Less than a decade after it had been forged in the white heat of the late 60s, British rock was in trouble. Its original pioneers had either split up, lost touch with reality or were spiralling into drug-addled irrelevance, their thunder stolen by both a wave of platinum-plated American bands and the incendiary punk movement. It may have been down, but British rock wasn’t quite out.
As the 1970s hurtled towards its conclusion, a new wave of heavy bands from all corners of the United Kingdom sparked off a grass-roots revolution, rewriting the rule book on how things could be done and giving their more established counterparts a shot in the arm. Its leading lights would go on to achieve the unthinkable, but even the bands who didn’t and got left behind – the foot soldiers, also-rans and no-hopers – were heroes in their own way. For a few glorious years in the late 70s and early 80s, these small islands were the epicentre of the most vibrant, exciting and groundbreaking scene around.
This is the story of how British rock heavied up and changed the world once again...
Playing music was always the thing for me. I started when I was twelve or thirteen, started to see and just wanted to do it. Then Hendrix comes along and blew me fucking head off.
I grew up in the 1960s. I listened to all the pop groups – , , . My mum was a pianist, and my friend was in a blues band.
We’d watch him play and I decided to learn the guitar a little bit. That’s when I wanted to get involve.
