The Dan Reed Network formed in Portland, Oregon and began packing out the local clubs from late 1984 through 1986 with their infectious mixture of hard rock, funk and soul. After releasing their local EP ‘Breathless’ with Dark Horse Records and finding a top ten single on local radio entitled ‘Steal Me’ DRN signed to Polygram/Mercury Records with the aid of Derek Shulman, who was enjoying great success with his other signings ‘Bon Jovi’ and ‘Cinderella’. DRN were then managed by legendary concert promoter Bill Graham from San Francisco, who at the time compared the energy of DRN to the first time he saw The Rolling Stones on stage.

In the winter of 1987 the group released their debut album, produced by Bruce Fairbairn (Bon Jovi, Aerosmith) and engineered/mixed by Mike Fraser in Vancouver, Canada. They released their first single “Ritual”, which peaked at number 38 on the US Billboard Charts and became a staple of the genre now known as ‘Funk Rock’. Their debut album brought DRN to Europe for the first time and performances at the Marquee Club in London and The Melody Club in Stockholm are considered legendary and are still talked about to this day.

While at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in January 1989 in New York, Dan Reed met with producer Nile Rodgers (Duran Duran, Madonna, David Bowie) and this meeting led to the creation of the album Slam, produced by Rodgers, and better represented the Dan Reed Network’s live sound and accelerated the band’s growing status in Europe. At this time Def Leppard’s managers Cliff Burnstein and Peter Mensch would take the management reigns and DRN would go on to tour Europe with Bon Jovi’s as part of their ‘New Jersey Tour’ in 1989 and then with the Rolling Stones’ on their European ‘Urban Jungle Tour’ in 1990.

The Dan Reed Network’s third album ‘The Heat’, produced again by Bruce Fairbairn in 1991, was their biggest success in the UK. However, quickly becoming disillusioned with the record business and all it’s trappings, Dan Reed took a different direction away from the business and in time the band eventually disbanded, much to the dismay of supporters around the globe.

The Dan Reed Network reformed to play a celebratory 25th anniversary reunion show on New Years Eve 2012 in their home town of Portland, Oregon, with all the original band members Dan Reed, Dan Pred, Brion James, Melvin Brannon II and Blake Sakamoto. They decided it was time to bring the band and the music back and were invited to headline one of the stages at England’s ‘Download Festival 2014’, This in turn led to the band touring regularly throughout Europe & the US to support their first new full length release in 25 years ‘Fight Another Day’ released via Frontier Records.

Building on the success of the Fight Another Day record created extensive touring and festival opportunities as the band also undertook their most ambitious project to date; ‘Origins.’ Released in 2018 this album saw the band record 10 songs in 5 different cities around the world (New York, Berlin, Stockholm, Portland & Manchester) all in front of a live audience in the studio, who were invited to sing on the recordings.

The band have recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Nile Rodgers produced album Slam by embarking on the BIG 3-0 Tour alongside FM & GUN, which saw the band play the album in full to some of the largest audiences since the bands return to the live music scene.

DRN are very much a band on the rise and with the worldwide backing from a new record label (Drakkar/Soulfood) their 5th studio album ‘Let’s Hear It For The King’ is poised to be released in early 2022. The band are firing on all cylinders musically. Couple that with a daring approach for releasing music videos in a new format and a feature length documentary on the way the band are ready to continue ‘Rocking It Up’ live across the globe for the foreseeable future!