Description
Black vinyl with insert. Limited 200 copies
Midlands outfit Cloven Hoof must rate as one of the most legendary bands of the entire New Wave Of British Heavy Metal movement. The origins of the group go back to the year 1979, when they first formed under the name of Nightstalker. In 1981, however, the band switched to their new moniker: Cloven Hoof. Original vocalist David Potter, guitarist Steve Rounds, drummer Kevin Poutney and main man Lee Payne on bass adopted the stage characters of ‘Earth’, ‘Fire’, ‘Water’ and ‘Air’. A very interesting concept which was far ahead of its time. For a long time fans have been asking for Cloven Hoof’s BBC sessions to be made officially available. Finally, the wait is over. But why has it taken such a long time to get the tapes released? “Because the BBC offered the session, the BBC have the rights to the recording,” explains Lee Payne. “Permission had to be obtained from the BBC of course, but it is no secret that I have bought back most of the publishing rights from Universal. This has taken some time to do and Cloven Hoof are now free from contractual difficulties, so the time was right to release those much sought-after BBC sessions that we did. The first of the two BBC sessions was recorded for the “Friday Rock Show” and broadcast on the 10th of June 1983. And this is how it happened in the first place: “We were contacted by Producer Tony Wilson who was the main man behind the Tommy Vance ‘Friday Rock Show’. Tony was an amazing producer, as good as they come. He liked our session so much that he helped get us a support slot at the famous old Marquee Club in Wardour Street. It was a big honour to play there because all the greats had performed at the club. It was quite funny really because Rob Halford from Judas Priest and Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin had both taken in our demo to the BBC to get us on the show. Tony Wilson said: ‘After being recommended by giants like that, I just had to give you a session for the show.’” The band’s second BBC session was broadcast on October 21st 1989 and contained the songs “Mistress Of The Forest”, “Astral Rider”, “Mad Mad World” and “Fox On The Run”. Now this was a good six years after the first session. How would Cloven Hoof in 1983 compare to Cloven Hoof in 1989? For a start, the line-up had changed quite drastically … “It is quite difficult to compare line-ups,” states Lee Payne. “Everyone is good in their own way. At the time, everyone was dedicated and enthusiastic and it was a privilege to make music around those guys. That said, Steve Rounds was the stand-out musician for me because as a guitar player he was incredible and his technique was flawless. Even to this day I have never seen a guitarist quite that good. Raymond Froggatt helped manage us for a time and Black Sabbath used to support his band when they were called Earth. He was good friends with Ozzy Osbourne and he used to hang out with him when he had Randy Rhoads playing guitar. Froggy (Raymond Froggatt) said ‘Steve Rounds was the closest thing to Randy Rhoads he had ever seen’ and Steve was only 19 at the time. Quite a compliment because that guy knew his stuff. If Steve was still with us now, who knows how great he would have been? He was simply a phenomenal talent!” For this session a cover version of the Sweet song “Fox On The Run” was recorded: “We wanted to do something a bit off the wall. Cloven Hoof had never done a cover version before, so we thought it would be fun to record a song that everybody liked. Everybody came up with a list of songs, then we put it to a vote. As a boy I had always loved Sweet, Slade, and T. Rex, so I suggested ‘Fox On The Run’ because I thought it would suit our singer Russ’s vocal range. The high stacked harmonies would suit him down to a tee. When I told our record label at the time what we were going to do, they were elated. Someone at Heavy Metal Records knew Sweet’s Guitarist Andy Scott personally. They gave me his telephone number and told me to have a chat with him, this I promptly did. Andy was a lovely down to earth guy and I knew Sweet used to rehearse next to Deep Purple, so we chatted for a while about Ritchie Blackmore (my idol). We got on like a house on fire, so in the end I asked Andy, if he would like to do a solo for us at BBC Maida Vale studio? He agreed but ill fortune scuppered us at the last minute. On the way, Andy had a car accident, so he never made the session. I’ll never forget the phone call he made with police sirens in the background saying he was terribly sorry he couldn’t make it. I made light of it by saying: ‘The background noise sounded like the start of a blockbuster.’”
Track list:
1. Laying Down The Law-BBC Session 1983
2. Crack The Whip-BBC Session 1983
3. Return Of The Passover-BBC Session 1983
4. Road Of Eagles-BBC Session 1983
5. Mistress Of The Forest-BBC Session 1989
6. Astral Rider-BBC Session 1989
7. Mad Mad World-BBC Session 1989
8. Fox On The Run-Sweet cover-BBC Session 1989