Being at the outset of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in ’79, zillions of UK & European gigs with Angel Witch, Paul Samsons Empire, Baphomet and Tytan – plus recording a few albums along the way – Kev Riddles has been a flag bearer for NWOBHM the past 40 plus years.
“In the halcyon days of Angel Witch we toured constantly, either in our own right or opening for Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Girlschool, Saxon or April Wine”.
left to right, Kev Riddles – bass/backing vocals, Andy Thompson – keyboards, Tony Coldham – vocals, Chris Borsberry – guitar, Garry Bowler – drums
Here we are in July 2023 and Tytan are sitting in the port waiting for the Calais ferry after playing at the Headbangers Open Air Festival in Germany. Kev reflects on the weekend…
“We had a blast. A superb crowd. Butthe ferry’s been cancelled….there’s a four hour wait!”
“I just drove for 11 hours, played to 2,000 people in Germany, ate too much, then drove back again. Is it worth it? Hell yeah! We do this because we can and we love it!”
On Friday 13th October Tytan are lined up to play a NWOBHM night with Kev Riddles’ Baphomet – yes second show of the night for Kev – Tailgunner and Trespass at Leo’s Red Lion in Gravesend. (Interview with Trespass coming soon).
Then on 3rd November a pre-Bonty Night triple bill with fellow NWOBHM bands Millennium and Spartan Warrior at Trillians Rock bar, Newcastle.
Are you looking forward to playing in the North East who spawned the big four – Raven, Venom, Fist, Tygers of Pan Tang ?
“I always feel a little pressure when playing the North East precisely because of the incredible talent coming out of the place” said Kev.
“I’ve had, and continue to have, the good fortune to witness and share a stage with all the bands you mention and this year we’ll be lucky enough to play alongside Spartan Warrior at Trillians again”.
What can the crowd at Trillians expect?
“Trust me we will have some fun on the night because that is what we do”.
Is there a wind up merchant in the band?
“All of us are wind up merchants, it goes with the territory – Fun is for life, death is forever”.
The starting gun fires on Friday 4th August on old school NWOBHM at Trillians. They won’t be nights full of half arsed tunes. Expect red hot, heavy, driving sounds topped with power vocals – just the way you like it.
First up is Kev Riddles’ Baphomet, Kev was an original member of NWOBHM band Angel Witch who released their first album in 1980.
The record, along with the track Baphomet, always feature on any ‘Best of NWOBHM’ lists. On their last visit to Newcastle, Kev Riddles’ Baphomet played original Angel Witch classics to a packed house. Expect the same on a loud start to your weekend.
Another night of old school metal is a triple bill on Friday 1st September with Avenger, Abaddon and Spartan Warrior.
Spartan vocalist David Wilkinson explained“2023 has been a milestone year for Spartan Warrior as we celebrate 40 years since the release of our debut album, ‘Steel n Chains’, on the Guardian label”.
“We’ve played some well received anniversary shows where we’ve played our debut album live in its entirety”.
“As we have two shows at the same venue quite close together we want to give people something different each time. The 1st September set will be exclusively from the ‘Steel n Chains’ album and the second album only. November’s set will draw material from all four albums”.
That November date is set for Friday 3rd, a pre-Bonfire night with Kev Riddle’s other band Tytan. What to expect from Tytan? Chunks of melodic, epic rock with screaming riffs and Tony Coldham’s soaring voice. At the time of posting the band are on the road back from Germany after playing the Headbangers Open Air Festival.
Joining the bill are Millennium, frontman Mark Duffy explained“The first time Millennium played in Newcastle was when we were asked to do a reunion show for the Brofest festival in 2016 and we’ve played Newcastle a number of times since”.
“We know Spartan Warrior as they were on the Guardian records compilation ‘Pure Overkill’ along with Millennium. Although we didn’t get to meet them till around five years ago, we’ve since played gigs on the same events. Wehaven’t played any gigs with Tytan before so we’re looking forward to that”.
Spartan Warrior’s Wilkinson added“We’re very excited to be co headlining the November show with our dear friends Tytan. We’ve shared stages before and it’s going to be a great night for sure. We also have a long history with Millennium who were our Guardian label mates, so in our 40th Anniversary year that’s a bit special too”.
Millennium’s Duffy added “I think the NWOBHM scene has lasted so long because it has produced so many good bands who recorded some great records. There’s also a younger generation who are now listening and discovering these bands for the first time and appreciating their music”.
“We’re looking to do some gigs with other NWOBHM bands and hoping to play festivals in Europe having played in Athens this year. But it’s always good to play home shows at Trillians – really looking forward to it”.
If that isn’t enough for ya’ on Thursday 23rd November at Trillians is a hometown visit from the Tygers of Pan Tang. After trekking around mainland Europe during summer they have arranged extra dates to support new album Bloodlines.
Launched in Holland in 1981 and focused on releasing Heavy Metal records, the label then expanded and opened offices around the world including UK, USA, Germany, Japan and Australia.
A documentary about the company is currently in production, the idea for the project started during lockdown when 34 year old Bill and his friend from Leeds started a podcast called Temple of Bleh.
The idea for the podcast was for the pair of us to reconnect with heavy music in a more meaningful way explained Bill.
This would be done through projects such as The Hunt for the Secret Channel 4 Metalhead, then we finally arrived at looking at The History of Roadrunner Records.
Being a metal guy of my age, I noticed a thread that connected my favourite bands – Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Sepultura, then the likes of Mercyful Fate and Type O Negative. So I toyed with the idea of a book on the subject.
After writing a brief report on the topic for the podcast, by complete chance, I crossed paths with former PR for Roadrunner UK, Michelle Kerr. She told me she’d like to see the finished product.
This was a sign to take this project to an academically accurate standard – so as not to look a complete twat in front of Michelle, who had kindly taken an interest.
I spent about a month creating a monster spreadsheet, detailing every original Roadrunner release since its formation in 1981 – conventional wisdom says Roadrunner formed in 1980, this is a lie.
After finishing this, I set about contacting every band, with mixed success, for a Zoom interview – which would be put up on the Temple of Bleh podcast and You Tube channel.
Then the idea was to roll them up into three documentaries of 60-75 mins each and detailing the three core ‘eras’ of the record label – 1981-1986, 1987-2001 and 2002-2012 explained Bill.
Andreas Kisser of Sepultura, pic BillSaxton, 4th November 2022, at KK’s Steel Mill, Wolverhampton.
Research can always bring up a number of unusual stories, and Bill found a few about Roadrunner.
A good story I found is that Roadrunner’s first Gold single wasn’t metal at all – it was a 1995 gabba song called I Wanna Be a Hippie by Technohead.
Also, in this period Roadrunner was trying to edge away from heavy metal, and in the UK specifically were trying its hand at Britpop.
If you were to ask Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos who first signed him, he’d say Roadrunner, with his early outfit The Karelia.
Another story is the range of artists Roadrunner licensed to Europe from the rest of the world. There are albums from Sinead O’Connor and Cliff Richard bearing the Roadrunner label.
Bill emphasised that the main point of the documentary is to illustrate that once upon a time, death metal hit the top of the Billboard charts, and had a seat at the table with the perceived top industry ‘players’.
It’s important to my generation to understand exactly how that came about. Who better to ask than those responsible at Roadrunner Records.
It’s also insanely convenient that you can’t answer the ‘how’ question without showcasing the stories and legacies of the key artists on the label such as Mercyful Fate, Type O Negative, and Slipknot – as well as the less mainstream bands like Deicide, Gruntruck and Blue Mountain.
Madball being interviewed, pic by TheFinalCut, 7th February 2023, at Manchester Club Academy.
After six months, 150 hours of interviews, one mini and one full documentary complete, Bill was contacted by Mrs X – who would prefer to remain anonymous.
She favoured the project so much she came up with the finance to form a production company and elevate the quality to broadcast standard.
Big thanks to our Mrs X where would I be without her! said Bill. So far I’ve filmed 32 interviews for the project, across six countries, both artist and Roadrunner personnel alike. I’ve still got a lot to go before I can call this thing even close to complete.
Bands from North East UK are represented by stories from Battleaxe and Dark Heart. It’s a dense mix of music business learnings, interwoven with rock n roll regalia.
As it stands at this moment, ‘The History of Roadrunner Records’ has no distributor or broadcaster interest as yet– so this will likely be hitting YouTube.
The documentary is being exclusively filmed in the UK and I’m managing the time with my day job, so I can’t put a final deadline on the production. I’m considering crowdfunding to quicken it up.
For more info or if you dealt with the Roadrunner label contact Bill at templeofbleh@gmail.com or @HistoryOfRoadrunnerRecords on Instagram.
When it’s finally time to leave the stage all entertainers would love to go out at the top and Sunderland born comedian Bobby Thompson was no exception.
At his peak performing in North East clubs, punters were packed in like sardines and in 1985 Bobby was interviewed on BBC TV’s Wogan Show.
But is there a reminder of his achievements anywhere in the North East, and what happened to Bobby? There is a story that he had a statue given to him by The Little Waster pub in Wallsend after it closed down.
One night Bobby was broken into, cash, jewellery, and gold records were bagged, but after opening a cupboard and seeing his statue the burglars fled empty handed after realising who the house belonged to.
The life of Bobby, aka The Little Waster, features in A Private Audience by Dave Nicolson. The book is packed with interviews from fellow performers, managers and family members, with a foreword by comedian Ken Dodd…
‘To have an audience in uproar, to help them forget their everyday problems and worries, if only for an evening, is an experience to treasure’.
Former manager Brian Shelley remembers…
‘At the height of popularity his fee in the clubs was between £300-£500 a night. He did theatres for £1,000 for an eighteen minute slot. He was riding the crest of a wave. Bobby had it all going for him in 1978 with his record out’.
Some people interviewed on this site have mentioned seeing Bobby’s act or working with him. Back in October 2019, David Wood, boss of Wallsend’s Impulse studio, told me a story with a surprising ending.
I knew his manager Brian Shelley, he said Bobby is doing really well around the clubs do you fancy recording him ? I thought yeah we’ll give it a go.
We recorded him in Rhyope Club and Newcastle Mayfair around 1978. It was around an hours recording we put out and got Vaux breweries to sponsor it. Ironically Bobby didn’t drink then and there he was on a promo poster with a pint of beer.
Soon as we put the record out it took off, straight to number one in the local charts. Every shop was selling bucket loads, they couldn’t get enough off it. It was phenomenal.
With the profit from Bobby’s album the studio came on in leaps and bounds. We started the Neat heavy metal record label as an alternative to what we were doing.
We released a couple of singles then the Tygers of Pan Tang, Raven and Fist came along and suddenly we’ve got what became a New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Venom added to that and before we knew it we’ve built up a library of heavy metal singles. So yeah we’ve got to thank Bobby for Neat records.
Actor & musician Pete Peverly
In September 2019 I talked to actor and musicianPete Peverly who performs as Bobby in a tribute show. If he had a posh accent would he have appeared a lot more on TV and topped the bill on UK tours ?
His accent wasn‘t just Geordie it was Pitmatic, that’s very strong, and yes it was a barrier but one of the reasons why he didn’t make it outside the region was because I think he didn’t want to, he had everything up here.
He might have had more ambition in the early part of his career when he was doing Wot Cheor Geordie for the BBC. Maybe he thought about pushing it further but certainly not during the ‘70s.
All the other regional comics and entertainers who made it nationally were all-rounders, actors, comedians, song and dance men, Bobby wasn’t. He was a pit comedian from the Durham coalfields talking specifically to that community.
Actor, writer & theatre producer Leah Bell
One performer who worked with Bobby was actor, writer and theatre producerLeah Bell. I talked to Leah back in July 2021 and asked her what was he like to work with?
I worked with Bobby Thompson a lot, he was a nice man. His act was of its time, the poverty, the war – very funny.
We done a panto in Newcastle Theatre Royal with David Jason (Only Fools and Horses). David didn’t know Bobby Thompson at all, Bobby never rehearsed with us, there was no interaction.
So Bobby done his cabaret piece at the start of act two, and afterwards backstage would shuffle around saying hello to people.
David used to say to me ‘What a shame for that old fella, fancy having to work at his age, I’ve just given him some money for a cup of tea’. I said ‘What ! He gets dropped off in a limousine (laughs)’.
One night David said ‘He’s never in the finale, it’s nice of the theatre to let him go early, he must be tired’. Really, Bobby was doubling up and playing the late spot at Newcastle Mayfair.
Bobby had great delivery, clear, distinctive and not draggy. It can sound like he’s just talking along but it’s not, it’s very precise. He was a one off.
Comedian, Bobby Pattinson
Another North East comedian, Bobby Pattinson, is interviewed in the book.
‘Over the years I gave him bookings at my club. I never saw him as a rival, but regarded him as a friend even though people told me he didn’t have a good word for me’.
‘Most North East comics were content to go on stage in any order, Bobby always wanted to be last, he interpreted that as top of the bill. Buthe wasn’t as successful as I hoped when I booked him in December 1981 and had to cancel sixteen shows’.
In his detailed introduction, author Dave Nicolson tells us…
‘Bobby had success and money through the golden years, but he also had loneliness. The last few years were embarrassing for him, empty tables and chairs told him the harsh truth. Even the examiner at his bankruptcy hearing in 1986 was kind and considerate’.
‘Having lost the company of an audience his feeling of loneliness and isolation intensified. Spending late nights at Newcastle’s Casino Royale and the roulette wheel provided his nightly stage’.
Sadly, Bobby died on Saturday 16th April 1988 in Preston Hospital, North Shields. Family and friends attended his funeral with a fellow comedian adding a one liner that summed up Bobby Thompson…
’He’s late because he’s found out there’s another funeral after this and he wants to go on last!’
Alikivi May 2023
Research: Bobby Thompson, A Private Audience by Dave Nicholson.
Don’t know if you’ve noticed but lately Tyneside’s metal bands are warming up ready to hoy the whole kit and caboodle into the pot, taking everything with them and leaving nowt and no one behind. Are you ready for the Great North East Metal Raid?
They first plugged in around the 1970s and never in a million years did they think they would still be dancing with the devil 50 years later. So a quick update on where they are now and what they are doing is in order.
Firing off instant messages and communicating directly to followers on social media is used to full effect by the Tyneside Metal Raiders with a message from Raven loud and clear…‘The album has to be all killer no filler, no messin’ around with 19 minute epics, its smash yer face in with an ice pick. The title sums up everything we do. We wanted to tear it up, which is what Raven are all about’.
The forthcoming album from the Godfathers of Thrash, ‘All Hell’s Breaking Loose’ is released on 30th June 2023.Contact for sales, tours, photos & info:Raven | Official Raven Lunatics Website
After releasing three singles ‘Back for Good, Fire on the Horizon’ and the epic, ‘Edge of the World’, Tygers of Pan Tang officially release their ten track album ‘Bloodlines’ on 5th May 2023.
‘A week after its release we’ll be celebrating Bloodlines at the Nordic Noise Festival on 12th May in Copenhagen with our record company who are of course, based in … Copenhagen. They have promised us that the drinks are on them’.
After six albums and countless UK & European tours, battle hardened Satan reached out to the United States again this year.
‘After kicking off the Hell’s Decibels tour at the legendary Whiskey a Go-Go on the Sunset Strip in April, Satan had a blast touring the USA with Night Demon and Haunt. You guys were a pleasure to work with, brothers forever and a piece of my heart will be with you until the end of time’.
Mythra are one of the original New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands. They recorded their legendary ‘Death & Destiny EP’ in 1979.
‘The new album ‘Temples of Madness’ is out now and has been available in Brazil and USA for a week or so. We’ve started to sell them through our on line shop and business is pretty brisk’.
Southbound were active around the North East in the 1970s. The Sunderland band were regulars on the workingman’s club circuit, supported New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands Raven and Tygers of Pan Tang at Newcastle Mayfair, and had a residency at the Gosforth Hotel in Newcastle.
Southbound have already featured on this site, interviews with Mick Kelly and the late Alan Burke have proved to be popular.To discover more of the Southbound story and find out what he is up to now, I met up with George at The Littlehaven Hotel in South Shields.
Growing up it was a very musical house. Although I knew that my Dad’s voice was classically trained, I never found out till late that he went to lessons for ten years. My mother used to sing and my brothers and sisters were also into music. We had a guitar and piano in the house, I took a few piano lessons and changed to guitar when I was 11 year old.
I served my time as a sheet metal worker in Jarrow and worked for another year, but it was too much with the amount of work Southbound were getting on the North East circuit.
Southbound had three sets, one all original material, then another playing Eagles, America West Coast stuff, and then more poppy stuff to get paid in the clubs. We were out regularly every week, in fact a few times we played nine gigs in one week!
The Ivan Birchall agency had us in the clubs till 10.30pm, get your gear off stage then double up and go do a night club, then a Sunday afternoon gig.
But our stomping ground was The Gosforth Hotel where we took over the residency from Sting’s band, Last Exit. Sting went to London and joined The Police, we were fortunate to get the residency.
He came to one of our shows around the Roxanne days, he had the dyed hair, the leather jacket, he’d be stood at the bar and we had a few words with him – nice fella. Playing the Hotel was good for us, it would get packed, the queue to get in would sometimes be out onto the street.
There were a few line ups of Southbound but when we were becoming popular there was myself and Alan Burke on guitars and we wrote the songs. Mick Kelly on drums, bassist was Dave Giles and Mal Troughton used to sing with the band. There is a photo of us standing against a van, this was taken around 1975 or 76.
I’m racking my brains here but Mick Kelly was great for all the names and dates, a real memory man for the venues we played. (Interview with Mick on this site – All Right Now 13th March 2019)
When punk came in 1976 the record companies saw us as old hat, they all wanted punk bands. But we still packed venues out and had a good following.
We played Newcastle Mayfair with Tygers of Pan Tang, we played with Raven and headlined there in our own right. Obviously, played the Sunderland Mecca a few times, some good gigs at Newcastle Guildhall and the Bedrock festival.
Bob Smeaton, who is a very successful film maker now and a great lad, used to be singer in Newcastle band White Heat and when they weren’t gigging he often used to jump in the van with us and help out with the gear.
Tom Noble, who manages Tygers of Pan Tang now, used to work on the Bedrock BBC North East radio programme during the 70s and 80s, he worked alongside Graeme Thomson. They managed a band I was in with Phil Caffrey called The Lions Share and then Caffrey. We got a publishing deal on the back of that band.
Graeme’s brother Steve, was engineer at Impulse Studio in those days and he recorded four songs on a Southbound demo. Actually, he released them on Cherry Red label not long ago. We also recorded at Linx studio in Newcastle.
In hindsight if we had more of our heads screwed on and business focused it might have been different, but we were just having a good time spending most of our money on brown ale and curries after gigs in the restaurants on Ocean Road in South Shields.
George and his musical brother Alan Burke at Newcastle Mayfair.
Looking back to those times we just took it in our stride and loved being with our mate’s playing music. You know Southbound never really fell out, we might have had an argument here or there but no, we were all good mates having a lad’s night out and getting paid for it.
After Southbound I teamed up with Phil Caffrey in a song writing partnership, we had a publishing deal with Axis music which was a subsidiary of EMI. We used to write songs and go down to London and record them. We were signed and managed by a guy called Nigel Thomas.
Nigel also managed the Heavy Metal band Saxon, Joe Cocker and Kiki Dee who recorded one of our songs and put it out as a single. This went on one of Kiki’s albums, Angel Eyes, with the likes of Dave Stewart and Daryl Hall, it was just nice to get our names to something like that. Nigel also managed Keith Emerson and Lynsey De Paul so we did some work with them.
It was late 80s when Saxon were recording a new album at Hook End Manor Studio in Berkshire, which had been Dave Gilmour’s house. It was a residential studio with horse stables in the grounds, a great facility, we were down there about a week. The Saxon lads were great.
Def Leppard had a huge album at the time (Hysteria, released 1987) with big sounds and plenty vocals on. The Saxon album (Destiny, released 1988) was nearly finished they just wanted to experiment with block harmonies using four male voices.
Through our manager Nigel Thomas, Phil Caffrey and I got the job, we got paid the session fee. There was another guy managed by Nigel called Steve Mann, who now plays with the Michael Schenker group.
We were waiting in the studio for the fourth male vocalist when in walked an old Sunderland friend of mine – Dave Taggart. I said ‘what you doing here?’ he said ‘what you doing here?’! I couldn’t believe it. Just a massive coincidence.
(Formerly in Danceclass, Dave now plays in the Belinda Carlisle band. An interview with Dave features on this site – Music Still Matters, 15th April 2018).
Dave told me that Stephan Galphas produced the album by Sunderland band Well, Well, Well and he had recorded some backing vocals on it. Stephan’s next project was producing the Saxon album and he asked him to come down and put some backing vocals on Destiny.
Don’t know how successful the album was but I heard the single Ride Like the Wind on national radio a few times.
Actually, we asked Dave to join Southbound at one time but he was playing with Tony McAnaney. Later I did record some backing vocals on the Jimmy Nail album they were working on, Crocodile Shoes.
What am I doing now? Well during lockdown I invested in a home recording set up, I’ve always worked with a porta studio facility writing and recording songs, but this was an upgrade to a digital studio. So late in life I learnt how to record properly and put down a lot of songs.
I originally had 50 then whittled that down to 12, I was doing drums, guitar, vocals, all recorded solo, a one man band. I hadn’t thought about releasing them.
Then I lost two musical brothers, Alan Burke, original guitarist in Southbound and Richard Archibald, who also played in a late Southbound line up. He also played in the Big Picture, a band from Sunderland amongst others.
This made me think profoundly differently. Why not release these songs on an album and why not ask friends of mine if they want to get involved? So I did, and was absolutely blown away when they all said yes. The album is called Family and Friends because that’s who’s on it!
Family & Friends album inner sleeve.
It includes North East musicians Dave Ditchburn, Phil Caffrey, Don Airey, George Shovlin, Archie Brown, Terry Slesser, Emma Wilson and more, plus my brothers and sisters. I got some great performances.
The album got some great reviews and was in the blues charts at number two – Buddy Guy pipped me to the post!
At first I thought the logistics of playing it live would be too difficult, but after a longer think I went ahead and touch wood, after getting all our diaries synched up I’ve booked The Fire Station in Sunderland on the 10th June 2023. I’m really looking forward to it.
The Fire Station auditorium is a fabulous place. I had the tour looking on stage, checking the sound system and back stage – it’s a great place.
As a house band I’ve got ex Showbiz Kids guitarist Pat McMahon, Paul Wilson on keys, ex Circus and Lucas Tyson bassist John Taylor on bass, Jim Bullock on harmonica and not one but two drummers, Ian Hamilton and Barry Race.
Everyone on the album apart from Don Airey can make it – he’s touring with Deep Purple that night. Don’s a lovely bloke he still keeps in touch with his Sunderland roots.
Looking back at the Southbound days, we weren’t striving to make it we were just enjoying the journey, making it wasn’t the main focus. We were young kids playing in our bedrooms, wrote a few songs then took it to the next stage and it was great fun. We were just dead lucky.
I never thought in a million years that here I am 66 year old and still doing it …I still feel that I’m dead lucky!
Click here to buy tickets for The Fire Station on 10th June 2023
Gateshead born Mal has been working the entertainment biz for nearly six decades and still has a great passion and enthusiasm for music.
From being a teenager watching bands in the famous Newcastle venue Club a’Gogo, to becoming a seasoned performer on the North East working men’s club circuit, and today, promoting bands and events in Skegness.
I thought he’d have a few stories to tell – he did – so we spent a couple of hours chewing the fat in The Centurion bar in Newcastle Central Station.
First time I heard loud music was in the YMCA in Gateshead, bands like The Sect were playing. It was the ‘60s with the mods and rockers, that was the sounds that influenced me. We were brought up on the best music, we were privileged to be born then.
Club a’Gogo pics courtesy Evening Chronicle.
Going to the Club a’Gogo was the best time of yer life. I saw everybody there – Long John Baldry, the Stones, Eric Burdon, and I was there when Hendrix played.
I’d seen loads of guitar players by then but you knew you were watching someone special. Nobody knew he was gonna be a world legend when he walked on stage.
The Gogo was fantastic, the DJ was Bryan Ferry who went onto Roxy Music fame. Zoot Money was massive when he played, but the biggest pull was Geno Washington & the Ram Jam band, never sold records but always rammed.
I remember when The Animals went to number one with House of the Rising Sun in 1964. They came back from London to the Central Station, got off the train and came to the Gogo. I remember like it was yesterday.
Jacko
I’ve been involved in music since I was 15. I joined a band called Jacko and got to know all the North East groups working the clubs, the Brass Alleys, the Becketts, John Miles, and my pal Brian Johnson in Geordie.
When I finished with Jacko, I went with a band called Chevy who had Andy Taylor on guitar – later he joined Duran Duran. There was Davey Black from Goldie he lived just over the road.
In fact, Andy had just come back from playing in Germany when he asked me to join on vocals ‘Do ya fancy going on the road with us?’
Andy was a great player, a rock player, so Duran Duran weren’t exactly his style but he told me ‘It’s £50 a week and they have a recording contract’. ‘Good on yer lad’ I said.
Andy rang me up one night ‘We’re playing Newcastle City Hall tonight supporting Hazel O’Connor on the Broken Glass tour do ya fancy comin’ along?’… ‘Wey aye!’
Through the Geordie days I kept in touch with Brian and when he got the gig with AC/DC I went on the Black in Back tour with him.
How it all started was one night when I was singing in Chevy and playing Peterlee Social Club, guitarist Andy Taylor said ‘we’re going to Newcastle Mayfair to see AC/DC tonight’.
This line up was with Bon Scott on the Highway to Hell tour. Well I was blown away by them and told Brian Johnson ‘Ya gotta see this band’.
He was in Geordie Mark 2 at the time who were doing the clubs and using the same PA as us. One night Chevy were doing Lobley Hill Social Club when Brian came to see us and he got up on stage and done Whole Lotta Rosie – next week he was in AC/DC!
He went off to the Bahamas, recorded the album then straight onto the Back in Black tour where I travelled with the band on the UK leg. I remember being in Birmingham and Robert Plant came backstage, it was great, a real honour to meet your hero.
I remember going to Donnington festival, then the States as the band went into Jimi Hendrix’ studio in New York to record vocals for the album For Those About to Rock.
The lads in the band were great, no big stars, they were playing 60,000 stadiums, absolutely massive over there. I was in a bar with Malcolm Young in New York, he told me ‘We knew when Brian walked in, he was the man for the job, we knew he was the kid we wanted’.
Brian didn’t think he was in the band after the audition. But Malcolm phoned ‘You need to come back we’re doing an album’. Brian replied ‘Am I in the band then’! Brian was tailor made for that job.
Sergeant: left to right – Robb Weir (later replaced by Steve Lamb) Anthony Curran, Tony Liddle & Brian Dick.
I managed a rock band called Sergeant and got them on a national tour supporting Accept. What happened was I knew Colin Rowell from music TV show The Tube filmed in Newcastle. He had singer Tony Liddle on one week ‘Can you do anything with these Mal?’
So, I went with Brian Johnson to see the band play at the Gosforth Assembly Rooms. I liked what I saw so rang John Jackson, an agent I knew in London, and he gave them that UK support tour.
We also put them in Linx Studio in Newcastle, another Brian Johnson connection as he owned the studio. We recorded them and I thought they were tremendous. Tony Liddle was great I thought boy can this kid sing.
Tony was the new breed of rock singer in the North East, you had great frontmen Davey Ditchburn, Terry Slesser, John Miles, all them that had come through, but Tony was a bit younger.
He was also a good songwriter, obviously there is Lindisfarne as your big songwriters from the North East. I remember seeing them and they were new, fresh a different style, Alan Hull was an amazing talent.
Anyway, we took the demo tape to London and the first person to listen to it was Peter Mensch, Def Leppard manager.
We were in his house and asked him ‘What do ya think of these’? Bearing in mind he had just signed Metallica. ‘They’re alright Mal, hang on to the singer’. In the end RCA were looking at giving them a singles deal.
But one day Tony walked in and told us he’s leaving the band. ‘I’m joining The Strangeways’. A Scottish band who already had a deal with plenty money behind them. That broke Sergeant up.
We gave it our best shot, they had supported Nazareth in Scotland, been on a UK tour with Accept including a sold-out show at Hammersmith Odeon and we put them in front of record companies.
When I came back from America with AC/DC, video jukebox’s had just kicked off so I went into that business. I got the franchise for a company selling a video jukebox to pubs.
I worked with a guy for years called Percy Sheeran, whose family have the fairground in South Shields, he was doing the fruit machines and I was doing the music. A great team.
Then we started Arcadia Leisure selling PA’s and sound equipment from the Team Valley in Gateshead. After that closed down Percy’s brother Walter opened bars, leisure centres and arcades in Skegness, he asked me to come down, ‘Nah I like the Toon too much’ I said. But I’m still with him to this day!
The music scene is good down there, I’m booking bands all the time, I’m putting on festivals in the summer. We’ve got some local bands from Lincoln playing, Butlins is next door with rock festivals and alternative nights – always rammed.
I’ve got four or five bands from the North travelling down this year, so I still keep in touch with North East musicians. Lorraine Crosby has been down a few times. We’ve been friends around 30 years since she was in Foxy, Lorraine’s a great kid, she done the Meatloaf single as well.
Soon I’ve got an event lined up for the scooter boys – a mod rally at the end of April. There are loads happening.
I enjoy reading your blogs but a guy who doesn’t get a mention is Greg Burman. During the ‘60s the Greg Burman Soul band played at the Gogo, he also built amps for all the bands coming through like Lindisfarne, and made stuff for Thin Lizzy and Status Quo.
He was based in Newcastle’s Handyside Arcade which sadly isn’t there now. I dealt with him in the ‘70s, a lovely fella, what a gentleman. It’ll be a great story if you can talk to him.
One of the most influential New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands are heading out on a UK tour this March, but first, earlier this year there was the small matter of Raven being inducted into the Metal Hall of Fame alongside Twisted Sister and Foreigner vocalist and solo artist Lou Gramm.
Held at The Canyon Club in California on 26 January, this was the sixth annual gala, previous inductees include Dio, Lemmy and Judas Priest.
The award is for musicians and bands who have made an invaluable contribution to rock and metal and to keep inspiring fans throughout the world. I asked bassist and Chief Raven John Gallagher, how did it come about?
Bribery and corruption (laughs). It was nice to be recognized and was a really great event where we played a three song set – almost broke a sweat!
Did you ever think you would be in this position, a tour celebrating 40 years of an album ?
Of course not! That kind of long view, you just don’t have that when you start. It just kinda crept up on us over the years. It’s quite a milestone and we are very proud of it. That and good old Geordie stubbornness!
In the set are you playing the full track listing on All for One and have you played all the songs live before?
Yes indeed! There’s actually two songs from the album we’ve never played live before, so that’s going to be fun for sure and another two that Mikes never played.
Have you noticed any new faces at your concerts?
Oh definitely, there’s quite often three generations of fans at our shows – which is really great.
For a full list of tour dates & tickets, album releases, video, merch & more check the official website :
Tygers of Pan Tang 2023 L-R Huw, Craig, Francesco, Jack & Robb. pic. Steve Christie
In September 2020 the review of Raven’s latest album Metal City declared that ‘on this evidence Raven consolidate their title of Chief Headbangers’ and signed off with ‘any contenders?’
Last week one of the original North East New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands, Tygers of Pan Tang, hoyed their hat in the ring.
Their new single Edge of the World released on the Mighty Music label was as the kids say ‘dropped’ last Thursday and after the first time on hearing, the Tygers have sharpened their swords and hoyed the kitchen sink at the production. It’s epic.
Starting with a hint of Eastern promise the guitars will put lightning back in yer tired bones, and with that chorus we have the next superhero soundtrack. Someone put a call in to Hollywood blockbusting film maker Christopher Nolan (Batman/The Dark Knight/Man of Steel).
There’s no idle shilly-shallying here with layer upon layer of glossy finesse, ultra-tight drumming from Craig Ellis, bassist Huw Holdings accomplished maiden recording, plus a searing twin lead break from guitarists Robb Weir and Francesco Marras, while vocalist Jack Meille faces down the beast.
Edge of the World doesn’t lead you to the dead zone with no follow up record as the Tygers are about to launch their new album and on this evidence alone, wrestle the crown from Raven.
Earlier this month in Tartan Spirit Stewartie Adams looked back on his time gigging in ‘80s London and recording an album Up and Cumin’.
He also mentioned an American record company had shown interest in re-releasing the album, he’s just received news they are going ahead with plans plus offering a three year deal.
“Yeh we are very pleased that the album is still getting interest after all these years, it’s great news for us. We are delighted that the album is getting another re-release by the company from across the pond”.
“Guitarist Eddie Trainer (ex-Heavy Pettin’) and myself would like to personally thank John W Edwards and Renaissance Records for giving our album ‘Up and Cumin’ another chance”.
“The album was originally recorded over three days at the Slaughterhouse studios at Prism Records in Great Driffield, Yorkshire, it was produced by a guy called Scott Peters who was known more for producing pop music for the record company – but we think he done a great job for us”.
1987 album cover for ‘Up and Cumin’
On the launch of the record in 1987 the Lyin’ Rampant official press release was based on a review of the album.
‘Every feminist instinct I possess demands that I denounce this heavy metal artifact for the unmitigated load of sexist crap but I find that I cannot, if only because the press release is redeemed by their publicist’s sense of humour? Well to an extent!’
The story of Lyin’ Rampant unfolds in 1983, when walking distillery Stewartie Adams returned North of the border. The Lyin’ goes from strength to strength – when it can stand up that is. The material is a lite-metal amalgam of Rush, Journey and REO Speedwagon.
The rockers and the requisite slow ones bear at least some resemblance to their equivalents on many other metal LP’s. However let us not forget Stewartie Adams one of the best new HM singers heard in ages, at least his vocals make this album worth a listen.
What are the rest of the band up to ?
“I’ve lost touch with most of the members over the years, but I still keep in touch with our original guitarist and co-writer Eddie Trainer, we are hoping to get together and work on some new tracks in the future”.
Have you still got a bit of fire in the belly then ?
“We both have unfinished ideas recorded and it’s just finding the time to start working on them, but in my current situation of caring for my 95 year old father who has dementia, makes it a bit difficult but I’m sure we will get there in the end”.
ALIKIVI : NORTH EAST UK CULTURE 