Cherry Red [Release date 24.1.25]

It didn’t take long for the Glam Rock genre, kicked off by Bolan and Bowie, to be appropriated by American bands like Motley Crue, Ratt, Cinderella and others. On the US west coast in the eighties, it was like an epidemic.

Welsh band, Tigertailz were one of few UK Rock bands who fell under the Hair Metal spell and responded accordingly. It took them only two albums to catch up.

CD1 : Young And Crazy (1987)
CD2 : Bezerk (1990)
CD3 : Shoot To Kill EP, plus rarities, b-sides and live tracks

The band began life much like many rock bands. One man’s ambition. Adverts in music magazines. Chance meetings. Word of mouth, like that.

And so, in 1987, Pepsi Tate, Ace Finchum, Stevi Jaimz and Jay Pepper recorded and mixed Young And Crazy (in a week), under the tutelage of rising star label, Music For Nations.

It’s raw, it’s exciting, a handful of tracks fail to ignite, but elsewhere, like on ‘Hollywood Killer’ and the poptastic ‘Living Without You’, Pepper’s biting axework and the band interplay frequently crackle into larger than life.

The energy levels remain high on the garage rock of ‘Shameless’, and ‘Shoot To Kill’, both punky outcasts swaggering their way to the stage front.

But the public didn’t take to it.

Singer, Stevi Jaimz got the push and Kim Hooker was recruited to replace him.

On follow up, Bezerk, experienced producer, Chris Tsangarides made sure the production didn’t get in the way of the muzik.
This time, the image didn’t obscure the songs.

Hooker, whose vocals fall somewhere between Brian (Sweet) Connolly and David (Pavlov’s Dog) Surkamp, animates every song without overdoing it.

It comes alive with electrifying performances and great songwriting, like the laser guided anthem, ‘Love Bomb Baby’ and the addictive ‘Sick Sex’. Recordings that maybe just needed someone like Tsangarides to set the compass.

This time they were serious – Don Airey guested on keys and Pete (Uriah Heep) Goalby on backing vocals – and the album broke the UK Top Forty album chart.

Disc 3 merges the 5 EPs (a total of 16 tracks) that the band released during the late eighties into the nineties, most notably the Shoot To Kill and Noise Level Critical EPs. Not forgetting the Heaven EP, which includes compelling covers of Megadeath’s ‘Peace Sells’ and Metallica’s ‘Creeping Death’. These two were an unexplored side to the band. An opportunity missed.

And then it was over.

Until… in 2004, the band reformed, and have only recently stopped touring. ****

Review by Brian McGowan

Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK

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Power Plays w/c 24 March 2025

HARRI LARKIN Too Close To The Sun (Robot Distro)
SANDNESS Not Your Dog (Rockshots Records)
DOCTOR BLACK Drag Me Down (indie)
COHEED AND CAMBRIA Goodbye Sunshine (Virgin Music Group)
LEONI JANE KENNEDY Closer (indie)
SMALL TOWN POLITICS Red Lights (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 24 March 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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