Last In Line at a 'bittersweet crossroads'

Last In Line guitarist Vivian Campbell has told of his sadness that bassist Jimmy Bain never got to see the band’s debut album hit the streets.

The Dio offshoot’s debut Heavy Crown was released last month, just weeks after Bain died of lung cancer. But the record was actually completed a year earlier and the band took the decision to delay its release while Campbell underwent cancer treatment.

Now Campbell, who is also a member of Def Leppard, says the timing robbed Bain of the chance to see the record being released.

Campbell tells About Entertainment: “The response and the reviews thus far to the record have been very, very encouraging. It’s such a bittersweet crossroads that we find ourselves at because Jimmy didn’t live to see it.

“It’s super sad because the record was actually in the can for a year. It was ready to be released last spring and we elected not to release it because we believed in it so much that we wanted to wait until we all had a clear schedule to go on tour to promote it.

“It’s just super sad that we waited so long and got to the 11th hour, and Jimmy didn’t live to see it.”

Last In Line cancelled all of their scheduled tour dates, apart from appearances at Italy’s Frontiers Festival in April and Rocklahoma in May. They have still not appointed a replacement for Bain for the two dates.

Campbell adds: “We will play both those shows. As yet, we don’t know who’s going to play bass with us for that. We’ll just take it one step at a time, so that’s what we’re going to do.

“As for the long term, I don’t know what’s going to happen. After the Rocklahoma festival, I’ll be going back out on the road with Def Leppard until October.

“There’ll certainly be no Last In Line activity before the end of the year, if any at all. We’ll see what happens.”

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.