by Richard Walker
June 27, 2005

In the legendary pantheon of all that is heavy from the UK metal scene of the 80's, one of the names that is in the elite alongside such luminaries as DESOLATION ANGELS, PAGAN ALTAR, HELL and TYRANT is the mighty APOCALYPSE. Despite only issuing one incredibly rare 7" on their own GATE label in 1982 ( "Stormchild b/w Chosen Few" ) and demoing several songs which you can still find today making the rounds through the underground trading scene, APOCALYPSE managed to distill the essence of everything that makes metal the choice of champions. For the uninitiated, their sound was a crushing mix of SABBATH, HAWKWIND and MOTORHEAD. However, that piece of lazy journalism aside, they were actually much, much more than then that. Evolving a unique and distinctly English sound unlike anyone else at the time, which is why they should always be considered as one of the jewels in the crown of the NWOBHM, surpassing the commercial and non-heavy sounds purveyed by many a "name" band of the time. I recently tracked down the incredibly talented lead guitar player STEVE GRAINGER to question him more on those events which took place over 20 years ago....


Hellride Music: The mighty behemoth that was Apocalypse was originally born from the ashes of an earlier band called Stone Lady, when officially did Stone Lady evolve into Apocalypse? Did you start afresh totally under the new name or where any of the songs from Stone Lady used in the Apocalypse live set?

Steve Grainger: Stone Lady were basically a covers band. Mark and I had been in a band called Phaze, a rock band that played a lot of original stuff with the odd cover chucked in.”Bye Bye Johnny”, “I Saw Her Standing There”, “Caroline”, that sort of stuff. We always played together. As I say as brothers Marc and I always had an allegiance to each other and when he was asked to play with what was left of Stone Lady he held the door open for me.

I suppose we all got together in about 1981. Apocalypse was formed. We kept a few of the covers that Stone Lady had been doing and added a load of new material, written By Nick Brent and me. I had always been writing songs and Nick added a great deal with his lyrics leaving me to provide the music. Nick was more from your folk rock to Deep Purple influence whereas Marc and I were influenced by Sabbath, Hawkwind, Alice Cooper, even Pink Floyd yo name but a few!

Hellride Music: In the earliest days of the band, your brother was a full time member I believe as drummer, indeed as was bassist Dave Robertson’s brother (Or so we are led to believe in the bands entry in the NWOBHM encyclopedia). So which line-ups recorded which tracks from the 3 demo songs (“Nightstalker”, “The Light” and “Midnight Train”) as each cut was recorded in a different session? Did you actually release all three together as an official cassette?

Steve: With the turn around in the band’s line up, and style and name our bassist left the band to concentrate on sound systems and later setting up his own studio. So within A few weeks Nick was the only one left and Dave Robertson joined the band. So to clear things up right now Apocalypse were Nick Brent vocals. Me, Steve Grainger lead guitar, keyboards, backing vocals. Marc Grainger, drums and Dave Robertson on bass. Only at the very end of Apocalypse did Graham Roberts replace Marc on the drums, pretty much at the time we sadly changed our name.

”Night Stalker” was recorded in London’s Tin Pan Alley studios. It was a special recording produced by a London rock DJ called Neil Kaye he was putting together a compilation for the Japan Market. He was a real character. Sitting in the control room with his long blond hair waving his arms around like a demented conductor as we did our best to follow what the fuck he was on about while we played. I have to confess he did make a few interesting suggestions which gave the song a kick up the arse to be fair. I didn’t like the guitar sound though, even now I almost wince when I hear it. Still Marc certainly came up with the goods that night drumming at such a pace, we struggled to keep up!!!! Once we did the recording we never heard from Neil again. The light as many call it was/is “The Child” ............ what a track eh? This was the first demo we did and it has my brother Marc drumming on it, obviously, but the version on the Omega album The Prophet featured Graham. (Mind you it was still Marc’s snare drum that we used as it sounded so good in the studio.) So this first recording of “The Child” we did in the studio that our ex bassist had set up. This track was the first track of ours to be played on British radio by that famous rock DJ Tommy Vance, (Bless Him) cheers to you Tommy, wherever you are. Thanks particularly as this led to my rating as a “dynamite lead guitarist” by Phillip Bell in the music press…………..lovely!

”Midnight Train” I said should have been the A-side to the single, but it was replaced by “Stormchild”. We recorded it in Oxford at the Stable Studios with money given to us by my mum. (She recently gave me back her copy of the single which is the only one I know of that didn’t have the lyric sleeve.) It cost us 200 quid to record and as many will know these things fetch a tidy sum nowadays, so thanks mum. What an investment. Sadly the masters are long gone. But I have got a load of unprinted negatives from the rolls of black and white photos we shot at the time. I’m not sure whether these tracks were ever released as an official demo or not ………blimey it was a long time ago.

Hellride Music: Apocalypse developed its unique sound very early on. Did you make a conscious effort to move in a certain direction or find yourselves drawn naturally over time? What were initial inspirations musically with the band?

STEVE: As I said I was influenced by various people both classical and popular. I had been taught to play “properly” piano, trumpet, clarinet and church organ. You can only imagine the despair of our parents back in our early teens when Marc finally got his wish of getting a drum kit and we set about sticking pickups inside the family Joanna and running it through whatever means of amplification I could lay my hands on! I had discovered that joys of 12 bar boogie and Marc was a fan of the Keith Moon School and boy did the neighbours know it.

In a way I was a bit of a recluse when I wrote music. I hated coming up with riffs only to find that I was someone else’s. Nick and I just wrote whatever came to mind. The music always came first then I would give it to Nick sometimes with an idea for the lyrical content but generally he did his thing and a song was born. I was forever picking on Nick for sounding like a folk club performer and he would try to get me to not to use a crybaby pedal. It was replaced by what was deemed a more fitting snugly rug in the form of an overdrive. (Borrowed permanently from one of our roadies, Phaedon, or Beaky, as he was known. Thanks mate.) Then Marc and Dave would give it their input, playing as only they knew how and with a little tweaking from me to get the music to happen as I wanted there would be the Apocalypse sound. Voila!

I am proud to say that I had big hand in the lyrics to “The Chosen Few”. I had a few lines of text and the story of the soldiers returning home only to get blasted by their own side! It has always been special to me and in fact as you know I have just re -recorded it.

Hellride Music: One of these songs, “Night Stalker” was actually recorded for Roundhouse DJ Neil Kay, for a supposed sampler LP for Japan. Although you never heard a thing from him afterwards, did you actually give him the master tape or hear any explanation as to what happened?

Steve: As I say we never really heard any thing more from Neil, shame really. Who knows maybe he did the album and kept the money.........stranger things have happened, but hey good luck to him. It was people like him who played our stuff to a pretty big audience, cheers mate.

I suppose we would both have had some form of master tape but I know not where it is. It probably went in the skip with the boxes of singles and masters we chucked away many years ago ………AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH you pratt Steve!!!!!

Hellride Music: The track “THE LIGHT” was your first studio recording (And later re recorded under the OMEGA moniker.) Although at this stage I believe you were all highly experienced live musicians, did you find any difficulty with your first real studio work? Where was this recorded? Do you have any anecdotes to tell from this session?

Steve: Marc and I had recorded in a studio before when we were with Phaze and had realised pretty soon that time was money and that things had to be right long before the studio door was opened. Other people that we had come across in the band had told US this and we thankfully took it to heart.

Of course as it was a mate’s studio we had as much time as wanted really but I likes to keep us all on our toes and as such I think we took to the studio pretty well. Certainly I love being in studios even now. And indeed I have got a small studio here now. I look back with great amusement at what happened one day during the recording sessions was that a mate of ours had made a “Dummy Load” for an amp. Those days life for a poor band like us was pretty primitive. Even the effects were sparse. Trying to overdrive an amp without boiling the blood in your ears was a tricky business. Hence the dummy load. This was plugged into the speaker out of the amp instead of a cabinet ant then an inline D/I box was used to grab the signal into the desk, (you with me so far?) Anyway we couldn’t afford a pro unit but our mate with the studio, who it has to be said is an absolute genius normally with things electronics, had made this Dummy Load.
It consisted of two coat-hangers bent to form a circle of parallel wires across which endless resistors were soldered. Thus there was a resistance equal to that of a speaker cab but it didn’t make any noise. Marvellous. (Least ways, this was the plan) So we hooked all this together in the control room and cranked up an old valve amp. I was half way through the big guitar solo, I was flying man…..when suddenly all hell broke loose. This fucking contraption was glowing red-hot, the solder melting and the resistors were dropping off. One by one they fell on to the carpet of the studio burning deep into the rubber underlay. What a fucking stink. You’ve never seen so much beer thrown deliberately on the floor. Oh what joy………

Hellride Music: Highly apparent in all your songs is the individuality stamped in each one, every cut sounds like Apocalypse, and for that time period you were certainly one of the heaviest bands in Europe. Did you find this worked against you for getting exposure or gigs, as most of the mainstream press were more interested in bands with a more shall we say “Commercial” approach?

Steve: Eeeeeerr yes!

Hellride Music: Were you aware of the other bands who like yourself where out of step with the rest of the scene and producing music that was simply too heavy for the major labels and music press of the time? Bands like Desolation Angels, Pagan Altar, Arc, Tyrant, Hell, etc…

Steve.: I was aware of Pagan Alter - not for their music so much as for there fantastic name. Desolation Angels also.

Hellride Music: In 1982 you released the incredible “Stormchild” b/w “Chosen Few” 7” on the GATE label. Was this a private pressing financed by yourselves or an actual legitimate independent label? Did you ever envisage that nearly a quarter of a century later that it would be so highly regarded and used as a benchmark of quality and heaviness by the underground metal scene?

Steve: Yeah, the single was a private venture if you like. We decided to start our own label. Just for a laugh really. We needed a single out there to promote the band. We named the label Gate records as a nod to the Starting Gate in Milton Keynes…..it was virtually a bikers headquarters. The first time we played there I thought “ shit, we are gonna die” but fortunately they loved us. We even went on to play at one of their weddings. They really took us to their hearts. A lovely bunch of lads (and lasses).

Apparently many of them loved the B-side. “Chosen Few” because they would play the fast section over and over again but not at 45 rpm……..on 33rpm. That was the speed they liked it at, and you know what, the may have had a point! It is well heavy at that playing speed…………….oi come back, you can try it later!

Hellride Music: Did you ever record anything in the studio with Apocalypse other than this well circulated three demo songs and the 7”? What other songs were part of the bands live set? Did you ever break out of the London / Home Counties area for gigging or was it all based around there?

Steve: We recorded all sorts of stuff - that’s what mates with studios are for eh?
Tracks like “Abandon All Hope All Ye Who Enter Here”, “Killing Man, .”In the Heat of the Night” - we even covered Gershwin’s “Summertime” (a bit louder than his version though. Natch) and and and………shit I can’t remember. We did a few covers as well. “Paranoid”, “Wishing Well”, “Born To Be Wild”, that sort of stuff, all dished up good and loud. I keep coming across stuff that I don’t even remember doing, blimey.

Hellride Music: Eventually time was called on Apocalypse, and the band became the equally as dark but slightly more progressive in feel - Omega. Under this name you issued your own full album on Rock Machine and had a cut on one of Ebony records sampler LPs. Do you regret the name change at all, and what prompted it?

Steve: I hated the change of name but there was a problem with another Apocalypse who were tied up with Paul Weller somehow. We got a lot of music press coverage bitching back and forth but ultimately it was decided that we would change our name.

It was a real blow to me that Marc was leaving/ or had left the band. We had always been joined at the hip as it were. We could read each other’s minds when we played together. When playing live if I went off on some musical tangent for a while during a song Marc would be there as if by magic steering the rest of the band along. To be quite honest it didn’t seem like Apocalypse without him anyway so heh , we changed the name. I got on with it.

We never really broke away from the home counties and London. Mainly because we had to drive to a venue, set up, play, clear up and get home. As did the roadies, the lighting guys and indeed our small but loyal following.

Hellride Music: Looking back now, do you have any opinion on how things happened for the band? What is your favourite memory of your time as Apocalypse? Are you still in touch with any of the other members to this day?

Steve: The best time we had was probably the biker wedding. Up in Milton Keynes there was a whole clan of bikers. They were kept in check by MUM. I’ve no idea who she was or how she got to be. but her t-shirt said “Mum to the bikers” and Mum she was. Hey I’d have dared anyone to say otherwise! They all loved her. She must have been in her fifties then. Anyway, one day we were asked if we would play at her wedding. Wow what a gig. We were met on the outskirts of MK by Mad Billy the biker on about thirty others all on their choppers and trikes etc. Some good and some, well to be frank looked like fucking death traps to me but heh, We were then escorted off to one of their houses which looked like any other house on the outside but inside was like a den. We had a whole night of boozing etc. all of them and us finally crashing out all over the floors. Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon playing over and over. The following day we went to the venue……………wait for it…Newport Pagnell Community Centre.

It was a normal gig for us until we noticed that some of the lads had got their bikes inside the venue. As we played THE CHILD bikes were screaming up and down the hall screeching to a halt on the polished wood block floors. As nick started to sing the bikes stopped and you could just make out the noise of these bikes ticking over during the quiet section of the song .As soon as we kicked into the heavy bit off they roared again burning rubber, leaving long black lines on the floor.

With the split of Omega, Nick went his own way, he had other things going on that sort of kept him apart from the band. I haven’t seen him for years.

Me and Marc are joined at the hip again and we see Dave here and there. Indeed after Omega called it a day, me Marc and Dave did a few bits and bobs in my little studio that I had got together. I have never stopped recording ,writing …dreaming……………I must try and put it together one day!!!!! Look out for Apocalypse Reborn folks!

Hellride Music: And finally, the last words are yet again yours….

Steve: Me, Marc and Dave and no doubt Nick if he knows about all this feel humbled. Stunned even. We just did what we did because we believed in it, and loved what we were doing. Up to a year or two ago I was completely unaware of the interest in us. Despite the odd phone call from complete strangers after copies of the single, ‘cause their old copy was scratched (yeah, nice try!) One day someone sent me an Ebay item showing a single selling for over 200 dollars in the U.S. Well blow me I thought, (or words to that effect). Then slowly good people like yourself got in touch and things have just seemed to kick off again.

I had almost worn away that ball and chain of ambition. Selling my old studio etc but then I find that you and others like you had opened Pandora’s box, and Damn, I looked inside too. Now my mind is racing around like it was 25 years ago. Sod writing middle of the road ballads for uninterested publishers who, it seems, wouldn’t know a good song if it hit then in the face. I thought that I, we, the band had failed, fallen by the wayside. But no. We haven’t, we didn’t. Even the fact that some thieving Johnny Foreigner types have pirated the Omega album, The Prophet, doesn’t ruin things for me. In fact I’m almost flattered. 25 years ago we dropped a small pebble into a great big pond. The ripples are still there to be seen and they have spread further than we could have imagined even in our dreams.

Bands are nothing without exposure and sites like Miskatonic/Hellride are the very lifeblood that keeps us, and bands like us, alive. No words can really express our gratitude to you for your unerring support. It sounds corny perhaps but it is true. The same thanks goes to our fans, not only the number of loyal supporters from years past but also to our growing number worldwide. I am currently contemplating where to go from here. A new album maybe? New stuff? Old stuff? Blimey, all these decisions. So keep your eyes open.

Hellride Music: In closing its worth mentioning that Steve is currently working upon an official band website and new material which I can assure you is equally as heavy as the APOCALYPSE songs, the sneak preview I heard (A reworking of the ”CHOSEN FEW” classic) promises great things indeed – here’s to the next 25 years!!


Download an MP3 of The Chosen Few

ISEN TORR

Well there it is chaps, my first contribution to Hellride other than getting Chris to call his attorney on a regular basis about slander laws...hope you enjoyed it!!

kiss of death

Thanks for that Rich, it was about time knowing more about APOCALYPSE/OMEGA. Good choice for your first interview in years

Let's hope now Steve G. found the necessary incentive to push his amazing band into the 21st century. I stil haven't recovered from "The Child"

Johnny_Cool

I've already read this great interview over at the Miskatonic forum... an interesting read about a truely amazing band!!! As I'm writing this, I'm listening to the great "Chosen Few" song... thanks alot for sending it, Rich!!! It would surely be amazing, if Apocalypse or Omega would be back one day...

__________________
She wanted to see the lights of the city,
She wanted to see them shine,
She wanted to ride in a big, fast car,
But she ain't wanna ride in mine...

Oldschool Metal Holocaust -> http://www.metalcoven.de/records/

powerofhate

great interview with band rich and good to read he is contemplating the return of apocalyse!!
stephen

acid

Absolutely a very interesting interview, Apocalypse rocks and I hope we'll hear more from them soon...

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Geen gezeik, ik heb altijd gelijk.

ISEN TORR

I'm sure we will...but I'd be interested in hearing the opinions of some other Hellride users too...

ARC

Great read old one!
The Apocalypse 7" is damn good

__________________
There ain't no running away.
The Hand Of DOOM will reach you...

Gorgon

Just wanted to say thanks to Rich for this great interview, and of course APOCALYPSE for existing! Apocalypse's "Stormchild" single is easily one of the best singles I have ever heard. Absolutely storming stuff with maybe the coolest guitar sound ever?
Anyway, I hope I will hear more from Apocalypse!

Mike

Already read it at Miskatonic, but am glad to see it here. One of the best of the NWOBHM. "Chosen Few" is one of the best 10 NWOBHM songs period. The Apocalypse demo & 7" and the Omega LP are all immense works. Like Pagan Altar very deserving of a resurrection. Thanks Rich!

Should we bombard Steve with e-mail pleas for that resurrection?

ISEN TORR

Steve is busy working away on new stuff which I hope will see the light of day in the near future, I heard his new version of "CHOSEN FEW", thank the metal gods its just as heavy albeit a little differently arranged....watch this space so say I!!

And hopefully he'll find the time to get an official site up soon...

The DOOMED one

I was givin a copy of those songs a while back. Great stuff. It would be nice to hear from them again in one form or another. Good review!

DOOM OUT

AGVD

Excellent and informative interview of a legend. Apocalypse were definitely one of the few NWOBHM bands that truly deserved the H for HEAVY!

GOATLORD

Great interview, its great being able to get the backround on such seminal releases. Superb.