NWOBHM - revisited, I never had a mullet!

Some record fair pickups today, an amazing collection in a community hall, a deceased estate 1000 or so LPs mainly 70s/80s original issues, 2000 12" singles, 3000 CDs countless 45s and a heap of VHS tapes, mainly concert videos. Although it covered a wide variety of rock and pop, it's fair to say the dude was into Metal in many of it's forms. 

As a very young emerging headbanger, when I discovered Iron Maiden in late 1981, I become very interested in the scene that helped propel them, the NWOBHM. Often in my neck of the woods it was difficult to get hold of some of it or even find out much about it. Later of course I caught up to a certain degree, but there were some gaps in my particular areas of interest. 

This fair gave me some opportunities to fill some of those gaps. And although there were some exorbitant prices on some of the rarer items, the prices were generally pretty reasonable.

The record on the left is the 1980 sequel to the infamous 'Metal For Muthas' which attempted give an overview of the NWOBHM scene by compiling some key bands from the scene. It didn't quite work, but it was a valiant effort. I haven't listened yet, but I suspect this will be much the same, but with even more obscure bands. Of the 9 bands on here, I was only really aware of 3 of them, those being Trespass, Dark Star and White Spirit which included future Iron Maiden guitars Janick Gers. 

The record on the right, I did actually have as an early teen. It came out in 1983 although it kind of looks like a punk/hardcore kind of release, it contains some of the latter day NWOBHM bands, the scene had all but dissipated by then. At some point in the early 90s I must have gotten rid of it in a fit of pique. It's probably not that good, I don't quite remember, but nostalgia compelled me. 

Witchfynde never got past the minor cult status and they are not an exemplary band by any means, but something about them I always liked. My late mum bought me Pet Hate's 'Bad Publicity' and Witchfynde's 'Lords Of Sin', for my (I think) 13th birthday. That was Witchfynde's 4th and final (until a 2001 reformation) album. I liked it enough to backtrack for earlier ones. As I say it wasn't always easy, but I tracked down the previous album 'Cloak and Dagger' from 1983. This one 'Stagefright' is album number 2, right in the midst of NWOBHM in 1980 and with original vocalist. 

I first heard of Holocaust via Metallica's cover of their 'The Small Hours' which was only available on the live album. These dudes are from Edinburgh, Scotland and are pretty rough and ready, but have a good feel. 

The Maiden single on the left is the only latter reissue that I got. I actually had this in from 1990 until about 1993 which was part of that 'First 10 Years' series they released. But again I swapped at the complete series in the boxset I had for a Beach Boys CD boxset at a store in Hobart. I don't regret it for a minute, but it's nice to have this again. 

On the right is Samson's second album and the first with Bruce Dickinson (Bruce Bruce) and also containing a pre-'Killers' version of 'The Ides Of March'  (Samson's Thunderstick was previously an early Maiden drummer), made this quite a Maiden related day. Not to mention the following two:

On the left is a German 12" of 'Twilight Zone'/'Wrathchild'. As a youngster I always wanted this as it was rightly not included on 'Killers' (although in Australia, 'Women In Uniform' was)…I believe it was part of the US release of 'Killers'. I never heard the song until the aforementioned 'First 10 years' reissue series from 1990. It's a good song. And on the cusp of NWOBHM's tail end was 'Run To The Hills' from 1982, another German edition. Similarly I wanted the single back in the day for the non-album track 'Total Eclipse', hearing it for the first time (albeit a live version) on the 12 Wasted Years VHS from 1987 and then the studio version again on the reissue mentioned above.

Nice to have all these. My musical taste has certainly evolved and expanded since then,  but a good nostalgic day!