NEW Post on 2024-03-23 by Big Rich:
Classic British metal at its best
A very belated happy new year from PIG IRON HQ! The year got off to a quiet start, but that changed on Wednesday 13th March when myself and Neil went to see Judas Priest in Leeds with special guests Saxon. Those of you who have seen us live will know that songs from both bands feature in our covers set.
Neither of us had seen Saxon live before, and were blown away. As one of the stalwarts of NWOBHM they have been making albums and playing live shows since the late 70s and they still have it. Great sound, great set list, including a few of our favourites. Biff is such a good front man, clearly enjoying playing Yorkshire. The new album sounds fantastic too.
It is nearly 12 years since I last saw the mighty Priest live (on the Epitaph tour) and I was a little worried that they might have toned it down a bit. Not a chance, screaming twin lead guitars (although sadly Glen is no longer able to play live), thunderous drums and bass, and of course awesome vocals from the metal god himself, Rob Halford.
While the sound mix was not great (drums drowning out vocals for the first few songs) the performance was tight and the stage show was spectacular. The new songs (although they didn`t play many) sounded great. Unfortunately, thanks to the train timetable, we had to leave early. Not very rock and roll, sorry to admit.
If you haven`t heard the new Priest album, Invincible Shield, then I strongly recommend giving it a listen. There is an official video for the title track and Crown of Horns, both available on YouTube, given them a play. It has inspired me to get writing new material for PIG IRON and perhaps even getting a live show together for our 25th anniversary later this year. If Rob can do it at 73 years young, we have no excuse.
Post on 2023-11-04 by Big Rich:
CD almost out of stock!
It`s almost 18 months since Roc na Seann Sgoile went on sale and we`re down to our last two copies! If you haven`t got one (and want one) you can order it via the PayPal button on our website http://www.withhindsight.co.uk/PISounds.htm .
The full album is also available to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Band Camp and twenty other popular sites.
We plan to start recording some new tracks in 2024, which will probably be online only releases (you can probably imagine how much work it takes to put together a full CD album).
Thanks to everyone who has bought a CD and/or streamed our music, keep it turned up to eleven.
Post on 2023-10-07 by Big Rich:
Still marching on!
It`s been a while since our last blog post, and we`ve been busy writing new songs which we hope to start recording in the new year.
One of the new songs is largely from an online jam session we had back in June which produced two really nice chord sequences that we were able to add to an intro section that I had written the year before to produce a very dark sounding tune. The lyrics actually came from a dream, with James Hetfield of Metallica singing over the intro to this potential new song, just a single phrase - The Illuminati.
A few hours of research later, the first version of the lyrics was created. Very wordy and more like a history essay! This sat on my computer for about three months (while we moved house) and then the June jam session rekindled the idea for the song. Once I had the tune assembled I re-wrote the lyrics to fit. At one stage I even asked ChatGPT to suggest some lyrics and to be fair, they were pretty good.
We`ve played through it a few times over Jamulus and it`s starting to take shape. The title is taken from the phrase sung over the intro (not quite as gritty as Mr Hetfield would sing it of course), and we hope to be able to release The Illuminati, along with a few other new songs, in the spring. Watch this space.
Post on 2023-03-23 by Big Rich:
Moving forwards into 2023
Is it really three years since we started our lock-down project that became Roc na Seann Sgoile? Finally released in the summer of 2022 our first album of original material is gradually finding a new audience for PIG IRON, if not the band’s fortune – we got our first annual royalty payment this month, a grand total of £6.03 c/o the 20+ platforms hosting our music.
The next event will be another session for The Fox’s Den on Vixen FM with the legend that is Bill Horncastle. Big Rich and Neil are preparing three sets of covers and original tunes, perhaps with an acoustic outing for the first set. Please let us know if you have any requests.
There are a number of new songs at various stages of development which we hope to start work on in the spring. Including a tune about the discovery of the tomb of King Tut, called KV62 and a couple of great tunes written by Neil (which I’m particularly looking forward to working on).
With the band becoming even more geographically spread (as I leave York for pastures new) gigs will become more tricky, but I’m hoping we can get together to celebrate our quarter century next year. In the mean time, expect some more songs released on the various streaming and download platforms later this year and maybe even a new video.
Keep the faith fellow metal-heads, we’ll see you soon.
Post on 2023-02-19 by Big Rich:
The writing and recording of The PIG IRON Anthem
About ten years ago, one of our loyal supporters (hi Dave) handed us a set of lyrics titled "The March of Pig Iron" and asked if we could have a go at turning that into a song. Unfortunately the lyrics were quite heavily influenced (or more accurately borrowed) from a Motörhead song so we couldn’t really use them on an original track. However, it gave me the idea for this, the closing track of the album.
Ironically, having said we wouldn’t use borrowed lyrics, the main theme for the music is from the Planet Suite, Mars (by Gustav Holst) which is also used as the introduction to Diamond Head’s NWOBHM classic "Am I Evil", a song that PIG IRON has covered. It makes a great heavy metal tune and I do wonder if some of these classical composers would have ended up metal bands had they been around now.
The verse is a proper heavy riff, which I thought was original, but I now think has been influenced by the Swedish doom metal outfit, Candlemass. I’ve not found the specific track yet but I have an uneasy feeling that when I do the riff is going to sound very similar.
The recording process was surprisingly quick and funnily enough it was the last track we recorded. I wanted this to sound epic, so I got Neil to play the rhythm guitar part three times in unison (James Hetfield style) which is how we got that huge wall of guitar sound. Likewise Neil and I multi-tracked the vocals for the closing section at least seven times to get that Judas Priest style crowd chant.
The lyrics are definitely original and are a salute to all the people who have supported us over the years – family, friends, gig goers, promoters, pub owners, radio presenters etc. As the chorus says "we wrote this song to thank you". Not forgetting the reference to Spinal Tap and the quote used on our T-shirts "celebrating British heavy metal by turning it up to 11".
The first verse tells of how we met in 1999 and started to rehearse in a very cold barn (verse two), every Saturday morning throughout the winter of 2000 and beyond. It’s quite hard to play the bass when you can’t feel your finger tips.
Our first gig at a big name venue, the original Fibbers of York, was in July 2000 when we supported Hull band "Rat Salad", a brilliant Black Sabbath tribute band featuring the splendidly named "Ozzy Oz-bird" on vocals. From there we went on to play a number of pubs in and around York and North Yorkshire, as mentioned in the last verse. One of our favourite gigs was The Magdalen’s Halloween party, which we always did in fancy dress (there is photographic evidence on our website). So a special mention to Doreen and Stuart who were always brilliant hosts.
Here’s to the next twenty years as we go marching on! I look forward to playing this one live and hearing the crowd chant along with us, hint-hint. :-)
Post on 2023-02-01 by Big Rich:
The writing, recording and re-recording of Betrayer!
This is definitely the most angry song on the album, in fact it’s probably the most angry song I’ve ever written... so far. I gave Neil and Pete quite a hard time with my demands for making the music sound as angry as the lyrics. It’s still a bit too happy for my liking, but I guess it has to be listenable!
Written in 2012 after a former band "mate" from a side project stabbed me in the back; I felt the need to vent my anger and as I’m not into violence writing a loud and angry metal song was the perfect outlet.
The "Betrayer" character is an amalgam of said former band "mate" (mostly), a former boss (who ended up in prison for fraud) and a collection of minor offenders who have taken advantage of my good nature over the years.
The original demo version, which you can find as a bonus track on our SoundCloud page, came together very quickly, over two or three days. The drums and guitar part were programmed along with a guide bass-line. The vocals were done in just a couple of takes, which is why I think my original performance captures the emotion better than the album version. I guess I’ve had ten years to chill out a bit!
I replaced the synth bass with real bass, at which point I discovered what an unnecessarily fiddly riff I’d come up with, as Neil later found when we recorded the new version. I had always intended this to be a PIG IRON song, long before we thought of writing an album of original material; so I left space for a mighty guitar solo and invited Neil to record one for that demo. He nailed it in just three or four takes, the solo on the album track is similar and I have to say, even better.
The drum part was programmed with Pete in mind, he loves his double kick drum patterns so there are plenty of those in the song. We’ve still not played it live and it’ll be quite a challenge but I look forward to hearing the drums thundering out and Neil ripping into that solo.
Time, they say, is a great healer. Writing and recording an ear pummelling heavy metal song is an even greater one though. As Frank Zappa often said, "music is the best". So don’t worry, I’m not "gonna take him down". As Ringo says, “Peace and love”.
Post on 2023-01-22 by Madbad Macnab:
Sunshine Drive
This song had a long slow evolution. The initial kernal of an idea was an acoustic guitar instrumental written way back in October 2019 before lockdown. It was a catchy upbeat rhythm part which stuck, and I kept returning to and it eventually metamorphosed into the verse for this song.
I initially tabled the idea to Pete and Rich as and acoustic guitar instrumental called `Sunshine Drive` when we were playing around with ideas expecting it to be rejected... but strangely it wasn`t... !! By this point Calpe had already been accepted too as the acoustic instrumental on the album and I distinctly remember Rich saying we already had one of those so could I rearrange it and write some lyrics... ok, I thought, no problem, back to the drawing board!
I wrote some lyrics using opposites... sunshine melts the broken hearts... warm words blow the clouds away... flowers bloom in fields of dispair... (V1 and V2). At this point I had a different set of chords for the chorus which I wrote some lyrics to, but something didn`t feel right. As soon as the chorus was reached it just felt like it jarred. And there was no mention of a Sunshine Drive!! So back to the drawing board again!
So I sat down and rewrote the song coming up with a new chorus (Turn the music on and sing a new song (x3), make you feel alive on a Sunshine Drive) and the rhythm for the solo section (a turnaround which brings it back round to the start of v3). For simplicity, v3 lyrics repeated the lyrics of v1 and then a double chorus to finish.
We rehearsed this using Jamulus and as ever my strange organic arrangements took Pete and Rich awhile to get their heads around. Pete was duly sent off to come up with a drum part which he sent down to me and Rich, once completed, and into the studio we went... My original thoughts for this one was that it might turn out sounding a little like Depth Charge (A bit Foo Fighters-esque).
But this was not to be... Rich and I went into the studio and we recorded the acoustic rhythm guitar parts for the song and like the stripped back sound so much (it sounding a little like early Yes (I am thinking of the album Fragile)) that they stuck! We then recorded my vocals and me singing a harmony vocal which again made it sound even more like Ian Anderson and Yes! Rich took it away and recorded his bass part in his home studio, but something was missing... we thought flute... who do we know that plays flute ?
It was then that Rich remembered that he knew Lindsey Woods the flautist in Leather`o - a high energy Alternative Celtic – Gypsy Band, so dropped her a message and she agreed and did a sterling job at the next session - thanks Lindsey!! I recorded the solo guitar at the same studio session and Rich took it all away and did his magic mixing and mastering... So there it is! Sunshine Drive! The acoustic guitar instrumental that eventually organically turned into a proggy Folk Rock song! Hope you enjoy listening to it!
Post on 2022-12-13 by Big Rich:
The writing and recording of Never too Late, the last song to be added to the album.
Some songs just seem to write themselves. The composer Philip Glass once described his writing process as not actually creating something but just "finding" the music out there. I now know just what he means.
On New Year’s Eve 2021 I woke up with a song in my head. I couldn’t quite place it, but it was catchy and had a familiar chord sequence. I could hear Brian Johnson of AC/DC singing the chorus "You’re never too old to rock and roll..." and just assumed it was a recent tune from them that I’d heard on Planet Rock.
It soon occurred to me that this was not a song I’d heard before, but an idea for a new song. So I grabbed a guitar and quickly recorded the tune that was playing on repeat in my head. I also jotted down the lyrics that I heard Brian singing to me, "You’re never too old to rock and roll, it’s never too late, no, no, no, no".
Suddenly Alan Freeman sprang to mind, I could hear him introducing this track "Never too late" with his legendary delivery and a trademark "Not ‘arf". So he had to get a mention. I was then reminded of a conversation many years ago when I was asked (as a twenty-something) if I’d ever "grow out of heavy metal". My reply was "Fluff Freeman is in his eighties and still playing heavy metal on the radio, so no, probably not". If his Saturday rock show got a mention then I’d also have to include the Friday rock show and the equally legendary Tommy "TV on the radio" Vance.
Verse two starts with a name check for Angus Young, since I had imagined this as an AC/DC song. He is followed by the three longest serving members of Black Sabbath: Ozzy, Geezer and Tony, along with a burst of the bass-driven "NIB" riff. The line "Tony is our hero giving everyone the finger" is a nod to Mr Iommi’s unique style of playing, thanks to an industrial accident on his final day at the steel works when he lost the ends of two fingers. Despite that he went on to enjoy a very successful careerer as one of the world’s foremost heavy metal guitar heroes.
The last verse references two of the many great rock and roll bands of the sixties who have influenced so many rock bands. Sadly Charlie Watts had died earlier that year, so it was nice to give him a mention. The Who are the other band included because their live album "Who’s Last" kept me sane while doing a very boring Saturday cleaning job in my teenage years. A brilliant live album, just a shame the bass isn’t louder. John "The Ox" Entwhistle is actually quite a big influence on me, especially the bass sound I aimed for.
It was quite fitting that in 2022 the youngest member of PIG IRON turned 50 and with our first album of original material coming out at the same time we can definitely say, "it’s never too late".