Permission To Rock

By Dean Pedley

Permission To Rock is a collection of more than thirty interviews with selected classic rock, heavy metal and prog rock bands and artists. These extensive transcriptions and features are taken from the author’s own interviews spanning the period from 2007 – 2012 and include such well known names as Glenn Hughes, Geoff Downes of Asia and Yes, Saxon's Biff Byford, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren and Fish discussing both his solo career and work with Marillion. Amongst the newer names are interviews with both Jay Buchanen and Scott Holiday of the highly acclaimed Rival Sons, Absolva’s Chris Appleton and rising Mancunian rockers Exit State.

The full list of interviews is as follows:-
Absolva / Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd x 2 / Beardfish / Biff Byford (Saxon) / Jay Buchanen (Rival Sons) / Burning Point / Bob Catley (Magnum) / Diamond Head / Geoff Downes (Asia, Yes) / John Du Cann (Atomic Rooster) / Exit State / Fish / Freedom Call / Fury UK / Ken Hensley / Scott Holiday (Rival Sons) / Glenn Hughes (Black Country Communion) / Chris Impellitteri / Pete Lesperance (Harem Scarem) / Nils Lofgren / Marillion / Luke Morley (Thunder) / Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister) / Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention) / David Readman (Pink Cream 69) / Bernie Torme / Martin Turner (Wishbone Ash) / Tygers Of Pan Tang / Danny Vaughn (Tyketto) x 2 / Winter In Eden / Dweezil Zappa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dean Pedley
• Release date: Oct 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301412990

Dean Pedley

Dean Pedley had his first review published in the letters column of Kerrang back in 1982 when he was just twelve years old. Since then he has written extensively about rock and metal, reviewing hundreds of albums and gigs and carrying out numerous interviews along the way. He currently contributes to Fireworks magazine and the long running webzines Sea of Tranquility and The Midlands Rocks.

Book preview

Permission To Rock – Volume One

Published by Dean Pedley at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 Dean Pedley

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Jon Collins, Steve Cummings, Peter Keevil, Pete Pardo, Bruce Mee, Phil Ashcroft, Neil Daniels, Paul Jerome-Smith, Rich Ward, Ian Harvey, Mike Exley, Mark Appleton, Lynne Hampson and all of the interviewees. Special thanks to Mark ‘Tosh’ Davies who also kindly provided the cover image.

Table of Contents:-

Absolva

Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd

Beardfish

Biff Byford (Saxon)

Jay Buchanen (Rival Sons)

Burning Point

Bob Catley (Magnum)

Diamond Head

Geoff Downes (Asia, Yes)

John Du Cann (Atomic Rooster)

Exit State

Fish

Freedom Call

Fury UK

Ken Hensley

Scott Holiday (Rival Sons)

Glenn Hughes (Black Country Communion)

Chris Impellitteri

Pete Lesperance (Harem Scarem)

Nils Lofgren

Marillion

Luke Morley (Thunder)

Eddie Ojeda (Twisted Sister)

Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention)

David Readman (Pink Cream 69)

Bernie Torme

Martin Turner (Wishbone Ash)

Tygers Of Pan Tang

Danny Vaughn (Tyketto)

Winter In Eden

Dweezil Zappa

Absolva

When Fury UK bassist Luke Appleton was given the opportunity to take up his dream job with Iced Earth the remaining members of the acclaimed trio opted to put the band on hiatus and form a brand new classic metal quartet – Absolva. Joining vocalist / guitarist Chris Appleton and drummer Martin McNee are second lead guitarist Tom Atkinson and bassist Dan Bate and debut album Flames Of Justice is due to be released in October. Sea Of Tranquillity sat down with Chris just a short time before Absolva gave their debut live performance at the SOS Festival.

First of all we discuss how Chris’ brother Luke is getting on since taking up the bass position with the mighty Iced Earth. I was talking to him on SKYPE the other night and you can’t really write a book about it to be honest; it really is his dream job, Iced Earth are his favourite band and I wish him all the best. Absolva will shortly be sharing the stage with Jon Schaffer’s titans with dates in Ireland, Glasgow and at the Bloodstock Festival – but wasn’t Chris tempted to retain the Fury UK name and bring in a replacement for Luke? Well, I think because it was a three piece, it was my brother and we had been together for such a long time I really couldn’t see myself bringing anyone else into that unit other than Luke. So I thought it was the right moment to go with a new band and do something that was a bit different to Fury UK and have a band with two guitars that would go with my early love of Thin Lizzy and Iron Maiden.

We wanted something that was totally original and different to anything else explains Chris when asked about how the name Absolva came about, "and so when you type it into Google you’ve not got a million similar things coming up

- you think of the name Absolva and you think of our band and nothing else. So Martin is still with me, the powerhouse on drums, the bassist is Dan Bate who was with the Midlands band Point Blank Fury and guitarist Tom Atkinson was with a band local to here called Vice. Both Tom and Dan are really nice lads with the right attitude to rehearsals and making themselves available to tour."

Absolva will shortly be heading into the studio to record their debut album. "The material is all brand new, we are throwing in one or two Fury UK songs for the first few shows, we head into the studio in August and are aiming for an October release for the album which is called Flames Of Justice. And how does Absolva’s style differ to that of his former band? Well we’ve got two guitarists and I have never really worked with another guitarist before and so we’ve really taken advantage of that with harmonies all over the place and loads of duelling solos. The material has gone a little bit heavier with that Priest and Maiden twin guitar attack and a little bit of a European influence such as Accept and Helloween. We’ve been listening to an awful lot of Accept, especially the last two albums where they’ve really gone down an even heavier route and we are big fans of the new singer – we liked UDO but Mark Tornillo is really something else."

Matt Ellis, who worked with Fury UK on their last album A Way Of Life, is lined up to produce Absolva’s debut album, "It’s very important when a band goes into the studio that someone is going to be sat there knowing what the band are trying to achieve and will help them to do that instead of just pressing record and letting them get on with it. Matt has worked with quite a few bands on the Rocksector roster and he’s a very active guy. With Fury UK we would spend very little time in the control room with him; we’d go in and lay the parts down and both he and I are very strong characters, particularly when I am in the studio. We have had a couple of differences of opinion where I ended up having to roll with it but the end results have been absolutely fantastic so I am going to put my trust in him again.

One of the main advantages with Absolva is that we don’t really have to start from the ground up. We can start at quite a nice level and I was a little worried that we would lose the Fury UK fan base that has been growing over the years but everyone has really embraced it, they have saluted Luke and have got behind Absolva.

With time running out before Chris takes the stage we end with the quick-fire round, so – Rush or Dream Theater? Rush, Metallica or Megadeth? Megadeth, Sabbath or Priest? Sabbath (note – Chris takes a very long pause over this one), Tea or Coffee? Coffee, Diamond Head or Saxon? Saxon, Clubs or Festivals? Clubs - I like festivals but you can’t really beat seeing a band in a club after they have had a decent sound check, got their own amps and gear with them and can play a full set in front of a packed house.

Interview by Dean Pedley and Mark ‘Tosh’ Davies

Barclay James Harvest Featuring Les Holroyd

Mike Byron-Hehir

Les Holroyd

Barclay James Harvest sprang to life in Oldham in the mid-1960's and, along with bands such as Pink Floyd and Yes, were considered one of the innovators of Progressive Rock. Over the next 40 years, BJH went on to create and break records, being the first group to perform an outdoor festival in Europe, setting the mark for the number of paying attendees during a continuous tour cycle and performing in front of a reputed 275,000 audience on the steps of the Reichstag in West Berlin in 1980 with an estimated similar number listening on the East side!

In 1998, the group underwent a transformation that saw a new line-up to accompany the Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd album Revolution Days recorded in 2001. Sadly, founder member drummer Mel Pritchard passed away in January 2004.

2006 saw the return of the band performing with an orchestra for the first time since the 70’s during a short tour of Europe with the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. Following that success, another tour of Germany with the PPO has just been completed in December.

In February and March 2007, Barclay James Harvest featuring Les Holroyd will give their first UK performances since being Special Guests at four shows given by Asia in March 2005. In the first of two interviews with the band Dean Pedley caught up with guitarist Mike Byron-Hehir.

Hi Mike and thanks for talking to us here at Hardrockhouse. I’d like to kick off by asking you about the 2006 orchestral shows in mainland Europe. Was playing with an orchestra a new experience for you and how did you enjoy the shows?

Hi to everyone at Hardrockhouse. Yes, playing with an orchestra in this situation was new to me and it was an amazing experience. They are lovely people though and very talented musicians. They are also very rock and roll in their approach to working with a band which was good from our point of view because it meant we didn’t have to drastically change anything about the way we played as a band. They’ve worked with bands before so they have a looseness about them which is nice. They are also severe party animals!

The recent DVD / CD release ‘Classic Meets Rock’ documents the orchestral show. Are you pleased with how this has come out and was the French show a particularly strong performance on the tour?

Very pleased actually considering that it was touch and go whether it would come out at all. We were plagued with problems on the day with delays and such, so much equipment, camera setups etc, that we did not get time for a sound check at all. Our sound guys managed to complete a line check and that was it ….doors open!

When we got on stage we couldn’t hear each other …no monitors! However we just decided to go for it come what may but things were tense to say the least. I remember saying to Ian after the gig that I thought it wasn’t that bad considering, it could be really good. The audience was amazing though and there was a good vibe to the show. We watched a rough cut after the tour and it looked great then we found that one of the five 8 track digital machines used to record the audio was out of synch. Pip Williams, who produced Barclay James Harvest in the past oversaw the project and thought that we should scrap it and do it again on the next tour. However, after seeing the rough cut of the visuals, we decided to go into Revolution Studios in Manchester to evaluate things for ourselves. Les and I sat down with Justin Richards, engineer and producer at Revo and we listened to everything and it was just a nightmare! The performance was great but the digital clicks and dropouts were everywhere. One thing in our favour was that the drum tracks, my guitar and the keyboards were OK. The orchestra tracks needed cleaning up, digital clicks and dropouts every 10 seconds or so and the lead and backing vocals along with some of the rhythm guitar needed looking at. With Pro Tools were able to go through everything though, it was just time consuming but well worth it I think. Justin did an amazing job.

Before you joined the band had your paths crossed many times before and were you aware of much of their earlier work?

Well Ian (Wilson, acoustic guitars and occasional bass) had actually done gigs on the same bill as BJH in the early 70’s and tells a good story about the band he was in at the time, Greasy Bear, loaning the Barclays their stereo PA system for a ‘small consideration’ when the BJH PA packed in! Steve Butler, Ian and myself worked on ‘Welcome to the Show’ in 1989, also recorded at Revolution Studios. A friend of mine took me to see them around 1974 in Manchester You’ve got to see this band he said. I remember the album covers on the inner sleeves of my Deep Purple LPs ..the Harvest label. I remember Mel, what great drumming and what great rock and roll hair Les had! I worked at lot at Strawberry Studios in Stockport in the 80’s with Martin Lawrence who had produced and engineered many albums for BJH and the gold and platinum albums were everywhere. They had a very high profile and it was great to be asked to work on Show, then later on Revolution Days.

Did you approach the older material with a desire to put your own stamp on them as opposed to just replicating the original guitar parts?

I did not think about the guitars at all really. When we started rehearsing for the first show in Colmar 2002, we were focusing on the Revolution Days tracks. Les and Mel had some ideas of older stuff, things like Rock and Roll Star, Yesterdays Heroes, that they would like to play and he had some live recordings. We just listened, maybe once, Les would say what key the song was in and we were off. Chris Jago would work stuff out with Mel and it all came together. Les was very easy about the songs, he did not want us to copy anything, if it was to be fresh …it had to be us …as a band. I play pretty much what I feel on the tunes but I don’t sit down and copy any guitar parts so what you hear is me I suppose. Ian and I work together on the guitars, what fits the songs dynamically. For soloing too I play pretty much what I feel on the night. I have a picture though, a shape if you will, that I do try and stick to.

Of course you lost Mel in 2004 which was a great blow. He was always known for being a lively character and must have had lots of great stories about past tours, are there any that spring to mind?

Mel was a great drummer, a fine man and a good friend. Yes he was a lively character, very funny with a sometimes evil wit! As for stories …err …lots. Les and I were talking about this question the other day but I couldn’t think of story that wouldn’t’get someone else into trouble!! He was great leveller, often muttering some comment to himself but within earshot if ever he heard any bull**** going on. Les has some killers from early BJH days …Woolly, Mel, the giant shoe, the Owl lady!! There was the tour bus from hell we had a couple of years back, recounted on our website, where Mel modified the DVD player! He often felt the need to ‘go to the little boys room’ while on stage and one night, at a very big show, during an instrumental section decided to ‘go’ in a bucket behind his drum kit only to find the lights come up and the seating behind him filled with adoring fans!! A lovely man sadly missed.

The upcoming UK dates will be the largest tour here for some years. How are you feeling about the shows and getting to play places such as Hull, Bolton and Chesterfield, towns that won’t have seen a BJH show for a long time?

Well a lot of my touring experience in the last 20 years or so has been in the US, Canada, Japan with Corey Hart and BJHFLH in Europe. The last big tour of the UK I did was with Sad Café in 1983! I have played some of the venues before so it will be nice to go back again. We did four shows with Asia in 2005 and they went well so we are really looking forward to it.

I was speaking with your support act John Young about the UK gig circuit and how promoters seem to prefer to put on tribute bands. What’s your view on this and how does it differ from mainland Europe where you can play to much larger audiences?

Well I think the attitude in the UK is odd to say the least. Always has been. There are some great venues, there are audiences but people don’t seem to want to take the chance a lot of the time because of the expense, risk whatever ..maybe it’s financial, maybe it’s the red tape, regulations, you cant do that because of this, your not trendy etc. There’s a great festival culture in Europe where, besides the Coldplays and Arctic Monkeys or whoever, bands from the 60’s, 70’s, 80’s can still draw a good audience. Yes I suppose a good U2 tribute band could be a more attractive proposition to some people than say a Wishbone Ash or Toto show but these guys are good musicians and there is still an audience for that. I’ve never really understood this ‘OK that’s it now guys …you're too old ..stop playing now’ attitude. Some bands split up, stop whatever, others still enjoy playing and carry on. We have done shows in some of the oddest places with some really well known bands from the past but they have been really successful because of the audiences ….young people discovering the band for the first time and the older fans who just want to hear the songs. They just want to see good music and have a good time which is what it’s always been about.

Would you be keen to record a new BJHFLH studio album and is this something you see as essential to keep the band moving forwards?

We are working towards a new album. Les has new material and we hope to showcase some new tunes in the summer. With the orchestral shows of the last year we had to put things on hold but that is the next thing on the agenda.

Away from music what other interests do you have, what keeps you busy?

Well music is my life so there isn’t really an away from it. I write a lot and I have, in recent years got into teaching the guitar. I have been involved with a company in the UK called Access to Music, working with young people, giving them realistic advice and tuition if they want a career in music and that’s very enjoyable. I play with a bunch of guys called the Escape Committee. A