worked with various artists, such as David Feinstein, in his band The Rods, and Kim Simmonds, in the Kim Simmonds Band. In 1988 he was contacted by Blue Cheer bassist Dickie Peterson, and he joined them for the 1989 live album Blitzkrieg over Nüremberg and 1990's Highlights and Lowlives, followed by a tour of the United States. In 1992 he left Blue Cheer, being replaced with Dieter Saller, following which he built a recording studio and started the band Playground. Playground released several unsuccessful albums before he re-joined Blue Cheer in 1999. He had been playing with them up until Dickie Peterson's death and Blue Cheer's official disbandment on October 12, 2009.
Blue Cheer was an American rock band that initially performed and recorded in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was sporadically active until 2009. Based in San Francisco, Blue Cheer played in a psychedelic blues rock or acid rock style, and are also credited as being some of the earliest pioneers of heavy metal, with their cover of "Summertime Blues" sometimes cited as the first in the genre. They have also been noted as influential in the development of genres as disparate as punk rock, stoner rock, doom metal, experimental rock, and grunge.
Vincent Eugene Craddock, known as Gene Vincent, was an American musician who pioneered the styles of rockabilly and rock and roll. His 1956 top ten hit with his backing band the Blue Caps, "Be-Bop-a-Lula", is considered a significant early example of rockabilly. His chart career was brief, especially in his home country of the US, where he notched three top 40 hits in 1956 and '57, and never charted in the top 100 again. In the UK, he was a somewhat bigger star, racking up eight top 40 hits from 1956 to 1961.
Vincebus Eruptum is the debut album of American rock band Blue Cheer. Released on January 16, 1968, the album features a heavy-thunderous blues sound, which would later be known as heavy metal.
Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band's current lineup comprises rhythm guitarist Eric Peterson, lead vocalist Chuck Billy, lead guitarist Alex Skolnick, bassist Steve Di Giorgio and drummer Chris Dovas. Testament has experienced many lineup changes over the years, with Peterson being the only remaining original member, though they have since reunited with Skolnick, who had been out of the band from 1992 to 2005. Billy has been a member of Testament since 1986, when he replaced original singer Steve "Zetro" Souza, who had left to replace Paul Baloff in Exodus. He and Peterson are the only members to appear on all of Testament's studio albums, with the latter being the only constant member overall.
Brian Albert Gordon Auger is an English jazz rock and rock music keyboardist who specialises in the Hammond organ.
John Gary Driscoll was an American R&B-style rock drummer who performed in a number of successful bands from the 1960s until his unsolved death by murder on June 10, 1987.
Joey Belladonna is an American singer, best known as the vocalist for thrash metal band Anthrax. He is also the vocalist and drummer of the cover band Chief Big Way and the vocalist for the cover band Beyond Frontiers. Belladonna has six Grammy Award nominations and is known for his wild, energetic stage behavior, and tenor vocal range.
Green on Red was an American rock band, formed in the Tucson, Arizona punk scene, but based for most of its career in Los Angeles, California, where it was loosely associated with the Paisley Underground. Earlier records have the wide-screen psychedelic sound of first-wave desert rock, while later releases tended more towards traditional country rock.
Steve Smyth is an American musician who is the guitarist for metal band One Machine.
The Groundhogs were an English blues and rock band founded in late 1963, that toured extensively in the 1960s, achieved prominence in the early 1970s, and continued sporadically into the 21st century. Tony McPhee was the sole constant member of the group, which had gone through many personnel changes, but usually recorded and performed as a power trio. The band was active from 1963 until retiring in 2014.
Richard Allan Peterson known as Dickie Peterson was an American musician, best known as the bassist, lead singer and only constant member of Blue Cheer. He also recorded two solo albums: Child of the Darkness and Tramp.
Rhett Forrester was an American musician best known as the lead singer for New York-based band Riot from 1981 until 1984.
Blue Cheer is the fourth album by American rock band Blue Cheer. It was recorded at Wally Heider Studios in San Francisco and released in December 1969 by Philips Records. Gary Lee Yoder contributed songwriting for the opening and closing tracks and would later join the group as guitarist on their next album The Original Human Being.
Joe Hasselvander is an American musician. He was the drummer of heavy metal band Raven from 1987 until 2017 and was a member of the influential doom metal band Pentagram.
The Beast Is Back is the seventh album by a newly reformed Blue Cheer, 13 years after their previous album, Oh! Pleasant Hope (1971). It contains re-recorded versions of some of the band's most popular songs from their late-1960s heyday as well as new material. The album features founding members Dickie Peterson and Paul Whaley. Original guitarist Leigh Stephens did not participate in the reunion.
Highlights and Lowlives is the eighth studio album by American rock band Blue Cheer, released in 1990 and produced by Jack Endino. The bonus track Blues Cadillac is on some versions/releases and can be hidden on some of the CDs.
What Doesn't Kill You... is the tenth and final studio album recorded by American rock band Blue Cheer. It includes a remake of their song "Just a Little Bit" originally from their album Outsideinside and a cover of the classic blues song "Born Under a Bad Sign." David Fricke has called the album "a strong studio calling card." The album features Pentagram drummer Joe Hasselvander on half of the album's tracks while the other half features original drummer, Paul Whaley. The title alludes to Nietzsche's aphorism "What does not kill me makes me stronger".
Paul Gene Whaley was an American drummer best known as the drummer for rock band Blue Cheer. He was the son of country music singer Paul Edward Whaley. He grew up in the towns of Vallejo and Winters, California. He played drums with a Davis, California band called the Oxford Circle. Whaley is credited on the Oxford Circle album Live at the Avalon 1966. When he left the Oxford Circle to join Blue Cheer in 1967, the former band dissolved. He was the longest-standing member in Blue Cheer following Peterson's death at age 63. Whaley died of heart failure on January 28, 2019, two weeks after his 72nd birthday.
Bible Black was an American band, formed by two ex-Elf/Rainbow musicians: drummer Gary Driscoll and bassist Craig Gruber. It also featured guitarist Duck McDonald, Joey Belladonna, and singer Jeff Fenholt.
Blitzkrieg Over Nüremberg is the first live album by American blues-rock band Blue Cheer. It features a cover of Jimi Hendrix's classic "Red House".
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
