Thanks to Ian Dick from Soldier for agreeing to a short interview with us. Ian shares with us a little look at the old days and what Soldier is up to now with recording and touring.
Soldier is a NWOBHM original. What do you recall most from those days and being part of the start of it all.
Reply – well remember everyone on these bands back in the day were very young and full of ego. There wasn’t the camaraderie between the bands that there is today and there was also a lot of falling out within bands. I suppose as with most things in life it would be nice to put an old head on young shoulders. The NWOBHM tag came along later so we weren’t aware of the movement and certainly not on the influence it would have on other bands.
I guess Solider will be forever associated with Sheralee. Is it true that the recording was financed from insurance money a band member received from a motorbike accident.
Reply – yes that’s right. Garry Phillips the lead singer came off his bike and as we were all skint back then he put up the money.
Any regrets from the first time around – Soldier as I recall gigged aplenty without really getting the record company attention some of your contemporaries enjoyed.
Reply – it would have been nice to have got the album out but the time and effort we put into gigging has paid dividends. I think that people must realize that the NWOBHM thing was the rock equivalent of punk. Loads of small bands with little or no backing doing there thing. Of course a small number of bands such as Iron Maiden rose above the pack and became huge. It’s easy to put on rose coloured glasses regarding the past and I think a small number of bands perhaps think they’re bigger than they are. Of course the vast majority of a younger audience wouldn’t have hear of most of us so it will be interesting to see what reaction we get in a live situation.
NWOBHM has never gone completely away and recently is enjoying a huge surge of interest. Was that a factor in Soldier reforming – what caused the reformation.
Reply – of course. I think because our recording history had been mostly demos , tapes etc we really wanted to put The album out we never got around to.
What are your hopes for Soldier now. Any plans to record and put out a CD.
Reply – Yes we have written a new album which contains 13x tracks and we have started recording . The intention is to get it released by the autumn. I think it is the best material we have down from a song writing point of view. As we have Miles in the band on 2nd guitar we have also written a lot of two part guitar parts. Added to that this will be the first recording without Garry so it will sound very different from previous Soldier releases . The album will be entitled – “Operation Bedlam “ In the immediate future there is talk of a single release featuring a new recording of Sheralee c/w a remastered original version and a bonus track from the forthcoming cd – watch this space !
You recently played the British Steel Festival. How did that go down.
Reply – Fantastic – we had a great time. Unfortunately the numbers were down this year but we had people from Italy, Belgium and France who came over to see Soldier. It was the first time we had played live in eight years so a bit nerve racking and still feeling our feet. We had a great reaction from the audience and quite a few positive reviews and feedback from the fans. One negative from a guy who thought we didn’t have enough “metal attitude”or jump around enough but you can’t win them all!! Big thanks to Phil from Elixer for his hard work each year in putting the festival together.
And I understand Soldier is on the bill at this year’s Hard Rock Hell festival along with some other NWOBHM stalwarts. You must be looking forward to that.
Reply – absolutely it will be the highlight of the year for us. The fact they put so many of us together reflects the interest in the NWOBHM movement. I had never listened to Gaskin before the British Steel Festival and to my ears they were the outstanding band of the evening so really looking forward to hearing them again.
Other than Hard Rock Hell do you have any touring plans or gigs lined up
Reply – now that we are out and about again we are talking to promoters and other NWOBHM bands regarding 2x band gigs. Nothing confirmed as yet but we will post them up on the website as they come up. I think each of us in Soldier would love to play at Sweden Rocks or Wacken if the opportunity arose.
Where can fans go on the internet to check out what Soldier is up to – official web site, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Reply – the official website is being re-launched in the next few weeks
Links as follows
www.soldier-uk.com
www.soldierstormtroopers.com
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Soldier-NWoBHM/203989236303577
http://www.myspace.com/soldierofficial
Thanks again to Ian for his time. And our best to Soldier for the new album. Might be cheeky and ask for a review copy….!
P.S: just had an email from Ian to say that he can confirm that Heavy Metal Records will be releasing the new album and the band has decided to add a new version of Sheralee on the album as a bonus track.