The HEAVY METAL ASSAULT TOUR descends upon the U.K. next February for four shows only. Featuring four of the greatest traditional Heavy Metal bands and offering triple headlining sets from GIRLSCHOOL, RAVEN and ALCATRAZZ plus special guests Airforce.
All three headliners have released new albums this year via Silver Lining Music with NWOBHM’s pioneers Girlschool’s “WTFortyfive?” going to #1 on the UK Metal/Rock Charts.
RAVEN released “All Hell’s Breaking Loose” this June, while Alcatrazz released “Take No Prisoners” this May, all three to critical acclaim.
Special Guests Airforce have a new album set for release early 2024.
The three co-headlining bands will be playing equal sets every night.
Wednesday 14 February – Glasgow – Ivory Blacks Thursday 15 February – Newcastle – Trillians Newcastle Friday 16 February – Manchester – Manchester Academy Saturday 17 February – London – The Dome
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke Airforce’s guitarist Chop Pitman and Drummer Doug Sampson (Former Iron Maiden). The two spoke about their upcoming U.K. tour supporting Steve Harris’ British Lion, Di’anno aid to raise money to assist former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno, their new Live album Live locked and loaded and re-recording of the Iron Maiden Classic ‘Strange World’ for their upcoming new album and as a charity single to assist Paul Di’Anno.
The two spoke about the re-recording of the Maiden Classic ‘Strange world’ Charity Single for Di’anno with legacy Maiden members “We are working on a version of Strange World that is something in the pipeline. It’s all in the early stages, we got demo ideas for it. So probably after we come back from Steve’s (Harris) British Lion tour we will start thinking about getting some work done on it and start laying down some tracks on it.” Doug Sampson
“The re-recording of ‘Strange World’ will be on the upcoming new Airforce album. We are also will be trying to re-release it (as a single) to help Paul (Di’Anno) with the operation, as a download. It would be nice if we could get Stave Harris to sanction it, to say I endorse it. Whatever we could do, we will do. We will play for free for Paul just to get him up and about. We are going to take out time and make sure we do it right. First thing I have done was to phone up Steve and I tell him I am doing a version of ‘Strange World’, it’s a track that Iron Maiden does not do any more and it’s a track people associate with Paul Di’anno. And he went, yeah yeah great. I said I will do a version and send it to you. listen to it and let me know what you think and Steve liked it, which is good. Dave Sullivan (Iron Maiden guitarist 1975-75) got involved, he phoned me up, quite excited about it and then Terry Rance (Iron Maiden guitarist 1975-76) phoned me up and he got quite excited about it. So we are planning to have Doug Sampson, Dave Sullivan, Terry Rance and Paul (Di’anno) on it, that is a big thing. It’s a different version of the track, nothing like the original and more up to date. “Chop Pitman
MAIDEN’s first demo recording, “Soundhouse Tapes”, featured Sampson, Harris, singer Paul Di’Anno and guitarist Dave Murray. It eventually landed MAIDEN a record deal with EMI in 1980. The band’s self-titled debut album brought about a new lineup with the addition of Clive Burr to replace Sampson and Dennis Stratton on guitar.
AIRFORCE is:
Flavio Lino – Vocals Chop Pitman – Lead Guitar Tony Hatton – Bass Doug Sampson – Drums
Airforce album ‘Strike Hard’ was released 2020
Airforce ‘Live locked and loaded’ released Sept 2021
NWOBHM institution AIRFORCE have released the animated live video for the song ‘Band Of Brothers’. The track is taken from the new AIRFORCE album “Live Locked N’ Loaded In Poland Lublin Radio” that was released on September 24, 2021 via ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records!
Watch the video here:
Digital single of “Band of Brothers – Live” is available across all digital and streaming platforms!
“Live Locked N’ Loaded in Poland Lublin Radio ” is released as jewel case CD and on all digital streaming/download platforms.
Airforce would like to Thank Val Andrade – For the Animation & Editing of this Video Pete Franklin – For the Mixing & Mastering of the Track All the Staff Radio Lublin – For the Live footage and original Sound Recording Marcin Puszka – For the Contact and making this live Recording Happen And of Course Ded Seb – For Starring in the Video
The AIRFORCE album “Live Locked N’ Loaded In Poland Lublin Radio“ came about after Airforce bassist, Tony Hatton received a message from Marcin Puszka late in 2018 inviting AIRFORCE to play a show for Radio Lublin in Poland. This was duly arranged and AIRFORCE played the Radio Lublin show on Friday March 29th 2019, shortly before AIRFORCE headed off for their 2nd USA tour in early April. The show was broadcast live on Radio Lublin, also being filmed and recorded. It was soon realized that the audio recording and the AIRFORCE performance of this one off show was of a very high quality. Soon after the Radio Lublin AIRFORCE show the plan to release it as a live album began to be planned. The initial mix was by the Radio Lublin engineers, who then in 2020 handed over the recording to AIRFORCE for their own sound engineer Pete Franklin to complete. The album tracklisting is a live snapshot of new AIRFORCE songs and studio recordings to date.
Actually the history of AIRFORCE goes back over 40 years ago to 1979, to an East London based band called EL-34, in which Chop Pitman and Tony Hatton played together first, and were able to gain ample live experiences with exciting gigs in legendary venues like “The Marquee Club”, “The Ruskin Arms” and “The Cart & Horses”. After several years playing mostly London metal shows, the singer and drummer departed in 1986, leaving Chop and Tony looking for replacements. Chop’s very good long-term friend, IRON MAIDEN mastermind Steve Harris, suggested his former drummer Doug Sampson (well known to all Metal fans from Iron Maiden’s first legendary studio recordings “The Soundhouse Tapes”). Steve arranged some studio time for himself, Chop, and Doug to have a rehearsal jam session together, and a slice of NWOBHM history was made: AIRFORCE was born!
“Live Locked N’ Loaded In Poland Lublin Radio” was released on September 24 as jewel case CD and on all digital streaming/download platforms.
TRACK LIST: 1. Fight 2. Life turns to Dust 3. Fine Line 4. The Reaper 5. Heroes 6. Wargames 7. Son of the Damned 8. Band of Brothers 9. Lost Forever 10. Why has it come to this 11. Finest Hour 12. Sniper
NWOBHM Institution AIRFORCE have released their new official live video for the single “Heroes”!
The track is taken from the band’s upcoming album “Live Locked N’ Loaded In Poland Lublin Radio” that will be released on September 24, 2021 via ROAR! Rock Of Angels Records!
UK old-school rockers AIRFORCE have joined forces with Pitch Black Records for the release of the band’s new album, their second full-length since reforming in 2016.
The new AIRFORCE studio album “Strike Hard” is set for release on September 4th 2020 on CD and Digital.
AIRFORCE stem originally from the NWOBHM era back in the 80’s with the band’s style best described as Old School Metal at its best, full of hooks, Riffs and soaring melodies!
The band was originally formed in 1986 by Tony Hatton (bass), Chop Pitman (guitars) and legendary drummer Doug Sampson (ex-Iron Maiden).
The AIRFORCE line-up now includes the extremely talented vocalist Flavio Lino who recently joined the band on a permanent basis.
“Strike Hard” features a guest appearance by Paul Di’ Anno (ex-Iron Maiden vocalist).
The song “Die For You” is now available for streaming and free download at www.pitchblackrecords.com where pre-ordering information is also available. A video for the same song will be released on the band’s YouTube channel and followed by a series of other videos in the upcoming months.
Album track-listing:
1. Fight
2. Die for You
3. Son of the Damned
4. The Reaper
5. Finest Hour
6. Don’t Look in Her Eyes
7. I Feel Your Pain
8. War Games
9. Band of Brothers
10. The War Inside
11. Faith Healer
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