Thursday, April 9, 2015

Tysondog Interview

   We are touring at the moment The current Cry Havoc tour has seen the band play in Newcastle,Barcelona,Paris and 2 shows in Belgium and the fantastic very eavy fest in Holland we also       have shows lined up in the UK Glasgow,London,Manchester,bromsgrove (in the midlands) then Doom Fest in Malta and one in Athens Greece 
2016 should see the band in other countries we are in discussion with Sweden,Germany,Italy and posb South America

The music is straight down the middle British metal we never were an Iron Maiden type nwobhm band just a heavy metal band (posb with priest,Saxon,ufo  influences) the sound on all our recordings sound different we are always trying to improve the production and with the studios today it sounds better than ever.... we dont want to sound like we did on beware ?? Impulse studios were crap. The Hammerhead EP 2012 & Cry Havoc were recorded at Blast Studios the best one in the North East (Thin Lizzy ,Therapy,Hanoi Rocks, Avenger) have all recorded there recently The songs vary differently but are still fast and furious with the odd ballad thrown in there (our only other one was In The End on the Beware album) 
 The very eavy was one of our best ever gigs and did feature 4 original members Kev,Paul,clutch and Rob ( Phil couldn't make the trip due to a bereavement ) and the best with Phil and Alan    ,Bro-fest in Newcastle and  Ages Of Metal in Belguim was best also Matarock in Barcelona because it was in memory of a great metal fan Juan Mata who died
The name came from our guitarists Paul Burdis girlfriends Dog and the logo (an alien/ mystical creature) was designed by her brother 

Me,Alan hunter and Paul Burdis formed the band back in 1980 we all originally sang we had a series of drummers early on Kev hunter (ravens drummers brother) then a guy called peter reeve recorded eat the rich single with Alan hunter on lead vocals but then we auditioned for a vocalist and found the excellent john (clutch) Carruthers he performed on the b side dead meat which was done in one take and release on the famous neat records label

Peter left to get married have children and we managed to get GED (wolf) Cook in to record our 1st- album beware of the dog but shortly after that GED left to join Atomkraft and we managed to get in Rob Walker who was only 17 at the time (rob was the drummer at very eavy fest) we went straight back into the studio to record hammerhead ,shoot to kill E.P. showcase the progress of the band .

That EP helped us secure the follow up album Crimes Of Insanity then the EP .Skools Out (Alice cooper cover)

The band had a lot of great press in the uk with many features in kerrang and the albums sold well in mainland Europe especially holland, where the album was put out on roadrunner and in Brasil where it was on banzai a part of polydor records 

Just before the release of crimes Alan hunter left the band and we continued as a 4 piece and performed at the kerrangs 100th issue party in front of many of our peers 
iron maiden,Motörhead,Metallica ,ozzys jake e lee, and Doro Pech joined us on stage to do a cover of judas priests you've got another thing coming

The band then had a number of incidents the singer involved in a car crash on the way to a gig in London then a visa problem led to the band being refused permission to enter the USA to support venom and metallica 

This led to the band members going their own way and do other projects Alan sang with Satan members in a band calked Pariah ,Kev played bass with Ex Tygers of pan tang singer Jess Cox in tyger,tyger Clutch moved to Greece to play drums in a covers band, Rob went the world drumming on the famous  cruise ship the QE2 and Paul joined the Royal marines and turned his back on the Biz  so the band was just inactive we never really split up or fell out 

Kev,Alan and Rob got he band together in 2009 with Alan taking the vocals and Russ Tippens j(satan) helped us out on lead guitar until we managed to track Paul down and Russ rejoined satan that line up continued for a few years until we managed to persuade clutch to return and re record 4 of the best songs from beware of the dog (the album Rob didn't drum on ) hammerhead,inquisitor,painted heroes ,and in the end the reason for the lower tuning is not to try and sound more modern but it helps the singers voice better now  soon after the release of hammerhead 2012  Rob Walker who is a professional drummer and teaches in colleges and schools couldn't commit to the band as things were starting to take off then Alan hunter left just before the recording of the new album and Steve Morrison who plays in a Judas Priest tribute band with Paul took over the 2nd guitar duties 

We signed to award winning label rocksector records in 2014 and the new album Cry Havoc is due for release in April 2015 but a pre release of limited edition fan packs sold out within 10 days the reaction on the road to the new stuff has been fantastic and Shadow Of The Beast (free single) is now a replacement to Demon i think (although that still goes down well)

The line up at very eavy was one of our best ever gigs and did feature 4 original members Kev,Paul,clutch and Rob ( Phil couldn't make the trip due to a bereavement ) and with Phil and Alan ,Bro-fest in Newcastle and  Ages Of Metal in Belguim was best

  We still very much listen to the older bands that influenced us Priest, Saxon, Sabbath, Kiss, etc and how their album productions have come on over the years but have stayed true to their metal/rock roots 

   non music ... Football is a big thing we all support Newcastle ,Phil and Steve play golf , i have a holiday home in yorkshire and like to go out into the  hills on bike rides with my family 
,Paul has just had his first child (yes at 53?) and Clutch has very young twins and i have 3 boys 12,10 and 4 years so we are a very family orientated band 

my final thoughts are we are not trying to make it anymore, we all have very good lives and as one chap said at very eavy fest ,he`d been waiting 30 years to see us live and hear us play the inquisitor that makes it all so worthwhile we enjoy it ,going to different places,making new friends and meeting some great bands 

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