It’s amazing to see how popular SPARTAN WARRIOR still is 20 years after the band’s last breath. These warriors from Tyneside (UK) were playing the kind of music that is now seen as typical classic mid eighties british metal, alongside with bands like SAXON, RAVEN, TYSONDOG, BATTLEAXE, GRIM REAPER, SAMURAI or CHATEAUX : speedy, powerful, with the beloved classic twin-guitar attack. Clearly the heaviest and brightest side of the NWOBHM, which is now appealing to a growing number of metal fans again .
Following a worldwide resurgence of interest in classic metal and NWOBHM, and like many heavy metal bands from the eighties, SPARTAN WARRIOR have decided to let the axes do the talking again and to bring the band into the 21st century. Guitarist Neil Wilkinson answered my questions.
When did the band form, who was in the original line up ? Any other bands prior to SPARTAN WARRIOR worth being mentioned ?
I suppose Spartan Warrior was a band that evolved very slowly.
The band first started as Deceiver. That band included Tom Spencer and Gordon
Webster in the line up.
At the time they were looking for a new vocalist and Gordon had been in a
local band called Cloud with Dave Wilkinson and asked him if he fancied joining
which he did.Shortly after that I was recruited as lead guitarist to play
along side Deceivers other guitarist.I would say that was the beginning of
Spartan Warrior and I think it was around about then that we changed the name
from Deceiver to Spartan Warrior. As we started writing our own material we
replaced our other guitarist with a friend of mine called John Stormont who
also played with the Jess Cox Band and Battleaxe. After John had left to join
Jess Cox we replaced him with a guitarist called Baz Warne who later went
on to join various ohter bands and is actually with the Stranglers now. When
Baz left we recruited Paul Swaddle and the Spartan Warrior that people recognise
was formed.
Before Spartan Warrior my only other band was my school band with Dave called
Easy Prey in fact im sure that me and Dave wrote Mercenary in Easy Prey. As
far as the others are concerned Gordon played in various local bands as did
Tom. Im
not sure what Paul did before Spartan Warrior.
Where does the name of the band come from ?
You know i cant really remember. I think it was Gordons idea. I know that because of the way the line up had changed and the way we were writing that he just felt as though we needed a new name for the band although im not sure why he chose that name in particular. Knowing Gordon he probably thought of it after watching some film.
Did the band record anything before the studio sessions that made it on the Pure Overkill sampler ?
No we hadnt. Steel n Chains and Easy Prey were the first recordings that me Dave and Gordon had done. Tom had some recording experience. Also John played guitar on those two tracks and I think it was his first go at studio work too.
How did the band get in touch with Terry Gavaghan at Guardian Records ?
A friend of mine had said that she had seen an ad in a local paper and that Guardian were looking for bands to put on a compilation album. We didnt live far from Guardian studios so we recorded a rehersal and phoned Terry to ask if he would be interested in listening to it. Shortly after we met Terry and he picked Easy Prey and Steel n Chains to put on Pure Overkill.
The band’s first vinyl appearance was on the Pure Overkill sampler LP, released on Guardian Records in 1983, where the band contributed 2 songs : “Comes as no surprise” and “Steel’n’Chains”. “Comes as no surprise” was later retitled “ Easy Prey” on the first album, which one was the correct title, was this a mistake from the label ?
The song was always called Easy Prey (another reference to mine and Daves school band days) and the title on Pure Overkill was a mistake-really i dont think Terry liked Easy Prey as a title and just changed it without telling us.
Did you remember some particular good reviews in the press about your performance on Pure Overkill ?
No sorry i havnt seen many reviews of much of our stuff at all.
Mind the ones that I have seen have been pretty inacurate. I suppose its because
so little is known about us that people tended to make alot of assumptions.
Soon after the Pure Overkill release, Guardian records went on to release
the first SPARTAN WARRIOR studio album : “Steel’n’Chains”.
Was the sampler released to support this first album as a taster or did Guardian
commission a full studio LP following the encouraging response the band got
with the 2 songs on Pure Overkill ?
Pure Overkill was a compilation album in its own right and was
released before Steel n Chains. I remember at the time Terry was saying that
the band had a good response from the two tracks on Pure Overkill and asked
us if we would like to put out a full album. Because the first two tracks
had already been recorded we did the rest by recording and mixing two tracks
a day whenever we could afford the studio time so i suppose really the first
album is a collection of demos.
Thats what i mean by people making assumptions about us. In one review someone
said that the album was helped by a strong production but the truth is that
it was an album of demos recorded in a hurry and pretty much live. Mind we
were
never happy with the recordings of either albums but in terms of feel, Steel
n Chains was more what we were like as a band.
Now about the gigs, was SPARTAN WARRIOR playing a lot in the early days, any particular good or bad memories about life on the road ?
Around that time we were playing quite a bit especially coming up to recording Assassin for Roadrunner. In fact my favourite gig was at Sunderland Mayfair (our home town). It was the night before we began work on Assassin and everything just seemed to be right. No bad memories really apart from when it began to fall apart, we all got on really well and still do. The band never split because of falling out or "musical differences".
Do you remember some good metal bands who were there around at the same time in your area ?
I didnt get to see that many local bands at the time because I was always gigging and when we werent doing that we would be rehersing. In terms of the bigger bands of the time I was a big Judas Priest fan as well as Iron Maiden in fact I saw Maiden on their first big tour supporting Priest. I do remember one local band who were great called White Spirit whos guitarist was Janick Gers who joined Maiden and also Saxon used to get round our way but they were called Son of A Bitch then I think. And of course the Tygers of Pan Tang were always tasty.
Was Guardian paying for the studio time as well ? Did you get some royalties from them for Pure Overkill and Steel’n’Chains ?
Guardian didnt pay for any studio time. Like i said earlier we did Steel n Chains two tracks at a time when we could afford it. Luckily my girlfriend (now wife) helped me out what with me being very young and very broke at the time (as opposed to being old and broke now). Royalties ? what are they?
Which bands or guitar players did influence you ?
Ive been influenced by loads of bands although i would say that Black Sabbath Thin Lizzy and UFO had the biggest effect on me. As far as guitarists go my biggest influence would have to be Michael Schencker and Eddie Van Halen. I also love Chris DeGarmo and Micheal Wilton from Queensryche.
Was the band selling any particular merchandise for the fans like T shirts, posters, pin buttons, patches etc… ?
I dont know if Guardian or Roadrunner ever sold stuff but we never had any merchandise as a band. We werent really interested in the business side of things and all we wanted to do was play live and record. I dont think merchandise or making money was ever something we thought about - we just enjoyed doing what we did. In fact I probably think that it was lack of guidance on the business side that let the band down to a certain extent. Still we had a great time though.
SPARTAN WARRIOR issued a very powerful first album : “Steel’n’Chains” in 1983. How was the response from the press and the fans ? Was the album properly distributed outside Great Britain and did Guardian give you some sales figures ?
Thanks very much im pleased you like it. I remember that Steel n Chains went down really well. I know it got quite a bit of radio play, obviously some tracks more than others. On our local station Dont Wanna Be a Loser got played alot and was voted song of the month or something . We were really pleased at the time because it was chosen against some quality opposition.I dont know about how the album was distributed - we had very little to do with that and we put all of our trust in Guardian to handle that side of things. As far as sales figrues go ive never seen any from Guardian. I wouldnt mind finding out though.
Was SPARTAN WARRIOR getting some interesting opening slots for some major bands, maybe helped out on this by their record label ? Did the band tour abroad ?
No not really because just as things were starting to take off after Assassin was realeased the band split, although I do remember being offered a slot on a rock tv programme that was on in the uk at the time. I think Lee Aaron who was also with Roadrunner did it instead. Its a shame looking back because I think things might have turned out differently if we'd just had a bit of luck and a bit more help from the business end of things.
Who’s usually writing the songs in the band ? What is the writing process ?
In the early days writing was pretty much a band effort although it was usually me who would come up with the initial idea with others chipping in once we started to rehearse it. There are songs that Gordon thought of and also Tom. I remember me and Paul wrote Breaking Sweat and Hunted one day. At the moment I am doing all of the writing on my own and Dave is doing the lyrics. The format for writing is still the same as weve always used - basically I come up with an idea and once the music is done I give everyone else a listen to see if they like it. If they like it Dave writes the lyrics. Once we start rehearsing a song though everyone contributes so we like to think of writing as a band effort.
One year later, the band released a second and final album. The title has never been a clear thing, most people call it “Spartan Warrior”, while others say the title is “Assassin” . Though still recorded at Guardian Studios the label licensed it to Roadrunner records. I think there’s a Roadracer pressing as well. Could you clear up things for us ?
Again the confusion over the title shows the lack of guidance on the business side of things. I can say that as far as we are concerned the title is Assassin but i dont think that the record company were made aware that we wanted that as a title. Mind the album was'nt licensed to Roadrunner - although the album was still recorded at Guardian Studios at that time we had actually signed to Roadrunner Records and as far as i know there have only ever been pressings from Roadrunner. I suppose the number of mistakes over song and album titles show just how much trust we put in other people at the time.
Highlights of the album are the most heavy and powerful songs like” Mercenary”, “Assassin” or “Sentenced to die”, however the band was going in a softer direction compared to “Steel’n’Chains”, with songs like “Hanging on” for example; not all of them are heavy ones, as opposed to the first LP. A try to please the american market ?
Ive heard people say this before. The truth is that Spartan Warrior never had a plan to capture a particular market. I think both albums have a softer side to them but it wasn’t an intentional thing. We've always just written stuff and if we like it we record it and hope other people like it as well. I suppose the reason for this is we try to make an album interesting to listen to and try to put some variety in there.In fact I know that the lads were horrified when they heard that people thought that we might have written stuff purely for career reasons. I think the only time that someone suggested that we changed the style of music we write was when Roadrunner asked us to write "devil music " for the 3rd album. Thats part of the reason there is'nt a 3rd album. We have never written to order and dont think we ever will. I dont see the point because we wouldnt be happy, the fans would tell that its not really what we do and then everyone gets what no one wants.
Did the band get a better distribution and better tour offerings with Roadrunner, or do you think the label already had too many bands signed to give full support to SPARTAN WARRIOR (the band got the song “Mercenary” included on the Roadrunner “Metal Machine” LP sampler) ?
I think that the distribution was better but there were'nt any tour offers because the band split shortly after releasing Assassin. Roadrunner did have alot of bands at the time and without someone to manage the band I think it was always going to be a struggle to get noticed amongst all the others. Looking back I do wish we had been a bit more in the companies face but we were very young and needed a bit of guidance I think.
The artwork of this second LP is truly beautiful. Is it an original oil painting and is it still existing somewhere ?
Lots of people have commented on Assassins cover. I dont know where the art work came from. The album cover was totally different to what we had suggested- another example of people not in the band just pleasing themselves. The first time we saw it was when Terry showed us a copy that Roadrunner had sent to him. Although it is a great painting the band have a bit of a down on it because it was'nt what we wanted - at the time we saw it as another thing that had gone wrong and we were starting to get a bit sick of it. Maybe Roadrunner still has a copy of it?
Were cassette versions of both the albums produced as well ?
I think some cassettes of Assassin were released but im not sure about Steel n Chains.
Very soon afterwards, the end was already near for SPARTAN WARRIOR, around 1985 I presume. What happened ?
At the time Terry was acting as a go between for us and Roadrunner and he just seemed to be phoning us all the time but it was always with some problem and most of the time it didnt even have anything to do with us. Dave had just had enough of it and decided to stop singing altogether. We tried to get a replacement but things just werent the same. Shortly after Paul left. Me Tom and Gordon tried to keep things going for years afterwards and kept writing but eventually decided to call it a day. Mind even after we had split we got back together and recorded a four track demo one day.
Had work on a 3rd album already started before the split ?
We had started to write new material for a 3rd album and had
done some demos of some of the songs. Again they were a bit of a mix - some
heavy and some softer, but these were only ideas and nothing had been decided
on in terms of which songs if any of them would make it onto a 3rd album.
None of the band members are known to have been in further bands after the
split. Did you simply leave the music business or did you join such small
bands nobody ever heard of them ?
Me Tom and Gordon kept playing with loads of other musicians coming in and out of the band and at times were offered various record deals which all seemed to fall through for different reasons . Dave gave up altogether. Im not sure what Paul had been doing , I only met him for the first time in about 16 years recently. After the band split for good I played in various bands as did Tom and Gordon but nothing serious.. I finally managed to talk Dave into singing again and we were in a local covers band for a bit and thats when we started talking about doing something with Spartan Warrior again.
Did the band record or film some live shows and is there anything left from these tapes today ? Any video footage left ?
I wish i did, I dont have anything on video.I know there isn’t any film although I do have some tapes of old rehersals some of them going back to Deceiver days.
Do you have some old unreleased SPARTAN WARRIOR songs or studio demos out there that you would agree to release for the fans ?
Ive got some old demos. Some are off when we were writing for the 3rd album, others from that 4 song demo after we had split up and loads that I’ve written after we split but nothing that I’d want to release as i dont think the quality is good enough as i dont have any of the masters - just cassettes. Mind some of the new stuff I have been writing is on cd and even though its a home recording I’m really happy with how they’ve turned out.
SPARTAN WARRIOR remained a cult band name through the years and without any official reissue to please the growing fan base, the bootlegers quickly cashed in on the worldwide renewed interest in all things related to the NWOBHM, and a year or two ago both the albums were widely bootleged on CD. These unofficial reissues are really cheap, no information on the inner sleeve and the sound is copied from cracky vinyl. Are you angry against these people making money with the SPARTAN WARRIOR name and ripping off the fans with low quality products ?
I am angry in as much that other people are making money and I havnt ever made anything out of Spartan Warrior and weve have all had to hold down jobs instead of being able to do what we love and kept playing ,also the fact that the quality is very poor. Having said that like you say there has been no official reissue so in a way the bootlegs have kept the music alive to a certain extent. Maybe a reissue is something we could talk to Roadrunner about.
When did you realize that the name SPARTAN WARRIOR has not been forgotten over the years but also that there are fans from different generations across the globe enjoying these classic british metal masterpieces and banging their heads to “Mercenary” or “Steel’n’Chains” ?
It was about a year ago when I was just having a look around on the internet. I put a search out for Spartan Warrior and a load of stuff came up- one of those being the site for the Old School Metal Radio Show. When I looked on the site I was amazed to see we were on the play list. Around about the same time friends had also been looking and kept telling me about stuff they had seen on the net.
The band has started its resurrection a few months ago. What is the aim behind this reformation for SPARTAN WARRIOR ?
The aim for me is to get a deal and release a new album but this time hopefully do things right . It would be nice to think I could do Spartan Warrior full time.Playing guitar in a band was all I ever wanted to do even from being a kid so Im looking on this as a second chance to do just that.It would be great to play live again with the other lads and we would love to do some of the metal festivals in the summer. So if there are any record companies or promoters are reading this please drop me line! Another aim is to put right some of the stuff that we felt were wrong . I mentioned earlier that we werent totally happy with Steel n Chains and Assassin because we didnt think the recordings were a true reflection of what we are like. I know that me Tom and Dave feel like we have unfinished business in terms of doing something that we are really proud of and also show people what we can do.
Regarding this long awaited new album that is said to be in the works now, do you intend to use some old ideas from the never released 3rd album you were working on before the split ?
Yes there will be some old stuff on there. One of the tracks was actually recorded for Steel n Chains but Terry didnt want it on the album. We were all gutted because we thought it had turned out really well and im pretty sure that it would have been one of the better tracks on the album. Still the up side of that is that we can now put it on a new album. I’ve also been writing new material with Dave.
I also strongly hope the band will keep the old 80’metal sound and spirit, from a songwriting and production perspective. There’s nothing more annoying than a classic metal band trying to sound like Tool or Korn (no names here but there are a few old classic metal bands who put themselves to shame this way and are slowly losing all their fan base) . The young nu metal fans don’t care about 80’ metal bands anyway, and the old fans will simply hate it, feeling stabbed in the back !
Tricky question to answer that! All I can say is that weve never tried to be something were not. Like I said earlier we just write what we write and if people like it too then thats great. I think that the older songs we are going to use are definately of their time. Although we would never intentionally try to change our style I think its inevitable that after such a long time that people do change and also I would hate to think that we havn’t improved at all as musicians and song writers during that time. Having said that because we never try to second guess what people want or write to order I think that the new stuff is still what Spartan Warrior is all about and im pretty confident that if you like the other albums then you’ll like the new songs.
Are there any plans to re-release the old albums officially and properly this time, with liner notes, remastered sound, bonus tracks , etc…? Are you working on setting up a SPARTAN WARRIOR website, most of the NWOBHM bands, reformed or not, have their own website now ?
There are no plans as yet to re-release the old stuff but I would like to think it would happen. Im not sure who has the masters- probably Guardian or Roadrunner I would think. Me and Tom were working on a website but once I started writing songs it sort of got put on hold. Hopefully we will get something up and running soon but I dont think Tom was keen on how the website was turning out and he likes things to be spot on.
Thanks for this first SPARTAN WARRIOR interview in years. Welcome back and hopefully we will soon enjoy the lead weight and power of british steel again! The last words are for you.
Well id like to thank everyone who have followed us over the years and I think I can speak for all the lads when I say that Im really flattered that people are still interested after all this time. Hopefully we’ll get things sorted out and get the band totally reformed very soon and hope to give everyone an album which I think metal fans will really enjoy - I know that we are really excited with how new material is turning out. Once again thanks to everyone and watch this space.
Interview by Fred Dronsrt - Jan 11, 2006