Bachman promises you ain’t seen nothing yet, says BTO is back

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This article was published 29/06/2023 (834 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The band that made Takin’ Care of Business a rock anthem is back in business.

Winnipeg guitarist Randy Bachman, who co-founded Bachman-Turner Overdrive in 1973 with his two brothers, Tim and Robbie, and vocalist Fred Turner, posted on social media “BTO is back” Thursday morning and linked to a new website, BTOband.com.

“After a very long time Bachman-Turner Overdrive/BTO is back on the rock and roll highway and kicking it into overdrive!” Bachman writes on BTO’s Facebook page. “Full tilt, pedal to the metal rock and roll is back to melt your face and rock your soul.”

The website says BTO has booked two concert dates — in Arnold’s Park, Iowa, and West Springfield, Mass. — for Aug. 18 and Sept. 22 respectively for its Back in Overdrive tour.

Bachman-Turner Overdrive was one of Canada’s most successful rock acts of the 1970s, owing to hard-charging hits such as Takin’ Care of Business, You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet and Let it Ride.

The band’s peak period was between 1974 and 1977; it has disbanded and re-formed several times since then, sometimes with Randy Bachman, the Guess Who co-founder and BTO’s most famous member, heading the band.

There is no word on who else will be in the latest iteration of BTO besides Randy Bachman.

Robbie Bachman, who was BTO’s original drummer, died in Jan. 12 at age 69 in Vancouver; Tim Bachman, a guitarist and vocalist, was 71 when he died April 28.

Randy Bachman, 79, had been embroiled in legal disputes with his brothers for years over the use of the Bachman-Turner Overdrive and BTO names, and when he first left the band in 1977, he refused to allow the remaining members of the group to call themselves Bachman-Turner Overdrive.

When he toured with Turner from 2009-2018, the duo performed as Bachman & Turner.

— Alan Small