Random Black

Random Black was formed in 1979, in Essex, East England, at the high pitch of the n.w.o.b.h.m. With a few demo tapes and a compilation appearance, "Ophelia" on Metal Warriors (Ebony, 1983), Random Black never released an album. We had a chat with Mark Kirkman, their guitarist, to know a little bit about them.

Q. - Mark when did you join Random Black, was it around 1979/80? Tell us a bit about the beginning of the band.

Mark - I joined in 1980, I think. Black had sort of stopped, and was a one guitar band. I added colour and harmony to the songwriting, as my love of twin harmony guitars was developing. 

Q. - For how long have you been together?

Mark - Random Black lasted from 1979 to 1985/6.

Q. - What were you're main influences at the very beginning of the band?

Mark - Definitely a love of the heavy rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, The Scorpions, UFO, Black Sabbath, Magnum, Uriah Heep and Deep Purple. Latterly the NWOBHM bands such as Iron Maiden, Diamond Head and Angel Witch.

Q. - Did you start writing your own songs since the beginning or were you most concentrated on covers?

Mark - The band had some songs when I joined, and I had a load of ideas / half-finished riffs, hooks and choruses. Stuff like Love Gone Stale, Taking the Easy Way Out, Time for Change were the band’s stage favourite songs. We worked on both, and the set soon became bigger and stronger. We used to jam cover stuff all the time, like Into the Arena by The Michael Schenker Group – but never really got on with covers. I’d done loads of that before joining, and used to like and play stuff like “Somebody get me a Doctor” by Van Halen.  We’d see bands doing “Paranoid” by Sabbath and think “Why not play your own stuff?”

Q. - I've read that the 1981 demo tape was engineered and mixed by Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum, how did that happen?

Mark - The management booked the studio time, and Matt to do the recording, engineering and mixing. He was great, controlled the songs and us too! We recorded a three song demo – Witch Daughter, Fool’s Paradise and Lost Child. That got us onto mainstream radio and interest from Ebony Records. Bloody Peely didn’t play it although I bombarded him with copies of it!

Q. - Did you try to approach a record deal at that time?

Mark - Yes. We had all the names and addresses of the A & R men at various record companies and went up to London to pester them! One day or notoriety saw us ending up drunk with the A & R guy in a Porno Cinema in Soho! Mad days…. There were rumours that Polydor showed an interest after we did Ebony and a biggish gig in Braintree, but that never materialised. And of course the NWOBHM was slowly running out of time. The New Romantics movement was taking hold, and the record companies went with that.

Q. - What about gigs, did you play around East England at that time, or in the rest of the UK or was it hard for a heavy metal band to be booked in the area at that time?

Mark - We gigged all over the UK, wherever they would have us – often for big losses. We just wanted to play and get the name out there. It was hard, trying to keep a job down and gigging in far flung places or wherever and having work at 8am the next day. Sometimes I wouldn’t even go home, just go straight to work and carry on through.

Q. - What happened at the end of the band? When did you split exactly and for what reasons? Were you working on new material before you broke up?

Mark - We went through a load of “other” guitarists – Ron Scates, Steve Adams, Ray Frost, Keith King ec – who played the harmony sections with me. The material was not easy. The guitar melodies and harmonies were difficult to learn, using interesting scales like Phrygian / Harmonic Minor / Diminished etc. Timing changes too. As the principle guitarist and musician in the band it was down to me to teach the new guitarist the set. After Keith left, we auditioned other players, but nobody fitted the bill. I suppose I’d had enough of teaching someone else all the stuff I’d written, so I decided to call it a day. I had loads of ideas left that were unused, sadly. The band didn’t carry on, and we went back in the studio in 1987 and did a posthumous recording. I did all the guitar work on that. We ran out of time and it wasn’t mixed very well, to be honest. I still have the 2” tape.

Q. - With the great talent and potential you guys had, why do you think you failed to achieve a real success?

Mark - Our stuff was probably a bit pretentious, and longwinded. We were doing some instrumental songs of 6 and 7 minutes a la Maiden, but they were smarter and better managed then we were. Steve Harris always had a vision for his band, and coupled with Rod Smallwood’s management (and of course Sanctuary Records, which he owned) they were always going to succeed. Their material was pretty standard two guitar fare back then.

Q. - Did you remain in touch with the Random Black boys till this day?

Mark - Yes and No! I saw Don a few times in the 90’s, but he faded away. Had a back injury. I am friends with Ray Frost, and he’s living and still playing in Spain. I went out to see him a few years back. John is performing as the Bon Scott character in a variety of AC/DC tribute bands. I’ve not seen Steve Adams for 30 years, and bumped into George once at one of my covers band Beggar’s gigs about 10 years ago. Lives on a house boat, apparently. I’d not seen Ronnie for many years, and we (ReMark Duo) did my mate’s wedding and he was one of the guests! Keith has depped for me in Beggar when I’ve been away. Faithful roadie Mike Lightfoot is still around and does the blues night at The New Crawdaddy and a radio show too, so still involved in music. A good friend for 30-odd years.

Q. - Then you went to form Redline with Chris Mann, Pete Morgan and Gary Meill, was it around 1985? How long did Redline last?

Mark - We did Redline from 1985 to 1989, as I recall. I’d been mates with Chris and Pete (who played in Crucifixion, another NWOBHM Essex band signed to Neat) for ages, and we’d jammed together before. They had Garry Meille interested, so we got ourselves into a studio and tried it. We auditioned a few guitarists, but decided against it. I even thought about keys, but we stayed as a 4-piece.

Q. - Was it a cover band only or were you performing originals too?

Mark - No. Originals primarily. We recorded a two track demo – “Mirror Image” and “Out of the Black” - a lament to Random Black as I was still disappointed that we had not made more of Black. I loved my time with Redline, I might add. Garry left to play with The Tattooed Love Boys with CJ, and we got Stevie Newman in. Pete was my best man at my wedding, and I’m best mates with Chris to this day. We play in a covers band called Beggar together (have done for 20 years) and ride motorcycles around Europe. We did do some covers, such as “Runnin’ with the Devil” by Van Halen, and the ubiquitous “Rock and Roll” by Led Zep.

Q. - When you look back in time, don't you feel like there's unfinished business, related to Random Black or Redline?

Mark - Of course. I thought our material was good enough and (maybe arrogantly) thought we were all very competent musicians. The music industry is a volatile beast, and you need a slice of luck as well as good material, management and planning.

Q. - So what are you doing these days? Do you still play in any other band besides ReMark? Tell us a bit about it.

Mark - I still play over 100 gigs a year - with Beggar, a 5 piece rock band (www.beggar.org.uk) and ReMark duo and ReMark band (www.remarkduo.co.uk) – I do Beggar with my old bandmates Chris Mann and Bob Harding, my childhood neighbour Richard Pattle and seasoned singer Matt Ralph. ReMark is with my missus Becky Newbrook. We do a duo, and also a band version with bass and drums. I’ve just done a festival which had a reputed 5,000 people there with Heaven 17, Big Minds (members of Big Country and Simple Minds in it) etc.

Q. - How do you see the heavy metal scene nowadays? Do you keep interest on new bands?

Mark - My son got me into the Nu Metal scene, and I love Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach, Sum 41, Linken Park etc etc. New bands like Shinedown, Black Stone Cherry, Stone Broken, Greta Van Fleet, King King etc interest me too.

Q - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?

Mark - I was really lucky to live in the era I did, taking influence from the early / mid ‘70’s rock bands and with punk and bands like Van Halen. Random Black was a great band, and I wish we had managed to take it further – but that’s life! We met so many great people, players, famous people, fanatical fans, mad as a hatter people etc and wouldn’t swap my time for anything. So many stories (some you couldn’t make up or print!!) and experiences. Magical….

Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!