Paul Ward (Bastille, Dianno)

Paul Ward joined the band Bastille, from Essex, around 79, and recorded a demo tape with them. Later joined ex Iron Maiden lead singer solo band, Dianno, and recorded the self-titled album in 1984 and the live DVD recorded at The Palace. Here’s the interview with guitarist Paul Ward:

Q. - Hello Paul! When did you join Bastille? Were you a founding member? Tell us a bit about the beginning of the band.

Paul - Bastille was already formed before I joined. It was a local band from my hometown and I joined just before they started to do shows in London and across the country. The driving force was Richard Bull on lead vocals. He hustled and got us all the gigs. That’s how we ended up playing at the Marquee club in London and built up a following.

Q. - How did the band name came up?

Paul - It was just one of those things that you pick. It wasn’t me who came up with it, as I said I joined the band later.

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

Paul - We did a lot of writing our own material, before I joined they has some original material, but were also doing covers like AC/DC’s Whole lot of Rosie. I knew that if we didn’t develop more material, we would never make it moving forward.

Q. - In 1979 a 3 song demo tape were recorded with the help of Adrian Smith and Andy Barnett. Was it your first experience in studio? Were you friends with Adrian and Andy? What do you recall from these recording season?

Paul - I really don’t remember Adrian and Andy being involved. Possibly it was before my time. Although I did record demos with the band. In those days we were all playing on the same circuit. Andy and Adrian had a band called Urchin, we all used to hang out with them. Nobody thought of being famous as such, we were all musicians doing our thing and mostly living in the moment.

It was the same during my Dianno days, we’d often have a beer with some of the maiden members (Adrian had joined by then) Phil Collen was in the same crowd of Musos, he was playing in a band called Girl then. He can to see the first Dianno gig at the Ruskin arms, which apparently was the largest audience the venue ever had.

Q. - The song "Hard Man" appeared on the compilation "New Electric Warriors", how did that happen?

Paul - That would have been Richards work. He would have talked someone into it. That riff, which was a Bastille original is very close to Iron Maidens 2 minutes to midnight which was released in 1984. ;-)

Q. - Was there any promotional tour after the release of this compilation?

Paul - Not to my knowledge??

Q. - Bastille did several gigs and festivals with bands such as Angel Witch, More, Trespass, or Samson, do you have any special from any of those shows?

Paul - My biggest memory was supporting Gary Moore at the Marquee in London. He was a massive influence on me, as he was for many others.

Q. - The 1980, 3 track demo, was recorded in order to find a record deal? Did you send the tape to record companies?

Paul - At the time there were so many bands out there. Our profile was quite good be pass we played a lot of gigs and worked hard. But no deal was forthcoming. Eventually it split up and band members went back to day jobs. I carried on in other bands. I formed a band called Rich Bitch with Electra McLeod from 12 night and Mick Ransome from Praying Mantis.  He was the one that introduced me to Paul Dianno.

Q. - What do you think that lacked to "Bastille" to have a successful career?

Paul - There were so many Rock bands at that time and when push come to shove I don’t think the personal commitment was there.

Richard was amazing though, he was the one who got us playing at proper venues and got us noticed.

Q. – What about Lonewolf? How did the band got together, did you know each other’s before?

Paul - As I mentioned earlier. Paul was looking to form a new band and Mick Ransom introduced me to him. Paul came over and we jammed together and we gelled immediately. The other members of the band were from an outfit called Minus Tirith. Paul wanted a keyboard player and they has a really good one. Mark Venables. Paul and I were both impressed with the band as a whole and Paul decided to hire the bass player (Kevin Browne) in the end the whole band got hired including Lee Slater on guitar. Great player and to this day we are good friends.

Q. - The name Lonewolf didn't last too much, did you change the name to Dianno, because of legal problems?

Paul - Some other band had the name it turned out, so we ditched it. Our management were keen to use Paul’s name as he had the most profile. Paul wasn’t keen but gave in.

Q. - Was there any plans for a second Dianno album before the band split up?

Paul - Yes, we had written some of the material.

I like to think Dianno was a good band with first class musicians and Paul was determined not to sound like Maiden, but the fans couldn’t really accept It. We toured the album in support slot with Thin Lizzy, which was amazing but after that things started to slide. I was the first to leave and it just fell apart.

Paul, Kevin and Mark tried to keep it alive with Janick Gers on guitar, but it was short lived and obviously he joined Iron Maiden.

Q. - Do you keep in touch with the former members of Bastille or Dianno?

Paul - Yeah sure. Not so much bastille guys, but with Dianno band members, we speak all the time.

Q. - In what other bands did you play after the end of Dianno? Tell us a bit about it please.

Paul - I stopped after that. Lee Slater and I did some session work, but I moved into a different career in the Sound side of things.

I still play a bit, but that’s for my own amusement really.

Q. - Do you keep an eye to hard rock and heavy metal music nowadays? Are there some bands that got your attention?

Paul - I like a vast variety of music, I’m not fixed on Heavy metal. I really like Killswitch engage though.

Q. - How do you want to end up this interview? Anything more you want to say?

Paul - Thanks for the opportunity, it was interesting and brought back some fantastic memories.

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