[2] Holt tells of their formation: "When I left school, I went to work in a local grinding wheel factory as a laboratory assistant and attending college for a degree in Chemistry.

[3] Their first two albums, Climax Chicago Blues Band (February 1969) and Plays On (October 1969), were released on Parlophone and were the first official productions by Chris Thomas, who had worked with the Beatles and would go on to produce Roxy Music, Elton John and many others.

[4] EMI switched the band over to their Harvest Records subsidiary in 1970 and their subsequent albums, A Lot of Bottle (December 1970) and Tightly Knit (October 1971), had a more rock-oriented feel.

[6] The group was signed to Sire Records, distributed by Polydor, and albums issued in the 1970s saw them moving away from the blues somewhat to also incorporate funk and album-oriented rock (AOR) influences.

In May 1977 keyboardist Peter Filleul (who had met the band the previous year while playing with an outfit called East of Eden) joined just before the group set off on a US tour.

[6] And after recording Real to Reel (May 1979) in Montserrat, the first band to use George Martin's AIR studios there, the band (spurred on by the record company, who were now looking for hit singles) began moving towards more of a pop-rock sound on their next album, Flying the Flag (September 1980), and its first single "Gotta Have More Love" dented the US charts at #47.

When I say little, I mean one corner of a bedroom with a Fender Rhodes electric piano, a 4-track recorder, a very small drum kit, a few guitars and one microphone.

I wrote the whole structure of the song in a couple of takes including the key change to the solo which I thought was quite clever how it came back to the bridge.

I then put on the bass, sang it and did all the harmonies, Pete Haycock played my guitar solo with his slide and Colin Cooper wasn't even on the track.

When the song became a hit (also it was the start of me then becoming a lead singer which worried the others), we had a major U.S. tour booked but both Colin and Pete didn't want to "go on the road to promote my career".

So even with a song high up on the U.S. charts, our SECOND "bite of the cherry", so to speak, they actually chose to cancel our US tour and not back me up instead of just being grateful for another hit.

Cuffley left as well soon after and George Glover (from Cyril Dagworth Players) joined the band on keyboards and backing vocals in the fall of 1981 and has remained there ever since.

Holt went on to join drummer Brendan Day and Nektar guitarist Roye Albrighton to record an album under the name Grand Alliance for the A&M label.

[10] On tour the rhythm section consisted of drummer Jeff Rich and bassist John "Rhino" Edwards, who eventually went on to feature in Status Quo for many years.

A follow-up album was in the works, but Cooper bowed out in late 1984, citing personal reasons, and the band temporarily ceased its activities.

Haycock was later asked by his former Climax Blues Band manager, Miles Copeland, to record an instrumental album, Guitar and Son, and the live album Night of the Guitars (from the 1989 tour of the same name, which included former bandmate Derek Holt on bass, keyboards and occasional vocals) for the I.R.S.

After that tour, Haycock teamed up with former Alice Cooper / Lou Reed guitarist Steve Hunter and Derek Holt to record the album H Factor.

He was later recruited by Bev Bevan to become a member of Electric Light Orchestra Part II and recorded and toured with that group from 1990 to 1992.

In 1986 Cooper and Glover reunited Climax Blues Band, recruiting guitarist Lester Hunt (from the heavy metal outfit Demon) and the original rhythm section of bassist Derek Holt and drummer John Cuffley to tour in the UK, Europe and America.

This album featured Cooper, Glover and Hunt, and also included return appearances by bassist John "Rhino" Edwards and drummer Jeff Rich.

In 2022 Lester Hunt announced his retirement from the band after 36 years due to health reasons and his friend Dan Machin, who had already been filling in for him on the road, became Climax's permanent guitarist.

[6] Scott Ralph, who had worked with a vast range of artists, including Robbie Williams, Engelbert Humperdinck, Nile Rodgers and Michael Bublé joined the band in 2023, replacing Graham Dee as lead singer.