Due to the fact that besides a pair of Iron Maiden and Shinedown shows next weekend, gigs over the next two and a bit weeks are a bit patchy so rather than bore you to death with numerous Maiden tracks (which I wouldn’t mind) I’ll do some random tracks to keep the posts flowing.
Having said that then the first track on the iPod after shuffle has been selected is Screams in the Night by American heavy metal band Hellion, identified by front woman Ann Bolyen’s unique love them or hate them vocals. How bizarre that I’ve got two different songs with the same title in three posts.
This album (along with the Postcards from the Asylum EP) was another one doing the rounds at school in the late 80’s. I had the vinyl for a length of time but I don’t think I have it now. It was a time where I was listening to a lot of the female fronted acts at the time, Warlock, Vixen, Lita Ford, etc. With Hellion though I just couldn’t get into the odd vocal range. On reflection though and with thirty years of hindsight I don’t know why I didn’t get into a bit more considering I listened to an insanely massive amount of King Diamond at the time and later on Fear of God.
Over the years I’ve revisited the band every once in a while and have grown to appreciate it more. The mention of Fear of God above is kind of prophetic as the late Dawn Crosby and Ann Boleyn have a very similar style and I never knew Ann replaced Dawn briefly in Detente circa 2008 for some European shows.
Hellion had their issues with management and band members over the years and disappeared for large chunks of time. The newest material surfaced in the shape of the Karma’s a Bitch EP in 2014.
Checking Setlist.fm I was surprised to see that one of the few listed UK dates happened to be a Shelley’s nightclub back in March of 1988. Shelley’s was a local venue to me which had quite an impressive list of bands through its doors, but a venue I never attended. Lee Aaron, GBH, Little Angels, Vow Wow and Godflesh are some of those who have graced the stage there. The last noted act to hit the venue was The Prodigy in 1991 when this area was quite a big deal in the early days of the rave and acid house explosion, apparently. It closed down due to the unruly ravers behaviour and excessive drug use. And people say metal fans are trouble!
I think I’ll revisit the full Hellion back catalogue next time I have some free time, but for now I’ll have to be content with the handful of tracks I have on my phone.
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