Unit 2 Part 2: Judas Priest Lesson 2: Searching for the Promised Land While bands like KISS knew how they wanted to look almost from the start, it took Judas Priest some soul searching - and shopping - to find the leather, studs, and roaring motorcycles that became a template for metal in the early eighties. In the meantime, they honed their sound to a razor sheen. Ian Hill: In the seventies, we wore velvet and satin and tried to squeeze our girlfriends shoes on. The way people dressed was still very hippie-based, and that flowed over into our stage clothes. Glenn Tipton: If you look at what Hendrix and Cream were wearing, we werent far from that. We had flares and there were a few Cuban heels on the old boots. Very dangerous onstage, I may add. Fortunately, we all managed to get through that era without snapping our ankles. Rob Halford: There were tremendous things happening with Priest in the seventies. We got our record contract. We release Rocka Rolla in 1974, which was a good first effort. Suddenly your music is available around the world, which is tremendously exciting. We had great tracks like Never Satisfied and Cheater. But I think a lot of people say its a bands second release that becomes very, very important to them, and that was certainly the case with Sad Wings of Destiny in 1976. Martin Popoff (author, journalist): It felt like that Jimi Hendrix moment where something just descended from the skies - a bunch of nobodies not even on a major label making a record that just wiped the slate clean with everybody. One of the interesting things about Sad Wings of Destiny is that it arrived at a time when all the big dinosaur bands of the era seemed to be faltering somewhat. Judas Priest had very dramatic cover art, very religious and serious-sounding names of songs, this operatic singer that could out-Plant Robert Plant, and above all, the riffs on that album were the best riffs anybody had written to date in heavy metal, and there were twelve of them in every song. Ian Hill: Unfortunately, our label back then, Gull Records, didnt have enough money to promote and produce their artists. They were waiting for us to make the company famous rather than the other way around. They couldnt afford to send us to America and you DO have to make it in America to become successful, so we remained unknown there for a while. The thing is, when youre starting up youve got nothing, so when someone hands you a record contract, no matter how bad it is, its hard to turn down. Rob Halford: We all had second jobs. I was managing a menswear shop. I would run home after work, jump in the van, and drive to a gig. Wed load the gear onto the stage, get changed into whatever we had to wear, do the show, break the stuff down, put it back in the van, and drive home, getting back at daybreak just in time to get ready for work. Ian Hill: I drove a van for five pounds a day, and it kept myself and my girlfriend, Sue, going. There was a time when Ken, myself, and our manager, Dave Corke, lived in a one-bedroom apartment with girlfriends. We couldn’t ever afford to get smashed. Rob Halford: We went to Gull and asked for 25 quid (about $38) each week to live on so we could be professional musicians and not have to keep running back home after shows to our second lines of work, and they turned us down. Glenn Tipton: We used to share bags of chips. That was a sheer luxury. I think that helped shape our character. Rob Halford: We’d get in the van and take a ferry to Europe and play any pub shows we could get, then we’d sleep in the van. There was never any question of, “Oh, f@#% this. This absolutely sucks. I’m not gonna do it.” We were so excited to be on this great adventure. Glenn Tipton: When Sony took us over and we left Gull Records, that was a big moment for us. Sony was very supportive and that helped us to address the world stage. In the States we did six weeks alone in clubs and bars, and we played with REO Speedwagon and black Oak Arkansas just trying to get the word out. Then we were offered two shows on the West Coast with Led Zeppelin at the Day on the Green at the Oakland Coliseum. We got very little money and we had to hang around for two weeks in the cheapest motels with no air conditioning and very little food. But we stuck around and did these shows, and that actually helped to establish us. We had a great reaction. The combination of the deal with Sony and those two shows brought us to the attention of a lot of people. America really welcomed Priest with open arms. Songs to Listen to (All Judas Priest) With this being a big list, I will just list the albums to listen to by Judas Priest. “Rocka Rolla” (1974) “Sad Wings of Destiny” (1976) “Sin After Sin” (1977) Stained Class (1978)
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:51:15 +0000
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