The Heavy Metal Kids’ glorious first three albums from the mid-1970s get the Cherry Red box set treatment as the label does so well. Here in the usual solid clamshell box we have the Kids’ self-titled debut, Anvil Chorus and Kitsch in cardboard replica sleeves and a comprehensive booklet with many photographs and band bio/history. Oh – and plenty of bonus tracks to boot many unrelased.
The Heavy Metal Kids were not heavy metal. Many things they were however and we’ll get to that. They took their name from a novel by William S. Burroughs.
During the mid-70s here in the UK, glam rock was everywhere. The likes of Slade, Sweet, T. Rex, David Bowie, Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mott the Hoople were everywhere. The Heavy Metal Kids had elements of all that good stuff and one could argue were an advance party for punk rock which was on the way. With the swaggering, charismatic and theatrical Gary Holton fronting the band up on vocals the band had something the competition couldn’t quite match.
Whilst the Kids’ didn’t manage the big time they surely should have however shall we say a slightly chaotic approach and the very hot competition probably didn’t help and they were probably a bit too “out there” for some.
This trio of albums however are superb and it’s quite fascination to listen over the three how they developed over the three from rather rough and ready trying to find a style to something akin to prog rock.
The self-titled debut is a diamond in the rough. A mixture of bluesy rockers, sweeping emotional ballads, a bit of reggae and (Holton playing to his roots) a honky-tonk East End pub knees-up singalong. The stand-out classic here is the glorious beefed up extended blues romp of Rock ‘N’ Roll Man. A sublime seven minutes punching along with a big hook in there and soaring guitar work. An edited single version is one of the bonus tracks. Danny Peyronel’s piano stabs are (in my opinion) a bit overpowering which take a bit away.
Have a listen to Rock ‘N’ Roll Man.
The follow-up album of Anvil Chorus has the band stepping up from the debut in to more assured territory and a more consistently heavier sound. Nice chunky swaggering rockers with the stand-outs being the heavy/proggy instrumental of The Turk (And Wot E Smokes), The Big Fire and the raucous The Cops are Coming with Holton hamming it up to eleven.
On to album number three – Kitsch. A very polished affair with a big production. A few line-up changes here with most notably the leaving of Peyronel to join UFO and the arrival of John Sinclair as his replacement. Sinclair brought in rather more variation with his more progressive leanings to his keys and that showed up well on this album as the Kids’ put out the strongest and most consistent of these three albums. Generally heavyish, bit proggish and various other things.
Sinclair sets out his stall with the pomp/prog of his instrumental Overture to kick things off. Chelsea Kids has Holton playing up the Cockney stuff, She’s No Angel was a sort of his single and got them on to Top of the Pops no less. Squalliday Inn a riotous tale of, well, let’s say the seedier side of life and cheeky lyrics.
The band fell apart after this. Sinclair joined Uriah Heep and Holton landed the role he was born to play – the cheecky Cockney carpenter in the first two series of classic comedy Auf Wiedersehen Pet before he passed away during the filming of series two.
This run of the Heavy Metal Kids first three albums are indeed more than worthy recorded by a band which had something different to offer and were a bit ahead of their time I’d say. Check ‘em out.