Richard Laws (Tygers of Pan Tang)

 

Richard Laws also known as Rocky, was part of Tygers of Pan Tang since the early beginning in 1978 till 1984 having recorded the first four albums with the band (Wild Cat, Hellbound, Crazy Nights and The Cage). We had a chat with about the early days of Tygers of Pan Tang.

Q. - Hello Richard, how did your interest in heavy metal and hard rock music start?

Rocky – Really, I have always liked guitar music of all types (except classical guitar). The first band I was really into was the Who and then I got into prog rock like Pink Floyd and Can and then eventually Hawkwind which was where I first heard Lemmy play bass which was a life changing experience from which I took up the bass guitar myself.

Q. - What other bands did you play before Tygers of Pan Tang?

Rocky – The Tygers was my first proper band (i.e. that did actual gigs). Before that I was only played in jam sessions with friends.

 

Q. - Regarding for the early days, how did the Tygers got together?

Rocky – I was looking for a band to join or to form a band and one person who was not available gave me Robb Weir’s telephone number and I gave him a call. We didn’t actually start the Tygers for a while and he formed a band with some other people which was called Trick (which was sort of punk) and I was a roadie for them occasionally. Meanwhile I had met Brian who played drums in a friends band and I had played with him at jam sessions. I eventually persuaded Brian and Robb to try playing together with me and it worked straight away. We advertised for a singer and a guy called Mark Butcher was our singer for about 25 gigs and when he left Jess Cox joined. I think we found him through a friend.

Q. - What do you recall from your first UK tour with Magnum? firstly you were the support band, but later on Magnum support Tygers Of Pan Tang.

Rocky – It was a real step up from playing local gigs in Newcastle and we drove around in a small car (with me or Robb driving as we were the only ones who could drive) and stayed in the cheapest hotels we could find and cooked our own food on a gas stove at the gigs because we had no money! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed touring with Magnum when we were the support band. I don’t think they liked it very much when they ended up supporting us. It was really supposed to be a co-headline but we always went on last – even in Magnum’s home town as they didn’t like having to go on after us as by then we were probably a bigger band.

 

Q. - How was it like to play the Reading festival in 82 with Tygers? What do you recall from that day? Did you meet with the other bands from the bill? Have some fun together?

Rocky – We had played Reading in 80 though quite far down the bill. We were quite scared of playing in 82 because we had to go on after Blackfood who were a very good band and a bigger band than us. However it went really well and our agent told us to start playing as soon as Blackfoot stopped so people wouldn’t have a chance to talk about how good they were! We did hang out with some other musicians back stage including Lemmy and also John Sykes who had left the Tygers by then. We got on with John Sykes pretty well considering he had walked out on us!

Q. - How did the idea of recording the cover song "Love Potion No 9" came up? Was this song the last recording with John Sykes?

Rocky – It is an interesting story. We were set to use a producer called Peter Collins who had only done pop music before but wanted to try to produce a rock band and we wanted to try a pop producer. Peter later went on to produce Rush but we were his first rock band. Peter Collins was managed by Pete Waterman who later went on to become a producer himself as part of Stock Aitkin and Waterman doing such artists as Kylie Minogue but at the time he was just a manager. Anyway it was Pete Waterman’s idea to do Love Potion but I don’t think he really knew how it would sound when we played it as it is nothing like the original. In the first recording session with Peter Collins we did two songs – Love Potion and Danger in Paradise which were both on the Cage Album. After this session John Sykes left though I think he liked the recordings.

Q. - How did you feel when John Sykes left to try the vacancy for Ozzy? But he didn't get the job, did he try to return?

Rocky – We were not surprised that John auditioned for Ozzy as I had said to him when Randy Rhodes died that it would be a good gig for him as he was a big Randy fan. We were surprised that he didn’t tell us he was doing it and just disappeared overnight to go and do the audition when we were preparing for a French tour. When he didn’t get the job he did ask if he could come back but we didn’t want him back. He was a brilliant musician but quite hard to work with and it was a bit of a relief when he left!

 

Q. - In 1983 a demo tape was recorded with the songs that should have been the 5th studio record of Tygers Of Pan Tang, why did those recordings never see the light of the day?

Rocky - After the Cage album MCA Records wanted us to do another similar album with a lot of cover versions and (after the success of Love Potion) particularly more rocked up Soul Music covers. We didn’t want to do the album they wanted us to do but they wouldn’t fund the recording of anything else but also wouldn’t let us go to another record company without paying them a lot of money. We were in limbo. I don’t  think any other record companies liked the 5^th album material enough to buy us out of the MCA contract as well as pay for the recordings and eventually I got fed up and left.

Q. - After the first break due to disagreements with MCA Records, the Tygers came back for a new album (The Wreck-Age), were you contacted to be in that line-up at that time?

Rocky – No, I was not contacted. By then I was at University studying law and wouldn’t have been interested in doing it.

Q. - What other bands did you play after Tygers Of Pan Tang? Tell us a bit about it please.

Rocky – When I became a lawyer I worked in a company which mostly represented bands and artists and record companies so there were quite a few music fans and musicians who also worked there. We formed a covers band to play parties and private functions and I played bass though it was almost 10 years since I had played bass in the Tygers. It was just for fun and I never played in any serious bands after the Tygers as by then I had a legal career.

 

Q. - Do you keep an eye to hard rock and heavy metal music nowadays?

Rocky – I still like all guitar music (still don’t like classical!) and I still play guitar. I still listen to metal and might be listening to Devil Driver one minute and John Mayer the next! I can’t say that I try to keep up to date with the music scene especially as I am now retired from being a music lawyer but if I like something I will listen to it.

Q. - Did you follow Tygers Of Pan Tang career recently? Or do you keep an eye in what they're doing these days?

Rocky – Yes, I am in contact with Robb and speak to him occasionally and I went to see them live a couple of years ago when they played in London where I live.

 

Q. - What was it like to start a metal band in the late 70s? Did you realise, that something as big as the NWOBHM was going on around the UK?

Rocky – We didn’t think in terms of starting a metal band just starting a band – we just happened to sound metal (with a bit of punk and prog in the beginning). Newcastle had a very active music scene but not a metal scene though there were a few metal bands around such as Raven. We had no idea there was a growing metal scene in the UK until we saw the article by Geoff Barton in Sounds music paper and thought these bands in London (Iron Maiden) and Sheffield (Def Leppard) are a bit like us. Although we had become one of the most popular bands in Newcastle we had not connected it to any increase in interest in metal generally as there was not a particularly big metal scene where we lived.

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

Rocky – Just to say that it is great that as I am coming up to my 64^th birthday people are still interested in something that I did 40 years ago! It is a real validation of what we tried to and did achieve. So thank you very much for your interest and taking the time to put together these questions. I have enjoyed this very much!

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