The roots and rise of heavy metal in the UK and Australia [Metal Tree: 4]
Another post in the series tracking the evolution of heavy metal and it's sub-genres. Post 3 covered the rise of heavy metal in the United States. The first post in this series if you missed it can be found here.
In this rise post just like the one before this bands that were likely called Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Heavy Rock, or some other label at the time will be listed. Those are but three of the labels for the sound that would come to define Heavy Metal that were in use prior to the term being adopted. There are often artists/musicians that do not like to identify themselves with the label Heavy Metal due to the stigma that sometimes can be associated with that label. The stigma does not change the fact that at their core the bands are playing a sound that fits very well within the label Heavy Metal.
It is possible I may list some bands or artists that are not metal, but may have influenced it's rise in some way. In such cases I will strive to explain their inclusion.
As with previous posts, my desire to make this series was inspired by the documentary series Metal Evolution by Sam Dunn and Banger Films. They had a great poster they flash to during the documentary series and so many of the names and sub-genres are never explored. I finally decided I'd like to study all of those elements on that poster, add my choices, and eventually go beyond what is on those posters.
Metal Evolution S01E03 - Early Metal Part 2 UK - on Youtube
Let Us Begin
The first act I wish to speak about and show examples of is not exactly Heavy Metal. They did contribute indirectly to the concept of Heavy Metal.
The Yardbirds
Band Started: 1964
Known for: Many songs. They are also known for being the incubator for several future famous guitarists such as Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. While "The Yardbirds" itself is not really in any way like heavy metal, those guitarists would go on to be key players in the early sound. Their influence definitely was felt in the UK, but in many cases it was global or at the very least in the United States as well.
Eric Clapton - 1964
Jeff Beck - 1966
Jimmy Page - 1968
Cream
Band Started: 1966
Known for: Powerful distorted/fuzzy catchy lines. Incredible drumming, and guitars. This was covered in more detail on the second post in this series (Before there was heavy metal...).
Pink Floyd
Band Started: 1967
Known for: A great collection of music and "The Wall", but I have been informed that prior to Syd Barret leaving them they were indeed a heavier band and should be added here. I am thus, adding a couple songs as an edit. Thanks @richq11
The Master's Apprentices
Band Started: 1967
Known for: having crazy crowds and audiences that rivaled the Beatles. This was an Australian band that I am adding as an edit, as I'd never heard about them until @stephen-somers pointed them out to me.
Slade
Band Started: 1969
Known for: "Glam Rock" inspired by David Bowie and others. Later on Glam Metal would seem to resurrect some of the aspects of this style. It is personally not a style that was appealing to me, but it does have a spot on the Metal Tree. Their song "Come on feel the music" would be covered by Quiet Riot in the 1980s to great success.
Led Zeppelin
Band Started: 1969
Known for: Amazing songs, amazing front man, and figurehead guitar song "Stairway to Heaven". This is where Jimmy Page went to after The Yardbirds. A lot of people consider this the first true heavy metal band. I believe they are one among many, and aspects of their sound became hallmark parts of many metal acts.
Santa Barbara Machine Head
Band Started: 1969
Known for: They were very short lived. I learned about them today from @richq11. Though I see they had Jon Lord on keyboards who would go on to be one of the primary members of all line ups of Deep Purple. If you look into this act you won't find a lot from them. I did find some youtube videos with their music. (added as an edit)
Black Sabbath
Band Started: 1970
Known for: Essentially creating the dark aspect of what would become heavy metal. For many they are considered to be the first Heavy Metal band. While my studies have concluded you can't really give this mantle to any one source I too find that SO many of the things that would become heavy metal were embodied in Black Sabbath. If I were forced to choose only one band as the beginning of heavy metal, this would be that band.
Black Sabbath - Live in Paris 1970 - has a guitar intro not exactly on the song, but pretty cool.
Iron Man - Live at the Beat Club 1970 - yeah, there is zero doubt THIS is metal.
War Pigs - Live in Paris 1970 - This is an awesome performance.
Deep Purple - Mark II line up
Band Mk2 Line Up started: 1970
Known For: Having multiple line ups, but the one that could first really be deemed as metal began with their mark 2 line up. They will appear again later in this post with the Mark 3 line up. They had a famous amazing keyboardist Jon Lords and of course the awesome guitar virtuoso Ritchie Blackmore. They are well respected in the Progressive Rock genre of music as well. It was when the album Deep Purple In Rock came out that they really began to show that future metal sound. They also created one of the iconic guitar players first songs. Smoke on the Water
Nazareth
Band Started: 1971
Known For: "Hair of the Dog", "Love Hurts", and numerous other songs. Those were their two big hits. Love hurts is obviously a ballad, you'll know it as soon as you hear it.
The Sweet
Band Started: 1971
Known for: Glam Rock. These guys like Slade were hoisting the Glam Rock flag. It is not a flag that appeals to me, but it is a sub-genre that essentially lead to things like Glam Metal. These guys definitely focused a lot on their looks. The song Ballroom Blitz is likely a song familiar to many of you.
Thin Lizzy
Band Started: 1971
Known for: Three of their most popular songs are "The Boys Are Back In Town", "Jailbreak", and "Whiskey in the Jar".
Personal: For me their name will always attract my attention as they were a favorite of one of my all time favorite bass players Cliff Burton.
Queen
Band Started: 1973
Known for: Epic songs, "Bohemian Rhapsody", Flash Gordon musical, Highlander movie sound track, and so much more. Freddie Mercury was an amazing vocalist, and is still lauded and emulated to this day. He was not the only amazing thing about this band. This band could also be considered a Progressive Rock band based upon what they were doing.
We Will Rock You - 1986 - Live
Deep Purple - Mark 3 lineup
Band Lineup Started: 1974
Known for: new bassist and new singer David Coverdale. This was a new and continuing to be early roots of metal sounding. In fact, David Coverdale will become the vocalist and front man for Whitesnake which will appear later in this post, which is very much known as a metal band.
The had a brief success with the song "Perfect Strangers" in 1984 as well - added as an edit. This seems to be the Mark 2 lineup reunited from what I can see.
Judas Priest
Band Started: 1974
Known for: Being likely the first metal band to not be heavily blues/pentatonic based. They also featured dual lead guitarists that perform interwoven duos and solos. They also went for the black leather look, and a lot of the style that would be identified as the metal look for some time. Rob Halford the vocalist is known for his distinct style of vocals as well. They have been around for so long I thought they were part of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (aka NWOBHM), but in fact they predate that movement.
Rocka Rolla - Live - they hadn't found that distinct STYLE yet during this performance. This might be a bit surprising for fans that never looked into them back this far.
Victim of Changes - Live -1982 - this song is from their album Sad Wings of Destiny that came out in 1976. It shows more their look, and starts to show the first of what would become their iconic sound.
Diamonds & Rust - this is from their album Sin after Sin released in 1977.
Exciter - live in Japan 1978 - from their album Stained Class released in 1978.
Here is the same song in 2007
Rainbow
Band Started: 1975
Known for: Ritchie Blackmore left Deep Purple to start this band. He was joined by who would come to be considered one of the best metal vocalists of all time Ronnie James Dio. The band in the 80s named Dio was this vocalist.
AC/DC
Band Started: 1975 (albums not released internationally until 1976 - Australia only before that)
Known for: A very heavy and unique sound. With very interesting guitar work, and a unique approach to vocals. Bon Scott was the initial vocalist until his death, and his Charisma was supposedly a driving force. The Young brothers Malcom, and Angus Young are a core part of this sound as well. This band has so many amazing songs. They released the albums High Voltage, T.N.T., Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Let There Be Rock, Powerage, and Highway to Hell all before 1980. In 1980 they would go on to release Back in Black. They have released 9 studio albums since that time.
T.N.T. - Live with Bon Scott - 1976
Jailbreak Official Video
Let There Be Rock - Live w/ Bon Scott
Rock N' Roll Damnation - Live w/ Bon Scott 1978
Highway to Hell - Live w/ Bon Scott 1979
Official video of that song
The line up after Bon Scott is pretty fabulous as well. I think Back In Black personally is their best album. Every song on that album shines. It is clear that Bon Scott left big shoes to fill with his death. Back in Black showed the band was able to go on and shine with the new vocalist Brian Johnson.
Whitesnake
Band Started: 1978
Known for: David Coverdale after he left Deep Purple. They would end up being quite popular among some metal fans during the mid to late 80s when MTV was still always music and not reality TV. He was also known for being with Tawny Kitaen back then who was considered a goddess in appearance at that time. So David Coverdale was living the Rockstar life that many people dreamed about and that the recording industry intentionally cultivated.
Trouble - 1978 - UK TV performance
Still Of The Night video - 1987 - with Tawny Kitaen in the video.
Closing
As with the United States acts that were arising, music in the UK and Australia was going in interesting new and heavy directions. During the pre-1980 time period not many bands had adopted the label Heavy Metal though it had to start somewhere, and I believe this gives you some good ideas.
In future posts on the subject we'll be exploring the evolution of sub-genres, and where the music went to. We will also sometimes divert to an inspirational type of music like Progressive Rock or the Original Punk Rock movements which while not exactly metal themselves, they would go on to be instrumental in the formation of some of the metal sub-genres.
Steem On!
Some great music. Thanks for putting this together. Awesome memories. I can remember seeing AC/DC play when I was about 7-8 yro on the back of a trailer in the middle of a paddock just before they went huge. Massive.
That would have been cool. Were there any other pre-1980s bands out of Australia you think also could have been considered early METAL before things were called Metal?
Check out these guys, don't know if your call them Metal but hard rockers
Really early heavy metal and Hard rock were the same thing. The sound grew more extreme and evolved to many places after that, but in reality early hard rock, and metal were basically the same thing. Some people just have a stigma against the label heavy metal and thus, said it was not them. Yet they were often heavier than people that were considered metal, and they still claimed they were hard rock.
So during this border period where rock was becoming something heavier. That is where metal was born. :)
Aussie hard rock was at its peak in the 70's, grew out of the pub beer garden music 🎶.
I'd say that qualifies... and I'll be editing my post and adding it. Good find thanks.
There were bands earlier that played what could be called metal precursors. Pink Floyd began before the Beatles and veered away from their heavy roots when Syd Barrett left. Another was a group called Santa Barbara Machine Head (not to be confused with Machine Head). Also Blue Cheer had a heavy sound. Great post! Upvoted!!!
Blue Cheer and U.S. acts were in Metal Tree post: 3 that I wrote yesterday.
I hadn't heard of "Santa Barbara Machine Head"... if they were based out of Santa Barbara they would have been in yesterdays post as well. This post focused just on UK and Australian acts.
Thanks for the info though... I need to check out that Santa Barbara Machine Head act.
They were from the UK...The only place I've seen them was on an album I had called The Beginnings of British Blues (go figure lol)
Well you gotta figure... Heavy Metal wasn't called that initially. Music was just getting louder, embracing fuzz pedals and later distortion pedals, adding more and more drums, and as it became heavier Heavy Metal essentially was born from a fusion of what a lot of different people were doing.
The label is negatively viewed by some, which is too bad as it is just a label. They'll say "I'm not a metal musician", "I'm Hard Rock", or something like that. It is a very fine (usually blurred an non-existent) between Hard Rock and what would become Heavy Metal.
It has of course gotten much more extreme and evolved to many different places over time. That is what I hope to explore in this series.
You're doing a fine job and Sam Dunn is a good resource...He got his PhD in metal. I loved his movie Metal Around the World. That's where I heard Melechesh, who I think is excellent. If you want any input let me know...always glad to help.
Yep that documentary is called Global Metal and was indeed good.
Blue Cheer was from California..... definitely going to check out Santa Barbara Machine Head though. :)
Do you have a recommended Pink Floyd song you think is pre-1980s that would fit well with this post. I've heard a lot of Pink Floyd and I had friends who loved them. My parents also played them some, but I never really got into them. I wouldn't mind including them in the series, but I don't know what Song might fit.
Interstellar Overdrive From Pipers At The Gates Of Dawn (their first...1964, I think) or anything from A Saucer Full Of Secrets (1968) Both had Syd Barrett...he left after the second album.
Edited... added Pink Floyd, Santa Barbara Machine Head, and another Australian Act (The Master's Apprentices).
Also, if you want to trace the roots of metal, you might check bands like the MC 5...Aorta...Listening (if you can find any of their stuff, they only had 1 album) Also, you might look into what they called "experimental music"- it was pretty non-traditional...bands like the West Coast Pop Art Experimental Band. I'll dig through my head a little tonite and see what I can remember...I have a good memory, it's just like the rest of me- old and slow.
Yeah MC5 is U.S. They were in yesterdays post. :)
I have been tagging these all with METALTREE tag so if you are interested and click on that tag you'll see the posts. I can edit these things for up to a month before they get locked down so I welcome further input.
I was born in 1970 and first got into what would become metal around 1976. I came from a very musical family.
I was born in 1945 and was playing metal in the late 60's when it was called "noise" lol. I had a metal band called Glass...I had some big 200 watt Sunn amps and some pedals (a fuzz tone & a Guild copycat that did playback) NOBODY wanted to hear it.
I hope you were able to find Santa Barbara Machine Head. Did you add Metal Church?" They were another early band.
wow. nice music
Brian May from Queen is one of the most underrated guitarists out there (also makes his own guitars and has a PhD in Astrophysics)
Yeah, I actually knew that about him. Metal/Rock often has some smart people. :)
Absolutely...The guitar player from Boston invented a slew of electronics. I watched an interview with Rob Zombie and you'd think he was a college professor to hear him!
Yep... I mentioned Boston and that in the U.S. post. Rob Zombie is an intelligent guy as well.