Another tale of original New Wave Of British Heavy Metal originals fondly recalled by some, passed off as garbage by others. Your writer is in for former category and can more (or mostly less) remember seeing them “up close and personal” at a tiny nightclub in Sheffield the name of which I definitely cannot remember. Well, it was over 30 years ago…….
Angel Witch started life all the way back in the mid-1970s in London. Hard work and plenty of gigging around the local area developed them a solid and very loyal fan base and their reputation grew even if some did find their mix of crunching riffs and odd Satanic/sci-fi lyrics. Whatever – it’s dammed good to listen to.
Guitarist/singer Kevin Heybourne is the only real constant today and many, many line-up changes have been seen through the years.
Back to the early days……. The band’s first song of note was Baphomet (some sort of Pagan deity I think) which found a way on to the now legendary Metal for Muthas compilation. That made quite a few people sit up and take notice leading to a slot on the Metal Crusade tour and an appearance at the 1980 reading Festival.
Indeed – Angel Witch could easily have been Iron Maiden but for an unfortunate (for them) incident when headlining a gig at the Music Machine. After a sub-par performance the EMI A&R man in attendance went and signed Maiden instead.
However Bronze Records did put up the band and in 1980 out came Angel Witch’s remarkable debut album (self titled). It’s a true NWOBHM classic and the CD reissue contains many bonus tracks. A snip at the price.
Here they are performing a track from it back in 2000 at the London Astoria:
As well received as that album was, Angel Witch fell apart. Two members left to form Tytan (another story for another day) and although Heybourne attempted to keep things going even he eventually gave up, called it a day and joined deep Machine.
A couple of years later Heybourne tried again and Angel Witch rose again with a totally new line-up. Did not last long though before it was all stop and Heybourne went to Blind Fury. Various attempts were made to keep things rolling with a veritable revolving door of musicians seeing the release of some other stuff and even a live album though it was all few and far between stuff.
Heybourne had an American dream and did put together a version of the band to play over there though there were a few “issues” with the authorities and that one never flew and Angel Witch disappeared yet again…….
……….And came back again. And yet another line-up (including Heybourne) is touring in 2010 appearing on the bill at various festivals.
If nothing else – at least check out their first album.