Hello again Dysie – welcome to Sentinel Daily and thanks for taking part in this round of Q & A’s! Without further ado, let’s get doen to business… What are your earliest memories of heavy metal?  “When I was six or seven Kiss was all the rage at school, collector cards, the makeup, the blood. I don’t think it even really had anything to do with the music. It was the fact they looked like monsters or something that drew the attention. Hence even at that age I quickly discovered they were pretty shit really (laughs) – come on Kiss fans, lets be honest, they haven’t released anything decent for close to forty years; maybe they have three good songs at best – Then by about 10 I’d heard way better bands like ZZ Top, AC/DC and Aerosmith. It was my next door neighbour who was a few years older than me who showed me these bands. I Can’t really say what it was about the music that grabbed me at the time, but it certainly hit a note and  it all went from there”.

My word. Forthright opinions there. Kiss? pretty shit? We’d best move on I think. What was the first metal album you bought with your own cash? “That was Anthrax  – State Of Euphoria on tape cassette at a second hand store in Perth. I think I was thirteen. From that point on I was one hundred percent hooled and out of control with metal”.

Are there any bands you loved as a youngster that cause you to wince now and ask ‘what was I thinking’ ? “I can’t say that I do. There are a few bands I probably have grown out of a bit, but nothing I wince at. I grew up on glam metal! Poison, Warrant, Mötley Crüe, Britny Fox, Ratt and a ton more. I still love it all and still listen to it. Greatest party music, awesome for getting you out of a bad mood. Party !”

Well I’m agreement with you there at least. Let’s break things up with a bit of Dizzy Dean Davison and co.:

Ah, that’s better. Now, who were the first band you saw live – please feel free to include no-name local bands if that was your first interaction with live metal. “Well, the first band I ever saw live was INXS in 1988 on their Kick tour. Not metal but that was the first band and it kicked some serious dick. The first metal band I ever saw live was Poison in 1989, I was sixteen, in the moshpit area and surrounded by tits out everywhere. Suffice to say, as a sixteen year old, I spent more time looking at naked boobs than I did the band. Regrets… absolutely none”.

How hard was it growing up to get info on the bands you loved- was there much mainstream media coverage where you lived? “Well fortunately for me I grew up in an age where there was no internet, facebook, myspace etc. There were things called magazines, fanzines, radio and record stores. Google those things kids, they were and are pretty cool. So it wasn’t hard at all. I’d buy Australia’s best magazine ever in Hot Metal, plus others like Kerrang or Metal Hammer at my local newsagency, pick up local street press for info on local bands, listen to local radio metal shows (Critical Mass here in Perth which still airs on RTRfm 92.1, Wednesday nights at 9pm) and every couple of weeks would go to the city and hit local record stores like 78 Records or Dadas and scour the bargain bins looking for a ripping deal. They also stocked local band demos and fanzines, so it was easy to get hold of pretty much anything”.

Halcyon days indeed! You mentioned Facebook – Do you think the internet has taken away the mystique of being in a big band for young people today ? Do we know too much about our heroes in 2016? “There are always positives and negatives. With so much out there, the internet has certainly desensitised people. We now live in such a throwaway society; with so many options at your disposal it is very hard to keep anyone’s attention for very long. To keep people focused on your music is almost impossible, as at their fingertips there are a billion other options literally a second away. And yes, every bit of information is out there for people to look at. Wikipedia, Jesus, is there anything they don’t know about everyone? It’s crazy. And with social media being as dominating as it is and with most people addicted to it without even knowing that they are (yes that includes you reading this), James Hetfield probably can’t even fart without someone recording it and uploading for the world to hear (and probably one day smell). The World’s a crazy place”.

Yep, it’s a crazy world for sure, as the Scorpions once told us. I’ve found four clips of James Hetfield farting on You Tube by the way. Were you a big festival goer as a junior headbanger? “Only local metal fests when Allegiance used to put on all day rippers every few months. I discovered so much local Perth metal in those days. Downer, Infected, Bel Tempest, SFD, Rawkus, Hellbound, Epitaph, Rothgar and stacks more. I still have most of the demos purchased in those days. Fucking good times!”

It sounds like it! I was a big fan of Allegiance as a youngster! How hard (or easy) was it for you to get to big gigs growing up? Would you have hitched hundreds of miles to see your favourite bands if necessary? “It was never a problem getting around. By the time I was going to gigs on a regular basis myself and all my mates had licenses. But living in Perth in the nineties, fuck all bands came here, so we literally flew thousands of kilometers to see our favourite bands! Including Slayer, Megadeth, Machine Head, Biohazard, Destruction, Voivod et cetera. So all you whinging bitches in Adelaide who complain about not getting anything, quit with your boo hoo parties. You are only a one hour flight from Melbourne. We used to fly up to five hours each way. And I am certainly not complaining, some of those trips have been the best adventures of my life. I would one hundred per cent recommend it if a band is not coming to your town”.

What five albums have stayed with you since your formative metal years? “Yikes, only five? Tough call. Easily Among The Living by Anthrax. Also Nothin’ But A Good Time by Poison. The best party album of all time and the album I put on when I’m in a shite mood. Within a minute I’m boppin’ and poppin’ with life again. Arise by Sepultura,  which put me onto a path of more extreme music. For God Your Soul…for Me Your Flesh by Pungent Stench, which showed me you can have fun with death and grind, the best. And lastly, Appetite For Destruction by Guns N’Roses, one of the biggest selling albums of all time, enough said really. And if you don’t think that’s metal enough, eat a dick”.

Did you have a metal crush? I had lifesize posters of Lee Aaron and Doro Pesch on my ceiling in 1986… “(more laughter) well she’s not metal, but who cares, she had better assets than most countries and that was Samantha Fox. She was a singer right? Other than that, I thought Lita Ford was pretty tangy as well as Brett Michaels. Could’ve been the same person. Who knows”.

Samantha Fox was quite metal – she did after all go out with Cris Bonacci from Girlschool and Pat McManus from Mama’s Boys played all the guitars on her album – that’s metal enough I think. Anything else you’d like to reveal about your metal upbringing? “Growing up in the eightiess I did sport a killer mullet. It’s hugely underrated as a male hair do. That and the comb over. I can’t wait to have a comb over and judging by the way my hair is leaping out of my scalp, that time won’t be far way”.

Ha! me either! Thanks for taking part!

 

Claim the Throne return to live action next month in Western Australia with two show, one in Perth and one in Bunbury on August twelfth and thirteenth – stay tuned to Sentinel Daily for more details!