Gary Aubert was the bass player for Jersey band Legend, they were active during the first half of the 80s, and came back in 2002 recording two more albums, Still Screaming (in 2003) and The Dark Place (in 2013), here's a chat with Gary, about this great band:
Q. - Hello Gary! When did you
join Legend? How did it happen? Tell us a little bit about the early days.
Gary - Hi Paulo, I was playing in
a covers band (Parasite) with Marco Morosino (Guitarist on Legends 1st
album), Neil Haworth (Bass guitar on the demo tape extras on ‘Anthology’ CD and
Rhythm guitar on The Dark Place) and Gavin Bartlett on drums. One night in June
1980, after practice with Parasite, we went down to Hilgrove Hall in Gorey (an
old, spooky church building that we continued to use with Legend), to see
Neil’s brother Peters band, a 3-piece band known as Doctor Morbius, with Peter
Haworth on guitar and vocals, Julian Wakeham on bass and Dave Whitely on drums.
My jaw hit the floor, I’d never heard such a professional sounding, awesomely loud
band in Jersey before! Within a few weeks, Pete was in touch to see if I’d like
to try out for his new band and though extremely nervous, I jumped at the
chance. After a few weeks Julian decided to leave the band (he was playing
rhythm guitar then) and Marco was offered the job as second guitarist. This
band was formed purely to headline a heavy metal concert in November ’80 at The
Royal hotel. The name Legend was decided upon sometime in August, with Pete
designing our logo of unique text and the cloaked hands wielding a mace.
We gelled very quickly and
started writing new songs straight away, all we needed was a vocalist. After
trying out several singers, it was when Mike Lezala (a folk singer/guitarist
who knew very little of rock music) came to us, that we knew he was so right
for the band. A few weeks later in early August an up-and-coming band (Saxon)
played in Jersey at Fort Regent for 2 nights, after seeing that gig, I knew
exactly that I was in the right band at the right time.
We played our 1st gig in November ‘80, playing our own songs and the audience loved our music, this was the reason we decided to record our 1st LP in February ’81. Funnily enough, we played ‘747- Strangers in the night’ as an encore but were told our music was much more appreciated. We never played any other cover songs after that.
Q. - Who would you cite as your
major influences at that time?
Gary - My main influence, from an early age was The Sweet. I loved their singles in the charts and when I bought the records and played the ‘B’ sides I loved how heavy and hard rocking a band they really were. Gradually I got to know Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, Deep Purple and all the other great music of the rock genre.
Q. - How about shows? How was the
heavy metal scene in Jersey? Did you play regularly back then? Or was it hard
for a heavy metal band to be booked in the area at that time?
Gary - There really weren’t many opportunities for heavy metal bands in Jersey and as our island is only 45 square miles, you would always be playing to more or less the same audience every time. Because of this, we tried to leave around a 3-month gap between gigs, to allow us time to write more songs and our fans looked forward to these irregular gigs. We always organised our own gigs at hotels or clubs that could also allow under 18’s to attend.
Gary - We did feel outside of the movement, though were humbled to regularly see our songs or albums in the independent charts of Kerrang/Sounds etc. and Tommy Vance gave us a couple of plays on the Friday rock show. If only we could have had the opportunity to gig for a couple of weeks in the UK, things may have been quite different. It was a massive shock with the dawn of the internet, to realise our albums had travelled all over the world and fans used to write to us quite regularly. We have a verified photo of a cassette tape that had been recorded and traded by none other than Lars Ulrich!!!!
Q. - However, you were the
opening act for Thin Lizzy on their 81 UK tour, tell us a bit about this tour,
and how important was it for Legend?
Gary - Playing on the same stage as Thin Lizzy was an absolute honour, this was only our 4th gig and I was only just 18, it all seemed quite unreal. I’m sure we played well as everyone in the audience (2,500) enjoyed us. The only downside was that Lizzy’s road crew had cut the wires to our flash bombs and didn’t let us use the monitors at the front of the stage, so we were hearing a crazy mix of our own amplifiers and the music returning from the back of the hall a second or so later. It was great to meet Phil Lynott after the show, he really was one of the good guys.
Q. - Did you try to find a record
deal before editing both albums "Legend" and "Death in the
Nursery" by yourselves?
Gary - We never tried for a record deal, we funded our 1st album between the 5 of us and we managed to get enough back to fund some more copies of the 1st album and a little towards us recording Death in the Nursery. It was probably a good thing that we had total control with our band. Obviously, Death in the Nursery was quite different to the 1st album as we had lost Marco to University, and we decided to keep going with just one guitarist, so our music took a slightly different direction, with shorter, snappier songs.
Q. - Why did you leave
"Legend" back in 83?
Gary - I left Legend in February ‘83 when I damaged my spine in an accident at work. I was in massive pain for the next 5 months and sadly it’s always been there to some degree ever since. There was a gig lined up for March ’83 as support for Bernie Torme in Jersey. I taught Neil Haworth all the bass parts so Legend could play this gig.
Q. - After the split, did you
stay in touch with each other over the years? Were you involved in some other
musical projects?
Gary - Sadly, we did lose touch for a while, though we have always remained very close friends. A year or so later I joined another band over here called Ruff Justice. The songs we played were covers and we were very popular over here.
Q. - I think Pete Haworth was the
driving force in Legend, it's been almost two years since his passing, do you
think Legend will ever play live again someday?
Gary - Yes, Pete was definitely the driving force of the band. He was such a talent, with his song writing, musically and lyrically, and many of his lyrics are still true in this current time. He is greatly missed, and I doubt we will ever play live again without Pete.
Q. - It's been 9 years since the
edition of "The Dark Place", were you happy with the release of this
album and what it achieved so far?
Gary - We were all extremely happy with The Dark Place. It was recorded over 5 weekends at Gilbert O'Sullivan's studio in Jersey. I know from mine and Pete’s point of view, we probably spent half of our time laughing and I have some really great memories. I know, as we posted all the CD’s that they were being sent all over the world and that it was well received by our loyal fans.
Q. - Any special memories from
playing Keep It True back in 2013?
Gary - Keep it True was an amazing experience for us. We flew Jersey to Gatwick, Gatwick to Frankfurt and then drove down to the festival, with our own music blasting out of the van’s cd player for 90 km. The hotel we stayed in was mostly occupied by other bands also playing at the festival and in the first evening we went for a few drinks in the nearest town. The people we met in Germany were so friendly and the bars all seemed happy to play rock music, I’d love to go back sometime. The festival itself is so well organised by Ollie and Tarek and we loved every minute of our hour on stage. The fans there are the nicest people you could ever wish to meet. We were again humbled by the number of fans who queued to meet with us after we had played. It was also amazing to meet up with guys we had spoken with over the internet for the first time.
Q. - And what do you think about
all the N.W.O.B.H.M. movement, and the repercussion it had around the world?
Gary - It was and still is an incredible period of time that I’ll always be proud to have been a part of. There were just so many great bands around at the time, many deserving to have been given record deals, my personal favourites being Trespass and Demon.
Q. - Do you still try to keep the
eighties metal spirit alive?
Gary - I’m still 18 years old in my head (even though my body tells me otherwise). I am currently recording with my new band Dark Matter. We play a type of progressive rock/doom which has quite a unique sound, just as Legend were unique sounding. The band consists of 2 other friends I was in contact with in different parts of the UK. Dave Gilbert is the founder of the band and is also the vocalist, rhythm guitarist, keyboard player, drummer and producer of the band and Alex Perry, an incredible guitar player, who also still performs and records with his original NWOBHM band Mythra. Our new album ‘The Rectory’ should be available to buy from November ’22. I always take time to answer any questions from anyone, anywhere in the world about Legend. It is surprising just how many people still get in contact.
Gary - Thank you for the opportunity to recall all the wonderful times I spent with Legend, it really was a great band to be a part of.
Thank you for your time, and wish
you all the best for the future!
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