at the group's annual New Year's Day meeting, Terraplane was disbanded by vocalist Danny Bowes and guitarist Luke Morley, who decided to form a new band under the name Thunder. Later in the month, the pair recorded a number of demos at Great Linford Manor Studios in Milton Keynes with producer Andy Taylor and engineer Ben Matthews, as well as Terraplane drummer Gary "Harry" James, who was brought in after the initially planned drummer failed to attend. According to Morley, the band name was chosen as a combination of two elements: a song he had written called "Distant Thunder", and Taylor's debut solo album. Enlisting Bad Company's Steve Price to play bass temporarily (Morley played bass as well as guitar on the Linford Manor demos), the group invited a number of record labels to their rehearsals in London, and later signed with EMI in April. Mark "Snake" Luckhurst joined Thunder as the group's original bassist on 2 May 1989, having been recommended by James after the two had performed together in Hellfire Corner. The band's lineup was completed with the addition of Matthews, who had earlier played keyboards for Terraplane's last two shows and engineered Thunder's January demos. Thunder played their first live show on 13 July 1989 at the Reid's Club in Southend-on-Sea, the first date in a short run of seven UK dates dubbed "The Toilet Tour". In August the band returned to the Great Linford Manor to record their debut studio album, again working with Taylor as producer. The album was mixed at London's AIR Studios by Mike Fraser, who also engineered the record. "She's So Fine" was released as the first single from the upcoming album on 30 October, after which the band embarked on a 27-date tour of the UK and Ireland dubbed the "Static Discharge Tour", which included two shows supporting Aerosmith at the NEC Arena in Birmingham. "Dirty Love" was released in February 1990 and entered the UK Singles Chart at number 40, before peaking the following week at number 32. The band's debut album Backstreet Symphony was released on 5 March and entered the UK Albums Chart at its peak position of number 21. By 1991, it had been certified gold by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI). Four more tracks from Backstreet Symphony were later issued as singles – the title track, "Gimme Some Lovin'", a reissue of "She's So Fine", and