Description
Limited 500 copies
It was journalist Geoff Barton who coined the term NWOBHM in a May 1979 issue of the British music newspaper Sounds to describe the emergence of new heavy metal bands in the mid to late 1970s, during the period of punk rock’s decline and the dominance of new wave music. The music that came out during this era was taking the best of 1970s and infusing it with the intensity of punk rock to produce faster and aggressive songs. The DIY attitude of the new metal bands led to the spread of raw-sounding, self-produced recordings and a proliferation of independent record labels. This underground phenomenon was largely ignored by the media but Tommy Vance and John Peel, BBC radio hosts, took notice of the phenomenon and played singles by theese new metal bands on their shows. They also invited bands to play live at BBC studios under the supervision of long-time collaborator and producer, Tony Wilson. Many of these Friday Rock Show and BBC sessions are magical and its surprising to hear that many of these bands wrote some of their best songs even before getting a record deal. One of these bands were Def Leppard who recorded several session fro BBC. The band had released their debut EP which sold very well after Peel had given the track Getcha Rocks Off extensive airtime on BBC Radio 1. So the band were invited to play in front of a live audience at the Paris Theatre in London on the 22nd of August 1979 which are the first 7 tracks on this disc. After that comes the Friday Rock Show session recorded at the Maida Vale Studios in North London on the 3rd of October 1979 (aired on the 26th). This session features three songs that would end up on the debut album, On Through The Night, while the fourth song is a great version of Good Morning Freedom, the eventual B Side of the Hello America single. The band line-up at the time of course featured both original guitarists Steve Clark and Pete Willis.
Track list:
1. Hello America
2. Rock Brigade
3. Glad I’m Alive
4. When The Walls Came Tumbling Down
5. Overture
6. Getcha Rocks Off
7. Wasted
8. Satellite
9. Rock Brigade
10. Wasted
11. Good Morning Freedom