Issue 5 Armed and Ready delivers tales of girl power, Eurovision dreams and the elusive major deal that never surfaced.
As always, Armed and Ready leads to an interesting read and an even better chance to revisit some of the artists tunes!
Rock Goddess
It seems appropriate that in an Issue with a hefty contribution from Sylvie Simmons, that we see two all-female groups feature, The Runaways in Strictly For Konnoisseurs and the UKs own, Rock Goddess in Armed and Ready.
Formed in Wandsworth, South London in 1977 by sisters Jody and Julie Turner (vocals and drums respectively) and joined by Tracey Lamb on bass duties.
Due to Julie Turner only been 14 at the time, the band mad a slower start than their peers and didn’t release their first album until 1983 in the form of the self-titled ‘Rock Goddess’ through A&M who they secured a deal with in 1982. They fluctuated between being a 3 piece and a 4 piece (second guitarist) during their early years, eventually settling on the original formation and rehearsing intensely as a trio.
‘Rock Godess’ was released to favourable reviews and peaked at No65 in the UK album charts, and it’s a great listen! From the opener, ‘Heartache’ through to the closing anthem ‘Heavy Metal Rock N Roll’ its a belter. The original Geoff Barton penned Armed and Ready feature eludes to the fact that Rock Goddess have got something special to offer upon hearing their early demo…and he wasn’t wrong.
Heavy Pettin’
The November ’81 Armed and Ready feature finds Heavy Pettin’ in their infancy, having only formed in June of that same year. Rising from the ashes of a band called Weeper (!?), they plied a Def Leppard-esque sound and did it well.
The Geoff Barton article finds them moaning about almost everything and it doesn’t really do them any favours. However, they had the ability to back it up and were soon scouted by a number of heavyweight labels and eventually signed to mega-label Polydor having initially releasing a single, ‘Roll The Dice’ on the legendary Neat Records.
Their debut LP, ‘Lettin’ Loose’ was released in 1983 and benefitted from the production skills of none other than Queen’s Brian May. Tours supporting Kiss and Ozzy followed and Heavy Pettin’ were on the verge off something massive – potentially knocking their oft-compared comrades, Def Leppard off their pedestal…..Sadly, it all went wrong. Firstly, their second album ‘Rock Ain’t Dead’ just didn’t do it…..their sound had become too polished – possibly under the control of the label – and that encouraging noise made during those early days had lost its Wooooaaaargh!
During the making of their third album in 1987, ‘The Big Bang’, the band found themselves entrees to the Eurovision Song Contest with their song ‘Romeo’ thanks to label Polydor. If ever a final nail needed to be plucked from a grubby bag of rusty ones, this was likely to be it.
The band spilt in 1988 and ‘The Big Bang’ was released the following year……
Mendes Prey
Hailing from Pontefract in West Yorkshire, Mendes Prey began life in 1981. In the original Armed and Ready feature, Geoff Barton compares them to Black Axe, who we enjoyed in A&R Issue 1, and that is a pretty close comparison – with an additional smattering of Thin Lizzy and UFO.
Geoff has a demo tape in his hands and is pretty impressed with the songs it contains and compares aspects of ‘Drifting’ with Led Zep’s ‘Stairway To Heaven’, but does question some of the lyrics. ‘Think I should cut my hair and cruise into town / looking so cool in my old school tie’ been specifically highlighted.
At the time of inclusion in issue 5, the only original member of the band is John Seymour, who is joined by Steve Holt, Richard Emslie, Martin Brough and Tony Boulton – formerly of fellow West Yorkshire titans (and WLL favourites), Vardis.
Sadly, Mendes Prey didn’t achieve greatness. Following their 1981 demo ‘Mendes Prey’, the band release two 7” singles, the first one ‘On To The Borderline’ was released in 1982 and then 4 years later they released ‘Wonderland’ before splitting up.
However, the band toured extensively during their career and worked hard too establish themselves and gain a major label deal, sadly tis wasn’t forthcoming. The band did gain some commercial success having come to the attention of Levi Jeans who used the opening riff of ‘What The Hell Is Going On?’ for a radio commercial. The band gained some good publicity – and denim – as a result and Levi’s sponsored their subsequent month long tour.