It’s almost 20 years since Alan “Boomer” Davey departed Hawkwind (for the second time!), the band his tumultuous bass playing guided through some of the most significant albums of their post-Lemmy career.
And as much as anyone (and more than most), the music he makes and the atmospheres he alchemizes have remained true to the spirit of that band, while venturing too into areas that even Hawkwind have yet to explore.
Bedouin, the Psychedelic Warlords, Djinn, Pre-Med, the Lemmy-approved Motörhead tribute band Ace of Spades and a string of solo projects number among Alan’s post Hawkwind activities, but closest to his heart, perhaps, is Gunslinger – a resurrection of the band he led, alongside his cousin Nigel Potter, in the years before he first joined the Hawks.
“He got a guitar about the same time I got a bass, so we got together and started with a band called Stallion. Then it was Chainsaw and then onto Gunslinger. So Nigel and I stuck together from the start until I joined Hawkwind.” Potter, he adds, is also “one of the best songwriters the UK ever produced in my opinion.”
Based in East Anglia, Alan continue, “We used to play the local scene, village halls, rock pubs, but we did some big gigs too, like Woodbridge Cinema and the Ipswich Corn Exchange (600 capacity).” Gunslinger made its recording debut in 1981, after spotting a “demos wanted” ad placed by Neat Records. “It came down to two bands, Gunslinger and Raven. Unfortunately our drummer at the time left, and we couldn’t find another drummer in time to carry onto the next level, so Raven got the deal.”
Gunslinger’s repertoire would not be lost, however. The original line-up reformed for a one-off reunion show in Ipswich in 1985; and, in 2008, their debut album Earthquake in E Minor included material composed during the band’s original lifespan. Further early material appears on the live set, Unlawful Odds. Gunslinger broke up in 2014.
And now they’re back, with Amped Up, a new album that digs again into the past to present what Alan describes as “five of…the first songs Nigel and I ever wrote, in 1979-1980. In fact, ’Black Glamdring’ was the first song we ever played together as a band, – luckily we had a boom box recording of it and it’s great to bring it back to life alongside ‘Berlin Wall,’ ‘Stone Scared,’ ‘Smoke Wagon’ (originally titled ‘Draw’) and the classic ‘Living Like a Viking,’ all of which have been given a new lease of life they all deserve.”
The remainder of the album comprises new material, while accompanying musicians include original Motörhead drummer Lucas Fox and Deep Purple’s Ian Paice on the title track – written back in 1988, explains Alan, “after Lemmy asked me to write a song for a single we could release as a partnership.”
Alan made a quick demo which Lemmy loved. But he was also planning to relocate to the USA at that time and this, coupled with Motörhead’s exhaustive touring regimen saw the project mothballed. It was a thrill, he says, to revisit it and, perhaps, finally invoke the magic that the original collaboration would have cast.
For Alan himself, however, perhaps the most significant track – and, appropriately, Gunslinger’s new single – is “The Ace,” a tribute to Lemmy that combines some of Lemmy’s own song titles with Davey’s own experiences “hanging out with Lemmy at his house and out clubbing in London. What fun days they were!”
SINGLE: https://orcd.co/gunslinger_theace
Alan also credits Lemmy’s influence with the very sound and tone of Amped Up. It was Lemmy, after all, who encouraged the young musician’s own musical ambitions and style, which in turn allows Alan to proclaim, without an ounce of hyperbole, “the Motörhead sound still lives on through Gunslinger, Lem is still with us and always will be. I know 100% that Lemmy would’ve loved this album.
“We have that aggressive, high energy sound, but we have our own unique writing style… and that is a quote a long time ago from Lemmy himself!”
CD/VINYL: https://cleorecs.com/search?q=gunslinger+amped+up
DIGITAL: https://orcd.co/gunslinger_ampedup
Track listing
1. Sun Up
2. Berlin Wall
3. Stone Scared
4. Smoke Wagon
5. Living Like A Viking
6. Black Glamdring
7. The Ace
8. Someone’s Got You In The Gunsights
9. Like A Bullet
10. 20 Paces
11. Amped Up
12. Sundown
