Page 49 - Metal Hammer Issue 334 - UK (May 2020)
P. 49
JUDAS PRIEST
studio, so pretty much went straight
back in there with Priest.”
K.K. Downing: “[Ringo] wasn’t
there at the time. But he took all the
valuables out, and also set down rules
for us to follow. There was to be no
riding of motorbikes on the grounds
– so we did that. There was also to be
no fishing in the lake – so we did that
as well! What do you expect from
a Brummie heavy metal band? He also
had two papier-mâché dinosaurs
hidden in the grounds – they were
massive. And when you came back
pissed from the pub up the road, they
could really scare you!”
ork started on February 1,
1980, and was completed by
the end of that month. This
was the first studio album Priest did
with Tom Allom, although he had been
at the helm for Unleashed In The East.
He then collaborated with the band
on their next five studio albums and
one live release across the 80s (and
subsequently returned to co-produce Backbreaking work: K.K. Downing
2018’s Firepower). The band recorded in and Rob Halford at the Rockford
various rooms throughout the house, Speedway, Illinois, in July 1980
not just in the studio, experimenting to
get the best sound for each instrument. offered by modern technology were bottles at the back of the house? It was
still in the realms of science fantasy… fun. We even tried stuff like putting
K.K. Downing: “Tom was great. and none of them knew Doctor Who light bulbs in the microwave, to hear if
He was an excellent musician as well – well enough to blag a trip in the TARDIS. the noises they made when heated up
a much better piano player than any of could be used somewhere. Anything
us. He also came up with a lot of ideas. Tom Allom: “There were no such thing was possible; nothing was off limits.”
He was a great addition to the team.” as samples in those days. So bands had Tom Allom: “We wanted to get the
Tom Allom: “Everyone wanted to be a lot more inventive. I often feel sound of a laser beam cutting through
a really live sound for the album. So, it sorry for young musicians now, because at one point [for Rapid Fire]. So, we got
made sense to use rooms all over the they’ve got everything at their a billiard cue and waved it through the
house to get the right ambience for fingertips. That’s the sort of thing that air, with microphones above and below.
each instrument. I know we got Dave can stunt creativity.” And then I recall we slowed the tape
a massive drum sound in the hallway. Glenn Tipton: “What we did for Metal down, to get the sound you hear on the
I would probably have gone down the Gods was load up a drawer with cutlery. track. And you know the cowbell on
same route with Leppard, but because Then we shook it, and took out spoons Breaking The Law? We used a kettle to
they were so young and inexperienced and knives until we got it just right. get that sound. It was so badly beaten
it was important to have everything in It was trial and error, but worth it in up that I doubt it was ever boiled again!”
a more controlled environment. But the end. Breaking The Law features the
Priest were older and used to going into sound of milk bottles. We just got a load rior to the release, a story
studios, so we could spread ourselves of them, smashed them on the ground appeared in the media claiming
out more. Besides, the band already and recorded these. It had the desired that the master tapes for the
knew the layout at Tittenhurst Park, impact. But the sound of the sirens on album had been stolen by a gang in
because that’s where we’d mixed New York (where it was being mastered)
Unleashed In The East.” “THE PAPIER- and held to ransom for £50,000. This
K.K. Downing: “You know the famous was all nonsense and had been dreamt
room at Tittenhurst Park where John MÂCHÉ DINOSAURS up by Tony Brainsby, Priest’s publicist
Lennon did the video for Woman? We at the time, who was infamous for
took out the TV and pool table that were COULD REALLY concocting wild tales to get his clients
in there and used it to rehearse. attention. It didn’t go down at all well
We used any place available to get the SCARE YOU!” with Priest, but it certainly worked, as
I did my guitar parts in the library.
the band received coverage in the sort
best possible sounds.” K.K. DOWNING, GUITARS of national papers who would usually
The band put a lot of imagination ignore them.
into creating particular sounds on the that track is real. We went outside and K.K. Downing: “If we’d have got wind
album, using cutlery, milk bottles and recorded a passing police car – or at of what Tony was planning, then we’d
a billiard cue. They even used a kettle to least that’s my recollection of events!” have told him not to do it. Judas Priest
mimic an effect, all in the unholy name K.K. Downing: “We’d come up with don’t need such cheap publicity. Our
of metal. In the 1980s, bands had to get crazy ideas in those days. And who music is what makes us stand or fall.
creative, because the advantages wouldn’t want to join in with smashing Not cheap shots like this.”
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