Happy Thanksgiving metal heads! Its Thursday and time for a holiday edition of Metal Mayhem ROC.
This week host Jon “The Vernomatic” Verno takes the show on the road to Clifton New Jersey, home of legendary metal venue DINGBATZ, for a remote interview with New Wave of British Heavy Metal veterans RAVEN.
Vernomatic is joined by staff contributors “Metal Walt’’ and Order of The Dead vocalist ‘’Bill the Rager” the three hang out with brother’s John and Mark Gallagher, founders of the band. The five jokes, bust balls and deliver an entertaining conversation centered on the current 2021 U S METAL CITY TOUR.
Vernomatic and the brothers discuss what its like touring in a new “post covid” landscape. How things have changed and, in some instances, stayed exactly the same.
“Metal Walt”, as a native New Jersian, gets the history of RAVEN in the Garden state, memories of the OLD BRIDGE METAL MILTIA as well as their relationship with the tri state area overall.
“Bill The Rager “, John and Mark take a walk down Heavy Metal memory lane, rekindle memories of RAVEN playing to a sweaty, sold-out Penny Arcade metal club in Rochester NY, living in the central NY area for a few years and general flashbacks to the western NY days.
Sprinkled in with music from the new METAL CITY release as well as classics from the back catalog, this is a fun visit with true metal veterans.
We invite you to rate and review this and all past episodes at www.podchaser.com Simply enter Metal Mayhem ROC in the search box, scroll down, press the MMROC logo and rate the episode and leave a review
As always, we encourage you to listen, like and share this and all past episode to your metal and NON metal friends. Thank you for your support, you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/409879766475870
Happy Holidays everybody.Please stay safe and always remember to KEEP IT HEAVY!!!
This week host Jon “The Vernomatic” Verno takes the show on the road to Clifton New Jersey, home of legendary metal venue DINGBATZ, for a remote interview with New Wave of British Heavy Metal veterans RAVEN.
Vernomatic is joined by staff contributors “Metal Walt’’ and Order of The Dead vocalist ‘’Bill the Rager” the three hang out with brother’s John and Mark Gallagher, founders of the band. The five jokes, bust balls and deliver an entertaining conversation centered on the current 2021 U S METAL CITY TOUR.
Vernomatic and the brothers discuss what its like touring in a new “post covid” landscape. How things have changed and, in some instances, stayed exactly the same.
“Metal Walt”, as a native New Jersian, gets the history of RAVEN in the Garden state, memories of the OLD BRIDGE METAL MILTIA as well as their relationship with the tri state area overall.
“Bill The Rager “, John and Mark take a walk down Heavy Metal memory lane, rekindle memories of RAVEN playing to a sweaty, sold-out Penny Arcade metal club in Rochester NY, living in the central NY area for a few years and general flashbacks to the western NY days.
Sprinkled in with music from the new METAL CITY release as well as classics from the back catalog, this is a fun visit with true metal veterans.
We invite you to rate and review this and all past episodes at www.podchaser.com Simply enter Metal Mayhem ROC in the search box, scroll down, press the MMROC logo and rate the episode and leave a review
As always, we encourage you to listen, like and share this and all past episode to your metal and NON metal friends. Thank you for your support, you can follow us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/409879766475870
Happy Holidays everybody.Please stay safe and always remember to KEEP IT HEAVY!!!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
W l d D Radio. Areyou ready live from the Meddle Mayhem Studios
in Rochester, New York. Ifwe are gold and heard around the world
by metalheads just like you. Thisis Metal Mayhem ROC Heavy metal Music,
your weekly dose of metal music interviews, album reviews, news and more.
(00:26):
I want to be part of theshow. Send us a message through our
website Metalmayhem ROC dot com or hitus up on Facebook and Twitter search Metal
Mayhem ROC. It's good, niceand heavy and now welcome to night's host,
John the Verna Madic Verno. Goodevening everybody, and Happy Thanksgiving.
(00:47):
As always Thursday nights brand new contentdrops. Visit the Metalmayhem roc dot com
website for direct streaming links to Spotify, Apple podcast, Stitcher. We also
have a download drop down box whereyou could rate, review and subscribe to
some past shows. Recent episodes wehad Carl Kennedy of The Rods and his
new band The Four Fifties a coupleof weeks ago, Sean Peck, Ripper
(01:11):
Owens, Harry Conklin, The ThreeTremors, and you could also listen to
the continuing series The History of Metal. We go year by year and present
The Landscape of Metal as it was. I just want to let you know
about some of our media partners.Monday nights, I host a live radio
show on that metalstation dot com,three Hours of Metal. There's a chat
(01:32):
room. It's a great way tomeet other bangers from around the world.
And metal Mark from metal Marks Vaultin Metal Marks Audio Aggression Now. Mark
he's a thirty year veteran of broadcasting. He's a big metal head. Friday
nights he has metal Marks Vault wherehe concentrates on rare and classic metal and
on Saturday comes back with metal MarksAudio Aggression, which he specializes in new
(01:57):
and upcoming bands with their current releases. You could listen live or catch the
streaming link and that. For MetalMarks information, just go back to the
website. It's all out there.This is a great way to start your
Mondays with Live Metal. Weekends withLive Metal and the podcast on Thursdays.
Tonight a live on the road editionof Metal Mayhem where we went down to
(02:23):
New Jersey and caught up with newwave of British heavy metal veterans Raven they're
completing the first leg of their USMetal City tour and Metal Walt and Build
a ranger and myself made a roadiedown there, and, like I said,
caught up with the band. Solet me get these two metal heads
that I spend a day and ahalf with down in New Jersey live from
(02:46):
New Jersey Metal Walt and from Williamsin New York, build a Ranger.
Hey, guys, how are youdoing tonight? What's up? Bill?
Doing good? Hey? How youguys doing? I'm doing all right?
Why don't we start with Paynton isscene here? Bill and I came down
from New York, stayed with Waltand his family right outside the venue.
(03:08):
It's about fifteen minutes from ding Bats. And where is that Clifton, New
Jersey, Walt, Clifton, NewJersey. Yes, thank you for the
hospitality. It was a great time. You've been going to Dingbats, this
five hundred capacity club for ten fifteenyears? Yeah, probably about ten years
(03:28):
now, maybe a little longer.I think it draws in sort of bands
like the Ravens in the Endvills ofthe World, and you could get some
good national acts there, you know, at a reasonable size venue in a
decent little place in the regular oldsuburbian neighborhood. So yeah, kind of
a classic place, so the bandagain like an introduction, it's the Metal
(03:50):
City Tour. This was the lastof four or five dates before they broke
for the holidays, and the guyswere great. They were joking, busting
balls through out. They're very accommodating, and throughout the interview we had a
chance to talk about the tour,what it's like being back on the road
after this time off. You know, their road dogs, they've been doing
(04:12):
us for years. So John Gallagher, it's John Gallagher and Mark Gallagher,
brothers in the band. John startsout the interview, he tells us about
the road, the plus is theminuses, what's changed, what's exactly the
same? And then halfway through theinterview, as brother Mark, who was
out meeting and greeting with people infront of the club, he came in
(04:32):
and we started all over. Andyou know, it's a great flow to
the interview. These guys, youknow, again very accommodating. You have
something to look forward to in thisinterview. But I got the guys back
on the phone tonight to get theirinterpretation of a meeting them in the interview
and the live show. So I'mgonna start with Walt, were you that
(04:55):
familiar with them, and what didyou what was your overall perception of the
interview in the And yeah, soRaven's a band that of all the hundreds
of bands I've seen through the years, I don't know. I look back
now after experiencing that day and Isaid, well, what took me so
long? You know, they're righton my wheelhouse of the type of music
I love. It was just neverreally gave them the proper attention. And
(05:16):
one thing is I know they havea long history in New Jersey, which
they do talk about, and theyeven played this club. I think this
may have been their fourth or fifthtime, so familiar setting for them.
I think when meeting the guys,the first thing that you realize is that
they're very approachable, very humble guys. You know, these are guys that
are are heavy metal rock veterans thathave been out there for forty years plus.
(05:41):
You know, for guys probably intheir you know, sixties now.
It was it was great. Theywere very just warm and genuine. They
had that wicked, you know,subtle British humor came across. They had
been cracking up during the whole halfhour visit on the little the little Van
and I think they're honestly and sincerityas a musician came out. I mean,
some of the things that they talkedabout, you see that it's not
(06:03):
a glorious road that they have tofight for every gig, fight for every
paycheck, fight to make sure theycan cut costs anywhere they can. I
mean even to the point where theyadmitted that between gigs they had three days
and the reason that was was becausethey had to drive themselves across the country
from Iowa in New Jersey. Sothat just tells you a lot that they
(06:25):
take it upon themselves. They're kindof a no bullshit at and if they
want to sustain their careers for youknow, the fourthcoming years, this is
how they're going to do it.In terms of the show itself, I
thought it was really better than myexpectations. I think, you know,
the variety of the material from theclassic stuff that it was aware of when
(06:46):
through the newer material, which Ithink is really great stuff, very heavy,
very fast paced drumming. I thinkthey blended it it well. They
did some unique soloing in there withall kinds of weird sounds, and I
think, you know, they reallyhad for a bar show that had maybe
a couple hundred people there. Youknow, you could have easily closed your
eyes and imagine they were in somebig European festival with the with the big
(07:08):
crowd chants and the clap alongs.And I think that's what makes them a
beloved type band that they can stayaround and they're truly a global act.
So you know, I think,all in all, I was happy that
I got to meet them. Iwas happy that I hung with you guys.
Great show, great experience, andyou know, like I will definitely
go back and see them again thenext time they're through. So all great
(07:29):
experience. You hit it right onthe head when you said, you know
they had that um crowd participation thatlike John kept encouraging the crowd too well,
demanding, not encouraging, to clapalong and get those fucking hands up.
And you know it was almost like, hey, we're out here,
(07:49):
busts on our ass. At leastyou can do is um, you know,
give it back to us, andwe did. You know, the
crowd was right there and they didplay for the new songs off Metal City,
and you're right, it slides rightinto the catalog. I'm not gonna
give a set spoiler, but theysplit it up between all the vintage albums
(08:11):
Rock until You Drop, wiped Outall for one, the new one Metal
City Again put in some solos thathey, you know, no one's ever
gonna confuse these guys with some highend Prague band and they don't need to
be but they're they're metallers. Theythey're veterans, and it was great to
(08:31):
be in a sweaty like John Galligersays, a sweaty dive bar and just
you know, jamming it out sobuilt you. Now, you've been into
Ravens since the early to mid eighties, how many times have you seen the
band? And what was your takeon the whole afternoon? That was my
(08:52):
seventh time seeing him and since nineteeneighty six. It was incredible. It's
a great show man they have,I gotta say, every time I see
them, they're just amazing and theyremind me so much of why I like
those guys. And the addition ofMike Heller on the drums really really really
has boosted them tremendously, I think, especially live. Oh yeah, yeah,
(09:16):
he's just a pounding machine. It'sjust watching him. You felt it
and then you had the visual.Now absolutely, Bill and I we grew
up together, and you know,we've been um jamming these guys since eighty
two eighty three when All for Onecame out. But I remember meeting these
guys hit the Lake Shore Record Exchangeyears ago. You've met these guys before,
(09:41):
correct, Yeah, I've met himseveral times and always super humble,
totally cool, easy to approach andtalk to. Like like Walt said,
they're exactly what we love about metal. You know, everything from John Gallagher
on bass with a flying v orlike an old Hamer explore with a whammy
(10:01):
bar to um. You know,it's just I hate to say cliche,
but I it's just that's how theyare. And you know he has it's
cool because he has the He's alwayshad that earpiece, the microphone, the
headpiece, so it gives them theavailability to just roll around and at one
(10:22):
point he did at the end ofthe set, he walked through the crowd
playing and it was just it wasjust a good time to be in a
club atmosphere and it was a treat. It was definitely well worth the trip,
and I'm looking forward to the springleg of the tour. They were
talking about. You know, they'regonna break for the holidays, they're gonna
put something together and they'll be back. So we're gonna play this interview,
(10:46):
and within the interview we have musicsome of the tracks that they played,
some surprises, and you will hearboth Metal Walt and build a Rager in
there. And I want to thankyou guys or you know, getting out
of your comfort zone because you helpme with this broadcast. In the podcast,
you put your big boy leather anddentoms on and you both of you,
(11:09):
guys, you contributed to the wholepresentation. I want to give you
a big thank you. Well,you're welcome, and I appreciate you allowing
us to kind of tag along.I guess more or less on my part,
but I appreciate that. So yeah, same here. It was an
amazing day, day and a halffrom you with you guys most importantly,
(11:31):
And yeah, I got a nice, nice show post or autographed by the
man. Ready to go off tomy metal man cave. So another piece,
another stamp on the wall. Enjoyyour holidays and we will talk to
both of you very soon. Rememberyou could hear Walt on the continuing series
on Metal may MROC the history ofmetal. Check out Bill's band Order of
(11:54):
the Dead. You could pick upsome of their music on band camp,
follow them on Facebook. The banda lot of energy and they've been around
for a while. So support theyounger guys and give Order of the Dead
a listen on all your streaming services. Gentlemen, enjoy your holiday. Thank
you do the same. Thank youguys. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving you
(12:15):
listeners. Okay, well, sowe're gonna get into this interview right now.
This is Phil the Ranger, MetalWalt and the guys from Raven from
Thing Bats in New Jersey. I'mthe Vernomatic. This is Metal Mayhem ROC.
Have a great holiday and we'll seeyou soon. But attention metal heads.
(12:43):
Since we launched in twenty nineteen,Metal Mayhem ROC has been the go
to source for metal heads to talkabout and hear the music. Day Love.
We can't thank you enough for beingpart of the family. If you're
listening on Apple Podcast, hit subscribeso you know when we go live.
Plus tell folks while you like tolisten when you leave a rating and review.
If you're listening on another platform,head over to podchaser dot com and
(13:05):
type in Metal Mayhem Roc in thesearch bar, hit subscribe, then rate
the show and leave a comment andwhile you get your metal fixed from the
Vernomatic and his guests, that'll mayhim ro oc. Now back to the
show. Hello, this is Johngallagha from Raeven and you're listening to Metal
(13:28):
Me Him Roc with John the Vernomatic, Verno, Charlata fine, fine,
(13:54):
Josh good Evening, the Burnomatic hearing, but the New Jersey. I have
(14:22):
John Gallagher from Raven just finishing upthe first leg of the Metal City US
tour. John, thank you forfinally getting together with us. How are
you doing, buddy? That's allright and you don't have to hold that
gun at me. I will talkto you. It's okay. Well,
you know any any means to getthis done. So I'd like to introduce
you to the rest of the MetalMayhem team. This is Bill the Rager
(14:43):
from Rochester, New York. HYes, indeed, we'll touch base on
that, and we have he goesby the name of metal Wall to keep
his metal in his professional world separate. He's a local guy from down here
in Jersey. So they're gonna helpinterject in the It's good to meet your
father. Yea. The angle we'retaking today. We're gonna talk about twenty
(15:07):
twenty one touring. You've been onthe road for forty plus years. We
want to find out why do youkeep coming out here and doing this?
What keeps you going and how youdo it? It looks like you're a
one man crew. We're sitting inJohn and the band's RV fully equipped with
Marco waves and sleeping quarters. Tellus a little bit about the road.
(15:28):
How's the You've been on the roadabout a month now. How's it been
getting back out in there? Sameas usual, to be honest, I
mean a few things have been different. Basically, if you're eating, which
you like to do when you're outon the road, Let's start with a
rest stop or whatever. The majorityof restaurants like, yeah, Denny's and
your eye helps and all this allclosing it's six o'clock, even waffle House,
(15:54):
which is bulletproof twenty four hours.Sorry, when you do takeout one
or two places. So that's nationwide, and that's obviously, you know,
without getting into a whole political rantor what have you. You know,
if people are getting free money,they don't want to work, and who
can blame them, so you know, they're having difficulty getting staff country wide
(16:15):
all over the country, so that'sbeen a bit of an issue with that.
But failing that, other than theWest Coast, it's been pretty normal.
How are the crowd's been The crowdshave been good. They're being very
enthusiastic and very liberal with their money. Put it that way. We've been
doing very well on the merch,which is always always a good thing,
(16:37):
and we have great merch so thathelps, you know, well, and
the way here a metal while itwas inquiring he would like to get one
of these are you selling Metal Cityposter? You know what, We're not
at the minute, but we're goingto put that into operation for the next
thing. And there's there's a wholebunch of other art, as you know
in the in the album art,which most of it lends itself to post
(17:02):
that type thing. So you know, let's let's see what happens. I
mean, initially this was going tobe one date we got asked to do
to it's like a mini festival inChicago, and it was like, are
we going to do one date that'sstill a weekend in the weekend? This
is this is good money you know, we checked a little bit more,
(17:23):
put a toe in the water andjust said blow it out, do it.
That's that's still a full tour.Let's see how it goes. And
it turned into that so and againbecause of those wonderful three words, because
of COVID, getting merchandise and gettingthings done, it's been very difficult.
Everyone's the supply chain nonsense, theydon't have materials. It takes longer.
(17:45):
I mean we ran out of stufftwice on this, which is it's a
great problem to have, but it'svery difficult to fit to fix. Let's
take a peek at the set list. Four songs after new one is the
set last changing Annie? Are wegonna it? Changes a little at the
tail end. We're never quite surewhat we're going to throw in, but
(18:08):
basically go ahead and we'll we'll assume. Let's go that way. Are you
getting deeper into the motors or ourmetal city relays besides the four that you're
doing. No, now, we'rebasically doing them and not so easy.
We've done in a few and haven'tdone other times. It's we did a
big set the first, this one, this one, and it was that's
(18:30):
the Louisville set. We basically didpretty much everything we were going to do,
and then we said what works,what doesn't, and we moved some
stuff around. So Talent of theAirways was too early in the set,
so we moved that later. Andyou know, just just move things around
a little bit and then you getsome sort of cohesion. We usually play
(18:53):
around a little at the tail endof the set and maybe play one song
rather than another and see what happenswith that. But we you know,
it's it's it's good to have thisand to grow into it and really just
start powering through. And you know, for us, it's all the little
parts that make it special. Thelittle goofy things will come up during or
(19:17):
to a little limber of ice partic. Oh that's good, let's do that
again tomorrow night. Yeah, thesethings developed. So how much of the
set list is based on the yearsof doing it. You have your openers,
Well, take Control has been aperennial opener ever since we ever,
you know, we did the record. It's a great opening song, not
(19:37):
only because it's a good song,it's a midpiece. Everyone, it's well
defined who's playing. Water doesn't allstart like at the beginning, you can
hear everything, so it's good fora somn to go, okay, this
is what's going on, dial itall in, gets it together so and
it's it's just a good way tostart the set. It gets everyone's fists
(19:59):
pumping and then eating scared opening theaccelerator after that, What do here with?
(20:32):
Wiles says, we don't take now What's time is to take what's
week to get on the whole scorerisen so much and much take contests hands
(20:52):
say si, wh do do say? Now? You know, I heard
(21:29):
an interview with you and John awhile back and you mentioned how um when
you guys were in Ithaca and youlived down there for a while right or
you lived in Cotland, and thatto me, that just trips me out
because here we are huge Raven fans. Back then we had no idea you
guys are living under our nose.We were right under the floorboats. We
were right now stript No obviously theythere was these girls who had a house
(21:53):
up in Courtland's Rutland Rural Hotel.It was a huge house and manchum basically
dumb up there. We were livingthere where we were doing the state Heart
album, and maybe we just stayedthere because it was cheap hell most of
the time we were on the road, so right, you know, it
was a it was a base.Yeah, you always need a base.
Yes, So that's how we endedup with that connection up there. But
(22:17):
we've always loved playing up there Albany, Rochester above the upstate New York.
So always always very cool. Imean, we're from the northeast of England
and in some ways there's a lotof parallels with the northeast the States.
It's pretty what you see is whatyou get. Blue collar, you know
what I mean, It's our typeof you. I have a hello from
Carl Kennedy call just a good man. Just spoke with them last week.
(22:40):
He is a new project out.Yes, call it's a wonderful drawing a
great guy. Yeah, and he'sI mentioned this and he said, send
my hollos awesome, So I willsend him back to send them back with
with spades. Yeah. So how'severyone feeling, How are you doing?
How's your brother doing? Doing?Good? Little Krusty But you know that's
just on the rout. You're kindof in this zombie fashion for you know,
(23:03):
twenty two hours out the day,and then you kind of wake yourself
up and then you turn on ipshit for an hour and a half,
two hours, and then you know, how's Mike doing. Mike doing fine,
makes kicking us makes kicking us makesthe force of nature. He's you
know, he just he's quiet.He just sits there, he does he's
(23:25):
little warm ups, and then hegoes out there and destroys. I'm a
local Jersey guy, big metal headfor twenty thirty years here, and I've
done my homework and I've seen thatyou've played this exact venue I think maybe
four or five times already through theyears, so it must be familiar to
you. I also know that youknow there might be some history with you
(23:45):
in Jersey guys, um from let'ssay the old Bridge Metal Militia time frame.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour let's say, affection towards this
state and this venue, especially offthe back when we first came to America
that you know, there was aparallels between the people from my part of
(24:06):
England. So you know, sothen the northeast of the States, especially
you know, the Jersey guys.We came over in eighty two and we
did the Halloween Headbanger's Ball, andwe did like four dates with Arnvil around
Jersey in New York and we stayedin Old Bridge, and it was the
(24:29):
whole thing was, you know,culture shock. It was, hey,
this is what's on the TV,you know, because if you were in
England. But then you look,it's very different. The world's a lot
smaller now, and that was then. A lot of things are very similar.
But the concept of Johnny's Eastern Doyou want to come to the supermarket
it's eleven o'clock and so open twentyfour hours? What ridiculous. I mean,
(24:53):
this was at a time in Englandwhere supermarkets and all shops would close
half day on away can stay andnothing would be open on Sunday at all.
So the world has changed slightly.But you know, we were over
for that. We came over thenext year. We stayed with some friends
in Bayonne, off and on whenwe weren't doing stuff, and you know,
(25:17):
I remember bringing girls over and gettingchased by the parents not who weren't
very happy about it. All kindsof silly stuff. But you know,
we've we've had quite the love affairwith America since from day one because it's
it's it's set up for touring.You know, it's a twenty four hour
(25:37):
lifestyle, and you can go out, you can get food, you can
get stuff, you can you know, and it's it's never ending. You
can There's still places we haven't played. The little cities, we haven't played,
the little states, we haven't playedone or two. We've never played
in Mississippi, we've never played inAlabama. We've played just about everywhere else.
And why is there jan Is itjust the routing or the well some
(26:00):
of it is. I mean someof it is. There's not always a
maybe a thriving rock scene in Alabamaor Mississippi. Maybe it's more country.
I mean, we actually played andso on. They kill them all phone
too. We've played like two orthree days there, which was strange,
but there was a crowd and theyliked it, So what the hell.
That's all main prerequisite. You know, if there's people who want to come
(26:23):
and see us, we'll play forthem. Now, going back to the
old days, the Anthrax and theExcited days, do you keep in touch
with any of those guys? Imean we only really met Excitet once,
but I'll speak occasionally with Alan onlinewith traded things and you know, all
the spons is some mutual respect.We're all still here, so that's a
(26:45):
big thing right there. We playfestivals who've run in anthrax Us through times,
and the guys are still great.You know, it's always good to
see them because they are celebrating theirfortieth anniversary. And I know Scott and
Charlie put together this career spanning byat a video with a lot of communication
with some of the older guys.I saw some of that. It was
it was really well done. They'retalking about the whole thing, we neel
(27:08):
and all this stuff. Yeah,some of them. We're talking with John
Gallagher, lead singer and bass playerof the band Raven. We're in New
Jersey tonight at Dingbats, finishing upthe Metal City tour, so we're gonna
break for the holidays. And thenyou mentioned possibly yeahard second leg. I
mean initially it was set the startJanuary sixth. Well, you'll know more
(27:33):
about that when I do. Let'ssee what's happening. We're discussing some stuff.
We may we may need to putit back, but we will definitely
be going out. And the ideawas to basically fill in where we didn't
play on this one. Why pullit back? It's basically some logistical issues.
(27:55):
I'll tell you more about it offrecord as it will, you know,
if there's a lot involved. We'redoing a tour and just you know,
putting up a bunch of dates andjust going out isn't the best way
of doing things. Necessarily, wewent out without an opening band this time
because nobody was either able to doit or was suggested that was of sufficient
(28:22):
caliber to do that. We figured, you know, we'd be better off
playing with locals. Yeah, atleast logals bring people in. Yeah,
And we've had some great local bandsopening on the tour, which was very
cool, especially on the West Coast, some really out there bands, pretty
cool, cool stuff. So Iknow it's never too early start thinking follow
up the Metal City. But doyou write on the road or their endless
(28:45):
supply of ideas or you'll get therewhen you get there, there's an endless
supply of ideas. That don't usuallywrite on the road. Although I do
have my phone mepotlit and yesterday Mottwas tuning up now to what was that?
Let me record that? Okay,I got that for later. We've
got about thirty songs ready to go, and they're great. I'm really excited
(29:06):
about them, and we just haveto shoehorn when we're going to record now.
Obviously, if we don't tour whenwe said we were, we may
actually start recording right then instead andget that together. The idea is to
get it out at least the tailend of next year and at worst the
beginning of twenty twenty three. Butit's you know, we again, And
(29:30):
that's all everything to do with arecord, it's all the time. You've
got to give it to the recordcompany about four months before it comes out,
which immediately takes four months over theyear right there, so you can
see what's going on with that.We have a cruise coming up in March,
which I can't announce yet, butit will be announced very soon,
(29:51):
which is going to be a lotof fun. It's a bit different for
US and Europe, which who knows, because just shut down the Netherlands and
so I beg the Czech Republic,possibly Germany and Austria are now vilifying all
the non vaccinated people and putting themin the boxing. You can't do this,
(30:12):
you can't do that, you can'tdo the other, so we shall
see a way that wow. Soall right, come on in. Of
(31:25):
course you can't come perfect timing.Let's take a walk down heavy metal memory
Lane. The show is Metal MayhemRLC. We're talking about Rochester, New
York. We got some memories ofRochester playing the Penny Arcade. We played
there a bunch of times. Itwas always a good a good gig was
a sweaty club, which is whereno one for playing sweaty clubs and dives.
(31:48):
But that's kind of cool because weused to live up in that in
that area. We lived there inIthaca, New York, and we lived
there for a few years. Yeah, yeah, John was Bill answered,
build a razer, Mark Gallagher andthis is my buddy metal Walt. Yeah,
here's a Jersey guy. We're fromRochester, so oh, come on,
(32:13):
come on it. And there's moreso Rochester, New York. So
you like the Penny Arcade any memories? And I remember the one time,
but what was that story? Ceilingtiles got a little torn up there,
ceiling tiles. You almost broke yourfoot kicking the nuts right at a show
in Rhode Island the night before Ikicked the drum rice I like an idiot,
(32:37):
and it was killing me and thetwo am trake warner lose and he
give me a volume and I wasout for like eighteen hours. I woke
up without a shore foot, andI remember setting up my pedals and there
was flies over everything. And sothat was my memory of the penny okaid
lots of flies. Well it isdown near the lake, but on Milwalke
(33:00):
Fruiz and Cushtood right there, rightoutside the Abbot's frozen custard. We had
the lake shore record exchange. Yes, yeah, ant there, I think,
yeah, you probably did a coupleof them. But um yeah at
a vada in there at a poolI remember that too, was indoor pool.
Not a lot of stops have indoorpools. No, no, no,
(33:21):
because the outdoors there's nothing outdoors.Hey hey, it's nice for six
weeks a year up there. Giveus a hard time, but um,
yes, So we're doing here isuh taking a little walk down heavy metal
memory lane, emphasizing the Metal Citytour and the release and just celebrating Raven
(33:43):
because you know, we've been we'vebeen fans since the early days. We
were, you know, thirteen yearsold, followed you all the way through.
You know, we had all thealbums, we've been seeing the tours.
So when we had a chance to, I did contact um your manage.
She meant to get you up toRochester for this tour. There wasn't
(34:04):
any open up. There is asecond leg, yeah, which we're talking
about doing the second leg and itwill be up you know we do that
will definitely be some gigs in theupstate New Yo. On the side,
note, New York was like whenwe first came here, we stayed in
Jersey and New York. So thisarea for US is really the United States.
Everything else is kind of like alittle Disney World United States. So
(34:27):
you know, we like, youknow, Chicago and these other places,
but New York has always been coolfor us. It's amazing that you guys
have had such a long career,you know, and just like what keeps
you going? Love what we do. God bless we're still healthy so we
can jump around like idiots still andwe shall have a lot of music in
us. Is that one morticome?So is there one of those things where
(34:50):
it's just in the blood. Whatelse will you be doing? But mikel
now it's a whole different thing.We're like like on ten you know what
I mean with Mike being you know, on drums and um, I just
think he's forcing here, you know. So to have him as b Parta's
band is like huge for us.So I just want to give him a
good shout out. There's no you'reit's got some Michael Little earlier and it's
(36:20):
cool. He brings that h Noredge to the bandies. It's kind of
like a mixture between the old days, the first days of Ravening, you
know, the earlier albums, andthen kind of like you know, some
of the stuff we did through theeighties and stuff and in through the nineties
because we're a seventies band. Nineteenseventies, brother, we're not eighties.
Yeah. I remember after that thathappened when I was trying to get a
(36:42):
regular deal in the nineties and someregular company character who will remain nameless.
Result, it's all nineties, nineties. It's like nineties. Yeah. Well,
you know you're an eighties fans,we're seventiespan you don't know what the
hell you're talking about. Shure upand yeah, well, that same exact
topic came up when we were talkingwith Lips and he was saying, hey,
(37:05):
you know we from Anvil. He'slike, hey, we start in
the seventies. It was just sohappened the metal craze of the eighties caught
up with us. And he actuallywas mentioning that people say to him,
well, do you miss the glorydays? It's like the glory days.
The glory days are now the newfans. It's not so much you know,
the bigger bands bringing their young kids. It's the newer generation. Are
(37:29):
you noticing that younger fans. You'llplay certain places and it's the old guard,
but you'll play other places like alot of the loose West Coast.
It's specifically very young audience, veryyoung, knowledgeable, they know other stuff,
you know. So and you'll haveI mean, when we play in
Europe, you'll have people who arefifty sixty year old and they'll have the
(37:51):
sons and daughters and they are bringingtheir kids. Yeah, so you've got
like three generations going on. Whichis the street? All right? Well,
hey guys, um, I gotsome parting guests for you. You
know, we don't come empty handed, Bill, if you mind, sure,
(38:13):
I have some metal Mayhem swag.Are you kidding? No? Man?
Now you don't have the launder.What do we two x or XL
XL. We always XCEL extra oneXL here and I have more in the
(38:34):
car. I got a two xor. If you would like an XCEL,
I'd get it out of the carXL. I parked right up front.
One of the guys that does theshow with us Ian he couldn't make
it. He's in the health fieldand he wanted to pass us along.
His band, Motor Lord. It'sa great power band from central New York's
(38:57):
uh, that's his cassette, allright, his CD. There's some stickers.
Like to see those metal Mayhem stickerson your road cases. That always
helps. Thanks sticking the time tonightand we're looking forward to the show.
Thank you so much. You havea CD player in the band. That's
the old school. But I havean ear truck in my AM, in
my am airstream. I have anear truck in my under Okay, sk
(40:00):
I want to stay, God,God, I get foot. It was
the time I watch time to beaway. Now I will break break the
(40:21):
chain. But I ain't going tobe away now. I will break last
the chain. Dame sat always thesame. I know when it's too good.
I don't be stick coming through sightthe day when it was the time,
(40:54):
Watching to be away now old,break your chain, take me away
now to break you like the ChameschaSea Light, day Away, count to
(41:57):
take the time, No want sometime. Ain't going to be a brain that
won't do a break, break thechain, going to be away, Baking
(42:35):
to be Away, to break youbreak the same, to be away,
bak breaking to be away, Nogonna break you, break the dream,
break you break the dream, breakbreak the chain. Metal for Live.
(43:05):
Thanks for listening to Metalmayhem ROC.Check out our websites at Metalmayhem roc dot
com and metal Forever dot com forinformation on upcoming concerts, podcasts, archives,
and all sorts of info. Pleaselike, follow, and share with
everyone, keeping your non metal friends. Catch us next time on wlf v dB Radio
W l d D Radio. Areyou ready live from the Meddle Mayhem Studios
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(00:26):
I want to be part of theshow. Send us a message through our
website Metalmayhem ROC dot com or hitus up on Facebook and Twitter search Metal
Mayhem ROC. It's good, niceand heavy and now welcome to night's host,
John the Verna Madic Verno. Goodevening everybody, and Happy Thanksgiving.
(00:47):
As always Thursday nights brand new contentdrops. Visit the Metalmayhem roc dot com
website for direct streaming links to Spotify, Apple podcast, Stitcher. We also
have a download drop down box whereyou could rate, review and subscribe to
some past shows. Recent episodes wehad Carl Kennedy of The Rods and his
new band The Four Fifties a coupleof weeks ago, Sean Peck, Ripper
(01:11):
Owens, Harry Conklin, The ThreeTremors, and you could also listen to
the continuing series The History of Metal. We go year by year and present
The Landscape of Metal as it was. I just want to let you know
about some of our media partners.Monday nights, I host a live radio
show on that metalstation dot com,three Hours of Metal. There's a chat
(01:32):
room. It's a great way tomeet other bangers from around the world.
And metal Mark from metal Marks Vaultin Metal Marks Audio Aggression Now. Mark
he's a thirty year veteran of broadcasting. He's a big metal head. Friday
nights he has metal Marks Vault wherehe concentrates on rare and classic metal and
on Saturday comes back with metal MarksAudio Aggression, which he specializes in new
(01:57):
and upcoming bands with their current releases. You could listen live or catch the
streaming link and that. For MetalMarks information, just go back to the
website. It's all out there.This is a great way to start your
Mondays with Live Metal. Weekends withLive Metal and the podcast on Thursdays.
Tonight a live on the road editionof Metal Mayhem where we went down to
(02:23):
New Jersey and caught up with newwave of British heavy metal veterans Raven they're
completing the first leg of their USMetal City tour and Metal Walt and Build
a ranger and myself made a roadiedown there, and, like I said,
caught up with the band. Solet me get these two metal heads
that I spend a day and ahalf with down in New Jersey live from
(02:46):
New Jersey Metal Walt and from Williamsin New York, build a Ranger.
Hey, guys, how are youdoing tonight? What's up? Bill?
Doing good? Hey? How youguys doing? I'm doing all right?
Why don't we start with Paynton isscene here? Bill and I came down
from New York, stayed with Waltand his family right outside the venue.
(03:08):
It's about fifteen minutes from ding Bats. And where is that Clifton, New
Jersey, Walt, Clifton, NewJersey. Yes, thank you for the
hospitality. It was a great time. You've been going to Dingbats, this
five hundred capacity club for ten fifteenyears? Yeah, probably about ten years
(03:28):
now, maybe a little longer.I think it draws in sort of bands
like the Ravens in the Endvills ofthe World, and you could get some
good national acts there, you know, at a reasonable size venue in a
decent little place in the regular oldsuburbian neighborhood. So yeah, kind of
a classic place, so the bandagain like an introduction, it's the Metal
(03:50):
City Tour. This was the lastof four or five dates before they broke
for the holidays, and the guyswere great. They were joking, busting
balls through out. They're very accommodating, and throughout the interview we had a
chance to talk about the tour,what it's like being back on the road
after this time off. You know, their road dogs, they've been doing
(04:12):
us for years. So John Gallagher, it's John Gallagher and Mark Gallagher,
brothers in the band. John startsout the interview, he tells us about
the road, the plus is theminuses, what's changed, what's exactly the
same? And then halfway through theinterview, as brother Mark, who was
out meeting and greeting with people infront of the club, he came in
(04:32):
and we started all over. Andyou know, it's a great flow to
the interview. These guys, youknow, again very accommodating. You have
something to look forward to in thisinterview. But I got the guys back
on the phone tonight to get theirinterpretation of a meeting them in the interview
and the live show. So I'mgonna start with Walt, were you that
(04:55):
familiar with them, and what didyou what was your overall perception of the
interview in the And yeah, soRaven's a band that of all the hundreds
of bands I've seen through the years, I don't know. I look back
now after experiencing that day and Isaid, well, what took me so
long? You know, they're righton my wheelhouse of the type of music
I love. It was just neverreally gave them the proper attention. And
(05:16):
one thing is I know they havea long history in New Jersey, which
they do talk about, and theyeven played this club. I think this
may have been their fourth or fifthtime, so familiar setting for them.
I think when meeting the guys,the first thing that you realize is that
they're very approachable, very humble guys. You know, these are guys that
are are heavy metal rock veterans thathave been out there for forty years plus.
(05:41):
You know, for guys probably intheir you know, sixties now.
It was it was great. Theywere very just warm and genuine. They
had that wicked, you know,subtle British humor came across. They had
been cracking up during the whole halfhour visit on the little the little Van
and I think they're honestly and sincerityas a musician came out. I mean,
some of the things that they talkedabout, you see that it's not
(06:03):
a glorious road that they have tofight for every gig, fight for every
paycheck, fight to make sure theycan cut costs anywhere they can. I
mean even to the point where theyadmitted that between gigs they had three days
and the reason that was was becausethey had to drive themselves across the country
from Iowa in New Jersey. Sothat just tells you a lot that they
(06:25):
take it upon themselves. They're kindof a no bullshit at and if they
want to sustain their careers for youknow, the fourthcoming years, this is
how they're going to do it.In terms of the show itself, I
thought it was really better than myexpectations. I think, you know,
the variety of the material from theclassic stuff that it was aware of when
(06:46):
through the newer material, which Ithink is really great stuff, very heavy,
very fast paced drumming. I thinkthey blended it it well. They
did some unique soloing in there withall kinds of weird sounds, and I
think, you know, they reallyhad for a bar show that had maybe
a couple hundred people there. Youknow, you could have easily closed your
eyes and imagine they were in somebig European festival with the with the big
(07:08):
crowd chants and the clap alongs.And I think that's what makes them a
beloved type band that they can stayaround and they're truly a global act.
So you know, I think,all in all, I was happy that
I got to meet them. Iwas happy that I hung with you guys.
Great show, great experience, andyou know, like I will definitely
go back and see them again thenext time they're through. So all great
(07:29):
experience. You hit it right onthe head when you said, you know
they had that um crowd participation thatlike John kept encouraging the crowd too well,
demanding, not encouraging, to clapalong and get those fucking hands up.
And you know it was almost like, hey, we're out here,
(07:49):
busts on our ass. At leastyou can do is um, you know,
give it back to us, andwe did. You know, the
crowd was right there and they didplay for the new songs off Metal City,
and you're right, it slides rightinto the catalog. I'm not gonna
give a set spoiler, but theysplit it up between all the vintage albums
(08:11):
Rock until You Drop, wiped Outall for one, the new one Metal
City Again put in some solos thathey, you know, no one's ever
gonna confuse these guys with some highend Prague band and they don't need to
be but they're they're metallers. Theythey're veterans, and it was great to
(08:31):
be in a sweaty like John Galligersays, a sweaty dive bar and just
you know, jamming it out sobuilt you. Now, you've been into
Ravens since the early to mid eighties, how many times have you seen the
band? And what was your takeon the whole afternoon? That was my
(08:52):
seventh time seeing him and since nineteeneighty six. It was incredible. It's
a great show man they have,I gotta say, every time I see
them, they're just amazing and theyremind me so much of why I like
those guys. And the addition ofMike Heller on the drums really really really
has boosted them tremendously, I think, especially live. Oh yeah, yeah,
(09:16):
he's just a pounding machine. It'sjust watching him. You felt it
and then you had the visual.Now absolutely, Bill and I we grew
up together, and you know,we've been um jamming these guys since eighty
two eighty three when All for Onecame out. But I remember meeting these
guys hit the Lake Shore Record Exchangeyears ago. You've met these guys before,
(09:41):
correct, Yeah, I've met himseveral times and always super humble,
totally cool, easy to approach andtalk to. Like like Walt said,
they're exactly what we love about metal. You know, everything from John Gallagher
on bass with a flying v orlike an old Hamer explore with a whammy
(10:01):
bar to um. You know,it's just I hate to say cliche,
but I it's just that's how theyare. And you know he has it's
cool because he has the He's alwayshad that earpiece, the microphone, the
headpiece, so it gives them theavailability to just roll around and at one
(10:22):
point he did at the end ofthe set, he walked through the crowd
playing and it was just it wasjust a good time to be in a
club atmosphere and it was a treat. It was definitely well worth the trip,
and I'm looking forward to the springleg of the tour. They were
talking about. You know, they'regonna break for the holidays, they're gonna
put something together and they'll be back. So we're gonna play this interview,
(10:46):
and within the interview we have musicsome of the tracks that they played,
some surprises, and you will hearboth Metal Walt and build a Rager in
there. And I want to thankyou guys or you know, getting out
of your comfort zone because you helpme with this broadcast. In the podcast,
you put your big boy leather anddentoms on and you both of you,
(11:09):
guys, you contributed to the wholepresentation. I want to give you
a big thank you. Well,you're welcome, and I appreciate you allowing
us to kind of tag along.I guess more or less on my part,
but I appreciate that. So yeah, same here. It was an
amazing day, day and a halffrom you with you guys most importantly,
(11:31):
And yeah, I got a nice, nice show post or autographed by the
man. Ready to go off tomy metal man cave. So another piece,
another stamp on the wall. Enjoyyour holidays and we will talk to
both of you very soon. Rememberyou could hear Walt on the continuing series
on Metal may MROC the history ofmetal. Check out Bill's band Order of
(11:54):
the Dead. You could pick upsome of their music on band camp,
follow them on Facebook. The banda lot of energy and they've been around
for a while. So support theyounger guys and give Order of the Dead
a listen on all your streaming services. Gentlemen, enjoy your holiday. Thank
you do the same. Thank youguys. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving you
(12:15):
listeners. Okay, well, sowe're gonna get into this interview right now.
This is Phil the Ranger, MetalWalt and the guys from Raven from
Thing Bats in New Jersey. I'mthe Vernomatic. This is Metal Mayhem ROC.
Have a great holiday and we'll seeyou soon. But attention metal heads.
(12:43):
Since we launched in twenty nineteen,Metal Mayhem ROC has been the go
to source for metal heads to talkabout and hear the music. Day Love.
We can't thank you enough for beingpart of the family. If you're
listening on Apple Podcast, hit subscribeso you know when we go live.
Plus tell folks while you like tolisten when you leave a rating and review.
If you're listening on another platform,head over to podchaser dot com and
(13:05):
type in Metal Mayhem Roc in thesearch bar, hit subscribe, then rate
the show and leave a comment andwhile you get your metal fixed from the
Vernomatic and his guests, that'll mayhim ro oc. Now back to the
show. Hello, this is Johngallagha from Raeven and you're listening to Metal
(13:28):
Me Him Roc with John the Vernomatic, Verno, Charlata fine, fine,
(13:54):
Josh good Evening, the Burnomatic hearing, but the New Jersey. I have
(14:22):
John Gallagher from Raven just finishing upthe first leg of the Metal City US
tour. John, thank you forfinally getting together with us. How are
you doing, buddy? That's allright and you don't have to hold that
gun at me. I will talkto you. It's okay. Well,
you know any any means to getthis done. So I'd like to introduce
you to the rest of the MetalMayhem team. This is Bill the Rager
(14:43):
from Rochester, New York. HYes, indeed, we'll touch base on
that, and we have he goesby the name of metal Wall to keep
his metal in his professional world separate. He's a local guy from down here
in Jersey. So they're gonna helpinterject in the It's good to meet your
father. Yea. The angle we'retaking today. We're gonna talk about twenty
(15:07):
twenty one touring. You've been onthe road for forty plus years. We
want to find out why do youkeep coming out here and doing this?
What keeps you going and how youdo it? It looks like you're a
one man crew. We're sitting inJohn and the band's RV fully equipped with
Marco waves and sleeping quarters. Tellus a little bit about the road.
(15:28):
How's the You've been on the roadabout a month now. How's it been
getting back out in there? Sameas usual, to be honest, I
mean a few things have been different. Basically, if you're eating, which
you like to do when you're outon the road, Let's start with a
rest stop or whatever. The majorityof restaurants like, yeah, Denny's and
your eye helps and all this allclosing it's six o'clock, even waffle House,
(15:54):
which is bulletproof twenty four hours.Sorry, when you do takeout one
or two places. So that's nationwide, and that's obviously, you know,
without getting into a whole political rantor what have you. You know,
if people are getting free money,they don't want to work, and who
can blame them, so you know, they're having difficulty getting staff country wide
(16:15):
all over the country, so that'sbeen a bit of an issue with that.
But failing that, other than theWest Coast, it's been pretty normal.
How are the crowd's been The crowdshave been good. They're being very
enthusiastic and very liberal with their money. Put it that way. We've been
doing very well on the merch,which is always always a good thing,
(16:37):
and we have great merch so thathelps, you know, well, and
the way here a metal while itwas inquiring he would like to get one
of these are you selling Metal Cityposter? You know what, We're not
at the minute, but we're goingto put that into operation for the next
thing. And there's there's a wholebunch of other art, as you know
in the in the album art,which most of it lends itself to post
(17:02):
that type thing. So you know, let's let's see what happens. I
mean, initially this was going tobe one date we got asked to do
to it's like a mini festival inChicago, and it was like, are
we going to do one date that'sstill a weekend in the weekend? This
is this is good money you know, we checked a little bit more,
(17:23):
put a toe in the water andjust said blow it out, do it.
That's that's still a full tour.Let's see how it goes. And
it turned into that so and againbecause of those wonderful three words, because
of COVID, getting merchandise and gettingthings done, it's been very difficult.
Everyone's the supply chain nonsense, theydon't have materials. It takes longer.
(17:45):
I mean we ran out of stufftwice on this, which is it's a
great problem to have, but it'svery difficult to fit to fix. Let's
take a peek at the set list. Four songs after new one is the
set last changing Annie? Are wegonna it? Changes a little at the
tail end. We're never quite surewhat we're going to throw in, but
(18:08):
basically go ahead and we'll we'll assume. Let's go that way. Are you
getting deeper into the motors or ourmetal city relays besides the four that you're
doing. No, now, we'rebasically doing them and not so easy.
We've done in a few and haven'tdone other times. It's we did a
big set the first, this one, this one, and it was that's
(18:30):
the Louisville set. We basically didpretty much everything we were going to do,
and then we said what works,what doesn't, and we moved some
stuff around. So Talent of theAirways was too early in the set,
so we moved that later. Andyou know, just just move things around
a little bit and then you getsome sort of cohesion. We usually play
(18:53):
around a little at the tail endof the set and maybe play one song
rather than another and see what happenswith that. But we you know,
it's it's it's good to have thisand to grow into it and really just
start powering through. And you know, for us, it's all the little
parts that make it special. Thelittle goofy things will come up during or
(19:17):
to a little limber of ice partic. Oh that's good, let's do that
again tomorrow night. Yeah, thesethings developed. So how much of the
set list is based on the yearsof doing it. You have your openers,
Well, take Control has been aperennial opener ever since we ever,
you know, we did the record. It's a great opening song, not
(19:37):
only because it's a good song,it's a midpiece. Everyone, it's well
defined who's playing. Water doesn't allstart like at the beginning, you can
hear everything, so it's good fora somn to go, okay, this
is what's going on, dial itall in, gets it together so and
it's it's just a good way tostart the set. It gets everyone's fists
(19:59):
pumping and then eating scared opening theaccelerator after that, What do here with?
(20:32):
Wiles says, we don't take now What's time is to take what's
week to get on the whole scorerisen so much and much take contests hands
(20:52):
say si, wh do do say? Now? You know, I heard
(21:29):
an interview with you and John awhile back and you mentioned how um when
you guys were in Ithaca and youlived down there for a while right or
you lived in Cotland, and thatto me, that just trips me out
because here we are huge Raven fans. Back then we had no idea you
guys are living under our nose.We were right under the floorboats. We
were right now stript No obviously theythere was these girls who had a house
(21:53):
up in Courtland's Rutland Rural Hotel.It was a huge house and manchum basically
dumb up there. We were livingthere where we were doing the state Heart
album, and maybe we just stayedthere because it was cheap hell most of
the time we were on the road, so right, you know, it
was a it was a base.Yeah, you always need a base.
Yes, So that's how we endedup with that connection up there. But
(22:17):
we've always loved playing up there Albany, Rochester above the upstate New York.
So always always very cool. Imean, we're from the northeast of England
and in some ways there's a lotof parallels with the northeast the States.
It's pretty what you see is whatyou get. Blue collar, you know
what I mean, It's our typeof you. I have a hello from
Carl Kennedy call just a good man. Just spoke with them last week.
(22:40):
He is a new project out.Yes, call it's a wonderful drawing a
great guy. Yeah, and he'sI mentioned this and he said, send
my hollos awesome, So I willsend him back to send them back with
with spades. Yeah. So how'severyone feeling, How are you doing?
How's your brother doing? Doing?Good? Little Krusty But you know that's
just on the rout. You're kindof in this zombie fashion for you know,
(23:03):
twenty two hours out the day,and then you kind of wake yourself
up and then you turn on ipshit for an hour and a half,
two hours, and then you know, how's Mike doing. Mike doing fine,
makes kicking us makes kicking us makesthe force of nature. He's you
know, he just he's quiet.He just sits there, he does he's
(23:25):
little warm ups, and then hegoes out there and destroys. I'm a
local Jersey guy, big metal headfor twenty thirty years here, and I've
done my homework and I've seen thatyou've played this exact venue I think maybe
four or five times already through theyears, so it must be familiar to
you. I also know that youknow there might be some history with you
(23:45):
in Jersey guys, um from let'ssay the old Bridge Metal Militia time frame.
So tell us a little bit aboutyour let's say, affection towards this
state and this venue, especially offthe back when we first came to America
that you know, there was aparallels between the people from my part of
(24:06):
England. So you know, sothen the northeast of the States, especially
you know, the Jersey guys.We came over in eighty two and we
did the Halloween Headbanger's Ball, andwe did like four dates with Arnvil around
Jersey in New York and we stayedin Old Bridge, and it was the
(24:29):
whole thing was, you know,culture shock. It was, hey,
this is what's on the TV,you know, because if you were in
England. But then you look,it's very different. The world's a lot
smaller now, and that was then. A lot of things are very similar.
But the concept of Johnny's Eastern Doyou want to come to the supermarket
it's eleven o'clock and so open twentyfour hours? What ridiculous. I mean,
(24:53):
this was at a time in Englandwhere supermarkets and all shops would close
half day on away can stay andnothing would be open on Sunday at all.
So the world has changed slightly.But you know, we were over
for that. We came over thenext year. We stayed with some friends
in Bayonne, off and on whenwe weren't doing stuff, and you know,
(25:17):
I remember bringing girls over and gettingchased by the parents not who weren't
very happy about it. All kindsof silly stuff. But you know,
we've we've had quite the love affairwith America since from day one because it's
it's it's set up for touring.You know, it's a twenty four hour
(25:37):
lifestyle, and you can go out, you can get food, you can
get stuff, you can you know, and it's it's never ending. You
can There's still places we haven't played. The little cities, we haven't played,
the little states, we haven't playedone or two. We've never played
in Mississippi, we've never played inAlabama. We've played just about everywhere else.
And why is there jan Is itjust the routing or the well some
(26:00):
of it is. I mean someof it is. There's not always a
maybe a thriving rock scene in Alabamaor Mississippi. Maybe it's more country.
I mean, we actually played andso on. They kill them all phone
too. We've played like two orthree days there, which was strange,
but there was a crowd and theyliked it, So what the hell.
That's all main prerequisite. You know, if there's people who want to come
(26:23):
and see us, we'll play forthem. Now, going back to the
old days, the Anthrax and theExcited days, do you keep in touch
with any of those guys? Imean we only really met Excitet once,
but I'll speak occasionally with Alan onlinewith traded things and you know, all
the spons is some mutual respect.We're all still here, so that's a
(26:45):
big thing right there. We playfestivals who've run in anthrax Us through times,
and the guys are still great.You know, it's always good to
see them because they are celebrating theirfortieth anniversary. And I know Scott and
Charlie put together this career spanning byat a video with a lot of communication
with some of the older guys.I saw some of that. It was
it was really well done. They'retalking about the whole thing, we neel
(27:08):
and all this stuff. Yeah,some of them. We're talking with John
Gallagher, lead singer and bass playerof the band Raven. We're in New
Jersey tonight at Dingbats, finishing upthe Metal City tour, so we're gonna
break for the holidays. And thenyou mentioned possibly yeahard second leg. I
mean initially it was set the startJanuary sixth. Well, you'll know more
(27:33):
about that when I do. Let'ssee what's happening. We're discussing some stuff.
We may we may need to putit back, but we will definitely
be going out. And the ideawas to basically fill in where we didn't
play on this one. Why pullit back? It's basically some logistical issues.
(27:55):
I'll tell you more about it offrecord as it will, you know,
if there's a lot involved. We'redoing a tour and just you know,
putting up a bunch of dates andjust going out isn't the best way
of doing things. Necessarily, wewent out without an opening band this time
because nobody was either able to doit or was suggested that was of sufficient
(28:22):
caliber to do that. We figured, you know, we'd be better off
playing with locals. Yeah, atleast logals bring people in. Yeah,
And we've had some great local bandsopening on the tour, which was very
cool, especially on the West Coast, some really out there bands, pretty
cool, cool stuff. So Iknow it's never too early start thinking follow
up the Metal City. But doyou write on the road or their endless
(28:45):
supply of ideas or you'll get therewhen you get there, there's an endless
supply of ideas. That don't usuallywrite on the road. Although I do
have my phone mepotlit and yesterday Mottwas tuning up now to what was that?
Let me record that? Okay,I got that for later. We've
got about thirty songs ready to go, and they're great. I'm really excited
(29:06):
about them, and we just haveto shoehorn when we're going to record now.
Obviously, if we don't tour whenwe said we were, we may
actually start recording right then instead andget that together. The idea is to
get it out at least the tailend of next year and at worst the
beginning of twenty twenty three. Butit's you know, we again, And
(29:30):
that's all everything to do with arecord, it's all the time. You've
got to give it to the recordcompany about four months before it comes out,
which immediately takes four months over theyear right there, so you can
see what's going on with that.We have a cruise coming up in March,
which I can't announce yet, butit will be announced very soon,
(29:51):
which is going to be a lotof fun. It's a bit different for
US and Europe, which who knows, because just shut down the Netherlands and
so I beg the Czech Republic,possibly Germany and Austria are now vilifying all
the non vaccinated people and putting themin the boxing. You can't do this,
(30:12):
you can't do that, you can'tdo the other, so we shall
see a way that wow. Soall right, come on in. Of
(31:25):
course you can't come perfect timing.Let's take a walk down heavy metal memory
Lane. The show is Metal MayhemRLC. We're talking about Rochester, New
York. We got some memories ofRochester playing the Penny Arcade. We played
there a bunch of times. Itwas always a good a good gig was
a sweaty club, which is whereno one for playing sweaty clubs and dives.
(31:48):
But that's kind of cool because weused to live up in that in
that area. We lived there inIthaca, New York, and we lived
there for a few years. Yeah, yeah, John was Bill answered,
build a razer, Mark Gallagher andthis is my buddy metal Walt. Yeah,
here's a Jersey guy. We're fromRochester, so oh, come on,
(32:13):
come on it. And there's moreso Rochester, New York. So
you like the Penny Arcade any memories? And I remember the one time,
but what was that story? Ceilingtiles got a little torn up there,
ceiling tiles. You almost broke yourfoot kicking the nuts right at a show
in Rhode Island the night before Ikicked the drum rice I like an idiot,
(32:37):
and it was killing me and thetwo am trake warner lose and he
give me a volume and I wasout for like eighteen hours. I woke
up without a shore foot, andI remember setting up my pedals and there
was flies over everything. And sothat was my memory of the penny okaid
lots of flies. Well it isdown near the lake, but on Milwalke
(33:00):
Fruiz and Cushtood right there, rightoutside the Abbot's frozen custard. We had
the lake shore record exchange. Yes, yeah, ant there, I think,
yeah, you probably did a coupleof them. But um yeah at
a vada in there at a poolI remember that too, was indoor pool.
Not a lot of stops have indoorpools. No, no, no,
(33:21):
because the outdoors there's nothing outdoors.Hey hey, it's nice for six
weeks a year up there. Giveus a hard time, but um,
yes, So we're doing here isuh taking a little walk down heavy metal
memory lane, emphasizing the Metal Citytour and the release and just celebrating Raven
(33:43):
because you know, we've been we'vebeen fans since the early days. We
were, you know, thirteen yearsold, followed you all the way through.
You know, we had all thealbums, we've been seeing the tours.
So when we had a chance to, I did contact um your manage.
She meant to get you up toRochester for this tour. There wasn't
(34:04):
any open up. There is asecond leg, yeah, which we're talking
about doing the second leg and itwill be up you know we do that
will definitely be some gigs in theupstate New Yo. On the side,
note, New York was like whenwe first came here, we stayed in
Jersey and New York. So thisarea for US is really the United States.
Everything else is kind of like alittle Disney World United States. So
(34:27):
you know, we like, youknow, Chicago and these other places,
but New York has always been coolfor us. It's amazing that you guys
have had such a long career,you know, and just like what keeps
you going? Love what we do. God bless we're still healthy so we
can jump around like idiots still andwe shall have a lot of music in
us. Is that one morticome?So is there one of those things where
(34:50):
it's just in the blood. Whatelse will you be doing? But mikel
now it's a whole different thing.We're like like on ten you know what
I mean with Mike being you know, on drums and um, I just
think he's forcing here, you know. So to have him as b Parta's
band is like huge for us.So I just want to give him a
good shout out. There's no you'reit's got some Michael Little earlier and it's
(36:20):
cool. He brings that h Noredge to the bandies. It's kind of
like a mixture between the old days, the first days of Ravening, you
know, the earlier albums, andthen kind of like you know, some
of the stuff we did through theeighties and stuff and in through the nineties
because we're a seventies band. Nineteenseventies, brother, we're not eighties.
Yeah. I remember after that thathappened when I was trying to get a
(36:42):
regular deal in the nineties and someregular company character who will remain nameless.
Result, it's all nineties, nineties. It's like nineties. Yeah. Well,
you know you're an eighties fans,we're seventiespan you don't know what the
hell you're talking about. Shure upand yeah, well, that same exact
topic came up when we were talkingwith Lips and he was saying, hey,
(37:05):
you know we from Anvil. He'slike, hey, we start in
the seventies. It was just sohappened the metal craze of the eighties caught
up with us. And he actuallywas mentioning that people say to him,
well, do you miss the glorydays? It's like the glory days.
The glory days are now the newfans. It's not so much you know,
the bigger bands bringing their young kids. It's the newer generation. Are
(37:29):
you noticing that younger fans. You'llplay certain places and it's the old guard,
but you'll play other places like alot of the loose West Coast.
It's specifically very young audience, veryyoung, knowledgeable, they know other stuff,
you know. So and you'll haveI mean, when we play in
Europe, you'll have people who arefifty sixty year old and they'll have the
(37:51):
sons and daughters and they are bringingtheir kids. Yeah, so you've got
like three generations going on. Whichis the street? All right? Well,
hey guys, um, I gotsome parting guests for you. You
know, we don't come empty handed, Bill, if you mind, sure,
(38:13):
I have some metal Mayhem swag.Are you kidding? No? Man?
Now you don't have the launder.What do we two x or XL
XL. We always XCEL extra oneXL here and I have more in the
(38:34):
car. I got a two xor. If you would like an XCEL,
I'd get it out of the carXL. I parked right up front.
One of the guys that does theshow with us Ian he couldn't make
it. He's in the health fieldand he wanted to pass us along.
His band, Motor Lord. It'sa great power band from central New York's
(38:57):
uh, that's his cassette, allright, his CD. There's some stickers.
Like to see those metal Mayhem stickerson your road cases. That always
helps. Thanks sticking the time tonightand we're looking forward to the show.
Thank you so much. You havea CD player in the band. That's
the old school. But I havean ear truck in my AM, in
my am airstream. I have anear truck in my under Okay, sk
(40:00):
I want to stay, God,God, I get foot. It was
the time I watch time to beaway. Now I will break break the
(40:21):
chain. But I ain't going tobe away now. I will break last
the chain. Dame sat always thesame. I know when it's too good.
I don't be stick coming through sightthe day when it was the time,
(40:54):
Watching to be away now old,break your chain, take me away
now to break you like the ChameschaSea Light, day Away, count to
(41:57):
take the time, No want sometime. Ain't going to be a brain that
won't do a break, break thechain, going to be away, Baking
(42:35):
to be Away, to break youbreak the same, to be away,
bak breaking to be away, Nogonna break you, break the dream,
break you break the dream, breakbreak the chain. Metal for Live.
(43:05):
Thanks for listening to Metalmayhem ROC.Check out our websites at Metalmayhem roc dot
com and metal Forever dot com forinformation on upcoming concerts, podcasts, archives,
and all sorts of info. Pleaselike, follow, and share with
everyone, keeping your non metal friends. Catch us next time on wlf v dB Radio
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