Lion's Share

History

Founded in Sundsvall, Sweden in 1987 by guitarist Lars "Chriss" Christmansson and keyboardist Kay Backlund, Lion's Share immediately began perfecting their brand of classy, commercial hard rock through intensive rehearsals and live performances, eventually winning the first prize at a national band competition the following year.

In an effort to capitalize on their early momentum, the group made their recording debut at the end of 1988. It came out as 'Demo 1988' and a seven-inch single featuring the tracks 'Ghost Town Queen' and 'I'm on a Roll', which received a number of positive reviews in various hard rock publications all across Europe and airplay at Swedish national radio's premier metal show "Rock Box". The cassette demo featured a tihird track, 'Partners in Crime'.

In 1989, Lion's Share won yet another national band competition and began recording a follow-up single, an effort which sadly never saw the light of day due to internal problems within the group's line-up at the time. However, another demo cassette was released in April 1990, titled 'Demo 1990'.

After parting ways with the rest of the band, Lars and Kay spent the bulk of 1990 attempting to find suitable replacements, but without any success. Frustrated and disappointed, Chriss and Backlund split up the band.

In 1992, Lars (by this time living in Stockholm) received an offer from a small Belgian label to be included on a compilation CD which was to feature some of the most promising new groups from the European continent. Without a proper line-up, the guitarist quickly rounded up some of Sweden's top musicians to record the original track 'Nothing's Free' with the song's final version featuring Chriss, Marcel Jacob (Talisman, Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force, John Norum) on bass, Conny Lind (Great King Rat) on vocals, P-A Danielsson (Tiamat, Veni Domine) on keyboards, and Johan Koleberg (Hammerfall, Therion) on drums.

Satisfied with the results, Lars set about reforming the group in a brand new incarnation, in which he was eventually joined by the returning Backlund, Koleberg, Sorcerer vocalist Andy Engberg (220 Volt) and former Glory bassist Andy Loos. It wasn't long before this line-up of Lion's Share landed a deal with Japan's Zero Corporation records for the release of the group's self-titled debut album, which ultimately saw the light of day in late December 1994 (the European release took place in 1995). After parting ways with Loos due to the pressures of "family life", Lion's Share eventually enlisted the services of bassist Pontus Egberg (King Diamond, Treat, The Poodles) and inked a worldwide deal with the Century Media label, in the process tightening their sound by becoming heavier and more guitar-oriented than ever before, as evidenced by the band's sophomore effort, simply entitled 'Two' (released in early January 1997).

In the summer of 1996, the band contributed to the 'A Tribute to Judas Priest - Legends of Metal Vol.1' album with a cover-version of 'A Touch of Evil', the record also featured bands like Saxon, Mercyful Fate, Testament, Helloween, U.D.O, among others. In Nov-Dec. of 1996, Lion's Share supported metal legends Saxon on their European tour, and in April-May 1997, the band did a 3 ½-week European tour with Iced Earth and Nevermore, followed by yet another tour supporting Saxon later that year.

Lion's Share started 1998 by more touring, this time with the Accept vocalist's band U.D.O., followed by some dates with Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider and various festivals, including Sweden Rock Festival in 1999. That year also saw Lion's Share opening up for Motörhead, Manowar and DIO on the "Monsters of the Millennium" tour that went on for about a month in ice halls around Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Estonia. The third album 'Fall from Grace' were sold during the tour and later released by Massacre Records in Europe and Avex in Japan and Asia.

For 2001's 'Entrance' album, the band introduces Tony Niva (NIVA) as their new lead singer and head out on a number of headline shows and festivals in support of it.

After a break of a few years, Lion's Share returned in 2007 with a new line-up featuring Nils Patrik Johansson (Astral Doors, Civil War) on lead vocals, and Sampo Axelsson (Glenn Hughes) on bass. The intense album 'Emotional Coma' was released on AFM Records (Locomotive in USA and Spiritual Best in Japan) to critical acclaim around the globe. The album had three guest musicians - Richard Evensand (Chimaira, Soilwork) on drums plus Bruce Kulick (KISS) and Glen Drover (Megadeth, King Diamond) supplying one guitar solo each. During the touring, the band got invited to perform at Manowar's own festival "The Magic Circle" in Germany. The show was filmed and the DVD features two live songs by Lion's Share.

In 2009, Lion's Share released their Jens Bogren-mixed (Symphony X, Kreator, Amon Amarth, Arch Enemy) 'Dark Hours' album. A natural follow-up to 2007's 'Emotional Coma', the disc saw the band build on their trademark style, featuring crushing guitar work, top-notch musicianship combined with melodic vocals and a knack for building songs that consume the listener. Michael Romeo from Symphony X contributed a guest solo to the song 'Behind the Curtain'.

After deciding to keep Lion's Share a duo — featuring Lars and Nils Patrik, with friends helping out wherever needed — 2017 saw two new songs released before all time and effort went into making the singer's first solo effort. The Nils Patrik Johansson's 'Evil Deluxe' album was produced and mixed by Lars, who also performed all guitars.

During 2018, the complete Lion's Share catalog is finally released on digital platforms. There's also a brand new five-track digital EP, titld 'EP', a re-recording of the Lion's Share classic 'Sins of a Father' (where the band is rejoined by original members Kay Backlund on keyboards and Andy Loos on bass) plus two live songs from the Sweden Rock "Ronnie James Dio Tribute" show in October 2010.

(source: Lion's Share, October 2020)