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Robb's Blog - 14th May 2013

For this blog, I thought I would give you an insight into some of our favorite Tygers’ songs. I’ve included art work for each song, see what you think?

PLAY LIST –

“Euthanasia”

I wrote this song back in 1978, Jess Cox had just joined the band, and this was one of the first songs I played him. He immediately loved it and said he would write the lyrics and the melody. When I heard what the song content was about, I thought, 'Wow, how is this going to go down?' After all euthanasia is all about terminating life before it’s actually over! But it turned out all right. Considering what the punks were singing about at the time, this was very tame! We still play this song today, right from the opening snare drum roll, it still rocks!
 
“Don't Touch Me There”

Again I wrote this in 1978; I remember I had an orange flame maple top, Gibson Les Paul deluxe, which I absolutely loved. I swear the guitar used to do the writing for me! This song became our first single, released in 1979 on Neat records. That small record company went on to release a number of NWOBHM bands records, but we had the honor of being the FIRST! Oddly enough if you go on the Wikipedia site and look up Metallica, move down to the heading, 'History,' you will read that Metallica was formed in late 1981 when Lars Ulrich places an advert in the Los Angeles newspaper 'The Recycler'.' It read “Drummer looking for other metal musicians to jam with Tygers of Pan Tang...!” So it turns out my little rock 'n' roll outfit was responsible for putting the mighty Metallica on the map. I can live with that!
“Wild Cats”

I love this song. Written, because of my love of fast motor bikes and faster women! 'Wine and women, who needs much more?’ ‘Wildcats, motorbikin' free!' Lines taken from the lyrics I wrote. I think there is a bit of a Wildcat in all of us, ladies included! I sang the vocal on the original track, and used to sing it live as well! We recently re-recorded it for ‘The Wildcat Sessions,’ an EP we released in 2010. Complete with racing motor bike noises, it turned out better than the original, Jack sings on this version! A proper Tyger roar!
 
“Suzie Smiled”

This was the big single of 1980 for us. We were out on tour the whole spring and summer with Magnum, the Scorpions, Saxon, Def Leppard and Iron Maiden. We played at Reading Rock Festival and finished our year with our own headline tour promoting the album Wildcat and the new single at the time ‘Suzie Smiled’. If you have bought the latest album ‘Ambush’ which was released in September 2012, you will know that 'Suzie' has re-appeared in a song called ‘Hey Suzie.' The storyline continues, with Suzie being all grown up now. The song features my favourite guitar effect, the talk box. Check it out!
“Gangland”

This song was covered by a German thrash metal band called, ‘Kreator.’ back in 1987. John Sykes wrote the verse and I wrote the chorus, we still include this song in our live set today. The funny thing about this song is ‘Kreator,’ who are known for their speed metal, couldn’t record it any faster than we recorded it! This song is like an express train coming at you! Gangland originally featured on the, ‘Spellbound,’ album, released in 1981 on the MCA label. The whole album featured the fantastic singing talents of Jon Deverill and John Sykes’ awesome fret work. They had both just joined the band back then. We re-recorded this song along with a selection of others from ‘Spellbound’ in 2012 for the release of the EP ‘The Spellbound Sessions’.
 
“Hellbound”

This song was featured in an English music paper of the day back in 1981 called ‘Sounds.’ It was single of the week! I remember it got a lot of air play on Radio 1, our premier radio station at the time. We also had a big two-page feature spread in ‘Sounds,’ as well. The song is about World War Two fighter planes ‘dog fighting’! This is one of the most asked for songs when we play live. The original single also included ‘The Audition Tapes’, a two-track disc taken from the original studio auditions held at Guardian Studios for John Sykes and Jon Deverill when they joined. The tracks featured were ‘Don’t Take Nothing’ and ‘Bad Times’. You could just tell these two were going to be stars.
“Story so Far”

I wrote this just before the start of recording Spellbound as a sort of, ‘this is where we are now’. This was also released as a single and did very well. It almost has a pop vibe to it, with John Sykes’ theme guitar line and Jon Deverill’s impressive harmony vocals. We are currently rehearsing this song again to feature in our new live set for 2013. For me there’s just something about it, can’t quite put my finger on it, but it rocks! Our 2013 version has a new middle 8, (for those who are musically minded!) which just sounds fantastic. Wish I’d thought of it back then!
 

“Slip Away”

When we did the recording for ‘Crazy Nights,’ we used an American producer called Dennis McKay, who flew over from the States to do the album. Not quite sure why, but we ended up using 5 different studios. The first one was Trident Studios, just off Wardour Street in the west end of London. This is where Royston Thomas Baker recorded some of the Queen albums. It was only a few meters from the famous old ‘Marque Club.’ Dennis had to fly back to the States half way through our recording to finish off an album by Stanley Clarke, who was a huge jazz funk bass player at the time. I never really understood why Dennis had two albums on the go at once. Anyway MCA wanted us to record 2 bonus tracks in his absence for the release of the ‘Crazy Nights’ album. The 2 tracks were to be pressed onto a 12 inch single. One of the tracks, ‘Slip Away’, was one of my favorite tracks of the whole session and we recorded it with a 17 year old trainee studio engineer called Ben. Ben by the way was a very pretty girl, and do you know what,he got us a much better sound than our American big shot producer!
 
“Raised on Rock”

Ah…. Raised on Rock, one of my favourite guitar riffs! You know, any song that has got ‘Rock’ in the title sets itself-up for a fall! What I mean by that is it has to be something a bit special. With Raised on Rock you get it all - catchy guitar riff, great chorus and twin guitar solos! Written by John and I, this has long been a favourite with our live audiences….We were ‘Raised on Rock, raised on rock’n’roll’…!
By the way, Rodney Mathews, the famous rock artist who designed and painted this album cover has just done our latest release ‘Ambush.’ The original artworks for both albums are currently on sale, priced at £10,000 each. Bargain!
 
“Paris By Air”

This song was recorded in 1982 for the ‘Cage,’ album. It was written by Steve Thompson who was the brother of one of our managers at the time, Graeme (HOG) Thompson. I remember we were all sat in the Marque studios having a listen back to this song when the door bursts open and in walks this larger than life man. He greeted our record producer at the time, Peter Collins, and turned to us and said “Hi lads”. He had a small package in his hand and was waving it at us. “Boys” he said, “I’ve got it! This will help sell ‘Paris by Air’ by the thousands!” He proceeded to show us a small silver earing in the shape of the Eiffel Tower. “This is going to be given away as a free gift on the front of the single cover, it’s a winner, what do you think?” We all looked at each other and burst out laughing! “Yeah right”, someone said behind me. “Oh by the way, I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Pete Waterman!”
“LOVE POTION NO 9”

This was a song choice by MCA, our record company at the time. Written by Elvis Presley’s song writers, Lieber and Stoller, the record company thought it would be a winner! We were not sure about it at all. It’s just as well we made a good job of it! It was the last song John Sykes recorded before he left the band to audition for Ozzy, but actually joined Thin Lizzy. Recorded at the Marque Studios in Wardour Street, as part of the Cage album, this is the 7 inch single cover that was used for the Japanese release. The photo was taken from a video shoot at Brixton Academy, in 1982!
 
“TUSH”

In 1999 I received a phone call out of the blue from Jess Cox asking me if I would play in a Tygers’ reunion line-up to celebrate 20 years of the band formation. It was at the Wacken Rock festival in Germany. I jumped at the chance, but it turned out only Jess and I were free of commitments to do it. We recorded and filmed the show and this track was featured on this live CD. I love this song, one of the best guitar riffs ever! Gav, our current bass player, was also in that 1999 lineup! We headlined on the Friday night and played to 22,000 people at 1am in the morning!
“Jump In Your Shoes”

After we played Wacken I decided to put a version of the Tygers back together again. This is my favourite track from the Mystical album, which was released in 2000 on Z records. It has an AC/DC vibe to it, which is no bad thing. But to get its full effect you have to play it loud! It was the first recordings with Brian West on bass, Dean Robertson on guitar and Craig Ellis on drums. Not a bad effort, considering there was a 17 year gap between the ‘Cage’ and this release ’Mystical’ This album acted as a spring board for us and things have gone from strength to strength. These boys were the talent the Tygers needed to put us back in the running!
 
“Master Of Illusion”

This album turned out to be the heavier side of the Tygers. The track was born from an idea I had when watching ‘Rammstein’ on DVD! We further developed it while we were recording it in the studio and it became a 3 part, ten minute epic! Ritchie’s vocals are fantastic. It’s got it all, starts mega heavy, then goes into ballad mode. The middle eight has a narration thing going on and a good old metal riff to finish with! You really must hear it. If I’m honest, it’s one of my favourite Tygers' songs of all time, albeit not quite in our style. But, sometimes you’ve got to step out of the box!
“Rock Candy”

I think this was one of the first songs we all wrote together in the rehearsal room for ‘Animal Instinct’. Jack as always, came up with a very catchy chorus, and in the studio I put the talk box on to give it that ‘Tygers sound.’ The whole album was mixed in London by Ben Mathews, who is one of the guitar players in ‘Thunder.’ Ben is actually a record producer by day, and did a fantastic job for us. This was the true start of classic Tygers style rock. Released in 2008, the whole album rocks from start to finish. Don’t take my word, go buy it and you tell me!
 
“Hot Blooded”

I wrote this with Brian West, (our bass player at the time.) Jack and Craig took care of the lyrics. Two guitar solo sections, one slow and one fast and a MASSIVE guitar riff throughout. This song really does rock your foundations! It always features in the live set; it’s just too good to leave out! This version of ‘Animal Instinct’ included a DVD of a session we recorded in the Berlin Studios for a live podcast. It shows some footage shot from shows around the world by the professionals and by our fans!
 
“Keeping Me Alive”

This song is the opening track on the new album, ‘Ambush.’ It has one of my trick beginnings, (acoustic guitar) to fool the listener into a softer ride! But then WHAM! The riff hits you like an express train. All the reviews of this track throughout the world have said the same thing….it’s a killer guitar riff! We open our live set with this song; it just sets the mood for the whole show. Our fans have accepted it really quickly, even though it is a new song, it feels like we have been playing it for years.
 
 
“She”

This song very nearly didn’t make it onto the album. We all thought we were finished for the day, I was chef for the day and had our dinner ready, when Chris Tsangarides, our record producer, said “Lads we have still got one hour left, do you want to do anything else?” We all looked at each other and I said, “Press the record button!” The backing track for ‘She’ was laid down in that time. Then we had dinner, and a big glass of wine! A few weeks later Craig and I went back down to Chris’ studio to add percussion parts, my guitar solos and talk box. Jack had come up with an idea for the front of the guitar solo. He suggested we record a Spanish classical guitar, and then fire into an electric solo. So that’s what we did! Both Dean and I had never played Spanish guitar before and to be honest I think we did an alright job! The solo section is one of the best on the album.
 
“Mr. Indispensable”

I wrote this riff and took it to rehearsals. Craig, Gav and I jammed it and we all thought it was rather good! So Mr Indispensable was born.
Craig put forward a breakdown section idea (which he which affectionately described as ‘A Whole Lotta Billy Jean’. This led to Gav, our new bass player (well I say new, he’s been with us two years now) playing this amazing bass line in the middle of the song. Jack topped it off with a devilish narrative to lead into the guitar solo and the whole song just blazed along. Hey, don’t take my word, go buy it, and see for yourself!


Love and respect to you all…. The Big Catz are coming out to Ambush you……soon!
 




Robb's Blog - 29th April 2013
 

Hi people, time for some more ranting’s from a deranged old fool! Above is a cutting from the gig review at Brofest. I was asked to join Scarab on stage at the end of their set for a rendition of a Tygers classic, ‘Suzie Smiled.’ This was the first Brofest to be staged and I sincerely hope it’s not the last. Very well organised, well attended and a great vibe in the room! The first three people I met when I arrived were huge Tygers fans from Italy, and the second were fans from Brazil! All asking if the Tygers were going to play as surprise guests? Hey, maybe next year! I’ve got to say, great venue, great sound and, great lights and very well attended, who could ask for more? The Scarab boys were fantastic, we had a quick run through of Suzie in the dressing room while Tysondog were performing, and then ShowTime!

First off If you get a chance to go to this event next year, if it’s on, GO! You won’t be disappointed, I promise.

After the show I bumped into an old friend who was selling the first four Tygers albums on his CD stall…….Our Wildcat singer, from 1979, Jess Cox. This picture was taken back-stage at the event. (Thanks James!) Holy Moley! I started the Tygers 35 years ago, where has the time gone? The daft thing is I feel fitter now than I did back then!


Remember me telling you we were recording a track to be included on a tribute album to ‘Strana Officina,’ a famous Italian hard rock band from the eighties? Well, the track is finished and is called ‘War Games’ and even if I say so myself, it’s a bit good! Jack’s vocals are fantastic and Micky’s guitar playing is hot! I will let you know when and where the CD will be available.

Craig is now fully erect, sorry I mean back on his feet! When you read this blog we will have already had a couple of rehearsals ready for the next shows. We’ve all been writing for the next album and between us have amassed some 30 ideas already! Some of these have been jammed at rehearsals and are well on their way to completion. If you like ‘Ambush,’ the next album is going to completely Tygerize the socks off you!

As for young Mr Gav, he’s still on with Metrodrone, his side project, and I can tell you it’s
sounding incredible!

So that just leaves one more thing to say……….
 

Stories from the road!

Sadly, Mr Clive Burr passed away recently (original Iron Maiden drummer) and I was asked to write some kind words about him for a Brazilian web site and Radio Station. It brought back to mind a story which involved Clive and me.

When Iron Maiden played the Newcastle City Hall on the Killers tour in 1980? I met the boys at the Hall just after their sound check and went across the road to the nearest bar for some light refreshments! The pub was called, ‘The Senate Bar,’ Clive, Dave Murray, Steve Harris and me. ‘Get the beers in then Robb,’ Clive said. So Robb got the beers in! As I approached the bar, the barman smiled a bit too sweetly at me and said, “Mmm, nice hair and I love your blue eyes!” Just then I felt someone touch me on my behind. I span round to see a man in his fifties with a blue rinse! He said, ‘Hi, would you like to come to the toilet with me?’ then I turn around and the barman looks at the man, looks at me and says,’ Can I come to?’ Now the Maiden boys must have been watching because Clive came over and said, ‘Get off him he’s with me!’ I paid for the beers, Clive and I carried them over to our table and then had the piss taken out of me the rest of the night. They even continued as soon as they came off stage! What a lovely fellow Clive was … RIP my friend.
 

Robb's Blog - 19th March 2013

This is my third blog! Things are very busy at Tygers HQ at the moment, with this year’s shows and tour arrangements currently being finalised.
 
I’ve just come back from my Mum’s 91st birthday party! Happy Birthday Mum!

So what’s new in Tygerworld?

Well … Josi Warman of Warman guitars www.warmanguitars.co.uk recently made me a fantastic custom telecaster style guitar. This is from his ‘Dirty Dozen’ range and I own number 6! You must check their guitars out - pictures on his web site. Mine has a matt black body finish, tiger flame maple neck, Warman ‘Destroyer’ humbucker in the bridge position, ‘G’ rails in the neck and coil taps on both pups. The picture doesn’t really do it justice. Josi is the nicest man in the world to deal with. Tell him I sent you and I’m sure you will get a great deal!
Still talking about guitars, shortly we will be running a pictorial workshop. This will detail the journey of a piece of Birdseye maple wood from the States to the northeast of England and then hand turned into an AAA+ strat type neck. I promise you will find it very interesting.
Micky, Jack and I have been asked to play on an Italian tribute album. We will be featuring on ‘War Games for Strana Officina, a legendary heavy metal band from Italy. More details to follow…

Craig, Gav and Jack are all good. They’re busy writing, rehearsing and busy with their own projects.

‘Stories from the road.’
 
Here’s a photo of me with Motörhead’s Lemmy taken back stage at the Reading Rock Festival in 1982. The Tygers were headlining the ‘B’ stage and Iron Maiden were headlining the ‘A’ stage. Back then, Lemmy and I were good friends. That’s not to say we are not now, but our paths don’t cross quite so much! Anyway, in ’82 we were touring the ‘Cage’ album and playing in Oxford when Motörhead turned up back stage while we were sound checking. Lemmy called me over and produced his legendary Jack Daniels single bottle size flight case. Now, no points for guessing what was inside! So we start talking and drinking and Lemmy tells me Motörhead could be looking for a guitar player and would I be interested? I thanked him and said my future remained with the Tygers. He said, “Well think about it.” I’ve never stopped! So the show starts. Our usual dry ice poured on to
the stage and the intro blasted out through the PA. 5…4…3…2…1 and we have lift off! Then, out of the wings strolls Phil ‘Animal’ Taylor, Motörhead’s drummer. He proceeded to climb up the back of the PA stack (we had a huge 40k rig out on the road with us, owned by Slade believe it or not) and he fell asleep on the top of it while we were in full flow!

The next time I ran into the Motörhead boys was a couple of months later at the Tyne Tees Studios when we were appearing on the ‘Tube’. Lemmy and Brian Robertson (who had just joined Motörhead) were guests of Twisted Sister, who were also on the programme. Before our appearance on the show, we were in our dressing room pulling on our Spandex when, from very nearby, we could hear ‘Gangland’ being played. We nearly s..t ourselves when our dressing room door literally burst open and this giant 6ft 2 corkscrewed blonde-haired, bare-chested monster, appeared with a ghetto blaster on his shoulder singing at the top of his voice, “You’re gonna get yourself burned” to a tape of our song ‘Gangland’ playing on his machine! It was of course Dee Snider, Twisted Sister’s frontman. He turned the tape player off momentarily and said, “I love this song man, you guys ROCK!” and he walked back across the corridor to his dressing room where the music continued! We were stunned! An unearthly silence fell over our dressing room and then a little voice from the back of the room whispered, “I think he likes us!” You couldn’t make it up!

Robb

 

Robb's Blog - 1st March 2013
 
So onto our next blog!

Little Monster Management (Tygers' management company) in conjunction with R-Mine (our European agent) are busy booking shows. Now that we have Micky Crystal on board we can’t wait to get out there and ROAR!

Brofest is rapidly approaching. "What’s Brofest?" I hear you ask! It’s a NWOBHM indoor festival taking place at the Northumbria Students Union, Newcastle upon Tyne on the 1st and 2nd of March. Robb has been asked to ‘Guest,’ with a band called Scarab on their last number, ‘Prisoners.’ In the middle of this song they are going to play, ‘Suzie Smiled' as a tribute to the Tygers and the NWOBHM movement. The whole event is going to be filmed by German Street TV to be released on DVD later this year. If you are attending this event make sure you come and say ‘Hi,’ to Robb.

Craig, our ‘Sonic Thumper,’ has recently undergone a small operation and is now on the road to recovery. We wish him well as I'm sure his students do. Thinny manages the website content, to which Craig contributes significantly, and they go a lot of the time as our unsung heroes. They do a fantastic job and the rest of us want to say a MASSIVE “Yee dee a canny job like" to you both!

Gav, our four-string twanger, has his own side project called ‘ METRODRONE’. Gav is putting the finishing touches to an album’s worth of original material he has written with Bettie Rogers, the singer on the album. As things progress we will keep you informed. We’ve heard it, and it rocks!

Jack is hard at work in Florence working on new ideas for the Tygers' next album as well as for his own original Italian band, Mantra. He has several other side projects and is also a music journalist. A busy boy (as ever)!

Micky, our new six stringer, is perfecting all the songs in the new Tygers' live set. Don’t worry, you will all get to see him soon enough!

Now for the…..Stories from the road!

Back in 2004, we were recording ‘Noises from the Cat House’ at the Soundstation Studios. Near the end of one of the sessions, we cracked open a bottle or two of wine to relax and listen back to our day's creations! Well that was it, no more work that day. In fact Mark, our studio engineer, was ‘persuaded’ to go out and purchase more ‘refreshments’! And that was the start! The studio was located on a small industrial site at that time (well a single lane really with a few businesses on either side who all shared one outside bog). Now the plumbing for this said water closet led outside, and we discovered if you stood on one of the pipes when the toilet was flushed you got back pressure and the flush reversed and came back up the bog! Not a good discovery when you’re on the road to getting inebriated and ever so slightly evil! On this particular occasion a young lad (look at me I’m a love god!) was off to the toilet for what we hoped was to be more than a number one if you get our drift! One of us slipped out and stood on the pipe, pretending to have a fag (although none of us smoked). It seemed to take ages, but then the toilet was flushed. A split second and the lad came bursting out through the door screaming like a banshee! He ran like a penguin, overalls and underpants round his ankles back to the workshop down the lane. As he passed us we could see his arse and back were covered! No wet wipes available in those days!…….Ah, we laughed, now who’s next!

Robb

Robb's Blog - 19th February 2013
 
Time for an update from me and a few stories from the road.....!

As you may or may not be aware, Deano left the band late last year and we have been finding a worthy replacement for him. Fantastic news, we’re there! After many auditions we have our new star, so please give it up for…..Micky Crystal (drum roll and crash from Craig)!!

Now let me tell you, this guy can PLAY! Shows are currently being lined up as we speak and we are planning a British tour later on this year.

I have been asked to guest with a band called Scarab, from the early 80s at BROFEST. This is a two-day NWOBHM event at Northumbria Students’ Union in Newcastle upon Tyne on the 1st and 2nd of March. Scarab are playing on the Saturday night and at the end of their set I will be joining them for a version of Suzie Smiled so come and join us. Tickets are available from www.brofest.co.uk.

So, what else is new? Micky and I are doing an interview with ‘Guitar World’ online magazine next week and we’ll let you know when that will be posted. I’m doing some filming for some new guitar effects from China (I’m also designing a multi-effects unit for them) so we’ll see how that pans out! The company is called JOYO, (nice stuff). We will also let you know when the footage can be viewed.

Watch this space for a TYGERS TV channel, and some fun stuff to do on our website to win prizes!

We are also planning to run a pictorial guitar workshop, to show you how to make the ultimate Birdseye maple guitar neck. This will be done by the master guitar luthier, Alan Brasson.

Now the serious stuff......!

Stories from the road.

Now Viagra has not been around for that long, invented by scientists for poor souls with problems in the ‘plumbing’ department! Well, when we played Japan in 1982, on the last eve of our stay in Tokyo, the local Japanese crew gave Mick (our crew boss) this special liquid. A kind of ‘Love Potion #9,’ if you will. Instructions were to ‘paint’ it onto the erect part and enjoy hours of ‘hard’ participation! Mick followed the instructions to the letter. Unfortunately, I think they gave him a stronger than normal dose and his ‘little soldier,’ was upright for 3 days ... On the trip to the airport, the 18-hour flight home and all the next day in Newcastle! The poor bugger could hardly pee! Now before you all email the site asking where you can get this, it’s all gone! We used every single last drop of it! You know the saying, ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough.’ Well, if you could buy this at the chemist, women everywhere would be very afraid, probably even some sheep!!

Then there was the time last year when we were flying out to a European festival. After check-in, the band were all sat in the departure lounge, beer in hand, surveying the scene when the little man in my head starts playing, ‘where’s the nearest toilet and have you got enough time to use it’ trick. If you’ve have ever suffered from this you’ll know what I mean! So with 10 minutes before departure off I went in search of the toilets. The little man in my head saying, ‘Quick, quick, don’t delay, run for the toilet or I’ll have my way!’ And yer bugger he nearly did! I’m sat on grandma’s doughnut sounding like the noise from a cross-channel ferry foghorn, when I heard hysterical laughter coming from the next cubical. Then I heard more bottom noises (not from me) from where the laughter came from. The guy was obviously amused at my air biscuits, and then he produced some of his own anal audio, and it must have amused him all over again. For minutes we laughed at each other’s bum notes! Then it all came crashing down when I heard them announce the last call for my flight! Trousers round ankles and the little man in man head saying, ‘No, no I don’t think we’re quite finished yet Mr Weir!’ When I got to the gate I was the last one through, not a soul in the departure lounge!

Toilet humour….you gotta love it!

Robb
The Path to Ambush - Man On Fire
 4th November 2012

 
Click the below image for full size version
 Craig
You know when you have those days when you feel particularly good, everything's going really well and you feel like you're on a roll..? Well that's exactly how I felt the day I came up with this track! Within ten minutes I had the whole thing written and arranged in my head. I emailed two guide-tracks over to Deano, particularly one with only vocals and drums so he could "do his thang"! And… the guys loved it when they heard it. We started the whole recording session for Ambush with it, kicking off at three o'clock in the afternoon after getting the kit and guitars setup and sound checked. We each put our 'cans' on and had a brief run through of the first part of the song to get a comfortable level. Chris (Tsangarides), linked audibly to us all through our headphones, asked, "Do you want a run through guys to get a headphone mix and all that s**t?" We looked at each other thinking, at least one of us would say they wanted something either a little louder or quieter in the cans but we just shrugged shoulders as if to say "fine" so said we'd go for it. And go for it we did! The one take captured everything - bang - done!

Robb
This song is pure class, everything about it is just on the money! "The Devil inside is beating me down, I know I gotta change my ways". When I first heard this I couldn't wait to record it to see how it would turn out with Chris producing it.
Now then, who's familiar with 'Insanity Dave's Chilli Sauce'? Well me for one! I'm well known for my chilli and garlic intake when on the road, and while playing in Holland I discovered this very very hot chilli sauce ... you only need one or two drops in a dish. Remember when the Alien dripped its acid blood and it melted a hole in the metal floor
of the space ship? Well this is stronger!
I'd bought two bottles of the stuff while in Amsterdam to take home. After the show we (the band) got talking to this guy who was a bit of a 'know-it-all' and really started getting up everybody's noses! So, the subject came round to food and ... chilli. He boldly told us he could eat the hottest curry in the world (yeah right), so I challenged him to a chilli sauce eating competition and disappeared off to our dressing room to fetch my two bottles of 'Insanity Dave's'. Before returning I emptied and rinsed one of the bottles, then filled it with tomato sauce we had in the dressing room.
The barman put some chips on the bar. I gave the guy his own bottle, opened mine, poured it onto my chips and started eating them. He did the same. I've never seen anyone so ill! He fell off the bar stool, turned a funny colour, screamed, started to pull his hair out and then asked for an ambulance! He then rushed off to the toilet and seconds later came back screaming, “My manhood is on fire!” and proceeded to shove ice down his trousers! My tommy sauce was lush! Now that was a 'Man on Fire!' And yes this really did happen!

Deano
This track was born from Craig's lyrics, he had the whole song done and had been trying to write the music. He sent me his idea, which seemed pretty near the mark to me, I just changed a couple of chords to a bluesy feel to fancy it up and we were away... rehearsals developed the rest, and the breaks in the solo section inspired me to rip into some off-the wall licks before tearing into my solo.

Gav
Always a tried n tested classic rock cliche to open a song with vocals and it worked perfectly here, a great stomper of a track, smokin' hot. Reminds me of a good friend of mine who lit his lighter unknowing that the gas filler valve had stuck, and his hand burst into flames... literally a man on fire!

Jack
Craig is the "man" behind this song. He came with the melody, the lyrics and the groove. I remember his first demo and I thought: "this is going to be a killer song!". I felt immediately comfortable from the first time we rehearsed it in the beautiful English countryside. I can't wait to sing live the bridge: "Strike me down! For all I'm worth"... It's my personal tribute to my "heroes": Paul Rodgers and Robert Plant!
 

 
The Path to Ambush - Speed
 16th October 2012
 
Click the below image for full size version
Deano
These licks came from a live solo idea I had, I wanted to write a piece I could get the audience to become involved with, Suddenly it turned into a song needing lyrics, and an old song I'd previously wrote years before my involvement with TYGERS worked with it

Jack
We needed a fast song. We wanted a fast song, but you can’t force or even guide inspiration. All you need to have is patience. Speed is all Dean’s idea: he came to rehearsal with the song almost done. I loved every single bit of it from first listening. I actually replicate his vocals on the record and I literally let myself go in the final part: I needed to scream my “demons” out and I think I did, without asking any exorcist’s help!

Craig
Day 3 in the studio…
10:30am: We begin running through the song sections. Chris (Tsangarides) keeps announcing through the headphones "A little faster I think chaps"… he stops, happy at 166 bpm.
11:30am: Recording begins. It's done in two 'takes'!
That Speed-y enough?!?!
 
 
The Path to Ambush - These Eyes
 10th October 2012

 
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 Dean
I'd had the main guitar riff idea for quite a while and I'd often play it when setting up my amp in my studio or at rehearsals. During a recording session at home I was messing with some delay settings and played this riff. I recorded it, played it back, and that was when I thought... "Oooh, I like it"!
The song I'd intended working on that day was shelved and I spent the rest of the day writing what became "These Eyes". The guys loved it.
I really like the way the re-intro section after the solo fires up at an unusual bar...

Craig
From the outset with Ambush we were decidedly mindful of making sure the music we were developing was true to the tradition of the style of the Tygers. The guitar riffs had to be immediate and catchy and had to 'groove' so that every other part of the musical jigsaw would fit together perfectly.
The opening guitar riff of what became 'These Eyes' was another that HIT ME between the eyes the moment Deano played it to us...and everyone agreed.
Deano had practically the whole song completed and after a little rehearsal time was quickly knocked into an arrangement...done! Err...apart from the lyrics and melody!
Because the track was so infectious it was easy to come up with many (what I considered) 'obvious' melodies, but I wanted to approach the melody to this track differently, consciously trying to steer away from the 'norm'(al).
I scrapped idea after idea until I came up with what you now hear… "These eyes that see you, see the child inside..", the opening line to a
story of my feelings for my daughter, Danielle. I remember singing it to the guys at a rehearsal. Their response...silence! They looked at one another... then Gav burst out with "That's as catchy as ........"!

Robb
When I first heard this riff which Dean sent to all of us, I rang him and said, “Where have you been keeping this one? It’s fantastic!”. When we jammed it at rehearsal it was an instant hit with all of us and reminded me of one of my infamous stories from yesteryear.

It was 1981 and the Tygers were travelling to Sweden to play a festival. We had flown into Stockholm and then had to catch a ferry to where the festival was taking place. So, it was a fantastic hot day and at the port we all decided to go for a pint or two. After several bouts of refreshment our ferry landed and we all went aboard (or so we thought!). The horn sounded and we set sail, all of us standing at the back of the ship, smoking, drinking and generally being annoying to fellow passengers. Our tour manager at the time suddenly said, “Hang on a minute, isn't that John (Deverill) waving at us?” Disaster had struck! We had left our singer on land (this is bad), so like all good old fashioned bands we all walked into the ship’s bar and had another drink or five until quite honestly we had forgotten about poor old John!

Remember, in 1981 there were no mobile phones or computers to communicate, only carrier pigeons and Royal Mail. Once we landed at the port, off we went to the nearest bar, purely to have another consolation drink and to further drown our sorrows. After all, we were missing our singer! Four hours later John turned up, clearly upset with anger to say the least ... ”I can’t believe you left me, you ..........." (in a more colourful language than we can print here)! I was just having a pee and the next thing the boat was gone!". All I remember then was somebody shouting, “Shut up you soft …. and have a drink!”.

Happy Dayz and what such band camaraderie and support! John was a great singer and a great guy. I am sure he laughs at this now, although at the time he was very angry Welshman!

 

 
The Path to Ambush - She
 9th September 2012

 
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 Robb
Have you heard the expression, "She! Who’s she? The cat’s mother?’ Well this track was inspired by my Mum and a true story, and how clever mums really are.

Back in the early sixties my Mum, sister and myself set off one sunny morning to go to the shops in our local nearby town, Whitley Bay. We stopped off by the bank so as Mum could draw out some money. Outside, my Mum gave me a brand new ten bob note to spend on what I liked! I can tell you, it was equivalent to winning six numbers on the lottery! I was rich beyond my wildest dreams! Off we set to my favourite shop 'Woollies', or to give it its full title, FC Woolworth. Now remember the key is, how clever mums are.

We arrived outside Woollies’ front door (I was sooo excited!) and headed straight to the toy aisle where I selected a large plastic rifle, complete with bullets! I went to find my Mum and sister with my prize. “Haven’t you already got a gun like that? You don’t want two the same do you?” she said. So I put it back on the shelf. Next to it was a smaller cap gun so I chose that instead,”‘What about this one Mum?”. “Caps? No, they’re no good, too noisy!” she replied. So I put it back. “What about this one?” I said holding up a water pistol. “No, the house will be constantly wet.” “Ooookay” I said and put it back. In desperation, and not really wanting one, I picked up a spud (potato) gun and took it to the till where Mum was waiting. “That looks nice, but I don’t think we’ve got any potatoes in so it’ll be a bit of a waste of money”, so I put it back. Outside the shop my Mum said, “If there’s nothing you want in there you better give me your money to look after, we don’t want you losing it do we?”.

And that was the last I ever saw of the ten bob note. Clever mums, aren’t they! God bless you Mum, this one’s for you.

Gav
The great thing about "She" is that it almost didn't make it onto the album, but in my opinion, it has turned out to be up there with the best. It came from a jam along to a rough idea that Craig was always messing on with, but the song was never really pushed, until the final hour, on the final day in the studio! "Shall we give it go?"... "Why not!". We played it once through then went for a take. And that’s what you're listening to! Completed with 30 minutes to spare, just enough time for a cup-o-beans!

Craig
Of all the 'blog art' I've done, I'm particularly pleased with this artwork. It’s album cover territory. Hope you like it too!

I cut and copied what has become the guitar riff for the verse sections from one of Robb’s demos and joined it together many times so I could develop ideas - ‘cos that particular part just worked great for me!

We kicked it around in rehearsals a little but it never seemed to go anywhere. Even when I'd got the lyrics and melody idea for the bridge and chorus sections which we ended up recording, it took quite some time to get the music settled in. One clincher was Jack saying (at one of the live rehearsals) "How about changing the groove over the bridge section to a 'half-time feel?”. It gives the impression the song slows down, giving it the chance to rip into the chorus. There's a very different yet brilliant musical middle eight section to this song inspired by the sheer storyline... the relationship between a man and a woman. During recording I said to Chris (Tsangarides) "Castanets would work great in this section"! "Hang on, I've got some. I'll just get 'em" he replied! Brilliant! Within ten minutes they were recorded and it was smiles all round. Result! Not your usual Tygers but everyone's who's heard it so far has loved it.

 

 
The Path to Ambush - Mr Indispensable
 4th September 2012

 
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 Robb
The inspiration for Mr Indispensable came from an event that happened to me while in production rehearsals for the Cage tour in 1982. I originally called the song, ‘DC’s Ace.’ DC was the nickname of my guitar roadie at the time and his favourite expression was…..you’ve guessed it, ‘This is Ace.’ So, rehearsals were at a large warehouse in Birmingham, a week prior to our forthcoming UK tour. Now our management had negotiated with the lighting company LSD (Light and Sound Design) to make us a stage set for the tour. There was to be a large Tygers head, centre stage, in which Brian our drummer and his kit were to be housed throughout the show.

We arrived bright and early on the Monday morning, stepped off our night liner, (we were posh back in those days!) and were all made to stand outside these huge sliding doors waiting in anticipation to see our new stage set. The doors rolled back and we walked in to see a huge stage probably half a million watts of lights (we were taking out AC/DC’s lighting rig on the road with us) and this Tygers head centre stage. The head looked like a kindergarten school had made it out of paper mache!! After all this big build up, it was SHIT!! No really, double SHIT!! All we could do was fall about laughing. The head honcho from LSD was furious. Honestly it was completely childlike. The upshot was LSD agreed to make us a new stage set which was fantastic, and the Tygers head? It was removed and used as a bicycle park for the employees of LSD when they came to work!! Happy Daze…..

Craig
"Who day think ya talkin' to... just who day think you are"? From out of
nowhere this lyric and its melody appeared over Robb's hard hitting riff! It didn't take too long to complete the lyrics because while one listener may think it’s about one subject and another person something entirely different then that’s exactly right...! It’s a mixture of things leading to the same result, but I'll leave that for the listener to enjoy figuring out. Although I had all verses completed I didn't have a chorus, that’s where Jack came in. Once I'd explained my thoughts behind the story, he penned the chorus in no time.

We were rehearsing the tracks prior to going into Chris' studio and had not covered this track for a couple of weeks. As we started running through it, Gav insisted the turn-around at the end of each verse lyric was quicker!? It meant it had a 3/4 bar/count into each verse line and no way would I have forgotten that, it’s almost jazz (haha)! Still, we ran through it and lo and behold we all ended up loving the idea so, it stayed!

The middle section breakdown has a very cool driving bass and drums groove which came from me suggesting a heavy 'Billy Jean' kinda riff to Gav and then us 'jamming' it out... And what do ya put over that...? Well... cue guitar effects, percussion sounds and zany vocal calls and you have a peace building to chaos right up until only a gunshot can diffuse the situation…

Gav
God do I just love that 3/4 bit on the verse ending, it’s just sooooo right. It’s going down.... And no! Billy Jean…the kid is not my son!
 
The Path to Ambush - Hey Suzie
 27th August 2012

 
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 Robb
The track 'Hey Suzie' featured on Ambush was inspired by the original song Suzie Smiled which I wrote back in 1978! Let me tell you a true story from back then relating to Suzie..
The band were in a night club owned by Richard Branson, I think his first one in London back in 1980, when he owned and ran the Virgin Music record label. I remember it had a very big black female door security person who you just wouldn't want to cross! She really liked us and always gave me a big cuddle (I had no choice!) After recording sessions we used to go there regularly as we had no problem with getting on the guest list! Friends of Dick you know!
On this one particular occasion well into the night and after having sunk many beer, vodka and wine I spotted this girl in the distance who took my eye! She, at this point looked stunning! Remember I was quite well oiled! I slid over to her and her mate, who was also a bit of a badger (I mean fox) and said, 'Hi, caught you rolling your eye at me!' 'Which one,' she said as she popped out her false glass eye and gave it to me in my hand!
You couldn't make up this shit could you? This actually happened to me. You know the awful thing? I honestly cant remember if I gave her back her eye! Guess what her name was?........

Gav
Robbs original bass riff was the first thing that grabbed me, very nu/old skool, I loved it! And so to work. I ripped that baby apart, and just like Frank, did it my way. However, the part was an intro that just didn't work and so later became the middle section, a break down if you like....
 
The rockin, staggered main groove of the song was something that just happened in a freezing cold rehearsal room somewhere off the A19. We jammed around with it till all the accents worked nice, from there we just knew where the rest of the song was destined to go, history repeating itself, so to speak !

Craig
Inbox alert! "You've got mail from Robb"! And attached to it was a sound file entitled 'Hey Suzie'.. and that was it.. no message, no nothing! But it was enough to inspire me to write lyrics based around the character Suzie from the classic Tygers track 'Suzie Smiled'. So.. off she went around the world, only to find herself, after a lot of adventures.. "Coming home".
 
The Path to Ambush - Rock & Roll Dream
 22nd August 2012
 
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 Dean
I've had this riff for an eternity. Every time I tried to get the guys to work on it they all said they thought it wasn't a TYGERS track with it being 'detuned' and its been shelved more times than a Quo 'End of the Road' tour programme !!!! Woooooaaarrrgghhh!! Before all you Quo fans come to a TYGERS gig and spit out your dentures (I mean dummies!) I'm a huge Quo fan, the very reason in fact I started playing guitar back in the 40's! I wanted to be Mr Parfitt. I ended up being a Rossi when my mate Andy learnt the rhythm section parts before me!

Anyway.. this song was gonna end up sitting on my Mac Studio until I'd sorted a solo album deal (note to self.. 'sort solo deal'!)

I had the lyrics, a kinda Bon Scott influence, it was Craig that shuffled the vocal phrasing to what it is now, as soon as I heard it I thought it was perfect.. my favourite track on the album.

Jack
This song proved me you always have to wait for the very last moment before dropping a song! It's a Dean riff on top of which Craig started working on but the lyrics weren't the right ones at first. Then Gav came and his bass line and driving force lifted the song. Both Craig and Dean teamed up and wrote the perfect lyrics! I sang it in one take adding my personal touch, sure that the guys would loved it and... they did! All of a sudden a song I wasn't sure would make it in the album had become my favourite, that's what I call a R'n'R dream!

Gav
Dean came in to rehearsals with a great riff which Craig had
been working on lyrics to and as soon as I heard it I thought, "I'll have that thanks.. it's far to good to be a guitar riff"!

Haha! Dean ageed! And the core of the song was born. Some songs just have to be a certain way, that's Rock n' Roll.

Craig
So.. here I am persevering for weeks to get some lyrics and a melody over this really cool guitar riff idea of Deano's.. bouncing ideas back and forth to the guys with replies like "err.. its ok.. sort of" along with "yeah, not bad" and "Mmm, kind of.."! I even brought in the idea of having a girl/boy answer-back idea with Jack and had a good friend of mine who I got to record the specific sections I wanted her to sing.

Well.. I'd got the chorus secured and the bridge was somewhere close but I just couldn't get any verses happening at all. THEN! .. FROM OUT OF NOWHERE!.. Deano sends through these lyrics that blew me away! Quick-fire, intense lyrics and driving-it-home-hard, take-no-prisoners melody - aaawwwsome!

Through at Chris T's we began recorded it on the third day at around 1:30pm. After running through it once we were all psyched up and ready to go when - doof! - the electric to the whole studio goes off! NO! An Electrical Engineering firm was doing repairs nearby and were cutting off the electric for at least an hour, had not told Chris!! Take note contractors.. beware the Wrath of the Dark Lord!

Robb
Any song with Rock n Roll in the title has to be something special. You kinda set yourself up for a large fall, if the song's not a killer. I'll let you be the judge... but have your heart tablets handy, this could kill you!

Living the, 'Rock n Roll Dream,' is a pretty exclusive thing to do, and indeed if you do achieve it you're very lucky! One such lad who came on the road with us on the Wildcat Tour, in September of '80, tried to do just that... live the dream.

Saul, was sent by the t-shirt company, Cream, to sell our merchandise at all the shows. He was booked into the same hotels as us and travelled with the band. Now, he was a lovely lad, but I think we corrupted him along the way! So much so that after several nights partying he was just knackered!

Saul ended up one show night stood at the merchandise stall actually asleep at about 7.30pm, right when the venue’s doors opened and hundreds of fans poured in, all surrounding the merch stall. We couldn't believe he wasn't woken up by all the noise. John Sykes took off and re-appeared with a pair of cymbals, passed them to me and nodded in the direction of Saul. In front of everyone, I creeped up to him and clashed the cymbals together! The poor lad, he actually soiled himself! Unfortunately our plan backfired a little, and Saul, complete with full pants, fell across the t-shirt stall which then collapsed! Ahh, living the 'Rock n Roll Dream'!

 
The Path to Ambush - Burning Desire
 14th August 2012
 
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 Jack
Sometimes songs just come to you complete. I received a demo version of this from Dean and I knew instantly what the lyrics were going to be. During the time I was in the UK for the December 2011 Hard Rock Hell gig in Wales I stayed with Dean, wrote the lyrics and sang them on the demo. I then 'forced' him to plug in his 'Dean' flying V and play his best licks in the style of Michael Schenker! And... he did! It's an emotional song, it reminds me of 'Don't Stop By' from Spellbound but with a more modern sound. We originally called it 'Step Into the Fire', but preferred the meaning of the words of each final chorus line, 'Burning Desire'. It's one of my favourites on the album because it has remained as it was when I first heard it.

Deano
It's a song developed with Jack over a weekend! And it turned out the power ballad it was intended to be. We must have been on a downer!… The opening section I find quite melancholy, depressing almost... Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs) must have lost! I was using my 'Dean V' (Endorsee! Did you know?! Cheque in the post!) So my Schenker attempt was born... heh heh... if only !!

Craig
As soon as the demo 'loaded up' via the email Jack had sent I knew we had to have it on the album. There was this pounding, unforgiving drum groove Dean had used as a guide to build on which I stuck with right through to recording. It put me in mind of how Lars' (Ulrich) might well have played the song. The lyrics, apart from a couple of tweaks here and there were great, they told a story, and with a lot of depth.. job done! What sealed it though was Deans soloing. Lovely
phrasing to complement Jack's melodies and then full-on tear-your-face-off sonic soloing over the huge chorus and link sections.

Then came the recording at Chris Tsangarides'… We started recording the backing tracks on 16th February at quarter past two in the afternoon and nailed it on the second take take! Chris was delighted.. it meant the kettle could go on again! Jack was in the studio two weeks later to record all the vocals and between Chris and him they had a blast building all the passages, especially the outro with the amazing vocal layers.

The comic-style artwork to go with this blog is one of my particular favourites I enjoyed creating. I had a couple of ideas and it pretty much turned out as per the first one!

 
The Path to Ambush - Play To Win
 6th August 2012
 
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 Jack
Now here’s a song that made me think, “The lyrics and melody sounds so complex that am I be able to sing it? And… have I done something wrong to Craig in past weeks?”.
I'll try and be a little more clear. Craig wrote all the lyrics and melody for the song and, being Italian as you all know, I thought I was going to struggle getting all the lines right when it came to recording it in the studio. It was more a psychological barrier. I discovered only when I started recording it was actually no problem.. What a relief! I nailed it in two/three 'takes' if I remember well. This song also has my favourite solo part, Robb's initial solo and Dean’s end idea. I get goose-bumps every time I hear it!

Craig
I've mentioned before how Robb gives 'random' titles to his demo ideas and this one was no exception! I had no idea he was a Lady Ga Ga fan! What it did do was lead me in the direction of a gambling theme.

Like many many subjects out there gambling has its own language, abbreviations, code, slang and many play-on-words so I dug deep to find out as much as I could to help build the storyline.

The title Play to Win was conjured up from the images I'd gathered in my mind after reading more about the world of gambling and its gamblers. The card game Poker is particularly complex and professional player's mindset approach are like honed athletes, they play with a addictive-like passion yet aggressively.. they play to win.

To get many of the tricky lyric/melody ideas to work was a challenge and I had to consider Jack getting his tongue around the crazy phrases. But.. I didn't have much choice because often lyrics control their own flow so I cut a demo and sent it to Jack. His initial response was… "Eh! Don't you like me anymore?!" Once he practised it and got it under his skin he was fine just as I'd expected. His vocals on this track, just like on all of Ambush's tracks is, fantastic.

Robb….
So……I’m upstairs in my studio, just recorded the backing tracks (first idea/demo) to Play to Win (although at this point it hasn’t got a title yet) with a smug pleased smile on my ‘fizogg.’ All of a sudden a song title jumps into my head! ‘Poker Face.’ Why I don’t know, well actually I do know……

Let me take you back to early ‘81 when we were recording Spellbound at Morgan Studios, with Chris Tsangarides our producer at the time and of course today on Ambush. John Sykes was a big fan of Gary Moore and Chris had just finished working with Gary. At John’s insistence Gary was invited down by Chris to one of our recording sessions. John, Gary and I all got along great and Gary offered to bring some of his guitars and vintage Marshall amps for us to use. The next day, as good as his word, Gary arrived with a load of goodies for us to try. After our session had finished we all met in the studio bar for a few drinky-poo’s! Somebody suggested we should go to Dingwalls in Camden Lock to see a band. So that’s what we did, but not before Gary insisted on mixing our drinks! John and I were happily drinking white wine when Gary said, ‘You need a vodka in there.’ So vodka shots were placed in our wine. After a few of these alcoholic depth charges the three of us set out to the venue. But not before stopping off to buy a case of Holstein Pils, courtesy of Gary! And a few of these slip down the neck on the way as well! When we get there I’m a bit fragile to say the least but Gary and John look like they have only had a glass of water!

Stay with me now as this is the good bit! I only last about 45 minutes in Dingwalls before I get in a taxi to go back to our record company rented apartment in Regents Place, opposite Radio one. I remember the taxi was a Triumph 2000 TC. I sat in the front and just as we pulled up outside these very posh apartments, with a concierge in top hat and tails on the door I spewed projectile alcohol all over the window screen and dashboard. The driver opened my door and I fell out into the gutter. I looked up and saw this poker faced concierge leer down at me and say, ‘Good evening sir, have we been poorly?’ He took me by the arm and half dragged me into the lift where I spewed again all over his shoes! When I got into the apartment my band mates had organised a further surprise for me….. As I entered my bedroom on all fours, from the top of the door a bucket of cold water came tumbling down on my head. Everything went dark.. I thought I was dead.. then I realised I had a bucket on my head! As I retreated to my bed being a safe haven the whole thing collapsed to the floor, as the legs had been cut off and placed back underneath! I lay there wet, cold, battered and bruised on the collapsed bed on the floor feeling very sick when…….. the bloody headboard fell on top of me!
The Path to Ambush - track 3: One of a Kind
 30th July 2012
 
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 Robb
I still laugh out loud to this day when I recall this story! It relates to the original title I gave the riff: ‘Pool Hall Daze’…
While on a 6-week European tour opening up for ‘Gillan’ we played a show in Belgium in a 6 to 7 thousand capacity sports hall (together we were selling these out!). Our management at the time was responsible for booking our hotels and Graeme (Hog) Thompson, one of our management team, had got a hold of an AA book of European guest houses, not fantastic news for us! When we arrived at this particular establishment, a funny old moth ball smell hit you straight away. The elderly receptionist told us to go to the bar and have a cup of tea while our rooms were being prepared. So we all headed into this tiny bar, the size of your living room, with a pool table as its centre feature. Playing a game already were two gents in their twilight years. As we watched, with a Stella in hand, uncontrollable laughter broke out! Every time either one of them jockeyed up to take a shot, they let out a very loud fart. It was all in the leg movement, you see! As they moved position, more air expelled from their rear. We were in stitches! One of them looked over and smiled as if to say, ‘Thanks for cheering us on!’ When we were shown to our rooms, the beds were straight out of a 1940's hospital movie - metal frame and even a clip-board hung on the end of the bed! It turned out that we had been booked into an old folks' home which doubled as a guest house to make extra income! We arrived back that night after the show around 11.30pm and were all made to feel very welcome by the residents. They said we should have invited them to the show and we all proceeded to party 'til 4 in the morning. The youngest by the way was 79! Now that’s Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Craig
When we first began working on Ambush, 'One of a Kind' was probably the very first riff idea of Robb's that I started to roll with. The idea Robb had sent was actually made up of 3 sections and it was the opening riff that I latched onto straight away. It had all the distinguishing marks of classic Tygers - a catchy riff with a great groove. I came up with the opening line in a flash and it never changed from that day! I sang a few more ideas into the iPhone ('Voice Memos' is an great little App!) and finalised it in my studio. Jack came up with a great third verse idea which we soon got flowing in the song. The other 2 parts of the demo track didn't even come in to consideration, as the bridge section and chorus lyrics/melodies flowed easily and readily, all based around a theme of vampires. I've always been a fan of the classic Hammer House of Horror films with all the acting greats through to today's Van Helsing and Underworld Trilogy. I'm particularly proud of the lyrics and melody to the chorus of this track, alongside the other 2 I penned - 'Keeping Me Alive' and 'She'. Once they get a grip, you can't stop singing them!

Jack
This was the very first song we wrote for the album. The first demo goes right back to 2010. It's based on Robb's riff, upon which both Craig and myself added some bits. I remember playing our first demo to Simon on the way to catching the ferry to Northern Ireland. He loved it from the first listen! But Robb didn't!
When we started the writing sessions last autumn, it was the first song we started working on. We made a damn fast version of it and a damn slow one and then we simply went back to the original demo and re worked the solo part.
Lyrics are about ... vampires! Not the 'Twilight' ones though, we kind of like more the Florida-based ones as seen on the TV series 'True Blood'. They are definitively more R'n'R, don't you think?
The Path to Ambush - the opening track: 'Keeping Me Alive'
 22nd July 2012
 
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 Robb
So, the story behind the inspiration for the riff of ‘Keeping Me Alive,’ is actually quite a simple one…
This song was originally called, ‘Biff’ after my friend Biff Byford from Saxon. The song is steeped in the essence of 1980. I remember standing listening to Biff talking (well, preaching the gospel according to Biff) when we were opening up for them on the ‘Wheels of Steel’ tour in May 1980 down on the South Coast. Whatever your experience in life was, and no matter how bad, Biff’s experience was worse. He told me his family actually used to "live in a shoe box in ‘t’ middle of road"! We had an absolute blast on that tour, what a fantastic bunch of guys. Graham Oliver had an old Hondo black Les Paul which fired fireworks out of the headstock. On this particular night these fireworks are wildly sparking out the end of the guitar when there is a small explosion and across the other side of the stage a bit of firework from Graham’s guitar had blown off the other guitar player’s baseball cap, complete with his wig! Happy daze...

Craig
I'd burnt this idea along with around twenty of Robb's and Deano's ideas onto a disc to play in the car. One particularly dark, rainy, windy night in September of last year while travelling home across the Pennines from a gig, I'd turned the volume up on my CD player to drown out the sound of the rain pounding against the windscreen. As soon as the riff blasted out of the speakers the lyrics and melody sprang to life with the opening line.. "Feels like a storm up ahead, I can taste the air". Anyone travelling home to a loved one focuses on getting back safe and sound and with that in mind I had the basis for the storyline.  Before setting off, while packing my gear into the car
I'd thought to myself, "it's gonna chuck it down with rain all the way home". I could taste the dampness in the air. It ended up being torrential and I had to double-concentrate the whole way. Within twenty minutes I had almost all of the lyrics for the verses but that's where the riffs ended.. the flow of the melody led me on to write the bridge and chorus in my head which I recorded as soon as I got in. At the next rehearsal the guys loved it and quickly threw the chords together for it. Half an hour later… the opener for the album was born.

Jack
When I first heard Robb's riff I knew it was going to be the opener of the album. It's the perfect example of a "Tygers' riff" and people will love it I'm sure. Craig wrote most of the lyrics; he had a very clear idea of the subject. The original title was 'Taste the Air' from the opening line. I remember helping complete the last verse with the line "… Face to face with the demons in my head, I will follow my faith" - that was my state of mind while on a train heading down to London to catch an early flight from Stansted airport to Italy. Ryan Air must have inspired that!
The Path To Ambush.. Part 5
 24th May 2012

 
As we venture on down the path to Ambush, we learn of Gav's role…

Gav, while still new to the Tygers' writing arena, has really brought a load of additions to the writing experience. Determining the 'groove' of the song is fundamental to Gav and he will try to adapt a part with colourful contrasting chords and notes. Gav has years of experience in composing / recording from his time in The Almighty and this experience has brought a real positive twist to 'Ambush' which will surprise a lot of people.

The one great thing also about Gav is that he says it how it is and is not shy in displaying his displeasure of a song structure, we may not always agree but at least he brings to the table an honest opinion which has to be considered......and as you would expect he does this in very colourful Geordie expletives!

Tygers
 
The Path To Ambush.. Part 4
 19th May 2012

 
A little further down the path to Ambush, we learn how Jack plays his part…

Many people ask how the band, based in the UK, manage to write when Jack lives in Italy? When in the UK Jack will work with either Craig or Deano to further develop the demos by bouncing ideas around, inspired by anything and everything, past and present. When UK gigs are scheduled Jack often arranges to fly into the UK up to a week early for writing sessions. When preparing himself for writing with the Tygers Jack immerses himself into the era and style of writing by listening over a period of days to the vast amount of recordings he has of material in his extensive collection.

Additionally, the band have embraced technology. Using Mac based software, ideas can be recorded and layered and sent through the ether to one another, quickly downloaded and played back. Having this technology available has allowed Jack to explore his ideas for harmonies, call-backs, refrains etc so that not only do the whole band get a clearer picture of how the finished version of a song is intended but also enables Jack to go into the studio sessions incredibly well prepared.

Tygers
 
The Path To Ambush.. Part 3
 16th May 2012

 
As we continue down the path to Ambush, we learn of the part Craig played in helping to bring the album together…

Though Craig has his own writing and recording projects constantly on the go, his forte in developing the songs is not just in working shoulder to shoulder with Gav to establish a great groove but also to develop lyrics and melodies over Robb and/or Deano's demos. He'll cram a CD with the demos for playing in the car and load them on to his Mp3 player. Spontaneity comes wherever he happens to be playing the ideas at the time.

Craig's own songs are, for the most part, composed in his head and nearly always with the lyrics and melody complete. There are times he sends out an idea which has a drum track and basic guitar track as guides but more often his ideas are worked out in the rehearsal room. The bands regular rehearsal room is not sound-proofed but it is an isolated building out in the countryside so when Craig starts 'singing' his ideas, fortunately no one has to hear what the the other guys have to put up with!

Tygers
The Path To Ambush.. Part 2
 2nd May 2012

 

With the new album not far from release and thinking you'd like to hear how the songs came together… so, we continue down the path to Ambush.

Over to Deano..

Like Robb I work within my home studio, either spontaneously recording ideas or things that've been mulling around in my head for days, weeks, months…! Once I've got a strong idea I'll build a track up with a rough drum guide and then layer it with one or two more guitar parts and of course, add a 'token guitar solo'. More than often I'm concerned with getting a riff I'm happy with to 'groove' but sometimes a melody and lyric idea leaps out at me which means I can build a song around it. That means I'll record a vocal guide of my idea, which quite often I have to do more than once cos of the cats howling in the background! ;o)

So, another brief insight, this time from Deano, with more to follow from the rest of the guys. Don't forget, we'll go a little deeper into how the tracks were developed in their own particular way with some cool, fun artwork thrown in for good measure.

Thanks once again for joining us on the path to Ambush… be back with you soon.

Tygers



 
The Path To Ambush.. Part 1
 1st May 2012


 
Now we know you all want to hear the new album… there's not long to wait now!

People often ask how the songs come together so here's how the path to Ambush was trodden…

Its over to Robb…

"Well, I work in my home recording studio developing ideas, specifically 'guitar riffs'. I'll programme a groove/rhythm into my drum machine to play along to, add a bass guitar part, one or two more guitar 'layers' to the track and.. bingo, we have a mini composition. Riffs are often inspired by events that happen when the band's out gigging, be it while I'm pondering over the early days with the Tygers or we're bouncing ideas off one another at sound checks! I always give my ideas a title, some of which make it into a song's lyrics or even become the title of the track. Mind, some of my titles can be very random and colourful… depends on how much wine I've drunk that evening"!

So, we've set off with a brief insight from Robb and there'll be more to follow from the rest of the guys. But it'll not end there, we'll go a little deeper into how each track was developed in its own particular way, through rehearsals to the finished recordings. There'll be some special, fun artwork to compliment the tracks too.

Thanks for joining us on the path to Ambush… catch you very soon.

Tygers

 

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