Xero (band)

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Xero
General information
origin Islington , London , England
Genre (s) New Wave of British Heavy Metal
founding 1979
resolution 1984
Last occupation
Peter Solinsky
Barry Fitzgerald
Bill Liesegang
Moon Williams
Electric guitar
 Tony Murphy
former members
Electric bass
 Rowland "Boon" Gould
singing
 Billy Little

Xero was an English new wave of British heavy metal band from Islington that was formed in 1979 and disbanded in 1984.

history

The band was founded towards the end of 1979 by the singer Moon Williams, who had previously been active as a solo artist, and the guitarist Bill Liesegang. Liesegang comes from a German family, the mother from Überlingen and the father from Berlin . A short time later, bassist Rowland "Boon" Gould and drummer Barry Fitzgerald completed the line-up. The first appearances followed before the band could be heard on the MCA sampler Brute Force with the song Hold On in 1980 . Thereupon EMI became aware of the band, whereupon the song Cutting Loose was used for the sampler Metal for Muthas Vol. 2 in the same year . Through this sampler, in turn, Tommy Vance became aware of Xero, whereupon she was invited to the Friday Rock Show . The recordings took place with the new bassist Peter Solinsky and the second guitarist Tony Murphy in early 1981, with the songs Cutting Loose , Lone Wolf , Don't You Think It's Time and Can You See Me were recorded. Gould had left the band on short notice because his other band was level 42 in the UK music charts . Gould made his last appearance with Xero in Greenwich , and immediately after that he had announced his departure. The show was broadcast on April 10th. The audience's reaction to this performance was positive. Then the case recorded version of was Cutting Loose on the compilation The Friday Rock Show the BBC used. At that time the group played six gigs a week in London , with occasional concerts in Spain and Austria . The band also recorded songs like Hi Living , No More Crying , As Far As the Eye Can See and Easy Does It a little later to send these different labels. Several new members were tried out, including Billy Little as the new singer. Ultimately, however, it was decided to leave Williams as the singer. During this time the band kept Williams, Liesegang and Fitzgerald as a core.

In 1983 the group signed a contract with Brickyard Records , which released the single Oh Baby , with the song Hold On as the b-side . Shortly before the release, Liesegang came into the studio with an old recording by Lone Wolf , which was also pressed onto the phonogram shortly before the release. The song had been around since the band was formed and was featured on the Friday Rock Show . The version used for the sound carrier, however, came from the band The Shots, in which Liesegang had previously been active and Bruce Dickinson was the singer. Since the Iron Maiden singer at the time could be heard on the record, the group was forced by Iron Maiden's management shortly after the release to stop further sales of the single due to copyright infringement. The official Iron Maiden logo was also used as an eye-catcher on the single . Due to the recall, it became a rare collector's item . When the maxi single was pressed for the second time , Lone Wolf was replaced by the instrumental song Killer Frog , and the song was deleted from the 7 ″ single . A little later, the release of a second single, Don't You Think It's Time , was announced, with the songs Nighmare and All in Vain on the B-side. In addition, the release of the album First Mission was announced for the spring of 1984 . The album should contain the three mentioned songs as well as Don't Say Don't Say It , Can You Ever See Me , Kamikaze , Cutting Loose , Hold On and Killer Frog . However, due to the financial instability of Brickyard Records, both records were never released. In 1984, Xero disbanded. According to Rock Hard's Matthias Mader , the group had an estimated 40 members by 1984.

The members were then active in various other projects. Liesegang and Fitzgerald founded Dirty Dogs in the late 1980s, later renamed Killer Dogs. The group was also featured on the Friday Rock Show . After this band broke up, Liesegang joined Atomgod again and later also worked for Necropolis . Liesegang had also tried to join Motörhead , but was eliminated after an audition. In 2007 the compilation Unfinished Business: The Definitive Sessions was released , which was re-released in 2015 by No Remorse Records .

style

According to Malc Macmillan in The NWOBHM Encyclopedia , the song Hold On from the sampler Brute Force is melodic metal with bluesy vocals, making the music reminiscent of groups like Ore, After Dark and Lautrec. Allmusic's Eduardo Rivadavia found the songs Hold On and Cutting Loose from the two samplers to be amazingly professional. He also described the singing as bluesy, which is unusual for the music of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. According to Matthias Mader from Rock Hard , the group was "after Samson , Iron Maiden and Angel Witch the next big thing of the NWOBHM from the capital". In an interview with Mader, Liesegang stated that the group had their rehearsal room on the Thames near Wood Wharf Studios , where Kate Bush and Dire Straits also rehearsed. In the Dire Straits song Sultans of Swing , solos can be heard that are very similar to the solo of Don't You Think It's Time . Since the Xero song was older, it would be suspected that Dire Straits had used the song through the thin studio walls.

Discography

  • 1983: Oh Baby (single, Brickyard Records )
  • 2007: Unfinished Business: The Definitive Sessions (compilation, self-published)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 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. 740 ff .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g Matthias Mader: Xero . Sultans of Swing. In: Rock Hard . No. 340 , September 2015, p. 80 .
  3. ^ A b c Eduardo Rivadavia: Xero. Allmusic , accessed October 21, 2015 .
  4. ↑ M [atthias] M [ader]: Xero - "Oh Baby" (12 "Maxi) . In: Iron Pages . The World City Mag. No. February 18 , 1992, Collectas Corner, p. 13 .
  5. ↑ Chris Leibundgut: Xero. Oh baby . In: Rock Hard . No. 66 , November 1992, rarities, p. 120 .
  6. ^ Xero. Unfinished Business (The Definitive Sessions). beathound.com, accessed October 21, 2015 .
  7. ^ Xero. Xero (6) - Unfinished Business. Discogs , accessed October 21, 2015 .