Tag Archives: paul-mario-day

SWEET – to release studio tracks from mid ’80s as ‘Reincarnation’

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Metalville is releasing the 7 track SWEET record ‘Reincarnation’, from 1989, on April 10. Reincarnation is really Side 4 , the studio side, of the band’s double LP. Live At The Marquee, recorded in 1986. There’s 4 tracks from Live At The Marquee, 3 of which were co-written by Andy Scott, Paul Lanzon, and Paul Mario Day. In ’86, Paul Mario Day (ex Iron Maiden, More) was an excellent choice to front the band, and also there was keyboard player Phil Lanzon (ex Grand Prix), who would go on to join Uriah Heep that year (where he’s remained since). There’s also a cover of the old Motown classic “Reach Out (I’ll Be There)”, plus as a bonus (I suppose) the 12 inch single mix of that one, and 2 other songs that hadn’t been released til now. So basically, Metalville has split the live and studio songs from Live At The Marquee to make 2 separate releases. A good set of songs, too bad there wasn’t more from this period. RIP Mick Tucker, Paul Mario Day

RELEASE INFO:

The legendary songs – recorded by Andy Scott, Mick Tucker, Paul Mario Day (Iron Maiden), Phil Lanzon (Uriah Heep), and Mal McNulty (Slade) – are available on an album again for the first time since 1989. Reincarnation also includes two previously unreleased bonus tracks!

Andy Scott says today about the recordings and the SWEET line-up at the time: “The year was 1985. The reformation of SWEET was under way. I had been hanging out with Mick Tucker, and we’d talked about putting together a ‘new’ rock lineup of SWEETafter the hiatus of the original band.

“I had recruited Phil Lanzon on keyboards and Mal McNulty on bass; now we needed the voice! Paul Mario Day walked in, and we looked no further. Paul was the original singer with Iron Maiden and had a stint with the band More before he joined SWEET.

“Our first dates were in Australia – total sell-outs, which boded well for the future. Europe followed suit, and three sold-out nights at the original Marquee Club in London produced a live album, video, and DVD. Live at the Marquee did well in various charts around the world, and Paul’s vocal performance has stood the test of time.

“There were also tracks recorded at Pacific Studios in London which feature Paul’s incredible vocals. These recordings were meant to be the start of a new phase for SWEET, but due to a management dispute, only four tracks were released.

“Sadly, Paul is no longer with us, but the legacy is right here for everyone to appreciate.”

LINEUP:

Paul Mario Day – lead vocals
Andy Scott – guitar, backing vocals
Mick Tucker – drums, backing vocals
Mal McNulty – bass, backing vocals
Phil Lanzon – keyboards, backing vocals 

LINKS:

www.thesweet.com 
www.metalville.de 
www.facebook.com/metalville

MORE – Warhead (1981)

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MORE released 2 albums back in the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal period, and both with very different line-ups. It is the band’s debut Warhead that is the better of the 2 and of most interest. On the debut MORE consisted of bassist Brian Day, drummer Fran Darch, guitarists Laurie Mansworth and Kenny Cox, and singer Paul Mario Day, who was known to many as the first Iron Maiden singer. MORE were signed to Atlantic Records (UK, US, etc..) and with US Southern rockers Blackfoot also being on Atlantic (and very popular in the UK at the time) Al Nalli (producer/manager- Brownsville Station, Blackfoot) and Henry Weck (Brownsville Station) were brought in to produce the first album.

The band had debuted on the Friday Rock Show in 1980, playing 4 songs.

Warhead features 8 tracks, with side 1 one opening with a good riff rocker “Road Rocket”. This side also features a decent ‘metal’ version of the Arthur Brown classic “Fire”, which seems like an odd choice for a cover, but as a fan of AB, I find it pretty cool and interesting. It is side 2 which is the better side (IMO), opening with the title track, which features a big intro, which makes me wonder why this wasn’t the first song on the album!? It also includes another fine riff driven rocker in “We Are The Band”, and standout here is the closing cut “I Have No Answers”, which gallops along in places, and to me, is the closest thing to Iron Maiden here. Two singles were released from Warhead – “Fire” in the US, with the non-LP “Lord Of Twilight”, while the UK and other countries got “We Are The Band”, backed with the non-LP “Atomic Rock”.

I don’t know how well Warhead did at the time, but the band did shows in Europe (Monsters Of Rock) , and opened for Iron Maiden on their Killers tour. It seems more of a curious collectable as it features Day (with his connections to Iron Maiden and Sweet), as well as guitarist Laurie Mansworth, who went on to form Airrace, and later manage The Treatment. Both Paul Mario Day and Laurie Mansworth left the band before the 2nd album (tho’ Day had a songwriting credit on it). Paul Mario Day went on to record 2 albums with Wildfire (which included Andy Scott Sweet members Jeff Brown and Bruce Bisland) before joining The Sweet as well. Guitarist Kenny Cox went on to record with ’80s band Mammoth, which also included John McCoy (Gillan) and Nicky Moore (Samson). Cox passed away in 2022 (RIP).

Warhead is well worth checking out, at the least, appealing to fans of Samson, Tank, and a few others from the NWOBHM era. There is a ‘More’ still performing to this day, albeit with no original members.

RIP Paul Mario Day.