That masked drummer is about hit the stage for the first time in a long time. Here’s the press release I received about it. Let’s hope more dates may be in the works.
A band by the name of Thunderstick has not been seen on stage for thirty years. All that is about to change…
On the back of the phenomenally positive reaction to last year’s album the eponymously named Thunderstick hit the stage in July for the first Thunderstick gig in over thirty years.
Taking the stage at Gravesend’s infamous rock venue, itself celebrating 40 years of live music, Leo’s Red Lion will host a unique Thunderstick ‘showcase’ gig a week before their performance at ‘A New Day’ festival, after which the band will do select gigs through until the Autumn culminating in the ‘Hard Rock Hell’ festival in November. The Gravesend gig will see Thunderstick performing their full festival set coupled with a post-gig Q&A session with Thunderstick creator Barry Graham Purkis and his band-mates.
Thunderstick aka Barry Graham Purkis comments:
“Energy, power, theatrics and outrage have always been present in the Thunderstick shows of old. We will ramp up those components considerably for the forthcoming New-NWOBHM 2018 stage shows. For those who were there first time round in the ‘80s welcome back we have missed you so much. For those about to experience us for the first time prepare yourselves for a journey. Viixen, Lee, Rex, Baz, and Thunderstick will steal your ‘rock’n’roll heart’…”
On returning to this prized venue he reflects:
“The Red Lion in Northfleet has always been a ‘musical basecamp’ for me, both with Samson and with Thunderstick. Iron Maiden have their ‘Cart and Horses’…I have the ‘Red Lion’ Northfleet. Can’t wait to play there this summer.”
Lead vocalist Viixen adds:
“The sky drew dark and low with ominous clouds, the winds shriek, howl, cry, baying wolf like into the black, the first crack of lightening announces the reverberated boom of the overhead Thunder, in the eye of the savage storm thirty years plus in the coming, I will stand centre stage resolute in my ability to control, do not fear I am here for you…”
Tickets £10 – available via https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/date/484286
Doors open 7.30pm. Starts 8pm. Support from Blackmayne.
The full Thunderstick lineup is :
Vocals – Viixen
Guitar – Baz Roze
Guitar – Lee Quenby
Bass – Rex Thunderbolt
Drums – Thunderstick
The Leo’s Red Lion gig will be followed up by a number of festival appearances including A New Day Festival (3-5 August ), Hard Rock Hell (8-11 November) and Mearfest (November).
First noticed playing with a developing Iron Maiden in the seventies then moving to Samson (being instrumental in finding a very youthful Bruce Dickinson) Barry Graham Purkis became the figurehead of the newly emerging NWOBHM (New Wave Of British Heavy Metal) scene. This was done by creating an alter ego Thunderstick, a masked persona known not only for his wild style of playing drums but doing so from inside a cage and playfully terrorizing audiences. He went on to form his own highly theatrical band in the eighties. Fronted by a female rock ’n’ roll wild-child (something comparatively new for its time) Thunderstick the band was a perfect ‘Beauty and the Beast’ combination, playing live and recording for six years. The last Thunderstick band gig was in Tunbridge Wells in October 1986.
‘Something Wicked This Way Comes’, the first new Thunderstick album in over thirty years, was released in July 2017 and has been attracting enthusiastic reviews from all over the world.
It’s a fine album indeed. Want to see my review – then click here for the blog post.