The most remarkable about the birth of Free was the youth of the band members who came together to rehearse and play their first gig on the evening of 19 April 1968 at the Nag’s Head pub, which was at the junction of York Road and Plough Road in Battersea. Bass player Andy Fraser was 15 years old, lead guitarist Paul Kossoff was 17, and both lead singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke were 18.
By November of that year, having been given the name Free by Alexis Corner, they had recorded their first album, titled Tons of Sobs, for Island Records and, although it was not released until the following year, the album documents their first six months together and contains studio renditions of much of their early live set. To promote their forthcoming debut album they also opened some gigs at the end of 1968 for The Who, who played a short theatre tour with Arthur Brown.
Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke first became friends in the R&B band Black Cat Bones, but they wanted to move on. Paul Kossoff saw vocalist Paul Rodgers singing with the band Brown Sugar while visiting the Fickle Pickle, an R&B club in London’s Finsbury Park. He was immediately impressed and asked if he could jam with Rodgers onstage. Along with Kirke, they began the search for a fourth member. Alexis Corner recommended Andy Fraser to the band; at the age of 15, Fraser had already been playing with John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers.
Unlike their previous albums, Tons of Sobs and Free, their album Fire and Water, released in 1970, was a huge success largely due to its hit single “All Right Now”, which reached No. 1 on the UK rock music charts, No. 2 on the UK Singles Chart and No. 4 on the US Billboard chart. The album reached No. 2 in the UK charts and No. 17 on the U.S charts, making it the most successful Free album. “All Right Now” became a No. 1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP in 1990 for garnering 1,000,000 plus radio plays in the US by late 1989. In 2000 an award was given to Paul Rodgers by the BMI when “All Right Now” passed 2,000,000 radio plays in the UK.
Highway was their fourth studio album. It was recorded extremely quickly in September 1970 following the band’s success at the Isle of Wight Festival but with an attitude of relaxation, the band having achieved worldwide success with their previous album Fire and Water. It is a low-key and introspective album compared with its predecessors.
The band disbanded in 1971 because of differences between Fraser and Rodgers, who felt he was not being listened to. This led to the release of the live album called Free Live!. In early 1972 the band set aside their differences and reformed in an effort to save Kossoff from his growing drug addiction, and released Free at Last in June of the same year. Fraser left the band in mid-1972, frustrated by Kossoff’s unreliability at being able to perform at shows or even at showing up. The remaining members recruited Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John ‘Rabbit’ Bundrick, and recorded what would be Free’s final album, Heartbreaker. Kossoff was replaced by guitarist Wendell Richardson for a USA tour in 1973, but shortly thereafter Free disbanded for good. Rodgers and Kirke went on to form Bad Company, Fraser formed Sharks and later the Andy Fraser Band, and Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler.
With Kossoff in better health again in late 1975, he was delighted that ex-colleagues Rodgers and Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights. A British tour was set to begin on 25 April 1976 with Back Street Crawler headlining with Bad Company in support of Back Street Crawler’s second album, but again Kossoff’s drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in the guitarist’s health. On a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976, Paul Kossoff died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25.
