Sledgehammer (English band)
| Sledgehammer | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Slough , England |
| Genre (s) | New Wave of British Heavy Metal |
| founding | 1978 |
| resolution | 1988 or later |
| Last occupation | |
| Killer Clint | |
| Ken Revell | |
| Mike Cooke | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
John Jay aka John Hennessy |
Electric bass |
Terry Pearce |
Electric bass |
Gerry Sherwin |
Sledgehammer was an English new wave of British heavy metal band from Slough that was formed in 1978 and split up around 1988.
history
The band was founded in the spring of 1978 by former school teacher Mike Cooke (electric guitar, vocals), bassist Terry Pearce and drummer Ken Revell. Sledgehammer made her first appearance as a support act for Motörhead . This was followed by other concerts, including at the Marquee Club in London . In 1979 it went on tour with April Wine . The band was also active live with Budgie . Then appeared in the same year on the band's own label Slammer Records a self-titled single with the song Feel Good as B-side . The riots in Southall had taken place on the day the single was recorded . The single soon met the interest of Valiant Records , about which it was re-released the following year. Through their label-supported publication, the group was able to further increase its awareness. She was then with the self-titled song of the single - but a new play - to be heard on the 1980s sampler Metal for Muthas . Shortly after that in the same year the song Fantasia was used for the MCA sampler Brute Force . Afterwards recordings for a debut album with the producer John McCoy were planned, but this could not take place because the bassist Terry Pearce left the band. John Jay was added as a replacement at short notice. Pearce returned to the cast a little later, before the group appeared at the Reading Festival in August 1980 . Shortly thereafter, the self-financed single Living in Dreams with the B-side Fantasia appeared again on the band's own label . In the same year more songs were recorded with John McCoy as producer. In 1980 Sledgehammer performed with various other NWoBHM bands, including several times with Def Leppard . In the years that followed, the group was not very active and was briefly on the brink of disintegration due to casting problems. 1982 saw the band again at the Reading Festival. In 1983 the band reported back with their debut album Blood on Their Hands with Illuminated Records , which had been recorded under the direction of Chris Tsangarides . John Jay had since returned as a full-time member, now under the name John J. Hennessey. The album consists of mostly new material and was not very successful due to its poor distribution. The sound carrier was re-released in 1984 by the Belgian metal label Mausoleum Records , simply titled Sledgehammer . It contains an EP as a bonus which, among other things, inadvertently does not contain the self-titled song of the group, but Wildfire by Quartz instead of as listed . The re-release was quite successful in mainland Europe . The band, now with Gerry Sherwin as bassist, released the EP In the Queue on Illuminated Records in 1984 , which includes the title song as well as Oxford City and 1984 . The EP, however, also held up moderately. To further raise awareness, Sledgehammer recorded a live video at the Marquee Club. The video cassette was released in the second half of 1984. However, the release suffered from excessive audience reactions being mixed in with it. By the mid-1980s, the band had almost completely stopped their studio activities. In 1988 the single We Don't Like Porno Peat was released with the song In the Middle of the Night on the back by Sambec Music . With the single one tried to get attention and earn money in order to be able to take action against rape of women and child abuse. After the single In the Middle of the Night with Sledgehammer was released as B-side on Slammer Records shortly afterwards , it was subsequently dissolved.
style
According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , Sledgehammer was one of the first NWoBHM bands to catch the attention of journalists and fans in the late 1970s. This had mainly to do with the fact that the first single was released when Geoff Barton coined the genre term in Sounds magazine. The two songs on the single would offer down-to-earth heavy metal , but they couldn't quite capture the aggression of the live performances. The music is comparable to that of Overkill , Tora Tora and Nightime Flyer . On the debut album, the group is more varied than on the previous releases. We Don't Like Porno Peat's songs would address domestic and physical violence. Colin Larkin stated in The Guinness Who's Who of Heavy Metal Second Edition that We Don't Like Porno Peat speaks out against pornography . Manfred Kerschke described the music in NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days as a mixture of traditional British hard rock , a little boogie , a little tango and South American dance music forms. Eduardo Rivadavia from Allmusic stated that Sledgehammer was one of the first bands to benefit from the sudden interest in the NWoBHM. Even if it is not as “heavy” as it appeared at the time, the music is still energetic and raw.
Martin Popoff wrote in The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties about Blood on Their Hands that Sledgehammer is just one NWoBHm band of many , ranging between Broca's Helm , Saracen , Dumpy's Rusty Nuts , Demon , Shiva , Ethel the Frog and Witchfynde can be classified. The group doesn't seem sure what kind of metal they want to choose. The album has a 1970s charm similar to that of the Hawkwinds of the late 1970s or the self-titled album Armageddons .
Discography
- 1979: Sledgehammer (Single, Slammer Records)
- 1980: Living in Dreams (Single, Slammer Records)
- 1983: Blood on Their Hands (album, Illuminated Records )
- 1983: In the Queue (EP, Illuminated Records)
- 1988: We Don't Like Porno Peat (Single, Sambec Music )
- 1988: In the Middle of the Night (Single, Slammer Records)
- 2005: Live in London (DVD, Magada International )
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 138 .
- ↑ a b c d e Colin Larkin: The Guinness Who's Who of Heavy Metal Second Edition . Guinness Publishing, Enfield, Middlesex, England 1995, ISBN 0-85112-656-1 , pp. 330 f .
- ↑ 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. 561 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. 308 .
- ^ A b Eduardo Rivadavia: Sledgehammer. Allmusic , accessed April 8, 2018 .
- ↑ Biography. rockdetector.com, archived from the original on July 6, 2016 ; accessed on April 8, 2018 .
- ↑ 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. 328 f .