Band Interviews

Samurai

 

The following is an interview that our good friend Boris had with Craig Riggsdale of the band. Our sincere thanks to Boris for his tireless work in completing these interviews and sharing them with us.

1. Hello Craig, thanks for sparing some time to answer these. Well, first of all it would be interesting to know about your early days before Samurai came to be. Where did you play before Samurai, and what made you get into the rock scene anyway?

I started playing the guitar quite late on at about 16 and struggled along until I had lessons for a year off a workmate of my fathers, who was a good local rock guitar player called Phil Harling.

After practicing for a couple of years (mainly rhythm guitar) I joined up with a band in Swansea who were a lot older than me and played not rock but were a sort of west coast sounding band similar to Man. We practiced for 6 months doing original music and ended up doing our first gig at the Stonehenge free festival in about 1979.

After playing a handful of local gigs this band slowly fell apart and at this time I started getting into heavy rock music through a friend of mine who had a big collection of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest and Budgie records, and this then influenced me a lot to want to play this type of music (although I was a big Doctor Feelgood fan too).

The next band I joined was a local rock covers band called Northwind, and this came about due to a chance meeting in the infamous pub The Knight’s Arms in Porthcawl (rock, bikers pub) with my old guitar teacher Phil who was after a second guitarist to beef up the sound, so after one rehearsal I was in. This band stayed together for about two years playing the local pubs and clubs using various drummers as we never had a permanent one, including Phil john who went on to join Preyer later on and recording one demo tape of original songs.

2. Now, as far as I know Samurai was formed around 1982 in Merthyr Tydfil. Can you tell me how you met the other guys and what led to the band's formation?

After a short spell without a band but still practicing, I was approached by a member of newly formed band Samurai, who asked if I was interested in joining up, again as a second guitarist, and after a meeting with the members and one practice I was asked to join them.

This certainly was the right move because I could see straight away that these guys had the right attitude to break out of the local scene and try to move on to bigger things, which was what I wanted to do.

Samurai started off in the spring of 1983, with lead guitarist Huw Lewis and drummer Mike Davies from Merthyr Tydfil in South Wales, after their former band (Mammath) split up (I believe James Rees from Preyer was in this band also).

They then recruited Len Williams on lead vocals and Neil Rogers on bass, and then decided to use an extra guitarist to beef up the sound which I auditioned for and got the job.

We rehearsed for a few months learning covers and writing our own material after which we recorded a three song demo tape in Cardiff, which included the songs Fires of Hell, Dreams of the World etc.

We also did two TV appearances, one being on the show “Juice” for the BBC which was live and the other which was mimed (a lot harder that) for ITV.

3. A Far Eastern "image" for a heavy metal band was quite popular in the 1980's (though not reflected in the music itself). Bands like Tokyo Blade had it all over themselves. So who was the one to give Samurai its name and image (reflected on the LP covers for example)? And by the way, were you aware that there was another Samurai in Essex, which was previously called Prowler (they only had one track on MCA's "Brute Force" compilation LP)?

The name came from a track I think or something to do with Van Halen, as Huw the lead guitarist was a big fan and heavily influenced by Eddie Van Halen.

As far as another band in Essex with the same name I had no idea at the time, but I know the band Warrior from the States wanted to be named Samurai as we had some correspondence from their management, and they dressed very much like Japanese warriors and the second guitarist was I believe Japanese.

4. As a Welsh band, did you ever feel the need to write music in you native language? There were quite a lot Welsh bands that played hard rock and metal and had only Welsh lyrics. I'm talking about bands like Y Diawled, Crys, Ceffyl Pren, Maffia, Crator and so on. Was English chosen to aim at a wider crowd rather than playing in local pubs like most of the Welsh singing bands did?

No one in the band could speak our native language at the time, but I have since learned to speak it myself after years of trying, so we didn’t write anything in Welsh. In our neck of the woods it is better to write and perform in English as it appeals to a wider audience.

5. What do you think about the Welsh metal scene in the 80's? There were quite a few excellent bands out there together with Samurai. The hard-hitting Preyer, the excellent Stormqueen, the aforementioned Y Diawled, and many others like Iona, Trident and Persian Risk.

There was a lot of competition at the time in South Wales with many rival groups like Persian Risk, Preyer, Kooga, Tokio Rose, Tredeger, Rankelson and many others ,but there was a lot of apathy I think at the time, with the record industry, at us being welsh, and we all used to socialize together in rock clubs like the sadly demolished Bogies rock club in Cardiff.

I knew the guys in Preyer well and formed the band Talan with the ex drummer of Preyer (Phil John). The vocalist in Storm Queen (Paul Burnette) joined Talan as well and sang on the first Talan demo tape.

Also Carl Sentence, Nick Hughes from Persian Risk and Phil Campbell who as you know went on to join Motorhead.

In fact I was playing a gig in Pontypridd with Talan in about 1990 and three doors away in another pub Phil Campbell was playing in a duo in between his commitments with Motorhead (haven’t seen him since then)

Lets just say the scene was a healthy one in South Wales in the eighties.

6. Back to the Samurai history. In 1983 you had a demo tape recorded. Did it get you the contract with Ebony records? Your first Ebony LP "Sacred Blade" came out right after that in 1984. Did you have the entire material ready and just waiting to be laid on vinyl?

The first demo tape we did in Cardiff did get us the deal with ebony records, and it was a choice between them and a single with neat records.

The material was already written but I think we could have spent more time rehearsing different songs, and picked some stronger songs.

7. 1985 Saw the release of the "Fires of Hell" 7''. Why was there a single put out with the a-side already being on the previous album? How did the fans receive this record?

This single was released to be sold at gigs by us (a 1000 copies printed) more for promotion than anything.

I would think it’s quite collectable now.

As to why there was the same a-side as the song on the album I’m not really sure as
that song (Fires of Hell) was on the first demo too.

8. In 1986 you had another album and an outing to the USA to tour clubs in LA. Seems quite a prosperous year for Samurai. Can you tell me what was going on back then? Did you get to play some large venues back in the old UK? How were the album sales up to this time?

It was during one of these visits to London where we bumped into the American promoter, music manager Lucy Forbes of Rock Congress in Santa Monica, California. And after she returned to America with some of our material offered us a club tour of Los Angeles including the Troubadour Whiskey Club, the Country Club, Waters Club and many more, this I think that was the best time for Samurai as we had an incredible time and started to make many friends there, like James Neil of Malice who lived with us for a while in Lucy’s apartment, and Max Norman the producer of Ozzy’s band and many more, but we had to return after 5 weeks.(I still miss Saturday nights in the Rainbow bar and grill).

After this time and with more exposure in the music press things started to happen with some better gigs and more money, and not long after we released another demo tape of more American influenced material, but this failed to get any response from the record industry and sadly the band disbanded in 1986 which was a great shame because live we put on a great show of which I don’t think many bands in the UK could touch us for, as far as being so lively on stage, as our vocalist was certainly the next Dave Lee Roth, in fact he was better.

9. 1986's "Weapon Master" was you second and last LP with Ebony records (your last LP ever actually). Ebony is considered one of the top labels from the NWoBHM period, featuring bands such as Grim Reaper, Blade Runner, Savage, Blood Money, Chateaux, and yourselves. Although they had quite a respectful army of bands at hand, the production of the records was by far not top notch. Do you think it damaged your music, and maybe the ability to sell records? Do you think maybe another label could make Samurai bigger?

Along with Neat Records and a few others Ebony were one of the top NWoBHM labels back then, and as far as the production making a difference to sales, the answer is no, as Daryl Johnson (the producer) had a big market for this stuff in North America and Canada where they would sell on the cover art work alone. The Savage album had a sparse production but is still a great album. I f the music is good I think it would sell well anyway.

As far as another label making any difference to the development of Samurai I’m not really sure about that.

10. In 1987 you had your last couple of tracks recorded before calling it a day. The music changed quite a bit though. You seemed to adopt an "American" sound of sorts. Was it your visit to LA that made you go in that direction, or did you think that was what's going to save the band from going down?

It was the visit to America that influenced the slight change of direction, but we were going down that road long before that.

Most of the guys were more into American music all along, with only myself being more into British rock and British guitarists like Paul Kossoff, Mick Ralphs, Fast Eddie, Jimmy Page etc.

I must admit it was an effort to stay afloat as well, but at the time the band was still keen to continue.

11. Eventually the band shattered. What was the final reason for Samurai to cease its existence? Where did all the other members head after they left the band?

Well the band didn’t really split up at the time, they booted me out to have a keyboard player in, to follow a more American melodic type of music.

They then changed their name to Cruise 101, but shortly after that lost the Samurai drummer Mike Davies over some dispute.

The band was never the same mind you, it had lost the sparkle and the excitement of the original band as many people said, they were never as good as Samurai, and unfortunately did not last long.

I went on to form Talan with Phil John (ex Preyer) and Paul Burnette (ex Storm Queen).

12. Before we move on to Talan, tell me what a Samurai live show was like? The music was very strong and energetic and deserved quite a show I'd say. What was a typical set list for, let's say the LA tour in 1986? And what was the extent of the Samurai tours in the UK?

We were energetic, when you came to see samurai you saw a band who could have outdone most American stadium bands and put them to shame as far as the movement on stage was concerned, and this was improved even more after the LA tour thanks in no small part to Lucy Forbes our agent out there. We dressed up in a very American style and looked the part.

Len was the next Dave Lee Roth (probably better) the man was a talented front man and should have gone on to better things.

A typical set list was

Intro tape (Carmina Burana) Karl Orff
Huw going wild on the tremolo arm
Attack
I Got What You Need
Rock Steady

I can’t remember the rest but basically a lot of songs off the albums and maybe a cover or two.

After gigging extensively in South Wales playing Bogies club in Cardiff, Llanharan Rugby club, and many other places and going down well in most places we played, we decided to go farther field and played our first away gig to 6 punters in a Nottingham pub called The Hearty Good Fellow.

This was enough to put you off for life after traveling so far, but we soldiered on (it could only get better), and better it did get as we then released two albums with Hull based Ebony records (Sacred Blade and Weapon Master plus a single Fires of Hell which is quite collectable now).
The band played regularly and I believe we were one of the hardest working bands around at the time and slowly but surely broke into the London scene with support slots at the Marquee, Camden Ding Walls, the Wellington in Shepard’s Bush and the Royal Standard in Walthamstow, playing with among others Lee Aaron, MGM, Paul Dianno, Tobruk, Grim Reaper and a short tour with Girlschool etc

13. After Samurai turned to ashes you didn't lose your spirit and after gathering quite a bunch of musicians formed Talan. The band had quite a few talents, including Paul Burnette from Stormqueen, and the Preyer drummer Phil Johns. How was the band formed, and who were the other two members of this ace formation?

The band was formed by myself and Phil John of Preyer, and we soon recruited Paul Burnette of Storm Queen, Ashmata etc. he was in loads of bands, I am in a rock covers band up to this day playing music with Paul in a band called Strangers.

The other two members were Adrian Bamford on bass and keys who was previously in a band called Sex ( a popular South Wales band) and on guitar a guy called Steve Palmer.

Dave Hughes from Cardiff joined the band after Paul left the band, and he stayed for quite a while until he moved on also.

14. Talan didn't quite make it, having released a couple of demos and the 1990 7'' single "Spellbinder", though the music was a revival of the obvious heavy metal roots of the members and was well performed. Why do you think Talan came and went, somewhat without an impact?

I suppose we didn’t make much of an impact with Talan, although we released some fine material my favorites being Don’t Knock the Rock, Fire and Ice.

But after all our efforts with previous bands I don’t think you can do the same again, with same amount of energy. Although it wasn’t a bad band at all.

15. How about the Talan live shows? Where you playing Talan material, or were the sets mostly filled with Samurai, Stormqueen and Preyer classics?

The Talan live show was all original material, with no Preyer, Samurai or Storm Queen numbers, just a completely different music.

16. Talan didn't quite disappear and evolved into Cortez, which released one sole demo before vanishing. That's the only band I never had the pleasure to hear from all the mentioned formations. Can you give me a short overview of the Cortez days, and how did it sound like?

Talan evolved into Cortez and with a different line up of Wayne Harding on vocals, me on guitar Shane Davies on guitar, Steve Cole on bass and Phil on drums.

We released two demo tapes and in the end it was becoming a lot more melodic in the style of music, compared to the beginning with Talan.

17. And at last the present and future. Following the great increase of interest in the classic NWoBHM bands, which had a large part played by ebay, do you think Samurai has any sort of future? One of the consequences of this renewed interest in NWoBHM was a wave of bootleggers who keep illegally releasing the long forgotten recordings without the approval of the bands. This has also hit Samurai with an illegal release of both albums on CD. Do you think it's time for a Samurai re-release, following the footsteps of many other bands?

My opinion is, what is gone is gone it will never be the same and just cherish the memories as we were all part of a real good thing at the time (something I will never forget).

I am still playing regularly with a rock covers band (Strangers of a Kind) with Paul Burnette, and Ian Bodenham on bass, who was in Onslaught for a time and Tokio Rose, also we have Matt Blackout on drums who is playing with Tigertailz, and when Matt can’t play we use Bob Richards from Man, Shy etc. and when he can’t play Phil John of Preyer, and another vocalist called Steve Ellis, who was in a local band in the eighties called Sheer Khan.

18. And finally Craig, if there's something you'd like to add now is the time. Thanks a lot!!!

I had a great time with this band and I have very fond memories of these times and am proud to have been a part of the group as we might not have got anywhere near superstar status, but we certainly entertained a lot of people and made many friends along the way. So to all Samurai fans out there and anyone who remembers the band I wish you well.

Craig Riggsale

 

Sorry, this is all that came on this one.

Some of the bands tour dates