Ethel the Frog
| Ethel the Frog | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Kingston upon Hull , England |
| Genre (s) | New Wave of British Heavy Metal |
| founding | 1976 |
| resolution | 1981 |
| Last occupation | |
| Terry Hopkinson | |
| Paul Conyers | |
| Paul Tognola | |
Vocals , electric guitar |
Doug Sheppard |
Ethel the Frog was an English new wave of British heavy metal band from Kingston upon Hull that was formed in 1976 and split up in 1981.
history
The band was formed in 1976, named after a Monty Python sketch, and consisted of singer and guitarist Doug Sheppard, guitarist Paul Tognola, bassist Terry Hopkins and drummer Paul Conyers. After several demos , the single Eleanor Rigby , a cover version of the Beatles song of the same name , with the song Whatever Happened to Love as the B-side was released in 1978 on Best Records . The sound carrier had a circulation of 1,000 copies. After that, the band held gigs, including at the Humberside Open Air Festival . However, this performance was canceled by the police after 15 minutes because patients from an adjacent hospital had complained. At a rock music competition held by Melody Maker magazine , the EMI label became aware of the band, which, with the help of Neal Kay, had been looking for a suitable band for their upcoming sampler. Another source says that the band recorded a demo in the spring of 1980, which was sent to Ashley Goodall, the person who was looking for bands for the EMI sampler, and thus received an acceptance. The sampler appeared in 1980 under the name Metal for Muthas , whereupon the band can be heard with the song Fight Back . EMI released their self-titled debut album at the beginning of the same year, which also includes Fight Back and a new edition by Eleanor Rigby . All of the songs were from various recording sessions in the late 1970s. By the time the band was released, however, the band began to break up, splitting into two camps, with Conyers and Tognola, who founded Salem , and Hopkinson and Sheppard, who were also planning to start a new band, but never got beyond this phase. After one or two final appearances in early 1981, Ethel the Frog was dissolved.
style
According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , the band plays melodic heavy metal in the style of Alkatrazz , Mother's Ruin , Last Flight and later Quartz on the single . The song Bleeding Heart from the debut album is reminiscent of Hammerhead's song Lochinvar . Martin Popoff wrote in The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties in his review of the album that the band was part of the first wave of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. The band offers a mixture of “ bar- room- boogie ” mixed with traditional, dense, depressive, British heavy metal. A mixture of Status Quo , old Led Zeppelin , early Moxy and old Deep Purple can be heard on the album . In addition, the music is relaxed and clumsy and is driven by the bass.
Discography
- 1978: Eleanor Rigby (Single, Best Records )
- 1980: Ethel the Frog (album, EMI )
Web links
- Ethel the Frog at Allmusic (English)
- Ethel the Frog at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 204 f .
- ^ A b Eduardo Rivadavia: Ethel the Frog. Allmusic , accessed January 3, 2016 .
- ^ Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 105 .
- ↑ Martin Popoff : The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2005, ISBN 978-1-894959-31-5 , pp. 108 .