ROGUE MALE — First Visit (review)

Album · 1985 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2021-09-26
Vim Fuego

There is a famous incident now fondly recalled in metal lore where the legend who was Lemmy saved the career and possibly the lives of an up-and-coming Twisted Sister. The incident took place on July 24, 1982 at the Wrexham Racecourse Ground. Motorhead were already legends in their own lifetime, while Twisted Sister had been a huge fish in a small pond in their native New York/New Jersey, but weren’t terribly well known outside the East Coast of the United States. Twisted Sister’s manager wangled the band a spot in a line-up which also included such NWOBHM luminaries as Tank and Raven, and the veteran Budgie. Spot the mismatch? In a line-up of denim and leather there was Twisted Sister in spandex, stack heels, hair extensions, and gaudy make-up.

Due to cancellations and bands pulling out of the gig, Twisted Sister ended up in the slot directly before Motorhead. To say the band were shitting themselves was an understatement. In recent times the band Girl, featuring Phil Colleen in his pre-Def Leppard days, who had a less outrageous look than Twisted Sister, had been bottled off the stage. Anvil had received a similar reception for the crime of Lips wearing fishnet sleeves and playing his guitar with a dildo. Dee Snider and co. were anticipating a rough reception complete with a hail of bottles.

Lemmy, being the gent and rock and roll lover he was, said “I'll introduce you”. And he did. Lemmy told his loyal crowd to be respectful and behave themselves. And they did. Twisted Sister showed their true mettle (metal?) and eventually left the stage to what Dee Snider described as “...one of the greatest ovations of my life.”

If you’re wondering about the relevance of this story as it relates to Rogue Male, then here it is: Rogue Male never got their Lemmy introduction. If they had, then who knows what they might have done. The band had an outrageous look like Twisted Sister, but rather than psycho-glam, their schtick was more Mad Max meets Duran Duran. And they had a hard rocking sound – the second reason for the Lemmy/Dee Snider story – equal parts Motorhead and Twisted Sister.

Lead-off track on “First Visit”, their debut album, “Crazy Motorcycle” charges out of the speakers with the tempo of “Ace of Spades” or “Bomber”, with singer/guitarist Jim Lyttle rasping like a gravelly Biff Byford. Then second track “All Over You” rocks out like something from “Under The Blade”, a little more conventional and less frenetic than the previous track, but of no less a quality. “Unemployment” could almost be an alternate take on “Tear It Loose” – it actually comes uncomfortably close to the Twisted Sister song in riffs and vocal arrangements.

Title track “First Visit” is a blues-y rocker with a cocky, self-confident swagger. “Get Off My Back” is a high-paced jangling singalong, reminiscent of a cleaner sounding GBH. Throughout the album there’s no shortage of riffs and good, honest hard rock leads and solos. And the band seemed to slide effortlessly from style to style, from anthemic hard rock to near D-beat freak-out to triumphant NWOBHM majesty.

But Rogue Male just didn’t make it, and it’s hard to tell exactly why. They were touted by Kerrang! as a band to watch, so they weren’t without support. The album artwork on “First Visit” is a bit shit, like a high school art student’s take on the original Terminator, but a lot of bands with awful album covers have had long and successful careers. Hell, the album even turned up in Bad News’ touring van photo. It could have been the lack of an obvious single to promote in the different musical climate of the 1980s – while the entire album is better than average, there’s not really an outstanding song which jumps out and bores it’s way into your brain. This also means it’s hard to call “First Visit” a forgotten classic, because it isn’t, but it’s also better than a forgettable also-ran. Perhaps it’s easiest to describe this as an awkward to place album for those in the know to reminisce about and imagine what might have been.