"Red, Hot and Heavy" 1984 - 1985
"Red, Hot and Heavy" 1984 - 1985
With a new major record company behind us we started out '84 by opening up for Judas Priest on one single gig in Copenhagen on January 20. In march we did some promotion for the re-release of the first album and made our first appearance on Danish national tv performing Fantasy. CBS wanted us to follow up with a new album a.s.a.p. In those days we used to rehearse something like 5 times a week or at least hang out together, so much of the material for the forthcoming album was already written. The first song I guess we wrote was Nightdanger then followed by Queen of Dreams, Battle of Pride and Cold Killer. Those were all written during the summer/autumn of '83. Then we went on our first tour of England and remixed the first album etc. and not much songwriting were going on for the remaining part of '83. After our first brittish tour we also realised, that maybe it was time for a little line up change. When you spend three weeks in the back of a van, playing small clubs under real shitty circumstances you find out a lot about yourself and those you are in a band with and something wasn't quite right, someone had to go.
In April '84 John Darrow was sacked and Pete Collins left more or less on his own as I remember it. We were now on the lookout for a new bass player and a second guitarist. We knew about two guys who had recently played in a band called Pentagon and had now formed a new band which we went to check out. We sort of liked what we saw and asked them to join us on the spot, which they did. With Allan Delong and Ricky Hansson in the fold we started out partying and socalising a lot to get to learn about each other but still kept up with the rehearsels. Studio time were booked for the end of may and so we hooked up with Tommy Hansen to do some demoing and pre-productions for the new materiel. The songs Red, Hot and Heavy, Back to Back, Waiting for the Time and A place in the Night were all written during that spring of '84. One final song was added, though. Little Darling by Thin Lizzy. In hindsight an odd track to choose, when you think about how many great songs Lizzy did, never the less. At the time being, we were looking for an international producer and our first priority was in fact Phillip Lynott who had a big star in our minds since we were all huge Thin Lizzy fans. A poor attempt were done by the record company (if any at all) to get him interested. The truth is that CBS didn't want to spend too much money on a producer and we ended up with Tommy Hansen and a guy called Billy Cross, an American based in Denmark and who's rise to fame was being guitarist in Bob Dylans touring band in the late seventies. But the choice of Tommy as the producer was the right one. He was the one that came up with the individual inputs, so he more or less deserves all the credits for the production side of it. Billy didn't really participate a lot, apart from the mixing of the album. Red, Hot and Heavy was recorded and mixed in 4 weeks at the PUK studios in a field in the middle of fucking nowhere in Northern Denmark. However PUK was a great place and a place we would return to many times in the years to come. We, of course enjoyed every bit of the prossces recording our first real longplayer. We were really focused on getting everything right on every angle and everybody really tried to give it the best they'd got. On top it was the first time we had the chance to work with a fairlight computer/synclavier and that kind of keyboard set up definitely had it's mark on the overall sound of that album. Red, Hot and Heavy was also very much the album where we as a band defined our sound, developed our style, found our different roles within the band and in every sense showcased what this band was all about. When we finished the album I guess we all thought that we'd done some fine piece of work, not knowing that this particular album would actually turn out to be a milestone in our career.
When I listen to Red, Hot and Heavy today I must say, that i fully understand why it is considered a classic by so many of our fans today. It simply sounds so different to a lot of the hard rock albums that were being released back in the mid eighties. Not saying that it was better or worse than anything else (nah, maybe a bit better you know, ha ha!), it just did sound different and some kind of refreshing. Anyway it's an album that I'm proud of being a part of. Red, Hot and Heavy was released in Scandinavia in October '84 and was followed by a short tour of Denmark. After the tour we had to sack Ricky Hansson which was a little tough since he was an extremely nice guy but he just didn' t cut it live, Pete Collins were eager to join the band again and he did. And that was about it at the moment. CBS did knew they had something, but they just didn't know how to handle that something. Our then manager and friend, Ken Anthony played the album to Eric Thomsen (from now on referred to as ET) and he was blown away and really liked what he heard. ET was an institution on the Danish hard rock scene at that time. He was basicly a promoter and was responsible for all heavy metal/hard rock concerts in Denmark and to a certain extent Scandinavia. He made his name up through the seventies working with such bands as Deep Purple, Eric Clapton, T Rex, Slade, you name it. He had a quite close relationship with Richie Blackmore and all the people and bands that came out of the Deep Purple thing. But most of all, ET had a notorious reputation for being a crazy unpredictable rock'n'roll animal who would rather often do the unexpected. And i can easily state that the most chrazy, laughable and joyful moments we (mostly Hammer and myself) had in our 27 years in rock'n roll was together with ET. I don't want to go into details about that, since I could write a book about all the incidents and crazy moments. ET was rock'n'roll in every sense but also a very warm person, with a big heart. Hammer and I had a meeting with him in his private home in Copenhagen and we clicked right away from day one. ET was as enthusiastic and ambitious as we ourselves and believed that we had the potential to make it big. His first plan was to get us on the Deep Purple reunion tour in the beginning of '85, but that plan bummed. Then we decided to wait for the right tour with the right band to support the release of Red, Hot and Heavy which was released throughout Europe in the spring of '85. While waiting for the perfect tour we did a few festivals in Holland, Belgium and Poland as well as some local TV apearrences in Germany and Denmark. ET liked to do things in style, so he typically booked Hammer and me into a fashionable hotel in Copenhagen just to do an interwiev. Our first serious encounter with the rock'n'roll highlife was after a concert in Copenhagen where he took us out to one of the absolute jet set places where we hung out with the guys from Bon Jovi who opened for Kiss the same night. ET introduced us to the rock'n'roll life style and life in the fast lane, and we were more than willing to learn. A lesson we never forgot.
So with no tour just around the corner we went back into rehearsels to get some new things done, but it was like we couldn't really get started until we've finished promoting Red, Hot and Heavy. But some of the better songs from the forthcoming album were actually being penned at that period. Red, Hot and Heavy slowly started to get real good rewievs and feed back all over Europe, Japan and in certain parts of America as well . So finally the international department of CBS records in London started to show some attention. In august, ET came up with the tour, CBS came up with the money to support it (of course, at the end of the day we paid ourselves through our royaleties). Never the less on September 5th, we went out on tour with Saxon, the English nwobhm rockers who were out to support their new album Innoscense Is No Excuse. The tour started in Hanley, Stoke on trent in one of these old theatres. We'd been to England before playing small clubs and pubs, but now we found ourselves performing for 3 to 5.000 people a night, we were exited! On the first night I guess we all were a little nervous not really knowing what to expect, So before the first show Biff came into our dressing room and introduced himself, wished us luck and told us that we'd do fine in England, apparently a very nice bloke. When we got out on stage to do our 45 minute set the first thing we heard was someone in the crowd shouting 'GO BACK TO DENMARK YOU FUCKERS!!!' Holy macaroni, what a reception. Then the spitting began and continued throughout the whole set. On top of that they threw all kinds of shit at us but we refused to give in and just carried on and tried to pretend that we enjoyed what we did. After the gig we had so much disgusting snot in our hair that we didn't need hair spray or gel for the next couple of weeks if it wasn't for the fact that we booked a hotel room to get a shower and get the shit out of our hair. Of course on that particular night there was no shower facilities backstage. So now we knew what we were up against and what to expect, but truth be told, that first night was by far the worst too.
The next two weeks we continued on to mixed receptions. The problem was that CBS in England had done a real bad job promoting the album and most of the punters had never ever heard about the band and naturally first of all came to see Saxon. When we played in Birmingham you could hear a pin drop after we finished the first song, NO REACTION! After the gig we drowe directly to Lorelei in Germany to make our first live Apearrence there and hardly made it in time. We had to cut our set and went directly out of the tourbus, rushed to the stage and gave a short but determined 30 minute set. We had a warm welcome in Germany where the fans were familiar with the music and now we were looking forward to the European leg of the tour. After the Lorelei festival we went straight back to Cardiff, Wales and managed to get Paul Chapman and Pete Way up on stage to jam on Red, Hot and Heavy. We knew Pete from Copenhagen where he lived at the time. We finished the british part of the tour in Brighton on September 20th. On the entire tour in England we were not allowed one single soundcheck.
On October 6th we started out the last leg of the tour in Munich, Germany, but before that some unfortunate persons in the band entourage had to go through the finger test going through customs in the airport (it wasn't me, he he). On the trip through Europe we gave Saxon a run for their money, suddenly there were people coming to see us too and we were in for the kill. So much that when we played in Brussels, Belgium, Saxons manager came up to me just prior to walking on stage, telling me that Biff was a little concerned that I was ripping him of getting the crowd going ha ha. He told us to take it easy and we told him to fuck off!! and went out and kicked ass. I guess Biff was a little concerned of competition. After the last show in Bremen we hung out with the Saxon guys and partied, they drank their usual tee which we didn't understand shit off. We drank everything, at least everything with alcohol in it. The tour had been a great success for us, especially on the European continent but also the british part of it had been okay after all. At least it had been instructive and we learned that all things don't come for free, sometimes you have to fight hard for achievement. And that was a good lesson. Red, Hot and Heavy was now selling really well and the tour had done it's purpose. We ended the year by flying to Amsterdam where we made a playback of Waiting For the Time to be showed on Sky channel. During the Christmas holidays we returned to Germany for a few shows. Now with the first smell of real success we were ready for the next move in our carreer.
It was back to the rehearsel s and a new album. Back to work.
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Mar 24, 2010Posted By
iandid you support saxon at the manchester apolo in 84 with Rod Argent?
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