Phil John (Nightime Flyer)

Nightime Flyer still gained some notoriety with the single "Out with a Vengeance", back in 1980, the b-side of this single, "Heavy Metal Rules", was covered by Slough Feg in the single Hail Brittania Volume One - a NWOBHM Tribute. We had a chat with drummer Phil John, about his times in Nightime Flyer .

Q. - Hello Phil, tell us a little bit about your beginnings in the hard rock and heavy metal world, what were you're main influences, what lead you to be a heavy metal drummer?

Phil - As a teenager in the 1970’s I was into all the chart stuff at the time, Slade, The Sweet, T Rex etc and it was a mate of mine who started to introduce me to bands like ELP, Rush, ZZ Top and Black Sabbath. When I first heard Electric Funeral by Sabbath I was blown away and it all started from there basically.

That was before I had my first drum kit at 16 and after around 6 months of practice I formed a band with mates of mine playing stuff like Status Quo, Wishbone Ash and various other rock bands around at that time. My interest in HM grew a lot back then and I became a massive Sabbath fan and also got into bands like Judas Priest and Deep Purple and of course taking an interest in the drummers especially. Carl Palmer of ELP fame was and still is my favourite player and inspiration and I’ve met him on numerous occasions.

Q. - When did you join Nightime Flyer?

Phil - After a few bands I teamed up with three other guys and we formed Nightime Flyer which at the time were a five piece band and because we had a keyboard player we had more of a prog rock sound rather than straight rock, we were very early Genesis influenced back then.

After a little while our keyboard player left and we became more of a hard rock band. This was around 1978. Not long after our singer called it a day and we recruited another vocalist who had more of a hard rock voice. The band then consisted of myself, Roger Davies on guitar, Neil Rogers on bass and Leighton John on vocals. (Sadly since those days Leighton and Neil have passed away RIP). Roger was quite a handy guy and we decided to build our own PA and lighting system in order for us to put on shows with a bit of professionalism. A guy named Kerry Williams teamed up with us and various people to help with sound and lights. We nicknamed Kerry ‘Gandalf’ as he was a bit of a wizard and loved using pyrotechnics and dry ice as part of the show. The band did numerous gigs locally and some further afield and we were a very popular band playing mostly original songs but also some covers (of which I can’t remember but definitely some Sabbath).

Q. - When did the idea of recording the single "Out with a Vengeance" came up?

Phil - We decided to record a self-financed single which if I remember correctly we recorded at Spaceward Studios in Hereford in the UK (the studio is still up and running as far as I am a aware). We only pressed 1000 copies of the single as it was self- financed and at that time a friend of Leightons sort of became our ‘manager’ and got us bigger gigs. We sold the single at gigs plus programmes, t-shirts, patches and badges to try and make some extra cash.

This was all around 1979/1980 when it took off big time (I’m not 100% sure about the dates as it was a LONG time ago).

Q. - Did the single have airplay on Neal Kay's Bandwagon? Or did you play there too?

Phil - Sounds magazine at the time were running features where Dj’s nationwide asked bands to send in their demos and they would play them at their rock clubs and would them list them in a ‘chart’ in the paper. That’s when Neal Kaye took an interest in us and he played the single/acetate at The Bandwagon. We went there to visit the club and meet him and we had a blast. We did eventually play there but it was just after Neal had left to do other things in the business (I think he sort of managed Iron Maiden for a while). Nightime Flyer also used to hire our PA system for various bands that came to play the clubs in our area and we provided PA and lights for bands like Demon, Vardis, Praying Mantis and Dark Star to name a few.

Q. - It surprises you that the single "Out with a Vengeance", still have so much acceptation these days? Do you think this single have stood the test of time?

Phil - The single has been bootlegged on numerous occasions with coloured vinyl and I’ve seen it sold on Ebay for around £60 a shot. The original cover never had the ‘Flyer Man’ logo on the front (which I designed) so if you see one of those it’s a bootleg! Little did we know then that our small band and single would be mentioned on dozens of music sites and site shops worldwide. The band Slough Feg from San Fransisco covered the B Side ‘Heavy Metal Rules’ on the Miskatonic label as part of the 25th anniversary of the NWOBHM some years back and I’ve never heard it. Last year Lars Ulrich from Metallica mentioned the single and HMR on a podcast he did in the USA , he said he thought it was great! The single was recorded in a 16 track studio and had was very crude with practically no production, but that’s how it was back then. It has really surprised me how our little song some see as an anthem for the NWOBHM movement, we had an ‘acetate’ pressing made for Neal Kaye who ran the Bandwagon in London (the man really who started the whole NWOBHM movement) and through him met Iron Maiden and various other bands who hit the big time.

As far as the single standing the test of time well it seems to have but its production was practically nil and could have been a lot better. But if it’s good enough for Lars Ulrich it’s good enough for me.

Phil John later joined Pathfinder, around 1983, and after he leaves Pathfinder, joined Preyer with whom he recorded the LP Terminator, in 1986, later formed Talan, having recorded the single Spellbinder in 1990. Also known for having designed some logos for Talan and Samurai.