I had to wait to do this one, it just would not seem right that I should write it without buying and listening to the new album.
The first heavy metal album I was given was Number Of The Beast, the first album I bought was Somewhere In Time, the second was Piece Of Mind and the first t-shirt I wore was Stranger In A Strange Land. They were also the first “big” band I saw live. Says something doesn’t it.
Iron Maiden is the staple of all heavy metal, the be all and end all. It doesn’t matter if you like them or not there is no denying their huge influence, you say to someone heavy metal and they will say “what, like Iron Maiden?”
I think my mum was hoping it was just a phase I was going through when I first played Number Of The Beast at home, “what’s that?” “Iron Maiden” I replied defiantly “oh”. “Oh”? what do you mean “oh”? Its Iron Maiden woman, are you not worried I’m slipping down the slippery slope of Satanism? Do you not worry about my poor corrupted soul? DO YOU NOT CARE? Like most sensible god fearing folk my mum didn’t buy into the whole “heavy metal is evil” thing, despite being a conservative, I was quite disappointed really, my first bit of rebellion and it didn’t even get a reaction.
My dad wasn’t much better.
I loved Maiden to bits, to me it was the definition of heavy metal, everything else was just to fill in the gaps. I finally saw them play at Wembley Arena in December 1990 supported by Anthrax, for some reason they rapidly lost their appeal after that, by the time they released Fear Of The Dark I was not interested, I bought the single Be Quick Or Be Dead but that was it. Even though I was not listening to them I was pissed when I found out they had replaced Bruce Dickinson with Blaze Bailey but that I’ve already discussed.
My interest was briefly reignited in 2000 when some mates (of JD on wardrobe fame) had a spare ticket to go see them at Earls Court, I felt a little out of place this time but they still rocked, I listened to the new album and for a while I was back in there.
About 18 months ago I realized I had nothing on CD so I bought Eddie The Great thinking this would keep me Maiden happy, it was not so, I then bought Number Of The Beast on CD and at that point decided that each time HMV has a sale I will have to replace something on CD. I have ten albums by Maiden but most are on vinyl or cassette.
Well I have listened through the new album now and it was pretty cool.
A Matter Of Life And Death gets 9/10 for metalness and 10/10 for Maideness
update: I think I have worked out what killed Maiden for me back in 1990, it was Bring your daughter to the slaughter. What a fucking appalling song, almost as bad as holy smoke, it’s a pity because there were some good songs on that album.
Friday, September 08, 2006
Little Angels
The Little Angels eluded me twice before I got to see them, once I have already described and I think the second time was also at the cliffs but I can’t be sure. Rick and I finally got to see them play at Hammersmith Odeon as it was called then, we bought the tickets on the day and were told they only had restricted view tickets, seeing as we had travelled all the way into London to see the guys we took them and went to the pub for a bit, after the doors opened we had a rather pleasant surprise, yes the seats did have a slightly restricted view but THEY WERE IN THE FRONT FUCKING ROW, how cool was that. Not only did we get to be at the front the show was filmed for their Big Bad Video, yes I did buy it and yes you can see us, I was the only twat in bloody Hammersmith with a white t-shir
t on (what was I thinking).I recently found the tour shirt tucked away in a carrier bag, and guess what, it was white(ish)
Another band I was gutted to see split, I owned the first two albums and never got round to buying the third, I had Don’t Prey For Me on cassette which died a horrible chewy death in my brother personal stereo, and Young Gods is on vinyl. Something else to add to the wish list.
I read members of the band went on to do some good stuff, like Skunk Anansie and also things that should be punishable with death like managing Boyzone and Ronan Keating. Toby Jepson is now doing solo stuff so I may look out for him if he ever plays locally.
I think this band concludes those that I term as seaside rock.
The Almighty
I was introduced to the Almighty (the band not God) in 1991 when I saw them play at the Cliffs, I bought the ticket without having a clue what they sounded like and none of my friends knew them either. We did get a taste before the gig when their video was shown on the Friday rock show on itv, I don’t remember what the show was called though it was hosted by some bloke called Masher or Krusher or something suitably “ROCK”.
Live they were fantastic, even without knowing most of their set; they came across a bit like Motorhead lite, still quite heavy but easier to follow. A couple of days later I bought Soul Destruction which was the Almighty’s second album, and I loved it, its another that I went back to about a year ago, and last week I purchased Wild and Wonderful which is a compilation of stuff up to ’94, they do a fantastic cover of the Sex Pistol’s Bodies and Keep On Rocking In The Free World is always brilliant no matter who does it. Again I lost track of the Almighty as my tastes changed around ’92-‘93
It was only very recently that I discovered Ricky Warwick (check out his cover of Running Free)the lead singer had been a bassist for New Model Army, if I had known that back in 1992 then I would probably followed them through to today. New Model Army is something of a mild obsession with me but I’ll cover that later.
P.S. the support at the gig was Junkyard (its shite)
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Thunder
I can’t remember exactly when or where I discovered Thunder though it had to be in 1989, probably on a video of Headbangers Ball which a neighbour of Simon passed us every now and then. I loved the album Backstreet Symphony, every track, it seems quite light and cheesy now but I still listen to it on occasion. Even my brother and at least one of my sisters still love the album.
Thunder was another of those bands I missed because I had to baby sit when they played at the Cliffs in Southend, that must have been sometime in 1990.
When Thunder released Laughing On Judgement Day in ’92 I rushed out to buy it without actually listening to it first, I was seriously disappointed. The disappointment is not something I can justify now, it may have been my taste had simply changed or it may have just been a crap album but whatever the reason I never followed them again.
The band are still going and by the looks of it have been very busy, I will have to check it out some time but not today, or tomorrow come to that.
Still like the first album though.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
my first gigs
It was Monday 27th of November 1989, some how we had heard that Little Angels were going to play in the Maritime bar at the Cliffs in Westcliffe. To Simon and I this was our rite of passage, we’d seen it on TV and watched the videos but this was it, we were going into the real world of heavy metal, and to top it all we had seen Little Angels on MTV’s Headbangers ball.
I don’t remember too much about the night, we had just enough money for the train fare and the door, some cigarettes and a bit for drinks. We were totally out of place; we bought coke in a pint glass (looks like Guinness) and waited for the band as the place filled up with some pretty scary looking characters. Some bloke gets up on stage to a scattering of cheers (jeers) from the occupants of the bar (not enough to call them a crowd) and told us that Little Angels would not be playing but the support would be Red Dogs. Gutted. I have no idea what the band was like, it was 17 years ago and my first experience of live music and my first experience of VOLUME. I saw moshing up close for the first time, fuck me what have I got into? I was blown away, next time I was gonna get in there.
Monday 4th of December my diary says,
Went to cliffs pavilion to see Horse London a heavy metal band but they did not turn up, but their support group Mistress played. Wasn’t much head banging but some idiots did some slam dancing, still the group was better than Red Dogs who played last week.
As you can see I had become an expert over the space of a week, and those idiots I so bravely cussed in my diary were a couple of punks, at least this time we plucked up the courage to order beer at the bar. I must have joined in this time because the entry for the next day said,
Woke up with bad neck, bad back, bad attitude and bad breath. Went to college, came back. Pissed off.
It didn’t get much better
I saw Mistress (the correct spelling) alongside After Dark and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers at the Round Acre in Basildon on the 23rd of December and did it all properly this time, moshed and mashed.
It was about this time that my mum suddenly got a social life and it happened to be on a Monday, 11th December 1989 to be precise. Oh the bitterness, it still rankles.
I don’t remember too much about the night, we had just enough money for the train fare and the door, some cigarettes and a bit for drinks. We were totally out of place; we bought coke in a pint glass (looks like Guinness) and waited for the band as the place filled up with some pretty scary looking characters. Some bloke gets up on stage to a scattering of cheers (jeers) from the occupants of the bar (not enough to call them a crowd) and told us that Little Angels would not be playing but the support would be Red Dogs. Gutted. I have no idea what the band was like, it was 17 years ago and my first experience of live music and my first experience of VOLUME. I saw moshing up close for the first time, fuck me what have I got into? I was blown away, next time I was gonna get in there.
Monday 4th of December my diary says,
Went to cliffs pavilion to see Horse London a heavy metal band but they did not turn up, but their support group Mistress played. Wasn’t much head banging but some idiots did some slam dancing, still the group was better than Red Dogs who played last week.
As you can see I had become an expert over the space of a week, and those idiots I so bravely cussed in my diary were a couple of punks, at least this time we plucked up the courage to order beer at the bar. I must have joined in this time because the entry for the next day said,
Woke up with bad neck, bad back, bad attitude and bad breath. Went to college, came back. Pissed off.
It didn’t get much better
I saw Mistress (the correct spelling) alongside After Dark and Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers at the Round Acre in Basildon on the 23rd of December and did it all properly this time, moshed and mashed.
It was about this time that my mum suddenly got a social life and it happened to be on a Monday, 11th December 1989 to be precise. Oh the bitterness, it still rankles.
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Leather
It was the uniform and armour of any self respecting metalhead, you could wear denim up to a point but eventually you had to buy a leather jacket.
I bought my first leather in 1990, up until that point I’d worn a white cotton jacket with an iron maiden print on the back, I looked more punk than metal. I left college in 1990 with little more than what I’d started, given up on being an intellectual and decided (actually pressured by my mum) to get a job. The first job I did (not counting summer jobs) was working as a kitchen porter for the night shift with my cousin, it was only for two weeks but the pay was fantastic, I did not earn that much again until 1997 maybe even latter. The first thing I did with the money, after mum took a chunk for keeping me, was go into Basildon and get me that leather. It was one of those typical metaller’s jackets that everybody had at the time, black, tasselled, and so many pockets I don’t think I ever managed to use them all at the same time. I also had enough money left over to buy a ticket to Iron Maidens concert at Wembley arena later that year. And then I got drunk.
Now any self respecting metaller from that time will tell you that the fucked look is best, it seems that today’s metallers go for a pristine black sort of look with everything looking all new and shiny, but the shops are now full of the “distressed” look so I suppose its still a step away from the mainstream. My jacket was used and abused faithfully for two solid stomping heavy metal years, it was beered on, it was vomited on, it was bled on, slept on, stood on, rained, snowed, hailed and bloody sunned on, moshed in, fallen over in, climbed over things in, stood around moodily in, I partied in it and got dumped in it but that jacket refused to look used, it had to go. I think it was October 1992 when I finally had enough. I went and bought a new (want old look, buy new - I know it doesn’t make sense) leather jacket from a place in lakeside shopping centre, I wanted something different so it was untasselled and a tighter fit that the old one (I had come under the influence of an old (32) punk whom I’d met through work), and so clad in my shiny new leather I went off to the pub to meet one of my mates (said punk).
Now funny thing was said punk was going through a bit of a nasty divorce and his missus had cut the arms of his old leather, to replace it he went to the same shop as I had about half an hour later and, like me, wanted something different to what he’d had (it was a tight fit and white, don’t ask why).
We sat in the pub looking at each others jackets, both identical apart from the size, justified our purchases and the set to drinking, by the end of the evening we had some how decided that we didn’t quite like the fit of our new(identical) jackets and swapped them after which we were perfectly happy with them. I’ve still got mine.
So new jacket new beginning? It was beered on, it was vomited on, it was bled on, slept on, stood on, rained, snowed, hailed and bloody sunned on, moshed in, fallen over in, climbed over things in, stood around moodily in, I partied in it and got dumped, several times, gigged in, festivalled in, chomped by horses, babies, dogs, I was kicked out of pubs in it, it was used as a sick bag and a blanket, the cat slept in it, moved house in it, and then again and again, and this jacket also refused to look used, I dumped it in a cupboard in 1995 just after I shaved my hair off (it just didn’t look right). The jacket has only seen daylight twice since then; when I saw Carter USM at the Pink Toothbrush and at a barbeque so a friend and I could reminisce. It looks knackered now but that’s due to sitting at the bottom of a cupboard for 11 years.
I bought my first leather in 1990, up until that point I’d worn a white cotton jacket with an iron maiden print on the back, I looked more punk than metal. I left college in 1990 with little more than what I’d started, given up on being an intellectual and decided (actually pressured by my mum) to get a job. The first job I did (not counting summer jobs) was working as a kitchen porter for the night shift with my cousin, it was only for two weeks but the pay was fantastic, I did not earn that much again until 1997 maybe even latter. The first thing I did with the money, after mum took a chunk for keeping me, was go into Basildon and get me that leather. It was one of those typical metaller’s jackets that everybody had at the time, black, tasselled, and so many pockets I don’t think I ever managed to use them all at the same time. I also had enough money left over to buy a ticket to Iron Maidens concert at Wembley arena later that year. And then I got drunk.
Now any self respecting metaller from that time will tell you that the fucked look is best, it seems that today’s metallers go for a pristine black sort of look with everything looking all new and shiny, but the shops are now full of the “distressed” look so I suppose its still a step away from the mainstream. My jacket was used and abused faithfully for two solid stomping heavy metal years, it was beered on, it was vomited on, it was bled on, slept on, stood on, rained, snowed, hailed and bloody sunned on, moshed in, fallen over in, climbed over things in, stood around moodily in, I partied in it and got dumped in it but that jacket refused to look used, it had to go. I think it was October 1992 when I finally had enough. I went and bought a new (want old look, buy new - I know it doesn’t make sense) leather jacket from a place in lakeside shopping centre, I wanted something different so it was untasselled and a tighter fit that the old one (I had come under the influence of an old (32) punk whom I’d met through work), and so clad in my shiny new leather I went off to the pub to meet one of my mates (said punk).
Now funny thing was said punk was going through a bit of a nasty divorce and his missus had cut the arms of his old leather, to replace it he went to the same shop as I had about half an hour later and, like me, wanted something different to what he’d had (it was a tight fit and white, don’t ask why).
We sat in the pub looking at each others jackets, both identical apart from the size, justified our purchases and the set to drinking, by the end of the evening we had some how decided that we didn’t quite like the fit of our new(identical) jackets and swapped them after which we were perfectly happy with them. I’ve still got mine.
So new jacket new beginning? It was beered on, it was vomited on, it was bled on, slept on, stood on, rained, snowed, hailed and bloody sunned on, moshed in, fallen over in, climbed over things in, stood around moodily in, I partied in it and got dumped, several times, gigged in, festivalled in, chomped by horses, babies, dogs, I was kicked out of pubs in it, it was used as a sick bag and a blanket, the cat slept in it, moved house in it, and then again and again, and this jacket also refused to look used, I dumped it in a cupboard in 1995 just after I shaved my hair off (it just didn’t look right). The jacket has only seen daylight twice since then; when I saw Carter USM at the Pink Toothbrush and at a barbeque so a friend and I could reminisce. It looks knackered now but that’s due to sitting at the bottom of a cupboard for 11 years.
Saturday, September 02, 2006
Just come across this in the local Tesco, a new energy drink called relentless, looks like the most gothic energy drink ever.
I didn’t buy one, that would be giving in to packaging.
I didn’t buy one, that would be giving in to packaging.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)