The Handsome Beasts
| The Handsome Beasts | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| origin | Wolverhampton , England |
| Genre (s) | New Wave of British Heavy Metal , Rock |
| founding | 1972, 1990, 2004 |
| resolution | 1987, mid-1990s |
| Website | www.handsomebeasts.com |
| Current occupation | |
| Alan Nyland | |
Electric guitar |
Mark Boreland |
| Mick Robottom | |
| Max McKee | |
| Kez Taylor | |
| former members | |
Electric bass |
Steven Hough |
Drums |
Ted Duggan |
Drums |
Pete Malbasa |
Electric guitar |
James "Porky" Barrett |
Electric guitar |
Paul Robins |
singing |
Garry "Flabby" Dalloway († 2006) |
Electric bass |
Mark Knight |
Drums |
Ray Richman |
Electric guitar |
Mariusz "Maz" Mitrenko |
Electric bass |
Sean Brennan |
singing |
Simon "Mongo" Hall |
Electric bass |
Shawn Till |
Electric bass |
Simon "Fungus" Fielding |
singing |
Rob "Rocky Shades" Berkley |
singing |
Jake Dodd |
Electric guitar |
Phil Aston |
Electric guitar |
Harries |
The Handsome Beasts are an English new wave of British heavy metal and rock band from Wolverhampton formed in 1972.
history
The band was formed in 1972 and in 1980 consisted of the singer Garry Dalloway (according to other sources also written Dalway, Dallaway, or Dallowy), the bassist Steven Hough, the drummer Pete Malbasa and the guitarist Phil Aston. After the establishment, the first appearances in local pubs and bars followed. The group was able to increase their awareness through the large body size of the singer Dalloway, by emphasizing this fact and animating the audience to shout out sentences like "You fat bastard". However, since no label was interested in the band towards the end of 1980, the manager Paul Birch decided to found the Heavy Metal Records label . About this appeared at the beginning of the same year, the single All Riot Now , which contains the title song and The Mark of the Beast . The second single followed in 1981 under the name Breaker . While the title song can be heard on the A-side, the B-side has two grooves so that either the song One in a Crowd or Crazy is played at random . The tour activities had meanwhile expanded to the Midlands . Since Heavy Metal Records now had other groups under contract, it brought out the sampler Heavy Metal Heroes in the same year , for which The Handsome Beasts contributed Local Heroes . Due to the success of the records, the band was invited to the Friday Rock Show , for which David's Song , Sweeties , Another Day and Local Heroes were recorded. The program aired on July 10, 1981. In the second half of the year, the label decided to release the debut album Beastiality . The album attracted particular attention for its cover, which depicts the overweight front man Dalloway crouching naked next to a pig with his crotch obscured by his overhanging stomach. He also wore wire-rimmed glasses and had greasy hair, while a sign in front of them read "Do not feed animals". A total of 16 photo strips were taken during the photo shoots. Paul Robins is represented on the sound carrier as the second guitarist, whereby Local Heroes and the three songs of the single Breaker were reused, so that over half of the songs were already known. In the same year, Sweeties was released as a single, with a similar tasteless cover and with the song You're on Your Own as the B-side. In 1982 the group continued their live activities, Robins had now completely taken over the position of guitarist, while Aston had left the band to join Rogue Male . In the following time, the label concentrated on other bands, so that The Handsome Beasts were hardly active. It wasn't until 1987 that they returned with appearances with bands like Tygers of Pan Tang . In addition to Dalloway, the only founding member was bass player Steven Hough. The line-up was supplemented by guitarist Mariusz Mitrenko and drummer Ray Richman. Previously, a guitarist named Harries had temporarily taken over from Robins' post. However, since the performances had little success, the group broke up shortly afterwards.
In 1990 the band got together again to release the album The Beast Within . In addition to Dalloway, the band consists of the drummer Richman, the bassist Mark Knight and the guitarist Mitrenko. On the album, Knight's last name is incorrectly referred to as Wright. The guitarist Harries was again represented during the recordings, but had to be replaced by Mitrenko during this time. The cover depicts a dog looking under the miniskirt of a long-legged woman . Then it became quiet again around the band. She used this time to record another album called Little Sister in 1993 with the help of Neil "The Finn" Finnegan, former bassist of the Birmingham band Ricochet, which was not released due to the bankruptcy of Heavy Metal Records. After a last tour through the Midlands, the group broke up due to a lack of interest from the label in the mid-1990s. In 1996 the debut album was re-released on British Steel Records , with songs from the singles, a short biography and pictures of the rare singles as a bonus.
In 2004 the band returned with the album 04 . In addition to Dalloway and Richman, the band consists of guitarists Alan Nyland and Mark Boreland and bassist Sean Brennan. In 2004 Ted Duggan was also part of the band as a drummer. In 2005, Richman was replaced by Mick Roobottom. After the release it went on a few tours, including again with Tygers of Pan Tang. On August 20, 2006 Dalloway died of a heart attack . Before that, the recordings for another album had taken place with him. The band's new singer was Simon Hall, singer of the local cover band Beholder, whom Dalloway had recommended 18 months before his death. The last album with him as a singer was released in June 2007 under the name Rock and a Hard Place . Pete Way from UFO can then be heard as a guest musician. Towards the end of the year Hall left the band, as did bassist Simon Fielding, who also came from Beholder and had only joined The Handsome Beasts in the summer of 2007. In December, Rob "Rocky Shades" Berkley joined the line-up as the new singer and Shawn Till as the new bass player. After the album was released, the band performed at the British Steel Festival .
style
According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , the musicians are very talented on their instruments while the vocals are soulful and bluesy . The single All Riot Now is comparable to the works of Lautrec , Xero , Expozer and Warrior from Essex . Beastiality offers standard NWoBHM songs, while the lyrics are rather unusual. These would be about social grievances and misanthropic behavior. The Beast Within contain Upbeat - rock songs , as well as Led Zeppelin -influenced, slightly bluesy songs. According to Matthias Mader in NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days , "prototypical, medium-paced NWoBHM with pithy vocals and earthy blues influences" is typical for the band. The Beast Within is no longer up-to-date, even if it is still of good quality, with influences from Southern Rock being added. Eduardo Rivadavia from Allmusic found that the music could never really fit completely into the typical sound of the NWoBHM. He assigned the music to hard rock . The songs would deal with amusing topics, which would be presented with a powerful and soulful voice. The International Encyclopedia of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal found that the band's music is typical of that of the NWoBHM, but a bit more melodic than the average. Colin Larkin described the band as melodramatic in his book The Guinness Who's Who of Heavy Metal Second Edition . Martin Popoff wrote in his book The Collector's Guide of Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties in his review of the debut album that the band played bluesy British bike musicians of the 1970s with additional influences from Nutz , Alex Harvey , Nazareth , Status Quo , early Saxon and Motörhead .
Discography
- 1980: All Riot Now (single, Heavy Metal Records )
- 1981: Beastiality (Album, Heavy Metal Records)
- 1981: Breaker (single, Heavy Metal Records)
- 1981: Sweeties (single, Heavy Metal Records)
- 1990: The Beast Within (Album, Heavy Metal Records)
- 2004: 04 (album, Heavy Rock Records )
- 2007: Rock and a Hard Place (Album, Q Records )
Web links
- Official website
- The Handsome Beasts at Discogs (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d about. thehandsomebeasts.co.uk, archived from the original on October 13, 2015 ; accessed on May 15, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Biography. (No longer available online.) Rockdetector.com, archived from the original on May 15, 2016 ; accessed on May 15, 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.
- ^ Garry Sharpe-Young , Horst Odermatt & Friends: The Ultimate Hard Rock Guide Vol I - Europe . Bang Your Head Enterprises Ltd, 1997, p. 253 .
- ↑ a b c 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. 198 .
- ↑ Neil Jeffries: Kerrang! The Directory of Heavy Metal . Virgin Books, London 1993, ISBN 0-86369-761-5 , pp. 94 .
- ^ A b Colin Larkin: The Guinness Who's Who of Heavy Metal Second Edition . Guinness Publishing, Enfield, Middlesex, England 1995, ISBN 0-85112-656-1 , pp. 160 .
- ↑ a b c about. (No longer available online.) Handsomebeasts.com, archived from the original on January 23, 2016 ; accessed on May 15, 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.
- ↑ a b c d e f g Matthias Mader, Otger Jeske, Manfred Kerschke: NWoBHM New Wave of British Heavy Metal The glory Days . Iron Pages, Berlin 1995, p. 111 f .
- ↑ a b c d Eduardo Rivadavia: Handsome Beasts. Allmusic , accessed May 14, 2016 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Malc Macmillan: The NWOBHM Encyclopedia . IP Verlag Jeske / Mader GbR, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-931624-16-3 , p. 269 ff .
- ↑ 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. 319 .
