(Fans cheering)
* Music *
Sam Dunn: So I'm here in South America to
meet with the members of Iron Maiden one of
my all-time favorite bands and is now actually
one of the biggest bands on the planet.
The thing about Iron Maiden is their roots lie in a movement
called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal which was
this explosion of bands back in the early 80's in England,
but what I never really understood is what exactly was
the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and
what's its contribution to the development of Metal music?
* Music *
* Intro *
(Fans yelling and chanting)
Sam: Before Iron Maiden was filling stadiums in
South America, back in 1980 when they released their
first record they were considered the leaders of the
New Wave of British Heavy Metal or "Nwobhm" as it's called.
But Maiden actually got their start in the mid 70's and
what I've always wanted to know is what was the
musical climate was like in England at that time?
* Music *
Sam: Why do you think it took that time to get to
that point and release that first album?
Steve Harris: I think it was just purely because of
what was happening, or not happening in our case
in the music business at the time.
We were around before the punk thing but the punk thing
happened around '77, so punk bands were getting their gigs
and anything that was remotely more mainstream rock
wasn't even looked at anymore, so it was really
tough for bands at the time. I remember going down to
a gig in west London and we went in there
it was just people divin' all over the place,
spittin' over the band I just hated everything about it,
absolutely everything.
Sam: Maybe punk could be credited with at least bringing
Steve: Nope, sorry can't credit it with anything.
Sam: C'mon Steve!
Sam: No we hated it, we absolutely hated it.
* Music *
Sam: 1977 and punk was exploding in England and it also happened
to be the same year as the Queen's silver jubilee
and to take the Pis, the Sex Pistols famously rented a boat
on the Thames River, but why I'm interested in Punk is because
there's a lot of folklore around the animosity
between Metal and Punk in the late 70's.
So what I want to understand is what exactly was the
relationship between these 2 styles of music?
* Music *
Sam: What was different about metal compared to punk in the late 70's?
Rat Scabies: Metal players have a... their metal riffs.
We were much more kind of, not bluesy but sorta rock and roll
kind of traditional based in the way we viewed the notes we
played, there was kind of a great kindred that we had
a lot of The Stooges and The MC5,
but the similarities were really only in volume.
Sam: Why were you ultimately more attracted to going
the punk direction than the metal.
Rat: Cause' it was mine. It was my generation
it was what I wanted to do, and you know we didn't play
as good as those guys either. I think we were great because
we could get something out that sounded like a song.
* Music *
Sam: Were the metal and punk fans co-existing peacefully
or was there an actual real conflict there?
Rat: It's like two snarling dogs in a cage you
know they'll look at each other and size each other up
and then after awhile they kind of back down and
get used to each other being there and well maybe
his butt doesn't sniff so bad after all.
John Tucker: Mid-seventies when it kicked off it was very
much an us or them culture. You didn't mix, you didn't
attempt to mix and if you did mix there could be trouble.
I've had bottles thrown at me as I walked past clubs purely
for the crime of wearing a denim jacket.
Sam: Being a rock guy yourself how did you feel about punk?
Dennis Stratton: I hated it.
Yah I don't see the pleasure of spittin' on people
and things like that. It ruined proper music.
* Music *
>> Metal musicians in England in the late 70's seemed to
have a very different musical philosophy than their
punk counterparts, but given that NWOBHM came directly
on the heels of punk I'm wondering if all
metaler's shared this perspective?
So I'm meeting with Brian Tatler, guitarist for the
influential NWOBHM band Diamond Head to get a deeper
understanding about how heavy metalers felt about punk.
Brian Tatler: I liked punk I felt it was very important for
the music scene I think it got rid of a lot of the dead wood,
there seemed to be like prog bands were getting
out of control, bands like Yes were making
double albums and triple albums.
You could only see these bands if you went to see them at
Wembley, they were like gods from another planet or
something, you didn't breath the same air as Led Zeppelin but
certainly you could go watch a punk band in a club it had the
excitement the energy, I think it gave thousands of kids the
idea that you could go on make your own music, go get a
guitar, instead of having this incredible benchmark of say
Deep Purple to live up to. Certainly I could play the
guitar maybe like Steve Jones from the Sex Pistols.
Jess Cox: It appealed to kids you know, kids want noise
and they want power and they want whatever is the in thing
and that was the in thing at the time.
Sam: Why were the media and the labels so infatuated with this thing called punk?
John Tucker: They want the next big thing because this will make
them money so when something happens, and the Sex Pistols
happened big time through their TV interview everyone thinks
we'll have one of those not what's happening next,
I want one of those and I want one of those now.
* Music *
Sam: People I talk to often talk about how the punk
explosion was fairly short-lived. Is that Fair?
Rat: Punk kind of died as soon as it went mainstream.
Every little (beep) went out and bought a leather jacket and cut
their hair and put safety pins through their cheeks I think
they got very focused on how to be successful.
This is how they do it you know with pop acts,
this is how it works in the mainstream we just
have to apply the same rules to our band.
Mark Gregory: These former, Anarchists if you'd like,
had become big label million selling artists.
Out of punk you kind of got the indie jangly guitar and stick it
with something new and romantic as well. So there was a
real kind of end point there and it's alright what's coming next
or what can we do next that's really going to rock?
* Music *
>> By the end of the 70's punk in England had gone
mainstream and it was no longer a defiant underground music
movement, so now that punks authenticity was waning how
would the New Wave of British Heavy Metal get its start?
* Music *
>> One of the biggest legends in the history of the
New Wave of British Heavy Metal is that it's origins can be
traced to a London venue called the bandwagon where
DJ and hard rock enthusiast Neal Kay apparently
kick started the Nwobhm movement.
Sam: What was the state of music at that point?
I'm thinking '78, '79.
Neal Kay: It was punk or nothing at the time and these
rock bands, some of them only kids they had nowhere to go,
no one to move the product higher, no one to press it,
print it, release it and get it there
and it began to get me really annoyed.
I had always dreamed of a place whilst working in the London
clubs and going to live gigs and things there should be rock
available to the people and you could turn everything around
180 degrees and throw everyone out that wore a tie and shirt
and demand that jeans only were worn and only t-shirts.
I had this massive sound system there, it wasn't a disco tech
club system it was a band P.A. and it could blow windows out.
What I kind of realized in the end is that I've grown
a whole culture of rock and roll loonies.
* Music *
Neal: I kept phoning up Sounds which was the big metal rock
paper at the time, in the end Geoff Barton took notice and I
said to him if you come up you will not be disappointed I will
show you something you have never seen before.
Geoff Barton: The concept of a rock club, full of long haired
wanks you know getting there rocks off to the likes of
Ted Nugent was pretty much inconceivable circa 1978, 1979.
Neal: When we saw the results it was astonishing,
he put a center page double spread about us in Sounds and
Geoff came to me one day and said 'Would you be interested
in doing a heavy metal chart for the paper every week?'
John Tucker: He wasn't just playing Rush and Judas Priest,
but he would actually take a chance and throw all this new
stuff into the mix like Praying Mantis, like Iron Maiden.
* Music *
Steve Harris: We made a tape and we took it down to the
sound house to try and get a gig not for any other reason
really we just wanted to get a gig there cause' we
knew it was a good place with cool fans, rock fans.
Neal: Steve said to me something like do us a favor mate,
take it home give it a listen if you like it give us a ring
Sam: ... and when you listen to the Maiden tape
Neal: We went mad, went absolutely bezerk.
Steve: He started playing the tracks off the tape in his
chart, and all of a sudden our tracks start going up the chart
you know getting crowned as number 1 and all this stuff.
Me and Paul went down there one night to see what happened
when they played one of our tracks, of course we
weren't known yet we just happened to stand at
the bar and watch what was going on and the whole
place just went crazy when the Maiden tracks come on.
* Music *
Neal: The Maiden tape was awe-inspiring I don't know how
else to put it. It was a band waiting to smack the world.
Of course convincing the labels that was a different story.
Brian Tatler: It was always you'd aim for a record deal,
a big record deal. You heard of your EMI's and CBS's
but indie labels came out around the time of
punk rock it had never been heard of before.
It gave you an idea that you could make your own record
and you might be able to get a distributor and
sell it yourself or sell it to specialist record shops.
Rod Smallwood: The Soundhouse tapes I thought well put it out,
cause' punk bands are putting out their records.
Steve actually did all the writing, logo's and everything
and then I called it Rock Hard records
and it was a direct rip-off from Stiff.
Stiff Records was; if it ain't stiff it ain't worth a (beep).
Ours was if it ain't rock hard it ain't worth a....
so yah we took stuff from punk.
Sam: Punk seemed to establish this DIY attitude, do you think
you were inspired by how the punk movement...
Steve: We were inspired by nothing in anything to do with
punk we didn't want anything to do with it at all.
Sam: In terms of the sound of the band
to what extent were they coming from a punk tradition.
Kim McAuliffe: When you listen to a lot of punk stuff it's
quite weak really where as heavy metal has got a lot more power.
They took this sort of punk thing and turned it into heavy metal.
Youngsters coming up around that time would
have thought I liked rock I like metal but I can take the speed
because punk bands everything was quadrupled in speed.
Biff Byford: We loved things like Sex Pistols we really liked
that first album it did definitely influence us we just
took all the naft things and threw them away and
kept the good bits, the punk, the prog rock, the Sabbath
the you know Led Zeppelin you know the riff oriented stuff
it all mixed together into a melting pot and out popped
the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
* Music *
>> Bringing together the speed of punk with the heaviness of
prog rock and classic metal, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
introduced a whole new sound to rock music
and the movement was starting to build in London.
But how did this movement become known as this thing
called the New Wave of British Heavy Metal?
Neal Kay: I was invited by the manager of the music machine,
how would you like to put on your own 3 band show during
the week and I thought yah what a shot it's going to enable
me to present to the industry in London new bands.
John: Geoff Barton from the Sounds was sent along to
review 3 bands; Iron Maiden, Angel Witch and Samson and a
big double page spread about the bands and Lewis the editor at
the time added a subtitle; the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
and that was it it was that simple.
Sam: Do you remember when you heard the term
New Wave of British Heavy Metal? What you thought of it?
Rat: Here we go you know,
more (beep) fluffy (beep) with spandex and les pauls.
* Music *
Brian: Suddenly there was lots of bands all over the UK,
nobody was aware of each other before Sounds kind of tied it
all together we did a little 4-track cassette and sent it
off to Sounds and it appeared in Geoff Barton's play list that
was such a result you know that you could do that send it off
and there it was Geoff Barton liked it, awesome. (laughs)
Dennis: If you looked at the marquee in 79' and 80'
the punk bands had disappeared and there was the list of heavy
metal, heavy rock bands from Gary Moore right through to
Tigers right the way through to Raven.
Bif: People were fed up with just having the punk thing, not
everybody wanted quiffed back hair and looked like a pirate
John: This was the logical next step to the bands like
Deep Purple, all of us at one stage were thinking what
would happen next and now we had the answer.
* Music *
>> By the end of the 70's the New Wave of British Heavy Metal
was established as a vibrant underground movement
and was spreading to local scenes across England,
but the movement still had not got the attention of major
labels and this all changed in 1980 when Iron Maiden
released their seminole debut record; Iron Maiden.
Sam: Why do you think EMI wanted to sign the band? Did they see
something in this band or were you pushing this band on...
Rod Smallwood: They saw one thing
and that's packed venues going nuts.
Steve Harris: They came down to the Soundhouse and
saw it was jam packed, they couldn't get in
in fact they were stuck at the back.
You couldn't see properly or anything like that and I think
we were like like the music or not or bloody hell what's going
on here we better sign them before someone else does.
Ashley Goodall: It was full of people wearing red t-shirts with
Iron Maiden on them and just to the right of the stage
Ozzy Osbourne was there I remember seeing him.
He looked at the time a little bit kind of worse for wear
but kind of interested in it, obviously looking
and thinking hmm new generation here.
Sam: What do you think you guys were doing that was different in
those early years compared to the previous generation of metal
like the Sabbath's and the Zeppelins and the Purples?
Steve: I suppose there was an aggression in the music playing
a little faster maybe but we weren't playing any of the cool
things like the twin guitars and melody and prog type of stuff as
well time changes and stuff but with a more aggressive attitude.
John: It was so refreshing it was so new this was what I
wanted this is what I and so many people have been waiting
for through those sort of punk years, this is what the likes of
Judas Priest, um AC/DC had been prepping us for and
then it came bang and it was such a great album.
* Music *
Sam: Another element that is key on that first record was of course
that image of Eddie. Why did that image become so important?
Rod: It was very clear with the band we weren't gonna get
a photograph of them looking real scary you know,
all looking real cool, Maiden's not a cool band,
it's not scary but it's about music.
You needed something and the way Roger Dean did Yes not with
a single character but there were looks and
I was more into getting a single character.
Dennis: Eddie the Head was a skull on a plank of wood with a
mouth that use to come smoke out and I'll never forgot Rob
wanted to call it John or something like that or Jim Bob
something like that and we just sat there and we said
his name is Eddie, he went "why?"
cause' it's a head, he's a head so its Eddie.
Steve: The fans were going through record shops and
flicking through the album rack and whatever and he would
pull out oh bloody hell what's that and it would be Eddie
on the front and he would turn it over and see the live thing,
a lot of them say they bought the album not even knowing
what it was about because of the cover so
you know it definitely made an impact.
Sam: It looked kinda punky though, a little spiky hair.
Steve: Ohh don't start. (laughs)
Mark Gregory: I think it was really the first big record
you know top ten album of this whole new sound,
I guess it would be like the first massive Sabbath Album
or the first big Zeppelin album, a bit of a sigh of relief
for fans oh actually this is gonna work.
* Music *
Sam: Reading in 1980 you guys also played and that seemed
to be a pretty important step forward.
Steve: Obviously a fantastic big festival being here in '73 to
see Genesis and those bands and stuff so you know to actually
play there was amazing and the reaction we got was incredible.
* Music *
Rod: It was a fantastic show for us and I think that
took us to another level plus you're playing
to 30,000 people in one go.
Sam: What do you think is the significance of the exposure at
Reading is for the Nwobhm movement?
John: There was a whole raft of people who were there for
Whitesnake, who were there for UFO and they can experience
these new bands these bands who probably bought tickets
for the other things and so okay this is pretty good,
yah this tugs of pantainment done really well.
Iron Maiden obviously went down extremely well,
Def Leppard didn't get in particularly well
but that's because of the allegations of sell-out
Jess: There was a big piece in the newspaper was about them
selling out and they came on and the reception was horrific,
bottles of pee you know in 2 litre bottles were being thrown
up hitting the stage exploding over the band,
guys are grabbin paper and really really bad.
* Music *
>> Def Leppards poor reception at Reading is one of the
most notorious moments in the history of heavy metal and
the membership in the Nwobhm movement has long sparked debate
among metal fans, so I'm meeting with Def Leppard singer
Joe Elliot to get his take on what exactly happened
at Reading and how it impacted their early career.
Sam: So how did it feel to have that backlash
I mean most famously at Reading you guys weren't
received very well I mean was that tied into this...
Joe Elliot: I disagree with that actually,
I absolutely disagree with that reading thing, people go
on and on and on about we didn't go down well at Reading,
no the reviews said we didn't go down well at Reading.
The kids throw stuff when they're drunk, they pee in the
bottles, screw the tops back on if you're lucky and then they
launch them at the stage cause' it's something fun to do,
we got that that but so did everybody else cause'
I watched all the other bands getting it to.
One guy writes it and everybody says it gospel
but I'm telling you now it's (beep).
I think it all came about because we had a song called
Hello America and they thought we were that conniving
it's like we weren't even that clever, you know that
was just a vision of a kid sitting in a factory
staring at 4 blank walls with no windows.
I think I wrote the lyrics to Hello America in 1977
I didn't even have a passport.
* Music *
Sam: Do you remember the first time you heard that term
New Wave of British Heavy Metal and what you thought of it?
Joe: The only thing I remember is desperately trying not
to be a part of it. Hard rock covers a multitude of bands
from Van Halen to the Kinks, New Wave of British Heavy Metal
through start ties you into being British and in the
mainstream press heavy metal bands was just thought of
as stupid and I didn't want us to be a part of that.
I want us to be mentioned in the same breath as Zeppelin, the
Who, the Kinks, the Stones, the Beatles, Pink Floyd, these were
all the kind of bands we had seen the global success that
they've achieved and that's what we were after.
* Music *
>> By the early 80's, Def Leppard had disassociated
themselves from Nwobhm and embarked on their quest
for success in America, so now that Leppard were no longer
part of the movement what would be the next step in the
evolution of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal.
* Music *
>> With the release of Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast
in 1982 the New Wave of British Heavy Metal started to
crack the mainstream and it was Maiden's new lead singer
Bruce Dickinson that helped propel the movement to mass popularity.
So I'm meeting with Bruce to ask him why he joined Maiden
and what his vocal approach added to the sound of the band.
Sam: In 1981 you played Reading with Samson, my understanding is
that Steve and Rod saw you perform at that show.
Bruce Dickinson: Well they went there specifically to see me perform
Sam: Why do you think that was a significant moment
Bruce: It's when I got the job, I mean I mean yes I had to wait
3 months until they fired Paul and in the meantime I did some
singing and they had to go through a difficult time they
had been unfaithful and had been waiting for their infidelity you
know they were waiting so they could have their moment and it's
terrible thing to say you know but it's true.
Dennis: I think Paul's voice sounds good with the first album
he struggled with the second album but if
the band was gonna break it in America they're
gonna need a singer that is going to compete with
Ronnie James Dio, Robert Plant, David Lee Roth,
all of the guys with high range vocal, if you listen
to any heavy rock any heavy metal band,
David Coverdale any vocalist they need to get up there.
Bruce Dickinson: Paul had a very guttural voice and he had a
style and charm which was unique, how far it could go
was questionable I think Steve was questioning that you know
he wanted a voice that could do a lot with a bigger range.
Steve: Bruce's vocal range was way different than Paul's and
so we were able to throw anything at him really and we did.
* Music *
Sam: Is there a key moment when this
New Wave of British Heavy Metal has reached a peak?
Brian Tatler: I suppose maybe the peak might have been Iron
Maidens releasing 'Number of the Beast' and it becoming the
number 1 album and then appearing on things like Top of
the Pops you know it's kind of mainstream and getting played
on radio one and most of the other bands can only aspire to that.
Gary Holt: There are some bands that you could hear a thousand
of the greatest bands in the world and it will never be
magical to you, first time I heard Iron Maiden you know
it's like hearing music for the first time you know
you had never heard anything like it didn't exist.
Scott Ian: Steve Harris's right hand that is the essence of
heavy metal to me, I'm not even joking Steve Harris is metal.
When I see Steve Harris it just...
ahh just makes me (beep) wanna kill people.
Mark Gregory: They became the classic heavy metal band
but for the new generation but you could always measure
the bands success by the size of their light show.
* Music *
>> Number of the Beast sold over 14 million copies
worldwide, solidifying Iron Maiden as the undisputed front
runners of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal and one of
the biggest metal bands on the planet, and in the wake of
Maidens success an army of Nwobhm fans from
across England and Europe began to emerge.
Sam: One thing that characterizes Nwobhm that hadn't
really happened before was the attitude of the fans at least
identifying as being ok now we are a metal tribe.
Biff Byford: I think that was one of the big differences
between our style of music and the punk side, you know I think
you are locked onto a band or maybe 2 or 3 bands
and that was your band, you know that's who you followed
and you wore their colors on your back.
John Gallagher: You're denim jackets or your vests and all
your favorite bands were embroidered on the back and your
mother wouldn't do it so you had to learn to sew.
All the heavy metal fans were great with a needle and thread.
Jess Cox: We weren't in big silvery camps playing drums
out of a giant clam we were just there that was it
in denim and leather, or spandex sadly.
Probably for the first time ever we could punch our fists in
the air and shout about it and be proud to be wearing
denim and leather and celebrating heavy metal.
Heavy metal was almost becoming fashionable.
* Music *
>> With the New Wave of British Heavy Metal fan base
firmly established, many of Britain's old guard of hard rock
were inspired by the movement creating some of the
most memorable music of their careers.
So why did these older bands catch a spark from Nwobhm?
Rob Halford: It fires you up, it gets you into like a fighting
spirit when you play hard and stronger, you feel satisfied
maybe a sense of relief it's not just us you know this is great,
this band, there's Maiden there's Motorhead,
you're able to check each other out being inspired and
to some extent influenced by about where we were all going
together as bands within the heavy metal scene.
Sam: Do you think these older bands were getting a bit of inspiration?
Brian Tatler: From the newer bands? Possibly. Yah possibly.
We were inspired by Judas Priest, but like you say
maybe they listened to the newer bands as well and thought
well we'll have some of that, cause' it's fast kids like it.
There was a tour with Judas Priest and Iron Maiden supporting.
That was a big british tour that was. So there might have
been a bit of checking out each other, seeing what's happening.
Jess Cox: The bands we were supposed to wipe away, your
Priests and your UFO's and whoever else, actually became
bigger because of those than ever before.
I remember Gary Moore turned up to one of our gigs at the
Marquee and got up to play on stage with us because
he wanted to be seen by whoever was coming up.
John Tucker: In the early 80's, some of those bands,
established bands came back with some of their
greatest ever albums since their debuts.
White Snakes 'Ready and Willing', AC/DC's
'Back in Black', Heaven and Hell came out at that time,
Judas Priest all these bands all of a sudden are getting more
fans because there are things happening in the urban,
that are bringing record buyers in,
and I think at the same time they are raising their game.
Rob Halford: I think it's fair to say that the New Wave of
British Heavy Metal including Priest, which is part of the old
wave, we all came together and that was just like the
dynamite going off. Bang, we're here, let's go,
we're gonna grow and this is now gonna be
a worldwide event and it was.
* Music *
>> With the legends of British hard rock now joining
forces with the New Wave of British Heavy Metal,
the movement had reached its summit.
But as the 80's progressed Nwobhm would face a new
competitor for leadership of the heavy metal genre.
So how would Nwobhm adapt as the 80's wore on?
* Music *
>> With the launch of MTV in the early 80's,
audiences around the world were introduced to a
whole new style of heavy metal, glam metal.
Emerging from L.A.'s sunset strip, glam metal caused a
major shift in the look and style of metal.
I've always wanted to know how the Nwobhm bands
were affected by the glam metal explosion.
John Tucker: This is new it's exciting in the same ways
Nwobhm was new and exciting 2 or 3 years back.
They're talking about places that are weird and wonderful
it's a sunshine environment. This is different,
this is very different than industrial British music.
Biff Byford: Things were really fickle here, things change
really quickly. It's only a small country.
When the invasion came from America, I think Van Halen
started it though, Van Halen were massive long before
Motley Crue, Poison or Ratt were, people were prepared
for it supposedly let it in quite easily.
Jess Cox: When these American acts came over and MTV
came a pair of jeans and a leather jacket just
wasn't what they wanted you know.
They wanted the guys with the big fluffy hair,
spandex pants and the Motely Crues of the world and
the Poisons and whatever else fit right in there.
Rod Smallwood: They became not about music, it became about
getting your tits out on TV, we didn't do the love songs
or ballads, and we sure as hell weren't gonna
prance around with a bunch of semi-clothed tarts.
* Music *
Sam: Did you feel a sense of pressure to fit into that
mold and that American look and American sound...
John Gallagher: I mean it was like put make-up on, why?
Makes your eyes look bigger from a distance, (makes noises)
and it wasn't just us, it was everyone.
You look at pictures of Ozzy he looks like Shelly Winters.
John: A lot of bands did try to sound American,
a lot of the later bands on Meat records for example,
would try a key board driven sound, the harmony's,
the softer more radio friendly approach.
Jess: The first words out of the producers mouth when I walked in
to do the wildcat album was to do harmony's, I'm like what?
Harmony's? We're and English metal band we don't do harmony's.
John: For a band that had been over here all this time,
to try and rustle up some harmony's and go for
a glossier production was quite alien.
I think Leppard did it cause' they were over there and they
were absorbing the influences and absorbing the sound.
* Music *
>> One british band who flourished in the MTV world was
Def Leppard. Their 1983 album 'Pyromania" hit number 2
on billboard and went ten times platinum in the US.
So I've come to California to meet with Def Leppard guitarist,
Phil Collen, to get his insight into why
Leppard were able to crack America.
Phil Collen: You have to charge it up normally,
it might have a mild glow to it.
Sam: Awesome. Would you play like a trademark
Leppard riff for us, something off Pyromania?
Something a little old school.
(Phil plays guitar)
* Music *
Sam: Was it that melody in Leppards music
that you think basically set you apart from Nwobhm
or were there other things to it?
Phil: Well I think takin' a shower was a lot different.
The guys in Def Leppard took showers,
it was cleaner, it was clean cut.
Most of the guys that were all leather jackets and greasy hair
it was all waaa, very working class although Def Leppard
was that as well but it was more song orientated
and melodies and stuff like that.
I don't think Def Leppard got a fair shot in the earlier days,
everyone says you guys are lame and all this stuff, it wasn't
they were just trying to do things a little bit different.
* Music *
Sam: I remember Pyromania I played it so many times on
the cassette I couldn't read the song titles anymore
you know cause' you'd worn it down so heavily.
Why was that record such a success thinking musically?
Phil: It was AC/DC meets Queen.
You know cause' a lot of the time people stay in one camp,
they go I wanna be like AC/DC, I wanna be like Queen.
The whole thing was make a rock version
of Thriller where it crosses over.
Joe Elliot: It was so brilliantly produced that day
time pop radio would play it, even though it was "hard rock".
It didn't offend, if it was gonna offend anybody it would
have been offending those in the hard rock fraternity.
John: I talked to people who were in bands down in London,
and "ohh we heard the demos for Pyromania it sucks,
it horrible it's all the producer".
Hey, I'm sure there crying all the way to the bank.
Sam: Going full circle to the whole Nwobhm thing,
you'd fully transcended that by this point.
Joe: We had left it far behind us and that at that
time was great because we were a standalone band,
we were just this British invasion part 2.
There really hadn't been a band from England to break America
since those heavy days of the Stones, and the Beatles,
and the Who and Zeppelin that had really beat any
rock bands sell records in America.
Not to the amount that we were selling.
* Music *
>> While Def Leppard was conquering America and
Iron Maiden was touring the world, most Nwobhm bands
didn't survive the Glam metal invasion and by
the mid 80's the movement went into sharp decline.
But then something happened, a band emerged from America
that would continue the legacy of Nwobhm.
That band was Metallica.
* Music *
Lars Ulrich: Metallica started out as a cover band,
and some of the bands we were covering obviously
became significant influences. We didn't tell people they were
our songs, but we didn't tell people they weren't our songs.
Here's a song called 'Am I evil', we left out the
"by the band Diamond Head" that somehow got edited out
and then we played 'Am I Evil' and then
everyone was having fun and it was all good.
* Music *
Lars: As we started writing our (beep) was kind of derived
out of those songs, it was Diamond Head, Motor Head,
it was certainly some Maiden, some Judas Priest you know
certainly that was the stuff that sort of fueled us.
* Music *
Sam: This next generation of young thrash musicians,
why were they inspired by what you guys were doing?
Brian Tatler: I can only think the speed, Lars came to see
Diamond Head it was what he wanted Metallica to be, we want
to be as fast as Diamond Head, write these long songs and be
exciting good musicians, but not just you know do the
doomy stuff that Sabbath has already conquered
that's their territory already, so theres a new territory here
where everythings a lot faster and a lot more exciting.
John Tucker: This is the point where you go from small bands
doing their own thing, if you get signed your Maidens,
your Leppards, and then from then on you hit America
you hit Metallica and bang from that moment on you got
thrash metal, black metal, doom metal it all happens and that's
why I think it's a critical point in musical history.
*