Tee Rets has a long background in the UK heavy metal scene, being the
lead singer for Tyrant, Mens Rea, Rampant, Relay, Kingsreach. We had a chat
about his early days, about Bawls-Out and about future plans.
Q. - Tell us a bit about your early days, was your first band called
Tyrant? Was it a high school project?
Tee Rets - It was my first
attempt at trying to form a proper rock band, yes. It was back at the tail end
of 1978 and on into 79. It was just a bedroom thing – we used to rehearse in my
bedroom and seeing as I had no neighbours it was fine to do so. We wrote a few
songs, one or two of which found their way into my later band, Rampant’s
repertoire. They were mainly just a collection of riffs we working on that I
added some lyrics to and tried my best, with the very limited ability I had at
the time, to sing them. I named the band after one of my favourite Judas Priest
songs at the time, Tyrant, and I had the name registered, but the band was
short lived, never had a full line up, and never got out of the bedroom.
It wasn’t a school project, but
I’d previously had a rock n roll type garage band back in 1974 with some school
friends. We used to try and play At The Hop, Oh Boy and stuff like that and
we’d walk around the streets strumming guitars, beating a snare drum and singing,
much to the amusement of passers-by. I couldn’t even tune a guitar at the time so
you can imagine it, oh dear, oh dear.
Between the school days and 78
I’d had jams with various friends, including Dave Weston of Chemical Alice (the
band that spawned Mark Kelly, the keyboardist from Marillion, who I believe was
also in a band with one of the guitarists from the embryonic Tyrant, although
don’t quote me on that), as well as an early drummer from fellow NWOBHMers,
Deep Machine, before he was in them, and in another instance with Robin
Brancher of Desolation Angels. None of these jams led to anything, but they were
instrumental in me becoming a vocalist, which by 1980 I’d become very serious about.
Q. - Later on, comes Means Rea a more serious band. There's a demo with
production assistance by Tony Wilson of BBC, how did that happen?
Tee Rets - Yes, Mens Rea was my
very first gigging band, a band I’d joined in 1980. I’d met their bassist, Tim
Collins, at a Maiden or other NWOBHM act’s show at the Marquee. The band
could’ve developed into something pretty cool in time, but there were a few
issues that caused the band to split. At the time I wasn’t really a singer and
was still trying to find my vocal identity. I could front a band and looked the
part, but my vocals left a lot to be desired, I’m afraid to say. I had a lot to
learn, but you never stop learning and I constantly work on my voice to improve
my performance.
Regarding our demo, we recorded a
few songs, including Fight For Pride, a song we adapted for Rampant and that we
used to open with. Tony Wilson’s involvement is a bit of a tale and it came
about due to my having got to know him through sending requests and things in
to the Friday Rockshow. Around 79 I’d become friends with the NWOBHM band,
More, and became particularly close to the lead vocalist, Paul Mario Day, and
we used to hang out together. I became very involved with the band on a promotional
basis and was like their unofficial manager/promoter. What great days they were!
Incidentally, as I write, Paul is
in London, over from Australia where he’s been based for 32 years and it’s been
fantastic hanging out with him again these past couple days, taking in some of
London and going out for a meal. He’s a special guest at Cart Day on 20th
January, an event arranged by Steve ‘Loopy’ Newhouse, the old Maiden roadie and
now author. His books will be on sale at the Cart and Horses pub, the venue for
the event and a place known for its early Maiden connections. Paul will be guesting
with two bands that are playing there, Airforce (Doug Sampson, the old Maiden
drummer’s band) and Buffalo Fish. Lots of old faces gonna be around, including
ex members of More and other ex-Maiden members, among others. Can’t wait for
this!!
I knew a lot of people in the
music business back then, due to a prior involvement with the Salisbury based
band, Genghis Khan, the band that spawned Alan Marsh of Tokyo Blade, although
this is not the same band that released albums under the name, Genghis Khan, and
through my links with Crackers, an old club in Wardour Street, London, where I
had become responsible for booking the bands. I booked the likes of Quartz, Angelwitch,
Witchfynde, More, Genghis Khan (a revamped incarnation of the original, not the
later Tokyo Blade version) and various others. I was also a DJ for a while at another
rock disco, Oscars, and would have record companies and bands sending me records
and contacting me with free tickets for gigs and stuff. I was very young and
full of enthusiasm and wanted to create a metal movement with an emphasis on
new Brit bands and I was on a quest to find them. Such a movement got under
way, steered much by the music paper, Sounds, and people like Geoff Barton. It
was them who coined the term New Wave Of British Heavy Metal and the fact it
was all happening was metal to my ears and I embraced it with everything I had.
They were special days!
My DJ spot at Oscars was probably
the first “all” NWOBHM rock disco in the nation. There were other places and
DJs playing rock and introducing new, emerging bands, at the time, but they
weren’t all Brit band focused. I was getting to know many people involved with
rock and bands, and it was those people I began hitting with the More demo
cassette album. I sent the tape into Tommy Vance and Tony Wilson at BBC Radio
One and punted their tapes around record companies. In no time I’d heard back from
Tony Wilson offering More a session on the legendary Friday Rockshow. The band
took me with them to the recording session and I got to know Tony Wilson. I’d actually
already met Tommy Vance at a Magnum gig in Camden and bumped into him here and
there at various gigs so there was a bit of a connection before I’d met Tony, personally.
When I joined Mens Rea and we decided to record a demo – which was far too
premature for us to be doing so – I asked Tony if he would come and help us produce
it and paid him a small fee. That’s how Mens Rea came to get production assistance
from the Beeb’s Tony Wilson.
Q. - Talking about shows, Mens Rea did just 2 gigs, both on the same
night. 1st was supporting Bastille at Chelmsford YMCA and the 2nd at Guisnes
Court, Tolshunt D'Arcy. What do you recall from these days?
Tee Rets - What a crazy night
that was! We had managed to get the support to Bastille, probably through Tim’s
connections, I’m not sure. It wasn’t only the band’s first show it was also my
first ever gig with any band. We had attracted a little following of our own,
made up of close friends and family, and they were all down the front
headbanging and supporting us, including my mum who had never taken my desire
to be in bands seriously and now there I was banging out the metal loud n proud
and whipping up the crowd. She loved it! It meant everything to me that she was
there and seeing me in action.
After the show a guy approached
us, saying he’d loved our gig and asked us if we would repeat it at a venue
further out in Essex, taking the place of a band that pulled out and left them
in the lurch. We were gobsmacked and couldn’t get over there fast enough!
Everyone packed into cars with us and followed us there, which was fantastic. It
was a bit of a weird place. It was a like a big manor house out in the country
with nothing around and there were things happening in different rooms – bars,
discos, lounges, etc., and the main dance floor downstairs where the band
played, surrounded by disco balls and shit. They didn’t have a great PA for
bands and I couldn’t hear bugger all singing with a voice I’d already caned at
the first performance, me not exactly being the correct user of a voice back
then, so by the end I could barely speak. But it was great fun and the
travelling out there and back was mental, including my mum getting pulled over
by the cops with an overcrowded car, if my memory serves me correctly. I’m a
bit confused as to how many gigs Mens Rea did because I played the same venue a
couple times with my later band, Rampant, but there’s a chance we did a return
gig there so maybe Mens Rea did three shows all told.
Q. - Let’s talk about Rampant, how did it all start? How did you get in
touch with the other members?
Tee Rets - Back in the late 70s I
used to go to the free festival at Stonehenge, a bit of a hippie affair and
great fun. Of course, I had the Salisbury connection with Genghis Khan so I
loved it because the guys would come and meet over there, which was a great
laugh. As it was with my other friends I used to hang around with at the time
and a few of us were musicians of one sort and another. In 1978 I was
introduced to a friend of friends, Mark Blaxland, who had a camper van we all
hung around (and I slept under it a couple nights) and he played guitar. Lovely
guy, into Thin Lizzy and he and I hit it off. Once I’d made the connection with
him I kept him in mind as a possible guitarist for a future twin guitar band, a
thing that wonderfully came about over two years later in 1980.
In the area I lived in during the
NWOBHM era there was a good number of rock fans and we were all getting to know
each other and many of us would congregate around my home. Amongst these were
various young musicians, one of them being drummer Rick Tiley and I started
getting him around my place with his kit, bashing out a few riffs and things
with the intention of maybe starting a band. Being a regular at the Ruskin
Arms, among other great rock venues at the time, I introduced a number of these
guys to the pub and so there was all this new blood coming into the place and
enjoying some great headbanging nights. The word was really out about the venue
and so people were coming from all around to check the place out, many of them
not old enough to legally be in there.
Somewhere along the line Rick and
I had met Aiden Fitzpatrick (Aid) and the 16 year old guitarist Paul Playle, at
this great pub, I think maybe through an acquaintance in common, and we soon
arranged a jam with us four and Mark Blaxland around at my home. We set up in
the bedroom and proceeded to blow the windows out and attract the attention of
every mod and skinhead in the area. As a consequence, Rampant was born and we
set about writing the material.
Q. - For how long were Rampant active? And who would you cite as your
major influences at the time?
Tee Rets - The band, with me on
vocals, was active over 1980 and 81, however, they continued after I left with
an old friend of us all, John Hagerty (who sadly passed away some years ago.
RIP John) of NWOBHM band Rippa. The new look line up with John was short
lasting and they didn't get to the gigging stage.
As far as our influences were
concerned they were many and all the usual for the typical rock and metal fans
of the day. The list is endless, but I’d say our sound was a blend of Judas
Priest, Saxon and Iron Maiden with hints of Scorpions and Lizzy.
Q. - If I'm not wrong, Rampant recorded two demo tapes around 80/81, which
songs did you record on both demos?
Tee Rets - You’re not wrong
Paulo, we did record a couple of demos, but neither of them got finished due to
lack of funds. The first recording included songs, Fight For Pride, Channel
Collision, Take It Like A Lady, and one other I can’t remember. Of these numbers
it was only Channel Collision that got a basic mix down onto quarter inch reel,
and has suffered the fate of having never been heard by anyone since the
recording session, including myself.
The second demo included at least
three songs, namely, I’ll Press The Button Before You, Our World and Run For
The Hills. The latter was a re-use of an earlier lyric I’d written for my
previous band, Mens Rea, put to a different rifferama. I have to say here, because
people are bound to make the connection, that the song has nothing to do with Iron
Maiden’s Run To The Hills and pre-dates it by a couple of years. The title was actually
a slogan Rampant used on our gig advertising posters. These things happen and are
pure chance; it’s not like I own the saying “run for [or to] the hills”, which
is a saying as old as the hills themselves. I hope that clears that up.
Similarly, Fight For Pride on the
previous demo was a re-run of a number we played in Mens Rea and both of these
were not alone in that fate, as there was at least one other I’d borrowed and
migrated to the Rampant repertoire. Back in those days, readapting lyrics and
recycling riffs was something not uncommon with me. Maybe it’s my OCD (I am diagnosed
with it) or something, but when I’ve said something I deem valid etc., in a lyric
I just hate to kind of waste it and so I set out to keep it alive, so to speak.
I might rewrite it a little to improve it or make it more relevant for a
specific point in time, but the basic idea and title remains. The same goes for
any riffs I may have written; just because a particular band may have broken up
it doesn’t mean a certain riff I may love has to die with it, although any
newer outfit might have a different sound where the riff can be used but not the actual old song or
arrangement.
Q. - Did you get support from the media back then? Radio, magazines,
fanzines?
Tee Rets - I wouldn’t say that,
no, we weren’t really at the sort of level you needed to attract that kind of
attention. We did, however, have a few connections with various media, radio, management
and record company people, connections we hoped would be fruitful one day, once
the band was in full swing with demos and our own indie label single etc., but things
sadly broke down before we got to that stage. We also had various friends who ran
fanzines so there might have been a few small mentions here and there, but I couldn’t
tell you for sure where they may have appeared.
Q. - Rampant played one gig with Nik Szymanek (Dragonfly, Trilogy, etc)
on drums. Why didn't he stayed longer? Was he just a temporary replacement for
Rick Tiley, who couldn't play this show?
Tee Rets - Nik’s a great drummer,
also known for his time in the Phil Hilborne Band and for his TV appearances on
Sky At Night – Nik being a top amateur photographer in astronomy. Like the
band, More, I was responsible for getting his old prog band, Trilogy, its
Friday Rock Show session so he’s someone I’ve always had connections with and
one of my go to men whenever I need a drummer, not that we’ve worked together
since, but I’ve often asked him if he’s interested in some or other thing I’ve
been putting together. At the time he played with Rampant we were missing our
guitarist Mark and Rick our drummer due to a temporary split and so we asked
Nik and his old guitarist, Stephen Heath, from Dragonfly, who was also a good
friend of ours, if they were interested in joining. We had a couple rehearsals
with them and they brought a new dynamic to the band with their more flamboyant
playing, but only Nik made the gig at the Ruskin Arms and to this day I’m not
sure why Stephen sadly missed it. We played that show with one guitarist and it
just didn’t have the right feel about it. Mark and Rick returned for the next
couple gigs, which were my last with the band, as I decided to go my own way
and concentrate on my family and getting a ‘proper’ job and all that. As well
as this I really wanted to take up playing keyboards and start writing more
complex music, both of which I set about doing and I laid the foundation for
much of what was to come from me, musically, in future years. What I’ve said
here is encroaching on the next question and has more or less answered what
lead to the end of Rampant so let’s pick this up below...
Q. - What happened that lead to the end of Rampant? Were you working on
new material before you broke up?
Tee Rets - Rampant didn’t
actually end as a band after I’d left, as I said earlier in this interview, and
I remember hearing them rehearsing one day with my dear old, sadly now deceased
friend, John Hagerty on vocals. It was sounding good and it felt a little weird
not being a part of the band I’d started in my bedroom, but thought “that’s the
way things were now and good luck to em.”
As far as new material was
concerned, I can’t think of any specific song we may have been working on, but
we were always writing new stuff. Playing with Stephen Heath for that short
time certainly had a big influence on us and he’d come up with some good little
ideas for things we’d always played a certain way and it just added a little sophistication,
making some of our trickier bits sound more accomplished. One song that
benefited from such improvements was Channel Collison. It was such a small
little change but wow! I know from that moment my own writing was gonna involve
a little more thought and although I wasn’t a guitarist I was bent on improving
what I coming up with, not that I came up with much by way of guitar due to
being completely taken over by learning keyboards.
Q. - Did you keep in touch with the other former members all over the
years?
Tee Rets - The only member I
really had any meaningful contact with post Rampant was Paul Playle. He moved
onto the estate where I was living and we began visiting each other with our
partners for a while before losing contact again. That contact was
re-established when a musician friend of mine told me he knows him and
occasionally plays with him. It wasn’t long before Paul and I were friends on
Facebook and I was seeing him play live at the local pub where he lives.
In more recent years I’ve bumped
into Rick here and there and got to see him rehearse a few times in 2017/18
when I joined a covers band, Bawls-Out, and discovered he was drumming in one
of our guitarist’s other band he was in at the time. Mark and Aid have vanished
off the face it seems and no one knows their whereabouts. Last time I saw Aid was
at the Ruskin in the early to mid 90s and I hadn’t seen him for maybe 10 years prior.
I’d love to see those guys again!
Q. - What other bands did you play besides Rampant? Was it Relay and
Kingsreach? Tell us a bit about these bands too.
Tee Rets - Immediately after
Rampant I started a band called Quest with guitarist Peter Munday, later of
what we might call new wave of British progrock, Tamarisk, ex Dragonfly bassist,
Pete Cornell, and a local drummer, Steve Flame. We didn’t get further than a
bit of writing at home and a few studio rehearsals. After replacing Pete
Cornell with my good friend Mark Orbell we continued with the home session for
a short while until Mark and Peter had the opportunity to join forces with a
few guys from Chemical Alice, joining with Mark Kelly’s replacement, Steve
Leigh (Landmarq), and other ex-members, to form Tamarisk. It was too good an
opportunity for the pair to miss and they went on to headline gigs at the
Marquee and such places.
I replaced Peter Munday with Uwe
D’Rose, now of prog band, Landmarq, and we started a prog band named Gallery.
It was all very formative though and saw various members coming and going,
including the returning Peter Munday and a talented young drummer we’d met
called Ashley Mills. Steve Leigh came down and played some keys with us once or
twice, but it didn’t turn into anything and after months of frustration Uwe and
I went our own ways. That was the end of Gallery, but not the end of my association
with Uwe.
After a couple years or so of a
jam here and there, an audition or two, including a failed one with proggers,
Pallas, and a successful one with Manchester outfit, Frontier, a band I was in
for about a month, it suddenly all came together for me in 85 with the formation
of my pomp cum prog band, Relay. I’d answered some ads in Melody Maker through
which I acquired a prog bassist, John Bryce, and guitarist cum keyboardist, Mark
Stirk. Ashley Mills became our drummer and before long Uwe D’Rose was back as
guitarist cum keyboardist. I loved that feature of the band with Uwe playing
keys while Mark played guitar and Mark on keys while Uwe played guitar!
Relay played its first two gigs
at the Ruskin Arms in November and December 85 and went on to gig throughout
86. Two demos were recorded, the second by the request of AnR at EMI, although
sadly not funded by them. They’d heard a track from our first demo and asked
for three or four more songs, a thing we would set about rectifying asap. But,
all was not well in the camp and various members left and needed to be replaced.
Ashley had already been replaced after the first demo and he hadn’t played any
of the 1986 gigs, but now we were replacing his replacement, Ron Rolph, with Gary
Mitchell, and we replaced Uwe with Pete Ball from the band Frontier that I’d briefly
been in. Pete had already played all the gigs of 86 with the band because we’d increased
the line up to a six piece, but now the idea was to stay as a five piece with
him on keys and Mark concentrating solely on guitar. Anyway, long story short,
we set about recording the demo with the new line up, but there was some
friction and illness during the sessions and the band broke up. The demo didn’t
get mixed and was put on hold for nearly a year. Uwe returned to the newly
reforming Relay and we got a basic mix of the recordings and got to hear it for
the first time, much to our joy. Nothing came at that time of the reform, but
at least I had the demo and after a break and some expensive advertising I was
able to use it to appeal to a bunch of new guys who had answered my ads. Uwe
went on to join Landmarq as a founding member and has done pretty well for
himself.
The new look Relay lasted about
six months, did one show and split in 1989. I spent years trying to reform it
and went through various line ups, including one with a very early guitarist
involved with the formation of Maiden, but who isn’t mentioned in any family
trees, Steve Bensusan, later of Dogwatch, Last Post, SFX and Electrix (and his current
covers band Enemy Of The Lion) and for a short time, Kevin Riddles, of Angelwitch
and Tytan, but never got it past the rehearsal room. There are plans for Steve,
myself and a bunch of others to reform, but these have been eclipsed by the re-emergence
of Rampant with Steve coming on board with us.
In 93 it was back to metal for me
and the forming of a band called Mercy. It’s hard to say who we were like, but
we had bits of thrash, NWOBHM, Sabbath, Priest et al and we did a couple of
Helloween covers. We gigged a few times and recorded a demo before disbanding
and going in our own directions. After Mercy it was back to banging my head
against a brick wall trying to breathe life into Relay, but it just wouldn’t happen
and I eventually gave up and decided to move on into new pastures and reinvented
myself as the keyboard player I’d been holding back for years. I’d discovered
bands like Nightwish, Kamelot, Rhapsody, Sabaton, Blind Guardian (my favourite
band) and many others, and with a few adjustments to the Relay stuff I’d been working
on I had the beginnings of a powermetal set on my hands. This was the birth of Kingsreach,
but another cause of frustration due to never being able to get the full line up
together and failing to get the right pair of guitarists, or even one. At one
point we had Nigel Martindale from the reformed NWOBHMers, Deep Machine, but
that didn’t work out, which was such a shame because it was sounding great with
him.
Q. - What made you feel like reunite Rampant again?
Tee Rets - It was a mixture of
things really. First, getting broadband internet 11 years or so ago played a
part. Before then I had very limited access to the internet, some, but not a
great deal. With my largely increased access to the net I really got into
Youtube and discovered Facebook, Skype and Spotify etc., etc., Youtube was full
of so much music and I started searching for this that and the other and
following the related video links. It was great coming across loads of old
stuff I used to have on single or on album and had lost years ago due to things
like moving home many times and for whatever other reason. I still had lots of
NWOBHM stuff though and had bought various things on CD that I used to have on
vinyl, but it was coming across the more obscure stuff that was just so much
fun rediscovering.
Around the same time I’d bumped
into an old friend, Bob Hooker, of NWOBHM band, Deep Machine, on the train coming
home from Maiden’s Matter Of Life And Death gig at Earl’s Court. I hadn’t seen
him for about 25 years! We’d swapped numbers and email addresses and he sent me
some stuff by various powermetal bands that really impressed me and got me
excited about discovering new metal to listen to. By now I was also on Facebook
and coming across so many old friends and they were coming across me and we
were all adding each other. I was getting added to groups and people were
posting Youtube links to all these bands and there was all this talk of NWOBHM
bands reforming and the movement re-emerging. My old mate, Geoff Banks, now
sadly deceased (RIP Geoff), started contacting me on Skype, another site I’d go
into, and we’d be reminiscing about the old days and all the Saxon, Maiden,
More, Priest, AC/DC etc., etc., gigs we went to. We were talking about working
on getting the NWOBHM scene thriving again, and I was planning to start DJing
once more, focusing on all the music from that era. This didn’t happen because
being that I’m a musician/vocalist and had a powerprogmetal band, Kingsreach,
coming together; I was too busy working on my own music.
Going back to Bob Hooker, we had
met up a few times and he’d come around to my house to jam with a view to him
coming in on Kingsreach with me, but for one reason or another it didn’t
happen. Around that time I’d said to Bob that he should think about getting
Deep Machine back together, and sometime later he contacted me saying they had
reformed. Before long they were gigging at Canning Town Bridgehouse and getting
involved with a Hardrock Hell chapter run by another old friend of mine, Andy
Gregory of NWOBHM band, Destroya, and his now wife, Debbie (metal DJ, Debz
Demonize). Andy mentioned to me that various bands were getting their old demos
released on various small labels and that I should think about maybe reforming
Rampant and getting back out there. Until then I’d not actually envisaged a
Rampant reform before, but it suddenly became inviting and so I kept it in mind
and made a few enquiries. Soon, so many of my old mates’ bands were rising like
the phoenix; the likes of Desolation Angels, Tokyo Blade, Chariot, DM, Tytan
and others. Add to these, Satan’s Empire (and our bassist from Kingsreach left
to get re-involved with them) a bit later on and it got to the point where I
knew I just had to get back on board so it was just a matter of time.
By now I had made friends on
Facebook with a great Polish guy and friend of yours, Paulo, Zygmunt Jedziniak,
and his enthusiasm for NWOBHM and amazingly for Rampant, which he knew all
about and was posting info about us up in his Facebook group! He knew about all
my previous bands that I’ve mentioned elsewhere in this interview and he
definitely put in my mind that Rampant had to happen at some point. He
influenced me into making further enquiries of various ex members and that lead
to Paul Playle, one of the founder guitarists, knocking up a home demo clip of
one of the old songs. I loved it and from that moment I really believed a new
Rampant could come about.
Another good year or so passed
before the final push towards the reform and again I’d been chatting with Zyg
who was asking about the old demos and whether we were thinking of reforming.
This had been very much on my mind at the time, largely because I have a good
friendship with Brian Mear who runs Mearfest, a cool charity based NWOBHM event
that he and his wife Claire run in memory of their stillborn daughter, Molly,
and I had imagined a scenario where Rampant might get on to some of these bills
with all these bands from our era who had returned and were having great fun playing
to appreciative, like-minded audiences. Brian and I had been speaking about Bawls-Out,
the covers band I’m in, playing Mearfest again (we did our first ever gig there
at the last southern event in June 2018 and are now closing the event this
year, rounding it off party style) and so it just seemed natural for me to
mention to him I was pushing for a Rampant reform. He loved that it would be a
reform for Mearfest and said we can play the Sunday, the same day as Bawls, so
my imagined scenario had become reality and I now just needed to get Paul
Playle in whom I’d had several reform chats with on board and then set about
forming the rest of the band. Paul said yes and immediately knocked out a few
little home demos, and in the absence of the other original members we enquired
of a number of available musicians who are either from the era or who are
interested in it and who are personal friends. We were over the moon when the
guys we approached agreed to help us breathe life back into a band that had so much
potential back in the early 80s and that can now begin to realise that
potential by writing, recording and performing the kind of music we had a
vision for all those years ago. It’s so good to be back!
There you have it, the history of
the idea to reform Rampant and get it back out there Rampantising the world of
metal.
Q. - Can you tell us the current line-up of the band? And the background
of the new members?
Tee Rets - In the current
line-up, Paul Playle - guitar/backing vocs and myself – Lead Vocs, are joined
by Steve Bensusan - guitar/backing vocs; Chris Chitticks - bass/backing vocs; and
Lee Chitticks – drums. Three of us, Paul, Steve and I, also play some keyboards
so there might be a bit of the right kind of keys for metal at some point, and
we have 4 singers so expect some big vocal arrangements too.
Paul, post Rampant, went on to
play in fellow NWOBHM band, Destroya, an outfit that also included our old Rampant
drummer, Rick Tiley. A few years ago the old Destroya demos got released on
vinyl by a small company (German I think) and so anyone interested in that
Rampant connection can try acquire that release and enjoy some prime NWOBHM
with one of our guitarist’s and an ex-drummer’s contributions. Paul has since
been involved a lot with his own recordings and playing professionally in
various covers bands and goes out solo. He is currently in a covers band with
Barry Fitzgerald the old drummer from NWOBHM band, Xero.
Steve, as I’ve mentioned earlier,
was involved very early on in Maiden, before they were called Smiler, but has
never been mentioned in any family trees etc. He was also in one of the
Dogwatch line ups when very young and was later the lead guitarist in the great
NWOBHM era Dogwatch spin-off, Last Post, a band I was a big fan of and used to
go see regularly, which is how I first met him. He was also later in SFX,
Electrix before he and I joined forces in late 89 with a reforming Relay. After
that he was in a band called No Baloney with John Hegarty, the singer who
replaced me in Rampant when I left (Wayne Hudson from Satan’s Empire and my
band Kingsreach was the bassist in NB) and That Legendary Wooden Lion, a pre
Dogwatch band that lead to it and that had now reformed as TLWL. He is also
concurrently in a great covers band called Enemy Of The Lion, a band that
includes fellow NWOBHMer, John Riley, bassist of currently defunct Deep
Machine. Somewhere in all of this Steve was half of a great Blues Brothers
tribute with the old NWOBHM band, Driving South’s guitarist become lead singer,
Steve Sawkins.
Chris has been around for longer
than all of us and has been in many bands going back to the 60s. He toured
Europe with the Johnny Stuart Combo and was in Plaque, a band that supported
the likes of Sweet, Joe Cocker, Geno Washington, Chicken Shack and Peter
Frampton’s The Herd. Amazingly, Pink Floyd was once Plaque’s support band before
they got big. Chris lived in Dorset around 1970 and formed a band called Graveyard.
Graveyard were actually an official support to Zep once back in 1971, but it was
a strange one because they never got to even be in the building at the same
time, let alone actually meet…odd! Another band from his illustrious past was
an RnB boogie act, The Electric Bath; with these he supported Status Quo. There
are so many others, I’d be here all day mentioning so here’s a small list of
the most relevant as it relates to Rampant and NWOBHM: The Wanderers, a mainly
60s covers four piece that included ex-Maiden drummer, Vic Scott, before they
were called Iron Maiden; rock and metal covers five piece, Enemy Of The Lion,
with our guitarist, Steve Bensusan; No More Heroes (rock covers) with our
drummer Lee Chitticks; and another still existing bunch of glam metal, spandex
rockers, Sounds Better Naked, that also includes Lee.
Lee, son of Chris and baby of the
band at 29, has been in various covers bands with his dad over the years, some
of which I’ve just been mentioning. Apart from these they were in rock covers
band, 3 Miles Hi; they recorded various demos and raised some interest, but
nothing came of it and they moved on to 60s outfit, My Mind’s Eye, that was
going down well in the clubs. They also recorded a couple demos. Sounds Better Naked
is still an ongoing affair and the fun band play a few NWOBHM numbers and others
inspired by the movement. I encourage any fans of glam metal, Judas Priest, Def
Leppard, Twisted Sister and many more to try catch them at the various Summer
fests they’ll be playing. Running alongside the more part time SBN, Lee, until
recent months, had an originals band called Breaking Illusion, a metal four
piece in the mode of Maiden, Sabbath, Priest blended with the more modern metal
styles. They recorded and put out a couple of albums and an EP, but had no
label, which is a shame because they rocked! Breaking Illusion did a number of
gigs as support to Satan’s Empire with great response. I was at one of those
two pronged attacks last year in Southend and wow! Metal up your arse and all
that!!
Enough has been said about my own
musical background so let’s move on to the next question.
Q. - You are preparing a Mearfest appearance, for July 2019, how did
that happen?
Tee Rets - We are indeed Paulo
and we’re very excited about it! I’ve really already answered this question
under your “what made me feel like re-uniting Rampant?” ask, but I’ll clarify further
here. As you know I’m in a classic hard rock and metal, including NWOBHM, covers
band, Bawls-Out, and after our gig at the warm up for last year’s southern
event, which was our first gig ever as a band, Brian Mear asked us if we would
like to play at the next one and in the main hall. We accepted without
hesitation. Then, as the months passed and the organising of the event started
taking shape, my conversations with Brian were stirring the NWOBHM in me and I
longed to get in a band from the era and get out there to kick some arse.
Zygmunt Jedziniak, as I’ve said, was trying to persuade me to get Rampant up again
and maybe release our demos, and having told him I’d prefer to re-record and
release them, the idea just took me over. My mind had already been going down
that road and the intermittent talk of reforms with Paul and other NWOBHM inspired
thoughts I’d been having, all kind of dovetailed into one big GET THE FUCK ON
WITH IT, RETS!!
Q. - What do you think of festivals like Brofest and Mearfest?
Tee Rets - They’re great, I’ve
been to a few and playing the warm-up for Mearfest last June was a great
experience and made me want more. The previous year I’d missed out on playing a
couple things with Tytan. When singer, Tom Barna, got injured there was a
chance he wasn’t gonna be able to sing for a while and so my good friend, Andy
Thompson, their keyboardist, contacted me and asked if I could be on standby in
case he couldn’t make the beginning of their tour. At first there was nothing
definite and it would mean me learning their set and then possibly nothing
coming of it. If Tom was to be absent for their first couple of shows I would be
asked to step in for those and he was expected to return for the remaining
gigs. However, Tom decided to leave and so the job was mine, with Kev Riddles
calling me and humorously saying, “no pressure…” and I was asked along to begin
rehearsals with about 6 weeks to go before the first show.
At the time I hadn’t sang in
anger for many years and was completely out of condition, a fact I expressed
with horror when they invited me to take the vocal reigns. I began to practise
at home and learned their set best I could with a mixture of sheer nerves and total
excitement. My nerves and being out of condition got the better of me on the
first day of rehearsals, though, and I gave an indifferent performance. The
journey there that day was a nightmare, pheeeeewww! a long drive (as Passenger)
stuck in traffic pile ups on the very hottest day of the year and it couldn’t
have helped with my below par singing. With rehearsing I’d have been OK by the
time the gigs come around, but it wasn’t to be and I was extremely down about
it all; I went from being in the band, at least for the tour, to being out of
it overnight hahahaaa and they soon recruited another old vocalist friend of
mine, the great Tony Coldham, ex of Deep Machine and currently of The Deep.
Offhand I can only remember the
one fest I was to do with them, Grim Up North, in Bury. I’d love to have played
that. My disappointment of missing that opportunity was somewhat placated
though when I got to play Mearfest last year. It went so well too. It was
actually the warm up in the Duke’s Head pub (Farnham Village) that we played at
and not the main hall, but just being a part of it really helped me get over
the 2017 Tytan disappointment.
Mearfest for me is going to be
very busy this year with me doing two performances, opening with Rampant on the
Sunday and rounding off the day with an all our rocking Bawls-Out set to close
the event with a party.
I dream now of getting on some
more of these NWOBHM fest bills with Rampant and playing our own songs with our
fantastic new line up (and we also do a couple covers, Saxon’s Crusader and
Judas Priest’s Genocide).
Q. - What expectations do you have for Rampant from now on? Are you
thinking about compiling the old demos on a proper cd release? Or eventually
record new versions of the old songs with new technology?
Tee Rets - We intend on
continuing for as long as we are able to raaawwwkk!! There are no plans to
compile and release the old demos, it just isn’t possible because the masters
do not exist and there were no mixed versions. As well as that, they weren’t
finished in the actual recording sense and are full of errors that were
supposed to be redone. There were experimental vocal layers on the second demo
that were there to be taken home on a cassette, listened to with fresh ears,
and decided whether to keep or discard. They were shit! They had to go! We had
run out of funds and so it never got finished and after a while I left the
band. It was a similar story with the first demo, unfinished and out of funds.
These demos will not see the light of day.
We will, however, re-record the
songs and look for company that releases NWOBHM stuff to put the stuff out. The
home demos, recorded by our guitarist are showing much promise and we’re very
excited about the prospect of hitting the stages with these songs and getting
full blown recordings done, with an album in mind. After the initial return and
once the new line-up has gelled, we will be writing new stuff and expanding the
sound and scope of the songs. It’s gonna be epic!
Q. - What about Bawls-Out? What can you tell us about this band? Will
you try to keep both bands, Bawls-Out and Rampant, active?
Tee Rets - Bawls-Out will most
definitely be continuing. The band is very special to me and I love singing
those songs and performing them the way we do. The whole band holds it as special
in their hearts and we are like family. There’s a very cool vibe in the band
that I’ve rarely known and we love each other’s company. The chemistry is
amazing and the longer we’ve been together the closer we’ve become. We feel we
have a niche on the circuit, playing covers you don’t hear too often, if at
all, complete with our spin on the songs, great musicianship and theatrical
enhancements. For example, you don’t hear the likes of Priest’s Victim Of
Changes and Ripper being played in pubs and certainly not with staged
domestics, a prostitute and a crazed ripper on the loose carving her up and throwing
her entrails everywhere, only for her to come back from the dead and cut the ripper’s
throat in vengeance. It’s all good fun and adds something. We’re looking forward
to seeing Thunderstick at Mearfest with their theatrical show!
Bawls-Out plays stuff by Priest,
Saxon, Sabbath (Dio), Maiden, Riot, Whitesnake, Purple, UFO, Scorpions,
Schenker, Malmsteen, Lizzy, Gary Moore, Elvenking, Queensryche, Dio, AC/DC,
Rainbow, etc., etc., In the coming months we are gonna start adding some of our
own songs, which we are looking forward to.
As if by fate, it was the day after I was turned down by Tytan that my partner, Gina, who is in the band with me, and myself bumped into Andy, one of our guitarists, out shopping. Remarkably, we hadn’t seen each other for over 25 years! He asked me if I was still singing and whether I’d be interested in joining a covers band, a thing I’d never done, with another old friend from my past, Kev, as the other guitarist. Interestingly, I’d first met Kev at what was probably the first ever Rampant gig at the aforementioned Guisnes Court, that he was attending! I loved the idea of playing with these guys and agreed to go along and give it a go. I wasn’t sure about singing covers, but I’d really got the singing bug back after the Tytan episode and wanted to prove myself as a singer/frontman. I’d been concentrating on playing keyboards since about 08 and didn’t see myself as a lead vocalist anymore. I was wrong; I took to it like a duck to water. I was back! And I intend to keep it that way.
As if by fate, it was the day after I was turned down by Tytan that my partner, Gina, who is in the band with me, and myself bumped into Andy, one of our guitarists, out shopping. Remarkably, we hadn’t seen each other for over 25 years! He asked me if I was still singing and whether I’d be interested in joining a covers band, a thing I’d never done, with another old friend from my past, Kev, as the other guitarist. Interestingly, I’d first met Kev at what was probably the first ever Rampant gig at the aforementioned Guisnes Court, that he was attending! I loved the idea of playing with these guys and agreed to go along and give it a go. I wasn’t sure about singing covers, but I’d really got the singing bug back after the Tytan episode and wanted to prove myself as a singer/frontman. I’d been concentrating on playing keyboards since about 08 and didn’t see myself as a lead vocalist anymore. I was wrong; I took to it like a duck to water. I was back! And I intend to keep it that way.
At the first jam, backing vocals
were missing and Gina was sitting there enjoying the sounds when I hit the
chorus to 2 Minutes To Midnight and suddenly leaned towards her with the mic
for her to join in with one of her great harmonies. It sounded great and at the
end of the song the band said to set her a mic up and let her sing seeing that
she’s a singer. By the end of the session she was the sixth member of the band.
After a few months the band was
really beginning to happen but we began to realise our drummer wasn’t the right
kind of drummer for the stuff we were getting into. He was a good drummer, but
he was in the wrong band. We began the search for a new drummer and tried a
couple out, but it wasn’t quite happening with them so the search continued. Before
long we had our now drummer in Rampant, Lee Chitticks, playing with us on a help
out basis because we had our first gig looming. Due to some unforeseen circumstances
the gig didn’t happen and we had a break for a while, coming back together
after 5 or 6 weeks with a new drummer, Paul, who Kev and Andy had met and jammed
with. A new bassist was needed too and so we began asking around and within days
our brilliant bassist, Ian, a very good longstanding friend of Kev’s was
recruited. The new line-up was complete and ready to raaawwwkk!! That was April
2018 and we did our first gig on 2nd June and we’ve gigged regularly ever
since, playing to very appreciative audiences. Our show is going down a bomb
and we’ve attracted a sizeable and ever growing following. We have a Facebook
page, Bawls-Out, if anybody reading this would like to like our page.
Q. - What do you think of this recent revival of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and
all these bands reforming?
Tee Rets - Again, I’ve actually
answered this question in my various answers above so I won’t say too much here
for want of not repeating myself. I do love it though and it’s just such a joy
to see an era I was a part of and had a part to play come back for another go.
I watched so many of my friends from all the bands I was hanging around with
back in the late 70s and early 80s coming back onto the scene with their old
bands and in many cases, new members. It was an exciting thing to see and I
began to get some of the old feelings back that I’d cherished three decades or
so ago; to feel that buzz again of something happening. It was in the air. It
will proper kick off again at some point. And when it does I wanna be there,
riding the wave! I guess it was always in the back of my mind that I somewhat
missed out on what might have been in the past, largely because I’d been to a
good few auditions that I’d failed in, such as, Angelwitch, Trespass, Tygers Of
Pan Tang (including John Sykes), Troy (Dave Dufort’s), Deep Machine, Pallas and
another band with a NEAT records deal whose name just eludes me. With each
knock back my dreams took a belting, and just convinced me at the time that I needed
to have my own band that I put together with like-minded people. Relay was the result
and things were very promising for a while until it went tits up, which was another
arrow of disappointment fired at me and caused me a lot of problems back then.
Q. - In Feb.79 you lived a traumatic experience, on the way to the V1
concert, at Crackers, that put your life in danger, what can you tell us about
this traumatic adventure?
Tee Rets - Yeah, what that was,
was a ferry crash in the English Channel on the way back to England from
France. A couple people lost their lives, including a young teen returning from
a trip with his school (or club) party. Crackers, was the place where I started
getting some guest spots DJing with my primary focus on playing British bands, especially
young ones. A few were beginning to emerge and I’d see their names written in
the gigs columns in Sounds and there would be very small paragraphs on the gigs
page (I think) mentioning someone like Witchfynde and seeing that I was
involved with Genghis Khan and supporting my mates in other bands, such as
Dragonfly and Blackwater Fever (forerunner to Desolation Angels), I could see
the possibility arising for a kind of explosion similar to the punk thing if we
started backing bands, telling everyone about them, dragging people along to
gigs and punting demo tapes around, and so on.
Before long, Angelwitch were
being spoken of and Andy King, then manager of Crackers, made me responsible
for booking bands there, seeing as I had good contacts and knowledge. I booked
Angelwitch and Witchfynde as two of the first bands after Genghis Khan and
around that time the name of Iron Maiden was beginning to ring around the pub
circuit, along with V1. Neal Kaye’s Soundhouse at the Bandwagon was booking
these bands and I’d be going along to check em out. I’d get talking to them,
tell them I’m from another venue and get their details with a view to booking
them. I booked V1. Crackers happened on a Tuesday night and my ex and I had
gone on a weekend excursion to Paris. It was a particularly cold and snowy
winter here and just as bad over there. We really weren’t having a good time;
we had limited funds, missed the train to Paris from where we got off of the
hovercraft and would’ve had to wait hours so we decided to hitch to Paris…yeah,
well,, good luck with that! What a nightmare, but eventually, tired, cold and
famished we arrived in Paris, realised we weren’t gonna be able to get around
much due to money; were being rude to by the locals, many of whom found my long
curly hair an excuse to shout abuse and cat call me hahaaa, so we decided head
for home. If we’d have retraced our steps and hitched in the freezing weather
back to Boulogne or Calais, wherever it was, I can’t remember, we’d likely have
got back to London too late to greet V1 at the club and miss the gig.
Therefore, we decided to get the overnight train to Dunkirque where we’d pick
up the ferry instead of travel by hovercraft.
Shit happened! Thick fog for most
of the train journey, travelling at a snail’s pace with constant stopping. The
dock was obscured with fog and rather nervously we boarded the ferry. The ferry
got under way and half way across the channel we were hit by a freighter 4
times the size of the ferry! It was terrifying and the boat lurched over to one
side where the freighter pushed was pushing against us and people went flying everywhere.
The freighter released us and the ferry pinged back and rocked back and forth
for ages. I watched the whole thing happen, as I was one of the few awake. I’m lucky
to be here because minutes before I’d been outside on deck looking over the
side and only came back inside because I could hear foghorns and was spooked by
them, thinking if boats were that close by in the fog and sounding their horns
then maybe danger was near. One almighty blow of our ferry’s horn (ooh that
sounds rude, hahaa) terrified me and I ran inside. I walked to the back of the
boat and said hi to the group of teens I mentioned, before looking at the wash
coming from the back of the ferry as it motored through the sea in the fog…more
foghorns…I went to lay down across the seats, like everyone else was in the
lounge, got comfortable…”what the fuck was that??” said I, as I saw something
passing by the windows to my left…CRASH!!!... Panic…injured people… kids
crying…women screaming… men screaming… staff running around… lights flickering…
NO WATER!!! Thank God!!!
They turned the ferry around and
limped back to Dunkirque. In the morning we were loaded onto a big plush ferry
with food and drinks, amusements and dancefloors. We were asked to give
statements and fill in accident forms. We got back to London early doors, went
home and straight to the local papers to tell our story. Later in the evening we
went to meet the band at Crackers and get the gig under way. What a way to
travel to a gig eh? Don’t do it by halves, when you can go the whole hog! Anyway,
it made for a great Rampant lyric and one of our best liked songs live, Channel
Collision. It will be in our set when we play Mearfest and I can’t wait to hear
it with the new guys and Lee’s perfect style of drumming for the song.
Q. - Apparently you have some special memories about Iron Maiden
"Soundhouse Tapes" and Saxon "The Eagle Has Landed". Can
you share this memories with us?
Tee Rets - This is true. I was
elated when Soundhouse Tapes was released and I bought it and found I had been
snapped headbanging with a friend without knowing and that there I was on the
back of the EP. The pic is captioned Maiden ‘eadbangers and that, right there,
is me! Love it! I wouldn’t mind but I also got interviewed outside the Marquee for
Danny Baker’s Twentieth Century Box series’ episode on heavy metal, filmed at Maiden’s
gig and featuring Neal Kaye and various friends of mine from the Bandwagon playing
their homemade model guitars for headbanging with hahaa. Rob Loonhouse, you
rule mate !! Yep, I’m the guy who speaks of the punks with their spikey hair
and that people look at us in our leather jackets and know straight away we’re
‘eavy rockers... hahahaa talk about attitude back then! It’s been on TV so many
times it’s impossible to say and a slightly longer clip of it made its way onto
the Early Days DVD, immortalised forever…meeeee!! You’ve gotta laugh ain’t
ya?!!
Re The Eagle Has Landed, there
was a competition to suggest possible titles for Saxon’s then soon to be
released live album. I made a few suggestions, The Eagle Has Landed being my
first choice, and I won the competition! I still have the letter from Bletchner
Poxon management to prove it, and it’s up on my Facebook page (Tee Rets …Metal Gooroo,
if anyone wants to add me). So, yeah, I named a Saxon album and I guess that also
inspired them to write the song of the same name for their next studio album
that followed, Power and the Glory (fucking love that album!).
Q. - Are you still a heavy metal fan these days? Do you keep an eye to
the heavy metal scene?
Tee Rets - Oh yes!! I’m a huge
metal fan and am particularly fond of the best of the powermetal bands, lots of
Euro metal and various progmetallers, along with the classic stuff, Priest, Sabbath,
Rainbow et al, and the best of the NWOBHM bands; I’m loving Satan’s Empire
right now. I love a bit of atmospheric blackmetal, some blackmetal, some Viking
and melodic-death stuff and celtic folkmetal, particularly Eluveitie, that I
love. German band, Blind Guardian, are my favourite band and I love Nightwish,
Kamelot, Helloween, Sonata Arctica, Avantasia, Ensiferum, Sabaton, Pagan’s Mind
(brilliant), Symphony X, Unleash The Archers (fantastic), Gamma Ray, Elvenking,
Therion and loads more...
Q. - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?
Tee Rets - Just to thank you
Paulo for asking me to share with you and that I wish you all the best for 2019
and long may you continue in the ways of metal, sir. Also I’d like to extend my
good wishes to Zygmunt Jedziniak and Brian and Claire Mear, not to mention
little Amelie, their daughter and last but not least, Molly Mear, the
inspiration for Mearfest and all the charity work the Mear family are involved
in on behalf of grieving parents and families everywhere who have lost child
and also for Down’s Syndrome children – Molly being Down’s Syndrome. The little
love who is in all our hearts was born stillborn and my heart feels for all
grieving parents and families who have gone through the loss of a child,
including my darling partner and soulmate, Gina, who lost a little boy aged 4
and a half. Bless you all!! XXX
All the best Paulo!
Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!
