I am on the cover of the new book about the NWOBHM

[Hawk]

That's awesome you're on the cover, but the lettering looks AWFUL. I'm conflicted.

Thanks. Yea but despite the 'wrong' lettering I would love to read the book.

so awesome!!! congratulations!

Thanks!

A picture of you at a Satan concert? You can't get any more NWOBHM than that! Great picture and the book sounds cool.

Thanks dude!

 

[poundingmetal74]

Thanks. Yea but despite the 'wrong' lettering I would love to read the book.

Oh yeah for sure.

 

[Hawk]

Hawk, out of curiosity, can you tell us when (ie: at what age) did you fist succumb to metal? I'd love to hear about the mid 70s and it's music from someone who was "there" for it!

Okay I hope it does not bore anyone.

Here it goes; It must have been around 1970/71 when I first heard the complete Led Zeppelin II album playing in the background when I was visiting a friend. Since I was born in 1958 I was 12 or 13 years 'old' at the time.

I remember really linking what I heard and Kept it in my mind. From that moment on I wanted to pursue 'heavy guitar music'.

It was some years later, in 1975 that I bought my first album; it was of course Led Zeppelin II. I had to get used to it again but after a few spins it really grew on me. I decided to get all their albums. So I saved money whenever I could and also asked their albums for my birthday. In 1975 "Houses Of The Holy" was my birthday present. I also checked out Queen albums and decided to buy 'A Night At The Opera'. I was a bit disappointed at first but later on I started to like it.

Fast forward to the end of 1976. I was trying to get my Led Zeppelin and Queen discography's complete when I realized I needed help. There were very few new releases those days and I could search for hours without fining anything I really liked. I tried Kiss but was disgusted by them. They were way to simplistic for me. Or so I thought.

I decided to buy a monthly music magazine weirdly called 'Music Paper Ear'. It's appearance was just like a folded new paper hence the name. There were two writers that wrote about heavy music as it was then called. They were called 'the heavy guys'. They were Bert van de Kamp and Kees Baars. The latter one introduced me to loads and loads of really great 70s bands. Here is a web page that catalogs his year lists starting from 1977.

http://www.muzieklijstjes.nl/BaarsK.htm

In the December Christmas issue of music paper ear there was a incredible 6 page article on Rush!! Kees Baars was a big fan en a good friend of the band. Kees had actually traveled with them on one of their American tours!

He explained the music, some of their lyrics and attitude. I was hooked! The first albums I bought in January 1977 was 'Fly By Night'. I also learned about Scorpions (Virgin Killer) UFO (Lights Out) Kansas (Point of know return) Yesterday And Today (s/t) Max Webster (High Class in Borrowed Shoes) and loads of other bands that year. And that set me of! Most of the time if Kees gave a good review I could buy it without listening to it. It was great!! I was happy that we had a good import store in my home place Eindhoven called Bullit were I could buy all those albums. The next good record store that had those albums was more than 200 kilometers away in Amsterdam!

In 1977 I went to my first festival. It was the Pink Pop festival. It was in 1978 when the fun really started. In 1978 both Journey and Thin Lizzy played at the Pink Pop festival and a year later it was Rush! O man that was great. In February of '79 I also saw Scorpions in a relative small club with Michael Schenker on guitar. This was just after they released 'Love drive'.

It was a fun time. Everything was special and unique. There was no Internet. We had to rely on reviews in magazines. Those who liked hard rock were very few and met at record stores. We were barred from entering most clubs because of our long hair and clothing. Our favorite music was panned in the MSM as stupid, loud, meaningless noise. If you bought one good album a month you were happy. If you discovered a new band the discovery was yours! Almost nobody knew them. I could search for new albums in the record shop for a long time before I found anything deemed worth buying.

It must have been late 1979 when I heard about something called NWOBHM.
There was an article in ear about it so I tried to find The Friday Night Rock Show on the radio and found it! That was when I heard Saxon, Iron Maiden and Angel Witch for the first time! Later on in 1980 I met Mike who was just starting Aardschok magazine and I started to write for him. Then in 1982 I founded the Dynamo metal club in an youth center.

That was the moment when metal was born. But thats another story...

 

[Wyvern]

Okay I hope it does not bore anyone.

Here it goes; It must have been around 1970/71 when I first heard the complete Led Zeppelin

Just kidding, most impressive autobiography. As always makes me green with envy for not have been at the right time at the right place.

Henri you are tuly what a metalhead should be, your picture in that book is the minimum recognition you deserve.

 

[SoundMaster]

Thanks, Hawk. That was anything but boring!
I'm enamored with that era (the 70s) and love hearing about it from those who were "there". I discoved heavy music in late 1983 at the age of 12 so I
m a bit too young to have experienced this music's golden age (IMO, anyway).

Experiencing these bands when they were in their infancy and when the genre was far from "popular" (aside from Zep & Sabbath, I guess) must have been a true pleasure. I'm envious!

 

[SoundMaster]

70s metl & hard rock simply rules all! As great as the 80s were, the decade doesn't quite measure up to the one that preceeded it, IMO.

The output from these bands remains untouched:
Sabbath
Zep
Purple
Rainbow
AC/DC
Rush
Scorps
UFO
Uriah Heep
Thin Lizzy
Yes
Spooky Tooth
Traffic
Van Halen
Judas Priest
Jethro Tull
Faces
Robin Trower
Cactus
Pink Floyd

 

[Psychonaut]

Awesome, Henri! Your post was a great read too. Although I was in the next line of metalheads to take up the flag, I remember having to scrounge for information sans Internet and the glory of discovering bands.

 

[delize]

WOW Henri! Nice!

 

[Hawk]

Thanks guys and girl. I am humbled.

Here is a kick ass song from the 70s



Today I befriended the guitar player of this band on Facebook. We met not through the link of music but because we share the same political or rather anti-political ideas. Funny how life works sometimes.

 

[Caveman Ninja]

Man, that's brilliant!

 

[J-Dubya 777]

As I mentioned at that other place, too fookin' cool, Henri! Somewhere I have an LP from a live show done for the Polish Solidarity movement, where I JUST made the bottom of the cover... I THINK that was in 81 or 82, I have to see if I still have that. I THINK I was wearing my red jacket that got puked on (with me wearing it!) by a stranger at a UFO show later that year. My only other honorable mentions are more recent, got a thank you on a ZFT Zappa: Live in Oz cd, (you need a microscope to find it!) as well as in the new Freak Kitchen & Eaglestrike cds, of which I was very surprised to be listed in..and very grateful!
I'll look for that album during the week, and see if I can scan it. I don't have a lot of in action pics from that era, I know of a GREAT one from AC/DC in '79, but I leant that out to someone, and it never got returned... Don't know where the negatives are either....

 

[AjaxWarrior]

Thank you Hawk. You just made me discover Satan. What a great band! I had never heard of them before but now I listen to them everyday!

 

[Hawk]

Thank you Hawk. You just made me discover Satan. What a great band! I had never heard of them before but now I listen to them everyday!

Glad you like them. Now and then I get the impression that the term 'Old School' is being reduced to 80s thrash. But there are a lot more genre's in metal during the 80s that were interesting. And the NWOBHM is just one of them.

 

[AjaxWarrior]

Glad you like them. Now and then I get the impression that the term 'Old School' is being reduced to 80s thrash. But there are a lot more genre's in metal during the 80s that were interesting. And the NWOBHM is just one of them.

I totally agree with you man. 80's Old School is generally looked upon as thrash, NWOBHM (which started in the 70's) and Glam-metal.

 

[Wyvern]

Now and then I get the impression that the term 'Old School' is being reduced to 80s thrash.

You think so? For some reason when people talk about 80's metal I instantly think about NWOBHM but seldom thrash. Different brains have different mind construction I guess

A lot happened in the 80's:

NWOBHM
last Rainbow and Thin Lizzy albums
Deep Purple reunion
Tony Iommi stuck alone in Black Sabbath
speed/thrash (Metallica, Megadeth, Exciter, etc)
early death (Sepultura, Possessed)
early black (Possessed, Mercyful Fate, Bathory, Venom)
power (Helloween, Ostrogoth, Riot, etc.)
glam metal (Poison, etc.)
early grunge (Soundgarden, etc.)

and probably more I don´t recall.

 

[SickBoy]

Thanks guys. Yea I was 22 in 1980 'when the dam began to burst". And indeed I have seen a lot 80s bands. Man! I had a lot of fun.

Dammit man, I envy you more than you can imagine...

Yea I saw Priest in 1980 just after they released 'British Steel'. They brought along Saxon as their support act who had released 'Wheels of Steel'.

Both Priest and Saxon were great! I remembers Priest played most of BS and 'The Sinner' as well. Think of it as 'Unleashed in the East' with a lot of songs from BS thrown in the mix. Saxon were great to. They played 'Rainbow Theme' and 'Frozen Rainbow' from their first album.

Besides Judas Priest my favorite live bands in the era 1980/83 were Accept (I have seen them live 15 times)

Especially for this!

 

[bt9x]

truly inspiring Hawk!!

for yonger folks-i too saw Priest,Maiden,Accept and others in the 1980's here in Maine,U.S.A.

i saw 41 concerts from 1982-2000(over 30 from '82-'90)

i too would like to read the book-Hawk you were "there" at an important time for "our" music-dude you're up there with Metal Blade's Brian Slagel

 

[Hawk]

Thanks Sickboy and bt9x. I appreciate it

 

[SickBoy]

Thanks Sickboy and bt9x. I appreciate it

Gloat all you want, I know I'd be doing that if I was in your place

 

[Hawk]

Gloat all you want, I know I'd be doing that if I was in your place

I think in the long run you will gloat the last. By that time I'll be in an old folks home or not here anymore. And you will still be banging your head off at great live shows.