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Tygers Of Pan Tang 'Live In The Roar' CD Notes

Once the transitory nihilism of punk had finally started to abate at the end of the 1970's, an insurgence of fresh and creative heavy rock bands started to appear across the U.K. Ever alert for the potential of musical trends, the then editor of Sounds magazine (the highly regarded Geoff Barton) recognised that rock, or more specifically metal, was entering a significant phase. Christening the movement The New Wave Of British Heavy Metal (or NWOBHM for short), Barton was instrumental in providing essential media exposure that the likes of Def Leppard, Saxon and Iron Maiden who were desperately seeking exposure to attract interest from major record labels.

Once established, the NWOBHM rapidly expanded with bands such as Diamond Head, Samson, Girlschool, and in the North East, The Tygers Of Pan Tang all creating timeless albums that attracted an expectant and expanding following.

Formed in Whitley Bay in 1978, The Tygers Of Pan Tang were created by guitarist Rob Weir who at the age of seventeen decided that his chosen profession of jeweller would have to be put on hold whilst he made more public use of his guitar and Marshall stack that were adorning his bedroom.

"I put an advert in the local Polytechnic for bass and drummer, and Rocky [bass] got in contact with me, along with a drummer Brian Dick. There was actually a customer called the Reverend Zack who used to come into the jewellers and he kindly let us rehearse in his church hall. We put an ad in the paper for a singer, we got a few replies, and it came down to a choice of two. One was a student, who I think wanted to be John Lennon, and the other was Jess Cox. We chose Jess, as he had a PA and the other guy didn't, which as you can imagine was a very important piece of equipment at that stage in our career!"

Speaking in an interview for a web site, original vocalist Jess Cox recalled his memories of the period.

"They didn't have a vocalist. Well, they did, but apparently he used to stick his dick in a vacuum cleaner and press 'suck', so they got rid of him! The band only played covers at that time. I took over in 1978 when Robb asked me to join after he'd seen me in my band at the time, Willie And The Werewolves. Rocky thought of the name. He took it from a Michael Moorcock book called Stormbringer. Pan Tang was an evil city, the Tygers were creatures that the warriors of Pan Tang took with them to war."

After seeing the band play in a gymnasium in Whitley Bay High School and being suitably impressed, Dave Wood, the owner of local label Neat Records, signed the band and after recording a few songs in his home studio, the Tygers debut single 'Don't Touch Me There' was released. Swiftly selling out, the band were creating enough of an impact to encourage curiosity from the major labels, eventually leading to the Tygers being signed to MCA with and a tour to support pomp rockers Magnum promptly booked.

"I've got tremendous memories of that," laughs Weir. "We had a Ford Cortina estate, a cardboard box full of tins of Irish Stew, a one ring Calor Gas burner and a pot. That was our on the road catering! And of course we'd been booked into all these cheap guesthouses with us crammed five to a room. I remember at the first gig in Cardiff, Magnum were sound checking so we'd set up pan and got stew out. Next thing we know, Magnum, who we've never met before, all piled into the room, sat down and ate our food! After that we did a tour with Def Leppard, The Scorpions, Saxon, Iron Maiden and then in August we recorded our debut, 'Wild Cat' in eleven days flat."

Released in 1980, 'Wild Cat' is still regarded as a landmark of the NWOBHM genre and contained such clattering and persuasive tracks as 'Suzie Smiled', 'Slave To Freedom' and 'Hellbound'. Following the release of that album, an additional guitarist was drafted in to broaden and augment their sound. John Sykes was chosen (who later went on to join both Thin Lizzy and Whitesnake), making his live debut at the Reading Festival. But the band line-up was far from stable. After the release of 'Wild Cat', vocalist Jess Cox left the band. The precise reason for his departure (or removal) has never publicly been revealed thanks to a loyalty that still extends to this day and the official line remains that he "left" to pursue a short-lived career alongside Dennis Stratton (who had recently "left" Iron Maiden) in Lionheart.

Cox was replaced by Jon Deverill (who, ironically shared a flat with Cox after joining the band) and The Tygers returned to the studio to record 'Spellbound'. Released in 1981, it didn't create quite the surge of success that the record label were seeking, and after touring throughout the U.K (this time, Magnum were supporting them), the Tygers received a call from their label.

"They told us that they wanted a new album in three weeks!" laughs Weir. "So we all rushed back to our respective bedrooms to start writing and then descended on the studio with a load of material. Dennis Mackay came in to produce it. The album ['Crazy Nights'] was recorded in about five studios in London and you can tell. The drums sound like biscuit boxes, the guitars sound dreadful, there are no backing vocals, the vocals aren't even treated. Frankly, he an absolutely crap job and did us no favours whatsoever."

Despite Weir's disappointment with the overall sound, which admittedly was far from imposing, songs such as 'Love Don't Stay' and 'Running Out Of Time' were assertive enough and hinted at the more commercial direction that was to follow. But more personnel problems were to follow, with Sykes leaving in early 1982 and being replaced by guitarist Fred Purser. Purser had only four days to learn the entire set before the band headed to France for a lengthy tour, culminating at a sold out gig at La Theatre in Paris (a venue where they still hold the attendance record).

1982 saw the release of 'The Cage', which was to become the band's largest selling release. More commercial, it was criticised in some quarters for seemingly pandering to an overseas market. But the reality was that it contained some of their more dynamic and textured material and set a contemporary precedent for NWOBHM bands that was followed a year later by Def Leppard's 'Pyromania'. Indeed, rock weekly Kerrang! described 'The Cage' as:

"Dynamic, full, commercial without compromise and a sound that's complemented by the outrageous production work of Peter Collins. The group display a vast range of talents from the tight harmony work on their current single 'Rendezvous' to the out-and-out mayhem of 'Making Tracks' which should appeal to rockists everywhere."

"MCA had obviously told the producer to make it American, so it was a bit softer and had more harmonies," remembers Weir. "We were really pleased with it as it gave us a bit of a new direction but the irony was that in the end we never did tour America. In fact we toured Japan and returned to find out that our management had resigned."

After touting around for new management and returning to Newcastle to begin writing their next album, a serious disagreement surfaced between the record label and the band. Seemingly, MCA badly wanted to shape The Tygers into a pop band, which, as you'd imagine, was not well received in the North East.

"We were working on new material but the record label wanted to bring in outside songwriters, and although 50% of 'The Cage' was written by other people, we didn't want to go down that road," sighs Weir. "They basically wanted us to record pop songs and of course everybody was headstrong and it all just fell apart. I put a band together with the Brian Dick, called Sergeant and we demoed an album but that fell through. I then worked with Jess Cox again in a band called Tyger Tyger, but he got more involved in the record label side of things [eventually owning Neat Records], so it never saw the light of day, I got disillusioned and quit the business."

By 1985, the Tygers re-appeared on the scene, albeit with only singer Jon Deverill and drummer Dick remaining from the band that recorded 'The Cage'. Augmented by the addition of Steve Lamb, Neil Shepherd and David Donaldson, this version of the band went on to release 'The Wreckage' (1985) and 'Burning In The Shade' in 1987- much to the dismay of Weir.

"I don't consider it to be the Tygers Of Pan Tang," he argues. "It was all very bubblegum and soft. I don't wish to sound a bitter old hag, but I thought it was dreadful and I felt that the name was being dragged through the mud. I would rather that the band had stopped and people just remembered 'The Cage' and us selling out big venues rather then the band ending up playing The Dog And Trumpet.

All of which may seem harsh, but by 1987 the Tygers were indeed playing small clubs and pubs before finally putting the band into what appeared to be a permanent state of retirement. But in 1998, and fifteen years after he had last appeared on stage with the band, Weir got a call from Jess Cox.

"I'd been 'Mr Normal', sold all my guitars to buy prams and cots and all those kind of things. I'd been perfectly happy with my life and never thought I'd go back into it again," recalls Weir. "And then Jess rang me and said he'd been asked if the original line-up of the Tygers would get back together to play at the Wacken Festival in Germany. As it turned out, I was the only person apart from Jess who was able to do it, but the organisers were happy with that as long as we did numbers off the first album. A few of the guys in a band called Blitzkrieg were to fill in the missing parts. It was only when we got to the hotel in Germany that Jess told me we were headlining! But the whole thing was fantastic and we sounded pretty good considering we'd only got together again a few weeks before."

Despite the success of that gig, and Weir's renewed enthusiasm, Cox's continued workload as owner of Neat Records meant that any wishes for the reunion to become more permanent were dashed. Weir again forgot about the Tygers until a chance meeting with Ian Dennis, a long time fan and owner of a local rock orientated record store. Dennis had a contact at melodic rock label, Z Records, which led to a recording contract being produced for a new album. Although Weir was the only original member of the band, he drafted in veteran Tony Liddell on vocals (with whom he head worked in the short-lived Sergeant project) along with Dean Roberston (guitar), Brain West (bass) and Craig Ellis on drums. The result was the 'Mystical' album, which considering the recording budget was a notable return.

The band were booked to perform at the "Z Rock" festival in August 2001, but their much heralded return was a disappointment to many of their long-term fans who had travelled to see the band dust off some of their classic tracks.

"Tony Liddell lasted two shows," reveals Weir "We were dreadful at that gig. Tony had the lyrics to most of the songs written out on the floor in front of him. It was awful."

Consequently, Liddell was replaced by Ritchie Wicks, and following the band's split from the Z Records label, they have returned to the studio to record a new album, and plan a NWOBHM tour, along with Oliver/ Dawson Saxon and Girlschool.

With their of their next studio album, 'Noises From The Cathouse', nearing completion

The Tygers seem to be revelling in their re-discovered enthusiasm for producing their unique strain of heavy rock.

Rich Wilson

April 2003

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Wishbone Ash 'Live In Windy City' CD Notes

For Wishbone Ash, the music itself has always been enough. And even though the talented Pete Frame, creator of the infamous Rock Family Trees, would find the task of tracing the careers of the nineteen past and present members an arduous one, their music has always been their solitary focus- whether or not that brought them mainstream success. The Ash have always been driven by a desire to create often intricate pieces of music that personally satisfied them- no matter what derision may have been heaped on them by critics. Their complex career has endured thirty-two years, during which they have managed to maintain a quality and endearing nature to their music that has left most of their contemporaries flailing.

Wishbone Ash were technically created in 1969, although they had previously started to build a solid reputation under various guises including such monikers as Empty Vessels and Tanglewood. Their “big break” came when by chance they were introduced to Miles Copeland- a then unknown and aspiring manager- who took control of the band and swiftly recruited guitarist Ted Turner to join Andy Powell (guitar/ vocals), Martin Turner (bass/ vocals) and drummer Steve Upton in order to bolster their sound. Copeland also had advised the band that a name change was essential in conveying their somewhat diverse approach, and after discarding potential (and curious) names such as Jesus Duck and Third World War, Wishbone Ash were christened.

During the band’s fledgling years, they were often compared to the likes of the Allman Brothers, but that always seemed to be just a convenient (and frankly inaccurate) media pigeonhole for any work-shy journo searching for a trouble-free description of their unconventional sound. Appealingly, Wishbone Ash have always delighted in creating their own identifiable and original musical turf, shunning all attempts to slot them into a simple generic box. Ironically, they never set out to be deliberately different or distinctive. But due to the band members’ varying influences, including such diverse luminaries as Pentangle, Fairport Convention, The Who, Hank Marvin, Fleetwood Mac and Led Zeppelin, their music was bound to be more bewitching than some of the disposable pop that inhabited the charts during their formative years.

Records show that their first ever gig was at the Dunstable Civic Hall, supporting the somewhat obscure Aynsley Dunbar’s Retaliation. A few months later their career was fully initiated courtesy of a support slot with Deep Purple- a tour that led to the Purple’s Richie Blackmore persuading Decca to sign them, and soon their eponymous debut was released. Notably, the album was more of a band effort than some of their later works, due to their lengthy philosophical and musical discussions on the road. Songs were created by protracted jam sessions that would last for hours until a riff or song would materialise, and many of the tracks that are now regarded as their most inventive, such as “Phoenix”, were moulded using this technique.

1972’s “Argus” is rightly revered by critics, the fans and the band as being their finest moment, neatly coupling a technically dazzling musical background with a gothic lyrical theme. The album was voted “Best British Album Of The Year” in Melody Maker the same year, and it includes such classic tracks as “The King Will Come” and “Blowin’ Free”- the latter being written during a sound-check at the Whisky-A-Go-Go on LA’s Sunset Strip. The following year, the band released a live album and a studio opus “Wishbone Four”. After the tour to promote the album, Ted Turner quit the band- a split that Andy Powell described in Classic Rock magazine as being “like Fred Astaire losing Ginger Rogers”. Turner was to remain in music but concentrated on session work, with the high demand for his skills undoubtedly aided by his work in 1971 on John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

By the late seventies, Wishbone Ash were frequently to be found indulging in protracted

tours of the U.S, which although seen by many as selling out to filthy lucre, meant that they were able to avoid the destructive ravages of punk who were set on attacking just such “dinosaurs” as the Ash. Although the band continued to release valid albums during the seventies and early eighties (with “No Smoke Without Fire” being especially prominent), the band entered a period of an almost ever-changing line-up. Despite each departing member (including founder member Martin Turner in 1980) being replaced by adept and respected musicians, the creative nucleus of the Ash was being gradually dissipated and in 1985 the band had been put on hold.

However, in 1986, Miles Copeland approached Andy Powell and Ted Turner to re-form the original band- the result being the “Nouveau Calls” and “Hear To Here” albums. And although Steve Upton retired in 89 being replaced by Ray Weston, the core line up (augmented by past member Andy Pyle replacing Martin on bass) went on to record this album, “Live In The Windy City”- rightly regarded as their finest live album to date.

The Chicago concert was recorded at Easy View in the Glenview district of the city on two sold-out nights on the 24th and 25th January 1992 during the promotional tour for 1991’s ‘Strange Affair’ album. The allure of the concert is multi-faceted, but undoubtedly the seamless blend of their contemporary works with the older classics dating back almost two decades forms the heart of the appeal.

Thus, the legendary “Argus” is represented by powerful and fresh sounding versions of “The King Will Come”, “Throw Down The Sword” and “Blowin’ Free”. Another often overlooked classic “Living Proof” (from the “Just Testing” 1980) is also given a welcome edge of modernity, with the remainder of the set being drawn from the “Here To Hear” and aforementioned “Strange Affair” albums.

Regrettably, the continuity of the band was again disrupted when Ted Turner left the band for a second time in 1995, but undeterred they have continued to rightfully attract a strong live following- a fact underlined by their recent sell-out show at the London Astoria. And with the Ash regularly releasing diverse albums, the only certainty is that they will remain far from predictable.

Rich Wilson.

January 2002

A History Of The Troggs

Apart from fleeting periods during their thirty-six year history, The Troggs have never really received the recognition and respect that their well-honed style of pop music genuinely deserved. For most people, The Troggs are remembered for the hit single ‘Wild Thing’; the ludicrous and unwitting humour of ‘The Troggs Tapes’ and more recently, singer Reg Presley’s regular TV appearances thanks to his ongoing fascination with crop-circles. But they have always had more to offer than the dismissive, quirky image that the more caustic rock observer have often used to belittle the band. And although their popularity has had a habit of swelling and dispersing in waves, they continue to be a popular live attraction throughout the world, attracting both seasoned fans and newcomers to their gigs. Yet their story has more humble beginnings back in Hampshire during the late 1950’s, as Reg Presley explains.

“When I was about thirteen I first got on a stage at the local carnival dance and sang ‘Unchained Melody’ with a friend of mine. We got such a response that it always stayed in my mind but apart from being sent across the street my by mother for piano lessons I wasn’t involved in music until I was about twenty. I was working as a bricklayer and one of the guys asked me to be in a band with him, and eventually I agreed to be the bassist even though I hadn’t played one before!”

Apart from Presley (whose surname at this point was actually Ball until a journalist suggested a change to Presley may aid his career), the band included vocalist Dave Wright and drummer Ronnie Bond who was an old-school friend of Presley’s. The Troggs name came out of a chance meeting with some hitchhikers during a journey to London.

“We picked up a couple of student teachers,” recalls Presley. “And they were sat in the back of this really grim old van. We got talking and asked them for any ideas for band names and they looked around at us and said, ‘You want to call yourselves The Grotty Troggs!’ I dropped the grotty, but thought it was a good name on the lines of Troglodytes are cave dwellers, caves, rock, roll and a bit like Stones. It all seemed to fit at the time, as it was such an earthy name. We eventually drew straws to decide, with other possible names being things like The Croaks, but luckily I won.”

Concentrating their efforts on creating a stir in the local halls around their native Andover, most of the band’s early gigs were at a venue known as the Copper Kettle- a teashop by day that metamorphosed into a gig venue at night. After winning a band competition in Oxford, they were asked to go visit various music publishers in London to try and find suitable material for them to perform and eventually record.

“By then we had recorded a Kinks song [‘You Really Got Me’], along with a Stones number and a couple of my tracks. Halfway through this session, the producer picked up the phone and called Larry Page [The Kinks manager] and suggested we meet up and within ten minutes we were signed. But after that he kept us on hold for about eighteen months whilst the Kinks were doing their thing, because he didn’t want us interfering as our music was similar to theirs. The line-up had also changed around that time after we lost two guys, and we effectively merged with another local band, Ten Foot Five, and brought in Peter Staples on bass and Chris Britton on guitar. Eventually Page lost the Kinks and we were waiting in the wings. So he sent us some material, which included ‘Wild Thing’. We all liked it apart from Chris, who I remember wasn’t too keen because he had studied classical guitar for about 8 years and we were asking him to play three chords!”

The recordings of ‘Wild Thing’ and ‘With A Girl Like You’ were rapidly completed with both tracks were finished in just 45 minutes. And that even included the time it took for them to set up their equipment! Ironically, given its later success, CBS turned down ‘Wild Thing’ following disappointing sales of the band’s debut effort, ‘Lost Girl’. Bizarrely, Presley was still working as a bricklayer, but it was obvious to him that he was about to undergo a drastic career change.

“I remember ‘Wild Thing’ went into the charts about number 44 on the first week of release. A guy on the building site had his radio on and ‘Wild Thing’ was played. And he shouted over to me, not knowing who I was, and said ‘If this isn’t number one next week I’ll eat my brush!’ So I just thought this is stupid, threw down my trowel, went to the shed and said ‘Share out my tools- I’m off.’”

After ‘Wild Thing’ peaked at number two, their follow-up single ‘With A Girl Like You’, managed to eclipse its predecessor by attaining the top spot in 1966. Although ‘Wild Thing’ also charted in the USA, any momentum that had been gained was frustrated due to confusion in signing to an American label, with the single eventually coming out on two separate labels. This was compounded by the fact that their proposed second singe ‘With A Girl Like You’ had been used as a b-side by one of the labels.

“Larry had actually given it away as a B-side. What a prat!” he laughs. “But he was always a bit of an ego maniac and that really got to us, as all he had to do was stand back and wait but he was straight in there and it doesn’t always pay.”

A series of album releases followed during the late sixties at the rate of at least one a year, many such as ‘Trogglodynamite’ and ‘Cellophane’ remain acclaimed to this day.

“Our first album took two and a quarter hours to record,” boasts Presley. “Some mistakes were even left in there, but I quite liked that as it was raw and honest and almost like doing a live show.”

By the release of 1969’s ‘Trogglomania’, the band had also started to embrace some of the more psychedelic influences that were swirling around the charts of the time, although Presley resolutely denies that this was due to any indulgence of illicit substances.

“People quiz me as to what I had been taking to come out with lyrics such as ‘Bamboo butterflies twice their normal size, flying around in my mind?’ And I always say, ‘Well actually, a tea with two sugars!’

The early seventies were not a pleasant or fruitful time for the Troggs after a dispute with Larry Page led to a freezing of recorded material and the band being forced to return to virtual constant gigging to earn a living.

“We had a lot of aggravation with Larry and pulled away from him. There were a lot of things going and it was almost as though we had lost control, as we didn’t want to work with him on the record side. The incentive was taken away and it was a strange time as times musically changed and went away from being sweet and flowery to long haired musicians with long solos and songs going on four ages. It was actually only when punk arrived that the sanity came back.”

And then there were the so-called “Troggs Tapes”, the infamous bootleg of the band’s studio session that disintegrated into a swearing contest . . .

“That was born out of the fact that the end of a contract was coming up with Dick James,” Presley explains. “He phoned me one Friday and said ‘Come in on Monday as I want two more songs out of you.’ And I told him that I hadn’t got anything ready, and he replied ‘Well, you’d better have.’ Normally, we’d rehearse in someone’s garage before we even go to the studio so that all the arguments were got out of the way. But by dragging us in there like that, all the arguments and funny ways you have of telling each other things, started to come out. They knew that they weren’t going to get anything out of us, and unbeknown to us had just left the tape running. We didn’t know about it until about six months later when it came out and we were livid. But it was so bloody funny that we just let it go.”

Although there we sporadic releases during the eighties (with 1984’s ‘Rock It Baby’ probably being the pick of the bunch) the band had started to fade from view. That is until a temporary re-unification with Larry Page led to a successful collaboration with R.E.M’s Mike Mills and Peter Buck for the ‘Athens Andover’ album.

“Larry had this idea of working with R.E.M which actually turned out to be one of our finest albums,” he confirms. “To be honest I didn’t know who R.E.M were at the time. When we first spoke them they told us that they had done a lot of our numbers live, and by the time I actually went over there I was in awe of them after I’d heard all their stuff. I wrote about seven new tracks for that, and it was recorded over there. The problem was that it was starting to sound very R.E.M so we had to bring the tracks back with us to turn it slightly, and it ended up sounding very much like a modern version of our first album.”

Although there has been no new studio material from the band since that release, Wet Wet Wet covered ‘Love Is All Around’, taking it to number one in the singles chart for around fifteen weeks. Yet despite that success, the band are wary of committing to recording any new material, and are even limiting the amount of concert appearances.

“I don’t really enjoy too much touring. I’m not that keen on cities as I’m a country person, so staying three nights in, say, New York, is a nightmare for me. We are stopping doing long tours but we will still play live, just not in long stints. The problem with a new album is that nobody knows that you have it out, as the radio won’t play it, so you are in a no-win situation.”

No doubt The Troggs will soon be “playing at a city near you”, but for the moment, the DVD that you are holding in your hands is a succinct collection of songs that provides a neat reminder of the large part the Troggs played in developing the classic sixties sound.

Rich Wilson