Artist:   Tygers Of Pan Tang

Date:   22 September 2007

2007 has been an amazing year for all us NWOBHM fans with tours from such legends as Saxon, Diamond Head, Blitzkrieg and now the mighty Tygers Of Pan Tang all gracing our venues. 

Shortly before their gig at the Carling Academy in Newcastle we catch up with founding member Robb Weir to find out what the band have been up to since we last spoke to him in 2002 and to meet the bands new vocalist Jacopo Meille.   

MM - Hello, how are you all this evening and how did the gig last night go?
Robb – Absolutely tremendous.  The gig last night went well, it was packed to the back doors.  The reaction from the crowd was tremendous.

MM- The band are scheduled to release a limited edition 5 track EP in November called ‘Back & Beyond’? What can you tell us about it?
Robb – Yes there are three old tracks on it and two new ones, hence the title ‘Back & Beyond’.  I wanted to call it ‘Back & Beyonce’ because I thought we could maybe get her to do some backing vocals but that didn’t happen, so we just called it ‘Back & Beyond’.

The back tracks are ‘Take It’, ‘Hellbound’ and ‘Rock N' Roll Man’, and the new tracks are ‘Bury The Hatchet’ and ‘Live For Today’.  The feedback from the new tracks we played last night was that they were very well received.  We're writing songs now in the style of the early 80's but using modern technology rather than modern sounds, if that makes any sense. 

I think the ‘Noises’ album that we did was a great album but on reflection it was perhaps not quite us.  We’ve just laid down 3 new tracks last Sunday and they’ve turned out absolutely tremendous.  Jack has to go and sing on them next week and they’re even better than the two we’re playing tonight.  We’ve been told that they’re absolutely on the nail.  This is going to be the album that should have maybe been our fifth album. 

The boys in the band now is absolutely top notch.  A cracking band.  Quality musicianship.  I’ve never worked with anybody as musically directed as these fellows.  We’re just a family, when Jack came to us I don’t think he felt uneasy at all.  Now he’s just the baby in the band. 

Jack - The main thing is that from the first moment we got together and decided let’s write, we didn’t know if it would be brilliant, but without saying anything we all knew what direction to take.  Lyrically wise we decided without much talk to go back to the 70’s and 80’s flavour and it was all very natural, everybody contributed.  Robb – We’d sent Jack the previous albums and the setlist and up to this point we’d never met him, we’d never seen him, we didn’t know what he looked like. 

MM – How did you come to find Jack?
Jack – The previous manager contacted an agency which was in Switzerland and I got an email saying their was a very well known British band looking for a singer.  I said ... OK, let’s give it a chance.  I still had my original band so I sent over the website address.  After a couple of weeks I got an answer to say that me and an American and another guy were of interest to the band.  So I said ... OK, I am happy, you make you decision and if you need more info or material it’s no problem. 

Then I got a call from Ian who was our last manager saying would you like to come for a rehearsal to Newcastle and I said .. OK, why not.  We were supposed to be doing some gigs in Italy so we prepared a setlist and thought let’s do these gigs in Italy, if everything works out well then we’ll see what happens.  The bad thing about this story is the gigs in Italy didn’t happen, but we got along very well.  So the band said although the gigs in Italy are not there, would you still be interested in being the singer in our band, and I said Yeh! 

Robb – We had some shows already booked over here in the UK so Jack flew over and we met him in Darlington at The Forum where we used to rehearse.  Obviously it had to be discussed between the band what we thought but there was never a bad or negative comment from anybody, Jack was in from that moment.  He’s well and truly part of the family now. 

Jack – The band took on a great responsibility to take me on as their singer and I still feel a lot of responsibility being the singer in front of a band with such history, it’s not like with a new band who are just getting it together.  Well all get along and I’m slowly learning the Geordie accent.  The hardest thing is when you get off stage and you meet people and they have very broad accents.  Last August we played a gig in Wales and that was an experience for me. 

The vibe when we go into rehearsals is always fun and it’s the same when we get ready to go out to play music.  We’re all very concentrated and focused on what we want to achieve, which is the best thing you can ever dream for when you are in a band.  We’re always having fun and enjoy doing what we do. 

Robb – When it comes down to the music nobody has anything outrageous to put forward.  Everything is kept how it should be, we all want to keep that classic sound to it but also keep it sounding new as well.  Not Nu Metal or anything like that, we don’t want it to sound dated, we want it to still sound fresh.  Jack – We’re all working together to get the right Tygers sound, that is our main goal.  We all contribute in achieving a good balance of what people are expecting from the Tygers, but at the same time letting them know what we are now. 

I think the songs we are writing now fit that perfectly.  It’s all organic, we’re not forcing to do anything, we’re getting the vibes together to find the sound we want.  Especially the songs I’m putting the vocals to next week, there’s one I’m sure is going to be amazing.  It has everything, it has the riff, it has the vocals, it has everything the way we want it to be. 

MM – Does it have a name yet? 
Jack – Well actually we’re working on it.  There are lyrics but everybody is calling the actual song a different name and our drummer is very concerned about that.  He wants us to give the songs their proper titles.  Robb – Craig is our vocal advisor stroke “try this”.  When Jack is singing in the vocal booth Craig sits next to the engineer and saying … Jack why don’t you try singing it like this or like that … because Craig is actually a great singer as well.  Jack always tries it and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t work.  More times than not it does work and Jack will say now you’ve said that, maybe I could do this? ... and you end up getting this layer of vocals that sounds tremendous. 

Jack's been recording 5 songs in my little studio that I’ve just mixed this morning actually, we're going to add them to our website.  We’re hoping the new Tygers website will be launched next week and there’s going to be snippets of some songs on there.  Jack’s recorded some of the songs we’re going to be doing tonight but in a slightly different vocals and they work really really well.  You can sing the same song slightly differently twice and give it a slightly different feel to it and variant and people think they are almost two different versions, although it’s the same underneath. It’s a bit like making a cheesecake, you’ve still got the same base underneath but you can put different topping on it. 

Jack – I think it’s important to have this other person involved who is not the producer or singer, but who can listen to what is being done and advise on different vocal styles.  Normally when I record I would just go straight in and do three takes of the song complete and then we’ll choose which one we prefer the best.  Craig is the perfect partner because he can listen and might say … oh you can do better, or why don’t you try this or that … we get along very well.  To me it is also a kind of relief because if he says it’s ok then it is ok and I know it’s going to be alright.  That’s what happened the first time we went in to record, he stood there and the minute we were both completely satisfied with what we were recording, I knew that we would get along.  We all know what we want to achieve which is great. 

Being a musician and being in a lot of bands it’s not easy to find that.  I’m perfectly aware that what we have with the Tygers right now is not something very easy to find.  I am well aware that it’s not just about having fun, it’s something more.  We are writing music together, which is a great goal.  I didn’t expect it to be like this but I’m very happy that it has turned out this way. 

Robb – All those bands I think are great.  Mick Box I remember from the 70’s, I used to idolise him and thought he was tremendous.  He wasn’t the worlds best guitar player but I just thought he had it all.   The ultimate big boy guitar player for me is 'Big Ted'.  I adore Ted Nugent, he is such a showman.  (Ted Nugent actually performed earlier this year at this very same venue so I ask Robb if he was here to see 'Big Ted' in action).

Yes and I thoroughly enjoyed it as well!  To me Ted Nugent is the only person in the world that can walk on, play a few chords and then laugh at everybody.  That was the opening of the show, he laughed at everybody.  I thought … there’s only you could do that mate, there’s only you that could take the piss out of a thousand people and then kick into a song.  He doesn’t need an intro tape, to be able to do that is just tremendous.  Nobody else could get away with doing that, but 'Big Ted' manages to get away with it and you just think … ah there’s old 'Big Ted'.  That’s something very special that he can do. 

I remember seeing him in 1976 playing at the City Hall, he played the Mayfair too with his loin cloth on.  I remember he was going to thump somebody for spitting on him.  He stopped the show and he was not having any of it.  That was a cracking show as well.  We’re probably all of an age where our past thoughts are of those classic bands, Nazareth, Uriah Heap, Alex Harvey Band, Thin Lizzy, the list goes on and on.  I used to be a massive Rush fan of their earlier stuff.  I suppose you have to get your influences from somewhere and I certainly take mine from back then. 

Now when you listen to modern albums a lot of them have forgotten the gizmos and the tricks that happened back then.  On our new album there is going to be a Voice Box.  It was funny because the kids that are opening up for us tonight said … oh you have a Voice Box just like Bon Jovi! … I had to stop myself from saying Bon Jovi were using this in 84/85, I first started using this in 78!  Actually I was using it from 76 but it was 78 before I started recording with it.  So really I was a bit before Bon Jovi, perhaps they copied me?

Whenever you say Voice Box everybody always thinks Bon Jovi and 'Living On A Prayer' and you’re thinking ... No!  Nazareth used it on 'Hair Of The Dog'.  Dan McCafferty operated it then.  He used it like a bagpipe and it was done in a different way. 

MM – It's great that you now have these modern sounding twists to your songs that the kids can pick up on.  Most of them don't know your history so they are judging you on what you sound like now and not your past glories.  
Robb – Yes they’re taking us purely on face value.  That’s why you’ve got to take a songs like ‘Suzie Smiled’ from 1980 and make it into a song from 2007.  ‘Suzie Smiled’ then to what it is now, is not a million miles away, but it’s certainly changed.  It’s the same time and the same chords, but we’ve got twin lead harmony guitars in it now.  We’ve also swapped the solo’s in it now.  That was the top song of the night at last nights gig and people loved it.  The place just lifted when we played that. 

Jack – Sometimes it’s a case of keep it simple, less is best.  Robb – Yes absolutely, it doesn’t have to be complicated and a million miles an hour.  The best guitar players are the ones that write the songs, they’re not the guitar players that can play at a million miles an hour and show off, play the guitar upside down with their nose and twang it with their knee caps.  Those types of guitar players just leave me cold. 

You look at someone like Paul Kossoff who was quite a good player, he wrote 'All Right Now'.  You know that a song doesn’t need a Yngwie Malmsteen type guitar solo in it, it just needs a Paul Kossoff guitar solo in it.  You doesn’t need to be a million miles an hour technician because at the end of the day it means diddly squat if you’re not playing on a song that people want to hear.  It boils back to the old whistle test, not the Old Grey Whistle Test.  This was a test where if after hearing a song you could whistle it, you knew it was a good song and people would remember it.  That’s stayed with me all these years.  Come up with a good song with a catchy lyric and once you’ve captured people and can play it and perform it, it doesn’t matter whether you’re the best guitar player in the world, you’ve achieved what you set out to achieve. 

MM - Moving on to the new album now, I believe it's going to be called ‘Animal Instinct’?
Robb – Yes it’s to be called ‘Animal Instinct’.  I think it was Craig that came up with that cracking name.

MM – Do you know yet when the album will be released? 
Robb – We’re looking at around March/April time, January/February time is not a good time to release a new album as people are feeling those post Christmas blues and want to book their holidays and stuff.  That’s what we’re looking for and then we have that to take to Europe, or wherever in the World, over the year ahead.

Although with new albums you only really play maybe two or three songs from them at first.  I don’t think you should try to ram a whole new album on to people.  They’re coming to see the band and perhaps relive the past and hear some of the old songs.  You can still feed in some of the new ones, tell them it’s a new one and ask them what they think.  If it’s a good song you’ll sharp know, but if it’s just a medium song you’ll sharp know that as well. 

Jack – We have two new songs in the setlist tonight and we have a couple of old songs that we’ve tweaked, not changed a lot, but just to see what people’s reaction is to them.  With the new songs we really need to find out what people’s reactions will be towards them because then we know if this is what we really need.  If not then we need to think again.  We want to let people know we are back so we have our old favourite songs in there alongside the new songs.  

MM - How did your performances at the British Steel Festival in April?
Robb – That went great, they’d originally asked us headline it and we said no.  We’ve headlined that many shows and know by the time the headline act comes round, everyone’s had a lot to drink, they're thinking about their transport links, it’s better to go on in the prime of the night.  We went on about 8 pm which was a perfect time.  Everybody was there, the room was chock-a-block and nobody had had too much to drink.   

Overall it went really well though.  I think that whole show has been booked to move to a festival in Greece in February and apparently the Greeks have insisted we headline that one so as long as we’re allowed to go on at 8 o’ clock at night I don’t mind, everyone can just go on before us!  

We also played the Patriot Games in Monmouth two weekend’s ago and that was tremendous as well.  It was a good set-up.  Generally anything that’s run by Hell’s Angels or bikers is very well organised, they’ve really got their shit together. All these huge multi-tattooed bikers are some of the nicest people you could ever wish to meet.  I have so much time for them.  I really love those people and they have such tremendous stories to tell.  Hopefully we’ll carry on playing those events until we’ve all got our guitars strapped to our zimmer frames!       

MM – How difficult has it been for you to change or adjust to the new era of the music industry, the internet, digital files going back and forth and all that stuff? 
Robb – The advent of the internet has changed absolutely everything in the music industry.  It’s been very sad to see LP’s disappear, It’s been very sad to see 7” singles disappear, but on the plus side you can record your music and sell it as a download now.  People don’t have to buy a full album, they can pick and choose which tracks they want at a cost per track.  I’ve certainly found in days gone by when you went to buy the new album by your favourite band, there were maybe six tracks out of the ten on the album that you liked.  Then there were maybe four tracks that we used to call fillers.  You’d lift the needle and bump it across to the next track because they were the fillers and you didn’t really want to listen to those songs as much. 

Now you have this fantastic era where you can listen to snippets on the internet and then decide that you’re going to buy certain tracks from an album and leave the rest.  Yeh the bands don’t make as much money I suppose, but the people are getting the songs that they want, so the customer wins.  The person buying the music is voting and has the choice.

MM – It might actually focus some bands into putting more effort into the whole album instead of just having say six really good songs then adding in these second rate filler songs to make up the album. 
Robb – Yeh I take your point, but when do you say to a band that a song is a filler and not really a full on track?  Because the band will say … Hey! What are you talking about? That’s a full on track, it’s my favourite track! ... they might have tunnel vision and cannot see that it is indeed a filler.  It’s like saying to somebody that they have bad breath, it’s not something you want to hear, and for an artist who’s taken the time to write and record a song only to be told it’s a filler, it's like pass me a gun. 

Jack – At the same time I think that people are not daft.  People have taste and they can make the choice now.  I think in the past year when I think of the albums that I have bought that have come out, they have contained more singles and less fillers.  I think bands do have to consider that this is a consequence of where the administration of records labels might have in the past released albums that were maybe not full albums and had three good songs and the rest were rubbish.  People got fed up with this and I think you can start to think of the internet as a reaction where people say they will only get what they want.  It’s not a case of anybody saying they have to buy the whole album if the whole album is not worthy. 

Again the minute that the album goes out, especially here in England more than perhaps in Italy, as soon as you start to promote the album and release it at a reasonable price, people will still buy it.  They want to have it.  The two things previously were the music was maybe not that good and secondly the prices of CD’s went so sky high.  You had to start making choices.  Now you have this other option where you can either buy the CD at a reasonable price, or download the tracks you want.  I’m sure if prices on music CD’s are reasonable people would definitely prefer to buy an original CD than download, particularly as this is not always of the best quality.  With a CD you have the booklet, the lyrics, you have everything. 

Robb – I have to say that I never download anything, I won’t even watch a pirate video.  I’m very much for the original product, I like the booklet.  The lovely thing when you used to buy an LP, particularly when you had a gate-fold sleeve, you’d put the record on and you’d open the gate-fold and look at all the photo’s and read the blurb, I like a bit of info on what’s happening with the band.  You felt as if you really had something for your money.  Whereas if you just download a track off the internet it sits on your computer hard-drive and then you have to burn it off on to a cd and you have this faceless thing. 

Jack – Well society has changed and whereas in the past you maybe had time to spend just listening to music, now you don’t.  You listen to CD’s in cars while you’re driving, they make it more practical because people spend more time in cars than in the home.  I’ve been listening to proper records lately where you listen to the whole album from track 1 to track 10 and you really connect with the music. 

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but records are turning out to be a little shorter than before.  Whereas they might have been 80 minutes and you’d have the whole CD full, but you never had the time to listen to the whole album.  It’s nearly impossible as well if you do an album that long to keep it all great music for the full 80 minutes.  Now I feel records are 45 – 50 minutes long and you have more chance to get all great songs and have time to fully listen to them all. 

MM – Yes, I remember you used to be able to copy an LP on to a tape to play in the car and it would fit perfectly on to two sides of the tape if it was a 60 minute cassette, or one side of a 90 minute cassette.  That’s what you wanted.  Anything more was too long. 
Jack – Yes exactly.  I think 80 minutes is just way way too much to listen to while I’m driving on my way to work.   

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