N.W.O.B.H.M. WEDNESDAY: INTERVIEW WITH DIAMON HEAD'S KARL WILCOX

Recently I had the privilege of interviewing Diamond Head drummer Karl Wilcox. Our regular readers will no doubt recall that I am a huge (and I mean HUGE!) fan of N.W.O.B.H.M. with Diamond Head being a particular favorite of mine. So, please know that when I say this was a privilege for me it REALLY was. I've been listening to this band for well over 20 years now and I've just recently started showing my own teenage son how great their music is. With the news of a US tour in the works I sat down with Karl to talk about the band and his own life.

Andy-First things first I just want to thank you Karl for taking time to answer a few questions for me today. I'd imagine that things are pretty busy these days for Diamond Head right?

Karl-No worries Andrew. Yes it's getting a little manic.

I have to sort out flights, hotels, van hire, Merch. Backline etc.  More importantly the work visa and tax ID's have to be sorted before I can book anything.

Andy-How are things coming along as far as Diamond Head's tour of the US?

Karl-Great. There's been a great response to us announcing the tour. The US was great for us in 2002 and our first ever tour in 2011.

Andy-When was the last time Diamond Head played in America?

Karl-2011. Sean and Brian Jammed with Metallica at their 30th anniversary bash

Andy-If I'm not mistaken (and please feel free to correct me if I am) you joined Diamond Head back in 1992. Can you tell me how that came about?

Karl-1990-91 but close enough I had worked with Brian on his 'Radio Moscow' project 85-87,  then with Sean on the 'Notorious'  project with Robin George 88- 89.

When they decided to get DH back together I was offered the gig. I am the first musician/member to join the band who was a fan an actual fan of the band

Andy-You were involved with the NWOBHM scene before you joined Diamond Head. Two bands that are often mentioned are Requiem and Chase. I know Requiem released a single. Was that your first studio experience?

Karl-We had done some demos prior to that single in a local studio in Walsall.  It was a great experience. In the mountains of Wales with a former member of 'Hawkwind' We had a massive band revolt on the night of going. 

Andy-How did you learn to play the drums Karl?

                                                               Karl Wilcox live and lethal!

Karl-My dad had a big band / dance band in the UK and used to watch him play. He never wanted me to be a drummer so I ended up playing the trumpet for 10 years before finally taking up the drums. The drummer in the county big band was leaving and the drum chair fell vacant.

He was a great player.. I took over and it was a disaster. So I took all the music home and practiced like a Mother came up with my own solos until I owned that drum chair.

Then I got into the Devils Music :-) 

Andy-I've always thought that you had your own unique style of playing. Who were some of your influences as you were just getting started?

Karl- My main influence when starting out where Buddy Rich and My old Man. He was more of a groove player..

As I got into the Devils music then I became aware of John Bonham, Ian Paice. Keith Moon, Terry Bozzio , Neil Peart.Phil Rudd

There really are too many very good players from that era before the drum machines took over.

I could go back to the 60's and list influence. But the main influence from them all was " I want to do that for a living"

Andy-This is a similar question Karl. Has any young drummer told you that they were inspired to pick up their first pair of sticks because of you? In Diamond Head you've been able to make your mark and you've become an important aspect to the band's sound. I'd be shocked if there wasn't more then a few young drummers out there that listed you as a influence!

Karl-Thanks Andrew. Brian's step son Dan who has his own band lists me as one of his top 3 influences. The other two are John Bonham and Lars.

If I can influence any drummer to leave the show and go right home and practice immediately as the guys who inspired me then I've opened the door for that Kat to develop. Whether they like what I have done or not.

I been blessed to work as a musician/entertainer

Andy-As I briefly touched on with the last question your contribution to Diamond Head's sound is well regarded. You've spent a large part of your career with the band in fact. How does it feel to be able to look back and say that you were involved with one of the true icons of the NWOBHM scene?

Karl-I was the first member who was an actual fan of the band and used to watch them play and say I should be up there with them.

And here I am. I give the utmost respect for the parts played by Duncan and I just embellish it what I can. Groove is very important to me and the band. 

Sometimes you have to pinch yourself. But I have know Brian for 30 years now and it's been a great journey. 

We did a show in Montreal with Kiss at a festival. 'Detroit Rock City' was the first album I purchased and I'm standing back stage with my niece and nephew looking on gobsmaked  talking with Paul & Gene. 

Keep believing 

Andy-This shouldn't surprise you guys, but I have firsthand knowledge that teenage metal bands (with even preteen members!) are playing covers of some Diamond Head classics. That says a lot about the lasting impact that Diamond Head has had on heavy metal. When the band is playing live It must be something to be able to look out in crowd and see several generations of fans right?

Karl-There's old folks and young folks in the audience and there singing the songs at me and I'm singing them back at them. It's great. DH has a great catalog of songs both with Sean and with Nick. Obviously the classics are the main course for the show.

Although we have done support shows and had the headlining road crew ask "why are you playing Metallica songs?" The look on their face was priceless..

Andy-Besides headlining a tour of the US this April, which is a big deal for Diamond Head fans like me, are there any other big plans for the band in 2013?

Karl-We we quiet last year due to myself needing an emergency blood transfusion during our summer European tour. We had to cancel two shows the I was back on the Tubs thumping away. We had planned on hitting the US late last year..

This year hopefully sees the band doing two US tours, an East Coast run in April and a West Cost run in October.

Also we play a Belgium festival and will putting a European tour around that.

We hope to make a DVD of this tour so you all got to come to the show and record with us. If you don't like what you did at the show come to another show and re-record with us, we'll love to see you again.

Andy-Thanks again Karl for checking in. As we wrap up this quick interview is there anything you want to say to Diamond Head fans? I'll give you the last word.

Get your street teams together and get folks who have never heard or seen us to the shows. DH fans have been a long standing crew and have supported us through everything. 

See you all soon 

Thanks.

Lesser of two evils

Ah, the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM), it was a scene with a major impact on hard rock and metal. However like any other scene it produced some great bands and some not so great bands. There were also bands that started fine and for whatever reasons they went off in musical directions that didn't work so well. Saxon gave up their solid denim and leather sound for a stab at success in the mid-80's with less than fantastic results. The energetic Raven signed to Atlantic records and promtly had the life sucked out them as a once bright career faded fast. Thrash pioneers Venom never bothered to learn how to play their instruments until the 90's and they watched the bands they influenced pass them by in the mid-1980's. However the two bands I selected for this match-up are...



Diamond Head-Canterbury (1983)



Vs.



Jaguar-This Time (1984)



Diamond Head were one of the early bands to emerge from the NWOBHM scene. In retrospect they were infuential as well. Bands in their own scene like Satan and Dark Heart were influenced by them and of course Metallica would later cover some of theirs songs as well. Their sound was as much hard rock as metal and they were progressing on their early albums, but the direction on Canterbury had to be surprising to fans. Jaguar spent several years knocking around on the club scene before releasing their debut in 1983. Although it's not highly original, it was certainly a strong metal album that showed a band with some real potential. Unfortunately the music on that album was the direction they chose to follow. Both bands had been at it for a while so the music here is tight and well produced, but the ideas and the energy levels were a different story. So let's break this one down and see what we have twenty some plus years after the fact.



Vocals
Paul Merrell for Jaguar against Sean Harris for Diamond Head. Both singers sound comfortable with what they are doing. That's a plus to some extent. Merrell presents the melodies in okay fashion, but it all across like someone trying so hard to get played on the radio. Sean Harris is a far better salesman. Even when he singing lukewarm he puts everything into the effort.
Point to Diamond Head


Guitars

Garry Peppard for Jaguar takes on Brian Tatler from Diamond Head. Peppard had a good sound on the previous album despite some fuzzy production. Here he is merely average although with much better production. It's just rather typical of radio friendly AOR/hard rock of the time. Tatler slows down some from his previous efforts. He also seems to borrow a few moments from Def Leppard. Yet he has his own style here and there. He also gets in a few decent solos.

Point to Diamond Head

Rhythm section

Jaguar had Jeff Cox on bass and drummer Chris Lovell against bassist Mervyn Goldsworthy and drummer Robbie France for Diamond Head. Both pairs are alright although largely unspectacular. Although I could hear Goldsworthy's bass here and there.

Point to Diamond Head

Disappointment factor

This is tough call. Jaguar changed their sound more. However Diamond Head had been around longer, established themselves as a fairly consistent band and they were more original on their previous albums. So there album was the bigger disappointment because they were at a higher level than Jaguar. A clunker from Diamond Head was fairly surprising at this point because they had seemed to be one of the more steady bands on the scene.

Point to Jaguar.


Who rocks more?

As always, a tough category in this segment. If your band is being written about here than that means you didn't rock much to begin with. While both bands were fairly tight they were both watering down their sound to some extent. Both bands seemed to to have forgotten about heavy metal part of NWOBHM as they sure didn't put much of that into their sound. I think Jaguar were looking for radio play and Diamond Head were trying to expand their sound. Both came out sounding like limp noodles though. Diamond Head slowed things down a lot and tried stretching parts out, but it just made me sleepy. Jaguar would claim they had gotten into bands like U2 and Big Country before writing this. Instead they sound at best like Survivor and at worst kind of like Loverboy. I found myself needing to go take repeated dumps while listening to Jaguar. I am not sure if it was a coincidence or not. Diamond Head hit on far more solid moments although they were spread out.
Point to Diamond Head

Diamond Head take this one 4-1. So Diamond Head seemed to be trying to integrate pop, pomp and other into their sound and Jaguar just shook off the metal label and strapped on an AOR/hard rock persona like it was no big deal. Musical growth can be a great thing and I think Diamond Head were trying that only the results were rather mediocre. Granted they had been at it for a few years and I can't begrudge them trying to incorporate new sounds into their mix, but much of this album didn't work. Jaguar is a different situation because they changed singers just before "Power Games", but most of that album was written before the vocalist change. However when it came time for a new album there were new ideas brought into play and the material made them sound like an entirely new band. Also it seemed to kill any potential that they had shown on the previous album. So for these albums NWOBHM may have stood for..
New wave of bad heavy metal
New wave of barely heavy metal
New wave of bad horrible music
No way of baking hard meatloaf

Okay, the last one didn't make much sense, but neither did some of the ideas that Diamond Head and Jaguar tried on the above albums.


***I'll be back soon with another match-up.

Diamond Head-Canterbury

Metal Mind
1983/2008

Canterbury is a rather diverse album compared to the band's previous efforts. It's fairly well removed from the hard rock/metal style they had come to be known for. Instead they opted for epics with quite a bit of pageantry and build-up plus some very blatant pop leanings as well. Obviuously they were reaching out with this album and going in different directions, but it's also very easy to see why fans didn't really embrace it. The epics are generally more appealing than the pop songs here, but even they are a bit too dull and tedious to really be that intriguing. Canterbury is one of those albums where try as I might I could not get into it. Ultimately like Celtic Frost's Cold Lake or Helloween's Chameleon it's an example of an established band trying very hard to go way into another direction and failing because the direction is too different and the material just isn't that good. If Diamond Head had taken a few elements here and mixed them more with their existing style then maybe it would have been easier to take, but that's not the case. This re-issue includes to bonus tracks that are both live plus an interview with Andy Peebles. The packaging and bonus tracks are up to the usual high Metal Mind standards.

Diamond Head-Borrowed Time

Metal Mind
1982/2008


Has there been anything written about Diamond Head in the last 19 years that didn't mention Metallica? Possibly not because they are likely always going to be associated with the band that chose to cover "Am I evil?". Diamond Head were of course part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal Movement that spawned so many acts in the early 1980's and changed the whole metal scene worldwide. Suprisingly Diamond Head are far more melodic than you might imagine given their impact on Metallica. Although fairly involved, the music leans as much towards hard rock as it does towards metal and this album in particular shows some definite shades of progressive music as well. Where I think shine is in how they take their time developing a number of their songs. I think they pull the listener in a bit more and cause you to really take notice of all that's going on. Certainly this is an album that's more about the playing style than it is about the tones being used. Don't expect to instantly clobbered, but instead sit back and let the whole song play out and then I think that you will appreciate it a little more. It's perhaps a little more low key than I would have liked, but certainly an important album for the time due to the playing and the way they assemble the song as a unit. This version from Metal Mind includes six bonus tracks, two of which are live plus an interview with Sean Harris and Colin Kimberley. Another fine re-issue and an album worth checking out, but set your expectations at good rather than great.