Tim Batkin (Cynic (UK)): “If you want to do something in this world, you have to do it yourself”

The story of Cynic (UK) is a good example of how many emotions and dramatic events lie behind scanty data. The band released two demos and a single in the 80’s and a compilation and an album in 2000’s which is next to none comparing to back catalogues of Iron Maiden, Demon and the like. But there have been a lot of excitements, hopes and disappointments that could easily fill books! Thanks to the drummer Tim Batkin and his natural talent of a storyteller we can live through all ups and downs together with him and his mates from this underrated band.  

RUSSIAN VERSION

The core of Cynic (UK) was formed in school years when you and Shaun Grant joined forces in the band Renegade. Tell me about those years. Were you serious about the band or was it just a hobby?

Shaun and I were in the same class at school, so we have known each other since we were eleven I guess (laughs). I don’t know where that time went, but yeah he was one of the guitarist’s in a band called Renegade and recruited me to join them on drums. We were always very serious about our music, and Shaun, particularly so, was determined to write and play music which had a quality about it, and ensure that each band member had that same drive for perfection. We were only maybe 14 or 15 when we were in Renegade, and we used to rehearse at a factory which Shaun’s father owned, so it was the usual hassle of getting parents to give you a lift to rehearsals, and I think in those days I didn’t have a drum kit, so had to borrow that off a mate. We used to play covers in those days mostly, although Shaun was already well on the way to writing music which interested him. We were big fans of Thin Lizzy, (Shaun saw them a couple of times at Malvern Winter Gardens, and used to where the Lizzy ‘mirror’ logo badge to school) Free, Bad Company, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, (I grew up a few miles from where John Bonham lived, and is now laid to rest), Rainbow, Black Sabbath, etc., there was so much good music to influence you and shape you.

You witnessed that punk rock invasion, so what were you thoughts about Sex Pistols, Crass, The Clash and others? Did you welcome NWOBHM with open arms?

(Laughs) Yes, Punk Rock, it certainly was an invasion. We went from no-where to loads of kids dressed as Punks and the music was everywhere. I sort of thought Punk Rock musicians were rockers who hadn’t quite graduated to being good rock musicians, and got a free pass to playing live and being in the media without earning their chops. For instance, you never really heard guitar solos, or drum solos, (some might say that is a good thing (laughs)), but it never worked for me, at that time. Later, I can look back on it, and I really like some of it, like, as you say, the Sex Pistols and especially the Clash; there is a raw energy in the playing and sound, and no holds barred song writing. It’s funny, we have this badge, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, and I am really proud to be associated with it, but this is a name applied to rock, and heavy metal bands from the early 70’s and 80’s, which was used later. We were just trying our best to be good rock musicians, as were so many at that time, and later someone collectively called us the NWOBHM. That’s cool, and I like it, and it does describe the type of bands we all were, and how, typically, we all self financed and made 7” vinyl singles at that time, which provided the legacy for what we all did.

When and how Renegade became Cynic?

Shaun and I sort of drifted apart after school for a while, and then reconnected when we were 17. He was jamming with Dom Heptinstall, a seriously good and well-known guitarist from a band called Health Warning (a band which later members would be seen in Virgin Star and Grim Reaper), and asked if I wanted to join them on drums. It was a lot different to Renegade, the music was written by Shaun and less so Dom, and I had the opportunity, fun and challenge, of thinking how I would create the drum parts for the songs. We were 17, (1979) when we started practicing, and by 1980 we had been joined by Barry Pedlingham on bass, and Tony Eyres on vocals, and had a serious catalogue of songs, “Suicide”, “Do or Die”, “Eight Below”, “No Time at All” etc., which we were out gigging with.

Were you aware of the American band with the same name? Did you try to reach them and ask to change their name?

No we didn’t know of the Floridian band called Cynic, who I think came about 10 years after us. We recorded and released the “Suicide” single in 1983, and I think the US Cynic released their first album, “Focus” in 1993. I think we both had demo’s out before our vinyl, we had “Do or Die” in 1982, and I think they had demo’s out before “Focus”. So we really only found out about each other a lot later, and we did meet Sean Reinert and Paul Masvidal at an Aeon Spoke concert in London, and they were great people. About that time the interest in the NWOBHM was only beginning to take off, and with it Cynic (UK), so there was never really any issue. It later became problematic when the US Cynic reformed, and of course by then, we were back together, doing BBC Radio shows, appearing on BBC TV, and working up to releasing “Suburban Crisis”. It came to a head when we were booked for Wacken, when the promoter wanted the US Cynic, and there was a lot of calls on us to change our name from the US fans, until they realized we had released “Suicide” 10 years before the US band emerged. We do however always use the (UK) tag with our name these days, and of course the US Cynic has since split up, although I think they might be back with a different drummer. 

As far as I can judge, Tony Eyres was/is into punk rock. Was it easy to get along with him? Is it true that he wasn’t serious about the music?

Tony, a great guy, great singer, and had more women and cars than most of Malvern and Worcester put together (laughs). He was the archetypal lead man, loved the attention, loved the women, but used to skip rehearsals, forget the lyrics, arrive late for gigs and leave early. But you’ve got to love the guy, unfortunately when you are serious about the band, and one of the members is less so, then it becomes frustrating, and hence why eventually Shaun took over the vocals, as we couldn’t rely on Tony any more. I think Tony was probably more into Punk, and later into New Romantic, but at the time, around “Suicide” and “Do or Die” era, he was perfect.

The band used to play with Wrathchild in the early days. What was your attitude to such music?

Yes we played the same circuit as Wrathchild, Grim Reaper, Tyga Myra and Virgin Star etc., all of whom were seriously great bands with seriously great musicians. In the early days Wrathchild were a serious heavy metal band, but later morphed into Glam Rock, but back in the day, playing the Water Side club in Worcester, they seriously rocked, as did all the other bands I have mentioned. I used to love those days, I can talk passionately now about how good they, and we were, but back then the rivalry between us was massive, and when we played, they would be in the audience watching every note, and rhythm, and then we would be there the next week watching them. It was great for making sure you were always pushing forward with your chops.

Tell me everything you can recall about the first four-tracker demo “Do or Die”. Was Paul White competent sound engineer? Did it take long to record it? Was it well received in press and tape trading circuit?

I remember recording “Do or Die”, like it was yesterday. I have a feeling we recorded it the day after Shaun’s twentieth birthday, and we had all gone home early from a pub called the Herefordshire House, where all the bands used to hang out, to get ready for the session. Later they would have our “Suicide” single on the jukebox there (laughs).

Paul White was, and is, an exceptional recording engineer, and is the Editor now of Sound on Sound recording magazine. Funnily enough I found a YouTube video the other day of Paul talking about recording drums, and thought, wow, that’s where it all started for us, in that very room.

I think Paul’s studio, at that time was 8 tracks, which means 8 analogue tracks can be recorded simultaneously. This is way before digital and Pro Tools recording, and bearing in mind we were recording two rhythm guitars, one bass, that left 5 tracks for drums, so I would guess the drums had a kick mic, snare mic, and maybe stereo overhead mics. So Bass, Rhythm Guitars, and Drums would be recorded, and then bounced down onto a stereo track, releasing 6 tracks for guitar solos, and vocals. The engineers in those days had to be very creative and skilled to record a five piece rock band, and to this day I am more than pleased with the drum sound, and overall the band sound.

We recorded “Kilroy” (a track often missing from the demo), “Do or Die”, “Faithless One” and “Eight Below”, with a drum solo in one day. That includes the bouncing down of the tracks, guitar solos and final mix. We were all in one room, all live, and so you can hear the guitars begin to feed back at the end of the drum solo, as they get ready to come back in. Great days though, and great fun!!

Who was the main songwriter in the band? Was it a collective process? Who was/is responsible for the lyrics in the band?

Shaun has always been the main songwriter and lyricist, with Dom writing a few tracks, and later John Ridsdale, who replaced Tony on vocals, also writing a few. Shaun, Dom, or John would come to rehearsals with an idea for an intro, verse, chorus, middle eight, and outro, and we would construct our parts around it. For me it was figuring out the rhythm and fills, when to come in and how to end it, and sometimes the fills or rhythm I did would shape the song. That was how the songs grew and took shape. A signature style of Cynic (UK) would be, intro, sometimes with a slower introspected guitar solo, into the verse, then chorus, repeated twice, and then guitar solos over the chorus and into a middle eight, verse chorus and end. As we had two strong lead guitarists with Shaun and Dom, then the solos were shared out amongst the song, a bit like Thin Lizzy.

A lot of the lyrics of Cynic deal with life observation. Is it a kind of a concept of the band? What influenced the lyrics “Suicide” which is really matured for young men like you were back then?

Shaun is the main lyricist and yes his writing is observational I guess on his life, and surroundings. He was raised a very reluctant and none practicing Catholic, and so much of his writing is about that. I am pretty sure that none of us knew anyone who had committed suicide, or at least mentioned it, but I guess the act of taking your life just isn’t countenanced in the Catholic faith, and perhaps Shaun was writing about what that might mean for someone who did do that, but also, it is a song of hope, battling back from suicide and finding something to keep going for. It is still, by far, the most popular song we have recorded or performed.

What about “Faithless One”? Do you still share the same point of view?

(Laughs) Yes “Faithless One”, this is without doubt Shaun letting the world know what he thought about the Catholic Faith, and how he was kicking back against it. His mother died on Christmas Day, which formed the basis of the song, “Dark December”, which is on the “Suburban Crisis” album, and again I think reinforced in Shaun his atheism, in other words, what God would take your mother on Christmas Day?

The single “Suicide” was produced by the band. Did you think that you were able to do this job better that anyone else or were the budget so tight? 

Like all NWOBHM bands we financed and produced a 7” vinyl single, and we had a good idea of how we wanted the song to sound. It never entered our minds I think, that we might have done it better with a producer, and yes, budgets were always tight. To record “Suicide” we went to a large 24 track analogue studio, and then, of course, had to have the tape mastered for vinyl and the record pressed.

What labels did you try to get in touch with? Were you any close to a record deal? 

I must have written to a hundred record companies with the “Suicide” single, and “Do or Die” demo before it, and at one time had a drawer full of rejection letters. Only one company took some interest, and that was Good Earth Productions, a firm headed up by Tony Visconti, (Thin Lizzy producer), but that never materialized into anything. I suppose, thinking back, the record companies had just signed up new acts like; UFO, Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motorhead etc., and also had big ticket bands like Deep Purple, the Led Zep catalogue etc., why would they need yet another Heavy Metal Band. I often think though, that our “Suicide” single might have been underneath Iron Maiden, and the A&R bloke played the track, decided that will do, and the rest of the “in-box” went into the bin (laughs). I listen to “Suicide”, and the early Metal bands that went on to great things and think we were as good as them, just not so lucky. We learned that if you want to do something in this world, you have to take responsibility for it and do it yourself.

Why did Tony Eyres and Barry Pedlingham quit after the single “Suicide”? Were they disappointed or did they want to play different type of music?

I think we all just ran out of steam for a bit back then. We had been playing a lot, working really hard, recording and we put out to the world what was our best work at that time, the “Suicide” single, and we really hoped and thought it would take us to the next level. When it didn’t, I think we all became a little disheartened by it, and just took some time out. Barry joined Tyga Myra and Tony was playing in a New Romance band, and Shaun and I were just ticking over doing some stuff together. Even Dom wasn’t doing stuff with the band, and then we slowly starting pulling it back together with John and Neil Orgee, and a different feel to the music and song structure.

How did you get in touch with John Ridsdale and Neil Orgee? Did they change the band’s chemistry and your approach to songwriting?

John was a massively talented singer with a local rhythm and blues band, which had called it a day, and we asked John to sing for us. He had a great range and was a good songwriter, but perhaps understandably wanted to sing new Cynic (UK) songs rather than the older stuff. Neil was a guy who drank in the Herefordshire House and was and is a tremendous all round musician, and can play keyboards, guitar as well as bass, and we recruited him into Cynic (UK) with John. I think the chemistry did change, along with the songwriting, and we became less Heavy Metal, and more mainstream rock, as we adjusted to bands like Bon Jovi, and US stadium rock music.

There is almost no information about the band’s activity between 1983 and 1987. Did you keep on playing live and rehearsing? What shows from that era can you call as memorable?

As I said earlier, we were adjusting to “Suicide” being released and the disappointment that it hadn’t achieved all we had hoped for it. It was years later that people talked favorably about it, and it got the worldwide recognition we felt it obviously deserved. With Tony and Barry out of the band, it was just Shaun and I ticking along working on some ideas. I guess we played some big concerts to support the single, on the same stage as Grim Reaper, radio appearances with the BBC etc., It wasn’t until we got going again with John and Neil that we were an active band again, and worked to the release of “Rebel Eye”.

Tell me about the demo “”Rebel Eye”. As far as I understand, the band decided to try something different on that demo. Was it a right decision in hindsight? What do you think about the demo these days?

“Rebel Eye” reflected where we were as band back then, with John and Neil, and as you mentioned earlier a new chemistry, new songs and a different take on music. We were certainly less heavy, and responding to a different type of popular metal, bands like Bon Jovi and Europe etc., I don’t think it was a conscious decision to be like that, just where we were as musicians. If I think of my influences when we were recording “Do or Die” and “Suicide”, then it was mostly; Ian Paice, John Bonham and Brian Downey, and early Neil Peart, by the time we were doing “Rebel Eye” I was pretty much wedded to Neil Peart, and his playing, and making an awful attempt to be like him, with double bass drums and stuff, so I was trying to find myself musically. Shaun and Dom were likewise into writing guitar solos with ‘whammy bars’, and finger harmonics, which had become really popular then.

There are a lot of previously unreleased tracks on the “Right Between The Eyes” compilation. How and when were they recorded? Is the compilation still available?

Most of the material on “Right Between The Eyes”, came from recordings made at Merlin’s Cave Studios Malvern, along with “Suicide” and some “Rebel Eye” material, and was us really putting out a catalogue of recordings we had made in response to the then increasing interest in Cynic (UK) from the various NWOBHM books which were out there. The recordings were mastered from old analogue tape and have suffered over time, but I think there is some good stuff on there. Merlin’s Cave Studios was a lovely studio with a 16 track analogue facility, and the original recordings were pretty good. No this compilation isn’t available anymore.

What happened to the band after the “Rebel Eye” demo? Did you just give up?

We recorded a lot of our then material at Merlin’s Cave Studios, as a marker in time, which later went into “Right Between the Eyes”, after “Rebel Eye”, but it was pretty much the swan song for us at that time. Dom had children, and Shaun and I had just broken up from some fairly long time relationships, so we were at a point where there didn’t seem to be anything more we could do. We had pretty much been playing in Cynic (UK) for ten years, and we had tried our hardest to make something happen for us, but it was getting hard to sustain the drive, when nothing appeared to be happening.

Tell me briefly about your and the others careers between 1987 and 2003? Did you keep on playing drums during that period?

(Laughs) I have always played the drums, never stopped. I joined a hard rock covers band with Neil called Before the Storm and had a lot of fun playing in that band. It was less formal, less driven, and because it was covers I could rehearse quietly at home, as by then I had a DDrum SE4 digital drum kit, and later was fortunate to be part of the Roland Artist Liaison scheme and have a TD30 digital drum kit. I was also married and had two young daughters, so there wasn’t so much time to devote to bands. I also, with Neil played in a RUSH covers band, and played at a few RUSH conventions. I was pretty hopeless as it happens doing that, but I tried hard to achieve all that Neil does, I just did it badly (laughs)! I was also trying to branch out into session work, trying to connect with clients via the Internet and record using digital drums which was quite a bit ahead of other people realising you could do this, and actually now have my own Pro Tools studio and do sessions for clients locally and the US.

Shaun and Dom were still playing guitar, and played in a band called Bad Attitude for a while.

What caused the reunion of Cynic?  Is it true that at first you tried to work with Tony Eyres but it failed?

Out of the blue I got a couple of emails via my session drumming web site asking if I was the drummer for Cynic (UK) and whether I had any of the “Suicide” singles left. It was odd that one came from the US and one from Holland, and I asked them why they were so interested, and they said check the Internet, and read the NWOBHM book (laughs). I was gob smacked, what a blast to see people all around the world finally talking about our work and us. I let Shaun and Dom know, and we decided to get back together and do some gigs. We did ask Tony, and he was just like before, he would arrive late to rehearsal in his Porsche (laughs), never changes, and couldn’t remember the lyrics, but he could still sing really well. We had Neil on Bass, but he was torn between wanting to work again with Cynic (UK), and continue with Before the Storm, which I had left to concentrate on Cynic (UK) again, and so eventually Neil was replaced by Gary Curtiss who played bass on the “Suburban Crisis” album, and Shaun lost patience with Tony and decided to do the singing himself.

The band appeared both on BBC Radio and TV in 2005. How did that happen and what are your best memories about the event? Did it help you to get some attention?

The BBC TV news had heard that we were now trending as an early 80’s NWOBHM band, and knew about the books, internet radio shows that were playing our music, which was pretty much “Suicide” and “No Time at All”, and that some were saying “Suicide” might have influenced Metallica and “Master or Puppets”, which came along in 1986, actually, I don’t know if you know, but later a magazine was released in Germany, Austria and Switzerland called the “Roots of Metallica” which had a free CD of influential music, and “No Time at All” was featured on it. We heard the magazine sold and reached about 60,000 people, which is a lovely feeling. Anyway, BBC News wanted to do an interview with us, about the early days, Metallica, and how basically the Internet had allowed us to finally reach a worldwide audience. There is a clip on YouTube about it. Shaun and I were interviewed and the band filmed playing “Suicide”. The interview actually hit the main 6 and 9 o’clock news channels, and on the back of that BBC radio asked us to come into the studio and do a long interview and later live session on the Friday Night rock show. The session is out there on the Internet somewhere, and I have a file of it, which I lust look up, as from memory it was a great session, and I did a drum solo on “Eight Below” like the good old days (laughs). Funny, though, with the BBC attention, and the “Roots to Metallica” CD, I can’t see that it did much to bring us any more forward in people’s minds, it was just a lot of fun for us at the time.

The album “Suburban Crisis” was recorded in the famous Rockfield Studios and mixed in Abbey Road Studios which I believe cost a lot of money. Was the sound quality crucial for you?

“Suburban Crisis” was all about making an album we would have made if we had the finance of a record company to support us, and we hoped to make what we would, and should, have made in the early 80’s. We wanted it to be the perfect album for us, one which would show what we were capable of, and when we had the idea to make it, Shaun and I immediately thought about Rockfield Studios, as it is fairly local to us, and has an enormous iconic reputation in the world of rock music recording. Queen recorded “Bohemian Rhapsody” there, Rush recorded “Hemispheres” and “A Farewell to Kings”, Motorhead the “Ace of Spades”, Robert Plants first solo album, and more recently The Darkness and “Hell and Back”, so it just had everything we could wish for. We spoke to Kingsley Ward, the owner, to schedule the session, and we talked about how we liked Rush, and he booked a local freelance engineer, Matt Butler, to produce and make the session. We didn’t know at the time, but before the session found out that Matt was the former AIR London and Montserrat chief engineer, and had worked with Rush on “Power Windows”, and “Hold Your Fire” in Montserrat, not only that, but his CV read like a who’s who of musical greats, people like; Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd, Dire Straits, Gary Moore, Black Sabbath, as well as Rush whom I mentioned, which became a little terrifying for us, but the moment we walked into the studio and met him, we knew he would drive the best out of us, but also be our friend, and helper. It was a wonderful experience to work with Matt, and in the evenings Kingsley would come into the studio to chat about the acts that had been there. There were great stories about Lemmy, and Oasis. As the recording progressed Matt again drove us into making not only a great recording, but also a well-packaged product, and we then had to think about cover art design. Again Shaun and I have always liked the art design of Rush, and as we had recorded at Rockfield, with Matt, we wondered whether Hugh Syme, who has done all Rush artwork since they began, would help. I contacted Hugh and we set up a telephone conference, and I loved every minute talking to this giant of rock cover art design, but he was a lovely, genuine, kind and supportive bloke, and remains my friend to this day, and agreed to work with us for the design. For me that was the most exciting phase of the production, receiving Hugh’s designs, and the subtle changes he would do to bring it to completion. We decided to have the CD manufactured with Sony in Austria, and just as the art files and music files were going over to them, they suggested we have their new ‘vinyl effect’ CD, which looks like a miniature record. Well, as we were old rockers, there was no way we weren’t going to have some of that (laughs), so Hugh had to do some last minute changes to the design so the CD would have a central label just like a real record. When we saw the finished article we were amazed, a bit tearful really, as this was what we had always aimed for and had finally made what we described as, “a proper grown up” record.

Our fans received it well, some missed Tony’s singing voice, others liked the Lemmy like vocals of Shaun, but I think everyone could see it was a no holds barred, professional product, and one, which we are extremely proud of. Our fans did insists that we should also release “Suburban Crisis” as a vinyl, despite the ‘vinyl effect’ CD (laughs), so we began thinking about doing just that. It is not so straightforward as it seems, as the CD has a different mastering, and I should say that the vocals for the album were recorded at Yellow Shark Studios in Cheltenham, where some mixing and mastering was done, and so the mastering needs to be changed for vinyl. Believe it or not, the only remaining vinyl mastering house in the UK is Abbey Road Studios London, and Matt arranged with Steve Rooke, a legend in mastering for vinyl to master the album there. There was such a buzz walking from St John’s tube station, down the road to the pedestrian crossing, where there were loads of tourists taking photo’s, cross that iconic crossing, go through the crowds of tourists, onto Abbey Road Studios car park, up the steps and into the building. Can you imagine what that feels like? A band who had struggled for years to get their music out to people, and make a mark, to finally be at Abbey Road. It was maybe one of the best days of my life.

So it was not a cheap album, and we engaged with the very best people in the world to make it, but I think we made something that we are so proud of that hopefully our fans will cherish too. Everything we wanted to be right, the studio, the sound, the production engineering, the cover art, the mastering, the lot, and I think we did it.

“Suburban Crisis” actually is a kind of compilation of re-recorded old tracks. Did you want to have a taster before putting out a proper album?

I think “Suburban Crisis” was the grown up album we always wanted to make, and we wanted to see what we could do with the type of budget and professional stakeholders a record company could do. I think probably, and in reality, we had a bigger budget than most bands would have, even by the big artists standards of today, and we were so fortunate and blessed to work with people like Matt and Hugh, who were so supportive of us. I often compare “Suburban Crisis” to other albums out today, by the big named bands, and it I think it sits right up there with them, sometimes above, in its quality. Well that’s what I think (laughs).

The cover of “Suburban Crisis” looks awesome. What was your idea with it?

Thank you for saying that, it is really appreciated. The album cover design was directed by the lovely, wonderfully talented Hugh Syme, who has done every Rush album cover, as well as working with Queensryche, Dream Theater and Tiles. His approach was for us to send the music to him, the lyrics, the motivation behind the song, and he interpreted that into a design, and theme, throughout the album. Like Matt who drove and steered us on the music production, Hugh likewise did the same for the artwork, insisting for example, that no serious band would release an album without a 16-page booklet and cover art to all sides. So Hugh guided us, and I loved every minute of it, as he would send over the first images of the cover, the idea for the Union Jack to remind people we were the British Heavy Metal band called Cynic, which also nods towards The Who, a band Hugh really liked. I remember him sending over the image for “Suicide” and just staring at the computer screen saying wow. That high-rise image, could be New York, and the persons pumps, I guess they would call them sneakers (laughs), just in view, contemplating jumping off and suicide. Then Hugh would say it’s not finished going to add a bit more, and I would think OK, wonder what else there is, and he would send through the next image, and I would look at it, and think I can’t see any change, and then, it would hit you, the cigarette butts had been added by the pumps / sneakers. And it was just a massive wow moment, so little, but added so much to it.

This time you decided to do everything yourselves. Did it pay off in your opinion or would it be better to work with a label?

I suppose if you work with a label, the financial risk is lessoned, but you trade that for loss of control in the produced article. I would think that if a label had been behind us, we would never have worked with Hugh, or Matt, and never set foot in Rockfield Studio, or Abbey Road Studios, and that to me was what it was all about, a load of rockers who had put in more than their fair share of time on their instruments, in studios, on stage, finally getting to do something for themselves. I suppose a bit like the middle age bloke, who sees his kids have left home and decides to buy himself a Porsche or whatever, because he can, and it’s a midlife crisis, maybe because he has wanted a Porsche since he was a kid, and only now can do it.

Did you play any shows in support of “Suburban Crisis”?

We did, not as much as we should have done I suppose, but we did get out there. We played Brofest in 2016, a NWOBHM festival in Newcastle, which was a brilliant event, and for the first time in years we were rejoined on stage by the great Barry Pedlingham on bass, and I would like to do many more like that. We got to meet a lot of fans from around the world, and sell the album there. The Germans seem to love the vinyl; I think we have shipped more to them than anywhere else in the world. Following Brofest we played a few gigs we had done when we starting out, at the Malvern common, and Herefordshire House. Those were great nostalgic gigs, and took you right back to being in your 20’s and playing those venues as we had done then. The more I think of it, I would like to have done a proper grown up tour. I don’t think we could do the US unless the demand was there, but it would be great to do some European dates, especially those that are aimed at NWOBHM.

As far as I understand, the band had an attempt to record a new album in 2010. What happened to that idea? Did you record anything?

There has been a lot of pressure for us to record another album, and I would absolutely love to do that, but it would have to be to the same standard as “Suburban Crisis”, and hopefully better, and I think musically we could do that, but I don’t think we would have the budget to do what we did before, and then it would be a compromise, and be seen as the lesser album, even although musically we might play better on it. Never say never though, and as Matt always reminds me, “we need to do it, time is later than we think” (laughs).

Please say a few words to all your fans worldwide!

What can I say, except a huge thank you to all those people who liked our music and supported us over close on 40 years of playing? Without them and the Internet we would only have existed in local people’s memories, and because of the interest in the NWOBHM we were able to take what we had made and feel encouraged to make “Suburban Crisis”. There is no doubt this album, as CD, vinyl, and Digital Distribution is now reaching an audience far beyond what we might have imagined, and perhaps is reaching the places in the world we dreamed about when we were kids, and for that I will always be grateful and humble. That we took what ability we had, worked so very hard at it, and still do to this day, as we approach being 60, and were able to make and leave a legacy of what we are as musicians. So thanks a million, keep on rocking, it’s what we do!!!

Thanks to Tanya Batkin for making this interview possible!