Anvil
What’s so great about looking back at Armed and Ready is the fact that occasionally you will see a band written about that has stood the test of time – Issue 1 had Raven in there for example! No band wears that crown better than Issue 2 inductees, Anvil.
Formed in 1978!!…we don’t really need to present the facts here do we?? Watch the movie..
Anvil are 17 albums into their career now, but when we are introduced to them in Armed and Ready in August 1981, they had just released their debut album ‘Hard ‘N’ Heavy’ on Attic Records and was only available as an import in the UK. Selling the album as presenting ‘a no-holds-barred collection of some of the hottest rock you’ll ever hear’ (their words), ‘Hard ‘N’ Heavy’ still captures the infancy of the band perfectly. Drummer Reiner pointing out that ‘our numbers are exclusively about women, about what we want to do to them and what we want them to do to us. The lyric sheet in the album has all the details.’ Oh! To be his 23 year old self again.
Original members Lips and Robb Reiner are now joined by Chris Robertson on bass and make a pretty fearsome 3 piece live. Their influence on bands such as Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax is well documented by members of those bands and its easy to see why when you listen through ‘Hard ‘N’ Heavy’.
Give it a shot…..they are legends after all!!
http://my.tbaytel.net/tgallo/anvil/
https://www.facebook.com/anvilmetal/
Wrathchild
Another stalwart of the UK music scene, yet only in existence for 6 months at the time of their feature in Armed and Ready in Issue 2, Wrathchild brought stadium rock to the local boozer in their early incarnations. Famed for their over-the-top stage shows and full on stage costumes, they didn’t shy away from controversy. Earning themselves the ‘most hated band in Britain’ moniker courtesy of The Sun newspaper, after enticing female fans on stage and relieving them of their underwear!
Shortly after their feature in Armed and ready, Wrathchild would release a series of demos and eventually get their first deal with Bullet Records and release their first EP – ‘Stackheel Strutt’ in 1983. A debut album (Stakk Attakk) followed in 1983 on Heavy Metal Records and then a turbulent period followed when major label, RCA, attempted to sign them from that label. As a result it was 4 years before the band were able to release another record (The Biz Suxx – 1988). The album spawned their most well known track ‘Nukklear Rokket’ and featured a video produced by iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickenson and filmed in his Chiswick home’s car park!!
The bands final album was released in 1989 and not long after Rocky Shades left to join the punk band Discharge.
Various incarnations of Wrathchild have returned to the scene over the years, and as is the case with many bands, personal disputes got in the way of a full on reunion. The last version of Wrathchild split in 2013. The Biz most certainly Suxx….