Seventh
Son have been around since 1980, they were born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire,
England and are still active to this day. We had a talk with mainman and lead
singer Brian Shaughnessy, who also is the lead singer of Oliver/Dawson / Saxon.
Q. -
Hello Brian, when did Seventh Son start? Was it in the beginning of 1980? Tell
us a bit about the beginning of the band, how did it all start?
Bri - Seventh Son was put
together in March 1980. My brother Kev had first formed a band called Aura in
1977 along with another guitarist, a bass player vocalist & drummer and
played their first gig upstairs at the YMCA (fun to stay there!) in July 1977.
They did quite a few gigs around the area - remember one with another couple of
bands on at the Redbrook pub in Barnsley where the band used to also rehearse
in an upstairs room there..... also a gig at the hospital social club & at
probably Barnsley’s best known rock band venue called 'Changes' where a lot of
bands from out of town also played. They did gigs out of town as well & had
also done Youth clubs, pubs etc. They went through a couple of drummers then
did their final gig as Aura in the main hall at the YMCA with a guy called Roy
Whyke standing in on drums for the gig along with another couple of bands on
the show as well. It was the last gig as Aura as the other guitarist Tim Nix
left to live in York.
They
got another permanent drummer called Bill Mc Neish into the lineup & now
trimmed down to a 3 piece re named 'Misadventure' with my brother Kev on guitar
and Bob Beet on bass/vocals. This line up was rock based but a bit more punk in
approach as well with faster paced songs. They played in Barnsley,
Huddersfield, Leeds etc. did a 'Melody Maker' Rock & Pop contest at Leeds
Polytechnic. The bass player then decided to leave to get married so that was
the end of Misadventure...My brother wanted to keep a band going and along with
remaining drummer Bill recruited a guy called Rob White on bass....they now
needed a singer so I asked my brother who were they going to get and he said Me
!! so I was hi jacked into joining the band...the lineup was finalised
& formed at the King George Hotel in Barnsley...I had not sung before but
was persuaded by my brother to 'Give it a go' after hearing me singing
along to records (Vinyl !!) at home.
Three
months down the line I was stood in front of an audience at the 'Speakeasy' in
Wakefield for the first gig by Seventh Son, we did 2 nights at the venue in the
same week first one on a Wednesday then a couple of nights later on the
Friday...!! Strange....the guy who booked us for our first gig and who ran the
venue was a one legged guy called Howard Burnette who was a colourful well
known Wakefield character who was also in the entertainment business himself
& later became a well known magician simply called 'Burnette'.
Q. - Who were your main influences at the very beginning of the band?
Bri
- I would say more Inspiration than influence as to what we liked at the
beginning of the band.... I remember we all liked Free - my brother Kev was a
massive Paul Kossof & Ritchie Blackmore fan & we both adored Be Bop
Deluxe who were just up the road from Barnsley in Wakefield & one of the
reasons we played our first Seventh Son gig in Wakefield. Obviously Saxon were
in there as they were from our hometown & had just hit it big...I’d seen
them from the early days when they were Coast & SOB, Son of a Bitch. We
also liked Thin Lizzy definitely, there was a mix of stuff...I was at Art
School at the time and listened to a lot of newer stuff that grew from punk etc
Magazine, Joy Division etc. but also loved Bowie, T.Rex, Mott the Hoople, Alex
Harvey, Kate Bush, the list is endless, the drummer was a big Hendrix fan &
the bass player loved Jack Bruce....it’s all in there..
Q. -
How was it the Barnsley metal scene? Did you play regularly there or even in
the rest of UK?
Bri - Think what you would
call a Metal 'scene' at the time in Barnsley was probably centered around a
couple of pubs, the No.7 and the Ring O'Bells who would have a Rock 'DJ' on.
The Live band thing was kicked off by ourselves & a friends band
called ‘Massacred’ who got together to play at the Civic Hall Centenary Rooms
in the summer of 1980 which was Seventh Son's Barnsley debut gig!! After that
Seventh Son went on to play all over the North & Midlands and in the South
of France in 87. Think furthest south in the UK was Loughborough & furthest
north Newcastle Upon Tyne...missed out London due to their dodgy beer....!
Q. -
Did you open for some other bands, or was it headlining shows?
Bri - Yes, we did lots of
headlining gigs and quite a few shows opening for other bands, Nazareth at
Barnsley Civic Hall, Dr Feelgood at Dingwalls, Sheffield, Witchfynde in
Blackpool at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Limelight at Yarborough, Doncaster, O.D
Saxon (before i joined) at Elsecar Heritage, Barnsley, Dogs D'amour at
Nottingham Mardi Gras, Demon at Retford Porterhouse, Shy at Sheffield Locarno,
Nik Turners Galakticos (from Hawkwind) at Bomfest, Barnsley, Brofest with loads
of other N.W.O.B.H.M. bands at Newcastle on Tyne University, Hard Rock Hell,
N.W.O.B.H.M. at the O2 Academy, Sheffield and others I can't remember !! All a
good mix of bands.
Q. - Do
you recall the set list you were playing in general during those shows? Did you
play some covers too?
Bri - The set list we would
play when we started would be:
Alive
By Night
Immortal
Hours
White
Magic
Dark
They Were
Hard
Nights
See
No Reason
Red
Procession
Killing
Yourself to Live
Burning
Bridges
Light
in their Eyes
Out
in the Cold
(all
these are original songs)
Covers
I can remember doing were
I'm
a Mover & Mr Big by Free, Mistreated by Deep Purple, Rocky Mountain Way by
Joe Walsh, Rock n' Roll Man by Tygers of Pan Tang, Grinder by Judas Priest
& Wheels of Steel by Saxon. We did 90% of our own material in the set then picked
2 or 3 covers from the list above.
Q. -
Did the first singles "Man in the Street" and "Metal to the
Moon" have airplay on radio stations? How were they received by Seventh
Son fans?
Bri - Yes, both of them
singles were played on a load of local radio stations, Hallam Rock in
Sheffield, Piccadilly radio in Manchester, Radio Aire in Leeds etc.
I
remember the Legendary Tommy Vance playing 'Man in the Street' on his Friday
Rock Show on Radio One!! Also remember doing interviews with Colin Slade for
his Hallam Rock Show in Sheffield, and Mike Alexander for his Rock Show on
Radio Aire in Leeds. We also did 3 sessions of recordings for Colin Slades show
on Radio Hallam the bulk of which finished up on the 'lmmortal Hours' album.
Colin also produced the 'Metal to the Moon' single that we recorded at Fairview
in Hull. Both of the singles were well received by the fans who bought the
singles either at gigs or by mail order - they finished up making it to various
countries all over Europe, South America, U.S.A. & Japan!! I signed a 'Man
in the Street' single for a fan in Tokyo, Japan, when I played there with O.D.
Saxon in September 2019, incredible!! So we know the single got into lots of
different countries.
Q. - Why did you take so long to record the first album "Dangerous Kiss", was it hard to find a record deal?
Bri - Yes, it was hard to
get record companies interested - we did the usual thing of sending tapes out
to record companies only to receive the usual 'not what we're looking for at
this moment in time', 'good luck with future recordings' etc. all the usual
bollocks as you know....Power Station in York were interested for a while but
nothing came of it but to be fair they did set us up with a publishing deal
with a company called Song Management to help us with the 'Metal to the Moon'
single - but there were as you know a load of N.W.O.H.B.H.M. bands after
deals...not easy. Also financially doing an album was a lot bigger project than
doing a single going down the D.I.Y. route...which we headed for but needed to
find the cash? In late '86, I think it was, an American label called King
Klassic got interested in us & said they would put us an album out if we
paid for our studio time then they would pay for the pressing of the album etc.
A guy I knew agreed to put some money into us to record the album so we started
to look for potential studios where we could record the album.....we checked
out a few and decided to go for Music Factory in Rotherham, South Yorkshire,
bang in between Sheffield & Barnsley...perfect we thought...but this is
where it gets complicated....We started recording the album aiming to finish it
in the limited time we had booked...it was a slow process then the studio said
we like the material you're doing so why don't you sign with us then you can
have unlimited time in which to finish the album then we'll release it or try
to get it on to a bigger label.
As
recording progressed they put out 'Northern Boots' for us on 7inch vinyl which
got us loads of press/publicity & Yorkshire TV did an interview with me
about the 'Northern Boots' single & the North - South divide that existed
at the time (and still does if you get down to it) which was banned from
screening at the last minute due to Lee Hazlewood who wrote 'These Boots are
Made for Walking' refusing us permission to change the lyrics for our 'Northern
Boots' version.our management cocked up with the TV company when asked if we
had permission over the lyrics - they should have just said 'Yes' then the
interview would have been shown but they got frightened of potential of court
cases etc. so wimped out on it. We did a Live video recorded at Barnsley Civic
in 1987, then with the album finished a two week tour of the South of France,
all was going fine - we had sold some copies of the album on cassette whilst in
France but it still wasn't out on vinyl in the UK...they were trying to get it
on to a bigger label but we would have been satisfied with them putting it out
on the Music Factory label like with the single. A label in Canada was interested
who had the band Sword on it & another label in Europe - can't remember
now.
Music
Factory then produced a novelty single called 'Swing the Mood' which used
samples of old Glenn Miller, Chubby Checker, Bill Haley etc. put together by an
in house bunch of studio engineers & called themselves 'Jive Bunny &
the Mastermixes' - the single hit no 1 in the charts in the UK and was a
success in Europe so it was a big payout jackpot for them which they continued
with further singles and an album at Christmas...they soon forgot about Seventh
Son and the album tracks just gathered dust.
Q. -
Did Seventh Son disbanded for a while after supporting Nazareth in 1992? Why
did that happened?
Bri - The group didn't
disband we just went through mega problems with lineup changes and at one point
there was only me and the bass player Rick left. The drummer was tempted away
from us to do 'cabaret' in local working mens clubs where he could earn more
money by playing crap music, our soundman/roadie also went with him, who was
the instigator of the deed, he had a thing about drummers..
We
recruited a new drummer who had quite a lot of experience & was older than
us and was committed so off we went gigging again but with limited new material
coming through, but doing loads of gigs all over the North one of our busiest
times for gigging, we were out every week. Trouble was our guitar player was
going off the rails...smashed up his guitar so we bought him another (shouldn't
have) and carried on but he eventually burnt out and left Barnsley to move
'darn sarf' as we say in Barnsley, meaning down the South of England... Then
believe it or not our drummer had a nervous breakdown so he left the band, a
shame for the guy. Recruited another drummer & guitarist, rehearsed for a few
months with them then got a gig in Bradford and that's when the guitarist
decided he didn't want to play outside of the Barnsley /Sheffield area.we
sacked him there & then.another time waster.
Next guitarist was a guy from Latvia, great player but short of funds! We did quite a few gigs with him & also one where we added a session guy on keyboards for a Bretton Hall end of term gig at the Unity Hall in Wakefield. He then said he would have to miss a few gigs due to him getting some gigs playing with Boney M !! who had loads of chart hits in the UK but would get a friend of his to stand in on guitar..... this guy is Dave Fox who we kept in the band to this day and told the Latvian guy he could go....another one out of the door !! All of this took up loads of time right up to 2000 when ex Seventh Son guitarist who played on the 'Dangerous Kiss' album Andy Frost came back for a while so we were back to a 5 piece for the first time in years.... there were further changes in the drum & guitar department before we landed on the line up we have today !!! who'd be in a band...eh !! ?
Bri - I think the idea for
the 'Immortal Hours' album came initially from Matthias Mader of the Iron Pages
label in Germany whom we had worked with on the 'Dangerous Kiss' album and was
released on the Iron Pages label. We had recorded 3 sessions for the Radio
Hallam station in Sheffield for the 'Hallam Rock Show' hosted by Colin Slade in
the early to mid 80's. The tracks were recorded 'live' in the evening at the
stations studio while the station was broadcasting & remember that we had
to stop recording on the hour every hour so they could read out the news!! So
the tracks we did were pretty 'raw' with hardly any overdubs so had a live
raunchy feel about them, they had to be done quick - bang bang bang, so we did
well to get them done - plenty of rehearsal beforehand. Eventually we had done
3 sessions of material for the station which had only been heard on the 'Hallam
Rock Show' itself so Matthias suggested we had enough tracks to put out an
album which would be an interesting collection of early material.
The
sessions were done in 83,84, & 85 and were all produced by Colin Slade
which lead to us asking Colin to produce our 'Metal to the Moon' / 'Sound and
Fury' single that we recorded at Fairview Studios in Hull in 1984. The album
was well received and got great reviews throughout Europe & beyond....
Q. - You've been delivering Heavy Metal for 40 years, how do you feel about that?
Bri - Well yeah 40 years!
can't believe it's that amount of time....unreal.....where does it all go
? Like anything else ups & downs that's just how it is....to be exact March
2020 marks 40 years for Seventh Son or did so, but along came Coronavirus which
has prevented us from doing a live celebration of the milestone....the last
time we played Live in 2020 was in February but we hadn't reached the month of
March so that didn't count.....We wanted to do something special & had
loads of ideas but looks like it's not going to happen this year which is a
shame...weird how we got to March itself to mark 40 years then I remember it
coming on the TV and bang !! we were in Lockdown....very strange times,
everything on hold.
Q. - And what gives you more strength to keep Seventh Son alive after all these years?
Bri - Mindless Optimism !!
ha ha... rather dedication, determination....you've got to love what you're
doing to help you get through the minefield of crap that is thrown at you...I
still love the buzz & the adrenalin rush it gives you, nothing like doing a
great gig to a packed crowd where you're going down great and you've worked
them up to that level...It's really a top experience & there's nothing like
it.....and with O.D.Saxon I’ve experienced it at the top level as well as all
the great gigs over the years with Seventh Son. It's hard work & you have
to keep on top of your game to keep going.
Q. - It's been a long while since the last Seventh Son album, are you composing new songs in order to record a new album?
Bri - It might surprise you
to know that we have 14 tracks completed for a new album. It was completed a
couple of years ago but we've had the usual hassles with labels mainly in the
UK over getting it released...it's now looking like a label in Germany could
release it on vinyl & CD. Hopefully the pandemic situation won't hold it up
again with businesses collapsing etc. (just our luck) we'll have to see.... if
all else fails we'll no doubt head down the independently released route.
Q. - Do
you get a touch of nostalgia when you work on old Seventh Son live songs?
Bri - It can be a bit
nostalgic yeah, playing a certain old song can give you a 'flashback' to a
certain time or venue or who was in the band at the time. We play a variety of
the older stuff from over the years, some songs come and go whilst others are
always in the set. Some songs that we've recorded with a certain line up we've
not played again after that line up split if you know what I mean, such as
'What More do you Want'? or 'Sister Strange' from the 12-inch vinyl EP.
Q. -
What's the current line-up of the band? Will we have Seventh Son for a long
time?
Bri - The current lineup of
Seventh Son is:
Bri
Shaughnessy - Vocals.
Dave
Fox - Guitar.
Rick
Gregory - Bass.
Kev
Lee - Drums.
Well,
Seventh Son have done 40 years now so who knows? Do we get some kind of medal
for that! I think we've still got some mileage left in us...there's the new
album coming soon and there will be more to come.
Q. -
Around 2011 you replaced Wardi in Oliver/Dawson Saxon, how did that happen?
Bri - I got a phone call out
of the blue from my brother Kev in Australia asking where was I as Graham
Oliver was trying to get in touch with me!! Turns out Graham had sent a message
to Kev through Facebook to see if he could track me down! I contacted Graham
who said they had got rid of their previous singer & said would I like to
come and have a go at it? Did the first audition and they asked me to come back
again....I went for the second time then after we'd gone through the songs they
said how was I fixed for a gig in Austria in about a week’s time !! I said ok
and the next thing I know I’m on plane to Germany and landing in Munich !! then
it was straight into a mini bus travelling down to Austria for a Harley
Davidson festival gig.
It
went great but it was then straight back into the bus after the gig and a drive
back up to Munich to get the first morning flight back to the UK..!!! Those
quick turn arounds don't happen too often now and since then I’ve played in
just about every country in Europe.... incredible.. With Seventh Son we had
supported O.D. at Elsecar Building 21 in Barnsley in June 2011 which was just
before I auditioned so they would have seen me performing there. Graham’s son
Paul had joined O.D. as the new drummer just before i joined and it turns out
that Paul told the band to check me out as I’d known Paul previously when a
band he played with supported Seventh Son a few years previous so we knew each
other already through the scene and gigging.
Q. - How does it feel to share the stage with legends such as Oliver and Dawson?
Bri - To share the stage
with Graham Oliver & Steve Dawson is unbelievable...awesome...come on now
these guys are true Metal Legends!! But also they're great blokes & great
fun to work with and that's important. When I’m onstage I look to my left and
there's Steve 'Dobby' Dawson then look to my right and there's Graham
Oliver...I have to pinch myself and think bloody hell these are the guys who did
'Wheels of Steel', 'Strong Arm of the Law', 'Denim & Leather' - classic
albums with classic songs, it's a real privilege to be onstage with them and
unreal after seeing them as a younger audience member in their early days
through the bands Sob to Son of a Bitch then Saxon....watching their climb to
'Making it'....bizzarre...!!
Q. -
Are there plans for a new Oliver/Dawson Saxon album in the near future?
Bri - Yes, there are some
new songs in the pipeline for a new album but before that it looks like there
will be an O.D. Saxon Live DVD from a gig we did at the 'Winterstorm'
festival in Scotland in 2018 which was a brilliant gig with the a really
great audience, so some good stuff to look forward to, but everything held up
this year due to the dreaded pandemic.
Q. -
What do you think of this recent revival of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and all these
bands reforming?
Bri - If it puts the
spotlight on the N.W.O.B.H.M. then the revival thing is great...It's a great
movement that still has obsessive followers up to this day & some writers,
promoters etc. who do their best to keep it alive today. Seventh Son have
played at the brilliant 'Brofest' in Newcastle on Tyne & Hard Rock Hell in
Sheffield to name two and had a great time especially meeting up with followers
of the band & the scene, great stuff.... could do with doing some more.
Q. - In
your opinion what are the main differences between the eighties and the reality
of today?
Bri - The main difference I
suppose is the old 'Social Media' it has it's good & bad points.... we're
still an Underground band really.....still get surprised with people who
contact us from all over the place...I appreciate that.....Back in the 80's
we'd be going out with a bucket of paste and sticking up posters for gigs,
that’s what you had to do to get people there then. It had a different feel
then and a lot more of the 'do it yourself' attitude to putting out records
etc. which still continues today to some extent especially now record companies
are in difficulties...serves em right.
In
the 80's you were trying to put on as bigger show as you could on a shoestring
budget..can remember building our own 'drum riser' cobbling together lights,
painting backdrops etc. etc. all great fun...the enthusiasm carried you
through.
Q. - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?
Bri - Between 2014 and 2016
i was also in a Barnsley Goth band called The Danse Society. The band had success
in the 80's on the indie scene, appeared on television did headline tours etc.
but just didn't hit it as big as they should have and split in the mid-eighties.
I'd known their drummer for quite a while and he always said he'd like me to do
something with the band. In 2011 he got some of the members back together and
recorded an album but this time with a female vocalist as the original singer
and also bass player didn't want to be involved in the reformed line up. They
released it under the name The Danse Society as 3 ex members were on the album.
Things didn't work out though and a split happened with the drummer & keys
player going one way and the original guitarist & his girlfriend going the
other & a battle ensued for who had rights to the bands name. This was
still going on when I joined them in 2014...incredibly similar to the Saxon/OD scenario!!
I recorded an album with them called 'Reincarnated' in Leeds (Goth Central!)
which received some positive reviews did over 30 gigs with them including 4 in
London, Glasgow in Scotland & 2 trips to Italy, Rome & Milan.
It
was a heavy workload for me at the time working in 3 bands and dates inevitably
started to clash...my priorities are with Seventh Son & O.D. Saxon so I
couldn't commit to the Danse Society as they wanted so I had to drop out of it.
The drummer I know lost the battle to keep the name 'Danse Society' to the
guitarist which was very unfortunate as he started the band - unfair....another
rock n roll hard luck story. As you can guess the stuff were doing was
different to the stuff I usually do but it was a challenge I enjoyed.
Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!
Thanks
for taking the time to talk to me and I wish you and your readers all the best
luck for the future.
Bri
