{"id":997,"date":"1984-03-01T00:00:19","date_gmt":"1984-03-01T00:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/?p=997"},"modified":"2013-05-28T16:27:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-28T16:27:04","slug":"feature-tokyo-blade-mf4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/feature-tokyo-blade-mf4\/","title":{"rendered":"TOKYO BLADE – Blade Runner (MF4, 1984) | Features \/ Interviews @ Metal Forces Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"

TOKYO BLADE \u2013 Blade Runner<\/strong><\/span><\/span>
\nDave Reynolds<\/span>
\nMetal Forces, Issue 4 (1984)<\/span><\/p>\n

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Andy Boulton<\/em><\/b><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Tokyo Blade. The name means little to a British metal fan. Why? Because your average UK headbanger is only concerned with the new Iron Maiden, AC\/DC or Whitesnake album. The Tokyo Blade legend means sweet FA. But in Europe it\u2019s a different kettle of fish (non-Fugazi variety thank you). \u201cIn places like Holland we are like mega,\u201d claims guitarist Andy Boulton. \u201cGods even! I don\u2019t mean to sound big-headed, but it\u2019s just unbelievable. In this country though it\u2019s like banging your head against a brick wall. It\u2019s hard to get tours or press attention unless you happen to be in Ratt, W.A.S.P. or M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce<\/a>. It\u2019s only thanks to magazines like yours that we are starting to get the name known and you sell mostly to America! It\u2019s ridiculous, it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

I spoke to Andy on a crackly telephone connection virtually on the eve of their first French tour, playing support to Mama\u2019s Boys (no doubt in my mind who\u2019ll have the more audience support!). The big one though is yet to
\ncome. They\u2019ve got the support slot to Van Halen in Paris, when David Lee Roth and co. are over in Europe during the summer. \u201cThat\u2019s down to the management and record company that we\u2019ve got that. It definitely is the high point for us. Van Halen are the number one band for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy is the sort of bloke you could hold a conversation with about almost anything. One of metal\u2019s Mr. Nice Guys, he believes passionately in Tokyo Blade and heavy metal in general. Some might compare him with Iron Maiden\u2019s Steve Harris in this respect, but, er, don\u2019t mention Maiden when it comes to comparisons in musical style. \u201cIf we sound like Maiden then it\u2019s tough titty! We aren\u2019t going to change our style just because some idiots at Kerrang!<\/em> think we\u2019re Maiden clones because we\u2019ve got twin guitars. I used to like Maiden when Paul Di\u2019anno was with \u2019em, but they\u2019ve never influenced me. The last album they did (Piece Of Mind<\/em>) was just rubbish, metal by numbers stuff. We\u2019ve never ripped them off or any other band. My favourite band is Van Halen so I suppose some people will start comparing us to them next, but we\u2019re gonna carry on doing the things we\u2019ve always done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tokyo Blade started life as a band called Killer and released a promising demo in 1981. They then changed their name to Genghis Khan, releasing a double-pack indie single just prior to obtaining their current moniker and signing to the York-based Powerstation label. \u201cWhat happened was we put out this single and had been talking to major labels, but with nothing ever happening. Anyway, we were going to start our own label and put out an album. When we were getting distribution for the single, we spoke to a guy at Stage One who liked our stuff. But no sooner did we put the single out than he had formed Powerstation up in York and signed us up.\u201d<\/p>\n

What did Powerstation offer you that others didn\u2019t? “Freedom of choice really. They\u2019re a small label but with a lot of money behind \u2019em. Other indie companies want you to put all the money into it, whereas Powerstation are willing to put up the money for everything we do. With a major label all they give you is an advance, and if they don\u2019t believe in you then you\u2019re onto a loser from the start because you have to pay back the advance and then the problems start. But Powerstation totally support us, they\u2019ve been great.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Andy Wrighton<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n
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Quite recently the band have recruited ex-Deep Machine bass player Andy Wrighton (replacing Andy Robbins) and sacked vocalist Alan Marsh. The latter a surprising move. What happened? \u201cUnfortunately, Alan has never had confidence in himself. He could never deliver what he\u2019s really capable of because of nerves. I don\u2019t have any intention of slagging him off \u2019cos he\u2019s a great guy and he\u2019s a good singer. He did an excellent job for us, but in the end the pressure was too great for him. There\u2019s no ill-feeling between any of us, it\u2019s just one of those sad facts of life.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve just got a temporary singer in for the French tour, a lad from York. He\u2019s adequate for this thing, but not as a permanent member\u2026 so we\u2019re still looking.\u201d<\/p>\n

What about the rumours that ex-Tygers Of Pan Tang vocalist Jon Deverill was going to join? \u201cHe was very interested at first, but we turned out to be too heavy for him! He\u2019s wimped out a lot and also he said if he joined he\u2019d want this and that. In the end we said no, so he\u2019s not joining Tokyo Blade.\u201d<\/p>\n

What are you doing regarding your second album and the American release of the first album<\/a> (on Combat)? \u201cWell, the first album will be different in its US form as a few tracks will be changed. \u2018Liar\u2019, \u2018Tonight\u2019 and maybe \u2018On Through The Night\u2019 are off, and the likes of \u2018Mean Streak\u2019 and \u2018Highway Passion\u2019 are being put on instead. We didn\u2019t really want to put \u2018Tonight\u2019 on in the first place, but the producer persuaded us to keep it on. Our second album (titled Night Of The Blade<\/em>) should be out in June. Obviously the vocals will have to be re-done but it\u2019s a 200% improvement as regards production.\u201d<\/p>\n

With plans also for a video shoot utilizing the director who made Def Leppard\u2019s Pyromania<\/em> and Elton John vids, Tokyo Blade are well on their way. Along with Black Rose, Avenger and Satan they\u2019re opening up an even better Newer Wave of British Heavy Metal that promises to be more exciting than the last. Maybe they\u2019ll get a colour feature in \u201cThat So Called Metal Magazine\u201d yet!<\/p>\n

Interview taken from Metal Forces, Issue 4 (1984). All photographs by Eric de Haas.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TOKYO BLADE \u2013 Blade Runner Dave Reynolds Metal Forces, Issue 4 (1984) Andy Boulton Tokyo Blade. The name means little to a British metal fan. Why? Because your average UK headbanger is only concerned with the new Iron Maiden, AC\/DC or Whitesnake album. The Tokyo Blade legend means sweet FA. But in Europe it\u2019s a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tokyo-blade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=997"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11731,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/997\/revisions\/11731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.metalforcesmagazine.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}