It Bites were an English progressive rock and pop fusion band, formed in Egremont, Cumbria, in 1982 and best known for their 1986 single "Calling All the Heroes", which gained them a Top 10 UK Singles Chart hit.
Initially fronted by Francis Dunnery, the band recorded three studio albums before splitting in 1990. The band eventually reformed in 2006 with new frontman John Mitchell replacing Dunnery, recording two further studio albums before eventually going into hiatus in 2014 and quietly dissolving a decade later. Dunnery currently leads an intermittently active alternative version of the band called "It Bites FD" (featuring himself leading a varied set of other musicians).
Musical style
The band have been described as having "a strong art-rock tendency" by AllMusic,[ It Bites, Allmusic] while website Über Rock has stated, "It Bites have always been one of the more curious cases of the progressive rock world. Their first impression on us back in the 1980s was that of a pop band. But a pop band doing what no pop band had the right to do – successfully mix catchy tunes with complex musicianship and, god forbid, distorted guitars."
Paul Stump, in his History of Progressive Rock, said that "It Bites, of all the 1980s progressive revivalists, truly understood - if perhaps only instinctively - the contemporaneous impossibility of 'progressing' in the mainstream of rock, and the possibilities that opened up. ... While the likes of IQ and Pendragon attempted to achieve novelty with rock voicings coined ten years previously, It Bites subtly (and unsubtly) stole and reused 1980s devices for some of the best-balanced combinations of virtuosity and gut excitement British rock has heard. ... It Bites' sheer èlan, coupled with their ability to grab a wider range of used ideas than their contemporaries, hoisted them aloft and singular as a landmark act."
In a 2023 interview, Dunnery and Beck cited a wide range of It Bites band influences, from pop (Paul McCartney, Level 42, Donny Osmond, The Carpenters and Racey), hard rock (Necromandus), jazz-rock (Bruford, Soft Machine, Mahavishnu Orchestra and Allan Holdsworth), progressive rock (Genesis, Focus, Yes and UK), funk and soul (George Benson, Cameo, Steve Arrington, Michael Franks).""Iron Maiden? Don’t make me laugh. We were light years ahead of everyone": It Bites have no regrets about their 80s arrogance" - article by Dave Ling in Prog magazine, 05 October 2023 Regarding the band's association with progressive rock, Dunnery has also remarked "I don’t like prog for prog’s sake; if a song doesn’t have a beautiful melody then I want nothing to do with it."
History
Lineup 1, 1982–1990
Early years – 1982–1985 Originally formed by drummer Bob Dalton, bass player Dick Nolan and guitarist/singer Francis Dunnery, It Bites started out in early 1980s in the market town of Egremont in Cumbria, UK. Keyboard player John Beck from Whitehaven joined the group later in 1982, and for a short period of time It Bites also featured saxophonist Howard "H" Smith, a period in which the band worked playing gigs at nightclubs around Cumbria working mostly on pop covers by the likes of Haircut 100 and Level 42. The band split up in 1983, when Dalton and Nolan moved to Birmingham, Dunnery to London and Beck to Manchester.
It Bites reunited in 1984 after a meet-up in Egremont, with Nolan, Dalton and Beck opting to follow Dunnery and relocate entirely to London. All four members squatted a house in Peckham (50 Nutcroft Road) and spent a year living hand-to-mouth but writing and rehearsing original material."I didn’t want the job with Robert Plant, I wasn’t after it and there were 5,000 guys that were - but they called me. When things come into your life, embrace them; when they leave, let them go": Francis Dunnery’s lessons in life - article by Dave Ling in Prog magazine, 14 February 2024 Bob Dalton later commented "it was actually the perfect situation because all we could afford to do was write songs 24/7. All that time was the making of us. We became strong writers and strong players." Their demo tape eventually secured them a management deal with Martyn Mayhead (at WEA Records), and shortly afterwards a recording contract with Virgin Records.
Single success, The Big Lad in the Windmill – 1986–1987
In March 1986, It Bites released their first single "All in Red", which charted only modestly. Their second single, "Calling All the Heroes", was released in June 1986 and became a big hit, reaching No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart and gaining the band a huge amount of radio play and many television appearances (including Top of the Pops, Wogan, and The Old Grey Whistle Test).
John Beck would later reflect that "it was like Jeff Beck and "Hi Ho bloody Silver Lining"... a big hit but unrepresentative of the artist." Dunnery has commented "if it wasn't for that song nobody would have heard of us. We were doing progressive rock, which was the most unhip thing you could think of. But we weren't a band trying to manipulate the public – we knew nothing about things like hit records. We just wanted to be like Yes, Genesis, Mahavishnu, UK and Focus. We had zero interest in being in the charts. I still think that if the person I am now could talk to It Bites back then, we could have had four hits from each of our albums."
The third single, "Whole New World", also charted; but not at such a high position, peaking at number 54. All three singles appeared on the first It Bites album The Big Lad in the Windmill (produced by Alan Shacklock), which was released in the summer of 1986 but met with only moderate commercial success, despite charting at number 35.
The band toured with Go West, Cardiacs and Marillion during 1987, and played major European outdoor festivals including the Montreux Jazz Festival, broadcast live across Europe by Swiss TV. This diverse set of support slots and headline shows revealed a problem in marketing the band which would last throughout their career. It Bites' blend of contemporary 1980s producer-pop, progressive rock and hard rock (setting glossy keyboards and massed harmony vocals against heavy drumming, complex time signatures and Allan-Holdsworth-inspired guitar solos) would draw criticism from some music press writers who accused the band of failing to settle on a coherent direction. Dunnery developed a tendency to hit back at the press, often insulting them from the stage. ("I felt insulted by those idiots. If someone punches me in the face, I’ll punch them back.") Despite this, the band forged a loyal and enthusiastic following in the UK.
Once Around the World – 1987–1988
The band began recording their second album Once Around The World with engineer Nick Froome in 1987, producing two tracks, "Plastic Dreamer" and "Old Man and the Angel". Mark Wallis came onboard as producer in mid-1987, with footage of the process being broadcast on Channel 4 TV's "Equinox" programme Twang, Bang, Kerrang! (which documented the history of the electric guitar and prominently featured Francis Dunnery comparing his Japanese and American Fender Stratocaster guitars and discussing technique and equipment.
The Wallis collaboration resulted in two further songs (including the album's length title track) before Steve Hillage was brought in to stabilise the chaotic recording sessions and complete the record. Dunnery has recalled that "Steve made us realise that we needed to write some three-minute singles because one of the songs [the title track] was almost 16 minutes long. Steve was a gentle soul. He did a great job on our stuff. I really, really loved working with him... "Midnight", "Black December", "Kiss Like Judas", "Yellow Christian". Steve helped with the mechanics of those songs."
Despite the chaotic sessions, Once Around The World was released in March 1988 and signaled a departure from the more directly pop-oriented sound of It Bites' first album, demonstrated explicitly by a fourteen-minute title track in full progressive rock style. The first single from the album (a heavily edited version of "Old Man and the Angel") peaked at number 72 in the singles charts, while the Steve Hillage sessions had produced some more pop-orientated material, including the minor hit singles "Kiss Like Judas" (February 1988) and "Midnight" (April 1988). The band toured to support the release, including some early 1988 support slots for Robert Plant.
During this period, Dunnery also gained some press attention for his invention of the Tapboard, an instrument based on two paired guitar necks and using a ten-finger tapping technique to create exceptionally fast and clear melodic runs and chording.
Eat Me in St Louis and the shift towards hard rock – 1989 The third album, Eat Me in St. Louis was recorded in early 1989 at Musicland Studios in Munich, Germany, produced by Reinhold Mack (best known for work with Queen and The Rolling Stones). The album featured a harder-edged, more guitar-orientated sound than before, with shorter, punchier songs and the direct progressive rock influences cut back.
In contemporary interviews, Dunnery claimed to have become dissatisfied with the more technical and virtuosic side of It Bites' music as demonstrated on the previous album – "That was very important to us at the time. We wanted to say to people, Look, but aren't we very clever? I can't be bothered now to write all them long sections, I just wanna see some good songs... Instead of flying around at 9,000 miles an hour, I've been playing tunes that people can remember." However, the band also chose to commission the artwork for Eat Me in St. Louis and its early single releases from the progressive rock sleeve artist Roger Dean, in what Dunnery admitted was a calculated attempt to play on their own "progressive rock" reputation and to "annoy people."
On its release, Eat Me in St. Louis scored excellent reviews in rock magazines Kerrang! and RAW and spawned the minor hit single "Still Too Young To Remember". During this period, Virgin made strong attempts to break the band as a serious hard rock act with several re-releases and video shoots for "Still Too Young To Remember" and the follow-ups "Underneath Your Pillow" and "Sister Sarah". Although Virgin's efforts to boost the band's commercial profile were ultimately unsuccessful, the band still proved themselves popular as a live act, playing sell-out gigs across the UK, US and Japan, and touring with Jethro Tull and the Beach Boys. Certain band members also participated in outside projects – Nolan recording with Tony Banks (on his 1989 Bankstatement album) and Dunnery singing backing vocals on the debut Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe album during the same year.
Departure of Francis Dunnery – mid-1990 It Bites showcased some new post-Eat Me in St. Louis material on an eight-date UK tour during March and April 1990. In June 1990, the band travelled to Los Angeles, to start writing and recording their fourth album. This was intended to be the record to break the American market, and Dunnery promised simpler songs with "a stronger taste of blues." However, tensions within the band reached breaking point during the pre-rehearsal period, and it was confirmed to the band's fanclub in November 1990 that the band had parted company with Francis Dunnery. Dunnery is rumoured to have demanded full band leadership and control over material, and it's also claimed that he clashed with former creative foil John Beck to the extent that he demanded Beck's expulsion from the band.