Gaskin (band)
| Gaskin | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Scunthorpe , England |
| Genre (s) | New Wave of British Heavy Metal , Rock |
| founding | Late 1970s, 1999 |
| resolution | 1983 |
| Current occupation | |
| Dave Norman | |
| Paul Gaskin | |
Electric guitar |
Andy Soloman |
| Mick Cross | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
Stefan Prokopczuk |
singing |
Mick Clarke |
Electric bass |
Marcus "Baggy" Lagzdins († 2012) |
Electric bass |
Mark McKenzie |
singing |
Bren Spencer († 2006) |
Electric bass |
Dave Gugelot |
Drums |
Dave Wagstaffe |
Electric bass |
Tony Ilkiv |
Drums |
Dave Pick |
Vocals, electric bass |
Andy Wood |
Electric guitar |
David Screen |
Electric bass |
Mick Cooper |
Electric guitar |
Rick Maybury |
Gaskin is an English new wave of British heavy metal and rock band from Scunthorpe that was founded in the late 1970s, disbanded in 1983 and has been active again since 1999.
history
The founding of the band goes back to the late 1970s after the previous band Scepter of guitarist and singer Paul Gaskin and drummer Dave Norman broke up. In January 1980, the addition of bassist Stefan Prokopczuk resulted in a permanent line-up. In the following months the first rehearsals and performances were held. A first demo followed in April , which includes the songs Sweet Dream Maker , End of the World , I'm No Fool and Despiser . The recordings had taken place in the Fairview Studio in Kingston upon Hull under the direction of Ron Neave , who had also worked for Witchfynde . A few days later, the band was offered a recording deal by Rondelet Records , but they turned it down because Neal Kay had advised the members not to sign a contract at this early stage. Instead, they moved to Nottingham and held regional appearances with Witchfynde, among others. In early 1981 the group experimented as a quartet with the addition of a second guitarist named David Screen. After recording for Radio Trent, however, they shrank back to a trio. The performances had meanwhile expanded to London , whereupon Rondelet Records again offered the band a contract, which they accepted this time.
In April 1981 the single I'm No Fool was released with Sweet Dream Maker as the B-side. Shortly thereafter, the debut album End of the World followed. The recordings had taken place again in the Fairview Studio. After the release, Mick Clarke joined the cast as a singer, after which Paul Gaskin concentrated on playing the electric guitar. In the weeks that followed, tensions developed among the members, culminating in Clarke leaving the cast along with Prokopczuk and founding Ace Lane . Bassist Marcus “Baggy” Lagzdins and singer Bren Spencer joined in as a replacement. In 1982 it went on tour with Wishbone Ash and EF Band . The group also held its own tours. In the same year, in addition to the single Mony Mony , the second album No Way Out was released . The album was recorded in April 1982 at Enids studio in Suffolk . After appearances with Praying Mantis , Girlschool and Vardis , Kerrang magazine announced in early 1983 that the band had split into two camps, with Paul Gaskin and Bren Spencer as the remaining members. The last appearance with the usual cast took place in December 1982 in Scunthorpe Baths . The line-up was completed with drummer Dave Wagstaffe and bassist Mark McKenzie. Together they worked on the third album Aftermath . McKenzie in turn was replaced by Dave Gugelot, who was only part of the line-up for one or two rehearsals, as the group disbanded a short time later, in early 1983. The reasons for the dissolution were the bankruptcy of Rondelet Records and the exit of Spencer, who founded the band Cherokee. The release of the third album could no longer take place. After the dissolution, the members turned to other projects.
Since the band was quite popular in mainland Europe and Japan , a bootleg from End of the World was released in 1992 . Then Pony Canyon became aware of the release, whereupon both albums were re-released shortly afterwards. This made Paul Gaskin feel motivated to create new material. He did this mostly on his own, occasionally bassist Mick Cooper ( Badge , Blade Runner ) and guitarist Rick Maybury helped out. The recordings remained unpublished for several years. In 1996 a CD containing both albums was released via British Steel Records . That same year, Bren Spencer died in a car accident. Neat Metal Records was interested in the recordings of the early 1990s , the release took place in 2000 in the form of the album Stand or Fall at Edgy Records . The group was active again since 1999 and consisted of the guitarist Andy Soloman, the bassist Tony Ilkiw and the drummer Dave Pick in addition to Paul Gaskin. One of the comeback appearances took place in 2000 at the Wacken Open Air . In 2004 Paul Gaskin worked on new songs and played with the band at Headbangers Open Air in the summer of 2005 . On August 11th, an anniversary concert for the 25th anniversary of the band took place in Baths Hall in Scunthorpe. In addition to Paul Gaskin as guitarist and singer, the group consisted of drummer Dave Norman, bassist Tony Ilkiw and bassist and singer Andy Wood. The cast were also planning a new studio album. In 2012 the album Edge of Madness was released via High Roller Records .
style
According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , End of the World shows a variety of influences and styles. The music is comparable to that of Shiva , Praying Mantis and Limelight . Comparisons to Rush and Wishbone Ash would have upset the band.
"Buffo" Schnädelbach described the rock hard style as "rather shallow heavy rock with a light Gary Moore - or deep purple touch". As a result, he thought the publication of Stand or Fall was a "crazy idea" that "at best a few incorrigible nostalgics" could take seriously.
According to Manfred Kerschke in NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days , the band plays “epic heavy pieces of the special class with harmonious vocals”. The group works on a high technical and songwriting level.
The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal compared Gaskin's music to Rush, with the group also relying on short, fast metal songs. The handling of the instruments and the production were highlighted as positive.
Martin Popoff noted in The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties, on the other hand, that the band on End of the World wasn't ready to record, as evidenced by cheap production, poor execution, and inadequate songwriting. No Way Out offers an improvement, but still suffers from production, songwriting and unimpressive vocals. The title song reminds me of the label colleagues Witchfynde. In the fourth edition of the book series, Popoff wrote about Stand or Fall , which is then well presented how the band originally sounded: A mixture of Bad Company and music by the NWoBHM, which was slightly influenced by pop music. However, he preferred the reunited Jaguars over the newly reunited Gaskin.
Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia noted that the band has moved from punk influenced metal to more melodic hard rock in the style of Def Leppard and Praying Mantis.
Andreas Schöwe from Metal Hammer wrote in the review of the British Steel Records re-release of the two albums that the group plays at a high level, but does not come close to bands like Samson and Tygers of Pan Tang . In addition, the music was poorly produced even for the conditions at the time. In a later edition Daniel Böhm wrote about Stand or Fall that it follows No Way Out almost seamlessly, both in terms of songwriting and production, with "the liveliest NWoBHM vibe" .
Discography
- 1981: End of the World (Album, Rondelet Records )
- 1981: I'm No Fool (Single, Rondelet Records)
- 1982: No Way Out (Album, Rondelet Records)
- 1982: Mony Mony (single, Rondelet Records)
- 2000: Stand or Fall (Album, Edgy Records )
- 2009: Beyond Worlds End 80-81 (compilation, Buried by Time and Dust Records )
- 2012: The Contract (EP, self-published)
- 2012: Edge of Madness (album, High Roller Records )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h History. metallian.com, accessed June 5, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 234 ff .
- ↑ a b Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on April 13, 2016 ; Retrieved June 5, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Gaskin - Edge Of Madness. Discogs , accessed June 5, 2016 .
- ↑ [Uwe] "Buffo" [Schnädelbach]: Gaskin . Stand or fall. In: Rock Hard . No. 159 , August 2000, p. 89 .
- ^ Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 107 f .
- ↑ 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. 123 .
- ↑ 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. 130 .
- ↑ Martin Popoff, David Perri: The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 4: The '00s . Collectors Guide Ltd, Burlington, Ontario, Canada 2011, ISBN 978-1-926592-20-6 , pp. 180 .
- ↑ Eduardo Rivadavia: Gaskin. Allmusic , accessed June 5, 2016 .
- ^ Andreas Schöwe: Gaskin . End of the World / No Way Out. In: Metal Hammer . January 1997, p. 51 .
- ^ Daniel Bohm: Gaskin . Stand or fall. In: Metal Hammer . August 2000, p. 51 .
