The NWOBHM was an incredible and exciting time for heavy metal. Almost 45 years on and metal historians still analyze, chronicle, and nitpick this brief 3 to 4 year period which set the stage for all metal to follow. It should also be noted that for every Iron Maiden, Def Leppard, and Saxon, there was a Mythra, Trespass, and Bleak House: Bands who, despite their immense talent, never made it past the demo/single stage during their initial run. One such band who falls into the latter category is Marquis de Sade, who released the classic “Somewhere Up in the Mountains” / “Black Angel” single in 1981. Fast forward a little over 40 years later and against all odds, this cult outfit has been resurrected, playing festivals like Keep it True and The Abyss and on the verge of releasing their first ever full length album. We sat down with founding drummer Gary Pope and keyboardist Giles Holland to discuss this unlikely comeback, the glory days of the NWOBHM, and more.
Greetings Gary and Giles! Welcome to Defenders of the Faith! How are you doing today?
Giles Holland: We’re great! It’s the tale end of our day, a little late in the evening for us *laughs*.
Gary Pope: The night is young and we’d like to raise a beer to you *laughs*.
Cheers man! Because it is still the afternoon here in Chicago, I raise my water to you.
GP: *laughs* It’s great to talk to you across the water!
Yes indeed. I must say, as I was telling you before I hit the record button, the prospect of doing this interview just a few years ago when I started this site was unthinkable. What events took place that led to this reunion?
GP: Right…I do have a prompt list here because I have to go back. It started obviously before lockdown. We’re going back 3 years ago since we got together as the band we are now, but before that, my brother Kevin, who played in the band as you know, passed away back in November, 2018. The summer after that, we decided, myself and a friend of Kev’s who played drums in his old band, to do a tribute gig, which was fantastic. Giles came along and Pete (Gordelier), our old bass player, came along to musically say farewell.
GH: Didn’t he (Pete) turn up out of the blue? We didn’t even know he was coming because we don’t live anywhere near each other. Gary and I are neighbors, but Pete lives far away.
GP: Yeah, Pete’s up in Northampton. I remember sitting on the stage soundchecking and the door at the back of the venue, I could see the silhouette of Peter at the door. I looked over, went a little closer, and said, “That’s Pete!” I’ll never forget it. He came up to me and said, “Gary, I would’ve walked here to come and see this.” It was so emotional. The evening went well and we played all kinds of music as a tribute to Kev. To be honest, I felt really quite weird playing that night and sitting there. It was like he was watching over me and I didn’t feel right, but anyway, Pete was there. I introduced Pete to Giles. There was talk, and it was around already, that we might get back together.
GH: Wasn’t there a label pushing for it? High Roller?
GP: Yeah, High Roller reissued the old demos and put CDs out for us, a compilation. Anyways, Pete was watching Giles play (Emerson, Lake & Palmer’s) “Fanfare for the Common Man” and we thought, “There we go!” *laughs* because we needed someone there to replace Sam Remo who was in the old band. One thing led to another. Paulie (Gordelier) said he’d step in.
GH: Paulie is the kid brother of the lead singer, Chris, and Pete, the bass player. Paulie used to come to the original gigs as a kid, so he had seen the band play, and got to know all the songs because he was a guitarist himself. He used to sit in the back of the van with all the gear *laughs*.
GP: When they asked if he’d like to do it, Paul said it was a dream come true for him. We decided to get together and have a rehearsal. It all hinged on how that went because we hadn’t played as this 5 piece together. We got down to Bournemouth and it went really, really well. We all did our homework and practiced the old numbers. That was January of 2020, before the lockdown.
GH: We were looking forward to a summer of gigs and festivals.
GP: As you know, when we had 2 and a half years of COVID and we had lockdown and the band had just got together, it was a knock back for us because I was so looking forward to getting a few gigs together. So we decided to get a bit creative during lockdown and we wrote new material, which is what we’ve been doing now. I think the album, which we hope to put out this year and will be our first album of new material, plus a couple of old tracks, we wrote most of it during lockdown. We’ve played a few gigs and we’ve been well received. It’s been quite an emotional rollercoaster for us. We’re just looking forward to this year.
GH: The album is done. It’s actually finished. It’s just finding labels and stuff, getting it in the right hands, but it’s finished. It’s mixed, waiting for a mastering at the moment. We’re keeping true to our values really where although we were around when we started in ’79, ’80, when that NWOBHM kicked in, and because we were on the scene at the time, we did get labeled that genre. We are quite heavy in parts, but also quite melodic as well I think, and we still are. And we’re still trying to keep that metal edge. I’m just hopeful the new material will be well received. It’s so far, so good.
That’s an interesting point you made about High Roller. They were one of those labels in the 2000s and into the early 2010s who were waving the flag for all the forgotten traditional metal bands, and there were so many great ones from the 80s. When did they reach out to you about doing the compilation?
GP: That was about 2011 and I think in 2012 it came out. It was definitely 10 years ago that they first approached me. Thorsten (Thormann) sent an email through to me. I was definitely a bit reluctant at first because the single, we only ever pressed 1,000, but 500 were released. The rest must’ve been melted down or never collected *laughs*. So there’s only 500 out there. That’s why I think they’re quite collectable. Thorsten got in touch with me and said he’d like to put it on a compilation with some demo tapes that we did. I was a bit reluctant because I thought it might devalue the value of the single, but we talked about it and obviously it doesn’t because the single is that…
GH: There really is only 500 of them, aren’t there?
GP: Yeah, it’s still a little rarity, isn’t it? Some people pay silly money for it. I think one person paid $1,500. It’s amazing. I’ve still got a few copies *laughs*.
GH: Let’s do the math, shall we *laughs*?
GP: It’s quite amazing, really. High Roller then decided to put the album out and then they did CDs. I think they did a couple of runs of CDs. The second time, they issued it with a slipcase. I thought that was nice presentation. They’re really good because of the way they copy the artwork. They keep true to the original source material. They’ve done a fantastic job, so if we do go with High Roller for issuing our new album, I know that they’ll do a good job with printing, distribution, etc. They’ve got so many bands on their label and they’re quite interested, very interested actually. We’re just waiting for a few other companies to get back to us and see how it goes.
Gary, you founded the band way back in 1979. What were those early days like and how did the band initially form?
GP: Well it was me and Kevin. We used to sit down in our bedroom and just write songs as young, up and coming musicians. It was good fun really. We were very creative. We formed a band called Mixdix and they were the forerunner to Marquis de Sade. Me and Kev stayed. The other 3 left. Kev and I kept it going. Pete and Chris came along for an audition with Remo. It was good fun. To be honest, I don’t think we were together 2 years. It was a short space of time. One of those years, we crammed so many gigs on the calendar.
One weekend we did 3 gigs in one weekend. It was a bank holiday weekend. We did one in London. Then we went down to Folkestone and then back to London again *laughs*. I was a bit tired at the end of it. I was always the last one to get home after driving everybody home and taking all the gear. Also back in the day, we used to have a lot of smoke and fireworks as well. To be honest, I think more people came to see the fireworks than us *laughs*!
GH: You’re not allowed to do that these days! You can’t put explosives on the stage anymore. They got rules about this kind of stuff.
GP: There was a funny story about the time we played the Walmer Castle. The guy who used to do the pyrotechnics, he was almost the 6th member of the band. He came to every gig, Colin Bradley, or as we called him, “Bomber” Bradley! He was like one of the Muppets! You remember on The Muppet Show when they’d have the guy do the explosives?
Of course!
GH: Crazy Harry!
GP: Yeah, that’s it! Well, you never knew when he was going to set one of the fireworks or pops off at the beginning. He might put it over with Pete. He might put it over with Remo, so you never knew where the smoke was gonna come up for the intro. Anyway, I’m sitting there on my stool behind my kit and its gone dark. We’re playing the intro. The next minute, smoke is coming up under my seat! It’s coming up and I’m coughing. I couldn’t see anything *laughs*!
GH: These days it’s like haze, water vapor basically. In those days, it was actually smoke!
GP: I gotta say, looking back on it, that was a funny day. We only did really 30 or 40 gigs? I don’t think it was much more than that, but it was good fun. We picked up a bit of a loyal following, but we were mainly around in London and surrounding areas. Not much more to add to it really. The one big gig that we did was Tolworth. We decided to hire that venue ourselves and self-promote it, but back in the day it was a lot different than it is now. Now, you can advertise on YouTube, Facebook. You can send messages on mobile phones, but back in the day, all you had was the music press.
GH: Flyposting!
GP: Yeah, flyposting, and then hearing guys on CB radio *laughs*! That was it! That was 1981. It was fun days and it’s just nice to be back with the guys again, but we’re much stronger now as a unit. It’s fantastic. Paulie is obviously fantastic. Giles is now with us and it’s like another family *laughs*.
GH: When you’re older, you don’t have that kind of ego stuff going around. We’re all like, “We’ve done it.” We’re all chilled *laughs*. It’s great, isn’t it?
GP: Yeah, we’re a lot more relaxed now. Back in the day when you’re young and upcoming, you’re doing every gig you can think of because you just wanna get up the ladder. As we’re a little bit more mature now, we can just sit back and just enjoy it. So anything that comes along now, we can sit down and if we all agree, fine, we’re gonna go ahead and do it.
Who were some of the bands you crossed paths with in those days when you were doing those shows in ’80, ’81?
GP: I think the biggest one we did was when we supported Magnum. You aware of them?
Of course! I love Magnum.
GP: I actually heard them on the radio yesterday. They were very good. Great band. That was a great night. We played a big hotel down there supporting them. We also supported Samson. They were very big in the NWOBHM. And I don’t remember this one, but the boys keep reminding me we supported Stray.
No kidding!
GP: Yeah! Stray go back to ’70, ’71. So they have 50+ years since they formed and they’re still going I think *laughs*!
They are?!
GP: Yep, and so is Magnum. I’ve seen them advertised. I can’t remember any more than that actually. I think those were the bands that we supported.
GH: The Angel Witch connection, that’s just from Pete, isn’t it?
GP: Yeah.
GH: I obviously wasn’t part of the band then *laughs*.
GP: There’s not much more to add to that. That was what we were really getting up to at the time, going out and doing as many gigs as we could at that point in time. Again, I don’t think we were more than 2 years together. We were in the studio a lot of the time, doing demo tapes. We made the single, which we self-financed. I think that we were quite lucky because my dad knew the entertainer Kenny Lynch. I’m not sure if you’re aware of Kenny Lynch. He was a British entertainer.
Can’t say I’m familiar.
GP: He was a comedian and dad knew him through work. Well he had his own record label. He mentioned to Kenny that the boys are going into the studio and want to record a song, which was “Somewhere Up in the Mountains”. We originally did that with Mixdix. We went to his studio and recorded the demo there. He really liked the song, so much so that he came in and joined on the chorus! So he sang on the chorus of that on the Mixdix demo.
Then, after that band split up and we became Marquis de Sade, we were still gonna do “Mountains” again. We wanted to make it the single. He said, “Look, if the boys go and record it, let me know, give me the master, and I’ll put them on my record label.”, which was the X-Pose record label. It’s quite interesting. Because it’s on that label, I think that’s what’s given the single prominence because it has a serial number. That’s why it’s listed in the Rare Record Collector’s Guide.
That’s very intersting.
GP: It is. It’s a little story and it’s all thanks to my dad knowing Kenny Lynch that we got it on his label. If we had done it and it just had blank labels, it would’ve got lost, but it’s a record label and I think that did us proud. 40 years ago now *laughs*!
Yes, it was in 1981 that the band released their classic single, “Somewhere Up in the Mountains” / “Black Angel”. With its contrast of soft and heavy passages and emphasis on spacey synths, Marquis de Sade laid on the proggier side of the NWOBHM, similar to bands like Saracen, Demon, and as you mentioned earlier, Magnum. Could you speak a bit about these progressive influences, how they shaped the band, and how they still impact the band today?
GP: I think you follow bands throughout the years and there is almost a revival now of the NWOBHM. Those bands are still playing. We recently went up to Trillians in Newcastle and we were guested a spot for Warrior. They’re still playing the same old rock music, NWOBHM. It’s a very distinctive sound, but they still do recognize us, even though we have the keyboards. I’d like to think some of the passages you listen to are like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep, ELP.
GH: Prog rock is my history. Being a keyboard player, you’re going to look to bands with keyboards in them. So yeah, heavy prog? I think *laughs*!
GP: If you read the sleeve notes on the compilation album, I never really thought of us initially, even back in the day, as a heavy metal band, but more a heavy rock band, or a progressive rock band. But because the NWOBHM was around at that time, we got pigeonholed into that category. Whether it’s right or wrong, it doesn’t matter because we’ve got the label there *laughs* and people still love to come and see us.
We recently played, about 3 weeks ago, a gig in Stratford at Cart & Horses, which is where Iron Maiden first played. 2 guys actually drove over all the way from Belgium to come over and see us. I couldn’t believe it. When these guys turned up at the pub, they came over and introduced themselves to me. I ran over to the bar and bought them a drink. It was the least I could do.
Anyways, when we get to the chorus of “Somewhere Up in the Mountains”, it’s amazing. These guys, and I doubt they were even born when the single came out, which is amazing really. It’s the power of the internet. They’re hearing the single and playing it and getting the compilation album. They’re all there singing the chorus. It’s fantastic! When we played out in Sweden…
GH: That was surreal, wasn’t it? To play The Abyss festival in Gothenburg, Sweden. There were 1,500 people there. It’s a big festival and it’s a great gig to do. What a blast that was. We can pick and choose the gigs these days. I’d do that one again. So the audience is there, all these hundreds of people, and they’re singing along to the songs *laughs*! The album’s obviously on a German label, but it was like…woah, hang on a minute. We’ve never been to Sweden before!
GP: Don’t forget, every time I always say a prayer for Kevin because we’ve lost him now. I always say, “This is another one for you Kev.” Anyways, we launched into “Somewhere Up in the Mountains”, went into the first chorus, and Chris is at the front of the stage. I’m in the back. They’re singing the chorus, Chris turns around and goes, “What the f’s going on?!” *laughs* We could not believe. It was almost like we were on Top of the Pops back in the day and millions of people would’ve seen us, but it’s not the case.
GH: And it wasn’t just that song either! There were other songs as well.
GP: “Black Angel” they know because of the single, and also “Living in the Ice Age”, which you might have heard on the demo tape. We’ve got the ending which is, “One day the sun will shine again.” It’s very choral and it’s an anthem. They were all singing that. We got a new song called “Belvidere”. Giles and I did the lyrics. Giles did the music, then Paulie put the guitarwork, and then the band came together and created this new song. Anyway, they’ve never heard it before and they’re singing along to it *laughs*! They’ve heard the chorus once, we’re getting to the next part, and the second time around, it’s like they got photographic memory.
GH: They’re quick learners, the Swedes *laughs*!
GP: They did us proud. It was great. We’d love to go back there again. I think we’ll definitely be invited back for this year’s. We’ll definitely put on out A game for that one, without a doubt.
I saw the lineup for that and there were quite a few heavy hitters: Tom G. Warrior doing the Hellhammer set, Nifelheim, Mortuary Drape, etc. That crowd is loyal and I imagine they’d be going crazy for every act on that lineup equally, you guys included.
GP: The reviews were great.
GH: It’s a heavy festival. We thought to ourselves, “Are we really heavy enough for this?”
GP: When we got to the hotel, Giles is in his jeans and his polo, his arms and legs covered up. Then we’re in the reception and this guy comes out and he was covered in studs, metal everywhere! Giles turns around and says, “I think I’m a bit underdressed.” *laughs* I’ll never forget that! It was so funny. The people were great. It was fantastic and everybody sang along. The guy who did the review said we were his second favorite band of the weekend.
I suppose if you look at us, we were out of place with most of the bands, because it was all that black metal, death metal, and maybe thrash. There’s maybe some thrash in parts, but it’s really thunderous and you can’t understand the vocals. Yet the guy who did the review said it would be nice if Marquis de Sade did some songs related to the Marquis de Sade in his memoirs historically. Well the only reason he made that comment was because he could hear Chris singing *laughs*.
GH: Chris is a proper classically trained singer. He could sing opera, so he’s got that full thing going.
GP: It was great. We have been invited at some point to go out there and do an album launch, so when we do get it done, we can go out there and play. They got this rock pub out there as well, so we’ve been invited out there. It’s just down to us, logistics, and sorting everything out. That’s the way it is with us now. If we go abroad, we gotta make sure the flights and the…
GH: It’s gotta be comfortable, you know? At our age, they gotta look after us *laughs*.
GP: With The Abyss, it was great because all I had to do with pick up the drumsticks *laughs*. The kit’s there! They have the graphics of both stages and the drumkits. It was great. The guitars were all laid out. Giles decided to take his keyboards. He felt more at home with them because I think the ones they ordered might have been a bit rusty.
GH: Well, it’s a very specific thing. I run everything from a Mac and the MIDI controllers are quite specific. I can get a load of rented gear and spend half the afternoon programming, making sure it all works. It probably would, but I like to be there with a big suitcase, everything in it, and say, “I’ve got it!”
GP: We got it all set up and it couldn’t have been better. It was so professional and organized. We’ve got the Keep it True festival this year in Germany. If it’s anything like The Abyss in its organization, it’ll be fantastic. If you send us the flights and transfers, we’ll go over and do it. So many people are looking forward to it now. I’m looking forward to it too. If it goes off as planned, on the same bill we’ve Geoff Tate from Queensrÿche. He’s one of my favorite vocalists, so I just wanna shake his hand *laughs*. That’s the only one we’ve got penciled in for this year. I think Chris Knight (band manager) is looking over getting us to Belgium and Holland.
GH: Was there a Serbia one as well? There’s so many festivals.
GP: Yeah, and I think there’s a festival in Cyprus. If they come off, let’s keep our fingers crossed. Nothing in the States where you are at the moment!
It’s funny you mention that, because off the top of my head, 2 events I think you’d be great at is Maryland Deathfest, which comes back next year, and a festival down in Texas called Hell’s Heroes, which is more traditional metal, 80s bands, new bands trying to sound like the 80s bands, that type of thing. If you could get hooked up with one of those events, that’d be fantastic.
GP: If we can get the contacts, maybe you can send us over a few contacts, you can reach out to Chris Knight and he can do all the PR. He’s really enjoying doing all the PR for us. He’s got the intro for us and some artwork, pictures. Hopefully, with our history, people hear about what we’re doing and what we’ve done, and also some of the new material we’ve got recorded, which I think sounds very impressive. I can’t wait to get the album out. Like I’ve said before, as long as everything’s all in place, and the dates all fit, we really only gotta get on the plane and get out there. Then it’s done. We’d love to do it. That’d be one to tick off the list. It’d be nice to meet you as well mate!
Likewise! I want to talk a bit about this new album. Who handles the songwriting in the band and how did some of the songs come to be for this record?
GP: Back in the day, I used to do a lot with my brother Kevin. I did all the lyrics for our songs that I wrote with Kevin. Between us, we’d put the tunes together. We’ve still got a couple of tunes that we’re using there. “Suspended Animation” is an old track and we’ve rerecorded that one. “Cloning”, we’ve done that live. It’s not on this new album. I think we’re gonna put this on the next one.
GH: We’ve already got most of the next album written. In terms of the writing for this one, Gary is constantly coming up with pages of lyrics. He’ll then give them to Paulie who can write a song. He’ll make a demo and send it back to the band. I’ll write a song, send a demo out to the band. I’ll write a song, demo it out in my studio, send it to Paulie who’ll put guitars on it. It’ll come back completely different from what I sent *laughs*. Because of all the time we had in lockdown, we were in our studios and got quite a lot done.
GP: What was quite funny with this song “Belvidere” that I wrote, it’s based off the artwork of M.C. Esher. He did the impossible staircases and all those types of works. If you type in “Esher” and “Belvidere”, you’ll see the illustration. It’s one of my favorite illustrations. I’m quite artistic and that’s one of my favorite pieces of artwork. I thought, “I’ll write some lyrics and call it “Belvidere”.” Anyway, I wrote the lyrics, worked out a chorus, or what I thought was a chorus. Giles got a hold of it and he takes my chorus, moves it around, puts in a different part I had as chorus, so we jumbled it around. I’ll send you over a copy of “Belvidere” to listen to. It turned out fantastic. Giles put in the keyboards, Paulie put in the guitars, and we beef it up a little bit, get the harmonies going.
“Belvidere” is one. Another one that I did with Giles…”Somewhere Up in the Mountains”, I wrote the lyrics for that with Kevin. We (Giles and I) were sitting down in a Zoom chat, maybe a year and a half ago now, and I said, “Guys, I’m gonna write a follow up to “Mountains”.” I hadn’t even had an idea of what I was gonna do there. Then I sat there the following day, found a spare half hour here and there, and I’m thinking of the lyrics. I put myself in the position of writing the first song and what it lyrically was about, and I’ve brought it up to date.
GH: So 40 years later, the things you’re aspiring to in the first song are realized.
GP: It all comes true now. There’s a little bit there in which Kevin put his hand on our shoulder, so it’s a little bit emotional to get that one down. Then I sent the lyrics over to Giles and gave him an idea of how it was going to structurally work with the tempo. Giles then makes the demo, sends it back, and I thought, “This is gonna sound great.” We gave it then to Paulie. He starts putting the guitar over. Chris then starts to put the vocals over. It starts to come together as a demo. And then earlier this year, we went into the studio and I recorded all the drums. The rest is history because Giles does the keyboards, Paulie does the guitars, Chris does the vocals. It’s a very creative process. Paulie has written a couple.
GH: It’s funny when you can’t remember the names to your own songs *laughs*.
GP: Well, “Last Survivor” is another. “Now I Lay Me Down”, that was written by Paulie and Chris. “Border Wall” is fantastic and Giles put on these tubular bells!
GH: I prog it up a bit *laughs*.
GP: We’ve been playing them and because they’re so engrained now, it’s almost like they’re old hat, but they’re new. It will be new to you when you eventually hear them because you haven’t heard them, but we just need to finish it up and get some artwork.
GH: Put it in the right hands, really. Gary is a graphic designer, so the artwork is his creation. Phenomenal artwork, he does sci-fi book jackets, so the album artwork will be top notch.
GP: We’re quite lucky like that. We can do it all *laughs*. But we are lucky there that I can do the artwork. Then Paulie has his own studio at the end of his garden, so he’s got the computer and he can do the mixing and produce the album. Although Paulie has mainly produced it, we’ve all had a bit of input, so we’ll still put it down that we all did it *laughs*.
GH: The problem is when you’ve got 5 producers, it’s quite the task *laughs*.
GP: The problem is when these tracks come back, Paulie sends back the first draft of one particular song, but you all want to listen to your own instrument and see how it sounds. It’s very difficult. Of course, you get to a point where you have to say, “Okay, we’ve got to put it to bed now.” There’s some really good material on there. I can’t wait for it to come out. I can’t wait to hear what reviews we get. The song that took the longest was the follow up to “Mountains”, which is called “Fortress of Solitude”. It had to be right because of the history of “Somewhere Up in the Mountains”, once people know it’s a follow up to that song. It’s got the same feel in the chorus, and the playout at the end with Chris’ vocal.
GH: It’s got a lot to live up to.
GP: I just hope we’ve done it justice. As soon as it’s available, you’ll be getting a copy. It’ll be nice to get your review.
I’ll be waiting patiently! Giles, how did you become acquainted with Gary and eventually join this new lineup of the band?
GH: I was a touring keyboard player and I sort of retired from that in 2017. We live very close to each other and we got into playing some jazz gigs. He’d lay out a bit of brushes and I’d play jazz piano or jazz organ. So we both had this jazz thing going and we both had this love of prog rock, so we’d do a little prog as well. A friend of ours was the guitar player. Because of that, we played on Kevin’s tribute gig. I didn’t know much about this dark history *laughs*. Pete turns up and Gary mentioned the interest in getting the band going. I had heard the demos.
GP: The funny thing here is we go back about 15 years or so now and we got talking about bands. I told him about my old band and said we might be thinking about a reunion. This is when Kevin was still around. He wasn’t well, but there was still talk. Anyways, because I mentioned it to Giles and he said he’d be interested, Giles was always asking, “When’s the band getting back together?” *laughs*
GH: We’re all over the place. The singer, Chris, live in Spain. Paulie’s down in the south coast. We’re up in London. Pete’s up in Northampton, so apart from me and Gary, who are literally around the corner from each other, we’re quite spread about. It involves getting on planes if we want to rehearse.
GP: But we’ve played together at the odd garden party *laughs*.
GH: Mostly lowkey gigs just for fun.
GP: We obviously know each other well, and here we are *laughs*.
In closing, I assume the plan for 2023 is Keep it True, more shows, the new album, and perhaps work on a second album?
GP: The main thing at the moment is to get this album finished now. So many people want to hear it and get a hold of it. We’ve got 9 tracks, and all 9 tracks add up to more or less an hour. All of those tracks will go on a CD, but they won’t all go on one single album. I think it’s 22 minutes roughly each side, so we’re thinking that’s 7 tracks on the album. We have to take 2 off, but then we’re going to put those 2 as a bonus on the CD. When we were talking to Pete, he said that’s not a bad idea because CDs aren’t selling as many units over here as vinyl. Vinyl is really making a comeback now. If people will buy the vinyl, then they’ll wanna buy the CD to get the bonus tracks. Anyway, we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.
GH: We’ve got gigs. At some point we’ll do an album release gig.
GP: Yeah, we just wanna get people now following us on our Facebook page.
GH: Make sure you put in the “UK” so you get us and not the French post-punk band *laughs*.
GP: Yeah, give us a like and by all means, send us an email now. If you know anybody that’d like us out there, and if we can work something out, we’ll be more than happy to get out there and play. We’re just enjoying it now. As long as everything’s all in place, and it all works, we’ll be more than happy. We’ve got Germany booked, and Sweden we’ll definitely do again at some point this year. If Cyprus comes off, there’s a festival out there, so there’s a few summer gigs. I think these festivals are great. You’ve got loads of people watching you. We’ve even got t-shirts made and we got a few more to sell *laughs*. We gotta break even! I’m out of pocket at the moment *laughs*. Good ol’ days, isn’t it?
GH: Gotta sell one of these spare cymbals over here *laughs*.
GP: It’s so much easier now to get t-shirts done. Bands today, let’s be honest, it’s so much easier for them to make demos now than it was back in the day. When we recorded the single, we did it over 2 days. That’s all we could afford, so one day we’re recording. We all got headphones on and there’s no click tracks or anything. You didn’t have clicks back then. You just counted and we all played live and we recorded all the tracks together at the same time. But there was one occasion where we were listening to the playback and there’s this humming going on. Pete’s going, “What is that?” We isolate all the tracks and it turns out it was me humming while playing *laughs*.
GH: You ruined the tape!
GP: Yep, so we had to redo it. It’s a difficult thing to try and stop humming.
GH: You’d thing though with a drumkit that you wouldn’t be able to hear humming over that.
GP: Well they did and we had to retake it. That was back in the day when, for some reason, you couldn’t play the other tracks, so I couldn’t play along to them. We all had to play it again. It’s crazy, but that’s how it was done, the old demos as well. Now, you can play with clicks and edit on the computer.
GH: You know, you said how you had to spend a couple of days in the studio. I have my own studio. So does the guitar player. We’ve all got studios now because all you need is a Mac and a bit of soundproofing.
GP: Yeah, but this year we’ve got some gigs lined up and we’ll get the album out. We’ve got some new material coming along already. We’ve got a few old numbers, some new numbers, and they’re ready to start rehearsing and record. They’re not far off. We’ve definitely got enough material for a second album, without a doubt. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with the artwork *laughs*.
GH: You’re all out of ideas?
GP: *laughs* It’s crazy. My dad, he came to see us at our first reunion gig back this past June at the Resurrection Rock Fest. He was 91 then. He’s 92 now.
GH: In front of the mosh pit *laughs*.
GP: He was down there shaking his head and I had to make sure. When we got the band back together, after losing Kevin, I went to my dad and said, “Dad, the boys are thinking of getting the band back together.” I wanted to make sure he was OK with it because from his point of view, he’s lost his son. When I approached him, he said, “Just go for it son.” I said to him, “Dad, look at it this way. Because we are playing together and playing some of the old numbers, we’re keeping Kev’s spirit alive.” And it does. We always mention Kev. It’s great. His spirit lives on with us and we dedicate the album to him. God bless him. Let’s just hope it works out this year. We’ll have a good year hopefully.
For more information on Marquis de Sade, visit www.marquisdesadeuk.com.