Description

Still sealed Brazilian 2022 expanded double cd edition in thick jewelcase

The Nwobhm band Tokyo Blade from Salisbury released three really fine Nwobhm albums, their self titled album, their second album Night Of The Blade and the mini album Midnight Rendezvous, both of the two last mentioned was released in 1984. The band’s self-titled debut album, originally released in 1983, took the British public by storm. The record received excellent reviews in the press, which widened Tokyo Blade’s fan base quite considerable and they were widely tipped to become the next big thing of the glorious NWOBHM, following in the footsteps of Iron Maiden. When it became time to write and record the songs for their second album Night Of The Blade, one could have assumed that the mood inside the Tokyo Blade camp would have been rather optimistic. But this was actually not the case. Andy Boulton recalls: With the first album selling very well and the Europeans now going crazy for us, the record company decided we needed a follow-up album. Alan and I with Wiggins as co-writer on a couple had 90% of the songs written for what was to become Night Of The Blade. We finished off the rest of the songs and told Powerstation that this time we wanted more time and a better studio than we had for the first album, so we ended up in Fairview Studios and the engineer/producer was a guy called Roy Neave. The album was finished in the two week time frame that we had been allowed and we were fairly happy with it. The band did not have any doubts about the vocal capabilities of Alan Marsh when they left the studio: Alan’s vocal strength is fantastic, I personally feel that his singing and writing have progressed massively with age. Alan has always had a very unique voice in my opinion, the strength of which has got steadily even stronger. There’s one million David Coverdale and Robert Plant clones out there at the moment but Alan’s voice is unique and he takes great care with his lyrics and melodies. It’s amazing to me that we have managed to keep the original line-up together today. I know that many people (including myself) believe this to be the strongest line-up of the various line-ups that Tokyo Blade has had during its career and I guess we must be one of the few if not the only band from that era with an original line-up. Initially the label seemed pretty happy with Night Of The Blade as well. But then everything turned sour: The label came to see us at the Heavy Sound’ festival in Poperinge in Belgium and they were not impressed with Alan’s performance at the festival and they announced that they wanted Alan out of the band and that they have a singer who would be much better for Tokyo Blade’s continuing success. We were now between a rock and a hard place, on the one hand, we couldn’t bear the thought of telling Alan that he wasn’t in the band and we didn’t want him to go and on the other hand we have struggled for so long to get signed up and we didn’t want to piss the record company off. It was a very tough position to be in. So Alan left and we were now consigned to having another vocalist which was Vic Wright. This left us all with a very bad taste in our mouth. Alan and I had written those songs together and they were going to remove his vocals and put Vic’s on there. What do you do? You’re at a major point of your career and you are totally under the thumb of a record company who is calling all the shots. Basically, if we didn’t do it we could risk losing everything. I wish that it never happened but hindsight is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? The label replaced Alan’s vocals with Vics and the album was released to tremendous critical acclaim. For the time being, it seemed we could do no wrong. The only thing was, we still hadn’t had any money from any of this and we were living on the goodwill of other people, namely parents and partners. What you hear on this double album is the Night Of The Blade album with Vic Wright on vocals as it was released back in 1984. Then you also have the The Night Before which is the original first recorded version with Alan Marsh on vocals that was rejected by the label. Also on here is the Lightning Strikes and Madame Guillotine EP’s and The Cave Sessions official bootleg. Tokyo Blade weren’t destined for bigger things career-wise, but they managed to make a small mark with those who mattered and enjoyed the NWOBHM scene.

Track list:
1. Someone To Love-Vic Wright version
2. Night Of The Blade-Vic Wright version
3. Rock Me To The LimitSomeone To Love-Vic Wright version
4. Warrior Of The Rising Sun-Vic Wright version
5. Unleash The Beast-Vic Wright version
6. Love Struck-Vic Wright version
7. Dead Of The Night-Vic Wright version
8. Lightning Strikes (Straight Through The Heart)-Vic Wright version
9. Fever-from Lightning Strikes EP 1984
10. Attack Attack-from Lightning Strikes EP 1984
11. Madame Guillotine-from Madame Guillotine EP 1985
12. Break Out-from Madame Guillotine EP 1985
13. Monkeys Blood-The Cave Sessions Official Bootleg 1985
14. Schoolhouse Is Burnin-The Cave Sessions Official Bootleg 1985
15. Shadows Of Insanity-The Cave Sessions Official Bootleg 1985
16. Jezzabell-The Cave Sessions Official Bootleg 1985
17. Night Of The Blade-Alan Marsh version
18. Warrior Of The Rising Sun-Alan Marsh version
19. Unleash The Beast-Alan Marsh version
20. Love Struck-Alan Marsh version
21. Attack Attack-Alan Marsh version
22. Fever-Alan Marsh version
23. Dead Of The Night-Alan Marsh version
24. Breakout-Alan Marsh version
25. Madame Guillotine-Alan Marsh version
26. Someone To Love-Alan Marsh version