sexta-feira, 24 de abril de 2020

Rosanna's Raiders – Before & After The Fire 1985-2019 (We Are Raiders 35th Anniversary)




Rosanna's Raiders – Before & After The Fire 1985-2019 (We Are Raiders 35th Anniversary)

Rosanna's Raiders is a female fronted power trio from Australia, and Rosanna Palmer (lead vocalist, guitarist and composer) is the driving force behind the band.
David Palmer is the bass player (and Rosanna's husband) and the drummer is Johno Zaffarese.
Rosanna's Raiders – Before & After The Fire 1985-2019 (We Are Raiders 35th Anniversary) is a compilation CD.
The first CD compiles their best tracks recorded between 1996 and 2019. CD2 includes the 1985 debut cassette album "We Are Raiders", and the bonus track "One Man".
Being this year the 35th Anniversary of the album We Are Raiders.
Apart of being an excellent singer with high range, and great melodic lines, Rosanna proves to have great abilities as guitar player, as you can hear on both cds.
The band's sound can be described as Christian Melodic Heavy Metal, with Hard Rock touches.


terça-feira, 21 de abril de 2020

Tony Miles (Gibraltar)




Gibraltar was formed in early 1979 by drummer Jim Lassen and guitarist Tony Miles, and recorded a 3 song demo tape in 1980, these songs are featured in the V1/Gibraltar compilation "The Spaceward Super Sessions". We had a chat with Tony Miles, about his days in Gibraltar.

Q. - Hello Tony, so what can you tell us about your musical beginnings in Hard Rock particularly? Who were your principal influences and what bands did you play before Gibraltar?
Tony - Like mosy of my age I was brought up with the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Small Faces, Cream, Hendrix, etc  but soon after discovered Humble Pie, Rory Gallagher, Alex Harvey, Boston, ZZ Top and so on and so on. Basically, I had a classic rock education. Prior to Gibraltar my first ‘real band’ was TUSH, an East London-based band that played a mixture of originals and covers. One of our members at the time was Phil Collen who now plays with Def Leppard of course. I still see Phil from time to time.



Q. - Tell us a bit about the origins of Gibraltar, how and when did it all start? How did you get in touch with the other members?
Tony - After TUSH split, Gibraltar was a project started around 1978 by myself and an old drummer friend, Jim Lassen. We both loved hard rock and decided to form a new band together. We placed adverts in the music press to find other musicians. We eventually found a bass player Steve Parsons (brother of ex-Iron Maiden guitarist Tony Parsons) and a singer, one Dennis Willcock. Steve didn’t last long with us so I recruited my old bass player from TUSH, Mickey Tickton. So the finished line-up was myself, Jim, Dennis and Mickey. During the time we were auditioning and rehearsing we had Steve Parsons, Tony Parsons, Bob Sawyer, Ron Matthews (for a couple of gigs) all play with us for a time.

Q. - Do you remember who came up with the band's name, and why did you choose Gibraltar?
Tony - No is the quickest answer. I really don’t remember if it was Dennis or me. But the idea for the name came from the Rock of Gibraltar. We were a rock band so being called Gibraltar fitted well.

Q. - A 3 song demo tape were recorded in 1980. Was it your first experience in studio? What do you recall from these recording season?
Tony -Jim, Mickey and I all had previous experience in recording. Dennis also had recorded demos with his previous band V1 of course. The demo recording took place over 2 days in Spaceward Studios, Cambridge. It all went reasonably well, with no problems during recording. We were quite happy with the results at the time.



Q. - Did you sell this demo at shows, send it to fanzines? What feedback did you receive from this demo?
Tony - We used the demo to get gigs, such as the Ruskin Arms, etc. We did send the tape to a few music magazines but there was no real substantial feedback we could use. I think we weren’t ‘metal’ enough at the time. There was some interest from Derek Lawrence, a producer who had previously produced Deep Purple and others, but it never progressed from there. I think we were still in the process of working out what the band was supposed to be about, we weren’t ready for the next stage.

Q. - Did the demo tape have airplay on Neal Kay's Bandwagon? Or did you play there too?
Tony - The short answer is no. We never played there but the tape might have been played for all I know.

Q. - Do you remember the set list that you use to play with Gibraltar at that time? Did you play some covers too?

Tony - We played all original songs, obviously the songs on the demo and some other songs I’d either previously played in TUSH or Jim and I had written together. We did play the songs Tush and Hey Joe at a couple of gigs when Ron Matthews played with us though.




Q. - Did you try to find a record deal to release an Lp at that time?
Tony - We did send the demos out here and there and invited various music biz people to come to our shows but it never turned into anything positive enough. I also think the record companies had enough NWOBHM bands on their books at the time.

Q. - After a break, Gibraltar came back in 1984, what was the bands line up at that time?
Tony - We did a few gigs with myself, Dennis, Mickey and a drummer named Dave Manning. I still have a video of one of those gigs and a cassette tape too!

Q. - Did you stay in touch with Gibraltar former members over the years?
Tony - Yes, off and on. Mickey and I formed a band briefly in the late ‘80s. Jim, who is still an old friend, I speak to every week. I lost contact with Dennis in ’84 until he reappeared in 2014.



Q. - Were you happy with the edition of "The Spaceward Super Sessions" by HR Records in 2015? Was it like a dream come true?
Tony - I was pleased to have some recognition for what we did back in the day, it was completely unexpected. Obviously now I wish we had recorded more of our songs for release but I’m not complaining. It’s a matter of official record now so that’s good enough for me.

Q. - After a long hiatus Gibraltar reunited around 2015, did you guys feel some kind of unfinished business?
Tony - Yes, that would be a good way of putting it, unfinished business. It was the initial approach from HR Records that gave us the idea of putting something back together. But due to personal circumstances it was really only possible for Dennis and I to be involved with anything new, all the others were unable to contribute unfortunately.

Q. - But this new version of Gibraltar was short lived, what happened that lead to the break?
Tony - Another good question. From the start I think Dennis’s expectations and my expectations were very different. His involvement and enthusiasm with the reformed V1 were way much more than I’d been prepared for so it felt like Gibraltar was of less importance to him. The communication between us got worse over time and it was inevitable that it would fall apart. It’s a real shame because I strongly felt there was potential there for us to be doing something very different to what we’d done in Gibraltar, before. I also think Dennis’s desire to chase after Iron Maiden for money he felt they still owed him became a massive distraction for all of us. As you may know, that is still the subject of ongoing legal proceedings so I’m unable to say more about it at the moment.



Q. - How do you see the Hard Rock and Heavy Metal scenes nowadays? Do you keep an eye on what's going on?
Tony - Good question. The scene to me seems fairly saturated by sound-alike and look-alike bands and not much originality around these days. Having said that, there are still some very good bands around, like Alter Bridge for example. I also became a fan of Seattle grunge so like listening to Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, etc. I also listen to a lot of stuff that’s not necessarily hard or heavy rock. For now, it’s only the mega bands like Iron Maiden that stick out as being exceptional and really continue to draw the big crowds. Their consistency and longevity has to be admired though. What happens next in rock music is anyone’s guess.

Q. - So what are you doing these days? Do you still play in any band? Tell us a bit about it.
Tony - These days I’m playing with a small local blues band in Cambridgeshire called the Blackjack Blues Band. We play lot of blues songs that were originally performed by Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Robert Johnson, Freddie King, and so on. It’s fun and keeps me playing!

Q. - How do you want to end up this interview? Anything more you want to say?
Tony - Covered most of it, I think. It’s cool that people like yourself still take an interest in the histories of bands from back in the day. When I saw Iron Maiden for the first time, they were just a pub rock band, not much different to my old band TUSH in many ways. But it’s an odd combination of talent, luck, timing and sheer determination that makes the difference between make or break. It’s the same for everyone.



Thank you for your time, and wish you all the best for the future!
You’re welcome and wish you well also! J





segunda-feira, 13 de abril de 2020

Chris Vye (Prowler)




Chris Vye was the lead guitarist from Prowler (Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire) in the early and mid-80's, having recorded two singles (Forgotten Angels in 1983, and Alcatraz in 1985) and two demo tapes (84 and 87). Later joined hard rock bands Bad Reputation and Passion xx. We has a chat with Chris about these matters and future plans.

Q. - Hello Chris! Tell us a bit about your background in heavy metal, what bands did you have before Prowler, and what your main influences?
Chris - Before Prowler I was in a band called Last Resort and we were actually semi New Wave at the time.
I was into a bands like Dr. Feelgood, Pink Floyd, definitely Pink Floyd were one of my first influences, and bands like AC/DC, UFO, Van Halen, and Thin Lizzy were obviously, a big influence on me.

Q. - When did you join Prowler? Were you a founding member? Tell us a bit about the beginning of the band.
Chris - I really can't remember the year, I wasn't a founding member, when the band was in its infancy, Steve Whetton was the other guitar player in the band at that time, he was a very good friend of mine and he ended up being the lighting guy, it just happen that way at that time, nothing was recorded with him or any live gigs, he was in the band only in the very early days. Obviously I enjoyed being the guitar player and I had known Steve Philpotts since school.



Q. - How did the band name came up?
Chris - When I joined they already had the name. The name came from the very first Iron Maiden album, one of the tracks on that album was called Prowler, the opening track, and so that's where the name came from.

Q. - Did you start writing your own songs since the beginning or were you most concentrated on covers?
Chris - Right from the beginning we wanted to write our own stuff, it was really important, you know, in the style of the NWOBHM and we wanted to do our own thing and tried to come up with our own sound. We did do one or two covers at the start but we replace them as we wrote more stuff.

Q. - How did the idea of record the single "Forgotten Angels" came up?
Chris - Forgotten Angels is a song that was written by Rob Philpotts, obviously we can rewrite our own parts to it, including solos and stuff, Rob wrote the song and it's one of the first things that we have got properly recorded.
It sounds a bit basic nowadays compared to what is possible now because the technology was just completely steam train back in those days. We just couldn't get the sounds the people can get now. We did our best and we did it honestly. Technology and gear is incredible now... we would have loved to have it back then!



Q. - Did you get support in the media back then? Radio, magazines, fanzines?
Chris - To be honest we had a few things in the media more gig listings, we weren't a leading band, we were very much in the lower ranks so pretty much unless you were quite big, the media tend to ignore you a bit, so we didn't get a lot of assistance from the media to be honest.

Q. - At a certain point Prowler toured with Bernie Marsden as an opening act, how did that happen?
Chris - As to Bernie Marsden, I'm not sure how we came about. We did a gig, I think we were asked to do a gig, at the Trent Polytechnic, in Nottingham, with Bernie Marsden and we supported him there. Bernie liked us so much that they took us along and we went to the Marquee in London, which was a great experience, you know, the great and the good were there, Micky Moody, John Sykes, and all those kind of people it was an amazing experience and we really enjoyed to gig there at the old Marquee. Micky was a lovely guy and sent us some beer off his rider which was so nice of him... fantastic guy and player.



Q. - Why did Prowler split up in 1990? What happened that lead to the break?
Chris - We had been playing together quite a lot and the brothers start to not get along musically as well as they used to do, they got different ideas on things and I think just generally the atmosphere in the band was just gone a little bit. It's just one of those things, it just slowly died and that was it.

Q. - Did you keep in touch with the other former members all over the years?
Chris - Yes, I know them all pretty much, they were all fairly close, I actually played in a band with the lead singer from Prowler, Ian Morrison, for a while, we didn't do much, we did just a couple of gigs and I went to join Bad Reputation and later Passion xx with whom I recorded another single.

Q. - When did you record your solo demo tape "Wild One"? Were you already in Prowler, or was prior to that? What reactions did you get from these recordings? Did you try to find a record deal to release it?
Chris - "Wild One" was actually recorded quite a long while after Prowler, and also after Bad Reputation, I would say it was probably about 1989/90, something like that.
Recording gear become a lot easier than it was in the old days, back then it was ridiculous expensive and I got an 8 track cassette recorder and it allowed me to record at home, "Wild One" was actually sessions I did on my own flat, the drum machine, some keyboards and just play my own stuff and it really started from there. I sold the tapes locally. I was quite happy about that, and that was a long time ago. They have ended up all over the world which completely amazed me!



Q. - After you leave Prowler you joined the hard rock band "Bad Reputation", how did that happen?
Chris - I knew the guys from Bad Reputation anyway cause we'd done gigs with them before, when I was in Prowler, so I knew them quite well, and had gone fantastically, Pete Brown was the bass player of Bad Reputation and he asked me to join, and it was great fun, we did a quite few gigs mostly in the Midlands area. It really went pretty well and I really enjoyed to be there, it was a fun time.

Q. - Did you record any songs with them?
Chris - We did do a recording but to be honest I don't have a copy of it, I’m sure someone might have it somewhere.



Q. - For how long were "Bad Reputation" active?
Chris - I think Bad Reputation ware active a couple of years, I would say. After that I ended up doing some stuff with bass player and lead singer from Prowler, like I said and then I go on to record my own songs so that started really about 10/15 years ago when I started really writing my own stuff which is mostly "Steve Vai'sh" solo instrumental music

Q. - Have you ever thought about doing a compilation on cd with the singles and demos recorded by Prowler in the 80's?
Chris - The answer to that is yes, why not? I'd love to, some of the tapes aren't in the best of conditions, and in fact all the songs were written by the Philpotts brothers they're not feeling like releasing the material. I've tried to persuade them to do it but you know they don't seem particularly keen on the idea at the moment, so didn't go any further than that. It is looking like some of the tracks may be re-recorded this year... not 100% yet but could happen!



Q. - What do you think of this recent revival of the N.W.O.B.H.M., and all these bands reforming?
Chris - You know what? It was a fantastic time back in the 80's, everyone was enjoying that kind of music, we live free back then, so it's really nice to see it back, it's good time music, people had a lot of fun and I think it's great that these bands are coming back.

Q. - So what are you doing these days? Do you still play in any band?
Chris - Right now I’m still writing and playing my own music, and to be honest I'd really like to form a new band on this area, Midlands, (and hopefully this virus that we are standing is soon over) to play some of my own stuff, maybe some covers, maybe even some Prowler stuff, but, you never know.



Q. - Are you still a heavy metal fan these days?
Chris - Absolutely! You can't beat this stuff from back on those days, I hate to sound old fashioned but I just think in a lot ways, it was just better than some other stuff now, some stuff now, it's a little bit too clinical and plus the fact I’m not keen on mega mega heavy music.

Q. - Anything more you want to say, to end up this interview?
Chris - I Think that's it, hopefully this is enough and that will be everything you need to know, thanks!

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 ...