In celebration for Iron Maiden’s current tour, The Man on the Street Kenny Kessel for The Metal Voice caught up with Artist and Eddie Creator Derek Riggs in an exclusive One on One interview.
In the interview Riggs walks through all of his Maiden and non Maiden artwork and explains the age old questions about the alternate Maiden Japan cover with original singer Paul Diann’s head cut off.
Derek Riggs said,” They wanted to call it Maiden Japan cuz it’s a take from Deep Purple (Live Album) ‘Made in Japan’ so it was a pun. So they wanted a cover. The manager (Rob Smallwood) was off with the band somewhere in America and so he phones up and says, ‘I’ll let you get on with it.’ So I thought well the obvious thing was to put Eddie chopping off Paul Di’anno’s head. And so I did that. It’s not a bad portrait for two days work actually, considering all the other things I had to do. So I got it (artwork) down to the record company and then they got a call from the manager and the manager said destroy all of those cuz they printed 250,000 single covers he says. I don’t want to ever see one again. So they destroyed them and I painted a new cover.
And later on when the manager came back he said you know that cover that I had destroyed and I had you repaint the second. He (explained why) said that Paul Di’anno’s voice was giving him problems and he was doing one day in three one day in four you know sometimes one day a week singing. And Maiden just couldn’t deal with that and they couldn’t function under those conditions.So they had to find a new singer. They found Bruce Dickinson in the end but the manager said they’ve been auditioning new singers at this point and he was (Paul Dianno) getting wind of something going on he knew something was happening. And he if he’d (Paul Dianno) have seen that cover at that point we would have freaked out. They’d have been left without a singer for the rest of the tour, potentially. So they had all those destroyed I had to do a different cover and and that’s the story behind that.
Tom Hunting recently spoke to The Metal Voice about the bands upcoming North American tour, new Live album and his thoughts on the late former Iron Maiden singer Paul Di’Anno.
Tom Hunting told The Metal Voice, “Those first two albums (Iron Maiden Album) changed my drumming style and my life musically. We were playing that stuff in backyards when we were barely teenagers at keg parties. People thought Running Free was an Exodus original, sorry we didn’t write that one. Our friend bought that record just because of the picture. He brought it home and we burned it up it was just so good and so groundbreaking.
He continued. “I loved Paul Di’anno, I thought he was a punk rock singer that they molded into a metal singer. They just invented something (Iron Maiden) together with Clive Burr. He’s one of my biggest influences (Clive). Then they fired Paul and they fired Clive and I’m like what the hell? Not that I didn’t love Number of the Beast and all the music that came after that but you know it was a tough to swallow.”
American thrash metal legends and genre originators EXODUS are set to unleash their ferocious live show across North America next month with their “The Battle of ’24” tour! The tour marks the band’s first headlining run in many years and will feature support from thrash metallers Havok, metallic hardcore outfit Candy, and crossover thrashers Dead Heat. The tour kicks off on November 2 in Tampa, FL, and will thrash across North America, ultimately concluding on December 7 in Los Angeles, CA. “The Battle of ’24” tour promises to be a must-see event for metal fans, showcasing EXODUS’ legendary status in the thrash metal scene alongside some of the genre’s most exciting current acts.
EXODUS “The Battle of ’24” North American Tour w/ support from Havok, Candy and Dead Heat
11/02/24: Tampa, FL @ The Orpheum 11/04/24: Orlando, FL @ House of Blues 11/05/24: Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall 11/06/24: Atlanta, GA @ Heaven @ Masquerade 11/08/24: Dallas, TX @ Granada 11/09/24: Austin, TX @ Empire 11/11/24: Denver, CO @ Ogden 11/13/24: Des Moines, IA @ Wooly’s 11/14/24: Joliet, IL @ The Forge 11/15/24: Columbus, OH @ King of Clubs 11/16/24: Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage 11/17/24: Bethlehem, PA @ Wind Creek Event Center 11/18/24: Montreal, QC @ Beanfield Theatre 11/19/24: Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theatre 11/21/24: Worcester, MA @ Palladium Upstairs 11/22/24: Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw 11/23/24: Pittsburgh, PA @ Preserving 11/24/24: Detroit, MI @ Majestic Theatre 11/26/24: Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater 11/27/24: Winnipeg, MB @ Exchange Event Centre 11/29/24: Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre 11/30/24: Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall 12/2/24: Vancouver, BC @ Rickshaw Theatre 12/3/24: Seattle, WA @ El Corazon 12/4/24: Portland, OR @ Hawthorne 12/6/24: Berkeley, CA @ UC Theatre 12/7/24: Los Angeles, CA @ The Regent
EXODUS is: Gary Holt – guitar Tom Hunting – drums Steve “Zetro” Souza – vocals Lee Altus – guitar Jack Gibson – bass
The Metal Voice recently interviewed Girlschool guitarist/ singer Kim McAuliffe. She spoke about the band’s last North American tour (w/ Alcatrazz & Lillian Axe), touring with the biggest names in metal over the years, new bassist and maybe one career choice she would have changed.
When asked if it was difficult to let go current bass player Tracy Lamb “Normally people have trouble with drummers, we seem to have problems with bass players. Tracy left due to personal reasons. It’s a long story. She lives in Spain and her boyfriend had a bad accident, it was touch and go and she decided she could not come to America to stay with him. So now we ended up with Olivia Airey, Don Airey’s niece. She is a youngster. Now the weirdest thing about that is that when Enid left all those years ago. The late great Malcolm Dome recommended Olivia to us. But at that point Tracy Lamb had come back. So this time when Tracy went we just phoned her up (Olivia) and asked her are you up for it? And she said yeah and of course that is it, two weeks later she is playing with us. She comes from a very musical Family.
When asked if there were any career choices she regretted back in the early days , “Well there is one, sort of big one but I don’t really regret it cause I wouldn’t have been where I am right now. We got a choice for our fourth album Play Dirty, (82-83). We had a choice whether we could go to America, to L.A. and record with producer Spencer Proffer or stay in London and record with our heroes Jim (Lea) and Noddy (Holder) from Slade. We just wanted to record with our heroes and stay in London. Yeah we turned it down!
Authors note” In the same time frame when Spencer Proffer was working with Quiet Riot on their Metal Health album and persuaded the band to record Slade’s UK hit Cum on Feel the noize.
The longest tenured all-female rock band and NWOBHM legends GIRLSCHOOL will be embarking on the last leg of their final North American tour this autumn! The trek will conquer the West Coast and Southwest from October 16 until drawing the final curtain on November 5. More dates are TBA!
The trek will see rotating direct support from LILLIAN AXE and ALCATRAZZ. The itinerary can be found below while tickets are now on sale and can be found HERE
The Metal Voice recently interviews Krokus singer Marc Storace who will be releasing his second solo album CROSSFIRE under the banner STORACE Nov 22, 2024
When asked about the musical direction of his new album ‘Well God sent me Tommy Henriksen from the Alice Cooper Band and he’s a neighbor well lives in Zurich with his wife and kid. It was so fun writing with him and singing at his place and just it was so inspiring we were kind of on this same level. This album is definitely harder and it rocks a little bit more and there’s a lot of pumping good old rock and roll in there. It starts with really bombastic with a song called Screaming Demon and from there on you know where it’s going to go, until the end when the surprise ballad comes out of nowhere and you think wow okay. It’s like the epilogue and everybody’s pulling out their Kleenex and slowly picking up their coats and walking, driving home with a nice ballad in their heads.”
When asked about the future of Krokus “Krokus is reborn. We all feel fresh again. We’ve had a really nice run and the feeling in the band is really harmonious. And I don’t sense any bad vibes for doing my solo stuff, because they know I did it because I was in a lockdown situation and that’s how it started and the ball kept on rolling. So it’s something I’m doing not because I wanna leave Krokus. There’s a nice team. The crew is fixed, and it’s great.
When asked if Krokus will release new music “Good question. That’s what I ask myself. It would be nice, and I know there would be a lot of fans who would be thankful for that, but I don’t see any sign of life in the creative way, except for the live stuff that we do. And the band has never been so good playing live, and it’s really fun. And everything comes automatically nowadays. I mean, it would be nice, but who am I to talk, if everyone else is not.”
When asked about the infamous Tour w/ Krokus as Special guests to Def Leppard in 1983 supporting Pyromania ” For me those were the two highlights albums from both bands (Krokus Headhunter, Def Leppard Pyromania). I’m not going to say Headhunter is our best album but I think we were at the peak of our performing abilities for me anyway as a singer. Those days it was like I was hitting high notes with such agility. Then looking back and thinking how did I do that? And it was all adrenaline, coffee, good vibes and passion. Pyromania for me was and still is my favorite Def Leppard album. I love it.. During that time we had become like Road Warriors. We toured and toured from opening for this act to opening to the next, jumping from one tour to the next and climbing up to being special guests and then we went on tour with Def Leppard (1983 Pyromania). It was so amazing the size of the Arenas and stadiums and stuff like that. It was way beyond anything we’ve done before and obviously this gives you that more of a rush. You’re backstage preparing for the show and you go on stage and bang and the reaction is so great.
It’s kind of like riding a bucking bronco, you have to control that energy, the adrenaline rush that that hits you and we gave our all. We never went off stage without giving one or two encores and we could have even given more but you you have to watch watch the time and not piss off the the headliner. So this was the time when Michael Jackson was number one with Thriller and the whole atmosphere in all the parking lots at the burger joints and everything when you drive up to the venue early afternoon the kids are hanging out and partying and there’s loud music everywhere. So this atmosphere I don’t think I’ve ever relieved it to that extent as I did then it was like magic. We knew we were going to have a great night every night you so and that’s something which is uh Priceless you know Priceless yeah maybe we’ll never come back you know those days.”
When asked if Krokus surpassed being a special guests for Def Leppard t the time “Yeah probably. It could have been something like that but there was something negative in the air anyway and uh it didn’t end up well and uh we were we were not on speaking terms after that for so long until I think 2015. We we played together again at Sweden rock festival and I insisted to this guy who was Insider with the band. I wanted to meet Joe Elliot and apologize for the Shit that went on. Even if it wasn’t us who started it but our manager then took it to a new height, an unmentionable thing happened. Joe (Elliot) was like hey come on Marc there’s so much water under the bridge, I forgot about it. I said but I didn’t and I want to get it off my chest and since then it’s it’s been it’s amazing a great feeling and this this happened like in the background in our private time. I met the guys again last year and went backstage and it was nice.”
TRACKLIST:
Screaming Demon
The New Unity
Rock This City
Adrenaline
Love Thing Stealer
Let’s Get Nuts
Thrill And A Kiss
We All Need The Money
Hell Yeah
Millionaire Blues
Sirens
Only Love Can Hurt Like This
TEA released 5 LP’s, becoming a very successful band and Marc gained attention for his abilities and his high-pitched raunchy vocal tone.
In 1979 Marc became the voice KROKUS, the most successful Hard Rock Band from Switzerland, selling over 15 million copies, touring the world collecting over 2000 shows, winning several Gold and Platinum awards!
At the beginning of 2021 Marc started working on his solo career as STORACE, releasing the first solo CD “Live and Let Live” at the end of 2021, in the middle of the very difficult pandemic situation, but due unfortunately were not possible to properly promote the music live and the album didn’t have the chance to be properly supported.
Marc spent 2023 and 2024 to write and produce the new album “Crossfire” that is finally ready.
With the songwriting shared between Marc Storace, guitar player Tommy Henriksen (Alice Cooper band) and drummer Pat Aeby (Krokus, Gotus), Storace managed to deliver a monster piece of Hard Rock.
“Crossfire”, produced by Tommy Henriksen and mixed by the award-winning engineer Olle Romo, features a collection of Hard Rock anthemic songs, with big choruses, great guitars and an awesome rhythm section!
Currently the band is planning an extended tour in support of the new album, following the release of the new album.
The Metal Voice recently interviewed Nervosa guitarist Helena Kotina and new drummer Gabriela Abud about their upcoming North American Tour and their ultimate tour experience VIP.
They also spoke about their heroes that have met on the road touring and new drummer Gariela Abud.
When asked about the upcoming set list “This is going to be one of the longest setlists that we ever played because we are going to have a combination of old songs from the previous albums (classics) and we are going to have a lot of songs from Jailbreak (latest) album that never played before live.”
When asked about the upcoming special Tour V.I.P. “This is the first time we are doing this thing because it is a headlining tour for us and now we have the opportunity. We are going to have two packages of VIP tickets. Both of them will have meet and great but the second one will be special. It will include the whole touring experience, like what does a band do during the day. Tour bus tour and we explain the day to day things a band does. So the fans have a chance to see how it is to be in a band for a day.”
Thrash metal mavens NERVOSA recently released their blistering fifth full-length, Jailbreak, to major acclaim, and have now set their sights on North America, announcing their first ever headline tour of the USA and Canada beginning in late August 2024! On the road for nearly a month-and-a-half, the tour will visit major locations such as Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Brooklyn, Montreal and Chicago – including seven total stops in Canada – coming to an end in mid-October. The tour will feature support from Lich King and Hatriot.
The Metal Voice recently spoke to Sweet Guitarist Andy Scott and the new album and his legacy in Sweet.
In the chat Scott also talks about how he believed Nikki Sixx called him in the middle of the night to produce the original Motley Crue Demo.
Andy Scott was asked to explain this story, “Back in the early 80’s I got a phone call in the middle of the night and some guy was saying he was Nikki Sixx. Whether this is true or not I don’t know. I was telling him, you have been out and had a beer and you want to call me at 4 in the morning and it is something like 8pm o’clock for you. I said why don’t you ring me at regular hours. ” He said to me, “you produce great records, why don’t you come and produce us?” I said send me an airfare and I will be right over. Cause at that point in my life that is what I was trying to do, be a producer. Then I heard a few months later someone had picked up their demos, tarted them up and released that as their first album (Motley Crue). When he sent me the demos on cassette I thought well first off you have to get a bass player and a drummer who can play in time with each other. When asked again if he thought it was Nikki Sixx that actually called him Scott responded,” It probably was Nikki Sixx.”
SWEET are a rock music phenomena that has taken the world by storm for more than six decades. Over the years, SWEET sold more than 55 million records and earned 34 #1 chart positions worldwide.
The golden thread that links the past through to the present and into the future is SWEET founding member Andy Scott, with all his determination to maintain high standards with the band’s musical legacy, recording, and touring.
The band today still has an illustrious pedigree recreating “live” the high energy and soaring vocals associated with the SWEET sound that is the band’s trademark.
SWEET began writing songs for the Full Circle album in 2019 pre-pandemic. The project was shelved, and the band released Isolation Boulevard instead. This involved remote recording sessions which put a new spin on the material. The album was well received, and the single “Set Me Free” appeared in many Heritage Rock charts.
With the Covid period of isolation behind us, SWEET started the sessions for Full Circle in earnest. The band’s touring schedule split the sessions, but by the spring of 2024, the recordings were done. The band’s performance is outstanding, and producers Andy and Tom Cory are very proud of the result.
Full Circle will be SWEET’s final studio album ever.
CORRECT tracklisting
Circus
Don’t Bring Me Water
Burning Like A Falling Star
Changes
Everything
Destination Hannover
Rising Up
Fire In My Heart
Defender
Coming Home
Full Circle
MUSICIANS Paul Manzi – lead vocals Lee Small – bass guitar / vocals Tom Cory – guitars / keys / vocals Adam Booth – drums / percussion Andy Scott – guitars / vocals
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
