Diamond Head is undoubtedly one of my all time New Wave of British Heavy Metal favourites of all time right from the moment I saw them.
I immediately got hold of an original copy of the legendary White Album and that was pretty much that. It’s a stone cold classic for sure and I still have it to this day. Too valuable (to me at least) to play any more so we are thankful for CD reissue.
Remarkably as I type you can get it off Amazon for a remarkably cheap price and it’s now known as Lightning to the Nations. Get it now. Even 30+ years later it’s still crisp and fresh with crunching riffs, mazy solos and a right old sound assault. Sweet and Innocent, Lightning to the Nations and of course the immortal Sucking My Love.
Here they are performing Am I Evil – another classic cut from that first album.
Diamond Head began all the way back in 1976 with Brian Tatler (still in the band today) and his buddy Duncan Scott with the Diamond head moniker coming from the album of the same name by Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera (another album everyone should own).
That landmark first album was self-financed and limited to just 1,000 copies in a plain white sleeve. It quickly became, and still is, highly sought after.
That brought the attention of the majors and the band signed to MCA and Borrowed Time came next and it sold well leading to a full headlining tour and big success was assumed by many to be automatic.
Not so as things turned out as the third album – Canterbury – went down a more progressive road than heavy metal and line up changed ensued for various reasons. Later, Diamond Head were dropped by MCA and there was a split in 1985.
Shoot forward to 1991 and Diamond Head was resurrected with a new line up though not to be long-lived and things went south again. They tried again in 2000 which also didn’t work out.
They never quite gave up and hit back with (another) new line-up with Tatler being the sole remaining original and they issued a new album All Will Be Revealed and toured with Megadeth. A further album – What’s In Your Head – came out and Diamond Head rolls on touring and recording.
Tatler has written his autobiography – which should be an illuminating read – which is available from the bands web site. No doubt a remarkable story about a remarkable band.