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New Wave of British Heavy Metal
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The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (frequently abbreviated as NWOBHM) is a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved some international attention by the early 1980s. The era developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. NWOBHM bands toned down the blues influences of earlier acts, incorporated elements of punk, increased the tempo, and adopted a "tougher" sound, taking a harder approach to its music.
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The New Wave of British Heavy Metal (frequently abbreviated as NWOBHM) is a heavy metal movement that started in the late 1970s, in Britain, and achieved some international attention by the early 1980s. The era developed as a reaction in part to the decline of early heavy metal bands such as Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. NWOBHM bands toned down the blues influences of earlier acts, incorporated elements of punk, increased the tempo, and adopted a "tougher" sound, taking a harder approach to its music. It was a scene directed almost exclusively at heavy metal fans. The era is considered to be a major foundation stone for the extreme metal genres with acts such as Metallica citing NWOBHM bands like Saxon, Diamond Head, Motörhead and Iron Maiden as a major influence on their musical style.
Reviled or ignored by many mainstream critics in both the UK and the US, the NWOBHM nonetheless came to dominate the hard rock scene of the early-mid 1980s. NWOBHM was musically characterised by fast upbeat tempo songs, power chords, fast guitar solos and melodic, soaring vocals, with lyrical themes often drawing inspiration from mythology, fantasy fiction, and the occult.
Most of the bands of this era were signed to Neat Records, who has released volumes of NWOBHM compilations in later years.
History
Performers
The early movement was associated with acts such as: Iron Maiden, Saxon, Motörhead, Def Leppard, Angel Witch, Tygers of Pan Tang, Blitzkrieg, Avenger, Sweet Savage, Girlschool, Jaguar, Demon, Diamond Head, Samson and Tank, among others. The image of bands such as Saxon (long hair, denim jackets, leather and chains) would later become synonymous with heavy metal as a whole during the 1980s. Some bands, although conceived during this era, saw success on an underground scale, as was the case with Venom and Quartz.
Looking at most comprehensive lists of bands of the time reveals hundreds of obscure or short lived acts. While the average listener would possibly gloss over these unknowns looking for more recognizable acts, record collectors revere such bands. The sheer number of low cost demos from the era, as well as the limited amount of information and media coverage of the era, has led to some of the releases becoming highly collectable. Records originally pressed for very little cost have sold more recently to collectors for hundreds of dollars. In some cases as few as 1 copy of a record is known to exist.
Decline
New Wave of British Heavy Metal suffered the same fate as many other musical movements. First, the majority of its leaders were unable to follow up on their initial successes. Second, many bands moved further away from the era towards mainstream hard rock, with Def Leppard in particular targeting the American market with a more refined sound despite having major success. By the mid 1980s, young rock fans searching for their own identities had found a new metal scene emanating from Los Angeles led by bands such as Van Halen, Mötley Crüe and later Guns N' Roses. Record companies also latched onto the Los Angeles artists over the more underground NWOBHM bands. In addition, thrash metal, another new but much less mainstream metal scene, emerged around the same time, and attracted many rock fans for being even faster and even heavier than NWOBHM and often having political lyrics (though the genre of thrash was heavily influenced by NWOBHM itself).
Some of the more popular bands of the movement, however, went on to considerable, lasting success. Iron Maiden and Motörhead stayed with a more traditional heavy metal style, which won them a large and loyal fanbase even after bands with a similar sound had declined. Iron Maiden has since then become one of the most commercially successful and influential heavy metal bands of all time and is one of the most respected and recognizable metal band ever. Def Leppard, despite discarding their earlier, heavier sound, became even more successful when they used MTV to play their promotional music videos, and thus commercializing their hard rock sound in order to help sales of their albums on strengths of singles.
Subsequent influence
Groups such as Motörhead, Iron Maiden, Venom, and Saxon, as well as many lesser-known ones, became part of the canon that influenced American bands that formed in the early eighties, such as Megadeth, Slayer and Metallica. Metallica's early material has a sound similar to a number of NWOBHM bands, (in particular, Diamond Head, Motörhead and Blitzkrieg, the songs of each of which have been covered by Metallica.)
In 1990 Lars Ulrich of Metallica compiled a double CD compilation album, titled NWOBHM '79 Revisited, featuring bands as obscure as Hollow Ground right through to the 'Supergroups' of the era.
Revival
The widespread popularity of the internet in the late 1990s/early 2000s helped New Wave of British Heavy Metal fans to communicate again and some New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands experienced a minor revival. Encouraged by the success of tribute bands and nostalgia acts, many of the original NWOBHM bands reformed for successful tours and the revival was championed by Classic Rock magazine, a new publication featuring many of the original NWOBHM writers of the 1980s including Geoff Barton.
Media support
The New Wave of British Heavy Metal existed mostly outside the world of the mainstream pop and rock culture. Magazines such as The NME (primarily focused on punk / new wave), The Face (primarily focused on new romantic / synth pop) and Melody Maker (primarily focused on rock) did not generally feature NWOBHM acts at all. It was left therefore to Sounds to pick up the NWOBHM baton. Young writer Geoff “Deaf” Barton began writing features on the new up and coming metal bands and Sounds even featured a weekly Heavy Metal chart compiled from record requests at “The Soundhouse”, a heavy metal soundhouse in North West London and the spiritual home of the movement.
As the movement continued to thrive, Barton set up Kerrang!, the first magazine exclusively devoted to heavy metal.
Tommy Vance was one of the few mainstream DJs to play NWOBHM on his Friday Rock Show on BBC Radio 1.
List of NWOBHM artists
This is a list of bands signed to record labels who emerged during the NWOBHM era of music:
The Soundhouse
The Soundhouse was London’s first heavy rock disco based initially at The Bandwagon, a disco/nightclub venue attached to the Prince of Wales public house in Kingsbury, North West London. The Soundhouse’s popularity really took off with the arrival in 1975 of Neal Kay, a rock DJ with a talent for showmanship and publicity who transformed the venue into the centre of the new movement. In addition to rock disco nights, Neal would promote early live performances of NWOBHM bands such as Samson, Angel Witch, Praying Mantis, Saxon and Iron Maiden, who titled their debut EP release “The Soundhouse Tapes” in honour of the venue.
The Soundhouse also gained approval from the more established rock bands and Motörhead, Sammy Hagar, April Wine, Rainbow and Judas Priest all turned up to mingle with punters and enjoy an evening of metal and beer; many of them being cajoled into judging headbanging and air guitar competitions featuring "imaginary bands" made up of the club's regular punters. Among these was one Robin Yeatman, a local wedding photographer and heavy rock fanatic, who went by the nickname of Rob Loonhouse. Rob fashioned a cardboard (and later hardboard) guitar which he took to the club and pretended to play during his favourite songs. The craze caught on, with other club goers following suit and the development of various ad-hoc headbanging bands: Willy Flasher & The Raincoats being among the most popular. Loonhouse himself was to feature in many of the music press articles about the Soundhouse - cutting a distinctive look in canvas fishing hat and sweat-soaked Blue Öyster Cult T-shirt, while wiedling his homemade axe. An edition of the pop culture TV show, 20th century Box, included footage from the Soundhouse and interviews with Loonhouse, in which, sadly, his tongue-in-cheek humour was lost. Wisely, Loonhouse ditched the hardboard guitar soon after and retreated from the media spotlight.
Kay successfully grew The Soundhouse franchise beyond Kingsbury helping to spread the NWOBHM word through “Heavy Metal Crusade” tours with the likes of Saxon and Iron Maiden and warming up the crowds at other London venues such as Camden’s Music Machine.
In 1980, a disagreement with the brewery led to “The Soundhouse” moving to “The Headstone” public house in North Harrow and subsequently, “The Queen’s Arms” in Harrow and Wealdstone, “The Royal Standard” in Walthamstow and “The Clay Pigeon” in Eastcote which hosted the final Soundhouse night in 1992. The new millennium, however, has seen Kay perform at annual Soundhouse reunion events at “The Rayners” public house in Rayners Lane, near Harrow, although with the closure of this venue in 2006 the organisers are now searching for a suitable alternative venue.
See also
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External links
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