NWOBHM WEDNESDAY: JAGUAR

Andy says-




The story of Jaguar is short and bittersweet. Formed in 1979 they would come along at the just the right time to have an impact on the NWOBHM movement. The original line-up consisted of Ron Reiss (vocals), Garry Pepperd (guitar), Jeff Cox (bass, vocals) and Chris Lovell (drums). The group would build up a sizeable local following and recorded two demos. In 1981 the group signed on with Heavy Metal Records and released the single "Back Street Woman" which would go on to sell over 4,000 copies. Neat Records caught on to the buzz surrounding Jaguar and signed them. At some point during all of this vocalist Paul Merrell replaced Ron Reiss. With Merrel now leading the band the single "Axe Crazy" was released. It sold pretty well and the band hit the road again to build up more steam. "Power Games" was released in 1982 and showcased a bare bones, straight up NWOBHM sound and sold well. Jaguar were on their way. For whatever reason though the follow up album "This Time" (released in 1984) showed a dramatic change of direction. Sales were dismal and interest in the band faded. By the end of the year the band would fold. No doubt the band were done in by the move into more of an AOR sound. Sure their debut wasn't faster than light Raven style metal. It featured more of a mellow side than a lot of similar style albums. "This Time" though really turned off fan's. It wouldn't be until 1999 (and after the re-release of the band's first two albums) that the band would try to give it another go. Helped by a revival of interest in NWOBHM the group (now consisting of Pepperd, Jeff Cox, Nathan Cox on drums and vocalist Jamie Manton) started work on a new album. "Wake Me" would be released in 2000. Jeff Cox would be replaced by Darren Furze."Power Games - The Anthology" released in 2002 helped gain the band more exposure."Run Ragged" appeared in 2003 and in 2006 the band released two live albums. The first release was "Holland '82 followed by "Archive Alive Vol.1". Another best-off "Opening The Enclosure" was released in 2010. The band continues to play live although it remains to be seen whether or not new material will appear any time soon. "Power Games" really is a must hear for NWOBHM fan's. Despite the band's missteps following the album's release "Power Games" is a great rock record and a good overview of what was happening back in the day.



Metal Mark says-

I remember seeing a vinyl copy of "Power Games" sitting in the metal section of record store back in 1985. I looked at it quite a bit actually and considered purchasing it several times never did. I never heard much about them and never heard them back then although I thought I had (that story can be found here http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2008/05/jaguar-jag-wire.html ). Eventually a few years ago I saw an eBay seller offering "Power Games" for a couple of dollars so I took a shot and bought it. I was definitely satisfied with that purchase. It was solid, guitar lead NWOBHM not far off from Dianno-era Iron Maiden only a slight hard rock edge in it instead of just being pure metal. Not original, but very strong and I agree there was no reason believe this band wouldn't keep on in this musical direction and probably get even better. A few years ago I was anxious to get the re-issue of the follow-up "This time" despite hearing mostly negative things about it. In this case I probably should have listened to popular opinion. I am not sure whether the band just changed musical directions or listened to the radio too much. Whatever the reason "This time" was AOR and not very good AOR either. It was very average and worse to take considering how good "Power Games" had been. A number of other NWOBHM bands like Raven and Saxon tried going a more commercial route in the mid-80's and like with Jaguar fans wanted the heavier material. Like many other NWOBHM bands they have reformed and played some shows. Not a lot of great releases, but "Power Games" still stands up very well even today.

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.

Jaguar-This time

Metal Mind
1984/2009



Jaguar's 1983 debut "Power Games" often gets unfairly overlooked. It is a very solid offering with a definite nod to early Iron Maiden. At that point Jaguar were a fairly promising band amidst the whole NWOBHM scene. They would follow it up a year later with "This Time". Something had changed for sure and the results were probably different from what any fan was expecting or wanting. Paul Merrell had done the vocals on "Power Games", but all of the material was written before he joined. Now that he was in on the writing process he brought new ideas to the mix. Around the time of it's release the were some references to the music on this album as "dance metal". That's an amusing label, but I think a more accurate description is that Jaguar were now playing AOR tinged hard rock. Gone were the blasting leads and pounding drums and they were instead replaced by piles of melodies, definite emphasis on the vocals and catchy choruses. It was a gamble that went against what the band had become known for. The new sound is organized and tight, but it's like expecting Iron Maiden and getting Survivor. If they wanted to go in such a different direction then they may have wanted to change the band name or else they were definitely going to be compared to the previous album. Any edge or power that they once had was now replaced by smooth layers of gloss and slick production values. Perhaps I would have liked it more had it come out under a different band name. Then I could have had an easier time accepting it as a debut from an AOR band instead of seeing it as a solid metal band getting a complete face lift. Whatever the motives, "This Time" is just an alright album and one that is unlikely to appeal to most NWOBHM fans. The band lasted until 1985 before disbanding. Metal Mind has done their usual fine job with this re-issue as they have included bonus tracks and a lyric booklet.

Jaguar - Jag Wire

In the summer of 1985 there was a local radio show called "Friday Night Metal" and they played a solid hour of metal songs I think from midnight until one. They played popular stuff like Priest, Ozzy and Dio, but lesser know stuff like Exciter, Vyper and Grave Digger as well. One night they played a song by a band who I thought were called Jag Wire. Yes, that sounded funny, but that's what I swore the DJ said. Several months later at school I was talking to a slightly older metalhead at school. I mentioned this band Jag Wire and he informed me that I must have heard incorrectly and it must have been NWOBHM band Jaguar.


He also added that no one was stupid enough to call their band Jag Wire. Years later I found out that he was wrong.


Let's close in on Jag Wire


Well, Jaguar were from the UK and their debut Power Games was a pretty good album along the lines of Dianno era Maiden. Jag Wire were from LA and they sound like Angel. I'll let you decide which of those sounds you would prefer. Actually Jag Wire's story goes back a little more as they evolved from a band called Sin, but's that a story for another day.