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The Story So Far

2013 see's the Tygers of Pan Tang looking forward to getting out on the road to promote their latest, highly acclaimed album 'Ambush'.

The band was originally formed in 1978 by Robb Weir (guitar) who then recruited Brian Dick (drums), Rocky (Richard Laws, bass), and Jess Cox (vocals). Rapidly building a local following from relentless touring, they were first signed up by local independent label Neat Records who released the debut single ‘Don’t Touch Me There’ before MCA gave them a major record deal. The Band released their debut album 'Wild Cat' in 1980. Also in 1980 John Sykes (later of Thin Lizzy, Whitesnake) was added as a second guitarist to compliment the musical direction the band wanted to pursue. Jess Cox was replaced by Persian Risk vocalist Jon Deverill and this line up released the classic LP 'Spellbound' in 1981. The album was critically acclaimed and loved by the fans. Instead of promoting 'Spellbound' to the full with worldwide touring the record company wanted the band to record a third album almost straight away which produced the under-rated Crazy Nights album. The frustration became apparent within the band and shortly after recording Crazy Nights and just before the start of a European tour John Sykes decided to leave. The band approached ex-Penetration guitarist Fred Purser who had to learn the set in two days before the tour began.

The bands fourth album 'The Cage' (1982) was their most accomplished effort so far and the future looked promising. Unfortunately again the record company intervened and were not prepared to promote the band unless they agreed to play more cover recordings (this followed the band's worldwide hit with 'Love Potion No. 9'). The band tried to break free from their contract to concentrate on their own material, but MCA's demands exceeded the willingness of any other record company to buy out the contract and the band broke up in frustration.

In 2001, Robb Weir decided to reform the band, despite being the only original member. Robb wanted to keep the Tygers name alive, play the music he loves and to play for the fans who he had remained close to. The new line up was Dean Robertson (lead guitar), Brian West (bass) and Craig Ellis (drums) who remain to this day and are by far the longest serving members in the band’s history along with Robb. In 2004 fantastic unknown Italian vocalist Jacopo Meille was approached and joined the band, he also remains to this day.

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In 2007 to showcase some new material a promotional EP was produced. Although intended for promotional purposes only, fan pressure ensured further copies were printed to meet demand. The 5-track EP called 'Back & Beyond' was very well received and the 2 new tracks 'Bury the Hatchet' and 'Live for the Day' were the perfect taster of what was to come in the future from the Tygers.
In 2008 the band released 'Animal Instinct' and if the reviews were good for the 'Back & Beyond' EP then for Animal Instinct they were spectacular. Geoff Barton from Classic Rock Magazine gave the album an 8/10 with comment that he preferred the album to both Whitesnake’s 'Good to be Bad' and Def Leppard’s 'Songs from the Sparkle Lounge'. The album received fantastic worldwide reviews in magazines and websites alike.

In 2009/10 the band continued to play live across Europe to promote 'Animal Instinct' and found themselves in Holland, Italy, Greece, Poland, Norway, Germany, Spain and of course the UK. The reception from the fans and the reviews from the media and press of the performances were fantastic and showed that rock fans across the world still have a special place in their hearts for the Tygers.

2010 was regarded as the 30th Anniversary of NWOBHM, this also saw the Tygers celebrate the 30th Anniversary of their debut release 'Wildcat' and to commemorate this, the band re-recorded 5 tracks from the 'Wildcat' album and called the release 'The Wildcat Sessions'. The EP was again a fan favourite and also gave the new line-up chance to modernise some of these classic songs. The Sessions series was such a success that the band agreed to continue recording this format to celebrate the early albums in between writing new material.

In 2012 the band released their second full album with Jacopo Meille 'Ambush' which was directed and engineered by Chris Tsangarides. The album received worldwide acclaim once again but unlike 'Animal Instinct' the promotion was overseen by Rocksecter Records which a small dedicated underground label based in the UK. They managed to get 'Ambush' available in most countries through their network of Distributers. The artwork received special attention which was created by Rodney Matthews who also created the iconic Crazy Nights album cover. 2012 also saw the band play at Sweden Rock Festival and recieved a great reception as well as touring Spain for the first time. The latter half of the year however saw a change in the bands personnel with long term guitarist Dean Robertson deciding he wanted to leave to concentrate on some other musical projects he was involved in. The Tygers curse once again took a big bite into a consistent and stable line -up.

2013 is shaping up to be an interesting year, there will be a new guitarist, a few live shows across the UK and Europe and as many Festivals as the band can play. We also really need to record and release 'The Crazy Nights Sessions' and as soon as the band has availability we will try and get these down in the studio for general release.