The “traditional” bucket and spade seaside resort of Bridlington on the east coast of Yorkshire is certainly better known for that reason rather than being a dot on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal map.
However Brid (as it is known colloquially) was home to a band called Badge who took their name from the Cream song of the same title. And lo, a small outpost of NWOBHM sprang up which would see an all too familiar story unfold.
Band with talent, band with a monster sounding single, band struggles for attention, band looks like it might make it out of the pack with some high profile support slots mooted, band implodes.
The aforementioned monster sounding single is Silver Woman. Outrageously catchy, huge hook, powerful, infectious. However that wasn’t enough. Combine that with more line-up changes that can be counted on fingers and toes and Badge went the way of many other NWOBHM bands of the time.
Thankfully al is not lost. Those good folk at High Roller records have put together Stormrider after long list tapes, demos etc. saw the light of day affording us the opportunity of listening to how good Badge could have been under different circumstances.
Silver Woman starts proceedings. It’ll get straight in to your head. Listen to the below and listen for yourself.
And extended version of Silver Woman closes things out although in between on the album there are nine excellent cuts to enjoy varying from out outright rifferama to the more soulful, sensitive stuff demonstrating the variety of ability the band had.
Something I’ve Lost reminds this listener of Argus-period Wishbone Ash for example. Natalya from the Volga tells an epic tale of post-WWII after the iron curtain came down and on to Siberian salt mines. That’ll get in your head too with the memorable main sections.
Personal fav is See Me Gone with a meaty yet clean free-flowing riff and another memorable hook.
Badge had chops – make no mistake. The collection of songs demonstrates that very well. A recommended listen to get you in to one of the NWOBHM “nearly” bands which had plenty to offer given the breaks.
>> BADGE STORMRIDER AVAILABLE HERE VIA AMAZON <<
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