Alkatrazz
| Alkatrazz | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Maidstone , England |
| Genre (s) | New Wave of British Heavy Metal , Hard Rock |
| founding | 1980 |
| resolution | 1983 |
| Last occupation | |
| Philip Tame | |
| Kirk Pinkney | |
| Nick Parsons | |
| Bob Jenner | |
| Craig Pinkney aka Craig Stevens | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
Gary Bevan |
Alkatrazz was a British hard rock and new wave of British heavy metal band from Maidstone that was formed in 1980 and split in 1983.
history
The band emerged from the breakup of the Interface group. The formation of the band took place in 1980, where it consisted of guitarist Bob Jenner, bassist Gary Bevan and drummer Nick Parsons. The cast was Craig Stevens, whose real name is Craig Pinkney, who was born in England but lived in Australia . After his return to Great Britain he looked for a band and found it with Alkatrazz. Towards the end of the year, the label RCA Records became aware of the band and signed them. Performances with Magnum and Tygers of Pan Tang followed . In addition, work began on the debut album, which was released in 1981 under the name Young Blood . In the same year, the two songs Rockin 'High and You and the Night were released as singles from this album . On the B-side of both singles the song Run Wild is included. After the album was released, it went on tour with Samson , while the album only sold moderately. A year later, the second album Radio 5 followed. Jo Julian can be heard on the sound carrier as a guest keyboarder. Julian also produced the album and later produced Paul Samson's album Joint Forces . Think It Over was released as a single that same year . In the summer of that year, the band was invited to the BBC Studios to make recordings for the Friday Rock Show , which aired on August 6, 1982. The bass player was no longer Gary Bevan, but Philip Tame. In addition, keyboardist Kirk Pinkney was a new member of the line-up. The beginning instability of the line-up contributed to the breakup of the band in 1983.
style
Malc Macmillan described the group in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia as a talented but not very innovative rock band . Musically it is comparable to the RCA label colleagues Grand Prix . The songs Rockin 'High , You and the Night , Deadline and Crazy Dancer from the debut album Young Blood would be reminiscent of bands like Mother's Ruin, Def Leppard and Lautrec. Run Wild, on the other hand, is more powerful and brings back memories of some of the songs from Spartan Warrior's debut album . After the little success of the debut album, attempts have been made with Radio 5 to move away from the style of the first album through more commercial songs. Songs like Long Time No Love and Short Change the band would prevent you from as Survivor - wannabees to sound. Overall, the album sounds like Def Leppard, but more like Pyromania than On Through the Night . In the book The Ultimate Hard Rock Guide Vol I - Europe , the group is referred to as a heavy rock band. Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic described the music on the two albums as uninteresting hard rock. The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal by Tony Jasper and Derek Oliver called the music melodic hard rock and a mixture of UFO and April Wine . With the second album, the band worked more and more American influences.
Discography
- 1981: Young Blood (album, RCA Records )
- 1981: Rockin 'High (single, RCA Records)
- 1981: You and the Night (Single, RCA Records)
- 1982: Radio 5 (album, RCA Records)
- 1982: Think It Over (Single, RCA Records)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 31 f .
- ^ A b Eduardo Rivadavia: Alkatrazz. Allmusic , accessed September 2, 2015 .
- ↑ Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on September 24, 2015 ; accessed on September 2, 2015 .
- ↑ a b Tony Jasper, Derek Oliver: The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal . Facts on File Inc., New York 1983, ISBN 0-8160-1100-1 , pp. 7 .
- ^ Garry Sharpe-Young , Horst Odermatt & Friends: The Ultimate Hard Rock Guide Vol I - Europe . Bang Your Head Enterprises Ltd, 1997, p. 21 .