NWoBHM - How it came about and where it went

 

Ignited by Cream, Hendrix and Blue Cheer, championed by Black Sabbath, supercharged by Judas Priest and Motorhead, it led, ultimately, to a world wide phenomenon, with many sites such as this one with hard core dedication to the music.

 

This thread is dedicated to those who made it all possible - with the metal drought in the mid 1970s, they decided that enough was enough, and there needed to be more metal music in the world - not only that, but that metal should be closer to the music they imagined it should be.

 

I give you the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, warts and all, from its inception to the ultimate burning out and giving way to the plethora of metal subgenres that were to arise in its wake.

 

The Proto Metal appreciation thread will give you all the background up until 1976.

 

 

Why 1976?

 

In 1976, Judas Priest sharpened up their sound, releasing their last album produced by Sabbath producer Rodger Bain, and a song which would influence swathes of bands - I lose count of the number of acts called Tyrant!

 

 

 

Personally, I would credit the change from Proto to full-blown metal to the Scorpions "In Trance" album, released in 1975. This album has the slower, mid tempo and the faster sides of metal all fully formed;

 

 

 

 

 

Then there is this obscure band from the Isle of Wight to consider. Stormtrooper were a huge influence on the Sex Pistols - they distributed their single in Soho, where Sid Vicious obtained a copy, and has been photographed several times wearing the "I'm A Mess" badge on his leather jacket - and the 1975 release date predates the Pistols and the NWoBHM easily;

 

 

 

It's also worth going back to Motorhead who, if their debut had been released instead of shelved for 4 years when they recorded it, would surely have brought forward the NWoBHM by at least 3 years, and who knows, may have been labelled Punk by later generations, especially given their close association with The Damned, who released the first Punk album (the Sex Pistols were 3rd, with The Vibrators beating them to 2nd Punk release. Vibrator was a song on Motorhead's debut...).

 

Note how closely the main riff of "On Parole" resembles that of AC/DC's "High Voltage" (or Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(The first punk single released in the UK)

 

 

 

 

Lemmy and The Damned covering The Sweet's "Ballroom Blitz" - the 2 bands gigged together a lot in the early days;

 

 

 

 

Consider that Iron Maiden and White Sprit formed in 1975, Diamond Head, Saxon, Marseille and Spider in 1976, Def Leppard, Angelwitch, Holocaust and Samson in 1977 - and Praying Mantis, Quartz, Raven and Witchfynde all formed in 1974. Not to mention Urchin (Dave Murray and Adrian Smith), who formed in 1972 - and it gets really hard to identify when the NWoBHM actually started.

 

 

I know I've missed out loads of bands - let's hear them!

 

Influences on Lemmy are wide and varied - I have a tape recording of an interview with him in which he states his later influences came from The Stooges, MC5, The Beatles and The Groundhogs - and listening to "On Parole", you can clearly hear all of these.

 

There are other direct influences too, of course - Lemmy had just been uncermoniously dumped from Hawkwind, with whom he recorded what are probably their most definitive albums, and "On Parole" (which was going to be recorded un er the band name "Bastards" in honour of Hawkwind) has the best of Hawkwind's heaviest vibes - and, of course, the driving bass lines and gruff vocals which made that music so distinctive. Lemmy also kept a song or two that he recorded with the Hawks (From Doremi Fasol Latido, 1972);

 

 

 

Lemmy brought this song into Hawkwind from his previous band, Sam Gopal, although it was modified a bit (from Escalator, 1968);

 

 

 

Before Sam Gopal, Lemmy's rhythm guitar skillz can he heard in some jolly tunes he recorded with his band The Rockin' Vicars (Lemmy's father was a vicar...). Kinda reminds me of The Who (1965);

 

 

 

...so obviously, Motorhead's influences go way before the likes of The Stooges, and even before The Beatles. I dug further, and found that he started out a huge Buddy Holly and Johnny Cash fan;

 

 

 

1958, the dates of that and other songs Lemmy recorded with Head Cat, was clearly a formative year for Lemmy - in their early days, Motorhead covered this;

 

 

 

- but also kept up with heavy developments, as they also covered this from 1973;

 

 

 

Obviously not too much of interest in that line - except from a kind of fascinated curiousity.

 

Let's return to Sam Gopal, because Lemmy joined the band after a period roadie-ing for Jimi Hendrix (I read somewhere that all Hendrix' roadies were compelled to have training in Marshall amp maintenance, which may explain why Lemmy has used Marshalls exclusively - in fact two specific amps, one named No Remorse, and the other Murder One), and also for The Nice.

 

He met up with the band in an area of London that Hendrix was known to frequent often, probably for its reputation as a bit of a UK equivalent of Haight Ashbury, called Ladbroke Grove. Indeed, Hendrix died there. 

 

Ladbroke Grove had an amazing music scene, which gave birth to many of rocks darkest roots acts; Cream, The Pretty Things, Hawkwind, The Pink Fairies, High Tide, Van Morrison's song "Slim Slow Slider", on "Astral Weeks" was written about the area - and so it goes on. The Grove was the epicenter of the "Underground" - the counter culture, where the only Flower Power was the opium poppy.

 

The Pretty Things were a kind of darker version of The Rolling Stones (1966)

 

 

High Tide (and also Juicy Lucy) were formed in 1969 by members of a US Garage act called The Misunderstood, who moved to London early in 1966, and were profoundly influential with their exciting approach to light shows. Listen to this, released in 1966, and consider that it was released before Pink Floyd's "Piper at The Gates" album and "Arnold Layne", both 1967;

 

 

Other, stranger acts arose, the most interesting of which, from the point of view of this thread, is The Deviants, who featured one of most of Ladbroke Grove's most defining characters; Mick Farren, and went on to spawn other musically explosive acts. Wikipedia implies that they were influenced by The Stooges - but that's almost impossible, given that both acts formed in 1967, and the Stooges' first album was released in 1969. The Deviants' debut "Ptooff!" was released in 1967 - and, like Amon Duul and The Rolling Stones (Satanic Majesties...) was influenced by the Hapshash and the Coloured Coat album released early in 1967, in turn, doubtlessly inspired by Pink Floyd, whose "Interstellar Overdrive" had been recorded in January of that year for a documentary.

 

 

I'll try to keep the information a bit less dense now - but it's going to be tricky! All of that setting up is necessary to understand the paths that led ultimately to Motorhead.

 

The Deviants recorded a second album, "Disposable" in 1968, and were faced with a contractual obligation to record another. Due to the nature of Ladbroke Grove, the musicians were becoming a bit, shall we say, untogether, and further musicians had to be drafted in.

 

Drummer Russell Hunter gave way to Twink, Bassist Duncan Sanderson kept it together, and Hell's Angel (and general life and soul of Ladbroke Grove) Steve "Peregrin" Took was drafted in to recount his time in a remand centre, while Paul Buckmaster consolidated Bela Bartok and Bo Diddley on the Cello for the near impossible to find album "Mona�The Carnivorous Circus" (1970).

 

 

Twink took some of these musicians to form his own band, and release an album entitled "Think Pink" (1970), some of which which bears an uncanny resemblance to some early Hawkwind, and a lot of which sounds like the more out there Krautrock.

 

But it's the next act in line which are of most interest. The Pink Fairies were just as unstable as The Deviants, but managed to record two blinding proto metal albums; "Never Never Land" (1971), and the mega-metal proto Motorhead "Kings of Oblivion" (1973), whose "City Kids" is featured on "On Parole" (see, we got there eventually!);

 

 

 

"On Parole" also features a song written in concert by Lemmy and Mick Farren, which originally appeared on Hawkwind's awesome "Hall Of The Mountain Grill" album (1974), "Lost Johnny".

 

 

^A recording allegedly from Motorhead's first ever gig in 1975, featuring unknown drummer Lucas Fox, and Pink Fairies guitarist Larry Wallis. According to Record Collector magazine, Phil Taylor overdubbed all of Fox's drums on "On Parole" except those on "Lost Johnny".

 

 

So that's how we got to Motorhead - quite a trip!

 

I'll have a go at the other threads in later posts - in the meantime, I want to find those "twilight" metal albums - those which are a bit on the late side for proto, and a bit too early for NWoBHM.

 

Post 'em here!

(still makes the hairs stand up on the back of my neck!)

 

 

You can't really do Priest justice in a single thread - and Colt mentioning "Stained Class" has reminded me of a couple of threads I missed.

 

The infamous song, "Better By You, Better Than Me" was penned by the mighty Spooky Tooth, a band I see as influential on metal as a whole - not just as one of many influences, but as a band that bands admired and imitated, so I see the Spookies as probably THE first proto metal act.

 

I'll do a post on them in the Proto Metal Appreciation thread (if I ever get around to "S"!), but suffice to say that The Spookies gave Hendrix his first UK gig, onstage with them at Fairfield Hall in Croydon in front of 2,000 people, they were the first band to use the term "Heavy Metal" (in 1967, before Steppenwolf), and the bands they directly influenced include Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult. Oh, and Judas Priest, of course!

 

 

 

There are more direct influences to consider - Priest are known to have been influenced by Wishbone Ash, in 1971, one of only a very few bands to use the Gibson Flying V (also used by Michael Schenker in both UFO and The Scorpions before UFO);

 

 

 

K. K. Downing is also famous for using this instrument, as were early Metallica - although to be honest, when I trawled YouTube, it was really hard to find an early video of him playing a V - in most vids, he's playing an SG!

 

Fortunately, the earliest piece I could find with him playing it was Exciter. Exciter is an appropriately named piece of proto-thrash, which draws on at least two other direct influences; Queen and Sweet. Yup, the Glam scene inspired Priest far more than most metal fans would like to admit - and by inspiring the Troo Metal Godz, that means that Glam is arguably the Troo metal. I've seen more than one interview with band members in which Queen are cited as an influence. I won't follow that line any further in case I get into trouble - but here's what I mean;

 

Sweet - "Set Me Free"

 

 

Queen - "Stone Cold Crazy"

 

 

Burnin' Thrash in 1974 - it took Priest 3 years to incorporate that sound - but when they did, it was, er, more or less the same!!!

 

 

 

So Priest came from the deep core of the UK Hard Rock/Blues scene, the Progressive scene and Glam. Not convinced? Here's another song from 1974 that Priest fans may recognise (you may need to turn it UP)

 

 

 

Let's forward 5 years to 1979...

 

 

 

Scary, huh?

 

There's also a connection with Thin LIzzy and Priest (besides the dual guitar lineup) - Priest opened for them way back in 1974. I just found out (I know, I'm a bit slow sometimes!) they're touring together this year; http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=8020

 

 

 

Priest also opened for Budgie (another Rodger Bain produced band);

 

 

 

 

- you can really hear the influence Budgie had on Priest in that last one.

 

 

One more to round off this post - one of the greatest and most authentic early metal bands - UFO. UFO were basically a space rock/jam band in their early days, and hung out in Germany a lot, hence their first two albums sound a lot like mid-range Krautrock. But then they recruited Michael Schenker from the Scorpions, and the rest is history - right up to the seminal live album album.

 

During the NWoBHM, it was all about the live performances - it was great to have studio recordings, but most fans agreed that it was nothing like experiencing the band in their natural habitat - and AC/DC's "If You Want Blood, You've Got It" is the album that completely changed my view of AC/DC from standard 3-chord merchants to a very special hard rock/heavy metal act. Similarly, UFO's "Strangers in The Night" was another backdrop to the NWoBHM for me, and, I suspect, many others - it's simply a perfect live album.

 

UFO in 1973

 

 

in 1975 (check out Schenker's soloing!!!)

 

 

and on "Strangers in The Night" (1978)

 

 

 

 

if I've missed anything in the "bands that influenced Judas Priest" file, please add YouTubes here.

 

Here's the Metal Godz again, with the 1977 prototype to 1978's Exciter - a song with an interesting parallel in Black Sabbath - but I think that's another post!;

 

 

 

/edit... aw - all those "embedding disabled by request" messages - I'll have to come back and fix them later.