I was 15 and a spotty greasy long haired Metal head listening to the likes of Slade, Alex Harvey and Thin Lizzy and The Sweet. I was also a wanabe guitarist intent on torturing our poor neighbours back in Sutton Coldfield with my appalling renditions of "The boys are back in town" "Emerald" "turn it down" and various Slade tracks. I was also in a band and we rehearsed at the Cricket club in Warmley just out side Sutton on a Monday night (Monday night youth club, Friday nights, I'd be at the bar buying half milds like I was from up north))......We had Paul Morris (vocals) Mark Morris( Drums) Dale West (rhythm Guitar) and me. The bass player's name escapes me, but he was having lessons and was for more advanced than any of us were at the time. The band was called STUD, not that any of this is any relevant to my story, apart from the bass player being pretty good that is.July, and Sutton Coldfield used to have a huge Carnival. (still do perhaps, it's been 21 years since I lived there). A massive marquee would be erected and the biggest local bands at the time would do there thing to very little or no crowd appreciation what so ever (I have first hand experience here). This year I wandered into the tent with my then girlfriend (Hi Jen) and sat at the front of the stage. It was packed and we were all squeezed in like sardines in a elfs thimball. The two blokes on the stage started to sing the opening bars to "Catcher in The Rye" (Phil Kimberley and Terry Dark) "help, I'm searching for my.... new direction" then one of em strolls back behind the drum kit and wooooooooosh, the blinding white lights (punter blinders, as we used to call them) flashed as the band huge PA system took my and 500 others punters face's off.................JAMESON RAID HAD ARRIVED..........and I was hooked. If I'm honest I don't remember much apart from Ian Smith's guitar playing, and that cherry red SG. To me it was the rawest, heaviest, loudest thing I'd ever heard..........I'd was almost 16 and I'd been waiting for music like this all my life.Back at rehearsal the following Monday and I can't shut about "The Raid" when our bass player (who's name I still sadly escapes me) said "oh yeah, I have lessons from John Ace who's there bass player" "I need lessons" I said instantly, "could you ask him if their guitar player could teach me?" 1 month later Ian Smith is sitting in my bedroom with his SG, desperately trying to teach me "anything". In reality, I really wasn't capable of learning to much at the time, to be honest, having Ian Smith there, the greatest guitar player of all time, was far to distracting. I really couldn't take in the scales Ian was filling my peanut sized brain with, but I had 6, 2 hour lessons and bragged to all my mates at school the Ian Smith from the world famous band Jameson Raid was now my best mate...........In fairness, he only gave me lessons because he went to school with my older sister and fancied the arse of her (yuk yuk, I thought). In fact he gave in as soon as he realised I really wasn't learning much. Ian worked at John Birch guitars (who built guitars for Dave Hill from Slade) and he nicked a few bits and bob's to make my Telecaster copya bit special, that in itself was worth the pathetic 1 pound I was paying him to for 2 hours tuition.I saw The Raid many times, Monday nights at the Dog Inn in Sutton Coldfield High Street was always a great gig, Barberrella's and Bogart's in Birmingham, as was the Railway in Curzon street, and of course blowing Def Lep, Magnum and Saxon off various stages a round the uk (who could forget the Odeon show). Never saw a bad show, EVER....but after the EP's, the Metal for Mutha's "The Raid" track disaster and the peel session, various high profile supports, dodgy managers, hire company's all taking there cut, Ian left the band. I believe it was well before the "Electric Sun demo.............a chap called Maz filled his shoe's for a while, but that (as they say) was that.To this day, Jameson Raid are mentioned over and over again in rock forums all round the world. There brand of Heavy Metal was way head of it's time, perhaps why the money men at EMI were to afraid to sign em, couple that with there on stage antics (the strobe, the blood, the staged fighting) and first class musicianship, has ensured that NWOBHM fans all over the world search the net for any scrap of information about this legendary 4 piece. If they re-formed today, a deal would be a certainty and headlining shows at NWOBHM festivals all over Europe would be guaranteed. Certainly the greatest Unsigned Midland band of all time, and up there with Sabbath and Priest for True Metal genius.Ian Smith now lives a life of semi retirement in Thailand where he owns and runs a hotel, and to say has had a "full" life would certainly be an understatement. Terry Dark sings for a band called "Kick The Fridge" in Amsterdam where I think he lives. John Ace, as far as I am aware still lives in Walsall in the midlands, and as for Phil Kimberly, well who know's.It goes without saying that Jameson Raid were the biggest unsigned Metal band Birmingham ever saw, but perhaps they were the greatest unsigned Metal band the uk ever saw?...................what do you think?
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