TOTO’s seven Grammy Awards – (and that’s not counting the Grammy’s held by them as individual solo artistes) – has seen the band clock up over 30 million sales worldwide!! Plus all of the members of TOTO still have successful solo careers.
Besides the familiar hits such as ‘Hold The Line’, ‘Rosanna’, ‘Africa’, ‘Georgy Porgy’, ‘I’ll Be Over You’, ‘Pamela’, and ‘I Wont Hold You Back’, anyone who gets to experience this rare New Zealand show will be blown away by the bands perfect pitched sound, impeccable musicianship and infectious stage presence.
The band’s current path is still forged by TOTO originators guitarist / vocalist Steve “Luke” Lukather (respected by the likes of Sir Paul McCartney, David Gilmour, Jeff Beck and Larry Carlton just to name a few) and the white eyed soulful vocals of Bobby Kimball, a man possessing an amazing voice and mesmerizing stage presence.
Since the untimely death of drummer Jeff Porcaro in 1992, the TOTO drum throne has been occupied by the one and only Simon Phillips (The Who, Jeff Beck, Judas Priest). Simon’s freak-of-nature, open handed drumming takes TOTO’s musicianship to another level and fills every available space within each song without once overplaying them.
TOTO’s most recent member is the brilliant keyboardist / vocalist Greg Phillinganes. Stevie Wonder discovered this musical prodigy at a youthful age and Greg has performed and recorded with artistes such as Eric Clapton, Barbara Streisand, Michael Jackson and of course Stevie Wonder, just to name a few.
TOTO bassist Mike Porcaro will be sadly absent on this tour due to injury and filling in for Mike is none other than renowned bassist Leland Sklar (James Taylor, David Bowie, Rod Stewart, Phil Collins and many more). Lee is an “Ace of a player”, a master at locking down a groove and like the rest of TOTO, is amazing to watch live. Also on guitar and vocals is Tony Spinner, TOTO’s youngest member.
For any music guru of pop, rock, funk, prog and jazz on the planet, TOTO 2008 translated is “Still All Encompassing”