Biography

Meltdown is a five-piece band formed by ex-Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty. Previously responsible for writing epochal songs for the latter band, including ‘Shapes Of Things’, ‘Still I’m Sad’ and ‘Over Under Sideways Down’, McCarty started Meltdown in the 90s as an avenue for full-blooded R&B, mixing original material with blues classics written by Freddie King, Johnny Winter, Peter Green and others. The cast list behind Meltdown was certainly impressive; Ray Majors (guitar, vocals) was formerly with Mott The Hoople and the British Lions, and had previously worked with McCarty as part of Box Of Frogs in 1984. He then joined the drummer’s pre-Meltdown combo, the McCarty Band, for live work, replacing Top Topham. Sam Johnson provides Meltdown with expressive slide guitar, though he was still a teenager at the band’s inception. Despite his tender years he had already worked with Pete Hogman of the Five Dimensions and Dick Taylor of the Pretty Things. The other youngster in the band is keyboard player Steve Corley, a jazz prodigy from the Royal Academy Of Music. Female bass player/vocalist Nikki Racklin had already recorded solo and opened shows for Naked Truth and James. The group then set about a series of live UK dates, before mini-tours of Sweden and France.