quinta-feira, 24 de janeiro de 2019

Tee Rets (Rampant, Bawls-Out)




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.

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!

segunda-feira, 21 de janeiro de 2019

Seventh Era




Seventh Era was born in August 1979 by Andrew and Chris Lambert in their home town of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Both brothers having a huge passion for ‘Rock/ Metal’ music wanted to create their own music. We talked with bass player Chris Lambert, to know more about Seventh Era.

Q. - Hello Chris, tell us a bit about the origins of Seventh Era, how and when did it all start? Who were the first members of the band? How did you get in touch with the other members?
Chris - Seventh Era originated in August 1979 by Andrew and Chris Lambert in their home town of Kidderminster, Worcestershire, England. Both brothers having a huge passion for ‘Rock/ Metal’ music wanted to create their own music.
Andy and Chris ‘self-taught’ themselves their instruments, Andy played guitar, Chris on bass. The drummer, Gary Hawkes, was found in their local pub and chosen for his hard hitting double bass drumming and a friend was helping look for a vocalist and Miles Wright, a natural front man with excellent range came forward.
After a couple of local gigs, both Chris and Andy realised they needed a fuller sound so then they sought and found a rhythm guitarist, Rob Lloyd, the band was now complete.



Q. - Who would you cite as your major influences at that time?
Chris - Major influences were Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest and White Snake.

Q. - What other bands did you play before Seventh Era?
Chris - Neither Chris or Andy played with any other bands before Seventh Era. Seventh Era was their first band.

Q. - How was the West Midlands metal scene back in the day? Was it a united scene? What were you relations with other local bands? Did you help each other?
Chris - There were very few rock/ metal bands at this time, just a couple in Kidderminster, Arc was another band and we giggled with them and helped each other out with equipment.
We were able to pull good crowds to our gigs locally, you could always count on a good turnout.



Q. - Did you play regularly in the UK back then or was it hard for a heavy metal band to be booked at that time?
Chris - We played regularly all over the midlands. It wasn’t easy to get bookings but easier than today.
I used to buy music magazines which advertised gigs and I phoned up venues to get bookings.
At this time there was a great deal of original music around, far more than today, therefore you could get the gigs. Today in England cover bands have taken over and the general public are not keen to attend gigs when they are not familiar with the band or the tracks they are playing.



Q. - The songs "Hellraiser", "Endless Slaughter" and "Satan's Calling" appear on both demos from 1984, are these different recordings or are the same recordings on different demos?
Chris - Hell Raiser, Endless Slaughter and Satan’s calling are the same tracks on different demos from 1984, just the covers were different.

Q. - After these first demos, did you try to approach a label, to record an LP?
Chris - After these demos were recorded, a friend of Chris’s approached a couple of labels in London, Bronze records who had signed Motorhead. Bronze records liked Seventh Era but we’re looking for a faster sound like Motorhead.

Q. - Do you have some more demo recordings from the 80's era, besides the 1984 demos?
Chris - There are other demos from the 1980’s, one was recorded in 1982 with a different drummer by the name of Mark Daniels which included the original versions of Endless Slaughter and Satan’s Calling. I am still trying to track this particular demo down at present. Another demo was also done in 1986 which is connected to the Seventh Era at Kidderminster Town Hall which is available on YouTube with Andy Lambert playing and singing vocals. This is being searched for at present as well.

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?
Chris - The band continued playing until 1990, the line up just before we finished was Andy Lambert - Lead, Chris Lambert - Bass, David Hill - Drums, The late Mark Freeman - Vocals. Three of these tracks can be found on YouTube under the heading ‘Seventh Era Knighton’. After this line up in 1990, the Lambert brothers formed a band with Gary Hawkes and John Parmenter on vocals called UXB. This band continued playing for around 12 months.

Q. - How did the idea of record "Hard Rock Never Dies" came up?
Chris - Hard Rock Never Dies came from a period when Seventh Era reformed in 2001 with once again Chris and Andy, new front man Russell Hayes and drummer Nick Haynes.

Q. - Can you tell us the current line-up of the band? And the background of the new members?
Chris - The band today, new line up in 2018 is Chris Lambert on bass, Simon Nichols on vocals, Chris Taylor on lead guitar and Elliot Hughes on drums.



Q. - What plans do you have for Seventh Era future? Are you planning new recordings? What can we expect from Seventh Era?
Chris - We are just in the process of re recording tracks from Seventh Era’s back catalogue from 1979-1986. An hoursworth of material at present and hoping to be gigging with this new line up in early 2019. We are currently seeking new contacts for gigs as we are from the NWOBHM era.

Q. - Besides Seventh Era, what other bands do you play nowadays?
Chris - In answer to your question regarding if I play with any other bands, the answer is no, my heart and soul is with Seventh Era and I only want to move my band forward and play as Seventh Era.

Q. - How do you see the heavy metal scene nowadays? Do you keep an eye on what's going on? Are you still a heavy metal fan?
Chris - I see the heavy metal scene as very difficult for the smaller heavy metal bands , really difficult to pull crowds unless you a large well known band. I keep my finger on the pulse of metal/ rock bands world wide. The only area in metal I’m not particularly interested in is the ‘death metal ‘scene, Metallica probably being the heaviest I would listen to.

Q. - And what do you think of this recent revival of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and all these bands reforming?
Chris - The recent revival of the NWOBHM can only be a positive as Seventh Era were and remain a part of this era.



Q. - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?
Chris - To finish, if my bands new line up works as well as I hope, I would very much like to play gigs across Europe , I have always felt that Germany for example would be an ideal country for my music. I would very much appreciate contacts, feedback from other countries like this written interview from yourself. I thank you for your interest and I hope we have more to write to each other on the future.
Wishing you a very happy New Year.

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








Simon Adams A.K.A. Bandwagon Sid

  Simon Adams A.K.A. Bandwagon Sid, was a regular at the Bandwagon (Soundhouse), in the early days of the NWOBHM movement, even winning the ...